Проповеди и лекции

t as " the mother of harlots and abommatioiis of the earth,*' that i% in the Nen>e of an unfitithful wife, the tdotatrous mother of »ll idolatries and abominable supertviitioD^, within the boundaofwhat 15 called the earth, which we see by our text is 3 It t n^ 970 THE i>Rrf>o uF 6P Ttrr euphaati:*, [XMt. not the whole woHd, but only the portion of appertatmng to the ten king^a of the Ronuin Empire, aa will hereafter be dj^clared. Wlivn thus it ai pean^Oi, that, throughout thin prophecy, Babyl< ifl to be understood not literally^ biit of the poD< tificQl city of Ron>e, yre tire prepared to look U some symbolical mtcrprtlation also of the river Eu|)hrate5, which was the rirer that through tlie midst of the city of Babylon ! the more if we should find, as I assert to be the case, that every other place mentioned in the book ia taken symbolically, ard not literally. The questiciii, therefore, which first artacth, is. What is aij hereunder the symbol of the fjreat rircrEuphrati upon which the jud|;ment of the sixth vial poured out by the holy angel? There bcm^ no divine interpretation of fiymbol in the la^t six chapters which cool the keys of the mystery of the book, wc are h to conclude, that it did nnt need any Uirine guidance, but would discover itAelf to the carcM and jiidiciouH contMileration of any ititerpi who well and widely tiseth the master which are given. To thia eareftti considerati< let lis then address oarsetves. And because the loosing of any knotty part of Scripture abooU first be attempted from the context, and then fn» the parallel p&ssagCA, we fix our eye fintt iip<i^| the context ilsetf, where we find that thia ri^^ being po\ired out upon the waters of the gnat river Eaphrateft, there straightwuv cniucth a dry- ing up of the same, that the w^y of the kio^fl of the East might be prepared. And in the rer^^ following, we find that not only the kings of ik earth, bnt the kings of the whole worid, and eoa* »rete^^ ratiaS Ll IV,] Til K on VIVO LP or the SUPIlHATt*. 97 1 sequcntly those kings uf the East among the rest, cuine marching to the great gathering of Antia- gcddou, to the battle of that great d:iy of God Almighty. From ihi», it U niaiiifctL that the river Euphrates, whatever it is, did ^on\e how iiiterpoec a barrier in the way of those kiDg:^ of the East, preventing them from the purpose which God had to fulfii by their means. That vre may discover what the end of their jotime}-iug to Ihe great i]iiiMtep-|jlnce ix, lei u^^ pursue t