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for the end of it, or the termination of the 1260 years; and comprehends the second grand period of the vintage. As for the fourth, fifth, and sixth, vials, I consider them as occupying the intermediate space between the harvest and the vintage; and am inclined to view the sixth vial in the light of a harbinger and preşcursor of the last. Like a herald it prepares the way, and makes every thing ready for the final tremendous manifestation of God's righteous judgments upon his enemies.

"And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give him glory."

In the language of symbols, the sun of a kingdom is the government of that kingdom; and the sun of an empire, if it be a divided empire, is the government of the most powerful state within that empire. When the political sun shines with a steady lustre, and yields a salutary warmth, it is a blessing to a people. But, when it glares with a fierce and unnatural heat, scorching all the productions of human industry with the intolerable blaze of a portentous tyranny, it is the heaviest curse which can befall a nation.

Since the whole prophecy of the Apocalypse relates to the Roman empire, the sun mentioned under this vial must be the sun of the Roman firmament: since the pouring out of all the vials takes place long posterior to the division of the empire, this sun must be the sun of the divided empire: and since the three first vials have carried us to the end of the harvest or the anarchical horrors of the French Revolution, this sun must mean the government of that state within the limits of the empire which at the present era is the most powerful. The prediction then of the fourth vial obviously intimates, that the frantic scenes of the harvest should be succeeded by a systematic military tyranny, which should be exercised over a considerable part of the Roman empire by the government of the most powerful state then existing within its limits. The world, exhausted with the miseries of the symbolical harvest, and wearied with the wild struggles of licentious

anarchy, should tamely submit to the lawless domination of an unrelenting despot. In pointing out the particular government intended by this scorching sun of the Latin or Papal firmament, the reader will doubtless have anticipated me. The present Popish states are France, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sardinia, and Etruria. Of these, I apprehend, no one will be inclined to deny, that France is by many degrees the most powerful; and consequently that its government must inevitably be esteemed the sun of the system. To observe then the accurate completion of the prophecy of the fourth vial, in which it is said that power was given to this sun to scorch men with fire, and that they were scorched with great heat, we have only to cast our eyes over the continent. A system of tyranny, hitherto unknown in Europe except in the worst periods of the Roman history, has been established, and is now acted upon by him who styles himself Emperor of the French: and the scorching rays of military despotism are, at this moment felt, more or less, throughout France, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and the west of Germany. A regular plan of making each man a spy upon his neighbour destroys all the comfort and all the confidence of social life: and France, with her de

Should the present usurper of the throne of France, who already emulates the imperial rank of Austria, or should any successor of his at some future period, proclaim himself Emperor of the Romans, and thus transfer the crown of Charlemagne from Germany to France, as it was heretofore transferred from France to Germany: he would then, like Charlemagne, be the representative of the last bead of the beast. Buonapartè is already in fact master of Italy, and appears to be upon the eve of reviving the ancient kingdom of Lombardy.

Since this note was written, the usurper of the throne of the Bourbons has formally proclaimed himself king of Italy, and has encircled his brows with the ancient iron crown of the Lombard sovereigns. Thus is one of the great maxims of German jurisprudence completely overturned; namely," that the prince, who was elected Emperor in the German diet, acquired from that instant the subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome." (See Gibbon's Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. ix. p. 191.) May not the voice of ambition soon whisper in the ear of the new sovereign of Italy, that the right of electing a Roman Emperor belongs, not to the princes of Germany, but (as it was in the days of Charlemagne) to the senate and people of Rome? As for the Pope, he is ready to give his sanction to any new dignity which Buonapartè may think proper to assume. May, 1805.

I have now to add, that the disastrous termination of the campaign of 1805 has made the chief of the French government the undoubted representative of Charlemagne, and consequently the last bead of the beast. The house of Austria seems tacitly to have exchanged the title of Emperor of the Romans for that of Emperor of Austria: and, although Buonapartè has not yet formally assumed it, it can add nothing to his power when he does assume it, for he is already the uncontrolled emperor of the western continental Roman world. June 3, 1806.

graded provinces, or, as they are termed with diplomatic mockery, allies, groans under the weight of endless requisitions, levies, and extortions, at once tormented herself, and the savage tormentor of others.

It is not unlikely, that the influence of this vial will extend to the very commencement of the vintage. The violence of democratical and atheistical madness, that dreadful harvest of God's wrath, has now abated: but, since part of the business of the intermediate vials is first to prepare that popish and infidel confederacy which will be finally broken in the days of the vintage, and afterwards to collect the kings of the Latin earth to the great battle of the Lord at Armageddon; the sun of military tyranny will most probably glare with unabated violence to the very time of the end, and be the principal immediate instrument both of forming and of directing that confederacy.

The effect, produced both by these plagues and by the following ones, will only be blasphemy and hardness of heart, instead of a reformation of principles and practice. The earthquake, which overthrew the tenth part of the

Even before the era of the Revolution, and previous to the vast acquisition of power made by France since that convulsion, the sovereigns of the Capetian dynasty were so conscious of their preponderating influence in Europe, that, with a kind of arrogant fatality, they assumed for their distinguishing badge the sun, with this motto, Nec pluribus impar, alone equal to many. This notion of superiority indeed was so familiar to Frenchmen, that the health of his sovereign is said to have been once proposed by a French Ambassador to Lord Stair, and the very name of the sun. With the same idea no doubt the largest ship in the French navy was called the royal sun. Upon this sun, or the government of France, we have now beheld the fourth vial poured out, enabling it to scorch men with fire.

Since this was written in the year 1804, the sphere of the influence of this scorching sun has been tremendously increased; and there is now scarcely any part of the western Roman Empire unaffected by its intolerable blaze. June 3, 1806.

Mr. Sharpe thinks, that the scorching of the Sun means unlimited monarchy in general, operating in the keeping up of standing armies and martial law; and he censures the government of England for preferring regular troops to militia. Independent of his unwarrantable extension of the symbol from the figurative sun of the European commonwealth to every separate star of its firmament, I cannot but think him a little unreasonable in his animadversions. It would certainly be a very happy thing for the country, if a standing army could be dispensed with ; but, since it is our misfortune, not our fault, to live in the immediate neighbourhood of a horde of ferocious and well-trained banditti, we must, as we value our liberty and independence, be well prepared for their reception. A traveller finds it much more agreeable to pursue his journey without the incumbrance of arms, and without the fear of molestation: but, if his track lie through a country infested by robbers, he must either submit to the inconvenience of bearing weapons, or to the still greater inconvenience of being plundered. Were the nation defended by none but brave imperfectly disciplined troops, it would be ill able to cope with antagonists perhaps not less brave and with every advantage of discipline.

city, caused, as we have seen, the remnant of the seed of the woman to give glory unto the Lord: but the effusion of the vials upon God's enemies produces not the least tendency to repentance. We must not therefore look for any further reformation from Popery;* for the vials are instruments of God's wrath, not of his mercy. France accordingly has nominally returned, like a dog to its vomit, to her old alliance with the blasphemous corruptions of Popery: but, according to every account of eye-witnesses, she still really and individually strengthens herself in the yet more blasphemous abominations of Antichrist.

Yet, although there will be no further reformation, it does not appear, that the inspired writers give any intimations of some still more dreadful persecution of the witnesses, than that which they have already undergone from the two Latin beasts: on the contrary, Scripture seems to me at least rather to lead to a directly opposite opinion. I mean not indeed to deny, that individual protestants, those for instance who reside in popish countries, may experience persecution; these will continue to prophesy in sackcloth to the very end of the 1260 days: I would only be understood to intimate, that I can discover no warrant for expecting that Protestantism in general, as nationally professed, will ever be so far subdued by Popery, as to undergo throughout the whole world a grand universal persecution. The troubles, produced by incessant war with the atheistico-papal powers, will be the great means of purifying the Church; not, I think, any persecution resembling those of the Pagan Emperors or the Roman Pontiff's in the plenitude of their power.

I am led to form this opinion by observing, that all the vials of the last woe-trumpet are represented as being poured out upon the Papal and Mohammedan Roman empire; upon those, that have the mark of the beast; upon those, that have shed the blood of saints and proph ets; upon those, that have blasphemed the name of God by

* I have already stated other grounds, besides this, when treating of the ten-borneż beast, for adopting such an opinion.

"Phiale omnes," says Mr. Mede, “in bestiam (scil. Romanam) effunduntur." (Com. Apoc. in loc.) "Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." (Rev. xvi. 1.) The earth throughout the Apocalypse denotes the Roman empire.

reason of the noisome sore of atheism; upon the seat and kingdom of the beast. None of these particulars are descriptive of such protestant stules, as have held fast the faith of their ancestors, and have not apostatized, like Holland, Switzerland, and protestant Germany, to the lye of Antichrist. The last plagues, comprehended under the third woc-trumpet, are poured out only upon papists, blaspheming atheists, and Mohammedans: and, although under the seventh vial" 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 deathwound upon the spiritual empire of Mohammed, events alone can determine. The position of his dominions gives him immediate access to the realms of both 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 the great protest

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*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 twe

seas.

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