rulers from justice to oppression, indicated by the earthquake and the color of the sun and moon, require a long period. It is subsequently that the fall of the stars takes place, by which the dejection of rulers symbolized. The final disappearance of the heavens, the removal of mountains and islands, and the promiscuous flight of rulers and subjects from the presence of the Lamb, are to follow at a still later period.

The first three of these great events have probably already taken place. If so, the first, the earthquake, symbolized the revolution in France, extending from the beginning of that political agitation to the fall of the ancient government. The second (the sun being darkened and moon becoming as blood) represented the change of the new government into a despotism, and its exercise, through a series of years, of a violent tyranny. The third, (the fall of the stars,) the overthrow of that oppressive dynasty, at the fall of Bonaparte in 1815, and of Louis Philippe in 1848. Between that fall and the final subversion of the governments of the earth, denoted by the passing away of the heavens, the sealing of the servants of God, symbolized in the next vision, is to take place. Then will follow the annihilation of civil governmentsthe visible advent of the Son of God-the resurrection of the holy dead-the confinement of Satan in the abyss, and the reign of the risen saints on earth with Christ during the period designated by the thousand years. See 1st Thes. 4: 16, 17.

LECTURE FOURTH.

REVELATIONS CHAPTERS VII., VIII: 1–11.

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And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the childen of Israel. Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasseh were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zebulun were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.Rev. 7: 1-8.

The four winds denote all the winds, and the four angels, all the powers that excite and direct their violence. They are obviously tempestuous winds, which, when roused, are to sweep land and sea, and spread them with desolation. The peculiar office of the angels is, not to restrain them,

but to excite and direct their violence-not to make them salutary, but the instruments of universal devastation. The restraint from injuring with them till the servants of God can be sealed, is a restraint, accordingly, from entering on their official work till that sealing can be accomplished. What, then, are these symbolic winds? What is there that sweeps over the great surface of the social and political world with a power analogous to wasting whirlwinds ? The answer is, combinations and masses of men, under the influence of new and exciting opinions-multitudes roused to passion, uniting to destroy social and political institutions, and to overwhelm those that obstruct their designs. And who are the angels that arouse those tempestuous blasts? The authors and propagators of those opinions-the fomenters and directors of the violence to which they excite men. That they are not to enter on their work till the angel from the sun-rising can seal the servants of God, implies that though the elements of destruction are already in existence, yet their being blown into a whirlwind, is to be a consequence, in some manner, of that sealing. It is by that process that the religious and political atmosphere is to be brought into the requisite state for the generation of the desolating tempest. No description is given of the figure of the four angels, on account of the extreme distance of their station.

To seal the servants of God, is not to constitute

them such, but to fix a mark on their brows by which they are conspicuously shown to be his. It is as his servants, not as his enemies, that they are sealed, and the change wrought by their sealing is not in their character, but in their aspect. The symbol denotes, therefore, that the servants of God, ere the whirlwind of ruin begins, are to be led to assume a new attitude towards the apostate church and the usurping civil rulers, by which, and in a manner never before seen, they are to be shown to be indubitably his true people. What that relation is to be, is revealed in a subsequent vision, in which their characters are described as opposite to those of the apostate church. They are virgins, i. e., not seduced by the great harlot of Babylon to worship the beast or its image, as do apostates. They are followers of the Lamb, wherever he may go-not of the wild beast or false prophet. They are without guile, and without spot, not like those whose religion adds to their guilt. The sealing, therefore, is to be a public and formal dissent from the legalized hierarchies of the earth-a renunciation of the dominion over the people of God which they have assumedtestimony against it as an arrogation of authority over the laws of God. The angel who bears the seal represents those who excite and conduct this separation and testimony; and their agency, we shall see, is to precede the slaughter of the witnesses and the fall of great Babylon. The tribes

a

As the

denote the denominations of the church. twelve tribes were all the divisions of the ancient church, they represent all the branches of the Christian profession that contain the true servants of God. This movement, therefore, is not to be confined to one denomination, but is to be extended to all that contain true worshippers. The precision of the number indicates a limitation, perhaps, rather than a universality of the sealingthat a part, only-not that all the servants of God are to share in this movement. This is shown, also, by the summons of his people to come out of Babylon after the slaughter and resurrection of the witnesses, and after her fall. The sealed and the witnesses are undoubtedly the same.

No body of believers has ever yet assumed an attitude towards God and the nationalized church which is represented by this scaling. This prophecy is, therefore, yet to be fulfilled. The great and palpable fact, that to establish a church by law, and to dictate its faith and worship, is not only to usurp the prerogatives of God, but to assert a dominion over his rights and laws, has never been fully discussed and proclaimed. The ground on which religious toleration has been urged has ever been, that compulsion is a violation of the rights of conscience, not that it is an arrogation of dominion over the prerogatives and laws of the Almighty. But such it really is. When civil rulers nationalize a church, they assume the right