ce was ended, _there were voices, and thundrings, and
lightnings, and an earthquake_; that is, the voice of the High-Priest
reading the Law to the people, and other voices and thundrings from the
trumpets and temple-musick at the sacrifices, and lightnings from the fire
of the Altar.

The solemnity of the day of expiation being finished, the seven Angels
found their trumpets at the great sacrifices of the seven days of the feast
of tabernacles; and at the same sacrifices, the seven thunders utter their
voices, which are the musick of the Temple, and singing of the _Levites_,
intermixed with the soundings of the trumpets: and the seven Angels pour
out their vials of wrath, which are the drink-offerings of those
sacrifices.

When six of the seals were opened, _John_ said: [3] _And after these
things_, that is, after the visions of the sixth seal, _I saw four Angels
standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the
earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on
any tree. And I saw another Angel ascending from the _East_, having 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, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our
God in their foreheads._ This sealing alludes to a tradition of the _Jews_,
that upon the day of expiation all the people of _Israel_ are sealed up in
the books of life and death. For the _Jews_ in their _Talmud_ [4] tell us,
that in the beginning of every new year, or first day of the month _Tisri_,
the seventh month of the sacred year, three books are opened in judgment;
the book of life, in which the names of those are written who are perfectly
just; the book of death, in which the names of those are written who are
Atheists or very wicked; and a third book, of those whose judgment is
suspended till the day of expiation, and whose names are not written in the
book of life or death before that day. The first ten days of this month
they call the penitential days; and all these days they fast and pray very
much, and are very devout, that on the tenth day their sins may be
remitted, and their names may be written in the book of life; which day is
therefore called the day of expiation. And upon this tenth day, in
returning home from the Synagogues, they say to one another, _God the
creator seal you to a good year_. For they conce