vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the waters thereof were dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared.

This great river Euphrates was in the land of Canaan, where those four angels were bound, as I shewed before. And as those four angels were loosed at the sounding of the trumpet of the sixth angel, so at the pouring out of the sixth vial this great river Euphrates must be dryed up.

Now this great river Euphrates, it signifies all the rivers and fountains of waters in the whole world, in the natural. That is to say, at the end of the world God will pour out his vial of wrath upon all rivers and fountains of waters, so that they shall be dryed up, so that the thirst of man and beast shall not be quenched, this will God do in the natural.

Also God will pour out his vial of wrath upon the spiritual estate of man, even upon the great spiritual river Euphrates; that is, upon all the souls and consciences of wicked, idolatrous, persecuting men and women all the world over. That is, the waters of their souls shall be dryed up, so that no motion of peace shall arise, or spring from their souls, to quench the thirst of sin then, no more than there did to Dives the rich man, who being in hell, wanted one drop of cold water to cool his tongue. But the river of his soul that did run with motions of peace in his natural life, it was now dryed up, so that no drop of cold water could be had. That is, not one motion of peace, or hope could arise in his spirit, it being dryed up by the wrath of God, being poured upon the river of his soul.

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So that the souls or spirits of all wicked, persecuting, idolatrous people all the world over, may be called in the spiritual the great river Euphrates, and the vial of God's wrath being poured out upon the spirits of those people aforesaid, it doth dry up all the waters of their souls; that is, all their peace, so that no hope of eternal happiness can arise in them; for all hope is dryed up, so that there is no motion of peace can arise in their souls, to quench the fire of hell in them, for all the waters are dryed up in their souls, and this is that great spiritual river Euphrates, spoken of by John, whose waters thereof are dryed up; for the peace of the mind of man, is called in scriptures, water, as Christ saith, He that believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; so likewise Christ said to the woman of Samaria, if thou hadst asked me, I would have given thee water of life, and it should be in thee a well springing up unto eternal life.

So that there are spiritual waters that do spring out of the soul of man, as there are natural waters that do spring out of the earth, or out of the rocks. And these spiritual waters do satisfy the spirit of man in its kind, as the natural waters do in its kind. And as there is a spiritual water that doth proceed from the seed of faith, so likewise there is a spiritual water that doth proceed from the seed of reason in man. And this water that doth proceed, or arise from the seed of reason, it doth give great satisfaction to the mind of man.

Now these spiritual waters that do arise from the seed of reason, are called by the spirit, the great

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river Euphrates; and this is that river Euphrates that the sixth angel poured out his vial upon, and dryed up all the waters, as aforesaid; not but that the natural river Euphrates, which signifies all the rivers in the world, will be dryed up also; only this book of the Revelation of John, it hath generally a two-fold meaning; that is to say, a spiritual meaning, and a temporal meaning. So that both the great river Euphrates in the temporal, and the great river Euphrates in the spiritual, the waters of them both will be dryed up at the end of time, which thing will be unexpressibly sad to all those who have no water of life in their souls to drink.

It is said by the spirit of John, that this great river Euphrates was dryed up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. Now what

these kings of the East are, is very necessary to know. These kings of the East, I declare they are all good kings, further I declare that Christ the king of heaven, is said to come out of the East, as you may read, Matth. ii. 2, 3, where the wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews, for we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him?

So that this Jesus the king of the Jews, he is called the king of the East, because his star in the East directed the wise men to find him out that they might worship him. Now this is to be minded by the reader, that prophets, apostles, and saints, they are called by the spirit kings, and priests unto God, as the scripture saith; so that all prophets, apostles, and true believers may be called kings. And seeing the King

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King of Kings came out of the East, these all following him in the same steps of faith and patience, they are called by the spirit, kings of the East. So that Christ, his prophets, apostles, and saints, are those kings of the East, who have the aforesaid waters dryed up, that the way for these kings of the East might be prepared. That is, there are no natural rivers upon earth, that shall hinder or keepfrom being dryed up, neither temporal nor spiritual.

For the vial of God's wrath, it will dry up all the rivers of waters upon earth natural, and all rivers of waters spiritual, when Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven with all his saints, the kings of the East, to put an end to this bloody, persecuting, unbelieving world; and to dry up all the waters of peace in men's souls. And the kings of the East, by their faith and patience, shall walk upon the waters of wicked, persecuting men's souls, as upon dry ground. That is, the kings of the East shall rejoice in the eternal destruction of their enemies, even as their enemies did over them, when they persecuted and put them to death; so that the way, that is, the hearts of the saints enemies, may be as a way for the kings of the East to tread and trample upon all that joy, and peace, and comfort, that the dragon beast, and false prophet had, when they persecuted the saints; which saints are the kings of the East, and that faith and patience the saints had, it prepared themselves to suffer with chearfulness the persecution, and death itself. So that the waters of the great river Euphrates, even the waters of their persecutors souls were dryed up, that the kings of

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the East, that is, the saints might be prepared to fight that good fight of faith, as the saints did in the time of the ten persecutions. So much for the interpretation of the twelfth verse.

CHAP. LII.

VERSE 13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

These three unclean spirits like frogs, they are said to come out of the mouths of three several persons, to wit, the dragon, beast, and false prophet; yet these three proceed all from one spirit, even the spirit of the fallen angel, or as I may say, the spirit of Cain that dragon-devil, who was the first murderer. And the spirit of Cain remaining in the seed, it bringeth forth many dragon-devils like himself. So that all dragon-devils make up but one dragon, and so all wicked beasts make up but one wicked beast; so all false prophets, and false priests, or false speakers, they make up but one false prophet.

Now they are called three unclean spirits, like frogs, in regard of the three-fold operations and workings of them; for they proceeded from that one spirit of reason, the devil; only this one spirit of reason it doth work three several ways, and by three several persons, yet all three of them were like frogs; they were all alike for wicked idolatry, and persecution of the saints, and to deceive the people: for they are the spirits of devils, working miracles,

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which