"And One of the Four Living Ones gave to the Seven Angels, Seven Golden Vials full of the wrath of the Deity, who lives for the Aions of the A ions" - Verse 7

The Four Living Ones full of eyes are representative of the Spirit manifestly encamped in the saints, as when they were anointed therewith in the Apostolic age, and the time immediately succeeding it. So long as the Stars of the Seven Golden Lightstands continued to shine, the Four Living Ones, as the encampment of the Spirit, occupy a place among the Apocalyptic symbols; but so soon as the lightstands of the Spirit are "removed out of their place" in the midst of the saints, the Symbolic Four Living Ones disappear from the scene. The last place they are observed in the history of the past, is in the period of the fourth seal (ch. 6:7). They are seen in ch. 7:11; but that is in a scene chronologically parallel with their appearance in this fifteenth chapter. They are not introduced into chapters eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen. There are reasons for this which need not detain us here; but there is a reason for their reappearance in this chapter, which it is my business to produce.

Of course, I shall not be expected to point out, which of the four living ones it was, that presented the Seven Golden Vials to the Seven Angels, seeing that it was not revealed to John. The Spirit has deemed it sufficient to inform us, that it was "one of the four". Its reappearance indicates, that in the period of the "great and marvellous sign in the heaven," without defining the exact time of the period, the Spirit is found again encamping on earth in the midst of the saints, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah (the Lamb slain) in the midst of the 144,000. When the war of the great day of the almighty Deity is fought out, the Four Living Ones appear no more in the prophecy. They join in the celebration of the praise of the Deity, YAHWEH ELOHIM, "who liveth for the Aions of the Aions," being "He who was to come" - ch. 19:4; but after this, peace being gloriously established, their military organization is dispensed with.

The only potentate that can effectually empower angels to pour out exhaustingly the wrath of the Deity upon mankind, is the Deity himself. The Living One, incorporate in the saints, gives judgment to the Seven Angels; which, to show their relation to the saints in judicial operation, are represented as receiving the golden vials of wrath from "ONE of the Four Living Ones," which indubitably represent the saints (ch. 5:8-10).

The wrath of the Seven Golden Vials is not poured out in all its details by the Saints. The sixteenth chapter shows this. It shows that five vials are entirely exhausted, and much of the sixth, before the "One of the Four Living Ones," Christ and the Kings of the East, appear upon the scene.

The word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, was "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit" (Zech. 4:6). The Spirit is the girder, or strengthener, whether it be Cyrus (Isa. 45:5), Alexander, Constantine, Alaric, Attila, Genseric, the British power, Napoleon, or the Saints. The British upon the sea, and the French upon the land, were girded in their operations against the worshippers of the Beast and his Image in the first five vial-periods, on the same principle that Cyrus was girded by the Spirit for the overthrow of the dominion of Babylon; and for the punishment of the worshippers of Bel. The Four Living Ones, and the Seven Angels, apart from the Spirit who energizes them, areas nothing. The wrathful power of the "great and marvellous sign in the heaven," is "golden," because just, and true, and faithful. This is supreme and righteous; its agents are subordinate, and not necessarily pure and holy.

The power being the same seven-spirit power, though the agents employed are diverse, in the outpouring of all the seven vials, these are all said to be given to the Seven Angels; although the saints do not come upon the arena till toward the close of the sixth vial-period. The saints and the Twelve Tribes of Israel at this crisis, become the agents by whom the Spirit consummates the fullness of the Divine wrath upon the world. Their operations are limited to the "thousand six hundred furlongs", or last forty years of the "great and marvellous sign in the heaven;" that is, to the concluding portion of the sixth, and the whole of the seventh, vial; which includes the Seven thunders, whose utterances were not written (ch. 10:4.)

In the events of the first four seals, the Spirit may be said to have been a party personally engaged in the contest with the pagan Roman power. Hence, the Four Living Ones, the symbols of His presence with the Saints, militant against Rome, are seen in the prophecy of those seals. But, when His presence was withdrawn from the holy encampment because of apostasy, the symbols are withdrawn likewise; and the developments of the Apocalypse are evolved through ordinary agents in the absence of the supernatural. But, the time arrives toward the end of the "great and marvellous sign in the heaven," for the conflict to be renewed, and determined, in the presence of the Spirit; it is therefore for this reason that "one of the Four Living Ones" is reproduced upon the arena; and is represented as giving the seven golden vials to the Seven Angels.