be understood metaphorically, not literally; for so the construction of the Apocalypse requires.  It may import the festering of unmortified corruption among the votaries of Antichrist, intensified by the faithful application of the divine law by the witnesses.—­The object of the second vial is the “sea,” the same as that of the second trumpet, (ch. viii. 8, 9.) The allusion is to Exod. vii. 20, 21.  Intestine commotions, with war, blood and death, seem to be symbolized.  The horns of the beast were often turned against one another; for the bestial kingdom was “partly broken.”  The toes in Nebuchadnezzar’s image did not “cleave one to another.” (Dan. ii. 42, 43.)—­The object of the third vial is the “rivers and fountains of waters,” (ch. viii. 10; Exodus vii. 19.) These symbols may signify the several kingdoms of the empire, tributary by their wealth and traffic to the great city.  And as the witnesses continued to prophesy, giving increased point and publicity to their testimony, and as the Turks were making encroachments upon the territories of nominal Christian princes in the west, extensive wars and great slaughter were the results.  These awful judgments are followed by the plaudits of two angels.  The eternal Jehovah is recognized as the Author of these judgments.  The Mediator may here be understood, (ch. i. 8;) (John v. 22, 27.) The “angel of the waters” may be the same who poured out the vial.  He gives to the Lord the glory of his justice:—­“Thou art righteous.”  He also approves the “law of retaliation:”—­“For they are worthy.”  The other angel “out of the altar” speaks on behalf of the martyrs, (ch. vi. 9, 10,) recognizing the faithfulness of God:—­“True and righteous are thy judgments.”

8.  And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

9.  And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give him glory.

Vs. 8,9.—­The object of the fourth vial is the “sun,” (ch. viii. 12.) “Power was given him,”—­the angel.  The two witnesses are represented as armed with “fire, which proceedeth out of their mouth, devouring their enemies,” (ch. xi. 5.) As the formal object of all the vials is the ecclesiastical, rather than the civil empire, and the sun is the symbol of the chief dignitary, perhaps this vial strikes more directly upon the “man of sin.”  The expression in the introduction to the vials, (ch. xv. 4,)—­“thou only art holy,” seems to be a testimony against the antichristian “name of blasphemy,”—­“His Holiness.”  By the Reformation, symbolized by successive angels of the fourteenth chapter, those valiant men tormented the Pope and his vassals, so that they raged and blasphemed more and more, but “repented not to give God the glory.”  So it was at the sounding of the sixth trumpet, (ch. ix. 20, 21.)

10.  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,