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THE 
 
 SECOND ADVENT, 
 
 OR 
 
 COMING OF THE MESSIAH IN GLORY, 
 
 SHOWN TO BE 
 
 A SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE, 
 
 AND 
 
 TAUGHT BY DIVINE REVELATION, 
 
 FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WOULD. 
 
 BY AN AMERICAN LAYMAN. 
 
 “ Oh ! scenes surpassing fable, and yet true 
 “ Scenes of accomplished bliss ! 
 
 “ Praise in all her gates. Upon her walls 
 “ And in her streets, and in her spacious courts, 
 
 “ Is heard Salvation. 
 
 “ One song employs all nations, and all cry, 
 
 « Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us.”' — C owieh. 
 
 TRENTON, (N. J.) 
 
 PUBLISHED BY D. FENTON & S. HUTCHINSON, 
 
 1815. 
 
pi strict of New -Jersey, ss. 
 
 BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the second day of Maixli, in the thirty. 
 
 ninth year of the independence of the United States of America, 
 < SEAL < A.D. 1815, Daniel Fenton and S. Hutchinson, of the said district, 
 ? s have deposited in this office, the title of a book, the right 
 
 jlwvwx^ whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to 
 wit: 
 
 “ The Second Advent, or coming of the 2 "Messiah in glory, sheion to he a Scrip- 
 “ ture doctrine, and taught by Divine revelation, from the beginning of the 
 “ -world. By an American layman. 
 
 “ Oh ! scenes, surpassing fable, and yet true 
 “ Scenes of accomplished bliss ! 
 
 “ Praise in all her gates. Upon her -walls 
 “ And in her streets, and in her spacious coivrts, 
 
 “ Is heard Salvation. 
 
 “ One song employs all nations, and all cry, 
 
 “ Worthy the Lamb, for he -was slain for us."... Cowper, 
 
 In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entituleli, 
 “ An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of 
 maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, 
 during the times therein mentioned.” And also to the Act, entitled, “An 
 Act supplementary to an Act, entitled “ An Act for the encouragement of 
 learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors 
 and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned and ex- 
 tending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching 
 historical and other prints.” 
 
 ROBERT BOGGS, 
 Clerk of the District of New-Jersey. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 TO have a better understanding of the following work, it is ne- 
 cessary that the reader should be informed of the circumstances 
 attending its commencement, and the manner in which it has been 
 carried on to the present period. Some time about the year 1790, 
 the important events of that day made a deep impression on the 
 author’s mind and led him to examine the Scriptures with great 
 attention, from Genesis to the Revelation of St. John. The sol- 
 emn exhortation of the apostle to his readers to hearken to what 
 the Spirit saith to the Churches ; and repeated six times within 
 the bounds of two chapters, fixed his attention to the important 
 call. — He made the prophetic declarations in the Scriptures, for a 
 while, the peculiar object of his daiiy studies ; at the same time 
 humbly supplicating for aid from, and looking to the Spirit of God, 
 who dictated those prophesies, for being led into all necessary truth, 
 in enquiring into their genuine meaning. He must acknowledge 
 that the passing events of the day alarmed him ; and he thought 
 he saw the signs of the latter day, foretold in the sacred record, 
 thickening upon him. But here his fears arose, lest he might un- 
 wittingly slide into the error of judging of the prophesies altoge- 
 ther by the events, instead of comparing the events with the pro- 
 phesies. To prevent this, he determined to guard against error, 
 by forming a short compendium of what, on great consideration, 
 comparing those prophesies yet to be fulfilled, with those which 
 had already taken place, he verily believed was the meaning of 
 the Spirit of God in the revelation of his will to his Church, as to 
 what was to take place, as the signs of the second coming of the 
 Saviour, to this our world. 
 
 In doing this he was surprized to find that this glorious event, 
 at the end of Daniel and John’s 1260, 50, and 90 days, or years, 
 was the great and leading object of the sacred volume from the 
 beginning to the end. This is the latter days and day of judg- 
 ment of Daniel — The great day of judgment, or the judgment of 
 the great day of the Jews, and the kingdom of Heaven, the king- 
 dom of God, and the times of refreshing and the restitution of all 
 things of the New Testament. In short, it appears to be like a 
 thread running through the whole web, and in which all the lesser 
 objects seem like the woof of the web, to give a complexion and 
 character to the whole system of divine grace and mercy. 
 
 After consulting the Sacred Text, with close attention and cri- 
 tical precision, and comparing the result with the opinions of the 
 
IV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 most judicious writers on the important subject, he reduced to 
 writing what he concluded was the design and meaning of the 
 predictions and forewarnings of the Prophets, compared with those 
 of Christ himself and his apostles. He then waited to see how 
 far he was warranted in his conclusions by the events which were 
 about to take place, if his construction was right. 
 
 To accomplish this he was obliged to keep a short diary of what 
 was passing on the theatre of Europe. The many instances of 
 exact conformity with the words and spirit of the Scriptures, con- 
 vinced the author that the wonderful transactions daily passing 
 in the kingdoms of Europe, were an exact fulfilment of the predic- 
 tions of the Sacred record. That the antichrist foretold, as com- 
 ing on the earth after the Man of Sin, had literally appeared in 
 the new government of France, having Napoleon Buonaparte for 
 her head, can scarcely be denied by any observing mind, who has 
 become acquainted with the late history of that nation since the 
 year 1790, and compared it with the language of holy writ. — The 
 emphatic calls of Christ and his apostles on his Church and fol- 
 lowers, to be watching and well prepared for this important era, 
 which was to be of such essential and interesting consequence to 
 their eternal welfare, appeared to the author in so strong a light 
 that he thought it an imperious obligation to continue his atten- 
 tion to the subject till about the year 1798, or beginning of 1799, 
 when he was taken ofl' from the subject by avocations that could 
 not be well avoided. Some years afterwards, his convictions on 
 the subject being strengthened by the continuance of important 
 events, corrobating all his views of the prophetic declarations, he 
 was tempted to communicate his ideas, and the observations he 
 had made, to a few judicious friends, whose approbation encour- 
 aged him to think of making them public. But the state of his 
 health and other imposing circumstances, leaving him small hopes 
 of ever seeing them printed, he, for a time, determined to leave 
 them in manuscript to those who should come after him, to act as 
 they thought best. 
 
 However, he has lately been prevailed on to make the attempt, 
 from a hope that it will call men’s attention to a subject he has 
 convinced himself is all important to the Church of Christ, and to 
 exert himself to do what lay in his power towards completing the 
 work, that it may avail, so far as is plainly and clearly founded 
 on the written will of God. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Fol. 1. 
 
 THE Scriptures contain a well organized system through the 
 whole — It is manifest in all the conduct of the great author — It 
 can only be accomplished by the establishment of the kingdom of 
 Christ — To this end the apparatus of nature and Providence has- 
 tens — In this world Christ received insult, sufferings and reproach 
 -—In this world also, as mediator, he shall receive glory, homage, 
 adoration and praise — Hence the earliest dawn of hope to our first 
 parents was ushered in, with the promise, that the seed of the wo- 
 man should bruise the serpent’s head — Enoch prophesied of his 
 coming — Noah a strong figure of this event — The promise more 
 explicit to Abraham — References to the second coming of the 
 Messiah, in almost every Book of the Old Testament. 
 
 THE PSALMS. Fol. 8. 
 
 David does not explicitly distinguish between the first and se- 
 cond coming — the greatest part of his language, can only apply to 
 the last — Instances given — The 67th Psalm, a prayer for this 
 kingdom — As the time hastened on, most of the inspired prophets 
 speak of this great event, in an explicit manner. 
 
 ISAIAH. Fol. 12. 
 
 Styled the evangelical prophet, foretels the first coming in ex- 
 press terms — The second coming plainly foretold by the circum- 
 stances and glory attending it here on earth — The Jews and Isra- 
 elites are again to unite and become one people — Israel, Egypt 
 and Assyria together to be acknowledged as the people of God — 
 The earth to be covered with the knowledge of God — -The happi- 
 ness of that kingdom — Jehovah will call from the East his Eagle 
 — and from, afar distant land the man of his council — A sign will 
 be given to the nations — The prophet’s joy at the prospect of this 
 great event — A standard lifted up against the enemy — The reason 
 given for this charge — The Jews to be brought as an offering to the 
 Lord, out of all nations. 
 
 EZEKIEL. Fol. 25. 
 
 Also gives a prophetic declaration of the second advent of the 
 Saviour — Clearly shews the return of the Jews — God will be their 
 king, and David their prince — The land of Israel again to be inha- 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 bited, and become one nation — God will make a covenant of peace 
 with them — a new temple to be built in Jerusalem, different from 
 the former one — a new division of the land, differing from that of 
 Moses and Joshua — God to dwell in Jerusalem, in the midst of the 
 children of Israel for ever — Just before this great event, uncom- 
 mon distress to take place, by which God will manifest his glory. 
 
 ZECHAKIAH. Fol. 31. 
 
 These wonderful predictions are repeated by this prophet, who 
 lived 80 years after Isaiah — He describes the Messiah and asserts 
 that he shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem — Points out the time, 
 ascertained by ce tain events that will take place — In the issue 
 God shall cotne. and all his saints with him — The manner and 
 means by which this great event is to be brought about — Holiness 
 to the Lord, to he inscribed on the hells (rather bridles) of the hor- 
 ses — Elijah’s coming as his fore-runner. 
 
 DANIEL. Fol. 36. 
 
 Is (with Isaiah) the only exception to the observation, that no 
 express distinction is made between the first and second coming 
 of the Saviour — The second advent pointed out with precision— 
 Revealed to him as being a type of the Jews, — but to Nebuchad- 
 nezzar who was a type of the Gentiles, both revealed to him — 
 Daniel’s vision interpreted to him — Jews’ inistakeson this subject 
 — Probable causes of them — These events the firm objects of Abra- 
 ham’s faith — Greatly influenced the pious Jews — The first authors 
 of the materiality of the soul, silenced by Origen — Resurrection of 
 the saints at the second advent, confirmed by the practice of Judas 
 Maccabeus — The Jews under a difficulty arising from the double 
 views contained in the prophesies — Instances — Daniel’s prophesy 
 leaves no doubt of the meaning — Daniel’s weeks and their calcula- 
 tion — Events that will introduce these great objects of Hope — 
 The king or government of a fierce countenance — Sir Isaac New- 
 ton’s opinion — The angel repeats his instructions to Daniel- 
 Great trouble and distress wifi precede the glorious kingdom of 
 Christ. 
 
 MICAH. Fol. 72. 
 
 Gives a prophetic view of the same joyous event. 
 
 ZEFHANIAII. Fol. 73. 
 
 Does the same. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS. Fol. 74. 
 
 There appears a continued series of analogy and design carried 
 on by divine prescience relative to the second coming ot Christ in 
 glory — Objections of minute philosophers, vain— God’s dealings 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 vn 
 
 with the Jews, left on record for important purposes-— In general, 
 divine revelation only regards the actions of kingdoms and na- 
 tions, so far as they respect his Church and people — The folly of 
 pretended philosophers — Instances of prophesies actually fulfilled 
 — The natural conclusion — Sir Isaac Newton’s reasoning on it. 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. Fol. 84. 
 
 Birth of Christ — Examination of his life — He and his apostles 
 have continued the same regular system — Objections answered. 
 
 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. Fol. 91. 
 
 Strong expressions of our Lord relating to this subject — Trans- 
 lators of the New Testament, not correct in the word ouranion — 
 Difference between first and second Elias or Elijah— Signs of this 
 great event. 
 
 mark. Fol. 98. 
 
 The foregoing predictions confirmed and enforced — Mr. Mede’s 
 opinion — Christ’s acknowledinent before the high priest. 
 
 luke. Fol. 101. 
 
 Establishes the important facts — Our Lord teaches his disciples 
 the same doctrine in the Lord’s prayer — The order of the time of 
 their approach — Dr. Lykes’s opinion — The prediction shown to be 
 still future. 
 
 JOHN. Fol. 105. 
 
 His advantages — Relates what Christ told his disciples— They 
 understood these promises as relating to a state of glory in this 
 world — They ask questions of Christ and he answers them with- 
 out a parable — Dr. Clarke’s paraphrase. 
 
 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Fol. 108. 
 
 After the example of their Master, they continue the sacred and 
 mysterious clue — Berennius’s observation thereon — What meant 
 by the phrase, the end of the world — The apostle’s exhortation on 
 this subject — Abraham understood the promises, as to be perfor- 
 med by the resurrection of the body, after death. 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS. Fol. 112. 
 
 His instructions on the important subject — particularly in his 
 account of the Scripture resurrection. 
 
 EPHESIANS, PHILIPPIANS, AND COLOSSIANS. Fol. 113, 114. 
 
 In these three epistles he occasionally mentions the subject. 
 
VUl 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE THESSALONIANS. Fol. 114. 
 
 His subject more particularly leading to this event, he dwells 
 on it with great earnestness and triumph — he states the doctrine 
 and its consequences as certain and joyful — and as a sovereign 
 remedy for all the troubles they were suffering — Warns them, 
 against the idea that it was then nigh at hand — as it could not 
 take place till after the man of sin was revealed— Mentions a flood 
 of infidelity as the sign when it is near. 
 
 timothy. Fol. 118. 
 
 He is charged before God that he should keep the command- 
 ments that had been given to him, until the appearing of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ — Speaks of it as a day of consequence to all those 
 who love his appearing. 
 
 titus. Fol. 119. 
 
 The second advent is expressly stated as the great object of the 
 Christian’s hope. 
 
 THE HEBREWS. Fol. 119. 
 
 The Old and New Testaments connected— The inefficiency of 
 the legal sacrifices — The all-sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ — 
 Encouraged to trust in the promise of his coming, which would be 
 the substance of all their hopes ; the evidence of those things they 
 believed but could not at present see — Reasons for not being more 
 explicit — Refers them to the example of all the patriarchs — ex- 
 plains the promises — and encourages them, under the certain ex- 
 pectation of the final result, as foretold to them. 
 
 THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. Fol. 124. 
 
 He assures them that the coming of the Lord is drawing (com- 
 paratively) nigh, meaning in the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 OF PETER. Fol. 125. 
 
 Peter, the chief of the apostles, speaks of it as a certain event — 
 Must suffer great previous distress — Yet the glory that should be 
 revealed by the event would be an ample recompense — they shall 
 certainly come with him and be partakers in his glory — The se- 
 cond epistle he prefaced with an assurance of the power of Christ’s 
 coming — as be had been an eye witness of his majesty — Warned 
 them of the previous coming of scoffers who should deny the doc- 
 trine — Of the error of supposingthe day of judgmentto be the space 
 of a common day — but of one thousand years — And would come as 
 a thief in the night — Mr. Mede’s observation. 
 
OONTENT-Sj 
 
 ix 
 
 OF JUDE. Fol. 130. 
 
 He asserts that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, had foretold this 
 great and awful period. 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. Fol. 131. 
 
 Introduced by showing that this Revelation came from Jesus 
 Christ himself — A blessing pronounced on all who should read or 
 hear it — The fact declared in plain and strong language— Repeats 
 the call to hear what the Spirit says to the Churches — Three times 
 in five verses, mentions the great event of the second advent — 
 States the particulars of the session around the throne in Heaven 
 —Also, when it shall take place — Repeats the new song of the el- 
 ders — He expressly declares that Christ “ had made us unto God 
 kings and priests, and we shall reign with him on earth’'’ — A reca- 
 pitulation of the issue of six thousand year’s labours and sutfering — ■ 
 An account of the binding of Satan for one thousand years — The 
 saints shall live and reign with Christ one thousand years — A new 
 Heaven and a new earth described — What we are taught by these 
 events. 
 
 INFERENCES. Fol. 143. 
 
 An essential doctrine of the Christian revelation— Jesus Christ 
 the great subject of it — Designed for the support and comfort of 
 God’s people during the fiery trials of the present state — Not to be 
 fully known till about the time of the end, that is, of the Roman 
 government — The reasons for this — Mr. Lowth and Thomas Par- 
 ker’s observations — Christians encouraged to seek and inquire — Sir 
 Isaac Newton’s opinion — Purposes of the prophesy of the 1st and 2d 
 advent — Zoroaster’s opinion — Conclusion from these encourage- 
 ments — Edward King’s answer to the objection, that this is a vain 
 inquiry — Eleventh chapter of the Revelation contains an epitome 
 qf all the times subsequent to that of John — These times to be ex- 
 amined into and inquired after — The surest guide and interpreter 
 are the meaning of the Spirit, in the original places in the Old Tes- 
 tament already fulfilled — Necessary to understand the figurative 
 language of Scripture for this purpose. 
 
 ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE OF THE SCRIPTURES. Fol. 168. 
 
 Introduction — Bishop of Gloucester’s opinion of the prophetic 
 style — The same of Dr. Johnson, of Hollywood — The only lan- 
 guage that could answer a universal purpose — Example of Epa- 
 minondas — Other instances — The Jews, as well as our Saviour 
 taught in this language — The apostles also — -Allegories made use 
 of in the Old Testament — In this language John has written his 
 divine vision — Substance of the 11th chapter — First 15 verses se- 
 lected accordingly, as containing the substance of the wholes 
 
 B 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE Ill'll CHAPTER OF THE REVELATION. Fol. 177. 
 
 The 15 verses recited — The first vision of the apostle — the lit- 
 tle book eaten by him — The meaning of it — The angel measures 
 the Temple and Altar — Mr. Mede’s ideas on this subject — Power 
 given to God’s witnesses — Designs of Prophesy — The understand- 
 ing of which to be increased by every one casting in his mite. 
 
 THE WITNESSES : WIIO AND WIIAT THEY ARE. Fol. 187. 
 
 Not a succession of witnesses — They are the olive trees and 
 candlesticks standing before God — Two indelible marks are, hav- 
 ing been in being and well known to the apostle and the Church 
 at and before the time of receiving the vision — and must continue 
 to near the end of the 1260 years — The Scriptures, from the be- 
 ginning hold up God’s witnesses to view — 3d and 4th chapters of 
 Zachariah explain the figure of these witnesses — Fourteen places 
 in the Pentateuch where the Tabernacle is called the Testimony 
 or }Vitnp.ss — The Sabbath and Lord’s day, with their ordinances, 
 often in Scripture called God’s witness — The purposes of those 
 days — Ezekiel’s declaration as to the Sabbath, being a sign or 
 witness — All nations entertained a like idea of their religious ce- 
 remonies — The opinion of the Jews — Instances among the Hea- 
 then — The Patriarch’s also — Not the 7th day of the week that 
 was sanctified ; but the 7th day of the creation, being the first 
 day of the first complete week — was a type of the second advent 
 — Is one of Christ’s witnesses mentioned by John — These wit- 
 nesses have been prophesying in sackloth for about 1260 years — 
 Examples — The Beast is the emperor of Rome — Witnesses will 
 be about finishing their testimony towards the end of the Roman 
 hierarchy — Then another beast or government to arise within the 
 former Roman empire, that shall make war against these witnesses 
 of God and kill them — Sir Isaac Newton and Dr. Clarke’s opin- 
 ions — This beast or government to arise out of the bottomless pit 
 — Its meaning — Mosheim, Dr. Lancaster, and Quintus Cur- 
 tius’s Observations — The same beast or government mentioned 
 again in the 18th chapter — To arise before the testimony of the 
 witnesses is finished ; but near the end of it — Mr. Daubuz’s opin- 
 ion — The imagery taken from our Lord’s passion — The fate of 
 mystical Babylon — What end to answer — Criticism on the 8th 
 verse — Bodies of witnesses will remain in the street unburied — 
 Mr. Daubuz’s explanation — Roman empire denominated Egypt, 
 Sodom, and Babylon . — The dependants of this government re- 
 joice and send gifts, on the occasion — News of counter revolution 
 in France — After three years and an half the witnesses to be res- 
 tored to life — They ascend in a cloud, predictive of their restora- 
 tion to honour and use — Account of the convocation of the con- 
 stitutional clergy of France. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xi 
 
 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR RESURRECTION. Fol. 249. 
 
 A great Earthquake, or overturning the political state of the 
 government — By which the tenth part of the city or empire was 
 ruined or changed — Seven thousand men of names, or great men, 
 destroyed — Philip Nicolai’s comment — Edward King’s do. — Mr. 
 Mede’s and Maimonides do. — Seven thousand pedigrees of great 
 men surrendered in France — Another interpretation, relating to 
 communities either of Church or State — Nearly the same number 
 of towns and villages in France have changed their names since 
 the revolution — The second wo is nearly past and the third com- 
 eth — Noware the latter times of the fourth monarchy, when men 
 will give glory to God — Unequivocal testimony of facts foretold, 
 to the conviction of the follower's of the beast and others — These 
 events shew that the finishing of the second wo is nearly accom- 
 plished — The watchful observer will be roused, to stand ready for 
 the coming of the Bridegroom — Daniel’s complaint of being alone 
 in this view of the subject. 
 
 A REVIEW OF THE WHOLE. Fol. 262. 
 
 Objection of the danger of enthusiasm answered — Christ guards 
 his people against it — wrong to charge it on his real disciples. 
 
 THE TIME OF THE END, OR THE LATTER TIME, &C. Fol. 266. 
 
 Great importance of the death and resurrection of the witnesses 
 — Sounding of the seventh angel — Mr. Baubuz’s comment — The 
 figure of the elders before the throne, taken from the High Priest 
 in the Jewish Sanhedrim — Late events have added to the force of 
 this interpretation — The words in Daniel, closed or sealed up, till 
 towards the time of the end — Duties required — St. John encoura- 
 ges us to persevere — Caution necessary — Ending of second wo, 
 and the 1260 years, nearly synchronize — Difficulty of translating 
 from one language to another — Method of investigating the sub- 
 ject— In eight divisions. 
 
 TIME OF RECEIVING THE REVELATION. Fol. 275. 
 
 St. John undoubtedly the person to whom made — The thousand 
 year’s reign, was anciently ,the general opinion of orthodox Chris- 
 tians — Eusebius of Nicomedia deserves no credit — Papias, Justin 
 Martyr, Irenseus, Eusebius Pamphilius, Ignatius and Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus, their opinions — The fact never disputed till Dyonysius, 
 in the year 250, raised some doubts about it ; but he acknowledg- 
 ed the author to be divinely inspired — Mr. Mede’s opinion — St. 
 John was nephew to our Lord — Thrown into a caldron of boiling 
 oil— Came out unhurt and banished to Patinos— -Recalled and re- 
 sided in Asia. 
 
XU 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE TIME OF THE CHURCH^ PURITY. Fol. 280. 
 
 Till 360 or 400 years after John’s vision, or till somewhere about 
 the year 500 — Villalpandus on the measure of the temple. 
 
 TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION OF ROME PAGAN. Fol. 282. 
 
 To commence, not from the temporal power of the pope, hut 
 from the apostasy of the Church to image worship or spiritual for- 
 nication — Hi/ppolitus , his opinion — No invocation of saints or an- 
 gels before the year 300 — Began with Babylus’s bones, by means 
 of Julian — Profane history confirms the fact — After the death of 
 Valentinian, Rome was sacked by Gensericus the Vandal , who 
 carried away the furniture of the temple, brought from Jerusalem 
 by Titus — Augustulus followed, who being conquered by Odoacer 
 and Theodoricus an Ostrogoth, the empire of Rome ended — It was 
 divided into ten kingdoms — An important fact in considering this 
 subject — Bishop Newton’s opinion — Bishops ofRome assume the 
 title of Pontifex Maximus — Supposed to be the man of sin — The 
 writer, no pretensions to knowledge furtherthan what is revealed 
 — Apostasy of the Church to spiritual idolatry and whoredom, 
 completed about the year 500 — Daniel’s addition of thirty and 
 forty-five years to the 1260. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE CHURCH, DURING THIS LAST PERIOD. Fol. 298. 
 
 Theodoric’s conduct — Offences began to arise — Mr. Gibbon’s 
 opinion — The Pope began to show his power — He claims absolute 
 authority under St. Peter — Established about the year 500 — In- 
 stances of his assumption of sovereign power — Apostolic canons 
 — Degeneracy of Church to idolatry — Epiphanius and Augustine's 
 opinion and conduct — Worship of angels condemned in the Laodi- 
 cean council — Christianity embraced by the Barbarians — Arian 
 controversy — Sorrows of the Church increase, aiid the beauties of 
 our holy religion soon clouded over — Paul the 1st excommunicates 
 the Greek emperor, and Henry the 4th of Germany — Pope Inno- 
 cent the 2d establishes transubstantiation and the Inquisition — In- 
 struction on the Lord’s day — Moral and religious causes for wit- 
 nesses mourning in sackloth — The invasion of the Huns — Instan- 
 ces of terrible destruction— -Tertullian’s reason for Christian’s 
 praying for the Roman empire — Opinion of early Christians — 
 Disputes of the bishops of Rome with those of Constantinople — • 
 The Waldenses and Albigenses’ declarations against the Church 
 of Rome —Pope’s sentence of excommunication — White on the 
 6th and 7th centuries — Gregory the 2d. his epistle — Popes Inno- 
 cent the 2d, Martin the 5th, and Leo the 10th, their conduct — 
 Inauguration of the Pope— Cardinal Bellarmine and Bengelius — 
 Ignorance of 8th and 9th centuries — Persecutions of both Pagans 
 and Christians — Martyrs in France — Clergy causes great scandal 
 —Offence given by Luther. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xm 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE BOTTOM- 
 LESS FIT. Fol. 330. 
 
 This government full proof of the time of witnesses finishing 
 their prophesy, and the end of the second wo — Figurative lan- 
 guage made use of in early times, and the time of John — Thus 
 the beast or government, in other places called antichrist, was to 
 slay the witnesses, and designated a government to arise about 
 the time of their finishing their testimony — This expected by Hy- 
 politus of Portua--A most important event — not well understood 
 till the latter times of the Roman government — Nine remarkable 
 events attending that Government — will shew the ending of the 
 second wo — Will be as a herald of the skies, proclaiming the 
 fall of Babylon. 
 
 PRESENT APPEARANCE IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE, COMPA- 
 RED WITH THE PROPHECIES. Fol. 346. 
 
 The vial already poured out on the seat of the beast — An ex- 
 traordinary government has arisen, the effects of which require 
 attention — The facts of the present century (the 18th) to be as- 
 certained — The downfall of the order of Jesuits — Remarkable 
 prediction of archbishop Brower — charge of conspiracy against the 
 king of Portugal — The whole order abolished — The Jesuits, the 
 nobles of the Papal monarchy — Disputes between Great Britain 
 and her colonies — Free Masonry carried into France— On which 
 were founded the societies called Lodges — King of Prussia made 
 a tool of — Established and carried on by Voltaire and D’Alembert 
 to oppose the Christian religion and all government — Their vari- 
 ous names — receive celebrity by the Duke of Chartres, or Or- 
 leans joining them — Voltaire’s abominable language — The perfect- 
 ing the Christian religion made a pretence — Club at Baron Hol- 
 beck’s, in Paris, of which Voltaire was perpetual president— Lord 
 Orford’s letter — The lodge of Paris, moulded into the Jacobin 
 club, soon ruled the kingdom — Gen. Custine invited into Germa- 
 ny — One Zimmerman an enthusiast — Causes of their brilliant 
 victories — The lodges frequented by people of all ranks and of 
 every profession — Intended to establish Druidism and the Hea- 
 then philosophy — The emperor Joseph, of Austria, and other roy- 
 al adepts imposed upon — Names of some of the principal members 
 -—Thus the most immoral principles spread over France — Protec- 
 ted in Russia — Poland— .Prussia, and in the north of Germany — 
 Increased to 266 — Elector Palatine alarmed, prosecutes the prin- 
 cipal members, and apparently breaks up the society in his domin- 
 ions — But arise under a new name — Oath of the Candidate — Their 
 principles compared with those of the Gospel — Journal of the 
 order — Several lodges in America — Dr. Robertson of Edinburgh, his 
 work against them — Letter from Wm. Smith, of Connecticut, con- 
 firming his account — Transgressors had now come to the full — Dr. 
 Robertson’s character — -A young lady’s account of the Society— 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The state of the German Literati, a confirmation— -By these 
 means France prepared for a revolution — Other preparatives to- 
 wards it — The national assembly of the States General called — A 
 remarkable physical event, portending national evil — Meeting of 
 the assembly — Ling holds a royal session — Great umbrage given 
 — The title of National Assembly assumed — The taking of the 
 Bastile — The minister Foulon murdered — The Noblesse surren- 
 der their privileges — This followed by all the privileged orders — 
 Perfect equality established — The clergy voluntarily renounce 
 their personal possessions and emoluments — The conduct of the 
 royal family, and its terrible effects, with regard to a feast at the 
 palace — Conduct of La Fayette — The king removed to Paris — 
 The national assembly followed — Old division of the kingdom 
 abolished, and eighty-three new departments established — All 
 distinction of ancient dignities , ranks, and titles nf honour , whe- 
 ther civil or ecclesiastical, destroyed — Confiscation of all Church 
 lands — New constitution formed — All monastic establishments 
 suppressed, and their estates confiscated — Oath of Ecclesiastics — < 
 Manifesto from the grand lodge at Paris to those in all the res- 
 pectable cities in Europe — These lodges very numerous in the 
 Austrian states, and in Vienna itself — Reference to the prophetic 
 declarations of John in the Revelations — Persons appointed to 
 take the oaths of the clergy — Great numbers refuse — lioyal assent 
 given to the constitution — Assembly dissolved and succeeded by 
 the legislative national assembly — Avignon and Venasin taken 
 from the Pope — Clergy and nobility expelled.the assembly — Tho- 
 mas Paine chosen a member — Fraternal society formed — of whom 
 it consisted — All the nonjuring clergy banished on the petition of 
 twenty citizens — Abolition of royalty, and the term republic de- 
 creed — All hereditary titles abolished — Next all ecclesiastical 
 authority — Then all kingly power — Jacobin society increase in 
 power — Dependant clubs established in every town and village 
 in France-— Santerre’s mob — Massacre of 10th Aug. — A remarka- 
 ble day in the annals of history — Royal family take refuge in 
 the national assembly — Mob destroys the palace and massacre near 
 all the Swiss guards of one thousand men; with fifteen hundred 
 gentlemen and the servants of the palace — About two hundred es- 
 cape — The suspension of the royal authority immediately decreed 
 — The royal family imprisoned, and a convention to form another 
 constitution decreed — Rapid approach of the combined armies — 
 JPeople summoned en masse — They first proceed to the champ de 
 Mars — thence to the several prisons in Paris, and massacre the 
 princess de Lambale, the residue of the Swiss guards, and many 
 of the non-juring Clergy — One thousand persons suffered — The 
 remaining Clergy ordered to be transported — Sale of all ecclesias- 
 tical property decreed — Another massacre of about twelve thou- 
 sand on the 2d Sept. 1792 — National convention organized — 
 Paine and Priestly members — The last refuses to accept — Eternal 
 abolition of monarchy — Conduct of Girondists and the Moun- 
 tain — Boards of justice dissolved — Sans culottes put in their room 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XV 
 
 — The French armies under the direction of the Girondists every 
 where successful — The trial and death of the king — Dupont, a 
 blasphemous atheist — The armies of the new republic beaten — All 
 riot and confusion — The government in the mob — The whole na- 
 tion put in requisition — New tables for weights and measures — A 
 new calendar of time changing the beginning ol the year and the 
 names of the months — The week of seven days changed to de- 
 cades of ten days — Supernumerary days beyond 330 days in the 
 year, nicknamed satis cidutides — Every means used to enforce the 
 new oath of the Clergy — Only four out of one hundred and thirty- 
 six of the bishops submit — The convention vote themselves a per- 
 manent body, contrary to the constitution — Trial and death of the 
 queen — The duke of Orleans and twenty-one Girondist members, 
 with priests and nobles, quickly followed her — The southern de- 
 partments revolt — The city of Lyons taken and decreed to be ra- 
 zed, and its name changed to Villa Affranchie — A number of per- 
 sons and communities come to the convention and declare their 
 hatred of religion and their attachment to the principles of liber- 
 ty and equality — The Clergy encouraged to renounce their sacer- 
 dotal character — List of some of them with their addresses — The 
 Sans culottes thus cast pit’ the knowledge and fear of God, as re- 
 vealed through Jesus Christ — By confiscation, seizure, &c. seven 
 tenths of the national territory come into the hands of the govern- 
 ment — Festival of reason celebrated in a blasphemous manner — 
 Chaumet’s address — A crowd of priests deposit and reject their 
 letters of priesthood — This feast celebrated in like manner in al- 
 most every city in France — At Lyons, the festival of an ass was 
 celebrated — The students of Du Pont’s new republican school and 
 that of the section des Areis, detest Gud — The blasphemous con- 
 duct of a comedian in the habit of a priest — A number of these in- 
 stances — Speech of Abbey Seyes — The convention adjourn to at- 
 tend the worship of Liberty — Danton votes in favour of salaries to 
 the Clergy — The reason — These attacks on the Clergy on account 
 of the government’s hatred of the Gospel — The Lord’s day cried 
 down and decades preferred — The magnificent Church of St. Ge- 
 nevieve in Paris, changed into a pantheon — remarkable declaration 
 of an unknown person in the midst of their idolatrous worship — On 
 finishing, the most extravagant effusions of joy break forth, with 
 mutual congratulations on their success — Bible taken from the 
 tail of an ass and burned — Notwithstanding, a chosen few, like 
 Elijah’s seven thousand men are preserved in secret, mourning be- 
 tween the porch and the altar — Toulon taken — Civil war in La 
 Vendee — Destroyed and 300,000 persons lost their lives — Opinion 
 of Carriere — French again successful every where — Estes’s jour- 
 ney from Lovaine to Liege — Mountain party triumphant — Admi- 
 nisters the government with fury and terror — The hearts of men fail 
 them for fear — In Germany the distress intolerable and universal 
 — Jacobins split among themselves — Robertspierre commands with 
 unlimited sway — Senas thirty -two of his old associates to thegul- 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 lotin-e — Emigrants murdered, said to be 2700 — Takes 60,000 pri- 
 soners — Madame Elizabeth and multitudes of others sent to the 
 guillotine — Robertspierre, in his turn, becomes an object of fear 
 and jealousy — He is charged and executed in a few hours, without 
 trial — The convention new modelled, and the system of terror 
 gives way to one of greater moderation — Lyons restored — The 
 Jacobin society dissolved — Surprising success in Spain — She for- 
 sakes her allies and joins with France — The United Provinces in- 
 vaded and subdued — The convention pass a decree for tolerating 
 all religions — The war continues and is translated into Italy un- 
 der Gen. Buonaparte — The Pope threatened with destruction in 
 his ancient city — By a humiliating submission he diverts the 
 storm for the present — Venice with her fleet and arsenals 
 seized, under the mask of friendship — Bartered away to the em- 
 peror of Austria — Letter describing their sufferings — The empe- 
 ror alarmed, delivers up the key of Italy to the directory — Italy 
 formed into two republics, and constitutions given them by Buona- 
 parte — Bad example of the emperor of Austria — Buonaparte finds 
 excuses to seize the city of Rome — Dethrone and imprison the 
 pope and some of his cardinals, &c — Projects an invasion of Great 
 Britain — Preparative to which, he invades the Swiss cantons and 
 revolutionizes Switzerland — Extract of a letter describing their 
 distresses — A letter from the celebrated Lavator — Official note, 
 delivered by the Swiss minister plenipotentiary — The war exten- 
 ded to the cities of the nations which fell — Ecclesiastical hierar- 
 chy of France — An awful instance of the uncertainty of all human 
 things — Particulars of its numbers, riches, and importance — This 
 mighty mass laid in ruins — The enmity of the French government 
 was manifestly against the whole Christian system — The massacre 
 of the Carmes — Report of deplomatic committee — Acts and prin- 
 ciples of this strange and uncommon government, called a republic 
 — A Frenchman’s description of the distress of his country — The 
 great events of this government are thus brought down from 1760 
 to 1798, though very imperfectly — The concentration of the marks 
 or signs, designated by divine wisdom and foreknowledge-— It an- 
 swers the predictions of Sacred Writ, as if a history of facts since 
 their rise — Particulars enumerated — Loss of Italy in men and mo- 
 ney — By the policy of this government many have been destroyed 
 —Craft has prospered — But the most unequivocal mark, is, that by 
 peace it has destroyed many — This is an uncommon and unnatural 
 mark of character, peculiar to this government — Can scarcely be 
 mistaken — The same government of a fierce countenance, called 
 by Daniel the king of the north — Recapitulation — Character of 
 Gen. Buonaparte — The Scripture denunciation verified — Extract 
 from Bishop Hurd — Four consequences still to follow — Roman 
 editors of Bible, substitute Greece or Cuthith, instead of Rome — 
 Resurrection of witnesses to be expected — France the dekaton — 
 Archbishop Usher, Mons. Jurieu, Mr. Willison of Dundee, Vi- 
 tringa and, Dr. Goodwin, their opinions— Acts of this government 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xvu 
 
 in a manifesto of the emperor of Germany — Nobility and clergy 
 reduced to beggary — The empires of the world, carrying on the 
 secret designs of Almighty God — forming a prophetical chronolo- 
 gy, when the promissed kingdom of Christ begins and ends — 
 False Messiahs — Archduke Charles of Austria, his character of 
 Bounaparte — Here the work is left. 
 
 THE PRESENT AGE OF THE WORLD. Fol . 487". 
 
 Difficulties in chronology — Arise from the copies of the Penta- 
 teuch and the Hebrew Bible — Mistakes in the genealogies of the 
 Jews from Abraham — Obviated by the zeal of archbishop Usher, 
 in obtaining the Samaritan pentateuch — State of the reckoning of 
 each — The world rather older by one than the other — Mr. Faber’s 
 work on prophesy. 
 
 THE IDEAS OF THE ANCIENT JEWS AND GENTILES. Fol . 491. 
 
 The judgment day, & c. &c. all Jewish terms — Most of the ex- 
 pressions in the New Testament taken from the same source — - 
 The kingdom of Christ and of God have the same meaning and 
 refer to the second advent of Christ— The Jewish liturgy — Chal- 
 dee paraphrase, Talmud, the Jewish writers and their traditions, 
 with the house of Elias confirm the same — The Jewish opinions, 
 manifest from the questions by the disciples, particularly James 
 and John — Peter calls it the times of refreshing and the restitu- 
 tion of all things — Confirmed by the writers of the Apocrypha — 
 The opinion of the whole orthodox ancient Christian Church, by 
 Justin Martin in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew — Enoch and 
 the descendants of Noah held the same doctrines — Must have been 
 handed down to their children after the flood — Thus the heathen 
 received it — Origen in his tract against Celsus mentions it — Se- 
 veral instances from Heathen writers — So the whole system of 
 Divine Revelation — Polycrates’s Observations — Edward King’s 
 do. — The doctrine confirmed by John — Extract from Warner on 
 the common prayers. 
 
 conclusion; or, short summary of the whole. Fol . 513. 
 
 Conclusion from what has appeared — If it has been shewn that 
 a revelation has been made, opening up the purposes of God for 
 reconciling the world to himself — to which end different dispen- 
 sations have been ordained — Fixed ages or eras established — At 
 the end of the present a more glorious state of things foretold — - 
 Beginning with the second advent of the Messiah — Edward 
 King’s observations— If certain duties are required, essential to 
 our happiness — We have been warned of the rise of a government 
 uncommon ill all its parts— From the bottomless pit — The slaying 
 and resurrection of the witnesses — And other signs of the times 
 — Do not these call aloud on the servants of God to discern these 
 
 C 
 
xvm 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 signs of the times — The children of God to share in these suffer- 
 ings — Yet encouraged to hope — Awful address of St. Paul to the 
 Thessalonians — The destruction coming on the world to be poli- 
 tical as well as religious — Therefore, every character to consider 
 — Address to friends of the Roman hierarchy — Mr. Mede on the 
 the seventh trumpet — When this beast destroyed, the rest will 
 soon follow — The great day of the battle of Armageddon — The 
 great city divided into three parts — The cities of the nations fall 
 — The beast and the kings of the earth make war against him who 
 sat on the throne — The Old Testament bears witness to this aw- 
 ful period — Mr. Mede on the fourth and fifth vial — How far this 
 prophesy has been fulfilled— Particulars of the destruction of Rome 
 by John — Mystical Babylon to have her Euphrates— These facts 
 sufficient to alarm European governments — Protestant nations 
 also deeply concerned — These governments belong to the Heaven 
 and earth of Papal Rome — They have the mark of the beast— 
 Slave trade — Observations of a pious writer — The United States 
 of America have also reason to fear — Congress establishing their 
 seal and flag— America has greatly departed from original prin- 
 ciples— Address to her citizens — William Venn, a servant of 
 Christ — Maryland settled by the persecuted — They also to an- 
 swer for the slave trade — Antichrists in America — The latter 
 times of the Roman government nearly accomplished— They have 
 the free use of Revelation — The witnesses of God with them in a 
 living state — Blessed with political freedom — The ordinances of 
 the Gospel — Public worship a most complete example of genuine 
 freedom and equality — Mrs. Barbauld’s elegant description ofit — 
 Are favoured with the Scriptures and Men of piety and learning — 
 Prophesies now closing to a point — What prophesy is — Jerusalem 
 trodden down of the Gentiles — State of the Jews — The times of 
 the Gentiles drawing to an end — Pretended philosophers laugh 
 at these doctrines — Peter’s admonition to them — The question 
 of the second advent herein fully established — Porteus, bishop of 
 London, his opinion — No pretensions to determine the time with 
 precision further than it will not exceed the year 6000 — Have no 
 knowledge but from the Scriptures — Sufficient has appeared to 
 assure us that many of the preliminary steps have taken place — 
 The Roman government the fourth kingdom — Jerome’s assertion — 
 Mr. Mede has put the question out of doubt — Rome has received 
 her death wound — Extract from Sharpe’s essays — Events to come 
 on very fast till the seventh vial — Agree with bishop Newton re- 
 lating to the unfulfilled prophesies — The doctrine of the Mille- 
 nium, steers clear of extremes— Address of Christ to his people — 
 the nations of Europe particularly interested in these events— 
 Calculated to rouse the friends of Zion, both Christian and Jew 
 — The last deeply interested— Jonathan Ben UzzieVs opinion of 
 the four kingdoms — The present generation no excuse for infi- 
 delity — Christ the prince of the kingdoms of this earth — Address 
 to the Jews — Philo’s character of the Messiah — Objections to 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XIX 
 
 Christ’s personal appearance on earth, founded on metaphysical 
 arguments, passed by as unworthy of notice — The objectors in 
 the situation of Moses — Dr. Doddridge’s comment on Matt. 19th 
 ch. 28th v. — Whatever Mmighty goodness has promised, Almighty 
 power will effect — The union of the soul with a glorified body, the 
 perfection of human nature — Kett’s opinion on the sleep of the 
 soul — Words of Scripture repeated — This work finished with a 
 repetition of the 34th and 35th ch. of Isaiah — And Lowth’s notes 
 And a Psalm of David — Hymn by an unknown hand. 
 
: - - Ti r - • f T-. ,,-nnrt^M---'- 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 BELATIVE TO THE 
 
 PLAN OF REVELATION 
 
 THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE* 
 
 \ 
 
 IN contemplating the scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments, a careful observer will necessarily 
 remark, not only an uniformity of design, but also one 
 continued well organized system of conduct, estab- 
 lished from the beginning of the world, and pre- 
 dicted to continue to the end of it. 
 
 This authentic history of food’s providence through- 
 out, points with an uniform direction to one great 
 object. It is kept constantly in view, amidst all the 
 dark and mysterious, or bright and luminous conduct 
 of the supreme and adorable Creator of the universe, 
 relative to the government of the world ; and the 
 final disappointment and overthrow of the powers of 
 darkness, in the restoration of our guilty race, to the 
 favor of God our maker. 
 
 If the scriptures be true, this can only be done by 
 fhe establishment on earth of the glorious kingdom of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator between God 
 and man, on his second coming, to the glory of God 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 the Father, and the joy and comfort of his faithful 
 people, of all nations, languages and tongues. 
 
 To this end, all the vast apparatus of nature and 
 providence, from the beginning of the world, has con ■ 
 stantly hastened. — All the partial or particular dis- 
 pensations of the governor of the universe towards 
 individual nations or people, have been merely so 
 many necessary steps or means to elucidate, foretel, 
 or accomplish this all important event. 
 
 In short, to use the words of an eminent writer,*' 
 il the history of the Old and New Testament,” hath 
 a secondary or prophetical sense in many instances. 
 
 Its great events, are signs and figures of things not 
 seen as yet, and many of them are in force as such, 
 at this hour.- — Great things are still to be expected, of 
 which we can form no conception, but as they are set 
 before us in the figures of saore.fl hlaWy. 
 
 God shall descend, and this earth be on fire; and 
 the trumpet shall sound ; and the tribes of mankind 
 shall be assembled, as formerly the Jews were at 
 Mount Horeb — u Distress shall come on a wicked 
 world, when its iniquity shall be full, as destruction 
 did on devoted Canaan, proud Babylon and apostate 
 Jerusalem.” 
 
 In this world, the blessed Redeemer, God’s only 
 begotten son,— the express image of his substancef 
 
 * Jones. 
 
 f Person , as mentioned in our translation, is certainly not; 
 the meaning of the Greek word Uposaseos. vide Parkh in 
 loco and Campbell on the gospels, Biss, x. part v. Sec. 9, &c. 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, 3 
 
 received insult, contumely and reproach. — In this 
 world, lie was cruelly scourged, mocked at and spit 
 upon — In this world, he was condemned at Pilate’s 
 bar as a common malefactor— crowned with a crown 
 of thorns, and crucified between two thieves — In this 
 world, since his resurrection and ascension, he hath 
 been despised, rejected of men ; crucified afresh, and 
 his blood shed for the remission of the sins of ungrate- 
 ful men, denied by those who profess his name, and 
 treated as an unholy thing. 
 
 How consonant to reason then is it? How anal- 
 agous to all the dispensations of the righteous gov- 
 ernor of the universe? How agreeable to the terms 
 of the covenant of grace, and the promises to the 
 suffering redeemer, that in this world, and by its re- 
 deemed inhabitants, for which he has given himself 
 up to affliction and death, he should also receive 
 honor and glory, power and dominion, homage and 
 adoration ? Thus he shall see the blessed effects of 
 the travail of his soul aud therewith be satisfied. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ could only suffer in his 
 human nature — He was never despised or rejected 
 in heaven, as to his divinity — He was always, as God 
 and the lamb, loved, adored and worshipped by all 
 the heavenly host. — St. John, the beloved disciple, 
 testifies, u that he heard the voice of many angels 
 round about the throne ; and the living creatures and 
 the elders : and the number of them was ten thousand 
 times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, 
 saving with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was 
 
3? PRELIMINARY OBSERVATION*, 
 
 slain, to receive power and riches, and wisdom and 
 strength, and honor and glory and blessing ! and 
 every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, 
 and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and 
 all that are in them, heard he saying, blessing, and 
 honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the lamb for ever and ever!* 
 A nd the four living creatures said amen ! and the 
 four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped, 
 him that livetb for ever”f — After this “ he beheld and 
 lo a great multitude, which no man could number, 
 of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, 
 stood before the throne, and before the lamb , clothed 
 with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried 
 with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God wh© 
 sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lanib”$ 
 
 The angelic host esteemed it their highest honor 
 to attend him, in his first advent in the flesh, to this 
 our world ; and did joyfully recount the glad tiding* 
 to the wondering shepherds of Bethlehem., 
 
 They also, with wonder and amazement, attended 
 his temptation in the wilderness ; and comforted him 
 in his agonies in the garden of Gethsemane. They 
 devoutly attended his resurrection, and with ho- 
 sanna’s ascended with him to glory. Indeed, legions 
 of angels were always ready to obey his commands, 
 
 * This is exactly the description given of the throne of GUd 
 by Daniel. 
 
 t Rev. v. 11. to end. 
 
 | Ibid vii. 3 and 10 . 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. & 
 
 «ven while sojourning in the flesh. It was daily their 
 anxious solicitude to look into the mysteries of his 
 incarnation and sufferings. 
 
 It was, then, in his flesh as mediator — as the sub- 
 stitute and propitiation for the sins of men, that he re- 
 ceived all the obloquy and abuse. It was in the flesh 
 he suffered and died. 
 
 In the flesh, therefore, as our mediator and great 
 high-priest — the captain of our salvation ; and in this 
 same rebellious world, and from this same guilty 
 race, must he receive the glory, honor, power, majes- 
 ty, praise and dominion, that are so justly due to 
 him, for all that he has done and suffered for the 
 sons and daughters of Adam. 
 
 Hence we find the earliest dawn of grace and hope 
 to our guilty and despairing first parents, was ushered 
 In, though obscurely, with the blessed promise, that 
 the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s 
 head, while he should only bruise his heel. The 
 next encouragement given to them, and which has 
 been preserved on record by the apostle Jude, in his 
 14th and 15th verses, is more encouraging : — “ And 
 Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of 
 these, saying, Behold! the Lord cometh, with ten 
 thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, 
 and to convince all that are ungodly among them of 
 their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly com- 
 mitted, and of all their hard speeches, which ungod- 
 ly sinners have spoken against hirou” 
 
6 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 After this, a strong figure of the deliverance of 
 mankind by the great captain of our salvation, was 
 given to the world, in the preservation of Noah and 
 his family, with a portion of every species of living 
 creatures, in the ark, during the universal deluge. 
 
 Soon after, we find the promise more explicitly 
 made to Abraham, who had been obedient to the call 
 of God, and left his father’s house and his country 
 (which was sunk in idolatry, having forsaken the 
 worship of the one only living and true God) to go 
 whither soever God should lead him. To him the 
 plan of salvation by the mediator, was further opened, 
 by showing him the Messiah, his humiliation or state 
 of suffering, and his coming in glory. Thus Abra- 
 ham saw his day, and was glad, for it was then that 
 God did promise that he would assuredly give to 
 Abraham, as the reward of his faith and obedience, 
 the whole land of Canaan, in which he then so- 
 journed (a type of the heavenly inheritance,) but of 
 which he held not the least possession ; aud though at 
 that time a private individual, without power, influ- 
 ence or authority — in a strange land; yet in him, 
 God did promise, that all the nations of the earth 
 should be blessed ; still directing the eye of his faith,' 
 to the glorious and triumphant state of the Messiah, 
 who, according to the flesh, was to proceed from his 
 loins. 
 
 u Thus he who was promised to Adam immedi- 
 ately on the fall, under the snore obscure description 
 ©f the seed of the woman, who should bruise the head 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, ? 
 
 of the serpent, was now announced to the world, as 
 the seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the 
 earth should be blessed. And henceforward we have 
 prediction upon predietion — ordinance upon ordi- 
 nance — promise upon promise — event upon event, 
 leading to, rising above, improving aud enlarging 
 upon each other, like the gradual light of the ascend- 
 ing sun, from the early dawn to the perfect day. 
 We perceive types, shadows, ceremonies, and sacri- 
 fices, disappearing little by little; patriarchs, priests, 
 prophets, lawgivers and kings, retiring one after ano- 
 ther, and giving place to the Lord our judge, our law- 
 giver, our king to save us, as the twinkling fires of the 
 night hide their diminished heads, and as the vapors 
 disperse, before the glorious orb of day.* 
 
 There are particular and express referrences to the 
 Messiah, as well to his incarnation, sufferings, death 
 and resurrection, as to his second coming in glory, in 
 almost every book of the Old Testament, particular- 
 ly in the numerous types and shadows of the law 
 given to Moses in the Holy Mount, till we come to 
 the Psalms; and sir Isaac Newton, who, though so 
 great a philosopher, thought the study of the scrip- 
 tures among his highest honors, says, “ That there 
 is scarce a prophecy in the Old Testament concern- 
 ing Christ, that doth not, in something or other, relate 
 to his second coming.”f 
 
 * 2d. Yol. Sacred Biography, 17. 
 
 t On Daniel fob 13 2 . 
 
THE PSALMS. 
 
 WE shall now begin a more particular examina- 
 tion into the revelation of this mysterious truth, from 
 the Psalms inclusive, to the end of the apocalypse of 
 St. John. 
 
 In that book of divine poetry, called the Psalms, 
 David and the other authors of them, under the in- 
 spiration of the holy spirit, speak indefinitely of the 
 Messiah’s coming into this our world, not particular- 
 ly distinguishing between his first and second coming. 
 They describe not only his state of humiliation in 
 the flesh, but in the most exalted language, the vic- 
 torious reign of the Messiah, which in its nature and 
 extent, as there foretold, when compared with what 
 we now know of his first coming, can only be true ac 
 it refers to his second coming in glory. 
 
 It is expressly foretold therein, “ that the Heathen 
 are to be given to him as an inheritance, and the ut- 
 termost parts of the earth as a possession — He is to 
 break them with a rod (or sword) of iron, and to dash 
 them in pieces like a potter’s vessel — He is to judge 
 the world in righteousness, and to minister judgment 
 to the people in uprightness. — His throne, as then es= 
 tablished, is to be forever and ever ; and the sceptre 
 of his kingdom a righteous sceptre — A fire is to buna 
 before him, and it is to be very tempestuous round 
 about him. All the earth is to worship him, and sing 
 
THE PSALMS. 
 
 9 
 
 unto his name. Prinees and ambassadors are to come 
 to him from Egypt. Ethiopia is to stretch out her 
 hands unto God. He is to judge (or vindicate) the 
 poor of his people,— to save the children of the 
 needy, and break in pieces the oppressor. — The 
 promised Messiah u is to have dominion from sea to 
 sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth,” 
 that is, from the Mediterranean sea to the Persian Gulf, 
 and from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth ; 
 figurative expressions, to typify the whole habitable 
 earth. The]] who dwell in the wilderness are to bow 
 before him, and bis enemies are to lick the dust. The 
 kings of Tarsliish* and of the Isles, shall bring 
 presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba, shall offer 
 gifts : yea all Icings shall fall down before him — all na- 
 tions shall serve him — his name is to remain forever 
 and forever ; to be continued (or propagated) as long as 
 the sun and men are to be blessed in him. All na- 
 tions are to call him blessed — his seed are to be es- 
 tablished forever, and his throne built up to all gen- 
 erations— he is to subdue the people, under him, and 
 the nations under his feet— he is to choose out an 
 heritage for his people, even the excellency of Jacob 
 whom he loved — all the ends of the earth are to re- 
 member and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds 
 of the nations shall worship before him, for the king- 
 dom is to be the Lord’s and he is to be governor 
 among the nations.. — The Psalmist in an ecstacy of 
 joy, on a prophetic view of this glorious event, cries 
 
 * That is, Spain or some great eonisjereial country. 
 
to 
 
 THE PSALMS. 
 
 out — u Clap your Lands all ye people, for tlie Lord 
 is to be a great king over all the earth : he shall sub- 
 due the people under him, and the nations under his 
 feet. — God is king of all the earth ; — and reigneth 
 over the heathen. — Through the greatness of thy 
 power, shall thine enemies submit themselves unto 
 thee — All the earth shall worship thee, and sing of 
 thee— -they shall sing unto thy name.” 
 
 The whole 67 th Psalm is a prayer for this great 
 kingdom — “ that the way of God may be known on 
 the earth and his saving health among all nations — 
 All nations whom thou hast made, shall come and 
 worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy 
 name.” — In the 110th Psalm, it is expressly asserted 
 of the Messiah, u The Lord upon thy right hand 
 shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath — * 
 He shall judge among the Heathen — He shall fill the 
 places with the dead bodies — He shall wound the 
 Heads over many (or great) countries,” literally in 
 the Hebrew, u the Head over much Country.”* 
 
 Thus the inspired Psalmist foretels in emphatical 
 language, the kingdom of the Messiah, which has 
 never yet been verified, although Ave have seen his 
 first coming in the fiesh ; and if it is ever to be made 
 good by the event, it must be in some future time, 
 and of course, at the second coming of our glorious 
 Immanuel, as he has himself foretold in his word. 
 
 But it appears, as time advanced, and the end 
 drew nearer, that the declarations of many successive 
 
 * Horn. 
 
THE PSALMS. 
 
 11 
 
 and inspired prophets, gave the most explicit and 
 exact predictions of this blessed event, and particu- 
 larly Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, Micah, 
 Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, as 
 well as the other prophets, who have also been very 
 minute on this subject. 
 
ISAIAH. 
 
 ISAIAH, who is with great propriety stiled <{ the 
 evangelical prophet/’ speaks very expressly on this 
 head, and foretels, in sublime terms, “ that a virgin 
 was to conceive and bear a son, and his name was 
 to be Immanuel, (or God with us.) For unto his 
 people a child was to be born; unto them a son was 
 to be given — The Government was to be on his 
 shoulders — His name was to be called Wonderful — 
 Counsellor — The mighty God — The Father of the 
 everlasting age , or the age to come — The Prince of 
 Peace — Of the increase of bis Government and Peace, 
 there was to be no end. A rod was to come forth out 
 of the trunk of Jesse, and a cyon to grow out of his 
 roots ; and the spirit of Jehovah was to rest upon 
 him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding — -The 
 spirit of counsel and strength — /The spirit of the 
 knowledge and fear of Jehovah.” 
 
 The same evangelical prophet, distinguishes what 
 was to happen in after times, when he says, u that 
 in the latter days (afterwards explained by Daniel 
 more particularly) as meaning the latter end of the 
 dth kingdom mentioned in his vision, that is, the 
 Roman empire or government, (as it was always un- 
 derstood by the Jews before the coming of Christ) 
 the mountain of the Lord’s House, should be estab- 
 lished in the tops of the mountains, and exalted 
 
ISAIAH. 
 
 13 
 
 above the hills, and all nations should flow into it — 
 and many people should go and say, come ye and let 
 us go up to the mountain of Jehovah; to the house of 
 the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways ; 
 and we will walk in his paths ; for from Zion shall 
 go forth the law; and the word of Jehovah from Je-- 
 rusalem, and he shall judge among the nations, aud 
 work conviction in many people, — and they shall 
 beat their swords into plough-shares, and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up 
 their swords against nation, neither shall they learn 
 war any more. 
 
 The wolf is then to take up his abode with the 
 lamb, and the leopard lye down with the kid — aud 
 the calf and the young lion and the fading shall come 
 together, and a little child shall lead them. 
 
 The heifer and the she-bear shall feed together. 
 Together shall their young ones lie down, and the 
 lion shall eat straw like the ox ; and the suckins 
 child shall play on the hole of the asp; and the 
 weaned child shall put his hand on the cocka- 
 trice den— -They shall not hurt nor destroy in 
 all the holy mountain, for the earth is to be full of 
 the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the 
 depths of the sea.— The root of Jesse is to be an en- 
 sign to the people, and to him shall the nations repair, 
 and his resting place shall be glorious.” 
 
 About this happy period, in fulfilment of th« 
 promises of his word, the dispersed Jews are to be 
 
ISAIAH. 
 
 14 
 
 collected together a second time, from the nations of 
 the east, and from the western regions (called in our 
 translations, the islands of the sea ) — t( And he shall 
 lift up a signal to the nations ; and he shall gather 
 the out-casts of Israel, and the dispersed of Judah 
 shall he collect from the four extremities of the earth. 
 — And all animosity and envy of the tribes, with 
 one another, are to cease. 
 
 They shall together invade the borders of the 
 Philistines westward — together shall they spoil the 
 children of the east. 
 
 Jehovah shall smite with a drought the tongue of 
 the Egyptian sea, and he shall strike his hand over 
 the river with his vehement wind, and he shall 
 strike it into seven streams, and make them to be 
 passed over dry shod ; and there shall be a high way 
 for the remnant of his people, which shall remain 
 from Assyria, as it was unto Israel in the day when 
 he came up out of the land of Egypt — And his 
 “people are to return unto their own land , for he is to 
 have mercy on Jacob, and yet to choose Israel, and 
 give them rest in tlieir own land ; and strangers shall 
 cleave to the house of Jacob, and bring them into 
 their own place; and the house of Jacob shall 
 possess them in the land of Jehovah, as servants, 
 and hand-maidens to his people in their own land ; 
 and they shall take them captives, whose captives 
 they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors 
 — a present is at that time to be brought to him of a 
 people scattered and peeled ; and that from a nation 
 
ISAIAH, 
 
 15 
 
 terrible from their beginning : a nation meted out and 
 trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have 
 nourished, to the place of the name of the Lord of 
 hosts, the mount Zion. 
 
 In that day, there shall be a high way from Egypt 
 to Assyria ; and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, 
 and the Egyptian into Assyria — and the Egyptian 
 shall worship with the Assyrian — at the same time 
 Israel is to be reckoned a third, together with Egypt 
 and with Assyria* even a blessing in the midst of the 
 earth, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless ; saying 
 blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work 
 of mine hands, and Israel mine inheritance. 
 
 The earth shall then be full of the knowledge of 
 the Lord, as the waters cover the sea ; and God will 
 destroy the covering cast over all people and the vail 
 that is spread over all nations, and the reproach of 
 his people shall be taken away from the earth — 
 Every valley is then to be exalted, and every moun- 
 tain and hill are to be made low ; and the crooked 
 paths are to be made straight ; and the rough places 
 plain, and the glory of the Lord is to be revealed, 
 and all flesh are to see it. The desert and the waste 
 shall then be glad ; and the wilderness shall rejoice 
 and flourish, and the well- watered plain Of Jordan shall 
 also rejoice : the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto 
 it; the beauty of Carmel and Sharon — These shall 
 then behold the glory of Jehovah ; the majesty of our 
 God. 
 
 The eyes of the blind are to be unclosed ; and the 
 ears of the deaf are to be opened. The lame are to 
 
16 
 
 ISAIAH. 
 
 bound like the hart ; and the tongue of the dumb 
 is to sing ; for in the wilderness shall burst forth 
 waters, and torrents in the desert; and the glowing 
 sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty soil, 
 bubbling springs. No lion shall be there ; nor shall 
 the tyrant of beasts come up there ; but the redeemed 
 of the Lord shall walk there ; and the ransomed of 
 the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs 
 and everlasting joy upon their heads, and all sorrow 
 and sighing shall flee away. The voice of weeping 
 is no more to be heard in her, nor the voice of a dis- 
 tressful cry — There is no more to be in her an infant 
 short lived ; nor an old man that has not filled his 
 days 5 , for he that dieth an hundred years old, shall 
 die a boy ; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the 
 days of his people. The wolf and the lamb shall 
 feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like an ox ; 
 but as for the serpent, dust shall be his food. For 
 God will pour out his spirit on the seed of Israel, 
 and his blessing on their offspring ; and they shall 
 spring up as grass among the waters, and the willows 
 beside the aqueducts. 
 
 One shall say, I belong to Jehovah ; another shall 
 be called by the name of Jacob; and this shall in- 
 scribe his hand to Jehovah, and shall be surnamed 
 by the name of Israel. All the remote people of the 
 earth shall look unto him, and be saved. 
 
 Jehovah will call from the east the Eagle;* and 
 from a far distant land, the man of his counsel, to 
 
 * If you suppose (he north-west parts of America, are near 
 the north-east parts of Asia, near Kamsckatka, as the late 
 
ISAIAH. 
 
 47 
 
 bring to pass the design he has formed, and he shall 
 execute it ; for the Messiah shall raise up the cions of 
 Jacob and restore the breaches of Israel. He shall 
 be a light to the nations, and salvation to the euds of 
 the earth — Kings shall see him and rise up, princes 
 shall worship him. 
 
 Jehovah will lift up his hands to the nations, and 
 to the people will he exalt his signal ; and they shall 
 bring his sons in their bosoms, and his daughters 
 shall be borne on their shoulders— Kings shall be 
 their foster fathers, and queens their nursing mothers. 
 
 They from the west shall revere the name of Je- 
 hovah ; and they from the rising sun, his glory ; 
 when he shall come like a river, streigthened in its 
 course, which a strong wind driveth along; and the 
 [Redeemer shall come to Sion, and turn away in- 
 iquity from Jacob. 
 
 In that day (when the Jews shall be about to be 
 restored to their former prosperity) Jehovah shall sum- 
 mon on high the host that is on high (or the ecclesiasti- 
 cal polity of the nations, perhaps both the Popish and 
 the Mahometan) and on earth the kings of the earth ; (or 
 the civil polity or constitutions of the Roman earth or 
 
 discoveries seem to give reason to believe ; and if the lost 
 tribes of Israel passed over this strait to America and are to 
 be found there, as Messrs Elliot, Penn, and others have sup- 
 posed; then it is possible the Eagle and the man of his counsel 
 may come from that far distant land, and by passing over the 
 same strait to the north-east part of Asia, may be said to come 
 from the east. 
 
 E 
 
18 
 
 ISAIAH, 
 
 monarchy) and they shall be gathered together as in a 
 bundle (or body) for the pit, and shall be closely im- 
 prisoned in the prison (alluding to the practice of 
 crowned heads, casting their prisoners into dungeons, 
 and leaving them in a miserable condition, without 
 examining speedily into their respective deserts) but 
 after many days, account shall be taken of them ; 
 (that is . God shall remember them and restore them 
 to a state of comfort)— and the moon shall be con- 
 founded and the sun shall be ashamed for, (or be- 
 cause) Jehovah God of hosts shall reign on mount 
 Zion, and in Jerusalem ; and before his ancients 
 shall be glorified.” 
 
 So glorious is this event to be, that the prophet 
 breaks out, as in an ecstacy of joy, “ 0 Jehovah, 
 thou art my God : I will exalt thee : I will praise thy 
 name, for thou hast effected wonderful tilings. Coun- 
 sels of old times! promises immutably true! — For 
 thou hast made the city an heap (perhaps the city of 
 Rome, or some other large city of Europe) the strong 
 fortified citadel, a ruin — the palaces of the proud 
 ones, that it should be no more a city — that it never 
 should be built up again— Therefore shall the fierce 
 people glorify tliee — The city of the formidable na- 
 tions shall fear thee : for thou hast been a defence to 
 the poor, a defence to the needy in his distress : a 
 refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the heat! 
 And Jehovah God of hosts shall make for all the 
 people in this mountain a feast of delicacies, ex- 
 quisitely rich, and of old wines perfectly refined ; ' 
 
ISAIAH. 
 
 49 
 
 and on this mountain shall he destroy the covering , 
 that covered the face of all the people, and the veil 
 that was spread over all the nations,”* 
 
 The seed of Jacob are (then) to be brought from 
 the east, and to be gathered from the west— -The 
 north is to give up, and the south not to keep back. 
 His sons are to be brought from afar, and his 
 daughters from the ends of the earth. 
 
 Having sworn by himself, the word went forth out 
 of his mouth in righteousness, that unto him every 
 knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear. 
 
 And when the enemy shall come in as a flood, the 
 spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him, 
 and the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to them, 
 who turn from transgression in Jacob. The nations 
 are to walk in his light, and kings in the brightness 
 of his sun-rising — The riches of the sea are to be 
 poured in upon him, and the wealth of the nations 
 is to come unto him — -The nations are to wait, and 
 the ships of Tarshishf among the first, to bring the 
 sons of Israel from afar, their silver and their gold 
 with them, because of the name of Jehovah their 
 
 * From this it is pretty evident that there is a veil at 
 present on all nations with regard to the 2d coming of Christ, 
 which the restoration of the Jews will have a tendency to re- 
 move. This is typified by the veil that, even to this day, it is 
 said, that the readers in the Jewish worship have, hanging 
 over their faces while they read the law of Moses to the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 t If the Spaniards in South America should ever prosper as 
 a eommercial people, they may be meant. 
 
so 
 
 ISAlAfi. 
 
 God, and of the holy one of Israel, for he hath 
 glorified them. — And the sons of strangers are to 
 build the walls, and their kings shall minister unto 
 them : their gates are to be opened continually : not 
 to be shut day nor night, that men may bring in the 
 wealth of the nations ; and that their kings may come 
 pompously attended ; for that nation and that king- 
 dom Which will not serve them, shall perish. 
 
 The glory of Lebanon is to come unto her : the fir 
 tree, the pine and the box together, to beautify the 
 place of his sanctuary, and to glorify the place where- 
 on he shall rest his feet. 
 
 The sons of their oppressors shall come bending 
 before them ; and all that scornfully rejected them, 
 shall do obeisance at the soles of their feet. — Jerusa- 
 lem is to be made an everlasting boast ; a subject of 
 joy, for perpetual generations — She is to suck the 
 milk of the nations, and at the breast of kings to be 
 fostered ; and to know that Jehovah is her saviour 
 and redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. — For brass, 
 she is to have gold, and for iron, silver — for wood, 
 brass, and for stones, iron. — Her inspectors are to be 
 peace, and her exactors, righteousness. 
 
 Violence will no more be heard in her land, nor 
 wasting or destruction in her borders. Her walls 
 are to be called salvation and her gates praise — The 
 sun will no more be her light by day, nor the bright- 
 ness of the moon by night $ but Jehovah is to be to 
 her an everlasting light, and God her glory— Her 
 
ISAIAH. 
 
 21 
 
 people are to be all righteous and to inherit the land 
 forever, that God may be glorified. — His ancient 
 people the Jews (though now dispersed to the 
 very ends of the earth, and a hissing and a bye word 
 to all nations) shall then build up the ruins of old 
 times : they shall restore the ancient desolations, re- 
 pair the cities laid waste, the desolations of con- 
 tinued ages. 
 
 Strangers shall then feed their flocks, and the sons 
 of the alien shall be their plough-men and vine- 
 dressers. 
 
 They are to be named priests of Jehovah — minis- 
 ters of God shall be their title. They shall eat the 
 riches of the nations, and in their glory they are to 
 boast — Their seed shall be illustrious among the 
 nations, and their offspring in the midst of the people. 
 —All who see them shall acknowledge that they are 
 the seed, which the Lord hath blessed — The Lord is 
 to comfort Zion — He is to comfort all her waste places, 
 and make her wilderness like Eden ; and her desert 
 like the garden of the Lord. 
 
 As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the 
 garden causeth the things that are sown in it to 
 spring forth, so the Lord will cause righteousness 
 and praise to spring forth before all nations. 
 
 The command of God is to go through the gates 
 —to prepare the way for his people — to cast up the 
 causeway — to clear it from the stones — lift up on 
 high a standard for the nations— -for behold Jehovah 
 
ISAIAH. 
 
 P 
 
 proelaimeth unto the ends of the world ; say ye to 
 the daughters of Zion, lo ! thy Saviour cometh — be- 
 hold his reward is with him and the recompence of 
 his works before him ; and they are to be called, the 
 holy people — the redeemed of Jehovah ; sought out, 
 a city not forsaken.” 
 
 The reason is clearly given, for this wonderful 
 change in the state and circumstances of God's 
 people, so unlike what they are at present, scat- 
 tered over the earth, with scarcely a spot to place 
 their feet, which they can call their own ; excluded 
 from their city and promised land, which are now in 
 the possession of a powerful nation, and so despised 
 by all the inhabitants of the earth, that they have 
 scarce a ray of hope left, but from faith in the w r ord 
 of God by his prophets ; this alone keeps up their 
 spirits in this day of gloomy darkness to them. God 
 having declared most expressly by his prophet, u that 
 he will create new heavens and a new earth, and that 
 the former shall not be remembered or come into 
 mind auy rnoi’e;” by which it is to be understood 
 throughout the scriptures, the political forms of gov- 
 ernment in the world, with the grandeur and lustre 
 of their dominions, their political heights and glory. 
 
 But his people shall rejoice and exult in the age to 
 come, which Jehovah creates; for he will create Je- 
 rusalem a subject of joy, and her people of gladness, 
 and Jehovah will exult in Jerusalem and rejoice in 
 his people. — The key of the house of David, shall 
 be then laid on the shoulders of the Messiah, ({ as an 
 
ISAIAH. 
 
 m 
 
 ensign of royalty and government, so that he shall 
 open and no man shall shut, and he shall shut and 
 no man shall open.” 
 
 “ Jehovah is to come (as introductory to this 
 glorious day) with fire and with his chariots, like a 
 whirlwind to render his anger with fury, and his re- 
 buke with flames of fire; for by fire and by his 
 sword, will Jehovah execute judgment on all flesh, 
 and the slain of Jehovah shall be many. — Jehovah 
 shall come and gather all the nations and tongues 
 together, and they shall come and see his glory; and 
 he will impart to them a sign — and those who escape 
 will be sent to the Heathen, and the isles afar off, 
 that have not heard of his name, neither have seen 
 his glory ; and they shall declare his glory among 
 the nations. 
 
 The Jews are then to be brought for an offering 
 unto the Lord, out of all nations, on horses, in 
 chariots and litters; and upon mules and dromedaries 
 to his holy mountain Jerusalem; and of them shall 
 be made priests and levites — so that from one new 
 moon to another, and from one sabbath, to another, 
 all flesh shall come and worship before the Lord.” 
 
 So explicitly and particularly has this evangelical 
 prophet promulged the glorious state of Christ’s 
 victorious kingdom on earth, at his second advent; 
 as nothing any ways answerable to this transporting 
 description, has yet happened in the world since his 
 first coming in the flesh, it must be yet to come. 
 
 I 
 
ISAIAH. 
 
 m 
 
 24 
 
 But this joyous event, has not been left to the tes- 
 timony of one, or two witnesses ; the prophet Ezekiel 
 is not far short of the happy Isaiah, in his views of 
 what God has designed for his people in the latter 
 days. 
 
EZEKIEL. 
 
 — t a w -ir.- 
 
 It has been owing to an unfortunate propensity of 
 allegorizing or spiritualizing only, the express and 
 comforting promises of a God of truth, that this book 
 has given so little comfort to the people of God.— 
 According to Ezekiel’s prophetic declarations, at the 
 second advent of our Saviour, God is to sanctify his 
 holy name (which had been profaned by his ancient 
 people the Jews) among those nations, with whom 
 God had scattered his people (the Jews) for their 
 sins, and the heathen were thereby to know that he 
 was God, when he should be sanctified in them be. 
 fore their eyes ; for he will take his people the Jews 
 from among the nations, and gather them out of all 
 countries, and bring them into their own land. — - 
 “ Then he is to sprinkle clean water upon them, and 
 they shall be clean — He is to give them a new heart 
 and put a new spirit within them ; to take away the 
 stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of 
 flesh — They shall dwell in the land that he gave to 
 their fathers, and they shall be his people, and he 
 will be their God. Their now desolate land is to be 
 tilled and to become like the garden of Eden, and the 
 waste, desolate and ruined cities are to become 
 fenced and inhabited, whereby the heathen shall 
 
 know the Lord. 
 
 F 
 
26 
 
 fcZEKIEL. 
 
 The Lord is to gather the house of Israel from the 
 people among whom they are scattered, and will bs 
 sanctified by them in the sight of the heathen, and 
 they are to dwell in their land that he has given to 
 his servant Jacob. 
 
 They are to dwell safely therein, and build houses, 
 and plant vine-yards. Yea they shall dwell with con- 
 fidence, when God has executed judgment upon all 
 those that despise them round about, and they are to 
 know that he is the Lord their God. — God is to 
 search for his sheep, and to seek them out : as 
 a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that 
 his sheep are scattered, so will God seek out his 
 sheep (the people of Israel) and will deliver them 
 out of all places where they have been scattered in 
 the cloudy and dark day — He will bring them out 
 from the people and gather them from the countries; 
 and w ill bring them to their own land and feed them 
 upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all 
 the inhabited places of the countries. 
 
 God will set up one shepherd over them, and he 
 shall feed them, even his servant David, and the 
 Lord will be their God, and his servant David a 
 Prince among them— God w ill make a covenant of 
 peace with them, and will cause the evil beasts to 
 cease out of the land, and his people shall dwell 
 safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods — - 
 and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know 
 the Lord, wken he shall have broken the bands of 
 their yoke and delivered them out of the hands of 
 
EZEKIEL. 
 
 %7 
 
 those that served themselves of them ; and they shall 
 no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the 
 beast of the land devour them, but they shall dwell 
 safely and none shall make them afraid. — The moun- 
 tains of Israel are again to shoot forth branches, and 
 yield fruit to his people Israel, for they are at hand 
 to come — -Men and beasts are to be multiplied, and 
 the cities to be inhabited, and the wastes builded. 
 His people are to be settled after their old estates , 
 and God will do to them better than at the beginning. 
 “God will open their graves and cause them to 
 come up out of their graves, and he will bring them 
 into the land of Israel ; and they shall know that he 
 is the Lord, when he shall have opened their graves, 
 and brought them up therefrom, and he will put his 
 spirit in them, and they shall live ; and he will place 
 them in their own land— -He will make them one na- 
 tion in the land, upon the mountains of Israel ; and 
 one king shall be to them all, and they shall no more 
 be two nations; neither shall they defile themselves 
 any more with idols, so they are to be his people, and 
 and he will be their God, and David will be their 
 prince forever— -and he will make a covenant of peace 
 with them, and multiply them, and set his sanctuary- 
 in the midst of them for ever m^e.”— -A new temple 
 is to be built in Jerusalem according to the measures 
 of the angel in the prophetic vision, “ and the glory 
 of the God of Israel is to come into it from the way 
 of the east ; and his glory is to fill the house,/* 
 
38 
 
 EZEKIEL. 
 
 This is to be t( the place of his throne, and the 
 place of the soles of his feet, where he is to dwell in 
 the midst of the children of Israel forever. The 
 Levites are to be ministers in the sanctuary, or 
 keepers of the charge of the house ; but on account of 
 their going astray with Israel, they shall no longer 
 do the office of priest, or come near to any holy 
 tilings ; but the sons of Zadock who kept the charge 
 of the sanctuary, when the children of Israel went 
 astray, they shall be priests and ministers unto the 
 Lord, and keep the charge and be judges in con- 
 troversies between the people.” 
 
 A different division of the laud of Canaan among 
 the tribes, than that ordered by Moses, is to take 
 place ; with a special allotment for the use of the 
 sanetuary and provision for the princes — Joseph is 
 to have two portions, and the stranger who sojourns 
 there is to have an allotment also in the tribe in 
 which he lives — Special provision is likewise to be 
 made by means of a river, that heads in the temple, 
 and runs through the desart into the sea ; by which 
 the seas, wherever the waters of this river shall 
 come, are to be healed ; and thereby all these waters 
 shall produce fish in the greatest plenty, for the use 
 of the inhabitants ; Ind 4s borders are to be covered 
 with trees, which are to bear fruit every month, for 
 food ; and their leaves shall not fade, neither shall 
 their fruit be consumed.- — The fruit is not only to be 
 meat, but their leaves are to be medicinal, because 
 the waters issue out of the sanctuary. 
 
JtZEiIklElL^ 
 
 29 
 
 The city is to be four square, with three gates on 
 each side, to be called after the names of the twelve 
 tribes of Israel — It is to be round about 18000 
 measures; and the name of the city from that day, 
 shall be, “ The Lord is there.” 
 
 But previous to and just before this great event, 
 the peculiar distress foretold in almost every other 
 part of scripture, must take place. “ For God calls 
 on every bird of prey, and the wild beasts of the 
 field, to gather together from all places to his sacrifice, 
 which he has slain for them on the mountains of Israel, 
 and they shall eat flesh, and drink blood — They 
 shall eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the 
 blood of the rulers of the earth ; rams and calves and 
 goats and all stalled calves — And they shall eat fat 
 till they are satiated ; and drink blood (till they are 
 intoxicated) of my sacrifice which I have slain for 
 them — And they shall be filled with, (and devour) 
 at my table, horse and charioteer, mighty men and 
 every man of war, saith Jehovah the Lord— And I 
 will manifest my glory in them, and all nations shall 
 see my judgment which I have executed upon them.. 
 And the house of Israel shall know that I am Jeho- 
 vah their God, from that day and forward. And all 
 nations shall know, that because of their sins, the 
 house of Israel went into captivity; by means of 
 which (sins) they acted deceitfully towards me, and I 
 have turned away my face from them, and have de- 
 livered them into the hands of their enemies, and they 
 all fell by the sword— According to their unclean- 
 
so 
 
 EZEKIEL, 
 
 nesses, and according to their iniquities have I done 
 unto them — For this reason, saith Jehovah, God, 
 now will I turn again the captivity of Jacob, and 
 have mercy upon the Siouse of Israel, and I will be 
 zealous because of my name, m,y holy name. And 
 they shall receive their ignominy and (the reward of) 
 all their iniquity, which they iniquitously committed 
 when they dwelt in their land in peace — But there 
 shall not be any one making them afraid, when I 
 shall bring them again from among the Gentiles , 
 and when I shall gather them together from the coun- 
 tries of the nations — and they shall know that I am 
 the Lord their God, on my appearing to them among 
 the Gentiles. And I will gather them into their land, 
 and will not forsake them any more.”* 
 
 * King’s translation. 
 
ZECHAHIAH. 
 
 THE account of these prophetic wonders, are 
 also continued by Zechariab, who lived 50 years 
 after Ezekiel. 
 
 He says, li the man whose Gkme is the Branch, 
 shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build 
 the temple of the Lord, and bear the glory, and sit 
 and rule upon his throne. — -And he shall not only be 
 a king, but a priest also on his throne ; and the coun- 
 cil of peace shall be between them both.” 
 
 The Lord is to return to Zion and dwell in the 
 midst of Jerusalem ; and she is to be called a city 
 of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the 
 holy mountain. — Old men and women are yet to 
 dwell in the city of Jerusalem, and every man with his 
 staff in his hand for very age. — And the inhabitants 
 of one city, shall go to another city saying, u let us 
 go speedily and pray before the Lord, and to seek 
 the Lord of hosts : I will go also.— -Yea many people 
 and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of 
 hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. 
 
 The daughter of Zion is called on greatly to re- 
 joice; and the daughter of Jerusalem to shout; for 
 her king cometh unto her. — He is to speak peace to 
 the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea to 
 sea ; and from the river to the ends of the earth.” 
 
ZECHARIAH. 
 
 And in order to ascertain the period of time with 
 certainty, and to distinguish clearly between the first 
 and second coming of this glorious prince ; the 
 prophet declares u that in that day, whenever it shall 
 be, the Lord will destroy all the nations that come 
 against Jerusalem; and will pour upon the house of 
 David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the 
 spirit of grace and supplication ; and they shall look 
 upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall 
 mourn as one mourneth for his only son, and shall 
 be in bitterness as one that is in bitterness for his 
 first born. — And then there shall be a great mourn- 
 ing in Jerusalem — and the land shall mourn ; 
 every family apart and their wives apart. — In this 
 same day, (or about the same time) there shall be 
 opened a fountain to the house of David and to the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for unclean- 
 ness. — The feet of the Lord shall then stand on the 
 mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the 
 east; and the mount shall cleave in the midst thereof 
 towards the east and towards the west, and there 
 shall be a very great valley ; and half of the moun- 
 tain shall remove towards the north ; and half of it 
 towards the south ; and the people shall flee to the 
 valley of the mountains, which shall reach unto Azel ; 
 they shall flee, like as they fled before the earth- 
 quake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah — And 
 the Lord God shall then come, and all the saints with 
 him ; and in that day living waters shall go out from 
 Jerusalem ; half of them towards the eastern sea, and 
 
2ECHARIAH. 
 
 38 
 
 half of them towards the hinder sea, in summer and 
 winter shall it be; and the Lord shall be king over 
 all the earth ; and there shall be one Lord, and his 
 flame one,” 
 
 All this is too descriptive, and too minute, to sup- 
 pose them designed, as merely allegorical — the lan- 
 guage being so frequently express and positive. 
 
 This would be unworthy the grandeur of the sub- 
 ject, and the dignity of the kingdom of God so ex- 
 pressly revealed in his word. — The promises of God 
 are yea and amen — -not a tittle of them shall fail, 
 but all things written in the prophets and the psalms 
 concerning him, shall be fulfilled — even where the 
 language in scripture is plainly and necessarily figu- 
 rative as to part of its principal object, o f ten it carries 
 a double reference, and the literal is fulfilled, as well 
 as the figurative^. 
 
 The prophet proceeds to foretel the manner in 
 which these great events are to be brought about — 
 This was necessary, as it had been foretold, that 
 previous to this glorious day, there should be a great 
 falling away among the professors of the gospel, and 
 that the enemies of Christ, and his faithful people, 
 should greatly prevail, even so as to endanger the 
 safety of the elect or church of God, had it been 
 possible. 
 
 Zechariah therefore further informs us, that this 
 u will be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite 
 
 all the people that shall fight against Jerusalem — 
 G 
 
2ECHARIA1L 
 
 34s 
 
 tlieir flesh shall consume away, while they stand 
 upon their feet — their eyes shall consume away in 
 their holes, and their tongues shall consume away in 
 their mouths — There shall be a great tumult from the 
 Lord among them, and they shall lay hold every one 
 on the hand of his neighbor; and his hand shall 
 rise up against the hand of his neighbor; and Judah 
 shall fight at Jerusalem and the wealth of the heathen 
 shall be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel 
 in great abundance. — And so shall be the plague of 
 the horse, of the mule, of the camel and of the ass, 
 and of all the beasts that shall be in their tents— 
 And every one that is left of all the nations which shall 
 come against Jerusalem, shall afterwards go up from 
 year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, 
 and to keep <llie feast of tabernacles; and who so will 
 not come up, of all the families of the earth unto Je- 
 rusalem to worship the king the Lord of hosts, even 
 upon them shall be no rain . 77 
 
 The prophet concludes the descriptive scene, by 
 declaring with great certainty of expression, that in 
 that day which he had been speaking of, so greatly 
 should a spirit of righteousness prevail, “ that 
 holiness to the Lord, should be inscribed on the 
 bells (or rather bridles, as it is in the margin of our 
 bibles) of the horses.” — And I will here add in ad- 
 dition to these prophetic declarations under the old 
 testament dispensation, that Malachi finishes his 
 prophecy with, “ behold I will send you Elijah the 
 prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful 
 
ZECHARIAH. 
 
 35 
 
 day of the Lord ; and he shall turn (or restore) the 
 heart of the fathers to the children ; and the heart of 
 the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite 
 the earth with a curse. 55 
 
 It is remarkable that John the baptist came in the 
 power and spirit of Elias, and was the harbinger of 
 Christ’s first coming, but he did not restore the heart 
 of the fathers to the children ; and the heart of the 
 children to the fathers — this is reserved for the real 
 Elijah, the great harbinger of Christ’s second coming 
 in glory, here called the great and dreadful day of 
 the Lord, when all that the prophet has predicted 
 shall be literally fulfilled. 
 
 Our Saviour himself tells his disciples, in Matthew 
 xvii. 11. after John was beheaded, “ that Elias truly 
 shall first come, 55 and to distinguish him from John, 
 as Malaclii did, adds, a and shall restore all things .” 
 
 In all these prophetic declarations, throughout the 
 old testament, the coming of our Lord and Saviour is 
 foretold indefinitely, without distinguishing in express 
 terms between his first and second coming; but 
 leaves the devout enquirer to the nature of the 
 prophecies, ajud what their peculiar terms suggest. 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 THE prophet Daniel, indeed, is alone an ex 
 ception to this observation; he being highly favored 
 of God with a more express and distinct revelation of 
 the things concerning the future states of the church. 
 
 This was the opinion of Eusebius the ecclesiasti- 
 cal historian, when he says, u the prophet Daniel by 
 the divine spirit, beholding Christ’s kingdom, that 
 shall be in the latter age of the world, having been 
 moved by the power of the Divine spirit, hath more 
 after the manner of men, and to man’s capacity, de- 
 scribed the vision of God, as in vii. 9. 10. “ 1 be- 
 held till the thrones were cast down, and the ancient 
 of days did sit, whose garments were white as snow, 
 and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his 
 throne was like the fiery flame ; and his wheels as 
 burning fire — -A fiery stream issued and came forth 
 from before him; thousand thousands ministered 
 unto him; and ten thousand times ten thousand stood 
 before him; the judgment was set, and the books 
 were opened.” — This evidently refers to the second 
 coming of Christ very expressly; and it appears to 
 have been revealed to Daniel with great correctness, 
 who being a Jew, I consider as a type of the Jews, 
 whose nation was to have a share only in the second 
 coming of Christ in his kingdom, and this only was 
 made known to him; but Nebuchadnezzar being a 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 3? 
 
 Gentile, and one who may be considered as a type of 
 the Gentiles, who were to have part in both estates of 
 Christ’s kingdom, they were both shown unto him. — 
 In this prophecy, therefore, the distinction between 
 them, is expressly and precisely made, so as to leave 
 no room to the believer in revelation, rationally to 
 refuse his assent to both particulars, and thereby to 
 distinguish the signs of the times, attending or fore- 
 running each event. 
 
 In his second chapter, an account is given of Neb- 
 uchadnezzar’s image, which was explanatory of the 
 four kingdoms into which, as foretold to the prophet, 
 the then world, as they considered it, would be 
 divided ; the last of which, is agreed on all hands 
 would be the Roman — His legs were of iron to show 
 the strength of the Roman power and its peculiar 
 mode of government by two Consuls, or it may be its 
 division into two parts eastern ana western. It was 
 divided into feet with ten toes of clay and iron, de- 
 signating a subdivision into ten kingdoms, as ex- 
 plained to Daniel, and afterwards to St. John in the 
 Revelations, and which were to be partly strong and 
 partly broken. Daniel proceeds to inform us that in 
 the days of these kingdoms , or during the existence 
 of some one of these kingdoms , shall the God of 
 heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be de- 
 stroyed, but it shall break in pieces and destroy all 
 the other kingdoms. — This then is evidently the first 
 coming of the Messiah, during the existence and au- 
 thority of one of these four kingdoms ; and it is as 
 
38 
 
 DANIEL. 
 
 clear, that this government of the Messiah, at his first 
 coming, should prevail so as to subdue all the other 
 kingdoms. 
 
 In order to fix this prophetic view of the subject, 
 Daniel also has a vision for the same great purpose, 
 and the same facts and consequences that should 
 happen, were shown to him under the vision of four 
 beasts, predicting the same four governments, but 
 enlarging his view of the future states of the church. 
 -—The fourth beast or government, engaged DaniePs 
 particular attention, being dreadful, and terrible, and 
 exceedingly strong, and destroyed all the other 
 beasts or governments that had gone before it — -This 
 designated, more determinately, the same Roman 
 government, and accordingly it had ten horns, still 
 showing the same subdivision into ten kingdoms. 
 
 Daniel “ beheld till tho thrones or seats were 
 placed or set down, and the Ancient of Days did sit 
 (this is a figure taken from the Sanhedrim of the 
 Jews, where the high priest sat in judgment with the 
 elders, in a semi-circular form on each side of him) 
 — “ He continued beholding till the beast or fourth 
 government was slain, and his body destroyed, and 
 given to the burning flame.” This is clearly pre- 
 dictive of the total destruction of the fourth, or Ro- 
 man government, and that by means of the govern- 
 ment set up at the first coming of the Messiah — it 
 was not till after the destruction of the fourth gov- 
 ernment , that Daniel u saw in the night vision, and 
 behold one like unto the son of man (or the Messiah 
 
DANIELo 
 
 so 
 
 himself) came in the clouds of heaven to the ancient 
 of days, and was brought near before him, and there 
 was given to him dominion and glory and a kingdom, 
 that all people, nations and languages should serve 
 him : his dominion is to be an everlasting dominion, 
 which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one 
 that shall not be destroyed.” — This can only relate 
 to the second coming of the Messiah, and his per- 
 fecting the kingdom he has set up in the earth, when 
 all the nations of the earth shall become the nations 
 of our Lord and his Christ — But to prevent uncer- 
 tainty arising from the misapprehensions of fallible 
 meiij the vision is interpreted to Daniel by the angel 
 - — He expressly and plainly tells him, that the four 
 beasts were four kings or governments, which should 
 arise in the earth — The fourth beast was the fourth 
 government, which was to be diverse from all gov- 
 ernments; and asitUad appeared exceedingly dread- 
 ful, with iron teeth and brass nails, and it had ten 
 horns; the meaning was that this beast or govern- 
 ment Avas to devour the whole earth, aud tread it 
 doAvn and break it in pieces — And the ten horns were 
 to be ten kings, that should arise in that fourth govern- 
 ment, or depending upon it, and another little horn 
 or government was to arise after them, diverse from 
 the first, and should bring down or humble three of 
 the ten kings, and should speak great words against, 
 or as, the Most High,* and should wear out the saints, 
 
 * In Gratian’s Decretals, the pope hath the title of God 
 given to him— -and Mr Faber says, these words should be 
 translated “ by the side of the Most High.” 
 
€0 
 
 DANIEL. 
 
 and think to change times and laws, and his power 
 was to continue a time, and times and the dividing of 
 time, that is three and an half years or 1260 days. — 
 This plainly fixes this government to be a power that 
 shall exist only during the 1260 years — But in the 
 end, the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away 
 his dominion, to consume and destroy it until the end. 
 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness 
 of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be 
 given to the people of the saints of the Most High, 
 whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all 
 rulers shall serve and obey him. 
 
 Indeed it is matter of great wonder and surprize, 
 that notwithstanding these clear predictions, the 
 Jews, forsaking the natural and plain sense of the 
 language of their prophets, and wholly mistaking the 
 nature of the true church or kingdom of the Messiah, 
 consisting of two parta, militant and triumphant, sub- 
 stituted in the room of, or made additions to their 
 prophets, of vain traditions and glosses of their 
 fathers; so that they could not feel the power of 
 Christ’s arguments which he made frequent use of 
 with the Jews, or see the conclusive nature of the 
 evidence he adduced. — Thus blinded and misled by 
 their strong ideas of the kingdom of the Messiah 
 being of this world, and specially designed by God 
 to deliver them from the Roman yoke, as well as 
 from all other temporal enemies ; they had no settled 
 ideas of the nature of that life and immortality which 
 were so clearly brought to light by the gospel— -This 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 paved the way for their temporary rejection and dis- 
 persion, in fulfilment of the very prophecies, on 
 which they founded their peculiar tenets, relative to 
 the temporal kingdom of their expected Messiah.— 
 This event, from their own construction of their scrip- 
 tures, they now concluded was speedily to come ; all 
 the predictions of their prophets, as to the time, 
 being now fulfilled, or very near it; so that their high 
 raised expectations, prepared their minds to receive 
 the evidence that was so fully given to them ; had not 
 their sinful practices, and careless examination of 
 their scriptures, so hardened their hearts, and blind- 
 ed their eyes, as to prevent them from understanding 
 their figurative language, and thereby precluded con- 
 fiction, from reason and argument. 
 
 Perhaps nothing led the superficial and careless 
 examiner move, naturally into error, than the indefi- 
 nite manner, in which all the prophets (except 
 Daniel) spake of Christ’s coming, his suffering and 
 dying, and the subsequent glory of his kingdom, in 
 which the Jews were literally to be restored to more 
 than their pristine splendor and power ; and in which 
 all the promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David 
 were to be completely fulfilled, and all the nations Of 
 the earth to be blessed in them indeed — For the 
 promises made to the three first were, that they and 
 each of them should actually possess the land of 
 Canaan; but if neither of them in their lives, ever 
 did inherit any part of it, then the promises cannot 
 be fulfilled or made good, unless Abraham, Xsaae 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 43 
 
 and Jacob are raised from the dead to receive these 
 promises in their utmost extent. 
 
 The promise to David is, that he shall be prince 
 under Christ, the king of all his people; and “ that 
 of his government there shall be no end.” Now 
 David is certainly dead, and his former kingdom has 
 come to an end, therefore David must be raised from 
 the dead, before the promise can possibly take place 
 or be fulfilled. 
 
 The truth and certainty of these great and precious 
 promises, were the firm objects of the patriarchs’ faith; 
 and particularly so great w r as Abraham’s, when he 
 was ordered to sacrifice Isaac his beloved son, who 
 was to inherit these promises according to the terms 
 of them; and so fixed was he on the expected 
 possession being after the resurrection of the body 
 from the dead ; that he did ««t hesitate a moment, 
 knowing and believing that God was able to raise 
 him from the dead ; and this was the faith, which 
 was accounted to him for righteousness. 
 
 This principle is confirmed by the opinion, which 
 the ancient Jews always held, of the nature of the 
 promises; although the race existing at our Lord’s 
 appearance in the flesh, so completely lost sight of it. 
 
 Hence the language of their liturgy to this day in 
 the morniug prayer of Rosh Hashauah is, “ speedily 
 revive the fathers with all the dead, and be unto 
 Israel as a dew to refresh them, and to restore them to 
 life to sanctify the holy one of Jacob and the God of 
 Israel.” 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 43 
 
 The Amidah or standing prayer for every day is, 
 “ Thou 0 Lord art forever powerful. Thou restorest 
 life to the dead and art mighty to save : — sustaining 
 by thy benevolence the living, and by thine abundant 
 mercies animating the dead:— performing thy faith- 
 ful word to those that sleep in the dust — who is like 
 unto thee, most merciful Father, whokilleth and again 
 restoreth unto life : who remembereth his creatures in 
 mercy unto life, and art faithful to quicken the dead 
 — blessed art thou, O Lord the restorer.” 
 
 On the second day of Rosh-Hanah, “ Vouch-safe 
 me this day the reward of the righteousness of my 
 ancestors — grant me the same lot and portion with 
 them in glory ; and may glad tidings be proclaimed 
 unto my people saying, I will redeem them from the 
 power of the grave, because that Abraham obeyed 
 my voice.” And in the prayer Adonai bekol shophar, 
 or the trumpet, “ the Lord with the sound of shophar, 
 will publish salvation, to assemble the dispersed 
 sheep of the house of Israel, at the coming of the 
 vision of salvation. God hath exalted himself with 
 
 jubilation” “The Lord with the sound of shophar 
 
 — Thou wilt sound it on the holy mountain — Thou 
 wilt erect the holy temple and cleave Mount- Seir — ■ 
 and the fixed stake shall be plucked up and removed 
 —God hath exalted himself with jubilation, the Lord 
 with the sound of shophar.” 
 
 Indeed while our Saviour was on earth, the Jews 
 used to urge these promises as contained in Exodus 
 vi» 4. and DeuL xi, 31. as convincing evidence to 
 
44 
 
 DANIEL, 
 
 convict the Sadducees of their error; and as fully 
 proving the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead — 
 This appears from the Talmud, where stating the 
 question from the tradition of Rabbi Simei, it asks 
 u In what place does the law assert the resurrection 
 of the dead? Answer — In that where it is said, I will 
 establish my covenant with them (that is, Abraham, 
 Isaac and Jacob) to give them the land of Canaan. 
 It is not said to you, but to themP 
 
 Again, u the Sadducees ask Rabbi Gamaliel (the 
 teacher of St. Paul) from whence do you prove that 
 God will raise the dead?” — They were not satisfied 
 till he produced to them, the Slst verse of the lltli 
 chapter of Deut. in which it is said, “ in the land 
 which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them 
 — Hence it appears that the law proves the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead.” 
 
 These extracts from the writings of the Jews, cast 
 much light on the argument of our Saviour himself, 
 who proves the doctrine of the resurrection of the 
 body in like manner, against the Sadducees, in 
 Matth. xxii. chapt. Mark xii. and Luke xx. — The 
 argument he uses with them, is narrated in a very 
 concise manner, and must be much more expressive 
 in the original than in our translation — u but as 
 touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not 
 read, that which was spoken unto you by God saying, 
 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, 
 and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the 
 dead, but of the living.”— The multitude, who fully 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 4*5 
 
 comprehended the force of his argument, were as- 
 tonished at his doctrine; and even the Sadducees, 
 feeling its convictive power, were put to silence— 
 Now the conclusive nature of this reasoning, which 
 had such an effect upon the hearers, does not appear 
 to us, under the common acceptation of it — The con- 
 clusion does not seem necessarily to follow, because 
 God made this declaration while the Patriarchs were 
 living, and he might also be the God of their.spirits 
 living in heaven, separated from the body. — Hence 
 the Socinians, not entering into the true meaning of 
 the argument, say that the spirits of the just, lie in the 
 sleep of death till the resurrection* — But the Sad- 
 ducees might have answered, that God was their 
 God, when the promise was made, while they were 
 living in this world, and continued so to their seed 
 after them— so that the meaning of the declaration 
 might be, wbat he had been to them, and not what 
 he should thereafter be.— However this was not 
 what they understood to be the design of the divine 
 declaration — The force of our Saviour’s observation 
 lay here, and so the Sadducees and the multitude un- 
 derstood it, as if he had said, “ you ail profess to 
 
 * About this time (anno 264) there sprang np in Arabia 
 introducers of another opinion alienating from the truth — 
 These affirmed that men’s souls, even in the presnt life, expired 
 together with their bodies, and were turned to corruption with 
 them, but that they should again revive with the body at the 
 resurrection — No small synod being called, Origen again con- 
 vinced those, who had fallen into these errors. 
 
 Euseb. Ecc. Hist . 108. 
 
40 
 
 DANIEL* 
 
 believe in the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob, that he would give them \ the land of 
 Canaan, as a promised inheritance at the time when 
 he declared himself to be the God of Abraham, 
 Isaac and Jacob, now you must acknowledge, that 
 neither of them, ever received the fulfilment of this 
 promise during their lives ; therefore unless you 
 deny the promise, or the faithfulness of God to fulfil 
 it, you must agree, that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 
 must be raised from the dead to inherit that land ; 
 whereby God in the fulfilment of his word to them, 
 will be their God living, in the enjoyment of that, 
 which was the subject of the promise made to them — * 
 This was a conclusion that could not be deuied, and 
 they submitted to its force.* 
 
 * This seems to be the view, that St. Stephen had of this 
 covenant and promise of God with and to Abraham ; for he 
 says, in his account ©f God’s appearance unto Abraham in the 
 viith chap, of the Acts of the Apostles / 4 and God gave Abra- 
 ham none inheritance in it, (the land of Canaan) no, not so 
 much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give 
 it to him for a possession.”— And St. Paul in his epistle to the 
 Hebrews pursues the same idea; where after mentioning the 
 same fact, connected with Abraham’s offering up Isaac, al- 
 though he had received the promise, “ that in him all thena- 
 iionsof the^parth should be blessed, accounting that God was 
 able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he 
 received him in a figure” (of the first resurrection) he says, 
 
 and these (Abraham and several others mentioned before) all 
 having obtained a good report, through faith received not the 
 promises; (though actually made to them) God having provided 
 aoiqe better thing for its, that they without us should not be 
 
DANIEL, 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel holds up this doctrine in his 
 xxxviitk chap, from the 12th ver. u therefore prophecy 
 and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, behold 
 O my people, I will open your graves and cause you 
 to come up out of your graves, and bring you into 
 the land of Israel ; and ye shall know that I am the 
 Lord, when I have opened your graves, 0 my people, 
 and brought you up, out of your graves ; and shall 
 put my spirit in you, and ye shall live ; and I shall 
 
 made perfect” — that is, that they should wait in a state of 
 death, as to the body, till the church of Christ should be com- 
 pleted and we should all be perfected together, at the first 
 resurrection at the second advent of the glorified Saviour, 
 when these promises should be literally fulfilled. 
 
 All the patriarchs seem to have considered the promise in 
 this sense. Isaac and Jacob on several occasions acknowledged 
 themselves strangers and pilgrims on earth-— They wandered 
 to and frs without a settled place oCoLode — Thelsraelites,even 
 after they had got possession of Canaan, were always in a state 
 of warfare and confusion — This David frequently acknowl- 
 edges in the Psalms, “ Thou hast cast us off and put us to 
 shame, and goest not forth with our armies. Thou hast given us 
 like sheep appointed for meat, and hast scattered us among the 
 heathen — O God the Heathen are come into thine inheritance, 
 thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem 
 on heaps — lama stranger with thee, and a sojourner as all my 
 fathers were ” — and yet in this distressing situation, David with 
 joy was mindful of the covenant God had made with Abraham, 
 and of his oath unto Isaac, and which he had confirmed to 
 Jacob as a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, 
 saying “ unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of 
 your inheritance.” 
 
48 
 
 DANIEL, 
 
 place you in your own land ; then shall ye know that 
 I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, saith the 
 Lord.” 
 
 These were undoubtedly the sentiments of the 
 ancient Jews, as will further appear from the lan- 
 guage of Baruch, v. 3. to 6. though an apocryphal 
 hook, u for God will show thy brightness (meaning 
 Jerusalem’s) unto every country under heaven; for 
 thy name shall be called of God forever, the peace of 
 righteousness and the glory of God’s worship. Arise 
 O Jerusalem and stand on high : look about towards 
 the east and behold thy children gathered from the 
 west unto the east, by the word of the holy one, re- 
 joicing in the remembrance of God.” But more par- 
 ticularly in the conduct of Judas Maccabeus, in the 
 xiith chap, of the 3d book of Maccabees — He went 
 out to fight with Georgias, the Governor of Idumea, 
 and in the battle a number of the Jews were slain, 
 though Judas finally prevailed; and when he cam® 
 to bury their dead brethren according to his custom, 
 they found under the coats of every one of the slain, 
 things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which 
 was forbidden by their law— Judas and his company 
 immediately betook themselves to prayer, that the sin 
 might be wholly put out of God’s remembrance, and . 
 he improved the opportunity, by warning his com- 
 pany from this example, to keep themselves from 
 sin, which had produced the loss of their com- 
 panions; {{ and when he had made a gathering 
 throughout the company, he sent it to Jerusalem , to 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 49 
 
 offer a sin-offering , doing therein very well and 
 honestly , in that he was mindful of the resurrection 
 — For if he had not hoped, that they who were slain , 
 should have risen again , it had been superfluous 
 and vain to pray for the dead:* wherefore he made a 
 reconciliation for the dead, that they might be de- 
 livered from sin. 5 * — Here is a plain and direct proof 
 of the belief of the Jews in this doctrine of the 
 resurrection of the body. 
 
 Another difficulty the Jews lay under, not unlike 
 that which blinds many Christians at this day, was 
 the double views contained in most of the prophecies ; 
 for as has been well observed by an excellent writer, 
 (( all the prophecies may, and undoubtedly have re- 
 spect to more fulfilments than one — they may be typi- 
 cal of things past as well as those to come, here and 
 hereafter. — The temple with its apparatus were 
 figures of what Moses saw in the mount, yet they 
 were manifestly types of things to come — the de- 
 liverance of the Jews from Egypt — their passage 
 through the red sea — their journeying in the wilder- 
 ness — their settlement in the promised land, all had 
 reference both to temporal and spiritual fulfilments — 
 Many earthly sovereigns and men of great temporal 
 power were among the types set forth in the scrip- 
 tures, which led the minds of the Jews to a tem- 
 poral deliverance, in their fulfilment — For instance, 
 
 * Vide 1 Cor. xv. 29. Else what shall they do who are bap- 
 tized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they 
 then baptized for the dead ? 
 
80 
 
 DANIEL, 
 
 Moses, Joseph and David with others, were types of 
 Christ. The conversion of St. Paul was typical of 
 the conversion of the Jews, and as he had an Anaimias 
 to instruct him, so may the Jews have at last, a 
 second Elias for the same purpose. — Moses went 
 into the mount and Jesus into heaven. — The people 
 said as for this Moses we wot not what is become of 
 him.*— The scoffers say of the second coming of 
 Christ, u where is the promise of his coming, for 
 since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as at 
 this time.” — Joseph was sold into Egypt by his 
 brethren out of envy; and Christ was sold by his 
 friend, and Pilate knew it was from envy that the 
 Jews, his brethren according to the flesh, had de- 
 livered him to his power — Joseph was confined with 
 two thieves, one of whom was restored to the 
 monarch’s favor — Christ was crucified between two 
 thieves, to one of whom he said, this night thou shalt 
 be with me in paradise — Joseph was not known to, 
 his brethren till the second time of his coming; to* 
 them : Christ will not be known or acknowledged by 
 the Jews till his second coming in glory — David was 
 hated and persecuted without a cause — Christ more 
 remarkably so — David was accused of crimes he 
 never had committed—Christ was not only accused 
 but died for the sins of the world, which he bore as 
 the substitute of guilty man— David’s life was em- 
 bittered by affliction and overwhelmed with sorrow 
 - — Christ was a man of sorrow and acquainted with 
 grief— David went over the brook Cedron (an em- 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 5i 
 
 blem of the torrent of God’s wrath) through the valley 
 of Jehoshaphat to the mount of Olives, barefoot and 
 weeping as he went; so Christ when he had finished 
 his last supper “ went forth with his disciples over the 
 same brook Cedron, and from thence unto the mount 
 of Olives,” where he sweat great drops of blood 
 falling down to the ground, and such was his sorrow 
 as to need an angel from heaven to strengthen him ; 
 for his great conflict, 
 
 Here David worshipped, wept and prayed — and 
 Christ u fell on his face and prayed, O my father, if 
 it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless 
 not as I will, but as thou wilt — This he repeated at 
 three different times, and his soul was exceeding 
 sorrowful even unto death.” 
 
 Here lttai David’s friend promised to live and die 
 with him, and Peter said to Christ <( though I should 
 die with thee yet witt 1 not deny thee.” 
 
 Ahitophel, David’s counsellor, by his council be. 
 trayed him, that he might be taken when he fled from 
 Absalom, and afterwards Ahitophel went and hanged 
 himself; so Judas one of Christ’s disciples betrayed 
 his master, and afterwards went and hanged himself, 
 
 David obtained a final victory over all his enemies 
 and was exalted to a throne — Christ after obtaining 
 a glorious victory over death, hell and the grave, 
 arose triumphant and “ was received up into heave# 
 and sat on the right hand of God,” 
 
52 
 
 DANIEL. 
 
 The great principal feasts of the Jews, were de- 
 signed partly for the remembrance of things past, and 
 partly as types of things to come — The feast of un- 
 leavened bread, or the passover, was designed as 
 a grateful remembrance of the deliverance of the 
 children of Israel from the laud of Egypt: this was 
 the remembrance of things past — the type or figure of 
 things to come, was our deliverance from the bondage 
 of sin and satan, by our Lord Jesus Christ, who was 
 prefigured by the paschal Lamb without blemish, and 
 who in the same month, and on the same day of the 
 month, was fore ordained by God to be crucified on 
 the cross for the sins of the whole world, whose 
 blood applied by a lively faith, is to be the de- 
 liverance of every soul on whom it is found. 
 
 The feast of weeks, or Pentecost (50 days) after 
 the feast of unleavened bread, was in remem- 
 brance of the law being given on Mount Sinai, with 
 thundering and lightening — and as a type or figure of 
 the publishing of the doctrines of the gospel on the 
 same day, with a sound from heaven, when cloven 
 tongues of fire fell upon the apostles, and they were 
 all filled with the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The feast of tabernacles was in remembrance of 
 the Israelites’ long dwelling in tents or tabernacles, 
 and was a type of Christ’s incarnation, when the 
 divine nature tabernacled in the flesh; and the word 
 became Immanuel or God with us. 
 
 The conduct of the Jews relative to our Saviour, 
 on his incarnation and their essential mistakes, ought 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 53 
 
 to warn Christians, that they run not into the same 
 errors to their greater loss. For may it not be 
 seriously questioned, if there is not, at least, an equal 
 degree of unbelief among Christians, with regard 
 to his second coming, as there was among the Jews, 
 with regard to the Messiah’s first coming. — They 
 looked for a mere temporal Prince : we are looking 
 for the mere spiritual coming of Christ, in a uni- 
 versal revival of religion among men ; both run to 
 extremes, without submitting to the true word of 
 prophecy, when Christ himself assures us of his 
 second coming in glory, not only by types, figures 
 and prophetic revelations ; but also by his ordinances ; 
 especially that which he has instituted to show forth 
 his death, until he shall come. 
 
 This language, one would have imagined, was 
 sufficiently explicit; but fond of our own conceits, and 
 unwilling to submit our judgments, in things we do 
 not immediately comprehend in all their parts, we 
 are directly engaged to enquire how this can be, and 
 start a thousand objections to the fulfilment of the 
 words of Omnipotence, with all the obstinacy and 
 prevarication of the Jews. — In order to get rid of 
 these men of straw, of our own raising, we fiy to the 
 merely spiritual presence of Christ in his church ; 
 and by this means, cause all the express declarations 
 of a God of truth, to be reasoned away, and become 
 of no effect, by preferring the doubts and objections 
 of men, to the positive predictions of unerring wis- 
 dom. This was not the conduct of the first patriarchs, 
 
54 
 
 DANIEL. 
 
 of either the Jewish or Christian churches. — It ap- 
 pears from ancient writings that the pious Jews, be- 
 fore the coming of Christ, believed in, and expected 
 the coming of the Messiah in glory, at the end of the 
 Roman monarchy as related by Daniel — This is 
 mentioned by many Jewish writers, and particularly 
 by Jonathan Ben Uzziel, the Chaldee Paraphrast.* 
 
 In the 3d book of Esdrass,f 3d chap, he calls to 
 the heathen to hear and understand ; to look for their 
 shepherd who would give them everlasting rest, for 
 that he was nigh at hand and should come in the end 
 of the world, (by which was generally meant the 
 Roman world or government.) 
 
 * Rabbi Abarbinel’s testimony is sufficient for the consent of 
 all the Jewish writers, as it is known that he was one of the 
 most learned of his nation — He says, “ Our masters are right 
 in their tradition, that the fourth beast does signify the Roman 
 emperors,” by this it appears to have been the common tradi- 
 tion of the learned Jews. 
 
 Demon, of the prophetic application 
 of the Apoc. 5th of appendix. 
 
 Mr Mede says, that the Roman empire was the 4th king- 
 dom of Daniel, was believed by the church of Israel, both be- 
 fore and in our Saviour’s time: received by the disciples of the 
 apostles and the whole Christian church for the first 400 years 
 without any known contradiction — and I confess having so 
 good grounds in scripture, it is with me, “ tantum non articulus 
 fidei,” little less than an article of faith. Made’s works, 736. 
 
 t This is the 1st of the 70 books of the Cabala of the Jews. 
 
 Mede . 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 55 
 
 He openly and plainly testifies of the Saviour, and 
 bids them to rejoice that they are called to the heaven- 
 ly kingdom. 
 
 He says, “ that he saw on mount Zion a great 
 people, who he could not number, praising the Lord 
 with songs, and among them a young man, taller 
 than the rest, setting crowns on each of their heads. 
 — The angel told him, that the young man was the 
 son of God, whom those who were crowned had con- 
 fessed in the world” — -and afterwards chap. 9 “ and 
 when there shall be seen earthquakes and uproars of 
 the people in the world, then shalt thou well under- 
 stand, that the most High spake of those things even 
 from the beginning; and every one who shall he 
 saved and be able to escape by his works, and by his 
 faith whereby ye have believed, shall be preserved 
 from the perils, and shall see my salvation in my 
 land and within my borders, for I have sanctified 
 them for me, from the beginning.” — In chap. 13th 
 the angel explains the vision, and in the 29th verse 
 says, “ behold the days come when the most High 
 shall begin to deliver them that are upon the earth. 
 And he shall come to the astonishment of them that 
 dwell upon the earth. And the time shall be, when 
 these things come to pass, and the signs shall happen, 
 which I showed thee before, then shall my son be 
 declared, whom thou sawest as a man ascending — - 
 and he shall stand on the top of mount Zion; and 
 Zion shall come, and shall be showed to all men, 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 58 
 
 being prepared and builded like as thou sawest the 
 bill graven without hands Vid also the ldth and 
 45th chapters. 
 
 But the language of Daniel, and his conduct, puts 
 the belief of the Jews wholly out of doubt; and ought 
 to settle and confirm the faith of Christians: Re has 
 clearly distinguished between the first and second 
 coming of the Messiah ; and since all he has predicted 
 of the first coming, has been critically and exactly 
 fulfilled, convincing and adequate proof is thereby 
 given to all his declarations, relative to the second 
 coming of the Messiah, beyond controversy. 
 
 The time of the first coming of this glorious Mes- 
 siah, (though in a state of humiliation) lest it should 
 be confounded with his second coming, in a victori- 
 ous and triumphant state, is expressly mentioned and 
 reduced to a mathematical certainty — In the 9th 
 chap, of Daniel, the angel informs him, that seventy 
 weeks were determined upon his people, and upon 
 the holy city to finish the transgression, and to make 
 an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, 
 and to bring an everlasting righteousness, and to seal 
 up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most 
 holy. 
 
 This was the general declaration of the great 
 object of the prophecy, and the full extent of the 
 period including all its parts; but the prophet is com- 
 manded in the 25th verse to know and understand 
 this period also in its detail, and therefore particu- 
 larizes its commencement, u that from the going 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 57 
 
 forth of the commandment to restore and build Jeru- 
 salem, unto the Messiah the Prince shall be” (two 
 remarkable periods) “ seven weeks” (or many sevens 
 of weeks even seventy weeks before mentioned, ac- 
 cording to the Hebrew idiom and manner of counting, 
 and has been the construction of the ancient Jews 
 from the captivity) and , also “ three score and two 
 weeks ” — This last seems to be a new period that was 
 to take place within the former or seventy weeks, and 
 to be predictive of an extraordinary event, of conse- 
 quence in the whole drama, which is afterwards more 
 particularly mentioned. 
 
 Thus the first coming of Christ was ascertained 
 clearly, so as to be sufficient for the conviction of the 
 most obstinate; but his second coming, from this 
 time, was to be sealed up and not known, till towards 
 the times of the end, when the fulfilment of the pre- 
 vious steps to this great event should so instruct the 
 wise, that they shall then understand, while the 
 wicked shall still go on in their unbelief, and per- 
 verse opposition to the gospel, and yet do foolishly, 
 notwithstanding the increasing light and alarming 
 signs of the times.— That this might not be mistaken, 
 the second period is again mentioned with the par- 
 ticular event that was then to take place, to put it out 
 of all doubts, to wit, u that after three score and two 
 weeks,* the Messiah was to be cut off, but not for 
 
 * This epoch has a commencement different from the sevens 
 of weeks or seventy weeks, for it is expressly said to he from 
 the going forth of the commandment to eause to return and to 
 K 
 
DANIEL* 
 
 himself, that is, from being king and priest of ths 
 Jews, for his death is mentioned before; and the 
 people of the prince that was to come (and under 
 whose government he was to he cut off) should 
 destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end there- 
 of should be with a flood ; and until the end of the 
 war, desolation was determined — and he (that is the 
 Messiah) was to confirm the covenant with many for 
 one week, or seven years — that is, that although the 
 nation should be cast off, yet for the space of seven 
 years, he should offer himself to them, and gather 
 many individuals into the covenant of the gospel. 
 
 But notwithstanding, in the midst of this week, 
 which w 7 as the last of the sixty-two, he should cause 
 the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the 
 overspreading of abominations, he should make it 
 desolate, even until the consummation, (or last times 
 spoken of) when that which is determined on, shall 
 continue upon the desolate, that is, the desolation of 
 the Jew s should continue from the destruction of Je- 
 rusalem, till the times of the Gentiles, or the mon- 
 archies aud governments under the Gentiles, should 
 come to an end, being the last period of the 4th 
 kingdom mentioned in chap. xii. 7* when the angel 
 swears to Daniel, “ that God should accomplish to scat- 
 ter the power of the holy people.”-— Thus these great 
 
 build Jerusalem — not the temple, for that was done before ; this 
 then was after the commencement of the seventy weeks, and to 
 end before they ended. Tide Mr Mede’s, Daniel’s weeks. 
 
 Mede } 700. 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 §9 
 
 and all important events that were to happen during 
 this period of 70 weeks or 490 years were ascertain- 
 ed, viz. the coming of the Messiah, — his crucifixion 
 — and the destruction of the temple and city of Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 This very remarkable prophecy contains evidence 
 sufficient to convict the most obstinate infidel, if evi= 
 dence alone coukl accomplish so arduous a task. 
 
 Here is a plain, express and positive declaration of 
 what was to happen at the period of sixty-two weeks, 
 or four hundred and thirty-four years, reckoning a 
 day for a year according to prophetic language, and 
 again, at that of seventy weeks or four hundred and 
 ninety years, and enters into the particular events, 
 that were to happen in the last seven years of that 
 period — and further, that this destruction or desola- 
 tion should last till the end of the 4th monarchy, 
 when that Gentile nation would be come to an end. 
 — The prophet declares that he had this revelation 
 from heaven, and that therefore it was not his own. 
 He puts the truth of this prophecy on the event, and 
 if this should answer the prophetic declaration, who 
 will dare to be so hardy as “ not to tremble and fear be- 
 fore the God of Daniel, for he is the living God and 
 steadfast forever, and his kingdom that w r kich shall 
 not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even 
 unto the end.”— Now the events that have already 
 come to pass precisely fulfil the prophecy, though so 
 many years before, and give full support to that 
 which is to come. 
 
60 
 
 XJANIEL. 
 
 Learned men differ as to the commencement and 
 ending of this period. The general calculation is 
 from the 7th year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, in the 
 year of Julian period 4256, when Ezra is said 
 (chap. xii. 7* 13.) to have received a command to 
 restore and build Jerusalem. Some think it should 
 be from Nehemiah’s commission for the like purpose, 
 from the same king in the year 4269. Mr Mede 
 supposes it should be reckoned from the 3d of 
 Darius Nothus in the year 4293, or from the com- 
 mission to Nehemiah under the same king in the 
 year 4329. Others think it should be from the 7th 
 of Artaxerxes Mnemon, in the year 4316. — Some 
 suppose it should be reckoned in solar, others in 
 lunar years. The ending of this period has also been 
 the subject of various opinions. The general one is, 
 that it ends with the destruction of the temple and 
 city of Jerusalem, and others with the crucifixion. — > 
 These different opinions all tend to shew, as well the 
 infinite wisdom of him who sent this message to his 
 beloved prophet Daniel, to instruct him, and through 
 him, his church in that which was to come pass — as 
 also his wonderful condescension to the finite under- 
 standings of his people— -In either of these construe - 
 tions, the truth of this astonishing prediction appears. 
 It was made upwards of 600 years before the accom- 
 plishment, thus fully evincing the Omniscience of 
 him, who instructed his servant in things that must 
 come to pass. 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 64 
 
 If you reckon from Artaxerxes Longimanus or tha 
 year 4256 of the Julian period or Anno. Gimp. 879, 
 and add 70 weeks or 490 solar years, it brings you to 
 the year 4746, or Anno. Olympiadico 869, or tha 
 very year of the crucifixion. — If you take it from the 
 command of Neheraiah in the 20th year of the same 
 king, 13 years afterwards, or the year 1269, and 
 reckon by lunar years, it brings you exactly to the 
 same year 4746. If you take it according to Mr 
 Mede from the 7th of Artaxerxes Muemon, or the 
 year 4317, and reckon it to the baptism of our Lord 
 by John, which was in the Julian year 4743, it makes 
 exactly 4:27 solar years, or from Nehemiah’s com- 
 mission 427 lunar years (as is asserted by the emi- 
 nent chronologer, Mr Mede, on whom I depend) 
 which completed Daniel’s sixty-one weeks of years. 
 ■ — If you make the account from the 3d of Darius 
 Nothus, or the Julian year 4293, and add the 430 
 solar years, it brings you to the very year of the de 
 siruction of the temple at Jerusalem. 
 
 This surprizing coincidence of circumstances to 
 fulfil so explicit a prophecy, cannot by any reasona. 
 hie man, be referred to any other, than a divine 
 Omniscient cause ; and the 427 years will bring us to 
 the last of the sixty two weeks, in which according 
 to this prediction, Christ our Lord was anointed — 
 In the beginning whereof, exactly between the first 
 and second passover after his baptism (when his har- 
 binger John, had now finished his mission, and was 
 cast into prison) he first began to preach in Galilee 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 the gospel of his kingdom, ordained his disciples, 
 and proclaimed himself to be the Messiah — Mark, 
 chap. i. 1% 15. u Jesus came into Galilee preach- 
 ing the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying 
 the time is fulfilled (i. e. the last of the sixty-two 
 weeks, spoken of by Daniel is come) and the king- 
 dom of God is at hand.” — This was the day on 
 which Christ at Nazareth said, “ that scripture was 
 fulfilled, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he 
 hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he 
 hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted; to preach 
 deliverance to the captives , and recovering of sight 
 to the blind , to set at liberty them that are bruised; 
 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord .” Luke, 
 chap. iv. 18. 19. — St. Paul also observes the same 
 event, when he says “ that word, ye know which 
 was published throughout all Judea, and began from 
 Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how 
 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy 
 Ghost and with power.” Acts, chap. x. 37, 38. 
 
 In the midst of this week of years, viz. two years 
 and an half after Jesus began to preach, and three 
 years and an half after his baptism, he offered him- 
 self on the cross for our sins, died, was buried, rose 
 again and ascended into heaven — But this cutting off 
 the Messiah is coupled with the next sentence, which 
 instead of but “ not for himself, ” should be, “ and 
 they none of his” — that is, he shall be cut off, from 
 being their king and priest, as well as from his own 
 life,-— this is said to be agreeable to the Hebrew 
 
DANIEL* 
 
 63 
 
 idiom; but as I do not understand that language, 1 
 am indebted to Mr Mede for these observations, 
 which he justifies by many convincing examples.— r 
 Then, the last week of years was fully completed, 
 when St. Peter was sent to Cornelius the centurion 
 and taught by a vision, that the gospel of the king- 
 dom should be preached to the Gentiles, which was 
 Anno Domini thirty-eight, and Anno Olyrapiadico 
 eight hundred and thirteen — And here begins the 
 epocha of the rejection of Israel, and the calling of 
 the Gentiles, which St. Paul speaks so much of in 
 the 11th chap, of Romans — This was exactly seven 
 years from Christ’s baptism, and completed the sixty- 
 two weeks or 434 years — so Christ one whole week 
 of years, tendered himself unto his own people, who 
 refused him and rendered themselves unworthy of 
 everlasting life; and during this week, though the 
 body of the nation was thus cast off, yet Christ and 
 his disciples gathered many into the covenant of the 
 gospel. St. Peter at one sermon having converted 
 three thousand souls. 
 
 The next period is that of sevens of weeks, or 
 many seven weeks, that is, even seventy weeks, or 
 490 years. 
 
 If you conclude with some great men that these 
 weeks or years are predictive of the time the temple 
 of God, with its legal services, should continue after 
 its restoration from the captivity of Babylon, and are 
 reckoned from the time of building the temple, or holy 
 city, for it was the temple that gave this denomination 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 6 * 
 
 to it; ami is to be distinguished from the external 
 buildings and walls of the city, which were not 
 finished till some time after the temple and sanctuary 
 were finished,* — you will then take your reckoning 
 from the time of Darius. 
 
 In the 2d year of this king (supposed by the best 
 chrouologers, to be Darius Nothus) in the year of the 
 Julian period 4292, which answers to Anno Olymp. 
 415, the word of the Lord came to Zerubbabel the 
 governor, and Joshua the high-priest, commanding 
 them to begin the work of rebuilding the temple. — 
 Now to apply these predictions to the crucifixion of 
 our Lord and Saviour as an event that will fix the 
 other periods — However men have heretofore cavilled 
 about the exact fulfilment of this important prophetic 
 declaration, notwithstanding the conclusive nature of 
 the testimony, the late discoveries by astronomical 
 calculations put the question out of doubt. — No one 
 will dispute, that Jesus the Christ was crucified on 
 the Friday of the Jewish passover, which was always 
 held on the day of the full moon, and that particular 
 one, next after the vernal equinox — Josephus ex- 
 pressly says ie the passover was kept on the 14th 
 day of the month Nisan according to the moon, when 
 the sun was in aries — and the sun always enters 
 aides at the instant of the vernal equinox, which in 
 our Saviour’s time fell on the 22d March — Therefore 
 to ascertain the year of his death, we must compute 
 
 * Vide Mr Me, tie’s Daniel’s weeks, for a full explanation ©f 
 this. 
 
DANIEL, 
 
 63 
 
 in which of those years, there was a passover full 
 moon on a Friday — for there could not be two pass- 
 over full moons on the same day of the week, with- 
 in the compass of a few years, and there is no dis- 
 pute exceeding four or five years. Now on an 
 accurate calculation, the only passover full moon that 
 fell on a Friday for several years before or afier the 
 disputed y.ear of the crucifixion, was on the 3d day of 
 April in the 4746th year of the Julian period, which 
 was the 490th year after Ezra^ received the commis- 
 sion from Artaxerxes Longimanus to restore and build 
 Jerusalem (according to Ptolemys Cannon) and the 
 year in which the Messiah was to be cut off, according 
 to prophecy, reckoning from the going forth of that 
 commission or command ; and this 490th year was the 
 33d year of our Saviour’s age, according to the vulgar 
 aera, but the 37th from the true sera thereof ; and we 
 have already seen that from the 7th of Artaxerxes 
 Mnemon, or the year 4316, to the baptism of Christ 
 by John, in the year 4743, is exactly 427 solar years, 
 or from the 20th year of the same king, and reckon by 
 lunar years you arrive at the same period, in fulfil- 
 ment of these extraordinary predictions. 
 
 Indeed there can be little doubt at this day, with 
 any one who believes the history of the life and death 
 of our blessed Saviour, of the strict and literal fulfil- 
 ment of Daniel’s prophecy of the first coming of 
 Christ in the flesh and his subsequent humiliation 
 and sufferings. 
 
 h 
 
1) AM EL 3 
 
 65 
 
 This astonishing conformity to so distant predic- 
 tions must greatly establish our faith and hope, as to 
 that part of the prophetic declarations, respecting the 
 second coming of our Lord in glory, which yet re- 
 mains to be fulfilled. — The same Omniscient power 
 who could foresee events at the distance of one hun- 
 dred years, with equal ease could recount those of 
 three thousand. 
 
 The prophet in chap. viii. S3. proceeds to mention 
 the events that are to introduce the glorious second 
 advent of the Messiah with the special circumstances 
 that would attend it, as if he had already seen it — 
 6: And in the latter time of their kingdoms when the 
 transgressors are come to the full, a ICing of fierce 
 countenance and understanding dark sentences shall 
 stand up (or arise) and his power shall be mighty, 
 but not by his own power; and he shall destroy won- 
 derfully, aud shall prosper, and practice, and shall 
 destroy tlie mighty and the holy people — and through 
 his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in ‘his 
 hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and 
 hj peace shall destroy many ; lie shall also stand up 
 against the prince of princes; but lie shall be broken 
 without hand.” 
 
 The king here referred to, was the last king men- 
 tioned in the vision of Daniel — He was to come up 
 
 out of one cf the horns and was to be exceeding 
 great. 
 
 Although I agree with some learned men that 
 in some of the prophecies of the scriptures of 
 
DANIEL, 
 
 67 
 
 truth, they have a double reference, making one event 
 of an earlier date, typical of another of a more remote 
 date, that the expectation of the people of God might 
 not be wearied out, but confirmed notwithstanding 
 the distance of the remotest periods, —yet I cannot 
 agree in all their conclusions. 
 
 According to Sir Isaac Newton the latter times 
 were to take place, when the Romans began to con- 
 quer Perseus king of Macedon — At that time, he 
 says, the transgressors came to the full — Then the 
 high priesthood of the Jews was exposed to sale; 
 the vessels of the temple were sold to pay for the 
 purchase. — The high priest with some of the Jews, 
 procured a license from Antiociius Epiphanes “ to 
 do after the ordinances of the Heathens,” and they 
 sat up a school at Jerusalem for teaching those ordi- 
 nances, (vide 2d Macabbees.) This related chiefly to 
 the worship of Jupiter Olympus in the temple built 
 to him by the emperor Hadrian in the place of tha 
 temple of the Jews, and which was followed by the 
 revolt of Barchochebas, and the desolation of Judea, 
 when 580,000 Jews were said to be slain — fifty 
 cities and 985 of their best towns destroyed, and 
 every Jew banished Judea on pain of death. — This 
 horn or government prospered and practiced, that is, 
 he prospered in his practices against the people of 
 God — He stood up against the prince of the host 
 of heaven, the* prince of princes, which is a char- 
 acter of Antichrist — 3Je took away the daily sacrL 
 flee and cast down the sanctuary and the truth 
 
m 
 
 DANIEL. 
 
 to the ground.” — But it is remarkable, that though 
 this was originally and in the first instance fulfilled 
 so long ago, yet it is expressly declared that these 
 practices, were to last till the end of the indignation 
 against the Jews; and till the sanctuary, that had 
 been thus cast down, should be cleansed; which 
 clearly shows that the prophecy must refer to an event 
 to be completed at the very end of the Roman gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Now, however, this prophecy might have (in part) 
 been accomplished, in events of that early date, as 
 typical of what was to come thereafter in the last 
 times, which in respect to so many men of learning 
 and piety who have wrote on this subject, I must 
 acquiesce in, yet on a careful examination, the events 
 that are finally referred to, must be of a later date — It 
 is positively declared that this prophecy is to be ful- 
 filled in the latter times — It was to end when the 
 sanctuary was to be cleansed. It was at the time of 
 the end of the 4<th or Roman government, that the 
 vision was to be. It was to be in the last end of the 
 indignation against the Jews. At the time appointed 
 the end should be — The prophet is assured that the 
 vision of the evening and the morning which was 
 told is true ; wherefore shut thou up the vision, for it 
 shall be for many days.” 
 
 It is to take place when the transgressors are come 
 to the full. Then the king or government of a fierce 
 countenance is to arise, and the times of the Gen= 
 tiles are to come to an end. 
 
DANIEL. 
 
 69 
 
 In the xith chap, the angel again instructs the 
 prophet in the same great truth, it being an event in 
 which the church of God was so essentially in- 
 terested, as to demand the fullest information; and 
 then he proceeds to set forth the then future conduct, 
 both of Rome pagan and Rome Christian; respecting 
 the great success of the former against the sanctuary, 
 his taking away the daily sacrifice, and plaeiug 
 the abomination which maketh desolate, where it 
 ought not to be ; with the after trial and destruction 
 of many of God's people. He then adds, “ and the 
 king (that is, the antiehristian power, him of a fierce 
 countenance) shall do according to his will and shall 
 exalt himself, and magnify himself above every God, 
 (or nation, or king, they being often called Gods) and 
 shall speak marvellous things against the God of 
 Gods, (or against ^the Father and the Son, and then 
 become an atheistical power) and shall prosper till 
 the indignation be accomplished , for that which is 
 determined, shall be done. He shall not regard the 
 God of his fathers, nor the desire of women/’ that is, 
 he shall oppose, if not destroy the Roman Catholic 
 religion, being that of his fathers, and shall oppose- 
 the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ. — Christ 
 as tlie expected Messiah, was, before his incarnation, 
 the great desire of the Jewish women — But in the 
 spirit of antichrist, this government, (or king of a 
 fierce countenance) « Shall not regard any God, 
 for he shall magnify himself above all.” — “ And at, 
 (or about) the time of the end (that is of his govern- 
 ment, when it is about to be taken from him) shall 
 
70 
 
 DANIEL. 
 
 the king of the south push at him ; and the king of 
 the north shall come against him, like a whirlwind, 
 
 with chariots, with horse-men, and with many ships; 
 and he that is the king of the fierce countenance shall 
 enter into the countries, and overflow and pass over— 
 He, shall enter also into her glorious land, (that is 
 Italy) and many countries shall be overthrown; but 
 these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and 
 Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon, that is, 
 the descendants of Lot. — He shall stretch out his hand 
 also upon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not 
 escape ; but he shall have power over the treasures of 
 gold, and of silver, and over all the precious things of 
 Egypt; and the Lybians and Ethiopians shall be at 
 his steps.” 
 
 “ But tidings out of the east (it may be from Con- 
 stantinople, Persia, or from some distant country where 
 the Jews may be) and out of the north (from Russia, 
 Germany or Great Britain, or in like manner from 
 some northern country where Jews may reside) shall 
 trouble him, therefore he shall go forth w r ith great fury, 
 to destroy and utterly to make away many. And he 
 shall plant the tabernacles (or tents) of his camp, be- 
 tween the seas in the glorious holy mountain (that may 
 he in Jerusalem between the Red sea and Mediterra- 
 nean) yet, or after which, he shall come to his end and 
 none shall help him — Then follows in the xiith chap, 
 an account of the glorious kingdom of Christ, at his 
 second coming, before which there .shall be a time of 
 trouble, such as never was since the taking and bum- 
 
DANIEL, 
 
 74 
 
 lag of Jerusalem—and at that time, (the angel assures 
 Daniel) his people should be delivered, every one 
 who should be found written in the book. And many 
 of them who sleep in the dust of the earth shall then 
 awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame 
 and everlasting contempt; and then the wise shall 
 shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they 
 who turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever 
 and ever. 
 
 Here then is a regular chronological connected 
 series of action and conduct in the fourth kingdom, 
 and by the king of a fierce countenance, after the 
 Messiah’s being cut off, with an account of the suffer- 
 ings of God’s people, and the proceedings of their 
 victorious and powerful enemies and persecutors, till 
 the end of that fourth government; when the accom- 
 plishment of God’s sovereign purposes in the salva- 
 tion of his chosen, shall be fully effected at the second 
 coming of the glorified Redeemer, according to his 
 own positive assurances. 
 
MICAH. 
 
 THE prophet Micah seems to follow Isaiah in 
 the same track. He says, “ that in the last days it shall 
 come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the 
 Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, 
 and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people 
 shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and 
 say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the 
 Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he 
 will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his 
 paths : for the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the 
 word of the Lord from Jerusalem — and he shall 
 judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations 
 afar off; and they shall beat their swords into 
 plough-shares, and their spears into pruning- hooks: 
 nation shall not lift up a sword against nation!, 
 neither shall they learn war any more.” Micah, 
 chap. iv. 1. 2. 
 
ZEPHAN§AH. 
 
 
 ZEPHA.NIAH is as clear as any of the rest— 
 u They shall worship him, every one from his place, 
 even all the isles of the heathen. Then will I turn 
 to the people a pure language, or lip (meaning 
 worship) that they may all call upon the name of the 
 Lord, to serve him with one consent— From beyond 
 the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, the daughters 
 of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.” Zeph, 
 ehapt. ii. 11. iii. 9. 10, 
 
 M 
 
OBSERVATIONS* 
 
 
 . FROM this short and cursory view of the subject, 
 as far as the old testament affords testimony to it, the 
 serious and well informed mind must be convinced; 
 as one well observes, “ that there is a continued 
 series and connection, one uniform analogy and design 
 carried on for many ages by divine prescience, through 
 a succession of prophecies, which as in the proper 
 centre, do all meet together in Christ, and in him 
 only, however the single lines, when considered a- 
 part may, in many instances, be imagined to have 
 another direction and point to intermediate events ; 
 nothing is more evident, than that the whole suc- 
 cession of prophecies can be applied to none but 
 Christ.”— So it is in lines drawn from a centre 
 to an outward circle — the line equally tends to such 
 outward circle, notwithstanding it may strike a num- 
 ber of smaller and intermediate ones. 
 
 In vain it is for minute philosophers, or proud; 
 vain and ignorant men, to cavil and raise objections 
 to this settled and determinate plan of infinite wisdom, 
 persuading themselves, in order to cover their indo- 
 lence or weakness, that the nature and attributes of 
 the Deity are inconsistent with what they in the pride 
 of their conceited understandings, think proper to 
 call partial and local attachments to a particular 
 
OBSERVATION^, 
 
 75 
 
 people, more remarkably obstinate and rebellious than 
 any other nation on the earth. 
 
 This nation, it must be acknowledged, was singled 
 out from all the other nations, as God’s peculiar 
 people, they only persevering as a nation, in the 
 Worship of the one only living and true God ; and 
 although at present apparently cast off from being 
 his people ; yet their time to come, will be a time of 
 love, and they will yet be gathered into the sheep-fold 
 of the great shepherd— God therefore has in great 
 mercy left us on record, an account of his dealings 
 with, and his instructions to, these his peculiar 
 people, who he yet considers as the apple of his eye, 
 who once were under his own immediate government. 
 —This was done for the advantage and improve- 
 ment of the Christian church, when he should think 
 proper in his all-condescending grace to extend the 
 dispensation of his mercy, through his beloved son, 
 and some of all the nations of the earth, Jew and 
 Gentile, should be taken into the family of the faith- 
 ful, and become, in like manner, his peculiar people 
 under the immediate guidance of his holy spirit. — - 
 Ought not these objectors rather to reflect seriously 
 on the fact ? — That God has thus given up and re- 
 jected, though for a time, his own beloved people; 
 the children of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, with 
 whom he entered into a special covenant, and for 
 whom it is said he has manifested so great partiality. 
 And this on account of their unbelief and disobedience 
 to his righteous government-— -what then must neces- 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 76 
 
 sarily be tlieir portion, who make no pretensions to 
 having any covenant right to the favor of God ; who 
 cast off his fear, and desire not the knowledge of his 
 ways ? 
 
 In general, God, in his word, does not condescend 
 to treat of, or make, the subject of his revelation or 
 prophetic discoveries, any of the actions of kingdoms 
 or nations, but, only in so far, as they respect the 
 prosperity or persecution of his church raid people.- — 
 His plan has been finally to establish a people pe- 
 culiar to himself, zealous of good works — a kingdom 
 of saints — a glorious catholic or universal church 
 triumphant in the new Jerusalem ; not of this or that 
 denomination of professors, but of all nations, lan 
 guages and tongues, who love our Lord Jesus Christ 
 in sincerity and truth — who fear God and work 
 righteousness. — This has been a regular system from 
 the beginning of time, to which all the prophets and 
 apostles bear witness ; and to which alone we are to 
 look in considering the prophecies of the scriptures. 
 
 The modern pretended philosophers, for want of 
 an humbling knowledge of the divine mercy and 
 goodness towards a lost and sinful world, seem in- 
 capable of taking into their ideas, this whole plan of 
 the great salvation by Jesus Christ, notwithstanding 
 the plainness and simplicity with which it is revealed 
 |n the gospel — They see the mysterious conduct of 
 the great governor of the universe, but on the dark 
 side; and thereby all their reflections tend to mislead 
 them, as the pillar of cloud did the Egyptians. 
 
OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 u 
 
 It is in vain for weak and foolish man, to say that 
 God is the God of all flesh and no respecter of 
 persons — A God of mercy and love who delighteth 
 not in the death of a sinner, but would rather that he 
 should return, repent and live. — Let him look round 
 him, on facts happening among mankind every day 
 — behold the distinctions — the poverty- — the misfor- 
 tunes — the awful sufferings of many, while others 
 are rolling in wealth — affluence and luxury — From 
 whence arise wars — insurrections and bloodshed. 
 
 This very reasoning of the objector, proves the 
 truth of the prophetic revelation, which has express- 
 ly asked in view of this temper of the infidel — - 
 (( Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is 
 the disputer of this world? hath not God made 
 foolish the wisdom of this world? The natural man 
 receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they 
 are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, 
 because they are only spiritually to be discerned.” 
 
 The sole question ought to be, are these the pre- 
 dictions of unerring wisdom and truth, or are they 
 not? We are now arrived at so late a period of the 
 world, that we are able to look back and enquire, 
 whether those things foretold some thousands of 
 years ago, as to take place previous to this our day, 
 have been accomplished or not? If they have not, we 
 ought not implicitly to believe those, that are pre- 
 dicted to happen hereafter — but if they have, and 
 that with a critical chronological exactness, sufficient 
 to astonish the mind of the correct and careful en- 
 
78 
 
 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 • 
 
 quirer, has not the whole thereby received the sea^ 
 of truth ; and is there not as much propriety in be- 
 lieving those that are to come, as those that are past ? 
 
 > — If, therefore, they are found by this unfailing testi- 
 mony, to be the predictions of infinite wisdom, who 
 or what presumptuous mortal has a right to ask why 
 is it so? shall the clay say to the potter, why have 
 you made me thus? 
 
 Let the most scrupulous sceptic enquire then, has 
 the fourth beast or the Roman government arisen up? 
 has he been more powerful and stronger than all that 
 went before him? did the people of the prince that 
 did come, invade Jerusalem, destroy the city and 
 burn the sanctuary with fire ? did he cause the sacri- 
 fice and oblation to cease ? were the Jews, the pe- 
 culiar people of God, dispersed among all the nations 
 of the earth, and have they become a hissing and a 
 bye- word among all people? Do they so continue to 
 this day, and yet remain a separate people, contrary 
 to every other instance known in the world, as a 
 miraculous and uncontrovertable evidence of the truth 
 of prophecy? are not their conquerors and oppressors 
 almost all destroyed so as to be lost and forgotten, 
 while they remain, as an increasing proof of the 
 truth of prophecy ? is their once goodly land over- 
 run by Gentiles and Idolaters, and wholly taken out 
 of their hands, so that they scarcely have a place for 
 the soles of their feet? — did, in the days of this fourth 
 government at the end of the appointed time, a great 
 personage appear, declaring himself to be the Mes- 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 70 
 
 siah foretold by the prophets, and proving his mis- 
 sion by miracles, signs and wonders; in a word, by 
 doing works, that no other man ever did? did he, in 
 the language of an early writer, u show his humani- 
 ty, when he hungered and was weary — and when 
 weary, he thirsted ; and when praying he was 
 sorroAvful — he slept upon a pillow and deprecated 
 the cup of his passion — when in an agony he sweated 
 and was strengthened by an angel — when betrayed 
 by Judas and insulted by Caiaphas, as well as set 
 at naught by Herod — -when he was scourged by 
 Pilate, derided by the soldiers — -fainted under the 
 weight of his load, ascending mount Calvary — 
 fastened to the cross by the Jews, and crying with a 
 loud voice, commends his spirit to his father and 
 bowing his head, he gave up the ghost? when his 
 side was pierced by a spear, and being wrapped in 
 fine linen, he was laid in a sepulchre, and on the third 
 day raised from the dead? was not his divinity equal- 
 ly discoverable, when he was worshipped by angels 
 and visited by the shepherds — expected by Simeon 
 and received testimony from Anna — when he was en- 
 quired for by the wise men and shown by a star— 
 when he turned water into wine, rebuked the sea and 
 walked upon the waters — gave sight to the blind, 
 hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb — fed 
 with a few loaves and some small fishes a great mul- 
 titude in desart places — raised Lazarus from the 
 dead— forgave sins and conferred the like power on 
 his disciples.”— Were not these miracles performed 
 
80 
 
 OBSERVATIONS.' 
 
 at his word, in an instant, and some wrought on per- 
 sons at a distance from him?-— They were done in the 
 most public and open manner, at Jerusalem and in 
 every part of Judea and Galilee — In cities, villages, 
 synagogues, in private houses, in streets, in high- 
 ways, in the presence of enemies, before Scribes and 
 Pharisees, rulers of synagogues, when attended by 
 multitudes, and in a word before men of all charac- 
 ters. — Was he not condemned and crucified accord- 
 ing to the predictions, and did he not rise again on 
 the third day? and although despised and rejected of 
 men — although forsaken by his own disciples and 
 considered as a malefactor by the world in general, 
 did he not by the means of twelve poor illiterate fish- 
 ermen, and in opposition to all the governments of 
 the different nations, both civil and religious, propa- 
 gate his doctrines according to his positive declara- 
 tions while living, so as to gain over princes and 
 people, though previously his most determined ene- 
 mies ? W ere not those doctrines wholly incompatible 
 with, and destructive of, every other form and kind 
 of worship, established and received by those na- 
 tions? and yet they prevailed, by mere dint of reason 
 and argument, against both power and the sword ! 
 — Did the God of heaven thus set up the kingdom 
 foretold by Daniel, which no power on earth has yet 
 been able to prevail against? — Has the fourth or Ro- 
 man government been divided into two empires — then 
 subdivided into ten kingdoms? Has there arisen a 
 little horn or government, in this fourth kingdom 
 
OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 m 
 
 diverse from all the rest, with a mouth speaking 
 great things— -apostatizing from the church of Christ, 
 though remaining within it — persecuting the saints of 
 God and prevailing against them?— has he humbled 
 and brought down three of the ten kingdoms? has 
 this little horn thought to change times and laws? 
 and in this latter day of the fourth government, has 
 he began to decline, so that he is now without power 
 or influence — driven from his seat of government, 
 and fast hastening to his appointed end, and that by 
 means of the stone cut out of the mountain without 
 hands, which has ever since the protestant succession, 
 been rolling against the legs and feet of the image 
 and breaking them in pieces, and which stone, ac- 
 cording to divine prediction, shall soon become a 
 great mountain ? 
 
 Has not a government with a fierce countenance, 
 lately risen up, publicly professing atheism as a 
 system, and denouncing all divine and religious 
 worship of the Father and the Son ? 
 
 Has not his power been mighty— -has he not 
 destroyed wonderfully— has not craft prospered in 
 his hand — has he not magnified himself in his heart, 
 and by -peace destroyed many "? — This is an epithet 
 wholly peculiar to himself, different from all who 
 have gone before him. 
 
 If these things cannot be denied, may we not safe- 
 ly trust that the Almighty 'God has verily instructed 
 his servants the prophets in all these things, and in 
 
 N 
 
83 
 
 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 those others also, which by the like predictions are 
 shortly to come to pass ? 
 
 Is not all this confirmed by the command to seal 
 the book until towards the end ; that is, these proph- 
 ecies should not be fully understood, till they were 
 made manifest towards the end of the fourth govern- 
 ment, by the fulfilment of so many of them, that the 
 wise and careful observer, could not help taking 
 notice of their particular application ? 
 
 This conduces greatly to the faith of the people of 
 God, for not being earlier understood in their proper 
 extent, it cannot be suspected or feared, that either 
 friends or enemies could accomplish or bring about, 
 the things foretold, by design or fraud. But now that 
 their fulfilment becomes so striking and powerful, the 
 wise, that is, the fearer of God, and one who is 
 watching the footsteps of his providence in faith and 
 patience — he who believes the divine predictions? 
 and is satisfied with knowing the mind and will of 
 God, without bringing the divine conduct to the test 
 of the weak capacity of finite and sinful dust and 
 ashes; and who carefully and with a zeal founded in 
 knowledge, compares the prophecies with the events 
 that have taken place — he shall understand, and 
 by that knowledge hide himself till the indignation 
 be over-passed, which will assuredly overtake the 
 presumptuous, vain pretender to philosophy, valuing 
 himself on his fancied wisdom— -the careless and the 
 unbeliever. 
 
OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 aa 
 
 This reasoning is justified by that light of the 
 world, the famous Sir Isaac Newton, who, though a 
 real and experimental philosopher, and most profound 
 reasoner, did not think the subject beneath his notice | 
 but gave much time to the consideration of the 
 prophetic denunciations of the scriptures, as one of 
 the greatest objects that could engage the Christian 
 philosopher. He says, “ It is a part of this prophecy, 
 that it should not be understood before the last age 
 of the world (meaning the Roman world) and there- 
 fore it makes for the credit of the prophecy, that it is 
 not yet understood. — The folly of interpreters has 
 been to foretel times and things by this prophecy, as 
 if God designed to make them prophets — The design 
 of God was much otherwise — he gave them not to 
 gratify men’s curiosity, by enabling them to foreknow 
 tilings ; but that after they were fulfilled, they might 
 be interpreted by the events ; and his own providence, 
 not the interpreter’s, be then manifested thereby to the 
 world — and there is already so much of prophecy 
 fulfilled, that as many, as will take pains in this study 
 may see sufficient instances of God’s providence.” 
 
 If this was the opinion of this great man, almost 
 one hundred years ago, what would he have said at 
 this day, when the fulfilments are so much more 
 evident and numerous ? 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 TO THE 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 HAVING thus taken a cursory view of tine 
 general declarations and predictions of the old Tes- 
 tament, with the detailed events foretold therein ; and 
 having given the promises, the types, the figures 
 and the shadows of the first coming in the flesh of 
 our divine Redeemer, when the fulness of time should 
 come, fully held up therein, it is time to proceed 
 further, in order to see how far those ideas are cor- 
 roborated and fulfilled in the new. 
 
 Agreeably to the divine predictions, when the 
 appointed time came, and the sixty-second week of 
 DaniePs prophecy drew near, Jesus Christ the great 
 end and anti-type, was born a babe at Bethlehem, an 
 inconsiderable city in the tribe of Judah. 
 
 Before his birth, he was announced by an angel to 
 his virgin mother, and in a dream to his reputed 
 father Joseph. — -At his birth, the angelic host ap- 
 peared in glory to the shepherds, and revealed to 
 them the stupendous event. — A star in the east, and 
 the destruction of the children by Herod, both, in * 
 opposite ways, declared the fulfilment of the ancient 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. S5 
 
 prophecies. True it is, that this mighty Prince and 
 Saviour appeared in a state of the lowest humilia- 
 tion and contrary to the universal expectation of the 
 men of the world, who believing the predictions re- 
 lating to the time of his appearance to be near their 
 end, were in hopes of a temporal prince and con- 
 queror, wlio should raise their dejected nation, now 
 prostrate under the Homan yoke, to the height of 
 opulence and power. 
 
 But if this had not been his state and circum- 
 stances, what would have become of the hopes and 
 confidence of the true Israelite, who was like Simeon 
 looking for the consolation of Israel, in the fulfilment 
 of the divine predictions ? — How could the babe of 
 Bethlehem have otherwise grown up before Him, as 
 a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground ? 
 
 How could he have answered the prophetic pre- 
 dictions of having no form or comeliness ; and that 
 they who saw him, should not perceive any beauty 
 to make him desirable? — How could he otherwise 
 have been despised and rejected of men, a man of 
 sorrows and acquainted with grief? How in any 
 other circumstances could he have borne our griefs 
 and carried our sorrows ? or been esteemed stricken 
 of God and afflicted ? 
 
 It was only in this state of humiliation, that he 
 could possibly have been wounded for our transgres- 
 sions, bruised for our iniquities, or the chastisement 
 by which our peace was effected, been laid upon him ; 
 nr that by his stripes we could have been healed. 
 
86 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 How, otherwise, could he have been taken from 
 prison and from judgment, or been cut off out of the 
 land of the living? In this manner, alone, could he 
 have made his grave with the wicked, and with the 
 rich in his death. It was in this way, it pleased the 
 Lord to bruise him and put him to grief, that as he 
 voluntarily made his soul an offering for sin, he should 
 see his seed, prolong his days, and the pleasure of 
 the Lord should prosper in his hands — In this way, 
 only, could he see the travail of his soul and be satis- 
 fied. 
 
 If all this is said to be so unnatural, so unexpect- 
 ed, and contrary to all human reasoning, is it not a 
 greater evidence of the divinity and the truth of the 
 doctrines, that notwithstanding it should be foreseen 
 and expressly foretold by mere men, ivho assumed 
 no particular wisdom or knowledge of future events, 
 hut as they received an explicit revelation of them 
 from the Hod of Israel, who thereby showed to his 
 church what would take place for thousands of years 
 to come, in order that when they did happen, it 
 should be known, that there was no other God besid^ 
 him? 
 
 Let us then examine the life and declarations of 
 Jesus Christ, who thus appears (to say no more in 
 the present instance) to have come in fulfilment of 
 these ancient prophecies, and to be clothed with a 
 divine mission from the Father, and see if he has by 
 himself and his Apostles, continued this well organ- 
 ized system, this regular thread of predictions and 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.' 87 
 
 events, pointing to the still greater object we have in 
 view, his second coming in glory. Though the Old 
 Testament is full to this purpose, yet if I have not 
 greatly misapprehended it, the New Testament will 
 furnish us with additional, if not clearer light on this 
 interesting subject, and that from the many faets de- 
 clared and foretold by Christ himself, by which this 
 important end of his administration is to be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 If it is previously asked why so essential a doc- 
 trine of the Christian faith, should not have been more 
 explicitly taught and insisted upon by the great au- 
 thor of our holy religion and his apostles, without 
 shadow or figure ? I answer, it would be sufficient 
 with every humble and Christian spirit, thus teas the 
 will of that God who ruleth over all , and giveth not 
 an account of his conduct to any man. But I hope be- 
 fore we have finished, to show that this doctrine is as 
 clearly and explicitly taught by Christ and his a- 
 postles, as any doctrine of the gospel, and is insist- 
 ed on, as the great sum and end of the Christian’s 
 hope, and the ultimate reward of all his sufferings for 
 •Christ’s sake, in as full a manner, as the nature of 
 man and the then state of the world would admit of. 
 
 Is it not also obvious to the serious enquirer, that 
 our Lord and master treated all men as rational 
 creatures and free agents, accountable for all their 
 conduct? He laid constraint on no man’s actions. — ■ 
 Had he openly declared the full extent of his king- 
 dom, all the circumstances of his second coming in 
 
88 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 glory, and the full meaning of all the intermediate 
 events, so as to have been clearly understood by all 
 men in their utmost consequences, in the first place, 
 he would have left no opportunity to have proved 
 the faith of his people and their reliance on his ve* 
 racity and faithfulness — again, in all human probabil- 
 ity, if we judge from what has already happened, he 
 would have had no better success with an unbe- 
 lieving world, than he already has had, with regard 
 to those great principles and facts, which were ne- 
 cessary most explicitly to declare, that his divine 
 mission and nature might be fully proved, so as to 
 satisfy every one who was seriously desirous of know- 
 ing the truth. 
 
 Besides the natural consequences of unbelief and 
 hardness of heart in men at large, he would have 
 raised the whole opposition of the Roman govern- 
 ment against his followers, as opposers of the then 
 civil establishment of the empire, and would have 
 unnecessarily increased the natural enmity of man- 
 kind against him and his doctrines ; but even had it 
 proved otherwise, and the greatest part of the world 
 had been convinced by his more positive declarations, ’ 
 then opposers might have endeavored to avoid some 
 things foretold by the prophets, and to have accom- 
 plished others, in a way destructive of the evidence 
 provided by the whole plan and economy of revela- 
 tion. — In short, the system established by divine 
 prescience is in itself complete in all its parts from 
 the beginning of the world, and will not admit o£ 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 &9 
 
 addition, or substruction, without overturning the 
 whole design — And even when the great events had 
 been accomplished, on the principles of the objection, 
 their testimony and influence would have been 
 greatly weakened, because justly exposed to the 
 charge of having been performed with design, and 
 for the express purpose of supporting the peculiar 
 dogmas of a particular sect, by thus fulfilling the 
 thing foretold. 
 
 It shall then be our present business to take a 
 view, first of the declarations of Christ himself in 
 corroboration of the ancient prophecies of the Old 
 Testament, and then proceed to the belief and in- 
 structions of his apostles, and their immediate suc- 
 cessors, who, as the world advanced towards the ap- 
 pointed time, gave themselves more liberty on this 
 subject, especially after the great proofs the world had 
 met with in favor of revelation, — by the destruction of 
 Jerusalem — the dispersion of the Jews, and the 
 various persecutions of the Christian church. At the 
 same time it will be necessary to keep in view the 
 necessity there was to answer the end of these 
 prophetic declarations, that while the faith of the 
 true believer drew from them a divine consolation 
 amidst all his sufferings, under the certainty of the 
 filial issue being thus revealed to him, yet they 
 should he as a sealed book to those who obeyed not 
 the gospel of Jesus Christ. And, until towards the 
 end of the Roman government, they were to answer 
 
 no farther present purpose to the church of Christ, 
 
 O 
 
00 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 than to assure the professors beforehand, of their 
 present sufferings and future glory; being persuaded 
 that those who should hold out to the end, should 
 come off more than conquerors through him who hath 
 loved them, and given himself for them. That on 
 the issue they should receive a glorious reward, 
 whieh eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it 
 ever entered into the heart of man to conceive of, 
 
THE GOSPEL 
 
 ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 
 
 IN the course of Christ’s ministry on earthy 
 Matthew records several strong expressions of our 
 Lord, predictive of this blessed event; he very early 
 introduces our Lord, teaching his disciples to pray, 
 saying, our Father who art in the Heavens, &c. Here 
 we are taught the essential parts of prayer, in the man- 
 ner in which we should address the throne of Omnipo- 
 tence. — After acknowledging, in deep humiliation, 
 the Being, who emphatically is in the heavens — the 
 relative connection we bear to His glorious majesty, 
 our Creator and our God ; and his actual existence 
 and presence in the mansions on high, which He calls 
 the Heavens in the plural number, our Lord having 
 told us that in his Father’s house, or in the whole 
 space of existence, there were many mansions ; I say 
 after this introduction, the next petition in order and 
 importance is, u thy Kingdom come, thy will be done 
 on Earth as it is done in Heaven By this we are 
 expressly taught, that the kingdom of God or the 
 Father that was to come, was the kingdom of Christ, 
 that he was to set up on earth, for it was that king- 
 dom, which was to cause the will of God to be 
 done on Earth, even as it is done in Heaven, ” or 
 that mansion of glory where God, in a very special 
 
MATTHEW. 
 
 93 
 
 manner, manifested his presence. The .kingdom of 
 God the Father had come among the seraphim and 
 cherubim of glory and all the happy spirits ia 
 the Heavens from the beginning ; ‘this therefore could 
 not be the subject of the petition; but it is clearly 
 shewn to be the promised kingdom of Christ on this 
 earth, at his second coming in glory, which is the 
 great object of all the, divine scriptures from Genesis 
 to the Revelation. 
 
 TSie subsequent petitions all relate to our state on 
 this earth, till vve come to the last petition, in which 
 we pray to be delivered from the power of the Evil 
 One, viz. the Prince of the Power of the air, who 
 worketh in the children of disobedience; and the 
 reason assigned is ; for thine, (that is God the Father,) 
 is the just and lawful power and government of the 
 kingdom that Christ was to establish on earth at his 
 second coming in his own glory and the glory of the 
 father, together with power and glory forever and ever 
 or throughout all the ages yet to come. 
 
 When most men read of heaven, they are too apt 
 to consider it as some state immediately above our 
 beads. — as a state wherein all sensible and visible ob- 
 jects are done away, — as a place of which no concep- 
 tion can be had. — A very sensible writer, paraphrases 
 the iii. 3. Mattb. “ Repent ye, for the kingdom 
 of the Heavens is at hand,” in this manner, repent 
 ye, or attain to new sentiments and dispositions of 
 mind, for the kingdom of the Heavens approacheth, 
 or is at hand, that is a kingdom of righteousness, 
 
MATTHEW. 
 
 93 
 
 irulh and happiness, such as takes place and is es- 
 tablished in the Heavens.” It is a little extraordinary 
 that our translators should in so many instances have 
 translated the Greek word ouranion, in the singular 
 number, though it is so plainly plural, without as- 
 signing any reason for it. — It is therefore clear, as the 
 last quoted author observes, “ that the kingdom of 
 the Heavens, which is elsewhere called the kingdom 
 of God, means simply and plainly, a kingdom (on 
 earth) of such order, and rule, and regulation, and 
 bliss, and glory, as is established and prevails in the 
 Heavens. — No such kingdom has yet appeared on 
 earth, and therefore we must still look and long after 
 and earnestly and habitually pray for it, with earnest- 
 ness and great desire.” 
 
 Our Lord again refers to this kingdom in those words 
 addressed to the unbelieving Pharisees; ;; and I say 
 unto you that many shall come from the east and from 
 the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and 
 Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven.” Again more ex- 
 pressly ; (e for the son of man shall come in the glory 
 of his father, with his angels, and then he shall re- 
 ward every man according to his works.” When 
 the disciples had been on the mount of transfiguration, 
 and returning from thence, finding that Elias, who 
 had appeared to them on the mount, did not accom- 
 pany them down, naturally asked, why the scribes 
 said that Elias must first come? Christ took this op- 
 portunity, in answering their question, to discover to* 
 them the double meaning of the prophecy” — and 
 
04 
 
 MATTHEW. 
 
 Jesus answered and said unto them, u Elias truly 
 shall first come and restore all things.” — John the 
 Baptist had already come, and they had done unto 
 him what they listed ; that is, they had taken his life, 
 and though he had come “ in the power and spirit of 
 Elias,” yet here is an express declaration, that truly 
 Elias should yet first come and restore all things . — 
 This is a peculiar description of the Elias referred to, 
 not applicable to John ; and there appears to be the 
 same reason, that Christ should haVe an harbinger, 
 or fore-runner to his second, as well as to his first 
 coming. 
 
 It is evident that John did not by his coming, 
 restore all things, but after Johu’s death and burial, 
 Christ says, truly Elias shall first come and restore 
 all things .* This agrees with the prophetic declara- 
 tion of Malachi, concerning the coming of Elias be- 
 fore the great and dreadful day of the Lord, as has 
 been before observed. 
 
 * Mr Mede observes upon this passage — “ the meaning is 
 this, that this Elias should bring the refractory and unbelieving 
 posterity of the Jewish nation to have the same heart and mind 
 their holy fathers and progenitors had, who feared God and 
 believed his promises, that so their fathers might as it were re- 
 joice in them and own them for their children: that is he should 
 convert them to the faith of that Christ, whom their fathers 
 hoped in and looked for; lest, continuing obstinate in their un- 
 belief till the great day of Christ’s second coming, they might 
 perish among the rest of the enemies of his kingdom”— vide 
 ■Ecclesiastes, zlviii. 10. Luke, f 17. 
 
MATTHEW* 
 
 S5 
 
 The disciples still having an immediate temporal 
 kingdom in view, and not having any idea of the 
 spiritual nature of the kingdom of the Messiah at his 
 first appearance in the world, was anxious to know 
 what reward they should have in his kingdom, for 
 their leaving all and following him — “ And Jesus 
 said unto them, ye who have followed me, in the re- 
 generation, when the son of man shall sit on the 
 throne of his glory, shall also sit on twelve thrones, 
 judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”* — Here then is 
 a throne of glory which Christ was to possess, which, 
 a9 the Messiah, he had not at this time ; and when 
 he did possess it, he was also to have power to give 
 thrones, or judicial power to his apostles over the 
 tribes of Israel, and of course they must be in being, 
 in the body, to execute that office of judge and ruler. 
 ■ — Now Christ in his divine nature is, and always 
 was sitting on the throne of his glory in Heaven ; but 
 the throne of the Messiah here referred to, is a 
 future object, and can be no other, but that which he 
 is to enjoy in this world, at his second coming in 
 glory. 
 
 Again, Christ describing this great event says, 
 il For as the lightening cometh out of the east, and 
 shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming 
 of the son of man be. — Immediately after the tribu- 
 
 * This means, when his kingdom shall come, after the first 
 resurrection, (the previous time or his first coming in the flesh, 
 being here called the regeneration) then the diseiples are to 
 judge their fellow-men, 
 
1)5 
 
 MATTHEW. 
 
 lation of those days shall the son be darkened, and 
 the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall 
 fall from heaven; and the powers of heaven shall be 
 shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the son of 
 man in heaven,” — tliafc is, after the tribulation caused 
 by the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of 
 the Jewish nation throughout the world, by which 
 they should suffer exceedingly, then shall the kings 
 and governors of nations be put down and destroyed, 
 — the great men and nobles, and other distinctions of 
 rank and dignity should fall from their political 
 standing — their titles and orders bo abolished, and 
 all the powers and authorities of their political 
 heaven, or civil and religious hierarchies be shaken, 
 so as to remove every opposition and obstruction to 
 the improvement of the people in religious knowledge, 
 by which a way should be prepared for the approach 
 of the prince of peace, or the sign of the son of man 
 in heaven ; that is, his visibly coming in power and 
 authority over the nations of the earth. — This shall 
 bring about the other part of this prophetic denuncia- 
 tion, “ that all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, 
 when they shall see the son of man coining in the 
 clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, and 
 he shall send his angels (or messengers) with a great 
 sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his 
 elect, from the four winds, from one end of the 
 heavens to the other.” Add to this magnificent 
 description, the parable of the ten virgins, and his 
 declaration to the Jewish Sanhedrim, when he was 
 arraigned before them, “ hereafter ye shall see the 
 
MATTHEW* 9? 
 
 son of mail sitting on the right hand of power and 
 coming in the clouds of heaven” — and in consequence 
 of this great event, he warns his church, to “ watch 
 therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth 
 come — therefore be ye also ready, for in such an 
 hour, as ye tliinJc not , the son of man cometh — blessed 
 is that man, whom his Lord, when he cometh shall 
 find so doing; but, and if the evil servant shall say 
 in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming ” — (Have 
 not many who call themselves Christians, as well as 
 unbelievers, great reason to class themselves with 
 objectors, and to fear the awful consequences) a the 
 Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he 
 looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not 
 aware of.” 
 
 Our Lord also in the last distressing moments of 
 his life, when taking leave of his beloved family, 
 after having established the ordinance df his supper, 
 assured them that “ he would not drink thenceforth 
 of that fruit of the vine, until that day when he should 
 drink it new with them, in his Father’s kingdom.” 
 
 P 
 
THE GOSPEL 
 
 ACCORDING TO MARK, 
 
 THE Evangelist Mark, not only confirms the 
 predictions of our Lord and Saviour as above re- 
 cited, but adds to and enforces them, when he re- 
 cords the assertion of his master, “ whosoever shall 
 be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous 
 and sinful generation, of him also shall the son of 
 man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his 
 father, with his holy angels' ” — And he warns his 
 disciples and followers, u that when they shall hear 
 of wars and rumors of wars, they should not be 
 troubled, for or because such things must needs he, 
 but the end shall not be yet ; for nation shall rise 
 against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and 
 there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and 
 famines and troubles — and there shall be fearful 
 sights and great signs from Heaven, and Jerusalem 
 shall be trodden down, of the gentiles, until the times 
 of the gentiles be fulfilled. 
 
 These are but the beginning of sorrows, for the 
 gospel must first be published among all nations — 
 but in those days, that after tribulation, the sun* shall 
 
 * This eannot mean a literal darkening of the sun, or the 
 falling of the stars from Heaven — for whither should they 
 fall ? — Most of them are many times larger than this earth 
 and could not fall on it. 
 
MARK. 
 
 m 
 
 be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and 
 jhe stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are 
 in heaven shall be shaken — and then shall they see 
 the son of man coming in the clouds with great pow- 
 er and glory ; verily I say unto you that this nation f 
 (as it should have been rendered) shall not pass 
 away, till all these things be done.*—' Take ye heed^ 
 
 Mr Mede says, il In the prophets every kingdom and body 
 of government, resembleth the world — and the parts also, the 
 heavens, the earth — the stars serve for that repreesntation— « 
 vid. Isaiah, li. — 15, where this speech is of the deliverance 
 wherewith God delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt, 
 that of them he might found a kingdom or commonw ealth for 
 himself in the land of promise — out of which also, it will not 
 be hard to gather, what that new heaven and new earth may 
 be in the same prophet, ch. Ixv. 17, and Ixvi. 22d. — to wit, a 
 new world of the same form — ^according to this representation 
 therefore, Heaven in the prophetical notion shall express what- 
 ever is lofty in the state of any kingdom or commonwealth— » 
 by the earth, that which is inferior — the stars those who at- 
 tain and bear place in that height, by w hich reason the sun 
 and the moon, the principal lights in heaven, will point out 
 the first and chiefest majesty and dignity of a kingdom and 
 the next in order.” — Yid. also Haggai ii> 6, 7, 21, 22,— Jerm> 
 iv. 23d.— Isaiah li. 15, 16. xxxiv. 2, 5, 
 
 * Mr, Mede in his reply to Mr Hayne, who applied this 
 sentence of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem, says, 
 
 whilst you endeavor, in this manner to establish a ground 
 for the first coming of Christ, you bereave the phuroh of those 
 principal passages in the scriptures, whereon she hath al-? 
 ways grounded her faith in the second coming.— 2dly. You 
 ground all this on the ambiguity of the word generation — 
 whereas genea signifies not only but^ens, natio progenies 
 
100 
 
 MARE. 
 
 watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is, for 
 the son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who 
 left his house and gave authority to his servants, and 
 to every man his work, and commanded the porter 
 to watch — and what I say unto you, I say unto all \ 
 watch.” — And in the institution of the Lord’s supper, 
 he ended it with saying, u verily I will not drink 
 any more of the fruit of the vine, until that day when 
 I shall drink it new in the kingdom of God.” — And 
 when Jesus was arraigned before the high-priest, he 
 asked him, u art thou the Christ, the son of the bless- 
 ed? And Jesus said, I am, and ye shall see the sou 
 of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming 
 in the clouds of heaven.” 
 
 and so ought to be here taken, viz. 11 the nation of' the Jews 
 should not perish, till all these things were fulfilled.” 
 
THE GOSPEL 
 
 ACCORDING TO LITRE. 
 
 THE gospel of Luke does not diminisli the 
 testimony, for he sets out with establishing this im- 
 portant fact, “ and the angel said unto her, fear not 
 Mary, for thou hast found favor with God, and be- 
 hold thou shaft conceive and bring forth a son, and 
 thou shalt call his name Jesus— -he shall be great 
 and called the son of the highest— and the Lord God 
 shall give unto him the throne of his Father David j 
 and he shall reign over the house of Jacob, forever^ 
 and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” And 
 Zachariah had expressly asserted, that the coming 
 of Christ was to perform the mercy to our fathers,. 
 I and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which 
 1 he swear to our father Abraham.” What was this 
 covenant and oath; but that he should inherit the 
 land of Oannan, and that in his seed all the nations 
 of the earth should be blessed. — And when Jesus 
 addressed his disciples on the propriety or rather the 
 necessity of taking up their cross daily to follow him, 
 he adds, “ Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and 
 my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed 
 when he shall come in his own glory, and in his 
 father’s, and of the holy angels.” 
 
 Our Lord himself also taught his disciples very 
 1 early to look forward to this great event, by making 
 
1Q3 
 
 LUKE. 
 
 it their duty iu their daily prayers, to pray, (C thy 
 kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the 
 glory.” — Jesus Christ encourages his people, u fear 
 not little flock, says he, it is your father’s good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdom — let your loins be 
 girded about and your light burning; and ye your- 
 selves like unto men, who wait for their Lord, when 
 he will return from the wedding ; that when he 
 cometh and knocketh you may open to him imme- 
 diately; blessed are those servants, whom the Lord 
 when he cometh , shall find watching.” 
 
 The Lord was then with them, and therefore he 
 must have had reference to his going away and his 
 after return.— -The parable of the nobleman going 
 into a far country, to receive for himself a kiugdom 
 and to return, further confirms the doctrine and the 
 consequences to the careless and slothful servant. — 
 Christ continues the same language, “ be ye therefore 
 also ready, for the son of man (who was then speak- 
 ing to them) cometh at an hour, when ye think not; 
 for as the lightening, that lighteneth out of one part 
 under the heavens shineth onto the other, so shall 
 also the son of man be, in his day; hut first, he must 
 suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation 
 (or as it should be, of this nation) and as it was in 
 the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of 
 the son of man ; they did eat, they drank, they mar r 
 ried wives, they were given in marriage, until the 
 day that Noah entered into the ark, and the floo$ 
 
LUKE 
 
 103 
 
 Caine and destroyed them all: even thus shall it be 5 
 in the day when the son of man is revealed. And 
 there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and 
 in the stars, and upon earth distress of nations, with 
 perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring — men’s 
 hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after 
 those things, which are coming upon the earth — for 
 the powers of heaven shall be shaken, and then shall 
 be seen , the son of man coming in a cloud, with 
 power and great glory : when these things begin to 
 come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, 
 for your redemption draweth nigh.”* — Our blessed 
 Lord then, notwithstanding his humble appearance 
 and low state not having a place to lay his head, in- 
 formed his disciples “ that he appointed to them a 
 kingdom, as his father had appointed unto him, that 
 they might eat and drink at his table in his king = 
 
 * The order of time in which the events predicted by our 
 Lord are to follow each other is, first the powers of heaven, or 
 the kingdoms and governments of Europe shall be shaken, 
 that is, they shall be removed from the political universe- 
 second, they shall then see the son of man coming in a cloud, 
 with power and great glory — thirdly, when these things begin 
 to come to pass, then look up and lift your heads, for your re- 
 deemer draweth nigh— But Matthew says, in (or after) the 
 tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, &c. 
 
 Dr. Sykes says, when speaking on these words, “ when ye 
 gee and know that these things are come to pass, know ye that 
 the kingdom of God is nigh at hand,” when ye perceive that 
 the monarchies of Europe, and aristocracies of the world are 
 falling to pieces, be assured that the Messiah is coming in his 
 kingdom. 
 
401 LUKE.’ 
 
 dom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes 
 of Israel/ 7 
 
 This has never yet come to pass, and therefore 
 must relate to a fulfillment at his second coming in 
 glory, and after the first resurrection : this being ab- 
 solutely necessary to the completion of it — Enjoying 
 a kingdom, eating and drinking at their master’s 
 table, and sitting on the seat of judgment and actually 
 trying those who are to be acquitted or condemned, 
 cannot with any propriety be referred to a merely 
 spiritual state, or a heavenly said spiritual world. 
 
THE GOSPEL 
 
 ACCORDING TO JOHN., 
 
 THE beloved apostle John,, who leaned on his 
 master’s bosom, and was continued in life the longest 
 of any of the apostles of our Lord, wrote his gospel 
 at the age of ninety-eight years, and upwards of sixty 
 years after the crucifixion. He lived to see many ab- 
 surd tenets advanced in the church of Christ, by 
 heretics, and enemies to the truth as it is in Jesus, 
 and established the doctrine we are examining, when 
 he informs us that Christ told his disciples, “ that 
 in his Father’s house (or kingdom) were many man- 
 sions ; if it had not been so, he would have told them. 
 I go, says he, to prepare a place for you — I will come 
 again and receive you unto myself, that where 1 am, 
 there ye may be also.” He earnestly invokes his 
 father in the most pathetic terms, “ Father I will that 
 they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me 
 where I am, that they may behold my glory, which 
 thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the 
 foundation of the world.” Those whom God had 
 given to Christ would certainly behold his glory in 
 heaven or the place of departed spirits ; but it was 
 his glory as the Messiah in this world, when he 
 should see the travail of his soul and be satisfied, 
 that they were to behold, when they should be re- 
 Q 
 
105 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 united to the body, at the first resurrection, and share 
 in the glorious thiugs that he was to receive as the 
 king of Zion. 
 
 The disciples certainly understood these promises 
 as relating to some state of glory in this world, and 
 therefore asked with considerable anxiety, the ex- 
 press question of our Lord, saying, u tell us when 
 shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of 
 thy coming?” which you have been speaking of with 
 so much pleasure, and at which we are to be thus 
 honored and rewarded ; and lastly, what shall be the 
 sign “ of the eud of the world,” or of the age or pe- 
 riod you refer to, as the last you have mentioned.* 
 Our Saviour answers them without a parable, and 
 predicts and forewarns them of the previous signs 
 of the times, and then in plain and positive terms 
 declares, (< that then shall appear the sign of the son 
 of man in heaven, when the tribes of the earth shall 
 mourn, and shall see the son of man coming in the 
 clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” The 
 enquiry of the disciples was, what would be the 
 santeleia ton aionos, or the consummation of the pe- 
 riod, at the expiration of which, another aionos, or 
 eminent period, was to commence. The fathers often 
 took this for the millenhium — in the Old Testament 
 and the Targum, the reign of the Messiah is termed, 
 
 * This should be rendered according to the opinions of St. 
 Jerome — Erasmus — Beza and Montanus, either period, or time 
 — the greek word is Mion. Mr Waple says it signifies an age 
 of the world, or some eminent period of it 
 
JOHN. 
 
 107 
 
 the age to come . — The latter part of these questions, 
 is thus paraphrased by Dr. Clarke, “ and by what 
 signs shall we know when the consummation of the 
 present state of things in this world shall be ? and 
 when and by what revolutions the kingdom of the 
 Messiah shall be established.’ 7 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 
 
 WE will now examine the conduct of the 
 apostles of the risen Saviour, whom he sent forth 
 (after his resurrection) to teach all nations the princi- 
 ples of his divine doctrines, which they received 
 personally from their Master, under the miraculous 
 influences of the holy spirit, according to bis promises 
 whilst in the world. They regularly continue the 
 sacred and mysterious clue, and carry on the original 
 idea, holding up to their numerous followers, the 
 second coming of their glorious restorer and redeemer,, 
 as the great object of their hope and joy. 
 
 Berennius, the disciple of the famous Episcopius, 
 says, “ It is not difficult to gain information of what 
 the disciples understood by the coming of Christ, 
 provided we shall have considered the hope enter- 
 tained by the Jews respecting the Messiah, which 
 was then generally prevalent, namely, that it was 
 incumbent on him to restore upon earth , the fallen 
 kingdom of Israel — to establish the throne of David, 
 so as never again to be shaken — and to bring de- 
 liverance to them without exception, from all their 
 enemies. — Hence that speech of the disciples travel- 
 ling to Emmaus, £e but we trusted that it had been 
 him, who should have redeemed Israel.” — Where- 
 fore it is true that by the coming of Christ, the 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 100 
 
 apostles understood nothing else, thau the glorious 
 kingdom of the Messiah, to be erected upon earth, as 
 others have also remarked before us. 
 
 But it is also elsewhere entitled in the scriptures, 
 ei the kingdom of God,” concerning which, all the 
 prophets have predicted, and concerning the estab- 
 lishment of which, his disciples asked their master 
 after he was riseu from the dead, whether he would 
 at that time restore again the kingdom to Israel. — 
 By the end of the world, (or age) the disciples did 
 not understand the dissolution of the heavens and the 
 earth, but the destruction of the monarchies of the 
 world, which had been first exhibited in a dream to 
 Nebuchadnezzar and afterwards to Daniel — For 
 likewise in Isaiah, Ixv. 17, and Ixvi. 22, God is in- 
 troduced speaking thus, of the same periods or tiraeSj 
 t( behold I create new heavens and a new earth j 
 and the former shall not be remembered, nor come 
 into mind.” — But the apostles expected this revolu- 
 tion in the monarchies of the world, according to 
 DaniePs prophecy, ii. 7? would happen at the same 
 time with, (or just before) the second coming of the 
 Messiah, upon whose entrance into his kingdom, he 
 would restore the dominion to Israel. 
 
 In these acts of the apostles we are. told, that at the 
 ascension of our Lord and Saviour, the highly favor- 
 ed witnesses of the astonishing fact, were staring in 
 amazement and wonder after their ascending Lord, 
 £i and looking stedfastly towards heaven, when two 
 men (in appearance) stood by them in white apparel, 
 
110 
 
 THE ACfS OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 and said, ye men of Gallilee, why stand ye gazing' 
 tip into heaven — this same Jesus who is taken up 
 from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 
 as ye have seen him go into heaven. 
 
 The Apostles afterwards frequently exhorted their 
 hearers in such language as this, u repent ye there- 
 fore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted 
 out, when the times of refreshing shall come, from 
 the ■presence of the Lord ; and he shall send Jesus 
 Christ, who before was preached unto you ; whom the 
 heavens must receive, until the times of the restitution 
 of all things, which God hath spoken ('or foretold J by 
 the mouths of all his holy prophets since the world be- 
 gan.’ 9 And we find St. Stephen, when speaking of 
 the land of Canaan as promised to Abraham, saying, 
 t( and he gave Abraham none inheritance in it, no, 
 not so much as to set his foot on ; yet he did promise 
 that he would give it to him for a possession, and to 
 his seed after him, when yet he had no child.” — Yet 
 in the very next verse he acknowledges that God, at 
 the same time informed Abraham, that his seed 
 should sojourn in a strange land, and that they 
 should bring them into bondage, and intreat them evil 
 four hundred years.” — And then he gave them the 
 rite of circumcision, as a seal of this covenant on the 
 part of God, as a confirmation of the solemn promise 
 made to him, and as an encouragement and support to 
 his faith in so distant and future fulfilment. So that 
 Abraham seems to have understood that the fulfil- 
 ment of the promise was to take place on the resuP • 
 
THE ACTS OP THE APOSTLES. 11 i 
 
 lection of the body after death, as he could not have 
 expected to have lived 400 years, from this time, in 
 the then state of the world. 
 
CORINTHIANS. 
 
 THE great apostle Paul wlieu instructing the 
 Corinthians, charged them, “ that they should come 
 behind in no (spiritual) gift; waiting for the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ ,” who shall also confirm you 
 unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ — and in speaking of his being 
 judged by men, he warns them, “ therefore judge 
 nothing before the time, until the Lord come , who 
 both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, 
 and will make manifest the counsels of the heart; and 
 then shall every man have praise of God.” And 
 when he gives them particular directions for partaking 
 of the Lord’s supper, he tells them that u as often as 
 they did eat that bread and drink that cup, they did 
 show forth the Lord’s death, till he should come .” — 
 And in his lecture on the resurrection of the body, he 
 says, u but every man in his own order, Christ the 
 first fruits, afterwards they who are Christ’s, at his 
 coming — Then cometh the end, or the next great 
 period or era.” — The apostle then proceeds to a 
 more explicit account of the process in that day — 
 “ Behold! I show you a mystery; we shall not all 
 sleep, but we shall all be changed ; in a moment — in 
 the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet ; for the 
 trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised 
 Incorruptible; and we ?hall be changed,” 
 
EPHESIANS. 
 
 THE subject of this epistle did not lead the 
 apostle immediately to speak of this great event, yet 
 lie incidentally mentions it, (as he constantly does on 
 every proper occasion,) in the following verse— » 
 li God hath raised us up together, and made us sit 
 together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in 
 the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches 
 of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ 
 Jesus.” 
 
 PHILXPPIANS. 
 
 SO again here, et that I may know him and the 
 power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his 
 sufferings, being made conformable to his death, if by 
 any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the 
 dead” This must mean the first resurrection, over 
 the subjects of which the second death will have no 
 power, for all good and bad will at last be raised t» 
 the final judgment. 
 
 R 
 
COLOSSIAN& 
 
 THE Colossians are also encouraged by the 
 game great apostle, “ that when Christ who is the 
 Christian’s life should appear, then they also should 
 appear with him in glory.” 
 
 «' "rnWfr i'£ © vl<- 'IHil ' 
 l 
 
 THESSALONIANS. 
 
 AND in his epistle to the Thessalonians, he 
 commends them “ for their faith God-ward, and for 
 their turning from idols to God, and to waiting/or 
 his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead;’^ 
 and then asks, u what is his hope or joy, or crown 
 of rejoicing?” He answers his own question, “ are 
 not ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, at 
 his coming P ” — He therefore exhorts them “ to estab- 
 lish their hearts unblamable in holiness before God 
 even our father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ ivith all his saints . ”— He then proceeds to 
 give them further directions for their holy - conduct in 
 this life, and informs them that (< he would not 
 (amidst their learning how to live here) have them 
 
THES SALOPIANS. 
 
 m 
 
 Ignorant concerning their brethren who were asleep, 
 (or had died) that they (by that knowledge) might 
 not sorrow for them, even as for others who have no 
 hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose 
 again, even so (as certainly and in like manner) them 
 also who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him $ 
 for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that 
 we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the 
 Lord, shall not prevent them who are asleep ; for the 
 Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout , 
 with the voice of the arch-angel, and with the trump 
 «f God, and the dead in Chnst shall rise first — then 
 we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up to- 
 gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
 the air ; and so, or then, shall we ever be with the 
 Lord; wherefore (or on this account) comfort one 
 another with these words”— But, of (these) times and 
 seasons, he supposes that he had no need to write, 
 C( as the brethren knew perfectly as they had been 
 before instructed fully, that the day of the Lord would 
 some as a thief in the night; and he most devoutly 
 prays to God, that their whole spirit, and soul and 
 body might be preserved blameless until the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 
 And when the Thessalonians appeared to be dis= 
 tressed by the various persecutions of their enemies, 
 in which they had discovered great patience and re- 
 signation, he comforts them with the same language; 
 (< and as to you who are troubled, you shall rest with 
 its, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
 
iiG THESS ALO Jf IANS. 
 
 heaven with liis mighty angels in flaming fire, taking 
 vengeance on them who know not God, and who obey 
 not the gospel of our Lord J° sus Christ, who shall 
 be punished with everlasting destruction from the 
 presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his 
 power, when he shall come to be glorified in his 
 saints, and to be admired in all them who believe.” 
 
 He then proceeds to exhort the brethren u by the 
 coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would 
 not be shaken in their minds, or be troubled, as if the 
 day of the Lord was at hand : he begs that they 
 would not be deceived by any means, for that day 
 should not come until there should first come a falling 
 
 * The flood of infidelity that is prevailing throughout 
 Europe, as well as other parts of the world, may justly be con- 
 sidered as a manifest fulfilment of the prophetic declarations of 
 the apostles of Christ, and one of the alarming signs of the 
 times. — Germany, which was the principal seat of the reforma- 
 tion, has sorely experienced the truth of this prediction. By 
 means of the iilqminati and other vain pretenders to philoso- 
 phy, she lias lost much of her taste and relish for those divine 
 truths that so eminently adorned her great men for two cen- 
 turies, and for the support of which, so many have laid down 
 their lives .—' 1 ‘ There still are some respectable divines in Ger- 
 many; bat the principles of Eickhorn of Gottingen, with 
 respect to the old testament, which together with Geddes (of 
 Great Britain) his works on the same subject, are gaining fast 
 ground. — I will not assert that Eickhorn by lessening the au- 
 thority of the old testament, meant to undermine that of the 
 new. But I am fully persuaded and, will positively assert, that 
 if he had that design, he could not possibly have made use of 
 snore successful means. Indeed among the most respectable of 
 
THESSAL0NIANS. 
 
 117 
 
 away,* (of professors) and the man of sin be revealed, 
 the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth him- 
 self above all that is called God, or that is worship- 
 ped ; so that as God, he sitteth in the temple of God, 
 shewing himself that he is God. ?? 
 
 the clergy whom I have seen and heard of, the divine authority 
 and positive institutions of the gospel seem to be entirely left 
 out of the question; and we have instead of the doctrines and 
 precepts of Jesus Christ, elegant dissertations on the beauty of 
 virtue; lofty declamations on humanity, and against the present 
 war with France; and sublime attempts to account for every 
 thing, not by appealing to the Creator, but by abstract reason- 
 ing.— But these writings are so extensive and uniformly dan- 
 gerous that the consequences to the public must be the same, 
 and therefore it is most devoutly to be wished that all the real 
 lovers, and true philosophers of Germany, would follow the 
 example ofGenz, and some few others; and unite in stemming 
 the torrent of false philosophy and revolutionary politics.”— 
 Anti. Jac. Rev. vi. vol. 571-578. 
 
TIMOTHY, 
 
 ST. PAUL cliargeth Timothy, u before God 
 and the Lord J sus, who shall judge the quick and 
 
 the dead, at his appearing in his kingdom , that he 
 should keep the commandment that he had given him, 
 without spot and unrebukable, until the appearing 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ , who in his times, he 
 shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate, 
 the king of kings and Lord of Lords.” — He says 
 that “ I have fought a good fight — I have finished 
 my course — I have kept the faith, and henceforth 
 there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
 which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at 
 that day , and not to me only, but unto all them also, 
 who love his appearing,” and formally concludes hi$ 
 exhortation, “ to the end that his heart might be es- 
 tablished unblamable in holiness before God, even 
 our Father, at the coming of »ur Lord Jesus Christ 
 with all his saints,” 
 
TITUS. 
 
 THE same apostle asserts, in this epistle to Ti- 
 tus, (e that the grace of God has appeared unto all 
 men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and world- 
 ly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and god- 
 ly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope 
 and the glorious appearing of the great God even 
 oivr Saviour Jesus Christ 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 IN the epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle takes 
 up the principle at large, and connecting the Old and 
 New Testament together, shows it to be the life and 
 spirit of both dispensations, or rather that they were 
 but one dispensation under different modifications, to 
 suit the different advancements and progress of the 
 main object. 
 
 He encourages the suffering disciples among the 
 Hebrews, by shewing in a convincing manner the 
 inefficiency and weakness of the law, sacrifices, and 
 the all-sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ himself to 
 
120 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 take away sin and perfect them in holiness. — He be- 
 seeches them not to suffer their afflictions so to work, 
 as to lead them to cast away their confidence and 
 hope, “ for they had need of patience,” which was to 
 be supported and kept up by the assurance, that 
 after having; by their sufferings and patience done the 
 will of (rod, “ they should inherit the promises” — and 
 he exhorts to great additional comfort arising from 
 the certainty of these promises, i( for yet a little 
 while, and he that is certainly to come (to your re- 
 lief and everlasting joy) will come, and will not tarry.” 
 -—And he concludes by assuring them that it is by 
 this faith and hope of his speedily coming, that they 
 were to live from day to day — he then assures them 
 that this faith will be to them the very substance of 
 the things they hoped for, and the evidence of the 
 things they could not at present see — he then proves 
 it by the example of all the old patriarchs. 
 
 But the apostle well knew that he was writing to 
 those who had been already instructed in, and were 
 practising on this general doctrine. That they would 
 fully understand him, although he did not enter into 
 the minutia of the circumstances attending the im- 
 portant facts he was writing on ; which might have 
 given great and unnecessary umbrage to the Roman 
 government, especially if it had been convinced that 
 the Christians had expected to possess a kingdom of 
 righteousness under Jesus Christ in the land of Ju- 
 dea, to the exclusion of every other power and king- 
 dom of the world. 
 
HEBREWS. ±Zl 
 
 He therefore contents himself with tracing the 
 effects of the faith in this promise of the Messiah (un- 
 der whom at his second comiug, Abraham, Isaac and 
 Jacob should inherit the glorious land) as it particu- 
 larly shone forth in the conduct of those ancient 
 heroes of the old testament, to whom he specially 
 refers. — These had the glimmering light of the great 
 and mysterious truth revealed to them in different 
 ways, but which, however obscure, were sufficient to 
 exercise and prove their victorious faith in that God 
 who had promised and could not deceived 
 
 He mentions Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and 
 ethers; and then shows what God had specially 
 promised to Israel, and the happy consequences that 
 would ensue therefrom: u for this is the covenant 
 that I will make with the house of Israel after those 
 days saith the Lord : I will put my laws into their 
 mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be 
 to them a God, and they shall be to me a people : 
 for these (Abel, Enoch, &c.) all died in the faith, not 
 having received the promises, but having seen them 
 afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced 
 them. — By faith Abraham offered up Isaac ; accounts 
 ing that God was able to raise him up, even from the 
 dead, from whence he received him in a figure:” that 
 is, by binding Isaac and layiug him on the altar, and 
 being prevented from killing him, when he was de- 
 livered by the angel and restored to the embraces of 
 a fond father, he was taught the resurrection from the 
 dead to inherit the promises— and these also., 
 

 HEBREWS. 
 
 having obtained a good report through faith, received 
 not the promises,” and the reason is plainly given, 
 that “ God having foreseen some better thing for us, 
 that they without us should not be made perfect 
 that is, God in his infinite wisdom has so ordered the 
 progressive nature of the redemption of man, and the 
 perfection of the glory of the redeemer’s kingdom, as 
 to draw the fulfillment of his gracious promises to his 
 people, in their full extent, to a centre. That this 
 should take place at the second coming of the Lord 
 Jesus in glory, when all his people together ancient 
 and modern, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, should 
 be perfected together as one body, and enjoy the full 
 fruition of their faith and hope, both temporally and 
 spiritually, under the now glorified first fruits of the 
 resurrection, even Christ their head, that where he is, 
 they also may literally be. Therefore it is, that the 
 apostle proceeds, in the joy of the blessed prospect, 
 s ‘ but ye are come to mount Zion and unto the city of 
 the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an in- 
 numerable company of angels ; to the general assem- 
 bly and church of the first born, who are written (or 
 enrolled) in heaven; and to Jesus the mediator of the 
 new covenant — whose voice then (at the giving of the 
 law) shook the earth; but now he hath promised 
 saying, yet once more, I shake not the earth only, 
 but also the heavens. — Wherefore we receiving a 
 kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have grace 
 whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence 
 and godly fear. — For here we have no continuing 
 
HEBREWS. 
 
 133 
 
 city, but we seek one to come.” — As much as if he 
 had said, these ancient witnesses for God, whose 
 faith thus enabled them to rejoice and overcome, 
 though at such a distance from the fulfilment of their 
 hope, all died merely enjoying the truth of God’s 
 promises in expectation. They saw them but afar off, 
 and knowing they were to wait for the actual pos- 
 session, till in the revolution of time, it should please 
 God to bring us forward to join the happy throng, 
 and be perfected all together; for without us the 
 church of God could not be complete, being an 
 universal church consisting of both Jew and Gentile. 
 — But you beloved in the Lord, have been highly 
 favored in not having these difficulties to trouble you; 
 as you enjoy a greater degree of knowledge, and see 
 more of the goodness of God towards his fallen 
 creatures, for ye will not be so long delayed, being 
 already blessed by the first coming of our Lord and 
 Saviour, and his divine teachings and example, with 
 the gift of the holy spirit sent down into your hearts. 
 Through him, the nature and effect of these promises 
 of God, so inexplicable to the fathers, have been thus 
 clearly revealed, attended with such full and certain 
 evidence of the power and grace of the Redeemer. 
 In this way you may be said already to have “ come 
 to mount Zion” which is to be the seat of our great 
 Immanuel, in the city of the living God, Jerusalem, 
 which he chose of old as his inheritance, or Salem 
 now the city of righteousness and peace, “ a heavenly 
 city,” where among other peculiar blessings, we shall 
 
HEBREWS'. 
 
 1S-1 
 
 again enjoy a free intercommunion with the angels of 
 God, together with a general assembly of our brethren 
 the saints of God who have thus died in the faith, and 
 who the Lord shall bring with him, their names 
 being enrolled in heaven. But above all, you will 
 have the personal presence of Jesus the mediator of 
 the new covenant, whose voice, at his second coming^ 
 in proof of his power and glory (as it did at the giving 
 of the law on mount Horeb) will destroy all the gov- 
 ernments, or political powers of the earth, with their 
 ecclesiastical jurisdictions over the souls of men. Then 
 you who have been so despised and persecuted shall 
 ^receive a kingdom that can never be moved or taken 
 from you. —Under this glorious prospect, then, let 
 these considerations animate you to diligence, activity 
 and zeal in the cause of our common Lord — although 
 here at present we have no abiding city, but are re- 
 viled and driven from place to place, often not know- 
 ing where to lay our heads, yet we know that we 
 have one in certain expectation, and which we shall 
 assuredly possess in due time, if we hold out to the 
 end. 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 THE apostle James also exhorts, es be patient* 
 therefore, brethren unto the coming of the Lord — Bs 
 ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming 
 of the Lord draweth nigh.” 
 
PETER. 
 
 PETER, that chief of the apostles, and one of 
 those who had seen our Lord in glory when he was 
 on the mount, addresses those to whom he writes, as 
 persons kept by the power of God through faith, un- 
 to a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time — 
 that the trial of their faith being much more precious 
 than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire* 
 might be found unto praise, and honor and glory, at 
 the appearing of Jesus Christ, — and he exhorts them 
 to gird up the loins of their minds, to be sober, and 
 hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought 
 unto them at the revelation of Jesus Christ. — And 
 that they should not think it strange concerning the 
 fiery trial which was to try them, as though some 
 strange thing happened unto them, but that they 
 should rejoice inasmuch as they were partakers of 
 Christ’s sufferings ; that when his glory should he re- 
 vealed, they might be glad with exceeding joy — for 
 when their chief shepherd shall appear they should 
 receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.— He 
 then exhorts the elders among them, and claims the 
 character of being also an elder and a witness of the 
 sufferings of Christ, “ and also a partaker of the 
 glory that shall he revealed ” — hereby declaring his 
 confidence that he should come with Christ, and be 
 a sharer in his glory — and he further assures them, 
 
186 
 
 PETER. 
 
 11 that when the chief shepherd should appear, they 
 (the Elders) should also receive a crown of glory 
 that should not fade away.” 
 
 In his second epistle, he prefaces his doctrines with 
 an assurance “ that he had not followed cunningly 
 devised fables, when he had made known, the pow- 
 er and coming of the Lord Jesus, he having been an 
 eye witness of his majesty.” He then solemnly warns 
 the churches, and declares that he writes his second 
 epistle to stir up their pure minds to remember the 
 words which had before been spoken by the holy 
 prophets; and had been expressly commended by him, 
 and the rest of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour re- 
 lative to the great event of his second coming in glory ; 
 — assuring them that in the last days* before “ the ad- 
 vent he had referred to should take place, there should 
 arise scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying 
 where is'th v promise of his coning, for since the fathers 
 have fallen asleep, all things continue as they were 
 from the beginning of the creation ; for this they are 
 willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the 
 heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the 
 water and in the water, (or in other words, that Jesus 
 Christ, the word, or logos, created the heavens, earth 
 and seas) whereby the world that then was, being over- 
 flowed with water, perished (that is, by means of the 
 seas and the waters above in clouds, &c. and the then 
 position of the earth, the inhabitants all perished) but 
 the heavens and the earth which are now, by the 
 same word (or logos) are kept in store, reserved unto 
 Ire against (or after) the day of Judgment and per- 
 
 
PETER. 
 
 4S 7 
 
 dition of ungodly men,” that is, as the flood destroy- 
 ed all the ungodly inhabitants then upon*the earth, 
 and changed its form and appearance from what it was 
 before; so the fire to which it is reserved, will in like 
 maunev destroy and consume all the ungodly who shall 
 remain to the end of the judgment day, and purify and 
 change the face of the earth so as to become an hab- 
 itation of holiness and righteousness forever. 
 
 But the apostle having thus accidentally mentioned 
 the day of judgment, seems to fear that the church 
 might misapprehend him as some of the members 
 had done his brother Paul, and construe the day of 
 judgment he spoke of, as meaning the space of a com- 
 mon day, he therefore removes all doubt of his 
 meaning by a clear explanation. Although it was 
 usual with the Jews to describe a definite time, though 
 a long space, by the term day ; as the forty years 
 passing through the wilderness in Psalms, xcv. 8. 
 is called a day — so also in Hebrews, iii. 8. The 
 seventy years captivity is called a day, in almost all 
 the prophets, and particularly Deut. xxxii. 35. The 
 life of man is called a day in Heb. iii. 13. and in the 
 last words of the 2d epistle of Peter, translated in our 
 version, both now and evermore , in the Greek and 
 Latin, is dies eternitatis, the day of eternity. — The 
 whole time of Christ’s first coming is called a day, 
 John, xvi. 26. 2d Cor. vi. 2. 
 
 The apostle however guards carefully against the 
 supposition that he meant a single day in common ac- 
 ceptation, by assuring them that it was not his mean- 
 
128 
 
 PETER* 
 
 ing ; 11 but beloved, says be, be not ignorant of this 
 one thing* that a day with the Lord (of which I have 
 now been speaking) is a thousand years (as it should 
 be rendered) and a thousand years is (meant by) 
 one day,”* that is, it is so to be understood in the 
 declaration I have been making to you, or in the 
 prophetic communication made to me by the spirit of 
 God . — u But this day of the Lord (by which ex- 
 pression the Jews always understood, the coining of 
 the Messiah) will come as a thief in the night, in 
 (or after) which the heavens shall pass away with a 
 great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent 
 heat; the earth also and the works that are therein 
 shall be burned up : seeing then that all these things 
 shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye 
 to be, in all holy conversation and godliness, looking 
 for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God , 
 wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved 
 and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” — 
 Whatever secondary and very future signification 
 this very awful description may have, yet in the 
 first instance as relating to the second coming of 
 Christ, it is, as if the apostle had said, all the re- 
 ligious and political governments and powers on 
 
 * May not this throw some light on the account of the fall, 
 given in Genesis ?• — If a day with the Lord, or in the language 
 ol'divinc communication, is a thousand years, then the sentence 
 on Adam was literally executed-— “ in the day thou eatest 
 thereof, thou shalt surely die” — now it is well known, that 
 neither Adam or any of his posterity ever lived to the age of one 
 thousand years.— -Justin Martyr seems to have had this idea of 
 the words. 
 
PETER. 
 
 ±m 
 
 earth inconsistent with the reign of Jesus Christ on 
 earth, shall be dissolved, as metal is dissolved 
 by fire, and done away; when the confusion and 
 distress of nations shall be so great, that the universal 
 destruction of men and things, may be compared to 
 metal, melting in a furnace by a fervent heat; but 
 notwithstanding this fiery trial, be ye not discouraged 
 as the consequences will be glorious to you, for 
 i{ nevertheless we according to his promise look for 
 new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness that is, a new and glorious state of 
 things, and the renovation of the earth and the 
 governments of the world, by which the powers and 
 authorities exercised therein under the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, shall be directed and executed on principles 
 of perfect righteousness.* 
 
 * Mr Mede observes on the verses following : — “ Where- 
 fore beloved, seeing that ye look for such things at his coming, 
 be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot 
 and blameless.; and account the long suffering of God, in the 
 delay thereof, to be for salvation. Even as our beloved brother 
 Paul, (one of the apostles of our Lord, who confirmeth these 
 words of the holy prophets, Isaiah, lx. 20, 21, Ixv. 17, lxvi. 22.) 
 according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto 
 you ; enforcing the like exhortations unto holiness of life, from 
 this our faith and expectation of the Lord Jesus his appearing 
 to judgment, which we now make known unto you, namely ia 
 Hebrew, xii. 14, 28, 29— Also in all his epistles speaking in 
 them of these things, (Rom ii. 4, to vii. 1 Cor. iii. 20, &e„ 
 Coloss. iii. 4, 3, 1 Thess. ii. 12. iii. 13. v. 23. 2 Thess. i. 8. 
 1 Tim. vi. 14, 15. Titus, ii. 12, 13.)— Amongst which things 
 concerning the 2d coming of Christ, are some things hard to be 
 T 
 
JUDE. 
 
 JUDE tells us that Enoch also, the seventh 
 from Adam, in that early day, had foretold this great 
 and awful period, which so substantially occupied th6 
 faith and hope of God’s people, saying, “ behold the 
 Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to ex- 
 ecute judgment upon all and to convince all that are. 
 ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, 
 which they have ungodly committed, and of all their 
 hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken 
 against him.” 
 
 conceived, which those who are unlearned and not well settled 
 in the faith, like unto these scoffers, stumble at, as they do at the 
 other scriptures, taking occasion thereby to stagger and doubt 
 of the truth of God ; so perverting the scriptures from their right 
 end, by making them the means of your destruction, which 
 were given by God as a means whereby they. might believe 
 and be saved.” 
 
THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. 
 
 THE beloved disciple John (of whom it should 
 fee specially remarked, that he lived, and wrote his 
 revelation, after the destruction of Jerusalem many 
 years, and therefore, however the other apostles 
 might have done, could have no reference to that 
 event in his predictions) introduces this revelation as 
 having been given by God to Jesus Christ as the 
 great head of his church for the instruction of his 
 servants. That Jesus Christ had signified it by his 
 angel to his servant John, being that disciple who 
 had in the days of his flesh, been honored by leaning 
 on his Lord’s bosom, as a mark of his love and con- 
 fidence. John himself fixes this fact in his outset or 
 preface. His great modesty forbade his saying that 
 it was that John known by the appellation of the 
 beloved disciple, but he expressly declares it was 
 that John “who had borne record of the word of God ” 
 This the beloved disciple had done in a very special 
 manner in his gospel, beginning with that divine 
 sentence, “ In the beginning was the word,” &c. and 
 also “ the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things 
 that he had seen; which John had also done in the 
 same gospel. He then pronounces a solemn benedic- 
 tion on all those who should read or hear the words 
 of the prophecy he was about to relate, and especially 
 on those who should keep them, the time being at 
 
132 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. 
 
 Land. Even at the first mention of this joyful commu- 
 nication, being full of the delightful prospect and 
 rejoicing in an event, which was all his hope and 
 all his desire, he cannot refrain from glorying in the 
 blessed subject, although his whole design was to 
 show every previous step, as well as the particulars 
 in detail, attending the final execution of so great and 
 solemn a reality. — He addresses himself to the 
 churches thus, “ John to the seven churches which 
 are in Asia. Grace be unto you from him, who is, 
 and who was, and who is to come ; and from Jesus 
 Christ who is the faithful witness, and the first be- 
 gotten from the dead : and the prince of the Icings of 
 the earth. Behold he cometh with clouds ; (that is, 
 great power and glory) and every eye shall see him', 
 and they also who pierced him ; and all kindreds of 
 the earth shall rvail because of him ; even so amen. I 
 am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending, 
 saith the Lord, who is, and who was and who is to 
 come, the almighty.” Thus three times in five verses 
 does he repeat the blessed event of Christ’s future 
 coming — and in his address to the church at Tbyati- 
 ra, the beloved apostle represents Jesus Christ as urg- 
 ing that church, “ but that which ye have already, hold 
 fast, till I come", and he who overcometh and keep- 
 eth my words unto the end, to him will I give pow- 
 er over the nations, and he shall rule them with a 
 rod for sword J of iron.” 
 
 After this, he saw a door opened in Heaven, and 
 heard a voice like a trumpet, talking with him and say- 
 
THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN, 
 
 13a 
 
 mg, “ Come up hither, and I will shew thee things 
 which must be hereafter.” He then describes a mag- 
 nificent throne in Heaven, around which and among 
 others, were twenty-four elders cloathed in white 
 raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold ; 
 and four living creatures (or beasts) each having six 
 wings about him, and they were full of eyes before and 
 behind. And they rested not day or night, saying “fto- 
 ly, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, ivho was, and is, and 
 is to come.'” And at the same time “ the four and twen- 
 ty elders fell down before him who sat on the throne 
 and worshipped him who liveth forever and ever, and 
 cast their crowns before the throne saying, “ thou art 
 worthy 0 Lord ! to receive glory and honor and pow- 
 er for thou hast created all things, and for thy 
 ■pleasure they are and were created.”* 
 
 * This representation is taken from the tabernacle or tem- 
 ple The throne here being set in Heaven, is from the tem- 
 ple or tabernacle with the Jewish high-priest thereon, as it 
 will answer to both; the twenty-four seats with the twenty- 
 four elders, were taken from the same circumstance of the 
 Jewish sanhedrim. The seven lamps burning before the 
 throne, from the candlesticks of seven lamps in the temple. 
 The sea of glass from the great layer in Solomon’s Temple, 
 though that was made of brass, but it is remarkable that the 
 one in the tabernacle, is said to have been made of the look- 
 ing glasses of the women attending at the door of the taber- 
 nacle, Exod xxxviii. 8. The four living creatures, or beasts, 
 were the four standards of Israel-— that of a lion, a bullock, 
 an eagle and a man, representing the whole congregation of 
 the faithful. In Ezek. xliii. 7, God says, “ The place of my 
 throne and the place of the steps of my feet, where I dwell in 
 the midst of the children of Israel forever,” &e. The elders 
 
134 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. 
 
 Here the elders are the only order representing the 
 rulers of the church, mentioned; for the beasts or 
 living creatures, were the four standards of Israel and • 
 represented the whole congregation of the saints — 
 when he comes to the xith chapter, he gives an 
 epitome of the whole drama, and after shewing what 
 would take place, when the witnesses were about to 
 finish their testimony, he declares the second woe 
 to be past and the third woe to be coming quickly, 
 when the seventh augel should sound, and the king- 
 doms of this world, were to become the kingdoms 
 of our Lord and his Christ, and he should reign for- 
 ever and ever. “ And the four and twenty elders 
 worshipped God saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord 
 God Almighty, who art, and was and art to come, 
 because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and 
 hast reigned. And the nations were angry and thy 
 wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they 
 should be judged, and that thou shouldst give re- 
 ward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints 
 and those who fear thy name small and great', and 
 shouldst destroy them who destroy the earth P 
 
 In the xth chapter, John describes the seven thun- 
 ders as uttering their voices on the cry of the angel, 
 but he is forbidden to write what he had heard, be- 
 cause he swears by him who liveth forever, that the 
 
 were cloathed in white raiment from the custom of clothing 
 those who were admitted, from their genealogies and perfection 
 of body, nnto the court of the priests, and so choosing them in^ 
 to the order of priest-hood. Mamonides inMessih. Lib. 8, eh* 
 
 3, & 11th. 
 
THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. 135 
 
 time was not yet come for their accomplishment. 
 But so much he assures the churches, that in the 
 days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall 
 begin to sound the mystery of God (or the one thou- 
 sand years of Christ’s reign on earth, being the 
 great event, to which the scriptures of both okl and 
 new testaments tended) should be fulfilled or brought 
 to light and explained, as he had already declared by 
 his prophets, to wit, David, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
 and Zachariah ; by which il he supplieth the course 
 of the trumpet sound, which was to be deferred with 
 an oath, wherein the event of the trumpet is shewed 
 at least in general, to wit, that it should come to pass, 
 when that angel should sound, when the Homan beast 
 being destroyed and the time of the last head being 
 come to an end, the mystery of God shall be fin- 
 ished — for so long ago, it was foretold by Daniel, 
 that the fourth beast being slain, the king of saints 
 should rule through the whole world, and with it, 
 that glorious promise of restoring Israel should be 
 fulfilled, (cli. xii.) But that this kingdom, is that, 
 which he called the finishing the mystery of God , the 
 acclamations subjoined to the same trumpet afterwards 
 sounding, suffereth us not to doubt. The kingdoms 
 of this world are become our Lord’s and his Christ’s, 
 and he shall reign forever more. It is a wonder that 
 there are any who should understand it otherwise. 
 Therefore that time, of which the angel here swear- 
 eth, that is not yet, cannot be any other than, either 
 the times of the four monarchies universally, or of the 
 last kingdom particularly, that is the Roman, to wit, 
 
136 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOUST. 
 
 the last period of a time, times and an half a time. 
 Since the same which here, with John is said shall 
 be, when time shall be no more; with Daniel was 
 shewed should be, when that period of the last times 
 shall be accomplished, so that this consummation of 
 the mystery of Grod (or the kingdom of Christ in this 
 world) is the matter of the seventh trumpet, to which 
 are added, as companions, seven thunders.”* 
 
 John then, after repeating the new song, sung by 
 the four beasts and four and twenty elders, or the 
 whole congregation both clergy and laity, reciting 
 their redemption, from every tongue, nation and lan- 
 guage, adds , li and has made us unto our (rod, kings 
 and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth P Here 
 then were the redeemed around the throne in 
 Heaven, praising the Lamb and enumerating all the 
 blessings they were advanced to, by the redeeming 
 love of the Saviour, among which not the least is, 
 that they were to reign with him again on earth ; 
 which is not likely otherwise to be, than by coming 
 with him, when he shall come in his own glory and 
 the glory of the father, and they become partakers in 
 the first resurrection, and over whom the second 
 death will have no power. See the whole 5th chap- 
 ter of Revelation. 
 
 Tins divine evangelist then proceeds to give an ac- 
 curate account of his vision, and towards the end of 
 it, plainly narrates the amazing and stupendous issue 
 of six thousand years preparativelabor and sufferings, 
 
 * Mede, Edit. 476, fo!. 
 
THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. lgf 
 
 and then adds, (i and I saw an angel come down from 
 heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a 
 great chain in his hand — and he laid hold on the 
 dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and satan, 
 and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into 
 the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal 
 upon him, that he should deceive the nations no 
 more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and 
 after that he must be loosed for a little season. And 
 I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment 
 Was given unto them : (these are almost the express 
 tvords of Daniel, on a like occasion) and I saw the 
 souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of 
 Jesus, and for the word of God, aud who had not 
 worshipped the beast, neither his image; neither had 
 received his mark upou their foreheads, or in their 
 hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a 
 thousand years.” This living and reigning, mention- 
 ed with such emphasis, must be in a different state, 
 from that in which the apostle saw them — otherwise it 
 could not be confined to a thousand years, for they 
 will live with Christ forever and ever. — This is ren- 
 dered more evident, from the following sentence, 
 wherein the state of the rest of the dead are opposed 
 to them — u but the rest of the dead, lived not again, t 
 until the thousand years were finished : this is the 
 first resurrection: blessed and holy is he who hath 
 part in the first resurrection, on him shall the second 
 death have no power, but they shall be priests of 
 God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thon- 
 u 
 
138 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. 
 
 sand years. And I saw a new heaven and a new 
 earth , for the first heaven and the first earth were 
 passed away, and there was no more sea ; that is, an 
 entire new state of things, with regard to the civil and 
 religious governments of the world, had commenced 
 upon the ruin and entire destruction of the present 
 powers and dominions of this world; and there was 
 no more sea, — no more confusion and struggles for 
 conquest and power, but all was harmony and peace.” 
 
 “ And I John saw the holy city, the new Je- 
 rusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, 
 prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Je- 
 rusalem is to be rebuilt and inhabited again, and 
 that on a new plan complete in all its parts, perfect- 
 ly to answer as the seat of the great king, and the 
 metropolis of the kingdom of God .* — u And I heard 
 a great voice out of heaven, saying, behold! the tab- 
 ernacle of God is with men , and God will dwell with 
 them, and they shall be his people, and God himself 
 shall be with them and be their God — And God shall 
 wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall 
 be no more death, (to them) neither sorrow', nor crying, 
 neither shall there be any more pain, for the former 
 things are passed away.” — This cannot be applicable 
 
 
 * It is not the ancient city of Jerusalem which is barely to 
 be rebuilt and inhabited as formerly, but it is to be different in 
 its nature and constitution, fitted for the habitation of those 
 who have received the blessedness of the first resurrection and 
 over whom the second death will have no power. It is de- 
 scribed as a “ new Jerusalem, even coming down from God out 
 of heaven 
 
THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. 
 
 130 
 
 to the souls of the just in heaven : for then there could 
 be no propriety in the exclamation, as at some event 
 extraordinary and unexpected in its nature and effects 
 — In heaven God has always in a peculiar manner, 
 dwelt with the inhabitants thereof and been their God 
 -,-the apostle proceeds, “ and He that sat on the 
 throne said, behold ! I make all things new.” Here 
 is an explicit declaration of the thorough change 
 in the state of things on the earth, and of the com- 
 mencement of a new and extraordinary period — “ and 
 he said unto me write : for these words are true and 
 faithful ; and he said unto me, it is done, 1 am alpha 
 and omega — the beginning and the end. — He who 
 overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his 
 God and he shall be my son,” 
 
 John seems to be swallowed up with the greatness 
 of his subject, and goes on to represent himself as 
 li being carried by the spirit into an high mountain, 
 and seeing the new Jerusalem,” which he describes 
 with great particularity, he adds, “ I saw no temple 
 therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, 
 are the temple of it: — -and the city had no need of 
 the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the 
 glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the 
 light thereof, (prefigured by the glory of the shechi- 
 nah of old in the temple) and the nations of them 
 who are saved , shall walk in the light of it, and the 
 kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor in- 
 to it ; and the gates of it, shall not be shut at all by 
 day, for there shall be no night there; and they shall 
 
ill) THE APOCALYPSE OP JOHN. 
 
 bring the glory and honor of the nations into it; and 
 there shall ill no wise enter into it, any thing that 
 defileth or worketh abomination, or a lie; but they 
 who are written in the Lamb’s book of life — behold ! 
 
 I come quickly — I am alpha and omega, the be- 
 ginning and the end — the first and the last — and the 
 spirit and the bride say come— and let him who 
 lieareth say come — and let him who is athirst come — - 
 and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life 
 freely — He who testified these things, said surely I 
 come quickly — amen! even so come Lord Jesus!” 
 
 This magnificent description, is expressive of the 
 personal presence of the sacred humanity of the 
 Logos, or the Lamb, as the king and the priest of his 
 people, residing there; of course the citizens of the 
 new Jerusalem, will want no other king or ruler but 
 the sacred Logos, and those who he appoints under 
 him— they will need no other priest or teacher — - 
 They cannot want any temple, for the Lord God 
 Almighty and the Lamb, are present with them and 
 will constantly and immediately receive their con- 
 tinual homage and praise, without the intervention of 
 symbols or figures, in some measure resembling, but 
 in a more glorious manner, the presence of God with 
 Moses in the tabernacle in the wilderness — all will be 
 perfect security, concord and peace, there can then be 
 no necessity for artificial defence, and perfect love 
 will cast out all fear. The nations of the earth will 
 be so highly blessed, by the divine influence, instruc- 
 tions and example, and enjoying all the effects of 
 
THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. 14;i 
 
 righteousness and true holiness, will delight to unite 
 in the pure, spiritual worship of the place, and in 
 giving glory and honor to the king who ruleth in 
 Zion. — Nothing will enter there, that is sinful or un- 
 holy, as all the inhabitants are written in the Lamb’s 
 book of life. 
 
 The whole of this account of what the highly- 
 favored apostle saw and heard, seems to end in a 
 very solemn injunction to all the servants of Jesus 
 Christ, to unite in the most constant, ardent and 
 devout supplications and prayers for the speedy 
 coming of this all-important event, which appears to 
 be the great object and end of the dispensations of 
 God’s providence during six thousand years. 
 
 We are thereby taught the propriety of an entire 
 resignation to the awful effects of the just judgments 
 of God, against the prevailing sins of the nations of 
 the earth, which will precede that great and dreadful 
 day of the Lord; as well as urged to pray for it, by 
 the example of Christ himself, who says, “ behold I 
 come quickly” — of the holy spirit of God and the 
 bride, the church, who unite in the earnest request; 
 — and the divine apostle himself, whose ardent 
 spirit joins his hearty assent, on a repetition, that 
 Jesus Christ who testified these things to his churches, 
 said, “ surely or verily I come quickly” — not I 
 shall come, but am now in the act of coming — pre- 
 paring the way for it ; he then concludes with this 
 earnest ejaculation ; “ Amen ! even so come Lord 
 Jesus” — as if he had said, notwithstanding all this 
 
143 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOH'N. 
 
 distress and misery that must come on the ungodly,, 
 before the nations of the earth can be thoroughly 
 purged, and the glorious kingdom of the Messiah be 
 completely established, yet I do most sincerely pray, 
 that thou wouldst thus come quickly, as thou hast 
 said, that a speedy end may be put to all moral evil, 
 and the knowledge of God cover the earth as the 
 waters cover the seas; to which every real Christian, 
 when in the exercise of a lively faith, will also 
 add his hearty “ amen! and even so come Lord 
 Jesus !” 
 
INFERENCE 
 
 FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID, 
 
 HAVING thus, in as brief a manner as the 
 subject would admit, taken a general view of the 
 scripture testimony, as contained in the old and new 
 testaments, to this essential doctrine of the Christian, 
 revelation; and attended to the many uniform pro- 
 phetic declarations concerning it, as the grand lead- 
 ing event on which all the rest depend ; holding it 
 up as the chief object of our faith and hope, we are 
 prepared to draw the natural conclusion, that Jesus 
 Christ, the same yesterday, to day and forever, has 
 been the great subject of all the revelations, made by 
 God to his people from the beginning of the world ; 
 and that all the provisions for the general instruc- 
 tion and support of the church and people of God, 
 during their pilgrimage in this world, have tended to 
 the same end, as clearly appears from the nature and 
 complection of the whole taken together. It is now 
 pretty generally agreed, that, the very particular and 
 express communication of things that were certainly 
 to come to pass, supernaturally made to the beloved 
 disciple John, when under a cruel and severe banish- 
 ment to the desert island of Patmos, was made, and 
 ordered to be written for the support and comfort of 
 the servants of Jesus Christ, during the fiery trials 
 
144 INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID. 
 
 they were to undergo for almost two thousand years. 
 In these, their faith without such revelation, would 
 have been more exposed, and put to a severer test, 
 than was compatible with human strength. And 
 although this prophecy or vision of St. John, has 
 been in some measure a sealed book for ages past, as 
 to times and seasons predicted in it, yet it has an- 
 swered the original design, by affording the most 
 strengthening and lively encouragement and consola- 
 tion to the faithful martyrs and servants of Jesus 
 Christ, in their extreme sufferings and persecutions, 
 since he has left this earth, in having revealed posi- 
 tively and minutely, the different states of the church 
 during this gloomy period, also the final and joyful 
 victory of the lamb, that was slain from the founda- 
 tion of the world, together with the glorious state of 
 his bride, the church triumphant, at his second advent 
 in glory ; when he shall come attended by his holy 
 angels, and all those his saints who have suffered for 
 his name’s sake. 
 
 In the delivery of the prophecies relating to the 
 church, as recorded by Daniel, the command is ex- 
 pressly made to him, that they should be sealed up, 
 (that is, not made known) till the time of the end, 
 which has already appeared to mean the end of the 
 fourth or Roman government.* — Indeed the nature 
 
 * Mr Lowth on the xiii. 4*. Daniel, says , u to shut up a book 
 and to seal it, is the same with concealing the sense of it — 
 and the same reason is assigned in both places, for this com- 
 mand, viz. because there would be a long interval of time be- 
 
INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID, 445 
 
 of the prophecies relative to the suffering state of the 
 i church, rendered this in a great measure necessary : 
 1st to keep up the expectation and support the hopes 
 of God’s people, without disappointing the one, by 
 the distance of the objects referred to, in a human 
 view; or exposing the other unnecessarily, to the 
 contumely and reproach of their own cruel and in- 
 veterate enemies — Sdly to keep the opposers of God’s 
 people in the dark, as to the principal object of the 
 faith of the church, and the certainty of the times of 
 their accomplishment, that seeing, they should seer 
 and not perceive ; and hearing, they should hear and 
 not understand. — Hereby all attempts to prevent 
 their fulfilment might be rendered nugatory, by which 
 the faithful might have been exposed to greater 
 trials and sufferings during the necessary progress of 
 the events, thus foretold — 3dly to exercise and im- 
 prove the faith of the members of the church militant, 
 
 tween the date of the prophecy and the final accomplishment 
 ■—but the nearer that time approached, the more light should 
 men have for understanding the prophecy itself, as is implied 
 in the following words : “ many shall run to and fro, and 
 knowledge shall be increased,” that is, many shall be inquisi- 
 tive after truth, and keep correspondence with others for their 
 better information ; and the gradual completion of this, and, > 
 other prophecies, shall direct observing readers to form a 
 judgment concerning those particulars which are yet to be 
 fulfilled. 
 
 The xii. 4, of Daniel, is thus translated in the Morsels of 
 Criticism as being more literal than our version , <e seal the 
 book, even till the time of the completion; till many shall in- 
 struct, and knowledge shall abound,” 
 
Idtf INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SA1B. 
 
 and to keep them employed in searching the scrip- 
 tures, and learning the mind of the spirit of God, by 
 Whom they were to be conducted through the wilder- 
 ness of this world to the heavenly Canaan, which 
 shall be consummated at the victorious appearance of 
 their Lord and Saviour in glory. 
 
 But when the time of the end should draw nigh, 
 that is, the decline and downfal of the fourth or Ro- 
 man government, which is also called the latter time 
 *»-the last times — being the last monarch or govern- 
 ment revealed to Nebuchadnezzar, then the spirit 
 of God changes the language, and positively asserts 
 by way of encouragement to the servants of God, 
 a none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise 
 shall understand.” 
 
 Mr Thomas Parker, a divine of New-England, 
 who wrote a treatise on Daniel’s prophecy, about 
 150 years ago, says, u those mysteries, (especially 
 those about the times of Anti-Christ) God intended 
 to conceal and hide for a certain time, and only to 
 reveal the same in the last times. Unto this place 
 our Saviour seems to have respect when he saith, 1 
 that no man knoweth the day and hour, no not even 
 the angels in heaven, but the Father only. See also 
 Acts i ch. 7th verse. Wherefore Chirst exhorted that 
 age, that they would be watchful because they knew 
 not the time of the end, forasmuch as it was to b« 
 hidden from those ages, lest the long distance of time 
 being known, should hinder the duty of watchful- 
 ness. But in the time of the end, it seemeth it is to 
 
INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAIB. 
 
 fee revealed, not unto the world, on whom the end 
 shall come as a thief in the night, especially at the 
 last end of the last times ,* but unto the saints, unto 
 those who are genuine Christians and honest inquirers 
 after truth.”* 
 
 If Daniel was accepted of God, in his earnest seek, 
 ing and prayer for, or on account of the captivity of his 
 people; and God as an additional reward to his piety 
 
 * The sense in which the apostles apprehended and employ- 
 ed the term, “ the last times,” is not altogether free from ambi- 
 guity. A comparison of the accounts delivered by the re- 
 spective evangelists induce a belief that the destruction of Je- 
 rusalem and the days immediately preceding it, were intend- 
 ed by Christ as typical, in their circumstances and character 
 of his second coming; and that by a mysterious phraseology, 
 neither unusual nor improper in matters of prophecy, the pre- 
 dictions of the one were involved in those of the other — sup- 
 posing, therefore, the apostles to have borrowed from their di- 
 vine master, the intelligence they possessed on this important 
 subject, it will cease to be surprising, that after his example, 
 they should have blended and complicated the two distant 
 visitations in one and the same prediction. Nor does it ap- 
 pear necessary, from the nature or design of prophecy, that 
 even those who are made the instruments of delivering it, 
 should apprehend the full and distinct application of all its 
 parts. It is sufficient (it should seem) for the integrity and 
 propriety of their character, as well as for the faithful dis- 
 charge of their mission, that their minds should be elevated to 
 a tone corresponding with the dignity of their subject; and 
 that they understood so much of the events themselves as 
 might render them subservient to the schemes of that provi- 
 dence whose ministering spirits they w r ere.” 
 
 Owen’s Christian monitor, page 2. 
 
148 INFERENCE PROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID, 
 
 was pleased to show it, by revealing to him the states 
 of his church for thousands of years then to come, 
 when he sought not for it ; why may not we have 
 holy boldness and confidence before him, on whom 
 the fulness of time, or the time of the end is begin- 
 ning to come. 
 
 St. John introduces his apocalypse, with these 
 cmphatical words, u Messed is he who readeth, (it 
 must be with understanding and application) and 
 they who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep 
 those things which are written therein, for the time is 
 at hand;” and he adds in his address to the seven 
 churches of Asia, this strong sentence, i( he who 
 hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the 
 churches.” Why, or for what reason, should the 
 church of God read and hear, if it was not to under- 
 stand? How was any one to be blessed, if this book 
 was not to be understood? It surely was intend- 
 ed, that the faithful believer should thereby gain 
 knowledge of the Omniscience, care and protection 
 of Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, to all who 
 should suffer in his cause, as well as have confidence in 
 the promises of his word. — John repeats this sum- 
 mons to the churches six times during this address, 
 (i he that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit 
 saith unto the churches; and afterwards in the xxii. 
 0. proceeds to tell us the words of the angel, “ and 
 he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true; 
 and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his 
 apgel to show unto his servants the things that must 
 
INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID. 119 
 
 shortly be done : behold ! I come quickly, blessed is 
 he who Iceepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this 
 book, for the time is at hand” Add to this, the 
 words of our blessed Lord himself, il and there shall 
 be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the 
 stars, (or among the kings, queens aud nobles of 
 Europe) and upon the earth distress of nations with 
 perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring, (or wars, 
 anarchy and confusion, with great commotion and 
 distress among the common people) — men’s hearts 
 failing them for fear, and for looking after those 
 things which are coming on the earth ; for the powers 
 of heaven (or the political and religious constitutions 
 of the nations) shall be shaken. Watch, therefore, 
 for ye know not what hour your Lord will come — 
 therefore, be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye 
 think not, the son of man cometh ;” and when these 
 things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift 
 up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh ; 
 and he spake to them a parable; behold the fig-tree, 
 and all the trees ; when they now shoot forth, you 
 see and know of your ownselves, that summer is 
 nigh at hand ; so likewise, when ye see these things 
 come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is 
 nigh at hand.* 
 
 If then the servants of Jesus Christ, are to keep 
 the sayings of the prophecy of this book, and the 
 things that are written therein, — to hear what the 
 spirit saith to the churches— to look up— to watch — • 
 
 * Luke, sxi. 25 , to 35 . 
 
450 INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID. 
 
 to be ready for the event— to lift up their heads, 
 when these things begin to eome to pass, and to re- 
 joice, knowing that their redemption draweth nigh; 
 it must be from the knowledge, not of the day or the 
 year when their Lord shall appear, but when these 
 things begin to come to pass ; that is, when they per- 
 ceive signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the 
 stars, (that is, among the nations of Europe) and 
 upon the earth, or among the people at large, or the 
 distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the 
 waves roaring, &c. — This knowledge can only be 
 obtained by a careful and attentive examination of 
 the scriptures, searching therein with the same avidi- 
 ty and earnestness, which men use in digging and 
 searching for hidden treasures, and comparing the 
 historic facts that happen in the world, with them, 
 and at the same time, watching the providences of 
 God as the peculiar directory in this great event* — 
 Thus must we endeavor to hear and understand, 
 what the spirit hath said unto the churches, f and 
 which has been written for our instruction; at least 
 so far as respects the main design and end of them, 
 the second advent of our Lord in glory. 
 
 * It is 11 by tracing our knowledge of the divine will through 
 a series of consistent prophecies, instructions and records, that 
 faith, reason and history will unite to form that triple cord 
 which shall never be broken from the anchor of our Christian 
 hope.” Kett. 
 
 f In the text it is “ saith unto the churches,” and by being 
 thus put in the present tense may mean, what the spirit con- 
 tinually saith unto the churches, as if he was always incul- 
 cating it on them- 
 
INFERENCE EROJfr WHAT HAS BEEN SAIB. 1 51 
 
 By these means, we may expect to honor God in 
 the world, and become really, and essentially useful 
 to our generation. — Hear the gracious invitation and 
 encouragement given in Isaiah, xlv. 11. “ Thus saith 
 the Lord, the holy one of Israel and his maker, ask 
 me of things to come, concerning my sons, and con- 
 cerning the works of mine hands command ye me;” 
 and in Psalms, cvii. last verse, “ whoso is wise, 
 and will observe these things, (eventually) shall un- 
 derstand the loving-kindness of the Lord ;” and in 
 Jeremiah, xxxiii. 3. “ call unto me, and I will 
 answer, and shew thee great tilings, which thou 
 knowest not.” 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton does not hesitate to say, u that 
 if the last age — the age of opening these things, be 
 now approaching, as by the great successes of late 
 interpreters it seems to be, we have more encourage- 
 ment than ever to look into these things. 
 
 If the general preaching of the gospel be approach- 
 ing, it is to us and our posterity, that these words 
 mainly belong, u in the time of the end, the wise 
 shall understand; blessed is he who readefch and 
 they who hear the words of this pfopheey, and keep 
 those things which are written therein.” As the few 
 and obscure prophecies concerning Christ’s first 
 coming, were for setting up the Christian religion, 
 which all nations have since corrupted ; so the many 
 and clear prophecies concerning the things to be done 
 at Christ’s second coming, are not only for predict- 
 ing, but also for effecting a recovery and re-estab 
 
152 INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAIDV 
 
 iisl.ment of this long lost truth and setting up a king- 
 dom, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The event 
 will prove the apocalypse, and this prophecy thus 
 proved and understood will open the old prophets, 
 and all together will make known the true religion 
 and establish it — for he that will understand the old 
 prophets, must begin with the revelation ; but the 
 time is not yet come for understanding them perfectly; 
 because the main revolution predicted in them, is 
 not yet come to pass. u In the days of the voice of 
 the seventh angel, when lie shall begin to sound , the 
 mystery of God shall be finished as he has declared 
 to his servants the prophets.* There is already so 
 much of the prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will 
 take pains in this study, may see sufficient instances 
 of God’s providence; but then the signal revolution 
 predicted by all the holy prophets, will at once, both 
 turn men’s minds upon considering the predictions 
 and plainly interpret them.”f Even Plutarch could 
 say from Zoroaster (who is said to have been a ser- 
 vant of Ezra the Jewish priest,) “ there must be a 
 total revolution in the world, to happen in a certain 
 time appointed, which is to be at the end of six thou- 
 sand years — that, in that revolution all the present 
 states are to be destroyed, that the earth may become 
 plain and even — that is, all rule, and all authority 
 must be put down to make an equality among men, 
 who are therefore to have but one society— that men 
 
 * Revelations, chap. x. 7th verse. 
 
 f Newton Proph. 251—2. 
 
INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID. 108 
 
 are to be happy and of one temper; that is, must 
 live in peace and without war — men are not to want 
 food — that is, they will have spiritual and incorrupt- 
 ible bodies, and they will make no shade.”* Can any 
 man hesitate to conclude that Zoroaster had some 
 knowledge of the prophecies of the scriptures. 
 
 From these strong encouragements, we may safe- 
 ly conclude, that it is agreeable to the mind and will 
 of God, that his people should enquire in these latter 
 times, and lend a listening ear “ to what the spirit 
 hath said to the churches,” relative to their great sal- 
 vation, “ of which the prophets have enquired and 
 searched diligently, (an example to 11s who enjoy so 
 much greater light) who prophesied of the grace that 
 should come unto us, searching what manner of time 
 the spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, 
 when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ, 
 and the glory that should follow ; unto W 7 kom it was 
 revealed, that not unto themselves, hut unto us they 
 did minister the things which are now reported unto 
 you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, 
 with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven, which, 
 things, even the angels desire to look into.”f 
 
 Christ reproved the Jews for neglecting this duty; 
 <* 0 ye hypocrites (who made a great profession of 
 waiting and looking for the coming of the Messiah 
 foretold by their prophets, with the time of his coming) 
 ye can discern the face of the skies, but can ye not 
 
 * Daubuz, 920. 
 
 t 1st epist. Pet. i ch. 10 and 11 verses. 
 
 Y 
 
164 Inference from what has been said. 
 
 discern the signs of the times ?”* And afterwards he 
 warns his disciples “to take heed to themselves lest at 
 any time their hearts should be overcharged with sur- 
 feiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and 
 so that day should come upon them unawares.”! And 
 again, “ take heed that no man deceive you.” 
 
 All these ideas are particularly urged throughout 
 the epistles of Peter, and they contain strong argu- 
 ments for exerting the faith and zeal of God’s people, 
 in looking into his promises to the church in the last 
 times, or the end of the Homan Hierarchy (both tem- 
 poral and spiritual) when such severe trials and suf- 
 ferings arc predicted as to make it the duty of the 
 faithful to pray to be hidden “ till the indignation he 
 overpast — and also that those days may be shortened, 
 otherwise no flesh would be saved.” 
 
 But all this should be done in deep humility of 
 soul, with a pure and teachable temper of mind, de- 
 pending upon the powerful aids of the same almigh- 
 ty spirit, who dictated these prophecies for the con- 
 solation of the church of God while in the wilderness 5 
 and looking to him for light and knowledge, as the 
 only original source from whence it can be derived. 
 Thus we may proceed without fearing to offend the 
 great subject and end of these prophecies, who con- 
 cludes that to St. John by saying, “ I Jesus have 
 sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in 
 
 * Matth. ch. xvi. 3d verse. 
 
 t Luke, xxi. 24; 
 
 i ■ 
 
INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS EEEN SAID. 18S 
 
 the churches — and he who testifieth these things 
 saith, surely I come quickly.”* 
 
 Let us then with a lively faith and humble fear, 
 
 * If it should be objected, that this is a vain enquiry, after the 
 declaration of our Saviour, “ that concerning that day and hour, 
 knoweth no man, no not the angels of Heaven, butmy Father on- 
 ly” — -Edward King gives a sufficient answer to this objection- 
 lie says, “ To apply these words to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 which was to happen whilst some of the persons, who heard 
 the words, were still living, must be very strange and improp* 
 er indeed; since we know that it was our Lord’s professed in- 
 tention, that the believers should be warned to escape and save 
 themselves by flight, which they actually did — and to apply 
 these words to our Lord’s seeond coming, as their sole final in- 
 tention, seems no less strange, when throughout the prophecies 
 of the New-Testament, so many notices are given to us that 
 there is a fixed period, about which time the second great ad- 
 vent is to be expected ; and when both Daniel and John, even 
 gives us certain limits and numbers, by means of which, those 
 who are skillful in understanding the words of prophecy, 
 may be enabled to form some near guesses and well founded 
 j expectations. 
 
 These words must then surely in their ultimate and most 
 important signification, refer to what the disciples originally 
 meant to enquire after, to wit, the end of the world, or the end 
 and perfecting of the day of judgment; or the total destruction 
 of the present scene of things here on earth; which so far 
 j from being connected either with the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 or the second coming of our Lord, that although it be an event 
 which is really to come to pass, yet it is indeed at so vast a 
 distance, that even the angels of heaven who excel in knowl- 
 edge, cannot at present, limit the period. For surely if the 
 day of judgment, (when the kingdoms of this world shall he? 
 
166 INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID. 
 
 search into , and examine the meaning of the spirit 
 of God, by the many important and interesting facts 
 foretold iu the xith chapter of the apocalypse or reve- 
 lation of the beloved disciple John, who was so 
 greatly favored above his fellows. — It contains an 
 epitome of all the times or periods mentioned in that 
 heavenly book ; and if these indeed, should turn out 
 to be the latter times, or the last times, intended by. 
 Daniel and St. John, it must be of essential conse- 
 quence to the church of Christ, that their attention 
 should be called to consider, treasure up, and hold 
 in continual view, these great events as the seals and 
 evidences of the truth and certainty of their hope 
 and confidence, during the dangerous and distressing 
 times, which may now be at the very door. 
 
 The surest, and best, guide and interpreter will 
 be the meaning of the spirit of God in the original 
 places of the old testament, from whence the prophet 
 
 Come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his anointed ruler) be 
 a period when judgment shall be so executed, as to place 
 every soul in its proper lot ; and to perfect that great and 
 glorious scene of things, for the sake of which, this world 
 was originally creaied, in order perhaps that spirits might be 
 trained up and accustomed to righteousness and holiness, and 
 made acquainted with scenes of glory, even here, previous 
 to their translation to the heavens hereafter, it is much more 
 rational to conclude, that this scene when once perfected oa 
 earth, shall continue as long at least, if not longer, than the 
 unfinished, deranged scene, which has prevailed and been ex- 
 hibited on earth, during the ages from the days of Adam to 
 this hour. 
 
BNEEKENeE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID. $6^ 
 
 ami apostle have taken their examples : for it is 
 worthy of remark, that almost every figure in the 
 revelation of St. John, may be found in that sacred 
 volume; and it may fairly be presumed, that by the 
 same figurative language, in cases unfulfilled, is meant 
 the same things that was originally intended by those 
 which are known to be fulfilled. 
 
 Hence, it becomes necessary to understand the 
 nature of the figurative language of the scriptures, 
 which in general must be attended to, and explained 
 by itself, and therefore is worthy of a few prelimi- 
 nary observations, as it is a subject sometimes not 
 sufficiently attended to, but passed by unnoticed.* 
 
 * Vide Jones on the figurative language of the seriptures, 
 to whom! am indebted for much of the following observations. 
 
ON THE 
 
 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SCRIPTURES. 
 
 WHEN the eternal God, who is the great 
 first sovereign cause of all things, aud who is not 
 obliged to give an account of, or reason for, his con- 
 duct to any of his creatures, condescends of his own 
 mere good pleasure, to instruct and teacli mankind, 
 his infinite wisdom takes the surest and most likely 
 method of accomplishing his divine purpose, iu a way 
 consistent with the free agency of man, and the great 
 plan of his original creation. — The divine scriptures 
 contain this mode of instruction, which the great 
 author of nature has adopted for the recovery of the 
 fallen race of Adam; and as they were designed for 
 all times, and for every nation, as a universal in- 
 structor, it was necessary they should be conceived 
 in a universal language ; this could be no other, than 
 that of nature; and as the design of the scriptures is 
 to teach us the invisible things of God, which are not 
 the objects of our senses, but of faith and hope; it be- 
 came absolutely necessary that they should be com- 
 municated by the medium of natural things, which 
 are the objects of our senses ; by which means every 
 ' W i’rs v W'-' 39 
 
169 
 
 ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, &C. 
 
 sensible object becomes a letter or syllable, of this 
 profitable language, and that to all nations, languages 
 and tongues, teaching the invisible things of God, by 
 the things that are made. Therefore, as Mr Taylor 
 says, hieroglyphics which represent the sense of the 
 mind, by outward figures or actions, were the first 
 and most aneient literature. 
 
 te The prophetic style (says the late learned bishop 
 of Gloucester) was constructed on the symbolic prin- 
 ciples of- the hieroglyphics, which were not vague, un- 
 certain things, but fixed and constant analogies, de- 
 terminable in their own nature, or from the steady 
 use that was made of them ; and a language formed 
 on such principles, may be reasonably interpreted 
 upon them.”* And in another place, he says, “ For 
 as in hieroglyphic writing, the sun, moon and stars 
 were used to represent states, and empires, kings, 
 queens and nobility; their eclipse and extinction, 
 temporary disasters, or entire overthrows, &c. so in 
 like manner the holy prophets call kings and empires 
 by the names of the heavenly luminaries ; their mis- 
 fortunes and overthrow are represented by eclipses 
 and extinction; stars falling from the firmament arc 
 employed to denote the destruction of the nobility, 
 &e. In a word, the prophetic style seems to be a 
 speaking hieroglyphic.”! 
 
 Dr. Johnson of Holy wood says on the same sub- 
 ject, i( alphabetical characters and words are not 
 
 * Divine Leg. of Mos. vol. page 90. 
 
 t Ibid, Lib. 4, sect. 4. 
 
470 
 
 ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE 
 
 natural, but are only arbitrary signs, and therefore 
 may and do change, with the changes of times and 
 of men; but hieroglyphics and symbols, are either 
 pictures of things actually existing, or of ideas which 
 these things naturally excite, and therefore not arbitra- 
 ry, but natural signs, fixed and permanent as the thiugs 
 themselves — For the same reason, the symbolical is 
 a universal language — Every alphabetical language, 
 is loose and changeable ; for instance, the Greek, Lat- 
 in, Italian, Spanish, French and English languages 
 were, or are, each the language of a particular dis- 
 trict of territory, and are altogether unintelligible 
 to the illiterate inhabitants of any other district; 
 and they have all undergone such changes, that 
 the language of one period, is scarcely intelligi- 
 ble to the inhabitants of the same country in another 
 period of time : since then prophecies are intended 
 for all countries and ages? the symbolical language 
 being universal and unchangeable, must for such a 
 purpose, be the best adapted.* 
 
 Hence the figurative language of the holy scrip- 
 tures, is the only language that could possibly answer 
 the purpose, as extending to all mankind in every 
 age and generation ; and as an elegant writer ex- 
 presses hiniself, u we find it assisting and leading 
 our faculties forward, by an application of all visible 
 objects to a figurative sense, from the glorious orb 
 which shines in the firmament, to a grain of seed 
 which is buried in the earth.” 
 
 * Introd. fol. 5. 
 
©F THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 471 
 
 When Epaminondas was opposing a number of 
 «onfederate nations, Qnited under the Spartans as 
 their head, he wished to conviuce his soldiers of the 
 necessity of their greatest exertions against the Spar- 
 tans particularly, as the only effectual means of ac- 
 complishing their design of full and complete vic- 
 tory, he took a great serpent, in the presence of his 
 army, and bruising its head, shewed them, that there- 
 by, the rest of the body was of no force.* 
 
 The story of Joseph’s dream of the sun, moon and 
 eleven stars doing obeisance to him is full in point. 
 Which see. 
 
 The tribe of Judah is represented by a young lion. 
 Issachar by a strong ass. Dan by a serpent lurking 
 in the road, and so of the other patriarchs. 
 
 This may serve to shew the nature of this hiero- 
 glyphical language. The Jews understood this man- 
 ner of writing, being the learning of that age ; and it 
 made a greater impression than abstract reasoning, 
 however well conducted. So the government of the 
 world by divine providence and his extraordinary 
 interposition in favor of good men, is represented by 
 a ladder, standing upon the earth, and reaching to 
 heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it, 
 to receive and execute the orders of God. 
 
 Thus our Saviour himself i( taught the people in 
 parables, and without a parable taught he them 
 
 * Polycen. Stratag. lib. 2. 
 
 3 
 
173 ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE 
 
 nothing.” The scriptures then are a universal teach- 
 er — have a language of their own ; and must there- 
 fore be studied and learned, on their own principles, 
 if they are expeeted to be properly understood; and 
 as the same learned author beautifully expresses it, 
 (i when God speaks of things which are above nature, 
 his meaning must be received by a faculty which is 
 not the gift of nature, but superadded to nature by 
 the gift of God himself. For spiritual truth there 
 must be a spiritual sense, and the scriptures call this 
 sense by the name of faith.” 
 
 The law in its sacrifices and services lias a shadow 
 of good tilings to come. Its history is an allegory — 
 God, throughout the Old-Testament, uses similitudes 
 by his prophets — Christ speaks in parables. Iu a 
 word, the whole dispensation of God towards man, 
 is by signs, shadows, and figures of visible things. 
 The law of Moses ; the Psalms ; the Prophets ; the 
 gospels and the epistles; and most of all the revelations 
 of St. John, use and teach the figurative language ; 
 and therefore in the use and interpretation of it must 
 consist the wisdom of those, who are taught of God. 
 <£ Here is the mind that hath wisdom, the seven heads 
 are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth.” 
 
 The apostle indeed expressly speaketh of the wis- 
 dom of God in a mystery, and of the hidden wisdom 
 — this clearly means the revelation of divine truth by 
 some external figure, by which the spiritual meaning 
 may be understood. — Thus the mystery of the seven 
 stars, were the angels of the seven churches; and 
 
©F THE SCRIFTURES. I7i 
 
 the mystery of the seven candlesticks were the seven 
 churches. 
 
 It may not be amiss to add here, the observation 
 of another learned writer, of importance in the future 
 investigation of our subject. “ The sacred oracles are 
 penned with such a divine art and supernatural wis- 
 dom, that at the same time the latter indicates the 
 outward facts and prodigies which happened upon 
 the visible theatre of the world ; the spiritual sense 
 contains all the mysteries of religion and providence 
 in the invisible world. Thus St. Paul says, “that 
 the history of Hagar was an allegory — that Melchis- 
 edeck, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, and all 
 the patriarchs, were types of the Messiali — that all 
 the rites, ordinances, and sacrifices of the antient law, 
 were symbolical either of the inward sacrifice of the 
 passions, or of the great sacrifice of the mediator; 
 and in fine that there is a spiritual Egypt — a heaven- 
 ly Canaan and a new Jerusalem, represented by 
 a terrestrial Egypt, Canaan and Jerusalem.” 
 
 Such indeed is the excellence of the sacred stile, 
 that it is accommodated to our capacities — it delights 
 our imagination, and leads us into all truth by the 
 pleasantest way — it improves the natural world into 
 a witness of our faith — it transfigures us from natural 
 into spiritual men, and gives us a foretaste of the 
 glorious presence of God. If these then are its effects, 
 it must be of infinite value to particular persons in 
 their several studies and professions. And it is also 
 well observed elsewhere, “ that God can speak of 
 
174 
 
 ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE 
 
 heaven and earth by the same word, and describe both 
 the visible and invisible effects of his grace by the 
 same thing — his wisdom is not only multiform, but 
 of every form — all forms, ideal, natural, and spiritual 
 express this wisdom, exist by it, and in it are bne — 
 he is their alpha and omega — the beginning of all 
 things and their end.” 
 
 In this figurative language and with these advanta- 
 ges in view, St. John the suffering disciple of Jesus 
 Christ,* is taught to write his vision; and in the 
 
 * In addition to llie testimony given in this work, that the 
 beloved disciple was the author of the revelation, )t may not 
 be unacceptable to add a sentence out of Air Mede’s works on 
 the subject — speaking of the revelations and its wonderful 
 prophecy, he says, “ This was so plainly perceived by the 
 Christians of the next age after the apostles, that Justin Mar- 
 tyr witnesseth that not only himself, but if there were at that 
 time any entirely orthodox Christians, they did with full con- 
 sent believe it. Which opinion of the first Christians, their 
 successors after an age or two rejected, either because it was 
 corrupted by some additions, or (as indeed I suppose) not 
 rightly understood, notwithstanding the heat of contention 
 being proceeded in so far, before the matter could be brought 
 to an end (which thou mayest justly admire and grieve at) 
 that w hoso could not ot herwise quit themselves from the force 
 of the contrary opinion!, borne up by the foundation of the re- 
 velation, would rather call into question the most divine pro- 
 phecy witnessed and sealed both by all the disciples of the apos- 
 tles and their next successors; yea and by presumptions feigned 
 for that purpose openly and boldly extenuate the authority 
 thereof, rather than yield and submit; till at length having 
 gotten a fit interpretation (as they themselves then supposed) 
 of this thousand years, yielding the revelation to be canoni- 
 sal, they desisted from their impious and fearful enterprise.” 
 
0F THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 475 
 
 spirit of the whole scriptures, might properly be 
 stiled a revelation of particulars, with regard to the 
 great designs of divine providence, relative to his 
 church and people, from that time, till their complete 
 redemption at the second coming of their Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ in glory; this great event the 
 divine apostle seems to have designed to warn the 
 churches of, in order to comfort and encourage them 
 amidst the extreme tribulation and distress that he 
 saw must come on the church in every part of the 
 world, at the same time that it would be very terrible 
 to their enemies ; he seems also to design it as a 
 subject of continual meditation to the church, lest the 
 advent of the Saviour might take her unawares and 
 prove a snare to her, being unexpected and she un- 
 prepared. 
 
 Our Lord himself appeared to his beloved disciple 
 in the midst of the golden candlesticks, emblematic 
 of his churches, to show that he is always in the 
 midst of them ; governs, sees, and knows every thing 
 that passes therein. 
 
 This eleventh chapter of the revelation is, as has 
 been before observed, a recapitulation of the vision iti 
 its full extent, whether represented by the trumpets 
 or vials — Having finished one representation of the 
 general design ; before he proceeds to another \ iew of 
 the same dispensations of providence, the spirit of 
 God gives a brief sketch, or contents, of the whole 
 plan of infinite wisdom, by way of abstract or pros- 
 pectus contained in one chapter. By these means a 
 
176 ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, &C. 
 
 complete view of the principal and leading facts might 
 be comprehended, and easily retained in the mem- 
 ory ; by which the certain controul of the great gov- 
 ernor of his church over all future events, however 
 complicated, might be clearly seen, confided in, and 
 trusted to, by all his people. This chapter is par- 
 ticularly worthy of consideration, as it is not the sub- 
 ject of a vision as the former part, but was told to 
 John by an angel, personating Christ himself; u and 
 the angel stood, saying, rise and measure the temple 
 of God — and i will give power unto my two wit- 
 nesses. 57 &c. 
 
 It is for these reasons, that I have selected the first 
 15 verses of this chapter, as containing the essential 
 parts of all the other vision of the apostle, as related 
 by him in detail, throughout the apocalypse; and 
 shows the states of the church, till the times of the 
 Gentiles shall be fulfilled, or till the sou of man 
 shall come in his glory, which has been shown to have 
 been the great end of prophecy and revelation. — 
 The facts contained in this chapter, though not de- 
 signed to make prophets of the people of God by 
 their foretelling things to come, yet will enable the 
 wise among them, when those facts do come to pass, 
 to understand, and will lead them towards the latter 
 end of the last times to take a retrospective view of 
 past events — adore and reverence the infinite wis- 
 dom of God, which has foretold them before they 
 came to pass — and thereby they will be able to un- 
 derstand and explain the whole interesting drama re- 
 lative to the church for twelve hundred and sixty years. 
 
THE 11th CHAP. OP REVELATIONS, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 AN EPITOME OF THE WHOLE BOOK. 
 
 THIS chapter begins with representing the 
 apostle in conference with an angel. 
 
 1st verse — And there was given me a reed like 
 unto a rod; and the angel stood, saying, rise and 
 measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them 
 who worship therein. 
 
 2d. But the court which is without the temple, 
 leave out and measure it not, for it is given unto the 
 Gentiles ; and the holy city, shall they tread under 
 foot, forty and two months. 
 
 3d. And I will give power to my two witnesses, 
 and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and 
 three score clays, clothed in sackcloth. 
 
 4th. These are the two olive-trees, and the two 
 candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 
 
 5th. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceed- 
 ed! out of their mouth and devonreth their enemies ; 
 and if any man will hurt them, he must in this man- 
 ner be killed. 
 
 6th. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain 
 not in the days of their prophecy; and have power 
 
THE 11th CHAPTER 
 
 17* 
 
 over waters,, to turn them to blood ; and to smite the 
 earth with all plagues, so often as they will. 
 
 7th. And when they shall have finished their tes- 
 timony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless 
 pit, shall make war against them; and shall over- 
 come them ; and kill them. 
 
 8th. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street 
 of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom, 
 anil Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 
 
 9th. And they of the people, and kindreds, and 
 tongues and nations, shall see their dead bodies, 
 three days and an half ; and shall not suffer their 
 dead bodies to be put in graves. 
 
 10th. And they that dwell upon the earth, shall 
 rejoice over them ; and shall make merry and send 
 gifts one to another, because these two prophets tor- 
 mented them that dwelt on the earth. 
 
 11th. And after three days and an half, the spir- 
 it of life from God, entered into them ; and they 
 stood upon their feet ; and great fear fell upon them 
 who saw them. 
 
 12th. And they heard a great voice from heaven 
 saying unto them, come up hither; and they ascend- 
 ed up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld 
 them. 
 
 13th. And the same hour, was there a great earth- 
 quake, and the tenth part of the city fell ; and in the 
 earthquake were, slain (the names of, as it is in the 
 
OF THE REVELATIONS. 479 
 
 original) men seven thousand ; and the remnant were 
 affrighted, and gave glory to the God of Heaven. 
 
 14th. The second woe is past; and behold the 
 third woe cometh quickly. 
 
 15th. And the 7th angel sounded, 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 forever and ever. 
 
 The first vision of the divine apostle was finished 
 at the seventh verse of the preceding chapter, after 
 the seven thunders had uttered their voices; and the 
 apostle was ordered to seal up those things which he 
 had heard from these thunders, and not to write them, 
 as being improper then to be revealed ; but lest it 
 should be concluded from this secrecy, that they con= 
 tained the final issue of all temporal things ; the angel 
 to prevent this construction, swears by him that 
 livetli forever, that the time (of the events contained in 
 the seven thunders) was not yet, as it is in the original, 
 but that the prophet should prophecy again, before, 
 or concerning many people, &c. which was as much 
 as to say, that this favorite of heaven was to proceed in 
 his prophecies to a still remoter period, relative to the 
 events aud conduct of other governments and people, 
 which should come to pass previous to those related 
 in the seven thunders. — After this, how long is not 
 mentioned, the apostle is again favored by his master, 
 w ith a new vision in confirmation of the former, and 
 containing the same events in substance, but under 
 
THE 11th CHAPTER 
 
 ISO 
 
 different figures — in the same manner, as under tha 
 old testament, had been communicated in different 
 ways both to Nebuchadnezzar and to Daniel, in order 
 to render the prophecy the more certain. 
 
 Tiie voice that he had before heard from heaven, 
 spoke to him again, and commanded him “ to go and 
 take the little book from the hands of the angel, and eat 
 it up, and it should be sweet in his mouth, but bitter in 
 his belly.” — That is, the knowledge he should receive 
 of the intentions of Jesus Christ, with regard to his 
 church, from time to time, till his second advent, 
 with the certainty of that blessed event, would be 
 matter of great support, joy and consolation to his 
 faith and patience, yet the extreme distresses, miseries, 
 and cruel persecutions, foretold in this little book, 
 as those which would necessarily precede and attend 
 his glorious appearance, would exceedingly pain and 
 distress this beloved disciple’s benevolent soul. 
 
 The angel then proceeds to order him to rise, and 
 with the rod that was given to him, to measure the 
 temple of God, and the altar ; and them who worship 
 therein; as in the 1st verse. 
 
 This figure is taken from the 40th chapter of the 
 prophet Ezekiel, and was designed for the encour- 
 agement of the people of God, as predictive of their 
 ultimate security, whatever their present sufferings 
 might be, being his true and spiritual worshippers and 
 who lived according to the divine rule — But as in the 
 Sd verse— -the court that was without the temple, was 
 to be left out, and was not to be measured, or pro- 
 
OF THE REVELATIONS. 
 
 181 
 
 tected ; but was to be given up to the Gentiles ; and th® 
 holy city (or church of Christ,) was to be trodden un- 
 der foot, for forty-two months or twelve hundred and 
 6ixty days, which always in prophetical language 
 signifies as many years — By this, was intended to 
 be shown the visible church of Christ in the pos* 
 session of idolators, like the church of the Gentiles, 
 and unfit for divine measure ; so that it would, under 
 the apostaey of the man of sin, be in the power of 
 its enemies during this period, in which, although 
 his people should suffer greatly, yet really and in th© 
 end, the mere nominal professor should be given up 
 to destruction, while they should be purified and mad© 
 white in the blood of the Lamb. — The figure is taken 
 from the outer court of the temple at Jerusalem, being 
 appropriated to Gentile professors only, who were 
 neither circumcised or otherwise initiated into th© 
 real congregation of the Jews ; or received any visi- 
 ble mark of union with their church, but barely pro- 
 fessed to keep the seven precepts of the sons of Noah. 
 
 The ideas of the famous and learned Joseph Mede, 
 the great expositor of the book of Revelations, on this 
 subject, are, “ that in this survey, St. John was first 
 to examine the inner court, which, by its conformity 
 to the divine measure to be applied thereto, he should 
 find to be sacred. This being done he was in the next 
 place, to survey the outer court ; which, because h© 
 should find possessed by the Gentiles and therefor® 
 not capable of th® divine measure, he was to cast or 
 
483 
 
 THE 11th CHAPTER 
 
 leave out, (ejice foras) that is, excommunicate, or 
 pronounce unsacred or polluted.* 
 
 The inner court, then measured by the divine 
 reed, is the visible church in its primitive purity, 
 (which existed near 400 years after this revelation 
 to John, which was about the year 98) when as yet 
 Christian worship was unprophaned and answerable 
 to the divine rule, as revealed from God. 
 
 The second, or outward court, represents the state 
 of apostacy under the man of sin, when the visible 
 church, being possessed by spiritual idolators during 
 4360 years, became in their public worship, so uncon- 
 formable to, and unapt for divine measure, that it wai 
 to be cast out as not sacred and Christian, but profane 
 and polluted. 
 
 After this introductory command to the apostle, 
 by which the states of the church were foretold for 
 this long period of more than seventeen hundred 
 years, from the time of the revelation to St. John; 
 the great subject of this part of the prophecy is ush- 
 ered in and detailed more minutely, yet in few words, 
 by discovering another particular that enters deeply 
 into the peculiar circumstances of the church of Christ, 
 during this same period, in the 
 
 3d verse- — And I will give power to my two wit- 
 nesses, and they shall prophecy (or as a late author 
 translates the passage more literally, 11 and I will ap- 
 
 * Vide Ezek. xliv. 6, 7, and 8, also *liii. 7. 
 
OF THE REVELATIONS. 
 
 isa 
 
 point my two witnesses to be teachers”) a thousand 
 two hundred and three-score days, cloathed in sack^ 
 
 cloth. 
 
 These two witnesses who are spoken of in such 
 a manner, as leads to the idea, that they were well 
 known to the apostle, and had a connection with the 
 church of Christ which had just been measured ; 
 and in so particular a manner as to be denominated 
 e< my two witnesses ,” that is, of Jesus Christ, were 
 to teach and instruct in a public manner, for the 
 space of ISfiO years. This also designates the state 
 of the church, as before mentioned, during which 
 period, bad as the times were to become, and violent 
 as the opposition to the spread of the gospel should 
 be, (prefigured by the church being trodden down 
 by the gentiles, that is, to remain in a very suffering 
 state) yet under every difficulty and under all her 
 persecutions, God would give or continue the power 
 of his two witnesses to prophecy, teach or instruct 
 his people during this long season, though they were 
 to be cloathed in sackcloth.* 
 
 Prophesying or teaching in saekcloth, is a figure 
 taken from the practice of mourners of that day, who 
 dressed in the coarsest clothes such as haircloth, or 
 any thing sacks were made of, used by the poor 
 
 * Sackcloth was any thing that sacks were made of, gen- 
 erally sheep or goats skins, with which prophets were clad 
 —a rough garment. Davbuz. 
 
 Tide 2d Kings, i. eh. 8th verse— ii. eh. 12 — 13. Zach. iii. 
 eh. 3d. 
 
THE lith CHAPTER 
 
 is-i 
 
 and generally by the prophets.* They often put 
 ashes also on their heads, and sometimes earth, as 
 emblematic of their humility, and considering them- 
 selves as the meanest of the people. This is design- 
 ed to show, that however reduced these witnesses 
 shall be in the common estimation, during this period 
 of darkness and declension; yet they should still be 
 the means under God, of instructing the people. 
 They should also bear a testimony for God, though 
 it should be but in a weak, complaining and mourn- 
 ful stile and manner, until the event mentioned in the 
 7th verse, that is, the finishing their testimony, should 
 take place. 
 
 But the great question of difficulty, which arises 
 on this part of the subject is, who or what are these 
 witnesses, thus mentioned with so much apparent 
 certainty and identity of designation, in this impor- 
 tant revelation. This has been a question, on which 
 the ablest men have differed so greatly, that it has 
 produced more doubt and uncertainty than any other 
 subject of this prophecy; and it is not improbable 
 but that infinite wisdom had great purposes to answer 
 by keeping this fact from being fully explained until 
 these witnesses being about to finish their prophecy, 
 should lead to the discovery. 
 
 * Daubuz says, <c the word prophecy signifies always in 
 this book, the testimony of the truth and the public profession 
 and vindication of it; which notion is derived from the use 
 »f that word among the Hebrews.” 
 
OF THE REVELATIONS. 
 
 185 
 
 Is it not necessary, that every part of a prophecy ? 
 or revelation, should be distinct and plain to every 
 observer in order that the subjects of them, should, 
 enjoy the benefit intended to be conferred, by the gen- 
 eral design of the whole scheme. As for instance, 
 if the final deliverance of the people of God from all 
 their oppressors, is made known, and firmly believed 
 in, there may be no necessity for their being made 
 acquainted with the means, manner and precise time 
 of such deliverance. Their faith and hope will be 
 sufficiently kept up and established, by their reliance 
 on the truth and power of God, and their zeal and 
 watchfulness increased and kept in continual exer- 
 cise. 
 
 It is well observed by a modern writer, i( all that 
 was possible, and all that was intended, and all that 
 was needful to be understood, by those who lived in 
 the ages before our Saviour, was, that God designed 
 by bis prophets, to keep up in the world a perpetual 
 expectation and reliance upon his promises in general, 
 that his true worshippers should be sure finally to 
 meet with an everlasting deliverance, and a Saviour 
 of whose kingdom there should be no end. This was 
 what Abraham saw afar off and was glad.” So God 
 may have desigued by the promises relative to the 
 second coming of the Messiah in glory at the finish- 
 ing of the prophecy of these witnesses in sackcloth 
 that his people depending on his veracity, should 
 look, and long and pray for this joyful event, while 
 at the same time they know and believe, from his 
 
186 
 
 THE 11th CHAPTER, &C. 
 
 express declaration, that when the time does arrive, 
 it will be to the world at large, as a thief in the 
 night, though it should be well known to his people, 
 who should diligently attend to his word, u for your- 
 selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord 
 cometh as a thief in the night.”* 
 
 We are expressly encouraged, as before observed, 
 to search into the meaning of the spirit of God in 
 these scriptures, when the time of the end shall be near 
 approaching 5 and are called upon to hear what the 
 spirit saith unto the churches ; and as this time of the 
 end, or dissolution of the Roman hierarchy and gov- 
 ernment, is apparently drawing nigh, it may not be 
 amiss to enquire how the scriptures themselves, have 
 determined the circumstances of these witnesses, as 
 connected with the finishing their prophecy or the 
 end of the 1260 years, by which u the wise may un- 
 derstand.” This may be hastened by every one 
 casting in his mite, though in many circumstances he 
 may be mistaken — a single idea from each, may at 
 last lead to the great truth. 
 
 * 1st Thess. v. ch. 2d verse 
 
THE WITNESSES, 
 
 WHO Oil WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 These witnesses then, are spoken of by St. John, 
 as known subjects, and who were then in being . — > 
 They are particularly said to be Christ’s witnesses ; 
 and therefore who had been in the habit of testifying 
 to the truth. These were to receive a special power 
 from him, to continue their teachings for the term 
 mentioned, in opposition to the powers of the earth, 
 and especially the man of sin in the temple of God , 
 presiding over the churches, notwithstanding all the 
 persecutions they were to undergo. 
 
 
 I humbly conceive, however I may differ from 
 many great and learned men, that these were not to 
 be a succession of witnesses, but the same specific 
 witnesses, and who had been so from the beginning, 
 — Had the meaning been of a succession of witnesses, 
 they could not with propriety have been said to have 
 been two, and that they should continue for 1^60 
 years, for it is not the continuance of testimony that 
 is the jet of this subject, but the power given to “ his 
 two witnesses” personally to continue during this 
 period; and it is their prophecy or testimony or 
 teaching by virtue of that power that is also to be 
 continued during that period; for a succession of 
 
 Bb 
 
189 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 witnesses teaching would not have been so remarka- 
 ble an event, as to have justified such strong lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Some writers have said, that they are two, from 
 the number required by the law, for the establish- 
 ment of every controverted fact; and that they were 
 typified by Moses and Aaron — Elijah and Elisha — 
 Joshua and Zerubbabel — The old and the new testa- 
 ment; but I have never yet seen any arguments, of 
 sufficient force, to support so uncertain a reference 
 except as to the last, for which much may be said. 
 
 But to ascertain the characters of these two wit- 
 nesses with more precision, and to prevent greater 
 uncertainty and doubt to the wise and careful ob- 
 server, we are further told in the 
 
 4th verse, That they are the two olive trees and 
 the two candlesticks standing before the God of the 
 earth. 
 
 One would have imagined that this description 
 would have prevented the application to a succession 
 of witnesses, or to the individuals before mentioned, 
 for with the same propriety, the twelve apostles and 
 all the faithful, in all ages of the church, were wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 Most of the various expositors of these verses, from 
 the pious and learned Mr Joseph Mede, already 
 mentioned, to the late ingenious Mr Langdon of our 
 own country, have been examined with great care ; 
 but besides many other insurmountable objections 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 489 
 
 that arise against their construction, this one is con- 
 clusive with me : That none of them point out these 
 witnesses, as in being and known to the apostle and 
 the church before and at the time of St. John’s receiv- 
 ing this vision, and who continued afterwards during 
 so much of the 1&Q0 years, as is past, prophecying in 
 sackcloth (except those of the old and new testa- 
 ments,) — which two indelible marks seem to me to 
 be essentially necessary. 
 
 Let us take the most unerring guide in our power, 
 and follow the clue given us by the holy spirit, and 
 search with diligence for the meaning of this pro- 
 phetical language, by that of the original places in the 
 ©Id testament, where the like figures are made use of. 
 
 The scriptures generally have held up certain em- 
 blematic rites, as God’s witnesses on earth from the 
 creation — under the Mosaic economy these were 
 water, oil and blood, as representing the divine in- 
 fluences of his holy spirit, and the forgiveness of sins 
 through the great atonement of the suffering Saviour 
 who was to come — Thus water was used to initiate 
 professors into the church of God — To pour water 
 on men, was an evidence of the out-pouring of the 
 spirit — so Christ himself calls the spirit “ living 
 water” — Hence all nations had their lustrations and 
 purifications. The temple of Jerusalem had its laver, 
 for the purposes of the divine ordinances. — The tem- 
 ple also had its i( holy oil,” which was used in the 
 dedication of their kings, prophets, priests, and with 
 water applied to the bodies of all who w ere received 
 
£90 the witnesses, 
 
 into the service of Gotl — Blood was that of the sacri- 
 fices, and was the atonement for sin — every priest was 
 first washed with water, anointed with oil and had 
 blood sprinkled upon him, before he could adminis- 
 ter at the altar, vide viiith. of Lev. 
 
 The tabernacle was consecrated by sprinkling with 
 blood and oil. Therefore it is that St. John says, 
 t( There are three that bear witness on earth, the 
 spirit, the water and the blood. The spirit and the 
 oil mean the same thing- — and it is added, “ if we re- 
 ceive the witness of men (who testify to the things of 
 God from times of old) these witnesses of God are 
 greater.” It is therefore concluded that these ordi- 
 nances of God are his witnesses on earth. — Again ; 
 
 If we look into the 3d and 4th chapters of Zecha- 
 riah, we shall find that the prophet also had a vision 
 from the spirit of God after the establishment of 
 Joshua as the high-priest, and Zerubbabel as political 
 governor of his people ; which offices it should be 
 remembered are united in Jesus Christ, as prophet, 
 priest and king in Zion. — Zechariah having re- 
 ceived the promise of the Braneh, (or the Messiah) 
 he saw in his vision “ one candlestick and two olive 
 trees and on his asking what w 7 as meant by the 
 candlestick ? he was answered by the angel u this is 
 the icord of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, not 
 by might (or an army) nor by power, but by my 
 spirit, saifch the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, 0 
 great mountain? before Zerubbabel (the political or 
 civil governor) thou shall become a plain — that is, by 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. A 91 
 
 ilie candlestick, I design to signify the ordinances of 
 my word taught in my church, by which Zerubbabel 
 as governor of my people, shall be instructed and 
 supported in his arduous work against all his enemies, 
 so that notwithstanding their great power and might, 
 which to human judgment, seem to threaten certain 
 destruction to any attempts for the rebuilding of Je- 
 rusalem and my temple, yet it shall be accomplish- 
 ed; but not by human power or strength, but hy 
 the powerful operation of my spirit. So that this 
 great mountain of opposition which seems to be in- 
 vincible, shall moulder away and become a plain 
 before Zerubbabel whom I have set over you. The 
 same interpretation is given to St. John by Christ 
 i himself in the revelation, when he expressly says 
 u that by the mystery of the seven candlesticks the 
 I seven churches in Asia are intended.” And it is 
 ; somewhat remarkable and worthy of observation that 
 | in Zechariah there was but one candlestick, though 
 ! two olive trees (yielding the holy oil, an evidence of the 
 influences of the spirit) there being then hut one church 
 of the Jews, though two leadiug ordinances, the sab- 
 bath and the passover — -but at the time of this pro- 
 phecy there are two candlesticks and two olive trees, 
 typifying both the Jewish and Christian churches 
 with their ordinances, vide xi. ch. Jerem. 15 — 18, 
 where the Jewish church is compared to an olive tree. 
 
 By this interpretation of the figure of candle- 
 sticks, it is pretty clear, the word of God in his 
 churches are meant and intended, and we may with- 
 
€9® THE WITNESSES, 
 
 out danger of mistake so understand it, for by tho 
 word of God taught in his temple were the people 
 publicly instructed in the worship of the one only 
 living and true God and the Messiah that was to 
 come under the Jewish economy, and in the lika 
 worship through Jesus Christ, the Messiah already 
 eorne, under the Christian dispensation. 
 
 When Moses received the two tables of stone,* 
 containing the ten commandments as the word of God 
 by which the people of the congregation were instruct- 
 ed in the worship of God, he calls them two tables of 
 testimony f or witness J — and speaking of the Taber- 
 nacle, which was pitched in the wilderness by Mose* 
 for divine worship, i( to which every one might go, 
 who sought the Lord,” before the glorious tabernacle 
 and ark were made. 
 
 St. Stephen in the New-Testament, expressly 
 calls it “ the tabernacle of witness that is, a 
 witness that the people who worshipped there 
 were the servants of Jehovah the God of Israel.^ 
 Christ himself declares the fact in very express 
 language ; u and the gospel of the kingdom, shall 
 be preached in all the world, for a witness unto 
 all nations, and then shall the end (of the Roman 
 
 * These tables were called eduth , ad, forward, onward, to 
 Bear witness to, or of, a person or thing. Clarke. 
 
 f Mr CrudeDce explains the word testimony , and says, it sij- 
 siiiies a witnessing — evidence or proof — Acts xiv. Sd. 
 
 | xxxi. Exod. 48th. 
 
 i Acts, vii. 44th. 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. IDS 
 
 Government) come.”* This is the same prophetic 
 declaration with that of St. John bat in fewer words. 
 For in the xv. chap. Rev. 5th verse, it is expressly 
 said, “ and after that I looked and behold the temple 
 of the tabernacle of the testimony (or witness) in 
 heaven was opened” — and in Numb. ix. 15th, the 
 tabernacle is called the tent of the testimony (or wit- 
 ness) and again in the x. ch. and 11th verse it is a- 
 gain called, the tabernacle of the testimony (or wit* 
 ness.) Moses is also expressly ordered to lay up 
 the rod in the tabernacle of the congregation, before 
 the testimony , (Numb. xvii. 4) in the tabernacle of 
 witness, (verse 7*) “ The various types and appoint* 
 <{ meats of the law, called by this very significant 
 “ name the testimony or witness , show plainly that 
 u they were intended to witness and bear testimony 
 i( to somewhat beyond themselves ; that they were 
 il as St. Paul describes them, li a shadow of things 
 u to come, but the body is of Christ.” The example 
 i( and shadow of heavenly things. The pot of manna 
 (e (Exod. xvi. 8-3d) is in the following verse said to 
 u be laid up before the testimony, and this w 7 as under 
 “ the wings of the Cherubim. And though the 
 u word is translated in the singular number, it is plu- 
 u ral in the original — testimonies or w itnesses. So 
 
 again the tw r o tables of stone are called the tables 
 £( of testimony, because they were to be a witness or 
 
 * xxiv. Matth. 14th — -The able expositor, Dr Clarke, oa 
 xxviii. Exod. 30th verse, says, (i God lias always bad ’ is wit- 
 nesses on earth. The Septuagint translates the Unm and 
 Thumim the manifestation of the truth. 
 
194 
 
 •THE WITNESSES, 
 
 testimony of the law, by which the people were to 
 t{ be governed (Exod. xxxi. 18.) The ark is also 
 a called the ark of the testimony. (Exod. xxx. 6th)* 
 e< The tabernacle is the tabernacle of the testimony or 
 “ witness (Exod. xxxviii. 21, and in vii. Acts 44, 
 t{ it is the same.) Then all testified and bore witness 
 {i (for God) of spiritual truth, they exhibited andlook- 
 
 ed forward to Christ and salvation through him.”f 
 And Joshua in his xxii. ch. 26 and 2 7 verses says, 
 “ let us now prepare to build us an altar not for 
 burnt offering nor for sacrifice, but, that it may be a 
 witness between us and you and our generations after 
 us, that we might do the service of the Lord,” &c. 
 
 In fine, there are no less than fourteen places in 
 the Pentateuch where the tabernacle or its appen- 
 dages are called the testimony or witness. And when 
 Philip went to Samaria and was afterwards joined 
 by Peter and John, it is said, “ so they, when they 
 had testified (or bore witnessj) and preached the 
 word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, viii. ch. 
 Acts 25th verse. 
 
 Having thus established the meaning of the holy 
 spirit with some degree of certainty according to our 
 apprehension of the subject, by his own expresi 
 comment, that by the two candlesticks in this verse, 
 
 * Vide also xxvii. 21— xxxix. 35 — xl. eh. 3d. Compare ch. 
 xxv. IS with xl. 20 and xxi. and Numb. 18. 
 
 t Digby’s leet. 189. 
 
 1 The greek word is to bear witness earnestly. 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 193 
 
 is intended the word of God taught in his churches 
 both Jew and Christian, or in other words, the pub* 
 lie worship of Almighty God, let us proceed to ex- 
 amine what the olive trees do mean or typify, by 
 which the candlesticks or public worship of God in 
 his churches, were supplied with the golden oil, or 
 gifts and influences of the spirit of God. 
 
 It appears from this passage in Zechariah that 
 these olive trees were copartners, or connected in- 
 timately with the candlestick, or the word of God 
 taught in his churches, and which are said to empty 
 the golden oil out of themselves. 
 
 On a careful examination of the scriptures, es- 
 pecially of the Old Testament, we find the sabbath 
 and Lord's day with their ordinances so often called 
 and referred to as God’s witnesses that we cannot 
 discover any thing more consonant to the sense of the 
 divine apostle, and the whole scope of the prophetic 
 narrative; and at the same time more obvious to the 
 Christian enquirer. The appointment of one day in 
 seven, for the more express and public social worship 
 of Almighty God, and the instruction and teaching 
 the people his revealed will, including the ordinances 
 necessarily attending on it, which answer to the two 
 branches communicating the golden oil, seems to 
 have been an institution of the greatest necessity and 
 utmost propriety, coeval with the existence of man, 
 and by which the influences of the spirit of God, were 
 generally communicated to the devout worshippers, 
 C e 
 
106 THE WITHERSES, 
 
 When man in Iris original state of innocence in 
 Paradise had by Iris disobedience forfeited the favor 
 of his Creator, the threatened punishment began to be 
 indicted upon him — He was driven out of that bliss- 
 ful place, and was no longer suffered to enjoy the 
 beatific presence of his God in divine worship at 
 the tree of life, where it is most likely, God had 
 used to communicate his special presence to the then 
 happy pair — They were condemned, while living, to 
 labor for their subsistence; and thus to eat their 
 bread in the sweat of their brows, till they should 
 return to the ground, from which they were taken, 
 which should take place within a day (of one thou- 
 sand years,) for Peter tells us that in the language of 
 the holy spirit, a day is a thousand years. 
 
 In this hopeless and despairing state, the estab- 
 lishment of a sabbath, or day of rest, on the seventh 
 day after the punishment of six days labor, on which 
 by the influences of the divine spirit, they should 
 hold communion with their offended Creator, together 
 with the blessed promise, that the seed of the woman 
 should bruise the serpent’s head, notwithstanding the 
 apparent victory he had obtained over them, must 
 have been a gracious declaration and a continued 
 sign or witness of the renewed mercy of God, and 
 became a weekly encouragement to their repenting 
 minds. This was a witness to them of their final 
 deliverance, and regaining more than their former 
 glorious rest, in a state of confirmed bliss, after the 
 expiration of six thousand years. This same idea is 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE, i%J 
 
 held up in the after revelations to Moses and the 
 prophets, as an object of the first importance, par- 
 ticularly in the appointment of the sabbatical year of 
 release, when the Jews were commanded, in the 
 midst of their solemnities, to read the law before all 
 Israel — and again in the great jubilee or sabbatical N 
 year of sabbatical years, or sevens of seven years, 
 when the great trumpet was particularly sounded, 
 and all the people returned with joyful hearts to their 
 forfeited possessions, to which they were now re- 
 stored, free from all the incumbrances they had been 
 subjected to by their owners,-— a lively emblem of 
 their final restoration before the second coming of th© 
 glorified Messiah. 
 
 Thus the Jewish sabbath which was the great 
 sign and one of the essentials of their visible church 
 state, is expressly declared by Ezekiel, xx. 20, to 
 be a sign (or witness) between God and bis people, 
 to acknowledge, (or bear witness) that God Jehovah, 
 was their God ; and so is the original Mosaic institu- 
 tion, (i Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is 
 a sign (or witness) between me and you, through- 
 out your generations tp acknowledge (or witness) 
 that I Jehovah am your sanctifier ; wherefore the chil- 
 dreivof Israel, shall keep the sabbath, to observe the 
 sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual 
 covenant (as a witness of the agreement between God 
 and his people) it is a sign (or witness) between me 
 and the children of Israel forever J 7 * 
 
 * Exod. xxxi. I3j 17, 
 
408 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 And again — u and it (the sabbath) shall be for a 
 sign (or witness) unto thee; upon thine hand, and 
 for a memorial between thine eyes ; that the Lord's 
 law may be in thy mouth, for with a strong hand 
 hath he brought thee out of Egypt; thou shall there- 
 fore keep this ordinance, in its season, from year to 
 year,”* and the end designed by this institution, was 
 not only the instruction of the people in the worship 
 of God, and to exercise them therein, but it was also 
 a testifying or witnessing to the world, what God 
 they worshipped. 
 
 All nations seem to have entertained the idea, that 
 their religious ceremonies were witnesses, or testi- 
 monies of the particular deity they served: and there- 
 fore their religious rites always differed according as 
 they worshipped the celestial Gods, or deified men. 
 —In the book of the revelations, we find that the 
 worshippers of the beast had his mark, sign or 
 witness ; and the worshippers of the Lamb, had his 
 mark, sign or witness in their foreheads. 
 
 Among the Jews, the keeping of the seventh day 
 •was a sign or witness of their profession, that Jeho- 
 vah, the creator of the heaven and the earth, and no 
 other, was the God of Israel, both with respect to his 
 attribute of Creator, and their deliverance out of 
 Egypt; and this keeping the seventh day was always 
 considered by the pious Hebrews as the badge of 
 their profession, and a living testimony to their belief 
 
 # Exod. xiii. S. 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 m 
 
 in the resurrection of the dead, when Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob, with the rest of the pious dead, should 
 inherit the promised land, restored to more than its 
 pristine glory. 
 
 Rabbi David Kinichi, a famous Hebrew writer, in 
 liis exposition of the Ivith chapter of Isaiah and 6th 
 verse, says, <e the observation of the sabbath is the 
 great foundation of faith in God; since no one will 
 observe the sabbath, but he who confesses the world 
 is to be renewed; and that He by whom it shall be 
 renewed, created the world out of nothing, and none 
 other but Him ; as if it was said, he who shall observe 
 the sabbath of days, testifies or witnesses, that he 
 believes in that gre.at sabbath, in which God shall 
 renew the world.”* 
 
 It is very probable, that the Jews being so prone 
 to idolatry before the Eabylonish captivity, notwith- 
 standing the severe rebuke and solemn warning of 
 their prophets, with the awful denunciations of God’s 
 vengeance on them for it, was in a great measure, 
 owing to their being without public places of worship, 
 except at Jerusalem, so that most of the nation had 
 a great distance to go to worship at the temple, 
 where they were not obliged to appear but thrice in 
 
 * Observatio sabbati magnum est fund amentum in fide Dei 
 quoniam sabbatuin non observabit nisi qui Confitiatur mumlum 
 renovatum iri; quodque cum renovaturus sit, qui creaverit 
 ipsum ex nihilo and non est alius, prseter eum. Quasi dicaret, 
 eum qui sabbatum dierum observaret, eo ipso testari se eredera 
 sabbatum magnum quo Deus mundum renovaturus sit. 
 
200 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 the year, and then the males only, the women not 
 being obliged to attend, and it is well known what 
 effect women have on the public manners, — hence 
 we read of the Jews setting up altars to the gods of 
 the nations round about them, on the high places of 
 Israel. — It is worthy of a remark, that on their return 
 from their captivity, synagogues were set up in every 
 convenient place throughout their country, Avlierein 
 tiie public reading of the law of Moses, and prayer* 
 to Almighty God, were attended, if not every day, 
 yet certainly on every seventh day, so that every 
 neighborhood had a place of social worship; after 
 which, we seldom hear of their failing again into idol- 
 atry — they were by these means taught to reverence 
 and improve that sacred day to great advantage, and 
 it became a witness for them, that the Lord Jehovah 
 was their God. 
 
 The original sabbath was designed undoubtedly 
 to commemorate the works of creating goodness and 
 mercy; or to witness that the universe which we be- 
 hold, was the workmanship of the almighty hand of 
 God. — Cain and Abel, after the fall, brought their 
 sacrifice at the same time, to make an offering to the 
 Lord, which is said to he at the end of days, or on 
 the seventh day according to the Hebrew phrase- 
 ology; and the Jewish expositors say, that they 
 brought them to Adam, who acted as a priest in. 
 making the offering — Here was a set time — a place, 
 and sacrifices — -Melchisedeck, though of the Heathen 
 nation, is said to be a priest of the most high God, 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 201 
 
 and one to whom Abraham the father of the faithful*, 
 paid tythes-— Job, who also was a Heathen, is said 
 to have been a prophet — He mentions Adam and 
 JEve — the resurrection and the original corruption of 
 man — He offers burnt offerings for his children after 
 the end of their feasting for seven days, lest they 
 had sinned against God ; and this he did continually, 
 that is, on every seventh day — He mentions also a 
 day when the sons of God came to present them- 
 selves before the Lord ; this was undoubtedly on the 
 sabbath day ; and at public worship ; and this obliga- 
 tion on the children of men continued, although the 
 practice of it, and especially the spirituality of it, had 
 fallen into disuse, as the corruption and depravity of 
 the world increased, till the revival of it, in the fami- 
 ly of Abraham and the renovation of the command, 
 as a commemoration of the deliverance of the Hebrews 
 from the bondage of Egypt, Deut. v. 15. Here the 
 reason of the creation is left out and it is said, li thou 
 wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord 
 thy God, brought thee out thence, through a mighty 
 hand and an out-stretched arm, therefore the Lord 
 thy God, commanded thee to keep the sabbath,” — So 
 Ezekiel, xx. 20. Hallow my sabbaths, and they shall 
 be a sign (or witness) between me and you, to ac- 
 knowledge that I Jehovah am your God. The com- 
 mand seems to require positively that one day of 
 seven, or one day after six days labor, should he set 
 apart as a sabbath, dedicated to the service of God 
 in acknowledgment of him as their creator — this was 
 binding on all men, hut the particular day, is not 
 
§02 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 mentioned but in the instance of the cessation of the 
 manna, after their leaving Egypt and passing the Red 
 Sea, then the day we call Saturday was appropriated 
 to the Jews as God’s peculiar people, because on the 
 morning of that day, God overwhelmed Pharaoh and 
 his host in the Red Sea, and saved Israel with a 
 glorious salvation — therefore the reason of the crea- 
 tion, is left out in Deut. v. and the deliverance of 
 Israel on that day was substituted in its room ; and 
 therefore that particular day (Saturday) was fixed 
 upon. This was done by God himself, by the raining 
 of manna for six days, and withholding it on the 
 next day — The Jews did not keep this day. as a 
 sabbath, before this period, for it is a remarkable 
 fact, that on the Saturday before, they travelled a 
 long march, as appears by the xvi. Exod. and it is 
 the only day on which the day of the month is men- 
 tioned, during their whole journey. This seems to 
 have been providentially designed to establish this 
 fact. — The day of the cessation of the manna, wa3 
 the 32ct of the month, of consequence the 15th would 
 have been also a sabbath, if that day had been bo- 
 fore settled. So that it is likely the day of holy rest 
 was altered to suit their deliverance by the destruc- 
 tion of Pharaoh, as the beginning of the year was, 
 as a memorial of their coming out of Egypt. The 
 sabbath was then settled to be held on Saturday, some 
 time before the giving the law at mount Horeb,— by 
 the miraculous supply of manna in a double propor- 
 tion on Friday, in order that its cessation on Saturday 
 might confirm that day to be their Sabbath, which 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 203 
 
 would not not have been necessary had it been so 
 established before — The mistake has arisen from 
 God’s resting and sanctifying the seventh day, (not 
 of the week, but of the commencement of the creation 
 — for neither sun or moon to reckon weeks by, w ere 
 formed until the fourth day,) but the creation being 
 completed on the evening of the sixth day, the next 
 day was assuredly the first day of the first week of 
 the world, though the seventli day from the beginning 
 of God’s creating energy — It is therefore that the 
 seventh day sabbath is always confined to the 
 children of Israel, while the seventh part of time as 
 a day of holy rest is of moral obligation— and Exod. 
 xxxi. 16. where the institution of the sabbath is re- 
 peated and declared with a “ wherefore the chil- 
 dren of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the 
 sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual 
 covenant — It is a sign between me and the children 
 of Israel forever;” and in the v. 15. Deut. the rea- 
 son of the change is assigned, u remember that 
 thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that 
 the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a 
 mighty hand and by a stretehed-out arm, therefore 
 the Lord thy God commanded Thee to keep the 
 sabbath day” — For this reason, it was always called 
 by the Jews the badge of their profession, as may be 
 concluded from the extract taken from Eabbi David 
 Kimchi ante page 199, by which all men knew that 
 those observing the Saturday as the day of rest, were 
 Jews. — But at the coming of Christ when the shadow 
 
 had passed away, aud the substance was come— 
 B d 
 
THE WITNESSES, 
 
 20* 
 
 when the Jews as a nation, would not have this man 
 to rule over them, but rejected him as their King and 
 Lord— when the veil of the temple was rent in twain 
 and salvation was preached to the Gentiles and the 
 acceptable year of the Lord was come, then did the 
 Lord’s day revert to the day of its original institution, 
 being also then commemorative of the resurrection of 
 the glorious Saviour, who created all things “ whether 
 in heaven or in earth,” the only begotten son of God, 
 who thereby brought life and immortality to light.— 
 Thus the keeping of the Lord’s day, or the first day 
 of the week has become the great badge of the 
 Christian’s profession or belief in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, as the Saviour of sinners and their prophet, 
 priest and king — By this and the ordinance of bap- 
 tism the Christian is plainly and publicly distinguish- 
 ed from the Jew, and known to be the disciple of the 
 divine and crucified redeemer. 
 
 Thus was the seventh day of the week ever after- 
 wards kept by the Hebrews, as a memorial of their 
 deliverance by the destruction of Pharaoh in the sea, 
 that is, a witness on the part of the people, that Jeho- 
 vah was their God, who had miraculously brought 
 them out of the land of Egypt, that house of bondage ; 
 and on the part of God, that he was their king and 
 governor. 
 
 The same sabbath, or holy day after six days labor, 
 though not the same day of the week, is also ex- 
 pressive of the Christian’s profession, for a witness on 
 his part, that he is the servant of the God of all the 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 303 
 
 earth, the Creator of all things, and who on the first 
 day of the week, overcame Satan the spiritual Pharaoh 
 and redeemed the Christian from a spiritual Egypt, 
 by the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, our 
 king and redeemer from the dead on that day ; and 
 thereby opened up life and immortality to all his fol- 
 lowers ; and instead of an earthly Canaan, begetting 
 the Christian to an inheritance incorruptible and which 
 shall never fade away; and there is more reason for 
 the change of the one, than there was for the other 
 — So that the ancient patriarchs, the Jews, and 
 Christians, all have kept the sabbath and Lord’s day 
 on the same original principles— The first as a witness 
 that the God they worshipped, w as the only living 
 and true God, the Creator of all things — The Jews 
 that he was the universal Creator, and their special 
 deliverer from the bondage of Egypt and the tyrant 
 Pharaoh — The Christians glory in the Lord’s day 
 as their witness, that the God whom they love and 
 adore, is the great Creator of the w r orld; their de- 
 liverer from a worse than Egyptian bondage and the 
 tyranny of Satan the spiritual Pharaoh, which the 
 earthly Egypt and mortal Pharaoh were but types of ; 
 and their glorious restorer to the heavenly Canaan 
 and to everlasting life and happiness by the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus Christ the captain of their salvation on 
 that day, from the dead. And thus the shadow being 
 past and the substance being come, we Christians 
 worship the same glorious God through Jesus Christ 
 his only begotten son, who has in part fulfilled the 
 antetype by bis first coming, instead of him who is 
 
206 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 considered by the Jews as yet to come. Though we 
 still look and long for his second coming in glory 
 according to his promise, when he will complete and 
 fulfil all things in himself, and Jew and Christian 
 will be united as the joyful witnesses of his mediato- 
 rial glory. 
 
 Indeed, the sabbath and Lord’s day have been, 
 from the beginning, types of that blessed rest, which 
 awaiteth the people of God at the second coming of 
 our Lord and Saviour. And so it was with the 
 earthly Canaan, a witness for God from the beginning, 
 of this glorious event, which necessarily involves his 
 resurrection from the dead ; and as such, the Christian 
 sabbath or Lord’s day includes every of these pur- 
 poses, as it is peculiarly the Christian’s witness of the 
 God he puts his trust in, even the God and father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and through him his hope 
 of glory; and God’s witness, that the Christian with 
 loins girt and lamp trimmed and burning, looks and 
 longs and waits for his return to the marriage supper. 
 Thus it is used by a very able modern writer; “ the 
 sabbath, which succeeds the labors of the week, ap- 
 pears to have been appointed from the beginning as a 
 perpetual sign (or witness) forever, of that happy rest, 
 which the servants of God are to expect, after the 
 labors of this life.” 
 
 The Lord’s day was so denominated from the re- 
 surrection of our blessed Saviour on that day, and as 
 this fact is the grand pivot on which the whole gos- 
 pel system depends, il for if Christ be not risen then 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 SO r 
 
 is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain— 
 ye are yet in your sins,”* it is set apart by the Chris- 
 tian church as an essential witness for Jesus Christ, 
 that lie is risen from the dead; and an important 
 witness for his true disciples, that the great object of 
 their hope, love and fear is that very Jesus who was 
 crucified without the gates of Jerusalem, whose re- 
 surrection from the dead they commemorate with joy 
 and thankfulness on this day, and in expectation of 
 whose second coming in glory, they continually re- 
 joice. 
 
 The Lord’s day, therefore, being a continuance of 
 the sabbath given to the Jews, as that was of the 
 original sabbath at the creation, is peculiarly the 
 mark, or sign, or witness of our profession of the ac- 
 knowledgment and worship of the one Almighty 
 God, by Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, who is 
 risen from the dead according to the gospel, and as 
 such, the sabbath and Lord’s day are and have 
 been from the beginning a witness for God, with bis 
 people; and for his people witli God. And thus with 
 the church and its ordinances answers the description 
 in the text, not only of witnesses, but the olive trees 
 or the ordinances of the visible church of Christ on 
 earth by which the people of God from the beginning 
 have been fed and nourished with the golden oil, and 
 are the anointed ones, that have always stood, under 
 the patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian dispensations, 
 and still stand before the God of all the earth. 
 
 * 1st Cor. xv. ch. 14—17. 
 
208 
 
 THE WITNESSES; 
 
 These witnesses were in being and God’s witness- 
 es from the creation, at the time of St. John’s vision, 
 and they have existed ever since, though for the last 
 1260 years apparently prophesying, clothed in sack- 
 cloth ; that is, as to the greatest part of the Christian 
 world, but barely keeping up an outward form and 
 profession of the worship of the one true God 
 - — being almost merely nominal on the part of the 
 nations of the Roman empire, whom God had in a 
 most wonderful manner, once brought out of a more 
 than Egyptian darkness into the glorious light of the 
 gospel of his beloved son. 
 
 They have almost universally perverted and 
 abused these anointed ones, that stand before the God j 
 of the earth, to the basest purposes of policy and im- 
 position on the people, to keep them dependant on 
 the state, by supporting religious Hierarchies totally 
 incompatible with the spirit of the gospel ; and the 
 advocates of those abuses were contiuually pursuing 
 a worldly spirit of power and aggrandizement, in- 
 stead of the pure, benevolent, and spiritual temper of 
 the gospel. 
 
 If the limits I have assigned to myself would al- 
 loy/, this might easily be proved beyond danger of con- 
 tradiction or doubt, by taking a retrospective view, of 
 the various practices among the nations of Europe, in 
 substituting for the simple doctrines of the gospel, 
 the adoration of angels, martyrs, saints, relics, the 
 observation of almost as many sabbath days as there 
 are days in the year, introduced into the churches 
 
WHO OH WHAT THEY ARE, 
 
 §09 
 
 about the year 500, with other ridiculous abuses of 
 the sabbath, by plays, entertainments and pastimes, 
 allowed and encouraged by authority and example 
 of the dignitaries of the church, as well as many more 
 affecting consequences of the pride and worldly 
 pomp of the higher orders of the clergy, who tyran- 
 nized over God’s heritage, and considered the dock of 
 Christ, as their own personal property. Bat neither 
 my time nor plan will admit of enlarging. 
 
 Notwithstanding this subversion of every truly re- 
 ligious use, originally designed by these anointed 
 ones, yet it is very evident that in their most degraded 
 state, they kept up the knowledge of Jehovah, the 
 one great and glorious God, and Jesus Christ his be- 
 loved son in the world, from the necessity those, who 
 thus profaned these divine institutions, were under, 
 to make an outward profession of the truth, and fre- 
 quently to inculcate an external compliance with the 
 gospel requisitions, in order to improve the enthusiasm, 
 and devotion natural to mankind even in an ignorant 
 and uninformed state ; and more especially that, where- 
 in men professing Christianity, but depending w holly 
 on the dogma’s of their spiritual directors, abuse it to 
 the purposes of power and influence over the minds 
 and bodies of men. 
 
 These witnesses, then, though depressed and in sack- 
 cloth, constantly bore a glorious testimony for God, 
 in the lives and doctrines of some of his children in 
 every age of the church ; who though few and scat- 
 tered, as the heath in the desert, yet have always 
 
210 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 been found, like Elijah’s prophets, kept by God, as 
 a testimony for him on the earth, at all times and in 
 all seasons of declension and spiritual darkness. 
 These anointed ones, though teaching and instructing 
 the people clothed in sackcloth, have continually sup- 
 plied the poor suffering servants of Jesus Christ, 
 even under the operation of racks, tortures and 
 violent persecutions, with the golden oil from the 
 golden pipes of the inmost sanctuary, or the holy of 
 holies, and have been uniform witnesses for God, in 
 a state of the most depressed and mournful circum- 
 stances, when compared with those blessed and im- 
 portant uses, for which they were originally designed, 
 and will hereafter answer, w r hen they revive and 
 flourish in all their glory, as is afterwards foretold by 
 the beloved disciple. 
 
 But though the servants of God under these dark 
 ages of the churches, have offered him iu a certain 
 degree, a pure and spiritual worship, yet even among 
 them, considering all their letts and hindrances, their 
 difficulties and distresses, arising from persecution, 
 the world, the devil and their own lusts, these wit- 
 nesses in a great measure, have been prophesying in 
 sackcloth. 
 
 But in how much greater degree has this been the 
 sase, among the mere nominal professors, who have 
 constituted the visible church, during its awful de- 
 generacy throughout the Roman empire for the last 
 1260 years, including the ten kingdoms, into which 
 it has been divided. This may be justly called 
 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 su 
 
 prophesying in sackcloth, whether we consider the 
 church, either aggregately, as in her religious coun- 
 cils or grand hierarchy with the pope at their head, or 
 separated into kingdoms and civil governments. — 
 Here will be found most undeniable evidence, by ail 
 who will make themselves acquainted with ecclesias- 
 tical history, that the public worship and ordinances 
 of the church of Jesus Christ, have been, in the severest 
 sense of the word, clothed with the deepest sackcloth. 
 
 To give a few examples, among the thousand that 
 are recorded in the annals of the church- — Dr Moore 
 in his divine dialogues 161, and in his mystery of 
 Iniquity, lib. 2d, ch. 15, 16, says, (i Pope Julius 
 w T as in seven years the occasion of the slaughter of 
 two hundred thousand Christians — the massacre in 
 France cut off one hundred thousand in three months 
 — P. Peronius avers that in the persecution of the 
 Albigenses and Waldenses one million lost their 
 lives — from the establishment of the Jesuits till the 
 year 1580, about 30 or 40 years, Balduinus says, 
 nine hundred thousand perished— -the Duke of Alva, 
 by the hangman, put to death thirty-six thousand- — 
 Yergerius affirms that the Inquisition, in thirty years, 
 destroyed one hundred and fifty thousand — to this I 
 may add the Irish rebellion in the last century, in 
 which thirty thousand were destroyed, as the Lord 
 Orrery reports in a paper printed in the reign of 
 king Charles 2d. 
 
 Gibbons in bis 2d vol. 495, says, that in the Neth- 
 erlands- alone, more than one hundred thousand of 
 Ee 
 
213 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 the subjects of Charles the 5th are said to have suf- 
 fered by the hand of the executioner,* which confirms 
 what is mentioned above. 
 
 The same observations will hold good, in a mea- 
 sure, even among protestants, whose profession and 
 advantages should have led to a more exemplary 
 conduct; if you compare the past and present state 
 of the church and the Lord’s day, with what we are 
 encouraged to hope it will be, when restored to its 
 purity after the death and revival of these witnesses, 
 who are still mourning in sackcloth, if not already 
 “ slain and lying in the street of the great city.” 
 
 Hence it appears probable on the closest investiga- 
 tion, (yet this must be asserted with the greatest 
 modesty and diffidence, as so many pious and learned 
 men have differed on this subject) that the religious 
 instruction from the divine word with the public 
 worship of almighty God in his churches, and the 
 sabbath and Lord’s day with their ordinances ; have 
 been and still are the two witnesses mentioned and 
 intended by the spirit of God, by the “ two olive 
 trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the 
 God of the earth.” 
 
 But as this divine and supernatural vision, bias not 
 left us to a single mark or character, but has pro- 
 ceeded to point out the power and qualities of these 
 witnesses, let us see how they will apply, on this con- 
 struction — 
 
 * Cites Grot, annal. de Reb. BeJgius, Lib. t, fel. 12. 
 
WHO OR WIIAT THEY ARE. 
 
 213 
 
 5th. verse — 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. This is descriptive of the 
 power attending the preaching of the gospel and of 
 prayer in the churches of God. 
 
 These witnesses are to be their own avengers by 
 these means, and their weapons are not to be of a 
 material kind, but the doctrines which they shall 
 teach and propagate; for God will assuredly put in 
 execution the threatenings of his word. 
 
 The fire mentioned here is a mystical fire, and 
 means the powerful operation of the spirit of God 
 that will attend the word preached by means of these 
 witnesses. This is the flying roll of Zechariah, 
 “ which enters into the house of the thief, and into 
 the house of him that sweareth falsely by the name 
 of God, to consume them.” — The figure is also con- 
 tained in the old testament, as in Jerem. v. 14, 
 si wherefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, because ve 
 speak this word, behold I will make my words in thy 
 mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour 
 them.” — -In this manner Moses and Aaron brought 
 down actual fire, in the case of Koran and Abiram ; 
 and Elijah on the prophets of Baal.* So in Isaiah, 
 xi. 4, “ and he shall smite the earth with the rod of 
 his mouth ; and with the breath of his lips shall he 
 slay the wicked,”— and in Hosea, vi. 5, u There? 
 
 * 1. Kings, xviii. 2i and 40. 2. Kings, r. 10 to 14. 
 
THE WITNESSES, 
 
 $13 
 
 fore have I hewed them by the prophets— I have 
 slain them by the words of my mouth, and thy judg- 
 ments are as the light that goeth forth.’ 7 — The nevr 
 testament makes frequent use of a similar figure as in ■ 
 &d. Thess. ii. 8, “ And then shall that wicked ona 
 be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the 
 spirit, (or breath) of his mouth, and shall destroy 
 with the brightness of his coming and lastly, Kev. 
 i. 16 , — “ and out of his mouth went a sharp two 
 edged sword.” 
 
 It is a very common thing in the scriptnres, to 
 term the threatningg denounced, by one properly au- 
 thorized, in the name of the Lord, as those of the 
 person himself — as in 1. Jer. ix. 10, “ And the Lord 
 said unto me, behold I have put my words in thy 
 mouth : see I have this day set thee over the nations 
 and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down, 
 to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” 
 
 So here the divine judgment, denounced by these 
 witnesses, may properly be represented in the figura- 
 tive language of the scriptures, as fire coming out of 
 their mouths to destroy their enemies. 
 
 And it may here be remarked, without being ex- 
 posed to any just charge of enthusiasm, that it has 
 been no uncommon thing, to find the confession of 
 most persons, who have been brought to make public 
 professions of penitence for their sinful lives, be- 
 ginning the black catalogue of their evil practices, 
 with the profanation of the Lord’s day and the neglect 
 of the public worship and its ordinances. 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 %15 
 
 6th. verse — They have also power to shut heaven, 
 that it rain not in the days of their prophecy ; and 
 have power over waters to turn them to blood ; and to 
 emite the earth with all plagues, so often as they will. 
 
 This is a continuance of the same power of these 
 witnesses by the word of their doctrine and the ef- 
 ficacy of their prayers, and is similar to the instances 
 of Moses and Elijah ; the one in the plagues on Pha- 
 raoh and the other in the reign of Ahab, and may 
 mean the power of the church of Jesus Christ, in the 
 due administration of the ordinances of the gospel, to 
 shut heaven against all the despisers of its grace, as 
 Elijah’s prayers prevented the material rain in the 
 days of Ahab. f <e Elias was a man subject to like 
 passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it 
 might not rain ; and it rained not on the earth by the 
 space of three years and six mouths ; and he prayed 
 agaiu, and the heavens gave rain.”! So by the prayers 
 of Daniel, the captivity of Babylon was set at liber- 
 ty, and in the parable concerning the widow weary- 
 ing the unjust judge with her clamors, the application 
 is, that God in like manner constrained by the 
 prayers of his elect, will at length rise up to their 
 revenge. § 
 
 So when the trumpets are sounded for the des- 
 truction of Rome, the prayers of the martyrs are 
 
 * Exod. iv. ch. 9 th verse — vii. ch. iTtli verse. 
 
 t 1st Kings, xvii. ch. 1st verse— xviii. eh. 42d & 15th verses. 
 
 1 James, v. ch. 17th verse. 
 
 $ Mede. 
 
216 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 first called into remembrance by God at the incense 
 offering. . This may also be construed, w r ith great 
 propriety, to mean, that for want of knowledge of the 
 spiritual truths and principles of the gospel, the ad- 
 herents of the man of sin, should be left to great 
 hardness of heart, and extreme ignorance of their 
 duty both to God and man, by which all the influ- 
 ences of the holy spirit, being withdrawn, or with- 
 held from them, they should become with regard to 
 divine things, as the earth without rain, during the 
 prophesying of these witnesses or 1260 years. 
 
 u Rain or dew, in the sacred writings signify in 
 general the divine protection, or the effusion of God’s 
 goodness in any way; and in particular that of his 
 word as it is an effect of his goodness to mankind : as 
 in Isaiah, u I will pour water on him that is thirsty, 
 and floods upon the dry ground ; I will pour my 
 spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine off- 
 spring.”* — Rain is also understood of the divine 
 protection, and particularly of the gift of prophecy 
 (or teaching) — the effusiou of divine grace — rain 
 therefore, signifies the word of God — his grace or 
 favor, and that this is his gift, or a sign of it greater 
 than prophecy; so that it appears, that during the 
 days, that these witnesses shall prophecy, God shall 
 at their prayers, and to avenge their cause, and pun- 
 ish their enemies, withdraw his protection and bless- 
 ing, so that there shall be among men, great afflictions 
 and famine of the word of God.”f 
 * Isaiah, xJiv. eh. 8d verse, 
 t Babuz. 513. 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 217 
 
 As the church and worship of God, by means of 
 the Lord’s day and its ordinances, were to he nour- 
 ished and supported ; and thereby afford solid hopes 
 of everlasting life and happiness to the sincere ser- 
 vants of Jesus Christ, however they might suffer and 
 be tormented in this world for the sake of their Lord 
 and master; so they give full assurances of absolute 
 dsstruction to all who should finally despise and con- 
 temn these means of grace — -that they should in con- 
 sequence become more and more hardened and barren 
 like the earth without rain. “ Take heed to yourselves, 
 that your heart be not deceived and ye turn aside and 
 serve other gods, and worship them, and then the 
 Lord’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up 
 the heavens, that there be no rain.”* And again, 
 *• Elijah the Tishbite said unto Ahab, as the Lord God 
 of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not 
 be dew nor rain these years but according to my 
 word. And after a long drought of three years, we 
 find the prophet saying unto Ahab his great enemy, 
 “ get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of 
 abundance of rain.”f 
 
 So when these witnesses have finished their pro- 
 phecy, in sackcloth, and have been slain, and their 
 bodies laid in the street of the great city three years 
 and an half, all the prophets of Baal, meaning false 
 teachers (teaching for the doctrines of Christ the com- 
 mandments of men) and the enemies of the gospel, 
 
 * Deut. xi. ch. 16tk and 17th verses. 
 
 t 1st Kings, xv ii. ch. 1st and list verses. 
 
218 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 shall be by their means exterminated and destroyed, 
 then you may expect the showers of divine grace up- 
 on his people. 
 
 This is expressly promised in the prophet Joel, 
 where after showing the great and blessed change 
 that shall happen to Israel in the latter days by 
 means of the prayers of the church, it is promised, 
 u and it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will 
 pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and 
 your daughters shall prophecy, and your old men shall 
 dream dreams ; your young men shall see visions ; 
 and also upon the servants and upon the hand-maids, 
 in those days, will I pour out my spirit ; and I will 
 shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood 
 and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be 
 turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before 
 the great and the terrible day of the Lord come ; and 
 it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon 
 the name of the Lord shall be delivered; for in 
 mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, 
 as the Lord hath said, and the remnant , whom the 
 Lord shall call.”* 
 
 * Joel, ii. ch. 28th and 31st. 
 
 Now both, as well the harvest as the vintage, is obtained by 
 prayer; the harvest, as it seemeth, by the prayers of the church 
 universally ; for the angel which there beareth the person of 
 the suppliants, is said to come generally, out of the temple ; but 
 the vintage, rather by the prayers of the martyrs and confess- 
 ors, against whom the wicked ones exercised cruelty with 
 slaughters and torments, and sacrificed them to Christ ; where- 
 
§19 
 
 WHO 01? WHAT THEY ARB. 
 
 The power of these witnesses over the waters to 
 turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all 
 plagues so often as they will, is explained by Exod. 
 iv. 9, and vii. 17? and may be predictive of the effects 
 that will flow from the contempt and neglect of the 
 church and ordinances of the gospel to the multitude 
 of the people of the nation at large (always prefigured 
 in scripture by waters and earth) by promoting do- 
 mestic and foreign wars and bloodshed to a very 
 great degree, with the many other plagues, as pesti- 
 lence and famine, usually attendant on general con- 
 fusion and anarchy in a nation. 
 
 7th. verse-— And when they shall ('be about to 
 finish, as it should be rendered) have finished their 
 testimony, the beast (or living creature) that ascend- 
 eth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war against 
 them and kill them. 
 
 The period of this part of the prophecy is, when 
 the witnesses shall be about concluding their testi- 
 mony, that is, towards or near the end of the Roman 
 hierarchy, and a short time previous to its destruc- 
 tion and the restoration of the church of Christ to its 
 
 fore the angel who called for this, cometh out of the plaee 
 where the altar standeth, and is said to have power over the 
 fire, even the firs of martyrdom- — for that is commonly 
 known, that the blood of the martyrs crveth to God for re- 
 venge — for surely the scripture every where witnesseth that 
 the divine power will bestow neither prosperity upon tls® 
 church nor inflict punishment upon their enemies without their 
 prayers, Mede on Rev. xiv. c h. i$th vers e, 
 
 F f 
 
SSO THE WITNESSES; 
 
 primitive purity, a government shall arise within the. 
 former Roman empire, (being one of the ten king- 
 doms into which it was subdivided) designated by 
 this beast or living animal, that shall make war 
 against these witnesses of God, and overcome them, 
 and to all human appearance shall kill them. 
 
 This killing of the witnesses, is to be analogical— 
 For it is not uncommon in scripture, to use language 
 in this manner, as to live, is often used for, to be, and 
 to die, for not to be. So it is said, we live to God, when 
 we enter into his service and keep his commandments 
 — we die to sin, when we cease to be the servants or 
 slaves of satan. “ He is said to die, who, being settled 
 in any state whatsoever, whether political or ecclesias- 
 tical, ceaseih to be what he was. So he is said to kill 
 who punisheth any one with such a death.” There- 
 fore these witnesses are said to be killed, when they 
 are wholly prevented from the exercise of their testi- 
 mony, so that they no longer use their prophetical 
 office.* 
 
 * Both Sir Isaac Newton and Dr Clark interpreted u the 
 reign of this beast to mean the open avowai of infidelity,” and 
 they conjectured, that the state of religion in France, and the 
 manners of the age, combined with the divine oracles, would an- 
 nounce the approaching reign of the beast. And they consid- 
 eredit as possible, that the ecclesiastical constitution of France 
 would soon he subverted ; and that the standard of infidelity 
 would be first set up there — and they supposed this verse to 
 foretel this important era in the Christian world. 
 
 
 
 Amongst the causes by which popery had an obvious tenden- 
 cy to produce infidelity, must be reckoned their treatment of 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 221 
 
 As the former beast was identified by having 
 seven heads and ten horns ; so here this last beast, 
 is to be as certainly known, by his rising out of the 
 bottomless pit. The earth in prophetical language, 
 generally is descriptive of the mass of the common 
 people at large may not then the bottomless pit, 
 
 the holy scriptures. t( The popes, says Mosheim, permitted 
 their champions to indulge themselves openly in reflection* 
 injurious to the dignity of the sacred writings; and by an ex- 
 cess of blasphemy, almost incredible, (if the passions of men 
 did not render them capable of the greatest enormities) to de- 
 clare publicly, that the edicts of the pontiffs and the records of 
 oral tradition were superior, in point of authority, to the ex- 
 press language of the holy scriptures. It is well known that 
 the Romanists deeried the sacred original as much as possible ; 
 and that the vuIgate translation, because it abounded in errors, 
 and might be more easily perverted to their purpose, was de- 
 clared by a solemn deeree of the Council of Trent, an authen- 
 tic, that is, a faithful, accurate and perfect translation. In the 
 | true spirit of this decree, Morini was employed in the laborious 
 > work (Biblicaram seu mavis antibiblicarum exercitationum, 
 
 | says Mill) the object of whieh was to destroy the credit of the 
 original, and to support that of the vulgate, as the only com- 
 plete and unerring rule of faith. Mosh. Eccl. His. 4 vol. 213, 
 Mills Prolegm. 1318, 1326, 3d vol. Kett. Proph. 10. 
 
 * The earth is the peasantry, or vulgus hominnm, together 
 with the terrestrial creatures serving the use of man. 
 
 Mede 616 . 
 
 Dr. Lancaster, says, the reason is, that in the symbolical 
 language the natural world represents the political — the 
 heavens, sun and luminaries represent the governing part, and 
 consequently the earth represents the part governed, submitting 
 and inferior. 
 
223 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 with equal propriety, mean the lowest, meanest, and 
 most reprobate of the people — profane — -blasphemous 
 — vieious and debased both in morals and practice, 
 from whence it would appear, that the government 
 intended by this prophecy, will arise from among 
 and by means of the very dregs of the people at 
 large, and be remarkable for its whole conduct being 
 contrary to every other government, and partaking of 
 the principles of the great enemy of mankind, who 
 delights in their abasement and destruction, and for 
 this end promotes war, confusion and bloodshed, 
 among the inhabitants of the earth.* Quintus Curtius 
 
 The figurative language of the prophets is taken from the 
 analogy between the world natural and an empire or kingdom 
 considered as a world politic. Accordingly the whole world 
 Batural, consisting of heaven and earth,' signifies the whole 
 world politic, consisting of thrones and people, or so much of 
 it as is considered in prophecy ; and the things in that world 
 signify the analogous things in this. — For the heavens and the 
 things therein signify, thrones and dignities, and those who 
 enjoy them 5 and the earth with the things therein, the inferior 
 people | and the lowest parts of the earth, called hades or 
 hell, the lowest or most miserable part of them. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton on the proph. part 1st , chap. 2d. 
 
 * Since writing this, I have met with the following observa- 
 tion of a late writer, “ the beast which ascendeth out of the 
 bottomless pit (To therion to anabainun ek tes a bussou) not 
 which arose, or did ascend, but which is rising out of the abyss 
 1— as if he were now rising, or was just now become a perfect 
 iyrant, when he slew the witnesses. — The second beast is said 
 io come up out of the earth, but this from the bottomless pit, 
 (ik tes a bussou) from the abyss or pit, bog or whirlpool oi‘ 
 
I 
 
 WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE, £23 
 
 in lib. 10, art. 7, says, “ There is no bottomless ocean, 
 no vast stormy gulf or strait which rolls such tumult- 
 uous billows, as a multitude, when it abandons itself 
 to excesses of a liberty recently acquired, and which 
 it knows is soon to be lost.” 
 
 We find in other parts of the revelations, the 
 Turks and Saracens, those enemies of Christ and his 
 church, are prefigured by fire, smoke and brimstone 
 coining out of their mouths — u and the fifth angel 
 sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven to the 
 earth, and to him was given the key of the bottom- 
 less pit, 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 — and they had a king 
 over them, who is the angel of the bottomless pit; 
 whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in 
 the Greek tongue, he hath his name Apollyon,” (that 
 is, the destroyer) Rev. ixth. 11th. So here St. John 
 represents other circumstances attending the prince of 
 darkness and his gloomy kingdom, to ascertain and 
 characterize the government, that is, to slay these 
 witnesses of God. 
 
 nite depth — perhaps by the second beast coming out of the 
 earth, is meant his tyranny being domestic and exercised rather 
 over his own country, than over foreign nations. 
 
 Mr Kett says, “ The beast that ascendeth, that is, ascendeth 
 or is ascending out of the bottomless pit, at the time that the 
 witnesses are finishing their testimony’’ — It is abussos, that is 
 a pit or gulph, if not bottomless, at least of an indeterminable 
 depth. Vida Campbell on Rom. x. 6,7. prelim. Biss. 82 . 
 
$24 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 This same beast is again mentioned in the xviitk 
 chap, that there might be greater certainty on this 
 important subject ; where the angel after describing 
 the woman on the scarlet colored beast, full of names 
 of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, 
 &c. &c. explains the mystery to the apostle — u The 
 beast that thou sawest was, and is not — but shall 
 ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdi- 
 tion,” that is, it is the same beast spoken of, in the 
 xith chap . — u and they who dwell on the earth, (that 
 is the common people at large) shall wonder (whose 
 names are not written in the book of life from the 
 foundation of the world) when they behold the beast 
 that was, and is not, and yet is”— that is, this is the 
 beast that was, as emperor of Rome, but is not, 
 having been destroyed and done away for a time, and 
 
 f o 
 
 yet now is again revived in this new beast arising 
 from the abyss or mass of the lowest of the people, 
 taking the title and character of Emperor of the Ro- 
 man government before destroyed and now revived. 
 (( This beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth 
 and is of the seven and goethinto perdition, that is, he 
 exerciseth all the power of the original government of 
 Rome, over all their ancient territory, in a tyrannical 
 and arbitrary manner, and is of the seven, claiming 
 Ills power as of the former government of Rome, yet 
 nevertheless, notwithstanding all his power, “ liu 
 shall come to his end and none shall help him.”* 
 
 This government is to rise, before the testimony of 
 these witnesses is finished, but towards or near tin* 
 
 * Baubaz. 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 223 
 
 end of i t, that is, of the 1260 years. So that the 
 witnesses will not be entirely slain at the first stroke, 
 but they will have war waged upon them, some time 
 before their destruction, that is, they will be attacked 
 by degrees, so as to weaken their influence, under the 
 idea of a vain philosophy, investigating the principles 
 of religion and the obligation to obey the precepts of 
 revelation, by the weak and fallacious rules of human 
 reason, without divine aid. — Beware lest any man 
 spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the 
 tradition of men ; after the rudiments of the world and 
 not after Christ.* 
 
 But there were false prophets also among the 
 people, even as there shall be false teachers among 
 you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, 
 even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring 
 upon themselves swift destruction; and many shall 
 follow their pernicious ways ; by reason of whom the 
 way of truth shall be evil spoken of.f 
 
 By these means the witnesses will be deprived, 
 from time to time, of success in the world, although 
 for a while, a bare appearance may be preserved; in 
 the eud they will be overcome, by their authority and 
 influence being wholly done away, and all support 
 from their friends and well-wishers taken from them ; 
 which soon brings on their destruction, or their being 
 alain, so that it will appear to all around them, that 
 these witnesses are entirely suppressed, and abolished 
 
 * Colloss. ii. 8. 
 
 t 2d Peter, ii. i, 3. 
 
326 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 from the belief and practice of the people of that 
 nation or government. 
 
 It is a common figure in scripture, to designate the 
 total suppression of any custom, ordinance or observa- 
 tion among a people by the terms, slaying, killing, 
 and death. 
 
 Mr D au buz, who wrote in the beginning of the 
 18 th century on this passage, observes, “ the death 
 of the witnesses betokens that the true worship of 
 God shall be so far extinguished, that it shall make 
 no visible figure in the world — It shall be quite over- 
 powered by the idolatrous worship — Their enemies 
 shall think that it is quite gone, accounting as nothing 
 the successive rising up of some few opposers now 
 and then — this is such a death, as becomes a political 
 or collective body.”* 
 
 Lest any one should mistake, it is to be particu- 
 larly observed, that this new war of the beast, is not 
 of the same nature of that formerly waged against the 
 company of the saints, when it was given him to 
 make war with the saints and to overcome them, but 
 altogether different; that , was against the saints gen-l 
 erally — this is in a peculiar maimer against the! 
 witnesses, or the word and ordinances of God, and 
 all those any ways connected with them, or usually 
 supporting them — In the first war, the power was 
 given over all kindreds, tongues and nations — In 
 this new war it is to be in some measure a domestic 
 
 * Fol. 517 . 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 227 
 
 war and to operate in a special manner over the 
 witnesses,*-— The consequences of the one was, that 
 all the nations of the earth should worship the beast 
 with seven heads and ten horns — The other is to be 
 followed, by great fear on all the followers of the 
 beast with his own certain ruin — the resurrection of 
 the witnesses, and the destruction of the great city. 
 
 Perhaps this imagery is taken from the history of 
 our Lord’s passion, who at the end of his prophecy or 
 teaching was cut off by the Roman dragon, but on 
 the third day he rose again, and afterwards there was 
 a great earthquake — forty days afterwards he ascend- 
 ed into heaven in a cloud; so that these witnesses 
 being likened to Christ in their prophesying in sack- 
 cloth, and in their suffering and death ; so likewise, 
 after his example, they are to be raised to great 
 i glory and honor. 
 
 The passion of our Lord may be predictive ( of 
 what shall happen to these witnesses — their res- 
 urrection may also be succeeded by an earthquake, 
 er revolution in the government w here they shall be 
 slain — and forty years afterwards (answerable to the 
 forty days of our Saviour’s appearing to his disciples on 
 earth) may be a period of extraordinary events to the 
 church of Christ as well as to the world at large. 
 
 And as Christ informed his disciples, that when 
 they should see Jerusalem encircled with armies, 
 they might know that its desolation was nigh, even 
 
3S8 TIIK WITNESSES, 
 
 at the door ; so when, you shall see the resurrection 
 of the witnesses, after lying in an apparent state of 
 death for a short space of time designated by three 
 days and an half, then know that the destruction of 
 the great city, is not far off. 
 
 But as Jerusalem was first surrounded by Roman 
 armies under Cestius Gall us and driven to great 
 sufferings, but Cestius was defeated with the loss of 
 fTOOO men, # and the hopes and confidence of the Jews 
 raised to the highest pitch, by which the Christians 
 had an opportunity of escaping to Pella beyond the 
 river Jordan; after which the Roman army under 
 Vespasian soon returned and burnt the city and 
 temple; so it may be liatt the pope will, after being 
 reduced very low, have a short respite, that the 
 enemies of the gospel may be more hardened and the 
 people of God may come out of her and not be de- 
 stroyed by her last plagues. 
 
 This fall of the mystical Babylon, is to answer the 
 same purpose to the Christian world, that the desola- 
 tion of the Jewish state and temple did to the be- 
 lieving Jews, soon after our Saviour’s resurrection. 
 — As nothing could stagger the faith of a believing 
 Jew, more than the abiding glory of the temple of 
 Jerusalem, which both Daniel and Christ had ex- 
 pressly foretold should be destroyed, which led tha 
 apostle Paul, to exhort his fellow-christians {( to 
 hold fast the profession of their faith without waver- 
 ing and so much the more as you see the day ap- 
 proaching,” that is, the day of the destruction of tha 
 
 * Josephus. 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARB* 
 
 *tate and temple, when their faith should be sufficient- 
 ly confirmed. — So the reformed Christian, when he 
 shall see the total fall of the mystical Babylon, he 
 may with confidence lift up his head and rejoice, 
 knowing, of a certainty, that his redemption by the 
 second coming of his Lord and master draweth nigh. 
 
 Verse 8th. And their dead bodies shall lie in the 
 street of the great city, which spiritually is called 
 Sodom and Egypt, ( and Jerusalem * J where also 
 eur Lord was crucified. 
 
 It is remarkable, that throughout the revelation, 
 whenever Rome is intended under any figure, she 
 has the appellation of great, prefixed — as Babylon 
 the great — the great harlot— 7-great city, &c. &c. and 
 by Rome or its figures, the whole empire or state is 
 meant, as it was so usually understood in that dayj 
 thus civitas Romse is translated by civil law writers, 
 “ the empire of Rome.”f 
 
 * May not the words (and Jerusalem) be fairly understood 
 here, and from the whole scope of the verse, seem to have 
 been accidentally omitted in copying — then the city where the 
 witnesses are to be slain and in whose streets they are to lie, is 
 typified by those three remarkable eities, Sodom before the 
 law — Egypt since the law — and Jerusalem under the gospel. — 
 It is evident that Isaiah in i. 10. calls Jerusalem Sodom and 
 Gomorrah, as guilty of equal transgressions. 
 
 Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O ye princes of Sodom; 
 
 Give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 
 
 Lowth’s Isaiah. 
 
 t The word city when applied to Rome, means the empire 
 •f Kerne; as by a person free of the city, is generally under- 
 
230 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 It may also be noted as a key to the allegory in 
 the text, as well as several others in the revelations, 
 that whatever is remarkable in the plagues of Sodom 
 and Egypt, are applied in this vision to the empire of 
 Rome, and are to be interpreted mystically, and ex- 
 plained thereby. 
 
 Although these witnesses shall thus be slain to all 
 human and outward appearance, or these institutions 
 and ordinances be so totally done away and brought 
 into disuse by the conduct of the government of the 
 beast; and contemned and despised by the nation at 
 large, and in every national view, past the probability 
 of ever being brought into practice and observance 
 again, yet their dead bodies shall remain, and that 
 plainly and openly lying in the street — By this is 
 meant these institutions being abolished in practice, 
 and opposed by other institutions and practices 
 adopted in their room, wholly opposed and in con- 
 tradiction to them ; yet there shall be no positive law 
 or formal decree enacted, with Unes and penalties 
 expressly destroying them, so as to render those who 
 may persist in the observance of them, obnoxious to 
 these pains and penalties. — But from general and 
 universal practice, and the contrary nature and ten- 
 dency of those adopted to contravene them, and 
 which please and indulge the taste and temper of the 
 people at large, tending more to gratify and advance 
 the wishes and desires of the populace, they will be 
 
 stood, a person free of the empire — Ch ita* is g'-nerally trans- 
 lated empire. Preface to Void's Law of Nations. 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARB. 
 
 §81 
 
 brought not only to lose every idea of their spiritual 
 use and importance, but will be led to despise and 
 hate them. They will be taught to consider them as 
 oppressive and burthensome ; being merely imposed 
 by the evil designs of their enemies, to subject the 
 people to their will and pleasure — Hence it shall 
 generally appear, as if the worship of God, the in- 
 structions of his word and an attendance on his ordi- 
 nances, were wholly abolished ; and they will be so 
 considered by the people of that nation. 
 
 Mr Baubuz, already mentioned, says, u by this 
 figure is shown that the worship of God shall be 
 banished from the capital of corrupted Christendom, 
 as well as from its whole jurisdiction, and be there 
 more particularly scorned and profaned. It shows 
 that the persecution of the saints, shall be in those 
 very countries, where, before this period, the church 
 of God was planted ; but more particularly in the 
 capital city — Therefore the holy city, being the 
 symbol of the whole clmstian church, the dead bodies 
 of the saints shall he all over, and be seen upon it 
 dead; and by consequence, that which is the true 
 worship, shall be thought expelled from it and all 
 its territories. — These symbols show au utter deso- 
 lation and ruin of God’s people as a church, and the 
 extinction of the true worship, in the chief and prin- 
 cipal parts of these dominions wherein it was estab- 
 lished, seeing that it is so in the capital city.*” 
 
 * Fol. 518. 
 
sis 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 By the street of the city we are not to understand, 
 what is generally meant by that expression, for it 
 ought to have been translated, in a distant part of 
 the city, or Roman empire, meaning in one of the 
 provinces formerly belonging to it, or of the king- 
 doms into which it was divided. 
 
 The Roman empire, now become Rome Christian, 
 is usually in scripture denominated the spiritual 
 Egypt — Sodom and mystical Babylon;* and in our 
 humble opinion, is also here compared to Jerusalem, 
 on account of her having slain these witnesses of 
 God ; and as our Lord was crucified without the city 
 of Jerusalem, which was now a Roman province, so 
 these witnesses must be slain and their dead bodies 
 lie in one of the then provi”' , ''“ 
 which the empire was to be d 
 
 the words strictly to the tenofc of them, then, by the 
 city, either the Roman empire at large may have been 
 prefigured — it being spiritually or mystically called 
 Egypt for its spiritual tyranny — Sodom for its spirit- 
 ual fornication — Babylon for its spiritual idolatry, and 
 is compared to Jerusalem for the crucifixion of our 
 Lord; or it may be some one great city, in one of th« 
 kingdoms famous for its wickedness. 
 
 * The famous Mr Gibbon, in his 2d vol. of the decline of 
 the Roman empire, fol. 304 , says, “ the epithet, “ Babylon 
 was appiied to the city and to the empire of Rome.” 
 
 But I would not contend 
 literal interpretation should be x 
 
WHO Oil WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 233 
 
 Verse 9th. And they of the people and kindreds 
 and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies 
 three days and an half; and shall not suffer their 
 dead bodies to be put in graves. 
 
 These people, kindred, tongues and nations are 
 supposed not to be friends of the beast, or enemies 
 of the witnesses ; but opposers of the government of 
 the beast, and collected together for and combining 
 in opposition, to him — 'They are different from and 
 averse to those mentioned in the next verse, who 
 dwell upon the earth, and rejoice over the destruc- 
 tion of the witnesses- — By means of their opposition, 
 the government of the beast will be prevented from 
 totally destroying the small portion of the worship 
 and ordinances of God, which now only remain, by 
 positive and penal laws, so as to cover their dead 
 bodies as if put into graves, or absolutely and irrecov- 
 erably suppressed and destroyed, by preventing and 
 punishing the private attention of any serious and 
 devout mind, to these witnesses of God. 
 
 But this government of the beast will be kept from 
 this last grade of their enmity and hatred to the 
 service of God, by the fear of losing all character and 
 reputation with the nations around them, though in 
 opposition and inimical to them*— But this state of 
 
 * cl The Convention of France had agreed that there should 
 no longer be any other divinity than Reason, and the 
 Country— -it had legally established atheism. These absurd 
 decrees created universal indignation among foreign Na- 
 tions— -Danton” ( being accused of this, was made the ’scape- 
 
234 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 things shall last only for a small space, from th« 
 death or suppression of the witnesses, or the decree 
 by which they were finally put down, and other 
 absurd and wicked practices adopted in their room.* 
 
 Verse 10 th. And they that dwell upon the earth 
 shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall 
 send gifts one to another, because these two prophets 
 tormented them that dwelt on the earth. 
 
 This seems to have been the ancient practice, in 
 all cases of success and victory over enemies, now 
 exercised by the subjects and dependants of the 
 beast, who are so repeatedly designated by the earth, 
 to show that they are a government of the lowest 
 people, without orders, or ranks of dignity among 
 them, agreeably to the custom of the other nations. 
 
 goat, by way of an excuse for their flagitious conduct) 
 “ is found guilty; and the infernal genius of the committee of 
 public safety, dared to take on itself to revenge the Deity.” 
 Considerations snrla Revol. So dale 221 Month. Review 1 795. 
 
 * While this work is printing, the news of the counter-re- 
 volution in France arrived, to the great joy of the friends of 
 peace and order — Bonaparte issued his mandate for the abol- 
 ishing the Bishoprick of Rome and annexing it to Tarentum 
 on the 1st of January 1810 — he was driven from Russia and 
 pursued into Germany in the winter of 1813 — in the following 
 summer he was beaten on every side and received his fatal 
 death stroke at Leipsic, on the 18th day of Oct. 1813 ; by 
 which France is restored to her legitimate monarch, and re- 
 ligion is again established ; but in some measure freed from the 
 former shackles and impositions. 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 885 
 
 This practice of sending gifts and rejoicing on anj 
 remarkable success is mentioned in tSie book of 
 Esther, u Therefore the Jews of the villages, made 
 the 14th day of the month Adar, a day of gladness and 
 feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one 
 to another.” — “ And Mordecai wrote these things 
 and sent letters unto ail the Jews— -that they should 
 make those days, days of feasting and joy and of 
 sending portions one to another and gifts to the 
 poor.”* 
 
 The people, therefore, of the government of the 
 beast, the infidels, philosophers and pretended pat- 
 riots, who shall thus slay these witnesses of God^ 
 (and it is not improbable but that they may be joined 
 by some of other nations in alliance with them) shall 
 receive great pleasure and satisfaction from the sup- 
 posed death of these witnesses, and the expectation 
 of having thus got rid of practices and habits which 
 they consider as founded in folly, ignorance and su- 
 perstition. This will lead them to rejoice with and 
 congratulate each other on the occasion ; and to con- 
 vert (as Nebuchadnezzar did of old) the ornaments 
 and materials used in the churches of Christ and Ilia 
 public worship of Almighty God, into gifts and the 
 means of public rejoicing and festivals for their sup- 
 posed victory. — And the reason assigned is, (i that 
 these two prophets tormented them that dwelt upon 
 the earth,” that is, the people of the government of 
 the beast. 
 
 * Esther, ixth. 19th, 20th, 22d« 
 
 H h 
 
836 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 “ These words plainly allude to those of Ahab to 
 Elijah, 1st Kings, xviii. 47th, and are worthy of 
 particular attention; they are also the very objection 
 made to our Saviour himself, Luke, xxiii. 2d. — In 
 like manner these prophets are accused (for their 
 instructions and teaching the people) of perverting 
 the minds of the people, and raising sedition, and 
 then bringing on men all the effects of God’s anger 
 upon such as are accursed of him. The primitive 
 Christians also, were accused of high treason for dis- 
 turbing and opposing the worship of the gods as 
 established by law, and their torments and punish- 
 ments were excused upon that score. — The mis- 
 carriages of men, the plagues of God; all unlucky 
 accidents have been formerly laid upon the heads of 
 the martyrs, during this corrupted state, as if they 
 had been the causes of those torments : indeed in one 
 sense they have tormented them, in that for their 
 sakes, at their request, and to avenge their cause, 
 God hath punished their persecutors.”* 
 
 The reason, thus assigned, is plainly predictive of 
 that general uneasiness and disgust, that has always 
 been manifested, but will now prevail in a very re- 
 markable and striking manner among men of the 
 world, against keeping holy one day in seven, and 
 particularly in devoting it strictly to the public worship 
 and acknowledgment of the one only living and true 
 God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent into the 
 world : supposing that the supreme Being is better 
 
 * Dabuz, 531, 532 . 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 S3? 
 
 pleased by the labors of a vain philosophy, teaching 
 the sole pursuit of that pleasure and happiness which 
 tend to the gratification of mere animal nature. 
 
 These witnesses also tormented those upon the 
 earth, by means of the public instruction, holding up 
 continually to their view, and inculcating the wicked, 
 ness of their practices, and the awful and everlasting 
 punishments that most assuredly await their ungodly 
 lives. 
 
 The prophet Malachi many years before this, had 
 threatened the wicked among the Jews in language 
 of the same import. e< And I will come near to you 
 to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the 
 sorcerer, and against the adulterer, and against the 
 false swearer; and against those that oppress the 
 hireling in his wages ; the widow and the fatherless ; 
 and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and 
 fear not me saith the Lord of hosts.”* 
 
 Verse 1 1th. And after three days and an half the 
 spirit of life from God entered into them, and they 
 stood on their feet and great fear fell upon them who 
 saw them. 
 
 This space of three years and an half is a remark- 
 able period throughout the old and new testaments. — 
 The famous drought on the land of Israel in Ahab’s 
 reign in consequence of the prophet Elijah’s prayers, 
 was for the space of three years and an half, which 
 in prophetic language is expressed by three days and 
 
 * Malachijiii. Stfo. 
 
S33 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 an half, and seems to he typical of the time that the 
 witnesses are to remain in a state of death.— The 
 ministry of St. John the Baptist, who was the second 
 Elias, and the harbinger of the first advent of the 
 Saviour, was for the same space of time ; and accord- ; 
 irsg to St. Jerome, Christ’s actual ministry, which 
 began with John’s being cast into prison, or the time 
 spoken of by Daniel the prophet being fulfilled, con- 
 tinued during three years and an half to his cruci- 
 fixion. 
 
 In like manner, some short time, equal in pro- 
 phetic language to three years and an half, is deter- 
 mined on for these witnesses to remain in a state of 
 death or suppression, so as not to be publicly used, 
 acknowledged or improved to any of the sacred pur- 
 poses for which they were intended. But at the end 
 of this period the spirit of life from God, is again to 
 return to them, and they shall stand upon their feet; 
 or be restored to a condition of acting and thereby 
 resisting their enemies. By their first standing on 
 their feet, previous to their complete restoration or 
 being called up to heaven, or to great power, it ap- 
 pears that it will be some time after their resurrection, 
 before their victory will be complete. The govern- 
 ment that will restore the Lord’s day and the public 
 worship, may in the beginning do it reluctantly and 
 partially, but it will soon be seen that the power is of 
 God. 
 
 Indeed the precise interpretation of this prophecy, 
 will not long continue doubtful, or without clear and 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 2S0 
 
 full proof of its truth — At the end of this period,, 
 these witnesses, or the church, and Lord’s day, with 
 the ordinances of the gospel, without any or with 
 very small visible human meaus, but as by the spirit 
 of God, will not only rise again but be adopted and 
 brought into more general and universal practice, 
 with renewed purity and greater vigor than ever. As 
 the death of these witnesses shall be, so shall be their 
 resurrection; that is, the joy and satisfaction given to 
 their enemies by their apparent destruction, will be 
 out- done by the exultations and happiness of their 
 friends and advocates by their reinstatement to more 
 than their former glory and usefulness.* 
 
 The worship of God shall again be established, 
 and his churches and temples restored throughout 
 the government, to the great joy of the people of God. 
 — -The Lord’s day with all the ordinances of the 
 gospel, and its faithful ministers and teachers shall 
 again become the delight of all the faithful, and more 
 fully answer their original design, and continue living 
 witnesses for Jehovah among the people; and witnesses 
 for the people, before the God of all the earth — Then 
 will the invaluable importance of public worship and 
 the Lord’s day, with its ordinances, appear in strong 
 colors to the world; be held in greater esteem and be 
 more attended to, than they have been during the 
 space of 12(50 years — Hence will arise such con- 
 victive evidence of the truth of the divine predictions, 
 
 * The political resurrection of the witnesses happens, when 
 Rome falls and the bea^t is destroyed. Baubuz s 931. 
 
210 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 and the meaning of the holy spirit in the prophetic 
 declarations relating to the church during this period, 
 that the faith of God ? s people will be enlarged, their 
 love enflamed and their confidence in the future 
 events foretold increased and confirmed, especially in 
 the glorious event on which all their hopes are 
 founded, the second coming of their risen Saviour in 
 glory — This will be followed by another unequivocal 
 testimony to the truth of the divine word, for “ great 
 fear will fall upon them who see these things,” that 
 is, upon the enemies of the church of Christ, who 
 shall be witnesses of these astonishing instances of 
 divine prediction and power; especially as some- 
 where about the completion of this event, the destruc- 
 tion of the city of Rome by fire, is to happen. 
 
 Verse 1 2th. And they heard a great voice from 
 heaven, saying unto them, come up hither — and they 
 ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies 
 beheld them. 
 
 This will be verified by the supreme powers of 
 the renovated government, formerly the beast, be- 
 coming the friends and advocates of these slain 
 witnesses, and establishing them again in full ex- 
 ercise* and use — They will not only restore them to 
 
 * I think it necessary here, as there will be no more proper 
 place for it, to give to my readers the substance of the issue 
 of an extraordinary convocation cf the constitutional clergy of 
 France, assembled in national council, in the years 179 7 and 
 1798, as stated in the new Annual Register for 1798, fol. 270 — 
 s7s. This convocation seems to be a strong evidence of the 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 SM 
 
 their former state and circumstances, but to much 
 greater glory and honor, than they have ever yet 
 enjoyed — This is the general meaning of being taken 
 up into heaven in a cloud, and is so construed by the 
 
 revival of a new order of things relative to religion and as 
 looking towards the restoring public worship and the exercise 
 of religious instruction — It was attended by 33 bishops and 53 
 priests. 
 
 44 Amidst the civil commotions of France, the fathers of the 
 Gallican church had assembled in national council, to delib- 
 erate on a mode or plan of conciliation to repair and cement 
 such genuine parts of this venerable edifice, as had been shat- 
 tered by the rude and savage hand of persecuting power. — By 
 this plan they also hoped to gather into one commen fold, those 
 who agreeing in the unity of the faith, had separated from them 
 in certain points, in which each individual became his own 
 guide; since, the church not having foreseen the desolation 
 which would attend it in these latter times, had made no pre- 
 scriptive regulations for the conduct of the faithful, whose 
 fate it should be to fall on such 44 evil tongues and evil days.” 
 No one, whatever be his religious, or political creed, except his 
 mind be hardened by the fanaticism of irreligion, and blinded 
 by that ignorance which the cant of infidelity has termed 44 the 
 age of reason,” can behold without sensibility an assembly of 
 pious and sincere witnesses to the truth of the doctrines they 
 professed, creeping out of their hiding places, after the storm 
 of Jacobinical fury, like the Christians of the first ages, after 
 the philosophical proscrijitions they suffered in the fourth, fifth? 
 sixth, seventh and fifteenth persecutions, under the administra- 
 tion of Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus, Mark Aurelius and Julian; 
 and behold them looking over the wreck of the visible church 
 driven by the tempest on the rocks, anxious to gather up the 
 fragments, wherewith to fit out the bark, in which they hoped 
 
343 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 ancient Jews: it signifies to be in full power; to ob- 
 tain rule and dominion, with the protection and 
 assistance of God and those earthly powers ordained 
 by him. 
 
 to steer safely into port. The meeting of this council had been 
 prepared by the labors of divers bishops, who after the reign of 
 terror, had assembled in Paris for the purpose of giving pro- 
 visionary instructions. 
 
 These exhortations were set forth in two encyclical letters 
 which till that period of this national council, had been the 
 chief rule of discipline to such of the faithful as acknowledged 
 the spiritual authority of those ecclesiastics who had conformed 
 to the constitutional laws respecting public worship. 
 
 The past and present state of the church were laid before 
 this venerable body. The fire of the late persecution, whilst it 
 had vitrified the faith of some, had melted away the constancy of 
 others — Among the instances of apostacy laid before the coun- 
 cil was the marriage of nine bishops — Twelve others had for- 
 mally abdicated their episcopal seats, or refused to fill them — 
 Eight had perished on the scaffold, and thirteen had died 
 natural deaths. 
 
 Of the new departments iu the south of France, two bishops 
 had emigrated, those of Porentru and Nice; and that of 
 Avignon had not assumed his functions. In the newly united 
 departments of the north, four bishops had emigrated and three 
 had died natural deaths, the other two were only titular. Of 
 the emigrant bishops, it appears that forty had died in foreign 
 countries: one, the bishop of Dol had been shot as a rebel at 
 Quiberoon, and others it appeared had held ecclesiastical 
 synods in different countries, and been active promoters 
 counter revolutionary projects against the republic. 
 
 When the episcopal seats were vacant in various places, 
 presbyteries were formed, whose ©Sice it vvaji to hasten th» 
 
WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 &F3 
 
 When our Lord tells the high priest that hereafter 
 he shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of 
 heaven, the elders and priests considered it as blas- 
 phemy, because only applicable to the Messiah him- 
 
 nomination of bishops.— Of fourteen presbyteries three only 
 hail followed the mode prescribed in the encyclical letters, 
 published in the preceding year.— Some few dioceses that had 
 neither formed presb teries nor named bishops, were under the 
 direction of some other kind of administration, and fifteen 
 others remained without any spiritual government or adminis- 
 tration whatever.— To re-organize public worship and ecclesias- 
 tical government throughout the republic was an arduous and 
 difficult task. For this purpose exclusive correspondencies 
 were established; periodical publications, such as the annals of 
 religion, were circulated, and societies formed, in imitation of 
 the Taylarian society at Harlem: many works were published, 
 aud many are in the way of publication, among which was the 
 bishop of Laudaff’s apology for the bible. 
 
 After attempting to re-organize the administration of the 
 ehurch, the next solicitude of these bishops was, to attempt to 
 call back their non-coti forming brethren : for which purpose 
 they were invited by a circular letter to join in the council. 
 
 Such was the ecclesiastical state of France, previous to the 
 holding of this national council.— The church in the West- 
 Indies, particularly in St. Domingo, had partaken of the com- 
 motion of that colony, of which the priests had divided the 
 ecclesiastical labors — The apostle of that colony, as well as 
 its civil deliverer, appears to have been, the negro generab 
 Touisant Louverture, who by his Christian virtues, his attach- 
 ment to liberty, and his military talents, merits universal 
 esteem — The general, who has been called the man predicted 
 by the Abbe Raynal as the avenger of his race, and their re- 
 deemer from slavery, and who was himself a slave at the time 
 i i 
 
mi 
 
 THE WITNESSES, 
 
 self, when he should come in his glory— -The ex- 
 pression is taken from Daniel, vii. 13th, where the 
 son of man is represented as coming before the ancient 
 of days, Avith clouds, or great power; and from Isaiah, 
 
 of the revolution, had published the following proclamation, 
 which breathes a spirit of piety scarcely expected to be found 
 in a general, much less in the sable commander of negro armies. 
 u Brethren and friends, beware of thinking that in any circum- 
 stances, in which success has crowned my undertakings, I 
 have had the vain presumption of attributing the glory to 
 myself— The light of religion, that sure and faithful guide of 
 my conduct, has always shown me to whom I was indebted— 
 to God— to that infiuite Being by whom we live and move — 
 whose power extends over the whole of the human race, and 
 whose invisible hand guides and governs the universe. 
 
 “ If the example which I gave you, had been sufficient to fix 
 in your hearts, the love of that being who lias heaped on us so 
 many benefits, I should not now have been compelled to 
 
 awaken in you again the remembrance of them” ■“ After 
 
 seeing yourselves lightened of those fetters, beneath which you 
 have so long time groaned, and after having recovered your 
 rights, you may, perhaps, in the delirium of your joy, have 
 attributed your change of condition to human means alone ; but 
 if such has been your blindness, open your eyes, and be assured 
 that the will and act which have accomplished the revolution, 
 hat has shaken oft’ from your necks and those of your fellow 
 sufferers, the shameful yoke, are of God alone. His beneficence 
 and justice have placed you again in the rank of men. Study 
 to practice and fulfil your duties, as well towards him, as to- 
 wards society of which you now form a portion. It is therefore 
 time you should persuade yourselves of the indispensable 
 necessity of acknowledging two objects to which you owe ven- 
 
 eration, submission and affection — these two objects are 
 and the Law, 
 
WHO OK WHAT THEY ARE. 
 
 245 
 
 xiv. ch. 13th v. when the prophet represents the king 
 of Babylon’s vanity in exalting himself in his hearty 
 saying, li I will ascend into heaven ; 1 will exalt my 
 throne above the stars of God ; I will set also upon 
 
 Officers and soldiers of the army ! the first of your duties is 
 to honor God, the next to serve your country. 
 
 The first obligation consists not only in the observation of a 
 worship, which all nations of the earth have agreed to render 
 to the Supreme Being ; but you must eaeh join to this external 
 mark of respect, the exercise of every virtue — Let your ex- 
 mple lead those over whom you have influence, to the remem- 
 brance of a religion which they seem to have forgotten, and 
 inspire them with sentiments necessary to the purity of morals, 
 without which the re-establishment of order and peace wil 
 become impossible. Let your example especially, and if it be 
 necessary your authority, correct that frantic passion of gaming, 
 the fatal effects of which, are not less frequently attended with 
 loss of honor, than that of life.” 
 
 In this interesting struggle of the catholic church with the 
 torrent that is pouring in on it on every side from infidelity, 
 nothing is more amusing to a serious by-stander, than' to 
 fitness the hesitation, the deference, the decisions and the 
 various conflicts between pious prejudice and manly resolve, 
 which agitate the breasts of those venerable fathers, when they 
 look towards the author and finisher of their faith, the holy 
 see. 
 
 The learned reporter, in order to excuse the schism of the 
 constitutional clergy, from the authority of the court of Rome, 
 which the pope has characterized in his bulls and briefs, by 
 heretical rebellion, has quoted the authority of former schis- 
 matics, such as Melchior Canus in his advice to the emperor 
 Charles V — of Bessarion to the council of Florence, and 
 even of St. Bernard ; of the opposition made by the Italian 
 

 'THE witnesses, 
 
 the moutit of the congregation on the sides of the 
 north ; 1 will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; 1 
 will be like the most high.” These are all ex* 
 pressions in the figurative style taken from the great 
 
 bishops to the late bull Jiutorem Fidei , against which, when 
 sent to the council of V'astile to obtain the Exequatur , protests 
 had been made by the Galliean bishops, and had counter- 
 acted, tho’ with extreme difficulty, its effects. — Emboldened by 
 these authorities, which sanctioned their opposition to the au- 
 thority of the holy see, they turn the arms of the church against 
 the holy father himself, and quote the observation of an 
 English writer, who proves from the famous bull in Caena 
 Domini, that the pope having received into his port, the vessels 
 of the English, wiio were heretics, and given them aid, is him- 
 self excommunicated, without power of absolution, even at the 
 hour of death, but by another pope, for such are the decisio 
 of this bull. 
 
 The learned bishop, after detailing the various difficult 
 which had occurred inlthe convocation of this national council, 
 from the novelty and danger oi’the circumstances and the situa- 
 tion in which they were placed, closed his interesting report 
 with an eloquent pre-oration to the venerable assembly of rev- 
 erend fathers — “ The political world is shaken to its centre, 
 the inquisition and despotism — tyranny, civil and religious, are 
 crumbling to the dust; although sufficient data be not laid 
 down to indicate the exact term, or calculate the total result of 
 this general shock impressed on the world, which enlightened 
 men, even among the Jews, consider as the forerunners of 
 changes, yet more strange and eventful. The whole of proph- 
 ecy is now accomplishing: it is not for us to know the time 
 and the moment; nevertheless from the appearance of the 
 natural and moral phenomena which present themselves to 
 our eyes, the Christian is compelled to concentrate his 
 
WHO OR WIiAT THEY ARE, 
 
 347 
 
 grandeur, power and authority of the Messiah when 
 he should come in his glory — Perhaps this exalta- 
 tion may be brought about by the powers of the gov- 
 ernment, calling the people of God, to the chief places 
 
 Teligion shall enlighten the whole of the new world— when 
 the descendants of the Gentiles among us (the race of modern 
 infidels) shall be deprived of the light of the gospel, which 
 they have abused— when the remains of the tribes of Israel, 
 whom the breath of God has scattered over the face of the 
 earth, shall acknowledge him whom they have pierced and 
 shall become a consolation to the church.” 
 
 The first acts of the council were the publication of a synod* 
 ical letter to the pastors and the faithful on the means of estab- 
 lishing religious peace; and a letter to the bishops and priests 
 resident in France in the same spirit of Christian charity. As 
 the primary object of the council was to lay down a plan of 
 general pacification, these reverend fathers proceeded method- 
 ically to enquire what ought to be the nature of the plan of re- 
 conciliation ? To whom this union ought to be proposed ? — in 
 what spirit and on what points they ought to agree — what 
 ought to be the conditions of the pacification ? and whether it 
 were necessary to address it to the pope and likewise to the 
 bishops of the foreign churehes ?— These various topics un- 
 derwent long examination. The first article respecting the 
 nature of the plan, was vague and indistinct — the base of it 
 was stated to be, the three virtues, charity, justice and truth ; 
 and portioned to the extent of the evils that had desolated the 
 Gallican church. — The naxt which relates to the individuals 
 and bodies who should be invited to compose their union, was 
 more precise and specific. — The emigrant priests were ex- 
 cluded from necessity, being in a state of banishment; and of 
 those who resided in France, the majority remained under the 
 interdict, as long as they persisted in their refusal to submit to 
 the laws of the republic— with respect to the points in which 
 
284 
 
 THE WITNESSES, &C. 
 
 of honor, trust and importance, and re-establishing the 
 word and ordinances of God in greater purity and 
 practical influence than ever. 
 
 they ought to agree, and the spirit in which they were to act, 
 it was proposed that a general oblivion should cover all former 
 dissentions, and that the acknowledged tenets of the church 
 should be the prescribed articles of belief. As to the means of 
 pacification, it was accorded, as a general rule, that all pastors 
 and priests, who should remain faithful to their vocation, 
 should be called without distinction, to the exercise of the min.- 
 istry, whatever might have been their opinions on the ques- 
 tions which have divided the church of France. — The bishops 
 of foreign churches were to be presented with the decree of 
 reconciliation ; and the article of submission to the plenitude 
 of the pope, was conceived in a spirit of entire subjection. 
 
 The Gallic church after protesting its inviolable attachment 
 to the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman church, acknowledges that 
 the pope is of divine right the visible chief ; and that thereby 
 lie has the primacy of honor and jurisdiction. That the mem- 
 bers of it profess all the dogmas received by the catholic 
 church, and condemn all the errors that it proscribes. 
 
the 
 
 CONSEQUENCES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 RES ZJRIIE C TIG«Y, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WITNESSES. 
 
 Verse 13th. And tl;e same hour, was there a great 
 earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell ; and in 
 the earthquake were slain of men (the names of men, 
 as it is rendered in the margin) seven thousand — And 
 the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the 
 God of heaven. 
 
 The spirit of God, in order to confirm the truth of 
 this interesting and important event of his communica- 
 tion to the beloved disciple, does not rest the certainty 
 of the prediction on one or two facts, that might be 
 mistaken; but proceeds to tell, what should happen, 
 at or about the same time, in the civil department of 
 the same government, as an unequivocal cheque, or 
 certain demonstration of the period referred to — A 
 great earthquake is to happen, by which the tenth 
 part of the city, or one of the ten kingdoms, into which 
 the empire of Rome was to be divided, should be 
 
§56 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESURRECTION; 
 
 ruined, or rather changed. Another remarkable fact 
 should also attend it, that is seven thousand of the 
 names of men being slain or destroyed. An earth- 
 quake, in Latin terrmmotus or a shaking of the earth, 
 is not so expressive, as it is in the Greek, which is the 
 language in which the prophet wrote — It is seismos f 
 that is, a shaking of heaven and earth, relating to both 
 civil and religious power — vide Heb. xii. §6, §7- 
 
 It is used therefore by the prophets generally, to 
 signify the destruction of the form of things, so as 
 wholly to be changed. 
 
 Here are three very interesting events, to attend 
 the former predictions, which if understood, will by 
 their fulfilment about the same time establish a most 
 important sera in the Christian world, essential to the 
 more clear explanation of the prophecies, which the 
 wise are to attain to — A. great earthquake, or violent 
 agitating and overturning the political frame of the 
 governments of the Roman empire which shall 
 cause the fall of the tenth part of the city, or total 
 change of the civil and religious government of one of 
 the ten kingdoms into which the empire was to be di-1 
 vided — and the slaying of 7000 men of names or men 
 of dignity and title by which the destruction and aboli- 
 tion of all orders of rank and grandeur in that govern- 
 ment, shall be done away. 
 
 Throughout the scriptures, earthquakes are indii 
 cative of great confusions and uproars among the 
 common people of a nation, the change and altera- 
 tion of their political constitution, but not an absolute 
 
OF THE WITNESSES. 25 1 
 
 destruction — as by a natural earthquake, the posture 
 of the earth is only changed, by depressing hills, and 
 exalting vallies, turning the channels and courses of 
 rivers, &c. &c. — Thus Haggai speaks — te I will shake 
 the heavens and the earth ; and I will overthrow the 
 throne of kingdoms ; and I will destroy the strength of 
 the kingdoms of the Heathen ; and I will overthrow 
 the chariots and those that ride in them, and the horses 
 and their riders shall come down, every one by the 
 sword of his brother/’* 
 
 It is therefore a figure known at the time of St, 
 John’s writing, and was always emblematical of 
 the change of political and religious government — 
 changes of systems — loss of provinces — dethroning 
 kings and princes — destruction of cities — dissolving 
 of societies and suppression of various communities 
 - — high and lofty mountains are laid low as vallies; 
 and low and humble vallies are raised to high and 
 lofty mountains — The highest ranks of dignity de- 
 stroyed and done away, and the lowest of the people 
 raised to power and great authority. 
 
 This earthquake then, is predictive of some re- 
 markable and eventful convulsion of the government, 
 by which all its civil and religious polity will be 
 overturned — its monarchy destroyed — its whole con* 
 stitution and form of government subverted — its reli- 
 gious establishment will be altogether set aside and 
 prohibited so as to be no more practised or allowed, 
 
 * Haggai, ii. 21st, 22th 
 Kk 
 
353 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESURRECTION 
 
 In the vi. ch. and 18th v. of this book, an earthquake 
 is also predicted at the opening of the sixth seal 
 when “ the sun became black as sackcloth of hair 
 and the moon became as red as blood — the stars of 
 heaven fell on the earth, as a fig tree casteth her un- 
 timely figs, when shaken with a mighty wind.” This 
 event has already taken place, and so ftilly justifies 
 our explanation of the verse under consideration, that 
 I shall give the fulfilment of it, in the words of the 
 excellent Mr Mede, who was so able an expositor of 
 this important book .* — “ The meaning of this seal 
 is, a remarkable shaking of the heaven and the earth, 
 whereby that astonishing change and subversion of 
 the state of Rome Heathen, by Constantine the great, 
 and his successors the standard bearers of the Lamb, 
 is prefigured: in which you may suppose all the 
 heathen gods shaken from their heaven ; the pontifex 
 maximus with all his priests degraded, ejected and 
 
 * (i Hujus autem sigilli casus est, Cceli terrceque motus ad- 
 mirabilis, quo mirifiea ilia per Constantinum magnum ejus- 
 que successores, Agni signiferos rei Romans; Elhnice niutatio 
 & sub versio figuratur: qua puta ornnes gentilium Dii ceelo 
 suo excussi, Pontifiees & Sacerdotes exaugurati, dejecti, re diti- 
 busque suis in perpetuum exuti; Templa, Fana and Belubra 
 Dcemonum per omnera Romanum Orbern conquassata, direpta, 
 pifiammata, demolita.— Adlisec Imperatores, Reges, Dynastoe, 
 qui Diis suis tam enonniter perielitantibus subvenire, bellum 
 diristi vexilliferis indicere, ingentibus copiis decaernere, etiam 
 prtelio superati bellum, vi summa instanurere in animum in- 
 duxerint; inauditis stragibus coesi, fusi, fugatique; donee tan- 
 dem, redesperata, nemo amplius religion: Romanse, tanto 
 fragore ruenti, suppetias laturns reperiretur.” Mede, 447 
 
OF 1 HE WITNESSES. 
 
 253 
 
 deprived of their revenues forever: the temples, fanes 
 and shrines, with the statues of their demons shaken 
 to pieces, pillaged, burned and demolished through 
 the whole Roman empire. Moreover the emperors , 
 kings and nobles , in order to aid their gods, now in 
 so great danger of being destroyed, denounced war 
 against Christ’s standard bearers, and fought with all 
 their powers, and being beaten, renewed the battle 
 with greater strength; but being cut to pieces with 
 great slaughter, were discomfitted and put to flight : 
 at last things growing desperate, no one could be 
 found to succor the Roman religion any more, thus 
 fallen into ruin, with so great a crash.” 
 
 So in the case before us the same consequences will 
 take place. — The Bekaton (as it is called in the 
 Greek) or some remarkable one, of the ten kingdoms, 
 is to fall. 
 
 Philip Nicolai a divine of the Augustine confession 
 a learned and ingenious man who wrote during the 
 17th century, understood byDEKATON tespoleus 
 or the tenth part of the city, one of the ten kingdoms 
 into which Rome was sub-divided, which in this 
 confusion of nations or earthquake, should secede, or 
 be cut off from the authority of Rome, under whose 
 power she had long submitted. — This coincides with 
 what is elsewhere said, “ the ten kings who gave to 
 the beast his power, then, ivhen the sayings of God 
 (by his prophets) shall be fulfilled, shall hate the 
 whore, and make her naked, eat her flesh, and burn 
 
SM' THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESURRECTION 
 
 her with fire.” This Delcaton may perhaps go still 
 farther, and before finishing of the drama, extend 
 even to Rome itself ; for as Babylon of old was 
 wholly destroyed; so may the spiritual Babylon also? 
 be literally destroyed forever — “ Its smoke rose up 
 forever and ever,” that is, the city shall be reduced to 
 ashes, so as to be no more built up or inhabited again 
 forever.* 
 
 Edward King, who wrote II or 1 5 years ago, in 
 commenting on the words of St. Matthew, xxiv. 
 
 (C and immediately amidst the affliction of those days, 
 (or by means of the afflictions of those days) the sun 
 shall be darkened and the moon withdraw her light, ?? 
 &c. says, we may remark that if the words be under- 
 stood as merely emblematical, then the images made 
 use of are such, as are well known to predict, con- 
 sistently with their constant use in many other parts 
 of prophecy, a great destruction and almost annihila- 
 tion of many of those lawful powers, that at present 
 rule on earth, however beneficial any of them may he 
 to the world; and a dreadful lessening of the dignity 
 and splendor of all greatness, and a subversion of all 
 
 * Although God can never want means to accomplish the 
 most unlikely ends he has foretold, yet he generally acts by 
 natural means, to show his omniscience and wisdom — “ There 
 is about twelve miles from Uonie a volcanic lake, from which 
 bituminous and sulphureous vapors constantly exhale and ren- 
 der the vicinity uninhabitable by man or beast— material sub- 
 stances condense in its petrifying waters, and floating islands 
 are often founded on the surface of compacted reeds and bul- 
 rushes. 5 ’ 2d vol. Ameriean Letters from Europe, 23%. 
 
OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 255 
 
 good order and civil government : than which event 
 nothing can be expected more formidable.” 
 
 He refers to Rev. xivth. 21sfc, where a great 
 storm of hail, every stone of which, shall be of the 
 weight of a talent, always signifies in the prophetic 
 writings, the letting loose of lawless and barbarous 
 people . — “ Dreadful indeed ! says he, must be the 
 time (if such an one is to come) when men are let 
 loose on each other, possessed of all their present ar- 
 tificial improvements and advantages ; but unre- 
 strained either by law, and civil government; or by 
 conscience, and good principles ; scorning the admo- 
 nitions and authority of those, who ought to maintain 
 justice, — and assisted by the more rude and barbarous 
 parts of the world, whom they find too ready to in- 
 crease the universal uproar.”* 
 
 Another peculiar circumstance attending this period 
 of the prophecy, and which shall be a criterion to 
 judge of the approach of the time with certainty is ? 
 that in the general convulsion or change of govern- 
 ment, and in the struggles occasioned thereby, there 
 shall be slain or destroyed of the names, ranks or 
 dignities of men seven thousand.- f — It is in the 
 original, names of men, and not of men as in our 
 translation : it is rightly rendered in the margin of 
 
 * Morsels of Criticism, 262 . 
 
 t Seven itself is in the Hebrew, the number of sufficiency — . 
 Park in verbo Ebdomekontakis— ami may mean a great num- 
 ber. 
 
25 6 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESURRECTION 
 
 our bibjes, but the translators not attending to the. 
 force of the expression, concluded that it was an in- 
 terpolation.* 
 
 Here I must again have recourse to Mr Mede so 
 often quoted, as the best comment on this extraordi- 
 nary passage — In the year 1(534 he thus explains it 
 - — e( If we should understand by these words, men of 
 great names , it would be justified by many passages 
 of scripture ; as Levit. v. 15th, silver of shekels for 
 shekels of silver, or silver shekels — ibid. vii. 21st, 
 the uncleanness of man, for unclean men — Rom. ix. 
 31st, the law of righteousness, for the righteousness, 
 of the law, and Eph. ii. 7- riches of his grace, for rich 
 grace. 
 
 But it may also be observed, that the word name 
 in all languages is familiar for renown ; especially in 
 the sacred languages, wherein by the “ names of 
 men ” is meant illustrious men — so children without 
 any addition, is descriptive of ignoble, or base per- 
 sons — vide Job, xxx. 8th, men of no name*, as in 
 the margin of our bible. And among the Chaldeans, it 
 
 * Moses Maimonides, a Jew very celebrated for liis profound 
 knowledge in the Hebrew scriptures, in commenting on Isaiah, 
 xxxiv. 4th, says, “ the host of heaven shall be dissolved in the 
 symbolic diction of prophecy, signify men of rank and dignity 
 so clearly and evidently, that he should not have thought it 
 neeessary to have said a single word on the import of those 
 expressions, had not some writers very improperly annexed to 
 them a literal interpretation.” 
 
 Mure Nevochim a Buxtorji , 367. 
 
OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 §57 
 
 is descriptive of idiots— -Thus Beza uses tlie word 
 names, when speaking of the exaltation of Christ 
 above every name ; he says, “ name takes the signifi- 
 cation of dignity”— -Heb. i. 4th. 
 
 If we follow this interpretation (nor do I see what 
 should hinder it) the names of men will mean, the 
 titles of men — illustrious men, and men excelling in 
 dignity; of whom seven thousand, in this eonfusion 
 of things shall be slain;* and what if the order of false 
 teachers whom they call Ecclesiastics should be among 
 them. The number is not as I think, designed to 
 mean a definite number, but may be more or less, 
 after the manner of the scriptures. But what num- 
 ber of the common people shall fall, or be slain in 
 this war or confusion, does not belong to me to say; 
 as that may be conjectured from the destruction of il- 
 lustrious men; nor does the holy spirit condescend 
 to account by calculation for the destruction of the 
 
 * It is indeed even wonderful as well as gratifying to ore 
 who duly considers the prophecies of the divine scriptures, to 
 see their fulfilment attended with so much precision, and that 
 men who are not writing on subjects that lead them to think of 
 the prophetic declarations, which God has left on record for 
 the confirmation of the faith of his people, yet they record 
 facts shewing the fulfilment, with an exactness that appears 
 more like history than prophecy. In the present instance, 
 Mr Neckar the famous minister of finance in France, previous 
 to the king’s execution, writing on the finances says, “ that 
 there were 70qo pedigrees (of the nobility) carefully deposited 
 in the royal library of Paris.” 
 
258 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESURRECTION 
 
 lowest of the people, who shall be lost on this oc- 
 casion. 
 
 But there is another interpretation, which will not 
 render it necessary, to apply this part of the pro- 
 phecy to individual men. If we interpret the names 
 of men, to mean assemblies or societies of men, in a 
 corporate capacity, rather than in an individual; such 
 as cities, free corporations, parishes, cantons or dis- 
 tricts, convents, and the like titles of human commu- 
 nities. Thus the policy of the Thebans, is called 
 by Eschynes (Thebaian onoma) the Theban name 
 —and the Roman name is used to signify the Ro- 
 mans, as a people. What then, if the titles, or ex- 
 istence of those communities, whatever they may be, 
 whether of the church or of the state, seven thousand 
 should be destroyed, or brought under the power of 
 their adversaries, which, after the manner of the 
 scriptures, is called slaying.”* 
 
 It is added that the remnant were affrighted and 
 gave glory to the God of heaven. f — This is an effect 
 
 * The towns and villages in France, which have changed 
 their names since the revolution, amount to 6000 —Dunlap W 
 Claypoule’s news-paper, Dee. 4, l7 l J4i. Many have since been 
 added. 
 
 f An anonymous writer of the last century (the 17th) says? 
 “ the thirteen verses of the 11th chapter of the Revelation? 
 seems to aim at some great revolution, to the subverting of the 
 anti-elmstian state of affairs, in one of the ten kingdoms 
 the empire was divided into, and so introducing such a settle- 
 ment, as to be a prelade and pattern to what is to succeed in 
 other dominions .” 
 
OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 259 
 
 wholly different from that which followed the former war 
 of the other beast, when “ men gnawed their tongues with 
 pain, and cursed the God of Heaven.” This effect will 
 be another evidence of the time ; and among other cir- 
 cumstances, prove the fulfilment of this -part of the reve- 
 lation, or prophecy ; and will aid the Church of Christ, 
 in ascertaining the signs of the times, and the comple- 
 tion of his word. 
 
 Verse 14 — “ The second woe is past, and behold the 
 third woe cometh quickly.” 
 
 It has hitherto been necessaiy for the accomplishment 
 of the great purposes of Jehovah, with regard to his 
 church and people, so to envelope the times and circum- 
 stances attending their final deliverance, in darkness and 
 uncertainty, that while his servants were supported and 
 comforted by a lively faith in the certainty of the happy 
 issue, according to his promises, his and their enemies 
 were kept from showing their inveterate malice against 
 the cause and people of God, by persecutions more se- 
 vere than they would have been able to bear. But now 
 the latter times, the last times, of this great fourth mo- 
 narchy of the prophet Daniel, when the great events of 
 God’s providence will be followed by “ men’s giving 
 glory to the God of Heaven,” and therefore his servants 
 will be no longer exposed to persecution and distress ; 
 the Spirit of God produces such certain, unequivocal 
 testimony of the facts foretold so many hundred years 
 ago, that it can no longer remain doubtful, either as to 
 the great events that are now to come to pass, or to those 
 which have already been fulfilled, and not before fully 
 understood. Now the precise dates, and marked cir- 
 cumstances of past events, mentioned with precision in. 
 
 LI 
 
260 THE consequences op the resurrection 
 
 this important Divine communication, will be clearly 
 ascertained, to the no small conviction of the followers 
 of the Beast, the Man of Sin, Antichrist, and the world 
 at large ; in which also the ancient people of God, still 
 beloved by him for his servant Abraham’s sake, may be 
 very deeply interested. 
 
 When the evidences attending the slaying and revi- 
 val of the witnesses, together with the destruction of 
 titles, rank, and dignities among men, perhaps both civil 
 and ecclesiastical, figured by “ the names of men,” in- 
 cluding societies and communities, and all claiming 
 separate and peculiar privileges in the kingdom of the 
 Beast, with the burning and total destruction of the great 
 city, the mystical Babylon, the Mother of Harlots, shall 
 be well ascertained; then we are assured, with the greatest 
 certainty, that the second woe is finished, which estab- 
 lishes the end of the twelve hundred and sixty or ninety 
 days,* and of course by counting backwards, every 
 other period will be reducible to equal certainty. It 
 will be in this manner, perhaps, that the wise in the lat- 
 ter end are to understand, though the wicked continue 
 to do wickedly. 
 
 Thus is the time hastening on, and though it would 
 be presumption in any one to pretend to fix the day and 
 the year, not expressly fixed by the Holy Spirit ; yet, 
 as we are commanded to watch the signs of the times, 
 and the Jews for neglecting this duty, were severely re- 
 prehended by our Saviour, who has commanded us to 
 •keep our loins girt, and our lamps trimmed and burning, 
 
 * Vide Daniel, 12th cl). 11th v. where 50 days are added to the 
 1260, and 45 days to them ; each of which it seems, will produce 
 some remarkable event, predictive of the great era, which is to 
 'trnlsh the second woe. 
 
OF TIIE WITNESSES. 
 
 261 
 
 we may, without manifesting an improper spirit, say that 
 it is not far off. Then the great Governor and Protector 
 of his Church will again rend the vale of the temple, and 
 once more lay open the Holy of Holies to his faithful 
 people, that they may lift up their heads from a long 
 state of mourning and humiliation, and rejoice with joy 
 unspeakable, knowing that their redemption is drawing 
 nigh. The careful observer, who, with a humble faith 
 and lively hope, is watching the signs of the times in the 
 fulfilment of what the Spirit hath said to the churches, 
 ought indeed to be roused by what he sees, and reads, 
 and hears, being assured that the cry “ behold the Bride- 
 groom cometh, go ye out to meet him,” will certainly 
 be made. How inexcusable will those virgins be, who, 
 notwithstanding these gracious and solemn warnings of 
 their Lord and Master, shall at last be found slumber- 
 ing and sleeping, without oil in their lamps ? If they 
 are wholly inattentive to, and unbelieving with regard 
 to this great event, then will be fulfilled the saying of 
 Christ, “ when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find 
 faith (in his personal and actual appearance) on earth.” 
 And even the Angel who revealed these great events to 
 the prophet Daniel, was obliged to complain, that though 
 “ these things were noted in the Scripture of Truth, yet 
 there was none that strengthened! himself (as in the mar- 
 gin of our Bibles) or supporteth himself with me in them, 
 but Michael, your prince.”— Daniel, ch. 10, v. 21. 
 
 In vain will it be, when the midnight cry shall be re- 
 alized, for them to look round in confusion, and suppli- 
 cate, in the most piteous manner, for a supply from those 
 wise Virgins, who stand ready prepared to go forth to 
 meet the Bridegroom. 
 
262 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESURRECTION 
 
 They may indeed go out with haste to buy, but at 
 their return, he will be gone in, the doors be for ever 
 shut against them, and they will be left without, where 
 there will be nothing but weeping and wailing, and gnash- 
 ing of teeth — Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. 
 
 A REVIEW OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 On a review of what has been said, it may be object- 
 ed, that in every century, enthusiasts have arisen, who, 
 by pretending to explain this Divine book of the Apoca- 
 lypse, and foretelling thereby, the times and seasons of 
 the coming of the glorified Messiah on this earth, have 
 produced the greatest confusions in government. They 
 have involved thousands of innocent, though weak and 
 credulous people, not only in temporal evils, but have 
 been the means of their committing acts of the greatest 
 extravagance, lewdness, and even blasphemy. * 
 
 It is answered, that in any or every view of this sub- 
 ject, there is not in the nature of the doctrines, the least 
 connection with, nor do the Scriptures give in any man- 
 ner, the least encouragement to enthusiasm, or extrava- 
 gance of conduct, in the principles or expectations of the 
 second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not the 
 Scriptures teach it as a rational and glorious expectation, 
 that he who has done and suffered so much for the sal- 
 vation of the children of men, should complete the bles- 
 sed system, designed to correct all sin and iniquity ; and 
 by his joyful advent, change and renew the hearts and 
 practices of men— cover the earth with the knowledge 
 of God as the waters cover the seas— promote universal 
 love and peace throughout the world— make all wars, and 
 
OP THE WITNESSES. 
 
 263 
 
 the shedding a brother’s blood to cease — and if the saints 
 are to govern the earth, is it not to be a government of 
 righteousness and peace, when the swords are to be beat- 
 en into plough-shares and the spears into pruning-hooks, 
 and the nations are to learn war no more ? 
 
 The Servant of God, or He, who in Scripture lan- 
 guage is denominated the Wise Man, and who in the lat- 
 ter times, is to understand, will make the proper distinc- 
 tion, and can be in no danger of the excesses of an en- 
 thusiastic spirit. Enthusiasm is a false persuasion that 
 God inspires us, while it is our own vain imaginations 
 alone that delude us. It arises from an excess of spi- 
 ritual pride and self-love, which makes men fancy them- 
 selves more enlightened and more virtuous than other 
 men. But the real servant of God, conscious of his own 
 weakness and insufficiency, and that he has nothing but 
 what he has received from God, will be satisfied to take 
 the whole word of God for his rule, and with faith and 
 patience, to wait his master’s own good time. He will 
 be content to watch with an attentive eye, the proceed- 
 ings of the Spirit of God, agreeably to his word, and 
 mark the signs of the times consequent thereon. He 
 will draw from thence a humble hope and firm confidence 
 in the truth of Divine predictions for his support and com- 
 fort under all the trials and distresses of life ; being wil- 
 ling to leave times and seasons in the hands of God, and 
 will make no other use of his prospects of them, than to 
 be always ready prepared for his Lord’s approach and 
 the marriage supper of the Lamb, whenever it shall hap- 
 pen, whether at noon or midnight. He will have no de- 
 sire to substitute his own wild notions for the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ, or the true meaning of the spirit of prophe- 
 
264 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESURRECTION 
 
 cy. He is one who lives in the continual practice of 
 prayer, mortification and self-denial. Such an one, or 
 in other words, the real Christian, will not be in any 
 danger of falling into the extravagancies of enthusiasm. 
 The Divine virtues that characterize the real follower of 
 Jesus Christ, furnish not only spiritual, but even natural 
 cures to enthusiasm.* 
 
 Is it then generous, just, or right, to charge the pure 
 spirit of the Gospel, with the follies and indiscretions, to 
 say no worse of them, of its mere nominal professors, 
 who contradict every essential principle of its doctrines, 
 by the unrestrained sallies of a vain imagination, and the 
 want of an experimental knowledge of its true spirit, and 
 
 * It is very remarkable how cautiously our Lord guards his fol- 
 lowers from any such evil consequences. Instead of commanding 
 them to league together and strive and fight to bring on this blessed 
 and joyous event, to oppose the infidel and unbelieving nations of 
 the earth, by force and violence, he most earnestly exhorts his ser- 
 vants to patience and long suffering. “ Then if any man shall say 
 unto you, Lo ! here is Christ, or there, believe it not; for there 
 shall arise false Christs and false prophets ; and shall show great 
 signs and wonders ; insomuch that if it were possible, they should 
 deceive the very elect. Behold! I have told you before. Where- 
 fore if they shall say unto you, Behold ! he is in the. desert, go not 
 forth ; behold ! he is in the secret chamber, believe it not. For as 
 the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even to the west, 
 so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be/’f And again, in 
 the Revelation, “ If any man have an ear let him hear — he who 
 leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity : he who killeth with 
 the sword must be killed with the sword : here is the patience and 
 the faith of the saints.”! As much as if he had said, these awful 
 consequences will come on a guilty world with certainty, there- 
 fore my people, who believe in my word, will be resigned. 
 
 f -24 Math. 23-27. * 13 ch, 9 & 10 v. 
 
OF THE WITNESSES. 
 
 265 
 
 life ? Is all pure gold to be contemned and rejected, be- 
 cause the dishonest and unprincipled, have invented a 
 thousand ways of debasing it ? — Do men act thus in hu- 
 man affairs ? Will a host of dishonest men, tarnish the 
 character of one of known integrity, and uprightness ? 
 It is by their fruits ye shall know them. “ Do men 
 gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles,” 
 
THE TIME OF THE END, 
 
 OR, THE LATTER TIME OF THE LAST TIMES 
 
 Rev. ch. 11, verses 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19. “ And the seventh An- 
 gel sounded, 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. 
 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God, on 
 their seats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, 
 we give thee thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty, who art, and 
 wast, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy 
 great power, and hast reigned,” &c. &c. 
 
 THESE verses have been quoted for the purpose of 
 shewing to the Church of Christ, the great importance 
 of the slaying and resurrection of the witnesses, with re- 
 gard to enabling the wise among her children, to discern 
 the signs of the times, and the blessed consequences of 
 the apparent confusion and disorder of 1290 years. As 
 the death and resurrection of Christ, from the dead, 
 brought life and immortality to light ; so will the death 
 and resurrection of these his faithful witnesses, open up 
 to the Church, the whole economy and plan of the Gos- 
 pel, as it relates to her deliverance, from her depressed 
 and suffering state, with the resurrection of the Prophets, 
 Saints, and those who have feared God, both small and 
 
THE TIME OF THE END, See. 
 
 267 
 
 great, and the introduction of th% latter day glory, under 
 the immediate and visible government of her King and 
 Redeemer. It is on the sounding of the seventh Angel, 
 which speedily follows the ending of the second woe, 
 (and has already appeared to be finished at the resurrec- 
 tion of the witnesses) that “ the kingdoms of this world, 
 are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ,” 
 when it will become the duty of his servants, whatever 
 their sufferings heretofore may have been “ to lift up their 
 heads and to rejoice, knowing that their redemption 
 draweth nigh.”* 
 
 * Mr. Daubuz, in his comment on this chapter says, the po- 
 litical resurrection of the witnesses (and they lived and reigned 
 with Christ 1000 years) happens when Rome falls, and the beast 
 is destroyed, and the nations are converted : then, that of the in- 
 dividual Saints must follow. Now lest we should mistake the re- 
 surrection by applying it, as it suits with a political collective bo- 
 dy, the Holy Ghost uses terms, which only signify individuals. 
 Upon the most serious application of mind, I cannot find that the 
 terms used in this verse, can be understood of a political collec- 
 tive body or society of men, in a mortal state. The words are 
 plain and literal, as to the Hebrew style. Souls slain, signify 
 dead men — this is the subject of the proposition. A proper re- 
 surrection of their bodies must be implied — they are not individu- 
 als, or a collective body on earth, and in a mortal life ; therefore a 
 political resurrection cannot be applied to them. They are ex- 
 actly distinguished in the whole prophecy, from living mortals, and 
 from the church militant — their warfare is over, as to this life ; 
 they are victorious, and entering upon a triumphant state. The 
 political resurrection of the church, does not belong to them, and 
 cannot be predicated of their persons : and so when the Holy 
 Ghost speaks of them, a different matter is applied to them. Let 
 it be proved that the souls slain for the testimony of Jesus, or those 
 who have opposed the beast and false prophet, who are here re- 
 presented as slain and living again, do symbolically signify the 
 whole church, or rather the collective body of the church, of the 
 
 M m 
 
268 
 
 THE TIME OP THE END, 
 
 The figure here used, of the elders sitting before God, 
 on his throne, is similar to that in Daniel, of the high 
 priest in the Sanhedrim, with the twenty-four assessors 
 or elders, sitting round him on each hand, in a semi- 
 circular form ; and by the song of thanksgiving and 
 praise, is shown the extreme joy of the Church of Christ, 
 at this glorious consummation of all her sufferings and 
 labour ; and the bright display of the glory of her God, 
 and the honour of her exalted Redeemer. Now has come 
 the happy time, when the prophecies of both Daniel and 
 John, though published at such great distance of time 
 from each other, will be fully verified and understood. 
 
 Daniel , ch. 7, v. 9 and 10. 
 
 I beheld till the thrones 
 were cast (or set) down, 
 and the ancient of days did 
 sit — the judges sat and the 
 books were opened. 
 
 Verse 22. 
 
 And judgment was given 
 to the saints of the most 
 
 John, ch. 20, v. 4. 
 
 - 
 
 I saw thrones, and they 
 sat upon them, and judg- 
 ment was given unto them. 
 
 And I saw the souls of 
 them who were beheaded 
 for the witness of Jesus and 
 the word of God : and they 
 lived and reigned with 
 
 Saints still in a mortal life ; and not barely and plainly the Mar- 
 tyrs departed out of this life, distinct from the faithful still in this 
 life, and then there will be some weight in the objection — but that 
 I am sure never can be done. And if it were in this place made 
 plausible, the verse following would still prove refractory — there- 
 fore this life and resurrection, can be only of such individuals as 
 are described in the foregoing words, (the 18th verse, and the na- 
 tions were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, 
 that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward 
 unto thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints, and them who 
 fear thy name, small and great) who are persons slain and dead, 
 before the time of the millenium. — Fol. 931. 
 
OR, THE LATTER TIME OF THE LAST TIMES. 269 
 
 high. And the time came 
 that the saints possessed the 
 kingdom. 
 
 Verse 27. 
 
 And the kingdom and 
 dominion, and the greatness 
 of the kingdom, under the 
 whole Heavens, shall be 
 given to the people of the 
 saints, of the most high ; 
 whose kingdom is an ever- 
 lasting kingdom and all do- 
 minions shall serve and 
 obey him. 
 
 It must be obvious to the slightest observer, that the 
 events of these latter days, have aided in a great measure, 
 to the foregoing interpretation of this memorable chapter 4 
 of St. John’s prophecy, and it appears to me, that it was 
 originally designed by the Holy Spirit, that the particular 
 times, and certainty of the individual events predicted 
 therein, should not be clearly ascertained till towards, or 
 about, the time of the conclusion of the prophesying of 
 the witnesses in sack cloth,* or till the last or latter times 
 of the fourth or Roman government, or the decline and 
 almost total destruction of the power and authority of the 
 man of sin and antichristian, or Roman beast, as has been 
 herein before mentioned. Then the actual discovery of 
 the events more explicitly foretold and now accomplished, 
 will be far from provoking a successful vengeance and 
 fury, against the servants of God, with any considerable 
 effect. But from the special circumstances of the times, 
 
 Christ a thousand years. 
 
 Verse 6. 
 
 Blessed and holy is he 
 who hath part in the first re- 
 surrection ; on such the se- 
 cond death has no power, 
 but they shall be priests of 
 God and- of Christ, and 
 shall reign with him a thou- 
 sand years. 
 
270 
 
 THE TIME OF THE END, 
 
 and particularly the reducing the long established power 
 of despots and absolute monarchs ; and the more full in- 
 vestigation of the rational and well founded rights of men, 
 as members of civil communities, and reasonable and ac- 
 countable creatures, under very limited monarchs, and 
 good energetic and effectual governments, founded on 
 principles of righteousness and holiness, a direct contra- 
 ry effect may be produced. This seems to be more than 
 hinted at by the pr jphet, when he speaks of its leading 
 the people, instead of “ gnawing their tongues with pain, 
 and cursing the God of Heaven,” as in the former reign 
 of the first beast, “ to give glory to the God of Hea- 
 ven.” 
 
 Daniel is told by the Angel “ that the words are clo- 
 sed up and sealed, till the time of the end.” By this it 
 appears, as if all successful inquiry, relative to the pre- 
 cise time of the sounding of the trumpet of the seventh 
 Angel, should be precluded until that period, called the 
 time of the end, or as we have already observed, the end 
 of the fourth or Roman government. 
 
 As there are many special duties, required of believ- 
 ers, at the approach of this very important era, it certain- 
 ly does render it strictly incumbent on them, seriously 
 to inquire, when this time of the end, is to take place ; 
 or rather whether it is not now about taking place, or 
 may not now be at the door. They are greatly encour- 
 aged by the Spirit of God, in what follows in Daniel, 
 “ that even then, (at the time of the end, though) none of 
 the -wicked shall understand, yet the wise shall under- 
 stand. ” This knowledge is not to be given by inspira- 
 tion, without the labour of investigation, for then it would 
 not be confined to the wise, but, as before, would have 
 dealt in generals, as the servants or people of God — 
 
OR, THE LATTER TIME OF THE LAST TIMES. 
 
 Christ charges the Jews with negligence, in not observing 
 the signs of the times, and the Apostles assert, that “ if 
 the princes of this world had known it, they would not 
 have crucified the Lord of glory,” that is, if they had at- 
 tended to the predictions relative to the coming of the 
 Messiah, and compared them with the conduct and 
 works of Jesus Christ, they would have been convinced 
 of his divine mission. 
 
 St. John, indeed, who drew nearer to this period, hav- 
 ing seen the beginning of the latter times, or the last pe- 
 riod or era of the Roman government, adds greatly to our 
 encouragement, by the solemn call (already mentioned) 
 “ on all who have ears, to hear what the spirit saith to the 
 churches.” It would have been in vain to hear, if we 
 were not to improve that hearing, to obtain knowledge, 
 and direct our practice accordingly. 
 
 If the present time should be about the time of the 
 end, or if it is but nearly approaching, it is supposed that 
 the alarming events that have taken, and will yet take 
 place, as fulfilments of the prophecies, ought to rouse 
 the inquiries of God’s people. This will lead them to 
 attend more closely to the teachings of the Scriptures ; 
 and the same spirit of truth that dictated them, may di- 
 rect the mind of the careful and devout inquirer, into the 
 knowledge of his will, so as to support and encourage 
 him, under the trials and difficulties he may meet with, 
 in the preparatory work of this complete victory, at the 
 appearance of his Lord and Saviour, in the glory he had 
 before the foundation of the world. 
 
 I know that great caution is necessary to prevent being 
 too minute as to days and years. The difficulty of cal- 
 culating distant periods of time with precision, or fixing 
 the beginnings of Scripture prophecies to a day or a year. 
 
272 
 
 THE TIME OP THE END, 
 
 as well as the not fully understanding the peculiar idiom 
 of the dead languages, and the difference of the force of 
 expressions and phrases, when translated into another 
 language,* should always enjoin great modesty and diffi- 
 dence. A positive temper should be avoided, and a suf- 
 ficient latitude to calculations and assertions, relative 
 to the exact fulfilment of different periods be given. 
 The object in view is barely to ascertain or discover their 
 approach, which will tend to rouse and animate the faith 
 and hope of the pious Christian, and excite his ardent 
 and wrestling prayers and gratitude, at the throne of 
 grace. 
 
 The first leading fact in this prophetic declaration is, 
 as has been shown, “ the time of the end — the last times 
 — the latter time of the last times — the end of Daniel’s 
 fourth, or Roman government — the sounding of the 
 seventh Angel.” 
 
 It is very clear that all these epithets designate the pe- 
 riod, at which the twelve hundred and sixty days, or ninety 
 days, or the conclusion of the prophecy of the two witnesses 
 in sackcloth (let them be who they may) with the second 
 woe, shall end. This period of days or years, is to be 
 reckoned from the termination of the measure of the in- 
 ner court, or the defection of the Church of Christ into 
 spiritual whoredom, and the destruction of the great Red 
 Dragon, or the Roman government under the emperors ; 
 for the Scriptures expressly fix the epocha or beginning 
 
 *“ For t'ne same things uttered in Hebrew and translated into 
 another tongue, have not the force in them ; and not only these 
 things, but the law itself, and the prophets, (or prophecies) and 
 the rest of the books, have no small difference, when they are spo- 
 ken in their own language.” 
 
 Prologue of Jesus , the son of Sirach , to Ecclesiast , 
 
OR, THE LATTER TIME OF THE LAST TIMES. 273 
 
 of the man of sin from “ the taking away of that which 
 hindereth,” or the “deadly wounding of the head of the 
 beast;” generally supposed to be the sovereignty of the 
 Roman beast, or Rome Pagan, or the dividing the em- 
 pire into two kingdoms.* 
 
 Before this period, it did not seem probable that any 
 great discoveries on this subject would be made, further 
 than general principles, relative to the certainty of the 
 security and final victory of God’s people over all their 
 enemies. 
 
 To accomplish the further investigation of this sub- 
 ject with propriety, and to observe an orderly method, 
 it will be necessary to inquire into and show, 
 
 1st. The time of St. John’s receiving the revelations, 
 or visions, which he hath recorded, as delivered to and 
 seen by him in the island of Patmos. 
 
 2d. The time in which the Church of Christ, establish- 
 ed by the Apostles, after the crucifixion of their Lord 
 and master, continued in a state of purity, both in doc- 
 trine and practice. 
 
 3d. The time of the destruction of the power or gov- 
 ernment of Rome Pagan ; or the taking away of that 
 which hindered ; and the commencement of the power 
 of the man of sin, as receiving authority over the Church 
 of Christ, and establishing the worshipping of images or 
 spiritual whoredom, from whence the beginning of the 
 1260 years should be reckoned. 
 
 4th. The state of the Christian Church, during this pe- 
 riod of 1260 or 90 years, from the beginning of the man 
 of sin ; especially with regard to the purity of public 
 
 * 2d Thes. 2d ch. v. 6, 7, 8.— Rev. 13th, ch. v. 3, 
 
274 
 
 THE TIME OF THE END, 
 
 worship, and attention to the institutions and ordinances 
 oi the Gospel. 
 
 5th. The government, described by “ the beast arising 
 out of the bottomless pit,” which will ascertain the ap- 
 proach of the total destruction of the man of sin, or the 
 apostatical little horn, after which the reign of antichrist 
 (being the end of the 1260 years, when the witnesses 
 will be about to finish their testimony) must take place. 
 
 6th. The present appearance of things, both civil and 
 religious in the Roman empire, or the ten kingdoms in- 
 to which it was divided, and particularly in the Dekaton , 
 or tenth part of it, which was to fall, compared with those 
 foretold by these prophecies as to happen about this pe- 
 riod or time of the end. 
 
 7th. The present age of the world as to its duration, 
 and the general ideas of the ancients, both Jews and Gen- 
 tiles, as to the traditions received from the Patriarchs, 
 relative to its existence for 6000 years, and then to un- 
 dergo a favourable revolution. 
 
 8th. Draw the proper conclusions from this important 
 inquiry. 
 
THE TIME OF ST. JOHN’S RECEIVING THE 
 
 REVELATION, OR VISIONS, 
 
 ■? 
 
 WHICH HE HATH RECORDED AS DELIVERED TO AND SEEN BY 
 HIM, IN THE ISLAND OF PATMOS. 
 
 OUR first inquiry then is “ the time of St. John’s re- 
 ceiving the revelption or visions, which he hath recorded 
 as delivered to and seen by him, in the island of Pat* 
 mos.” 
 
 St. John, the beloved disciple of our Lord and Saviour, 
 who had received so many tokens of peculiar respect and 
 affectioh from his master, in the days of his flesh, was un- 
 doubtedly the favoured messenger, by whom our now 
 glorified Redeemer, encouraged and supported his nume- 
 rous followers, by an express revelation of the future 
 states of his church, for more than seventeen hundred 
 years ; and will continue so to do until his second com- 
 ing in glory, according to his repeated promises while 
 yet with them.* 
 
 * “ This dogma of the 1000 years reign, was the general opin- 
 ion of all orthodox Christians, in the age immediately following 
 the Apostles, if Justin Martyr saithtrue, and none known to de- 
 ny it but heretics, who denied the resurrection, and held that the 
 God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was not the father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. This was the reason why Irenceus maintained it in 
 his book, “ against all Heresies,” and Tertullian against the Mar - 
 cionites .” 
 
 EusebUis (not the author of the Ecclesiastical history) who found 
 out one Gains, to father it upon Cerinthus , deserves no credit— 
 He was a party, and one of those who did his best to undermine 
 
 Nn 
 
276 
 
 THE TIME OF ST. JOHN’S RECEIVING 
 
 That John, the beloved disciple, was the author of this 
 book, it is believed all real Christians, do now acknow- 
 ledge. Papias, who flourished in the time of St. John, 
 and was one of his auditors, as well as a companion of 
 Polycarp, also one of John’s disciples, says “ if at any 
 time, I met with any one that had conversed with the el- 
 ders, I made a diligent inquiry after their sayings ; what 
 Andrew or what Peter said, or what Philip, or Thomas, 
 or James, or John, or Matthew, or any of the Lord’s dis- 
 ciples, were wont to say” — and Eusebuis, of Nicomedia, 
 who cites this passage, not understanding the design of 
 the revelations, observes, “ moreover this same writer 
 (meaning Papias) has set down some other things, which 
 came to him barely by word of mouth, to wit, certain 
 strange parables of our Saviour’s and sermons of his : — 
 and some other more fabulous relations, among which 
 he says, there shall be a thousand years after the resur- 
 rection from the dead, wherein the kingdom of Christ 
 shall be corporally set up here on earth.” 
 
 Justin Martyr, as early as the year 140, and but about 
 Forty- one or two years after the return of St. John from 
 his banishment, bears testimony to this important fact 
 in the following words : “ And a man from amongst us, 
 by name John, one of the apostles of Christ , in the reve- 
 lation made to him, has prophesied, that the believers in 
 our Christ shall live a thousand years in Jerusalem, and 
 after that shall be the general, and in a word, the eternal 
 
 the authority of the Apocalypse. Nor did any know of any such 
 Gains , but from his relation ; and if there were any such, he should 
 seem to be one of the heretics, called Alogi, who denied both 
 St. John’s Gospel and Apocalypse, as is testified in Epiphanius ; and 
 their time jumps with the age which Eusebius assigns to Gains. 
 
 Mede’s Works, fol. edit. 602. 
 
THE REVELATION, OR VISIONS. 
 
 277 
 
 resurrection and judgment of all men together.” And 
 after him, Irenceus, bishop of Lyons, about the year 178, 
 and who came in succession to the apostles, being scho- 
 lar to Papias, before mentioned bishop of Hierapolis, 
 who had conversed with the apostles and their follow- 
 ers, as indeed Iren sens himself did with Poly carp, the 
 companion of St. John, as may be learned from his epis- 
 tle to Florinius, where he says “ I am able to tell even 
 the place where the blessed Polycarp sat and discoursed : 
 also, his goings out and comings in ; his manner of 
 life ; the shape of his body ; the discourses he made to 
 the populace ; the familiar converse which he said he had 
 with John, and with the rest, who had seen the Lord.”-— 
 This Irenceus in his 5th book, concerning the revelation 
 of St. John and the number of Antichrist’s name, says, 
 “ these things being thus, and this number being extant 
 in all accurate and ancient copies, and those very persons 
 who saw John face to face, attesting the truth of these 
 things, we will not therefore run the hazard of affirm- 
 ing any thing too positively, concerning the name of An- 
 tichrist ; for if his name was to have been openly declared 
 in this age, it would have been expressed by him who 
 saw the revelation — for it was not seen long since, but 
 almost in our age, about the end of Domitian’s reign.” 
 Eusebius Pamphilius, who wrote about the year 300, 
 speaks “ of the exact and ancient copies of the book of 
 the Revelation, confirmed likewise by the agreeing testi- 
 mony of those who had seen John himself.” To these 
 should have been added the conclusive testimony of Ig- 
 natius, bishop of Antioch, also a disciple of the apostle 
 John : Clemens of Alexandria , the bishop of Rome, and 
 Tertuliian, all of the second century.* 
 
 * Vide 2d Mosheim, 230. 
 
278 
 
 THE TIME OF ST. JOHN’S RECEIVING 
 
 This fact was never disputed, till Dyonisius, bishop of 
 Alexandria, about the year 250, called its author in ques- 
 tion, though not its authority, for even he, acknowledged 
 it to have been written by some person divinely in- 
 
 St. John was son to Salome, sister of our Lord accord- 
 ing to the flesh, being a daughter of Joseph by a former 
 wife, and lived the longest of all the disciples and apos- 
 tles of Jesus Christ, and is supposed to be the only one 
 of them who died a natural death. He was particularly 
 honoured by his divine master, when he committed his 
 mother to his John’s) special care, even in the last mo- 
 ments of his life, while hanging on the cross, whereby a 
 powerful example of filial piety and affection was given 
 
 * Mr. Mede says of the Revelation of St. John, “ that it has more 
 human, not to speak of divine authority, than any other book of 
 the New Testament besides, even from the time it was revealed.” 
 And Sir Isaac Newton says, “ I do not find any other book of the 
 New Testament, so strongly attested, or commented upon, as ear- 
 ly as this.” 
 
 Melito, bishop of Sardis, one of the seven churches of Asia, to 
 whom St. John directed the Apocalypse, and who flourished next 
 after Justin Martyr, who lived 50 years after St. John, wrote a 
 commentary on this book. 
 
 And Andrew, bishop of Cresarea, wrote on it also, and says, “ I 
 need not enlarge in proving the inspiration of this book, since so 
 many ancients have born testimony to its authority.” 
 
 But the writer of the Revelation himself has fully declared who 
 he was, when he says, “the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which 
 God gave unto him — and he sent and signified it by his angel to 
 his servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the 
 testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw , f that is, 
 who wrote the Gospel, or history of our Lord’s life and actions 
 while in the flesh. 
 
 Ireneeus, cotemporary with Melito, did the same. 
 
 f Vid. 1st ch. John’s Epistle. 
 
THE REVELATION, OR VISIONS. 219 
 
 to all, who should afterwards believe in him, to the end 
 of the world. 
 
 After her death, (which happened about fifteen years 
 after the crucifixion, till which time St. John remained 
 with his charge, the mother of Jesus, in Jerusalem) he 
 took possession of the province alotted to him in the gen- 
 eral distribution by the apostles, and went into Asia, and 
 founded the churches of Smyrna , Philadelphia , Laodi- 
 cea, &c. but his principal residence was at Ephesus, 
 where St. Paul had previously founded a church. 
 
 After several years labour in this part of his Lord’s 
 vineyard, this beloved disciple was sent as a criminal 
 to Rome by the proconsul of Asia, under the charge of 
 being a public subverter of the religion of the empire, 
 where the emperor Domitian condemned him to be 
 thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, from which com- 
 ing out wholly unhurt, the tyrant, so far from acknow- 
 ledging the almighty power of God, thus manifest in St. 
 John’s preservation, banished the holy apostle into a de- 
 sert island in the Archipelago sea, called Patmos. Here 
 it was, that his prison became a palace, by the presence of 
 his Lord and master, when he was honoured with the 
 prophetic vision of the Apocalypse, by which the Church 
 received so rich a treasure, in the certain view of the 
 dealings of God with her, during the period of her hu- 
 miliation and mourning, for the absence of her great head 
 and king. 
 
 On the death of Domitian, and the succession of Nerva, 
 about the year 96, St. John was recalled from his banish- 
 ment, and again fixed his residence in Asia, where he 
 had before written his sublime Gospel for the edification 
 of the whole Christian world, and the conviction of Ce- 
 Bnthus and other heretics of that day, who began to raise 
 
280 
 
 TIIE TIME OF TIIF CHURCH REMAINING 
 
 doubts and difficulties with regard to the doctrines of the 
 divinity and atonement of our Lord and Saviour. 
 
 By these facts we are led to ascertain die time of St. 
 John’s writing the Apocalypse. Domitian began his 
 reign Sept. 13, in the year 81, and Nerva who succeeded 
 him, began his reign Sept. 18, in the year 96, so that as 
 the Revelation was made in the end of Domitian’s reign, 
 it might be about the beginning of the year 96. 
 
 St. Jerome confirms this idea, by expressly saying, 
 “ that St. John wrote the Apocalypse in the 14th year of 
 Domitian.” 
 
 THE TIME OF THE CHURCH REMAINING IN A 
 STATE OF PURITY, 
 
 AFTER ST. JOHN’S VISION. 
 
 FROM a full consideration of the subjective are led to 
 suppose, with many very able commentators, that the 
 Church continued in a state of purity, both as to doc- 
 trine and practice, from 360 to 400 years after St. John’s 
 residence in Patmos, which was, as before mentioned, 
 somewhere about the year 96, according to the vulgar 
 reckoning, but was, in reality, the year 100, agreeably 
 to the actual time of the birth of Christ, that is, the great 
 declension of the Church, in worshipping images, or spi- 
 ritual idolatry, and the reign of the man of sin, began and 
 was perfected from the years 460 to 500, about which 
 
IN A STATE OF PURITY AFTER ST. JOHN’S VISION. 281 
 
 last year, his authority generally prevailed throughout the 
 Churches. 
 
 It appears from Ezekiel’s measures of the temple, as 
 explained by the learned Villalpandus, that the outer 
 court of the temple at Jerusalem was three and a half 
 times larger than the inner court, so that it would con- 
 tain within its bounds three and an half of the inner court. 
 As this last court was emblematic of the first continu- 
 ance of the Church of Christ in its purity, so the outer 
 one was of its state of apostasy, under the man of sin, or 
 during the prophesying of the witnesses in sackcloth. 
 If then there should be allowed a similar proportion as 
 to time, for the inner court, or the true Church of Christ, 
 continuing in its purity, from the time of the prophetic 
 Revelation, agreeably to the opinion of the pious Mr. 
 Mede, it will allow 360 or 365 years, being the propor- 
 tion of twelve months to forty-two, from the year 96, or 
 rather 100, and will give somewhere about the year 460 
 or 465 for the beginning of the apostasy of the church 
 from its original purity, which being progressive, be- 
 came complete between that time and about the year 
 500. 
 
 This, or something like it, for it is not pretended to 
 ascertain times with the precision of a few years, seems 
 to have been an ancient opinion, for St. Austin, in his 
 Book de Civitate Dei Lib. 18, cap. 53 and 54, tells us 
 “that there was a noted oracle delivered from several 
 Heathen Temples of Greece, that the Christian religion 
 should last but 365 years, for so long only had Peter en- 
 chanted the world to adore Jesus of Nazareth, but after 
 that time, it should vanish out of the world.” 
 
THE TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE 
 POWER, OR 
 
 GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN, 
 
 / ^ 
 
 OR, THE TAKING AWAY OP THAT WHICH HINDERED, AND 
 THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE POWER OF THE MAN OF 
 SIN, AS RECEIVING AUTHORITY OVER THE CHURCH OF 
 CHRIST ; FROM WHENCE THE BEGINNING OF THE 1260 
 YEARS, AND THE WITNESSES PROPHESYING IN SACK- 
 CLOTH, SHOULD BE RECKONED. 
 
 IT has been justly remarked by Mr. Mede, that to fix 
 the duration of the Church’s purity, or the beginning of 
 the reign of the man of sin, we ought not to look so 
 much for the commencement of the power of the Pope 
 as an individual, as upon the apostasy of the Church from 
 the purity of Christian worship, by means of spiritual 
 fornication or the worshipping of idols, of which the Pope 
 was to be the head, and his city (spiritually called Baby- 
 lon) the metropolis ; but the body v/as to be the Roman 
 empire, divided into ten kingdoms, and reunited under 
 this head, preserving the image of the former Roman 
 government.*. This new idolatry, is that treading 
 
 * Therefore the beginning of that apostasy, or spiritual idolatry 
 and fornication, by the worshipping of images, and the doctrine of 
 the intercession of saints and angels, instead of the one mediator. 
 Jesus Christ, as involving every other heresy, must be looked for, 
 as the commencement of the great sera from which all others must 
 be reckoned (and not the temporal power of the Pope,) notwith- 
 standing those other heresies may have preceded it, “ for the 
 devising of idols was the beginning of spiritual fornication, and 
 
THE TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION, &c. 
 
 283 
 
 down, or profaning the court of the Temple of God ; 
 that is, of his visible worship in the Church of Christ, 
 by this kind of new Gentilism, unto which the forty-two 
 months are attributed, as well as to the beast. 
 
 the invention of them, the corruption of life, for the worshipping of 
 idols, not to be named, is the beginning, the cause, and the end 
 of all evil.”* The apostle foretels this event.f Speaking of the 
 mystery of Godliness in the 16th verse, which should be connect- 
 ed with the 1st verse of the next chapter, which was “ God mani- 
 fest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached 
 unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glo- 
 ry,” says “ yet the spirit had expressly foretold, that in the latter 
 times, (notwithstanding all this) some should depart from the 
 faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,” or 
 rather, as it is in the original, of Demons; that is, that there 
 should be a departing from the faith of the assumption of Christ 
 to the right hand of the throne of glory and incommunicable ma- 
 jesty in Heaven, whereby he hath a name given to him above eve- 
 ry name, and whereof no creature in Heaven or earth can be ca- 
 pable. What then, is the essence of this dreadful evil, so de- 
 nounced by the Spirit of God ? It is the doctrine concerning de- 
 mons, or demon Gods. These among the Pagans, were an infe- 
 rior sort of deities, existing between the Gods and men, as medi- 
 ators. Plato says, “every demon is a middle being between 
 God and mortal men. God is not to be approached by men, 
 but all commerce and intercourse is performed by the me- 
 diation of demons.” So says Apuleius — “Demons are middle 
 powers, by whom both our desires and merits pass unto the Gods. 
 They are carriers between men on earth and the Gods in Heaven, 
 Hence of prayers, thence of gifts ! Vide Park. Lexicon, title 
 Deimonion, page 139, 140. So the apostle, 1 Cor. 8 ch. 5 & 6 — - 
 “ for though there be that are called Gods, whether in Heaven or 
 in earth, (as there are Gods many and Lords many,) hut to us 
 there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in 
 
 * Wisd. of Solom. 14 ch. 12 &27 v. 
 
 f In his first epistle to Timothy, 3 ch. 16 v. & 4 ch. 1 v. 
 
 Oo 
 
284 THE TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE POWER, 
 
 This seems to have been expected by the faithful in 
 the church, in the early ages of it. Hyppolitus, the 
 bishop of Portus, in Italy, or perhaps, of Portus Roma- 
 nus, in Arabia, and who flourished about the year 220, 
 
 him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we 
 by him. ’ These Gods and Lords many, were among the Gentiles, 
 what we mean by saints cannonized and deified. But they had 
 another sort of demons, who had never been in the body, but were 
 from the beginning always the same, and similar to what we call 
 angels. Images of all these were set up in their temples, and 
 they were invoked, adored and prayed to, as possessing the de- 
 mon within them, and acting as mediators between God and 
 men. 
 
 Therefore the departing from the faith and giving heed to se- 
 ducing spirits, the doctrines concerning demons or demon Gods, 
 deifying men and worshipping them as saints, with angels in the 
 character of mediators between God and man — bowing down to 
 images, though so expressly forbidden by God himself in the se- 
 cond commandment — to crosses and relics, after the manner of 
 the demon worship, is what is termed treason and rebellion against 
 the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God 
 and man, and to which the charge of spiritual idolatry, spiritual 
 whoredom and fornication, is so often made by the Spirit of God. 
 
 The Gentiles offered bloody sacrifices to demon Gods alone, 
 but not to the superior Gods, who they held could be worshipped 
 only cum pur a mentoe, in the purity of the mind. 
 
 When the apostle preached Jesus and the resurrection to the 
 Athenians, they said, “ this fellow seemeth to be a setter forth of 
 strange demon Gods,” as it is in the original. Paul answered. 
 “Ye men of Athens, I see you are in all things, too full of demon 
 Gods already; but I preach no new demon to you, but that sove- 
 reign God, who made the world and all things in it ; who being jj 
 Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not (as your demons do) in 
 temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men’s hands, 
 as though he needeth any thing, seeing he giveth to all, life and 
 breath, and all things.” 
 
 The apostle, not content with having thus shewn the divinity of 
 our Lord and Saviour, as the sovereign God, who made the world, 
 
OR, GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN. 
 
 285 
 
 and was considered in the church as a martyr, wrote a 
 commentary on Daniel, and therein asserted, that the ap- 
 pearance of Antichrist, (or rather the man of sin) would 
 be about the year 500. 
 
 repeats it again in his epistle to the Ephesians, 1 ch. 20 v. to the 
 end. Speaking of the glory of the inheritance of the saints, and 
 the power of the Lord, says, “ which power God wrought in Christ, 
 when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right 
 hand, in the heavenly places far above all principality, and power, 
 and might, and dominion, and every name, (being the incommuni- 
 cable name) that is named ; not only in this world, but also in 
 that which is to come ; and hath put all things under his feet, and 
 gave him to be head over all things to the church , which is his 
 body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” And again in 
 Ephesians, 2 ch. 9-11, as if he never could say enough on so de- 
 lightful a subject, “ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him 
 and given him a name, which is above every name, (that is, every 
 created name) or the incommunicable name ; that at the name of 
 Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things on 
 earth, and things under the earth ; and that every tongue should 
 confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 
 
 The Jews were continually charged by God with spiritual whore- 
 dom, even while they acknowledged Jehovah as the supreme Lord, 
 but they worshipped him by the means of, or by images and de- 
 mons, as by Calves and Baalims. The perfection of their wor- 
 ship, allowed but one only God, and the guilt of their idolatry was 
 acknowledging more, though of an inferior order. So the essen- 
 tial doctrine of the Gospel inculcates one only mediator, Christ, 
 the Lord ; and therefore Christian idolatry, or spiritual whoredom, 
 consists in setting up other mediators besides, or with him. 
 
 The doctrine of demons comprehends in the most express and 
 comprehensive manner, the whole idolatry of the mystery of ini- 
 quity, the deifying and invocating of saints and angels, as media- 
 tors instead of Christ — bowing down to images — to crosses — to 
 relics — in imitation of the Pagan worship of demons, whereby 
 they deny the Lord Jesus as the one only mediator between God 
 and man, and to which the appellation of spiritual idolatry and 
 whoredom, as before observed, is so often given in the Scriptures. 
 
286 THE time 0F the destruction of the power. 
 
 The best ecclesiastical writers, and particularly Mr, 
 Mede, affirm that there was no invocation of saints, wor- 
 shipping of images, adoring of relics, ever heard of in 
 the church, the first 300 years after Christ. The first 
 
 The great apostasy foretold, was not to consist in every error or 
 heresy, but in idolatry and spiritual whoredom; that is, in setting 
 up any other being, or any thing whatever, as, or in the room of a 
 mediator between God and man, except the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of God. The errors of the Arians, the Nestorians, and 
 the Eutychians, the great heresies and abominations in the church, 
 yet were not of the essence of the apostasy foretold of the man of 
 sin. 
 
 Paul says, that the great apostasy should enter into the church 
 by strong delusions, by signs and lying wonders. 
 
 Did not the invocation of saints, and the adoration of shrines 
 and relics introduce wonderful ancT miraculous cures of the 
 sick, restoring the lame, giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, 
 protecting the traveller, and giving success to the husbandman? 
 Did not the worshipping of images, established by pretended su- 
 pernatural visions, preternatural dreams and miraculous signs, 
 with the idolatry of the mass, lead the ignorant multitude to the 
 worst kind of Gentilism ? Did not all this bring about what was 
 foretold of the man of sin, that he should oppose and exalt 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, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all powers, 
 and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of un- 
 righteousness, in them who perish.” 2 Thes. 2, 4-10. 
 
 The man of sin can be found no where, but in the great city, 
 which in St. John’s time “ ruled over the nations of the earth.” 
 And the apostasy must be from the Church of Christ. These are 
 two indelible marks that cannot be given up. In what has been 
 said on this subject I have but barely abridged the sentiments oi 
 the learned Mr. Mede, whose opinion with me has great weight. 
 
 But again — In this inquiry it may not be amiss to examine in- 
 to, and endeavour to find out, if there are not some predictions oi 
 the like nature in the Scriptures, already fulfilled, which may lead 
 us to a safe construction of this period. We find that God called 
 
OR, GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN. 
 
 287 
 
 movement towards this new Gentilism, was occasioned 
 by the removal of the famous Babylus’s bones, in the 
 year 363. 
 
 Julian, the apostate, went to Delphos, and offered ma- 
 
 Abraham from the land of his fathers ; appeared to him and made 
 a covenant with him ; promising him the land of Canaan as an in- 
 heritance ; and also informed him in a vision, that his seed should 
 first be strangers and servants among a strange people 400 years. 
 If you count this from the vision to the deliverance of the Israel- 
 ites out of Egypt, you make up the time ; but if only the time that 
 the Israelites were actually in servitude in Egypt, it will be but 
 215 years. The Samaritan Pentateuch in all its copies — the 
 Alexandrian Septuagint, and St. Paul, in Gal. 3, 17, all read 12 
 ch. of Exod. and 40 v. u now the sojourning of the children of Is- 
 rael, and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Ca- 
 naan and in the land of Egypt, was 430 years. 
 
 The call then appears to be the commencement of the period of 
 430 years, and the vision of the 400 years. Indeed, in all the 
 concerns of life, mankind reckon, not from the time of the full 
 completion, but from the time of the thing appearing in its proper 
 character, to be what it is expected to be. 
 
 Let us then consider the prophetic declaration of the 1260 years 
 according to this rule. St. John says, the two witnesses were to 
 prophesy 1260 days in sackloth, (meaning in prophetic language, 
 years.) In another place, the beast with seven heads and ten 
 horns, had power given unto him to continue 42 months, which 
 synchronizes with the 1260 days, and means the same period. 
 From this it is clear, that the state of the witnesses was to be 
 changed from the state in which they had always been, to a state 
 of sackloth and mourning, though still the same witnesses, well 
 known to the church ; and the beast that should cause this mourn- 
 ing state, was also to continue the same period ; and as it is pretty 
 clear, from the whole of the Revelation, that this beast was to 
 arise in the Church of Christ, and in the city of Rome, which was 
 built on seven hills, and in an empire which was divided into ten 
 kingdoms, it must convince any thinking mind, that this mourn- 
 ing state of the witnesses was to be caused by a falling away of 
 this church. It is therefore concluded, that the commencement 
 
288 THE time of the destruction of the power, 
 
 ny sacrifices, to make the oracle there speak ; and asking 
 why he was so mute, received for answer, that the corpse 
 of Babylus, the martyr, buried near the temple in Daph- 
 ne, stopped his speech. This was in the suburbs of 
 Antioch, where the Christians first received their name. 
 This gave the hint ; the bones of other martyrs were 
 tryed, and within one century, the world was filled with 
 lying wonders. 
 
 If then, the purity of the church ceased, and the 
 reign of the man of sin, or the general apostasy, was ful- 
 ly established somewhere about the year 500, as history 
 clearly informs us, it coincides with other leading facts 
 recorded in history. From 450 to 500 the declension 
 of the Church, towards this new-fangled Christian Gen- 
 tilism of adopting relics, worshipping images, canonizing 
 saints, &c. &c. became very prevalent, and while the 
 form of religious worship and the observation of the di- 
 vine ordinances were kept up, the power and spirit of 
 both were wholly lost ; and about the end of this peri- 
 od these witnesses for God and his people, began to 
 prophesy in sackloth. A great number of profane 
 historical facts unite to confirm this important sera of the 
 Christian system. A little before this time, happened 
 the death of the third Valentinian, called the Hesperian 
 Caesar ; after whose death the sacking of the city of 
 Rome, the third time in a few years, took place under 
 Gensericus, the Vandal, who carried away the golden 
 
 of the period of 1260 years, whenever it happens, must be reck- 
 oned from the apostasy of the church in that city or empire, to a 
 state of a new kind of Gentilism or idolatry in the Church of 
 Christ, which, with the Sabbath, or Lord’s day, whereon the Gos- 
 pel was published to a guilty world, are the two witnesses refer- 
 ferred to, for the reasons already mentioned, and also, from the 
 rise of the beast with seven heads and ten horns. 
 
OR, GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN. 289 
 
 and silver vessels of the Temple at Jerusalem, brought 
 to Rome by Titus. She was deprived of her consular 
 power, the authority of her senate and other magistrates, 
 and literally fulfilled the declaration of holy writ, “ How 
 doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people ? How 
 has she become as a widow, she who was among the na- 
 tions and princess among the provinces ? How has she 
 become tributary.” (Lament. 1. 1st.) Valentinian was 
 murdered by Maximus, which brought about the cap- 
 ture and pillage of Rome by Gensericus, who being in- 
 vited by Eudoxia (widow of Valentinian, and descen- 
 dant of the great Theodosius) from Carthage, to her aid, 
 he gave up the city to pillage 14 days. He then return- 
 ed to Carthage, taking Eudoxia and her two daughters 
 prisoners, (first stripping her of her jewels) and the plun- 
 der of the capitol. Among other sacrilegious plunder, 
 he carried off (besides the golden and silver vessels of the 
 Temple at Jerusalem) the golden Table forthe shewbread, 
 and the golden Candlestic with seven branches, and the 
 silver Trumpet, originally framed according to the partic- 
 ular instructions of God himself, and which were placed in 
 the sanctuary of his holy Temple, and which had been 
 lodged by Titus in the Temple of peace at Rome, after 
 being carried in the procession, to grace the triumph of 
 the conqueror. Thus at the end of 400 years, the spoils 
 of Jerusalem were transferred from Rome to Carthage by 
 a barbarian, who derived his origin from the shores of the 
 Baltic. “ To see these sacred articles given upby thatGod 
 who ordered them to be made according to a pattern exhi- 
 bited by himself, gracing the triumph of Titus a Heathen 
 emperor, and at last consecrated to an Idol, affords me- 
 lancholy reflections to a pious mind. But these things 
 had accomplished the end for which they were instituted, 
 
290 TKE TIME op the destruction of the power, 
 
 and were now of no further use. The divine person - 
 age typified by all this ancient apparatus had appeared in 
 our world. The true light was come, and the Holy Spi- 
 rit poured out from on high, and therefore the golden 
 Candlestic, by which they were typified, was given up : 
 the ever enduring bread had been sent from Heaven, and 
 therefore the golden Table, which bore its representa- 
 tive, the shewbread, was now no longer needful. The 
 joyful sound of the everlasting Gospel was published in 
 the world, and therefore the silver Trumpets, that were 
 types of it, were carried into captivity, and their sound 
 was no more to be heard. Strange Providence ! but un- 
 utterable mercy of God ! The Jews lost both the sign 
 and the thing signified. And that very people who des- 
 troyed the holy city, carried away the spoils of the Tem- 
 ple of the living God, and dedicated them to the objects 
 of their Idolatry, were the first in the universe to receive 
 the preaching of the Gospel, the light of Salvation, and 
 the Bread of Life. There is a sort of coincidence of as- 
 sociation here, which is worthy of the most serious con- 
 sideration.” 
 
 The empire soon after devolved on Augustulus, who 
 was conquered by Odoacer, king of the Heruli, in the 
 year 476 or 479. Augustulus was a weak prince, and 
 no way remarkable for any worthy act. With him the 
 ancient hierarchy of Rome ended, and the government 
 passed to the Barbarians. Odoacer indeed refused to 
 consider himself king of Rome, although he actual- 
 ly exercised the power for about 16 years ; but about 492 
 Theodoricus, king of the Ostrogoths, conquered and 
 slew Odoacer, and with the approbation and consent of 
 Zeno, the emperor of the east, possessed himself of the 
 
OR, GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN. 
 
 291 
 
 kingdom. After whom, the succession continued in the 
 line of the Barbarians.* 
 
 Augustulus was the son of the Patrician Orestes, by 
 the daughter of Count Romulus of Petovio. His real 
 name was Romulus Augustus, but by the Latins was 
 changed into the contemptible epithet of Augustulus. 
 Thus were the names of the great founders of the city 
 and monarchy strongly united in this last of their succes- 
 sors. “ He thus gave the deadly blow to the western 
 empire. The last emperor of the west would be the 
 least entitled, of all his immediate predecessors, to the 
 notice of posterity, if his reign, which was marked by 
 the extinction of the Roman empire in the west did not 
 leave a memorable cera in the history of mankind 
 
 About this period also, was the empire divided into 
 ten kingdoms, governments, or principalities. This is 
 an important fact throughout the Revelations. Accord- 
 ing to the best historians, the Huns erected their king- 
 dom in part of Panonia and Dacia, now Hungary, about 
 the year 365. The Visigoths settled in the south of 
 France and in Catalonia, about the year 378. The Bur- 
 •gundians came out of Germany, into that part of Gaul, 
 since called from them Burgundy, about the year 407. 
 The Vandals settled in Spain, and afterwards set up their 
 kingdom in Africa, about the same time. The Ostro- 
 goths settled in the country about Rha 2 tia,and the Greeks 
 established a kingdom in their neighbourhood, so that 
 together they possessed all the country between Rhtetia 
 and Maesia as far as Thrace, and came into Italy under 
 Alaricus about the year 410. The Franks seized upon 
 
 * Sigonius de Imperis Occidentater, Lib. 15, Anno 479 to 500. 
 
 f 6 Gibb. 228—229. 
 
 Pp 
 
292 THE TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE POWER, 
 
 part of Germany and Gaul about the year 420. The 
 Suevians and Alanes settled in Gascoigne and Spain, 
 from whence they invaded Italy, in 457. The Saxons 
 made themselves masters of Britain about 476, and last- 
 ly, the Heruli and Thuringi settled in Italy under Odoa- 
 cer, between 476 and 480. Theodoric, king of the 
 Ostrogoths, having conquered Odoacer, gave a mortal 
 blow to the western empire and erected the kingdom of 
 the Ostrogoths in Italy. So that by the year 500, the 
 beast, with seven heads and ten horns, was in complete 
 existence, as will hereafter be shewn, and those ten king- 
 doms were chiefly formed by Barbarians, who had inva- 
 ded the empire, and voluntarily became subject to the 
 Bishop of Rome, as their ecclesiastical head. This was 
 agreeable to the prophecies, both of Daniel and John, 
 and tends to fix with tolerable precision, the beginning 
 of the prophesying of the witnesses. 
 
 Bishop Newton says, “ that Machiavel (little thinking 
 of what he was doing) has given us the names of the ten 
 kingdoms into which the former Roman empire was di- 
 vided, though a little different from the above statement 
 — “ 1st, the Ostrogoths in Maesia — 2d, the Visigoths it# 
 Panonia — 3d, the Suevians and Alanes in Gascoigne and 
 Spain — 4th, the Vandals in Africa — 5th, the Franks in 
 F ranee — 6th, the Burgundians inBurgundy — 7th, the He- 
 ruli and Thuringi in Italy — 8th, the Saxons and Angles 
 in Britain — 9th, the Huns in Hungary — 10th, the Lom- 
 bards, first upon the Danube and afterwards in Italy.” 
 
 Three of these kingdoms were afterwards seized or 
 overcome by the Pope of Rome, or rather in the words 
 of Daniel, were humbled, agreeably to his prophesy. 
 1st, that of the Greeks, whose emperor Leo Isaurus, the 
 Pope excommunicated and discharged his subjects from 
 
OR, GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN, 293 
 
 their allegiance to him, in the general relating to the set- 
 ting up images in the churches. 2d, the Longobards,. 
 who succeeded the Ostrogoths, whose kingdom the 
 Pope, with the aid of the Franks, caused to be entirely 
 ruined ; and in the end obtained from them the Exar- 
 chate of Ravenna, for the patrimony of St. Peter. 3d, 
 the last was the kingdom of the Franks, continued in the 
 empire of Germany, whose emperors, from Henry the 
 fourth, he excommunicated, deposed and trampled un- 
 der his feet, and obliged them to give up their interest 
 in the election of Popes and investitures of Bishops, as 
 well as their jurisdictions in Italy. 
 
 Here it is not unworthy of being remarked, that du- 
 ring this period, that is, between 450 and 500, the Bish- 
 ops of Rome, assumed the Pagan title of Pontifex Max- 
 imus, which had always before this, been appropriated 
 in a special manner to the Roman emperor ; it was there- 
 fore at this period, (the destruction of the emperors of 
 Rome) and in virtue of being Pontifex Maximus, in their 
 stead, that the Roman Pontiff assumed the title of 
 universal Bishop and the power of the Dragon, and his 
 seat and great authority ; “ and although one of the heads 
 of the dragon was, as it were, wounded to death, yet by 
 this means his deadly wound was apparently healed, and 
 all the world, from this time, wondered after the beast, 
 and there was given unto him a mouth, speaking great 
 things and blasphemies : and power was given unto 
 him to continue 42 months” or 1260 days. He is sup- 
 posed, therefore, to have been “ the man of sin, who was 
 to be revealed, (in the Christian Church) the son of per- 
 dition, who was to oppose and exalt himself above all 
 that was called God, (among the Pagans) or that is 
 worshipped (by them) ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the 
 
294 the TIME 0F THB destruction of the power, 
 
 temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” And 
 this power of the Roman emperor as Pontifex Maximus, 
 was that which St Paul mentions “ only he who now 
 letteth, will let, until he be taken out of the way,” as if 
 he had said, the established power and authority of the 
 Roman emperor, as Pontifex Maximus, will prevent the 
 rising of the man of sin in power, till the Roman empire 
 shall be shaken to its centre, and “ then ” taking advan- 
 tage of that important period, “ shall that wicked one be 
 revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath 
 of his mouth, and shall destroy by the brightness of his 
 coming : even him (that is the man of sin) whose coming 
 is after the working of Satan, with all powers, and signs, 
 and lying wonders, and with all deceiveableness of un- 
 righteousness, in them who perish.” We shall be ex- 
 posed to be misled, if we do not attend to the character 
 of the Pontifex Maximus under the Roman government ; 
 it being generally conceived by the translation into the 
 English word High Priest, that it was the same office, 
 as that of Priest with us. But the real signification of 
 the word is the great sacrificer. The word Priest is a 
 modern word, derived from the Saxon word Priester, 
 Presbyter or Presbuteros, in the Greek, and so answers 
 to the Presbyter or Bishop of the New Testament. But 
 there is no officer in the Church of Christ, that comes up 
 to the idea of a Pontifex Maximus of the ancient Pagans, 
 whose duty it was to slay and offer continual sacrifices, 
 and to foretel future events from the appearance of the 
 entrails of the beasts, from whence their title was taken, 
 and should have been translated into English, the great 
 or chief sacrificer. 
 
 I am aware of the danger of indulging a visionary spi- 
 rit in tracing and calculating times and periods, not ex- 
 
OR, GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN. 295 
 
 pressly revealed in the Scripture : therefore in any at- 
 tempt that has been made, to show when the prophesy 
 of the witnesses in sacldoth commenced, no pretensions 
 to knowledge on this subject are presumed, farther than 
 what is set forth by the Holy Spirit. But, as has been 
 already observed, there are duties enjoined to be perform- 
 ed, and certain evil consequences to be avoided in those 
 times called the last times, the latter times, and the last 
 times of the latter times, it becomes therefore the duty of 
 every Christian to inquire of their approach, while there 
 can be no necessity of knowingabsolutely the very precise 
 moment. We have but barely looked back to facts that 
 we know have come to pass, and have compared them 
 with the words of prophesy, in the best manner we are 
 capable ; at the same time claiming, as has been before 
 hinted, a great latitude and every proper indulgence for, 
 or on account of our ignorance of precise dates of chro- 
 nologic truths, the manner of reckoning time, &c. &c. 
 
 If what has been said shows sufficiently, that the puri- 
 ty of the Church continued but 360 or 365 years, or 
 thereabouts, from the prophesy of St. John in 96, or 100, 
 and that from the end of that period, to wit, about 460 
 till the year 500, the apostasy of the Church was com- 
 pleted, by the establishment of idolatry in the worship of 
 images, saints, and angels, which is the whoredom of the 
 Church in forsaking the true God, or rather having other 
 mediators than the Lord Jesus. Then the time of the reign 
 of the man of sin, or the commencement of the 1260 years, 
 being also that of the witnesses prophesying in sackloth, 
 follows of course, and continued till about the year 1760 ; 
 and as the rise of the man of sin appears to have been 
 progressive from 460 to 500, so, it may be supposed, 
 his fall will also be progressive from 1760 to 1800. This 
 
296 THE TIME OF THE destruction of the power, 
 
 may, in some measure, account for Daniel’s remarkable 
 addition of 30 days to the number of 1260, which will 
 bring us to the year 1790. Daniel goes one step 
 farther, and declares those peculiarly blessed, who shall 
 live to see the end of 1335 days or years, which brings 
 us to the year 1835, as a period of great joy and exulta- 
 tion.* 
 
 * This addition of 45 years to the 1290, seems to be prefigura- 
 tive of the space between the commencement and finishing the 
 signs of the times, or the remarkable events immediately ushering 
 in the advent of the Saviour, as the burning of Rome — the total 
 destruction of the man of sin — the return of the Jews, &c. &c. — 
 The children of Israel were 45 years from their leaving Egypt, to 
 their taking actual possession of Canaan : it was about 45 years 
 from the birth of Christ to the calling of the Gentiles. 
 
 Since writing this, I have taken up Dr. Priestly’s comparison 
 of Moses and the Hindoos, where, in page 402, he says, of Da- 
 niel’s other prophesy of 2500 days or years, “ that having neglect- 
 ed to mention the date from which it is reckoned, it ought to be 
 accounted from the time of the vision, in like manner as the pro- 
 phesy in Gen. xv. 13. of the 400 years service of the Isra- 
 elites in Egypt, which w r as literally ful rilled, if reckoned from the 
 time of the vision, but did not exceed 215 years, of actually dwel- 
 ling in Egypt.” If this is done, he says the prophesy will end in 
 1760 ; and if the promise to Abraham, of the last return of the Jews 
 to their own land is taken in, (or at the beginning of) the fourth 
 generation, and each generation to have intended 1000 years, as 
 is contended by some able writers, then it will happen about the 
 year 1835. And it is worthy of notice, that the angel, when com- 
 municating with Daniel, says, “ these things,” which he was about 
 to reveal to him, i ‘ were noted in the Scripture of Truth the 
 Scripture could be no other, than those parts of the Old Testa- 
 ment then written. Vid. Dan. x. and 21. 
 
 It is remarkable, that when the prophesy relates to the Church 
 of Christ the period is mentioned by 1260 days, according to the 
 measurement by the Sun, the author of light, but when it relates 
 
OR, GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN. 297 
 
 These several periods seem to be remarkably impor- 
 tant in Daniel’s prophesy, and promise to be productive 
 of extraordinary events to the Church of Christ ; and 
 particularly to be the latter times of the. last times, when 
 the great wonders related in his prophesy will be more 
 clearly understood by events that may then happen, when 
 the wise shall begin to understand. 
 
 to the Heathen emperor, or the power of the Dragon, it is men- 
 tioned bj months which are governed by the moon, as ruling the 
 night. In Daniel it is called a time, times, and half a time — that 
 is three years and an half, or 1260 days. The time of the Gen 
 tiles treading under foot the holy city, was to be forty and two 
 months, equal to 1260 days. The time of the witnesses prophesying 
 in sackloth was 1260 days. The woman fleeing into the wilder- 
 ness, was to be fed 1260 days. When she fled into the wilderness 
 from the power of the Dragon, where she was nourished for a 
 time, times, and half a time, equal as before to 1260 days, from the 
 face of the serpent. Power was given to the Dragon to speak 
 great things and blasphemies, forty and two months. 
 
 The children of Israel, in passing through the wilderness, also 
 had precisely 42 encampments, predictive of the 42 months or 
 1260 days of the Church or woman being in the wilderness. All 
 these terms refer to one and the same period. 
 
 Still I would not be contentious about precise times. There is 
 but one other construction that, in my opinion, has much weight 
 with it — that is the year 606, at which time the Pope was more 
 formally vested with temporal power, though he was well estab- 
 lished in it before— and at the same time the impostor Mahomet 
 appeared in the world, who might be the star falling from Hea- 
 ven. The difference of time is but trifling, when considering events 
 on so great a scale — the necessary consequences will be the 
 same, and mankind are equally interested in observing a conduct, 
 highly proper in either case. 
 
THE 
 
 STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS, FROM THE YEAR 500:- 
 PARTICULARLY WITH RESPECT TO THE PURITY OF PUBLIC 
 WORSHIP AND ATTENTION TO THE INSTITUTIONS AND OR. 
 D1NANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 IN the beginning of this century, Theodoric, the suc- 
 cessful king of the Ostrogoths, having removed the em- 
 peror of Rome out of the way, and seized the throne, 
 determined to settle his new government in peace, so as 
 to render it durable in his family ; he therefore did not 
 hesitate to acknowledge the supremacy of the emperor 
 at Constantinople, though in reality it was vox and prx- 
 terea nihil, being barely in words, and a mere pretence. 
 
 The next great object he turned his attention to, was 
 the Bishop of Rome, whom he found best calculated to 
 give a permanent degree of stability to the new acquired 
 authority of the purple. This idea he formed with great 
 judgment, on the knowledge he had of the entire subjec- 
 tion of the people to the authority of the bishops in gen- 
 eral, and particularly of him who sat in the chair of St. 
 Peter, and who they generally considered as the chief pon- 
 tiff and vicar of Christ himself, and who began to assert 
 his independence on every human power, and on whom all 
 the other bishops were in a manner becoming dependant. 
 Theodoric accordingly did not overlook this' important 
 engine for the accomplishment of his purposes, but op 
 
THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, &c. 299 
 
 pressed the bishop of Rome with emoluments and hon- 
 ours, according as his avarice or love of power suggest- 
 ed. The Christian system had been heretofore taught in 
 that native beauty, and perfect simplicity, in which it was 
 originally promulged by Christ and his apostles. But 
 few disputes about vain subtelties or researches into the 
 hidden things of God, had began to disgrace the real 
 Church of Christ, as her severe discipline never suffered 
 Heretics and Schismatics to continue in communion with 
 the Catholic and Apostolic Church. 
 
 But it must here be remarked, for the sake of histori- 
 cal accuracy, that in the latter end of the last century, 
 while the man of sin was rising to his state of manhood, 
 that offences in the church began to increase and multi- 
 ply. “ No opportunity,” says Mr. Gibbon, “ could be 
 more favourable for the display of the Pope’s ambition, 
 his deceit, and his superstition, than the unhappy state 
 of the Christian world in the 5th century. The mem- 
 bers of the eastern and western Churches, were divided 
 into parties by religious disputes, the most unimportant ; 
 in consequence of which they persecuted each other with 
 the greatest animosity and rancour. They were errone- 
 ous in the faith, and degenerate in practice.” Their cre- 
 dulity and ignorance fully prepared them for the recep- 
 tion of him whose coming was after the working of Sa- 
 tan, with all power and signs and lying wonders .* Al- 
 though, as yet, they had kept from spiritual whoredom 
 or image worship. 
 
 The Pope of Rome had began to shew his attachment 
 to power and a fondness to lord it over God’s heritage. 
 In 445 Leo obtained a rescript from Valentinian the 3d. 
 commanding all bishops to hold and observe as a law, 
 * 2d Thess. ii. 9. 
 
 Q q 
 
300 
 
 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 whatever it shall please the bishop of Rome to ordain 
 and decree, and strictly enjoins the magistracy to oblige 
 all to obey his summons. 
 
 In 451 the Popes of Rome began to exercise a usurp- 
 ed power over the western churches. Leo sent legates 
 to the council at Nice, (which adjourned to Chalcedon 
 at the emperor’s request,) who rising in the midst 
 of the assembly, said, “ we have here an order from the 
 most blessed and apostolic Pope of the city of Rome, 
 who is the head of all the Churches, ordering that Dios- 
 corus, bishop of Alexandria, shall not be allowed to sit 
 in this council.” 
 
 Dioscorus was prosecuted in this council, and memo- 
 rials against him were addressed and directed to Leo the 
 most holy, blessed, and universal patriarch of the great 
 city of Rome, and to the holy and oecumenical council 
 of Chalcedon. This title of universal patriarch was then 
 taken notice of. The sentence of this council was pro- 
 nounced in Leo’s name, though not present or one of the 
 council. “ Leo, archbishop of the great and ancient 
 city of Rome, by us and the present synod, with the 
 
 authority of St. Peter,” &c. 
 
 A 
 
 
 In 496 the Pope thought his powers so complete that 
 he might venture to assert his claim as matter of right. 
 He therefore, by his own authority, enacted “ that it was 
 not to any councils, or the decrees of any, that the holy 
 Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church owed her primacy; 
 but to the words of our Saviour, saying in the Gospel, 
 Thou art Peter , &c. thereby building the Church upon 
 him as upon a rock that nothing could shake. That the 
 Roman Church, not having spot or wrinkle, was con- 
 secrated and exalted above all other Churches, by the 
 presence as well as the death, martyrdom, and glorious 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 30 ]; 
 
 triumph of the two chief apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 who suffered at Rome under Nero,” See. &c.* 
 
 From this time the power of the Pope was established. 
 In 502, Symmachus, in an apology he wrote to the em- 
 peror of the east , treats him with the utmost contempt. 
 He tells him that the successor of St. Peter is, at least, 
 is great as an emperor. He compares the episcopal 
 with the imperial dignity, and concludes that a bishop 
 is as much above an emperor, as heavenly things, which 
 .he bishops dispense, are above all the trash of the earth 
 which are disposed of by emperors. 
 
 In 525 king Theodoric sent Leo to the emperor at 
 Constantinople on an embassy. The patriarch of that 
 bity received him with great honour and respect, and in- 
 cited him to perform divine service in the great Church 
 with him. Leo would not accept the invitation, nor even 
 see the patriarch, till he agreed, not only to yield him 
 he first place but to seat him in a kind of throne above 
 he patriarch. The only reason assigned ivas, quia JRo~ 
 
 I nanus esset Pontifex , because he was bishop of Rome. 
 
 The general doctrines, hitherto insisted on, had been 
 confined to the plain and common capacities of the hear- 
 ts. The teachers of the Christian system, had been, 
 generally speaking, and with some exceptions, simple 
 rnd illiterate men as to profane learning, but who having 
 :he love of God shed abroad in their hearts, were tho- 
 •oughly acquainted with the principles and doctrines of 
 :he Gospel. But in this century the vices of the clergy 
 according to the best historians) began to break out, 
 ind in so fertile a soil, soon grew to a size unknown 
 befoie among the professors of the Gospel. 
 
 The witnesses now indeed began, in a woful manner, 
 :o prophesy literally in sackloth. The luxury, arrd- 
 
 * 2 Bow. Hist, of Popes, 233. 
 
302 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 gance, avarice, and voluptuousness of the clergy, espe- 
 cially the dignified orders, are announced by all the his- 
 torians of credit, who record the manners and practices 
 of this century. 
 
 The bishops increased the number of their dependants, 
 by numerous creations of inferior officers, who lessened 
 their cares in the diocesses, and left them chiefly the 
 labour of establishing pompous courts, and inviting nu- 
 merous sycophants and flatterers to pay their homage to 
 those representatives of St. Peter and the other apostles, 
 who considered their main business to be in direct con- 
 tradiction to their divine master’s injunctions, the lording 
 it over God’s heritage. 
 
 In the year 529 Justinian issued the famous edict con- 
 cerning his faith, wherein he threatens all who should 
 dissent from it, that they should have no manner of in- 
 dulgence, and that they should be adjudged as heretics. 
 He denominates the Church of Rome, the head of all 
 Churches, and decrees a rule of faith for the bishops of 
 the east. 
 
 The Papal throne now advanced itself to all the power 
 and grandeur of the Pontifex Maximus of the Romans, 
 and by degrees assumed even the temporal authority of 
 a prince. Nay it was not long before he began to ex- 
 ercise a despotic power even over the princes of the earth, 
 whom, in the most tyrannical and insolent manner, he 
 claimed a right to depose and even murder at his pleasure, 
 andin someinstances obliged the most powerful monarchs 
 to receive their crowns at his hands. Thus he exalted 
 himself above all that was called God by the Gentiles or 
 worshipped. The doctripe of his infallibility, claimed by 
 him, shews that he was meant by “ sitting as God in the 
 temple of God,” and granting indulgences afterwards 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 303 
 
 established by him, with the forgiving of sins, “ plainly 
 points out who was meant by shewing himself that he 
 is God,” and “ by his coming after the working of Sa- 
 tan, with power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with 
 all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them who per- 
 ish,” was fulfilled in the pious frauds and impostors, set 
 up and encouraged by him. 
 
 To such an extravagant pitch of grandeur and eccle- 
 siastical domination, did even the common bishops, those 
 deserters from the simplicity of the Gospel, carry their 
 deviations, after the example of their master and head, 
 within half a century from the commencement of their 
 degeneracy, that it is well reported, on good authority, 
 that Martin, bishop of Tours, was so audacious as to 
 maintain at a public entertainment, that the emperor was 
 inferior, in dignity, to a presbyter of his Church. 
 
 Among the apostolic canons, as they are called, now 
 pretty well ascertained to have been written about the 
 fifth century, is the following declaration : “ By how 
 
 much therefore the soul is more valuable than the body, 
 so much the priesthood excels the kingdom ; therefore, 
 you ought to love the bishop as a father, fear him as a 
 king, and honour him as a lord. For if he who rises up 
 against kings is worthy of punishment, how much more 
 he who rises up against the priests. Why should you not 
 then esteem the dispensers of the word as prophets, and 
 reverence them as Gods. You ought therefore, bre- 
 thren, to bring your sacrifice and offerings to the bishop, 
 as to your high priest, either by yourselves or your dea- 
 cons. Yet thou shalt not call thy bishop to account, nor 
 observe his administration or distribution— how he does 
 it, or when, or to whom, or where, nor whether he does 
 it well or ill. Let the laity, therefore, show due honour 
 
304 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 and respect in presents to each order — nor let them easily 
 give trouble to their governors, but let them signify their 
 desires by the ministers, that is, the deacons, with whom 
 they may be more free. For neither may we have ac- 
 cess to Almighty God, but through Christ ; in like man- 
 ner let the laity make known their desires to the bishop 
 by a deacon, and do as he directs.” 
 
 The people at large, as may easily be imagined, from 
 this account of their clergy, Avere sunk into an ignorant 
 superstition, Avholly inconsistent with the pure worship 
 of the one only living and true God, through Jesus 
 Christ. This, added to a union of many customs and ce- 
 remonies, derived from the Heathen worship, Avith those 
 of the Gospel, being noAV generally permitted in the 
 Churches to ansAver particular purposes, some good and 
 many of a very bad complexion, had drawn the common 
 people off from the simplicity of the Gospel. They 
 were left little more than mere tools of the clergy, of 
 whose power and authority they Avere iioav taught to form 
 the most extravagant ideas, from the models they had 
 been used to, in the sacerdotal orders of the Hebrews, 
 Greeks, and Romans, during the establishment of the 
 Jeivish ceconomy, or Pagan superstition. In Spain, un- 
 der the domination of the Visigoths, the clergy claimed 
 and actually possessed a power superior to that of the mon- 
 arch. They drew all causes, both civil and ecclesiasti- 
 cal, Avithin their cognizance, and extended their jurisdic- 
 tion to the utmost limits, so that the bishops, who be- 
 came the universal judges, were the terror of the people ; 
 and by them the important affairs of the kingdom 
 Avere directed. Of course, revolutions and crimes be- 
 came the order of the day : and the poAver of the clergy 
 over the kings of Spain is best known by the number ol 
 assassinations committed in this century. 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 3 05 
 
 These liberties, on the part of the Christian bishops, 
 were not neglected by the emperors and the favourers of 
 the ancient Polytheism. They also had their views to 
 accomplish, and their particular gratifications aud plea- 
 sures to consult. The feasts of Saturn and Pan — the 
 combats of the Gladiators, and other Paganish institu- 
 tions, in honour of their respective deities, were anxiously 
 revived in every part of the empire. Men of rank and 
 influence were to be found throughout the kingdom, 
 uniting with the vulgar of every country and province, 
 in the idolatrous worship of their ancestors. 
 
 The Church, indeed before this, had been greatly dis- 
 tressed and divided by some heretical doctrines, and 
 particularly that of Arius, but the Catholics had, before 
 this century, maintained the true doctrines of the Gospel 
 and the spirit of divine worship uncontaminated, and 
 multitudes of its sincere professors had sealed the truth 
 with their blood, which had become the seed of the 
 Church. 
 
 To form a proper idea of the enormity of the Christian 
 idolatry, we ought to attend to the opinion of the real 
 Christians of the times, at the commencement of this apos- 
 tasy. The council of Illiberis, held in Spain, before the 
 reign of Constantine, in the 36th canon, page 50, express- 
 ly provided against pictures in a Church, decreeing 
 “ that no pictures ought to be in Churches ; nor any 
 thing that is worshipped and adored should be painted 
 on the walls. ”*■ 
 
 The first instance that we meet with, well authentica- 
 ted, of such practices, is from Epiphanius, who in his 
 epistle translated by St. Hierom, in his 2d. vol. p. 161, 
 
 * 1 Cave’s Prim. Christ. 14f. Oper. Hierom, vol. 2d. 161. 
 
306 
 
 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 where he says “ coming to Anablatha, a village in Pales- 
 tine, and going into the Church to pray, I espied a cur- 
 tain hanging over the door, whereon was painted the 
 image of Christ or of some saint, which when I look- 
 ed upon and saw the image of a man hanging up in the 
 Church, contrary to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, 
 
 I presently rent it, and advised the guardians of the 
 Church rather to make use of it as a winding sheet for 
 some poor man’s burial.”* 
 
 Augustine says, “ we set apart no temples, no priests, 
 nor divine services, nor sacrifices to Martyrs, because 
 they are not God ; but the same who is theirs is our 
 God.f 
 
 The worship of angels was publickly and solemnly 
 condemned by the whole Laodicean council. “ It is not 
 lawful,” say they, in the 35th canon, “ for Christians to 
 leave the Church of God, to go and invocate angels, and 
 to make prohibited assemblies. If therefore any one 
 shall be found devoting himself to this private idolatry , 1 
 (for at first they did not dare to do it in the Church) let 
 him be accursed, for as much as he has forsaken the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and has delivered himself 
 up to idolatry.” 
 
 During the fifth century “ Christianity had been em- 
 braced by almost all the Barbarians, who had established 
 their kingdoms on the ruins of the western empire. It 
 introduced an important change in their moral and politi- 
 cal condition. They received, at the same time, the use 
 of letters, so essential to religion — whose doctrines are 
 contained in a sacred book ; and while they studied the 
 divine truth, their minds were insensibly enlarged by the 
 distant view of the history of nature, of the arts, and of 
 
 i 
 
 Cave, ibid. 148. t Ibid. 104. — Aug. de Civ. Die. Let. 15. cap. 27. 
 
DUIilNG THIS FERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 307 
 
 society.”*' But in the latter part of this century the 
 Barbarian emperors having been drawn over to the Arian 
 party, greatly increased the sufferings and divisions of the 
 Church of Christ, and having forgotten every principle of 
 humanity, as well as Christian charity, they seemed to 
 think they did God service by torturing and murdering 
 his chosen servants with new and unheard of cruelties. 
 Mr. Gibbon, who is not averse from undervaluing the 
 sufferings of the Christian martyrs, has been obliged to 
 bear his testimony to their barbarous persecutions. 
 
 “ The fierce and formidable Visigoths (had previously 
 and) universally adopted the religion of the Romans, 
 with whom they maintained a perpetual intercourse of 
 war, of friendship, or of conquest. The Romans, in 
 their long and victorious march from the Danube to the 
 Atlantic ocean, converted their allies — they educated the 
 rising generation ; and the devotion that reigned in the 
 camp of Alaric, or the court of Thoulouse, might edify 
 or disgrace the palaces of Rome and Constantinople. 
 During this same period, (and soon after) Christianity 
 was embraced by almost all the Barbarians who estab- 
 lished their kingdoms on the ruin of the western empire ; 
 the Burgundians in Gaul, the Suevi in Spain, the Van- 
 dals in Africa, the Ostrogoths in Panonia, and the various 
 bands of mercenaries that raised Odoacer to the throne 
 of Italy. The Franks and Saxons still persevered in the 
 errors of Paganism ; but the Franks obtained the mon- 
 archy of Gaul by their submission to the example of 
 Clovis ; and the Saxon conquerors of Britain were re- 
 claimed from their savage superstition by the missiona- 
 ries of Rome. These Barbarian proselytes displayed an 
 
 * Gibbon, 6 vol. 272 — 275. 
 
 Rr 
 
308 THE STATE OP THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 ardent and successful zeal for the propagation of the faith. 
 The Merovingian kings and their successors, Charle- 
 magne and the Otho’s, extended, by their laws and victo- 
 ries, the dominion of the cross. England produced the 
 apostle of Germany, and the evangelic light was gradu- 
 ally diffused from the neighbourhood of the Rhine to the 
 nations of the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Baltic.”* 
 
 But it was not long before the vigilant enemy of man’s 
 happiness began to sow tares among the wheat. The 
 advocates of Arius beset the throne, and the purple was 
 no proof against the arts and industry of these sectaries 
 of the Church. Under Genseric and his successors, in 
 this century, “ the citizens who had been educated in the 
 luxury of the Roman provinces, were delivered with ex- 
 quisite cruelty to the Moors of the desert. A venerable 
 train of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, with a faithful 
 crowd of four thousand and ninety- six persons, whose 
 guilt is not precisely ascertained, were torn from their 
 native homes, by the command of Hunneric. During 
 the night they were confined like a herd of cattle amidst 
 their own ordure ; during the day they pursued their 
 march over the burning sands, and if they fainted, under 
 the heat and fatigue, they were goaded or dragged along 
 till they expired in the hands of their tormentors. 
 Through the veil of fiction and declamation, we may 
 clearly perceive that the Catholics, more especially un- 
 der the reign of Hunneric, endured the most cruel and 
 ignominious treatment. Respectable citizens, noble ma- 
 trons, and consecrated virgins were stripped naked, and 
 raised in the air by pullies, with a weight suspended at 
 their feet. In this painful attitude their naked bodies were 
 torn by scourges, or burnt, in the most tender parts, with 
 
 * Gibbon, 6 vol. 2 71 . 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 309 
 
 red hot plates of iron. The amputation of the ears, the 
 nose, the tongue, and the right hand, was inflicted by 
 the Arians ; and although the precise number cannot be 
 defined, it is evident that many persons, among whom a 
 bishop and a proconsul may be named, were entitled to 
 the crown of martyrdom.”* 
 
 Now then it became pretty evident that the prediction 
 of the holy apostle in the 17th Rev. 13th v. began to be 
 fulfilled ; “ these have one mind, and shall give their 
 power and strength to the beast ; these shall make war 
 with the lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them,” Sx.. 
 for the clergy made use of the temporal power of the ten 
 kingdoms into which Rome was divided, to answer every 
 purpose of destruction to all they called heretics, the 
 kings and emperors often submitting to their anathemas 
 and spiritual judgments, by adding the arm of temporal 
 power. 
 
 Thus were the sorrows of the Church of Christ increa- 
 sed, for yet were there to be found thousands of pure 
 and spotless souls, who mourned in sackloth and ashes, 
 the commencement of the fulfilment of those prophesies, 
 which they had been led to expect with a melancholy 
 certainty. 
 
 The extreme negligence of many of the teachers of the 
 doctrines of the Gospel, and a deviation from every es- 
 sential purpose for which the Lord’s day or Christian 
 Sabbath was originally instituted, yielded mortifying evi- 
 dences to the people of God, that the reign of the man of 
 sin had now commenced, and that God’s witnesses were 
 already prophesying in sackloth. 
 
 The western Church was now governed in a great 
 measure by Leo the great, who filled the chair of St. 
 
 * Gibbon, 6 vol. 286. 
 
310 the state of the Christian church, 
 
 Peter. He was a bishop who understood how to plan 
 his measures of aggrandizement, and schemes for the ex- 
 tension of his power, equal, if not superior, to any of his 
 cotemporaries. His success became answerable to his 
 activity and perseverance. The most ignorant preten- 
 ders, who knew nothing of the first principles of the 
 Christian life, were admitted into the Church without 
 examination and without character. They did not wait 
 for congregations, but wandered about in an inglorious 
 ease, living upon the bounty of an ignorant and supersti- 
 tious multitude, to whom they, in general, taught nothing 
 but a servile obedience to their spiritual masters. 
 
 The beauties of our holy religion were soon clouded 
 over, and in many places lost, amidst a flood of human 
 inventions, calculated to remove every appearance of the 
 true faith as it was in Jesus. The similarity of these 
 practices and ceremonies of the Church, to those of the 
 Heathen temples, soon introduced the invocation of those 
 happy souls who had joyfully laid down their lives for 
 the truth, and their assistance became devoutly implored 
 in assiduous and fervent supplications. If any opposition 
 was given to this flood of impiety, by those who still 
 adhered to the purity of the faith, it was too feeble to 
 stop its course ; or, if exerted for so laudable a purpose, 
 was soon suppressed by the iron hand of power. 
 
 Theodoret, in his 3th book De Martyribus, says 
 “ The martyr’s temples are frequently to be seen, famous 
 for their beauty and greatness.” In them “ those who 
 are in health pray for the continuance thereof, those who 
 have been long sick pray for recovery ; the barren pray 
 for children ; and they who are about taking a long jour- 
 ney desire the martyrs to be their companions or guards 
 in the journey” — “ not going to them as Gods, but mak- 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 3H 
 
 ing application to them as to divine men, and agents for 
 them with God.” If this is not setting them up as me- 
 diators instead of Christ, or even with him, to make the 
 best of it, I know not how language could make it plain- 
 er. Again — “ Now that they who have thus made 
 faithful prayers have obtained their petitions, clearly ap- 
 pears by the presents and gifts brought by the votaries, 
 as so many grateful acknowledgments of their recovery. 
 Accordingly some do present the effigies of eyes, others 
 of hands, and these made of gold and silver. Where- 
 fore, since you see there is so much advantage by hon- 
 ouring the martyrs, be persuaded, I beseech you, to flee 
 from the (Gentile) error of Daemons ; and make use of 
 the martyrs as so many lights and guides, to follow the 
 way which leads directly to God.”* Does not this ex- 
 clude the Lord Jesus Christ altogether ? 
 
 By degrees the defection increased, and near the end 
 of the 6th century “ the ambassadors of Recard, king of 
 Spain, respectfully offered on the threshold of the Vati- 
 can (to Pope Gregory the great) rich presents of gold 
 and gems ; they accepted, as a lucrative exchange, the 
 hairs of St. John the Baptist — a cross, which inclosed a 
 small piece of the true wood, and a key that contained 
 some particles of the iron which had been scraped from 
 the chains of St. Peter.”f 
 
 Paul the 1st, excommunicated Constantius Copro- 
 nymus, the Greek emperor, because he endeavoured to 
 abolish the worship of images. Henry 4th, emperor of 
 Germany was deposed and excommunicated in the 11th 
 century, by Pope Hildebrand, the 2d. Under that young 
 and ambitious priest, Innocent, the 2d. the successor of 
 St. Peter, attained the full meridian of greatness ; and 
 * Mede, 642. | Gibbon, 6 vol. 30V. 
 
312 the state op the Christian church. 
 
 in a reign of 18 years he exercised a despotic command 
 over emperors and kings, whom he raised and deposed 
 — over nations, whom ''in interdicts of months and years) 
 he deprived, for the offences of their rulers, of the exer- 
 cise of Christian worship. In the council of Lateran he 
 acted as the ecclesiastical, almost as the temporal, sove- 
 reign of the east and the west. It was at the feet of his I 
 legate, that John, kingof England, surrendered his crown. 
 And Innocent may boast of the two most signal triumphs 
 over sense and humanity, the establishment of the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation, and the institution of the In- 
 quisition. 
 
 It was not long before the devotees of pictures and sta- 
 tues were gratified with the indulgence of their favourite 
 worship ; and the Church became torn with disputes 
 and divisions on a subject wholly averse to the doctrines, 
 discipline, and practice of Jesus Christ, his apostles, and 
 their disciples, for almost four centuries.* 
 
 In this distressing view of the Church of Christ, we 
 have another evidence of the prophesying of the witnes- 
 ses in sackloth ; and there will need but few arguments 
 to convince the serious reader that the institutions and or- 
 dinances of the Gospel must have been now sunk very low 
 indeed. It must, however, be admitted, that amidst all 
 this falling away, it became essentially necessary, to an- 
 swer the great pifrposes of power and wealth, to establish 
 and enforce the most superstitious veneration for the 
 forms and ceremonies of the Church. The Lord’s day 
 was, therefore, had in great apparent honour, as a reli- 
 gious festival, unless dispensed with by the directors of 
 the consciences of the people ; and the Church was 
 crowded with admiring votaries of the rulers of the 
 * Yid. extract from Mosheim, page 383. 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 TEARS, 3 13 
 
 Church, who thus lorded it over God’s heritage, while 
 the true worshippers in spirit and in truth, were but thin- 
 ly sowed throughout the congregations. 
 
 The instruction of the Lord’s day, bore a strong re- 
 semblance to the character of the teacher, and the servants 
 of God were perishing for lack of knowledge. It soon 
 became true, that as was the minister, so were the people. 
 The extreme desire of the clergy to reconcile the Pagan 
 to the Christian mode of worship, gave rise to additional 
 superstitions. Hence from an union of the Platonic 
 philosophy, and the popular opinions of half converted 
 Pagans, arose pilgrimages to tombs of martyrs — the doc- 
 trine of purgatory — relics — worship of saints, &c. &c. 
 Yet notwithstanding this general degeneracy, these wit- 
 nesses in sackloth were not alone : a chosen few experi- 
 enced the nourishment of the golden oil, from the two 
 olive-branches emptied through the golden pipes out of 
 themselves, or, in plainer language, the blessings and ad- 
 vantages arising from the instruction of the word of God 
 and the institutions of the Gospel ; but in general the 
 Lord’s day and the public ordinances, including the dis- 
 cipline of the Church, were made to answer the purposes 
 of violent contentions and uncharitable controversies. 
 
 Besides these moral and religious causes for the wit- 
 nesses mourning in sackloth, arising in the Church of 
 Christ, the political state of the empire was but poorly 
 calculated to support the spirituality of the religion of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The account given by the historian already quoted, 
 whose testimony, on this occasion, is preferred, because 
 he will not be considered as partial to the cause of reli- 
 gion, will afford the best ideas on this subject. “ The 
 year 539 was marked by an invasion of the Huns and 
 
314 
 
 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 Bulgarians so dreadful, that it almost effaced the memo- 
 ry of their past inroads. They spread from the suburbs 
 of Constantinople to the Ionian gulph, destroyed 32 ci- 
 ties or castles, and repassed the Danube, dragging at their 
 horses’ heels 120,000 of the subjects of Justinian. In a 
 subsequent inroad they pierced the wall of the Thracian 
 Chersonesus ; extirpated the habitations and the inhabi- 
 tants, and returned to their companions, loaded with the 
 spoils of Asia ; and Procopius has confidently affirmed 
 that in a reign of 32 years, each annual inroad of Barbari- 
 ans consumed two hundred thousand of the inhabitants 
 of the Roman empire. The same Procopius, as confi- 
 dently affirms, that five millions of Africans were consu- 
 med by the wars and government of the emperor Justi- 
 nian, under the famous N arses.'*' After the recovery of 
 Italj^, Justinian might dictate benevolent edicts, and Nar- 
 ses might second his wishes by the restoration of cities, 
 but the power of kings is most effectual to destroy, and 
 the twenty years of Gothic war, had consummated the 
 distress and depopulation of Italy. As early as the 4th 
 campaign under the discipline ofBelisarius himself, fifty 
 thousand labourers died of hunger in the narrow region 
 of Misenum. A still greater number were consumed by 
 famine, in the southern provinces without the Ionion 
 gulph. Acorns were used in the place of bread. Pro- 
 copius had seen a distressed orphan suckled by a she 
 goat. Seventeen passengers were lodged, murdered, and 
 eaten by a woman, who was detected and slain by the 
 eighteenth. 
 
 * As soon ns Narseshad paid his devotion to the author of victo- 
 ry, and the blessed .virgin, his 'peculiar patroness, he praised, re- 
 warded, and dismissed the Lombards.— 7 Gibb. 388. 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 3^5 
 
 In 542 a terrible plague arose, which raged with such 
 fury, that many cities of the east were left vacant, and in 
 several districts of Italy, the harvest and the vintage wi- 
 thered on the ground.”* 
 
 “ Each year of Justinian’s reign is marked by the re- 
 petition of earthquakes of such duration, that Constan- 
 tinople has been shaken above forty days ; of such ex- 
 tent, that the shock was communicated to the whole 
 surface of the globe, or at least, of the Roman em- 
 pire. An impulsive or vibratory motion was felt ; 
 enormous chasms were opened ; huge and heavy bodies 
 were discharged into the air ; the sea alternately advan- 
 ced and retreated, beyond its ordinary bounds ; and a 
 mountain was torn from Libanus, and cast into the 
 waves, where it protected, as a mole, the new harbour of 
 Botrys, in Phoenicia.” 
 
 Two hundred and fifty thousand persons are said to 
 have perished in the earthquake of Antioch, whose do- 
 mestic multitudes were swelled by the conflux of stran- 
 gers to the festivals of the Ascension. The loss of Be- 
 rytes, in 1551, was of smaller account; but of much 
 greater value. The schools of Berytes were filled with 
 the rising spirits of the age, and many a youth was lost 
 in the earthquake, who might have lived to have been 
 the scourge or guardian of his country. f 
 
 Thus ended the sixth century, being the first hundred 
 years of the witnesses prophesy in sackloth, or of the 
 reign of the man of sin, when spiritual idolatry by the 
 worship of images, saints, and relics was established, and 
 also the total destruction of the sovereignty of Rome 
 Pagan accomplished. All the Christian fathers consi- 
 
 * Gibb.' vol. 4. p. 379, and vol. 7, p. 400. 423. f Ibid. vol. 7 p. 416. 
 
 S s 
 
316 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 dered themselves safe from the distresses foretold in the 
 sacred Scriptures, to the true Church of Christ, underthe 
 power of the man of sin, while the Roman emperors pre- 
 served their authority and dominion over the empire ; 
 and therefore, Tertullian answers the charge of enmity in 
 Christians to the welfare of the government by this ar- 
 gument, in his apology, where “ he assigns it as a par- 
 ticular reason why the Christians prayed for the Roman 
 empire, because they knew that the greatest calamity 
 hanging over the world, was retarded by the continuance 
 of it.” 
 
 “ Indeed it was the reigning opinion of the generality of 
 Christians, of the earliest times, that the man of sin would 
 appear soon after the fall of the Roman empire.* They 
 looked forward to this event as so replete with alarm and 
 danger to the Church, that it was a custom to introduce 
 particular prayers into their Liturgy, for the continuance 
 of the empire of Pagan Rome, that the coming of anti- 
 christ might be delayed.”! 
 
 It would be undertaking to write the history of the 
 succeeding centuries, and far beyond my design and 
 abilities, to proceed in stating the conduct of the profes- 
 sors and teachers of the holy religion of the meek and 
 lowly Jesus, as too generally giving conclusive testimo- 
 ny of the fulfilment of the prophesy now under conside- 
 ration ; suffice it to say, that it seems well agreed, by 
 the most candid inquirers after truth, that during the 
 seventh century the Church continued to be divided by 
 
 * Tertullian also says on the passage, “ only he who now let- 
 teth, will let, until he be taken out of the way” — “ who can this 
 be but the Roman state, the division of which into ten kingdoms 
 will bring on antichrist, and then the wicked one shall be reveal- 
 ed .” — De Resurrect. Carnis. cap. 24. p. 340. 
 
 f 2d. Kett. 58. 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 317 
 
 the Arian controversy and many other heresies, by which 
 the violences and rancour of the human passions, mix- 
 ing with religious intolerance, produced the most dan- 
 gerous breaches in the mystical body of Christ. 
 
 It was no uncommon thing to see troops of Catholics 
 hasting to the stake or gibbet this year ; and the next to 
 find their persecutors either abjuring Arianism through 
 fear, or sealing their attachment to those peculiar tenets 
 with their blood, in equal numbers. We are well in- 
 formed that the Jews also had their share in these times 
 of distress. By law, they were obliged, on pain of 
 death, to be baptized ; and the coronation oath made it 
 the duty of the kings of Spain, to enforce the laws 
 against the unfortunate Hebrews.* 
 
 The bishops of Rome in their disputes with the bish- 
 op of Constantinople, seemed to confirm their own sen- 
 tence, and give very full testimony to the Church, that 
 the man of sin had taken possession of his throne. It 
 was during this century that Gregory the great, the Ro- 
 man Pontiff, writing to the bishop of Constantinople, 
 and disputing his claim to superiority, says, “ I affirm 
 confidently, that whoever styles himself universal bishop , 
 or is solicitous for the title, by this elevation of heart, 
 proves himself to be the forerunner of antichrist.” 
 
 Afterwards, in the 10th century, at a council held at 
 the city of Rheims, Arnulph, bishop of Orleans, thus 
 
 * Chintela, king of Spain, convened the 5th council ot Toledo 
 among other things, to engage the clergy to countenance his cru- 
 elties towards the Jews. u This council solemnly ratified the 
 edict he had enacted, for the banishment of this miserable people, 
 and ordained that no prince should thereafter ascend the Spanish 
 throne, till he had taken an oath to observe all the laws against 
 
 them.”t 
 
 f Basnagfe, 582- 
 
318 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 addressed the council, while he spoke of the reigning 
 bishop of Rome. “ What think ye, reverend fathers, of 
 this man, elevated on a lofty throne, and glittering in gold 
 
 and purple ? Whom do you account him to be ? Sure- 
 ly, if destitute of charity, and elated with the pride of 
 science alone, he is antichrist, sitting in the temple of 
 God, and shewing himself that he is God.” 
 
 St. Bernard, in the twelfth century, employed the force 
 of his great eloquence against the corruptions of the see 
 of Rome. “ The Popes,” said he, “ call themselves the 
 ministers of Christ, and they serve antichrist. The 
 beast of the Revelations, to whom was given a mouth, 
 speaking blasphemies, and to war with the saints, seizes 
 the chair of St. Peter like a lion ready for his prey.” 
 The Waldenses and Albigenses, who may be called 
 the Protestants of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 
 asserted in their declarations of their faith, that the 
 Church of Rome was the whore of Babylon.* 
 
 According to Barington, (Annual Register, 1787, p. 6,) 
 the sentence of excommunication was in these words, 
 “ Peter, prince of the apostles, listen - to thy servant, 
 whom thou hast tutored from his youth, and whom, to 
 the present hour, thou hast freed from the hands of 
 the wicked, who hate me because I am faithful to thee. 
 Thou can st witness, and with thee canst witness, the 
 holy mother of Christ, and thy brother Paul, that, un- 
 willingly, I was compelled to mount this holy throne. 
 Rather would I have worn out this life in exile, than 
 have usurped thy seat to gain glory and the praise of 
 mortals. By thy favour has the care of the Christian 
 world been committed to me : from thee, I have the 
 
 * 2 Kett. 41. 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 3 19 
 
 power of binding and loosening. Resting on this assu- 
 rance, for the honour and support of the Church, in the 
 name of God, the Father Almighty , of his Son , and of 
 the Holy Ghost, I depose Henry, who rashly and inso- 
 lently has raised his arm against thy Church, from all 
 imperial and regal power, and his subjects, I absolve 
 from all allegiance to him. For it is meet that he, who 
 aims to retrench the majesty of thy Church should be 
 despoiled of his own honours.” 
 
 Mr. White, in his learned and excellent sermons, has 
 epitomized the character of the Church, in the sixth and 
 seventh centuries, with great candor and great justice — 
 “ If in surveying the history of the sixth and seventh 
 centuries, (says he) we call to our remembrance that pu- 
 rity of doctrines, that simplicity of manners, that spirit 
 of meekness and universal benevolence, which marked 
 the character of the Christian in the apostolic age ; the 
 dreadful reverse which we here behold, cannot but strike 
 us with astonishment and horror, divided into num- 
 berless parties, on account of distinctions the most tri- 
 fling and absurd, contending with each other from 
 perverseness, and persecuting each other with rancour ; 
 corrupt in opinion, and degenerate in practice ; the 
 Christians of this unhappy period, seemed to have re- 
 tained little more than the name and external profession 
 of their religion. Of a Christian Church, scarce any 
 vestige remained. The most profligate principles, and 
 absurd opinions, were universally predominant; igno- 
 rance amidst the most favourable opportunities of know- 
 ledge ; vice, amidst the noblest encouragement to virtue ; 
 a pretended zeal for truth, mixed with the wildest extra- 
 vagancies of error ; an implacable spirit of discord about 
 opinions which none could settle; and a general and strik- 
 
320 
 
 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 ing similarity in the commission of crimes, which it was 
 the duty and interest of all to avoid.”* 
 
 The history of the Church, till the time of the refor- 
 mation, is but a repetition (with tenfold undeniable testi- 
 mony) of the degeneracy of the Church rulers. As 
 they increased in wealth and power, so they confirmed 
 what had been foretold of God’s witnesses, viz. the 
 public instruction of the people in the word of God, 
 and the Lord’s day with its ordinances, prophesying 
 sackloth. 
 
 The annals of every of the ten kingdoms, into which 
 the empire was divided, are filled with the quarrels, ex- 
 communications, slaughters, and bloodshed, occasioned 
 by the worshipping of images, or spiritual whoredom ; 
 invocation of saints, thereby dividing the mediatorial 
 office of the one only Saviour; the supremacy and domina- 
 tion of the bishop of Rome ; and all the absurd ceremo- 
 nies introduced by him into the pure and simple wor- 
 ship of Almighty *God, as taught and established in the 
 Gospel ; so that what is asserted of the Church, in one 
 of the ten kingdoms, may be well applied to the general 
 state of the Church, throughout Christendom ; “ that 
 the greatest ignorance and superstition prevailed ; rever- 
 ences to saints and relics seemed to have supplanted the 
 worship of the Supreme Being. Donations to Churches 
 atoned for every violation of the laws of society, and 
 monastic observances were more esteemed than moral 
 virtue. Pilgrimages to Rome were represented as the 
 most meritorious acts of devotion. Not only noblemen 
 and ladies, but g even kings and princes, resigning their 
 crowns, implored a safe passport to Heaven, at the foot of 
 
 * White’s Sermons, S3. 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 32 X 
 
 St. Peter’s chair, and exchanged the purple for the sack- 
 loth.” 
 
 Gregory the 2d, in his epistle to the emperor Leo, in 
 the 8th century, says, “ Are you ignorant that the Popes 
 are the bonds of union, the mediators of peace between 
 the east and the west? The eyes of the nations are 
 fixed upon our humility, and they revere, as a God upon 
 earth, the apostle St. Peter, whose image you threaten 
 to destroy. The remote and interior kingdoms of the west 
 present their homage to Christ and his vicegerent 
 
 Innocent the 3d, asserted that the Popes held on earth 
 the place not of mere men, but of the true God . 
 
 Martin the 5th, in the instructions which he gave to 
 the ambassadors whom he sent to Constantinople, styled 
 himself the most holy , and the most blessed \ who has the 
 celestial empire , who is Lord upon earth , successor of 
 St. Peter , the Christ of the Lord , the master of the 
 universe, the father of kings, and the light of the world. 
 
 An archbishop thus addressed Leo X. “ All power is 
 given unto you; and he who said all, excepted nothing.” 
 This Pope suffered himself to be styled divine majesty. 
 Paul the 1st, allowed himself to be called Vice -God, 
 and received the prophetic language of Jeremiah and 
 Daniel as applicable to himself, f > 
 
 Leo X. issued an edict, in which he commanded his 
 spiritual subjects to acknowledge his power of delivering 
 from all the punishments due to sin and transgression of 
 every kind.J 
 
 So true is the prophetic declaration of the Scriptures, 
 “ and the king shall do according to his will ; and he 
 shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every 
 
 * 2 Kett. 209. cites 5 Gibb. 107. f Jerem. 27- — 8. Danl. 7~ 4. 
 f Mosheim. 
 
322 THE STATE OP THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 God, and shall speak marvellous things against the God 
 of Gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accom- 
 plished, for that which is determined shall be done.* 
 When a new Pope is inaugurated, he is clothed with 
 the pontifical robes, and crowned, and placed upon the 
 altar of the Church of St. Peter, at Rome, and the car- 
 dinals come and kiss his feet, which ceremony is called 
 adoration. They first elect and then worship him ; as 
 in the medals of St. Martin 5th, where two are represent- 
 ed as crowning the Pope, and two kneeling before him, 
 with this inscription, quern creant adorant. Whom they 
 create they adore. At his coronation, when a cardinal dea- 
 con having taken a mitre from his head, another places 
 upon it the triple crown, and says, “ receive this tiara, 
 adorned with three crowns, and know that thou art fa- 
 ther of princes and kings ; governor of the globe of 
 the earth, and vicegerent of our Saviour Jesus.” 
 
 Cardinal Bellarmine, when treating of the Roman Pon- 
 tiffs, tells us they must peculiarly well understand the 
 authority of their own see. Let us, therefore, hear them 
 speak from their Apostolical chair. “ He who reigneth 
 on high, to whom all power is given in heaven and in 
 earth, hath committed the one Holy Catholic and Apos- 
 tolical Church, out of which there is no Salvation, to be 
 governed with plenitude of power, by one only on earth, 
 namely, by Peter, the prince of the apostles, and by the 
 successor of St. Peter, the Roman Pontiff. This one 
 he hath constituted a prince over all nations and king- 
 doms ; to pluck up, waste, destroy, plant, and build.f” 
 JSengelius mentions, “ that formerly the word mystery 
 was written on the Pope's mitre , in front , till some of the 
 reformers took notice of it, when it was removed.! 
 
 *T)anl. llth, 36. f Kett. 197. 1 Vid. Rev. 17th ch. 5th v. 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 323 
 
 In the eighth century, ignorance so greatly prevailed, 
 that few of the clergy could write their names, but made 
 their marks when called to subscribe the canons of many 
 of the councils held for the government of the Church ; 
 and the ability of reading the Gospels, and repeating the 
 Lord’s prayer, were thought sufficient to introduce a 
 man into priest’s orders. 
 
 In the ninth century, the bishops and priests thought 
 it too great a condescension to instruct the people by 
 publickly teaching them in sermons, as had been profes- 
 sedly the custom, but they turned this service over to 
 the inferior clergy ; and Charlemagne being convinced 
 of the absolute incapacity of the clergy, to teach the 
 people, by any performances of their own, or explaining 
 the Gospels and epistles with any degree of propriety, 
 he ordered three of the most learned prelates to compile 
 from the best authorities, homilies, or short discourses 
 on texts of Scripture, which the lazy, ignorant clergy 
 were to get by memory, and repeat to the people, who 
 were kept in the greatest ignorance by them, and of 
 course, in a state of absolute dependance upon them- 
 selves, and made to consider the Scriptures as a kind of 
 charm, the whole virtue of which was in the breast of 
 the priest. To this end they were continued in an un- 
 known language. 
 
 The Romans kept them in the Latin tongue, and do 
 so to this day. The Egyptian Churches confined them 
 to the Coptic language. The Nestorians to the Syrian. 
 The Abyssinians to the old Ethiopic, and the Greeks to 
 the ancient Greek ; though all these languages had long 
 been obsolete, and unintelligible to the common people. 
 
 Is it possible for words to point out a more convin- 
 cing evidence of these two witnesses prophesying in 
 
 Tt 
 
324 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 sackloth, when the very language in which the divine 
 Scriptures, designed for the salvation of every man, were 
 kept, could not be understood by the people, and they, 
 at the same time, obliged to depend upon teachers near- 
 ly as ignorant as themselves ? 
 
 In short, from a general review of these early ages of 
 the Church, the intelligent and attentive mind cannot 
 but take notice, that the continual discontents, created by 
 the mismanagement and violences of civil affairs, were 
 greatly heightened by the divisions and animosities daily- 
 arising in the Church. 
 
 The Pagans persecuted the Christians with the most 
 rancorous and unabating cruelty ; when in their turn, the 
 Christians, (being restored to political influence and 
 power) often became the most violent and unforgiving 
 persecutors ; thereby denying the faith, by a conduct 
 wholly incompatible with the benevolent temper of the 
 Christian character. The most dreadful animosities 
 were provoked on both sides ; and after the Pagans were 
 overpowered and silenced, then new sects arose ; new 
 disputes took place ; new jealousies and antipathies 
 raged. The divisions, heresies, and schisms of the 
 Church destroyed every principle of the doctrines and 
 example of the prince of peace, who taught his follow- 
 ers the new commandment of loving one another, as an 
 essential qualification for entering into his kingdom. 
 
 When the northern Barbarians established themselves 
 in the Roman empire, and became acquainted with the 
 character and conduct of her citizens, Liutprand, one of 
 their historians, tells us, “ that such was the horror we 
 had of the Roman manners, that when we would brand 
 an enemy, with disgraceful and contumelious appella- 
 tions, we call him a Roman: a name which compre- 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 325 
 
 hends whatever is base, cowardly, avaricious, luxurious, 
 in a word a liar, and every other vice.” 
 
 From this account of the awful degeneracy of man- 
 ners, prevalent in the Christian world, can we wonder at 
 the terms of prophetic declaration, that the two great 
 witnesses for Jehovah, his word, and ordinances should 
 fee said to prophesy in sackloth. 
 
 My plan will not permit me to proceed through the 
 remaining centuries till the reformation ; suffice it to say, 
 that errors of every kind increased with every year. 
 Ignorance, superstition, and spiritual idolatry, with the 
 worship of images, relics, pilgrimages, indulgencies, 
 justly entitled, in the Scriptures, spiritual whoredom and 
 fornication, with an absolute submission to the clergy, 
 universally prevailed, till almost every trace of the original 
 principles of the Gospel, and the designs of its ordinan- 
 ces, were lost. “ During the ages of ignorance, which 
 followed the subversion of the Roman empire in the 
 west, the bishops of the imperial city, extended their 
 dominion over the laity, as well as the clergy, of the 
 Latin Church. 
 
 The fabric of superstition, which they had erected, and 
 which riright long have defied the feeble efforts of reason, 
 was at length assaulted by a crowd of resolute opposers 
 of the Catholic Hierarchy, who, from the twelfth to the 
 sixteenth century, assumed the popular character of re- 
 formers. The Church of Rome defended, by violence, 
 the empire which she had acquired by fraud ; a system 
 of peace and benevolence was soon disgraced by pro- 
 scriptions, wars, massacres, and the institution of the 
 Inquisition, or holy office : and as the reformers were 
 animated by the love of civil as well as religious free- 
 dom, the Catholic princes connected their own interests 
 
326 TIIE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 with that of the clergy, and enforced, by fire and the 
 sword, the terrors of spiritual censures. In the Nether- 
 lands alone, more than one hundred thousand of the sub- 
 jects of Charles the 5th, are said to have suffered by the 
 hands of the executioner ; and this extraordinary num- 
 ber is attested by Grotius.”* Bishop engaged against 
 bishop ; and even St. Peter’s chair was divided against 
 itself, there being, at one time, three Popes, each claim- 
 ing to be the vicar of the Son of God, and the true and 
 infallible successor of the holy apostles. 
 
 It would not suit my present purpose to enter more 
 minutely into particulars, or I might mention the re- 
 markable and wanton destruction of the Albigenses and 
 Waldenses in the twelfth century. The Lollards in 
 Germany, who were hunted like wild beasts. John Huss, 
 and Jerome Prague expiring at the stake, by a decree of 
 the council of Constance, in the fifteenth century ; 
 and real Christians, under various other denominations, 
 became the objects of universal hatred ; so that every 
 one who could persecute and destroy them thought he did 
 God eminent and meritorious service. Primitive Chris- 
 tianity was so nearly eradicated, that it was with difficul- 
 ty a sufficient number of real Christians could be got 
 together to determine on measures for their general safe- 
 ty; and to find a professing Church, free from gross 
 error and superstition, was very rare throughout Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
 “ It has been computed that fifty millions of Protes- 
 tants have, at different times, been the victims of Papal 
 persecutions, and have been cruelly put to death on ac- 
 count of their religious opinions.”! 
 
 * Gibbon, 6 vol. 495. 
 
 f Simpson, 346, 353. vid. Gibb, ch, 54, fol. 535. 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 327 
 
 France boasts of more martyrs to the truth than any 
 other kingdom in Europe. About 200 years ago, by 
 order of the king, bishops, and priests, 30,000, some say 
 60,000, Protestants were murdered in the course of a 
 few days. After this a civil war broke out, which last- 
 ed near sixty years, in the very heart of the country ; in 
 which Puffendorf tells us that there were destroyed, one 
 million of people — 150,000,000 of money were spent — 
 nine cities, 400 villages, 20,000 Churches, 2000 monas- 
 teries, and 10,000 houses were burnt, or laid level with 
 the ground. This is but little more than 150 years ago. 
 In the reign of Louis the 14th, an innumerable multi- 
 tude of people were harrassed and put to death, in the 
 most cruel and ignominious manner men or devils could 
 invent, and this about 100 years since. And 800,000 
 persons left the kingdom. Voltaire says 500,000.* 
 
 When the Pope received the news of the massacre of 
 the 30,000, above mentioned, he appointed a public 
 thanksgiving, and Te Deum was sung for joy in the- 
 Church of St. Louis. The king, archbishops, bishops, 
 clergy, and nobles too, went in public procession, sing- 
 ing the praises of God, for this bloody and diabolical 
 tranasction.’* 
 
 Will any one wonder, that when God in his provi- 
 dence shall call this nation to account, that vengeance 
 should fall on these orders and dignitaries of the king- 
 dom. “ They shall be rewarded even as they rewarded 
 others, and then shall be doubled unto them double, 
 according to their works. In the cup they have filled 
 fill to them double.”! 
 
 * Introd. to the Hist, of Europe, ch. 5, 201. 
 
 + Rev. 18th ch.* 6th v. 
 
328 THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 That the reader may form a better idea of the state of 
 the Church, in this, its great apostasy, about the time of 
 the commencement of the reformation, an extract from 
 the famous bishop Burnet’s history of that very impor- 
 tant era is here inserted, by which may be drawn a tole- 
 rable good picture of the debasement of the Church, and 
 the prophesying of the witnesses in sackloth, from the 
 ninth to the fifteenth century. “ At the time that Lu- 
 ther began the reformation, the conduct of the dignified 
 clergy throughout all Europe, had long given infinite 
 scandal : the bishops were grossly ignorant ; they seldom 
 resided in their diocesses, except to riot at high festi- 
 vals ; and all the effect that residence could have, was to 
 corrupt others by their ill examples. They followed the 
 courts of princes, and aspired to the greatest offices. The 
 abbots and monks were wholly given up to luxury and 
 idleness ; and it appeared by the unmarried state of the 
 seculars and regulars, that the restraining them from ha- 
 ving wives of their own, made them conclude they had 
 a right to all other men’s. The inferior clergy were no 
 better ; and not having places of retreat to conceal their 
 vices in, as the monks had, they became more public. 
 In sum, all ranks of Christians were so universally des- 
 pised and hated, that the world were apt to be possessed 
 against their doctrines, for the sake of men whose in- 
 terest it was to support them ; and the worship of God 
 was so defiled with much gross superstition, that with- 
 out great enquiries, all men were easily convinced, that 
 the Church stood in much need of a reformation.” 
 Luther himself says, in a letter to his friend Philip 
 Melancthon, “ Italy is clouded with the palpable dark - 
 ness of Egypt, so ignorant are they. of Christ, and of the 
 things that belong to Christ ; yet these are held as the 
 
DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS. 329 
 
 Lords and masters of our faith and morals.” The 
 great offence Luther gave, was his foundation doctrine ; 
 when he laid it down as an unshaken maxim, that the 
 sacred Scriptures are the sole foundation of all doctrine ; 
 and that all human opinions are to be brought to them 
 as the touchstone. 
 
 Under this view of the Church and its apostasy, no one 
 who has considered the importance of the word of God, 
 as contained in the Scriptures of the old and new Testa- 
 ments, and the advantage derived from the intelligent 
 and faithful preaching of it to the people at large, both 
 as to faith and morals, with the blessing that the Sabbath 
 and Lord’s day has always been to the Church of Christ, 
 under every dispensation, will hesitate to say, that these 
 witnesses of Jehovah have literally been prophesying in 
 sackloth. 
 
THE GOVERNMENT, 
 
 DESCRIBED BY “ THE BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS 
 PIT,” (OR ABYSS,) AVHICH WILL ASCERTAIN THE APPROACH OF 
 THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE MAN OF SIN AND ANTI- 
 CHRIST, OR THE ENDING OF THE 1260 YEARS, WHEN THE WIT- 
 NESSES WILL BE ABOUT TO FINISH THEIR TESTIMONY. 
 
 WHENEVER the government shall arise, described 
 in this chapter, as that of the beast arising out of the 
 bottomless pit, or abyss, who is to make war with and 
 destroy these witnesses of God, then the time when the 
 witnesses will be about to finish their prophesy ; and of 
 consequence the time of the ending of the second woe, 
 which all synchronize, will probably be ascertained with 
 more precision than by any other past events, and there- 
 by the wise will begin to understand, though the wicked 
 shall continue to do foolishly. 
 
 This mode of writing and speaking in figures, (as has 
 been already noticed) was not only common among the 
 eastern nations, so as to be adopted as a usual mode of 
 instruction in both religious and political truths, but it 
 became necessary, in all cases, where the world at large 
 were to be informed, as answering the purpose of an uni- 
 versal language. 
 
 Indeed this mode of instruction was adopted, not only 
 by the ministers of religion, but by philosophers, politi- 
 cians, Jews, and Gentiles, Christians, and Pagans. This 
 was more necessary, as the knowledge of letters and of 
 writing was so rare, and, by this means, it became as 
 intelligible to the people of that day, as our mode of de- 
 
THE GOVERNMENT, DESCRIBED BY THE, &c. 33 q 
 
 nominating the weight of any thing by numeral letters, 
 as 112 lbs. is to us at this day. 
 
 Powers and states, in the early times of antiquity, were 
 designated and known by their symbols ; and, in after 
 ages, came to be distinguished by writers under the 
 names of such symbols, as well as by their proper appel- 
 lations. As the lion with eagle’s wings, signified the 
 strength of the Assyrian empire, and the celerity of its 
 conquests. The beast, with three ribs in his mouth, inti- 
 mated the reduction which Cyrus made of Babylon, 
 Lydia, and Egypt, to the Persian monarchy. The leo- 
 pard, with four heads and four wings, denoted Alexan- 
 der and his four successors ; and the beast, with ten 
 horns and iron feet, represented the Roman empire and 
 its divisions into ten kingdoms, or principalities. This 
 was a language as well known to skilful readers at that 
 time, as now the arms, colours, fields of escutcheons, 
 are to heralds.* Hence we hear of the ancient philoso- 
 phers so often teaching by means of fables. Persia was 
 as well known by the ram, it being the royal ensign ; 
 Macedon by the goat, since king Carinus, as Great Bri- 
 tain is by a lion and unicorn ; the emperor by a spread 
 eagle with two heads ; or the United States of America, 
 by the bald eagle with thirteen bars. 
 
 The sacred Scriptures, of both the Old and New Tes- 
 taments, are full of instances to our purpose. Therein 
 it is a common thing to designate governments, tribes, 
 and families, by beasts or animals. The political states, 
 nobility, and officers of government, were known by the 
 Heavens, the Mountains, the Sun, Moon, and Stars. 
 The common people, in their different grades, by the 
 
 * Stackhouse Hist. Bib. 4 vol. 289. 
 
 Uu 
 
332 the government, described by the 
 
 Earth, the Sea, the Abyss, &c. The change of gov- 
 ernments, or revolutions and destruction of their consti- 
 tutions or forms ; by the dissolution of the Heavens, and 
 the host thereof — the rolling of the Heavens together 
 as a scrowl — earthquakes and tumultuous motion or 
 roaring of the seas. 
 
 The whole government of the Hebrews is often de- 
 signated by the four standards of Israel, as in Ezek. 1st 
 ch. 10th v. by a man, a lion, an eagle, and an ox. Judah is 
 denominated by Jacob, on his dying bed, a lion’s whelp ; 
 and Issachar by a strong ass ; Dan by a serpent ; Nap- 
 thali as a hind let loose, and Benjamin by a ravening 
 wolf.* In Isaiah, 27th ch. 1st v. Egypt is called Levia- 
 than, or the crooked serpent, and the dragon that is in 
 the sea. Daniel denominates the four monarchies oi 
 Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, by a lion, a bear, a 
 leopard, and a beast dreadful and terrible, with great iron 
 teeth, divers from all other beasts, having ten horns, f 
 A horn is always the emblem of power. 
 
 St. John, in the Revelations, continually uses these 
 figures to point out particular governments, especially 
 the Roman empire, in its Pagan state, by the great red 
 dragon. 
 
 When the prophet Jeremiah was desirous of warning 
 the Jewish nation of the successful approach of the Baby- 
 lonians, to destroy their government and nation, he says. 
 6C I beheld the earth, and lo ! it was without form and 
 void : and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld 
 the mountains, and lo ! they trembled, and all the hills 
 moved lightly.’’^ So Joel, speaking of the same event 
 “ the earth shall quake before them — the heavens shal 
 
 * Vid. 49 ch. Gen. f Dan. 7 ch. 4 to 7. v. 1 Isaiah, 4 ch. £3 v. 
 
BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 333 
 
 tremble — the sun and moon shall be dark, and the stars 
 shall withdraw their shining.* In like manner Haggai, 
 when foretelling the subversion of the Jewish polity, 
 says, “ speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying 
 I will shake the heavens and the earth — I will overthrow 
 the throne of kingdoms.”! And again — “ For thus 
 saith the Lord of hosts, yet once, it is a little while, and 
 I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and 
 the dry land — and I will shake all nations.”! And 
 again, in Isaiah, “ behold ! the day of the Lord cometh, 
 cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land 
 desolate ; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of 
 it ; for the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof 
 shall not give their light : the sun shall be darkened in 
 his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light 
 to shine. Ӥ 
 
 The learned and excellent Sir Isaac Newton, in his 
 treatise on the prophesies, says, “ The figurative lan- 
 guage of the prophets, is taken from the analogy be- 
 tween the world natural, and an empire or kingdom 
 considered as a world politic. Accordingly the whole 
 world natural, consisting of heaven and earth, signifies 
 the whole world politic, consisting of thrones and people, 
 or so much of it as is considered in prophesy ; and the 
 things in that world signify the analogous things in this. 
 For the heavens and the things therein, signify thrones 
 and dignities, and those who enjoy them ; and the 
 earth with the things therein, the inferior people ; and 
 the lowest parts of the earth, called Hades or Hell, the 
 lowest and most miserable part of them. Great earth- 
 quakes, and the shaking of heaven and earth, are put for 
 
 * Joel, 2d ch. 10 v. t Haggai, 2d ch. 21 v. 
 
 | Haggai, 2d ch. 6v. § Isaiah, 13th ch. 9 & 10 v. 
 
334 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT, DESCRIBED EY THE 
 
 the shaking of kingdoms, so as to distract and overthrow 
 them : the creating a new heaven and earth, and the pass- 
 ing away of an old one, or the beginning and end of a 
 world, for the rise and ruin of a body politic thereby. 
 The Sun for the whole species and race of kings, in the 
 kingdom of the world politic. The Moon for the 
 (“ second in power in the political kingdom or the”) 
 body of the common people, considered as the king’s 
 wife. The Stars for subordinate princes and great men ; 
 or for bishops and rulers of the people of God, when the 
 Sun is Christ. The setting of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, 
 darkeningthe Sun, turning the Moon into blood, and fall- 
 ing of the Stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom.”*' 
 
 It is very clear, that all this figurative language appli- 
 ed immediately to the civil and ecclesiastical polity of 
 the Jews ; and if a doubt could still remain, it would be 
 removed by referring to another passage of Isaiah, re- 
 lative to the establishment of the Jews as a nation. 
 “ But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, 
 whose waves roared ; the Lord of hosts is his name : and 
 I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered 
 thee in the shadow of mine hands, that I may plant the 
 heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say 
 unto Zion, thou art my people.”f In short, all the 
 oriental waiters describe the affairs of nations, by figures 
 taken from chymic philosophy, known in Arabia and 
 Egypt, which always compared governments to the Sun, 
 Moon, and Stars. In all the prophets, the heavens de- 
 note a government, empire, or republic, that is large or 
 universal : when the epithet high, or highest, is added, 
 it denotes the political world. By the Sun, Moon, and 
 
 * Part 1st. ch. 11. 
 
 f Isaiah, 5Jst ch. 15 Sf 16 v. 
 
BEAST AEISING OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 335 
 
 Stars, the king, queen, high priest, ministers, and nobles, 
 are intended. By the earth, the peasantry, or common 
 people, with the terrestial creatures, serving for the use 
 of man, are pointed out. 
 
 So in the New Testament, “ immediately after the tri- 
 bulation of those days, shall the Sun be darkened, and 
 the Moon shall not give her light ; and the Stars shall 
 fall from heaven, and the powers of hdaven shall be sha- 
 ken.”* And by St. John, “ and I beheld when he had 
 opened the sixth seal, and lo ! there was a great earth- 
 quake, and the Sun became black as sackloth, and the 
 Moon became as blood, and the Stars of heaven fell 
 on the earth ; and the heavens departed as a scrowl, 
 when it is rolled together ; and every mountain and 
 island were removed out of their places. f 
 
 It is generally supposed, by the best expositors, that 
 this passage means by the sun, the emperors of Rome 
 pagan, who is elsewhere called the great red dragon. By 
 the moon is meant the next in dignity, or the Roman 
 high priest, or pontifex maximus. By the stars of hea- 
 ven, were intended, the senate of Rome, and the college 
 of priests. By the heavens departing as a scrowl, and 
 the moving of every mountain and island, the total 
 change and alteration of the Roman government was un- 
 derstood. — The sun is said to be black because it ap- 
 pears so, when the light from it is withdrawn, but the 
 moon looks red, because it has a borrowed light, drawn 
 from the sun. So by an earthquake is always understood 
 the destruction of the form of a government, though not 
 the substance, and it is no uncommon thing in scripture, 
 for one prediction to relate to two or more events of the 
 
 * Matt. 24th ch. 29 v. 
 
 f Rev. 6th ch. 12 v. 
 
336 THE government, described by the 
 
 same kind, at a great distance of time from each other, 
 and are often types, the one of the other. 
 
 However these things may appear to us at this day, 
 they were well understood at the time of St. John’s wri- 
 ting, among the nations of the earth ; and the language 
 was as familiar to them, as our poetical flights are now 
 to us, which are often borrowed from nature, from his- 
 tory, from fables, fictitious persons and places. 
 
 By this beast then, in other parts of the Scriptures cal- 
 led antichrist, which was to make war with and slay the 
 witnesses, (mentioned in the 7th verse of the chapter un- 
 der consideration) St. John intended to designate a go- 
 vernment that should arise sometime about that of the 
 
 . 
 
 witnesses finishing their testimony, witness, or prophesy, 
 or the end of the 1260 years. — In the same manner he 
 designates throughout the Revelations, the rising and fal- 
 ling of governments in the Roman empire, which then 
 extended over Asia, Africa, and Europe, by beasts ; and 
 he takes his example not only from the known practice 
 then prevalent in the world ; but in a particular manner 
 from Daniel, who had so minutely foretold the fate of 
 that empire, as well as the Church under the like figures. 
 
 The government which St. John so particularly des- 
 cribes, and which should persecute and slay these wit- 
 nesses of God, is to be known by its origin, being therein 
 different from the rest of the governments of the empire. 
 — St. John’s beast is to ascend from the bottomless pit, 
 or as it would be better rendered, from the abyss. 
 
 According then to the known meaning of this figure, 
 in the practice of antiquity, it was descriptive of a gov- 
 ernment new and unusual in its formation and com- 
 mencement — It is to rise from the abyss, that is, from 
 the great mass, and lowest orders of the people at large. 
 
BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 337 
 
 — The Earth, as before observed, is always descriptive 
 of the common people ; but the Abyss, refers not only 
 to the whole mass of them, but those of the lowest clas- 
 ses and worst principles. — And the bottomless abyss, 
 shows their great numbers, and those continual acces- 
 sions that will be made to them from time to time, by the 
 popularity of their cause, and their amazing successes. — 
 The government of this Beast, whenever it happens, is to 
 be a fierce, cruel government, delighting in war and 
 bloodshed : it is to make war against every thing sacred 
 and holy — even God’s witnesses — It is to prove success- 
 ful and finally overcome them : that is, will have power 
 to suppress, and do away all forms of the religion of the 
 one only living and true God, through Jesus Christ : — 
 will abolish, at least in practice, the instruction usually 
 given in his Churches, and destroy all external respect 
 and veneration for the Lord’s day, with its ordinances, 
 being commemorative of Christ’s resurrection ; the 
 great pivot, on which the whole gospel system turns. 
 
 This enemy of the religion of Jesus Christ and the 
 worship of God, will, according to this figurative lan- 
 guage, slay these witnesses for God, and rejoice over 
 them as dead ; and in his opinion, never to rise again, or 
 to come into honour and respect among men. This 
 government will be vain of their power, supposing they 
 have so effectually destroyed all possibility of these wit- 
 nesses’ revival, that they do not attend to the burying of 
 their dead bodies, but suffer them to lie in the streets : 
 that is, after thus destroying their influence and remov- 
 ing their example, they will content themselves with ha- 
 ving thus done them away in appearance, and will not pro- 
 ceed to enact positive laws with violent penalties against 
 the worship of God, according to the Scriptures, but 
 
338 THE GOVERNMENT, DESCRIBED BY THE 
 
 trust to their unlimited power, and usurped authority, 
 to keep them down and suppress every possibility of 
 their revival. 
 
 This seems to have been expected by the primitive 
 Christians, from the language of the apostle. Hyppolitus, 
 bishop of Portua and a scholar of Irenaeus, who flouished 
 between the years 220 and 230, as formerly mentioned, 
 in his treatise de consummatione mundi seu de anti- 
 christo, ch. 45 ; describing the signs, and the impieties 
 which should precede the destruction of antichrist, ob- 
 serves on the irreligion and profaneness that should then 
 prevail, “ that the temples of God shall be as common 
 and ordinary houses ; — Churches shall be utterly demol- 
 ished every where ; — the Scriptures shall be despised ; — 
 the sacred edifices shall become heaps, and as a desolate 
 lodge in an orchard ; — there shall be no more commu- 
 nion of the precious body and blood of Christ ; — Litur- 
 gy shall be extinguished ; — the singing of psalms shall 
 cease ; — reading of the Scriptures shall no more be 
 heard,” &c. 
 
 This seems to be a natural - account of the conduct of 
 this government, from the abstract of it given by the 
 divine apostle. 
 
 This government of the Beast, or antichrist, is one of 
 the most important events in the Revelation, as it seems 
 most likely to point out the near approach of the Son of 
 Man again to this guilty world, in fulfilment of his bles- 
 sed promises ; which the preceding events wisely left in 
 obscurity as to the time. 
 
 In all the previous accounts of what was to happen to 
 the Church of Christ during these 1260 years of sorrow 
 and distress, the Spirit of God, no doubt for the best rea- 
 sons, has not thought proper to leave on record any clue ; 
 
BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 339 
 
 by which the second coming of our glorious Redeemer 
 should be certainly known, until the last times or the 
 latter times of the Roman government, when the second 
 wo is to have its Completion, which will be to the wise, 
 a key by which the whole plan will be opened up to them 
 — This will take place, as the Revelation informs us, 
 soon after the witnesses shall finish their prophesy in 
 kackloth. — Some short time previous to this great era, 
 the government of the beast “ that ascendeth out of the 
 bottomless pit,” shall arise, attended with so many ex- 
 press marks of certainty, that doubt shall no longer re- 
 main, with those wise servants of God, who by faith and 
 perseverance, shall carefully attend to the prophetic warn- 
 ings of the word of God. 
 
 Let us then seriously look back and ascertain those 
 -emarkable circumstances, pointed out by divine revela- 
 ion, that will attend and be consequent on the govern- 
 ment of the Beast, and the slaying of the witnesses of 
 3od, when they are about to finish their testimony. 
 
 The signs of this eventful period are : 
 
 1st. The rising of a government from the great mass of 
 he common people, and of the lowest orders in society, 
 which in its commencement and progress shall be new 
 ind unusual ; and that at a time when transgression 
 shall come to the full. 
 
 2d. This government, when risen, shall make war on 
 he witnesses of God, that is, the word and ordinances of 
 evealed religion, and the institutions for the support and 
 propagation of it. 
 
 3d. This government, contrary to all human expectat- 
 ion, will prove successful and victorious, for a time, 
 igainst both civil order and discipline, and every thing 
 >acred and holy ; and of consequence, will have power 
 
 Xx 
 
340 the government, described by the 
 
 to suppress and do away all forms and appearance of the 
 worship of the one only living and true God, through 
 Jesus Christ; — to abolish all the usual instruction given 
 in the Churches, by the preaching of the Gospel ; — to 
 destroy all public veneration and respect for the Lord’s 
 day, with its ordinances, as commemorative of the resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ, the great event on which the 
 whole Gospel system so essentially depends. 
 
 4th. That many nations and governments, of differing 
 characters and politics, being either united with, or in 
 fear of this new and uncommon government of the beast, 
 shall look on all this destruction of civil and religious 
 rights and privileges which once they highly esteemed, 
 with a kind of apathy, if not of countenance and support; 
 and without other interference than indirectly to prevent 
 a total annihilation of these witnesses of God ; signified 
 by not burying their dead bodies ; but leaving them in 
 the street of the great city, so as not to prevent their re- 
 surrection at the appointed time. 
 
 5th. The “ people of the earth,” that is, the common 
 people, now immersed in sin and profanity, who are 
 wholly attached to earthly things, and belonging to the 
 government of the beast, and those nations in amity with 
 her, shall be greatly elated with this supposed emancipa- 
 tion from the duties of civil society, and the obligations 
 of religion ; and shall rejoice in the idea of being no lon- 
 ger tormented by the preaching of the Gospel, the 
 discipline of its authority, and the jurisdiction of its mi- 
 nisters. 
 
 6th. This war of the beast arising out of the abyss, is 
 different from that formerly waged against the company 
 ef the saints generally, by those who, notwithstanding 
 publickly professed a respect for the Gospel and its 
 
BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 341 
 
 authority : this being now in a particular manner direc- 
 ted against these witnesses of God, or the word and 
 ordinances of the Gospel, by its professed enemies and 
 blasphemers, is to be followed by different consequences. 
 The effect of the first was, that all the nations of the earth 
 should wonder after and worship that beast with seven 
 heads and ten horns, or the revived Roman government, 
 which has been fully verified ; but the war of this beast 
 arising out of the abyss, is to be followed with great 
 fear falling on the followers of the first beast, prefiguring 
 the members of the Roman empire, and the Roman 
 Catholic communion throughout the world. Then fol- 
 lows the resurrection of the witnesses, the destruction of 
 the great city, and the restoration of the Jews to their 
 ancient Jerusalem. 
 
 7th. This success over, and destruction of these wit- 
 nesses of God, shall yield but a delusive joy, and be of 
 short duration, designated by three days and an half, 
 which, in Scripture language, means a short period, and 
 generally three years and an half ; and although, during 
 this period, they may appear to be wholly depressed or 
 done away, yet shall the principle of life in them remain, 
 revive, and they at length be restored to higher respect 
 and esteem than ever. They will, together with the 
 possession of Jerusalem, as mentioned in Daniel, and 
 the burning of the great city, as the last remarkable event 
 under the second wo, become unequivocal signs of the 
 times, and a confirmation of the ending of the second 
 wo, mentioned by St. John. This, of course, will 
 produce a happy certainty, over The whole system of the 
 Apocalypse, to the attentive observer of the footsteps of 
 Divine Providence. 
 
342 THE government, described by the 
 
 8th. But to increase the brightening evidence, and 
 multiply proofs of this extraordinary period, whereby the 
 servants of God will be enabled to support a lively faith 
 in his promises, this war shall arise in one of the ten 
 kingdoms of the first beast with seven heads and ten 
 horns. It will bring about, therein, a great and uncom- 
 mon revolution, in which that kingdom, or government, 
 shall be cut off" from and become the means of subvert- 
 ing, if not wholly destroying the Roman Pontiff’s power, 
 both civil and ecclesiastical. " 
 
 9th. That in this revolution, all titles of dignity and 
 honour, (prefigured by the slaying of the names of men, 
 as mentioned in the margins of our Bibles) among the 
 greatest part of the nobles and great men of the nation, 
 perhaps both civil and ecclesiastical, shall be destroyed 
 and taken away, and those that are left, being affrighted, 
 shall give glory to the God of Heaven, by voluntarily 
 relinquishing them, through fear of the government ari- 
 sing out of the bottomless pit, and as incompatible with 
 the principles of the government, established by this 
 second beast, or antichrist. 
 
 Here, then, are no less than nine very uncommon and 
 remarkable events, of great consequence, in or by means 
 of this government of the beast arising out of the abyss, 
 or bottomless pit, being one of the ten, into which the 
 Roman empire has been divided, that are to meet 
 together as in a centre, for the instruction and confirmation 
 of those who are rejoicing in the hope that is set before 
 them. These, altogether, will amount to such conclu- 
 sive proof, as to determine their minds, and lead them to 
 keep their loins girt, and their lamps trimmed and 
 burning, ready to go out to meet the Bridegroom. 
 
BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 343 
 
 These great events, being so expressly foretold, are 
 to prove the ending of the second wo, and the expira- 
 tion of the 1260, 1290, and 1335 years, to tolerable de- 
 monstration ; and by tracing back from this period, 
 whenever it shall happen, we may find the rising of the 
 man of sin, and calculate his and antichrist’s fall with 
 certainty, which is so speedily to introduce the approach 
 of the glorified Messiah, at his second coming to this 
 our guilty world ; when all the nations of the earth, 
 shall become the nations of cur Lord, and the earth shall 
 be covered with the knowledge of God, as the waters 
 cover the sea. 
 
 When such a government shall arise, attended with 
 these infallible marks of certainty, we may well consider 
 it, as announcing to an astonished world, in the strong 
 language of inspiration, the approach of the herald of the 
 skies, proclaiming in a voice of thunder, “ Babylon is 
 fallen ! — is fallen / — that great city , because she made 
 , all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornica- 
 tion. — Babylon the great, (the mystical Babylon, which 
 is seated on seven hills) is fallen !* — is fallen ! and be- 
 
 * 1 Peter, 5th and 13th, the Church, which is at Babylon , elec- 
 ted together with you, saluteth you, &c. 
 
 N. B. Peter, it is said, was then at Rome. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, even in Italy, many, and among others, 
 the famous Savanarola, had the courage to declare that Rome was 
 become the image of Babylon, and this opinion was soon adopted 
 by multitudes of all ranks and conditions.! 
 
 In 1510, Lewis 12th, king of France, provoked by the insults of 
 Pope Julius 2d, caused a medal to be struck with his own portrait, 
 bearing the title and arms of king of France and Naples, and 
 the motto perdam Babylonis nomen. I will destroy the name of 
 Babylon.f 
 
 t 2d vol. Gregg. Hist, of Christian Church, 250. 
 
 1 Roscoe’s 2d Leo. X. 100. 
 
344 THE GOVERNMENT, DESCRIBED BY THE 
 
 come the habitation of devils , and the hold of every foul 
 spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” 
 For it is very evident, from the Scriptures, that the an- 
 tichristian government will be the ruin of Babylon, or 
 the Papal power. Then let all the people of God, who 
 are wise, and have been taught, by his Spirit, to discern 
 the signs of the times, from an unfeigned faith in what 
 Christ and his apostles have told them, so long before they 
 came to pass, hearken to and obey the awful injunction, 
 “ come out of her, my people, that ye be not partaker 
 of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues, for 
 her sins have reached unto the heavens, and God hath 
 remembered her iniquities. Rejoice over her, thou hea- 
 vens,” (or the political governments she has endeavour- 
 ed to destroy, intimidate, or subvert) “ and ye holy 
 apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you oil 
 her.” “ A mighty angel took up a stone, like a great 
 mill- stone, and cast it into the sea, saying, thus, with 
 violence, shall the great city Babylon be thrown down, 
 and shall be found no more at all. Alas ! alas ! that 
 great city Babylon ! that mighty city ! for in one hour 
 is thy judgment come.” However uncertain the exact 
 time may be, yet if there is any truth in the whole Gos- 
 pel system, so surely will these important and awful 
 events come to pass, at the time appointed ; and the 
 children of God, who live by faith in the certainty of 
 those things promised by the great captain of their sal- 
 vation, and who act their part well, in watching his 
 providence, and waiting his good pleasure in patient re- 
 signation to his will, will be thus timely forwarned and 
 comforted in the great day of wrath, and the revelation 
 of the righteous judgments of God. It will then be 
 their duty and great privilege, “ to lift up their head' 
 
BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 345 
 
 and rejoice, knowing that their redemption draweth 
 nigh.’ J — Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God 
 Almighty ! just and true are thy ways, thou King of 
 Saints !— who shall not fear thee, O Lord ! and glorify 
 thy name, for thou only art holy. 
 
 The subversion of the civil polity of Rome, will soon 
 take place, then the resurrection of the witnesses, the 
 destruction of the city by fire, prefigured in the Revela- 
 tion of St. John by the harvest, will succeed the resur- 
 rection of the witnesses, the preparation of the bride, or 
 the conversion of the Jews, or the Kings of the East, 
 come next, before which will be added the overthrow of 
 the Turkish and Mahometan empires, to make way for 
 these converted Jews or Kings of the East — This, it may 
 be, will introduce the vintage, or that cruel slaughter of 
 the kings of Europe at the battle of Arma Geddon, or 
 the great day of God Almighty — Thus the one causes 
 the total destruction of western Rome, and the other that 
 of eastern Rome. “For behold in those days, and in 
 that time, 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, and will 
 plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage 
 Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, 
 and parted my land.” — 3d Joel, 1st and 2d. “ And the 
 angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the 
 vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine press of 
 the wrath of God. And the wine press was trodden 
 ■without the city , and blood came out of the wine press, 
 even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand 
 and six hundred furlongs.”* — Rev. 14th ch. 19 and 20. 
 
 * 200 Italian miles ; just the measurement of both Jerusalem and. 
 the Popes’ dominions in Italy, called Peter’s patrimony. 
 
346 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 The Christian Fathers, and indeed the whole Chris- 
 tian Church of the first three centuries, contemplated 
 these awful events, with great emotion, as the harbingers 
 of their promised deliverance — Their faith and hope in 
 the promises of the Gospel were strong and powerful, 
 and they rejoiced in the firm expectation of the second 
 coming of their Lord and master, in glory. They rush- 
 ed, even to martyrdom, with joy, as they expected by 
 suffering noth their crucified Redeemer in his humilia- 
 tion, they should partake with him in his glory and exal- 
 tation. 
 
 THE 
 
 PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THINGS, 
 
 BOTH CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE, 
 (OR THE TEN KINGDOMS INTO WHICH IT WAS DIVIDED, AND 
 PARTICULARLY IN THE BEK ATOM, OR THE TENTH PART OF 
 IT, WHICH WAS TO FALL) COMPARED WITH THOSE FORETOLD 
 BY THESE PROPHESIES, AS TO HAPPEN ABOUT THIS PERIOD 
 OR TIME OF THE END. 
 
 IF we turn our attention to the present state of Rome, 
 including Italy, to Germany, Britain, France, Spain, and* 
 Portugal, and indeed all the European part of ancient 
 Rome with which we are best acquainted, the most care- 
 less observer must allow, that the vial appears to have 
 been already “ poured out upon the seat of the Beast, 
 and his kingdom has become full of darkness — they 
 have gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed 
 the God of Heaven.” 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 347 
 
 That a government extraordinary in its commence- 
 ment, unusual and sudden in its progress, and supernatu- 
 rally powerful and victorious in all its struggles with its 
 neighbours, has lately risen up, and that in a manner, I 
 had almost said, miraculous, is what the world is now too 
 well convinced of, to need proof. 
 
 The extravagant circumstances attending the few years 
 of its existence, and the effects it has had on all the go- 
 vernments of Europe, demand the particular attention 
 of every serious observer of the footsteps of Divine 
 Providence, and especially our minute investigation. 
 
 Having, in the foregoing sheets, suggested some data, 
 from which it was possible that the 1260 years, of the wit- 
 nesses prophesying in sackloth, might have commenced 
 somewhere about the year five hundred; and, in a 
 doubtful manner, suggested that their period of ending 
 might possibly fall somewhere about the year 1800 ; 
 for we pretend not to precision in suggestions of this 
 nature ; till the finishing of the second wo is ascertain, 
 ed, we will confine ourselves to the facts that have taken 
 place in the history of Europe, during the present cen- 
 tury,* as they may be necessary to introduce the rise 
 and conduct of the particular government we have more 
 especially in view, as well as the gradual destruction of 
 the man of sin, in like manner as he arose. 
 
 The first remarkable fact, I would mention as worthy 
 of observation, and which has had great effect on the 
 governments of Europe, and particularly in her ecclesi- 
 asticle affairs, is the downfall of the Jesuits ; a society of 
 people, who, though merely of ecclesiastical institution, 
 had by degrees so increased in learning, numbers, wealth, 
 and power, as, in the opinion of many of the crowned 
 
 * Written about the year J 797. 
 
 Yy 
 
348 present appearance of things, both civil 
 
 heads of Europe, to become dangerous to the civil and 
 religious interests of all the nations, among whom they 
 were dispersed. 
 
 This order was instituted by the famous Ignatius 
 Loyola, a Spanish knight, in the sixteenth century. At 
 first the Pope and Cardinals gave great opposition to the 
 whole scheme, till Loyola offered to the Pope that be- 
 sides the three usual vows of poverty, chastity, and 
 monastic obedience, he would add a fourth, being a vow 
 of obedience to the Pope, binding themselves to gof 
 wheresoever he should command, for the service of re- 
 ligion, and without requiring any provision from the 
 Holy See for their support. The Pope was now in too 
 critical a situation to refuse such an addition to his 
 power and influence, and accordingly confirmed the in- 
 stitution. In less than half a century, this society ex- 
 tended over the whole Roman Catholic world. They, jj 
 by some means, sufficient to satisfy themselves, eluded | 
 the vow of poverty, and became the richest religious 
 society in the world. They had the whole system of |! 
 education under their patronage and guidance, and found | 
 their way into the cabinets of all the Catholic princes of 
 of Europe, whose measures they directed without their 
 knowing it. In Paraguay, extending across the south- 
 ern continent of America, from the bottom of the 
 mountains of Potosi to the confines of the Spanish and 
 Portuguese settlements, on the banks of the river de la 
 Plata, they established themselves, and became equal to 
 any absolute despot in Europe ; and, it is generally be- 
 lieved, they intended finally to establish an independent 
 empire; yet, it must be acknowledged, that they did 
 great good among the native Indians of that extensive 
 country, amounting to many hundred thousand souls 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIEN 1 ROMAN EMPIRE. 349 
 
 They considered themselves as chosen soldiers, bound 
 to the service of God, and to pay a most implicit obedi- 
 ence to the Pope, his vicar on earth. 
 
 During the prosecution, carried on against them in 
 Franceand Portugal, they broke through one of their most 
 essential rules and produced the mysterious volumes, or 
 journals of their institution, in evidence for their justifi- 
 cation. This became a death blow to the whole system, 
 as they had heretofore been kept an impenetrable secret, 
 to all but the higher ranks of their order. There is a 
 most remarkable passage in a sermon of archbishop 
 Brower, preached in Dublin, in the year 1551, which is 
 well vouched, and though long, is worthy of being per- 
 petuated. It is mentioned by Buck, in his Dictionary, 
 1st vol. to whom I am indebted for much information 
 on this head. “ But there are a new fraternity of late 
 sprung up, who call themselves Jesuits, who will de- 
 ceive many, much after the Scribes and Pharisees* 
 manner. Among the Jews, they shall strive to abolish 
 the truth, and shall come very near to do it. For these 
 sorts will turn themselves into several forms ; with the 
 Heathens, a Heathenist ; with an Atheist, an Atheist ; 
 with the Jews, a Jew ; with the reformers, a reformer, 
 purposely to know your intentions, your minds, your 
 hearts, and your inclinations, and thereby bring you, at 
 last, to be like the fool, that said in his heart, there was 
 no God. These shall be spread over the whole world ; 
 shall be admitted into the councils of princes, and they 
 never the wiser ; charming them, yea making your 
 princes reveal their hearts, and the secrets therein, and 
 yet they not perceive it ; which will happen from falling 
 from the law of God, by neglect of fulfilling it ; and by 
 winking at their sins. Yet, in the end, God, to justify 
 
350 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 his law, shall suddenly cut off this society, even by the 
 hands of those who have most succoured them, and 
 made use of them ; so that at the end, they shall become 
 odious to all nations. They shall be worse than Jews, 
 having no resting place upon earth ; and then shall a 
 Jew have more favour than a Jesuit.” 
 
 Their destruction was introduced by the charge of a 
 conspiracy to assassinate the king of Portugal, in which 
 they were accused with having a hand ; whether with 
 justice, or not, it is not necessary to our subject to say. 
 The court, alarmed at the influence of this powerful 
 body of men, who had thus insinuated themselves into 
 (almost) every cabinet of Europe, and dreading their 
 intrigues, proceeded to abolish the whole order through- 
 out Portugal, in the year 1759, notwithstanding the 
 great devotion of that court to the authority of the holy 
 see, who had incorporated and patronized this society 
 as a chief instrument of its power, and an essential 
 mean of its influence in the world. 
 
 The indignation of Europe was greatly roused on this 
 occasion, and the different courts took part with Portu- 
 gal against the society. France having been for some 
 years distracted with disputes between their parliaments 
 and clergy, on account of the famous Bull imigenitus, 
 (issued against the Jansinests, with whom the Jesuits 
 had an irritating dispute,) which had been obtained and 
 enforced by them, followed the example thus set her; 
 and, in 1764, finally dissolved the society in France, 
 and declared its members incapable of holding any cle- 
 rical or municipal office. Their colleges were seized ; 
 — their effects confiscated ; and the order annihilated 
 for ever. Spain and Sicily did the same in 1767, and 
 Pope Clement, the XIV. totally suppressed and abolish- 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 35 \ 
 
 ed the whole order in 1773, though much against his 
 will. 
 
 I mention, particularly, the dissolution of this religi- 
 ous order, because it has been justly considered, as 
 one of the principal supports of the Catholic Hierarchy, 
 since the institution of that society.* — an important in- 
 strument in the hands of the Papacy ; — and by which 
 the see of Rome had influenced and governed the poli- 
 tics of Europe for more than two centuries. 
 
 The loss of this order was a severe blow to the apos- 
 tasy and its adherents, although brought about by those 
 monarchs, who had been greatly devoted to the interests 
 of the Popes, and was finally accomplished by the Pope 
 himself, as a last struggle to maintain his influence with 
 the powers of Europe, being violently urged to this mor- 
 tifying instance of self denial, by the combined interests 
 of France, Spain, and Portugal. 
 
 So true are all the predictions of sacred writ, though 
 at the time of their promulgation, there did not appear 
 the least probability, or scarcely a possibility of their 
 
 * The Jesuits are the firmest supporters, the most excellent 
 apologists, and the most devoted servants of the holy see. De- 
 prived of their assistance, it resembles a despot stripped of his 
 Pretorian guards. They formed, if vve may so say, the noblesse 
 of the Papal monarchy. And it was a truth indistinctly perceived 
 every where, — a truth, which the illustrious Montesquieu had 
 clearly expressed, and which experience has, since his time, in- 
 contestibly demonstrated, that no monarchy could exist without 
 its attendant nobility. Thus, since the abolition of the society of 
 Jesuits, the Papal authority has been seen gradually tending to» 
 wards its ruin ; and it is probably owing more to this very cause, 
 than to the progress of knowledge, that its rapid and easy over- 
 throw ought to be attributed.! 
 
 | Memo ires Histor. et philoses sur Pie VI. et son pontif. fcc. 
 
352 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 being verified. “ And the ten horns which thou sawest 
 upon the beast (that is, those powers that before had but 
 one mind, and had given their power and strength unto 
 the beast) these shall hate the whore, and shall make 
 her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn 
 her with fire, for God hath put it in their hearts to fulfil 
 his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the 
 beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.* 
 
 From 1764 to 1775, the disputes between Great Bri- 
 tain, (another of the ten kingdoms) and her colonies 
 
 * But although the fall of the Papal power would probably have 
 been effected, without the intervention of the French revolution, 
 from the natural progress of knowledge, it is not unworthy of ob- 
 servation, that whilst those powers, which hitherto had been the 
 avowed supporters of Papal pretensions against the spread of he- 
 resy and schism, had become rebellious against Papal rights, 
 consecrated by sacred prescription, and- in some cases, menaced 
 even the personal authority of the Pontiff; the schismatic princes 
 of the north affected to treat the holy see with unequivocal marks 
 of deference and distinction. Frederick the great, and Catharine 
 (of Russia) regarding the Pope, less as a fallen and vanquished 
 enemy, than a respectable relic of a worn out superstition, some- 
 times amused themselves by the singularity of affectionate cor- 
 respondence, and the interchange of benevolent offices with the 
 holy Father. The king of Poland had bowed with resignation, 
 when the code of the enlightened Zamoiski, restraining the juris- 
 diction of the Papal see, and abridging the privileges of the clergy 
 and the monastic orders, had met the indignation of the Pontiff, 
 and through the ecclesiastical influence, the refusal of the diet. 
 Gustavus III. had published an edict, giving full toleration to the 
 Catholics of Sweden, and had paid his respects to the holy father 
 in the seat of his spiritual empire : and the stem independents of 
 the other hemisphere, every way remote from the modern Bub foil, 
 had solicited and obtained, through the organs of congress, a con 
 secrated primate for the Catholic part of their community.”! 
 
 f New Ann. Reg-. 1798, p. 298, 299. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 353 
 
 began, and were carried on to such a crisis, by the ob- 
 stinate and unreasonable determination of the British 
 cabinet to bring them to unconditional submission, as to 
 produce the war of 1776, by which she lost the thirteen 
 American colonies, who, with the aid of the king of 
 France, secured their independence, and in 1783 were 
 acknowledged, by the crown of Great Britain, as separa- 
 ted from her jurisdiction, and an independent nation* 
 under the style and title of “ the United States of Ame- 
 rica.” 
 
 By this glorious and important revolution, an asylum 
 for all the oppressed of the earth, of every nation, and 
 every party, was not only secured in this free and fertile 
 region, but the principles of rational liberty were estab- 
 lished and made known to the world, and the inestimable 
 fact (till now scarcely credited) of a people governing 
 themselves, strictly speaking, verified by actual experi- 
 ment. 
 
 But before we proceed any further in our intended 
 investigation, it will tend to cast much light on our 
 future observations, to take a short review of the state 
 of things in Germany and France, for some years before 
 and at this time, as far as relates to the project of a re- 
 form of the governments, by many who called themselves 
 philosophers and friends of the human race. 
 
 When king James, of England, abdicated the crown, 
 and with his followers took refuge in France, they car- 
 ried with them the knowledge of Free Masonry ; 
 and for their amusement erected several lodges in that 
 kingdom, which, in a few years, spread over the conti- 
 nent. The known principle of secrecy, fundamental in 
 the institution of this society, which, in England, had 
 ever been, at least politically, innocent, was made use of 
 
354 PRESENT appeakance op things, both civil 
 
 (as to name) for political purposes on the continent, by 
 the disaffected to government, and religion in general, 
 and screened certain new formed societies, under the 
 name of lodges, from public suspicion. 
 
 In process of time they became sources of disaffection 
 to kings and religious establishments of every name, 
 though supported and protected by the friends of both. 
 These societies, however foreign to, yet under the name 
 of free masons, became places of free political inves- 
 tigation, sporting the most dangerous sentiments, un- 
 awed by any fear of the animadversions of the executive 
 powers, from the known obligations of secrecy laid on 
 every member. 
 
 Various additional degrees, made more palatable to 
 the vain and ambitious, by several flattering orders, with 
 stars and garters, were ingrafted on the three simple or- 
 ders of ancient Masonry. 
 
 These societies, for a time, were very pleasing to the 
 late king of Prussia, from whom was carefully kept, 
 their schemes against kingly government ; but they were 
 attentive to humour his aversion to the Christian religion. 
 They were patronized by him and his friends V oltaire 
 and D’Alembert, with the principals of the pretended 
 philosophers of the day, by whom they became united 
 with various other societies established for the express 
 purpose of opposing and destroying the religion of Jesus 
 Christ.* When united, they greatly increased, under 
 
 1 B 
 
 * In 1761, Voltaire writes to the king of Prussia, “ Had I but 
 one hundred thousand men, I well know what I would do with 
 them.” Frederick answers, “ It is not the lot of arms to destroy 
 the wretch, (meaning Jesus Christ.) He will perish by the force 
 of truth.” But, in 1775, he thinks that force must be used to 
 strike the last blow at religion. Voltaire again: “ To Bayle, 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 355 
 
 the different names of Free Masonry — -Illuminati — the 
 German Union — Amis Reunis — Chevalier Bienfaisant 
 — Philalethes — Sublime Masonry — Jacobins — Corde- 
 liers, &c. &c. 
 
 They received great addition to their celebrity, by 
 the accession of the Duke de Chartres, the richest sub- 
 ject in France, Rosseau, Diderot, and others, who were 
 more than industrious to propagate the principles of re- 
 volution, rebellion, atheism, and infidelity, wholly sub- 
 versive of good government, religion, and morality.* 
 Even the Christian religion, which was the principal 
 object of their bitterest enmity, when it would serve 
 
 your forerunner, and to yourself, no doubt, is due the honour of 
 that revolution, working in the minds of men. But to speak the 
 truth, it is not yet complete ; bigots have their party, and it will 
 never be perfected, but by a superior force. From government 
 must the sentence issue, that shall crush the wretch. Ministers 
 (of state) may forward it, but the will of the sovereign must ac- 
 cede ; — without doubt, this will be effectuated in time, but neither 
 of us can be spectators of that long wished for moment/’ 
 
 * Voltaire says, “ 0 my brethren, we should march like the 
 Macedonian phalanx — it was only vanquished, when it opened. 
 Let real philosophers unite in a brotherhood, like the Free Ma- 
 sons ; let them assemble and support each other ; let them be 
 faithful to the association. Such an academy will be far superior 
 to that of Athens, and to all those of Paris. Rosseau declares he 
 svrote his new Eloisa for this express purpose. If you are not 
 efficiently zealous, you bury your talents 5 you seem only to 
 •.ontend, while you should abhor and destroy the monster. 
 
 Such is our situation that we shall be the execration °f man - 
 :ind, if we have not the better sort of people on our side ;< — we 
 lust gain them, cost what it will. Labour, therefore, in the vine- 
 ard — he who knows no other difference between himself and us 
 ut by his dress, wishes to die on a heap of Christians, immola 
 ited at his feet.f 
 
 f 3d vol. Kett, p. 51 
 
 Z z 
 
356 present appearance of things, both civil 
 
 their turn, was attempted to be brought to their aid, to 
 deceive those who appeared attached to it. They per- 
 suaded them “ that the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel 
 were the objects of the Society’s pursuit, as they were all 
 typical of the final triumph of reason and philosophy 
 over error and superstition. That these philosophers 
 were possessed of the important secret, intended to be 
 communicated to the world by its great founder, which 
 had not, till this period, taken place, because the time 
 had not before come that the world could bear it, as he 
 had told his disciples, while he was yet with them.” 
 
 Before the year 1750 these ideas became very general, 
 and the lodges became schools for making proselytes te 
 every strange and absurd doctrine. 
 
 The Duke de Chartres, or Orleans, was, in process 
 of time, made grand master of one of the most famous 
 of these lodges, at Lyons, known by the name of Logc 
 des Chevalier Bienfaisant. This nobleman, from hit 
 education, principles, and practice, was ripe for any anc 
 every iniquity either in Church or State. His immense 
 riches raised his vanity and ambition to expect and seel 
 after the government of the world. To obtain his un 
 bounded desires, he made no hesitation in adopting th< 
 maxim “ that the end would sanctify the means,” what 
 ever they might be, which was a fundamental ant 
 established principle of these societies. These lodge 
 now extended through France, under the name of th 
 affiliated lodges : were instituted at Paris, Strasburgl 
 Lyle, Thoulouse, Alsace, Lorraine, and other places! 
 and, for some time, took the name of Philalethes . 
 
 “ In 1764 they instituted a club at the house of Bara 
 Holback, at Paris, of which Voltaire was elected hone 
 rary and perpetual President. To conceal their re: 
 design, which was the diffusion of this new philosoph; 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 357 
 
 they called themselves CEconomists. From this club 
 was issued an inundation of books and pamphlets, cal- 
 culated to impair and overturn religion, morals and 
 government ; and which spreading all over Europe, 
 imperceptibly took possession of public opinion. As 
 soon as the sale was sufficient to pay the expenses, infe- 
 rior editions were printed and given away, or sold at a 
 very low price — circulating libraries of them formed, 
 and reading societies instituted : while they constantly 
 denied these productions to the world, they contrived to 
 give them a false celebrity through their confidential 
 agents and correspondents, who were not themselves 
 always entrusted with the entire secret.” 
 
 This is greatly confirmed by my lord Orford’s let- 
 ters, in the year 1765. He writes from France, “ The 
 Dauphin will hold out but a very few days — His death, 
 that is, the near prospect of it, fills the philosophers with 
 the greatest joy, as it was feared he would endeavour 
 the restoration of the Jesuits. You will think the senti- 
 ments of the philosophers very odd state news. But do 
 you know who the philosophers are, or what the terin 
 means here ? In the first place it comprehends almost 
 every body ; and, in the next, means men who, avowing 
 war against Popery, aim, many of them, at a subversion 
 of all religion, and still many more, at the destruction of 
 regal power. How do you know this ? you will say, 
 you who have been confined to your chamber. True, 
 but in the first period, I went every where, and heard 
 nothing else ; in the latter I have been extremely visited, 
 and have had long and explicit conversations with many 
 who think as I tell you, and with a few of the other side, 
 who are no less persuaded that there are such inten- 
 tions.”* 
 
 * 5th vol. p. 123. 
 
358 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 In 1768, and to 1770, they became united, under the 
 parent lodge of Lyons. There is sufficient evidence to 
 presume that here the most dangerous principles both to 
 Church and state were adopted. The lodge of Paris 
 was afterwards moulded into the Jacobin club, and soon 
 ruled the kingdom.* Those of Alsace and Lorraine, 
 with Spire and Worms, invited general Custine into Ger- 
 many, and delivered Mentz into his hands. One Zim- 
 merman, an abandoned enthusiast in the service of these 
 
 * At an early period of the revolution in France, this fraterni- 
 ty of illuminated Free Masons took the name of Jacobins, from 
 the name of the convent where they met. u They then counted 
 300,000 adepts, and were supported by two millions of men, scat- 
 tered through France, armed with torches and pikes, and all the 
 necessary implements of revolution.” Till the 12th August, 1792, 
 the French Jacobins had only dated the annals of their revolution 
 by the year of their pretended liberty. On that day, when the 
 king was carried prisoner to the temple, after it had been 
 declared that he had forfeited his right to the crown, the assem- 
 bly decreed that to the date of liberty the date of equality should 
 be added in future, in all public acts, and the decree itself is da- 
 ted the fourth year of liberty, and the first day and year of equal- 
 ity. It was on that day, for the first time, that the secret of Free 
 Masonary was made public. That secret, so dear to them, and 
 which they had preserved with all the solemnity of the most in- 
 violable oath. At the reading of this famous decree they ex- 
 claimed, “ We have at length succeeded, and France is no other 
 than an immense lodge. The whole French people are Free Ma- 
 sons, and the whole universe will soon follow their example. I 
 witnessed this enthusiasm. I heard the conversations to which 
 it gave rise. I saw Masons, till then reserved, who freely and 
 openly declared, yes ! at length the grand object of Free Masonry 
 is accomplished! all men are equal and brothers — all men are 
 free. That was the whole substance of our doctrine — the object 
 of our wishes — the whole of our grand secret !”f 
 
 f Banuel. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 359 
 
 societies, went about through France, preaching liberty 
 and the principles of illuminatism. He would mount 
 the rostrum, when urging his revolutionary system, and 
 with a sabre in his hand, would bawl out, “ Behold 
 Frenchmen, this is your God, this alone can save you.” 
 When Custine broke into Germany, Zimmerman got 
 admission to him, and offered to deliver Manheim into 
 his hands; to accomplish which, he proposed to set 
 some corners of the city on fire, and assured him of 
 support. Custine declined the offer. When he was af- 
 terwards on his trial, this wretch appeared against him, 
 and accused him of treachery to the common cause. 
 Custine answered, “ hardly,” said he, “ had I set my 
 foot in Germany, when this man, and all the fools in the 
 country, besieged me, and would have delivered up to 
 me their towns and villages. What occasion had I to 
 do any thing to Manheim , when their prince was neu- 
 tral.” 
 
 It was from similar sources that so many brilliant 
 victories have been given to the French arms through- 
 out Europe, as some individuals of these fraternities 
 were generally sent forward as pioneers . They previ- 
 ously insinuated themselves into offices and commands 
 of the most important nature, and high trusts, on pur- 
 pose to betray their employers in the hour of conflict ; and 
 thus to introduce the sans-culotte Jacobins into every 
 kingdom in Europe. 
 
 This was the more easily accomplished, as these 
 lodges were frequented by persons of all ranks, and of 
 every profession, who were bound by the most solemn 
 obligations to prefer the interests of the order to every 
 other consideration. 
 
360 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 The idle and the frivolous found amusement and glit- 
 tering* things to tickle their satiated fancies, while men 
 of understanding, who were restless, disappointed, or 
 fond of change, were deluded by the prospect of univer- 
 sal dominion, founded on a new philosophy, that would 
 free mankind from all religious scruples and civil obli- 
 gations, and thus bring on the ancient, though savage 
 life of Druidism, and the Heathen philosophy. At this 
 same time the republicans, the democrats, and the revo- 
 lutionists, were gratified with the idea of dethroning 
 kings, destroying aristocrasy, and establishing liberty 
 and equality, over the face of Europe. 
 
 Thus many unguarded and unsuspicious men became 
 the dupes and tools of the declamatory eloquence of the 
 crafty and licentious abbeys, sophisters, and writers of 
 every denomination. 
 
 In a few years, improbable as it may appear at first 
 view, even the emperor Joseph, with other royal adepts, 
 became poisoned with these principles, covered artfully 
 by various pretences, to suit the purposes of those dis- 
 organizes. These lodges became frequented, in Ger- 
 many, by a prince bishop, and the greatest part of his 
 chapter ; and all the office-bearers, were dignitaries of the 
 Church, which they were designed to destroy, to its 
 very foundation. The orations delivered before them, 
 were as pointed against superstition and credulity, as if 
 written by Voltaire himself. 
 
 Voltaire, D’Alembert, Diderot, D’Argenson, Ega- 
 lite, Rosseau, Condorcet, Robinet, Mirabeau, Mably, 
 La Harpe, the Due de Lazune, Abbe Perigord Talley - 
 rand bishop of Autun, Petion, Abbe Bertholis, Mar- 
 montel, Abbe Seys, and Annacharsis Cloots, with various 
 other prominent characters in the French revolution; 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 361 
 
 belonged to these societes. Mirabeau and Talleyrand 
 bishop of Autun, were wardens of the lodge of Jacobins. 
 
 In this manner were the most corrupt and immoral 
 principles spread over the kingdom of France, under 
 the mask of moral instruction, and that in a manner un- 
 perceived or unnoticed by the' government. 
 
 In 1773 the new philosophy was protected in Russia, 
 by the empress ; and the defenders of religion were at the 
 last gasp in Poland, under the influence of king Ponia- 
 towski. The friends of revelation were already dis- 
 countenanced and brow-beaten by the government of 
 Prussia, under Frederick, the father of every violence 
 against revealed religion. In the north of Germany the 
 new philosophy prevailed in every quarter, under the 
 smiles of princes and dukes. 
 
 Frederick writes, “ Philosophy is beginning to pene- 
 trate into superstitious Bohemia, and into Austria, the 
 former abode of superstition. In our Protestant coun- 
 tries we go on much brisker. In Paris, many philoso- 
 phers are to be found behind the counters.” 
 
 These lodges are said to have increased to the num- 
 ber of 266, under the Due de Chartres, (or Egalite) 
 but the most famous partizan in this nefarious business, 
 and one who, in Germany, had the chief hand in impro- 
 ving the system of illuminatism, in the most villainous 
 projects, was Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of the 
 canon law, in the University of Ingoldstadt. He had 
 been educated among the Jesuits, but afterwards became 
 their bitter enemy. His aim was to obtain the gov- 
 ernment of the world for his order. He endeavoured 
 to persuade the Jesuits to join him, but his schemes 
 were so big with destruction to all order and decorum 
 in human life ; so ruinous to every civilized govern- 
 
362 PRESENT appearance op things, both civil 
 
 ment, that lie could get but two of that order to join 
 him, which produced the enmity to them above men- 
 tioned. 
 
 In 1783 his pernicious doctrines leaked out, and the 
 elector Palatine being greatly alarmed, instituted a court 
 of inquiry to examine into their principles and conduct ; * 
 when on the examination of four professors of the Ma- 
 rianen academy, who belonged to the order, “ It ap- 
 peared that the order was said to have abjured Christi- 
 anity. Sensual pleasures were restored to the rank they 
 held in the epicurean philosophy — self murder was 
 justified, on stoical principles — death was declared an 
 eternal sleep — patriotism and loyalty were called narrow- 
 minded prejudices, and incompatible with universal 
 benevolence. Continual declamations were made on 
 liberty and equality, as the unalienable rights of men. 
 The baneful influence of accumulated property was de- 
 clared an insurmountable obstacle to the happiness of 
 any nation, whose chief laws were framed for its pro- 
 tection and increase. Nothing was so frequently dis- 
 coursed of as the propriety of employing, for a good 
 purpose, the means which the wicked employed for evil 
 purposes ; and it was taught that the preponderancy of 
 good in the ultimate result, consecrated every mean 
 employed ; and that wisdom and virtue consisted in 
 properly determining this balance.” 
 
 However, the society denied all this — yet the elector 
 broke up the order, banished the professor Weishaupt, 
 with many others, and some were imprisoned ; yet, 
 notwithstanding this just punishment, the society soon 
 rose with fresh vigour, under a new name. 
 
 To form some small idea of the designs of the prin- 
 cipal supporters of this adventurous fraternity, it will be 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 333 
 
 necessary to transcribe the oath or declaration of a can- 
 didate for the degree of “ llluminatus minor” at large. 
 “ I. N. N. protest before you, the worthy plenipotentiary 
 of the venerable order into which I wish to be admitted, 
 that I acknowledge my natural weakness and inability ; 
 and that I, with all my possessions, rank, honours, and 
 titles, which I hold in political society, am at bottom 
 only a man ; I can enjoy these things only through my 
 fellow men, and through them, also, I may lose them. 
 The approbation and consideration of my fellow men 
 are indispensably necessary, and I must try to maintain 
 them by all my talents. These I will never use to the 
 prejudice of universal good, but will oppose, with 
 all my might, the enemies of the human race and of 
 political society. I will embrace every opportunity of 
 saving mankind, by improving my understanding and 
 my affections, and by imparting all important knowledge, 
 as the good and statutes of this order require of me. I 
 bind myself to perpetual silence, and unshaken loyalty 
 and submission to the order, in the persons of my supe- 
 riors : here making a faithful and complete surrender of 
 my private judgment, my own will, and every narrow- 
 minded employment of my power and influence. I 
 pledge myself to account the good of the order as my 
 own, and am ready to serve it with my fortune, my 
 honour, and my blood. Should I, through omission, 
 neglect, passion, or wickedness, behave contrary to this 
 good of the order, I subject myself to what reproof, or 
 punishment, my superiors shall enjoin. The friends 
 and enemies of the order shall be my friends and ene- 
 mies ; and, with respect to both, I will conduct myself 
 as directed by the order ; and am ready, in every lawful 
 way, to devote myself to its increase and promotion, 
 
 A a a 
 
364 PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 ana therein to employ all my ability. All this I pro- 
 mise and protest, without secret reservation, according to 
 the intention of the society, which require from me this 
 engagement. This I do, as I am, and as I hope to con- 
 tinue, a man of honour.” 
 
 A drawn sword is then pointed at his breast, and he j 
 is asked, will you be obedient to the commands of your 
 superiors? He is threatened with unavoidable ven- 
 geance, from which no potentate can defend him, if he 
 should every betray the order. In the explanation of 
 these terms of devotion to the order, they say, speaking 
 of the authority due to the ruling powers of civil govern- 
 ment, being of inferior moral weight to that due to the 
 order, “ these powers are despots, when they do not 
 conduct themselves by its principles ; and it is, there- 
 fore, our duty to surround them with its members, so 
 that the profane may have no access to them. Thus we 
 are able, most powerfully to promote its interests. If 
 any person is more disposed to, listen to princes than to 
 the order, he is not fit for it, and must rise no higher. 
 We must do our utmost to procure the advancement of 
 the Illuminati into all important civil offices.” 
 
 These are the means by which they gained an ascendan- j 
 cy among the nobility, the clergy, and the laity, of almost 
 every government in Europe. Nay, after various expe- 
 riments, finding the women necessary to carry on their 
 abominable practices, they established various lodges of 
 ladies, whose moral principles they first totally pervert- 
 ed, by eradicating every former idea of chastity and 
 virtue from their minds ; “ there is no way,” say they, 
 
 “ of influencing men, so powerful, as by the means of the 
 women. These should, therefore, be our chief study ; 
 we should insinuate ourselves into their good opinion— 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 355 
 
 give them hints of emancipation from the tyranny of 
 public opinion, and of standing up for themselves. It 
 will be of immense relief to their enslaved minds, to be 
 freed from any one bond of restraint ; and it will fix 
 them the more, and cause them to work for us with zeal, 
 without knowing that they do so : for they will only be 
 indulging their own desires of personal admiration.” 
 Again, “ the great strength of our order lies in its con- 
 cealment; let it never appear in any place in its own 
 name, but always covered by another name, another oc- 
 cupation. None is fitter than the three lower degrees of 
 Free Masonry ; the public are accustomed to it — ex- 
 pects little from it ; and, therefore, takes little notice of 
 it. The power of this order must surely be turned to 
 the advantage of its members — all must be assisted; 
 they must be preferred to all persons, otherwise of equal 
 merit. Money, services, honour, goods, and blood, 
 must be expended for the fully proved brethren ; and 
 the unfortunate must be relieved by the funds of the so- 
 ciety.” 
 
 Let me here ask the reader to compare these princi- 
 ples and hard terms, with the requirements of the Gospel 
 of Jesus Christ, which, in the end, is to procure for the 
 real disciple and subject of the divine grace promised 
 therein, eternal life and everlasting happiness ; and be- 
 hold the incalculable difference and miserable servitude 
 of sin and satan, and adore the infinite riches and inval- 
 uable blessings of redeeming love. 
 
 It is noted in the minutes and journals of the order as 
 follows : “ By the activity of our brethren, the Jesuits 
 have been kept out of all the professional chairs of In- 
 goldstadt, and our friends prevail. The widow Dut- 
 chess has set up her academy entirely according to our 
 
36 6 PRESENT APPEA.KANCE OF THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 plan, and we have all the professors in the order ; five 
 of them are excellent, and the pupils will be prepared 
 
 for us. We have got A put at the head of the 
 
 treasury, and he has the Church money at his disposal. 
 By properly using this money we have been enabled 
 
 to put our brother B s’s household in good order, 
 
 which he had destroyed by going to the Jews. We 
 have supported more brethren under similar misfortunes. 
 Our ghostly brethren have been very fortunate this last 
 year, for we have procured for them several good benefi- 
 ces, parishes, tutorships, &c. All the German schools, 
 and the benevolent society, are at last under our direction. 
 We have got several zealous members in the courts of 
 justice, and we are enabled to afford them pay, and other 
 good additions. Lately we have got possession of the Bar- 
 tholomew institution for young clergymen, having secu- 
 red all its supporters ; — through this medium we shall 
 be able to supply Bavaria with priests.” 
 
 They say, in the list of their lodges, that they have 
 several in America. They accounted all princes usur- 
 pers and tyrants ; and all privileged orders their abettors ; 
 — they aimed to establish one common government in 
 Europe, and universal atheism. 
 
 We are indebted to the late valuable work of Dr. 
 Robertson, of Edinburgh, for the greatest part of this 
 short abstract of these societies ; it is well worth the pe- 
 rusal of every man who is a lover of order, or wishes to 
 understand the revolutionizing system of many of the 
 first founders of the French republic. Dr. Robertson’s 
 character, if some of the first people in this country from 
 Scotland, are to be believed, is well established for learning, 
 integrity, and strict veracity. I have not hesitated to use 
 his language as well as his faqts. This learned treatise has 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 357 
 
 been lately re-printed in Philadelphia, and the narration, 
 as well as the veracity of the author, in general, has been 
 greatly supported by a letter from Mr. William Smith, 
 of Connecticut, who declares, “ that during the late re- 
 volutionary war, while the French navy lay at Newport, 
 in Rhode-Island, which was in the year 1778, a Dr. 
 Renauld, chaplain to the admiral’s ship, (a German by 
 birth) gave him the following account : — That he (the 
 chaplain) was under great apprehensions, lest at his re- 
 turn to France, he should share the fate prepared for all 
 ecclesiastics, if the king of Prussia and Voltaire’s scheme 
 should succeed.”* — in that case, he supposed, the whole 
 world would be deluged with blood. He said, that a 
 project was said to be set on foot, some time before 
 Voltaire’s death, to commence a crusade against Chris- 
 tianity, and to extirpate all the silly followers of the 
 wretch , (meaning the great author of our holy religion.) 
 
 * From the secret correspondence of these philosophers, it ap- 
 pears, that in 1743, Voltaire was plotting, with the king of Prussia, 
 to plunder the ecclesiastical princes, and the religious orders, of 
 their possessions. In 1764 he sent a memorial to the duke of 
 on the abolition of Tythes, in hopes of depriving the 
 clergy of their subsistence. In 1770 he writes, “ I like to cover 
 these harlequin bull-givers, (the Popes) with ridicule, but I had 
 rather plunder them.” D’Alembert advised, that the clergy should 
 be deprived of their consequence in the state, before they were 
 plundered of their possessions, and that the danger of letting the 
 clergy form a distinct body in the state, should therefore be repre- 
 sented in strong colours. Frederick says, “ If we wish to diminish 
 fanaticism we must not begin with the bishops ; but if we succeed 
 in lessening the friarhoods, especially the mendicant orders, the 
 people will cool, and they being less superstitious, will then allow 
 the power to bring down the bishops as best suits their states. 
 This is the only possible mode of proceeding.”! 
 
 f 3 Kett. p. 106. 
 
368 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 Their plan was to abolish the Sabbath day — extirpate 
 the priesthood, and destroy the Holy Scriptures ; so that 
 by removing all restraints from the consciences, the 
 bands of society might be entirely dissolved, and all 
 civil government disorganized, under the specious pre- 
 tence of enlargement and freedom. He knew not the 
 name of the society collectively, but the individual 
 name was Ego-ipse, signifying self -existence. 
 
 There was said to be upwards of 50,000 of them in 
 France. Talleyrand Perigord, bishop of Autun, was at 
 their head, and much in the same proportion were they in 
 all the kingdoms of Europe, they having in each country, 
 one or more principals. It was said, that the society was 
 so intimately connected with Free Masonry, that it was 
 apprehended every Mason was an Ego-ipse. It had got 
 into the several universities and academies upon the con- 
 tinent, with a view to mature and spread the diabolical sys- 
 tem of universal devastation and bloodshed. He ob- 
 serves, that the leading principles of the Ego-ipse society 
 were, that no relation or connection exists between one 
 man and another ; — that all things are eternally existing 
 from necessity ; — that the names of father, mother, sis- 
 ter, brother, husband, and wife, are fraudulent imposi- 
 tions of priest-craft, to bind the unwary in chains of 
 ignorance of man’s true nature and inherent divinity ; — 
 that every man is his own God, his own lawgiver,* and 
 amenable only to himself ; — that men, unenlightened by 
 true philosophy, are no more than so many blocks of 
 wood or stone ; and if a kick of the foot, or a push 
 
 * The noted Thomas Paine, in his Age of Reason, says, that he 
 does not believe in the Creed of the Jewish Church, the Roman 
 Church, the Greek Church, nor of any Church that he knows of 5 
 his own mind being his own Church. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 359 
 
 of the hand, can remove these out of one’s way, a ball , 
 or a thrust of a sword, with equal ease and propriety, 
 can remove the other. It w T as apprehended that the lead- 
 ing men of this association contemplated the subversion 
 of all governments, religious as well as civil, and, in time, 
 the exaltation of themselves to supereminent grandeur 
 and opulence, upon the ruin and misery of millions. 
 
 If this scheme succeeded in Europe, it was said, they 
 would penetrate into Greece, then into Egypt, with a 
 view of extending their conquests over the kingdoms of 
 Africa and Asia — Christianity seemed to be the principal 
 object of their detestation, and they were determined to 
 extirpate it if possible, and to revive the old Heathen phi- 
 losophy and superstition of Druidism.” 
 
 Does not all this fully show, that at this time one of 
 the great prerequisites of the commencement of the go- 
 vernment of the beast, or antichrist, was manifested to 
 every reflecting mind, “ That transgressors had come to 
 the fully 
 
 This account given so long ago, with so many corro- 
 borating and peculiar circumstances, shows the relator to 
 have been well acquainted with the principles of illumina- 
 tism, and strongly supports Dr. Robertson’s facts and 
 reasonings, and aids our forming a proper opinion for the 
 late unaccountable success of the French arms through- 
 out the continent. 
 
 My confidence in Dr. Robertson’s account, is farther 
 strengthened by personal information received from a lady 
 of my acquaintance, of a most excellent character, who 
 assured me, that while living in the city of London, a 
 few years ago, perhaps about ten, a person of distinction 
 was sent over from France to London, to initiate herfa- 
 ther, (who was a worthy Clergyman) herself, and sister 
 
370 PRESENT appearance op things, both civil 
 
 into this society — As she appeared to consider the society 
 as tending to the promotion of religion and virtue, I insis- 
 ted that she had mistaken the society I referred to ; on 
 which she gave me the particulars of the ceremony used, 
 and showed me a ring given to her on the occasion, with 
 a particular inscription on it, all which convinced me that 
 it was one of the societies referred to by Dr. Robertson, 
 but the initiator finding they were not people who would 
 
 anity) were expressly told, that “ the order contains a religion, H 
 which is the perfection of Christianity.”! Was not this the mys- 
 tery of iniquity ? 
 
 The state of the German literati, in general, greatly confirm the 
 principal facts asserted by Robertson. — A late publication, speak- 
 ing of the German Universities, &c. says, “ There are some, even 
 who have gone so far as to say, that we cannot be certain of any 
 
 be the creation of the human mind, and that, therefore, the only 
 
 God, is the mind of each individual With respect to morality, 
 
 they teach, that duty is the only rule of conduct, that there is no 
 other law than the sense of duty which exists in the mind of each 
 individual ; that each man stands single in the universe, and must 
 act from his particular sense of duty, without thinking of his fellow 
 men, or expecting any reward, which would be meanness in the 
 extreme, and therefore immortality is not to be believed.” — These 
 are the most sublime principles of the German school. There are 
 many professors who have not yet attained to, or, at least, dared 
 to profess this elevated pitch of science. — But as they all of them 
 teach a metaphysical jargon, which neither they, nor their scholars 
 comprehend ; as they are almost all partizans of the incomprehen- 
 sible system of Kant , and warmly attached to the doctrine of the 
 unlimited improvement and perfection of human nature, their la- 
 bours abundantly pave the way for the sublimest flights of the 
 Bewly deified intellect of man.”! 
 
 not worthy of ascending from the first grade.* 
 
 V 
 
 * The pupils of Voltaire’s disciples (who yet regarded Christ! - 
 
 thing that exists without us. That all external objects appear to 
 
 1 3 Kett. Prop. 71. 
 
 ± Anti. Jac- Rev. 6 vol. p. 570. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 37J 
 
 By these means, uniting with a thousand other local 
 circumstances, France was prepared for any and every 
 revolutionary measure : it is therefore proper to return to 
 our subject, having spent so much time in this abstract, 
 from the idea it -would cast much light on the after 
 transactions now to be related. 
 
 The French army, on their return from America to 
 their native country, carried with them additional fuel * 
 for the fire already kindled, in the knowledge of those 
 great truths, they had been taught by the American re- 
 volution ; — they found the ground, thus ready prepared, 
 for receiving the prolific seed, to which the continual 
 disputes between the king and his parliaments added not 
 a little. The latter began boldly to inculcate on their 
 fellow subjects the principles of what they termed their 
 natural rights, which tended much to hasten on the in- 
 teresting drama. Many difficulties uniting, the king 
 and his ministers became particularly alarmed at the dan- 
 gerous situation in which they found the finances of the 
 nation. On the 5th July, 1788, the archbishop of 
 Thoulouse, the minister of state, as one of the last acts of 
 his administration, published a resolution of the king, in 
 council, inviting all his subjects to give him their advice, 
 with regard to state affairs. 
 
 This was an essential blunder in politics, and greatly- 
 increased the perplexity of the court. It was immedi- 
 ately taken as an express grant of the entire liberty 
 of the press, and the nation was soon inundated with 
 political publications, which tended to diffuse senti- 
 ments of dissatisfaction with public measures, and 
 those of equal liberty, among the populace. 
 
 However justly every people ought to be entitled to 
 the liberty of the press, under rational and prudent res- 
 
 Bbb 
 
372 present appearance of things, both civil 
 
 trictions, to guard against the licentiousness of it, yet 
 the people of France had been too long kept in absolute 
 subjection, to bear so sudden a change with any degree 
 of moderation. 
 
 The general confusion and alarm were suddenly in- 
 creased on every hand, and the court found themselves 
 under the immediate necessity of applying a remedy. 
 
 Voltaire, and the other sophisters of France, had been 
 unwearied in holding up the states general, as the only 
 true and legitimate assembly of the nation, which had 
 not been called since the year 1614. 
 
 This the court knew would necessarily be an indepen- 
 dent body, not suitable to the temper and views of the 
 king and his ministers ; but to avoid the dreaded conse- 
 quences of an absolute refusal, one of an inferior order, 
 called the assembly of the notables , was determined on 
 as the most likely to be wrought upon by power and 
 influence, and most proper to accomplish the necessary 
 relief of the crown under its embarrassing circumstances. 
 This assembly consisted of persons nominated by the 
 king, from the higher orders of the state, and had a pre- 
 cedent for it, in the reign of Henry IV. and again in 
 Louis XIII. ; but the poison had spread among all 
 ranks, from the highest to the lowest. This had been 
 previously called in December, 1786, and were to meet 
 in January following, but were adjourned till 22d Feb- 
 ruary, on account of the death of Count de Vergennes, 
 minister of state. After this assembly had set for some 
 months, the king was greatly mortified and disappointed 
 at finding nothing but opposition to be expected from 
 them, he, therefore, hastily dissolved them.* 
 
 * We cannot avoid mentioning a physical event, which assiste<, 
 in producing such distress, as greatly influenced many of tin 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 373 
 
 After many vain experiments, to avoid the impend- 
 ing evil, the most sanguine of his court, were obliged to 
 accede to the mortifying alternative of calling the nation- 
 al assembly of the states general, in August, 1788, to 
 meet at Versailles, in April following, but afterwards was 
 deferred till May, 1789, when they commenced their 
 session by going, in solemn procession, to Church, to 
 perform an act of devotion, preceded by the clergy, and 
 followed by the king. 
 
 convulsions that afterwards happened. On Sunday, the 13th 
 July, 1788, about 9 o’clock in the morning, without any eclipse, a 
 dreadful darkness suddenly overspread several parts of France. — 
 It was a prelude of such a tempest as is unexampled in the tem- 
 perate climates of Europe. Wind, rain, hail, and thunder, seemed 
 to contend in impetuosity ; — but the hail was the great instru- 
 ment of ruin. Instead of the rich prospect of an early autumn, the 
 face of nature, in the space of an hour, presented the dreary as- 
 pect of universal winter ; — the soil was converted into a morass — ■ 
 the standing corn beaten into the quagmire — the vines broken to 
 pieces — the fruit trees demolished, and unmelted hail lying in heaps 
 like rocks of solid ice. Even the robust forest trees were unable to 
 withstand the fury of the tempest — The hail was composed of 
 enormous solid and angular pieces of ice, some of them weighing 
 from 8 to 10 oz. The storm was irregular in its devastations j 
 while several rich districts were laid entirely waste, some inter- 
 mediate portions of country, were comparatively but little injured. 
 One of 60 square leagues, had not a single ear of corn, or a fruity 
 of any kind, left. Of the 66 parishes, in the district of Pontoise, 
 43 were entirely desolated, and, of the remaining 23, some lost 
 two-thirds, and others half of their harvests. The Isle of France, 
 being the district in which Paris is situated, and the Orleannois, 
 appear to have suffered chiefly. The damage there, upon a mo- 
 derate estimate, amounted to eighty millions of livres — between 
 three and four millions sterling.* 
 
 Encyclop. Tit. Revol. p. 153. 
 
374 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 Soon after the meeting of this august assembly, about 
 the 17th June, the tiers etat, or that branch of the assem- 
 bly formed from the common people, and made up of a 
 considerable number of the individuals of the societies 
 of the Illuminati, refused to consent to the formation of 
 the assembly, as had formerly been practised, by three 
 distinct houses, of the nobility, clergy, and the commons, 
 which brought on violent debates, and great animosity 
 between them, so as to threaten the very existence of 
 the nation, i 
 
 On the 23d June, the king, in order to put a stop to 
 the violent proceedings of the commons, held a royal 
 session. He appeared in the assembly, and the session 
 was held with the utmost parade, and in the style of ancient 
 despotism. When the king retired, with the nobility, 
 and part of the clergy, the commons remained in sullen 
 silence ; whereupon, the grand master of the ceremonies, 
 with an air of authority, called on the president to re- 
 member the intentions of the king, as expressed to them 
 so unequivocally by him. The grand master was an- 
 swered by the warm and passionate Mirabeau, with 
 evident marks of resentment, saying, “ the commons of 
 France have determined to debate - — We have heard the 
 intentions that have been mentioned by the king, and 
 you, who cannot be his agent, with the states general — 
 you, who have neither seat nor voice, nor a right to 
 speak, art not the person to remind us of his speech. 
 Go tell your master that zve are here by the power of the 
 people, and th' t nothing shall expel us but the bayonet.” 
 
 The universal applause, given by the assembly, to 
 this violent speech, increased the confidence of Mira- 
 beau, and the master of the ceremonies retired in confu- 
 
 sion. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 375 
 
 The commons declared the deputies inviolable, and 
 were afterwards joined by a majority of the clergy and 
 nobles ; and, a short time after, the three houses united 
 into one body, at the king’s request, who became so much 
 alarmed, at the boldness of the commons, as to consent 
 to, and even request, a measure, that laid a solid foun- 
 dation for his own destruction. 
 
 This royal session gave so much umbrage to the pop- 
 ulace, that they followed the king with clamour and 
 discontent. 
 
 This spirit was soon communicated to the army, and 
 universal defection took place, with a general declaration 
 against their officers, who all belonged to the nobility ; 
 so that all confidence in the military forces of the king- 
 dom, in favour of the court, was lost. 
 
 “ The new and bold notions of liberty, that were daily 
 advanced by the leaders of the tiers etat, or commons, 
 were received with acclamation by their hearers. In the 
 mean time the nobles became rapidly more and more 
 unpopular — their persons were insulted — new publica- 
 tions daily came forth, and were greedily bought up, 
 which reviled the whole order, and represented them as 
 an useless or pernicious body of men, whose existence 
 ought not to be tolerated in a free state.” 
 
 The leaders of the commons saw the change that was 
 taking place in the minds of men ; and they, at length, 
 regarded the period as arrived, when they ought to 
 emerge from their inactivity and execute the daring pro- 
 ject of seizing the legislative authority of their country, 
 “ and assume the title of National Assembly This 
 measure, and the spirit in the people that supported it, 
 was ostensibly fanned by a line of troops, secretly draw- 
 ing around Paris, by orders from the court. This was 
 
376 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 remonstrated against, in very florid and energetic lan. 
 guage, by the assembly’s address to the king, drawn up 
 by Mirabeau. 
 
 The first effects of this temper, amongst the lowest 
 ranks of the people, were the rapid and unexpected at- 
 tack on the Bastile, garrisoned by a regular force — its 
 destruction, and the universal defection of the whole line of 
 the army, in favour of the popular voice against the crown, 
 to which, before, they had been so enthusiastically at- 
 tached, as has been already mentioned. 
 
 The taking of the Bastile happened on the 14th July, 
 1789, when the Count D ’Artois, the king’s youngest 
 brother, being proscribed by the populace and the new 
 ministry, fled to the frontiers, and became the first en: 
 
 It is well observed, by a careful writer, that, “ from 
 this time , the royal authority fell prostrate before the po 
 pular party in the national assembly. The nobles and the 
 clergy still remained, but confounded, in one assembly, 
 with the more numerous order of the tiers etat, and no 
 longer rallying around a throne that was too feeble to 
 afford protection, they soon yielded to that fierce and 
 levelling spirit of democracy, that now rose around 
 
 The populace now became outrageous and uncontrol- 
 able. They seized the minister Foulon , and his son-in- 
 law Berthier, and hung one on the lamp-iron, and the 
 other, in defending himself, fell, covered with wounds. 
 Their heads were carried round the city on poles, “ and 
 thus the populace became habituated to the sight of blood 
 and murder; and they were even taught, by popular songs, 
 to glory in such actions. This spirit spread into the de- 
 partments, and the whole kingdom soon became a scene 
 
 grant. 
 
 them.” 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 377 
 
 of uproar, confusion, and bloodshed, in which the no- 
 bles and clergy, in every quarter, were made the victims 
 of popular fury.” 
 
 In order to allay this frenzy, and to save themselves 
 from entire destruction, the nobility came forward and 
 proposed that all taxes should be assessed on wealth, 
 and that no privileges should protect from an equal share 
 of the public burthen — that the feudal tenures should be 
 done away, or reasonably mitigated to remedy the ex- 
 treme miseries of the people. These measures were 
 received with enthusiastic raptures — this spirit spread on 
 all sides, and was followed by the voluntary renunciation 
 of all the privileged orders — “ the hereditary jurisdic- 
 tions were next sacrificed — -places and pensions were 
 suppressed” — plurality of livings were as voluntarily 
 relinquished by the clergy , and the deputies from the pri- 
 vileged provinces catched the flame, and came forward 
 with the sacrifice of all their ancient privileges, as w'ell as 
 those of corporations ; and desired that all distinctions 
 might be done away, and that the kingdom might become 
 one general mass of French citizens , on the footing of 
 perfect equality ; and finally ordered that the Te Deum 
 should be sung, and the title of “ restorer of Gallic li- 
 berty ,” was decreed to the reigning monarch. Even 
 the tythes and revenues of the clergy, w r ere also sacrifi- 
 ced, under the name of a voluntary relinquishment, 
 though it had been attended with much reluctance, and 
 was apparently the issue of necessity. They were now, 
 in their turn, deserted by the nobility, as the nobility (in 
 the dispute concerning the three separate houses) had 
 been deserted by the clergy ; and this was so absolute, 
 that although they possessed more property, than when 
 they gave laws to most of the crowned heads of Europe, 
 
378 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 yet they were terrified into a full and voluntary renunci- 
 ation of all their personal possessions and emoluments. 
 
 On the 5th October, 1789, the first mention was made 
 in the assembly, of the conduct of the royal family, with 
 regard to a feast, given at the palace, by one regiment to 
 another, which had been, for three or four days, the sub- 
 ject of much noise in Paris. While the debate was 
 carrying on at Versailles, a vast multitude of women, of 
 the very lowest ranks of society , and the 7nost debased 
 character s, with some men in women’s clothes, assembled 
 in Paris, and under the conduct of one of the destroyers 
 of the Bastile, proceeded, with great tumult, to Ver- 
 sailles. 
 
 La Fayette, fearing the consequence, followed with a 
 body of the national guard. The assembly were soon 
 disturbed by these noisy and ill-bred fish-women, and 
 others of the mob, who filled their galleries, and inter- 
 rupted their debates, calling aloud for bread. The next 
 morning this female mob rushed into the palace, and en- 
 deavoured to find the queen, whom they intended to have 
 sacrificed to their vengeance. The timely interposition 
 •of La Fayette, with his troops, saved the gard du corps 
 for this time, and the king having consented to go with 
 them to Paris, the assembly appointed a deputation of 
 one hundred members to attend him ; and thus he was 
 escorted there as a prisoner, preceded by the heads of 
 two or three of his court, which the mob had taken off with 
 all the parade of an execution, in the court of the palace. 
 
 After this the assembly removed their sittings to Pa- 
 ris, where the king was kept, closely guarded, in his 
 palace. On the 19th October the assembly held their 
 first session in Paris, but nothing new turned up, rela- 
 tive to the king, for some time, although the spirit of 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 379 
 
 innovation and reform raged in the national assembly as 
 much, as ever. They changed the whole form of the 
 kingdom, by dividing it into eighty-three departments 
 of about three hundred and forty-two square leagues, 
 and each department into several districts, and each dis- 
 trict into cantons of four square leagues each. 
 
 Thus the former divisions of the kingdom into gov- 
 ernments, generalities, provinces, counties, bailwicks, 
 &c. See. were wholly done away, and a new order of 
 things introduced as in a moment. The way was thus 
 cleared for proceeding one step further, by simplifying 
 the different orders of citizens ; in destroying all distinc- 
 tions arising from ancient dignities, rank, or titles of 
 honour, whether civil or ecclesiastical ; and then to 
 strengthen their general principles, they confiscated all 
 the Church lands to the use of the state, which was first 
 proposed by Talleyrand, bishop bf Autun, a man who 
 had been promoted to the bench of bishops, in a most 
 irregular manner, for this very purpose. 
 
 This entire subversion of the former order of things, 
 was received by the populace at large, with the most 
 universal plaudits, and the highest degree of enthusiasm, 
 A new civil constitution was then formed by this assem- 
 bly, to which the king, though with great reluctance, 
 was obliged to consent. This was wholly subversive 
 of the ancient form of government, but seemed to pro- 
 pose an amelioration of the state of the lower ranks of 
 citizens. 
 
 Thousands and thousands of oaths, taken in the most 
 solemn and religious manner, attended with very expen- 
 sive ceremonies, were prostituted by the king and peo- 
 ple to support this new constitution ; which if we may 
 judge by the sequel, none ever intended to keep. 
 
 C c c 
 
380 PRESENT APPEARANCE OP THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 These solemn appeals to Heaven, increased the ridi 
 culous farce, and placed the temper and disposition of 
 the French people in a disagreeable point of view. The 
 assembly also proceeded to form an ecclesiastical consti- 
 tution, as part of that of the state, and being determined 
 not to suffer the least particle of the old system to remain 
 untouched, they established municipalities — suppressed 
 all monastic establishments, and confiscated their estates. 
 In fine, a total change of all their old religious principles, 
 practices, and habits ensued ; and in many instances, the 
 alterations were incompatible with the religious freedom 
 of every honest and upright Clergyman. They became 
 the watch-word for the destruction of all true religion. 
 The oath prescribed for every ecclesiastic, on pain of 
 banishment, was, “ to watch carefully over the faithful 
 of the parish, or diocess which was intrusted to his care ; 
 to be faithful to the nation , the law , and the king ; and to 
 maintain to the utmost of his power, the new constitution 
 of France , and particularly the decrees relative to the ci- 
 vil constitution of the Clergy .” 
 
 The Pope having testified his disapprobation of this 
 oath, left the honest and conscientious of both clergy and 
 laity, in a very distressing situation. 
 
 About this time “ a manifesto was sent from the 
 grand national lodge at Paris, calling themselves Free 
 Masons, signed by the duke of Orleans as grand master, 
 addressed and sent to the lodges in all the respectable 
 cities of Europe, exhorting them to unite for the support 
 of the French revolution — to gain it friends, defenders, 
 and dependants, and according to their opportunities and 
 the practibility of the thing, to kindle and propagate the 
 spirit of revolution through all lands.”* 
 
 * In Lyons alone, there were twenty-four clubs opened, all 
 connected together by means of a central club, which was the ker- 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 33 1 
 
 One other important article in this manifesto is “ ear- 
 nest exhortations to establish in every quarter, secret 
 schools of political education, and schools for the public 
 education of the children of the people, under direction of 
 well principled masters ; and offers pecuniary assistance 
 for this purpose, and for the encouragement of writers in 
 favour of the revolution, and for indemnifying the patri- 
 otic booksellers, who suffer by their endeavours to 
 suppress publications which have an opposite tenden- 
 cy.”* 
 
 These societies, at this time, were very numerous 
 throughout all the Austrian states, and many were even 
 in Vienna, the capital of the empire. 
 
 This very much reduces the historian’s astonishment 
 at the continuance of the unaccountable successes of the 
 French troops, against some of the first soldiers in the 
 world. 
 
 What reflecting mind can avoid making a solemn 
 pause here, and referring back to the prophetick decla- 
 rations of the beloved apostle, in his Revelation, 11th 
 ch. “ And I will give power unto my two witnesses, 
 and they shall prophecy 1260 days, clothed with sack- 
 
 nel of this strange association. In a short time all the provincial 
 clubs obtained the honour of corresponding with th'e Paris club ; 
 made it their duty to imitate all its proceedings — to execute all 
 its instructions — and as the mother club directed the constituent 
 assembly, so did her offspring, the provincial clubs, direct all the 
 administrative hodies in the departments. Such was that formi- 
 dable affiliation, which, founded on the same principles, bound by 
 the same oaths, having one common centre in the Jacobin club at 
 Paris, in which was vested the plenitude of revolutionary omnip- 
 otence, chained all France to the car of the revolution, and diffu- 
 sed its doctrines over all the whole surface of the kingdom.! 
 
 * Rob. 302. | Anti Jacob.- Rev. 555. 
 
382 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 loth— And when they shall have finished, (or shall be 
 about finishing) their testimony, the beast that ascend - 
 eth out of the bottomless pit , (or abyss) shall make war 
 against them, and shall overcome them and kill them — 
 and the same hour (or about the same time) was there a 
 great earthquake, and the third part of the city fell, and 
 in the earthquake were slain of (the names, or of great) 
 men seven thousand, and the remnant were affrighted, 
 and gave glory to the God of Heaven.” 
 
 During the year 1790 little was further done applica- 
 ble to our subject, except that on the 27th November, 
 a decree passed, enforcing the ecclesiastical part of the 
 constitution with greater rigor, ordering, that all bishops, 
 curates, &c. who should not, within eight days, take the 
 oath directed by the new constitution of the clergy, 
 should be reputed to have renounced his functions, and 
 every one continuing to exercise them, should be eject- 
 ed from his benefice ; and the refractory were condem- 
 ned to severe pains and penalties, as disturbers of the 
 public peace. 
 
 In January, 1791, persons were appointed to receive 
 the oaths of the clergy, when 29 bishops and 230 priests, 
 to their immortal honour, refused, though at the ex- 
 pense of the lives of most of them. 
 
 It was not till the 13th September, 1791, that the 
 royal assent was finally given to the constitution, it hav- 
 ing been delayed in the assembly till the 3d September, 
 and, at last, was apparently forced on the king, much 
 against his will. On the 14th, the king signed the con- 
 stitutional act, in the presence of the assembly, in their 
 house, and took the oath of fidelity to it. 
 
 On the 30th September, the assembly, known by the 
 name of the Constituent assembly, dissolved itself, and 
 was succeeded by the legislative national assembly. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE, ggg 
 
 During this month, after much bloodshed and confu- 
 sion, Avignon and Venasin were taken from the Pope, 
 and annexed to France, by a decree of the assembly. 
 
 In October the new assembly began their session. 
 They soon determined to purge their body, and to get 
 rid of the nobility and clergy, who they considered as in- 
 surmountable obstacles to the revolutionizing system they 
 had in view. Accordingly, without principle or a regard to 
 justice, they expelled 250 clergymen and a large propor- 
 tion of the nobility, with some obnoxious members of 
 the third order, though chosen by the people as their 
 legal representatives. They retained Isnard and Lacroix, 
 enraged Jacobins ; Brissot, a member of the society of 
 illuminati, who aimed altogether at bringing about a re- 
 publican form of government, with a single legislature ; 
 Chateneuf, noted for impiety ; Condorcet, a learned and 
 sensible man, but an open and professed atheist, and an 
 avowed enemy to all crowned heads ; Fauchet, wild and 
 extravagant ; Tome, an apostate, and Chabot, an aban- 
 doned friar. Thus the assembly that remained, was 
 made up, chiefly, of the very dregs of the people — 
 without morals — without religion, and without reflection, 
 on the awful consequences that were most likely to fol- 
 low. 
 
 Among them was the noted Thomas Paine, who had 
 retired to France, from America, after having first been 
 outlawed in England. 
 
 In the anti-chamber of the great hall of the Jacobins, 
 and under the protection of the parent society, was 
 formed the Fraternal society , which was called the 
 lower house of the great club, whose eldest offspring it 
 was. This society was composed ol Lacqueys and 
 women servants out of place — of males and females hav- 
 
384 PRESENT APPEARANCE op things, both civil 
 
 ing nothing to do — without resource or without a call- 
 ing ; and of workmen, whom the revolution had 
 deprived of employment.* 
 
 In May, 1792, the assembly banished all the nonjur- 
 ing priests, on a petition of 20 citizens ;f and on the 
 20th September they decreed the abolition of royalty in 
 France, as essentially necessary to their plan of over- 
 turning all the governments of Europe, but in direct 
 contravention of their solemn oaths and declaration of 
 obedience to the new constitution, the king and the laws ; 
 and decreed the adoption of the term republic, instead 
 of nation or kingdom. 
 
 The lowest ranks of the people, seemed now to be let 
 loose from every restraint, and appeared to be intoxica- 
 ted with the idea of liberty, which they too generally II 
 considered as synonimous with licentiousness. They 
 could no longer be restrained or kept within any tolera- 
 ble bounds of decency. They often broke in upon the 
 assembly, during their most solemn deliberations, and 
 addressing the president, would oblige him to hearken 
 to whatever they chose to say, however violent, absurd, 
 and improper. No attempt was made to discountenance 
 or punish these irregularities. The Jacobins found them 
 the most convenient tools for their wicked purposes, and 
 
 * Anti Jac. Rev. 
 
 t The decree was passed on the 25th May, 1792, which con- 
 demned the nonjuring clergy to banishment. About the time of 
 the federation which followed, many of the clergy were put to 
 death, with circumstances more or less sanguinary. Great num- 
 bers also were crowded together in goals and other places of 
 confinement — 200 at Mons — 300 at Lannis — others at Naniz, 
 Port Lewis, and other towns.| 
 
 4 3 vol. Kett. p. 144 
 
AND RELIGIOUS* IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 335 
 
 made use of them to intimidate the assembly, from time 
 to time, into every measure they wished to carry. 
 
 The assembly were now too much in the power of the 
 mobility, to lay any restraint on the practice of giving 
 their sentiments, in this turbulent way, even on the most 
 important and difficult questions of policy that came 
 before them, and frequently even marking individuals 
 . with popular applause or censure. 
 
 They soon obliged the assembly (perhaps to the 
 great satisfaction of the majority) to proceed from a 
 change of places to that of things — from the division of 
 the kingdom into departments, to the absolute dissolution, 
 or abolishing of all hereditary and other titles — then to 
 the total subversion of all ecclesiastical authority, and at 
 last to that of the kingly power which had continued so 
 many ages, the idol of all true Frenchmen. 
 
 The Jacobin society, a branch of the Illuminati, as 
 before mentioned, whose essential principles were dia- 
 metrically opposed, as well, to all religion of every kind 
 and denomination, but in a particular and emphatical 
 manner, to the whole Christian system ; as to the civil 
 government of every nation in Europe, began to feel 
 their influence increase, in proportion, as the lowest of 
 the people, obtained a voice in the direction of public 
 affairs. They, therefore, concluded this to be the pro- 
 per time to enlarge their own power, and open up their 
 system, by proposing and carrying into complete execu- 
 tion its governing principle, of establishing dependant 
 clubs in every town and village in France, so that, by 
 this means, they kept a constant and regular correspon- 
 dence throughout every part of the nation, propagated 
 their nefarious measures, and concentrated the violence 
 of turbulent spirits, from the most distant corners of the 
 kingdom. 
 
386 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 In the month of June, they assembled a mob of 40,000 
 men, headed by one Sant err e , a Brewer, and creature of 
 the Jacobins, who came to the national assembly, in the 
 midst of their debates, and paraded through their hall. 
 Soon after, this mob surrounded the palace of the Thu- 
 illeries, forced themselves into the king’s presence, and 
 obliged him to submit to every indignity. Gen. La 
 Fayette suddenly arrived from the army, and appeared 
 before the assembly, protesting, in the name of his divi- 
 sion, against this undutiful and illegal treatment of the 
 king. 
 
 On the 10th of August, (a day famous in the annals 
 of ecclesiastical history*) the mob, encouraged by past 
 impunity, and most likely moved by those behind the 
 scence, again surrounded the palace which contained the 
 whole of the royal family then in France, and obliged 
 
 * This is a very remarkable day, in this very extraordinary re- 
 volution of so great and powerful a kingdom as that of France : 
 and, it is worthy of remark, that it \'as truly a day of Vengeance 
 in 1792, as it had been in the times of antiquity, on other great 
 occasions. On this same day was the first temple of Jerusalem 
 destroyed by the king of Babylon ; and, on this day, was the se- 
 cond temple of Jerusalem destroyed by the hands of a Roman 
 soldier. 
 
 Josephus says, (as cited by Kett, in his history of the interpre- 
 tation of prophesy) “ and now the fatal day approached in the 
 revolution of ages, the 10th day of August, emphatically called 
 the day of vengeance, on which the first temple had been destroy- 
 ed by the king of Babylon, a Roman, soldier, (without receiving 
 any orders, nay, as it appears, contrary to orders) threw a flam- 
 ing brand into one of the windows of the Temple, which set fire 
 to the building. 
 
 On this day was the city of Berthier taken and destroyed, and 
 thousands of the Jews slain. On this day did Adrian order the 
 foundations of the Temple to be razed and ploughed up. On this 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 337 
 
 the king, with his queen, children and family, to take 
 refuge in the national assembly ; where they were kept 
 fourteen hours without refreshment, and that in the 
 most insulting manner. In the mean time, a mob, of 
 near 20,000 men, broke into and destroyed the royal 
 palace, and, with brutal fury, massacred the greater 
 part of the regiment of Swiss guards, amounting to 
 about 1000 men, besides 1500 gentlemen, and all the 
 servants of the palace. Abou? 200 of the guards esca- 
 
 lay, only , were the Jews allowed to approach Jerusalem, and de» 
 dore their misery.* 
 
 Ecchard, speaking of the siege of Berther, or Berthier, by 
 Adrian, a city in which the Jews had taken refuge as their last 
 esort, on the revolt under Barchochebas, says, “ This siege was 
 ong and miserable to the Jews, who were reduced to all the ex- 
 remities of hunger and thirst ; were at length subdued, with a 
 nost terrible slaughter, in the 18th year of Adrian, and in the 
 nonth of Arigust’, in which month, St. Jerome observes, Jerusalem 
 vas formerly taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and also the Temple 
 lestroyed by Titus. It was also in the month of August that the 
 mperor Adrian, sometime afterwards, ordered the very marks 
 .nd relics of the Temple to be entirely razed, and to be ploughed 
 ip, according to the Roman custom ; which was the highest mark 
 if ignominy and final destruction, and also the full accomplish- 
 nent of all our Saviour’s predictions. At the same time all the 
 ews in Palestine, who were yet unsold, were banished for ever, 
 iut of their own native country, and their whole race forbidden 
 0 set foot upon, or so much as to come within view of Jerusalem, 
 ;ven from the highest hill, upon pain of immediate death. Only, 
 vith great difficulty, they obtained the favour of going every year, 
 ipon the 10th day of August, to approach the place and to de- 
 >lore their inexpressible loss and misery.f 
 
 * Josephus wars of the Jews, Lib. 7. ch. 9 & 10 — 4th vol. p. 316 — 31S. 
 Vatson’s Theolog. Tracts, 5th vol. p. 114. Ecchard's Eccleast. Hist. 2dvr>i 
 db. 3d. ch. 1 Miss Adam’s History of the Jews, 1st vol. p. 10.1- 
 
 t Eccles. Hist. 2d vol. Lib. 3. ch. 1. and 2. 
 
 Ddd 
 
388 PRESENT appearance op things, both civil 
 
 ped, and were preserved by the Marsellois, the meanest 
 of the mob. 
 
 The assembly, as if in league with these refuse of the 
 lowest of the people, immediately decreed the suspen 
 sion of the royal authority, and the nation were invitee 
 to choose a convention to determine the nature of theii 
 future government. The royal family were imprisonec 
 in the temple. 
 
 News was now brought of the rapid approach of the 
 combined armies, which produced the utmost violence 
 in the assembly. They summoned the people en masse 
 into the champ de Mars, to enrol themselves to marcl 
 against the common enemy. They soon assembled 
 but rather with the temper of wild and furious beast; 
 than that of men. They seemed to thirst for huma: 
 blood, and determined to try their hands where ther 
 was no danger, before they advanced to the hazardou 
 experiment of stopping a victorious foe. 
 
 They proceeded from the field of Mars to the severs 
 prisons in Paris, which were now filled with the adhe 
 rents to royalty, religion, and government: Here, i: 
 cold blood, but to add to their crime, under a pretenc 
 of justice, they massacred the princess de Lambale, th 
 surviving Swiss guards, a large number of the nonjurinj 
 clergy, and indeed every other prisoner, with whom the 
 were not connected in political views, in the most savag 
 and insulting manner. 
 
 This brutal conduct continued for more than tw 
 days, during which at least 1000 innocent person 
 lost their lives, with every attendant of savage fury, b 
 the hands of the vilest dregs of the people, contrary t 
 every semblance of justice and good policy. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 389 
 
 These abandoned wretches, lost to every sense of the 
 finer feelings of the human heart and to the principles 
 of delicacy and compassion, carried the princess’s head on 
 a pole, in triumph, to the temple, where they insulted 
 the queen with the sight of it, by raising it to her win- 
 dow, well knowing that there had been a particular 
 friendship subsisting between them. 
 
 While this bloody scene was acting, the assembly — 
 the national guards — the municipal officers, and near 
 100,000 citizens all remained quiet, without the feeblest 
 attempt to put a stop to these most cruel and barbarous 
 murders of citizens under the protection of the laws, and 
 immediately in the care of the government, that ever 
 disgraced a civilized people, and which was a reproach 
 to human nature, and for ever will be an indelible stain 
 on the character of Frenchmen. 
 
 On the 26th August, 1792, all the ecclesiastics, who 
 had not taken the oath, were decreed to be transported. 
 It is said they amounted to 130 odd bishops and 64,000 
 priests of the second order. “ The distress and misery 
 which many worthy individuals suffered, in consequence 
 of this decree, cannot be sufficiently deplored ; many of 
 these victims of conscience were hurried from their 
 connections and their friends, and landed, almost naked 
 and pennyless, on a foreign shore ; some were commit- 
 ted to prison, there to remain till a mode of conveyance 
 out of the kingdom should be found ; some were massa- 
 cred by the populace, soon after they were arrested ; 
 and no inconsiderable number were reserved for the 
 melancholy catastrophe to which we shall have speedily 
 to advert.” From this time may be dated the effectual 
 downfall of the Church, the abolishing of all religious 
 rites, and the dispersion of the flock of Christ ; for take 
 
390 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 away the shepherd, and the sheep will necessarily be scat- 
 tered abroad. 
 
 A general sale of all ecclesiastical property had been 
 decreed in September of the last year, including every 
 species connected with Churches or Charities. At one 
 period this amounted to 1,350,000/. sterling — and it was 
 not long before there did not remain a sacred vase, pub- 
 licly known, through the whole extent of France ; not 
 even in domestic chapels, at least, where the power of 
 the government extended. 
 
 The 2d Sept. 1792, was also made famous (or rather 
 infamous) for another insurrection, of the most awful 
 kind — <c The most shocking crimes are, at this moment, 
 perpetrating at the prison of the Abbaye, hard by the 
 hotel in which I now write. The mob, they call them 
 the people here, but they deserve no name by which any 
 thing that has the least relation to human nature can be 
 signified — a set of monsters have broken into the Ab- 
 baye and are massacreing the prisoners.”* 
 
 Laujuinai, speaking of these murders, says, “ that the 
 number of victims, assassinated that day, amounted to 
 8000 ; others say to 12,000 ; and the deputy Louvet 
 states them at 28,000.f 
 
 On the 20th September the national convention, re- 
 commended by the late assembly, came together, and 
 was organized. It contained men of all characters, or- 
 ders, and ranks ; even foreigners were invited to become 
 members. The famous Thomas Paine, an Englishman, 
 who had figured in the American revolution, as a popu- 
 lar writer against the British government, but of a very 
 discontented and restless spirit, and of a very immoral 
 character, together with Dr. Joseph Priestly, an eminent 
 
 f Iiist. Epoch, p. 32—41. 
 
 * Moore’s Journal, p. 173. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EM EIRE. 39^ 
 
 philosopher and chemist of Birmingham, in Great Bri- 
 tain, but who had been the object of great popular fren- 
 zy as a violent democrat, and opposed to the government, 
 or rather the administration, of Great Britain, were ab- 
 surdly chosen, by certain departments in France, as 
 representatives in this convention. The first, being on 
 the spot, took his seat ; the latter prudently declined the 
 honour, if such it could be called. 
 
 One of the first acts of the convention, after the late 
 awful catastrophe, was again decreeing the eternal aboli- 
 tion of royalty in France. This was received with 
 rapture throughout the nation, and that by a people who, 
 but a short time before, would have thought it their 
 highest honour to have layed down their lives for their 
 grand monarque. They also abolished the use of all res- 
 pectful epithets, in common use between man and man, 
 as monsieur, madame, and the like, excepting the w'ord 
 citizen alone, which, in a short time, became a kind of 
 mark by which to know a sans-culotte. 
 
 The convention soon became divided into two par- 
 ties, to wit, The Girondists, so called from Le Girond , 
 the department from whence the chief deputies came, 
 who took the lead, and were men of the best understand- 
 ing in the convention, and the Mountain, so called from 
 the place of their sitting in the convention, being the 
 upper seat that surrounded the hall. These were gene- 
 rally men of small talents and little learning, but of dar- 
 ing and sanguinary characters, advanced from among 
 the meanest of the people, and who, by the violence of 
 the times, had been raised from great obscurity. 
 
 At the head of this last party was Robertspierre, Dan- 
 ton, Couthon, Merlin de Thionville, Demolin, Thuriot, 
 Collot D’Herbois, Legendre, Marat, and others. 
 
392 PRESENT appearance op things, both civil 
 
 The Girondists wished to prosecute the late infamous 
 murders ; but the Mountain always eluded the question, 
 and were aided by the Jacobin club, where all political 
 subjects were previously determined. 
 
 The summer and autumn were spent in passing de- 
 crees of banishment against all the nonjuring clergy — 
 dissolving all boards of justice, that judges might be re- 
 chosen from among the lower classes of people. 
 
 During the winter campaign the French armies, under 
 the direction of the Girondists, were every where suc- 
 cessful ; though immense numbers were slain on both 
 sides. The success of the ruling party so enraged the 
 Mountain, and of course the majority of the Jacobins, 
 that they concluded, their best scheme to obtain revenge 
 and perplex the opposite party, was to start the question, 
 what was to be done with the king ? 
 
 The Girondists wanted to save him, and, therefore, 
 the Mountain determined his death. By the influence 
 of the latter, and taking advantage of the popular rage, 
 the convention became his accusers and his judges, 
 against every principle of common justice. As they had 
 previously determined on his execution, his trial became 
 the mere mockery of public justice, and. finally ended, 
 as might be supposed, in the murder of the king, under 
 covert of the law, by the decree of a set of ruffians, 
 taken from the meanest of his subjects. The majority, 
 w r ho decreed the punishment of immediate death, was 
 but small, and to add to their inhumanity, they gave 
 him but 24 hours to prepare for his awful change. He 
 was accordingly executed on the 21st January, 1793. 
 His body was interred in a grave filled with quick lime, 
 and a guard placed round it till it was consumed. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 393 
 
 Soon after this, or about this time, a Mr. Dupont, in 
 a debate on the subject of establishing public schools, 
 for the education of youth, pronounced a discourse be- 
 fore the national convention, in favour of atheism, which 
 was loudly applauded by the members, except two or 
 three of the clergy — “ What,” said this unhappy man, 
 “ thrones are overturned ! sceptres broken ! kings ex- 
 pire ! and yet the altars of God remain ! a single breath 
 of enlightened reason will now be sufficient to make 
 them disappear. Nature and reason ! these ought to be 
 the Gods of men ! These are my Gods ! admire nature, 
 cultivate reason ! And you, legislators, if you desire 
 that the French people should be happy, make haste to 
 propagate these principles, and to teach them in your 
 schools, instead of those fanatical principles which have 
 been hitherto taught. For myself, I honestly avow to 
 the convention, lam an atheist .” This paved the way 
 for abolishing the public worship of Almighty God, 
 which soon took place, as we shall see, and on the doors 
 of their grave yards were engraved or painted, “ Death 
 is an eternal sleep.”* 
 
 After various and astonishing successes on the part of 
 France, against the concert of kings, Dumorier, the 
 French general, was seduced by them, and the army of 
 the new republic was driven from all their conquests. 
 
 The Mountain, taking advantage of this change in 
 their affairs, obtained the ascendancy with the mobs of 
 Paris, in addition to the interests of the Jacobins, and 
 during the month of May, 1793, all was riot, tumult, 
 
 * Citizen Lacroix, in a debate on the petition of some Quakers 
 and Anabaptists, said “ The constitution is my Gospel, and liberty 
 is my God— -I know no other.”t 
 
 I Yid. Dwight’s Notes to Greenfield Hill. 
 
394 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 and confusion. From the 31st May to the 2d June, 
 the convention was nothing but a scandalous scene of 
 intrigue, commotion and terror. It was repeatedly sur- 
 rounded by an armed mob, with 100 pieces of cannon 
 at a time, till at length the Mountain, with this aid, sei- 
 zed 90 of the Girondist members, — hastily passed a 
 decree of denunciation against them, and sent the great- 
 est part of them (who could not privately escape) to 
 the guillotine, without mercy.* Thus, after all the 
 labour and expense of blood and treasure, to bring about 
 and establish an epitome of the rights of man, and then 
 to form a written constitution, confirmed by oaths with- 
 out number, were the boasted liberties of regenerated 
 France again trodden under foot, and treated as mere 
 tools of power, by the vilest rabble and the very dregs 
 of human nature ; which fully proves the absurdity of 
 attempting to institute any government, however popu- 
 lar it may be for the moment, without interweaving in 
 its first formation the principles of religion, proper bal- 
 ances and checks, with a separate efficient power to ex- 
 ecute it. 
 
 The whole authority of government, such as it was, 
 now became absolutely vested in those who were under 
 the influence of the intolerant and savage mob of Paris ; 
 and there remained no longer, even a pretence that the 
 
 '* Those who escaped from the tribunal of the ruling party, met 
 their fate in different ways. Valaze stabbed himself — Echelle and 
 Condorcet preferred poison, as it is said' — L’Huiller killed him- 
 self in prison — Rebecque drowned himself ; these last were con- 
 cerned in the cruelties committed at Avignon, on the 2d Sept. 
 Heidon and the Accadamecian Chamfort fell by their own hands; 
 and such was the end of Roland, who was a principal in the tu- 
 mult of the 10th of August. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 395 
 
 convention were the representatives of the nation of 
 France; yet liberty and equality continued the watch 
 words, to betray the best interests, as well as the lives 
 and property of the most valuable citizens. 
 
 On the 23d day of August, 1793, the whole nation 
 was put in requisition ; “ from this moment,” says the 
 decree, “ till that when all enemies shall be driven from 
 the territories of the republic, every Frenchman shall be 
 in permanent readiness for the service of the army. The 
 young men shall march to the combat : the married men 
 shall forge arms, and transport the provisions : the wo- 
 men shall make tents and clothes, and attend in the 
 hospitals : the children shall make lint of old linen : the 
 old men shall cause themselves to be carried to the pub- 
 lic squares to excite the courage of the warriors ; to 
 preach hatred against the enemies of the republic. The 
 cellars shall be washed to procure salt petre : the saddle 
 horses shall be given up to complete the cavalry : the 
 unmarried citizens, from the age of 18 to 25, shall march 
 first, and none shall send a substitute : every battalion 
 shall have a banner with this inscription, “ The French 
 nation risen against tyrants .” 
 
 September 20, 1793, the convention proceeded to form 
 new tables for weights and measures, abolishing and 
 forbidding an adherence to the ancient customs. But re- 
 ligion being the great object of their antipathy, they 
 again reverted to further measures for its destruction. 
 In order to make a more effectual attack upon every 
 form of it, as observed by their ancestors, the conven- 
 tion decreed a new calendar of time, changing the names 
 of the months, and beginning the year with the autum- 
 nal equinox. It was not sufficient to abolish every 
 order of the clergy, and to banish or murder every ec- 
 
 E e e 
 
396 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 clesiastic who respected his religion enough to regard 
 what he considered her indispensable rights, but, to show 
 their enmity to the most unexceptionable of her estab- 
 lishments, and to avoid any respect to, or recognition of 
 the Sabbath, or Lord’s day, they proceeded to alter the 
 week of seven days to that of decades, or ten days ; or 
 dering every tenth day to be kept as a day of pleasure 
 and merriment, which they termed a day of rest. Fes- 
 tivals were appointed, at stated seasons, similar to those ir. 
 times of Pagan idolatry — to the virtues — to genius — to la- 
 bour — to opinion — to rewards, &c. and, to give some co- 
 lour to this profane measure, they divided the year into It' 
 months, of thirty days each ; and to perpetuate the ah 
 ject meanness and wretchedness of those who wert 
 active in the formation of the republic, they ordered the 
 five supernumerary days above the twelve months to bt 
 called by the name of sans-culotides, from sans-culottcs 
 
 \ 
 
 or without breeches, a word of reproach given them bj 
 their enemies, on account of their poverty and low con 
 dition. 
 
 This name, thus perpetuated by those who it was de 
 signed to deride, was matter of surprize to all Europe 
 being a remarkable instance of the fancifulness of tin 
 human mind, but in which these modern revolutionist 
 established and recorded a fact, perpetuating the sourc 
 from whence they sprung, and thereby confirming th 
 strong figure of the Apocalypse, as a government arisin 
 from the abyss, or bottomless pit — Thus finishing, (i 
 their opinion) the destruction of these witnesses for Got 
 the public worship on the Lord’s day. 
 
 The apostates among the clergy proceeded to thro 
 off the mask, without any reserve, in every quarter < 
 the nation; and while hundreds were laying down the 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 397 
 
 fives gloriously, in proof of their integrity and faith in 
 the religion they professed, and held not their lives dear, 
 that they might finish their course with joy ; many who 
 knew nothing more of it, than as a name to cover their 
 infamous practices, took advantage of the times to shew 
 their readiness to betray the cause they had sworn to 
 support, and openly avowed their want of every principle 
 of moral rectitude. “ Every engine was set at work to 
 persuade or intimidate the clerical order of the assembled 
 states into a compliance with the new oath required by 
 law, but with little effect — Not above thirty, out of 
 three hundred, freely obeyed ; and twenty more were, 
 \vith difficulty, induced, by casuistical interpretations of 
 different men, to conform. The rest nobly sacrificed 
 their means of subsistence, rather than wound their con- 
 sciences. In 1792, by means of the Jacobin clubs, 
 many were killed at the doors of the Churches. In 
 Brittany several priests are said to have been hunted 
 through the forests, where, after enduring every extrem- 
 ity of hunger and fatigue, they perished miserably, and 
 their mangled carcasses were afterwards found torn by 
 briars, and half devoured by beasts of prey. Yet more 
 than two-thirds of the parochial clergy of Paris remain- 
 ed firm ; and the proportion in the country, where the 
 accounts could not be so accurately asoertained, was cal- 
 culated still higher. 
 
 The Prelates themselves gave an illustrious example. 
 Only four, out of 136, the whole number of the bench, 
 became, what their brethren considered, as apostates : 
 and at the head of these were Mons. Brienne, archbishop 
 of Sens, and the atheist Cardinal de Lomenie. It was 
 not unusual to see, in the parish Churches, a constitu- 
 tional priest going through the service, amidst files of 
 
,598 PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 soldiers, with fixed bayonets, but with no other con- 
 gregation ; while the parishioners were gathered together 
 on a distant common, or in the mountains, round the re- 
 treat of their ancient pastors. 
 
 Such meetings were always considered by the Jaco- 
 bins as seditious, and wherever they had power and 
 influence, sent an armed force to disperse them.”* 
 
 The convention had already voted themselves a per- 
 manent body, contrary to the express terms of their elec- 
 tion and the constitution, under which they were chosen. 
 They now, therefore, determined to get rid of the queen, 
 who was still an object of fear and terror to them. They 
 proceeded to arraign and try her (though with such a 
 mockery of justice as not even to save appearances) on 
 charges of the most scandalous and shameful nature, 
 and, without much ceremony, on the 16th day of Octo- 
 ber, 1793, sent her to the guillotine, as they had done 
 her husband and aunt before. 
 
 The duke of Orleans, with great justice, quickly fol- 
 lowed her, together with 21 of the Girondist members, 
 who had been imprisoned by the Mountain, and 71 
 were still kept in close confinement. 
 
 The execution of priests and nobles, with persons of 
 every rank and description, who were, in the least, ob- 
 noxious to the leaders of the revolution, were now so 
 numerous, under the most trifling pretexts, that it be- 
 came almost impossible to keep any tolerable account of 
 them ; so that, literally speaking, the blood ran down 
 the streets, and Paris appeared as a great slaughter 
 house. 
 
 There was no satisfying the thirst for human blood — 
 like furious beasts of prey, the more blood they gorge 
 
 * 3 Kett. p. 139—143. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 399 
 
 the greater is their rage for it. The people at large were 
 terrified into apathy and indifference ; no one at- 
 tempting to come forward and stop the torrent ; life 
 seemed scarce worth preserving, and every man, of se- 
 rious reflection, appeared to be waiting his turn with 
 sullen listlessness. 
 
 Several of the southern departments, considering the 
 conduct of the prevailing party in the convention, as 
 treason against the constitution, seceded from their pre- 
 tended government, and declared against the convention, 
 by entering into a confederacy against it, while the 
 northern departments adhered to the Mountain and Jac- 
 obin club, who decreed the south in rebellion. 
 
 Thus the whole kingdom was again in a state of re- 
 volt and confusion. The rest of this year was filled up 
 with assassinations, murders, and military executions. 
 
 The city of Lyons, which had been so famous for its 
 sufferings, ever since the first propagation of Christian- 
 ity, had yet to fill its cup of misery. After losing 
 thousands of its citizens, in a bloody siege by the army 
 of the convention, under the orders of Robertspierre, 
 who was now the principal organ of the disorganizes, 
 the city was decreed to be razed, and its name changed 
 to Villa Aflranchie. The inhabitants who had defended 
 it were ordered to the guillotine without ceremony. This 
 mode of destruction being found too mild and too slow 
 to gratify the thirst for blood, the mode of execution 
 was changed to being fired at with cannon, loaded with 
 grape shot, while the victims were confined in crowds 
 near the mouths of the cannon ; by which thousands were 
 murdered, maimed, and mangled, in a few minutes. 
 
 It is supposed that upwards of 30,000 citizens, were, 
 by this means, butchered by these inhuman monsters, 
 
400 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 and this once magnificent city almost levelled with the 
 ground, under the command of a low wretched chlrac- 
 ter, Collot d’Herbois, whom the citizens had formerly 
 hissed off the stage, in this city, for improper behaviour, 
 
 Indeed the convention, losing sight of every princi- 
 ple of liberty and humanity, did not hesitate to declare, 
 that terror was the order of the day. In this city, Jaho- 
 gues, in his speech to the democratic society there, said, 
 “ down with the edifices raised for the profit and the 
 pleasure of the rich ; down with them all : commerce 
 and arts are useless to a warlike people, and are the des- 
 truction of that sublime equality which France is deter- 
 mined to spread over the globe. ” 
 
 In the month of October, a citizen, deputed from the 
 popular society of Marseilles, was admitted to the bar of 
 the convention, and said, “ Citizens ! legislators ! I come 
 to announce the triumph of reason over fanaticism, 
 throughout the departments. The bishop of Moutin 
 now officiates with a pike and red cap, instead of the 
 mitre and crosier; the dying are comforted and not 
 frightened — upon the gate of the Church yard one reads 
 the inscription, “ death is but an everlasting sleep.” The 
 people are convinced that if the fall of kings is the foun- 
 dation of republics, that of priests can alone cement 
 liberty.” . 
 
 The Procurateur Syndic, of the district of Tonerre, 
 acquainted the convention that he had issued orders for- 
 bidding the future celebration of religious ceremonies 
 On Sundays, and commanding that these ceremonies 
 should be celebrated on the last day of each decade. 
 
 On the 7th November, 1793, the constituted authori- 
 ties of Paris entered the hall, followed by the bishop of 
 that city and his grand vicars, all covered with red caps. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 4QX 
 
 Montmoro, the speaker of the deputation, said, “ Citi- 
 zens ! legislators ! the department of Paris, the munici- 
 pality, members of the popular societies, and some 
 administrations of Noire, who have requested to be uni- 
 ted with us, come to the convention, accompanied by 
 citizens, who request to be regenerated and to become 
 men.” Gobet, bishop of Paris,* then said, “ I beg the 
 representatives of the people to hear my declaration — ■ 
 Born a Plebeian, I was easily inspired with a love of li- 
 berty aud equality — called, by my fellow citizens, to the 
 constituting assembly, I did not wait till the declaration 
 of rights was published, to acknowledge the sovereignty 
 of the people. I took advantage of the influence, which 
 my situation gave me over the people, to increase their 
 love for liberty and equality ; but, at present, when the 
 end of the revolution is approaching — at present, when 
 the love of liberty is marching forward with gigantic 
 strides, and all sentiments are united — at present, when 
 there ought to be no other national worship, than that of 
 liberty and equality, I renounce my function as a minister 
 of the Catholic worship : my vicars make the same de- 
 
 * This wretched apostate, after finding his atheistical schemes 
 likely to prove abortive, wished again to put about and retract all 
 his abominable villanies and become reconciled to the See of 
 Rome. His retractation was actually written, comprised in six let- 
 ters, directed to the Pope, the King, the Archbishops, the Clergy, 
 the Department, and the Municipality of Paris — but alarmed, for 
 fear of the Jacobins, he delayed, till his conduct was suspected, 
 and not having courage or principle to carry him through, he 
 hesitated, and remained in his former state ; but, on the 9th of 
 April, 1796, Robertspierre put an end to any danger arising from 
 his defection, by ordering him to be guillotined, which was accor- 
 dingly done.f 
 
 f Vid. 2d Baruel. p. 256. 
 
402 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 claration ; we deposit, on your table, our letters of 
 priesthood. May this example consolidate the reign of 
 liberty and equality.” To which the president answer- 
 ed, “ Citizens ! the example which you have given is 
 the effect of the efforts made by philosophy to enlighten 
 mankind. It was reserved for the commune of Paris, to 
 come first to announce the triumph of reason. Citizens, 
 who have sacrificed, on the altar of your country, those 
 gothic toys of superstition! you are worthy of the re- 
 public. Citizens, who have abjured error, you will, 
 in future, preach up only the practice of the social 
 and moral virtues. This is the worship agreeable to the 
 Supreme Being, you are worthy of him.” Immediately 
 hereupon, a number of bishops and priests, belonging to 
 the convention, came forward and renounced their pro- 
 fession and their pensions, declaring “ that they had never 
 considered their sacred function, but as necessary to 
 comply with the prejudices of the people, in order to 
 instruct them — that their sole ambition had ever been to 
 see reason and philosophy reign on earth — that they had 
 never preached any doctrine but the love of liberty, 
 equality, and their neighbour — that, in future, they 
 would own no temple but the sanctuary of the law — no 
 divinity but that of liberty — no worship but that of their 
 country — no Gospel but the republican constitution.” 
 Thus did these abandoned men, who had taken upon 
 themselves the sacred character of ministers of Jesus 
 Christ, and whose duty it was, at the expense of proper- 
 ty, ease and life itself, to preach the Gospel of everlast- 
 ing life and salvation to the people committed to their 
 charge, desert their sacred trust, betray their lord and 
 master, and join the universal cry of away with him, we 
 will not have this man to reign over us. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE, 4Q3 
 
 The next day the section des Tuilleries informed the 
 convention, by one of their commissioners, that Thuriot 
 the representative of the people, having yesterday in- 
 formed them of the memorable scene, which took place 
 in consequence of the truly philosophical conduct of the 
 bishop of Paris, and of the other priests who accompa- 
 nied him, all the citizens present manifested their joy 
 and enthusiasm ; and the section unanimously resolved, 
 “ that on the days of rest, of each decade, a moral and pa- 
 triotic festival should be celebrated in honour of truth.” 
 The commissioners requested that the resolution should 
 be referred to the committee of public intructions, that 
 they might concert with them the means for putting it in 
 execution. The convention decreed accordingly, and 
 added, “ that all letters, addresses, petitions, or declara- 
 ions, sent to the convention, for renouncing the sacerdo- 
 tal character, and all the functions connected with it, 
 shall be deposited with the committee of public instruction, 
 who are charged to deliberate on the measures to be taken, 
 for rendering them useful to the history of the revolution, 
 or to public instruction. 
 
 Among these infamous deposits, the following are 
 sufficient to give the general complection of the rest. A 
 letter from Paul Roland, of Binos de Lachan, a priest, 
 was read. “ Citizens ! legislators ! you now hear the 
 voice of a priest, who has lived 40 years by his trade, 
 but he now renounces it with pleasure. Legislators ! I am 
 now going to make my public confession, and to declare 
 my repentance. Why should I still cherish prejudi- 
 ces? I believe then, that religion, in no country, is 
 founded on truth. I believe that all religions are the off- 
 spring of pride and ignorance ; that interest has rendered 
 them sacred, and that rulers have every where employed 
 
 F ff 
 
404 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 them to establish their power ; that superstition has al- 
 ways been the work of priests ; and that they themselves 
 are every where either wicked or imposed upon by false- 
 hood and tyranny ; I believe, above all, that justice is 
 true religion, and that no other worship is necessary 
 on earth, but the practice of true virtue. I believe, 
 also, that heaven is nothing else than the happy recollec- 
 tion of having been virtuous.I render this solemn hom- 
 age to truth — fanatics will not hear me, but I brave all 
 their anathemas. Legislators ! a man must accustom him- 
 self to this truth, in order to be converted to reason ; 
 and I hope that the priests, of all religions, will compre- 
 hend, to the triumph of philosophy and the liberty of 
 nations, that there is still a difference between a priest 
 and an honest man. As for me, I have made my choice, 
 and I resign to the state a pension of livres ; but, as 
 I am 60 years old, and without any fortune, I demand, 
 from the nation, the means of having in my retreat, 
 bread and milk.” 
 
 A letter from Boisise la Bertrand, Cure of Melun, in 
 the department of Seine and Marne, was also read. 
 
 “ Citizens, representatives, I am a priest, that is to say, 
 a preacher — Being, hitherto, a quack of the good faith, 
 
 I deceived others, because I was deceived myself : being 
 now made clean, I confess to you that I would not be a 
 quack of the bad faith ; I know nothing but the prayers 
 which I have been forced to learn. I write you, there- 
 fore, requesting that you will give a sufficient pension to 
 bishops, curates, and vicars, without fortune and with- 
 out means, and who are, however, honest enough not to 
 wish to deceive the people, who ought now to be taught 
 that there is no true religion, but that of nature, and that jj 
 all the mummery, with which they have hitherto been 
 
AND RELIGIOUS. IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 4Q5 
 
 amused, is only old wives, fables. Be just, be benevo- 
 lent, and love your neighbour, and you have religion ; 
 because, possessing all the virtues which can render you 
 happy, by making you useful to your brethren, you have 
 every thing necessary for pleasing the Deity. If I could 
 preach up nothing but this morality, it would be very 
 well ; but my parishioners wish that I should speak to 
 them of sacraments, and of an hundred thousand gods, 
 which is as much contrary to my taste as it is to yours. 
 I beg then you will suffer me to resign, and continue to 
 me my pension.” Thus was Christ, a second time, de- 
 serted and betrayed by his professed, though traitorous, 
 disciples. 
 
 In this manner did these sans-culottes — these very 
 dregs of mankind, who had assumed the government of 
 a great nation, cast off the knowledge, worship, and fear 
 of the one only living and true God, as revealed by 
 Jesus Christ. It is then no wonder, that God should 
 cast them off and leave them to believe a lie, and thereby 
 lay the foundation of their own utter destruction. 
 
 For, however, the all perfect Being who governs the 
 universe, may make use of this lawless power, thus rising 
 up from the bottomless pit, to execute his judgments, 
 on a wicked and a once professing people, as he did 
 the Assyrians of old against his chosen people, the Jews, 
 yet, be assured, that when Jehovah shall accomplish his 
 whole work, upon his now suffering people among the 
 nations of Europe, he will, most certainly, punish these 
 tyrants of the earth, as he did the proud heart of the 
 haughty king of Assyria. 
 
 It is supposed, that by means of seizing the Church 
 lands — confiscating the property of the royalist emigrants 
 and persons condemned to die, that near seven-tenths of 
 the national territory came into the hands of the admin= 
 
406 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 istrators of the revolutionary government, to which 
 should be added the plunder of the Churches, consisting 
 of gold and silver saints and utensils for sacred use ; so 
 that those images, which had, for so many years, been 
 the subjects of reverence and adoration, were now, 
 in the course of the divine justice, made the means of 
 destroying thousands of those who had been their most 
 submissive adorers. How often does a righteous God, 
 in the course of his providence, correct the evil of sin, 
 by means of that which was the instrumental cause of it. 
 
 During the latter part of this year, the convention 
 conceiving that nothing was done, whilst the least sem- 
 blance of the worship of Almighty God, through Jesus 
 Christ, was left among the people, turned their attention 
 to the perfecting their scheme of universal atheism, and 
 of course encouraged every attempt to decry the religion 
 of their ancestors. 
 
 At the instance of Robertspierre, the Jacobins had 
 expelled all nobles, foreigners, bankers, &c. It was 
 moved to extend it to all priests. Robertspierre, after a 
 long harangue, showing why he had particularized these 
 individual characters, said, “ The nobles have often been 
 compared with the priests, and the turn of the balance 
 has always been in favour of the nobles. I am, howev- 
 er, for my own part, by no means of this opinion; I hold 
 the noblesse to be much more dangerous than the clergy. 
 Do you not perceive, by adopting, at present , too rigo- 
 rous measures against the clergy, you really serve the 
 purposes of those who conspire against the happiness and 
 liberty of the republic. Are you ignorant that , in the 
 eyes of Europe , we are constantly pictured as impious 
 and atheists ? Will you justify this calumny ? Do you 
 not know that patriots have been massacred, because 
 
AND RELIGIONS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 497 
 
 they attempted too violent a blow against religious wor- 
 ship. In a critical moment wisdom and policy enjoin us 
 to spare the priests, whom , otherwise , I no more esteem 
 ancl respect than you do. In my opinion, we should set 
 a watchful eye over them, and demand stronger proofs 
 of civism than of others, but we should not exclude 
 them.” r 
 
 This spirit was soon communicated to the people at 
 ‘ large, who were now freed from all obligation to observe 
 the laws of sense and prudence, and finding that it was 
 pleasing to, and gave them influence with the men in 
 power, on the 11th day of November, they instituted 
 and celebrated the festival of reason, as they called it, in 
 the Cathedral of Paris, where the wife of Montmoro 
 (who, soon after, lost her head on the scaffold) was set 
 up naked, under the character of liberty, to receive that 
 homage which was denied to the glorious creator of the 
 iuniverse. 
 
 This ceremony was introduced by a numerous pro- 
 cession, filing off through the hall of the convention, 
 accompanied with national music, to show that it met 
 with the approbation of these pretended representatives 
 of the nation. 
 
 This shameless and scandalous woman was of the 
 first figure, adorned with the ensigns of liberty, and 
 seated in a chair ornamented with leaves and festoons of 
 flowers. On this occasion Chaumette, entering the ros- 
 trum of the convention, said, “ Fanaticism has aban- 
 doned the place of truth : the people of Paris have taken 
 possession of this temple, which they have regenerated. 
 The gothic arches, which, till this day, have resounded 
 with lies, now echo the accents of truth. The people 
 have but one cry — no more altars ! — no more priests ! — • 
 
408 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 no other God , but the God of nature ! We, their ma- 
 gistrates, we accompany them from the temple of truth 
 to the temple of the laws, to celebrate a new liberty, and 
 to request that the cidevant Church, of Notre Dame, be 
 changed into a temple consecrated to reason and truth.” 
 This was immediately decreed, and the convention de- 
 clared that the people of Paris, on this day, continued to 
 deserve well of their country. 
 
 On the same day a crowd of priests, not ashamed to de- 
 ny their master, while the people, with their rulers, were 
 crying crucify him, crucify him, deposited their letters 
 of priesthood, and said “ they wished no longer to be the 
 organs of falsehood, nor continue in their former error.” 
 
 The section of la Maison Commune came in a large 
 body, to announce “ that they knew no other worship 
 than that of liberty, and henceforth they would have no 
 
 other guide but that of reason. 
 
 By the 12th day of December, this impious festival 
 was celebrated in like manner, in almost every city of 
 France ; and at Lyons the republicans, first murdering 
 about 500 more of the affrighted inhabitants, celebrated 
 also the festival of an ass, dressed in pontifical robes, in 
 derision of all religious worship. 
 
 On the 29th November the orator of the students of 
 Dupont’s new republican school, came to the bar of the 
 convention, to assure them that he and his fellow students 
 detested God. 
 
 The pupils of the new republican school of the section 
 des Areis appeared at the bar, and one of them set forth 
 that all religious worship had been suppressed in his sec 
 tion, even to the very idea of religion — He added, that 
 he and his school fellows detested God ; and that instead 
 of learning scripture, they learned the declaration of 
 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 439 
 
 rights. The president having expressed to the deputa- 
 tion, the satisfaction of the convention, they were admit- 
 ted to the honours of the setting, amidst the loudest 
 applause.* 
 
 A comedian, dressed as a priest of the Illuminati, ap- 
 peared publickly, and speaking of Almighty God, said, 
 “ NO ! thou dost not exist ! — -If thou hast power over 
 the thunderbolts, grasp them ! aim them at the man who 
 dares to set thee at defiance, in the face of thine altars ! 
 But no, I blaspheme thee, and still I live ! no, thou dost 
 not exist.”f 
 
 I tremble while I write this daring blasphemy — who 
 is antichrist, but he who denieth the Father and the Son. 
 
 About this time bishop Messieu, one of the represen- 
 tatives of the army des Ardennes, being one of those 
 base spirits that had entered into the Gospel ministry for 
 the loaves and fishes, now seeing that his object was no 
 longer to be obtained by the cloak of hypocrisy, wrote 
 :o the convention that he renounced his sacerdotal func- 
 :ion. 
 
 An immense number of letters from the departments 
 mnounced the resignation of priests, who, forgetting 
 heir sacred calling, and Judas like, listening to the voice 
 }f fleshly reason, abandoned the cause of their master, lest 
 hey should suffer for his sake. Several of the Com- 
 nunes sent the silver utensils of their Churches, set 
 ipart and expressly dedicated to sacred uses, to be dis- 
 used of for the wants of the low, wretched mobs, (who 
 10 longer supported themselves by daily labour,) and 
 hose who presided over them. 
 
 The central committee of the popular societies and 
 ections of Paris, petitioned for the suppression of ail 
 
 * 3 Kett, p. 133. 
 
 t 3 v'ol. Baruel, p. 217. 
 
410 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 salaries hitherto paid to the clergy, in whom the people 
 (now let loose from every sacred obligation) no longer 
 believed. Chabot thought all the Communes of the re- 
 public should follow the fine example of those of Paris, 
 and that their petition should be inserted in the minutes, 
 in order to prove how agreeable it was to the convention . 
 This was immediately decreed. 
 
 Chaumette, in the council of Paris, informed that they 
 were threatened — the women of the town were turning 
 devotees — that they were paid by the priesthood — not 
 daring to carry on openly their infamous trade, they go 
 to the Churches to pray. He, therefore, moved the 
 council to declare, that if any commotion should be 
 stirred up in favour of fanaticism, all the clergy should 
 be imprisoned. And considering that the people of 
 Paris have declared, that they acknowledge no other 
 worship than that of reason and truth, the council resol- 
 ved — 1st, that all the Churches and temples of the differ- 
 ent religions and worship which are known to be in 
 Paris, shall be instantly shut up. 2dly, that whatever 
 troubles may arise in Paris, in consequence of religious 
 motives, the priests and ministers, of the different reli- 
 gions, shall each be particularly responsible. 3dly, that 
 every person requiring the opening of a Church, shall 
 be put under arrest as a suspected person. 
 
 The section of Quin-vingt requested that an altar 
 should be erected, on which a perpetual fire should be 
 kept up by virgins ; — but this was refused. 
 
 In the convention Bossnet gave an account of his 
 operations in the department of Ardoche-la-drome, du 
 Guarde and Herault. “ The south,” said he, “ is res- 
 tored to the republic — fanaticism is destroyed — Catholic 
 and Protestant, forgetting former animosities, unite in 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 41 ^ 
 
 the same worship, that of liberty and the laws. The 
 altars of Christianity are replaced by altars more holy. 
 The whole people will soon assemble before them each 
 decade , to render homage to liberty. 
 
 It was in this month of November that the famous 
 Abbe Seyes, in a speech he made in the convention, 
 said, “We have long wished to see reason triumph over 
 superstition and fanaticism. The day is at length arri- 
 ved, and I rejoice at it, as one of the greatest blessings 
 that could have happened to the French republic. 
 Though I have, for many years laid aside the ecclesias- 
 tical character, let me, however, be permitted to de- 
 clare at present, that I know no other -worship than 
 that of liberty and equality ; and no other religion 
 than the love of mankind , and of my country. — I have 
 lived a victim of superstition, but I was never its 
 instrument. No one can say that he was ever deceived 
 by me ; and many are indebted to me for the truth. At 
 the moment my reason was disengaged from the fatal 
 prejudices by which it was fettered, the energy of insur- 
 rection,” (Judas like) “ entered into my heart. Since 
 that period I have been retained in my sacerdotal chains 
 by the same force which retained other free souls in 
 chains. These were all destroyed on the day of the re- 
 volution. I have been known only by my efforts for li- 
 berty and equality. It was as a plebeian, a deputy of the 
 people, not as a priest, for I was then no longer one, that 
 I was called to the national assembly. I cannot, like 
 many of my colleagues, deliver to you the papers or titles 
 of my former state : for a long time they have not 
 been in existence. I have no resignation to give in to 
 you, because I have no ecclesiastical employment ; but 
 I have still an offering to make my country, that of an 
 
 Ggg 
 
412 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 ' 
 
 annuity of 10,000 livres, which the law gave me as an 
 indemnification for my former benefices. Permit me to 
 deposit, on your table, my formal renunciation of that 
 pension.” 
 
 The constituted authorities of Paris came to the bar 
 and invited the convention to repair, with them, to the 
 cidevant church of A r otre-Dame, now the temple of rea- 
 son, to assist at worship much more respectable than 
 that which Paris had abjured, to wit, the worship of Li. 
 berty. 
 
 The convention immediately adjourned, in order to 
 repair to this temple of reason. 
 
 Every instance of deviation from the path of rectitude, 
 increased the violence of the members of the convention 
 and the fury of the mob to subvert every thing that 
 looked like religion, order, system, and piety. 
 
 In this same month of November, a member obser- 
 ved how inconsistent it was to pay bishops, rectors, and 
 vicars, while the convention applauded the maxim, that 
 priests were the greatest plague of a nation. Danton 
 suddenly breaking forth, as it were, from the dark cloud, 
 which had obscured him for two months past, declared 
 that the opinion of the people was fixed ; that national 
 reason was at its heighth ; that the reign of the priest- 
 hood was at an end ; but that policy obliged them to be 
 circumspect on this occasion. He observed, that the 
 people, equally pure as enlightened, neither wished to 
 protect an exclusive worship, nor to persecute any one , 
 ■who was attached to any particular form. That Legis- 
 lators should show themselves equally just and generous, 
 as the people whom they represent. He concluded by 
 voting in favour of salaries ; on which La Vasseur said 
 he was convinced that by paying such of the clergy, who 
 should abjure their sacred character , a very important 
 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 443 
 
 service was rendered to humanity. Thus were the wit- 
 nesses left dead in the street , but not buried . 
 
 These repeated attacks on the clergy were not direct- 
 ed against them, as guilty of introducing into the worship 
 of Almighty God false principles, or loading it with use- 
 less or pernicious ceremonies. They were not charged 
 with preaching erroneous doctrines, contrary to the pure 
 and simple doctrines of the Gospel, or that they counte- 
 nanced error and superstition, contrary to their duty as 
 Gospel ministers, and, therefore, a reformation in both 
 doctrine and practice was necessary to restore primitive 
 Christianity, and pure Gospel worship, in the national 
 establishment. But the public voice and councils aim- 
 ed at their utter destruction as ministers of the Gospel, 
 and worshippers of one great and supreme Jehovah, 
 through Jesus Christ, whom he had sent into the world. 
 
 In short, the whole Gospel system was the great sub- 
 ject of aversion among the rulers of regenerated France ; 
 and universal atheism was the object of their hopes and 
 wishes. The atheist La Quenet, boasted that he had 
 employed both reason and the guillotine for the extirpa- 
 tion of prejudice, that is, the belief in God. He tells us 
 that he found the guillotine a much more effectual in- 
 strument of conversion than reason.* It is, therefore, 
 that we hear so much of national reason and truth — the 
 god of nature — the worship of liberty and equality — a 
 perpetual fire on their altars, to be kept up by virgins ; 
 and such like heathenish epithets, to which, those who 
 used them, seemed not to have annexed any precise 
 ideas, but seem to have been left thus to worship the 
 image of the dragon, or Pagan Rome, without knowing 
 
 * His Letters to the convention. 
 
414 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 it. Hence it was, that so much ingenuity was exert- 
 ed to cry down public worship, the Sabbath, or Lord’s- 
 day, and to establish decades in their stead. 
 
 To divert the people from the ancient public worship 
 on the first day of the week, and the religious instruc- 
 tions generally given thereon, they were ordered to 
 attend on every tenth day in the temples, originally ded- 
 icated to the service of the living God. There they 
 impiously celebrated the favours of nature, of society, 
 liberty, reason, and the revolution, in direct opposition 
 to the creator of all things. 
 
 The magnificent Church of St. Genevieve, at Paris, 
 was changed, by the national assembly, into a repository 
 for the remains of their great men, or rather into a Pagan 
 temple ; and as such was aptly distinguished by the 
 name of the Pantheon. It had this inscription on the 
 front, To great men acknowledged by their country ; ac- 
 cording to a decree proposed by the impious Condor- 
 cet. 
 
 To this temple the remains of Voltaire and Rosseau 
 were conveyed, in solemn and magnificent procession. 
 The bones of Voltaire (that enemy to the Gospel) were 
 placed on the high altar, and incense offered. And when 
 the infatuated multitude, consisting of the convention 
 and whole city of Paris, prostrated themselves and bow- 
 ed down before the relics of this arch-enemy to Christ, 
 in silent adoration, a voice was heard to utter, in this 
 moment of national idolatry, and of avowed attachment 
 to Voltaire’s principles — a single voice was heard to 
 utter, in a tone of agony and indignation, these memo- 
 rable words, O God! thou wilt be revenged! Search 
 was immediately made for the man who thus dared to 
 interrupt these rites ; and this abdiel was probably sac- 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 445 
 
 rificed to the fury of the multitude, but his reward is 
 with him.* 
 
 Having thus, on this day, deified reason, liberty, and 
 the most immoral characters, and declared Jesus Christ 
 to be an impostor, they proceeded to the most extrava- 
 gant effusions of joy and mutual congratulations, in ful- 
 filment of the forewarnings of the holy apostle. The 
 day was devoted to the most lascivious riot and blasphe- 
 mous festivity. To increase their diabolical victory, 
 they took a Bible from the tail of an ass, and burnt it to 
 ashes, amidst the most violent bursts of applause. The 
 convention appointed a day, on which this triumph of 
 atheism and anarchy over religion, morality, and social 
 order, should universally and annually be celebrated. 
 
 As citizens of regenerated France were habituated 
 to use an ass in their contemptuous treatment of Christi- 
 anity, they little thought that this was reviving the 
 conduct of the ancient Fagan persecution of Christians. 
 Tertullian tells us, that Christians were called by the 
 Roman Heathens, Asinarii , or Ass worshippers ; and 
 that Christ was painted and publickly exposed by the 
 bold wicked hand of an apostate Jew, with ass’s ears, 
 holding a book in his hand, and having a gown over 
 him, with this inscription, Dens Christianorum ; — and 
 that this ridiculous representation was taken from a 
 story, equally false and ridiculous, of the Jews worship- 
 ping the ass, for having been preserved, when like to 
 perish for want of water, by following one to a fountain ; 
 and the Heathen often considered Jews and Christians 
 as one people. f 
 
 The people were to fill up their time (lest the remem- 
 brance of what they once enjoyed should alarm them to 
 
 * 3 Kett. p. 145. + Cave’s Prim. Christianity, 1st part, p. 120. 
 
416 PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 repentance) in reading in the Churches, the rights of 
 man ; — laws decreed within the decade ; — in singing 
 hyms to nature ; — old age ; — to labour ; — filial piety ; — 
 and love of country ; to all of which should succeed 
 military exercises, to form the youth to the art of war. 
 
 Thus were the great props of the Christian religion, to 
 wit, the instruction of the people in the Church of 
 Christ, by preaching of the Gospel ; and the public 
 worship of Almighty God, through the mediator Jesus 
 Christ, totally done away and abolished, as far as these 
 refuse of society could accomplish, and who now had 
 obtained, as they vainly thought, unlimited power.* 
 
 * “ Public worship may be defeated by total absence and utter, 
 disuse. Sufficient, and more than sufficient time, may be found 1 
 in the experience of man for solitary and private devotion; but it 
 may well be doubted, whether any advantages which he derives from 
 domestic meditation, can counterbalance the loss of that sacred 
 unction, which is sometimes dispensed, and always promised to 
 the public worshippers of the living God. If those who have 
 watched and lamented the decline of religion in other countries, 
 would attend to the gradation of causes by which it has been pro- 
 duced, they would tremble to engage in a plan for weakening the 
 respect due to that day, which is dedicated to the offices of devo- 
 tion. If the great body of the public should ever be released 
 from the apprehensions of violating, in any notorious degree, the 
 solemn and approved institutions of religion — if they should ever 
 imbibe that interpretation of the Sabbath, which destroys its mo- 
 ral obligation, and should deem it either the bugbear of superstition 
 or an arbitrary contrivance of human policy, I see not how any 
 security will remain for the respect, or even the survival of our 
 public devotion. Instead of assembling once in seven days to 
 worship God, and to promote our salvation, we may only retain a 
 bitter memorial of our abolished Sabbaths, in the dedication of 
 every tenth day to the rites of infidelity or the orgies of pleasure. 
 
 Ye friends of order, virtue, and social happiness, be admonish- 
 ed of your delusion and your danger ! Regard not with indider- 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, EN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 4^7 
 
 Although this was the general character of those who 
 had usurped all power in their own hands, yet, as in the 
 days of Elijah, the Jewish prophet, there were seven 
 thousand of his brethren preserved in secret, without his 
 knowledge, amidst, as he thought, the universal infidel- 
 ity of the nation. So, even in this unhappy country, 
 were there a goodly number of the oppressed and suf- 
 fering servants of Jesus Christ, who were continually 
 mourning and praying, between the porch and the altar, 
 and crying, Lord save thy people. 
 
 I have been informed, from the best authority, that 
 there were many singular instances of pious resignation, 
 and firm reliance on the sovereign will of a Holy God, 
 found among the lower orders of both clergy and laity 
 in France, amidst all their distresses, that would have 
 done honour to primitive martyrs. 
 
 While this diabolical system was carrying on in Pa- 
 ris, the convention was equally vigorous in endeavouring 
 to drive the coalesced powers from their conquests in 
 the republic. Toulon, which had submitted to the Eng- 
 lish and Spaniards, was attacked with great violence, and 
 the principal fort being stormed, with the loss of 3000 
 men on the part of the garrison, it was determined, by 
 the possessors, to evacuate Toulon without delay. 
 
 Such was the horror and confusion that seized the 
 inhabitants, that it is easier to bq conceived than expres- 
 ence such an artful innovation upon that which you have learned 
 to revere, and which you have shewn yourselves so forward to 
 maintain- In pledging yourselves for the public defence, in bring- 
 ing your property to the treasury, and your engagements before 
 your fellow citizens, you have done well. Establish one other 
 claim to the gratitude of posterity — give to religion this last sac- 
 rifice. 
 
 f Christ. Mon. p. 127— 170. 
 
418 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 sed. “ A scene of confusion now ensued, such as had 
 not been known in the history of modern wars ; crowds 
 of people, of every rank, age, and sex, hurried on board 
 the ships to avoid the vengeance of their enraged coun- 
 trymen. Some of the inhabitants began to fire on their 
 late allies ; others in despair were seen plunging into the 
 sea, making a vain effort to reach the ships ; and others 
 putting an end, at once, to their own existence on the 
 shore. 
 
 A civil war also raged at this time, with great fury in 
 La Vendee , a department of France, the inhabitants of 
 which did not understand the French language, as Used 
 in the capital, and, therefore, knew very little of the na- 
 ture of the revolution. The inhabitants were headed by 
 the priests, and, at first, appeared as a very formidable 
 foe ; but they were dispersed and destroyed without 
 mercy, so that 300,000 people are supposed to have lost 
 their lives in that department. Indeed the cruelties com- 
 mitted upon them, by the Mountain party, was shocking 
 to humanity. In the language of a late writer upon this 
 subject, whom I have already quoted, “ the Mountain 
 party always disgraced their successes by dreadful cru- 
 elties ; humanity is shocked, and history would almost 
 cease to gain credit, were we to state, in detail, the un- 
 relenting cruelties which were exercised against the 
 unfortunate royalists, chiefly by Carriere , a deputy from 
 the convention, sent into this quarter with unlimited 
 
 * The voluntary exile of the inhabitants, prevented Collot D’- 
 Herbois from passing a sentence on Toulon, similar to that inflic- 
 ted on Lyons. “ Let this city be destroyed, and the blood of its 
 inhabitants increase the waters of the Rhone.”! 
 
 f Month. Mag. 3 vol. p. 375, for 1797. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 4^9 
 
 powers. Multitudes of prisoners, to the amount of 
 27,000 persons, of both sexes, were crowded on board of 
 vessels in the Loire ; after which the vessels were push- 
 ed into the channel and sunk. No age or sex were 
 spared ; and these executions were performed with every 
 circumstance of wanton barbarity and insult. 
 
 Then the monster Carriere and his associates, giving 
 themselves up to every species of cruelty, committed 
 acts of which nature shudders, and for which their own 
 deaths on a scaffold have since but poorly atoned ; by 
 their orders nearly 40,000 persons perished at Nantz by 
 suffocation or sickness in prison, or by the sword, and 
 drowning in the Loire.* 
 
 As a further proof of the destruction made by this ca- 
 lamitous war in Vendee, we may take the report of 
 Carriere himself. “ In the month of August, the rebels 
 had 150,000 men in arms ; but the victories of Mon- 
 tague and Chollet were so fatal to them, that the reporter 
 passed over 14 leagues of country entirely covered with 
 their dead bodies.” 
 
 On the 5th August, 1793, Lequinio wrote thus to the 
 convention. “ I have caused 500 prisoners to be shot 
 and drowned at Fountanai le peuple.” La Vaisseur 
 de la Sarthe caused 700 to be shot and drowned between 
 Saumere and Orleans, in parties from 50 to 100. 
 
 On the 28th November he wrote, “ Ninety priests 
 have just been brought in to me — I have drowned them, 
 which has given me great pleasure*'* The commissioner 
 Garvier writes thus to the convention, on the 10th De- 
 cember. “ I have caused fifty-eight priests to be 
 drowned.” 
 
 * Ten Months Residence in France, by the Count de C-> 
 
 Hhh 
 
420 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 The waters of the Loire became putrid, and were 
 forbidden to be drank by the savages who conducted 
 the massacre. Merlin, of Thionville, called the atten- 
 tion of the convention to the state of La Vendee, which, 
 he said, exhibited nothing to the view of travellers but 
 ashes and dead bodies. He was of opinion, that the 
 convention ought to prevent the seed, committed to the 
 earth, from being abandoned ; and they ought, this year 
 to endeavour to derive greater benefit from uncultivated 
 lands. You ought, said he, to grant lands to those who 
 know how to improve them. I propose that the de- 
 partment, in future, shall be called la Venge, the aven- 
 ged, and that you will decree, that all the hedges and 
 ditches, which separate estates, and prevent communi- 
 cations, shall be destroyed in six months, by the new 
 proprietors, and replaced by simple boundaries. 
 
 The allied armies, though formed of the best troops 
 in the world, could not stand before the fury and rage of 
 French enthusiasm. “ Every day was a day of battle, 
 and torrents of blood were shed on both sides.” The 
 convention, or Mountain, frequently ordered their bra- 
 vest generals, in cases of defeat, from the head of their 
 armies to the scaffold. At length, every place that was 
 attacked surrendered ; and almost every army that was 
 fought was beaten. Such was the destruction of the 
 human species, that, it is supposed, 70 or 80,000 men 
 fell during the last month of this year. 
 
 To form some idea of the state of the countries, cur- 
 sed by this war, in this year, take the following extract 
 from Estes journey from Louvaine to Liege, page 106. 
 “ Through a main track of country, almost every house 
 was pierced through and through. In each poor clay 
 wall there remained the hideous stigma of every cannon 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 42 1 
 
 shot. Of many houses battered and burnt, there was 
 not left one stone upon another ! — of the few straggling 
 trees that continued on the way side, undestroyed, not 
 one escaped unstained from the abomination of spilled 
 blood ! — the bones of horses and of men were scatter- 
 ed over every field ! — the fragments countless, as when 
 :one heweth wood upon the earth ! — entire skeletons were 
 yet to be seen — not yet dry, nor denuded quite ! — every 
 face was in sadness — every heart seemed faint ! The 
 father bereaved of his children — the widow and the or- 
 phan, through astounding sorrow torpid, in silent suppli- 
 cation for bread ! 
 
 Calamity and death, at any time, in any form, cannot 
 but be full of awe ! Yet human violence, more fell than 
 accident, seems to make disaster doubly dreadful ! 
 
 One poor fellow, a farmer of the best life and conver- 
 sation, fell in his own house, in the last solemn duty of 
 the day ; — a cannon ball rushed into the room and killed 
 him ! — his wife and children, also at their devotion, 
 kneeling all around ! 
 
 An excellent young man, but the day before a bride- 
 groom, was another victim ! He was coming forth from 
 his chamber, when a random shot struck him. He 
 dropped down dead ! — and his bride, young and beau- 
 tiful, her swelling heart literally burst — she shrieked 
 out, “ O God,” and never spoke more. 
 
 A brave boy, not 14 years old, was in the field — a 
 daemon, in the shape of an hussar, furiously assailed 
 him, and roared out, in broken French, “ Grace ? 
 Grace ?” The poor boy either did not know what was 
 meant, or disdained, if he did, replied, “ Et pour quoi 
 Grace ?” when instantly the ruffian let fall his sabre, and 
 the boy, from his head down, was cleft in twain. Hor- 
 
422 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 rors, like these, too hideous to be born, were most rife 
 and raging about St. Tron, and Tirlemont, and in the 
 following villages, Driesche, Visscot, Terhagen, and 
 Rocre ; about Overwenden and between Neirwenden 
 and Landel.” 
 
 But it should be remembered, as one mean and not a 
 small one, to bring about these astonishing successes, in 
 addition to their bravery and firmness, was the indefati- 
 gable and persevering conduct of the Mountain and the 
 Jacobins, in sending forward their emissaries, members 
 of their affiliated societies, so that there was scarcely an 
 army, a garrison, or a council, in which they had not 
 confidential persons, who insinuated themselves into im- 
 portant commands, offices, and places of trust, by which 
 means they debauched the morals and political princi- 
 ples of inferior officers, and the lowest orders of society, 
 and thereby accomplished, as much by internal dissen- 
 tion and jealousy, as by external violence. 
 
 In Paris, the Mountain party was supereminently tri- 
 umphant : they carried on the war in their own way, and 
 administered the government with fury and terror. 
 Upon the whole, the French themselves, acknowledge 
 that two millions of human beings, (exclusive of the 
 military) have been, at one time and another, sacrificed 
 to the principles of equality and the rights of man ; of 
 these 250,000 are stated to have been women, and 
 30,000 children. 
 
 Now indeed, were the divine scriptures fulfilled, “ the 
 hearts of men failed them for fear of those things that 
 were coming on the world.” 
 
 A tyranny worse than the most absolute despotism of 
 any single despot that had ever appeared, was now es- 
 tablished. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 423 
 
 In Germany, when the French got possession, the ci- 
 tizens gave great sums of money to the French generals 
 to preserve the country from plunder. In consequence 
 of this ransom, thus wrung from the people, the inva- 
 ders declared, by public proclamation, that the persons 
 and property of the inhabitants should be strictly respec- 
 ted ; and that their rights, usages, .laws and religion, 
 should remain inviolate and undisturbed. On these as- 
 surances, thus solemnly made, the credulous people all 
 implicitly relied, while some of the poorer classes re- 
 garded the French, not as enemies, but as their deliverers 
 from taxes and labour. 
 
 No sooner, however, had the invasion taken place and 
 the French become masters of the country, than they 
 spread themselves over it, like beasts of prey, devouring 
 and destroying every thing before them. They spared 
 neither cities nor towns ; neither villages nor hamlets, 
 nor solitary houses — from the Church to the cell — from 
 the castle to the cottage ; no state of life, however lofty, 
 or however humble, escaped their rapacious assaults ; no 
 sanctity excited their veneration ; no grandeur their res- 
 pect ; no misery their forbearance or their pity. After 
 having plundered the houses of the gentry, the clergy, 
 and the tradesmen — after having pillaged shops, ware- 
 houses, and manufactories, they proceeded to the farm- 
 houses and cottages ; they rifled the pockets and chests 
 of the inhabitants — cut open their beds — tore up the 
 floors of their rooms — dug up their cellars — searched 
 the newly made graves and broke open the coffins, in 
 hopes of finding secreted money. They sometimes 
 threatened people with immediate death ; sometimes put 
 them to the torture ; sometimes lacerated and crippled 
 them, in order to force from them a discovery of their 
 
424 present appearance of things, both civil 
 
 little pittance of ready money. The deepest and most 
 apparent poverty was no protection against their rapaci- 
 ty — grey heirs and lisping infancy ; the sick and the 
 dying, and women in childbed, were alike exposed to 
 the most inhuman treatment ; dragged from their beds, 
 kicked, wounded, and frequently killed, under pretence 
 that they were the keepers of concealed treasures. The 
 teams, and flocks, and cattle of every kind, the marau- 
 ders drove off, cut to pieces on the spot, or left in a state 
 of mutilation ; — corn, hay, and straw, they wasted or 
 burnt ; — they demolished the household furniture and 
 destroyed the fences. In many places they stripped the 
 clothes from the backs of the people; set their liquor 
 flowing in the cellars, and burnt their provisions to ashes. 
 The Churches, whether Roman or Protestant, they ren- 
 dered a scene of indiscriminate robbery, sacrilege, and 
 blasphemy, too shocking to describe. Towards women, 
 of all ages and conditions, they were guilty of brutality, 
 never before heard of ; — neither extreme youth, nor ex- 
 treme age ; neither weakness nor deformity, nor the 
 most loathsome disease ; neither the pangs of labour nor 
 the agonies of death, could restrain them — Shrieks, tears, 
 supplications, were of no avail ; and where fathers, hus- 
 bands, or brothers, interfered, murder seldom failed to 
 close the horrible scene.* 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1794, and in the midst 
 of this violent career, when the convention had almost 
 subdued all their external enemies, the Jacobins split 
 among themselves, and divided into two parties, to wit, 
 the Jacobins and Cordeliers. At the head of the first, 
 continued the implacable Robertspierre, who command- 
 
 * Annual Register, 1793. p. 591. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, itf THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 425 
 
 ed the whole nation with unlimited sway — He could not 
 bear opposition, the least of which led him to the most 
 : sanguinary measures. 
 
 From the 25th March to the 5th April, he sent thirty- 
 two of his old associates, fellow- labourers, and intimate 
 friends, to the guillotine. 
 
 The Cordeliers were headed by Herbert, Rousin, 
 Vincent, and others. — The campaign was now opened 
 by the allies with an army of 187,000 men, but though 
 successful on their first movements, yet such was the 
 impetuosity of the republican troops, under the conduct 
 of generals raised from the lowest grades of society, and 
 the prevailing energy of Robertspierre’s orders (who was 
 now considered as the single tyrant of France) that the 
 allies were beaten in every quarter, and the whole coun- 
 try on the left of the Rhine, with the fortified towns on 
 the frontiers of Holland, submitted to their superior force. 
 — Thousands on both sides fell every day. 
 
 Twenty-seyen hundred French emigrants, taken in 
 different towns, were murdered in cold blood, and man- 
 kind seemed to have been born merely for slaughter. 
 The republican army took two hundred pieces of cannon, 
 and 60,000 prisoners. 
 
 The power of Robertspierre had now arrived at its 
 heighth, and his insatiable fury, and unconquerable pride 
 were not abated by his late successes.* 
 
 In the month of May, 1794, Madame Elizabeth, the 
 late unfortunate King’s sister, with multitudes of ever}’ 
 
 * In Paris, April 4th, 1794, the prisoners amounted to 7551 
 tn all the departments, to 653,000, — after the death of Robert- 
 spierre 500,000 persons were released from confinement.* 
 
 * Hist. Epoch, p. 92, 
 
426 PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 rank, sex, and order, were cruelly sacrificed by the un- 
 righteous decrees of the revolutionary tribunal. — To be 
 rich was an unpardonable crime. The guillotine groan- 
 ed under the numerous subjects, that were daily brought 
 for execution. 
 
 Where there is no moral principle, there is no safety. 
 Even the most inexorable tyrant, in the full exercise of 
 absolute and unlimited power, has great reason to fear the 
 just, and unavoidable vengeance of the righteous Go- 
 vernor of the universe — Robertspierre gave full testimony 
 to this truth — He became now in his turn, an object of 
 envy, fear, and jealousy, to those who had raised him to 
 his present power, most manifestly against the will of the 
 nation at large, but who were too much terrified with the 
 violent exertions of his power and influence, and his nu- 
 merous and sudden executions, to testify their abhor- 
 rence of his bloody system. — He proceeded to banish ail 
 foreigners ; — He obtained a decree, authorizing the com- 
 mittee of safety (who were the mere puppets of his mo- 
 tion) to imprison at their pleasure, and to bring to trial, 
 any of the members of the convention. He little thought 
 that he himself might become the subject of a power, he 
 chose to establish for the destruction of others. Thus 
 was the wicked taken in the craftiness of his own con- 
 ceit. 
 
 The principal members of the convention, at length, 
 became alarmed at the frequent executions of their bre- 
 thren, by which they soon perceived, that they were all 
 equally exposed to the will of the tyrant. 
 
 They were secretly informed, that this restless Jacobin 
 was laying a plan for sacrificing an additional number of 
 the members to his resentment and jealousy. To pre- 
 vent so fatal a stroke, and ward off the evil by a more 
 
I ' " v ' 
 
 If . , 
 
 AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 497 
 
 i 
 
 sudden and unexpected movement, they found it neces- 
 sary to unite in the opposition. Accordingly, on the 26th 
 July, 1794, he was violently accused in the convention, 
 and charged with the manifest abuse of the power he had 
 assumed. He made a long and able speech, in his de- 
 fence, with so much plausibility and moderation, that his 
 enemies could not prevent it, for the present, from being 
 received with great eclat, and a decree for its being 
 printed. 
 
 The die was now cast, and the two parties were at is- 
 sue : destruction, to one or the other, was inevitable. 
 The next day his enemies again denounced him, with 
 fresh courage and determined resolution, in a long, ner- 
 vous, and energetic speech, enumerating, in very plain 
 language, the many instances of his tyrannical proceed- 
 ings. A decree of arrest, was obtained against him and 
 some of his creatures ; whereupon, he immediately took 
 refuge in the commune of Paris, who, at first, determi- 
 ned to support and protect him. The military forces of 
 the city had been hitherto under his control. The Toc- 
 sin was sounded, and every one flew to arms. But his 
 power was past ; — his time of reckoning was come ; — 
 for such had been his cruelty and thirst for human blood, 
 that the sections of Paris determined to give him up, 
 and to support the convention. The next morning, 
 about 3 o’clock, he, with his adherents, were arrested ; 
 and before night they were all executed, without farther 
 trial, having been previously outlawed by the conven- 
 tion ; so that he, who never had showed mercy in the 
 heighth of his power, had no mercy shown to him in the 
 day of his distress. He could not face the terrors of 
 death with any courage or firmness, but discovered all 
 the horrors and timidity of an awakened conscience, 
 
 I i i 
 
428 PRESENT appearance op things, both civil 
 
 Sixty municipal officers shared the same fate, for joining 
 him. 
 
 Thus was the ferocious cruelty of this bloody tyrant 
 returned on his own head ; and in the very way that he 
 had established for the murder of others.* 
 
 The convention now became new modelled, and they 
 determined on a system of moderation, as extraordinary 
 as the former one of terror. All the surviving Girondist 
 prisoners were set at liberty. The name of Lyons was 
 restored. The Jacobin society was dissolved, and the 
 reverse of what had lately passed, now took place. 
 
 During the campaign of this year, the use of the tele- 
 graph was discovered and established. Balloons render- 
 ed serviceable to the armies. Engineers went up in them, 
 and took draughts of the enemy’s position, and sent down 
 notices of every particular movement. 
 
 If any thing could exceed their success on the side of 
 the Rhine, it was the astonishing and unheard of progress 
 which the republican armies (as they styled themselves) 
 
 * Carnot, in a report from the committee of public safety, 
 among other things, says, “ It was Robertspierre, only, who mur- 
 mured when he had the good fortune to take a fortress from the 
 enemy, without carnage of our brothers in arms. No conquest 
 could please him, that was not purchased with blood. "When we 
 received intelligence of the capture of Nieuport, he asked, “was 
 the garrison massacred” — He was told that the emigrants per- 
 ished in escaping, but that the garrison could not be put to the 
 sword unless the place had been taken by storm, which would have 
 cost 6000 men. “ What,” said Robertspierre, “ signifies 6000 men, 
 compared with a principle ! Under such circumstances I consider 
 the capture of Nieuport as a great misfortune.” Let all visionary 
 enthusiasts, however successful for the present, take warning 
 from the fate of this unhappy man ; and never forget, that a day 
 of reckoning will certainly come, sooner or later. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 429 
 
 made on the frontiers of Spain. Nothing could stand be- 
 fore them. Notwithstanding 60,000 Spanish troops, for- 
 tified by art and nature, amidst what appeared almost 
 impregnable mountains, defended the strongest passes, 
 the whole province of Catalonia, in a very short time, 
 submitted to the conquerors. — This soon brought Spain 
 ito forsake her allies, with precipitation ; — accept terms of 
 peace dictated by French councils ; — and become tribu- 
 tary to, and an ally of the French republic, against those 
 powers, with whom she had been fighting, side by side, 
 from the beginning of the war. 
 
 During the winter of 1795, every thing favoured the 
 invasion of Holland — Early in January, the rivers, canals, 
 and lakes, were frozen up — The Waal was entirely fast, 
 which had not happened for fourteen years past. 
 
 The republican armies, taking advantage of present 
 circumstances, advanced, to the number of 70,000 men, 
 notwithstanding the severest frosts and deepest snows. 
 
 The great defence of the United Provinces, arising 
 from the power of inundating the country when they 
 pleased, was lost, and within a fortnight, the victorious 
 enemy took possession of Amsterdam, without much op- 
 position. All the other towns followed of course, and 
 many of the shipping, bound up by the frost, fell into the 
 power of the French army. In short, all the provinces be- 
 came revolutionized, and tributaries to the Sans-culottes 
 of France. — By these astonishing and unheard of succes- 
 ses, the revolutionary government of France, added to 
 their citizens and dependents, a population of near four- 
 teen millions of souls, with the territory which they in- 
 habited, directed by the lowest subjects of the late 
 monarchy, and with armies commanded by old sergeants, 
 and generals formed from lawyers, comedians, and even 
 common soldiers. 
 
430 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 Germany began to grow weary of the war, and to talk 
 of peace. Tuscany began the work, and entered into 
 treaty with the republicans, who also expressed a desire 
 to hearken to propositions from other powers, for stop- 
 ping the effusion of human blood. 
 
 But Great Britain and Austria determined to carry on 
 the war, and the emperor, with the aid of a loan of six 
 millions sterling, received from the former, continued the 
 campaign with near 200,000 men. 
 
 beaten at all points, and the French, flushed with such re- 
 peated and unexpected victories, determined to carry the 
 war into the very heart of the Austrian dominions, and 
 if possible to proceed to the gates of Vienna. 
 
 Since Robertspierre’s fall, and even during the year 
 1796, the ferocious conduct of the rulers of this unhap- 
 py nation became rather more moderate towards their 
 own citizens who had thus far weathered the storm rai- 
 sed by Robertspierre. They found themselves despised, 
 by the surrounding nations, as a horde of atheists and 
 infidels, and thought it time to endeavour to wipe off, in 
 some small degree, the indelible stain of a few years past. 
 Thus, beyond the conception of human sagacity, does 
 God manifest his truth, his omniscience, his power, and 
 glory, and often in a way incomprehensible to mortals. 
 The convention, in the latter end of March, in this year, 
 took it into their heads to pass a decree for the free tole- 
 ration of all religions, and to put a stop to persecution, 
 on account of a man’s religious belief. This was the 
 first measure that had a tendency to revive the hopes of 
 the pious ; and became a great consolation to the few 
 precious souls yet left, who were mourning, in private, 
 the sins of the nation. By these astonishing conquests 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 43 \ 
 
 and victories, a useful lesson was taught to the most 
 powerful monarchs, not to depend too much on their 
 best disciplined armies, who were thus beaten by the 
 lowest dregs of the people, when united. 
 
 But the fury of the war yet continued. In consequence 
 of the resolutions, before mentioned, the years 1796 and 
 1797 saw the w r ar, which had so long raged in the French 
 and Austrian Flanders, in a great measure translated into 
 Italy, where the army under General Buonaparte, a Cor- 
 sican by birth, overrun those fertile countries, against all 
 the defence made by the Austrian troops (some of the 
 best in the world) fighting pro aris & focis, so that, by 
 the end of 1797, Buonaparte had completely conquered 
 and revolutionized almost every part of that famous 
 country, once the mistress of the world, and had advan- 
 ced almost to the gates of Vienna. The horrors com- 
 mitted in the Milanese, Genoa, Modena, in Tuscany, . 
 Rome, and Venice, in these campaigns, are not to be 
 described. 
 
 The Pope was now threatened with destruction, even 
 in his ancient city, seated on seven hills ; but by a time- 
 ly submission (to those whom he had so often anathe- 
 matised) under the most humiliating terms of giving up 
 the principal curosities of that ancient city, in token 
 of his respectful acknowledgment of the terrible na- 
 tion, he was, for the present, permitted to retain the 
 original limits of his jurisdiction, viz. 1600 furlongs 
 from the city ; giving up all the fine and fertile patrimo- 
 ny of St. Peter, commonly called the desmesnes of the 
 Church, which were now formed into a new republic, at 
 the will of the conquerors. 
 
 Venice, with her fleet and arsenals, shared the fate of 
 the rest of Italy, and though not subdued by force of 
 
432 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 arms, was among the number of those who were com- 
 pletely so, under the pretence of peace , and by the subtile 
 arts of those champions of freedom, who, with the fasci- 
 nating sounds of liberty and equality , accomplished 
 what the bravest generals and well disciplined armies, had 
 often attempted in vain.* 
 
 But though the French principles and politics thus 
 overcame this once valiant people, yet they allege, in 
 their excuse, that they were imposed upon by the satel- 
 lites and missionaries of the French philosophy. These 
 
 * Alexander’s pretence for invading the dominions of Abisares, 
 king of that part of India, beyond the river Hydaspes, who had 
 never done him the least injury, was u to civilize mankind.” So 
 the Spaniards murdered the inoffensive Mexicans by thousands, 
 for the good of their souls. 
 
 The famous Wm. Pitt, secretary of state to the king of Great 
 Britain, in a speech delivered in the house of commons, 3d Feb. 
 1800, says, on speaking of Buonaparte-— “ His entrance into Lom- 
 bardy was announced by a solemn proclamation, issued on the 
 27th April, 1796, which terminated with these words — “ Nations 
 of Italy, the French army is come to break your chains. ,, ‘ — Would 
 it not have been candid of him to have said, Nations of Italy, the 
 French army is come to plunder you ! 
 
 “ The French are the friends of the people, in every country ; 
 your religion, your property, your customs, shall be respected .” 
 This is followed by a second proclamation, dated from Milan, 20th 
 May, in these terms — “ Respect for property and personal securi- 
 ty ; respect for the religion of countries ; these are the sentiments 
 of the government of the French republic , and of the army of 
 Italy. The French, victorious, consider the nations of Lombardy 
 as their brothers.’’’’ In testimony of this fraternity, and to fulfil 
 the solemn pledge of respecting property, this very proclamation 
 imposed on the Milanese a provisional contribution to the amount 
 of twenty millions of livres, or nearly one million sterling ; and 
 successive exactions were afterwards levied, on that single state, 
 to the amount, in the whole, of nearly six millions sterling. Thus 
 did this government emphatically “ by peace destroy many.” 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 433 
 
 had been previously sent among them, and had debauch- 
 ed the morals and destroyed the principles of their citi- 
 zens at large, by the false, but fair promises of freedom, 
 and deliverance from the tyranny of their great men ; so 
 that, instead of enemies, they were received as their 
 guardian angels. But, when once in possession, the 
 mask was thrown off, and these heralds of peace could 
 not refrain from their established principle of rapine and 
 plunder. At first, indeed they entered the Venetian re- 
 public, with the most solemn declarations, confirming 
 the expectations of the people by public assurances, 
 “ that they came to free a virtuous people from servitude, 
 and to give them peace , with full and perfect liberty.” But 
 no sooner were they received as deliverers, and the great 
 friends of the human race, than they considered them- 
 selves as entitled to the property, the government, and 
 even to the persons of the inhabitants. 
 
 They did, without hesitation, on the final settlement 
 of their disputes, undertake to barter away the city, and 
 great part of its territory, with the citizens, to Austria, an 
 absolute monarch, whose government and principles, 
 they had so loudly reprobated as a curse to human na- 
 ture. This they did as a consideration for Belgium, 
 and other provinces, wrested from that unfortunate em- 
 peror ; while the French took the Venetian fleet and ar- 
 senals, and added them to their own naval forces. 
 
 In a letter from a person in the city at the time, we 
 have a feeling account of the proceedings of those stick- 
 lers for universal liberty and equality. “ The French,” 
 says this eminent person, “ who, in virtue of a solemn 
 compact made with us, in time of profound peace, were 
 received at Venice, as the men who brought with them 
 the ill applied term of liberty, have, at length, thrown us 
 
434 PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 upon the house of Austria : an event, which, in our 
 present circumstances, is the best that could have befal- 
 len us. The horrors accumulated on our heads during 
 their stay here, are indescribable ; heavy impositions and 
 taxes, were found necessary to support their troops, 
 while our own people, cruelly oppressed, were reduced 
 to the want of common necessaries. All the country 
 seats and places round our metropolis, are stripped and 
 robbed, and what they could not carry away was pur- 
 posely broken in pieces. The arsenal is completely 
 ruined : seven thousand cannons, mostly brass, were all 
 sunk in the sea before our faces, or spiked, so as to ren- 
 der them useless. The Buccentorn was burned in the 
 great square, with all its ornaments. They however 
 took care of the gold and silver with which it was deco- 
 rated. Public and private libraries were ransancked, 
 and all the valuable books and curious manuscripts for- 
 cibly carried away : — pictures from Churches, palaces, 
 and private possessions, are all gone ; nor would you 
 know your country again were you to see it. Even the 
 four bronze horses on St. Mark’s, became their prey ; 
 and they were trying to carry off the large statues in the 
 Piazzetta, the night before their departure, but the na- 
 tional guard hindered them, saying, there was no time. Our 
 beautiful stair- case, however, so richly inlaid, did not 
 escape : but being unable to take it away, they rolled the 
 heavy bombs and mortars down it, in order to crack, 
 crush, or break it to pieces. The fine galley, stationed 
 at the Piazzetta, with three or four feluccas, upon duty, 
 were sunk before our eyes, with perfidious triumph, 
 truly worthy of barbarians. Tell your brave friends in 
 England these particulars, but tell them too that Venice 
 was not conquered she was seduced ! — deceived ! — 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 435 
 
 betrayed ! by empty sounds indeed, but such as pleased 
 her easily deluded inhabitants. The fatal words liberty 
 and equality , not the French arms or courage, were our 
 ruin. The French have emissaries in almost every coun- 
 try ; — precursors, who prepare the way before them 
 emigrants in various shapes and characters ; — counts 
 beggars ; — priests ; — a masquerading tribe ; who, un-» 
 der different forms, beguile unthinking men, and poi- 
 son the principles of those they never could have sub- 
 dued by open contest.”* 
 
 The emperor, finding his capital in danger, and that 
 he was unable, with all his power, to make head against 
 this destructive flood, agreed to terms of pacification, 
 dictated by his enemies, and accepted of Venice and 
 part of her territory from the conquerors, as a compen- 
 sation for Belgium, part of Italy, and other places on the 
 Rhine ; all which he was obliged to relinquish at the will 
 of the French commander in chief. He delivered up 
 the strong posts of Manheim and Mantua, being the key 
 to Italy, to the Directory. The conquered provinces of 
 Italy were formed into two republics, and a constitution 
 given to each of them by the victorious Buonaparte, by 
 which they became wholly dependant on the republic of 
 France.f 
 
 * Gent. Mag. for March, 1798. p. 247. 
 
 t “ The conduct of the convention, wherever it has been able 
 to get a footing, or even to penetrate for a few moments, has pro- 
 ved that it meant to leave behind it only such ruins as might be 
 necessary to inform posterity, that at the close of the 18th centu- 
 ry, Europe was inhabited by ten polished, industrious , rich , and 
 powerful nations ; but that they were not able to maintain their 
 ground for more than a small number of years, after a monstrous 
 
 Kkk 
 
436 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 By this act of the emperor, he legalized (as far as was 
 in his power) all the atrocities of the French republic; 
 for by accepting of Venice, as a compensation for the 
 territories wrested from him by force of arms, he ac- 
 knowledged the right of the French republic to dispose 
 of it. He, therefore, cannot hereafter complain with jus- 
 tice, if the same power should grant Vienna to the Porte, 
 in return for the cession of Egypt or Syria to the terri- 
 ble nation. 
 
 I 
 
 The Directory having thus reduced their enemies, to 
 the solitary kingdom of Great Britain, began to feel the 
 want of means to procure pay and supplies for their nu- 
 merous armies. They cast a wishful eye on the rich, 
 though weak, city of Rome, notwithstanding their late 
 agreement. Besides this temptation, they considered 
 the leaving this city in the Pope’s power, and under his 
 immediate government, being called the head of the 
 Church universal, as a measure wholly inconsistent with 
 their inveterate hatred to the Christian faith, and their 
 firm determination to abolish the profession from the 
 earth. 
 
 They well knew the tenet of that Church, founded on 
 the sure promise of its great founder, that the gates of 
 hell should never prevail against his Church, and that 
 however improperly it was applied, yet that it was a 
 great support to the friends of that community. 
 
 They soon found a sufficient pretence (in their opin- 
 ion) for a quarrel. By raising a riot in the city, at the 
 
 convention had signified to them an order to disappear and return 
 to the chaos, in which it was resolved once more to plunge 
 society.”* 
 
 Marquis de Casaux, on the effects of taxes. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 437 
 
 head of which a French general placed himself, the 
 Pope’s troops were obliged to turn out to quell it. The 
 insurgents retreated to the French ambassador’s palace. 
 
 It being in the night, and the rioters refusing to submit, 
 the troops fired and killed the French general. The 
 disavowing of any intentions to offend the French gov- 
 ernment, on the part of the Pope, was in vain — All 
 submission was rejected ; — an army was immediately 
 ordered to Rome ; — the city was taken possession of 
 :he Pope dethroned ; — the city revolutionized, and form- 
 ed into an independent republic, on French principles. 
 
 The Holy Father, with a number of his cardinals, 
 ivere made prisoners, and sent to Florence, from whence, 
 it is said, the Pope is to go to Malta, or some other 
 foreign country, which he may choose, and where, it is 
 likely, from distress and chagrin, he will soon end his 
 lays, as he is now far advanced in age. The rest of the 
 cardinals and dignitaries of the Church are dispersed, or 
 eept as hostages. 
 
 “ And what renders this event still more extraordinary • 
 s, that the whole has been executed, not by heretics and 
 iliens, not by the avengers of Hugonots and Martyrs, but 
 ay men who were educated in all the prejudices of that 
 mtichristian Hierarchy ; — by members of that Church, 
 and subjects of that faith, whose utter destruction they 
 lave so anxiously sought.”* 
 
 Thus the Roman Catholic Church, that has existed 
 for near 1300 years, exercising more than human power, 
 is wounded at the heart, and it is almost certain, that the 
 death of a French general, at the head of an unlawful 
 insurrection, will be made the excuse to terminate the 
 race of Popes, as totheir temporal power, if not their 
 
 * Owen’s Christ. Mon. p. 11. 
 
438 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 ecclesiastical, and in the issue may once more (and per- 
 haps not many years hence) occasion the sacking, if not 
 burning, that metropolis of the world, “which has made 
 the kings of the earth drunk with the wine of her forni- 
 cation” — “ And here is the mind which hath wisdom, 
 the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the wo- 
 man sitteth ; and the ten horns, which thou sawest, are 
 ten kings. These have one mind, and shall give their 
 power and strength to the beast — For God shall put it 
 into their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give 
 their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God shall 
 be fulfilled. And the woman, which thou sawest, is the 
 great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth ; 
 and the ten horns, which thou sawest upon the beast, 
 these shall hate * the whore , and make her desolate and 
 naked ; and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 
 Therefore, shall her plagues come in one day; death 
 and mourning and famine ; and she shall be utterly burn- 
 ed with fire : for strong is the Lord God, who judgeth 
 her.”f 
 
 In this year, 1797, the French Directory scarcely 
 knew what to do. All their enemies were subdued, 
 (except Great Britain) and her conquests were extended 
 from sea to sea, on every side, beyond their most san- 
 guine expectations. They had a numerous army on 
 foot that must be paid, and whom, to disband and to re- 
 turn into the heart of their country, would, most likely, 
 be fatal to the Directory, and overturn all their great 
 plans of tyrannizing over so many nations. 
 
 * These words imply, shall forsake the whore.i 
 
 t Rev. 11th ch. 8th v. 
 
 r Baubuz, p. 79 5. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 439 
 
 The army adored their victorious general ; and his ce- 
 lebrity, as a conqueror, was too brilliant to suffer him to 
 remain at home inactive, or perhaps to become a politi- 
 cian ; in which case he might turn out a second Oliver 
 Cromwell or Julius Caesar. 
 
 Their resources again failed them, when plunder and 
 pillage could no longer replenish their coffers. Add to 
 this, that they had neighbours in the Swiss cantons, who 
 they had some reason to fear — They were known to be 
 a warlike people ; possessed of a country immensely 
 strong, and inaccessible by nature, and easily improva- 
 ble by art. A government also, which was an example 
 of too much energy, to be suffered to remain in peace, 
 while not submitting to French influence. Religion also 
 had an asylum here, that wounded them to the quick. 
 
 The first thing then, that the Directory turned 
 their attention to, as the greatest and most immediate 
 object to allure the whole body of their troops and 
 keep them contented, was, the projected invasion of 
 Great Britain and Ireland. In the first they hoped to gain 
 proselytes, with abundance of riches and plunder, and, 
 thereby, totally ruin their natural enemy. In the last, 
 they are sure of powerful assistance, from a general de- 
 fection of the inhabitants, who, from various oppressions 
 and sufferings, some imaginary, and some real, have 
 been driven to insurrections and intestine commotions ; 
 which perhaps have not been a little instigated by French 
 missionaries, and their illumined disciples. 
 
 Their numerous armies were immediately marched to 
 the sea coast, opposite to Great Britain, and are now, in 
 the spring of 1798, exerting every nerve, both by sea 
 and land, (at least in profession) to make the dangerous 
 and incalculable experiment, at the risk of their finances. 
 
440 PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 and the remainder of their fleet, under the command of 
 the hitherto invincible Buonaparte. By this means one 
 great end is gained at all events— The army is kept em- 
 ployed, and prevented from intermeddling in the inter- 
 nal affairs of government. 
 
 While these greater schemes were in preparation for 
 execution, and in order to remove every danger arising 
 from the neighbourhood of the Swiss cantons, which 
 might have been wrought upon by Great Britain, they 
 forward spies and demagogues to poison the princi- 
 ples, and debauch the morals of the restless and discon- 
 tented among that happy people. 
 
 They already had an ambassador there, a disciple of 
 the affiliated societies, who began the work. He was 
 every way calculated for the business. He was mild 
 and generous ; — soft and persuasive ; — kind and af- 
 fectionate ; — he persuaded the common people that 
 they were slaves to a vicious oligarchy ; — that it was 
 time to rouse and assert their freedom, at a time when, 
 if necessary, they could have the aid of the great nation, 
 to secure their peace, liberty, and a republican govern- 
 ment. He increased and widened the breaches made 
 by different political parties, in different cantons. He 
 was not alone ; he had many assistants of far worse cha- 
 racters than himself. These vermin of society insinua- 
 ted themselves into every department of the state : — they 
 paralyse every measure for the common defence : they 
 raise disputes and insurrections among the lower orders 
 of the people against their government, and parties in 
 the government, relative to the proper measures to be 
 pursued : — finally, they prevail upon one party, to 
 call in the aid of the great nation to settle peace among 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 44 ]_ 
 
 them.* This was the great desideratum. The Directory 
 march a body of 20,000 men, without much opposition, 
 into the heart of a country, where nothing but internal 
 division, and citizens becoming traitors to themselves, 
 could ever have introduced them. 
 
 * The following extract from a private letter from Zurich, will 
 support these facts — “ Were we at liberty, through the medium of 
 the press, freely to pour forth our lamentations, we should, at once, 
 awake, in our favour, the pity of the universe, and brand, with in- 
 delible infamy, that powerful nation of slaves, which appears to 
 exist for the horrid purpose of overturning order in society, but 
 whose peculiar malevolence has been long directed against this 
 once happy land. Nothing, my friend, can equal the baseness of 
 these people towards my countrymen— -they offered them the fra- 
 ternal hug, and they have smothered them in their perfidious em- 
 brace ! Every evil that has assailed our native land is to be ascri- 
 bed to them ! Every insurrection, that has convulsed us has been 
 contrived by the French government for the time being : while in 
 the face of Europe, they were unblushingly complaining, that, not 
 only they were unwilling to interfere in our internal concerns, 
 but that they warmly espoused our dearest interest, and were 
 contributing all in their power to promote our moral and po- 
 litical felicity — they were busy, wickedly industrious, in dissem- 
 inating discord through the land ! — in arming the father against 
 the son, one relative against another. The most convincing proof 
 that can be adduced of the treachery of the great nation, towards 
 Switzerland, is found in the conduct of the French government 
 towards the leaders of the different insurrections which have dis- 
 tracted us. These chiefs, no doubt, were all taken into custody; 
 but, far from being brought to trial, they were liberated and sent 
 to France, where they were provided for in the French army ; 
 and, believe me, that there are, at present, with gen. Le Clerc, 
 upwards of seventy Swiss officers, who, agents of Buonaparte’s 
 government, were secured pro forma, and then dispatched to 
 France, where, as a further encouragement to traitors, they were 
 received with enthusiasm, and. treated with more distinction than 
 if they had really been men of unsullied honour.” 
 
442 PRESENT appearance op things, both civil 
 
 Their adherents in the public councils prevent any 
 decisive and defensive measures, till the enemy are al- 
 most at their gates.* 
 
 There is nothing left for the brave defenders of their 
 country, now unprepared and unorganized, butto sell their 
 lives as dear as possible, many having determined never 
 to survive the liberties of their beloved country. 
 
 Alarmed at their sudden and unforeseen danger; — 
 not knowing on whom to lay the blame with precision, 
 they become jealous of their best friends, from suspicions 
 perhaps artfully suggested by their mortal enemies. 
 
 They rush precipitately and rashly on the foe ; — Men, 
 women, and children ; with guns, clubs, scythes, and 
 any thing they could lay hold of, to answer as a weapon 
 of assault. They destroy thousands of their invaders, 
 at the expense of tens of thousands of their own lives, 
 and through want of discipline and order in their attacks, 
 they finally fall a sacrifice to superior arrangement and 
 military skill ; — they lose their lives and their country 
 together. 
 
 * <£ This little republic, once free and happy, fell a victim to 
 French rapacity and intrigue. Its mountains, the haunt of the 
 shepherd — its vallies the asylum of innocence, through which the 
 song of mirth was re-echoed with each revolving day, could not 
 escape the darkness and desolation which enshrouded and disfigu- 
 red the fairest portion of the earth. Peace dwelt where the brave 
 Tell bearded the despot in other days, and liberty adorned the 
 brows of the cliffs of hardy Helvetia. Scenes, how delightful to 
 the Philanthropist ! how odious to Frenchmen ! They marched 
 into this favoured region. The eagle of the revolutionary tyrants 
 waved over the spot which the huntsman had trodden in manly se- \ 
 curity ; and the groans of despair mingled with the shrieks of vio- 
 lated beauty, were heard in those hamlets formerly animated by 
 the simple, though celebrated, “ Rans de Yache.”f 
 
 | Gazette of U. S. published when these sheets were going to the press. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 443 
 
 The melancholy picture of the state of the Swiss can- 
 tons, is given in very affecting language by the celebra- 
 ted Lavater, in a letter to the Executive Directory of 
 France, dated the first year of Helvetic slavery. Zurich, 
 May 10, 1798. “You talked of nothing but liberty, 
 Dut every one of your actions strove to enslave us. Can 
 /•ou deny it. All your words were orders : all your 
 councils were the mandates of a despot. We were never 
 hus commanded, when, according to your false asser- 
 ion, we were slaves ; such blind implicit obedience, was 
 lever demanded from us, as is now exercised, when, by 
 r our assertion, we are free. 
 
 We were promised, at least verbally, by the agents of 
 he great nation, that no French troops should enter our 
 anton : that not a sous should be demanded of us ; yet 
 lie very reverse happened : they had the impudence to 
 xactfrom us three millions of livres; — they hadthecruel- 
 y to march troops into our canton, without the least pre- 
 ious application, to exhaust our poor innocent country. 
 11 other words, they forced upon us the the liberty of 
 uffering ourselves to be stripped of all rational freedom, 
 lever can you find an excuse for your savage atrocity. 
 r ou who are never at a loss for an ingenious turn, to 
 irow the delusive cloak of virtue around the horrors of 
 cranny, and stamp the most enormous despotism with 
 le name of freedom. Open thine eyes, great nation ! 
 id deliver us from this liberty of hell.” 
 
 How clearly does Daniel describe the character of the 
 reat nation. “ And through his policy also, he shall 
 luse craft to prosper in his hand ; and he shall magnify 
 mself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many 
 
 * Daniel, 8th ch. 35th v, 
 
 L 1 1 
 
444 present appearance of things, both civil 
 
 This once celebrated republic, under the name of the 
 Helvetic confederacy, known and feared by the nations 
 of Europe, and beloved by all the good and great, was 
 pillaged, revolutionized, and formed into a consolidated, 
 modern republic, one and indivisable, under the direc- 
 tion of French principles, influence, and protection, in 
 less time than it would have formerly taken to have pen- 
 etrated ten miles within their territory. 
 
 To confirm these ideas on the manner in which Swit- 
 zerland was treated by the French republic, I will add a 
 proof of the first grade, to shew the true sense of those 
 prophetic words, “ and by peace shall destroy many.” 
 It is an official note delivered to the Directory of that 
 government, by B. Zelterer : — “ The minister plenipo- 
 tentiary of the Helvetic republic, fulfils the first and most 
 pleasing of the duties imposed upon him by his constitu- 
 ents, in testifying to the great nation, and to its constitu- 
 ted authorities, their gratitude for the benefits conferred) 
 upon them, of a constitution, founded on the principles 
 of liberty and equal rights. Could the Helvetic repub- 
 licans have recovered their indefeasible rights, without 
 being deprived of all the means of enjoying them, the 
 gratitude they now profess would have known nc 
 bounds.” 
 
 “ Intimately connected with the French nation, during 
 many centuries, by all the ties of mutual esteem, by the 
 intercourse of commerce and treaties, founded upon re- 
 ciprocal advantages, the Helvetic people would, with 
 rapture, still be its faithful ally, its friend, and its admi- 
 rer, did not too many sufferings attend their political 
 regeneration. Is it then written in the book of destiny, 
 that the noble gift of freedom must be purchased at the 
 price of eveYy kind of oppression which can afflict a pco 
 pie ?” 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 445 
 
 u When, iii conferring freedom on a people, you 
 clothe it in the rags of misery ; when you compel it to 
 exchange its gay and genuine felicity, for gloomy deject- 
 edness and all manner of vexation ; when the husband- 
 man foregoes his plough, and the artist both his work 
 and implements ; when the virtuous and peaceful citizen 
 is stript of his property, and all his rights are trampled 
 upon, you have, O great nation ! you have missed your 
 aim. England triumphs.” 
 
 By such means as these, this unhappy war, waged by 
 a government arisen suddenly, and almost miraculously, 
 from the lowest dregs of an ignorant and superstitious 
 people, has extended itself to Germany, Belgium, Hol- 
 land, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland, and even the Greek 
 islands, together with a threatened invasion of Great 
 Britain and Ireland. And thus have the cities of the na- 
 tions fallen. Wherever it has prevailed, the destruction 
 of the human race has been only equalled by the un- 
 quenchable thirst for increasing the evil. 
 
 “ The common people in France were anciently slaves 
 to the feudal lords, and had obtained their freedom upon 
 different conditions. In many places they and their pos- 
 terity remained bound to pay a perpetual tribute to the 
 lords. No man could, formerly, be an officer in the 
 army, without producing proofs of nobility for four gen- 
 rations ; and none were admitted as members of Parlia- 
 ment but the noblesse. 
 
 By these means, the common people were extremely 
 ignorant and superstitious. These formed a great part 
 of the tiers etat, or commons of France, at, and since the 
 revolution ; and many of them were chosen from the 
 lowest orders of the people. As for the great mass of 
 the common people, they were too ignorant, too super- 
 
446 PRESENT appeabance of things, both civil 
 
 stitiously attached to old establishments, and too much 
 depressed to have any conception of the nature of politi- 
 cal liberty, or any hopes of obtaining it.” 
 
 When, therefore, they suddenly emerged from this 
 abject! state of society, into the plenitude of unlimited 
 power, they paid little regard to liberty as founded in 
 principle, when claimed by others, over whom the for- 
 tune of war had given them the mastery : and as to pro- 
 perty, they considered it always as transferred by the 
 superior force of arms. It was no wonder then, that li- 
 berty and property, held sacred in every free and civilized 
 country, fell prostrate before these ferocious conquerors : 
 and the nobility, the clergy, with all the higher grades 
 in society, and those who were cursed with visible pro- 
 perty, became the peculiar objects of their savage fury. 
 
 The destruction of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in 
 France, from its immense magnitude, as well as that of 
 the nobility, was an awful instance of the utter uncer- 
 tainty of all human things, and the absolute certainty of 
 the prophetic denunciation of the Scriptures. 
 
 The following estimate, given by a noble emigrant, 
 will afford some idea of the shock that must have con- 
 vulsed the nation, on its dissolution. 
 
 “ The Church of France was composed of eighteen 
 archbishopricks, in the appointment of the king, as were 
 one hundred and eighteen bishopricks. The parishes 
 amounted to thirty four thousand four hundred and nine- 
 ty-eight ; and there were four thousand six hundred and 
 forty-four annexed parishes. The regular clergy consisted 
 of sixteen chiefs of congregated orders ; — eleven hundred 
 abbeys and monasterys, comprehending sixteen large 
 royal abbeys. The king named to six hundred and 
 seventy-eight of these abbeys, which were in commen- 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 447 
 
 dam, and confirmed the election of the others. Of reli- 
 gious mendicants, there were fifteen hundred and twenty- 
 convents, divided into eighty- seven monastic provinces. 
 The endowed monasterys and abbeys amounted to five 
 lundred and fifty-seven, of which two hundred and fifty 
 vere in the royal nomination. The convents, of differ- 
 ent religious orders, of both sexes, were about three 
 housand and eight hundred. 
 
 The clergy assembled every five years ; — other meet- 
 ngs were extraordinary. According to different calcu- 
 ations, which have been made, there were in the kingdom 
 bout three hundred and sixty-six thousand two hundred 
 hd sixty-six regular and secular clergy ; who enjoyed a 
 r early revenue of about one hundred and sixteen mil- 
 ions, two hundred and sixteen thousand and six hundred 
 ivres ; or five millions sterling.* This was received in 
 be following proportions : 
 
 136 
 1,850 
 
 4,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 4,000 
 0,000 
 0,000 
 
 5,500 
 
 * In the estimate of expenses of government of 1792, which 
 fonsieur La Fond reported to the convention, besides all the es- 
 iblished revenue of the clergy, one article for public worship is 
 ghty-one million of livres.t 
 
 t 1st vol. Hist of French Revol. p. 268. 
 
 archbishops and bishops, 
 
 4,909,000 
 
 canons, 
 
 8,209,900 
 
 singers of the choirs, 
 
 4,100,000 
 
 children of do. 
 
 800,000 
 
 curates and prior curates, 
 
 46,000,000 
 
 secondary vicars, 
 
 7,000,000 
 
 ecclesiastics employed in semina - 1 
 ries and colleges, without benefi- > 
 
 • 1,735,000 
 
 ces, and 208 of the order of Malta . ) 
 religious of chief orders of abbeys ' 
 and priories, < 
 
 1 19,555,600 
 
448 PKESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 46,500 religious mendicants, of which 24, \ 
 
 000 were endowed a 250 livres, ( 3,600,000 
 each, ) 
 
 80,000 nuns, 20,000,000 
 
 And even this immense valuation does not amount to 
 more than half the real sums received.* 
 
 This mighty mass has been destroyed and laid in ruins 
 by the revolution, and the misery of all, attached by their 
 habits, to this institution, has been rendered certain. To 
 dismember so great a part of any community, especially 
 an active part, must have been attended with great con- 
 vulsions ; not presuming even to imagine the anguish 
 from religious scruples, quite distinct from their poverty, 
 and the public injuries they must have sustained. It 
 was an establishment of usurpation, but it was a work of 
 time. 
 
 The present generation were habituated to it by na- 
 tional education, and laws built upon it ; and violence to 
 humanity, must have been offered in their immediate 
 destruction.” 
 
 The enmity of the French government, in their revo- 
 lutionized state, towards the clergy of their country, has 
 already been taken notice of, as originating in their aver- 
 sion to the Christian system. The clergy were at the 
 head of the professed visible Church of Christ in France, 
 however erroneous they might have been in doctrine and 
 practice, and however far they might have departed from 
 the simplicity of the Gospel they professed to believe ; 
 and there can be no doubt, even with the most pre- 
 
 * In France, before the revolution, the revenues of the clergy, 
 in lands, tythes, &c. were reckoned to amount to twenty -five mil- 
 lions sterling.! 
 
 f Playfair on the Decline, Sec. p. 266. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 449 
 
 judiced Protestant, that among so great a number of pro- 
 fessors there must have been thousands of pious, devout 
 souls, who placed all their hopes in the glad tidings of 
 salvation, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 It was then, a rooted enmity to the religion of the Gos- 
 pel, that actuated these ferocious monsters, in their inhu- 
 man destruction of the Clergy of the French Church. 
 
 This temper was not discoverable, in a greater degree, 
 in any of their barbarities, than it was in the abominable 
 massacre of the priests at the Carmes, as related in a letter 
 to the famous Mr. Gibbon, and published in the first 
 volume of his Miscellaneous Works, folio 262, as fol- 
 lows, “ One hundred and twenty priests were confined 
 in the Carmelite convent, at the head of whom was the 
 archbishop of Arles — Two of them were saved miracu- 
 lously by climbing up trees in the garden, and from 
 thence over the tops of the buildings. — On the 2d Sep- 
 tember, 1791, about 5 o’clock, at the time they were 
 permitted to walk in the garden, expecting every hour to 
 be released, they expressed their surprise at seeing seve- 
 ral large pits, which had been digging for two days past : 
 they said, the day is almost spent, and yet Mannuel told a 
 person who interceded for us, last Thursday, that on the 
 Sunday following, not one should remain in captivity ; 
 we are still prisoners. Soon after, they heard shouts, and 
 some musket shots. — An ensign of the national guards, 
 some commissaries of sections, and some marsellois, 
 rushed in. The miserable victims, who were dispersed 
 in the garden, assembled under the walls of the Church, 
 not daring to go in, lest it should be polluted with blood. 
 One man, who was behind the rest, was shot. Point de 
 coup de fusils, cried one of the chiefs of the assassins, 
 thinking that kind of death too easy. These well train- 
 
450 PRESENT appearance op things, both civil 
 
 ed fusileers went to the rear. — Les piques, les haches, 
 les poignards, came forward. — They demanded the Arch- 
 bishop of Arles. He was immediately surrounded by 
 all the priests. — This worthy prelate said to his friends, 
 let me pass , if my blood will appease them , what signifies 
 it if I die ? Is it not my duty to preserve your lives at the 
 expense of my own ? He asked the eldest of the priests 
 to give him absolution ; he knelt to receive it ; and when 
 he arose, forced himself from them, advanced slowly, and 
 with his arms crossed upon his breast, and his eyes 
 raised to Heaven, said to the assassins, “ Je suis celui 
 qui vous cherchezf “ I am him whom ye seek.” 
 His appearance was so dignified and noble, that during 
 ten minutes, not one of these wretches had courage to 
 lift his hand against him; they upbraided each other 
 with cowardice, and advanced. One look from this ve-j 
 nerable man struck them with awe, and they retired. At 
 last, one of the miscreants struck off the cap of the Arch- 
 bishop with a pike ; respect once violated, their fury re- 
 turned, and another from behind, cut him through the 
 skull with a sabre. He raised his right hand to his 
 eyes ; with another stroke they cut off his hand. The 
 archbishop said, Oh! mon Dieu ! and raised the other; 
 a third storke across the face left him sitting ; the fourth 
 extended him lifeless on the ground ; and then all pres- 
 sed forward and buried their pikes and poignards in the 
 body — The priests all agreed, that he had been one of 
 the most amiable men in France ; and that his only crime 
 was, having since the revolution, expended his private 
 fortune, to support the necessitous Clergy of his diocess. 
 
 The second victim was the general de Benedictines. 
 Then the national guards obliged the priests to go into 
 the Church, telling them they should appear, one after 
 another, before the Commissaire de section. They had 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 45 \ 
 
 hardly entered, before the people impatiently called for 
 them ; upon which, all kneeling before the altar, the 
 bishop of Beauvais gave them absolution : they were 
 then obliged to go out two by two ; they passed before 
 a Commissaire, who did not question, but only counted 
 his victims ; they had in their sight the heaps of dead, to 
 which they were going to add. Among 120 priests, thus 
 sacrificed, were the bishops of Zaintes and Beauvais, both 
 of the Rochfoucault family. I should not omit to remark, 
 that one of the priests observed, that they were assassina- 
 ted because they would not swear to a constitution which 
 their murderers had destroyed. 
 
 There can be no doubt but this whole business of the 
 massacre, was concerted at a meeting at the Duke of Or- 
 leans’ house. 
 
 This opposition to, and hatred of the clergy, did not 
 irise even from a bigotted love of the truth, or an enthu- 
 siastic desire to purify the Church, and bring it back to 
 its first principles, but it was from an inbred hatred to 
 religion, that every principle of humanity and civilized 
 ife, was thus outraged. It was, as Tertullian calls it, 
 nominis pralium , an attack on the very name.J How- 
 ever, this nation so famous for her cruel massacres, and 
 :hese unhappy professors of the Gospel, might have de- 
 
 * Without farther deliberation, a party of armed men proceed- 
 id to the Cannes, where a number of the non-juring priests were 
 letained, till an opportunity should occur of putting in force their 
 lentence of banishment ; and there, in cold blood, the remorse 
 ess assassins sacrificed every one of those defenceless, and proba- 
 tly innocent men.f 
 
 t 2d vol. Hist, of French Revol. p.72. 
 
 1 Tertull. Apol. ch. 2. p. 4. 
 
 M m m 
 
452 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 served to have been sifted and cleansed from their 
 backslidings, errors, and idolatries, by their great lord 
 and master, the head of his Church, who had a sovereign 
 right, even to use such monsters of cruelty to accom- 
 plish his designs, undoubtedly of mercy on the great 
 scale ; yet the temper and disposition, with which they 
 have executed the divine vengeance, could be no part 
 of their duty, but for which, when their cup of iniquity 
 shall be full, they will, in their turn, be signally punish- 
 ed, as Assyria and Babylon were of old, under like cir- 
 cumstances. “ Ho ! to the Assyrian, the rod of mine 
 anger, the staff in whose hand is the instrument of mine 
 indignation. Against a dissembling nation will I send 
 him ; and against a people the object of my wrath will I 
 give him a charge, to gather the spoil and to bear away 
 the prey, and to trample them under foot like the mire 
 of the streets. — But he doth not so purpose ; and his 
 heart doth not so intend ; but to destroy is in his heart, || 
 and to cut off nations not a few. 
 
 “ But it shall be when Jehovah hath accomplished his 
 whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will 
 punish the effect of the proud heart of the king of Assy- 
 ria and the triumphant look of his haughty eyes. For he 
 hath said, by the strength of mine hand have I done it, 
 and by my wisdom, for I am endowed with pru- 
 dence. I have removed the bounds of the people. I 
 have plundered their hoarded treasures, and I have 
 brought down those that were strongly seated, and my 
 hand hath found, as a nest, the riches of the people.”* 
 
 And again, in the case of the invasion of Judea by 
 the king of Babylon, “ Descend and sit in the dust, O 
 virgin daughter of Babylon ! sit on the bare ground 
 
 * Isaiah, 10th ch. 5th & 14th v. Vid. all Buonaparte’s conduct. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 453 
 
 without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans ! — I was 
 angry with my people. — I profaned my heritage, and I 
 gave them up into thine hand ; thou didst not show 
 mercy unto them ; even upon the aged didst thou great- 
 ly aggravate the weight of thy yoke, and saidst I shall be 
 a lady for ever. But hear now this, O thou voluptuous, 
 that sittest in security. Thou that sayest in thine heart, 
 I am and there is none else : I shall not sit a widow ; I 
 shall not know the loss of children ; yet these two things 
 shall come upon thee in a moment : in one day loss of 
 children and widowhood ; on a sudden , shall they some 
 upon thee .* Evil shall come upon thee, which thou 
 shalt not know how to deprecate ; and mischief shall fall 
 on thee, which thou shalt not be able to expiate ; and 
 destruction shall come upon thee suddenly, of which thou 
 shalt have no apprehension, f 
 
 In all the late revolution, there has not been even the 
 profession of a design to honour the God of Heaven, or 
 benefit his real servants in any thing that has been done ; 
 but on the contrary, all religion, morality, and respect to 
 the revealed will of God have been prostrated, in pro- 
 portion to their success. Atheism, deism, and the 
 worst species of idolatry, with all their horrid consequen- 
 ces, have been encouraged, practised, and propagated, by 
 authority of law, and the example of the convention, as 
 well as by almost every rank of citizens, who have been 
 active in the new order of things. 
 
 * When the author wrote this, many years ago, he little thought 
 that he should live to see this prediction so literally fulfilled, in the 
 late downfall of Buonaparte and the total overthrow of the em- 
 pire he had usurped. 
 
 t Isaiah, 47th ch. which see, and compare with the consequen- 
 ces of the French Conscriptions. 
 
454 present appearance of things, both civil 
 
 Even where they have not prevailed by force of arms, 
 they have, by their pioneers, scattered destruction, in a 
 religious and moral point of view, as well as political, by- 
 spreading the most diabolical principles, as to the one, 
 and the greatest jealousies and dissatisfactions as to the 
 other, throughout every grade of society, and thereby 
 have sapped the foundation of political and religious 
 truth among the ignorant, unstable, and thoughtless, 
 throughout the governments of Europe. 
 
 But to form a correct idea of their nefarious system 
 as originally planned, even before their power became 
 so absolute and universal as it has since become, it may 
 give more satisfaction to some to take their own exhibi- 
 tion of their principles, from a report made to the nation- 
 al convention by the diplomatic committee, who were 
 appointed to confer on the conduct proper to be observed 
 by France with other nations, dated 15th Dec. 1793. 
 “ The committees of finance and war ask, in the begin- 
 ning, what is the object of the war which we have taken 
 in hand ? without all doubt, the object is the annihilation 
 of all privileges ; war with the palaces ; peace with the 
 cottages. These are the principles on which your decla- 
 ration of war is founded. All tyranny, all privilege 
 must be treated as an enemy, in the countries where we 
 set our foot. This is the genuine result of our principles. 
 But it is not with kings alone that we are to wage war. 
 Were these our sole enemies we should only have to 
 bring down ten or twelve heads. We have to fight with 
 all their accomplices ; — with the privileged orders who 
 devour, and have oppressed the people during many 
 centuries. 
 
 We must, therefore, declare ourselves for a revolution- 
 ary power , in all the countries into which we enter. Nor 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 455 
 
 need we put on the cloak of humanity ; we disdain such 
 little arts. We must clothe ourselves with all the bril- 
 liancy of reason, and all the force of the nation. We 
 need not mask our principles ; — the despots know them 
 already. The first thing we must do, is to ring the 
 alarm bell for insurrection and uproar. We must, in a 
 solemn manner, let the people see the banishment of 
 their tyrants and privileged casts ; otherwise, the people, 
 accustomed to their fetters, will not be able to break 
 their bonds. It will effect nothing, merely to excite a 
 rising of the people — This would only be giving them 
 words, instead of standing by them. And, since in this 
 manner, we ourselves are the revolutionary administra- 
 tion, all that is against the rights of the people must be 
 overthrown at our entry. We must display our princi- 
 ples, by actually destroying all tyranny ; and our generals, 
 after having chased away the tyrants and their satellites, 
 must proclaim to the people that they have brought them 
 happiness ; and then, on the spot, they must suppress 
 tythes, feudal rights, and every species of servitude. 
 But we shall have done nothing if we stop here — Aristo- 
 cracy still domineers. We must, therefore, suppress all 
 authorities existing in the hands of the upper classes. 
 When the revolutionary authority appears, there must 
 not remain any thing of the old establishment. — A pop- 
 ular system must be introduced. — Every office must be 
 occupied by new functionaries ; and the sans -culottes 
 must every where have a share in the administration. 
 
 Still nothing is done till we declare aloud the precision 
 of our principles, to such as want only half freedom. We 
 must say to them, if you think of compromising with 
 the privileged casts, we cannot suffer such dealing with 
 tyrants. They are our enemies, and we must treat them 
 
456 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 as such, because they are neither for liberty or equality. 
 Show yourselves disposed to receive a free constitution, 
 and the convention will not only stand by you, but will 
 give you permanent support. We will defend you against 
 the vengeance of your tyrants, against their attacks and 
 against their return. Therefore, abolish from among 
 you the nobles, and every ecclesiastical and military in- 
 corporation. — They are incompatible with equality. — 
 Henceforward, you are citizens all equal in rights ; — 
 equally called upon to rule, to defend, and to serve your 
 country. 
 
 The agents of the French republic will instruct and 
 assist you in forming a free constitution, and assure you 
 of happiness and fraternity.”* 
 
 “ This report was loudly applauded and decreed ac- 
 cordingly : It was ordered to be printed in all languages, 
 and dispersed through every country they invaded.” 
 
 In short, after this long investigation of the acts and 
 principles, of this new, strange and uncommon govern- 
 ment, we may say, ludicrously called the republic of 
 France ; we may safely conclude, that whatever has gen- 
 erally been attributed to the prophetical figure of an 
 earthquake in the divine scriptures, or, by heathen anti- 
 quity, has been verified in their proceedings : we mean 
 the changing the forms of political governments, and the 
 religion of states ; — the removal of seats of empire ; — 
 the alteration of the boundaries of kingdoms, provinces, 
 districts, and territorial divisions ; — the destruction of 
 all ecclesiastical power and influence ; the entire rejection 
 of the Bible, as the word of God ; — the abolishing his di- 
 vine worship ; — the establishing of atheism ; — the most 
 
 * Proofs of Conspir. p. 309. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 457 
 
 violent and cruel popular commotions ; — the changing 
 of times ; — names of places ; — the abolition of titles of 
 dignity; — of communities and societies; — the perversion 
 of public justice ; — the total destruction of subordina- 
 tion among men ; — the most cruel and infamous mur- 
 ders ; — banishments ; — proscriptions ; — robberies, and 
 oppression of every kind. 
 
 Perhaps the ideas of those unfortunate individuals, 
 who have felt the force and effects of this revolution in 
 their own persons, and who relate facts from actual ex- 
 perience, and as they happened within their own know- 
 ledge, without any particular regard to religion, or 
 reference to the divine predictions, will be the best com- 
 ments on the conduct of this extraordinary government, 
 and may apply them most closely, though involuntarily, 
 to the forewarnings of revelation. 
 
 Hear, then, the most serious truths from one, who, 
 with patriotic fervour, describes the distresses brought 
 on his country. “ O my country, are you free? This is 
 the question which every worthy man puts to himself in 
 running over this soil, still wet with the blood of its most 
 virtuous inhabitants ; this country, where the w^recks of 
 the most elegant monuments of human art, lie scattered 
 by the side of dead bodies : this France, formerly so peo- 
 pled ! — so magnificent ! to day changed into a desart, 
 and covered with the crape of tombs. O my country ! 
 liberty, that object of thy love and first sacrifices ! Has 
 she been the price of thy scourges, which some monsters 
 have heaped on thy surface ? In fine, are you free ? All 
 are silent. By what fatality has it happened, that the 
 people were at the mercy of a horde of robbers ? What 
 have they done to merit this shameful destiny ? Is it 
 necessary that a revolution should partake of the horrors 
 
458 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 of a volcano , or the terrors of an earthquake ? But if a 
 calm now appears, ought we not to examine the losses 
 we have sustained ; to count the victims, and to give 
 each of them the tribute of regret it merits ? We have 
 seen monsters on the throne. We have seen the senate 
 of Rome disgorge the Appius’s ; but what was never 
 seen till this enlightened age ; — what will never be seen 
 again ; is the genius of crime convoking all the wicked, 
 vile monsters, disseminated in the crowd of an immense 
 nation, attaching them one to the other ; confounding to- 
 gether all the elements of depravity ; all the amalgamation 
 of ferocity ; kneading, with this impure filth, the enor- 
 mous colossus of destruction ; animating it with the fire of 
 hell; covering his forehead with the diadem of kings; 
 his shoulders with a senatorial robe ; his body with a 
 brazen coat of mail, and giving up to this monster their 
 unheard of riches, fields, cities, provinces, empire, and 
 men. 
 
 Had Lewis been less timid, France, at this day, wouldlj 
 not have been in the ruined state she is at present — ruin- 
 ed, I say, notwithstanding all our boasted victories, and 
 territorial acquisitions ; for what conquests can compen- 
 sate for the loss of religion, morality, commerce and 
 manufactures ; — for the disorganization of civil society ; 
 
 - — the relaxation of principles necessary for the existence 
 of social order ; and the engendering of horrid feuds, 
 animosities, and deadly factions, which, for years to 
 come, will make our wretched country the seat of car- 
 nage, butchers, and civil discord. 
 
 This step of Lewis produced its intended object. 
 The massacres of September ; — and amidst the horrors 
 of those massacres did the convention spring forth. It was 
 composed of simple and thoughtless men ; — of villains ; 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 459 
 
 i — flaming partizans; — the accomplices, and who will 
 believe it, even the principal actors on those horrid days ; 
 of those men, who, to gain the Curule chair, feigned for 
 liberty an unbounded enthusiasm in the clubs, in the 
 sections, and in the primary assemblies ; — deceived the 
 people with respect to their true interests ; bore on their 
 foreheads, love of country, written in characters of blood ; 
 and building on the continuance of massacres, the con- 
 I tinuance of their insolence and future grandeur.*” 
 
 Thus have we brought down, in a very imperfect and 
 concise manner, it is confessed, the very slight abstract 
 of great events which have happened in the government 
 of France, from the year 1760 to this year, 1798, which 
 we take to have been prefigured by the divine apostle 
 John, in the Apocalypse, under the character of the 
 beast arising out of the bottomless pit, or abyss of the 
 sea. 
 
 Any person, who will give himself the trouble of read- 
 ing any of the histories of the French republic, will be 
 surprized to find how faint our colours are, when com- 
 pared with the full representation of the transactions of 
 this all devouring beast, in the aggregate. 
 
 He will then, more clearly, see the concentration of all 
 the marks, or signs, designated by divine wisdom and 
 foreknowledge. He will not be able to avoid feeling the 
 force of the angel’s declaration to Daniel, “ many shall 
 be purified, and made white, and tried ; but the wicked 
 shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall under- 
 stand, but the wise shall understand ,” — that is, as Dr. 
 Lowth paraphrases it, “ the nearer the time approaches 
 for the final accomplishment of this prophesy, the more 
 
 * History of Crimes committed during the French revolution, 
 :1st vol. p. 1. 
 
 N n n 
 
460 present appearance op things, both civil 
 
 light shall men have for understanding it ; for the gra- 
 dual completion of this and other prophecies, shall direct 
 observant readers to form a judgment concerning those 
 particulars, which are yet to be fulfilled.” 
 
 On a review of this subject, we find this extraordinary 
 government, answering, in all its parts, the particular 
 predictions of sacred writ, as if related since its rise. It is 
 a government of an unusual origin ; that is, from the low- 
 est orders of a great and mighty nation, in opposition to 
 military strength, — power, — riches, — inclination, and the 
 most rivetted superstitious attachments. 
 
 It is a government of a fierce countenance, and mark- 
 ed with every character of cruelty, desolation, and 
 bloodshed. It has arisen when transgression, as we have 
 herein before seen, was indeed full — when the whole 
 body of the clergy professing obedience to the laws of 
 Christ, was proscribed, banished or cruelly massacred. 
 - — The worship of Almighty God done away and laugh- 
 ed td scorn — The temples of the living God profaned, 
 and literally cast down with the truth to the ground, by 
 the institution of a blasphemous worship in its stead, 
 worse than Pagan idolatry — All the sacred Vessels devo- 
 ted to the service of God, with the whole property of 
 the Church, either confiscated, destroyed, or plundered. 
 —Ordinances were passed by the convention permitting, 
 and by their presence encouraging, the worst kind of 
 idol worship ; deifying nature, liberty, &c. and publickiy 
 denying and reprobating the God of heaven and earth, 
 the creator of all things ; thus denying the Father and 
 the Son. — Death was declared only an eternal sleep.— 
 The most vicious and abominable characters were deified, 
 and schools erected for instructing youth in these abom 
 inable practices. An altar was erected in one of the 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 45 1 
 
 Churches of Christ, ancl public homage thereon paid to 
 an abandoned woman, under the character of liberty. 
 All this was followed (as in the case of Jerusalem) by the 
 revolt of the department of Vendee, which caused the 
 destruction of about 30,000 of the citizens of France. 
 But the government still prospered against the people of 
 God, in all its schemes and practices, except in its desire 
 of obtaining an implicit submission to its will ; as much 
 the greater part of the clergy refused obedience, and ra- 
 ther submitted to banishment, confiscation, and death, 
 than acknowledge a power they considered as unlawful 
 and abominable. Yet they succeeded and overcome all 
 opposition, and in the most public and open manner, 
 stood up against the Prince of the host of Heaven , the 
 Prince of Princes, or Jesus Christ, the Saviour, whose 
 worship they had contemned, whose being, together 
 with that of God, the Father,* they denied, and whose 
 sanctuaries they had destroyed or defiled with every de- 
 testable practice, spreading a wing of abomination over 
 the whole land. In one place we find them, to show the 
 utmost contempt of the service of God, dressing up an 
 ass in pontifical robes, with a Bible and some sacred 
 vases put on his back, and thus, with the most diabo- 
 lical joy and shoutings, burning him in a large fire. 
 
 This government has indeed exercised a mighty pow- 
 er, but it has been, in a great measure, by the aid of the 
 neighbouring nations, both as to money and men — Spain, 
 Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Geneva, Genoa, Tus- 
 cany, Sardinia, Naples, Venice, and all Italy, not except- 
 ing Rome, that once mistress of nations, the beast with 
 seven heads and ten horns, herself — It has not been 
 
 * Vid. 1st Epist. John, 2d ch. 22d v. 
 
462 PRESENT APPEAltANCE OF THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 solely by the inherent power of this government, as has 
 been foretold, in sacred writ, that she has accomplished 
 these mighty things. Her understanding dark sayings, 
 or by dark and secret measures, by means of her affiliated 
 societies and lodges of Illuminati, who have been her 
 pioneers in every nation and every army she has gone 
 against, to debauch, divide, and suborn the subjects of 
 her enemies, have been part of the means of her success. 
 Thus has she literally fulfilled the sacred text, by des- 
 troying wonderfully, or beyond all fair calculation. By 
 a late treatise, written in Italy, it is stated, on tolerable 
 good grounds, that, from the year 1796, there have been 
 taken from that ill fated country, 538,260,000 livres, for 
 the benefit of the French army and government. And it 
 otherwise appears, that at least two millions of men have 
 been destroyed in France during the revolutionary war, 
 among whom are reckoned 25,000 women, 23,000 chil- 
 dren, besides those murdered in the womb, and 24,000 
 Christian priests.* This destruction has been manifestly 
 prevalent among the nobility, clergy, and army, and it 
 was expressly foretold that this government “ should des- 
 troy the mighty and the holy people .” 
 
 Another marked character of this government, in sa- 
 cred writ, we find to be, “ and through his policy, also, 
 he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand” — but the most 
 unequivocal and characteristical mark, peculiarly exem- 
 plified in this government ; in distinction from all other 
 governments is, “ that he shall magnify himself in his 
 heart, and by peace shall destroy many .” This is an 
 uncommon mark of character, and one, which, at the 
 first blush, seems rather to be enigmatical, till para- 
 
 * 2 Kett. Hist, on Proph. p. 251, 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 453 
 
 phased by the conduct of this government — It seems to 
 be an indelible mark, that can scarcely be mistaken. 
 Look back on our history and revise the proceedings of 
 this government in Holland, Belgium, Geneva, Genoa, 
 Venice, Switzerland, and Italy — every sentence you 
 read, every public act, every declaration of its officers, 
 all seem to combine to proclaim to the world, this is the 
 government of a fierce countenance , ra/zo, by peace , hath 
 destroyed many . Has not this government, in a re- 
 markable manner, openly and notoriously, without co- 
 ver or pretence, stood up against the prince of princes — 
 denied his being, power, and majesty, and declared 
 against any God, but Nature ? 
 
 Thus have the Scriptures of truth been strictly veri- 
 fied by those very persons who moved heaven and earth, 
 as it were, to prove them false and chimerical. The 
 only consolation that remains is, that notwithstanding all 
 this appearance of power and success — all this prosperity 
 and wickedness, “ he shall be broken without hand.” 
 
 This is the same government who, in the 11th ch. 
 Daniel, and 40th v. is described as “ the king of the 
 north, who shall come against the Roman government at 
 the time of the end, like a whirlwind, with chariots, and 
 with horsemen, and with many ships, and he shall enter 
 into the countries, and shall flow and pass over. He shall 
 enter also into the glorious land (Italy) and many coun- 
 tries, (Belgium, Holland, Sec. &c.) shall be overthrown; 
 but these shall escape out of his hands, even Edom and 
 Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon — He 
 shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, and 
 the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have 
 power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all 
 the precious things of Egypt, and the Lybian and Ethi- 
 opian shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east. 
 
464 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 (perhaps from Persia or the East Indies) and out of the 
 north (from Russia or Great Britain) shall trouble him : 
 therefore, he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, 
 and utterly to make away many — And he shall plant the 
 tabernacles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious 
 holy mountain — Yet he shall come to his end, and none 
 shall help him.” 
 
 Thus has this government acted contrary to all the com- 
 mon principles of adventurers, in as much as it at once 
 began its career by making open war with all the religi- 
 ous prejudices, superstitions, and attachments of a most 
 formidable Church hierarchy, and the religious enthusi- 
 asm of the people at large, supported by similar princi- 
 ples in the neighbouring nations, who had been their 
 ancient allies and connections. 
 
 It made war, not only with the errors of a rich and 
 powerful clergy, but it openly aimed at the subversion 
 of every principle of natural and revealed religion ; and 
 impiously erected a standard against the Almighty him- 
 self. The ordinances of the Gospel, that had existed for 
 almost 1800 years, were entirely prohibited or done 
 away ; and, of course, all its teachings and instructions, 
 those great witnesses for God were no more permitted. 
 
 The regularly instituted clergy, to the number of nearly 
 300,000, besides 80,000 nuns, were murdered, banished, 
 or made to apostatize from their faith. We have seen 
 the public worship of Almighty God, not only forbidden 
 and cried down, but an abominable species of idolatry, 
 instituted by public authority in its room, which would 
 have dishonoured the savages of the wilderness, or the 
 darkest ages of Paganism.* 
 
 * The convention had decreed that there should no longer be 
 any other divinity than reason and the country, it had legally es- 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 455 
 
 That the surrounding nations, who have received the 
 mark of the beast in their foreheads, by submitting to 
 the most humiliating terms of peace with her, and there- 
 by becoming her coadjutors in her nefarious system, 
 have looked on the destruction she has aimed to bring 
 on the religion of the Gospel, with a kind of unwilling, 
 sullen indifference, and perhaps, in many cases, a secret 
 approbation ; and that the common people have, too 
 generally, rejoiced in their supposed deliverance from 
 the moral, as well as ceremonial, obligations of Christi- 
 anity, are melancholy truths that few, who are conver- 
 sant with the late history of Europe, will deny. 
 
 Particularly has the emperor of Germany, as the head 
 of the house of Austria, given an alarming and danger- 
 ous sanction to the extravagant claims of this govern- 
 ment, by accepting the cession of Venice as a compen- 
 sation for those territories, the Directory thought proper 
 to retain as annexations to the already overgrown power 
 of France, as has been already mentioned. 
 
 The French army entered Venice as friends and pro- 
 tectors, promising the inhabitants liberty and happiness. 
 Their right, then, to cede this territory, was no other 
 than that of a thief or a robber. If they had a right to 
 make this cession, they have an equal right to cede away 
 any part of Germany, Genoa, Sicily, Tuscany, or even 
 Vienna itself. It is true, that the name of religion is 
 still kept up in some of the countries they have revolu- 
 
 tablished atheism. These absurd decrees excited universal indig - 
 nation among foreign nations. Danton is found guilty, and the 
 infernal genius of the committee of public safety, dared to take on 
 itself to revenge the Deity.* 
 
 * Consid: sur la revolution sociale. p. 224 — 5. 
 
466 PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THINGS, BOTH CIVIL 
 
 tionized, but it is barely a name — a body without a soul, 
 that, as yet, lies in the street, unburied. 
 
 From the conduct of the people of France at large, or 
 at least, the majority of them, we may strongly conclude 
 that they glory in their shame ; and that what they con- 
 sider as their greatest advantage, is really the very es- 
 sence of their misery ; in being delivered from the goads 
 and warnings of public instruction, and the close appli- 
 cation of the truths of the Gospel, which “ entered into 
 the house of the thief, and into the house of him who 
 sweareth falsely by the name of God, and remained in 
 the midst of his house to consume it.”* 
 
 There is, also, additional testimony, arising from these 
 facts, that the war of the government of France is plainly 
 designed by them to establish universal atheism in the 
 world — to destroy the Church of Christ, with its ordi- 
 nances, institutions, and religious instructions, consider- 
 ed independent of any particular dogma of faith, or 
 erroneous practice, peculiar to the Catholic Church. 
 
 Its violence has been so great, with respect to the 
 clergy, and every person connected with them, that with 
 great truth, it may be said, the vengeance of the beast, 
 has been specially directed on their heads ; so that, hav-, 
 ing wholly destroyed almost every appearance of the 
 Church of France, which was subject to the See of 
 Rome, and under her spiritual jurisdiction, and abjured 
 all respect for, and obedience to the Christian system at 
 large, the alarm was properly taken by the whole Roman 
 Church throughout the world ; and thus, literally, has 
 filled them with great fear, terror and mourning; especi- 
 ally since this government, by means of her general, Na- 
 
 * Zach. 5th ch. 4th v. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 457 
 
 poleon Buonaparte,* has made war immediately with 
 Rome and all her dependencies ; — seized upon the great 
 city ; — destroyed her temporal polity ; — revolutionized 
 her civil government ; — subverted her ecclesiastical ju- 
 risdiction, as far as in their power ; — seized upon the 
 Pope, and banished him from the Roman territory, and, 
 of course, from his immediate diocess ; making prisoners 
 of those cardinals who could not fly; confiscating the 
 estates of those who did, and including therein all the 
 temporalities of the Church. § 
 
 ( * This man appears to be the mere creature of the Directory— 
 He stops at nothing to recommend him to their approbation, and 
 is equally solicitous to obtain the greatest popularity among the 
 soldiery — He has arisen from a very low estate, and seems calcu- 
 lated to become the tyrant of France ; for, on considering the 
 whole of prophesy, it looks likely that the disorders and confu- 
 sions of that unhappy kingdom will end in a worse and more des- 
 potic monarchy than it has ever experienced yet. Indeed it is 
 clear, that some how or other, it is to exercise, before all is done, 
 the full power of the former Roman emperors. It is remarkable, 
 that St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, who flourished in the 4th century, 
 asserts expressly, “ that the eleventh king, mentioned by Daniel, 
 as antichrist, shall violently seize, by magical and wicked contri- 
 vance, the Roman government.”! Again — St. Jerome, who lived 
 in the latter end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century, says, 
 u Therefore, let us say, what all ecclesiastical writers have deliv- 
 ered, thatin the latter days, when the empire of the Romans shall 
 be destroyed, there will be ten kings, who shall divide it between 
 them ; and an eleventh shall arise, in whom Satan shall dwell cor- 
 porally 1 , who shall subdue three of the ten kings, and the othe! 
 seven shall submit their necks to the conqueror.”! 
 
 f Catech. 15 cap. 5 — 211. t Comment, vol. 3d. p. 1101. 
 
 § This reminds the reader of Cowper’s predictive lines. 
 
 Rome shall perish — write that word 
 In the blood that she has spilt 5 
 O o o 
 
468 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 All this was in the true spirit of antichrist, and, lite- 
 rally speaking, the words of Scripture were fulfilled — 
 
 “ She has been rewarded even as she rewarded others, 
 and she hath had doubled unto her double, according to 
 her works — In the cup which she hath filled, it has been 
 filled double to her. How much she hath glorified her- 
 self and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow 
 have been given unto her : for she said in her heart, I sit 
 a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”f 
 And although the French government did not mean so, 
 having never considered itself as an avenger for God, to 
 purify and cleanse his Church, and bring her back to 
 her first works, but has shewn all its enmity to her as a 
 Church of Christ, and has pointed all its opposition and 
 fury against her as such ; herein copying the example of 
 most of the ancient persecutors of the professors of the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ, from the beginning of its institu- |j 
 tion, according to his declaration to his disciples, “ be- 
 hold I send you forth, as sheep among wolves.” In this 
 spirit “ Julian, the great apostate, and adversary of Christ i 
 and his followers, endeavoured especially to discourage 
 and worry out the bishops and clergy of the Church in 
 his day. This has been an old trick, and vigorously at- 
 tempted in all ages by the great enemy of mankind ; 
 
 Perish hopeless and abhorred, 
 
 Deep in ruin as in guilt. 
 
 Rome for empire far renowned, 1 
 
 Tramples on a thousand states ; 
 
 Soon her pride will kiss the ground— 
 
 Hark! the Gaul is at her gates,* j 
 
 * Boadicea, 
 
 f 18th ch. Rev. Gth & 7th v. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 4(39 
 
 it was but for the wolf to persuade the flock, they had no 
 need of a shepherd, and the work was done. Such of 
 the clergy who have been sincere and active in their 
 Lord’s vineyard, have always been the principal eye sore 
 to men of pernicious and atheistical principles, whose 
 desperate designs they have strenuously opposed and 
 : countermined, and could never be brought to be content, 
 i that the world should be overrun with atheism and im- 
 piety ; and the people moulded into any shape, and 
 | thereby, betray the souls committed to their charge. 
 
 This, whatever may be pretended, is the true source 
 : and origin of all that spite and malice, they are encoun- 
 tered with by men of bad minds ; and of all those hard 
 names and characters of reproach, to this day fixed upon 
 them, by an ungrateful and degenerate world.” Julian 
 pretended that this hard usage was necessary, to prevent 
 their stirring up the people to sedition ; but, in truth, it 
 was to be rid of them, that by their absence, the people 
 might be destitute of all means of instruction and infor- 
 mation, and the divine efiicacy and obligation of the sa- 
 I eraments, and be, by degrees, brought into an ignorance 
 of, or an unconcernedness for their own religion ; and 
 then they were fit to receive any impression. Take away 
 the candle, and darkness will ensue. If the shepherd be 
 smitten, the sheep will be scattered. To compass this 
 more effectually, Julian first seized their incomes, took 
 away their allowance of corn, and abrogated their immu- 
 nities. And when that would not do, he endeavoured 
 to remove and drive them away by fraud or force. 
 
 At Antioch, (the capital of Asia) the Churches were 
 shut up ; — the plate and treasures (of the Church) seized 
 into the exchequer, and the clergy forced to fly. At 
 Bostra (in Arabia) he threatened Titus, the bishop, that 
 
470 PRESENT appearance op things, both civil 
 
 if any mutiny happened, he would lay all the blame upon 
 him and his clergy. And when the bishop, to clear him- 
 self, sent his apology to court, the emperor wrote back 
 to the city, making a spiteful and disingenuous represen- 
 tation of the bishop’s letter, as if it had contained nothing 
 but malicious and scurrilous reflections upon them, exci- 
 ting the commonalty to expel him as a common enemy 
 and calumniator out of the city. And, in some places, Ju- 
 lian proceeded to that extremity, as to cast the clergy 
 into prison, and expose them to great pains and tortures. 
 “ Above all men he highly honoured, embraced,’’ (per- 
 haps with a fraternal embrace) “ and rewarded philoso- 
 phers, and those who were likely most vigorously to 
 oppose and refute Christianity. It grieved him to see 
 the Christian faith, so largely spread, so firmly rooted, 
 and so many excellent books written, either in defence 
 or explanation of it. He filled all schools and colleges ; 
 — all courts and corners — with lectures, invectives, and 
 declamations, against Christians. 
 
 This made the philosophising trade go on apace, 
 though a great part of them had little more of the philo- 
 sopher in them, besides the habit and the cloak. And 
 these being the men generally entrusted with the educa- 
 tion of youth, and who governed and directed the minds 
 and consciences of the people, he was sure of so many 
 sworn enemies to Christianity. And the truth is, if wit, 
 learning, or eloquence, could have done it, he had cer- 
 tainly driven Christianity out of the world ; but the 
 foolishness of God is wiser than men, and his weakness 
 stronger than men, and makes foolish the wisdom of the 
 world.”* 
 
 * Cave’s IntrotL to the Lives of the Fathers, p. 40-~ 43. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 47 1 
 
 This is the language of Mr. Cave, when writing the 
 lives of the fathers of the ancient Church, about the year 
 1680 — and will not most of my readers think that they 
 have been reading an account of the conduct of the Di- 
 rectors of the French revolution, during the last ten 
 years. So uniform is the conduct of the great enemy of 
 the Gospel, and of mankind, when working in, or with 
 the children of disobedience : — But, blessed be God, 
 the issue also is as uniform ; — and the same, in the end, 
 will be the consequences. Julian’s fate is well known, 
 and the after triumph of the Gospel. Here is the faith 
 and patience of the Saints, let him that readeth, under- 
 stand. 
 
 No wonder, then, that the destruction of so vast an 
 ecclesiastical establishment, as that we have seen so long 
 exercised in France, should be attended with special 
 consequences, and clearly designate this peculiar govern- 
 ment, from that of the beast with seven heads and ten 
 horns; — for instead of all the world’s worshipping this 
 merciless beast, as they formerly did the one with the 
 seven heads and ten horns, or the bishop of Rome, those 
 who are the real followers of this last beast, as well as 
 every thoughtful Christian of other communions, are filled 
 with terror and dismay. 
 
 Thus, in the words of the excellent bishop Hurd, 
 speaking of the distressed state of mankind at large, un- 
 der the oppression of tyrannical governors — “ He who 
 most dispassionately contemplates the sad scene above 
 described, can hardly reconcile appearances, to what 
 must have been his natural expectations. Here then the 
 prophecies of this book, meaning the Revelations of St. 
 John, come into our relief. They shew that this dispen- 
 sation (the Christian) is to promote virtue and happi- 
 
472 present appearance of things, both civil 
 
 ness : and that the end shall finally, but through many 
 and long obstructions, be accomplished. Thus they re- 
 concile us to that disordered scene, which hitherto hath 
 been presented to us ; and give repose to the anxious 
 mind, in the assured hope of better things to come.”* 
 Four other important consequences are yet to follow : 
 which, when they do happen, will complete the testimo- 
 ny of the glorious event, the object and sum of all our 
 wishes, to full demonstration. We mean, the resurrec- 
 tion of the witnesses, — the actual destruction by fire, of 
 the great and mighty city of Rome,f the spiritual Baby- 
 
 * 2d vol. p. 206. 
 
 t The 42 months, or 1260 days, (and, of course, the resurrec- 
 tion of the witnesses) extend to the burning and sacking of Baby- 
 lon, (Rome) not to the extinguishment of antichrist, which shall 
 be some time after, as appears from Rev. 19th ch.f 
 
 The ideas of the Jews, as expressed by their most learned men, 
 on the subject of the destruction of the city of Rome, are well 
 worthy of consideration. The Chaldaick exposition of Isaiah, 34th 
 ch. 9th v. is, “ And the rivers of Rome shall be turned into pitch.-'’ 
 And this exposition is cited and approved of by the famous ancient 
 Rabbi Kimchi ; yet the pontifical editors have omitted the name 
 of Rome, and left the passage without meaning. 
 
 Again, in the same commentary of Rabbi Kimchi, on the 1 6th 
 verse, he says, “ Do you inquire concerning the man who desires 
 to know and understand the destruction of Rome.— -These two 
 Hebrew words (meaning the city of Rome) the Roman editors 
 have omitted, and left the sense imperfect — And four times in this 
 same chapter, instead of the Hebrew word, by which the Rabbins 
 understand Rome, is substituted the Hebrew word, signifying 
 Greece or Cuthith, as appears by the commentaries of both Kim- 
 chi and Jarchi. From the commentaries of the Rabbins on Isaiah, 
 34th and 35th ch. it appears that the name Rome has been twice 
 obliterated, and for Edom (by which Rome is understood) the 
 
 i Mcde, fol. Ed. p. 602. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 473 
 
 Ion, “ the mother of harlots and abominations of the 
 earth” — The destruction of the Turkish empire — and 
 the restoration of the Jews to their city of Jerusalem. 
 
 These alarming events may be looked for as the ne- 
 cessary consequences of what has already happened — 
 The resurrection of the witnesses (if we have been right 
 in our explication of their death and remaining unburied 
 in the street of the great city) may be expected without 
 delay, according to the term mentioned in the Revelation 
 of three years and an half ; for, however uncertain this 
 space may be supposed, yet under every construction, it 
 i can be but a short term, and every believer in revelation 
 may daily look for its accomplishment ; that is, for the 
 restoration of religion in France and the re-establishment 
 of the ordinances of the Gospel with greater respect and 
 1 greater purity and more liberty than ever ; or it may be, 
 by a more universal spread of the Gospel, throughout the 
 world, by some special and unprecedented means not 
 heretofore thought of — As to the burning of Rome, it is 
 to be a later event, and perhaps not to happen till just be- 
 fore the restoration of the Jews and the battle of the kings 
 of Europe, or the great day of God Almighty. f 
 
 Then may the servants of Jesus Christ, amidst all the 
 confusion and terror that will prevail in the world, look 
 
 names Pares, Javan, and Cuthith, have been fifteen times sub- 
 stituted/’ Kimchi, in Abdiam, says, “ the name Movie is often 
 left out, and this entire sentence, “ when Rome shall be destroyed 
 the redemption of Israel shall be.” He proceeds, “ whatever the 
 prophets say of the destruction of Edom in the last times, they 
 mean it of Rome.* 
 
 * Mede, fol. Edit. p. 902. 
 
 f Revelations, ch. 16. y. 14 — ch. 19, v. 19. 
 
474 PRESENT appearance op things, both civil 
 
 for the speedy fulfilment of his glorious promises. “ Be- 
 hold I have told you before ! — wherefore if they shall say 
 unto you, behold ! he is in the desart, go not forth; — be- 
 hold ! he is in the secret chamber, believe it not ; — for as 
 the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto 
 the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of man be. 
 Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the 
 sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.* 
 The stars shall fall from Heaven, and the powers of the 
 Heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign 
 of the Son of Man in Heaven. And then shall all the 
 tribes of the earth mourn, when they shall see the Son of 
 Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and 
 great glory. ”f 
 
 The two last criterions of this government, foretold in 
 the divine Scriptures, scarcely need application. That 
 France is not only one, but the chief of the ten king- 
 doms, who was first in vesting the Roman Pontiff with 
 temporal power, and upholding him in it, during the 
 greatest part of the 1260 years, from whence he obtain- 
 ed the title of “ eldest son of the Church ,” is known to 
 every one conversant with ecclesiastical history. 
 
 It is not a new idea, that France is the Dekaton or 
 government of the beast, mentioned in the Revelation, 
 which was to destroy the witnesses of God, and to finish 
 the second wo. 
 
 Archbishop Usher, as has been already noticed, was 
 of opinion that the two witnesses were to be slain, not by 
 the Pope, but by the kings (or government) of France. 
 
 * It is a remarkable fact, that France has, for many years, been 
 designated by the sun — and Turkey, or the Mahometan empire; 
 by the moon. 
 
 t Matt. 24th ch. 25 — 30 v. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 475 
 
 Monsieur Jurieu, a famous divine of the French 
 Church in Rotterdam, who wrote in the 17th century, 
 speaking of the street of the great city, says, “ I cannot 
 hinder myself from believing that this hath a particular 
 regard to France, which at this day is certainly the most 
 eminent country which belongs to the Popish kingdoms 
 : — It is the most flourishing state in Europe. It is in the 
 middle of the Popish empire, betwixt Italy, Spain, Ger- 
 many, and England, exactly as a street or place of con- 
 course in the middle of a city.” Another (anonymous) 
 author in France, who wrote a new system of the Apo- 
 calypse in the year 1685, says, “ St. John speaks of a 
 place or street, which seems, beyond all contradiction to 
 be France — And he says he will be much deceived, if 
 there is not a revolution in France, and a surprising 
 change in that country, not merely with respect to reli- 
 gion, but also in reference to justice — to policy — to the 
 finances, and to war — He says, he expects that the societies 
 of the monks and French clergy shall be put down, and 
 that they shall banish themselves out of the realm, upon 
 their not finding it to be their interest to continue.” 
 
 A Scotch Divine, Mr. Willison, of Dundee, who 
 wrote in the forepart of the 18th century, says, “ Before 
 antichrist’s fall, one of the ten kingdoms which supported 
 the beast, shall undergo a marvellous revolution ; “ the 
 same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth 
 part of the city fell by which tenth part is to be un- 
 derstood, one of the ten kingdoms into which the great 
 city, Romish Babylon , was divided. This many take to 
 be the kingdom of France, it being the tenth and last of 
 the kingdoms, as to the time of its rise, and that which 
 
 * Rev. Hth ch. 13th v. 
 
 p PP 
 
476 PRESENT appearance of things, both civic 
 
 gave Rome the denomination of the beast with ten 
 horns. However unlikely this, and other prophesied 
 events may appear, at this time, yet the almighty hand 
 of the only wise God, can soon bring them about, when 
 least expected.”* 
 
 Vitringa, who died in 1722, declares, that France may 
 be the forum of the great city, concerning which the 
 prophet speaks. He also adds “ that it is not perfectly 
 clear from the prophesy, of what kind the commotions 
 are, whether warlike, such as are wont to shake the 
 world and subvert the existing governments, or whether 
 they are such as arise on a sudden from the insurrection 
 of a nation that has been long oppressed.” — He says, 
 however, “ that the words of the prophet appear to fa- 
 vour the latter sense.” 
 
 Dr. Goodwin, of Magdalen College, Oxford, who 
 wrote in 1639, says, “ by the tenth part of the city is to 
 be understood some one tenth part of Europe — City be- 
 ing put here, as it often is in this book, for the extent of 
 the jurisdiction of the city of Rome. This tenth part is 
 to be so shaken that it falls ; that is, ceaseth to be a part 
 of the city, or to belong to its jurisdiction any longer, or 
 falls off from being of the number of those that gave 
 their power to the beast. And as earthquakes are from 
 inward motions in the bowels of the earth, so this falling 
 off seems to arise from within that kingdom itself : and 
 that, in this revolution, men will be deprived of their 
 names and titles, which are to be rooted out for ever, and 
 condemned to perpetual forgetfulness. 
 
 An English anonymous author, who wrote a disserta- 
 tion on the 13th and 14th verses of the 11th ch. of the 
 Revelations, in the year 1747, after saying that the tenth 
 
 * 12 Serm. re-printed in 1745. p. 147. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 477 
 
 part of the city meant the kingdom of France, he goes 
 on, “ We learn by former accounts in this book, where 
 the same expression is used, that it intends remark- 
 able commotions in a state or kingdom, and such 
 as are intended, in a revolution in the body politic, or 
 form of government and he accordingly concludes, 
 “ that in France there will be a dissolution of the present 
 form of government, and the introduction of anew system, 
 both in civil and ecclesiastial matters, within that do- 
 minion.” 
 
 It is now equally plain, that this extraordinary gov- 
 : ernment, calling itself a republic, is absolutely under the 
 arbitrary will and control of a few individuals ; and that, 
 by terror and the sword, it has not only overturned the 
 ; whole fabric, and an immense one too, of the privileged 
 orders, from the king on the throne, to the country gen- 
 tleman on his farm, (including both civil and ecclesias- 
 tic;) but has also changed the names of cities, towns, 
 incorporations, parishes, boroughs, convents, provinces, 
 departments, See. See. and they have not spared even the 
 ’ weeks, months, and years of the old calendar, according 
 to the prediction in Daniel, he shall attempt to alter 
 times, &c. 
 
 “ In attacking Heaven itself, an impious sect vilified 
 all religions — In the room of public worship, it has sub- 
 stituted political irreligion — without comfort for the un- 
 fortunate — without morality for the vicious — without 
 any check for crimes — nay, crimes themselves were 
 every where tolerated, encouraged, rewarded. Insurrec- 
 tion has been consecrated as the most sacred of duties — 
 Solemn and public festivals have been decreed in honour 
 of the basest and greatest criminals.”* 
 
 * Manifesto of emperor of Germany — vid. new An. Reg. for 
 1792 — 120 public papers. 
 
478 present appearance of things, both civil 
 
 It is said that upwards of 100,000 of the nobility have 
 been reduced almost to beggary, with near 300,000 cler- 
 gy ; and about 6 or 7000 names of towns have been 
 changed. Those of the nobility and clergy who have 
 escaped the hand of violence, by any accidental circum- 
 stances, have, generally in a voluntary manner, abjured 
 all pretence to rank, title, or exclusive privilege what- 
 ever. 
 
 From all this alarming testimony, who that is wise 
 can any longer hesitate to draw the conclusion, that the 
 Almighty God, who is faithful and true in all his prom- 
 ises and predictions, is about fulfilling the great purpo- 
 ses of his providence, by hastening the latter times, spo- 
 ken of in his word, when the nations of the earth, 
 becoming weary with the oppressions and tyranny of 
 every merely human government, will be prepared to 
 seek for the dominion of the prince of peace ; and He , 
 who was derided, buffeted, spit upon, tantalized with a 
 mock robe and a crown of thorns ; and finally crucified, 
 with every mark of contumely and reproach, will literally 
 become “ the desire of all nations ,” whereby the faith of 
 his real servants will be raised to the highest pitch, and' 
 meet with a divine confirmation in the destruction of the 
 mystical Babylon by fire, so long and so expressly fore- 
 told by their lord and master, with the after total ex- 
 tinction of the man of sin, and of antichrist, as immedi- 
 ately preceding the glorious advent, or second coming 
 of their Redeemer, to the glory of God the Father.* 
 
 * O Jehovah ! thou art my God : 
 
 I will exalt thee ; I will praise thy name ; 
 
 For thou hast effected wonderful things; 
 
 Counsels of old time, promises immutably true* 
 
 For thou hast made the city an heap ; 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 479 
 
 Then will his children “ lift up their heads and rejoice, 
 knowing that their redemption indeed draweth nigh.” 
 
 “ Thus when assisted by the light which Revelation 
 furnishes, we discern the several empires (of the world) 
 under the control of an Almighty will, carrying on the se- 
 cret designs of God, with respect to his Church and peo- 
 ple, and forming, as it were, a prophetical chronology to 
 mark the period in which the kingdom of Christ, for 
 which the world had been ripening for four thousand 
 years, should begin and end. When, with the eye of 
 faith, we behold Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, Alexander 
 and the Romans, insensibly ministering to these sublime 
 intentions of Providence, and ignorantly concurring to 
 advance the triumphs of the Cross, our thoughts are re- 
 lieved and enlarged amidst the amplitude of such concep- 
 tions; inferior considerations pass away, and no affection 
 remains to the overwhelmed and enraptured mind, but 
 that of holy joy and gratitude, in return for such exube- 
 rant goodness, which hath thus amply provided for the 
 present and future happiness of its creature man.” 
 
 It may not be amiss, before we go further, to enume- 
 rate in a very concise manner, the false Messiahs who- 
 have appeared in different parts of the world, since the 
 destruction of Jerusalem. For although there had never 
 been an instance of such an impostor before our Saviour’s 
 time, notwithstanding the universal belief, that some ex- 
 traordinary personage was to be born about that time, yet 
 
 The strong fortified city, a ruin ; 
 
 The palace of the proud ones, that it should be no more a 
 city; 
 
 That it never should be built up again.f 
 
 f 25th ch. Isaiaih, 1st and 2d v. Lowth’s translation. 
 
480 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 our Lord did foretell his disciples, “ that there shall 
 arise false Christs (or Messiahs) and false prophets, and 
 shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that (if it 
 were possible) they shall deceive the very elect — Behold, 
 I have told you before.”* 
 
 About fifty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, or 
 the year 123, the famous Barchochebas appeared as the 
 Messiah — His real name, by some is said to have been 
 Coziba, by others, but I fear without truth, Akiba — but 
 he took this name [the Son of a Star] on account of Ba- 
 laam’s prophesy. He chose a forerunner — raised an ar- 
 my and was anointed king — He was followed by about 
 200,000 men, and declared war against the emperor 
 Adrian, whom he often defeated, as he increased in num- 
 bers — Dion says, that in this war, before he was subdu- 
 ed, 580,000 Jews were slain, besides an immense num- 
 ber who perished by fire, by hunger, and by disease — 
 The Rabbins say, they amounted to four millions of peo- 
 ple, great and small, and 480 synagogues were burned. 
 
 In 434, Moses Cretensis appeared, and claimed that 
 sacred character, in the island of Crete, and promised 
 that he would divide the sea and so march on to Judea. 
 His followers actually precipitated themselves into the 
 sea from a high promontory, when great numbers per- 
 ished. 
 
 In 520, another impostor arose, who called himself the 
 Son of Moses, — His name was Dunaan — He greatly op- 
 pressed the Christians — He was put to death by Elistern, 
 an Ethiopian general. 
 
 In 529, the Jews and Samaritans of Palestine, rising 
 in rebellion, acknowledged one Julian as king Messiah, 
 
 * Matthew, ch. 24th. v. £4 and 25. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 43 \ 
 
 of whom a great number were slain and Julian put to 
 death. 
 
 In 571, Mahomed was born — He also at first profes- 
 sed to be the Messiah, and imposed on many Jews. 
 
 In the sixth century, Rabbi Mier arose, declaring him- 
 self to be the Messiah ; and made war against the Per- 
 sian monarch and was successful for seven years, but at 
 last was taken prisoner and put to death. 
 
 In the eighth century, Serenus, a Jew, pretended to be 
 Messiah. Multitudes of the Jews of Spain submitted to 
 him, but they were destroyed. 
 
 In the twelfth century more arose than at any other 
 such period. One of them in 1137, arose in France, and 
 was the cause of great destruction to the Jews, and their 
 synagogues, but was at last put to death. 
 
 The following year another collected so formidable a 
 number of followers, as to march in order of battle 
 against the king of Persia ; but he was defeated with 
 great slaughter. 
 
 In 1157 a native of Corduba in Spain, claimed that 
 august title, who was also defeated with great loss, and 
 brought on a general persecution, to the destruction of 
 nearly all the Jews in Spain. 
 
 Ten years after, another impostor arose in the king- 
 dom of Fez. And in the same year an Arabian Jew set 
 himself up as the forerunner of the Messiah — He was 
 brought before the Arabian king — He declared himself 
 a prophet sent from God — The king asked him for some 
 sign of his Messiahship — He answered, cut oif my head 
 and I will come to life again — The king took him at his 
 word, cut off his head, but he failed in performing his 
 ptpmise. 
 
482 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 Not long after, one arose beyond the Euphrates, and 
 deceived many — He also perished and brought great per- 
 secution on his nation. 
 
 In 1174 the Jews of Persia were again deceived by 
 another false Christ, and became involved in another 
 persecution. * 
 
 In 1176 David Almussor arose in Moravia, and pre- 
 tended to be the Messiah, when a great body of Jews 
 followed him — He was put to death, and a great fine was 
 laid on the survivors. 
 
 At the close of this century, arose the most famous im- 
 postor of any of them — He claimed to be the Messiah by 
 the name of David al David. David the son of David. 
 He was a man of learning and pretended to work mira- 
 cles — He styled himself the king of the Jews — He took 
 arms against the Persian monarch, was defeated, taken 
 prisoner, and beheaded, and with him a vast number of 
 Jews were butchered without mercy. 
 
 No less than ten false Christs arose in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, and brought amazing calamities and grievous des- 
 truction on the Jews in various parts of the world. 
 
 In 1222 another false Messiah appeared in Germany, 
 and in the same century, the Jews in Spain were again 
 imposed upon by one Zachariah, who styled himself the 
 forerunner of the Messiah. 
 
 In 1449 the same character was assumed by Rabbi 
 David Lemlem, an Austrian Jew, w T ho had the credit of 
 working miracles. 
 
 At the close of the 15th century, Ismael Sophus, a 
 young prince, who was in fact a Mahomedan, and who 
 afterwards ascended the throne of Persia, assumed the 
 name of a prophet, and the people indulged the notion 
 of his being the Messiah. 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 433 
 
 In 1509, an infamous Jew of Cologne, whose name 
 was Psefferkorn, is said to have arrogated the character 
 of the Messiah — He afterwards pretended to turn Chris- 
 tian. About the same time, Jacob Milstinski took the 
 lofty title, and travelled into Poland, at the head of 12 
 apostles. « 
 
 In 1534, Rabbi Salomo Malcho, declared himself to 
 be the Messiah, and was burnt in Spain by Charles V. 
 
 The 17th century was still more famous for impos- 
 tors. In 1615, a false Christ appeared in the East In- 
 dies, and was generally followed by the Portuguese 
 Jews. 
 
 In 1624, one arose in Amsterdam — He assumed the 
 character of the Messiah, of the family of David, of the 
 tribe of Nathan. His fame was eclipsed in 1666, by 
 Sabbatai Trevi, or Sevi, the son of a poulterer at 
 Aleppo — He was a man of learning — a fanatic, and 
 an impostor. — He set up in Smyrna, and declared 
 himself the true Messiah — He promised the Jews de- 
 liverance and a prosperous kingdom — He preached re- 
 pentance and faith in himself, so effectually, that the peo- 
 pie gave up all business, and applied themselves wholly 
 to devotion and alms — They were devout and penitent 
 — Some fasted so long as to lose their lives. Sabbatai 
 came to Smyrna and there styled himself the only and 
 first-born Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour of Isra- 
 el. He elected princes to govern the Jews in their march 
 to the holy land. 
 
 A certain Jew named Nathan set up for his Elias, o.r 
 forerunner — He wrote to him and addressed him in this 
 manner, “ To the king, our king, Lord of Lords, who 
 gathers the dispersed of Israel— -who redeems our capti- 
 vity — the man elevated to the head of all authority— thu 
 
 Q qq 
 
484 PRESENT appearance of things, both civil 
 
 Messiah of the God of Jacob — the true Messias — the ce- 
 lestial Sion, Sabbatai Sevi.” He prevailed so greatly, that 
 some of his followers began to prophesy and to fall into 
 strange ecstacies — four hundred men and women prophe- 
 sied of his growing kingdom, and young infants who 
 could hardly speak, were said plainly to pronounce Sab- 
 batai Messias, and Son of God. People appeared posses- 
 sed — voices were heard from their bowels — some fell into 
 trances— foamed at the mouth — recounted their future 
 prosperity— their visions of the Lion of Judah and the 
 triumphs of Sabbatai. 
 
 So true are the predictions and warnings of our Lord 
 and Saviour — “ And Jesus answering them began to say, 
 Take heed lest any man deceive you, for many shall 
 come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall de- 
 ceive many. And then, if any man shall say unto you, 
 lo ! here is Christ, or lo ! he is there — believe him not, 
 for false Christs and false Prophets shall arise, and shall 
 show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, 
 even the elect : but take ye heed ; behold I have foretold 
 you all things.” 
 
 Sabbatai, after declaring that he was appointed by 
 Heaven to visit Constantinople, he went thither, and was 
 cast into prison. The Jews from Germany, Poland, 
 Leghorn, Vienna, and other places, flocked to him to 
 receive his blessing. The grand seignior ordered him 
 to perform a miracle, which he failed in doing ; but, to 
 save his life, he turned Mahometan. 
 
 The Jews still believed in him, and said, that it was 
 only his shadow that turned Turk. That when the 
 grand seignior sent to take him, he caused all the mes- 
 sengers to die ; and when other janizaries were sent they 
 all fell dead by a word from his mouth : and on being 
 
AND RELIGIOUS, IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE. 435 
 
 requested to do it, he caused them all to revive again. — 
 Thatthough the prison was barred and fastened with strong 
 iron locks, yet he was seen to walk through the streets 
 with a numerous train. — That his shackles did not fall 
 off, but were turned to gold, with which he gratified his 
 followers. 
 
 In 1682 appeared Rabbi Mordecai, who was admit- 
 ted by the Jews in Germany, to be the Messiah. 
 
 As late as 1703, another impostor, Daniel Israel, de- 
 luded the Jews of Smyrna, and was acknowledged by 
 the Rabbins. 
 
 Even a careless reader can hardly help being struck 
 with the characteristic perverseness of this unhappy na- 
 tion, who had voluntarily become answerable for the 
 precious blood of the true Messiah, the Son of God. 
 “ Then answered all the people , and said, His blood be 
 upon us and on our children.” Yet with what persevering 
 obstinacy do they take up with every impostor, who of- 
 ! fers himself, without any rational evidence to convince 
 the least inquiring mind. Yet still reject the Lord of 
 Glory, who has proved himself to be their Messiah, the 
 sent of God, by miracles — by prophesy, and by doing 
 the works that no other man ever did. 
 
 While correcting this work for the press, the writer 
 met with the following account of Buonaparte, in an ex- 
 tract from a proclamation of the archduke Charles, of 
 Austria, published in the Quarterly Review for 1809, 
 p. 440. 
 
 “ Yet so it was, that, at one period, this extraordinary 
 man was exalted, in the imagination of his cotemporaries, 
 so far beyond the bounds of reason, that the madness at 
 last spread to himself, and he began to talk and act as if 
 he really was not of the ordinary species of human be- 
 ings. He suddenly taught his courtiers to keep at an 
 
486 PRESENT appearance of THINGS, BOTH CIVIL, Sec. 
 
 awful distance from him. He had incense burnt in the 
 apartments, which he was expected to visit. He told 
 the senate, on receiving their address, on his assuming 
 the consulship for life, that he was called by the Al- 
 mighty to restore the reign of order , justice , and peace , 
 upon earth. In the beginning of the war between Eng- 
 land and France, he allowed the clergy of the latter to 
 entitle him the new Cyrus , and the Christ of Providence . 
 — He got the Jews together, and set them haranguing 
 about him till they hailed him the chosen of the Lord — 
 His cherished anointed — The minister of eternal justice 
 — The living image of the Deity. He admitted the hair- 
 brained students of Leipsic to address him in the lan- 
 guage almost of deification. On his return to Paris, 
 after the peace of Tilsit, he disclosed the impious object 
 that was lurking in his mind, by ordering a temple of 
 victory opposite the legislative mansion, and his palace, 
 to be placed between them. To humor the same feel- 
 ing, on his return from Bayonne, (in 1808) the people of 
 the South of France were ordered to strew branches of 
 palm trees before him ; and, instead of his being received 
 by the municipal bodies, the archbishop of Thoulouse 
 was directed to issue his mandamus to the clergy, pre- 
 scribing the peculiar ceremonies they were to use on his 
 entering their parishes. In his Catechism, which he 
 published, he tells his people, and orders them to believe, 
 that he is the image of God upon earth , and that to hon- 
 our and serve him, is to honour and serve God him- 
 self.” 
 
 Here we shall leave this part of our work, though in 
 an unfinished state, and wait the event, which appears to 
 be awful and alarming, under every view of the subject, 
 t # o the nations of Europe, and proceed to the considera- 
 tion of the seventh head. 
 
THE 
 
 PRESENT AGE OF THE WORLD, 
 
 AS TO ITS DURATION. WITH THE GENERAL IDEAS OF THE AN- 
 
 I 
 
 CIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES, AS TO THE TRADITIONS 
 RECEIVED FROM THE PATRIARCHS AND PHILOSOPHERS, RELA- 
 TIVE TO ITS EXISTENCE UNDER THE PRESENT PERIOD, AF- 
 TER WHICH IT IS TO UNDERGO A FAVOURABLE REVOLUTION. 
 
 THERE are difficulties in the chronology of the 
 world, that have long puzzled the ablest proficients in 
 that branch of science ; and perhaps will ever puzzle 
 them till the great period arrives, which shall solve all 
 difficulties, and ascertain, with precision, the great eras 
 of Revelation. Cum Elias venerit, solvet ?iodos. 
 
 The present difficulties, in some measure, arise from 
 the difference in the copies of the Pentateuch with each 
 other, as well as with the New Testament. The Hebrew 
 numerals were very easily mistaken by copyists, and may 
 have caused some small mistakes, in the account of the 
 ages of men and countries. The letter koph, in Hebrew, 
 stands for 100, and the letter mem for 40, yet the last dif- 
 fers from the first, but by a slight stroke of the pen. In 
 the 11th chapter of Genesis 32d verse, it is said that the 
 days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran 
 or Charran ; yet St. Stephen in recounting the genealogy 
 of the Jews from the patriarch Abraham, in 7th Acts, 4th 
 verse, says, “ that when his father was dead, Abraham 
 removed into the land of Canaan,” and in Genesis 12th 
 ch. 4th v. he is then said to be but 75 years old, and in 
 
488 THE present age of the world, 
 
 11th ch. and 26th v. that Terali begat Abraham at the 
 70th year of his age, so that according to this statement, 
 at his death, Terah could have been but 145 years old. 
 So St. Luke in his 3d ch. 36th v. introduces the birth of 
 Canaan, immediately after that of Arphaxad ; — so does 
 the copy of the Septuagint, in four different places, but 
 in the 10th ch. Genesis 22d v. Canaan is altogether left 
 out. 
 
 Now these difficulties have been in some measure ob- 
 viated in these latter times, by the zeal and indefatigable 
 industry of the late excellent archbishop Usher, who 
 about the year 1630, sent into Judea and purchased at a 
 considerable expense, a copy of the Pentateuch, found in 
 the possession of a remnant of the Samaritans, and which 
 is supposed to have been given to them by the captived 
 ten tribes of Israel, when they taught the Samaritans the 
 worship of the God of Israel.* 
 
 It bears marks of very great antiquity, but .differs with 
 our Hebrew copies, in the account of the generations be- 
 fore the birth of Abraham. Before the flood it comes 
 short of us, but, after the flood, it goes beyond us, but 
 then it agrees with the account that Terah was but 145 
 years old when he died, and plainly shews a mistake in 
 our copy. It also confirms St. Luke’s account of the pos- 
 terity of Shem, by declaring that Canaan was the son of 
 Arphaxad, and the father of Selah, thus confirming 
 both St. Luke and the Septuagint. 
 
 If the addition be made to our reckoning, it increases 
 the age of the world. Thus difficulties do really exist, 
 and we cannot be certain that our reckoning is perfectly 
 right ; and it may be, that the great disposer of all things 
 had wise reasons for suffering it to remain in doubt, per- 
 
AS TO ITS DURATION. 
 
 489 
 
 haps among others, to prevent the curiosity of the ene- 
 mies of revelation, from ascertaining precisely the times 
 foretold in his word, before they come to pass. 
 
 However, if the Samaritan should prove the true ac- 
 count, and we make but reasonable allowances to recon- 
 cile apparent difficulties, the age of the world, at the birth 
 of Christ, will be somewhat older than is generally al- 
 lowed ; and if we should reckon lunar years after the 
 manner of the ancients, instead of solar years, it will add 
 to the age of the world. 
 
 The following comes sufficiently near the different 
 calculations, for our purpose : 
 
 The Samaritan copy, to the flood, gives 
 . . . . . . to Abraham, 
 
 The Hebrew copy makes the number 
 of years, from the creation to the 
 flood, to be 
 
 to Abraham, 
 
 If you allow Canaan’s generation you 
 must add 
 
 ' l 
 
 1656 
 
 448 
 
 60 
 
 Years. 
 
 1307 
 
 1039 
 
 2346 
 
 2164 
 
 The world is older than the Hebrew copy 182 
 So that the world is, at least, 182 years older by the Sa- 
 maritan, than the Hebrew copies, and in 1800 is 5986 
 years old : allowing it to be 4004 at the birth of Christ. 
 There is besides, according to archbishop Usher, still 
 a difficulty of ten years, that cannot be accounted for. 
 
 I do not mean to answer for these calculations, but 
 state them on the credit of others, to show the probabil- 
 ity that the world is something older than our common 
 
490 
 
 THE PRESENT AGE OF THE WORLD, 
 
 reckoning ; and that the sixth millenary may not be so far 
 from its termination, as is generally imagined ; and if so, 
 by counting back 1260 years, it will show that our con- 
 jectures on the rise of the man of sin, are not without 
 some good foundation. These are conclusions, from 
 the prophetic declarations of the word of God, thrown 
 out for the consideration of the more intelligent and ac- 
 curate chronologer ; but on which I would not lay great 
 stress.* 
 
 * Before this work went to the press, a most excellent treatise 
 on Prophesy, by the Rev. Mr. Faber, came to hand. The great 
 superiority of this work, over any we have yet read, and the strong 
 reasons assigned by him for a different commencement of the 1260 
 years, render the persisting in a contrary opinion (though with 
 great hesitation) rather unjustifiable, without producing the rea- 
 sons for it — 1st. The time that the Church retained her purity 
 free from spiritual idolatry, compared with the proportions of the 
 temple which was to be measured by the angel, and compared witfy 
 the 1260 years. — 2d. The completion of the ten kingdoms into 
 which the Roman empire was to be divided, in order to constitute 
 the beast with seven heads and ten horns, which was about the 
 year 500. “ And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, 
 
 who have received no kingdom as yet ; but receive power askings, 
 one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give 
 their power and strength to the beast.” — “ And the ten horns 
 whicli thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate (or rather for- 
 sake) the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall 
 eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God hath put it in their 
 heai'ts to fulfil his will, and to agree and give their kingdoms unto 
 the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled ,”t So that the 
 time when the ten kingdoms shall fall off from supporting the beast 
 is about the end of the 1260 years. — 3d. By the words of St. John, 
 it appears that the beast of forty-two month’s existence was to 
 arise on the mortal wound being given to the imperial soverignty 
 of Rome : This was done by the defeat of Augustulus and the em- 
 
 f Revelations, 17th ch. 12, 13, 16, and 17th verses. 
 
BUT IT IS TIME TO INQUIRE INTO THE IDEAS 
 OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GEN- 
 TILES, AS TO TRADITIONS ON THIS SUBJECT. 
 
 THE terms the great day of the Lord — the great day 
 of judgment — the judgment of the great day , or the day of 
 the great judgment , are all Jewish terms, and were very 
 femiliar to, and well understood by the inhabitants of Ju- 
 dea, before the coming of Christ. They were originally 
 
 pire passing to the Goths, being the time of the end of the Roman 
 empire or government, or of him who letteth (or hindreth) being 
 taken out of the way, and must be the beginning or rise of the Man 
 of Sin, which is the beginning of the 1260 years — This is pointed 
 out by St. Paul, as a certain mark of the coming of the Man of 
 Sin — He solicits earnestly that the Thessalonians should not be 
 troubled on this account, for he assures them, that it could not 
 happen until a falling away of the Church should first come, for 
 it was then only that the Man of Sin should be revealed, the son 
 of perdition. He was not to be merely a temporal power, for he 
 was to be one, “ who should oppose and exalt himself above all 
 that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, should 
 sit in the temple of God, showing himself, that he is God.” And 
 referring to more particular instructions, that he had before given 
 
 them, in private, on this subject, he adds, u And now ye know 
 what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time, for the 
 mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth 
 (or hindereth the appearance of the Man of Sin) who was the em- 
 peror of Rome and Pontifex Maximus of that heathen Church, will 
 (continue to) let, or hinder, until he (that is, the one who letteth 
 or hindereth, the emperor of Rome) be taken out of the way. And 
 
 then, (when he is taken out of the way) that wicked one shall be 
 revealed, whom the Lord shall (at last) consume with the spirit 
 
 Rrr 
 
492 BUT IT IS TIME T0 INC i UIRE INT0 THE IDEAS 
 
 taken from the 7th ch. of Daniel, where an account is 
 given of the judgment of the fourth beast, when he was 
 to be destroyed. The description of the process is taken 
 from a session of the Sanhedrim or Consistory of the Jew- 
 ish rulers, wherein the Pater Judicii and his assessores sat 
 in a semi circular form on his right hand and on his left. 
 
 of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his com. 
 in 0 *. 59 * 
 
 4th. The time in which the Pope’s ecclesiastical power over 
 the Church of Christ was completed. About the year 500, 
 Pope Anastasius excommunicated the emperor, as an adherent of 
 Acasius. In his apology to the emperor he says, “ that the suc- 
 cessor of St. Peter is, at least, as great as an emperor. He com- 
 pares the Episcopal, with the Imperial dignity, and concludes a 
 bishop to be as much above an emperor as the heavenly things, 
 which the bishop administers and dispenses, are above the trash 
 of the earth, which alone the greatest among the emperors have a 
 power to dispose of. He pretends, by the higher powers, is meant 
 the Spiritual powers, and to them chiefly every soul ought to be 
 subject.”! The year previous to this, (the year 500,) was the first 
 time that the Pope claimed and insisted on an absolute indepen- 
 dence of both Church and State. He was to be judged by none 
 but God.j — 5th. The prediction of Daniel, 8th ch. 7th and 14th v. 
 of the 2300 years, beginning about 540 years before Christ, which 
 ends in 1760. 
 
 There were many antichrists, for whatever opposed the coming or 
 reign of Christ, is antichrist, but the antichrist, by way of empha- 
 sis, was that government foretold as arising from the bottomless 
 pit, or abyss, about the finishing of the testimony of the witnesses. 
 
 Again, it is not the temporal power of the Pope, or his becom- 
 ing universal bishop, that shows the commencement of the 1260 
 years ; but the defection, or falling away of ' the Church of Christ 
 to image worship, which is the worst kind of idolatry, and, with 
 the worship of angels and saints, is called spiritual whoredom and 
 idolatry. 
 
 * 2d Thcss. 2d ch. 3 — 12 v. 
 
 •} 2d Bowen’s Hist, of the Popes, p. 268. t Ibid. p. 262. 
 
OP THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES. 493 
 
 “ I beheld, says Daniel, till the thrones (or seats) were 
 pitched (to wit, for the senators or assessores to sit upon) 
 and the ancient of days (Pater consistorii) did sit, whose 
 garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like 
 the pure wool : his throne was like the fiery flame, and his 
 wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came 
 forth from before him : thousands of thousands min- 
 istered unto him ; and ten thousand times ten thousand 
 stood before him : the judgment was set, and the books 
 were opened.” 
 
 Most of the expressions in the New Testament rela- 
 tive to the day of judgment are also taken from the same 
 source, hence they were well understood by the Jews and 
 their proselytes to whom they were addressed by our Sa- 
 viour and his apostles — But it must not be forgotten, 
 that it was also pretty well known by the most intelli- 
 gent Jews, that by the word day , applied to the last judg- 
 ment, was generally meant one thousand years, as St. 
 Peter himself explains it, when writing to the Gentiles 
 on the subject of the day of judgment, “ But beloved be 
 not 1 ignorant of this one thing, that one day with the 
 Lord is as a thousand years; and a thousand years is as 
 one day.”* As if he had said, as I have mentioned the 
 day of judgment, I would forewarn you that I do not 
 mean a common day, but a thousand years, which it 
 means in the language of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Hence it will follow, that whenever the Scriptures 
 speak of the kingdom of Christ, or of God, or of Hea- 
 ven, or the time of refreshing and restitution of all things, 
 to take place at the second coming of the Saviour in 
 glory, or at the destruction of antichrist ; it is the same 
 
 * 2d Epist. Peter, 3d ch. 8th v. 
 
494 BUT IT IS TIME T0 inquire into the ideas 
 
 that Daniel speaks of, which he had seen at the destruc- 
 tion of the fourth beast, and so must be the kingdom of 
 the thousand years, which in the Revelation to St. John 
 is included between the beginning and end of the great 
 judgment. This is also spoken of in Luke, 17th ch. 
 20th v. to the end — 19th ch 11th, 15th — 21st ch. 31st 
 v. — 2 Timothy, 4th ch. 1st v. — Mr. Mede is express 
 on this subject.* 
 
 The expression of the son of man’s coming in the 
 clouds of Heaven , is also taken from the same prophesy 
 of Daniel, being no where else to be found in the Old 
 Testament, and refers to the commencement of the same 
 kingdom of a thousand years. 
 
 The formal words of the Jewish doctors, when speak- 
 ing of the day of judgment, were “ una dies Dei sancti 
 benedicti sunt mille annif one day of the holy and bles- 
 sed God, is one thousand years, which seems to be the 
 very phrase quoted by St. Peter, for they are not the 
 words of the 90th Psalm. 
 
 The ancient Jews, while yet the Church of God, al- 
 though they firmly believed in a resurrection of the body, 
 yet they knew nothing of such an order in it, as the first 
 and second resurrection, but only in general of a great 
 judgment; yet they constantly looked for such a resur- 
 rection, as would enable all those concerned in it to 
 reign upon earth, f 
 
 This appears, from the language of the Apochryphicai 
 book of wisdom, where it is expressly said, speaking of 
 the souls of the righteous who are dead, “ that in the 
 time of their visitation they shall shine — they shall judge 
 the nations , and have dominion over the people , and their 
 Lord shall reign for ever. 
 
 * Medes Com. Apoc. p. 531. f Vid. Rev. 5th ch. 10th v. 
 
OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES. 495 
 
 So in the Jewish liturgy in the morning prayer, “ spee- 
 dily revive the fathers with all the dead , and be unto 
 Israel as a dew to refresh them, and to restore them to 
 life, to sanctify the holy one of Jacob, and the God of 
 Israel.” 
 
 Again in the standing prayer for the daily service ; 
 “ Thou, O Lord, art for ever powerful. Thou restorest 
 life to the dead and art mighty to save. Causing the 
 dew to descend. Sustaining by thy benevolence the li- 
 ving, and by thine abundant mercies animating the dead. 
 Supporting those who fall. Healing the sick. Setting 
 at liberty those who are in bonds, and performing his 
 faithful word unto those who sleep in the dust. — Who is 
 like unto thee most merciful father, who remembereth his 
 creatures in mercy unto life, and art faithful to quicken 
 the dead. Blessed art thou, 0 Lord , the restorer ! And 
 thou O Lord our God, even thou shalt speedily reign 
 over all thy works on Mount Zion , the residence of thy 
 glory, and in Jerusalem , the city of thy sanctuary . — 
 Vouchsafe me this day the reward of the righteousness 
 of my ancestors. Grant me the same lot and portion with 
 them in glory. And may glad tidings be proclaimed un- 
 to my people, saying, I will redeem them from the pow- 
 er of the grave, because that Abraham obeyed my voice. 
 We will therefore wait upon thee, O Lord our God, 
 speedily, to behold the glory of thy power, to remove all 
 impurities from the earth, and that idols may be entirely 
 destroyed. — To well order the world in the kingdom of 
 the Almighty, and that all the human race may invoke 
 thy name ; to reclaim unto thee all the wicked ones of 
 the earth. — That unto thee only, every knee shall bend, 
 and by thy name shall every tongue swear.” 
 
 This same opinion may be found in the Chaldee pa- 
 
496 BUT IT IS T1ME T0 INQUIRE into the ideas 
 
 raphrase and Talmud, as of ancient tradition, and seems 
 to be the opinion of the Jews at this day, who, as they 
 look not for the kingdom of their Messiah until dies ju- 
 dieii magni , or the great day of judgment, so they ex- 
 pect that their fore-fathers will then rise again and inherit 
 the land of Canaan and their city Jerusalem, according to 
 the promise made by God to Abraham, and that under 
 Messiah their king. 
 
 Carpentarius says, “ that the seventh millenary is cal- 
 led by the whole school of the Cabalists, the great day 
 of judgment,* because they then suppose that God 
 will judge the souls of all men.” 
 
 If we examine their Gemara, or gloss of their Talmud, 
 in Cod. Sanhed. Cap. Kol Israel, commenting on the 
 words of Isaiah, “ the lofty looks of man shall be hum- 
 bled, and the haughtiness of man shall be brought down, 
 and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.”f Rab- 
 bi Ketina says “ the world doth continue six thousand 
 years, and in one it shall be destroyed,! of which it is 
 said, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” 
 Tradition agreeth with Rabi Ketina, even as every se- 
 venth year of sevens of years, is a year of release, so of 
 the seven thousand years of the world, the seventh thou- 
 sand years, shall be the thousand years of release, as it is 
 said, “ and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” 
 Likewise in the 92d Psalm (the title) it is said to be a 
 psalm for the sabbath day, that is, the day that is nothing 
 else but rest. Again, in the 90th Psalm, it is said, for 
 
 * Com. in Alcinoum Plat. p. 322. 
 f 2d ch. Isaiah, 11th and 17th v. 
 
 f They mean .a destruction or wasting by fire, whereby the 
 earth shall be renewed, and become a new Heaven and a hew 
 earih, &c. 
 
OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JE\yS AND GENTILES. 497 
 
 a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday. The 
 Jews understand these psalms as referring to the great day 
 of judgment, and that the sabbath mentioned in the title 
 ! of the 92d means the great sabbath of a thousand years. 
 
 The Jews have also another tradition, called the tradb 
 tion of the house of Elias, found in Gemara abodah Za~ 
 rah, ch. 1st. He was a Jewish doctor and lived under 
 the second temple, about the first times of the Grecian 
 i monarchy, long before the Christian era. He says, the 
 just whom God shall raise up (it must be at the first re- 
 surrection) shall not be turned again to dust. Now if you- 
 ask, how it shall be with the just in those thousand years, 
 wherein the holy blessed God shall renew his world, 
 whereof it is said (Isaiah, 2d ch. 11th v.) and the Lord . 
 i alone shall be exalted in that day, you must know that 
 I the holy blessed God, will give them the wings, as it 
 were, of eagles, to fly upon the face of the waters, whence 
 it is said, (Psalm, 46th 2d v.) therefore we shall not 
 | fear when the earth shall be changed. — Again this same 
 Elias saith, “ the world doth continue six thousand 
 years, two thousand before the law — two thousand under 
 • the law — and two thousand years the days of the Mes- 
 siah.” 
 
 Rabbi Schelomi says, “ that they understand by the 
 above passage in Isaiah, the day of judgment and the 
 kingdom of the Messiah. And by those other words 
 (Isaiah, 2d. ch. 19th v.) when he shall arise to shake the 
 earth terribly, he understands the same time or period.” 
 Rabbi D. Kimchi makes the same comment — “ In 
 that day, that is the days of Messiah, when the Lord 
 shall execute his judgments on the wicked.” And that 
 by the words, “ and the Lord alone shall be exalted in 
 that day,” “ means that the Lord shall be king over all 
 the earth.” 
 
498 BUT IT TS T1ME T0 inquire into the ideas 
 
 Rabbi Abr. Sebah, commenting on Genesis, 1st ch. 
 says, “ at the end of six thousand years of the world, 
 Rome shall be destroyed and the Jews restored.” 
 
 These traditions and comments are confirmed by ob- 
 servations made in midrasch tchillim, upon the words of 
 the 90th Psalm, 15th v. “ make us glad according to 
 the days wherein thou hast afflicted us.” That is, saith 
 he, by the Babylonians, the Grecians, and the Romans, 
 and that in the days of the Messiah. And how many 
 are the days of the Messiah? Rabbi Jehosuas saith, 
 they are two thousand years, as it is said, according to 
 the days wherein thou hast humbled us, that is, accord- 
 ing to two days — for one day of the holy and blessed 
 God is a thousand years, according to that, because one 
 thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday. 
 
 The Rabbins also hold, “ that according to the world 
 to come, the day of the Messiah shall be one ; for God, 
 who is holy and blessed in the future (age,) shall make 
 one day to himself, of which day we read in Zach. 14th 
 ch. 7th v. “ and there shall be one day which shall be 
 known to the Lord ; not day nor night ; and it shall come 
 to pass that at evening time it shall be light. This day 
 is the world to come and the resurrection of the dead . — 
 Such was the opinion of R. Asche, the brother of R. 
 Abba. God, who is holy and blessed, shall not renew 
 his world, but at the seventh millenary. 
 
 Rabbi Eliezer, the great, who lived immediately after 
 the second temple, ch. 34th. saith, “ As I live, saith the 
 Lord, I will raise you up in the time (or age or period) 
 to come, in the resurrection of the dead, and I will gather 
 you with all Israel.” 
 
 So the paraphrast Jonathan, who lived before Christ, 
 upon the 14th ch. Hosea, 8th v. “ They shall be gather- 
 
OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES. 499 
 
 ed together out of the midst of their captivity ; they 
 shall dwell under the protection of their Christ, and the 
 dead shall live, and good shall grow in the land ; and 
 there shall be a memorial of their goodness fructifying 
 and never failing, as the remembrance of the sound of 
 the trumpets over the old wine, which was wont to be 
 offered in the sanctuary.” 
 
 The certain expectation of the glorious kingdom of 
 Christ among the Jews, is no where more manifest than 
 in the questions asked by the followers of Jesus, on cer- 
 tain occasions, while he was in the flesh on earth. The 
 wife of Zebedee, who had faithfully attended on the des- 
 pised Jesus, during the greatest part of his ministry, en- 
 gaged for the future glory and happiness of her children, 
 earnestly supplicates the Saviour, that her two sons, James 
 and John, might sit, one on his right hand and the other 
 on his left, in his coming kingdom. The disciples, 
 also, valuing their services and conduct, in forsaking all 
 and following him, are anxious to know what reward 
 they are to expect, in the victorious kingdom which they 
 expected was immediately to be set up by their Lord — • 
 The Saviour, while he represses their vanity and impa- 
 tience, confirms their expectation of such a kingdom, 
 and leads them to the contemplation of their future bles- 
 sedness. — And Jesus said, “ verily ye who have follow- 
 ed me, in the regeneration, (or restitution of all things 
 by my kingdom being set up on earth, at my second 
 coming) when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne 
 of his glory, then ye shall sit upon twelve thrones, judg- 
 ing the twelve tribes of Israel.” And the disciples, 
 when going to Emmaus, were, unknowingly, conversing 
 with the Saviour, said, “ But we trusted that it had been 
 Him who should have redeemed Israel.” 
 
 S s s 
 
500 BUT IT IS TIME T0 INQUIRE into the ideas 
 
 It was in this expectation that on the last journey of 
 Jesus to Jerusalem, that the multitude were so ready “ to 
 spread their garments in the way — and to cry, Hosanna 
 to the son of David ! Blessed is he who cometh in the 
 name of the Lord ! Hosanna in the highest !” And who, on 
 finding their hopes disappointed, by his capture and con- 
 demnation, were as ready to cry crucify him ! crucify 
 him ! 
 
 In one of Peter’s sermons, at his first setting out, we 
 find him declaring this glorious kingdom “ as the times 
 of refreshing from the presence of the Lord ; and the 
 times of restitution of all things , which God had foretold 
 by the mouth of all his holy prophets , since the world 
 began” — so that this kingdom was not a novel thing, 
 but appears to have been the subject of the prophecies 
 of the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, as we 
 have already partially shewn.” 
 
 All these opinions of the ancient Jews, are justified by 
 the language of the Apocriphical Esdras, in his 2d book 
 2d. ch 16th and 31st v. “ And those who are dead will 
 I raise up again from their places, and bring them out 
 of their graves, for I have known thy name, O Israel— 
 Remember thy children who sleep, for I shall bring them 
 out of the sides of the earth, and shew mercy unto them, 
 for I am merciful, saith the Lord Almighty.” And again, 
 in 1st ch. 38 — 40 v. “ And now brother, behold what 
 glory ; and see the people who come from the east : 
 unto whom I will give for leaders, Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, Hosea, Amos, and Micah, Joel, Obadiah, and 
 Jonah, Nahum, and Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, 
 Zachariah and Malachi, who is called also the angel of the 
 Lord.” So in 3d ch. Widom, 7th and 8th v. “ And 
 in the time of their visitation they shall shine. — They 
 
OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES. 5Q1 
 
 shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the 
 people, and their Lord shall remain for ever.” 
 
 Thus in Tobit, 13th ch. 17th and 18th v. “ And the 
 streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and car- 
 buncle and stones of Ophir. And all her streets shall 
 say Hallelujah ! and they shall praise him saying, blessed 
 be God who hath extolled it for ever!” 14th ch. 5th 
 and 6th v. “ And God again will have mercy on them, 
 and bring them again into the land, where they shall 
 build a temple, but not like to the first, until the time of 
 that age be fulfilled ; and afterwards they shall return 
 from all places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem 
 gloriously, and the house of God shall be built in it for 
 ever with a glorious building, as the prophets have spo- 
 ken thereof : And all nations shall turn and fear the Lord 
 God truly, and shall bury their idols.” 
 
 Trypho, the Jew, in his dispute with Justin Martyr, 
 says, “ but tell me the truth, do you confess the resto- 
 ration of Jerusalem, and the gathering together of 
 your people, and that they shall triumph together with 
 Christ and the patriarchs and the prophets, and those 
 who are of our lineage, and those, who before your Christ 
 came, were proselytes ? Or do you grant these things, 
 that you may seem to get the better of us in dispute ?” 
 To which Justin answers, “ 1 am not brought to such a 
 pinch that my words and thoughts should differ ; — but I, 
 and all entirely orthodox Christians, do both know the fu- 
 ture resurrection of the body, and the thousand years in 
 that Jerusalem that shall be re-edified, adorned, and enlar- 
 ged, as the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others dodeclare. 
 For thus Isaiah, of the time of those thousand years, “ for 
 there shall be a new Heaven and a new earth, and the for- 
 mer shall not be remembered, neither shall they come 
 
502 BUT IT IS TIME TO INQUIRE INTO THE IDEAS 
 
 into their minds ; but they shall find joy and rejoicing 
 in those which I create: for behold ! I make Jerusalem 
 to triumph, and my people to rejoice. And I will re- 
 joice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice 
 of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice 
 of crying.”* But when he says, “ for the days of my 
 people shall be as the days of the tree of life,” we under- 
 stand that the thousand years are implicitly pointed at. — 
 For as it was said to Adam, “ in that day that thou ea- 
 test of the tree, in that same day thou shalt die,” we know 
 he did not accomplish one thousand years. We know 
 also that saying, “ that a day with the Lord, is as a thou- 
 sand years,” is to our purpose — Moreover, a certain man 
 with us, whose name is John, being one of the twelve 
 apostles of Christ, in that Revelation which was showed 
 to him, prophesied that our faithful members of Christ 
 should accomplish those thousand years at Jerusalem : 
 and then the general, and in a word, the everlasting re- 
 surrection, and last judgment of all, jointly together, even 
 that whereof our Lord spake, wherein they shall neither 
 marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be equal with 
 the angels, even sons of the resurrection of God.” 
 
 After a discourse on the great day of judgment, which 
 he calleth the great day of Christ , when the Jews shall 
 lament for him whom they crucified, and Christ himself 
 shall be inaugurated after theorder of Melchezideck, when 
 he says the judgment of the quick and the dead shall 
 take place, Justin addeth “ at whose second coming, 
 think not that Isaiah, or other prophets, warned us to of- 
 fer up sacrifices of blood or drink offerings, but true and 
 spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving !”f 
 
 * Vide Isaiah 65th ch. 17th v. to the end. 
 
 t The doctrine of the reign of the saints on earth, after the 
 
OP THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES. 5QS 
 
 As the original descendants of Noah, must have been 
 instructed by him in all the revelations he had himself 
 received from God, as well as in all the traditions of re- 
 velation he had received from his ancestors, the first set- 
 tlers of all countries inhabited by such descendants, most 
 likely were also instructed in those essential truths. The 
 apostle Jude, speaking of “ certain men who had crept 
 into the Church unawares, who were before of old or- 
 dained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the 
 grace of our Lord into lasciviousness, and denying the 
 only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” informs us in 
 his 14th and 15th verses, “ that Enoch also , the seventh 
 from Adam, prophesied (or taught) of these, saying, be- 
 hold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints, 
 to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that 
 are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which 
 they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard 
 speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against 
 him.” We may safely conclude from hence, that 
 Enoch understood the nature of Christ’s kingdom, which 
 was to come in the end of the world, otherwise he could 
 not have foreseen the conduct of wicked men, and the 
 awful consequences of that conduct. This he could only 
 have received by revelation. 
 
 destruction of antichrist, so clearly and literally, without allegory, 
 set forth in the 20th ch. of the Revelations, was the opinion of the 
 whole orthodox Christian Church, in the age immediately follow- 
 ing the death of John, when yet Polycarp and many of John’s dis- 
 ciples were living, as Justin Martyr expressly affirmeth, is a tes- 
 timony absolute without all comparison, to persuade such as rely 
 on authority and antiquity; and it is admirable that an opinion 
 once so generally received should ever have been cried down.* 
 
 Mede’s Works, folio ed, p. 771 ■ 
 
504 BUT n ' IS TIME TO INQUIRE INTO THE IDEAS 
 
 Thus much for the opinion of the Jews. The Hea- 
 then also were partakers in this traditionary revelation, 
 for it was almost impossible, if they had not received it 
 by means of their ancestors, that men, who were thirst- 
 ing after knowledge, and travelling to distant countries 
 to obtain it, as many of their philosophers and great men 
 were, could remain long ignorant of such important doc- 
 trines, treasured up by the best and most celebrated men 
 of those eastern countries. Hence we shall find, in most 
 of the works of antiquity, broad hints of the luminous 
 truths of divine revelation. 
 
 Origen, in his tract against Celsus, lib. 4th. says, 
 “ The Stoics say, that after a certain period of time, the 
 universe shall be burned, and after that, shall be a reno- 
 vation, in which all things shall continue unchangeable.” 
 — And afterwards, “ they (the Heathen) have not the 
 name of the resurrection, but they have the thing.” 
 
 Plato describes this state, of which we are speaking, 
 in the clearest terms. “ In the end, says he, lest the 
 world should be plunged in an eternal abyss of confu- 
 sion, God, the author of the primitive order, will appear 
 again, and re-assume the reins of empire. Then he will 
 change, amend, embellish, and restore the whole frame 
 of nature, and put an end to decay of age, diseases, and 
 death.”* 
 
 Virgil says, “ the happy reign of Saturn is going to 
 be renewed — A child of a very superior order is very 
 soon to descend from Heaven upon earth. At his birth 
 the iron age will cease, and the golden age will be re- 
 established. Crimes will be banished, and the world de- 
 livered from all its fears. The earth will become fruit- 
 ful as at first, and produce every thing, every where.” ‘ 
 
 * Plato polit. p. 559, and Phced. p. 1223. 
 
OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES. 595 
 
 Seneca the tragedian, says something like this, “ Haste 
 and come, last and great day, when the Heavens shall fall 
 into confusion, and their ruins crush the impious set of 
 men, in order to bring forth a better race ; such as they 
 were heretofore, when Saturn reigned over the beginning 
 of the world.” 
 
 If we look to the eastern continent, whose tradition, if 
 any, must be from very remote antiquity, we shall find 
 that the Chinese ancient books speak of the renovation of 
 the earth by the Saint , or the second person in the trini- 
 ty, in such language as this, “ The kingdom of the mid- 
 dle, is a kingdom where the holy Son of Heaven is to 
 reign. He allows no wicked men to enter there, but he 
 banishes them into the dark abodes of beasts and mon- 
 sters. — The subjects of that kingdom are called Tietimin, 
 or Heavenly people. Liengmin , upright people. Tsee- 
 min , people of the Son, because they are governed by the 
 holy Son of Heaven, who perfects them from within, and 
 from without, and nourishes them by his supreme virtue, 
 and celestial doctrine, so that they cry out with joy, the 
 Son of Heaven is truly the Father of his people , and 
 Lord of the universe 
 
 Plutarch, in mentioning the principles of the Persian 
 Magi, says, “ There will, in fine, come a time, appoint- 
 ed by fate, when Arimanius , (the evil principle, or Satan) 
 will be banished from the earth, which will change its 
 form, become plain and even. Then men shall be hap- 
 py ; their abodes become transparent ; and they shall all 
 have one and the same life, language, and government.”f 
 
 From these few testimonies, selected from many 
 others, it is very clear that mankind from the time of 
 
 * 2d. Phil. Prim. p. 278. 
 
 t Plut. de Isid. & Osorid. p. 370. 
 
506 BUT IT 1S time to inquire into the ideas 
 
 Noah, both Jew and Gentile, Philosopher and Poet, had, 
 from the tradition of an original revelation, a belief in 
 some new period, or era, and that the present degenerate 
 state of things would come to an end. At a time, when 
 iniquity, in an emphatical manner, would universally 
 prevail ; — the fear of God be despised ; — his worship 
 wholly contemned ; — religion altogether neglected ; and 
 the dissolution of order and good government take place, 
 by which great fear should fall on all men, making them 
 weary of all their idle plans of government and happiness, 
 and leading them to look and long for some more per- 
 fect state of things — That after great disorder, confusion, 
 and destruction of mankind, a new period should com- 
 mence, in which the earth should be renewed, and a 
 glorious era begin, when the world, under a divine and 
 universal government, should be renewed and establish- 
 ed for ever. 
 
 Consonant to all this, and as the substance of which, this 
 has been but the shadow, is the whole system of divine 
 revelation, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments, as has already been shown. — Christ 
 himself has confirmed it by many express and positive 
 promises and declarations ; and his apostles and their suc- 
 cessors, under the immediate influences of the divine Spi- 
 rit, have enforced and explained it — If any one truth, 
 more than another, is insisted upon in the word of God, 
 it is the second personal advent of the risen Saviour, in 
 his glorified human nature, to this our guilty world, ac- 
 companied by his saints and angels, to the glory of God 
 the Father. 
 
 Polycrates, who flourished in the second century, and 
 was an aged bishop of Asia, in his epistle written to Vic- 
 tor, bishop of Rome, concerning Easter, says, “ For in 
 
OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES. 507 
 
 Asia the great lights are dead (meaning the apostles and 
 first successors after them) who shall be raised again in 
 the day of the Lord’s advent, when he shall come with 
 glory from Heaven, and raise up all his saints.”* 
 
 “ We find then, upon the whole,” says Edward King, 
 
 “ a positive declaration that the second coming of our 
 Lord, and its consequent effects, shall not be as some have 
 imagined, merely a gradual progressive improvement of 
 human nature, and a regular slow melioration of the state 
 of things on earth produced by that means ; but we may 
 learn, that it shall be almost instantaneous, and that, even 
 in the midst of the prevalence of a very great corruption 
 of human nature. And we are still further informed 
 therein, that the great signs of the near approach of our 
 Lord’s coming shall be, first, the starting up of false Mes- 
 siahs and false Christs ; or of persons, each one preten- 
 ding to be the great appointed ruler, concerning whom 
 these prophecies have been delivered. And the appear- 
 ance of false prophets, or of persons teaching most falla- 
 cious doctrines, and pretending to be forerunners of the 
 second approach of the Messiah ; and to have authority 
 to interpret, in their own metaphorical manner, what is 
 in Holy Scripture declared, most literally and precisely, 
 concerning his second advent. And that, in the next 
 place, another sign shall be, great trouble and confusion 
 upon earth, in consequence of disobedience to, and con- 
 tempt of lawful authority, and of the powers of govern- 
 ment — And lastly, that notwithstanding all this, in the 
 end, men can never be deceived with regard to what 
 they are to give credit to, relating to this great advent ; 
 because in fact, they shall suddenly behold with their 
 
 * Euseb. Eccl. Hist. p. 86. 
 
 T 1 1 
 
508 but IT IS TIME T0 inquire into the ideas 
 
 eyes, the appearance, in the Heavens above, of the glori- 
 ous approach from on high, of our Lord himself with all 
 his heavenly hosts, which, as they draw near to the earth, 
 will, in consequence of its rotation round its axis, be vi- 
 sible to every region on the whole globe. — And final- 
 ly, we have positive assurance that all this shall real- 
 ly come to pass, whilst the earth continues still in its 
 present state ; and whilst the generation of man is dwel- 
 ling just as it does at present, upon its surface.” 
 
 This doctrine is greatly confirmed by St. John, when 
 he positively asserts, that at the end of 1000 years from 
 this period, Satan shall be loosed from his prison, again 
 to deceive the nations. Surely, then, this must take 
 place during the present state of things on earth.* 
 
 * Some years after writing the foregoing, I accidentally met with 
 the following, from Mr. Warner, on the common prayers of the 
 Church of England. Under the article [Holy Catholic Church in 
 the apostle’s creed at evening prayer ) he has introduced the fol- 
 lowing extract from Mr. Carrington, on this subject. u Conside- 
 ring the general state of the Christian Church, from the first hour 
 of its foundation, almost to the present, there doth not appear to 
 have been an interval, when the two affections of Holy and Catho- 
 lic , have been fairly compatible ; and all attempts to reconcile 
 those jarring qualities of sanctity and universality , have only oc- 
 casioned a constrained and unwarrantable interpretation of the 
 terms. It is too evident that the Church in general (much less the 
 holy Church ) hath, as yet, been far from being universal. — From 
 hence expositors have been obliged to recur to partial and figura- 
 tive constructions; to distant and even sometimes to forced 
 interpretations; in order to support their unnatural solutions 
 with arguments the most specious, many of which tend, at best, 
 to prove how the Church may, with some show of probability, rather 
 than how it necessarily must be termed at once both holy and ca- 
 tholic. But as in Scripture we ought not to recede from the let- 
 ter, without apparent necessity, so why may not the same rule 
 obtain here ? Why should we quit the full and genuine sense of a 
 word, for one partial and emblematical, when it may with safety 
 
OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES. 5Q9 
 
 and consistency be adhered to ? Suppose then we can find a state 
 or time, when the w hole of this article, in the plain and literal 
 meaning of the w'ords, shall be found to be strictly true ; when 
 this complicated affection shall belong to the Church of vEhrist by 
 a just and unquestionable right ; when both the holy church shall 
 become catholic, and the catholic church shall become holy ?— 
 Ought we not rather to direct our attention to that, than to any 
 other period wherein we meet with the least difficulty or obstruc- 
 tion. In a word, the great mistake seems to lie in referring that 
 to either past or present, which belongs solely and entirely to fu- 
 turity. For if there be any force in words ; if there is any depen- 
 dence to be had on the sacred writers, either under the old or new 
 dispensation; we are certainly to expect, even on this side Hea- 
 ven, a state, an age, a period in which the Church of Christ shall 
 appear in a form, in all respects greatly transcending any it has 
 hitherto enjoyed, when the hoi J few shall no longer be hid and ob- 
 scured, amidst a sea of iniquity ; no longer seem an undistinguish- 
 ed handful in the midst of a wicked and idolatrous vrorld ; no 
 longer be contracted within so narrow a compass, as that even 
 their existence shall seem precarious and uncertain, when, in 
 short, the Church of Christ shall become at once so absolutely ca- 
 tholic, that all shall know Him, from the least even to the greatest ; 
 and so universally holy, that every one who is left in Zion, and 
 who remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one 
 who is written among the living.— -Here then we must seek that 
 Church, which is at once the object of our wishes and of our faith; 
 and that communion of saints, we long so ardently to be joined to 
 — But it will be well worth our while to take a more comprehen- 
 sive view of this glorious and remarkable period. 
 
 To trace the declaration of it, indeed, through all its stages, 
 were to go very far back in the holy Scriptures, since it is certain 
 that it was not absolutely unknown in the first ages — There are 
 evident footsteps of this opinion here and there dispersed in the 
 Chaldee paraphrase, and in the Talmud; and with some few par- 
 ticularities, it is held by the Jews at this day — And indeed, as the 
 learned Mede observes, the second and universal resurrection, with 
 the state of the saints after it, now so clearly revealed in Christi- 
 anity, seems to have been less known to the ancient Church of the 
 Jews than the first resurrection . There are many passages in the 
 
510 BU T If IS TIME TO INQUIRE INTO THE IDEAS 
 
 royal Psalmist, which have an evident tendency this way ; and 
 some obscure allusions, some distant hints may be met with, even 
 in the Books of Moses; but the prophets were principally employ- 
 ed in this great discovery, and it engrosses so large a share in their 
 writings, as it were almost endless to transcribe. In short, we can 
 scarcely turn our eye upon any part of them, but it is struck with 
 something which leads us to the expectation of a state of glory and 
 peace, of righteousness and salvation. In a word, a state truly 
 and entirely corresponding to the venerable and expressive title 
 of an Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 In what light these several passages of the prophets are to be 
 considered — not to mention the almost unanimous interpretation 
 of the primitive fathers — The Holy Ghost seems himself to have 
 instructed us ; for we, saith the apostle, according to His promise, 
 look for new Heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 
 ness. From whence it is evident, that those prophesies received 
 not their full completion, in the first promulgation of the Gospel, 
 and calling in of the Gentiles ; for both these circumstances were 
 actually past, and the Gospel dispensation had taken place when 
 the apostle wrote. Where then are we to trace this promise, but 
 in the above recited remarkable passages ? And what are we to 
 conceive by an earth inhabited by righteousness, but a Church pur- 
 ged from its present gross and numerous abominations, universal- 
 ly clear, pious, holy. And in a word, composed of a pure and en- 
 tire communion of faith ? 
 
 That such a period as this, is yet due to the Church of Christ, 
 seems too plain to be denied — But when or where to take place, 
 is a matter of some dispute even among those, who are neverthe- 
 less agreed, with regard to the thing in general. But that it cer- 
 tainly will, at some time or other, is quite sufficient for our pur- 
 pose; and when it does, the Church of Christ will be strictly and 
 truly, in the full and genuine sense of the words, what it never 
 hath been yet, both holy and catholic.— But let us proceed to con- 
 sider what may give a further light, both into this, and the remai- 
 ning part of the article. 
 
 St. John, as he was to close the succession of Prophets, seems 
 appointed to repeat such of the ancient predictions as were yet to 
 receive their completion ; with such further illustration as the 
 shorter distance of their approaching periods rendered necessary- 
 
OF THE ANCIENTS, BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES. 
 
 And this remarkable dispensation so far from being forgotten, is 
 discussed by him with the greatest particularity and exactness. 
 In a word, what glimmered in the writings of Moses and David ; 
 what we saw as through a glass darkly, in the prophets, this apos- 
 tie seems to have shown us openly, without a parable and face to 
 face. 
 
 After a short but clear description of such remarkable partial- 
 lars as were successively to take place in order to usher in that 
 glorious economy, “ I saw,” says he, “ an angel come down from 
 Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in 
 his hand — And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which, 
 is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast 
 him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon 
 him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand 
 years should he fulfilled. And I saw the souls of those who were 
 beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and 
 who had not worshipped the beast — and they lived and reigned 
 with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not 
 till the thousand years were finished.” — At the end of this mille- 
 nium succeeds the second and general resurrection ; and the hap- 
 py interim is evidently the new Heavens and the new earth of Isaiah; 
 the latter days of the prophets ; the times of restitution ; the times 
 of refreshing of the Gospel ; and the golden age of the Heathens. 
 The attendant circumstances are too plainly parallel, the like- 
 ness and conformity too strong, for us not to see that they are one 
 and the same thing — Behold here then the long promised kingdom 
 of the son of David ; behold his universal dominion in a truly ca- 
 tholic Church. Nor can we turn our eyes on the companions of 
 that happy reign, the noble army of all those that had been behea- 
 ded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God ; and who 
 had not worshipped the beast, neither had received his mark upon 
 their foreheads, or in their hands, whom the Lamb shall therefore 
 make kings and priests, and they shall reign on earth, without ex- 
 claiming, here is indeed a communion of saints — a blessed unmix- 
 ed society of the just, enjoying universal harmony, and a free and 
 uninterrupted intercourse with God their King and Saviour, the 
 holy angels, and each other.— I think it, by no means, either im- 
 possible or improbable, that an opinion which had so long and so 
 universally prevailed in the Church : which had borne so large a 
 
512 BUT IT IS TIME TO INQUIRE INTO THE IDEAS, Ac. 
 
 share in the hopes, belief, words, and writings of so many of its 
 members ; and been patronized by apostles, apostolic men, con- 
 fessors, and martyrs, should find a place in some of their confes- 
 sions of faith — rather very improbable it is, that a point by them 
 esteemed of so much importance should be wholly neglected — not 
 impossible that such an one may be this very confession before us ; 
 or at least, that this remarkable and mysterious article (which I 
 think, according to the usual interpretation of it, hardly carries 
 weight enough to be made a distinct article of faith) may have been 
 transferred from such into this creed, at a time when its genuine 
 intention was not, perhaps, thoroughly understood.— .Thus far, 
 however, I must think certain, that by the help of this hypothesis, 
 we have a much less intricate and constrained solution of this ar- 
 ticle, than any of those which are usually given us. In 
 which opinion I have the satisfaction to find myself snpported 
 by the ready concurrence of some persons of distinguished char- 
 acters for learning and judgment, as well as zealous attachment 
 to the genuine doctrines of sound and orthodox Christianity. 
 
CONCLUSION : 
 
 OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 
 
 HAVING thus, in some measure, executed my pur- 
 pose, it is high time to finish this inquiry, by drawing 
 the proper conclusion from the whole. 
 
 If, throughout this investigation, it has appeared, that, 
 from the beginning of the world, a divine revelation has 
 been made to man, and that revelation has clearly opened 
 up the inscrutable purposes of Almighty God, to recon- 
 cile this guilty world to himself, by the death and suffer- 
 ings of his only begotten Son. That, to this end, he 
 has ordained different dispensations, at different periods, 
 and in different states of the world, wherein mankind, 
 being exercised under different states of discipline and 
 teachings, shall be instructed more and more in the di- 
 vine will, and his own people be tried, purified, and 
 made white by the blood of the Lamb. That certain 
 fixed ages, periods, or eras, have also been established 
 and foretold by the same divine revelation, in which this 
 scene of mercy, to the children of men, should be pro- 
 gressively effected, promulged, and made perfect in their 
 glory. That at the end of the present age, or period, 
 whenever it shall happen, a more glorious state of things, 
 during another period or age, is to take place, commen- 
 cing with the second advent of our Lord and Master, 
 together with all his Saints and Holy Angels, to the glo- 
 ry of God the Father : the leading principles of which 
 have been made known to us by the mercy of God, lest 
 
514 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 being taken unawares, as by a thief in the night, we 
 might be unprepared for so awful and glorious an 
 event.* 
 
 * Edward King observes on this great subject, “ We may now 
 naturally be led to consider, what is discovered to us in the Holy 
 Scriptures, concerning the second coming of our Lord. An event 
 of the highest and most tremendous importance ; and in which we 
 are all most deeply interested. And this inquiry the rather demands 
 our attention ; because what has been revealed concerning it, 
 seems to have been hitherto very much misunderstood : and an 
 inconceivable prejudice, on the one hand, of applying the whole 
 prophesy merely to the destruction of Jerusalem; (to which it 
 can only relate in part) and as strong a prejudice, on the other 
 hand, of always conceiving the second coming of our Lord, and 
 the end of the world, with the final destruction of the earth, as 
 being all one and the same event ; have utterly prevented what 
 should rather seem to be a right and fair apprehension of the truth. 
 —The error however has not been without extensive consequen- 
 ces and some ill effects. For hence, even the common apprehen- 
 sion, concerning the great day of judgment itself, has, it should 
 seem, become greatly perplexed, and in a degree erroneous ; los- 
 ing much of the influence it should have on the human mind, in- 
 asmuch as it has too generally been understood to be a conside- 
 ration merely of great terror; and a scene merely of rapid con- 
 demnation on the one hand, and of instantaneous hurrying and 
 carryi ng away of those who shall be delivered into bliss, in some re- 
 mote unknown regions, on the other — Whereas, in truth, although 
 every soul has reason to fear, and to be humbled before God, yet 
 this appointed judgment ought to be considered as a matter even 
 of great comfort, to the serious and sincere, as being the opening 
 of a scene of most wise, deliberate arrangement ; and a final per- 
 fecting and rectification of all things according to the original pro- 
 mise of God — For the true Scriptural idea concerning this tre- 
 mendous day (when all that is revealed is duly weighed) must 
 appear to the careful investigator of Holy Writ, to be that of a 
 very long period of time, subsequent to the coming of our Lord, 
 during which all things shall be restored; and every soul of every 
 kind, shall be placed in its proper lot and station according to 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 5^5 
 
 Again, it has appeared, that there are certain duties 
 commanded by God to his people, at the approach of this 
 new era, essential to their safety, their welfare, and their 
 happiness, and that, therefore, they have been assured 
 and premonished, that the rise of a government, uncom- 
 mon in all its parts, and designated by a beast rising 
 out of the abyss, or bottomless pit, — the slaying and re- 
 surrection of the witnesses, — the destruction of the Ro- 
 man government, — the man of sin, — antichrist, — the city 
 of Rome, and the Turkish empire, with the restoration 
 of the Jews, to their ancient city Jerusalem, are given or 
 foretold, as certain signs of its near approach. If the true 
 spirit of the Scriptures, containing this revelation of the 
 will of God to his Churches, has herein been justly de- 
 veloped, and the history of the Church, and the present 
 state of Europe, as connected with it, have been fairly 
 and candidly traced, do not all these, centering in a point, 
 loudly, and as with the voice of an archangel and the 
 trump of God, call on all the servants of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ to take heed to themselves ; not to let any man 
 deceive them — but to discern the signs of the times, 
 lifting up their heads and rejoicing, knowing that their 
 redemption draweth nigh. 
 
 This is not meant to convey an idea that the children 
 of God will have no part in the extreme sufferings that 
 are predicted, as previously to be inflicted on an unbe- 
 lieving world. No ! Satan is not so easily vanquished 
 
 that divine promise made to Daniel— “ Thou shalt stand in thy 
 lot at the end of the days”— or rather as it is in the Greek — “ And 
 thou shalt arise again to thy lot, at the completion of the days.” 
 Kai anasese , eis ton kleron sou eis suntileian emeroru* 
 
 * Mors, of Crit. p- 247—249. 
 
 U uu 
 
516 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 - — He will rage the more furiously, as he beholds the 
 events taking place, by which he will be assured that his 
 time is very short. The children of God will be the con- 
 tinued objects of his malice, and they will also be parta- 
 kers of his vengeance. “ Many shall be purified, made 
 white and tried ; but the wicked shall do wickedly ; and 
 none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall 
 understand 
 
 The great, the essential, the glorious difference will 
 be, the one will suffer under “ the sure and certain hope 
 of a joyful resurrection to eternal life ; the other under 
 the “ fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indigna- 
 tion, which shall devour the adversaries.”! 
 
 The friends of the glorified Redeemer are greatly en- 
 couraged, and the careless virgins, who refuse to hearken 
 to the premonishing voice of the Gospel, ought to be 
 filled with fear and trembling, when they hear the awful 
 address of Paul to the Thessalonians, referring to the 
 great expected event. “ And to you who are troubled , 
 rest with us ; when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be reveal- 
 ed fr\om Heaven with his mighty angels , in flaming fire , 
 taking vengeance on them who know not God , and obey 
 not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be 
 punished with everlasting destruction from the presence 
 of the Lord , and from the glory of his power ; when he 
 shall come to be glorified in his Saints , and to be admired 
 in all them who believe , ( because our testimony among 
 you , was believed J in that dayJ% 
 
 As this destruction that is thus coming on the world, 
 is political as well as religious, it becomes every one of 
 
 * Daniel, 12th ch. 10th v. f Hebrews, 10th ch. 27th v. 
 
 j 2 Thess. 1st ch. 7=-9 v. 
 
Oft, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 517 
 
 every denomination, party, and character, seriously to 
 consider the forewarnings of the inspired Servants of 
 God, and the prophetic declarations of Christ himself, 
 and by them carefully to observe and compare the present 
 signs of the times ; not to puff up their pride and vanity 
 by supposing themselves wiser than other men ; or by 
 pretending to know future events further than they are 
 revealed in God’s word. But that by a humble, teach- 
 able temper and disposition, with an unfeigned confi- 
 dence in the divine veracity, they patiently wait with 
 faith and hope, a full completion of the glorious things 
 promised in his word. — His utmost desire will be to be 
 found as a centinel at his post, constantly alert and 
 watching unto prayer, that he may be found worthy at 
 his master’s coming, to enter in with him to the marriage 
 supper of the Lamb. 
 
 What can the most sanguine friends of the Roman 
 hierarchy say to the temporal power of that see being 
 no more ; and even its ecclesiastical power being vox et 
 preterea nihil. It ought notto be forgotten, that whenDan- 
 iel foretells the destruction of this beast, he also mentions, 
 that the rest of the beasts or governments of Europe, shall 
 also be destroyed. — The great day of the battle of God 
 Almighty, in the valley of Armageddon,* is to be with 
 the kings of the earth ; “ And I saw three unclean spir* 
 
 * That the reader may better understand this subject, he will not 
 object to the following quotation from Mede’s works, as he cer- 
 tainly was the ablest commentator on the revelation that the world 
 has yet seen. 
 
 u That the seventh trumpet with the whole space of the thou^ 
 sand years, and the other prophesies thereto appertaining, do sig- 
 nify that great day of judgment, much spoken of by the ancient 
 Church of the Jews, and by Christ and his apostles ; not seme 
 
518 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 its, like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon [the 
 Roman temporal government] and out of the mouth of 
 the beast [with seven heads and ten horns] and out of 
 the mouth of the false prophet (it may be either the ec- 
 clesiastical powers of Rome, which are so called after the 
 
 short space of hours (as is commonly believed) but after the man- 
 ner of the Hebrews, taking a day for time, a continued space of 
 many years, and circumscribed within two resurrections, as it 
 were the bounds. A day, I say, first to begin at the particular, 
 and, as it were, morning judgment of antichrist and the rest of the 
 living enemies of the Church, by the glorious appearing of our 
 Lord in flaming fire. And then at length to determine (after the 
 reign of the thousand years granted to new Jerusalem, his most 
 holy spouse upon this earth : and after the utter destruction of 
 new enemies yet to arise, the great day waxing toward evening, 
 and Satan being again loosed) at the universal resurrection and 
 judgment of all the dead. "Which being thus finished, the wicked 
 shall be cast into hell, to be tormented for ever. But the saints 
 shall be translated into Heaven, to live with Christ for ever. This 
 is indeed that time of the wrath of God upon the Gentiles, and of 
 judging the cause of them that died for Christ, for which the tri- 
 umphing elders give thanks at the sound of the seventh trumpet, 
 “ for then God would give reward to his servants the prophets and 
 saints, and them who fear his name, small and great, and would 
 destroy them who destroy the earth.” This is that day of judg- 
 ment and perdition of wicked men, of which St. Peter speaks, 
 « but be not ignorant of this one thing, beloved (to wit, the day 
 which I even now speak ot) that one day with the Lord is as a 
 thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” In which 
 same day indeed, the apostle with his brethren of the same kin- 
 dred, the Jews (to whom he writeth) expecteth that new form of 
 things to come, of which by and by he saith, “ But we look for 
 new Heavens and a new earth, according to his promise, wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness” — 'Observe, according to promise. But 
 when was this promise of new Heavens and a new earth extant 
 (when John had not yet seen the revelation) except that of Isaiah 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 
 
 519 
 
 reign of antichrist, or the Mahometan power, now in pos- 
 session of the eastern part of the old Roman empire) for 
 they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go 
 forth unto the kings of the earth , and of the whole worlds 
 to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Al- 
 
 ch. 65. v. 17. and ch. 66. v. 22. which promise surely, whoever 
 shall read, I should marvel, if he should judge that it shall be ful- 
 filled elsewhere than on earth. This is also that kingdom joined 
 with the appearance of Christ ready to judge the world ; of which 
 2d Epist. Paul to Timothy, 4th ch. 1st v. “ I charge thee before 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at 
 his appearing, and his kingdom.” For after the last and univer- 
 sal resurrection, according to the same apostle, 1st Cor. 15th ch. 
 24 — 28th v. Christ (the last enemy being destroyed, that is death) 
 shall deliver up the kingdom to his Father, that he may be subject 
 to him, who subdued all things to himself ; so far is He (Christ) 
 from being said then to enter upon any new kingdom. That king- 
 dom, therefore, which neither shall be, before the appearance of our 
 Lord, nor after the last resurrection, is necessarily to be included 
 between them. 
 
 This is that kingdom of the Son of Man that Daniel saw, who 
 when the times of the horn of antichrist were fulfilled, or the 
 times of the Gentiles come to an end (Luke 21 — 24) shall appear 
 in the clouds of Heaven, when there shall be given him power, 
 glory, and a kingdom ; that all people, nations, and languages 
 should serve him ; or when (as the angel by and by expoundeth it) 
 a kingdom, power, and greatness of kingdoms under the whole 
 Heaven (mark it well) shall be given to the people of the saints of 
 the most high. Deut. 7. 13. and 18 — 27 verses. Neither yet, (as 
 I said) shall this kingdom be after the second resurrection : since 
 the Son of Man is not to enter upon a kingdom then ; but as Paul 
 witnesseth, to lay it down and deliver it to his Father. Now that 
 the same kingdom is handled in both places, as well by John as 
 Daniel, may be proved by these two arguments, 1st. That both 
 begin at the same time, to wit, the overthrow of the fourth or Ro- 
 man beast : that of Daniel when the beast governing under that 
 
520 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 mighty.* — And he gathered them together into a place, 
 called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. f And the 
 great city was divided into three parts (perhaps the Ro- 
 man empire) and the cities of the nations fell ; (perhaps 
 Paris, Vienna, London, &c.) and great Babylon (Rome) 
 
 last regimen of the horn with eyes, was slain and his body given 
 to the burning flame, Dan. 7th and 11 — 27. That of the Revela- 
 tion, when the beast and false prophet (that wicked horn in Dan- 
 iel having mouth and eyes as a head) are taken and both cast into 
 a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 2d. From the same 
 session of judgment premised to both. For it will appear that the 
 one is borrowed from the other and altogether tend to the same 
 purpose. Furthermore I would have the reader to understand — 
 Whatever sound matter has been published by the Jews ; whate- 
 ver is declared by the Lord in his Gospel, or any where in the 
 New Testament by the apostles, concerning the day of the great 
 judgment; it is taken from this vision of Daniel, viz. that the 
 judgment is to be accomplished by fire — Christ to come in the 
 clouds of Heaven — to come in the glory of his Father with a mul- 
 titude of angels — the saints to come with him to judge the earth 
 • — antichrist to be abolished 44 with the brightness of his coming, 
 &c.” so that they go about wholly to undermine the pillar of the 
 evangelical faith concerning the glorious coming of Christ, who 
 neglecting the ancient tradition of the Church, endeavour to turn 
 this prophesy to another end. 
 
 Lastly. This is that most ample kingdom, which by Daniel’s in- 
 terpretation, was foreshowed to Nebuchadnezzar in that prophe- 
 tical statue of the four kingdoms — not that of a stone cut out of a 
 hill, while yet the series of monarchy remained (for this is the 
 present state of the kingdom of Christ;) but that of the stone 
 which was (when the monarchies were utterly broken and defa- 
 ced) to become a mountain and to fill the whole world. 
 
 * Rev. 19—20. 
 
 f 16th Rev. 13 — 16. Arina signifies destruction, and Geddon 
 a troop or army. 
 
OE, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 52 1 
 
 came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the 
 cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath ; and every 
 island Red away, and the mountains were not found.”* 
 “And I saw the beast , and the kings of the earth , and their 
 armies gathered together to make war against him who 
 sat on the throne, and against his army : and the beast 
 was taken, and with him the false prophet, who wrought 
 miracles before him, with which he deceived them who 
 had received the mark of the beast, and them who wor- 
 shipped his image. These both were cast alive into a 
 lake of fire burning with brimstone ; and the remnant 
 were slain with the sword of him who sat upon the horse, 
 which sword proceeded out of his mouth ; and all the 
 fowls were filled with their flesh.”f 
 
 The Old Testament bears witness to this awful peri- 
 od as well as the New, both Testaments holding up the 
 same uniform system from the beginning to the end — In 
 the Song of Moses, when delivered from the mighty 
 power of his enemies, he looks forward to this great event. 
 “ Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people ; for he will 
 avenge the blood of his servants, and will render ven- 
 geance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his 
 land and to his people. ”$ 
 
 “ Go into the rock and hide thyself in the dust ; 
 From the fear of Jehovah, and from the glory of his 
 majesty, 
 
 When he ariseth to strike the earth with terror. 
 
 The lofty eyes of men shall be humbled, 
 
 The heighths of mortals shall bow down : 
 
 * Rev. ch. 16 . v. 13 — 20. f Rev, ch, 19 . v, 19 — 21 
 
 | Deut. ch. 82. v. 42 and 43. 
 
522 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 And Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. 
 
 For the day of Jehovah, God of hosts, is against eve- 
 ry thing great and lofty ; 
 
 And against every thing that is exalted ; and it shall 
 be humbled, 
 
 Even against all the cedars of Lebanon, the high and 
 the exalted ; 
 
 And against all the oaks of Basan ; 
 
 And against all the mountains, the high ones ; 
 
 And against all the hills, the exalted ones ; 
 
 And against every tower, high raised ; 
 
 And against every mound, strongly fortified. 
 
 And against all the ships of Tarshish ; 
 
 And against every lovely work of art. 
 
 And the pride of man shall bow down ; 
 
 And the heighth of mortals shall be humbled ; 
 
 And Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.”* 
 
 “ For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of 
 hosts, that I will break his yoke off thy neck, and will 
 burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve them- 
 selves of him — But they shall serve the Lord their God, 
 and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. 
 Though I make a full end of all nations, whither I have 
 scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee. — 
 In the latter days ye shall consider it.”f 
 
 “ The Lord shall roar from on high and utter his voice 
 from his holy habitation — He will plead with all flesh ; 
 he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the 
 Lord. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day, 
 from one end of the earth even unto the other : they shall 
 
 * Lowth’s Isaiah, ch. 2. v. 10—17 
 t Jeremiah, ch. SO. v. 8—24. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 523 
 
 not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried ; they shall 
 be dung upon the ground.”* 
 
 “ The great day of the Lord : the day of the Lord’s 
 wrath ; the day of the Lord’s sacrifice. A day of wrath 
 — a day of trouble and distress ; a day of vvasteness and 
 desolation ; a day of darkness and gloominess ; a day of 
 clouds and thick darkness a day that God will rise up 
 to the prey, to gather the nations and assemble the king- 
 doms, to pour upon them his indignation and fierce an- 
 ger.”! 
 
 Mr. Mede says, “ that some of the Hebrew commen- 
 tators understand by beasts in the 7th ch. of Daniel, 12th 
 v. other states and kingdoms then reigning in the world, 
 at the time, the fourth beast (Rome) shall be destroyed ; 
 that these also as well as the fourth beast and his limbs, 
 shall have their kingdoms taken away, though not at the 
 same instant, yet some time after — He insists that the 
 word Vau, in the Hebrew, should be translated also , and 
 not as concerning. This agrees with the words of John, 
 “ and the remnant were slain with the sword of him who 
 sat upon the horse,” &c. If you ask, but when will all 
 this happen ? I answer in the words of a parallel passage 
 in Joel, 3d ch. 1st and 2d v. “ For behold in those days, 
 and in that time , when I shall bring again the captivity of 
 Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather also all nations, and will 
 bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will 
 plead with them there, for my people, my heritage, Isra- 
 el, whom they have scattered among the nations and par- 
 ted my land.” — Here the time is fixed to be about the 
 time when the Jews shall be brought into the sheepfold 
 of Christ’s flock. 
 
 * Jeremiah, ch. 25. v. 30 — 33. f Zephaniah. 
 
 X x x 
 
524 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 This great commentator’s construction of the fourth 
 and fifth vials is so remarkable, that I must be indulged 
 in transcribing the substance of it, as applicable to my 
 subject. “ What the sun, in the world of the beast is, 
 we must discover by inquiring what the Heaven of the 
 beast is. For the sun is not to be looked for, but in a 
 Heaven fit for it. — That of the antichristian world, is ei- 
 ther the supreme and universal authority of the Pope, or 
 any other excellent and regal authority whatsoever in the 
 world of the beast , that is, in the whole universality of 
 the provinces acknowledging the Pope of Rome for their 
 head. Now in this antichristian Heaven [according to 
 the type of the natural Heaven] there are very many stars, 
 and of divers magnitude, princes, dukes, prelates, lords, 
 and kings — There are also great lights, like the sun and 
 moon. Now of these, the most glorious and by far the 
 greatest light of all, which shines in the papal firmament, 
 is the German emperor, the proper inheritance of the 
 house of Austria, now for these two hundred years. Is 
 not this therefore the sun of that Heaven ?* Now, upon 
 this sun will the fourth vial be poured forth, that it being 
 pulled away from the Heaven of the beast and shining to 
 another purpose, may burn and torment the inhabitants 
 of the antichristian world even to blasphemy, who, before, 
 were refreshed by its heat and its beams.” 
 
 How far this prophesy is in part fulfilled in the present 
 circumstances of the once flourishing republic of Venice, 
 
 * Might not this question been better answered by referring to 
 France, whose known emblem for many hundred years has been 
 the Sun ; especially when she is considered as connected with 
 Rome ; being the power by whom Rome Christian first recei- 
 ved her temporal authority, with deliverance from the total des- 
 truction threatened her, in the fourth century, by the barbarous 
 nations of the north. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE, 
 
 52 5 
 
 many of the states of Italy, and the ecclesiastical princes 
 of Germany, or even of France itself, I leave my readers 
 to judge. Mr. Mede proceeds : “ the fifth vial is to be 
 poured out on the throne or seat of the beast , that is, on 
 Rome itself. Here then the Holy Spirit covereth not 
 the matter any more with the veil of figures or allegories ; 
 haply, because of the great light which shall then arise 
 to these prophesies, by this most evident sign, whereby it 
 shall be clear which vials are past and which to come. 
 
 Now by this destruction of the city of Rome, which I 
 think to be the very same, which is to follow the resur- 
 rection and ascension of the witnesses, the name of the 
 Pope shall not indeed utterly perish, but he shall, from 
 thenceforth, be deprived of his glory and splendor, so 
 that for grief they shall bite their tongues ; in the mean 
 time, notwithstanding persevering in their impenitency, 
 their hearts being hardened, they will abuse their griefs 
 unto further blasphemy.” 
 
 The particular account of the destruction of Rome, 
 given by the beloved disciple in his revelations, is wor- 
 thy of attention, as, when it happens, it will be too re- 
 markable an event to be overlooked. This is recorded 
 in the 18th ch. from the beginning. In this chapter 
 there are more particulars mentioned, and greater cer- 
 tainty predicted, with greater confusion and disorders 
 foretold, that will take place among the kings of the 
 earth, who have heretofore had communion with her, 
 than in any other part of that sacred book. There will, 
 about the same time, be such misery and distress, by 
 some means or other, among the followers of the beast 
 and the false prophet, as to lead them to bewail their 
 misfortunes, as those to which they will attribute their 
 immediate ruin. Among the merchants and the trading 
 
526 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 nations of the earth, and particularly with those depend- 
 ing upon them, as masters of ships, seamen, and all 
 connected with them, there will be unusual perplexity 
 and trouble, on account of some unexpected and unlook- 
 ed for prevention of trade and commerce, either by ab- 
 surd laws and regulations, prohibtiing or oppressing 
 trade in general, or some stoppage and hindrance, by 
 wars, invasions, privateering, insurrections, blockades, 
 burnings, and confusion, unheard of before, that will 
 prevent ships sailing safely on the ocean, or some unu- 
 sual prevention of inter-communion between the nations 
 of the earth, heretofore very uncommon. 
 
 The sixth vial shall be poured out upon the great ri- 
 ver Euphrates, that being dried up, a passage may be 
 prepared for new enemies of the beast to come from the 
 east: that is, for the Israelites to be wonderfully (res- 
 tored to their ancient city of Jerusalem if not to be) con- 
 verted to the pure faith and worship of Christ, whom the 
 worshippers of the beast haply shall esteem for the army of 
 the feigned antichrist to arise out of the Jews; God so re- 
 venging the obstinacy of their errors. “Like as the Lord 
 hath destroyed the tongue of the Egyptian sea, (rather so) 
 shall he lift up his his hand over the river, (the Targum 
 adds, Euphrates*) in the strength of his spirit, and shall 
 smite it in the seven streams, so that many may pass over 
 dry shod, and there shall be an high way for the remnant of 
 my people, which shall be left by the Assyrians, as it was 
 in that day when they ascended from the land of Egypt.”f 
 
 Mystical Babylon shall have her Euphrates, even as 
 ancient Babylon had, to wit, the Turkish empire, as I 
 
 * The Jews frequently called all large rivers by the general 
 name of Euphrates. 
 
 t Isaiah, 11th ch, 15th and 16th v. 
 
Oil, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 527 
 
 conceive, which is the only obstacle to those new ene- 
 mies from the east. “ Now, therefore, behold the Lord 
 bringeth up upon them the waters of the river , strong 
 and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory ; 
 and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over 
 all his banks ; and he shall pass through Judah ; he shall 
 overflow and go over ; he shall reach even to the neck, 
 and the stretching out of his wings, shall fill the breadth 
 of thy land, O Immanuel.* Therefore, by the sixth 
 vial this Euphratean deluge shall be dried up. Plainly 
 according with the 11th ch. of the Revelation, after the 
 overthrow of the city, which shall come to pass in a 
 great earthquake, the second wo shall be past, that is, the 
 plague of the sixth trumpet. But by what means this is 
 to happen, and by what authors, whether by Jews them- 
 selves, which, haply, Ezekiel intimates in his 38th and 
 39th ch. who shall possess the holy land again, or by 
 some intestine discord, fitly to go before the return of 
 these ; or haply both, but, in order, one after another ; 
 or by some other cause we shall labour in vain in gues- 
 sing, as at a matter wholly yet to come. — Whatsoever, 
 it be, this lett being removed, it is said a way of going to 
 some place, is prepared for these (Jews or) new Chris- 
 tians from the east, and that, as it seemeth, to make an 
 expedition against the beast , to the ruin of whom all the 
 vials serve. ”f 
 
 Are not then these facts, with many more that might 
 be mentioned, as applicable to the same purpose, suffi- 
 cient to alarm the powers and citizens of the European 
 governments, who, at present, seem to be bewildered at 
 the unaccountable and uncommon events of a few years 
 past ? 
 
 * Isaiah, 8th ch. 7th and 8th v, t Mede. 
 
528 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 Let not the Protestant nations, who have adhered, in 
 general, for several hundred years to the cause of Christ, 
 encourage themselves in a careless habit, for they, also, 
 are of the ten kingdoms into which Rome Pagan was di- 
 vided. They are each one of the horns of the beast. — 
 When God says, by the prophet Haggai, “ that he will 
 shake the Heavens and the Earth, he will shake all na- 
 tions,” he means that he will shake the heavens and the 
 earth of all nations ; — their political heigh ths and glory ; 
 — those forms of government they have trusted in, with 
 the grandeur and lustre of their dominions. The popu- 
 lar multitude of the nations, also, will not escape ; — they 
 also shall be shaken. “ He shall judge among the hea- 
 then, he shall fill the places with dead bodies, he shall 
 wound the heads over many, or great, countries.”* 
 
 The present European governments are all, in some 
 measure, belonging to the heaven and the earth of Hea- 
 then or Papal antichristian Rome.f In their origin, they 
 all have given their power to the beast, and have fought 
 against the Lamb. . Does not the blood of the Wickliffs 
 and Lollards cry also for vengeance ? Does not the infi- 
 delity, the blasphemies, the drunkenness, and profane 
 swearing, especially of the Protestant countries of Eu- 
 rope, require a thorough shaking. All the European 
 constitutions were formed under the powers of the 
 Church of Rome ; — many things in them are opposed 
 
 * Psalm 110, 6th v. 
 
 t “ The different governments of Europe had their beginning 
 before Christianity appeared. Hence they were built upon Hea- 
 then notions, or false honour and superstition. There is a strange 
 mixture of Jewish, Papal, and Heathen notions in their respective 
 codes.”I 
 
 \ 2d vol. Clarkson’s Life of Wm. Penn. p. 308. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 529 
 
 to the reign of Christ upon earth, and must be shaken. 
 Thev have the mark of the beast yet about them, and, 
 therefore, in many things, are inconsistent with the king- 
 dom of the Redeemer. Have they not their patron Saints 
 as well as others — St. George, St. Andrew, St. Patrick, 
 St. Nicolas, and various others, which are retained among 
 them, as the old marks of the beast, by which their ori- 
 gin may be known ? — Has not the cap of liberty — the 
 French cockade — the tree of liberty — the new fangled 
 language of the Sans-culottes, been adopted by too ma-- 
 ny, who ought to have known better? What can the 
 powers of Europe plead in their defence for first estab- 
 lishing, and then carrying on, even to this day , that 
 abominable traffick in the souls of men, called the Slave 
 trade ? — No argument, no .reasoning, no consideration, 
 ever yet advanced, can afford even a shadow of excuse 
 for this national sin. “ Behold the hire of the labourers 
 who have reaped down your fields, which is by you kept 
 back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them who have 
 reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath ; 
 ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton ; 
 —ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth 
 not resist you.” • 
 
 The present power, grandeur, and political connection 
 of the states of Europe, with the modern doctrine of the 
 balance of power (which involves the whole system of 
 war and force with it) are all opposed to the true princi- 
 ples of this glorious kingdom, and must be changed. — 
 An earthquake does not totally destroy, but changes the 
 face of nature ; raises vallies, and depresses mountains, 
 and will in the end, make an high way for our God. — 
 In the language of a late pious writer, “ no alternative 
 remains but reformation or ruin — This is a subject of 
 
530 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 the first consequence to every individual in the comma - 
 nity, inasmuch as it involves not merely their temporal 
 welfare, but their eternal happiness — When such a sub- 
 ject can be treated with indifference ; when it ceases to 
 be an object of primary importance with the nation at 
 large ; that nation must totter on the brink of ruin.” 
 
 “ And in the days of these kings, that is, of some of 
 these kings, (the kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, 
 and Rome) shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom, 
 which shall never be destroyed ; and the kingdom there- 
 of shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in 
 pieces and consume all these kingdoms , and it shall stand 
 for ever.”* 
 
 Although the kingdoms and nations of Europe are 
 first to be involved in this visitation from on high, yet 
 even the United States of America have also reason to 
 fear and tremble, when God shall arise “ to shake terri- 
 bly the earth.” It is true, that their constitutions have 
 been long since formed and established on a purer basis. 
 —The first settlers of this wilderness were the sons and 
 daughters of banishment, flight, and persecution. This 
 desart proved an asylum for the Church of Christ, when 
 the enemy came in as a flood ;*then she flew into the 
 wilderness, as on the wings of an eagle. 
 
 It is said to be a known fact, and if true, is a remarka- 
 ble one, that the Congress of the United States, for near 
 two years, were puzzling themselves to find a proper de- 
 vice for their great seal, which was also to serve as their 
 arms, and their standard. Various committees were, 
 from time to time, appointed, who brought in different 
 reports, which were rejected, almost as soon as brought 
 
 * Daniel, 2d cb. 44th v. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OP THE WHOLE. 53]^ 
 
 in ; and it seemed that nothing on the subject could be 
 proposed that was likely to give any tolerable satisfac- 
 tion, till a motion was made and almost unanimously 
 agreed to, that the Secretary should be authorized to de- 
 termine on such device as he thought proper, which, 
 without further confirmation, should become the arms 
 and seal of the United States. — This was a very unusu- 
 al measure for this body, who generally reserved every 
 report for their own ratification, before it could take ef- 
 fect. The Secretary accordingly established the present 
 seal and arms of the United States, to the great satisfac- 
 tion of Congress, consisting of the American bald eagle, 
 with expanded wings, and thirteen bars on his breast ; in 
 one claw a bundle of thirteen arrows, in the other an olive 
 branch, and his head in a cloud surrounded by thirteen 
 stars, with the motto, “ E pluribus unum ,” out of many to 
 form one. This appears to be very appropriate, as ready 
 to receive the distressed of all nations, foster them under 
 his wings — protect them by his power, and form one na^ 
 tion of them all. 
 
 But has not America greatly departed from her origi- 
 nal principles, and left her first love ? Has she not also 
 many amongst her chief citizens, of every party, who 
 have forsaken the God of their fathers, and to whom the 
 spirit may justly be supposed to say, “ye hold doctrines 
 which I hate, repent, or else I will come unto you 
 quickly, and will fight against you with the sword of my 
 mouth.” 
 
 America has been greatly favoured by God, in all her 
 concerns, both civil and religious, and she has much to 
 hope, and much to fear, according as she shall attentive- 
 ly improve her relative situation among the nations of 
 the earth, for the glory of God, and the protection of his 
 
 Y v y 
 
532 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 people. — She has been raised up in the course of divine 
 Providence, at a very important crisis, and for no very in- 
 considerable purposes. She stands on a pinnacle — - 
 She cannot act a trifling or undecided part — She must 
 determine whom she will serve, God or mammon — She 
 stands by faith, and has great reason to take heed lest she 
 should fall, from a vain confidence in her own internal 
 strength, forgetting “ the rock from whence she has been 
 hewed, and the hole of the pit, from whence she has 
 been digged.”* 
 
 Is she not divided into violent parties, full of deadly 
 hatred to each other, contrary to the charitable spirit of 
 the Gospel ? — And will not God avenge himself for these 
 things ? 
 
 And if these should be the latter times of the fourth 
 or Roman government, and the seven Churches of Asia 
 mentioned in the Revelations, be any ways figurative of 
 the seven periods of the 1260 years of the prophesying of 
 the witnesses in sackloth, or of the seven vials and the 
 seven trumpets, as some good men have supposed, may 
 not the address to the sixth Church, or that of Philadel- 
 phia, being answerable to the present period of the world, 
 be applicable to the UnitedStates. “ And unto the angel 
 of the Church (in Philadelphia) write ; these things saith 
 He, who is holy ; — He who is true ; — He who has the 
 key of David ; — He who openeth, and no man shutteth ; 
 and shutteth, and no man openeth ; I know thy works ; 
 behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man 
 can shut it : for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept 
 my word ; and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will 
 make them of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are 
 Jews, and are not, but do lie ; behold, I will make them 
 
 * Isaiah, ch. 51. v. 1. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 533 
 
 to come and to worship before thy feet, and to know that 
 I have loved thee — because thou hast kept the word of 
 my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of 
 temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try 
 them who dwell upon earth. Behold, I come quickly ; 
 hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy 
 crown. Him who overcometh, will I make a pillar in 
 the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out ; and 
 I will write upon him the name of my God, and the 
 name of the city of my God, which is, new Jerusalem , 
 which cometh down out of Heaven from my God ; and 
 I will write upon him my new name. He who hath an 
 ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto to the 
 Churches.”* 
 
 Hearken then, ye who are happily delivered from ma- 
 ny of the evils and temptations to which the European 
 nations are exposed. Your fathers fled from persecu- 
 tion : a glorious country was opened to them by the li- 
 beral hand of a kind Providence ; — a land, literally, flow- 
 ing with milk and honey ; — they were miraculously de- 
 livered from the savages of the desert ; — they were fed 
 and nourished in a way they scarcely knew how. Alas ! 
 what have been the returns, their descendants, of late 
 years, have made for the exuberant goodness of God to 
 them ? The eastern states, however greatly fallen from 
 their former Christian professions, were settled by a peo- 
 ple really fearing God. “ Remember therefore from 
 whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works, 
 or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy 
 candlestick out of its place, except thou repent,” that is, 
 will deprive thee of those Gospel privileges with which 
 thou hast been so greatly favoured. 
 
 * Rev. ch. 3. v. 7—13. 
 
534 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 This was actually the case with these seven Churches, 
 who, after some years of trial, were given over to the Sa- 
 racens and Turks, who deprived them of all their boas- 
 ted religious privileges and turned their Churches into 
 Mosques, and their worship from Jesus Christ to the im- 
 postor Mahomet. 
 
 William Penn was a faithful and zealous servant of 
 Jesus Christ, and actually sought out a wilderness where 
 he might train up a people in the nurture and admonition 
 of the Lord. His whole conduct shows that the glory of 
 God and the good of the souls of men, were his chief 
 objects. He was tried in the furnace of affliction, and 
 his garments were made white in the blood of the Lamb. 
 Maryland was settled by persons flying from persecution. 
 It is high time to examine yourselves, to know how great 
 reason you also have to fear, that your political Heaven 
 and earth, as well as your religious, may be shaken with 
 the rest. — Compare the present state of your affairs, both 
 civil and religious, with those of your pious ancestors. If 
 you find you have more theoretic knowledge, alas ! have 
 you not less practical piety ? Will not the balance be 
 greatly against you ? Are not the witnesses of Jesus, in 
 a great measure, yet teaching or prophesying among 
 you in sackloth ? “Be watchful and strengthen the things 
 which remain, that are ready to die ; for thy works have 
 not been found perfect before God. Remember there- 
 fore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and 
 repent. But if thou shalt not watch, He will come on 
 thee as a thief, and then thou shalt not know what hour 
 He will come upon thee.”* 
 
 How will you answer, in the great day of inquisition 
 for blood, for the share you have had in that horrid traf- 
 * Rev. ch. 3. v. 2 ; 3 . 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 535 
 
 fic in the souls of men, called the Guinea trade ? — How 
 will you account for the contradiction between your na- 
 tional declarations in a day of distress and humiliation, 
 and your political conduct, under the smiles of divine 
 Providence, since your deliverance has been effected. — ■ 
 In 1774, while suffering under the hand of the oppres- 
 sor, you voluntarily determined, “We will neither im- 
 port nor purchase any slaves, imported after the first 
 day of December next, after which time we will wholly 
 discontinue the slave trade, and will neither be concern- 
 ed in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, or sell 
 our commodities or manufactures to those who are con- 
 cerned in it.” — Your declaration of Independence, of 
 which you so justly boast, has these words, “ We hold 
 these truths to be self evident, that all men are created 
 equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
 unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness.”* However you may plead 
 in your excuse, that this declaration found you in pos- 
 session of this species of property, and the total relin- 
 quishment of it, would have been adding affliction to 
 the afflicted, yet are you not, as a nation, answerable for 
 every soul imported from Africa since that date, and who 
 are daily imported into Georgia and South-Caroiina, by 
 vessels, many of them from the eastern states, as well as 
 for the children born since that time in your states ? — 
 Were these declarations designed merely to deceive and 
 mislead — will not the God of all the earth make inqui- 
 sition for these things ? Again, have you not, in many 
 instances, made slaves of many of the Indian nations and 
 their descendants, and are you sure that these are not 
 the descendants of the peculiar people of God. 
 
 * Since writing the above, the Slave trade has been abolished 
 by both America and Great Britain. 
 
536 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 “ And moreover, I saw under the sun the place of 
 judgment (or the highest Judicature) that wicked- 
 ness was there, and the place of righteousness (or the 
 national legislature) that iniquity was there.”* “ And 
 behold the tears of such as are oppressed, for they have 
 no comforter, and on the side of their oppressors 
 there is power, but they have no comforter.”! “ Yet 
 there is no end of all their labour, neither is their eye 
 satisfied with riches, neither saith he for whom do I la- 
 bour and bereave my soul of good.”! 
 
 “Ye have cast lots for my people, and have given a 
 boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that you might 
 drink. — The children also of Judah, and the children of 
 Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might 
 remove them far from their border. — Behold I will raise 
 them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and 
 will return your recompense upon your own heads ; and I 
 will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of 
 the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the 
 Sabeans, to a people afar off ; for the Lord hath spoken 
 it. ”5 
 
 If God, in his righteous judgment, hath thus threat- 
 ened other nations so severely, and hath executed 
 those threatenings with great strictness, ought not every 
 one who hath a part in this iniquitous traffic the great- 
 est reason to fear, repent and turn from the evil of his 
 ways. 
 
 Have these states no antichrist among them also ? If 
 whatever opposes the reign of Christ upon earth, in a 
 sense be antichrist, have they not reason to fear ? Sir 
 
 * Eccles. 3d ch. 16th v. t Eccles. 4th ch. 1st v. 
 
 J Eccles. 4th ch. 8th v. § Joel, 3d ch. 3d, 6th, 7th & 8th v. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 537 
 
 Isaac Newton and Dr. Clarke were both of the opinion, 
 that the reign of the beast was to be the open avowal of 
 infidelity. If so, may it not safely be concluded, that 
 antichrist is not confined to Europe. Infidelity, or vir- 
 tually denying the atonement of the Saviour, is one mark 
 of the beast, of which we have reason greatly to fear — 
 And may we not also have some foundation of appre- 
 hension from future connections with the government of 
 the beast that ariseth out of the bottomless pit. Every 
 thing that tends to prevent the success of the Gospel 
 and the accomplishment of the great object of redeeming 
 love, is, in a measure, connected with antichrist. 
 
 “ Little children it is the last time, (or the fourth mon- 
 archy spoken of by Daniel) and as ye have heard that 
 antichrist shall come, even now are there many anti- 
 christs , whereby we know that it is the last time.”* — 
 “Who is a liar but he who denieth that Jesus is the 
 Christ? He is antichrist who denieth the Father and the 
 Son.”f “ They went out from us, but they were not 
 of us ; for if they had been of us, they would, no doubt, 
 have continued with us ; but they went out, that they 
 might be made manifest, that they were not all of us.”* 
 
 You now behold the latter times of the last time, of 
 the Roman government, or the fourth monarchy spoken 
 of by Daniel, nearly accomplished. This does not, 
 strictly speaking, consist in the actual completion of it, 
 but in its visible near approach. It will be a progres- 
 sive work, but it is near its close, and will be certain and 
 unavoidable. You ought to bless God, that at so great 
 a distance, you can, without the distraction that neces- 
 
 * 1st Epist. John, 2d ch. 18th and 19th v. 
 
 t 1st Epist. John, 2d. ch. 22d v. 
 
538 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 sarily attends immediate parties to the awful catastrophe, 
 contemplate the prediction and fulfilment, and, therefore, 
 be better able to take the warning so earnestly and so 
 affectionately recommended by the spirit of God. “ Come 
 out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
 sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”* 
 
 You have a revelation, marked by the strong and in- 
 delible lines of divine authority. In the free use of it, 
 according to your own measure, there are none to dic- 
 tate to 3^011, or make you afraid. If you neglect so great 
 salvation, of all the nations of the earth, you will be the 
 least excuseable. Though the end of the period should 
 be still at the distance of many years, from its en- 
 tire completion, yet forget not the awful and perilous 
 times which are to precede it — “ And out of his mouth 
 goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the 
 nations ; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron : and 
 he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of 
 Almight)^ God.”f 
 
 If you will inquire and search for yourselves, you will 
 find evidence enough, even from the events of a few years 
 past, as we have shown herein, to satisfy the most incre- 
 dulous mind ; but it is indolence that destroys mankind, 
 as to the things of religion. Search into the doctrines of 
 the Gospel, and the things of God, with the same indus- 
 try, earnestness, and zeal, that you practice to gain the 
 knowledge of any human science, as law, physic, phi- 
 losophy, 8tc. and you w ill no longer remain in doubt or 
 uncertaint)\ The words of the prophet, as to the con- 
 sequences that are to follow, are plain and express. “ I 
 will shake the Heavens and the earth ; and I -will over- 
 
 * Rev. 18th ch. 4th v. 
 
 t Ibid. 19th ch. 15th v. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 539 
 
 throw the thrones of kingdoms ; and I will destroy the 
 strength of the kingdom of the heathen ; and I will over- 
 throw the chariots and those who ride in them ; and the 
 horses, and their riders shall come down, every one by 
 the sword of his brother.”* 
 
 The witnesses of God are yet with you in a living 
 state — You are yet favoured with the blessing of the 
 Lord’s day, and the ordinances of the Gospel ; — with the 
 full and complete exercise of public worship, in the way 
 approved of by every man’s conscience, in the greatest 
 freedom and latitude, without any one to control or vio- 
 late your Christian liberty. This is one of Heaven's best 
 gifts — Improve it while you may : its value is inestima- 
 ble ; — Let not your candlestick be removed out of its 
 place. 
 
 You are blessed, above your fellows, with political 
 freedom ; this is a talent for which you must strictly ac- 
 count : it is big with advantages too great for calculation. 
 Let it not, I beseech you, rise to licentiousness : if you 
 wish to guard it with a sacred jealousy, study the divine 
 Scriptures,— -imbibe their principles,; — practice the du- 
 ties there enjoined ; — by these you will find the public 
 worship of Almighty God, to be one of the greatest and 
 most complete examples, as well as the actual exercise, 
 of genuine freedom and rational equality that has ever 
 graced our guilty globe.f This equality of man in the 
 
 * Haggai, ch. 2. v. 21, 22. 
 
 t Social worship is an institution in which the finger of God is 
 most visibly perceived — It is a provision of wisdom and benevo- 
 lence for the many and returning exigences of a fallen creature 
 seeking to worship his Maker in spirit and in truth. — To say that 
 it has the authority of divine command, and that it is a duty of in- 
 dispensible obligation, is to say but little on so delightful and pro- 
 
 Zzz 
 
540 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 presence of God, is elegantly set forth by a female pen, 
 beyond my powers of description ; and it would be do- 
 ing the fair and pious authoress great injustice did I not 
 enlighten and enforce this address with her own language. 
 “ There is also another point of view,” says Mrs. Bar- 
 bauld, “ in which Christianity is serviceable to civil li- 
 berty. The temple is the only place where human be- 
 ings of every rank, and sex, and age, meet together for 
 one common purpose, and join together in one common 
 act. Other meetings are either political or formed for 
 the purposes of splendor and amusement ; from both of 
 which, in this country, (Europe) the bulk of the inhabi- 
 tants are, of necessity, excluded. This is the only place, 
 to enter which, nothing more is necessary than to be of 
 the same species : the only place where man meets man, 
 not only as an equal, but a brother ; and where, by con- 
 templating his duties, he may become sensible of his 
 rights. So high and haughty is the spirit of aristocracy, 
 and such the increasing pride of the privileged classes, 
 that it is to be feared, if men did not attend at the same 
 place here, it would hardly be believed they were meant 
 to go to the same place hereafter. — It is of service to the 
 cause of freedom therefore, no less than to that of virtue, 
 
 iitable an exercise of the spiritual faculties in man. That the 
 Most High, who inhabiteth eternity, should visit temples made 
 with hands : that He, whose nature is universal, should make his 
 presence local ; hold converse with the lowest of his intellectual 
 works, and receive homage from the most depraved and rebellious 
 of his subjects ; are considerations with which few minds can be 
 altogether unaffected. The devout soul rejoices to meet these 
 overtures of mercy, and grateful for so much condecension in the 
 God of its salvation, needs no other motive to adoration and wor 
 ship than the spontaneous impulse of its own feelings.* 
 
 Owen’s Christ. Mon. p. 11$. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 544 
 
 that there is one place where the inviduous distinction of 
 wealth and titles are not admitted : where all are equal, 
 not by making the low proud, but by making the great 
 humble. How many a man exists, who possesses not the 
 smallest property on this earth, of which you call him lord; 
 who, from the narrowing spirit of poverty, is circumscri- 
 bed and hemmed in by the possessions of his more opu- 
 lent neighbors, till there is scarcely an unoccupied spot 
 of verdure on which he can set his foot to admire the 
 beauties of nature, or a barren mountain on which he 
 can draw the fresh air without a trespass. The injoy - 
 ments of life, are for others, the labors of it, for him. He 
 hears those of his class spoken of collectively, as of ma- 
 chines which are to be kept in repair indeed, but of which 
 the sole use is to raise the happiness of the higher orders. 
 Where, but in the temple of religion, shall he learn that 
 he is of the same species ? He hears there, and were it 
 for the first time, it would be with infinite astonishment, 
 that all are alike ignorant, and to be instructed : all alike 
 sinful, and needing forgiveness : all alike bound by the 
 same obligations, and animated by the same hopes. 
 
 In the interCources of the world the poor man is seen, 
 but not noticed : — he may be in the presence of his su- 
 periors, but he cannot be in their company — In every 
 other place, it would be presumption in him to let his 
 voice be heard along with theirs : — Here alone they are 
 heard together, and blended in a full chorus of praise. — ■ 
 In every other place, it would be an offence to be near 
 them, without showing, in his attitude and deportment, 
 the conscious mark of inferiority : — Here alone , he sees 
 the prostration of the rich as low as his, and hears them 
 both addressed together, in the majestic simplicity of a 
 language that knows no adulation — Here , the poor man 
 
542 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 learns that in spite of the distinction of rank and apparent 
 inferiority of his condition, all the true goods of life ; — 
 all that men dare petition for, when in the presence of 
 their maker ; — a sound mind ; — a healthful body ; and 
 daily bread ; lie within the scope of his own hopes, and 
 endeavours ; and that in the large inheritance to come, 
 his expectations are no less ample than theirs. — He rises 
 from his knees, and feels himself a man- — He learns phi- 
 losophy without its pride, and a spirit of liberty without 
 its turbulence. Every time social worship is celebrated, 
 it includes a virtual declaration of the (real) rights of 
 man.” 
 
 We are now favoured with the fullest use of the Holy 
 Scriptures, and all the aids of men of science, learning, 
 and indefatigable industry, who have explained, support- 
 ed, and enforced them. — Their many prophesies are now 
 closing as in a point, and furnishes unanswerable testi- 
 mony to their divine authority. “ Prophesy is the voice 
 of God, appealing to the records and observation of men 
 for its eternal truth ; it speaks to unbelieving Jews; — 
 to careless Christians ; — and to infidels of all denomina- 
 tions ; and it adopts its awful declarations to the spiritu- 
 al wants of all mankind in every age. The truth of pro- 
 phesy is not only the clear illustration of history, but the 
 evidence of daily experience and common observation. 
 
 The present hour bears witness to its divine origin, 
 as well as the generations that are past. — Jerusalem is 
 trodden down of the Gentiles — its walls are beaten down 
 — the Jewish people are now dispersed among all the 
 nations of the earth, yet distinct and separate from all ; 
 —afflicted, but not forsaken ; — reviled as a proverb and 
 a bye word, yet numerous and generally opulent, en- 
 riched with the spoil of their enemies ; — they abide 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 543 
 
 without a king, and without a priest ; — and without a 
 sacrifice ; a conspicuous monument of the truth of 
 prophesy to every people among whom they dwell. — 
 Where are the Assyrians, and the Romans ? They 
 are swept off from the face of the earth ; — the name 
 and the remnant have been cut off — “ I ivill make a 
 full end of all the nations , but I will not make a 
 full end of thee. The conquerors are destroyed, and 
 the captives remain. The ancient Babylon, the great 
 city is fulfilling her destiny, of never being inhabi- 
 ted, — The sons of Ishmael still wander over the desart, 
 and have their habitation in the tents of Kedar. Egypt 
 remains a base kingdom according to the prophetic word 
 of Ezekiel.* The controversy with the nations seems to 
 be begun ; the sacrifice in Bostra is preparing — the time 
 of trouble is at hand.”f 
 
 The times of the Gentilesf are now drawing near, when 
 it will appear who is on the Lord’s side. Professors will 
 be sifted, and the real servants of God, will “ be tried, 
 purified, and made white.” Forget not, therefore, the 
 awful denunciation of our Lord himself, “ whosoever 
 shall be ashamed of me , and of my words , in this adulte- 
 rous and sinful generation , of him shall the Son of Man 
 be ashamed , when he cometh in the glory of his Father % 
 
 * 29th ch. 14th and loth v. 
 
 t Kett on Proph. p. 315. 
 
 f The times of the Gentiles, mean the period, when their time 
 of punishment for their oppression of ( God’s people, particularly ) 
 the Jews, should come; and Christ says, “these be the days of 
 vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.Ӥ 
 
 § Priestly. 
 
544 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 with the holy angels.”* Remember that the condem- 
 nation will be, that a glorious light has come into the 
 world, but that men have preferred darkness before the 
 light, and the awful reason assigned as actuating them to 
 this conduct, is, because their deeds are evil. 
 
 I well know, from long experience, that the pretended 
 philosophy of the day, laughs at all these doctrines, as 
 the effect of enthusiasm and want of an enlarged mind. 
 — St. Peter hath not left us without a solemn admonition 
 in a prophetic view of these times. “ Knowing,” says 
 he, “ that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walk- 
 ing after their own lusts, and saying, where is the pro- 
 mise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep, all 
 things continue as they were from the beginning of the 
 creation — But the day of the Lord will come as a thief 
 in the night.” 
 
 May a Holy God continue our happy country a bles- 
 sed asylum for all the oppressed of the nations of Eu- 
 rope, “ when God shall arise, terribly to shake the 
 earth.” And notwithstanding the discouraging appear- 
 ance that arises from the infidelity prevailing in the 
 world, may the mourning servants of God be com- 
 forted by the blessed scene held up to view by the 
 beloved disciple St. John, after he had described the 
 awful events we have been contemplating— “ I beheld 
 and lo ! a great multitude, which no man could number, 
 of all nations and kindreds , and people and tongues, stood 
 before the throne, and before the Lamb, cloathed with 
 white robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried with a 
 loud voice, saying, Salvation unto our God, who sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”f 
 
 * Mark, 8. ch. 38. v. 
 
 | Rev. 7th ch. 9 — 10 v. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 545 
 
 May we not now ask, as the sum of this whole matter, 
 does not this great question, relative to the second advent 
 of the glorified Saviour, (as applicable to America as 
 Europe) from the signs of the times, herein before des- 
 cribed and held up to view, appear to be fully establish- 
 ed, by its having been shewn that this all important 
 event is drawing nigh, if not at the very door ? And do 
 not the facts that have been developed in this work, call 
 upon all the servants of Jesus Christ, by whatever name 
 distinguished, to be found ready for the marriage supper 
 of the Lamb ? 
 
 I know that this is not a singular opinion of mine : it 
 is the voice of reason, founded on revelation. The learn- 
 ed and pious Porteus, bishop of London, in his charge 
 to the Clergy of his Diocess, in 1794 , says — “ The pre- 
 sent times and the present scene of things in almost every 
 part of the civilized world, are the most interesting and 
 the most awful that were ever before presented to the in- 
 habitants of the earth, and such as must necessarily ex- 
 cite the most serious reflections in every thinking mind ; 
 perhaps all those singular events, to which we have been 
 witnesses, unparalleled, as they undoubtedly are, in the 
 page of history, may be only the beginning of things ; — - 
 the first leading steps to a train of events still more ex- 
 traordinary ; — to the accomplishment, possibly of some 
 new and unexpected, and, at present, unfathomable de- 
 signs, hitherto reserved and hid in the councils of the 
 Almighty. — Some we know there are, who think that 
 certain prophesies, both in the New Testament and the 
 Old, are now fulfilling ; that the signs of the times are 
 portentous and alarming, and that the sudden extinction 
 of a great monarchy, and of all the splendid ranks and 
 orders of men that supported it, is only the completion, 
 
546 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 in part, of that prediction in the Gospel, that the Sun 
 shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, 
 and the stars shall fall from Heaven, before the second 
 appearance of the Messiah to judge the earth ; all which 
 expressions are well known to be only figurative em- 
 blems of the great powers and rulers of the world, whose 
 destruction, it is said, is to precede that great event.” 
 We trust, that we have not been misapprehended, or 
 that from any thing herein before stated, an idea has not 
 been given, as if pretending to determine, with precision, 
 the time of the completion of this great object of all hu- 
 man hope. What appears to be certain is, that the great 
 catastrophe will take place by the year 6000, at farthest, 
 although we confess, from an apprehension that we are 
 faulty in our chronology, we should not be disappointed 
 if it should happen in the nineteenth century. — From the 
 circumstance of the original Sabbath being on the sev- 
 enth day after six days of labour, together with the re- 
 markable respect paid to the number seven in Scrip- 
 ture and history, and the tradition from the earliest ages 
 among the Jews, we are of opinion that the seven thou- 
 sandth year will begin the millenium, happen when it 
 will. — The Jews were as much divided about the first 
 coming of the Messiah, as we are about the second — 
 They thought it as impossible that the Christ should 
 come out of Nazareth — that he should not be a great 
 conqueror, and that the Jewish nation, at his coming, 
 should not be advanced to the pinnacle of glory, as our 
 warmest zealots against his personal appearance, think it 
 impossible that “ the Lord himself should descend from 
 Heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel, See.” 
 So hard is it for men to believe in the word of the living 
 God. However, this will be the great period for aven- 
 
, OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 547 
 
 ging the blood of the Saints, for “ in her was found the 
 blood of Prophets and of Saints, and of all that were slain 
 upon the earth.” 
 
 We pretend not to know, and it is here repeated with 
 emphasis, more than the Scriptures have clearly re- 
 vealed. — It is not known what grand preparations are 
 determined, to take place before the approach of that 
 dreadful and glorious day ; nor what length of time is 
 necessary for their consummation the Scriptures, by 
 the figure of a millstone falling from Heaven into the Sea ; 
 and the coming of a thief in the night, undoubtedly mean 
 to show, that in comparison with the past events of pro- 
 phesy, the issue will be sudden and unexpected. 
 
 But this may be asserted with confidence, that suffi- 
 cient has already appeared to assure us that many of the 
 preliminary steps have taken place — that the scene is 
 opening ; — the curtain is rising ; — the harbinger seems 
 ready for his approach nay the kingdom of God is un- 
 doubtedly nigh at hand — We mean not to determine 
 years, or months, or days. The fourth kingdom of Dan- 
 iel, at the end of which the great catastrophe is to begin, 
 is fast hastening to its last period. — It is tottering on its 
 base : being the feet and toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s im- 
 age, when it falls, the whole image falls with it. 
 
 Commentators, from St. Jerome to bishop Newton, 
 with whom all more ancient writers, Jewish and Chris- 
 tian, accord, have generally agreed that the Roman gov- 
 ernment is this fourth kingdom. St. Jerome, about the 
 year 370, though then living under that kingdom in the 
 plenitude of its power, and, of course, such a construc- 
 tion must have been very unpopular, says, “ the fourth 
 kingdom, which plainly belongs to the Romans, is the 
 iron that breaketh and subdueth all things.” This 
 
 Aaaa 
 
548 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 brought him, as might be expected, into trouble ; and 
 he excuses himself thus : “ If in explaining this statue, 
 and the difference of his feet and toes, I have interpreted 
 the iron and clay of the Roman kingdom, let them not 
 impute it to me, but to the prophet.” 
 
 This has indeed been cavilled at, by infidel writers, 
 from Porphyry to Collins, who copied his objections, 
 but could not support them by any authority either from 
 Scripture or history. The excellent Mr. Mede already 
 often quoted, and who bishop Newton says, was as able 
 and consummate a judge as any, in these matters, by the 
 most conclusive arguments has, in my opinion, put this 
 question out of doubt. 
 
 We now see this government of Rome, receiving its 
 death wound, both in its civil and ecclesiastical polity, 
 and that by means of one of the ten kingdoms, as foretold 
 by the prophet.* We see the little horn drawing to its 
 
 * The following extract from Sharpe’s Essays, of a modern 
 date, is applicable to this part of the subject. — The Scriptures 
 foretell that the royal horns of the beast (however for a long time 
 they may have supported her) shall at last “ hate the whore, and 
 shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, ”f &c. 
 “Thisjudgment,” says Mr. Grenville Sharpe, “ was first began by 
 our English horn, king Henry VIII. whom she entitled defender of 
 the faith, against the persecuted saints, yet he set the first exam- 
 ple of eating her flesh, by the sequestration of ecclesiastical estates 
 and revenues to the royal exchequer— -The precedent for fulfilling 
 the prediction was not followed by the other popish horns of the 
 beast, until the dissolution of the order of the Jesuits in our own 
 times, about 1763, when all the other popish kings of the Roman 
 empire, France, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Naples, the emperor 
 and king Joseph II. &c. 8tc. followed the example — And lastly, 
 since the treaty of Amiens, the remainder of her flesh seems to 
 have occasioned a notable royal scramble among the remaining 
 
 t Key. ch. 17. v. 16. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 549 
 
 end. His temporal power is already gone, and his ec- 
 clesiastical power is scarcely known, or submitted to.— 
 What then is the immediate consequence, as expressly 
 declared by unerring wisdom ; “ I beheld, says Daniel, 
 then , because of the voice of the great words which the 
 horn spake, I beheld, even till the beast (the Roman go- 
 vernment) was slain, and his body (or the city of his 
 throne or seat, meaning Rome) destroyed, and given to 
 the burning flame.” It appears from this, that the pow- 
 er of Rome Christian, and all the Papal authority, as a 
 temporal power, (and it may, possibly, also include the 
 
 royal horns under the general title of ecclesiastical indemnities $ 
 so that as the sign of the approaching vengeance is so notoriously 
 fulfilled, the judgment itself cannot be far distant to punish her 
 apostasy”— But the time is just at hand when great Babylon 
 must come in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup 
 of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.”* For all the awful 
 signs described in this very text, the 19th verse, though not yet 
 completely fulfilled are most evidently approaching to their com- 
 pletion — The ten great divisions, called horns or kings, of the 
 fourth and last great kingdom, the Roman empire, are now so 
 wounded and subdivided, as to have an apparent tendency to be 
 divided into three parts only, instead of ten parts or horns. And 
 as to the other sign respecting the fall of the cities of the nations , 
 mentioned in the same verse, and necessarily to be understood as 
 an inferior distinction for the lesser governments or states of the 
 empire, which were not regal monarchies or horns of the beast, 
 but were deemed only republics and hanse towns of the empire, 
 therefore properly the cities of the nations, they are surely alrea- 
 dy fallen — Where now exist the late noble and independent states 
 of Venice, Genoa, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Parma, Flo- 
 rence, Tuscany, or even Ragusa, because none but the piratical 
 states exist, reserved perhaps for a more dreadful vengeance ; for 
 even Bremen and Hamburgh have lately been seized, so that the 
 third wo really u cometh quickly.” 
 
 * Rev. ch. 16. v. 19. 
 
550 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 power of the Emperor of Germany or France, as the 
 sun of the political Heaven) will be destroyed, by means 
 of his pride and contempt of other powers ; or by his self 
 sufficiency, confiding in his great power aud influence, 
 by virtue of old assumed authority, over the consciences 
 of men. 
 
 These events are to come on (as have already been ob- 
 served) very quick, as consequences one from another, 
 but are certain and unavoidable ; and will inevitably pro- 
 ceed in regular procession till the pouring out of the se- 
 venth vial, and the sounding of the seventh trumpet, 
 when all the nations of the earth, shall become the na- 
 tions of our Lord, and the knowledge of God shall cover 
 the earth, as the waters cover the seas. 
 
 We are satisfied, with bishop Newton, that the best 
 commentupontheunfulfilled prophesies will be their com- 
 pletion; but then, as certain duties are enjoined upon us, to 
 be performed at our peril ; and the period for this service is 
 only to be known by the signs of the times, given us in the 
 prophetic declarations in the written word of God, it be- 
 comes us, with the faithful Baereans, approved of by St. 
 Paul, “ to search the Scriptures daily, to see whether these 
 things are so;”* or to obey the words of our Saviour him- 
 self, “search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have 
 eternal life, and they are they which testify of me:” that is, 
 carefully look into, and attend to the books of the Old Tes- 
 tament, on which you depend for life and happiness, and 
 from thence you will learn that the prophetic declarations 
 therein mentioned, with their types and figures, have their 
 exact fulfilment in me, and by attending to the times and 
 circumstances foretold, as attendant on the coming of the 
 
 * Acts, 17th ch. 11th v. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OP THE WHOLE. 
 
 551 
 
 Messiah, you will know the truth of my character, and 
 acknowledge my divine mission, and thereby escape the 
 aggravated destruction that will be the necessary conse- 
 quence of rejecting me. To the same purport does the 
 apostle speak of the rulers who promoted, and the people 
 who solicited the crucifixion of the Son of God. “ Had 
 they known it (that is, had they attended to the prophe- 
 tic marks of his character) they would not have crucified 
 the Lord of Glory.”* 
 
 In the like spirit of condescending mercy does our 
 gracious Redeemer address himself to us of this day; 
 “ When ye see these things begin to come to pass, then 
 look up, and lift up your heads ; for your redemption 
 draweth nigh.”f We are told, in Deuteronomy, that 
 “ secret things belong unto the Lord our God ; but those 
 things which are revealed belong to us and to our chil- 
 dren for ever, that we may do all the words of the Law.”J 
 
 * The doctrine of the Millenium steers clear of two extremes. 
 "While some imagine that the description of the Messiah’s king- 
 dom is to be understood as merely the introduction of the Chris- 
 tian religion, painted in the lofty style and luxuriant imagery of 
 the east; ethers imagine that the inconceivable joys of Heaven 
 are thus represented in accommodation to our feeble faculties. 
 Whereas the truth appears to be, that the introduction of the 
 Christian religion into the world, and the marvellous work of re- 
 demption, by the death of Christ, form the primary subjects of the 
 prophetic writings ; and the train of glorious consequences to fol- 
 low upon this our earth, their secondary signification. For pro- 
 phesy reaches but to the gates of Heaven. “ If I tell you earthly 
 things, and you believe me not ; how shall ye believe if I tell you 
 Heavenly things ? No man can see or apprehend those things 
 which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and which hath not enters 
 ed into the heart of man to conceive of.Ӥ 
 
 t Luke, 21st ch. 28th v. 
 § 2d vol. Kett. p. 347. 
 
 i Deut. 29th ch. 29th v. 
 
552 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 We have a sure ground of hope, and even certainty, 
 from “ the moral attributes of God, as well as from his 
 promises,” (as he hath positively assured us by his pro- 
 phet) that“ the judgment shall sit ; and they shall take 
 away his (the beasts \ dominion to consume and to des- 
 troy it unto the end.”* 
 
 The nations of Europe are very particularly interested 
 in these great events, as being the actual theatre of such 
 awful expectations; and they have the utmost reason to be 
 alarmed at, and exceedingly attentive to these signs of 
 the times : for the words of Daniel will, most assuredly, 
 be fulfilled. “ A stone was cut out without hands,” says 
 he, “ which smote the image upon his feet, that were of 
 iron and clay, (the Roman government) and break them 
 to pieces : then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the sil- 
 ver, and the gold, (all the kingdoms of Assyria, Persia, 
 Greece, and Rome) broken to pieces together , and be- 
 came like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and the 
 wind carried them away, that no place was found for 
 them ; and the stone that smote the image became a great 
 mountain, and filled the whole earth.” The prophet 
 Jeremiah had previously spoken of this great event in the 
 like - prophetic language. “ A noise shall come even to 
 the ends of the earth ; for the Lord hath a controversy 
 with the nations, he will plead with all flesh : he will give 
 them who are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. And 
 the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end 
 of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth : they 
 shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried ; 
 they shall be dung upon the ground. Howl ye shep- 
 herds and cry 1 and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye 
 
 * Daniel, 7th ch. 26th v. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 553 
 
 principals of the flock ! for the days of your slaughter 
 and your dispersions are accomplished, and ye shall fall 
 like a pleasant vessel : and the shepherds shall have no 
 way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.”* 
 
 “ And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the 
 Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the 
 third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part 
 through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined ; 
 and will try them as gold is tried : 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.”f 
 
 “ The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hast- 
 eth greatly, even the voiceof the day of the Lord: themigh- 
 ty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, 
 a day of trouble and distress ; a day of wasteness and de- 
 solation ; a day of darkness and gloominess ; a day of 
 clouds and thick darkness ; a day of the trumpet and a- 
 larm against the fenced cities and the high towers. And 
 I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like 
 blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord ; 
 and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their 
 flesh as the dung.”{ 
 
 But God’s people are greatly encouraged in this hour 
 of distress. “ Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth, 
 who have wrought his judgment ; seek righteousness, 
 seek meekness ; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of 
 the Lord’s anger”. § 
 
 Are not the events that have already appeared, and are 
 daily appearing, calculated to rouse the friends of Zion, 
 both Christian and Jew, to keep their garments unspotted 
 
 * Jerem. 25th ch. 31 — 35 r. t Zach. 13th ch. 8~9 v. 
 
 t Zephaniah, 1st. ch. 14— -IT v. § Ibid. 2d ch. 3d v. 
 
554 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 from the world and to stand with their loins girt, and their 
 lamps trimmed and burning, waiting for the accomplish- 
 ment of their hopes. The Jews are looking with as much 
 anxiety for the first coming of the Messiah, as the Chris- 
 tian is for the second appearance of the same Messiah. — 
 The foundation of their hope is the same. Their great 
 Rabbi Jonathan Ben Uzziel, who composed the Chaldee 
 Targums, or paraphrase on the prophets, and who lived 
 a little before our Saviour, in his paraphrase on Hab- 
 bakuk 3d ch. 17th and 18th verses, speaks of the four 
 great kingdoms of the earth thus, li For the kingdom of 
 Babylon shall not continue, nor exercise dominion over 
 Israel ; the kings of Media shall be slain ; and the strong 
 men of Greece shall not prosper : The Romans will be 
 
 blotted out, nor collect tribute from Jerusalem. There- 
 fore because of the sign, and redemption, which thou shall 
 accomplish for thy Christ, and the remnant of thy people, 
 they who remain shall praise thee.”* 
 
 In short, the present generation are so highly favoured 
 with light and knowledge, that they have no excuse for 
 the obstinate infidelity that prevails among them. Most 
 of the old objections to Revelation are done away, by the 
 exact fulfilment of events in these latter days, foretold in 
 the prophetic declarations of the Scriptures. The testi- 
 mony is still increasing, and the truth of prophesy is ma- 
 nifesting every day. — As miracles, at the first commence- 
 ment of Christianity, so the precise accomplishment of 
 prophesy in these latter ages of it, confirms its truth and 
 certainty, beyond rational objection and doubt. 
 
 The word of unerring truth has declared, and true and 
 faithful will all her declarations be found, “ that Jesus 
 Christ (in his mediatorial character) is Prince of the 
 
 * * Prideaux Con. part 2d. book 8. answ. 27. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 555 
 
 kings [or governments] of the earth. He has had pow- 
 er given to him over all flesh — All things are delivered to 
 him by the Father — All power is given to him in Hea- 
 ven and in earth. He is exalted far above every name 
 that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which 
 is to come : and all things are put under his feet, and he 
 is given to be head over all things to the Church. The 
 kingdoms of the world, shall become the kingdoms of our 
 Lord and his Christ. All kings shall fall down before 
 him ; all nations shall serve him. He shall strike through 
 kings in the day of his wrath, He shall judge among the 
 heathen ; he shall fill the places with the dead bodies ; 
 he shall wound the heads [or chiefs] over many coun- 
 tries. God hath said, and it shall come to pass, “ I will 
 overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, 
 until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him,”* 
 for he is the only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord 
 of lords. “Be wise therefore now, O ye kings; be in- 
 structed, ye judges of the earth. Kiss the Son* lest he be 
 angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kin- 
 dled but a little” f 
 
 The Jews appear also peculiarly and distinguishinglv 
 interested in the present scene of things, and in the ex- 
 pected fates of the governments of Europe. — Their 
 dispersion is drawing to an end. The promises to them, 
 on the eve of fulfilment, are most glorious — “ They have 
 drank of the cup of trembling at the Lord’s hand, doubly 
 for all their iniquity.” But they are now commanded to lift 
 up their heads and rejoice. “ Sing, O daughter of Zion ; 
 shout, O Israel ; be glad and rejoice with all thy heart. 
 O daughter of Jerusalem. — At that time I will bring you 
 again, even in the time that I gather you ; for I will make 
 
 * Ezek. 21st ch. 27th v. t 2d Psalm. 10 — 02 v, 
 
 Bbbb 
 
556 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, 
 when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith 
 the Lord.”* 
 
 But let them be careful not to be deceived, as they 
 have so often, heretofore been, by impostors and false 
 Messiahs. — Let not every one, who vainly promises their 
 deliverance, engage their confidence — They should look 
 at their Scriptures — they are a light shining in a dark 
 place — What is the character, objects, and means of ac- 
 complishment attributed to the Messiah ? — Carefully in- 
 vestigate the conduct, pretensions, objects, and practices 
 of any who may pretend to this character — forget not 
 that he was to come during the existence of the second 
 temple — and before the dispersion of their nation — that 
 he was to be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep 
 is dumb before her shearers, so he opened not his mouth. 
 Are not the Jews to look upon him whom they have 
 pierced, and mourn as for a first born. I know they are 
 in the habit of rejecting what Christians say on this sub- 
 ject, but I beseech them to attend to what their celebrated 
 writers say, and compare it with the New Testament.f 
 
 * Zephaniah, Sd ch. 14 — 20 v. 
 
 f Philo, their justly celebrated writer and philosopher, speaking 
 of the second person in the God Head, says — 
 
 1. The Logos is the Son of God. — De Agrie, 1st vol. p. 308 — • 
 compare Mark, 1st ch. 1st v. Luke, 4th ch. 41st v. John, 1st 
 ,ch. 34th v. Acts, 8th ch. 37th v. 
 
 2. He is the second Divinity. — Deutero3 Theios Logos — Frigen, 
 2d vol. p. 625 — compare John 1st ch. 1st v. Cor. 1st ch. 1 — 24 v 
 
 3. He is the first begotten of God — De Somniis, 1st vol. p. 65 
 — compare Hebrews, 1st ch. 6th v. Coloss. 1st ch. 15th v. 
 
 4. He is the image of God.— De mundi Opifie : 1st vol. p. 6, 
 414, 419, 656 — compare Col. 1st ch. 15th v. Heb. 1st ch. 3d v. 
 2d Cor. 4th ch. 4th v. 
 
 5. He it is, by whom the world was created. — De Mund. Opif. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE; 
 
 5 . 5,7 
 
 The signs of the present times appear to be a solemn 
 warning to them particularly, of the approach of that aw- 
 ful day when “ the Lord with the sound of shophar will 
 publish salvation, to assemble the dispersed sheep of th,e 
 house of Israel, at the coming of the vision of salvation !” 
 
 1st vol. p. 4 — compare John 1st ch. Sd v. 1st Cor. 8th ch. 6th v. 
 Hebrews, 1st ch. 2 — 10 v. 
 
 6. He is the light of the world and the intellectual Sun — De 
 Somn. 1st vol. p. 6, 414, 632, 633 — compare John 1st ch. 4 — 9 v. 
 8th ch. 12 v. 1st Peter, 2d. cl\. 9th v. 
 
 7. He is esteemed the same as God. — De Somn. 1st. vol. p. 656. 
 De Profug. 1st vol. p. 561 — compare John 1st ch. 1 — 15 v. & 14th 
 ch. 11th v. Rom. 9th ch. 5th v. Phil. 2d ch. 6th v. 
 
 8. He is eternal — De Plant. Nose. 1st vol. p. 332 — 2d vol. p. 
 604 — compare John 12th ch. S4th v. 2d Tim. 1st ch. 9th v. 4th 
 ch. 18th v. Hcb. 1st ch. 8th v. Rev. 10th ch. 6th v. 
 
 9. He is nearest to God without separation. De Profug. 1st 
 vol. p. 561 — compare John 1st ch. 18 — 10 v. 14th ch. 11th v. & 
 17th ch. 11th v. 
 
 10. He is the Seal of God. — De Profug. 1st. vol. p. 547 — 8. De 
 Plant. Noee, p. 332 — compare John 6th ch. 27th v. Eph. 1st ch. 
 13th v. Heb. 1st ch. 3d v. 
 
 11. He frees his people from all corruption and entitles them 
 to immortality— De Cong. Ques. Erud. Grat. 1st vol. p. 535.— 
 compare Rom. 8th ch. 21st v. 1st Cor. 15th ch. 52 — 53 v. 1st 
 Pet. 1st ch. 3 — 4 v. 
 
 12. He is mentioned by Philo, not only as the Son of God, but 
 also as his beloved Son. — De Leg. Allegor. 1st vol. p. 129 — com- 
 pare Matt. 3d ch. 17th v. Luke, 9th ch. 35th v. Col. 1st ch. 13th 
 v. 2d Pet. 1st ch. 17th v. 
 
 Thus Philo declares the character of their Messiah, whose coming 
 they were so earnestly looking for — And this is precisely the cha- 
 racter of him whom Christians say is their Messiah, who is already 
 come. Can then a rational Jew say that this is not a subject wor- 
 thy their most careful examination, as a people bound for eter- 
 nity.* 
 
 Dr. Clark, on John’s Gospel. 
 
558 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 Are they not a warning of the approach of that time, 
 when “ the Lord, with the sound of shophar, will cause 
 a voice to be heard from Heaven upon the holy moun- 
 tain, and upon Jerusalem ?” The Lord seems to be “ re- 
 vealing the period, and the season, when he will sound 
 the shophar, and go with the whirlwinds of the south.” 
 And the consequences will be, “ that the kingdom of in- 
 iquity shall be destroyed, and God will then exalt him- 
 self with Jubilation. Then let all the inhabitants of the 
 globe, and those who dwell upon the earth, when the 
 standard is set up on the mountains, behold it ; and 
 when the shophar is sounded, then shall ye hear.”* 
 
 It becomes the Jews, among the rest, seriously to at- 
 tend to the present state of things in the world. Let their 
 own Scriptures be the test of their conduct. — They are 
 our elder brethren, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, 
 as firm believers in divine revelation agreeably to the Old 
 Testament. — Here, they are loudly called upon, to hear- 
 ken to the voice of God, speaking in the fulfilment of an- 
 cient prophesy. — The prediction of Moses has been mi- 
 raculously fulfilled. “ And the Lord said unto Moses, 
 behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people 
 will rise up and go a whoring after the Gods of the 
 strangers of the land, whether they go to be among them, 
 and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have 
 made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled 
 against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and 
 they shall be devoured and many evils shall befall them, so 
 that they will say in that day, are not these evils come upon 
 us, because our God is not among us ?” And Moses said 
 “ Take this book of the law and put it in the side of the 
 
 * Jewish Liturgy. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 559 
 
 ark of the covenant of the Lord, your God, that it may 
 be there, for a witness against thee ; for I know thy rebel- 
 lion and thy stiff neck : behold, while I am yet alive with 
 you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord, 
 and how much more after my death” — “ For I know 
 that after my death, ye will utterly corrupt yourselves 
 and turn aside from the way which I have commanded 
 you, and evil will befall you in the latter days.”* And 
 again, “It shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken un- 
 to the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his 
 commandments, and his statutes, which I command thee 
 this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and 
 overtake thee. — The Lord shall scatter thee among all 
 people, from one end of the earth even unto the other ; 
 and there, thou shalt serve other Gods, which neither 
 thou, nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. 
 And among these nations, shalt thou find no ease, nei- 
 ther shall the sole of thy foot have rest ; but the Lord 
 shall give thee a trembling heart and failing of eyes, and 
 sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang in doubt be- 
 fore thee ; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shall 
 have none assurance of thy life : And the Lord shall bring 
 thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I 
 spake unto thee, thou shalt see it no more again ; and 
 there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bond men 
 and bond women, and no man shall buy you.”f 
 
 But it shall come to pass when all these things are come 
 upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set 
 before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind, among all 
 the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, 
 and shalt return to the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his 
 
 * Deut. ch. 31. v. 16, to the end. 
 
 t Ibid, ch. 28. v. 15. 64. 68. 
 
560 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 voice ; — that then the Lord thy God will turn thy cap- 
 tivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return 
 and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord 
 thy God hath scattered thee ; — If any of thine be driven 
 out unto "the utmost parts of Heaven , from thence will 
 the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he 
 fetch thee. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into 
 the land which thy fathers possessed ; and thou shalt pos- 
 sess it ; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee 
 above thy fathers.”* 
 
 Was not the promise to Abraham positive and without 
 reserve that he should inherit the land of Canaan ? Was 
 not this promise repeated several times, and to Isaac and 
 Jacob ? — Are not the Psalms full of the same promises 
 to David and his seed, that his kingdom should be estab- 
 lished for ever? Has any part of this been yet fulfilled, so as 
 to answer the enlarged view of the promise ? Can your na- 
 tion be said even to have possessed the land of Canaan in 
 peace, for any considerable time together ? Is not your 
 history, a continued statement of wars, bloodshed and 
 disorder ; rebellion, assassinations and idolatry ? Is not 
 therefore the fulfilment of the glorious promises of the 
 Bible, yet future, and do you not generally believe that 
 the time is not far off? May you not, on your principles, 
 even at this moment, join in the confession of the song 
 of the three children, 14th and 15th verses, “ For we, 
 O Lord, are become less than any nation and be kept un- 
 der this day in all the world, because of our sins. Nei- 
 ther is there, at this time, prince, or prophet, or leader, 
 or burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or 
 place to sacrifice before thee, and to find mercy. ”f 
 
 * Deut. 30th ch. 1 — 5 v. 
 
 t Since writing the above, I have met with the liturgy of the 
 Jewish Synagogue, in which the morning prayer of Rebou Hoalo- 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OP THE WHOLE. 55 ^ 
 
 The Jews do firmly believe in the promised Messiah, 
 that he is to come, while many of their prophesies show 
 that he must be already come. “ The sceptre was not 
 to depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his 
 feet till Shiloh come.” The sceptre is departed already 
 for more than 1000 years, Shiloh must be come. Their 
 prophet Haggai expressly declares, in his encouragement 
 to Zerubbabel to build the second temple, “ that the de- 
 sire of all nations (the Messiah) should come, and God 
 would fill that very temple with glory, and that the glory 
 of that house should be greater than the former temple,” 
 notwithstanding its unparalleled glory ; or in other words, 
 as it has always been explained by their ancient Rabbins, 
 that the Messiah should come into that house. This 
 temple has been destroyed upwards of 1700 years. — 
 Should ye not then, ye sons of Israel, “ hear the words 
 which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when 
 Jerusalem was inhabited, and in prosperity, and the cities 
 
 mim, confirms this idea. It is in these words, “ Lord of the uni- 
 verse ! Thou didst order that we should otter a continual sacrifice 
 in thy temple, and the priests should be at the service thereof, and 
 the Levites at their platform, and the Israelites in their commit- 
 tees ; but from the cause of our sins, our sacred temple is destroy- 
 ed, and the continual sacrifices have ceased : and we have neither 
 priest at the service, Levite at the platform, nor select committee 
 of Israelites to perform the precepts of thy service.” 
 
 Miss Adams has already observed, “ that the most learned of 
 the Jewish Rabbi’s acknowledge that the royal and judicial power 
 has been abolished.” Rabbi D. Kimchi laments the sufferings of his 
 nation, and says, he has seen in his time the fulfilment of the pro- 
 phesy of Hosea, being those days of evil in which there was nei- 
 ther prince or king of the house of David. Abravanel, another 
 famous Rabbi, also observes, that Isaiah speaks of a new calamity 
 the Jews were to suffer, viz,, that they should have neither king- 
 dom, sovereignty, or judicial sceptre. 
 
562 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south 
 and the plain.”* Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, behold 
 I will save my people from the east country , and from 
 the west country, and I will bring them, and they shall 
 dwell in the midst of Jerusalem ; and they shall be my 
 people, and I will be their God in truth and in righteous- 
 ness.”! Do ye not believe what God himself hath said 
 in Numbers, 14th ch. 21st v. “ As truly as I live, all 
 the earth shall be filled with my glory” — and also what 
 his prophets have said, that “ in the latter day, God will 
 pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications ; — that 
 then ye shall look upon him whom ye have pierced, and 
 mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son ; and 
 shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness 
 for his first born.” Hath not your nation been “ led 
 away captive into all nations ,” and hath not Jerusalem 
 been, and still is, “ trodden down by the Gentiles ,' 1 '’ — 
 and, consequently, the times of the Gentiles are not yet 
 fulfilled. When the times of the Gentiles shall be ful- 
 filled, then (according to the Christian system) the ex- 
 pression implies that you shall be restored. The pro- 
 phesies have been accomplished to the greatest exactness 
 in the destruction of your city, — and its still continuing 
 subject to strangers, — in the dispersion of your people, 
 — and your still living separate from all nations : why then 
 should not the remaining parts of the same prophesies be 
 as fully accomplished too, in your restoration at the pro- 
 per season, when “ the times of the Gentiles shall be ful- 
 filled .” The “ times of the Gentiles ” will be fulfilled 
 when the times of “ the four great kingdoms ” of the 
 Gentiles according to Daniel’s prophesy, shall be expir- 
 
 * Zecb. 7th ch. 7th v. 
 
 f Ibid. 8th ch. 7 — 8 v. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 553 
 
 ed, and the fifth kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up 
 in their place, and the saints of the Most High shall take 
 the kingdom , and possess it for ever, even for ever and 
 ever. — Jerusalem, as it has hitherto remained, so proba- 
 bly will remain in subjection to the Gentiles, until these 
 times of the Gentiles be fidflled ; or, as St. Paul ex- 
 pressed it, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in ; 
 and so all Israel shall be saved , and become again the 
 people of God — therefore, their restoration must be with 
 the Gentiles. The fulness of the Jews will come in, as 
 well as the fulness of the Gentiles. For if the fall of 
 them be the riches of the world ; and the diminishing 
 of them , be the riches of the Gentiles, how much more 
 their fulness . For I would not, brethren , that ye should 
 be ignorant of this mystery , that blindness, in part, has 
 happened to Israel , until the fulness of the Gentiles be 
 come in. And so all Israel shall be saved A Can you 
 have then any solid objection to making a solemn and 
 serious business of seeking, in a special manner, for the 
 spirit of grace and supplications ? Who knows but 
 God may hear and hasten your restoration, which we 
 Christians are continually and ardently praying for, accor- 
 ding as he has promised, and that he would, in great 
 mercy, “ open a fountain to the house of David, and to 
 the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for unclean- 
 ness ;”f — that he would “bring again the captivity of 
 his people Israel, that they may build again the waste 
 cities, and inhabit them — that they may plant vine- 
 yards and drink the wine thereof ; — that they may make 
 gardens and eat the fruit thereof ; — and that God may 
 plant you in your land again ; and ye shall no more 
 
 * Romans, 11th ch. 12th v. 
 
 Cccc 
 
 f Zech. 13th ch. 1st v. 
 
564 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 be pulled up out of the land which he hath given you, 
 saith the Lord our God.”* 
 
 And now upon full consideration of this subject, may 
 not the words of father Abraham in Heaven, to Dives in 
 torment, be well addressed with double emphasis, and a 
 closer application, to the nations of Europe and America, 
 Jew and Gentile, “ if ye believe not Moses and the pro- 
 phets, neither would ye believe, though one should rise 
 from the dead.” 
 
 I shall pass by the objections to Christ’s personal ap- 
 pearance here on earth, derived from metaphysical argu- 
 ments, and distinctions, as not worthy of consideration. 
 
 These objectors are much in the situation of Moses in 
 11th ch. Numbers 21st to 23d v. And Moses said unto 
 the Lord, “this people, amongst whom I am, are 600,000 
 footmen ; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh that 
 they may eat a whole month — Shall the flocks and the 
 herds be slain for them, to suffice them ? Or shall all the 
 fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice 
 them ?” And the Lord said unto Moses, “Is the Lord’s 
 hand waxed short ? Thou shalt see now whether my word 
 shall come to pass unto thee or not.” The issue carried 
 conviction to Moses’s heart and understanding — The 
 whole passage might be read by every unbeliever with 
 advantage. — It often grieves me to hear the ministers of 
 Jesus Christ, who ought to put more confidence in his 
 Gospel, reasoning against the personal appearance of 
 Christ on earth — If such promises as follow are to be 
 reasoned away, as figurative or hie-oglyphical, who will 
 believe them when they urge other parts of Scripture as 
 literal and positive-— “ If we believe that Jesus died and 
 
 * Amos, 9th ch. 14 — 15 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 5^5 
 
 rose again, even so, [as certainly] they also who sleep in 
 Jesus, will God bring with him ; for this we say unto you 
 by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain 
 unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them who 
 are asleep *, for the Lord himself shall descend from Hea- 
 ven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
 the dead in Christ shall rise first. Jesus himself said, Mat- 
 thew, 19th ch. 28th v. that when he should reign, his a- 
 postles would reign with him ; and that they should sit 
 upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.* 
 Paul also said, that the saints should judge the world — - 
 And it is remarkable, that in the original prophesy of 
 Daniel, the administration of the kingdom of Heaven, is 
 not said to be confined to one person, but to be extend- 
 ed to many. Daniel, 7th ch. 18th & 27th v. — The other 
 kingdoms are to be overthrown, to make way for it, 
 therefore, it must be a proper kingdom, and is not to be 
 set up without great commotions and violence : “ then 
 was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, 
 broken in pieces.” 
 
 If, then, Almighty goodness has promised, Almigh- 
 ty power will effect; and alL objections to the pos- 
 sibility of the accomplishment are vain and groundless. 
 With a late author, “ I consider Scripture as the only 
 solid ground for our ideas upon this subject. We know 
 
 * Dr. Doddridge comments on these verses thus : — <£ In the 
 great renovation of all things, when all the children of God, shall, 
 as it were, be born anew from their graves; when created nature 
 shall put on its fairest forms to receive them, and the Son of Man 
 presiding over that august assembly, shall sit on the throne of his 
 Glory, exalted above the highest angels of God ; you also, my 
 faithful apostles, shall sit around me upon twelve radiant thrones, 
 iudging tine twelve tribes of Israel.” 
 
566 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 nothing of the nature of beings, purely spiritual ; but we 
 know that man was originally created a compound be- 
 ing.” 
 
 That our Lord arose from the dead and ascended into 
 Heaven with a body, and is to appear again as the Son of 
 Man ; we must therefore, I think, believe that the union 
 of the soul with a glorified body is the perfection of hu- 
 man nature : and it follows that our happiness will be 
 suited to that nature. But polluted as we are by sin, and 
 tainted with corruption, we cannot know much of the na- 
 ture of such beings or of such happiness. Those, how- 
 ever, appear little acquainted with mankind, who do not 
 perceive that the prospect of a kind of happiness, of which 
 they can form some idea, will influence their conduct 
 more powerfully than the promise of a happiness of which 
 they can form none. The sensual paradise of Mahomet, 
 and the purgatory of antichristian Rome, have, in fact, 
 operated more forcibly upon the hopes and fears of man, 
 than the distinct view of the eternal beatific vision, after 
 the sleep of the soul, till the day of judgment. But this 
 was not the doctrine of the purest ages of the Church. 
 The crown was held out as the immediate reward of mar- 
 tyrdom in the cause of Christ : the early Christians look- 
 ed for immediate admission into the presence of their 
 Lord ; they expected immediately to join the society of 
 blessed spirits and wait with them for the manifestation 
 of their Redeemer’s glorious kingdom to the world, when 
 they trusted he would “ raise their vile bodies from the 
 grave, and make them like to his glorious body, that they 
 might be kings and priests unto God for ever.” — The 
 sleep of the soul, however represented, will appear to 
 break the line of existence, and thus it will lessen the hold 
 on futurity upon common minds at least. The effects of 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 557 
 
 this chilling opinion are, I think, evident on the Christian 
 world. It not only increases the gloom of the grave, and 
 renders death more formidable, but it detaches our 
 thoughts and feelings from a world in which, in spite of 
 all reasoning, we seem to have such a distant interest. 
 And I am fully persuaded that the only effectual antidote 
 against the contagious poison of materialism and the bru- 
 talizing doctrine of the eternal sleep of death, is that, 
 which awakening all the energies of man, by the pros- 
 pect of immediate reward, and by placing that reward, in 
 part, within the reach of his imagination, preserved the 
 faith of the primitive Christians amidst the terrors and en- 
 ticements which beset them in the times of pagan tyran- 
 ny. — And this antidote, I humbly conceive, will be found 
 in the Scripture doctrine of the Millenium, which in- 
 cludes the belief of immediate admission into a state of 
 happiness, previous to the resurrection of the body, (at 
 that period) and of an inconceivable increase of bliss and 
 glory, when the day of final judgment shall arrive.”* 
 
 It was this blessed privilege and glorious hope that so 
 greatly animated the apostle Paul, “to be found in Christ, 
 not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, 
 but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righte- 
 ousness which is of God by faith : that he might know' 
 him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship 
 of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death, if 
 by any means he might attain unto the resurrection of the 
 dead.”\ St. Paul fully believed in the final resurrection 
 of the righteous and the wicked, and well knew that all 
 men would attain to it, simply considered, as a resurrec- 
 
 * Kett on the Prophesies, p. 295. 
 
 t Philip, ch. 3. v. 8—11. 
 
568 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 tion of the body — It was therefore something more than 
 that of the body he strove so ardently to attain to, even 
 the first resurrection, as thereby he was secure from the 
 second death — This resurrection was also something 
 that he had not yet gained by becoming a new creature 
 and being interested in the righteousness of Christ ; it was 
 not therefore a figurative resurrection, accomplished in 
 his regeneration, but a real and actual resurrection of the 
 body, to live and reign with Christ on earth a thousand 
 years — But to silence all opposers to this delightful doc- 
 trine of the second coming of our Lord here on earth, 
 suffice it again to repeat the words of Scripture ; for 
 though they may be of no avail with some, they will be 
 more than sufficient to satisfy every pious mind. These 
 will be grateful to the sincere believer, as the language of 
 truth from their common Lord. “ For ye have need of 
 patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might 
 receive the promise ; for yet a little while, and he that 
 shall come, will come and will not tarry.” 
 
 “For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his 
 Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every 
 man according to his works. 
 
 “ And Jesus said unto them, ye who have followed me 
 in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the 
 throne of his glory, shall also sit on twelve thrones, judg- 
 ing the twelve tribes of Israel. 
 
 “For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shi- 
 neth even unto the west, so shall, also the coming of the 
 Son of Man be. 
 
 “ Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the 
 right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven 
 with power and great glory. Watch, therefore, for ye 
 know not what hour your Lord doth come. Therefore, 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 559 
 
 be ye also ready, for in such hour as ye think not the Son 
 of Man cometh . — Blessed is that man whom his Lord, 
 when he cometh , shall find so doing. — Whosoever shall 
 be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and 
 sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be 
 ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in 
 his Fathers, with his holy angels. — When these things 
 begin to come to pass, then lift up you heads, for your 
 redemption draweth nigh. — I go to prepare a place for 
 you ; I will come again and receive you to myself, that 
 where I am, there ye may be also.— I am Alpha and 
 Omega ; the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, 
 who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty . 
 
 The apostles expressly ask, “ What shall be the sign 
 of thy coming.” The angel says to the witnesses of the 
 ascension of the risen Saviour, “ Ye men of Galilee, 
 why stand ye gazing up into Heaven — This same Jesus, 
 who is taken from you into Heaven, shall so come in like 
 manner, as ye have seen him go into Heaven.” 
 
 The apostle charges the Corinthians, that they should 
 “ wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ .” And 
 again, “ As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, 
 you do shew forth the Lord’s death till he shall come . — 
 Wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus , who shall con- 
 firm you to the end, that ye may be blameless in the day 
 of our Lord Jesus. Every man in his own order, Christ, 
 the first fruits, afterwards they who are Christs, at his 
 coming. When Christ, who is the Christian’s life, shall 
 appear, then ye also shall appear with him in glory .” — 
 He commends the Thessalonians for their faith God- 
 ward — and waiting “/or his Son from Heaven .” He 
 exhorts them “ to establish their hearts unblameable in 
 holiness before God, even our father, at the coming of our 
 
570 
 
 CONCLUSION ; 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ xvith all his Samts. And to Titus 
 he says, “ the grace of God teaches us to look for that 
 blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God,* 
 even our Saviour, Jesus Christ.” And St. John, in the 
 Revelation, says, “ And has made us unto God kings 
 and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth — and they 
 lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the 
 rest of the dead lived not again , till the thousand years 
 were finished. But they shall be priests of God and 
 of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” 
 In the Christian’s view, these are the words of unerring 
 truth, and need no farther argument to elucidate or en- 
 force them. 
 
 Again, God speaks kindly to his people on this sub- 
 ject, by the prophets ; “ Comfort ye ! comfort ye ! my 
 people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jeru- 
 salem and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, 
 that her iniquity is pardoned — That she shall receive of 
 the Lord’s hand (blessings) double to the punishment of 
 all her sins.” 
 
 This laborious work shall now be closed, with a repe- 
 tition of the 34th and 35th chapters of Isaiah as transla- 
 ted by bishop Lowth, preceded by his notes thereon, and 
 an appropriate Psalm of David, as containing a summary 
 of all that has been said, on this all-important subject, 
 and a most awful address by God himself [who cannot 
 deceive] to the present nations of the earth, as I con- 
 ceive ; and it is presumed, though not necessary to be 
 added, that it will be consummate wisdom in every one 
 who readeth and in him who heareth these words, to pon- 
 der them in his mind and treasure them in his heart. 
 
 * Vid. Grenville Sharpe on the Greek Article. 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OP THE WHOLE. 57^ 
 
 These two chapters of Isaiah make one distinct pro- 
 phesy ; an entire, regular, and beautiful poem, consisting 
 of two parts ; the first containing a denunciation of divine 
 vengeance against the enemies of the people or Church of 
 God ; the second describing the flourishing state of the 
 Church of God consequent upon the execution of those 
 judgments. The event foretold is represented as of the 
 highest importance and of universal concern : all nations 
 are called upon to attend to the declaration of it ; and the 
 wrath of God is denounced against all the nations ; that 
 is, all those that had provoked to anger the defender of 
 the cause of Zion. — The general devastation spread by- 
 Nebuchadnezzar through all these countries, may be the 
 event which the prophet has primarily in view in the 34th 
 chapter ; but this event, as far as we have any account of 
 it in history, seems by no means to come up to the terms 
 of the prophesy, or to justify so high wrought and so 
 terrible a description. And it is not easy to discover 
 what connection the extremely flourishing state of the 
 Church, or people of God, described in the 35th chap- 
 ter, could have with those events ; and how the former 
 could be the consequence of the latter, as it is there re- 
 presented to be. By a figure very common in the pro- 
 phetical writings, any city or people, remarkably distin- 
 guished as enemies of the people and kingdom of God, 
 is put for those enemies in general — This seems here to 
 be the case with Edom and Botsra. It seems therefore 
 reasonable to suppose, with many learned expositors, that 
 this prophesy has a further view, to events still future ; 
 to some great revolutions , to be effected in later tunes , 
 antecedent to that more perfect state of the kingdom of 
 God upon earth, and serving to introduce it, which the 
 hply Scriptures warrant us to expect, That the 3.5th ch. 
 
 D d d d 
 
572 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 has a view beyond any thing that could be the immedi- 
 ate consequence of those events, is plain from every part, 
 especially from the middle of it, at verses 5 and 6, where 
 the miraculous works wrought by our blessed Saviour, 
 are so clearly specified that we cannot avoid making the 
 application ; and our Saviour himself has moreover plain- 
 ly referred to this very passage, as speaking of him and 
 his works, Matt. ch. 11. v. 4 and 5 — He bids the disci- 
 ples of John to go and report to their master the things 
 which they heard and saw ; “ that the blind received 
 their sight ; the lame walked ; and the deaf heard and 
 leaves it to him to draw the conclusion in answer to his 
 inquiry, whether he who performed the very works which 
 the prophets foretold should be performed by the Messi- 
 ah, was not indeed the Messiah himself. And where are 
 these works so distinctly marked by any of the prophets 
 as in this place ? And how could they be marked more 
 distinctly ? To these the strictly literal interpretation of 
 the prophet’s words direct us. According to the allego- 
 rical interpretation, they may have a further view : this 
 part of the prophesy may run parallel with the former, and 
 relate to the future advent of Christ ; to the conversion of 
 the Jews and their restoration to their own land ; to the 
 extension and purification of the Christian faith ; events 
 predicted in the holy Scriptures, as preparatory to it. 
 
 Chapter 34th. 
 
 1. Draw near, O ye nations, and hearken ; 
 
 And attend unto me, O ye peoples ! 
 
 Let the earth hear, and the fullness thereof ; 
 
 The world, and all that spring from it. 
 
 2. For the wrath of Jehovah is kindled against all the 
 
 nations ; 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE, 
 
 573 
 
 And his anger against all the orders thereof ; 
 
 He hath devoted them; he hath given them up to 
 slaughter. 
 
 3. And their slain shall be cast out ; 
 
 And from their carcasses their stink shall ascend ; 
 
 And the mountains shall melt down with their blood. 
 
 4. And all the host of Heaven shall waste away ; 
 
 And the Heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll, 
 
 And all their host shall wither ; 
 
 As the withered leaf falleth from the vine, 
 
 And as the blighted fruit from the fig tree. 
 
 5. For my sword is made bare in the Heavens :* 
 Behold on Edom it shall descend ; 
 
 And on the people justly by me devoted to destruction. 
 
 6. The sword of Jehovah is glutted with blood ; 
 
 It is pampered with fat ; 
 
 With the blood of lambs and of goats ; 
 
 With the fat of the reins of rams: 
 
 For Jehovah celebrateth a sacrifice in Bostra, 
 
 And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 
 
 7. And the wild goats shall fall down with them ; 
 
 And the bullocks together with the bulls .*f 
 
 * Meaning Rome — The Jewish writer, Kimchio in Abdiam says, 
 « that whatever the prophets say of the destruction of Edom in the 
 latter times, they mean Rome His words are, “ Ex Kimchio 
 in Abdiam, nomen Romce sepius delitur et integra hcec sententia, 
 cum devastabitur Roma, erit Israeli redemptio. Processit autem 
 in Kimchio, qui quid dixerunt prophette de destructione Edom in 
 nostremis temporibus, de Roma dixerunt.Ӥ 
 
 t Meaning the nobles and great men of the land, of both high- 
 er and lower ranks. 
 
 i Mede, p. 902. 
 
 § Vide also the note at page 67, 
 
5 74 
 
 CONCLUSION; 
 
 And their own land shall be drunken with their blood. 
 And their dust shall be enriched with fat. 
 
 8. For it is the day of vengeance to Jehovah ; 
 
 The year of recompense, to the defender of the cause of 
 Zion. 
 
 9. And her torrents shall be turned into pitch, 
 
 And her dust into sulphur ; 
 
 And her whole land shall become burning pitch ; 
 
 I. 0. By night or by day, it shall not be extinguished ; 
 Forever shall her smoke ascend ; 
 
 From generation to generation she shall lie desert ; 
 
 To everlasting ages no one shall pass through her. 
 
 II. But the pelican and the porcupine shall inherit her ; 
 And the owl and the raven shall inhabit there ; 
 
 And he shall stretch over her the line of devastation, 
 And the plummet of emptiness over her scorched plain. 
 12. No more shall they boast the renown of the king- 
 dom ; 
 
 And all her princes shall utterly fail. 
 
 *L3. And in her palaces shall spring up thorns ; 
 
 The nettle and the bramble in her fortresses : 
 
 And she shall become an habitation for dragons, 
 
 A court for the daughters of the ostrich. 
 
 14. And the jackals, and the mountain cats, shall meet 
 one another ; 
 
 And the satyr shall call to his fellow ; 
 
 There also the screech owl shall pitch ; 
 
 And shall find for herself a place of rest. 
 
 15. There shall the night-raven make her nest and lay 
 her eggs ; 
 
 And she shall hatch them, and gather her young under 
 her shadow : 
 
OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 575 
 
 There also shall the vultures be gathered together ; 
 Every one of them shall join her mate. 
 
 16. Consult ye the book of Jehovah and read: 
 
 Not one of these shall be missed ; 
 
 Not a female shall lack her mate : 
 
 For the mouth of Jehovah hath given the command ; 
 And his Spirit itself hath gathered them. 
 
 17. And he hath cast the lot for them ; 
 
 And his hand hath meted out their portion by the line ; 
 They shall possess the land for a perpetual inheritance ; 
 From generation to generation shall they dwell therein. 
 
 Chapter 35th. 
 
 1. But the desert and the waste shall be glad ; 
 
 And the wilderness shall rejoice, and flourish. 
 
 2. Like the rose shall it beautifully flourish ; 
 
 And the well watered plain of Jordan shall also rejoice. 
 The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it. 
 
 The beauty of Carmel and of Sharon ; 
 
 These shall behold the glory of Jehovah } 
 
 The Majesty of our God. 
 
 3. Strengthen ye the feeble hands, 
 
 And confirm ye the tottering knees. 
 
 4. Say ye to the faint-hearted : be ye strong ; 
 
 Fear ye not, behold your God ! 
 
 Vengeance will come ; the retribution of God : 
 
 He himself will come , andAvill deliver you. 
 
 5. Then shall be unclosed the eyes of the blind ;• 
 
 And the ears of the deaf shall be opened : 
 
 6. Then shall the lame bound like the hart, 
 
 And the tongue of the dumb shall sing : 
 
 For in the wilderness shall burst forth waters, 
 
 And torrents in the desert : 
 
576 CONCLUSION ; OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE. 
 
 7. And the glowing sand shall become a pool, 
 
 And the thirsty soil bubbling springs : 
 
 And in the haunt of dragons shall spring forth 
 The grass, with the reed, and the bulrush. 
 
 8. And a high way shall be there; 
 
 And it shall be called the way of holiness : 
 
 No unclean person shall pass through it : 
 
 But He himself shall be with them walking in the way, 
 And the foolish shall not err therein. 
 
 9. No lion shall be there ; 
 
 Nor shall the tyrant of beasts come up thither : 
 
 Neither shall he be found there ; 
 
 But the redeemed shall walk in it. 
 
 10. Yea the ransomed of Jehovah shall return ; 
 
 They shall come to Zion with triumph ; 
 
 And perpetual gladness shall crown their heads. 
 
 Joy and gladness shall they obtain ; 
 
 And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 
 
 In the view of these dreadful threatenings to a guilty 
 world ; and consoling promises to those whose trust is 
 in the victorious and triumphant Messiah, and who are 
 looking and longing for his second coming to the glory 
 of God the Father, let us conclude with the joyful lan- 
 guage of the Psalmist, in contemplating this future glo- 
 ry, as the sum of all our labours and the desired issue of 
 all our meditations on the great things of God, as reveal- 
 ed by his Spirit in the divine Scriptures. “ God is our 
 refuge and strength ; a very present help in trouble. 
 Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be changed, 
 and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea ; 
 though the waters thereof roar, and be troubled ; though 
 the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. There is a 
 
A. HYMN. 
 
 577 
 
 river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of 
 God ; the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. 
 God is in the midst of her ; she shall not be removed. 
 God shall help her, and that right early. The Heathen 
 make much ado : The kingdoms are moved : He ut- 
 tered his voice ; the earth melted. The Lord of Hosts 
 is with us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge — Come be- 
 hold the works of the Lord : what desolations he hath 
 brought on the earth — He maketh wars to cease in all the 
 world : He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in 
 sunder-: He burneth the chariots in the fire. Be still 
 and know that I am God ; I will be exalted among the 
 heathen ; I will be exalted in the earth . The Lord oj 
 Hosts is with us ; the God of Jocob is our refuge .” 
 
 SOU DEO, GLORIA AND HONOR. 
 
 A HYMN, 
 
 BY SOME UNKNOWN HAND. 
 
 A LITTLE ALTERED. 
 
 1. To you it is spoken, ye virgins be watchful, 
 
 And strengthen the things, that are ready to die ; 
 
 Your loins still be girded, and be ye found faithful, 
 
 For see all around you proclaim he is nigh. 
 
 0 Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelu! Hallelu! Hallelujah ! 
 
 2. Now tumult and uproar : commotions are making, 
 Kingdoms against kingdoms, dire slaughter prepare ; 
 
 The powers ordained of Heaven are shaking, 
 
 And men’s anxious bosom’s are troubled with fear. 
 
 0 Hallelujah ! Sfc. 
 
578 
 
 A HYMN. 
 
 3. Great Babel of Rome, firmly seated on her throne, 
 Long said in her heart, as a queen I shall reign ; 
 
 Her merchants afar off', her sad fate now bemoan, 
 
 And gnawing their tongues, cry alas ! for her slain. 
 
 0 Hallelujah ! 
 
 4. The kings she once rul’d, and nations forsake her., 
 Being robb’d of her children, bereav’d of her hire ; 
 
 The wealth and the treasure she heaped together, 
 
 Now serve to consume her , and burn her with fire. 
 
 0 Hallelujah ! 8jc. 
 
 5. The blood of the Martyrs and Saints is found in her, 
 The cup that she fill’d, she drinks now in her turn; 
 
 Y e Heavens ! Apostles ! and Prophets shout o’er her, * 
 
 O queen of great Babel ! ’tis yours now to mourn. 
 
 0 Hallelujah ! 8jc. 
 
 6. Her plagues and her sorrows, shall never be healed, 
 
 Her violence to Zion the Lord will repay, 
 
 In fire, to consume her, he’11 soon be revealed. 
 
 The smoke of her torment shall rise Up for ay. 
 
 0 Hallelujah ! Sfc. 
 
 7. Then let all her lovers, with trembling be taken, 
 
 The children of Zion have nothing to fear ; 
 
 They seek for a kingdom that cannot be shaken, 
 
 Their treasure, their hope, their protector is there. 
 
 0 Hallelujah ! 8jc. 
 
 8. Then watch ye his servants ! see the signs from above j 
 He bad you observe them : He will soon come again ; 
 
 Be stedfast! unmoved ! be assured that your love, 
 
 To him and his people, shall not be in vain. 
 
 0 Hallelujah! 0 Hallelujah l 8jc. <§*c. 
 
 THE END. 
 
**4^ - /y /.^