isting in its fall force in the year 1281, when the second woe-trumpet began to sound.

"Thus it appears, that the second woe-trumpet commenced in the West, as it did in the East, in the year 1281. Now we learn from St. John, that the last event, comprehended under it, is to be the fall of a tenth part of the great city by an earthquake. Consequently, since the second woe-trumpet began to sound in the year 1281, and since the witnesses were slain in the year 1547, the two events, of the death of the witnesses and the earthquake, must of course happen in the same apocalyptic hour or season: that is to say, they must both take place under the second woe-trumpet which commenced in the year 1281; though the one event, as we shall find, was to be many years prior to the other.

And here we must carefully note, that the fall of the tenth part of the city, is almost immediately to be followed by the third woe: "the second woe is past; behold, the third woe cometh quickly." Now, since both the first and the second woes form such very prominent epochs in history, as we have seen them do, it is but natural to conclude that the third and last woe will by no means yield to its predecessors, either in the wonderful or the horrible; nay, since it alone is subdivided into seven distinct periods, it is no very improbable supposition, that it will far outdo them in both. Those commentators, who first very justly applied the prophecy of the war of the beast with the witnesses to the war of the Emperor 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 ques

tion 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 Cerman 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.

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"We have seen, that Daniel predicts the tyranny of Popery and Mohammedism, under the symbols of two little 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, full worthy of being celebrated under a fresh trumpet; for Popery and Mohammedism not 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 the 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 shown, anti-christ 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 quintessence 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 splendour 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-trumpet 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 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. 99 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 earthquake 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.

"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 anti-christ, 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 anti-christ 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,

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