An humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God's people in…

'Tis very plain from this whole Chapter, as also the preceding and following, that all these seven Vials are Vials of God's Wrath on Antichrist; one is not poured out on the Jews, another on the Turks, another on Pagans, another on the Church of Rome; but they all signify God's successive Judgments or Plagues on the Beast and his Kingdom, which is in this Chapter and almost every where in this Book, called GREAT BABYLON. And therefore undoubtedly, when it is said, The sixth Angel poured out his Vial on the River Euphrates, and the Water thereof was dried up, that the Way of the Kings of the East might be prepared; by the River Euphrates is meant something some Way appertaining to this mystical Babylon; as that River that ran through Chaldea, called Euphrates, was something appertaining to the literal Babylon. And 'tis very manifest, that here is in the Prophecy of this Vial an Allusion to that by which the Way was prepared for the Destruction of Babylon by Cyrus; which was by turning the Channel ⟨p. 154⟩of the River Euphrates, which ran through the Midst of the City, whereby the Way of the Kings of the East, the Princes of Media and Persia, was prepared to come in under the Walls of the City, at each End, where the Waters used to run, and destroy it; as they did that Night wherein Daniel interpreted the Hand-Writing on the Wall, against Belshazzar, Dan. v.30. The Prophecies of Babylon's Destruction, do from Time to Time take Notice of this Way of destroying her, by drying up the Waters of the River Euphrates, to prepare th• Way for her Enemies; Isai. xliv.27, 28. That saith to the Deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy Rivers; that saith of Cyrus, He is my Servant, and shall perform all my Pleasure. Jer. li.31, 32. One Post shall run to meet another, to show the King of Babylon that his City is taken at one End, and that the Passages are stopped, and the Reeds they have burnt with Fire, and the Men of War are affrighted. And Ver. 36. I will dry up her Sea, and make her Springs dry. The Medes and Persians ▪ the People that destroyed Babylon, dwelt to the Eastward of Babylon, and are spoken of as coming from the East to her Destruction;