The Vial is poured out upon the air, the kingdom of Satan.* Its effect is final. The voice from the throne declares the completeness of the plague. The mystery is finished. "It is done." The visions of "Babylon" which follow,t are but an enlargement and explanation of the manner and subjects of the last plague. They detail the nature, crimes and punishment of the papacy. Their connexion with the prophecy of the Vials is expressly marked by their being shown by one of the angels commissioned to inflict those plagues. But their importance requires that they should be considered apart, and after the "Vision of the Church," which assists in their interpretation. On a general view of the Seals, Trumpets and Vials, it is observable, that the Seals are contemporaneous with the two latter from their commencement in the thirteenth century. Both æras of the Church succeed a great persecution, but the Trumpets and Vials, being the prophecy of the punishments of the persecutors, close with the universal war, the final plague; the Seals, being the entire history of the Church, proceed one step beyond, and give its triumph. The Trumpets and Vials are virtually the History of the Reformed; for the punishments of the persecutors were the preservation of the Reformed. If the popish sovereigns had retained their power undisturbed, nothing but a succession of direct miracles could have saved the Church. But every plague of the seven was as a shield to the Protestants. The first, the factions of Italy, and the English invasions of France, so deeply drew off the eye of persecution, that Protestantism in France increased to the strength that afterwards resisted the League, and established itself as * Eph. ii. 2. † Apoc. xvii. xviii. xix. + Apoc. xvii. 1. a religion by the edict of Nantes. The second, the destruction of the Armada, at once saved England from an invasion, whose success must have issued in the fiercest persecution; and enabled Elizabeth to give her undivided assistance to the struggling Protestants of the continent. The importance of the third, the war of the Cevennes, is less obvious, but it seems to have protected the remaining million of French protestants from the fury of the king. The fourth, the wars of Louis the XIVth protected the Protestants, while they continued; and his final discomfiture left the monarchy in such a state of weakness, that it dared not provoke a Protestant war with either its own subjects or their powerful protector, England. In the interval Protestantism increased so rapidly, even under all its political disabilities, that in half a century it reckoned nearly as large a number as before the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The fifth and sixth, the French Revolution, while it fell furiously on the chief persecutor, the Gallican church, reinstated Protestantism in its original freedom. The seventh plague will at once extinguish Popery, the head and front of all persecu tion; and place the Church in magnificent triumph beyond all change. THE VISION OF THE CHURCH. This great vision consists of three parts. 1st, the Church under pagan persecution.* 2nd, Under papal persecution.† 3rd, Approaching to its triumph, and avenged.‡ PROPHECY. THE JEWISH CHURCH. Chap. xii. Ver. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. INTERPRETATION. This vision is totally separate from that of the Trumpets which precedes it. A great Sign, or Symbol, is displayed; a new view of providential history is begun. Such expressions as "And I saw," "And Apoc. xii. + Ib. xiii. + Ib. xiv. § Novam hic orditur prophetiam Spiritus Sanctus. (Vitrin.) after this I looked," &c. do not necessarily imply a connexion of subject. Where the connexion really subsists, it is always indicated by some internal evidence. Ver. 1. A city, or an empire, was customarily represented on the ancient coins by a female figure. In the Gospel the Church is similarly described. In the text, she is seen clothed and crowned with the heavenly bodies, the emblems of sovereignty. Her crown is "twelve stars,' " emblematic of the twelve patriarchs or heads of the tribes.** Ver. 2. She is in child-birth and, anxious to bring forth her illustrious offspring. Ver. 3. An adverse power, a religion of evil, Paganism, comes forth to destroy her child as soon as it shall be born. This religion is the visible embodying of the old serpent, Satan. Its form, the Dragon, symbolizes the whole number of the kingdoms, oppressors of the Church in both its states, Jewish and Christian; seven crowned sovereignties, of whom the prophet subsequently declares that the sixth lived at the time of the vision, five being past and one not yet come;† and ten crownless horns, sovereigntiest then non-existing, but to spring from those heads. Ver. 4. The child is brought forth, is felt to be the supreme antagonist, and the evil spirit of the persecuting religion labours first to destroy him, but he is caught up into Heaven, there to remain until he shall come to overwhelm his enemies, "to rule them with a rod of iron,"§ The Dragon's striking down the third part of the stars probably symbolizes the absorption of the chief Pagan religions into the paramount idolatry of Rome; a star being the emblem of a religion, whether pure or impure; and a fall from "Heaven," but another expression for a fall from authority. Gen. xxxvii. 9. †Apoc. xvii. 10. § Psalm xxviii. Dan. vii. 27. PROPHECY, THE ROMAN PERSECUTIONS. Ver. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. 7. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. 8. And prevailed not: neither was there place found any more in heaven. 9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10. And I heard a voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 12. Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. INTERPRETATION. Ver. 6. "The woman flies into the wilderness." From the time of our Lord's ascension, the Church was to be placed in the same situation, in which she was subsequently to be placed during the Papal influence; namely, she was to be persecuted. The common misconception of the text is, that the Church is in this verse declared to undergo a suffering of 1260 years. But the error is easily rectified by comparing the 6th verse with the 14th, which announces the Papal persecution. In the 6th, the Church flees into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that she should be fed 1260 days. In the 14th, she flees "into her place where she is fed 1260 days. The distinction between the ινα τρεφωσιν of the 6th |