in part, of that prediction in the Gospel, that the Sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from Heaven, before the second appearance of the Messiah to judge the earth; all which expressions are well known to be only figurative emblems of the great powers and rulers of the world, whose destruction, it is said, is to precede that great event."

We trust, that we have not been misapprehended, or that from any thing herein before stated, an idea has not been given, as if pretending to determine, with precision, the time of the completion of this great object of all human hope. What appears to be certain is, that the great catastrophe will take place by the year 6000, at farthest, although we confess, from an apprehension that we are faulty in our chronology, we should not be disappointed if it should happen in the nineteenth century.-From the circumstance of the original Sabbath being on the seventh day after six days of labour, together with the remarkable respect paid to the number seven in Scripture and history, and the tradition from the earliest ages among the Jews, we are of opinion that the seven thousandth year will begin the millenium, happen when it will. The Jews were as much divided about the first coming of the Messiah, as we are about the secondThey thought it as impossible that the Christ should come out of Nazareth-that he should not be a great conqueror, and that the Jewish nation, at his coming, should not be advanced to the pinnacle of glory, as our warmest zealots against his personal appearance, think it impossible that "the Lord himself should descend from Heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel, &c." So hard is it for men to believe in the word of the living God. However, this will be the great period for aven

ging the blood of the Saints, for "in her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth."

We pretend not to know, and it is here repeated with emphasis, more than the Scriptures have clearly revealed. It is not known what grand preparations are determined, to take place before the approach of that dreadful and glorious day; nor what length of time is necessary for their consummation ;-the Scriptures, by the figure of a millstone falling from Heaven into the Sea; and the coming of a thief in the night, undoubtedly mean to show, that in comparison with the past events of prophesy, the issue will be sudden and unexpected.

But this may be asserted with confidence, that sufficient has already appeared to assure us that many of the preliminary steps have taken place-that the scene is opening;-the curtain is rising ;-the harbinger seems ready for his approach;-nay the kingdom of God is undoubtedly nigh at hand-We mean not to determine years, or months, or days. The fourth kingdom of Daniel, at the end of which the great catastrophe is to begin, is fast hastening to its last period.-It is tottering on its base: being the feet and toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image, when it falls, the whole image falls with it.

Commentators, from St. Jerome to bishop Newton, with whom all more ancient writers, Jewish and Christian, accord, have generally agreed that the Roman government is this fourth kingdom. St. Jerome, about the year 370, though then living under that kingdom in the plenitude of its power, and, of course, such a construction must have been very unpopular, says, "the fourth kingdom, which plainly belongs to the Romans, is the iron that breaketh and subdueth all things." This Aaaa

brought him, as might be expected, into trouble; and he excuses himself thus: "If in explaining this statue, and the difference of his feet and toes, I have interpreted the iron and clay of the Roman kingdom, let them not impute it to me, but to the prophet.

This has indeed been cavilled at, by infidel writers, from Porphyry to Collins, who copied his objections, but could not support them by any authority either from Scripture or history. The excellent Mr. Mede already often quoted, and who bishop Newton says, was as able and consummate a judge as any, in these matters, by the most conclusive arguments has, in my opinion, put this question out of doubt.

We now see this government of Rome, receiving its death wound, both in its civil and ecclesiastical polity, and that by means of one of the ten kingdoms, as foretold by the prophet.* We see the little horn drawing to its

* The following extract from Sharpe's Essays, of a modern date, is applicable to this part of the subject.-The Scriptures foretell that the royal horns of the beast (however for a long time they may have supported her) shall at last "hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh,"+ &c. • "This judgment," says Mr. Grenville Sharpe, "was first began by our English horn, king Henry VIII. whom she entitled defender of the faith, against the persecuted saints, yet he set the first example of eating her flesh, by the sequestration of ecclesiastical estates and revenues to the royal exchequer-The precedent for fulfilling the prediction was not followed by the other popish horns of the beast, until the dissolution of the order of the Jesuits in our own times, about 1763, when all the other popish kings of the Roman empire, France, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Naples, the emperor and king Joseph II. &c. &c. followed the example-And lastly, since the treaty of Amiens, the remainder of her flesh seems to have occasioned a notable royal scramble among the remaining

Rev. ch. 17. v. 16.

end. His temporal power is already gone, and his ecclesiastical power is scarcely known, or submitted to.What then is the immediate consequence, as expressly declared by unerring wisdom; "I beheld, says Daniel, then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake, I beheld, even till the beast (the Roman government) was slain, and his body (or the city of his throne or seat, meaning Rome) destroyed, and given to the burning flame." It appears from this, that the power of Rome Christian, and all the Papal authority, as a temporal power, (and it may, possibly, also include the

royal horns under the general title of ecclesiastical indemnities; so that as the sign of the approaching vengeance is so notoriously fulfilled, the judgment itself cannot be far distant to punish her apostasy"" But the time is just at hand when great Babylon must come in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."* For all the awful signs described in this very text, the 19th verse, though not yet completely fulfilled are most evidently approaching to their completion-The ten great divisions, called horns or kings, of the fourth and last great kingdom, the Roman empire, are now so wounded and subdivided, as to have an apparent tendency to be divided into three parts only, instead of ten parts or horns. And as to the other sign respecting the fall of the cities of the nations, mentioned in the same verse, and necessarily to be understood as an inferior distinction for the lesser governments or states of the empire, which were not regal monarchies or horns of the beast, but were deemed only republics and hanse towns of the empire, therefore properly the cities of the nations, they are surely already fallen-Where now exist the late noble and independent states of Venice, Genoa, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Parma, Florence, Tuscany, or even Ragusa, because none but the piratical states exist, reserved perhaps for a more dreadful vengeance; for even Bremen and Hamburgh have lately been seized, so that the third wo really "cometh quickly.”

* Rev. ch. 16. v. 19.

power of the Emperor of Germany or France, as the sun of the political Heaven) will be destroyed, by means of his pride and contempt of other powers; or by his self sufficiency, confiding in his great power aud influence, by virtue of old assumed authority, over the consciences of men.

These events are to come on (as have already been observed) very quick, as consequences one from another, but are certain and unavoidable; and will inevitably proceed in regular procession till the pouring out of the seventh vial, and the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when all the nations of the earth, shall become the nations of our Lord, and the knowledge of God shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the seas.

We are satisfied, with bishop Newton, that the best comment upon the unfulfilled prophesies will be their completion; but then, as certain duties are enjoined upon us, to be performed at our peril; and the period for this service is only to be known by the signs of the times, given us in the prophetic declarations in the written word of God, it becomes us, with the faithful Bæreans, approved of by St. Paul," to search the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things are so;"* or to obey the words of our Saviour himself, "search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me:" that is, carefully look into, and attend to the books of the Old Testament, on which you depend for life and happiness, and from thence you will learn that the prophetic declarations therein mentioned, with their types and figures, have their exact fulfilment in me, and by attending to the times and circumstances foretold, as attendant on the coming of the

* Acts, 17th ch. 11th v.