and final redemption. But as it has been the unvaried method of the prophet, before he enters upon the detail of the events of a new period or fubject, to take a fummary view of its prominent features in his proem; fo here he briefly recites, or rather alludes to, the great events of the third woe, or of the "feven "vials of the wrath of God;" and then gives a more minute description of them in the next fix chapters.

This fummary of the moft awful part of the whole of his prophetic hiftory, he begins with a defcription, inimitably fublime, of Chrift the "Lamb of God, "ftanding upon Mount Sion with a hoft of faints," the "firft-fruits unto God and to the Lamb," rejoicing at the bleffed profpect before them, and ready to attend him in the execution of his Father's will. He farther reprefents the righteous Judge of the whole world as mercifully forewarning, by an angel, "all them that dwell on the earth," that is, all them that live in difobedience and fin, to fear "God and give him the glory," and commanding them, at their peril, to worship Him that made "heaven, and earth, and the fea, and fountains of "waters;" and at the fame time apprifing them, that "the hour of his judgment is come." By another angel, in order to prevail on them, if poffible, to return to their God, against whom they had wantonly rebelled, and to avoid the impending perdition, they are affured, that the awful and irrevocable decree, configning BABYLON THE GREAT, that most powerful and formidable confederacy against God and his Chrift, to everlafting deftruction, is already past: "for," fays the angel, "Babylon is fallen! is "fallen! that great city! becaufe fhe made all na

+ Ver. 6, 7.

* Ver. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. See chap. xvii. 5, et per totum, where it is defcribed at large; xviii. 2. and xix. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, where its destruction is foretold,

"tions drink of the wine of the wrath of her for"nication." A third angel, in a more efpecial manner, denounces the dreadful and never-ending torment of all thofe who fhall embrace the doctrine of atheism; a doctrine which" denies both the "Father and the Son ;" and which amounts to nothing less than "the fin against the Holy Ghost, "which fhall never be forgiven §." For this angel declares, with a loud voice, that " if any man shall "worship the beaft and his image, and receive his "mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall "drink of the wine (the effence or fpirit) of the "wrath of God, which is poured out without mix"ture into the cup of his indignation; and he fhall "be tormented with fire and brimftone in the pre"fence of the holy angels and in the prefence of "the Lamb: and the fmoke of their torment af "cendeth up for ever and ever. for ever and ever. And they have no "reft day nor night, who worship the beast and his "image, and whofoever receiveth the mark of his

"

name." This beaft is before defcribed by the very characteristic marks here mentioned ¶, as a power that fhall make an image, and compel the people to worship it, and as having adopted national marks, and obliged the people to wear them; and therefore it is evident he refers to it in the text. This power I have proved, beyond a doubt, is atheiftical France **.

Chrift with his faints, thus prepared, is represented as receiving, by feveral angels, the inftructions and orders of his Almighty Father, to fuperintend the pouring out the "third woe, or the feven vials containing the feven laft plagues of the wrath of

* Chap. xvii. 2. xviii. 3.

‡i John, ii. 22.

|| Ver. 9, 10, 11.

** See antea, ch. iii.

+ Ver. 8.

§ Luke, xii. 10. Chap. xiii. 14, 15, 16, 17.

P 2

"God"

"God" upon the impious and ungodly oppofers of his holy word. He is called "one like unto the "Son of man," not, the real Son of man; to denote, that although he is the Son of the ever-living God, yet he thall come either in, or in the appearance and fimilitude of the fame body in which he was crucified. In the fame words he is before defcribed by the prophet *, and also by Daniel, where he predicts the very event here in part alluded to, namely, his appearing before his Father, and receiving "his dominion and glory," and a kingdom which fhall not be deftroyed, an everlafting kingdom, "in which all dominions fhall ferve and obey him.' And he has " upon his head a golden crown," to imply, that as gold is the moft pure and precious of all metals, fo the light and truth of his Gofpel, the revealed word of God, are the most perfect and excellent of all things; and therefore that he wears it as a crown upon his head, the moft exalted part of his body, as an emblem of his righteous power and glorious triumph over the wicked who have oppofed his Gofpel, and rejected it with contempt. He has alfo "in his hand a sharp fickle;" an inftrument of deftruction, a fymbol of the commiflion he was about to receive. This commiffion, delivered to him by "an angel," who came out of the temple," that is, from God himself, is "thruft in thy fickle and "reap," cut down, and deftroy; and the reason affigned is, "for the time is come for thee to reap:" meaning, as I humbly apprehend, that it is "time

for thee to ftop the progrefs of the wicked, left "they fhould prevent my holy purpofe in fending

*Rev. i. 1

13.

+ Dan. vii. 13, 14. 27.

So the church is reprefented, by the allegory of a woman clothed with the fun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve ftars; to denote her triumph over the heathen world in the fourth century, through the labours of the twelve apoitles. Rev. xii. 1.

"thee

thee to fuffer an ignominious death; and the bleffed effects of all thy labours; for they have "reached fuch a daring height of fin, as not only "to reduce thy power, but even to defy my omnipotence, and deny my existence; and therefore begin to reap, to cut them off and deftroy them." And we are told, by the prophet, that Chrift did thruft in his fickle on the earth, and the earth (the ungodly) was reaped, "was cut off and deftroyed*." Here the prophet, by the word earth, alludes to those dreadful judgments which we have lately feen poured down upon France, Germany, and Italy, and that which is to fall on the Othman empire; judgments upon the particulars of which the prophet enlarges in the fixteenth chapter, under the fymbols of the firft "fix vials;" as I fhall have occafion to prove in a future comment upon them.

Having thus briefly alluded to the deftruction of the wicked, in the course of the events of the first fix vials, the prophet gives us the great outlines of the feventh and laft: for he fays, "Another angel "came out of the temple, which is in heaven, he alfo having a fharp fickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over હર્દ fire." Upon cönfidering thefe verfes, feveral obfervations naturally occur. The three firft angels

mentioned in this chapter, were to be the meffengers of Chrift, fent in the courfe of his office to admonish and reform mankind, and to announce the judgments of his Father upon the refractory and obftinate finner, as we have already feen; but the three following angels mentioned in it, are faid to come out of the temple, and one of them from the altar, to inform us they were vefted with authority. from God himself: for it is in his temple which is in heaven, that the spirit, the prefence, the power

99

and glory of God are fuppofed to refide. One of the angels had also a sharp fickle (the emblem of a fierce and dreadful deftruction), to fhow that he was fent from God prepared to cut off the ungodly, as foon as he fhould receive the awful command; a bufinefs not within the original commiffion of Chrift, which was the falvation, and not the perdition, of man. The fecond angel comes from the altar, the place whence the juftice and mercy of God are administered in the courfe of his all-righteous providence; and he had "power over fire;" over the most destructive of all the elements, over that very element by which the world itself fhall be burnt up" and destroyed at the last trump * Clothed with this power, he is fent to the first angel, and commands him, with a loud voice, to "thrust in "his fharp fickle, and gather the clusters of the "vine of the earth, for her grapes (her wild, or "four grapes, or wickedness) are fully ripe." And it is faid, that the angel did" thruft in his fickle "into the earth, and gathered," not the clufters only, but the vine" itself, "of the earth, with "the clusters upon it;" evidently alluding by the vine to the kingdom of Satan. For, as the vine is the parent and the nourisher of the grapes, fo Satan is the author, propagator, and power that. brings all manner of fin to its utmoft maturity. Into this kingdom then, or, as St. Paul describes it, into the kingdom of "the prince of the power of "the air, the fpirit that worketh in the children of

2 Pet. iii. 1o. Ifaiah, li. 6. Matt. xxiv. 3. 36. Rev.xx. Ibid. xxi. 1.

The reader is requested to turn to the beautiful parable of the vineyard which brought forth wild grapes, to be found in Ifaiah, v. 1, 2, 3, 4; to the vine of Sodom, and the bitter clufters and grapes of Gomorrah, Deut. xxxii. 32, 33; and to the four grapes mentioned by Ezekiel, xviii. 2 and he will find that thefe paffages clearly fupport my construction.