graduate." "The chiefest occasions that seemed to stir up the heart and zeale of this Walter against the Pope, was the impudent pardons and indulgences of Pope Urban, granted to Henry Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, to fight against Pope Clement." His zeal thus roused, Brute shews at large that the Pope is Antichrist, and that Rome is Babylon; saying, "If the high Bishop of Rome, calling himself the servant of the servants of God, and the chief vicar of Christ in this world, do make and maintain many laws contrarie to the Gospel of Jesu Christ, then is he of those that have come in Christ's name, saying I am Christ, and have seduced many a one." He then cites many texts in proof, and proceeds, "Thus, by the testimonie of all these places, is he the chief Antichrist upon the earth, and must be slain with the sword of God's word, and cast with the dragon, the cruel beast, and the false prophet that hath seduced the earth, into the lake of fire and brimstone, to be tormented world without end. If the citie of Rome do allow his traditions, and do disallow Christ's holy commandments and Christ's doctrine that it may confirme his traditions, then is she Babylon the great.... Yet is she ignorant that within a little while shall come the day of her destruction and ruin by the testimonie of the Apocalypse (chap. xvii.); because that from the time that the continual sacrifice was taken away and the abomination of desolation placed, there be passed 1290 days; and the holie citie also hath been trodden under foot of the heathen for forty-two months; and the woman was nourished up in the wilderness 1260 days, or else for a time, times, and half a time, which is all one. All these things be manifest by the testimonie of the Apocalypse, and the chronicles thereto agreeing." Afterwards (p. 444), he says, "And from that time hitherto have passed near about 1290 days, taking a day for a year, as Daniel takes it in his prophecies, and other prophets likewise for Daniel, speaking of sixty-two weeks, doth not speak of the weeks of days, but of years; so, therefore, when he saith, from the time when the continual sacrifice was taken away,' &c., 1290 days must be taken for so many years from the time of the desolation of Jerusalem even unto the revealing of Antichrist; and not for three years and a half, which they say Antichrist shall reign. Wherefore that cruel beast coming up out of the sea doth rightly note the Roman emperors. And the power of this beast was for forty-two months; because that from the first emperor of Rome, that is to say, Julius Cæsar, unto the end of Frederic, the last emperor of Rome, there were forty-two months; taking a month for thirty days, as the months of the Hebrews and Grecians are; and taking a day always for a year, as commonly it is taken in the prophets. By which things it may plainly appear how unfitly this prophecy is applied to that imagined Antichrist; and the forty-two months taken for three : years and a half, which they say he shall reign in, against the sayings of the Prophets; because that days are taken for years: as in the Apocalypse, chap. ii., They shall be troubled ten days,' which do note the most cruel persecution of Dioclesian against the Christians, that endured ten years." He then goes on to expose many of the corruptions of the Papacy, and proves, from Apocalypse xviii., that "This Babylon, this great city, is the city of Rome;" That " the beast with seven heads and ten horns is the Roman Empire;" That "the feet of the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw did betoken the empire of Rome; That "the beast with two horns like the lamb signifieth the spiritual dominion of Rome.......This beast hath two horns, because that he challengeth to himself both the priestly and kingly power, above all other here on earth." "Thus sitteth the Bishop of Rome in the temple of God, shewing himself as God, and extolleth himself above all which is called God, or worshipped as God." Another remarkable instance is given by Fox (i. 503), in the Sermon of R. Wimbledon, preached at Paul's Cross, 1389. "We shall find in the Gospel of Matthew, that the disciples being asked of Christ three questions: first, what time the city of Jerusalem should be destroyed; the second, what token of his coming to the doom; and the third, what sign of the ending of the world: and Christ gave them no certain time of these things when they should fall, but he gave them tokens, by which they might know when they drew nigh. And so, as to the first question, of the destruction of Jerusalem, he said, When the Romans come to besiege that city, then soon after she shall be destroyed. And as to the second and the third, he gave many tokens, i. e. that realme shall rise against realme. But the last token that he gave was this: When ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, &c. Upon which text a Doctor argueth that this abomination shall be in the great Antichrist's days, 1290. Now proveth this Doctor, that a day must be taken for a year, both by authority of holy writ in the same place, and in other, and also by reason: so it seemeth to this clerk that the great Antichrist should come in the year 1400 from the birth of Christ; the which number of years is now fulfilled, not fully twelve years and a half lacking. And this reason put not I as to shew any certain time of his coming, since I have not that knowledge; but to shew that he is nigh; but how nigh I wot never. But take we heed to the fourth part of the second vision of St. John, put in the Book of the Revelations; in the which, under the opening of the seven seals, is declared the state of the church from the time of Christ unto the end of the world. The opening of the four first seals shew the state of the church from the time of Christ, to the time of Antichrist and his foregoers; the which is shewed in the opening of the other three seals. The opening of the fifth scal telleth the state of the church that then God shall follow. The open ing of the sixth seal telleth the state of the church in time of Antichrist's time. What is there after this to fall, but that the mystery of the seventh seal be shewed, that he come in his own person that Jesu Christ shall slay with the spirit of his mouth, when the fiend shall shew the utmost persecution that he and his servants may do to Christ's limbs? and that shall be the third warning that the world shall have to come to this dreadful doom." These extracts may suffice to shew how truly, in the general, these confessors understood the prophecies of Antichrist; and little more was done in the way of interpretation by the Reformers themselves. They brought to the controversy a far greater stock of learning than their precursors, but the clearing of the great doctrines of the Apostles from the rubbish with which the Papists had defiled them was the great and sufficient occupation of Luther and his companions. They denounced Antichrist and Babylon, as boldly as Wickliffe, Huss, or Jerome of Prague; but gave all their labour and energy to establish justification by faith, the sole merits of Christ, the sufficiency of Scripture, and such fundamental doctrines. These great points continued also to occupy their successors, and little or no advance was made in the interpretation of prophecy. Commentaries were from time to time written; but they were, for the most part, detached remarks, without any attempt at system; and therefore, though often right in nearly all the separate parts, are wrong in the whole. Brightman on the Revelations, 1616, should not, however, be passed over without commendation, for it contains much that may even now be perused with advantage, and is the first work we have met with which gives the true interpretation of the two witnesses, Rev. xi. 3. "We do gather and judge that these two prophets are the Holy Scriptures." "Now they are two, to answer to the two Testaments, Old and New." (p. 462). Which interpretation Schmidt also gives 1658: "Duo Testamenta Jesu Christi.....illa duo Vetus et Novum." (Comm. in Apoc. xi). In emancipating us from the thraldom of Popery, the Reformers had to break through all the strong shackles of prejudice, and all the holier ties of reverence for a church which had been once pure and Apostolic: and, bold as they were, we doubt whether they would have dared to burst their fetters, had they not seen the Papacy branded with all the characters given to Antichrist in the Scripture, and had not these characters been for nearly a century pointed out, and been but the more confirmed by the endeavour of the Romanists to disavow them. Their knowledge of the Papal Antichrist enabled them first to defy, then to triumph over, this great instrument of Satan. But another, and a still severer trial yet awaits the church; and in preparation for this tribulation we have now to trace out another unfolding of prophecy. The Scriptures, in many passages, declare that an Infidel Antichrist shall arise in the last days, who shall as much exceed the Pope in enormity, as the Pope himself exceeded all other usurpers. We are now able, by the experience of eighteen centuries, to separate between these two Antichrists, and to perceive that this last Infidel, shall be the personal Antichrist which the early Fathers expected, being the "lawless king" of Dan. xi. 36-45, the" Assyrian" of Isaiah xiv. 25, the" king" of Isaiah xxx. 33, and so on. We are now also able to see that, in some of the prophecies, the two Antichrists are blended together, as if they were but one; as in the verses preceding, Dan. xi. 36, and Isaiah xiii., and xiv. 1-22; 2 Thess. ii. 7, 8, &c. And in the Apocalypse, where the Papacy has been represented during its whole period as a woman, this last form of Antichrist is represented (xvii. 3), under the complex figure of a woman riding upon a scarlet-coloured beast full of names of blasphemy. This last persecutor does, in fact, spring up in the Papacy before its period expires, and is also made the chief instrument for its destruction; and yet makes use of the Papacy to promote his own ends, and professes to intend its honour. The principles in which the infidel Antichrist shall find his strength have been long at work; long before they found patronage in Frederic of Prussia and his witlings; long before the Encyclopedists trumpeted them forth to the world; and they exploded at the French Revolution, just as a warning of the tremendous convulsion which they shall occasion when again fully prepared, and when God shall give the signal. As early as the time when this principle began to work, means were preparing by which the church might collect the signs of this approaching storm, and be provided with protection when it should come: these means are, in one sentence, The opening of unfulfilled prophecy ;-a comprehensive sentence whose boundless sweep and immeasurable sublimity calls forth an act of adoration while we record it. The first and chief instrument whom God made use of in modern times for explaining unfulfilled prophecy, was Joseph Mede; a man singularly endowed for the work. He was gifted with admirable piety, profound humility, much patience, clear judgment, perfect sincerity, and competent learning. He entered upon the study of prophecy with the deliberation and calmness of one whose aim is not distinction, but to know the will of God; and seeking this first, all other things were added unto him. He soon perceived that the Apocalypse is the key to all the other prophecies, and that it is also the scale by which they are to be adjusted: then, reasoning by analogy, and concluding that the scale must be well understood before it could be applied with advantage to any other thing, he endeavoured to adjust the structure of the Apocalypse from the book alone, and independently of any interpretation. A very important principle this, which serves as a good test of modern commentators, who, we believe, have never succeeded in their interpretations except in proportion as they have adhered to this principle. In adjusting the structure, he endeavoured to fix the synchronisms of the book, by putting together passages which are similar and observing the places they respectively occupy in the visions to which they belong. This led him to the parallelisms between different portions of the book, and gave theoretically a perfect plan of the whole scheme and object of the Apocalypse. With the degree in which Mede perfected his design, we have here no concern; it will come before us in a future Number: his mistakes were very few, but had they been ever so numerous, they would not have detracted from his principle, which every competent judge will allow was the most important one that had yet been discovered for settling the interpretation of all prophecy. The principles established by Mede were taken up and further illustrated by Maton, Holmes, Henry More, and many others of that age; who did not so much distinguish themselves in interpretation, as in perfecting the means by which their successors were enabled to interpret, when the epoch arrived for unsealing the prophecy. From the time of Mede, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, there has been an uninterrupted succession of commentators, increasing in number as they approach our own times; whom but to enumerate would swell this paper to an unreasonable length; and whom it is not necessary to notice in the present sketch, as they added nothing material to the principles which had been settled by Mede; and who all seem to have had the presage which Sir Isaac Newton expressed, that the "main revolution" mentioned in all the prophecies must take place before they could be interpreted with certainty :-" The event will prove the Apocalypse; and this prophecy, thus proved and understood, will open the old prophets; and all together will make known the true religion, and establish it." (p. 252.) This "main revolution" we believe to have been that of 1793, affecting in its consequences not merely France, but the whole of Christendom, and bringing about moreover, by the evil principles it disseminated, that more tremendous second earthquake, spoken of in prophecy, whose shock shall be felt throughout the whole world. Whiston, in his Essay on the Revelation, p. 321, 1744, says that it was a conjecture of Sir Isaac Newton, which he told to Dr. Clark, "that the overbearing tyranny and power of the Antichristian party, which hath so long corrupted Christianity and enslaved the Christian world, must be put a stop to and broken in pieces by the prevalence of infidelity, for some time before primitive Christianity could be restored; which seems (says he) to be the very means now working in Europe for the same good and great end of Providence." This conjecture of Newton we saw verified in its first degree and |