Charles the fifth with the Smalcaldic protestants, did not sufficiently attend to this circumstance. Misconceiving St. John's expression of the same hour, they imagined, that the great earthquake was immediately to succeed, and as it were to be the consequence of, the war of the witnesses: hence they concluded, that by the fall of the tenth part of the city was meant, that " a great part of the German empire renounced the authority, and abandoned the communion, of the church of Rome." But here the question obviously occurs, what great calamity came so quickly after this event, as to merit the appellation of the third woe, and to begin the accomplishment of the prophecy of the seven vials? Analogy shews, that it must at least be equal to the two double woes of the two-fold Apostacy: but history mentions no event, as immediately succeeding the establishment of the reformation in Germany, that is either of a sufficient magnitude, or of a sufficiently peculiar nature, to warrant us in concluding, that the third woe did really "come quickly" after this establishment. Matters went on in the usual succession of state intrigues, hollow peaces, and rapidly recurring wars and it has frequently been observed, that the balance of Europe, as it is termed, was first thought of in the reign of Charles the fifth; and that afterwards the different states, by means of various alliances, and counter-alliances, were pretty equally poised till the tremendous explosion of the French revolution. It is plain therefore, that this explanation of the earthquake will not hold good: and, if it do not, all the other explanations, attached to the other schemes of interpreting the war of the witnesses, must of course fall to the ground along with the schemes to which they are attached.* We must look out then for a very different event from the establishment of the German reformation, in order to find a satisfactory exposition of the great earthquake, which was to overthrow a tenth part of the city; and of the third woe, which was to "come quickly" after it.

We have seen, that Daniel predicts the tyranny of Popery and Mohammedism, under the symbols of two little

* The reader will find an account of them in Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xi.

horns; and that of the atheistical government of France, under the character of a king who neither revered the God of heaven, the Desire of women, nor any other god, but who magnified himself above all. Hence we may naturally expect, that St. John, writing under the influence of the same Holy Spirit, would observe the same order, and would foretell the same events and such, I apprehend, we shall find to be really the case. The apostolical prophet, having fully detailed the history of the two double woes of the two-fold Apostacy, Mohammedan and Papal, introduces, at the close of the second woe, what may be termed the primary revelation of Antichrist; and immediately after, under the third woe, proceeds to the full developement of the same power in all its multiplied horrors: a power, fully worthy of being celebrated under a fresh trumpet; for Popery and Mohammedism only corrupted and mutilated the word of God, but it has defied him even to his face, and as a national act (a portent hitherto unheard of) has openly denied his very existence.

An earthquake is the symbol of a violent revolution either religious or political: and a tenth part of the great city, or the Roman empire, is manifestly the same as one of the ten horns of the Roman beast. But, from the time of the German reformation to the close of the last century, there has been no event to which this prophecy of the earthquake can with any probability be applied, except the revolution of France; a country, which has always been one of the most powerful of the ten streets of the great city, and which at the period of this earthquake was the only one of the ten original horns that remained.* Hence I scruple not to conclude, that that revolution is here foretold.

It is represented however as taking place before its own proper woe-trumpet began to sound; because, as the event has shewn, Antichrist was not destined to appear at first in all his naked horrors. The great earthquake of the second woe, and the fall of the tenth part of the city which it produced, were for some time celebrated, by the fanatical advocates of a chimerical liberty, as the very quint

I have already observed, that, owing to the frequent revolutions of nations, the other original borns, have long since fallen.

essence of human wisdom, the glory of an enlightened age, the most sublime effort of political jurisprudence. We were loudly called upon to contemplate the magnificent spectacle of a great nation rising as one man, and decreeing themselves free; and we were particularly charged to venerate the mild splendor of a phenomenon hitherto unknown in the annals of a guilty world, the phenomenon of a bloodless revolution. Soon however the scene changed, even before the third woe-trumpct began to sound: and the infidel tyrant, weary of his unnatural lamb-like mask almost as soon as he had assumed it, impatiently dashed it aside, and commenced a series of massacres and proscriptions worthy of a Sylla or a Marius. In the year 1789, the earthquake commenced; and in it fell a tenth part, the only remaining_tenth part, of the great Roman city: that is to say the French monarchy, the only one of the ten original regal horns then in existence. This circumstance, added to the chronological era to which the earthquake is assigned, namely the close of the second woe or a period subsequent to the permitted season of Ottoman conquest, might in itself be sufficient to teach us, that the French revolution can alone be intended in this prediction. But the prophet adds even a yet more decisive mark: "in the earthquake," says he, "were slain seven thousand names of men." The expression is remarkable, and full of meaning. In common earthquakes or political revolutions, men alone are ordinarily slain; but, in the present earthquake, their very names are to be slain: and the number of their names is said to be seven thousand, or seven multiplied by a thousand, the usual apocalyptic method of describing a great multitude.* Now it is a remarkable circumstance, that not merely names or titles of nobility in general should be abolished or slain by the earth

Thus the mystic number of God's elect is 144, or the square of 12, which is multiplied by a thousand to shew us that they constitute an exceeding great multitude. (Rev. vii. 4.) The number 12 is similarly multiplied by a thousand in the apocalyptic description of the new Jerusalem. (Rev. xxi. 10-16.) The present prediction is constructed upon the very same principle. The number of the names or titles is seven and this number is multiplied by a thousand to describe how great a multitude the ancient French nobility constituted. It is well known, that they were the most numerous of any country in Europe, Germany alone perhaps excepted.

quake of the French revolution, but that precisely seven such names or titles should be then abolished: 1. Prince. 2. Duke. 3. Marquis. 4. Count. 5. Viscount. 6.

Bishop. 7. Baron. All these names were slain in the course of the earthquake, which overthrew the only remaining tenth part of the Roman city, or the monarchy of France for the first shock of the earthquake took place in the year 1789; and the last, on the memorable 10th of August 1792. Thus are we alike directed by chronological and circumstantial evidence to apply this prediction to the French revolution. It was to be fulfilled after the Ottoman power had ceased to be victorious: it was to be fulfilled in one of the ten original horns of the beast: it was to be fulfilled in the downfall of the monarchy symbolized by that tenth horn, and in the abolition of precisely seven names or titles of nobility. No event, except the French revolution answers to all these particulars : and it does exactly answer to them all: consequently we have as much certainty, as can be attained in these matters, that the French revolution is here foretold by St. John.*

* I have explained this prophecy much better in the present edition, than I did in the first and I readily acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Bicheno for what is here said relative to the phrase names of men. To his remarks on this phrase, I have added the observation that precisely seven such names were slain in the earthquake of the French revolution. It is almost superfluous to observe, that archbishops and bishops are in effect the same title. The name of king was abolished by the fall of the tenth part of the city or the French monarchy itself: and in the same earthquake were slain the seven orders of nobility, temporal and spiritual. Bishops were afterwards restored by the republican rulers, but not in their former capacity of ecclesiastical peers. (Bicheno's Signs of the times, Part I. p. 38-42. Ibid. Part II. p. 95, 96, 97.) Mr. Bicheno cites the following curious passage from a discourse of Dr. J. Mather, who wrote in the year 1710. "We are assured, that, when the sixth trumpet, called also the second woe, has done its work, the seventh trumpet, called the third woe, will come quickly. Now there is reason to hope that the second woe is past, that is, that the Turk shall be no more such a plague to the apostate Christian world, as for ages past he has been. At the time when the second woe passeth away there is to be a great earthquake. In that earthquake one of the ten kingdoms over which Antichrist has reigned, will fall. There is at this day a great earthquake among the nations. May the kingdom of France be that tenth part of the city which shall fall! May we hear of a mighty revolution there; we shall then know that the kingdom of Christ is at hand." (Signs of the times, Part II. p. 85.) The speculations of Jurieu, whose work was published in England in the year 1687, are equally curious. "It is a truth, which must be held as certain (being one of the keys of the Revelation), that the city, the great city, signifies, in this book, not Rome alone, but Rome in conjunction with its empire-This being supposed and proved that the city is the whole Babylonish and Antichristian empire, it must be remembered that this empire of Antichrist is made up of ten kingdoms and of ten kings, who must give their power to the beast. A tenth part of the city fell: that is, one of these ten kingdoms which make up the great city, the VOL. II.

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While the earthquake however was overthrowing the tenth part of the city and slaying the seven thousand names of men, "the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven." Those, who had not suffered themselves to be deceived by the specious promises of Antichrist, readily saw through the flimsy veil of pretended liberty, philanthropy, and toleration, which but ill concealed the distorted features of the atheistical revolution. They acknowledged their fears; and were stigmatized as alarmists: they protested against the strumpet claims of democratic licentiousness to the venerable title of rational liberty; and were branded as the slavish enemies of the freedom of mankind they gave glory to the God of heaven, by maintaining that religion is the only solid basis of sound government; and were ridiculed as bigots or enthusiasts.

The earthquake had now overthrown the tenth part of the city the second woe therefore was past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. The year 1789 was styled the first year of Liberty: but Antichrist had not yet attained his full purpose. He panted to soar with a bolder flight than any of his predecessors in iniquity; and he rested not till he had established the reign of demoniac equality and frantic atheism.

"At an early period of the Revolution in France, the fraternity of illuminated Free-Masons took the name of

Babylanish empire, shall forsake it. Now what is this tenth part of the city which shall fall? In my opinion we cannot doubt that it is France-And in the earthquake avere stain seven thousand, in the Greek it is, seven thousand names of men. I confess that this seems somewhat mysterious-I am inclined to say, that these words, names of men, must be taken in their natural signification, and do ́intimate that the total reformation of France shall not be made with bloodshed: nothing shall be destroyed but names, such as the names of Monks, of Carmelites, of Augustines, of Dominicans, of Jacobines, Franciscans, Capucines, Jesuits, Minimes, and an infinite company of others, whose number it is not easy to define, and which the Holy Ghost denotes by the number seven which is the number of perfection, to signify that the order of Monks and Nuns shall perish for ever." (Cited by Bicheno. Signs of the times, Part. I. p. 39, 40.) Dr. Goodwin, who wrote 150 years since, had formed a very just conception of what wa, meant by slaying names of men. By the earthquake here is meant a great concussion or shaking of states, political or ecclesiastical—The effect of this earthquake, and fall of this tenth part of the city, is killing seven thousand of the names of Now by men of name, in Scripture, is meant men of title, office, and dignity-As in the case of Corah's conspiracy, so here a civil punishment falls upon these-For having killed these witnesses, themselves are to be killed (haply) by being bereft of their names and titles, which are to be rooted out for ever, and condemned to per petual forgetfulness." Cited by Bicheno. Ibid. p. 41.

men--