be not a prophecy of that event, there is not an undoubted prophecy of it or of the Day of Judgment in all Scripture.*

Not then until the Lord Jesus Christ has exhausted all his weapons, all his ordinary judgments-not until he has sent them severally, sent them altogether, and finds his enemies still impenitent, still arrayed in hostility against him—not until after these fearful omens does "the terrible day of the Lord" itself come! So says this prophecy of the Seals, taken in its plain and obvious meaning, and according to a system of interpretation easy and natural, and at the same consistent. If, however, further confirmation be desired of the exposition here given, we have it in the prophecy of our Lord just mentioned in a passage which, as a parallel to this, is most remarkable. There (Matt. xxiv.) at verse 3, we read that, as he sat upon the mount of Olives, "the disciples came unto him, and said, Tell us, when "shall these things be? and what shall be the signs of "thy COMING," (First Seal), "and of the END OF THE

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WORLD (or "of the age")? And Jesus answered and said "unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you; for "many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and "shall deceive many." Now mark what follows;—

A striking instance of the way in which Scripture will be understood by an unbiassed mind has been lately afforded in the splendid picture by Danby, entitled 'The Sixth Seal,' one of the finest of that artist's conceptions; where, with the Bible open before him, he has simply yielded his imagination to its guidance. How unconscious that he had such a host of learned Divines arrayed against him!

"And ye shall hear of WARS, and rumours of WARS," (Second Seal):-"See that ye be not troubled; for all these

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things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For "nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against "kingdom: And there shall be FAMINES," (Third Seal) :"and PESTILENCE," (Fourth Seal:-the two preceding ones still continuing): "Then," verse 9, "shall they deliver you to be afflicted, and shall KILL you:"-compare the Fifth Seal, "And when he had opened the "Fifth Seal, I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God," &c. And then-after the trials and persecutions to which his disciples shall be exposed for his sake have been more particularly detailed, as well as the abounding of iniquity in the world-follow the signs of his actual coming, the same by which it is announced in the Sixth Seal :-" And ImmeIdiately after the tribulation of those days shall the "sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, "and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers "the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all "the tribes of the earth mourn, &c."-the two prophecies thus presenting a most perfect parallelism, not only in the events, but also in the order of their occurrence.*

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of

* As was to be expected (though I was not aware of it when these Lectures were given), this correspondence between the judgments predicted by the Seals and the signs of His Coming in our Lord's prophecy was noticed before, and among others by a Commentator on this Book so ancient as A. D. 290, namely Victorinus-quoted by Dr. Adams 'On the Sealed Book.'

It would be premature, at this stage of the exposition of this prophetical book, to enter on the explanation of who the enemies are that shall be thus judged, or who the sufferers that shall be so slain. The book itself will develope this in course-the object of this vision of the Seals being, as I think, merely to give an outline, which is afterwards in the course of the prophecy filled up by more minute and particular detail. Meanwhile I would only remark, in conclusion, that I think we already begin to see the use of studying this book, and with it the use of unfulfilled prophecy in general. For, Is it the case that the prospect before us is such as now described ?—that instead of stability of political institutions-and peace and increasing national prosperity, growing out of our improvements in science and political economy-the word of God prepares us for hearing of "WARS and rumours of wars"—" nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom!” that in the train of" THE SWORD" shall follow " FAMINE," and in the train of famine-yea hand and hand with sword and famine-shall follow "PESTILENCE," till God's "four sore judgments" shall have devastated the world; and all this to be but "the beginning of sorrows!" And will the Church of Christ remain couched in the lap of carnal ease and security, promising itself triumph and conquest, indifferent to warning and to the line-uponline intimation of prophecy apprising us that God is about to visit the earth with a series of judgments? And what will be the end of this? 66 See," says Christ of the first of them, "when you shall hear of wars and

66 rumours of wars, that ye be not troubled ;" and again, "In your patience possess ye your souls." But how is this to be done? What, we may well ask, can thus establish the heart and ease the mind of trouble in the prospect, much less the accomplishment, of such fearful signs and omens? I answer, next to the Gospel itself, the study of the sure word of prophecy, by which the believer is given to know the thoughts and mind and purpose of the Lord in these visitations, of which the worldly-wise, the politicians, and great of the earth, will still be ignorant;-is given to see in the judgments which shall visit an unbelieving world, and a Christian apostacy, the signs of his "redemption drawing nigh.” O! it is a fearful thing to oppose our reason and human calculations to the word of God; to substitute our own plans for its direction, and our prospects for its prophecies! The world will ever be doing this: But the Church-Alas! that the Church should do so too! and yet, What is the fact? Instead of attention to the prophecies, there is prejudice against the study of them; prejudice deep rooted, and, I fear, even increasing. The heeding of God's prophetical warnings is among us becoming more and more disreputable. I could give awful proof of this were I but to repeat the language now commonly used to characterize the Scriptural expectations of the Church, and especially the attempt to obtain a hearing for the warnings of this book. But enough: -"May the Lord direct our hearts into the love of God and the patient waiting for Christ:"-May He give us 'to know the things which belong to our peace, before they are hid from our eyes!"

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LECTURE THIRTEENTH.

THE SEALING OF THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL: THE PALM-BEARING MULTITUDE.

REVELATION, chap. vii.-"And after these things 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. 2. 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, 3. Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. 4. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. 5. Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. 6. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. 7. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. 8. Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. 9. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed