THE SEVENTH TRUMPET, OR, THIRD WO. LECTURE VII.
James Dodson
REV. xi. 14—19. ...The second wo is past; and behold, the third wo cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seals, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying. We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings y and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
“TO propose maxims of civil polity,” said the very eloquent Saurin, in his discourse on the words of Solomon, Prov. xiv. 34. Righteousness exalteth a nation, “to propose maxims of civil polity in a religious assembly, to propose maxims of religion in a political assembly, are two things, which seem alike senseless and imprudent. The Christian is so often distinguished from the statesman, that it would seem they are opposite characters.”
If the pastor of the French church at the Hague, thus spoke to his audience in the beginning of the last century,[1] he would have no reason to alter his opinion had he been now in the nineteenth century addressing an American assembly. In this country, where every one is a politician, and few are religious, the sentiments of the many predominate. The politics of every man influences his religion; religion has little influence on politics. This political degradation of Christianity is not however peculiar to the United States; it is universally prevalent among the nations of Christendom. Here, indeed, the general opinion is, that religion is no fit subject of political consideration, civil polity is no fit subject of religious consideration: but in other countries, the state has intermeddled with Christianity in order to degrade religion itself under pretence of establishing the church; and the priests have sold the Christians’ rights and liberties to the reigning authorities.
This state of things was both foreseen and foretold by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Author of our religion, and the Governor of all the nations of the earth. The awful consequences of such a state were also predicted, together with the period of time when a happy change should be effected—Wo, Wo, Wo, to the inhabiters of the earth, in consequence of their abuse of Christianity. But, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST.
THE SEVENTH TRUMPET
being now under consideration, we shall endeavour to settle the question respecting its chronology—unfold the contents of its predictions—and make some appropriate animadversions.
The period of the trumpets, it has been already shown, commenced at the close of that of the seals, or rather at the opening of the seventh seal, in the fourth century;[2] and the object of the judgments announced by the trumpets, is the Roman empire, the FOURTH BEAST of prophecy, degrading the Christian religion into a corrupt system interwoven with its own tyrannical polity.[3] The first four trumpets accomplished the overthrow of ancient Rome, by the complete dismemberment of the western empire of the Cesars. The fifth tormented, and the sixth destroyed the Greek empire, leaving the Ottoman power in possession of the throne of Constantinople.[4] These two are wo trumpets as well as that one which is the theme of the present discourse. Early in the seventh century, the first wo was sounded, and the judgment commenced in 612. The torments inflicted upon the adjacent nations for 150 years were peculiarly great; but the Saracenic conquests were suspended in 762. The remote effects of the first wo, still, nevertheless, continue. The destructive period of the Euphratean horsemen commenced in the year 1281, and, continuing for 391 years, terminated in 1672. About six hundred years of confusion intervened between the first and the second wo; but the time between the second and the third, between the year 1672 and the sounding of the seventh trumpet, is comparatively short. This is evident from inspection of the sacred text, and we, accordingly, proceed to show,
I. The time of the third wo.
In settling the chronological question, we shall lay before you,
1. The argument from verse 14. The second wo is past; and, behold, the third wo cometh quickly.] Several valuable expositors have been misled by an improper interpretation of the expression, the second wo is past. It being understood by some, to signify merely, that the hieroglyphical representation, to John the Divine, had passed before the representation of the second wo appeared, they of course date the third wo soon after the second, without allowing time for the 391 years to be expended. Others, upon the contrary, imagining that the power, by which the second wo was indicted, must become extinct before the third wo commences, postpone the period of the seventh trumpet until the final overthrow of the Ottoman empire. Both are certainly mistaken. The assertion, the second no is past, does not respect the existence of the power which inflicts; but of the judgment itself inflicted, during the specified time of 391 years, upon the Greek Christian empire. It was not of the VISION it was said, it is past; but of the wo which was represented in vision. It was therefore in the year 1672, that the second wo was in fact past.
The text assures us that the third wo cometh quickly after this year. Ταχυ, the Greek word rendered quickly, must be understood comparatively. Swift and slow, although in what Grammarians denominate the positive form, have nevertheless a comparative signification. A swift horse, a sharp instrument, a great man, are expressions which necessarily imply comparison, although the adjective is not in what is called the comparative degree: and in each instance the comparison is confined to objects of a like kind. Ταχυ must be explained upon this principle. It must be understood comparatively, and the comparison must be with the other wo trumpets already expounded.
It is also disputed, whether the celerity implied in the words, “cometh quickly,” is ascribed to the time intervening between the second and third wo, or to the time in which this wo itself is in fact, inflicted. I see no reason for denying its application to both; and therefore conclude that the third wo follows the second in much quicker succession than the second did the first, and that the judgment which it inflicts is more speedy in its execution than either of the former two.
At the conclusion of the first wo it was said. Chap. ix. 12. There come two woes more HEREAFTER; but in this case it is said, the third wo cometh QUICKLY. We are thus given to understand that a considerable space of time would intervene between the fifth and the sixth trumpet: and but a short space between the sixth and the seventh.
Now as these trumpets occupied, the one a period of 150 years, and the other a period of nearly 400, the intervening period, in order to be comparatively great, should exceed any of those numbers. We find, accordingly, that it was in fact upwards of 500 years. But, the third wo, or seventh trumpet, approaches with comparative celerity. The intervening time will not probably exceed 150 years; and the tremendous judgment which the last wo brings, will execute its purposes in a much shorter space of time.
These considerations would lead us to expect, even independently of what our eyes have seen, and our ears have heard, some terrible scourge to the apostate nations about the period in which we live. I shall not at present speak more pointedly: but,
2. Proceed by another train of reasoning to ascertain the period of the seventh trumpet.
You will have observed at the time of my reading this text, that I passed over a large and very interesting portion of the Apocalypse—the whole tenth chapter, and the greater part of the eleventh.
Every attentive reader will readily perceive that the seventh trumpet is separated from the preceding trumpets by a great deal of other matter in the actual arrangement of the book of Revelation. This is the more worthy of notice, because it is a singular instance of deviation from what we may call the natural order. The seven epistles to the Asian churches follow one another in regular succession, and without interruption. The seven seals are opened in similar order, and no foreign event is introduced to unsettle or distract the chronology. The first six trumpets proceed the one after the other in the same order in the written revelation, which the events predicted followed in their accomplishment. The seven vials are poured out in the same manner; and the account of them in the xvith [16th] chapter, is not interrupted by any other narrative. The suspension of the history of the woes, which takes place between the second and the third, is therefore evidently without a parallel. Nor is this fact owing to the intervening length of time ; for the one follows the other, as we have already seen, with comparative celerity. The interposition of the seventh chapter between the narrative of the sixth and of the seventh seal, is not at all a case of the same description. That which is foretold in that chapter really belongs to the very time at which it is introduced. The four angels who stayed the winds of heaven, and the act of the angel sealing, among the twelve tribes of Israel, the true servants of the living God, both belong to the age of Constantine and his three sons; and were the means of preserving from the prevalent corruptions of religion, the actual church of Christ. It is quite otherwise in the case under consideration. The eleventh chapter, from the beginning to the fourteenth verse, introduces a subject quite distinct from the history of the trumpets; and gives in a compendious form the prospective history of a much greater period than that of the sixth and seventh trumpets taken together—a period of 1260 years. There must be a satisfactory reason for this singular fact. Wisdom is justified of her children; and we proceed to lay the reason before you.
The object of all the trumpets is, the punishment and demolition of the great Roman empire, the fourth beast of Daniel’s prophecy. This object had, in fact, been effected under the first four trumpets, so far as it respected the Latin imperial power, by the complete dismemberment of the western empire; and as it respected the eastern empire, the object had been fully accomplished in the judgments of the two succeeding trumpets. What then remained for the seventh trumpet? Is the third wo without an object? Must we violate the principle of homogeneity in the interpretation of these judgments?
These questions are of easy solution. History sheds a light upon the prophecy. It lays the facts before us; and there is wanting only judgment to make the application. The Roman empire still exists, although in a divided state. Both in name and in character, it is found in Europe, even after the second wo destroyed the Greek empire in 1672. The Emperor of Germany has long claimed and received the title of Head of the holy Roman empire; and the several governments within the geographical boundaries of the Latin empire, are still of that description which requires judgments, and merits wo. Their civil establishments are without exception a complex system of tyranny and corrupt Christianity.
As the object of the trumpets is homogeneous, no sooner was the western throne of the Cesars overthrown, than they proceeded in chronological order to the demolition of the Greek empire. While that work is progressing, the beast reappears in the west: his deadly wound is healed: he reassumes his warfare against the saints with ten distinct horns, or separate kingdoms: he strives to silence in death all the witnesses that give testimony for the true religion against his corruptions: and long before the sixth trumpet had established the Ottoman power upon the throne of Constantine the Great, the object of the third wo was presented in the west to the angel who held, by the appointment of God, the seventh trumpet.
It was necessary, therefore, that the Apocalypse should interrupt, for a little, the prophetic narrative of the seven trumpets, in order to introduce to view that system which arose during the execution of other judgments, as the object of the wo announced by the sounding of the last trumpet.
The whole of Chap. x. and xi. 1—13. may be considered as parenthetical; and it would have greatly facilitated the exertions of the reader to understand the subject, had this been attended to by those who divided the bible into chapters. The narrative of the trumpets proceeds from the close of chap. ix. to chap. xi. 14. the paragraph which constitutes the text under discussion.
From this train of reasoning, it appears that the antichristian Roman empire is the object of the third wo. That empire still stands; and of course this judgment is not past. But it cannot stand longer than 1260 years from the rise of the “man of sin,” in the year 606;[5] and this consideration restricts the period of the third wo to the age in which we live.
3. There is conclusive evidence, furnished in the text itself, that the period of the seventh trumpet is that which ushers in the Millennium. Verse 15. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.] The church is thus represented as rejoicing—“Great voices are heard in heaven.”—She has cause of joy. The occasion is novel indeed. Since the captivity of Judah, about 588 years before the Christian era, until the present day, scarcely an instance has occurred in the whole history of nations, of a kingdom or commonwealth regulating their polity upon pure scriptural principles. Many nations, it is true, have pretended to be Christian. And religion has been scandalized by their unholy interference. Many Christians have also been deceived, and misled into a belief, that the kingdoms of the nations were so constituted as to merit their conscientious acquiescence, and pious support: but the Prince of the kings of the earth, who gave this revelation to his servant John, teaches us, that now for the first time, the kingdoms of this world ARE BECOME the kingdoms of God and of Christ. Heretofore, they have been thrones of iniquity, having; no fellowship with God,[6] characterized as beasts and horns of beasts, both by Daniel and the writer of the Apocalypse. Servants, and admirers, and apologists, and eulogists, they have had in abundance, but there was not a voice in heaven raised in their commendation. They were to be feared, but not approved, by the saints of the Most High. Now, indeed, this last wo produces an effectual change. The powers of this world perish in his wrath: the kingdoms are become what they ought to be: and the voice of the church is raised in approbation of the salutary alteration. The seventh trumpet, so far as respects its concluding judgments, synchronizes with the seventh vial.
THIRD AND LAST WO.
Seventh Vial.
XVI. 17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air ; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, it is done.
18. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake.
21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven.
Seventh Trumpet.
XI. 15. And there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.
19. And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
It is by no means, however, upon the mere coincidence of expressions, that we rest the assertion that the last trumpet is so far cotemporary with the last vial; but upon the fact that each of these judgments is represented in its place as introducing the millennium. This is unquestionably the case with the last of the vials, as shall be shown in due time; and I have laid my reasons before you for affirming the same of the last trumpet. Respect for very valuable expositors, from whom I, in this interpretation, find cause of dissent, demands that I should take notice of their opinions before I proceed to the second branch of this discourse.
These opinions are very numerous and various; but I do not propose to enter upon a discussion of them all. 1 am supported in the assertion of the coincidence of the seventh trumpet with the seventh vial, by Lord Napier, Sir Isaac Newton, Mede, Brown, Whitaker, Johnston, and many other respectable expositors. These gentlemen differ, however, among themselves, as to the period to which both the judgments apply; and by none of them have the principles which have determined my mind, and which I have laid before you, been exhibited to view. Durham, Lowman, Priestley, Reader, Frazer, bishop Newton, and Mr. Faber, together with several others, have endeavoured to prove that the seventh trumpet comprehends all the vials; and they too, differ from one another as to the period of time to which the prophecy has respect. Mr. Lowman fixes the date of the seventh trumpet before the termination of the eighth century, and Mr. Faber places it at the commencement of the French revolution, toward the close of the eighteenth.
The arguments which are employed to prove that the seventh trumpet comprehends all the seven vials, are all capable of being reduced to the two following—The argument from analogy—and that from parallel scriptural expressions.
1. The argument from analogy.
“As there are three great distinct apocalyptical periods, the seals—the trumpets—and the vials, all marked by the symbolical number seven, and as the trumpets are all included in the seventh seal, it is inferred that the vials must be all included in the seventh trumpet.”
My reply to this argument is, that the analogy fails; because as the sealed book must of necessity contain under the seventh seal whatsoever in the system of prophecy was not unfolded in the preceding, so the events of the trumpets being subsequent to those predicted under the first six seals, could not, if in the book at all, be made known until the seventh seal was removed from the part of the book which contained them. Therefore we are told expressly, that when he opened the seventh seal, seven angels received the trumpets, viii. 1, 2.
But there is no necessity for placing any, or all the vials, under any one trumpet whatever. In the book, every event must be; but under the trumpets, there is no necessity for placing any event not expressly assigned to them. There is besides a straining, if not an abuse, of symbolical language, in representing the cases as parallel.
It is also to be observed, that as the object of the seals was the Pagan empire, and that of the trumpets the Christian empire, both in the west and the east; the trumpets could not in fact sound until after the sixth seal had abolished Pagan power: but as the object of the vials is the Latin Roman empire, in its state of apostacy; as this system of iniquity arose before the fifth and sixth vials had accomplished the downfall of the eastern empire, there is no necessity for waiting until that period, for inflicting some of the judgments of heaven upon the antichristian system.
2. The argument from certain scriptural expressions.
There are to be found in chap. x. verses 3, 4. compared with verse 7. Seven thunders uttered their voices—Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished. And in chap. xv. i. Seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
It is alleged by bishop Newton, and in this he is followed by Mr. Faber, “that the seventh trumpet is the last wo; that the seven vials are the last plagues; and therefore must synchronize with the last wo; that the seven thunders belong to the seventh trumpet, and are synonymous with the seven vials; and, therefore, that the seven vials must come under the seventh trumpet.” This, if I understand it, is the sum of the argument. With deference to the eminent expositors who rest their cause upon it, however, I cannot hesitate in saying, that it is illogically constructed, and altogether inconclusive.
1. It is a gratuitous hypothesis, that the seven thunders are the seven vials. Assuredly, there is no similitude between the symbols. Why should a clap of thunder be said without proof to be the same with a cup? Would it not be as reasonable to suppose that these seven thunders are those which were heard, xvi. 18. in consequence of the pouring out of the seventh vial, and are identified with the thunderings, xi. 19. of the seventh trumpet?
2. In the seven vials, is filled up the wrath of God, and I see no propriety in confining them all to the third wo. If the phrase, “filled up,” signifies, comprehended, it is impossible to affirm that the third wo exclusively contained divine wrath. Every wo, every trumpet, had its share. But if the phrase signifies completed, then it is no more limited, in correct application to the last trumpet, than to the last vial. The criticism which restricts its application to the last in one instance, will restrict it to the last in the other.
3. There is no propriety in the remark, that if the last plagues do not coincide with the last wo, then there are last, and more last, &c. which is absurd. This is trifling with sacred things. It is sporting with the words of truth. Follow up the criticism, and see how it will apply. There are seven last plagues inflicted in regular succession. Both bishop Newton and Mr. Faber acknowledge this. There is, therefore, according to the text, the first last plague, and the second last plague, and the third last plague, &c. &c.
It is obvious to every one, that the words, “last plagues,” and “is filled up the wrath of God,” are not to be taken absolutely, but relatively. They cannot be true absolutely, because the judgments to which they apply are not, in fact, the last or the only judgments. There are subsequent judgments undoubtedly inflicted on Gog and Magog; and there are judgments inflicted subsequent to these, and to all that can be inflicted in this world. There is a DAY OF JUDGMENT, when time itself is come to an end, and there is wrath in hell. Mr. Faber ought therefore to have spared his criticism on Mr. Whitaker. It is unworthy of a grave expositor.[7] Great men are not always wise.
The expressions in question are undoubtedly to be understood relatively: and they have relation to the antichristian apostacy. The vials are the plagues inflicted upon this last form of the great fourth prophetical beast. In them is filled up the wrath of God, toward the antichristian usurpation.
The error of commentators upon this subject, consists in their fondness to identify things which are intended in prophecy to be kept distinct. The object of all the trumpets is one, and is different from the object of the vials; and even although in some certain instances, a trumpet and a vial should designate judgments upon one and the same system, it is on different accounts. The object of the trumpets is the Roman empire, professing a political species of Christianity: and they affect this empire both in its Latin and Greek dominions. The object of all the vials is also one—the antichristian system in the Latin Roman empire. It is true, the sixth and seventh vials, and the last trumpet meet, in judging and punishing the same great complex system of iniquity, preparatory to the millennium: but it is because those two distinct objects are in fact in this instance combined in the abominable and complex establishments which are divinely appointed to destruction. We shall hereafter show more at large that this destruction comes upon these establishments in the course of half a century from the present time.[8]
II. We shall explain the predictions of the seventh trumpet.
These predictions respect the grand design of the wo—the joy which the accomplishment of that design produces—and the means employed in bringing it to pass.
1. The great end accomplished is, the general reformation of the nations of the earth.
Verse 15. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.] The existing sovereignties of nations constitute the subject of this prediction. The kingdoms of this world, are the political constitutions which are on earth, and which have derived their form and character from the men of the world: and particularly the several kingdoms which are found within the precincts of the old Roman empire. The reformation which they undergo changes effectually their character. They become the kingdoms of our Lord. They were, heretofore, of this world, of the earth, earthy: but now, they are of the Lord. They were always in fact, though unknowingly and unwillingly, under the power of Jehovah, and made subservient to Jesus Christ: but they are now professedly and with understanding subject to the law of God, and the revelation of Jesus Christ. True religion now comes to be formally avowed by them in their political capacity. There were Christians residing in these nations before this time: the nations were actually called Christian nations: some really supposed that they were Christian states: many pretended that they were so: but during all this time, they have been in the estimation of our Lord Jesus Christ, only “kingdoms of this world.” Now however they understand, they profess, and they support, not a state religion, nor a worldly sanctuary, but the pure religion of the Bible, in a consistent manner.
The system of revealed truth for the first time influences their whole social relations, and directs their polity: and they publicly proclaim their submission to Messiah. They are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. They acknowledge him as their Governor; and he shall reign over them continually. Wonderful, and unto many, unexpected change! But the power of our Redeemer over the nations shall never afterwards be called in question by his disciples. He shall reign for ever and ever.
I conclude this part of my exposition in the words of Dr. Johnston. “This trumpet which brings the last wo upon the Roman empire, (the inhabiters of the earth,) brings praise and triumph to heaven, the church of Christ. ‘For there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.’ Then Christians in the church of Christ shall lift up their voices aloud, and in triumph proclaim the purity, prosperity, and extent of Christ's spiritual kingdom, in such a manner that no part of the world shall be ignorant of the proclamation, or willing and able to gainsay it. Then all the kingdoms which Daniel foretold should arise and fall in the world before the kingdom of Christ should extend over the whole world, shall have fallen, and that kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, which is not meat and drink, but truth, and righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, shall extend over the whole earth. Then all the particular kingdoms and churches which shall be erected in the world, for the civil and religions government of men in society, shall he formed on these principles of truth, righteousness, peace, and joy, which form the constitution of the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. From that time forth, so long as this world stands, Christ’s church shall reign in triumph; no kingdom shall again rise up to persecute and oppress it with success, as Rome, Heathen and Papal, had done before that period, and its purity and triumph shall be for ever and ever in the heavenly world.”
2. The seventh trumpet predicts great joy, for the general reformation consequent upon the third wo.
Verses 16, 17. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying. We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.]
They who returned thanks in this solemn manner to the Almighty, and so expressed their joy at the remarkable event now come to pass, are the collective body of faithful men in the church of Christ—“the four and twenty elders.”[9] These fell upon their faces before the throne of God; and in humble acknowledgment of his sparing mercy to themselves, as well as in grateful adoration of his justice in the punishment of his and their enemies, they worship him in spirit and in truth.
The terrible scenes of the third wo, with all the barbarities which have been consequent upon the French Revolution, are by no means in themselves cause of joy and thanksgiving. When therefore the saints are said to rejoice in them, it is because these judgments are in the providence of God introductory to the millennium. It is in the birth of the child, and not in the pangs of travail, that the parents and the friends rejoice. It is on account of their effects that the saints are required to rejoice in the judgments of God upon the nations of the earth; and therefore do they rejoice. Psa. xcvii. 8. Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced, because of thy judgments, O LORD. To those pious men who do not sutler themselves by interest, by prejudice, or by partialities, to become blind to the immoral character of the kingdoms of this world, it is certainly gratifying to witness the period of their overthrow; to live to see, in these overturnings, the answer of many prayers; and to have laid before then- eyes, those miracles which confirm their faith in the sacred predictions, and in the infinite perfections of their God: for in the light of miracles the fulfillment of prophecy ought uniformly to be contemplated. It is with high ecstacy that this very period of the world will, a few years hence, be celebrated according to the text now under discussion. “We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.”
“This interposition,” said Dr. Johnston, “This interposition of God in establishing Christ’s kingdom over the whole world is called his great power, that is, in the symbolical language, the exertions of his power in favour of the church of Christ, of which all his former exertions were only types. However great, gracious, and many, have been the exertions of divine power in favour of the church of Christ, all these shall not only be greatly exceeded by that one which shall overthrow Antichrist, bind Satan, and establish and perpetuate the reign of truth, righteousness, peace, and joy, over the whole earth, but by that one, their true intention, and the hand that performed them, shall be rendered much more visible than they were before that period. Then the kingdom of God shall come, and it shall then be evident that his is the power which hath brought about that period, and that the whole shall illustriously display his glory.”
3. The means employed in executing the wo, and in bringing about that great and desirable event, the millennium, are not very particularly described. Hurried on, to the most pleasant part of the scenery exposed to view, after the sounding of the seventh trumpet, it is only in the concluding sentence that the apostle takes notice of the judgments. These same events too, were afterwards to be introduced to view in another part of the prophetical history, of the same period ; and in such connexion as requires more attention to the instruments employed in executing the wrath of God.
Moreover, the seventh trumpet, though, in the first instance, announcing wo to the inhabiters of the symbolical earth, and bringing down upon them swift destruction, has a reference to the subsequent changes which take place in the moral world, until the day of final retribution; and, on that account, we cannot describe the events of this trumpet as comprehended in the second grand period, designated the PERIOD OF THE TRUMPETS. The period of the seals embraces only the first six; for the seventh seal comprehends all time: and the period of the trumpets for the same reason comprehends only the first six trumpets.[10]
Verse 18. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.]
This is a part of the eucharistic hymn of the twenty-four elders, who represent the whole church of God. Considering the power of God displayed in executing judgments on the antichristian beast, and in the establishment of the millennium, they look forward through succeeding ages to that day which is emphatically the day of the Lord—the final judgment. Having celebrated, verse 15—17. the period of the millennium, Period IV.[11] of our general arrangement; they glance at that of Gog and Magog, Period V. in the words, “the nations were angry:” they hasten on to Period VI. “the time of the dead, when they should be judged:” and they speak of Period VII. when all accounts being settled, men of every description shall eternally reap the fruit of their doings. Then the righteous shall be happy—“that thou shouldest give reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name small and great.” Then also shall the wicked, who by their sins are the destroyers of themselves, and of the countries in which they dwell, suffer eternal death—“destroy them which destroy the earth.”
It is only in the 19th verse, the concluding sentence under this trumpet, that the apostle introduces the subject of wo. As soon as the trumpet sounded, he heard the voices of the heavenly inhabitants, and he puts upon record their declarations, before he describes the representations which were made to him, of the judgments which preceded the triumphs.
The vision, however, he must give. Punishment must be inflicted in its time. It is painful, but it is necessary. God is just; and will by no means clear the guilty.
Verse 19. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.] Heaven is the symbol for the church of God, which is frequently expressly called the kingdom of heaven, to denote both the origin and the end of the dispensation of the grace of God to men. In the visible church, at this epoch, the temple of God was opened so as to reveal the ark of the testament.
“TEMPLUM, (a tuendo, Varr. L. L. 6, 2.) a temple, a space in the heavens, for taking omens from the flight of birds, and thence denotes the place where the augur took his seat to make his observations.”[12] The Latin word became of course employed to designate a place dedicated to religious worship—A sanctuary; and our English word temple is of the same import. It is often used in scripture as synonymous with the house of God, the tabernacle of the Lord, the palace of the Most High. The Hebrews, before the magnificent edifice was built upon Mount Zion by Solomon, did not hesitate to call their principal place of worship, the temple;[13] and afterwards also, they referred to this same splendid building, by the name of tabernacle.[14] The opening of the temple in heaven, accordingly signifies, that the means of divine knowledge had become abundant in the church of Christ.
There was seen in his temple the ark of his testament. God’s gracious covenant with man, in the Mediator, Jesus Christ, was set forth by the ark which was constructed by Moses, and laid up in the sanctuary. This ארון or Coffer, made of Shittim wood, (probably the Arabian Acacia) covered with plates of gold, contained the two tables of the decalogue, which were miraculously engraven on Mount Sinai. It was upon the cover of this ark, called the mercy-seat, Ιλαστηριον, in Greek, and כפרה in Hebrew, that the high priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice upon the great day of atonement. It was overspread by the cherubim, and upon it rested the SHEKINAH, the glory of the Lord, from which Jehovah communed with his people Israel. The ark accordingly represented the essential properties of the Christian religion—the mediation of Jesus Christ; atonement for sin by the sacrifice he offered; and communion with God in grace and glory, through him who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
The sacred ark was concealed in the MOST HOLY PLACE, in the temple, from the observation of all except the high priest on the day of atonement. In allusion to this fact; and, in order to indicate a period of increasing christian knowledge, it is said, the temple was opened, and the ark of God revealed.
Cotemporaneously with the terrible wo of the seventh trumpet, extraordinary efforts are successfully made to reader the means of christian knowledge more, abundant throughout the earth.
Now is the time of these wonders. The seed of Jacob are already scattered among the nations, as dew fallen from the vast expanse of heaven, over all lands: the oracles of the living God, rendered into the several languages of the world, are carried over its territories, as the sun going forth from his tabernacle makes his circuit unto the ends of heaven: the herald already stands on the border of every hostile empire, proclaiming in the name of the great God, peace upon earth, and good will toward men.
At the same time, the political systems, including those religions which are no more than departments of state polity, are in awful commotion. While the temple was opened, and the covenant revealed, there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
These words summarily comprehend all the judgments of the third wo. They do not, it is true, describe minutely, or in detail, the character of the Revolution, or of the agents employed in bringing it to pass: and it may be inferred from this that there is information elsewhere given to supply the deficiency. All that was necessary, under the seventh trumpet itself, to say upon the subject is, that adequate punishment shall be inflicted; the BEAST OF ROME entirely destroyed; and, upon the overthrow of the fourth tyrannical empire, the kingdoms of this world shall be new modelled, and settled upon moral principles, and have their social order regulated by the statutes of the Christian religion. As means have been amply furnished for ascertaining the time of the wo, and the same period of time is elsewhere more particularly described, we must rest satisfied, although, in this text, our curiosity is not gratified to its full extent.
The very copious details furnished in the history of the concluding vials will in due time make up for the scantiness of the materials apparent in the present instance: and besides this information, detailed in the three chapters which follow the account of the seven vials, there is a variety of other means, provided in the Apocalypse, for developing the events of the third wo.
Mr. Faber, however far he may have erred in the view which he has given of the seven vials, judged correctly, in introducing under the seventh trumpet the harvest and the vintage of God’s wrath, as described at the close of the fourteenth chapter.[15] These two distinct parts of the judgment which shall destroy antichrist, undoubtedly belong to the third wo. And however fancifully the seven vials have been divided by the expositor last mentioned, between the symbolical harvest and vintage, (a parcelling for which he has given no reason, no sufficient warrant) the historical events are, with much discernment, applied to that era of the judgment, the period of the harvest, which alone as yet, is the subject of history. The vintage, he justly remarks, is not yet arrived; and with equal propriety, he represents it as synchronizing with the seventh vial: not indeed that the one includes the other; but each is a distinct account of judgments inflicted by the God of heaven, at one and the same time, for the purpose of affecting, though upon distinct principles, the very same object.
In order to finish this part of the discourse, already perhaps too much prolonged, we shall give the history of the events referred to in the third wo.
The revival of the imperial power in the west, while it was decaying in the east, was necessary in order that the seventh trumpet should have an OBJECT upon which its judgments might be inflicted. I quote from Mr. Gibbon evidence of the fact. “The mutual obligations of the popes and the Carlovingian family, form the important link of ancient and modern, of civil and ecclesiastical history. The royal unction of the kings of Israel was dexterously applied: the successor of St. Peter assumed the character of a divine ambassador: a German chieftain was transformed into the Lord’s anointed; and this Jewish rite has been diffused and maintained by the superstition and vanity of modern Europe.
“The leaders of a powerful nation would have disdained a servile title and subordinate office, but the reign of the Greek emperors was suspended; and in THE VACANCY OF THE EMPIRE, they derived a more glorious commission from the pope and the republic. The power and policy of Charlemagne annihilated an enemy, and imposed a master.”[16]
“The title of patrician was below the merits and greatness of Charlemagne; and it was only by REVIVING THE WESTERN EMPIRE that he could secure the establishment. By this decisive measure they would finally eradicate the claims of the Greeks; from the debasement of a provincial town the majesty of Rome would be restored: and the Latin Christians would he united under a supreme head in their ancient Metropolis.”
“On the festival of Christmas, the last year of the eighth century. Charlemagne appeared in the church of St. Peter; and to gratify the vanity of Rome, he had exchanged the simple dress of his country for the habit of a patrician. After the celebration of the holy mysteries, Leo suddenly placed a crown on his head, and the dome resounded with the acclamations of the people, long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God the great and pacific emperor of the Romans. Without injustice to his fame,” adds the historian, “I may discern some blemishes in the sanctity and greatness of THE RESTORER OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE.”[17]
As to the extent of this empire, I quote from the same historian what is amply supported by the testimony of other writers. “It extended between east and west from the Ebro to the Elbe or Vistula; between the north and south from the Dutchy of Beneventum to the river Eyder, the perpetual boundary of Germany and Denmark. The islands of Great Britain and Ireland were disputed by a crowd of princes of Saxon or Scottish origin; and, after the loss of Spain, the Christian and Gothic kingdom of Alphonso the Chaste, was confined to the narrow range of the Asturian mountains. These petty sovereigns revered the power or virtue of the Carlovingian monarch, implored the honour and support of his alliance, and styled him their common parent, the sole and supreme emperor of the west.”
The transfer of the imperial throne from France to Germany was effected in the reign of Otho, also called the Great, Anno 962. “He,” says Mr. Gibbon, “was the conqueror and apostle of the Slavic nations of the Elbe and the Oder; the marches of Brandenberg and Sleswick were fortified with German colonies: and the king of Denmark, the dukes of Poland and Bohemia, confessed themselves his tributary vassals. At the head of a victorious army, he passed the Alps, subdued the kingdom of Italy, delivered the pope, and for ever fixed the imperial crown in the name and nation of Germany.”[18]
“The empire of Charlemagne and Otho was distributed among the Dukes of the nations or provinces, the Counts of the smaller districts, and the Wargraves of the marches or frontiers, who all united the civil and military authority as it had been delegated to the lieutenants of the first Cesars. The golden bull which fixes the Germanic constitution, is promulgated in the style of a sovereign and legislator. An hundred princes bowed before his throne, and exalted their own dignity by the voluntary honours which they yielded to their chief. Nor was the supremacy of the emperor confined to Germany alone: the hereditary monarchs of Europe confessed the pre-eminence of his rank and dignity: he was the first of the Christian princes, THE TEMPORAL HEAD OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. The oracle of the civil law, the learned Bartolus, was a pensioner of Charles the fourth, (Century xiv.) and his school resounded with the doctrine, that the Roman emperor was the rightful sovereign of the earth, from the rising to the setting sun. The contrary opinion was condemned, not as an error, but as a heresy, since even the gospel had pronounced, and there went forth a decree from Cesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.”[19]
By these passages, from the pen of a celebrated writer, who had not the most remote idea of accommodating history to the scripture prophecy, it is evident, that the western empire was indeed restored and continued in the persons of Charlemagne and Otho, and the successors of Otho on the throne of Germany, down even to our own time. Here then, we find the great Roman beast revived in the west, while under the first and second wo he was expiring in the east; and this last supreme head of the empire becomes of course the object of the third wo. It is to be destroyed in order that the nations may undergo a thorough reformation. An entire revolution is of course to take place throughout all the kingdoms erected within the bounds of the Roman empire; and the emperor of Germany is to be remarkably distinguished by the wo inflicted upon him in the overthrow of his power.
In this view of the Germanic empire I am not alone. Mr. Faber also remarked, that “the emperor has always claimed, and has always been allowed, precedence over every one of the ten horns: and as such he has invariably been considered as the head of the Great European commonwealth.” He also refers to Sir George M’Kenzie as saying, “amongst kings, the emperor is allowed the first place by the famous ceremonial of Rome, as succeeding to the Roman emperors—and therefore the German and Italian lawyers, who are subject to the empire, have with much flattery asserted, that the emperor is the Vicar of God in temporals, and that jurisdictions are derived from him, as from the fountain, calling him dominum et caput totius orbis.”[20]
Such was the political condition of Europe when the seventh angel sounded the third wo trumpet, under which the present convulsions commenced, which are by the irrevocable decree of heaven to terminate in the total overthrow of all the governments now existing, and in the establishment of a general reformation upon true Christian principles.
In the year 1672, the third wo terminated with the siege of Cameniec; at the end of the hour, the day, the month, and the year, of the Euphratean horsemen: but the effects of that revolution in the Greek empire are still witnessed in the existence of the Ottoman power. In a little more than one century after the abolition of the power of the eastern Cesars, that judgment commenced which is destined to destroy the revived empire of the west. The lightnings and thunders which precede the earthquake and the destroying hail, first arrest the solemn attention of the alarmed nations. As two awful clouds rising from distant parts of the horizon, move and approach through the vast tracts of ether, until they meet, and with terrific concussion pour down upon the earth their fire and their hail, so the two opposite and contending interests of liberty and of despotism, gathering new strength in distant parts of the civilized world, meet in the heart of the empire, and extend their dreadful convulsions over all its members.
The revolution of 1776, which separated for ever from the British crown the United States of America, taught the inhabitants of Europe a practical lesson, upon the subject of effectual resistance to oppression, which shall never be forgotten. The dismemberment of the kingdom of Poland, by the three neighbouring tyrants of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, which was planned in 1772, and executed in despite of the patriotic exertions of the brave Kosciusko, in 1795, gave to the civilized world an unequivocal witness that thrones of iniquity are deaf to the voice of reason and of justice; and still are ready to reduce to practice the doctrine which a feeble or base priesthood have charged upon the Christian religion, that the possession of power gives a right to rule; and binds, under the risk of divine wrath, the weak into submission, without daring to call in question the right by which they are held in durance. It was in the heart of civilized Europe, however, that the third wo commenced.
France, the central power, the most populous, the most learned, the most licentious, and not the least despotic of the nations; France, considered as the SUN of the antichristian system; the kingdom in which was actually revived the empire of the west, was destined to become the principal instrument of its final ruin. She had given assistance to the sons of freedom, on the plains and along the shores of Columbia, until the Republican eagle snatched the oppressed provinces from the paw of the royal lion of England. She transported from our shores across the tempestuous Atlantic the fire of liberty, and it speedily burst forth, in an awful flame, in her own capital.
But France was morally incapable of an immediate enjoyment of liberty and peace. She was corrupted by the long and gloomy reign of tyranny and superstition. In the scale of morality she occupied the lowest grade. It was, moreover, inconsistent with that distributive justice, which metes out to every nation as such its full measure, to permit those who had abundantly shed the blood of the martyrs, to escape a proportionate vengeance. The sins of the fathers must be visited upon their impenitent children. The throne of Louis, and the altar at which his priests ministered with unwashed hands, had been both defiled with the blood of the saints, and they both require to be washed in the blood of the guilty persecutor.
Where are the instruments of the punishment to be found? Where are they who shall prevent the establishment of liberty in France? They are found among her own unprincipled sons; among her ambitious, disunited, fickle, and ferocious demagogues; among the foes of freedom in the world; and on the several thrones of the adjacent nations. The heathen raged: the kingdoms were moved: the pillars of empire began to tremble: tyrants felt their heads for their crowns; and with convulsive violence grasping their sceptres, they resolved at Pilnitz,[21] that the example of America should not be copied in Europe; and that the iron law which had recently been adopted for the purpose of annihilating the kingdom of Poland,[22] should be applied in its full rigour to revolutionary France, until her rising liberties should sink into the tomb. The confederacy of European monarchs was formed.[23] France resisted. The contest commenced. The angel of death presided over the storm. He blows his trumpet. It is the third and the last wo to the inhabiters of the great Roman empire.
The French revolution took place in the year 1789. THE STATES GENERAL, an assembly consisting of three distinct bodies, nobles, clergy, and common people, which had not met for nearly two hundred years, were convened by the call of Louis XVI. on the 5th of May. They all met in one hall. The representatives of the people equalled in number the other two orders; and they assumed the name of the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. They abolished the nobility; destroyed the feudal system; reduced the clergy to a state of dependence on the public treasury, confiscating the property of the church. They erected a limited monarchy. The king reluctantly yielded. He was insincere, and they were distrustful; and in the year 1792, they called a NATIONAL CONVENTION. It met on the 21st September, and immediately resolved to erect upon the ruins of the monarchy a republican system. On the 21st January 1793, Louis Capet, the dethroned king of France, who had been alternately a captive and a fugitive, was put to death; and the new republic had to prepare herself against the wrath which she provoked by her cruelty; and especially by her disrespect for the powers of Europe, including the imperial head of the Roman earth, and the several horns of the beast, the kings of the earth.
These were all instigated to bring down upon themselves, by their own instrumentality, the wo which was denounced upon them by the God of heaven on account of their sins; they rushed into the battle, and France had to contend with the combined powers of Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and the Empire, together with Great Britain, Spain, and the United Provinces.
France too, a wo to herself, was remarkably fitted to be a wo to the inhabiters of the earth; faction upon faction arose to distract her repose; she started from the most corrupt and irrational kind of superstition to the extreme of Atheism, and she speedily reverted to her former creed. She changed her forms of government from year to year, and her rapacious demagogues were alternately the murderers and the victims. She is at last become a great military empire, guided and influenced by the will of one man of gigantic power, of unceasing activity, of unrivalled practical skill in the art of war, and of boundless ambition, who is at this moment reaping in the heart of Germany the harvest of God’s wrath; and so fulfilling the predictions of my text, and serving in the most effectual manner a God whom he does not know or worship.
The event is not at all doubtful. Whatever may become of Napoleon Buonaparte; the Germanic empire must be overthrown; and the kingdoms of Europe, overturned by this terrible wo, shall afterwards be organized upon Christian instead of antichristian principles.
III. Practical Remarks.
Having detained you so long, in the contemplation of divine judgments upon human empires; and in the consideration of political movements, I deem it a duty, before I dismiss you, to direct your eye toward him who sits enthroned in light unconceivable; and to suggest ideas, such as the Christian should habitually cherish upon taking a view of the sinful policies of human societies.
1. Your God, Christians, reigns over the nations of the earth, and will ultimately be glorified in all their revolutions. He made all things for himself; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. In him too all things consist: for they are upheld by the word of his power. Before he called them into existence, he determined in what manner they should be governed: and he constrains them to answer the purpose for which they were formed, however unwilling they may be to obey what he commands. He, who holds the waters of the deep in the hollow of his hand, sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants are as grasshoppers before him. He overrules their wishes and their exertions; their deliberations and their decrees; their opinions and their passions; their pride and their ambition; their wisdom and their folly; their treaties and their battles, for the accomplishment of his benevolent designs. To him, my brethren, yes, to him do ye look. He is your God and your Redeemer. He is your own and your fathers’ Friend. All things shall co-operate for the salvation of his people. The events which come to pass fulfil his predictions, and so demonstrate the prescience of him who ordered the end from the beginning. Trust in him; rejoice in him; and a great reward shall be given you of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you are come to trust. Standing upon a Rock, you may behold, without dismay, the agitation of the deep, the rolling of the billows, and the tossings of misguided nations. You are safe; and the Lord shall preserve you for ever and ever.
2. Let us ascertain, ye disciples of a munificent Saviour, the end which he has in view; and so employ our agency in bringing it to pass. Nothing can be more honourable than to be serving and promoting the designs of heaven. Thus co-operating with God our labour shall not be in vain, our works shall not be lost, and we shall be certain of success.
In his prophetical discoveries, he is pleased to make known the end: and he has proclaimed the law from Zion, by which we are to be governed in the employment of means to bring that end to pass. Let your political attachments yield to what he demands: let your ideas of self-interest be subjected to the fulfilment of his precepts: let your prejudices and your partialities, as well as your deliberate sentiments, be offered up to your God; and let your ardent prayers accord exactly with the information which he gives relative to his judgments upon the great antichristian empire, and to the instruments which he employs to inflict the threatened wo.
In vain you would desire a different result from that which he has predicted. In vain you would oppose the plan which he has laid down and proclaimed. Omniscience discards the counsels of shortsighted man: and Omnipotence is not to be resisted by the feeble arm of flesh. Your personal welfare, O believers, though you know not the method, will be effectually promoted; the good of the church, the ultimate interests of human society, the glory of the moral Governor of the world, will be promoted. Say not then as did Peter in the rashness of his zeal and the ardour of his affection, “far be this design from thee;” lest you meet with the humiliating rebuke, “get thee behind me Satan.” Embark not your hopes and your affections in the cause of apostate nations; lest your affections should be involved in wo, and your hope should perish. “Thus saith the Lord God, of every profane and wicked prince,” of the head of the empire of the west, and of all its different kingdoms, “whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end: thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.”[24]
Thus shall ye be prepared to join in the celestial hymn, of “the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great powder, and hast reigned—The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”
3. Let us lament the political conduct of Christians in the present age of the world.
I speak not now of those men who profess Christianity, merely because it is the religion of their fathers or of their country; I speak not of those men, who talk of religion as necessary to keep the multitude in subjection, but not at all necessary to men of learning and of rank; I speak not of those men who degrade Christianity into an instrument of avarice or ambition : but of those who love my God, who trust in my Redeemer, and enjoy the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. Many such Christians there are yet upon the earth. It is a mercy to the earth that this is the case. Amidst the distractions of the visible church; amidst the confusions of civil societies; amidst the clashings of the nations, there are thousands and hundreds of thousands of such holy men scattered over the earth: but they are yet in a state of imperfection; and their political conduct is generally lamentable.
To them, this seventh and last trumpet is a voice of warning, and the harbinger of triumphant joy and peace. To the world, this trumpet is a wo: to the inhabiters of the Latin empire, the symbolical earth, it is a wo. To the Germanic empire, the successors of Charlemagne and of the Cesars, it is the great and the last wo: to the horns of the beast, the crowned heads of Europe, its language is, your kingdom is departed from you. Concerning revolutionary France, impious and ambitious nation, the prophecy says, Thou art this wo, the rod of mine indignation,—the principal instrument of these overwhelming judgments.
Is it not then lamentable to see the disciples of our Lord divided from one another, by attachments to such contending powers. They enlist with zeal in the contest; and take opposite sides in the field, in the forum, in the pulpit, and in the oratory. They indulge in violent passions; they cherish lasting animosities; they weaken one another’s hands; they bring reproach upon their profession; they give occasion to worldly men to laugh at the religion, which is thus, so often, degraded into a political instrument of party spirit; and they insult the throne of grace with contradictory prayers entirely inadmissible before the Lord.
Let not this for ever be the case. The remedy is easy. It is at hand. Form your estimate of the nations by the light of truth. Weigh their pretensions in the balance of the sanctuary. Religion is not with any of them identified. It pronounces their punishment; and hails the approaching reformation. They are only kingdoms of this world, which must perish for their iniquities.
Examine the character of the principal warriors and statesmen; admire if you will their various and splendid talents; judge of their comparative qualities and merit; reason upon the proximate and remote effects of their achievements; indulge so far as you will your conjectures upon the particular and general results of the great contests which are going on: on all these points you may indulge different sentiments, and be guiltless; but Oh ! for the love which you bear to our Lord, who died for our sins, and now governs the nations, preserve your love for one another, and for the cause of God; and studiously avoid indulging either wishes or opinions which are inconsistent with what he has revealed to you in this book. AMEN.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 1706.
[2] Page 117—125. [Begins HERE]
[3] Page 120—122. [Begins HERE]
[4] See preceding Lecture.
[5] This shall be shown in its place.
[6] Psa. xciv 20.
[7] Vol. II. p. 317. Lond. 1806.
[8] We are now entered upon the period of the seventh trumpet. Mr. Faber appears very nearly correct in his chronological statement of this third and last wo. It in fact originated in the commotions of the French revolution; and Napolean Buonaparte is the principal agent of Providence hitherto employed in this work of judgment. In this I entirely agree with that expositor, however far he has mistaken the time of the vials. “It has been our lot,” says he, vol. ii. p. 313, “to hear the voice of the third wo, and to behold in the French revolution the dreadful scenes of the harvest,” p. 317. We have likewise seen, that the third wo came quickly in the year 1792, when the reign of Gallic liberty and equality commenced [i.e., the French Revolution]. Then it was that the voice of the seventh angel, or the third wo angel, began to be heard.”
[9] This symbolical expression has been heretofore explained. The reader is referred to page 58.
[10] I quote an excellent paragraph from bishop Newton, to show, that I am not singular in this sentiment. “At the sounding of the seventh trumpet, (ver. 13.) the third wo commenceth, which is rather implied than expressed, as it will be described more fully hereafter. The third wo brought on the inhabiters of the earth is the ruin and downfall of the antichristian kingdom: and then, and not till then, according to the heavenly chorus, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. St. John is rapt and hurried away as it were to a view of the happy millennium, without considering the steps preceding and conducting to it. At the same time the four and twenty elders, or the ministers [He ought to have said members; A. M'L.] of the church, (ver. 16, 17, 18.) are represented as praising and glorifying God for manifesting his power and kingdom more than he had done before; and give likewise an intimation of some succeeding events, as the anger of the nations, Gog and Magog, (xx. 8.) and the wrath of God, displayed in their destruction, (xx. 9.) and the judging of the dead, or the general judgment, (xx. 12.) and the rewarding of all the good, small and great, as well as the punishing of the wicked. Here we have only a summary account of the circumstances and occurrences of the seventh trumpet, but the particulars will be dilated and enlarged upon hereafter.
“And thus are we arrived at the consummation of all things, through a series of prophecies extending from the apostle’s days to the end of the world. It is this series which has been our clue to conduct us in our interpretation of these prophecies: and though some of them may be dark and obscure, considered in themselves, yet they receive light and illustration from others preceding and following. All together they are as it were a chain of prophecies, whereof one link depends on, and supports another. If any parts remain yet obscure and unsatisfactory, they may perhaps be cleared up by what the apostle himself hath added by way of explanation.”
[11] See Pages 46, 47. [Begins HERE]
[12] Adams’s Dictionary.
[13] 1 Sam. i. 9. and iii. 3. Psa. xviii. 6.
[14] Jer. x. 20. Hos. xii. 9.
[15] I shall show in its proper place, that chap. xi. 1—13. and chapters xii. xiii. xiv. furnish each of them an account of the remarkable 1260 years, and so in part synchronize with this period.
[16] Hist[ory]. [of] Dec[line]. [and Fall of the Roman Empire.] Vol. VI. p. 170—179.
[17] Hist. Dec. Vol. VI. p. 190—193.
[18] Hist. Dec. Vol. VI. p. 199.
[19] Hist. Dec. Vol. VI. p. 214—219.
[20] [the master and head of the world.] Vol. II. Page 190.
[21] [The Declaration of Pillnitz, 27 August, 1791, pledged the support of Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire against the French Revolution.]
[22] [This refers to the destruction of the Polish commonwealth by a partition into three parts ruled by Prussia, Russia and Austria. From 1795 to 1918, Poland ceased to exist as an independent commonwealth.]
[23] “The Partition Treaty was signed July 1701, and on the following month the treaty of Pilnitz was signed personally by the emperor and the king of Prussia.”
[24] Ezek. xxi. 26.