'lar antichriftian Beaft was completed; fo it is certain, it is now the only one that has not yet fuffered a Revo'lution.'

6

Laftly, he obferves, that the prefent interpretation farther bids fair for the truth,'.becaufe France is now the most powerful of all the Catholic ftates'; and therefore on a Revolution happening in this country seem to depend the fall of Antichrift 67 himfelf (the Western or papal however), and therefore most of, if not all, the grand events belonging to the feventh trumpet."."

In favour of the idea that France is the Tenth Part of the city, I am happy in being able, before I conclude the chapter, to appeal to a name, which ftands fo high in the learned world, that, on a fubject like this, it is impoffible to cite any fuperior authority. It is to Vitringa "9 I

69

67 It has, fays another apocalyptical writer and a member of the Englifh hierarchy, been justly concluded by fome of our most eminent writers, that most probably France will in time be one of those powers, that ' will deftroy the kingdom of the Beast.' Burton's Eff. on the Numbers of Dan. and John, 1766, p. 304.

68 P. 11-22.

69 This great man was born in Leuwarden the chief city of West Friesland in 1659, and died of an apoplexy in the year 1722. As early as his 2nd year he was made profeffor of the Oriental languages in the college of Weft Friefland; and he afterwards accepted the profefforfhip of Theology and Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. We are affured by Ortwinus, who was rector of this college, that, from the high estimation in which his academical lectures were held, there was fo great a concourse of students to attend them, from Germany, Scotland, and every part of the Netherlands, from France, Poland, and Hungary, that the rooms intended for their reception as auditors were frequently incapable of containing them. At the funeral of this excellent man all thofe attended belonging to his college and native town, who were distinguished by their rank, their learning, or their perfonal worth. Vir erat, fays Ortwinus, antiqua et prifca virtute et fide, gravis, fincerus, humanus, blandus, facilis, affabilis, in exprimendis animi fententiis candidus, colendis amicitiis conftans, honeftatis denique ac pietatis ftudiofiffimus. See Ortwinus's Introduction to the Funeral Oration of Vitringa, which was pronounced by that greatOrientalift, Albert Schub

tens.

refer;

refer; a writer of the most profound erudition and the correcteft judgment, with whom every biblical student ought to cultivate an intimate acquaintance.

THE Street of the Great City, mentioned in v. 8, wherein the witneffes are fymbolically represented as. lying dead, may, he fays, he reasonably understood to fignify, as learned men have already remarked, fome 'diftinguished kingdom or country of Europe, in which 'fo great is the concourse of men, that it may be regarded as being like a Forum (or place of public meeting) to the antichriftian empire;' and having observed, that the Proteftant commentators in general refer the account of the witnesses to the whole of Europe, but especially to France, Vitringa declares his approbation of that opinion. Their death and their refurrection are, he obferves, alike figurative; though the former does indeed, at the fame time, include in it the actual killing of a great number of the witnesses. When arrived at the 13th verse, he obferves, like Jurieu, that the city which the prophet there speaks of fignifies the whole extent of the antichriftian empire. • What then,' Vitringa afks, can ⚫ be more fuitable, than here to understand by the Tenth Part of the city fome illuftrious kingdom, which, being under the dominion of Rome with respect to religion, was of diftinguished rank among the Ten Kingdoms, and had hitherto defended the Romish fuperftition? It ⚫ is faid here in a figurative sense that it would fall, fince BY MEANS OF THOSE MIGHTY COMMOTIONS, BY WHICH IT WAS TO BE SHAKEN, IT WOULD BE • TORN FROM THE BODY OF THE ANTICHRISTIAN EMPIRE.'

6

6

After introducing Jurieu as a man moft learned' and of distinguished merit, after giving a fummary of his ac

6

count of the witneffes, and attefting that his work had awakened in the world a very high degree of attention; Vitringa himself declares that FRANCE may be the forum" of the great city, concerning which the prophet fpeaks; and having done this, he almost immediately afks the following memorable queftion. If,' fays he, other things fhould follow, and God fhould grant, that this moft opulent kingdom of Europe, and at 'the fame time abounding with men of talents, furnish⚫ed with all the requifites of erudition, fhould publicly renounce the Romish fuperftition, and take up the patronage of a purer worship; WHO COULD DOUBT, but that the fulfilment of this prophecy might be demonftrated much more certainly and more clearly in ⚫ that kingdom than in any other?' Vitringa's filence in this paffage, refpecting any overthrow of the civil government of France, may perhaps be conceived to indicate, that his views on the subject were altogether contracted; it may perhaps be thought to imply, that of any infurrection of the people he had entertained no idea, that of any political changes he had formed no expectation. But the contrary is the fact. Immediately after having remarked that the Earthquake in the Tenth Part of the city is an event which history muft illustrate; he goes on to fay, neither alfo is it perfectly clear from the prophecy, of what kind these commotions are; whether warlike, fuch as are wont to shake the world ** and fubvert the existing government; or WHETHER

THEY ARE SUCH AS ARISE ON A SUDDEN FROM THE INSURRECTION OF A NATION THAT HAS

'BEEN LONG OPPRESSED,' He declares, however,

"This is Vitringa's translation of TATUM.

7 That France among the countries of Europe excels in population and in power, Vitringa observes in another plate (in Apoc. p. 723).

that

that the words of the prophecy appear to favour the ' LATTER fenfe.' And he advances it as his opinion, that, in the predicted catastrophe, fome thousands would undoubtedly perish, diftinguished by their elevated dignities, or nobleffe by birth".

Should France cease to be the patroness of the papal cause and the Romish religion, he expected that this Revolution would infallibly produce a change in other nations. The kings of France,' fays he,' elevated the Roman pontiffs to that dignity and authority, by means ' of which they have made such a splendid display in the 'world; and had they not protected them, and continued 'to protect them, of this empire of fuperftition and idolatry there would plainly have been an end”.'

73 It is with a reference to v, 13, that Vitringa afterwards obferves, that the nobility are scattered over France with more profusion than in any other country. With refpect to the third claufe of this famous verfe, I will also refer to one, other ancient, and one other modern, writer. In explanation of it, the German author of the Clavis Apocalyptica, which in 1651 was published in English by Mr. Hartlib, fays, that a great multitude will be destroyed of high and great perfous, chief heads and noble families,' p. 88. This earthquake, fays Mr. Reader, will fall on the Romish party, and destroy 7000 of their Nobility and Gentry.' On the Rev. 1778, p. 119.

74 P. 723.

CHAPTER IX.

ARGUMENTS INTENDED TO SHEW THAT THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IS FORETOLD BY ST. JOHN.

THE

HE prophetic narrative of the witneffes in ch. xi. will admit of yet farther elucidation. I begin with inquiring into their genuine character; and, for this purpose, shall first refer to two writers, diftant from

each other in point of time, though coincident in point of fentiment. The testimony which the witnesses give, fay's an early apocalyptical writer, is not only against the church of Rome, but against all falfe churches, who are her daughters; and it is not only against them, but also against the Ten antichristian Kings'. The author of the Signs of the Times in the fame manner includes among them, not only those who have witneffed against the domination and errors of the papacy; but likewise all those who bear witness for Civil Liberty against 'the tyrannies of those,' who have enflaved mankind. Even wife and good men have not, perhaps, fufficiently confidered the worth and importance of the 'witneffes of the latter defcription, in fulfilling the great defigns of God's goodness towards men; and hence they have almost always interpreted this prophecy as relating to the ftate of religion only; as if 'the civil and political state of man were held in little 'confideration by the Lord of the whole earth'.'

In order to bring fome decifive arguments to fhow, that many of the witneffes in ch. xi. are of a political character, and that their refurrection denotes a great political event, I must not omit what 130 years since fell from the pen of Dr. Henry More, a writer of no fmall eminence. As war fignifies oppofition, fo death 'or killing any changing their condition into worse, fo 'that they ceafe to be what they were before3. And that this is a political death, or putting out of power, 'is plain, in that their refurrection is fuch".' A little farther

Apocalyptical Myfteries, by H. K. Lond. 1667. Part I. p. 5.

* P. 23.

3 To flay the witneffes, according to Dr. More's explication in another place, is to tread down the people and to make them flaves. Myft, of Godliness, p. 207.

Myft. of Iniquity, p. 407. This was no haftily formed interpretation.