for he "tradeth the
wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."--"On his
thigh," where he wears his sword, there is a legible inscription,
indicating his universal and rightful authority.

17. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud
voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and
gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

18. That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and
the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on
them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and
great.

19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies,
gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and
against his army.

20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought
miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the
mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were
cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone.

21. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the
horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were
filled with their flesh.

Vs. 17-21.--The position of the "angel standing in the sun," and "crying
with a loud voice;" represents, that Messiah's judgments would be
visible to all the world; and the extent of the invitation to the
"fowls," indicates the vast slaughter of his enemies. Babylon being
"utterly burned with fire," (ch. xvii. 16, xviii. 8,) as a suitable
punishment of an apostate church; the "flesh of kings, of captains, of
mighty men," etc., as a sacrifice to divine justice, is given as a feast
to the fowls of heaven. The allusion here is to the destruction of "Gog
and Magog." (Ezek. xxxix. 17-20.) These enemies of the saints are to
appear and be overthrown before the millennium; and although John
borrows the names of these enemies, (ch. xx. 8,) they are not the same
as those of Ezekiel; the one appearing _before_, the other _after_ the
thousand years. We have often found the enemies of the church called in
the Apocalypse by the names of persecutors under the Old
Testament;--Babylon, Egypt, etc.--We may consider the "fowls," the birds
of prey, as symbolizing the kings who retaliate upon Babylon; (as in ch.
xvii. 16;) or rather, as the Lord's people reclaiming their own, of
which they had been unjustly and long deprived,--"spo