duce no good effects of a moral kind upon the sufferers; for, instead of being reclaimed, they will continue the enemies of God and his Christ, and blaspheme the Lord of heaven and earth, on account of their pains and sores; but no repentance or reformation will be produced by the plague.

It seems evident that the commencement of this vial's effusion must be considered as taking place at the period when the first successful attack was made on the throne of beast, under that head of the hieroglyphic animal existing at the time predicted, which is now considered to be the Francic emperorship. I therefore suppose, with Mr. Faber*, that the fifth vial began to flow in the year 1808, when the Spanish nation arose, and struck directly at the throne of the wild beast, by declaring the government of Buonaparte to be a tyrannical usurpation. But the vial as yet had only commenced its effusion; and, comparatively, the stream was not yet copious. Baffled in Spain, the French armies were still successful in Germany. But the tremendous effects of the vial on the throne of the beast were soon felt in much higher degrees. While the power of imperial France was being humbled by the victories of the Duke of Wellington in the south of Europe, the infatuated Emperor Napoleon penetrated into a mighty empire of the North, in the autumn of 1812; and of the vast armies which he took with him on that occasion, it is said that not a tithe returned to tell the tale of destruction. Leaving a hostile population and vast armies in his rear, he entered Russia, and quickly arrived at Moscow, the ancient capital of that empire. This rash expedition was the immediate prelude of the rapid decline of his own empire; and from this period the vial continued to flow in

* It will be seen that, in respect to the fourth and fifth vials, I have adopted the sentiments, and made a frequent use of the language, of this respectable and learned writer.

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copious streams, till it effected its final dissolution in the year 1815. About the end of October, in the year first mentioned, Napoleon was compelled to abandon Moscow, and had to encounter famine and a Russian winter, with a powerful and enraged army in his rear. The event is well known. Nearly the whole of his army either perished by famine, or by that frost and ice of the Almighty before which none can stand; or were destroyed by the cannon, the musket, the spear, or the sword. The road from Moscow to the Vistula was covered by the wrecks of the army which had been the terror of Europe. It was filled with carriages and implements of war. The bodies of horses and men lay frozen together in large heaps. The whole scene exhibited the most striking representation of the destruction of Pharaoh and the Egyptians that has ever occurred since that tremendous event, when" the right hand of the Lord dashed "in pieces the enemy, and cast the horse and his "rider into the sea."-The year after the Russian destruction, the Emperor sustained a complete defeat in the dreadful battle of Leipsic, which was accompanied with the loss of the whole of Germany, and his disgraceful flight across the Rhine. In the year 1814, the allies occupied Paris; and as the characteristic mark of the fifth vial is, that it should be poured out upon the throne of the beast, it seems in this particular to have been exactly fulfilled. The allied sovereigns refused to treat with the vanquished Emperor or any of his family, and commanded the French senate to call another prince to the throne. Their mandate was obeyed. Napoleon was compelled to abdicate, and the ancient dynasty was restored. The fallen Emperor was banished to Elba, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea. His title, however, was recognised, and he was invested with the sovereignty of that island. Early in the year 1815, the Emperor (for such was still his title), with a handful of fol lowers, landed on the southern coast of France,

rapidly flew to the capital, and expelled the tottering dynasty of the Bourbons. The vial, however, still continued to flow; and let it be observed, that its peculiar character, as has been before stated, is an attack upon the throne of the beast. When the allies therefore engaged in their final war with Napoleon, they declared that their principle remained the same as in the preceding year, namely, that they fought exclusively against his throne. The event of this contest will never be forgotten. On the 18th of June, A. D. 1815, this head of the Roman empire received his predicted deadly wound by the sword. This will be more particularly illustrated, when we proceed to consider the description of the beast as given in the next chapter. By these repeated and successful attacks upon the throne of the beast, his kingdom has been from time to time filled with darkness, and his adherents have gnawed their tongues for pain. The darkness and the pain seems still to remain in some degree, and therefore the contents of the vial are probably not yet exhausted. The beast, though at present headless, is again to be restored to life under the eighth head, and the vial will again be poured upon his throne till it be completely emptied, and the beast with the false prophet go into final perdition. The fifth vial, therefore, may continue to flow after the sixth, which is evidently future, has commenced its effusion.

How tremendously dreadful and afflicting will those calamities be which the Almighty will sooner or later inflict upon all his enemies! They will be more distressing than the most scorching heat of the sun, which, like fire, burns up all before it; and more doleful than the thickest midnight darkness, accompanied with more awful horrors than those which attended that plague of darkness in which the Egyptians, by the righteous judgment of God, were immerged! But such is the deep depravity of the human heart, that no miseries will lead men to re

pentance, without the exercise of special grace. They hear of his awful judgments, and sometimes see and feel them; nevertheless still continue impenitent and unrenewed. Even when gnawing their tongues with pain and anguish, if left to themselves, they will blaspheme the God of heaven, and utter their rage and malice against him. The infernal regions resound with these horrible blasphemies. It is in vain, therefore, to expect that purgatory, or hell fire, will ever bring men to glorify God by true repentance, or in any sense purge away their sins. May sinners, therefore, now seek repentance from Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit; lest they should hereafter suffer the anguish and horror of an unhumbled and impenitent heart, burning with enmity against God, even while tortured with the fire of his indignation. Alas! " who can dwell with "everlasting burnings?" Who does not fear "the worm that dieth not, and the fire that shall never "be quenched?" "Let the wicked then forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and "let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

SECTION XIII.

The Effusion of the sixth and seventh Vials.

Chap. xvi. 12-21.

the

AND the sixth angel poured out his vial upon great river Euphrates: and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. 13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the

false prophet. 14. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

It is generally admitted by most of the expositors of this book, that the events predicted by the effusion of the sixth and seventh vials are yet future. Various interpretations have been given of these vials by different writers. It is not, however, my intention to obtrude mere conjectures upon my readers; I shall, therefore, only offer a brief outline of what appears to be most probably implied by the predictions of these two remaining vials. An outline, indeed, is all that can be given with any certainty of an unfulfilled prophecy. It cannot be filled up previously to its accomplishment. The satisfaction, therefore, of completely understanding unaccomplished prophecies in all their circumstances, must be bequeathed to those who live subsequently to the period of their fulfilment. But although the prophecies of Scripture were never intended to make us prophets, yet they are frequently sufficiently clear to afford at least a sketch of the subjects to which they refer. The sixth vial appears to predict the total overthrow of the Turkish power, represented by the drying up of the waters of Euphrates; and the preparation for the overthrow of the ten-horned beast, the Latin empire, and of the two-horned beast, or papal Antichrist, which is here fitly styled the false prophet.

With regard to the first part of the prophecy, the complete exhaustion or destruction of the Turkish empire, which originally rose from the banks of the Euphrates, seems to be evidently intended. The sixth trumpet predicted the rise of the Turkish power by the four angels, who were loosed from that river,