is no answer from God; and all faces shall gather blackness +.

The Sixth Angel pours his Vial on the great river EUPHRATES; and the water thereof is dried up, that the WAY of the KINGS of the EAST may be prepared.

The Euphrates reminds us that the Vision concerns the Power, which is the mystical Babylon ‡, as well as the mystical Egypt.

What is the Euphrates? how are its waters dried? And who are the KINGS of the EAST whose way will be so prepared?

In the Apocalypse, Babylon is not the literal city, but a spiritual Empire; and Euphrates, which is the river of Babylon, is to be understood spiritually. We may not imagine here any physical River whose waters will be dried up, nor any Earthly Princes who will come from the East over its bed.

The glory and strength of the literal Babylon was the Euphrates; and its channel was laid dry by Cyrus, and so Babylon was taken §.

*Micah iii. 5-7.

↑ Joel ii. 6.

Vitringa Anacr. p. 477. Per nomina mystica characteres hujus civitatis exhibentur. Babylon præcipue dicitur causâ idololatriæ, quam Roma in Europam invexit;

ob tyrannidem quâ sævit in populum Dei.

dicitur causâ corruptionis morum.

et Ægyptus Sodoma verò

Haymo ad cap. ix. Per flumen Euphratem, in quo Angeli allegati sunt, potentia Sæcularis intelligitur. Euphrates quippe fluvius Babyloniæ est. Medi et Persæ hunc diviserunt fluvium, et per ejus alveum ingressi sunt Babyloniam. Quod flumen sæpe in malam partem ponitur.

The glory and strength of the mystical Babylon has been her spiritual and secular Supremacy *; which have blended their streams in a swelling and navigable flood; by which her ships have gone forth like those of a Merchant-city †, and riches have flowed into her bosom from all the nations of the earth.

The tide of this proud Euphrates, which has long impeded the march of the Kings of the East, appears now to be ebbing; and the time will come at length when it will decline lower and lower, till at

* The celebrated Peter Olivi, a Franciscan of the fourteenth century, thus writes:-Potestas Papæ et multitudo plebium sibi obediens et favor ipsius est quasi magnus fluvius Euphrates, impediens transitum (that is, the passage of the Kings of the East,) et insultum æmulorum Evangelici statûs in ipsum." A very striking comment for that age. See Appendix D.

The Church of Rome is described by St. John, in the sublime language of ancient Hebrew poetry, as a spiritual Tyre, holding commerce with all nations. Rev. xviii.: "The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping, and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate."

last it will leave a dry bed, and open a way for the Kings of the East to pass over.

What, now, is this WAY?

In Scripture language, "the Way" is the Way of God; the Way of Salvation; the Gospel of Christ. Saul desired letters from the High Priest, that if he found any of the Way he might bring them bound to Jerusalem; and he says, I persecuted the Way unto the death*. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, says the Baptist, Prepare ye the Way of the Lordt. This Way is to be prepared. Stand, says St. Paul, having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace §.

In order that this Way may be prepared ||, the great river Euphrates will be dried up.

Thus we are brought to contemplate again the Vision which was before presented to us under the Sixth Trumpet **, or Second Woe, where the heavenly Voice exclaims, Loose the Four Angels who are bound, or imprisoned, at the great river, the river EUPHRATES tt. And the Angels, we read, were loosed

ódóc. Acts ix. 2. xix. 9. 23. xxii. 4. xxiv. 14. 22.

+ Luke iii. 4.

§ Eph. vi. 15.

† ἑτοιμασία.

|| ἕνα ἑτοιμασθῇ.

** This is observed by Lightfoot, (Harmony ad loc.) who says, "The drying up of Euphrates for the Kings of the East, under the Sixth Vial, seems to speak much to the tenor of the Sixth Trumpet, the loosing of the Four Angels which were bound at Euphrates."

++ Rev. ix. 14.

Ff

*

who were prepared for the hour, and the day, and month, and year. This Vision has been already interpreted as signifying a loosing and diffusion of the GOSPEL; and these two passages, in which the Euphrates is mentioned, illustrate each other.

Who now are the KINGS of the EAST?

We are not to imagine here any earthly Monarchs or Emperors. The expression is figurative, and to be understood spiritually.

The words rendered Kings from the East are οἱ βασιλεῖς οἱ ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς ἡλίου: that is, the Kings from the rising of the Sun ‡.

The Sun is CHRIST. The dew of His Birth is of the womb of the morning §. He is the Sun of Righteousness, rising with healing on His wings ||. He is the Day-spring from on high **. In the book of the Prophet Zechariah, God says, I bring My servant, the East++; and, Behold the Man: His name is the East . In the Apocalypse the Church is clothed with the Sun §§, that is, with Christ; and the Angel who seals the elect comes from the rising of the Sun; and Christ says, I Jesus am the bright and Morning Star ***; and, To him that over

* ἡτοιμασμένοι.

Rev. xvi. 12.

|| Mal. iv. 2.

In Lecture VII. p. 213 to end. § Psalm cx. 3.

** Luke i. 78, 'ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗ ἐξ ὕψους.

†† 'Avaroλn, or Sun-rising, i. e. Christ, Zech. iii. 8, in LXX.

Avaroλn, Zech. vi. 12, in LXX.

Rev. vii. 2.

§§ Rev. xii. 1.

*** Rev. xxii. 16.

cometh, I will give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; and I will give him the Morning Star *. Christ is the LIGHT of the WORLD; and He promises that the Righteous shall shine as the Sun, in the kingdom of His Father ‡.

Further; in the book of Joshua, in the description of his entrance and that of the Israelites into Canaan, it is said that Israel passed over Jordan on dry land, the Lord having dried up the water of Jordan before them §; and thence crossing the dry bed of the river from the East, they marched, and encamped toward the rising of the Sun before Jericho ||, which they afterwards took and destroyed.

* Rev. ii. 27. Bede, Explan. Apocalyps. in cap. ii. Et dabo illi stellam matutinam.] Christus est stella matutina; qui nocte seculi transacta lucem vitæ sanctis promittit et pandit

æternam.

+ John viii. 12.

+ Matth. xiii. 43.

§ Joshua iv. 22, 23, ἐπὶ ξηρᾶς διέβη Ἰσραὴλ τὸν Ἰορδάνην τοῦτον, ἀποξηράναντος Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν τὸ ὕδωρ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου ἐκ τοῦ ἔμπροσθεν αὐτῶν· and v. 1, ἀπεξήρανε Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς τὸν Ἰορδάνην ποταμόν. The parallel in the Apocalypse is, χνί. 12, ὁ ἔκτος ἄγγελος ἐξέχεε την φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν μέγαν Ευφράτην, καὶ ἐξηράνθη τὸ ὕδωρ αὐτοῦ ἵνα ἑτοιμασθῇ ἡ ὁδὸς τῶν βασιλέων τῶν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς ἡλίου.

|| Joshua iv. 19, κατεστρατοπέδευσαν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ ἐν Γαλγάλοις κατὰ μέρος τὸ πρὸς ΗΛΙΟΥ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΑΣ ἀπὸ τῆς Ιεριχώ. Cp. Joshua i. 15, πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου ἐπ ̓ ̓ΑΝΑΤΟΛΩΝ ΗΛΙΟΥ. " If we look on Joshua when Ruler of Israel," (says Bp. Pearson on the Creed, Art. II.) "there is scarce an action of his which is not clearly predictive of our Saviour."