ternity and assistance to their brethren in rebellion. throughout Europe was passed and, on the 21st, the president ordered it to be translated into all languages as the manifesto of all nations against kings: a rare instance of French vanity and presumption; the convention had decreed it, therefore it was the manifesto of all nations. On the 15th of December, another decree was past by these friends of liberty for extending the French system, per fas atque nefas, to all countries occupied by their armies and, on the 19th, Marat, the delicice of the people, asserted in the Jacobin club, that in order to cement liberty two hundred thousand heads ought to be struck off. Meanwhile the streets of Paris were deluged with torrents of gore: the massacres of August and September will never be erased from the blood-stained annals of France and the whole republic was converted by this "liberty of hell" into "one great slaughter-house."*

On the 21st of January 1793, the king, after suffering every species of indignity from his mockery of a trial down to the ribaldry even of a Parisian mob, was publicly murdered upon a scaffold. On the 16th of Octo~ber in the same year, the queen shared the fate of her husband. And, on the 12th of May 1794, the princess Elizabeth, with a refinement of cruelty peculiar to the French, was executed the last of twenty-six persons.

On the 17th of October 1793, all external signs of religion were abolished: and, with a view to encourage the most unrestrained profligacy, it was enacted, that an inscription should be set up in the public burying grounds, purporting that "Death is only an eternal sleep." On the 25th, in order that no trace might remain of the Christian sabbath, a new calendar was adopted by the Convention; in which time was computed, not by weeks, but by periods of ten days each: and, instead of the ancient commemorations of the saints, festivals, similar to those of the idolatrous Romans, were instituted to the national Mahuzzim, the Virtues, Genius, Labour, Opinion

After the massacres of August and September, the revolutionary tribunal, established March the 5th 1793, authorised the incessant exercise of the guillotine; and, in many towns which had the misfortune to be suspected of Anti-jacobinical principles, decreed it to be permanent.

and Rewards. On the 7th of November, Gobet, the re publican bishop of Paris, with his grand vicars, and others of his clergy, entered the hall of the national convention, solemnly resigned his functions, and abjured Christianity and, that the truth of the prophecy might be evinced that some of those were also allured who had clean escaped from them that live in error, several protestant ecclesiastics abjured their religion at the same time. Finally, on June the 6th 1794, fornication was established by law, as anarchy and atheism had already been the convention decreed, that there is nothing criminal in the promiscuous commerce of the sexes.

Such have been the tremendous effects already produced by the third woe-trumpet; a trumpet, which, considering the very short period of time that has elapsed since it began to sound, has far exceeded its two predecessors in scenes of horror and confusion. "The massacre of St. Bartholomew, an event that filled all Europe with consternation, the infamy and horrors of which have been dwelt upon by so many eloquent writers of all religions, and that has held Charles IX. up to the execration of ages, dwindles into child's play, when compared to the present murderous revolution, which a late writer in France emphatically calls a St. Bartholomew of five years. According to Mr. Bossuet, there were about 30,000 persons murdered in all France on that day : there have been more than that number murdered in the single city of Lyons and its neighbourhood; at Nantz there have been 27,000; at Paris 150,000; in la Vendée 300,000. In short, it appears, that there have been two millions of persons murdered in France, since it has called itself a republic; among whom are reckoned 250,000 women, 230,000 children (besides those murdered in the womb,) and 24,000 Christian priests."* If such has been the effusion of blood in France alone, how will the dreadful catalogue of the miseries produced under the third woe be swelled, when all the wars,† which the

* Gifford's Preface to Banditti unmasked.

These wars, as we shall hereafter see, are predicted under the third vial, as the massacres and proscriptions of revolutionary France are under the second. These matters will be discussed hereafter.

revolution has kindled, are likewise taken into the account? how will it be yet incalculably swelled, ere the terrific blast of this trumpet has ceased, by the time of trouble predicted by Daniel at the close of the 1260 years; a time, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time?* We have already beheld the effects of the first and second woes: do we need any further proof to convince us, that the third woe has begun to sound?

Having thus discussed the prophecy at large, I shall conclude with drawing my arguments to a point.

The witnesses then are to be slain, not when they have finished their testimony, but when they are drawing near to finish it. This translation is at once required, both by the Greek idiom, and by the harmony of the prediction itself. The witnesses are to prophesy in sackcloth only 1260 years and, at the end of that same period, the power of the beast and the little horn is to begin to be broken. Hence it is manifest, that the slaughter must take place during the period, not subsequent to it for how can the witnesses be slain at the very time when their calamities are finished; and how can they be slain by the beast, when the judgments of God are gone forth to avenge his Church, and to slay the beast himself!

Let us next note the era of the slaughter. It is placed under the second woe, previous to the fall of a tenth part of the Roman city and the sounding of the third woe. But the 1260 days must necessarily extend to the commencement of the last period of the third woe, because the beast is overthrown under the seventh vial: therefore they cannot expire at the slaughter of the witnesses, which takes place under the second woe, and before even the earliest blast of the third woe.

Still it may be doubted, whether the witnesses be yet slain or not, because it may be doubted whether the third woe has begun to sound. Let us for a moment lay prophecy aside, and attend only to history. The

As yet we have only been spectators of the harvest of God's wrath, or the first grand period of the third woe-trumpet: the more dreadful period of the vintage is yet future. (See Rev. xiv. 14—20.) The two periods of the barvest and the vintage, by the former of which I understand the French revolution considered in all the effects which it has produced, will be discussed hereafter.

rise of Mohammedism and the conquests of the Saracens form one singular epoch in history: the rise and conquests of the Ottoman empire form another singular epoch after these two, where shall we pitch upon a third epoch equally singular? Can any other answer be given, an answer which the passing occurrences of every day render more and more probable, except the French revolution and its amazingly extensive consequences? Now the Saracens and the Turks are universally allowed to be the subjects of the two first woes. And are they more worthy of a place in prophecy, than the daring impieties, the unheard of miseries, and the vast change in the constitution of the whole European commonwealth, which have flowed from the French revolution? Since we are compelled to date a new order of things from this tremendous convulsion, is it improbable that it should have been selected by the Spirit of God as one of the great apocalyptic eras? Is it improbable to suppose, that the third woe began to sound, when the reign of Antichrist, of anarchy, and of atheism, commenced?

But this is not all: we have a clue afforded us by the prophecy itself. Immediately before the sounding of the third woe, a tenth part of the great Latin city is overthrown by a violent earthquake; and the consequence of this earthquake is, that seven thousand names of men are slain, not merely men themselves, but names or titles of men. If therefore the application of the third woe to the commencement of the reign of Antichrist do not correspond with this particular, we may be absolutely sure, that it is erroneous: but, if on the other hand it do minutely correspond with this particular, then we have attained to at least a very high degree of probability (so high as to fall little short of moral certainty,) that it is not erroneous; for, in that case, it will be difficult to conceive, how the prediction can ever be more minutely fulfilled, than it has already been. What then shall we say, when we find that it does exactly, and in every point, correspond with this particular? The reign of Antichrist was ushered in by the fall of monarchical France, one of the ten parts of the great city, or (what is only

another mode of speaking) one of the ten horns of the Roman beast: nay more; the only one of the ten original horns then in existence, and consequently the only mon archy by the fall of which the prophecy could possibly be accomplished. Nine out of the ten original horns had fallen by conquest or other political changes previous to the era of the French revolution: when that revolution took place, the tenth original horn fell: at present therefore none of the ten original monarchical horns are standing.* Hence it is manifest, that, if the prophecy has not been already accomplished, it now never can be accomplished. The result therefore of the whole is this: if the fall of the tenth part of the city be the first French revolution, and if the third woe began to sound at the commencement of the reign of Antichrist: in that case, the slaughter of the witnesses must be past; because it takes place under the second woe, and consequently previous to the sounding of the third woe.

"And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the na

tions were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testa

• The Angolo-Saxon born fell by the Norman conquest. But in France, when the crown was transferred from the Merovingians to the Carlovingians, and from the Carlovingians, to the Capets, it never ceased to be worn by a dynasty of native princes. At the revolution that ancient monarchy was first overthrown; and now that the regal form of government is restored, the sceptre of Pharamond the Frank, of Charlemagne the Frank, and of Hugh Capet the Frank, is wielded by Napolean Buonaparte the Corsican. Our Henry VI. was indeed crowned king of France; but his title was never acknowledged by the Dauphin, and he was himself speedily dispossessed of the conquests of his father.