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such enormities of persecution, that the question "how "long," seems more emphatically called forth, and thus the events of the fifth seal, as here interpreted, will be found to stand in their proper place.

PART II.

SECTION VIII.

The opening of the sixth Seal.

12 Καὶ εἶδον, ὅτε ήνοι ξε την σφραγίδα τὴν ἕκτην· καὶ σεισμας μέγας ἐγένετο, καὶ ὁ ἥλιος ἐγένετο μέλας, ὡς σάκκα πpixiv, xj 01

λήνη ὅλη ἐγένετο ὡς 19 αἷμα καὶ οἱ ἀφέμες τὰ ἐρανῷ ἔπεσαν εἰς τὴν γῆν, ὡς συκῆ βαλλει τὰς ἐλύνθος

airns, imò μzyúde 14ἀνέμε σειομένη Καὶ ὁ ἐξανὸς ἀπεχω ρίσθη ὡς βιβλίον είν λισσόμενον, καὶ πᾶν ὄξος καὶ νῆσος ἐκ τῶν τόπων αὑτῶν ἐκινή 15 θησαν. Καὶ οἱ βασι

λεῖς τῆς γῆς, καὶ οἱ με γιγάνες, και οι χιλίαρ χοι και οι πλάσιοι, καὶ οἱ ἰσχυροὶ, καὶ πᾶς δελῶν, καὶ [πᾶς]

CHAP. VI. VER. 12-to the end.

12 And I beheld when he

opened the sixth seal; and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black, as sack-cloth of hair; and all the moon became 13 as blood: And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when shaken by a 14 mighty wind: And the

heaven was removed as a volume rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places: 15 And the kings of the

earth, and the great men, and the chief captains, and the rich men, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and [every] freeman,

12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal; and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sack-cloth of hair, and the moon became 13 as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty 14 wind: And the heaven

departed as a scroll, when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of 15 their places: And the

kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every

ἐλεύθερα, ἔκρυψαν ἑαυτὲς εἰς τὰ σπή λαια καὶ εἰς τὰς πέτρας τῶν ὀρέων 16 Καὶ λέξεσι τοῖς ὄρε σι καὶ ταῖς πέτραις" Πέσετε ἐφ ̓ ἡμᾶς, καὶ κρύψατε ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ προσώπε το καθημένε ἐπὶ τὸ θρόνε, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς igyns Tÿ agvie 17 Οτι ἦλθεν ἡ ἡμέρα

ἡ μεγάλη τῆς ὀργῆς αὐτῷ· καὶ τίς δύναται ςαθῆναι ;

hid themselves in the
caves, and in the rocks
16 of the mountains: And
they say to the moun-
tains and to the rocks,
"Fall on us, and hide
<< us from the face of
"Him who sitteth on
"the throne, and from
"the wrath of the
17"

"Lamb: For the great
"day of his wrath is
66 come and who is
"able to stand?"

bond-man, and every free-man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the 16 mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from

the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Ver. 12. Sixth seal.] In the complaint of the martyrs under the fifth seal, it was asked, "how long" the day of vengeance and of recompence should be delayed? The answer to which was expressed in general terms, "When the number of martyrs should be com

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pleted." The sixth seal represents the arrival of this awful day: "The great day of his wrath is come; and "who may be able to stand!" Now, if this great day be (as I trust will be made apparent in these notes) the great day of universal recompence, and which cannot take place till all martyrdom is over, the prophecy before us evidently describes a time which is still future. Such a prophecy cannot be now illustrated, as all prophecy should be, by the event, as delivered in history. In a prophecy of this description, all that the commentator can prudently attempt is, to cast upon it what assistant light he can, by comparing it with the other prophecies of the Old and New Testament, which bear relation to it. This shall be our present object,

after

after having first ascertained the meaning of the figurative terms employed in the narration.

Ib. A great earthquake.] When the earth is shaken violently by subterraneous commotion, the buildings erected upon it fall. Agreeably to this, in prophetical language, whatever commotion, by Divine appointment, shakes and overturns political fabrics and empires, is called earthquake*.

Ib. The sun became black as sack-cloth of hair, and all the moon became as blood.] In such figurative language, great calamities, which bereave men of the usual sources of their comforts, are frequently expressed. The sun, under such deprivation, seems no longer to shine, but is enveloped in raiment of mourning; for, such, with the eastern nations of antiquity, was sackcloth of hair t. The moon glares horribly, like blood; the stars fall.

Ver. 13. Figs.] See Isaiah xxxiv. 4. Nahum iii. 12.

Ver. 14. As a volume rolled up.] A sheet of parchment, upon which the ancient books were written §, being in its nature elastic, is seen to roll up in an instant, when he that extends it quits his hold. Then the characters, written or painted upon it, vanish from the sight, with a rapidity, which aptly expresses this sudden disappearance of the splendid luminaries in heaven, at the command of their Maker. The same image is used by Isaiah, ch. xxxiv. 4.

* Psalm ix. 2. xcvii. 1–7. xcix. 1. Isaiah ii. 19. xiii. 13. xxiv. 18-21. Jer. iv. 24. x. 10. xlix. 21. Joel ii. 10. iii. 16. Mic. vi. 2. Hagg. ii. 6, 7, 21, 22. Hab. xii. 26. † 1 Kings xxi. 7. Luke x. 13.

Amos viii. 8.
Zech. xii. 4.

Eccl'us xxv. 17. Matt. xi. 21.

Amos viii. 8, 9.

Isaiah xiii. 10. xxiv. 4, 23. Ezek. xxxii. 7, S. Joel ii. 10. iii, 15. Matt. xxiv. 29. Mark xiii. 24, 25.

Luke xxi. 25.

Acts ii, 20,

§ See note, ch. v. 1.

Ib. Mountain-Island.] These are places of the greatest security in times of hostile invasion; the mountain is difficult of access, by reason of its height and steepness; the island, from its surrounding waters. Therefore, under these images, the securest places are represented as no longer affording safety during this dreadful visitation. *.

Ver. 15. Kings of the earth, &c.] As in the description of the verse preceding, no place can afford security, so, in this, no pre-eminence in rank, power, or riches, can yield protection from the impending devastation: nor is there escape from it in any station of life: "Every bond-man and every free-man" flee before it, but in vain!

Ver. 16. Say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us.] Compare Judges vi. 2; 1 Sam. xiii. 6; Isaiah ii. 10, 19; Hos. x. 8; Luke xxiii. 30; and add to them the accounts which we derive from modern travellers, of the caves and hiding-places yet to be seen in Judæa, Arabia, &c. and this language will be found to describe a flight of the utmost terror and dismay, before a victorious enemy, who, having destroyed all the fortresses and cities, pursues the hopeless fugitives into their last places of refuge. But who is this dreadful and avenging Conqueror, before whom at this time they flee? (ver. 16.) "He who sitteth on the "Throne; and the Lamb," the Redeemer, his Vicegerent, who executes his wrathf.

* Hab. iii. v. 6.

Go, then, thou mightiest, in thy Father's might;
Ascend my chariot; guide the rapid wheels
That shake Heav'n's basis; bring forth all my War,

My Bow and Thunder; my Almighty Arms
Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh.

Through

Pursue

Throughout the whole of prophetical Scripture, a time of retribution, and of vengeance on God's enemies, is denounced. It is called "the day of the Lord;" "the day of wrath and slaughter; of the Lord's anger, "visitation, and judgment;" "the great day;" "the "last day" and whenever it is described, the signs which occur under this seal will be found, more or less, to compose its dreadful apparatus. At the same time, it is to be observed, that this kind of description, and the same expressions, which are used to represent this great day, are also employed by the Prophets, to describe the fall and punishment of particular states and empires;-of Babylon, by Isaiah (ch. xiii.); of Egypt, by Ezekiel (ch. xxx. 2, 3, 4. xxxii. 7, 8.); of Jerusalem, by Jeremiah, Joel, and by our Lord*: and in many of these prophecies, the description of the calamity which is to fall on a particular state or nation, is so blended and intermixed with that general destruction, which, in the final days of vengeance, will invade all the inhabitants of the earth, that the industry and skill of our ablest interpreters have been scarcely equal to separate and assort them †. Hence it has been concluded by judicious divines, that these partial prophecies and particular instances of the Divine vengeance, whose accomplishment we know to have taken place, are presented to us as types, certain tokens and fore-runners, of some greater events which are also disclosed in them. To the dreadful time of universal

Pursue the sons of darkness, drive them out
From all Heav'n's bounds, into the utter deep.
There let them learn, as likes them, to despise
GOD, and MESSIAH, his anointed KING.

* Matt. xxiv.

PARADISE LOST, vi. 710.

+ See the ingenious attempt of Grotius, in his notes on Matt. xxiv.

vengeance,

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