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LECTURE XV.

REV. xvi. 17.

And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

THIS text is the account we have in the word of God of the last plague that will ever visit our world, or the inhabitants who hereafter will be permitted to dwell thereon. That is evident, because it is the seventh of the last seven. For John says, Rev. xv. 1, " And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God." And the wrath of God is filled up, that is, the cup of God's wrath of which he will make all nations drink; and he will give unto Babylon “the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."

Then it cannot be uninteresting to those who wish or who may desire to learn where and when the last plagues have been poured out, and how many yet remain for us to experience. These seven last plagues have had their shadows in the plagues which God sent on slave-holding Egypt, when he delivered his people, the Jews, from their Egyptian bondage, the least of which plagues destroyed Pharaoh and his host, just in the moment when Israel were shouting deliverance on the banks of the Red Sea. So likewise, in the seven last plagues, they are poured out upon spiritual Egypt, slave-holding Babylon, who has enslaved the people of God for centuries, and has trafficked in the bodies and souls of men. She, like

Egypt, has appointed task-masters over the church, and has endeavored to strangle her children in the birth. She has commanded the kings and rulers of the earth to destroy the children of the church, as did the Egyptians the Hebrew midwives; but the church has found favor in the eyes of some of the kings and princes of the earth, and the earth has helped the woman, and her children are not all dead. And their cry has gone up to the Lord of Sabaoth, and he has come down in these seven last plagues to deliver his people from the hand of the spoiler, and from the power of the beast, the anti-Christian abomination; and when this last vial is poured into the air, all the doctrines of men and devils, and all the theories of men and the wisdom of this world will be confounded and brought to nought. The Lord will overwhelm with the red and fiery wrath of his last judgment the kings of the earth, the beast or Catholic church of abomination, the false prophet and all his followers, the great men of the earth, mighty men and captains, tyrants, slave-holders, rich and poor, bond and free: all who have worshipped the beast or his image, will, like the host of Pharaoh, be destroyed in the general conflagration of the world, and the saints will shout deliverance in the New Jerusalem state. I shall, therefore,

I. Give the history of the seven last plagues, or the seven vials of wrath.

II. Show what may be understood by "It is done." I. Then we are to give the history of the seven vials or last plagues; and for this purpose we must give a comment on the sixteenth chapter of Revelation. Verse 1, "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." This verse shows us that these plagues are poured upon the earth at the command of him who sits in the temple of God. Verse 2," 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." This first vial was poured upon the earth, meaning the kingdom of the beast or the Roman government. A noisome, a grievous sore, indi

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cates the dissolution of the body afflicted, and that the constitution is laboring under some inward disease, or affected by contagion from without. It is therefore a fit emblem to represent the exposure of the corruptions of the church of Rome, and breaking out of those loathsome diseases of internal abominations which had been hid for ages from the world by the cunning craftiness of this Papal beast. The men spoken of in this passage are those who worship the beast, and who are the professed followers of this corrupt society, and all who live under the influence and control of the idolatrous city of nations, and who traffic in her indulgences and abominable practices. This vial then began to be poured out when the Protestants first published to the world the corruptions and abominable practices of the church of Rome, when the world began to see the noisome and grievous sores that covered the men who pretended to preach or proclaim the doctrine, laws, or commands of this beast. And of course this plague was sent on the Romish church about the year A. D. 1529, under the preaching of Luther, Calvin, and others who opposed and exposed the corruptions of the church of Rome.

Verse 3, "And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea." The sea, in prophetic language, is the centre of some great nation, or society of men, as in a restless and turbulent state; and the things living in the sea, are the persons living under the power or control of this nation, or society. Living soul denotes those persons who have been born of the Spirit, and are in possession of that living faith in God, and love for all men. "As the blood of a dead man." There is something very striking in this figure not an ordinary figure of blood, which denotes war and mortal controversy, but cold, congealed blood; the blood of a dead man denoting a massacre in cool blood, without any resistance on the part of those murdered. This vial was, then, poured out in France, the principal kingdom in the Roman ten horns, in the year A. D. 1572, at the massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's eve, when 50,000 were slain in one night, and the streets

ran blood, as Sully tells us, in some places ankle deep, in the city of Paris. This massacre was in cold blood; for the same historian tells us, that the king stood in his balcony, and shot down his naked and defenceless subjects as they were fleeing through the streets. This happened in France, the stoutest of the Papal horns the chief instrument in establishing, building up, and supporting that cruel, murderous power of Papacy.

Verse 4, " And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters, and they became blood." By "rivers and fountains of water," I understand the nations and states who live around the centre, or sea, as it was called in the preceding vial. By "blood," I understand destructive war. "And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments." In these verses we have the reasons given, why they were visited with this scourge of war, because, in the preceding vial, they had shed the blood of saints; which proves that the exposition of that vial, which I have already given, is correct. This vial, then, was poured out upon the nations that had given their strength and their power to the beast; and the governments were filled with war and blood. This vial was poured out about A. D. 1630, and lasted nearly fifty years. Spain and Portugal carried on a bloody and destructive war for more than thirty years of this time. France was torn by civil and intestine wars during a long period. The civil wars in England began under king Charles I., 1642, which lasted with but little cessation, until king George I. ascended the throne, in 1714. Germany was filled with blood, between the contentions of the Evangelical league and Catholic league," which gave rise to a ruinous war, which lasted thirty years." See Guthrie, vol. i., page 443. This war was headed, on the part of the Protestants, by Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, who was killed at the battle of Lutzen, A.

D. 1632, which war lasted until the peace of Munster 1648. The other kingdoms of the ancient empire of Rome were more or less drenched in blood, and civil wars, on account of their religious tenets, and contention of their rulers and sovereign princes. These were the heavy judgments which God saw fit to inflict upon the kingdoms and states of the church of Rome, for the innocent blood which she had shed of the Protestants who had protested against her cruel and blasphemous practices. "For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy." "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." The sun is the great source of light and heat, and, in prophetic language, is an emblem of the gospel, as explained in the 19th Psalm, 4—10. "Their fine has gone out through all the earth, and their words

to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun," &c. To "scorch men" with fire, signifies

to make men angry; "great heat," uncommonly angry, vengeful, malicious. This vial was poured out in the last century, when the gospel was proclaimed in these kingdoms of the beast. Now, during the greater part of the last century, and in all the kingdoms where the gospel was preached, there were manifested insidious attempts and a systematic opposition against the gospel of Jesus Christ, or the Holy Scriptures. This opposition was headed by Frederick, king of Prussia, and aided by all the wits, men of genius and learning, as they boasted, of all Europe and America; and in their secret assemblies, or clubs, they went so far as to calculate about what length of time it would take for them to destroy and exterminate the religion of the "Galilean and his twelve fishermen ;" and no writers that ever wrote took such unwearied pains, showed so much virulence and anger, blasphemed the name of God to such a degree, as these writers; and none, either before or since, have ever dared to exhibit the like. "And they re

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