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Having passed the epoch of the Reformation, we now advance into the times of God's last judgments upon his enemies, the days of the third woe-trumpet. Two remarkable periods of the most conspicuous of these judgments, the several steps of the whole of which are afterwards described under the seven vials, are here arranged under two grand divisions, figuratively styled the harvest and the vintage. In the days of Bp. Newton, the third woe-trumpet had not begun to sound; none therefore of the vials were then poured out. Hence his Lordship justly observed, "What particular events are signified by this harvest and vintage, it appears impossible for any man to determine; time alone can with certainty discover, for these things are yet in futurity. Only it may be observed, that these two signal judgments will as certainly come, as harvest and vintage succeed in their season; and, in the course of providence, the one will precede the other, as, in the course of nature, the harvest is before the vintage; and the latter will greatly surpass the former, and be attended with a more terrible destruction of God's enemies."* But, although both these signal judgments were future when Bp. Newton wrote, it has been our lot to hear the voice of the third woe, and to behold in the French Revolution the dreadful scenes of the harvest. Still however a more dreadful prospect extends before us. The days of the vintage are yet future: for the time hath not yet arrived, when the great controversy of God with the nations shall be carried on between the two seas, in the neighbourhood of the glorious holy mountain, in the blood-stained vale of Megiddo, in the land whose space extends a thousand and six hundred furlongs.t

* Dissert. on Rev. xiv.

After a long consideration of the subject, I rest in the opinion of Mede, Newton, Lowman, Doddridge, and Bengelius, that the apocalyptic barvest denotes a barvest, not of mercy, but of wrath. Mr. Mede, who has elaborately and minutely discussed. the point, observes, that the idea of a barvest includes three things; the reaping of the corn, the gathering of it in, and the threshing of it: whence it is made a type in Scripture of two direct opposites; of destruction, when the reaping and the threshing are considered; of restitution and salvation when the in-gathering is considered. (Comment. Apoc. in Messem.) Now the context of the apocalyptic barvest seems to me most definitely to teach us, that a barvest of judgment is intended. Throughout the whole book of Revelation, with the exception of a few passages which sufficiently explain themselves, the earth is used as a symbol of the Roman empire pagan and papal. Upon

Such are the contents of the little book. Its several chapters, running parallel to each other in point of time, jointly furnish a complete prophetic history of the Westtern Apostacy during the whole period of the 1260 years, under all the three woe-trumpets. It principally however exhibits the corruptions of Popery under the two first woe-trumpets: the third is but briefly touched upon, and that only to prevent a break in the period of 1260 years. As the little book comprehends the whole of this period, a point which itself repeatedly insists upon, it was ne

this earth all the vials of God's wrath are poured out, whatever subsequent distinction may be made in their effusion. (Rev. xvi. 1.) It is the vine of this earth that is to be gathered, when her grapes are fully ripe: and it is the ripe barvest of this self-same earth that is to be reaped, when the time for reaping is come. Here we may note, that it is not, as in our Lord's parable (Matt. xiii. 24, 38.), said to be the barvest of a field, which is afterwards formally explained to mean the whole world: but, as the sickle is thrust into the earth to gather the vine of the earth, so is the sickle likewise thrust into the earth to reap the harvest of the earth. If then the earth mean the Reman empire in the case of the vintage, which cannot reasonably be doubted, since those that are cast into the winepress are the Roman beast, the false prophet, and the kings of that same earth, and since (according to the acknowledged principles of symbolical imagery) the vine of the earth must denote the corrupt church of the mystic Babylon, whose abominations, whose ripe clusters of iniquity, will eventually occasion the ruin of its supporter the secular beast (Dan. vii. 11.): if, I say, the earth mean the Roman cutpire in the case of the vintage, must we not conclude from the almost studied similarity of phraseology used by the prophet, that the earth means likewise the Roman empire in the case of the barvest? And, if this be allowed, what idea can we annex to the reaping of the barvest of the corrupt Roman empire, which, like the grapes of that same empire, is declared to be ripe, except that of some tremendous judgment that should precede the vintage and more or less affect the whole empire? In such an opinion also I am the more confirmed by finding, that a judgment about to befall Babylon, the constant apocalyptic type of the Roman church and empire, is by Jeremiah expressly termed a barvest. (See Jerem. li. 33.) This difference indeed there is between the two prophets, that Jeremiah dwells upon the third part of the harvest, the threshing; while St. John selects the imagery of the first part, the reaping; yet I cannot but think, that the context of both passages sufficiently shews, that a barvest of judgment, not of mercy, is intended. The apocalyptic barvest, by being confined to the earth or the Roman empire, cannot denote either the general in-gathering of Judah and Israel, or the universal influx of the gentiles to the millennian church and since, like the vintage, it is exclusively confined to the idolatrous and persecuting Roman empire, since in both cases the sickle is equally thrust into this empire; I feel myself compelled to conclude, that, like the vintage, it denotes some signal judgment. This judgment I suppose to be the first part of the third woe; a wne, which must be expected to mark a period in history no less striking than the successive founding of the Saracenic and Turkish empires; a wor, which is ushered in by an event no less singular than definite, the fall of a tenth part of the great Roman city, or of one of the ten original Gothico-Roman monarchies by an earthquake. This judgment in short I suppose to be the borrors of the second French revolution and its immediate consequences, commencing on the 12th of August 1792, and ushered in by the fall of the monarchy both arbitrary and limited which at that time was the only one that remained of the ten original kingdoms; a revolution, which in those censequences, or (to adopt the prophetic phraseology) during the reaping of the bargest of the earth, has been felt to the remotest parts of the Roman empire.

*See Rev. xi. 2, 3. xii. 6, 14. xiii. 5.

cessary to notice the sounding of the third woe-trumpet ; which, like its two fellows, is included in the 1260 years. The prophet therefore does notice it, briefly informing us that it should be immedietely preceded, and as it were introduced, by a great earthquake which should occasion the fall of a tenth part of the Latin city; and that it should principally consist of two tremendous manifestations of God's wrath, two seasons of peculiar misery, the harvest and the vintage. A more particular account of these matters he reserves for future consideration under the pouring out of the seven vials: and the account itself he places, not in the little book, but in the larger book of the Apocalypse, inasmuch as it concerns not merely the western but likewise the eastern Apostacy, and affects indeed more or less even the whole world. The 15th chapter of the Revelation therefore must be considered as chronologically succeeding the 9th, the intermediate chapters being a parenthetical history of the West, and constituting what St. John terms a little book together with an introduction to it. In the 9th chapter, we have an account of the two first woes in the East: in the 15th, the prophet begins to describe the effects of the last woe. Hence it is manifest, that the intermediate space must necessarily be occupied by the little book and its introduction. Let us now attend the prophet in his account of the effusion of the vials, which are all comprehended under the third woe, and which must be divided into three classes: the vials of the harvest, the intermediute vials, and the vial of the vintage.

* At least so far included, that six out of its seven vials are comprehended within the 1260 years. The last vial, or that which contains the season of the vintage, seems to be poured out as soon as the 1260 years expire; and it coincides with what Daniel calls the time of the end, or the period of God's great controversy with the nations.

CHAPTER XI.

Concerning the effects of the last woe-trumpet, the pouring out of the seven vials, and the restoration of the Jews.

THE prophet, having separately detailed the ef fects of the two first woe-trumpets in the East and in the West, and having briefly touched upon the sounding of the third, now proceeds to give us a more full account of the miseries which it should produce. For this purpose he divides it into seven periods, which he distinguishes by the pouring out of seven vials; and, to shew us that they are all comprehended under the last woetrumpet the commencement of the blast of which he had already announced, he styles them the seven last plagues. They are in fact the same, I apprehend, as the seven thunders, the roll of which St. John heard, when he had finished his account of the second woe-trumpet as afflicting the East. Conceiving rightly that in point of time they were the next in order to the events which he had last detailed, he seems to have supposed that they were immediately to succeed them, and therefore prepared himself to write their history: but the great angel, having yet to reveal to him the contemporary effects of the two first woe-trumpets in the West and to bring down the second woe-trumpet to its complete termination, commanded him to "seal them up and to write them not ;" swearing solemnly by the Almighty, that "their time was not vet, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel." Those days are now come. We have seen, that the great earthquake at the close of the second woe is the French revolution in the year 1789 and we have likewise seen, that the third woe came quickly after in the year 1792, when the reign of Gallic liberty and equality commenced. Then it was, that the voice of the seventh angel, or the third woc-angel, began to be heard: consequently

*

* The 9th chapter of the Revelation terminates in the year 1672 with the siege of Cameniec; namely at the end of the hour, the day, the month, and the year, for which the Turkish borsemen had been prepared: whereas the second woe does not terminate till the year 1789; and the third wee which comprehends the seven vials, does not begin to sound, till the year 1792.

we may then expect, that the seven thunders would begin to roar, and that the seven vials full of the last plagues of an offended God would begin to be poured out.*

The history of the two first woe-trumpets is given in a two-fold order, as affecting equally both the East and the West but the history of the third is given only in a single order, inasmuch as some of its vials are poured upon the one branch of the Roman empire, and others upon the other branch; all of them not equally extending to the whole empire, as was the case with the first and second woe-trumpets. It may likewise be observed, that the contents of one vial are not represented as being fully poured out before another begins to be emptied; though it is evident, that they commence in regular chronological succession. In this respect there is a striking difference between the vials and the woe-trumpets. We are explicitly informed by the prophet, that the blast of the first woe-trumpet entirely ceases before the second begins to sound; and that of the second, in a similar manner, before the third begins to sound:† but it is no where said, that each vial is emptied, before its successor begins to be poured out. Hence it is not unreasonable to conclude, that two or more of the vials may be pouring out at the

Mr. Whitaker singularly fancies, that the last woe-trumpet or the seventh trumpet is the same as the last trump at the day of judgment mentioned by St. Paul. I have not met with any commentator who agrees with him in this opinion, except the Jesuit Cornelius à Lapide. As for the vials, he supposes many of them to have been long since poured out; and maintains that they will all be poured out before the sounding of the last woe, " after which he has never been taught to look for any thing but the resurrection and its awful consequences." Thus he plainly makes the seven last plagues precede the last woe; and teaches us that the last of the three woes, whereof the two first are the woes of the Saracens and the Turks, is the making all the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our Lord and of bis Christ. This I have ever been accustomed to consider as a blessing rather than a woe: whence I have been induced to prefer the opinion of Mr. Mede, Bp. Newton, and Sir Isaac Newton, to that of Mr. Whitaker and Cornelius à Lapide; namely that the woeful part of the seventh_trumpet precedes its joyful part, and that it will bring much misery upon the earth ere the nations are converted to Christianity and brought into the pale of the Millennian Church. Since moreover the seventh trumpet is represented as the last woe, and since the seven vials are said to be the last plagues, I conclude with Bp. Newton that they must synchronize: otherwise there will be two last displays of God's wrath. Mr. Whitaker says, that the seven vials are denominated the last plagues because in them is filled up the wrath of God; and thinks, that we ought to be cautious of considering them as termed last merely in point of time. Bp. Newton, on the contrary, argues, that they must be last in point of time; because the wrath of God would not be filled up in them, if there were others beside them. See Mr. Whitaker's Letter to Dr. Ogilvie, p. 33-Comment. p. 415-Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xv.

See Rev. ix. 12, 13, and xi. 14, 15.