and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Chrift; and he shall reign for ever and ever." That is, thofe judg-. ments now commence which are speedily to effect this happy change; but Babylon the Great is to fall first, and this is to be ac-. complished by terrible things in righteoufnefs. The nations are to be angry, (ver. 18.) and oppofe, the defigns of God; the confequence of which will be, he will gather them together, (chap. xvi. 16. xix. 17—21.)and pour upon them his wrath, and thus deftroys thofe (whether fecular or ecclefiaftical) who deftroy the earth. Let us now return to the feven thunders, and fee whether our interpretation of them agree with what is here predicted refpecting the tenth part of the antichriftian city, and the events which have taken place. The last thunder, or period of war, as we have feen, began in 1788, just before the earthquake in France commenced, and continued till 1791, or, if we exclude Ruffia and Turkey, 1790. It entered far into the period of the earthquake, and was a means, under Providence, of forwarding the confequences of that convulfion. In this part of the earthquake the names of men were flain, that is, the titles and distinctions, not only of the ecclefiaftics, but of the fecular nobility were abolished. The titles of thefe latter were abolished June 9, 1790. Their cries for vengeance excited the fympathy and pity of the furrounding courts, but they were at prefent in no condition to help them.. The thunder ceafed.Aug. 25, 1791, feveral potentates and princes entered into a treaty at Pilnitz, and agreed to prepare for the invasion of France, and to unite their forces to restore the ancient defpotism, and with it the invaded rights of the nobility and priesthood. The affairs of France advance faft towards a crifis.— The angel fwears by Him who liveth for ever and ever, that delay fhall be no longer. Aug. 10, 179, the Monarchy falls. The feventh angel founds-The nations are angry, and God's wrath is come. Thus, there hitherto appears to have been the most exact conformity between the reprefentations to John, and the events which we we have been confidering, especially as to the rifing and finking of the Turkish power, and the periods of war which have afflicted the Latin church, or these western parts of the world, fince the termination of the violence of the fecond woe, and preparatory to the third; as well as to the revolution in France, and the commotions of nations which have followed the fall of the papacy and monarchy in that country. A correspondence this which is calculated to excite the most serious alarm on account of our prefent fituation, and of what we have to expect. But it is happy to reflect that this is not all; it is calculated also to cheer the hopes of all those who are waiting for the fulfilment of the promises of God, for the morning cometh as well as the night, and at evening time it fhall be light. (Zech. xiv. 7.) But, would we escape the evil, and participate only in the good? The likelieft means to infure this, is, without delay, to withdraw from this unhappy and inaufpicious war, and apply ourselves to a univerfal reforma tion. THERE are also other figns of the times which very pointedly indicate what we have to expect, but which we fhall only briefly touch upon. From comparing what Ezekiel fays, (chap. xxvi. xxvii. and xxviii.) concerning the fall of Tyrus, and the confequent calamities, from the failure of commerce, with what is faid refpecting the fall of Babylon the Great, Rev. xviii. ferious conclufions might be deduced. As there might alfo, not only from that general indifference which prevails as to every thing which concerns religion, but from comparing Rev. xvi. 2, 13. with exifting events. The' union of Proteftants and Papifts, (though it must be fuppofed that they do not in general mean this,) for the F fup fupport of that which heretofore they thought it their first duty to oppofe, and for the overthrow of which they pray in all their churches, is a fingular phænomenon.-Yes, charity obliges us to hope that the majority of Proteftants would revolt at the idea of leaguing themselves with papal tyrants for the direct purpose of fupporting Popery. I believe that this is not the idea of the peo-ple in this country, and I hope that none of our treaties will ever bind us to fight through thick and thin for the perpetual fafety of all the ftates of Italy. For as the day (if God's word be true) will certainly come, and, it is likely, very foon, when God's wrath will be poured out upon that seat of spiritual tyranny, this would involve us in an awful fituation indeed, to the most distant hazard of which no wife Proteftants would expofe their king and country. They who would do this, let them abuse the French infidels as much as they will, are deeper in infidelity than they. No; the people of this country, in general, think nothing about Popery, or of the po licy of fupporting it. This is not esteemed even a secondary end. of the war by them. But, it is too evident that the violent advocates for religious hierarchies, tithes, &c. among Proteftants, although they might approve of fome reformation in the Gallican church, and would not have found themselves inclined to oppose any alter ation which might have brought it to a nearer conformity to their own several systems, yet, when the French reformers abolished * tithes, and restored to the people their ancient and natural right of choofing their own pastors, and especially when they abolished all religious establishments in that extenfive country, and placed the ⚫ different fects upon an equal footing, and made all the minifters " of religion dependent upon their feveral flocks for fupport, who might reward them in proportion to their own ability, or accord>ing to the opinion entertained of their deferts; this reduction of things to the original state in which Christ and his apostles left them, was beyond bearance, and they had rather that all the ab>furdities and oppreffions of the old papal establishment should be reftored, than fuch a dangerous example be fet up in the heart of Europe. This appears evidently to be the fentiment of those who wail and howl fo dreadfully about the contempt into which their * dear brethren in Chrift" (the Popish clergy, who can no longer fhew their mitred fronts in Parliaments) have fallen, and for the overthrow of the holy altars of the idolatrous whore of Babylon. 好康 51045 * 5719"; #1 When I read or hear the ravings of Mr. B-ke, and of such like orators, who are liftened to with admiration and wonder, while they fo feelingly describe the merits of the papal priesthood, the fanctity of all religious eftablifhments, and the enormous impiety of touching this ark of God; when I hear right reverend prelates, of a Proteftant church, drawing the moft invidious comparifons between the priests of the bloody whore of Babylon and the diffenting minifters of this country, (than whom, with the whole body of Proteftant diffenters, there are none who are more fincere in their loyalty to the king, in their attachment to the conftitution, or more uniform in their obedience to the laws but enemies to corruption, and friends to civil and religious liberty); when I hear them, before the most august assemblies, breathing out nothing but brotherly love to the former, and nothing but wrath and bitterness against the latter, and all because these differ from them in opinion about tithes and religious eftablishments;-while I hear them exerting all their eloquence, not only to implore our protection and pity for the exiled priests of France as fellow-creatures, (for that would be praife-worthy, for, if thine enemy hunger, feed him) but as our brethren, members of Chrift, and heirs of the promises; "more near and dear to us by far than some who, affecting to be called our Proteftant brethren, have no other title to be called Proteftant than a Jew or a Pagan, who, not being a Chriftian, is for that reafon only, not a Papift"while I hear them foftening our renunciation of the antichriftian church of Rome, into an eftrangement, and her idolatry and blafphemous dogmas into what we deem their errors and corruptions"-whilft I hear them wail over the fallen altars and violated riches of papal idolatry and fuperftition, without one sentence which may lead us to adore God, in the contemplation of thofe righteous and awful judgments by which he fulfils his word, and avenges the cause of the innocent;-I perceive in this unity of fentiment between fuch exalted Proteftants and the church of Rome a fign of the times which indicates no good to the friends of civil and religious liberty.But I will leave fuch men to the mercy of God, and the public to their own reflections.-Rejoicing that the law protects the innocent, I hope that fuch men will ne F 2 ver ver be permitted to realize their zeal in any thing beyond invective and wailing; and then, let them inveigh, let them wail.―jeíus I know, and Paul I know; but, who are thefe ?-Not the genue friends either of Proteftantifm, their country, the king, or the contitution, which they make their theme. The next fign of the times which I fhall notice refpects the Or toman empire. In Dan. xi. 40-45. we have a prophery of the calamities which the people of the fourth monarchy, or rather of the papal church, should fuffer from the king of the South, or the Saracens; and from the king of the North, the Turks, who came originally from the north quarter. After enumerating the conquefts of this laft enemy, the prophet fays, ver. 44. “But tidings out of the east, and out of the north, fhall trouble him; thereiure fhall he go forth with great fury to deftroy, and utterly to make away many;" ver. 45. "yet he fhall come to his end, and nonę shall help him." "And at that time" (xii. 1.) "hall Michel ftand up, the great prince, which ftandeth for the children of thy paople," (the Jews) and there shall be a time of trouble, fuch as there never was fince there was a nation; even to that fame time, and at that time, thy people" (the Jews fhall be delivered, every one that shall be written in the book." Then follows a ocitription of their political rifing, after the manner of the caltern ftyle. Enemies from the caft, from towards Perfia or Arabia, and from the north, are to be the means of bringing the Turkish monfier to an end, and this is to be preparatory to the return of the Jews to their own country, which the Turks now poficis, and at which time fuch troubles will afflict the nations as have never been known.-One enemy is to come from the caft, and another from the north; and it is deferving the attention of those who would obferve the progrels of things towards the accomplishment of God's purpofes, that at the present time the Ottoman empire is at once threatened from both these quarters. The new fe&t of the Vehabis in Arabia, are faid to become more and more formidable. Theft are Mabomedan infidels, and their doftrine has nothing less To view than the deftruction of the whole fyftem of Mahometanwa Jylem of fuperftition, oppreffion, and bloodshed. The founder |