the first six seals are restricted to the limits of the roman empire, and that the trumpets and vials pertain to the history of the latin church. In so doing I have only anticipated the information which (as well with respect to those points, as to the period fixed for the overthrow of the papacy, and the concurrent opening of the seventh seal, sounding of the seventh trumpet, and effusion of the seventh vial) is contained in the little book in the hand of the mighty angel that come down from heaven.

This chapter contains the first of a series of visions which describe with great precision the chronology and the topography of the apocalypse-that is to say, they define the limits of time and place embraced by the predicted events.

The mighty angel' is a personification or symbol of the latin church-certainly one of the mightiest agents ever employed by omnipotence in the moral government of this world.

He is placed after the trumpets and before the vials-his position, as it were between the two parallel series, indicates that his history is included between them.

Not only the mighty angel,' but several other visions, intervene between the series of trumpets, and that of vials, and by their position intimate that they pertain to the same subject as that embraced by the trumpets and vials. But if the narrative had described the effusion of each vial immediately after the sounding of the trumpet to which it pertains, no other visions could have intervened between them,

and, consequently, the location of those visions could not have shewn that they relate to the same subject. vial has a separate

every

As every trumpet and angel, the latin church, whose history includes the functions of all the fourteen angels, is represented by ' a mighty angel.'

The latin church founded by the Apostles, came down from heaven.'

The cloud, wherewith the angel is covered, is analogous to the dense smoke (the mass of erroneous doctrine) which obscures the temple of God until after the effusion of the seven vials. (xv. 8.)

The immediate and palpable effect of each vapour, smoke and cloud, in intercepting and darkening light, has caused the metaphorical expression clouds of error to be in all languages as common as that of the light of truth.

The rainbow on his head announces the angel as an agent of Him whom the prophet beheld sitting upon the throne encircled by a rainbow (iv. 3). The rainbow is limited to the head of the angel, because the origin of the latin church is all of it that is purely divine.

6

The countenance' of Christ is said (i. 10) to be 'as the sun shineth in his strength.' The word in that passage, properly translated countenance, is Ofıç, but the part of the mighty angel which was as it were the sun, and is translated face, is pooσWTOV, a word which having, as I have already shewn (page 56), the signification of a mask, is used by Saint Paul to signify an outward appearance, or deceptive

προσωπον,

similitude. The papal church is, therefore, here said to wear a fallacious semblance of pure christianity, typified by the sun-at once a luminary and a ruler.

He has in his hand a little book which comprises the visions that intervene between the opening of the seventh seal (viii. 1.) and the exhibition of its contents, narrated in the last four chapters of the apocalypse.

The words great and little are terms of comparison. Of the book, sealed with seven seals in the hand of Him that sat upon the throne,' the first six seals include the whole extent of the roman empire, the seventh seal expands over the entire world, and embraces all time. Compared with a book of that vast comprehension, the book in the hand of the mighty angel is a little book-for it relates only to the latin section of the empire, and to a period of twelve hundred and sixty years.

The mighty angel holds in his hand the little book, because it pertains to the history of the latin church---it is open, because the visions comprised in it are, in fact, comprehended in the history of the third seal, already opened, and in the seven trumpets, six of which have been sounded.

He sets one of his two feet on the sea, and the other on the earth, to signify the colossal dominion which the papal church extended over vast regions of the terraqueous globe. The christian pontiffs, deriving their claim of universal dominion from an humble fisherman of Galilee, have succeeded to the throne of the Cæsars, given laws to the barbarian

conquerors of Rome, and extended their spiritual jurisdiction from the coast of the Baltic to the shores His feet

of the Pacific ocean.'

Gibbon, ch. 16.

are as pillars of fire- -the typical instrument of severe affliction because the extension of the papal dominion has been ever, from Mexico to Malabar, concomitant with fierce wars and tyrannous persecutions.

I have repeatedly had occasion to observe that fire is the established and constant scriptural symbol of religious persecution: "Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is." 1 Cor. iii. 13. -"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings." 1 Peter iv. 12, 13.

In the first chapter of the apocalypse, verse 15, the mystic vision of the Son of man' represents him with feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; to typify the persecution which the christian church militant was then suffering, and should long continue to suffer.The feet of the vision representing the latin church are not like any thing burning in fire, but are like the fire itself—because the latin church has been, not the victim, but the agent, of persecution.*

To be satisfied that the papacy has perfectly realised the image of a Colossus having feet of fire, and bestriding the terraqueous globe, it will be sufficient to recollect the conduct of its

He cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth. At the opening of the first seal the prophet hears a lion speak with a voice of thunder--symbols which have been explained (page 30) to signify the going forth of the imperial edict to the roman dominions. In the present vision the lion's roar represents the sovereign authority with which the papacy has

vassals, the Portuguese in India, and the Spaniards in America, and at the same time to bear in mind that it was from the papacy those states received the grant of their transmarine dominions. The manner in which the Spaniards established the title, so given to them, is thus described by Robertson, in the Third Book of the History of America:

"Ferdinand erected two governments on the continent. The former was given to Ojeda; the latter to Nicuessa. In order to give their title to those countries some appearance of validity, several of the most eminent Divines and Lawyers in Spain were employed to prescribe the mode in which they should take possion of them. There is not in the history of mankind any thing more singular or extravagant, than the form which they devised for the purpose. They instructed those invaders, as soon as they landed on the continent, to declare to the natives the principal articles of the Christian faith; to acquaint them, in particular, with the supreme jurisdiction of the Pope over all the Kingdoms of the world; to inform them of the grant, which this holy Pontiff had made of their country to the King of Spain; and to require them to embrace the doctrines of that religion which the Spaniards made known to them, and to submit to the sovereign whose authority they proclaimed.

If the natives refused to comply with this requisition, the terms of which must have been utterly incomprehensible to uninstructed Indians; then Ojeda and Nicuessa were authorised to attack them with fire and sword; to reduce them, their wives, and children, to a state of servitude; and to compel them by force to recognise the jurisdiction of the church and the authority