vances in all kinds of moral corruption, and open wickedness, till it will come to that state, in which it will be fully ripe, and prepared to be cut down by the + sickle of divine justice and wrath. For it is not to be expected, that under the sixth vial the protestant churches in general will grow more pure; but the evil spirits which go forth, will promote and spread still greater corruptions in doctrine and practice, and thereby become more ripe for divine judgments. It is commonly, if not always the case, that in times of great degeneracy, they who are the greatest instances of it, and most sunk in darkness and delusion, entertain a good opinion of themselves, and of others who join with them; being ignorant of their true character. They put darkness for light, and light for darkness, and call evit good, and good evil; and while real Christianity and piety are abandoned, opposed, and forsaken, they perceive it not, but think all is well, and much better than before. And they may undertake to reform Christianity, and think it greatly reformed; when every doctrine and duty, which is contrary to the selfishness, pride, and worldly spirit of man, is discarded, and little or nothing is left of it, but the very name, to distinguish it from the religion of infidels or heathens." Treatise on the Millennium. Simpson also seems to coincide in this opinion--he says

"We protestants, too, read the declaration of the third angel, against the worshippers of the beast and his image, and make ourselves easy under the awful denunciation, by applying it exclusively to the church of Rome; never dreaming, that they are equally applicable not only to the English, but to every church establishment in Christendom, which retains any of the marks of the beast. For though the pope and church of Rome, is at the head of the grand 1260 years delusion, yet all other churches, of whatever denomination, whether established or tolerated, which partake of the same spirit or have instituted doctrines and ceremonies inimical to the pure and unadulterat

ed gospel of Christ, shall sooner or later share in the fate of that immense fabric of human ordinances; and that protestant churches should imitate the church of Rome, in this worst part of its conduct, can never be sufficiently bewailed." He adds further: "The gospel of Jesus Christ will never have its full and proper effect upon mankind, until it is completely disentangled from every human institution. Leave it to itself, let it have fair play, clog it not with civil penalties, let it stand or fall by its own intrinsic worth, let neither kings nor bishops lay their officious bands upon it, and then see how it will make its way among men. The greatest possible motive, by which man can be animated, is the salvation of his own soul: if this will not move us, nothing will be of any avail.” Plea for Religion.

Some of the foregoing remarks may be thought going too far the question will immediately be asked, what! has there been no true visible church in the world since the apostacy? In one sense there has, and in another there has not.

It has been continually the case, that there have been small bodies of Christians, who have, from time to time, detached themselves from the main body of professional Christians, who have testified of the corruptions of the apostate church, &c. who have undoubtedly been governed by the grace and spirit of God. But while they have been in this situation, they have always, by the great mass of professors, who have considered themselves as the alone true and infallible church, as hereticks, have had all manner of evil spoken of them, been buried with slander and reproach; and thus as it were, in their poor afflicted tate, have been kept in the wilderness, or an obscure state. But how incessantly it has been the case, that when they have arose to eminence, increased in numbers and power, and begun to be honoured and owned by the world in general, as a true church; that it has evidently appeared, that in coming. in to this honourable or rather visible state; they have

left the power and real essence of religion behind them. But, however, without spending more time by the like remarks, as many more might be made, I would just say, that in exhibiting what may appear warrantable, from scripture, as events taking place introductory to the Millennium, this plan of considering the apostacy in a great degree general, and of course the necessary consequence of considering the judgments so far general, will in the first place be pursued. And I shall then, secondly, transcribe Mr. Faber's excellent remarks, which are more particular, or as before remarked, local; in doing which, his ideas concerning the two witnesses, prophecying through the apostacy, his description of the beast, and of the war of the dragon, and finally, of the pouring out of the last vials of God's wrath, will be brought into view.

It has been remarked in the preceding section, that the sixth vial of God's wrath, mentioned in Rev. xvi. 12, 13, 14, is now running-indeed, this matter is now, by late occurrences, made more manifest. We will transcribe the passage, and attend to the prominent features of it.

"And the sixth angel poured out his vial on the grear river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared."

"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."

"For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty."

The great river Euphrates here mentioned, I befieve, is now almost universally admitted to mean the great Ottoman empire. "Rivers typify nations; and when a particular river is specified, the nation immediately connected with that river is obviously intend

ed. Such being the case, as the issuing forth of the four sultaines, those mystic waters of the Euphrates, which deluged the Eastern empire, denotes the rise of the Turkish power, so the drying up of those waters must evidently mean its subversion."

The drying up of water or its evaporation is a slow process from hence we may infer, that a considerable length of time will pass, while the Ottoman empire is falling and wasting away. That this has for some time been accomplishing, is evident.

Mr. Faber, who wrote about twenty years ago, has the following remarks:

"The prelude to the pouring out of this vial, we may behold with our own eyes. Let us only advert to the present state of the Turkish power, and we shall be convinced, that for some years, the symbolic Euphratean waters have been gradually drying up.The approaching termination indeed of the Ottoman empire, is so manifest, that even those whose attention is solely directed to politics, are sufficiently aware that the time of its extinction cannot be far distant. Of late, it has been preserved, rather by the jealousy of the great European powers, than by any physical strength of its own: and it doubtless will be preserved by the hand of Providence, till his own appointed time shall approach, for preparing a way for the kings from the east, and for gathering together the kings of the Latin world to battle of the great day of God Almighty.*

Not only however has the political strength of Turkey begun to be dried up, but, as it were designed that nothing, to the exact completion of the prophecy, should be wanting, even its population has likewise begun to diminish. This singular circumstance is noticed by Mr. Eton. After some enquiry into the causes of it, he adds, "It is therefore reasonable to

The reader will keep in mind the remarks foregoing, concerning Mr. Faber's disposition for locality in his remarks—-he here confines himself unto the Latin world.

conclude, that depopulation could not formerly have made so rapid a progress as at present, and that in a century more, things remaining in their present situation, the Turkish empire will be nearly extinct. It is worthy of remark, that the curds in the mountains and other independent tribes who do not mix with the Turks, are exempt from the mortality occasioned by all the calamities, which afflict the countries more immediately subject to the Porte."

These remarks were made by Mr. Faber, about 20 years ago, and if at that time, under the then present existing circumstances, he was led to conclude that empire was fast declining, how much more can we consistently say, that its total annihilation, is now even at the doors. The means too of the accomplishment of this important prophecy, seems to be different from what almost any one a few years since had anticipated. Who would have thought at the time Mr. Faber wrote that the Greeks would in so short a time have accomplished the wonders which they have among the Turks? It is a phenomenon in the political world, that scarcely has an equal. They have arisen from an extreme state of poverty, oppression, weakness, and at first without arms and destitute of pecuniary means, have in four campaigns, been uniformly successful; almost in every encounter come off victorious, and have now finally raised themselves to an eminence, which every intelligent person must reasonably infer, is beyond the power and reach of the Ottoman empire. Various other causes have also been frequently transpiring as it were, to hurry on the final result. The plague and sundry other calamities have been the means of wasting away vast numbers of the inhabitants. I think we hazard nothing in saying, that the sixth vial will soon have had its full accomplishment. The circumstance of the present situation of the Ottoman empire may serve as a sign of the times by which we may give something of a guess where we are.