Commentators on the Second Woe

+ Larger Font | - Smaller Font

The Creation Concept


Introduction
Charles D. Alexander
Henry Alford
William Barclay
G. K. Beale
Henry Bechthold
I. T. Beckwith
E. W. Bullinger
William Burkitt
Adam Clarke
Augustus Clissold
Thomas Coke
James B. Coffman
John N. Darby
Austin Farrer
William Fulke
Andrew Fuller
William Brown Galloway
John Gill
James Gray
David Guzik
George Leo Haydock
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg
John Hooper
H. A. Ironside
Franciscus Junius
William Kelly
A. E. Knoch
Paul E. Kretzmann
George Eldon Ladd
John Peter Lange
Clarence Larkin
Joseph Law
John MacArthur
James M. MacDonald
William Marsh
Fredrick Denison Maurice
Heinrich Meyer
J. Ramsey Michaels
William Milligan
Henry M. Morris
William R. Newell
John H. Ogwyn
Ford Cyrinde Ottman
David C. Pack
Jon Paulien
J. Dwight Pentecost
Peter Pett
John A. Pinkston
Matthew Poole
Vern S. Poythress
James Stuart Russell
Ray Stedman
Joseph Augustus Seiss
Justin Almerin Smith
John Trapp
John F. Walvoord
Daniel Whedon
Christopher Wordsworth

Thomas Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Verses 13-15

Revelation 9:13-15. The sixth angel sounded,— At the sounding of this sixth trumpet, a voice proceeded from the four horns of the golden altar (for the scene was still in the temple), ordering the angel of the sixth trumpet to loose the four angels, &c. and they were loosed accordingly. Such a voice proceeding from the four horns of the golden altar, is a strong indication of the divine displeasure, and plainly intimates, that the sins of men must have been very great, when the altar, which was their sanctuary and protection, called aloud for vengeance. The four angels are the four sultanies, or four leaders of the Turks and Othmans. For there were four principal sultanies or kingdoms of the Turks bordering upon the river Euphrates; one at Bagdad, founded by Togrul-Beg, or Tangrolipix, in the year 1055; another at Damascus, founded by Tagjuddaulas, or Duca, in the year 1079; a third at Aleppo, founded by Sjar-suddaulas, or Melech, in the same year; and the fourth at Iconium in Asia Minor, founded by Sedyduddaulas, or Cutlu-Muses, or his son, in the year 1080. These four sultanies subsisted several years afterwards; and the sultans were bound, and restrained from extending their conquests further than the river Euphrates, by divine Providence, and by the crusades of the European Christians in the latter part of the eleventh, and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But when an end was put to the crusades in the thirteenth century, then the four angels in the river Euphrates were loosed. Soliman Shah, the first chief and founder of the Othman race, retreating with his three sons from Jingiz-Chan, would have passed the river Euphrates with his Tartars, but was drowned; the time of loosing the four angels being not yet come. Discouraged at this dreadful incident, two of his sons returned to their former habitations; but Ortogrul, the third, with his three sons, Condoz, Sarubani, and Othman, remained some time in those parts; and, having obtained leave of Aladin the sultan of Iconium, he came with 400 of his Turks, and settled in the mountains of Armenia. From thence they began their excursions; and the other Turks associating with them, and following their standard, they gained several victories over the Tartars on one side, and over the Christians on the other. Ortogrul dying in the year 1288, Othman his son succeeded him in power and authority; and in the year 1299, and, as some say, with the consent of Aladin himself, he was proclaimed sultan, and founded a new empire; and the people afterwards, as well as the new empire, were called by his name. For, though they disclaim the appellation of Turks, and assume that of Othmans, yet nothing is more certain, than that they are a mixed multitude, the remains of the four sultanies above mentioned, as well as the descendants particularly of the house of Othman. In this manner, and at this time, the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men; (Revelation 9:15.) that is, the men of the Roman empire, and especially in Europe, the supposed third part of the world. The Latin, or Western empire, was broken to pieces under the four first trumpets; the Greek or Eastern empire was cruelly hurt and tormented under the fifth trumpet; and under the sixth, it was to be slain and utterly destroyed. Accordingly, all Asia-Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Thrace, Macedon, Greece, and all the country which belonged to the Greek or Eastern Caesars, the Othmans have conquered. For the execution of this great work it is said, that they were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year; which will admit either a literal or a mystical interpretation; and the former will hold good, if the latter should fail. If it be taken literally, it is only expressing the same thing by different words; as people, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, are jointly used in other places; and then the meaning is, that they were prepared to execute the divine commission at any time; any hour, or day, or month, or year, that God should appoint. If it be taken mystically, and the hour, and day, and month, and year, be a prophetic hour, day, month, and year, then a year, according to St. John's account, (who uses Daniel's computation,) consisting of three hundred and sixty days, is three hundred and sixty years; and a month consisting of thirty days, is thirty years; and a day is a year; and an hour, in the same proportion, is fifteen days; so that the whole period of the Othman's slaying the third part of men, or subduing the Christian states in the Greek and Roman empire, amounts to three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days. Now it is wonderfully remarkable, that the first conquest of the Othmans over the Christians was in the year of the Christian era 1281, and the year of the Hegira 680; for Ortogrul, in that year, crowned his victories with the conquest of the famous city of Kutahi from the Greeks. Compute three hundred and ninety-one years from that time, and they will terminate in the year 1672; and in that year Mohammed the fourth took Cameniec from the Poles; whereupon prince Cantemir has made this memorable reflection: "This was the last victory by which any advantage accrued to the Othman state, or by which any city or province was annexed to the ancient bounds of the empire." Here then the prophesy and the event exactly agree in the period of three hundred and ninety-one years; and if more accurate and authentic histories of the Othmans were discovered, and we knew the very day wherein Kutahi was taken, as certainly as we know that whereon Cameniec was taken, the like exactness might also be found in the fifteen days. Dr. Lloyd, bishop of Worcester, in his interpretation of this passage, foretold, many years before it happened, "that peace would be concluded with the Turks in the year 1698, which accordingly came to pass; and that they should no more renew their wars against the Popish Christians." See Prince Cantemir's History, b. 3: p. 265. and Bishop Burnet's History of his own Times, vol. 1: p. 204.

Revelation 9:16-19. The number of the army, &c.— A description is here given of the forces, and of the means and instruments bywhich the Othmans should effect the ruin of the Eastern empire. Their army is described as very numerous,—myriads of myriads; and when Mohammed the second besieged Constantinople, he had 400,000 men in his army, besides a powerful fleet of thirty larger, and two hundred lesser ships. They are described too, chiefly, as horsemen; and so they are described also by Ezekiel and Daniel; as it is well known that their armies consisted chiefly of cavalry, especially before the order of Janizaries was instituted by Amurath the first. The Timariots, or horsemen, hold lands by serving in the wars, are the strength of the government, and are accounted in all between seven and eight thousand fighting men: some indeed say that they are a million: and, besides these, there are spahis and other horsemen in the emperor's pay. In the vision, that is in appearance, and not in reality, they had breast-plates of fire, and of hyacinth, and brimstone. The colour of fire is red, of hyacinth blue, and of brimstone yellow: and this has had a literal accomplishment: for the Othmans, from the first time of their appearance, have affected to wear such warlike apparel of scarlet, blue, and yellow. Of the spahis particularly, some have red, and some have yellow standards; and others red or yellow, mixed with other colours. In appearance too, the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, to denote their strength, courage, and fierceness; and out of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. Revelation 9:17.—A manifest allusion to great guns and gunpowder; which were invented under this trumpet, and were of such signal service to the Othmans in their wars: for by these three was the third part of men killed; by these the Othmans made such havoc and destruction in the Greek or Eastern empire. Amurath the second broke into Peloponnesus, and took several strong places by means of his artillery. His son Mohammed, at the siege of Constantinople, employed such great guns, as were never made before. One, we are told, was so large, as to be drawn by seventy yoke of oxen, and by two thousand men: two more discharged a stone of the weight of half a talent; but the greatest of all discharged a ball of the weight of three talents, or about three hundred pounds. For forty days the wall was battered by these guns, and so many breaches were made, that the city was taken by assault, and an end put to the Grecian empire. They had power to hurt by their tails, Revelation 9:19. In this respect they very much resemble the locusts; only the different tails are adapted to the different creatures; the tails of scorpions to locusts, the tails of serpents, with a head at each end, to horses. By this figure it is meant, that the Turks draw after them the same poisonous train as the Saracens; they profess and propagate the same imposture; they do hurt not only by their conquests, but also by the spreading of their false doctrine; and wherever they establish their dominion, there too they establish their religion. Many, indeed, of the Greek church remained, and are still remaining among them; but are subject to a capitation tax for the exercise of their religion; are burdened with the most heavy and arbitrary impositions; are compelled to the most servile drudgery; are abused in their persons, and robbed of their property; but notwithstanding these and greater persecutions, some remains of the Greek church are still preserved among them, as we may reasonably conclude, to serve some great and mysterious ends of Providence.



Copyright © 2013 by Douglas E. Cox
All Rights Reserved.