cafioned in the church and in the empire,; more especially when we take both into view, it will appear an event of that magnitude which accords to the dignity of prophecy. If we compare all the circumftances of the hiftory of Arianifm with those of the prediction under this firft trumpet, we must clearly perceive their moft minute and wonderful agreement. This was indeed a violent, hot, and bloody ftorm, kindled at the altar, which fell with vengeance on the Roman empire. Though the church condemned this herefy, though none of its ordinances were corrupted by it, yet its beauty and utility were much marred by it. Chriflians had much reafon to be alarmed, when men calling themselves Chriftians, Jude verfe 4th, "denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jefus Chrift." And 2 Pet. ii. 1." denied the Lord that bought them." When councils ftiling themfelves Chriftians, paffed decrees directly oppofite to, and perfectly inconfiftent with each other; and when even those who called themselves the votaries of the gofpel of peace, avowedly perfecuted for confcience fake.

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Verfes 8th, 9th.-And the fecond angel founded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire, was caft into the fea, and the third part of the fea became blood and the third part of the creatures which were in the

fea,

fea, and had life died; and the third part of the fhips were destroyed.

A mountain, because of its eminence above the furrounding vallies, is the fymbol for a king. Thus the king of Babylon is represented by a mountain, Jeremiah li. 25. "Behold I am against thee, O deftroying mountain, faith the Lord which destroyest all the earth; Zechariah iv. 7. "Who art thou "O great mountain? Before Zerubabel thou fhalt "become a plain."

This mountain is burning with fire, to fignify that the king fhall be furiously enraged. This burning mountain is caft into the fea; by which the fea is fo corrupted and blocked up, that a great proportion of the creatures which are in the fea die, and many of the fhips which fail on it are wrecked.

Though the fea has another fignification, when ufed individually and abfolutely, as in chap. x. 2. xiii. 1. which fhall be fhewn in the commentary on these verses, yet when taken relatively as a part of a fyftem, as it is here and in chap. xvi. 3. it fignifies fomething in that fyftem which bears fuch a relation to the fyftem, and is of fuch ufe to the inhabitants of it, as the fea on this earth bears to the earth, and is of ufe to its inhabitants. The fame obfervation applies in this chapter and in chap.

xvi. alfo to rivers, fountains of water, fun, moon, and ftars. The fyftem to which the trumpets relate, is the Chriftian church. Seas are of use to the inhabitants of the different countries on this earth, to import into them foreign goods and advantages, and to export to other countries the commodities which their own produce. The plain meaning of this hieroglyphic therefore is, that the fecond alarm which fhall be given to Chriftians, is that, after the rife of the Arian herefy, an emperor of Rome fhall deprive the Christian church of a great part of thofe advantages which are of a foreign kind. Thefe, for inftance, are what the church enjoys from the countenance and support of the civil magistrate, from human learning and philofophy, and from the facility with which, by means of these, it propagates thofe doctrines, precepts, and ordinances which are peculiarly its own, (as it were its own produce), to diftant countries.

The event predicted under the first trumpet, commenced in the year 325. The one predicted under this fecond one, muft therefore fall at fome fhort diftance of time pofterior to that year..

Though the event predicted under the firft trumpet commenced in the year 325, it did not terminate till the fixth century. The events predicted by the trumpets follow each other in reguVOL. I.

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lar fucceffion, in refpect of the times of their commencement; though, as to the times of their termination, former trumpets frequently run many years beyond the time of the commencement of following ones. This is very different from the rule of fucceffion of the events predicted by the feals. Thofe predicted by every fubfequent feal, always commenced after the termination of thofe predicted by the preceding one. The reafon of this difference is evidently founded in the nature of the fymbolical language. When a feal is opened, all that is contained in that part of the roll, which extends from that to the following feal, is laid open. Hence, the opening of the following one muft unfold events pofterior to the laft of thofe which were contained under the preceding feal. But a trumpet is the fymbol of alarm; and an alarm is given not at the termination, but at the first appearance of danger. If therefore one alarming event commences before another, though the first fhould be of a much longer duration, and should not terminate fo foon as the fecond; yet as the alarm was first given by the one which commences firft, it is predicted by the first trumpet: And if, before this event is ended, another alarming event unconnected with it commences, this is predicted by a fecond trumpet."

This fymbolical fignification of a trumpet, as giving an alarm at the commencement or firft ap

pearance

pearance of every new danger, even when the preceding dangers are not fully removed, is exactly correfpondent to the founds of alarm, which a watchman fet to watch a city or camp gives, by blowing his trumpet. From this ufe of the trumpet this fymbol is taken. The centinel fet to watch a befieged city, upon perceiving the approach of one detachment of the enemy's forces, immediately founds an alarm. He does not wait till that detachment have executed the purposes for which they were approaching the city. If he did, neither he nor his trumpet could be of any ufe to the befieged citizens.

At the first found of his trumpet, the citizens take the alarmı, many of them fally out and engage the detachment of the enemy. In the mean time, while they are engaged, the centinel perceives a fecond detachment of the enemy approaching the city, by another road; he blows his trumpet a fecond time, thecitizens are roufed by the fecond alarm, and without waiting the end of the battle between the first detachment of the enemy and their fellow citizens, a fecond divifion of them fallies out, attacks the fecond detachment of the enemy, and probably repulfes it, before the engagement with the firft divifion is ended. By attending to this obfervation, we fhall perceive the reafon why the events predicted by the trumpets follow each other, in respect of their commencement, not of their termination. L 12

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