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seventh seal and the exhibition of its contents. Those intervening visions give the history of the downfal of Antichrist, which necessarily precedes the triumph of the church, and are contained in a separate "little book," which will be presently considered.

The history of the christian church is two-foldexternal, and internal. To the former alone the Apocalyptic symbols pertain. Now, it is sufficiently plain that the external history of the church must be involved in that of the political events which, immediately or remotely, affect its temporal interests. That history, therefore, consists of secular incidents, and their ecclesiastical consequences. These two distinct classes of events, closely connected as they are, by the intimate relation of cause and effect, are, nevertheless, in the Apocalypse separately narrated in the two separate, but parallel, series of events comprised under the symbols of trumpets and of vials. The reason of that separation, and the signification of the symbolic trumpets and vials, are thus admirably explained by Mr. Croly:

"It will be found that the trumpets and vials are nearly identical and synchronical; having little more than the distinction, that where the event predicted is principally of a political nature, its chief description is given under the trumpets; but where it is more directly ecclesiastical, it is expanded under the vials. And those emblems are respectively suited to such purposes; the trumpet, as the instrument of war and state; the vial, or vase, the instrument of the temple worship, sacrifice, libation, &c.

"The parallelism of the trumpets and vials is palpable. Both series commence in exactly the same way, by the mission of divine ministers of vengeance against the earth, at the prayer of the persecuted church.

"Both terminate in exactly the same way, by the great final catastrophe which overthrows the present constitution and forms of human affairs; and delivers over the kingdoms of the earth to the immediate sovereignty of heaven. But they not merely begin together, and end together; five, in each series, are almost verbally identical, while the remaining two are virtually so."

"A reason may be assigned, why those two series of similar predictions should be given. Political events strike the eye, and are matters of familiar knowledge; their unbroken series is therefore valuable as evidence. But events relating to the church, being the chief objects of the whole prophecy, also require detail. The mixture of both, in this extended form, might produce confusion, and therefore they are separated."

Between the angels who sound the trumpets, and those who effuse the vials, there is in some particulars a difference that strikingly accords with the several distinctive functions ascribed to them by Mr. Croly, as will presently be shewn.

2. "And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.

3. "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 all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.*

4. "And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.+

5. "And the angel took the censer, and cast it into the earth and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.‡

6. "And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound."

From these symbols is plainly to be inferred, that the events about to be proclaimed by the trumpets will be of general notoriety and memorable importance -that they will be productive of, or accompanied by, much agitation and suffering wherever they shall occur and that they are connected with the interests of the church.

*The angel ministering at the altar, represents the priesthood or clergy of the christian church.

+ The smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints is the erroneous doctrine which even the most learned, and zealous, and pious of the christian clergy have, from the earliest ages of the church, intermingled with their devotion, and have inculcated to their flocks.

These symbols represent the tumults and wars which the perversion of religion has caused in the world--the angel is said to cast the censer into the earth, because the hierarchy of the christian church has always endeavoured to degrade it to secular purposes-into an instrument of temporal government, and into a source of great wealth and of worldly dignity.

CHAP. XV.

1. "And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

2. "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.*

3. "And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.+

4. "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

5. "And after that I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:

* In the collective vision of the church, described in the fourth chapter, the prophet beheld " a sea of glass like unto crystal" before the throne-that sea, whereon the elect are seen to stand, is here represented “mingled with fire,” to signify that, during the period embraced by the effusion of the vials, the elect should suffer severe persecution.

+ The congregation of the elect sing the song of Moses, and of the Lamb, not only because the mosaic and christian churches are concurrent portions of one providential system, but because the restoration of the Jews, first promised to them by Moses, and the triumph of his church promised to it by Christ, coincide, as will be fully shewn hereinafter, in the time immediately following the sounding of the last of the seven trumpets, and the effusion of the last of the seven vials.

6. "And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

7. "And one of the four animals gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever..

8. "And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.*

BEFORE THE SOUNDING OF THE FIRST OF THE SEVEN TRUMPETS SMOKE BEGINS TO ASCEND IN THE TEM

PLE-CONTINUES TO FILL THE TEMPLE UNTIL

THE EFFUSION OF THE SEVEN VIALS IS COM-
PLETED AND IS THEN EXPELLED.

That the smoke which fills the temple should, at a time antecedent to the sounding of the first trumpet, begin to ascend together with the incense from the censer held by the angel ministering at the altar; and that the smoke so arising should continue to fill the temple, down to the period of the effusion of the seventh vial, are matters of importance so momentous as to invite some consideration, before I proceed to

* That the vials pertain, more intimately than do the trumpets, to the church, is very clearly shewn by the facts stated in these last two verses: one of the four living beings in the midst of the throne and about the throne delivers the seven vials to the seven angels who come out of the temple, and are clothed in the garments of the priesthood:-and the immediate effect of the effusion of the vials is the purification of the temple from the smoke (the dense mass of corrupt doctrine) which obscures the glory of God and his power-the entire system of divine revelation,-until after the effusion of the last of the seven vials.

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