ately to be followed by the third woe: "the second "woe is past; behold, the third woe cometh quickly." Now, since both the first and the second woes form such very prominent epochs in history, as we have seen them do, it is but natural to conclude, that the third and last woe will by no means yield to its predecessors either in the wonderful or the horrible: nay, since it alone is subdivided into seven distinct periods, it is no very improbable supposition, that it will far outdo thein in both. Those commen tators, who first, though not with strict propriety, applied the prophecy of the war of the beast with the witnesses to the war of the Emperor Charles the fifth with the Smalcaldic protestants, did not sufficiently attend to this circumstance. Misconceiving St. John's expression of the same hour, they imagined, that the great earthquake was immediately to succeed, and as it were to be the consequence of, the war of the witnesses: hence they con"cluded, that by the fall of the tenth part of the city was meant, that "a great part of the German "empire renounced the authority, and abandoned "the communion, of the church of Rome." But here the question obviously occurs, what great calamity came so quickly after this event, as to merit the appellation of the third woe, and to begin the

was

.. Its last period, that of the vintage, will be, according to Daniel,'" a time of trouble, such as never was since there. st, a nation" and its first period, that of the harvest, which comprehends the three, first vials, is described by St. John as being a very remarkable season of trouble and distress.

accom

accomplishment of the prophecy of the seven vials? Analogy shews, that it must at least be equal to the two double woes of the twofold Apostasy: but his tory mentions no event, as immediately succeeding the establishment of the reformation in Germany, that is either of a sufficient magnitude, or of a sufficiently peculiar hature, to warrant us in concluding, that the third woe did really come quickly" after this establishment. Matters went on in the usual succession of state intrigues, hollow peaces, and rapidly recurring wars: and it has frequently been observed, that the balance of Europe, as it is termed, was first thought of in the reign of Charles the fifth; and that afterwards the different states, by means of various alliances and counter-alliances, were pretty equally poised till the tremendous explosion of the French revolution. It is plain therefore, that this explanation of the earthquake will not hold good: and, if it do not, all the other explanations, attached to the other schemes of interpreting the war of the witnesses, must of course fall to the ground along with the schemes to which they are attached *. We must look out then for a very different event from the establishment of the Ger man reformation, in order to find a satisfactory exposition of the great earthquake, which was to overthrow a tenth part of the city; and of the third woe, which was to "come quickly" after it.

(2.) We have seen, that Daniel predicts the ty

The reader will find an account of them in Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xi.

ranny of Popery and Mohammedanism, under the symbols of two little horns; and that of the atheis‐ tical government of France, under the character of a king who neither revered the God of heaven, the Desire of women, nor any other god, but who magnified himself above all. Hence we may naturally expect, that St. John, writing under the influence of the same Holy Spirit, would observe the same order, and would foretell the same events: and such, I apprehend, we shall find to be really the

'case.

The apostolical prophet, having fully detailed the history of the two double woes of the twofold Apostasy, Mohammedan and Papal, introduces, at the close of the second woe, what may be termed the primary revelation of Antichrist; and immediately after, under the third woe, proceeds to the full development of the same power in all its multiplied horrors: a power, fully worthy of being celebrated under a fresh trumpet; for Popery and Mohammedism only corrupted and mutilated the word of God, but it has defied him even to his face, and as a national act (a portent hitherto unheard of) has openly denied his very existence.

An earthquake is the symbol of a violent revolution either religious or political: and a tenth part of the great city, or the Roman empire, is manifestly the same as one of the ten horns of the Roman beast. But, from the time of the German refor mation to the close of the last century, there has been no event to which this prophecy of the earthquake can with any probability be applied, except

the

the revolution of France; a country, which has always been one of the most powerful of the ten streets of the great city, and which at the period of this earthquake was the only one of the ten original horns that remained *. Hence I scruple not to conclude, that that revolution is here foretold.

It is represented however as taking place before its own proper woe-trumpet began to sound; because, as the event has shewn, Antichrist was not destined to appear at first in all his naked horrors. The great earthquake of the second woe, and the fall of the tenth part of the city which it produced, were for some time celebrated, by the fanatical advocates of a chimerical liberty, as the very quintessence of human wisdom, the glory of an enlightened age, the most sublime effort of political jurisprudence. We were loudly called upon to contemplate the magnificent spectacle of a great nation rising as one man, and decreeing themselves free; and we were particularly charged to venerate the mild splendor of a phenomenon hitherto unknown in the annals of a guilty world, the phenomenon of a bloodless revolution. Soon however the scene changed, even before the third woe-trumpet began to sound: and the infidel tyrant, weary of his unnatural lamb-like mask almost as soon as he had assumed it, impatiently dash.ed it aside, and commenced a series of mass

I hav already observed, that, owing to the frequent revo Jutions of nations, the other original horns have long since fallen. 1 4

sacres

4

sacres and proscriptions worthy of a Sylla or a Marius. In the year 1789, the earthquake commenced; and in it fell a tenth part, the only remaining tenth part, of the great Roman city: that is to say the French monarchy, the only one of the ten original regal horns then in existence. This circumstance, added to the chronological era to which the earthquake is assigned, namely the close of the second woe or a period subsequent to the permitted season of Ottoman conquest, might in itself be sufficient to teach us, that the French revolution can alone be intended in this prediction, But the prophet adds even a yet more decisive mark: "in the earthquake," says 66 says he, were slain seven thousand names of men." The expression is remarkable, and full of meaning. In common earthquakes or political revolutions, men alone are ordinarily slain; but, in the present earthquakę, their very names are to be slain; and the number of their names is said to be seven thousand or seven multiplied by a thousand, the usual apocalyptic method of describing a great multitude*. Now

Thus the mystic number of God's elect is 144, or the square of 12, which is multiplied by a thousand to shiew us that they constitute an exceeding great multitude (Rey. vii. 4.). The number 12 is similarly multiplied by a thousand in the apocalyptic description of the new Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 10-16.). The present prediction is constructed upon the very same prin ciple. The number of the names or titles is seven: and this num ber is multiplied by a thousand to describe how great a multitude the ancient French nobility constituted. It is well known, that they were the most numerous of any country in Europe, Germany alone perhaps excepted.

it