IV. What Daniel hath defcribed under the character of the little horn, and the blafphemous king; what St. Paul hath defcribed under the character of the man of fin, the fon of perdition; what St. Paul hath defcribed under the character of the beaft, and the false prophet; that fame tyrannical, idolatrous, and blafphemous power, ecclefiaftical writers usually denominate Antichrift: and having thus far traced his character and defcription, his rife, progrefs, and continuance, let us now proceed to confider his fall, when at the expiration of the prefixed period of 1260 years his kingdom fhall be deftroyed for evermore. The prophets are not more expreffive of his elevation, than they are of his deftruction. They not only predict his downfall in general terms, but also defcribe the manner and circumftances of it: and St. John's account being larger, and more circumftantial and particular, will be the best comment and explanation of the others. For my part I cannot pretend to prophefy, which is the common vanity of expofitors of the Revelation; I can only reprefent events in the order wherein according to my apprehenfion the prophets have placed them. Sobriety and modefty are required in the interpretation of all prophecies, and especially in the explication of things yet future. Only this much it may be proper to premife, that having feen fo many of the prophecies fulfilled, you have the lefs reafon to doubt of the completion of those which are to follow.

At this prefent time we are living under the firth trumpet, and the fecond woe; (Rev. XI.) the Othman empire is ftill fubfifting, the beaft is ftill reigning, and there are proteftant witneffes ftill prophefying in fackcloth: and this fixth trumpet and fecond woe muft end, before the feventh trumpet can found, or the third woe be poured out, which is to fall upon the kingdom of the beaft. But before the end of the second woe, it should seem that the papists will make a great and fuccefsful effort against the proteftant religion. When the witneffes fhall have near finished their teftimony, that is towards the conclufion of their 1260 years, the beaft fhall make war against them, and fhall overcome them. They fhall lie oppreffed and dead as it were, to the great joy and triumph of their enemies;

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enemies; but they fhall rise again after three years and a half, and the proteftant religion fhall become more glorious than ever, with a confiderable diminution of the papal authority. According to the method and order wherein St. John hath arranged thefe events, they must happen before the end of the fecond woe, or the fall of the Othman empire. Ezekiel (XXXVIII. XXXIX.) and Daniel (XI. 44, 45.) have given fome intimations, that the Othman empire fhall be overthrown in oppofing the fettlement of Ifrael in their own land in the latter days. In the conclufion of the book of Daniel there are also fome intimations, that the religion of Mohammed fhall prevail in the east for as long a period of time as the tyranny of the little horn in the weft. Very remarkable too it is, that (5) Mohammed firft contrived his impofture in the year 606, the very fame year wherein the tyrant Phocas made a grant of the fupremacy to the pope; and this might incline one to think that the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrift are to be dated from this time. But tho' they might rife together, yet they were not fully established together. The authority of Mohammed might be fully established in the feventh century, but that of the pope was not fo till the eighth century; and therefore, as the one was established fomewhat fooner, fo it may also be fubverted fomewhat fooner, than the other The pope indeed was established fupreme in fpirituals in the feventh century, but he became not a temporal horn or beaft till the eighth century.

When the Othman empire is overthrown, and the fecond woe is paft, then according to St. John (XI. 14.) the third woe cometh quickly, which comprehends all the fevere and terrible judgments of God upon the kingdom of the beaft. In like manner when Daniel hath predicted the fall of the king of the north or of the Othman empire, he fubjoins immediately (XII. 1.) that there fhall be a time of trouble, fuch as never was fince there was a nation, even to that fame time; and at that time thy people fhall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book; agreeably to which St. John alfo faith (XX. 15.) that whosoever

(5) See Prideaux's Life of Mahomet.

was

was not foundwritten in the book of life was caft into the lake of fire. The 1260 years of the reign of the beaft, I fuppofe, end with the 1260 years of the witneffes prophefying in fackcloth; and now the deftined time is come for the judgments of God to overtake him; for as he might exift before the 1260 years began, fo he may exift likewife after they are finished, in order to be made an eminent example of divine juftice. For the greater confirmation and illuftration of this fubject, and to make the ftronger impreffion upon the minds of the readers, thefe judgments are difplayed under a variety of figures and reprefentations. First they are described in a more general manner (Rev. XIV.) as the harvest and reaping of the earth, and as the vintage and wine-prefs of the wrath of God. Then they are reprefented in a more particular manner (Rev. XV. XVI.) as the feven vials, or the feven laft plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God; which are fo many fignal judgments upon the kingdom of the beaft, and fo many fteps and degrees of his ruin. Afterwards the fall of Rome is delineated (Rev. XVII. XVIII.) as of another Babylon; and it is declared that the fhall be deftroyed by fire, and her deftruction fhall be a complete and total destruction, such as hath never yet been the fate of Rome. Some of the princes, who were once of her communion, Shall hate her as much as they loved her, and burn her with fire. It is farther intimated that the fhall be fwallowed up by a fubterraneous fire, fhall fink like a great milftone in the fea, and her fmoke fhall rise up for ever and ever: and the foil and fituation of Rome and the neighbouring countries greatly favour fuch a fuppofition. As St. John faith, (XI. 8.) the fpiritually is called Sodom; and the fhall refemble Sodom in her punishment as well as in her crimes. After the fubverfion of the capital city, (Rev. XIX.) the beaft and the false prophet, the powers civil and ecclefiaftical, with thofe who ftill adhere to their party, fhall make one effort more; but it thall prove as weak and vain, as it is impious; they shall both be taken, and caft alice into a lake of fire burning with brimftone. The deftruction of Antichrift therefore, of himself as well as of his feat, fhall be in a terrible manner by fire. Daniel afferts the fame thing, (VII. 11.) I beheld then because of the voice of the great

words

words which the horn spake, I beheld even till the beast was flain, and his body deftroyed, and given to the burning flame. So likewife faith St. Paul, (2 Thef. I. 7, 8.) The Lord Jefus fhall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, tuking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jefus Chrift : and more particularly (II. 8.) The Lord fhall confume the wicked one, the man of fin, with the spirit of his mouth, and fhall deftroy him with the brightness of his coming.

About the time of the fall of the Othman empire and of the Christian Antichrift, the Jews fhall turn to the Lord, and be restored to their own land. Innumerable are the prophecies concerning the converfion and restoration of this people. Hear only what Hofea faith, who prophefied before the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, (III. 4, 5.) The children of Ifrael fhall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a facrifice, and without an image or altar, and without an ephod, and without teraphim or divine manifeftations: Afterward Shall the children of Ifrael return, and feek the Lord their God, and David their king, and fhall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Hear alfo what Ezekiel faith, who prophefied during the captivity of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, (XXXVII. 21, 25.) Thus faith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Ifrael from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every fide, and bring them into their own land: And they fhall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my fervant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they fhall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their childrens children for ever, and my fervant David Shall be their prince for ever. (XXXIX. 28, 29.) Then Jhall they know that I am the Lord their God, who caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen, but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there: Neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Ifrael, faith the Lord God. Ye cannot but remember what St. Paul faith upon the fame occafion, (Rom. XI. 25.) I would not, brethren, that ye fhould be ignorant of this mystery, that blindness in part is happened to Ifrael, until the

fulness

fulness of the Gentiles be come, and fo all Ifrael fhall be faved. Now thefe and the like predictions, we fuppofe, will take effect, and this great revolution be accomplished, about the time of the fall of the Othman empire, and of the Chriftian Antichrift. Ezekiel's Gog and Magog (XXXVIII. XXXIX.) we believe to be the Turks or Othmans, and they shall come up against the children of Ifrael in the latter days to oppose their refettlement in their own land, and they shall fall in fome extraordinary manner upon the mountains of Ifrael, they and the people that is with them: fo the houfe of Ifrael fhall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day and forward. Daniel too (XI. 45. XII. 1.) predicts the fall of the king of the north upon the glorious holy mountain: And at that time fhall Michael ftand up, the great prince who flandeth for the children of Ifrael. The restoration of the Jews and the fall of Antichrift fhall also happen about the fame time. If the fixth vial (Rev. XVI. 12.) which is poured out upon the great river Euphrates, whofe waters are dried up to prepare a paffage for the kings of the eaft, is to be understood, as Mr. Mede and others think, of the return of the Jews; then the return of the Jews is one of the feven laft plagues of Antichrift. But this notion is expreffed more clearly in Daniel, as it more immediately concerned his people. (XI. 36.) He shall profper till the indignation, that is God's indignation against the Jews, be accomplished: and again afterwards (XII. 7.) When God fhall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things fhall be finished. In confequence and conformity to this doctrin a tradition hath prevailed (6) among the Jews, that the deftruction of Rome and the redemption of Ifrael fhall fall out about the fame time.

When thefe great events fhall come to pafs, of which we collect from the prophecies this to be the proper order; the proteftant witneffes fhall be greatly exalted, and the 1260 years of their prophefying in fackcloth and of the tyranny of the beaft fhall end together; the converfion and reftoration of the Jews fucceed; then fol

(6) See Placita Hebræorum Doc- dio in Mede's works. B. 5. Cap. 8. torum de Babylonis feu Romæ exci- p. 902.

lows