sea, there comes "blood as of a dead man, and every living soul dies in the sea." This also is capable of a multiplicity of explanations, and has received them in abundance. 66 The third vial, on the rivers and fountains of water, produces, still more generally, blood," blood, as the sacred comment in the three following verses supplies, blood to drink," as a just retribution for the blood of saints poured out by their persecutors. This retaliation, of blood for blood, is very explicit, and may throw light on the preceding vial, but it is still vague and indefinite in point of time, and therefore liable to many constructions, not one of which perhaps may be the true one. The fourth vial is poured out on the sun, and the effect is, that the men are scorched with great heat, which produceth in them blasphemy against the name of God, but no repentance. And here again the symbol of the burning heat admits of various explanations to be drawn from scripture; and many instances may be pointed out in the history, of nations suffering great afflictions under the divine judgments, and still continuing blasphemous and unrepentant. From the latitude permitted in the interpretation of the four first vials, it has necessarily followed that the attempts to discover the fulfilment of the predictions have been numerous and discordant. Vitringa has given us an account of those prevalent in Germany and upon the Continent, and, after rejecting them all, has set up others of his own imagination nearly as objectionable. Among our own able commentators of the two last centuries, the same va riety and disagreement prevail. In our own age events have occurred, which have given rise to a new system of interpretation. Numerous attempts have been made to show that the vials are fulfilled in the newly acquired history of the French Revolution and its consequences; but the judicious peruser of these will perhaps think, that the success has not answered to the ardour of discovery. There is, in fact, the same variety and discordance of interpretation, as prevailed among the elder commentators. They accumulate upon the symbols of the four first vials-so simple and so general-more weight of particular interpretation than they can bear. This I esteem to have been a fault common to nearly all the commentators upon this part of the Apocalypse. These symbols ought not to be forced beyond their acknowledged and obvious character of simplicity, and should be considered as requiring an explanation of a general character only. instance, since in chapter xiv. v. 7, the Almighty God is represented to be the proper object of fear and worship, as having "created the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters;" and as these (with the exception only of the sun instead of the heaven-an important part of the whole-) are the objects of the four vials, may we not conclude that every part of the bestial dominion is to suffer under these inflictions, instead of confining our views to exclusive portions of history, arbitrarily assumed? 2 For This general assurance from sacred prophecy, of the commencing, and continued, and universal punishment of the followers of antichrist, must have been a source of cordial comfort to the faithful and 1 Mede, Durham, Daubuz, Lowman, Newton, Pyle. suffering Christians; and may perhaps have been principally designed for that purpose. If the first vials are to receive a more definite and particular fulfilment, the progress of time will discover. THE FIFTH VIAL. WE now come to the three last vials; and as these stand opposed to the three last trumpets, they may be expected in like manner to open into a larger field of historical events, and to admit of a more particular explanation: but, at the same time it must be considered, that the farther we advance in the prophetical narration, the more is our path enveloped in the darkening mists of futurity. The fifth vial is poured upon the seat or throne of the beast; and the effect produced is that his kingdom becomes darkened, (EσKOTтwμεvn,) and the darkness, as in the similar plague of Egypt, was "darkness to be felt," (Exod. x. 21.); for it brings grievous sufferings upon the subjects, or slaves of the beast, who writhe in torment, blaspheme God, and continue unrepentant, as in the preceding vial. This is a mighty blow (Anyn) upon a monarch, striking upon his seat of power and splendour, at the same time, that it extends misery and torment throughout his dominions. But is this darkness to be taken in a literal sense, like that of Egypt, of which it is said, that "they saw not one another?" or, according to that spiritual sense generally attached to these prophecies? The spiritual sense is certainly to be preferred. At the same time it will be well for us to observe, that these predictions under the vials, retaliate upon the antichristians temporal injuries inflicted by them upon the servants of Christ. Now, what is darkness, but the absence or deprivation of light? And of what nature is the light to which the Christian Scriptures metaphorically and continually refer? Is it not the glorious light of the gospel, opposed to heathen and antichristian darkness? The superiority of Christian nations, more particularly those of the reformed religion, to those who " walk in darkness and the shadow of death,' ,"2 is exemplified in all history, and in proportion to the purity of that religion. We may therefore conclude, that in a general sense, this prediction has been fulfilled, and is still fulfilling, by the infliction of many evils upon the followers of the beast, from which the faithful servants of Christ have been and are exempted. But, before we proceed further to enquire after any special fulfilment, it may be necessary to determine more particularly the object on which the vial immediately falls. It is, THE THRONE OF THE BEAST. The throne, together with the great power and authority attached to it, was given to the first beast by the great dragon, that old (ancient) serpent, called the Devil and Satan, (εδωκεν αυτῳ την δυναμιν αυτού, και τον θρόνον αυτου, και εξουσίαν μεγαλην.—Ch. xiii. 2 ; xii. 9.) It is therefore the seat of diabolical artifice and antichristian iniquity, and wheresoever these are arrayed against the kingdom of Christ, there is to be seen a portion of the kingdom of the beast, ( Baotλɛa avтov, v. 10.); and commensurate with his power 1 This is so perfectly displayed in the prophecies of the Old, and the writings of the New Testament, most peculiarly so in those of St. John, that it may seem needless to quote from them in support of this assertion. Is. ix. 2; Matt. iv. 15, 16. and authority, is his throne and sceptre. It is difficult therefore to fix upon any local and permanent station for the throne of this tyrannical power, which extends "over all kindreds, (tribes,) and tongues, (languages,) and nations, so that all who dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life." (Ch. xiii. 8.)1 At some eras of the world, and in some particular places, the spirit and power of tyranny, cruelty and oppression, have been peculiarly predominant. Such may be exemplified in the four successive monarchies foretold by the prophet Daniel, in each of which, during their continuance, the beast may be said to have placed his throne.2 Each in his turn subdued, oppressed, and persecuted the people of God, but more ferociously than all was the fourth or Roman empire distinguished by its tyrannical persecutions of the holy, innocent, persevering martyrs of the Christian. Church. (Dan. vii.) At this period, a throne or seat of the beast is plainly discoverable at Rome, the seat of empire, from which the bloody edicts were issued. But this is not that period of the beast which is comprised in the Apocalypse. In these prophecies, he does not appear before he had received his wound, apparently mortal, inflicted upon him by Constantine, in his protection of the Christians, nor for some centuries afterwards, when by the grievous degeneracy of the Christian ministers, his wound was healed. The time during which we are to look for the throne of the apocalyptic beast, 1 I have felt myself tempted to say, that his throne is some imaginary elevated point, from which, by his ministers' assistance, he may survey, and utter his decrees, in every part of his dominions; something analogous to what is presented in the last vial, regions of the air; but we must not go beyond the symbols which are before us. In Eph. ii. v. 2, the arch fiend is styled by St. Paul, "the Prince of the Power of the Air." 2 His relation to them may be seen in ch. xiii. 2. |