the piece which fills up the interval; and we do accordingly join chapters xv. and xvi. to chapter vi., and say these three contain the complete document of the seven seals. Nevertheless, there is another part of the book which ought also to be taken in, not as being necessary to the completeness of the document, but as illustrating the persons who bring the judgment, and the persons upon whom it is brought. And to find this other illustrative portion we have the sure clue given also, in the close of the sixth seal (vi. 15, 16), where the rulers and judges of the earth are in utter consternation, and in an agony of approaching judgment. This judgment they must find in the seventh seal, and they do find it in chapter xix. (ver. 11 to the end), whence we conclude that this also was intended by the Spirit to be included in the seventh seal. "The departing of the heavens, and the removal of every mountain and island out of its place" (vi. 14), leads us to chapters xv. and xvi. which present us with the history of a complete system of nature, earth, sea, rivers, sun, mountains, and islands, clean removed: the consternation and outcry of the heads and rulers of the earth (vi, 15) lead us to chapter xix. where they meet their doom: and these two together complete the seventh seal, and bring this. wicked form of nature and of nature's rulers to an end. The complete document of the seals includeth therefore chapters vi. xv. xvi., and the last ten verses of chapter xix., together with the first eight verses of chapter vii., which contains the bye-act of sealing certain tribes against its overwhelming destructiveness. Having thus obtained the complete document let us first consider it as a whole before entering upon the consideration of its parts in detail.

The action of the seven seals being thus completed into one unbroken narrative, and considered as a whole, doth evidently contain a series of events relative to this earth. Except the first, there is not one of them in which the earth is not mentioned as the scene of the violence which is done, threatened, or desired to be done. And the last contains the utter destruction and entire re

moval of those things which are seen. "Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." This is accompanied also with the departure of the heavens like a scroll, and the falling of the stars like the untimely fruit

And

of the fig-tree when it is shaken of a mighty wind. withal there is first the consternation, and then the entire destruction of the powers, civil and political, at the hand of the Lamb and the hosts of heaven which accompany him. This subversion of the present system of things is beyond a question the consummation which the act of seals brought to pass; being the same which is prophesied in all the Scriptures as about to happen at the coming of the Lord. (Psalm xviii; Isai. xxiv; Jer. iv; Joel iii; Hag. ii; 2 Pet. iii; Heb. xii. 26, 27, &c.) Whether it implies their annihilation, and evanishing from amongst the things which are, is a question easy to be resolved, by observing that in every one of the passages referred to above the catastrophe is followed by the history of the same earth with inhabitants still in flesh and blood, but under a new law of holiness and blessedness. The thrones are filled with risen saints (Rev. xx. 4); the nations rejoice in righteousness. (Rev. xxi. 24); and the fields are blessed with abundance, and there is nothing to hurt nor to destroy (Rev. xxii. 2,3). To remove the dynasties of wickedness, to cast out the rulers of the darkness of this world, to purify the elements of nature, to restore the natural fertility of the earth, and to bring in the reign of peace, is therefore, beyond a question, the end and object to which the sevenfold act of opening the seals leads on, and in which it is consummated. And, because these seals all appertain to one book, they are not seven different things, but seven parts of one thing, and therefore must all have a clear and distinct bearing upon, and be principally helpful to bring about, this great revolution of the world. In the light of this principal event they must be looked at and studied, and the interpretation which doth not foreshew and reflect its coming is much to be questioned.

Let us now with the same circumspection feel our way amongst the parts of this great action, and consider whether any principle of order and arrangement can be discovered amongst them. The first four present us each with one rider; the first a royal conqueror, the second a warrior bringing civil war upon the earth, the third a dealer out of food by weight and measure, the fourth a devastator to the extent of a fourth part of the earth. During their times the power is in the hands of one person :

under the sixth seal it is in the hands of many persons, "the kings of the earth" (vi. 15); and under the seventh seal it is in the hands of one person "the beast," and "the kings of the earth" confederate with him, or under his command (Rev. xix. 19, compared with xvii. 12-14). This would indicate that some change had passed in the condition of the agents between the fourth and the sixth seals. We look into the fifth to discover what this may be. There we find that a company of martyrs have been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held;" who pray for the day of vengeance and wrath upon those that dwell on the earth but they are told that it is not till after a little season, during which another company of martyrs should be completed. This sheds a great light upon the subject: shewing, first, that the fifth seal is consequent upon the completion of one company of martyrs, and introduceth the way of another company, the fellow-servants and brethren of the former, who are to be killed as they were. And, besides these two companies, there is not and cannot be a third; because it is expressly promised that upon the fulfilment of the second the vengeance upon the inhabitants of the earth who had shed their blood shall surely come. Now can we by any means find out the description of this second company? The description of the first we have in this seal: "They were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:" and the description of the second is given alongside of this in chapter xx. 4; " And which [Gr. And whosoever] had not worshipped the beast, neither had received his mark in their foreheads, or in their hands." These two martyr companies live and reign with Christ upon the earth, when those kings that presently occupy the earth, and have shed their blood, are cast out. These two ideas are not only brought together in this fifth seal under a promise, but they are exhibited in the condition of a fact at the sounding of the last trumpet in the xith chapter, verses 16, 17; and the manner of bringing it to pass occupies the end of the xixth, and the beginning of the xxth chapters. The very characteristic and distinct denomination of these two martyr companies between whose sacrifice the fifth seal is opened, being carried to and compared with chapters xii, and xiii., will cast a still

greater light upon the subject. The former of these chapters is, so to speak, wholly under the auspices of the first, and the latter of the second martyr company. In the former, those who loved not their lives unto the death" are made to overcome Satan "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; whereupon he is cast down unto the earth, and his angels are cast down with him, who persecute the mother of the martyrs, which is the church, and from his violence she is fain to flee, and glad to escape into the wilderness for a time, times, and half a time, or forty-andtwo months. Now this is the very period during which in chap. xiii. the beast makes his image, and causeth all to receive the mark of the beast in their right hand or in their foreheads...and the number of his name." Those who will not comply with this edict are prevented from buying and selling, and many of them slain; because “it was given him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them;" yea, and all that dwell upon the earth worship him in these various ways, save those only "whose names are written in the book of life, of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." There can remain no doubt, therefore, that the martyrs of the second class and denomination are slain during the forty-and-two months, when the power is in the hands of a beast, and ten kings, and another lamb-like but dragon-speaking beast. This brings the fifth seal to be commensurate in respect of time with the forty-and-two months of this prophecy, wherever that period occurs: for that seal lasts while the second company of martyrs is slaying, and until their slaughter is fulfilled; whereupon the vengeance arrives unto those who dwell upon the earth. This also casts light upon the action's passing over from single persons in the first four seals, to several kings in the sixth, and reappearing again in the seventh, in the hands of both the one and the other. For, in chap. xii. where the first company of martyrs is concerned, the one beast is crowned; that is, the rule and dominion is in the possession of one person; whereas, under the fifth seal, or during the fortyand-two months of the xiiith chapter, while the same potentate continues, the crowns are ten upon his horns; and the word and wisdom is in the mouth of another beast,

which counterfeits the Lamb. This shews us why one king should appear in the first seal, and three successors in the next three, but in the sixth many kings; because during the fifth seal the unity of the power had broken up into ten parts, and had acted in the form of ten kingdoms against the saints, and slain the second company of martyrs. That there is a continuity, however, of existence, notwithstanding this change of persons, is manifest from the promise made unto the first army of martyrs, that the vengeance should alight in the appointed season upon those very powers who had shed their blood, and still reigned upon the earth. The nature of this continuity appears from the xiith and the xiii th chapters, where the beast continues, though his form and condition change. And accordingly in the end of all we find the beast and the ten kings, and another named "the false prophet," all upon the field of Armageddon, making war with the Lamb, and meeting their well-merited doom. Who this third party is appeareth from the third party introduced into the action of chapter xiii; to wit, the beast who speaks like a dragon, and, for his own aggrandizement, works to the hand of the other beast; from which he is distinct and yet not separate, being the same with the "mouth speaking great things and blasphemies," and who is therefore well called "the false prophet." The fifth seal therefore stands at that point of time when the confederate power of the false prophet and the beast with ten crowned horns came to act in concert against the saints of the Most High: the first four seals refer to a period anterior, and joining on thereto the last two seals are consequent upon the fortyand-two months during which the new form of power reaped the second company of martyrs. And with these clues we could track our way through many other parts of this book, which appear to the unreflecting and incurious to be hopeless labyrinths; but we rest satisfied with what has been already done.

We would make another observation, to ascertain what this power is, first and last, which makes havock of the church, and completes the two companies of martyrs;—a very important point, because it is with it that the judgment hath to do, and upon it that the vengeance falls: "How long dost thou not avenge our