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CHAPTER XV.

THE SOUNDING OF THE SEVENTH

TRUMPET;

ов

THE THIRD WOE.

AND THE SEVENTH ANGEL SOUNDED!" (ch. xi. ver. 15.) OH! could we see the preparations which are at this moment making in heaven for this surpassingly great event! What, though the pulpits are silent respecting it; what, though all the affairs of the world are going on as if no such event were to happen; and amidst all the dreams of futurity which men indulge, they never contemplate this-yet will it not therefore happen? Will our silence, our schemes, our indifference, turn aside the purposes, the declared purposes of the everlasting God? Oh no! The seventh trumpet shall sound; and soon, very very soon, will it have to be said, "the second woe is past;" and on this happening we are told to behold, to take notice, that the third woe will come QUICKLY!

And does all this indifference arise from no warn

ings being given to us-no signs to prepare us for an event of so much importance? This cannot

e said; for, most truly, no event that ever happened in the world, not even our Saviour's first coming, was ever ushered into the world with so many clear signs and warnings as now cluster upon upon us. It is not merely chronological periods which in abstract calculations we point to, although these speak with a clearness which the most sceptical ought not to despise; but it is the great, the marked, the extraordinary events of history that have multiplied upon us for the last fifty years, answering so exactly to the predictions of the "last times," to which we call the ever watchful attention of the Church. Mistakes may have been made in their particular application; but the general application has commended itself to almost every person who has taken up his pen to write on the subject. All see that we are living amidst the all-important scenes of the last times, however they may differ respecting a few years, in respect of chronology; and every new turn of affairs in the political world appears to bring things to that position to which the voice of prophecy points! It may well be asked, therefore, what further do we require, or, indeed, what further evidence could we expect God to give? The age is not one which will attend to prognostications, however ominous they may appear-(at least, not to prognostications of evil!)-nor indeed is it desirable they should, although it is a question whether they should be altogether despised. We

come back again therefore to the only safe ground on which we can rest, and to which we can trust"the Word and the Testimony."

It was intimated, as above noticed, by way of anticipation, on the Lord Jesus Christ appearing with the little opened book, or the seventh opened seal in his hand, and when he, in the most solemn manner, virtually pronounced the papacy to be at an end, that "in the days of the seventh trumpet, when He shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared good tidings unto his servants the prophets." There we were brought, by a direct reference to the Old Testament prophecies, and we therefore, in the first place, for a short time are called to dwell upon them, and to give a glance at what they say to the finishing of God's mysterious dispensations. And the allusion to them, in regard to the events of the latter times, is most appropriate; because in reference to all the intermediate events which have come before us, both as it respects the seven seals, and the six first trumpets, they are exceedingly brief, and do nothing more than glance at them in dim outline.

For instance, to trace for a few moments the indistinct prospect they afforded of what only regarded the Christian dispensation, unconnected with the Jewish, we may notice-that the great apostacy, described in the four first seals, is noticed by Daniel

See ch. x. pp. 209, 210.

in

very few words in chap. xi. ver. 32,* and by implication in the rise of the two "little horns" of Mahometanism and Popery. The Reformation, and the persecutions to which it gave rise, the subjects of the fifth seal are similarly noticed in Dan. xi. 33, 34. The chief actor in the French Revolution, as the more immediate prelude to the last times, described in the sixth seal, is more fully noticed in ch. xi. vers. 36-39.+ And the whole of the contents of the seventh chapter of the Revelation is but very slightly touched upon in the distant allusion made to the great tribulation in ver. 35, and ch. xii. ver. 10.1

And with regard to the events symbolized by the first six trumpets, they are, in the Old Testament prophets, noticed in an equally brief way, being merely alluded to in the general command to "hew down the great tree" (Dan. iv. 14), and in the general description of Mahometanism, in ch. viii. vers. 9-12, and 23-25. On the whole of the important contents likewise of the eleventh chapter of the Revelation, as far as the 14th verse, the Jewish prophets are equally silent.

"But in the days of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound," the case is reversed, and they become copious and profuse-so much so that we are referred to them for particulars; whilst on the actual sounding of the trumpet, very little more than

* See Diss. ch. xii. p. 323. + Idem. chap. xii. pp. 329-339. Idem. p. 327.

the upshot of the whole is given! It is as follows:

"And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in Heaven, saying, The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, andof His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." (ver. 15.)

There is infinite wisdom in all this; for if it had been otherwise, all that we find in the prophets respecting the finishing of the mystery of God, and which requires patient investigation to understand and apply, would, if given here, have rendered the whole too plain.

What the Holy Spirit has been pleased to intimate, in the Song of the Elders which follows, is quite sufficient to make us understand to what portion of the Old Testament prophecies we are referred; particularly as it is expressly said that it is to the finishing of the mystery. So that in searching the prophets for what God hath "declared "on this subject, it is to the concluding scenes of their testimony that we are directed to look.

And there may likewise be another most important reason assigned for the things that concern the latter days being given to the Jewish prophets. This is, because at this period of time the Jews come into sight again and these things are all indications of their own restoration, which at this time is to take place. They therefore concern them as much as us; and by this reference to their own prophets they seem, in an especial manner, called upon by God to turn their earnest attention to what is declared respecting