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EXPLANATION OF SCRIPTURE PROPHECY.

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES; OR THE DARK PROPHECIES OF SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATED BY THE APPLICATION OF PRESENT IMPORTANT EVENTS.

Written in Great-Britain, during the Years 1793, 1794 and 1795.

BY J. BICHENO.

PRINTED AND SOLD BY RICHARD DAVISON, IN WEST-SPRINGFIELD. SOLD ALSO BY THE DISTRIBUTERS OF THE AMERICAN INTELLIGENCER, &c. &c.

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PART I.

ADVERTISEMENT.

HISTORY no where informs us of any event so extraordinary as the late revolution in France. If viewed on all sides, with its attend­ing circumstances, by an attentive and unprejudiced eye, it must surely excite the greatest astonishment; and those who have been used to unite in their minds the providence of God with human occurrences, (whether they approve of this great change of things or not,) cannot help inquiring, Is this from men, or is it from God? Is it one of those commotions produced by the conflicting passions of men, that rise and sink, and are soon forgotten; or is it one of those events which mark the great aeras of time, and from which originate new orders of things?—If the latter, it is undoubtedly the theme of prophecy.

Appearances indicate that this will be a fatal stroke to the Papal usurpations, and to the reign of despotism. Those prophecies, there­fore, which direct our hopes to that interesting period, when all Antichristian tyrannies are to perish, deserve, at this time, peculiar attention. But where shall we find a clue to guide us in our inquiries? The author of the following thoughts consulted commentators the most generally approved, on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation of John. He found much to edify and excite curiosity, but was still in the midst of a wilderness. At length he was determined to commit himself to his own investigations, and explore these regions of won­ders, without placing implicit confidence in any guide. Circum­stances led him to conjecture, that the beast which John saw coming up out of the earth, was Lewis the Fourteenth, or the French tyranny perfected by him, and supported by his successors, and that it was this beast which slew the witnesses. This is the clue which he has followed, and he thinks it is that by which the mazes of these wonder­ful visions, at least as far as they have been accomplished, may be traced with precision, and some things which are yet to come be con­jectured with great advantage. But without this to guide us, all seems confusion.

[Page iv] A serious application to the study of the prophecies, and an at­tentive observation of the signs of the times, have produced in my mind the strongest persuasion, that the utter downfal of the Papacy, [...] of despotism, the restoration of the Jews, and the renovation of all things, are near at hand; and that every year will astonish us with new wonders. "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all way, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be *." From this persuation arises the indispensable duty of calling the attention of mankind, with peculiar earnestness, to the things which belong to their peace. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord coming, for it is nigh at hand ."

I know what an author, who writes on subjects like these, has to ex­pect. But my heart tells me, that I publish these thoughts with the purest intentions, and that my only aims are to serve the interests of Chirstianity, to promote the welfare of my countrymen and the com­mon cause of humanity, by inviting men to consider the signs of the times; that, as individuals, and as a nation, we may examine our ways, repent, and reform; that thus the Divine displeasure may be averted, and that constitution, which has secured to this empire so many bless­ings, to which most other nations are strangers, may be purified and strengthened, and by these means be continued to our posterity. I do therefore most fervently pray, that God may succeed this feeble attempt, and bless us, and all men, with peace.

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FIRST INQUIRY.

IN endeavouring to make good this hypothesis, that the signs of the times indicate the speedy downfal of all that spiritual and civil tyranny, which for so many ages has prevailed, in opposition to the principles of the kingdom of Christ, the Prince of Peace, there are three inquiries which claim our attention.

The first respects the dragon and the beasts, which John saw in his visions. Rev. xi. 7. xii. and xiii.

The second respects the witnesses, Rev. xi.—and the third inquiry is, Whether all numbers of Daniel and John, which refer to the latter days, will agree with the present times? Let us, with that reverence and devout candour which become us when we apply to the word of God for instruction, attend to these several inquiries.

The grand scene of the prophetic visions of John opens in the fourth chapter of the Revelation, and is continued to the end of the book. The whole may be considered as a number of scenic pictures. Chapter the eleventh is a miniature picture of the history of the church (the western church especially) from the earliest times to the downfal of all Antichristian usurpations. The following visions are of the same pic­ture variegated, for our instruction, on a larger scale.

As there are some, into whose hands those pages may fall, who have not been used to attend to subjects like these which we are going to discuss, it may be proper briefly to consider the origin of that sort of language, and of those hieroglyphic, or more properly symbolical, re­presentations, which we meet with in the prophets.

The first mode of writing appears to have been by pictures of things, and it must have been a long time before mankind arrived at any degree of perfection in the science of letters, as we now have it. To express ideas by a combination of letters, syllables, words, and sentences, is a more wonderful invention than most people imagine. The most natu­ral way of communicating our conceptions by marks and figures, is by tracing out the images of things; and this is actually verified in the case of the Mexicans, whose only method of writing their laws and history, when the Spaniards first visited them, was by this picture writing. The hieroglyphics and symbols of the Egyptians and Hebrews, were an improvement on this rude and inconvenient essay towards writing. It would be improper to enter far into this subject here; I shall therefore say no more than just what may be thought necessary to shew that the figurative style, and the symbolical representations, which we meet with in the scriptures, are not so out of the way as some may be apt to imagine; nor the workmanship, as Dr. Warburten * expresses it, of the prophet's h [...]ted and wild imagination, as our modern libertines would persuade us, but the sober, established language of their times.

In the symbols and hieroglyphics of the ancients, a lion stood for strength and courage; a bullock was a representation of agriculture; a horse of liberty; a spkinx of subtilty; a pelican of paternal affec­tion; a river-horse of impudence; horns of strength and pre-eminence. Among the Phenicians a horn was the ensign of royalty; and hence [Page 11]they came to be used by the prophets, to denote sovereignty and domi­nation, states and kingdoms. The sun, moon, and stars also, were the symbols of states and kingdoms, kings, queens, and nobility; their eclipse stood for the temporary difasters which afflicted them, and their extinction, for their entire overthrow. If this be considered, we need not wonder at what we meet with in the holy scriptures, and especially in the prophecies. The prophets speak in the language of the times in which they lived, and represent things under symbols then well understood; and though this mode of representing things is not so usual among us, yet we have something of it too. Modern heraldry is a sort of hieroglyphics, and we here meet productions as fictitions and monstrous as a lion with the wings of an eagle, or as a beast with seven heads and ten horns.

In the prophetic writings, fierce and savage beasts are the hieroglyphic emblems of tyrannic monarchies and states, and the peculiarities of these monarchies and states are represented by suitable creatures, and by such appendages, as are proper to identify them, and describe their characters. Thus in Dan. vii. 4. the kingdom of Babylon is repre­presented under the image of a lion with eagle's wings, to type out, not only its power, but the rapidity of its conquests, and the height of splendour to which it was raised. The kingdom of the Medes and Per­fians, (ver. 5.) is represented by a bear with three ribs in its mouth, to which it was said, Arise, devour much flesh. This was to shew the cruelty of these people, and their greediness after blood and plunder. Their character was that of the all-devouring bear, which has no pity. The ribs in the mouth of it represent those nations which they especially made a prey of.—The kingdom of the Macedonians, or Grecians, is characterized (ver. 6.) by a leopard, with four heads, and four wings of a fowl. The leopard is remarkable for its swiftness; hence, and especially with the wings on its back, it was a fit emblem of the con­quests of the Macedonians under the command of Alexander, who con­quered part of Europe and all Asia in six years. As the lion had two wings, to represent the rapidity of the Babylonian conquests, so this leopard has four, to signify the swifter progress of the Macedonians. The four heads also are significant. They are intended to represent the same circumstance as the four horns of the he-goat in the eighth chapter. Fifteen years after the death of Alexander, his brother, and two sons being murdered, his kingdom was broken, or divided, by Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy and Seleucus, into four lesser king­doms, which they seized for themselves.

It may not be amiss in this place, to take notice, that whereas, in this vision in the seventh chapter, the Medo Persian empire is repre­sented under the emblem of a bear, and that of the Macedonians under that of a leopard; in that of chapter the eighth, the former is typed out by a ram (ver. 3.) with two horns, one higher thau the other, and the higher came up last; and the latter by a he-goat, &c. These were most apt representations of these two empires. For a ram was the royal ensign of Persia, as the eagle was that of the Remans, and as the lion is of England; and the figures of rams' heads with horns, the one higher than the other, are still to be seen among the remains of the [...]ins of Persephlis, as Sir John Chardin takes notice in his travels. That which came up last was highest, to denote that the Persian kingdom, though it was of a later date, should overtop the Medes, and make a greater figure in the world than the other; as it did from the time of Cyras, under whom the two kingdoms were united in one. A he-go [...] [Page 12]was also very properly made the type of the Macedoman or [...] empire, for this was the emblem, or, as we now-a-days express it, the arms of Macedon; and they were called the goats people, for Carquas, their first king, going with a multitude of Greeks, to seek a new habi­tation, was, as it is said, commanded by the oracle, to [...]ake the go [...] for his guide; and afterwards, seeing a flock of goats flying from a violent storm, he followed them to Edeffa, and there fixed the se [...] his empire, made the goals his ensign, and called the city Aegeae, or the goats' town. But to return.

The fourth kingdom is represented (ver. 7) by a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and is had great iron teeth, it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it. And it was divers from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. This dreadful representation made a great impression on Daniel's mind, and he therefore inquires particular [...] what this might mean. Ver. 19. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was divers from all the others, exceeding dread­ful. The angel informed him (ver. 23.) that the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be divers from all king­doms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

That which appeared in the imagination of Nebuchadnezzar as the legs and feet of a great image, whose brightness was excellent, (Dan. ii. 31—45.) and the form terrible, is here represented to Daniel as a fierce and ravenous beast. This is the Roman empire, which succeeded the Macedonian. "This beast," says Bishop Newton, "was so great and horrible, that it was not easy to find an adequate name for it; and the Roman empire was dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, beyond any of the former kingdoms. It was divers from all kingdoms, not only in its republican from of government, but likewise in strength and power, and greatness, length of duration, and extent of dominion. It devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it It reduced Macedon into a Roman province about 168 years; the kingdom of Pergamus about 183 years; Syria about 65 years, and Egypt about 30 years, before Christ. And besides the remains of the Macedonian empire, it subdued many other provinces and king­doms; so that it might, by a very usual figure, be said to devour the whole earth, and to tread it down and break it in pieces, and became in a manner, what the Roman writers delighted to call it, terrarum orbis imperium, "the empire of the whole world." Ver. 7. And it had ten horns. And according to the interpretation of the angel, (ver. 24.) the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings, or kingdoms, that shall arise. Four kings, a little before, (ver. 17.) signify four kingdoms; and so here ten kings are ten kingdoms, according to the usual phrase­ology of scripture. "We must look," says this learned author, "for these ten kingdoms, among the broken pieces of the Roman empire. This empire, as the Romanists themselves allow, was, by means of the incursions of the northern nations, dismembered into ten kingdoms; and Machiavel, a Papist, little thinking what be was doing, (as Bishop Chandler observes,) has given us their names. 1. The Ostrogoths, in Maesia. 2. The Visigoths, in Panonia. 3. The Sueve and Alans. in Gascoigne and Spain. 4. The Vandals, in Africa. 5. The Fran [...], [...] France. 6. The Burgandians, in Burgundy. 7. The Herul [...] and Turingi, in Italy. 8. The Saxons and Angles, in Bri­ [...]a. [Page 13]9. The Huns, in Hungary. 10. The Lombards, first upon the [...], afterwards in Italy."

[...], Louman, Sir I. Newton, Whiston, and others, have enu­merated these [...]en kingdoms, with some little variation, but all agree in the main. Bishop [...] makes them all to rise between the years 336 and 527. A. C. They have not always been exactly this number, sometimes more, sometimes less; but as Sir I. Newton observes, (p. 73. upon the prophecies.) "This was the number in which the western empire became divided at its first breaking, that is, at the time of Rome's [...] and taken by the Goths, Some of these kingdoms at [...], and new one's arose; but whatever was their number a [...] ­terw [...], they are still called the ten kingdoms, from their first [...] ­ber." And we may observe, that they always were, and still are, about this number.

But b [...]sides th [...] [...] Ten horns or kingdoms, there was another little horn to spring up among [...]hem, which was to be much distinguished by its abomination, ver. 8. I considered the horns, and behold there came up among them another little horn, before whom there t [...]re three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. As Daniel was d [...]rous of being informed about the ten horns, so of this; and the angel acquaints him (ver. [...]4.) that this shall rise up after the others, or [...], as Mede renders it, unobserved till he overtops them, and he shall be divers from the first, and he shall subdue three kings, or kingdoms; and he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear [...]e the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hands, until a time, and times, and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall fit, and they [...] take away his dominion, to consume it, and destroy it unto the end. "This is to be sought for," says Bishop Newton, "among the ten kingdoms of the western empire; I say the western empire (Europe), because that was properly the body of the fourth beast. Greece, and the countries which say eastward of Italy, belonged to the third beast; for the former beasts were [...]ill subsisting, though their dominion was taken away." (ver. 12.) This is no other than the Popedom, or Anti­christ, who hath, raised himself to great power by seizing three prin­cipalities, or kingdoms, which Sir Isaac Newton reckons up to be the exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the senate and dukedom of Rome. And it is [...]ence that the Pope wears a triple crown.

What is here represented under the emblem of a horn of the fourth beast, is the same tyranny which is shewn to John (Rev. xiii. 1—10.) as a beast. In this all our best commentators are agreed. Nor let it seem strange that what is here prefigured by the horn of the fourth beast, the Roman dominion, should be represented in another vision, as a beast with seven heads and ten horns. For nothing is more usual [...] to describe the same person or thing under different images, upon dif­ferent occasions; and besides, in this vision, the spiritual tyranny of the Roman empire is not meant to be described at large. Here notice is only given of it in the general representation of the Roman domi [...]on [...]; when the time of the appearance of this tyranny draws near, [...] a more enlarged description is given. And what [...]s here represented [...] one image, is there represented under two, a dragon and a beast, [...] having seven heads and ten horns. The slightest attention is sufficient to convince us that the horn here, and the first [...]ea [...]t in Rev. xiii. [...] [Page 14]the same tyranny; if we compare the two descriptions, their language, their enormities, their duration, and end are the same.

The saints are said to be given into the hand of the horn for a time, times, and dividing of times, and it is given to the beast to continue forty and two months, and in Rev. xi. 3. it is said to be 1260 days. The same period of time is meant; for a time is a year, times two years, and the dividing of times, half a year, that is, three years and a half (or forty-two months of thirty-days) which are the same as the 1260 days; for the ordinary Jewish year consisted of 360 days, which multiplied by three and a half, amount to that number. And in the pro­phetic style, a day is reckoned for a year. Compare Numb. xiv. 34. Ezek. iv. 6, Dan. iv. 16. xii. 7. Rev. xi. 2, 3. xii. 14. xiii. 5. This continuance signifies, that he is to practise and prosper thus long, for the Greek word refers to the time of his prevailing, not of his existing. He will exist a little longer, for he will be some time a slaying after he is attacked.

Thus, as preparatory to the consideration of the following subjects, I have endeavoured, in as brief a way as possible, to shew the origin of hieroglyphic or symbolical representations, and the aptness and pro­priety of such as we have in the writings of the prophets. We will now enter upon our inquiries.

Let us first consider the visions in the twelfth and thirteenth chapters, and especially the vision of the second beast, chap. xiii. 11—18. for if these be understood, we shall have a key to unlock, not only the mysteries of the eleventh chapter, but of many others which follow. Chap. xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth, &c. Most of the authors whom I have consulted, though they allow this chapter to contain a representation of the persecutions of Pagan Rome, yet have strangely spiritualized this dragon, so that whilst we are cautioned of our danger from invisible spirits, the true object is forgotten, and we beat the air.

There can be no doubt, but the devil is a principal agent in all ty­rannies, ecclesiastical and civil; but what is here represented by the most terrific imagery, appears to be no other than that cruel civil tyran­ny of the Romans, which cast down all the powers, and swept away all the remains of liberty, in Europe, the then supposed third part of the world; and which, while the imperial head remained in full power, per­secured with unrelenting cruelty the church of Christ in its infancy; and under all the despotisms which have arisen from it, has, more or less, continued to oppose the kingdom of Christ. If we compare what is said of the dragon in this book with Psal. lxxiv. 13, 14. Isa. xxvii. 1. li. 9. Psal. lxxxvii. 4. lxxxix 10. Ezek. xxix. 2—5. and xxxii. 2. it much confirms our hypothesis. The tyranny of Egypt, which oppres­sed and persecuted the people of Israel, was the type of this; but as this is so much more cruel, additional tropes are therefore crowded together, to impress us with its enormity; and it is not only the dragon and the serpent, but the devil and satan. While the first beast in the next chapter is the representation of ecclesiastical or spiritual tyranny, as exercised by the Antichristian clergy, this dragon represents the civil tyranny exercised by the Roman Emperors, and by their successors, so far as they have been, or are tyrannic, in the several kingdoms which [Page 15]have arisen out of the ruins of that empire; and especially by those who are now called the Emperors of Germany, who profess, more im­mediately, to succeed the despots of ancient Rome. They have the same origin, and their jurisdiction is alike extensive; and hence they both appear with seven heads and ten horns. This dragon, we shall find, gave to the beast his power and his seat, and great authority; but he still continued, and although wounded, remains to this day, nor has he ever ceased to practise destruction. All the world have worshipped him that gave power unto the beast; yea, so base and servile have men been, that they have paid divine homage and passive obedience to their de­stroyer, and have said, in the fulness of their folly, not only of spiritu­al tyranny, Who is like unto the beast! But of civil despotism, Who is like unto the dragon!

Chapter the thirteenth, verse the first. I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. Having said so much concerning the fourth beast, and the little horn, in the vision of Daniel; and seeing that all Protes­tants are pretty well agreed that, by this beast, the Papal power, as ex­ercised by the Bishop of Rome, supported by his clergy, and by those princes who have acknowledged his jurisdiction, is intended, the loss need be said in explaining these verses. As the great red dragon was the civil power of Rome, exercised by the emperors and their agents, so this is the Roman ecclesiastical tyranny, exercised by the Pope and An­tichristian clergy, who have converted the benevolent religion of Jesus into a system of traffic and persecution, and, as has been observed, is the same with the little horn in Daniel the seventh. Its rising out of the sea may refer to those commotions of nations which very much favoured the rising of the Papal tyranny. The seven [...]eads were not only the emblems of the seven hills on which Rome was built (chap. xvii. 9.10.) but also of the seven forms of government to which Rome had been, and was to be subject. Five were already fallen, when John saw the vision, (chap. xvii. 10.) viz. those by kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and military tribunes with consular authority. The imperi­al then prevailed, and the papal was to follow. The ten horns are the ten kingdoms and states crowned with sovereign authority, of which we have already had occasion to speak—To this beast the dragon gave his power and his seat, and great authority; that is, it was by the as­sistance of the emperors, by virtue of laws and grants issuing from them, that the bishops of Rome and the clergy arrived at their great power. And, by the seat of the imperial government being removed from Rome, first by Constantine to Byzontium (Constantinople), and afterwards into France by Charlemagne, from whence it passed into Germany, the Popes became possessed of Rome, the old seat of the imperial govern­ment.

Vet. 3—10. And I saw one of his heads, as it were wounded un­to death, and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world won­dered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies: and power was given unto [Page 16]him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth [...]*blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity, shall go in­to captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

The wound which was given to one of the heads of this breast, some have interpreted to be that which the Papacy received at the Reforma­tion in the sixteenth century; but this wounding appears to refer not to Papal Rome, but to, the wound which imperial Rome received, when it was no longer the seat of government, but became subject to the exar­chate of Rav [...]nna. But though it was thus forsaken by the imperial court, and lost its civil pre-eminence, yet it soon became again the mis­tress of the world, by assuming a spiritual dominion, in lieu of the temporal one it had lost, and which alteration did not a little astonish mankind; but who, instead of resisting the arrogant claims and profane pretensions of this new power, did not only tamely obey those laws of the emperors, which set the bishop of Rome above all human jurisdic­tion, but they entered most heartily into all the new superstitions and idolatries of this novel tyranny. Nor was this Papal beast backward in exerting the power which he had acquired from the liberality of the im­perial dragon, but quickly enjoined all sorts of abominations, and en­forced acquiescence, on pain of death, with all his profane and blasphe­mous pretensions. Thus encouraged, he went on his impious career, enjoining not only the worship of saints and angels, but of images and relies, teaching that he was God's vicegerent and Christ's vicar on earth; and that, as such, he had power to grant indulgences, and to pardon sins, and thus, by these, and a great many other abominable dogmas, he blsasphemed and scandalized the perfections, prerogatives, and laws of God; and dishonoured the memory of them that dwell in heaven, as if they approved of such wicked idolatry and priestly craft—And not only was this ecclesiastical power exercised at Rome, but over distant and numerous nations, and great has been the slaughter which he has made among those, who, in respect to the divine authority, and the rights of conscience, have rejected his abominable errors, and resisted his arro­gant pretensions. The time of the prevalence and prosperity of this corrupt and savage tyranny shall be forty and two months of years, or 1260 years, reckoning, agreeable to the prophetic style, a year for a day; at the end of which period, though ardently supported by a tyran­ny [...] to his own, he shall perish, and as he hath shewed no mercy, so he shall find no mercy.

Ver. 11. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and [...]e had [...] horns like a lamb, and he [...] as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the [...] them which dwell therein, to worship the first beast, &c. Dr. Doddridge, in his not [...] [...]his passage, observes, "As I look up­on the former to be the Papal power, I am ready, with the best critics I know, to interpret this of the religious orders of the church of Rome. [Page 17]This beast is said to ascend from the earth, whereas the other ascended from the sea, to make the distinction between them the more remarka­ble, but what other my [...]ery may be suggested, I cannot conjecture." Dr. Goodwin understands by the first beast the temporal power which the Pope has received from the kings of the ten Antichristian kingdoms; and by the second beast the spiritual power which the Pope and his clergy claim of binding and loosing, of pardoning sin, and of curs­ing men to hell. Mr. Lowman supposes it to represent the ecclesiastical princes of Germany, who have been such great supporters of the power of the first beast. Most agree, that although he is thus represented as a distinct beast, yet he rises out of the empire of the first, and is subordinate to him . But inferior as I am to these learned men, I beg leave to propose a conjecture which I think has more weight than at first view we may be willing to admit.

May we not understand by this second beast Lewis XIV. or at least that tyrann [...] which the family of the Capets have exercised, to the great oppression of the Christian church, and to the destruction of mankind? Why might not Lewis XIV, or the Capets and their tyranny, be the objects of John's vision, as well as Alexander or Antiochus, or any oth­er tyrant, that of Daniel's? Read their political history and private memoirs. If pre-eminence in vice, oppression, and murder, entitle to this distinction, who so abhorrent and vile? Who such enemies to the truth of God, and the happiness of mankind? Their tyranny has been the scourge of France, of Europe, and the world . What cruelties did Lewis XIV. especially perpetrate towards his Protestant subjects; and what devastation and woe did he spread over Europe in his cruel wars! Examine the description. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. John saw the other beast, the Papal tyranny, (which is the usurpation of a foreigner), advance, plunging through the waves of that sea of civil commotions, and religious contentions, which at the time of his rising agitated the Roman empire, and what was called the Christian church; but this comes up out of the earth *, it rises at home, and [Page 18]from circumstances somewhat more settled, and in times not so agitated by commotions. If this be the beast in chap. xi. 7. which was to overcome and slay the witnesses, (as I am thoroughly persuaded it is) there we have a more descriptive account of his origin. The beast which ascendeth out of the bottomless pit; not which arose or did ascend, but which is rising out of the abyss, as if he were now rising, or was just now become a perfect tyrant when he slew the witnesses.

The second [...]east is said to come up out of the earth, from what our translators render the bottomless pit; from the abyss, or pit, or whirl­pool, of infinite depth. And from what a bog of vice, treachery, and cruelty on the one hand, and of superstition, servility, and baseness on the other, did the French tyranny arise! Or, if you please, from a whirlpool which draws into its vortex, and swallows up every thing, the most precious to man.

Historians have represented Lewis XIV. as raising the French monarchy to the pinnacle of its glory. And if pride and ambition, persecution and bloodshed, constitute supreme glory, he did so. But, the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God. O the folly and cruelty of men! They create devourers, as if for the pleasure of wit­nessing and celebrating their exploits of blood; and even think it impie­ty to complain when their own turn arrives to be devoured!

How perfectly do these two descriptions of the second beast agree! The angel describes him as ascending out of the abyss; John sees him rising out of the earth. And what sort of a spot may we suppose the theatre of his rising to be? The choicest spot which nature can fur­nish? Rather, where Behemoth* makes his bed, in the coverts of the needs and fens, from whence he drags his filthy limbs to the mountains of slaughter, where all the beasts of the field play.

And he had two horns like a lamb. Here we may observe, that the Bourbons, formerly kings of Navarre only, on the extinction of the family of Valois, in 1589, which reigned over France, were become possessed of both kingdoms; and Henry IV. grandfather of Lewis XIV. in whom the kingdoms were united, took the titles of King of France and Navarre. These were his two horns like a lamb.

And he spake as a dragon. His profession of that religion which teaches to be meek and harmless, presents an appearance of innocence, but when he opens his mouth, the accents are those of a dragon, which bespeak him formed for mischief, and not for the benefit of mankind. All this agrees exactly with the French tyranny, and particularly with Lewis XIV. who was at once a superstitious devotee and a cruel des­pot; who, though styled the Most Christian King, practised the enor­mities of the dragon, who made war with them who kept the command­ments of God, and had the testimony of Jesus. Witness the persecu­tions with which he harassed the Protestants, and his attempts to extir­pate the Reformed by the revocation of the Edict of Nants; a persecu­tion more cruel than any since the days of persecution commenced. See Claude's Complaints of the Protestants. The Edict of Nants, issued in 1598, granted to the Protestants the free exercise of their reli­gion; many churches in every part of France, and judges of their own persuasion; a free access to all places of honour and dignity, an hundred [Page 19]places as pledges of their future security, and funds to maintain both their ministers and garrisons. But no sooner was Lewis XIV, arrived to years than he formed the resolution of destroying the Protestants. Did we not know him to have been a beast, we could hardly give credit to the report of the motive which pushed this resolution into practice. "Soon after be came to the crown," says Mr. Claude, page 43. "there arose in the kingdom a civil war which proved so sharp and de [...]perate, as brought the state within a hair's breadth of utter ruin. Those of the reformed religion still kept their loyalty so inviolable, and accompani­ed it with such a zeal, and with a fervour so extraordinary, and so suc­cessful, that the king found himself obliged to give public marks of it by a declaration made at St. Germains in the year 1652. Then, as well at court as in the armies, each strove to proclaim loudest the merits of the Reformed." But, can you believe that there is so much depravity in human nature? Their enemies said, "If on this occasion this party could preserve the state, this shews likewise that they could have over­thrown it; this party must therefore by all means be crushed." Lewis, and the abettors of his tyranny, instantly set about it. "A thousand [...]readful blows," says Mr. Saurin, "were struck at our afflicted churches before that which destroyed them; for our enemies, if I may use such an expression, not content with seeing our ruin, endeavoured to taste it." As soon as the kingdom was settled in peace, they fell upon them, and persecuted them in every imaginable way. They were excluded from the king's household,—from all employments of honour and profit,—all the courts of justice, erected by virtue of the Edict of Nants, were abolished, so that in all trials their enemies only were their judges, and in all the courts of justice the cry was, "I plead against a heritic 12: I have to do with a man of a religion odious to the state, and which the king is resolved to extirpate."

Orders were printed at Paris, and sent from thence to all the cities and parishes of the kingdom, which empowered the parochial priests, church-wardens, and others, to make an exact inquiry into whatever any of the Reformed might have done or said for twenty years past, as well on the subject of religion as otherwise, to make in­formation of this before the justices of the peace, and punish them to the utmost extremity. Thus, the prisons and dungeons were every where filled with these pretended criminals; orders were issued, which deprived them in general of all sorts of offices and employments, from the greatest to the smallest, in the farms and revenues; they were declared incapa­ble of exerciting any employ in the custom-houses, guards, treasury, or post-office, or even to be messengers, stage-coachmen, or waggoners. Now a college was suppressed, and then a church shut up, and at length they were forbid to worship God in public at all, by the revocation of the Edict of Nants, in 1685. "Now," says Saurin, "we were banish­ed; then we were forbidden to quit the kingdom, on pain of death. Here we saw the glorious rewards of those who betrayed their religion; and there we beheld those who had the courage to confes [...] it haled to a dun­geon, a scaffold, or a galley. Here we saw our persecutors drawing o [...] a fledge the dead bodies of those who had expired on the rack: there we beheld a false friar tormenting a dying man, who was terrified on the one hand with the fear of hell, if he apostatized; and on the other, with the fear of leaving his children without bread, if he should continue in the faith." When the arguments of priests, and every other mean failed, cruel soldiers were quartered in their houses, to exert their ski [...] in [...] ­ments, [Page 20]to compel them to become Catholics. "They cast some," says Mr. Claude, "into large fires, and took them out when they were half roasted; they hanged others with ropes under their arm-pits, and plunged them several times into wells, till they promised to renounce their religion; they tied them like criminals on the rack, and poured wine with a funnel into their mouths, till, being intoxicated, they prom­ised to turn Catholics. Some they flashed and cut with pen-knives [...]; some they took by the nose with red-hot tongs, and led them up [...]d down the room, till they promised to turn Catholics. These [...] proceedings made eight hundred thousand persons quit the kingdom." The story which lies before me, related by Mr. Bion, chaplain on board the Supurbe Galley in 1703, and who was converted from Pope­ry, by means of the scene of suffering and patience, which was exhibit­ed on board that vessel, when eighteen Protestants were bastinadoed for refusing to bow the knee, in honour of the mysteries of the mass, is too excrutiating to tell. As also the sufferings of poor M. Marolles, a gentleman of virtue, sensibility, and eminent piety, condemned to suffer in the gallies, among the vilest of felons, and this for no crime but what state policy made such. This little story leaves a deeper stain of base­ness upon the character of Lewis and his court, than, perhaps, all their other enormities. It was adding that sort of wanton cruelty to slate oppression, which is peculiarly abhorent in the estimation of a generous mind. And let us remember, this same system of despotism and perse­cution remained till overthrown in 1789. None of these cruel laws against the Protestants were repealed, nor a particle of arbitrary power surrendered. Thus, in that country from whence the light of reforma­tion first issued, and where there were more faithful witnesses against the Papal apostacy than in any other nation of the world; and from whose number and influence, and the laws in their favour, the old perse­cuting power was greatly reduced; there, the uncontrouled reign of of Antichrist was restored.

Ver. 13, 14. And he doth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth, in the fight of men, and deceiv­eth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the fight of the beast. No one can suppose that these are miracles in the strictest sense of the word. Nor does the ori­ginal word rendered wonders in ver. 13. and miracles in ver. 14. ne­cessarily signify those acts which are supernatural. Our lexicogra­phers translate the word signum, miraculum, argumentum., indicium, vexillum, simulachrum, a sign, miracle, argument, &c. And the He­brew word, which in the Greek version of the Old Testament is render­ed by this, has the same sort of latitude. Though this is the word gene­rally used to denote proper miracles, yet it is as often used in other sen­ses. But let it be observed, that its meaning generally includes in it the idea of an argument, that which persuades, convinces, brings over to a purpose and confirms. In Gen. i. 14. it means, that the sun and moon are to be for the regulation of time; in Gen. xvii. 11. and Rom. iv. 11. circumcision is thus, spoken of, though evidently neither a mira­cle nor wonder, but merely a token or memento; in Exod. iii. 12. and in a multitude of other places, it means nothing more than a token or evidence; in Isa. viii. 13. and Luke ii. 34. it means an object of de­ [...]ision; in Jer. x. 2. those comets and meteors, and other phenomena of nature are intended, at which weak and superstitious minds were [Page 21] [...] De [...]. [...]. 46. it means those calamities which should [...]cit [...] astonismen [...] and be a lesson to teach men to fear God; in Psal, lxxiv. 4. it may signify the standards of the enemy, or perhaps those [...] engines with which they battered down, burnt and destroyed the [...]cred building; in Ezek. xxxiv. 15. this word means nothing more than a stick or a stone set up as a mark to point out the place where lay a dead man's bone.

It appears to me that this figurative representation of the exploits of this b [...]ast, designs nothing more than those violent means and seducing arts which this tyrant (or succession of tyrants) was to use, as so many arguments to bring men into his measures, and to frighten them into submission to his impositions. His great wonders were his alarming e­dicts; and the sire which he made to come down from heaven on the earth, in the sight of m [...]n, signifies, in the hieroglyphic and highly figur­ative language of prophecy, the thunder of excommunication which he sent forth against those who refused to acknowledge his authority in re­ligion, and the war and destruction which he carried on against all those who stood our against Papery; pretending (as all tyrants ever have done) to have authority from Heaven for all these abominations. Every iota of this agrees with the practices and pretensions of Lewis XIV. and his successors.

And he commanded that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live, i. e. This tyrant caused a system of dominion over conscience, a system of persecution to be established, which was the image of the first Papal beast; for although it was not so extensive a tyranny, as that exercised by the Pope, being confined to one kingdom, yet it was the similitude of it. The ecclesi­astical tyranny now established was peculiar; it was at once independ­ent, and yet in support of the tyranny of the Papal beast. In all the other kingdoms where Popery prevails, the spiritual power is exercised by the Pope; hereties, as they are called, are accused, tried, and con­demned in his courts, by virtue of laws issuing from him, and by his ministers. The kings are only his executioners. B [...] it became other­wise in France. Lewis XIV. from the plentitude of his own power, issued edicts, erected courts, and appointed officers for the punishment of his Protestant subjects. Thus, by virtue of powers derived from the king, and not from the Pope, the Protestants were accused, pursued [...] tried, condemned, and executed. This was a tyranny perfect in us kind, and unknown in other countries; the similitude of the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live—the beast, of Rome. And he had power to give life to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not wor­ship the image of the beast should be hilled. He gave new vigour to the dying Papacy in France, and power to the Popish party to issue their mandates, and command apostacy, on pain of death.

Thus far, I think, the likeness is perfect; and allowing Lewis XIV. or the French tyranny, brought to perfection by him, and supported by his successors, to be the object of the vision, it appears easy to be un­derstood; but on every other hypothesis which I have seen, it is encu [...] ­bered with inexplicable difficulties. Dr Doddrige says, "What the image of the beast so, distinct from the beast itself, I confess I know not."

[Page 22] This part of our inquiry, upon which matters of no small importance are suspended, will, I hope, be attentively considered; as likewise whatsoever concerns this second beast, and the conformity of the tyran­ [...]ic proceedings of Lewis and his successors, to the character and con­duct here predicted. The fact here contended for, being proved, we have a master key to [...]nlock the greater part of the prophecies before us, particularly that in the eleventh chapter, from ver. 7. And even such lesser mysteries as those contained in chap. xvi. 2. where the first [...] is poured out upon two descriptions of men; upon them who have the mark of the beast, Papists; and upon those who only worship or serve his image, those Protestants who yield assistance to the Antichris­tian party in France.

And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and [...]ond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their forehead, and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark * , or the number of his name. There is certainly a difficulty in so understand­ing this part of the description, as to give a perspicuous explanation. It was intended, that it should be envelo [...]ed in considerable obscurity. I make no great pretensions to critical acumen, but it appears to me that here are two conditions represented as requisite to the enjoyment of the lowest rights of citizens; unlimited submission to the authority of the church, the Pope, and his clergy; and passive obedience to the despot­ism of this second beast. Where these were refused, no man might buy or sell. With this description the cruel laws of Lewis XIV. respecting the freedom of companies and handicraft trades, by which the Protestants were hindered from earning bread for their families, per­fectly agree.

To exclude mankind from any of their civil rights, for their adher­ence to matters of conscience, and to gratify a party, that that party, [...] return, may support the views of ambitious men, is of the dragon and the beast: but that to please the priesthood, and strengthen despotism, a man, for being a Protestant, should be excluded from acting as a cus­tom-house officer, a stage-co [...]chman, or a waggoner, was a most wanton exercise of Antichristian power indeed; and this was the exact case in the matter under consideration; for not only Lewis, but Mazarine, his minister, and the other petty despots about the throne, found their ac­count in these proceedings. In this manner did they get rid of a body of men who were dangerous enemeis to their schems of ambition. The court gratified the priests, and, in return, the priests supported [...] measures, and helped Lewis, not only to get rid of these friends to liberty and justice, but also to crush the Parliaments, which till now possessed considerable power.

But how shall we count the number of the name of the beast? No man might buy or sell save he that had the mark, or the name of the [Page 23]beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom, let him that hat [...] understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. Not to specify particularly what others have said about this number, there are two ways of calculating it which agree with Lewis XIV. as the person in whom the French monarchy be­came a perfect beast. And perhaps the text suggests that there should be two, the number of the beast, and the number of his name. The numer­al letters in the name of Lewis, as written in Latin, give 666. Thus,

L50
U5
D500.
O0
V5
I1
C100
U5
S0
 666

But it may be asked, Why is the Latin language referred to rather [...]han either the Hebrew, the Greek, or French? For these reasons. [...] the time this prediction was given, the Latin was the most general lan­guage in the Roman empire; and after the empire was divided, i [...] [...] ­came the universal language in the western part, where [...] scene of John's vision chiefly lay.—It is also the language used in all the ser­vices of that church which this beast was to support; and thus the names of the French king's have been written in their communications with the Pope in public inscriptions, and on coins.

Although so much stress is not, perhaps, to be laid upon the foll [...] ­ing way of calculating this number of the second beast, yet it is worth taking notice of; and possibly the Holy Spirit might point out that, by a remarkable providence, a twofold way of counting this number should be afforded, that thus the identity of the person and tyranny might by more clearly ascertained. The first way of calculating ascertains [...] name of the man who should bring the tyranny to pertection; the fol­lowing, the length of time it should be in perfecting, since the ange [...]y of that man began it. And on examination we find, that from the [...] when Hugh Capet seized the throne of France, to the time when [...] French, under Lewis XIV. began that career of blood, which for [...] years, proved so calamitous to Europe, and especially to the Protestants, was exactly 666 years. Hugh capet seized the throne in 987; Lewis XIV. came to the throne on the death of his father, Lewis XIII. in 164 [...]; came to his majority in 1652, and in the sollowing year war was made upon Spain. Now he emerges from that bog in which his tyra [...], had been gendering for 666 years.

Thus, though other tyrannies may have some of the features of this beast, yet that of the Capets only possessed them all; and, if I am not deceived, there is every proof which can be expected, proof which a­mounts much neater to a demonstration than is usual on such subj [...], that the French monarchy was the second beast which came up out of the earth. And though I would guard against rash confidence, I feel a persuasion which I cannot [...] that [...]. And if it [Page 24]be; the consequences which are united with it are to the [...]ast degree in­ [...]sting, both to the church and to mankind at large; and could my feeble voice be heard amidst the din of war, and the noise of party con­tentions, I would say, "Take heed—be wise—refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counsel, or this work, be of men, it will come to nought; but, if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found to fight against God *," in struggling to support that which he has decreed to fall.—Should it prove so, however enrag­ed your malice, or however mighty your power, "He will make your wrath to praise him, and dash you to pieces as a porter's vessel ."— Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways!—All nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest!

SECOND INQUIRY.

HAVING endeavoured to prove that Lewis XIV. or the tyranny of the Capets, as perfected by that unequalled despo [...], was represented to John in his vision of the second beast; the second Inquiry respects the two witnesses in Rev. xi.

This inquiry involves in it four questions. 1. Who are the witnes­ [...]? 2. Who is to stay them, and where are their dead bodies to lie un­buried? 3. What length of time is intended by the three days and a [...], during which their dead bodies are to lie in the street of the great [...]ity? 4. What will be the consequences attending their resurrection?

1. Who are these two witnesses? Rev. xi. 3. I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two hun­dred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. The most prevailing opinion is, that the faithful ministers of the gosp [...], and all those who b [...]r testimony against the errors and usurpations of Antichrist, are in­tended, and that the number two is mentioned in allusion to the law of Moses, which required two witnesses, at least, to make a testimony valid. Dishop Lloyd supposes them to be the Waldenses and Albigenses, the [...] witnesses in France and its vicinity, against the corruptions of Popery. Dr. More explains it of unpolluted pri [...]sts and faithful magis­trates. But I have long thought, that, by these witnesses, the spirit of prophecy intended the witnesses for gospel truth against the spiritual dominations and corrupt errors of the Papal apostacy: and all those who bear witness for civil liberty against the tyrannies and oppressions of those princes and governo [...]s, whose passions have enslaved mankind, and desolated the earth. The number of these witnesses has in general been but small; yet, though they have prophesied in sackcloth, God, in [...]s good providence, has always preserved to mankind a succession of both descriptions. Even wise and good men have not, perhaps, suf­ficiently considered the worth and importance of the witnesses of the lat­ter description, in fulfilling the great designs of God's goodness towards [Page 25]men; and hence they have almost always interpreted this prophecy as relating to the state of religion only; as if the civil and political state of men were held in little consideration by the Lord of the whole earth. But can any man shew a good reason why the Hampdens, Sydneys, Lockes, and Hoadleys, may not be con be considered as God's witnesses, in their exertions in the cause of civil liberty, though it may be esteem­ed an inferior capacity, as well as those who have been employed in the defence of pure religion only? Both have wrought in the cause of God, and both have prophesied in sackcloth.

If we candidly consider the matter, the fourth verse seems to con­firm the foregoing ideas. And although what is said in the fifth and sixth verses is more obscure, yet, as far as I can understand them, they are not inapplicable to either of these characters. Ver. 4, These are the two elive trees, and the two candlesticks, standing before the God of the whole earth. We have long been used to affix to these two beautiful tropes, olive trees and candlesticks, the idea of saints; but this is by no means essential, for they necessarily imply no more than excellence in that character which is sustained, whether religious or civil. Allusion is here made to the emblems under which Joshua and Zerubbabel were represented to the prophet Zechariah (chap. iv. 11-14.); one of whom was employed in re-establishing (after the cap­tivity, and in a time of religious and civil peesecution) the religious, and the other the civil polity of the Jews. And what have the cham­pions, in all ages, and in all countries, who have combated tyrants in the cause of liberty and justice, as well as the advocates for the uncorrupted truth of Jesus, been, but golden candlesticks, whose lights have illumina­ted this dark world, and which have at once made conspicuous the rights of men and the enormities of oppressors—the truth of Jesus, and the im­pieties of Antichrist? And but for the zeal of both these, in their dif­ferent characters, being kept burning, by that oil of benevolence tow­ards man, and love to the truth of God's word, which the olive trees re­pres [...]nt, the earth had been involved in universal darkness, and the tri­umphs of oppressions and error had been complete.

What follows is still more highly figurative. Ver. 5, 6. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and de­voureth their enemies. And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters, to turn th [...]n to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. What is here affirmed, has never been literally fulfilled, nor is it likely that it ever will. There is some similarity between these plague [...], and those to be inflicted under the first four vials. Rev. xvi. There, on the pouring out of the first vial, there fell a grievous sore up­on the men who had the mark of the beast, and upon them who worship­ped his image; here, the witnesses smit the earth with all plagues.— There, on the pouring out of the second and third vials, the sea and the rivers became blood; here, the witnesses turn the waters into blood, and restrain the rain of heaven. There, on pouring out the fourth vial upon the sun, men were scorched with great heat; here, fire proceeds out of the mouths of the witnesses to devour their enemies. May not this highly figurative description be made more intelligible thus? The wit­nesses for religious truth and civil liberty, although they shall defend their cause under great oppressions, yet such, under Providence, shall be the effect of their zeal, cloonence, and exertions, in the cause of God [Page 26]and man, that they shall occasion great vexations to their enemies, and kindle a fire, which, in the end shall consume their oppressors, and their sy stems together. And such advantages shall they have, from the spi­rit of their attacks, and the succeeding providence of God, that, from the mode of war which will then prevail, fire will seem to issue from thei [...] mouths, and destroy their opposers *. Such shall be the effects of their arguments and exertions on the minds of men, that the political hea­vens shall refuse to yield that rain which used to swell those rivers that fed the great sea of oppression. And all the rivers shall be dry. Such shall be the effects of their unexampled efforts in the cause of truth and equity—in the cause of injured man—that, in the end, avenging justice shall turn upon their enemies, and render to them according to their deeds.—If something of this kind be not meant by these powers which are given to the witnesses, I own I am at an utter loss to conceive what the Holy Spirit intended.

But not only may the wickedness of the French people, as has been noticed, be considered as an objection to their cause being of God, but some may suppose that the calamities which they endure, and the disap­point ments which they experience, must be looked upon as a proof that their rising against their oppressors, is not the commencement of the re­surrection of the witnesses, even though we should consider it as a poli­tical one.—By no means. The gathering of the dispersed Jews, pre­paratory to their conversion, is their political resurrection (Er [...]. xxxvii.) and yet we are informed by many prophecies, that after this, they are to endure great suffecings, and by which a great part of them are to perish, both in their way to their own land, and after their arri­val there; (Ezek. xx. 38. Zech. xii. 2, 3. xiii. 8, 9. xiv. 2, 3, 7.) and it will not be till the rebels are purged out from among them, nor till the last extremity, that the Lord will appear for their deliverance and thorough conversion.

And when they had finished their testimony, i. e. when the thou­sand two hundred and threescore days are about to draw to a conclusion, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war a­gainst them and kill them. Here our second question presents itself. Who, or what is it, that is set forth by this beast?

If the polition respecting the second beast in the thirteenth chapter be made good, I answer, the French tyranny under Lewis XIV. who came up out of the bottomless quagmire. For as the abyss does not necessari­ly mean what is commonly understood by the bottomless pit, hell, (though, in a sense, from thence he came), there appears a peculiar propriety in thus explaining it: for, taken altogether, and considering[Page 27]that some particular part of the Antichristian city *, is to be the scene of the sufferings, death, and resurrection of the witnesses, the beast describ­ed in this eleventh chapter, agrees better with the second beast in the thir­teenth chapter, than with the first. And let us remember it must be one of them, or we create a third beast which was not shewn to John in any of the following explanatory visions; and it is not probable that so inter­esting an object would be presented in this miniature picture, which is not to be found in any of those which are on a larger scale. With Lewis it perfectly agrees. We have heard how he made war, both up­on the witnesses for the pure religion of Jesus Christ, and upon those for civil liberty too, and slew them. By his continued and multiplied per­secutions and usurpations, and particularly by the revocation of the edict of Nants, he slew the former especially, but with them the greater part of those of the latter description; for the true f [...]ends of religion and of religious liberty, if they know any thing of their principles, are the firmest friends of civil liberty also; as that which is most intimately connected with the designs of Christ, and the triumphs of that uncor­rupted truth wherewith Christ hath made us free.

There is no nation existing which, first and last, has produced such a number of faithful witnesses against Papal corruptions and tyrannies, as France. No people have so long a list of martyrs and confessors to shew, as the Protestants of that country; and there is no royal family in Europe which has shed, in the support of Popery, half the blood which the Capets have shed. Who deluged the earth with the blood of the Waldenses & Albigenses, that inhabited the southern parts of France, and bore testimony against the corruptions and usurpations of Rome?— The cruel kings of France slew above a million of them—Who set on foot and headed the executioners of the massacre of Bartholomew, which last­ed seven days, and in which, some say near fifty thousand Protestants were murdered in Paris, and twenty-five thousand more in the provinces I— The royal monsters of France. A massacre this, in which neither age nor sex, nor even women with child, were spared; for the butchers had received orders to slaughter all, even babes at the breast, if they b [...] ­longed to Protestants. The king himself stood at the windows of his palace, endeavouring to shoot those who fled, and crying to their pur­suers, kill'em, kill'em. For this massacre public rejoicings were made at Rome, and in other Chatholic countries.—Unnumbered thousands of Protellants were slain in the civil wars of France, for their attachment to their principles. But as if Lewis XIV. had determined to out-do all his predecessors in persecution, he perpetrated, by the base instruments of his despotism, all the enormities co [...]nected with the revocation of the edict of Nants. Those who wish to see a full account of the cruelties of this horrid [...], a persecution which did not wholly cease till the Revolution in [...], may consult Mr. Claude's Complaints of the Protestants of France. After setting forth the unheard of barbarities which were practis;ed previous to the revocation of this edict, and [...]umerating the artic [...]s of the edict which [Page 28]crushed the cause of Protestantism in that country, he says, (p. 114.) "In the execution of this edict, in the very same day that it was regis­tered and published at Paris, they began to demolish the church at Charenton. The oldest minister thereof (Mr. Claude) was commanded to leave Paris within four and twenty hours, and forthwith to quit the kingdom. His colleagues were little better treated: they gave them forty-eight hours to leave Paris. The rest of the ministers were allowed fifteen days. But it can hardly be believed to what vexations and cruelties they were exposed; they neither permitted them to dispose of their estates, nor to carry away with them any of their moveables. Besides, they would not give them leave to take along with them, ei­ther father or mother, brother or sister, or any of their kindred, though they were many of them infirm, decayed, and poor, who could not sub­sist but by their means. They went so far as even to deny them their own children, if they were above seven years old; nay, some they took from them that were under that age, and even such as yet hanged on their mothers' breasts; and refused them nurses for their new-born in­fants, which their mothers could not give suck to.—In some fro [...]er places they stopped, under various pretences, the banished ministers, and put them in prison. Then after they had thus detained them, they would tell them, that the fifteen days of the edict were expired, and they could not now have liberty to retire, but must be sent to the gallies.

"As to the rest, whom the force of persecution and hard usuage con­strained to leave their houses and estate, and fly the kingdom, it is not to be imagined what dangers they exposed themselves to. Never were orders more severe, or more strict, than those that were given against them. They doubled the guards in sea-port cities, highways, and sords; they covered the country with soldiers; they armed even the peasants, either to stop or kill those that pasted. By these means they quickly filled all the prisons in the kingdom: for the dread of the dragoons, who were quartered upon them to oblige them to embrace Pope [...]y; the horror of seeing their consciences forced, and their children taken from them, and of living for the future in a land where there was neither jus­tice nor humanity for them; obliged every one to think of escape, and to abandon all to save their persons. All the poor prisoners have been treated with unheard-of rigor, confined in dungeons, loaded with heavy chains, almost starved with hunger, and deprived of all converse but with their persecutors. They put many into monasteries, where they have experienced the worst of cruelties. Some, indeed, have been so happy as to die in the midst of their torments; but others have at length sunk under the weight of the temptation: and some, again, by the ex­traordinary assistance of God's grace, do still sustain it with an heroic courage. This was the state of things (p. 122.) in the latter end of the year 1685, and the full accompli [...]hment of the threats the clergy had made us three years before, towards the end of their pretended pastoral letter, in which they say, Ye must expect miseries incomparably more dreadful and intolerable, than all those which hitherto your revolt and your schism have drawn upon you. And truly they have not been worse than their word."—Cruel clergy! Are these the ministers of the merciful Jesus?—Fiends from hell! Cruel government! Are these the powers which are ordained of God, and which men are bound to obey on pain of the divine displeasure?—To maintain such a position is a slander on the justice and goodness of the Creator. Such positions are among the blasphemies of perishing oppressors. (Rev. xvi. 9, 11, 12.) [Page 29]When this [...], and such inhuman tyra [...]nics fall, and their base instran [...]nts p [...]ish, under the vengence of the oppressed, is it any wonder that the [...] sheat, Thou art righteous, O Lord! they have she I the [...]d of s [...]y and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are [...]? Shall not God take vengeance? He [...]ly will. He hath promised that he will. The false friends of Ch [...]stianity, and all the creatures of tyranny, will howl and cry, Alas! [...]! that great city! But God will say, Rejoice over her, thou heaven! [...]geance is min [...]. I will repay.

But does not this persect the beastly character of Lewis? He it was, also, who gave the death-wound to the civil liberties of France, by tak­ing [...] he [...] all their remaining power, and from France [...] shadow of freedom. Their ancient constitution had been long imp [...]ing. It was undermined by the [...] Lewis XI. and had been [...]ly swept away by the d [...]ing and sarguinary councils of Richelieu, [...]der Lewis XIII. The assembly of the states had been disused ever since the beginning of this monarch's reign. The last time of its meet­ing was in the year 1614. But all civil liberty did not then expire. I [...] [...]mplete ex [...]ction was left for this tyrant. "For heretofore," says Pussendors, in the style of a court [...], "the Parliament of Paris u [...]d to oppose the king's designs, under a pretence that they had [...]ch a right. That the king could not do any thing of moment with­out its consent. But the king has taught it only to intermeddle with [...]udicial business, and some other concerns, which the king now and then is pleased to leave to its decision *."

Thus per [...]shed liberty, thus perished the renowned reformers of France, whose faithfulness will be had in everlasting remembrance, and whose [...]ings will be avenged in the downf [...]l of that tyranny which in­fected them. For though their dead b [...]dies shall lie in the street of the [...]rul city, of my stical Babylon, which spiritually is called, on account of its [...]ewdness and persecutions, Sod [...]m and Egypt, where also our Lord, in his members, was cru [...]isied, (ver. 8.); and though the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, see their d [...]ad bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer them to be put unto graves, (ver. [Page 30]9.); though few or none of the nations will, comparatively *, have any pity on them, to yield them assistance, or to do for them any office of humanity; but may even rejoice over them (many of them at least) and make merry, and send gifts one to another, because these two prophets who tormented them are slain, (ver. 10.) though, instead of assisting them, they may wish their everlasting extinction, or exert them­selves ever so much against them,—when the days are fulfilled, they shall awake in their children and successors, and shake and overturn, from its deepest foundations, the tyranny which slew them. And after three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them, (ver. 11.)

Here the third question presents itself. What duration of time are we to understand by these three days and a half?

Before I offer my interpretation of this number, there is one con­sideration which claims our attention. On a careful examination, we shall find, in all the predictions of the prophets, that although they give us assurance of the facts, yet the time of their accomplishment is left in a state of uncertainty. And even where dates are fixed, as in the predic­tions respecting the return of the Jews from Babylon, after 70 years cap­tivity, and the appearance of the Messiah after 70 weeks, or 490 years; yet the commencement of these periods, or the mode of calculation, is involved in obscurity, till light is thrown upon them by the event. It never was intended that men should know with certainty when any fu­ture event is to take place, and this for an obvious reason. The pro­phecies, we should remember, were designed not to gratify our curiosity, but to confirm our faith in the truth of the divine word, by their accom­plishment. And hence the necessity that these three days and a half should have a different meaning from the common prophetic days, that thus the time might not so easily be ascertained, till the accomplishment should lead men to their true intention. Were the prophecies so clear, that every one could precisely know the circumstances, and the time [Page 31]to which they refer, hindrances, if we may speak thus, would be thrown in the way of God's designs; and, in many cases, a cheek would be gi­ven to the necessary exertions and pursuits of men. All the latter part of the last century, thinking people of all countries were expecting the accomplishment of the 1260 years, (the time of the beast's power). On the revocation of the edict of Nants, the whole Protessant world, and especially the poor * afflicted French, were of opinion, that the unequal­led persecutions which were then endured, were the slaying of the wit­nesses; and they were of on tip-toe looking for the end of the three days and a half . What is here laid down, particularly, that the days here should have a different meaning from those other days in this book, be­ing granted, (as I think it must), let us proceed to seek an answer to this very interesting question: What length of time is intended by these three days and a half?

My answer is, that days in this 11th verse are the same with months in the 2d verse; or, if you please, [...] day reckoning, as the Jews did, thirty days to a month, and, as is the method in calculating the a­bove forty-two months, to make them agree with the 1260 days in verse the third *.

Thirty multiplied by three, adding fifteen for the half day, makes 105. When this way of [...]reckoning first occurred to my mind, I had no idea of the events which this number connected; for I did not recol­lect the year when the edict of Nants was revoked. But looking over Quick's Synodic [...], I found it to be October 18, 1685, to which if 105 be added, it brings us to 1790; take off a few months (if that should be thought necessary) for the event taking place before the half day is quite expired, and it brings us to 1789, when the witnesses were to be quick­ened. Whether this may strike others as it struck me, when I first ob­served the coincidence, I cannot tell; but, from this agreement of the number 105, with the time which elapsed between one of the greatest persecutions that was ever experienced by Christians, and this wonder­ful revolution which has taken place, a thousand ideas rushed upon my mind. Is it probable, is it pollible, that this can be the quickening of the witnesses What! the olive trees? she candlesticks? I have al­ways [Page 32]supposed these to be all faints ! And [...]an that zeal which hath fired Frenchmen to combat for civil and religious liberty, be the spirit of life from God? Is this resurrection, in the vision, the rising to this civil and religious liberty, previous to better days?—I will do all that I can to discover the truth.

But it may possibly be asked, Are days used in this sense in any other place of the holy scriptures? If not, this is a reason for rejecting this mode of calculation.—Could we adduce a passage directly to the point it would certainly strengthen the hypothesis very much; but though we may not be able to do this, all that can be argued from the failure is, that it weakens, but not that it destroys the whole probability of the truch of the conjecture *. All allow that the language of these kinds of prophe­cies is very enigmatical, and that days, in scripture, are often of a very indeterminate signification. But let us imagine a similar case. Sup­pose, on the appearance of our Saviour, a Jew had said to his neighbour, "I think that by the seventy weeks of Daniel, (chap. ix. 24—27.) we are to understand seventy weeks of years, (seventy times seven) or four hundred and ninety years, and that they are now about to be accom­plished; and hence it deserves inquiry whether this Jesus be not the Messiah." It might have been objected, "But where, in our sacred scriptures, does a week intend seven years?"—"No where. But though this be the case, yet as this manner of reckoning seems to be quite consistent with the enig [...]atical language of prophecy, the hypothesis deserves attention."—It is true that the etymology of the Hebrew word is applicable to seven of years, as well as to seven of days; but, as the venerable Mede says, (p. 599 of his works), "The question lies not in the etymology: but the use, where the Hebrew word always signi­fies [Page 33]seven of days, and never seven of years: wheresover it is absolutely put, it means of days, is no where used of years. Gen. xxix. 27. The week which Laban would have Jacob fulfil before he gave him Rachel, was not the seven years service, but the seven days of Leah's wedding feast, as the Targum translates, and the Vulgar, Impel hebdomadam dierum hujus copulae, nor can it be otherwise, by the age of Rachel's children."

Many have taken it for granted, that that general expectation of the Messiah's speedy coming, which prevailed among the Jews, about the time of our Lord's appearance, originated from their interpretation of these weeks of Daniel. But this appears to be taken for granted with­out proof. It is more likely that their expectation arose from a tradi­tion of a prophecy of Elias, which is well known to have been generally received among them, viz. that the world was to stand seven thousand years; two thousand without the law, two thousand under the law, two thousand under the Messiah, and that then was to follow the sabbatical thousand; as also from the visit of the wise men from the east; the tes­timonies of Simeon and Anna, and the ministry of John the Baptist, whom all the people took for a prophet. I can no where find that Jews ever reckoned these weeks as seven of years. The objection then would have been as valid in the supposed case, as it is here respecting lunar days. But whatever the reader's opinion may be respecting the [...]e days, or the two witnesses, and the time of their being slain, I hope he will remember that this does not at all affect our main argument, respecting the second beast being the tyranny of the Lewises, and the French re­volution being the prelude to the ushering in of the third woe, the cala­mities which are to bring to an end all the tyrannies of the world, both civil and ecclesiastical.

We have long been praying, thy kingdom come, and is there any probability that the precludes to it are arrived, the earthquakes * which shake the kingdoms of the world, the signs in heaven above, and on the earth beneath; the darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars from heaven? And shall we be unconcerned about the signs of the times? It is deserving the most serious examination, whether the re­volution in France be not the beginning of the fulfilment of this prophe­cy. I say beginning; for, according to the prophecies, if this be the event pointed out by the resurrection of the witnesses, we have as yet seen but the dawn of what is to come, nor shall we perhaps for some time. Black and conflicting clouds will darken the hemisphere and obscure our prospect; but they will spend themselves and vanish. But where we sure that this event is what we conjecture, yet no man could say how long it would be before the spirit of life from God would, by those more excellent operations, and in that larger degree which we look for, enter into the witnesses for gospel truth; for they may be quickened with political life, and yet remain some time with a small share of spiritual life. . But

Here the fourth question which this Inquiry about the witnesses sug­gests arises, What are to be the consequences of their resurrection? Al­though a general idea may be formed of that which is to take place, yet [Page 34]it does not appear possible to mark out with certainty, what relates to future events, wrapt up in sigures like those which follow in this book, But we may conjecture: our part is to compare those events which have taken place with the predictions, and judge how far the prophecies are fulfilled, and not pry into futurity with an over-anxious curiosity.

Ver. 11. And after three days and a half the spirit of life from God entered into them. When their enemies thought them perished for for ever, then, as under an impulse from God *, an unexampled zeal for liberty and truth , suddenly actuated them. And they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them that saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven, saying unto them, Come up hither. The su­preme power, by abolishing the laws under which they suffered politi­cal death, invited them to quit their state of bondage, and assume equal liberty with their fellows. And they ascended up to heaven—to a more dignified slate. And their enemies beheld them—Their old oppressors, and their abettors, contemplated the change which was taking place, both with astonishment and malice.

Ver 12. And the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell.—Instantly on these witnesses for civil and religious liberty being stirred up, as by a supernatural impulse on their mind [...], 40 claim and vindicate their imprescriptible rights, this monarchy, which was one of the ten horns of the Papal beall, (and the tenth, as it was that which rose last), or one of the ten streets of the Antichristian city , was so agitated by the conflict between the witnesses for liberty and the supporters of despotism, that it fell, and its abominable oppres­sions issued in its utter ruin; and that as in one hour. The progress of liberty, in the destruction of established tyrannies, is generally flow; and that which was ages in erecting, is ages also in pulling down; the change of things here is not according to the common course of events; the witnesses awake, the conflict-commences, and the tyranny falls, as in one hour.

And in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand. Thus it is in our translation, but in the original it is, There were slain seven [Page 35]thousand names of men 31. The violence of war used to be directed against the persons of men, but now against their names.—Those titles and privileges, under the shield of which they have been wont to com­mit, with impunity, so many cruel oppressions.

And the remnant gave glory to the God of heaven. After a vio­lent conflict, for some time, between the witnesses and their opposers, the former prevailed, and those who had been rather spectators of the contest, than actors in it, united themselves to their cause; and thus, though, at least, many of them might not be actuated by these views, they glorified God in promoting his grand and good designs in this change of things which he was now effecting, in the overthrow of Anti­christian despotism and persecution.—Ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times *? Why even of your­selves judge ye not what is right? Ah! the answer to this question is too obvious.—The Lord forgive them, who, to promote their own de­signs, have blinded your eyes and perverted your judgment! In do­ing this they have—But, the Lord reigneth, let the earth re­joice.—Clouds and darkness are round about him; but righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne .

Ver. 14. The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly. The two former woes respecting the Saracens and Turks, which are denominated woes, on account of the terrible calamities which they occasioned to mankind, being now passed by, and this internal commotion, in the country where the witnesses first begin to arise, being pretty well settled, behold a state of things follow, which introduces a scene replete with woe.

Ver. 15. Behold the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying. The king­doms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. We are not to under­stand by this, that, on the founding of the seventh trumpet, the king­dom of righteousness, peace, and universal happiness is inslantly to com­mence; but that that great scene now opens which is to prepare the way for it. The eighteenth verse obliges us to interpret it thus: The nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged:—the time when thou wiit avenge the blood which tyran's have thed, and destr [...]y them which have destroyed the earth. The nations will be enraged at this change of things, and unite to oppose it, and great woes are to follow;—woes which all descrptions of men, it is likely, will feel, that they may be brought to repentance; but which will, in their issue, fall chiefly upon the heads of Antichristian oppressors, the upholders of the Papacy. Now the angels begin to pour out the vials of the wrath of God; for, as we have already observed, thi [...] chapter contains a complicated vision of a long course of events, i [...] miniature, which is afterwards illustrated by several dislinct visions on [...] larger scale.

[Page 36] But before we enter upon the consideration of the vials, permit me to adduce some authorities, which, especially if we consider the time when they were written, more than a hundred years ago, tend very much to strengthen the argument in favour of my hypothesis respecting the wit­nesses, their slaying and resurrection. The first I shall mention is Peter Jurieu, a French Protestant minister, whose works were published in English in 1687. He says, "The tenth part of the city which here fell, will, at some future time, appear to be the kingdom of France, where a revolution will take place about the year 1785, and a separation from the Papacy follow, when the names of Monks and Nuns, of Carmelites, Augustines, Dominicans, &c. shall perish for ever, and all those vain titles, and armorial bearings, which serve for ornament and pride, shall vanish; and brotherly love make all men equal. Not that there shall be no distinctions; for it is not a kingdom of anarchy, but government shall then be without pride and insolence, without tyranny and violence, and subjects shall obey their governors with an humble spirit." The time required, according to this author, after the quickening of the wit­nesses (i. e. from the time of the revolution) to destroy Autichrist, will be twenty-five years; and that it will take about seventy years more for the abolishing of sects and parties among Christians, and for the conver­sion of the Jews and Heathens. "And all this" he says, "cannot be broughtabout without confusion and tumult. The Popish empire cannot fall, but it must cause blood and a mighty noise." Thus far Juricu.

Dr. Goodwin, who wrote a hundred and fifty years since, in his Ex­position upon the Revelation, Part I. chap. 7. has a great deal which is as astonishing as it is apposite to the present argument. He says, sect. 6. "The saints and churches of France, God has made a wonder to me in all his proceedings towards them, first and last; and there would seem some great and special honour reserved for them yet at the last; for it is certain, that the first light of the gospel, by that first and second angei's preaching in chapter the fourteenth (which laid the foundation of Anti­christ's ruin) was out from among them, and they bore and underwent the great heat of that morning of persecution, which was as great, if not greater, than any since.—And so, as that kingdom had the first great stroke, so now it should have the honour of having the last great stroke in the ruin of Rome."

Sect. 5th. he says, on Rev. xi. "By the earthquake here is meant a great concussion or shaking of states, political or exclesiastical.—The effect of this earthquake, and fall of this tenth part of the city, is killing seven thousand of the names of men.—Now, by men of name, in scrip­ture, is meant men of title, office, and dignity.—As in the case of Corrah's conspiracy, so here a civil punishment falls upon these.—For having killed these witnesses, themselves are to be killed (haply) by be­ing bereft of their names and titles, which are to be rooted out for ever, and condemned to perpetual forgetfulness."

The singular agreement of present events with what these authors fore­told from the prophecies, so many years ago, is a circumstance which merits the serious attention of all wise and considerate men; for it cer­tainly adds great weight to the conjecture, that what has taken place in France, is the beginning of the final downfal of the Papal usurpations and tyrannies. And if it should be so, woe be to them who attempt to uphold what God has willed to fail! In the ordinary wars which na­tions have waged, they have, perhaps, lost one or two hundred thousand lives, and slaughtered as many of their enemies: countries have been [Page 37]laid waste, and taxes incurred, to the oppression of the industrious; but in other respects they may have sat down much as they were: but if the present contest be what there is reason to suspect it, not m [...]ly a war of man against man, but of God against Antichristian usurpations and oppressions, the issue to those who oppose his designs, most be different. Though, as was the case with the Assyrians, and with Cyrus *, the in­struments which he uses may not know him, nor mean to fa [...]l his will, yet they may be the rod of his anger to accomplish his councils.

Let us now revert to the question, What are to be the consequences of the resurrection of the witnesses? Soon after it, the seventh trumpet is to sound, which is the signal for the seven angels to pour out their vi­als of God's wrath upon the Antichristian kingdom.—Has this seventh trumpet been blown? Is it founding? Or is it about to sound for the angels to prepare to execute the vengeance of God, on the mother of har­lots and all abominations? My heart trembles at the idea of those cara­mities which are to sweep the earth, and of those convulsions which shall make kingdom and nations! "Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain ! At thy wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide thine indignation!"

As to the gathering of the harvest and vintage in the fourteenth chap­ter, the time seems not yet come for their elucidation. I am inclined to to think that they properly fall under one or more of the vials. The latter, as Dr Goodwin has explained it, seems to be a vision of the ven­ [...] which is to be executed upon the Protestant party; for the wine press is said to be trodden without the city, i. e. without the juris­diction or reach of the city of Rome; and represented in a separate vi­sion, on purpose to shew that vengeance will fall even upon such king­doms and nations as had call off the Pope's supremacy. Dr Gill and diners have supposed, that the Preteilant nations will again return to Popery, and persecute with great violence. But Dr Goodwin's idea is more probable. He says, in his Exposition, part II. chap. I. "Whe­ther the winepress will be brought into this country, he only knows who is the Lord both of the harvest and the vintage;" (reader, mark well what follows): "only this may be more confidently affirmed, that those carnal Protestants in England, and other places, who, like the outward court, have been joined to the people of God, shall yet, before the ex­poration of the beast's kingdom and number *, be more or less given up to the Papists, and be made to vail to them, if not all of them, by bloody wars, and conquests, yet by some base unwothy yielding to them, as a just punishment of their carnal profession of the gospel." And the wine-press was trodden without the city, and the blood came out of the wine-priss, even unto the horses' bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. The Lord avert from this country such a judgment!

How incompetent is man to judge of the ways of God—While the trumpet is blowing, and the angels are preparing to pour the divine ven­geance [Page 38]on the heads of tyrants and their supporters, and to spread deso­lation and woe for the sins of men, the great army of saints and martyrs in heaven sing, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Al­mighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints!—All na­tions shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest !

Rev. xvi. 1. And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.—It appears to me, that although we must suppose a conformity to the order of the vision, in inflicting the plagues of these seven vials, yet, perhaps, it will not be such a formal one, as to exclude all mixture. It strikes me, that although the vial which is to be poured out upon the earth, will commence first, and that on the sea follow, yet their failing streams will mingle; and although the fall torrent of the latter vials may not commence, yet some small portion of them may be dashed upon the rivers, the sun, or the throne of the beast, while the first are pouring out; and although the plagues of the latter vials will com­mence last, as in the vision, yet the streams of the former may still be cunning. The angel's saying of this woe, that it cometh quickly, and the encumstance of the seven angels with their vials all appearing, and being sent out at the same time, supposes that they will all be employed together, to execute their missions on the leveral objects of the divine displeasure. And we may hope that these judgments will soon be over.

Were I to detail half the opinions of authors on the following objects of the Divine vengeance, adding to them my own conjectures, this pam­phlet would swell into a folio; but as I apprehend that the events which are here represented have not yet taken place, or at most, are but now commencing, my reflections shall be short.

Ver. 2. And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous fore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. The pouring out of this vial upon the earth may possibly refer to some particu­lar country on the main, where the judgments of God are to commence; or, perhaps, we may be taught by this emblem, that the downfal of the Antichristian kingdom shall begin with terrible wars on land, in which God's wrath shall be manifested against those armies of land forces which have for so many ages been the basis of tyrannic power, and who, at the nod of despots, have slaughtered their fellow-creatures, without either thinking or caring about the justice or injustice of the cause; who have been the base instruments, without a motive, of desolating nations, and of carrying unnumbered woes from one end of the earth to the other. But the time of judging the cause of the dead is come, and both they who have the mark of the beast, i. e. who are the subjects and slaves of the Papacy, and they who worship, or only serve and endeavour to support the image of the beast, (which, according to what appears from chap. xiii. is the tyranny of the Antichristian party in France, all such as serve this image of the beast, though not Papists and flaves to Rome) shall experience such enastisements and disappointments in their attempts to support what God has determined to overthrow, and such violent and successful attacks on their power, that they shall be deeply wounded, [Page 39]and grievously vexed; or, a noisome disease shall get into their camp, and cover the earth with their dead: that thus men may see the hand which smites them, and give glory to God, * Ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times? Who drove back, and cut off, by a noisome and grievous disease, the invading army of Brunswick? He, who turneth the way of the wicked un [...]de down.

Ver. 3. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea. As in Isa. lx. 5. "The abundance of the sea shall be cun­verted unto thee," means the inhabitants of Islands, or of lands come at by sea; and as by the sea, chap. viii. 8. was intended the mariting countries of Europe, and as "woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea," chap. xii. 12. means woe to the inhabitants of continents and of Islands, all mankind, so the pouring our of this second vial on the sea, may indicare those calamities which God will bring upon his ene­mies, the supporters of Papal tyrannies, in such situations; or, if the meaning of the pouring out of this second vial of wrath is not to be re­stricted to this sense, it may probably refer also to the destruction of na­val armaments, whether in battle, or by God's more immediate judg­ments. And so great will the destruction be, that the sea will not only be stained with blood, but become as the blood of a dead man.

Ver. 4. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of water, and they became blood, &c. This may be a repre­sentation of those judgments which are to fall on the inhabitants of ro­land countries, and where rivers abound and have their sources; or, as i [...] has been generally explained, of that just vengeance which is to be in­flicted upon those orders of men, who, by the abuse of power, both civil and ecclesiastical, have been the chief sources of human misery, and the great feeders of the sea of oppression. The calamities which are to at­tend this vial, are to be peculiarly grievous. This may be concluded from the following circumstance: I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord!—Thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy. The former judgments pass in silent solemnity, [...] though the objects of them were less conspicuous in guilt, but no sooner is this vial poured out than it excites acclamations of praise. If this re­fer to the inland countries of Europe, more especially where the people are held in vassalage, and where both the priests and nobles, above most others, rule the people with a rod of iron, there appears a peculiar fitness in these acclamations. The blazing star, or comet, which fell upon the third part of the rivers and fountains of water, chap. viii. 10. appears to have head its fulfilment in the wars which laid waste the countries [...] ­dering on the Danube, the Rhine, and the Po, and especially the [...] latter, when Attila, with his Hun, made his terrible irruption, [...] the year 452: it will therefore be worth our while to observe the prog­ress of things in these countries.

Ver. 8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the [...] This appears to be either a representation of God's awful vengeance [...] visiting the nations with unfriendly seasons, that thus they may at once be humbled under his mighty band, and be more disposed to forward [...] designs in the overthrow of Antichristian systems of error and oppres­sion, or it is a prediction of the display of God's wrath against these systems of pride and despotism, which by their splend [...] have been daz­zling, [Page 40]and by their violence consuming mankind. Mr Mede supposes this sun to be some splendid potentate of Europe, as the Emperor, or the King of Spain. But if it be not the emblem of unfriendly seasons, I should rather suppose it to represent the extinction of despotism in gene­ral, than of an individual monarch or monarchy *.

Ver. 10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the sea [...] of the beast. This must be considered as referring to those calamaties which God intends to bring more immediately upon the Pope, and upon that city and country where the throne of the beast stands. And we may expect soon to see heavy judgments fall upon the Roman Pontificate; and that city to be sucked and burnt which has been the source of so many corruptions, and which has tyrannized, for so many ages, with spiritual despotism, over those kingdoms that have given their power to the beast.

Ver. 12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. The Turkish empire also shall ex­perience the wrath of God for their abominable oppressions, and not only tidings from the north (Russia) but from the east (Persia and Ara­bia) shall trouble him, as predicted Dan. xi. 44, and thus a way be pre­pared for the return of the Jews to their own land, previous to their con­version to Christianity. But the beast does not yet expire.

Ver. 14. And I saw three unclean spirits like frog: come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of she beast, and out [Page 41]of the mouth of the false prophet; for they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Here it may be proper to remember, that in symbolic hie­roglyphics, a frog was the figure by which the ancients represented an impostor, and hence the Oneiro-critics, or interpreters of dreams, taught, that as to dream of a dragon fignified majesty; of a serpent, disease; of a viper, money, &c. so to dream of frogs signified impostors. See Warb. Div. Leg. B. iv. sect. 4. These unclean spirits, therefore, (for God condescends to speak to men in their own way) represent the odious impostors who are to act as the agents of these tyrannies to betray the kings of the earth and their armies into measures for the support of the old Antichristian system, against every attempt which will be made for its destruction. But all these efforts will be in vain—the wrath of man shall praise God. It is his battle, and he will overthrow his ene­mies, and the enemies of mankind, with all their hosts.

Ver. 15. Behold I come as a thief! Blessed is he that watcheth. This will take place at a time when men in general will have no expec­tation of it, but will say in their heart, * "Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning." They will calculate events on common principles, and deceive themselves into ruin. Blessed is he that watch­eth.

Ver. 16. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon, or the mountain of Megiddo, thus call­ed because it shall be a place more remarkable for slaughter than Megid­do ever was. Judges v. 19. 2 Kings ix. 27. and Zech. xii. 11. May our country, in that day, whether it be near or afar off, if not engaged on the side of the King of kings, be far from the mountain of slaughter! In this country, above most others, the civil and religious rights of man­kind have been protected. Let us hope, therefore, that when the Judge of all the earch shall make inquisition for blood, that we shall find mer­cy; or if, with the rest of the nations who are to be purified by affliction, we must share in the cup of trembling, here is ground for confidence in prayer, that mercy may be mixed with judgment; for the judgment of God will be a judgment of proportion. Where there has been most op­pression, where sin has been most triumphant, and especially where there has been most persecution of conscience, there will the heaviest woes fall. Let us therefore repent and seek God; This is at all seasons necessary, but an additional motive enforces it, when the signs of the times suggest some very fignal crisis to be at hand. For whether men will see it or not, all things do not continue as they were from the beginning, "For the oppression of the poor, for the fighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord."

It is but to read a few of these prophecies which speak of the wars and judgments of the latter times of the world, to conceive the most tre­mendous idea of the carnage which will be made of mankind, and of the fury of the vengeance then to be poured out. When the prophets describe these judgments, it is generally, though not always, under the [Page 42]names of those nations which bordered upon Palestine, and which were the more inveterate and dangerous enemies of Israel, such as Assyria, Egypt, Moab, Edom, and others. This must be concluded, as Lowth, Mede, and others of our most able commentators argue, because those judgments which they denounce are often spoken of as decisive strokes, that should thoroughly vindicate the cause of oppressed truth and inno­cence, and put a final period to idolatry, and to all the miseries and op­pressions of God's people. They are often represented as the immedi­ate preludes of the refloration of Israel, and the season of universal peace.

To times yet to come are such prophecies as these to be referred. Isa. xiv. 24. "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, that I will break the Assyrian in my hand; then shall his yoke depart from off thee.—This is the purpose that is purpos­ed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations."—Chap. xxvi. 20. "Come, my people, enter into thy chambers, hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indig­nation be overpast. For behold the Lord cometh out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. In that day (chap. xxvii. 1.) the Lord, with his sore, and great, and strong sword, shall punish leviathen, the piercing serpent, even leviathen that crook­ed serpent, and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." Chap. lxiii. 1-6. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with died garments from Bozrah?—I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Where­fore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that tread­eth in the wine fat?—I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me; for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of ven­geance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come."

The prophet Joel, also prophesying of these calamities, says, (chap. iii.) "Behold, in those days, and in that time, (when God will shew wonders in the heavens, and in the earth, chap. ii. 30. [namely, the political heavens and earth, states and kingdoms] when I shall bring a­gain the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, (which may mean any place where the Lord will execute judgment, for so the word Jehoshaphat signifies in the original, and by valley, may be intended some low country, called in the 14th verse the valley of decision,) and will plead with them there for my people." Ver. 9. "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles, prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plow-shares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into speaks: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. (Thy mighty angel, says Lowth, to discomfit thine enemies.) Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I fit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, get ye down, for the press is full, the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Munitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision."

[Page 43] In Zech. xiii. 7-9. there seems to be a prediction of the same times. All are agreed, that the twelth and fourteenth chapters refer to the re­storation, conversion, &c. of the Jews; nor is there but one objection that is at all plausible, to the whole of this thirteenth being applied to the same times. Part of verse 7. at least the sense of it, is applied (Matth. xxvi. 31.) to the scattering of Christ's disciples at his death. I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But this appears to have been only an accommodation of this passage, or of the sense of this and of other passages, a usual practice with the New-Testament writers. (See Matth. ii. 15-17. xiii. 35. John xv. 25.) Or our Lord might speak thus in conformity to a com­mon-place maxim. "Smite the shepherd, cut off the leader, and his followers will disperse." The thread of the prophecy seems to require a different interpretation than what has been usually given to this pas­sage. Unity of design should always be attended to in the study of the prophetic writings, as well as of other compositions; nor should we suppose so violent a break in the discourse of a prophet, as some sup­pose here, unless we should be involved in an evident contradiction without it.

In chap. xi. is predicted the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews, and their punishment and dispersion on this account. In chap. xii. we have their return and conversion. In the beginning of the xiiith the pardoning grace which shall be extended to them. Then follows the destruction of idolatry, and the contempt under which the Antichristian-clergy, who have the mark of the beast in their hands, (Rev. xiv. 9.) and who have worn garments to deceive the simple, shall fall, and the shifts to which they shall be reduced to escape the vengeance of man­kind.

Verse the seventh is a call to the sword of justice to awake against the man of sin, who opposeth and exaleth himself above all that is cal­led God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the tem­ple of God, shewing himself that he is God, 2 Thess. ii. 4. He calls himself the vicar of Christ, and God's vicegerent upon earth, arrogat­ing to himself the attributes and prerogatives of deity, and is here there­fore ironically called God's fellow. Against him is God's sword to awake, and the priesthood, and all those orders which have been his supporters, are to be scattered. And in all the land two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein. Great is to be the destruction, and great the trials of those who are not destroyed. But being brought to repentance, then is to be fulfilled that promise which is peculiarly appropriated to the latter days. Ver. 9 They shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, the Lord is my God.

The fourteenth chapter more largely describes the destruction of God's enemies, and the happy days which are to follow; when (ver. [...]1.) There shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Or, as the Chaldee and Vulgate translate the words, "There shall be no more any merchant in the house (the church) of the Lord of hosts." The Christian church shall no longer be made a market, where worldings convert religion into a trade, and enrich and exalt themselves at the expence of the liberties and souls of mankind. We might enu­merate many of the predictions of our Saviour and his apostles, all of which go prove the great wars and calamities of the latter days. But I pass on to the last plague.

[Page 44] Ver. 17. And the seventh angel poured his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, & thunderings, & lightnings, and there was a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations f [...]ll, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath, and every island fled away, and the mountains were not found, &c. There shall be unexampled con­vulsions of nations. And perhaps this vial may intend also, that God, in his providence, will cause the state of the air to he such that nature shall be thrown into terrible commotions, plagues shall be gendered, and famines occasioned, that thus blind and obdurate men, who would not see his judgments in war, may behold his hand in those more conspicu­ous tokens of his wrath, which will affect the rich as well as the poor, and may be brought to repentance; and that the kingdom of Satan, who is called the Prince of the Power of the Air, shall now fall.

Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, the source of oppressions and all tyrannies, falls; and not only the mother, but all her children, all the cities of the nations, all the ty­rannic p [...]ntics which have despised and oppressed the servants of God, and all mankind, and no place is found for them. The beast and the false prophet are taken 44 and cast into a lake of fire, i. e. exemplary justice is inflicted on them; and now that oeconomy of righteousness and peace which Jesus the Prince of Peace hath in charge, from his Father, [Page 45] [...] on immoveable foundations, till [...] not only human tyrannies shall perish, but the wi [...]es for [...] [...]ligion of Jesus shall be so in­ [...]rea [...]ed and quick [...]ed by an energy from above, and such an influence from God attend his gospel, while all nature shall conspire to prepare [...] that Satan's empire shall b [...] overturned, the earth [...] with the knowledge of the Lord, and they shall learn war no [...]. EVEN SO COME LORD JESUS!

THIRD INQUIRY.

WE are now come to the third Inquiry. Will all the numbers, of Daniel and John, which refer to the state of things that we are look­ing for, agree with the present time? Let us examine.

In d [...]ing the numbers of Daniel, I shall not take up much time in examining questions, and in endeavouring to solve difficulties which might be started, nor in inquiring whether any of these numbers termin­ated in Antiochus Epiphanes. I think, and I have very respectable [Page 46]authorities on my side, that they refer to the overthrow of the Papal a­postacy, and all those systems of tyranny which have been so much at en­mity with the kingdom of Christ, to the purification of the Gentile church, and to the restoration and conversion of the Jews. To save time, and to spare the reader's patience, I shall take some things for granted, which may be seen argued at length in more voluminous writings.

In the first place, let us consider Daniel's vision in chap. viii. It opens with the appearance of a ram, (ver. 4.) having two horns, push­ing westward, and northward, and southward. This the angel interprets (ver. 30.) to be the kings of Media and Persia. The next object in the vision is an he-goat, (ver. 5.) which came from the west, with a notable horn between his eyes. This, the angel Tays, (ver. 21.) is the king of Grecia, the Grecian empire, and the great horn between his eyes, the first king, or kingdom, under Alexander, his brother, and two sons. This horn was broken, (ver. 8.) and after it came up four others; the four empires which sprung up out of the conquests of Alexander. And out of one of them came a little horn, (ver. 9.) which waxed exceed­ing great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land, and by him the place of the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down, &c. Ver. 13. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctua­ry he cleansed.

It seems natural to reckon these 2300 days (or years) either from the first part of the vision, the pushing of the ram, or the latter end, the violences of the little horn, or from the time when Daniel saw the vision * If we calculate from the time when Daniel saw the vision, the termination of the 2500 years is past forty or fifty years, and the sanc­tuary is not cleansed. If from the latter part of the vision, (as under­stood of Antiochus) it will carry us to about the year A. D. 2130, which appears too far; for supposing the 1260 years power of the beast, predicted in the Apocalypse, were to be calculated from the time when the Pope became a temporal prince, from the exarchate of Ravenna, being given to him by Pepin, A. D. 755, or by Charlemagne A. D. 774, (some thinking that he was not a perfect beast till then) this would fall short of Daniel's number by more than a hundred years; but seeing that the power, idolatry, corruptions, and usurpations of the Papacy, were such, at least in the sixth century, as appear sufficient to denomi­nate [Page 47]it a beast, and it is certain, that he began to rise much earlier; the most probable time for the fixing the commencement of Daniel's 2300 years, and that which will altogether agree best with the other numbers of Daniel, and the predictions in the Apocalypse, is the beginning of the vision, the pushing of the ram, by which is intended some distin­guished exertions of the Persian empire for conquests. And to what period of that empire does this so well agree as to the times of Xerxes and that particular push which he made when he invaded Greece * with an army of 2,641,610 fighting men, reckoning 517,610 on board his sleet, which consisted of 1207 ships of the line of battle, 3000 gallies, transports, victuallers, &c. besides the 220 ships which the nations on this side the Hellespont added, on board of which were 24,000 men? Of his land forces, 80,000 were horse. And besides this multitude, as many more are reckoned to have followed the camp, servants, eunuchs, &c. so that the whole number of people engaged in this expedition was at least 5,000,000. What a push was this for conquest! And, (though he had been pushing for three or four years before, yet) nothing else forbidding it, what period could be more proper for the angel to begin his reckoning from? He passed the Hellespont B. C. 480: four years before this he pushed at Egypt and reduced it; the next year he pre­pared for this invasion; the following he entered into a league with the Carthaginians against the Greeks, and in the year 481 B. C. marches as far as Sardis, on his way towards Greece, where he winters, and in the spring passes the Hellespont.

Suppose we six the year 481 B. C. for the commencement of Dani­el's 2300 years, (allowing our chronology to be correct), this carries us to the year of Christ 1819, when the sanctuary and host are no longer to be trodden under foot. i. e. the land of Palestine is no longer to be in the possession of the enemies of the Jews, but they are to be re­stored, and the church freed from Antichristian abominations.

But it may be objected, that as the Jewish year consisted but of 360 days, five days and a quarter short of our solar year, this will make a difference of thirty-one years short. To which I answer, A single Jewish year consisted but of 360 days, and when we consider three or four years only, this mode of reckoning may be admitted, but, as we have leap years to regulate our measurement of time, so had the Jews. When it was necessary, they intercalated their month Ador; sometimes even a whole month, and this they were obliged to do to make their feasts of the Passover, Penticost, and Tabernacles, happen at their pro­per seasons. The Targum of Chron. xii. 32. says of the children of Issachar, that "they were skilful in the knowledge of times, and wise to six the beginning of the years; dextrous at setting the new moons and fixing their feasts at their seasons." Hence it follows, that though the Jewish ordinary year is to be attended to when but a few years are under consideration, yet, in a long succession of time, they are not to be noticed, for by intercalations they amount to the same with solar years.

In Dan. xii. we have three different numbers. (The first agrees with that in chap. vii. 25.) Ver. 7, I heard the man clothed in liven, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto the heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for [Page 48]e [...]er, that it shall be for a time, times, and an half time. Three years and a half, [...]r forty-two months of years, viz. 1200. And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. Again, ver. 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that m [...] ­eth desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Ver. 12. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thou­sand and three hundred and five and thirty days. As the first num­ber agrees with the predictions in the Revelation of John, respecting the commuance of the power and prosperity of the Antichristian beast; and as the numbers appear to contradict each other if they are confined to the tyranny of Antiochus, (though he might be pointed at as the type of Antichrist), I consider them as harmonizing with the New-Testa­ment predictions. According to Rev. xi. 2. the holy city is to be trodden under foot of the Gentiles forty and two months; and in ver. 3. the two witnesses are to prophesy twelve hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth. Chap. xii. 7. we have the same number; and in ver. 14. we learn that the woman was to be nourished in the wilder­ness for a time, and times, and half a time. Chap. xiii. 5. power is given unto the beast (the first beast remember, not the second) to con­tinue, or practise forty and two months. The same time, 1260 years, is intended by all these numbers *.

But how can we reconcile those three different numbers of Daniel with the seven (two in Daniel and live in the Apocalypse) which agree?

In the first place, let it be allowed, that the convulsions which are to bring about the predicted final overthrow of Antichrist began with the revolution in France in 1789, and then reckon thus.

Daniel's time, times, and half a time, (1260 years) begin and end with the five numbers in the Apocalypse, and as they are 1260 years, and supposed to end at the French revolution, they must begin A. D. 529, and end in 1789. Daniel's 2300 years begin 481 years before Christ, and end in 1819, when some other great event, or events, will take place. The beast and the false prophet, (Rev. xix. 20.) i. e. the Papacy and the French tyranny, having previously been brought to an end, then, perhaps, the dragon, civil despotism, will be bound, (Rev. xx. 2.) and the Jews, the dry bones in the valley of vision, (Ezek. xxxvii.) be raised to political life, and restored to their own land. —Daniel's 1260 years begin with his time, times, and half a time, and with the former five numbers of John in the Apocalypse, i. e. at the commencement of the reign of the beast, A. D. 529, and end with the former number, (2300, in 1810, and which they must, for they are to accomplish the same event, as may be seen by comparing Dan. viii. 12. with chap. xii. 11. This agreement deserves particular attention. His 1335 years (the end of which, according to him, will eminently he a blessed time) begin in the same year of Christ 529, and terminate in 1864, when perhaps the Jews are to be converted by that remarkable [Page 49]appearance of the Lord in their favour, which is predicted in Ezek. xxxviii. xxxix. and in Zech. xii. and xiv. Thus the final attack on the beast commences in 789. Thirty years are employed in the over­throw of the Papacy, the Turks, and other tyrannies: a season, it is like­ly, of great calamities, but especially to the enemies of Christ's king­dom. The next forty-five years, to 1864, to which time Daniel's 1335 years extend, may be spent in gathering the Jews (who, according to Jer. xvi. 16. will be unwilling to return to their own land), and in purifying them by those trials which, according to the prophets *, are to take place on their first return; as well as in purifying, and in bring­ing to an end all the sects and parties of the Gentile Christians; and which may be effected by that greater light which is to shine upon the Christian church in the latter days, previous to that greater glory and superior slate of felicity which is to commence, perhaps, (as we have conjectured from Daniel's number of 1335), about the year 1864, on the conversion of the Jews, and of those heathen nations not before ga­thered to Christ.

But, perhaps it may be asked, What arguments are there which fa­vour the conjecture of the 529th year of Christ being that from which the power of the beast is to be dated? I own I have put this year down by accident, as the measurement back from 1789. To demonstrate, that in this year be came to such a state of maturity (for this mystery of iniquity was forming in the apostle's days , and continued to grow for ages) as to constitute him a beast, is not essential to the making good our hypothesis. But though no man, from the history of past times, can de­termine the exact year from which God dates the kingdom of Antichrist, yet there are good reasons from which a probable conjecture may be formed, that it was as early as the sixth century.

The apostle Paul, speaking of that which hindered the progress of this wicked one, says, (2 Thess. ii. 6—11.) the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way; and then shall that wicked one be revealed, &c. Our most approved commentators suppose, that by he who letteth, the impe­rial power is intended, and that we must not expect to find this wicked one arrived at maturity till the fall of the western empire. This took place A. D. 476. Soon after this, therefore, we may expect the ec­elesiastical tyranny to be matured.

Some of our most able critics, as Bishop Newton and Mr. Lowman, are of opinion, that by the wound which the first beast received, chap. xiii. 3. we are to understand the blow which was given to the majesty and power of Rome, by subjecting it to the exarchate of Ravenna; and that by its being healed, is intended its restoration to its former dignity, by this exarchate being given to the Pope, by which he became a tem­poral prince. Now, this wounding took place A. D. 568, and continu­ed 206 years. If this be well considered, it tends much to strengthen our argument; for though, when the Pope was made a temporal prince, at the time of this healing, the world wondered more than ever after the beast, (Rev. xiii. 3.) yet the Papal beast existed before, and this only gave him increasing eclat. But farther to confirm our hypothesis, con­sider [Page 50]the state of society, and particularly the state of what was called the church, in this sixth century. Now, magistrates were tyrants, and priests were wicked, superstitious and intolerant, beyond any former age. Now, numberless laws and regulations were obtruded upon the church by human authority, which at once violated the authority of Christ, defaced Christianity, and robbed Christians of their dearest liberties. And in this very year 529, which we are looking for, the Justinian code was first published, by which those powers, privileges, and immunities were secured to the clergy; that union perfected be­tween things civil and ecclesiastical, and those laws imposed on the church which have proved so injurious to Christianity, and so calamitous to mankind. And which code, through the zeal of the clergy, has been received, more or less, as the foundation of the jurisprudence of almost every state in Christendom; and that not only in things civil but ecclesi­astical; and by this means, as some author has observed, the old fancy of the Romans, about she eternity of their command, is thus far verified. We may add also, that this same Justinian, if not in 529, yet as early as 534, declared the Pope the head of all churches; all were to be subject to his judgment, but himself to be judged by none *

That this pamphlet, which is already larger than intended, may not be swelled into a volume, permit me to refer to Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Cent. VI. and especially part II. chap. 2d, 3d, and 4th. All sorts of absurdities were imposed; the grossest ignorance and wickedness prevailed among the clergy; the Bishop of Rome grasped at absolute authority over conscience, and unlimited supremacy over the whole Christian church: and though he did not altogether succeed in the east, in this western part of the world, where the scene of John's visions chief­ly lay, his dominion was acknowledged, and parasitical panegyrists, a­mong other blasphemous assertions, maintained, that the Roman Pon­tiff was constituted judge in the place of God, which he filled as the vice­gerent of the Most High; so that now was fulfilled that prediction of the apostle, 2 Thess. xi. 3, 4. As God he fitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Now, the wicked were taught that remission of sins was to be purchased by their liberalities to the church and its ministers; now those doctrines which taught men the worship of saints and images, the efficacy of observing human rites and institutions towards the attainment of salvation, the power of relics, and a thousand more errors and absurdilies were brought to perfection. Now did monkery overrun the world, and marriage was forbidden, as unworthy of those who aspired to be saints.—And in this very year 529 also, a new order of monks, which in a manner absorbed all the others established in the west, was instituted by Benedict of Nursia. In process of time, this order having acquired immense riches, they sunk into luxury, in­temperance, and sloth; abandoned themselves to all sorts of vices; ex­tended their zeal and attention to worldly affairs; insinuated themselves [Page 51]into the cabinets of princes; took part in political cabals and court fac­tions; made a vast augmentation of superstitious rites; and, among other meritorious enterprizes, laboured most ardently to swell the ar­rogance, by enlarging the power and authority of the Roman Pontiff. This and the other monastic orders, (sinks of ignorance, indolence, and vice!) were the fountains from whence issued all sorts of abominations, and the rivers which carried superstition, oppression, and violence, to all parts of the earth. They taught princes to tyrannize, and the peo­ple to cringe.

Was not the time of the publishing of the forementioned code of Justinian, and of the rising of this [...] of monks, a period, in the history of the apostacy, in which we may suppose the Almighty, with distinguished propriety, to begin to reckon the 1260 years of the beast's power, and the treading down of the holy city? The conjecture is proba­ble a priori: but, if present events, and these compared with other events, agree to recommend this date, 529, the probability is much in­creased.

To say no more of this concurrence of several numbers, thus issuing from different periods, and these the most interesting in the history of nations, and of the church, and yet harmonizing in their termination so conformable to what the prophets seem to point out, respecting the events of the last days; a concurrence which is not the effect of laboured con­trivance, as some, at first sight, may imagine, but the natural and neces­sary consequence of taking the French Revolution, in 1789, as the ter­mination of the 1260 years of the prophets, and the point from which to measure all their other numbers, is a circumstance which gives great probability to the hypothesis, that the time is arrived for the downfal of the Antichristian tyranny, when God will rebuke the nations, and they shall learn war no more *; when he will consume the idolatrcus and persecuting man of sin with the spirit of his mouth, and utterly des­troy him with the brightness of his coming . [Page 52]from a distinguishing pushing of the Persians for conquest, to the cleansing of the sanctuary, begin in the year. 481

when Xerxes set out to invade Greece, with 5,000,000 of fol­lowers, and whose wars were prefigured, Dan. viii. 4, 20. by the pushing of a ram, and end in the year A.C. 1819

The 1260 years, Dan. vii. 25. xii. 5. Rev. xi. 2, 3. xii. 6.14. xiii. 5. the period of the prosperity of the Papal beast, till the com­mencement of the decisive attack on his usurpations, begin in the year A.C. 529

The 1290 years, Dan. xii. 11. which comprehend, beside the 1260 years, 30 years more for the conflict with Antichrist, begin in the same year A. C. 529

The 1335 years, Dan. xii. 12. which are to bring to a still more blessed period, begin in the same yea A.C. 529

When the code of Justinian (the strong-hold of clerical tyranny) was first published, and about which time this same emperor de­clared the Bishop of Rome the judge of all, but himself to be judged by no one, and when also the order of Benedictine monks, the great support of the Papacy, was founded; and end in the year A.C. 1789 when his prosperi­ty termi­nates.

and end in the year A.C. 1819 When the transgres­sion of desolation shall end, (Dan. viii. 13.) and the abomination which hath made de­solate the church of Christ, and the na­tions of the earth, shall be brought to [...] period, (Dan. xii. 11.)

and end in the year A.C. 1864

[Page 53] The Witnesses (Rev xi. 7.) were slain by Lewis XIV. when he repealed the e­dict of Nants, and tormented, plundered, banished, and murdered, near 2,000,000 of the Protestant subjects, in the year A.C. 1685

But who, after being political­ly dead three lanar days and a half, or about 105 years, be­gan to revive in the year. A.C. 1789 When the French Consti­tuent Assembly de [...]l [...]e [...]t for civil and religious liber­ty.

Thus the decisive attack of the Witnesses for civil and religious liberty, upon the errors, usurpations, and ryrannies of the Papal beast, commences in the year A.C. 1789

To destroy the Papacy, and other Antichristian despotisms, at least, so far as to make way for the restoration of the Jews, and to prepare mankind for greater blessings than have ever yet been known upon earth, will take thirty years, the period for the executing the judg­ments predicted in Isa. xxvi. 20, 21. xxvii. 1. Joel iii. 9—15. Zeph. iii. 8. as also for the gathering the vintage and pouring out of the vials, which are to be the means of cleansing the sanctuary. A.C. 30

To gather and try the Jews preparatory to their conversion, to destroy the remains of ty­ranny, and to purify and enlarge the Gentile church, will occupy forty-five years more; at the end of which, it is likely, there will be that glorious appearance of the Lord in favour of his servants, promised in Ezek. xxxviii. xxxix. and Zech. xii. 8—14.xiv. and, it is proha­ble, in Rev. xx. 9. Now the Jewish nation is born at once, (Isa. lxvi. 8.) and the distant heathens are to be converted to Christianity, (Isa. iii. 10—15. Jer. xvi. 19. Ezck. xxxix. 21.) This is the time of which Danicl says, Blessed is he that cometh to it, and which is the year A.C. 45 1864

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CONCLUSION.

WHAT remains, but that the reader, unbiafied by a party spirit, seriously revolve in his mind, the proofs which have been adduced, of that tyranny which has so long been exercised in France, to the grievous oppression of the people of that country, and the great inju­ry of surroanding hations, being that beastly power which, according to God's word, was to slay the witnesses for truth and liberty; and whether the time for their rising from their civil and political death be arrived? The consequences connected with the truth of this fact are unspeakably interesting to every nation in Europe, and even to all the world.—Are the distressing calamities which we have heard of, chastising judgments for sin? Their cry, to all surrounding nations, is, * Prepare to meet your God.—Let every man and every nation— repent and reform.

God hearkeneth to hear if any man repent him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done! (Jer. viii. 6.) Let every one, then, break off his fins by righteousness—let the church return to its original [...]um­ble demeznour, its primitive purity, and its first love—let every go­vernment reform its abuses, and, by the practice of justice and mercy, break every heavy yoke, and by these means make the wilderness and the solitary place glad. Thus might they expect a blessing. But if men be still incorrigible in sin, if systems of oppression, persecution, and war, be still pertisted in, if the nations league themselves with Papal Antichrist, for the purpose of supporting him in his corruptions, robberies, usurpations, and tyrannies, in vain will they trust in the wisdom of their counsellors, the multitude of their riches, or in the power of their numerous fleets and armies. He that fitteth in the heavens will have them in derision. When they take counsel, he will bring it to nought; when they associate themselves, he will break them to pieces:—the Judge standeth before the door. And without repentance and reformation, his judgments will speedily come.

It is the duty of every member of the community to contribute what in him lies to the peace and happiness of his country. Who are the best friends both of our king and constitution; and who perform the best services to their fellow-citizens?—they who exert all their pow­er to perpetuate imperfections and abuses, and who flatter where they ought to condemn; or those who plead for timely reform, that we may ward off the evils inseparable from revolutions, and who list up their voice against the crying crimes of the nation, that men may re­pent, and thus the displeasure of God be averted, and his blessing con­tinued to future generations? Who promote most the general interest and happiness?—they who labour to blind mankind and pervert their judgments; or those who invite them to dispassionate examination, that they may beware of precipitating themselves into destructive measures:—they who, either by riot and intemperance, or by misre, presentation and calumny, inflame the passions of men, that they may engage them to forward their own interested views; or those who ex­hort them to serious thoughtfulness, and a peaceable pursuit of those measures which may prolong the quiet and prosperity of our country? He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness; but a false witness deceit.

I may have failed in the execution; but my aim has been to serve my King and Country, and to promote our common happiness, by investigating a most interesting subject. In doing it, I believe that I have performed, though a small, yet an acceptable service to God.— May it be a useful one to my countrymen! With a heart agitated and overflowing with anxious concern, I pray that the war which threat­ens us, may be averted; and that the angry clouds which are gather­ing around may sweep by this long favoured country, and spend their stores of vengeance only on the heads of inveterate oppressors.

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PART II.

AVERTISEMENT.

THE many excellent things which have been written by the friends of liberty, of our constitution, and of humanity, against the present war, and on the necessity of reformation, and a change of measures, may make it seem almost needless to say more than has been said; for interested men would not believe though one should rise from the dead. But although little that is new can be expected to be advanced on a subject which is soplain to the dispassionate and disinterested, yet, as the argument in the following pages is placed, if not in a new point of light, yet, in such an one as has not been considered in any degree propertioned to its vast importance, I am therefore induced to submit it to the public attention.

It may be thought that the Author has not entered so fully into the discussion of some particulars as he should have done, nor bestowed the pains upon them which their importance required. As to those in the former part of the book, as they have been so ably treated on by num­erous voluminous writers, and as he had but little to produce that was new, he did not think it necessary to enter farther into the considera­tion of them than appeared needful for preparing the way for the vin­dication of what he advances respecting those subjects which some may be disposed to reject because novel. And as to the execution of the whole, he must beg leave to plead the constant toils of his profession, which leave him but now and then an hour for such investigations.— Nothing but a conviction of duty could have induced the Author to present this to the Public; he has no selfish or party views to serve; and he hopes for all the indulgence which candour, with justicce, can beslow, and no more.

The love of peace, anxious apprchensions for trembling liberty, con­cern for the fate which threatens our country, benevolence towards mankind, and a motive which a Christian and a Proteslant ought not to be ashamed to avow, urge me again to address my fellow-subjects at this dangerous and awfulcrisis.—May the evils which the Signs of the Times portend, and of which I have such strong apprehensions, never fall upon my country!—May those measure, which alone [...] save us be speedily adopted!—But, should it be otherwise, may the hearts of the true friends of our constitution and liberties never have to accuse them that they soresaw the approating evil, but wanted virtue to exert their [...]lents, great or small, on the cause of peace and order, justice and liberty!—May the ge [...]one servants of God, who worship not the mommen [...] of unrighteousness [...] of [...] Bible [...] com­position [Page 56]of Jables, never shrink from their duty, because the world frowns and scoffers revile!

Religion is a reality; uncorrupted Christianity is the greatest bene­fit that ever God bestoned upon mankind; but the deformities occasion­ed by the corruptions of priests, and the perversions of statesmen, have brought it into long disgrace, and prevented the intended good. The all-wise God, for reasons insorutable to us, has permitted it to be so. This is one of the many mysteries of his providence; but his word will be accomplished; the kingdom of Antichrist will perish, and un­corrupted Christianity will revive from the moment of its ruin. We are sure of the event; but by what particular means this is to be ac­complished, and when, is not so clearly ascertained. These are left for events to elucidate. Our duty is to watch the Signs of the Times, and be ready whenever the season of reckoning may come. That its approach is to be knowable is put beyond a doubt, for otherwise the delincation of the signs, and the command to inquire and watch, as well as the promise that the wise shall understand, would all be nuga­tory.

There is a prevailing prejudice that deserves some attention, and of which it may be as proper to take notice in this place as any where. It is very usual to hear people say of the prophecies, and particularly of those in the book of Revelation, "They are so obscure, and the opinions of the learned respecting them are so various, that it seems impossible to come at any certainty: and I therefore never trouble myself about them." It is true that there are a great diversity of opinions, and many strange and wild interpretations and conjectures have been started. But to what description of prophecies does this chiefly apply? Not to those which have long been accomplished, but to such as remain unfulfilled; for though there may not be an exact con­formity of sentiment as to every particular respecting these former, yet there is a pretty generalagreement among our writers in their in­terpretation of them. What wild and incoherent notions had the fathers, as they are called, the writers of the early centuries, about Antichrist, the man of sin, and the beast with seven heads and ten horns, in Rev. xiii. And why? Because these prophecies were not sufficiently realized. But what Protestant commentators differ about these predictions now? Scarcely any. To say nothing concerning the propheties in the Old Testament, which reserred to the humiliation of the Messiah, and which were never understood till after their fulfil­ment, observe the progress of the elucidation of the book of Revelation. The prophetic parts, to the end of the ninth chapter, are tolerably well understood, and though there may not be an exact, yet there is a pretty general agreement in the interpretations of our most approved writers, at there is also about those other parts that have, for some time, been accomplished. For inslance, scarcely any lady now doubts but that the fifth and sixth trumpets refer to the deprodations of the Saracens and Turks; and almost all allow that the corruptions and persecu­fions of the Papal church, and its supporters, are represented by the treading under foot the holy city for forty and two months, and by the witnesses prophesying in sachcloth 1200 days, or years, chap. xi. The reason of this general a [...]reement is, because me see the fulfilment. But, in the interpretation of some other parts of this book, authors are very various, and for this covious reason, because unaccomplished. [Page 57]But this is not always to be the case. When therefore they are ful­filled, and the correspondence of events with the predictions suggests the true interpretation, it would be the height of folly to reject such interpretations on account of their novelty, or because former com­mentators entertained different opinions. I do not pretend to have any clear and specific ideas of what remains unfulfilled, but I appre­hend that the events signified in the tent [...] and in the eleventh chapters of Revelation, so far as extends to the nations being angry, and the coming of the wrath of God, are now accomplished, or accomplishing. I think this is as demonstrable as a thing of the kind can possibly be —as demonstrable as that the seventy weeks of Daniel referred to the coming of the Messiah, or, as that the fifty-third of Isaiah was a pre­diction of his sufferings and exaltation.

Some, it is probable, way think that the Author has expressed too much confidence respecting the supposed approaching calamities, and too much of what some will call enthusiasm, for the occasion; he can only say, that whatever diffidence he may entertain as to some single and detached hypotheses, both in this part and in the former, yet he has no doubt remaining as to the great facts, and expected events: and under the impression of this confidence, it would be criminal apa­thy to treat them as common occurrences, and to feel as though but lit­tle were at stake.—When Jesus beheld the capital of his guilty, devot­ed country, he wept over it.—Whether I write as a wild enchusiast, or as one in his sober senses, who has some reason for what he advances, a short time will determine; and, if the reader will suppress his cen­sures, and engage himself diligently to watch the Signs of the Times but for a few years only, I am willing to refer to suture events for the proof that what is now bursting upon us tends to no common issue.— Yes, it is more than probable, that many will think the Author a mis­taken enthusiast; but were this the universal opinion, (which is far from being the case), he is not destitute of support against immoderaté mortification.

If I am deceived by seeming correspondencies, or led away by the illusions of fancy, to adopt sentiments which way have a tendency to create unnecessary uncasiness, I shall esteem myself under obligations to the man who will endeavour candidly to convince me of my delu­sions: and if such an one can produce any well-grounded arguments to overturn what is advanced in the following pages, or in the former part of The Signs of the Times, I hope I am neither so pertinacious, nor so enthusiastic, as to be incapable of conviction. But while no better arguments are advanced than, "Others have been deceived— opinions are various—when an author wishes to support an hypot he­fis of this kind, it is no difficult task, in any age, to find events suited to his purpose—these prophecies might be applied to any other country or events as well as to those brought forward," &c. I must beg leave still to maintain my confidence.

Christians believe that the predictions of the prophets are sometime to be fulfilled. Whenever that time comes, and a certain number of the predicted events have taken place, it is likely that things will be placed in such a point of light as to convey conviction, to the pious and attentive observer, of the true intent of the Spirit of God; and it is to be expected, that this will be in proportion to the advancement of the great scheme to its perfect completion. Whether such a number [Page 58]of these events have taken place, and whether things are now placed in such a point of light, I hope the reader will candidly and seriously inquire. The Author thinks it is so; and though he does not pretend to determine, from unfulfilled prophecies, either the exact time, or man­ner, of the accomplishment of any particular event, yet he thinks that, from what has taken place, a pretty positive conclusion may be drawn respecting the main events, and that they are very near; namely, the downfal of the Papacy, and of all religious corruptions and usurpa­tions; the overthrow of all tyranny and oppression; the general re­formation and renovation of mankind, and of the overflowing cula­mities which are to effect, or prepare the way for all this.

Such is the temper of the times, that some filly or party spirited peo­ple will, possibly, be ready to suspect the Author of want of loyalty to the king, of veneration for the constitution, and of love for his coun­try; for to similar suspicion [...] was a wiser and better man exposed, (Jeremiah xxxviii. 4.) and all for a conduct which avouched the very contrary, and for which, instead of persecution and a dungeon, he deserved the thanks of his country. Should it be thus, the Author will be content to console himself with that consciousness which he pos­sesses of the falsehood of such surmises, of the rectitude of his inten­tions, and the hope of His approbation who is the Judge of all, and to whom, and not to the will of men, we ought to live.

The Author does not profess to set himself up for the apologist of the French people; and far be it from him to attempt to justify their rash and wicked deeds: he has not even supposed that every other peo­ple, in like situations, and with like provocations, would have acted the same part which they have; for that would be no alleviation of their guilt. The utmost that he has contended for, or suggested is, that the overthrow of monarchy and Ropery in that country is the accomplishment of God's word, and in judgment for oppression and corruption; that their great leading principles are good, and that they have a right to legislate for themselves, and choose what sort of government they please, uncontrouled by any other power on earth.

Whether the French be right or wrong, in this or that, is no part of the question which it has been thought necessary to enter very deeply into;—yet the truth seems to be, that there is a strange mixture of the greatest good and the greatest evil: much to be applauded and much to be lamented. But the argument against the present war is drawn from a higher source than either the princi­ples or practices of the French reformers; and the Author thinks that, whether the French be right or wrong, whether they triumph or perish, yet most of the nations who have made war upon them have involved themselves in great blame by the rashness of their proceedings, and that they hazard great danger, by attempting to support that, which not only inspired wisdom, but general reason, has doomed to fall.—But more than this; though the war, on the part of the combined powers, were ever so just, though as just as that of Israel against the [...]roud king of Assyria, or of any of the ancient empires against their cruel and ambitious invaders, it would not at all affect the question. As in their cases it was for the accumulated guilt of successive ages, and for the general depravity of their character, and not for the plame of that particular quarrel in which they fell, that God made these invaders his instruments for their chastisement and over­throw, [Page 59]and which destination Inspiration had foretold—so, for the accumulated guilt, and general depravity, of modern nations, chastise­ment is to be expected, and Inspiration has put it beyond a doubt that it will one day come, when the beast with ten horns will be slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame, (Dan. vii. 11.). From comparing the signs of the times with the declarations and in­dications of prophecy, there is great reason to apprehend that the time is at hand. Whatever, then, our provocations might be, the dan­ger is much the same, and there is no hope of escape or alleviation, but by instant Repentance and Reformation.—Never, therefore, was that exhortation more in time, Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is as hand.

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A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE EVENTS PREDICTED IN THE FIFTH. SIXTH, SEVENTH, EIGHTH, AND NINTH CHAPTERS OF REVELATION.

BEFORE we enter upon our inquiries, permit me to put a plain question: not whether thou art interested in the continuance and triumph of corruption in this country, or in the support of despotism and Popery in France? questions proper enough in themselves, for interest has a mighty influence in corrupti [...] the heart and perverting the judgment; but, art thou a Christian? [...] [...]he reader believe that the prophets in old time spoke and wrote under the inspiration of God, and that the things which they foretold will have their accomplishment? If not, he may be assured that the following pages will not be to his taste.—In a Christian country, when questions of the last importance are in agita­tion, and the fate of nations is at slake, there is a peculiar propriety in referring to those sacred records which we all believe to be from God, to see whether they contain any information which may assist us in forming a right judgment, and [...]s prevent our pursuing a criminal and ruinous conduct. He cannot be a Christian who desp [...]es this appeal, and especially as it is allowed, almost by general consent, that we have here deleinated the circumstances and fate of nations, to the end of time.

The apostle Paul (Rom. xv. 4.) declares, respecting the writings of the prophets, that "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope;" and in the beginning of that prousound and difficult, but important and instructive, book of Revelation, it is written, (chap. i. 3.) "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: the time is at hand." Is it not therefore a strange piece of [...] ­ly, not to say profaneness, in Christians, to maintain, that these prophe­cies are of a kind which it is as vain as it is unprofitable to inquire in­to? This is to arraign the wisdom of God, and despise those methods of instruction which the Inspirer of prophecy has chosen. Far be this from us! Let us better understand that saying of the apostle to Timothy; "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Many things in this book may be hard to be understood, and especially before their fulfilment, or the taking place of some events so immediately connected with them as to afford the inquirer a clue in his investigations; but it does not thence follow, that we are not to search into the mind and meanig of the Spirit of God, but rather that we ought to redouble our diligence in inquiry, and abound the more in prayer to God, for the teachings of that Spirit who gave the word, and gave it in this form, not that it might never be understood, but that, whilst the purposes and operations of God, in providence, should be hid from the careless eyes of a wicked world, they might, at the proper season, be [Page 61]discoverable to the pious and diligent inquirer, for the consolation of the upright, and, in the end, for the general conviction and edification of mankind. What the angel said to Daniel (chap. xii. 3. 10.) is in point as to the present question, and a ground of encouragement to in­vigorate our researches. Shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many (that is, about the time of the end) shall run to and fro. (shall inquire and investigate) and knowledge shall be increased. None of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. The wicked will not see what God is doing, though they themselves may be the instruments; but the wise, who search into the word of God, and observe and compare the signs of the times with its predictions, shall understand.—With these sentiments let us enter upon the consideration of our subject.

Previous to our considering what is recorded in the tenth chapter of the Revelation, and comparing it with the eleventh; and from which comparison I suppose such signs of the [...]es to be discoverable, as may assist us to form a judgment of the period in which we live, and of the events we have to expect, it will be proper to take a cursory view of what goes before. In the fifth chapter we have an account of a book sealed with seven seals, which Jesus, [...] Lamb of God, was alone found worthy to open. This book is the representation of the providence of God, which is committed to the execution of the exalied Redeemer of the world. The opening of the seals indicates to us the different peri­ods of history, from the first preaching of the gospel to the comsumma­tion of all things. In the sixth chapter we have an account of the opening of six of the seven s [...]als. These bring us to the overthrow of the heathen Roman empire, by the emperor Constantine, who, about the year 311, embracing Christianity, effected a most astonishing revolution in the history of idolatry, and procured for the Christian church a re­spite from the persecutions which had long harrassed it, and which seemed to threaten its utter extirpation. Now (A.D. 323.) were the four winds of heaven holden (chap. vii.), that they should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree, till 144,000 of the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads, with the seal of the [...]ing God. The former commotions and persecutions gave place to peace and quietness, till Christianity should acquire strength and permanency by the addition of numerous converts. But tares sprung up among the wheat. The seeds of Antichristian error, pride, and domination, had long been sown, and now the sunshine of court-favour produced a plen­tiful crop. Christianity, or something called by that name, was brought to court; she was carresled, loaded with riches and honours; was de­hauched by her alliance with the world, and quickly became the mother of barlots. The true religion of Jesus Christ was adulterated with the maxims of statesmen, and the reveries of enthusiasls. The persecuted became the persecutors, and universal corruption, reviling, and oppres­sion succeeded. Hence the judgments which follow:

Chap. viii. "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." Was this mence, as some interpet it, the short quiet which the church enjoyed on the late change of circumstances; or, (for this quiet had been represented be­fore chap. viii. 1.) was it not rather the amazement of heaven, on the [...]ing of the seventh seal, at the corruption which followed, and a [...] the judgments of God, which were about to succeed? There may also be [Page 62]an allusion, as some suppose, to a ceremony among the Jews, who, while the sacrifices were offering, and while the priest went into the temple to burn incense, remained silent without, praying to themselves. "And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets." These seven trumpets are to be the sig­nal for the ushering in so many distinct judgments on apostate Chris­tians: "And I saw another angel come and flood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God, out of the angel's hand." The corruption of the Christian church which had ta­ken place, and the evils which quickly followed in its train, became a subject of serious concern to those who still adhered to the truth; and the vindication of dishonoured Christianity, as well as of oppressed inno­cence, was the subject of their [...] prayers. God heard them. "And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth; and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightenings, and an earthquake." All these expressions are significant of wars and commotions of nations, and are [...]ip [...]tions of what is to be expected under the following trumpets, or possibly they were intended to re­present those commotions which should agitate the Roman empire, be­tween the dead of Constantine and the sounding of the first trumpet, which should bring the invasion of the Goths; that is, between the years 337 and 376. In this interval the family of Constantine, his three sons, who divided the empire among them, and all his relations, perished, chiefly by assassination and intestine wars, within the space of twenty-seven years. And so fierce and bloody was the war between Constantius, who reigned in Asia and the east, and Magnentius, who had procured the assassination of Constans, and had assumed the purple in Italy, that, as Victor observes, it almost ruined the whole strength of the Roman empire. But this was only the prelude to much greater calamities.

Ver. 7. "The first angel sounded, and there followed hail, and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up." This first trumpet brings a terrible storm from the north, the region of hail; and the nature of the storm shews the nature of the judgment, it was hail and fire mingled with blood, which denotes wars, and appears to have been a prediction of the terrible inundarions of the Goths, who, about the year 376, broke in upon, and laid waste a great part of Eu­rope, that third part of the then known world, to which the prophecy refers; for when the prophecy speaks of the judgment falling on a third part, the western empire, or Europe, is to be understood. Great were the calamities which were endured, for several years, from these inva­ders. A check was at length given to their depredations: for attempt­ing the conquest of Normandy, A. D. 402, they were defeated, their immense treasures were taken; the captives were delivered, and, as the dispersed wandered about for safety, innumerable numbers were slaugh­tered. But another enemy quickly appeared.

Ver. 8. "The second angel sounded, and, as it were, a great moun­tain burning with fire was call into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood." &c. This appears to be a prediction of the irruption of the Vandal [...], who, about the year 406, made a terrible invasion into [Page 63]the western and maritime parts of Europe, and here down all before them; so that France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, were made a prey of, and Rome itself was made to pay for its liberty. Here they settled themselves for a while, till, toward the period of the third trumpet, they went into Africa, and there founded the kingdom of the Van­dals.

Ver. 10. "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of water; and the name of the star is called wormwood; and the third part of the waters became worm­wood, and many men died of the waters, because they were made bit­ter." This blazing star, or comet, is Attila, who, with his Huns, A.D. 452, made a terrible invasion into the western parts, laying waste the countries about the Danube and Rhine, the greatest rivers in Europe, and especially Lombardy, which is watered by the Po. His mission seems to have been particularly against this latter country. Right well did he call himself, The scourge of God, and the terror of man. For fourteen years he shook both the east and west with the most cruel fear, laying waste the provinces, by plundering, fire, and sword. After having wasted Thrace, Macedon, and Greece, he turned his arms against the western empire: he entered Gaul with 700,000 men, set most of the cities on fire; but, going beyond the bounds of this trumpet, he met with a successful resistance, on which he turned his force against Lom­bardy, took and deslroyed Aquilea, with several other cities, slaying the inhabitants, and laying the buildings in ashes. From the Alps to the Appenine, all was slight, depopulation, slaughter, bondage, burn­ing, and desperation. He was preparing to march to Rome, but was diverted from his purpose by a solemn embassy from the emperor, and the promise of an annual tribute; and so concluding a truce, he retired out of Italy, and passed into his own dominions beyond the Danube.

Whoever casts an eye upon a map of this country, which he thus ravaged and depopulated, and which comprehended almost all the north of Italy, viz. Piedmont, Milan, most of the territory of Venice, Man­tua, Parma, Modena, and several other provinces, he will instantly perceive the aptitude of the description of this judgment: it was to fall upon the third part of the rivers and fountains of water, and the waters were to become wormwood, &c. Beside its lakes, no country in Europe is sointersected with rivers. There are not many short of a hundred, reckoning the numerous branches, with their several consid­erable streams, which fall into the Po. Perhaps, at some future time, not far distant, the comparing of what may take place in the overthrow of Antichrist, with this judgment which fell on those countries especial­ly which are watered by the Rhine and the Po, may help us to under­stand that other judgment, represented in Rev. xvi. 4.7. by the pouring out of the third vial upon the rivers and fountains of water.

Ver. 12. "And the fourth angel founded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as that the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise." This trumpet also relates to Europe, and perfects that for which the other trumpets prepared the way, the extinction of the western empire. We may here recollect what Sir I. Newton, in his observations upon the prophecies, says, respecting this sort of figurative language. "In sacred prophecy, which regards not single persons, the sun is put for [Page 64]the whole race of kings, in the kingdom or kingdoms of the world politic, shining with regal power and glory; the moon, for the body of the common people, considered as the king's wife; the stars, for subordinate princes and great men. Darkness is put for obscurity of condition, and for error, blindness, and ignorance; darkening, smiting, or setting of the sun, moon, or stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom, or for the desolation thereof, proportional to the darkness; darkening of the sun, turning the moon into blood, and falling of the stars, for the same."

There appear no events to which this extinguishing of the third part of the sun, moon, and stars, can be so properly applied as to what took place towards the end of the fifth century, when the western emperor, and his subordinate governors, were utterly extinguished, and en entire end was put to the very remainders of the Roman Caesars. This was effected by the fourth inundation of the barbarous nations, when the Heruli, under Odoacer, their leader, invaded Italy, about the year 475 A. C. and, having conquered Augustulus, gave the mortal blow to the western empire, and reduced all Italy under the dominion of the barbarian, who assumed the title of King of Italy. About sixteen years after this, Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, at the request of Zeno, emperor of the east, made war upon these invaders in the new set­tlement, conquered Odoacer in several battles, and obtained, as the fruits of his victories, a kingdom for the Ostrogoths in Italy, which subsisted, under various turns of sortune, from the year 493 to 552. The seat of government was now removed from Rome to Ravenna. This ex­tinction of the imperial government, and humiliation of Rome, appears to be that to which the apostle Paul alludes, 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7. 8. Thus he, or that which hindered the man of sin from perfecting his schemes of ambition, was taken away, and free scope was given to the Popes to realize that spiritual monarchy, after which they had so long panted, but could not so easily effect while the Caesars continued, and the civil government remained so near them.

Thus have we seen the dissolution of the Roman empire in Europe effected by the irruptions of the barbarous nations, not at once, but by degrees. From its ruins sprung up the ten kingdoms, which had been shewn to Nebuchadnezzar as the ten toes of a great image, (Dan. ii. 42.) and to Daniel and John as so many horns of monstrous and lavage breasts. Dan. vii. 7. Rev. xii. 3. xiii. 1.

What was the effect which all these great and constant calamities that we have been reviewing, produced on the minds of the sufferers? Did they put a stop to corruption, and reduce mankind to repentance? Instead of this, immorality, superstition, priestcraft, and cruel oppres­sions, civil and religions, seemed to increase in proportion to the cor­rections of Providence, and even to outstrip the calamities which precipitated the down [...]fal of the Roman empire. Instead of turning to God by repentance; and seeking to him for protection, they multiplied their gods; and the only exhortations of the clergy were, "The holy martyrs, our defenders, are present; they would be entreated, and they seek that they may be sought. Seek, therefore, unto these helpers of your prayers, find out these proteciors of your guiltiness. Let St. Peter be now your helper in all things, tha afterward he may be able to forgive you your sius. Chant to the cross, wherein is the wood of [Page 65]the Lord's cross, and the hair of John the Baptist: we fetch always the comfort of our Saviour through the intercession of his fore-runner." Thus idolatry was grafted on the Christian profession; and these Anti­christian apostates thought, by these devotions, and by making converts by sire and sword to the holy Catholic church, to atone for their sins, and bribe the Divinity to interpose in their favour. But while they are chanting to saints and relies for peace, and shedding the blood of the saints as the price of safety, behold an angel flying through the midst of heaven, (ver. 13.) saying, with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to found!" The three last trumpets are called woe trumpets, and this because the plagues which were to come, either on account of their much greater severity or longer duration, would be much more terrible than the four former.

Chap. ix. 1. "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the the key of the bottomless pit." Our commentators are generally agreed, that the judgment intended by this trumpet is very obvious, and cannot be easily mistaken. This falling star, or comet, is the grand impostor Mahomet, who, in the unsearchable operations of Providence, was the instrument of preparing a race of men, or monsters rather, for the scourging of apostate Christians. Mahomet commenced his career about the year of Christ 608. Then he began to propagate his imposture, and take to himself the title of The Apostle of God. He did not pretend to deliver a new religion, but to revive that which had been given to Adam. In the year 622 he began to teach his disciples, that God had ordered him to propagate and enforce his religion by fire and sword. Accordingly, in 623, they began to put in practice this pretended mission. Ver. 2. "And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." This smoke is his erro­neous doctrine. Ver. 3. "And there came out of the pit locusts upon the earth, and to them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power." It does not comport with my limits, nor is it necessary to my design, to enter into the minutiae of this part of John's vision; I shall only observe, that by these locusts we are to understand the Saracens, the disciples of Mahomet, who, for so many years, were the scourge of the Greek and Latin churches, Asia and Europe. Here is no mention made of the third part, as in the other trumpets, but their commission was against all the men who had not the seal of God in their foreheads, that is, who were not the servants of God, but had apostatised from the truth to superstition, idolatry, and persecution, which was the case with the pretended Christians both of Asia and Eu­rope, both of those who acknowledged the supreme authority of the Bishop of Rome, and of those who did not. But these locusts were not to kill these men, but only to torment them. This does not sig­nify, in the strictest sense, that they were not to inflict death on any, for this they did on innumerable multitudes; but it means that, though they were to be the authors of numberless, torments to both the Greek and Latin churches, yet they were not to destroy them in their corpor­ate capacity. This was to be effected by the future woes.

[Page 66] As to the time during which these Saracen locusts were to torment them who had not the seal of God in their foreheads, it is said, in the fifth verse, to be five months, prophetic months undoubtedly, or 150 years. Again, it is said, ver. 10. that "they had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months;" the same period of time with that mentioned before, 150 years. There is some difficulty in reconciling this time, which the prophecy allots, with the history of facts. Some suppose, that an allusion only is here made to those hot summer months in which locusts are wont to prevail and do mischief, without intending to markout any certain time. Some, again, suppose, that as a prophet­ic month contains 30 years, the period of 150 years was intended, and that this refers only to that period in which the Saracens made their chief conquests, and occasioned the greatest calamities. Others ima­gine, that both these five months are to be reckoned; and then the pe­riod of their tormenting men is fixed to 300 years. But others have thought, that here has been, through the mistake of copyists, some altera­tion of the original text. See Whiston's Essay on the Revelations, p. 196. By this hypothesis, John is supposed to have written I E or decapente and not E or pente that is fiteen months instead of five, this being a period which seems to agree much better with the history of the Saracens" for from the beginning of the Saracen empire, or of the im­posture of Mahomet, in 608, to the first grand downfal of it, by the rise of the Turkish empire, at the inauguration of Tangrolipix, (after the taking of the capital city of Bagdad), A.D. 1057 or 1058, are a­bout 450 years. As it is not essential to my design, I shall not labour to solve the difficulties which here present themselves, it being enough for our present purpose, if this fifth trumpet be allowed to refer to the depredations of this cruel people. I shall therefore only beg leave to suggest to the curious, and to those who may have more ability and leisure for the investigation, whether the first five months may not refer to the severest period of their conquests and cruelties in Asia, where they had their beginning, and the latter five months to the time of their chief and most tormenting depredations in Europe. Those who wish to see a more laboured explanation of these trumpets, may consult Brightman, Mede, Lowman, Newton, Whiston, and others. The lat­ter of whom, except Mede, has the most originality; and though he may have some peculiarities, and start some hypotheses which may be thought to be unsupported by good argument, yet, altogether, he seems to have had the most consistent ideas, and I acknowledge my obligations to him.

Ver. 12. "One woe is past, and behold there come two woes here­after. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month and a year, for to slay the third part of men." It is almost impossible not to believe that this woe resers to the Turks, who overthrew and entirely extinguished all that part of the Roman empire which they assaulted, by the taking and [...]king of Constantinople, A.D. 1453, and by the entire conquest and passion of the [...]stern empire to this day. This people perfectly [...]gree with the follow [...], [...]. They were to be prodigiously numer­ous, [...] [...]lly in cavalry. (ver. 17.) Such has been the case with the [...] of them dis­persed [Page 67]over the several provinces of their empire. They [...] to have "breast-plates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone; the heads of their horses were to be as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. And by these were the third part of men killed." (ver. 17, 18.) This is, as Mr. Whiston observes, a most proper, or allegorical description of the way and appearance of ba [...]les, since the woeful use of guns and gun-powder, which were invented un­der this trumpet. By these they were enabled, in the infancy of this art of killing and laying waste, to archieve some of their greatest ex­ploits. By means of his artillery, Amurath the Second broke into the Peloponnesus, and took several strong places; and in particular at their most fatal action, the taking of Constantinople, in 1453, such enormous guns were employed as had never been seen before. One is described to have been of such a monstrous size, that it was drawn by seventy yoke of oxen, and two thousand men. If we moreover consider the cavalry as seen over the heads of their horses, not only do the men seem to be as breast-plates of fire, but fire, and smoke, and brimstone, ap­pear to issne from the mouths of their horses.

But it being allowed as it is by almost all our writers, that the Turks are intended by this woe, what chiefly concerns us is, when was this loosing effected, of which the prophecy speaks, and for how long a time were these angels prepared to slay the third part of men? Concerning these four angels, see Mede's Key, p. 108, and Whiston's Essay, p. 199. They understand them to be four sultanies or kingdoms, which the Turks had at or near the river Euphrates, for several successions togeth­er, whose capital cities were Bagdad beyond that river, and Iconium, Aleppo, and Damascus, on this side of it. For a great while they were restrained to these parts, and could not extend their dominion as they wished. Several circumstances operated to effect this restraint, particu­larly the expeditions of the crusaders, in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the power of the khans of Persia, who, till the beginning of the fourteenth century exercised some contro [...]l over them. But it is evi­dent, that the several restraints of Providence which had bound them, began to be taken off towards the end of the thirteenth, and the begin­ning of the fourteenth centuries. All our writers on the ancient Turkish history, complain of the barrenness of their materials, and the inaccuracy of dates; but let us trace this matter as well as we can. First observe the rise of the Ottoman family itself. The first person we read of, of this remarkable race, which has been such a scourge to Christendom, is Solyman Shah, who attempted, about A.D. 1214, say some, later, according to others, to retire out of Persia, to seek for him­self and followers a settlement under the Seljukidae, who then reigned in Asia Minor. In attempting to pass the Euphrates he was drowned. This so discouraged his sons, that two of them returned back into Persia; but Ortogrul, the third, with his three son, Candoz, Sarubani, and O­thman, or Ottoman, still remained in the neighbourhood of the Eu­phrates for some time, till Aladin, the sultan of I [...]oniuin, received him, and gave him, and the four hundred families which emigrated with him, a country to inhabit. Ortogrul died about the year 1289, and his son Ottoman continued the subject and soldier of Aladin. By his valour and success he raised himself to great eminence, and the race of the Seljukidae terminating in Aladin, he fixed upon Ottoman to be his suc­cessor. Oppressed with age and infirmities, he is said, in his lifetime, to have devolved on Ottoman the cares and prerogatives of royalty. [Page 68]Mr. Gibbon fixes this in A.D. 1299; but it is generally determined to have been in 1300. From comparing what is saia of the length of his reign and the beginning of the reign of his son Urchan, and other circum­stances, there is reason to conclude that he began his reign in the year of the Hegira (the Turkish epoch) 699 or 700, probably the latter. Now, as the Hegira began July 15. 622, A. D. and the Arabian years being lunar, and the Turks reckoning them by thirties, nineteen of which consist of 354 days, and eleven of 355, their year 700 would commence on September 16, 1300. Thus the fourth month of the Turkish year would be, according to the Christian era, 1301. His­torians seldom take any notice of this difference in the commencement of the Turkish years, and those of ours; but if an event is said to have taken place in the 700th year of the Hegira, this year commenceing in 1300 of our era, it is therefore set down as in that year. It is probable that Ottoman was inaugurated in the year of the Hegira 700; but histo­ry does not say on what day or month of that year; it might be towards the latter end of it. M. Whiston endeavours very ingeniously to prove from certain circumstances, that he began his reign May 19. 1301. It would certainly afford some satisfaction, if we could prove to a day or a month from whence to date the beginning of the Ottoman empire. But I question whether this would be enough to prove the exact time of the loosing these four angels, or messengers of destruction. In Ottoman, it is evident that all these sultanies were united; but perhaps their loosing is to be reckoned from some great and successful expedition under­taken some time after he had mounted the throne. I think it is clear that it was soon after the commencement of his reign; and if we are not able to prove the exact day or year, it does not invalidate the con­clusion which we mean to draw.

According to Chalcocondylas, quoted by Mr. Whiston, soon after Ottoman was seated on the Turkish throne, the Turks made an irrup­tion into Europe, even as far as the Danube, and a second soon after. This second is ascribed to 1302. But let us hear Mr. Gibbon, (Hist, of the Rise and Fall of the Rom. Emp. vol. xi. p. 443.). who cannot be suspected of wishing to serve the cause of Christianity. He laments, with all other writers on these subjects, the obscurity of the Turkish annals. He dates the first breach which Ottoman made upon the Greek empire, July 27. 1299, bvt says it was after the Seljukian dynasty was no more. As authors are pretty well agreed as to the uncertainty of the Turkish dates, and as it is pretty clear that Aladin did not die till 1302, perhaps this date is not quite correct. However this may be, he says' "The Seljukian dynasty was no more; and the distance and de­cline of the Mogul khaus soon enfranchised him (Ottoman) from the controul of a superior. He was situate on the verge of the Greek em­pire; the Koran sanctified his gazi, or holy war. against the infidels; and their political errors unlocked the passes of mount Olympus, and invited him to descend into the plains of Bithynia. Till the reign of Paleologus, these passes had been vigilantly guarded by the militia of the country, who were repaid by their own safety, and by an exemp­tion from taxes. The emperor abolished their privilege, and assumed their office; but though the tribute was rigorously collected, the custo­dy of the passes was neglected, and the hardy mountaineers degenerated into a trembling crowd of peasants, without spirit or discipline. It was on the 27th of July, in 1299 of the Christian era, that Othman first in­vaded the territory of Nicomedia; and the singular accuracy of the date seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive growth [Page 69]of the monster." In p. 431. he informs us, that till now "all the emir [...], who had occupied the cities or the mountains, confessed the supre­macy of the khan of Persia, who oftentimes interposed his authority, and sometimes his arms, to check their depredations, and to preserve the peace and balance of his Turkish frontier. The death of Cazan remo­ved this salutary controul; and the decline of the Moguls gave a free scope to the rise and progress of the Ottoman empire," This event he dates May 31, 1304. This looks very much like the loosing of which the prophecy speaks. Between this and the year 1312 he dates the conquest of the maritime country from the Propontis to the Mean­der, and the isle of Rhodes, so long threatened, and so often pillaged; and that now (p. 437.) "the captivity or ruin of the seven churches of Asia was consummated, and the barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and Christian antiquity." And but a few years after this, so humbled were the proud Christians of Constantinople, the trembling capital of the emperors in the east, that crowds of naked Christians, of both sexes, and of every age, of priests and menks, of matrons and virgins, were exposed to sale in their public markets; and all they could do was to deplore the fate of their brethren, who were led away to the worst evils of temporal and spiritual bondage. In 1357 or 1358 they entered the European seas with a very numer­ous fleet of ships, and never ceased their conquests, nor received any effectual check, till the latter end of the last century. In 1453 they took and sacked Constantinople, entirely conqueredr the eastera empire, and made that imperial city the capital of their vast dominions.

But for how long a period was their triumph to continue? Ver. 15. "And the four angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men." According to Mr. Brightman, Dr. Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester, Dr. Cressner, Mr. Whiston, and others, 890 yeaas, and some odd days, are here signified. They reckon, with a little variation, thus:

 YEARS.DAYS.
An hour015
A day10
A month300
A year of 3651/436591
Total396106

It admits of a doubt whether the Jewish year of 360 days should be counted, or the Julian year as above; but as it does not affect the hy­pothesis I mean to establish, I shall not detain the reader to examine it. Mr. Whiston argues, that it is probable that Ottoman began his reign May 19. 1301, and reckoning from thence to September 1. O. S. 1697, when prince Eugene overthrew the Turks at Zenta, we have exactly the time required. And it deserves to be remarked, that ever since that overthrow they have never been able to make any effectual head against the Christians, so called, but instead of being a plague to the Christian nations, in the prophetic sense of the term, these nations have been a plague to them, and their power has been constantly lessen­ing: for though they have made war several times, it has been almost [Page 70]almost uniformly to their loss, at least with respect to the old western empire, or the Latin church; for immediately after this, Providenc [...] raised up Peter of Russia, who, by what he effected among the people of his vast empire, prepared a scourge for those who, for four centuries' had been so cruel a scourge to mankind. This is the messenger who was to bring tidings from the north to trouble him, Dan. xl-44. * and it [...]s probable that Russia will be a principal instrument of his destruc­tion.

What some able writers have said on this subject deserves attention, as it serves very much to strengthen the argument, which goes to prove, that the hour, and day, and month, and year, for which this woe was prepared, terminated about the end of the last century. The first whom I shall mention, is Mr. Brightman, who wrote in the beginning of the last century. He says (in his Exposition of the book of Revelation, p. 324. edition of 1644.) "A year. here put simply, is understood to be a vulgar and usual Julian year, that consists of 365 days and some hours, all which time being numbered from the year 1300, shall expire at last about the year 1696, which is the last term of the Turkish name, as other scriptures do also prove with marvellous consent." Dr. Crosner and Dr. Lloyd, bishop of Worcester, foretold very nearly the peace of Carlowitz from this passage. See what Bishop Burnet, in his History of his Own Times, says of the latter, (vol. iv, p. 297, of 12mo. edit.) "Dr. Lloyd, the present learned bishop of Worcester, who has now for above twenty years been studying the Revelation with amazing diligence and exactness, had long before this year said, the peace between the Turks and the Papal Christians was certainly to be made in the year 1698, which he made out thus: The four angels, mentioned in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, that were bound in the river Euphra­tes, which he expounds to be the captains of the Turkish forces, that till then were subject to the sultan of Babylon, were to be loosed or freed from that yoke, and to set up for themselves; and these were pre­pared to slay the third part of men, for an hour, a day, a month, and a year. He reckons the year in St John is the Julian year of 365 days; that is, in the prophetic style, each day a year; a month is thirty of these days, and a day makes one, which added to the former number makes 396. Now he proves from history, that Ottoman came and began his conquests at Prousse, in the year 1302, to which the for­mer number, in which they were to slay the third part of men, being-added, it must end in the year 1698; and though the historians do not mark the hours, or twelfth part of the day or year, which is a month, that is, the beginning of the destruction the Turks were to make, yet he is confident if that is ever known, that the prophecy will be found, even in that, to be punctually accomplished. After this he thinks their time of hurting the Papal Christians is at an end. They may indeed [Page 71]still do mischief to the Muscovites, or persecute their own Christian subjects, but they can do no hurt to the Papilins."

Dr. J. Mather, who wrote in 1710, says, in his Discourse concern­ing Faith and Fervency in Prayer, p. 97. "We are assured that when the sixth trumpet, called also the second woe, has done its work, the seventh trumpet, called the third woe, will come quickly, Rev. xi. 14. Now there is reason to hope that the second woe, is past, h. e. that the Turk shall be no more such a plague to the apostate Christian world, as for ages past he has been. At the time when the second woe passeth away there is to be a great earthquake: In that earthquake [...] one of the ten kingdoms, over which Antichrist has reigned, will fall. There is at this day a great earthquake among the nations. May the kingdom of Erance be that tenth part of the city which shall fall. May we hear of a mighty Revolution there, we shall then know that king­dom of Christ is at hand."

When I consider the facts which give us reason to think that the four angels, or ministers of destruction, which were bound in the river Euphrates, were loosed, when the four sultanies above enumerated were united under Ottoman, and freed, not only from the restraints laid on them by the crusaders, but from the controul of the khans of Persia; when I recollect that all this took place about the latter end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth, and that be­tween the years 1299 and 1304, the Seljukian race being extinct, and the controul of the k [...]ans of Persia being no more, Ottoman founded the present Turkish empire, broke in upon the territories of the eastern Cae­sars, and laid waste the apostate Christian churches; when, moreover, I consider that since the peace of Charlowitz in 1669, though there have since been wars between the Turks and the Papal powers, yet, that the latter have generally been the aggressors, and that the Turks have almost ways come off losers, so that their power is so much broken that their empire totters to its very base, I conclude that the hour, and day, and month, and year, in which they were to prevail, terminated about the end of the last century, probably on Sept. 1. O. S. 1697, when they experienced that satal overthrow at Zenta in Hungary, from the the armyunder Prince Eugene.

SIGNS OF THE LATTER DAYS.

BUT does the violence of the second woe terminate as we have en­deavoured to prove; and is it because the men, against whom it was directed, are brought to repentance? No. Ver. 20. "And the rest of men (the members of the Papal church) which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor with, neither repent­ed [Page 72]they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their thefts" This is the exact slate of the Antichristian nations; and systems of cheating and fraud, robbery and murder, persecution and war. They have not repented.

Must we then give up all hope of better days? Will nothing bring the church to a purer state, and the nations to repentance for their cor­ruptions and murders? Alas! the man of sin will never repent; Anti­christian priests and tyrants will never cease their corruptions and op­pressions, robberies and murders, till they, and their abominable systems, are utterly destroyed by the avenging judgements of God.—But we are not to despair.—Here, in the tenth chapter, an angel descends from heaven to brighten the gloomy scene, and to cheer our drooping hopes, by announcing that the seventh trumpet shall soon be sounded, and the mystery of God be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

The gleam of consolation which breaks upon us in this chapter is very seasonable and reviving; the great and lasting troubles predicted in the former chapters, and which occupy a space of 1400 years, are enough to try the faith and patience of the best. To hear of nothing but of hail and fire, of burning mountains and seas of blood, of darkening of the sun, moon and stars, of horrid monsters which vomit fire, and destroy innumerable myriads of men: to hear of nohing but woe after w [...], without intermission or prospect of end, terrifies the boldest spirits, and oppresses the strongest faith. The woes of the two last trumpets had now afflicted the nations for near a thousand years; and the enormities of Antichrist had prevailed for a longer period. To revive the spirits, and to animate the hopes of God's servants, an angel appears at the end of the sixth trumpet, or the second woe, to assure them that the time of corruption, persecution, and calamity, shall not continue much longer, but that the seventh and last trumpet shall soon be sounded, and that woe come upon Antichristian oppressors which shall finish the mystery of God, and introduce among men his glorious kingdom of righteous­ness, peace, and happiness. Seeing then that there are the most cogent reasons for concluding, that the woe of the sixth trumpet terminated a­bout the year 1697, near a hundred years ago, and that many good and eminent men have been daily expecting, since that time, the judgments of the seventh trumpet, which are to bring the triumphs of Popery, idolatry, oppression, and wickedness, to an end, and introduce the king­dom of Christ, it becomes us to attend to the Signs of the times, and see whether the fig-tree is not shooting forth and annoucing the approach of summer. May the Spirit of God direct and illumine our minds, that we may understand his word and judge rightly!

Chap. x. 1. "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire; and he had in his hand a little book open." This little open book appears to be a codicil to that book of which we read in chap. v. coutaining some addi­tional explanatory matter. The book with seven seals contains a gener­al representation of the slate of things under the fourth monarchy of the world, (Dan. vii. 7.23.) or of the Roman empire, and the king­doms and states into which it has been divided, from the first preaching of the gospel to the end of time, and does not take particular notice of the events which more peculiarly concern the church of Christ. This little book includes several distinct visions which represent more im­mediately [Page 73]the state of the church, and which are related in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth chapters, and in part of the fourteenth, if not the whole of it.

The observing of the greatest consequence to this is right understand­ing of this interesting and instructive book.

Ver. 2. "And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth, and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I faw stand upon the sea, and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever—that there should be time no longer;" Dr. Doddridge has well expressed it, "the times of the judgments, to be signified by the pouring out of the seven vials, should not be much longer delayed." And thus also do Brightman and others explain it, as meaning that delay should be no lon­ger, but that the seventh trumpet should now speedily sound, and the judgments of God bring Babylon the Great to a rapid end. And then (ver. 7.) the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. Then the providence of God, in permitting the kingdom of his Son to be so long and so successfully opposed; in per­mitting his church to be so grievously harrassed by its enemies, and in suffering opposers so long to triumph, which has been esteemed among the chiefest mysteries of the Divine conduct, shall be illustrated, and all nations shall see, in the decisive woe upon Babylon, those displays of wisdom and righteousness which shall vindicate the Divine govern­ment from all the aspersions of infidelity.

Of this great event almost all the prophets have spoken, and all agree that the calamities will be the most tremendous that the nations have ever experienced; but the issue, as it concerns the liberty and happiness of mankind in general, as well as the felicity of the church of Christ in particular, the most glorious. A glory this very different from that which worldly wisdom and carnal pride, for so many centu­ries, have been aiming at. All the governments of the world will be framed on principles of impartial and general justice. Pure and unde­filed religion will revive. "Glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace, good-will toward men," will again be sung; and both the scattered Jews and the fulness of the Gentiles will be brought in to swell the chorus, and to grace the triumphs of the Son of God. Long have the eyes of believers been looking to the promises. and observing the signs of the times, expecting the arrival of these promised days. But hitherto the time has been delayed.

Here, after the sixth trumpet, or the second woe, is past, and the rest of the men, who were not killed, repented not, and after the seven thunder had uttered their voices, the angel swears by Him who liveth for ever and ever, that delay shall be no longer, but the seventh angel shall sound.

In the next chapter, which contains explanatory visions, we are in­formed that the seventh angel does not sound his trumpet, to bring the decisive woe, till after the witnesses are risen from the dead, in some one of the Antichristian kingdoms, nor till that kingdom, or tenth part of the Antichristian city, is so shaken by an earthquake that it falls. Here it is necessary to recollect what has been advanced in the first part of The Signs of the Times. It is there endeavoured to be proved, [Page 74]that by the second beast, which came up out of the earth, (Rev. xiii. 11 —19.) the French tyranny, as perfected by Lewis XIV, and support­ed by his successors, was intended; that it was he who, by the repeal of the edict of Nants, and the overthrow of all the remains of civil liberty in France, slew the witnesses for religious truth and civil liberty; that it was he who caused an image, to be made to the first beast (the Papacy) by the establishment of a spiritual tyranny similar to that at Rome, and which, contrary to the slate of things in any other country where the Pope's supremacy in spirituals has been acknowledged, was at once in­dependent of the Pope's authority, and yet in support of his pretensions and corruptions. I have also endeavoured to prove, that it was here the witnesses lay politically dead for three lunar days and a half, or 105 years; that the revolution in France in 1789 was the resurrec­tion of the witnesses to civil life, and the commotions which have fol­lowed, the prophetic earthquake here predicted; and that the fall of the tenth part of the city is accomplished in the overthrow of the mon­archy or tyranny of France. Immediately after this the seventh angel sounds, and ushers in the third woe, which is to be the means of hasten­ing the kingdom of God. The nations are angry, (compare chap. xi. 18. with xix. 19.) and gather themselves together to oppose the designs of God: his wrath falls upon them, and they are destroyed. This eleventh chapter we must remember, is a miniature picture of the history of the Christian church, from its first beginnings to the end of time, and belongs to the little book which treats of the affairs of the church espe­cially. When the visions of the book with seven seals are resumed, (which book refers to the more mixed and general concerns of the king­doms), as in the fifteenth and following chapters, these events of the seventh trumpet, or third woe, are exhibited on a larger scale, and re­lated with a more circumstantial detail.

Now let us compare tenth chapter with the eleventh. In the tenth chapter we are informed that it was not till after the seven thunders had uttered their voices that the angel lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, that delay should be no longer, but that the mystery of God should be finished by the sounding of the seventh angel. These seven thunders, I think, evidently occupy the space between the ending of the sixth [...]mpet and the commence­ment of the seventh. But, what are these thunders? John was forbid­den to write what they uttered; and hence most commentators have past over this part of the prophecy without even conjecturing what might be intended, supposing that it would be presumptuous to do so. But this has not been the case with all. Some have conjectured that though what they uttered was not to be written at that time, yet they are explained in the after visions. Brightman supposed them to be explain­ed in the fourteenth chapter: Whiston imagines that they belong to the last vial, chap. xvi. But all this seems very unnatural. There are others who suppose, that though it was not proper to write down what they uttered at that time, yet that, after their accomplishment, they will be understood, and suppose them to be seven warnings which are to precede either the seventh trumpet or the last vial. It appears to me that as John was forbidden to write down what these thunders uttered in vision, it would be as presumptuous as it would be useless, to inquire what it was till the vision is realized, and the intent of these thunders is ascertained. For as it is likely that it was forbidden to be written, lest the prophecy should be made too plain before the time that God [Page 75]would have it understood, so to attempt an explanation till events have [...] archetypes of the thunders quite clear, would be running be­fore God. But it does not hence follow that this is always to be the case; for when the things signified are accomplished, they may info [...]m u [...], in language as plain as events can speak, of what we were not to know before. But, to say nothing of what these munders might utter, we may observe, that as we are not forbidden to inquire what the gen­eral meaning of these thunders themselves might be, and as it is proba­ble that they were intended to be some time understood, to the end that they might serve as a guide to direct the inquirer into the signs of the times, and as otherwise the mention of them would be useless, it is therefore very proper to examine, with modesty, whether this part of sacred writ may not assist us in forming a judgment of the times in which we live, that thus we may be excited to redoubled watchfulness, and be ready.

Our first inquiry should be, what is the meaning of thunder in the my [...] and figurative language of prophecy? As in the natural world the things of creation are comprised in the heavens and the earth, and the heavens are considered as the nobler parts of the creation, so in the world politic, in prophetic language, the heavens mean thrones and go­vernments: the sun, moon, and stars, emperors, kings, princes, and great men, as well as empires, kingdoms, and slates; the earth signi­fies the great mass of the common people; clouds mean multitudes; wind, hast, storm, and thunder, as well as earthquakes, signify wars and commotions among multitudes and nations. Thus in Isa. xxviii. 2. when God, by his prophet, threatens to punish by war, the language is, "The Lord hath'a mighty and strong one, which, as a tempell of hail, and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth." And again, chap. xxix. 6. "Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and a great noise, with storm and tempest, and a flame of devouring fire." The next verse explains what this thunder and storm is: "And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ar [...]el shall be as a dream." Sir I. Newton, On the Language of Prophecy, p. 13. says, "Tem­pestuous winds, or the motion of clouds, are put for wars; thunder, or the voice of a cloud, for the voice of a multitude; a storm of thunder, lightning, & hail, and overflowing rain, for a tempest of war descending from the heavens and clouds politic." Dr. Warburton, in his Divine [...]e­gation, book iv. sect. 4. says, "The old Asiatic style, so highly figura­tive, seems, by what we find of its remains in the prophetic language of the sacred writings, to have been evidently fashioned to the mode of ancient hierogliphies both [...]uriologic and tropical.—Of the second kind, which answers to the trop [...]al hieroglyphic, is the calling empires, kings, and nobles, by the names of the heavenly luminaries, the sun, moon, and stars; their temporary disasters, or en [...]re overthrow, by eclipses and extinctions; the destruction of the nobility, by stars falling from the firmament; hostile invasions, by thunder and tempestuous winds; and leaders of armies, conquerors, and founders of empires, by lions, bears, leopards, goats, or high trees. In a word, the prophetic style seems to be a speaking hieroglyphic."

If we examine all the passages in the sacred writings where thunder is mentioned in the prophetic style, we shall find that it generally, if not always, signifies war. It is probable than that [...] [Page 76]and seventh trumpet, which should afflict this western part of the world, or those nations which had given their power to the Papal beast, or which in any form had assumed Antichristian power in religion, and which wars should prepare the way for the great scene which was to fol­low.

But here it will be proper to ask, (for frequent observation has con­vinced me that such questions are not altogether needless,) Does the reader believe that a prophecy can be fulfilled by the events which take place in his own day, and which pass under his own observation, as well as by those of five hundred years back, or five hundred years to come? Does he think the wars and great events of nations which have or may take place in this age, and in these countries of Europe, as worthy to be the subject of prophecy as what was foretold by Daniel, (chap. xi.), respecting the invasion of Greece by Xerxes; or of the conquests of Alexander, and the fate of his empire; or of Egypt, and which was formed between Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, and Antiochus Theus, king of Syria, by the marriage of Berenice, the daughter of the former, with the latter, and the consequences that followed that connection? I hope he does.

As the seven thunders appear evidently to occupy the space be­tween the sixth and seventh trumpet, and as thunder in the prophetic writings is allowed to be the speaking hieroglyphic of war, and as it is likewise probable that the sixth trumpet, or second woe, ended about the year 1697, it is worth while to inquire, whether these thunders have [...]c [...]ed their voices; that is, whether there have been seven periods of war in Europe since that time. On examination, the history of this century will inform us that, taking all the nations together which do or have made up the body of the Papal beast; and among whom the re­mains of religious corruption, usurpation, &c. continue, (and which almost all allow to be the object of these visions), there have been just seven of these thunders, or periods of war, neither more nor less. And it is worthy of remark, that this is the case whether we take into the ac­count those states and kingdoms only which sprung out of the ruins of the old Roman empire, or all those that compose the Latin church, or even the whole of Europe. We shall consider those wars in which all Europe have been engaged, so far only as the nations which are or have been subject to the Papacy, have been concerned in them.

1. The first period of war commenced in 1700, and continued with­out intermission till 1721 inclusive; for when other powers terminated their destructions, and hushed the roar of war in some parts of Europe, by the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, and by that of Rastadt, in 1714, then, as though alarmed lest mankind should be too happy, the madman Charles the Twelfth of Sweden roused himself from his bed of affected sickness at Dometica, and prosecuted his war against Russia, Den­mark, Prussia, Poland, Hanover, and Saxony, with renewed vigour. In these wars the following powers were engaged: Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Poland, England, Holland, the Emperor, Spain, France, the Venetians, the Turks, &c. This was the first thunder,

2. The second, though very violent while it lasted was of shorter du­ration than the former, continuing only through the three campaigns of 1733, 1734, and 1735. In this war there were engaged the Emperor, France, Spain, Sardinia, &c.* The interval of peace was short; for.

[Page 77] 3. In 1737 the third thunder began to roll; nor did it cease to lay the fairest parts of Europe in ruins all 1748. In the wars which filled up this period of destruction the following powers were engaged: the Emperor, Russians, and Turks, led the way; England and Spain quickly followed; France, Prussia and Holland, also united to increase the calamity.

4. In 1755 commenced another period of war, which soon set all Europe in a flame. Great-Britain, France, Prussia, Saxony, Austria, Sweden, Spain and Portugal, experienced its effects. This period of wariasted till 1763, and was the fourth thunder.

5. The fifth, though extremely violent where it raged, did not ex­tend itself so wide. The parties engaged were the Russians, Poles, and Turks. The French and Corsicans also increased the roar. Poland was never so desolated. This commenced in 1768, and continued five years.

6. Peace, as usual, was but of short continuance. The dispute of Great Britain with her American colonies, which broke out into an o­pen rupture in 1775, was the occasion of a sixth general tempest break­ing upon the chief maritime powers of Europe, and which continued from 1778 to 1782, five years. The powers engaged were Great Britain, France; Spain and Holland.

7. The seventh and last period of war was from 1788 to 1791, in­clusive. The parties engaged were the Russians and Austrians against the Turks; the Swedes against the Russians and Danes; the Belgians also, who revolted against the Emperor, increased the tempest. Den­mark soon became neuter; and as far as the Emperor and Swedes were concerned, peace was restored in 1790, but the Russians and Turks continued their slaughter till 1791. This was the seventh thunder.

This last period of war seems, under providence, to have been among the principal causes of the success of the revolutionists in France; for those who may be thought to have been the most disposed to assist the French court were otherwise employed. This circumstance has not been unnoticed by the writers of the day. It has been observed, that it happened unfortunately with respect to the aristocratical party in France, that Europe had seldom been, through a long course of years, in a state less capable of affording the succours which were now demanded by the princes, nobles, and clergy of that country, or in which the minds of the people, or the dispositions of the sovereigns, were less calculated for undertaking any enterprise, than at present. The mad ambition of the Emperor Joseph, under the influence of the overwhelming power and vall designs of Russia, to which he became so miserable a dupe, be­sides the ruin and spirit of revolt which it spread through his own do­minions, had, in no small degree, deranged the general policy of Eu­rope. And it is worthy to be observed, that just when this prince was on the eve of making peace with the Turks, and which being accom­plished, he might then have been able to turn his attention to the situa­tion of his brother-in-law the king of France, he died, (Feb. 20. 1790.) His successor, Leopold, immediately set himself to accomplish what death prevented Joseph from executing; but no sooner was peace con­cluded with the Ottoman court, and his revolting subjects in Brabant brought to obedience, than he died also, (March 1, 1791). All these happily extinguished just as it was breaking out, and the expence of [Page 78]events counteracted every inclination which the court of Vienna might have to oppose the progress of the French revolution, and gave time for its gaining such a firm establishment, that before Francis, the present emperor, could be prepared for the meditated attack, the people of France were become too much enlightened into the enormities of the old system, too much informed of their rights and strength, and too untted, to be easily frightened into a retreat.

The courts of London and Madrid were occupied in a squabble a­bout an object scarcely bearing or deserving a name. The king of Sardinia, from the state of his finances, of his army, of his fortresses, was not in a condition to hazard any attempt in favour of the old des­potism, till too late. We may add the immense debts, contracted in the wars of the present century, (originating, from the impolitic and ruin­ous practice of funding, which must in the end, and perhaps very soon, terminate in events the most calamitous to those who have had resort to such unwise measures): these debts, I say, and the consequent derange­ment of the finances of all the powers in Europe, proved highly favour­able to the cause of the French reformers; and however great the fears of some might he, respecting the influence of this example, or however much inclined to listen to the supplications of humbled despotism, or to support the cause of the mortified nobility and clergy, whose cries for vengeance filled every court and every country, yet they were so shackled by circumstances as not to be able to yield them immediate assistance.

Thus have the wars of this century been preparing the way for the accomplishment of God's designs in the overthrow of the tenth part of the Antichristian city, and the destruction of the power of those privi­leged orders of men, who had been its chief supporters, which appears to be the slaying of the seven thousand names of men, predicted Rev. xi. 13. and which events were to be the prelude to the seventh trum­pet, which is to bring those judgments that are to perfect the overthrow of Papal corruption and tyranny.

Seeing that God, by his servants the prophets, has condescended in various known and allowed cases, (as may be seen by comparing the writings of the prophets with history) to reveal his purposes concerning the fate of nations, and that for the confirmation of his word, and the edification of mankind, it certainly becomes us to examine whether there be any takens or signs by which we may know the present times, lest the judgments of God come upon us when we are not aware, and find us, instead of waiting for him, as his faithful servants, in arms against his providence, and in league for the support of his enemies, and the enemies of his children.

There never were greater or more important events, since the world began, than those to which we are witnesses; events apparently big with the most awful consequences. Though what we have advanced respecting the termination of the power of the Turks in or about the year 1697, and the accomplishment of the seven thunders, by the seven periods of war which have been since that time, may not, by itself, prove that the time is arrived for the founding of the seventh trumpet, and for the commencement of that woe which is to bring Antichristian idolatry, corruption, and oppression to an end, yet, in conjuction with other prophecies and events, it is possible that it may form a strong probability—a probability as near to a demonstration as can be expect­contained [Page 79]in chapter the eleventh, we are informed, that after the two witnesses, or two descriptions of witnesses, had lain politically dead in one of the streets of the Antichristian city, the mystical Babylon, for three prophetic days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them who saw them. This is a Jewish manner of describing the great poli­tical changes of nations from bondage to liberty, as may be seen by comparing this place with Isa. xxv. 6—12. xxvi. 12, 19, 21. Ezek. xxxvii. 1—14. What the prophets, in the passages referred to, have described as the resurrection of the Jews from the dead, is allowed, on all hands, to be their rising to civil and political existence, when they shall be restored from their dispersions and bondage to their own land and to liberty; and the spirit which is promised, Ezek. xxxvii. 14. to be put in them that they may live, is not that which is promised Jer. xxxi. 33. and Ezek. xi. 19. but the spirit of political and civil life, pre­paratory to [...]hat greater blessing of the renovating Spirit of God. Upon the rising of these witnesses from their state of death, they heard a great voice from heaven, (ver. 12.) that is, from the Supreme Power, say­ing unto them, "Come up [...]her," assume the privileges and rights of freemen. "And the same hour there was a great earthquake;" ver. 18.) or in plain language, without prophetic figure, a great national convulsion, from the struggles which the supporters of corruption and tyranny made against the vindicators of the civil and religious rights of mankind. "And the tenth part of the city fell." This for ages past has been supposed to refer to France, the tenth part of the Antichris­tian city, and events seem to verify the conjecture. This doubtless appears to point out one of the ten Papal states or monarchies which had been the great supporter of the persecution and oppressions of the whore of Babylon, and which was to fall some little time before the founding of the seventh trumpet for the great and desolating woe; and no one of them has been, all through, so conspicuous in her cause as France.

"And in the earthquake"—not at the moment of the falling of the tenth part of the city, but in the earthquake which terminated in that event, "were slain of men seven thousand;" or, of the names of men, as it should be read. This has also, for near two centuries back, been supposed to be a prediction of the abolition of titles in France, and of the perishing of those privileged orders of men who have been the prin­cipal supporters of despotism, and the chief actors in the persecutions which have raged against God's servants, as may be seen more at large­in the First Part of The Signs of the Times.

Immediately after the fall of this tenth part of the city, the third woe commences, Ver. 14. "The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel founded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." That is, those judgments now commence, which are speedi­ly to effect this happy change; but Babylon the Great is to fall first, and this is to be accomplished by terrible things in righteousness. The­nations are to be angry, (ver. 18.) and oppose the designs of God; the consequence of which will be, he will gather them together, (chap. xvi. 16. xix. 17—21.) and pour upon them his wrath, and thus destroy those (whether secular or ecclesiastical) who destroy the earth.

Let us now return to the seven thunders, and see whether our inter­pretation of them agree with what is here predicted respecting the tenth [Page 80]part of the Antichristian city, and the events which have taken place. The last thunder, or period of war, as we have seen, began in 1788. just before the earthquake in France commenced, and continued till 1791, or, if we exclude Russia and Turkey, 1790. It entered far into the period of the earthquake, and was a means, under Providence, of forwarding the consequences of that convulsion. In this part of the earthquake the names of men were Ilain, that is, the titles and distinctions not only of the ecclesiastics, but of the secular nobility, were abolished. The titles of these latter were abolished June 9. 1790. Their cries for vengeance excited the sympathy and pity of the surrounding courts, but they were at present in no condition to help them.

The thunder ceased.—Aug. 25, 1791, several potentates and princes entered into a treaty at Pilaitz, and agreed to prepare for the invasion of France, and to unite their forces to restore the ancient des­potism, and with it the invaded rights of the nobility and priesthood. —The affairs of France advance fast towards a crisis.—The angel swears by Him who liveth for ever and ever, that delay shall be no longer. —Aug. 10, 1792, the monarchy falls.—The seventh angel founds.— The nations are angry, and God's wrath is come.

Thus there hitherto appears to have been the most exact conformity between the representations to John, and the events which we have been considering, especially as to the rising and sinking of the Turkish power, and the periods of war which have afflicted the Latin church, to these western parts of the world, since the term nation of the violence or the second woe, and preparatory to the third; as well as to the revolu­tion in France, and the commotions of nations which have followed the fall of the Papacy and monarchy in that country. A correspondence this which is calculated to excite the most serious alarm on account of our present situation, and of what we have to expect. But it is happy to reflect that this is not all; it is calculated also to cheer the hopes of all those who are waiting for the fulfilment of the promises of God, for the morning cometh as well as the night, and at evening time it shall be light, (Zech. xiv. 7.) But would we escape the evil, and partici­pate only in the good? The likeliest means to insure this, is, without delay, to withdraw from this unhappy and inauspicoius war, and apply ourselves to a universal reformation.

THERE are also other signs of the times which very pointedly in­dicate what we have to expect, but which we shall only briefly touch upon. From comparing what Ezekiel says, (chap. xxvi. xxvii. and xxviii.) concerning the fall of Tyrus, and the consequent calami­ties, from the failure of commerce, with what is said respecting the fall of Babylon the Great, Rev. xviii. serious conclusions might be deduc­ed. As there might also, not only from that general indifference which prevails as to every thing which concerns religion, but from compar­ing Rev. xvi. 2, 13. with existing events. The union of Protestants and Papists, (though it must be supposed that they do not in general mean this,) for the support of that which heretofore they thought it their first duty to oppose, and for the overthrow of which they pray i [...] all their churches, is a singular phaenomenon.—Yes, charity obliges us [Page 81]to hope that the majority of Protestants would revolt at the idea of leaguing themselves with Papal tyrants, for the direct purpose of sup­porting Popery. I believe that this is not the idea of the people in this country, and I hope that none of our treaties will ever bind us to fight through thick and thin for the perpetual safety of all the states of Italy. For as the day (if God's word be true) will certainly come, and, it is likely, very soon, when God's wrath will be poured out upon that seat of spiritual tyranny, this would involve us in an awful situa­tion indeed, to the most distant hazard of which no wise Protestants would expose their king and country. They who would do this, let them abuse the French infidels as much as they will, are deeper in in­fidelity than they. No; the people of this country, in general, think nothing about Popery, or of the policy of supporting it. This is not esteemed even a secondary end of the war by them. But it is too evident, that the violent advocates for religious hierarchies, tithes, &c. among Protestants, although they might approve of some reformation in the Gallican church, and would not have found themselves inclined to oppose any alteration which might have brought it to a nearer confor­mity to their own several systems, yet when the French reformers abolished tithes, and restored to the people their ancient and natural right of choosing their own pastors, and especially when they abolished all religious establishments in that extensive country, and placed the different sects upon an equal footing, and made all the ministers of reli­gion dependent upon their several flocks for support, who might re­ward them in proportion to their own ability, or according to the opin­ion entertained of their deserts; this reduction of things to the original state in which Christ and his apostles left them, was beyond bearance, and they had rather that all the absurdities and oppressions of the old Papal establishment should be restored, than such a dangerous example be set up in the heart of Europe. This appears evidently to be the sentiment of those who wail and howl so dreadfully about the contempt into which their "dear brethren in Christ" (the Popish clergy, who can no longer shew their mitred fronts in Parliaments) have fallen, and for the overthrow of the holy altars of the idolatrous whore of Babylon. But let us pass on.

When I read or hear the ravings of Mr. B—ke, and of such like orators, who are listened to with admiration and wonder, while they so feelingly describe the merits of the Papal priesthood, the sanctity of all religious establishments, and the enormous impiety of touching this ark of God;—when I hear right reverend prelates of a Protestant church, drawing the most invidious comparisons between the priests of the bloody whore of Babylon and the dissenting ministers of this country, (than whom, with the whole body of Protestant dissenters, there are none who are more sincere in their loyalty to the king, in their attachment to the constitution, or more uniform in their obedience to the laws—but ene­mies to corruption, and friends to civil and religious liberty);—when I hear them, before the most august assemblies, breathing out nothing but brotherly love to the former, and nothing but wrath and bitterness a­gainst the latter, and all because these differ from them in opinion a­bout tithes and religious establishments;—while I hear them exerting all their eloquence, not only to implore our protection and pity for the exiled priests of France as fellow-creatures, (for that would be praise­worthy, for, if thine enemy hunger, feed him) but as our brethren, members of Christ, and heirs of the promises; "more near and dear [Page 82]to us by far than some who, affecting to be called our Protestant breth­ren, have no other title to be called Protestant than a Jew or a Pagan, who, not being a Christian, is for that reason only, not a Papist;"—while I hear them softening our renunciation of the Autichristian church of Rome, into an estrangement, and her idolatry and blasphemous dogmas into "what we deem their errors and corruptions;"—whilst I hear them wail over the fallen altars and violated riches of Papal idola­try and superstition, without one sentence which may lead us to adore God, in the contemplation of those righteous and awful judgment, by which he fulfils his word, and avenges the cause of the innocent;—I perceive in this unity of sentiment between such exalted Protestants and the church of Rome a sign of the times which indicates no good to the friends of civil and religious liberty.—But I will leave such men to the mercy of God, and the public to their own reflections.—Rejoic­ing that the law protects the innocent, I hope that such men will never be permitted to realize their zeal in any thing beyond invective and wailing; and then, let them inveigh, let them wall.—Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but, who are these?—Not the genuine friends eith­er of Protestantism, their country, the king, or the constitution, which they make their theme.

The next signs of the times which I shall notice respects the Ottoman empire. In Dan. xi. 40—45. we have a prophecy of the calamities which the people of the fourth monarchy, or rather of the Papal church, should suffer from the king of the South, or the Saraceas; and from the king of the North, the Tarks, who came originally from the north quarter. After enumerating the conquests of this last enemy, the pro­phet says, ver. 44. "But tidings out of the east, and out of the north, shall trouble him; therefore shall be go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many;" ver. 45. "yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." "And at that time" (xii. 1.) "shall Michael stand up, the great Prince, which standeth for the children of thy people." (the Jews,) "and there shall be a time of trouble, such as there never was since there was a nation, even to that same time; and at that time, thy people" (the Jews) "shall be delivered, every one that shall be written in the book." Then follows a description of their political rising, after the manner of the eastern slyle.

Enemies from the east, from towards Persia or Arabia, and from the north, are to be the means of bringing the Turkish monster to an end, and this is to be preparatory to the return of the Jews to their own country, which the Turks now possess, and at which time such troubles will afflict the nations as have never been known.—One enemy is to come from the east, and another from the north; and it is deserving the attention of those who would observe the progress of things towards the accomplishment of God's purposes, that at the present time the Ot­toman empire is at once threatened from both these quarters. The new sect of the Nchabis in Arabia, are said to become more formidable. These are Mahomedan infidels, and their doctrine has nothing less in view than the destruction of the whole system of Mahometanism, as a system of superstition, oppression and bloodshed. The founder of the sect was the Shick Mahomed Jon Abduhl Vehab. This doctrine has been brooding, it is said, near sixty years, and its advocates now sup­port their [...] [...]ion by force of arms. They have adherents both secret and revealed among the Arabians in general. They are reported to possess the greater part of the country from Medina to Bassora, on the [Page 83]Euphrates, and beyond it, and 40,000 men have been found insufficient to overpower them. The Porte is pursuing measures for their reduc­tion, and we must wait the issue before we can form any certain opinion; but it is probable that Mahometanism, as well as Popery, will owe its fall to the prevalence of infidelity.—The second great enemy which is to contribute to the destruction of the Turkish empire, is to come from the north, and this seems at present the most formidable. Ever since the time that we have supposed the rage of the second woe to have ter­minated, (the latter end of the last century) the power of the Russians has been getting a bead of that of the Ottomans, and at this moment Constantinople trembles at the frown of the aspiring Catharine.

But here a difficulty presents itself. As the Turks came originally from the neighbourhood of Mount Caucasus, where the family of Gog was settled, and as they have long been in possession of most of those countries mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, (chap. xxxviii. 2—6.) as the invaders of Palestine, after the Jews' restoration, it has therefore been thought that the Turks are the people to whom the prophecy refers. But, if the Turkish empire is to be overthrown to make way for the restoration of the seed of Abraham, how is this to be reconciled with the prediction of the prophet, and the generally-received opinion? Were I to enter into a laboured consideration of this subject, it would carry me far beyond the bounds I have prescribed myself. I shall there­fore but just touch upon it, and refer the reader for farther information to Well's Geography of the Old Test. vol. 1. chap. 3. sect. 2.

Respecting Gog and his associates, mentioned by Ezekiel, it appears that Gog, or Magog, the son of Japhet, settled himself about Mount Caucasus, and is esteemed the farther of the Scythians, who dwelt on the east and north-east of the Euxine or Black Sea; Gomer and his son Togarmah peopled the northern track of the lesser Asia; Meshech settled to the eastward of Gomer, in part of Cappadocia and Armenia, to the south and south-east of the Black sea; Tubal settled still farther to the eastward, towards the Caspain Sea. These two latter were the near neighbours of Gog. From a colony of Tubal sprung the Russians; and the Muscovites owe their origin to a colony of Meshech. Dr. Wells, (vol. 1. p. 158.) treating on the origin of the Muscovites and Russians, says, "That the Moscovites or Muscovites in Europe were a colony originally of Meshech or Mosoch, called by the Greeks Moschi, is very probable, not only on account of likeness of names, but also of the respective situations of the Asiatic and European Moschi one to the other. Add to his another consideration, that whereas in our and some other translations the Hebrew text, Ezek. xxxviii. 2. is rendered thus: The chief prince, or (as it is in the margin of our Bibles) the prince of the chief of Meshech and Tubal; in other translations, and particularly in the Septuagint, it is thus rendered; The prince of Rosh Moshech, and Tubal. The thing is, the Hebrew word Rosh, by some is taken to be an appellative, by others a proper name. The learned Bochart has observed from the Nubian geographer, that the river in Armenia, called by the Greeks Araxes, is by the Arabians called Rosh. And hence he not only probably infers, from other instances of the people that lived in the country about that river were also denom­inated Rosh, but also proyes from J [...]sephus Bengorion, that there were a people in those parts named Rhossi. Now the Moschi and Rossi be­ing thus neighbours in Asia, their colonies kept together in Europe, those of the Moschi seating themselves in the province of Muscovy, [Page 84]properly so called, that is, the parts about the city of Moscow: those of the Rosh seating themselves in the parts adjoining on the south. For the learned Bochart has observed from Tzetzes, that the people called Tauri, and from whom the Taurica Chersonesus took its name, were, in the days of Tzetzes, better known by the name of Ros than of Tauri. Upon the whole, therefore, it may be very probably believed, that the Muscovites and Russians in Europe were colonies of Meshech, or else of Meshech and Tubal jointly." Treating on the situation of Gog, as north of Tubal, &c. he says, "This situation is confirmed by the scrip­ture itself, Ezek. xxxviii. 2. Set thy face against Gog. in, or of, the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, &c. For hence we learn, that the land of Magog must be near to that of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal; and it could be so only on the north. The learned Mr. Mede has observed, that the rame Gog signifies the very same with Magog, the letter mem being but an heeman­tick letter, i. e. not a radical, but an additional letter to the radix or primitive word. And he conceives that it pleased the Spirit of God to distinguish thus between the land and the people of the land, by calling the people Gog, and the land the Land of Magog."

Thus the Russians and Muscovites themselves appear to be included in the enumeration of Ezekiel, and we may observe that they have al­ready extended their conquests into the neighbourhood of the Black and Caspian Seas, and of those parts originally settled by Gog and their an­cestor Tubal. The probability is, that they will extend their conquests still farther, and be distinguished instruments in the overthrow of the Turkish Empire. And having effected this, it is likely that, with the assistance of their newly acquired subjects or allies from the Caspian to the Propontus, with the Persians, &c. (the people enumerated by Eze­kiel), they will be the invading multitude marked out by the Spirit of Prophecy.

There is another sign of the times also, which ought not to be entirely omitted. More than two thonsand five hundred years ago, the ten tribes of Israel were carried captive into Assyria. About a hundred and fifteen years after this Judah, and Benjamin also were carried away to Babylon. These returned, and some few of the other tribes with them; but as a nation, Israel was never restored. According to Es­dr [...]s, (book 2. chap. xiii. 41—50), they took counsel among themselves, a [...] migrated into a distant country, where never man dwelt; that the name of this country was Arsateth, at the distance of a year and a half's journey, where they are to dwell till the latter time, when God will bring them back with great wonders. The prophets abound with promises, not only respecting the restoration of Judah, (the Jews), but of Israel also. From these tribes not having been heard of for so many ages, and the improbability of such a people escaping the notice of all travellers, the generality have been induced to conclude that they no where exist, as a distinct people, but have long ago been melted down among other nations, except those that united themselves with Judah and Benjamin, at their return from Babylon. That they should still exist, is certainly a very extraordinary circumstance; and should Pro­vidence bring them forward by and by, to act a conspicuous part in the great scene which is now opening, it will doubtless excite great aston­ishment: but both the event and the surprise were foreseen and predict­ed by the prophets. They foresaw that the re-union of Ephraim with Judah would not take place till after the great dispersion, and their [Page 85]resurrection from the long political death which they were to suffer for their sins. Then are Ephraim and Judah to be one people again, (Ezek. xxxvii. 16.—22.) And Judah shall say, "Who hath brought up these? Behold I was lest alone, these, where have they been?" (Is [...]. xlix. 21.)

Independent of the prophecies, there is reason to conclude that this people do still exist distinct from other nations. The grounds for this conclusion may be seen in the Asiatic Researches, vol. 2. That the reader may judge for himself, I shall take the liberty of quoting the extract which we find in the Monthly Review enlarged, vol. 10. p. 502. The account is whimsical enough; but considering the number of ages since the carrying away Israel captive, their corrupt slate at that time, their miserable condition since, their ignorance of printing, &c. it affords as much proof as can be expected, at the first dawn of their existence. When we are better acquainted with them, their MSS. customs, &c. we may expect more light.

On the descent of the Afghans from the Jews.

"The Afghans call themselves the posterity of Melic Talut, or king Saul.—The descent of the Asghans, according to their own tradition, is thus whimsically traced:

"In a war which raged between the children of Israel and the Amal­ekites, the latter being victorious, plundered the Jews, and obtained possession of the ark of the covenant. Considering this the god of the Jews, they threw it into sire, which did not effect it; they afterwards er­deavoured to cleave it with axes, but without success: every individual who treated it with indignity, was punished for his temerity. They then placed it in their temple, but all their idols bowed to it. At length they fastened it upon a cow, which they turned loose in the wilder­ness.

"When the prophet Samuel arose, the children of Israel said to him, "We have been totally subdued by the Amalekites, and have no king. Raise to us a king, that we may be enabled to contend for the glory of God." Samuel said, "In case you are led out to battle, are you deter­mined to sight?" They answered, "What has befallen us that we should not fight against infidels? That nation has banished us from our country and children." At this time the angel Gabriel descended, and delivering a wand, said, "It is the command of God, that the person whose stature shall correspond with this wand, shall be king of Israel."

'Melic Talut was at that time a man of inferior condition, and per­formed the humble employment of feeding the goats and cows of others. One day a cow under his charge was accidentally lost. Being disap­pointed in his searches, he was greatly distressed, and applied to Sama­el, saying, "I have lost a cow, and do not possess the means of satisfy­ing the owner. Pray for me, that I may be executed from this diffi­culty." Samuel perceiving that he was a man of lofty stature, asked his name. He answered, Talut. Samuel then said: "Measure Ta­lut with the wand which the angel Gabriel brought." His stature was equal to it. Samuel then said "God has raised Talut to be your king." The children of Isreal answered, "We are greater than our king. We are men of dignity, and he is of inferior condition. How shall he be our king?" Samuel informed them, they should know that [Page 86]God had constitu [...]ed Talut thier king, by his restoring the ark of the covenant. He accordingly restored it, and they acknowledged him their sovereign.

'After Talut obtained the kingdom, he seized part of the territories of Jalut, or Goliath, who assembled a large army, but was killed by David. Talut afterwards died a martyr in a war against the infidels; and God constituted David king of the Jews.

'Melic Talut had two sons, one called Berkia, and the other Irmia, who served David and were beloved by him. He sent them to sight against the infidels; and by God's assistance they were victorious.

'The son of Berkia was called Afghan, and the son of Irmia was named Usbec. These youths distinguished themselves in the reign of David, and were employed by Solomon. Afghan was distinguished by his corporeal strength, which struck terror into demons and genii. Usbec was eminent for his leraning.

'Afghan used frequently to make excursions to the mountains; where his progency, after his death, established themselves, lived in a state of independence, built forts, and exterminated the infidels.'

"To this account we shall subjoin a remark of the late Henry Van­sittart, Esq He observes, that 'A very particular account of the Af­ghans has been written by the late Ha Fiz Rahmat Khan, a chief of: e Rohillas, from which the curious reader may derive much informa­tion. They are Mussalmen, partly of the Sunni, and partly of the Shiah persuasion. They are great boasters of the antiquity of their ori­gin, and reputation of their tribe; but other Mussalmen entirely reject their claim, and consider them of modern and even base extraction. However their character may be collected from history. They have distinguished themselves by their courage, both singly and unitedly, principals and auxiliaries. They have conquered for their own princes and for foreigners, and have always been considered the main strength of the army in which they have served. As they have been applauded for virtues, they have also been reproached for vices, having sometimes been guilty of treachery, and even acted the base part of assassins."

A specimen of their language (the Pushto) is added; and the fol­lowing note is inserted by the President.

'This account of the Afghans may lead to a very interesting disco­very.—We learn from Esdras, that the ten tribes, after a wandering journey, came to a country called Arsareth, where we may suppose they settled. Now the Afghans are said by the best Persian historians to be descended from the Jews; they have traditions among themselves of such a descent; and it is even asserted, that their families are distin­guished by the names of Jewish tribes, although, since their conversion to the Islam, they studiously conceal their origin. The Pushto language, of which I have seen a dictionary, has a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic; and a considerable district under their dominion is called Hazarch, or Hazaret, which might easily have been changed into the word used by Esdias. I strongly recommend an inquiry into the li­terature and history of the Afghans.

That after the space of more than 2500 years the ten tribes of Israel should be first restored to notice just at this period, when so many signs indicate the approach of their restoration, may be designed as a hint to us to be ready for what is coming. Let the trisling think what they may, I am sure that the diligent student in the writings of the prophet will be far from esteeming this singular circumstance unworthy of atten [Page 87]and especially as it appears in company with so many others which press upon us, and urge us to watch.

Among other signs of the speedy gathering and restoration of Israel, this is not the least, that we are threatened with troubles such as have not been since there was a nation. Never did such animosity prevail in any war as has manifested itself in this. And if we consider the slaughter of human beings in this one campaign, beside the wretchedness to which thousands of unhappy fugitives, who had long been used to all the accommodations and elegancies of life, have been reduced, the prospect is melancholy indeed, and seems to bespeak some visitation more than com [...]mon. It appears that a greater number of men have perished in little more than one year, than in both the late wars which raged in America and Europe for more than fourteen. Should the de­struction and calamity go on with an accelerating devastation, as we have reason to expect, if it be that day of troubles which we are taught to look for, who can calculate the quantum of human misery to be en­dured before the cessation of this tempest in which we have so unhappily mingled!

CONCLUSION: BEING AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

THUS, my countrymen, we have considered some of those Signs of the Times, which, at this season of general agitation, solicit our atten­tion with singular urgency: Signs which intimate nothing less than the general shaking and renovation of things. It becomes us therefore to attend to them with peculiar seriousness, that we may know the mea­sures which we ought to pursue, and avoid precipitating ourselves into the dreadful consequences of opposing the providence of God, who in his word has forewarned us of his purposes, and by his dispensations is in­dicating their speedy accomplishment;—it becomes us to observe them with devout attention, that we may hereby be excited to turn to God by a sincere and general repentance, and thus be bid until tho indigna­tion be overpass: "For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and no longer cover her slain." Now there­fore consider your ways.

[Page 88] I acknowledge that my apprehensions respecting our prospects are not so much from the opinion I may entertain of the wisdom or folly, the justice or injustice, the piety or impiety, of the present war, in a de­tached view, as from the impression which the general appearance of things, compared with the writings of the prophets, produce on my mind; for, did I believe the present war (according to the general rule of estimating things to be beyond all doubt, both politic and just, even this would not much lessen my apprehension of danger. When we look back on ancient history, and trace the progress and fall of those empires and states which Inspiration has noticed, we shall find that the long threatened judgments which fell upon them were not for the blame of those particular wars in which they perished, but for the accumulat­ed guilt of successive ages, and for the general corruption of their man­ners. Those wars might be perfectly just, because defensive. If we examine the predictions of the prophets which refer to the chastisement of the nations and the destruction of Babylon the Great, in the latter days, we shall find that those dreadful j [...]ments which are then to be inflicted, are to be for the sins of centuries—for blood which has never been avenged. The sovereigns and rulers of that day may, perhaps, be among the most mild and just that have ever exercised power; but we must be strangers to the history of nations, if we do not know that this will be no certain security. To instance only the case of Israel: Hoshea was the best prince that ever reigned over that people:—the only one that had any mixture of good; yet, in his days their ruin came. If the great body of the nation be corrupt; if we approve the deeds of our fathers, and our iniquity be full; it is not the piety, or virtue, or justice, of our princes and rulers that can secure us.

But though this is the case, yet our obligations and our interest, as they respect both the policy and the morality of the war, remain the same. And if it be found that we are acting contrary to the principles both of policy and the eternal obligations of morality, we are certainly precipitating our fate, and aggravating our ruin. It becomes us then, with great seriousness, to consider our ways: for it is not what the French are that ascertains the safety or danger of our situation: they may be all that they are represented to be, and yet our case be never the better: the worse they are, the more sit are they, in some respects, to be the instruments of God's threatened judgments.

The wisdom or folly, the policy, or impolicy, of the present war, certainly deserves the most serious consideration of all who desire the prosperity of their country; but as so many have writen so ably on these subjects, it seems the less necessary for me to detain the reader for the investigation of them. But there are two or three things which, though they may not so generally strike the attention, at least not so as to produce any considerable apprehension of danger, yet, if it be clear that they are connected with this war, there is so much moral turpitude in them, that, to those who believe in the all-superintending providence of the Creator, and the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, they must appear of a magnitude sufficient to excite the extremest solicitude, and the most sincere concern.

It is impossible for any observing man who is at all conversant with what passes about him, not to notice the unusual animosity which has manifested itself in this contest, both against the French and against all those who differ from the fashionable opinion. So high has it rage [...] [Page 89]amongst a certain class of people, that no words are equal to the de­scription.—"But this is a war of religion. The French are a nation of infidels—the enemies of all religion; and therefore deserve to be ex­tirpated from the earth."—Admirable imitators of Him who came not to destroy mens lives, but to save them!—A war of religion! O ye pious crufaders! Ye never need to sheathe your swords. There are wicked nations enew to gratify your holy zeal with everlasting blood­shed.—But shew us your commission. Is it a forgery, or is it deriv­ed from Him "who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and who sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust; and desireth not the death of a sinner?"—But it is possible that the accusation a­gainst our enemies may not be exactly just. Much as we execrate wick­edness, yet let us be impartial. Perhaps it should rather be, "They are infidels—the partizans of no sect." Nobody suspects them to have much piety, yet, bad as they are, the freedom of every description of wor­ship is protected by all the force of the nation; but as it is likely the ma­jority of the representatives of [...]he people have no religion themselves, they have established none, but have left religion to take care of itself, and work its own way by the native power of truth, just as it was for­ced to do for the first three hundred years after Christ, without either emoluments or penal statutes in its favour; but with this difference, that no man shall persecute it, nor any one sect persecute another, but if Christianity be from God, that it shall have free liberty to make its con­quests. Be our opinion what it may of the utility or mischief of reli­gious establishments among Protestants, yet, is not this preferable to the superstitions and horrors of Popery? And if God in his providence sees fit, by these methods, to overthrow the abominations of Rome, and thus to clear the way for undefiled religion, shall we be angry with his dispensations, or dispute his wisdom? We are not disposed to palliate crimes, but let us distinguished between the crimes of men and the jus­tice of Him who makes the madness of nations the instrument of effect­ing both his avenging and benevolent purposes. We are imposed up­on by names, and sounds, and misrepresentations, and then, inspired with zeal without knowledge, set ourselves up for the avengers of the cause of heaven. But let us be dispassionate;—let us examine our­selves as under the eye of God. If necessity oblige us to maintain war, yet let us beware of harbouring in our bosoms the murderous and unchristian passions of rancour and ma levolence. If we a attacked, we have a right to defend ourselves; and benevolence is to be exercised even towards enemies; and if they hunger, what are we to do? We know what the malignant spirit of party and worldly policy will say—"Starve them."—But Christ says, "feed them." If we must maintain war, and justice sanctify it, yet let it be on those prin­ciples of benevolence and magnanimity worthy of a great and enlight­ened nation, and then there might be some plausible ground to hope for the favour of providence. But malevolence would stamp the justest war with guilt. And if this malevolence should be suffered to take such possession of as as to inspire our devotions the guilt would be increased.

But not w [...] be enabled to form a rational judgment of the pros­ [...] before us, as to success or ruin, let us consider the connection in which we stand, and the motives by which we are actuated, whether they [...] are worthy of a free and enlig [...]tened people.

W [...] [...] to the continental powers, with some of them at least, [...] present war was indisputably unjust. Is it not unjust [Page 90]for any one nation to interfere with the internal regulations of another independent nation? An independent nation (whether right or wrong, as to what concerns themselves, does not affect the question) had long groan [...]ed under the real or supposed oppressions of arbitrary princes, in­solent nobles, and intolerant, debauched; atheistical, and persecuting priests. They feel their wrongs, they perceive their rights, and are determined to redress the one, and vindicate the other. They bring to justice their oppressors; they disarm them of their power, strip them of their disguise, overturn their old oppressive systems, and form such new ones as they think most likely to insure security and happiness. In ef­fecting all this mighty work, folly is mixed with wisdom, and outrage miggles with justice. They solemnly declare as a nation, that they will respect the rights and independence of all other nations, but will vindi­cate their own.—In such a struggle for the general good, some must be supposed to suffer either real or imaginary, wrongs. These plot a­gainst the nation; they assemble in neighbouring states; are encourag­ed; prepare for war, and invoke foreign aid.

On August 15, 1790, the neighbouring princes and potentales held a meeting at Pilnitz; a concert of crowned heads is formed, and it is agreed to invite the other sovereigns of Europe to join the league, and make the cause of the king, and of the other privileged orders of France, a common one. It is determined in the meanwhile to increase their armies, and prepare for the invasion of France, the first favorable opportunity, that by the overthrow of the new constitution, and the re­establishment of the old despotism, and the former state of things in the church, innovation may be smitten in the root, and in other countries, be prevented. Thus did foreign courts assume to themselves dictatorial power over an independent people, and formed a concert, not only for the purpose of overturning the liberties of France, but as if the world were made for princes, nobles, and priests only, to intimidate all other nations from daring, in future, to attempt to meliorate their condition. —They have sent forth the most despotic and bloody manifestos that ever disgraced Europe. That of the Duke of Brunswick is expressed in a style of such undisguised barbarity, that even Attila, who boasted of himself as the scourge of God, and the terror of men, would have blushed to have been the author of it.—They have invaded France; and the French in return have invaded them. Enormous crimes have been committed on both sides; but we have not yet seen the end.

"But the concerns of the French are so interwoven with the concerns and interests of other nations; that these have felt themselves injured, and their language has been such as to alarm and provoke their neigh­bours; and we also have been offended." This may be true. But have we acted according to those excellent principles laid down by Jesus Christ, Matt. xvii. and Luke xvii. for the putting an end to strife, and for the prevention of bloodshed? Have we remonstrated and done all that negociation could do to prevent the horrors of war; or, has the flaming sword of destruction preceded the olive branch of peace, and vengeance gone before remonstrance? Have we acted from sober judgment and urgent necessity, or from the dictates of ambition, and the workings of passion? Our innocence or guilt, respecting the blood which is shed, and the sorrow which is occasioned, will depend much on the answer which facts give to these inquiries. If this war on the people of France be for the purpose of dictating to them a form of [...] that such an extensive republic in the [Page 91]heart of Europe would operate as a dangerous example, it is unjust. If it be on account of some of their foolish or unjust decrees, yet, if we have not endeavoured by negociation to prevent the spilling of human blood, and the accumulation of taxes, it is unjust; and if, in­stead of this, we have spurned at concession, as though resolved on war at any rate, the injustice is increased. If also it be a war to revenge the execution of the king, or for their humbling the nobility, or des­poiling the priesthood, it is unjust; for who appointed us the universal judges and arbiters of nations?

"But it was necessary to the prevention of a revolution, and of anarchy in this country." So say a certain description of men. But this is not proved, not does it appear that it can be. Perhaps it would be more conformable to their true sentiments to say, "We thought it necessary for the prevention of reformation."

Let us then examine with dispassionate seriousness the principles of the war in which we are engaged, that if it be unjust, we may repent, and do what we legally can to wash our hands from the stain of innocent blood. Men under despotic government may, perhaps, be silent and innocent; but Englishmen are allowed to speak. Under a free govern­ment, silence is guilt. The nation called for the war; if, after ma­ture thought, they find themselves deceived, or apprehend not only its impolicy, but its injustice, they are bound to signify it, or innocent blood (that of our own people, at least, supposing the blood of Fre [...]h­men to be of no value in the eyes of the Father of all) will cry against us.

Let us farther examine whether we are acting worthy of our character as Protestants and Christians, who are enlightened into the true prin­ciples of the religion of Christ. It is possible that our motives and aims may be dissimilar to those who are engaged in the same quarrel; but who are they? The dragon and the beast. Most of them have long been the scourges of the earth, the curses of humanity, and their e [...]d is to perish for ever. It is possible to suppose that we may mean well; but what are the intentions of the associates by whose side we are fight­ing? To keep Popery from falling, to maintain the power and influ­ence of the clergy, and all that error and superstitio [...] by which they fasten on the minds of mankind, and circuitously [...] their own despotic power. But be the motives and aims of som [...] what they may, every man's duty is to judge himself, as in the sight of God, that he be not judged; and as it is possible that that which is highly criminal may meet with the approbation of the majority of a nation, and thus great national guilt be incurred, it becomes us to examine ourselves on this important point.

Our religion teaches us, and our fathers, the reformers, were zeal­ous in impressing its dictates, that Rome is the whore of Babylon, the mother of harlots, and no true church of Christ; that Popery is super­stition and idolatry; a religion at once at war against the kingdom of Christ and the happiness of mankind; a religion tyrannical, blasphemous and diabolical, in principle, and bloody in practice. Our religion teaches us, that this same system of corruption and oppression, which impregnates all the governments which receives it, and all the religious establishments which grow out of it, with its own enslaving and corrupt principles, shall be brought to an end, worthy of its enormities; it has determined and delineated the signs for the accomplishment, and charged us to watch their appearance and to have no alliance with them other [Page 92]of harlots, that we partake not of her sins, and receive not of her plagues. If the signs of the times indicate the approach of the threaten­ed judgments, our part is to stand at a distance and contemplate the progress of the awful ruin, and not rush into the conflict, to slop the uplifted arm of God's vengeance; then might be fulfilled in our favour that saying, (Psal. xci. 7, 8.) "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee; only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked." But, if we join issue with the declared supporters of the whore of Ba­bylon, and unite with them to arrest the vengeance of Heaven, what fate have we to expect, but to share in their ruin? a ruin as dreadful as it will be extensive!

Thus, my countrymen, I have endeavoured to set before you, in the best manner I am able, the signs of the times, and what they por­tend. I have endeavoured to rouse your attention to the consideration of your ways, and your true interest, that you may take such measures as may be the most likely to secure us from the desolations of that storm which already shakes the greater part of Europe—a storm, if our con­ceptions are just, which will speedily lay in ruins all the nations which shall be found opposing the designs of God in the overthrow of that An­tichristian system, secular and ecclesiastical, which has so long cor­rupted and destroyed the earth.

As it was in the days of Noe, before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man, in the execution of the divine judgments on the wicked nations, be. Say not in your hearts then, "He delayeth his coming;" for he has fore­warned us that he will come as a thief in the night, at a time when not expected.

Let us therefore watch and repent. Reformations in governments, if attainable at any tolerable price, are very de [...]rable; but we deceive ourselves, if we imagine that this will be sufficient to ensure the general peace and happiness of society. Unless the great mass of mankind are reformed and christianized, every thing else will be insufficient. Whilst pride, ambition and corruption predominate; whilst meanness and servelity on the one hand, and refratioriness and contempt of au­thority on the other, prevail; whilst the moral sense of the generality of mankind is corrupt; or, as our Lord expresses it, whilst the light which is in them is darkness, and irreligion and vice triumph, it is in vain to expect any great good. I own I am extremely desirous of seeing a peace able reformation take place in the representation, and in the adminustration of the affairs of this country, as that which might contribute much to the bettering mankind, and which alone promises any hope of escaping the calamities of a revolution, or of alleviating the other distresses which threaten us. But, if this should be accomplish­ed, and nothing but this, I confess my expectations are not very san­guine as to the great and permanent good which would follow. As a corrupt government diffuses its corruptions through the whole mass of society, to, should a few wise and virtuous men effect a pure govern­ment, yet, if the body of the nation remained uninformed, they would soon corrupt the best institutions, and the administration of the best government that the human intellect could devise, and nothing could still save us from the displeasure of God. Let both these reformations, [Page 93]therefore, go hand in hand, and let them speedily be commenced; For nothing short of instant reformation, and an instant change of measures, can afford us any solid hope of salvation. Did God say, respecting the profligate Jews, when the whole body politic was diseased from the head to the foot, "Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" What have the nations under the Christian dispensation, to expect, if, like them, they become universally diseased? Let us therefore examine ourselves and repent.

What, in a general view, is our moral character as a nation? Has our virtue, our moderation, our justice, our love of civil and religious liberty, and our attachment to the principles of Protestanism, kept pace with our advancement in the scale of nations? We are called by the name of Christ, and profess to be a religious people; but, do we ex­emplify in our practice what we profess? Do we do justly, love mer­cy, and walk humbly with God; or, does infidelity and profaneness, bribery and corruption, lewdness and debauchery, pride and disspa­tion, pervade all ranks of men, and threaten an universal dissolution? Are the rights of conscience revered; or, is our fondness for the wine of the whore of Babylon returning, and are we to judge of the temper of the nation, from the flames which bigotry kindled at Birmingham in ninety-one? We are a nation of professed Christians. The pastors which we approve, whether of the established Church or otherwise, are they the meek and humble imitators of Him whose servants they are called? Do the generality of them seek, not filthy lucre, but the salva­tion of the souls of men? Are they faithful, to reprove and warn; or, do they preach to us smooth things, and say, Peace, peace, when there is no peace? Are they diligent in the discharge of their duties—labour­ing to instruct the ignorant, to reclaim the vicious, to comfort the af­flicted, and to unite men in the bonds of charity; or, are they proud and worldly; diligent only after gain; idle shepherds, who care not for the stock, and who sow among mankind the seeds of contention? Do they recommend and enforce the religion which they profess by the holiness and purity, benevolence and piety of their lives; or, are they lovers of pleasure, eating and drinking with the drunken, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things? (Phil. iii. 19.) Are the great body of the people content to have it thus, and moved only by what affects their worldly interest? Should this, on examina­tion, be found to be the case, it surely calls for deep humiliation, and suggests that, without a repentance and reformation, as general as sin­cere, some heavy calamity must burst upon us.

I am well aware that there are many who will turn my sentiments into ridicule, and that more still will make light of them; for it is in all our hearts to say, "All things continue as they were from the be­ginning of the creation; the evil will not come in our days. Does the angel swear by him that liveth for ever and ever, that delay shall be no longer?" "Prepare to meet your God." Ye corrupters of the holy and benevolent religion of Jesus, and ye oppressors of mankind; ye proud biasphemers, and ye persecutors of the servants of God, prepare for the day of reckoning; for behold, "The whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind; it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart. In the latter day ye shall consider it." (Jer. xxv. 23, [Page 94]24.) Ye who worship the mammon of unrighteousness, and sacrifice nations for gain; who have carried desolation to the utmost bounds of the earth, and, having enslaved mankind with filthy lucre, are inge­nious to invent apologies for your enormous crimes; Prepare to meet your God. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your mi­series which shall come upon you.—Behold, the hire of your labourers; which is of you kept back, crieth against you." "O Tyrus, the mart of nations! thou hast said, I am of perfect beanty; I am God; I sit in the feat of God, in the midst of the seas. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters. In the time (if thou repentest not) when thon shalt be broken by the seas in the depth of the waters, thy merchandize, and all thy company, in the midst of thee, shall fall."

Ye dozing watchmen of our Israel, who talk to the people of the follies of enthusiasm, till their faith in the Divine predictions, which was intended to have been a guard to their hearts against the surfeiting cares of the world, and to keep them vigilant, has lost all its power, and they are lulled into a security from which nothing can rouse them short of the voice of that trumpet which will rend the heavens and the earth. Sleep on, and take your rest—But at midnight ye shall hear a great cry made—"Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him." Ye hireling shepherds, especially, who have converted the re­ligion of Christ into a system of worldly traffic; who live in pleasure, and, having fed yourselves with the fat, and clothed you with the wool, abuse, instead of feeding, the slock; prepare to meet your God; for the time of his judgments shall be no longer delayed, but they who have beaten their fellow-servants, and ate and drank with the drunken, he will cut them asunder, and appoint them their portion with the hy­pocrites.

Let men of all descriptions and characters (revolving in their minds the signs of the times) hear the awful declaration of the angel, and take warning. The sins of the great whore who sitteth on many waters, and of the wrath of her fornications, are come into remembrance. Come out of her, therefore, ye Protestants, and all that fear God, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues.

What my readers may think of the agreement of events with prophe­cy, or how they may be affected at the prospect in general, or at the situ­ation [...] and prospects of this country in particular, I cannot tell; I know that the inattentive Christian, as well as the cold Sceptic, will esteem it the illusion of a heated brain, but I am free to acknowledge that the signs of the times present to my mind a thousand images of hor­ror, and afflict me with the extremest anguish, for the part which my country is acting. Whilst I contemplate the scene which Europe now presents, (a scene which blackens as it expands) and observe the exact conformity of the several parts already disclosed, with the pattern which Inspiration has drawn, I anticipate the future, and seem to feel nothing but earth ju [...]k [...]s, to hear nothing but thunders, to see nothing but slangh­ter; and I weep for the calamities of my fellow creatures.—For the glimpse of one pleasant prospect we must stretch our eyes to years to come.—Oh, my country! how am I pained at the apprehension of thy fate! Thou mightest have dwelt in peace, and even turned to thine own advantage the madness of other nations:—but thou hast been de­ceived, and chosen war; thou hast committed thy self to the horrors of a tempest which threatens to lay in ruins all that is found within the circle of its rage—"Is there no blam in Gilead?"—Are there no [Page 95]means left for the salvation of my country?—"Is there no physician there?"—Is there not one wise and patriotic statesman who loves his country, who loves truth and right more than gain, and who may be able to conduct a retreat, and heal our wounds?—Must we stand or fall with Antichrist, and make the fate of Papal despots our own?— Has that warning no longer any validity, "Come out of her, my peo­ple, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues?—O thou Father of mercies, and Disposer of all events, touch the hearts of the rulers of the earth, and let a ray from Thee en­lightened their minds! Look with pity on the bleeding nations!—Spee­dily accomplish thy promises, and reveal thy mercy!

FINIS.

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