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ing the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

And I saw another Angel, even the great Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus, ascending up from the eastern coast, where Jerusalem stood; who, by virtue of his Mediatorship, had in his hand that seal or mark of the Living God, which, in his eternal decree, is set upon all his elect, whereby they are sealed up both to salvation in the end and to a gracious protection till then who did, by the mighty voice of his word, command those four Angels to whom power was given to hurt the earth, Saying, Hold your hands from doing any hurt to the earth or sea, to the trees that grow upon the earth or to the people that live upon it, until we have set the seal of God's merciful protection upon all those faithful servants of our God, whom he hath decreed to preserve.

VII. 4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

And I heard the number of those, whom, out of all the tribes of Israel professing his name, Christ had marked out for his gracious protection, to be a hundred forty-four thousand, that is, for each of the twelve tribes, twelve thousand.

VII. 5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. &c. The specialties whereof follow in their order; of the tribe of Juda were marked out twelve thousand converts, or believing Christians, &c.

VII. 9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, &c.

And, beside these converted Jews, I beheld an innumerable number of Christians, chosen out of all nations, kindreds, people, and tongues, which stood before the throne of God, and before that immaculate Lamb Christ Jesus, clothed with glorious and resplendent robes, and having palms.of victory in their hands:

VII. 10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Who did all, with one voice, cry out aloud to the praise of God; and profess, that salvation and all the glory thereof belongs unto that Almighty God that sitteth upon the throne, and to his Son Jesus, that Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world. VII. 13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And one of those glorious Saints, which stood before the throne, as willing to give me occasion to enquire further into the quality, and condition of those innumerable company of triumphant persons, who were clad in long white robes and carried palms in their hands, asked me who those were, that were thus arrayed, and whence they came.

VII. 14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said

to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and hav washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And I, as willing to be informed by him, said, Lord, it is enough for thee to know that: I desire to learn of thee, who they are. And he said, These are Christians, converted from Paganism to the Gospel of Christ, which have suffered great persecution for his Name's sake; and who are clearly acquitted and purged from all their sins, by the blood of Christ.

VII. 15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serv him day and night in the temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

Therefore are they now in this glorious condition, before the throne of God; and sing praises to him in his heavenly habitation continually and the Almighty Lord God, who sitteth on the throne, shall make them blessed with the fruition of his presence for evermore.

VII. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

They are now past all the danger of those extremities of hunger, and thirst, and all other bodily complaints, whereto they were subject upon earth; neither shall the sun scorch them any more, nor any heat or cold annoy them.

VII. 17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

For their blessed Saviour, Christ Jesus, which is in the midst of the throne, shall be all-sufficient; both for their nourishment, and refreshing; he shall feed them with hidden Manna, and shall com fort their souls with the waters of eternal life; and God shall fully free them from all trouble and sorrow.

VIII. 1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was sl lence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

And now, after that the tyrannical persecutors of the Church, the bloody Emperors which lived in those primitive times, were justly punished by the hand of God, when the Seventh Seal was opened, the Church had peace for a short time.

VIII. S And another angel came and stood at the altar, having golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

And the great angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus, came and stood, as the Mediator and High Priest of his Church, before the altar of heaven, having and executing the gracious office of his intercession; and many holy and effectual prayers were offered unto him, that he might, by his merciful, and effectual Mediation, present them to God the Father.

VIII. 4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's

hand.

And those faithful prayers, being sweetened by the powerful and pleasing Intercession of Christ, were with great acceptation received of God, from the hands of Christ his Son.

VIII. 5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

And the same Angel of the Covenant, the Son of God, who, as he is the just avenger of the enemies of his Church, (and therefore had cast the fire of his wrath upon the earth, on the heads of those tyrants and persecutors, as also of those heretical seducers which vexed his Church) did now also, in much mercy to his Church, from that heavenly altar of his, cast down the fire of holy zeal and illumination upon his servants on earth; who, being inflamed and enlightened therewith, desire and endeavour to oppose those wicked heresies, which had been broached in the Eastern Churches; and immediately hereupon followed great tumults, and much opposition.

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

And now, upon the opening of the seventh seal, and these broils that followed after in the Church, those Seven Angels, which God had appointed to be the heralds of his vengeance to the earth, prepared themselves to sound forth the reports of those several judgments, and remarkable proceedings of God, with and upon the world.

VIII. 7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up.

And the First Angel sounded, and there followed great store of heresies, and very raging, fiery, bloody prosecutions of them in the Church; and the third part of the professors of the Gospel, which are the Churches of the East, were grievously plagued and infested therewith these were the heresies of Arius, Macedonius, Eunomius, Photinus, Luciferians, Messalians, Apollinaris, Priscillianus, Pelagius, Nestorius, Eutyches.

VIII. 8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood.

And the Second Angel sounded, and there was an eminent part of the Church, even that large and numerous Council, which was met at Ariminum, for the establishing of the Arian heresy ; which, being fired with that wicked contention, difused itself into the world and a third part of the known Church was infected with it, and moved to a bloody persecution of the truth. So also verse 9.

VIII. 10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters.

And the Third Angel sounded, and there fell out a fearful Apo

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stasy from the Church of Christ: partly, by the seducement of wicked Mahomet, who, after some acknowledgment of Christ, fel away and devised with Sergius the Nestorian Monk and John of Antioch the Arian, to frame his cursed Alcoran, and to advance his own damnable impieties; and he corrupted a great part of the world, tainting both the springs and streams of religion: and, partly, by some dangerous errors and superstitions, which began to prevail in the Western Churches.

VIII. 11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

And the doctrines of that wicked impostor were as bitter as wornwood, and did put an ill savour and odious distastefulness upon all that were mis-seasoned with them : insomuch as these seducements proved deadly to many thousand souls.

VIII. 12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And the Fourth Angel blew, and, what with the infection of Mahometanism in the East, and the corruptions and errors which be gan to creep into the Western Church, a third part of the Chris tian world began to be darkened; and to be overspread with ignorance or misbelief; and lose that pure light of truth, which bad formerly shined forth unto them.

VIII. 13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Whereupon I beheld, and, lo, a swift messenger of fearful tidings was sent by God unto his Church; premonishing his elect, that they must expect yet more grievous plagues to be inflicted upon the inhabitants of the earth, in the following times, at the sounding of those three other trumpets that yet remained.

IX. 1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

And the Fifth Angel blew his trumpet, and I saw that fore-described Apostate both of the East and West Church, to receive yet more power to prevail in their impieties and ambitions; and, as it were, to set open the gates of hell.

IX. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

And, accordingly, this Apostasy succeeded: so as the instruments and agents therein did, by their errors and impieties, set open the way to the pit of hell; from whence there arose such fogs of misbelief and erroneous doctrine, as that thereby the light of the Gospel was much obscured.

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IX. 3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: nd unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have

ower.

And there came out of this hellish smoke new swarms of Saracens en the East, and of superstitious abettors of usurpation and errors n the West; which wasted a great part of the Church, and, by he sting and poison of their false doctrine, had permission to envenom very many in all places.

IX. 4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Yet, so did it please God to restrain the power and success of their infection and annoyance, as that they should not prevail over those places and persons, which He, in his secret counsel, had determined to preserve: no; not even the most weak and tender plants in his Church, but only over those men which have not the mark of God's particular and gracious protection set upon them.

IX. 5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

And even over them also, was the power of these noisome persons so limited, as that they should not utterly destroy them; but oppress and afflict them for the space of a hundred and fifty years, after their first seizure upon every several region which they should infest; at which time their tyranny should abate: the proceedings of which pernicious agents should be, at first, more easy and tolerable; and, afterwards, should grow to extremity and painful death.

IX. 6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

And, therefore, in those grievous oppressions, both of body and of estate and of soul, men shall be so vexed, that they shall be weary of their lives; and shall wish to be freed from that servitude, even by death itself, and shall not be allowed it.

IX. 7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

And the form and deportment of these infernal locusts was altogether martial, like unto barbed horses prepared to the battle; carrying all by a cruel and impetuous violence, and bearing down all oppositions before them: and, through their happy success, they triumphed as kings, and had the very forms of crowns upon their heads; and they carried themselves, for their own advantage, friendly and plausibly to those whom they meant to work

upon.

IX. 8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

And they were altogether effeminate in their dispositions; being given up to wantonness and lust: and, to maintain their luxury,

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