"hold! there came two more woes hereafter;" that is, two more woes between the termination of this firft woe, and the end of the world. Under the firft of the last two woe-trumpets, he foretels the rife of the Ottoman empire upon the ruin of the Saracen, and the dreadful perfecutions and darkness, in which the eastern church was to continue under the fatalifm and fenfuality of that apoftacy: a woe more fevere and afflicting to the unreclaimed and perverfe eaftern part of the church, than the Saracen, under which it had lately fuffered. 'It was, however, to be of the fame nature; for the Ottomans were to adopt the Mohamedan fuperftition; and it, was to be of much longer continuance. They were together to tread the holy city under foot, in the Eaft, one thousand and two hundred " and three score days," or years. But this fecond woe was not to extend to the eaftern church only. The western was alfo to depart from the word of God, in the Gospel of Chrift, and to be equally punished for her difobedience. She was to be perfecuted and overwhelmed by, the unrelenting cruelty of Popery, and the voluntary ignorance, and ftill more dreadful tenets of French atheism. Thefe two great events were to be contemporary, that is, to begin, continue, and end, within the period allotted to the vifitations of God in the Eaft. Hence we find the prophet paffing from the hiftory of the eastern, to that of the western church.. In the tenth and eleventh chapters he takes a fummary view of the more striking features and actions of the two great enemies and oppreffors of the church in the Weft, namely, the Papal hierarchy, defcribed under the * Chap. ix. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. + Chap. xi. 2. figure of "the court which is without the temple, "given to the Gentiles*, and atheistical France, under that of " the beast ascending out of the bot"tomless pit." Having concluded this brief introduction to the account of the church of Rome, and revolutionary France (intending to treat of them more in detail afterwards), he tells us," the second woe is past ; “and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly." But in order to preferve the connection and harmony of his general hiftory, and to bring into it the events, by which the western church was to be afflicted, the prophet reviews, in the twelfth chapter, the ftate of the church in general in the fourth century, before it was divided; and again alludes to the general conduct of the Papal church, and revolutionary France, towards the western church §. In the thirteenth chapter, from the beginning to the tenth verfe inclufive, he treats in detail of the rife and conduct of the Papal apoftacy, under the figure of the beast of the SEA, and its fall; and in the remainder of the chapter, of revolutionary France, under the appellation of "the beaft of the EARTH," the power to which he had before || briefly referred, under the figure of the "beaft of the bottomlefs "pit:" a political hydra, that fhould far exceed in depravity, wickedness, and blafphemy, all the other powers that had ever exifted in the world; a power which fhould not only kill the two witneffes of God ¶, but even deny his existence, as well as defy his omni Chap. xi. 14. * Chap. xi. z. + Chap. xi, 7. See the comment on the beast of the bottomlefs pit, chap. v. potence. potence. He treats diftinctly of the dreadful exploits, by which this power fhould kill the two witneffes of God; of its fuperlative wickednefs and atheifm; the lamb-like and innocent appearance of its code of jurifprudence; the lying wonders, artful tricks, and delufive frauds, it fhould exhibit and commit to deceive mankind; the effects of those wonders and frauds on the minds and actions of the people; the image it fhould make and deify, for the people to worthip; the meafures and decrees it fhould pursue to compel them to worship it; and he concludes with a number, the name of the beast, by which it should be known, and which, when rightly understood and applied, no confiderate mind can doubt of its allufion to atheistical France *. Thus we have had before us a fummary view of the great events, foretold under the feven feals, and firft fix trumpets; and he immediately adds, "One "woe is paft; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly." Now if we may place any confidence in the facts related by hiftorians, and the testimony of our own eyes, all the events predicted under the feven feals, the firft fix trumpets, and the firft and fecond woe, have already come to pafs; and the great truths, figuratively reprefented in them, have been completely fulfilled, before and in our day, in the fame order of fucceffion in which they were foretold. What then remains of all the events predicted in the Apocalypfe (and which is allowed, by all com mentators, to be a prophetic hiftory of all the prin cipal and important events that were to come to pafs, from the time it was written to the confummal tion of all things), except thofe of the feventh trum See the comments on the beaft of the bottomless pit, and on the beaft of the earth. Chap. xiii. 4. pet, pet, or the third and laft woc-trumpet, which is to introduce the feven vials or laft plagues of the wrath of God? If no other leading events are left untold in this book, have we not great reafon to believe, from the regular fucceffion and completion of past events, in the order they were foretold, that the third woe, which is to come quickly, that is, prefently, or rather before the fecond woe is ended, is already upon the earth? And is not this reafon rendered yet more probable, from the prefent dark and depraved condition of the world? A ftate in which we fee kings and governments no longer obfervant of the faith of treaties; no longer abftaining from rapine and blood, than their pride and luft for power dic tate the time and meafure: a ftate in which na tions entirely depart from their belief in God, and even prefumptuoufly treat with ridicule and contempt the idea of his exiftence: a ftate, alas! in which we contemplate fcenes of poisonings, affäffi nations, maffacres, infurrections, rebellions, and civil wars, convulfions of nations, revolutions in ftates, and the wrecks of whole kingdoms, together with a havoc and deftruction of mankind, of which the now aftonished and affrighted world heretofore has never known an example. When we duly con fider, I fay, all thefe circumftances, is there not a ftrong probability that the fecond woe being nearly finished, the third woe-trumpet has begun to found, and that the feven angels, having the feven vials filled with the last plagues of a juft and long-forbearing God, have already begun to pour out his wrath upon the atheistical, blafpheming, idolatrous, fen fual part of mankind? * This conjecture refpecting the prefent time, as the last days, or the laft period of time foretold by the prophet, is fo far from being chimerical, that its probability is countenanced by the higheft authorities, before, as well as after, the firft coming of Christ. The Jewish rabbies antecedent to, and the primitive fathers after that bleffed event, believed that the world was to endure 7000 years; viz. 6000 before the firft refurrection and the fecond coming of Chrift, and the remaining 1000 years during his reign upon earth; and that at the end of that period, the fecond general resurrection and confummation of all things were to fucceed. This faith prevailed in the church of Chrift during many ages, and until it became loft in Mohamedau and Papal ignorance and apoftacy: it was revived foon after the Reformation, is entertained by many pious Chriftians at this day, and is certainly fupported by the Scriptures. If, then, this belief is well founded, and there is any dependance to be placed on the chronology of the world, founded on holy writ, and received as true by all Chriftian nations, 6000 years are nearly paft. If we calculate by Julian, there are not 200 to come; if by prophetic years, a very little more than a fingle century. In either cafe, is there not a frong probability that we are living in "the laft days," or the laft period of time; and under the third and laft woe-trumpet, which was to announce the pouring out of the last seven vials of the wrath of God, upon the ungodly of every defcription? upon Christian hypocrites, Pagans, Mohamedans, Papifts, and Atheists, in order to feparate "the fheep "from the goats," and "the wheat from the "chaff and to prepare the righteous remnant of the church for the kingdom of Chrift? But let us not place an implicit faith in the opinions of others, however high their authority, while Matth. xxv. 33. † Chap. iii. 12. we |