all is suspense,
and before the silence is broken by the sounding of the first trumpet,
the worship of God is exemplified after the usual manner. An angel, by
his official place and work easily distinguished from those having the
trumpets, holds in his hand a "golden censer" that with "much incense"
he might render acceptable "the prayers of all saints." As the angel who
had the "seal of the living God," is distinguished from those that "held
the winds," (ch. vii. 1;) so is he here, from those that had the
trumpets. Here he appears as the Great High Priest over the house of
God; and as "the whole multitude of the people were praying without, at
the time of incense;" (Luke i. 10;) so the service of God is thus
emblematically represented as conducted according to divine appointment.
This Angel therefore is Christ himself. "No man cometh unto the Father
but by him." He is the only Advocate with the Father; and through him
"we have access by one Spirit unto the Father." (Eph. ii. 18.)

May we not inquire, without presumption, a little into the nature or
purport of the "prayers of all saints" at this time of ominous silence?
And what could so likely be the burden of their petitions as that of the
cry of the souls under the altar, namely, the destruction of the Roman
empire? Surely this has been the prayer of God's persecuted servants in
all ages:--"Pour out thy fury upon the heathen," etc. (Jer. x. 25; Ps.
lxxix. 6). However inconsistent with Christian charity superficial
Christians may deem the law of retaliation; we shall find it often urged
on our attention as exemplified in this book. It is absolutely essential
to the divine government.

5. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar,
and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings and
lightnings and an earthquake.

V. 5--The Lord Jesus, in carrying out the designs of the divine mind,
and executing the commission which he received from the Father as
Mediator, appears in various characters. Whilst as a priest he
intercedes for his people, and by the incense from the golden censer
renders their prayers acceptable before God; as a king he answers their
prayers by terrible things in righteousness. (Ps. lxv. 5). This work of
vengeance is vividly signified by scattering coals of fire on the earth.

From the very same altar, whence the glorious Angel of the Covenant had
received fire to consume the incense, he next takes coals, t