Here, doubtless, is a figure of the future triumph of the Spiritual JOSHUA, and of His victorious host, marching from the sun-rising, over the river's dry bed; and here we see a strong confirmation of our interpretation of the passage before us: and the more so, because, as we have observed, there is a striking parallelism between the history of the fall of Jericho, as described in the book of Joshua, and the results of the Trumpets in the Apocalypse *.

And now, as to the word KINGS-Kings of the East, whose Way is prepared.

Christ, as we see, promises to give the Morning Star to His faithful followers. He, the Sun of Righteousness, will make them shine as the Sun; that is, He will make them partakers of His own Glory. So Christ, the KING of KINGS, makes them co-heirs of His Kingdom. He makes them Princes in all lands t. Such is the language of the Apocalypse: To Jesus Christ, Who is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth; unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and His Father ; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever‡. He hath made them unto our God Kings and Priests, and they shall reign on the Earth §.

Therefore, the Kings from the East, or Sun-rising,

* Lecture VII. P. 202.

† Psalm xlv. 17.

Rev. i. 5.

§ Rev. v. 10. 1 Pet. ii. 9.

whose Way is prepared, are the faithful soldiers of Christ. Their Kingdom is to serve Christ.

It is a solemn thing to speak of the future. This, however, we may affirm, that the drying up of the Euphrates, that is, the decline of Rome's Supremacy, will prepare the Way for a new and glorious manifestation of the power of the Gospel, both among Jews and Gentiles. Thus the Way will be prepared for the Kings of the East.

And what now follows?

When the river is dried up, and a road thus opened for the Gospel, we behold a new form of infernal agency.

I saw from the mouth of the Dragon, and from the mouth of the Beast, and from the mouth of the False Prophet, three UNCLEAN SPIRITS, like unto FROGS; and they are spirits of devils, working miracles, and go forth to gather the Kings of the Earth and the World

Aquinas ad loc. Ab ortu Solis, i. e. Ipsius qui est Sol Justitiæ, Malachi iv. 2.-Auctor Anon. ap. S. Aug. Ut præparetur via eorum, scil. qui sunt ab ortu Solis, id est, Christo.-Bede ad cap. xvi. Sancti, Reges sunt quibus, Euphrate siccato, via panditur Orientis.-Haymo ad loc. Reges, sancti intelliguntur: ut autem his regibus præparetur via, prius siccatur aqua Euphratis, quia, nisi nequitia malorum fuerit consummata, nequaquam ad judicandum apparebunt. In aliâ translatione habetur, ut præparetur via venienti Regi ab ortu Solis, CHRISTO scilicet, de quo Propheta (Zech. vi. 12) dicit, Ecce Vir, ORIENS nomen Ejus.Aquinas in loc. Ut præparetur via Regibus, id est, fidelibus Christianis, qui in Reges inuncti sunt in baptismo; omnes in regnum Dei et sacerdotium ungimur gratia spiritali.

† Some of the grounds of this opinion are stated in "Lectures on the Canon," Lect. iv. p. 109-114.

to the Battle of that Great Day; and they gather them to the place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon *.

Here we are reminded, again, of the plagues of Egypt.

Aaron stretched his hand over the waters of Egypt, and Frogs came up and covered the land. The land brought forth Frogs; yea, even in their kings' chambers.

Doubtless this figure of the Frogs in the Apocalypse has a spiritual meaning. It describes men of grovelling minds, impure spirits §, who will come forth in the dim twilight and sad eventide of the World |,-unclean spirits**, who dwell, as it were, in the slime and quagmires of sordid cogitations, strangers to the clear light and fresh streams of divine Truth; loving the slough of debasing lusts and the misty glimmerings of false Philosophy and worldly Policy, and yet puffed up with pride, and speaking swelling words, and making the world to ring with their harsh discord. Such are they, who

Exod. viii. 7.

Psalm cv. 30.

*Rev. xvi. 13-15. § Bede ad loc. Hi spiritus ranis similantur, animantibus loco, visu, molestoque strepitu horrentibus, quæ quum aquarum incolæ videantur, in cœno et luto volutantur.

Primasius ad loc. Istis Pseudo-prophetis ranarum more tanquam animantibus coaxantibus nocte erroris latratu convenit perstrepere.

** Rev. xvi. 13, πνεύματα ἀκάθαρτα, ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τοῦ δράκοντος, κ. ἐ. τ. σ. τοῦ θηρίου, κ. ἐ. τ. σ. τοῦ Ψευδοπροφήτου.

Cf. Zech. xiii. 2, ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἐξολοθρεύσω τοὺς Ψευδοπροφήτας, καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἀκάθαρτον ἐξαρῶ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς.

talk loudly of Liberty, and do not mean thereby the perfect freedom of serving God, but the slavish license of gratifying their own lusts. Such are they, who do not see in God the only source of power, and do not deduce the right to rule and the duty to obey from Him, but make the will of Man the origin of Authority and the measure of Obedience. Such are they, who do not acknowledge that the Glory of the Most High, and the Eternal happiness of men, are the true ends, and right reasons, and immutable laws of all Government, secular and spiritual; but limit its aims to earth, and degrade it into an abject slave of human appetites. Such are they, who do not receive the doctrines of Religion as God has been pleased to reveal them, but would make themselves the standards and oracles of Truth, and would make Truth to vary with their own proud and fickle caprices. In a word, such are they, who do not raise their eyes upward to the sun and stars of God's Power, Providence, and Wisdom, set in the clear vault of His glorious firmament, but look downward to themselves, and judge of the things of heaven as they are reflected in the watery mirror of the low pools and miry marshes of their own minds.

These unclean spirits, it is said, work miracles. We are, therefore, to be prepared to hear of strange Apparitions. The Emissaries of whom St. John speaks will be permitted to show signs and wonders, with all power, after the working of Satan *; as the Magicians of Egypt were with their enchant

* Matth. xxiv. 24. 2 Thess. ii. 9.

ments; so as to deceive, if it were possible, the very Elect t.

Further: These spirits, it is added, go forth unto the Kings of the Earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle.

Are we then to imagine here a confederacy of Sovereign Princes against God?

No: not of Princes, as such. The words Kings of the Earth are opposed to Kings of the East; and Kings of the East are they to whom Christ has appointed a Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of heaven §. They are the Children of light. But Kings of the Earth are all they who have no share in the Kingdom of heaven. They are the children of this world || all, that is, whether Princes or People, who do not promote the Kingdom of Christ **.

He re

Such, then, is the Plague which St. John announces to the World in the Sixth Vial. presents it as issuing forth from the mouth of the Dragon, and of the Beast, and of the False Prophet ††.

Thus he foretels an alliance of Infidel, Democratical, and Papal Powers. He portends that some Roman Preachers ‡‡, Ministers of the False Pro* Exod. vii. 11. 22.

Matth. xxiv. 24. Mark xiii. 22.

§ Matth. iii. 2. v. 3. vi. 33. xii. 28, et passim.

|| Luke xvi. 8.

Luke xxii. 29.

** Bede ad loc. Sicut sancti sunt Reges quibus, Euphrate siccato, via panditur Orientis, ita etiam pravi dicuntur Reges terræ. ++ Primasius ad loc. Draco Diabolus, Bestia Antichristus, cum suorum doctoribus dogmatum.

A striking specimen of this combination will be seen in the