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avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. Ver. 9-11.

Here, as illustrative of the past, in noting the fulfilment down to the present time, we need only remark, that, from the earliest to the latest period, the conflict through which Christians have to pass in fighting the good fight of faith, and being faithful unto the death, is set forth to view, as well as the sure triumph of the faith in which they lived, and for which the martyrs died. The early persecutions to which Christians were subjected, and by which paganism hoped to triumph over the gospel; the oft repeated conflicts and patient endurance of the Valdenses and Albigenses, by which, throughout the darkest ages, they bore testimony to their faith; the renewed martyrdoms which ushered in the Reformation, by which the papal power sought to maintain its dark dominion, seemed, for the time, as if the Christian faith was devoted to destruction, and not destined to conquer: but the fidelity with which they were borne, shewed the efficacy of genuine faith, and forms a peculiar feature in the spiritual history of man, and is here noted in the vision, as it is otherwise repeatedly and more fully unfolded. Of the final triumph of Christianity, however long delayed, there cannot, from manifold predictions, be a doubt. But it may here be remarked, that it is after the last enemy of the church of Christ hath appeared in the pale and spectral form of infidelity, that it is said unto the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should

be fulfilled. Warning seems thus to be given, that persecution, even unto death, may yet await the faithful in Jesus. But the full import of this and the following seal, may remain to be made manifest as the signs of other times; and they may best be viewed connectedly with other predictions. The retrospect of the spiritual state of the world brings us down to the border of events the most momentous.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell from the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? ver. 12, &c. To complete the outline of the religious state of the world, as connected with Christianity, is, we apprehend, the purpose of the immediately succeeding vision, (chap. vii.) descriptive of the partial and simultaneous conversion of many of the Jews and Israelites, for which the universal war is on every side suspended or delayed, previous to the last great catastrophe, which shall decide the fate of the world, and the triumph of the church.

It seems remarkable, that it should ever have been doubted, that such an obvious interpretation, as now it seems, so clear, consistent, and comprehensive, shews the true import of the first six seals. Let the reader peruse these two chapters, and say whether

they do not carry on the same subject from its commencement to its close.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE seventh seal, including the seven trumpets, the seven thunders, and the seven vials, to which no allusion is previously made, is manifestly of a different character: and, if we mistake not greatly, the ORDER is, not that all the seals describe events, that, according to human canons of interpretation, must necessarily follow in the same order, but that the spiritual state of the world (to use the plainest terms,) was described previous to the political; and that, as the outline of the former is contained, as we have seen, in the first six seals, the seventh seal, under the seven trumpets, begins to open up the latter to our view, and that each has to be viewed connectedly in its own order.

The book was written within and without, or 66 on the back side," sealed with seven seals. And hence it does not follow, that what is recorded under each successive seal, can only refer to events that follow in like manner in order of time. In regard to the same course of things, utter derangement would obviously ensue from a violation of that order; but not so when different subjects have to be introduced. The history of any kingdom might naturally be classified under different heads or subdivisions; first, ecclesiastical, next political; and their mutual relation being separately discussed, the whole history would be distinct and complete, and the effect would be a clearer elucidation, rather than derangement. In every regular history, such a method is at least partially adopted, whenever events re

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quire to be detailed which vary in their development, and lead to a combined result. In commencing a new chapter or book, the reader is often led far back in point of time, from the period at which the former terminated. Each subject is separately discussed; and that connexion of events, rather than of time exclusively, is the real order, without which every history would be disjointed and broken. Such, complete in all its parts, and these parts then forming one harmonious whole, and a pattern for history in point of completeness and order, nothing redundant recorded, and nothing essential omitted, and nothing either misrepresented or misplaced, the abused and slandered Book of Revelation, shall, we cannot doubt, be ultimately found to be. But, like every other book, it must first be read and understood, before all the fulness of the matter it contains can be told. And its symbols will no longer be a barrier to its intelligibility, when once it is unveiled by the events; any more than are the symbols of which every Chinese book is full, when once they are understood; or the language in which any book is written, when once it is known.

At the time when the things that were to come thereafter were written in a book, the Christian religion, then recently promulgated, went forth conquering in the midst of persecution; and the power of the Roman empire, after the subversion of Jerusalem, extended over the world, and was unchallenged by a single foe. But in the book that was penned by one of the fishermen of Galilee, whom Jesus had chosen as his apostles, the fate of that empire was written, and every great political convulsion, as well as every deceptious form of religion, was marked, till the time should come, when all the history of Rome would be an ancient tale, and all its majesty an empty name, and the gospel of Christ be the law of the world.

Commentators, with considerable variance in the

details, are of one mind, that the first four trumpets denote the successive events which caused the downfall of Rome, and that the fifth and sixth trumpets, or the first and second woe, characterise the Saracen and Turkish power. The charm of novelty, of itself suspicious, must here give place to the sanction of authority, which, in some measure, supersedes the necessity of a lengthened discussion. And it shall be our object to mark the character and shew the succession and connexion of events, down to the present era, as briefly as a due regard to distinctness and precision will permit. Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is so copious and precise as to render an appeal to any less clear and more questionable commentary unnecessary and redundant. Facts alone, and not imaginations, are wanted. And they who will not look to a commentator, may here safely learn from the sceptic.

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half-an-hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that. he should offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into (upon) the earth and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets PREPARED THEMSELVES TO SOUND.Chap. viii. 1-6.

The whole of this representation concurs in giving note of preparation for a new series of events. The seven angels that appear upon the scene are the

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