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LECTURE LIV.

FOURTH TRUMPET.

REV. viii. 12, 13. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

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 trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

THE symbol of this trumpet is an eclipse of the heavenly bodies: The third part of the sun was smitten, the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars. The figure is manifestly intended to intimate, that some very great calamity was to befall the church under this trumpet. Viewed as referring to the Christian church (for we can conceive of no other society that can be meant), the sun of this system must be understood of Christ. What the natural sun is to the different parts of the planetary system, is Jesus Christ to the church. He is both the centre of her union, and the fountain of her light and heat, and of all her comfort. By him the dead soul is quickened, the dark mind illuminated, the cold icy heart dissolved, and the decayed saint revived. It is through his influence that the church is the valley of vision; and that the different members of which she is composed are united into one body, and preserved in the closest connexion with one another. -The moon of that system of which Christ is the sun cannot be meant of any other society than the church. Her lustre, like that of the moon, is wholly of a derived kind, and is much

more remarkable in some seasons than in others. When her boundaries are enlarged, her converts numerous and exemplary, and her public state is wholly regulated by the law of Christ, -she is then like the moon shining with a full orb, and walking like a queen in silent majesty among the stars. But when she is shut up within narrow limits, when her members are few, and not greatly distinguished by the love and practice of holiness; or when the clouds of error and superstition cover her; she is then like the moon in the wane, or when that planet is obscured by the shade of some body which intercepts the of the sun. The stars of this system are the ministers and office-bearers of the church. Accordingly, when the bishop of Rome began to appear as the head of the Antichristian state, he was symbolized, as in the former trumpet, by a star which had left its place in the heavens, and was falling upon the earth.

rays

The theory of the obscurations of the heavenly bodies was not understood by the ancients. Eclipses were considered as preternatural signs, produced, like other miracles, by the immediate agency of God, and presaging the greatest calamities to men. Few considered the darkness upon the face of the sun or moon in an eclipse as occasioned merely by the absence of light; they supposed, that the quality or substance of the body which was covered with the shade was affected: and hence, what is now called an eclipse, they expressed under the idea of being smitten.-The most natural interpretation that can be put upon this figure seems to be, that it is intended to symbolize a state of great mental darkness. It was not a complete or total obscuration, for it was a third part only that was affected. The darkness must nevertheless have been very great, because it was spread over a third part, not merely of this and of the other source of light, but over a third part of every luminous body in the heavens. And as they were all of them affected by this shade at one and the same time, it was little better than midnight darkness upon the earth. The day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

We have interpreted the sun of these symbolical heavens of Christ. And though it is impossible that the person or office of the Mediator can ever be affected, yet nothing is more certain than that the glory of his person may be obscured, and the success of his administration may be less remarkable in one season than in another. When the doctrines and commandments of men were substituted in the place of the doctrines and institutions of Christ; and when pictures, and images, and crucifixes, supplanted the Scriptures of truth, and were said to be the fittest books for the people,-in such a mournful state of things, the sun of the church might be said to be smitten. When men, pretending to be the vicars of Christ, arrogated to themselves a power of dispensing with all laws, human and divine; of dissolving the obligation of all oaths, however sacred, and with whatever solemnity of form they had been sworn; and of imposing, under pain of damnation, whatever doctrines or precepts they thought fit to enjoin,—the glory of Christ, as king and head of the church, was greatly obscured. And when both ministers and people were shrouded in ignorance, and stained with the grossest immoralities, the whole system appeared to suffer some terrible eclipse.

Those who consider the first four trumpets as bearing upon the Roman empire, suppose that this hieroglyphical description is intended to describe the dissolution of that state, together with the extinction of the imperial power, and all the subordinate authority. But the application appears to be unnatural; for the fourth trumpet is not a prophecy of the extinction, but of the obscuration, of the heavenly bodies. This sun was smitten, but he was not destroyed; his glory was obscured, but he was not shorn of all his beams. The moon and other planets of this system were covered with a dark shade, but, like an eclipse, it might be only temporary; when the cause of this darkness was removed, their former splendour in the region of the heavens might be resumed. It was under the second trumpet that the Western empire was overturned, and all the jurisdiction and rule which it had exercised were put

down. It was under the third that Antichrist began to exercise his gloomy and despotic sway over the minds of men; and to what events can we, with such propriety, apply the prophecy of the fourth trumpet, as to those which followed in immediate succession in the church, and were the natural consequences of his tyrannical rule? No symbol could have been better fitted to represent the condition of the Catholic body in the dark ages, than that of an eclipse of such extent as obscured the lustre of all the different luminaries in the heavens.

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The ignorance of the dark ages was so great, that we are hardly capable of forming any conception of it From the 7th to the close of the 11th century, a thick vail was spread over the face of the Christian world, which always became darker and darker till the revival of letters in the 12th. far as the Roman empire had extended in Europe, it had diffused the light of science, and created a taste for the elegant arts of life; but in less than a century after the Barbarians were settled in the provinces, the torch of science was extinguished, and very few of the monuments of the arts could be found in Europe. In these rude times, many valuable writings of the ancients were destroyed. Many copies of the sacred Scriptures shared the same fate. And when this fountain of light was sealed up, nothing but the grossest ignorance in the matters of religion could be expected. The difficulty of remedying this evil, by multiplying copies of the Scriptures, was greatly increased, under the next trumpet, by the Saracen conquest of Egypt. Europeans were then deprived of the papyrus, a species of plant which had been brought from that country, and pon which most of their books were written: they were then limited to the use of parchment; and the price of the article soon became so enormous, that very few were able to procure it. Thus, one of the great channels for the communication of knowledge was blocked up. Paper, such as is now used for writing and printing, was not invented till the 11th century; and as it far excelled the papyrus, and could be purchased at very little expense, it was of special use for the revival of letters, which soon after followed; as the inven

tion of printing a little before the Reformation was a special means of promoting that glorious work. I may likewise mention, that, in this dark period, even those who made any pretensions to literature, instead of increasing their stock of knowledge, and communicating some portion of it to others, generally increased the darkness. Such writings of the ancients as had escaped the ravages of the Barbarians were destroyed by the monks and literati of the church of Rome. Many volumes stored with the wisdom of ages, and precious records which contained an account of times and events of which we know nothing, were erased, and their contents lost for ever, that the rolls of parchment on which they were written might receive the legendary tale of some saint, or some story which was equally senseless, and which could not be of the smallest advantage to any human being.

Though the people had been furnished with Bibles, they would have remained only as a sealed treasure in their custody. So few were taught the use of letters, that scarcely one out of a thousand could have perused them. Nor was this grievous calamity any ways mitigated by the diligence and learning of the ministers. The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and the people are to seek the law at his mouth. But the same culpable and gross ignorance which characterized the people distinguished the ministers of the dark ages. So early as the year 666, Vitalian, bishop of Rome, appointed the public services of the church to be performed in Latin, pretending that this was sanctioned by Pilate's inscription, which was in that language. But as the Latin tongue was then going fast into disuse, it ceased to be a fit medium for popular discourses. It was impossible that the people could be profited by cold lifeless forms, the meaning of a single sentence of which they did not understand. Nor were the sermons and homilies of these times calculated, or even intended, to illustrate the doctrines or duties of Christianity. They consisted chiefly of empty declamations upon the merits of the saints, the virtues of relics, the duties of pilgrimages and penances, and, above all, the great duty of subjection to the see of Rome. Very few