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"Name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in "every place incense shall be offered unto my "Name, and a pure offering: for my Name shall "be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of "Hosts."* And in the Apocalypse we are expressly told, that the vials full of incense, held by the twenty-four elders, are the prayers of saints.†

In the passage we are now considering, the incense which is offered by the angel, with the prayers of all saints, seems to signify, that their prayers are such as to find acceptance with God, and that they are to receive an answer. The answer to them appears to be contained in the action performed by the angel in the following verse. Filling the censer with fire from the altar, he casts it upon the earth, and there follow "voices, and thunder

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ings, and lightnings, and an earthquake." Fire is a symbol of various significations. When it descends upon the servants of God it denotes the purifying and life-giving presence of the Holy Ghost. Thus John the Baptist assured the Jews that there came one after him who should baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire.‡ On the other hand, when fire comes down on the enemies of God, it is a symbol of his destroying wrath. "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will "thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the "wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will "burn with fire unquenchable."S

It seems to be in the last of these senses that the

* Mal. i. 11.

Luke iii. 16. Comp. Is. vi. 6, 7.

+ Rev. v. 8.
§ Luke iii. 17.

symbol of fire is used in the passage now under consideration, as we may infer from the context, and also the effects which follow. The fire is cast upon the earth, which is, throughout this mystical book, used to denote the world, as opposed to the cause and kingdom of Christ; and since the fourth kingdom of Daniel, or the Roman empire, is in an especial manner the scene of the prophecies of the Apocalypse, we may conclude, that the fire which is cast upon the earth by the angel in this place, signifies the wrath of God coming down upon the Roman empire, in answer to the prayers which had been offered in the preceding verse. The effects of the descent of this fire are voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. We have already seen, in considering the sixth seal, that an earthquake, in the language of symbols, denotes a revolution. Voices, thunderings, and lightnings, in the natural world, happen, as we know, in the atmosphere, or region of the air. When these words are used symbolically, they must therefore signify such convulsions as affect the political atmosphere, or region of the government, and the civil and religious constitution of the empire, which is the subject of the prophecy. We thus arrive at the conclusion, that the voices, thunderings, and lightnings, and the earthquake, mentioned in this passage, denote a political convulsion in the government of the Roman empire, attended with a revolution.

These events occur before the sounding of any of the seven trumpets. But it is generally admitted by our ablest interpreters, that the first four

of these trumpets refer to the overthrow of the western empire by the Goths and Vandals; and I shall afterwards give my reasons for concurring in this commonly received interpretation. The political convulsion and revolution now under consideration, must, therefore, have occurred previously to the fall of the western empire. Now, history informs us of only one such event, which happened in the Roman empire, between the period when the Apocalypse was published, and the fall of the western empire; and that was the revolution in the time of Constantine, when paganism ceased to be the established religion of the empire, and Christianity was embraced by the imperial family. This revolution was so important in its consequences, that the great body of interpreters, have, as we have seen, referred to it the dreadful convulsions of the sixth seal. In this application, they appear to have erred, but yet the revolution under Constantine, was of sufficient magnitude, to render it probable, that some mention should be made of it in the Apocalypse, and it seems to find its place in the passage we are now considering.

In this passage, we behold, then, the prayers of all saints ascending up with acceptance, before God; by which prayers, may be signified the cries of the servants of God, under the cruel and long-continued persecutions of the heathen Roman empire. An answer to these prayers is sent. Fire, an emblem of the wrath of God, is cast upon that empire; and there follow political convulsions, voices, thunderings, and lightnings, and a revolution or earthquake, whereby paganism is cast down

to the ground, and Christianity occupies its place, as the religion of the government. The heathen persecutions are thus brought to a period.

The above interpretation is entirely new, as I have not met with it in any former writer on the Apocalypse: I shall, therefore, offer another argument, which seems to me, to strengthen it. The principle of homogeneity, requires us to understand the symbol of an earthquake, in the same sense, wherever it occurs in the prophecies of this book; and, in considering the sixth seal, we have seen, that it signifies a revolution: indeed, it is generally admitted, to bear that meaning. It must, therefore, be interpreted in the same manner, here. But since the publication of the Apocalypse, only three revolutions have happened in the Roman empire. The first, was in the time of Constantine; the second, at the period of the Reformation; and the third, is that awful revolution, which began by the overthrow of the French monarchy, and has since then, never ceased to convulse the world. The earthquake mentioned in the eighth chapter of the Apocalypse, cannot, for chronological reasons, be referred to the second or third of these revolutions. It must, therefore, relate to the first.

* A revolution may be defined as a change in the state of an empire, arising from internal convulsions. The overthrow of the western empire, by the barbarous nations, and of the eastern, by the Turks, were not revolutions; they were conquests.

CHAPTER V.

THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS.

"AND the seven angels which had the seven "trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. The "first angel sounded, and there followed hail and "fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon "the earth; and the third part of trees was burnt

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up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the "second angel sounded, and, as it were, a great "mountain burning with fire, was cast into the sea; "and the third part of the sea became blood; and "the third part of the creatures which were in the “sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the 'ships were destroyed. And the third angel "sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, "burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the "third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains "of waters: and the name of the star is called "Wormwood: and the third part of the waters "became wormwood; and many men died of "the waters, because they were made bitter. "And the fourth angel sounded, and the third "part of the sun was smitten, and the third part "of the moon, and the third part of the stars;

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so as the third part of them was darkened, and "the day shone not for a third part of it, and the "night likewise."*

*Rev. viii. 6-12.

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