The seventh trumpet,' says Daubuz, is to have a mixture of woe for the corrupted Christians, and joy to the just, who are to be retrieved from that tyranny they have groaned under.' It will contain a Great Revolution, with amazing circumstances of suddenness and terror12. But to multiply citations is needless. This is not a matter that rests upon the opinion of commentators. No attentive reader can peruse the account of the seventh trumpet, without perceiving that this is the period, in which all despotic rule shall be abolished.

What words can be plainer and more decisive than those of the introductory verse: and the seventh angel sounded: and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ? What language can be more expressive than that of the 18th verse already cited; that God will destroy them which destroy the earth?

Let it not be supposed, that I am chargeable with inconsistency, because I here understand the word earth in its plain and literal sense, whilst elsewhere I have generally annexed to it a symbolic signification. That there is a mixed use of the plain and figured style' in the prophecies of Holy Writ, bp. Hurd observes13; and the observation admits not of dispute.

But though the seventh trumpet is undoubtedly to be levelled against the Gentile and antichristian part of mankind; though it is to bring ruin on the heads of those, who stand up to defend the different systems of tyranny; though its result will be assuredly joyful and beneficial to mankind, far beyond what language can express; yet, as it includes in it at least one hard-contested war, it is perhaps to be feared, that the evils inseparable from it may reach all descriptions of persons. Some passages of prophecy might indeed be alleged, which appear to countenance this gloomy idea.

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The name of woes, says Sir I. Newton, 'is given to the wars to which the three last trumpets sound, to distinguish them from the wars of the four first14.' But whether the third woe points to one great and eventful war, or to a succession of wars, it is not now perhaps possible to ascertain. With respect to the persons who are to inflict the third woe upon the antichristian part of the European world, I shall quote from Dr. Cressener, one of the many writers who declared it to be his opinion that France was the country, where the symbolic resurrection of the witnesses would probably take place. It is,' he says, to be concluded, that the executors of the third woe are the risen witnesses, and that they are altogether the agents in it.' 'Indeed,' says he, the particular reason of interposing the account of the death and resurrection of the witnesses before the end of the second woe, seems evidently to be to show what enemy it was that should be the third woe, and who should be the objects of it","

One principal design of the xith chapter, says Dr. Goodwin, is to give the immediate tokens or signals that shall fore-run the ending of' the times of the Beast. And he elsewhere says, in this their resurrection, there is a fore-running shadow of that last great victory, which brings in the kingdom of Christ,-for the Thousand Years. Of the glorious beginning whereof, under the seventh trumpet ensuing, v. 15, this is ordained to be the dawning". That by writers of all ages the symbolic resurrection of the witnesses has been viewed in this light, he indeed declares18; and a little farther observes, that the true reason, why this particular occurrence, though falling out but in a tenth part of Europe, is here made mention of rather than any other,' is on account of its peculiar fitness to presignify what is destined to follow. The resurrection

of the witnesses, says Mr. Haughton, is a sign, that Antichrist's utter ruin is near, even at the door"9"

When it is said in v. 14, that the second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly; the meaning appears to be this: the career of the Turkish victories is now arrested, to their invasions a bar is set, and experiencing a sensible declension of power, no longer are they a scourge to the Christian world; this woe is passed by20; and, behold, the Revolution in the Tenth Part of the city having been accomplished, another memorable period ensues, denominated the third woe.

A remarkable clause of the 18th verse has been twice quoted. The whole of it is important. It needs elucidation, and the whole shall be cited. And the nations were angry: and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged [or rather vindicated]; and that thou shouldst give reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth. That this verse cannot possibly refer to the Day of Judgment may be seen in any of the best commentators, and is undeniably proved by Vitringa.

The nations, or as I think it ought rather to be rendered, the Gentiles" were angry. The Gentile part of mankind, the advocates of abuses and antichristianism, were offended at the Revolution which happened in the Tenth Part of

19 On Antichrist, p. 125.

20 Dr. Cressener long ago observed, that he did not apprehend it to be < necessary, that the end of the second woe should be the utter ruin of the Turkish empire.' For,' says he, 'I see that the Saracens, who were un questionably the first woe, are said to be passed away, as they were the first woe, long before the end of the Saracen empire, that is, at the time when they ceased to be any longer a torment and vexation to the Roman empire,' which was near 200 years before the last end of their own em. pire. Fulg. on the Rom. Ch. p. 132. See similar observations in the more early commentators of the no less learned writers, Brightman and More. 21 Often is ta thus rendered in our English Translation, as for instance in v. 2 of this ch. and as it is in this place by Brightman. Mede, on this verse, expressly styles them the pseudochristiani, p. 1113.

the symbolic city, and at the progress of knowlege, which portended a change in other countries. This anger of theirs, says Daubuz, imports resistance and war, to oppose the kingdom of God and his Christ.-But this anger or resistance, will prove their third woe or utter destruction.' Whether those who are now angry at the French revolution be among the Gentiles here spoken of, and whether those who have kindled the war against France be in any respect alluded to, are points which I shall leave to the reader's own judgment, that he may decide upon them for himself. A quotation or two on this subject I shall, however, allege. That which follows is from that diligent reader of commentators and of prophecy, Dr. Henry More, • And the nations were angry. Which anger, according to the sense of ALL EXPOSITORS, is their anger and envy conceived at the rising of the witnesses In the opinion of Dr. Priestley, this prophecy is now fulfilling. Apprehending this to be a sign of the times, and one of the signals which indicate that the period of the seventh trumpet has recently commenced, this celebrated writer asks,' when have we seen, or heard of, such anger and rage in nations, such violence in carrying on war, and such destruction of men, as at this very time? It is thought that the last campaign only has destroyed many more men than all the eight years of the American war, and probably more than the long war before it; and from the increased armaments of the belligerent powers, and their increasing animosity, it is probable that the approaching campaign will be more bloody than the last. That the revolution in the Tenth Part of the symbolic city would be accompanied by a fierce war,' a German divine, the author of an apocalyptical treatise, long ago observed. By Peganius also a war was expected to result from it; and from Brenius's observations on the passage I am considering, it appears he

22 Answ. to Remarks, &c. 1684, 4to. p. 307.

23 Fast Serm. for Feb. 28, 1794, p. 10, 11.

24 Clavis Apocalyptica, published by Mr. Hartlib, 1651, p. 8.

thought it probable, that the rage of the Gentile-Christians on account of this revolution might stimulate them to the fatal war of Armageddon, predicted in the xvith ch. of St. John.

And thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be vindicated's. The expression, the dead, is susceptible either of a literal or a figurative interpretation. In the former case, it may signify, that the period of God's vengeance being at length arrived, he will vindicate the cause of those, who, during so many ages, have been slaughtered or oppressed at the instigation of the privileged orders in the latter case, it may import, that God will vindicate the cause of those, who still remain politically dead, and raise them to a different condition. The time also is

25 The words which follow are from Grotius, as quoted and approved by Lowman. "Kpive judicare, sæpe est vindicare.' Grot. in loc. In confirmation of this remark, which occurs also in Brenius, I observe that or which commonly signifies to judge, frequently signifies to vindicate and is accordingly often rendered in the LXX by exdixev, of which the proper meaning is to vindicate or avenge. The clause above refers, says Daubuz, to Rev. ch. vi. v. 10, where those slain for the testimony which they held, are represented as crying with a loud voice, How Long, O Lord, Holy and True, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth, i. e. on the antichristian part of mankind?

Vitringa, speaking of the verse upon which I am commenting, says to vindicate does appear to be the certain sense of xpwvw in this place; and in proof of this he cites, among other passages, Ps. lxxii. 4, where vor in the Hebrew, and xpwvw in the Septuagint. bear that signification. This will appear from an inspection of the verse, which, independently of the light it may throw on the meaning of xpiva does itself deserve citation and reference. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. Surely the word judge, which is the rendering of our English version, is not in unison with the other clauses of the verse; and, as it communicates to the English reader a false idea, vindicate should be substituted in its place. That the word in the original does here signify to vindicate or defend, is observed likewise by Simeon de Muis, by Munsterus, and by Vatablus. Ps. lxxii. says Dr. Apthorp (vol. 11. p. 142), 'evidently harmonises with those predictions, which describes Christianity in its most perfect state on earth.' That it has a reference to Christ's kingdom, says bp. Patrick, is unquestionable, as the Jews themselves acknowlege.'