powers shaken, convulsions of the prophetic earth, And dislocations of its governing powers;[1] and to strengthen the saints, the consequence is shewn.
The seventh seal gave occasion to the definite results of the state of things introduced by the fifth. There were those who had come out of great tribulation, and were fully owned—their robes were “white in the blood of the Lamb.”
The seventh seal, once opened, we hear no more of the Lamb. The Church, as a dispensation, had
- ↑ The application of symbols, literally, seems to me to be very false in principle and a very unsuitable mode of interpretation. It is the denial that they are symbols. I believe the language of symbols as definite as any other, and always used in the same sense, as much as language is.
consequent complete subversion and revolution of all the foundation and elements of all political arrangement and power, which are spoken of as preceding the day of the Lord, for the sources of power in the heavens must be changed before the day of the Lord come, though Satan may be raging upon earth; against whose earthly doings, and upon them, the day may come (see Joel ii.; Mark xiii. 24, 25). The extent and importance of this revolution in the heavens, I believe not to be ordinarily sufficiently attended to. The earth may have been often shaken, and have reverted to its course, because the heavens are not ; but where the heavens are, the sources of power are changed, and the enemy cast out; and he never regains that place, though, when loose, he may still act in opposition—fruitless opposition—on earth; for then judgment is come, the heavens being so established and ruling.
