our Saviour, when he would have his auditors pay a ' particular attention to what he had been saying, to add, He who hath ears to hear let him hear.' The fubfequent fentence of the prophet Mr. Pyle thus paraphrases: 'he will affuredly vindicate the cause of his true religion, ' and pull down the antichriftian powers that oppress it, 'by a moft exemplary deftruction; and cause his true and faithful fervants to reap the bleffings of Chrif'tianity in safety, glory, and peace.' Perhaps this verse does not merely denounce the deftruction of the antichristian monarchies themselves, but may denote more particularly, with refpect to individual princes, that the time will come, when he who enflaveth his people shall himself be imprisoned; when he who maketh havock with the fword fhall himself be put to death.

I fhall next quote from ch. xvii. an important paffage, which foretells the overthrow of the antichriftian mo. narchies, briefly indeed, but clearly. And the angel faid unto me the Ten Horns which thou faweft are Ten Kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as hings one hour with the Beaft. Thefe have one mind, and fhall give their power and ftrength unto the Beaft. Thefe fhall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb fhall overcome them. That this is not fpoken of the conduct of the Ten Kings at any particular time, but of their conduct in general, is clear and indifputable. Can any man then, pretending to the flightest skill in the diction of prophecy, attentively inspect these verses (v. 12, 13, 14), and at the fame time entertain a doubt (however ignorant he may be of what has actually paffed in the world), whether the mafs of European princes have not been eminently hoftile to human happiness and to genuine Christianity3 ?

As

3 ‹ The splendor, luxury, felf-interest, martial glory, &c. which pass ' for effentials in Christian governments, are totally opposite to the meek,

• humble

As the Roman Western empire was not broken into feparate portions, and governed by a number of diftin&t and independent princes, till feveral centuries after the delivery of his prophecy, our inspired apoftle accordingly apprizes us, that, in his time, the epoch of their dominion was not arrived. They had, as he expreffes himself, received no kingdom AS YET. After obferving that we do not read in the book of Revelation of any other perfonage denominated a Beaft, excepting the twohorned and the ten-horned Beafts; I fhall cite the next. clause of v. 12, which afferts, that the Ten Kings receive power as kings one hour with the Beaft. The Beaft pointed to in this paffage the prophet speaks of as diftinct from the Ten Kings; and he thereby has admonished us, that he has not here in view the greater of the two Beafts, but the fmaller, who has two horns and is the representative of the antichriftian priesthood. • What we tranflate one hour, av pav, ought,' fays Lowman, to have been translated the fame hour or point of 'time, as feveral learned interpreters have juftly obferved. The Beaft then, and the Ten Kings or Kingdoms, are to be contemporary powers, or to reign at 'the fame time.' Thefe have one mind, i. e. fays Lowman, they have the fame design and intention'.' Will it not be fufpected by fome, that the full expofition of this prophetical claufe is this, that, whilft their joint reign fubfifts, I mean that of the antichristian kings and their allies in the priesthood, too many among them will have the fame common defign of pillaging the property,

humble, felf-denying spirit of Chriftianity; and whichfoever of these

⚫ finally prevails over the other, the prefent form of the government must

' be diffolved.' Hartley on Man, 1749, 8vo. vol. II p. 366.

As for inftance Vitringa and bp. Newton.

Pref. p. 17.

X 2

and

and of ufurping the rights, of mankind? Befides, in another view, how true an idea do these verses fuggeft of the defpots of Europe! They speak a fimilar language to fome before quoted from ch. xiii. Confult the pages of modern history; and examine, if they have not uniformly given their power and firength unto the Beast, that has two horns like a lamb? Have they not, to the authors of spiritual defpotism, conftantly imparted aid? Are not these the perfons who have most successfully made war with the lamb? Has not an unlawful power been affumed by them over the religion of Jefus? When they have not dared themselves to model and to alter it, have they not authorised the claim in a foreign prieft or a domeftic fynod? Are not the annals of every country, and of almost every period, ftained by the blood of the difciples of the Lamb, which they have fhed; and have they not levelled their bittereft oppofition against thofe, who have been moft diftinguished for purity of faith, of practice, and of external worship?

The fentence pronounced against the several antichristian monarchies of Europe in v. 8 and 11 of this chapter, I must not altogether omit. In the former place, it is affirmed, that the Beast having Ten Horns, which at the time of the prophecy had no being, shall arife, and afterwards fhall go into perdition, or, as it might have been translated, shall go into deftruction. In the latter, it is again faid of him, that he goeth into perdition.

'These Ten Horns,' fays an early commentator, ' are Ten European Kings, and whoever reckons them up, I find, brings in the Kings of Britain, for one of the 'horns of this terrible and fearful monster.' But this is a fubject, on which I fhall, for certain reasons which

Haughton on Antichrift, p. 88.

it is not difficult to comprehend, decline entering: and I fhall only obferve, that though every other European monarchy fhould ftand juftly chargeable with notorious antichriftianism, it does not of neceffity follow, 'that that of Great Britain carries upon it the fame fatal marks; nor, though every other writer on the fubject fhould maintain, that the English monarchy is unquestionably and of courfe one of the Ten Horns, is it an inevitable inference, that the evidence fhould ftrike me with equal force, or that I fhould entertain the opinion at all? It is, however, apprehended, that on this point the mind of the intelligent and unprejudiced reader will not long befitate to decide.

As the events, foretold by St. John in ch. xvii. are of great importance, and terminate in a manner favourable to the best interests of mankind, he refumes the subject in ch. xix. And I faw the Beast, and the Kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that fat on the horse, (i. e. against Christ) and against his army. And the Beast' was taken, and with him the False Prophet, that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the Beast, and them that had worshipped his image: these were both caft alive into a lake of fire. This paffage alike refpects the oppreffive governments and oppreffive hierarchies of the European world. The final overthrow of the antichriftian church, fays a learned commentator on prophecy, will be accomplished in the 'fubversion of those civil powers, which have been its ' only and its long fupport'.' It is nothing,' fays a

6

› ‹ The Beast and the Falfe Prophet,' i. e. fays bp. Newton (in lọc.), ' the 'Antichriftian Powers, Civil and Ecclefiaftical.'

* Mr. Wakefield tranflates it, the Falfe Teacher.

• Commentaries and Essays; printed for Johnfoa. Signature Synergus,

P. 485.

X_3

cels

celebrated writer, but the alliance of the kingdom of 'Chrift with the kingdoms of this world (an alliance' 'which our Lord himself exprefsly difclaimed), that fupports the groffeft corruptions of Christianity; and perhaps we must wait for the fall of the civil powers 'before this most unnatural alliance be broken. Calami'tous, no doubt, will that time be. But what convulfion in the political world ought to be a fubject of la'mentation, if it be attended with fo defirable an event? May the kingdom of God, and of Chrift (that which I 'conceive to be intended in the Lord's prayer) truly and fully come, though all the kingdoms of the world be re'moved in order to make way for it.'

6

Fire is a fymbol of deftruction; and accordingly the cafting of the Beast and the Falfe Prophet into a lake of fire, denotes, to ufe the words of an early apocalyptical writer upon this paffage, the perpetual ruin of all anti

christian tyranny, and an utter end of all wicked do'minion". In the 14th v. of the xxth chapter, immediately after the description of the general refurrection and the day of judgment, the fame" language is employed. It is faid of Death, that he was caft into a lake of fire. Here also the expreffion has a figurative acceptation here also it denotes, not torment, but deftruction 13: here also it is applied, not to a real, but an ideal perfonage. The ten-horned Beaft and the False Prophet

19

Priestley's Hift. of the Corruptions of Chriftianity, vol. II. p. 489. "The Irenicon Abridged, by W. Sherwin, 1674, p. 37.

"In the original the two paffages vary not at all. In both it is TE Ayumu te πupos, which our translation arbitrarily renders, in one place, a lake of fire, in the other, the lake of fire.

13 This lake of fire is but a fymbolical notion, or representation of the * perpetual continuation and unchangeableness of that state, into which * thofe matters are reduced, which are said to be thrown therein; implying, that they shall no more affect mankind, as being to them utterly ♦ destroyed.' Daubuz.

were