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erred with honour; which is by no means the case with modern infidels,

No doubt, our first parents were acquainted with the existence of angels, from whom they received many useful lessons, and much necessary information while yet in paradise. And I also know no reason, why these heavenly messengers should not have had as much intercourse with the holy patriarchs before the flood, as we surely know, they have had with the men of God after the deluge, although it is not expressly mentioned in Scripture. These traditions, accompanied at times by actual experience, are no doubt the fountain-head of all the Heathen mythologies, and demonologies, in which they now appear so much distorted, and garhed in vile superstition, and gross ignorance. Chaldea seems to have been the mother of Sabiism, h. e. the worship of the host of heaven, and the tutoress of this gross idolatry among other nations. They imagined the sun to be the visible body of the Deity, and maintained that the moon, the planets, and the fixed stars, were animated and governed by angels, or superior intelligences, as the body of man by a living soul. The Sabian Magi appear to have had few conceptions of an intellectual world, beyond these heavenly luminaries, when Zoroaster arose in Urmi, and reformed Sabiism among the Medes and Persians, by his religious philosophy of light and fire. He taught them, that the host of heaven were only emblems of the Deity and his angels, over which they presided as governors, and opened a view before them into an invisible world, where all these intelligent beings appeared in their primeval excellence and glory. However, according to his tenets, they also had many employments on earth, where they superintend the four elements, and seasons, empires, kingdoms, nations, oceans, rivers, men, and the affairs of men. In the exercise of these offices they were often opposed by the dews and daroudjs, i. e. demons, who, according to his philosophy, had been the first inhabitants of this

earth, and whom God conquered by the stars and angels in a general deluge, because they polluted the elements. These evil spirits inhabit darkness, the atmosphere, and solitary places, from whence they oppose all the benevolent designs of good angels towards men, whom they hate and seek to destroy. Zend Avesta T. iii. p. 358. 359. Also see Herder's Erlauterungen zum N. T.

Verse 1. Four angels, holding the four winds of the earth. These are evil angels, for they hurt with injustice, as the original adxe, verse 2. signifies. They are instruments of God's wrath under the four first trumpets in the next chapter. And as the subordinate agents under the three last trumpets are evil angels, viz. the angel of the bottomless pit, the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates, and the great red dragon himself at last, we cannot but consider these in the same light, since they execute judgments of the same nature, and to the identical purposes with the three last. I will not undertake to determine, in how far these angels should be considered symbolical, or to what extent beings from the invisible world may have been employed in the execution of the divine decrees, to bring about such extraordinary phenomena, as those alluded to in this place. There is at least nothing improbable in the opinion, that the Lord may actually permit evil spirits to engage in such dreadful enterprises, so far as they may accord with his wise and providential measures of government, his eternal designs. These angels seem to have held this office as an appointed employment for many years. Jer. xlix. 36. 37. Dan. vii. 2.

The earth, on the four corners of which these angels stood, here signifies the continent of the Roman empire; and the sea, the sea coast of the Mediterranean: and the trees, the princes and principal personages; which will more evidently appear by the explanation of the trumpets. This empire is here considered a plane square, in regard to the four points of heaven, east, west, north and south,

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from whence the four winds blow. Dan. viii. 8. xì. 4. Math. xxiv. 31. But these winds are not denominated winds of heaven, they are termed "winds of the earth;" which denotes that these angels are not divine messengers, and these winds, storms of calamities and war, by which the Roman empire should greatly suffer, and be utterly rent to pieces.

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Verse 2. Another angel ascending from the East. This was a holy, but created angel, as is apparent from the language which he holds in the third verse: "the servants of our God," by which he acknowledges himself a subject and worshipper of the Lord. St. John beheld him ascending the horizon from the East, from whence those dreadful calamities, and consequently the sealing of the servants of the Lord, were to commence. He cried with a loud voice, because the four angels showed signs of eagerness, to accomplish their bloody work without delay. This shows the provident care of the Lord, and even of holy angels for the Church of Christ, during the approaching trials and dangers. She would not have been able to sustain the storm in her present state, having lost much of her former spirit of faith, love and fidelity, during her late prosperity; wherefore this mighty angel was sent to strengthen and prepare her for this time of great peril. Verse 4. And I heard the number of them which were

sealed. And there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

5. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thou sand.

Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. 6. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Napthalim were sealed twelve

thousand.

Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve

thousand.

7. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thou

sand.

Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand

Of the tribe of Isachar were sealed twelve thou

sand.

8. Of the tribe of Zebulon were sealed twelve thousand.

Of the the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand.

Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.

The sealing angel had the seal of the living God, and in the execution of his commission many assistants, of whom he speaks verse third, in the plural number. Under what symbol this seal appeared in the vision to St. John, is not mentioned; but it was impressed on none, except the servants of God, on true believers already advanced in holiness. It was said, that Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, bore the hieroglyphic of a king in his physiog nomy. And there is no doubt, the tranquil, serene and heavenly mind of a sanctified child of God, will also impress itself on his countenance, by which others are warned: take heed, that thou speak kindly to Jacob. Gen. xxxi. 23. But the sealing in this place is of far greater importance. It was an unction from above, by which the members of the Church of Christ received self-subsistence, firmness invincible under the trials to come, and an invisible safeguard for bodily security, amidst all the calamities of the empire under the following trumpets. As anciently there was a mark upon the houses of the Israelites, in consequence of which the destroying angel passed by, Exod. xii. 7. 13; and upon the foreheads of those that sighed and cried in Jerusalem, Ezek. ix. 4; so were these servants of God, in a particular manner, convinced of their

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state of grace and adoption, and of their safety in the chamber of his protection, till the days of indignation should pass over, and the glorious Millennium begin. 2 Cor. iii. 3. 2 Tim. ii. 19.

Verse 4. Of all the tribes of Israel. This cannot mean Israel after the flesh, but the true Israel of God, the children of the promise, the Church of Jesus Christ, where all distinction of tribes has ceased, Gal. iii. 28, and every believer is accounted an Israelite. Rom. ix. 6. 8. This passage does not treat of the protection of the Jews, but the preservation of the Church. She is represented by the twelve tribes of Israel, in order to show that she has been accepted in their place, and may apply all the promises of scripture to her comfort, as being grafted into the first stock. Rom. xi.

By the number 144,000, these servants of God are represented as the true Church of Christ. This is a square number consisting of twelve, in allusion to the members of the Church of the Old Testament, who were the true and genuine offspring of the twelve patriarchs; and to the Church of the New Testament, of the offspring of the twelve apostles. It also is the number of New Jerusalem. The Church of Christ is expressed by this number here, because at that very time, all those heads of families had been brought into her bosom, which constituted the genuine lineage of the old dispensation, and such of the Church of Christ, as by their posterity will reach the gates of New Jerusalem. This you may call mercy unto thousands on them that love him. Exod. xxxiv. 7.

Verse 9.

After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with 'white robes, and palms in their hands;

10. And cried with a loud voice, saying, salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

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