in cold blood, and of wounded soldiers systematically poisoned by their apostate commander. But, while they present this dreadful scroll of human calamities to the sickening attention of posterity, they will not fail to attest, that these heavy judgments of the Lord have principally fallen upon the rivers and fountains of the papal Roman empire. Protestant states, that have in any measure preserved the faith of their ancestors, have in a manner been exempt. Self-defence and wanton provocations compelled England to enter into the contest. Her firmness, under Providence, blasted all the designs of her malicious enemy against herself; and drove him back to his own shores disgraced and vanquished, with his navy shattered and with his mariners disheartened. But her

so abundant, were exhausted" by bearing the whole burden of maintaining the French army; "their whole specie was ab"sorbed by contributions, their manufactures were suspended, "and their produce consumed" (Hist. of the Campaign of 1796. p. 4.). The same work contains a very full account of the various robberies systematically committed by the French in Germany and Italy (See p. 44, 70, 241, 247, 249, 250, 254, 256, 364, 365, 366.). In short, the order given by the Directory to their generals was, that "they should maintain their

#6

troops by victory;" an order so faithfully obeyed by Buonapartè, that he had no hesitation to say, in the proclamation "which he made to his soldiers in entering into Carynthia, "that all the expences of the army of Italy, during eleven, "months, had been paid by the conquered countries, and "that he had besides sent 30 millions of livres to France" (Ibid. p. 5, 366.). These were some of the blessings of republican fraternity!

VOL. II.

Dd

hapless

hapless allies, already devoted by the just judgment of God to drink in their turn torrents of blood, inasmuch as they have heretofore profusely shed the blood of saints and prophets, it exceeded her power to save. The mighty arin of the Lord: snatched her from impending destruction, and withered the boasted strength of her foe when directed against herself: but the angel of the waters, while she was preserved in the midst of wide-extending havock and desolation, sternly denounced the vengeance of heaven against her popish confederates. "They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given "them blood to drink; for they are worthy *."

Mr. Galloway whimsically supposes, that the angel of the waters is the maritime sovereign of Great Britain. In the welldeserved encomiums, which he bestows upon our revered monarch, I heartily concur, though I cannot think that he is meant by the angel of the waters. This angel is manifestly no other than the angel, who had just poured out his vial upon the waters of the rivers and fountains; whence he is naturally styled the angel of the waters, or the angel whose influence affected the waters. Mr. Galloway appears to me to have been by no means successful in his interpretation of any of the vials, excepting the sixth, which he rightly applies to Turkey. In his elucidation of the third he has been peculiarly unhappy. Entirely quitting the language of symbols, he faucies that the rivers and fountains mean Germany, for no other reason but because that country is well watered with abundance of large streams. In a sermon, which I published some years ago upon the pouring out of the vials, I was right in my general idea respecting them, but in more than one instance wrong in my particular application of them.

From

From what has been said it appears, that the three first vials relate to the French Revolution, describing at once the principles upon which it was founded, and the miseries both internal and external* which it has produced. This tremendous revolution, which more or less has affected the whole Roman empire, I conceive to be the first period of the third woe-trumpet, which St. John figuratively describes under the image of a harvest ; a harvest not of mercy, but of God's wrath against the nations. After this figurative harvest has been gathered in, there is to be a sort of pause between it and the commencement of the vintage. Revolutionary frenzy having subsided, the affairs of the world are in some measure to return to their old channel: yet they are not to roll on smoothly; for the interval between the harvest and the vintage will be marked by various most important events. These events are predicted under the three following vials.

* It is probable, that the contents of the third vial are even yet not wholly exhausted. At least the dreadful and remarkable campaigns of 1805, and 1806-1807, may well be supposed to be a part of its contents. Even the most careless observer must have been struck with the fate of Prussia, a kingdom built up by spoliation, and long one of the strong holds of that atheistical Antichristianism which has eventually effected its ruin. Nov. 20. 1807.

SECTION 1.

Concerning the three intermediate vials.

The reader must decide for himself how far it is probable, that three out of the seven vials have already been poured out at the commencement of the last woe-trumpet, constituting jointly that grand period of it, which by St. John is styled the harvest, and by which I understand the French Revolution. The concluding vial is reserved 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 precursor of the lust. 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.

1. "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to

When I say the end, I must of course be understood to mean the end of the woeful part of this trumpet. Its succeeding joyful part relates, as I have already observed, to the inauguration of the millennian Church.

" scorch

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 the Roman empire by the government of the most powerful Dd 3

state