mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty *"" seems to indicate the last effort and dying struggle of Mahometan malice and fanaticism. The beast, however, is to CONTINUE TO THE END; the IRON FEET and TOES of the image are to remain united to the last, and only to be broken in pieces at Christ's second coming, by his great and mighty mountain, that is kingdom, as will be seen in next section, of holiness and of glory, which is to consume all other kingdoms, and to last for ever. The beast and false prophet, or the temporal and spiritual empire of Antichrist or of Mahomet, are then to be cast alive into the lake of fire, and are hence to subsist united unto the end of the world. When, according to the Chaldee Targum on Isaiah xi. "God with the breath of his lips shall slay the wicked Roman," that is, the Antichristian and the TurcoRoman, who is also Gog, and the man of sin mentioned by St. Paul, in his earthly power and deputed capacity; the Turkish Sultan being the spiritual representative and secular viceroy of the prophet and apostle of God upon earth. So that Jewish tradition is combined with the inspired prescience of the Old Testament and the aposto

* Rev. xvi. 13, 14.

lic authority of the New, to designate the same characters, and to foresignify the same subjects and the same events. "When the Roman empire is destroyed, according to the Jewish proverb, there will be redemption to Israel;" that is, the Turco-Roman empire, which is the fourth and last monarchy in its last stage of feebleness and of decay. When Gog is consumed, according to Ezekiel, "God will gather his people into their own land," that is, into the land of everlasting life, neither will " he hide his face from them any more,” that is, they will then, in the profound and emphatic language of St. John, “see him AS HE IS," and "all things SHALL BE MADE NEW." The Turkish monarchy is hence the horoloage of time and of the world; they are all mutual measures of each other, and will all wax old and perish together. The same period, and the same conclusion, is indicated by another well-known Jewish proverb, "2000 years before the law, 2000 years under the law, and 2000 years under king Messiah," which brings us down to THE END, nearly, (as they are Jewish years) of 2000 years, according to our own era and our own reckoning. See also Bishop Newton on this subject. THAT DAY is not, therefore, so far distant as the world would hope and suppose; ́but will "come as a snare upon them that dwell upon the face of all the earth," and "as a thief in the night."

SECTION IX.

THE DRAGON.

THIS abstruse subject, and character of great interest and moment in the Scriptures of the prophets, and of general concern and consequence to the church and to the world, requires to be carefully examined and separately and distinctly explained, in order to adjust the true scheme, and to determine the legitimate sense and right use of prophecy, and therefore demands our particular notice and attentive consideration at present. The modern doctrinal and disputatious expositions of the prophetic symbols, and hieroglyphie monsters, viz. the dragon and beast having each seven heads and ten horns, and the seven mountains, is well known; and there are few visions, or prophecies, whose immediate import and direct reference to the parties and dissentions of latter ages within the Christian church, are more roundly and confidently affirmed by those who employ the prophecies to support particular doctrines, rather than the Catholic faith, and to advocate subordinate members, instead of the whole body of the church. Such a sense and exposition being, however, utterly inconsistent with the true end and aim of prophecy, which knows no distinctions, and

favours no parties in the body of Christ; and being also opposed to the true design and signification of those symbolical objects and characters, and those emblematic designations, is perfectly untenable, and unworthy of the great names which devised and adopted it. The necessity of a figurative sense, and the reasons for the typical interpretation, being almost equally irresistible and overpowering in it, as in any other passage or subject of the prophets, or of the Scriptures in general. As, however, the controversial explication has been often admitted without foundation, and admired without reason and without inquiry, whereby the true intent of the subject, and the true object and aim of Scripture prophecy in general have been greatly perplexed and obscured, the straw floating on the surface, whilst the gold sinks to the bottom; it is the more necessary and unavoidable to consider it distinctly, and to elucidate it diffusely. Mr. Mede insists with the utmost confidence, and without the slightest hesitation, that the seven heads of the beast and the seven mountains, are "a pair of fetters to tie both beast and whore to western Rome," and after him many, and indeed most interpreters, have understood them, not, as might be imagined, of the arowed and decided enemies of the faith and church of God in all ages, but of some of their professed friends and members, either of the bishop and city of Rome, and its seven hills, or

of the German empire and its seven electors, or of both put together. But Mr. Mede's fetters, or those of his followers and admirers in this exposition, are neither of adamant nor even of iron, and those emblematic designations and symbolical monsters and characters, have no connection whatever with the city of Romulus, and have neither immediate friendship nor hostility to the once famous GOLDEN BULL, and the Germanic body. Both of which having been professed by Christians could never be the immediate object and import of THAT prophecy, and could never be so abominated and denounced by it, as has been proved at length in the second section. Neither the prophetic and spiritual Zion, indeed "the Jerusalem which is above, and is free, and the mother of us all," nor the prophetic and Apocalyptic Babylon, opposed to it and contrasted with it, is a city at all, except in the figurative sense, and in the emblematic intent and use of the word. To build the walls of Jerusalem is therefore no longer a work of literal masonry, and to pull down those of Babylon is not to remove stones, nor to unroof houses; it is neither the work of an earthquake nor of a siege, nor even of the partial and temporary conflagration of Rome. Such fortuitous events and natural evils, as they agree not with the sense, so neither would they promote the end and the design of those prophecies, nor yet of those who so interpret and

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