The Seventh Vial – By J.A. Wylie
Modifications from the original PDF file
I first got the text of The Seventh Vial – By J.A. Wylie from archive.org. I wanted to make a nicer looking PDF edition and also post this book in sections on the James Japan website in HTML text format in order to make Pastor Wylie’s keen insights on the book of Revelation easier to read and study, not only from a PC screen, by also from a small phone screen. From my Android phone I can also listen to the text of Pastor Wylie’s book by using a text to voice app. PCs are getting less and less used by the public because phones have become so good, they can do nearly everything most people need to do on it. I use my PC mostly when I want to do some real work such as work on this website.
Things that are different from the original PDF file are:
- Long paragraphs divided into shorter ones.
- Many Bible verses indented.
- The Greek words were not readable and replaced with (Greek word).
- Uncommon words followed by definitions added next to them in parenthesis.
- Roman numerals used for Bible references changed to regular numbers.
- I included the emphasis on some words the author put in italics, but I sometimes added my own emphasis in either italics or bold.
PREFACE.
IT is somewhat of an experiment to wake up a book which has slept for twenty years. The Author may not have done wisely in making this experiment in the present instance. The “Seventh Vial” was first given to the Public in 1848. It quickly ran through several editions, and was then permitted to drop out of view. All the while there have been occasional inquiries for it; and, of late, these have grown so numerous as to induce the Author to issue a new, a revised, and a very much enlarged edition.
Since the first appearance of this work, great events have taken place. The Popish nations, emerging from revolution, have had to endure a ten years’ infliction of military tyranny, technically known as “a state of siege.” The Pope has been stript of the fairest portions of his territory, and has seen his affairs, as well as those of Europe generally, brought into great confusion and entanglement. Austria, the firmest prop of the Papacy, worsted on the battle-field, has fallen as a great military power; casting, for the first time in history, the political balance on the side of Protestantism. In these events, the Author has seen a manifest progression of the Apocalyptic drama, and an obvious preparation, in the weakening of the Ecclesiastico-political despotisms, for the final doom of the Antichristian system.
Events have modified the Author’s interpretation of the Apocalypse in some of its details; but they have only deepened and strengthened his conviction that the line which he has followed, and which makes Providence the one and only interpreter of prophecy, is the only sound one. It is the true Baconian method; and is wide asunder from the imaginative, theoretic, and unscientific expositions which of late have issued from both Germany and America, and which have their imitators in this country. It is, moreover, the method which has been, followed by the Church of God from the beginning.
May the Author’s humble labours help to confirm the faith of men in the inspiration of that Book which is being fulfilled before their eyes; and dispose the Church to welcome with reverence and joy a CRISIS, which the intimations alike of Providence and of prophecy lead us to believe will be more stupendous than any which has passed over the world since the era of the crucifixion.
THE SEVENTH VIAL. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.
IN magnificence and terror the judgment of the Seventh VIAL stands alone. It rises grandly pre-eminent among the other awful scenes of the Prophetic Volume, showing, Etna-like, its summit of flame. Its vengeance will surpass all that has been before it since the world was destroyed by water, and all that will come after it till the world be again destroyed by fire. It ranks as one of the three mighty dispensations, standing midway between the antediluvian Deluge and the post-diluvian Conflagration.
Viewed in all its comprehensiveness, as the closing act of a great drama, which began so early as the days of Daniel, and has ever since been advancing step by step to its consummation, this culminating judgment will form the most finished demonstration of God’s power and justice of which earth has been the scene, or guilty man the object. The glory of this event will reflect its rays far into the Past, and dart its splendour forward into the Future. In the light of the Seventh Vial the scheme of prophecy will stand revealed.
The veil will be lifted alike from what is dark in the Bible and from what is mysterious in Providence. The admirable wisdom and beautiful order of past dispensations will be clearly seen; fresh light will be shed upon the character of God; and the great principles of truth and righteousness will be settled on a stable foundation for all time to come. It is the finishing of the mystery of God, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets. How great shall that event be! The great empires which the doom of heaven righteously overwhelmed of old—Babylon, Egypt, Jerusalem—were but types of that CITY on whom this Vial is to be poured out; and in her consummated ruin shall all these types find their complete fulfillment. Who can conceive the terrors of a judgment comprehending in itself the combined vengeance and accumulated horrors under which the great empires we have named were overthrown and utterly broken?
And is it not meet that this judgment should be one of unexampled terror? Let us think of the consolidated strength of that kingdom which this judgment is to break in pieces, and the enormous guilt which it is to avenge. By this stroke, an enemy greater than Babylon, greater than Edom, greater even than imperial Rome, is to be brought down—an enemy whose rage and craft, whose malignity and strength, have never been surpassed, never equalled—an enemy which has committed more crimes, and violated more oaths—which has shed more blood, and crushed more victims—which has brought more woes upon the earth—seduced and destroyed more souls—and defied God with more effrontery, and for a longer time— than any other enemy that ever arose. It is this enemy whom the Seventh Vial is to sweep away. The prayers and hopes of the Church have looked forward to this event during past ages; and when it shall have been accomplished, her songs and thanksgivings will look back upon it throughout all succeeding eras.
That was a majestic hymn which was sung of old at the Red Sea. The tribes, just come up out of the depths, and marshalled on the shore; awed by the destruction of their foes, and thrilled by the magnitude of their own deliverance, vented their feelings in a shout of joy, which woke up the echoes of the wilderness, and drowned the thunder of the surge, which was now rolling above Pharaoh and his chariots. This scene is to be repeated on a greater scale. Before those Apocalyptic visions, which are to pass before us, shall close, we shall behold another flight from the house of bondage, another passage through the abyss, another tremendous overthrow, and shall hear another peal of triumph, louder and mightier than the first, even the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Yes, when a greater enemy shall fall than he whose destruction the timbrel of Miriam celebrated, a shout of joy will publish it to the ends of the earth; and the melody of that shout, rolling in triumphant numbers over the world, will meet its re-echo from the heavens, in the hallelujahs of angels, and the songs of prophets, and apostles, and martyrs. “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.”
Continued in Chapter II. Apocalyptic symbols
All chapters of The Seventh Vial – By J.A. Wylie
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