The Particular Synchronism of the Several Visions

According to the above Scheme and Division, the rial-visions of c. xv. and xvi. running along the whole course of time, through divers ages, as the visions of c. xiv. 6 — 20, and c. xi. 1 — 15, and c. xix. (the one uniformly and continuously, the other in a scattered successive representation of the church’s condition all along the same tract of time through many ages: ) it will therefore be expedient to shew, which of these several parts of those two representations synchronize, and which are successive; by setting together a little more particularly the stories of the seven vials (in c. xv. and xvi.) with those other several pieces and scattered passages of c. xi. xiv. xvii. xviii. and xix. and, FIRST, With c. xiv. 1st, That same “temple filled with smoke,” (out of which came “the seven angels,”) began to be set up in the times of the first separation from Antichrist, (see v. 6, with c. xv. 6, 8;) when also “the everlasting gospel” was begun distinctly to be preached by Waldus and his followers, who erected true churches unto Christ, (as the history of the Waldenses shews;) when these “harpers on the glassy sea,” began more distinctly to “sing the song of Moses and the Lamb;” or that doctrine both of the law and the gospel, which the hundred and forty-four thousand in the darker times of Popery had but muttered so confusedly that none could learn it; (see v. 3, 6, 7, with c. xv. 2 — 4;) so that the doctrine of the gospel, and the erection of the vial-temple, and the separation from popery, all begin together. 2dly, Preparation being thus made by thejirst angel’s erecting the temple, The first vial therefore began with the voice of the second angel, crying “Babylon is fallen, Babylon is fallen,” i. e. the first foundation of her ruin is laid in the beginning of those desolating vials; as will be shewn in opening them; v. 6. 8, with c. xvi. 1, 2. The second vial follows with the voice or cry of the third angel’s preaching, when the sea of Antichrist’s doctrine was both proved and pronounced damnable by Luther’s doctrine; and “the waters whereon the whore sat,” (i.e. those kingdoms and commonwealths which had subjected themselves to Rome,) fell from her; see v. 9 — 11 with c. xvi. 3. T7ie third vial hath been a pouring out (as will be shewn) since that “harvest” began, with its summer-weather, and that settled peace of the reformed churches, meant by “rivers and fountains,” see v. 14, with c. xvi. 4. The fourth vial began about he time of “the vintage” for it was excited by an angel “who Lad power over fire:” and also the fourth vial-angel is said to have power given him to scorch men with fire; so that these two fall in the same times; and thus the times of c. xiv. reach only to the fourth vial; see v. 18, with c. xvi. 8. SECONDLY, With c. xi. synchronizes the age between the third and fourth vial. 1st, This chapter, under the seal - prophecy, (now about the times of the fourth vial,) begins the expiration of the world’s monarchy, Antichrist’s times, and the church’s oppression; and before the blast of the seventh trumpet, v. 15. It opens with representing the same temple of the Reformation as the Reformers erected in c. xiv. 15, who having erred in laying an outward court to it, are bidden in the name of John, (who bears the persons of the godly of this age,) to measure that temple anew, as not being fully conformed to the pattern, and to cast out the outward court; for its further reformation. And as in the vintage, (c. xiv. 18,) the Popish Gentiles had “trod down” the grapes in Germany; so here v. 1, the like “outward court” in other churches elsewhere, is given to the same Gentiles elsewhere to tread down, and therewith to end their date of treading down the holy city for forty-two months, (or one

thousand two hundred and sixty years,) with this their last re-entry upon the churches of the Reformation. Thus c. xi, begins where c. xiv. ends. 2dly, In v. 5, 6, we expressly have the first four vials, (and no more,) briefly summed up in the description of the witnesses, who are thus shewn, in the latter times of their prophecy, to be the same with the vial-pouring angels, c. xvi. 2 — 9. Now the angels there describe them to John only in a parenthesis, merely that he

608 SYNCHRONISM OF THE CHAPTERS. [REV.

might recognize them again in this new book-prophecy, to shew what should befall them after these four vials, (or from the time of the fourth, and before the fifth,) in the expiring of the twelve hundred and three-score years, allotted them to prophesy in the sackcloth of a mourning condition; now to end with the beast’s reign also ending with the fifth vial. Thus v. 7, “When they shall be about to finish their testimony,” and to end their prophecy, they that had the power to execute four such vials on the beast’s company, before they fatally darken and overcome his kingdom by the fifth vial, must be themselves once more overcome by the beast: which being thus mentioned after the summing up of four of the vials in v. 5, 6, and at the end of their prophecy, and on the expiration of their time of mourning, must therefore be from after, or upon the time of, the fourth vial, or before the fifth, or at furthest with the sixth: and then, v. 13, “the witnesses rise,” and “the tenth of the city falls;” which some make the fifth vial of Rome’s ruin. 3rdly, “The second woe passeth way,” v. 14, (removing the Turkish power and tyranny, c. ix. 12, 13,) which is all one with the sixth vial, (c. xvi. 12, &c.) “drying up Euphrates,” or preparing for it. 4thly, v. 15 — 19, The seventh trumpet that follows begins the seventh vial; v. 1 9, with c. xvi. 18, 21, and c. x. 6, 7, with c. xvi. 17. 5thly, As under the seventh trumpet comes in “the Holy of holies,” or “The opening of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven in which the ark is seen,” v. 19; so in c. xv. 5, after the vials, (META TAUTA, after these things,) “the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven” is said to be opened; that temple out of which the vials come, being but as the inward temple begun to be erected from the first separation, (for else they had had no true churches,) but polluted with the adjoining of the outward court by the Reformers; but under the times of the fourth vial it is measured and purged, and “its court cast out,” v. 1. THIRDLY, Chap. xix. supplies what should befall the church from the rising of the witnesses, (about the fifth vial,) and also her condition from that space between the fifth vial, and the seventh trumpet, and the Holy of holies; (for c. xi. doth setly describe only what befell the church just before the dethronement of Antichrist, as a warning signal:) Now it begins with an innumerable company in heaven praising God for the downfal of the whore, (at large set forth in c. xvii. and xviii. which are but a larger explication of the fifth vial ruining Rome;) and therefore it must set forth the state of the church after the fifth vial until the seventh: And then for the agreement of that great battle, at the Lamb’s marriage-supper, with the seventh vial, see v. 11 — 21, with c. xvi. 14 — 21; after which come in “the thousand years,” and “new Jerusalem,” (which is all one with the Holy of holies,) c. xx. — xxii. Having thus introduced the second part of my Exposition, I shall now proceed with

RKV. xiv. 1 — 5.] THE CHURCH’S STATE UNDER ANTICHRIST. 609