The three Woes. 5. The bottomless deep opened, smoke and 5. Upon the throne of the darkness, and scor pion-locusts injure the 6. Four angels, loosed beast, darkening his king dom; they blaspheme, and repent not. from Euphrates, lead | 6. On the great river Eu the cavalry who slay the third of the men; The prophecy of 7. The grand conflict phrates, which is dried up to prepare the way of the eastern kings. Frogs, spirits of demons, working wonders to gather the kings of the whole world to the battle of the great day. 3 7. Into the air; "It is "done!" an unparallelled earthquake divides the great city into three parts; cities of the nations fall; Babylon remembered; islands and mountains are no more; great hail; men continue to blaspheme. The notes on chapter viii. 6, 7, &c., will shew the probable meaning of the terms Land, Sea, River, Sun; as used in both the Trumpets and the Vials. But in the explanation of these, and such-like terms, there is a certain distinction to be observed when we apply them to the different passages: for, under the Trumpets, the attack T attack is upon the Christian Church; under the Vials, upon the enemies of that Church. For it is clear, from the first Vial to the last, that the anger of the Lord is poured out, not on the Church, but on its foes. The first Vial falls expressly on the worshippers of the beast; and the third is declared to be a just retaliation on the murderers of the saints; the fourth falls on unrepentant blasphemers; the fifth is poured on the throne of the beast; and the last on the corrupt cities and Babylon. Therefore the land, and sea, and waters, and heavenly fles luminary, on which the four first Vials fall, are not to be accounted the very same, against which the Trumpets sounded warfare; but a land, sea, &c. bearing just analogy to them. Those, under the Trumpets, are the land, sea, &c. of the Christian world: Those under the Vials, of the antichristian. For the antichristian world has its divisions, as Mede has observed, which will answer to those of the Christian world. If the Land, of the Christian world, signifies the ancient worshippers of God, there are also the ancient worshippers of the beast. If the Sea, among Christians, represent their distant Gentile converts; the worshippers of the beast have also their Sea, the newly acquired converts to their superstitions or infidelity. Both Christianity and antichristianity have their rivers and springs of Doctrine, and their Lights. By this kind of analogy, it seems probable that the Vials, especially the four first of them, are to be interpreted. If the pure Christian Church has been seen to suffer in its several parts and divisions, by the seven-fold warfare of its enemies, those enemies shall not enjoy a joyful and bloodless victory; the Providence of God will interfere; and they will suffer by corresponding strokes, justly proportioned. But, though each Vial may seem to answer to to each Trumpet; either in the part or division attacked, or in the effect of the attack; yet in point of time, they do not seem to range exactly against each other: each corresponding Trumpet and Vial does not appear to belong to the same period of history: for, the history under the Vials is confined (as before shewn) to the times of the beast; while the Trumpets appear to have an earlier date and origin. Indeed, all the Vials seem to have their rise out of one of the Trumpets, namely, the last; and therefore may be supposed to be confined to the history which that Trumpet compre hends. That Trumpet does indeed look so far back, as I questio to the conflict of the dragon with the infant Church; nove the but only by way of prelude; and in order to lay the foundation of the main subject of the prophecy, namely, the conflict of the antichristian beast with the Church. The vials seem to run the whole length of this important warfare. very quest The four first Vials, like the four first Trumpets, hat. are of so very short and general a description, as not to encourage or justify a very minute application of them to particular passages in history. They will be found to have been generally fulfilled. The first produces a noisome sore on the worshippers. of the beast. This plague derives its figurative description, from the boil and blain inflicted by Divine vengeance on the Egyptian persecutors of the ancient Church . As they, in their impious attempts to oppose the God of heaven, felt his Almighty hand grievous upon them, to controul and punish; so, in the early attempts, made by the antichristian powers under the beast, to stifle pure Religion, they had difficulties to encounter, where they least expected them; and which * See note, ch. viii. 7. N N + Exod. ix. 10. A fa were were to be surmounted only by their own sufferings. God did not permit them to enjoy during that generation their expected triumph. The second Vial produces blood, which, mixing with the sea, corrupts it. Blood, in Scriptural language, is a pollution and abomination; and from a dead carcase, heinously such. The sea, the isles, the distant nations of the antichristian world, those who by terror or force were made converts, (as were some of the nations of the north to popery, of the south to mahometism,) forsaking their idols, worship the God of Heaven ;—but not in purity;-so polluted is the worship, as not to save, but to destroy by spiritual death. Under the second Trumpet, which corresponds in some respects with this Vial, a third part dies; that is, a third of the Christians. There is a considerable part, who by the Grace of God escape spiritual death. Here, all die ; and so also under the rest of the plagues; but the sealed Christian is not touched by these visitations.-Thus also under the plagues of Ægypt, "they, who fear the "Lord," have the privilege of escape t. The third Vial is discharged also upon the waters: not upon the sea; but upon those waters which feed both land and sea; upon the sources of comfort, especially of religious comfort, to both. These sources of spiritual nourishment become blood §. Instead of the " living waters, flowing out into everlasting life," they who reject, oppose, or oppress the Christian Religion, generally receive in the lieu thereof a burdensome and uncomfortable yoke of superstitious folly. This has been ever the case with Christian apostates, and particularly so in the * Lam. iv. 14. Lev. v. 2. Numb. v. 2. See note, ch. viii. 10. 11. I John iv. 10; vii. 37, 38. great great apostacies, the Mahometan and the Papal. There may be allusion likewise to the blood shed by these cruel fanatics, who in their bigoted rage slew millions of the saints; and then turned their arms upon their own brethren, wallowing in blood. The bloody wars, which raged between the Saracens and Turks and Tartars, and between the popes and western emperors; between the parties denominated Guelphs and Ghibelines; and the deadly contests between the two great antichristian divisions, the Papal and Mahometan, in the crusades, seem to have amply fulfilled this bloody prophecy. The fourth Vial is poured on the great heavenly # luminary, the Sun*. the Sun*. A similar stroke under the corresponding Trumpet, had produced darkness and ignoBut there is a further progress, insomuch as the deprivation of the light of true Religion produces also religious feuds and animosities which are found to rage. most bitterly in the persecuting party, ever most deficient in the knowledge and practice of what is good and true. rance. The fifth angel pours his Vial on "the throne of "the beast;" on his chief seat of empire and dominion. Pergamus, at the time of the vision, was declared "the "throne of satan † :" and satan, or the dragon, gave h his throne to the beast +. But at this period, the beast, s by the ministry of the false prophet, had greatly ex-A tended his dominion, and his capital seat was elsewhere. He had now a vast two-fold empire; under the two horns of antichrist. But his kingdom becomes "darkened." During the antichristian reign, there has been a long and dark age; an age of deplorable ignorance and superstition. The fanatical disciples of Mahomet, at their first outset, forbade the cultivation of all See note, ch. viii. 12. + Ch. ii. 13. NN 2 Ch. xiii. 2. learning, |