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pains and their sores, but repent not of their deeds.

The sixth vial was poured out on the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. A great river, in the language of symbols, denotes a great and populous nation. It is allowed by the ablest writers on the Apocalypse, and indeed by almost all who have written upon it, that the river Euphrates, in the sixth trumpet, signifies the nation of the Turks or Ottomans. Consistency therefore requires that it should be so understood here, and accordingly it is so explained by the most eminent expositors. The drying-up or evaporation of the waters of the Euphrates, points out to us the gradual decay of the Ottoman empire, by a species of internal consumption, and not its overthrow by an hostile invasion for the figure in the last case would be the turning of the waters of the Euphrates into blood. It is sufficiently apparent, that for many years past the Turkish power has been hastening to its dissolution by an internal decay of its resources, and of all the principles of political health. It would also appear that its destruction is hastening on with more rapid progress by the immediate hand of God, which is visible for some years past in the dreadful ravages of the plague.* We have evidence before

* With respect to the desolation of Turkey by the plague, I have selected the following information from the public papers.

Times. London, October 29, 1814.-" The ravages of the plague this year at Smyrna have been unusually dreadful. It is stated, "that in June frequently upwards of a thousand have been buried in "a day. One third of the inhabitants had left their dwellings and the "town. Some compute the deaths this year at 50,000; the least

our eyes, therefore, that this vial has long since begun to be poured out on the mystic Euphrates. Who the kings of the east, or the kings from the rising of the sun, are, for whom a way is to be prepared by the exhaustion of the waters of the Euphrates, is not yet certain. As the event is yet future the accomplishment only can throw light upon

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computation is 30,000. Smyrna is said to contain from 150,000 "to 180,000 inhabitants. All Asia Minor, Syria, the Islands, &c. experienced this year a similar loss of about one-quarter, or one“fifth of the whole population. The crops of corn, &c. remain ungathered in the fields, in many places in the interior, for want of hands; and several towns and villages have been entirely abandoned. "In Smyrna, the keys of 800 houses have been delivered to the governor, as many families have been altogether extirpated, and "the government is heir where there is no very near relation.”

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Morning Post. February 6, 1816.—“ Agram, in Croatia, Jan. 22, "1816. We received on the 10th the news, that the plague had "extended from Turkey into our environs, as far as Dubitza, and "other places. In the Turkish part of Dubitza most of the inha"bitants have perished, but in the Austrian part but few persons have "been attacked."

The same Newspaper, Feb. 27, 1816.-" A Dutch mail has arrived. "It communicates the most melancholy details of the ravages of the

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plague in the province of Bosnia, which it has nearly depopulated. "This Turkish province, which had hardly a million of inhabitants, "has lately lost 500,000 persons by the plague. Three years ago, upon an exact enumeration of the Catholics, they were found to "amount to 112,000 souls, of whom scarcely a half are now remaining. The disease has not yet ceased to rage."

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From various accounts which have appeared in the public papers, it would appear, that since the above period the plague has never entirely disappeared in the provinces of Turkey.

I copy the following paragraph from a Provincial Paper, of November 14, 1816, under the head of London, Nov. 8.

"The accounts from Turkey describe the vast mass of that empire as resembling the Roman power in the latest stage of its decline. "The authority of the government is every where despised through"out the provinces of the empire, and of course the very resources "for enforcing submission must every day become less productive."

it. The general opinion is, that by the kings of the east, the Jews are intended; but the late venerable Mr. Granville Sharp was of opinion, that the risen martyrs of the first resurrection are designated by this appellation. I feel myself inclined to adopt the former opinion, but I do not wish to speak, with any degree of confidence, of the manner of the accomplishment of what is yet future. I shall consider the other events of this vial when I treat of the seventh.

The seventh vial was poured out into the air. This vial is the most important of the whole. It has justly been styled the vial of consummation. It comprises within itself more particulars than all the other vials its contents occupy the last verses of the sixteenth and the whole of the three following chapters of the Apocalypse. In order to interpret this vial aright, it is necessary to inquire, in the first place, what is intended by the symbolical air into which it is poured. It is through the medium of the natural air, or atmosphere, that the natural sun, moon, and stars, communicate to us their light, their heat, and influences; it is the same air which is in us the principle of vitality. Now, through what air, or atmosphere, do the symbolical sun, moon, and stars communicate to us their influences, their light, and heat? I answer, that it is through the medium of the political and ecclesiastical constitutions of the states. These constitutions are also the principle of vitality to the body politic. The political and ecclesiastical constitutions of the states of the world, are therefore the symbolical air or atmosphere. Hence it is, perhaps, that Satan (in

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Ephes. ii.) was called the prince of the power of the air; because he ruled, and was seated, and enthroned in the political constitutions of the world, which were all framed on principles friendly to the interests of his kingdom.

I presume, therefore, that the seventh vial is poured out upon the political and ecclesiastical constitution of the Roman empire, as it was fixed at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, in the year 1792. The immediate effects of this vial are voices, thunders, and lightnings, in the symbolical atmosphere ; a tremendous agitation throughout the government, and politico-ecclesiastical system of the bestial empire, destructive of the general equilibrium or balance of power, and superinducing all the horrors of a political storm. I need scarcely add, that this is an exact description of the state of the Babylonian empire, from the year 1792, till the late pacification of Europe; and if the violence of the tempest has seemed at times to abate, it has in the succeeding moment raged even with more awful fury.

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"And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so "mighty an earthquake, and so great."-This mighty earthquake is the effect of the political storm previously mentioned; and it most exactly describes that stupendous and terrific revolution in the Roman empire, which commenced in the overthrow of the French monarchy in 1792, and has since extended to every corner of continental Europe.

The above interpretation of the seventh vial, was the result of a close attention to the analogies of the

symbolical language, and was first inserted in a paper I sent to the Christian Observer more than eight years ago. Until after the publication of the first edition of this work, I had no suspicion that the very same explanation of the hieroglyphics of this vial, had been given by another writer. But having then met with the commentary of the learned Vitringa, I was both surprised and gratified to find so very near a resemblance between his exposition and my own, as might very naturally have subjected me to the charge of plagiarism. I mention this circumstance, not only to vindicate myself from such an imputation, but also because it tends to show that the language of symbols is not (as many suppose, of arbitrary or uncertain signification, but is interpretable upon fixed principles, to ascertain and define which is the first duty of a commentator, as the judicious application of that language to the events of history is the second.

Vitringa maintains that the pouring this vial into the air signifies the dissolution of the political and ecclesiastical government of the bestial empire. "All

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things (says he) shall be so agitated in the political " and ecclesiastical government of that great empire, "that the people shall be without air to breathe and "to refresh them: for the princes and governors of "the nations, inasmuch as they cherish their subjects, and abound towards them in care and good management, are as it were the breath of the people, like the air which they imbibe and inhale, "as they are called in Jeremiah (Lament. v. 20). "That air being violently agitated shall be the "occasion of God's inflicting those heavy judgments

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