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THE
POURING OUT OF THE BOWLS
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pour
out.
Power was given to the Church to impose judgment upon those who
are to be condemned, and to give absolution in mercy to those who
are converted. And to all the angels indeed was the command given,
to pour upon the earth. But the same men of earth, according to
the difference of sins, have different appellations assigned, that
the fullness of guilt also might be reckoned by the number seven,
as well as that of preaching and vengeance.
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earth.
Preachers pour out the wrath of God in a twofold manner, while
they either impose the punishments of the ungodly upon the ungodly
themselves by judging spiritually; as Peter said to Simon, "Thy
money perish with thee;"
or they manifest it to holy Church by preaching, as he also said,
"For their judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and
their perdition slumbereth not."
A third manner may also be understood, in that each sinner, as
the preaching of the truth is heard, is destroyed by the severer
wound of contradiction, of which the Lord said, "If I had
not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin."
sore.
They who forsake the Lord, and worship the devil, will spiritually
perish from the most grievous wound of the same ungodliness.
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sea.
They who not only are stamped with the mark of Antichrist, but who
also assail the stedfastness of the servants of Christ with the
waves of bitter persecution, will be punished with a spiritual retribution
which he calls blood; and they who boasted that they were alive,
will be proved to have served the author of death.
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waters.
And they also who pretend that they give to drink sweet things,
in order that they may pour out their poison upon the incautious,
will be punished with the worthy retribution of a continual plague.
angel.
In the angel of the waters he speaks of all the angels of the
peoples, who in inner affection are united in singing the praises
of God; for that in avenging the blood of His servants, He has
made their murderers to drink of death.
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judgments.
That which the angels are, the same also is the altar giving thanks
to God, that is, the inner affection of saints, or angels, or men,
who bear rule over the peoples by teaching.
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sun.
The persecutors of the Church, who like the fiery sun, strive to
dry up the seed of the word of God, are to be burned in the future
with the fire of hell. Or, if thou interpret the sun of the brightness
of the wise, it is not given to the angel who pours out upon the
waters to scorch men with heat and with fire, but to the same sun.
For while the wise, overcome by torments, are infected by the error
of evil doing, the weak, induced by their example, are inflamed
with temporal desires. But the heat, as we said, may also be understood
to be, that the body of the devil is incurably tormented and incited
to blasphemy by the stedfastness of the saints, of which the prophet
says, "Wrath takes hold of the people without understanding,"
and "now fire devours the adversaries."
And that "now" forsooth, for indeed the fire of the last
judgment is reserved.
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men.
At the present time indeed, so far as is permitted, the devil glorifies
his own, which glory and joy the Holy Spirit has described to be
plagues and sorrows. For we read also above,
that the army of the devil killed men with fire, smoke, and brimstone;
not that he killed them openly, but that he doomed those who are
consentient with him to these flames.
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seat
of the beast. The seat of the beast, that
is, his kingdom, as it were the judiciary power, is darkened by
plagues of this kind, that is, by the false joy of earthly felicity,
and is made to be without light; as the Psalm has, "Thou
didst cast them down, while they were lifted up."
For he said not, after they were lifted up.
tongues.
As the righteous "will eat the labours of his own hands,"
so the ungodly also, exposed to the just punishments of his blasphemy,
is satiated as it were with his own tongue. They hurt themselves
therefore who blasphemed, because of the wrath of God, with which
when they were pierced through, they thought it joy.
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repented
not. He referred it not to their own hardness,
but to the just indignation of God, Who sent on them a plague of
such a kind, that in it they should not remember themselves. For
who, when afflicted in body, does not feel the hand of God, like
Antiochus.
"They blasphemed," he said, that is, not openly, but by
luxuriating in sins.
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Euphrates.
While the people perish, the affluence of
Babylon, in which there is nothing living, nothing green, which
is not fit for fire, will remain. This is the same that he said
above, "The harvest of the earth is dried,"
the saints of the king hasten to meet the Sun of Righteousness.
Otherwise: as "while the ungodly is lifted up, the poor is
consumed
," so when the pestilent is scourged, the wise will become
more astute. And now, in his accustomed manner, he passes over the
seventh angel, and recapitulates briefly from the beginning.
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frogs.
The spirit of the devil, and of Antichrist, and of those who are
set over his body, which is spoken of as threefold, according to
the number of the parts of a body, is compared with frogs, to creatures,
that is, which are horrible in their haunts, their appearance, and
their vexatious croaking, which although they seem to be inhabitants
of the waters, yet move about in filth and mud. For hypocrites indeed,
while they promise their own the water of life, lie dead and hidden
beneath the filth which believers deposit in the water.
So Pharaoh, who to destroy the people at their Baptism
went in after them, was therein slain.
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demons.
For as was done by the magicians of Pharaoh, so is it to be supposed
that these will perform signs. And not without reason did he remember
these, when he had made mention of frogs, but that he might announce
that the ministers of Satan would then also perform similar signs.
For the magicians were permitted to prevail by their enchantments
as far as the sign of frogs.
kings.
As there are holy kings to whom, when the Euphrates is dried,
the way of the East is laid open; so also are there said to be
evil kings of the earth, who, without being gathered together
from the whole world into one place, but each nation in its place,
are to fight against the saints. By "the great day of the
Lord," he means the whole time from the Lord's Passion. "The
day" may also be taken to be the day of judgment, when the
army of the devil, which has been gathered together through the
whole time of the present life, will meet the Lord, the King,
that it may be overthrown.
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I
come. Another version has more suitably,
"At the great day of God Almighty: behold He cometh
as a thief."
Blessed.
Blessed are they whose sins are covered, who hide the baseness
of a reprehensible life before the eyes of the just at the judgment,
by the covering of subsequent good works. In the Gospel also,
the Lord, under the example of the thief to be guarded against,
commands His servants to watch.
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Hermagedon.
Elsewhere
he explains this place, saying, "He gathered them together
to battle, and they compassed the camp of the saints and the chosen
city," that is, the Church. On the contrary, the seat of the
ungodly one, the devil, may also be understood, who in the man of
perdition, inflated with the pride of usurped Deity, will rejoice
to resume his former plotting, which was formerly interdicted by
the Lord. For Hermagedon is interpreted, the "rising up together
to former things," or, "the round mountain."
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air.
Above, the blood of vengeance went forth as far as the bridles of
the horses, namely, the unclean spirits; and so here, when the same
final vengeance was poured upon the same aerial powers, it is said
that "it is done," that is, that the end is come, when,
as the Apostle says,
"the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed." Thus far,
under the name of "plagues," the last persecution is described,
all which Tichonius will have to be understood in a contrary way.
"It is 'the plague which cannot be healed,' he says, and 'the
great wrath,' to receive the power of sinning in an especial manner
against the saints, and not as yet to be overtaken by the greater
wrath of God. The accession of blessedness indeed, is the death
of the wicked, as on the contrary, torments and humiliation are
the glory of the Church. For at that very time all the ungodly will
be unhurt by any plague of the body, as they who have received all
power to rage. Nor in the completion of sins, and the consummation
of wrath, will there then be need that any one of the wicked should
be scourged and restrained from fury. He recapitulates from the
same persecution, and describes the fall of the ungodly city."
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lightnings.
At the end of the world, when there shall be such tribulation as
has not been from the beginning, the greatest signs will in like
manner be shewn, but whether on the side of the good, or on the
side of the bad, or on both sides, as it was in the instance of
Moses and the magicians of Pharaoh, is not here sufficiently apparent.
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divided.
The ungodly city wages a threefold war against the Church of Christ.
For the heathen and Jews attack it in open conflict, heretics
by treacherous defection, false brethren by evil examples. And
this has been represented above
in the three bad horses, red, black, and pale.
cities.
That is to say, all the strength and confidence of the nations.
For the mirth of the ungodly is their fall, and the joy of the
unjust their destruction.
wrath.
Babylon then falls, or drinks the wrath of God, when it receives
power against Jerusalem, especially at the last. Therefore he
says that it has fallen by the earthquake, which He makes for
the Church. But if thou shalt refer it to the day of judgment,
the ungodly, who now says in his heart, "God hath forgotten,"
will then come into remembrance with God.
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island.
The Church, which from the height of its stability is compared with
islands and mountains, prudently hides itself from the waves of
the persecutors.
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hail.
The hail of the wrath of God is likened to a talent; for it is both
heavy in weight, and equal in judgment, and is inflicted upon all
according to the diversity of their faults. And all the plagues
of Egypt were figures of spiritual plagues.
blasphemed.
That is, because some sins are the cause of sin, some the punishment
of sin, some both; as Isaiah says, "Behold thou art wroth,
and we have sinned."
In this place "to blaspheme God, because of the hail,"
is acknowledged to be both sin, and the punishment of sin.
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