yet all these things which were to be transacted in the visible world, happen _after_ the description above quoted. If, then, various and multiplied events are described as occurring _on the earth, after_ the heavens had departed like a scroll, and the islands were moved out of their places, nothing can be more clear than that the destruction of the earth is not here alluded to; for if the world is to be destroyed under the _sixth_ seal, then no events can happen _upon it_ under the _seventh_, since it will then have no existence; but as such events _are_ described as passing _in the world_ under the _seventh_ seal, then that world cannot previously be destroyed under the _sixth_ seal. And in this opinion we are, as before, supported by the advocates of the doctrine themselves. The sealing of the tribes is almost universally acknowledged to signify the preservation of the church, under those heavy and forthcoming calamities represented by the effects of the seven trumpets. And as this preservation, and these calamities, occur _after_ the darkening of the sun, and the falling of the stars, the latter event is generally supposed to prefigure (not the destruction of visible nature, but) some great change in the political or religious constitution of the world. The precise period to which this change is to be referred, has, however, divided the opinions of the learned. Some apply it altogether to the Jews, and suppose that their destruction in Judea and at Jerusalem was so dismal that it was represented to John as the darkening of the sun, and the moon looking like blood, and the stars falling. Others apply it to the overthrow of Paganism and the destruction of the heathen emperors; and accordingly by the earth quaking,--the sun becoming black,--the moon becoming blood, and the stars falling from heaven to earth, is to be understood the great changes that were made in the Roman empire by the overturning of the Pagan state. Others again apply it to "the great and horrible confusion of the Christian world under Antichrist, when Christ the Sun of Righteousness began to be obscured; that is, his doctrine darkened,--the moon or church turned into blood,--the stars or pastors fallen from heavenly offices, the Scriptures, like the heavens rolled up, forbidden to be read, the mountains, (king and princes) in jeopardy,--and the islands brought under Antichrist's yoke and tyranny." Very few venture to apply it to what is commonly called the "end of the world;" and none can do it without charging the apostle with inconsistency, by affirming that it shall take place at a definite period of time; and then speaking of events that are to occur in the world _after_ that time, that is, after the world shall have been destroyed! On this passage the commentator whom we have already quoted observes,