APOCALYPSE, &c.

The opening of the seventh Seal, and the Commission to the Angels with the seven Trumpets.

Ver. 1. There was silence in heaven, as it were half an hour.] Upon the opening of each of the former seals, a significant action had immediately commenced. Under the four first seals, voices from heaven, from the place of representation, had invited the Prophet to come and see." With the fifth seal, the voices of the Martyrs had been heard. The opening of the sixth seal had been directly followed by a representation of action the most tremendous, accompanied and explained by voices, during which the prophecy seemed to extend even to the great and last day of recompense. Now, upon the opening of this seventh and last seal, no voice is heard, no representation immediately ensues. An aweful silence suspends the gratification of curiosity. After a solemn pause, preparation is made for a new kind of exhibition; the seven angels come forth.

This silence in heaven has been supposed to express, or at least to allude to, that custom of the Jews, whereby they joined their silent prayers to the offering of the incense. But this silence takes place before the time of incense; before the angel takes his station at the altar.

altar. And there is an intervening action between the silence and the offering of incense, namely, the procession of the seven angels; each of whom is presented with his trumpet. This silence, therefore, though it may bear a certain degree of allusion to the templeservice, and may even be supposed to continue during the service which follows, seems to be exhibited for another purpose; to denote, as it appears to me, a change, in the mode, or in the subject of the prophecy; to disunite the succeeding scene from that which had gone before; to unfold a new chain of prediction. The connexion, which had hitherto united the seals, is broken; the seventh seal stands apart; and then produces a new method of representation, and a new series of events, to which the silence in heaven, and the offering of incense, are preparatory. But if a new series of events is to be exhibited, whence are we to expect that it will take its date? Under the sixth seal, preceding this which contains the trumpets, the rapid sketch of the Christian history was brought down to the last great day of recompense. Where then are we to expect that this renewed history will begin? From the earliest times of Christianity, or, to speak more properly, from the period when our Lord left the world in person, and committed the Church to the guidance of his Apostles. From this time, the first seal takes its commencement; from this also the first Trumpet. This is the beginning, settled by the agreement of divines, of the second advent of Christ, the proper subject of the Apocalyptic Prophecies.

Ver. 2. The seven angels.] These are not the company of angels employed under the preceding seal; for they were four. And this seems to afford an additional argument, that a new kind of representation is to be

expected.

expected. Seven is a number expressive of universality, or completion. The Jewish writers seem fond of enumerating seven principal angels. But the writings, in which they are described, are, I believe, of later date than the Apocalypse, and the notion was probably derived from this passage t.

Ib. Seven trumpets.] The use of the trumpet among the people of God, and its symbolical meaning in this passage, will be explained under verse 6.

Ver. 3, 4. And another angel came, and was stationed at the altar; &c.] This is expressly said (ver. 3.) to be "the golden altar, which was before the throne." Upon this altar, which stood before the Mercy-seat (the local seat of the Divine glory in the Temple), was to be offered no strange incense ; no strange fire §; by no strange priest : but incense, offered thereon by the legal priests, was as an atonement for the people ¶, who accompanied this offering with their prayers **. For it was the custom of devout people to offer up their prayers in the court of the Temple, while the priest was burning incense within; as may be seen at large in Luke i. 9, 10, 21, 22. The angel, therefore, seems to represent a lawful priest; and the incense, added to the prayers, a mode of offering, or form of worship ††, probably the Christian; for, the incense, the means of presenting the prayers unto God, is given from heaven to the angel or officiating priest; is accompanied by the prayers of the saints, who are certainly

* See note, ch, i. 4.

↑ Tobit xii. 15, on which see Jortin's Remarks, i. 113; Gray's Key to the Old Testament, art. Tobit; Mosheim, Hist. Eccl. i. 176.

Christians; and ascends before the throne; which implies that it is accepted by the Almighty. This character can belong to no other than the true Religion t. The proper priest of the Christian Religion, the only High Priest, is our Great Intercessor and Mediator, the Lord Jesus. Yet, powerful reasons may be assigned, to shew that the officiating angel, in this passage, is not this High Priest. For, first, he has no distinguishing attributes, such as mark this high priest in ch. i. 13, &c. He is simply styled an angel,―another angel, that is, one of the same rank and description with the seven. Secondly, this office of burning incense, under the Mosaic dispensation, was not confined to the high priest; subordinate priests might offer it: and the office was generally discharged by the priests of the twenty-four courses. Zacharias, who, in Luke i."burns incense with the prayers of the people," was of this description. And, thirdly, under the Gospel dispensation, we find this function of offering spiritual incense, committed to the Christian priesthood in general. So that this angel may be supposed to represent the Christian priesthood in general, as exercised in subordination to the Great High Priest.

This religion is of heavenly origin and institution; and the smoke of its incense, or worship, ascends from the hand of the priest "before God."

Ver. 5. And the angel took the censer, and filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast to the earth; &c.] A question seems to arise upon this passage; what did the angel cast to the earth? Our translators have inserted the pronoun it; "cast it to the earth; by which we must understand the censer. But this construction

See Acts x. 4.

+ Mal. i. 11. 1 Pet. ii. 5.

Rom. xv. 16. 1 Pet. ii. 5.