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Now, in order that we may see how this prophecy conducts us forward to the great and terrible day of the Lord, let us see what the Spirit saith in that book which is written expressly to shew forth his coming. In turning to Rev. xvii. 1-5, the judgments of the Almighty are said to descend upon Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." In the xvith, the kings of the earth and of the whole world are gathered together to the battle of the great day of God Almighty; and great Babylon comes into remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. In the vi th it is said, " and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth....and the heavens departed as a scroll." And men seek in vain to hide themselves from the wrath of the Lamb; "For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" In the xix th chapter, the Lord Jesus is described as coming forth as an avenger of his people's wrongs: "And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the Word of God; and the armies which were in heaven followed him....and out of his mouth. goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations.... and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." Then follows the great slaughter; and the "fowls that fly in the midst of heaven" are invited to "gather themselves together unto the supper of the great God; that they 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 free and bond, both small and great." And in chap. xiv. 20 we read that "the blood flowed beyond the city, even unto the horses' bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." Finally, it is said, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.... Her plagues shall come in one day, death and mourning and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her....Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy Apostles and Prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And again they said, Alleluia: and her smoke rose up for ever and ever (xviii. 2, 8, 20; xix. 3; xiv. 11).

Thus, in comparing the language of the Old and New Testament, we see that ancient Babylon was made use of by the Spirit to typify mystic Babylon; and that in the destruction of the latter every word shall be accomplished-for not one jot or tittle of God's word can fail-which remains unfulfilled in the destruction of the former.

Seeing, then, that the destruction of Babylon brings the great

and terrible day of the Lord-terrible, indeed, unto the ungodly, but only unto such; for the righteous shall have " a song as in the night, when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel "-let us in the next place make some inquiries relative to the nearness of this great event, and of our deliverance from the impending judgments: and, oh, what a solemn and momentous inquiry!

We arrive at the conclusion, that the day of the Lord is at hand; and which our Divine Master has taught us may be known by attending to the fulfilment of prophecy, even as the approach of summer is known by the trees putting forth their leaves, not from a few isolated passages of Scripture, but from the whole of the inspired volume. We might shew that the great prophetic period of Daniel and John is passed--namely, the 1260 years, during which the Papacy was to triumph; that the midnight cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh," has been made; that the angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach, has proclaimed that the hour of God's judgment is come; that the seventh seal has been opened, the seventh trumpet sounded, the seventh vial commenced: but it is only to this last-mentioned portion of prophecy that we shall at present direct our attention. We have, blessed be God, lived to see the commencement of the seventh vial, DURING THE OUTPOURING OF WHICH THE LORD WILL COME!

The commencement of this vial has been marked in a way which we should hope would awaken the attention of every Christian. We were led to remark, from the sure word of prophecy, more than twelve months ago*, that as soon as the Mohammedan power was exhausted the judgments would fall back upon the Western Empire, and complete the destruction of the Papal hierarchy. The French revolution has shewn the correctness of this interpretation. Already have we seen the setting up of one of those kings which shall "hate the whore, and make her desolate, and burn her with fire." It is in the period in which we are now living that "Great Babylon comes in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath;" that Rev. vi. 12-17, and Luke xxi. 25-27, will receive their complete fulfilment: "And, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind; and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were removed out of their places: and the

* See Doctrine of Second Advent, vol. iii. p. 35.

kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the rocks and mountains, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken, and THEN shall they SEE the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." Now these things began to take place at the first revolution in France, in the year 1792. Then the temporal head, the sun of the Roman earth, was eclipsed, and the moon turned into blood; then, too, the stars-the lesser governments -fell to the earth;_ and then was also great distress of nations, with perplexity. But we are now living in days when these events are drawing to a climax. The second great political earthquake occasioned by the French revolution, and which now strikes terror through the earth, is bringing to perfection that of 1792. These revolutionary movements, therefore, will not stop till those kings described in Rev. xvii. 12-14, and which have received no kingdom as yet, shall be fully established. In France we see one of these governments well-nigh formed. Now, as these kings make war with the Lamb, and as they reign but one hour with the beast, and are destroyed in the battle of Armageddon (Rev. xix. 11-21), which is the great day of God Almighty (xvi. 14), it is clear that the translation of the saints must take place during the setting up of these kings, or, at the farthest, when they shall have united together to give their power and strength unto the beast (xvii. 14). It appears to me, however, most probable, that the translation of the saints-i. e. their removal up into that cloud of which Noah's ark was the type-will not take place till the ten kings are set up. Noah had seven days' warning, and the flood came on the seventh day, the very day in which he entered into the ark (Gen. vii. 4—11). May we not therefore conclude, that the time occupied by the bestial government (xvii. 14) is analogous to the seven days' warning which was given Noah ; and that, when these ten kings are confederate and ripe for destruction, the "short space" during which they shall have power with the beast (according to strict interpretation, fifteen days; one hour being the twenty-fourth part of a day, and a prophetic day being twelve months) will

be that in which the saints will be shut up in the ark, previous Blessed is he that watcheth!"

to the judgments.

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It is the fulfilment of these portions of Scripture, in the overturning of the governmeuts of the earth, and in the setting up of the beast, the infidel power, to whom all the kings of the earth shall give their strength, which is especially to direct us in our expectations of the coming of the Lord; and if we do not attend to these passing events, carefully comparing them with the sacred Scriptures, we shall have no intimation of his near approach, and shall assuredly be taken by surprise, as the foolish virgins were. For though this prophecy (namely, Luke xxi. 25-27, and Rev. vi. 12-17) shall receive a still more literal fulfilment when the sun and moon and stars in the firmament (Gen. i. 14—16) shall withhold their shining; when God shall clothe the heavens with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering; yet this will not be TILL AFTER OUR GATHERING TOGETHER UNTO THE LORD. This is a very important point; and I would earnestly call the attention of all God's waiting people to it, at this interesting period.

There are three things particularly to be noticed in our Lord's advent: First, Our gathering together unto him* (1 Thess. iv. 17; Matt. xxv. 10; Luke xviii. 34-37): Secondly, His epiphany, or coming in the clouds of heaven, and all his saints with power and great glory (Ps. xviii. 9-15; Matt. xxiv. 30): Thirdly, His parousia, or visible presence (2 Thess. ii. 8; Rev. i. 7; Zech. xii. 10). The visible signs in the heavens will not precede our gathering together unto the Lord, but will be subsequent to it. There shall be no more outward manifestations of Christ's coming than there are at present; no darkening of the heavens, no change in the sun or moon: men shall go forth unto their labour, and be occupied in the business and pleasures of life, up to the very eve of the Lord's appearing. If any proof is wanting of this, we have it in the prophetic history of Noah and Lot. Neither Noah nor Lot had any outward visible sign that the judgments of God would descend on their generation. God had said what he would do; and Noah, believing it, builds the ark (Heb. xi. 7), and Lot prosecutes his journey to Zoar, although there was no visible sign of the coming destruction, They had God's word for it, and that was enough for them. Not till Noah and his family were safely seated in the ark were the windows of heaven opened, or the foundations of the great deep

* If the question should be asked, "How shall the Lord manifest himself unto us, and not unto the world?" I think it may be answered by referring to the history of his appearing unto Paul. By comparing Acts ix. 7 with xxii. 9, it appears, that though the men that were with him heard a voice, they understood it not; and though they saw a light, they saw not the Saviour. But Paul both saw him and understood his voice.

broken up; nor till Lot was in Zoar did the fire of heaven fall upon the guilty cities of the plain: "The sun rose upon the earth as Lot entered into Zoar:" "Even so shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." When God's waiting and believing people are gathered unto him, safe up into that cloud, of which the ark and Zoar were types; then, and not till then, shall that passage in Matt. xxiv. 29, 30, and its parallel text in Luke, receive a literal, as they have already received a symbolical, fulfilment. Its symbolical fulfilment, in the shaking of the kingdoms of the earth, &c. at the close of the Papal period in the year 1792, and which is now advancing towards its consummation, is God's message to us that his coming is at hand. His people know the truth and force of this declaration; but the world cannot receive it; or, to use the language of Scripture, "None of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand" (Dan. xii. 10). "Prophecy serveth not for them that believe not, but for them that believe;" whereas "a sign is not to them that believe, but to them that believe not" (1 Cor. xiv. 22): "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign." But as the unbelieving Jews, who crucified the Lord of glory, had no other sign granted them "than the sign of the prophet Jonas," in Christ's actual resurrection from the dead, after being three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, "by which he was proved to be the Son of God with power:" so I believe that the unbelieving of the present generation will have no other sign given them, whereby they shall be able to discern the Lord's coming, but his actual epiphany. Hence it is called "the sign of the Son of Man" (Matt. xxiv. 30). The cloud in which he conducted the Israelites through the wilderness, in which he ascended after his resurrection, and in which he appeared to St. Paul in his way to Damascus, will be the sign to an ungodly world of the coming of the Son of Man *.

This portion of prophecy, therefore, is not yet exhausted, viewing it in its final and ultimate fulfilment. It speaks of those things which shall occur after God's waiting people are gathered unto him, when that determined to be poured upon the Jews shall be accomplished. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, &c.

Not only will God's people be delivered from the judgments which are coming on the earth, but they shall come with Christ to execute them. They will be in that cloud with Christ from which shall proceed hail-stones, and coals of fire (Psa. xviii.

* This cloud, containing Christ and his saints, is, I believe, the same as the "glory" in Isa. lix. 19; the same as the "ensign" in v. 26, xi. 10, 12, xxxi. 9, xviii. 3; and the same as the cloud in ver. 4, and in Rev. xiv. 14. Notice the context in all these places, and compare them with the parallel passages, especially Isa. xviii. 5, 6, with Ezek. xxxix. 17-20, and Rev. xix. 17-21.