Long before the advent of the Messiah, his future manifestation had been announced by the prophets : and various minute characteristic particulars had been laid down, by which he might be infallibly verified whensoever he should appear. Now, had a Jew, previous to the coming of our Saviour, attempted to give a full account of all his actions, such for instance as we find them recorded in any one of the four evangelists: he would doubtless have justly incurred the censure of Sir Isaac Newton's observation; because he would have been dealing with prophecy, as if God had designed to make him a prophet. But, if he had simply declared, through faith in the divine word, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea; he plainly would not have made himself at all liable to the censure of our illustrious expositor, notwithstanding he so confidently announced an event as yet future: for, in fact, he would merely have taken up the explicit declaration of the sacred oracle. Accordingly, when Herod demanded of the Sanhedrim wHERE the Christ should be born, they answered without hesitation, notwithstanding the birth of the Redeemer was in their apprehension still future, IN BETHLEHEM OF JUDEA and, in giving this answer, they were not vainly playing the part of prophets, which alone is the presumption so justly reprehended by Sir Isaac Newton; but they were soberly and rationally setting forth an article of faith universally received by their Church, BECAUSE it rested on the authority of revelation. "FOR thus it is written by THE PRO

PHET,"

PHET," as we find them immediately and regularly giving their voucher for their assertion; "And thou, "Bethlehem in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall "come the Governor, that shall rule my people. "Israel *."

In a similar manner, when we of the present day simply declare, through faith in the divine word; that, in the great day of the Messiah's second advent, there shall be a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust, the former to unceasing happiness, the latter to perpetual misery: wè certainly do not become liable to the censure of Sir Isaac Newton; notwithstanding we speak with as much positiveness on the subject, as if we ourselves had received the doctrine from direct personal inspiration. For thus it is foretold by the CHIEF OF PROPHETS, may we say as the Sanhedrim did of old; "The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal †."

It is on this very same principle, if I mistake not, that we may, without any fear of warrantable reprehension, look forward humbly and reverently into the mysterious volume of the Apocalypse; and hence, by mere attention to the naked words of the oracle, deduce, even before the event, the future condition and ultimate fate of the now defunct wild beast.

I. We have seen, that the entire duration of the

Matt. ii. 3-6.

+ Matt. xxv. 46.

66

wild beast's Empire is divided by the interpreting angel into three successive periods; that of original existence, that of non-existence, and that of re-existence: the beast WAS, and is NOT, and yet is." We have likewise seen, by the obvious process of comparing the interpretation with the hieroglyphic itself, that the first existence of the Empire answers to the first term of the beast's life; that the intermediate non-existence of the Empire answers to the period during which the beast lies dead; and that the re-existence of the Empire answers to the second term of the beast's life when his deadly wound should be healed and when he should exercise anew the functions of vitality. We have lastly seen, by a careful discussion of particulars and by a minute comparison of prophecy with history, that the first of those three successive periods, into which the interpreting angel divides the entire duration of the wild beast's empire, is past; and that we are at present living in the second of them, namely the period of the Empire's non-existence or of the wild beast's death.

Now from these premises it will plainly follow, since the first of the three periods is past and since the second is now in actual lapse, that we must look forward to the future commencement of the third.

Nor do I render myself liable to the reprehension of Sir Isaac Newton by drawing such a conclusion, as if I were attempting to play the prophet rather than the expositor of prophecy. For, in fact, by drawing this conclusion, what do I say more than St.

John

John himself has said? He foretells, that, through the extinction of the seventh form of Roman

government or through the lopping of the seventh bestial head by the sword, the decapitated wild beast should for a season lie dead; or that the Empire, having no ostensible supreme head, should sink for a season into a state of political non-existence.

This he foretells; and we ourselves have witnessed the amazing accuracy with which the prediction has been accomplished: for we have successively beheld the fall of that sixth head which was flourishing at the time when he wrote, the rise and sword-inflicted death of the then future short-lived seventh head, and the consequent headless or defunct political condition of the Roman Empire.

But then we must not forget, that the prophet equally foretells a state of the hieroglyphical wild beast, which he describes as immediately following his present state. If the beast was to die through the violent excision of his seventh head by the sword, or if the Empire was to fall into a condition of political non-existence through the overthrow of its seventh short-lived form of supreme government: that same beast is no less to be restored to life through the healing of his deadly wound, that same Empire is no less to rise again to a new condition of political re-existence. The yet future resurrection of the wild beast, or the yet future renovation of the Empire, rests upon the identical inspired authority; on which also rested the now accomplished slaughter of the wild beast by the excision of his seventh head,

and the now effected political non-existence of the Empire by its recent reduction to a headless state through the overthrow of its short-lived seventh supreme form of government. government. If we deem the prophet accurate in what has been already fulfilled; we may look forward, with assured confidence, to what he announces as about to be fulfilled. Hence, as we have already beheld the death of the wild beast or the political non-existence of the Empire, we must plainly expect the equally predicted revival of the wild beast or the equally predicted re-existence of the Empire.

"I saw," says the prophet respecting the hieroglyphical wild beast, "I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and HIS DEADLY WOUND WAS HEALED:" for "the beast had a wound,” even a deadly wound, by a sword; and yet DID

"" LIVE."

Such was the picture-history presented to St. John: and analogous to it was the verbal interpretation of the angel.

"The beast that thou sawest, was, and is not,

and SHALL ASCEND OUT OF THE ABYSS: the "beast was, and is not, and yet Is or SHALL BE: "the seven heads are seven kings; five are fallen, "and one is, and the other is not yet come; and, "when he cometh, he must continue a short space; "and the beast, that was and is not, even HE IS (6 THE EIGHTH AND IS OF THE SEVEN."

Nothing can be plainer or less equivocal than these repeated declarations, when read by the strong light which