under consideration in this place, where I am only to consider the plan and arrangement of the Apocalypse as shewn by notices in the text, considered as unconnected with any interpretation.

In Mr. Cuninghame's arrangement of the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials, and of the period of the 1260 years, the period of the seven Trumpets is made in some measure synchronical with that of the Seals*; but instead of making the period of each Seal tally with the period of its corresponding Trumpet, he considers the period of the six first Seals as equal to the period of the seven Trumpets, the sixth Seal being supposed to extend to the same point of time as the seventh Trumpet. The seventh Seal is also supposed to include the periods of all the seven Trumpets, recommencing a new Series of Prophecy from the earliest times: but the incongruity of making the Seal, which is last in the whole series, thus refer to the earliest events in the order of the prophecy, is evident, and has already been clearly pointed out by Mr. Faber in the Appendix to his Dissertation, when examining the plan of the work of Archdeacon Woodhouse, into which a similar arrangement

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See Table in page 79, explanatory of Mr. Cuninghame's Arrangement of the Apocalypse.

of the Seals had before been introduced. He there observes that the Seventh Seal must naturally be supposed to be called the seventh, as succeeding the other six, which, according to this arrangement, it does not, for the opening of the Seventh Seal synchronizes with the opening of the first, and therefore precedes the opening of the remaining five. This objection against the scheme of Archdeacon Woodhouse is equally forcible against that of Mr. Cuninghame; and acquiescing in the justice of the criticism, I agree with Mr. Faber in considering the arrangement as inadmissible; but on the other hand I am of opinion with Mr. Cuninghame, that the commonly-received interpre"tation of the sixth Seal is erroneous, and that "it refers not to any thing that took place in "the time of Constantine," but to much later events, which are to precede and to be the signs of the speedy approach of the second advent of our Lord; but though Mr. Cuninghame's idea of the sixth Seal is, I believe, so far correct, I apprehend he has erred in supposing that the Day of Wrath is spoken of* as belonging to the period of the sixth Seal, instead of being spoken of in order to connect the period of the sixth Seal with the following period of the Day of

* Rev. vi. 17.

Wrath, described under the seventh Seal and Trumpet, which connexion would not otherwise have been discoverable, because the chapter which immediately follows* does not speak of the destruction of the Empire in the Day of Wrath, but of the preservation of the Protestant Nation during that period.

We shall be confirmed in the opinion that the Day of Wrath (or the period of the seventh Trumpet) follows the period of the sixth Seal, instead of being, as Mr. Cuninghame supposes, cotemporary with it, if we observe that in Rev. vi. 17, it is at the conclusion of the period of the sixth Seal that the Day of Wrath is said to be come; but in Rev. xi. 18, the Day of Wrath is said to be come upon the first sounding of the seventh Trumpet before the opening of the Temple, and consequently before the infliction any of the seven last plagues; clearly shewing, that the end of the period of the sixth Seal, and the commencement of the period of the seventh Trumpet, refer to the same point of time.

of

As it is of the greatest importance that no point in the general plan and arrangement of the Apocalypse should be considered as left undecided, as a further proof that the period of

* Rev. vii.

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But

the sixth Seal is prior to that of the seventh Trumpet, I observe that the sealing of the servants of God in their foreheads (the action described in the seventh chapter of the Revelations), is said to come after" the Earthquake, and the other events of the sixth Seal. this action takes place when the judgments are about to be inflicted upon the earth, by means of the Angels to whom "it was given to hurt the earth," an expression which unquestionably refers to the pouring out of the Seven Vials of Wrath upon the earth, during the period of the Seventh Trumpet; it follows, therefore, that the Earthquake, and other events of the sixth Seal (inasmuch as they precede the period of the seventh chapter of the Revelations), precede the period of the seventh Trumpet.

A similar circumstance to that which we have just been considering, namely, of the Day of Wrath's being spoken of in the preceding period of the sixth Seal, occurs in chapter xii. of Revelations, where, after the persecution of the Great Red Dragon is spoken of, the flight and retreat of the Woman into the wilderness for 1260 years; is also mentioned; this I understand as pointing out the connexion of the period of the Great Red Dragon, or Paganism, with the period of the 1260 years of the * Rev. xii. 6 and 14.

Two-horned beast, or the Papacy, immediately following; but Mr. Faber and Mr. Cuninghame infer from it, that the period of the Great Red Dragon is the same as that of the Twohorned Beast or the Papacy.

It is to be remarked further, that Mr. Cuninghame, in his arrangement of the Apocalypse, considers the periods of the seven Vials as cotemporary, and not as succeeding each other: the arguments by which he supports this arrangement, will be found in the following quotation from his work:

"I shall now," he observes, "offer one or "two arguments to shew that the Vials certainly are synchronical.

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"The seven Vials are the constituent parts of "the Third Woe, or the seventh Trumpet, and "contain all the remarkable events of that

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Trumpet. But these Vials contain only one Earthquake (or revolution), viz., that of the "seventh Vial; and likewise only one symbo"lical storm, with its concomitant effects, which "is also mentioned in the Seventh Vial: there"fore the seventh Trumpet contains only one symbolical Earthquake and storm; and it fol lows, that the lightnings, voices, thunderings, earthquakes, and great hail, seen by the Apostle in Rev. xi. 19, are precisely the same "as those seen under the seventh Vial. But

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