THE WOMAN FLED INTO THE WILDERNESS

1260 days, i. e. 677 years, from A. D. 832–1509.

A flight through the air by the use of wings, may denote a passing away into foreign countries, or crossing the ocean by the assistance of sails and wind; but a flight considered in the sense of an accelerated movement over the ground, indicates inferior distance and swiftness. This last is the meaning, which the holy prophet intended to convey in this place. The Greek word vyW, signifies to flee from danger, to run for shelter, to move swiftly from place to place. This speedy departure of the woman into the wilderness, and her sojourn there, in my opinion, denotes

1. An important and extensive enlargement of the boundaries of the Church by land, or a considerable propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen, under the protection, and by the assistance of the imperial power, as part of her external apparel at that time. 2. A strong aversion to the abominations and corruptions of the then ruling Church-power, and public protestation against the

same.

3. A transporting of the heart of the Church of Christ, to another place of a more safe and secure abode, where she might again multiply, and become a great people during 1260 prophetic days; until she had also formed this wilderness to which she had fled, into a mystic heaven, and totally banished the Old dragon in his form of Paganism, from thence to the earth.

It is customary in prophetic language, to term all Pagan countries a wilderness. Song of Sol. VIII, 5. Isa. xxxv, 1-6. chap. XLI, 18. 19. XLIII, 19. 20. Psal. LXXII, 9, Ezek. xx, 35. However, the wilderness here intended, cannot be taken on so comprehensive a scale, as to imply all Heathen countries, but must signify a certain part of the Pagan world, where the woman after this time, found a new place of abode. Asia and Africa are here totally out of the question, as they were in the hands of the Sa

racens and Turks, who at all times remained averse to Christianity; and America was then unknown to the Church. We must therefore understand by it those countries in Europe, which were yet Pagan at the com- . mencement of this period, and have afterwards received the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and became part of his Church. In order to arrive at a precise knowledge of the place, whence the woman began her first flight, it is necessary to have recourse to history, for the limits of the Church at the beginning of this period. The nations in Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Great-Britain, Ireland and a few cities and provinces along the Danube and Rhine, embraced Christianity in early times; while the Germans, Danes, Swedes; Holanders, Russians, Hungarians, Lithuanians, &c. yet lay buried for centuries in the grossest darkness of Pagan superstition. It was only towards the middle of the eight century, when Charlemagne united all his power, that he could succeed in converting the Huns, Frieslanders, &c. &c. to the faith of the Gospel; all the other nations to the East and North of Germany, remained in the shadow of death, and yet continued to live without God in the world at the commencement of the ninth century. The German nation then, and more particularly that fierce and warlike people, the Saxons, cannot be numbered among the Pagans at the beginning of this psophetic period; as they had already embraced Christianity, and become the first fruit of the Church among these unenlightened nations. Their conversion is represented by the birth of the manly son. These were the limits of the Church, and the boundaries of the wilderness, when the woman first began to change her place of abode.

After the conversion of the Saxons, which made a great and promising impression into a new region of Paganism, a truly apostolic spirit seemed to revive in Christendom. The Church of Christ again assumed a truly sublime and

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interesting attitude. Touched with celestial compassion, like her imortal king, she unfurled her banners as a mighty host North and South, marching against Satans kingdom; and the labours of many of her missionaries, were indeed worthy of a Christian ministry. There had been some feeble attempts made, previous to this period, to propagate the Gospel among the Northern nations; but it does not appear that they were undertaken upon an extensive plan, nor attended with permanent success, until the year 832. This is the year in which Ansgar, that eminent divine, was created archbishop of Hamburg, Bremen and of the whole North. His labours have been blessed with a great harvest for the Church, by which he has acquired the title of the Northern apostle. This great and pious man, made extensive and formidable efforts for the conversion of the Danes, Cimbrians, Swedes and the inhabitants of Jutland. He not only laboured among these idolatrous nations personally, and passed his life in the most imminent danger, but also directed the pious enterprises of his fellow labourers amongst them, for many years.

Though the torrent of moral corruption had now broken in upon Christendom, and swept along the third part of its ministry; yet it must be confessed, that also the Eastern, as well as the Western Churches were at this time animated by a misionary spirit, truly laudable. But of all the efforts, which the Grecian Church made, to extend the Redeemers kingdom, none are more highly esteemed by historians, than those among the Masians, Bulgarians, Gazarians, Bohemians and Moravians; which commenced about the middle of the ninth century, and were crowned with eminent success. Of all the pious instruments, employed in this glorious enterprise, those two Greek bishops, Cyril and Methodius, appear to have borne the torch of the Gospel in its most genuine lustre, into this Pagan wilderness. The churches es

tablished by their Christian zeal among these nations, both in point of doctrine, worship and church-discipline, bore ample testimony of this for many centuries. According to Comenius's account, they accomplished the conversion of the Bohemians between the years A. D. 861-894, and that of the Moravians not fully till about the year 940. The Grecian church, upon solemn investigation, also sent a number of Christian doctors among the Sclavonians, Arentani, and to certain provinces of Dalmatia; who since the year 867 embraced the Gospel of Christ, and abandoned idolatry. Rollo, first duke of Normandy, with his Normans embraced the Christian faith A. D.912; and since the year 965, the Christian religion was also successfully propagated in Poland by Aegidius, bishop of Tusculum, and a numerous company of ecclesiastics, which attended him to second his pious efforts in that country. The conversion of the bold and warlike Russians, was first attempted during the reign of the Grecian emperor Basilius, the Macedonian; but these endeavours reached no further into that Pagan wilderness, than the Ukraine; and those converted to Christianity, soon after relapsed into the superstition of their ancestors. The solid establishment of the Christian Church among that nation, cannot be dated anterior to the year 987, when Wlodomir, duke of Russia and Moscovy, was himself baptised, and seconded the zeal of devout missionaries among his subjects. The Hungarians and Avari had already received a glimpse of Gospel light during the reign of Geysa, the chief of the Hungarian nation; but the Church is principally indebted to the efforts of his son Stephen, for its permanent establishment A.. 997, among that people. It was only towards the close of the tenth century, during the reign of Olaus Tryggueson, that the Norwegians firmly embraced the Chris

*Hist. eccl. Slavon. § 16.

tian faith; and from Norway, Christianity was propagated into the adjacent countries, the Orkney islands, Iceland and Old Grænland, soon after this time. Though I have now given the dates, when the day of Gospel grace broke in on the native darkness of these Pagan nations ; yet such was their savage rudeness, their ignorance and violent attachment to the superstition of their ancestors, that it required centuries to accomplish their total conversion. This was more particularly the character of the Sclavonians, the Obotriti, the Veniti, and the Prussians; wherefore their conversion was often attempted by violent and unchristian means. However, all the Pagan nations in Europe were brought into the pales of the Church, during the time of the first flight of the woman, which seems to be the general purport of this prophecy, and which was thereby accomplished. The Pomeranians were converted to the Christian faith 1126, the isle of Rugen 1168, the Finlanders 1151, the Livonians 1198, the Sclavonians 1190, the Prussians 1230, and the Lithuanians 1386.

This was the region where the woman sojourned, and these are the places, where she touched and tarried, during her first flight into the wilderness. But this prophecy also comprehends those, who withdrew from the ruling Church-power, by reason of an aversion to the corruptions in doctrine and worship, or from an abhorrence to the torrent of vice breaking in on the Church, and overwhelming the clergy. For eighteen centuries the everlasting Gospel of the Redeemer has been travelling on its sublime path through the wilderness of this world, offering its heavenly blessings to every unhappy generation of It never ceased to call sinners to repentance, and to breathe the breath of life into their souls, wherever its loving invitation was accepted. Many a valley of dry bones was restored, from the death of sin to a life of righteousness at different times among the nations of the world. These revived souls soon beheld themselves sur

man.