Satan himself is cast into the lake of fire, to be tormented for ever and ever'.

We are taught by these Divine Visions how History ought to be written, and how it ought to be read. History generally, I say, and not only Church History, because, as our Lord says, the Field is the World', that is, the Church is universal in time and place, and whatever concerns the World concerns the Church, and whatever concerns the Church concerns all men.

Let me exhort you, my younger brethren, to study History accordingly. Contemplate its events not only as facts teaching civil wisdom, but regard them as St. John teaches you to regard them; that is, as the workings of two opposite Powers, the power of Christ on one side, and the power of Satan on the other. Thus the earlier Christian Histories treated them; and here, as it appears to me, is their great excellence. They looked on Persecution, and Heresy, and Superstition, and Infidelity, as the weapons of Satan against Christ. In them they saw the Evil One riding, as it were, on the red horse, and the black horse, and the pale horse, against Him who sitteth on the white horse. Do you likewise; and thus you will study History with the spirit of St. John.

Lastly to whom do you now belong? Whom are you following? Him Who rideth for ever on the white horse? or him who sitteth, now on the red

1 Rev. xx. 10.

2 Matth. xiii. 38

horse, now on the black, now on the pale horse? Christ, or Satan? Doubtless, in this world Satan has strong allies and terrible weapons; the sword, famine, the beasts, the grave. But, respice finem. Have your eye fixed on the end. Where will you be hereafter? With those who follow Christ on white horses? Or with the Beasts, the Grave, and Satan, who will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the Second Death?

LECTURE VII.

REV. viii. 2.

I saw the Seven Angels which stood before God; and to them were given Seven Trumpets.

WE proceed now from the Seven Seals to the Seven TRUMPETS.

First, Heaven is opened; the heavenly Temple appears like that on Earth; the prayers of the Saints are offered in a Golden Censer by the Great High Priest of the Church, as sweet-smelling incense', on the Golden Altar of Incense, in the Holy Place before the Veil; and the fire is taken from the censer, and cast on the earth. Thence are heard Voices, and Thunders, and Lightnings, and an Earthquake.

1 The incense of perfume (suffitus aromatum : see Exod. xxx. 34— 38. xxxv. 6. xxvii. 29.) was offered, on the golden altar in the Holy Place of the Temple, by the Priests twice a day, and was an emblem of Prayer. Ps. cxli. 2. Malachi i. 11. It was composed in a specific manner, and kindled with fire from the great brazen altar of burnt sacrifices (altare Holocaustorum), which stood in the outer court.

These are emblems of the preaching of God's Word, which is clear as a Voice, loud as Thunder, quick as Lightning, and powerful as an Earthquake. Then the Seven Angels prepare to sound: and so the Voices of the Trumpets are represented as ensuing from the prayers of the Saints, offered by Jesus Christ, and from the preaching of His Gospel. Thus, whatever their sound may portend, they will all serve for the manifestation of the greater glory of God, and for the final good of His Church.

What, then, it may be asked, is the purport of the Seven TRUMPETS, and how do they differ from the Seven SEALS'?

They do not, I believe, differ in time. They do not, I conceive, succeed the Seals; but synchronize with them. Not that the periods of the Seven

Per Sigilla (says Aquinas, ad cap. vi.) signantur septem occulta, quæ erant hominibus ignota de septem statibus Ecclesiæ. Primum de primitivo statu, per Christum prædicantem: Secundum de persecutione Ecclesiæ, tempore Martyrum per infideles: Tertium de Ecclesiæ persecutione per hæreticos; Quartum de persecutione Ecclesiæ per falsos fratres. Per apertionem sigillorum designatur manifestatio horum occultorum. Cf. Bede, Explan. Apocalyps. in cap. vi. In primo igitur sigillo, decus Ecclesiæ primitivæ. In sequentibus tribus, triforme contra eam bellum. In quinto, gloriam sub hoc bello triumphatorum. In sexto, illa quæ ventura sunt tempore Antichristi, et paululum superioribus recapitulatis. In septimo, cernit initium quietis æternæ. 2 Bede ad cap. viii. Nunc recapitulat ab origine, eadem aliter dicturus.

REPETITION is the characteristic of Scripture Prophecy, and intimates certainty (see Gen. xli. 2). Events briefly touched in the SEALS, are afterwards presented in another larger form in the TRUMPETS and VIALS, just as the subject of the dreams of Joseph and Pharaoh

Trumpets correspond to the periods of the Seven Seals, respectively; but that the whole period of the Trumpets is the same as that of the Seals. They do however differ in kind. Let us consider how.

Among the Israelites, the Trumpet was an instrument serving for ecclesiastical, civil, and military purposes. It was employed to convoke the People';' to give notice of the commencement of the march of the Tabernacle; to announce the New Moons, and the beginning of the year, and the solemn Jubilees; to give warning of an enemy's approach, and to sound the alarm of war2. The Law was given from Sinai with the voice of the Trumpet exceeding loud.

Especially, in the Seven Trumpets of the Apocalypse, there appears to be a reference to the history of the capture of that great City, which is one of the scriptural emblems of the Antichristian Power, the city of JERICHO; after the fall of which the People of Israel marched victoriously under the command of Jesus, the son of Nun, to take possession of Canaan, the type of Heaven.

According to God's command, Joshua compassed

was repeated and enlarged, (Gen. xxxvii. 5—11. xli.) and as the same subject is presented to Daniel with growing expansion in successive Visions. See Dan. ii. 31-45. vii. 2-25. viii. 3-25. xi. 36-40, and the arrangement of these Visions in parallel columns by Dr. Hales, Chronology, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 536.

1 Numbers x. 1-10. See Pococke's Works, i. 256, on Joel ii. and Amos iii. 6. ed. 1740.

Amos iii. 6.

3 Exod. xix. 16. xx. 18.