nature of the Levitical ceremonial, and the explanation given by St. Paul, of the pontifical office of our Lord,277 we may, without any undue licence of exposition, extend the principle on which that office is explained by the one Apostle, to the description given of it by the other. They refer in common to the great day of Atonement; but describe different parts of the service which was performed on that solemn festival. As the one illustrates the sacerdotal function of our Lord, by the entrance of the typical High Priest on that day, into the Holy of Holies, with the offering of blood,978 the other explains it, by his entrance into the same place, and on the same day, with the oblation of incense.279 And the affinity between the earthly type and the celestial reality further

'Pontificiorum doctores, [' alium Angelum '] esse Gabrielem ' aut Michaelem, si hos angelos creatos credant, uti solent... 'Manifestum est, istum äλλov älysλor esse Christum Summum Ecclesiæ Pontificem qui solus Deo obtulit sacrificium gratum, ⚫ et suffitum suavissimum dignissimumque, ut ejus virtute in cœlo, tanquam in Sanctum Sanctorum, immò singulis diebus ubique ' locorum in Ecclesiâ preces nostras Deo gratas sistat atque pro ' nobis intercedat. Sed Christum, in verbo Dei non vocari tantum Angelum sed et alium Angelum,' patet. Apoc. vii. 2.' Some of the Popish expositors, with a true antichristian spirit, identify, in this description, the Pope: Braun. ibid. ci.

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277 Heb. vi. 5-10. vii. 11-28. ix. 11–28.

278 Ib. ix. 24-26. comp. Lev. xvi. 2. 14. 16. 18.

279 Rev. viii. 3, 4. comp. Lev. ibid. 2. 12, 13.

extends to the character of the festival; as it is represented in both, as a day of affliction and mourning.280 As, however, the one Apostle had described the High Priest of our profession,' entering into the holiest place of all;' he was now beheld, in the vision of the other, in the same place, imparting the incense of his merits to the prayers ' of the saints.281 And from the propitiation which was thus effected, those consequences were the result of which the seven angels with the trumpets are represented as the ministers -the last of whom proved the herald of peace and triumph to the Christian Church.

In the vision of the seventh seal,' I therefore conceive, we have revealed to us, by the Evangelist, the cause and the consummation of the Millennium. Having already transcribed the first part of the vision, I shall subjoin the last, as it describes the opening of the peculiar period, of which I have undertaken to investigate the nature.

And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms

280 Rev. viii. 1. 13. Lev. xvi. 31.

281 Rev. viii. 3. The orignal has iva Swop rais πgoσEUXaIs Tãv ȧyiwv, the sense of which is, I think, more accurately expressed in the heading prefixed to the chapter, than in the text: 'Another 'angel putteth incense to the prayers of the saints on the golden 'altar.' From the savor and fragrance of this oblation they could alone derive their acceptance: Eph. v. 2.

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 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. And the nations were angry and thy wrath is come, ' and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto

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thy servants the Prophets, and to the Saints, and 'them that fear thy name, small and great. 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 6 hail.'982

As we have the best introduction to the subject of the Millennium in the opening of the seventh

282 Rev. xi. 15-19. Bishop Newton indeed contends, that the last verse should be transferred to the following chapter, from which it has been improperly disjointed: Dissert. XXV. P. II. ut supr. p. 289. But I cannot join him in that opinion. On the investiture of the saints in their priesthood, the Holy of Holies, in which the ark of the covenant was placed, is, with great apparent fitness, declared to be thrown open to their inspection vid. Rev. xx. 6. conf. Heb. ix. 3, 4. 7. What connexion the passage may have with the following chapter is beyond my power to discover.

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'seal;' we have a direct key, as I have already intimated, to that part of the Evangelist's vision, in the nature of the Jubilee, as described in the Levitical service. As soon as they are confronted, the affinities between them will directly appear to extend to every circumstance in which a resemblance could be expected. It has been already observed, that they are alike represented to commence with the great day of Atonement. indissoluble link seems to bind them together in the rite of the sounding of trumpets, by which they were not less distinguished, and from which the Jewish festival received its appellation.283 This we have particularly observed to be the case in the vision. It opens with the declaration; "And 'I saw the seven angels which stood before God, ' and to them were given seven trumpets ;' 284 and after the oblation of incense, it proceeds, and the seven 'angels, which had the seven trumpets prepared to 'sound.'285 But of the Levitical festival it is equally declared; ' then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound, on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of Atonement shall ye make the ' trumpet sound throughout all your land."86 They are alike represented as a sabbath of rest; and indeed, the Levitical festival has been regarded,

283 Leusd. ut supr. p. 289.

285 Ibid. 6.

284 Rev. viii. 2.

286 Lev. xxv. 9.

287 Heb. iv. 9, 10. Lev. ibid. 8.

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by the most competent authorities, as merely a type of the Great Sabbath,288 which we understand by the Millennium. Such are the terms likewise in which it is described, as enjoined by Moses: And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto

thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the 'seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty • and nine years. 239 The other festivals of the Law were merely sabbaths of days, weeks, months, or years; but the Jubilee was, in the spirit of the Jewish ceremonial, more eminently sabbatical, it was a sabbatism of sabbatisms. And in the vision of the seventh seal, as involving that of the seven trumpets, there is a like implication of septenary within septenary. But still more close and remarkable is, in the last place, the resemblance between the circumstances of the Apocalyptic vision and of the Levitical festival, in their object and nature. In the Jubilee we recognise more than those characters of rest and righteousness which were common to every sabbath. It was a sabbatism in the most exalted sense of the term; a Great Restitution, in which liberty was proclaimed to the captive, deliverance to the oppressed to the deprived, a reinstatement in their forfeited possessions. Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year,' was the divine command, and proclaim liberty throughout ' all the land, unto all the inhahitants thereof: it

288 Leusd. ut supr. p. 290.

289 Lev. xxv. 8.