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6 Καὶ οἱ ἁπλὰ ἄγγελοι | οἱ ἔχονίες τὰς ἑπτὰ σάλπιγας, ητοίμα σαν ἑαυτές, ἵνα

7 σαλπίσωσι. Kai ὁ πρῶτο ἐσάλπισε, καὶ ἐγένειο χα λαζα καὶ πᾶς με μι μένα ἐν αἵματι, καὶ ἐβλήθη εἰς τὴν γῆν καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῆς γῆς κατεκάη, καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῶν δένδρων κατεκάη, καὶ πᾶς χέρια χλωρός και 8 τεκάη. Καὶ ὁ δεύ τιςΘ. άγγελΘ. σάλπισε, καὶ ὡς ὅρος μέγα τυρί καιόμε τον ἐβλήθη εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ ἐγέ νετο τὸ τρίτον τῆς θαλάσσης, αἷμα Ο Καὶ ἀπέθανε τὸ τρίτ τον τῶν κλισμάτων τῶν ἐν τῇ θαλάσο ση, τὰ ἔχοντα ψυ χάς· καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῶν πλοίων διεφθά 10 pm. Καὶ ὁ τρίτος ἄγγελο. ἐσάλπισε, καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐκ τῶ ἐ

PART IΙΙ.

SECTION II.

The four first Trumpets.

CHAP. viii. VER. 6-12.

6 And the seven angels, who had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. 7 And the first sounded;

and there were hail and fire mingled with blood; and they were cast upon the land; and the third part of the land was burnt up; and the third part of the trees was burnt

up; and all green grass 8 was burnt up. And the second angel sounded; and, as it were, a great mountain, burning with fire, was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea 9 became blood: And the third part of the creatures in the sea, which had life, died; and the third part of the ships was destroy10 ed. And the third angel sounded; and there fell from heaven a great star, burning like a meteor; and it

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part of trees was burnt

up, and all green grasi 8 was burnt up. And the

second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became 9 blood: And the third

part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. 10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the

ξαν ἀςης μέγας καιόμενΘ ὡς λαμπᾶς, καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὸ τρίτον τῶν πολαμῶν, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς πη 11 γὰς ὑδάτων. Καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆ ἀςέρος λέγεται ὁ Αψινθος καὶ γίνεται τὸ τρί τον τῶν ὑδάτων εἰς ἄψινθον, καὶ πολλοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων απέθανον ἐκ τῶν ὑδάτων, ὅτι ἐπικράνθησαν. 12 Καὶ ὁ τέταρτο ἄγελῶ ἐσάλπισε, καὶ ἐπλήγη τὸ τρίτον τῇ ἡλία, καὶ τὸ τρίτ τον τῶν ἀγέρων ἵνα σκολισθῇ τὸ τρίτον αὐτῶν, καὶ ἡ ἡμέρα μὴ φαίνῃ τὸ τρίτον αὐτῆς, καὶ ἡ νὺξ ὁμοίως.

fell upon
the third part
of the rivers, and upon
the springs of waters.
11 And the name of the
star is called the Worm-
wood; and the third
part of the waters be-
comes wormwood; and
many of the men died
of the waters, because
they were made bitter.
12 And the fourth angel
sounded; and the third
part of the sun was
smitten, and the third
part of the moon, and
the third part of the
stars; so that a third
part of them should
be darkened, and the
day might not shine,
as to the third part of
it, and the night like-
wise.

fountains of waters:

11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they 12 were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

Ver. 6. And the seven angels, who had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound.] The former part of this chapter having prepared us for a new kind of representation, in which we may expect to find the history of those commotions which followed the descent of Christianity upon earth; we will in the next place observe, with what propriety they are severally introduced by the sound of Trumpets. Trumpets were in use among the Israelites for several purposes: first, for assembling the people, or their leaders t; or, + Ib. x. 4.

Numb. x. 2, 3.

secondly,

secondly, to express joy and exultation on solemn festivals *; or, lastly, to give signal when the camp was to move, or the host to go forth to battle†; on which occasion, the trumpets were to "sound an alarm,” after a manner not used on other occasions. It was the signal of hostile invasion §; it was fearful:-"Shall "the trumpet be blown in the city, and the people "not be afraid?" Of such kind we may account the seven trumpets of the angels. They are not the trumpets of the new moons and feast days; there is no joy and festivity in them; they are not for the quiet and peaceful calling of the assembly; they sound an alarm; an alarm of war; and woe! woe! woe! accompanies their notes (ver. 13.): they foretel to the Church of Christ the invasions of its enemies, and are so many signals on the approach of each antichristian foe. And from the preparatory vision, in which incense and fire from the altar in heaven, are cast down to earth, producing violent commotions, we have reason to expect that Religion, or the pretence and abuse of it, is intimately connected with this warfare. This expectation will be confirmed by our observing, that the representation under every trumpet appears to have some reference to, or connection with, the preparatory vision. At the sounding of almost every one of which, somewhat is seen to fall from heaven to earth, as the incense and fire had fallen, and to occasion the commotions which ensue.

Ver. 7. And the first sounded.] The prophetic history of the four first trumpets is dispatched in few words, containing few images; so that much particular

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information cannot be safely collected from them. Like the first four vials, they seem to have a general character. The attack, whose alarm is sounded, falls in a fourfold division: first, on the land; for, thus it seems to me that ✰ y should be translated; not in its general signification of the earth, as containing the land, sea, rivers, &c.; but in its particular sense, as opposed to the sea, &c. *: secondly, on the sea: thirdly, on the rivers and springs: fourthly, on the heavenly luminaries,-the sun, moon, and stars; that is, on the whole of God's creation. For in the xivth chapter of this book, verse the seventh, God is described as the Creator of all things, under these divisions: "the heaven; and the earth; and the sea; "and the springs of waters." The same divisions of the visible world (three of them often, sometimes four,) are to be seen in other passages of Scripture †. t. This mode of division is ancient, and passed to the Greek and Roman poets. Virgil, after his Greek masters, describing the creation; says:

Principio cœlum et terras, camposque liquentes,

Lucentemque globum lunæ, titaniaque astra,

.. Spiritus intùs alit,

ENEID. vi. 724%. 1.

* In confirmation of which we may observe, that in ch. xvi. all the seven angels are ordered to pour their vials on the earth, es Tv yür: and yet only one of them obeys the order literally and specially, us TRI y: because, in pouring their vials on the sea, rivers, &c. they fulfil the order in the general sense in which the word earth was applied. The word is first used, generally, to signify the whole extent of the earth, as containing the land, sea, rivers, &c.; then particularly to mean that part of it only which we call the land.

+ See Isaiah li. 15, 16. Hosea iv. 3. Nahum i. 4, 5. Hab. iii. Zeph. i. 3. Hagg. ii. 6. Phil. ii. 10.

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Know, first, that heav'n and earth's compacted frame,

8, 11.

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In the fourfold enumeration before us, the rivers and springs are kept separate from the other waters, for a particular purpose of illustration, which will be seen. Hereby also is made that fourfold division, which, containing every part of the square, implies universality and completion. For, as t For, as the vision of the four horses, at the voices of the four Cherubim, passing completely around every side, or angle of the throne, is seen to exhibit a sketch of the Christian degeneracy in all its parts, from its first purity to its utmost corruptioned to ever

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so, the four first trumpets seem to compose a whole, and, under a fourfold division, to represent all the parts of the Christian world as affected by the commotions: First Trumpet,

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↑ I say the Christian world; for thus appear to me, those "new "heavens," and that" new earth," described by the Prophets, and the Apostles, to be" created after God in righteousness." Isaiah li. 16. Ephi iv. 24.

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