nto the scenes of nature, which is a clear
evidence that the history of the church is no longer under
consideration. Had God intended to here continue her history, he would
no doubt have employed symbols derived from the same source as those
preceding, so as to prevent our being led astray. No more horsemen or
living characters appear, but we behold the most terrific convulsions of
nature--a mighty earthquake, the darkening of the sun and the moon, the
falling of the stars, and finally the dissolution of the heavens,
together with the mountains and the islands being removed. If the
history of the church is no longer under consideration, this great
change of symbols directs us with absolute certainty into the political
and civil world for their fulfilment. Of course, we are not to suppose
that this is a literal description.

In this manner the dignity and the excellence in the use and the
interpretation of symbols is preserved. To describe the religious
history of the church, noble symbols chosen from the department of human
life are selected; while symbols drawn from an inferior department--that
of nature--are chosen to represent political affairs. This point will
appear very clear as we proceed in the interpretation of the Apocalypse.
It is just what we might naturally expect.

The question may be asked, If these symbols from nature represent
political affairs, where in the events of civil history shall we look
for their fulfilment? Every one will readily perceive the analogy
between an earthquake and a political revolution, when all society is in
a state of agitation as when the solid earth trembles. It is also
evident that the sun, moon, and stars bear the same analagous
relationship to the earth that kings, rulers, and princes do to the body
politic; while the firmament of heaven is analagous to the entire fabric
of civil government, the symbolic heaven in which the symbolic orbs are
set to give light.

The symbols, then, point us to the most terrible revolutions--when
society is in a state of agitation, when kingdoms are overthrown and
their rulers and princes thrown from their positions or made objects of
the most gloomy terror; yea, when the entire fabric of civil government
is finally overthrown and all the institutions and organizations of
society are swept away as with a tornado. This is the time of
consternation to the great men of earth, when they shall hide
"themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the