22 The imagery of this Seal explanatory of the nature of the slaughter perpetrated under the Fourth Seal It exhibits the Church as apparently extirpated The white robes given to the Martyrs are a symbol of the improved condition of the Church in consequence of the Reformation 23 24 ib. A Great Earthquake The symbols of this Seal explained It describes the general consternation at the arrival of the day of wrath This Seal is incongruously referred, by Mede and others, to the events of the reign of Constantine The Sixth Seal relates to the final Revolution before the second advent Reasons against this interpretation These reasons confirmed by the authority of Vitringa It is the same revolution as that of the seventh trumpet and seventh vial 28 32 33 35 37 The whole of the seventh chapter of the Apocalypse belongs to the Sixth . A question-what is to become of the Church of Christ in the awful convulsions of this Seal The visions of Rev. vii. contain an answer to this question ib. ib. 39 Four angels holding the four winds, and an angel with the Seal of God ib. ib. This vision illustrated by one in the ninth of Ezekiel The vision fulfilled in the pacification of Europe by the confederacy of Followed by a most extensive circulation of Scriptures After an interval, the earthquake shall be renewed, and the sealed servants of God miraculously delivered Vitringa quoted in support of this interpretation And Mr. Canning's speech in the House of Commons on 12th Dec., 1826 42 All the efforts of the leading Governments of Europe still directed to pre serve peace The winds are yet held Signs of the near approach of the hurricane Vision of white robed palm bearers It denotes the translation of the Church into her millennial rest The chronology of this vision ascertained It relates to our Lord's Kingdom, predicted in Daniel vii. At his second coming The application of this vision to the times of Constantine shown to be false 58 Recapitulatory view of the import of first six seals And further arguments for its truth 57 60 62 Seven Angels, to whom were given Seven Trumpets. The Trumpets contain an account of the revolutions of the Roman Em An Angel offers incense-fire cast on the earth pire till it is destroyed This fire an emblem of the wrath of God. The earthquake which follows is the Revolution in the time of Constantine CHAPTER V. THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS The subject of them is the partial destruction of a symbolical universe But must be applied exclusively to secular objects In the year 376 the Visigoths admitted into the Empire They defeat and slay the Emperor, Valens, and desolate the provinces The second period of the Gothic invasions was in 395 Italy invaded by Alaric and Radagaisus-Rome sacked 77 The third period of the irruptions of the northern nations begin in 441 ib. ed-and Italy 83 These invasions were the fulfilment of the third trumpet Rome taken by Genseric in 455 . ib. ib. The Imperial Government subverted by Odoacer in 476 trumpets. Observations on the third part of the symbols which is affected in these Trumpets Concluding remarks on the symbols of these Trumpets CHAPTER VI. · 95 ib. 96 ib. THE FIFTH TRUMPET, OR THE FIRST WOE Remarks on the symbol of the Locust army, as applicable to the rise of The smoke from whence they issued was not the false religion of Mahum A voice from the golden altar to loose the four angels bound in the River This Trumpet relates to the overthrow of the Eastern Empire by the The opinion of Mede as to the Four Angels rejected The right explanation of these Angels proposed Remarks on the expression "the hour, and day, and month, and year" The description of the armies of the Four Angels considered Concluding remark on the accomplishment of the first Six Trumpets 117 A prophetic intimation at the close of the Sixth Trumpet ib. A mighty Angel descends with a little book-the Angel is our Lord Reason of the circumstances which follow our Lord's descent Meaning of the expression that there should be time no longer What is intended by the Apostle eating the book CHAPTER IX. THE TWO WITNESSES The Apostle commanded to measure the temple An analysis of the different compartments of the temple, and their symbolical signification The compartments which the Apostle was commanded to measure, were the holy place, and the court of the Priests, with the altar Meaning of this measurement Why the court without the temple is left out The two Witnesses are the true spiritual church Testimony of Gibbon as to the accomplishment of this prophecy They were accomplished in the events which followed the dissolution of the Smalcaldic league Spiritual state of Europe at the commencement of the sixteenth century 138 139 Progress of the Reformation till the formation of the league of Smalcalde The Emperor Charles V. takes the field against the Protestants The Protestants are compelled to submit, and their worship suppressed 144 1548 ib. Maurice of Saxony takes arms for the Protestant cause The Treaty of Passau restores liberty to the Protestants, and secures to . 144 145 . 146 These events answer to the revival of Witnesses, and their ascension into heaven 148 The Reformation, and the events which followed it, were this revolution ib. 152 The last shock of the earthquake was at the English Revolution of 1688 The passing away of the Second Wo is the chronological mark to distinguish the Apocalyptic period of the death of Witnesses 155 THE SOUNDING OF THE SEVENTH TRUMPET Passage from Mede, to show that the succession of the Four Kingdoms of Daniel constitutes the great kalendar of prophecy The great importance of ascertaining the place of the Seventh Trumpet This opening of the Temple marks the place of the Seven Apocalyptic They are the same as the similar phenomena of the Seventh Vial A sixth Proposition as to the identity of this Trumpet with that of the ib. The 1260 years expire also at the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet ib. 176 |