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He does not teach us, that the mystery of God will be finished when the seventh angel shall BEGIN to sound his trumpet: he only teaches us, that it will be finished IN THE DAYS OF THE VOICE of the seventh angel, who is about to sound very soon after the passing away of the second woe1.

All, therefore, that we can learn from the declaration of the angel respecting the completion of God's mystery, amounts to this. The mystery of God is assuredly to be finished, DURING THE TIME that the seventh angel is sounding his trumpet, or (according to the express words of the declaration itself) IN THE DAYS OF THE VOICE of the seventh angel. But, IN WHAT PARTICULAR PORTION of this period the mystery is to be finished, whether AT THE BEGINNING or IN THE MIDDLE or AT THE END of it, is left, so far as the present passage is concerned, wholly undetermined.

Hence the present passage is plainly incapable of establishing the position, which Mr. Mede would build upon it because it contains nothing more, than a general and indefinite assertion. We are

1 Ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ ἑβδόμου ἀγγέλου, ὅταν μέλλῃ σαλπίζειν, καὶ τελεσθῇ (or ἐτελέσθη) τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ. Rev. x, 7.

The phrase, orav μédλy oadπišeiv, is the same, as if the prophet had written ὃς μέλλει σαλπίζειν. It cannot possibly denote the commencement of the blast itself, as some appear to have imagined; because it speaks of the entire period of the sounding as being STILL FUTURE. But the mystery, as all agree, was not to be accomplished BEFORE the commencement of the blast of the seventh trumpet.

afterward taught, in another passage, that God's mystery is finished at the effusion of the seventh vial': whence indeed we are obviously bound to conclude, that the effusion of the seventh vial must synchronise with some part of the days of the voice of the seventh angel: but it does not follow, that it must synchronise with the very beginning of those days; it does not follow, that, because the mystery is finished at the first effusion of the seventh vial, it must likewise be finished at the first sounding of the seventh trumpet.

(2.) The arrangement, adopted by several writers in Mr. Mede's time and more recently by Bishop Newton and Mr. Whiston and many other com→ mentators, appears to me far preferable to that of Mr. Mede the truth of it, indeed, seems to be capable of little less than absolute demonstration.

These authors maintain, that, as the seventh seal comprehends all the seven trumpets, so the seventh trumpet comprehends all the seven vials.

The propriety of such an arrangement is manifest from the following considerations.

It is required by the phraseology, which the Apostle himself has employed in the way of a connecting link.

The seventh trumpet is described, as being the third and therefore the last of the three great woes while all the seven vials are jointly and collectively mentioned as the last plagues. But the

1 Rev. xvi. 17.

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period of the last plagues must, as its very name imports, coincide with the period of the last woe. If then the period of the seven last plagues coincide with the period of the third and last woe; the seventh trumpet, which introduces that last woe, must also introduce the seven last plagues. The last woe, therefore, and the seven last plagues, are equally comprehended by the seventh trumpet: and they are described as being the last, because they occupy the last portion of the period of three times and a half, while the two former woes occupy the former portion of that period 1.

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This arrangement, moreover, is requisite to the concinnity and regularity of the whole book.

The Apocalypse is divided into the three septenaries of the seals, the trumpets, and the vials. Now it is universally admitted, that all the seven trumpets are plainly comprehended under the seventh seal. Homogeneity, therefore, requires us to place all the seven vials, in a similar manner, under the seventh trumpet; and forbids us to adopt the inconsistent scheme, which would assign six of them to the sixth trumpet, while it gives only the seventh to the seventh trumpet.

The arrangement, for which I contend, is required also by the relative collocation of the great sealed book and the little open book of the Apocalypse.

1

Lawen. Strict. on Mede's Works, p. 546. Wood's First Argument, ibid. p. 592. Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xv.

The great sealed book, as we shall presently find, is interrupted, for the insertion of the little open book, at the end of the ninth chapter, according to the vulgar division of the Revelation and it is resumed at the beginning of the fifteenth chapter. Now the chronological point, where the sealed book is thus interrupted, is the end of the sixth trumpet and of the second woe. Hence the chronological point, where it is resumed, must, obviously be the beginning of the seventh trumpet and of the third woe. But the sealed book is resumed at the commencement of the fifteenth chapter. Therefore, in the regular arrangement of the sealed book, this chapter must introduce the seventh trumpet and the third woe. But this chapter introduces the effusion of the seven vials. Therefore the seven vials collectively must be comprehended within the period of the seventh trumpet and must jointly constitute the third woe.

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There is another argument in favour of the present arrangement, perhaps yet more decisive than any one of the foregoing; which was urged against Mr. Mede by Mr. Wood, and which has since been stated afresh with much force of evi dence by Mr. Frazer.

It is said by St. John, that the temple of God in heaven was opened at the sounding of the seventh trumpet: consequently, before the sounding of that trumpet, the temple was shut'. And it is likewise

1 Rev. xi. 15, 19.

said by him, that, out of the temple thus opened at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, came those seven angels who were appointed to pour out the seven vials'. The order, therefore, of the circumstances, agreeably to the chronological arrangement of the prophet, is, as follows.

The seventh trumpet sounds: and the temple, hitherto shut, is forthwith opened. From the temple, thus opened, seven angels come out. To these seven angels, subsequent to their coming out from the opened temple, and therefore subsequent to the sounding of the seventh trumpet, one of the four living creatures gives seven vials full of the wrath of God. The seven angels, having now come out from the opened temple and having received the seven vials of wrath, immediately proceed to pour them out 9.

Such being the case, since the temple opens at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, since the seven angels come out from the temple after it is thus opened, and since they pour out the seven vials after they come out from the opened temple; it is manifest, that the sounding of the seventh trumpet must precede, and therefore introduce and comprehend, the effusion of ALL the seven vials3.

Lastly, the arrangement, which I advocate, is required by the arrangement of what is evi

1 Rev. xv. 5, 6.

2 Compare Rev. xi. 15, 19. xv. 5-8. xvi. 1.

3 Wood's Second Argum. in Mede's Works, p. 592. Frazer's Key to the Proph. p. 54, 55.

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