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famine. All this came out of the mouth of the dragon; it was the spirit of religious bigotry and persecution. But above all, as the means of the most merciless torture, was the holy office, or inquisition. This, too, came out of the mouth. of the dragon.

Another spirit came out of the mouth of the beast. The prophet refers to the two-horned beast; he could not refer to the ten-horned beast, inasmuch as he was the chief of the kings that were led and influenced by those spirits.

The two-horned beast, as has been already shown, was the popedom, in its temporal power, or seeking to obtain the great dominion claimed by Gregory VII.,-the 666 years' reign of Popery over the kings of the earth. This exorbitant demand of the popedom was resisted by some of the kingdoms and acquiesced in by others. The consequence of this disagreement was a resort to arms, the almost invariable and indispensable mode of settling disputes between kings in those days. These wars were instigated by the spirit which came out of the mouth of the two-horned beast.

The third source from whence the unclean spirits arose was the great and powerful order of Jesuits, denominated the false prophet. A prophet implies teacher, as well as one who foretells future events. Religious teachers are frequently styled prophets in scripture phrase. The great influence which this order has exerted over the kings of the earth has been referred to before in the brief notices of what history says respecting them. Their superior learning gave them the education of almost all Europe, and by that, as chief amongst the various means which they employed for the purpose, they bound the nations, hand and head, to the throne or authority of Popery; they imprinted upon the hand and the forehead the indelible mark of submission to the See of Rome. This was all done without the use of arms or any commotion amongst the governments, and in that respect the result looked like the work of a miracle. To the nations that had been accustomed to see great accessions made to the church

by no other means than persecution, in some form or other, this quiet and peaceful method of extending the authority of the Pope, even over countries in a state of semi-barbarism, must have appeared as nothing less than miraculous. But, according to the statements of history, the Jesuits have not failed to resort to what they called miracles, whenever that was found necessary to their success.

Thus, the spirit which came out of the mouth of the false prophet worked miracles before the kings of the earth, and obtained great influence over them.

By these three spirits, acting at different periods upon the governments of Europe, and leading their kings, the world has been kept in a state of war or restless agitation for ages. They go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.

Those spirits are congenial to the tastes and dispositions of the rulers of this world, and hence their influence is successfully employed in leading them on to their own destruction. This event has been gradually progressing ever since the Reformation gave freedom of thought and liberty of speech to the people. But there is a more decisive overthrow awaiting these kings than any that has yet been realized. Important changes and concessions have already been made in the old despotic governments of Europe, from the force of impressions made upon the great public mind by the light of the Protestant religion. The people have embraced its light, and have learned better opinions of religion, as well as juster views of their political rights, and they demand the free enjoyment of both. But what remains of the old and sullen despotism of former times, continues to frown upon the liberal sentiments of the present day, and submits itself to the leading of the unclean spirits, until all will be gathered together into a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. This Hebrew term signifies a place of destruction, and the prophet employs the name of the place to signify the thing itself. These spirits led the kings of the

earth and of the whole world until they were entirely overthrown or destroyed.

The destruction alluded to will be brought about by the superior knowledge the people will derive from the principles and teachings of the Protestant religion. They will learn what are the just rights of men as subjects of government, and that religious freedom is the birth-right of all men. Under this improved and enlightened state of the human mind, men will be no longer deluded by false miracles and corrupt doctrines; their faith will be in God and his word, and not in the pompous ceremonies and the imposing pretensions of fallible, and frequently, very corrupt men.

Under these nobler views of religion and civil government, what could be expected but that the old institutions of bigotry and superstition, and the thrones of despotic governments should be doomed to destruction-should find themselves in Armageddon! All such clusters of human ignorance and cruelty will be thrown into the wine-press of the wrath of God, and will be trodden down by the light and power of the Christian religion.

This is the battle of that great day of God Almighty, spoken of in the fourteenth verse. It is the battle of the pure Christian religion waging an exterminating war against all systems of false religion devised by men; and it is the battle of rational and enlightened liberty against the existence of despotic governments.

The warning contained in the fifteenth verse is given to the nations that walk in the light, and it is intended to put them on their guard against any relaxation of their effort or vigilence, as they know not the means which these unclean spirits will employ against them. It amounts to this: that the Protestant powers are not to relax their efforts to spread the true gospel religion, and suffer themselves to be lulled into supineness by the altered tone and conciliatory manner of their old adversary. They are not to allow the enemy, although he presents himself in a subdued manner, to enter

their camp and have the freest access to all their defences, lest he may deceive and overcome them.

Keeping one's garments about him, implies that the man is on his guard, and will not be surprised by the insidious measures of his foe, and thereby expose himself to the ridicule of others.

The garment is the covering and defence of the body, and is used here as a metaphor to signify the faith, prayer and works of righteousness, which are the strength of the church, without these, the shame of her nakedness would appear.

THE SEVENTH VIAL.

17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

18. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men came upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

20. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found

21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plagues of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

This vial differs from all the others, in this respect, it is poured out into the air. We are to infer from this, that its effects will be universal, and for the most part incomprehensible in their origin, and various as to the portions of the earth, or countries that will be affected by them. When I say they will be universal, I mean not that they will exist in

all parts of the earth at one time, but that they will be experienced in different portions of the earth at different times. Two peculiarities are suggested by the text: first the diffusiveness of this vial; and, secondly, the mysterious nature of its operation.

Of the air, or atmosphere that surrounds the earth we know nothing, but by its effects. We hear the sound thereof but cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. When the unchained tempest roars against the mountain and uproots its sturdiest trees; or sweeps over the sea, scattering whole navies before it; man hides himself, and trembles in the consciousness of his own weakness. These storms frequently break out suddenly, and rage with great violence within a limited space, while the sea and the land in all other directions, are perfectly calm. We cannot see the wind, we can only feel it in its effects.

It is a universal and mysterious element which gives no account of itself to man, and disdains his authority.

The prophet groups under several distinct heads, the different forms in which the plagues of this vial will appear. There were voices, and thunder, and lightnings-these are the standing metaphors of disorder and political commotion all through the Apocalypse, and they will continue under the seventh vial, with effects exceeding any other age of the world.

A great earthquake will be another prominent feature of that time; of a character so mighty, so extraordinary, as had never been known since men were upon the earth. As a grand effect of this earthquake, the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.

Both in the Jewish and the Christian Scripture, the church is spoken of under the metaphor of a city; and I do not know that the same figure is anywhere employed to express civil government. In the eleventh chapter, eighth verse, there is a great city spoken of, in the streets of which that notable outrage was committed upon the two witnesses.

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