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the church, was to abide in the wilderness, that is in a forlorn and defolate condition; and power was given to the beast monoa, not merely to continue as it is tranflated, but to practise and prof per, and to do according to his will; and all for this fame period of 1260 years. These 1260 years therefore of the reign of Antichrift are not to be computed from his birth, or infancy, or youth; but from his coming to maturity, from his coming to the throne: and in my opinion their beginning cannot be fixed confiftent with the truth of hiftory either fooner or later than in the eighth century. Several memorable events happened in that century, In the (3) year 727 the pope and people of Rome re volted from the exarch of Ravenna, and shook off their allegiance to the Greek emperor. In the

year 755 the pope obtained the exarchate of Ravenna for himself, and thenceforwards acted as an absolute temporal prince. In the year 774 the pope by the affiftance of Charles the great became poffeffed of the kingdom of the Lombards. In the year 787 the worthip of images was fully established, and the fupremacy of the pope acknowleged by the second council of Nice. From one or other of these

(3) See Sigonius, Spanheim, Dupin, &c, &c.

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(4) Ita Roma, Romanufque Ducatus a Græcis ad Roma

num

transactions it is probable, that the beginning of the reign of Antichrift is to be dated. What appears to be most probable is, that it is to be dated from the year 727, when (as (4) Sigonius fays) Rome and the Roman dukedom came from the Greeks to the Roman pontiff. Hereby he became in some measure a born or temporal prince, tho his power was not fully established til fome years afterwards: and before he was a born at all, he could not answer the character of the little born. If then the beginning of the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrift is to be dated from the year 727, their end will fall near the year 2000 after Chrift; and at the end of the 6000th year of the world, according to a very early tradition of Jews and Chriftians, and even of Heathens, great changes and revolutions are expected both in the natural and in the moral world; and there remaineth, according to the words of the apoftle, (Hebr. IV. 9.) a fabbatism or holy reft to the people of God.

IV. What Daniel hath defcribed under the character of the little horn, and the blafphemous king; what St. Paul hath defcribed under the character of the man of fin, the fon of perdition; what St. John hath described under the charac

num pontificem pervenit. Lib. 3. Ad. Ann. 727. Sigon. Hift. de Regno Ital.

ter

(5) See

ter of the beast, and the false prophet; that fame tyrannical, idolatrous, and blafphemous power, ecclefiaftical writers ufually denominate Antichrift; and having thus far traced his character and defcription, his rife, progrefs, and continuance, let us now proceed to confider his fall, when at the expiration of the prefixed period of 1260 years his kingdom fhall be deftroyed for evermore. The prophets are not more expreffive of his elevation, than they are of his deftruction. They not only predict his downfall in general terms, but alfo defcribe the manner and circumstances of it: and St. John's account being larger, and more circumstantial and particular, will be the best comment and explanation of the others. For my part I cannot pretend to prophefy, which is the common vanity of expofitors of the Revelation; I can only represent events in the order wherein according to my apprehenfion the prophets have placed them. Sobriety and modefty are required in the interpretation of all prophecies, and efpecially in the explication of things yet future.

Only thus much it may be proper to premise, that having feen fo many of the prophecies fulfilled, you have the less reafon to doubt of the completion of those which are to follow.

At

At this present time we are living under the fixth trumpet, and the fecond woe; (Rev. XI.) the Othman empire is ftill fubfifting, the beast is ftill reigning, and there are proteftant witneffes ftill prophefying in fackcloth: and this fixth trumpet and Second woe muft end, before the Seventh trumpet can found, or the third woe be poured out, which is to fall upon the kingdom of the beaft. But before the end of the fecond woe, it should feem that the papifts will make a great and fuccefsful effort against the proteftant religion. When the witneffes fhall have near finished their tefiimony, that is towards the conclufion of their 1260 years, the beast fhall make war against them, and fhall overcome them. They fhall lie oppreffed and dead as it were, to the great joy and triumph of their enemies; but they fhall rise again after three years and a half, and the proteftant religion fhall become more glorious than ever, with a confiderable diminution of the papal authority. According to the method and order wherein St. John hath arranged these events, they muft happen before the end of the second woe, or the fall of the Othman empire. Ezekiel (XXXVIII. XXXIX.) and Danie! (XI. 44, 45) have given fome intimations, that the Othman empire fhall be overthrown in oppofing the fettlement of Ifrael in their own land in the latter VOL. III. days.

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days. In the conclufion of the book of Daniel there are also fome intimations, that the religion of Mohammed fhall prevail in the eaft for as long a period of time as the tyranny of the little horn in the weft. Very remarkable too it is, that (5) Mohammed first contrived his imposture in the year 606, the very fame year wherein the tyrant Phocas made a grant of the fupremacy to the pope; and this might incline one to think that the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrift are to be dated from this time. But tho' they might rife together, yet they were not fully established together. The authority of Mohammed might be fully established in the seventh century, but that of the pope was not fo till the eighth century; and therefore, as the one was established fomewhat fooner, fo it may alfo be fubverted fomewhat fooner, than the other. The pope indeed was established supreme in fpirituals in the feventh century, but he became not a temporal horn or beast till the eighth century.

When the Othman empire is overthrown, and the fecond woe is past, then according to St. John (XI. 14.) the third woe cometh quickly, which comprehends all the fevere and terrible

(5) See Prideaux's Life of Mahomet.

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(6) See