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APOCALYPSE.

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[Pt. III. § 5.

bottomless deep; for why, otherwise, were they bounden? They appear to have been engaged in such destructive warfare aforetime, at the river Euphrates ; but their progress had been arrested, their activity restrained; now they are again loosed to devastate the Church. But what are we to understand by Euphrates? In Scriptural language, "War upon Eu"phrates," is against the King of Assyria, whose capital city Babylon, on that river, was the grand seat and receptacle of idolatry, the formidable enemy, the insidious corrupter, and at length, by the Divine appointment, the scourge and corrector of the Ancient Y Church. The Jews, corrupted by the arts, and then subdued by the arms, of Babylon, were detained in a long captivity; from which they returnFed to their native soil, so entirely weaned from ido

latry, that, prone as they had been to this strange propensity, before their sufferings in that idolatrous Éh city, "they were strongly and cautiously, and even "to superstition, set against it afterwards." Idolatry never again reared its head in the Church, till the Church had been for some ages Christian. That time was time was now come: for under this Trumpet, the Church is described as idolatrous and desperately

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+ Jer. li. Prid. Con. book ii. art. Babylon. Whitby's note on 1 Pet. v. 13.-Upon Euphrates, at the time this prophecy was delivered, stood the ruins of Babylon, whose ancient walls inclosed a park; the country surrounding, was still called Babylon, and the Nestorians soon afterwards had a patriarch of Babylon, which, as Gibbon observes, was an appellation successively applied to the great cities which rose in the neighbourhood of Babylon; to Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Bagdat. This shews how connected was the name of Babylon with the reigning city on Euphrates.

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wicked; as will appear evident by referring to the 20th and 21st verses. And it is not surprising that why, corrections, should issue from this quarter, where they appear to have been kept in readiness, even from the times when they had been so successfully applied to the punishment and correction of the Church. These ministers of wrath had been permitted to lead the Assyrian troops against the idolatrous Jewish church, and to carry it into captivity. But on the repentance of the sinners, their agency was restrained. They now come forth with a new commis-. sion against the idolatrous Christians; not to lead into captivity, but to slay one third of them. And, ./ as is the punishment, so is also the effect of it, different re from that of the former chastisement; the offenders are not all slain, and the remaining church is not reclaimed from its idolatry.

The above is a general view of the character of this Trumpet: but since the swarm of invaders under the fifth Trumpet, and the army of assailants under the sixth, appear to have a certain assimilation, as well as a certain difference, of character, which, compared together, may cast useful light on both; let us bring them into one view.

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FIFTH TRUMPET.

1. A swarm of scorpionlocusts.

2. The leader, a star fallen, a fallen angel, the destroyer.

3. They arise from the pit of the bottomless deep, under cover of darkening smoke.

4. Their commission is not to slay, but to torment, the unsealed, who wish to die, but cannot; and these are the unsealed only.

5. Their continuance, five months.

6. Their character: They have tails and stings and power as scorpions; are like war-horses in appearance; have crowns as of gold; faces as of men; hair as of women; teeth as of lions; breast-plates as of iron; come in smoke; with the noise of warchariots; wound with sting and tail.

SIXTH TRUMPET.

1. An army of myriads of cavalry.

2. Their leaders, four angels, who had been bounden at Euphrates, but are now loosed at the command of one voice, and that from the altar.

3. They come from Euphrates, where they had been bounden.

4. To slay the third part of the men.

5. Their appointment for the hour, day, month, year.

6. The horses of the troops of cavalry have tails of serpents with heads on them, with which they injure. The heads of the horses like heads of lions. From their mouths issue fire, smoke, and brimstone, by which they kill. And the riders have breastplates of fire, smoke, and brimstone.

7. Their

FIFTH TRUMPET.

7.

SIXTH TRUMPET.

7. Their attack is of the nature of a way, or stroke of correction upon the idolatrous and wicked, but produces no repentance or amendment in those who

survive the calamity..

I proceed to offer some observations on these passages, thus brought to comparison, in the order in which they stand; referring to the numbers prefixed to each.

1. A swarm of locusts and an innumerable army of hostile invaders, are in Scripture used metaphorically for each other. Yet there must be some difference in the present instance; otherwise they would both have been described under the same name, whether it be of locusts, or horses for war. This difference is pointed out afterwards; the locusts are said to be like war-horses; (v. 7.) The other are warhorses. The attack under the sixth Trumpet has therefore more real warfare in it, than that of the fifth; which only resembles warfare, being metaphori- f cally such.

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Server 2. The leaders of both invasions are of the same description, angels; under the fifth Trumpet, one fallen angel; under the sixth, four; certainly wicked angels, why otherwise had they been bounden? The difference is four instead of one; which seems to imply †, that the devastation is to be more dreadful and complete.

3. The angel of the fifth Trumpet leads his invaders from the grand seat of all impurity, from the

+ See note, ch. iv. 6.

* Joel ii.

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depths of hell*. The assailants of the sixth come from Euphrates; where had stood Babylon, the grand source of corruption to the ancient Church, and which was the instrument applied by the Almighty to punish, and to restore her. This passage compared with the two concluding verses of this sixth Trumpet, will shew, that, under this invasion, idolatry, as well as other kinds of wickedness, is to be punished; which does not seem to be the case under the fifth Trumpet, where there is no allusion to this sin.

4. The swarm of locusts is commissioned to forment, not to kill; and the unsealed only are the objects of their rage. The armies of cavalry kill onethird part of the Christian world: and there seems no return to life, as in Zech. xiii. 8. they are totally cut

off from God's people †.

5. The swarm of the fifth Trumpet is appointed for a certain period of continuance; after which, its ravages may be supposed to end. The armies of the sixth for a certain determined time of commencement, against which they were kept ready: ητοιμασμενοι εις την gay. This sense of the construction will appear manifest by consulting similar passages in the Greek, viz. Job xii. 5. Psalm xxi. 31. Prov. xxiv. 27. Ezek. iv. 7. 2 Tim. ii. 11. Yet, by the addition of the words,

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day, month, year," more may be implied than the commencement, to express which, the word hour alone would have been sufficient. But even if a continuance be implied, it is not a determinate one, like that of the fifth Trumpet; the duration may be long, but the time is not ascertained.

6. The locusts of the fifth Trumpet are like horses for war. The assailants of the sixth are horses. One

* Compare ch, xx. 2.

+ See uotes, ch. iii. 1. vi. 8.

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