10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Vs. 9-11.--"And the third angel followed." The two preceding angels addressed _communities_, calling them to repentance and reformation. Indeed, the language of the second implies little or no hope of their recovery. This third angel, "following" up the scriptural testimony of those who went before, and assuming that church and state,--the essential elements of the antichristian system,--continue irreclaimable, addresses his message to _individuals_. This angel is the last that the Lord Jesus will employ to awaken sinners that "are at ease in Zion." His ministry is yet future, and he will never be succeeded by an angel of mercy until mystical Babylon is overthrown. The special, arduous and perilous work of this angel is, to threaten eternal death against every individual who persists in the hitherto popular idolatry. "If any man worship the beast."--Up to the time of this angel's appearance the beast lives and devours his prey: consequently, his work comes within the period of the 1260 years. During this limited time, there will be found in the Apocalypse _three objects_ of popular devotion,--the dragon, (ch. xiii. 4,) the _beast_, and his _image_, (v. 15.) In this place the dragon is omitted, as also in ch. xv. 2; xx. 4. We may ask, why the omission?--Simply because "the things which the _Gentiles_ sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God," (1 Cor. x. 20;) consequently, these worshippers being _Gentiles_, (ch. xi. 2,) there is no necessity that the dragon (the devil) should be particularized. From the first rise of the beast, he was in alliance with the dragon, (ch. xiii. 2, 3;) therefore both are doomed to perdition, (ch. xx. 10.) Most expositors consider this angel as emblematical of events already past; the reformation effected by Luther, his coadjutors and successors, or the church of England![9] Their error consists in viewing the beast as the symbol of the church of Rome. And it is remarkable, that through the power of local and political bias, those commentators who themselves perceive that the beast of the sea in chapter xiii. 1, symbolizes the Roman _empire_, lose sight of their _own exposition_ when they arrive at the place before us! And of this bias and inconsistency they seem to be wholly unconscious! No, there has never yet appeared in the symbolic heaven a minister or ecclesiastical organization, which has authoritatively denounced everlasting punishment against all who "receive the mark of the beast." It is to be noticed here that the sins charged are _cumulative_, not _distributive_.