Now, over or upon the head of this angel, John saw “the rainbow.” Before iris, all the recent editors of the text insert he, “the” which is no doubt correct, as having special reference to the rainbow in ch. 4:3. This is the symbol of the covenant, and inseparably connected with the throne.
The angelic symbol is peribeblemenon nephelen, one who hath been clothed with a cloud. Hence, there was a time when this clothing had not been developed.
The political death of the eastern Roman empire, and the transfer of its capital to the Ottoman Dynasty, interrupts the continuity of apocalyptic prophecy, as it did that of history.
Apoc. 10
Amurath II was succeeded, A.D. 1451, by his son Mohammed II., styled by Gibbon, “the Great Destroyer.” His passions were at once furious and inexorable. In the palace, as in the field, a torrent of blood was spilt on the slightest provocation. Constantinople has sealed his glory, and placed him among “the basest of men” whom the Eternal Spirit “sets up” to fufil his will.
“By these three, ” says John, “was the third of the men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the sulphur, which burst forth out of the
The conquest of Adrianople was followed in the ensuing spring, A.D. 1422, by the siege of Constantinople. The religious merit of subduing the City of the Caesars, attracted from Asia a crowd of volunteers, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom.
It would be well for the fame of fortunate destroyers of their species, if they would remember and be admonished by the remark of Ahab to Benhadad, king of Syria: “Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast to himself as he that putteth it off.” The sultan Bajazet belonged to the numerous class of military vain boasters, which is not, while we write, even now extinct. We have seen, that A.D. 1402, Constantinople and the Greek empire, were on the verge of destruction at his hand.
The sack of Aleppo and Damascus signalized the loosing of the Timour-Mogul power from its Euphratean boundary. In a peaceful conference with a doctor of Mohammedan law, he said: “You see me here a poor, lame, decrepit mortal.