4. Act III. The Third Vial
“And the Third Angel poured out his vial into the rivers, and into the fountains of the waters; and there was blood.
“And I heard from the Angel of the Waters, saying, Righteous, O Lord, art thou, who art, and who wast, and who art coming, because thou hast decreed these things! For they have poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given to them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard from another out of the Altar, saying, Yea, O Lord, the Almighty Deity, true and righteous are thy judgments—Ver. 4-7.”
Next in order of commencement was this third vial. The arena of conflict was a country of mountains and rivers, inhabited by the p. 490 posterity of thieves and murderers, whose crimes nothing could expiate but draughts of human gore. The judgments of this vial upon the Great City are parallel with those of the third trumpet upon the catholic world, before the constitutional institution of the Papacy by Justinian. The first four trumpets punished the catholic west for its apostasy and crimes; the first five vials, the same region, for the sanguinary cruelty of its populations and rulers in their wars upon the saints and prophets of the Deity. Hence the parallel in the order and similitude of the judgments.
The 10th of April, 1796, is the date of the commencement of the outpouring of the wrath upon the fountains of waters. It is celebrated by the battle of Monte Notte, the first of the victories of Napoleon Buonaparte. When he joined the army of Italy before the battle, he addressed it, saying, “Soldiers, you are hungry and naked. The republic owes you much, but she has not the means to acquit herself of her debts. The patience with which you support your hardships among these barren rocks is admirable, but it cannot procure you glory. I am come to lead you into the most fertile plains that the sun beholds. Rich provinces, opulent towns, all shall be at your disposal. Soldiers! with such a prospect before you, can you fail in courage and constancy?”
In consequence of this success, the French were placed on that side of the Alps which slopes towards Lombardy, and where the rivers from these mountains flow down to join the Po. Napoleon, who soon convinced the world that he was a Man of Destiny, by the victory of Monte Notte and its immediate consequences, opened a highway from France, through the kingdom of Sardinia, into the Austrian possessions in Italy. The Austrian power was at that time the pillar and support of the temporal and spiritual power of the Pope in Italy—the strong defence of the Papal States against the overwhelming inundation of the revolution, which in France had plucked up the Latin superstition by the roots. The decree of the French Directory was on record for the total ruin of the Pope and of his power, both spiritual and temporal; but this feat could not be executed while the British ruled the sea; and her allies, the Austrians, occupied Lombardy; and their confederates the Italian Duchies, Venice and Naples. These image-worshipping powers had therefore to be laid low in the dust, ere the Sans Culottes could reach the Pope to give him a foretaste of what awaits him in the current epoch. Hence the reason why the third vial judgments occupy their position in the prophecy. The fifth vial could not be reached until the work to be done in the third and fourth was thoroughly performed. Napoleon Buonaparte, a youth of twenty-six, and a small and ill-appointed p. 491 army of hungry Sans Culottes, constituted the contemptible force with which the Seven Spirits of Deity commenced the enterprise of cutting up the formidable, well-disciplined, numerous, and ably-commanded armies of the Beast; of scattering them like chaff before the tempest; and of rolling off his image-protecting power beyond the passes of the Tyrol.
In the course of a brief campaign of scarcely a month, what history terms “fortune” placed “her favorite” in full possession of the desired road to Italy. He had gained three battles over vastly superior forces, who lost 25,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners; he had taken eighty pieces of cannon, and twenty-one stand of colors; reduced the Austrian army to inaction; and almost annihilated that of Sardinia; whose Savoyard King, one of the most distinguished in Europe, found himself at the feet of one, who for a time had power, in the emphatic phrase of Scripture, “to bind kings with chains, and nobles with fetters of iron.”
Though the passage of great rivers is one of the most critical in modern warfare, Napoleon “subtlely outwitted the Austrian commander; and with great secrecy and celerity, enabled him safely to transport the French army across the Po, fifty miles below Valeggio, where he had induced Beaulieu to believe he would attempt the passage. He pushed on from thence, and encountered the Austrians at Lodi, a town of twelve thousand inhabitants, through which flows the Adda. Having effected “the terrible passage of the bridge of Lodi,” the Austrians gave way before the victorious republicans; and without any further attempt to protect Milan, the ancient capital of Lombard, retreated to the strong fortress of Mantua, till he could effect a junction with 80,000 reinforcements under Wurmser, who had been ordered from the Rhine to his assistance.
While the rivers and lakes became blood by sanguinary conflicts in the field, the measures resorted to by the archducal government to turn the tide of battle in favor of the Two-Horned Beast, were of a character befitting the worshipers of his Image. Processions were made, relics of the dead were exposed for popular veneration, and ceremonies resorted to, which the Latin superstition prescribes as an appeal to heaven in great national calamities. But the saints and saintesses of the Image-Aerial were both deaf and impotent shadows, from whom, of course, no succor could come for the deliverance of the fools that worshiped them. The beast’s Italian archducal government found that its guardian saints were no defence in time of trouble; it determined, therefore, to retreat, and leave Milan to its fate. Neither joy nor sorrow signalized its departure—all thoughts being preoccupied upon what was to happen next.
p. 492 The French occupied Milan, which received them with great show of republican joy. This did not disarm the purpose of Buonaparte, who imposed a requisition of twenty millions of livres. All the public funds were turned into the French military chest; and the church plate experienced the same fate. While Lombardy suffered much, the neighboring countries were not spared. Writing of this crisis, the historian remarks of these, “the Italian states stood like a brotherhood of old trees, decayed at heart and root, but still making some show of branches and leaves, until the French invasion rushed down, like the whirlwind which lays them prostrate.” Before Buonaparte released his hold upon them he despoiled them all.
His headquarters, May 24, were at Lodi. He was soon informed that Pavia, with all the surrounding districts, in his rear, were in full insurrection. The Italians were disgusted at the spoliations of money and works of art, they had been subjected to; and with the open indignities thrown upon the places and objects of their superstition, as well as on the persons and character of their priests. About thirty thousand insurgents were in arms. Buonaparte lost no time in giving them blood to drink. The village of Benasco was taken by storm, the inhabitants put to the sword, and the place plundered and burned. He blew open the gates of Pavia with his cannon, dispersed the insurgents, and put their leaders to death. He menaced with fire and sword, all who in future should become insurgent; a threat which he made good soon after upon the inhabitants of Lago, which was taken by storm, pillaged, burned, and the men put to the sword.
Having suppressed the insurrection by these severities, he proceeded still further to weaken the Austrians, before he executed the threatened vengeance of the Republic on the Pope. The only places held by them in Italy were the citadel of Milan, and the fortress of Mantua, Beaulieu having been compelled to retire within the frontiers of Tyrol. The defection of the king of Naples, who drew off sixty thousand troops, still further dispirited the Austrians. Fresh bodies of Germans, however, were arriving, and blackening the mountains of the Tyrol with their threatening masses. But before they were ready to discharge their thunderbolts, the storm was thickening around the devoted head of the Pontiff. Being located among the rivers and fountains of waters, it was not possible for him to escape the outpouring wrath of the third vial. His waters had to become blood. Farrara and Bologna, which belonged to him, were occupied by the French. Four hundred papalians and a cardinal were made prisoners, Alarmed at the approaching danger, the government of the False Prophet authorized the Spanish ambassador p. 493 to treat for an armistice. Rome, it was true, was an enemy whom the rulers of France both hated and despised, but with Wurmser collecting his hosts in the Tyrol, the moment was then inopportune for the prosecution of their well merited resentment. Nevertheless, the “Name of Blasphemy upon the Seven Heads” was compelled to purchase the armistice at a severe rate. Twenty one million of francs in specie, with large contributions in forage and military stores, the cession of Ancona, Bologna, and Farrara, not forgetting one hundred of the finest pictures, statues, and similar objects of art, were the price of a respite which was not of long duration.
The plan of the French Directory for the campaign of 1796, was of a gigantic character, and menaced Austria with nothing short of total destruction. Moreau and Jourdan, with seventy-five thousand men each, were to press forward from the Rhine, and from the Sambre and Meuse, until they should be in a position to communicate with Buonaparte through the Tyrol. The part entrusted to Napoleon was completely executed. Moreau almost touched with his right flank the passes of the Tyrol; but the defeat of Jourdan compelled Moreau to retire. The fate of Austria was postponed, till the outpouring of the fourth vial; and the conflict was now renewed for the recovery of Lombardy.
Wurmser with eighty thousand men, at length began his march from Trent for the relief of Mantua, invested by the French, whose forces dispersed in towns and villages on the Adige and Chiese, did not amount to half that number. He ordered his right wing under Quasdonowich to direct its march for Brescia; and his left under Melas to descend on both banks of the Adige at once, and manœuvre on Verona; while he marched southward by the left bank of Lago di Guarda with the centre to relieve Mantua. The acuteness of Buonaparte soon perceived Wurmser’s error on this disposition and dislocation of his forces. The march assigned to Quasdonowich’s division made it impossible for the centre and left wing to afford it any support, or even to have intelligence of its motions or fate. Napoleon determined to overpower it. To do this he raised the siege of Mantua at a great sacrifice of material, and rushed with a superior force against Quasdonowich. In all his combinations he succeeded to admiration. Wurmser was defeated at all points, and nearly made prisoner. With great difficulty he reached Trent, from which he had so lately sallied forth with such confidence of victory. He had lost one-half of his fine army among “the rivers and fountains of waters,” with the only consolation that he had thrown supplies into the city of Virgil. Thus “Destiny” gave them blood to drink; and, in their courses, fought against them on every side.
p. 494 Wurmser was reinforced by twenty thousand men, by which he was enabled to resume the offensive, but with no better success. He stationed twenty thousand with Davidowich at Roveredo; while he pushed on towards Mantua with thirty thousand. Buonaparte waited until the distance between Wurmser and Davidowich was sufficiently increased to prevent mutual support. On September 4 he poured down his thunder upon Davidowich in the battle of Roveredo. The impetuosity of the French shattered him to shivers as a potter’s vessel; and drove the wrecks of his host through one of the chief defiles of the Tyrol, whither they were not pursued.
Having disposed of Davidowich and his army, he began operations upon Wurmser himself, still further weakened by a detachment sent against Kilmaine. Buonaparte left Trent, and by rapid marches, over twenty leagues in two days, precipitated his host upon the astonished Austrian, who imagined him to be in the far-off recesses of the Tyrol. Wurmser, and the military chest, nearly fell into the hands of the French. An almost general dispersion of his troops ensued. Wurmser fled to Vicenza, where he collected about sixteen thousand men, out of the sixty thousand, with whom, scarce a week before, he had commenced the campaign. With this remnant constantly decreasing through severe combats, he got into Mantua, within the walls of which he was finally blockaded on September 15, with a garrison increased by twenty-six thousand men; among whom the woes of the third vial appeared in a more hideous form than when inflicted by the sword alone. Early in October, nine thousand of these were in hospital. In the six months’ siege, the garrison lost twenty-seven thousand men by disease and the numerous and bloody sallies which took place.
But before the surrender, which put an end to the Austrian war, in Italy, Buonaparte had yet to combat, for the fourth time, on the same ground, with new forces sent by the Two-Horned Beast of the Earth for the recovery of his Italian territories. By order of its Aulic Council two armies were assembled under Quasdonowich and Alvinzi. They commenced operations the beginning of October, 1796. “Destiny” allowed the Austrians some encouraging opportunities at first; but, not being sufficiently acquainted with the value of time in military movements, and of connexion and coöperation between their separate divisions, they failed to secure a favorable issue to the campaign. Hence, their opening prospects only deceived them, and lured them on to the ensanguined plains, where more copious draughts of blood were prepared for them to drink.
Secrecy and celerity are the soul of enterprise. Buonaparte combined them in his slaughterous struggles with Alvinzi, who lost eight p. 495 thousand men in the three sanguinary battles of Arcola. On November 17, his forces retreated towards Friuli and the Tyrol; but retaining Bassano and Trent, the French were removed from “the fountains of waters,” the mountains, through which access is gained to the hereditary dominions of Austria. The failure of Alvinzi to relieve Mantua, compelled Wurmser to surrender to the French, with his garrison of twenty thousand men. This decisive event put an end to the Beast’s operations in Italy, and afforded leisure to Buonaparte to turn his arms against his Image.
As we have seen, an armistice was purchased by the Pope, through the Spanish minister. He afterwards sent two plenipotentiaries to Paris to treat of a definitive peace. The conditions were destructive, degrading, and, in his opinion, impious; and he declared them totally inadmissible; and in prospect of Alvinzi’s invasion, resolved to make common cause with the House of Austria, and have recourse to military force, which the Roman See had disused for so many years. The arming of the Pope’s government, whose military force had long been the subject of ridicule, was the opposition of age and decrepitude to the youthful vigor of the unrivalled conqueror of five Austrian armies. Yet the measures of the Image-Power indicated no little energy. Pope Sextus brought back to Rome an instalment of sixteen millions of stipulated tribute on its way to Buonaparte’s military chest; he took every measure to increase his army, and by the voluntary exertions of the Roman nobles, actually raised it to forty thousand men. The utmost pains were taken by the clergy to give the expected war the character of a crusade, and to excite the fierce spirit of the peasantry of the Apennine “fountains of waters,” who were doubly disposed to hate the French, as foreigners and as heretics. He also endeavored to form a close alliance with the King of Naples, who promised in secret to cover Rome with an army of thirty thousand men. Little reliance was, indeed, to be placed in the good faith of the Court of Naples; but the Pope was compared, by the French envoy, to a man who, in the act of falling, would grasp for support at a hook of red-hot iron.
Having ruined the hosts of Alvinzi, Napoleon was now at leisure to execute the Directory’s purpose of crushing the power, such as it was, of the Beast’s Image, commonly termed, “the Holy See.” To this end he sent his forces into the territories of the Church. Multitudes of fanatical peasants obeyed the sound of the clerical tocsin. The Pope’s army being taken in the rear, fled in every direction after a short resistance. A few hundreds were killed, among whom were several monks, who, holding the crucifix, or “sign of the beast,” in their hand, had placed themselves in the ranks to encourage the p. 496 soldiers. Faenza was taken by storm; and next day, three thousand of the Papalians in front of Ancona, commanded by the Pope’s general-in-chief, Colli, were made prisoners without firing a shot.
Resistance was unavailing. The False Prophet in vain solicited his subjects to rise against the second Alaric, who was approaching “the holy city.” They remained as deaf to his exhortations as “the blessed virgin, and apostles Peter and Paul,” who had of old been the fabled protectors of the Mother City of the Latin World in a like emergency. All was dismay and confusion in Peter’s patrimony, so called; and nothing less was expected by the French priests hiding in the city from Jacobin vengeance, than to be slain by the republican troops between the horns of the altar at which they had taken refuge. But, though this fate would only have been rewarding them according to their works, policy caused Buonaparte not only to restrain his soldiers, but to direct the Italian convents to afford them board and lodging at twelve shillings and sixpence sterling a month per priest: for which they were to receive masses ad valorem! thus assigning the convents payment for their hospitality in the same coin with which they themselves compensated the deluded people for their hard-earned contributions to the spiritual treasury.
The Neapolitan Court made no movement in defence of the Image of the Beast. The Pope therefore abandoned the proposed flight to Naples, which he judged equally unavailing with resistance; and decided on the humiliating alternative of unqualified submission to the will of the conqueror.
From considerations of policy, Buonaparte admitted the Pope to a treaty, by which he purchased such a political existence as was left him, at the highest rate which he had the least chance of discharging. He was compelled to cede Avignon and its territories; to resign the legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna; the occupation of Ancona; and to pay thirty millions of livres in specie or valuable effects, such as paintings, manuscripts, and objects of art. Thus Rome was, for the present, completely subjugated, and made to drink of the wrath of the third vial, because she was richly deserving of the visitation.
But “the Angel of the Waters” had not yet exhausted the wrath of the third vial upon the Two-Horned Beast of the Earth, in giving its populations of “the rivers and fountains of waters” blood to drink. The Aulic Council sent a sixth Austrian army under the Archduke Charles to renew the contest on the Italo-German frontier. Buonaparte took the field in March, 1797. The stars in their courses still fought against the Austrians. Pushed in every direction, they sustained every day additional and more severe losses. In a space of p. 497 scarce twenty days, he had defeated the Austrians in ten combats, in which Prince Charles had lost a fourth of his army; and now found himself incapable of covering Vienna from the attack of the invincible Napoleon. He retreated with hasty marches towards the capital of the Beast, to fight for the existence, it might be, of his brother’s throne, under its walls. But the terror, grief, and confusion of the Court and people, opposed this daring resolution. The wrath against the throne of Vienna was reserved for the fourth vial. The alternative of treaty was adopted by the Beast; and granted by Buonaparte, to the great disgust of the Directory, who argued, that it would have cost him but another victory to have blotted the most constant and powerful enemy of the French Republic from the map of Europe; or at least to confine her to her hereditary states in Germany. Napoleon’s policy prevailed, and the treaty of Leoben definitively altered in that of Campo Formio, established peace between France and Austria for a time.
The day of judgment had now arrived for the Republic of Venice. While Napoleon was driving back the archduke towards the throne of the beast, an insurrection was secretly organized by the Venetians, which broke out against the French in blood and massacre. By the appearance of an Austrian force from the Tyrol, they supposed that the fortunes of Buonaparte had at length found a check. But the awakening from this pleasing dream was equally sudden and terrible. News arrived of peaceful preliminaries between France and Austria. The Venetian Senate was lost in stupor and consternation. It despatched agents to deprecate the wrath of Buonaparte, who declared he would “prove an Attila to Venice.” When he heard of the massacres, his indignation rose to the highest pitch; and on May 3, 1797, declared war against Venice, which sealed forever the fate of the winged lion of Saint Mark.
But, notwithstanding these judicial “plagues,” the terrible wrath of the third vial was still unexhausted. The second vial was concurrently developing the blood as of a corpse; and the time had now come for the Man of Destiny to contribute his agency in aggravating its intensity upon the sea. Under pretence of invading England, immense preparations were made, the real purpose of which was a descent upon Egypt, the first object of which was the destruction of the power of the Mamelukes; and then, by establishing the French power there, and in Palestine, to subvert the dominion of the Turks in Constantinople, and of the British in India. The power of the Mamelukes, who styled their destroyer “the king of fire,” was completely broken; upper and lower Egypt were conquered; fire and sword were carried into the Holy Land; an army of eighteen thousand p. 498 Turks, landed by the British in Egypt, was annihilated; but Buonaparte, after all this success, instead of being in India or Constantinople, had lost his fleet by the battle of Aboukir, and was shut up with the wreck of his army in Egypt, unable to receive reinforcements because of the ships of Britain; and, for the same cause, unable to withdraw the remnant from its critical and desperate situation.
While the countries of the sea were thus becoming “blood as it were of a corpse,” the third angel was still pouring out wrath upon “the rivers and fountains of waters,” whereby blood was given them to drink. During the time Buonaparte was shut up in Egypt by the British fleet, war had broken out again between the French Republic and its enemies. The English had taken possession of the Dutch fleet, and landed an army of Russians and British in Holland; Austria had renewed the conflict on the sources of the Rhine, the Danube, and the Po; and had undertaken, with the aid of sixty thousand Russians under Suwarrow, to reconquer Italy, and to deliver the Pope. All this caused terrible carnage of the worshipers of the Beast’s Image in Switzerland and in all the North of Italy. The kingdom of Naples had been turned into the Parthenopean Republic; and the kings of Naples and Piedmont reduced to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia for their respective territories. But the renewal of the war infused hope into the hearts of all the adherents of the old order of things; and no little apprehension into them who had committed themselves in the support of the new. Blood flowed in torrents upon the rivers of Italy, and the fountains of Switzerland, of the Alps and Apennines. This field of battle was immense; and an erroneous idea then prevalent, that the key to the plain was in the mountain; and that, because heights are important on a field of battle of a few leagues, it was concluded that the power which was master of the Alps must be master of the Continent—this mistaken opinion determined the blind instruments of divine wrath upon one another, to select for their shambles the locality indicated in the phrase “rivers and fountains of waters.” The six campaigns of Napoleon had shed blood immensely; but sufficient had not been poured out proportionate to the crimes of the hosts and populations subject to the judgments. The terrible campaign of “the invincible Suwarrow,” as far as the issue of the war was concerned, was a useless destruction of multitudes; a destruction, however, that answered its judicial end. Austria recovered Italy for a few months; and Suwarrow’s host was miserably wasted among inaccessible rocks. The work of Buonaparte in Italy was undone; and the old despotism of the Two-Horned Beast seemed p. 499 to have reëstablished itself beyond the power of the French to shake it.
But the worshipers of the Beast’s Image had not even yet drank sufficiently of the cup of divine indignation. A file of newspapers transmitted to Buonaparte by Sir Sydney Smith, informed him of all the disasters that had befallen the French in Italy. He resolved, therefore, to risk capture by the British cruisers, and to leave Egypt for Paris. He left his army with Kleber and Dessaix, which was afterwards obliged to surrender to the British, and by them relanded in France, where Napoleon had safely arrived some time before. Soon after his return to Paris, a Cromwellian turn of the revolutionary wheel made him First Consul, by which he became “the head and the sword” of the Republic, Nov. 19th 1799.
Disappointed in the hope of peace with England, he proceeded to renewed efforts against Austria in Italy. This second was one of the most important campaigns of his life. With the strictest secrecy he made preparation for the renewal of the fortune of France, now united to his own. Though he assembled his forces with great publicity at Dijon as an army of reserve, which he reviewed on the 7th of May, 1800, its real destination was successfully concealed from the Austrians, whom it was intended to surprise, and attack in the rear. He set forward from Geneva on the 8th, to cross the Alps by St. Bernard, with sixty thousand men; while twenty thousand more were detached from General Moreau’s force, by way of St. Gothard, as his left wing. The route was pronounced to be “barely possible.” But the boundless and desolate scope of snow and sky had no terrors for the first consul and his army. Each soldier carried his sixty or seventy pounds weight; the artillery was dragged by a hundred men to each gun; and the carriages, in pieces, lashed upon the backs of mules. All difficulties were overcome; and on the 16th, the vanguard took possession of Aosta, a village of Piedmont.
Having passed fort Bard by strategem, and rested his army at Ivrea; and having deceived the Austrians as to his route, he pushed on to Milan unmolested, and entered that city June 2. He now issued a proclamation to his troops in which he declared, that the result he expected from their efforts was “cloudless glory and solid peace.”
The sanguinary battle of Montebello being fought, and the Austrians defeated, that of MARENGO soon followed, between thirty thousand French, and forty thousand Austrians. The immediate stake was the possession of Italy; and destruction to the party which should sustain defeat. After several hours fighting, the day seemed entirely against the French; but when the victory appeared within p. 500 the grasp of the Austrian commander, Melas, then eighty years of age, his strength failed entirely, and he was obliged to leave the field. General Zach was left to complete it. At this critical moment, Dessaix, who had just returned from Egypt, rushed forward, and charged the enemy, wearied with fighting the whole day; Dessaix was killed; Zach was made prisoner, and his troops forced back at all points with immense loss. Their disaster was complete. Melas capitulated to Buonaparte, who permitted him to retire behind Mantua; being satisfied with the glory of having regained in the affairs of Montebello and of Marengo, almost all the loss sustained by the French in the disastrous campaign of 1799. After an absence of two months he returned to Paris, where he was regarded as “the Sun of France;” where all was gloom when he was hid from her—when he appeared, light and serenity were restored.
Vanquished at Marengo, and then defeated in Germany by Moreau, the Austrians sued for peace. On Jan. 8, 1801, the French Republic, and the Aulic Council of the Beast at Vienna, concluded the treaty of Luneville. This marks the termination of the third vial. Those readers who have not access to history, will, in this sketch, find such an outline as will enable them to discern the verification of the prophecy in the awful calamities of the recent past. But, intensely calamitous as they were, there was not a judgment of them all that was not richly merited by all upon which it fell. Pope, kaiser, kings, and peoples are the representatives of a system of power, dyed red with the blood of men, of whom the world is not worthy. The third vial “gave them blood to drink,” which they could in no wise evade. “Thou art righteous, O Lord,” said the Angel of the Waters in the hearing of John, “because thou hast decreed these things”—plagues, or judgments. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” They forget the day of recompense. But the Lord God almighty does not forget. The sentence of the third vial was on record seventeen hundred years before its execution; and in the hands of all who had a copy of the Scriptures. Those who shed the blood of Christ’s Brethren, and oppress them in any way, must sooner or later be brought to judgment for the crime. “Whoso,” said he, “shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.” Illustrative of this is the cause assigned for the judgments of the third vial. “The rivers and fountains of waters” had offended the little ones who believed, in shedding “the blood of saints and prophets;” not the prophets of the Old Testament; these were slain by the Jews, who atoned for p. 501 the crime in the destruction of their State (Matt. xxiii. 34-39); but “the two prophets,” “who had power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they willed;” and who were hurt by their enemies in all the 1260 years of their days of the prophecy; and at length conquered and killed by the Beast of the Sea, at the instigation of its Name of Blasphemy enthroned as the Beast’s Image upon the Seven Hills. For slaying these, who flourished contemporarily with the fiercest days of the Lion-Mouth of the apocalyptic Babylon, the carnage of the third vial befell the countries where they mostly dwelt. The approval expressed by the Angel of the Waters, is responded to by another voice heard by John, proceeding from “the Altar.” The words of the seventh verse are represented as issuing thence, for the same reason that the Angel of ch. xiv. 18, is seen coming out from the altar, having power over fire. It is, because all slain for the witness of Jesus, being in him, the Altar, are regarded apocalyptically as partakers with the altar, and under the altar; and as all the judgments upon the worshipers of the Beast’s Image are on their account, the words, “Even so, Lord God almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments,” are represented as proceeding thence.
In conclusion, it may be noted in passing from the exposition of the prophecy of the third vial, that the fifth verse of this chapter reproduces the formula of the divine manifestation, previously announced in chap. i. 4, 8; and xi. 17—ὁ ὤν και ὁ ἦν και ὁ ερχομενος. But the “recent editors” of the original text tell us that, in the text before us, ὁ ερχομενος, He who is coming, is superseded in some manuscripts, by ὁ ὅσιος, the Holy One, which some of them prefer. Beza reads ὁ εσομενος, He who shall be; which is followed in the English Version. Upon this reading, Wordsworth says, “In no codex that I know is ὁ εσομενος found, which reading has passed into the English Version from Beza’s recension.” It may be true, that there is no such reading extant; and that there never was such a reading as Beza’s: the correctness, however, of ὁ ερχομενος, in ch. i. 4, 8; and iv. 17, is not disputed. “He who is coming” and “He who shall be,” are equivalent phrases; which “the Holy One” is not. No good reason can be adduced why “the Holy One” should be substituted for the prophetic announcement, that YAHWEH the almighty Elohim, who is and who was, is coming, or shall be, here again. In my translation, I have restored the ὁ ερχομενος to what, I conceive to be, its proper place. “He who is coming” is exceedingly appropriate in this fifth verse; inasmuch as the third vial, in the outpouring of its wrath, was a sign to those who witnessed its terrible judgments, that the coming, announced in the fifteenth verse, was steadily and surely approaching.
p. 502 The reader can therefore adopt my rendering, or that of the Common Version, which is essentially the same.
It may be further remarked here, that in regard to ch. xi. 17, all the recent editors cancel the words, και ὁ ερχομενος, on the authority of A. B. C., certain manuscripts of the fifth and seventh centuries; their omission is therefore recommended by the annotator of the new Baptist Version. I have no other objection to this, than that the Apocalypse when given, was a prophecy of things afterwards to transpire, preparatory to, and introductory of, the thieflike and glorious manifestation of Him “who is coming.” The divine formula, therefore, where introduced, as much required the words “and who is coming,” as the words “who is and who was,” in order to keep constantly before the minds of “the servants of the Deity” in all intermediate ages and generations, the great truth, until it shall be verified in the visible apocalypse of ὁ ερχομενος, THE COMING ONE. In the times of the A. B. C. manuscripts, the appearing of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, was deemed a pestilent heresy by the party in place and power; who had no scruples about altering and omitting words and phrases, if it suited their purpose. This being the fact, the testimony of their manuscripts is questionable. It is true, that in ch. xi. 17, the omission would seem warranted by the reason given for thanksgiving—“because thou hast taken thy great power and reigned;” which implies, that the almighty Elohim had come, and that therefore, after this event, to affirm that he is coming, would be anachronistic and inappropriate. This is true, still, for the reason given, I conclude, that the words were a part of the prophecy originally delivered to John, and ought not therefore to be omitted.
5. Act iv.—The Fourth Vial
“And the Fourth Angel poured out his vial upon the SUN; and it was given to him to scorch the men with fire. And the men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the Name of the Deity who hath power over these plagues, and they repented not to give glory to him.” —Vers. 8, 9.
The judgments or plagues of the Fourth Trumpet smote so as to darken a third part of the sun, moon, and stars; so that for a third part of the day, and of the night, there was no light. This has been expounded in my second volume, and needs only to be referred to by way of reminding the reader, that the sun, moon, and stars were there interpreted of the Imperial Catholic Constitution of the Western Third of the Roman Empire; which was superseded in Rome, by the Seventh Head, or Gothic kingly form of government; after the fall of which, Rome’s political day and night continued dark. p. 503 ened two hundred and forty years, when it again shone forth imperially, as the capital of “THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE,” founded by Charlemagne. The crowning of this conqueror by the Pope in Rome “emperor of the West,” terminated the Sun’s ternary eclipse; dark spots have since crossed its disc, but with the exception of these, the Imperial Sun of the Two-Horned Beast’s Image empire, has been subjected to no darkening, worthy of apocalyptic notice, till the epoch of the fourth and fifth vials, which have special reference thereto.
The Sun, then, of the fourth vial is the Imperial and Regal Sovereignty of European Antichristendom. The Pope, the Emperor, and the Kings, are the official terms indicative of the Sun in its shining forth upon the nations. To pour out wrath upon this sun, so that the outpourer should scorch with fire the men who have the sign of the beast, and who worship his Image, is to develop terrible disasters specially affecting in their consequences the power of these potentates.
“It was given to him to scorch the men with fire.” I doubt not, that this form of words was intended to indicate, that there would be a remarkable and distinguished personage concerned in the terrible operation of scorching “the men,” who are characterized as blasphemers of the Deity’s Name, “with fire,” whose heat was predicted to be “great.” We shall find that this scorcher of men, was the same whom the Egyptian Mamelukes termed “the King of Fire.” His theory was, that Providence was on the side of the heaviest artillery: this, however, depends upon its being “given to him” who scorches with it, to handle it judiciously. It was so given to Napoleon Buonaparte, who, until his mission was performed, surpassed all his contemporaries in the use of it. He was truly a scorcher of blasphemers with great heat.
6. Historical Exposition
Though the pacification of the European Continent in 1802, drove England into a momentary peace, the wrath of the Second vial still continued pouring out upon the sea. During the war with England, the navy of France was almost entirely ruined. Three hundred and forty vessels had been taken or destroyed, and almost all her colonies had falled into the hands of the English. Nevertheless, during the short peace with England, Napoleon fitted out an expedition of forty thousand men, which he embarked for St. Domingo to reduce the island to submission. The enterprise was disastrous in the extreme. Unable to conquer in fair and open fight, the French had recourse to p. 504 barbarities worse than ever before stained the annals of any people pretending to be civilized. After a doubtful and desperate struggle the French were expelled; and the expedition “became blood as of a corpse,” terminating, as it deserved, in defeat and disgrace.
War was renewed between France and England May 18, 1803, by which the wrath upon the sea was continued and increased.
On the 18th of May, 1804, Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor; and, as he had restored popery to liberty in France, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII., took a journey to Paris for the purpose of placing the crown of Charlemagne upon the head of one, whom the old blasphemer styled, “our dearest son in Christ, Napoleon, the emperor of the French.” This was practically an insult of the most galling character to the House of Austria; which, as Imperial Secular Chief of the Sun of Europe, claimed to be the legitimate successor of Charlemagne.
On the 26th of May, 1805, he received the iron crown of Italy, of which therefore he was now king, greatly also to the disgust of Austria.
While these things were transacting, Napoleon had resumed with much zeal the preparation of a maritime expedition against England. At the opening of the year 1805, a flotilla of two thousand small vessels, manned by sixteen thousand sailors, capable of carrying an army of a hundred and sixty thousand men, nine thousand horse, and a numerous artillery, was assembled in the ports of Boulogne, Etables, Vimereux, Ambleteuso and Calais. It was at this portentous moment, when the vulture was ready to pounce upon his prey, that Napoleon was roused from his revery by the startling announcement that all the forces of the Austrian monarchy to the number of two hundred and twenty thousand men, were in motion; and that a treaty had been signed on the 11th of April between Russia and England, in which they bound themselves to use their utmost exertions for forming a general league of the States of Europe, for the purpose of putting a stop to the encroachments of the French government, and the securing the independence of the different states. Two Russian armies were also preparing to join the Austrians, consequent upon this third coalition organized by England against France.
The wrath of the fourth vial now began to descend upon the Sun. Napoleon, to whom it was given to scorch with fire, abandoned the invasion of England, and marched for the Rhine, which he crossed on the 1st of October with an army of a hundred and sixty thousand men. By a series of bold manœuvres and successful actions, ninety thousand men under General Mack were cut off from the Austrian territories so completely, that by the middle of October he was entirely p. 505 surrounded in Ulm with thirty thousand men. Being summoned to capitulate, he thought it best to comply; and his whole force, with all his artillery, magazines, etc., surrendered themselves prisoners of war.
Vienna, the place of the Mouth of the Two Horned Beast (ch. xvi. 13), was now the object before Napoleon. The Austrians had been joined by the Russians; but they were not strong enough to retard his advance. The alarm at Vienna was extreme. The emperor Francis retired with all his court into Moravia, while the greater part of the nobility sought an asylum in Hungary. The inhabitants in general patiently awaited the conqueror, who entered the city on the 13th of November.
The French, with trifling loss to themselves, captured sixty thousand prisoners on their victorious march to Vienna. Without halting, the advanced-guard crossed the Danube, and pushed on to encounter the Russians in Moravia, where the main body consisted of about fifty thousand, under the emperor Alexander, and twenty-five thousand Austrians, under the emperor Francis. The French under the emperor Napoleon, who was his own general-in-chief, amounted to between seventy and eighty thousand. This battle of the three emperors was fought Dec. 2, 1805, on the plain of AUSTERLITZ, on the direct road from Vienna to Olmutz. The engagement began at sunrise and continued with the most scorching effect, “full of variety and sanguinary in the extreme,” until evening. On the following day the French advanced; when the Austrian emperor proposed an armistice, the terms of which being so humiliating, the emperor of Russia refused to become a party to it; and commenced a retreat in his own way. In addressing his soldiers on the day after the battle, Napoleon said, “An army of a hundred thousand, commanded by the emperors of Russia and Austria, has been in less than four hours cut to pieces and dispersed: they who have escaped your swords have perished in the lakes. Forty stand of colors, the standards of the imperial Russian guards, a hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, twenty generals, and more than thirty thousand prisoners, are the result of this for ever glorious day. Their infantry so vaunted, and so superior in numbers, has been unable to resist your onset; and henceforth you have no rivals to dread. Thus, in two months, this third coalition has been vanquished and dispersed.” This was truly “scorching the men with great heat.”
The peace of Presburg followed the victories of Ulm and Austerlitz, and was signed Dec. 26. The House of Austria, which had lost its foreign possessions, Belgium and the Milanese, was now farther curtailed of some of its German territories. Among its alienations, p. 506 it ceded part of the territory of Passau, and all its possessions in Swabia, Bresgau, and Ortenau, to the electorates of Bavaria and Wurtemburg, which were transformed into kingdoms. The treaty of Presburg completed the humiliation of the Austrian dynasty of the Two-Horned Beast of the Earth—an abasement began by the treaty of Campo Formio, and continued by that of Luneville, under the third vial; all of which was preparatory to the consummation under the fifth. On his return to Paris, Napoleon, “the King of Fire” and “Man of Destiny,” became the object of such universal admiration, that he was himself stunned by the general enthusiasm and intoxicated by his fortunes. He was now Napoleon “THE GREAT,” and the Senate decreed him a triumphal monument.
Such was the notable commencement of the outpouring of the wrath of Deity from the fourth vial “upon the sun” of the so-called “HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.” The efforts of Napoleon were henceforth directed to extend his dominions over the Continent of Europe. He invaded the kingdom of Naples, and on March 30, 1806, established his brother Joseph there as King of the Two Sicilies. Shortly after he transformed the United Provinces of Holland into a kingdom, and filled its throne with his brother Louis. All republics were abolished, save that of Switzerland. of which he declared himself the Mediator, and he finished the organization of his new military empire, by placing the Germanic Body dependent on himself. On July 12, 1806, fourteen provinces on the south and west of Germany were united in “the Confederation of the Rhine,” and Napoleon was recognized as their Protector. On Aug. 1st, they notified to the Diet of Ratisbon their separation from the Germanic Body; the Germano-Roman empire itself ceased to exist; and Francis II., abdicating the title, now adopted that of “EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA.”
The march of Napoleonic rapacity, and encroachment upon the rights and liberties of the worshipers of the Beast’s Image, gave rise to a fourth coalition, by which the wrath of the fourth vial continued to be “poured out upon the sun.”
While Austria and Russia were engaged in confronting the power of France, Prussia maintained a cautious neutrality. But alarmed now by the increase of the French empire, and encouraged by the fine condition of her troops, Prussia joined in a league with Russia to expel the French from Germany. Apocalyptically speaking, “every living soul in the sea” was now dead. The British arms had little employment. The number of ships and vessels of war in commission was truly enormous, being no less than seven hundred and twenty. The marine of France was almost annihilated, and the shattered remains of its fleets were shut up in its harbors, not daring p. 507 to venture beyond the jurisdiction of the batteries. The British navy was employed in blockading the hostile ports, and nothing of importance took place on the ocean.
The state of public affairs throughout the Continent of Europe at this eventful crisis was “without a parallel in history.” The submission and creation of kingdoms were become simple operations with which the world was beginning to become familiarized. An edict from Paris was all that was necessary to create a king, and furnish him with a kingdom. The promise of the annexation of Swedish Pomerania, Weigmar, and Hanover to his dominions, had tempted Frederick William III. of Prussia to desert “the Cause of Sovereigns,” and to lend himself to the imperial kingmaking projects of this terrible “king of Fire.” But when his Prussian Majesty learned authentically the projected infraction of the existing engagements of France with Prussia, Frederick William’s resentment became extreme. The tide of opinion at Berlin ran strongly in favor of war. On the 1st of October, the Prussian ambassador demanded that the French army without delay repass the Rhine; that the northern Germanic Confederation be established; and that certain places be separated from the Confederation of the Rhine. But to these requisitions Napoleon did not deign to reply, but advanced at the head of his troops with rapid steps, and approached the frontier of Upper Saxony before Prussia could possibly receive any aid from her ally the emperor of Russia.
At this moment of rashness and passion Prussia seemed almost to exult in the idea of entering alone into a contest with France; of whose mission to “scorch the men” of the Two-Horned Beast “with fire,” she was not yet able to perceive. Early in October, 1806, the whole collected force of the Prussians exceeded a hundred and twenty thousand men. The French were nearly of equal strength, but under very superior command. The two armies seemed to assume an attitude of mutual defiance. Napoleon by his manœuvres succeeded in turning the left of the Prussians, and in cutting off all communication with their magazines, by which he was enabled to occupy in force the heights of JENA, which had been deemed impracticable for artillery.
On the 13th of October, the action commenced, two hours after day-break, and quickly became general, exhibiting for some time equal skill and bravery; but a fierce cavalry assault under Murat, at once decided the fortune of this memorable day. Universal consternation ensued; and in the rout multitudes were slaughtered, and a still greater number made prisoners. The entire loss did not fall short of sixty thousand men, of whom twenty thousand were p. 508 killed and wounded; while that of the French was below five thousand. The rapid successes of the French, and the accumulated and scorching misfortunes of the Prussians, are without precedent in military history. Napoleon immediately took possession of Potsdam and Berlin, where he levied vast contributions, and sent the sword of Frederick the Great as a trophy to Paris. One after another, the different corps of the Prussian army were obliged to surrender; so that in little more than a month, the French had taken no less than one hundred and forty thousand prisoners, two hundred and fifty standards, and about forty-eight hundred pieces of cannon, of which eight hundred were taken in the field, and about four thousand were found in Berlin, and the fortresses which had capitulated.
After this dreadful scorching defeat at Jena, the king retired to Konigsburg, where he employed himself actively in collecting the scattered and feeble remains of his once formidable force. The French having made themselves masters of Silesia, the immense barrier which seemed to have wholly separated France from Russia, was now broken down; and the emperor Alexander resolved to make a grand effort to protect his own dominions, as well as to support the throne of Prussia and the independence of Europe. This resolution guaranteed the continuance of the outpouring of the scorching wrath of the fourth vial upon the sun, until the “King of Fire” should have run his course. In pursuance of this determination, an immense force was being collected in different parts of the Russian empire, and began to move towards the frontier.
The respective strength of France and Russia was now to be put to a scorching and decisive trial. The battle of Eylau on February 7, 1807, and that of Friedland, on June 14, removed the mysterious veil with which the operations on the Vistula had been covered by the contradictory assertions of the hostile parties. The battle of Eylau, though very sanguinary, was indecisive; while that of FRIEDLAND equaled those of Austerlitz and Jena; nor were its consequences less hostile to the independence of the potentates of Europe. The Russians were “scorched with great heat.” The fire of thirty pieces of cannon inflicted upon them dreadful loss; thousands were driven by bayonet-charges into the river Alle, where they found their death; and the streets of Friedland were covered with the dead. The defeat was total, and the carnage terrible, from fifteen to eighteen thousand being left dead upon the battlefield. This was wrath upon the Sovereign Sun, which scorched all under it with fire. The Russians recrossed the Niemen with a loss of forty thousand men, having in the space of eleven days, lost no less than twenty-seven generals, and eighteen hundred and forty-eight officers killed or p. 509 wounded. In their disastrous retreat they lost a great part of their artillery, and almost all their magazines and ammunition on a line of one hundred and twenty miles in extent.
These fiery results caused the Czar and the king of Prussia to seek an interview with Napoleon to treat of peace, which was consequently concluded at Tilsit, July 7, 1807. By this fatal war, the Prussian monarchy lost nearly the half of its territory and of its subjects, with more than half of its revenues; and Russia saw herself deprived of her extensive barrier against the dangerous and domineering power of France.
Freed by the peace of Tilsit from all apprehensions in the north, Napoleon was now at leisure to prepare, by his operations upon the Sun of the European Peninsula, for the scorching with fire of the worshipers of the Beast’s Image, subject to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. The Portuguese Court voluntarily migrated to Rio Janeiro, in Brazil, in consequence of Napoleon’s declaration, endorsed by a French army marching on Lisbon, that “the House of Braganza should cease to reign.”
A treaty had been concluded between the “egregious” king-maker, Napoleon, and Charles IV. of Spain, the object of which was a partition of the kingdom of Portugal. By a secret convention, French troops were to be admitted into Spain, and others assembled at Bayonne, to assist in the conquest of Portugal. Thus it was given under this fourth vial for Spain to be placed at the disposal of him, who was to “scorch with fire the men” who worshiped the Beast’s Image, both in Portugal and Spain.
Under the pretext, therefore, of invading Portugal, attacking Gibraltar, and sharing the spoil with “His Most Catholic Majesty,” the Corsican king-breaker, as well as king-maker, ingeniously contrived to introduce into the strong places, and most commanding positions of Spain, a hundred thousand men; and into Portugal, twenty thousand. In this manner, the revolutionary volcano had secretly and silently collected its convulsing and destructive forces; which began to pour forth its scorching streams of fire in March 1808. A report of the intended emigration of the royal family to Mexico, was the immediate occasion of the insurrection of the people. In the midst of this effervescence, Charles IV. abdicated the throne in favor of his son, the prince of Asturias, who succeeded him as Ferdinand VII. His friends and allies for the spoliation of Portugal, entered Madrid in support of his authority; by which friendly intervention, they found themselves to the number of sixty thousand, in full possession of the capital.
But the most extraordinary instance of political infatuation on record, p. 510 had yet to be developed. The two kings of Spain, with the whole of the royal family, and some of the principal grandees, were allured by pretexts full of illusions to migrate to Bayonne; the station which the PROTECTOR of Germany and the MEDIATOR of Switzerland had fixed upon for the more convenient accomplishment of his designs upon the Sun of the Peninsula. This rash and indiscreet step was followed by terrible commotions throughout the country, and particularly in Madrid, where the most terrible disorders, excited by the priests and monks, prevailed. Everything indicated a dreadful explosion, which ensued on the 2d of May. Volleys of grapeshot and charges of cavalry “scorched” the populace “with great heat;” who, though cleared from the streets, continued their attack upon the French from the windows of the houses; the doors were then broken open, and all who were found in arms were put to the sword.
The crisis had now arrived when “the king of fire” deemed it no longer necessary to dissemble his designs “upon the Sun.” At first he pretended a wish to restore Charles IV. to the throne; but perceiving Madrid to be in a ferment, and having the two kings in his power, he obliged them both to sign a formal abdication, and the infants Don Carlos and Don Antonio renounced all claim to the succession. This self-sacrifice effected, Napoleon proceeded to fill the vacant throne with a king that should do all his will. On the 25th of May, therefore, he issued a decree, declaring the throne of Spain vacant by the voluntary abdication of the reigning family, and ordering an assembly of prelates, grandees, etc., to be held at Bayonne, for the purpose of fixing the basis of a new government. A commission was also established for secularizing the lands of the church; which, as it vitally affected the covetousness of the priests of the Virgin Goddess, stirred up the exasperation of the public they controlled, indescribably. The result of the convention at Bayonne was, that, on the 6th of June, 1808, Napoleon conferred the crown of Spain upon his brother Joseph, who abdicated his kingdom of Naples in favor of Joachim Murat, who had married the sister of the wonderful man!
Such was the state of affairs in Spain, preparatory to his operations “to whom it was given to scorch the” Spaniards and Portuguese “with fire.” The renunciation of the crown in favor of Napoleon was the signal for a general insurrection. The patriotic flame burst forth in Asturia, whence it spread into Gallicia, and into several districts of Leon. A declaration of war was formally published by the assembly at Oviedo, which also sent deputies to request the assistance of heretical England against the infidel French! The request p. 511 was immediately acceded to, and every possible assistance in arms, munitions, and men, were lavished in support of the adherents of the Inquisition, and worship of the Image of the Beast!
The scorching operation now began in all the intensity of “great heat.” The success of the insurgent Spaniards during June and July were important and “brilliant;” while the losses of the French were greater than they had ever been in so short a period since the accession of Napoleon to the imperial throne. They now considered themselves to be fully adequate to their expulsion; which a little time, however, convinced them was a fatal delusion. They seemed to decline the aid of the British forces in the north; and recommended in preference an expedition to Portugal, a suggestion to which England acceded.
The French, in the two months under generals Murat, Dupont, Moncey, and La Febvre, had lost about fifty thousand men; and by the victory of Vimeira, and the convention of Cintra, they were expelled by the British from Portugal; who also captured the Russian fleet in the Tagus.
The new king Joseph, after a brief residence of seven days in Madrid, found it necessary to retire precipitately towards France, not forgetting to carry off with him the crown jewels, and other valuables of the palace. This state of affairs determined Napoleon to enter Spain, and to conduct the war in person. On the 2d of December, after defeating three native armies, he reached Madrid; which was now a horrible scene of confusion, being in the power of an ungovernable rabble. The city was surrendered on the 4th; and having reduced its affairs to order, he hastened to try to cut off the retreat of the English army under Sir John Moore, who was falling back upon Corunna. On arriving at Astorga, he found that the expected prey had eluded his grasp; he therefore turned over to his generals the farther operations against it, and soon after returned to France.
Though I shall now proceed to the exposition of the fifth vial, the reader must bear in mind, that the wrath of the fourth vial is not exhausted. Like that of the second, the fourth continues its concurrent operation, until that “powerful and extraordinary mortal, Napoleon,” is securely caged upon the rock of St. Helena.
7. Act V.—The Fifth Vial
“And the Fifth Angel poured out his vial upon the THRONE OF THE BEAST; and it was his kingdom which had been darkened; and they did gnaw their tongues with the anguish, and blasphemed the Deity of the heaven because of their pains, and because of their ulcers; and they repented not of their works.”—Ver. 10.
The subject of the outpouring of the fifth angel’s vial of wrath, p. 512 was “the Throne of the Beast.” After giving the reader this information, it is added, that “it was his kingdom which had been darkened”—εγενετο ἡ βασιλεια αὐτοῦ εσκοτωμενη: which was in effect saying, that the work of the preceding vials consummated in the fifth, had darkened the kingdom of the beast.
The kingdom of the beast was coëxtensive with the “Holy Roman Empire,” and the countries of the Apocalyptic Babylon, as symbolized by the Beast of the Earth, and the Beast of the Sea; whose populations all worshiped the Image of the Beast, enthroned upon the Seven Mountains. The spiritual authority is superior to the temporal in dignity, if not in material power; but, where the spiritual and temporal are united, and its decrees obeyed by all peoples and rulers, ecclesiastical and secular, the throne it occupies is emphatically “the throne” of such a dominion. The kingdom of the beast had many thrones occupied by secular potentates, none of whom had any legitimate spiritual jurisdiction. Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Naples, and so forth, had no authority in Rome and the Papal States; while in all these countries, the Old Man of the Seven Hills made kings and peoples tremble at his frown.
At the crisis of the fifth vial, only one thing remained, for the complete darkening of the political organization of which this throne was the chief, and that was, the obliteration of it from among the kingdoms of the world. When this should be accomplished, there would then be no throne to shed forth the sunlight of its glory upon the kingdom of the beast. The Bourbon kings of France, and Spain; the kings of Portugal, of Naples, of Sardinia, of Italy, were all wiped out; and the Holy Romano-German empire dissolved. All these old things had passed away; and all things had become new; in relation to which, the Pontifical Throne was a deformity and a curse. While therefore, the new things flourished in glory and power, this relic of an effete barbarism was decreed of Heaven to be wrathfully precipitated into darkness; and there to remain, until the reaction of unrepentant wickedness should cause its emergency from the shadow of death, in preparation for a second and final catastrophe at the band of Christ and the Saints.