IV. TRUMPET, FROM A. D. 522-TO 572. 233 of a deluded multitude, afforded the monks immense riches, who sold them in every country of Christendom, by reciting lying wonders which these relics should have performed. Thus the gospel of Christ, the source of all evangelical light and knowledge was smitten, by crushing letters and philosophy in the West, banishing them in a great measure from the seminaries in the East, and by introducing superstition. The moon, or Christian worship was eclipsed, by a cloud of human rites and ceremonies, through which its primitive simplicity was no longer visible. The stars, or ministers of the gospel lost one third part of their former lustre in faith, in spirit, in assiduity and usefulness. The day of vital religion and practical piety was darkened, and the light of the Church consisting in good and acceptable works to God, obscured by self-righteousness and superstitious institutions. The night, or religious state of the Jews under the moonlight of their ceremonial law, was equally effected by this judgment; and could no longer afford that degree of faith, hope and confidence, necessary to dissipate the gloom of doubt and despair, arising from the state of the world in those days. Also this remnant of the Old Testament Church, was oppressed by great calamities during this period, both in the Roman empire and in the East, towards the dissolution of the Persian monarchy, under the reign of Cabades and Chosroes. They appear to have yet been in a prosperous condition, when the Talmud of Babylon was completed A. D. 500, and sealed 505;* and the dignity of Prince of the Jews, or the title of Aechmalotarcha, was taken from Rab Pachra and con ferred on Mar Eutra, by the favour of the Persian king, But about the year 522 the Persians commenced a dread *For the confirmation of these dates, Bengelius refers to the book Seder olam zuta, and to the book Juchasin. See also Eichhorn's Einle tang in V. T. G g 234 IV. TRUMPET, FROM A. D. 522-TO. 572. ful persecution against the Jews, by which they were almost totally extirpated. Mar Rab Isaac, president of the academy, and Mar Eutra, were killed, and the house of David fled. A. D. 540, all their academies were barred, and so great was the oppression, that they could not elect another president for 50 years. R. Chanan was the first, A. D. 589, in whom commenced the line of Rabbies, or Jewish doctors, called geonim, or excellencies. By these means also the night, or the Jewish Church, shone not for a third part of it. And thus this deluded people, by their assiduity and obstinacy in collecting and sealing the Talmud, assisted their enemies in depriving themselves of those celestial rays of light, which would yet have diffused a third part of Divine knowledge and comfort over their shadowy path of life, for their final recovery. Of these heavenly luminaries it is said, they were smitten. The original λŋssw, (whence wλnyn, a plague, a torment) is often made choice of by the lxx, interpreters to signify I take hurt, 2 Sam. xi. 15. become lame, 2 Sam. iv. 4. may be overcome, Numb. xxii. 6. and does not appear to indicate an ordinary eclipse according to the course of nature. Bengelius explains it by the Jewish expression likkuth, percussio, which they used to signify a common eclipse of the sun or moon; but to me, this general eclipse of all the heavenly bodies points out a course of retributive measures, by the extraordinary and sudden interference of a superior power, different from the natural train of events. Thus both Pagans, Christians, and Jews seemed united, by a parity of Divine judgments, to effect the same object, though from very different motives, and with various designs. Ezek. xxxii. 8. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God. PREPARATORY VISION. 235 FIRST INTERVAL OF FIFTY YEARS. A preparatory vision to the subsequent two trumpets. Verse 13. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhabiters of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, which are yet to sound. The three last trumpets are in a particular manner distinguished from the preceding: first, by being foretold as to their important contents; secondly, by being termed wo-trumpets; and thirdly, by having extraordinary periods of time annexed to them, by which their calamities are limited. Though both the Church and the Roman empire had been sadly afflicted under the sound of the former, yet those distresses are not called woes; which may indicate, that the greatest, and by far the most poignant calamities were now to follow in consecution, before the mystery of God could be accomplished. St. John beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven. The Vulgate, and most ancient versions read 'Atto's here, an eagle, instead of "Ayyeλoś, an angel 5 and both Bengelius and Griesbach prefer this reading, as being found in the most ancient and best copics. It is a customary figure in the Sacred Scripture, to represent the children of God by the symbols of eagles, to denote their heavenly dispositions, and contempt of the world, Isaiah xl. 31. Ps. ciii. 5. and their sagacity to espy danger, and penetrate into the deep councils of God. But this eagle seems to designate the zealous and affectionate testimony of faithful ministers, concerning the corrupt state of the Church, and the approaching judgments of these woes, prior to the commencement of the fifth trumpet; which they bore in all their ministerial labours with peculiar energy and effect, by means of a Divine animation. How 236 PREPARATORY VISION. ever, the loud voice of this eagle seems to have a particular reference to those, who wrote on the Apocalypse at that time, and thus made their voice echo through the midst of the Church, and to distant countries. This awful denunciation, wo, wo, wo, is made to the inhabiters of the earth, which expression comprises all the countries formerly in the power of the Romans, whether their inhabitants were Christians, Jews or Heathens; though with this distinction, that these calamities would chiefly affect the earthly-minded, who only live to enjoy this world. Such an earnest and Divine declaration would surely indicate that the happiness, the lives and salvation of millions are concerned in the accomplishment of these woes; the destructive consequences of which on the prosperity of Zion, have been experienced even to the present century. The These woes answer to the following trumpets, and predicting the peculiarly distressing nature of their contents, seem to have a more particular relation to the extraordinary numbers, annexed to the ordinary periods of the trumpets, by which their commencement and duration within the limits of the Church, are circumscribed. trumpets themselves comprise a much larger scope than the woes, and have a more protracted time of continuance ; since they require the addition of both prophetic numbers, for their completion. Hence the woe under each trumpet may begin sooner, or later, with the time of that trumpet, but can never exceed that period. My computation always determines the commencement of each trumpet with accuracy, and the time when these woes cease in the Church, but not the duration of these judgments among the Pagan nations of the earth. They are termed woes, only in regard to their effects on Christendom, and not with respect to their consequences among the Heathen; where they may still continue, after they have ceased to afflict the Church. Those remarkable forms of expression, prefixed PREPARATORY VISION. 237 to each woe: ch. viii. 13. Woe, woe, woe; and chap. ix. 12. One woe is past; and, behold there come two woès more hereafter; and ch. xi. 14. The second woe is past; and, behold the third woe cometh quickly; require three intervals, one before each trumpet, of which the third is much shorter than the two first, whose length must be interealated before the periods of the trumpets, and can only be determined with certainty by completion. After a scrutinous and careful review of the whole system, I have adopted fifty years for the two first woes, and ten for the third. And here the great imperfection of most former computations of prophetic time, appears self-evident. The learned Bengelius, not having discovered the ordinary numbers in this series of prophecies, could only commence his computation from the time of the woes; and left all the preceding predictions to be arranged by the ingenuity of man. The defenders of the yearly-day act more arbitrarily still. Some adopt seven periods, into which they press all, even the most heterogeneous matter. Others rend the whole prophecy into two, three, or four prophetic series ; as a man in a large edifice, having lost the passage to the gate, would break through the wall, to save his honour. Thus they commence so many new courses of events from necessity, neglect to notice the above intervals which the text loudly calls for, and totally slight the beautiful internal order of this book, without the most strict observance of which, no expositor can expect to succeed. This admirable intrinsic order of the Revelation, divides the prophetic numbers, at the commencement of the woes, into two distinct columns. The three woes join extraordinary numbers to the ordinary prophetic chronology, by which their periods are protracted above the time of ordinary periods, and run on in a separate column for themselves. And the ordinary prophetic chronology extends itself by a consecution of ordinary periods, which point out the lineage of the Church in a parallel column. Both columns run on to the commencement of the third |