undergo in consequence of the conduct of the kings and rulers of this favoured people. [Preserve us, O Lord, from that schism which separates from thee; keep us from new and strange doctrines, which is idolatry. Keep us from self-love and vanity--keep us in humility and simple dependence on thee-keep us ever abiding in Christ Jesus, ever praying for the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit.]

When the Lamb opened the FIFTH SEAL John saw "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and the testimony which they held crying with a loud voice, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not adjudge and restore our life to them that abide in the flesh?"-ch. vi. 9, 10; thus supplicating God to save by his grace those who had been polluted by the apostasy of the subjects of Jeroboam, or hurt by the persecutions of Jezebel. "White robes were given to every one of them," for this righteous and charitable intercession; but they were told "that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."-ch. vi. 10, 11. This accords with "Let both grow up together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."-Matt. xiii. 30.

The FIFTH TRUMPET sounds (ch. ix. 1), and an angel rushed down from heaven, having the key or custody of the idolatrous altar, and rent it, and poured out the ashes, from which arose a smoke, like that of a great furnace, darkening the sun and air. The idolaters then went forth amidst those abiding in the flesh, and they assumed an influence, as the scorpions in the flesh have influence, that is in deterring the sober-minded from following the plain and simple truth of God, by the sting which strange, selfish doctrine, or idolatry, produces; but they were restrained or withheld from "infecting the young and tender plants, either the trees" in the vineyard, drawing after them only such as "kept not the seal of God on their foreheads."-verse 4. Yet such was the persecution of the saints and prophets of the Lord that men sought death and could not find it (verse 6), and desired to die and death fled from them [of these Elias. was one-1 Kings xix. 1-10]. "As horses prepared for battle," they trampled on the worshippers of the true God, and abandoned themselves to the most disgusting abominations.--verse 8. Their prayers were uttered as from throats of iron-the praise of their congregation was as the praise of instruments of war-and they professed many and divers faiths, in which they were instructed

by their false prophets.--- er. 10. In all these destructive works they were headed and supported by the angel of the bottomless pit (idolatrous altar) Jeroboam [the destroyer], verse 11; for, although he did not live during the whole period which this trumpet announces, yet his principles governed the nation even till the Lord removed it out of his sight, as recorded in 2 Kings xvii. 21-23:-" And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. For the children of Israel walked IN ALL THE SINS OF JEROBOAM which he did; they departed not from them, UNTIL THE LORD REMOVED ISRAEL OUT OF HIS SIGHT, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried out of their own land to Assyria unto this day."-THE FIRST WOE IS PASSed.

When the Lamb had opened THE SIXTH SEAL (ch. vi. 12), at the beginning of the reign of Josiah, the above idolatrous practices were prevailing in Judah, the altar of God was profaned by idols, and the favoured race of kings had turned themselves from the covenant. This detestable apostasy had previously attained its climax in the reign of Manasseh, when the Lord declared, "I will remove Judah out of my sight as I have removed Israel, and will cut off this city of Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there."-2 Kings xxiii. 26, 27. The young king, Josiah, was piously disposed, and ordered the temple to be repaired, in which work Hilkiah, the high priest, being zealously engaged, found the book of the Law, which he immediately sent to the king by Shaphan the scribe. The threats contained therein so alarmed Josiah that he rent his clothes (2 Kings xxii. 11), and, having enquired of the Lord for him and the people and all Judah (2 Kings xxii. 13), the Lord said, "My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and SHALL NOT BE QUENCHED; but because thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord when thou heardest what I spoke against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof—that they should become A DESOLATION AND A CURSE, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me,-I also have heard thee, saith the Lord; therefore thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring on this place."-2 Kings xxii. 17, 19, 20. [To avoid digression, John finishes this detail to the destruction of Jerusalem; and in the seventh chapter shows the measures which God had taken for this purpose, but which he only withheld for the sake of Josiah.] This produced "great fear among those abiding in the flesh," and occasioned mental distress to the righteous by whose tears, and prayers, and exertions, "the ceremonial wor ship became life."---ch. vi. 12. But this attempt to revive the

people to a sense of their duty to God was not of long duration; for Josiah, having gone forth at the expiration of thirteen years to fight against Nechoh, contrary to the word of the Lord, he was slain, and only saw the commencement of the destruction which the Lord had prepared for Judah. Thus the king for whose sake the Lord restrained his wrath, having lived but a short time in promoting this revival, the fruit of his labour was yet green, and "fell to the earth as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken by a mighty wind, and heaven departed in like manner as the rolled-up book" (ver. 13, 14), that is, in like manner as God had rolled up the covenant by his declaration that he would remove Judah out of his sight because of the sins of Manasseh, which the Lord would not pardon.--2 Kings xxiv. 2-4. Nechoh turned upon Jerusalem and conquered it, and it would appear that he was the instrument of the messenger sent to loose "the four angels, bound on the great river Euphrates" (as will be seen in the trumpet); for his success excited the alarm of the Chaldeans, and Nebuchadnezzar marched against him, and gained a complete victory over him at Carchemish, a city on the Euphrates, and pursuing his victory rendered himself master of Canaan and a part of Phenice, and attacked Jerusalem with bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon [those whom the four angels restrained]. And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night, by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden, and the king went the way toward the plain.-2 Kings xxiv. 1-4. Thus "the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains."-Rev. vi. 15. And that the mountains and islands (or kings, rulers, and chiefs) were moved out of their places, is explained by Nebuchadnezzar's having captured the fugitives, bound them with fetters, and carried them to Babylon (2 Kings xxiv. 1—4), after having totally destroyed the temple and the walls of the city. The few who were left, as vine-dressers and husbandmen, subsequently fled to Egypt, afraid lest the Chaldees should revenge on them the murder of Gedaliah.—2 Kings xxv. 22, 25, 26. And thus THE POOR as well as THE RICH hid themselves," and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb (God had decreed this, and the Lamb had opened the seal): for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?"-(ch. vi. ver. 16, 17.)

1—4.

The seventh chapter continues the detail of the sixth seal, and shows the manner in which God withheld his determination to destroy Jerusalem, for the sake of Josiah, as before stated; and, accordingly, John saw four angels holding the four winds (armies) of the earth, and he also saw another angel commanding them to continue to restrain them till the servants of God were sealed on their foreheads; and 124,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. These were the number that aided Josiah in mourning for sin, and in worshipping the God of their fathers (ch. vii. ver. 4); and with them was a great multitude of all nations, which no man could number, standing before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, which were those who had the seal on their foreheads prior to this period.- ch. vii. ver. 9. Therefore were they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them to fountains of living waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.—ch. vii. ver. 15-17.

THE SIXTH TRUMPET sounded (ch. 9, ver. 14); and John heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar (a voice correspondent with the act of disobedience in Josiah, who, in opposition to the word of God, went out to fight Nechoh), commanding the angel who had this trumpet to loose the four angels, WHO WERE PREPARED FOR THE HOUR, AND DAY, AND MONTH, AND YEAR, for to slay the third part of men (Israel was entitled the third part of men by Isaiah, ch. 19, ver. 24). Accordingly they loosed the Chaldees, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, who, under the command of Nebuchadnezzar, in the NINTH YEAR of his reign, in the TENTH MONTH, on the TENTH DAY of the month, conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, taking the king and principal persons prisoners, as stated in the sixth seal. Nebuchadnezzar having been excited to undertake this expedition by the conquests of Nechoh king of Egypt, it would appear that the latter was the instrument of the angel who received the command to loose those who were bound on the Euphrates. The number of these people is stated as innumerable; for indeed they were composed of all nations. Yet, notwithstanding this destruction, "they repented not of their sins."-ch. ix. ver. 2. Thus concludes the declaration of the sixth trumpet; and here the announcement "The second woe is past" should follow (as that of the first succeeded the destruction of Israel,