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thefe great topics he again fubdivides into leffer periods, under feven feals, feven trumpets, and fever vials; and in order to preserve the connection of events, and harmony of his narration, he makes ufe of the feventh and laft feal to introduce the fubjects of the trumpets; of the feventh and laft trumpet, thofe of the vials; and of the feventh and laft vial, that of the laft trump, by which the whole race of Adam fhall be fummoned before the judgment feat of a righteous, offended, and long-forbearing God, to answer for the deeds " done in the body,"

The contents of the feven feals are revealed him by Chrift himself, becaufe they relate to the bleffed progrefs and exaltation of the church eftablished, through his divine miffion, and aufpices. The contents of the trumpets are difcloted by angels, and not by Chrift, because they announce the judg ments of God upon the wicked; and this was altoge ther inconfiftent with the office of the Lamb of God," the Prince of Peace, and Mediator between "God and men." And the contents of the vials of the wrath of God upon the ungodly, by a voice from the throne of God himself.

Under the fymbol of the feven feals, he foretels the wonderful progrefs of the revealed' word of God,

men, that which is contained within the thing fealed, and not intended to be known until the proper time. A trumpet is used in war to call the foldier to his duty, when he has frayed from ite and therefore the prophet makes ufe of it as a fymbol of the vifitations of God, intended to fummon the church, in the courfe of her warfare with a licentious world, to a faithful difcharge of her duty, when the fhould wantonly depart from the word of God. A vial is a veffel in whichchymifts preferve inflammablefpirits, which destroy that upon which it is poured out; and therefore is a proper figure for the wrath of God, reserved to be poured out upon the wicked in the last day.

* Rev. vi. 1, 2, 3. 5. 7.9. 12, viii. 2. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12.

xvi. 1.

+ Ifa. v. 9.

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and its bleffed influence over the minds, actions, and morals of mankind; or, in other words, the miraculous fuccefs of the church of Chrift, in propagating his gospel, which he declares fhould go "forth, conquering and to conquer *;" or converting and to convert the heathen world, from its miferable state of darkness, to the light of eternal truth, notwithstanding the dreadful oppofition and perfecution of the pagan powers. This great prophetic event became perfectly fulfilled in the fourth century, two hundred years after it had been foretold, when Conftantine the Great, and the Emperors who fucceeded him, and whofe dominions extended over a great part of the earth, were converted to the Chriftian faith; when the pagan powers, civil as well as ecclefiaftical, were extirpated; their magiftrates, oracles, priefts, and temples, fuppreffed; their immenfe revenues confifcated; their farther oppofition and perfecution of the church rendered impoffible; and the word of God, as it were, being feated upon the late throne of pagan idolatry, extended over the greater part of the world. The natural, and, I may fay, the neceffary confequences of which were, that pride, ambition, luft, and darknefs, with all their train of evil, difcontent, quarrel, and difcord, which had arifen, and kept the world in one continued ferment of war and blood, from the time of the difperfion of the fons of Noah, to that epoch; and which had given rife to the four defpotic and wicked empires, defcribed by Daniel, under the appellation of the four beafts (namely, the Babylonian, Perfian, Grecian, and Roman), in a manner ceafed under the influence and operation of the pure word of God; infomuch, that the hiftorians of that day have emphatically diftinguished it as the

Chap. vi.

age

age of "bleffed tranquillity," "beata tranquillitas." Thus the feals bring down a chain of events, confifting of the great conteft between the unerring truths, and perfect light of the word of God, and the falfehood and ignorance of pagan idolatry, to the fourth century.

But as neither the converted world, nor even the primitive churches, had arrived at fuch a degree of moral rectitude, and perfect faith, as to entitle them to their final redemption and everlasting peace, they did not long enjoy this happy change. Elated with profperity, they became, with inconceivable folly and monftrous ingratitude, forgetful of the Caufe and Author of their wonderful delivery. They perverted and diftorted the plain and intelligible word of God, into a myftical jargon, and abominable herefies; and thus wantonly ftrayed from, and loft fight of that light and truth, which had miraculously led them out of pagan darkness and captivity into the path of everlasting life.

Such was the degenerated ftate of Chriftians in the beginning of the fifth century, which furely deferved the divine reprehenfion and chaftifement; and therefore it pleafed God to fuffer them to return to their former ftate of difcord, war, and blood. Thefe wars the prophet foretels under the first four trumpets. The irruptions of the Goths, Huns, Vandals, and other barbarous nations, into the Roman empire, then in the poffeffion of the Chriftian church, began in the early part of this century, and continued to the latter end of the fixth. During that period, the Chriftian church was feverely corrected and punished, with rapine, havoc, and defo

Chap. viii. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
B 4

lation,

Jation, and millions of her profeffors were put to death. But inftead of being reformed by thele great and afflicting vifitations, it was foreseen that The would continue to fall into herefies yet more inconfiftent with the word of God; the prophet, therefore, in the laft verfe of this chapter, denounces three woes, which he means to defcribe, in the fubfequent part of his prophecy." Wo, wo, wo, to the inhabiters of the earth, by reafon of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, which are yet to found."

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We have feen, that the first four frumpets are fimply called trumpets, because they were only to announce the predatory incurfions of the barbarian nations, thofe vifitations of God, mercifully intended to remind the church of the peace and tranquillity The had lately enjoyed, while the held the true faith, and obeyed the divine precepts of her immaculate Founder. But the three trumpets, which were to follow, are reprefented as events replete with affiction and woe. They are called by commentators the three wo-trumpets, becaufe, under the two firft, the dreadful perfecutions, the darkness and mifery, by which the church was to be overwhelmed, or, as it is expreffed trodden under foot" by the Mohamedan and Papal herefiés, are foretold, and because the third was to found the events of the feven laft vials of the wrath of God, which were to be poured out upon the ungodly in the last day.

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From the rife of the church, down to the begin ning of the feventh century, fhe had continued united under the Apostles, and afterwards under ge neral councils. Her faith in God, and in Jefus Chrift, notwithstanding occafional diffenfions, and

* Chap. xi. 2..

† Chap. xvi.

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fhort-lived fchifms, remained generally the fame. There was no actual and final feparation before that epoch; but the time was now come, that the longcontinued conteft for pre-eminence and dominion, between the bishops, of Rome and of Conftantinople, was to be terminated. The Roman pontiff, having received his commiflion of univerfal biflop, and being exalted in the Weft, drew all the western bishops, with their flocks, into his own pale, and foon after converted them to his idolatrous apoftacy; when the eaftern bishops, adhering to the hierarchy of Conftantinople, foon after embraced the doctrines of Mohamed; and thus the church became divided into two great ecclefiaftical bodies, in the feventh century. Moreover, as the events in which they were to be refpectively concerned, were alfo to be feparate and unconnected, the prophet, having foretold, under the firft wce trumpet, the vifitations of God upon the church, through the means of the barbarian nations in her united state, proceeds to foretel, thofe which were to befall the two churches after her dif union, under the fecond woe-trumpet. Here, with ftrict propriety, he begins with the events by which the eastern church was to be afflicted, becaufe the original church had been planted in the eaftern hemifphere, and the very great majority of her fubjects remained there after the feparation. Under this trumpet he defcribes all the prominent events which have produced and attended the rife and eftablishment of the Saracen-Mohamedan apoftacy, that dreadful fcourge of the eastern church; together with the darkness and mifery in which it has involved the greater part of the Chriftian and Roman empire. In verfe, 12, he tells us," one woe is paft," meaning the dreadful perfecutions of Mohamed, and his immediate fucceffors: and then adds, And be

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