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2 S. Pet. ii. bought them. "These," he says, "as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things which they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; and shall receive the recompense of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings, while they feast with you; ..... For it had 2 S. Pet. ii. been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn. from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire." S. Jude also in his general Epistle speaketh thus; -"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ; ungodly men, turning the grace of GoD into lasciviousness, and denying the only LORD GOD, and our LORD S. Jude 12, JESUS CHRIST. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."

S. Jude 4.

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It is most manifest, therefore, from the Apostolic Epistles, that these evil workers were in the Church at the beginning, and that they were not obscure in

3.

dividuals, but men who had taken the lead and guidance of others, having assumed the office of Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers. These apostates made things in the Church conform to, and be congenial with, their love of the world. And having their portion in this life they followed its course, and adopted its maxims and principles; and consequently were opposed to the true disciples of CHRIST, who were not of this world, but, like their Divine Master, testified of it, that its works were evil; and whose citizenship being in heaven, they patiently waited the fulfilment of His promise," I will come again and receive you unto My- S. John xiv. self, that where I am, there ye may be also." But those who had turned away from the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and chosen the things of this world for their portion, renounced the hope of the Gospel, and scoffingly asked-" Where is the promise 2 S. Pet. ill. of His coming?" They spake according to the desire of their heart, and wished that all things might continue as they were. And in a very short time, these false teachers became so dominant, that the greater part of the professing body turned away from the Apostles whom the LORD had given as their rulers and guides.

We learn, then, from the writings of the New Testament that almost every form of evil existed at the beginning of the dispensation. Satan having gained an entrance into the Church, occupied its spiritual region, and adapted his working to its spiritual condition. And these Vials, in which are filled up the wrath of God, reveal His last acting towards apostates. They are judicial visitations, which come upon those who fill up the measure of their iniquity, and therefore GOD's last acts in which are filled up His wrath. The

iii.

word LAST, in regard to the vials, does not then, as some have imagined, imply that they are to be poured out at the end of this dispensation, but they reveal His last judicial acts, or righteous judgments in His dealings with apostates in each period of Christian history. These vials, therefore, take a much wider and larger range than is generally supposed, embracing, as we believe, the whole dispensation. In each period, men have filled up the measure of their iniquity, and brought upon themselves the just recompense of their sin. And the last fearful act of apostacy, which will be consummated by the baptized nations, during the seventh or last period, will bring down upon them the contents of the last vial of the wrath of Almighty GOD. When we view things as GOD views them, and discern spiritual things in the light of the HOLY GHOST, we shall be able to perceive how exactly the judgments of GOD correspond to the iniquity which has occasioned them. And there have been always those in the Church who have observed and justified GOD in His judicial visitations, especially in the earlier periods of its history. Every sin against GOD, whether it be that of an individual, a family, a church, or nation, must necessarily bring with it its corresponding visitation of judgment. This is universally true, and especially so in relation to those who have been brought into covenant with GOD. The LORD said of His peoAmos iii. 2. ple Israel-" You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I visit [marginal reading] you, for all your iniquities." If the Divine judgments which fell upon Israel had not been recorded in their history, that history would have been imperfect, and

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1 Cor. x. 1- that too, in one of its most important features. For the judgments which happened to them, were for ex

amples, or types, or figures (TÚToi), and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age are come, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. In like manner, if the judicial part of Christian history had not been given, not only would the history be imperfect, but we should fail to derive from it the instruction and admonition it was intended to convey, in that particular. For each fourfold series of prophecy, having in it, also, a sevenfoldness, whilst it has a special relation to and fulfilment in the period to which it belongs, is also of universal use and application. And the Church might derive great instruction if she would take a retrospective view of all her past history, as revealed in the prophecy of this book. For not only is there a Spiritual, Civil, and Ecclesiastical, but there is also a Judicial phase given us of each period of her history, justifying GOD in all His acts, and showing how every visitation has been administered in righteousness, and was exactly suited to the evil upon which it was sent.

From not regarding the vials in this light, the time when they commenced their action, as well as the true nature of the judgments which they ministered, have been greatly misunderstood. Some have supposed them to commence in A.D. 1793, and have made their fulfilment to consist in those temporal judgments which followed the French Revolution. But such an idea betrays an entire misapprehension of the nature of the judgments which the vials symbolize, and which are infinitely more awful than any temporal calamities. It is declared, that in them is "filled up the wrath of GOD;" showing that they must relate to spiritual judgments; for in temporal judgments His wrath can never be filled up, neither would they as temporal

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judgments be in every case applicable to national sins. The language of all Scripture declares that the heaviest judgments which can fall on mankind are those which are spiritual and eternal. Thus, for example, the prophet Amos, summing up the visitations of God upon Israel, adverts to judgments of this description, as the Amos vii. last, the most severe, and the most awful. "Behold the days come, saith the LORD GOD, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the LORD." In like manner the prophet Isaiah declared the last and heaviest judgments which should befal the Jewish Isa. vi. 10 nation, in these words-"Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed." And when Israel would not obey the voice of the LORD, and made void His law, the judgments pronounced upon them were most suitable to their condition, and the most terrible that could come Ps. Ixix. 23 upon them. "Let their table (that is the table of their

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law,) become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out Thine indignation upon them, and let Thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute HIM Whom Thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom Thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity; and let them not come into Thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous." As judgments of this description