first in the series denoted by the earthquake, is a violent commotion of the subjects of government, by which they are thrown out of their former position into new relations,-the erect stretched prostrate, the conspicuous dashed into obscurity, the obscure raised to dignity and influence, and confusion, disarray, and violence spread through every scene. The next, denoted by the conversion of the sun into black, and the moon into blood, is a change of the civil rulers themselves thus suddenly raised to power, from the beneficent influence which it is their proper office to exert in maintaining right, preserving peace, disseminating knowledge, and exciting a healthful action in all the departments of society, to oppression, a lawless violation of the rights, devastation of the property, and destruction of the happiness of their subjects; such as usually springs out of the ebullitions of democracy. Then follows the precipitation of these oppressors from their stations to a level with the multitude, symbolized by the fall of stars to the earth like the dejection of unripe figs from a tree shaken and swayed to and fro by a violent wind: next, a total dissolution of government and obliteration of all political distinctions, indicated by the passing away of the heavens and the movement of the mountains and islands from their places: and lastly, a consummation of the catastrophe by the visible advent of the Redeemer to judge his enemies, and accept his people, shown by the consternation of the kings and their subjects, their retreat from the splendors of his presence to dens and caves, and cry to the mountains and rocks to fall on them, and hide them from his wrath:-exhibiting his presence and the arrival of the great day of his vengeance, as the cause of their terror, and indicating an entire termination of their conflicts with each other, and dissolution of all political relations. To ascribe any lower meaning to the passage, is to disregard its most conspicuous characters. To suppose the presence of the Lamb, and the great day of his wrath, are mere representatives of another and inferior presence and epoch, is to contradict the law of symbolization requiring a resemblance of the sign to the thing signified. No such analogy subsists between the Deity and creatures, that he can properly be made their symbol. They are at the greatest possible distance from each other. It were wholly inconsistent with the nature and station of the omnipotent Judge of all, to make him descending to execute vengeance on his enemies, a representative of those enemies themselves inflicting evils on one another; the infinitely Upright the symbol of the wicked,Christ of Antichrist. It is to disregard the representation that

his presence and the arrival of the day of his wrath, are the cause of the consternation of the rulers and people, and endeavor to hide themselves in the caverns and rocks, and convert it indeed into a solecism. From whom are they to fly, if not from him? Not from one another, as their flight is to be promiscuous and universal. It is indisputably certain therefore that the great catastrophe denoted by the symbol, is to be consummated by the visible advent of the Son of God to destroy his foes, take possession of the earth, and commence his millennial reign; and this is in accordance with the resembling symbol of the seventh trumpet which is immediately to precede that advent, and with the Saviour's prediction, Matt. xxiv. 29, that his coming in the clouds. of heaven with power and great glory, is to follow a darkening of the sun and moon, and fall of the stars.

The events denoted by the symbol are such as must naturally occupy a long period. A political convulsion subverting one form of government and instituting another, is itself the work of years. The change of the sun to black and the moon to blood, denote not their extinction or disappearance, but their conversion from an agreeable and salutary, to a dreaded and disastrous agency; and the change of the new rulers, which it denotes, from justice to oppression, and exercise of a tyrannical sway, requires a considerable period. It is subsequently that the fall of the stars takes place, by which their dejection from their stations is symbolized. And the final disappearance of the heavens, the removal of the mountains and islands, and the promiscuous flight of rulers and subjects from the presence of the Lamb, are to follow at a still later period.

The first three of these great events have undoubtedly already taken place, and are the same as those denoted by the symbols of the first, fourth, and fifth vials; the first being the revolution in France, extending from the commencement of that political agitation to the fall of the ancient government; the second, the conversion of the new rule to a despotism, and exercise, through a succession of years, of a violent tyranny; the third, the overthrow of that oppressive dynasty, at the fall of Bonaparte, in 1815. Betwixt that fall and the final subversion of the governments of the earth, denoted by the passing away of the heavens, a period intervenes, during which the sealing symbolized in the next vision is to take place. These symbolizations correspond in all respects with those events; and those events with the symbolizations of those vials. These are to be followed by the assumption by the servants of God, of a new relation towards.

the antichristian rulers, denoted by their being sealed, as those are by a new testimony of the witnesses to the rights and prerogatives of God, in opposition to the usurpations of the wild beast and false prophet. The sealing is to be followed by the annihilation of the civil governments, the advent of the Son of God, and a resurrection of the saints: as the testimony and slaughter of the witnesses are by the seventh trumpet, a political agitation, the advent of Christ, the destruction of the wild beast, and the resurrection of the holy dead.

The differing views which expositors have given of these symbols are arbitrary and inconsistent with analogy. Grotius regarded them as representing similar physical events, that were to presage the war between the Jews and the Romans under Nero and Vespasian, and refers the discoloration of the sun and the moon to eclipses of those bodies during the reign of Claudius. But that is to disregard the law of symbolization, and make the sign and the thing signified of the same species.

Dr. Hammond ascribes that signification likewise to the earthquake and the darkening of the sun and moon, and to the latter the additional office also of indicating slaughter, which is against analogy, and destructive of all certainty of meaning. If symbols may in that manner denote two different and wholly dissimilar events, of one of which the physical world is the subject, of the other the intelligent, why may they not represent any other number and variety? Who can determine the limit or nature of their import? The fall of the stars and the other phenomena, he regards as symbolizing the defeat of the Jewish leaders, the capture of Jerusalem, and dispersion of the nation by Titus, which are also without analogy. The Jews were not independent, and had no supreme powers sustaining a relation to their nation answering to that of the sun, moon, and stars to the earth. Their city had been captured, moreover, several years before the period of the visions, and cannot for that reason be the event denoted by these symbols.

Mr. Brightman interpreted them of the persecution by Diocletian; regarding the sun as representing the Scriptures, the moon piety, the stars the ministers of the church, the heavens the church itself, and alleging the burning of the Scriptures, the obstruction of piety, and the apostasy of ministers and private Christians, as the events foreshown. But no such correspondence as symbolization requires, subsists between these objects. and the sun, moon, and stars; nor between these events and the phenomena ascribed to the heavenly bodies. The relations

of the Scriptures to the church, are not like those of the sun to the heavens, but rather like its relations to the earth. The burning of copies of the Scriptures forms no parallel with the discoloration of the sun. Its blackness was not an eclipse or an extinction, but a change of nature. The destruction of copies. of the sacred word, wrought no change in the nature of the revelation of which it is the record. The apostasies of teachers and private Christians, though numerous, were not universal. So far from it, the ill-success of the attempt to eradicate Christianity, and a public sympathy for the sufferers and abhorrence of the injustice to which they were subjected, were, in an important degree, the reasons of the discontinuance of the persecution and the revolution that almost immediately followed, under Constantine, in favor of the church. Nor do the mere heavens exhibit any analogy to the church,-mere vacant and limitless space to a community of worshippers. No species of actions can be ascribed to space. It has nothing that is capable of phenomena. The departure of the heavens, was the disappearance of its luminaries, clouds, and whatever was perceptible by the eye, not the annihilation or removal of its space. If those luminaries therefore denoted the Scriptures, piety, and the ministers of the church, their disappearance must symbolize the disappearance of those ministers, the word of God, and religion, not the apostasy of a part of the church to idolatry.

Mr. Mede, Dr. Cressner, Dr. More, Mr. Whiston, Mr. Jurieu, Mr. Daubuz, Mr. Lowman, Bishop Newton, Mr. Elliott, interpret the symbols of the defeat and extermination by Constantine of his antagonists, Maximian, Maxentius, and Licinius, who were idolaters, and the change of the religion of the state from paganism to Christianity. Mr. Faber expounds it wholly of that religious revolution. But that construction is open to equal objection. First: It is founded on the assumption that their expositions of the former seals are correct, which have been shown to be erroneous. Secondly: The only change of significance wrought by Constantine was the change of religion,-the public recognition and legalization of Christianity, and the partial discountenance and overthrow of paganism. His victories and the defeats of his antagonists were of moment, only as they were subsidiary to that. But the symbol denotes none but disastrous events. It indicates nothing that can be considered as answering to the extrication of the church from persecution. It is to be wholly con

'Lactantii Inst. lib. v. c. 22, p. 491.

strued according to them, therefore, of the fall of paganism, and as representing thence but half of the change, and that the least significant. Thirdly: But no parallel subsists between the symbolic objects and paganism; nor between the phenomena ascribed to them and the changes wrought in the relations of paganism to the state. Paganism was not to the state what the heavenly luminaries are to the earth. It was not the ruling power of the empire, but its creature and subsidiary, owing its establishment to law, the appointment of its chief priests and the prescription of its rites to the senate, and sustaining to the government no other relation than that of a political engine. Paganism, moreover, is a mere mode of agency, a species of views, affections, and actions; not an agent. The sun, moon, and stars, therefore, cannot serve as its symbol, no analogy subsisting between them. Those heavenly bodies are real existences, exerting vast influences on the physical world. Their counterpart must also be, not a mere agency, but agents, or a combination of agents, exerting important influences on the social world. Nor were the pontifex maximus and inferior priests to the state what the sun, moon, and stars are to the earth, but the mere creatures and subsidiaries of the civil government. If the several orders of pagan priests could be considered as a counterpart to the sun, moon, and stars, yet they sustained no relation to the empire analogous to that of those luminaries to the earth. They were not the only religious teachers, nor the most influential, nor the true. So far from it, the motives which prompted Constantine to favor Christianity appear to have been drawn on the one hand from the great numbers and important influences of the Christian teachers and their disciples; and on the other, from a general disgust of the better classes at the cruelties of persecution, and wish for toleration and safety to their friends and associates. Fourthly: But there is no correspondence between the changes wrought by Constantine in the relations of paganism to the state, and the phenomena ascribed to the heavenly bodies. The discoloration of the sun was a change of its nature, not a mere interception of its light. It became black as hair-sackcloth, and was visible therefore, not withdrawn from the eye by eclipse. The moon was visible also at the same time, and not therefore in opposition, and thence not in eclipse. But no such total and portentous change took place in the nature of paganism. It had no light whatever to lose. It could not be made blacker to the eye, or a greater object of horror to the heart. Fifthly: The whole change wrought by Constantine in the religion of the state, was limited