v. 10. For the stars of heaven, and their brightness shall not display their light: the sun shall be darkened in his rising, and the moon shall not shine with her light. These signs indicate the last age of the world.

v. 11. And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity, and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and will bring down the arrogance of the mighty.'

Then in the next chapter the prophet, after describing the character of Antichrist and the divine judgment upon him, proceeds to relate the destruction of his Babylon thus:

Chap. xiv. v. 22. And I will rise up against them, said the Lord of hosts: and I will destroy the name of Babylon, and the remains, and the bud, and the offspring, saith the Lord.

v. 23. And I will make it a possession for the ericius* and pools of waters, and I will sweep it, and wear it out with a besom, saith the Lord of Hosts.' The remains of Babylon; the bud of Babylon, perhaps the children in the womb; and the offspring are all doomed to be utterly extirpated. This did not happen to the Chaldæen Babylon, which was gradually abandoned by its inhabitants; and will only therefore be completed in Babylon, the great city of Antichrist.

We have now seen the execution of the divine judgments upon Antichrist's armies and his great city. But as his magistrates and his adherents who are dispersed in all the different countries of the earth, may be deemed equally guilty with those that have perished, it seems to appear that the hand of divine vengeance will also reach them. This is announced immediately after the sentence past upon the last Babylon, and is as follows,

Chap. xiv. v. 9. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice: it any man shall

A Water Bird.

adore the beast and his image, and receive his character in his forehead, or in his hand;

v. 10. He also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of his wrath, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels, and in the sight of the Lamb. Those therefore that have adored the beast, or Antichrist, and his image, and received his character, or mark, are condemned to drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of his wrath, that is, those who have been guilty of all the three above-named crimes they will be slain, in the same manner as Antichrist's army. To drink of the wine of the wrath of God, denotes the divine punishment on the body or corporeal part of man, as wine itself is not a pure substance, but contains gross lees: and the mixture of pure wine in the cup of the wrath of God, indicates the simultaneous punishment of the soul, which is a pure substance, and which on the slaughter of the body is violently separated from it. When both these component parts, soul and body are reunited at the general judgment, then the whole man shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in hell in the sight of the holy angels, and in the sight of the Lamb. But,

v. 11. And the smoke of their torments, proceeds St. John, 'shall ascend up for ever and ever: neither have they rest day nor night, who hath adored the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the character of his name. Here is the present fate of the soul, which at the instant of death is tormented in hell-fire, without intermission or rest: which is the sentence pronounced upon all those who have adored the beast, &c. whatever may be their death, and whenever it may happen.-Then St. John adds,

v. 12. Here is the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of * In the Greek, ascends up.'

Jesus,' Here is the motive, on which is founded the patience of the true servants of God, namely, in bearing with all trials, hardships, and persecutions in this life, with the view of avoiding the eternal torments, and purchasing the eternal rewards, of the other world.

The preceding dreadful judgment of God on the votaries of Antichrist, wherever they be, seems to be also foretold explicitly by the prophet Jeremy, as follows:

Chap. xxv. v. 15. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel: take the cup of wine of this fury at my hand: and thou shalt make all the nations to drink thereof, unto which I shall send thee.' Expression similar to what we saw

above in St. John.

v. 30. And thou shalt prophecy unto them all these words, and thou shalt say to them: the Lord shalt roar from on high, and shall utter his voice from his holy habitation: roaring he shall roar upon the place of his beauty: the shout as it were of them that tread the grapes, shall be given out against all the inhabitants of the earth.

v. 31. The noise is come to the ends of the earth for the Lord entereth into judgment with the nations he entereth into judgment with all flesh, the wicked 1 have delivered up to the sword, saith the Lord.

v. 32. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation: and a great whirl-wind shall go forth from the ends of the earth.

v. 33. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end thereof: they shall not be lamented, and they shall not be gathered up, nor buried: they shall lie as dung upon the face of the earth. Here is the tremendous roaring noise, ver. 30, 31. before taken notice of from Joel, of Christ coming

down from heaven to destroy Antichrist and his people. The Lord entereth into judgment with all flesh, and delivers the wicked up to the sword, v. 31, and the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end thereof, v. 33. Hence it appears, that not only Antichrist's armies, assembled in the valley of Josaphat, shall be slain by the sword, but all his principal idolatrous abettors shall be cut off in the same manner in every part of the earth. Moreover we are here told, they shall not be lamented, and they shall not be gathered up, nor buried: they shall lie as dung upon the face of the earth. The same we also learn from the prophet Isaiah : And they (the people) shall go out,' says he, and see the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be a loathsome sight to all flesh,' lxvi 24. It may seem strange that the inhabitants of Jerusalem should not be annoyed with the stench of such a heap of dead bodies lying so near them in the vale of Josaphat; but the infection is prevented by the birds devouring the flesh, as St. John told us, and leaving the bodies mere skeletons.

By the destruction of Antichrist, his armies, officers and chief associates, we now see his kingdom dissolved, his power totally extinguished, and consequently the Roman empire finally put an end to. The prophet Daniel had foretold that Christ or the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands should break down the statue, the legs and feet of which represented the Roman empire. This was executed in part by the fall of pagan Rome with its dominion, and by the establishment of Christianity upon its ruins. But this prophecy seems to receive a further, adequate, and final completion in the extermination of Antichrist, the last and greatest of the Roman emperors, in the desmction of Constantinople, his imperial city, and

in the total suppression of the Antichristian power. From such a complete victory over its enemies' rises then the completest triumph of the Christian religion. Such appears to be the import of that: prophecy, in which Daniel speaks thus to Nabu-. chodonosor: Thus thou sawest, till a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands: and, it struck the statue upon the feet thereof that were of iron and of clay, and broke them in pieces: then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of a summer's threshing floor, and they were carried away with the wind: and there was no place found for them: but the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. ii, 34, 35.

Here then we may congratulate ourselves for. having seen at last an end put to the innumerable: evils and miseries, which Antichrist brought upon mankind, and which St. John denominates the second woe, Chap. xi. 14. The second woe,' says he, 'is past and behold, the third woe will come quickly.' The above dismal scene being over, the respite will not be of very long duration; for behold, the third woe, or day of judgment, will come quickly, is not far off.

But now the servants of God seemed at last to be rescued from their intolerable slavery, and were much rejoiced at the prospect of a happy peace. They saw their persecutors had all perished under the hand of the Almighty, they saw idolatry crushed, and that religion had regained its liberty. This bright gleam of happiness must however suffer some obscurity yet for a little while, before it shines forth in all its lustre. An unforeseen storm arises, which alarms them, especially those that inhabit Judæa and Jerusalem. Satan, foiled in his prior designs before he could bring them to perfection, retires at seeing the divine vengeance coming to break on the head of Antichrist, and resolves to