ly seen by the prophet Isaiah: I saw, says he, the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated. And the house was filled with smoke, Isai. vi. 1. 4. In the present case, such is the overpowering force of the smoke, that no man is able to enter into the Temple, till the seven Plagues of the seven Angels be fulfilled; or, no man, soul and body together, is able to enter into the Temple, the Temple of Heaven, till the seven plagues of the seven Angels be fulfilled; till the seven severe scourges of God, imported by the pouring out of the seven Vials, have been inflicted on the enemies and persecutors of his Church. The Almighty, by his power, carries on his Church, through the period of time he thinks fit to allot it, and in its progress punisheth its opposers and enemies. When that period of time finishes, and the seven Vials are poured out, and the punishments executed, then follows the general judgment; after which, the saints will enter soul and body into the Temple of heaven. Almighty God is patient in his anger, and waits for the conversion of his undutiful and rebellious children; but their obstinacy arms at last his justice, and compels him to strike. The Lord is a jealous God, says the prophet, and a revenger: the Lord is a revenger, and has wrath: the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he is angry with his enemies, Nahum. i. 2.

APOC. Chap. XVI. v. 1. And I heard, continues St. John, a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven Angels: Go and pour out the seven vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

A great voice is heard from out of the Temple or sanctuary, as coming from God who resides there; and delivering this order to the seven Angels who hold the seven Vials: Go and pour out the seven vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

Conformably to the remarks we made before the opening of the seals, and before the sounding of the trumpets, 20 & 27, so here, before the pouring out of the vials, appears another scene of passing from the Jewish establishment to the Christian Church; the Jewish tabernacle with its sanctuary represented in heaven, being left by the Angels going forth to pour

out the vials of the wrath of God, which belong to the Christian age.

The pouring out of the first Vial of the wrath of God.

V. 2. And the first (Angel) went, and poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a sore and grievous wound upon men who had the character of the beast, and upon them that adored the image thereof.

Let us begin with observing that, as at the sounding of the first trumpet, the shower of hail, fire, and blood, fell upon the earth, that is, on the good part of the earth, or the Christian Church, so here the first Vial of the wrath of God is likewise poured out upon the earth, that is, upon the guilty part of the earth, or the persecutors of the Christians. The sore and grievous wound here inflicted, means a grievous punishment, which falls upon those who have the character or mark of the Beast, that is, on the pagan emperors of Rome, and their governors of the Roman provinces, as they bore in a special manner the mark of the Beast, or of idolatry, by employing their whole power in the support of it, and in persecuting the Christian religion. *The same punishment also falls upon those who adore the image of the Beast, that is, on the idolatrous people of the Roman empire. The Roman state was the principal seat and bulwark of idolatry. Hence the pouring out of the first Vial of the wrath of God, announces the divine judgments on the monarchs of Rome and their subjects, for their supporting idolatry, an abomination so odious to God, and for the persecuting his Church and his people.- -How this was fulfilled, the following short account will discover.

Nero, the first Roman emperor that imbrued his hands in Christian blood, had by his cruelties made himself the detestation of mankind. The people of Rome would no longer bear with him; his armies revolted from him, and set up a new emperor. He was deserted by his own guards, and the Roman senate pronounced sentence of death against him. In this desperate and forlorn condition, he fled from Rome into try, to a house belonging to his freedman,

where, by the help of others, not having resolution himself, he got himself dispatched with a dagger. Thus fell Nero a victim to the vengeance of God.

But heaven was not appeased with this sole victim. The weight of divine justice, conformably to the tenour of the Vial, fell also upon the whole Roman state, which was torn to pieces by intestine convulsions. Galba succeeded Nero; but soon after rose up Otho, who got himself proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. Galba was murdered in the forum, and the people were trampled under foot in the streets of Rome by the brutal soldiers. During these troubles in the city, the Roman legions in Germany created their commander, Vitellius, emperor. This new contest between two competitors, could not be decided but by the sword, and the blood of many thousands of Romans. Four considerable battles were fought within the space of a few months, which gave the empire to Vitellius. But that same year the Roman armies in the East vested their own commander, Vespasian, with the imperial purple, in opposition to Vitellius. This continued the civil war, and a battle was fought between the two parties at the gates of Rome, in which the Vitellians lost the day. Rome was made a scene of slaughter, being taken and ravaged by its own subjects, and the capitol was laid in ashes.

Eight years after this calamity, sprung up a fresh one. Such a terrible plague infected the city of Rome, that, according to Eusebius, it swept away ten thousand inhabitants in a day for several days together.

Domitian, the second persecutor, felt also the weight of Divine anger. His own friends and domestics, with his wife Domitia, conspired against him and slew him. And after his death the Senate of Rome rescinded all his edicts, ordered all his statues to be pulled down, his name to be erased in all the public registers, and never more to be mentioned.

The emperors Trajan, Adrian, and Marcus Aurelius, having rather tolerated than raised persecution, escaped such visible judgments. But the empire itself felt the dismal effects of the Christian blood that had

been spilt during these reigns. In the eighteenth year of Trajan there happened a prodigious earthquake, which was almost general in the East, but Syria chiefly suffered. Many great towns were ruined. In the city of Antioch, where the emperor Trajan then resided, almost all the buildings were thrown down, and many thousands of people lost their lives, the emperor himself hardly escaping by leaping out of a window. In the second year of Marcus Aurelius, the Tiber overflowed a considerable part of Rome, carried away a multitude of people and cattle, ruined the country, and caused an extreme famine. This inundation was followed by swarms of insects, which devoured all that the flood had spared. Four years after, Lucius Verus coming victorious from the Parthian war, brought the plague along with him, which communicated the contagion to all the Roman provinces through which he passed, and carried off multitudes of people.

Severus, the fifth persecutor, among other misfortunes, had for son Antoninus Caracalla, a most vicious prince, who attempted to take away his father's life by stabbing him with his own hand, but was prevented by some that were present. This behaviour of his son threw Severus into a deep melancholy, which put an end to his life. The hand of vengeance pursued even his children. Caracalla murdered his brother Geta, and he himself underwent the same fate, which extinguished the family.

Maximinus, the sixth persecutor, became odious to the whole empire for his cruelties and his avarice. Africa rebelled against him. The Senate of Rome declared him an enemy to the state, and set up new emperors against him. He was so detested, that while he was besieging the city of Aquileia, his own soldiers fell upon him in his tent, slew both him and his son, sent their heads to Rome, and left their bodies to be devoured by dogs and birds of prey.

During the short reign of Maximinus, neither the cime nor the provinces were free from wars, tulers, and all sorts of calamities.

tro

emperor, an execrable beast, as Lactan

tius styles him, in his war with the Goths, being attacked by them, and seeing his eldest son killed before his face, and a great part of his army cut off, in despair run into a deep bog, where he perished. His body was not allowed common burial, but exposed to be devoured by the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air.

:

The horrible persecution in this emperor's reign seemed to rouse up afresh the indignation of Heaven. The Roman State was harassed by great wars and desolation from the Goths and other barbarous northern nations and likewise by a dreadful pestilence, which spread itself over all the provinces, and lasted ten years, destroying incredible numbers of people. In the first year of the emperor Gallus, Decius's successor, who continued the persecution, the plague raged more furiously than ever, particularly at Carthage, in Africa. There vast multitudes were swept away every day, and the streets were filled with the carcasses of the dead. St. Cyprian, Bishop of that city, wrote on this occasion his book on the Mortality, or Pestilence, to comfort and encourage his own flock under the general calamity, and he zealously exhorted them not to be wanting in giving all assistance possible to the infected, though Pagans, and their declared enemies. He also wrote at this time to Demetrianus, a magistrate of Carthage, representing to him that these evils were not, as the Pagans pretended, punishments inflicted upon them by their Gods, for their permitting the growth of Christianity; but on the contrary, that they were real punishments sent from the true God of Heaven and Earth for their cruelties to the Christians. St. Cyprian tells him : "Never do we see the Christian name persecuted, but "the divine vengeance soon follows. Of this we have "a recent example, when so quick and so remarkable a judgment lately appeared, in the violent death of the “ Kings," meaning Decius and his son, "in the great "devastations made by the enemies, and the ruin of the "Roman army."

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Valerian, the eighth cruel persecutor of the Christians, in his war with the Persians, was taken prisoner by Sapor their king, who treated him with the utmost in