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fignifies Lilies, does amount, with perfect exactness, tó the number of 6666.

But notwithstanding that this method of explaining the number of the Beast was noticed fo long ago by KLESCHIUS and WOLFIUS, by BENGELIUS and VITRINGA; and notwithstanding that recent events, and particularly the execution of the late king, have stamped upon the interpretation an additional degree of credi bility; yet, I confefs, neither this, nor any other mode of calculating this number, which I have feen, carries conviction to my mind.

Thofe, however, who conclude Ludovicus to be intended, will, I apprehend, take the strongest ground, if they argue thus. By embracing this opinion, we do not contend, that the Beaft is exclufively to be understood of the French Kings. In the general description of the ten-horned Beaft, the conduct of the other horns is doubtlefs alluded to. But as the witneffes against antichristian abuses, who have appeared from time to time in France, are particularly distinguished for their num bers, their perfeverance, and the great evils they have fuffered; and are deservedly felected in the xith chapter to be as it were fpecimens of other witneffes, who have been scattered in other countries, more fparingly, and at longer intervals of time: fo in like manner, the Ludovici, who have perfecuted them, are more remarkable than any other Horn of the European Beaft for their

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From the computation Mem final is excluded, being no uumeral.

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power, their cruelty", and their number; and therefore they are, with propriety, chofen as apt representatives of the whole tribe of antichriftian monarchs who are eftablifhed in Europe. If Antiochus in Daniel, as the pro. testant commentators unite to maintain, be typical of the Roman pontiffs in general; may not the fucceffion of the Ludovici be alluded to with a degree of appofiteness not inferior, as affording a genuine fample of the ordinary conduct, obferved by the sceptered tyrants of modern Europe? We are exprefsly told, that it is the number of a man. Now in what territory of the European world, it may be afked, or in what period of modern history, for in these respects our inquiry is limited, fhall we find any man, who has exercised tyranny, in a more pernicious and execrable manner, than Louis XI. and Louis XIV.68? But the name of the Beast may be conceived to refer not so much to any one or two men in particular, as to the French monarchs in general; and it may be remarked, that the founder of

67 There is no royal family in Europe which has fhed, in the support ' of popery, half the blood which the Capets have.' Signs of the Times, by Mr. Bicheno, p. 28. 'Who,' fays he (p. 11), have been fuch ene*mies to the truth of God and the happiness of mankind? Their tyranny ' has been the fcourge of France, of Europe, and the world.'

68 France he impoverished by profusion; Europe he embroiled in perpetual war. "This, an evil dreadful at all times, was by him conducted with unaccustomed barbarity. Twice did he caufe the Palatinate to be laid wafte with fire and fword. From the battlements of his caftle at Manheim, as Voltaire informs us, the elector Palatine could behold two cities and twenty five villages in flames. Multitudes of either fex and of every age fled with precipitancy, amid the severity of winter, either wandering about in the fields deftitute of food, or taking fhelter in the neighbouring countries. He it was who caused the most exquifite tortures to be inflicted on many of the proteftants; and, by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, drove 800,000 of them out of France. But to recount the enormities of Louis XIV. would require a volume of the amplest size.

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the French monarchy 69 and its attendant hierarchy was called Clovis, Louis, or Ludovicus, and that these words, differently

69 It perhaps is not generally known, that, in the reign of Clotaire, fon of Clovis, the territories of the French monarchy were far more extensive than those of modern France. See the Dissertation of M. de Foncemagne, in the Memoires de l'Academie des Infcriptions, tom. VIII. p. 506–528. About the year 532, this monarchy was established in its greatest extent, and fo as to bid defiance to hoftile attack; for, in this year, the extenfive dominions of the rival kingdom of the Burgundians were annexed by conqueft to those of the Franks, and four years afterwards the independence and legal authority of the monarchy they had erected were acknowledged by Juftinian, and a friendly treaty was concluded between that powerful emperor and the victorious fons of Clovis. See Gibbon's Decl. and Fall of the R. E. vol. VI. p. 324, 339. Poffibly it may be thought remarkable by fome, that exactly 1260 years intervene between the year 532, the æra of the aggrandifement and firm establishment of the French monarchy, and the year 1792, the æra of its complete, and, as many are inclined to believe, final, fubyerfion. And some perhaps will be disposed to add, that this monarchy was as much diftinguished by the rapidity of its rife, as it has been remarkable for the fuddenness of its fall. The narrow limits of the kingdom of Clovis, when he afcended the throne of his father, were, says Mr. Gibbon, confined to the island of the Batavians, with the ancient dio'cefes of Tournay and Arras; and at the baptifm of Clovis, the number of his warriors could not exceed five thousand.-When he first took the field, he had neither gold and filver in his coffers, nor wine and corn in 'his magazines,' vol. VI. p. 310. Yet this prince, at the time of his death, and he died at the age of 45, reigned over territories of vaft extent, and was the conqueror of the Goths, the Alemanni, and the Burgundians.

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There is nothing in the character and conduct of the first of the Ludovici, who in several refpects refembles the emperor Conftantine, which can exempt him from the ignominy of being placed at the head of a long line of antichriftian princes, the abettors of civil and ecclefiaftical tyranny. His ambitious reign,' fays the author of the history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was a perpetual violation of moral and • Chriftian duties; his hands were stained with blood, in peace as well as in war; and, as foon as Clovis had dismissed a synod of the Gallican church, he calmly affaffinated all the princes of the Merovingian race,' vol. VI. p. 320. But he was a champion of orthodoxy and a liberal benefactor of the clergy; and these traits of character, in the opinion of some bigots, are capable of washing away every fin. Clovis, fays Baronius, was

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differently as they found, are only variations of the fame name7°.

Of what is afcribed in ch. xiii. to the Ten Horns in general, may not much be applied, with the utmost exactness, to the Gallic horn in particular? Have not his fubjects, in a peculiar manner, worshipped" this most diftinguished of the Ten Horns, by bending to him with the most fervile homage? Have they not exclaimed as with one voice, and particularly the panegyrifts of Louis XIV. who is like unto him, who is able to make war. with him? Did he not affume a loftier tone than ordinary, and open his mouth in blafphemy against God? Was not power given unto him to make war with the faints, and to overcome them? And does not the fate of the last prince", who bore this name, correspond with the memorable words of the prophet? Was he not led into captivity, and afterwards killed with the fword?

rex gloriofæ memoria and religiofiffimus princeps; and the cardinal declares, that he defeated the Alemanni by the affiftance of Christ, and that the vial of oil, with which he was anointed at the epoch of his baptism and in the cathedral of Rheims, was brought from heaven in the mouth of a dove.

70 This is proved in the Memoires de l'Academie des Infcriptions (tom XX. p. 68). Accordingly Mezeray thus commences his historic account of the founder of the French monarchy, Clovis ou Louis, car c'eft le mefme nom, &c. 71 See ch. xiii. v. 4-10.

"There seems,' fays an explainer of the apocalypfe, ' to be a particular ⚫ denunciation against the family of Bourbon in the second Command, 'where God threatens to punish idolaters even to the Third and Fourth 'generation. This was at first threatened against apoftate Ifraelites, who 'had the advantage of being instructed in the true religion. And if we 'fhall read the hiftory of the idolatrous kings of Ifrael and Judah, we ' will find this threatening never failed to be executed.-Now it is very ' obfervable, that the present king of France is the third from Henry the 4th, 'who was a protestant, and changed his religion, for no other reason, but 'that thereby he might establish himself and his pofterity upon the throne ' of France.' Taylor's Eff. on Some Important Parts of the Rev. 1770, P. 144.

CHAP.

CHAPTER X.

ON THE CONCLUSION OF THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER OF THE APOCALYPSE.

HA

AVING remarked on feveral parts of the xith chapter, I fhall briefly notice its conclufion: having hitherto confined the attention of the reader principally to France, I fhall lead him to take a view of the general tenor of the events, which are likely to happen in some furrounding countries, or throughout the whole of Europe having expatiated on a prediction, which is regarded as applicable to the French revolution, I fhall touch on some collateral topics; and, through much of the remainder of the work, fhall confider fome both of the more near and more diftant confequences, which may probably result from that revolution, or be promoted by it.

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The close of the xith chapter contains a brief account of the seventh trumpet. With respect to the seven trumpets in general, it is obferved by Mede and Vitringa, that they denounce that fucceffion of judgments by which the Roman Empire was to be destroyed'. Now the reader is to remember what has already been remarked, that the Roman empire, in the view of prophecy, for the * convenience of the prophetic calculations, is confidered as fubfifting, though in a new form, un der the Ten Kings, among whom it was to be divided".' Thus the four first trumpets were fulfilled in the time of the Roman emperors; whilst the three laft, which are likewise called woes, belong to that empire, in its present form,

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