John was informed, that the opening of the seventh seal would be marked by silence coming into existence in the heaven — egeneto sige en to ourano. This implies, that before the opening of the seventh seal there was the absence of silence; in other words, that there was noise or tumult in the heaven. The uproar must have been very great, from the fact, that the silence ensuing was deemed worthy of prophetic annunciation. When we are reminded of the events of the sixth seal, there is no difficulty in conceiving the nature of the uproar. The “great red Dragon” of paganism was then in the heaven, and the Michael- Power also. These were two antagonist forces which could not dwell together in unity: so war broke out between them, and they contended for the throne of Deity in the heaven. And so it is written. “There was war in the heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon; and the Dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was a place found of them still in the heaven" (ch. 12:7,8).
This expulsion of the Pagan Dragon-Power from the heaven left the Michael-Power sole occupant of the throne in the heaven; so that the final victory over the Dragon-Power placed the Michael-Chieftain, who was the new born Son of the Woman, upon the apocalyptic throne of the Deity, to which he had been “caught up” by a career of conquest during eighteen years, in which he never lost a battle. Being therefore, only one supreme power in the heaven, all uproar between powers in the heaven would necessarily cease, and "silence” would ensue. Hence, “silence in the heaven” was peace in the political aerial — the stillness and quietude of a calm after one storm; and before the outburst of another. As one of the idol-poets of the heathen sings:
’Twas as we often see against some storm,
A silence in the heavens; the rack stand still, The bold winds speechless, and the orb below As hush as death: anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the regions.[1] [2]
The “silence in the heaven” then, was a period of tranquility in the region of government, extending from the terminus of the sixth seal, signalized by the decisive battle of Chrysopolis, A.D. 324; and reaching to “the voices,” which resulted from the "fire cast into the earth,” by the Angel-Priest of the Apocalyptic Temple (ver. 5). Between these two epochs, the reign of the conqueror was undisturbed by rivals or usurpers; and he was enabled to bequeath to his own family the inheritance of the Roman world. “The general peace,” says Gibbon, “which he maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign, was a period of apparent splendor rather than of real prosperity; and the old age of Constantine was disgraced by the opposite yet reconcilable views of rapaciousness and prodigality.” Having no competitor to dispute his authority, he might have been the happiest of rulers, but for the corrupting influence of prosperity; and the quarrels of the Arian* and Trinitarian factions of his new religion. He condescended to beseech these ignorant fanatics not to disturb the general tranquility of the times. "The favor which I seek,” said he, "is that you examine the causes of division, and bring the controversy to a close, and that you thus restore peace and unanimity among yourselves; so that 1 may triumph with you over our enemy the Devil, who excited this internal strife because he was provoked to see our external enemies subdued and trampled upon beneath our feet” — as symbolized by “the moon under the Woman’s feet.” While then, there was silence in the
government, there was uproar in the Church characterized by every evil work, which at length became the cause of the providentially retributive “voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and earthquake” which preceded the preparation of the angels to whom the sounding of the seven trumpets was assigned (ver. 6).
* Hamlet Act 2, Sc. 2
[2] The Arians believed in one God whereas the creed of Athanasius proclaimed the doctrine of the Trinity. Arians were opposed to Athanasians but failed to comprehend the doctrine of God manifest in Christ. Those whom the author of Eureka styles “the saints” were opposed to both Arians and Athanasians in that they understood and proclaimed the essential doctrine of God manifestation — HPM.