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O the honour of our country it must be acknowledged, that the Baron of Merchifton, the inventor of Logarithms, and who favoured the learned world with many other ufeful difcoveries; of whom the prefent Lord Napier is defcended, and whom he worthily reprefents; I fay, it must be acknowledged, that this great luminary of our nation was the firft of the reformers, who, with vaft fagacity, penetrated into the myfteries of the Apocalypfe. He has, with irrefiftible ftrength of argument, fhewn, that Rome is the apocalyptic Babylon; that the pope, together, with his clergy and the papal powers, reprefent the two political beafts mentioned in that prophecy; that, by the witneffes in the 11th chapter, we are to understand the true church of God, and particularly the reformers, in the latter days of their teftimony; that the first wo in the 9th chapter, doth point out the defolation of the Greek empire by the Saracens, and the fecond that occafioned by the Turks.

It must be owned, that he was miftaken in fome of his calculations; and where is the man who is perfectly infallible? But certainly he paved the way to fucceeding writers on this fubject, though few have had the ingenuity to acknowledge the ob ligation.

Several new discoveries have been made fince his time; but, though both Sir Ifaac Newton and Mr Mede have laid down many ufeful rules for understanding the prophetic ftile, yet it is to be regretted, that, the laft mentioned worthy and learned perfon excepted, all the rest of the commentators, whofe writings have come into the author's hands,

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have too much neglected the most effential rule of all; namely, when any figure occurs which is not explained by the text or context, without indulging our imaginations, we fhould have recourfe to other paffages in the prophetic works where the meaning of it is explained.

For, fince the prophets lived in the fame country, for the moft part wrote to the fame people, ufed generally one language, and were under the infpiration of one fpirit, have we not then reafon to conclude that their ftile was uniform? Befides, fince God hath promised to blefs the endeavours of fuch who make the book of Revelation their ftudy, can it be imagined that he hath left them without a key to open thefe otherwife infcrutable myfteries? Now, it is obvious to every person of the moft common understanding, that the application of the above mentioned rule, together with a proper knowledge of the conftitution and hiftory of the church of God under the Old and New Teftaments, is the only key which can be fuccefsful.

Inattention to this fimple rule, an indulgence of fancy, and too fond an attachment to fome favourite fcheme, have evidently been the occafions of moft of the blunders and inconfiftencies to be found in writings of this kind. Hence one author explains the pouring out of the vial upon the fun, by the fweating fickness. And the great Sir Ifaac Newton (though in other refpects he hath written admirably), yet alas! he hath evidently fallen into the fame kind of mistake, when he affirms the dragon, the earth, and the two horned beaft, each of them to reprefent the Greek empire. Whereas, if he had attended to the language of fcripture, he would have found, that the word ferpent, when it is not taken in a proper fenfe, always reprefents the devil, not only in the prophetic parts of fcripture, but alfo

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in its more fimple and doctrinal ftile; and in Revelad tion 12th chapter 9th verfe, that the great dragon or old ferpent is exprefsly declared to be the devil ór fatan; and that neither of the other two do fignify the Greek empire, it is hoped, fhall be made fully to appear in the following effay.

This was the more inexcufable in Sir Ifaac, fince he acknowledges that he had read Mr Mede's learned and judicious comment upon the Apocalypfe; fo that his mistake must have proceeded either from inattention, or from too ftrong an inclination of writing fomething new and uncommon. But, if men will fuffer themselves to be hurried away by their imaginations in explaining fcripture figures, they may make any thing out of any thing, which is worfe than doing nothing at all.

As the three chief pillars upon which the hypothefis feems to ftand, are,

ift, The character, æra, and duration of the two beafts mentioned Revelation 13th chapter:

2dly, The character of the witneffes in the irth

chapter, together with the grand event the irth

predicted to happen at the finishing of their teftimony; And, 3dly, The explication of the feven laft vials recorded in the 16th chapter. For the fake of method, therefore, each of thefe fubjects is treated in different chapters, which are divided into more or fewer fections, as the matter of each doth require.

And, as the reader may expect that a facred regard will be had to that explication of phrases and figures which the fcripture itfelf doth prefent; fo he is defired to carry along with him in his mind thefe two leading fentiments, which will terve to throw a light upon the whole.

ft, That it is not the principal defign of the Apocalypfe to point out the temporal government of Rome, but its fpiritual; and that the temporal

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ftate thereof is only occafionally mentioned as a mark or evidence of the changes which were to happen in its fpiritual state.

zdly, That the Apocalypfe doth not charge the church of Rome with any particular errors in doctrine which she might have in common with other churches, but only with the crime of fpiritual whoredom or idolatry.

One thing farther the author begs leave to take notice of, by way of prevention, that he is greatly aftonished to obferve fome, otherwife of fober principles, who imagine themselves juftly intitled to laugh immoderately as often as the beaft with seven heads and ten horns is mentioned. But, to mortify this criminal levity, let fuch reflect, that this picture was not formed by fuch a weak and diftempered imagination as theirs, but prefented by that God who made all things, and whose underftanding is infinite. This confideration, one would think, thould be fufficient to overawe our fpirits, and to compofe us into the strictest decency of temper and behaviour.

Befides, to an attentive mind, this emblematical representation is both juft and highly fignificant. For where is the impropriety in reprefenting a community by a beaft or animal which confifts of various members, intimately connected with each other, to every one of which, refpective offices do belong, under the direction of their common head? In fact, there is nothing more ordinary, than for the finest writers upon government, to term that kingdom or ftate to which they belong, the body political.

But if it should be faid in excufe, that it is not the emblem of an ordinary beast or animal that pro vokes their ridicule, but the monstrous form of one with feven heads and ten horns; the answer is plain, that the objection proceedeth from inattention.

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For, if fuch perfons had been at pains to confider the angel's explication of this political beaft in the 17th chapter, they would have foon been convinced, that all the feven heads did not exift at once, but only one at a time, each, after the first, succeeding in its order. And thus, as a man is faid to be the head of his wife; fo that woman who has had seven hufbands may be figuratively faid to have had feven heads, not indeed at once, but in fucceffion. As to the ten horns, it shall be afterwards fhewn, that these belong only to the feventh or laft head.

Lastly, the Author acknowledges, that, as an ac. cidental reading of Mr Mede's commentary gave the firft occafion of turning his thoughts upon the Apocalypfe; fo he hath been greatly obliged to his fentiments through the whole of this performance, He owns that he hath often tranfcribed them; not indeed from the filly vanity of pluming himself with borrowed feathers, but thereby to lead the reader to fentiments and conclufions of his own, which, as they receive a stability from his, fo the force of them could not have been so properly seen, efpecially by perfons unacquainted with writings of this kind, without the obfervation of fome fuch method.

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