Revelation 11:15

And the seventh angel sounded; the last of those angels mentioned Revelation 8:2. And there were great voices in heaven, saying; St. John in his vision heard great acclamations and shoutings for the victory which Christ and his gospel had got over the beast. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever; so that a great part of the world, casting off the papacy, that new Gentilism, together with all their abominable idolatries and superstitions, embraced the truth of the gospel. Here ariseth a great question, whether the seven vials, of which we shall find the 16th chapter treating, \Revelation 16:1\ do belong all to the seventh trumpet, or some of them belong to the sixth trumpet, of which mention hath been before made. Great divines are on both sides as to this question. Mr. Pool, in his Latin Synopsis, hath collected together their reasons, of which I shall give a short account, leaving my reader for a fuller satisfaction to the Latin Synopsis. Those who think that the seven vials do all relate to the seventh trumpet, and contemporize with it, in defence of their opinion say:

1. That the seven seals, and the seven trumpets, and the seven vials, are all mentioned in the same form of speech; and therefore the seven vials are not to be divided, some to one trumpet, some to another.

2. Because the seventh trumpet and the seven vials are one and the same thing, nothing being revealed under the seven vials which doth not belong to the seventh trumpet; they agree in their titles of woes, in the nature of the revelations, in their objects, both the one and the other declaring the ruin of antichrist; both of them are mentioned as the last plagues to come upon the world before the last day.

3. All the vials are of the same nature, declaring but the judgments by which God, setting up the kingdom of Christ, would ruin antichrist; they only differ in the degrees of the plagues, each one rising higher than the other.

4. The seventh trumpet cannot declare the ruin of antichrist, unless the seven vials be poured out under it, for they show the means by which he must be destroyed.

5. The seventh trumpet soundeth immediately upon the slaying of the witnesses, and contemporizeth with the whole course of their renewed liberty, and therefore the period signified by it must be before the fall of antichrist, declared by the sixth vial.

6. The seventh trumpet soundeth immediately after the expiration of the twelve hundred and sixty days; before the end of which none of the vials were poured out. Those who think that divers of the vials were poured out, or shall be poured out, before the sounding of this seventh trumpet, say, that the beast's kingdom beginning to fall under the sixth trumpet, several of the vials, declaring the degrees of his falling, must belong to that. It appeareth by all we have in this chapter Revelation 11:7, that antichrist's kingdom was in a great measure weakened under the sixth trumpet, particularly from Revelation 11:11. To which those who think that all the vials related to the seventh trumpet say, that they grant that there were some preparations to the final ruin of antichrist, during the period of the sixth trumpet, but the seven vials signify the further progress and perfection of his ruin, which falls under the period signified by the seventh trumpet. This being premised, I proceed with the text. It is doubted here whether those words, are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, be to be understood as being actually so, or now beginning to be so. Those who make the sense that they now actually were so, must understand the time to be the day of judgment, or some time next to it, and consequently must think that five at least of the seven vials, mentioned Revelation 16:1, belonged to the sixth trumpet. Those who make the sense, are beginning to become the kingdoms of the Lord, or shall shortly be so, may make all the seven vials to belong to the seventh trumpet. By becoming the kingdoms of the Lord Christ, he means in outward profession; so as antichrist shall reign no more, but they shall be ruled by the officers of the Lord Christ, until they be taken up to reign with him in glory.