their contents on the man of sin. The fifth was now discharged on his seat (throne), and filled his kingdom with darkness. This was commenced in the bursting forth of that system of infidelity, which was forged in the furnace of papal corruptions, formed by Voltaire and his group of infidel philosophers; which system gloried in setting aside the Bible, and the God of the Bible;-and which managed and gloried in the revolution in France; and for 25 years filled Europe with blood and terror. The chronology of that event; its accordance with the figure in our text; and its accordance with the synchronical predictions of the same event;-go to evince, with unusual certainty, that it was in accomplishment of the fifth vial. Most fully does it agree with the figure of this vial; with the descent of Jesus Christ in Rev. x.; with his descent in chap. xviii. (both of which give the same event in different general divisions of the prophetic part of the book); with the dragon casting his floods from his mouth, to cause the church to be carried away; and with a prediction which we find in Zeph. iii. of the same event,—a cutting off of the nations, which was to take place just antecedent to, and distinct from the battle of the great day of God which opens the Millennium, as there follows. This bursting of the system of atheism upon France and the world, at that time, opened indeed a new era in the affairs of man, as the little open book in the hands of the Angel of the covenant, in Rev. x. testifies; and as the description of the same, in Dan. xi. 36, to the end; and the rising of the beast from the bottomless pit, Rev. xvii, testify.

The pope had ever hoped to restore and heal his wounded system, till that revolution in France: but his hopes were then dashed out for a time in the blackest night. "And his kingdom was full of darkness," says our text; "and they gnawed their tongues for pain." Until that period, the pope had a kingdom; after that he had none. His dominions in Italy were alienated and overturned. His authority was annihilated; and the Christian religion, in all his dominions, impiously abolished; the person of the pope seized,-exiled from his royal city; and he restricted to a pension which was given him from the iron hand of a military despotism. What could amount, if this did not, to the event in our text,-the pouring of a vial of wrath on his throne, and filling his kingdom with darkness? Contemplate his throne in past times; and compare it with what it then became; and you cannot have

a rational doubt but the event of this vial of wrath on his throne was then fulfilled. How very* great was the contrast between the power of the pope in past ages; and his state after the French revolution. Detailed accounts of that revolution cannot here be given. Some sketches of it have been given in Lecture 16; and may also be found in chap. xvii. giving the beast from the bottomless pit. The tremendous event, to which allusion is here made, must have been one of the vials of the last plagues. Of this there is so great a moral certainty, that I shall take it as granted. Any person who would dispute it, would dispute any event of the Revelation, or prophecy: and with such a character I never wish to contend. The question then is, which of the vials there received its fulfilment? Could it have been the first? This has been found in another and antecedent event; and the first could not have been so late an event among the steps of the downfall of popery. The second too, and the third, and fourth, have been found in antecedent events. Could it have been the

*To aid you in making this comparison, glance your eye over the insolent claims of the pope, in the dark ages. The annals of many centuries assure us of the more than royal magnificence claimed by the man of sin, and given him by the nations. Take the following. In the ninth century, Pope John VIII. denounced excommunication to all kings, who should not submit to his power. Leo IX. declared it "exceedingly base that those whom God had set over the heavenly empire, should be subject to any earthly one." Gregory VII. excommunicated Henry IV., taking from him the imperial crown of Germany and Italy, and giving it to a favorite. A pope, in 1080, reasoned before a council in Rome thus, "He that could bind and loose in heaven, can on earth give and take away kingdoms and empires, and whatever mortals have." In the excommunication of an emperor, the pope said, "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I depose thee from imperial and royal administration." And his form of excommunication absolved all Christian subjects of the emperor from every oath of allegiance to their king. Gregory VII. declared that he was the "rightful sovereign of the universe; as well civil, as ecclesiastical." The popes claimed the right of conferring the imperial crown. Innocent, in the 13th century, taught that the difference between popes and kings was like that between the sun and moon. He seated on their thrones the kings of Bohemia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Arragon in one century. He crowned the emperor Otho IV., and then deposed him, to make way for Frederick II. In Britain the same papal prerogative was for some time maintained. Boniface VIII. declared himself to be "king of kings, monarch of monarchs, and sole lord both in spiritual and in temporal things." I might fill pages with such claims of the pope, to be the maker and unmaker of emperors and kings!-claiming to be styled, "our lord god the pope! '—"another god upon earth." He has literally kicked the crown from the king's head, and treated kings with the greatest contempt, merely to evince his vast superiority to them.

sixth? This is manifestly pouring on another power, and is bringing down the Turks. Could it have been the seventh? This is to be an event subsequent to the restoration of the Jews; and is now manifestly future. It must then have been the fifth. And with the time and description of this, it most clearly accords.

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One more argument shall be adduced to evince that it is the fifth vial. This is found in the analogies between the trumpets and the vials, though they belong to the two different great divisions of this book. The first trumpet opens a new series of judgments on the Roman "earth;" and upon the same "earth" is discharged the first vial. The second trumpet affects the Roman " sea;" and the second vial is poured upon the Roman "sea. The third trumpet affects the "rivers and fountains of water;" and the third vial is poured upon the "rivers and fountains of water. The fourth trumpet affects the sun on the Roman earth; and thus does the fourth vial. Pass for the present the fifth of each series. The sixth trumpet affects the "river Euphrates;" and the sixth vial has its commission on the same river. And the seventh trumpet and vial meet in the same event, as has been shown, and will further appear. Examine, then, the fifth trumpet and vial, and see whether any analogy is here found, viewing the revolution of 1789 as the opening of the fifth vial. The imagery of the fifth trumpet is a darkening of the world with the smoke of Mohammedism. And the imagery of the fifth vial is a darkening of the papal world with a calamity no less fatal. The smoke of the fifth trumpet is from the bottomless pit: and the darkness of the fifth vial is the atheism of the blasphemous beast from the bottomless pit. From that smoke of the trumpet came swarms of horrid locusts, who had a king or leader, Apollyon, a destroyer, who revolutionized and destroyed many millions of the human family, in defiance of all law, human or divine. And those locusts, upon entering France with an army of 400,000 men (thus exceeding their providential commission), were met by Charles Martel, and driven from that nation with the loss of seven-eighths of that vast army. And the fifth vial, after unlocking the bottomless pit, and letting out the world of darkening atheism and blasphemy, furnished its armies to spread its terrors, no less than did the smoke of the fifth trumpet its armies of locusts. By this smoke from the bottomless pit, the sun of civil governments on the papal earth was turned to darkness indeed,

as was long predicted, Joel ii. 31. And the civilized world was darkened with this infernal smoke of atheism. The fifth trumpet had its delusion propagated with fire and sword. And the fifth vial presented no less terrible armies for a similar purpose. And the latter had a leader who was likewise a destroyer. Napoleon was indeed a destroyer, as well as the Apollyon of the fifth trumpet. And Napoleon, overleaping the bounds of his providential commission, with an army of 400,000 men, was totally defeated, and it is thought at least seven-eighths of this vast army perished! Thus perfect is the analogy also between the fifth trumpet and fifth vial, viewing it as having been fulfilled in that event; far more perfect than that between any other trumpet and its corresponding vial, if we except the seventh, which both give the same event.

That tremendous vial commenced in 1789; and for 25 years its seven thunders roared most terrific, and its period continued till the defeat of Bonaparte at Waterloo, when that dynasty sank, and its vial of wrath closed. A first and most signal leader of the beast from the bottomless pit had then finished his work. In the first imperial reign of the secular Roman beast, the beast depended on no one emperor. Twenty emperors reigned in the space of sixty years; but the beast was the same, though subject to reverses, till he fell, under the reign of Constantine. And this system of infidelity is to continue, sometimes in, and sometimes out of sight, till it goes into perdition in the battle of the great day under the seventh vial, as will be shown.

The papal nations, our text informs, "gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed God because of their pains and repented not of their deeds." This wailing and anguish is given also in Rev. xviii., which describes the same event with the fifth vial. There can be no doubt of these papal wailings; and it is most manifest that their calamities led them not to repentance. The papal multitudes seem to be fully insulated from this blessing,-given up to strong delusion to believe a lie;" and all their religion, -being but an image of paganism,-issuing in practical and real infidelity and ruin! This hint of the same thing is strikingly given in Zeph. iii. 6, 7, which please to read, in connexion with verses 8, 9. We have there the same judgment, and attended with the same impenitence.

One argument more from analogy shall close this lecture. It is an old remark of writers, that the imagery of some at

least of the vials, is borrowed from the plagues of ancient Egypt. That the last vial was typified by the last plague on Egypt, is evident from the word of God, in that the song of praise occasioned by the last vial, is called "the song of Moses and of the Lamb!" The last plague but one (the death of the first-born) set the chosen tribes out, at once, for the promised land. And the last vial but one subverts the Turks, and prepares the way for the recovery of the same ancient people of God. What shall we say, then, of the last plague and vial but two! That plague filled the realm of Egypt with darkness. And the last vial but two (the fifth) filled the kingdom of the papal man of sin with darkness: so the vial assures; and so the event stated as the fulfilment of it, assures us. The papal system did indeed experience, at that time, what may be viewed as answering well to the gross darkness in the realm of the Egyptians.

But it is happy to reflect that the tribes of Israel had, in all their dwellings, light; while the Egyptians had darkness which might be felt. And the true Israel of God, during the horrors of the French revolution, and the judgments which followed, had indeed the light of salvation among them; light to see clearly the abominations of the infidelity in which the beast from the bottomless pit gloried; light to enjoy their gospel ordinances; the light of the showers of the Spirit of Grace; and the light of the flying of the angel of missions through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. Yes, and blessed be God, they had the light of the cloud of the divine presence, directing and illumining their way, and distilling upon them the gentle rain of grace; while the same cloud of Providence flung darkness upon the enemy;-thundering, as it were, with hailstones, and coals of fire; taking off their chariot wheels, and causing them to drag heavily!-a sure earnest that the sea of wrath shall, by-and-by, return upon them, and plunge them in inevitable perdition. "O Israel, trust in the Lord; he is thy help and thy shield."