empire will have filled up the measure of its iniquities, and will finally have assumed that political organization, which is to prepare it for the last confederacy, to be gathered together, by the agency of three unclean spirits, to the battle of Armageddon. The number of the elect 144,000, who are sealed for preservation from the last awful calamities, will have been completed, by means of that final preaching of the Gospel, mentioned in Matt. xxiv. 14, and Rev. xiv. 6, which is evidently begun; the destruction of mystical Babylon will also have taken place; and the Ottoman empire will probably have fallen. While the Jews are returning to their own land, or soon afterwards, the great confederacy of the nations will be assembled at Armageddon: and under this name I think, with many eminent interpreters, that some place in the Holy Land, and probably in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem, is designated.

All things being now ready, I conceive that in this awful period, the Almighty Word of Jehovah will be revealed from heaven with ten thousands of his saints, in flaming fire, to take vengeance on a world assembled in arms against his people. At the same hour the elect of God shall be gathered from the four winds of heaven to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and the final judgments shall be let loose against those nations which have named the name of Christ, but have not departed from iniquity.

Of the nature of these judgments it would be presumptuous to speak, excepting in the language of scripture. I shall therefore proceed to quote some passages, which seem to me descriptive of the closing period of the vials, making such short remarks, as

may occur to me in reference to the language in which they are expressed.

"And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, "and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into "the great winepress of the wrath of God. And "the winepress was trodden without the city, and "blood came out of the winepress even unto the "horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six "hundred furlongs."*

Dreadful as are the carnage and devastation which have already occurred since the commencement of the vials; what is here predicted far exceeds in horror, the most sanguinary scenes which the past history of the world records. A stream or lake of blood two hundred miles in extent, and up to the horses' bridles, is the figure used, and it denotes a destruction of men, of which we can scarcely form any clear conception.

"For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; "Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and "cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink "it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be

mad, because of the sword that I will send among "them."-" Therefore thou shalt say unto them, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Drink ye, be drunken, and spue, and fall, and "rise no more, because of the sword which I will "send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse "to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt "thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; "Ye shall certainly drink. For lo, I begin to bring

* Rev. xiv. 19, 20.

"evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not "be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon "all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord "of hosts. Therefore prophesy against them all "these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his “habitation; he shall give a shout as they that tread "the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. "A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth : "for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, "he will plead with all flesh; he will give them "that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirl"wind shall be raised up from the coasts of the "earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at "that day from one end of the earth even unto "the other end of the earth; they shall not be "lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they "shall be dung upon the ground. Howl, ye shep"herds, and cry, and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock; for the days of your

slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished, "and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the

shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the prin"cipal of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry "of the shepherds and an howling of the principal "of the flock, for the Lord hath spoiled their pasture. "And the peaceable habitations are cut down because "of the fierce anger of the Lord. He hath for

"saken his covert as the lion, for their land is de"solate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, "and because of his fierce anger.

66

Similar in its awful import to the above passage, is the following prophecy of Isaiah: "Come near, ye nations, to hear, and hearken, ye people; let "the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world, "and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and "his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly

destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the "slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and "their stink shall come up out of their carcases, "and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. "And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and "the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; " and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth "off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig "tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven, "behold it shall come down upon Idumea,† and

upon the people of my curse to judgment. The "sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made "fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and "goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for "the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. And the unicorns "shall come down with them, and the bullocks with

66

* Jer. xxv. 15, 16, and xxvii. 38.-I am willing to admit, that this awful prophecy had an inchoate accomplishment in the destruction of ancient idolatrous nations; but I think it quite manifest, that its main fulfilment is to be in the latter days.

+ It is well known to the students of prophecy, that the Jews by Idumea understand Rome with its empire. I entirely concur in this interpretation of the word.

"the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, " and their dust made fat with fatness. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion."*

The attentive reader, in perusing the above passage, will be naturally struck with the circumstance, that the sacred penman, or rather the Holy Spirit himself, who inspired the prophet, to declare this terrific message to the nations, seems to labour for expressions, and for imagery, with which to describe the dreadful carnage which is the subject of this vision. In one clause it is declared, that the moun

tains shall be melted with blood. This symbolical expression, signifies the melting down of kingdoms, by the blood or slaughter of their subjects. The entire dissolution of the host of the symbolical heavens, is next predicted. This is evidently the same overthrow of the existing political and ecclesiastical institutions, which is the subject of the sixth seal, and of which we have already seen, as it were, the first fruits. The sword of the Lord is said, in the clause which follows, to be bathed in heaven. This predicts a prodigious carnage of the princes, the governors, and nobles of the nations, who in the symbolical style are called “heaven,” by a metonymy for the host of heaven. Ver. 6. "The sword of "the Lord is filled with the blood of lambs and

goats, &c." Lambs and goats in this verse, and unicorns, bullocks, and bulls, in the next, mean all ranks and sorts of people, the strong as well as the weakest, who shall all be brought down as beasts to the slaughter.+