ends worthy of himself, the only wise God has unchangeably decreed that “offences must needs come,” (Matt, xviii. 7;) and “there must be also heresies” among professing Christians. (1 Cor. xi. 19.).  However, in the administration of providence, judgment without mercy awaits every nation to which the gospel is sent in vain.  The voices, thunderings, etc., consequent upon the scattering of the coals, portended the calamities which would be inflicted upon men for their opposition to the gospel and cruel treatment of the saints, in answer to their prayers through the intercession of Christ.

6.  And the seven angels, which had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound.

V. 6.—­The “seven angels now prepare themselves to sound.”  The first alarm, of course, will put an end to the “silence.”  It should be noted that while each seal, when broken, disclosed so much of the roll of the book as was concealed by it; the seventh leaves no part unrevealed.  The whole contents are laid open.  It is otherwise with the trumpets.  The reverberations of one may not have ceased when the next begins to sound.  Thus, several may be partly cotemporary.  Again, it may be questioned whether mankind are to be considered in civil or ecclesiastical organization as the formal object of the judgments indicated by the trumpets.  Some expositors view the one, and some the other, as the object, and the contention has been sharp among them.  We humbly suggest that neither is the formal object without the other, simply because the same individuals constitute the complex moral person.  The correctness of this view is largely illustrated and abundantly confirmed in the subsequent part of the Apocalypse.  Provinces, nations, empires, are no farther worthy of notice in prophecy than as they affect the destiny of the church and illustrate the immutable principles of the moral government of God.  He is known by the judgments which he executeth, and nations must be taught that “the heavens do rule.” (Dan. iv. 26.) Although the church and the state are, by divine institution, distinct, not united; they are nevertheless co-ordinate, and always exert a reciprocal influence for good or for evil.  It has been the policy of Satan to confound this distinction; and alas! with too much success in the apprehension of many.  There are not wanting divines who boldly assert, that even among the Jews, under the Old Testament,—­“the church was the state, and the state was the church!” We may have occasion to notice hereafter, that this gross error and antichristian dogma, is yet entertained in relation to divinely organized society under the present New Testament economy!