and awful scenes of that great day of sacrifice : My sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness-for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea." And in the account of the destruction of the wicked, Zeph. i. 7, 8, there is the same allusion to burnt sacrifices: "The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice," &c. Then the wicked, "every one, shall be salted with fire"-" hell-fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." The trumpet of jubilee proclaimed both the day of vengeance, and the year of the redeemed. "The great day of the Lord"—the "day of wrath of trouble and distress-of wasteness and desolation-of darkness and gloominess-of clouds and thick darkness," is called, Zeph. i. 16, a day of the trumpet." 66 That the seventh trumpet will open the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, is farther proved by comparing with it other parts of revelation, which lead us to the same time, and connection of events. In the vision of opening the seals, when we come between the sixth and seventh, and approach this most solemn, this last grand division of the book of Christ's kingdom; lo, a wailing is heard, the voice of all the ungodly, saying, "The great day of his wrath is come. And in the vision of the vials, when we come again to the seventh, this great consummating period, we hear " a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done." The time of the pouring out of the seventh vial, and of sounding the seventh trumpet, is the same, and the event is the same. It is done. What? The mystery of God is finished. The consummation at the vial, is evidently the same as at the trumpet, and the same voice proclaimeth it. There, He that sitteth upon the throne, saith, It is done; here, the Sovereign of the universe swears, "that there should be time no longer." How particularly do all those visions agree in support of the doctrine that the time pointed to in the text, at the beginning of the seventh angel's sounding, is the solemn period that shall close the day of the Lord's long-suffering, patience and forbearance towards his enemiesall probationary time! Between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals, "there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty' wind; and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places; and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand!"* It may be observed, that the above description of the great day of God's wrath is taken from the highest and most particular descriptions of the great day of the Lord's vengeance upon the world of the ungodly, which are to be found in the Old Testament.t And the Lord, while hanging on the cross, described the terror and dismay of his enemies in the great day of retribution, by these most expressive words: they shall say to the mountains, fall on us; and to the hills, cover us. Between the sounding of the sixth and seventh trumpets, the mighty angel, which John saw, with his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot * Some have said this passage of the Revelation was fulfilled, and have undertaken to point out the time when; but with as much propriety they might have said the resurrection was passed, and told us when. If such expressions in the Scriptures as these do not reveal the great judgment, I know not where, or in what words, it is revealed. The revolutions in the world, at this time, are far more radical, and the effects must be far greater than that of Constantine; to which revolution they apply the fulfilment of this passage. But to apply this passage fully, even to the present events, would be an extravagance, which, of all books, the Bible will the least countenance. The plan of interpreting the Revelation, as a prophecy of events to succeed each other in time, in the same order as they are there set down, and therefore that it is all fulfilled to the middle of the sixteenth chapter, has subjected many parts of that holy book to interpretations the most forced and absurd. I believe that the great day of the Lord's wrath is near, very near; but I am sure it has not passed. Joel ii. 31. Psalms cii. 26. Isai. xxxiv. 4. Isai ii. 10, 11, 12, 19, 21; and Mal. iii. 2. 66 on the earth, and his hand reached to heaven sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." "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 forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, 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. 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, and them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth." And between the sixth and seventh vials, we have this warning voice: "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth." "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven." Here again, besides the express declarations, "I come,' ," "It is done," "Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found," we observe the figures used to describe this scene are the liveliest representations of the great day of God's wrath which have been made to men, either in his word or providence. The voices, thunders, lightnings, and great earthquake, refer to that brightest representation of the day of judgment-the descent of JEHOVAH upon mount Sinai to give the law. And every one, who has attentively read the Bible, has observed no figure in nature so frequently used by the inspired writers in composing their sublime representations of the day of judgment, as the hail-storm: but, of all their descriptions of the hail-storm, this is the most dreadful—“ A great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent"-and voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth. What shall the wretch, the sinner, do? He once defied the Lord: But he shall dread the thunderer now, |