and we shall probably soon learn, whether the last head will nominally, as well as effectively, be identified with the infidel king. Rumours of the speedy downfall of Turkey are afloat: and we see a conspiracy of vassal kings rapidly forming under the influence of their acknowledged and undoubted head, the French emperor. The Roman beast, who in every period of his existence has been dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, who with his fron teeth has devoured the whole earth and stamped the residue with his feet *, seems now, as the era of his dissolution approaches, to arise and go forth with ten-fold fury. Nor can we wonder at this circumstance, since his last head may at present be considered as identified with the adolescent Antichrist. Such is the prospect of Europe at the moment that I am now writing : and how

himself apparently acquiescing in it. It is observable, that by the 5th article of this treaty the French emperor is acknowledged to be king of Italy; and who shall deny, that he is also, like. Charlemagne, sovereign of Rome? March 1806.

Since this was written, the Germanic constitution has been formally dissolved, and its chief has solemnly renounced his title of Roman emperor. Sept. 1806.

* Dan. vii. 7, 23. + March 6, 1806. "I fear I see too clearly," said Bp. Horsley in the year 1799, "the rise, instead of the fall, of the "Antichrist of the West. Or rather, I fear, I see him rapidly "advancing to full stature and ripe age." (Letter on Isaiah xviii.) How marvellous hath been his growth in these last seven years! Do we even yet behold his full adolescence?

accurately,

accurately, how wonderfully, does it accord with prophecy! From the past, and from the present, we may anticipate the future. Whenever the Ottoman empire falls, we shall then definitively know our place in the Apocalypse; and the strong light of almost absolute certainty will be thrown upon the third woe, and the six first vials.

Although these prophecies have already been discussed at large, so far as the principal actors in them are concerned, yet they contain some matters more immediately connected with the restoration of the Jews which have not received quite so full an examination. These shall now be noticed in their order.

The succession of events, detailed in the joint prediction of Daniel and St. John, is as follows. At the pouring out of the sixth vial, the Ottoman empire, symbolized as under the sixth trumpet by the waters of its principal river the Euphrates, is overthrown; and prepares by its subversion a way for the kings from the east. These kings I cannot but consider as being the Jews, or perhaps to speak more accurately the ten tribes dispersed through the east and lost in the ancient Assyrian empire. Such an interpretation best accords with other parallel prophecies, which concur in representing a very considerable body of the Israelites as being brought out of the east and out of the north. The fall of the Ottoman empire however only prepares a way for them: no intimation is

given, that they then set out on their expedition; which exactly accords with what we are taught respecting the period, when we may expect the return of Judah and Israel. The restoration even of Judah, which will first take place, will not commence till the 1260 year's shall have expired: and the Ottoman empire falls previous to the gathering together of the confederacy to the great battle of the Lord, which will be contemporary with the ręstoration of Judah.

After the downfall of Turkey, the imperceptible agency of three unclean spirits will begin to assemble the Latin kings to the last war of Armageddon. We may conclude from the language of the prophet, that the confederacy itself will in some measure be already formed at this era; for the impure spirits are represented, as not so much forming the confederacy, as directing its efforts after its formation to a scheme of conquest which will terminate only in its own destruction. I have already observed, that, when we consider the point to which we now seem to be arrived in the Apocalypse, we can scarcely doubt that we behold the rudiments of this confederacy rapidly acquiring form and stability; and that, whenever the Turkish empire is overthrown, there will then be no doubt

at all.

At the pouring out of the last vial the 1260 years apparently expire, and the restoration of Judah commences. To this period therefore we

must

must ascribe the expedition of the wilful king*; and at this same period the stone begins to smite

the

* There is some reason for believing, that, during the effusion of the seventh vial and the contemporaneous expedition of Antichrist into Palestine, the sins of the papal empire, then left in a manner defenceless, will be severely punished by the desolating invasion of a great northern nation. In the language of symbols, a storm of hail denotes a hostile invasion from the north, the region where the natural hail is generated. Accordingly it is used by St. John, in his description of the effects produced by the first trumpet, to typify the irruption of the northern tribes into the Roman empire. Now it is worthy of note, that another hail-storm is to be one of the plagues produced by the seventh rial; and it is equally worthy of note, that some great northern king is said by Daniel to be engaged in hostilities with Antichrist at this very period. The necessary conclusion seems to be, if I be right in supposing the northern king to be Russia, that the hail-storm of the seventh vial means some dreadful invasion of the papal Roman empire by Russia and her northern allies during the time that Antichrist is engaged in prosecuting his conquests in Palestine and Egypt. This conjecture is founded upon Mr. Butt's paraphrase of Rev. xvi. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21; which the reader may compare with the text.

17. And the last minister poured out his vial upon the "spiritual power of mystical Babylon, and there came a great "voice from the established church from the throne, saying, "The mystery of God is finished, Antichrist is crucified. 18. "And there were thanksgivings, and languages, and the thun"der of preachers, and flashes of light; and there was a 66 great revolution, such as never was from the time that men .66 were upon the earth (Comp. Dan. xii, 1.). 19. And the great nation and empire was divided into three portions, and "the communities of the Christian Gentiles were revolutionized, "and catholic Babylon came in remembrance before God to

A

the image upon his feet, and the Ancient of days to sit in judgment upon the Roman beast and his tyrannical little horn. It is observable that the stone suites the image upon his feet and his ten toes, previous to his other members being smitten. This exactly accords with what Daniel says relative to the fate of the four beasts. The Roman empire is to be first destroyed, and that in its divided form: the lives of the other three beasts are to be preserved for a season and a time. And both these prophecies equally accord with the Apocalypse. After the destruction of the Roman beast under his last head and the downfall of his false prophet or harlot-church, and after the thousand years have

"give unto her the cup of crucifixion and extreme wrath. 20. And every little state was revolutionized, and the kingdoms 66 were levelled, the foundations of the great city annihilated. 21. And great northern armies are caused to descend by the "church and fall upon citizens; and the citizens blasphemed "God for the plague of the northern armies, for it was inex"pressibly heavy and dreadful." Butt's third part of notes on the Revelation, p. 24.

I am no way singular in supposing, that the effusion of the seventh vial synchronizes with the expedition of Antichrist into Palestine and the contemporary restoration of the Jews. Commenting on Dan. xii. 1, Mr. Lowth observes, "that the "Scriptures speak of the extraordinary appearances of God's "kingdom, as ushered in by great tribulations (See Isaiah "xxvi. 20, 21. Jer. xxx. 7. Matt, xxiv. 21.). This some "learned men suppose to relate to the times of the last vial "(Rev. xvi. 18.), when there was a great earthquake, saith the text, such as was not since men were upon the earth."

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expired,