Individuals might apostatize, but a seed would be preserved; many great attainments might be lost, but the fundamental principles of the Reformation would be maintained.-The members of the Protestant church are fewer by many millions, at present, than they were at the close of the 16th century. To the disgrace of multitudes, they have gone back to Sodom, and increased the number of her inhabitants. But after all the havock that has been made by persecution, and the shameful defection from the cause of truth by apostacy, it is an important fact, well worthy of being noticed, as it affords an illustration of the truth contained in this note of praise, that there does not appear to be a single country in Europe in which you find an organized Protestant church at the period of the Reformation, but in that country you still find an association under the name of a Protestant church existing. Messiah appears as if he had taken infeftment of these countries, and were determined to keep them under his rule in spite of all opposition.

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LECTURE LXIV.

THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD AND THE REWARD of tHE LIVING SAINTS.

REV. xi. 18, 19. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

THE dispensations of Providence have very different aspects towards different bodies and associations of men. To some they have a most pleasing and inviting smile; but to others they wear a most tremendous and forbidding frown. It frequently happens, too, that the same dispensation brings health and cure to some, but disease and ruin to others. Such were to be the opposite effects of the blast of the seventh trumpet, as described in the verses we have lately considered, and in those now before us. To the friends of truth, the sound of that trumpet was to be like the music of heaven; but to their bitter and incorrigible adversaries, it was to be more harsh and tremendous than the bursting of a thunder-storm. To the one it was to be like life from the dead; but to the other it was to be the harbinger of certain destruction. In the last of these points of view, it is presented to our notice in the first of these verses now to be considered.

This verse is introduced with a notification respecting the

temper of the nations at the time when the sound of the trumpet of the seventh angel began to be heard; the nations were angry. The word translated nations, is the same that is used in ver. 2., which is there translated Gentiles; and in both texts the same people are intended. It is manifest that these nations cannot be the same with the kingdoms mentioned in ver. 15., because if these kingdoms, at the sounding of the seventh angel, were become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, they could not be offended at the glorious work of Reformation, in which they took such an active and decided part. Nor could any set of men be offended except the Gentiles, by whom the court was profaned, and the city trodden under foot. As this work issued in their being turned out of the temple, and in the city being rebuilt upon its own heap,' it is only what might have been expected, that their resentment would have been excited to the very uttermost.

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The anger spoken of must be understood of the displeasure of the friends of the Popish church at the work of Reformation. When they saw the kingdoms of the world renouncing their subjection to the see of Rome, and openly and solemnly espousing the cause of the Reformation, they could not fail to be displeased. If individual apostacies from the Roman church had formerly excited their resentment, their wrath must have been kindled into a flame, when the defection became so general, that whole kingdoms deserted her communion, and exposed her errors and abominations. Nor did they attempt to smother their resentment, or to keep it burning within their own bosoms; it burst out like a hot consuming flame in all directions, particularly in the thunders and anathemas of their church, consigning to everlasting perdition all the friends of the Reformation; and in those dreadful massacres and wars of extermination which they excited against them.-Nor have the expressions of their wrath been limited to the period of the Reformation. So long as the Romish church exists, she will be angry with every Protestant association; and the more that

her interests at any time are opposed, the more her indignation will be excited.

This intimation respecting the wrath of the Gentiles is followed with a declaration of the Divine displeasure against them; thy wrath is come. The text is laid in the form of an address to God; and this, as well as the other parts of it, belongs to the matter of thanksgiving expressed by the four and twenty elders. Accordingly, the wrath spoken of in this second clause, must be understood of the wrath of God. When such a passion, or any other passion, is ascribed to God, the language must be understood in a figurative sense. The Divine bosom can never be agitated by any tumultuous feelings the holy calm and tranquillity of his mind can never be disturbed, nor his disposition ruffled by the storm of a revengeful spirit. But analogous to what is the case with men when they are angry, God also on different occasions is said to be angry. When they are displeased, they manifest their displeasure by their conduct; and hence, when the God of judgment proceeds to inflict judgment upon transgressors, he is said, as in this text, to be angry. He had long borne with the insults offered to him by the Gentiles, through means of the superstitious and idolatrous rules of their worship, and the numerous errors and immoralities which were patronized and practised among them; he had also borne with the deceit and violence with which his witnesses had been treated; for 1260 years, he had been like one that winked at their conduct;-but when the seventh angel began to sound, his displeasure began to be manifested in such a manner as to indicate, that those evils would not be tolerated to the same extent any longer. He then took unto himself his great power and reigned. He shook the foundations of the throne of iniquity, and filled the friends and abettors of that system with such terror, that they gnawed their tongues for pain.

This general intimation respecting the wrath of God is followed with an account of the manner in which it was to be expressed.-First, In the way of judging for the dead; the time

of the dead, say they, is come, that they should be judged. This judgment of the dead has been often understood of the last and general judgment, at the end of the world. But if this were the judgment intended, it would be impossible to say how the account of it was thrown in here, as it would be completely disjointed from every thing in this prophecy. The four and twenty elders are speaking of a season which is anterior to the end of time; they are thanking and praising God for the Reformation, and for those events which were either contemporaneous with that work, or followed as fruits and consequences of it. The judgment spoken of in this prophecy is the same with that described by Daniel; I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousands thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened,' Dan. vii. 9, 10. It is manifest, from the connexion in which that sublime description is placed, that it is the judgment of the little horn, and not the judgment of the world at the end of time, which is meant. It is that judgment which, as explained in ver. 25., shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.' It is a judgment which is to waste and consume the Papal interest till it be completely destroyed. As the prophecy before us exactly corresponds with the season of Daniel's judgment of the little horn, the presumption is strong, that the same judgment is intended in both; more especially as the account of it is introduced into the prophetical description of the Divine displeasure against the Gentiles, who are doubtless the same people with those that are symbolized by the little horn.

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In order to understand this prophecy, it will be necessary to consider, First, Of whom are meant these dead that were to be judged? Secondly, In what sense is it predicted that God