And therefore, Faber and other commentators on prophecy consider the sun, in prophetical language, as the sign of constituted authority. The moon was used as a sign of the patriarchal mother. She had a species of authority over the children; not in her own right, but by virtue of her marriage. In prophetical language, the moon is a symbol of the Church, dependent for all her authority upon her Lord, as the moon is for light upon the sun. The phrase “ powers of heaven,” when used politically, means the governments of earth; when spiritually used, the authority of the Church. The eleven stars, in Joseph's dream, meant the eleven sons of the patriarch; but, in prophetical language, stars indicate the ministers of Christ. In the Revelations, Christ says “the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the seven angels” (Messengers, or Bishops,) “of the seven churches ; and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches."*

As to the remaining symbols in the text-by the earth is meant the territorial limits of human governments: the sea denotes, in prophetical language, multitudes of people ;-and, when in a state of excitement, roaring, and agitation, as here, people in a state of revolutionary fury and excitement.t

Thus much may suffice for the exposition of the *Rev. i. 20. Isaiah, xvii. 12; Ezek. xxvi. 3; Ps. Ixv. 7; Rev. xvii. 15.

particular signs, or symbolical terms employed in the text. The general truth to be deduced from the words is, that, before the second coming of our Lord, there would be political and civil commotions, such as had been unexampled in the preceding history of the world. That there should be wars more tragical and bloody than were ever carried on by the Alexanders and Philips of ancient times: That the spirit of revolution would break forth with uncontrollable fury,—subverting old established dynasties,—making time-honored and venerable thrones shake to their foundations,-reducing political institutions to their elements,-as it were, overwhelming all the pride and splendor of kingdoms, and carrying civil things back to chaos again. Some of these “signs in the sun," the emblem of earthly authorities and powers, have already taken place, and have been written, as with tears and blood, in the history of modern nations. And, for aught we know, the present temporary calm may be but preparatory to more tremendous convulsions—to tempests of greater fury. It may be, that still more marvellous conflicts and revolutions, than those with which the fame of Napoleon is blended, are yet to be entered upon the sorrowful chronicles of this guilty world.

The text also speaks of “signs in the moon, and in the stars ;' and, according to the symbolical interpretation, teaches us, that, before the second coming of the Son of man, there should be great religious excitements,-times of error and darkness, of persecution and superstition in the Church: That many of its ministers—(stars in the spiritual firmament,) should fall from their spheres; that the church herself should be involved in darkness, ceasing to give her light; and be the agent, or victim of persecution,-indicated by the moon being “turned into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come.” In the history of Popery and Mohammedanism,-in the wide-spread apostacies, heresies, schisms, and fearful scenes of persecution, which have disgraced the Christian name in former periods,—we learn that the prophecy has in part been fulfilled ;-and the events now in progress in the religious world afford clear indications that the accomplishment of the remainder cannot be very remote.

But we must reserve a more particular consideration of the antecedents of the Second Advent until the next Sunday evening, and shall conclude the present discourse with a striking quotation from the writings of one of the most gifted and eloquent ministers of the Church of England.

“Where, where is the man who can contemplate the truths revealed to the Apostles,” respecting the second coming of our Lord, “without catching a

a

Spark of the Apostolic fire," which the subject enkindled in their bosoms?

“In all light there is heat. The man who can proceed in a cold investigation of these revealed glories of God in Christ Jesus, without finding himself once and again hurried away into a warmth of devotional enthusiasm which bids defiance to all rules of logic, has more reason to be ashamed of the deadness of his heart, than to pride himself upon the soundness of his understanding. This exuberance of feeling, however, arising from the overflowing fulness of the transporting subject, is a very different thing from that vapid excitement which is begun, continued, and ended in emptiness."

“Witness its operation upon the mind of St. John, in the Isle of Patmos. “Behold he cometh with clouds! This exclamation of the Apostle is grounded upon the last of those sublime visions which had been represented to him, and with the glory of which he was so filled, when he came to testify the truth to the churches, that he is interrupted, as it were, by involuntary bursts of feeling. In his benediction, he had called Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth'-with evident allusion to the three-fold revelation of the Lord which he had received—the great Bishop or teacher of the Churchthe Lamb as it had been slain, appearing in heaven,

and the King of Kings returning to the earth. Then, out of the abundance of his inspired heart, burst forth the Doxology, 'unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory forever and ever!'

"But this was not enough to satisfy his ardent, holy enthusiasm. A chart had been laid before him, marking the course of the voyage by which God had foreordained to carry on the Church and the world through this dispensation. Both are seen sailing together: the one exulting in her pride,-the other, meek and lowly: the one glittering in all the splendor of costly ornaments,-the other in sackcloth the one changing its aspects under successive commanders, and increasing, as it proceeds, in luxury and pride; the other, always the same, under one Captain, neither imitating nor envying the pageantry of its companion: The one ringing with the sounds of revellings, banquetings, and blasphemies; -the other, breathing into every gale the tender accents of earnest, humble prayer.

"They sail on together: the one, pleased with the voyage, and wishing it to last forever ;—the other, sore buffetted and weary, almost unto death,-longing for the haven. The whole voyage being traced before the Apostle's eye, the port at last appears, and then, behold! the Master of both vessels rushes