e.

19. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the
vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of
God.

20. And the wine press was trodden without the city, and blood came out
of the wine-press even unto the horse-bridles, by the space of a
thousand and six hundred furlongs.

Vs. 17-20.--As the ministry of the "third angel," (v. 9,) was final, as
to pronouncing the deserved doom of all the adherents of the
antichristian system, so in the symbols of the _harvest_ and _vintage_,
we have the execution of that sentence exhibited. The nations of
Christendom, having drunk the wine of the mother of harlots, and of her
daughters too, and having exhausted the patience of the Lord Jesus,
refusing to repent, while he warned them by his servants the three
angels of reform,--"rising early and sending them," were at length
"ripe" for his sharp sickle. Long had he expostulated with them, saying
to them, while addressing his church,--"The nation and kingdom that will
not serve thee (O Zion,) shall perish; yea, those nations shall be
utterly wasted." (Isa. lx. 12.)--The desolating judgments of the
reigning Mediator, having brought those nations to "hate the whore,"
they become the willing and zealous agents of her destruction, as
appears, (ch. xvii. 16.)

The "gathering of the clusters of the vine of the earth,"--is a concise
emblematical representation of that tremendous work of punishing the
apostate church, to be exhibited in greater detail in the following
chapters.

The "angel coming out of the temple,"--represents the gospel ministry as
usual. His "having a sharp sickle" may import his more immediate agency
in this than in the preceding work of the harvest." Christ himself
judged the nations,--had the "sharp sickle;" but in reckoning with
impenitent ecclesiastical communities, he will honor his faithful
servants. As in "measuring the temple,"--the Mediator held the
instrument in his own hand under the Old Testament, (Zech. ii. 1,) but
under the New Testament gave it into the hand of John, the
representative of a gospel ministry, (ch. xi. 1,) so that transaction
may illustrate the symbols here.

The other angel "coming from the altar, who had power over fire," is
also symbolical of the ministry. The sickle in the hand of the former
angel, is for gathering the grapes; while the connexion of the latter
angel with the "altar," imports that a sacrifice is about to be offered,