of the covenant that was seen securing all for His people, while the power of evil remained unpunished; here, the tabernacle of His testimony: for judgment was to go forth according to His word. His judgments were made manifest: Babylon was already fallen if not destroyed, and the rest were now displayed: the deliverance of the saints is judgment, the judgment of the wicked, This was according to His governing power over creation in Providence. One of the four beasts gave the angels the vials—vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever: the return is to past dispensation and circumstance in this wrath, to Him whom we saw sitting on the throne before they were opened, according to that character in which he judges by and from Himself. The glory of God now displayed itself, i.e. not in bright blessing, but in the power and influence of His judgment, as Sinai smoked, and “there went up a smoke out of his nostrils.” “The tabernacle of the testimony was opened,” but not for the callings of grace ‘or warnings, but for the execution and manifestation of judgments. In this sense it was a time, not of testimony but of judgment, and no one could come into the temple: and, as the Lord speaks of the land, telling them their testimony would close,
