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the oracles of GOD-not without bringing to the solemn task (whatever may be my deficiency in other qualifications) the singleness of purpose, and untemporising simplicity of him who-for the edification of king, lords, and commons, in festival assembled -translated THE HANDWRITING ON THE

WALL.

That the visitation typified by the symbols of the fifth trumpet and vial should be terminated by an occurrence of great notoriety appears to be implied by

12. "One woe is past; behold there come two woes more hereafter."

I believe that the sixth trumpet, or second woe, has only begun to sound, and I will therefore not attempt the interpretation of more of the symbols which it comprises than events appear to have already fulfilled

THE SIXTH

TRUMPET-ch. ix. 13. "And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

VIAL-ch. xvi. 12. "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared."

14. "Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates."

All commentators (not within the papal communion) of the apocalypse concur in interpreting the

mystic BABYLON to signify, the church of Rome. Of the accuracy of that interpretation no reasonable doubt can be sustained.-The literal river EUPHRATES ran through the centre of the literal city of BABYLON. The mystic EUPHRATES must therefore pertain to the mystic BABYLON,-or, papal church.

The Babylonian empire was overthrown by CYRUS, the great. His tedious siege of the devoted metropolis was at length crowned with success by the bold expedient of turning the Euphrates away from it. Through the bed of the river, thus drained of its waters, he marched his army, at dead of night, into the heart of the city, and putting Belshazzar, king of Babylon, to death, annexed the Babylonian dominions to the empire of the Medo-Persians, 'the kings of the east,' and liberated God's chosen people from the cruel bondage in which they were held by the Babylonian government. To those memorable events the verses of the text plainly refer.

The four angels bound in the great river Euphrates signify four national church-establishments held in spiritual bondage by the roman see-the loosing of them signifies a relaxation of that bondage-the drying up of the Euphrates signifies that diminution of the papal authority over its vassal churches, which precedes and denotes its final overthrow.

Let us now, then, see whether we can discern four kingdoms of the western empire, having church establishments subject to the roman see, which have (since the termination of the french revolution by the restoration of the Bourbon family to the throne,)

clearly evinced that the papal authority over them is much less than it formerly was. I think we cannot have any difficulty in finding those four kingdoms in France, Spain, Portugal, and Naples.

The total prostration of the church of Rome, and extinction of papal influence in France are too notorious to need the citation of facts to demonstrate them.

Spain, Portugal, and Naples, have all, since the french revolution, been for a short time under popular governments, which have without scruple, or form of consulting the pope, seized considerable portions of monastic property.-The King of Naples now refuses to pay his old feudal tribute to the roman see -the king of Spain has made a law regulating the succession to his throne, and Don Miguel holds the crown of Portugal, in express contempt of the right once claimed by the papacy to dispose of all temporal kingdoms—a right which every one of the four kingdoms, now despising its authority, was wont unreservedly to acknowledge. Excommunications, interdicts, and vatican bulls, have manifestly lost their terrors, even for the most abject of the papal vassals; and, contrasting these things now before our eyes, with the things which our fathers have declared to us that the roman see did in their days and in the old time before them, we are forced to the conclusion that

'Troy's proud walls are nodding to their fall,'

and that though the chains of the four angels, bound in the Euphrates, are not yet broken asunder, they

are nevertheless visibly loosened, and the Euphrates is therewith being dried up, preparatory to the final overthrow of Babylon, and the liberation of God's church from bondage.*

CHAP. X.

1. "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

2. "And he had in his hand a little book open : and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,

3. "And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.

4. "And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.

5. "And the angel which I saw stand upon

upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,

the sea

* And hark! the voice has thundered; and the word,
Borne on the blast, a trembling world has heard
In consummation dread!—the bonds of Rome
Are burst, and Babylon's prophetic doom,
With more than mortal ruin headlong cast,

Proclaims the measure full: she groans her last!

and

So sung the author of The pursuits of Literature' (third dialogue, A. D. 1796) concerning the french revolution and its consequences to the papal church—he says elsewhere

'Poet and prophet once were deemed the same.'

Was he, in those noble lines just cited, intentionally giving a prophetical interpretation of the sixth trumpet and sixth vial of the apocalypse?

M

6. "And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer :

7. "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. 8. "And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

9. "And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat

it

up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

10. "And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

11. "And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."

I have already observed that the symbols, hitherto expounded, do not exhibit any distinct indication of time or place. The prophet was apprised that the visions, about to be displayed to him, related to

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things which must be hereafter'—but among the shadows which coming events have hitherto, in the course of our inquiry, cast before them, there is nothing calculated to give very explicit answers to the important questions-in what part of the world will those events occur, and what portions of time. will they embrace? I may, therefore, have appeared to have assumed, without sufficient authority, that

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