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النشر الإلكتروني

THE FOURTH VISION

OF

ST. JOHN.

THE SEVEN VIALS.

PART I.

THE VISITATION OF THE EMPIRE AND PAPACY BY THE ANCIENT OF DAYS, AND THE VICTORY OF THE SAINTS OVER THE ROMAN AND GERMAN EMPIRES.-A.D. 1518 -1843.

SECTION I.

The Seven Stages of the Session of the Ancient of Days.

XV. 1. And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues for in them is filled up the wrath of of God.

SECTION II.

The Victors over the Beast and his Image.

The saints, who overcome the corruptions of the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Church, are here represented in possession of

eternal life obtained through a fiery trial, and as celebrating the overthrow of the Antichristian confederacy by the last judgments of God. A.D. 1843.

2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, 3 having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty: just and true 4 are thy ways, thou king of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy for all nations shall

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come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

PART II.

THE SEVEN STAGES OF THE CONSUMPTION AND DESTRUCTION OF THE PAPACY TO THE END. A.D. 1518-1843.

SECTION I.

The Opening of the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony.

On the glorious display of the grace of God made by the Reformation, the seven series of the Reformers must go forth with the republication of the mystery of the gospel, to take away the dominion of the Papacy, and

consume and destroy it to the end, before the saints of the Most High can take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. The iniquity of the Church of Rome is now come to its full-the thrones are set-the Ancient of Days does sit-and the books are opened.

5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was 6 opened and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts 7 girded with golden girdles. And one of the four living creatures gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials, full of the wrath of God, who liveth 8 for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no one was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels XVI. 1 were fulfilled. And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

SECTION II.

First Stage of the Session or Republication of the
Mystery.

ROME, into which as the capital of the Christian commonwealth, the riches of all Europe had flowed during many centuries without having been once violated by any hostile hand, is suddenly attacked and plundered by the

troops of Charles the Fifth, a Catholic Prince, who styled himself Emperor of the Romans, A.D. 1527. Nine months it remained in the possession of the Imperialists; and every hour was stained by some atrocious act of cruelty, lust, or rapine. The constable of Bourbon had fallen in the attack of the walls; and the death of the general removed every restraint of discipline from an army which consisted of three independent nations, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the Germans. "It is impossible to describe," says Robertson in his History of Charles the Fifth, "or even to imagine, the misery and horror of that scene which followed. Whatever a city taken by storm can dread from military rage, unrestrained by discipline; whatever excesses the ferocity of the Germans, the avarice of the Spaniards, or the licentiousness of the Italians could commit, these the wretched inhabitants were obliged to suffer. Churches, palaces, and the houses of private persons were plundered without distinction. No age, or character, or sex, was exempt from injury. Cardinals, nobles, priests, matrons, virgins, were all the prey of soldiers, and at the mercy of men deaf to the voice of humanity. Nor did these outrages cease, as is usual in towns which are carried by assault, when the first fury of the storm was over; the Imperialists kept possession of Rome several months; and, during all that time, the insolence and brutality of the soldiers hardly abated. Their booty in ready money alone amounted to a million of ducats; what they raised by ransoms and exactions far exceeded that sum. Rome, though taken several different times by the northern nations, who overran the empire in the fifth and sixth centuries, was never treated with so much cruelty by the barbarous and heathen Huns, Vandals, or Goths, as now by the bigoted subjects of a Catholic monarch."

"Alaric was a gentle foeman,

Matched with Bourbon's black banditti!”

But the first vial of the wrath of the Ancient of days, did not affect the city alone: the Reformation was a grievous sore to the Holy Roman Church and to the French successors of the Greek Emperors of the Romans. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Prussia, Livonia, England,

Scotland, the United Provinces, and the principal part of Switzerland, revolted from his Roman Holiness; and France was desolated with civil wars for more than a hundred years, from 1560 to the revocation of the edict of Nantes, 1685, by the introduction of Calvinism there. The subjects of the German Emperors also, half of whom separated from the see of Rome, were visited with a most grievous calamity, when a furious civil war of thirty years' duration, carried on between the Catholic League and the Protestant Union, desolated the Empire, 1618— 1648. The Revolution of religion did not convulse merely the church, it influenced the politics, and changed the form of government in many of the states of Europe. Democracy and Calvinism were introduced into Geneva, 1535-the Republic of Holland took its rise, 1579— royalty was abolished in England under the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, 1653-and in the same country, 1688, bounds were set to the royal authority by the production of the original contract between the king and the people.

2 And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

SECTION III.

Second Stage of the Session or Republication of the Mystery.

The second stage of God's session in judgment on the Empire and Papacy, produces the first most extensive and sanguinary wars of modern Europe: the great war of the North, 1700-1721; the general war of the Spanish succession, 1701-1713; the general war of the Austrian succession, 1740-1748; and the general war

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