Had Mr. Fleming, inftead of being an oppofer, been a propagator, of the Turkish doctrine of non-refiftance; had he taught that the happiness of the many ought to be facrificed to the intereft or the prejudices of the privileged ranks; there might have been fome colour of probability for the meaning annexed to his words; it would have been no longer incredible, that he purposed to foretell almost the extirpation of a great people. But far was his character from harmonizing with fuch an interpretation of his words and his expectations. Converfant in a wide range of literary enquiry, furnished with a mind difcerning and comprehenfive, animated with a warm zeal for the freedom of mankind,

Egypt even to the other end thereof. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion affigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them.—And Jofeph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh fhould have the fifth part, i. e. of the produce of all the eftates; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's. Jofeph was afraid,' fays Mr. Fleming, that the Egyp-, tians might regain their liberty, and avenge themselves on him, or his 'pofterity. Therefore he refolves to make fure work of it; and breaks 'them off from all their fettlements, dwellings, relations, poffeffions, 'interests, and acquaintances. So that this was, in effect, a pattern for 'transportation and captivities, which tyrants copied after in following ages. I am bold to fay, that Jofeph acted a barbarous and inhuman 'part, in enflaving a free people.' The people of Egypt, ' he made all equally flaves, excepting the priests only, whom he cunningly made an exception, that he might by them ftrengthen himself, against the rest of 'the people, well knowing their influence both on the prince and commonalty, and that they were the proper tools of arbitrary power and 'paffive obedience.-I cannot but look on Joseph to have acted a very 'wicked part in this procedure.' P. 64, &c. When the Ifraelites afterwards defired a king, God,' fays Mr. Fleming, from a tender regard for the liberty and property of a poor infatuated people, labours to ' deter them from their proposal, by setting before them the miseries that kings would bring upon them, by aspiring after arbitrary authority and ' unlimited power, and by tyrannizing over them. This God does em'phatically and roundly tell them of, by the mouth of Samuel. viii. 10, 11, &c.' P. 79.

1 Sam.

educated

educated in the republic of Holland, exasperated by the conduct of the royal party in Scotland, by whom his father had been perfecuted and imprisoned, and having witneffed a few years fince an important political revolution in England; is it greatly to be wondered, if such a man carried his views of government, and his expectations of change in the state of human affairs, to a much greater extent than the generality of his contemporaries ?

It here deferves to be mentioned, that Mr. Fleming, in the preface to his Difcourfe on the Death of K. Wil. liam, has actually cited the opinion of a great French statesman, as worthy of peculiar attention, in the close of which opinion he expressed the probability of a foundation being laid in France for a new revolution, which perhaps might be more univerfal and more dangerous to the Catholic intereft than the Proteftant reformation.

The design of Mr. Fleming's Discourse, which with its poftfcript is extended almoft to the length of 180 pages, is to trace the rife and fall of the Papacy. When it was his favourite object to prove the certainty of the latter event, an event from which he never fuffers his eye long to be withdrawn; furely it cannot be supposed, that he had employed himself in labouring to prove the future establishment of that defpotism, which instinctively attempts to ftrengthen itself by the aid of ecclefiaftical authority, and which, in France, would affuredly be attended by the reftoration of Popery.

But neither the character of Mr. Fleming, nor the general tenor of his discourse, affords fo decifive a proof of the meaning which he intended to convey, as the words which he has felected. Of his interpreters fome, however, appear not fo much to have attended to thefe, as to their own wishes on the fubject.

When the author of the Difcourfe on the Rife and Fall of the Papacy taught, without hesitation, that the fourth vial was a clear prophecy of confiderable events, which would be injurious to the Roman Catholic religion, and when he apprehended that about the year 1794 this vial would have received its full accomplishment; he can never be supposed to give countenance to the idea, that fuch catholic princes as thofe of Auftria, of Sardinia, and of Spain, would about that time fucceed against a country, which has emancipated itself from papal influence and epifcopal exaction; he can never be suspected of encouraging the expectation, that the year 1794 would be distinguished by the triumphant return of the clerical orders, by the reftitution of their immense revenues, and the compulsory enforcement of their unfcriptural dogmata ".

I

When, in language direct and unambiguous, he declares that the pouring out of the fourth vial is directed against some eminent potentates, who support the Papal cause, and that it must be principally understood of the humiliation of the houfes of Auftria and Bourbon; cannot conceive, by what unheard-of rules of interpretation fuch expreffions as these can be conceived to foretell the fuccefsful efforts of the princes of Bourbon and Auftria; efforts which would doubtlefs be attended by the triumph of Popery, to increase the fplendor of which

the

7 If authority is wanted for what is afferted in the places referred to above, the following is as complete as the nature of the cafe will admit. Monfieur, in his public declaration as Regent of France (published at Ham in Westphalia, Jan. 28, 1793) after mentioning the powerful aid to be afforded by the allied fovereigns, and their resolution to re-establish the ancient government of France, fays, We will likewife exert our'felves in the restoration of the religion of our forefathers to its original purity, according to the canonical difcipline of the church. We also

promise

the flame of perfecution would on every fide be lighted up. Equally am I at a lofs to discover, how these words of our divine are proved to be applicable, not to the prince on the throne, but to the great mass of the people. When he strongly expreffes his expectation, not only that the monarchy in France will be greatly humbled, but declares that it will at length be confumed, I am completely unable to imagine, to what arguments they can have recourse, who profefs themselves to be of opinion, that the words of Mr. Fleming speak a language favourable to the re-eftablishment of the French monarchy, the baleful influence of which he was accuftomed to deplore, whilft, with an indignant eye, he viewed its recent and unrelinquifhed efforts to introduce into England tyranny and the house of Stuart. Various have been the critical canons for the explication of authors. But to reprefent, that a writer means directly the oppofite of what he fays, is rather a novel mode of interpretation. Is there not reason to suspect, that he, who models his decifions by fuch a rule as this, has been converfant with courts, rather than with books? For, happily, numerous as are the faults of authors, infincerity and falfehood are not their characteristic vices.

'promise to reinstate all and every description of perfons in the full en'joyment of their property, now ufurped; and in the free exercise of 'their lawful rights, of which they have been illegally deprived. In order to enforce the law, we shall punish crimes with severity, and in an ex'emplary manner.' If the fugitive princes, at a time when they were difpirited by misfortune, and cheered by only a feeble hope of fuccefs, did, notwithstanding, hold a language thus haughty and peremptory, thus bold and explicit, to what a height might they not have been expected to have carried their perfecution and their defpotifm, fuppofing it poffible that they should have eventually triumphed? That fuch phrases as purity of religion and lawful rights, in the vocabulary of tyrants, altogether lose their proper import, scarcely any reader needs to be reminded.

Thofe

Those who profess to believe, that the effufion of the fourth vial predicts events hostile to the interefts of the French nation; that it favours the idea of the conquest of France, the refloration of the Bourbons, and the confequent re-establishment of the Roman Catholic religion, profefs an opinion, not only deftitute of the fupport of any of the commentators, but which flands in direct contradiction to the whole tenor of their interpretations. That all the vials foretold events injurious to the kingdom of Antichrift is the opinion of all the Protestant commentators ; and the kingdom of Antichrift has justly been regarded as including the ufurpations of civil, as well as ecclefiaftical, tyranny. 'The vials,' fays Bengelius, break the power of the beaft, and of all that are in union with him.''

By a late writer, Mr. Bicheno, ANTICHRIST is thus defined. • It is all that which oppofes itself to the kingdom of Chrift, whether it flow from the ecclefiaftical or civil powers. The civil constitutions of nations, as well as the ecclefiaftical, fo far as they accord with or have a tendency to promote that pride and that ambition, which lead to oppreffion, perfecution, and war, are ANTICHRISTIAN.' And it is an important obferva'tion of the judicious Dr. Sykes, that the present state of things is reprefented always in the New Teftament as the state of Antichrift 10.' By a Scotch commentator on the Apocalypse, Mr. Robertson, Antichrist is defined, 'whatever fets itself in oppofition to the kingdom of our

8 The following rule Mede lays down as incontrovertibly certain. Whatever it be upon which each of the vials is poured out, it suffers * from the vial damage and injury; fince the pouring out of the vials is the pouring out of the wrath of God (ch. xv. . 1.). No interpretation then can here ftand its ground, according to which the effufion of the vial turns out to the advantage of that upon which it is poured. p. 656. 10 On the Truth of Chr. 1725. p. 172.

9 P. 104.

• Lord