know that

the gates of hell fhall not prevail against the Church of Christ," but it depends

A

upon

But,

curately afcertain which they are. What is the time from which we are to confider it as fallen and divided? This is a needful previous queftion. Is not the divifion of the Roman power into the Eastern and Western parts of the Roman empire fignified in the terms legs (of the image) being two? And, in this case, are we not to look for five of the toes in the East and five in the Weft? [Or, rather, "fuppofing the feet to be the divided empire, the ten toes muft belong to both parts of it: we are not, therefore, confined to the Western empire for the ten kingdoms." Vide Hift. Int. of Prophecy, vol. i. p. 331.] Wherefore is it, that these remains of the Roman and preceding empires are to be broken in pieces? It is because they will in the end contend with him by whom kings reign and princes decree juftice." It is because they will be deceived and deluded by the great adverfary, and unite with him to contend with heaven and to make war with the faints. thanks be to God, the kingdoms of this world will not be all destroyed; but, by the execution of the great judgements of God upon the deftroyers of the Earth, they will be converted and preserved. For, in proportion as it speaks bitter things against those who do so, in like proportion it speaks confolation to thofe who are of an oppofite character; and, therefore, there is good hope that thofe who fear and worship God, and highly praife his word and his truth, that those who acknowledge him to be the King of kings and Lord of lords, and pray for the establishment of his kingdom upon earth," Thy kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!" will be preferved from furrounding unbelief, delufion, impiety, and deftruction. We may reft affured, that great as may be the fufferings of the world when these remains of the four great empires will A a 3

be

upon ourselves whether we be thought worthy to retain fo great a blessing,

We know that

"in

be broken to pieces, yet thofe kingdoms and people who fear God and serve him will be preserved and rewarded. And, if there are states and kingdoms to be preserved, by God giving them wisdom to avoid the fnares into which others fall, why may we not hope that our kingdom will be one of them? Can the encouragement of this hope do us any harm? Is there any harm in giving way to the hope that we, as a nation, are not a part of that empire which must be broken in pieces? We, no doubt, are as yet only one of "the kingdoms of this world," but the time will come when the "kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." May we not hope, at least, that we shall in time become fo? There are many materials of this kingdom of our Lord, we truft, fcattered in all parts of this kingdom. But poffibly it may be faid, that hope without any foundation is worse than What then is the foundation of our hope that we are not one of the ten kingdoms described in the book of Daniel, and the Revelation of St. John? In the first place I form fome hope from the want of agreement and precifion in those who have taken it to be one of them. Bishop Newton takes his account of thefe ten kingdoms in the eighth century, and he not only confiders the Britons as one, but the Saxons as another. Sir Ifaac Newton confiders the Britons as one, but does not mention the Saxons. Machiavel confiders the Saxons and Angles in Britain united, as one of the ten. Mr. Mede confiders the Britons and the Saxons in Britain as diftinct, confequently as two of these kingdoms. Bifhop Lloyd enumerates the Saxons in the lift (but he does not mention them as Saxons in Britain), and he omits the Britons. Here is, it is true, a variety of evidence, but the misfortune, or rather the com

none.

fort

"in every temptation God maketh a way to escape," and that "He that is for us, is

greater

fort is, that it does not agree; for I am by no means defirous of being thought an old Roman, if it exposes our land and kingdom to be included in fuch an awful deftruction. These commentators, it should be observed, do not so much remark the countries which formed the eftate of the Roman empire, as the tribes of other nations, by whom it was broken and divided." [And here it is material to add, that the Picts and Scots were never fubdued by the Romans, and that the Saxons did not enter Britain till after the Romans had left it; because these are the tribes from which the present inhabitants of Great-Britain and Ireland are chiefly defcended.] "But fhould not a correct chart be drawn of the Roman empire, of that great tract of land which was completely under the Roman power previous to its divifion and fall? and fhould not the ten kingdoms be fought in and upon this tract of land? Are we to include in this tract its most distant poffeffions ?" [poffeffions with which it had the fighteft connection?] "I hope not, I think not. I form great hope from this, that I think England did not form an integral part of the Roman empire. It was fubdued, it is true, by the Roman legions (under Julius Cefar), fome of whom had their station here for four or five hundred years, but then were recalled; and when recalled (about the year 440), I trust we ceased to be in any measure a part of the Roman empire."

And we may obferve farther, that though the empire was divided into two parts, the Eastern and the Western, by the immediate fucceffors of Conftantine, in confequence of his removing the feat of empire from Rome to Byzantium (Conftantinople); yet the Western divifion, the first that fell, is never confidered as having fallen till Odoacer's conqueft in 476, when he took the title of King of Italy. Now

But if we

greater than he that is against us." mean to preserve our Nation, we must "trim

the

as the empires are exprefly described in chronological order, by the form of the image (beginning with the head as the Babylonian or Affyrian), it seems clear that we ought not to look for the ten kingdoms till after this period at the Sooneft. Indeed, I conceive they are not to be found till after the two feet, or Eastern and Western parts of the Roman empire, ceafed to be fovereign Roman powers. And this opinion history confirms with a precision for which we seek in vain at an earlier period.

"In like manner as the Roman legions were stationed in Britain, we have troops in the East Indies. But do the native inhabitants of the Cape, or of those parts of India where our troops are ftationed, form an integral part of the British empire, fo that they can be called Britons? If we were to withdraw our troops from any place, as we have lately done from Corfica for inftance, is it ftill to be called a part of the British empire? Were there not Roman legions in like manner ftationed in Judea? and were they not ftationed there for as long a time, if not longer, than they were ftationed in Britain? And yet Judea is not, by any of these commentators, confidered as one of these kingdoms. Britain, at the time it was under the Roman power, was not a place of much consequence; it was retained more for the glory of having diftant poffeffions than from any advantage derived from it, except, perhaps, recruiting the Roman armies. Were there not other islands belonging to Rome, especially in the Mediterranean, which were, as parts of the Roman empire, of much greater confequence than Britain? Were not Cyprus, Rhodes, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corfica, for instance, under the Roman power? Now, how is it that thefe, or fome of thefe, are not confidered as

fome

the lights yet burning" in our Citadel, and patiently endure, or vigorously act, according to the varied duties of our fituation.

I call upon my COUNTRY, to " confider these things" with the attention due to their importance. I call upon EACH of my Readers, to reflect upon the folemn declaration of our Lord, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and finful generation, of him alfo fhall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in his own glory and in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels. But whofoever shall confefs me before men, bim will I-confefs alfo before my Father which is in heaven. And I fervently implore the OMNIPOTENT RULER of the univerfe, that we may be per

fome of these kingdoms? Is there any reason to be given why we, to the exclufion of thefe, are to be enumerated ?”

While commentators confined themfelves to the Weftern divifion of the Roman empire; Judea, Cyprus, &c. as parts of the Eastern, were necessarily excluded from their enumeration. But Sicily and Sardinia muft furely have been admitted, if they had not confined themselves in point of time as well as space, in a manner for which, I confess, I cannot find any authority in the prophetic writings, or any justification in hiftory; but which appears to have resulted, not neceffarily either, from the confined fyftem they adopted refpecting the Papal Antichrist; a fyftem impregnable in itself, but not sufficiently extended to be completely fatisfactory. Gent. Mag. p. 226, March, 1801.