my fury to consume it. And I will plead against him with pestilence, and with blood, and I will rain upon him, and his bands, and upon many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hail stones, fire and brimstone."* All these passages will doubtless have their ultimate and most complete fulfilment, under the seventh vial, and in the same sore calamities and judgments which are predicted in the words under consideration, by the great hail which fell on men out of heaven. The hail stones are represented as weighing an hundred pounds, which is the weight of a talent, to denote the greatness of the judgments and destructiou predicted, the sore and awful distresses which shall come on men: "For the plague thereof was exceeding great." These judgments will not reform the obstinate enemies of God, on whom they shall fall; they will be exasperated and blaspheme God the more, until they are utterly destroyed, and swept off from the earth; agreebly to the prophecy which may be considered as referring ultimately to this dreadful scene. "And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold, trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish: and they shall be driven into darkness."t

"This battle is more particularly described in the nineteenth chapter, from the beginning of the eleventh verse, to the end of the chapter. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he who sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness doth he judge and make war." This person is farther described, by which he appears to be the Lord Jesus Christ. "And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horse ed in fine linen, white and clean."

* Ezek. xiii. 11, 13. xxxviii, 22.

+ T

This

mean, that the inhabitants of heaven, or the saints on earth, will join in a visible army, and personally fight with the enemies of Christ and his church, and destroy them: But only that these shall join with Christ and be on his side, when he shall arise in his providence, and by his power destroy his and their enemies. In this sense, all heaven will be with him, when he shall come forth to battle in his providence, and execute his wrath upon men, in awful successive judgments, in which the angels may be used as invisible instruments of his vengeance: And he will do all this, in answer to the prayers of his church on earth, and in their cause, to vindicate and deliver them, and prepare the way for the prosperity of his church on earth. That he will be the great invisible agent in this battle appears from the following words:

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron: And he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." This is the battle of that great day of God Almighty. This awful scene proceeds and is yet farther described: And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both small and great." This is a strong, figurative, prophetic expression of the great slaughter and terrible destruction of mankind, when God Almighty shall come forth to battle, and manifest his hot displeasure and terrible wrath, in the judgment he will inflict on them. The representation of this battle, and the issue of it goes on, and "I John saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together, to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army."These are the same who are mentioned, chap. xvi.

14, 16, as gathered together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, which has been explained. And in this war and battle, the beast and the false prophet were taken and destroyed, with their adherents. “And the remnant were slain with the sword of him who sat upon the horse, which sword proceedeth out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." By the remnant, are meant the rest of mankind, who by their sins make war with Christ, and are not included in the beast and false prophet, and their followers, who belong to the kingdom of anti-christ. Their being slain by the sword which proceedeth out of the mouth of Christ, does not mean their conversion, but their falling victims to his vengeance, which is expressed by the fowls being filled with their flesh.

"The battle of that great day of God Almighty, is to come on under the seventh vial, as has been observed. When the iniquity of the world of mankind shall be full, and they shall be united in open rebellion, and, in this sense, gathered together, and armed against heaven: And after God has waited long upon them in the use of all proper means to reclaim them, especially the Christian world; and they are become fully ripe for destruction, he will come forth to battle against them, and execute most fearful judgments upon them, and destroy them in a manner and degree, which shall manifest his awful displeasure with them, for their obstinacy in all kinds of wickedness. When these briers and thorns are set against God in battle, he will go through them and burn them together. The destruction of the world of mankind by a flood, when the wickedness of man was become great, and the earth was filled with violence; and they continued obstinate in disobedience, while the long suffering of God waited upon them in the days of Noah, was an emblem of this battle: As also was the destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan, when their

*

See Isaiah xxyii. 4,

iniquity was full, which prepared the way for the people of God to take possession of that land. Se God punished the nation of the Jews, by destroying them, and laying waste Jerusalem, and the temple. When they had filled up the measure of their sins, wrath came upon them to the uttermost.

This was a

figure or type of this greater, more dreadful and general battle, under the seventh vial, when "The Lord shall come out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain."*

"This battle, it has been observed, will not consist in the church or Christians' raising armies, and fighting and carrying on war with the anti-christian party, or with the wicked world; or in a conflict between the former and the latter, respecting the truths and cause of Christ: But it will be commenced and carried on by Christ, while invisible in heaven, invested with all divine power in heaven and earth, in the exercise of his providence, bringing judgments upon his enemies, and a wicked world, in such remarkable ways and manner, as to be a clear and remarkable manifestation of his presence and power; of his displeasure with a wicked world, for opposing him, his church and the gospel and an incontestible evidence of the truth of Christianity, by fulfilling his predictions and promises, taking vengeance on the enemies of his people, and effectually supporting them, and their cause. He will doubtless make use of instruments in this battle.

"The holy angels may be made the instruments of many events which shall be full of evil to wicked men. And the true church of Christ, his witness in his cause, and against the delusions and wickedness of the anti-christian church, and of the world, are represented as having a hand in bringing upon their enemies all the evils which will come upon them; because they will take place in answer to their prayers,

• Isa. xxvi. 21.

in their cause, and in order effectually to avenge his own elect of their adversaries.* Therefore it is said of them, "These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy; and have power over waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.t And the wicked themselves will be instruments of afflicting and destroying each other, in a very cruel and dreadful manner, by opposing and fighting with one another, and carrying on destructive and bloody wars, killing men by thousands, and laying waste whole countries and nations; by which the earth will be in a great degree depopulated; and rivers of blood will be shed by the unrestrained pride and cruel rage of man. And many will probably put an end to their own lives, and instances of suicide will be greatly multiplied.

"But multitudes of mankind will be destroyed by the more immediate hand of God, by famine and pestilences, which will prevail in many countries, at different times, in an extraordinary manner, and to a degree never known before; by which vast multitudes will perish suddenly, and in circumstances very surprising and awful. And there will be earthquakes, and terrible storms of lightning and thunder, and inundations of water, by which many cities and places shall sink and be overflowed, with all the inhabitants; and multitudes will perish by these, and innumerable other evil occurrents, which will take place in an unusual manner, and in quick succession; so that the hand of God will be visibly stretched out against the inhabitants of the world, to punish and destroy them for their wickedness; and the following prediction will be fulfilled, in the full and awful extent of it.

Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst +Rev. xi. 6.

* Luke xviii. 7.