together, and will probably set together in that abyss from which they rose. "This is THE LORD's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes!"

To this last woe, and towards its conclusion, under the sixth and seventh vials, seem peculiarly to belong the following prophecies of the codicil, and of the latter part of the sealed book.

Jubilee, and blasphemous remission of sins to crusaders, and wore the two swords, the temporal and the spiritual, grounding the claim to both on Luke xxii. 38. In the selfsame year, and even on the same day, arose the Ottoman Porte.

The Prophet Joel has described the judgment to be inflicted upon all the persecuting Gentiles, previous to the final restoration of the Jews; which seems to be intimated by Isaiah, "a tenth shall return," &c. Isa. vi. 13. (See Vol. II. p. 401,) in the following magnificent strain.

"For lo, in those days and at that time,

When I, (THE LORD,) shall bring back the captives
Of Judah and Jerusalem; I will assemble the Gentiles,
And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
And there will I execute judgment upon them,
For my people, and my heritage Israel,

Whom they scattered among the Gentiles,
And divided my land.-

"Proclaim this among the Gentiles,

Declare war, Awake their mighty ones,

Collect yourselves, and come, all ye surrounding Gentiles,

And assemble yourselves together.

Even there will THE LORD bring low thy mighty ones.

Let the Gentiles be awakened, and come up

To the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit

To judge all the surrounding Gentiles.

"Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!
Come tread [the grapes] for the wine press is full!
The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great:
Multitudes! multitudes! in the valley of excision.
For the day of THE LORD, in the valley of excision,
Is nigh.".
Joel iii. 14.

1. Here the prodigious slaughter of the Gentiles, under the two last vials, is expressed by the double imagery of a harvest and a vintage; by THE SON OF MAN, sitting in judgment on a cloud, as a King, with a crown of gold upon his head, when the harvest is ripe for destruction, Rev. xiv. 14-16; and when the grapes are fully ripe for the wine press of the great wrath of GOD: when the slaughter of the multitudes upon multitudes was so immense, that the symbolical blood, issuing from the wine press, when trampled without

5. The religious war at Armageddon

6. CHRIST'S conquest and destruction of his foes*

xvi. 12-21.
xix. 11-21.

the [Holy] city, reached for 1600 stadia in extent, and up to the horse bridles in depth, Rev. xiv. 14-16.

Walmsley, who was a much better mathematician than expositor of the Apocalypse, has made a whimsical computation of this symbolical sea of blood, p. 417. Reckoning fifteen pound weight of blood at an average to every man, and the specific gravity of blood a twenty-fifth part greater than that of water; a cubic foot of which weighs 1000 ounces; and estimating the holy land as a circular area of 400 miles in diameter; to cover this four feet up to the horse bridles, would require the massacres of sixty billions of men. But he overrates the holy land, whose length is critically 1600 stadia, or (reckoning almost nine stadia to an English mile, with the accurate Dr. Falconer, of Bath, in his Tables of ancient measures,) about 189 miles, its mean length, according to D'Anville and the best modern geographers; and its breadth does not exceed 150 miles. So that reducing his calculation in proportion, it would bring the result nearly to billions, or millions of millions, supposing millions to correspond to multitudes in the hyperbolical, though consistent imagery of prophecy.

* 2. The scene of this slaughter in Joel is the valley of Jehoshaphat, ("THE LORD will judge," or "the valley of excision," on the east side of Jerusalem, 2 Chron. xx. 12, See Vol. II. p. 385,) which exactly accords with the Apocalypse, laying it within the precincts of the holy land, as we had seen, and at Armageddon, or Har-Mageddon, the mount of Megiddon, ("glorious judgment,") which Zechariah called, "the valley of Megiddon," (xii. 11,) corresponding in site to the valley of Jehoshaphat, at the foot of Mount Sion. This, therefore, is "the glorious holy mount" described by Daniel, as "lying between the two seas," between the Asphaltite lake, or Dead Sea, eastwards, and the Mediterranean, or great sea, westwards; which is to be the scene of the final destruction of the wilful king, Dan. xi. 45, who, with his confederates, are to be instigated to undertake a crusade, or religious war against the holy city, Jerusalem, by the croaking of the three impure froglike spirits, issuing from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, Rev. xvi. 12—16.

Thus do the prophecies of Joel and Zechariah admirably connect and explain the parallel prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse ; and from the harmony of these geographical and etymological remarks with the chronological adjustment of the vials here proposed, tend strongly to confirm the mode of exposition here adopted.

The advantageous situation of the New Jerusalem in the holy land, as the center of Christ's millenary kingdom, considered in a geographical point of view, is well described by the ingenious Mr. King, in a note to his Hymns to THE SUPREME BEING, p. 126.

"How capable this country is of a more universal intercourse than any other, with all parts of the earth, is most remarkable, and deserves well to be considered, when we read the numerous prophecies which speak of its future grandeur and greatness, when its people shall at length be gathered from all parts of the earth through which they have been scattered, and be restored to their own land. There is no region in the world, to which an access from all parts is so open. By means of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, there is an easy approach from all parts of Europe, from a great part of Africa, and from America. By means of the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulph, and the well known roads from thence, there is an approach from the rest of Africa, from the East Indies, and from the Isles. And lastly, by means of the Caspian, the lake or sea of Baykall, (or Aral,) and the near communication of many great rivers, the approach is facilitated from all the northern parts of Tartary. In short, if a skilful geographer were to sit down to devise

THE CODICIL.

This little book is, perhaps, the most personally interesting and alarming to us of the present generation and to our children, of any part of the Apocalypse. It briefly relates the persecutions of the remnant of the true Church, (the successors of the 144,000, who escaped the general corruption that succeeded the establishment of Christianity in the Roman empire, and filled the Church with false and dissembling Christians,) during the joint reigns of Popery and Islamism, those two ruling powers of the corrupt Church, for forty-two months, or 1260 days, and of their "image" in blasphemy and persecution, or genuine offspring, infidelity; all acting under the grand persecutor of the Church, from the beginning, the old Serpent, or Dragon, the Devil, or Satan, "the Angel of the abyss," who rose out of it, with the fifth trumpet, after he had been dethroned in the Roman empire, by MICHAEL, or CHRIST, and his angels, during the sixth seal, Rev. vi. 12-17, as more particularly described in the 12th and 13th supplementary chapters *.

the fittest spot on the globe for universal empire, or rather a spot where all the great intercourses of human life should universally centre, and from whence the extended effects of universal benevolence and good will should flow to all parts of the earth, and where universal and united homage should be paid with one consent to THE MOST HIGH, he could not find another so well suited, in all circumstances, as that which is with emphasis called The Holy Land."And the time shall at length come, when Sion shall

be the joy of the whole earth."

These most difficult, and most disputed, because most obscure, and designedly mysterious chapters of the whole Apocalypse, (which ought not to have been divided, as composing together the second celestial vision,) form a proper, and a profound commentary on the codicil; we shall therefore subjoin, in this note, an humble attempt to analyze their contents.

TWELFTH CHAPTER.

This properly begins with the fuller opening of the spiritual sanctuary, even to the ark of the covenant, in the inner sanctuary; and the lightnings, and shoutings, and thunders, and shaking, and great hail, which are the symbolical preludes of woes, Rev. xi. 19.

The mystical woman in heaven, in a glorified form, adorned with the sun, moon, and crown of twelve stars, aptly denotes the true Church in her patriarchal state, according to Joseph's vision, (Gen. xxxvii. 9,) of which he was himself a faithful witness, and a type of CHRIST, (Gen. xlv. 7, 8,) Rev. xii. 1.

The sufferings of the Church followed in the wilderness, under the law, and till the birth of CHRIST, that male child destined to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, (Psalm ii. 8, 9,) and this from the beginning, (Gen. iii. 15.) and the persecutions of the old Serpent, or great fiery Dragon, in the plenitude of his power, produced a general apostacy throughout the earth, until the birth of CHRIST, whom he attempted to destroy from his

These "faithful witnesses" of THE LAW and of THE GOSPEL, prophesy, or preach to a careless, irreligious, and corrupt

birth, by his agents, Herod, the Jews, and Romans, but who was caught up to GOD and his throne, on his ascension, ver. 2-5; but the Church was destined to undergo a long and trying period of persecution afterwards, for 1260 days, in the symbolical wilderness, ver. 6.

Before the commencement of this period, the Dragon and his angels were dethroned, and cast down from the plenitude of their power in the Roman empire, the symbolical heaven, in their warfare with MICHAEL, or CHRIST and his angels; when the powers of Paganism were overthrown by Constantine the Great, and Christianity introduced as the established religion, under the sixth seal, (Rev. vi. 12-17.) And this victory was followed by a general thanksgiving of the spiritual Church, ver. 7—12.

"The Dragon, after his fall, still renewed his persecutions against the woman, who was supported by eagle's wings,' as formerly in her flight to the wilderness, (Exod. xix. 4, Deut. xxxii. 11,) and 'vomited out of his mouth a flood, like a river, to overwhelm her," or brought an inundation of barbarous Pagan nations, from the north, to destroy Christianity along with the Roman empire, but his malignant project failed, for 'the earth helped the woman, and absorbed the river.' These fierce conquerors were themselves blended and amalgamated with the conquered country. Roma capta ferum victorem cepit. They soon embraced the religion, laws, customs, and language of Rome," ver. 13-16.

Disappointed in this hopeful scheme, and still enraged against the woman, the dragon took another course, and proceeded to make a more successful warfare than before against the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of GOD in THE LAW, and hold the testimony of JESUS CHRIST in the GOSPEL, by raising up new and more formidable persecutors in the bosom of the established Church herself, ver. 16, as unfolded in the second scene of the vision, or

THIRTEENTH CHAPTER.

This second scene of the vision properly begins with the last verse of the preceding, in which the Apostle was stationed (torałŋy) on the sea shore, to view the wild beasts, or persecuting powers, as they arose in succession.

I. The first rose from the sea, or westward, as he looked from the isle of Patmos towards Europe. It was compounded of Daniel's three first beasts, and denoted the Roman empire in full power, after the conquest and incorporation of the Babylonians, Persians, and Grecians; deriving, in its Pagan state, its power, throne, and great authority from the dragon, who was the tutelar god worshipped at Rome, first brought from Epidaurus, in Greece, B.C. 290, Rev. xiii. 1.

He next saw, in its Christian state, one of its heads, or forms of government, the imperial, wounded to death with the sword, at the downfal of the western empire. But its deadly wound was healed, and the head sprouted again, in Daniel's little horn, or the Papacy, to the astonishment of the world. And this revived head led the world to worship the dragon, and to extol his power, saying, Who is able to make war with him? and also opened its mouth in blasphemy against GOD, his name, his tabernacle, and true worshippers; and it was empowered to make war against the saints, and to overcome them, during the allotted period of 1260 days, ver. 2-7.

This little horn, or revived head, now rode triumphant on the first beast, (as the mystical harlot, or corrupt Church, Rev. xvii. 1—5,) and gained authority over every tribe, and language, and nation, of “the many waters" of the west, (Rev. xvii. 1—15,) and made them all worship the first beast, except the true Christians, whom she caused to be

world, during the three woes, clothed in sackcloth; and have but one mouth, testifying one simple road to salvation, by the

led away into captivity, [in the dungeons of the inquisition,] or slain with the sword, [in the home crusades.]

Here is the trial of the patience and faith of the saints, ver. 8—10.

II. The second rose from the earth, or east, as he looked towards Asia. Its body is not described, because it belonged to the first beast, denoting the Constantinopolitan empire, according to Sir Isaac Newton and Wood. It had two horns, like a lamb, intimating the imperial and pontifical powers united in the emperor, or the supreme temporal and spiritual authority. When Pope Gregory II. wanted to persuade Leo Isaurus to tolerate image worship in his dominions, the emperor loftily refused, saying, "Imperator sum et Sacerdos !"- -But it spake like a dragon, and persecuted, ver. 11, 12.

False miracles, lying signs and wonders, were equally prevalent in the eastern as in the western empire, and equally tended in both to promote the usurped authority of the Church. This gave rise to Islamism, a new ecclesiastical power in the east, "the image" of the papal, in blasphemy and persecution, founded by the "false prophet," Mahomet, which occasioned the downfal of the eastern empire, ver. 13-15.

Islamism, which is Deism, or infidelity, in its last stage, has also acquired an empire in the west; and Buonaparte, who is "a true Mussulman" in principle, has revived the superstitions of popery in their fullest extent and intolerance, on the ruins of atheism, acting himself as the visible head of the western Church, and virtually succeeding to the popedom, ver. 16. Perhaps this conjectural interpretation of the most difficult and paradoxical description of the image of the first beast, fashioned by the second, and inspired with the faculty of speaking and persecuting, will be found rather less objectionable than any of the numerous guesses still afloat. The truth, indeed, cannot be cleared up till the time of the end.

And "the enigmatical number of the name of the second beast, in its second stage, after the image was made, 666, ver. 17, 18, according to the celebrated Euthemius, patriarch of Constantinople, who died A.D. 920, Feuardentius, an early Romish writer, followed by Walmsley, p. 320, is the numeral amount of the false prophet's name, written Moaμeric or Maoμeric, by the Greek historians, Zonaras and Cedrenus.

This surely is preferable to the other irrelevant guesses of "Latinus,” “ Romiith," "Benediktos," "Apostates," &c. &c. confined to the first beast, in some shape or other; thereby confounding the two beasts together, who are clearly distinct; and their temporal and ecclesiastical powers, though acting in conjunction in the business of persecuting the true witnesses, ought not to be confounded.

SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER.

III. The first beast and its rider, the mystical harlot, has here its appropriate mystery, explanatory of the thirteenth.

"The beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, and is to ascend out of the abyss, and to go into perdition. And the inhabitants of the earth, (whose names are not written in the book of life, from the foundation of the world,) shall wonder, beholding the beast which was, and is not, though it shall be.

"Here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills [of Rome,]