266

Trumpets and Vials compared.

[LECT.

heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments 1." Once more, under the fourth trumpet we read, "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 "." But when the fourth vial was poured out upon the sun, we are told, "power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory 3." In the fifth and sixth, severally, of the trumpets and the vials, compared together, we may trace the like connexion; most clearly marked in the latter case, where, the sixth trumpet having described the army of horsemen from "the great river Euphrates," the sixth vial was poured out "upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared 5."

But it is to the first four trumpets that I would, in the first instance, confine your attention, inasmuch as these, when taken together, seem to form, in some sense, a whole; being separated from those which follow by the description, which is introduced immediately after the fourth trumpet, of the angel whom St. John "heard, flying through the midst of heaven "—or rather, in the mid space between heaven and earth" saying, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet

Ix.]

to sound"."

First Four Trumpets.

267

The four preceding, thus separated from the three remaining, had fallen severally, as we have seen, upon the earth, or rather, the land, and the sea, the rivers and fountains of water, and the lights of heaven. And this fourfold division seems elsewhere used to include the whole creation, or, at least, the whole system within the view of the prophetic Spirit. In the fourteenth chapter St. John tells us he "saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.' The four first trumpets, then, taken together, would seem to describe judgments, of various kinds, affecting, universally, within the limits assigned to them, that whole system, or world, on which they fell. And this part of the Apocalyptic vision the majority of modern commentators, following herein the learned Mede, have understood as referring to the calamities which overwhelmed the Roman Empire in its later days. In applying, however, the several symbols, they have perhaps endeavoured too accurately to trace, in chronological order, the successive stages of the Empire's fall; discovering, for instance, in the first trumpet the irruptions of Alaric and the Goths; in the second, of Attila and the Huns; in the third, of Genseric and the Vandals; in the fourth, of Odoacer and the Heruli, who, towards the end of the fifth century, put an end to the very name of

7

Chap. viii. 13.

8

Chap. xiv. 6, 7.

268

Vision of the Trumpets;

[LECT. the Western Empire. But, independently of the question whether some of the symbols could, according to the strict analogy of prophetic language, be so interpreted, the fourfold division already mentioned, together with the variety of imagery employed, would rather seem to suggest a wider and more comprehensive application.

We must first, however, consider the question whether it be upon the Roman world, or upon the Christian Church, that the calamities and sufferings, which are here described, are to be regarded as inflicted. Dean Woodhouse inclines to the opinion that it is "the pure Christian Church" that "is the object of attack throughout the trumpets;" and this on the great principle, " that the Christian Church in general is the main object of the Apocalyptic, and indeed of all Divine, prophecy"." But this would equally be the case, the Church would equally be the main object of the prophecy,whether we beheld her suffering at the hands of her enemies, or her cause advancing amidst judgments on the earth which, while they constituted her trial, were the destruction of her foes. It is, however, argued further, that, "in those visions of the trumpets whose meaning can be most accurately ascertained, the Christian Church is evidently the object of assault;" that "such it is seen to be in the fifth and sixth trumpets, and yet more clearly and confessedly in the seventh; where (in chap. xi. ver. 15), upon the angel's sounding, the heavenly voices immediately proclaim the victory, and award the kingdoms of the world to Christ'." With re

gard, however, to these three trumpets I would

9

Annotations, pp. 173, 174.

1 Ibid. p. 174.

IX.]

its import, generally.

269

observe, that they are all three ushered in, as we have already seen, with a "woe to the inhabiters of the earth;" and since one of them, the seventh, awakens loud voices of joy in heaven, it must be on the earth and its inhabitants, and not on the pure Christian Church, as such, that, in this instance at least, warfare is proclaimed. As regards the fifth trumpet, the subjects of its plague are expressly defined: the army of locusts was not to hurt "the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, nor any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads ";" therefore even here it is not the pure Christian Church that suffers; and if the sixth seal is rightly interpreted by the general consent of modern expositors as referring to the conquests of Mahometan powers in the East, these also may be regarded primarily as plagues sent on the earth; although, indeed, it was on a part of the Christian world, and of the heritage of the Christian Church, that the vengeance fell.

2.

It is argued, however, still further, from the description preparatory to the sounding of the seven trumpets, that the casting of the fire from the altar to the earth implies "not merely the just judgments of God on a guilty world, but their connexion with the Christian religion"." The fire, it is observed, is taken, not, as in Ezekiel's vision, from the throne, but from the altar; which would seem to denote the Christian religion sent down to earth, and "mingling with human corruptions," with "the passions and worldly projects of sinful men," and so becoming "the instrument of discord and violence," "producing signal commotions, expressed in pro

2 Chap. ix. 4.

3 Woodhouse, p. 172.

270

Import of the Trumpets.

6

[LECT.

phetical language by 'voices, thunderings, lightnings, earthquake." The expression here used, of the angel casting the censer full of fire on the earth 5, is precisely the same with those words of our Blessed Lord, "I am come to send "-or more literally, "to cast-fire on the earth "." But this, it must be remembered, would not imply necessarily any corruption of His pure and holy doctrine: it would foretel only a conflict with the world into which it was to be sent; causing dissension and division not primarily amongst His own disciples, but against them on the part of an evil world. Consistently with our interpretation, we may freely admit, that the fire being taken from the altar would imply that the judgments on the earth, represented under that imagery, were connected with the Christian religion; for indeed it was that pure and heavenly religion which, coming on earth, and encountering there the wrath of man, kindled against it persecution at the hands first of the Jew and then of the Gentile, and thereby involved Judaism and Paganism, the whole world of the Roman Empire, in the heavy judgments inflicted upon it by the wrath of God. And there is no defect in the parallel between the vision before us and that of Ezekiel; for it is to be remarked, that it was from beside the brazen altar”, not from the throne, that those first commissioned agents of vengeance were sent, whose ministry seems to correspond with that of the six angels of the trumpets in St. John's vision.

If, then, from the arguments which have now been adduced, we may venture to conclude, that by the

4

+ Woodhouse, pp. 170, 171. βαλεῖν εἰς τὴν γῆν.

5

ἔβαλεν εἰς τὴν γῆν.

6 Luke xii. 49. Πῦρ ἦλθον

7 Ezek. ix. 2.