the springs of parental affection are infinitely found in Him; and our weaning time draws forth an amount of patience and long-suffering kindness that is most marvellous. Oh, then, that we knew more of the sweet exercise that is couched under these words, "My soul is like a weaned child!” E. C. To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy. SOHAM, January 26, 1853. DEAR SIR,-Will you kindly give insertion in the Journal the following difficulty with me, and, if convenient, say how in your judgment it may be met? Am I right in identifying Isaiah lxv. 17-25 with Rev. xxi. xxii.? If so, how is it to be reconciled or understood what is stated in Isa. lxv. 20, as compared with Rev. xxi. 4, "For the child SHALL DIE," &c., and "there shall be NO MORE DEATH," &c.? Is the first statement to be taken as in effect the same with the latter, i.e., tantamount to it? Do they refer to the same periods? Is the difficulty more apparent than real? J. S. [We think our correspondent right in identifying Isaiah and Revelation ; * only the latter appears to us in the light of a double prophecy. That the chapters referred to (xxi. and xxii.) do describe the millennial state seems evident from hints of imperfection still existing, such as the teaching of the nations; but that it passes beyond the millennial into the everlasting state seems equally manifest from the strength and glow and largeness of the language employed. When we read Isaiah's description of ancient Babylon, we cannot help saying, a greater than ancient Babylon is here. So in reading the last two chapters of the Apocalypse we say, a still more glorious than the millennial is here. The language used is such as to take in both,-embracing the whole state of things from the day that the curse is removed and creation's groans made to cease.-) -EDITOR.] * Mr Wood in his "Last Things" thus gives his reasons for the identification "The order of the visions in the Apocalypse is not always the order of the events which they represent; and I have already stated my conviction, that the twenty-first and twenty second chapters of Revelation refer to millennial times. My reasons for coming to this conclusion are,-1. That the new Jerusalem is described as the bride of Christ adorned for her husband; whereas the marriage of the Lamb, and the making ready of the bride, are noticed, in chap. xix. 7, as pre-millennial events. 2 That the tree of life is said to be for healing of the nations (xxii. 2); whereas, in the everlasting state, there can be no nations to need healing. 3. That the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour unto it (xxi. 24), a description which does not appear to me to be suitable to the everlasting state. 4. That it is said of this period, there shall be no more curse" (xxii. 3); whereas the same language is applied to the earth in times confessedly millennial, when Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited (Zech. xiv. 11). For these reasons, I regard the whole description as millennial, and the new heaven and earth, the locality of the things described, as being millennial too. If, then, the passing away of the former heavens and earth precede this renewal, the event must be premillennial." 66 Poetry. THE CONSOLATION. THE storm has broken, and the heavy blast, That stifled morn's free breath and shook its dew, Is dying into sunshine; and the last Dull cloud has vanish'd from yon arch of blue. I know it is but for a day; the war Must soon be waged again 'twixt earth and heaven; The tranquil beauty of the fragrant even. And yet I joy as storm on storm awakes;- So falls the stroke of sorrow, and so springs One cross the less remains for me to bear; Is taken from the future, whose sad store NOTICE. All readers of the Journal are most earnestly besought to give it room in their prayers; that by means of it God may be honoured and His truth advanced; also, that it may be conducted in faith and love, with sobriety of judgment and discernment of the truth, in nothing carried away into error, or hasty speech, or sharp unbrotherly disputation. BALLANTYNE, PRINTER, EDINBURGH. THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF PROPHECY. JULY 1853. ART. I.-THE SEVEN SEALS OF THE APOCALYPSE. THE SEALS AND MILLENNIUM.-The new creation, commencing with our Lord's resurrection, and measured as the creation of the world, ToÚTOU alwvos, was, by the doctors of the Jewish-Christian Church, divided into two principal epochs, the six sevenths or working days, during which the gospel was to be preached to all the world, and the number of the elect filled up; and the seventh the Sabbath of the Messiah, or the Kingdom of Christ on earth in a New Jerusalem. But the Jewish doctors made the day (or one thousand years) of Messiah, a part, because the consummation, τούτου αἴωνος, τούτου καιρού.—COLERIDGE Notes on English Divines, vol. i. p. 271. THREE opposite schools of interpreters have for long divided the attention of the Church, as to the real meaning of these mysterious symbols. Of these, the first, the primitive, and till of late the most generally received, considered them to include the whole period from our Lord's ascension till his return. To this class of interpreters it has, however, been objected, that they proceed upon no definite system, that their division of the seven periods is arbitrary, and that, whilst they suppose each of the first six seals to have taken irregular periods of from. thirty to one hundred years, according to the exigencies of their various theories, they are compelled to extend the last over fifteen or eighteen hundred-more than six times that of the first six put together. No one disputes the truth of facts pointed out by the late lamented Cunningham, or by Mr Elliott, but many justly doubt what they have to do with the seals to which they are referred, and suspect that, acting on the same principle, a converted Chinese might make out that they were all fulfilled in the history of the Celestial Empire. Hence, then, there have sprung up two opposite opinions, with various shades of modification; one, that of Mr Elliott, who considers the first six seals to have been all broken before the establishment of the Christian Church under Constantine, by the affair of the Milvian Bridge, the trumpets to have already sounded, and the goblets of wrath, partially, at least, already poured out; the seventh alone remaining, to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord; and that of the Bishop of Cashel, who believes that the seals will only be broken, the trumpets sounded, and the vials poured out, at or after the personal advent. Yet it may be doubted whether the objections of this school, how successful soever to the details of Mr Cunningham or Dr Keith's views, are not successful only against the details, not the principle, if fairly carried out. The view which the present writer would suggest, is one that he has already indicated, but has now to complete. Without repeating past remarks, it is sufficient that all writers admit the gospel to have been preached without let or hindrance, although not without every effort at its corruption, by the visible Church, from our Lord's ascension till A.D. 376-a period marked by the universal recognition of the Roman Empire, by the national renunciation by the sovereign of all gods but the Lord, by the discontinuance of heathen sacrifices, and by the grand national act which, renouncing all Roman superstitions and the worship of the War-God, declared the reign of peace on earth as begun. Equally true it is, that the instant the Emperor cast off the mitre of the queen of heaven, the Pope of Rome donned it; that so soon as the legions piled their arms, the Goths appeared in theirs; and that the same year which witnessed at its commencement the fall of Jupiter before Jesus, saw, before its close, Venus placed between the Lord and the sinner, and three hundred thousand fierce warriors enter the lands of those who, yielding to the cant of the Chaldean priesthood, had renounced the duty of the national defence, trusting to the intercepting power of the queen of heaven. The simultaneous establishment of Virgin worship and the Gothic invasion, must surely form a distinct epoch in man's history, and that of the Church too; inasmuch as the one and the other, by mutual action and reaction, are indissolubly connected, and both continued to go on, supplanting, struggling with, and substituting themselves for three centuries, above all other creeds and races. During the seven jubilees which followed, every capital, save London and Constantinople, in the civilised world, from Moscow to Cape Comorin, from Cape Comorin to the German sea, passed either under the Gothic or the Arab broad sword. Yet, in A.D. 718, this storm lulled suddenly. Since that period, the Gothic tribes ceased to conquer. No country has become Gothicised which was not so before A.D. 719, whilst in the same year the tide of Arab war began to retrograde, till, of all the victories of the Arab followers of the False Prophet, Constantinople remains the only but yet lovely prize. Here, then, when we see that, from A.D. 376 to A.D. 719, the whole known world was one scene of anarchy and blood, that the rider on the red horse went forth, everywhere striking with his great sword, and that he ceased to strike in A.D. 719, we have reason to believe that each of the succeeding seals will, in length, resemble the first two. How far will this bear us out, if applied to general, and not solely to Gibbon's history? FIRST SEAL, A.D. 33 to A.D. 376. Progress of the Gospel. Rev. vi. 2. And I saw, and behold a white horse; and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer. SECOND SEAL, A.D. 376 to A.D. 719. Gothic conquest of Europe and Northern Asia, and establishment of Virgin worship. Universal Gothic and Arab war and anarchy. Rev. vi. 4. And there went out another horse that was red and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. THIRD SEAL, A.D. 719 to A.D. 1062. Reconstruction of social order by Howel Ddha, Alfred, Charlemagne, Pllaguis, and Haroun-al-Raschid, alike through Europe, Asia, Egypt, and Northern Africa, the whole civilised world, and establishment of arbitrary laws attempting to fix the price of every necessary of life. Rev. vi. 5, 6. 5. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. FOURTH SEAL, a.d. 1062 to a.d. 1405. Commencing with Turkish invasion; includes crusades, invasion of Zinghis Khan, devastating India, China, Persia, Russia; murdering hundreds of thou Rev. vi. 8. And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him. And power was given unto them |