CHAPTER VI.

THE

SUSPENSION OF THE FEARFUL DOOM HANGING OVER THE NATIONS;

THE

SEALING AND PRESERVATION OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD AFTER A PERIOD OP PERSECUTION;

AND THE

OPENING OF THE SEVENTH SEAL.

Present state of peace-Most destructive wars only suspended→→ Deliverance of the righteous from them—Their sealing— Their symbolical number-Their characters-Nature of their preser

vation - A newly-arrived company seen in Heaven Proof that it is Heaven-That they are newly arrived—That they have experienced a great Salvation-Their Song-That they came out of a great Tribulation- That they are the company that was sealed-Their arrival in Heaven appears to have been a Translation-Arguments to prove this to be probable—Nothing incredible, and why-Seventh Seal-A solemn and awful pause -General observations.

94

CHAPTER VI.

THE PRESERVATION OF THE SERVANTS

OF GOD

FROM THE FEARFUL PREDICTED RUIN ;

AND THE

OPENING OF THE SEVENTH SEAL.

HAVING thus disposed of that part of the contents of the seven-sealed book which is PAST, bringing it down, through the commotions of the French Revolution, to the memorable period of the Battle of Waterloo, we are now come to that which is

PRESENT.

"And after these things," the Apostle goes on to say, "I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another Angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the Living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four Angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." (vii. 1-3.)

Three things are here very apparent—

1. That there should, after the events already described on opening the sixth seal have passed, be a

very remarkable season of quietness, and suspension from the horrors of war.

In the language of Scripture, winds, as the cause of storms, are symbols of wars and great commotions. Thus a wind is used in Jer. li. 1; iv. 11, 12, to express destruction; and in ch. xlix. 36, the four winds, a general destruction.* "And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and I will scatter them towards all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come." To hold therefore the winds that they should not blow, is a very striking emblem of peace and tranquillity from war; and indeed much more so by the command that is given, that until a certain work is performed, nothing is to be injured by them, neither "the earth, nor the sea, nor any tree;" —that is, neither the peaceable and quiet part of the empire-neither the restless and agitated part of the community-nor any of the higher powers. This latter meaning of the symbol of a tree is beautifully used by Gibbon in the following passage: speaking of the estates of the great feudal lords being dissipated, and their race often extinguished in the costly and perilous expeditions of the Crusades, he says, "The conflagration which destroyed the tall and barren trees of the forest, gave air and scope to the vegetation of the smaller and nutritive plants of the soil."+

Accordingly, after the conclusion of the war caused

* See Diss. p. 205.

+ Gibbon, ch. lxi.

by the French Revolution, such a period of peace and stillness did, in a most unprecedented manner, take place-after the year 1815, every wind and sound of war was hushed-and YET CONTINUES! This is the exact point of time in which we are, and for the last five-and-twenty years have been, living ;* and one which will not, cannot, at least if the present interpretation be correct, be interrupted, till the event here reserved has transpired. The rumours and apprehensions of war have, at various intervals, been repeated and loud, during the five-andtwenty years of peace, both in Poland, Belgium, Spain, Egypt, and now in France; but they have all, in a strange and unexpected way, in a way in which the hand of God has been very apparent, with as it were a "loud voice," been hushed to silence! The winds, in obedience to the high command of God, were not to blow, and they accordingly have not been permitted to blow-and yet for a short season the restraint must continue!

2. The next thing very apparent from these verses is, that although there was to exist the present season of tranquillity, yet that it is only for an appointed time, and that it is to be followed by the most tremendous and fatal wars and invasions.

The command given to hold the four winds till the servants of God are sealed, is as much as to say, that when that sealing shall have taken place, the hold will be withdrawn, and the four winds will blow.

* Diss. p. 330.