When the fifth Vial had thus run its course, and an interval of a year had succeeded, the effusion of the next following or sixth Vial was manifested in the spring of 1820, by the breaking out of revolutionary principles in the Spanish Army: the dominance of which principles in the western Roman Empire, or (according to the interpretation which had been

"Buonaparte before you, you will drive him out of the "country."

As a more open declaration of the same opinion, he also wrote for publication in the Christian Observer a paper in answer to one which appeared in that work for the month of May 1815, containing sentiments favourable to Buonaparte's enterprise; the author of it supposing that the Antichrist of the last days was necessarily to be identified until the end with the imperial revolutionary government of France; which answer contained the following passage relative to Buonaparte's attempt:-" While my view of the subject is so di"rectly contrary, that I conceive its only effect will be to bring miseries on that country answerable to those which "she has so long been the means of inflicting upon other "countries; and which will reduce her to a state of debility "and degradation, from which she will never recover," i. e. not so recover as to be again the leading empire or kingdom of the Papal continent; for so far prophecy is clear. This paper was delivered into the hands of the then reputed editor of the Christian Observer, at the critical period immediately preceding the battle of Waterloo.

66

given of this Vial before its fulfilment), the miraculous prevalence of "all manner of corrupt principles,*" tending to the future revolution or symbolical" Earthquake" of the next following or seventh Vial, and from which also sprung the several preparatory only, and therefore subdued, revolutions of Spain, Portugal, Naples, and Piedmont, was brought to a close in September 1823, by the complete triumph of the French arms in the Peninsula. During this period the judgment upon the Ottoman Empire in the East, or the drying up of the symbolical

* See extract from first edition in following page 484. + These revolutions from the place they occupy in prophetic history, were so evidently only of a temporary, and preparatory nature, that the author having verbally stated his opinion to that effect on 1st February, 1823, in reference to the then projected invasion of the Peninsula, by the French under the Duke D'Angoulême, and being asked to give the same in writing, did not hesitate to do so, in the following words."On the same principles on which I formerly thought that "the Austrians would succeed against the Neapolitans, I "am bound to say now," (the opinion here given was against the current expectation of the time,)" that I think the French "will succeed in putting down the Spaniards; namely, that "the Continent may be so under pressure, that there may "be ground for the future great revolution of the seventh " apocalyptic Vial.”

River Euphrates was also manifested by the revolt of Ali Pacha followed by the Greek insurrection*.

With this Vial closed on 30th September 1823, the 1290 years of Daniel; and as formerly when the end of the "time, times, and an half," or the 1260 years arrived, and the Vials of wrath began to be poured out, much light was thrown on the general scheme of prophecy; so at this time, a still further insight into the subject was obtained, when it was shewn by the event that the 30 years of Daniel contained only the six first Vials, and not as had been supposed the whole seven; which former erroneous opinion had necessarily proceeded from that, hitherto held unquestioned by the church universal, that the four great epochs mentioned at the close of Daniel's last prophecy, chap. xii. 7—12, are stated in their chronological order, viz: First the termination of the 1260 days, secondly, the accomplishing to scatter the power of the holy people, thirdly, the termination of the 1290

See note relative to the effusion of the sixth Vial in following page 65.

days, and Fourthly, the termination of the 1335 days; in which case the accomplishing to scatter the power of the holy people, and, consequently its contemporary event, (see Dan. xi. 45, xii. 7) the battle of Armageddon, i. e. the last event of the seventh Vial, must indeed have taken place previously to, or at the latest have coincided with, the termination of the 1290 days, or the year 1823.

On reference however to Rev. xix. 1-7; and again to the subsequent verses 19-21, together with chap. xx. 1-2, it will be found that the contents of the seventh Vial are in both passages represented as reaching down to the millennium; and therefore to the end of the 1335 days of Daniel; succeeding to the 1290 days, instead of being included within them and the evidence thus afforded, as to the place of this Vial is by no means contradicted by the order in which the four great epochs are introduced in the book of Daniel; for on a closer investigation it will be found that they are there given (as will be explained more at large on a future occasion,) not as one chronological

series, which at first sight they appear to be, but as two, which are distinct from each other in their character and mode of announcement; of which the one series, superior to the other in importance, and first mentioned, relates to the periods of the Gentile and Jewish churches, (viz: tothe 1260 years of the wilderness state of the former, and to the dispersed and scattered state of the latter,) and is revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is described as appointing bounds to the afflictions of his people, or as entering into solemn covenant by oath, that they shall not extend beyond the periods there assigned to them; while the 1290 days and the 1335 days, being epochs less important in the history of the church, are communicated like the rest of the prophecy in the form of information only, by the mouth of the angel Gabriel. And therefore, though three of the epochs being numerical, the general order of their sequence is self evident, the place which the second epoch of the first series should occupy amongst the epochs of the second series is not pointed out in the book of Daniel; but