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duties in the respective offices which he has sustained, or may now sustain, of a commander of armies, of one of the first peers of the realm, or as chancellor of a university; and to consider, for the performance of each, in what different robes, and in what different state, he would make his appearance.

With regard to the command which was given by this voice from heaven, to eat up the little book, it is one that deserves peculiar consideration, from the circumstance that this is the only place in the whole book of Revelation, in which such a thing is particularly directed. In the commencement (ch. i. 3.) it is indeed said, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein;" but this is general. A special command shews that it must have reference to something of a very important nature, and that the contents of the little book were to be well digested, studied, and understood. "Thy words were found," says the prophet (Jer. xv. 16), " and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." Our Saviour likewise personally uses the same symbolical expression, when He speaks of Himself as "the Bread of Life," in many passages of the sixth of John. In this manner are we here directed to digest the contents of the seventh seal.

And the occasion of the command is important. It is the point of union of the two great lines of prophecy, like the junction of two mighty rivers just before they empty themselves in the wide ocean.

The opened book represents the last act of the Roman Empire under its last head, followed by a "silence in heaven for the space of half an hour." As it is something in the nature of a solemn pause, happening just previous to the common catastrophe of both series of events, perhaps the idea may be conveyed by considering the immediate event, whatever it be that the opening of the book may represent, as something of the nature of a flash of lightning before the seven-fold thunder begins to roll; and that that series of events ends there!

It has generally been imagined that the little opened book contained a great many of the prophecies which follow the tenth chapter-the half-hour's silence not seeming to represent an event of sufficient magnitude to account for the importance attached to it. But this is a gratuitous assumption. It is certain that it marks a prophetical era, representing an equally prominent event in history to any of the other seals, although of an apparently negative character; and that, like them, it will be a hinge on which a new order of things will turn. For instance, if, just previous to the final decisive irretrievable blow being struck, signified by the four winds being let loose, proposals involving all the consequences attending such a catastrophe were to be made to that power which is to be the instrument thereof, no language can express the breathless and anxious suspense, the awful silence which would ensue! This being connected with the last, the only act which the yet-to-be-revived head of the Em

pire shall have to perform, would meet all the requirements of the prophecy. I merely throw out this idea to shew the possibility that the symbolical expression of an hour's silence, considering the half hour chronologically, may imply the ceasing from action for a fortnight, and be an event of unutterable importance.

Howsoever sweet or pleasant such a discovery may be in meditation, the consequences, it is declared, will be bitter. As much as to say, that the effect of this silence will be the most poignant sorrow, and the deepest anguish; as much as to say, that it is the immediate forerunner of the overwhelming and final ruin of which the seven thunders give such most fearful warning.

The remaining verse of the chapter, I conceive implies, that although the series of prophecies signified by the seven seals is now completed, nevertheless the same ground, in other connections and other relations, has to be retraced, and that it will involve the "fates and fortunes" of " many people, and nations, and tongues, and kings;" likewise implying that yet before "the second woe" will be pronounced to be past, he will have to go back, and prophesy of other events bringing them up to this point of time.

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CHAPTER XI.

THE

TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST;

DESCRIBED AS

AN INNER CHURCH WITHIN THE RULING VISIBLE

CHURCH;

AND

LIKEWISE DESCRIBED UNDER THE SYMBOL OF

TWO WITNESSES.

The symbols taken from Jewish worship-The true church enclosed by the providence of God-The visible church paganized, and here called the Gentiles-To be in possession of what is called the outer court 1260 years—The different terms in which this chronological period is represented, and its use—! -The two witnessesWhat the word signifies—The number two explained Their depressed condition for 1260 years-Described as two olive trees -Zechariah's prophecy-The Holy Spirit's agency. The two candlesticks—Marvellous power of the two witnesses—Two such witnesses explained to have existed for above 1200 years in such a condition-The Albigenses -The Protestant Churches-High privileges of real believers.

216

CHAPTER XI.

THE TRUE CHURCH DESCRIBED AS

THE TEMPLE;

AND

AS TWO WITNESSES; AND ITS DEPRESSED
CONDITION.

WE have not yet reached the announcement of the second woe being past! Other important disclosures have yet to be made, as connected with that termination, belonging to those future prophecies alluded to at the conclusion of the last chapter; more especially those which belong to the internal history of the church, and which are now brought forward in anticipation, to show their synchronical conclusion with the fall of the Ottoman empire, or with the ceasing of the sixth trumpet.

They commence in the following language:

"And there was given me a reed, like unto a rod and the angel stood, saying, Arise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple, leave out, and measure it not: for it is given unto the Gentiles; and the Holy City shall they tread under foot, forty and two months." (Rev. xi. 1, 2.)

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