66

· millions have been deftroyed, and their countries deluged in blood? But upon what "nations and "tongues" have these diftreffing plagues" been chiefly inflicted? have they fallen upon those nations, a majority of whofe people embraced, at the time, the truths of the two Teftaments; or much more generally on those who, in the words of the prophet, "have hurt them," and perfecuted them, by murdering not only their adherents, but their doctrine alfo, by perverting them into a blafphemous idolatry? Have thofe " plagues" vifited Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Ruffia, and Pruffia, or any other country, in which a majority of the people have not confifted of Papifts and Atheists? No. On the contrary, they have been poured-down in a very remarkable manner, on the different nations the moft bigotted to the church of Rome; and even on Rome itself, that original feat of dark apoftacy from the church of Chrift; that fource of Gentile idolatry, the night of which overfpread the western part of Europe. What more could the candid reader, who has feen or heard of the late events, have to convince him that the French nation and its adherents are the people who fhould thus fuffer for oppofing and deftroying the two witneffes?" But I haften to the fubfequent parts of the chapter, where we fhall meet with more particular and abundant proof of this truth.

Ver. 7. And when they (the two witneffes") fhall have nearly finished their tef timony, the beast that afcendeth out of the bottomless pit fhall make war against them, and "fhall overcome, and kill them."

By a faithful tranflation of the metaphorical expreffions in this verfe into their literal meaning, we hall be able to folve the following important

queftions,

queftions, important indeed! to the farther elucidation of the prophecy.

1. What political power did the prophet intend to defignate by the beaft of the bottomlefs pit?"

2. When, according to the prophecy, was it to "afcend on the earth," out of the bottomlefs pit?

3. What are we to understand by its "making war againft, and overcoming, and killing the two "witneffes of God?"

1. In regard to the firft queftion, the prophet having, under the allegory of "the court without the temple "given to the Gentiles," foretold the coming of the two monftrous apoftacies, the Mohamedan and Papal, proceeds in this, and the following verfes, to declare alfo, that "another" power, which he defcribes under the figure of a "beaft to afcend out of "the bottomlefs pit," should arife in the world; and according to the usage of historians, and particularly the facred penmen, begins his narration with an account of the origin and birth of The "beaft;" or the place whence it fhould afcend. The prophet Daniel, for inftance, faw the "four great beafts," which were the types of the four great empires," come up "out of the great fea," while "the four winds of hea

ven firove upon it," to represent that they should be empires, ftrong and powerful as the whirlwind, formed by the conteft of the four cardinal winds; proftrating all before them, and extending their conquefts "northward, fouthward, eastward, and weftward*." St. John, in his prophecy of the rife of the Papal hierarchy, tells us, that, while "standing upon the fand of the fea," he saw a "beast rise up out of

1

"the fea," without any intimation that it was agitated, at the time, by the wind, and therefore at a time when it was calm; to denote, that the power foretold fhould acquire and maintain its authority, not fo much by war, as by policy and craft. Moreover, in defcribing the Mohamedan power, he says, he fawa ftar fall from heaven unto the earth," who "opened the bottomlefs pit, and let out a smoke as "the fmoke of a great furnace, which darkened the "fun and the air;" to reprefent that the power foretold fhould pretend, that he obtained his revelation and authority from God; and yet his doctrines fhould be falfe and impious, and involve the reyealed word of God (or the fun), and the reafon of man (the air,) in complete fenfual darkness and ignorance.

So here the fame authority foretels, in the comprehenfive and forcible trope of a beaft that fhall "afcend out of the bottomless pit, and kill the two "witneffes of God;" i.e. the rife and establishment of a power, yet more wicked and depraved than all the powers, which had ever been before it upon the carth: a power which should utterly efface from the minds of men, all the truths revealed to mankind by the two Teftaments, and establish atheism in their ftead: atheism, the confummation of error, impiety, and fin!

the

This literal fenfe of the text will appear natural, upon duly confidering the meaning of the words the bottomlefs pit, the place whence the beaft was "to afcend." In the literal fenfe, they convey idea of an abyss, or a hole of unfathomable depth in the earth; and a place of fuch darkness, that neither the light of the stars, nor of the moon, nor even of

ters.

the fun, the great luminary of the world, ever enIn the allegorical and fcriptural fenfe, they mean a bottomlefs abyfs of error, ungodlinefs, and fin; into which neither the light of reafon, nor of confcience, nor of the revealed word of God, ever penetrates. It is the region of the "angel of darkness, "whofe name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, and "in the Greek Apollyon, THE DESTROYER." It is the proper kingdom of the great "red dragon," that old ferpent called the devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world, the greatest enemy of God and "man" In fine, it is the fource of all thofe errors and crimes, which alienate mankind from God their Creator, lead them into all manner of evil, and finally into the depths of EVERLASTING PERDITION. "A beaft afcending" out of a place of this horrid defcription, it must be confeffed, is a proper and complete metaphor to illuftrate the coming of an atheiftical power, that fhall confpire againft, and "kill "the two witneffes of God;" or, as I have faid before, extinguifh in the minds of men all fenfe and influence of the facred truths revealed in the Old and New Teftaments: truths, upon the belief and practice of which the order, peace, and happiness of man, evidently depend, both here and hereafter!

66

It is (as I humbly apprehend, and I mean in its proper place to prove) the fame political montier foretold by St. Paul under the defcriptive and emphatic tropes of that man of fin, THE SON OF PERDI66 TION, that wicked, whom the Lord thall confume "with the fpirit of his mouth,' the myfiery of ini"quity; a power that fhall exalt itfelf above all "that is called God, or that is worshipped." It is to be a power that will not receive the love of the “truth, that it might be faved;" but shall come

66

* Chap. ix. 11.

Chap. xii. 9. xx. 2.

with all deceivablenefs of unrighteoufnefs:" and a power fo incorrigible, that God, for this reafon, fhall "give it over" to such a strong delufion, that it may believe a lie" (viz. that there is no God), a lie the most impious, and at the fame time palpable and felf-evident, that has ever yet been, or can be invented by MEN AND DEVILS UNITED!

Such is the power which the prophet has declared fhall come; but where fhall we find, in the political world, its true prototype, an unheard-of monfter, that fhall anfwer, in all its principles and actions, to this defcription? And find it we must, before we can prefume to affert, that the prediction is fulfilled. That there may have been individuals, who, by living in a continued courfe of fin, have fo hardened their hearts, as to deny the exiftence of God, will not be difputed. But if we fearch the annals of the world, we fhall not find even a private fociety or fect, much less a civil community and ftate, which, before our day, has, in the most public manner, proclaimed to all the nations around it, that THERE IS NO GOD! and made that pofition the bafis of the conftitution of its government: but in our day we not only read of it, but fee it with our eyes; and that in a manner fo perfectly confonant to all its various prophetic marks, that the unprejudiced infidel himfelf (if there be fuch a being) cannot mistake it. It is obviously, that political and atheistical monfter, the revolutionary power now ruling the French nation with the moft abfolute defpotifm, giving the law to Europe, threatening to dethrone all kings, to overthrow all governments, and focial order, to deftroy all the principles of morality and religion; and, opening the flood-gates of their impious and licentious liberty, and their blas

*

2 Theff. ii. 3 to 12.

phemous