To which may be added, that, in ftric verification of this expofition, it is a remarkable and undeniable fact, that the perfecuting power of the Mohamedan and Papal churches has been wafting by all, or fome of thefe means, during feveral centuries paft, and, as is clearly foretold in the Revelation, will in all probability be foon utterly deftroyed.

But to come to the more direct meaning of the prophet, respecting the " plagues with which God

"was to fmite the earth," on account of the deftruction of the "two witnelfes." By the word "earth," I apprehend the angel means one wicked country, or nation. In this fenfe, the word is made use of in divers places of the Scripture. To give a few inftances: Jeremiah, in foretelling the feventy years captivity of the Jews, fays, "For I will call for a fword on all "the inhabitants of the earth." Again, "The Lord "fhall give a fhout against all the inhabitants of the "earth*," And again, in the fame figurative fenfe, Chrift himself ufes the fame words, where he foretels the deftruction of Jerufalem; " and then," fays he, "fhall all the inhabitants of the earth mourn:" clearly meaning, not the people of the whole earth or world, but only the tribes of Ifrael, and the country and nation of the Jews. So here I trust to be able to prove, beyond the power of refutation, that the word "earth" has this confined and metaphorical fense; nay, farther, that the fingle country, or nation, is France, or the French nation.

Indeed, not to anticipate the abundant evidence of this truth which is poured in upon us, in the fubfequent parts of this chapter, the two verfes under confideration, when applied to their proper events,

* Chap. xxv. 29, 30.

E 4

St. Matt. xxiv. 30.

clearly

clearly demonftrate it. For we know that France is the only country upon earth, in which the "two "witneffes of God" have been "killed;" or, where all the truths of the two Teftaments have been entirely abolished by the laws of the state; and which, on that account, it is here foretold, fhould be afflicted with all fuch "plagues," as fhould confift with the divine pleasure. And upon confidering the text, we find that among the great variety of "plagues," with which God has often been pleased to punish nations for their crimes, there are only three particularly mentioned in this chapter; with defign, no doubt, that by these the country might be diftinguished from others, when they fhould be inflicted upon it. Thefe "plagues" are, ift, a dreadful remorfe of confcience, that all "confuming fire," arifing from the clear conviction of difobedience, rebellion, and guilt, for it is faid, that if any man will" hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, "and in this manner he must be killed:"-2. famine; for thefe witneffes of God "have power to shut "heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy" and, 3. a " plague," which fhall occafion an immense destruction of people, but not by earthquakes, peftilence, ftorms, inundations, and the like, but by "a plague" which fhall fhed their blood in fuch quantities, as fhall turn their waters into "blood" meaning foreign and civil wars, infurrections, affaffinations, and maffacres. Let it then be obferved, that thefe three "plagues" point directly and fingularly to certain events, which have lately come to pass in France.

66

In respect to the firft, it has been a doubt with many deep-judging and good men, whether any perfon, capable of reflection at the hour of his death,

* Heb. xii. 29.

ever went out of this world, without the conviction of confcience, that there is a God, and to whom he is accountable for his conduct in this life. That doubt must be yet ftronger, in respect to those who have read the irrefragable proofs of God's existence, in the Old and New Teftaments. But this doubt feems now to be removed by recent facts: for have we not feen even thofe hardened atheifis, Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Diderot, the three principal authors of the French Encyclopædia (that dark abyfs of premeditated disbelief), thofe inveterate enemies of the "two "witneffes," or Tefiaments; who had been rendering their fouls callous to the truth, by all poflible means, nearly half a century; have we not known, I fay, thefe very mea "finitten" on their death-beds by ali the agonies of torturing guilt, and of that confuming "fire," remorfe of confcience*? And after fuch ftriking examples, verifying the truth of the text, can any perfon doubt, but that the principal leaders, and thousands of others, of the atheistical confpiracy, who have perifhed, have died under an agonizing fenfe of the fupremacy and juice of that God, whofe power they had defied, and whofe very exiftence they had prefumptuously denied?

With regard to the fecond "plague," famine, have we not feen the city of Paris, the country of Normandy, and other parts of France, in actual infurrection on account of the want of bread; and that too at the very time remarkably pointed out in the text, viz. in the days of the prophecy of the "two wit"neffes in fackcloth," or juft before their deftruction in France?

And with regard to the laft-mentioned kind of "plagues," by which the "waters are to be turned "into bloed," it is a remarkable fact, that in propor

* See l'Abbé Barruel's Memoirs.

tion as the atheistical enemies to the "two witneffes" bufied themselves in carrying into effect their diabolical purpose of deftroying all religion, and after the accomplishment of it, until the Act of Toleration, this kind of plague" was increafed and multiplied. Let us call to mind, that, upon the deftruction of the monarchy of France, all the bands of civil fociety were broken; and the people, long before poifoned by atheism, were let loofe, like hungry beafts from their dens, ready to devour and riot in the blood of one another. The firft revolution was planted in the imprisonment of their fovereign, his confort, and fon; and the deftruction of the monarchy. Revolution upon revolution rapidly fucceeded, all founded in the blood of the former defpots, together with many of their dependants and fupporters. Decrees followed one another in the quickest fucceffion, by which millions have been torn from their families, and dragged handcuffed and chained to the bloody field of battle. Affaffinations and maffacres have been every where common, nay legalized; and civil wars, the moft bloody ever known, arofe in every part of the infatuated and devoted country. Thofe dreadful engines of death, the guillotine, the national baths fo called, the musket and cannon, by which men, women, and children were butchered en masse, and the blood of thousands fhed in one day, were in conftant excrcife. View again the streams of blood, arifing from the various and dreadful infurrections in Paris as from their fource, and the river Seine polluted with the blood of thousands of human bodies caft into it! See the river Loire groaning under the weight of human carcafes, and the ftreets of the city of Nantz flowing with the blood of its murdered citizens, which, mixing with the waters of that river, literally" turned them "into blood," and thereby left them unfit for the ufe of the miferable remaining inhabitants. Lyons, Cambray, and other capital cities, prefented fcenes

of

of a fimilar nature, equally bloody and horrible. In fhort, it is a striking truth in confirmation of the prophecy, that, during the period in which the two Teftaments remained abolished, France was afflicted, and made a great Aceldama, by the " plagues" pointed out in these two verfes, and by no other.

Such is the literal meaning of the fentence, " And "they have power over waters to turn them into "blood :" but it has also a figurative fenfe, and which we fhall presently find as ftrictly fulfilled. The word "waters," in many parts of the Scriptures, is made ufe of to fignify nations*; and the angel informs us, that "waters" is a figure for " peoples, "and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.' We muft then in this fenfe read the text thus: And the two witneffes have power over " peoples, and mul❝titudes, and nations, and tongues," to turn them "to blood;" that is, to fet them at variance and war with one another, in which their blood fhall abundantly be fhed.

With what wonderful accuracy has the text, in this fenfe, been likewife fulfilled, not only in France, but elfewhere! Have we not feen the "peoples and "multitudes," the inhabitants of Vendée and Touloufe, and others of that devoted country, at variance with the government, and its abettors; and with more than favage rage affaffinating, and maffacreing one another, giving no quarter, till both land and waters" have been covered with blood? Yet more, have we not feen the horrid darkness of French anarchy and atheifm, overwhelming the different" nations and tongues" in Europe, uniting and compelling them into rebellions, revolutions, and wars, the most cruel and fanguinary; by which

*Pfal. xlvi. 3. cxxiv. 4, 5, 6.

+Chap. xvii. 15.

millions