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 Trumpets correspond to the periods of the Seven Seals, respectively; but that the whole period of the

* 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 primitiva. 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.

Bede ad cap. viii. Nunc recapitulat ab origine, eadem aliter dicturus.

Trumpets is the same as that of the Seals. But they do 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 wart. 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 the city of Jericho six times on six successive days. First went the armed men, then seven Priests with seven Trumpets of rams' horns, then came the Ark; then the People followed. On each of the six days the Priests blew the trumpets once, and the People were silent. But on the seventh day, the seven Priests,

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

† Amos iii. 6.

Exod. xix. 16. xx. 18.

and the People with them, compassed the city seven times; and at the seventh time, when the Priests blew the Trumpets, all the People shouted with a great shout; and the wall of the city fell down flat, and the people went up and took the city*.

Such was the fate of Jericho.

This History illustrates † the Apocalyptic Vision of the Seven Angels and Seven Trumpets, and confirms the belief that the Six Trumpets announce successive Judgments of God on the walls and powers of the Jerichos of this world, till at length they will all fall flat, when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God §.

Let us also observe that, with regard to Three of these Trumpets-the last three-it is expressly said by the flying Eagle || in mid-heaven, that they are harbingers of Woe. Woe, woe, woe, to the dwellers

* Joshua vi. 1-20.

†This prophetic character of the fall of Jericho was perceived by the ancient Interpreters. See Berengaudus ad Rev. i. 15. Septimo die circumeuntibus Sacerdotibus cum Arcâ Jericho atque vociferantibus, muri ceciderunt, omnisque populus cum rege suo interfectus est, quia prædicantibus in fine mundi Prædicatoribus Veritatis, omnis civitas diaboli destruetur. Concerning the other references in the Apocalypse to the victories of Joshua, see below, Lecture XIII. Bede ad cap. viii. Ecclesia gloriam sæculi tubis cœlestibus quasi muros Hiericho dejectura. So Aquinas, p. 223, and Joachim, p. 123.

2 Cor. x. 4, 5. § 1 Thess. iv. 16.
derou is the reading of the most MSS.

1 Cor. xv. 52.

on the earth-that is, to those who have their affec

*

tions set on earthly things-from the remaining Voices of the trumpet of the three Angels, who are about to sound †!

The Trumpets, then, are prophetic of Judgments from Heaven on the enemies of God and the Truth. Thus the Trumpets differ from the Seals, which contain a rapid view of the conflicts and sufferings of the Church.

At the same time, we must carefully remember that the Book of Revelation is not a Civil History. And the Trumpets are not to be expected to announce political events, as such. They are the Voice of Angels of God to the Church of God.

On the whole, it may be affirmed that the Seven Epistles speak the language of Correction; the Seven Seals, of Consolation; the Seven Trumpets, of Commination; and the Seven Vials, of Condemnation. What, then, do the several Trumpets portend? The First announces a judgment upon the Earth; that is, as we suppose, on those who do not belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. It announces Hail, Fire, and Blood, cast upon the Earth; and the burning of a third part ‡, that is, a great part, of the Trees and all the Green grass.

*See Rev. iii. 10. vi. 10. xi. 10. xii. 12. xiii. 8; and the note from Lightfoot in p. 208.

+ Rev. viii. 13.

A third part: i. e. a large portion. See Schoettgen, Hor. Hebr. p. 1115. The expression occurs often in the Apocalypse. Cf. viii. 7-12. ix. 15. 18. xii. 4.

It appears to predict the woes which fell, like a storm of hail and fire, on the Roman Empire, and afflicted the princely oaks and cedars of that proud Dynasty*, and which withered up its pomp and glory like green grass scorched by the sun t, in the second, third, and fourth centuries, when the Empire was a prey to the fire and sword of military violence, and torn by contending factions, and gradually approached its dissolution. Thus the judgments of the First Trumpet are a chastisement on Pagan Rome for the woes she inflicted on the Church in the Second Seal. The Second Trumpet follows naturally from the first.

It also concerns the Earth. It announces the uprooting of a great Mountain, burning with fire; and its projection into the Sea.

The removal of a volcanic Mountain ‡, and the casting of it into the cold and flowing Ocean, is emblematic of the convulsion of some great consuming Power, which appeared to be firmly fixed on a solid basis; and the precipitation of it into another very different element, one of fluidity and dissolution §.

* Isa. ii. 13. x. 17, 18. in LXX.

Isa. xl. 6-8. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand for ever.

See Rev. xvi. 20.

§ Psalm xlvi. 2.

Matth. xvii. 20.

Zech. iv. 7.