THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. CHAPTER XI. Verse 15 And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. 16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, 17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. 18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints. und them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. 19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. A.D. 1521-1866. At the sounding of this trumpet it is declared, that the kingdom of Christ shall be restored. The overthrow of Antichrist, and the re-establishment of true reli gion, are accordingly now about to be developed. But the account of Antichrist's overthrow is prefaced by a minute description, in the following chapter, of his character and empire in the West. The same metaphors and the same expressions, here used to announce the downfal of Antichrist, were formerly employed in foretelling the subversion of true religion. The wrath of the Lamb, and the resurrection of the dead, taken literally, apply to the day of judgment; but figuratively, announce the destruction of Antichrist. Not the resurrection of the literally dead, but the restoration of the life which is in Christ is signified. The opening of the temple, and displaying the ark of the covenant, manifestly imply the establishment of true Christianity, resulting from the restoration and general diffusion of the Gospel. The following remarks are made by Archdeacon Woodhouse: "The time of the dead' may likewise signify (in that metaphorical sense in which the word death,' &c. is frequently used), the time when pure religion, dead and buried, as it had been with the witnesses, shall revive and flourish. The ark of the covenant,' (the sacred coffer so called, because it contained the tables of the covenant, into which God had deigned to enter with the ancient church), was deposited in the tabernacle called the Holiest of All.' This interior part of the temple, accessible under the law to none but the high priest, is now opened; and the ark is exhibited to view. Jesus Christ, the only High Priest, and Mediator of the new covenant, who had here deposited his new covenant of mercy, even the everlasting Gospel; who had broken down the partition excluding the Gentiles from its benefits; who alone could enter the holy of holies; grants it to be exhibited. As the walls of the idolatrous Jericho fell before the ark of the Old Testament, so will the corrupt Babylon before this. But that which seems more immediately to be signified under this exhibition, is the restoration of the Gospel; of the Christian religion in its purity. The Gentiles, from the entrance of the greater part of them into the church, had not yet enjoyed the opportunity of knowing and practising a pure religion. They had trodden the courts, but had never been admitted into the interior of the temple. From the period of the reformation, a view of the ark of the covenant was offered them.". Woodhouse, p. 307. “This is only a preparatory scene, and therefore affords only a general view of the wrath of God, which is seen especially poured out in the vision of the vials, contained also under this trumpet."- Woodhouse, p. 308. The two following chapters will be found to present a complete picture of the empire of Antichrist, and of its establishment on the ruins of Christianity in the West; his dominion in the East having been already described. THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. CHAPTER XII. Verse 1 And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 And being with child, she cries out, suffering the pangs of childbirth, and painfully labouring to bring forth. 3 And there was seen another sign in heaven; and behold a great fire-coloured dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems. 4 And his tail draweth along the third part of the stars of heaven, and he cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, that when she should bring forth he might devour her child. 5 And she brought forth a male child, who is about to rule as a shepherd all nations with an iron rod. And her child was caught up to God, and to his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that they should nourish her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days. 7 And there was a war in heaven, Michael and his angels for to fight with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. A.D. 32-606. Judaism was parent to Christianity, and before it the only pure religion; adorned with the heavenly luminaries, emblems of light and truth. The allegorical birth typifies the establishment, not the promulgation of Christianity. The labour pains denote the struggle preceding its establishment. The dragon personifies the passions and worldly propensities of man, warring against true religion. His instrument is paganism; his seat the Roman empire, figuratively called "the earth." His tail, the most noxious part, denoting evil propensities, prevents many of the Jews from embracing Christianity; and, after it is established, seeks to destroy it, by corrupting its purity. The heaven from which the stars fell, is the kingdom of Christ. The birth was effected in the fourth century, when Christianity was firmly established; but its purity was already corrupted, and it was caught up to heaven, or disappeared from the earth soon after. From the seventh century, the conversion of the Jews entirely ceased; at which time they became an object of persecution to the Romish church, and have continued so ever since. The warfare of the dragon is synonymous with the labour pains, or the struggle between Christianity and paganism; 8 And prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great red dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the rule of his anointed; because the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death." 12 Therefore rejoice, O ye heavens, and ye that dwell therein. Wo to the earth, and to the sea; because the devil is come down to you having great wrath, knowing that he hath a short season. 13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he pursued the woman who brought forth the male child. 14 And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle, that she might flee into the wilderness into her place, where she is nourished a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent. 15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water like a flood, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed up the river In which Christianity prevailed, and paganism was abolished. The dragon was thus deprived of an instrument by which he had deceived the whole world, idolatry having prevailed in every nation. The abolition of paganism laid the foundation for the establishment of Christianity; and therefore this event is announced as the commencement of the kingdom of Christ with corresponding triumph and exultation. True Christianity survived pagan persecution, by the force of truth, and the constancy of the martyrs. The dragon, deprived of power to hurt the true Christian, next assails the worldly-minded, and, by seduction, revives idolatry in the Roman empire, or the figurative earth. The Jews ceased to embrace Christianity when it became idolatrous, and were persecuted by the church of Rome in conse quence. But their dispersed state, and the division of the empire, favoured their escape; and they are to continue dispersed to the end of the 1260 years. An overwhelming flood signifies worldly power, which the dragon employed against the Jews; seduction rather than force against the Christians. Nor did the Jews fail to find protection from the worldly policy of several states and which the dragon cast out of his princes, who derived advantage mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged against the woman, and went away to make war with the remnant of her offspring, those who keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus. from their wealth and knowledge of traffic. Enraged against the mother which gave birth to the male child, or true Christianity, now caught up to heaven, or placed beyond his reach, the dragon pursues his warfare against the remaining offspring (also Christians), by the means described in the next chapter. Archdeacon Woodhouse considers the woman to be the true church of Christ; the male child, the Messiah; and the remnant of the woman's offspring, the scattered and persecuted Christians. But we cannot well connect a symbolical woman with a literal child; the nature of the offspring must surely accord with that of its parent. Others again consider the male child also as the Christian church; but their explanation identifies all the three symbols; thus the woman is the true church, the male child is the true church, and the remnant of her offspring are the true church; three symbols which are yet used as distinct and separate, even after the allegorical parturition. The view here offered may perhaps obviate some of the difficulties; but being, as the writer believes, unsanctioned by authority, it is proposed with diffidence. If we consider the "mother" to symbolize Judaism, or the Jewish church, which was certainly parent to the Christian, then will the male child be true Christianity; and the allegorical birth, as borrowed from Bishop Newton, will signify, not the promulgation, but the establishment of Christianity by authority, and the end of the labour pains, from the cessation of pagan persecution. During the intervening period between the promulgation and establishment, corresponding to the figurative time of gestation, the mother and child were in conjunction, for the two religions were united. Not indeed that portion of the Jewish church which crucified and rejected the Messiah, and were rejected by him-these were in no sense related to Christianity, — but those only who laboured to establish it by propagating the Gospel; these were the true parent, and Jews in reality, the |