which the prophetic visions of the Apocalypse are divided, is the first part of the sealed or greater book.

This first part of the sealed book commences with what in the vulgar arrangement is made the sixth chapter and it runs on, without interruption, in regular chronological order, through the opening of all the seven seals and through the sounding of the six first trumpets, to the end of the ninth chapter; comprehending, as we shall hereafter find, the space of time which elapses from the birth of the golden head of the metallic image to the year after Christ 1697 1.

The successive opening of the seven seals brings us down to the year after Christ 313: and the successive opening of the four first trumpets conducts us to the year after Christ 603.

These are followed by the three last trumpets, which are eminently distinguished as introducing three great woes: but only two out of the three last trumpets sound in the first part of the sealed book. The two trumpets in question, or the two trumpets which introduce the two first woes, occupy what is vulgarly arranged as the ninth chapter: and this ninth chapter gives a complete history of the Mohammedan little horn or the little horn of Daniel's he-goat, as successively upheld by the Saracens and the Turks, under the fifth trum

1

See below book iv. chap. 2. § II. 1. chap. 7. § II. 5.

2 See below book iv. chap. 4. § I. chap. 6. § IV. 2.

pet and under the sixth trumpet; comprehending the space of time, which elapses from the year after Christ 604 to the year after Christ 1697'.

As the ninth chapter of the Revelation concludes with the history of the sixth trumpet, we might naturally expect, in regular order, forthwith to hear the sounding of the seventh trumpet: and this doubtless would have been the case, had the sealed book been carried on to its end without an episo, dical interruption. But, in consequence of such an interruption, instead of hearing the expected blast of the seventh trumpet, we find ourselves suddenly diverted to an entirely new subject: and we are presented with the vision of a mighty angel, who gives a little open book to the Apostle, and who tells him that he must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. Hence it is manifest, that the first part of the great sealed book ends with the ninth chapter of the Revelation according to the vulgar arrangement: and hence we may be sure, that, where the inserted episode of the little open book concludes, the interrupted chronological series of the great sealed book is resumed. The second part, therefore, of the great sealed book commences, where the episode of the little open book terminates.

2. This little open book with its proëm, which proëm is contained in the tenth chapter of the Revelation, constitutes the second of the three por

See below book iv. chap. 7.

tions into which the prophetic visions of the Apocalypse are divided and it is inserted between the first part and the second part of the great sealed book.

(1.) The magnificent machinery, with which the little open book is introduced in its proëm, sets forth a very peculiar septenary, connecting it with the period of the expected seventh trumpet and with the completion of God's mystery.

I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head; and his face was as the sun; and his feet were as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth. And he cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and, when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And, when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me; Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel, which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven: and he sware, by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are and the earth and the things that therein are and the sea and the things which are therein, that there shall be delay no longer; but, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall be about to sound, the mystery of God shall be

finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets'.

The passage before us contains one of those artful chronological links, by which the various coincident though dissevered parts of the Apocalypse are bound together.

When St. John received the little open book from the hand of the angel, he had already advanced, in the large sealed book, to the end of the second woe of the Euphratèan horsemen introduced by the sixth trumpet. Hence, in the regular order of succession, he would naturally conclude, that the little open book was about to treat of the yet undescribed third woe, which the seventh trumpet, as he had previously been told, was destined to usher in. Accordingly, to shew that he was right in his chronological anticipation though wrong in his supposition that the little open book would in point of time begin where the great sealed book had been interrupted, he is first made to hear the voice of seven thunders: he is next commanded, not then to write the things which they uttered, but to seal them up: and he is lastly told, that he has still, namely in the reading of the little open book, to prophesy AGAIN before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.

Much speculation has been excited by the mention of these seven thunders, the voice of which St.

1 Rev. x. 1-7.

2 Rev. viii. 13.

John is commanded to seal up and not to write. Some have fancied them to be the seven crusades, and others have discovered their antitypes in seven modern European wars: while, on the contrary, both Mr. Mede and Bp. Newton censure as pre→ sumptuous all those who attempt to explain them; on the ground, that, as the angel charged St. John to seal up their contents and not to write them, it is a vain waste of labour to pry into that which God has purposely concealed '.

If such were indeed the purport of the angel's language, nothing could be more proper than the censure of those two eminent commentators: but the fact is, the language in question has been wholly misunderstood. The sealing and the not writing the things uttered by the seven thunders relates, not to any studied purpose of concealment, but to the particular portion of the apocalyptic volume which they are destined to occupy. Ja As I have already observed, the prophetic visions

1

Yet, in point of arrangement, Mr. Mede most justly deter mines, that the seven thunders can only denote seven smaller periods, into which the larger period of the seventh trumpet is subdivided. With this accurate view of the synchronisation of the seventh trumpet and the seven thunders, nothing, save his unfortunate arrangement of the six first vials under the sixth trumpet, could have prevented this great expositor from perceiving, that the seven periods of the thunders are identical with the seven periods of the vials, each of these septenaries being alike comprehended within the larger period of the seventh trumpet. See Comment. Apoc. in præcon. tubæ septim. Oper. p. 476.