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REVELATION, Chap. XVI.
  
  
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REVELATION, Chap. XVI.

Already from before the sacred throne
The sev'n avenging ministers are gone;
Charg'd with the last great plagues behold they stand,
With each his various mischief in his hand:
Sev'n trumpets give the sign, at ev'ry call,
In order they the wrathful dregs let fall.
A prelude sounds: The first his vial pours
Amidst the air, ensu'd by sulph'rous show'rs;
While from their caves portentous tempests rise,
And pitchy clouds obscure the angry skies.
They sound again; the ocean's briny flood
The second vial turns to streaming blood:

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Again; and lo! a burning comet takes
Its downward way, and drinks the fresher lakes;
The lakes, the swelling springs, and running streams,
Are all a prey to its malignant beams.
His signal now the fourth great angel takes,
And o'er the sun a livid venom shakes;
The beauteous orb a bloody tincture wears,
And with a fierce malignant horror glares:
The silver moon resigns her trembling ray,
While all the faint nocturnal lights decay.
Another echoing clangor shakes the sky;
And open wide th' infernal portals fly,
Revealing all the dismal realms below,
The dens of night, and seats of endless woe;
Ascending smoke pollutes the sickly air,
While ruddy flames amidst the darkness glare.
Now the sixth trumpet's direful sounds succeed;
And from their adamantine setters freed,
The raging fiends from long confinement come,
With monstrous shapes in open air to roam:
A gloomy host! in terrible array
They march along; pale horror leads the way,
And in its ghastliest form before them walks;
Behind them empty desolation stalks.
The sev'nth shrill trumpet utters now its voice,
Thro' earth and hell resounds the dreadful noise:
‘Arise, ye dead, arise to judgment! come,
‘And take according to your works your doom!’

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Th' extended skies are rent from pole to pole,
The light'nings flash, the final thunders roll,
The graves divide, the startled dead awake,
And hov'ring souls their former mansions take.