The meaning of blowing the trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, is not explained to us by any sacred writer. It was, however, the first day of their civil year, in distinction from their ecclesiastical year, which commenced with the passover month. Some have thought the feast of trumpets a memorial of the giving of the law from Mount Sinai, with its accompaniment of "thunder and earthquake, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud." It may be also intended to foreshew the dreadful season of terror, alarm, and tremendous judgment, that shall be at the time of the end, after that "the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb" shall be taken out of the earth: and that "time of Jacob's trouble" comes, and "tribulation, that is to try all the earth," of which we have spoken so much before. Nine days after this, and five before the feast of tabernacles, was to be the great day of atonement : and it is much to be remarked, of the solemnities of this high day, which was the day when the high priest entered within the veil, that they have reference to the whole congregation, as a nation, to every order of their society, and to all the sacred things employed in the ritual of their worship. All were on this day reconciled to God, from year to year continually. It may, therefore, well be conceived to look forward to the day when Israel, as a people and nation, shall be brought, as we have seen they shall be, into the bonds of the new covenant; when "the worshippers, once purged, will have no more conscience of sins." There will then be no more remembrance made of them every year: accordingly, although ceremonial sacrifices are still offered as memorials, yet, as we have seen, by the new ritual of Ezekiel, no great day of atonement is appointed. And thus will Israel, and the nations of the earth that are saved out of "the great tribulation," having "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," lift up the voice of praise and thanksgiving "before the throne of God and the Lamb," or of God, even the Lamb, and bear their branches of palm-trees, to keep the feast of tabernacles before the Lord, with rejoicings that shall know no end. SECTION THE SIXTΕΕΝΤΗ. SATAN'S ATTACK UPON THE HOLY CITY. The more full developement of the enemy of God and his Christ-The throne of Messiah, and recovery of the lost dominion of the earth, and "of the air," or the ethereal regions, the object of his ambition -His final doom. THIS holy city, the resort of worshippers in the flesh, with "the station of the saints," bearing rule over the nations on the earth, must be that, as we have noted, which the nations in the four corners of the earth, deceived by Satan on his release, are instigated to compass about. We may well exclaim, Is it possible that the evil spirit, by an attack from earth,-" for his place is found no more in heaven," -can hope to dispossess the beloved city and the risen saints, and again resume his once boasted dominion over the nations of the earth! We well know, among men, what unreasonable achievements blinded ambition will sometimes attempt. "The father of lies" may himself be under "a strong delusion," and stand up as the great antitype of Pharaoh, whose heart God had hardened. "Even for this purpose have I raised thee up, that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." Now, therefore, the principle of evil, which wrought in all these children of pride, is traced to the person of that spirit who was its first fountain and mover. It was he that filled the heart of the proud Assyrian, and of the Babylonian; it was he who wrought, as the spirit of antichrist, in the apostates of the Christian church; the same "LIAR from the beginning," is on this last occasion more developed still: and, perhaps, the title of Gog is, on this occasion, given more immediately to the Devil himself, than to any human leader. He has not only "put it into the head" of the human creature whom he hath deceived, and "filled his heart" to do this daring wickedness, but Satan has, in reality, "entered into him:" certainly not, however, become "incarnate;" such a supposition were contrary to every scriptural idea. Here we see the full accomplishment, the whole truth, as it were, of the types of that great enemy, who is held forth in the word of prophecy, and whose character, as it is there symbolized, was indeed wonderfully realized in many an earthly tyrant and seducer; but ever with some defect, or falling short, of the grand language of the prediction, as it had a farther mark-the type, a more exact mould, from which it had received its cast. "How art thou fallen from the skies, Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cast prostrate on the earth But thou saidst in thine heart, Above the stars of El, I will raise my throne; I will sit on the mount of the testimony, 6 We have seen in the former agents of Satan, how, actuated by the diabolical ambition with which he inspired them, they, as much as in them lay, attempted to supplant the Christ of Jehovah; some in his prophetical office, as the only master and teacher; some in his priestly character; and some in his regal government. We saw especially in the harlot city, which, in anticipation, had robbed the holy Jerusalem of her honors, how one, who prosecuted his claims to all the three functions of the Lord Messiah, "opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or a God,' or that is worshipped; so that he as God, or a God,' sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God, 'or a God." This, in its mimicry, as we have noticed, shews the same disposition to usurp the honors and the throne of the only Christ, -the express image of the Invisible Deity. But Rome is not Jerusalem: this godship must be brought down, and the house of this kingdom burnt with fire, notwithstanding "the great words" which have sounded in the ears of men, for more than twelve hundred years. |