belonging to it in exercise, and that over the earth.
There is a very distinct break, in the course of the book, at the close of the eleventh chapter, which, in the sum of its contents, closes the whole book. The time was come that those that destroyed or corrupted the earth should be destroyed. But in chapter xii. it resumes from the origin, to bring in the radical character and developement of the last form of evil, and, as this will be shewn in fact at the end, as to the fact, it may be taken in continuance. But there is another important division within the eleven first chapters: at the beginning of the eighth chapter, the last seal is opened by the Lamb: now of course this closes the book; and though that which follows may come under it, yet is it a distinct course and character of events. The Lamb is not spoken of during the course of the trumpets—all is angelic; after the twelfth, we have the Lamb again: of that we can speak there. The Lamb is in opposition to man and the world; that is, they have rejected Him; and the suffering Church, at least, is rejected by the world : and what concerns it, is what answers to Christ in that character. This, then, is what we have under the seals: in a certain sense this is always true, for all “that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
