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that the Lord takes of his own faithful remnant, by feparating them from others, that they might not be hurt thereby.

Thefe fpiritual plagues are expreffed under the notion of four winds, ver. 1. which drive away unstable professors, who are not rooted by faith in Christ, just as the wind drives loose and light things before it. Those winds are faid to be four, with allufion to the four quarters of heaven, east, weft, north, and fouth; implying, that the devil fets upon the church of Chrift from all airths at once, so that she is like a city befieged by enemies from all quarters. The inftruments in the hand of God, for plaguing the vifible church with thofe spiritual judgements, are four. Some fay they were four evil angels, like those that were fent to be a lying fpirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets, to perfuade him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead, to his deftruction. Others think that they were good angels, because they reftrained the winds until the faints were fealed. But we need not infift to determine this difference, seeing we find God, the great Lord and Sovereign, fometimes making ufe of good, and fometimes of bad angels, as the executioners of his wrath.

But now in the 2d and 3d verfes follows the confolation of the faints of God, his little remnant, who are keeping their garments clean, and keeping the word of his patience. The eyes of the Lord are running to and fro through the whole earth to fhew himself ftrong in their behalf, and his care about them is thus expreffed. And I faw another Angel afcending from the east, having the feal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four Augels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the fea, faying, Hurt not the earth, neither the fea, nor the trees, till we have fealed the fervants of our God in their foreheads. Where, for explication, we may notice thefe following particulars.

1. The great agent that interpofes for the fafety of the faints, when the four noxious winds are blowing away the generality of profeffors; and that is another Angel: not any created angel, like the four mentioned in the it verfe, but the glorious Angel of the covenant, Jefus Chrift, who was fent before Ifrael to open the way into the land of Canaan, concerning whom God fays to Ifrael, Exod. xxiii. 21. "Beware of him, and obey his voice: for my name is in him." This I fay is the Angel here fpoken of, for he is the head that looks to the welfare of his members, " And he is given to be head over all things unto the church, which is his body;" and all the faints are in his hand, and none fhall pluck them out of his or his Father's hand.

2. We may notice from what airth this Angel doth arise and

appear;

appear; he afcends from the eaft, with allufion to the natural fun in the firmament, who arifes from that airth, and spreads his light and influences toward the weft. The coming of Chrift is compared to lightning coming from the caft. He is "the light of the world, the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Some obferve that the entry of the temple, by which the prince was to afcend, was upon the eaft; and fo it may fignify, that when Chrift comes, for the help and relief of his church, he appears in a princely and fovereign way; and when he doth fo he acts like himfelf, "the Prince of the kings of the earth.”

3. This Angel is the Lord-keeper of the privy feal of heaven, for he had the feal of the living God. This fhews that he is his Father's great truftee, who has all power in heaven and in earth committed unto him. On the fame account the keys of the house of David, or the government is laid upon his fhoulders: If. xxii. 24. "he fhall hang upon him all the glory of his Father's houfe, the offspring and the iffue, all veffels of fmall quantity: from the veffels of cups even to all the veffels of flagons." The care of God's particular kingdom, of his chofen generation, royal priesthood, peculiar people, and holy nation, is committed to him.

4. We may obferve how Chrift executes his authoritative trust; he cries with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the fea. His crying may fignify Chrift's authority, the eminency of the danger, and his care to have the hurtful winds reftrained for a season. Those to whom he directs his cry, are the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the fea; whereby we are made to understand, that all the angels, both good and bad, are fubject to the authority and command of him, who is " the head of all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion," &c. None of them all can act but by orders from him. Chrift in heaven is looking to the welfare of his church and people upon earth in time of danger, when they themselves have no thought about their own hazard.

5. We have the particular charge given to the angels by Chrift, which I have mainly in view, ver. 3. he faid to them Hurt not the earth, neither the fea, nor the trees, till we have fealed the fervants of our God in their foreheads.

Where we have, 1ft, A prohibition. 2dly, The party immediately concerned in the prohibition. And, 3dly, The reafon

thereof.

/t, The prohibition: Hurt not the earth, neither the fea, nor the trees, for a time. Where you fee the jungement is not abfolutely averted nor difcharged, but only fufpended, until pro

vifion be made for the fafety of God's peculiar people. Obferve, that any favour fhewed unto the wicked, or any fufpenfion of divine vengeance with refpect unto them, is owing unto the truly godly that live among them; if it were not for the elect's fake, God would make short work with the reft of mankind: "Except the Lord of hofts had left unto us a very fmall remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah."

2dly, We have the party immediately concerned in the prohibition; the earth, the fea, and the trees. By whom in general we are to understand profeffors of different kinds, against whom the benfil of thofe hurtful winds was levelled, and who were to fuftain great hurt and injury thereby to their fouls, when God's time of loofing them should come. What fort of profellors of religion are particularly pointed at by the earth, the fea, and trees, fhall be declared afterwards.

3dly, We have the reafon of the restraint that is laid upon the hurtful winds, that they are not fuffered to blow for a while, viz. Until we have fealed the fervants of our God in their foreheads. Where we have,

(1.) The objects of the divine care, the fervants of our God. It is Chrift that is fpeaking, and he fpeaks in the capacity of a public head, in his own name, and in the name of all his faithful friends and followers, faying, Our God, because he is the head of the whole myftical body, and ftands in a joint relation to God with his members and people, according to John xx. 17. “I afcend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." The character that he gives, them is, that they are the fervants of God; and the reafon of this defignation is, because they were fuch as feared his name, Neh. i. 11. and because they "kept the command. ments of God, and the teftimony of Jefus," when the flood caft out of the mouth of the old ferpent was fweeping away the bulk of vifible profeffors unto a courfe of apoitacy.

(2.) We may notice what was to be done to or for the fervants of God; why, they are to be fealed, i. e. they are to be feparate or diftinguished from others that were to be doomed to deftruction; much like that, Ezek. ix. 4. 6. Says the Lord to the man who had the writer's inkhorn by his fide, "Go through the midft of the city, through the midst of Jerufalem, and fet a mark upon the foreheads of the men that figh, and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof;" and then, it is added, "Come not near any man apon whom is the mark." In fhort, this difcovers the particu bar care that God has of his own remnant, and the fpecial providence

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vidence that God exercifes about them, when his judgements are in the earth.

(3.) Notice the vifibility of this feal; they are fealed on their foreheads. Thus, Rev. xiv. 1. the hundred forty and four thou fand who ftand with the Lamb on mount Sion, they are faid to "have his Father's name written in their foreheads ;” i. e. they had a vifibie profeffion of the name of God in the world, and were not afhamed to confefs him before men. So here this feal is fet on the foreheads of the fervants of God; i. e. as they had been faithful to his caufe and intereft, when others had deferted him and his truth; fo he would vitibly own them as his before the world, and would not be ashamed of them, and would make his regard for them evident to all men, by the fingular care he took of them, when his destroying judgements were in the earth.

(4.) The reafon of their being thus fealed is here implied, viz. that they might not be hurt, i. e. that they might be preferved from the danger and hazard of these peftilential winds that were to blow in a little upon the vifible church. Thus I have endeavoured to open the text and context a little.

From the 2d and 3d verfes we may observe these few things.

Obferv. 1. That Chrift, the glorious uncreated Angel of the covenant, is the protector and guardian of his church and people. He is that other Angel, who has a watchful eye upon his remnant, that they may not fuffer hurt by the winds that were to blow, Pfal. xci. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them," Pfal. xxxiv. 7. "The angel of his prefence faved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old," If. lxiii. 9. In which the prophet refers to Exod. xxiii. 20. 21. where God fays to Mofes, "Behold, I fend mine Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice:-for my name is in him.” This is he that was with the church in the wilderness, and this is he that is with the New Teftament church, even he who "rideth upon the heavens by his great name JAH, for the help of his people, and in his excellency on the fkies ;" and therefore will make all things, even the moft cloudy difpenfations, "work together for good to them that love God, and who are the called according to his purpofe."

Obferv. 2.That Christ's appearances for his church makes day to break from under the darkest night. Hence here likened unto the fun afcending from the eaft, difpelling the darknefs

of

of the night. Luke i. 78. "Through the tender mercies of our God, the day-fpring from on high hath visited us." He brings healing in his wings.

Obferv. 3. That however the glory of Chrift may be clouded and obfcured by the errors of man, and the mists of hell, yet, like the fun in the firmament, he is always in the afcendant. This prophecy here is thought to have a particular refpect unto that period of the church, when, after the ten Romish Heathen perfecutions, a fwarm of herefies brake out in the church, calculate for obfcuring the glory of his perfon and righteousness; and yet at the fame time he is afcending, and, in the iffue, all these mists ferve only as a foil to fet forth his glory with the greater luftre. Thus the wrath of men and devils, and all their errors and delufions, fhall praise him; and what will not answer this end he will restrain. And therefore "let the children of Zion be always joyful in their King," he will prevail.

Obferv. 4. That our glorious Redeemer is a perfon of the highest intereft, credit, and authority, in heaven; for here we are told, that he hath the feal of the living God. God has "hung upon him all the glory of his houfe;" he hath "highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jefus every knee fhould bow." Oh what unfpeakable confolation is here, especially confidering that he got this authority, and executes it, for the good of his church!

Obferv. 5. That fuch is the power and authority of our Redeemer, that all the executioners of the divine anger against the children of men, or the rotten profeffors of the visible church, are under his empire and command; for here we fee he reftrains the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth, and the fea, and the trees. Angels and principalities and powers in heavenly places do obeilance unto him, and are his winged meflengers, and as a flame of fire to obey him and as for wicked men and devils, they are under the chains of his power and providence; he rules in the raging of the sea, and when the waves thereof roar, he ftilleth them, and says, " Hitherto thalt thou come, but no farther."

Obferv. 6. That when the danger is great and most imminent toward his church and people, that is the feafon wherein he molt readily interpofes for help and deliverance. When the four angels were just ready to let loofe the four hurtful winds, whereby good and bad, chaff and corn, might have been swept away together, then he gives the cry to ftop until the fervants of God were fealed, and provifion -made for their fafety. VOL. III. "Now

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