the blood of saints and prophets; upon those, that hace blasphemed the name of God, or have aposta- · tized more or less from the truth; upon the throne and kingdom of the beast. None of these particulars are descriptive of such protestant states, as have held fast the faith of their ancestors, and have not allowed themselves to be deceived, like Holland, Switzerland, and protestant Germany, by the lie of Antichrist. The last plagues, comprehended under the third woe-trumpet, are poured out only upon Papists, blaspheming Atheists, and Mohammedans and, although under the seventh wial "there shall be a time of trouble, such as never "was since there was a nation:" yet it is a time of trouble to none but the beast, the false prophet, and the congregated kings of the Roman earth. At the glorious era of the Reformation, the voice of the Lord called aloud from heaven, "Come out "of the mystic Babylon, my people, that ye be not

partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of "her plagues." Surely then we must unavoidably conclude, that those, who did come out of her, who obeyed the warning voice, who ceased to be partakers of her sins, who suffered themselves not a second time to be deluded by the yet more gross lie of atheism, will likewise receive not of her plagues. Whether the mighty king of the North, who is neither papist nor protestant, and whose ample territories are without the limits of the great Latin city, be destined to inflict, "at "the time of the end," its death-wound upon the

spiritual

spiritual empire of Mohammed, events alone can determine. The position of his dominions gives him immediate access to the realms both of Persia and Turkey: but upon this point I presume not to be wise above what is written. It is however written, that, although the dragon shall direct the rage of his favourite minister Antichrist against the remnant of the seed of the woman*; yet the vials shall be exclusively poured out upon the enemies of God. Hence I conjecture †, that this final attempt of the dragon will totally fail of success, because it exceeds the peculiar commission of the infidel king and hence I conclude, that, as protestantism has hitherto been marvellously preserved amidst the plagues of the papal Babylon, so it will be preserved even to the time of the end.

2." And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon "the throne of the beast: and his kingdom was "full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues "for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven, "because of their pains and their sores, and re"pented not of their deeds."

In the Apocalypse mention is made of two beasts, the secular and the ecclesiastical; and it might be doubted which of the two was here intended, were

*Rev. xii. 17.

+ I may do more indeed than merely conjecture that such will be the case: the complete failure of this last attempt of the dragon is expressly predicted in the overthrow of the false prophet and his adherents at the battle of Armageddon, in the region between the twa seas.

we

we not assisted in our inquiries by the general context of the whole prophecy. Whenever the beast is simply mentioned, by way of eminence as it were, I believe it will invariably be found, that the tenhorned or secular beast is meant *, not the two. horned or ecclesiastical beast. In addition to this general proof, the particular context of the present passage may be adduced. The angel is said to pour his vial upon the throne of the beast. Now the first beast is expressly said to have had a throne given him by the dragon; because, although nominally Christian, he exercised his secular authority, like his predecessor the pagan Empire, in persecuting the Church of Godt: whereas no mention is made of the throne of the second beast, and for this plain reason; the secular authority of the Pope was confined within the narrow limits of an Italian principality, and all the persecutions which he ever excited against the faithful were carried into effect by the first beast through the instrumentality either of his last head or of his ten horns. Hence I think it manifest, that the beast,

*See Rev. xiv. 9, 11. xvi. 2. xix. 19. + Rev. xii. 2. All the different martyrs, who were persecuted to death as heretics, after they had been found guilty by the ecclesiastical courts were formally delivered over to the secular arm for punishment. "It is not lawful for us to put any man to "death," was the constant language of the two-horned beast, as it heretofore was of the Jewish priests when demanding the death of Christ. Sometimes even, with a crocodile affectation of clemency, the secular beast was besought by his merciful colJeague not to deal too harshly with the condemned.

upon

upon whose throne the present vial is poured, is the first or secular beast.

What is precisely meant by this judgment it is. impossible at present to determine with any certainty, inasmuch as it is yet future. If however we may argue from analogy, since the great city. means the Roman empire, and since the throne means the authority exercised within that empire by its head; the pouring out of a vial upon the throne of the beast, so as to fill his whole kingdom with darkness, seems most naturally to mean some severe blow aimed directly at his authority, which should fill his whole kingdom with confusion, and irritate himself and his adherents to a pitch of demoniacal madness.

The beast here spoken of is the beast under his last head: but what power will be that last head, when the present vial is poured out, must be determined by the event f

* Vide supra Chap. ii. § II. 3.

I have already observed, that the last head of the beast is by the Apostle termed the beast himself.

Perhaps it is the most prudent to avoid hazarding any conjecture respecting the fulfilment of this prophecy until the overthrow of the Ottoman empire. Whenever the waters of the mystic Euphrates are dried up under the sixth vial, we shall then know with certainty that the fifth vial, which precedes it, must have been poured out. The fall of the Turkish monarchy will throw a wonderful light upon the study of the Apocalypse; because it will definitely teach us in what part of it we are now living, and will prove that all the five first vials (let them relate to what they may) must have been previously poured out. April 22. 1809.

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3. "And

3." And the sixth angel poured out his vial

upon the great river Euphrates; and the water "thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings "from the East might be prepared. And I saw "three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the "mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of "the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of "the earth even of the whole habitable world *.

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to gather them to the battle of that great day "of God Almighty. Behold, I come as. a thief. Blessed is he, that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his "shame. And they gathered them together into

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a place, called in the Hebrew tongue Arma"geddon."

Under the sixth trumpet, the four Turkish sultanies, the mystic waters of the Ottoman empire, issued from the river Euphrates: under the sixth rial, the waters of the same Euphrates are to be

One on, the whole habitable world, was the name by which the Romans, in the pride of universal dominion, were wont to designate their immense empire (See Mede's Works. Book iii. p. 705. and Parkhurst's Gr. Lex. Vox. oma.). Such I believe to be the meaning of the phrase here. It is added as an explanation of yn, the earth. The Babylonian empire is similarly called the world in Isaiah xiii. 11. See Bp. Lowth in loc.

+ The verb singular ovnyay agrees with the neuter 'plural anatafla wivpala, whose office it was (ver. 14), to col "lect the kings.” Archdeacon Woodhouse in loc.