heaven." Matt. xxiv. 29. This is.the voice the Lord has uttered before the face of his army, to strike terror into mankind and bring them to themselves. "For his armies are

exceeding great," said Joel, "they are strong, and execute his word: For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible: and who can stand it?"Again, the Almighty throws in another energetic exhortation to penance, desirous that the Scourge may be taken out of his hand before he strikes:

V. 12. Now therefore saith the Lord," continues Joel, "be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning.

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V. 13. And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil.

V. 14. "Who knows but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God?

V. 15. "Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.

V. 16. "Gather together the people, sanctify the Church, assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed, and the bride out of her bride-chamber.

V. 17. "Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord's ministers, shall weep, and shall say: spare, O Lord, spare thy people; and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations, where is their God?"

These divine admonitions not prevailing with mankind, who have hardened themselves in iniquity, and carried it to a greater pitch than was ever seen in any former period of the world, the Almighty in his wrath lets loose the reins to Antichrist. This devouring beast and raging tyrant sets out with his army, to ravage and desolate: first, the country of Judæa, then all Christendom, and in fine, to trample under foot all the powers of the earth. The march and progress of this horrible army, with the havoc it makes, is described in most pathetic and lofty strains by the prophet Joel. The description, indeed, is applied by some commentators to a vast swarm of devouring insects; by others, to the Chaldean troops coming against Jerusalem under Nabuchodonosor; but whoever will attentively view the particulars of the narrative, will see that they do not tally with either of those cases, but agree

very properly with the army of the Apocalypse. Thus cries out Joel:

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Chap. i. 2. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land: did this ever happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

V. 3. "Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.

V. 4. "That which the palmer-worm has left, the locust has eaten; and that which the locust has left, the bruchus has eaten; and that which the bruchus has left, the mildew* has destroyed (has eaten.)

V. 5. "Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn, all ye that take delight in drinking sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

V. 6. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number; his teeth are like the teeth of a lion and his cheek teeth, as of a lion's whelp.

V. 7. He has laid my vineyard waste, and has pulled off the bark of my fig-tree: he has stripped it bare, and cast it away: the branches thereof are made white."

As

The four insects, palmer-worm, locust, bruchus, and grasshopper, ver. 4, represents the four great nations, which we saw crossing the Euphrates, to form Antichrist's army. they march at present in four separate bodies, it is said that what one leaves, the other eats up, to show that they leave famine behind them wherever they go.

They are strong and without number, v. 6, and as furious lions, they root up all the vineyards and fruit trees, v. 7, after having devoured the fruit.Joel goes on:

V. 8. "Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

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V. 9. Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the priests, the Lord's ministers, have mourned. V. 10. "The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath languished.

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V. 11. The husbandmen are ashamed, the vine-dressers have howled for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.

V. 12. 66

The vineyard is confounded, and the fig-tree hath languished: the pomegranate-tree, and the palm-tree, and the

* Most interpreters understand the Hebrew word, here rendered by mildew, to mean a species of grasshopper, or other insect.

apple-tree, and all the trees of the field are withered: because joy is withdrawn from the children of men.

V. 17. "The beasts have rotted in their dung: the barns are destroyed, the storehouses are broken down because the corn is confounded.

V. 18. "Why did the beasts groan, why did the herds of cattle low? because there is no pasture for them: yea, and the flocks of sheep are perished."

Here, then, the corn, wine, oil, and fruit, are all swept away by these rapacious wolves, and such universal devastation and desolation overspread the land, that the people are reduced to lamentation, famine, and despair, v. 8, the priests have not even bread and wine sufficient for the holy sacrifice, v. 9, and the beasts of the field perish for want of food, v. 17, 18.- -Joel continues,

Chap. ii. 1. "Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: because the day of the Lord cometh, because it is nigh at hand.

V. 2. "A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people, as the morning spread upon the mountains: the like to it hath not been from the beginning, nor shall be after it even to the years of generation and generation.

V. 3. "Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it."

At the approach of this tremendous army, the alarm is sounded, ver. 1, 2, to give notice that the day of the Lord cometh, the day of darkness is nigh at hand, that is, the terrible day of the wrath of God, who is now going to pour out his judgments upon mankind in a more severe manner than ever before. A numerous and strong people comes, ver. 2, a prodigious army appears, the like to it has not been from the beginning, nor shall be after it even to the years of generation and generation, which shows it to be the army of Antichrist, the most numerous that has been or will be, consisting, according to St. John, of two hundred million, Apoc. ix. 16. It overspreads the land with a swiftness, like to that of the aurora or morning light expanding itself over the tops of the mountains, ver. 2. This is done by means of incorporeal devils, that make part of this army, as we have before observed.

Before the face thereof proceeds a burning fire, v. 3, the

fire of gunpowder with which they destroy mankind; and behind it a devouring flame, arising from their setting fire to every thing as they march, and thus reducing the whole country into a desert, or as the prophet beautifully expresses it, the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness.

V. 4. "The appearance of them," continues Joel, “is as the appearance of horses, and they shall run like horsemen.

V. 5. " They shall leap like the noise of chariots upon the tops of mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, as a strong people prepared to battle.

V. 6. "At their presence the people shall be in grievous pain: all faces shall be made like a kettle."

The picture here drawn of the army is similar to that we saw from the hand of St. John. Joel does not say the army consists wholly of cavalry, but the appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, ver. 4, including the artillery or cannon under the appearance of horses, in the same manner as St. John saw them. (See page 230.) The carriages of the cannon, as they are drawn up the mountains, make a noise like the noise of chariots, v. 5, and a crackling like that of a flame of fire devouring stubble, as they are dragged over the stones and rocks. These carriages are moreover said to leap up upon the tops of the mountains, by the celerity with which the hellish spirits move them forwards. Consternation, terror, and despair, are the vanguard of such an army, all faces shall turn black like a kettle with fear and dread, v. 6.

V. 7. "They shall run like valiant men," continues Joel, “like men of war they shall scale the wall: the men shall march every one on his way, and they shall not turn aside from their ranks.

V. 8. "No one shall press upon his brother: they shall walk every one in his path: yea, and they shall fall through the windows, and shall take no harm.

V. 9. "They shall enter into the city: they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up the houses, they shall come in at the windows as a thief."

Here is the last part of the description of this strange army. Their intrepidity is unparalleled. They run upon danger, or scale the walls of fortified towns, without the least concern, v. 7; and in their march they keep their ranks without pressing one another, every one walking in security in his path without the least fear of enemies, v. 7, 8. Their agility is such, that they come in at the windows as a thief, and if they fall

through them, they take no harm, v. 8, 9. They insinuate themselves into towns, though the gates be shut; they run upon the walls, as upon plain ground; they get upon the tops of houses, as if they had wings. It is plain, such actions are not human actions, and consequently the agents are not men, but infernal spirits, as we have so often remarked. At the head, then, of such troops, the furious tyrant and general enemy of mankind, Antichrist, carries ravage and desolation through the land, burns the cities, reduces the strongest fortresses without difficulty, and levels them to the ground. He will seem to imitate the proud and haughty king of Assyria, Nabuchodonosor, who may be well deemed a figure of him. That monarch said to his general, Holofernes: "Go out against all the kingdoms of the west, and against them especially that despised my commandment. Thy eye shall not spare any kingdom, and all the strong cities thou shalt bring under my yoke." Judith ii. 5, 6 In consequence of these orders, Holofernes "went forth, he and all the army, with the chariots, and horsemen, and archers, who covered the face of the earth, like locusts. He came to the great mountains of Ange, which are on the left of Cilicia: and he went up to all their castles, and took all the strong places.—And he passed over the Euphrates, he came into Mesopotamia; and he forced all the stately cities that were there.- -And he carried away all the children of Madian, and stripped them of all their riches, and all that resisted him he slew with the edge of the sword. And after these things he went down into the plains of Damascus in the days of the harvest, and he set all the corn on fire, and he caused all the trees and the vineyards to be cut down." Judith ii. 11, &c. And though the inhabitants of the cities went out to meet him and make their submission, “they could not for all that mitigate the fierceness of his heart: for he both destroyed their cities, and cut down their groves. For Nabuchodonosor the king had commanded him to destroy all the gods of the earth, that he only might be called God by those nations, which could be brought under him by the power of Holofernes." Judith iii. 11, 12, 13. Here is an imperfect picture of the proceedings of Antichrist, who, according to the accounts above given of Joe! and St. John, will far surpass, in rage and barbarity, Holofernes or his master Nabuchodo nosor. Antichrist will have a more powerful and pernicious instrument in hand, namely, gunpowder, which he will make so much use of, according to St. John, as to kill the third part of men by it." Apoc. ix. 18. And all obstacles seem

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