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essence of human wisdom, the glory of an enlightened age, the most sublime effort of political jurisprudence. We were loudly called upon to contemplate the magnificent spectacle of a great nation rising as one man, and decreeing themselves free; and we were particularly charged to venerate the mild splendor of a phenomenon hitherto unknown in the annals of a guilty world, the phenomenon of a bloodless revolution. Soon however the scene changed, even before the third woe-trumpet began to sound and the infidel tyrant, weary of his unnatural lamb-like mask almost as soon as he had assumed it, impatiently dashed it aside, and commenced a series of massacres and proscriptions worthy of a Sylla or a Marius. In the year 1789, the earthquake commenced; and in it fell a tenth part, the only remaining_tenth part, of the great Roman city: that is to say the French monarchy, the only one of the ten original regal horns then in existence. This circumstance, added to the chronological era to which the earthquake is assigned, namely the close of the second woe or a period subsequent to the per mitted season of Ottoman conquest, might in itself be sufficient to teach us, that the French revolution can alone be intended in this prediction. But the prophet adds even a yet more decisive mark: "in the earthquake,' says he, "were slain seven thousand names of men." The expression is remarkable, and full of meaning. In common earthquakes or political revolutions, men alone are ordinarily slain; but, in the present earthquake, their very names are to be slain and the number of their names is said to be seven thousand, or seven multiplied by a thousand, the usual apocalyptic method of describing a great multitude.* Now it is a remarkable circumstance, that not merely names or titles of nobility in general should be abolished or slain by the earth

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* Thus the mystic number of God's elect is 144, or the square of 12, which is multiplied by a thousand to shew us that they constitute an exceeding great multitude. (Rev. vii. 4.) The number 12 is similarly multiplied by a thousand in the apocalyptic description of the new Jerusalem. (Rev. xxi. 10-16.) The present prediction is constructed upon the very same principle. The number of the names or titles is seven and this number is multiplied by a thousand to describe how great a multitude the ancient French nobility constituted. It is well known, that they were the most numerous of any country in Europe, Germany alone perhaps excepted.

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quake of the French revolution, but that precisely seven such names or titles should be then abolished: 1. Prince. 2. Duke. 3. Marquis. 4. Count. 5. Viscount. 6.

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Bishop. 7. Baron. All these names were slain in the course of the earthquake, which overthrew the only remaining tenth part of the Roman city, or the monarchy of France for the first shock of the earthquake took place in the year 1789; and the last, on the memorable 10th of August 1792. Thus are we alike directed by chronological and circumstantial evidence to apply this prediction to the French revolution. It was to be fulfilled after the Ottoman power had ceased to be victorious: it was to be fulfilled in one of the ten original horns of the beast: it was to be fulfilled in the downfall of the monarchy symbolized by that tenth horn, and in the abolition of precisely seven names or titles of nobility. No event, except the French revolution answers to all these particulars : and it does exactly answer to them all: consequently we have as much certainty, as can be attained in these matters, that the French revolution is here foretold by St. John.* *

* I have explained this prophecy much better in the present edition, than I did in the first and I readily acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Bicheno for what is here said relative to the phrase names of men. To his remarks on this phrase, I have added the observation that precisely seven such names were slain in the earthquake of the French revolution. It is almost superfluous to observe, that archbishops and bishops are in effect the same title. The name of king was abolished by the fall of the tenth part of the city or the French monarchy itself: and in the same earthquake were slain the seven orders of nobility, temporal and spiritual. Bishops were afterwards restored by the republican rulers, but not in their former capacity of ecclesiastical peers. (Bicheno's Signs of the times, Part I. p. 38-42. Ibid. Part II. p. 95, 96, 97.) Mr. Bicheno cites the following curious passage from a discourse of Dr. J. Mather, who wrote in the year 1710. "We are assured, that, when the sixth trumpet, called also the second woe, has done its work, the seventh trumpet, called the third woe, will come quickly. Now there is reason to hope that the second woe is past, that is, that the Turk shall be no more such a plague to the apostate Christian world, as for ages past he has been. At the time when the second woe passeth away there is to be a great earthquake. In that earthquake one of the ten kingdoms over which Antichrist has reigned, will fall. There is at this day a great earthquake among the nations. May the kingdom of France be that tenth part of the city which shall fall! May we hear of a mighty revolution there; we shall then know that the kingdom of Christ is at hand." (Signs of the times, Part II. p. 85.) The speculations of Jurieu, whose work was published in England in the year 1687, are equally curious. "It is a truth, which must be held as certain (being one of the keys of the Revelation), that the city, the great city, signifies, in this book, not Rome alone, but Rome in conjunction with its empire-This being supposed and proved that the city is the whole Babylonish and Antichristian empire, it must be remembered that this empire of Antichrist is made up of ten kingdoms and of ten kings, who must give their power to the beast. A tenth part of the city fell: that is, one of these ten kingdoms which make up the great city, the VOL. II.

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While the earthquake however was overthrowing the tenth part of the city and slaying the seven thousand names of men, "the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven." Those, who had not suffered themselves to be deceived by the specious promises of Antichrist, readily saw through the flimsy veil of pretended liberty, philanthropy, and toleration, which but ill concealed the distorted features of the atheistical revolution. They acknowledged their fears; and were stigmatized as alarmists: they protested against the strumpet claims of democratic licentiousness to the venerable title of rational liberty; and were branded as the slavish enemies of the freedom of mankind they gave glory to the God of heaven, by maintaining that religion is the only solid basis of sound government; and were ridiculed as bigots or enthusiasts.

The earthquake had now overthrown the tenth part of the city the second woe therefore was past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. The year 1789 was styled the first year of Liberty: but Antichrist had not yet attained his full purpose. He panted to soar with a bolder flight than any of his predecessors in iniquity; and he rested not till he had established the reign of demoniac equality and frantic atheism.

"At an early period of the Revolution in France, the fraternity of illuminated Free-Masons took the name of

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Babylonish empire, shall forsake it. Now what is this tenth part of the city which shall fall? In my opinion we cannot doubt that it is France-And in the earthquake were slain seven thousand, in the Greek it is, seven thousand names of men. fess that this seems somewhat mysterious-I am inclined to say, that these words, names of men, must be taken in their natural signification, and do intimate that the total reformation of France shall not be made with bloodshed: nothing shall be destroyed but names, such as the names of Monks, of Carmelites, of Augustines, of Dominicans, of Jacobines, Franciscans, Capucines, Jesuits, Minimes, and an infinite company of others, whose number it is not easy to define, and which the Holy Ghost denotes by the number seven which is the number of perfection, to signify that the order of Monks and Nuns shall perish for ever." (Cited by Bicheno. Signs of the times, Part. L. p. 39, 40.) Dr. Goodwin, who wrote 150 years since, had formed a very just conception of what was meant by slaying names of men. "By the earthquake here is meant a great concussion or shaking of states, political or ecclesiastical-The effect of this earthquake, and fall of this tenth part of the city, is killing seven thousand of the names of men-Now by men of name, in Scripture, is meant men of title, office, and dignity-As in the case of Corah's conspiracy, so here a civil punishment falls upon these-For having killed these witnesses, themselves are to be killed (haply) by being bereft of their names and titles, which are to be rooted out for ever, and condemned to per petual forgetfulness." Cited by Bicheno. Ibid. p. 41.

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Jacobins from the name of a convent where they held their meetings. They then counted three hundred thousand adepts, and were supported by two millions of men scattered through France, armed with torches and pikes, and all the necessary implements of revolution. Till the 12th of August 1792, the French Jacobins had only dated the annals of their revolution by the years of their pretended liberty. On that day, when the king was carried prisoner to the temple, after having been declared to have forfeited his right to the crown, the rebel assembly decreed, that to the date of liberty the date of equality should be added in future in all public acts; and the decree itself was dated the fourth year of liberty, the first year and day of equality."

On this memorable day then, about three years after the commencement of the earthquake which threw down the French tenth part of the great Roman city, and only two days after the last dreadful shock of that earthquake, I conceive the third woe-trumpet to have begun its tremendous blast. "The second woe was past; and behold the third woe came quickly." Antichrist now stood revealed in all his horrors: and the long continued efforts of Popery and Mohammedism were constrained to hide their diminished heads in the presence of a gigantic monster, who alike trampled upon the laws of man, and defied the majesty of heaven.

On the 12th of August 1792, the infidel king exalted himself above all law on the 26th of the very same month, he exalted himself above all religion. As the first of these days witnessed the abolition of all the distinctions of civil society, so the second beheld the establishment of atheism by law. A decree was then past, ordering the clergy to leave the kingdom within a fortnight after its date but, instead of allowing them the time specified even by their own decree, the Jacobin tyrants of France employed the whole of that period in seizing, imprisoning, and putting them to the most cruel deaths. The conduct of these unfortunate men, during this dreadful season of trial, certainly deserves the commendation of the Christian world. In spite of the various corruptions, with which they had debased the pu

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rity of the Gospel, they still shewed (to use an apostolical phrase) that they "had a little strength" and I doubt not that many of them "slept in the Lord," though I cannot concede to Mr. Galloway and Mr. Kett, that they are the saints whom the little horn of the fourth beast was destined to wear out. The ministers of religion were now no more; and no traces of Christianity could be found in the reprobate metropolis of the atheistical republic. One of the churches was converted into a heathen temple, the den of the foreign god and his kindred Mahuzzim: and the rest were used as places of public festivity and amusement. There the abandoned

citizens of Paris flocked in crouds, no longer as formerly to worship their Maker; but to hear his name blasphemed, his existence denied, and his eternal Son ridiculed as an impostor.

On the 27th of the same month, one of the Jacobinical miscreants caused an oath to be taken by all the members of the national assembly, that every exertion should be used to purge the earth of royalty: and it was decreed, that the convention should be what they were pleased to term a committee of insurrection against all the kings in the universe. Claiming a diabolical preeminence above mere private assassins, the pretended representatives of a whole nation enjoyed the unheard of honour of being the first body of men, that openly and systematically proposed to institute a band of patriots; who, either by sword, pistol, or poison, should attempt to murder the sovereigns of all nations. The proposal indeed was not carried into effect: but this was owing to fear, not to principle. The prudence only of the measure was called in question, because they themselves might expect reprisals. As far however as they durst, they acted. On the 19th of the following November, a decree of fra

* On the 6th of November 1792, a discourse upon atheism was pronounced by Dupont, and applauded by the convention: and, in November 1793, the hopeful pupils of the new republican school appeared at its bar, when one of them set forth, that all religious worship had been suppressed in his section, even to the very idea of religion. He added, that he and his school-fellows detested God; and that, instead of learning Scripture, they learned the declaration of rights. The convention, delighted with the progress made by these young atheists, ordered, with the most enthusiastic applause, that they should be admitted to the honours af the sitting.

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