Part 27

The Sixth Vial.

“And the sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared.” Rev. 16:12.

This symbol resembles a like prediction respecting ancient Babylon: “A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up,” (Jer. 50:38); and “I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry,” Jer. 51:36. Ancient Babylon was situated on the river Euphrates, which contributed to the wealth and greatness of the city, and was a means of its defence. The kings of Media and Persia, from the east of Babylon, subjugated it by diverting from the city the waters of the river, and entering by its unprotected bed. The turning of the waters into other channels, fulfilled the prediction that it should be dried up.

Waters, when used as a symbol, are explained to be “peoples, nations,” &c., Rev. 17:15. In the 17th chapter of the Apocalypse, the angel informs the revelator that he will show him “the judgment of the great harlot who sitteth on many waters,” (17:1); which implies that he had already seen a vision to that effect. He is then shown a woman on a scarlet-colored beast (v. 3), who is spoken of as sitting “on many waters” (v. 1), and on seven mountains (v. 10), and who is affirmed to be the “great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth,” v. 18. Under the seventh vial, the “great city,” which is “great Babylon,” is divided into three parts (16:19); and the inference is, that the harlot and ancient Babylon are analogous symbols of the same organized agency; and, that the city was here exhibited on the great river Euphrates.

As a woman clothed with sunbeams and crowned with stars (Rev. 12:1), and a city illuminated with the glory of God (Rev. 21:10), are each symbols of the true church, corresponding symbols of opposite moral characteristics are appropriate representatives of a corrupt and apostate church. As Jerusalem was the seat of the ancient church, so was Babylon the seat of her oppressors. The former is addressed as a woman, and told to put on her “beautiful garments,” (Isa. 52:1); and Babylon is called the “daughter of the Chaldeans,” and “the lady of kingdoms,” (Isa. 47:5): so that a woman, and a city of corresponding character, may, interchangeably, symbolize the same object. Consequently, the “Babylon,” and the “harlot” of the Apocalypse, both symbolize the corrupt Roman hierarchy.

Ancient Babylon is described as a harlot, and is addressed as one who “dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures,” (Jer. 51:13); whose end was to come by her waters being dried up, 51:36. That city sustained a relation to the waters on which it was situated, analogous to that held by the Roman Catholic church to the people who support and defend her pretensions. Their alienation and withdrawal from her support, must therefore be symbolized by the drying up of the great river Euphrates, which becomes diverted into other channels. This is now apparently being fulfilled in the marked alienation of feeling from the church of Rome, which is evident throughout the ten kingdoms. During the last twenty years, the hold of that community on the affection of her supporters in Europe, has been constantly becoming weaker and weaker. Infidel principles have been extensively propagated. Her cathedrals have been comparatively deserted; and her existence has been endured more as a matter of expediency than of affection. At the present moment, probably, the mass of the people have little confidence in her pretensions; but it will require a more marked withdrawal from her support than has yet been witnessed, to fulfil, in all its significance, the meaning conveyed in the symbol.

The “kings of the east,” whose way is to be thus prepared, are doubtless her enemies, who, having produced the desired alienation from her support, will take advantage of her defenceless position, and hasten her ruin; as the kings of Media and Persia, in like manner, subjugated old Babylon.

Under the operation of the sixth vial, and, according to the fulfilment of the preceding symbols, corresponding with the present time, are to be developed:

The Unclean Spirits.

“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the wild beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, that go forth to the kings of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Rev. 16:13, 14.

The “dragon,” “beast,” and “false prophet,” being regarded as symbols: the first, of the Roman empire previous to its subversion by the northern barbarians; the second of the ten kingdoms which subsequently arose; and the third, of the eastern Roman empire—now the Mohamedan power; the mouths of each, from which the frog-like spirits emerge, are next to be considered.

To the wild beast was given “a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies,” the power of which was “to continue forty and two months,” Rev. 13:5. The agreement of this with the corresponding appendages of Daniel’s “little horn” (Dan. 7:8), makes it evident that a “mouth” is a symbol of an ecclesiastical organization existing in a political one,—that it symbolizes the agency by which the people are taught, and is representative of ecclesiastics, who are the mouthpiece of the nation in all matters of faith and worship, p. 172.

The religion of Rome imperial, when symbolized by the dragon, was Paganism; that of the ten kingdoms, was the Papacy; and that of the eastern empire, is Mohammedanism. From these three, then, emerge the “unclean spirits.” Diverse as their origin appears, they have no marked individual peculiarities. Being alike in their characteristics, they must symbolize some common agency:—a combination of religious teachers, whose views harmonize in a system of belief common to Paganism, Catholicism, and Mohammedanism.

The character of these teachers, is shown by the declaration that “they are the spirits of devils working miracles.”

There are two words rendered devils in the New Testament, viz.: δαιμονιον (daimonion) or δαιμων (daimoon), and διαβολος (diabolus). The latter signifies the Devil, or Satan, who is the same as Beelzebub the prince of the demons, Matt. 12:25. He it was by whom Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, (Matt. 4:1-11); who sowed the tares in the field, (Matt, 13:39); and for whom, with his angels, the final punishment for the wicked is prepared, Matt. 25:41.

The word here, is daimoon. It is used, in different forms, sixty-five times by our Lord and his apostles; and on no occasion do they hint that they use the word in a sense different from its then accepted signification; to learn which, recourse must be had to the testimony of the Pagan, Jewish, and Christian writers of those times.(6)

HESIOD taught that, “The spirits of departed mortals become demons when separated from their earthly bodies;” and PLUTARCH, that “The demons of the Greeks were the ghosts and genii of departed men.” “All Pagan antiquity affirms,” says Dr. CAMPBELL, “that from Titan and Saturn, the poetic progeny of Cœlus and Terra, down to Æsculapius, Proteus, and Minos, all their divinities were the ghosts of dead men; and were so regarded by the most erudite of the Pagans themselves.”

Among the Pagans, the term demon, as often represented a good as an evil spirit; but among the Jews, it generally, if not universally, denoted an unclean, malign, or wicked spirit. Thus JOSEPHUS says: “Demons are the spirits of wicked men.” PHILO says that “The souls of dead men are called demons.” “The notion,” says Dr. LARDNER, “of demons, or the souls of dead men, having power over living men, was universally prevalent among the heathen of these times [the first two centuries], and believed by many Christians.” JUSTIN MARTYR speaks of “those who are seized by the souls of the dead, whom we call demons and madmen.” Ignatius quotes the words of Christ to Peter thus: “Handle me and see; for I am not a daimoon asomaton,—a disembodied demon,”—i.e. a spirit without a body.

The foregoing is evidence of the New Testament signification of the word daimoon, here improperly rendered devils,—spirits of which, the frog-like agencies are affirmed to be.

Demon worship is a characteristic of the three religions referred to. As already shown, all Pagans regarded their gods as the ghosts of dead men; and the Bible speaks of them as devils, i.e. demons. Moses says of them, “Even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods,” (Deut. 12:31); while the Psalmist affirms that “they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,” Ps. 106:37. “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up,” Deut. 32:17. Jeroboam “ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils,” 2 Chron. 11:15. “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils,”—i.e. of demons.

Of the same kind are the gods of the heathen now. In the Youth’s Day-Spring, for June, a missionary describing the alarm and grief of the Africans on the Gaboon river, at the near prospect of a death in their village, says: “The room was filled with women, who were weeping in the most piteous manner, and calling on the spirits of their fathers and of others who were dead, and upon all spirits in whom they believe, Ologo, Njembi, Abambo, and Mbwini, to save the man from death. These spirits could not help them, but they knew of none mightier, and so called on them.” Mr. White, a Wesleyan missionary, says: “There is a class of people in New Zealand, called Eruku, or priests. These men pretend to have intercourse with departed spirits, ... by which they are able to kill by incantation any person on whom their anger may fall.” The Sandwich Islanders, when they found that Christians supposed they worshipped the images of their gods, were much amused, and said “We are not such fools.” They used the idol as an aid to fix their minds on their divinity. Some of them supposed their divinity was a spirit residing in their idol.

The Mohammedans, while they recognize God, are also “taught by the Koran to believe the existence of an intermediate order of creatures, which they call Jin, or genii;” some of which are supposed to be good and others bad, and capable of communicating with men, and rewarding or punishing them. The 72d chapter of the Koran consists of a pretended communication from the genii to Mohammed. They are made to say: “There are some among us who are upright, and there are some among us who are otherwise;” and speaking of men: “If they tread in the way of truth, we will surely water them with abundance of rain,” i.e. will grant them plenty of good things. Thus they are recognized as dispensers of good. They bear a striking resemblance to the spirits which now pretend to communicate with men! All who are familiar with Arabian romances know how frequently genii, fairies, &c., figure as agents in the execution of wonderful exploits.

The Romanists also pretend to communicate with demons,—i.e. with departed spirits. They deify the Virgin Mary, and supplicate the intercessions of many departed saints; and some they supplicate, whose claim to saintship is somewhat equivocal. Their teachings in this particular, Protestants generally recognize as the subject of the following prediction: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils,”—demons, 1 Tim. 4:1.

Demon-worship being common to Paganism, Mohammedanism, and Popery, when the frog-like agency emerges from them, the conditions of the symbol seem to require that it shall originate with, but shall pass beyond and outside the influence of those religions. The agency thus symbolized, was to “go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world.” Its fulfilment requires a wonderful and an alarming increase of those who teach and believe these doctrines; and as they are to work miracles, whereby the world will be deceived, their teachings are to be accompanied by extraordinary phenomena, which will be unexplainable by any of the known laws of science. The spirits of the departed are to be recognized by them as authoritative teachers, who are to be reverenced and obeyed. They will be regarded as communicating with mortals, as unveiling the hidden things of the invisible state, and as performing acts requiring the exercise of physical power. The former are evident from the analogy which exists between this and demon-worship; and the latter, from the ascription to them of miraculous acts.

The existence of demoniacal intelligences, capable of communicating with and acting on mortals, appears to be in accordance with the teachings of the Saviour and apostles. Demoniacal possessions are clearly distinguished from all diseases; and demons are shown, by the admissions of the New Testament, to be actual intelligences, capable of physical power. When the fame of Christ “went throughout all Syria, they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those which had the palsy; and he healed them,” Matt. 4:24. “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first,” Matt. 12:43-45. “And as they went out, behold they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.(7) And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake; and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils,(8) through the prince of the devils,” Matt. 9:32-34. “And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son; for he is lunatic, and sore vexed, for oft-times he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour,” Matt. 17:14-18. “And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit: and he cried out, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with what authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him!” Mark 1:23-27. “And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God! I adjure thee, by God, that thou torment me not. (For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.) And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine; and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea (they were about two thousand), and were choked in the sea,” Mark 5:2-13.

In all these instances, the demons are recognized as actual intelligences, performing given acts. Without the admission of this, it will be difficult to explain the meaning of a large class of scriptures. It cannot for a moment be supposed that the inspired writers would be permitted to use language which should directly mislead the common mind.

Among the miracles which the apostles wrought, “unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed,” Acts 8:7. “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs, or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And many that believed, came and confessed, and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver,” Acts 19:11-16, 18, 19.

The necromancy, divination, and witchcraft, forbidden in the Old Testament and practised by the heathen of those times, were all of a similar character. A necromancer was one who had, or pretended to have communication with the dead,—who sought “for the living to the dead,”(9) Isa. 8:19. They practised divination in divers ways, but usually admitted their dependence on familiar spirits,—the spirits of the departed,—demons. “The king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver. At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering-rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort. And it shall be unto them as false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken,” Ezek. 21:21-23. They observed times, i.e. they regarded some as lucky, and others as unlucky times for the commencement of any work,—recognizing distinctions which God had not made. The heathen divinities were regarded as more propitious at some times than others. It is enumerated among the sins of Manasseh, that he “made his sons pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards,” 2 Kings 21:6.