Verfes 12th, 16th.-And the fixth 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. And I faw three unclean fpirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beaft, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the fpirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief, blesfed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, left he walk naked, and they fee his fhame. And he gathered them together into a place, called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon.

This fixth vial is to be poured out upon the great river Euphrates. Euphrates is here ufed not. literally but fymbolically, like all the other places upon which all the other vials in this chain of predictions are poured. Euphrates the great, fignifies fomething which bears the fame relation to Babylon the great or Papal Rome which the river Euphrates bore to antient Babylon.

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branch of the Euphrates ran through the antient city of Babylon. After Cyrus had befieged it in vain for near two years, he at last made a lake a Little above the town of Babylon, into which he could turn the river and dry up its channel. While Belshazzar, his nobles, and his foldiers were rioting in the impious feaft mentioned in Daniel chap. v. Cyrus opened a fluice, emptied the Euphrates into the lake, laid its channel dry in the night time, and having separated his army into two divifions, the one entering the town on the one fide, and the other on the other, along the dry channel, furprised the king, his nobles, and his forces rioting in drunkenness; killed the king, took the city, and finally overthrew both the city and kingdom of Babylon. So long as the Euphrates flowed in its ufual channel, Babylon was impregnable, but as foon as that river was dried up, that city was taken and totally destroyed.

By the Euphrates, therefore, we are here to underftand that barrier, be it what it will, which has hitherto rendered Papal Rome impregnable; whether it be that fuperftition, which has hitherto kept the western kings from attacking Rome, or whether it be the Adriatic fea or gulph of Venice which, as a kind of natural barrier, has defended her from the Turks, who live on the east fide of it, or whatever it is, which has hitherto been the defence of Rome. The effect of this vial fhall be

to

to remove that barrier. Superftition shall then no longer make men dread to attack Rome, as they would do to commit facrilege. And the Turks fhall pass over the gulph of Venice. By their skill in navigation, they fhall pass over it, as eafily as if it were dried up.

The drying up of the Euphrates, fignifies that this attack upon Rome like that upon Babylon, when that river was dried up, shall be fatal and final; that the city and empire of Rome shall be overthrown forever, never more to be ranked among the cities and kingdoms of the world. At this time Rome is to be attacked by many powerful enemies; and she is to collect all her own forces and those of her allies, and to make a laft effort for her expiring kingdom; the war is to be violent and bloody, and fhe is to be finally overcome.

The following shall be the parties in that war; on the one fide the Pope with his Italian fubjects, and all the kings in Europe, who fhall be ftill Roman catholic: These will then be very few. And on the other fide probably fome of the proteftant kingdoms of Europe, and certainly the Turks in great numbers.

That these shall be the parties, is evident from the terms of this prediction. The Pope and all the other members of the hierarchy fhall fend emiffaries to collect all their forces and allies to this Thefe emiffaries, are, ftiled three unclean

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fpirits

fpirits like frogs. One of them fhall proceed from the Dragon, that is the Devil. That fiend, feeing his kingdom in this world near its overthrow, fhall exert himself to the utmoft, to blind many with error, fuperftition, and falfe zeal, fo as to make them fight for Rome to the laft. Another of them fhall come out of the mouth of the beaft; every part of the hierarchy fhall exert itself in collecting forces to this war. And the third fhall come out of the mouth of the falfe prophet. The falfe prophet fignifies the Pope individually. This is the first time, that he is called the false prophet, because the iffue of this battle fhall fully prove that he was a falfe prophet when he represented the church of Rome as the true church of God, and himself and that church as infallible. In chap. xix. 20. he is again called the falfe prophet, and he is described in the fame manner as he is defcribed in chap. xiii. 11.—15, as working miracles before the beaft, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beaft, and them that worshipped his image; to fhew us that he is the fame perfon under a different name The Pope too fhall exert himself individually to the utmost of his power, in collecting forces from every quarter. These emiffaries are unclean spirits like frogs. However, zealous for religion, they are, like unclean beafts, unfit for the pure worship of the altar of God. As frogs are amphibious animals,

they

they fhall put on an amphibious character, and addrefs either the temporal or fpiritual interefts of those whom they follicit to the war, which ever of them they shall judge to be most effectual. To men who have no regard to religion, they will fhew as little; but will represent to them how deeply their temporal interefts are engaged in this war. To men blinded by superstition, they will pretend that they despise their temporal concerns; but they call upon them to fight for their religion, and their church. To work the more powerfully upon fuch perfons, they will perform falfe miracles before them. The battle, to which they fhall be gathered is called the battle of that great day of God Almighty. It fhall be that great battle, which he hath predicted; in which he fhall totally overthrow Papal Rome, and fully prove, to the world, his own omnipotence, by the full establishment of his church, and overthrow of all her enemies.

"Behold I come as a thief." In thefe words, it is intimated that however clearly this battle of the great day of the Lord hath been foretold, that, when it actually happens, it fhall come upon the greatest part of men, especially upon the votaries. of Rome, fuddenly and unexpectedly. Not crediting these predictions, or not applying them to themselves, they fhall be furprized and taken at unawares, by the event itself.

VOL. II.

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