Rev. vii. within the limits of the seventh seal, and thereby disprove its connection with the sixth, further affirms, that Chap. viii. begins with an intimation, that the period of the seventh and last seal is passed. I answer First, that this assertion is wholly gratuitous; Secondly, that it is contrary to that unity of plan which Mr. Frere promises in his 5th page and title page; for he very naturally and properly makes the words ore nvoice," when he had opened,” in each of the prior six seals, to signify the commencement of each seal; and in thus making the very same words in the seventh seal to signify not its commencement, but its termination, he not only violates his promised unity of plan, but every rule of sound criticism and certain interpretation.* Indeed the very annunciation of Mr. Frere's singular position of the seventh seal opening at its termination, includes in it a contradiction-as if the trumpet were to sound not to give the signal for battle, but at the end of the battle!

3d, In my work on the Apocalypse, I have, in harmony with the sentiments of Vitringa and Archdeacon Woodhouse among the moderns, and of Victorinus, Andrew and Arethas among the ancients, interpreted the earthquake of the sixth

* This argument is stated with great force, in a Critical Examination of Mr. Frere's work by Mr. Faber, published in 1815. It did, indeed, occur to my own mind, before I consulted Mr. Faber's pamphlet, for it was impossible it should not occur to it, but I refer with great satisfaction to what Mr. Faber says on the subject.

seal as referring to the great day of the Lord. Consequently, it is the same on this scheme, as the earthquake of the seventh trumpet. Mr. Frere, wishing to refute this interpretation, reasons substantially as follows.* In Rev. vi. 17. the day of wrath is said to be come at the close of the sixth seal; but in Rev. xi. 18. the day of wrath is said to be arrived at the commencement of the seventh trumpet: therefore, since the close of the sixth seal, and the commencement of the seventh trumpet, both synchronise with the day of wrath, they must synchronise with each other; and it follows that the sixth seal precedes the seventh trumpet instead of being parallel with it. Such is Mr. Frere's argument, when reduced to the syllogistic form; and I have no fault to find with the conclusion, if the premises be correct. But there is a mistake in the premises. In Rev. vi. 17. is expressed not the coming of the day of wrath, but the tardy and unwilling conviction of the kings, and nobles, and inhabitants of the earth, that the day of wrath is come, from their having already experienced the effects of the Divine wrath in the awful judgments of the sixth seal, described in the preceding verses. This conviction is for a long time resisted, but at length the increasing manifestations of Divine indignation, force it upon the minds of the highest potentates of the earth, and compel them to use the words put into their mouths in this passage.

* Frere's Combined View, p. 57.

On the contrary, in Rev. xi. 18. is expressed the thanksgiving of the church in heaven, that the day of wrath is come, before any of the judgments of that period are actually inflicted. The preceding argument of Mr. Frere is therefore founded on the palpable mistake of assigning the same date, in time, to the discernment by the church in heaven, of the arrival of the day of wrath, and the slow unwilling conviction of the wicked upon earth that this period is come. S to tromoliemno eum yaddle to yeb oda, diw paionova fo od Jer swollo ti bits: Tonto dos dim osigu Lussono

to bestani Jequunt dinova ody asbourg less

CHAP. III.

Application of the Seals to the Events of History, by Mr. Irving and Mr. Frere-Examined.

HAVING thus viewed the question of Mr. Frere's and Mr. Irving's arrangement of the seals and trumpets, in connection with the internal structure of the Book of Revelation, I shall next examine their application of the seals to the events of history.

"We have," says Mr. Irving, " in the opening of "the first four seals, the four successive emperors, "in whose times, and by whose chief instrumentality, Paganism, the first enemy of the Church,

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was brought to its end, and Rome its seat laid "low."* The first seal is applied by Mr. Irving to Constantine going forth upon his white horse, emblematic of a triumphant conqueror-the second to Theodosius, “ upon a red horse, and with a red sword, both emblematical of war and bloodshed, "who encountered Paganism when it sought to

rally its distressed affairs, under Maximus and "Eugenius, over whom he triumphed in a civil war, "wherein it was given him to take peace from the "earth or empire, so that the people should slay "one another, and the end was a more deadly blow

"to Paganism by the abolishing of its worship, and "the shutting up of its temples. But though Pa

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ganism, as a system, was by these two blows "wounded to death over the empire, it still lived "in Rome, waiting occasions."-" Upon Rome, "therefore, the seat of the Pagan beast, the third "seal opens, which presents us with the emblems " of an emperor, but neither with the bow of far "ranging conquest, nor with the great sword of "civil warfare, but with a pair of balances in his hand, signifying that his power should be taken up not with arms, but with weighing and measur

ing in exact scales the allowances of his people: "in what kind, is taught by the interpretation of a "voice saying, A measure of wheat for a penny, " and three measures of barley for a penny, (prices "these indicating direful famine) and see thou "hurt not the wine and oil (the means of life); and "he rode upon a black horse, indicating the reverse "of conquest, namely, defeat, sorrow, and dejec"tion. This famine and this misery fell upon the "city of Rome, in the time of the emperor Hono

rius, when Alaric the Goth, after three devasta"tions of Italy, and two beleaguerments of the

capital, at length took and sacked it, sparing "the Christians who took refuge in the temples, "and putting the last hand to the Pagan supersti"tion in the conflagration of the heathen temples. "But still it was not enough; after this harvest of "wrath, there is a vintage which comes in the