same purpose, it rivets events together where they are contemporaneous, and thus enables us to fix the chronology of the Apocalypse *.

The Earthquake having been announced in the Sixth Seal, a great convulsion † takes place. The Sun becomes like sackcloth; the Moon as blood; that is, the light of Christ is obscured ‡, and the Church will seem to be eclipsed; the Stars fall to earth, as the fig-tree casteth its green figs when tossed by the wind §. That is, many, who endure but for a time ||, not being ripened by grace, will fall from the faith. The unfolded volume of the heavens, once bespangled with constellations, is rolled up as a scroll, and can no longer be read. Mountains are moved; Islands are sunk; the Kings and Rulers of the

* Cp. Vitringa, p. 738, who has observed this synchronism of some of the events of the Sixth Seal and the Seventh Vial. Let the reader peruse Rev. vi. 12-17, and xvi. 17-21, and he will see the grounds of this opinion.

+ Victorinus ad loc. Ipsa est persecutio novissima,-to be followed by the extinction of all Antichristian Powers. So Arethas, p. 277, 278, Cramer, and Aquinas, ad cap. vi. Hæc est persecutio tempore Antichristi.

Haymo and Aquinas ad loc. Christus lux hominum et angelorum factus est obscurus, non in se, sed in omnibus quibus claritas ejus est occulta: tempore Antichristi non apparebit magnificentia Christi. Saccus est signum vilitatis. The Two Witnesses prophesy in sackcloth, at the same time. Rev. xi. 3.—The comments of Aquinas on the whole of this passage are very striking. Page 172-175, ed. 1549.

§ Isa. xxxiv. 4.

|| Mark iv. 17.

Earth hide themselves in caverns; that is, in a spirit of desperate infatuation they take refuge in the dens of worldly policy, and, like the Kings flying from Joshua to Makkedah, they cry to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb; for the Great Day of His wrath is come, and who can stand*?

Such is the description of the great civil and ecclesiastical Earthquake and Storm, which, in a later part of this divine Prophecy, is called the conflict of Armageddon, and which, as appears from other parts of the Apocalypse, will change the

* Rev. vi. 12. 17. Cf. Isa. ii. 10. 19. Jer. iv. 29. Dan. iii. 24. iv. 33. Hos. x. 8. Luke xxiii. 30.

The following is the comment of Bede on the Sixth Seal. Et vidi cum aperuisset sigillum sextum, &c.] Sexto sigillo patefacto novissima persecutio nuntiatur, et sicut Domino sexta feria crucifixo, mundum tenebris et pavore concuti.

Et sol factus est niger tanquam saccus.] Tanquam Christi vel operta potentia, vel doctrina temporaliter obscurata, vel a defensione sit velata, cum ministri Antichristi in servos Christi grassari sinuntur.

Et luna tota facta est sicut sanguis.] Ecclesia solito amplius pro Christo sanguinem fundet. Tota autem dixit, quia in toto orbe erit novissimus terræ-motus.

Et stellæ ceciderunt super terram, &c.] Qui cœlestes in ecclesia specie tenus fulgent, vento novissimæ persecutionis impulsi terreni fuisse probabuntur. Quorum bene opera grossis, immaturis videlicet et inutilibus et caducis fici fructibus, comparantur.

Et cœlum recessit sicut liber involutus.] Sicut liber involutus mysteria quidem intus, sed foris non apparentia continet, sic et

aspect of things in this world, and terminate with the total destruction of the foes of Christ.

Immediately after it, four Angels appear, who hold the four winds of heaven, and are commanded not to loose their blasts, till the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads *. Here is another catchword, and it connects the Sixth Seal with the Sixth Trumpet, when, as we shall see hereafter, these Angels again appear, and are then loosed †. They now gather the Saints of God from the four winds of heaven. The number of the elect is now complete. It is described as twelve times twelve thousand, a number expressing the consummation of the Apostolic Church. All who hold the faith, and keep the commandments, delivered by Jesus Christ to His Twelve Apostles, are inhabitants of the heavenly City, which is Twelve thousand furlongs square; and its walls are Twelve times Twelve cubits high; and it has Twelve Gates, which are inscribed with the names of the Twelve Tribes, and Twelve foundations, and on them the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb §. In the passage before us all these faithful Christians are represented as coming from every Nation and tunc ecclesia suis tantum cognita, persecutionem discrete vitans recedet, et ut ab extraneis abdita non videatur.

* Rev. vii. 1.

Rev. ix. 13. 15.

Berengaud. ad loc. Duodecies duodeni fiunt centum quadraginta quatuor. Omnes igitur qui fidem duodecim Apostolorum custodiunt actusque imitantur in hoc numero consistunt.-See also Aquin. in loc. Omnes electi usque ad finem mundi.

§ Rev. xxi. 14. 17.

Tribe and Tongue; and though their number had before been specified as definite, (as Twelve Times Twelve Thousand, a Thousand from each of Twelve Tribes, one hundred and forty-four thousand,) yet, since it represents the Apostolic Church of every age and clime, which consists of the true seed of Abraham and David, the Israelites indeed, those who are Jews inwardly, the true citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, and in order that no one may suppose that this number is to be understood literally, as if the elect were limited to so small a body as twelve times twelve thousand, it is now described as a great multitude, which no man can number*; and they have come forth from great Tribulation, and are clothed in White Robes, and have Palms of Victory in their hands, and join in a triumphal doxology to God and to the Lamb.

Thus ends the Sixth Seal †.

Some modern Expositors have imagined that the 144,000 are different from the innumerable company; but the ancient Interpreters rightly perceived their identity. Berengaudus in loc. says: Per turbam quæ numero comprehenditur, electi designantur, et, quia multi sunt vocati, pauci electi, (Matth. xx. 16,) non immerito numero designantur. In cœlesti verò beatitudine ubi singulis temporibus ex omnibus gentibus congregantur, tanta efficitur multitudo, ut nullo numero comprehendi possit. So Aquinas, p. 199, and Vitringa, p. 307. Nec est, quod in eo quis hæreat, turbam electorum Joannem hic facere innumerabilem, cum jam ante signatos comprehendisset numero CXLIV millium. Numerus ille erat mysticus et allegoricus, et verè significabat totam eamque maximam multitudinem Electorum.

The reader is here referred to an Exposition of the Seals

The number here specified of the Saints, a hundred and forty-four thousand, is also, if we may repeat the expression, another catchword, and serves to connect the close of the period of the Sixth Seal with the latter part of the period of the Sixth Trumpet, in which it is said, I saw the Lamb standing upon Mount Sion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having the Name of His Father written upon their foreheads *.

The Seventh, or last, Seal is now opened; and how different are its contents from those of the other Seals! There was Silence in heaven, about the space of half an hour. How sublime is this repose! After the six days' toil of the Church, the peace of the Eternal Sabbath begins; and the opening of this Seal is like the Sabbath-bell of Eternity. But this peace is as yet represented only by Silence; Silence of half an hour. And why? Because it is not to be described now, but will be revealed more fully in the latter part of the Apocalypse †. The

by Anselmus Havelbergensis, a Bishop of the twelfth century, which will be found in D'Achery's Spicilegium, vol. i. p. 161, from which extracts are inserted in Note B, in vol. ii. of these Lectures.

*Rev. xiv. 1.

Victorinus says very well, ad Apoc. viii. 1. Per hoc silentium mediæ horæ significatur initium quietis æternæ, sed partem intellexit quia interrupto silentio eam per ordinem repetit. Nam si esset juge silentium, hic finis narrandi fieret. See also Aquinas and Bede, p. 201.