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God should avenge their blood upon them that dwelt on the earth.

Now, it will be remembered, that at the bursting of the sixth seal came the terrific annunciation of the day of wo; upon which an angel proceeded most busily to seal twelve tribes, or a nation of men, with the seal of God upon their foreheads, during which four angels held the four winds of wrath. In like manner, being now arrived in the history of the little book at the same point of time, viz. the conclusion of the forty and two months, during which that twofold monster was permitted to rage, we have mention made of the hundred, forty, and four thousand, who had been so sealed and of whom we had lost sight, until other things elsewhere appertaining were revealed; but here they are again introduced at the proper time and place, to perform their proper part of true worshippers, and faithful servants of God, and the Lamb in the midst of the general defection of the earth unto the mother of harlots. What nation of men this is (for the emblem is of a nation) needeth not be said, seeing of the ten there is but one which hath gotten the victory over the beast, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, neither hath been defiled with the whoredom of his idolatries; who have been redeemed from amongst men, the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. This nation is sealed before the day of wrath; and before the pouring out of the vials we have them standing upon a sea of glass, mingled with fire, to denote the peaceful and calm, yet threatening state in which they were preserved, while the other nations were judged. But be fore this event, and immediately upon the introduction of these sealed ones, and as it were in their presence, or for their information, we have three angels making proclamation, the first of the everlasting gospel to all lands, which is now nearly fulfilled; the second of the downfal of Babylon; the third of the cup of vengeance measured out to those who worship her. After which we have two actions, the first a harvest reaped from the earth (which may be of mercy), and a vintage of wrath (or they may both be of wrath as in the prophecies of Joel).

Then comes the direful event of the seven angels having the seven last plagues; in which is filled up the wrath of God, which event is again braced to the former parts of the

book, the seals and trumpets, by two devices of divine wisdom. With the seals it is connected by the introduction of the sealed ones who are stationed upon a sea of glass, (to denote the tranquillity of these nations during the period,) mingled with fire, (to denote the fire of God's vengeance that was in their hands,) and they are made to sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, that is, the song which he sung when the church was delivered from the hands of Pharaoh, its oppressor; and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." In which song they are made to declare the manifestation of judgment to be arrived, and that all nations were about to come and worship before him. That is, those who were sealed in preparation for the terrible scene of the seventh seal, are now made by a choral song, to testify when the scene of the seventh seal is about to be transacted. Secondly, this terrible act of vials is connected with the act of trumpets, by its having been stated, so soon as the last trumpet was sounded, that "the temple of God was opened in heaven, in which was seen the ark of his testament;" which event is repeated immediately after the choral song of the sealed ones, in preparation for, and commission of, the actors of the vials: "And after that I. looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels, seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled." So that, by undoubted marks, and wonderful devices, this act of seven vials is joined on, and, as it were, hooked unto, the two former acts of seals and trumpets, being the seventh scene of each, treated apart, and magnified. And thus being arrived, with much confirmation of our argument, at the particulars of the judgment, we resume the thread of our

discourse where we left it, in order to follow this digression into the scheme and structure of the book of Revelation, whereby we have connected, and, as it were, dove tailed it with the prophecy of Daniel, which we have undertaken to handle, and opened a world of new materials, of which we shall avail ourselves in the remainder of our discourse.

CONTINUATION OF PART III.

The judgments upon the Papacy which have been fulfilled; being the judgments of the first six vials.

By the above digression, we have made it manifest, first, that the book of Revelations, onward to the 16th chapter, is not a regular narrative, following the stream of time, but a methodized and interwoven history of the trials of the church, and the judgments of her oppressors, down to the termination of the time, times, and a half, of Daniel's prophecy, or to the day of wrath or judgment upon the tenhorned beast. Secondly, that the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters, contain the history of the judgments upon the pagan empire, and upon the ten-horned empire, which arose out of its ruins, with its utter destruction in the day of wrath. Excepting one nation, which was sealed, after the manner in which Israel was sealed, and delivered from the plagues of Egypt, and brought into the promised land, when all the nations thereof had been destroyed; in which land of rest those sealed ones are represented at the conclusion of the 7th chapter. Thirdly, that the 8th and 9th chapters contain the history of God's judgments upon the eastern empire; to which if you add the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th verses of the 11th chapter, (which, though in the little book, are linked to the trumpet history,) you are brought down to the same day of wrath, and have a glimpse of the glorious condition of the church thereafter. Fourthly, that the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th chapters, contain the history of the church's trials in the little book, down to the end of the same great period of forty and two months; and the 14th chapter is the history of her deliverance, and triumph, and avengement. Fifthly, that these histories which spread over the

same period of time, contain each the announcement of Daniel's period, and the day of wrath consequent thereon, but pass by the particulars of the day of wrath, and do not tell them in their place. Sixthly, that this day of wrath prepares to come on in the 15th chapter, which is the prologue connecting it with the three former histories, even as the prologues of these histories were connected with one another, (that of trumpets being connected with that of seals, by chap. viii. 1-the little book with that of trumpets, by chap. x. 6, 7, 8.) but the day of wrath does not come on till the 16th chapter, which contains the particulars of the seventh seal and seventh trumpet, and of Daniel's judgment upon the beast. So that the 15th and 16th chapters may be considered as belonging to the book with seven seals, being the seventh seal thereof; or in general, as the act of judg ment upon the nations; or as the period of Christ's iron reign; or as the period of the stone's smiting the image to powder; or as that which follows the darkening of the sun, and other signs therewith occurring in the discursive prophecy. We have, therefore, found that which we sought for, viz. the particulars of that judgment which fell upon the ten-horned beast, when the Son of man was revealed in the clouds of heaven, and the kingdom given into the hands of the saints of the Most High.

And thus we are now arrived, by a clear and regular course, to the seven fold act of judgment upon the papal nations, which thus sublimely proceedeth, scene after scene, and which we must follow in order by the great events of history which have happened in our own days, and within the memory of many who now hear me, beginning from the year 1792, at which the papal period closed.

"And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image." A sore over the body shows the dissolution and corruption of its parts, and indicates that the constitution of the frame, and the bodily life itself, are labouring under inward disease, or affected with outward contagion. A noisome and grievous sore speaks at once its loathsomeness to the sense, and its

painfulness to the feeling. It is, therefore, the fit emblem for the dissolution of the inward principles of the mind, and the consequent breaking out of troubles and disorders; the disorganization of the inward health, and the destruction of the outward comeliness of society. In which sense it is figuratively used by Isaiah, to express the wickedness and depravity to which the state of Israel had come, when the Lord called him to prophesy. "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, nor mollified with ointment." Of which disorganized state of principle, he shows the outward effects in the following verse: "Your country is désolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown with strangers." This vial of the noisome and grievous sore, fell upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image; that is, upon all the people who yielded to the authority of the pa pacy, and dwelt within the bounds of the papal kingdoms. Now the question is, whether any such dissolution of principle, and eruption of unsightly blemishes came over the spirits of men in the end of the year 1792, when the first vial of the seventh seal, the first thunder of the seventh trumpet was given forth. To this question let the quaking and trembling of every state in Europe at that time, for the safety and continuance of its well being, render the answer. In France, especially, this disorganization of principle showed itself, and brought the most shocking scenes which society for thousands of years had exhibited; but not in France only, but in the states of Italy, and in Germany, and over papal Europe in general, the same canker did eat into the hearts of men, and dissolve, in a lesser or greater degree, the principles of their faith, the principles of loyalty and subordination, and whatever other principles bind men in communities. It expressed itself in France by the abolition of the Christian religion, and of the sabbath, by the public profession of atheism, and the substitution of the goddess of reason in the stead of the living and true God. In other papal kingdoms it loosened the superstition of the people from their priests, and their allegiance from their governors, and prepared the way for the other vials which

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