Revelation 8:2-5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, &c.— "And I saw the seven angels which I have before mentioned, and which then stood before the throne of God; and seven trumpets were given to them, that they might each of them successively sound an alarm; which I understood to be the symbol of some very important and awakening events, which were, in order of time, to succeed those which had been expressed by the seals. And while they were preparing to execute the orders they had received, another angel, whom I understood as a typical representation of the great High-Priest of the church, came and stood before the altar which I saw in this celestial temple, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much fragrant incense, consisting of a variety of excellent perfumes mingled together, that he might present it with the prayers of all the saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne; just as the Jewish high priest used to burn incense on the golden altar in the temple, while the people were praying in the courts of it at the hour of morning and evening sacrifice. And the smoke of the perfumes went up in a thick and odoriferous cloud,together with the prayers of the saints, from the hand of the angel as he stood before God; and seemed thereby emblematically to signify, how grateful to the Divine Being those prayers were which proceeded from holy hearts, being recommended by the intercession of that great High-Priest, whom this glorious angel had the honour, on this occasion, to represent; as Aaron and his sons did in the Jewish tabernacle of old. And when the angel had performed this office, in order to shew the awful manner in which God would avenge the injury which his praying people upon earth received from its tyrannical and oppressive powers, he took the censer, and, advancing towards the brazen altar of burnt offerings, he filled it with fire of the altar, and threw it upon the earth; and as soon as this action was performed, there were long and terrible voices, and thunders, and lightnings, which seemed to break out from the Shechinah, the glorious token of the Divine Presence; and there was also the sudden and violent shock of an earthquake, which seemed to shake the foundation of the world." There was no fire upon the golden altar, but that which was in the censer, in which the incense was burnt; so that we must necessarily, by this fire of the altar, understand that of the brazen altar, though it is not expressly declared to be so; and this may intimate, that in some other places the samewords may, by comparing different circumstances, have different ideas annexed to them.