instruction. When miracles are withdrawn the Holy Spirit is the only infallible teacher. -Jewish sacrifices and Christian eucharist show forth our Lord's death. — The first four seals still describe popery. The apostles conveyed gifts only and not grace. Popery hostile to inquiry. The divine service ought to be approved of and understood. - Rome unchanged, decaying. — Dates not understood until fulfilled. — Beginning of the 1260 years, when the Western kingdoms submitted to popery. - Earlier than A. D. 756.—The Turkish sultany will fall before the blast of the seventh trumpet. - - Neither Christendom nor the kingdoms of the world returned to God. A fearful struggle drawing nigh. —Napoleon's victories not the vials. - Though already in existence. - Their prophetic date yet future. The Eastern Church not mentioned. The destruction of popery b A NEW SOLUTION, IN PART, OF THE Seals, Trumpets, and other Symbols, OF THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. INTRODUCTION. Questions put to Christ by his disciples. The prophecy, given in answer, already once fulfilled. St. Paul's subsequent to that of Christ. a WHEN some of the followers of Christ, on the Mount of Olives, directed his attention to the large stones of the temple, they were so amazed at his reply, "there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down," that they inquired "when shall these things be?" and coupled a Matt. xxiv. 2, 3. B with the inquiry, "What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" The great difficulty here is, to determine whether these questions are confined to one series of events, or apply to separate and disThe disciples frequently heard tant eras. our Saviour discourse a, both by parable and without it, on the general judgment and the future world; but it is uncertain what ideas they entertained of the personal reign and of the millennium, as these expressions are now understood. Many too, who allow the most extended meaning to this prophecy, admit that it includes the destruction of Jerusalem and the establishment of the gospel among the heathen. It must, at least, be admitted that Divine Providence used the Roman Empire as an instrument to destroy the Jewish civil and ecclesiastical polity, very soon after the Christian dispensation was rooted in the hearts of many individuals, and Matt. xiii. 41, 42. 49, 50.; xxii. 1-14. 23—33.; Luke, xiv. 14. a established on a firm footing in the world. But as Judaism was of Divine origin, and Christ here prophesies of a destruction of Jerusalem and scattering of his people, we cannot imagine that such momentous events were on that occasion left out or unnoticed. Besides, St. Paul declares that Haggai a foretold that Judaism would give place to Christianity. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory.' And this one word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." Here can be no b a Haggai, ii. 6, 7. b Heb. xii. 27, 28. |