And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a
flood,
&c.] Which cannot design any persecution before the fall of
Paganism, either of the Jews, or of the Romans; nor indeed the
Arian persecution, since the casting out of this flood is
distinguished from the above persecution, and was after the
church began to flee upon that persecution; though it is not
unusual for wicked persecutors, and violent persecutions, to be
expressed by waters, and they are called proud waters, ( Psalms
124:1-4 ) ; and these may be said to be cast out of the mouth
of the serpent, the devil, who was a persecutor and a murderer
from the beginning, and by whom all persecutors and persecutions
are instigated, moved, and carried on; but rather, as the words
of a man's mouth are as deep waters, ( Proverbs
18:4 ) ; and doctrines, good or bad, may be so called; that
flood of errors and heresies, which were poured in between the
times of Constantine and the rise of antichrist may be here
intended; such as the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of
Christ; the Nestorian heresy, which divided his person; and the
Eutychian heresy, which confounded the two natures in him; and
the Macedonian heresy, which took away the deity of the Holy
Ghost; and the Pelagian heresy, which destroyed the grace of God,
and set up the power of man's free will: and this flood of errors
and heresies may be truly said to be cast out of the serpent's
mouth; since the old serpent, the devil, is the father of all
lies, and errors: and the above heresies are the doctrines of
devils, and damnable ones; and were designed by Satan to destroy
the souls of men, and ruin the church: though since this flood
followed upon the Arian persecution, and was after the church
began to flee, being supported and secured by the two divisions
of the empire, eastern and western, the wings of the Roman eagle,
it seems best by this flood to understand the irruption of the
barbarous nations, which quickly followed that division; the
Goths, Huns, Vandals, Heruli, Alans, and Lombards, who were
poured into the western empire, and overran, and at last
destroyed it; so that this flood is contemporary with the first
four trumpets; after which followed the swarms of locusts, the
Saracens, which infested, teased, and tormented the "eastern"
empire; and after them the Turks, the four angels bound at the
great river Euphrates, were let loose, and like a mighty torrent
overflowed, and utterly destroyed it; and all this was done at
the instigation of Satan, he being filled with wrath, because the
empire was become Christian, and his view was to destroy the
church in it: for this flood was cast
after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away
of the
flood;
along with the empire, and be no more; but his designs were
frustrated, and he disappointed; so people, nations, and tongues,
are compared to waters in ( Revelation
17:15 ) ; see ( Isaiah 8:7 ) ( 28:2 ) , which the
Targum interprets of the armies of much people.