Y^ 
 
THE LITTLE STONE 
 
 THE GREAT IMAGE 
 
 OR, 
 
 LECTURES ON THE PROPHECIES 
 
 SYMBOLIZED IN 
 
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S VISION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE GOLDEN HEADED MONSTER. 
 
 GEORGE J UN KIN, D. D. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF MIAMI UNIVERSITY, OXFORD, OHIO. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 JAMES M. CAMPBELL & CO. 98 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 SAXTON & MILES, 205 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 1844. 
 
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1844, 
 
 BY JAMES M. CAMPBELL & CO. 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 C. SHERMAN, PRINTER, 
 
 19 ST. JAMES STREET. 
 
STUDENTS OF LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, 
 
 AND OF 
 
 MIAMI UNIVERSITY, 
 
 SEPARATED BY SPACE, YET UNITED IN NOBLENESS OP AIM, AND 
 SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING PAGES 
 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
 BY THEIR SINCERE FRIEND, AND HUMBLE SERVANT, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " Another book on prophecy ! Whence the necessity for it ?" Let the 
 reader proceed, and he may perhaps ascertain ; at least, let him read the intro- 
 ductory Lecture, and he will possibly see reasons for the opinion that the 
 " Revelation of Jesus Christ" is indeed a revelation ; that it is not a tissue of 
 unexplained and inexplicable mysteries ; but on the contrary, that it is bona fide 
 what it professes to be, an uncovering of the mind and will of God concerning 
 the leading facts and dealings of his providence with his Church and the nations 
 with whom she has come into collision. 
 
 True indeed, another book ; and yet I may add that it is not another ; for the 
 pretensions of this work to originality are humble. 
 
 Though the prophetic portions of the sacred word have comparatively, both 
 to their relative and absolute importance, been greatly neglected ; yet he who 
 should urge pretensions to much that is new in this field of biblical discovery, 
 would probably produce the impression upon the minds of the learned, that his 
 modesty and his sense were in direct proportion. Still though the leading fea- 
 tures of prophetic interpretation must necessarily be the same ; there are many 
 portions of these writings whose meaning is not sifted and ascertained beyond 
 a doubt ; and some which have been supposed to be thus settled, may yet be 
 misunderstood. 
 
 In selecting among such expositions as lay within his reach, the author need 
 not say that he has exercised his best judgment ; and where he could find no 
 explanation satisfactory, in whole or in part, he has endeavoured to elaborate 
 one for himself; not on the one hand, dissenting for dissent's sake; nor, on 
 the other, yielding his own judgment to mere authority. He has generally, 
 (and he supposes always in important matters) acknowledged his indebtedness 
 to other authors ; though possibly those extensively acquainted with such 
 writings may find coincidences where there is no acknowledgment. If such 
 cases occur, charity claims the imputation of them to defect of memory, or in- 
 dependence of thought, and not to intention. 
 
 As to apologies for the new book, the writer is somewhat at a loss. He has 
 never acquired celebrity in this line, nor is it probable he ever will. His opi- 
 nion has long since been made up in regard to this subject ; and briefly it is, 
 that no man has a right to offer a new work to the public, unless he honestly 
 believes that he can instruct them, and do them good. An author who would 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 confess that the matters he treats of, are better treated by another, for the class 
 of people whom he expects to benefit, would raise a doubt concerning either his 
 veracity or his judgment. For if he truly believe that the work of another is 
 calculated to be of more use to them, why does he palm upon them an inferior 
 one? Or if he thinks it not inferior, why does he say so? 
 
 The ordinary mode of escape from this dilemma is, that a new book, though 
 inferior, will be more likely to circulate than a superior, but older one. 
 
 If then the reader take the position, that he will not peruse this book unless 
 the author makes an apology for publishing it, he may take both these. The 
 author honestly believes that, for all persons but imperfectly informed upon 
 these subjects, and who have not leisure and opportunity to read extensively 
 concerning them, this book may be more profitable than any that is accessible. 
 If he thought otherwise, he could not, without a feeling of self-condemnation, 
 offer it to the public. To this opinion, and its expression, whether springing 
 from conceit or candour, he has been led by its history and contents. 
 
 About eight years ago, the attention of the public was turned to the alarming 
 pretensions of Roman Catholicism. The revival of the Jesuit order, and their 
 influx into our country, their long-established reputation for political diplomacy, 
 and for all the arts of secret intrigue, deception, fraud and corruption, arrested 
 afresh the attention of the more vigilant of Zion's watchmen. The author's 
 cogitations resulted in the conviction that there was no instrument to break the 
 Tarpeian rock in pieces, like the hammer of God's word. Philosophy might 
 pour forth its speculations ; political vigilance might watch the craft of free- 
 dom's foe ; patriotism might hold forth the sparkling bosses of her iron shield 
 before the breast of the republic ; but none of these, nor all of these could 
 avail in the absence of the living energies of the word of God. If the public 
 mind do not look to the original and incorruptible sources of divine revelation 
 for its enlightenment on the subject of Popery, it can never understand it. His- 
 tory indeed, points to her bloodiest pages with tearful eye, and exclaims, " Be- 
 hold Roman Catholicism !" but her lessons, unaided by the bright visions of 
 prophetic inspiration, can never convey to the mind a correct idea of the soul- 
 damning and nation-desolating character of the " Mother of harlots." It is not 
 until the purple veil is lifted by the prophetic hand, that the hideous deformity 
 it conceals is exposed, and " the abomination that maketh desolate," is truly 
 understood, and deservedly abhorred. 
 
 But in searching for truth in the mine of Scripture, we should not remain 
 contented with the few precious grains which may offer themselves at the very 
 entrance. A mind deeply imbued with the love of truth will not stop short of 
 first principles, if they be at all attainable. The last possible analysis only, 
 will give rest to such a spirit, and the shadowy suspicion that it has not yet 
 arrived at ultimate truth, will disturb its tranquillity, and lead to repeated at- 
 tempts at farther analysis. No real philosopher, that is, no man of common 
 sense, feels that he has done his duty to truth, that he has paid the full com- 
 plement of devotion at her shrine, until he has traced the chain of dependent 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 causes, and found the last link fastened to the Eternal Throne. Somewhat in 
 this spirit, the author ventures to believe he has been led back along this chain 
 through twenty-four centuries, until he found the last link exhibited to the He- 
 brew youth on the banks of the Ulai and Euphrates. His plan was formed. 
 This unbroken chain, from Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar to Napoleon and " the 
 king of the north ;" from the night of Belshazzar's terrors, when the golden 
 head was laid in the dust, to the day of Antichrist's consternation, when the 
 iron legs and feet shall be ground to powder on the plain of Megiddo, he de- 
 termined to lay before the students of Lafayette, and such as might choose to 
 worship with them in their " Brainard Hall." This was in June, 1836: the 
 series of Lectures was brought to a close in March, 1837. They were more 
 fully written, and again delivered in the German Reformed Church, Easton, in 
 1840-41. After the author's removal to Miami University in 1841, the state 
 of the country, and the Catholic question, seemed to require the discussion of 
 these subjects. The Lectures were therefore written out and delivered in their 
 present form. 
 
 Meanwhile the thought had occurred to others as well as to the writer, that 
 their publication might do good. This was cherished, no doubt, with the over- 
 fondness of friendship, by their first auditors, who urged the matter in such 
 form and manner as to bring this book before the public. 
 
 A consideration of no small influence in securing consent to these sugges- 
 tions of friendship and inducing the belief already expressed, as to the possible 
 utility of the work, was, that an American exposition of these prophecies was 
 needed, because some of them, it is not reasonable to suppose, will ever be 
 understood by British writers until their accomplishment shall have filled the 
 British Isles with lamentation and wo, and the enemies of Protestantism with 
 joy and exultation. The eye cannot see itself. Self-love will not suffer English 
 expositors to regard their own beloved nation as a horn of the Roman beast, a 
 portion of the great image. This partiality renders it almost physically impos- 
 sible for even the giant scholars of Britain to give a fair exposition of certain 
 parts of these prophecies. (See Lectures xix to xxi.) 
 
 In regard to the plan of this work, it is designed to exhibit a condensed view 
 of that great conflict which has been waging in the world ever since the rise of 
 the first great monarchy under the auspices of Nimrod, — the conflict between 
 government by physical force, and government by moral law. The great 
 image of Nebuchadnezzar, is the symbol of the former ; the little stone, of the 
 latter. The history of this image, in other words, of the four great monarchies, 
 is the history of the world, or at least of that part of it which comes into con- 
 nexion with the church of God, or is spread with any considerable distinctness 
 before the mind of Christendom. 
 
 These two belligerent principles existed and warred prior to the age of the 
 prophet Daniel. But the first embodiment of despotism known to us, was in 
 the empire of Nimrod ; and the first embodiment of the moral power of reli- 
 gion and law, was in the church established by Abraham's covenant. This 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 c hurch existed in the time of Daniel, and as the " little stone" then warred 
 against the image, this warfare continues even to the present day, and shall 
 continue until the victories that usher in the millennium shall secure the freedom 
 of the world. 
 
 Such is the conflict which these pages are intended to delineate ; and in the 
 delineation the author trusts that he has elaborated the grand argument against 
 Roman Catholic Antichrist. The footsteps of the giant, or to use the more 
 suitable symbol of the prophet, the track of the beast, has been followed down, 
 through all his windings in the desert and the plain, through bog Serbonian, 
 and over mountain cliff, all the way from-his stronghold amid the fens and 
 marshes of the Euphrates, to his final retreat on the banks of the Tiber. There 
 have we found him, and thence must he be dragged forth for destruction, when 
 the disenthralled nations shall celebrate their grand Auto da Fe, for the triumphs 
 of liberty and truth. 
 
 As an argument against Romanism, these Lectures resemble a regular siege, 
 wherein the first lines of the assailant are drawn at a distance from the walls 
 of the city invested. Under cover of these, new lines and batteries are pushed 
 forward, which again become points of assault to the foe, and of protection to 
 the besieging army, while those behind remain impregnable, a sure refuge and 
 safe source of supply. Thus the prophetic argument is a complete line of cir- 
 cumvallation around the seven-hilled city. The approaches are slow but sure. 
 Every avenue is guarded. Nothing is wanting to secure the victory to Protes- 
 tantism, but faithfulness to herself in the patient use of her heaven-wrought 
 panoply, until history hastens on to fill up the few remaining pages, and com- 
 plete her coincidence with prophecy. 
 
 But it is not to be understood that this work is only an argument against Po- 
 pery. Many persons might turn half its leaves without perceiving this bearing. 
 The reader will find much evidence for the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, 
 much practical illustration and defence of evangelical doctrine, and especially, 
 much reasoning that tends to show the bearings of true religion upon the inte- 
 rests of free government. This last is, indeed, one capital object of the entire 
 book. 
 
 It will also be seen, and the author trusts, felt, from the latter parts of it, 
 that the cause of Missions must be more abundantly patronised than heretofore, 
 if the church wishes to participate in the glories of the coming days. 
 
 And now, in bidding the reader farewell, and in commending this humble 
 production to Him whose testimony is " the spirit of prophecy," permit the au- 
 thor to express the hope that the perusal of it may afford the same enjoyment 
 as the various writings and deliveries have done ; then will the cost and labour 
 have received a great recompense of reward. 
 
 Oxford, Ohio, July 22nd, 1843. 
 
LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that 
 hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those 
 things which are written therein ; for the time 
 is at hand." — Rev. i. 3. 
 
 Time is measured duration. Its most 
 natural division is into the* present, the 
 past, and the future. In this order we 
 have to do with it ; and hence, in this 
 order we most easily contemplate it. 
 We exist in the present, by the aid and 
 means of the past, and for the future. 
 The consciousness of our own activities 
 awakens us to inquiry ; and each asks 
 himself, What am I? — Whence came 
 I ? — Whither do I go ? 
 
 Of these inquiries the first has occu- 
 pied the largest share of man's attention. 
 It covers the whole ground of physiology, 
 and of mental and moral philosophy. In 
 its prosecution the inquirer often speaks 
 paradoxes. He exhibits himself, 
 
 " An insect infinite, 
 Midway from nothing to the Deity !" 
 
 He is carried back into the past ; for 
 consciousness and memory are actor 
 and chronicler to each other ; and the 
 resulting registry speedily becomes the 
 basis of reflections and reasonings, 
 which bear the mind forward toward 
 coming events. And here we have one 
 of the strongly marked characteristics 
 of our nature — the disposition to infer 
 what will be, from what has been. 
 
 Such is our natural constitution, that 
 the past is to us a mirror, reflecting, in 
 visions less or more brilliant and accu- 
 rate, the realities of the future. It is by 
 noting events as they are, and have 
 been, that man becomes endowed with 
 a prescience which darts its vision for- 
 ward into the distance. Observation, 
 which furnishes him with the knowledge 
 of things, and experience, which results 
 from reasoning upon them, are the only 
 natural sources of this prescience : it is 
 therefore obviously built upon the hypo- 
 thesis, that the course of events shall 
 continue as heretofore. In other words, 
 man's knowledge of the future, so far as 
 it is unaided by revelation, is dependent 
 upon God's unchanging plan for the 
 government of his world. If there is 
 nothing new under the sun, — if similar 
 combinations of circumstances will be 
 followed by similar results, then man 
 can pry into futurity to a certain extent. 
 But this foreknowledge in man, both as 
 to extent and correctness, will depend 
 precisely upon the amount and accuracy 
 of his observations heretofore, and of his 
 reasonings upon the facts observed. 
 
 But the particular point to which our 
 subject leads us, is that strongly marked 
 peculiarity of our nature, — the insatiable 
 desire to know the future. This deve- 
 lopes itself very early, and continues 
 throughout life. Little children wish to 
 know what will be on the morrow ; and 
 old men, without the fabled second sio-ht, 
 
10 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 turn their inquiring eyes to that which 
 is prospective. Though often heedless 
 of the past, content with a very slender 
 acquaintance with its important lessons, 
 and little disposed to improve the pre- 
 sent ; all desire to forestall the future. 
 In very many, — perhaps a majority, it 
 is a vain curiosity, unproductive of any 
 beneficial influences upon present action. 
 It often merely excites the imagination, 
 and results in the unreal creations of 
 fancy scenes, destined never to be em- 
 bodied in forms of substantial truth ; but 
 to pass away and leave the mind be- 
 wildered in the labyrinth of its own 
 thoughts, and incompetent, for a time, 
 to distinguish them from the realities of 
 being. Yet still, these very reveries 
 are evidence of the desire to pry into 
 futurity ; and the more gorgeous and 
 extravagant they become, the more do 
 they manifest the energy of that cha- 
 racteristic, which leads the mind to- 
 ward " the things which shall be here- 
 after." 
 
 This principle constitutes the basis of 
 the chief argument in the system of 
 natural religion, by which we prove the 
 immortality of the soul, and a future 
 state of rewards and punishments. From 
 its exercise in the heathen mind have 
 sprung Orcus, Hades, Elysium. Their 
 poets were prophets also, and were often 
 called by a name common to both offices. 
 Nor have pretensions to prophetic vision 
 been confined to barbarous and unchris- 
 tian ages. We have them still. Not 
 that they are part and portion of our 
 civilization and Christianity; but they 
 are proof of the existence, in man's bo- 
 som, of a fixed principle ever impelling 
 him to throw his thoughts forward. Per- 
 petually urged on by a desire of happi- 
 ness, he stands upon his watchtower ; 
 and whether he glance backward or fix 
 his eye upon the distant and tardy move- 
 ments of advancing time, he is in quest 
 of that which will in the highest degree 
 promote the blessedness of his being. 
 And if, in this prospective gaze he is 
 guided by prudence, our text assures 
 him his labour shall not be in vain; 
 " Blessed is he that readeth, and they 
 that hear the words of this prophecy ; 
 
 and keep those things which are written 
 therein ; for the time is at hand." 
 
 The literal meaning of the word trans- 
 lated, readeth, is, to know, or recognise 
 again, — to know fully and effectually. 
 It implies that the things in question 
 have been once known ; — when they 
 were written ; and now they are known 
 again. 
 
 The design of writing is, that the 
 thing's recorded shall be again known. 
 Yet from the imperfection of human 
 language, this is not always the case. 
 " Understandest thou what thou read- 
 est?" — Knowest thou the things the pro- 
 phet knew 1 Happy art thou, if thou 
 do them ! He that knows again, or 
 clearly understands the words, — the 
 doctrines of this prophecy, is a happy 
 man ; he is blessed ; his mind is pos- 
 sessed of subjects for thought and reflec- 
 tion which must lead him to admire, 
 adore, and wonder at the wisdom, good- 
 ness, and power of God ; filling his soul 
 with emotions of rapture and delight. 
 
 To hear, in Scripture, implies more 
 than a simple reception of sound by the 
 organ, and the consequent perception of 
 the mind. It involves a view of things 
 as true, and a practical reliance upon 
 them. It is equivalent to believing. 
 The prophet was commanded to speak 
 to Israel, " whether they will hear or 
 whether they will forbear," — whether 
 they would obey his voice or not. " He 
 that is of God heareth God's words." 
 " My sheep hear my voice ;" my people 
 believe and practise my doctrines. 
 Blessed are they who believe the doc- 
 trines of this prophetic book and act 
 accordingly. 
 
 To jjrophesy is to speak beforehand, 
 — to predict, — to describe things prim- 
 to their occurrence. It implies a know- 
 ledge of the things, and, in reference to 
 events greatly distant in time and where 
 man cannot trace their dependence upon 
 known laws of nature, it bespeaks omni- 
 science. God only sees the end from 
 the beginning. The particular prophecy 
 in question in this text, is obviously the 
 revelation, or uncovering spoken of in 
 the first verse. " A revelation of Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 11 
 
 To keep, is, — to lay by, — to treasure 
 up. " Thou hast kept the good wine 
 until now." The original term is used 
 thirty-seven times by the Apostle John, 
 and always in the same general sense : 
 chiefly in reference to moral duty. " If 
 a man keep my saying, — obey me, he 
 shall never see death," — " he keepeth 
 not the Sabbath day." " If ye love me, 
 keep my commandments." " We keep 
 his commandments." "Thou hast kept 
 my word." " Which keep the com- 
 mandments of God." The word is also 
 applied in this sense here, — " keeping 
 the sayings of the prophecy of this 
 book." The meaning is clear. It is 
 the treasuring up, in the mind, of God's 
 truth, and the governing of our con- 
 duct according to it ; — the doing of the 
 things, so far as his providence opens 
 the door. 
 
 " The time is at hand." The word 
 signifies season, occasion, suitable op- 
 portunity. " It is not for you to know 
 the times or the seasons" — (Acts i. 7.) 
 The proper season or period for these 
 events is at hand. Not that the whole 
 extended and complicated series of events 
 is immediately to take place ; but the 
 season, or portion of time within which 
 they will occur, is just about to begin. 
 The chain of events whose first links 
 depend hence, runs down to distant 
 ages ; the system of prophecy covers all 
 coming time, beginning with that which 
 now is. 
 
 The text, thus explained, gives us 
 this general doctrine : that the study of 
 the prophetic writings, especially of those 
 ripe for accomplishment, and the belief 
 and practice of the doctrines they teach, 
 are greatly conducive to human happi- 
 ness. 
 
 In farther prosecution of this subject 
 let us consider, 
 
 I. The duty of diligently reading and 
 studying the prophetic writings. 
 
 II. How the knowledge of their con- 
 tents greatly conduces to man's happi- 
 ness. 
 
 III. The motives to such diligent 
 study. 
 
 I. It is the duty of all who have ac- 
 cess to the prophetic writings, or to the 
 
 expositions of them by an authorized 
 ministry, to use all diligence in ac- 
 quiring a knowledge of their contents. 
 
 1. This may fairly be inferred from 
 the fact of their having been written. 
 The design of writing anything is, that 
 it may be read ; and the design of de- 
 livering a writing into any particular in- 
 dividual's hands ; or of proceeding to 
 read and explain it before him, is mani- 
 festly, that he may know its contents 
 and meaning. God has committed a 
 great variety of prophetic doctrines to 
 writing. He has placed in our hands 
 the book which contains them. He has 
 taught us in the movements of his holy 
 providence to read, and given us an un- 
 derstanding to comprehend. He has 
 sent special messengers to us, with this 
 book in their hands, and with express 
 instructions to read and explain it to us : 
 can any one suppose that it is not his 
 will that we should read, study, and 
 hearken to the exposition of it ! 
 
 2. But the same may be inferred 
 from the existence in us of a strong 
 propensity to gaze forward. It is the 
 Creator's will that we should exercise 
 this disposition. We should look to the 
 future and acquire all such knowledge 
 of it as may be profitable to us. And if 
 so, of course, we are obliged to use all 
 lawful means to attain to such know- 
 ledge. There is nothing unreasonable, 
 nothing improper, in the indulgence of 
 this desire. On the contrary, he who 
 does not look forward, — who does not 
 ponder the path of his feet — who does 
 not provide for the future, is unreason- 
 able; he neglects duty. 
 
 3. The command, " search the Scrip- 
 tures," includes and inculcates the duty 
 of studying the prophetic writings : for 
 these constitute part and portion of" the 
 Scriptures:" indeed, they constitute a 
 very large part of the sacred volume. 
 The injunction at that time referred ex- 
 clusively to the Old Testament, which 
 the Hebrews had popularly thrown into 
 three general divisions; — the Law of 
 Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets. 
 There is no intimation, that any part 
 was to be excluded from their researches. 
 It is not said, search this division or 
 
12 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 that ; but in general, search the Scrip- 
 tures, — the historic, the didactic, the 
 poetic, the legal, the prophetic, — search 
 all the Scriptures. This falls in pre- 
 cisely with Paul's remark to Timothy, 
 " All the Scripture is given by inspira- 
 tion of God, and is profitable," — not 
 this or that part, but all " is profitable 
 for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
 for instruction in righteousness," (2 
 Tim. iii. 15.) Accordingly, it was the 
 prophetic writings which the Bereans 
 searched, and for searching which they 
 are said to have been " more noble." 
 (Acts xvii. 2.) The question before their 
 minds was, whether this Jesus was the 
 Christ — the Messiah of the prophets ; 
 and this could be settled only by exa- 
 mining what the prophetic writings fore- 
 told of the Messiah, and comparing that 
 with the character of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 They did so, and found by studying the 
 prophets, the blessedness of their souls. 
 
 Objection 1 . We are told that the main 
 design of prophecy is to confirm the 
 faith of the Church after its fulfilment, 
 and consequently it is fulfilled prophecy 
 that is meant, and to this our attention 
 should chiefly if not wholly be confined. 
 The Bereans studied only the fulfilled 
 prophecies. 
 
 To this objection we would say, Where 
 is the proof? When was it said, search 
 the law, the psalms and the fulfilled pro- 
 phecies ? Does Luke say that the Be- 
 reans searched the accomplished prophe- 
 cies? 
 
 Again : how could the Bereans, or any 
 one else, know whether any prophecy 
 was fulfilled, until they had studied it 
 carefully, searched into history, and com- 
 pared the prophetic or antedated history 
 with the postdated history ? How shall 
 any one discover, that this or that pro- 
 phetic vision has ever been embodied in 
 fact? Is it reasonable to pronounce, with- 
 out examination, that any given part is 
 unfulfilled? This would be an arrogant 
 assumption of prophetic dictation. Until, 
 therefore, some seer shall give us a 
 catalogue of the fulfilled and unfulfilled 
 prophecies, the rule of limiting our re- 
 searches to the one or the other class 
 is impracticable. 
 
 We admit that the confirmation of the 
 Church's faith is a very important use 
 of prophecy, and a use confined to those 
 which are accomplished. But we also 
 contend, that this confirmation of her 
 faith falls in with another leading design 
 of prophecy ; both are to prepare her 
 for future duty. God's predictions have 
 been fulfilled in the past, hence our eye 
 is turned to the future and fixed on the 
 predictions that remain. 
 
 But again, — our reply to this objection 
 acquires great strength from considering 
 the fact, that the prophecies of sacred 
 scripture constitute a system. True, 
 there is a considerable number of insu- 
 lated predictions, such as those relating 
 to the destruction of Jerusalem, Tyre 
 and Nineveh ; but there is besides these 
 an extended system, reaching from the 
 days of Nimrod, or the foundation of 
 the Assyrio-Babylonian empire, down to 
 the final destruction of the Roman beast, 
 Antichrist, and the glorious light of the 
 millennial day. This it is which consti- 
 tutes the burden of this series of lectures. 
 It is perfectly impossible to settle a hun- 
 dred questions that may arise, relative 
 to different parts of the system, unless the 
 mind can take a comprehensive glance 
 of the whole. How can we tell whether 
 the fifth seal of the Apocalypse has been 
 opened or not, but by tracing those which 
 have preceded ? How can we know 
 whether the seventh vial is poured out, 
 but by comparing history and prophecy ? 
 This rule of restriction is unavailable. 
 The navigator can see but half the starry 
 firmament at once, yea, he may discern 
 only a small section of that which is above 
 his horizon ; but if he know the rela- 
 tions of the visible to the invisible parts, he 
 can take his observations from his leading 
 star, make his calculations, and guide his 
 ship through the midnight instantly pro- 
 duced by the clouds that hide his twink- 
 ling director : so the Christian student 
 of prophecy, who has already thrown 
 his eye over the whole horizon, feels 
 himself safe under the guidance of a 
 particular constellation, because he un- 
 derstands its relative position in the Zo- 
 diac. If the mariner had not this gene- 
 ral knowledge, his perceiving a single 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 13 
 
 star peering through a fracture in the 
 clouds, could be of no possible advan- 
 tage to him. Had not the Christian navi- 
 gator a general knowledge of the pro- 
 phetic horizon, he could not safely avail 
 himself of any one particular. 
 
 Objection 2. But this objection is near- 
 ly allied to another. Expounders of pro- 
 phecy have too often become prophets 
 themselves. Forgetting their office, — 
 that of mere exposition, — they have in 
 their attempts to apply unfulfilled pro- 
 phecy, assumed the prophetic style, and 
 injured the cause of sound biblical inter- 
 pretation. This objection was raised by 
 Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most suc- 
 cessful expounders of prophecy, and has 
 been mentioned by most writers since 
 his day. But if it mean any thing more 
 than a salutary caution, it is not valid. 
 If, on account of the errors of some, it 
 mean to shut the door of inquiry in re- 
 gard to prophecy, fulfilled or unfulfilled, 
 we think it inadmissible ; because it 
 would preclude all interpretation of scrip- 
 ture ; for many commentators have 
 taught false doctrine in expounding the 
 historic, the legal, the poetic scriptures. 
 The rashness, ignorance, pride or per- 
 versity of an expositor, is not a good 
 reason why prudence, humility, honesty 
 and good sense should for ever stand 
 aloof and leave the Bible untranslated 
 and unread. Folly, in her wilfulness, 
 may rush into the pit with her glaring 
 torchlight, and perish amid the explo- 
 sion of its noxious vapours ; — should 
 Caution therefore fear to descend with 
 her safety-lamp, and gather the riches 
 which lie beneath ? 
 
 " The design of prophecy is not to 
 make men prophets." Whilst this is true 
 in one sense, it is not so in another. It is 
 true, if it mean that the prophetic wri- 
 tings do not authorize men to launch 
 forth into new revelations, and present 
 the products of their own fancy for the 
 oracles of God. It is not true, if it mean 
 that the expounder of prophecy must 
 not explain the language of the Bible, 
 and give a general representation of 
 the future events to which it refers. On 
 the contrary, such exposition is a duty, 
 and the matter uttered as the result of 
 
 it is prophecy ; not man's, indeed, but 
 God's, provided the expositor is correct. 
 For neglecting to pursue this very course, 
 and in this sense prophesying, the Scribes 
 and Pharisees were reproved. "O ye 
 hypocrites, ye can discern the face of 
 the sky ; but can ye not discern the 
 signs of the times." (Matt. xvi. 3.) It 
 was their duty to read and study the 
 prophets, and to compare them with the 
 present state of things, that they might 
 thereby know the coming events, and be 
 prepared for acting their part in them. 
 
 Objection 3. Another form of this ob- 
 jection, as it is in reality, is the allega- 
 tion of extreme difficulty. This class of 
 writings is obscure — designedly obscure. 
 Symbols are used to cover over the truth, 
 that it may lie hidden until after the 
 event ; and, therefore, it is not proper to 
 attempt an explanation, until Providence, 
 by its fulfilment, makes prophetic sym- 
 bols plain. 
 
 Here, again, we have truth so stated 
 that it may appear as error. It is true, 
 that such partial concealment is practised 
 in mercy to man. God hides many 
 things from the wise and prudent. If 
 prophetic language were so plain as to 
 make the sense obvious at first sight, 
 men would set themselves, like Julian 
 the apostate, to falsify the Bible by pre- 
 venting the facts its predicts. To cut off 
 this form of wickedness, God oftentimes 
 leaves truth in obscurity. Admitting this 
 to a certain extent, we still contend, that 
 obscurity of language and symbol is not 
 of itself evidence of such an intention 
 to conceal, as justifies us in neglecting to 
 study. To the inattentive and careless, 
 many of the didactic and devotional parts 
 of scripture are obscure, and often ab- 
 solutely unintelligible : whilst to the dili- 
 gent and studious they are simple and 
 plain. Men may not cover their own 
 indolence and sinful neglect under the 
 mantle of devotion and reverence for 
 God's authority. " Some parts of scrip- 
 ture are hard to be understood." What 
 then? Fold up our hands and stand 
 aghast at the first difficulty? Not by 
 any means ; but rather double our dili- 
 gence, and lay out our strength with in- 
 creased liberality. One of the very 
 
14 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 reasons of the difficulty is, that our 
 faculties may be the more fully called 
 into action in surmounting them. And 
 this accords precisely with the divine ad- 
 ministration in other respects. It had 
 been easy for Infinite Power to have so 
 constructed the world, that man should 
 procure his bread without labour, but 
 would it have been best for him ? God 
 could have so arranged things that all 
 sciences would have lain open to the 
 mind, and all men have been great phi- 
 losophers without the immense labour 
 and research which are now requisite. 
 But it is not so in fact. The author of 
 revelation might have made the prophe- 
 cies, and all the other scriptures, plain to 
 the very' careless and indolent ; but it 
 has pleased him to act here also on the 
 general rule, that " the hand of the dili- 
 gent maketh rich." The difficulty in 
 question may be a reason why we should 
 the more earnestly exert ourselves ; but 
 it creates no reason whatever, why we 
 should pass by the prophets as sealed 
 books ; unless indeed it could be made 
 to appear, that the difficulty is insur- 
 mountable. But the truth is, that ne- 
 glect of the prophets, under this very 
 apprehension, is largely the cause of the 
 obscurity complained of, and is pleaded 
 as a reason of farther neglect. Were 
 these books studied — had they been stu- 
 died in all ages of the church, with a 
 diligence pi'oportional to their impor- 
 tance, they would have been better un- 
 derstood, and we should not have been 
 ignorant of many great and glorious 
 events now upon the very eve of occur- 
 rence. Even the wise virgins slumbered 
 and slept, until the bridegroom was near. 
 
 II. Let us proceed to consider our 
 next position : that a knowledge of the 
 prophetic writings is highly conducive 
 to man's happiness. 
 
 1. The diligent student of the pro- 
 phecies will discover in those fulfilled, 
 such evidences of the wisdom, power, 
 and goodness of God toward his church, 
 as will fill his soul with wonder and 
 love. He will soon learn that the entire 
 government of God over the nations, is 
 subservient to the interests of Zion. For 
 the promotion of her welfare, empires 
 
 rise, prosper, and fall. Amid all their 
 concussions and apparent confusion, he 
 will be able to see the finger of Omni- 
 potence, directing every movement to- 
 ward that result required by the interests 
 of his believing people. 
 
 2. He will find material in great 
 abundance to upturn and hurl down the 
 crazy and fantastic fabric of infidelity. 
 Predictions of two thousand years' stand- 
 ing, he will see to be in the high road 
 of accomplishment at this hour, and his 
 own faith in the divine inspiration of the 
 volume which contains them, will be 
 settled upon the immovable rock. So 
 far from losing his faith amid the ruins 
 of ancient cities and empires, like the 
 philosophic sciolist, he will see in the 
 very rubbish that surrounds him, the 
 outgoings of God's wrath, agreeably to 
 the prophetic vision ; and whilst he 
 gazes upon the desolations which pro- 
 phecy long ago pointed out, he will 
 kindle anew at the wisdom and power 
 of the Redeemer, and will exclaim in 
 the felt adoration of his heart, " Blessed 
 is he that readeth." 
 
 3. He will acquire a knowledge of his 
 own position ; of the position of his own 
 country and of others; and of the church, 
 in reference to the great events of the 
 coming times. The riddle of nations 
 will be solved. Reasons, otherwise un- 
 known, will flash upon his mind, for 
 many great national movements. He 
 will learn to bring God into the govern- 
 ment of the world, and to view man as 
 a mere instrument in the divine hand, 
 for the accomplishment of his purposes of 
 wrath and of mercy. He will see most 
 abundant reason to believe that the 
 church, the true church of God, which 
 he hath purchased with his own blood, 
 is the society for which all others exist; 
 — " the little stone cut out of the moun- 
 tain without hands," he will see, is in- 
 deed the mountain of the Lord's house, 
 which he will establish in the tops of 
 the mountains and exalt above the hills; 
 and that all nations shall flow unto it. 
 
 4. He will acquire thus one of the 
 much neglected, but all-important quali- 
 fications of a sound statesman. He that 
 loses sight of the church in his poli- 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 15 
 
 tical investigations, may do for a party 
 wrangler in an election canvass, where 
 the parties in and out of power, are the 
 only ones interested ; but he is unfit to 
 look at any great question regarding the 
 politics of nations. Such a man has yet 
 to discover the strongest principle of 
 human action ; and one that, in all 
 ages, has influenced most powerfully 
 the destiny of nations. Religion and 
 the church, or the body of religious 
 people, have had more to do in the 
 counsels of men as well as those of God, 
 than any other principle or society, in 
 affecting the weal or wo of empires ; 
 and the study of prophecy tends largely 
 to develope the results of their action. 
 
 5. The most happy influences will be 
 operated upon the person's fitness for 
 duty, whether in the church or the state. 
 He will not be taken at unawares ; but 
 having a correct understanding of the 
 great events yet future, he will be pre- 
 pared for them. His eye will be ever 
 upon the secret and the more open move- 
 ments that portend revolution ; and he 
 will be able to detect the future general 
 results, which prophecy makes certain, 
 in the causes now operating toward their 
 production. " A prudent man fore- 
 seeth the evil, and hideth himself; but 
 the simple runneth on and is punished." 
 Such an one will not be found crying 
 " peace, peace !" at the very hour when 
 swift destruction is on the wing. The 
 hearing of the ear has arrested his at- 
 tention, and he is ready for the crisis. 
 " Blessed is that servant whom his 
 Master, when he cometh, shall find so 
 watching." 
 
 HI. The motives to the study of pro- 
 phecy, claim our attention. 
 
 One of the principal is already stated. 
 The happy results are a strong induce- 
 ment, and have just been pointed out. 
 We therefore pass on to the only one 
 formally presented in the text, — " for 
 the time is at hand," — the season for 
 these things is near. It has also been 
 observed that the things predicted in this 
 book extend to all coming time ; this 
 grand system reaches to the millennium 
 and beyond it: consequently, when it is 
 said, the season is at hand, the reference 
 
 is to certain of the events. The sum of 
 the things written in this book will speedi- 
 ly begin to be developed. 
 
 Now, whether this Apocalypse was 
 written during the Neronian persecu- 
 tion, about A. D. 68, or, as is more pro- 
 bable, during the Dioclesian persecution, 
 about A. D. 98, part of " the things 
 which shall be hereafter," were indeed 
 near. The first seal, as we shall see, 
 announces the rapid, and triumphant 
 spread of the gospel. Its harbingers 
 had already gone forth, and the cause 
 had made considerable advance. Nor 
 were the bloody contents of the second 
 seal far in the distance. 
 
 We might, however, refer to the 
 things which are, and the things which 
 John had seen, verse 19, as being in 
 the book and near at hand. The state 
 of the seven churches of Asia is de- 
 scribed, and messages are addressed to 
 them, suited to their respective charac- 
 ters and conditions ; and these were 
 truly near, both as to time and place. 
 But the proximity of any of the things 
 written in this prophecy, to the time of 
 the writing, is not now the practical 
 question. All that was near then in the 
 future, is now distant in the past. Our 
 concern is with the truth of the reason, 
 as to what is future and near to us. Is 
 there reason to believe, that among " the 
 things that shall be hereafter," some of 
 great and commanding interest, deeply 
 affecting our nation, and all other na- 
 tions, — fearfully important to the inte- 
 rests of Zion and the glory of her ever- 
 living Head, are near to come ? Are 
 we on the eve of most eventful revolu- 
 tions in empire? Are the governments 
 of this world, very shortly, to undergo 
 most fearful overturnings ? Is the God 
 of Israel and the Governor among the 
 nations, about to " dash the potsherds of 
 the earth against the potsherds of the 
 earth V Is he about to display his 
 holy arm in the eyes of all the people ; 
 in the terrors of his judgment upon them 
 for their tyrannical oppression ; in the 
 sweeping vengeance of his almighty 
 power, for their persecution of his 
 church; in the glorious manifestation of 
 his truth and the upbuilding of that 
 
16 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 kingdom which is " righteousness and 
 peace and joy in the Holy Ghost ?" 
 
 What say the visions of prophecy, 
 and the signs of the times ? What mean 
 these mighty heavings, — these subterra- 
 nean motions, — these tremendous pulsa- 
 tions in the body politic all over Europe? 
 Is not the giant of Despotism labouring 
 under some spasmodic agony that must 
 soon burst forth in convulsions that will 
 shake his very frame to atoms ? Is not 
 the master power of Europe, on whose 
 empire the sun never sets, and whose 
 policy may be changed by the pettish 
 mood of a woman, grasping after empire, 
 with an eagerness and greed and reck- 
 lessness, hitherto unparalleled, even in 
 her history ? And can we not see in 
 these preternatural symptoms, the pre- 
 cursor of some fearful reversion ? 
 " Watchman, what of the night !" Do 
 the visions of prophecy let down no ray 
 upon the darkness of this scenery ? Will 
 the nations awake to liberty in a mo- 
 ment, — in the twinkling of an eye ? Will 
 the giant of despotic rule lay his head 
 peacefully upon his pillow at night, and 
 awake in the morning the friend of free- 
 dom and of man ? Or will he quiver 
 out a lingering death, pierced to the heart 
 by the sword of truth ? 
 
 Will the mid-day of millennial glory 
 burst upon the world at once ? Will " no 
 glory-beaming star" usher in her bright 
 morning? "Tell us, watchman of the 
 night !" 
 
 Thus, brethren, the yearnings of the 
 heart, all over Christendom, and the 
 ominous signs of the times, call upon us 
 to look into the heavenly records con- 
 cerning " the things which shall be here- 
 after." Reason herself teaches, that God 
 would not leave his church entirely igno- 
 rant of those coming events which " cast 
 their shadows before," and which are of 
 most thrilling interest to her, and to the 
 whole world. Let us, therefore, gird up 
 the loins of our minds, and lay our heads 
 and our hearts to the work of searching 
 the Scriptures, if perhaps we may ac- 
 quire some knowledge of our present 
 attitude, in regard to approaching revo- 
 lutions, and the glory that shall follow. 
 Away with the vain dream that the mil- 
 
 lennium is begun. Ah no ! this season 
 of error and delusion — this age of re- 
 buke and blasphemy — this generation of 
 scoffers, atheists, pantheists, and sab- 
 bath-breakers — this period of tyranny, 
 despotism and oppression — these cam- 
 paigns of slanders and falsehoods — this 
 world of contentions, wrath, anger, ma- 
 lice, and evil-speaking, — ah, no ! thou 
 bleeding Lamb of God ! thou Prince of 
 the kings of the earth ! thou God and 
 Governor among the nations ! this is 
 not thy glorious reign ! No, brethren ; 
 through yonder sea of blood, the church 
 must first pass. A severe and terrible, 
 though short battle, she must fight, ere 
 the Cross be finally triumphant, and the 
 broad white banner of the Prince of 
 Peace shed its glory round the globe. 
 
 The way in which we know these 
 things is extremely simple and easily 
 pointed out. We have in the Bible an 
 extended system of prophecy, containing 
 a history, written by the infallible Au- 
 thor of revelation, of the four great des- 
 potic monarchies — the Babylonish, or 
 Assyrio-Chaldaic, the Medo-Persian, the 
 Grseco-Macedonian, and the Roman. 
 Parallel with this, and connected occa- 
 sionally, there is another history — that 
 of the Church of God. These prophetic 
 histories are complete and consistent in 
 themselves ; and their relations to each 
 other are very important for us to know. 
 But there is another history, written by 
 fallible pens, and therefore very defective, 
 which forms the counterpart to the pro- 
 phetic narration : the records of facts 
 for which we are indebted to different 
 writers in various ages. Now it is the 
 defects of the latter, that create the chief 
 difficulty to the interpreter of prophecy. 
 In many cases we are unable to point 
 out the historic facts which tally with the 
 prophetic statements : not, as we have a 
 right to presume, because the facts did 
 not occur, but because no historian has 
 recorded them, or the record is lost. This 
 we have a right to presume, for, we do 
 find many of the leading events of his- 
 tory to coincide with prophecy in a most 
 striking and remarkable manner. Two 
 witnesses bear testimony on one and the 
 same subject. One gives a clear and 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 17 
 
 connected narrative of what he saw and 
 heard ; the other only touches upon parts 
 of what his predecessor relates ; yet so 
 far as he goes, is consistent with him, 
 and in some points exhibits facts that lie 
 out of the line drawn by the former. 
 Now, there is neither inconsistency or 
 contradiction here. Both are entitled to 
 credit as men of truth. History may be 
 credible, although she do not record all 
 that prophecy has recorded ; but it is ob- 
 vious that her omissions will create diffi- 
 culty to him who attempts to draw the 
 parallel between them. 
 
 Notwithstanding these difficulties, if 
 we succeed in running out the parallel 
 and fixing, beyond controversy, the great 
 leading points of agreement between pro- 
 phecy and history, it is obvious that we 
 must settle dates and infallibly establish 
 chronology in prophecy, by means of 
 the known dates of the facts to which 
 they refer, even where the prophet af- 
 fixed no date. And if we thus run down 
 the prophetic chain, link after link, we 
 cannot but ascertain the links which 
 reach our own times, and, of course, 
 those which refer to the future. Having 
 thus established our own prophetic chro- 
 nology, we know what prophecies are 
 yet future, as to their accomplishment; 
 and if any of them belong to a class, 
 part of which is accomplished, we shut 
 up ourselves to some knowledge of things 
 that shall be : and it is not presumption 
 but duty to look forward to them. 
 
 Proceeding in this reasonable course, 
 we shall see cause to believe that the 
 time is at hand for the most magnificent 
 transactions to which prophecy refers. 
 The period is near its close, during which 
 the church of God shall be in a depressed 
 and mourning state — during which Anti- 
 Christ, or the ' : man of sin and son of 
 perdition/' shall tyrannize over the souls 
 and bodies of men; at the termination of 
 which, the church of God will be perse- 
 cuted with such success in the bounds of 
 the Western Roman Empire, as to re- 
 sult in the entire suppression of her pub- 
 lic, visible testimony for the truth. After 
 which last and most fearful persecution, 
 she will arise in new beauty and glory, 
 her persecuting foes will be hurled to de- 
 
 3 
 
 struction, and the reign of righteousness 
 and peace will speed rapidly over the 
 earth, until the whole world be brought 
 under the peaceful dominion of Messiah : 
 when governments of law, founded on 
 the equal rights of man, will pervade 
 Europe, and the world ; and all the earth 
 will be filled with the glory of God. 
 The first acts of this great drama, if we 
 are not greatly mistaken, will be wit- 
 nessed by many of you. If, therefore, 
 my young friends, you may be called 
 upon by the King in Zion, the throne of 
 whose moral dominion over the hearts of 
 men, must, and will be established above 
 the ruins of all other thrones, to bran- 
 dish a blade, carnal or spiritual, in the 
 wars of the Lord, — if there is but a faint 
 probability of this, shall we not have 
 your ear to these discussions, which are 
 intended to throw the light of revelation 
 upon the darkness of approaching con- 
 flicts? Will you not search the Scrip- 
 tures to see whether these things be so? 
 "Blessed is he that readeth, for the time 
 is at hand." 
 
 In summing up the practical matter 
 of this discourse, we remark, 
 
 1. Let us not despise prophesy ings. 
 Let us not, under show of extreme reve- 
 rence for Scripture, " hide it under a 
 bushel." But, as the faithful and true 
 philosopher puts nature to the torture, to 
 force her to confess her secrets, so will 
 we place the prophetic language in the 
 crucible of sound criticism, that we may 
 discover the truths it contains. 
 
 Let us, like the student of nature, use 
 our longest line to fathom the depths of 
 her mysteries, and if we fail, humbly 
 confess our failure ; but at the same time, 
 use all possible means to lengthen the 
 line, that at a future day we may be able 
 to accomplish what is now beyond our 
 reach. Caution and humility are al- 
 ways handmaidens of sound philosophy; 
 whether her field of inquiry be the book 
 of nature, or that of revelation — whether 
 history, doctrinal truth, or prophecy. 
 
 2. The Scripture prophecies, to which 
 our attention will be directed, are an ex- 
 tended system; therefore, much atten- 
 tion, long-continued and persevering 
 study, will be indispensable to their right 
 
18 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 understanding and our profit. The in- 
 dolent, of course, will remain ignorant, 
 and to them, these lectures will be of no 
 peculiar interest : for where the under- 
 standing is not enlisted in the discussion, 
 the heart will not long feel any concern. 
 " None of the wicked," says Daniel 
 (xii. 10), "shall understand: but the 
 wise shall understand." 
 
 3. No man can be prepared for his 
 duty, who is ignorant of his moral re- 
 lations. If we will know what God will 
 have us to do, we must look at the cir- 
 cumstances in which he has placed us : 
 and that, both as connected with the past 
 and the future. " If the trumpet give an 
 uncertain sound, who shall prepare him- 
 self for the battle?" If we remain in 
 doubt as to the field of conflict, the na- 
 ture and numbers of the foe, it is im- 
 possible we should perform the duties of 
 soldiers in the battle, or share the glory 
 of victors in the hour of triumph. 
 
 4. We must, in these, and all other en- 
 deavours to ascertain the meaning of the 
 Scriptures, look to their Author, for his 
 divine teachings, that our minds may be 
 guided into all truth. None but this in- 
 structor can present a plain path before 
 us : and we have his promise for needed 
 aid. Thus proceeding, we shall have a 
 good foundation for the time to come, 
 and shall stand in our lot at the end of 
 the davs. 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 >ebuchad>ezzae's dream. 
 
 Daniel ii. 31-45. 
 
 The fate of empire often hangs upon 
 a hair. Incidents, apparently the most 
 trivial, give occasion to results the most 
 magnificent. A mere transient ebulli- 
 tion of feeling, in the individual bosom, 
 overturns a kingdom, or dethrones a dy- 
 nasty. Oliver Cromwell and John Hamp- 
 den had taken their passage for Ame- 
 rica and were on the eve of departure, 
 when a fit of spleen, jealousy, or some 
 other evil feeling, stimulated Charles to 
 
 arrest them; hence the downfall of the 
 house of Stuart, and the upbuilding of 
 the cause of human freedom. But for 
 this ebullition of passion, in forty days 
 the wide Atlantic would have rolled be- 
 tween the throne of tyranny in the Bri- 
 tish isles, and the two master spirits of 
 republican liberty and the Protestant suc- 
 cession. The effects of their expatria- 
 tion who can divine? With the most 
 consummate general of that or any other 
 age, as he proved to be, and the most 
 heroic, pure, and skilful statesman, must 
 not the vast wilds of the new world have 
 become much more speedily the home of 
 freedom, and the tide of her population 
 have rolled with much greater rapidity 
 upon the desert haunts of the wild In- 
 dian ? Would not these heroic leaders 
 have been followed by immense multi- 
 tudes of the oppressed Protestants, the 
 ardent friends of human rights ; and 
 must not the swollen billows, long ere 
 this, have laved the distant sides of the 
 Rocky Mountains? But then, whilst 
 the cause would have gained on the one 
 hand, it would have lost on the other. 
 What would have become of Protestant 
 freedom in Britain, in Europe? Would 
 not the Star Chamber and the Inquisition 
 have coalesced, and Laud been another 
 name for the Pope? Would liberty at 
 this hour have had a foothold in Europe? 
 What mighty results from apparently 
 trivial incidents? 
 
 An unholy emotion, — an ambitious 
 feeling springs up in the bosom of one 
 of the very best kings that ever sat on 
 the throne of David, and he must needs 
 go out against Pharaoh-Necho, king of 
 Egypt, to battle. You see the history in 
 2 Chron. xxxv. 20, 2 Kings xxiii. 29. 
 The king of Egypt, whose object was 
 to attack Carchemish by Euphrates, a 
 town then tributary to the king of Baby- 
 Ion, entreated Josiah to forbear, " What 
 have I to do with thee, thou king of Ju- 
 dah ?" " Nevertheless Josiah would not 
 turn his face from him, but disguised 
 himself that he might fight with him, 
 and hearkened not to the words of Ne- 
 cho from the mouth of God, and came to 
 fight in the valley of Megiddo." And 
 there, in this vast " battle-ground of na- 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 19 
 
 tions," the good king fell, and was car- 
 ried to Jerusalem, amid the nation's 
 lamentation and wo. But mark what 
 hangs upon this thread. Jehoahaz, the 
 son of Josiah, was proclaimed king. But 
 " the king of Egypt put him down at 
 Jerusalem, and made his brother Eliakim 
 king over Judah and Jerusalem, and 
 changed his name to Jehoiakim ;" he con- 
 demned the land and their king to pay a 
 tribute of an hundred talents of silver 
 and a talent of gold. After eleven years, 
 the king of Babylon came against him : 
 for Nebuchadnezzar had turned the tide 
 of blood against the Egyptian monarch, 
 retook Carchemish, brought Jerusalem 
 into tributary subjection, and carried 
 away some of the vessels of the temple 
 and many of the people. Thus, one 
 rash act of a good man, embroiled his 
 kingdom in the wars of two mighty na- 
 tions, between which his little territory 
 lay, and brought after it distresses innu- 
 merable to his unhappy descendants. 
 Had Josiah taken the advice of Necho, 
 humanly speaking, he might have main- 
 tained an honourable and independent 
 neutrality : but it was God's purpose to 
 chastise his rebellious church for the 
 horrible corruptions of religion. For 
 Manasseh, the grandfather of Josiah, 
 " made Judah and the inhabitants of Je- 
 rusalem to err, and to do worse than the 
 heathen," (See 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1-10.) 
 These idolatrous practices God would 
 punish. Therefore Josiah was left to the 
 freedom of his own will, unrestrained 
 and undirected by over-ruling grace, in 
 this particular; and this trivial outbreak 
 of pride or ambition, was the occasion 
 of the Babylonish captivity, in which the 
 prophet Daniel and his three companions 
 were involved. 
 
 The date of this captivity it is proper 
 we should settle. Daniel tells us that it 
 was " in the third year of the reign of 
 Jehoiakim, king of Judah," that Nebu- 
 chadnezzar took Jerusalem. This, it 
 must be remembered, was the first " car- 
 rying away;" and is not the period al- 
 luded to in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 5, 6, when 
 Nebuchadnezzar bound Jehoiakim in fet- 
 ters to carry him to Babylon. This was 
 when "he had reigned eleven years in 
 
 Jerusalem." Also from 2 Kings xxiv. 1, 
 we learn, that Jehoiakim had been tribu- 
 tary to Nebuchadnezzar three years ; 
 after which he rebelled; which three 
 years must count from the first captivity, 
 when Daniel was carried away. This 
 would bring us to the beginning of his 
 seventh year. But it was not until the 
 eleventh that he was put in fetters. 
 These five years were, however, em- 
 ployed in various partisan wars and con- 
 flicts between the king of Judah and 
 " bands of the Chaldeans and bands of 
 the Moabites and bands of the children 
 of Ammon," all, either the soldiers or 
 allies of the Babylonish monarch. 
 
 Moreover, we are told by Jeremiah 
 (xlvi. 2,) that Pharaoh-Necho was de- 
 feated by Nebuchadnezzar. " in the 
 fourth year of Jehoiakim." But Daniel 
 tells us that the first detachment of the 
 captivity was in the third year. These 
 compared give us to understand that 
 the Babylonish generalissimo, Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, (for he was not king, pro- 
 perly so called ; he was only prince re- 
 gent and commander-in-chief at this time 
 — his father, Nebopollasser, being old 
 and infirm,) attacked the Egyptian for- 
 tress at Carchemish, carried it by storm, 
 marched westward, took Jerusalem and 
 sent back the first caravan of captives, 
 including Daniel, in the third year of 
 Jehoiakim. He pursued his advantages 
 against Necho, poured his victorious le- 
 gions into the valley of the Nile, and 
 made the king tremble for the fate of his 
 hundred-gated city. But ere the con- 
 quest of Egypt was completed, the vic- 
 tor received intelligence that his father 
 had fallen beneath the sword of all-vic- 
 torious death. Whereupon he returned, 
 laden with immense spoils, took posses- 
 sion of his throne, and beautified and 
 embellished Babylon with the treasures 
 of Egypt. This return was in the fourth 
 year of Jehoiakim ; and, whilst the king 
 of Babylon was thus employed, the king 
 of Jerusalem, after two years, refused to 
 pay the tribute. He rebelled, and four 
 or five years were spent in various expe- 
 ditions against him ; until, in his eleventh 
 year, Nebuchadnezzar, having settled 
 the general policy and government at 
 
20 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 home, proceeded on a second great west- 
 ern excursion ; at which time he bound 
 Jehoiakim with fetters, intending to send 
 him to Babylon. This intention, how- 
 ever, was probably prevented by his 
 death. For says Jeremiah, (xxii. 18, 19, 
 and xxxvi. 30), " He shall be buried with 
 the burial of an ass, drawn and cast 
 forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." 
 
 To him succeeded his son Jehoiakim, 
 who reigned but three months, when the 
 king of Babylon placed Mattaniah, his 
 uncle, the brother of Jehoiakim, on the 
 throne, under the name of Zedekiah, and 
 took Jehoiakim to Babylon, where he 
 was a prisoner for thirty years. He was 
 released in the first year of Evil Mero- 
 dach, the son and successor of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar. (2 Kings xxv. 27. See also 
 the Universal History, vol. iii. p. 416 ; 
 Rollin, vol. i. 287.) 
 
 Again, we learn from Jeremiah, (xxv. 
 1,) that the fourth year of Jehoiakim is 
 the first year of Nebuchadnezzar ; which, 
 compared with Daniel's statement, (i. 1,) 
 that the first captivity was in the third 
 year of Jehoiakim, proves that Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, was not properly king at 
 the time of his first western expedition, 
 as already observed. But the dethrone- 
 ment and death of Jehoiakim was in the 
 seventh year of the king of Babylon, 
 (Jeremiah lii. 28,) and, of cpurse, in the 
 tenth or eleventh of the king of Judah ; 
 and according to Archbishop Usher's 
 chronology, in the year before Christ 
 597. The dream of the image was five 
 years before this — in the second year of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, (Daniel ii. 1.) Rollin, 
 by some mistake, says that it was in the 
 fourth year, so that the true date of the 
 dream will be 602 before Christ; con- 
 sequently, in the year of the world, 
 3402 ; 1746 years after the flood, and 
 152 years after the founding of the Ro- 
 man state, which occurred, Ante Chris- 
 tum 753. 
 
 Thus, in the very commencement of 
 a reign, which continued forty-three 
 years with unusual prosperity — the reign 
 of a prince whose military prowess, 
 whilst yet a youth, had carried the ter- 
 ror of his name to the very gates of 
 Thebes, whence he had returned, laden 
 
 with spoils, to a throne already dazzling 
 in the splendour of wealth — was ex- 
 hibited a dream and a vision which con- 
 tains the history of empires for thousands 
 of years to come. ■ 
 
 The age of Daniel at this juncture, we 
 cannot precisely determine. The king 
 had given instructions to an officer, to 
 select a few promising youths — they are 
 called children, — and put them under a 
 system of careful discipline, that they 
 might be fitted to act as interpreters, or 
 to be useful to the king's service in any 
 way. He made liberal provision of food 
 and wine for them. But from prudential 
 and conscientious motives, " Daniel pur- 
 posed in his heart, that he would not 
 defile himself with the portion of the 
 king's meat, nor with the wine which he 
 drank." " Let them give us," said he, 
 " pulse to eat, and water to drink." " So 
 he consented to them in this matter," 
 and they were to remain three years un- 
 der discipline, agreeably to this system ; 
 at the end of which time they were to 
 be presented before the king. But he 
 had need of them sooner ; for the verses, 
 (17-20 of chapter i.,) which speak of 
 their presentation, is a prolepsis in the 
 history — an anticipation of a fact prior 
 to the exact order of time, as is common 
 with all historians. This will appear, if 
 it is recollected that Daniel was brought 
 to Babylon in the third year of Jehoia- 
 kim, and that the fourth of Jehoiakim 
 was the first of Nebuchadnezzar. Of- 
 course, the sixth of the former, which 
 would correspond with the third of Da- 
 niel's probation and instruction, must be 
 the third of the latter. Consequently, 
 the dream of the king occurred in the 
 second year of Daniel's course, and he 
 was interrupted in it by the providential 
 call to interpret the dream. He had not 
 completed his system of discipline, when 
 the edict of the king went forth to de- 
 stroy all the wise men for their ignorance 
 and their pretensions to learning which 
 they did not possess. " Then Daniel 
 answered with counsel and wisdom to 
 Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, 
 who was gone forth to slay the wise men 
 of Babylon." His and his friends' inter- 
 position, saved them from destruction ; 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 21 
 
 — not the last and only case, where a 
 few self-denying, noble-hearted youth 
 have rescued their companions from 
 utter ruin, and led away the public in- 
 tellect, from the vain-glorious boastings 
 of empty heads, to the sober, plodding 
 investigations that result in substantial 
 truth and sound literature. 
 
 Such is our first introduction to the 
 Hebrew lad, whose history is to occupy 
 our attention for some time. A captive 
 in a strange land, he is called to instruct 
 his captors. Verily these young He- 
 brews afford us many lessons of practi- 
 cal wisdom. Look at the slave of Poti- 
 phar, who was taken from prison, eleven 
 hundred and three years before Daniel's 
 time, and placed at the head of a mighty 
 nation. See with what calm dignity he 
 drops the fetters of slavery, wreathes 
 around his neck the chain of gold, 
 studded with precious jewels, and takes 
 up the great seal and signet, — insignia 
 of the highest office in the gift of the 
 mightiest monarch on the globe. Nor 
 does his head become giddy at the height 
 of his elevation. He looks not down 
 with scorn on all, that before stood over 
 him. The slave, now master of an em- 
 pire, is not a tyrant. Can any but the 
 Christian philosopher account for the 
 prudence, wisdom, and moderation, dis- 
 played in the administration of the shep- 
 herd boy? 
 
 Look, after a lapse of more than 
 eleven hundred years, at the fortunes of 
 another Hebrew stripling, in the other 
 great cradle of the arts and sciences, 
 and seat of empire. Mark his demeanour 
 in the august presence of the first sove- 
 reign in the world. Flow modest, — 
 how humble, — how self-possessed ! Mark 
 him well, for we shall hereafter be called 
 upon to witness the dignity of this youth 
 after sixty-seven additional winters will 
 have shed their frosts upon his head, 
 and together with superior wisdom and 
 sanctity, have made him an object of 
 sublime grandeur. We shall see him 
 stand forth, erect and firm, in the night 
 of Belshazzar's terror, the ruins of an 
 empire, and crash of a dynasty, scatter- 
 ing their fragments, in all directions 
 around him. But there he stands, the 
 
 Mentor of another monarch, the coun- 
 sellor of a new dynasty, the premier of 
 a new empire. Wonderful man! Could 
 any thing but the spirit of the Holy One, 
 have given such wisdom, prudence and 
 firmness to a mortal 1 
 
 " A dream cometh through the mul- 
 titude of business ;" and we should sup- 
 pose that for all such dreams, men are 
 accountable. It is admitted, that for all 
 our waking thoughts we are responsible ; 
 and if our thoughts in partial sleep, re- 
 sult from those of our waking hours, 
 they must have a moral character. The 
 dream of Nebuchadnezzar was of this 
 description. Its matter lay in the direc- 
 tion of his thoughts, and daily avoca- 
 tions. How dreams are brought about, 
 we are almost entirely ignorant. In- 
 deed the laws of mental activity are but 
 very imperfectly understood. How mat- 
 ter affects mind, and mind acts upon 
 matter, even in ourselves, and in our 
 waking moments, we know not; how 
 much greater, then, our ignorance in 
 that strange and mysterious state of 
 existence called sleep. The soul and 
 body in perfectly sound sleep, seem 
 divorced from each other : so that the 
 former acts independently of the latter. 
 We have no consciousness of mental 
 activity during this period. Perhaps it 
 would be more correct to say that we 
 have no remembrance of such conscious- 
 ness afterwards ; and therefore, we have 
 hardly just data to infer the reality of 
 such action. We have partial memory 
 of mental activity in that disturbed and 
 imperfect region where dreams are 
 formed. But memory is dependent on 
 consciousness. A man cannot remem- 
 ber what he never knew, or was never 
 conscious of experiencing ; and yet not 
 every thing of which we were conscious, 
 can we remember. Still, we can recol- 
 lect portions of a series of mental actions, 
 — a framework of the mind, whilst we 
 feel confident that parts of the baseless , 
 fabric are lost. Our spirits, in a season 
 of divorcement from the toils and tram- 
 mels of flesh, may be holding converse 
 with other spirits, — the souls of de- 
 parted friends; of angels, good or bad, or 
 of God their Maker. Our dreams are but 
 
22 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 the dying whispers of these interviews 
 confusedly echoing through the inlets 
 of clay. But He who formed this earthly 
 habitation for the immortal mind, and 
 who has been pleased to limit, for a 
 time, our distinct consciousness of men- 
 tal activities, to the season of conjunct 
 action with the body, may and undoubt- 
 edly often has, turned aside from his 
 ordinary course, and granted to men in- 
 tellectual actions, and the consciousness 
 of their reality, without the intervention 
 of the bodily powers ; or rather inde- 
 pendently of their use. Perhaps, in- 
 deed, the only thing extraordinary in 
 such cases, is the temporary independ- 
 ence of the mind upon the body, for its 
 consciousness. This is what we call 
 vision or seeing. God gives to man's 
 soul, to man himself apart from the 
 clogs of clay, a sight or vision of im- 
 portant truth, or of objects that teach 
 important truth. Nebuchadnezzar had 
 a dream, obscure, faint and fading from 
 the tablets of memory : but to Daniel 
 was the secret recalled in a ni«;ht vision, 
 — clear, plain, and indelible. Hence, in- 
 troduced, as we have said, into the royal 
 presence, attended probably by his three 
 friends, before a large collection of splen- 
 did courtiers, and we may well suppose, 
 of the chief astrologers of this renowned 
 school, Daniel proceeds to tell the dream, 
 and to make known the interpretation. 
 
 " Thou, O King, sawest, and behold 
 a great image. This great image, 
 whose brightness was excellent, stood 
 before thee ; and the form thereof was 
 terrible. This image's head was of fine 
 gold, his breast and his arms of silver, 
 his belly and his thighs of brass, his 
 legs of iron, his feet part of iron and 
 part of clay. Thou sawest till that a 
 stone was cut out without hands, which 
 smote the image upon his feet that were 
 of iron and clay, and brake them to 
 pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, 
 the brass, the silver and the gold broken 
 to pieces together, and became like the 
 chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; 
 and the wind carried them away and no 
 place was found for them : and the stone 
 that smote the image became a great 
 mountain and filled the whole earth." 
 
 This language presents to our con- 
 templation two and only two distinct 
 objects, — the giant image and the little 
 stone. If no explanation were given by 
 the prophet, yet would we be led imme- 
 diately to suppose, that these are both 
 symbols ; that is, figurative representa- 
 tions of some objects or matters, of deep 
 and thrilling interest. But with the ex- 
 position of the Hebrew seer before us, 
 we have no room to doubt ; hesitancy 
 finds not a foot-breadth on which to 
 stand. Here is a gorgeous and imposing 
 symbol of the four great universal mo- 
 narchies, on the one hand ; and of the 
 one Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, on the other. 
 
 Before we proceed with Daniel to dis- 
 sect this giant, a few remarks in refer- 
 ence to the symbols will be profitable. 
 
 1. The fact must be particularly 
 noted, that the symbol in each case is 
 a unit)'-. The great image or figure is 
 one, notwithstanding that it consists of 
 several parts. It presents unity of idea. 
 Whatever may be the local and peculiar 
 interests, yet there is one common in- 
 terest : something proper to no one of 
 the sections into which it is divided ; but 
 which runs through the whole, and con- 
 stitutes the principle of its unity. The 
 figure does indeed represent, in and by 
 its several sections, the four great mo- 
 narchies ; but besides exhibiting them 
 as distinct empires, it exhibits them as 
 blended into, and constituting one vast 
 complex power. The blood-vessels and 
 their contents and the nerves of the 
 human body cannot be divided into four 
 independent portions. Each of these 
 systems pervades the whole body, so 
 that the symbol is naturally fitted to 
 represent the unity of life, power and 
 energ)' ; whilst the division of it into 
 sections, naturally incapable of separate 
 existence, is well adapted to exhibit a 
 local change, as to the exertion of the 
 one spirit and power of the body. 
 
 The other symbol, the little stone, is 
 homogeneous, and is not calculated to 
 produce any idea of complexity. It is 
 not separated into parts ; it consists not 
 of a variety of members united by some 
 one common principle; but it is simple 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 23 
 
 in itself; one and indivisible. It is, 
 therefore, suited to represent that one 
 system of moral rule set up in the 
 church of God, or rather the church 
 itself: that one great society, as it 
 proves to be in the issue, which God 
 has organized in the world, and 
 which He will make ultimately uni- 
 versal. 
 
 2. The things symbolized respectively 
 by the image and the stone are antago- 
 nist ; their interests are at variance ; 
 their opposition perpetual ; and the con- 
 sequence of it, destruction to one. This 
 is prominently set forth in verse 35, 
 where the result is described. By the 
 action of the little stone, the image, — 
 not the head, the feet, the thighs, the 
 breast; but the whole image and all its 
 parts and portions, become as the chaff 
 of the summer threshing-floor, and are 
 so entirely dissipated, that no place is 
 found for them. This fact is utterly de- 
 structive of the interpretations of many, 
 whose scheme makes it necessary to 
 begin the kingdom of Messiah with the 
 Christian era, or at the time of His 
 second personal advent. 
 
 Now, the question is, what powers 
 are intended 1 What are the two great 
 and all absorbing interests, here symbo- 
 lized, so completely antagonistical, so 
 perpetually and irreconcilably hostile to 
 each other, that extermination, — utter 
 annihilation, must and will be the result 
 of this hostility ? 
 
 3. The answer is our principal re- 
 mark here. The little stone is the 
 symbol of government by law ; the great 
 image is the symbol of government by 
 force ; — the one represents the dominion 
 of truth over man by the power of an 
 enlightened conscience ; the other, the 
 domination of error and delusion through 
 cringing fear and gross ignorance : the 
 former is the spirit of true freedom, 
 which, by instructing the mind in the 
 knowledge of moral truth, breaks off 
 every yoke and makes the man free in- 
 deed ; the latter is the spirit of arbitrary 
 power, which keeps man ignorant of 
 his relations, duties and privileges, and 
 rivets the fetters of bondage upon the 
 race. This is the dragon of despotism, 
 
 — that the man-child of moral govern- 
 ment. (Rev. xii.) 
 
 4. Hence our anxiety to press upon 
 your notice, for perpetual remembrance, 
 the true nature and use of this vision. 
 It is a compendium of all history, at 
 least of all that history which nearly 
 interests us. It runs down from the 
 days of Nimrod, more than twenty- 
 two centuries before the Christian era, 
 to the Millennium, and, as to the king- 
 dom of the great mountain, to the end 
 of the world. Stretch this terrible form 
 upon the map of the Eastern continent, 
 and see what of history the huge mass 
 will leave uncovered. His head of gold 
 rests in the vast valley of the Euphrates. 
 His dishevelled hair straggles across the 
 Indus and intrudes upon Tartary. His 
 broad left shoulder hides Arabia, his 
 arm reaches over Egypt, and his hand 
 extends along Northern Africa to Mount 
 Atlas. His body lies to the North and 
 West, his left foot terminating upon the 
 great European peninsula, and his right 
 on the British Isles : his right arm 
 reaches over the Caspian and Black 
 Seas, and his hand rests on the valley 
 of the Danube. What of ancient history 
 have we then left ? Nothing, but the 
 Chinese romance, and the unwritten 
 story of Siberian frosts and Russian 
 snows. The history of the four great 
 monarchies and of the church of God, 
 is the history of the world : and he, who 
 in a long life, shall have filled up the 
 historical outline of Nebuchadnezzar's 
 dream as told and interpreted by Daniel, 
 will leave behind him at his death, the 
 reputation of a well-read historian. 
 
 5. One more remark, before we take 
 up the dissecting knife and attack the 
 monster. In dealing, as we must in 
 these lectures, deal, largely in profane 
 history, we do not desecrate this sacred 
 place. The Bible contains a great 
 amount of history, that in this sense is 
 profane ; that is, it is not strictly the 
 record of the sacred society which God 
 has established. We admit that it is 
 not the design of the Bible to detail 
 histories of the kingdoms of this world. 
 Its leading object is to give us an ac- 
 count, so far as it is historical, of reli- 
 
24 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 gion, of true piety, and of course, of the 
 church where this is to be found. But 
 incidental to this, is the history of the 
 creation, of the flood, of the spread of 
 Noah's family after the flood, of the 
 establishment of empires, and other in- 
 numerable things. Of these early events 
 we have no other sure record. Still it 
 is true, that these are subsidiary to the 
 leading design. It is not for their own 
 sakes that the history of the four mo- 
 narchies is exhibited in this programme, 
 or their outline filled up, less or more 
 completely in subsequent pages ; it is 
 for Zion's sake ; it is on account of the 
 kingdom of the little stone. Accord- 
 ingly, the Babylonish history is little 
 more than absurd fable, until the period 
 when it comes into collision with the 
 church of God. Goliath we had never 
 heard of but for David : this great image 
 would be unknown to the sacred volume, 
 and less known otherwise than it is, but 
 that its feet struck upon the little stone, 
 and attempted to stamp it to powder. 
 So, we shall bring the history of na- 
 tions, thrones and dynasties into these 
 lectures, no more than the Bible does, and 
 no more than is requisite, in order to ex- 
 hibit the glory of God, who is the Gover- 
 nor among the nations ; and the wisdom, 
 power and goodness he has displayed in 
 the protection and defence of his church. 
 
 Let us proceed to the dissection of 
 the image, — the general analysis of the 
 vision. " This," continues Daniel, " is 
 the dream : and we will tell the inter- 
 pretation thereof before the king. Thou, 
 O king, art a king of kings : for the 
 God of heaven hath given thee a king- 
 dom, power, and strength, and glory. 
 And wheresoever the children of men 
 dwell, the beasts of the field, and the 
 fowls of the heaven, hath he given into 
 thine hand, and hath made thee ruler 
 over them all. Thou art this head of 
 gold." (Verses 36, 37, 38.) 
 
 1. Here we remark, that not the in- 
 dividual man, but the mighty king, is 
 addressed : nor is it the person of the 
 king, or the kingly power at this precise 
 juncture that is intended. For he has 
 divided the image into four parts ; and 
 in the very next verses, he speaks of 
 
 another, and of a third and fourth king- 
 doms ; showing plainly, that he speaks 
 of the first kingdom, when he says, 
 " Thou art this head of gold." The 
 golden head is a symbol of the Assyrio- 
 Babylonish empire or kingdom, whose 
 throne, in the very height of its glory, 
 Nebuchadnezzar occupied at the mo- 
 ment, and whose sceptre, in its most 
 extensive sway, he then held. 
 
 2. Though some little abatement may 
 be necessary for, and on account of 
 Eastern metaphor, yet there is nothing 
 of flattery in this address. Particularly, 
 if we could stretch our faith so as to ad- 
 mit as truth, the representations of the 
 Greek historians, who after Ktesias, 
 refer the excessive splendours of Baby- 
 lon to the distant age of Ninus and his 
 queen Semiramis. But even rejecting 
 as extravagant fable the reports of Kte- 
 sias, as the authors of the Universal 
 History, Rollin and the Abbe Millot do, 
 and supposing that many of the splendid 
 structures of Babylon were the work of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, and then in progress ; 
 still, it was a golden city. For magni- 
 ficence and apparently for strength, she 
 stood queen of the world : her young 
 king wore upon his brow laurels of vic- 
 tory from the gates of Thebes : — Egypt's 
 proud monarch had cowered before him. 
 
 3. It is according to God's mode of 
 dealing with men, to adapt the symbols 
 of prophecy to the persons to whom 
 they are presented. Daniel had the same 
 powers, set forth under far different 
 figures, as we shall see. But here it was 
 to a most splendid monarch that the 
 dream was given ; and of course a gor- 
 geous, golden-headed image would be 
 much more likely to impress his mind and 
 command his attention than if he had 
 seen himself exhibited as a beast of prey. 
 Isaiah (xiv. 4) calls Babylon, " the gol- 
 den city." " And after thee shall arise 
 another kingdom inferior to thee, and 
 another third kingdom of brass, which 
 shall bear rule over all the earth. And 
 the fourth kingdom shall be strong as 
 iron : forasmuch as iron breaketh in 
 pieces and subdueth all things: and as 
 iron that breaketh all these, shall it break 
 in pieces and bruise," (39-40.) 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 25 
 
 The breast and arms of silver symbol- 
 ize the Medo-Persian empire, founded by 
 Cyrus the Great, upon the ruins of the 
 preceding. As to the order of succes- 
 sion here, there can be no question. All 
 history and every chronological canon 
 agree in the general facts, however they 
 may differ as to the precise periods 
 of certain reigns, or as to the extent 
 of the entire empire. There was none 
 other. 
 
 The third kingdom of brass, " which 
 shall bear rule over all the earth," can, 
 in like manner, be none other than the 
 Grasco-Macedonian, set up by Alexander 
 the son of Philip. In reference to this there 
 is as little room for hesitancy as in the 
 case of its predecessor. There is an un- 
 broken chain of historical evidence, — an 
 entire concurrence of all antiquity. The 
 brazen kingdom is the empire of the 
 brazen-coated Greeks, as they were call- 
 ed in the days of Homer. These we 
 pass by with a brevity correspondent to 
 that of Daniel, for they must all come 
 up in more detail hereafter. What we 
 design now is simply a general outline, 
 a mere sketch. 
 
 The last of the four is of course the 
 iron, Roman empire. In reference to 
 this we have more of detail here ; be- 
 cause its connexion and collision with the 
 little stone was, and is of longer conti- 
 nuance and of much deeper interest than 
 any of its predecessors. It is like the 
 fourth beast of Daniel, a nondescript : 
 not of uniform character, not homoge- 
 neous. The others were simple despot- 
 isms ; but the Roman state was partly 
 popular, having the strength of the iron 
 blended with the fragility of the clay. It 
 underwent a variety of changes, amount- 
 ing almost to revolution; still amidst its 
 apparent weaknesses, it maintained its 
 iron character. 
 
 Verses 41-43. " And whereas thou 
 sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's 
 clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall 
 be divided ; but there shall be in it of 
 the strength of the iron, forasmuch as 
 thou sawest the iron mixed with miry 
 clay. And as the toes of the feet were 
 part<of iron and part of clay: so the 
 kingdom shall be partly strong and partly 
 
 4 
 
 broken. And whereas thou sawest iron 
 mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle 
 themselves with the seed of men: but 
 they shall not cleave one to another, even 
 as iron is not mixed with clay." 
 
 It is perhaps not extending the figura- 
 tive language of the symbol too far, to 
 suppose that, the two arms of the second 
 or silver empire, represent the two king- 
 doms of the Medes and of the Persians 
 united into one new government : and 
 that the lower part of the body of the 
 brazen empire, sets forth the kingdom as 
 established by Alexander, but the thighs, 
 — the two principal sectionsof itsdivision, 
 the kingdoms of the Lagidse or Ptolemies, 
 in Egypt, and of the Seleucidse, in Syria : 
 so here the two legs may mean the divi- 
 sion of the iron despotism into the east- 
 ern and the western. But be this as it 
 may, there can be no doubt that the ten 
 toes symbolize the ten kingdoms into 
 which the western empire was divided 
 upon the irruptions of the Scythian 
 hordes. Some of these kingdoms were 
 weak, others strong : some of potter's 
 clay burnt, and, of course, fragile ; some 
 of iron, strong and durable. This cor- 
 responds with the historical verity, as we 
 shall see in due time. 
 
 Some interpreters are of opinion that 
 verse 43 refers to the various alliances 
 which are entered into by the kingdoms 
 of the ten toes, through marriages, for 
 the purpose of strengthening their re- 
 spective interests. And it must be ad- 
 mitted, that among the corrupting influ- 
 ences of despotic government, this stands 
 basely prominent, — that it has converted 
 the most endearing of all human rela- 
 tions into a matter of mere traffic for 
 power : the heart's best affections are 
 swallowed up by a lust for dominion, 
 and a prince barters his own daughter to 
 a brother despot, for the paltry chance 
 of winning power from him. This ex- 
 tended system of legalized, national pros- 
 titution never existed, except among the 
 feet and toes of the monster ; or, per- 
 haps we should rather say, here only is 
 it perfected into a system. Neverthe- 
 less, these alliances do not answer the 
 purpose, " they shall not cleave one to 
 another." They have resulted more in 
 
26 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 bloodshed and destruction of life, than in 
 good to government. 
 
 Other commentators, with more plausi- 
 bility, maintain that the allusion is to the 
 difficulty of amalgamating the northern 
 barbarians with the original holders of 
 Roman power. The Romans continual- 
 ly endeavoured to sustain their system 
 of government, and to conquer by that 
 system, those who had conquered them 
 by the sword : so as thus to transmute 
 the clay into iron, and preserve the unity 
 and strength of the empire. But this 
 coalition and amalgamation could not be 
 effected. The northern barbarians es- 
 tablished independent kingdoms within 
 the empire ; they did not cleave one to 
 another, nor to the Roman Senate. Some 
 of their kingdoms proved mere fragile 
 toes to the image, and were soon broken 
 off; whilst others proved to be real iron. 
 
 Verses 44, 45. "And in the days of 
 these kings shall the God of heaven set 
 up a kingdom which shall never be de- 
 stroyed : and the kingdom shall not be 
 left to other people, but it shall break in 
 pieces and consume all these kingdoms, 
 and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch 
 as thou sawest that the stone was cut 
 out of the mountain without hands, and 
 that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, 
 the clay, the silver and the gold ; the 
 great God hath made known to the king 
 what shall come to pass hereafter : and 
 the dream is certain and the interpreta- 
 tion thereof sure." 
 
 The first difficulty in the exposition 
 here, arises from the possibility of ap- 
 plying the words, " these kings" either 
 to the petty kingdoms symbolized by the 
 ten toes ; or to the four great kingdoms, 
 or monarchies, previously described. If 
 the former course be taken, then we 
 must look for the rise of the kingdom of 
 the little stone, after the rise of the ten 
 kingdoms ; that is in the fifth century of 
 the Christian era. This would be utterly 
 inconsistent with the doctrine, that the 
 little stone is Christ's kingdom : unless 
 we should take the phrase " set up a 
 kingdom," as meaning only its enlarge- 
 ment and extension. And we admit and 
 maintain, that the words thus translated, 
 do not signify the first production, or in- 
 
 stitution : at least not necessarily so. 
 The word rendered " set up" is used (iii. 
 24) to describe Nebuchadnezzar's action 
 when he " rose up" in haste : a form of 
 the same occurs in verse 1st; he "set 
 up the image in the plains of Dura." It 
 was formed before it was erected or made 
 to stand. This is the exposition given 
 to both phrases by Dr. Gill, who per- 
 haps was drawn into the former by his 
 party preferences, and afterwards forced 
 into the latter by consistency. The Latin 
 Vulgate, in Walton's Polyglot renders it, 
 " But in the days of those kingdoms, 
 shall the God of heaven resuscitate (sus- 
 citabit) a kingdom." The Arabic he 
 translates by the same Latin word. The 
 Syriac and Septuagint has it kings, and 
 otherwise the same. Whilst therefore 
 we think the latter exposition true and 
 proper, we feel very sure that the former 
 is far from a fair dealing with the text. 
 " These kings" refers to the four monar- 
 chies, and not to the toes of one of them. 
 
 1. Because he immediately speaks of 
 the fifth or kingdom of the little stone : 
 and brings it into contrast with the others, 
 as to duration, not surely with the ten 
 toes, but with the four kingdoms which 
 itself will destroy. 
 
 2. And this constituted another rea- 
 son, because he speaks directly after- 
 wards of this little stone breaking in 
 pieces and consuming all these king- 
 doms ; — all what kingdoms ? Surely the 
 very ones spoken of in the beginning of 
 the verse; the very gold and silver and 
 brass and iron kingdoms, that it will 
 beat small as the chaff of the summer 
 threshing-floor. 
 
 3. But this last fact is decisive of the 
 matter, because the little stone beats in 
 pieces, not the toes of the image, not the 
 iron and clay only, but the silver also, 
 and the brass, and the gold. Now, if 
 the kingdom of the stone did not come 
 into being until the days of these toe- 
 kingdoms, that is, until the fifth or sixth 
 century after Christ, — nearly one thou- 
 sand years after the head of gold was 
 dissipated as chaff; how could it be said 
 that this little stone brake in pieces the 
 gold, the silver, the brass and the iron ? 
 Clearly then, this smooth stone, polished 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 27 
 
 in the brook, where flows the water of 
 life, existed in the days of the giant head; 
 or it never could have brought Goliah to 
 the dust. 
 
 Now, what is the historical fact ? Did 
 the kingdom of heaven, the church of 
 the living God, which is the " ground 
 and pillar of the truth," — did this king- 
 dom of moral law exist in the days of 
 Nebuchadnezzar and the four monar- 
 chies? Ask Paul, whether the church of 
 God in the ancient times, is one and the 
 self-same church that was in his day, 
 and that shall be, when " all Israel shall 
 be saved." Ask him, whether the Jew, 
 who was cut off by unbelief, shall be in 
 a future age grafted into some new 
 stock ; or into his own olive tree. Ask 
 the whole Bible whether God ever had 
 but one church. To these interrogations 
 there can be only one answer. The 
 kingdom of truth and righteousness is 
 one, and these words themselves were 
 uttered by a member of that kingdom. 
 Through Daniel himself was then ope- 
 rating that influence, which will ulti- 
 mately overturn the great image, and 
 utterly annihilate his power. 
 
 Nor may we omit to notice what the 
 prophet says about the independence of 
 this kingdom. It was to Daniel, the 
 sweetest portion of the message ; — " and 
 the kingdom shall not be left to other 
 people." The Latin Vulgate, (in Walton), 
 the Septuagint, and the Arabic, all have 
 it more rigidly translated, his kingdom : 
 God's kingdom shall not be left, or, he 
 will not leave it to another people. He 
 will, in due time, avenge the cause of his 
 people, and " the sceptre shall not de- 
 part from Judah, nor a lawgiver from be- 
 tween his feet, until Shiloh come." And 
 no doubt, this very prediction had great 
 influence in alleviating the evils of the 
 captivity. 
 
 The " cutting out of the little stone 
 from the mountain without hands," plain- 
 ly intimates that the kingdom represented 
 by it ; — the moral truth by which God 
 governs the world, is not the production 
 of human genius. The doctrines of God 
 are not the devices of man. The fifth 
 universal monarchy is that of God's 
 own truth, and like the smooth stone in 
 
 David's scrip, it is hewn out by the God 
 of heaven and not by the hand of man. 
 The gospel came not by man ; it is the 
 revelation of Jesus Christ, whose king- 
 dom ruleth over all. 
 
 In conclusion, we remark, 
 
 1. This vision gives a satisfactory ex- 
 planation of the very general, and popu- 
 lar fable of the pagan world, concerning 
 the four ages, — the golden, the silver, 
 the brass and the iron. The substance 
 of it is wrought into the poetry of their 
 bards, just as we should expect in the 
 case of tradition obscured by time and 
 distance. 
 
 2. We see that, whatever be the ap- 
 pearances to the contrary, God is the 
 governor of the universe : and this truth 
 Daniel did not fear to tell the lordly 
 sovereign of the world's empire. This 
 truth the rulers of earth's brief domain 
 are often very unwilling to admit. Even 
 in our own republican government, some 
 men are loath to hear affirmed the doc- 
 trine of their dependence on God, and 
 their responsibility to him. 
 
 3. We, who preach and warn men in 
 God's stead, in humble imitation of the 
 holy prophet, will make this truth ring 
 in their ears. " Ye rulers of this world," 
 — Ye judges of the earth, know that ye 
 are men, and that all men must stand 
 before the judgment seat of Christ ! 
 
 4. There are, in a moral sense, but 
 two parties in the world, — the friends of 
 government by force, and the friends of 
 government by moral law. The latter, 
 belong to God's kingdom ; the former, 
 to Satan's. 
 
 5. The church of God, which is the 
 depository of his truth, is the hope and 
 safety of the world. Her cause is God's 
 and will prevail. By her agency in dis- 
 seminating his truth, will He rule over 
 all the nations. Her triumph is certain, 
 because the Lord God in the midst of 
 her is mighty ; his promises are sure ; 
 and He will do all his pleasure. 
 
28 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 THE GOLDEN HEAD. 
 
 "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin 
 daughter of Babylon ; sit on the ground : there 
 is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans." 
 Isaiah xlvii. 1. 
 
 Isaiah, the sublimest of all the poets, 
 the most clear-sighted of all the prophets, 
 lived and wrote in the days of " Uzziah, 
 Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of 
 Judah." That, is, from 696 before Christ, 
 when it is supposed he was sawn asun- 
 der by Manasseh, king of Judah, back 
 through Hezekiah's reign of twenty-nine 
 years, Ahaz's of sixteen, and Jotham's 
 of sixteen, into part of Uzziah's, which 
 extended over fifty-two years. Babylon 
 was taken by Cyrus, A. C. 538. Con- 
 sequently, Isaiah, if the tradition of the 
 Jews is correct, that he was put to death 
 by Manasseh, in the first year of his 
 reign, that is, 696 before Christ, must 
 have delivered the last of his prophecies 
 one hundred and fifty-eight years before 
 the sack of Babylon by Cyrus : a suffi- 
 cient length of time to set at defiance all 
 human calculation, and to prove, upon 
 the fulfilment of the facts predicted, that 
 he is a true prophet of God. 
 
 We place this text at the head, simply 
 to point cut the general subject of the 
 lecture, namely, the kingdom of Baby- 
 lon, and not to limit ourselves to the ter- 
 mination of it. On the contrary, what 
 we design is, 
 
 I. To show the leading historical facts 
 relative to this " head of gold." 
 
 II. To point out the prophecies, and 
 compare them with the facts. 
 
 I. The well authenticated facts, in the 
 early history of this first large empire, 
 are few. The first item in the order of 
 chronology, is the foundation of the king- 
 dom. This is detailed briefly in Gene- 
 sis xi. 1 — 9. " And the whole earth was 
 of one language and of one speech. 
 And it came to pass as they journeyed 
 from the east, that they found a plain in 
 the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 
 And they said one to another, Go to, let 
 us make brick and burn them thorough- 
 ly. And they had brick for stone, and 
 
 slime had they for mortar. And they 
 said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a 
 tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, 
 and let us make us a name, lest we be 
 scattered abroad upon the face of the 
 whole earth. And the Lord came down 
 to see the city and the tower which the 
 children of men builded. And the Lord 
 said, Behold, the people is one, and they 
 have all one language ; and nothing will 
 be restrained from them which they have 
 imagined to do. Go to, let us go down 
 and there confound their language, that 
 they may not understand one another's 
 speech. So the Lord scattered them 
 abroad from thence upon the face of all 
 the earth : and they left off to build the 
 city. Therefore is the name of it called 
 Babel, because the Lord did there con- 
 found the language of all the earth : and 
 from thence did the Lord scatter them 
 abroad upon the face of all the earth." 
 
 On this historical sketch, let us ob- 
 serve, 
 
 1. The marginal reading, (easticard) 
 is the true reading ; because from Mount 
 Ararat, where the Ark of Noah rested, 
 they could not travel from the east, and 
 arrive at Shinar, low down in the Eu- 
 phratean valley. Ararat is one of the 
 mountains of Armenia, and lies north, 
 and a little west of the site of Babel. 
 But the word (D"inDj mikkedem) ren- 
 dered in the text, from the east, is neces- 
 sarily rendered, at, in, or on the east. 
 Gen. ii. 8. " And the Lord God planted 
 a garden eastivard, in the east, at Eden ;" 
 and iii. 24, " So he drove out the man, 
 and placed at the east of the garden of 
 Eden, cherubim." Gen. xvi. 8. Abra- 
 ham pitched his tent " having Bethel on 
 the west, and Hai on the east." Again, 
 the same .occurs in xii. 11, — " Then Lot 
 chose him all the plain of Jordan, and 
 Lot journeyed east :" — surely not from 
 the east — but at, in, or on the east of 
 Abraham. (See, also. Num. xxxiv. 1, 
 Josh. vii. 2, Jud. viii. 11.) Hence, it is 
 undeniable, that the word means at the 
 east. The construction is precisely simi- 
 lar to the Greek, Acts ii. 25, " I foresaw 
 the Lord always before my face, for he 
 is on my right hand,'''' (sx Ssltuv) — so 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 29 
 
 the Latin, a dcxtra. In their journey- 
 ings, or various removings and encamp- 
 ments, in the east, they finally deter- 
 mined to settle and build a city in the 
 land of Shinar. 
 
 2. The declared object was, to pre- 
 vent their scattering abroad : therefore 
 it must have been before there was any 
 grand dispersion ; and hence, the pre- 
 ceding chapter, which describes the 
 situation of considerable numbers of the 
 separated tribes, is a prolepsis in the 
 history : and the expedition of Nimrod, 
 (x. 8-10,) was subsequent in time to 
 the erection of the tower here men- 
 tioned. It is there stated that Nimrod, 
 the grandson of Ham, and great grand- 
 son of Noah, " began to be a mighty 
 one in the earth. He was a mighty 
 hunter before the Lord, — and the be- 
 ginning of his kingdom was Babel, and 
 Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the 
 land of Shinar." Daniel also tells us 
 that Nebuchadnezzar carried the vessels 
 from the temple in Jerusalem, into the 
 land of Shinar. Thus we identify Ba- 
 bylon with Babel. 
 
 3. It is evident, that after the disper- 
 sion consequent upon the confusion of 
 tongues, or of counsels, — and some consi- 
 derable time after, — Nimrod, having put 
 himself, by his daring spirit and physi- 
 cal prowess, at the head of a numerous 
 band of men, and, conceiving from the 
 very sight of the old ruins, the project of 
 a fixed abode, a strong city, and means 
 of defence, undertook its reconstruction : 
 after it became considerably populous, 
 he sent out colonies and established the 
 others above named. 
 
 Agreeably to the Scripture account, 
 is that presented to us in Carey's An- 
 cient Fragments. He gives the follow- 
 ing from Berossus, a Babylonish histo- 
 rian of the age of Alexander, the son 
 of Philip ; who says, that he obtained 
 this and other items of history, from an- 
 cient inscriptions at Babylon. " They 
 say that the first inhabitants of the 
 earth, glorying in their own strength 
 and size, and despising the gods, under- 
 took to raise a tower whose top should 
 reach the sky, in the place in which 
 Babylon now stands; but when it ap- 
 
 proached the heaven, the winds assisted 
 the gods, and overturned the work upon 
 its contrivers : and its ruins are said to 
 be still at Babylon : and the gods intro- 
 duced a diversity of tongues among men, 
 who till that time had all spoken the 
 same language ; and a war arose be- 
 tween Cronus and Titan. The place in 
 which they built the tower is now called 
 Babylon, on account of the confusion of 
 the tongues, for confusion is by the 
 Hebrews called Babel !" (Carey's Frag- 
 ments, p. 35.) 
 
 It is impossible here, not to see the 
 substantial agreement of Berossus with 
 the sacred writer, as it regards the 
 origin of the first great kingdom. 
 
 4. Nimrod was the great grandson 
 of Noah ; — the line runs thus, — Noah, 
 Ham, Cush, Nimrod. The age of the 
 father, at the birth of his first son, is 
 not given in this line, as in that of 
 Shem ; no doubt because the true reli- 
 gion, whose history the Bible designs to 
 preserve, was found in the latter. If, 
 however, we take the line of Shem as a 
 data of calculation, we may approximate 
 the period of Nimrod's settlement, and 
 also form an idea of the extent of human 
 population at the time of Babel's failure 
 and Babylon's success. Now Salah, 
 the grandson of Noah, in Shem's line, 
 was born sixty-seven years after the 
 flood, or in the year of the world, 1724, 
 — two thousand two hundred and eighty 
 years before the birth of our Saviour. 
 If therefore, Nimrod was born sixty- 
 seven years after the flood, the popula- 
 tion of the world could scarcely have 
 been counted by thousands, at his birth. 
 Salah lived four hundred and thirty- 
 three years ; supposing Nimrod to have 
 lived as long, by the middle of his days, 
 the population might be sixty times as 
 great as when he was born ; and they 
 might begin to feel the erection of a 
 city to be within their capacity. -But 
 this attempt might be abandoned, and 
 the place lie in ruins a hundred years, 
 when Nimrod began to be a great prince, 
 and he would still have a hundred and 
 thirty-three years to rebuild Babel, and 
 found his other cities. 
 
 From the flood to the birth of Abra- 
 
30 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ham, was three hundred and fifty-two 
 years, at which time Nimrod would be 
 two hundred and eighty-five years old ; 
 and if he lived no longer than Salah, he 
 would be a hundred and forty-eight 
 years cotemporary with Abraham ; if 
 he lived sixty-eight years less than Salah, 
 as must have been the case, then Am- 
 raphel, king of Shinar, (Gen. xiv. 1,) 
 who with three others, made war upon the 
 kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, might, 
 very possibly have been his son, and 
 must have been his immediate successor. 
 This will be the more easily believed, 
 from the fact, that Shem himself was a 
 hundred and fifty years cotemporary 
 with Abraham, and of course fifty years 
 cotemporary with Isaac. 
 
 The next item of history, bearing 
 upon our subject, is the origin of Ni- 
 neveh. In Gen. x. 11, we learn that 
 " out of that land" — Shinar — " went 
 forth Ashur, and builded Nineveh" and 
 other cities. 
 
 Such is all that infallible history 
 gives us, of the early days of the As- 
 syrian, as distinguished from the Baby- 
 lonian empire. 
 
 The truth probably is, that they were 
 rival cities, and had occasional con- 
 flicts for the supremacy ; sometimes one, 
 sometimes another, being in the ascend- 
 ant. Ktesias, the Greek historian, makes 
 Semiramis, the widow of Ninus, the 
 founder of Babylon ; at least imputes to 
 her all its splendid works : but Ktesias 
 wrote from imagination. We learn, 
 however, from Isaiah, (xiv. 22, 25,) that 
 the names are convertible terms : for in 
 verse 22, he denounces God's wrath 
 against Babylon ; and in verse 25, con- 
 tinuing to speak of the same subject of 
 divine displeasure, he says, " I will 
 break the Assyrian in my land :" at the 
 time referred to, Nineveh was in ruins, 
 and Assyria, a Babylonian province. 
 Sir Isaac Newton indeed, considers the 
 two as sister cities, and as sustaining, 
 for the most part, amicable relations, 
 until a late period of their history. He 
 assigns their kindred origin as a reason 
 for this. (See Univ. Hist. iii. 361-413.) 
 
 Calmet gives as brief an account as 
 we have seen of this wonderful city, 
 
 and from him we make an extract. 
 " The following is a description of Ba- 
 bylon in its greatest splendour, whether 
 it were the work of Semiramis, or of 
 Nebuchadnezzar ; for the ancients are 
 not agreed among themselves as to this 
 article : we shall borrow this description 
 principally from Herodotus, who had 
 been upon the spot, and is the oldest 
 author who has treated of this matter. 
 
 " The city was square, an hundred and 
 twenty furlongs every way, that is to 
 say, fifteen miles, or five leagues square, 
 and the whole circuit of it, four hundred 
 and eighty furlongs or twenty leagues — 
 (sixty miles.) The walls of it were 
 built with large bricks, cemented with 
 bitumen, a thick, glutinous liquor, which 
 issues out of the earth in the country 
 hereabouts ; it binds stronger than mor- 
 tar, and becomes harder than the brick 
 itself, for which it is made use of as a 
 cement. These walls were eighty-seven 
 feet thick, three hundred and fifty high, 
 and four hundred and eighty furlongs 
 in circumference. 
 
 " The city was encompassed with a 
 vast ditch, filled with water, and brick- 
 work carried up on both sides. The 
 earth which was dug out, was employed 
 in making the bricks wherewith the 
 walls of the city were built, so that one 
 may judge of the depth and largeness of 
 the ditch, by the extreme height and 
 thickness of the walls. 
 
 " There were an hundred gates be- 
 longing to the city, five and twenty on 
 each of the four sides. All these gates, 
 with the posts and upper parts of them, 
 were of massy brass. Between every 
 two of these gates at particular distances, 
 were three towers, and three between 
 each angle of this great square : the 
 towers were raised ten feet higher than 
 the walls, which is to be understood of 
 those places only, where they were ne- 
 cessary ; for the city, being encom- 
 passed in several places, with marshes, 
 which were always full of water, and 
 defended the approach to it, there was 
 no need of towers on those sides." 
 
 " There was a street answering to 
 every gate, so that there were fifty 
 streets in all, which led from one gate 
 
LECTURE 111. 
 
 31 
 
 to another, and cut one another at right 
 angles, and were each fifteen miles 
 long, or five good leagues in length, and 
 one hundred and fifty-one feet wide. 
 
 " The Euphrates cut the city into two 
 equal parts from north to south. A 
 bridge of admirable structure, of about 
 a furlong, or a hundred and twenty-five 
 paces in length, and thirty in width, 
 continued a communication from one 
 part of the city to the other." 
 
 The historian proceeds to describe the 
 Temple of Belus, the palace, the hanging 
 gardens, or artificial forests, built on 
 arches piled upon arches ; covered over 
 with trees and shrubbery, equalling, and 
 sometimes exceeding, the height of the 
 walls. 
 
 Above the city, there was an artificial 
 lake, forty miles square, and thirty-five 
 feet deep, which was filled from the river, 
 during the time of high water, and, in 
 the dry season, was drawn off', for the 
 supply of the city, and for irrigation. 
 
 Such, and far more gorgeous, are the 
 accounts given of these splendid works of 
 human genius. From the least embel- 
 lished of the histories however, we must 
 make many deductions, if we would ap- 
 proximate truth. Many a magnificent 
 city has existed on paper, or in the 
 realms of fancy. This sketch is neces- 
 sary to the right understanding of some 
 prophecies that must hereafter claim our 
 attention. 
 
 Before we proceed, it may be well to 
 state, that chronologers have given us a 
 list of forty-one kings from Belus, (i. e. 
 Nimrod) down to Sardanapalus ; of most 
 of these, the name only is known, and 
 that probably, was coined for the occa- 
 sion. (See Carey's Ancient Fragments, 
 p. 70-72.) 
 
 Of the second Assyrian empire, or 
 race of kings, we know more, because 
 they redeemed themselves from oblivion 
 by their connexion with, and oppression 
 of, the church. 
 
 The first king of this line mentioned 
 in Scripture, is Pul, (2 Kings, xv. 19,) 
 to whom Menahem Kins of Israel gave 
 as tribute, a thousand talents of silver. 
 The Universal History makes him the 
 father of Tiglath Pilezar,King of Assyria, 
 
 mentioned in verse 29 of the same chap- 
 ter ; and also of Nabonassar, to whom 
 he gave Babylon ; whilst Arbaces, the 
 leading conspirator with him, in the 
 destruction of the effeminate Sardanapa- 
 lus, retained the government over the 
 Medes. Nabonassar is the Shalmanezar 
 who " took Samaria, and carried Israel 
 away captive into Assyria, and placed 
 them in Halah, and Habor, and in the 
 cities of the Medes." (2 Kings, xvii. 3.) 
 
 The third king of this line was Senna- 
 cherib, who attacked Hezekiah, and lost 
 in one night, by a stroke of Jehovah's 
 power, a hundred and eighty-five thou- 
 sand men (2 Kings xviii., xix. 35) ; after 
 which he fled to his own land, where he 
 was slain by two of his sons, while a 
 third, named Esarhaddon, succeeded him 
 in the kingdom. This prince possessed 
 considerable energy of character. He 
 restored the territory lost by his father, 
 adding Syria and Palestine to the Assy- 
 rian empire. The Lord of kingdoms 
 used him as a rod of correction, against 
 his own people, for the gross impieties 
 which they practised in the reign of Ma- 
 nasseh, King of Judah. " Wherefore the 
 Lord brought upon them the captains of 
 the host of the King of Assyria, which 
 took Manasseh among the thorns, and 
 bound him with fetters, and carried him 
 to Babylon," (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.) We 
 have evidence here, that although Nine- 
 veh and Babylon were distinct kingdoms, 
 in a degree, yet by some revolution, the 
 Ninevite King, Esarhaddon, had posses- 
 sion of Babylon at this time ; for these 
 captains of the host of the King of As- 
 syria, carried their captives, not to Nine- 
 veh, but to Babylon. 
 
 After this, considerable confusion pre- 
 vails, and historians have failed to settle 
 with certainty even the exact state of the 
 succession. The affairs of the two 
 governments are very much blended, 
 and intertwined even with those of the 
 Medes and Persians. It is probable that 
 Saosduchinus, given in the ecclesiastical 
 and astronomical canons, as the four- 
 teenth king, was the Nebuchadonoser of 
 the apocryphal book of Judith. After 
 him, followed Saracus, a prince of effe- 
 minate habits, against whom Nabopolas- 
 
32 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 sar, his general, revolted ; and having 
 formed an alliance with Cyaxeres I., 
 King of Media, he fell upon Saracus, de- 
 feated his army, took Nineveh, and laid 
 the city in ruins. The Median king 
 being obliged to return speedily to repel 
 an invasion of the Scythians, Nabopo- 
 lassar established himself at Babylon, as 
 sole monarch of the Assyrio-Babylonian 
 empire. To him succeeded his son, 
 Nebuchadonoser II., or Nebuchadnezzar, 
 the Great, who figures so largely in his- 
 tory, sacred and profane. 
 
 After a prosperous reign, as we have 
 seen, of forty-three years, he was fol- 
 lowed by his son, Evil Merodach, a dis- 
 sipated prince, who was cut off by a con- 
 spiracy. One of the conspirators, named 
 Neriglisear, who had married the king's 
 sister, was placed upon the throne. In 
 about three years he was disposed of, as 
 his predecessor had been, and was suc- 
 ceeded by his son, who also met with a 
 similar fate. A son of Evil Merodach, 
 called Labynitus, sometimes Nabonassar, 
 and in Daniel, Belshazzar, next swayed 
 the sceptre, which he held but three 
 years, when he fell with the Assyrio- 
 Babylonian Empire, on the occasion of 
 the sack of the city, by the conjunct 
 armies of the Medes and Persians, under 
 Cyrus the Great. 
 
 Thus we have noted the leading events 
 of what is properly the political history 
 of the golden head ; and find ourselves 
 brought down to the year before Christ, 
 538. 
 
 There remains one point, of very great 
 importance to the whole of this discus- 
 sion, which it may be well now to exa- 
 mine ; that is, the complex character of 
 the dominion symbolized by the image, 
 and its several subdivisions : it embraces 
 the civil, the military, and the religious 
 power. In regard to the first two, we 
 need not delay with a single remark. 
 The civil rule is always allied to the 
 sword. 
 
 Without the latter, as a last resort, 
 the former would, in a government of 
 imperfect beings, be a mere nullity. 
 God's moral government, both in refer- 
 ence to individuals and nations, involves 
 moral rule to direct conduct, and physi- 
 
 cal evil to punish disobedience. The 
 sceptre in the hand, and the sword in 
 the sheath ; — this is God's mode of go- 
 verning man, and it is the mode He will 
 have man to practise upon his fellow. 
 
 But the third element ought not to co- 
 alesce in the same hands. The religious 
 power, so to speak, cannot be, safely for 
 man, and honourably for God, committed 
 to those who wield the civil and the mili- 
 tary. The mitre cannot rest upon the 
 crown, nor the crown upon the mitre. 
 Still more unseemly is the coalition be- 
 tween the latter and the sword. If reli- 
 gion would command the heart of man, 
 she must not have her hands stained 
 with the blood which it propels. Her 
 office is to stand between the sword and 
 sceptre ; to teach submission to the one, 
 as the only sure way of avoiding the 
 stroke of the other. But in order to this, 
 she must occupy independent ground. 
 Submission to brute force, she never can 
 teach, either theoretically or practically. 
 Religion, — true religion, never sanctions 
 the principle that there is virtue in suffer- 
 ing penal evil. She never felicitates 
 herself upon enduring deserved punish: 
 ment ; nor will she ever call such endu- 
 rance by others a moral virtue. But if 
 the religious power is lodged in the same 
 hands with the civil and military, such 
 will be the use made of it by corrupt 
 man. Ever and anon will he summon 
 the religious principle, to sustain arbitrary 
 dominion, and bow the neck of his fellow 
 to the sword, rather than to the sceptre. 
 The kingdom of the golden-headed image 
 is our illustration. It has been, from the 
 first, a religious establishment. There 
 is a union of the three powers. The 
 temple of Belus stands beside the tower 
 of Babel : the worship of the god is as 
 much under the control of the king, as 
 is the administration of justice : the ex- 
 penses of religion, equally with those of 
 the civil and military departments, de- 
 volve upon him. 
 
 It is our wish to press this matter upon 
 your notice, not as a characteristic merely 
 of the golden head, but of the whole 
 image. It is a feature of the monster, — 
 an essential ingredient in the composi- 
 tion of his very being. Without this, 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 33 
 
 he would not be what he is, a despot : 
 strip him of it, and his nature is changed. 
 Divide the religious from the civil and 
 military powers, and the monster is a 
 man : he has the peculiarities, lineaments, 
 and feelings of a man. But such divi- 
 sion has never yet been effected. The 
 religious has never been so separated 
 from the civil, as to make it an inde- 
 pendent and untrammelled interest. The 
 Chaldeans, soothsayers, astrologers, 
 priests of Belus, all were subject to the 
 absolute control of the monarch, as com- 
 pletely as were the civil officers. Such 
 was also the case in the kingdom of the 
 silver beast. Cyrus himself was reli- 
 gious in his way, to an excess, like the 
 Athenians in the days of Paul ; and he 
 kept up the system of the preceding 
 dynasties, except in the matter of expen- 
 sive temples. Throughout the Persian 
 empire religion was a part of the mo- 
 narch's concern ; church and state con- 
 stituted one power : the priesthood of 
 their superstition were officers of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The brazen and the iron kingdoms 
 made no improvement in this matter. 
 On the contrary, the controlling in- 
 fluence of government over religion, 
 was more thoroughly worked into sys- 
 tem. Greece and Rome vied with Persia 
 and Babylon in the splendour of their 
 religious establishments. The most mag- 
 nificent relics of the arts in both — where 
 are they to be found, but amid the ruins 
 of temples and altars ? On what point 
 did genius and wealth concentrate all 
 their power, if not on religious architec- 
 ture 1 Look at the temple of Diana ; 
 the Acropolis of Corinth ; of Athens ; of 
 Rome. What has Greece left, like the 
 temple of Jupiter, and the Parthenon ? 
 Does not ancient Rome boast of her 
 Pantheon ; and modern Rome of her 
 St. Peter's ? Even among the kingdoms 
 of the ten toes, the same spirit may be 
 remarked. St. Paul's, Notre Dame, and 
 a thousand other spires testify the com- 
 bination of the civil and religious powers, 
 by the concentration of immense capital 
 upon an ecclesiastical establishment. 
 Indeed we think history will bear out 
 the assertion, that all the four great mo- 
 
 5 
 
 narchies invested more capital in such 
 establishments, than in any other form : 
 and we suppose no sane man wili affirm, 
 that this resulted from real love for true 
 religion. 
 
 On the contrary, the policy lies open ; 
 there is no effort at concealment, even 
 in Christian Rome, and among the ten 
 toes of the image : it always has been, 
 simply to make the religious principle 
 subservient to despotic rule. True re- 
 ligion never can so succumb ; but super- 
 stition, which is the religious principle 
 perverted, has always been the main 
 pillar of tyranny. But the kingdom of 
 the little stone, is at eternal war with 
 this principle. It claims a distinct and 
 independent existence in the world. It 
 pledges itself, not to interfere with the 
 legitimate action of the civil power, and 
 it demands reciprocity. It proffers, in- 
 direct, yet most efficient aid to govern- 
 ment founded in right, but asks no re- 
 muneration, and no protection. " My 
 kingdom is not of this world." This 
 doctrine of an empire within an empire, 
 yet no interference, is matter of revela- 
 tion. To man unenlightened, it appears 
 impossible and impracticable ; but to 
 God, and his church, it is plain, simple* 
 actual. All the church asks of civil 
 government, is, — "Let us alone; we 
 ask not your blessing, and we have 
 no right to your malediction : let us 
 alone." 
 
 II. The prophecies, relative to the 
 golden head and their fulfilment, now 
 claim our attention. 
 
 The first prediction, whose accom- 
 plishment was fulfilled through the 
 agency of the golden head, was that 
 delivered by Moses. Just before his 
 death, about nine hundred and twenty- 
 two years after the flood, he tells the 
 people, that for their sins, God will 
 " deliver them into the hands of their 
 enemies, and scatter them among the 
 nations, and they shall find no ease." — 
 (Deut. xxviii. 48, 49, 64, 65.) 
 
 This was in part accomplished, when 
 " the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of 
 Pul, king of Assyria, and the spirit of 
 Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, and 
 he carried them away, (even the Reu- 
 
34 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 benites, and (he Gadites, and the half- 
 tribe of Manasseh,) and brought them 
 unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and 
 to the river Gozan, unto this day." (1 
 Chron. v. 26.) Isaiah is more explicit. 
 In chapters vii. 17-20 ; viii. 4 ; xxxix. 
 5-7, and the parallel, 2 Kings xx. 17-19, 
 he predicts the captivity. He tells He- 
 zekiah that " all that is in his house 
 shall be carried to Babylon, and his sons 
 shall they take away, and they shall be 
 eunuchs in the palace of the king of Ba- 
 bylon." — Jeremiah, in chapters xx. 45 ; 
 xxv. 9; xxvii. 20, 21, 22; xxxii. 28, 
 predicts more at large, the same events. 
 This prediction of Isaiah, was uttered 
 just after Hezckiah had recovered from 
 his sickness, by the miracle of the bunch 
 of figs, (2 Kings, xx. 7,) and the turn- 
 ing back of the shadow on the dial of 
 Ahaz, as the sign that fifteen years 
 should be added to the king's life ; the 
 prophecy, therefore, preceded his death 
 that length of time. Add these to the 
 fifty-five years of Manasseh's reign, 
 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1 , and it makes 70 years, 
 xxxiii. 21, Amon's 2 " 
 
 xxxiv. 1, Josiah's 31 " 
 xxxvi. 2, Jehoahaz's \ " 
 " 5, Jehoiakim'sll " 
 " 9, Jehoiachin's | " 
 " 11, Zedekiah's 11 " 
 
 The whole gives us, - 125J yrs. 
 between the delivery of the prophecy and 
 captivity, which completed its fulfilment 
 by the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 For this very agency in accomplish- 
 ing the divine purpose, was the Baby- 
 lonish empire overthrown. The little 
 stone began thus early, to break in 
 pieces the giant image. " And it shall 
 come to pass," says Jeremiah (xxv. 12,) 
 " when seventy years are accomplished, 
 that I will punish the king of Babylon, 
 and that nation, saith the Lord, for their 
 iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, 
 and will make it perpetual desolations." 
 In i. 11, he states the same reason for 
 Chaldea's destruction ; " Because ye 
 were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ! ye 
 destroyers of mine heritage :" — and li. 
 35, 36, — " The violence done to me, 
 and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall 
 
 the inhabitant of Zion say, and my 
 blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, 
 shall Jerusalem say. Therefore, thus 
 saith the Lord, Behold I will plead thy 
 cause, and take vengeance for thee, and 
 I will dry up her sea, and make her 
 springs dry." To the same purport, 
 Isaiah (x. 5-7) says, " O, Assyrian, the 
 rod of mine anger, and the staff in their 
 hand, is mine indignation. I will send 
 him against an hypocritical nation, and 
 against the people of my wrath (that is, 
 Jerusalem,) will I give him a charge, to 
 take the spoil, and to take the prey ; 
 and to tread them down like the mire of 
 the streets. Howbeit, he meaneth not 
 so, neither doth his heart think so ; but 
 it is in his heart to destroy and to cut 
 off nations not a few." And verse 12, 
 " Wherefore it shall come to pass that 
 when the Lord hath performed his whole 
 work upon Mount Zion, and Jerusalem, 
 I will punish the fruit of the stout heart 
 of the king of Assyria, and the glory of 
 his high looks :" — verse 17, — " And the 
 Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and 
 his Holy One for a flame, and it shall 
 burn and devour his thorns and his 
 briers ;" — Babylon's destruction comes 
 out of Zion, — the flame that consumes 
 her, is kindled by a spark, struck from 
 the little stone. 
 
 But let us attend to the predictions 
 somewhat more in detail : collated at 
 the same time with the history of their 
 fulfilment. 
 
 Let us look whence comes the agency 
 of this destruction. 
 
 Isaiah, in chap, xiii., which he heads 
 " The burden of Babylon," says, " Be- 
 hold, I will stir up the Medes against 
 them, which shall not regard silver; 
 and as for gold, they shall not delight 
 in it. Their bows, also, shall dash the 
 young men to pieces," (17, 18.) — xxi. 2, 
 "Go up O Elam; besiege O Media; 
 all the sighing thereof, have I made to 
 cease." He then proceeds to detail the 
 terrible agonies of a ruined city ; and in 
 verse 9, the watchman exclaims, " Ba- 
 bylon is fallen — is fallen ; all the graven 
 images of her gods, he hath broken unto 
 the ground." Elam is the Scripture 
 name for Persia : from Media and Persia, 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 35 
 
 then, are to come the forces that must 
 lay Babylon and her gods in the dust. 
 
 Jeremiah (1. 9) tells us from what 
 quarter they shall come, — " an assembly 
 of the nations from the north country ;" 
 (li. 27-28.) " Set ye up a standard in 
 the land, blow the trumpet among the 
 nations, prepare the nations against her, 
 call together against her, the kingdoms 
 of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz ; ap- 
 point a captain against her; cause the 
 horses to come up, as the rough cater- 
 pillars. Prepare against her the nations, 
 with the kings of the Medes." — Isaiah 
 proceeds to name the captain of these 
 northern hosts — (xlv. 1.) " Thus saith 
 the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus." 
 
 Now, however historians may differ, 
 and they do differ most strangely in re- 
 gard to many items in the history of 
 Cyrus the Great, they agree in the 
 general facts, that he was a Persian by 
 birth ; son of Cambyses, King of Per- 
 sia ; and his mother, Mandane, was 
 daughter of Astyages, King of Media. 
 It is geographically true, that both 
 countries were in a northern direction 
 from Babylon, and especially, that Ar- 
 menia, and many other countries, which 
 had been brought under the Median 
 power by the generalship of Cyrus, lay 
 on the north. Cyrus had carried his 
 victorious arms to the Egean Sea, hav- 
 ing conquered, on the plains of Thym- 
 bria, near Sardis, the capital of Lydia, 
 the immense army of King Crcesus, and 
 his numerous allies. He returned, rich 
 in spoils and resources, and laid siege 
 to Babylon. 
 
 Other prophecies relate to the same 
 subject. " Thus saith the Lord to his 
 anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I 
 have holden, to subdue nations before 
 him ; and I will loose the loins of kings, 
 to open before him the two-leaved gates, 
 and the gates of brass shall not be shut. 
 I will go before thee, and make the 
 crooked places straight, and I will break 
 in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in 
 sunder the bars of iron." — (Isaiah xlv. 
 1,2.) 
 
 Here allow me, also, to lay before 
 you a kind of prophecy of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar himself. The original is pre- 
 
 sented from Eusebius. " Alydenus, in 
 his history of the Assyrians, has pre- 
 served the following fragment of Me- 
 gasthenes, who says : That Nabuco- 
 drosorus, having become more powerful 
 than Hercules, invaded Lybia and Ibe- 
 ria ; and when he had rendered them 
 tributary, he extended his conquests 
 over the inhabitants of the shores upon 
 the right of the sea. It is moreover re- 
 lated by the Chaldeans, that as he went 
 up into his palace, he was possessed by 
 some god, and cried out and said, ' O ! 
 Babylonians, I, Nabucodrosorus, foretell 
 unto you a calamity which must shortly 
 come to pass, which neither Belus, my 
 ancestor, nor his queen Beltis, have 
 power to persuade' the Fates to turn 
 away. A Persian mule shall come, and 
 by the assistance of your gods, shall im- 
 pose upon you the yoke of slavery : the 
 author of which shall be a Mede, the 
 vain-glory of Assyria. Before he should 
 thus betray my subjects, oh ! that some 
 sea or whirlpool might receive him, and 
 his memory be blotted out for ever ; or 
 that he might be cast out, to wander 
 through some desert, where there are 
 neither cities nor the trace of men ,• a 
 solitary exile among rocks and caverns, 
 where beasts and birds alone abide. But 
 for me, before he shall have conceived 
 these mischiefs in his mind, a happier 
 end will be provided.' " " Herodotus," 
 says Bishop Newton (vol. ii. 161), "who 
 was a much older historian than Me- 
 gasthenes, relates that a Delphic oracle 
 was given to Crcesus, King of Lydia, 
 that when a mule should rule over the 
 Medes, then he should not be ashamed 
 to fly away. Which oracle was after- 
 wards thus interpreted by the Pythian 
 priestess : Cyrus was this mule, for he 
 was born of parents of different nations, 
 the mother the better, and the father the 
 meaner — for she was a Mede, and the 
 daughter of the King of the Medes, but 
 he was a Persian, and subject to the 
 Medes." Whatever we may think of 
 these, as pretensions to prophecy, one 
 thing is -obvious : they have long been 
 history, and prove the leading facts 
 pointed out by Isaiah. 
 
 We need not delay, in speaking far- 
 
LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ther of the historical events, for every 
 schoolboy knows that Cyrus, command- 
 ing the army in the name of his uncle, 
 Cyaxeres, (who was afterwards his fa- 
 ther-in-law,) turned off the branch of 
 the Euphrates that ran through Babylon, 
 and directed his generals, Gobryas and 
 Gadates, to march the troops along the 
 empty channel of the river, and enter 
 by the gates, which led up from the 
 water's edge. These gates they found 
 open and unguarded, for it was a night 
 of great festivity in honour of their 
 gods ; probably the same as referred to 
 by Berassus in the first book of his 
 Babylonian history, where he says, 
 " That in the eleventh month, called 
 Loos, is celebrated, in Babylon, the 
 feast of Sacea for five days." They 
 surprised the guards at the palace-gates, 
 cut them off, and rushed into the midst 
 of the previously agitated court, just as 
 they had heard from the mouth of the 
 Hebrew seer the alarming exposition : — 
 " Peres, thy kingdom is divided, and 
 given to the Medes and Persians ; for in 
 that night was Belshazzar, the King of 
 the Chaldeans, slain, and Darius, the 
 Median, took the kingdom, being about 
 three score and two years old." 
 
 Thus did Daniel live to see the head 
 of gold brought to the dust, after a lapse 
 of sixty-seven years from the date of 
 his first prophetic exposition of the 
 king's dream ; and nobly did he sustain 
 the dignity of a man of God in the face 
 of this splendid retinue. His religion 
 had doubtless prevented him from being 
 one of the revellers ; and when he was 
 officially called upon, we see not the 
 fulsome, hoary-headed court-flatterer, 
 but the dignified reprover of corrupt 
 power. Having recounted briefly the 
 solemn monitions that had been given 
 to the grandfather of the present mo- 
 narch, " till he knew that the most High 
 God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and 
 that he appointeth over it whomsoever 
 he will," he proceeds, and brings home 
 to him the startling truth, " And thou, 
 his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled 
 thine heart, though thou k newest all 
 this ; but hast lifted thyself against the 
 Lord of heaven, and they have brought 
 
 the vessels of his house before thee, and 
 thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy 
 concubines, have drunk wine in them; 
 and thou hast praised the gods of silver 
 and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and 
 stone, which see not, nor hear, nor 
 know ; and the God in whose hands 
 thy breath is, and whose are all thy 
 ways, hast thou not glorified." 
 
 In conclusion, let us notice again, that 
 civil rulers are responsible to God, for 
 all their proceedings. From him is their 
 power ; " the kingdoms over men he 
 giveth to whomsoever he will." Nor 
 let it be supposed that this is less the 
 case, where designation to office is by a 
 vote of the people. In whatever man- 
 ner the appointment may be made, the 
 authority to rule is from God. " He 
 beareth not the sword in vain ;" he is 
 the minister of God, and is bound to do 
 his Master's will. 
 
 2. We learn the doctrine of the di- 
 vine decrees. There could be no pro- 
 phecy, without an unchangeable purpose. 
 If God predict anything, he must either 
 bring it to pass, or falsify his word. If he 
 bring it to pass, it must be because he has 
 designed, determined, or decreed so to do. 
 
 3. God's decrees do not destroy man's 
 voluntary agency, and moral accounta- 
 bility. The very instruments of his ven- 
 geance, who fulfil his designs, whom he 
 uses as his rod, he holds responsible, and 
 punishes for the very acts by which they 
 accomplished his own purposes. The 
 Assyrian monarch was God's instru- 
 ment, yet he took vengeance on him, 
 and thus explains to us the philosophy 
 of it; — "Hemeaneth not so;" to honour 
 God is not his object, when he cruelly 
 oppresses Judah and Jerusalem. It is 
 the intention always, that gives moral 
 character to an action ; consequently, 
 the King's design being, not to glorify 
 God, by fulfilling his decree, but to ag- 
 grandize himself, and gratify his unholy 
 ambition, he is condemned at the divine 
 tribunal, and punished accordingly. 
 
 4. Wine and revellings have lost 
 many an empire, dethroned many a 
 monarch, extinguished many a dynasty. 
 " It is not for kings, O Samuel, it is not 
 for kings to drink wine, nor for princes. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 strong drink, lest they drink, and forget 
 the law." 
 
 5. Sooner or later, the God of heaven 
 will display his wrath in the punishment 
 of ir religion, and idolatry ; and this pun- 
 ishment, when the crimes pervade a com- 
 munity, will fall upon the mass, and all 
 will feel it ; it is therefore not a matter 
 of indifference to me, " whether my 
 neighbour worships one God, twenty 
 gods, or no god at all." It involves 
 me, as a part of the social body in the 
 common calamity. 
 
 How sudden and awful are, sometimes, 
 the mutations of human condition ! One 
 hour, Belshazzar exults in all that is 
 gorgeous and exhilarating, — the next, he 
 lies a ghastly corpse, weltering in his 
 own blood : one moment, in the very 
 heaven of sensual delights, — the next, 
 thrust down to hell : a sovereign without 
 limitation of power, — a trembling wretch 
 at the bar of that God whom he despised, 
 — a victim writhing in the agonies of 
 eternal torment ! 
 
 If Belshazzar's heart trembled, and 
 his knees smote together at the sight of 
 a " man's hand," how was it with him 
 when, not a part, but the whole, not of 
 one only, but of many armed men burst 
 in upon him? If the word of reproof 
 can cause the soul thus to quake, what 
 must be the reality of God's wrath, 
 when it descends upon the affrighted 
 spirit? See to it, then, that thou glorify 
 Him " in whose hand thy breath is, and 
 whose are all thy ways !" 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE VISION OF THE FOUR BEASTS OF 
 THE SEA. 
 
 THE FIRST THREE. 
 
 " In the first year of Belshazzar king of Ba- 
 bylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions of his 
 head upon his bed : then he wrote the dream, 
 and told the sum of the matters. 
 
 " Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision 
 by night, and, behold, the four winds of the 
 heaven strove upon the great sea. 
 
 " And four great beasts came up from the sea, 
 diverse one from another. 
 
 "The first was like a lion, and had eagle's 
 wings : I beheld till the wings thereof were 
 plucked, and it was lii'ted up from the earth, 
 and made to stand upon the feet as a man, and 
 a man's heart was given to it. 
 
 "And behold, another beast, a second, like to 
 a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and 
 it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the 
 teeth of it : and they said thus unto it, Arise, 
 devour much flesh. 
 
 "After this I beheld, and lo, another, like a 
 leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings 
 of a fowl : the beast had also four heads ; and 
 dominion was given to it." — Daniel vii. 1-6. 
 
 Prophetic symbols, in order to be 
 significant, must have a natural adapta- 
 tion to their subject, and to the aspect in 
 which it is regarded. If there be no 
 such adaptation, there can be no advan- 
 tage from the symbolic representation : 
 the aspect in which it is contemplated 
 must, of course, vary the view itself, and 
 the symbol should vary with it. There 
 must also be a change of the symbol, ac- 
 cording to the varying character of those 
 to whom it is presented. What might 
 be a very significant representation to 
 one person, might be very ill-qualified to 
 impress the mind of another. Poetic 
 imagery must adapt itself to the taste and 
 genius of the people upon whom it is to 
 operate. That which may be attractive 
 and instructive to one, may be dull and 
 vapid to another ; yea, even positively 
 disgusting. To the man of the world, 
 worldly excellence and beauty will prove 
 alluring, whilst to one who is not of this 
 world, it will have no beauty, and over 
 him can exert no influence. What to 
 the latter appears a plant of renown, a 
 tree of life, " whose leaves are for the 
 healing of the nations ;" to the former is 
 " a root out of a dry ground, having no 
 form or comeliness." To the victorious 
 general and monarch of unlimited em- 
 pire a splendid and gigantic image, of 
 the most costly materials, is a pleasing 
 representation of arbitrary power : but 
 to the ardent lover and devoted friend of 
 an insulted, trodden down and bleeding 
 church, the very same power is much 
 more suitably exhibited under the figure 
 of a ferocious beast of prey. Accord- 
 ingly, Avhen the Spirit of inspiration 
 would instruct his church in the true 
 nature of despotic government, Daniel 
 
33 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 " has a dream and visions of his head 
 upon his bed," which trouble him. 
 
 Let us here settle the date of the 
 vision. " In the first year of Belshaz- 
 zar." Now, this prince reigned seven- 
 teen years, and was slain, as we have 
 seen, in the year A. C. 538 ; conse- 
 quently, the vision occurred in the year 
 555, and fifty years after Daniel had 
 been carried into captivity. 
 
 The next thing to be noticed is the 
 source whence these beasts sprang. 
 They came up from the great sea, pre- 
 viously agitated by the four winds of 
 heaven. The mighty ocean lashed into 
 foam by fierce and tempestuous winds, 
 is a very forcible emblem of the mass 
 of human society tossed and distracted 
 by passions fell and fierce. The apos- 
 tle Jude, (verse 13) calls ungodly men 
 "raging waves of the sea, foaming out 
 their own shame." And David, (Psalm 
 Ixv. 7,) using the same figure, says God 
 " Stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise 
 of their waves and the tumult of the 
 people." Also (Psalm xciii. 3), " The 
 floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods 
 have lifted up their voice, the floods lift 
 up their waves." Isaiah (xviii. 12), ex- 
 claims, " Wo to the multitude of many 
 people, which make a noise, like the 
 noise of the seas ; and to the rushing 
 of nations, that make a rushing like the 
 rushing of mighty waters. The nations 
 shall rush like the rushing of many 
 waters." (Ivii. 21), "But the wicked 
 are like the troubled sea, when it can- 
 not rest, whose waters cast up mire and 
 dirt." It is difficult to conceive a bet- 
 ter symbol of human population, agi- 
 tated and torn by violent and unbridled 
 passions! In Rev. vii. four angels are 
 represented as standing upon the four 
 corners, or in the four quarters of the 
 earth, and holding the four winds that 
 the wind should not blow on the earth, 
 nor on the sea, nor on any tree, till we 
 have sealed the servants of our God ! 
 Here is the counter-symbol, the sea-qui- 
 escent — the mass of human society in 
 a pacific state, and the work of grace 
 triumphantly advancing among them ! 
 
 The four winds are of course sym- 
 bolical of the boisterous passions which 
 
 throw human society into commotion. 
 The number four is used because this is 
 the common mode of designating influ- 
 ences from all directions — north, south, 
 east and west ; fierce passions of all de- 
 scriptions distract the sea of human 
 population, and out of the rolling waves 
 proceed the monsters of oppression. 
 
 " And four beasts came up out of the 
 sea, diverse from one another." The 
 exposition of the figure is in verse 17. 
 " These great beasts are four kings, 
 which shall arise out of the earth." 
 Here " the earth" is the body or mass 
 of men, not the ground, but its inhabi- 
 tants ; and the four kings are the same 
 four universal monarchies, symbolized 
 in the golden image. These monar- 
 chies are in one sense a unity and in 
 another diverse. They are all ferocious 
 beasts of prey. They have one spirit 
 and one general character. Arbitrary 
 power, rending in pieces and tormenting 
 the church of God, characterizes them 
 all. They have one common source 
 and one common tendency. Their ori- 
 gin is the turbulent ocean — the corrupt 
 agitated body of men ; and they ever 
 aim at crushing the interests of that go- 
 vernment which is founded in right, and 
 exercises its influence by moral force. 
 These beasts of prey are all monsters ; 
 there is no one creature of God capable 
 of truly and fully symbolizing the de- 
 spotic power. This teaches us the im- 
 portant lesson, that absolute monarchy 
 sustained by compulsion alone, is a mon- 
 strous production without and beyond 
 the ordinary laws of creation, and which 
 never could exist, but in violation of 
 these laws. Yet these beasts of prey 
 are diverse ; these four monarchies have 
 something respectively characteristic. 
 These several peculiarities are exhibited 
 under their appropriate signs. Let us 
 attend to them in order. 
 
 Verse 4. " The first was like a lion, 
 and had eagle's wings : I beheld till the 
 wings thereof were plucked, and it was 
 lifted up from the earth, and made to 
 stand upon the feet as a man, and a 
 man's heart was given to it." 
 
 Here are presented several traits in 
 the character, and items in the history 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 39 
 
 of the Assyrio-Babylonian empire. Je- 
 remiah (iv. 6, 7), speaking of the coming 
 calamities, says, " I will bring evil from 
 the north, and a great destruction. The 
 lion is come up from his thicket, and the 
 destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way ; 
 he is gone forth from his place to make 
 thy land desolate." And in xxv. 9, he 
 tells us from the Lord, that he will 
 bring Nebuchadnezzar his servant, and 
 all the families of the north " against 
 this land." Verse 38, " He hath for- 
 saken his covert as a lion." This king 
 is also compared to an eagle, (Jer. xlviii. 
 40) : " Behold he shall fly as an eagle 
 and shall spread his wings over Moab." 
 And the great eagle of Ezekiel (xvii. 3), 
 " with great wings," we learn in verse 
 12, is the king of Babylon. There can 
 be no doubt, as to the application of the 
 symbol. Let us note : 
 
 1. The lion is bold and fearless : so 
 the first daring enterprise, as to govern- 
 ment over man, was set on foot by the 
 founder of this monarchy. The spirit 
 of Nimrod lived and breathed in it for 
 thirteen centuries : not always indeed 
 with precisely the same fearlessness and 
 energy ; for the lion must sleep and 
 take his rest at times ; he is often lan- 
 guid and indisposed to spring upon his 
 prey. Still is it true in general that 
 daring boldness and strength to endure, 
 characterized this monarchy. 
 
 2. The lion is a lordly animal, proud 
 in the consciousness of. his power, and 
 lofty in the manifestation of it : and 
 Babylon is the haughtiest and most ma- 
 jestic of all the kingdoms. 
 
 3. The lion is intelligent, — there is 
 dignity and nobleness of expression in 
 his countenance : and the first empire 
 was the cradle of the arts ; the nursery 
 of the sciences. Our own times profit 
 by her relics, and it is possible that we 
 have not yet recovered the knowledge 
 of astronomy which her philosophers 
 drew from the stars and inscribed upon 
 her- monuments. 
 
 4. The lion is withal a despot : he 
 rules the forest by the terror of his 
 strength ; when he speaks all others 
 must be silent ; when he rises up, all 
 must bow ; when he goes forth all must 
 
 retire before him : — so the Assyrian 
 monarchy was a government of force 
 deposited in the hands and guided by 
 the will o// one. His volition, right or 
 wrong, was law, and was sustained by 
 the sword. 
 
 These obvious deductions from the 
 figure are generally admitted. But the 
 symbol of the lion was imperfect. He 
 is not active and rapid in his movements. 
 Hence the vision compounds the figure. 
 The lion has wings as an eagle ; the 
 king of birds gives wings to the slow 
 pace of the king of beasts. 
 
 5. Wings are the natural emblems of 
 rapidity of motion. The figures of all 
 languages sanction the symbol. The 
 truth taught by their appendage to the 
 lion, is plainly, that this power should 
 spread rapidly. Such is the historical 
 fact : such it was before the days of 
 Daniel. This characteristic, so far as 
 the early periods are concerned, is matter 
 rather of inference, than of express histo- 
 rical detail. For many centuries after 
 Nimrod, all is involved in fable: we 
 have nothing certain. But we have in 
 the cotemporary of Daniel a sample of 
 the rapidity of conquest. To-day the 
 eagle eye anticipates the rising sun, 
 darts a keen glance upon his prey in the 
 valley of the Indus, and bears it aloft to 
 his eyrie on the summit of the Himma- 
 leyahs. To-morrow the vast valley of the 
 Nile attracts his notice, — one fell swoop, 
 and he lights upon Mount Atlas : an- 
 other and he breathes the pure air of 
 the upper Pyrenees : anon the Alps pass 
 beneath his wing, and from Scythian 
 snows, again he skims the sands of the 
 Arabian Desert. That is to say, accord- 
 ing to Josephus (Anti. x., xi.), Berossus 
 and Megasthenes, the conquests of Ne- 
 buchadnezzar extended from India to 
 Iberia or Spain. And Strabo, (see John's 
 Hebrew Commen. 144,) tells us that he 
 passed from Iberia to Pontus and Thrace, 
 thus compassing the whole Mediterra- 
 nean Sea. 
 
 6. It is probably not running down a 
 metaphor, or pressing the symbol too 
 far, to suppose that the two modifica- 
 tions of power, the first and the second 
 Assyrian empires, are alluded to by the 
 
40 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 two wings. The former terminated with 
 Sardanapalus, the latter with Belshazzar. 
 
 7. The wings " were plucked," whilst 
 Daniel looked on. During the prophet's 
 own day, and while he was prime mi- 
 nister in the empire, its greatest con- 
 quests were achieved. The successors of 
 Nebuchadnezzar added nothing ; they did 
 not long retain his acquisitions : the wings 
 of victory no longer adhered to the lion. 
 
 8. " It was lifted up from the earth, 
 and made to stand upon its feet, as a 
 man, and a man's heart was given to 
 it." It is by very many supposed, that 
 this refers specifically to Nebuchadnez- 
 zar's derangement, and subsequent re- 
 storation to reason and his throne. We 
 think, however, plausible as this may 
 appear, that the reference is rather to 
 the ameliorated state of society in gene- 
 ral and of the government in particular, 
 toward the latter times of the empire. 
 True, we have evidence of no little bar- 
 barity, among the courtiers, to which 
 the casting of Daniel into the lion's den 
 may bear witness : still in comparison 
 with former ferocity, there was beyond 
 doubt an improvement. The position of 
 Daniel and others of the same spirit, in 
 the city and empire could not but exert 
 an influence in favour of milder govern- 
 ment. He freely proclaimed the doc- 
 trines of repentance toward God and 
 faith in Messiah : so that the king him- 
 self was melted down, and there is some 
 reason to believe, though it is not posi- 
 tively certain, that he was a converted 
 man. Nor could this ameliorating in- 
 fluence be restrained to the person of 
 the king ; it must have pervaded the 
 mass of society less or more. The 
 claims of humanity were not so utterly 
 disregarded, as before the lion was trans- 
 formed into a man, with his face turned 
 heavenward. 
 
 Accordingly, the captives were treated 
 more mildly. In the very first year of 
 Evil Merodach, he released Jehoiachin 
 from prison, and treated him with great 
 kindness. All the kings seem to have 
 mellowed toward effeminacy, and Bel- 
 shazzar had less of sternness and seve- 
 rity of character, than his mother Nito- 
 cris, who in fact governed the empire. 
 
 The interpretation of those who in- 
 sist that the beast's being lifted up from 
 the earth, signifies the destruction of 
 the beast or empire, its annihilation, 
 scarcely deserves a passing notice. He 
 was not taken away from the earth ; 
 but raised up from the prone condition, 
 in which beasts walk ; and made to 
 stand upon his feet on the earth. 
 
 THE SECOND BEAST. 
 
 Verse 5. " And, behold, another beast 
 a second, like to a bear, and it raised up 
 itself on one side, and it had three ribs 
 in the mouth of it between the teeth of 
 it, and they said thus unto it, ' Arise, de- 
 vour much flesh.' " 
 
 Universally is it agreed that this sym- 
 bolizes the Medo-Persian monarchy. In 
 comparison with the Babylonians, the 
 Medes and Persians were rough and 
 uncultivated. Delicacy and refinement 
 had not corrupted and enervated them. 
 Moreover, within their dominion, at the 
 time of the sack of Babylon, were in- 
 cluded the Armenians and other nations 
 on the north, still more rude and savage 
 than themselves. The bear is a north- 
 ern inhabitant : his locality as well as 
 his rough character renders him a suit- 
 able emblem of a northern power. 
 
 " And it raised itself up on one side." 
 This is usually and correctly applied to 
 the fact, that the chief efficiency in ex- 
 tending this empire was from the Persian 
 General Cyrus, his subsequent accession 
 to the throne, and the general prevalence 
 of the Persian character. 
 
 For although the Medes were superior 
 and the Persians subordinate at the time 
 of its rise, and Cyrus himself served 
 under the Median monarch, his grand- 
 father, and afterwards under his uncle 
 Cyaxeres, yet it was his side of the 
 house that gave success to the combined 
 armies. The marginal reading which, 
 certainly is most like the original, gives 
 the same sense "it raised itself on'one 
 dominion?'' Better still, — it, the beast, 
 was made to stand up for one princi- 
 pality or government. 
 
 There is allusion to the habit which 
 this animal has, of often standing erect 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 41 
 
 in times of severe conflict with its 
 enemies. So the Medo-Persian empire 
 raised itself up to contend for one com- 
 bined government over the nations. 
 
 The three ribs in the bear's mouth, 
 between his teeth, some have thought, 
 represented the Median, Persian and 
 Babylonian kingdoms. Others object to 
 this with great propriety, as represent- 
 ing the animal in the act of devouring 
 himself. But a bear with a piece of 
 flesh in its mouth may well denote a 
 half-civilized people in the act of suc- 
 cessful war, subduing kingdoms, tram- 
 pling underfoot the rights of man, and 
 devouring the substance of whole na- 
 tions. If the number three is designed 
 to specify three kingdoms, we think, 
 with Bishops Newton and Chandler, and 
 Sir Isaac Newton, that Lydia, Babylon, 
 and Egypt are the three principal king- 
 doms subverted by the second great 
 monarchy, and of course symbolized by 
 the three ribs. 
 
 The command " Arise and devour 
 much flesh," is a commission to destroy, 
 and a graphic description of the Persian 
 monarchy. It was certainly not charac- 
 terized by refinement and a regard to 
 the happiness and the rights of man. 
 Xenophon indeed pictures Cyrus as a 
 philosopher as well as conqueror. But 
 it is well known that Xenophon colours 
 if he does not sketch new characters. 
 It is impossible to reconcile him with 
 other historians. Justin extends Cyrus's 
 reign to thirty years, probably counting 
 from the time when he became an emi- 
 nent general ; and makes him fall in an 
 ambuscade laid by Tomyris, queen of 
 the Scythians ; who ordered his head to 
 be cut off and thrown into a leathern 
 bag, full of blood, saying, " Glut thyself 
 with blood, which thou thirstedst after, 
 and with which thou wast never to be 
 satisfied." (Book ix., viii.) 
 
 The brutality of his son Cambyses is 
 proverbial. He demanded the opinion of 
 his counsellors as to the legality of mar- 
 rying his own sister. They answered 
 that the Persians had no law authorizing 
 the marriage of a sister; but they had a 
 law empowering their king to do as he 
 pleased. He married her therefore, 
 
 G 
 
 murdered his brother, and then, in a 
 cruel manner, put his sister and wife to 
 death, because she wept her brother's 
 murder. Smerdis, the impostor and 
 next king, was assassinated. Darius 
 Hystaspes, his successor, died a natural 
 death. His son, Xerxes the Great, was 
 assassinated by the captain of his guards. 
 Artaxerxes killed his eldest brother, 
 usurped the throne and died a natural 
 death. Xerxes II. was destroyed by his 
 brother Logdianus, who was smothered 
 in ashes by his brother Ochus ; and thus 
 barbarous cruelty pervaded the govern- 
 ment and marked its policy towards 
 others. Such are its characteristics as 
 drawn out by Isaiah (xiii. 18) : " Their 
 bows also shall dash the young men to 
 pieces, and they shall have no pity on the 
 fruit of the womb ; their eye shall not 
 spare children." 
 
 THE THIRD BEAST. 
 
 Verse 6. "After this I beheld, and 
 lo, another, like a leopard, which had on 
 the back of it four wings of a fowl ; the 
 beast had also four heads ; and dominipn 
 was given to it." 
 
 Such is the nondescript which symbo- 
 lizes the Grseco-Macedonian empire. Let 
 us touch upon a few leading points. 
 
 1. The leopard is a small animal, and 
 the kingdom left by Philip to his son 
 was small ; as was the prince to whom 
 the sceptre descended. 
 
 2. Yet the leopard is strong and very 
 fierce. Alexander was a man of great 
 power and fiery courage ; both which 
 qualities he infused into his army. 
 
 3. Perhaps the very spots of the ani- 
 mal may be designed to set forth the 
 wily policy of the Macedonian kings. 
 Philip was doubtless a greater politician 
 than his son, if we use the word politician 
 in the common acceptation. A greater 
 amount of cunning and craft is displayed 
 in his movements. He acquired power, 
 more by policy perhaps, than by prowess 
 in arms. Alexander was however not 
 deficient in either. 
 
 4. The leopard, as to movement, is 
 among the most active animals. Rarely 
 does he make a false spring upon his 
 
42 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 prey, and not un frequently he shows a 
 disposition to dispute the point of honour, 
 with the tawny king of the forest. In 
 like manner were the movements of the 
 Macedonian; quick and sure. 
 
 5. The four wings are designed to 
 set forth more strongly the rapidity of 
 Alexander's conquests. 
 
 6. The four heads, in conjunction 
 with the wings, intimate the subdivision 
 of the empire, after the death of its 
 founder. This partition accordingly 
 took place, as we shall see more particu- 
 larly hereafter. 
 
 7. And dominion was given to it. 
 Alexander himself seems to have enter- 
 tained the idea — or if not, at least to have 
 laboured to give currency to the idea, 
 that he was appointed of heaven to sub- 
 vert the Persian monarchy. His visit 
 to Jerusalem, and interview with Jaddus, 
 the high priest, as related by Josephus, 
 (Anti 11 viii. 5,) is a plain exposition of 
 this phrase. Alexander, whilst pressing 
 the siege of Tyre, was greatly enraged 
 at Jaddus for refusing to send him sup- 
 plies. He marched towards Jerusalem, 
 promising his army the plunder of the 
 city. But upon being met by the high 
 priest and others, arrayed in their official 
 robes, and the high priest wearing the 
 mitre with the name of Jehovah inscribed 
 on it, Alexander approached himself, and 
 adored that name, and first saluted the 
 high priest : he gave as the reason, a 
 vision which he had had before he left 
 Greece., in which he saw this very priest, 
 as thus dressed out, who encouraged him 
 to proceed on his contemplated expedi- 
 tion, and assured him of the divine pro- 
 tection. We see no reason to doubt this 
 story, so far as the procession and the 
 declarations of Alexander are concerned. 
 Nor do we see just reason to believe 
 that Alexander told the truth in his de- 
 claration of having seen a vision. This 
 doubtless was feigned ; but what was 
 pretended by him, was really the divine 
 purpose, as the event showed ; dominion 
 over man was given to him from that 
 God whose kingdom ruleth over all. 
 
 The consideration of the fourth beast 
 must be deferred for the present, and 
 will form the subject of another lecture. 
 
 We close with some practical remarks 
 and deductions. 
 
 1. We repeat for distinct recollection : 
 these four beasts represent one thing — 
 despotic poiver. Their forms vary, but 
 their essential character is the same. 
 This unity of character is better sustained 
 by the image in the former vision. But 
 here, though the symbolic parts need not 
 the dissecting knife, yet neither is it 
 possible to lose sight of this unity. Ty- 
 ranny of man over man may be pre- 
 sented in different aspects, but the results 
 are one, and the spirit that produced 
 them is one. What boots it, whether we 
 be crushed to death by the head of gold, 
 or trodden to dust by the feet of iron ? 
 Whether we perish by the tusk of the 
 lion, the paw of the bear, the fang of the 
 leopard, or the iron teeth and brazen 
 claws of the nameless monster? Does 
 the form of ruin constitute every thing ? 
 Or is not the ruin itself the main matter? 
 Let us, then, look at the essence of the 
 thing. It is the domination of brute 
 
 force, operating through fear, and crush- 
 ing man to the dust. This is what is 
 symbolized ; this, as it is opposed to the 
 dominion of moral law, addressing the 
 understanding, reaching the heart, and 
 bringing the man, the state, the nation, 
 the world, to bow willing subjects to 
 truth, and devout worshippers at the 
 shrine of her divinity. 
 
 2. Let us ever remember that human 
 population, thrown into violent agitation 
 by the furious and corrupt passions of 
 man, is the great source of tyranny. 
 The four beasts, one in spirit, end and 
 aim, came up out of the sea. This sea, 
 in a peaceful state, could not become 
 the parent of such monsters. It is the 
 corrupt passions that gender them. Sin, 
 in the various forms of it, injected by the 
 " prince of the powers of the air," pro- 
 duces such states of society as lead to 
 despotism. The barriers of parental t 
 government have their natural limit. To 
 this succeeds the patriarchal ; but this 
 too has its limit ; and beyond this what 
 principle can reach? If all men were 
 disposed to do right, and would gratify 
 the disposition, society might remain 
 quiescent ; but as this is not so in fact, 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 43 
 
 there is hence necessity for restraint. It 
 is sinful passions, that render the restric- 
 tions of government needful : and by the 
 very nature of their influences make that 
 government, in the first instance arbi- 
 trary. It is obvious that from such a 
 sea nothing could come forth but a 
 monster. The mass of mankind, thus 
 agitated, could not possibly give exist- 
 ence to a pure and free system of rule. 
 The " troubled sea" must " cast up mire 
 and dirt." Before this can cease, the 
 agitation must cease ; and before the 
 agitation can cease, there must be a 
 cause, a power to say " peace, be still." 
 Has ever such a voice issued from the 
 deep sea of human corruption ? Exa- 
 mine the page of history. What are its 
 teachings? Does it point to the vast 
 heavings of the perturbed ocean, tossing 
 its foaming billows mountain high, as 
 the source of order and quiet? Does it 
 say that the agitated mass ever restored 
 itself to tranquillity, the cause of the agi- 
 tation still continuing? Did ever a re- 
 volution produced by such elements end 
 in a free government ? Of all the 
 changes which the giant image has expe- 
 rienced, did ever one result in any thing 
 to the human race, but a change of mas- 
 ters? 
 
 Clearly then, there must be a new ele- 
 ment introduced, — a new principle ; and 
 therefore we remark again — 
 
 3. Nothing but that religion which 
 came from heaven, can constitute the 
 basis of that morality, which must lie at 
 the foundation of free government. No 
 power in the universe, but the " little 
 stone cut out of the mountain without 
 hands," can break in pieces the image 
 and grind him to powder. No wind, 
 but the breath of God's Spirit can blow 
 upon this powder and dissipate it, until 
 " no place shall be found for it." No 
 theories of government, that admit the 
 doctrine of fundamental moral revolu- 
 tion in the individual heart, can ever 
 permanently secure the peace, happiness 
 and freedom of the whole body. No 
 efficient reformer who can avail to break 
 off the yoke from every neck and set the 
 race free, will ever come from beneath. 
 From high heaven must descend the 
 
 mighty power, that shall transform the 
 race into rational society, subject from 
 delightful choice to the laws of eternal 
 and heaven-born truth. The preaching 
 of the cross, which some men count 
 " foolishness," can alone avail to tame 
 the lion of human passions, and place 
 him peaceful at the Master's feet. The 
 blessed gospel of God's salvation is the 
 healing principle, — the " cordon sard- 
 taire 1 '' that binds man to his Maker and 
 to his fellow-man. As no man can be 
 made free in a moral sense, who remains 
 under the dominion of unclean lusts ; so 
 no man can be politically free, who has 
 not a knowledge of the great moral 
 principles on which society is founded. 
 This leads us to remark — 
 
 4. The historical fact, that wherever 
 any considerable advance has been made 
 towards the attainment of civil freedom, 
 there the Bible and its doctrines have 
 less or more freely circulated. And on 
 the contrary, darkness as to Bible truth, 
 is darkness as to political privileges. So 
 fully does this rule hold, that we may, 
 with a great degree of certainty, infer 
 the measure of rational freedom in a 
 nation from the extent of the circulation 
 of the Scriptures and the free discussion 
 of their doctrines before the people. 
 Where are the dark and enslaved na- 
 tions ? Where the Bible is unknown. 
 Behold Spain, Portugal, even fair Italy 
 herself! See the condition of the body 
 of the population in all countries, whence 
 the Inquisition and the stake have ba- 
 nished the great moral enlightener of the 
 race. A free Bible, on the contrary 
 makes a free people. 
 
 5. Analogous to this is the fact, that, 
 in the darkest hour of the revolutionary 
 struggle, the American Congress, at the 
 earnest instigation of men themselves 
 hostile to Christianity, as a religion, 
 invoked the aid of the clergy ; who 
 all came to their assistance, except in- 
 deed a few in Virginia, where a religious 
 establishment at that time had much in- 
 fected the clerical body with a cold and 
 dead morality. But whilst this was true 
 of one small locality, the fact looms in 
 our political history, that the ministers 
 of the gospel and prominent private 
 
44 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 Christians, — the friends of the Bible all, 
 were among the foremost in the glorious 
 ranks of a nation's defence. The truth 
 had made them free, and free they were 
 determined to remain. Let us cherish 
 their principles, if we will transmit their 
 privileges to coming generations.. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 THE RAM AND THE HE GOAT. 
 Daniel viii. 
 
 The importance of systematic ar- 
 rangement is admitted in almost all de- 
 partments of human action. In none is 
 it more useful than in the business of 
 teaching. He who will communicate 
 knowledge, and in the very act, disci- 
 pline the mind for its retention and use, 
 and for farther attainment, must follow 
 the natural order of thought. For that 
 there is a natural order, is undeniable ; 
 consequently, he will succeed best as a 
 teacher, who will lead on the minds of 
 his pupils most nearly according to this 
 order. The reason is obvious ; for then 
 their minds can follow with the least 
 possible effort. 
 
 This remark is equally applicable to 
 the memory and the understanding. 
 Such things as are related to us in a 
 connected series we can easily remem- 
 ber ; whereas it is difficult to retain the 
 same things, if presented in a confused 
 and irregular manner, without any re- 
 gard to their natural order. This ex- 
 plains the reason why some sermons 
 are more difficult to be remembered than 
 others. A little child can gather a thou- 
 sand beads from the floor in a moment, 
 if there be a thread passing through them 
 and constituting a bond of union among 
 them. But, if there be no bond, — no 
 connexion ; if they be scattered around 
 in confusion, he will, indeed, proceed 
 with great vigour at first, but. by degrees 
 he will weary of his employment and 
 abandon it in despair. This may illus- 
 trate the reason why some, who hear 
 much preaching never become any wiser. 
 
 The preacher sowed beads in great profu- 
 sion, it may be, but they were not strung. 
 There was no thread in his discourse. 
 But for this omission, the hearer could 
 have grasped the first and followed on 
 from one to another until he would have 
 told over the whole thousand. So also 
 do we explain the philosophy of the fact, 
 that many times the speaker cannot gain 
 and keep the attention of the hearer. 
 The natural order of thought is not fol- 
 lowed. There are bones enough to form 
 a skeleton, but they lie, like those in 
 Ezekiel's vision, scattered up and down 
 in the open valley. If the lecturer lacks 
 the skill and adroitness necessary to 
 bring bone to bone, he cannot conse- 
 quently teach anatomy. 
 
 There is a skeleton in the giant image 
 of the Babylonian monarch, and unless 
 we proceed regularly along from bone 
 to bone and from joint to joint, we shall 
 presently find ourselves in Ezekiel's 
 valley. There is a thread in the Scrip- 
 ture prophecies, which, if we seize and 
 firmly retain, -we may hope to follow 
 down from Daniel to the time when he 
 " shall stand in his lot at the end of the 
 days." Detached prophecies there are, 
 but a system there also is : and if we 
 keep the clue and pursue it, we shall 
 understand and remember many things, 
 which we cannot understand and of 
 course cannot remember, without the aid 
 of this regular order. 
 
 The giant image is our general plat- 
 form. The four beasts represent the 
 same. We have glanced at the image 
 from head to foot. We have described, 
 with necessary brevity, the lion, the 
 bear and the leopard. Let us finish as 
 we proceed. Let us adhere, as nearly 
 as the case will permit, to the chronolo- 
 gical order of the prophecies. As we 
 descend the stream of time, the ark of 
 the covenant that bears us along, neces- 
 sarily comes into connexion and collision 
 with a greater number of the increasing 
 craft which float upon its surface. There 
 is therefore need of more circumspec- 
 tion. Observation and detail must in- 
 crease. What was to have been ex- 
 pected is realized. Daniel enters more 
 into particulars with the silver breast and 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 45 
 
 arms, — the boar, than with the golden 
 head, or the lion : he speaks more mi- 
 nutely of the brazen belly and thighs, — 
 the leopard : and still more in reference 
 to the iron legs, — the fierce iron-toothed 
 and brazen-clawed monster. 
 
 In the third year of Belshazzar ; B. C. 
 552, the prophet was at Shushan the 
 palace. Whether Daniel was in person 
 at Susa before and at the time of the 
 vision ; or whether he was there only 
 in his visions, appears doubtful. Com- 
 mentators almost universally assume it, 
 that he was there in the body at the 
 time ; and they suppose that he was on 
 business, as the ambassador of his prince, 
 at the court of the Persian king. We 
 think the language does not necessarily 
 involve that idea. " And I saw in a 
 vision, and it came to pass, when I saw 
 that I was at Shushan ;" — that is, in 
 vision I was there — as Ezekiel was in 
 the valley of dry bones. 
 
 This city lay on the river Ulai, called 
 by the Greeks and Romans, Euleus ; a 
 branch of the Euphrates, which enters 
 below the junction of Tigris, on the 
 east. The distance may be a hundred 
 miles from the mouth, and the city must 
 therefore have been on the western side 
 of Elam or Persia. 
 
 This vision refers to the two middle 
 sections of the giant image. Verse 3 : 
 " Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, 
 and, behold, there stood before the river 
 a ram which had two horns, and the 
 two horns were high ; but one was 
 higher than the other, and the higher 
 came up last." This, the angel inter- 
 prets of the Medo-Persian empire : verse 
 20, " The ram which thou sawest having 
 two horns, are the kings of Media and 
 Persia." 
 
 The location of the scene is within the 
 Persian territory ; at the very site of Per- 
 sian power. The two high horns are 
 the kingdoms of Media and Persia. The 
 higher horn which came up last, is Persia ; 
 whose power was greatly inferior to the 
 other until the days of Cyrus, when it 
 shot forth and overtopped its fellow. 
 
 This part of the animal is a very com- 
 mon symbol of ruling power. The horn 
 in animal economy, is a weapon of de- 
 
 fence and offence. The horns of Joseph, 
 (Deut. xxxiii. 17,) which Moses says, 
 " are like the horns of unicorns ; with 
 them he shall push the people together 
 to the ends of the earth," are a prophetic 
 representation of the great power his 
 tribe should have in after days. " The 
 horn of David," (Psalm cxxxii.,) which 
 should bud forth, is the power of the Son 
 of David, whose throne is for ever and 
 ever. " All the horns of the wicked," 
 says the Psalmist, (Ixxv. 10,) " will I 
 cut off; but the horns of the righteous 
 shall be exalted ;" that is, " I will de- 
 stroy the power of the wicked, but the 
 power of the righteous will I establish." 
 He next describes the general pro- 
 gress of the power symbolized. " I saw 
 the ram pushing westward, and north- 
 ward, and southward." Here it will be 
 observed that no mention is made of the 
 east. The conquests of this empire lay 
 west. Accordingly Isaiah long before 
 had prophesied of this power as coming 
 from the east, (xlvi. 11,) — "calling a 
 ravenous bird from the east, the man 
 that executeth my counsel from a far 
 country." Agreeably to this, Cyrus 
 and his successors, from provincial sub- 
 serviency, as their countries once were 
 to Babylon, subdued their mistress, 
 Syria, Lydia and all the nations to the 
 Egean Sea : Armenia and all the north- 
 ern nations, to the confines of Scythia ; 
 Arabia in part, and Egypt to the cata- 
 racts of the Nile, and overran a great 
 part of Greece. It ought perhaps to be 
 noted, that the vision has reference 
 mainly to the first administration under 
 Cyrus ; as the Goat has to Alexander. 
 The first conquest lay to the west, north 
 and south. Afterwards Darius Hystaspes 
 carried his victories to central India on 
 the east. The power is indeed symbo- 
 lized by the animals respectively, and 
 the general, king or emperor by the 
 horns. The one horn of the Goat is 
 Alexander, the higher horn of the Ram 
 is Cyrus. As to the latter, we have 
 gone sufficiently into the detail. Before 
 we do so, in regard to the former, the 
 order of time requires us to turn to an- 
 other prophecy whose fulfilment comes 
 in before the period of the Macedonian 
 
46 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 invasion, and lays open the reason 
 of it. 
 
 Ch. xi. 1, 2. "Also I, in the first 
 year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood 
 to confirm and to strengthen him. And 
 now will I show thee the truth : Behold, 
 there shall stand up yet three kings in 
 Persia ; and the fourth shall be far richer 
 than they all : and by his strength 
 through his riches he shall stir up all 
 against the realm of Grecia." 
 
 This is the language of the angel or 
 man whom Daniel saw, (x. 5,) " clothed 
 in linen, whose loins were girded with 
 fine gold of Uphaz." This angel re- 
 lates, (xi. 1,) what he did in the first 
 year of Darius the Mede ; he stood " to 
 confirm and to strengthen him." And 
 this was no doubt concomitant with 
 Daniel's own acts and doings of the 
 same nature. Can any person believe 
 that Daniel, knowing the near approach 
 of the time for restoring captive Judah, 
 and feeling deeply interested in the 
 matter, as we know he did ; and stand- 
 ing so near the seat of power, would 
 not make strenuous efforts to induce 
 Darius and Cyrus to favour the Jews ? 
 Is it supposable that with the royal seal 
 in his hand he would not burn with in- 
 tense desire to impress it upon a decree 
 for the restoration of the preserved of 
 Israel ? And among the arguments he 
 would use, can it be imagined that he 
 would never think of directing the eye 
 of Darius and Cyrus to the prophecy of 
 Isaiah, whenever the latter is called by 
 name an hundred years before he was 
 born? None of these things are sup- 
 posable ; but all that Josephus says, 
 (Anti. xi. 1,) is quite probable. "And 
 these things God did afford them ; for 
 he stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and 
 made him write thus through all Asia. 
 ' Thus saith Cyrus the king, since God 
 Almighty hath appointed me to be king 
 of the habitable earth, I believe that he 
 is that God which the nation of the 
 Israelites worship, for indeed he foretold 
 my name by the prophets, and that I 
 should build him an house at Jerusalem, 
 in the country of Judea.' " 
 
 This was known to Cyrus by his 
 reading the book which Isaiah left be- 
 
 hind him of his prophecies ; for this 
 prophet said that God hath spoken thus 
 to him in a secret vision, " My will is, 
 that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to 
 be king over many and great nations, 
 send back my people to their own land, 
 and build my temple." This was fore- 
 told by Isaiah one hundred and forty 
 years before the temple was demolished. 
 What Daniel, according to Josephus, 
 did by external and visible agency, to- 
 ward encouraging Darius and Cyrus, the 
 angel declares he did also by internal 
 and unconscious influences. The date 
 of the declaration is, "the third year of 
 Cyrus," — five years after the sack of 
 Babylon, B. C. 533. Cyrus, therefore, 
 is not one of the three kings, " who 
 shall stand up yet in Persia." If the 
 date of the present scene (xi. 2) were in 
 the first year of Darius, then Cyrus, 
 coming after, would be one of the three, 
 and the fourth would be Darius Hys- 
 taspes. But this phraseology, uttered 
 in the third year of Cyrus, throws the 
 great warlike movement upon Xerxes 
 the Great. Cyrus reigned sole monarch 
 seven years ; Cambyses, his son, seven 
 years and four months; Smerdis Magus, 
 the usurper, seven months ; and Darius 
 Hystaspes thirty-six years ; who was 
 followed by his son Xerxes the Great. 
 Now, should Smerdis be accounted a 
 king, " the stirring up of all against the 
 realm of Grecia," must be fulfilled by 
 Darius Hystaspes. But every child has 
 read of Marathon, a plain ten miles 
 from Athens, upon which Darius had 
 poured his legions, victorious from the 
 valley of the Ganges to the banks of the 
 Danube. The numbers of the Persian 
 army are very variously given, from a 
 hundred thousand foot and ten thousand 
 horse, to six hundred thousand. This 
 last is Justin's statement (book ii. ix.) 
 Against this vast host went forth ten 
 thousand Athenians and one thousand 
 Plateaus. The result is known ; for 
 the glory of the achievement shines 
 with such resplendent lustre, as to daz- 
 zle the eye, whilst it fixes the gaze of 
 all the earth. Around Marathon and 
 Miltiades and his eleven thousand 
 Greeks, the splendour of the action has 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 47 
 
 thrown a halo of glory whose brilliancy 
 the lapse of twenty-three centuries has 
 not begun to dim. And yet — shame to 
 Athens ! shame to human nature ! — the 
 hero of Marathon died a beggar in pri- 
 son, whither he was cast by a vote of 
 the very people whom his sword had 
 made free ; and his lifeless^ body was 
 purchased for burial by his noble son. 
 who paid the fine which his unrighteous 
 countrymen had imposed upon him. 
 
 But Ptolemy's canon and others omit 
 Smerdis altogether from the list of Per- 
 sian kings, because he was a mere up- 
 start pretender, and was cut off in seven 
 months. This omission will of course 
 make Xerxes, the son of Darius, the 
 fourth king who shall " stir up all 
 against the realm of Grecia." Accord- 
 ingly history tells us of the great pre- 
 parations of Darius for a second inva- 
 sion of Greece, and that when they 
 were advanced, he died. Xerxes, his 
 successor, continued the preparations, 
 and set forward with immense armies 
 variously estimated at from two to five 
 millions. Vast concourse ! 
 
 "Whose rear lay wrapt in night, while break- 
 ing dawn 
 Roused the broad front " 
 
 But not content with pouring upon 
 Greece these mighty legions, swept 
 from the Indus to the Hellespont, and 
 those flushed with recent victory and 
 the spoils of conquered Egypt, Xerxes 
 secured as allies the Carthaginians, who 
 furnished an army of three hundred 
 thousand men, and two hundred ships. 
 
 How this immense host melted away 
 before the fires of Grecian patriotism, 
 let the schoolboy tell ; for to his ear 
 Leonidas and Thermopylae, Themisto- 
 cles and Salamis, Aristides, Pausanias, 
 and Platea are familiar sounds. Be it 
 ours, to behold and to wonder at the 
 foreknowledge and power of our God. 
 This was the largest army ever collect- 
 ed on our globe, and the last which 
 Persia sent into Europe. " He shall 
 stir up all against the realm of Grecia." 
 
 We proceed to the symbolical goat. 
 The angelic interpreter in Daniel (verse 
 21) assures us that " the rough goat is 
 
 the King of Grecia, and the great horn 
 that is between his eyes is the first 
 king." Evidently by " King of Grecia" 
 is not meant the individual and the 
 power now in his hands, but the king- 
 dom, — the mass of men successively, 
 allied together as one. For the horn is 
 the first king. The goat himself is the 
 Macedonian or Greek empire ,• not the 
 Greek republics associated by treaty for 
 the common defence, but a new power, 
 sprung up indeed from such alliance, 
 and comprehending the Grecian states. 
 But it is a new power, and Alexander 
 becomes first king, when he wrests the 
 sceptre of Nimrod from the hand of 
 Darius Codomanus : just as Darius the 
 Mede became the first king in a new 
 empire, when he snatched the same 
 sceptre from the hand of Belshazzar. 
 In the application of this emblem to the 
 Macedonian empire, there is a universal 
 agreement among expositors. Calmet, 
 a Roman Catholic writer, says indeed 
 that " the he goat is Alexander, the ram 
 is Darius Codomanus, the last of the 
 Persian emperors and successors of 
 Cyrus. In the statue represented in a 
 dream to Nebuchadnezzar, the belly of 
 brass was an emblem of Alexander, the 
 legs of iron of his successors." (See 
 Dictionary, vol. i. p. 87.) But this is 
 inconsistent with the angel's interpreta- 
 tion, that the horn of the goat is the 
 first king : and it is inconsistent with 
 Calmet himself, who says, (vol. ii. p. 
 271,) "After these three empires, 
 which are those of the Chaldeans, Per- 
 sians, and the Greeks, there will arise a 
 fourth, denoted by the legs of iron, and 
 which represents the empire of the Ro- 
 mans. Under this last empire God will 
 raise a new one, which shall be of 
 greater strength, power, and extent than 
 all the others. This is that of the Mes- 
 siah, represented by the little stone 
 coming from the mountain, and over- 
 throwing the statue." With one excep- 
 tion, we coincide with this learned critic. 
 The exception has been already stated. 
 We maintain that the kingdom of the 
 little stone co-existed with, and operated 
 against the image in all its four divi- 
 sions. Messiah's kingdom did not begin 
 
48 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 to be after the fourth became a catholic 
 monarchy. " The legs of the lame are 
 not equal." In this passage it is rightly 
 maintained that the different sections of 
 the image, like the four beasts, repre- 
 sent, not individual monarchs, but the 
 catholic monarchies themselves : but in 
 the former passage it is maintained, that 
 the ram and the goat represent the indi- 
 viduals. Now which is correct ? The 
 Benedictine monk, or the Abbot of Se- 
 nones 1 Calmet here, or Calmet there? 
 But mark the reason of this change of 
 ground. If the true interpretation be 
 held, there is the goat emblematic of the 
 very same catholic empire which is 
 symbolized by the iron legs and feet ; 
 but in that case some consequences fol- 
 low, completely demonstrative of the 
 identity of the eleventh kingdom which 
 springs up among the ten toes, with the 
 papal power. To avoid such a disas- 
 trous consequence, it is convenient now 
 to make the iron legs the successors of 
 Alexander, in the catholic Greek em- 
 pire. On the contrary, we hold the 
 catholic doctor to his own interpretation, 
 which is Daniel's and Gabriel's too ; 
 viz., that the four sections of the image 
 and the four beasts, represent the four 
 catholic monarchies that have existed 
 during and since Daniel's day : they are 
 not symbols of individual kings. And 
 by unavoidable consequence, the ram 
 and the he goat are not symbols of in- 
 dividuals ; but of the catholic Persian 
 and the catholic Greek monarchies. Let 
 us mark the movements of the rough 
 goat. 
 
 1. He comes from the west; and 
 Macedon is westward of the position of 
 Daniel at the time : and the progress of 
 the Greek conquering army was from 
 west to east. 
 
 2. The rapidity of his movement — 
 " he touched not the ground." Alexan- 
 der, having been appointed generalissi- 
 mo of the Greek armies, destined to 
 carry the seat of war into the Persian 
 empire, set out, B. C. 334, and crossed 
 the Hellespont. His forces consisted of 
 thirty-thousand foot and five thousand 
 horse. On the banks of the Granicus, 
 a small river that runs northeasterly, 
 
 and empties into the Propontis, he met 
 the first opposition. The Persian hosts, 
 under command of Memnon, a Rhodian, 
 and other generals, disputed the passage. 
 There stood the ram " before the river," 
 and scarcely taking time to breathe and 
 chafe his wrath, the goat " ran upon 
 him in the fury of his power." One 
 hundred and ten thousand men, on the 
 precipitous bank of a narrow but deep 
 stream, stood firm in Jhe purpose of 
 cutting off and destroying the little band 
 of Greek invaders, as they should rise 
 from the channel. But rise they did, in 
 the face of this terrible odds ; " and I 
 saw him come close unto the ram, and 
 he was moved with choler against him, 
 and he smote the ram and brake his 
 two horns." It was a fierce and bloody 
 battle. Twenty-two thousand five hun- 
 dred of the Persian troops lay dead upon 
 the field ; and one hundred and fifteen 
 Greeks. This battle was fought on the 
 twenty-second of May, B. C. 334. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, as illustrative 
 of the providence of God, and expository 
 of his prophecies, that the counsels of 
 the wise are frustrated, when his pur- 
 poses require it. Memnon, the Rhodian, 
 was the oldest and the best general in 
 the Persian service; and at the council 
 of war, before the battle of the Grani- 
 cus, he strongly advised against a gene- 
 ral engagement. Knowing the furious 
 courage of the Greeks at the opening of 
 a campaign, he advised the devastation 
 of the country before Alexander, and 
 the protraction of the conflict. This 
 counsel was good, and had it been fol- 
 lowed, must have resulted in the de- 
 struction of the Greeks. For Alexander 
 had but one month's provisions and pay 
 for his army when he crossed the Hel- 
 lespont. Again, Memnon, after the bat- 
 tle, advised Darius to carry the war 
 into Greece, alleging that as the Lace- 
 daemonians were hostile to Alexander 
 and his enterprise, they could easily be 
 bought over, and thus Alexander would 
 be compelled to return. This counsel 
 Darius took, and appointed Memnon to 
 execute his own plan. Had his life 
 been spared, Alexander would have 
 been compelled to abandon his expedi- 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 49 
 
 tion, or lose Greece and Macedon. But 
 then the purposes of Heaven would have 
 been frustrated, and Daniel's prophecies 
 have been falsified. Memnon died whilst 
 prosecuting the siege of Mitylene in the 
 island of Lesbos, which it was import- 
 ant for him to possess, as a harbour for 
 his fleet ; and so the he goat was not 
 turned aside from his onward course. 
 
 In October of the next year was 
 fought the great battle of Issus, which 
 resulted in the complete rout of the im- 
 mense army of Darius, the loss of all 
 his treasure, and the captivity of his wife 
 and mother and friends. 
 
 In the next year, 332, he took Tyre 
 after a siege of seven months, attended 
 with immense labour and much loss of 
 life. This was part of his commission 
 from God. For her pride, corruption 
 and idolatry, he had, two hundred and 
 forty years before this, sent against 
 Tyre Nebuchadnezzar ; who, after a 
 siege of thirteen years, had utterly de- 
 stroyed that mart of the nations. But 
 whilst the old city remained a ruin and 
 abandoned, Tyre revived on the island 
 less than a mile from the former site ; 
 her commerce covered the sea, and her 
 wealth renewed her pride. Hence God 
 promised by his prophets utterly to de- 
 stroy her. Ezekiel (xxvi.) describes 
 the first destruction and the cause of it. 
 The haughtiness of Tyrus, and her ex- 
 ulting over Jerusalem carried captive 
 in the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's 
 reign, occasioned this prophecy, which 
 was fulfilled in all its terror. Then in 
 xxvii. he describes the second destruc- 
 tion. For he speaks of the new city 
 (verse 3), " thy borders are in the midst 
 of ihe seas ; tn5 r builders have perfected 
 thy beauty." Verse 32, " What city is 
 like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the 
 midst of the sea?" Ch. xxviii. 2, "I 
 sit," says she, " in the seat of God, in 
 the midst of the seas." Verse 7, " Be- 
 hold therefore I will bring strangers 
 upon thee, the terrible of the nations. 
 They shall bring thee down to the pit, 
 and thou shalt die the death of them 
 that are slain in the midst of the seas." 
 This sentence was executed by the Ma- 
 cedonian phalanx. 
 
 7 
 
 After the siege of Tyre and the sub- 
 jection of Jerusalem and all Palestine, 
 Alexander proceeded to Egypt, which 
 had been since the days of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar in a state of vassalage to the 
 eastern monarchs, and which submitted 
 to him gladly. He laid out and directed 
 the construction of the city of Alexan- 
 dria. The execution of his plan he en- 
 trusted to Dinocrates, the architect of 
 the celebrated second temple of Diana 
 at Ephesus. 
 
 In October of the year 331, occurred 
 the battle of Arbela, a city lying on the 
 east of the Tigris. Nearly two years 
 had passed since the battle of Issus. 
 Darius had made great and successful 
 efforts at collecting forces, for his army 
 now "consisted of at least six hundred 
 thousand foot and forty thousand horse ; 
 and the other of not more than forty 
 thousand foot and seven or eight thou- 
 sand horse." " According to Arrian," 
 says Rollin, "the Persians lost three 
 hundred thousand men, Alexander twelve 
 hundred ;" or two hundred and fifty for 
 one, that is, the Macedonian army de- 
 stroyed more than six times their own 
 number! Every man killed seven, on 
 an average ! However incredible this 
 may be, it is certain that the Persian 
 army was completely routed, and the 
 sceptre of the catholic monarchy passed 
 over to the brazen nation of the Greeks. 
 
 After this the rough goat pushed north, 
 and Alexander passed the Indus, de- 
 feated Porus, the Indian king; built 
 boats or ships on that river and de- 
 scended it. He returned to Babylon, 
 and undertook to restore it to its an- 
 cient splendour as a centre to his em- 
 pire ; became a devotee to the intoxi- 
 cating cup, — quaffed twelve goblets of 
 wine at one debauch, and, in conse- 
 quence of such excesses, died. 
 
 Thus the conqueror of the world, be- 
 fore he had completed his thirty-third 
 year, was in turn conquered, — not by 
 the immense hosts of Persia, — not by 
 the giant Indian monarch, — not by op- 
 posing flood or mountain barrier: the 
 juice of the Babylonian grape accom- 
 plished what these failed to do. Sad 
 and humiliating proof, that none are 
 
50 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 safe in the free use of the insidious 
 cup. 
 
 Rollin closes a brief statement of the 
 extent of country passed over by this 
 conquering army thus: "Add to this 
 the various turnings in Alexander's 
 marches ; first, from the extremity of 
 Cilicia, where the battle of Issus was 
 fought, to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, 
 in Lybia ; and his returning thence 
 from Tyre, a journey of three hundred 
 leagues at least ; and as much space at 
 least for the winding of his route in dif- 
 ferent places ; we shall find that Alex- 
 ander, in less than eight years, marched 
 his army upwards of seventeen hundred 
 leagues, without including his return to 
 Babylon." (xv. ii.) 
 
 This fully justifies the strong figure, 
 " he touched not the ground ;" " he 
 flew," as it were, " on the face of the 
 whole earth." 
 
 Verse 7. " And there was no power 
 in the ram to stand before him : but he 
 cast him down to the ground, and stamp- 
 ed upon him : and there was none that 
 could deliver the ram out of his hand. 
 Therefore the he goat waxed great : and 
 when he was strong the great horn was 
 broken ; and for it came up four nota- 
 ble ones, towards the four winds of 
 heaven." This is expounded (verse 
 22) thus : " four kingdoms shall stand 
 up out of the nation, but not in his 
 power." 
 
 The unanimous consent of expositors 
 and critics, in applying this to the quad- 
 ruple partition of the empire, has grown 
 out of the palpable plainness of the case. 
 No other construction can be given. 
 History is our interpreter, and her les- 
 sons are indubitably certain. After 
 nineteen years of distraction and parti- 
 san wars, amid which Philip Arideus, 
 according to Ptolemy's canon, a natural 
 brother of Alexander's, was nominally 
 king for seven years, and after him 
 Alexander's son, Alexander -/Egus, by 
 Roxana, for twelve years ; after which 
 four of the principal officers became 
 kings in four distinct sections of the 
 empire. Macedonia and Greece fell to 
 the lot of Cassander : Thrace and By- 
 thinia to Lysimachus : Egypt and con- 
 
 tiguous parts of Palestine, Arabia and 
 Lybia, to Ptolemy : and Syria and all 
 eastward, to Seleucus. This arrange- 
 ment was the result of long and bloody 
 conflicts, and an immense number of 
 base assassinations: all fully verifying 
 the prediction of Alexander, that there 
 would be strange funeral games exhi- 
 bited after his death. 
 
 On this point bears the prophecy (xi. 
 3, 4). After describing, as we have 
 seen, the invasion of Grecia by Darius 
 Hystaspes, or rather by Xerxes the 
 Great, Daniel proceeds to the Macedo- 
 nian. " And a mighty king shall stand 
 up, that shall rule with great dominion, 
 and do according to his will. And 
 when he shall stand up, his kingdom 
 shall be broken, and shall be divided 
 toward the four winds of heaven ; and 
 not to his posterity, nor according to his 
 dominion which he ruled ; for his king- 
 dom shall be plucked up, even for others 
 besides those." Accordingly, Alexan- 
 der's half-brother, his mother, his wives, 
 and his two sons, were all assassinated, 
 and no one of his blood ever in truth 
 swayed his sceptre. It was " not to his 
 posterity." 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to ano- 
 ther context, in prosecution of the same 
 subject. In chapter xi. 5, 6, the angel 
 proceeds to give some details relative to 
 the two brazen thighs of the monster, — 
 two of the four horns of the he goat. 
 The other two kingdoms are not noted 
 in the prophecy : because both the 
 Thracian and Macedonian were unable 
 long to maintain their independence, and 
 were soon merged into that of Syria. 
 Seleucus, called Nicator, or the con- 
 queror, because of his great generalship, 
 having fought twenty-three battles and 
 gained as many victories, was the last 
 of Alexander's captains, and had, before 
 he was assassinated, added Thrace to 
 his kingdom. He was marching to take 
 possession of Macedonia, when he was 
 put to death by Ptolemy Ceraunus, the 
 eldest son of Ptolemy Lagus, whom his 
 father had banished. (See Prideaux, iii. 
 46.) 
 
 Another reason is, that the church of 
 God lay within the kingdom of the La- 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 51 
 
 gidsc. but confining upon the kingdom 
 of the Seleucida?. Palestine was on the 
 Egyptian king's frontier, next to Syria, 
 and, consequently, was involved in most 
 of the wars between them. It should 
 have been remarked, that Ptolemy La- 
 gus is reputed to have been a half-bro- 
 ther of Alexander's, by a wife whom 
 Philip gave as a present to one Lagus, 
 an obscure person, shortly before the 
 birth of the boy. Ptolemy proved to be 
 a very talented man, stood high in 
 Alexander's esteem, and had been ap- 
 pointed by him, before his death, as 
 governor of Egypt. He was a patron 
 of literature, and commenced the fa- 
 mous Alexandrian library. After him 
 the Ptolemies are called in history by 
 the name Lagidce, as the Syrian kings 
 are known by that of Seleucidce, from 
 Seleucus. In this context, the " king of 
 the south" is the Egyptian, and the 
 " king of the north" the Syrian. Se- 
 leucus, about 300, B. C, built the city 
 of Antioch, in Syria, as the seat of his 
 empire, and called it after his father, 
 who had been one of Philip's generals. 
 
 In the progress of events, these rival 
 nations, exhausted by mutual wounds, 
 attempted to extinguish the conflicts of 
 Mars, by the aid of Venus : the torch 
 of war must give place to the marriage 
 flambeau. " And in the end of years 
 (verse 6), they shall join themselves to- 
 gether ; for the king's daughter of the 
 south shall come to the king of the 
 north to make an agreement." The 
 very object of national, state marriages 
 is to secure the exercise of arbitrary and 
 hereditary power. But in this, as in- 
 deed in most instances, the enterprise 
 did not succeed ; " but," adds the angel, 
 "she shall not retain the power of the 
 arm ; neither shall he stand nor his 
 arm ;" — he will not remain faithful to 
 the marriage contract, as a means of 
 binding political power ; — " but she 
 shall be given up, and they that brought 
 her, and he that begat her, (or, as in the 
 margin, ichom she brought forth,) and 
 he that strengthened her in those times." 
 
 This was all accomplished in the 
 reigns of Antiochus Theos and Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus. The sister of Antiochus 
 
 had been married to Magas, King of 
 Lybia and Cyrene, and brother of 
 Ptolemy. Magas, growing old, con- 
 tracted a marriage between his daugh- 
 ter Berenice and Ptolemy's eldest son. 
 With her, the inheritance of his king- 
 dom was to pass over to his brother 
 Ptolemy. Magas died before the con- 
 summation of the marriage, and his 
 widow refused to carry out the con- 
 tract : but sent for Demetrius, a prince 
 of Macedon, promising to him her 
 daughter, and with her the kingdom. 
 He accepted the invitation, but the mo- 
 ther was so pleased with him that she 
 appropriated him to herself. This so 
 provoked the courtiers and officers of 
 the army, that they assassinated him, 
 and sent the mother home to Antiochus 
 Theos, her brother, and the daughter to 
 Ptolemy, who carried out his marriage 
 contract entered into with her father. 
 Antiochus, enraged at his sister's treat- 
 ment, made war upon Ptolemy. This 
 war is the very one to which the pro- 
 phecy refers. For after much loss of 
 blood and treasure, both monarchs were 
 glad to call up the wretched expedient 
 of a marriage to put an end to it. An- 
 tiochus divorced his own wife, Laodice, 
 who was also his sister, and by whom 
 he already had two sons, and married 
 Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy. This 
 negotiation was completed; the Egyp- 
 tian carried up his daughter to Seleucia, 
 (in Syria,) where Antiochus met him 
 and received her at his hands, pledging 
 to confer his kingdom on the male issue 
 of this marriage. Thus it is that kings 
 gamble in matrimony, and make nations 
 their stakes. (See Univ. Hist. viii. 278 ; 
 Prid. hi. 112.) 
 
 But this project, as the prophecy 
 teaches, did not succeed. " Two years 
 after (proceeds the Univ. Hist.) Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus died ; an event which An- 
 tiochus Theos, his son-in-law, no sooner 
 understood, than he removed Berenice 
 from his bed, and recalled Laodice, with 
 her children." Laodice, to secure a 
 husband to herself, and a crown to her 
 son, poisoned the one and proclaimed 
 the other as King of Syria in his father's 
 room. She also destroyed Berenice and 
 
52 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 her son. This last murder Justin (book 
 xxviii.) imputes to Seleuous. 
 
 Out of a branch of her root, the same 
 from which Berenice sprang, arose an- 
 other king, her brother Ptolemy Ever- 
 getcs, who was of course immediately 
 embroiled in a war with Seleucus Calli- 
 nicus, the son and successor of An- 
 tiochus, by Laodice. Verse 7, " But 
 out of a branch of her root, shall one 
 stand up in his estate, which shall come 
 with an army and shall enter into the 
 fortress of the king of the north, and 
 shall deal against him, and shall pre- 
 vail." And so did Ptolemy Evergetes 
 to Seleucus Callinicus. He swept over 
 the Syrian kingdom like a tornado. 
 " In this expedition," says the Univ. 
 Hist. (vol. viii. p. 281), " he made him- 
 self master of all the countries that lie 
 between Mount Taurus and the confines 
 of India." (See Justin, xxvii. 1, and 
 Prideaux, iii. 119, 120.) — "He brought 
 back with him out of Syria two thou- 
 sand five hundred pictures and statues, 
 among which were many of the Egyp- 
 tian idols, which had been carried into 
 Persia by Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, 
 when he conquered Egypt. These 
 Ptolemy restored to their ancient tem- 
 ples, in acknowledgment for which fa- 
 vour the Egyptians gave him the sur- 
 name of Evergetes, or the Benefactor." 
 
 " From Polybius we learn," says 
 Bishop Newton, (i. 221,) "that Ptolemy, 
 surnamed Evergetes, being greatly in- 
 censed at the cruel treatment of his sis- 
 ter Berenice, marched with an army 
 into Syria, and took the city of Scleucia, 
 which was kept for many years after- 
 wards, by the garrisons of the kings of 
 Egypt. Thus did he enter into the for- 
 tress of the king of the north." He 
 also survived Seleucus by five years, the 
 latter dying B. C. 226, and Ptolemy, 221. 
 These things are referred to in the eighth 
 verse: "And shall also carry captive 
 into Egypt their gods, with their princes 
 and their precious vessels of silver and 
 of gold ; and he shall continue more 
 years than the king of the north." This 
 last expression was also fulfilled in a 
 more important sense ; — in the duration 
 of the kingdoms respectively. For Syria 
 
 became a Roman province, when An- 
 tiochus Asiaticus was deposed by Pompey 
 the Great, B. C. 65 : whereas Pompey 
 himself was killed on the Egyptian 
 strand by order of Ptolemy Dionysius, 
 B. C. 48. and Egypt became a Roman 
 province after the battle of Actium, 
 B.C. 31. Verse 9, "So the king of 
 the south shall come into his kingdom 
 and shall return into his own land." 
 This is the whole account we have of 
 Ptolemy Evergetes. Verse tenth how- 
 ever, continues the history : " But his 
 sons," that is, the sons of the king of 
 the north, (for verse eleventh describes 
 the effect of this stirring up, on the other 
 party,) " shall be stirred up, and shall 
 assemble a multitude of great forces ; 
 and one shall certainly come, and over- 
 flow and pass through : then shall he 
 return and be stirred up even to his for- 
 tress." 
 
 In accordance with this, Seleucus, the 
 son and successor of Seleucus Callinicus, 
 called Ceraunus, or the thundcrer, (a 
 piece of severe irony, for he was a very 
 weak prince,) stirred himself up ; but 
 was soon cut off by poison, by two of 
 his officers. Antiochus the Great suc- 
 ceeded his brother, and three or four 
 years after, (B. C. 221,) Ptolemy Ever- 
 getes was poisoned by his son, who was, 
 on this account called Philopater, and 
 who, shortly after he came to the throne 
 despatched his mother in a similar 
 manner. 
 
 Antiochus was a man of enterprise 
 and energy. For several years he was 
 employed in reducing the revolted pro- 
 vinces in the east and settling the king- 
 dom. He then subdued Tyre, Ptolemais 
 or Acre, and Seleucia : he advanced 
 upon Egypt, was met by Ptolemy Philo- 
 pater, and worsted in a hard-fought battle 
 near Gaza. " And the king of the south 
 shall be moved with choler, and shall 
 come forth and fight with him, even with 
 the king of the north ; and he (the king 
 of the north, that is, Antiochus,) shall 
 set forth a great multitude; but the mul- 
 titude shall be given into his (the king 
 of the south's) hands." So is the history. 
 After very heavy losses, Antiochus re- 
 treated, and Ptolemy, after an excursion 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 53 
 
 through Palestine, returned to his de- 
 baucheries at home, and gained little or 
 nothing by his victory: — "he shall not 
 be strengthened by it." " Whilst at 
 Jerusalem he attempted to enter the tem- 
 ple and was resisted by the priests and 
 the people ; but forcing his way in, he 
 was terror-struck and fled in consterna- 
 tion : but being greatly enraged at the 
 Jews for daring to withstand him, he 
 massacred forty thousand of them." 
 (Justin xxx. 1.) 
 
 Peace followed between Antiochus and 
 Ptolemy, which gave the former the op- 
 portunity of an expedition to the east. 
 He went as far as India ; reduced Bactria 
 again to subjection, and having strength- 
 ened and re-established his authority, re- 
 turned after an absence of seven years to 
 Antioch. About this time Ptolemy Phi- 
 lopater died, and his infant son, of five 
 years, called Epiphenes, succeeded him. 
 Antiochus renewed the war, and retook 
 Palestine and most of Asia Minor. He 
 formed a league with Philip of Macedon 
 to seize Egypt and divide it between them. 
 The provinces generally revolted from 
 Agathoclcs, the Egyptian regent, who 
 had charge of the young king, and he 
 was assassinated at Alexandria. Soon 
 after this Antiochus beins; engaged in a 
 
 o DO 
 
 war with Attalus, king of Pergamus, the 
 Alexandrians raised an army, recovered 
 Palestine, and left a garrison in Jeru- 
 salem. Next year Scopas, the Egyptian 
 commander, returned to Palestine. But 
 Antiochus had meanwhile returned also: 
 he met Scopas near the sources of the 
 Jordan, and completely routed the Egyp- 
 tian army. Scopas retreated to Sidon 
 with ten thousand men, where Antiochus 
 besieged him. Reinforcements were 
 sent from Alexandria under three of the 
 best generals of the age ; but Antiochus 
 defeated them and seized Sidon. (Prid. 
 iii. 173.) Thus he cast up a mount and 
 took the city of munitions : and the 
 king of the south had no power to resist, 
 neither his chosen people ; that is, the 
 six thousand Etolians whom Scopas 
 had hired in their own country, and 
 brought over to fight against Antio- 
 chus. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 
 
 THE THIGHS OF BRASS THE HE GOAT. 
 
 Daniel xi. 
 
 We have seen that Antiochus the 
 Great, bore down all opposition, and 
 " stood in the glorious land (verse 16) 
 which by his hand shall be consumed." 
 On this last expression, Bishop Newton 
 quotes a criticism of Grotius, which is 
 undoubtedly just, though the bishop 
 omits to prove its correctness. For his- 
 tory does not inform us that Antiochus 
 consumed the land of Palestine, and the 
 people of Jerusalem ; but the very re- 
 verse. Josephus (Anti. xii. 3) tells us 
 that he greatly favoured the Jews,— 
 gave them materials to repair the temple, 
 and exempted them from taxes. Ex- 
 actly accordant with this, is the force of 
 the word, translated, shall be consumed. 
 It means really, " shall be consummated, 
 — completed, finished.' 1 '' This is evident 
 by a glance at 1 Kings, vi. 38, where, 
 speaking of the temple, the same word 
 is used. "And in the eleventh year, 
 was the houm finished." Is. vii. 1, and 
 Jer. viii. 20, " the harvest is past, the 
 summer is ended— -finished '." Antiochus 
 went so far in consummating and finish- 
 ing the Jews' system, as to appropriate 
 " for their sacrifices, of "animals that 
 were fit for sacrifices, for wine, oil, and 
 frankincense, the value of twenty thou- 
 sand pieces of silver." (See Josephus' 
 letters to Ptolemy and Zeuxis, two of his 
 officers.) A consequence of this good 
 feeling was, that many Jews entered his 
 service, and proved the best soldiers in 
 his army : these are referred to, in the 
 seventeenth verse — " and upright ones 
 were with him." 
 
 It will assist us in understanding the 
 involutions of history, if we here point 
 out the manner in which the Romans 
 became connected with eastern politics, 
 and war. 
 
 At the death of Ptolemy Philopater, 
 Antiochus had just returned from his 
 seven years' expedition into the east. 
 Philopater's son, Ptolemy Epiphanes, 
 
54 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 was but five years old, at the time of 
 his father's death : and the Alexandrians 
 who managed the affairs of the kingdom, 
 pretending that the father had named 
 the Roman Senate, as the guardian of 
 his son, sent an embassage to Rome, 
 and claimed their assistance. Out of 
 this sprang a war; at least it gave occa- 
 sion for the ambition of Rome, and of 
 the king, to display itself. Preparatory 
 to this war, Antiochus carried into execu- 
 tion, a plan previously laid, to strengthen 
 himself on the side of Egypt. This was 
 the marriage of his own daughter, Cleo- 
 patra, to Ptolemy. After this, he pro- 
 ceeded towards Asia Minor, the theatre 
 of the war. Here, Hannibal of Carthage, 
 who had been finally beaten by Scipio 
 Africanus a few years before, came to 
 Antiochus, much to the discomfort of 
 Rome. The Senate sent thither Scipio 
 Africanus, again to measure swords with 
 the indomitable African. Many islands 
 and seaports had already fallen under 
 the power of Antiochus, and he had 
 commenced the erection of a new city, 
 on the Thracian Chersonesus, called 
 Lysimachia, which he designed to be 
 the seat of a kingdom for his son Seleu- 
 cus. The result of the war was un- 
 favourable to Antiochus. His army was 
 cut to pieces. " Fifty thousand of his 
 troops," says Justin (book xxxi. — xxxii.) 
 " were slain," and the expenses of the 
 war were laid on the king. Meanwhile, 
 his daughter, whom he had given to the 
 king of Egypt, threw her influence along 
 with her husband, and against her father. 
 Thus his very object in " corrupting 
 her," which was to gain power in Egypt, 
 was not accomplished. She did not 
 "stand on his side, nor was she for him," 
 (verse 19.) Antiochus found considera- 
 ble difficulty in raising the money to 
 pay his instalments to the Romans. He 
 therefore left his son Seleucus as regent 
 in Syria, and started on another eastern 
 expedition. Having learned that there 
 was a vast treasure in the temple of 
 Belus, in the province of Elymais, 
 he proceeded thither; and having en- 
 tered the temple by night to plunder it, 
 was attacked by the infuriated populace 
 and slain. (Justin xxxii. 2 ; Prid. iii. 
 
 206.) Thus died the great Antiochus, 
 in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, 
 B. C. 187 ; and thus a prince, — the 
 Roman power, for his own behalf, 
 caused the reproach offered by him to 
 cease, and " the king of the north stum- 
 bled and fell, and was not found." 
 
 Verse 20. " Then shall stand up in 
 his estate a raiser of taxes, in the glory, 
 of the kingdom : but in a few days he 
 shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor 
 in battle." 
 
 This is Seleucus Philopater, son of 
 Antiochus. By his father's treaty with 
 the Romans, he was bound to pay one 
 thousand talents a year, for twelve 
 years ; in the last year of which he 
 died. He was a " raiser of taxes" all 
 his days, to buy peace with the Romans. 
 For this end, he sent his treasurer, He- 
 liodorus, on one occasion, to plunder the 
 temple at Jerusalem. This officer, de- 
 spite all the remonstrances of the high 
 priest and others, entered the temple, 
 " and," says the historian, (2 Macca- 
 bees, iii. 27, 29,) " Heliodorus fell sud- 
 denly unto the ground, and was com- 
 passed with darkness ; but they that 
 were with him took him up, and put 
 him into a litter, for he by the hand of 
 God was cast down, and lay speechless, 
 without all hope of life." But it hap- 
 pened here, as it frequently does to 
 wicked rulers, that he who will have 
 his servants to do wrong for him, may 
 find them, at last, doing wrong to him. 
 Accordingly, this same Heliodorus after- 
 wards poisoned his master, in the hope 
 of seizing for himself the kingdom. 
 (Univ. Hist. viii. 193.) Thus perished 
 Seleucus Philopater, the " raiser of 
 taxes, — neither in anger nor in battle." 
 
 It is necessary, however, to go some- 
 what more into detail here. When An- 
 tiochus the Great was compelled to make 
 a disadvantageous peace with the Ro- 
 mans, under Scipio, who, from this was 
 surnamed Asiaticus, he delivered his 
 son, Antiochus, to the Romans as a 
 hostage. After a number of years, Se- 
 leucus, his brother, proposed in ex- 
 change for Antiochus his own son, De- 
 metrius : the Senate consented to the 
 exchange : Demetrius was, accordingly, 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 55 
 
 on his way to Rome, whilst his uncle 
 was proceeding to Antioch. It was 
 this conjuncture that Heliodorus seized 
 to poison the king, when both those 
 were absent who might lay claim to the 
 crown. Antiochus received intelligence 
 of his brother's death, and also of the 
 combination of the King of Egypt with 
 Heliodorus, to exclude both himself and 
 Seleucus from the Syrian throne. He 
 of course did not hasten directly to 
 Antioch, where the usurper held the 
 sway ; but applied to Eumenes, King of 
 Pergamus, and his brother Attalus, and 
 persuaded them to assist him. These 
 princes, greatly apprehensive of the 
 growth of the Roman power, consented; 
 and the result was, that Antiochus was 
 established in the kingdom. He assumed 
 the name of Epiphanes, that is, the il- 
 lustrious; an epithet most severely ironi- 
 cal, for no baser monarch ever disgraced 
 a throne. Nevertheless, after expelling 
 Heliodorus, he took vengeance on the 
 King of Egypt, and Ptolemy Epiphanes, 
 his nephew, fell into his hands, with all 
 Egypt, except the city of Alexandria. 
 (See Univ. Hist. viii. 199, and Prid. iii. 
 213.) 
 
 With the arms of a flood (verse 22) 
 he thus overflowed the valley of the 
 Nile, and bare down the opposition. 
 This was B. C. 170. 
 
 " The prince of the covenant," (verse 
 22) is Onias, the high priest of the 
 Jews, a man of excellent character, 
 whom Epiphanes deposed from his of- 
 fice, which he gave to Jason, the young- 
 er brother of the high priest, who paid 
 him for it and its perquisites, three hun- 
 dred and sixty talents. (See 2 Mace, iv.) 
 This league and contract he soon after 
 set aside, and sold the office to Mena- 
 laus, another brother, investing him 
 with it by an armed force. Thus " he 
 worked deceitfully." 
 
 The latter part of verse 23, is thought 
 to have a retrospective application, that 
 is, to refer to the earlier part of his 
 reign, and the manner of his accession. 
 " And he shall come up, and shall be- 
 come strong with a small people." 
 Verse 24 describes his easy access to 
 wealth, and his extravagant mode of 
 
 spending it. The latter part of this 
 verse alludes to his planning another 
 Egyptian campaign, the object of which 
 was to place Ptolemy Philopater, his 
 nephew, whom he held as a prisoner, 
 upon the throne ; for the Alexandrians 
 had proclaimed his brother Ptolemy 
 Physcon as king. These are the mat- 
 ters referred to in verses 25-28. The 
 Egyptian armies were every where de- 
 feated, or rather fled. From Memphis 
 the Syrian marched to Alexandria, and 
 laid siege to it. Verse 26, refers to the 
 treacherous dealings of Eulceus and 
 Ptolemy Macron, two of the Egyptian 
 generals, by whose default, »their king 
 first came into the power of the Syrian. 
 The object of Epiphanes seems to have 
 been to foment a war between the two 
 brothers, that Egypt, being exhausted, 
 might, with its commercial city, Alexan- 
 dria, fall an easy prey to himself. For 
 this purpose, he released Ptolemy Philo- 
 pater, his nephew, and upon the urgent 
 request of the ambassadors of all the 
 foreign powers, withdrew from Egypt, 
 giving up all his conquests except Pe- 
 lusium, a city on the east branch of the 
 Nile, which would enable him, at plea- 
 sure, to return. His hope, no doubt, 
 based upon promises exacted from his 
 nephew, while a prisoner, was to turn 
 all things to his own advantage. In 
 this the Syrian king was disappointed ; 
 for the two brothers, perceiving the poli- 
 cy of their uncle, agreed to reign jointly, 
 and exert themselves for the good of 
 their kingdom. Enraged at this, An- 
 tiochus determined to invade Egypt 
 once more. Meanwhile the governor 
 of Cyprus revolted from Egypt, and put 
 that island, together with much shipping, 
 into the hands of Antiochus. 
 
 The next spring, B. C. 168, he took 
 the field, and despite the remonstrances 
 of his nephews, proceeded against 
 Egypt, evidently determined to make it 
 his own. He passed Pelusium, and re- 
 duced the whole land as far as Mem- 
 phis ; and was about to open the siege 
 of Alexandria, when he was met by a 
 delegation from the Roman Senate. Cai 
 the twenty-second of June, the Roman 
 army, under command of Paulus Emi- 
 
56 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 lius, had utterly routed Perseus, King of 
 Macedonia, and added that kingdom, as 
 a province, to the Roman empire. The 
 terror of the Roman name, therefore, 
 became overpowering. Hence the Egyp- 
 tian kings sent ambassadors to the Se- 
 nate, and intreated their interference to 
 save them from the arms of the Syrian 
 monarch. This request found the Se- 
 nate in the proper humour; a delegation 
 of three was therefore sent, at the head 
 of which was Marcus Popilius Lenas, a 
 man with whom Antiochus had formed 
 an intimate acquaintance, when he was 
 a hostage at Rome. " The ambassa- 
 dors," says the Universal History, (vol. 
 viii. 204,) " found him at Eleusina, a 
 village but four miles distant from Alex- 
 andria. As the king had contracted 
 great intimacy with Popilius, while he 
 was a hostage at Rome, he offered him 
 his hand, which was an uncommon 
 mark of familiarity and distinction from 
 so great a prince. But Popilius, de- 
 clining this advance, told him that the 
 public interest of his country must take 
 place of private friendship, and that he 
 would not join hands with him till he 
 had first read to him the decree of the 
 Senate. ' I shall judge,' said he ' by 
 your submission or refusal, whether you 
 ought to be treated as a friend or an 
 enemy. If you obey, I shall receive all 
 marks of friendship with joy.' These 
 words were very shocking to a victori- 
 ous and powerful king, at the head of a 
 numerous army. However, Antiochus 
 took the decree which Popilius offered 
 him, and having read it, told him he 
 would advise with his council, and re- 
 turn him an answer in a short time. 
 But the proud republican, insisting on 
 an immediate answer, drew a circle 
 around him with a rod which he held in 
 his hand, and raising his voice, ' You 
 shall not go out of this circle,' said he, 
 ' till you either accept or reject the pro- 
 posal I have made. I expect you will 
 pay me the respect which is due to the 
 authority of the Roman people and 
 Senate.' The king, struck with this 
 peremptory way of proceeding, hesi- 
 tated a moment, and then gave this 
 answer, which would better become a 
 
 slave than a great king : ' Then I must 
 satisfy you, Popilius. I will do what 
 your republic expects from me.' He had 
 no sooner pronounced these words, than 
 all the three ambassadors offered him 
 their hands at once, and Popilius imme- 
 diately resumed his former familiarity." 
 
 Thus " the ships of Chittim came 
 against him :" (verse 30,) " therefore 
 he shall be grieved, and return, and 
 have indignation against the holy cove- 
 nant : and so shall he do ; he shall even 
 return, and have intelligence with them 
 that forsake the holy covenant." Having 
 the chalice dashed aside, just as it ap- 
 proached his impatient lips, and that by 
 a hand which he was afraid to resist, — 
 thus insulted, when he dared not resent 
 it, he turned away in an angry mood, 
 and vented his spleen upon the unfortu- 
 nate Jews. " He had indignation against 
 the holy covenant." The occasion is 
 thus stated by Josephus, (xii. v. 3,) 
 " King Antiochus, returning out of 
 Egypt, for fear of the Romans, made 
 an expedition against the city Jerusa- 
 lem ; and when he was there, in the 
 hundred and forty-third year of the 
 kingdom of the Seleucidse, he took the 
 city without fighting, those of his own 
 party opening the gates to him. And 
 when he had gotten possession of Jeru- 
 salem, he slew many of the opposite 
 party ; and when he had plundered it 
 of a great deal of money, he returned 
 to Antioch." 
 
 The angel proceeds to describe the 
 wanton barbarity of the king on this 
 occasion. What led to this barbarity 
 was, that there were two violent parties 
 formed, the infidels on the one hand, 
 and those who held to the doctrines of 
 scripture on the other. The excesses of 
 the former often drew the latter too into 
 improper measures. At one time, the 
 Maccabee party, as the friends of good 
 order might be called, gained the king's 
 confidence and good offices ; at times 
 also, the infidel party were successful, 
 as on this occasion, and led the king, 
 according to his present humour, into 
 great excesses ; he plundered, he de- 
 stroyed houses, he murdered people, he 
 carried ten thousand into bondage." 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 57 
 
 It has been greatly controverted among 
 critics and expositors, whether the next 
 five verses, 31-35, refer to Antiochus 
 Epiphanes or not. Many sound critics, 
 both papal and protestant, affirm that 
 they do, whilst many deny it. Among 
 the former are found Calmet, and pro- 
 bably the Romanists in general, Gill, 
 Henry, Scott, and Poole : among the 
 latter, Bishop Newton, Mr. Mede, and 
 Sir Isaac Newton. 
 
 Now it is obvious at a glance, that the 
 context is most naturally applied to the 
 same power of which the angel speaks, 
 in the verses immediately preceding. 
 There is no intimation of a change of 
 subject ; and if the matter do not require 
 the interpreter to change, he has no right 
 to do so. Let us see, then, how the mat- 
 ter tallies with history. 
 
 Verse 31. "And arms shall stand on 
 his part, and they shall pollute the sanc- 
 tuary of strength, and shall take away 
 the daily sacrifice, and they shall place 
 the abomination that maketh desolate." 
 
 As already hinted, Antiochus came up 
 in great wrath, from Egypt, after the 
 peremptory treatment of the Roman am- 
 bassadors ; and the occasion of his fall- 
 ing upon the Jews, is stated in 2 Mac. v. 
 Jason having become odious, was ex- 
 pelled by the people, and fled to the Am- 
 monites, and then to the Lacedemonians. 
 The king heard of these things, and 
 supposed that there was a general re- 
 volt, or chose to think so; "whereupon 
 removing out of Egypt, in a furious 
 mind, he took the city by force of arms, 
 and commanded liis men of war not to 
 spare such as they met, and to slay such 
 as went up upon the houses." (Verses 
 11, 12.) "And there were destroyed 
 within the space of three whole days, 
 fourscore thousand, whereof forty thou- 
 sand were slain in the conflict, and no 
 fewer sold than slain." (Verse 14.) 
 " And to pollute also the temple, in 
 Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of 
 Jupiter Olympius." (v. 1, 2.) " For the 
 temple was filled with riot and revelling, 
 by the Gentiles, who. dallied with har- 
 lots ;" (verse 4,) " the altar was also 
 filled with profane things, which the law 
 forbiddeth." " And when the feast of 
 
 Bacchus was kept, the Jews were com- 
 pelled to go in procession toBacchus, car- 
 rying ivy. And Antiochus forbid burnt 
 offerings, and sacrifices, and drink offer- 
 ings in the temple : and that they should 
 profane the sabbath and festival days ; 
 and pollute the sanctuary and holy 
 place : set up altars, and groves, and 
 chapels of idols, and sacrifice swine's 
 flesh, and unclean beasts." (1 Mac. i. 
 45, 46, 47.) 
 
 It is universally admitted that the 
 abomination before God, is idolatry. 
 " And ye have seen their abominations, 
 and their idols, wood, stone, silver, and 
 gold ;" (Deut. xxix. 17,)— "if thou wilt 
 put away thy abominations ;" (Jer. iv. 
 1,) — " they have set their abominations 
 in the house which is called by my name, 
 to pollute it." (vii. 30.) See also xiii. 
 27, xvi. 17 ; Ez. xi. 16, 21 ; xx. 7, 8, 
 30. Idolatry is the abomination on ac- 
 count of which God lays waste and 
 desolate the land : and we have an 
 exact fulfilment of the prediction by An- 
 tiochus and his soldiers, including infidel 
 and apostate Jews. " And such as do 
 wickedly against the covenant, did he 
 corrupt with flatteries : but the people 
 that know their God shall be strong, 
 and do exploits." Whilst many apos- 
 tate wretches should fall away from the 
 religion of their fathers, some should 
 prove faithful and stand up for the right. 
 Accordingly, Matthias, priest of Modin, 
 and his five sons were called out by 
 these abominations. One of these, Ju- 
 das Maccabeus, became a distinguished 
 hero, general, and patriot. His achieve- 
 ments in the defence of all that man 
 holds dear, will bear comparison with 
 the most devoted and patriotic of any 
 age of the world. He turned the stream 
 of blood, on many occasions, upon the 
 foes of God and his country ; and died 
 at last, fighting nobly at the head of 
 eight hundred men, against an army of 
 twenty-two thousand. (Prid. iii. 258, 
 335 ; Jos. Ant. xiii. ii.) His efforts, 
 and those of his compatriots also, in re- 
 forming religion and rectifying abuses, 
 were as conspicuous as his military 
 prowess was terrible. " And they that 
 understand among the people, shall in- 
 
58 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 struct many; yet they shall fall by the 
 sword, and by flame, and captivity, and 
 by spoil, many days." (Verse 34.) 
 "Now, when they shall fall, they shall 
 be holpen with a little help ; but many 
 shall cleave to them with flatteries." 
 And so it proved ; for many deserted 
 from Judas ; indeed, it was desertion 
 chiefly, that lost him his last battle, and 
 his life. Still the true church was 
 holpen, during this period, "with a little 
 help." 
 
 " And some of them of understanding 
 shall fall," (verse 35.) This, Doctor 
 Gill thinks, means, " shall be killed." 
 It appears to us, however, that this is 
 exegetical of the assertion in the close 
 of verse 34, relative to false professors ; 
 they " shall cleave to them by flatteries." 
 Even some true men, in the trying cir- 
 cumstances of the case, will shrink, 
 faint, and fall off from the good cause. 
 To this the force of the term translated, 
 fall, leads us. " Even the youths shall 
 faint and fail," (Is. xl. 30.) " O Israel, 
 return unto the Lord thy God, for thou 
 hast fallen by thine iniquity," (Hos. 
 xiv. 1.) So many of the followers of 
 the Maccabees, though sincere, had not 
 faith and courage to endure through the 
 terrible trials that befell them. These 
 sore distresses came upon the true 
 church, to purify her from her dross, 
 and to make her white, " even to the 
 time of the end ; because it is yet for a 
 time appointed." Thus, it appears to 
 us, that these five verses are equally 
 applicable, with the preceding, to the 
 events comprised in the latter years of 
 Antiochus Epiphanes. 
 
 The angel has given us a minute his- 
 tory of occurrences running down from 
 the days of Cyrus, until the power 
 passes virtually into the hands of the 
 Romans, — or fourth catholic monarchy. 
 " There is not," says Bishop Newton, 
 (i. 240,) " so complete and regular a 
 series of their kings, there is not so con- 
 cise and comprehensive a history of 
 their affairs to be found in any author 
 of those times. The prophecy is really 
 more perfect than any history. No his- 
 torian hath related so many circum- 
 stances, and in such exact order of time, 
 
 as the prophet hath foretold them : so 
 that it was necessary to have recourse 
 to several authors, Greek and Roman, 
 Jewish and Christian ; to collect here 
 something from one, and to collect there 
 something from another, for the better 
 explaining and illustrating the great va- 
 riety of particulars contained in this pro- 
 phecy." " This exactness was so con- 
 vincing, that Porphyry could not pretend 
 to deny it, he rather laboured to confirm 
 it, and drew this inference from it, that 
 it could not possibly be written before, 
 but must have been written in, or soon 
 after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, 
 all being true and exact to that time, and 
 no farther. Others, after him, have 
 asserted the same thing, not only with- 
 out any proof, but contrary to all the 
 proofs which can be had in cases of this 
 nature." Now Porphyry was an infidel, 
 and wrote against Christianity How 
 strong, therefore, the testimony which 
 Providence has forced from him, to the 
 truth of those scriptures, which it was 
 his purpose to discredit ! All history 
 proves the existence of the Hebrew 
 scriptures, Daniel among the rest, and 
 their translation into Greek at the re- 
 quest and cost of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
 one hundred and thirty years before the 
 death of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
 
 It is proper here to present the other 
 view of the context, which we once held 
 as the correct one ; because it is un- 
 doubtedly true that verse 36, and on- 
 ward, apply properly to the Papal apos- 
 tacy. Mr. Mede and the Newtons have 
 thought that the Roman power is pre- 
 sented by the angel, from and after the 
 time, when Popilius turned the Syrian 
 king away from Egypt. These com- 
 mentators, accordingly, maintain, that 
 the arms of verse 31, are the Roman 
 arms, and that the abomination of deso- 
 lation is the erection of the Roman 
 standard in the temple, at the invasion 
 and sack of Jerusalem, under Titus, 
 A.D. 70. 
 
 Bishop Newton, indeed, admits the 
 applicability of the. former part to Antio- 
 chus, but was led to a different applica- 
 tion by reason of the context; he there- 
 fore proceeds to seek for events in the 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 59 
 
 subsequent history, and finds, in the 
 victories of the Romans, the warlike 
 matters ; and in the early heresies that 
 infested the Christian church, the flat- 
 teries, and the "acting wickedly" of the 
 others. The " little help" is the tempo- 
 rary relief to the church, in the time of 
 Constantine the Great, nearly five hun- 
 dred years, be it observed, after the times 
 of Antiochus. 
 
 Undoubtedly, there is at least the ap- 
 pearance of forced work here. There 
 is surely nothing like a graphic descrip- 
 tion, in these verses, of the ten persecu- 
 tions of the pagan empire. Why then 
 attempt such an interpretation 1 The 
 only reasons alleged are those just stated, 
 — that the subjoined context (verse 36, 
 and onward,) cannot be connected with 
 Antiochus, and his times ; and that our 
 Saviour, in Matt, xxiv., applies " the 
 abomination of desolation" to the dese- 
 cration and destruction of the temple 
 and city by the Romans. 
 
 As to the former, we remark that 
 verse 35 plainly intimates a space of 
 time, and a long space too, as inter- 
 vening between the matters it relates to, 
 and what follows. The purifying pro- 
 cess upon the church, he says, now be- 
 gun indeed, in the days of Antiochus 
 and the Maccabees, will, nevertheless, 
 be a long and tedious process, — "even 
 to the time of the end ; because it is yet 
 for a time appointed." This phrase, 
 most unquestionably teaches us, that a 
 long period elapses here : and we can- 
 not, therefore, reasonably connect what 
 follows in the order of the context, with 
 the times of Epiphanes ; but must look 
 far forward for its accomplishment. 
 
 As to the reference in Matt, xxiv., 
 " the abomination which maketh deso- 
 late," is idolatry ; and therefore every 
 idolatrous profanation of the temple is 
 justly called by that name. Now there 
 are three notable occasions of this kind 
 mentioned in Daniel. First : this of An- 
 tiochus Epiphanes. We have seen that 
 it was the very thing, as to substance, 
 which Daniel's or the angel's language 
 implies. Idolatry was set up in the 
 temple, and on the altar, in room of the 
 true God, and of the sacrifice he had 
 
 ordered. Second : two hundred and 
 thirty-seven years after this, Titus, the 
 Roman general, son of the Emperor 
 Vespasian, did almost the same thing. 
 He erected the Roman eagle and the 
 image of the emperor in the sanctuary. 
 This is referred to in Daniel ix. 27, 
 where, beyond dispute, the destruction 
 of the temple, and the utter suppression 
 of the Jewish system of worship, is the 
 subject of discussion. It is immediately 
 consequent upon the " cutting oft* of 
 Messiah, but not for himself." Third : 
 there is another " abomination of deso- 
 lation," (viii. 13,) which is to continue 
 until the end of the period referred to, 
 that is, the two thousand and three 
 (two) hundred days. It is indeed call- 
 ed by a name slightly different — " the 
 transgression of desolation :" but the 
 same is alluded to in xii. 11, and its 
 termination fixed to the same period, — 
 " from the time that the daily sacrifice 
 shall be taken away, and the abomina- 
 tion that maketh desolate set up, there 
 shall be a thousand two hundred and 
 ninety days." These mark the time of 
 the prevalence of idolatry in the church, 
 — the twelve hundred and sixty years, 
 during the Mahommedan and papal 
 apostacies. Now, the question is, — >to 
 which of these three has the Saviour 
 reference in Matt. xxiv. ? He says, 
 " Let him that readeth understand." 
 As if he had said, that there were va- 
 rious abominations of desolation : and a 
 little attention would enable the reader 
 to understand which was meant ; and 
 with that attention, which so important 
 a subject requires, he could not mistake; 
 but must see that the reference is to that 
 abomination of idolatry which Daniel as- 
 sociates with the cutting off" of Messiah ; 
 not to that wherein he describes the vio- 
 lence done, in the ancient times of his 
 faithful servants, the Maccabees ; nor to 
 that more extended and terrible pollution 
 of the church for twelve hundred and 
 sixty years, which will commence with 
 the idol worship, in an after age, and 
 terminate in the final cleansing of the 
 sanctuary, at the end of this period. 
 
 The fact that our Saviour, in the same 
 context, glides into a discussion relative 
 
60 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 to the future judgment, which is the last 
 and finishing work in the cleansing of 
 the sanctuary, is no valid objection to 
 this. For it is obvious, that idolatry, 
 which is the abomination, is the sin in 
 all these forms of corruption ; and that, 
 when the heart is thoroughly turned from 
 its idols, then is the sanctuary cleansed 
 in the highest sense of the term. There 
 is an identity, as to spirit, in all these 
 abominations ; and the vengeance of 
 heaven upon one, is a pledge and type, 
 as it were, of additional judgments, until 
 the final day. Hence the judgment of 
 God on Jerusalem, is a type of his final 
 one, and it is sometimes difficult to mark 
 the precise point where he passes over 
 from the one to the other. This is called 
 by some, and with good propriety, a 
 twofold fulfilment of prophecy. So 
 God's wrath upon Jerusalem, is at once 
 an accomplishment of Daniel's prophecy 
 concerning the abomination spoken of in 
 ix. 27; and a prophecy itself of the more 
 terrible visitation upon all wickedness in 
 the great day. 
 
 Thus we have proceeded cautiously, 
 carefully, and, we trust, successfully, in 
 our dissection of the image, until we 
 have reached " the legs of iron." The 
 lion, the bear, and the leopard, have 
 occupied our attention: the two-horned 
 ram, and the unicorn goat, we have fol- 
 lowed up in succession, and marked their 
 movements in some detail. We have 
 brought down the history of despotism, 
 until that period when it passes into the 
 hands of the Romans : and at every 
 turn, we have seen its collision with 
 " the little horn." The church of God 
 has suffered exceedingly ; but still she 
 exists. All these clashings, wars, and 
 revolutions, that overturn thrones, leave 
 her in the integrity of her being, the 
 same indestructible power. The floods 
 pass over her, and seem to sweep every 
 thing away ; but Zion raises her head 
 from the midst of desolation, and there 
 still is the altar of burnt-offerings, and 
 the sanctuary, — the priest, and the 
 sceptre of David. Where now is the 
 head of gold, the breast and arms of 
 silver, and the thighs of brass ? Where 
 are the hundred thrones that exulted 
 
 over the throne of David ? Where the 
 thousand armies that triumphed over the 
 hosts of the living God? But Jerusalem 
 stands ; the daughter of Zion comes, 
 fair and beautiful, from her many cap- 
 tivities, with harp in hand, to sing the 
 funeral dirge of the nations that spoiled 
 her. " How goodly are thy tents, O 
 Jacob ! and thy tabernacles, O Israel ! 
 As the valleys are they spread forth, as 
 gardens by the river's side, as the trees 
 of lign-aloes which the Lord hath plant- 
 ed, and as cedars beside the waters. He 
 shall pour the water out of his buckets, 
 and his seed shall be in many waters, 
 and his king shall be higher than Agag, 
 and his kingdom shall be exalted. God 
 brought him forth out of Egypt ; he 
 hath, as it were, the strength of an uni- 
 corn : he shall cut up the nations, his 
 enemies, and shall break their bones, 
 and pierce them through with his ar- 
 rows. He couched, he lay down as a 
 lion, and as a great lion ; who shall stir 
 him up ? Blessed is he that blesseth 
 thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee." 
 (Numb, xxxiv. 5-9.) 
 
 The history that has passed in review 
 affords many instructive lessons. 
 
 1. Again your attention is called to 
 the evidence hence resulting, that the 
 sacred scriptures are given by inspira- 
 tion of God. What eye but His, could 
 glance down the vistas of time, and 
 point out the revolutions of empire? 
 What hand but that which orders and 
 ordains the be<nnninfr and the end, — 
 which see both alike, and perpetually, 
 could bring about the events to verify 
 his own predictions ? The assertion of 
 Porphyry, already alluded to, ought 
 never to be forgotten ; for it forms a 
 branch of one of the most decisive his- 
 torical arguments. He was the very 
 first scholar in the philosophical school 
 of Platinus, the most celebrated in the 
 first five centuries of the Christian era : 
 yet he, with the lights of much history, 
 long since lost, acknowledged that the 
 record of Daniel exactly accorded with 
 facts, — so exactly, that he affirmed it, 
 at least this portion of it, to have been 
 written in the latter part of the reign of 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, or very soon after. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 Porphyry's opinion as to the strict coin- 
 cidence of the prophet and the historian, 
 is more to be relied on than the opinion 
 of any man in modern times ; for the 
 simple reason, that many early records to 
 which he had access, are now lost. All 
 we need, after his admission, to make 
 the argument close, is the historical fact, 
 that Daniel's prophecy was translated 
 from the Hebrew into Greek, one hun- 
 dred and thirty years before the death 
 of Epiphanes. Thus, prostrated by 
 his own blow, the infidel lies bleeding 
 upon his spear. 
 
 2. We see here how God makes " the 
 potsherds of the earth to dash against 
 the potsherds of the earth," and all are 
 -broken to pieces. Ambition is the 
 scourge of ambition. The Persian 
 monarch could not rest satisfied with 
 an empire extending from the Himma- 
 leyahs to the Hellespont. Greece must 
 be added to a territory already too im- 
 mense for safety ; and Asia and Africa 
 must be emptied of their soldiery, to 
 crush a few lovers of freedom and inde- 
 pendence on the shores of Europe. What 
 is the consequence ? The " stirring up 
 of all against the realm of Grecia," 
 brought down a few Greeks to sweep 
 away the Persian throne, and to bear 
 the sceptre of the great, universal mo- 
 narchy, farther towards the setting sun. 
 
 3. We learn the corrupting influence of 
 hoarded wealth. The riches which power 
 enables autocrats to accumulate, become 
 the instruments of extending and per- 
 petuating their sway. Nor is it possible 
 in a government of mere force, where 
 no moral principle operates, that it should 
 be otherwise. Such power, once created, 
 can be destroyed expeditiously only by 
 an influence like itself, and that influence 
 will, of course, take its place. The 
 wealth and the power are not annihilated : 
 they have only changed hands. This 
 suggests another remark. 
 
 4. Amidst all the revolutions of em- 
 pire, there has been no change of prin- 
 ciple. There have been vast upturnings 
 of thrones, dominions, principalities, 
 and powers, but the result is the same. 
 Mankind have never, permanently, 
 gained any thing by revolutions pro- 
 
 duced by physical force alone. It is 
 not in the nature of such force to better 
 human condition. What boots it to 
 slay the lion, if we immediately fall into 
 the paw of the bear ? No ; the blood- 
 less victories of truth, and these only, 
 improve the condition of the race. Man 
 can never be made free and happy by 
 mere compulsion. The light of truth 
 must shine around his head, and the 
 law of holiness and of God must reign 
 in his heart, or nothing is done effec- 
 tually. 
 
 5. We see how national antipathies 
 are generated, — how they perpetuate 
 themselves, and destroy human society. 
 The ambition of Seleucus Nicator, and 
 of Ptolemy Lagus, — men who had 
 served in the same phalanx, kindled up 
 the fire of deadly hate in their bosoms : 
 from them it passed into their armies, 
 and their kingdoms ; and from genera- 
 tion to generation, it blazed on, while 
 life and happiness fed its flame. We 
 have seen something similar to this in 
 regard to the land of our fathers. Even 
 the grave historian is not ashamed to 
 speak of the hereditary, national anti- 
 pathy, and natural enmity of France and 
 England. Let us take warning in time, 
 and avoid the cultivation of such a spirit. 
 Above all, let us not indulge such feel- 
 ings towards the home of our fore- 
 fathers. We need special caution here ; 
 for there are strong tendencies in this 
 direction. Should these continue, — 
 should either nation sinfully cherish 
 them into a fixed hatred, we must in- 
 evitably entail vast calamities upon our 
 respective countries ; and indeed, upon 
 the whole human race. Why should 
 this be 1 Why should the only two 
 nations under heaven, who enjoy a sys- 
 tem of law, whose foundation is on the 
 word of eternal truth, — who have a com- 
 mon Christianity, — a common language, 
 — common literature, science, and blood, 
 — why should they create, and nourish 
 such national animosities ? Let us then 
 avoid every thing that has this tendency: 
 and evince, in our writings, and in 
 our social intercourse, sentiments of the 
 most friendly and Christian character, 
 towards the British Isles. Whilst there 
 
62 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 is much yet to reform in their govern- 
 ment, there is a vast amount of sub- 
 stantial freedom enjoyed by the people ; 
 and we know not how soon we may 
 need their help in defending the common 
 Christianity and the privileges of man. 
 For if we be spared to see the conclu- 
 sion of these lectures, we shall be con- 
 vinced that the day is fast approaching, 
 when the Lion and the Eagle will stand 
 the only defenders of human freedom. 
 
 6. We learn the fact that power has 
 a corrupting influence upon man. It 
 finds or makes him a tyrant. Casting 
 our eye beyond the limits of the present 
 context, and running down through the 
 period whose history it records, we see 
 every where, that power runs into 
 excess. With scarcely an exception, it 
 is allied with moral turpitude and crime. 
 Licentious outrage has its home near the 
 throne. Base duplicity, intriguing, and 
 over-reaching, belong to the character of 
 a great politician. The politics of na- 
 tions is a system of unfair dealing ; and 
 he is, too often, the best diplomatist, who 
 is the most accomplished and talented 
 intriguer. The success of state policy 
 is the only measure of its wisdom, and 
 the only index of true greatness. Now, 
 is not the ancient rule, to a lamentable 
 degree applicable, — is it not actually 
 applied to modern society? Are we 
 not, even in highly favoured America, 
 acting in some considerable degree, upon 
 the grand principle of the universal 
 despot, that religion has nothing to do 
 with politics; — conscience towards God, 
 — a feeling of obligation to the Governor 
 of the universe, must not be brought 
 into political life ? Is it not a proverbial 
 saying, that it is difficult to find an 
 honest politician ? But we forbear for 
 the present. This point will come up 
 asain hereafter. 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE FOURTH BEAST. 
 
 Daniel vii. 7, 8, 19, 20. 
 
 " And after this I saw in the night visions, 
 and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, 
 and strong exceedingly ; and it had great iron 
 teeth ; it devoured and brake in pieces, and 
 stamped the residue with the feet of it ; and it 
 was diverse from all the beasts that were before 
 it, and it had ten horns." 
 
 If there is placed before an anatomist 
 a living subject, and he is bidden to strike 
 with his instrument that very point in the 
 knee, where the principal bones meet, 
 without cutting either, it is highly pro- 
 bable that he may not hit the precise 
 place of juncture. 
 
 The joint, which is a sort of disjunc- 
 tive conjunction, and holds apart the 
 bones as well as unites them together, 
 he may fail to touch just at the desired 
 spot. Similar is the difficulty of the 
 prophetical anatomist. The very point 
 of time at which we pass down from the 
 brazen thigh of the giant image, to the 
 iron legs, we cannot settle. The exact 
 moment when the sceptre of universal 
 dominion was transferred from the brass 
 to the iron, — from the Greek to the 
 Roman, history cannot determine. 
 
 The transition itself is infinitely more 
 important than our particular knowledge 
 of it, — the fact, than the precise date of 
 the fact. That it did take place no one 
 can doubt ; and without attempting to 
 settle dates with any great accuracy, 
 we may in general say, that " westward 
 the star of empire took its way," when 
 Macedon, Syria, and Egypt, were added 
 as provinces to the Roman empire, that 
 is, from 168 to 31, B. C. At this latter 
 date, the fourth beast may be said to 
 have attained his majority, and to have 
 assumed the full exercise of his func- 
 tions. 
 
 To produce such a monster, was not 
 the work of a day. To perfect his 
 maturity, required a period of seven 
 hundred and twenty-two years. The 
 Roman* city and state was established 
 B. C. 753, during the reign of Uzziah, 
 king of Judah, about the time when the 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 63 
 
 second Assyrian empire was founded by 
 Pul, or his son, Nabonassar, one hun- 
 dred and fifty years before Daniel wrote 
 his prophecy. Thus while the splen- 
 dour of sovereignty was embellishing Ba- 
 bylon, and the arts and sciences were 
 making her the pride of kingdoms, a 
 barbarous race were laying, upon a 
 distant and savage shore, the basis of 
 an empire, which should snatch the 
 sceptre from the east, and live in pomp 
 and glory, when the dust of the brazen- 
 gated city should be the sport of the 
 winds. 
 
 But it is not in the light of imperial 
 grandeur, it is not in the specious garb 
 of royal magnificence, that we are to 
 contemplate this mistress of nations. 
 The prophet's imagery is very different. 
 So revolting, on the contrary, is she to 
 his sainted vision, that nature furnishes 
 no living symbol whereby to represent 
 her. A monster form is requisite, an 
 absolute nondescript, a ferocious power, 
 rioting upon the spoils of empire, crush- 
 ing to the ground and stamping to pieces 
 whole nations. 
 
 The prophet tells us, in verse 23, that 
 this beast is "the fourth kingdom upon 
 earth, which shall be diverse from all 
 kingdoms, and shall devour the whole 
 earth, and shall tread it down and break 
 it in pieces." What kingdom is this? 
 Can it be pretended that this description 
 will suit the successors of Alexander ? 
 Will these characteristics apply to the 
 two monarchies of the Lagidaa, and the 
 Seleucidse ? Such an interpretation is 
 perfectly preposterous, because — 
 
 1. The prophet does not say that 
 there are two beasts, or that the one 
 beast is divided into two parts. He 
 speaks of one kingdom upon earth, — 
 " the fourth." Now, neither Syria, nor 
 Egypt can be meant by it; for neither of 
 these advanced before the other ; they 
 were rivals, and were very equally ba- 
 lanced during the entire period of their 
 being. 
 
 2. If the successors of Alexander be 
 represented by this fourth beast, and 
 Alexander's empire, as distinguished 
 from those who followed him, be the 
 third, then the leopard was a very 
 
 short-lived animal, scarcely seven years 
 old, and the fourth beast existed only 
 two hundred and twenty-four years. 
 Do either of these correspond with the 
 idea of the iron kingdom? 
 
 3. This power is diverse from all the 
 others. But in what principle or prac- 
 tice did the kingdom of Syria, or of 
 Egypt, differ from the preceding? Was 
 there a single feature of distinction? 
 Did not the same forms of government, 
 of war, and of religion prevail ? 
 
 4. It is " terrible and strong exceed- 
 ingly." All the phraseology bespeaks 
 for it a more extended, formidable and 
 permanent dominion. But what histo- 
 rian imputes these peculiarities to " the 
 successors of Alexander ?" When did 
 they, or any one of them, " devour and 
 stamp in pieces the nations of the whole 
 earth ?" 
 
 5. This beast has ten horns ; — ten 
 kingdoms spring up within it. Have 
 they ever been found ? Who is it that 
 professes to have discovered ten new 
 governments arising upon the decline 
 and fall of the Lagidse, and the Seleu- 
 cidse? 
 
 But we waste time in the refutation of 
 an exposition so unreasonable. It is 
 evident that there never has been any 
 power, nation or empire, to which the 
 prophet's description would apply, but 
 the Roman. It may be useful, however, 
 to remark, that this interpretation was 
 advanced in the third century, by Por- 
 phyry, who attempted to reconcile Chris- 
 tianity with Paganism, by proving a sub- 
 stantial agreement. Jerome refuted his 
 exposition and heresy : the former, at 
 least, lay dead for ages. It may have 
 been held by some intermediate specu- 
 lators ; but it was revived, with some 
 little success, in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, by the celebrated Grotius, who 
 resembled Porphyry in the excess of 
 his philosophical charity for all opi- 
 nions. He attempted to throw the man- 
 tle of this spurious charity over all 
 sects, and to cover them with its capa- 
 cious folds. The Armenian and the 
 Calvinist meant the same thing, — the 
 Protestant and the Romanist agreed 
 substantially. To aid him in sustain- 
 
64 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ing this last assertion, he embraced 
 Porphyry's interpretation, and thus en- 
 deavoured to bring down the pope from 
 the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast. 
 A man of such comprehensive benevo- 
 lence would of course be received by all 
 sects to whom truth is of little conse- 
 quence ; for errorists are fond of those 
 who will allow them a place in the 
 calendar of orthodoxy. The most suc- 
 cessful abettors of heresy, are those 
 who carry upon both shoulders the 
 broad mantle of an amiable charity. 
 Grotius, however, failed to convince the 
 Calvinist that he was an Armenian he- 
 retic ; or the Protestant that his faith 
 was the same with the pope's. He lost 
 the confidence of good men, by his ef- 
 forts to introduce unworthy persons into 
 the orthodox churches : and this will 
 ever be the case with those whose mode- 
 ration leads them to sacrifice the truth. 
 
 Before we proceed with the exposition, 
 let us glance at the Roman history. 
 
 Rome was founded, as already men- 
 tioned, in the year B. C. 753, and in the 
 year of the world 3251. As is common, 
 its early history is involved in fable, or 
 at least, intermingled with romance. 
 For two hundred and forty-four years, 
 it was a monarchy, but one of a pecu- 
 liar kind. The sovereignty was not 
 hereditary, at least not in theory. It 
 was checked and limited in its power by 
 a strong and often overbearing aristo- 
 cracy, which, under the name of Senate, 
 held in check the authority of the king, 
 and exercised the right of choosing him. 
 
 In the year B. C. 509, Tarquinius 
 Superbus and his whole house were ex- 
 pelled from Rome, under the auspices of 
 Brutus. This was occasioned by the 
 king's ruthless invasion of the sanctuary 
 of a husband's love, in the matter of 
 Lucretia, the virtuous wife of a noble 
 senator. Strong in the pride of family, 
 virtuous, though weak and ignorant of 
 moral duty, Lucretia had not fortitude 
 to sustain herself under the insult, but 
 sank into the suicide's grave; exceed- 
 ing, by this crime, even Tarquin, in the 
 greatness of his delinquency. Brutus 
 seized upon the incident to call forth 
 public odium, already very considerable, 
 
 against Tarquin : he was consequently 
 expelled, and the kingly office abolished. 
 The supreme executive power was 
 then vested in the hands of two consuls, 
 chosen for two years. A step was thus 
 taken towards the republican form of go- 
 vernment. This continued through a 
 period of four hundred and sixty-one 
 years ; during which time the empire of 
 Rome was enlarged, so as to extend 
 from the borders of Persia to the hills of 
 Caledonia, and from the deserts of Lybia 
 and the summit of Mount Atlas to the 
 heart of Germany. The terror of the 
 Roman name outstripped the march of 
 her legions, until at length the labour of 
 leading an army to a hostile power was 
 more appalling than the horrors of war 
 and the dangers of battle. But the spirit 
 of war is insatiable. The thirst for 
 blood and for the spoils of conquest, 
 once created and become the charac- 
 teristic of a nation, who can control it? 
 The demon of destruction, having de- 
 voured its prey, and finding nothing 
 more to devour, turns in upon itself, 
 and feasts on its own bosom. Rome, 
 the proud and tyrannical republic, is at 
 last the victim of her own folly, and 
 falls a bleeding sacrifice at the altar of 
 her own ambition. The arms by which 
 she had subverted the rights and liberties 
 of all other nations, are now directed 
 against herself, and triumph over the 
 victor mistress of the whole earth. Pre- 
 paratory to this, the proud eagle's 
 pinions are trimmed by the Parthian 
 arrow ; the hosts which its wings hither- 
 to protected, and led on to sure con- 
 quest, are hewed to pieces by the Per- 
 sian scimetar. Crassus, their general, 
 one of the first Triumvirates, is taken 
 prisoner, and then beheaded ; the glory 
 of the Roman name is tarnished, and 
 the world taught that Roman soldiers 
 can be vanquished. This leaves the 
 dispute for empire between the two col- 
 leagues of Crassus. The issue is not 
 long doubtful. On the twelfth of May, 
 B. C. 48, the battle of Pharsalia places 
 the sword of catholic dominion in the 
 hand of Julius Caesar ; whilst it casts 
 out the carcass of the great Pompey, a 
 headless and unburied trunk, on the 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 65 
 
 Egyptian strand. The spirit, of republi- 
 can simplicity and integrity succumbs 
 to a once high-minded and haughty, but 
 now venal aristocracy, which humbles 
 itself at the feet of the Caesars, whom it 
 has made lords of the world. 
 
 But no forms of human government, 
 from which are absent the undying ener- 
 gies of eternal truth, can ever be per- 
 manent. 
 
 God made man for freedom, — for go- 
 vernment by moral law, by the force of 
 truth, operating through the understand- 
 ing, upon the conscience; and all forms 
 destitute of this vitality, however he may 
 tolerate them for a time, as other evils 
 are tolerated, that he may evince their 
 folly and inefficiency, he will in the end 
 bring to naught, and their abettors to 
 confusion. Deep as may be the dye of 
 the imperial purple, — steeped, as it al- 
 ways has been, in human blood, and set 
 in woman's tears, — brilliant and daz- 
 zling as its lustre is, it is doomed to 
 fade. Before the sunbeams of everlast- 
 ing truth it must grow dim and pass 
 away. The light- of science — of the 
 science of man — must and will extin- 
 guish the fires, which the weakness and 
 ignorance of a people have kindled upon 
 the altars of a tyrant's vanity. 
 
 If God say, concerning the moral 
 state of a nation, or the family of na- 
 tions, " Let there be light," it will arise, 
 and darkness and its daughter, despot- 
 ism, will flee before it. Means will not 
 be wanting to break in pieces the de- 
 stroyer of the nations. The time may 
 be long, but still its approach is certain. 
 
 Agreeably to this, the splendour of 
 the imperial purple hardly sustained it- 
 self beyond one reign. Debaucheries 
 at home and dishonour abroad soon en- 
 feebled the monarch's hands. The clay 
 mixed with the iron. Its tottering frame 
 was arrested for a short time in its down- 
 ward course,"by the great Theodosius in 
 the latter half of the fourth century; but 
 upon his decease the barriers gave way, 
 and the descent was rapid ; until, in 
 A. D. 476, the sceptre of catholic rule 
 dropped from the nerveless hand of 
 Augustulus, the last of the Caesars, and 
 Odoacer, the Goth, proclaimed himself 
 
 9 
 
 king of Italy. Thus ended the imperial 
 power of Rome, after it had existed, 
 under every variety of fortune, five 
 hundred and twenty-four years. 
 
 Now if we add together the two hun- 
 dred and forty-four years of the kingly 
 form, the four hundred and sixty-one of 
 the consular republic, and the five hun- 
 dred and twenty-four of the imperial, we 
 shall have a grand total of one thousand 
 two hundred and twenty-nine years, as 
 the duration of the Roman state, prior 
 to her division into the ten kingdoms, 
 symbolized by the ten toes of the image 
 and the ten horns of the beast. 
 
 In expounding the prophet's language 
 we must note the characteristics of the 
 beast, or Roman kingdom. 
 
 1. Its great power, — " strong exceed- 
 ingly." The same quality is typified 
 by the iron legs and feet of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's image. Strength can be known 
 only by its exertion. From the effects 
 of power we learn its existence and its 
 measure. The power of Rome was felt 
 in her operations. If we follow Daniel, 
 he will lead us to the knowledge of this 
 strength, by his descriptions of its ef- 
 fects. 
 
 2. The policy of Rome in appropri- 
 ating to herself the territory and the- 
 wealth of vanquished nations : " it de- 
 voured" all before it. The flesh which 
 a beast of prey eats becomes a part of 
 itself, and creates the very vigour by 
 which it is enabled to circumvent, seize 
 and appropriate to itself more prey. 
 Such was the Roman policy from the 
 outset. Romulus conquered the Sa- 
 bines and united them with the state, 
 and so enlarged his dominion. This 
 policy secured a rapid and sure increase. 
 The petty governments in the vicinity 
 lost nothing by their subjection. They 
 became speedily part and portion of a 
 greater state, and thus more secure and 
 more elevated, as to honour and the 
 glory of arms, than before. 
 
 3. Where such union was impracti- 
 cable, through the obstinacy of the van- 
 quished or by reason of local peculiari- 
 ties, their policy was to destroy. Such 
 was the case with Alba Longa. The 
 city was totally ruined 2 and the relic of 
 
66 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 its inhabitants transferred to Rome, and 
 admitted to all her privileges. 
 
 4. Hence this beast became an object 
 in the end of great terror to all the na- 
 tions. The name of a Roman citizen 
 was a protection to the possessor over 
 all the world. In the case of Antiochus 
 the Great and Popilius, the Roman le- 
 gate, we have had a sample of the fear 
 and awe which accompanied the fourth 
 beast. It became " dreadful and terri- 
 ble, and strong exceedingly." 
 
 5. The result of these properties is a 
 universal or catholic empire : " It shall 
 devour the whole earth, and break it in 
 pieces." History bears out the prophet. 
 It would be idle for us to dwell on this 
 point. Who needs to be informed of 
 the vast extent, any more than of the 
 mighty power, of Rome? "Half our 
 learning is her epitaph ;" and when his- 
 tory has recorded her wondrous deeds, 
 and spread out on her ample page the 
 tale of her conquests, that page is near- 
 ly filled : a small portion only is left for 
 the rest of the nations. 
 
 6. The last particular noticed by the 
 prophet, is the peculiarity of the fourth 
 monarchy : — " It was diverse from all 
 the beasts that were before it ;" verse 
 23, " The fourth kingdom upon earth 
 shall be diverse from all kingdoms." 
 
 This diversity must be sought for, not 
 in the degrees of any characteristic com- 
 mon to the other kingdoms : for no two 
 are exactly equal in power, duration, 
 riches, ambition, cruelty, or martial 
 prowess. But it is to be looked for in 
 the essential character. There are in- 
 deed traits common to them. All the 
 four are strong, extended, and cruel in 
 their oppressive tyranny, especially to- 
 wards the church of God ; and lamen- 
 tably regardless of the rights of man. 
 What then is the peculiar property of 
 the fourth catholic monarchy? 
 
 To this the only correct response is, 
 — the forms of its government. These 
 are seven, upon which we shall not now 
 dwell. That topic will be called up by 
 its own proper symbol, the seven heads 
 of this same monster beast, as exhibited 
 in another prophecy. What we are 
 now to contemplate is the leading fea- 
 
 ture in which Rome differed from all the 
 three preceding empires. That distinc- 
 tion lies in the popular feature. Mea- 
 surably, the elective principle run through 
 her entire existence. The people and se- 
 nate elected the king, the consul, the em- 
 peror. These elections were far, very 
 far from being a pure, free, and untram- 
 melled expression of the public voice ; 
 not even in the best days of the republic. 
 Still, though defective, the elective prin- 
 ciple existed. Rome never was, in theo- 
 ry, an absolute and unlimited monarchy. 
 Practically, she often was governed by an 
 autocrat : yet even in the days of the 
 most lordly emperors, there was the 
 semblance of a senate and the name of 
 deliberation, legislation and even elec- 
 tion, as to the emperor himself. This 
 element survived the imperial dignity, 
 and yielded not under the oppressive 
 hand of Goth, Vandal, and Hun. 
 
 Now no such principle can be found 
 in any of the three preceding kingdoms. 
 They were simply arbitrary, military 
 despotisms : where the will of the de- 
 spot was law. He made peace and war 
 at pleasure. Above him there was no 
 law, — no constitution. Below him, no 
 council, — no senate, — no organized body 
 of nobility, — no aristocracy acting as a 
 check upon the autocrat. A dynasty 
 might change, but this produced no 
 change of principle. It was absolute 
 monarchy still, — the monarchy of might 
 and power, not of law and principle. 
 Here then we have a clearly marked 
 distinction. This beast is diverse from 
 all the others in one essential feature. 
 
 Before we proceed to his ten horns, it 
 will be proper to note a remark in verse 
 12, which, in chronological order pre- 
 cedes their rise, and is important to our 
 inquiry after the ten kingdoms. Having 
 run down the history of the fourth beast 
 until he is slain and his body is given to 
 the burning flame, — a period very far 
 distant in the future, the prophet says, 
 "As concerning the rest of the beasts, 
 they had their dominion taken away ; 
 yet their lives were prolonged for a sea- 
 son and a time." 
 
 Bearing in mind that the beast is the 
 catholic monarchy, we can easily per- 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 67 
 
 ceive how his dominion, his arbitrary, 
 universal power, is taken away, and his 
 life prolonged. The sceptre of catholic 
 despotism passed from the Assyrio-Ba- 
 bylonian empire, to that of the Medo- 
 Persian. " Peres : Thy kingdom is 
 divided and given to the Medes and Per- 
 sians," (Dan. v. 28) ; thence to the 
 Grseco-Macedonian ; and thence the 
 same sceptre passed over to the Roman 
 state. Meanwhile the body of the As- 
 syrians and Babylonians, and all the 
 provinces of the empire east of the 
 Euphrates, continued ; and even kingly 
 power was for many ages exercised by 
 portions of them as distinct nations. 
 
 But we cannot better express the ideas 
 which appear to us correct, than in the 
 language of Sir Isaac Newton, quoted 
 by Bishop Newton, to whom we are in- 
 debted for them. "And therefore," says 
 Sir Isaac, (Bp. Newton, i. 274,) " all 
 the four beasts are still alive, though the 
 dominion of the three first be taken 
 away. The nations of Chaldea and 
 Assyria are still the first beast. Those 
 of Media and Persia are still the second 
 beast. Those of Macedon, Greece, and 
 Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, 
 are still the third beast ; and those of 
 Europe on this side Greece are still the 
 fourth beast. Seeing therefore the body 
 of the third beast is confined to the 
 nations on this side the Euphrates, and 
 the body of the fourth beast is confined 
 to the nations on this side Greece, we 
 are to look for all the four heads of the 
 third beast, among the nations on this 
 side the river Euphrates ; and for all the 
 eleven horns of the fourth beast, among 
 the nations on this side of Greece. And 
 therefore, at the breaking of the Greek 
 empire into four kingdoms of the Greeks, 
 we include no part of the Chaldeans, 
 Medes, and Persians in those kingdoms, 
 because they belonged to the bodies of 
 the two first beasts. Nor do we reckon 
 the Greek empire seated at Constanti- 
 nople, among the horns of the fourth 
 beast, because it belonged to the body 
 of the third." 
 
 Thus this profound philosopher ap- 
 pears to have had a clear view of these 
 four empires, and a correct apprehension 
 
 of the predictions concerning them. The 
 transition of power always involved a 
 change of location. The seat of empire, 
 as well as the dynasty, was changed. 
 Especially is this strongly marked in 
 the latter three. The whole four ex- 
 tend over parts of the same territory, 
 yet their bodies, as Sir Isaac says, 
 have their distinct location : that is, the 
 particular kingdom or kingdoms com- 
 posing them, constitute their proper sub- 
 stance, and have a locality of their own ; 
 contradistinguished from the territory 
 and the nations who were overrun by 
 them, but not fully and permanently 
 united with them. 
 
 Still, however, there are difficulties 
 here, which no commentator whom I 
 have consulted attempts to solve. In 
 verse 11, we are told that the fourth 
 beast is slain, " his body is destroyed 
 and given to the burning flame." Clearly 
 there is a distinction made between the 
 beast and his body; for the one is slain 
 and the other destroyed. Can the beast 
 be slain and yet his body not be de- 
 stroyed ? The answer may be found in 
 verse 12, where are immediately brought 
 up the other three as a contrast with 
 this. Their life is not taken away ; 
 their bodies are not " destroyed and 
 given to the burning flame ;" they enjoy 
 a prolongation of life. What can this 
 mean, but that the governments and peo- 
 ple of these kingdoms continue, whilst 
 the catholic power is utterly removed 
 from them and deposited with the fourth 
 beast. But in the season appointed, this 
 concentration of religious and civil au- 
 thority in the same hands, which con- 
 stitutes the very spirit, principle, and 
 foundation of the great persecuting 
 power, — the antichrist, — shall be en- 
 tirely abrogated. It will not pass out 
 from the fourth beast, — out of the Eu- 
 ropean nations and reappear in some 
 other body, — in some other despot, 
 uniting in himself many nations ; but 
 it will cease for ever, and give place to 
 another principle of rule altogether dif- 
 ferent. The dominion is given to Prince 
 Messiah, " and glory and a kingdom, 
 that all people, nations, and languages 
 should serve him." At that time the 
 
LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 body of the fourth beast, the European 
 kingdoms, that constituted his physical 
 strength, shall be utterly destroyed ; that 
 is, the governments and the whole of 
 society shall be entirely dissolved, and 
 resolved into their original elements, as 
 metals are by the burning flame; and 
 out of the fires of this revolution shall 
 arise a new order of society, the king- 
 dom of Messiah. It was not thus with 
 the other three. After the dominion, the 
 politico-ecclesiastico-persecuting power 
 was taken away, they continued as king- 
 doms or provinces, under the same gene- 
 ral principles of government, and the 
 same general organization, and are so 
 until the present hour. 
 
 One difficulty still remains. It re- 
 gards the latter part of verse 12 : "Yet 
 their lives were prolonged for a season 
 and time." Concerning this Poole gives 
 the correct idea. There is granted to 
 the three, a prolongation of life after the 
 dominion is taken away, even until the 
 season and time. The language de- 
 scribes, not properly and directly, though 
 implied by, the length of duration ; but 
 it refers to a terminating period. The 
 words are different from those used in 
 xii. 7, where duration is marked. These 
 signify appointed seasons ; and doubtless 
 refer to the same period which brings to 
 a close the fife of the fourth beast ; when 
 he shall be slain and his body be given 
 to the burning flame. The whole twelfth 
 verse, therefore, describes the continu- 
 ance of the same order of things within 
 the kingdoms embraced by the bodies of 
 the first three beasts, as before the ca- 
 tholic power passed westward ; with this 
 exception only, that the universal supre- 
 macy is no longer theirs ; and this order 
 will continue until the time when anti- 
 christ shall be destroyed, and the king- 
 dom of the little stone become the king- 
 dom of the great mountain. 
 
 We proceed now to inquire for the 
 kingdoms symbolized by the ten horns 
 and the ten toes. On this subject there 
 is some diversity of opinion, as to what 
 powers precisely constituted the ten 
 horns. There is, however, a very 
 general agreement, that the Western 
 Roman Empire, the body of the fourth 
 
 beast, was divided into ten kingdoms. 
 We are to look for these in the Western, 
 which is the only proper Roman Em- 
 pire ; it being obviously improper to 
 call the Greek Empire at Constantinople 
 the Roman Empire ; because, from its 
 very commencement, it was a rival to 
 Rome, and was the most hated by the 
 Romans of any city or government in 
 the world. This reason alone ought to 
 exclude the Greek from the catalogue of 
 kings springing up out of the Roman 
 Empire : and together with that added 
 by Sir Isaac Newton ; that Constanti- 
 nople is without and beyond the limits 
 of the fourth beast and within the body 
 of the third, or Greek Empire, is to us 
 perfectly conclusive. It must, with any 
 candid and intelligent mind, — with every 
 mind that is not warped by sinister mo- 
 tives from the path of honest exposition, 
 set aside entirely the fond interpretation 
 of Porphyry, Grotius, and the Roman- 
 ists, that the ten kingdoms, or horns, 
 are ten of the individual kings of Syria 
 and Egypt, five of each. In refuting 
 this absurd exposition, as he does most 
 triumphantly, Bishop Newton appeals to 
 the interpretation given by the fathers 
 of the early ages of Christianity, and 
 among others quotes Jerome (i. 173). 
 " St. Jerome having refuted Porphyry's 
 notion of Antiochus Epiphanes being 
 the little horn, concludes thus : ' There- 
 fore let us say what all ecclesiastical 
 writers have delivered, that in the latter 
 days, when the empire of the Romans 
 shall be destroyed, there will be ten 
 kings who shall divide it between them, 
 and an eleventh shall arise, a little king, 
 who shall subdue three of the ten kings, 
 and the other seven shall submit their 
 necks to the conqueror.' " Now when 
 we remember that Jerome wrote in the 
 fourth century, before matters in the 
 empire gave much evidence of approach- 
 ing dissolution and dismemberment ; 
 after the age of Antiochus Epiphanes 
 about five hundred years ; and before 
 the rise of any of the ten horns, we 
 must perceive good and strong reason to 
 suppose his interpretation unprejudiced 
 and true ; as it was the received opinion 
 in the church in that and subsequent 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 69 
 
 ages. Jerome says all ecclesiastical 
 writers have maintained this exposition, 
 and Augustine afterwards sanctioned it. 
 
 But our main dependence is not on 
 the authority of expositors ; but on the 
 plain and evident meaning of the pro- 
 phet ; to which we are shut up by fol- 
 lowing his chain of facts and comparing 
 them with history. No other exposition 
 can be made consistent with itself, much 
 less with the text of Daniel. 
 
 What then are the ten kingdoms 
 which must rise up, and which did rise 
 up, in the Roman Empire? 
 
 Machiavelli, a very learned Roman 
 Catholic writer, has given the following 
 enumeration of the ten kingdoms : 
 
 1. The Ostrogoths in Mesia. 
 
 2. The Visigoths in Pannonia. 
 
 3. The Sueves and Albans in Gas- 
 coine and Spain. 
 
 4. The Vandals in Africa. 
 
 5. The Franks in France. 
 
 6. The Burgundians in Burgundy. 
 
 7. The Heruli and Turingi, in Italy. 
 
 8. The Saxons and Angles in Britain. 
 
 9. The Huns in Hungary. 
 
 10. The Lombards on the Danube 
 and in Italy. 
 
 Bishop Newton quotes the catalogues 
 of other commentators, differing in some 
 little degree from one another. Into the 
 minute detail we shall not now enter. 
 This same subject must come up again ; 
 when we shall discuss the New Testa- 
 ment prophecies relative to the first five 
 centuries of the Christian era ; or the 
 seals and the trumpets of the Revela- 
 tions ; and then with the prophets we 
 must dwell more on particulars. It may 
 be well, however, to present the list 
 given by Bishop Lloyd, as he has ap- 
 pended the dates of their rise : 
 
 1. The Huns, in 356. 
 
 2. The Ostrogoths, in 377. 
 
 3. The Visigoths, in 378. 
 
 4. The Franks, in 407. 
 
 5. The Vandals, in 407. 
 
 6. The Sueves, in 407. 
 
 7. The Burgundians, in 407. 
 
 8. The Herulians and Turingians, 
 in 476. 
 
 9. The Saxons, in 476. 
 
 10. The Longobards, in 527. 
 
 If the English prelate be correct as to 
 dates, we have another illustration of the 
 arrangements of Providence, whereby 
 the depository of power is prepared for 
 its reception before the actual transfer 
 of it from one to another ; and also'of 
 the gradual transition. We have already 
 noticed that the change from the third 
 to the fourth monarchy was not instanta- 
 neous ; but extended over a space of one 
 hundred and thirty-seven years. So 
 here, the power is to be divided into ten 
 parts ; but not all at once. The ten 
 kingdoms come into being in a measure 
 successively. Indeed, as we shall see, 
 there is a great difference in regard to 
 their duration : three are to be plucked 
 up before the eleventh : so that the ten 
 exist but a very short time together. 
 
 It has been often remarked that about 
 the same number of distinct kingdoms 
 has existed in Roman Europe in every 
 age since. The plucking up of three at 
 an early period was followed by the 
 establishment of others. 
 
 That commentators differ slightly as 
 to some of these kingdoms, is no sub- 
 stantial objection to the just adaptation 
 of history and prophecy. Were the 
 histories more complete and our know- 
 ledge of them perfect, we would no 
 doubt differ less, if any whatever, in the 
 application. The agreement of history 
 and prophecy, is sufficient ground for 
 our belief, and fully justifies the inference, 
 that minor differences are the resultof our 
 ignorance. And be it remembered, the 
 variations are small; and are chiefly the 
 result of time. In such a fluctuating 
 state of the nations, a few years later or 
 earlier, as to the period of making the 
 enumeration, may account for much of 
 this. Bishop Newton takes the eighth 
 century, and of course will differ from 
 most others, in one or two points. But 
 the kingdoms have always been about 
 the same in number, and continue so to 
 this time. We have England, France, 
 Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Prus- 
 sia, Austria, Sardinia, Naples, — ten, and 
 the Papal kingdom proper, — eleven : or 
 throw Belgium and Holland together and 
 take in the Barbary States. 
 
 Thus we have arrived at the ten toes 
 
70 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 of the giant image. It is a fact unde- 
 niable, that the body of the fourth beast, 
 — the Western Roman Empire, was and 
 is divided into ten kingdoms, as it was 
 foretold two thousand four hundred years 
 ag*o, that it should be. 
 
 The little horn must be reserved as 
 the subject of a subsequent lecture. 
 We close the present with a brief re- 
 flection. 
 
 In the present moral state of man, a 
 concentration of powers must ever prove 
 fatal to liberty. This is true even when 
 by powers, we mean civil dominion over 
 extensive countries, much more, when 
 we comprehend in it the religious domi- 
 nation, or the influence which the use or 
 abuse of this principle, gives to man 
 over the conscience of his fellow-man. 
 Let these coalesce with the sword into 
 one complex power, and the mass of 
 men must be subservient to it. 
 
 We see how the study of the Bible 
 leads to general knowledge. In the 
 case before us, it is obvious that pro- 
 phetic exposition is impossible, without 
 an acquaintance with history and geo- 
 graphy. The same is true in regard to 
 most branches of science ; so that the 
 business of biblical interpretation cre- 
 ates a necessity for general intelligence. 
 Thus the sacred Bible becomes the text 
 book for universal instruction, and the 
 church and her ministry the light of the 
 world. 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 Daniel viii. 9-12, 23-26. 
 
 We have followed down the system 
 of despotism, till we find it enthroned 
 in the seat of the Caesars, the city of 
 seven hills. This incarnation of it, in 
 the fourth beast, was completed, when 
 Egypt, the last of the four heads of the 
 Macedonian leopard, became a Roman 
 province, thirty-one years before the 
 Christian era. We have gone farther. 
 In contravention of the chronological 
 order, which we think it best should in 
 general be followed, we have glanced 
 
 forward to the suppression of the impe- 
 rial form of the despotism, and the re- 
 vival of the regal form, in the ten king- 
 doms, symbolized by the ten toes of the 
 giant. It has already been intimated, 
 that the intermediate space of about five 
 hundred years, is not without special 
 prophecies. Nevertheless, we will profit 
 in the matter of perspicuity, by continu- 
 ing a general outline of the history, and 
 again returning, and under the guidance 
 of the apostle John, inspecting in detail 
 the same ground. This will we do in 
 considering the apocalyptic seals. Let 
 us therefore pursue the sketch somewhat 
 farther still. You are anxious, doubt- 
 less, to know something about the little 
 horn of the he goat and the little horn 
 of the fourth beast. What power or 
 powers do they represent ? Are they 
 emblems of one and the same 1 Where 
 is its, or their, location ? What historical 
 facts can be found correspondent with 
 the symbols 1 
 
 These are inquiries exceedingly natu- 
 ral, and of all-absorbing interest. No 
 person can, with any thing like justice 
 to himself and his country, read the 
 journals of the day relative to great 
 national policy and movements, until he 
 has the true answers to these questions. 
 National politics lie hid from him who 
 has not a general understanding of these 
 subjects. The changes of empire are to 
 such a man all enigmas, all confusion. 
 But to the intelligent reader of Daniel 
 and of John, every thing is plain. His 
 eye sees the finger of heaven directing 
 all the agitations of earth to the grand 
 result, — the breaking up of the image 
 and the magnifying of the little stone 
 into the great mountain. 
 
 Let us therefore address ourselves to 
 the good work of answering these ques- 
 tions. Which then of the little horns 
 should we first consider 1 Doubtless 
 that which has the priority in point of 
 time. But they are, when viewed 
 through the eye of chronology, equal ; 
 they synchronize. That then, which, 
 examined with the eye of history, is 
 nearest as to place, is the one which 
 claims precedence. Pursuing their 
 course, we must attend first to the little 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 71 
 
 horn of the Macedonian goat, because, 
 geographically, he lies nearer to the 
 goat himself than he does to the fourth 
 beast. 
 
 The horn is thus described : " And 
 out of one of them came forth a little 
 horn, which waxed exceeding great, to- 
 ward the south and toward the east, and 
 toward the pleasant land. And it waxed 
 great, even to the host of heaven, and it 
 cast down some of the host and of the 
 stars to the ground, and stamped upon 
 them. Yea, he magnified himself even 
 to the prince of the host, and by him the 
 daily sacrifice was taken away, and the 
 place of his sanctuary was cast down. 
 And an host was given him against the 
 daily sacrifice, by reason of transgres- 
 sion, and it cast down the truth to the 
 ground ; and it practised and prosper- 
 ed." (Verses 9-12.) 
 
 In verses 23 to 26 we have Gabriel's 
 explanation of this figure ; in which note, 
 
 1. "Its rise is in the latter time of 
 their kingdoms." (Verse 23.) Now the 
 antecedent to their is unquestionably the 
 four kingdoms symbolized by the four 
 horns of the he goat. " In the latter 
 time" of the four kingdoms shall it arise. 
 This construction would lead us to ex- 
 pect the king of " fierce countenance" 
 to appear at or near the close of the 
 Egyptian kingdom, or shortly before the 
 Christian era. 
 
 But here we feel disposed to venture 
 a criticism on the phrase " in the latter 
 time." The original word signifies after, 
 — afterwards, — the last part ; and may 
 refer to place and things, as well as to 
 time. Accordingly, it is translated, pos- 
 terity, in Ps. cix. 13 : " Let his posterity 
 (those that came after him) be cut off." 
 It means place, in Ps. cxxxix. 9 : " and 
 dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea." 
 If we take this precise translation and 
 apply it in the case before us, this clause 
 of the verse will describe the place and 
 not the time, " And in the uttermost 
 part of their kingdom," which, indeed, 
 would suit better to the symbols as men- 
 tioned in verse 9, where the localit}^ is 
 pointed out. " And out of one of the 
 horns came forth a little horn, which 
 waxed exceeding great toward the 
 
 south." Now the uttermost part of one 
 of these kingdoms — of Egypt — was Ara- 
 bia. The whole of Arabia indeed was 
 never subject to Egypt, but parts of it 
 were. Is it not therefore most reason- 
 able to expect the angel, in his explana- 
 tion, to refer to locality, when locality is 
 so obviously referred to in the context 
 he explains 1 But, unless we take this 
 term as such reference, there is none in 
 Gabriel's interpretation. He loses sight 
 of locality altogether. We therefore 
 venture this as a new exposition of the 
 term, in this place; but not new in 
 itself, for it occurs in the Psalm just 
 quoted. As there, it reads, " in the 
 uttermost parts," so here, in the utter- 
 most parts — in the extreme part of their 
 kingdom, that is, the kingdom of one of 
 them ; for verse 9, the little horn " came 
 forth out of one of them." 
 
 A farther consideration shutting us up 
 to this interpretation is, the difficulty 
 which the other creates in the chrono- 
 logy ; for if the word refers to time, it 
 cannot naturally be construed, in con- 
 sistency with the other points of the con- 
 text. It would call upon us to fix the 
 date a little before the Christian era ; 
 whereas all the leading facts direct us 
 to the beginning of the seventh century; 
 a period six hundred and fifty years 
 farther down. 
 
 Another circumstance bearing on the 
 question of locality, and in consequence, 
 indirectly upon that of date, is, the rela- 
 tive direction of the little horn, " toward 
 the south and toward the east and to- 
 ward the pleasant land." Those who 
 maintain that the little horn here, is the 
 same as that of the fourth beast, and 
 that both symbolize Antiochus Epipha- 
 nes, king of Syria, will have to explain 
 how, " toward the south and toward the 
 pleasant land," that is, Judea, can be 
 both used with propriety ; seeing the 
 pleasant land lies directly south of An- 
 tioch, the seat of Syrian power; so that 
 toward the south and toward the plea- 
 sant land must mean the same thing. 
 But if the little horn springs up out of 
 the uttermost southern part of the Egyp- 
 tian horn, the great Arabian peninsula, 
 then we perceive what is meant. The 
 
72 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 power intended became formidable to- 
 ward the south, and then moved east- 
 ward, and then directed its course north- 
 ward towards the pleasant land. We 
 shall see in our detailed history, that 
 this accords exactly with the origin and 
 progress of the Mohammedan imposture. 
 It sprang up in southern Arabia, and 
 having become strong by conquest there, 
 pushed eastward across the deserts as 
 far as to the lower Euphratean valley, 
 and turned back upon Palestine. 
 
 Our next remark relates to time: 
 " When the transgressors are come to 
 the full," literally, " And about the per- 
 fecting or completion of the revolvers." 
 Just at the period when frequent risings 
 against the existing government of the 
 beast shall be completing the work of 
 wresting the dominion from him, there 
 shall appear in an outskirt, on the south 
 of one of the four horns of the Goat, a 
 new power. 
 
 Now the revolters here, we presume 
 to affirm, in opposition to all commenta- 
 toi-s, as far as we know, are the founders 
 of the ten kingdoms within the various 
 provinces of the western or Roman em- 
 pire. These revolters, it has already 
 been shown, began to make great and 
 serious inroads upon the imperial power 
 from the middle of the fourth century 
 onward, until after the deposition of the 
 last Csesar, in 476, and we may add, 
 until the middle of the seventh century. 
 But they were considerably matured in 
 the beginning of it; and about that time 
 we may look for the rise of this little 
 horn. Accordingly, Mohammedism be- 
 gan to bud into being in A. D. 606. 
 
 Another insuperable objection against 
 the application of the little horn to An- 
 tiochus Epiphanes, is the expression, 
 *' he waxed exceeding great." This is 
 not true by any means : he was not a 
 great prince, nor did he enlarge the Sy- 
 rian kingdom at all. It was weaker in 
 his, than in his father's hands. And 
 there is a still further objection. The 
 Syrian kingdom is beyond doubt, one, 
 and a chief one, of the four horns ; and 
 yet Antiochus is the little horn ; the 
 little horn grows out of itself! This is 
 an utter abandonment of the fixedness 
 
 of the symbols, and cannot be admitted 
 without introducing endless confusion. 
 
 Again, the chronological question is 
 seriously affected by the inquiry pro- 
 pounded in verse 13, and answered in 
 verse 14. " Then I heard one saint 
 speaking, and another saint said unto 
 that certain saint which spake, ' How 
 long shall be the vision concerning the 
 daily sacrifice and the transgression of 
 desolation, to give both the sanctuary 
 and the host to be trodden under foot ?'" 
 
 The accuracy of a response depends 
 very much upon an accurate understand- 
 ing of the question. " If the trumpet 
 give an uncertain sound who shall pre- 
 pare himself for the battle?" If we 
 mistake the meaning of a question, how 
 is it possible for us to return a right an- 
 swer? What does this holy one wish 
 to know? He has just been listening to 
 a description of the prostrate condition 
 of religion and the most melancholy de- 
 pression of its friends. A fierce and 
 relentless foe triumphs over all that is 
 sacred ; the sanctuary is trodden down 
 and the sacrifices are abandoned ; few 
 come to the solemn feasts of Zion. 
 How long shall this last ? What and 
 when shall be the end of these desola- 
 tions? Will Zion be forever cast down 
 and trampled under foot? And if not, 
 when shall be the end of her distresses? 
 How long shall it be before she will lift 
 up her head and rejoice in the destruc- 
 tion of her enemies ? That this is the 
 precise point of the inquiry, the latter 
 part of the response makes indubitable ; 
 " then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." 
 The cleansing of the sanctuary is the 
 removal of all unjust and oppressive 
 profanation and pollution. How long 
 shall it be until that time? The answer 
 is, " Unto two thousand and three hun- 
 dred days." The Septuagint has two 
 thousand four hundred days, and Mr. 
 Faber, who has given us the true inter- 
 pretation here, mentions that Jerome 
 gave two thousand nnd two hundred, 
 as a reading in his day. It is difficult, 
 as it frequently happens in the slight 
 variations of the manuscript texts, to 
 determine which is the correct reading. 
 In the absence of other means of de- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 73 
 
 ciding this question, we cannot do better 
 than search for events or other dates 
 corresponding to this, and thus fix the 
 time of beginning this period of two 
 thousand two, three, or four hundred 
 days or years. 
 
 The most natural time for the com- 
 mencement of this period is the opening 
 of the vision of which it is a part : not 
 the date or time when Daniel saw the 
 vision ; but when history began to fulfil 
 prophecy : in other words, when the war 
 of the ram and the he goat commenced. 
 In that war the first blow was struck, 
 B. C. 334, in the battle of the Granicus. 
 If then we run down two thousand two 
 hundred years, according to Jerome's 
 reading, we shall come to the year of 
 our Lord, 1866, and if we deduct from 
 1866 the twelve hundred and sixty 
 years, during which the saints shall be 
 given into the power of the little horn of 
 Daniel's fourth beast, it will bring us 
 back to A. D. 606 ; which is the very 
 year that Mohammed retired to the cave 
 of Heira, to concoct the Koran ; and in 
 which the Emperor Phocas declared 
 Boniface III., bishop of Rome, to be uni- 
 versal bishop. Here then we have two 
 great and most interesting events occur- 
 ring in the same year ; the first decided 
 movement of Mohammed, the Arabian 
 impostor ; and the authoritative procla- 
 mation of the pope as universal bishop, 
 by which the emperor gave the saints 
 into his power. These meet in the same 
 point, A. D. 606. Then, as we shall 
 see most abundantly, in its proper order 
 of time, the church universal is to be 
 trampled to the earth, and ground down 
 by her oppressive and tyrannical foes 
 for twelve hundred and sixty years : — 
 in the east by the Mohammedan and in 
 the west by the papal apostacy. Thus 
 we are brought to A. D. 1866 : thence 
 back to the battle of the Granicus, B. C. 
 334, when the curtain rose and the first 
 act of the drama was presented. This 
 triple concurrence of dates and numbers 
 must strike every mind, and operate a 
 powerful extraneous influence upon the 
 question of the correct reading. 
 
 Should we however begin these years 
 from the date of the vision, B. C. 552, 
 
 10 
 
 then two thousand and four hundred 
 years, the reading of the Septuagint, 
 would bring us down to A. D. 1848 ; that 
 of the Hebrew text to 1748 ; and that of 
 Jerome to A. D. 1648. Neither of the 
 last two dates presents us with such his- 
 torical facts as the language before us 
 demands. Surely the sanctuary has not 
 been cleansed, — has not been justified, 
 as the Hebrew means, — has not been 
 restored to all its rights, these ninety- 
 three years, or these hundred and ninety- 
 three years past. Surely Antichrist has 
 not been slain for either of these periods. 
 Surely we are not advanced two centu- 
 ries upon the period of the church's 
 triumphs. But if we take Jerome's read- 
 ing, and date from the opening of the 
 scene, B. C. 334, we come down to 
 A. D. 1866, — a point of time in which 
 the rays of prophetic truth do, and 
 doubtless those of historic light will, 
 converge to a focus, whence they will 
 diverge, and be lost in the rays of mil- 
 lennial glory. 
 
 These are, very briefly, our reasons 
 for believing, with Bishop Faber, that 
 the little horn of the he goat is the Mo- 
 hammedan imposture, and not the Ro- 
 man Catholic apostacy. Bishop Newton, 
 in maintaining this latter, is far astray ; 
 and is inconsistent with himself. For 
 he maintains, with Sir Isaac, that as the 
 body of the third beast is to be looked 
 for on this side the Euphrates, so the 
 body of the fourth is to be looked for on 
 this side Greece : and he therefore 
 throws the Constantinopolitan empire 
 out from the number of the ten horns 
 of the fourth beast. For obviously, if 
 the locality of Constantinople excludes 
 it from being a horn of the fourth beast, 
 the locality of the papacy must exclude ' 
 it from being the little horn of the third 
 beast. 
 
 Commentators have been led into this 
 error, by the similarity of language used 
 in application to these two horns : not 
 remembering that, as the church in the 
 east and the church in the west both 
 fell into idolatry, though in different 
 forms, and both needed chastisement, 
 the instruments for chastising them 
 might therefore bear a resemblance to 
 
74 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 each other in their movement, and yet 
 be still entirely distinct. Similar is the 
 error and its cause in applying the 
 phrase, "the abomination of desolation" 
 wherever it occurs, to one and the same 
 transaction ; whereas the scriptures use 
 it in reference to three distinct profana- 
 tions of the most sacred things of the 
 church ; — that by the Syrian arms un- 
 der Antiochus Epiphanes ; by the Ro- 
 mans under Titus; and by the pollutions 
 of the papacy. Let us not be led away 
 by similarity of terms, if they may ne- 
 vertheless be applied to different, but 
 resembling objects. 
 
 Such are the two horns in question. 
 They belong to different animals ; but 
 both are beasts. They are both de- 
 structive foes of the church ; both 
 raised up to scourge her for her sins ; 
 is it a matter of surprise therefore, that 
 they should be both characterized by 
 the same signs and the same language ? 
 Why should we not rather expect such 
 similarity? Why should we, because 
 of it, attempt to break off the horn from 
 the Macedonian Goat and transfer it to 
 the Roman beast ? On the contrary, 
 let us endeavour to expound the symbol 
 and the language consistently with each 
 other and with the prophecy. To this 
 we now proceed. 
 
 Here however, you are not to expect 
 much detail in regard to the Mohamme- 
 dan imposture ; nor can we run down 
 the history very far, because another 
 opportunity will press itself upon us, 
 when we cannot deal honestly with the 
 text without extended detail. In follow- 
 ing Daniel, we shall simply present a 
 general outline. 
 
 The early locality of the Mohamme- 
 dan power was in the vast Arabian pe- 
 ninsula, on the southwest of Asia. This 
 peninsula is separated from Africa, by 
 the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea. 
 It is about eighteen hundred miles long 
 and nine hundred broad. It was at an 
 early period settled by the descendants 
 of Ham, the youngest of Noah's sons, 
 and was known, at least the northwest- 
 ern part of it, to the Old Testament wri- 
 ters under the name of Cush, translated 
 in our English Bibles, Ethiopia ; as the 
 
 name of Mizraim, another of Ham's 
 sons, is the Hebrew name of Egypt. 
 A third gave name to Canaan. We 
 find, (Gen. x. 7,) Seba, Havilah, Sabta, 
 Raamah and Sabtecha, mentioned as 
 sons of Cush, and the names of places 
 in Arabia are called after them in mo- 
 dern times. Nimrod, also the founder 
 of the first empire, was a son of Cush. 
 
 But in a subsequent age a different 
 blood was thrown in upon the Arabian 
 desert. Here Ishmael and his bastard 
 race took up their abode. He was 
 partly a Hamite ; his mother being a 
 descendant of Mizraim, an Egyptian ; 
 so that the coalition of Ishmael with the 
 Arabians was a reunion of the blood. 
 The twelve princes of this race, sons of 
 Ishmael, took possession of the entire 
 broad neck of the isthmus, from the head 
 of the Persian Gulf to the Isthmus of 
 Suez : as is evident from Gen. xxv. 13- 
 18, where, after giving their names, it 
 is said, " they dwelt from Havilah to 
 Shur that is before Egypt ; as thou 
 goest towards Assyria." Now Assyria 
 lay on the Euphrates, and extended 
 down that river, when the empire was 
 in its glory, to the Persian Gulf; and 
 Havilah was on the Pison, (Gen. ii. 
 11,) a part of the Euphrates. Thence 
 Ishmael's descendants spread southward, 
 and mixed with others of Cush's de- 
 scendants. The Arabian writers, — pro- 
 totypes of modern novelists, and about 
 as profitable to mankind, — maintain that 
 Mohammed was a direct lineal descen- 
 dant of Ishmael, and they give the gene- 
 alogy in full. 
 
 Into these regions, and especially 
 along the shores of the Red Sea, many 
 of the Jews penetrated during the Baby- 
 lonian captivity, and also toward the 
 latter periods of the Syrian kingdom, 
 when Jerusalem was greatly harassed 
 by the border wars between the Seleu- 
 cidse and the Lagidse : and also during 
 the early periods of the Roman oppres- 
 sion. We find therefore among the 
 strangers on the day of Pentecost, 
 Arabians ; some of whom were on that 
 day converted to the gospel. (Acts iii. 
 11.) They returned home, carrying the 
 gospel with them : and as is more than 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 75 
 
 probable, Paul performed his first, — his 
 three years' mission to them, as he states 
 in Gal. i. 17. These Arabian Jews, like 
 all others, had been in the habit of per- 
 forming pilgrimages to Jerusalem which 
 the laws of Moses required. This cus- 
 tom, it is highly probable, suggested the 
 idea of establishing a consecrated city in 
 Arabia itself; as Jeroboam, the son of Ne- 
 bat, to prevent his people from resorting 
 to Jerusalem, set up an altar at Dan and 
 another at Bethel, (1 Kings xii. 27.) 
 Local interests and jealousies might 
 combine to create around Mecca an 
 artificial sanctity, similar to that of 
 Jerusalem. But be the cause what it 
 may, certain it is, that the Caaba, or 
 sacred temple at Mecca, was venerated, 
 and pilgrimages made to it, centuries 
 before Mohammed was born. Their 
 fable, believed by all true Mussulmans, 
 is, that it was first built of stone by 
 Adam ; that it was destroyed by the 
 flood ; and rebuilt by Abraham and his 
 son Ishmael, at the command of God. 
 (See Univ. Hist. xvi. 260.) 
 
 Besides Paul, Bartholomew the apostle 
 performed a mission into this country, 
 visiting the converts, founding churches, 
 and extending Christianity with great 
 success. Almost the whole of northern 
 Arabia was traversed by the heralds of 
 mercy : and Petra was the residence of 
 a primitive bishop, that is, a pastor of a 
 regular church. In the first, second, 
 and third centuries, the western regions 
 received the gospel ; and among others, 
 Origen of Alexandria, at the request of 
 an Arabian prince, performed a tour 
 along the sea-board. It is highly pro- 
 bable that the purity of the churches 
 suffered from his visit : for he had already 
 run into some heretical speculations : 
 and his philosophy is known to have 
 had a very corrupting influence. About 
 these times, slowly and gradually, in 
 this and most sections of the eastern 
 churches, were introduced pictures of 
 saints ; first, possibly, into private houses, 
 then into the churches; first as evidences 
 of respect ; then as objects of veneration ; 
 afterwards as helps, and lastly as objects 
 of devotion. 
 
 But the chief cause of that fearful 
 
 declension for which God raised up this 
 horn of destructive power, was the Arian 
 heresy, which denies the proper divinity 
 of Jesus Christ. Origen's speculations 
 probably led to this. It spread over a 
 great part of the East, and was followed, 
 as its kindred heresies always have 
 been, by a decline of piety. This was 
 the fruitful source of many minor here- 
 sies, that distracted, rent, and polluted 
 the church. The fourth, fifth, and sixth 
 centuries might well be denominated the 
 age of heresies : for {ew errors, if any, 
 have ever harassed the church, which 
 may not be found " for substance of 
 doctrine," if not in name, during this 
 period. Those which relate to the per- 
 son of Christ, all, but in various degrees, 
 aiming at the vital principles of the gos- 
 pel, may be accounted the chief- of 
 which Arianism is the life and spirit. 
 This heresy and its progeny, springing 
 up in Egypt, spread along northern 
 Africa and into Spain. It passed into 
 Arabia, over Palestine and all the Asia- 
 tic churches, less or more. It mingled 
 with politics according to the idea of the 
 times, was sometimes persecuted, and 
 at others persecuted the Trinitarians ; 
 just as either party succeeded in gaining 
 the ascendancy with government. Thus 
 Arianism and picture-idolatry were lead- 
 ing forms of rebellion against God, and 
 sources of corruption in the Asiatic and 
 African churches. Somewhat later, but 
 within the same period, Pelagianism, 
 which is a denial of the doctrine of 
 original sin, and of justification by faith 
 in the imputed righteousness of Christ, 
 together with image-worship, infected 
 the churches of Europe. 
 
 Such a lamentable state of things 
 called for special chastisement, and 
 therefore God raised up the Mohamme- 
 dan impostor. The city of Mecca, as 
 before stated, had become a sacred place, 
 from the celebrity of the Caaba, or tem- 
 ple, to which the religious, or rather su- 
 perstitious Arabs had long been in the 
 habit of performing pilgrimages. The 
 care of this city and temple became a 
 subject of strife, probably because it was 
 an office of profit ; certainly because it 
 was honourable. Abd Menaf, of the 
 
76 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 Koreish tribe, had attained to this honour, 
 partly by violence and bloodshed, partly 
 by the great wealth and influence of his 
 tribe, one of the most ancient and power- 
 ful in Arabia. All these advantages of 
 family, wealth and influence, enhanced 
 by the recent and superadded glory of 
 bearing the keys of the Caaba, Abd 
 Menaf transmitted to his son Hashem ; 
 he to his son Abd '1 Motalleb ; and he to 
 his son Abdallah, the father of Moham- 
 med. Thus stands the genealogy, — 
 Abd Menaf, Hashem, Abd '1 Motalleb, 
 Abdallah, Mohammed. Abdallah died 
 young and left his widow and son Mo- 
 hammed poor, " his whole substance 
 consisting but of five camels and one 
 Ethiopian female slave." (See Univ. 
 Hist. xix. 8.) Abdallah left twelve 
 brothers, but his father took charge of 
 Mohammed ; and upon his death, which 
 occurred in a few years, left his grand- 
 son in the care of Abu Taleb, one of 
 the boy's uncles ; who was engaged in 
 the business of a merchant. Mohammed 
 began his eventful career, not indeed 
 behind the counter, but upon the camel. 
 The credit system was not yet intro- 
 duced into the commercial world, be- 
 cause men lacked the honesty to trust 
 one another, and the capacity to keep 
 accounts. Mohammed, though a mer- 
 chant, could neither read nor write : yet, 
 as his subsequent life showed, he was 
 possessed of very superior natural ta- 
 lents, and had great opportunities for 
 acquiring a knowledge of men and man- 
 ners. The merchant of those days was 
 a very different personage from what 
 now passes under that name. His was 
 no pale emaciated form, worn out, even 
 in youth, by confinement to the counting 
 house, and jaded to death for want of 
 healthful air and exercise. To gain a 
 conception of an Arab trader, we must 
 have an idea of the course of trade at 
 that time. This idea may be obtained 
 from the Bible. " And King Solomon, 
 made a navy of ships in Ezion Geber," 
 now Akaba, on the head of the Elonitic 
 Gulf of the Red Sea. Into this gulf 
 did the river Jordan discharge its waters, 
 before the destruction of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah, and the formation of the 
 
 Dead Sea. Along the valley of this 
 river, Solomon's caravans carried that 
 merchandise which filled Jerusalem with 
 wealth. Other parts of Arabia became 
 also seats of extensive commerce, for 
 which its location offered the oppor- 
 tunity. The trade with India by the 
 Persian Gulf must touch Arabia ; and 
 all that by the Red Sea must pass 
 through her. This trade found its way 
 to Rome for many centuries. It was 
 this mainly that made Tyre such a mart 
 of wealth : and it was the land carriage 
 which for centuries converted so many 
 Arabs into travelling merchants. 
 
 A deathblow was given to this vast 
 trade by that simple instrument, the ma- 
 riner's compass, which placed the pillars 
 of Hercules and the hills of Caledonia 
 nearer, as it regards cost of transporta- 
 tion, to the wealth of India, than Rome 
 or Tyre. We must carry ourselves 
 back to the days of this overland traffic, 
 if we will possess an accurate idea of 
 the merchant Mohammed. How in- 
 vigorating this roving life ! how keen 
 and penetrating it renders the eye, in 
 the business of reading character ! How 
 shrewd, how cunning men must become 
 who pursue it long ; unless they are 
 absolute dolts. Into this school our 
 hero entered at an early age. At thir- 
 teen he accompanied his uncle Abu 
 Taleb on a trading expedition to Bostra, 
 a town anciently appropriated by Joshua 
 as a city of refuge, in the south part of 
 Reuben, next to Arabia Deserta. It is 
 known by the names Beser and Bozrah, 
 in scripture. It was under the power of 
 the descendants of Edom, and a place at 
 that time of considerable note. Calmet 
 says it was the residence of a bishop in 
 the early ages of Christianity. Whilst 
 sojourning here, Mohammed became ac- 
 quainted with a Nestorian monk, who 
 is called by Arabian writers, Boheira, 
 and by the Greeks, Sergius. He was 
 probably an Arabian by nation, and be- 
 longed to the monastery of Abd '1 Kais. 
 (Univ. Hist. xix. 15.) Sergius paid con- 
 siderable attention to the boy, doubtless 
 perceiving in him the buddings of genius. 
 On a subsequent occasion they met at 
 Jerusalem, where additional strength 
 
LECTURE Vin. 
 
 77 
 
 was given to the friendly feeling before 
 cherished toward the young merchant. 
 (See Prideaux's Life of Mohammed, 
 p. 32.) 
 
 This Sergius was afterwards degraded 
 from the ministerial office for vice and 
 error ; and learning that Mohammed 
 had also experienced a change in his 
 circumstances, so as to be able to assist 
 him, he made his way to Mecca. Mean- 
 while Mohammed's uncle had kindly 
 procured him employment, in the service 
 of a merchant's widow, who had recently 
 lost her second husband. She was of 
 the Koreish tribe, and not too young to 
 employ an active clerk, but too rich to 
 do without one. In this new position 
 Mohammed had several reasons for be- 
 ing very attentive to the business of his 
 employer. Wealth continued to flow 
 into the widow's coffers, and from ano- 
 ther source, kindly feeling flowed out 
 toward the comely youth whose faith- 
 fulness and talents made every thing 
 prosper. This good feeling was reci- 
 procated, and the beautiful Kadijah, 
 from being the mistress of Abu Taleb's 
 nephew, put herself and all her wealth 
 under the mastership of the son of Ab- 
 dallah. This important event occurred 
 in his twenty-fifth year. 
 
 We have already noted, that the luxu- 
 ries of Rome made the wealth of the East 
 necessary for her gratification, and the 
 Arabians profited by the trade ; some 
 honestly, in the way of buying, carry- 
 ing, and selling ; others dishonestly, ac- 
 cording to the native character of an 
 Arab, by robbing the caravans, or tra- 
 velling companies of merchants. Hence 
 it is easy to see how an Arabian mer- 
 chant must become a soldier also. He 
 must carry arms, and know how to use 
 them. In accordance with this, history 
 tells us, that Mohammed, at the age of 
 fourteen, or, as some say, twenty, ac- 
 companied his uncle in a military expe- 
 dition against a tribe that troubled the 
 caravans, in which both uncle and 
 nephew displayed so much of the sol- 
 dier as to ensure the victory. 
 
 A little after this, the Caaba was re- 
 built. The house said to have been built 
 by Abraham and Ishmael was deemed 
 
 too small. A stone structure of rude 
 workmanship was erected, twenty-four 
 cubits long, by twenty-three wide, and 
 one story high : about forty-four by 
 forty-two feet. But in the erection of 
 this building, a dispute occurred about 
 the proper position for the Black Stone. 
 This Black Stone, Mohammedans say, 
 was brought from heaven by the angel 
 Gabriel, and, of course, its position was 
 important. Whilst the dispute was pro- 
 gressing, they agreed to leave it to the 
 first man who might come to the build- 
 ing. That man happened to be Mo- 
 hammed, and thus superstition began to 
 distinguish him. 
 
 About three years after his marriage, 
 A. D. 606, he withdrew from business, 
 and took up his residence in a cave in 
 Mount Heira, three miles from Mecca, 
 his native city, that he might have full 
 and undisturbed leisure to perfect his 
 plan of a new religion, and his schemes 
 to secure its success. It will be kept in 
 mind that he has been more than sixteen 
 years in the active business of a mer- 
 chant, stationary and travelling ; in 
 which employment he was brought in- 
 cessantly into contact with men of all 
 religious opinions ; Jews, Christians, and 
 Pagans ; Nestorians, Greeks, and Ro- 
 mans ; Arians, Trinitarians, Monophy- 
 sites, Donatists, and every name of 
 heresy and sect. His opportunities, 
 therefore, for forming an eclectic sys- 
 tem were admirable. His aim was 
 success, and therefore his creed must 
 interfere as little as possible with those 
 of other people. He has, accordingly, 
 properly speaking, but one article of 
 faith, and that a fundamental truth of 
 natural religion. The absurdity of poly- 
 theism and of idolatry, he knew to be 
 generally understood. He required faith 
 in the one God, and in himself as his 
 prophet. This is the whole of his reli- 
 gious belief. " There is one God, and 
 Mohammed is his prophet." This first 
 principle is taught in the Bible, and he 
 obtained the knowledge of it through the 
 Jew and the Christian ; it commends 
 itself to human reason. 
 
 But Mohammed was an illiterate man. 
 So were most men of that day ; even the 
 
78 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 nobility of England and France, seven 
 hundred years later, could not write 
 their own names. He felt the necessity 
 of aid from some literary character ; 
 hence his former friend Sergius was 
 taken into his service. 
 
 It has been made a question whether 
 Sergius was actually with him when he 
 retired to the cave. Mohammedans, of 
 course, and their near friends in the same 
 faith, the Socinians, Arians and Unita- 
 rians, deny it : whilst Christian writers, 
 not friendly to anti-christian doctrines, 
 affirm it. That the impostor was unable 
 to read or write, all admit : therefore some 
 one aided him, and the weight of histo- 
 rical authority is in favour of Sergius. 
 This is the fallen star of John's revela- 
 tion : (chap. ix. 2,) that opened the bot- 
 tomless pit, and let out the dark smoke 
 of the impostor's doctrine, from which 
 came forth the Saracenic locusts, — those 
 all-devouring conquerors. 
 
 After considerable time and effort, he 
 brought over his wife Kadijah : his ser- 
 vant Zeid was his next convert ; usually, 
 however, he reckoned him his first, as 
 being the first male : his third disciple 
 was Ali, his cousin, the son of Abu Ta- 
 leb, his protector uncle, then a boy of 
 nine years old. After months of reason- 
 ing, flattering and fawning, followed Abu 
 Beer, a man of talents and influence, who 
 soon enlarged the number of this secret 
 cabal ; for it is worthy of notice, that at 
 this time it was a secret society. Subse- 
 quently, he married Abu Beer's daughter, 
 Ayesha, a child of seven years old, whose 
 espousals were not however celebrated 
 for two years afterwards. How far the 
 child's father may have been influenced 
 by the same motives that induced the 
 young merchant to make himself the third 
 husband of a rich widow, it is perhaps 
 at this distance of time, not easy to de- 
 termine : doubtless, the gold of the re- 
 tired merchant aided the faith of the 
 doubting philosopher. 
 
 In the year 612, his party had in- 
 creased still further, and he began pub- 
 licly to propagate his religion. Imme- 
 diately he met with great and violent 
 opposition from men of his own tribe. 
 The strife ran so high that Mohammed 
 
 became alarmed for his personal safety, 
 and fled to Medina. This was in A. D. 
 622 ; ten years after he began to publish 
 his dogmas, and sixteen from the period 
 of his retirement. This fixes the Moham- 
 medan era, called the Hegira or flight : 
 from which all Mohammedans date as 
 we do from the birth of Christ. Shortly 
 before this he pretended to have perform- 
 ed his journey to the seventh heaven, and 
 to have received a commission to defend 
 himself, and propagate his religion by 
 the sword. 
 
 Soon after his settlement at Medina he 
 sent his uncle Hamza with thirty horse- 
 men, to rob a caravan of Koreish mer- 
 chants ; but he found them guarded by 
 three hundred men, and desisted from the 
 attempt. In the year 624, he attacked a 
 rich caravan of Koreish merchants, on 
 their return from Syria. This was his 
 first battle. He had three hundred and 
 thirteen men, and his opponents nine 
 hundred and fifty. He routed the guard, 
 killed seventy, took seventy, and lost 
 fourteen of his own men. The spoil was 
 immense, and after appropriating one- 
 fifth of it to the sacred work of propa- 
 gating the faith, he distributed the rest 
 among his followers. This rule was fol- 
 lowed ever afterwards. 
 
 In 625, he fought the great battle of 
 Ohud with the Koreish, three thousand 
 strong. Mohammed displayed most des- 
 perate personal bravery, and had very 
 nearly lost his life. He was beaten down 
 with a shower of stones, cut in the face 
 by two arrows, and had two of his front 
 teeth knocked out : still however he gain- 
 ed the day and put his foes to flight. In 
 627 he attacked the tribe of the Koreid- 
 hites, put the men all to the sword after 
 they had surrendered, and obtained their 
 women, children and goods. The most 
 beautiful of all the women he selected as 
 a wife for himself. This made his third. 
 In this same year, he was smitten with 
 an accidental glance which he had of 
 Zeinab, the wife of Zeid, his servant and 
 second convert. The result was a new 
 chapter for the Koran authorizing di- 
 vorce, — the divorce of Zeinab from her 
 husband and her marriage to the prophet. 
 She was his fourth wife. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 79 
 
 Such is a fair sample of the spirit and 
 means by which the Mohammedan reli- 
 gion was spread. The entire history is 
 a tale of blood, plunder and lust. Four- 
 fifths of all the property and women of 
 the vanquished, being always divided 
 among the soldiers, held out very power- 
 ful motives to two of the strongest pas- 
 sions of the human bosom. All this 
 was done in the name of God, and all 
 accompanied by the most profound out- 
 ward manifestations of religious devotion. 
 Thus in eight years he extended his vic- 
 torious arms over a large portion of the 
 Arabian peninsula. He died in 632. 
 
 The impostor appointed no successor, 
 and his disciples had some difficulty, but 
 finally fixed upon Abu Beer as Caliph, 
 or successor. He pursued the same sys- 
 tem. He abode at Mecca, as in his latter 
 years Mohammed did ; for after his vic- 
 tories at Ohud, he returned to his native 
 city, and entered it without opposition. 
 He preached continually to the faithful, 
 and directed the military movements of 
 his armies. Abu Beer's first conquest 
 was Irah or Babylonia : against which 
 he sent Khaled. Into Syria he soon made 
 many successful expeditions. Among the 
 numerous, ferocious and bloody achieve- 
 ments of Khaled, whom Mohammed had 
 surnamed " one of the swords of God," 
 we may mention the siege and sack of 
 Damascus. One of the Moslem generals 
 had been killed by a poisoned arrow ; 
 whereupon Khaled determined to carry 
 the place by assault. At this juncture, 
 a priest named Josiah deserted from the 
 city, and came to Khaled, and assured him 
 that the prophet Daniel had predicted the 
 future greatness of the Moslem empire. 
 He then led the army into the city : the 
 slaughter was fearful ; and we learn from 
 the traitor that the degenerate Christians 
 of that day understood Daniel as we do 
 now. 
 
 In 635, on the very day in which Da- 
 mascus was taken, Abu Beer died, hav- 
 ing by formal will appointed Omar as 
 Caliph. The wars of conversion were 
 prosecuted with unremitting diligence and 
 undiminished energy. As a sample of 
 these terrible conflicts the battle of Yer- 
 mouk may be cited. The distressed Chris- 
 
 tians importuned the Greek emperor at 
 Constantinople for aid, and Heraclius 
 sent into, and raised in Syria, the Arab 
 writers say, two hundred and forty thou- 
 sand men, of whom one hundred and 
 fifty thousand were slain in the battle, 
 and forty thousand were made prisoners. 
 The Moslems lost four thousand and 
 thirty. This disparity is hardly credible, 
 for the Syrian and Greek troops fought 
 with desperate courage. Still the slaugh- 
 ter was fearful. 
 
 Soon after this, Jerusalem was besieg- 
 ed and after many deeds of most heroic 
 daring on both sides, it was found impos- 
 sible for the city to hold out. The patri- 
 arch Sophronius demanded an interview 
 with the Moslem general, and they agreed 
 upon terms of surrender, subject to the 
 ratification of the Caliph. A messenger 
 was despatched to Mecca, and Omar 
 made immediate preparation and started 
 for the camp before Jerusalem. " He 
 rode," (says the Univ. Hist. xix. p. 290,) 
 " upon a red camel, and carried with 
 him two sacks, one of which contained 
 his sawich, a sort of provision consisting 
 of barley, rice or wheat sodden and un- 
 husked in use among the Arabs ; and 
 the other fruit. Before him he had a 
 leathern bottle, very necessary in those 
 desert countries, to contain water, and 
 behind him a wooden platter. Before he 
 left the place where he had rested the 
 preceding night, he constantly said the 
 morning prayer; after which he address- 
 ed himself to his attendants in a devout 
 strain, always uttering some pious ejacu- 
 lations. Then he communicated his 
 sawich to 'them, every one of his fellow- 
 travellers eating with him out of the 
 same platter without distinction. His 
 clothes, according to Theophanes, were 
 made of camel's hair, and even in a very 
 tattered and ragged condition ; nor could 
 any thing be more mean and sordid than 
 the appearance he made." 
 
 Such was the human form that was 
 about to enter Jerusalem in triumph. 
 Such the man who dictated to the 
 Christians the terms of surrender of the 
 city where David and Solomon reigned, 
 and the Son of David was crucified and 
 arose from the dead. Well had it been 
 
80 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 for the Christian world, if they had 
 obeyed the ninth of these articles of ca- 
 pitulation. It is in these remarkable 
 words : " They shall not sell wine, nor 
 any other intoxicating drink." (Univ. 
 Hist. xix. 393.) What a lesson and 
 rebuke even to Christians. 
 
 When the Patriarch Sophronius first 
 saw Omar in the Church of the Resur- 
 rection, he could not forbear breaking 
 out into the following exclamation : 
 " This is of a truth the abomination of 
 desolation, spoken of by Daniel the pro- 
 phet, standing in the holy place." 
 Which words the Moslems afterwards 
 hearing, they inferred from them, that 
 the patriarch owned their conquest of 
 Jerusalem to have been foretold by the 
 prophet Daniel. (Univ. Hist. xix. 396.) 
 In this manner the holy city came into 
 the power of the Mohammedans in 
 April, A. D. 637. The next year fell 
 Antioch. Tyre soon followed, and Ce- 
 sarea, Mesr the ancient Memphis, Alex- 
 andria, and all Egypt. 
 
 Such are the triumphs of the sword- 
 and the Koran, and thus far only may 
 we prosecute the history at present. We 
 now glance at the text to see its cor- 
 respondence with all this. Verse 10. 
 " And it waxed great even to the host 
 of heaven." The host of heaven is the 
 army of the church, the professed people 
 of God. " And it cast down some of the 
 host," — destroyed some of the church, 
 — " and of the stars to the ground, and 
 stamped upon them." A star is a sym- 
 bol of a Christian minister. "The 
 seven stars are the angels of the seven 
 churches :" — the ministers. (Rev. i. 20.) 
 How exact the fulfilment ! What mul- 
 titudes of the Christians and Christian 
 ministers were hurled down and stamped 
 upon, in these wars ! Verse 11. "Yea 
 he magnified himself even to the prince 
 of the host." The Mohammedan sys- 
 tem places its founder on an equality, 
 or makes him superior to Jesus, the 
 Prince of the Christian armies. " And 
 by him the daily sacrifice was taken 
 away, and the place of his sanctuary 
 was cast down," — the Christian worship 
 was suppressed and the sanctuary pro- 
 faned : " and an host or army was given 
 
 to him." God appointed this scourge 
 upon his own church " by reason of 
 transgressions," — on account of the ex- 
 ceeding corruptions of religion. 
 
 Verse 23. " A king of fierce counte- 
 nance," — and was there ever displayed 
 more stern ferocity than in the warlike 
 originator of the Mohammedan creed ? 
 " And understanding dark sentences." 
 Who can glance into the Koran, without 
 perceiving the mist and obscurity that 
 enshrouds this dark superstition 1 
 
 Verse 24. " And his power shall be 
 mighty, but not by his own power;" — 
 the original resources of Mohammed 
 were very kw, and the energy of his 
 doctrine was nothing. All his success 
 sprang from the wealth and arms of 
 others. Verse 25. " And by peace 
 shall he destroy many :" this is appa- 
 rently inconsistent with fact ; but it is 
 apparently so only, not really. " In 
 peace," — while they are in peace, he 
 shall fall upon them unawares and de- 
 stroy them. " He shall be broken with- 
 out hand ;" — the Mohammedan impos- 
 ture shall pass away, and be destroyed, 
 without violence. No army shall be 
 required to annihilate it. This we shall 
 hereafter see corresponds with John's 
 vision of the drying up of the Eu- 
 phrates. 
 
 Such is the exact agreement of the 
 antedated and the postdated history. 
 A few thoughts are suggested by this 
 subject ; and with them we conclude. 
 
 1. God often scourges his offending 
 people with instruments of their own 
 procurement : the drunkard punishes 
 himself; the profane man breaks down 
 the sacredness of an oath, and is often 
 chastised for his wickedness by the loss 
 of wealth or reputation occasioned by 
 false swearing. Christian France rushed 
 into infidelity, and infidelity blighted the 
 fair land of the Huguenots. So in the 
 case before us, Arianism infected the 
 church and polluted the sanctuary; God 
 therefore raised up a giant Arian power, 
 to punish his erring people. Unitarian- 
 ism, as the same doctrine is now called, 
 poisoned the fountains of truth, and of 
 power, and God permitted the false im- 
 postor to hold the poisoned chalice to 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 81 
 
 the parched lips of his fainting church. 
 The substantial identity of Mohammed- 
 ism and Unitarianism, is affirmed by- 
 Gibbon, (vol. iii. p. 376.) "The first 
 principle of reason and revelation, was 
 confirmed by the voice of Mohammed, 
 his proselytes from India to Morocco, 
 are distinguished by the name of Unita- 
 rians ; and the danger of idolatry has 
 been prevented by the interdiction of 
 images." The same is affirmed by a 
 deputation of Unitarians in England, in 
 their congratulatory letter to the Ambas- 
 sador of the Emperor of Morocco, (See 
 Mason on Intercommunion, and Miller's 
 letters on Unitarianism.) It is very re- 
 markable, that the Moslem sword fol- 
 lowed the ti'ack of the Arian heresy with 
 scarcely any deviation. 
 
 The reason of this divine arrange- 
 ment, it is not difficult to perceive. 
 There is goodness mingled with wrath. 
 God will make his church to see and 
 feel the ruinous consequences of false 
 doctrine, as a means of recovering her 
 from her errors. Let us be instructed 
 by the miseries of the past, and guard 
 against all forms of heresy, by what- 
 ever names they may be distinguished. 
 Every thing that tends to degrade the 
 Son of God to the level of a creature, 
 he will scourge out of his temple at last ; 
 and the nation which fosters such here- 
 sies, he will visit with his indignation 
 and his curse. 
 
 2. The profanation of the sabbath, 
 extensively prevailed in the eastern 
 church; and this was largely a result 
 of the Arian heresies. Wherever there 
 is a decline of vital piety, there the 
 sacredness of the day of rest will be 
 despised. This is among the first signs 
 of apostacy. Such was the declension 
 in regard to the sabbatic institution in 
 the fifth century, that Theodosius II. in- 
 terposed his imperial authority and pro- 
 claimed an edict prohibiting even Jews 
 and Pagans from attending circuses and 
 theatres on the Christian sabbath. And 
 Leo I. passed a law, A. D. 469, forbid- 
 ding "any judiciary proceedings, or any 
 games and plays" on the Lord's day, 
 (Milner ii. 496, 500.) Feeble, how- 
 ever, were these barriers against the de- 
 
 11 
 
 generacy of the times. Unless public sen- 
 timent uphold law it must prove nugatory. 
 Ancient Christians, so called, would have 
 their sabbath amusements, and God pub- 
 lished to them many a tragedy written in 
 their own blood. They would not have this 
 man to reign over them, and God ap- 
 pointed them another ruler, — " a king 
 of a fierce countenance." They would 
 not observe God's day, and he gave 
 them many Mohammedan sabbaths, and 
 their land had rest. Let us be admo- 
 nished and pause ; lest by our accumu- 
 lating crimes, we call down upon our 
 own land the anger of the Most High. 
 
 3. How wonderful are the revolutions 
 which a slight impi'ovement in science 
 may produce on the earth ! The mari- 
 ner's compass has annihilated the com- 
 merce of Arabia. The overland traffic 
 to India has been swept away by it. It 
 has impoverished Mecca and Medina, 
 Ormuz, Bostra, Tyre, Alexandria and 
 Rome. It has placed the frozen isle of 
 Britain on the vantage ground above 
 Alexandria, Memphis and the Eternal 
 City, as to Indian commerce. It has 
 brought the terra incognita which we 
 inhabit nearer than the city of David. 
 It has thrown back Arabia and her vast 
 traffic, and with it her very literature, 
 upon her own desert sands, and recon- 
 verted her teeming population into rob- 
 bers of the desert. And what may not 
 the inventions of science do again for 
 Arabia and Jerusalem? Is it beyond 
 the range of even probability, that the 
 genius of Fulton may cover the Nile 
 herself with a thousand floating palaces, 
 and drown the roar of her far-famed 
 cataracts in the boomings of a hundred 
 steamers'? Is it too visionary to sup- 
 pose that a line of levels may be carried 
 from Acre, by Mount Tabor, over the 
 plain of Jezreel to the border of the Sea 
 of Galilee, thence down the Jordan, and 
 by some ravine cutting across through 
 the valley of Jehoshaphat to Jerusalem, 
 thence to the Dead Sea and down the 
 valley of El-Ghor to Akaba, the sea- 
 port of Solomon's navy 1 Is it beyond 
 the range of possibility, that the same 
 genius may disembowel the mountains 
 of his native land, and convert the vast 
 
82 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 masses of her iron ore into steam ships, 
 and combine the latent fire of her an- 
 thracite with the waters of the Atlantic, 
 the Mediterranean, the Nile, the Red 
 Sea, the Indian Ocean, and waft the 
 freedom, the literature, the enterprise 
 and the religion of his native country to 
 all the darkened nations of the eastern 
 hemisphere ? 
 
 Thus Christianity, by fostering science 
 and patronising literature, promotes com- 
 merce and civilization, and these again 
 carry forward the gospel in its triumph 
 round the globe. 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 THE LITTLE HORN OF THE FOURTH BEAST. 
 THE TAPAL POWER. 
 
 " And I considered the horns, and behold, 
 there came up among them, another little horn, 
 before whom there were three of the first horns 
 plucked up by the roots ; and behold in this 
 horn, were eyes, like the eyes of man, and a 
 mouth speaking great things. And of the ten 
 horns that were in his head, and of the other 
 which came up, and before whom, three fell : 
 even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth 
 that spake very great things, whose look was 
 more stout than his fellows. And I beheld, and 
 the same horn made war with the saints and 
 prevailed against them. And the ten horns out 
 of this kingdom, are ten kings that shall arise; 
 and another shall arise after them; and he 
 shall be diverse from the first, and he shall sub- 
 due three kings. And he shall speak great 
 words against the Most High, and shall wear 
 out the saints of the Most High, and think to 
 change times and laws, and they shall be given 
 into his hand until a time, and times, and the 
 dividing of time." — Daniel vii. 8, 20, 21, 24, 25. 
 
 Its importance to the best interests of 
 the human race, induces us, in our pub- 
 lic administrations, often to present the 
 thought, that civil government has no 
 right to dictate in matters purely reli- 
 gious. Permit your attention to be called 
 to the historical fact, that this, which we 
 lay down as fundamental in any system 
 adequate to secure the rights of man, 
 has never been known to any nation 
 unacquainted with Christianity. The 
 Bible, and the Bible only teaches this 
 doctrine. That such is a leading cha- 
 
 racteristic of the kingdom of the little 
 stone, we shall see very sufficient rea- 
 sons to believe. " My kingdom is not 
 of this world," and the kingdoms that 
 are of this world have no title to rule in 
 it. Yet in all antiquity we will search 
 in vain for a civil dominion which laid 
 no claim to the regulation of religious 
 matters. The idea of an imperium in 
 imperio — a spiritual society organized 
 for the adjustment of religious affairs, 
 yet untrammelled by civil power, and 
 secluded from all interference with state 
 politics — such an idea did not occur to 
 men as practicable. Indeed the impos- 
 sibility was assumed almost universally, 
 as a maxim. Civil rulers, every where, 
 deemed it their business to regulate, if 
 not to control absolutely, ecclesiastical 
 concerns. The religion of Rome was an 
 affair of state. The emperor was high 
 priest ; and every thing was arranged 
 by law. This, as before stated, we con- 
 sider one of the essential features of An- 
 tichrist. Its application always tends 
 to persecution, and generally arrives at 
 that result. Such, from the beginning, 
 was, and continues to be, the great 
 image ; such were all the four beasts ; 
 such the ten horns of the fourth ; and 
 such the little horn that sprang up among 
 them. 
 
 The Jewish theocracy was a step in 
 advance of this principle. In its theory, 
 religion took the precedence, and civil 
 affairs remained in the background. 
 God being the king, and that even by 
 the election of the people, the high priest 
 was his prime minister, and the prophets 
 his ambassadors. This theory was how- 
 ever interrupted by the revolt of the peo- 
 ple ; upon which God gave them a king, 
 — another king in his anger: and the 
 consequence was, frequent infraction of 
 their ecclesiastic rights : for often the 
 civil governor rudely intruded upon the 
 sacred precincts of religion. Neverthe- 
 less, its officers, as such, were never put 
 under the dominion of the state, by the 
 principles of the Hebrew constitution. 
 When they were so in fact, it was by 
 usurpation. This system was not, how- 
 ever, designed to be permanent. The 
 little stone had not begun to expand into 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 83 
 
 the great mountain. Messiah's king- 
 dom must proceed still further in ad- 
 vance of all that men yet knew. It 
 must be reorganized on the princi- 
 ples of entire independency upon civil 
 power. The meretricious alliance with 
 the state must be broken up ; and the 
 body of God's believing children main- 
 tain, and assert, at all hazards, a sepa- 
 rate, social existence ; under laws of 
 their own, wholly spiritual, yet powerful 
 for good to all the interests of men. 
 The maintainance of such an organiza- 
 tion has always characterized the true 
 church of God, — the pure spouse of the 
 heavenly Husband ; and the succumbing 
 of a nominal church to the polluting em- 
 brace of the civil arm, has ever marked 
 the spiritual courtesan. Such is the 
 little horn of the fourth beast, to which 
 your attention is now invited. Extended 
 detail you are not, however, to expect, 
 at present. Other prophecies, as with 
 the little horn of the goat, will lead us 
 hereafter to be more minute. Now, we 
 must follow Daniel in his general sketch. 
 
 1. The position of the little horn is 
 among the others, — verse 8, " there 
 came up among them, a little horn." 
 The ten horns had grown upon the un- 
 sightly beast ; ten kingdoms, we have 
 seen, sprang up in the Roman empire, 
 and this constitutes the eleventh. We 
 are, therefore, to look for this horn 
 among the ten. The power symbolized 
 by it, must be found in Europe, where 
 the head and body of the beast are, and 
 not in Asia, whither no part of it, ex- 
 cept the arms, ever extended. 
 
 2. This eleventh power is subservient 
 to the ten in the order of its origin. 
 " And another shall arise after them," 
 (verse 24.) As the beast, — the Roman 
 state had existed twelve hundred and 
 twenty-nine years, before the deposition 
 of Romulus Augustus Augustulus, in 
 476, by Odoacer, the Goth ; so the ten 
 horns — the ten kingdoms, existed before 
 and during the springing up of the little 
 horn. 
 
 The earliest of the ten kingdoms, that 
 of the Huns, on the Danube, is dated by 
 Bishop Lloyd, in A. D. 356, and by the 
 Universal History (xvii. 138), in 376. 
 
 The last of them, the Lombards, or 
 Longo-bards, so called from the length 
 of their beards, ascended the Vistula 
 from the borders of the Blaek Sea, and 
 settled in Pannonia, and part of Hun- 
 gary, in A. D. 526 ; so that all these 
 horns grew upon the head of the non- 
 descript beast in the space of one hun- 
 dred and fifty years. Or, if according 
 to Doctor McLeod, we leave out the 
 Vandal kingdom in Africa and take in 
 the Allemanni, a kind of eclectic nation, 
 collected, as their name imports, from 
 all others, who occupied the territory 
 now included in the principality of 
 Wurtemberg, and who, as early as 
 the year 214, gave considerable trouble 
 to the Emperor Caracalla, continued to 
 press south, and settled in the beautiful 
 valley of Alsace and along the foot of 
 Mount Jura, as far as the Lake of Ge- 
 neva : if we take these into the number 
 of the ten, and omit the Vandals, it will 
 not materially affect the case ; there are 
 ten kingdoms, among which, and after 
 which, the eleventh is to rise up. 
 
 3. The eleventh horn is " diverse 
 from the first" ten, (verse 24.) As the 
 beast, on whose head it grew, differed 
 in character from the first three, so we 
 are to seek for something in this little 
 eleventh horn, different from the first 
 ten. Now this cannot be difference of 
 location, of size, duration, or any of the 
 properties common to it with the ten. 
 For in this sense, the ten severally vary 
 from each other : no two kingdoms are 
 precisely similar. This diversity ma- 
 nifestly relates to essential character. 
 This ruling authority is not constituted 
 like the others. All the ten are simple 
 despotisms or unlimited monarchies ; 
 this one has the substantial features of 
 despotism in common with the others ; 
 but it has, moreover, its own peculiar 
 distinctions, — " he shall be diverse." 
 
 This is fatal to the interpretation of 
 those who wish to make the little horn 
 refer to revolutionary France. Besides 
 that this exposition is utterly ruinous to 
 chronology, its inconsistency with the 
 diversity in the text, is palpable. In 
 what essential matter did the French 
 revolution and the military despotism in 
 
84 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 which it resulted, differ from the revo- 
 lutions in Italy or Spain in the days of 
 the Gothic and Vandal invasions? But 
 Mr. Galloway, quoted by Bishop Faber, 
 confines the period of the little horn, to 
 literal days, or years, not prophetic. 
 With him, " a time, times, and the di- 
 viding of time," means simply, three 
 and a half years ; and he begins this 
 period in September, 1792, and closes 
 it in March, 1796. This, he says, was 
 the reign of Atheism, during which the 
 saints and witnesses lay dead and un- 
 buried. But these saints and martyrs 
 of God, — who, think you, our commen- 
 tator would have them to be? No others 
 than the Roman Catholic clergy of 
 France! Goodly saints, indeed! Holy 
 martyrs ! Rarely did a more debased 
 body of men ever disgrace the sanctity 
 of heathen temples, or the orgies of 
 Bacchus. How hard is it for the friends 
 of legitimacy to deal fairly with pro- 
 phecy ! Such an interpretation could 
 find its way only into a mind filled with 
 admiration of regal succession and hatred 
 towards France. 
 
 Our position is, that the little horn of 
 the fourth beast is the Papal hierarchy. 
 Not the man who may at any time be 
 seated on the Papal throne, — not the 
 spiritual office of the popedom, — not the 
 civil ruler called the Pope, — but the eccle- 
 siastical, political power: that stupendous, 
 complex despotism, which has trodden 
 under foot the nations for so many cen- 
 turies. This is the little horn : and the 
 occasion, wc may say the moral causes, 
 of its rise, were the corruptions of the 
 church. 
 
 As in the East, the prevalence of Arian- 
 ism, and the idolatry of pictures, with all 
 their accompanying abominations, were 
 the moral cause, — in other words, ren- 
 dered the scourge of the Mohammedan 
 little horn necessary ; so in the West, 
 image worship, demonology, Pelagian- 
 ism, and their inseparable attendant, 
 moral delinquency, made necessary the 
 scourge of the Papal little horn. 
 
 Let us look then, at the characteristics 
 of this horn. This power " has eyes, 
 like the eyes of a man" (verse 8). 
 First. He is a bishop. " By its eyes," 
 
 says Sir Isaac Newton, (see Faber, vol. 
 i. 127,) " it was a seer, and by its mouth 
 speaking great things, and changing 
 times and laws, it was a prophet. A 
 seer, etfifaotos, is a bishop, in the lite- 
 ral sense of the word ; and this church 
 claims the universal bishopric." Here 
 the great philosopher has pointed out 
 the distinguishing peculiarity of the little 
 horn. It is an ecclesiastical power. 
 Whatever else it may include, this is its 
 leading character. Now, it has been 
 shown that the other horns did exercise 
 authority in religious matters ; but they 
 were civil and military despotisms : none 
 of them ever put forward the religious as 
 their leading feature : no one of the ten 
 ever established itself as a spiritual king- 
 dom. They were all professedly, king- 
 doms of this world : but the Papal power 
 is* spiritual : — it is " diverse," and this 
 diversity is generic. " A distant and dan- 
 gerous station," says Gibbon, (vol. iii. 
 229,) " amidst the barbarians of the 
 West, excited the spirit and freedom of 
 the Latin bishops. Their popular elec- 
 tion endeared them to the Romans : the 
 public and private indigence was relieved 
 by their ample revenue ; and the weak- 
 ness or neglect of the emperors com- 
 pelled them (the Popes) to consult, both 
 in peace and war, the temporal safety of 
 the city. In the school of adversity, the 
 priest insensibly imbibed the virtues and 
 the ambition of the prince. The same 
 character was assumed, the same policy 
 was adopted by the Italian, the Greek, 
 the Syrian, who ascended the chair of 
 St. Peter; and, after the loss of her le- 
 gions and provinces, the genius and for- 
 tunes of the Popes again restored the 
 supremacy of Rome." Here we have a 
 true and simple account of the way in 
 which the Bishop of Rome gradually 
 grew into a complex power, possessing 
 temporal as well as spiritual dominion. 
 
 Secondly. This horn is distinguished 
 by its pompous and arrogant pretensions. 
 "He shall speak great words against the 
 Most High." This language is prophetic, 
 and of course is not to become applica- 
 ble, in its fulness, to the power symbo- 
 lized, in the earlier stages of its growth, 
 but rather in its maturity. And who has 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 85 
 
 not heard of the bellowings of the Papal 
 bull? What Christian nation has not 
 trembled at the thunderings of the Vati- 
 can? Who, that has glanced into history, 
 can be ignorant of the haughtiness of the 
 Popes, the blasphemy of this apostate 
 church, and her tyrannical head? Does 
 not all the world know that she has lord- 
 ed it over the nations for centuries ? Her 
 head styles himself the vicar of God 
 upon earth, and authorizes his subjects 
 to call him " our Lord God, the Pope." 
 He claims infallibility, — his judgments 
 are necessarily right and true. We have 
 an example of this in the bull of Pope 
 Sixtus V., against the two sons of wrath, 
 Henry, King of Navarre, and the Prince 
 of Conde, beginning thus, — " the au- 
 thority given to St. Peter and his succes- 
 sors, by the immense power of the Eter- 
 nal King, excels all the powers of earthfy 
 kings and princes. It passes uncontrol- 
 lable sentence upon them all. And if it 
 find any of them resisting God's ordi- 
 nance, it takes more severe vengeance 
 of them, casting them down from their 
 thrones, though never so puissant, and 
 tumbling them down to the lowest parts 
 of the earth as the ministers of aspiring 
 Lucifer." Again, Pope Pius V., in his 
 bull against Queen Elizabeth, says ; " this 
 one, (himself,) he hath constituted prince 
 over all nations ; and all kingdoms, that 
 he might pluck up, destroy, dissipate, 
 ruinate, plant and build;" — and then he 
 " absolves all the nobles, subjects, and 
 people of the kingdom, and whosoever 
 else may have sworn to her, from their 
 oath, and all duty whatsoever, in regard 
 of dominion, fidelity and obedience." 
 (See Barrow on Pope's Supremacy, pp. 
 18, 19.) 
 
 Thirdly. " He shall think to change 
 times and laws," (verse 24.) And who, 
 since Julius Csesar, has arrogated to him- 
 self the right of regulating the calendar, 
 and making law for the world ? 
 
 Fourthly. Before him three kingdoms 
 shall be "plucked up by the roots," 
 (verse 8.) We have here, almost the 
 very phrase which the Pope used in his 
 bull, against Queen Elizabeth: "he shall 
 subdue three kingdoms." And yet he 
 is not arraved in the habiliments of war. 
 
 He is an sirirfxoiros, — a seer, and has a 
 charge which it is his employment to 
 oversee. 
 
 St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, who flourished 
 about the middle of the fourth century, 
 speaking of Antichrists coming in the 
 latter times of the Roman empire, saith, 
 " we teach these things not of our own 
 invention, but having learned them out 
 of the divine scriptures, and especially 
 out of the prophecy of Daniel, which was 
 just now read, even as Gabriel the arch- 
 angel interpreted, saying thus: the fourth 
 beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon 
 the earth, ivhich shall excel all the king- 
 doms ; but that this is the empire of the 
 Romans, ecclesiastical interpreters have 
 delivered. For the first that was made 
 famous, was the kingdom of the Assy- 
 rians ; and the second, was that of the 
 Medes and Persians together : and after 
 these, the third was that of the Macedo- 
 nians : and the fourth kingdom is now 
 that of the Romans. Afterwards, Ga- 
 briel interpreting, saith, its ten horns are 
 ten kings that shall arise, and after them 
 shall arise another king, who shall ex- 
 ceed in wickedness all before him : not 
 only the ten, he saith, but also all who 
 were before him. And he shall depress 
 three kings : but it is manifest that of the 
 first ten he shall depress three, that he 
 himself may reign the eighth : and he 
 shall speak words, saith he, against the 
 Most High.' " (Newton, i. 173.) 
 
 Here, it will be observed, Cyril gives 
 not his own private opinion, but the gene- 
 ral understanding of the church in that 
 age, as Jerome did some time after : and 
 Augustine refers to Jerome, as having 
 given the true interpretation of Daniel. 
 
 Where are the three kingdoms which 
 were plucked up before this little horn? 
 Bishop Faber furnishes the most satis- 
 factory response. Most naturally does 
 he look for the three near to the locality 
 of the little horn. As the others were 
 plucked up to make room for it, we must 
 search in its vicinity. But we have al- 
 ready seen that upon the deposition of 
 Augustulus, in 476, Odoacer, the Goth, 
 at the head of the Heruli and Turingii, 
 proclaimed himself king of Italy. His 
 kingdom was not of long duration ; for 
 
86 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 in 493, it was overturned by Theodoric, 
 the Ostrogoth, and " from the Alps," 
 says Gibbon, " to the extremity of Cala- 
 bria, Theodoric reigned by the right of 
 conquest. The Vandal ambassadors sur- 
 rendered the island of Sicily as a lawful 
 appendage to his kingdom ; and he was 
 accepted as the deliverer of Rome, by the 
 senate and people, who had shut their 
 gates against the flying usurper." 
 
 This conquest was made by the ad- 
 vice, and at the suggestion of the em- 
 peror at Constantinople, who sent the 
 insignia of royalty to the new king, and 
 thereby acknowledged the kingdom of 
 the Ostrogoths in Italy. This is the 
 second of the three, and in the suppres- 
 sion of the first, the senate of Rome, 
 and her bishop, had their agency and 
 their counsels. They hoped, at first, to 
 make one horde of barbarians destroy 
 another, and to reap for themselves the 
 benefit ; but it happened differently. 
 Theodoric and his followers proved as 
 troublesome as the kingdom of Odoacer. 
 
 " After a reign of sixty years," says 
 Gibbon, " the throne of the Gothic kings 
 was filled by the exarchs of Ravenna, 
 the representatives, in peace and in war, 
 of the emperor of the Romans ;" — he 
 alludes to the Greek emperor. This 
 government would have been subverted 
 at an earlier period, had not the sove- 
 reign become jealous of the subject. 
 Belisarius, the most renowned general 
 of his age, to whom Justinian was in- 
 debted chiefly for the military glory of 
 his reign, became, through the machina- 
 tions of others, an object of envy even 
 with his master, whom he served with 
 singular fidelity. Time after time he 
 wrested Rome from the tyranny of the 
 Ostrogoths, took captive their king, 
 Vitiges, a most fierce and skilful war- 
 rior, and was upon the eve of subverting 
 their kingdom entirely, when he was 
 sent into Persia, Gibbon seems to sur- 
 mise, out of jealousy, — but under pretext 
 of giving him a more important com- 
 mand. " After the second victory of 
 Belisarius, envy again whispered ; Jus- 
 tinian listened, and the hero was recalled. 
 ' The remnant of the Gothic war was 
 no longer worthy of his presence ; a 
 
 gracious sovereign was impatient to re- 
 ward his services, and to consult his 
 wisdom, and he alone was capable of 
 defending the East against the innu- 
 merable armies of Persia.' Belisarius 
 understood the suspicion, accepted the 
 explanation, embarked at Ravenna his 
 spoils and trophies ; and proved by his 
 ready obedience that such an abrupt re- 
 moval from the government of Italy was 
 not less unjust than it might have been 
 indiscreet." (Gib. chap, ii.) 
 
 It was not long, however, until the 
 affairs there required his pi'esence. Italy 
 fell again before the Gothic barbarians, 
 and Totila, their king, a bold and expe- 
 rienced warrior, triumphed every where. 
 The cry was loud and long, from Rome 
 and Italy, for the restoration of Belisa- 
 rius, their former deliverer. The trans- 
 fer was made. " A hero on the banks 
 of the Euphrates, a slave in the palace 
 of Constantinople, he accepted with re- 
 luctance, the painful task of supporting 
 his own reputation, and retrieving the 
 faults of his successors." But the spirit 
 of jealousy and envy never dies. The 
 general was restored, but the legions 
 whom he might lead to certain victory, 
 and the necessary funds, were withheld. 
 His complaint on this point, in his letter 
 to Justinian, reminds one of the letters 
 of the American Fabius to the Continen- 
 tal Congress. " If the war," says he, 
 " could be achieved by the presence of 
 Belisarius alone, your wishes are satis- 
 fied : Belisarius is in the midst of Italy. 
 But if you desire to conquer, far other 
 preparations are requisite : without a 
 military force, the title of general is an 
 empty name." But his remonstrances 
 were of little effect. Rome was taken 
 by Totila, in A. D. 546. In the next 
 year Belisarius retook the city, and re- 
 pulsed Totila, in three general battles, 
 which that king fought for its recovery. 
 Still, jealousy prevailed — the means were 
 not furnished ; and the general finally 
 procured his own recall, and died not 
 long after in private. 
 
 The eunuch Narses, brought up a 
 mere household slave, — a man, never- 
 theless of uncommon natural talent, 
 which raised him gradually in the con- 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 87 
 
 fidence of his master, — was sent into 
 Italy, two or three years after, to com- 
 plete the work which Belisarius, but for 
 the emperor, would have finished in one 
 short campaign. Narses fought a great 
 battle, defeated and slew Totila : shortly 
 after he made himself master of Rome. 
 This was in July, A. D. 552 ; and in 
 Mar h of the following year, he fought 
 anotner desperate battle with Teias, who 
 had been elected king, immediately after 
 the death of Totila. Teias, as his pre- 
 decessor, fought like a fiend, and died 
 like a madman. " He fell," says Gib- 
 bon, " and his head exalted on a spear, 
 proclaimed to the nations, that the Gothic 
 kingdom was no more." Thus ends the 
 second of the three: it was plucked up 
 before, as it were, in the presence of the 
 little horn, as he was growing up. 
 
 Narses, the victor, was appointed by 
 Justinian, governor of Italy, under the 
 title of exarch of Ravenna. This office 
 has been taken by some, for the third 
 king, or as one of the three : but to this 
 it is objected very reasonably, that it 
 never was an independent government, 
 — a kingdom. It was merely a provin- 
 cial dependent of the Eastern Empire. 
 We must look elsewhere for the third 
 king ; and with Bishop Faber, we find 
 it in the kingdom of the Lombards, 
 already referred to. 
 
 Many of the Lombards, who, as we 
 have seen, established themselves on the 
 Danube, in 527, had served in the army 
 of Narses, and enjoyed the luxuries of 
 Italy. Hence, after they and the Avars 
 had vanquished the Gepida?, in Walla- 
 chia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and part 
 of Hungary, under the conduct of Alboin, 
 their king, they poured down upon Italy. 
 In a previous war with the Gepidae, 
 when quite a youth, Alboin had, with 
 his own hand, killed the brother of 
 Cunimund, then king of that people : 
 and Cunimund having fallen in battle, 
 he had a drinking cup made of his 
 skull ; yet notwithstanding this, the vic- 
 tor married his daughter. Just before 
 the Lombards deluged the Italian plains, 
 Narses, who is supposed to have invited 
 Alboin to invade Italy, had been removed 
 by the emperor, because of his avari- 
 
 cious oppression of the people, and one 
 Longinus had been appointed exarch. 
 He presented no resistance, and Alboin, 
 without an important battle, was pro- 
 claimed king of Italy, A. D. 570. This 
 kingdom continued two hundred and four 
 years. About A. D. 772, a serious dif- 
 ference occurred between Desiderius, the 
 last Lombard king, and the pope. The 
 latter alleged that the former had un- 
 justly wrested from him the city of Fer- 
 rara, and some other places, and not 
 being able to cope with the Lombard 
 king alone, he invited Charlemagne, the 
 French monarch, over to his aid. This 
 invitation was gladly accepted, and the 
 result was, the annihilation of the Lom- 
 bard power, and the coronation of Char- 
 lemagne as king of Lombardy. The 
 ceremony of coronation occurred at Mo- 
 destia, a town ten miles from Milan : 
 the archbishop of Milan, at the order of 
 the pope, placing on the head of the 
 French prince the iron crown of the 
 Lombard kings. Thus was plucked up 
 before him, the third kingdom : and the 
 pope afterwards rewarded Charlemagne 
 by crowning him, at Rome, emperor of 
 the Romans. 
 
 Fifthly. This eleventh kingdom hav- 
 ing seen and been privy to the fall of 
 three, is to be a persecutor of the true 
 church of God. " I beheld, and the 
 same horn made war with the saints, 
 and prevailed against them," — " he shall 
 wear out the saints of the Most High ;" 
 he shall harass and afflict God's holy 
 ones for a long period. 
 
 And what is church history for the 
 last thousand years, but an account of 
 the atrocities perpetrated by the Papal 
 power? What nation of Europe has 
 she not clothed in sackcloth ? In which 
 of the ten kingdoms has she not kindled 
 up the flames of persecution, and the 
 torch of war ? 
 
 Sixthly. We have to mark the period 
 or duration of this troubled and depressed 
 state of the true church. " And they 
 shall be given into his hand, until a time, 
 times, and the dividing of time." 
 
 We can be at no loss, in regard to the 
 force of the expression, — "they shall be 
 given into his hand ;" for the previous 
 
88 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 context, by describing the distress of the 
 saints under his persecuting power, ren- 
 der it unequivocal, that their delivery is 
 the act of God, as a chastisement for the 
 sins of the church. Displeased at his 
 offending people, for their folly and their 
 crime, he raises up, in the midst of them 
 a terrible scourge : he permits the great 
 beast, in his imperial, and subsequently 
 in his divided head, to yield their in- 
 fluence to the little horn. The emperor 
 and the kings gave their power to the 
 Pope, and made it subservient in wear- 
 ing out the saints of the Most High. So 
 had he dealt with his church of old. 
 " And I will forsake the remnant of mine 
 inheritance, and deliver them into the 
 hand of their enemies, and they shall 
 become a prey and a spoil to all their 
 enemies." (2 Kings, xxi. 14.) " And 
 the anger of the Lord was hot against 
 Israel, and he delivered them into the 
 hand of spoilers, that spoiled them." 
 (Jud. ii. 14.) Such temporary deliver- 
 ance up to the oppressor, is not incon- 
 sistent with the everlasting love of God 
 to his church. He does not, therefore, 
 cast off his people for ever. 
 
 The duration of this afflicted condition 
 is twelve hundred and sixty years. The 
 Chaldee word translated time, signifies 
 a natural year. Nebuchadnezzar was 
 driven out from among men until " seven 
 times" had passed over him. This can- 
 not be understood in the prophetic sense 
 of Ezekiel, — " each day for a year ;" 
 for then he must have been deranged 
 seven years of years, — seven times 
 three hundred and sixty, or two thou- 
 sand five hundred and twenty years. 
 
 Hence commentators are led, by the 
 evident meaning of the thing, to accept 
 the rule, that when the duration regards 
 individuals, the prophetic day for a year 
 is never used. Daniel thus furnishes a 
 clue to his own meaning. (Chap. ix. 
 24-26.) The seventy weeks, until Mes- 
 siah shall be cut off, cannot be expound- 
 ed of any facts of history, unless they 
 be taken in the prophetic symbolical 
 sense ; seventy weeks of years, or four 
 hundred and ninety years. So, as we 
 have seen in chap. viii. 14, a day is 
 taken for a year. According to this 
 
 rule, these three and a half years, or a 
 time, times, — that is, two times, and the 
 dividing or half of a time or year, will 
 be three and a half times three hundred 
 and sixty, or twelve hundred and sixty 
 years. To the end of that depression, 
 which God in his holy providence will per- 
 mit the little horn, or papacy, to exercise 
 towards his true church, it will be twelve 
 hundred and sixty years. 
 
 The question relative to the com- 
 mencement of this period, we shall not 
 now discuss ; but will merely state the 
 true position, leaving to a future occa- 
 sion, the presentation of its evidence. 
 In the year A. D. 606, the Emperor 
 Phocas proclaimed Boniface, then Bishop 
 of Rome, universal bishop ; giving him 
 spiritual dominion over all bishops and 
 all churches. This we consider the 
 bestowal or recognition of a power 
 whose exercise leads necessarily to 
 tyranny and persecution. The little 
 horn of the fourth beast, having been 
 slow^ growing, now assumes a place 
 amongst the other horns, as also does, 
 at the same time, that of the Macedonian 
 goat : consequently, if we are correct as 
 to the time of beginning our computation, 
 and if the days of the times are three 
 hundred and sixty each, and if they 
 symbolize natural, or solar years, as we 
 suppose, we may look for the simul- 
 taneous downfall of the Papal and Mo- 
 hammedan apostacies, about A. D. 1866. 
 These three suppositions, however, will 
 occasion as many distinct discussions 
 hereafter. 
 
 Lastly. The kings who lend their 
 power to the little horn, are to be shorn 
 of it, along with him. " I beheld till 
 the thrones were cast down," (verse 9.) 
 Undoubtedly the thrones or governments 
 represented by the horns are meant. 
 Three of these were plucked up, to 
 make room for the little horn. The 
 other seven are to be cast down ; their 
 power is to be taken from them. It 
 cannot surely be the destruction of the 
 people over whom they rule ; but only 
 the abrogation, reduction, or annihila- 
 tion of the despotic sway. This de- 
 struction is the result of a judicial pro- 
 cess. God, the Father, the Ancient of 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 89 
 
 days, sits in judgment upon the king- 
 doms, passes a sentence upon them, and 
 executes his wrath against the very 
 powers he has raised up to scourge his 
 disobedient children. Such, precisely, 
 had been his course with all other king- 
 doms, or thrones, — the Assyrio-Babylo- 
 nian, the Medo-Persian, the Macedonian, 
 the Syrian, the Egyptian, the Roman, — 
 all thrones which crush the people of 
 God, must, in due time, be themselves 
 crushed beneath the chariot wheels of 
 their triumphant king, Messiah. The 
 kingdom of the little stone will fall upon 
 them, and grind them to powder. 
 
 This process we suppose began, or at 
 least received a new impulse, in the 
 former part of the sixteenth century. 
 God then sat in judgment upon the 
 nations : and by the Protestant reforma- 
 tion a blow was given to the despotisms 
 in the hands of these various kingdoms, 
 from which they will never finally re- 
 cover. There has been, upon the whole, 
 ever since, a weakening of the bands. 
 The popular principle, whereby the 
 church guarantees to her members the 
 right of choosing their own spiritual 
 rulers, is working its way against the 
 hereditary principle. All the ten horns 
 have felt the influence. The idea of 
 power to rule descending from the crown 
 to the people, is passing away : and the 
 common sense, and scriptural doctrine, 
 which secures to the children of God, 
 the privilege of electing their own 
 spiritual rulers, is taking its place, and 
 is transmitting itself from ecclesiastical 
 to civil matters, in Europe, as it has 
 fully done in this country. The feet 
 and toes of the vast image, will, in time, 
 be resolved into their original clay, to 
 be trodden upon, by every passer by. 
 But whilst we would contend that these 
 things are in progress, we suppose that 
 the language in verses 9-11, has refer- 
 ence to movements, in the main, as yet 
 future. The influence of truth upon the 
 human understanding, is slow, but sure. 
 The leaven of the kingdom is operating 
 silently but certainly. All signs in the 
 governments of the ten horns indicate 
 their speedy decay. Yet they will rally 
 once more. The beast is not slain : his 
 
 12 
 
 body is not yet given to the burning 
 flame. He is wounded to death, and 
 has retired to his den, to cherish his 
 wounds, and to brood revenge. When 
 he shall have been pursued even thither 
 by his determined foes, he will come 
 forth to a last desperate and fearful con- 
 flict. But we forbear : — these things 
 will come before us more suitably in 
 another connexion. 
 
 1. We remark, by way of summary, 
 that ten kingdoms were to arise within 
 the bounds of the Western Roman Em- 
 pire, or body of the fourth beast. These 
 we have seen did arise. There was to 
 spring up behind these an eleventh, be- 
 fore which, three were to fall. This 
 eleventh is the Papal power. The three 
 which fell before it, were the Gothic 
 kingdom of Odoacer, in 493, the Ostro- 
 gothic kingdom of Theodoric, in 554, 
 and the Lombard kingdom of Alboin, in 
 774. All the characteristics of the little 
 horn are graphically descriptive of the 
 Papacy ; its traits are generically dis- 
 tinct from those of the other ten : and 
 its history is counterpart to the prophecy. 
 There is no other power in Europe, nor 
 has there ever been one, to whom the 
 prophecies can, with any thing like 
 plausibility, be referred. We rest then, in 
 the conclusion, that the Roman Catholic 
 Church, so called, is the little horn of 
 the fourth beast. It embodies all the 
 attributes of the fourth, and of all the 
 four. It is tyrannical, arbitrary, per- 
 secuting, — claiming universal or catholic 
 dominion over the whole world. 
 
 2. How grateful should we be that 
 our lot is cast within a country and a 
 government where such a sway is not 
 established ! We are permitted by a 
 gracious Providence to breathe the air 
 of freedom ; and to offer up the aspira- 
 tions of our hearts to Him who hath so 
 blessed us, untrammelled by the limita- 
 tions of an earthly master. We can 
 pray for our public servants without 
 having to wait for permission, and in 
 words of our own dictation. 
 
 3. If the people of the saints of the 
 Most High are to possess the kingdom — 
 if the truths of the Bible, in the hearts of 
 men, are to govern the world, how dili- 
 
90 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 gent ought we to be in searching for 
 these inestimable doctrines, and in car- 
 rying them out in our practice ! Sad is 
 the state of those nations who have them 
 not ! Great, therefore, are our obliga- 
 tions to send the word of the Lord abroad 
 every where. 
 
 4. How important the ministry of the 
 gospel ! And how necessary that it be 
 composed of men of deep science, and 
 of ardent piety ! The influence of an 
 ignorant and corrupt clergy in debasing 
 the whole community is known but im- 
 perfectly, even to those who read and 
 study the history of the church and the 
 civil governments. But sufficient is ma- 
 nifest to fill the mind with horror. May 
 the King in Zion save his church, and 
 this nation, from such degradation ! 
 
 APPENDIX TO LECTURE IX. 
 
 Upon revision, the author discovers, 
 that the three questions relative to the 
 commencement of the twelve hundred 
 and sixty days, or the date of the rise 
 of the Papacy, to the symbolic meaning 
 of the day, and to the length of the year 
 signified by it, have been partly over- 
 looked, and have not received that full 
 discussion which a promise in the fore- 
 going lecture may have caused the reader 
 to expect. There has, however, been 
 thrown out, on several occasions, the 
 substance of what was promised, at least 
 so far as the last two questions are con- 
 cerned, and so far as they are worthy 
 of distinct consideration. For we do not 
 think the allegation, that the years pro- 
 phetic, can be any other than natural 
 years. We cannot believe that prophecy 
 for the general benefit should be tram- 
 melled in its interpretation by the me- 
 thods which particular nations have taken 
 to intercalate their civil, so as to make 
 it collate with the natural year. 
 
 The effect of this would be to shorten 
 the entire period by five and a quar- 
 ter days to each year of the twelve 
 hundred and sixty, — making nineteen 
 years, two and a half months, and so 
 bringing on the slaying of the witnesses 
 in the year 1848. This, however, we 
 
 do not consider worthy of serious dis- 
 cussion. The scriptures speak the po- 
 pular language : and popularly the Jews 
 accounted the year to consist of twelve 
 months, and these months consisted of 
 thirty days each ; and yet this is not 
 exact to a day. But these fractional 
 differences between the natural and civil 
 year are lost sight of in the general pro- 
 phetic computation. 
 
 ' As to the question, whether, in these 
 prophecies, a day stands for a year, no- 
 thing farther need be added than is to 
 be found in the body of the lectures. 
 That it does so, has been settled into a 
 canon of interpretation. It is too late 
 to call in question this rule, though it is 
 proper to refer to the evidence on which 
 it rests. 
 
 The first of the preceding inquiries, 
 is the only one which seems to demand 
 a fuller illustration. The reasons for 
 the opinions set forth in this lecture, and 
 in several subsequent ones, are, in gene- 
 ral, pointed out at the time. That the 
 two grand apostacies from Christianity — 
 the Unitarian apostacy under Moham- 
 med in the East ; and the polytheistic 
 apostacy under the Pope in the West — 
 did exist in the year 606, is admitted 
 very generally. There is no dispute 
 about the former. Mohammedism sprang 
 up at that time. Nor is there any dis- 
 pute as to the substantial existence of 
 the papal power at the same date. But 
 it is contended by many that the Bishop 
 of Rome became Pope and Antichrist at 
 an earlier date. The coincidence of the 
 French Revolution with the era of Jus- 
 tinian's edict declaring the precedency 
 in power and dignity of the Bishop of 
 Rome, has made that date at present 
 popular with British writers. This edict 
 was issued in A. D. 533, which number 
 added to the twelve hundred and sixty 
 years of Antichrist's prosperity, brings 
 us to 1793 as the time of his downfall. 
 The near coincidence of this with the 
 French Revolution has bewildered many 
 of the British expositors. Bishop Faber, 
 however, has clearly refuted this appli- 
 cation, by showing so many points of 
 inconsistency, that there is no account- 
 ing for the prevalence of the opinion, 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 91 
 
 but by reference to the strange effects 
 of that terrible earthquake upon the Bri- 
 tish mind. 
 
 Justinian's edict did not proclaim the 
 Bishop of Rome universal bishop, and 
 place all churches in subjection under 
 him ; but simply settled the order of 
 rank and dignity, and not of authority. 
 All that Mr. Keith has written on this 
 point alters not our convictions of Bishop 
 Faber's correctness. That a strife, an 
 unholy strife, did long exist between the 
 Patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople 
 is undisputed. That it was a strife for 
 the pre-eminence, first of dignity and 
 then of power, is also clear. This gave 
 the emperor, who resided at Constanti- 
 nople, no small annoyance. It could 
 easily be seen that a well established 
 priority of dignity and honour might 
 soon lead to supremacy of power. This 
 it was not the monarch's interest to con- 
 cede : and this Justinian did not concede. 
 But he did grant to the Roman, that he 
 should be the first of all priests, and to 
 the Archbishop of Constantinople, that 
 he should have the second place, after 
 the holy apostolic seat of the senior 
 Rome ; but it should be preferred before 
 all the other seats. 
 
 That this was not designed to confer 
 or to recognise universal spiritual juris- 
 diction, appears quite evident from the 
 fact, that when afterwards John the 
 Faster, Bishop of Constantinople, called 
 a council (probably with the consent or 
 by the order of the emperor) of the 
 church, he styled himself Universal 
 Bishop, he was severely reprimanded 
 and censured by Gregory the Great, 
 then or a little afterwards Bishop of 
 Rome, for the usurpation. Gregory 
 charged him with wicked pride and the 
 assumption of an authority which con- 
 stituted one of the essential features of 
 Antichrist. Now, if the emperor had pre- 
 viously proclaimed the Bishop of Rome 
 Universal Bishop, it is impossible to ex- 
 plain Gregory's conduct. Instead of 
 charging John with assuming a power 
 belonging to Antichrist, he must simply 
 have accused him of intruding upon the 
 honour and privilege of the Roman see. 
 And if Universal Bishop, as used by 
 
 John, was merely a claim of priority in 
 honour, he could only accuse him of 
 pride, which would not involve an anti- 
 christian usurpation. 
 
 But in 606, the Emperor Phocas, who 
 reached the throne by wading through 
 the blood of Mauritius, his predecessor, 
 in order to secure Italy in his interest, 
 formally declared Boniface III. of Rome 
 Universal Bishop, and forbade the title 
 to the Bishop of Constantinople. This, 
 the Roman Catholics themselves, on the 
 faith of Baronius alone, assert and admit 
 or claim as their proof of the Pope's 
 supremacy. Hence again we argue, that 
 if Justinian had unequivocally granted 
 and confirmed to Rome the universal 
 bishopric in 533, there could be no rea- 
 son for Phocas doing the same in 606 : 
 and if he had, it would have been men- 
 tioned as a confirmation, and would not 
 have been referred to by the Romanists 
 as the original grant. On the contrary, 
 if the Romanists could have pointed to 
 so renowned an emperor as Justinian, 
 as having acknowledged and established 
 their title to the supremacy, they most 
 unquestionably would not have derived 
 it from one so bloody and disgraceful as 
 Phocas is universally admitted to have 
 been. 
 
 But after all, the a posteriori argu- 
 ment is our chief dependence. For if 
 the twelve hundred and sixty years are 
 counted from 533, then the witnesses 
 (see lee. xix. and xx.) must have been 
 slain in 1793 ; and having lain unburied 
 three and a half years, they must have 
 been restored in 1797, and the great 
 earthquake and fall of a tenth part of 
 the city must have taken place : the 
 Jews must have been restored in or be- 
 fore 1827 to their own land ; the papal 
 Antichrist must have been slain ; and 
 the Ottoman empire have been annihi- 
 lated ! The existing state of things, then, 
 compared with the language of prophecy, 
 very abundantly refutes this interpreta- 
 tion. None of these momentous events 
 have occurred, which, as we have seen 
 (or shall see in the following lectures), 
 are to follow the termination of the 
 twelve hundred and sixty years. These, 
 consequently, could not have begun in 
 
92 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 533. We therefore fall back upon the 
 later period of 606 as the proper date 
 for the rise of the papal and polytheistic 
 Antichrist, and of course, in 1866 this 
 despotic power will put to death the wit- 
 nesses of God, as will be exhibited in a 
 subsequent lecture. 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 THE VISION OF THE THRONE, THE FOUR 
 LIVING CREATURES, AND THE FOUR 
 AND TWENTY ELDERS. 
 
 Rev. chap. iv. 
 
 In the investigation of the subject 
 which has engaged our attention, we 
 have been led, by a desire of preserving 
 the symbols unbroken, to violate the 
 chronological order of the history. We 
 passed from the Macedonian goat, — the 
 third universal monarchy, to consider 
 his little horn,-^the Mohammedan sys- 
 tem ; to which a part of his power was 
 -transferred. We proceeded, very na- 
 turally, from the head of Daniel's non- 
 descript, the Roman state, to contem- 
 plate the eleventh horn, — the Papacy ; 
 and by necessity, have been carried past 
 many events of very great interest and 
 importance to the church and the world. 
 Both of these persecuting powers grew 
 up in the year 606. Beyond that date 
 we were obliged to pass, that we might, 
 by historical facts, locate the symbols 
 respectively above all doubt. 
 
 But the six intervening centuries are 
 not an hiatus in the great system of pro- 
 phecy. Nor did the kingdoms of the 
 little stone and of the great image pursue 
 each its own distinct and independent 
 course ; so as to avoid all collision with 
 the other. Far from it. Their interests 
 are too perfectly antagonistical even to 
 enjoy the same light of heaven, and to 
 breathe in the same atmosphere without 
 an encounter. It is inherent in the na- 
 ture of the former, — for this purpose it 
 exists, — to break the latter in pieces. 
 Upon the feet of the image it will ever 
 continue to strike, until, beneath its per- 
 
 petual blows, the mighty fabric crum- 
 bles. The war is exterminating, eternal. 
 The dragon has taken his seat in the 
 seven-hilled city ; around him he has 
 gathered the trophies of the vanquished 
 nations ; his erect crest and fiery eye- 
 balls gleam fearfully in the distance and 
 keep the world in awe. But strong as 
 is his hold, terrific his power, and appa- 
 rently uncontrolled and uncontrollable 
 his sway, the church of God is pledged 
 for his destruction. With unblenching 
 eye she marks his every movement. 
 His snaky folds and slippery policy shall 
 never entrap and enfold her to her un- 
 doing. Clad in the panoply of heaven, 
 she moves on to the conflict firm in faith 
 and secure of victory. 
 
 Preparatory to the history of these 
 wars, during the first ages of the Chris- 
 tian dispensation, it is necessary that 
 we look at the symbols of the New Tes- 
 tament prophecy. The book of the reve- 
 lation of Jesus Christ, which God gave 
 unto him and he to his servant John, 
 divides itself into three parts. The pro- 
 phet was commanded to write the things 
 which he had seen, — the vision of the 
 seven gold candlesticks and of the seven 
 stars : " and the things which are," — 
 the present condition of the churches — 
 " and the things which shall be here- 
 after," — the prophecies of this book ; 
 from which last, mainly, it is called the 
 Apocalypse, the uncovering, or revela- 
 tion. 
 
 To the third and chief subdivision we 
 come in this fourth chapter. " After 
 this," — after he had written the two 
 former, he observed a door opened in 
 heaven. Heaven, where the writer is 
 setting forth things in figurative or sym- 
 bolical language, means the church of 
 God. The apostle had just been ba- 
 nished from the visible church, from the 
 society and fellowship of the saints, on 
 account of " the word of God and the 
 testimony of Jesus." This occurred A. D. 
 95, in the fifteenth year of the reign of 
 Domifian, and probably about the nine- 
 tieth of John's life. The " open door" 
 in heaven, is his supernatural enjoyment 
 of intercourse with the church, in the 
 very views which were here given of her 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 93 
 
 trials and victories, and the consequent 
 joys of his heart in this communion. 
 
 Under the Old Testament dispensa- 
 tion, the trumpet was used as the official 
 instrument of warning and of command. 
 It belonged to the priests and Levites 
 alone to blow the trumpets under the 
 provisions of law. John was authori- 
 tatively directed to arise to the high, 
 holy, and glorious contemplation of the 
 visions now about to be presented. 
 " Come up, and I will show thee things 
 which must be hereafter." Immediately 
 the Almighty Spirit of God, who can 
 communicate to man's spirit whatever 
 views and thoughts he pleases, without 
 and independent of the bodily organs, 
 descended upon him, locked up, or sus- 
 pended the exercise of the physical 
 powers, and gave his soul a view of 
 many strange and interesting things. 
 The first object in the vision, is the 
 central scene of all. " A throne was 
 set in heaven." A throne is the official 
 seat of ruling authority, the chair of 
 state ; the sign, therefore, of established, 
 supreme power. This throne is in hea- 
 ven, — the church. Jeremiah says, (iii. 
 17,) " at that time they shall call Jeru- 
 salem, the throne of the Lord : and all 
 the nations shall be gathered unto it ;" 
 and, (xvii. 12,) " a glorious high throne 
 from the beginning is the place of our 
 sanctuary." 
 
 The next thing noticed, is the person 
 who sits upon the throne. We are not 
 told who it is, as in Isaiah, vi. 1 : " I 
 saw the Lord also, sitting upon a throne, 
 high and lifted up, and his train filled 
 the temple ;" which may suffice to direct 
 us here. The occupant of the throne is 
 Jehovah : not the Mediator, but the God 
 and Father, at the head of the dispensa- 
 tion of grace, conducting the whole by 
 agencies of his own appointment. 
 
 His appearance is briefly described : 
 " like a jasper and a sardine stone." 
 
 Jasper was one of the precious stones 
 which were set in the breastplate of the 
 high priest, (Ex. xxviii. 17-20.) It was 
 the third in the fourth and last row, and 
 so, the last of the twelve. Its colours 
 are, white, yellow, green, red, and varie- 
 gated. The most valued is the green, 
 
 with blood-red spots. What the hue of 
 that on the breastplate was, we cannot 
 certainly determine. It was perhaps 
 white, a symbol of moral purity. Of 
 the wall of the new Jerusalem, (Rev. 
 xxi. 18,) " the first foundation was 
 jasper." 
 
 The sardius or sardinus is a red 
 stone, known to us by the name of cor- 
 nelian, and was the first gem in the first 
 row on the breastplate of the high priest. 
 It is the sixth of the foundations in the 
 new Jerusalem. On this stone was 
 written the name of Reuben, the eldest 
 son of Jacob, and on the jasper, the 
 name of Benjamin, his youngest. It is 
 impossible, therefore, that we should 
 have any difficulty in regard to the 
 meaning of the figures in the present 
 case. The precious stones represented 
 the tribes whose names they bore. The 
 last and the first are here mentioned, as 
 inclusive of all between; to teach us 
 that Jehovah, whose throne is in Zion, 
 claims the whole church as his own. 
 Such, in general, without the preciseness 
 and speciality of the Hebrew arrange- 
 ment, is the figurative use of precious 
 stones to this day. The crown jewels 
 are emblems of the people over whom 
 the sceptre extends. 
 
 The third object of attraction is, " the 
 rainbow round about the throne, in sight 
 like unto an emerald." This carries us 
 back to the days of Noah. Since that 
 period the bow has been a pledge of 
 peace, love, and mercy. It was given 
 as a token of God's covenant with Noah 
 and his posterity; a memorial of the 
 promise, that the seasons should come 
 in their course, and the earth no more 
 be destroyed by a flood. 
 
 The colour is green, — that of the 
 emerald, — the softest and most pleasing 
 to the eye of all the primary colours ; 
 and the one which predominates in the 
 natural rainbow. On this stone in the 
 breastplate, was written the name of 
 Judah, the ruling tribe, and the one 
 through which Messiah descended. 
 
 This bright bow of promise arches 
 the throne of God's dominion in his 
 church ; beautiful type of that glorious 
 covenant, which, whilst it vindicates with 
 
94 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 blood, red as the sardine or cornelian 
 stone, the justice of God's law, holds 
 up his mercy, fresh and fadeless as the 
 emerald, to the admiring gaze of the 
 universe. 
 
 The fourth object of contemplation is 
 the circle of thrones, which surrounded 
 the great central throne. Verse 4. "And 
 round about the throne were four and 
 twenty seats," — four and twenty thrones, 
 in the Greek. It is the same word 
 which is applied to the one throne, only 
 in the plural number. Now if fyjovog be 
 the symbol of permanent, fixed power, 
 surely 6fovoi must have a similar signifi- 
 cation. What good and sufficient rea- 
 son, therefore, can be given for trans- 
 lating the latter word, seats? It is not 
 dealing honestly with the text, and with 
 the English reader, to make such a 
 change, unless there be something in 
 the place, to render it indispensable. 
 That such necessity exists in the pre- 
 sent instance, we deny. How then can 
 the alteration be accounted for 1 Per- 
 mit us to suggest, that our translators 
 lived in a monarchical government ; and 
 that they acted under the order, and at 
 the expense of that learned English mo- 
 narch, whose policy was embodied in 
 the well remembered phrase, " no bishop, 
 no king." As James VI. of Scotland, 
 he put forth considerable efforts to sup- 
 press the republican form of church 
 government, which gives the lay dele- 
 gates, or representatives of the people, 
 equal power with the clergy in govern- 
 ing the church ; and which asserts the 
 right of the people to elect their own 
 spiritual rulers. His opinion, that all 
 ruling authority was, by God himself, 
 deposited with the king, induced him to 
 make incredible exertions to establish 
 prelacy, or diocesan episcopacy, in Scot- 
 land. He plainly saw, that his idea of 
 the divine right of kings, could never be 
 forced upon a people who maintained 
 the representative democracy, and from 
 this resulted his unsuccessful attempt at 
 the establishment of episcopacy. Now 
 it must be remembered, that our trans- 
 lators were summoned together and sup- 
 ported by this same king ; and a ma- 
 jority of them were in the interests of 
 
 prelacy. These things would of course 
 influence them, even unwittingly, to use 
 caution lest they should favour Presby- 
 terianism, in their translation. If they 
 had rendered the words " four and 
 twenty thrones," the very phrase must 
 have alarmed their master, who could 
 not conceive of any but one throne in 
 one kingdom. And especially would 
 he have dreaded the consequences of 
 publishing, in the language of the people 
 of Scotland, a Bible which would have 
 presented to their minds the conception 
 of four and twenty thrones, and on them 
 seated four and twenty presbyters. If 
 presbyters, — elders, — are represented as 
 sitting on thrones, clothed in " white 
 raiment," — an intimation of their purity, 
 and of the upright manner in which they 
 exercised their authority, and having " on 
 their heads crowns of gold," — where 
 then are the bishops to sit 1 What 
 higher honours are reserved for them 1 
 
 Now, we do not think it imputing too 
 much to human weakness, or indeed, it 
 may have been to human policy, to yield 
 to the monarch's whims, in order to place 
 before' the world a translation, after all, 
 incomparably accurate. The same spirit, 
 either of servility or policy, most probably 
 influenced them to translate stfitfxoTouj, 
 in Acts xx. 28, overseers. Had they 
 represented Paul as speaking to the elders 
 or presbyters, and saying to them, "take 
 heed to all the flock, over which the Holy 
 Ghost hath made you bishops," as he 
 really does say, King James would, per- 
 haps, have taken umbrage, and either 
 have suppressed their translation or alter- 
 ed it to please the advocates of the eccle- 
 siastical aristocracy ; and to shut out 
 from the mere English reader, the evi- 
 dence which this passage indubitably does 
 contain, of the identity of the office of 
 presbyter and bishop. 
 
 Here then, is presented in a semicircle, 
 in front of the throne, the imposing spec- 
 tacle of twenty-four other thrones, occu- 
 pied by twenty-four presbyters, arrayed 
 in white raiment and with crowns of gold 
 on their heads. A crown is also a sym- 
 bol of ruling power. It is the personal 
 and portable, as throne is the fixed em- 
 blem of the same. What then does this 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 95 
 
 semicircle of thrones typify? Honesty 
 cannot possibly mistake the general an- 
 swer. Their number, equalling the twelve 
 tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles 
 of the Lamb, represents the ruling pres- 
 byters of the one church of God, which 
 he hath purchased with his own blood. 
 It is the evident design of the vision, to 
 impress upon the beholder's mind, the 
 important truth, that the chief ruler who 
 filled the central, radiant throne, distri- 
 buted his power and governed in and 
 through the agency of the occupants of 
 the twenty-four thrones. 
 
 The fifth matter that arrests attention 
 is the " lightnings and voices and thun- 
 derings," which proceed forth from the 
 throne. There is here manifest allusion 
 to the giving of the law at Sinai. There, 
 fire was seen upon the mount; there was 
 thunder, — the terrible natural display of 
 divine power : and there were articulate 
 voices, when the ten commandments 
 were distinctly uttered. These bespeak 
 the glory and majesty of Him who is 
 King in Zion : and give promise for their 
 exercise in the protection, enlargement 
 and success of his church. 
 
 We notice, in the sixth place, "seven 
 lamps of fire, burning before the throne, 
 which are the seven spirits of God." 
 Seven is the number of perfection ; so 
 that this represents the Holy Ghost in 
 all that fulness of influence, which he 
 exercises in carrying on the work of 
 grace in the earth. When the light of 
 the gospel emanates from the divine 
 throne, the spirit accompanies, and ren- 
 ders it effectual. When God speaks, the 
 spirit wings his message to the hearts of 
 men, and they stand in awe. 
 
 Verse 6. " And before the throne, 
 there was a sea of glass like unto 
 crystal ;" a transparent surface, clear 
 and plain. Some have supposed, that 
 this has reference to the laver by the 
 tabernacle, or rather Solomon's brazen 
 sea before the temple ; as it is evident 
 that the seven lamps of fire have an al- 
 lusion to the golden candlestick. In chap- 
 ter xv. 2, it is, however, mentioned in a 
 way, which seems to set this interpreta- 
 tion entirely aside. He there saw those 
 who had gained the victory, standing 
 
 upon the sea of glass. Ordinarily, in 
 figurative language, the sea represents 
 an agitated state of society ; but here it 
 is obvious, that the sea is a quiescent 
 plain, a place of safety and rejoicing ; 
 they have harps in their hands, and are 
 exulting at their victory over all that 
 molested them. We therefore conclude, 
 that the sea of glass in this sixth verse, 
 is simply the fore-ground of the throne, 
 and the platform on which the twenty- 
 four thrones rest. Its transparency repre- 
 sents the purity, simplicity, and freedom 
 from guile, of those who stand upon it. 
 They have no concealments, there are 
 no upheavings of " mire and dirt." So, 
 to exhibit the purity, beauty and guile- 
 less simplicity that reign in the New 
 Jerusalem, it and its streets are said to 
 be of pure and transparent glass, (xxi. 
 18, 21.) 
 
 The eighth particular which attracts 
 notice, is the four living creatures. Verse 
 6. " And in the midst of the throne, and 
 round about the throne, were four beasts, 
 full of eyes before and behind." 
 
 In approaching the exposition of this 
 and the succeeding verses, the first re- 
 mark regards the name, — " beasts." It 
 is an unhappy translation. A beast sym- 
 bolizes violence and cruelty, as we saw 
 whilst expounding Daniel's visions. John 
 also uses the word in this sense, as we 
 shall very fully see hereafter. To repre- 
 sent any holy, spiritual agency that God 
 uses near his throne, by the same word, 
 would be utterly to disregard the natural 
 suitableness of symbols. This were as 
 unseemly as to speak of the people of 
 God under the idea of sheep, and their 
 spiritual rulers as wolves. Such impro- 
 prieties are never chargeable upon the 
 prophetic types : the apostle is not guilty 
 of such error. When he speaks of the 
 great persecuting power, he calls it a 
 beast, (Rev. xiii. 1.) "And I stood upon 
 the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise 
 up out of the sea, having seven heads 
 and ten horns." Here the word is ^pi'ov, 
 a beast of prey, wild, devouring, fero- 
 cious. But the word before us is quite 
 different ; it is simply a living one ; and 
 its essential meaning intimates a relation 
 to Christ himself. " I am he that liveth 
 
96 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 and was dead, and behold I am alive for 
 ever more." (Rev. i. 18.) I am, 6 ZtDv, 
 he that liveth — so here we have the word 
 Zwa — living ones. 
 
 The second thing requiring our notice 
 is the relative position of these four 
 living creatures, — " in the midst of the 
 throne, and round about the throne." 
 The central throne is the one alluded to. 
 But what idea of their position can be 
 gathered from this description, — " in the 
 midst of the throne]" There is already 
 a glorious personage seated in the throne ; 
 how then is it possible, that there should 
 be four others " in the midst of it ;" and 
 especially with our translation, four 
 beasts in the midst of the throne ? This 
 is certainly inconceivable ; how then 
 could it be practicable 1 
 
 But again, these four beasts are not 
 only in the midst of the throne pre- 
 viously occupied by him whose appear- 
 ance is " like a jasper and a sardine 
 stone;" but, they are also "round about 
 the throne !" Surely such enigmas are 
 not set forth for our instruction : they 
 could only bewilder and mislead. 
 
 These difficulties vanish upon a right 
 understanding of the terms. The words 
 translated in the midst, when two ob- 
 jects are presented in connexion with 
 them, signify the space betiveen them : 
 and when one object only is presented, 
 they mean the space between the extreme 
 parts of that one object. The clearest 
 mode of exhibiting the sense, in the 
 former case, is to translate them by the 
 word betv:ee?i. John saw, " between 
 the throne and the circle of the throne, 
 four living creatures." Now, the circle 
 is the four and twenty thrones and pres- 
 byters : between these and the central 
 throne, were seen these living ones. So 
 in chapter v. 6, " And I beheld, and lo, 
 in the midst, — between the throne and 
 the four living creatures, and in the 
 middle space between the extreme parts 
 of the elders, stood a lamb." This 
 mode of translation, which we submit 
 without much apprehension, to the in- 
 spection of the Greek scholar, makes 
 perfectly plain and intelligible a passage 
 in chap. xxii. 2, which no commentator 
 has succeeded in explaining for want of 
 
 it. " In the midst of the street of it, 
 and on either side of the river, the tree 
 of life." More literally, " In the midst 
 of its street and of the river, on this 
 side and on that side." This, however, 
 has baffled commentators exceedingly. 
 But now read simply, " between the 
 street of it and the river, on this side 
 and on that side." Then there is pre- 
 sented,- the river of the water of life, 
 and a golden street on each side of it ; 
 and on each side an open space, between 
 the river and the street, planted with the 
 tree of life. This accords exactly with 
 Ezekiel's vision in reference to the same 
 matter, (xlvii. 7-12.) " And by the 
 river, upon the bank thereof, on this 
 side and on that, shall grow all trees for 
 meat." 
 
 The relative position of the living 
 creatures, is however less difficult to 
 settle than their symbolical character, 
 their moral locality, if we may so ex- 
 press it. A proper understanding of the 
 former, will assist us in the latter ques- 
 tion : still we must depend more upon, 
 and shall be aided more by, their far- 
 ther description. 
 
 " They are full of eyes before and be- 
 hind." The multitude of eyes bespeaks 
 a high degree of intelligence. What- 
 ever the creatures designate, they are 
 characterized by accurate observation 
 and the consequent acquisition of ex- 
 tensive knowledge. These numberless 
 eyes look in both directions, so that the 
 living ones see what transpires toward 
 and upon the central throne, and also, 
 toward and upon the four and twenty 
 thrones and beyond them. Vigilance 
 that never slumbers is most forcibly 
 represented by this peculiar feature. 
 
 Verse 7. The faces of these living 
 ones were various. The first was like 
 a lion, — bold, courageous, strong. The 
 second like a calf or ox, — patient to 
 endure labour. The third had a face as 
 a man, — intelligent, kind, and compas- 
 sionate. The fourth was like a flying 
 eagle, — of a keen and penetrating vision, 
 and a daring and lofty flight, that scorns 
 the low pursuits of earth and the dwellers 
 in the vale. 
 
 Verse 8. " And the four living crea- 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 97 
 
 tures had each of them six wings about 
 him." The wing is a universal emblem 
 of rapidity of motion, and the six in- 
 dicate this property in a pre-eminent 
 degree. These are messengers to be 
 employed on embassies requiring de- 
 spatch. 
 
 " And they are full of eyes within." 
 Their eyes before and behind exhibit 
 their perpetual external observation : 
 these depict with equal force their self- 
 inspection. The beings shadowed forth 
 by them, are characterized by self- 
 knowledge and conscientious inward 
 vigilance. The apostle proceeds to de- 
 scribe their incessant activity, — they 
 have no rest. He does not mean that 
 they are uneasy, like wild animals in a 
 cage ; but they know no pause or ces- 
 sation in their delightful employment ; 
 but are ever engaged in proclaiming the 
 glory of the triune God ; saying " Holy, 
 holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which 
 was and is and is to come. And when 
 those living creatures give glory, and 
 honour, and thanks, to him that sat on 
 the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, 
 the four and twenty presbyters fall down 
 before him that sat on the throne, and 
 worship him that liveth for ever and 
 ever, and cast their crowns before the 
 throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O 
 Lord, to receive glory, and honour and 
 power : for thou hast created all things, 
 and for thy pleasure they are and were 
 created." Thus these enthroned pres- 
 byters, — these x golden-crowned elders, 
 acknowledge that their whole power of 
 ruling is derived from the divine throne; 
 and dependent on him that sitteth 
 thereon. 
 
 Let us now return to the investigation 
 of these gorgeous emblems, and inquire 
 into their hidden meaning. 
 
 We have already settled the central 
 point. God's throne is in Zion. The 
 bow of promise, flourishing in the eme- 
 rald greenness of unfading beauty, links 
 the white jasper of Benjamin to the red 
 sardius of Reuben, and binds the twelve 
 gems of Israel together in the coronet 
 of the Eternal. Proceeding from this all- 
 glorious centre, we find standing next to 
 the divine throne, the blessed Mediator, 
 
 13 
 
 the Lamb that was slain ; and with him 
 the Holy Spirit of God. Their position 
 is between the throne and the living 
 creatures, and between the extremes of 
 the circling twenty-four thrones. We 
 have also seen, that here stand seven 
 lamps of fire ; here is the sacred Spirit, 
 who always accompanies the Mediator's 
 work. 
 
 And next to the slain Lamb and his 
 Spirit, whom shall we expect to meet as we 
 travel outward along the smooth plain of 
 the crystalline sea? Who approach near- 
 est to the most holy and sacred presence of 
 the God of mercy ? Who, in the church, — 
 for be it remembered, this glorious scene 
 is laid in the church, — who then of all 
 the flock stand nearest to the Master 
 Shepherd? The living creatures, there- 
 fore, are the symbols of the ministry of 
 reconciliation, the preachers of the ever- 
 lasting gospel, the men who stand be- 
 tween the living God, and a dead world, 
 and command in his name the dry 
 bones to hear the word of the Lord.* 
 
 That they are not angels is demon- 
 strated by the fact, that they fall down 
 and worship God, and say, " thou wast 
 slain, and hast redeemed us to God by 
 thy blood," (chap. v. 9.) A very brief 
 notice of their relative position and their 
 leading characteristics, will place beyond 
 all doubt, in the mind of every candid 
 person, the fact, that they represent the 
 gospel ministry. Their relative position. 
 They occupy the middle space between 
 the twenty-four presbyters, and the 
 Lamb, who stands between them and 
 the throne. Jesus is the Mediator be- 
 tween the holy God and sinful man, 
 and he employs the agency of men in 
 carrying out his work of government, 
 and of grace. Under the old dispensa- 
 tion, the priests and Levites only ap- 
 proached to God in the tabernacle : and 
 the apostles and evangelists associated 
 with Jesus in the days of his flesh. 
 
 Mark now their characteristics. 
 
 1. They are full of eyes. The true 
 
 * Since writing the above, I have been 
 pleased to observe a coincidence of sentiment, 
 in an essay by the Rev. Dr. M'Carrol of New- 
 burg, N. Y. (See Christian Magazine. Ap. 
 
 No. 1838.) 
 
98 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ministers of Christ have been in all ages 
 of the world, the depositaries of moral 
 and religious knowledge, and the chan- 
 nels of its communication from God to 
 men. We may even lay down a broader 
 proposition, and affirm that they have 
 proved themselves to be the eyes of gene- 
 ral science. Literature and learning look 
 to them as their great patrons. Where 
 shine the beacon-lights of science, that 
 have not been kindled by the tapers of 
 the church? Where is the unbelieving 
 philosopher, that does not owe even his 
 capacity of traducing the ministers of 
 God, to the literary instruction afforded 
 by those very men ? 
 
 The eye, moreover, is all-important 
 to the sentinel. His province it is to 
 look out for danger, and to warn of its 
 approach. And who, in all the world, 
 have exercised a more sleepless vigilance 
 than the watchmen of Zion ? Their eyes 
 are always directed to the divine throne, 
 that they may learn and ever know the 
 will of their Master; and yet, they are 
 ever toward the church, and its subor- 
 dinate officers. Describing false pre- 
 tenders to the sacred office, Isaiah says, 
 " His watchmen are blind, they are all 
 ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they 
 cannot bark ; sleeping, lying down, lov- 
 ing to slumber," (Ivi. 10.) But speaking 
 of the true servant of God, he says, " 1 
 have set watchmen upon thy walls, O 
 Jerusalem, which shall never hold their 
 peace day nor night," (lxii. 6.) It is 
 a ceaseless vigil which they maintain. 
 This is the reason why the pastors of 
 churches are called in the New Testa- 
 ment bishops, that is, inspectors, over- 
 seers. And who can be ignorant of the 
 untiring energy and weighty influence, 
 through his extensive learning, which 
 one of these ministers of God exercised 
 among that band of eagle-eyed patriots, 
 who guided our political bark through 
 the stormy ocean of our ever-blessed 
 revolution? On the illuminated scroll 
 of a nation's history, amid the lists of the 
 noble and the brave, none stands forth 
 more honoured and revered for keenness 
 of penetration, for moral strength and 
 soundness, and consequently, for prac- 
 tical sway, in that assembly of mighty 
 
 minds, than the name of the Scottish 
 Presbyter. Deeply had he studied, in 
 his native land, the spirit that had been 
 incarnate in the house of Stuart, and 
 that had passed to their successors on 
 the throne of the three kingdoms. Close- 
 ly also had he investigated the doctrine 
 of representation, as it had been em- 
 bodied, ever since the days of John Knox, 
 in the church of his own land. And 
 therefore, well was he prepared to sway 
 for good the counsels of his adopted 
 country. 
 
 2. The second characteristic of the 
 gospel ministry is their boldness. When- 
 ever the providence of God called for it, 
 lion-hearted courage stood forth, to the 
 wonder, and often the vexation and dis- 
 may of the church's persecuting enemies. 
 "The righteous are as bold as a lion." 
 Mark the intrepidity of Paul before 
 Agrippa, — on the Acropolis of Athens, — 
 amid the tossings of the tempestuous 
 ocean, — in the face of the mob at Jeru- 
 salem, at Ephesus, at Philippi. Look 
 at Huss, before the council of Constance, 
 and the pile of burning faggots, — at Lu- 
 ther, the lion of the Reformation, whom 
 no threatenings of enemies and no en- 
 freatings of friends could restrain from 
 the Diet of Worms ; who, in the pre- 
 sence of the Pope's legate, the Emperor 
 Charles V., the Roman Catholic nobility, 
 and the entire host of Pelagian doctors, 
 feared not to assert the grand principles 
 of Christianity. Where can we find a 
 picture of greater moral sublimity than 
 the heroic reformer presents, as he ex- 
 claims, with hand uplifted, and eye 
 glancing toward heaven, " Here I stand. 
 I cannot do otherwise. God help me. 
 Amen !" Lift your eye to the Alps, and 
 behold Zuingle, the eagle of Northern 
 Switzerland ; then let it fall upon the 
 city at their base, and think of the Paul 
 of the Reformation. Read his letter 
 to Francis I., a production which, as it 
 issued from the pen of the first scholar 
 of his day, stands even yet among the 
 very proudest productions of literary 
 genius. In its onward sweep, let your 
 vision pause upon the rugged mountains 
 of Scotland. Listen to the splendid eu- 
 logy pronounced over the body of Knox 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 99 
 
 by the Regent Morton, " there lies he 
 who never feared the face of man ;" 
 then pay the meed that is due to the 
 dauntless reformer of Northern Britain. 
 Truly does the lion's face represent the 
 spirit of the gospel ministry. 
 
 3. Another characteristic is, the pa- 
 tient endurance of toil. " Much increase 
 is by the labour of the ox." By the 
 uncomplaining endurance of her minis- 
 ters is the church increased ; by their 
 slaughter is she fed. On them falls the 
 stroke of persecution. The blood of the 
 martyrs is the seed of the church. When 
 the ox has performed his day's toil, he 
 is released from the yoke, and sent to 
 gather his own food, from a scanty pas- 
 turage, — perhaps from the wayside. 
 So, alas, is it too often with those who 
 expend their strength in the great work 
 of disseminating the gospel. 
 
 4. The next trait to be noted is hu- 
 manity. Affectionate sympathy with the 
 sons and daughters of sorrow, is ever 
 allowed to be a quality of God's true 
 and faithful servants. 
 
 5. The eagle, in the elevation of his 
 flight, and the keenness of his vision, 
 beautifully represents that loftiness of 
 soul, that singleness of heart, that quick- 
 ness of penetration and promptness of 
 action, which well become those men 
 who minister in God's great name, and 
 act as sentinels, to guard his timid flock 
 in this wilderness world. 
 
 6. Connected less directly in the text, 
 than in sentiment and feeling, are the 
 inwardly directed eyes of the messengers 
 of peace. They are self-searching men. 
 They are required, first of all, to exa- 
 mine themselves, before making a tender 
 of their services to the Captain of salva- 
 tion. " Let every man be fully per- 
 suaded in his own mind." This distin- 
 guishes a true from a false ministry. 
 
 7. The heralds of mercy to a ruined 
 world, ought to move with rapidity. In 
 like manner, these symbolic animals 
 have each six wings. The same truth 
 is taught in chap. xiv. 6, where an 
 angel is seen flying through the midst 
 of heaven, having the everlasting gospel 
 to preach. 
 
 8. Their incessant services indicate 
 
 the same. They are ever engaged in 
 celebrating the praises of the three Holy 
 Ones, who exist in the Lord God Al- 
 mighty. This is, indeed, common to 
 all holy beings ; but it seems evidently 
 here to sustain an official relation to the 
 church. 
 
 Whilst these solemn and sacred ser- 
 vices proceed, the four and twenty elders 
 prostrate themselves and worship. 
 
 These presbyters represent the ruling 
 authority in the church ; and here is the 
 key to unlock the whole arcana of these 
 symbols. The office of presbyter was 
 perfectly familiar to John. They are 
 the council of rulers in Zion : they act 
 for the people, and over them. They 
 here prostrate themselves, and cast their 
 crowns, not before the living creatures. 
 They owe no subjection to them. They 
 derive not their authority from them, but 
 their crowns are subject to Jehovah, and 
 to him is their allegiance due, and their 
 homage paid. 
 
 From Doctor McLeod we are obliged 
 to differ in this part of the exposition. 
 He makes the twenty-four elders stand 
 for the whole body of God's worshipping 
 people; whereas, we cannot think it 
 possible to complete the figure, without 
 adhering to the direct and, in this point, 
 literal application. The major part of 
 the church are still without this circle ; 
 for the whole scene is in the church, 
 and the hundred and forty and four 
 thousand, and the multitude innume- 
 rable, mentioned afterwards, are this 
 mass of the true church. 
 
 Here, then, we have a glorious repre- 
 sentation of that spiritual government 
 which God has established, and is con- 
 ducting in his church, and by which he 
 will cast down all the thrones of iniquity, 
 and break off the yoke which Antichrist 
 has imposed upon the necks of the na- 
 tions. Out from beneath the emerald 
 arch, where sits the J^ord God Almighty 
 upon his throne, must proceed, through 
 the agency of the Lamb of God, and the 
 Spirit of all grace, those holy doctrines, 
 and those energetic influences ; which 
 shall, through the visible agency of the 
 living ministry of the gospel, and the 
 elders of the churches, destroy the great 
 
100 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 image, and make the little stone a great 
 mountain. 
 
 These figures are not wholly new. 
 The same things are substantially set 
 forth by the Cherubim and Seraphim of 
 the Old Testament, which will engage 
 our notice in the next lecture. 
 
 A few reflections, which are suggested 
 by the subject under consideration, will 
 •form our conclusion. 
 
 1. Man cannot deprive his brother of 
 the enjoyment of communion with God 
 and his church. Domitian, the Lion, 
 as Paul called Nero, had banished the 
 apostle to a barren island, in the hope 
 that he would be cut off from his friends 
 and his God, and might perish ; but God 
 dwelt in Patmos, and the most glorious 
 of all his visions, he exhibited there. 
 The enemy's triumph was but short. 
 Domitian, the last of the twelve Csesars, 
 was assassinated by his wife, the very 
 year of the apostle's banishment, where- 
 upon the exile was restored to liberty. 
 God permits the enemy of souls to pre- 
 vail only so far as may be for the best 
 interests of his church, in the issue. 
 
 2. The Most High dwells in Zion ; 
 Jerusalem is his throne ; his church is 
 the jewel of his crown. " He that 
 toucheth you," saith he to her, " touch- 
 eth the apple of his eye." " Sing and 
 rejoice, O daughter of Zion : for lo, I 
 come, and I will dwell in the midst of 
 thee, saith the Lord," (Zech. ii. 8, 10.) 
 Hence, we may safely infer, the infal- 
 lible security of his church. He who 
 .dwells in her is mighty to save. " God 
 is in the midst of her ; she shall not be 
 moved : God shall help her, and that 
 right early," (Ps. xlvi. 5.) " For I, 
 saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall 
 of fire round about, and will be the 
 glory in the midst of her." What a 
 feeling of security, and consequent hap- 
 piness, must fill the mind where this 
 faith dwells ! How fearless must be 
 his spirit who knows that Almighty 
 Power is pledged for his defence ! This 
 is the secret of true moral heroism. 
 Thus is explained the philosophy, other- 
 wise mysterious, of the facts exhibited 
 in the martyrology of the church. 
 
 3. Civil government has a deep inte- 
 
 rest in the purity of the church. To 
 her is it indebted for all its accurate 
 knowledge of those truths, which secure 
 the commonwealth in an upright civil 
 administration. Indeed, we must, in 
 justice to her, go farther, and affirm, 
 that she, — at least her members, and 
 by reason of her moral force, are chiefly 
 instrumental in keeping up the fires 
 which burn upon the altars of natural 
 science ; and which are so necessary to 
 national prosperity. The church is the 
 salt of the earth, and the luminary of 
 the world. 
 
 4. A learned ministry, learned in 
 literature and science, in morals and 
 in arts, as well as in theology, is all 
 important to the prosperous administra- 
 tion of civil as well as religious affairs. 
 They must have eyes without and within. 
 If the blind lead the blind, both will be 
 likely to fall, and plunge into the ditch 
 of self-righteousness and crime. A 
 blind sentinel, and a dumb dog, that 
 cannot bark, will contribute little to the 
 safety of a city. An uneducated minis- 
 try is a curse to the church : better she 
 had no teachers, than be taught by igno- 
 rance : for darkness cannot engender 
 light. Where narrow-minded men are 
 the spiritual teachers, the Bible ceases 
 to be understood, and the people are on 
 the downward course toward barbarian- 
 ism. " Pray ye the Lord of the harvest 
 that he will send forth labourers into the 
 harvest." 
 
 LECTURE XI. 
 
 THE CHERUBIM ABE SYMBOLS OF THE 
 MINISTERS OF MERCY, AND SUBSTAN- 
 TIALLY IDENTICAL WITH THE FOUR 
 LIVING CREATURES OF JOHN. 
 
 Ezek. x., xli. — 2 Chron. iii. — 1 Kings iii. 
 Exod. xxv. — Gen. iii. 24. 
 
 The generic meaning of the Hebrew 
 word cherub, the plural of which is 
 cherubim, is not settled with certainty. 
 Some critics refer it to an Arabic source, 
 and infer the meaning to be nearness, 
 
LECTURE XI. 
 
 101 
 
 contiguity \ — hence, a minister or ser- 
 vant. : and thus cherubim are the ser- 
 vants of God. Others deduce it from 
 two Arabic words, which signify "as," 
 or " like to a boy." They are most pro- 
 bably correct, who form the word from 
 
 a Hebrew term that means to ride, (Dill} 
 
 raukab,) by an interchange of two of the 
 letters. This is the opinion of Poole. We 
 have the original, and the derived word 
 brought into immediate connexion in Ps. 
 xviii. 10. The Jehovah '■'■rode upon a 
 cherub, and did fly." With a very slight 
 modification, the word here translated, 
 rode, is used to signify the car or vehicle 
 of the cherub, in 1 Chron. xxviii. 18: — 
 " and gold for the pattern of the chariot 
 of the cherubim." 
 
 But we depend not upon remote and 
 difficult derivation for the meaning of 
 terms. Many words are used in very 
 different senses from those which their 
 history would indicate. Our only safe 
 method is to refer to the places where a 
 given word is used, and to examine it in 
 these various places : and thus it is that 
 the signification is determined. We will 
 pursue this method. We will refer to 
 all the passages in which the word 
 cherub and cherubim, are employed in 
 the Bible. If we shall discover that it 
 is always used as the name of certain 
 figures of animals, less or more com- 
 plex, but not any of them exact like- 
 nesses of any real existence, and always 
 in connexion with a revelation of God s 
 mercy, we shall be shut up to the con- 
 clusion, that the cherubim are emblematic 
 of the ministry of reconciliation. The 
 plan of God in his revelation, is charac- 
 terized by progression. First, an obscure 
 hint ; then a plainer statement ; then a 
 bright and clear shining of truth more 
 and more unto the perfect day. Let us 
 therefore, having already dwelt upon the 
 evidence, full and undoubted, of the sym- 
 bolical character of the living creatures 
 of John, take a retrograde movement, 
 and carry back with us into the Old Tes- 
 tament, the more lucid language of the 
 New, thus making scripture the ex- 
 pounder of scripture. 
 
 We find three notable occasions on 
 
 which the cherubim appear. First, in 
 the visions of Ezekiel. Second, the 
 vision of Moses at Sinai, which was 
 embodied in the covering of the ark, 
 and in the temple of Solomon. And 
 third, at the garden of Eden. 
 
 First. Ezekiel's prophetic visions. It 
 is plain, that in chapter xxxvii. and on- 
 ward, he is describing a state yet future, 
 of the Jewish church, or rather of the 
 house of Israel. " These bones are the 
 whole house of Israel." Now, it will be 
 recollected, that Ezekiel was among the 
 captives, in the land of the Chaldeans, 
 (ch. i. 1,2, 3.) These prophecies may 
 therefore, have a primary reference to 
 the partial restoration by the orders of 
 Cyrus, Artaxerxes, and other Persian 
 kings. Yet, we think no one who reads 
 the prophecies and the histories, can be- 
 lieve that they fully accord to one an- 
 other. The wars of Gog and Magog, 
 described in chapters xxxviii. and xxxix. 
 are most certainly yet unfulfilled: and 
 the glorious state of the church, depicted 
 under the notion of a city measured off 
 with a reed, and of a temple great and 
 gorgeous, with chambers and galleries 
 and carved work of cherubim and palm 
 trees, is surely yet future. This entire 
 description, which closes the book with 
 a survey of the location of the twelve 
 tribes, different from any thing hereto- 
 fore existing, does certainly symbolize 
 Zion, inclusive of the literal descendants 
 of Abraham, in her millennial splendour. 
 The waters which issue out from the 
 temple, and become an impassable river, 
 — waters to swim in, — most forcibly and 
 beautifully set forth the spiritual influ- 
 ences that accompany the preached gos- 
 pel. These constitute the river on whose 
 " banks grow all trees for meat, whose 
 leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit 
 thereof be consumed : it shall bring forth 
 new fruit according to his months, be- 
 cause their waters, they issued out of the 
 sanctuary, and the fruit thereof shall be 
 for meat, and the leaf thereof for medi- 
 cine," (ch. xlvii. 1-12.) "In the middle 
 space, between the street and the river, 
 on each side of the river, were there the 
 trees of life, which bare twelve manner 
 of fruits, and yielded her fruit every 
 
102 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 month, and the leaves of the tree were 
 for the healing of the nations," (Rev. 
 xxii. 2.) It is surely not possible, for 
 any intelligent mind, to read Ezekiel's 
 and John's descriptions respectively, and 
 compare them together, without a tho- 
 rough conviction that they are designed 
 to represent the same general matter. 
 They are symbolical prophecies of the 
 future glory of one and the same church 
 of God. Every such reader may, and 
 will doubtless, be at a loss as to some of 
 the minor items of these figures ; but 
 none can miss the general resemblance, 
 and fail to perceive the substantial iden- 
 tity. John's living creatures are the 
 types of the ministry of reconciliation 
 in the church, of which that ministry is 
 itself a part: and so also are Ezekiel's 
 cherubim emblematic of the same. But 
 before we close this argument, it behooves 
 us to inspect the prophet's language in 
 the early part of his prophecy. In chap. 
 i. 4, he thus begins his description, "And 
 I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came 
 out of the north, a great cloud, and a 
 fire infolding itself, and a brightness was 
 about it." Though the word is different 
 here, from that used in Gen. iii. 24, where 
 Moses describes the cherubim and the 
 flaming sword turning every ivay, yet 
 it is equivalent in meaning, and exactly 
 similar in construction. In Genesis it is 
 a flame of a sword turning upon itself, — 
 revolving itself, or more literally, taking 
 hold of itself, — a circular flame. He then 
 presents "the likeness of four living crea- 
 tures ;" where he uses the precise word 
 which corresponds to the living creatures 
 of John, and which is so translated in 
 the Septuagint. These living ones are 
 here delineated with greater complexity, 
 and, of course, are more difficult to be 
 understood, than in John's version. But 
 whilst we cannot undertake to make the 
 whole description plain, yet we can find 
 all the essential features of each in both: 
 or in other words, an essential agreement. 
 They have each four faces : — those of a 
 man, a lion, an eagle, and an ox, differ- 
 ing in this from John's Zwa, only in the 
 combination, of the four in each living 
 one; intimating, however, the same gene- 
 ral sentiment. They have each four 
 
 wings ; John's have six. These living 
 creatures vary from John's, in the ap- 
 pendage of rings or wheels, which are 
 also symbolical of rapid motion. The 
 whole picture is difficult to comprehend; 
 but it represents a chariot or triumphal 
 car, so constructed as to run in any and 
 every direction, — north, south, east and 
 west, — on the four sides, without the ne- 
 cessity and the delay of performing a 
 tedious and circuitous evolution : " they 
 turned not as they went." There was a 
 face looking every way, and a power 
 of immediate motion in any direction. 
 Above the living creatures, was a gor- 
 geous canopy, or firmament of dazzling 
 brightness. " And the likeness of the 
 firmament, upon the heads of the living 
 creatures, was as the colour of the terrible 
 crystal, stretched forth over their heads 
 above," (verse 22.) Over this firma- 
 ment or expanse, this concave canopy of 
 brilliant hue, was a throne, and one sat 
 upon the throne. (Verse 26), " And 
 above the firmament that was over their 
 heads, was the likeness of a throne, as 
 the appearance of a sapphire stone; and 
 upon the likeness of the throne was the 
 likeness as the appearance of a man 
 above upon it ;" and over all was, " as 
 the appearance of the bow, that is in the 
 cloud in the day of rain, so was the ap- 
 pearance of the lightness round about. 
 This was the appearance of the likeness 
 of the glory of the Lord." 
 
 Now, we can be at no loss for the 
 meaning, in general, of all this. It most 
 assuredly exhibits Jehovah, as riding 
 forth in the car of his triumph ; over 
 his head the bow of promise, — symbol 
 of peace and mercy : beneath his feet, 
 the dazzling canopy ; sustained by the 
 cherubim of glory. 
 
 In chap. x. 15, he tells us that these 
 living creatures which he saw by the 
 river of Chebar, were the cherubim. 
 " This is the living creature that I saw 
 under the God of Israel by the river of 
 Chebar, and I knew that they were the 
 cherubim," (verse 20.) And in verse 
 12, we are told that, "their whole body, 
 and their backs, and their hands, and 
 their wings, and the wheels, were 
 full of eyes round about." Here again 
 
LECTURE XL 
 
 103 
 
 they agree with the Zwa of the Apoca- 
 lypse. 
 
 One remark only remains, and the 
 substantial identity of these prophetic 
 symbols, and their representation of the 
 ministry of mercy, is established. This 
 is the fact, that Ezekiel was favoured 
 with the vision of them at the time 
 when he is made the messenger of peace 
 to Israel, bearing good tidings, of great 
 joy. In chap. ii. 2, he says, " the spirit 
 entered into me, when he spoke unto me, 
 and set me upon my feet. And he said 
 unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the 
 children of Israel ; I do send thee unto 
 them, and thou shalt say unto them, 
 Thus saith the Lord God." And in 
 chap. iii. he describes the relations and 
 responsibilities of the spiritual watchmen. 
 So precisely with John the spirit entered 
 into him, and gave him the vision and 
 the message of mercy to man. 
 
 In Ezek„ xxvii. 14, 16, the city of 
 Tyre is called in a figure, the anointed 
 cherub, and the covering cherub, in 
 allusion to her wealth and splendour : 
 but manifestly the language is a meta- 
 phor ; and forms no exception to our 
 general position, that the cherubim are 
 symbolic of the ministry of the gospel. 
 
 Before we proceed to the cherubim of 
 Moses, we will advert for a moment to 
 Isaiah vi. where he describes the sera- 
 phim. It is, we suppose, a more brief 
 representation of the matter. " In the 
 year that King Uzziah died, I saw also 
 the Lord, sitting upon a throne, high 
 and lifted up, and his train filled the 
 temple. Above it stood the seraphim : 
 each one had six wings ; with twain he 
 covered his face, and with twain he 
 covered his feet, and with twain he did 
 fly. And one cried unto another, and 
 said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of 
 hosts ; the whole earth is full of his 
 glory." 
 
 The word seraphim, signifies burning 
 ones, — bright, fiery-coloured, flaming 
 ones. Their office and wings evince 
 their identity with the living creatures 
 of John and Ezekiel. Jehovah is also 
 seen upon his throne, the seat or source 
 of power, whence proceeds the minis- 
 terial commission. Accordingly, in im- 
 
 mediate connexion with this vision, 
 Isaiah receives that heavenly charge, 
 which he fulfilled in such a holy manner. 
 " Then flew one of the seraphim unto 
 me, having a live coal in his hand, 
 which he had taken with the tongs from 
 off the altar, and he laid it upon my 
 lips. — Also I heard the voice of the 
 Lord, saying, Whom shall we send, and 
 who will go for us? Then said I, Here 
 am I, send me. And he said, Go, tell 
 this people." Go and preach the gospel, 
 and warn sinners to flee from the wrath 
 to come. Here again, the cherubic 
 symbols are exhibited in connexion with 
 the delivery of the ministerial commis- 
 sion. 
 
 Second. We proceed to those of Moses. 
 In Exod. xxv. we have the account of 
 the cherubim, which formed the end of 
 the mercy-seat, ('iAas<n<]£iov — propitiation) 
 which covered the ark of the testimony. 
 The body of this ark was in size about 
 four feet long, two and a half feet wide, 
 and the same in height. In it were de- 
 posited the two tables of stone, on which 
 were written the ten commandments. 
 The lid of this chest was of solid gold, 
 and so turned up at the ends as to f jrrn 
 on each, one cherub, with its face or 
 faces turned inward, and looking down- 
 ward ; their wings were raised, and ex- 
 tended toward each other, so as to meet 
 in the middle. " Here," said God, " I 
 will meet with thee, and I will commune 
 with thee from above the mercy-seat, 
 from between the two cherubim which 
 are upon the ark of the testimony, of 
 all things which I will give thee in com- 
 mandment unto the children of Israel." 
 (Verse 22.) 
 
 It is to be remembered, that this was 
 constructed according to the pattern 
 which God had showed to Moses in the 
 mount. The vision which he beheld 
 amid the lightning, and the fearful 
 swellings of Jehovah's awful trumpet, 
 when he uttered, in articulate thunder, 
 the ten precepts of the decalogue ; this 
 vision was the prototype of the cherubim : 
 and consequently, they were exhibited to 
 him on the summit of Sinai. 
 
 It is manifest at a glance, that the 
 mercy-seat is the covering of the law 
 
104 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 or ten precepts, and must be the emblem 
 of Christ, as the fulfiller of the precepts 
 of the law. This, and only this, is ob- 
 vious at a glance. What else can be 
 meant ? The ten precepts — not any 
 penalty, or threatened punishment, but 
 simply and only the ten precepts — are 
 deposited in the body of the ark : there 
 they lie, encased in pure gold, and they 
 are covered over with a solid plate of 
 the same material. This plate or cover- 
 is called the iXatfrrigiov, or propitiation. 
 This mercy-seat covers the precepts of 
 the law, and is a type of Christ, as he 
 is the fulfiller of the precept of law for 
 # his people : and this is evident at a 
 glance, as was said before. And yet, 
 how many thousands have, not only 
 glanced at it, but studied it with all pos- 
 sible intensity, (we among the rest,) 
 and yet never discovered it ? Is it not 
 amazing, that men should have found 
 the doctrine of satisfaction for violated 
 law, — have found penalty symbolized 
 by the mercy-seat? Yet so it is, and 
 perhaps always has been. But now, 
 the altar of burnt offering:-; is the only 
 proper symbol of this satisfaction. This 
 is manifest, plain, and undeniable. Yet 
 it is not more so, than that the mercy- 
 seat is the type of Christ, as the fulfiller 
 of the law's precepts, — as the justifying 
 righteousness of his people. 
 
 But the cherubim are above the mercy- 
 seat, and stand there, with outstretched 
 wing and attentive eye ; ready to waft 
 the message of mercy to a ruined world, 
 and well versed, by diligent study, in 
 the glorious mysteries of redemption. 
 
 Does any reader of the Bible need to 
 be taught that the law's ceremonial, and 
 all the symbols established at Sinai, were 
 typical of something about the person 
 and work of Messiah 1 Can any one 
 be ignorant that the law, — meaning not 
 the moral law particularly, but the cere- 
 monial institutions, — was the pedagogue 
 to the church, to lead her to Christ, the 
 great teacher? As impossible is it that 
 any should be ignorant of the great bur- 
 den of duty devolving upon the gospel 
 ministry ; — to teach man how he can be 
 just with God. Therefore, the intimate 
 connexion of the cherubim with the 
 
 mercy-seat, sets forth beautifully and 
 forcibly the near relation which the gos- 
 pel ministry bears to the Saviour of the 
 world. Their unity with himself he 
 distinctly affirms — " ye in me and I in 
 you." (John xiv. 20.) " Except ye 
 abide in me, ye cannot bear fruit." 
 
 [t is not at all necessary, that we refer 
 to the numerous places where the cheru- 
 bim of the mercy-seat are named, or al- 
 luded to in the other scriptures; for none 
 of these make a new case. They are 
 all included under that of Moses in Sinai. 
 We therefore have remaining only — 
 
 Third. The cherubim of Adam, (Gen. 
 iii. 24.) And here we are constrained 
 to abandon a long cherished traditionary 
 exposition. " So the Lord God drove 
 out the man : and he placed at the east 
 of the garden of Eden, cherubim and a 
 flaming sword, which turned every way, 
 to keep the way of the tree of life." 
 
 The traditionary interpretation alluded 
 to, is that which makes the cherubim 
 flaming angels, placed at the entrance of 
 the garden, to keep off our unhappy 
 parents, lest they should endeavour to 
 return, and to eat the fruit of the for- 
 bidden tree; which tree was a seal of 
 covenant of works. Their agency is 
 to prevent mankind from vain attempts 
 to seek justification by their own works; 
 which Paul says, is inconsistent with 
 grace : — " if by grace, then is it no more 
 of works, otherwise grace is no more 
 grace. But if it be of works, then it is 
 no more of grace ; otherwise work is no 
 more work." (Rom. xi. 6.) 
 
 To this, there are two or three in- 
 superable objections. First. The word 
 translated keep, never signifies to keep 
 of, — to drive away : but generally, if 
 not always, to keep in safety, to protect, 
 to defend. In Gen. ii. 15, it means to 
 watch, and take care of: Adam was 
 placed in the garden, "to dress it and to 
 keep it." " For I know him," says God 
 concerning Abraham, "that he will com- 
 mand his children and his household after 
 him, and they shall keep the way of the 
 Lord," (ch. xviii. 19.) "Because that 
 Abraham, — kept my charge," (xxvi. 5.) 
 "I will again feed and keep thy flock," 
 (xxx. 31.) And "God said unto Laban, 
 
LECTURE XI. 
 
 105 
 
 " take heed that thou speak not to Jacob 
 either good or bad ;" — keep thyself, that 
 thou speak not harshly to him, (xxxi. 
 24.) Let them " lay up corn in the 
 hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food 
 in the cities," (xli. 35.) These are all the 
 instances of the word's occurrence, (ac- 
 cording to Trommius) in Genesis : and 
 they clearly show, that the sense is not 
 to keep off, or drive away ; but, to pre- 
 serve. So, in the passage in question, it 
 must mean, to keep up a knowledge of 
 the way of life, — to instruct men how 
 they must walk, if they will enjoy life, 
 — to keep constantly in the way which 
 leads to it, — to walk in Christ, who is 
 the vvay, that they may enjoy him as 
 the life. 
 
 Second. We find no instance in the 
 Bible, where cherub or cherubim means 
 an angel, that is, a spiritual, created be- 
 ing, not connected with a body. 
 
 Third. The tree of life, is Christ, in 
 communion with whom is life. The tree 
 in the garden, was a symbol of that life: 
 and the tree of life in Ezekiel's and John's 
 visions, clearly exhibits him as the bless- 
 edness of the souls of men : his fruit is 
 perpetual, and his leaves for the healing 
 of the nations. Therefore, to exclude 
 men from him, could not be the work of 
 holy-beings. 
 
 Now, we can easily perceive, how the 
 cherubim, riding upon a car of glory 
 like a fire, catching upon, or revolving 
 itself, — being established there, and our 
 parents instructed in the meaning of the 
 whole symbol, should ever keep them in 
 remembrance of the way of life. At this 
 time, as far as our knowledge extends, 
 was mercy first revealed to the moral 
 universe ; and at this time was establish- 
 ed the cherubim of glory, as the repre- 
 sentation of that agency, by which the 
 way of life should be for ever pointed 
 out to lost man. Moses therefore, hav- 
 ing seen the same on Sinai, and embo- 
 died their likeness on the mercy-seat, 
 afterwards, in writing a history of the 
 creation, tells the Israelites, that God 
 placed, or established the tkerubim, (for 
 the article is found in the Hebrew text,) 
 which had now become, to the Israelites, 
 familiar emblems of the ministers of sal- 
 
 14 
 
 vation. He placed these glorious figures 
 in the East, at the garden of Eden, to in- 
 struct our race in the way of life. They 
 are spoken of in this passage, as things 
 known before : he placed the cherubim ; 
 — a mode of expression, which cannot be 
 used in reference to a new and unheard 
 of subject, or thing. The Hebrews had 
 seen, or heard described, the cherubim 
 above the mercy-seat: and this prepares 
 them for understanding Moses, when he 
 tells them that these compound figures 
 of animals were not established now, 
 for the first time, as representative of the 
 ministry of mercy ; but were appointed 
 of God for the same purpose, when first 
 mercy stooped to comfort our infant and 
 unhappy race. 
 
 This may suffice, to evince the iden- 
 tity of John's living creatures, with the 
 living creatures of Ezekiel, the seraphim 
 of Isaiah, and the cherubim of Ezekiel 
 and of Moses ; and to show the reality 
 and significancy of them, as representa- 
 tions of the gospel ministry. 
 
 We return now to John's vision. 
 Chap. v. Having given a graphic de- 
 scription of the scene opened in the 
 church, he proceeds to the action. In 
 the right hand of God, upon the throne, 
 he saw a book, written within and on the 
 back, and sealed with seven seals. Books, 
 you are aware, were, in that age, written 
 upon parchment, and other materials, 
 which were connected together in long 
 pieces, like narrow webs of cloth, and 
 rolled up in the same way ; hence the 
 name, volume, a Latin word, which 
 means simply a roll. Such as were thus 
 rolled, were usually written on one side; 
 but that now exhibited^ was written with- 
 in, and on the back, or on both sides. 
 Of consequence, being written all over, 
 when rolled up, a part of the writing 
 would still be visible, though the book 
 were sealed. What is called the back, 
 would be on the outside, when the scroll 
 is rolled up. This scroll was sealed, 
 and consequently, none of it could be 
 read, except the small portion of the 
 back, which then was outside. This por- 
 tion, we may well suppose, contained the 
 history of the things that are. The m; • 
 contents of the book are invisible u r 
 
106 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 the seals are removed. These seals, 
 were not arranged along the end of the 
 roll, so as to constitute a row, shutting 
 up the end, and the whole book at once; 
 for if this had been the case, no part, 
 except the outside of the roll, could have 
 been read, until the whole seven seals 
 were broken. But, it is manifest, that 
 when each seal was opened, a part of the 
 volume was unrolled, and of course, a 
 part of the contents became legible : the 
 seals therefore, were placed lengthwise 
 upon the roll, along the centre line. A 
 part of it was rolled up first ; then a seal 
 was inserted, which made that part se- 
 cure. Then another portion was rolled 
 up, and another seal was placed in, and 
 so throughout the whole seven. In re- 
 versing this operation, it is obvious, that 
 when the first seal is broken, all that 
 writing which lies between it and the 
 second, is presented to view ; and so of 
 all the rest. The seven seals therefore, 
 divide the whole book into seven parts, 
 besides the already legible outside. The 
 last part, we shall find to be much the 
 largest, and to be variously subdivided. 
 Of these subdivisions, however, we say 
 nothing at present. 
 
 Books are alphabetical, or pictorial 
 representations of things, present, past, 
 future, or mixed : and they are used as 
 aids to memory and judgment. What- 
 ever affords us instruction, is a book. 
 We talk of the book of nature, — the 
 book of providence, — the book of reve- 
 lation, — the book of experience. That 
 before us in the vision, is the book of 
 providence : a pictorial and alphabetical 
 representation of things then future, as 
 to man, but present all, to the divine 
 mind, who gave to John a partial view 
 of" things which shall be hereafter." 
 
 Jehovah holds in his hand a volume 
 of providence ; who will unroll it ? Who 
 will take upon him the management of 
 all the millions of minute, and of mo- 
 mentous movements, which it involves 1 
 This is the challenge of the angel, (verse 
 2.) After waiting in suspense for some 
 time, and being deeply affected with the 
 fact, that no one appeared willing and 
 able to undertake the mighty task, John 
 c ' relieved, (verse 5,) by one of the 
 
 elders assuring him, that " the Lion of 
 the tribe of Judah," the root of David, 
 was both able and willing " to open 
 the book and to loose the seven seals 
 thereof." 
 
 The apostle then beheld a Lamb, with 
 the appearance of having been slain, 
 who had taken his position between the 
 throne, whose occupant held the roll of 
 the book in his hand, and the four living 
 ones, and between the bases of the semi- 
 circle of the thrones of the elders. This 
 Lamb, sprinkled with the blood of his 
 own self-sacrifice, had " seven horns 
 and seven eyes, which are the seven 
 spirits of God." The seven horns are 
 the perfect sign of his ruling power ; and 
 the seven spirits, sent forth in all the 
 earth, are emblematic of those influences 
 of the divine spirit, by which He con- 
 trols the hearts of men every where. 
 This Leonine Lamb is the Son of God, 
 — Jesus, the Mediator. He is a Lion 
 towards the enemies of his church, for 
 their destruction, and her defence : He is 
 a Lamb slain, towards the church herself. 
 
 The Lamb's advancing, and taking 
 the book, represents the Messiah, as- 
 suming the functions of that part of his 
 mediatorial office, which consists in de- 
 veloping the principles of his moral go- 
 vernment over the nations, in the pu- 
 nishment and rewarding of men, amid 
 the various revolutions of time. God, 
 the Father, has delivered into his hand 
 the administration of the entire kingdom 
 of providence. 
 
 No sooner do they behold this official 
 investiture, than the four living ones, 
 and the four and twenty elders, pros- 
 trate themselves before their King, with 
 harps in their hands, and censers, or 
 vials of odorous unguents : the signifi- 
 cant meaning of which is explained, — 
 the prayers of the saints. 
 
 This part of the action exhibits the 
 teachers and rulers in the church, who 
 for her sake are the servants of God, 
 as conducting the solemn worship of his 
 house, and presenting the supplications 
 of Zion before her King. Their worship 
 consists of praise. They ascribe to him 
 worth and dignity to rule over men, for 
 the good of his church. They state the 
 
LECTURE XL 
 
 107 
 
 reason ; — his sacrifice for his people, 
 and their consequent redemption, and 
 restoration to divine favour, and ruling 
 influence in the church and over the 
 world. 
 
 This psean of gratitude and praise 
 could only burst from redeemed men, 
 and sanctified lips. None who were 
 not redeemed and purified from sin, 
 could unite in it. Angels of glory could 
 not, for they have no sin from which 
 to be redeemed. Infants could not, if 
 they had never been sinners : but inas- 
 much as they have been, they too unite 
 with the vast multitude, outside the 
 circle of the elders, in this song of the 
 redeemed. But then, there is another 
 song. There is an immense concourse 
 of angels, who are " all ministering 
 spirits, sent forth to minister to them 
 who shall be heirs of salvation," who 
 occupy an outer space, round about, and 
 beyond the elders and the whole re- 
 deemed throng. These angels are in- 
 terested in the glory of the Lamb ; but 
 not for their redemption. To afford to 
 them also an opportunity of striking a 
 note of praise, there must be a song 
 sung, which implies not the redemption 
 of the singers. Such we find in the 
 eleventh verse. This is the angels' 
 song. Then follows a grand chorus, 
 in which all, both redeemed and unre- 
 deemed, unite. " Blessing, and honour, 
 and glory, and power, be unto Him that 
 sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
 Lamb for ever and ever." 
 
 With a few observations, we pause 
 for the present. 
 
 1. There has always been a gospel 
 ministry among men, — a human instru- 
 mentality, by which God communicates 
 and perpetuates the knowledge of his 
 system of grace, his plan for the display 
 of his mercy. That there was a regular 
 order of succession, an agency to appoint 
 others, and perpetuate the agency, prior 
 to the call of Abraham, in the year of 
 the world 2077, does not appear, in the 
 extremely brief history of those twenty- 
 one centuries. The probabilities are 
 against it. Enoch and Noah, only, are 
 mentioned as eminent preachers of right- 
 eousness. Doubtless, there were thou- 
 
 sands of others called as occasion re- 
 quired, and commissioned of God, to 
 tell the blessed story of salvation, by 
 the sufferings of the promised seed. 
 
 2. There was nothing in nature to set 
 forth and teach this doctrine. There 
 could not possibly be ; for its essential 
 character, the scheme for the display of 
 the attributes of God's mercy, must be 
 hidden from man, until after he, by sin, 
 had made it necessary for his welfare, 
 and applicable to him. In the constitu- 
 tion of his mind, and of the material 
 universe around him, there must neces- 
 sarily be an absolute silence on this 
 point. Of course, man's knowledge of 
 mercy could only be purely matter of 
 revelation, and so must be the agency 
 and symbols of it. Man's nature is to 
 seek happiness, as the reward of his 
 own works. All have this disposition, 
 and do for ever cherish it, until they are 
 converted by supernatural grace, through 
 the teachings of the revealed doctrine 
 of salvation, by the imputed merits of 
 Christ, and the almighty influences of 
 his spirit in their hearts. 
 
 3. This gives the teachers of pure 
 deism, that is, of the doctrine of salva- 
 tion by works, a decided advantage over 
 the teachers of salvation by free grace. 
 The former have all men with them by 
 nature, the latter have all men by nature 
 against them. 
 
 4. It belongs to the rulers and teach- 
 ers in the church to lead its public wor- 
 ship, and to encourage the timid, doubt- 
 ing, and distressed to confide in the 
 power of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 
 The Presbyter relieved^ John's fears in 
 this way. 
 
 5. Jesus of Nazareth is the God of 
 Providence, and the Governor among 
 the nations, as well as in the church. 
 This we shall see more fully here- 
 after. 
 
 The actual exercise of his supreme 
 dominion is founded in this, that he him- 
 self has fulfilled all righteousness. Be- 
 cause, " he humbled himself and became 
 obedient until death, even the death of 
 the cross ; therefore hath God highly 
 exalted him, and given him a name above 
 every name." 
 
108 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 
 THE FIRST AND SECOND SEALS. 
 
 " And I saw when the Lamb opened one of 
 the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of 
 thunder, one of the four living creatures saying, 
 'Come and see.' And I saw, and behold a 
 white horse; and he that sat on him had a 
 bow ; and a crown was given unto him, and he 
 went forth conquering and to conquer. And 
 when he had opened the second seal I heard 
 the second living creature say, 'Come and see.' 
 And there went out another horse that was red ; 
 and power was given to him that sat thereon 
 to take peace from the earth, and that they 
 should kill one another ; and there was given 
 unto him a great sword." — Rev. vi. 1-4. 
 
 The prophet of God stands, " by the 
 side of the great river which is Hidde- 
 kel." He turns his eye far westward, 
 towards the home of his boyhood, whence 
 the hand of oppression has rudely drag- 
 ged him, and whither the tender recol- 
 lections of youth are ever wont to lead 
 the hoary head and the pious heart. 
 When lo ! from the dim distance, his 
 eager and inquiring eye catches a few 
 rays of the star of Bethlehem ; the 
 starting tear transforms them into a bow 
 of promise, and he almost feels himself 
 standing beneath the bright canopy that 
 surrounds the throne of God and the 
 Lamb. His heart, with enraptured emo- 
 tion, bounds forward, in its effort to an- 
 nihilate time and space ; and his tongue 
 truly exclaims, "O my Lord, what shall 
 be the end of these things ?" 
 
 But every revelation has its time and 
 season, as well as its manner and form ; 
 and the time for the church to under- 
 stand these things is not yet. " Go thy 
 way, Daniel, for the words are closed 
 up and sealed to the time of the end." 
 
 This sealed book, into whose contents 
 the holy seer was so eager to examine, 
 is now, at the juncture of time to which 
 we have arrived, in the possession of 
 " Michael the Great Prince, which stand- 
 eth up for the children of thy people." 
 The " Lion of the tribe of Judah" holds 
 in his hand that mysterious scroll on 
 which are recorded the destinies of all 
 earth's kingdoms, so far as they materi- 
 ally affect that heavenly kingdom in 
 which the God of glory has fixed his 
 
 throne. That hand alone, of all in the 
 universe of being, is worthy to loose the 
 seals, and to open the book. And that 
 hand alone — delightful, soul-transporting 
 thought, — was nailed to the cross for thy 
 redemption, O, believer in Jesus ! That 
 eye of flaming fire alone, of all yonder 
 countless throng, which, sparkling in 
 splendour, reflects the radiance of the 
 divine throne, is able to read the book ! 
 And that eye, O, unbeliever, looks 
 down, and weeps over the impenitence 
 of thy rebellious heart ! Awake, arise ! 
 behold how terrible in its grandeur, and 
 awful in its brightness, is that throne, 
 and the face of him that sitteth thereon ! 
 But there stands also a Mediator between 
 you and the throne — a Lion ; but not a 
 Lion only, this might fill thee with 
 trembling dread. He is also a Lamb, 
 a Lamb as it had been slain, our pass- 
 over, sacrificed for us. Thus, to keep 
 before our minds perpetually, the glo- 
 rious and fundamental doctrine of re- 
 demption through the vicarious sufferings 
 and death of Jesus, in the law, place, 
 and room of his own people, whom he 
 foreknew, John fixes our eye upon the 
 bleeding Saviour. Let us never forget 
 that the babe of Bethlehem is the Ruler 
 of the universe. His voice, who groan- 
 ed in Gethsemane, shall yet awake the 
 sleeping millions of the dead ; his head, 
 which wore the crown of thorns, now 
 wears the crown of glory. The power 
 of his mighty arm is pledged for the 
 eternal welfare of all those that believe. 
 With the full consolation of this truth 
 swelling in our bosoms, let us draw nigh 
 to him. Though he be the Lion, there 
 is no terror in his eye, except to his ene- 
 mies. There is no wrath in that coun- 
 tenance, except to those who trample 
 under foot and despise his precious blood. 
 . Before we proceed to the detail, it is 
 proper that we should note the general 
 contents of the book. It has been al- 
 ready intimated that the seven seals 
 divide it into seven parts. These seals 
 can only be opened successively. None 
 but one is accessible at a time. This 
 construction of the book is undoubtedly 
 intended to intimate a chronological order 
 in the matter covered by the seals, as to 
 
LECTURE XII. 
 
 109 
 
 its beginning. We therefore feci dis- 
 posed to cast aside, as unworthy of be- 
 ing read, any exposition of this pro- 
 phecy which sets out by confounding 
 the chronology. The expositor who does 
 not feel himself at once shut up to the 
 necessity of considering the seals in a 
 regular order, appears to lack entirely 
 an indispensable requisite to success. 
 
 But you will notice the remark, that 
 the chronological order regards the 
 opening of the seals : that is, the intro- 
 duction of some important transaction, 
 or series of transactions : but not that 
 all these transactions must be closed 
 up and finished before the next seal is 
 broken. The already opened seal can 
 still be read after its successor also is 
 exposed to view. Thus, the providential 
 occurrences, commencing in the first 
 seal, continue through others. The mat- 
 ter of one, because of its peculiar nature, 
 overlaps that of another. The white 
 horse does not disappear the moment 
 that the red horse presents himself. On 
 the contrary, he remains in the field ; 
 victorious, less or more, at various times, 
 until his triumph is complete. 
 
 This scroll, as already mentioned, 
 runs down to the end of time, and the 
 judgment day. It is divided into seven 
 parts by the seven seals. But the seventh 
 seal, or seventh part, is divided into 
 seven parts ; — the seven trumpets : and 
 again the seventh trumpet or part is 
 subdivided into seven ; — the seven vials : 
 these continue until the introduction of 
 the period of the millennium. So that we 
 have, up to, and inclusive of it, four 
 grand periods of time, which are most 
 naturally marked thus : 
 
 I. The period of the Seals. 
 II. The period of the Trumpets. 
 
 III. The period of the Vials. 
 
 IV. The period of the Millennium. 
 
 There are some other matters com- 
 prehended in the book that might per- 
 haps be separated into distinct periods. 
 Dr. McLeod, upon the whole, the best 
 expounder of the Apocalypse whom we 
 have met with, adds, the period of sub- 
 sequent deterioration, — of Gog and Ma- 
 gog ; the period of the final judgment; 
 the period of celestial glory. But as 
 
 it is not proposed to dwell long, or to 
 attempt much detail in regard to these, 
 it would be scarcely consistent to pre- 
 sent them as heads in a general division. 
 
 PERIOD I. THE SEALS. 
 
 The first question here regards the 
 time of this period's beginning. Bishop 
 Newton finds in the first seal, the victo- 
 rious triumphs of Vespasian ; which vic- 
 tories and triumphs resulted in his undis- 
 puted possession of the imperial throne, 
 A. D. 69. Consequently, the bishop will 
 have the first seal to open about this 
 time. So respectable an expositor is 
 worthy of a refutation when he errs ; 
 for the error of such a man may result 
 in injury to the cause. A brief state- 
 ment of the historical facts is therefore 
 indispensable. 
 
 Vespasian commanded the Roman 
 legions in the East, in A. D. 68, when 
 Nero, who had been proclaimed by the 
 Senate a public enemy, perished by his 
 own or his wife's hands. A short time 
 before his death, Galba revolted from 
 him in Spain, and was proclaimed em- 
 peror. Otho, who was with Galba, and 
 expected, because of existing friendship, 
 to share the purple with him, irritated 
 at him for adopting Piso, killed them 
 both, before Galba had occupied the 
 throne ten months. The competition 
 for supremacy now lay immediately 
 between Vitellius, who commanded in 
 Germany, and Otho. The latter was 
 worsted in battle, and felt himself 
 obliged to do for himself the same kind 
 office which he had performed for his 
 friend Galba. Vitellius took possession 
 of Rome, and was acknowledged empe- 
 ror. But the fourth competitor was still 
 in the field. Vespasian was just about 
 to press the siege of Jerusalem, when 
 the death of Nero was announced. He 
 immediately fell back upon Alexandria, 
 where his army proclaimed him emperor. 
 He sent his generals against Vitellius, 
 who was routed, his legions cut to pieces, 
 and himself slain. Upon the annuncia- 
 tion of this news, Vespasian sent his son 
 Titus against Jerusalem : and he him- 
 
110 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 self proceeded from Alexandria, and en- 
 tered Rome with all the possible pomp 
 and martial parade of glorious triumph. 
 To these victories and rejoicings, Bishop 
 Newton applies the first seal : but to this 
 interpretation we demur. 
 
 1. Because, as will be fully shown in 
 the sequel of this lecture, the horse is a 
 symbol of God's providential agency. 
 Consequently, the rider who guides the 
 horse is the ruler of the kingdom of 
 providence : but that ruler is the " Lion 
 of the tribe of Judah," — he only can 
 open the seals and read the book. 
 
 2. This figure of triumph represents 
 victory, connected with stainless purity. 
 But the victories of Vespasian were with 
 " confused noise, and garments rolled in 
 blood." His triumph was that of cruelty, 
 injustice, oppression, and crime. 
 
 3. This conqueror goes forth wear- 
 ing his crown ; but Vespasian returned 
 after his victories, to take possession of 
 his : and few conquests were afterwards 
 achieved by him. Whereas, the phrase 
 in the first seal implies continued pro- 
 gression ; " he went forth, conquering 
 and to conquer," — he tcent out, con- 
 quering, and that he might conquer. 
 This is not true of Vespasian. He 
 ceased to conquer ; and in the third 
 year of his reign the temple of Janus 
 was shut, for the sixth time, as a sign 
 
 jof universal peace. He went out, a 
 general, and nothing more ; he returned 
 an emperor elect, and he then ceased to 
 conquer. But the rider of the white 
 horse went out, crowned, and no account 
 is given, in this vision, of his return. 
 
 4. The crown was given to this bright 
 conqueror, before he rode forth ; but 
 Vespasian's crown was forced from con- 
 tending claimants ; and, though given 
 to him, amid the acclamations of a de- 
 graded and menial people, by a servile 
 senate, yet was it in fact wrested from 
 them at the point of the sword, and pur- 
 chased with the carnage of a hundred 
 thousand men, slaughtered at the shrine 
 of bloodthirsty ambition. 
 
 5. But again, it is necessary, on the 
 bishop's interpretation, to maintain that 
 the Apocalypse was written before the 
 wars and victories of Vespasian. He 
 
 affirms, accordingly, that John's banish- 
 ment took place during the Neronian 
 persecution, in 67 or 68. This position 
 cannot be supported. Eusebius, (book 
 iii. chap, xxiii.) expressly asserts John's 
 return " from exile on the island, and 
 the death of Domitian." He then ad- 
 duces the testimony of Irenaaus and 
 Clement of Alexandria, to prove John's 
 continuance until the reign of Trajan : 
 and it is the common opinion now, that 
 the vision occurred A. D. 95 or 97. 
 Consequently, it could not be prophecy 
 at all ; it could not be of " the things 
 which shall be hereafter," if it referred 
 to Vespasian. 
 
 Nor can this seal relate directly and 
 only to Constant)' ne the Great ; and the 
 triumphant establishment of Christianity 
 as the religion of the empire, as some 
 dream : for the things prophesied of, as 
 what must be, (ch. i. 1,) are to be 
 shortly. This could not be spoken of 
 events two hundred and thirty years in 
 advance. 
 
 The first seal is the first prophetic 
 part of the book, and must be broken 
 shortly. The other extremity of the 
 period of the seals, when the sixth is 
 to be opened, we shall see reason to 
 believe, is in A. D. 323, when the em- 
 pire became Christian, on the accession 
 of Constantine. The whole period will, 
 therefore, extend from the time of the 
 vision, about 96 or 97, to 323, — a space 
 of two hundred and twenty-six or seven 
 years. 
 
 " The Lamb opened one of the seals, 
 and I heard, as it were, the noise of 
 thunder, one of the four living creatures 
 saying, Come and see." 
 
 The breaking of the seal is the deve- 
 lopement of the events in divine provi- 
 dence, which are under the conduct of 
 Messiah. 
 
 Thunder is the voice of God, and is 
 emblematic of any instrumentality he 
 may use to arrest the attention of men, 
 and to excite solemn awe and dread in 
 the mind. " He uttered his voice, the 
 earth melted," (Ps. xlvi. 6.) The spe- 
 cial agency employed here, is that of 
 the lion-faced, living one ; that is, the 
 ministry of the gospel in the attitude, 
 
LECTURE XII. 
 
 Ill 
 
 and with the air of bold and dauntless 
 courage. This of itself at once indicates 
 events in prospect, which will put to the 
 test the heroic spirit of the church. The 
 things that must be shortly, under the 
 Redeemer's administration, will call for 
 lion-heartedness and strength. Infinite 
 wisdom always adapts his agency to his 
 work. The church is now to go forth 
 in the power of her King, to vanquish 
 the world ; all her energies will be called 
 into requisition, and the lion's roar, the 
 determined and fearless preaching of the 
 gospel, is her call to action. " The lion 
 hath roared, who will not fear ?" Ac- 
 cordingly, in every age, when her 
 movements must be aggressive, as be- 
 fore observed, we find such men as 
 Paul and Huss, Zuingle and Luther, 
 Calvin and Knox. By the thundering 
 voice of the lion, is to be understood the 
 preaching of the gospel, during the pe- 
 riod referred to. 
 
 Thus summoned to the sight, John 
 " saw, and behold, a white horse ; and 
 he that sat on him had a bow; and a 
 crown was given unto him : and he 
 went forth conquering, and to conquer." 
 
 The horse, as previously remarked, 
 is used as a symbol of God's providen- 
 tial agency, — of whatever agency he 
 employs to accomplish his purposes of 
 mercy or of wrath. Thus Zechariah 
 (vi. 1-8,) had a vision of four chariots 
 coming out from between two moun- 
 tains, " and the mountains were moun- 
 tains of brass." " And the angel an- 
 swered and said unto me, These are 
 the four spirits of the heavens, which go 
 forth from standing before the Lord of 
 all the earth." " He maketh his angels 
 spirits, and his ministers a flame of 
 fire." " God's chariots are twenty thou- 
 sand, even thousands of angels." 
 
 The horse was much more honoured 
 in ancient than it is in modern times. 
 He was almost devoted to war, and was 
 rarely used but in this service, and that 
 of the kings and nobles. It is well 
 known that the ancient Persians deified 
 the sun, and consecrated horses to this 
 god. They, being the swiftest of do- 
 mestic animals, were best suited to sym- 
 bolize the sun's rapid motion. Into this 
 
 idolatry Israel had fallen, prior to the 
 reign of Josiah ; (2 Kings, xxiii. 2,) 
 who " took away the horses which the 
 kings of Judah had given to the sun, 
 at the entering in of the house of the 
 Lord." 
 
 The colour here, is also unquestion- 
 ably figurative. It betokens victory, 
 and is the natural emblem of purity 
 and truth. When therefore the Roman 
 Senate voted a triumph to any victorious 
 leader, it signified that he was privi- 
 leged to make a formal entry into the ( 
 city, in a splendid car drawn by white 
 horses, with the vanquished kings and 
 generals chained and led at his chariot 
 wheels, together with a display of the 
 spoils of the conquered nation. Thus 
 the vision presents war, victory, and 
 triumph. 
 
 This is more apparent when we re- 
 gard his bow, the ordinary weapon of 
 offensive war. We say offensive war ; 
 for, like the son of Jesse, he wears no 
 defensive armour. He is in himself in- 
 vincible. " No shaft of the adversary 
 can pierce him." 
 
 " A crown was given to him." He 
 is then a warring king : he fights under 
 a crown which he did not acquire by 
 usurpation, and the murderous havoc of 
 slaughtered millions. He wears it, and 
 goes forth to vindicate its rights. His 
 aim therefore is, to bring his revolted 
 subjects to bow before him in a cheerful 
 obedience ; or if they refuse, to assert 
 his own title to their homage, by what- 
 ever means may be necessary. 
 
 " Conquering and to conquer," is an 
 Hebraism for greatly conquering ; and 
 obviously bespeaks the purpose for which 
 this king goes forth to the acquisition of 
 new and splendid victories. 
 
 You will observe that there is no 
 minute description now given of his per- 
 son. Nor is it usual and natural to 
 mark every particular in reference to 
 the leader, as he starts upon his expedi- 
 tion, with the same carefulness and 
 lively precision, as when he returns 
 triumphant. Then all eyes are upon 
 him ; — all tongues resound his name, 
 and proclaim his mighty deeds. 
 
 This picture of the conqueror, ex- 
 
112 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 hibits Jesus, the King of Zion, and Lord 
 of the whole earth. He has been bap- 
 tized in his own blood, — has gone down 
 beneath the stroke of devouring death, — 
 has grappled with that grim monster, 
 who is the king of terrors, and the terror 
 of kings, — has gained the victory, and 
 borne off the spoils of his empire, the 
 grave. He has received his kingdom, 
 but it is in a state of revolt. He has 
 pledged the jewels of his crown to bring 
 it back to its lost allegiance. His work 
 •is before him, and he will accomplish it. 
 His reward is with him, and he will bear 
 it home to his Father's house, amid the 
 shouts of redeemed millions. 
 
 No other evidence of the correctness 
 of this interpretation can be necessary, 
 than a reference to chapter xix. 11-16. 
 " And I saw heaven opened, and behold 
 a white horse, and he that sat upon him 
 was called Faithful, and True, and in 
 righteousness doth he judge and make 
 war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, 
 and on his head were many crowns ; 
 and he had a name written that no man 
 knew but he himself. And he was 
 clothed in a vesture dipped in blood : 
 and his name is called, the Word of 
 God. And the armies which were in 
 heaven followed him upon white horses, 
 clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 
 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp 
 sword, that with it he shall smite the 
 nations : and he shall rule them with a 
 rod of iron ; and he treadeth the wine 
 press of the fierceness and wrath of 
 Almighty God. And he hath on his 
 vesture, and on his thigh, a name 
 written, King of Kings, and Lord of 
 Lords." 
 
 Is not this the same personage pre- 
 viously referred to 1 Who can hesitate 
 for a moment to believe it ? True there 
 are several additional circumstances, 
 and why should there not be? This 
 warrior has been, for eighteen centuries, 
 coursing the field of glorious conquest, 
 and now he returns with the trophies of 
 a vanquished world, — not chained in 
 ignominy at his chariot wheel, but all 
 upon white horses, with palms of victory 
 in their hands, to lay at the footstool of 
 his Father's throne! 
 
 This scene in the nineteenth chapter, 
 as we shall see hereafter, if God permit, 
 immediately precedes the introduction of 
 millennial glory. Between the period of 
 our text and this, there must intervene 
 many a bloodless conquest of truth. 
 Many a crown must supplant the thorny 
 wreath of Calvary : many a giant heresy 
 must be cleaved by that two-edged sword, 
 — the Word of God : many a legion of 
 obstinate and self-willed rebels must be 
 trodden down in his anger, and trampled 
 in his fury. Yet who can doubt that 
 this is the man of Calvary, — the babe at 
 Bethlehem born ! 
 
 There is nothing in the picture, as 
 already remarked, to intimate the return 
 of the warrior, with his crown and bow. 
 It is said only, that he toent forth. It 
 has been also remarked, that the seals 
 respectively designate the introduction 
 of an event or series of events ; but not 
 necessarily their termination : this may, 
 and in the present case does, extend be- 
 yond all the seven seals, the seven trum- 
 pets, and the seven vials. This victor 
 king keeps the field, even now ; and he 
 ever will keep it, whilst an enemy of 
 God is found in this revolted province of 
 his universe. His bow is bent : his 
 arrows are set : his two-edged sword is 
 drawn : the legions of error and death 
 melt away before him. Lo ! his banner 
 is on the mountain tops. " He rideth 
 upon a cherub, and doth fly : yea, he 
 doth fly upon the wings of the wind !" 
 
 Let us remark again that this war of 
 the crown-clad king, is aggressive in its 
 movement, though defensive in its prin- 
 ciple. Whilst the Mediator is apparently 
 the assailant, his assaults are all based 
 upon the natural and unalienable rights 
 of his crown. His kingdom ruleth over 
 all ; it is a universal dominion : and 
 consequently, even he cannot, extend his 
 conquests beyond the just limits of his 
 own empire. He must reign till he have 
 put all his enemies under his feet, and 
 all his friends upon his throne. But he 
 stands not still to await their approach : 
 he goes forth. Nor must his living 
 agency be stationary. The heralds of 
 mercy, — the soldiers of the cross, — the 
 missionaries of good tidings, must be 
 
LECTURE XII. 
 
 113 
 
 sent by the churches, and must go forth 
 after the Captain of their salvation. In 
 vain would the churches wait and pray- 
 in slothful inactivity. The heathen 
 world would never be brought into the 
 Christian temple, unless the church's 
 warfare be aggressive. When God's 
 providence hems us in by the mountain 
 and the sea, so that we cannot go for- 
 ward nor backward ; to the right hand, or 
 to the left, then we are to stand still, 
 and see the salvation of the Lord. But 
 when he has placed before us an open 
 door, great and effectual, whereby we 
 can enter upon Gentile territory, and 
 possess it in the name of the Most 
 High, is it a time for inactivity? Nor 
 is such inactivity characteristic of the 
 Lord's hosts. The breaker up of the 
 ways has gone before us. His shout is 
 in the valleys, and the mountain sides 
 re-echo the songs of his joy. Let the 
 church be up and doing. Bloodless vic- 
 tories are in reversion for the friends of 
 truth. 
 
 But who may share in the glories of 
 this warfare, and the triumphs of this 
 king? Thou, — upon whose brow is the 
 dew of youth, — even thou ! This day 
 we tell thee, with authority from the 
 Monarch himself, that thine assistance 
 is needed. His ranks are not full ; they 
 must be complete, or the cause will 
 suffer. We tender thee in his name a 
 commission in his royal army, — a com- 
 mission not to be bought with gold, but 
 with a heart of lion courage, that can 
 dare to follow the Captain of salvation. 
 This commission is offered thee, not in 
 time of peace and quiet, when it might 
 be ignominious to receive it, — when it 
 might be that no opportunity would be 
 presented for thee to win the applause of 
 thy Commander, and the admiration of 
 thy comrades. But it is pressed upon 
 thee on the eve of a general war, when 
 battles must be fought, — when victories 
 must be won, — when the very posses- 
 sion of a commission is itself evidence 
 of the King's confidence. The enemy's 
 bulwarks must be assaulted ere long, 
 and carried at the sword's point : and 
 the high honour of leading the forlorn 
 hope against some of these, is proffered 
 
 15 
 
 this day to thee! What a field for 
 sanctified ambition is here ! And who 
 is he, that with a bounding heart, would 
 not enter upon it ? Who will take his 
 life in his hand, descend into the plain, 
 and follow the fortunes of the Son of 
 David ? 
 
 Ah ! is there none, — none to say, 
 "here am I, send me!" No youth whose 
 soul tells him, — thou canst dare the con- 
 flict ; surely thou canst trust the protect- 
 ing power of the King ! 
 
 If not ; — then know, O, youth ! that 
 our Leader will not lack officers, nor sol- 
 diers, nor battles, nor conquests, nor 
 glories unutterable ; but thou shalt lack 
 sword and bow in the time of conflict,—-, 
 a voice of exultation in the hour of vic- 
 tory, — a crown of glory in the day of 
 triumph ! 
 
 But if thou art willing to serve this 
 King, then gird on thy weapon, mount 
 thy white horse, and descend into the 
 field. Should the eyes, of friends, — of 
 kindred, — of country, — of the church, 
 lose sight of thee for a time, amid the 
 clouds of battle, what boots it ? The 
 burning eye of thy Commander is on. 
 thee, and thou shalt be found by his side 
 when he returns in glory ! 
 
 THE SECOND SEAL. 
 
 Verses 3, 4. " And when he had open-, 
 ed the second seal, I heard the second 
 living creature say, Come and see. And 
 there went out another horse that was 
 red : and power was given to him that 
 sat thereon to take peace from the earth, 
 and that they should kill one another : 
 and there was given- to him a great 
 sword." 
 
 Upon the breaking open of the seal, 
 another portion of the scroll is spread 
 out. When the Redeemer unrolls the 
 book of hi? providence, what was before 
 laid up in the divine purpose, and out of 
 man's sight, becomes visible. This pic- 
 ture, which is now apparent, most signi- 
 ficantly represents war, havoc, and blood. 
 And this destruction, whatever may be 
 the instrumental agents in its accomplish- 
 ment, is all under the direction of the 
 Mediator. 
 
114 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 But let us first advert to the charac- 
 teristics, requisite in Gospel ministers, 
 during periods of war and distress ; and 
 especially of persecuting wars. The 
 second living creature calls upon the 
 church, to come and see. This, we have 
 said, is a representation of the ministry, 
 as patient endurers of labour, toil, and 
 suffering : and it is easy to perceive, that 
 when the whole land is embroiled in 
 scenes of carnage, and when the people 
 of God are hunted by the bloodhounds 
 of persecution, — it is easy to perceive 
 how the public servants of the church 
 must experience very great calamities, 
 must endure excessive hardships, and 
 usually fall the first victims for the word 
 of God, and the testimony of Jesus. 
 
 The rider of this horse, is also the 
 mighty Redeemer. He is so described in 
 Isaiah lxiii.: "Who is this that cometh 
 from Edom, with dyed garments from 
 Bozrah 1 — Wherefore art thou red in 
 thine apparel, and thy garments like one 
 that treadeth the wine-fat? I have trodden 
 the wine-press alone ; and of the people 
 there was none with me : for I will tread 
 them in mine anger, and trample them in 
 my fury ; and their blood shall be sprin- 
 kled upon my garments, and I will stain 
 all my raiment." And in Psalm xlvi. 8, 
 it is said, " Come, behold the works of 
 the Lord, what desolations he hath made 
 in the earth." The God of providence 
 rules in the storm of battle; he giveth the 
 victory to whomsoever he will. " The 
 Lord is a man of war," (Ex. xv. 3.) 
 Hence he is so often called the Lord of 
 hosts, or armies. He often raises up the 
 sword of oppression to scourge his of- 
 fending church. There is, therefore, no 
 incongruity in supposing the rider here 
 to represent the same person who comes 
 from Edom ; — Jesus is mighty to save, 
 but he is also mighty to destroy. 
 
 The colour of the horse is again to be 
 noted: the red or fiery hue clearly be- 
 tokens bloody war, and accordingly, the 
 rider has power given to him to take 
 peace from the earth. So the Redeemer 
 says, " I am not come to send peace on 
 the earth, but a sword." All that is ne- 
 cessary to light up the torch of cruel war, 
 and the fires of fierce persecution over 
 
 the earth, is that the Redeemer withdraw 
 the restraining influences of his grace 
 from men, and every one's hand would 
 soon be imbrued in his brother's blood. 
 Being left to the freedom of their own 
 wills, the natural corruption of the heart 
 would take command of men, and the 
 result would be wide-spread ruin. 
 
 The earth, when used symbolically, 
 in opposition to heaven, represents the 
 civil empire : and the warring period 
 before us, may therefore be expected 
 deeply to affect the whole land as well 
 as the church. History, consequently, 
 tells of conflicts and overturnings great 
 and fearful. In the application of this 
 seal, we can see no reason to dissent 
 from Bishop Newton, and shall therefore 
 freely appropriate his language. " This 
 period," says he, " commenceth with 
 Trajan, who came from the West, being 
 a Spaniard by birth, and was the first 
 foreigner who was elevated to the impe- 
 rial throne. In his reign, and that of his 
 successor, Adrian, there were horrid 
 wars and slaughters, and especially be- 
 tween the rebellious Jews and the Ro- 
 mans. Dion relates, that the Jews about 
 Gyrene, slew of the Romans and Greeks, 
 two hundred and twenty thousand men, 
 with the most shocking circumstances of 
 barbarity. In Egypt also, and Cyprus, 
 they committed the like barbarities, and 
 there perished two hundred and forty 
 thousand men more. But the Jews were 
 subdued in their turn by the other gene- 
 rals, and by Lucius, sent against them by 
 Trajan. Eusebius, writing of the same 
 time, saith, that the Jews, inflamed as 
 it were, by some violent and seditious 
 spirit, in the first conflict gained a victory 
 over the Gentiles, who flying to Alex- 
 andria, took and killed the Jews in that 
 city. The emperor sent Mai'cius Turbo 
 against them with great forces, by sea 
 and land ; who, in many battles, slew 
 many myriads of the Jews. The empe- 
 ror also suspecting that they might make 
 the like commotions in Mesopotamia, 
 ordered Lucius Quietus to expel them 
 out of the province ; who, marching 
 against them, slew a very great multi- 
 tude of them there. Crosius treating of 
 the same, saith, that the Jews, with an 
 
LECTURE XIII. 
 
 115 
 
 incredible commotion, made wild as it 
 were with rage, rose at once in different 
 parts of the earth. For throughout all 
 Lybia, they waged the fiercest wars 
 against the inhabitants, and the country 
 was almost desolated. Egypt also, and 
 Cyrene, and Thebais they disturbed with 
 cruel seditions. But in Alexandria they 
 were overcome in battle. In Mesopota- 
 mia also, war was made upon the rebel- 
 lious Jews, by the command of the em- 
 peror, so that many thousands of them 
 were destroyed with vast slaughter. They 
 utterly destroyed Salamis, a city of Cy- 
 prus, having first murdered all the in- 
 habitants. These things were transacted 
 in the reign of Trajan ; and in the reign 
 of Adrian, was their great rebellion 
 under their false Messiah, Barchochab, 
 and their final dispersion, after fifty of 
 their strongest castles, and nine hundred 
 and eighty-five of their best towns had 
 been demolished, and after five hundred 
 and eighty-five thousand men had been 
 slain by the sword, besides an infinite 
 number who had perished by famine 
 and sickness and other casualties ; with 
 great loss and slaughter too, of the Ro- 
 mans, insomuch, that the emperor for- 
 bore the usual salutations in his letters to 
 the senate. 
 
 " Here was another great triumph of 
 Christ over his enemies : and the Jews 
 and the Romans, both persecutors of 
 the Christians, were remarkably made 
 the dreadful executioners of divine ven- 
 geance upon one another. The great 
 sicord and red horse, are expressive em- 
 blems of this slaughtering and bloody 
 period, and the proclamation for slaugh- 
 ter is fitly made by a creature like an 
 ox, that is destined for slaughter. This 
 period continued during the reigns of 
 Trajan and his successors, by blood or 
 adoption, about ninety-five years." 
 
 Thus far the bishop : but we see no 
 reason why we should not also include 
 the persecutions under Trajan. For 
 although Nerva, the successor of Domi- 
 tian, revoked his edict, and so released 
 John from Patmos, and other Christians 
 from oppression ; yet Trajan's edict still 
 held Christianity as a capital crime, and 
 many were punished with death for their 
 
 adherence to it. During the reign of 
 Adrian also, although some abatement 
 of their calamities occurred, yet in the 
 former part of it, many suffered. Nor 
 did they escape altogether under Anto- 
 ninus Pius, although he interposed his 
 authority in some provinces to prevent 
 it. Under "the good Aurelius," also, 
 as the poet impertinently styles that un- 
 godly persecuting philosopher, Marcus 
 Antoninus, many Christians bled. This 
 emperor, were he now alive, would be 
 called a transcendental philosopher. He 
 was a kind of pantheist. He had God 
 always in him, and of course resembled 
 his modern brethren. Many churches 
 felt the terrible consequences of his 
 malignity ; but those of Lyons and 
 Vienne in France, were almost exter- 
 minated. 
 
 Here then is blood enough to charac- 
 terize the period of the red horse : but a 
 reflection or two, and we must close. 
 
 It is the duty of the Gospel ministry 
 to watch narrowly the policy and the 
 plots of kings and thrones, that they 
 may be able to point out to the church 
 approaching calamities. The watchman 
 who gives no heed to this may be caught 
 sleeping when the enemy comes. 
 
 Let us remember that amid all these 
 commotions, the Lord reigneth. It is 
 the Redeemer who rides upon the red 
 horse of war, and guides him whither- 
 soever he will. It belongs to the pre- 
 rogative of the great King, to send war 
 or to conclude peace. It is therefore of 
 some consequence to the nation to reve- 
 rence the Messiah. His frown makes 
 war, and the light of his countenance 
 spreads abroad the sunshine of peace. 
 
 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 THE THIRD, FOURTH, AND FIFTH SEALS. 
 Rev. vi. 5-11. 
 
 " Light is sweet and a pleasant thing 
 it is for the eyes to behold the sun." 
 Hence the beauty of the metaphor, 
 
116 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 " God is light and in him is no dark- 
 ness at all," which is explained, if it be 
 possible to make the meaning more evi- 
 dent, by another ; " I am the truth." 
 But there is in reality no need of illus- 
 trating the expression — " God is light." 
 "When light is put for truth, the figure is 
 so perfectly natural, and so beautifully 
 expressive, that we perceive the meaning 
 as promptly, when it is said, God is 
 light, as when it is said, God is truth. 
 
 Correspondent to this, the opposite 
 colour, black, is an emblem of igno- 
 rance and error. " Darkness covered 
 the earth — gross darkness the people," 
 — ignorance pervaded the land. 
 
 But as the influence of light in ena- 
 bling men to avoid accidents and evils, 
 is obvious, so it is a sign of prosperity, 
 of joy and gladness. On the contrary, 
 darkness is often attended with danger 
 and risk to such as walk in it ; it is a 
 diminution of comfort ; and hence, an 
 emblem of dulness and sadness. Ig- 
 norance, error, and falsehood, lead to 
 mischief, misery, and wretchedness, and 
 thus black becomes the sign of sorrow 
 and mourning. And here lies the 
 philosophy of the fact, that black is the 
 mourner's colour, — the widow claims it 
 as her own, and arrays her household 
 in it. This is according to nature and 
 sound sense : and therefore, opposition 
 to any mourning dress, is an unreason- 
 able, and unnatural prejudice. It is, 
 moreover, a modern prejudice, — a no- 
 velty : for, from very remote antiquity, 
 mourners have expressed their grief by 
 assuming black as their dress. The 
 sorrow of Israel was thus expressed ; 
 " What profit is it — that we have walked 
 mournfully before the Lord :" (Mai. iii. 
 14 ;) the word translated mournfully, 
 signifies in black. And Job, cursing 
 his day, invokes darkness upon it, (iii. 
 4, 6.) In this chapter it is said that the 
 sun became " black as sackcloth of 
 hair :" and there can be little doubt but 
 that sackcloth was always of a dark, 
 sombre, or black hue. 
 
 There is also in scripture, a special 
 appropriation of this colour to a specific 
 calamitous state of society. " For the 
 hurt of the daughter of my people am I 
 
 hurt. I am black ; astonishment hath 
 taken hold upon me." (Jer. viii. 21.) 
 If we look back to verse 13, we shall 
 see, that this distress is occasioned, par- 
 tially at least, by famine, — "there shall 
 be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on 
 the fig tree ; and the leaf shall fade." 
 So in chap. xiv. 2, " Judah mourneth, 
 and the gates thereof languish ; they 
 are black unto the ground :" and this 
 because of famine: verse 12, "I will 
 consume them, by the sword, and by the 
 famine, and by the pestilence." "Their 
 visage is blacker than a coal, they are 
 not known in the streets ; their skin 
 cleaveth to their bones ; it is withered ; 
 it is become like a stick. They that be 
 slain with the sword are better than they 
 that be slain with hunger ; for these pine 
 away, stricken through for want of the 
 fruits of the field." (Lam. iv. 8, 9.) 
 " Our skin was black like an oven, be- 
 cause of the terrible famine," (verse 10.) 
 Agreeably therefore to scriptural usage, 
 we interpret the colour as the natural 
 ally of famine. 
 
 But war is the ordinary antecedent to 
 famine ; as pestilence is its usual conse- 
 quent. We Americans cannot under- 
 stand this so well as those who live in a 
 dense population, where the consumer 
 stands, with open mouth, watching every 
 movement of the producer of bread ; — 
 where the swelling mass press upon the 
 means of subsistence ; yet a moment's 
 reflection must convince us, that war, 
 which arrests the production of bread, 
 and wastes much that is produced, as it 
 leaves the fields uncultivated, and often 
 tramples them down in its wantonness, 
 must necessarily bring famine in its 
 train ; so also famine, in a dense popu- 
 lation, pollutes the atmosphere, and gene- 
 rates pestilence, and other contagious 
 diseases. 
 
 The scriptural doctrine corresponds 
 with the teachings of reason and obser- 
 vation. " For thus saith the Lord, How 
 much more when I send my four sore 
 judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, 
 and the famine, and the noisome beast, 
 and the pestilence, to cut off from it man 
 and beast?" (Ezek. xiv. 21.) "They 
 shall fall by the sword, by the famine, 
 
LECTURE XIII. 
 
 117 
 
 and by the pestilence" (vi. 11); and in 
 Jer. xxiv. 10, God declares, "I will 
 send the sword, the famine, and the pes- 
 tilence among them." 
 
 This natural and scriptural connexion 
 and order, of war, famine, and pesti- 
 lence, creates a strong presumption, that 
 if the red horse is an emblem of war, 
 the black is that of famine. Let us see 
 whether the attendant circumstances con- 
 sist therewith. 
 
 " And I beheld, and lo ! a black horse, 
 and he that sat on him had a pair of 
 balances in his hand." The word trans- 
 lated balances frequently signifies a yoke 
 — that piece of wood or iron which 
 passes between the oxen or horses ; to 
 the middle of which the vehicle, or what- 
 ever is intended to be drawn along, is 
 fastened. It is extremely easy to un- 
 derstand how this primary meaning of 
 the word may be transferred to signify 
 a pair of scales or balances. If a com- 
 mon yoke is held up by the ring to which 
 the chain for draft is fastened, it forms 
 a pair of scales, — it must balance. 
 
 But, it has been alleged, that the word 
 is to be taken in its primary sense of a 
 yoke ; and then it is a symbol of bon- 
 dage : — to pass under and bear the yoke 
 intimates a state of subjection. This 
 view has been forcibly dragged in to 
 give a very uncouth and untenable inter- 
 pretation to the whole seal. Mr. Keith 
 and Mr. Croly, and perhaps others, 
 maintain that the black horse and rider 
 symbolize Popery ; which, truly enough, 
 is dark, and gloomy, and has its founda- 
 tion in ignorance. The yoke, they af- 
 firm, is an emblem of that bondage 
 which the Papacy has fastened upon the 
 necks of mankind : and having bound it 
 upon the nations of Europe, these com- 
 mentators set the Pope to break up with 
 them the fallow ground of his iniquity : 
 he has sown crime, — he will reap, there- 
 fore, a harvest of blasphemy. 
 
 The chief regret we have in regard to 
 this exposition is the advantage which 
 its incongruity and disregard of chrono- 
 logical order gives to the Romanists. 
 They may well ridicule it : and hold up 
 Protestant inconsistencies as evidence of 
 disagreement on the subject of the Pa- 
 
 pacy ; whereas, it is just ground only 
 of inference, that some expositors are 
 whimsical as to minor matters. 
 
 Only one remark worthy of notice is 
 offered in support of this strange expo- 
 sition : it is, that the Greek word is 
 never used in the New Testament to 
 signify a pair of balances. The thing 
 meant by pair of balances is not any 
 where mentioned in the New Testament, 
 or doubtless this very word would have 
 been so employed. The reason why 
 we feel confident of it is because in 
 every instance where the word balances 
 occurs in the Old Testament, — which is 
 fifteen times, — this very Greek word, 
 %wyog, yoke, is used in the Greek trans- 
 lation. And most assuredly, had the 
 New Testament writers had occasion to 
 express the idea of scales, or balances, 
 fifteen times, they would have used %vyos 
 every time. Nor is there any difficulty 
 in seeing how a pair of scales, as here 
 connected, may aid in representing a 
 scarcity of food. " Moreover, he said 
 unto me, Son of man, behold, I will 
 break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, 
 and they shall eat bread by weight and 
 with care ; and they shall drink water 
 by measure, and with astonishment." 
 (Ezek. iv. 16.) The scales in a man's 
 hand imply great precision in the distri- 
 bution of small quantities : and such is 
 usually the case when provisions are 
 extremely scarce, and, of course, very 
 high priced. In ordinary times of plenty, 
 men are not so exact in weighing or 
 measuring the grosser necessaries of 
 life. 
 
 To this the succeeding expressions 
 agree. " A measure of wheat for a 
 penny." The chenix, or measure here 
 mentioned, is equal to nearly one pint 
 and a half of our measure: and it is 
 very generally agreed among antiqua- 
 rians that a chenix of wheat was the 
 ordinary daily ration of a working man. 
 The denarius, or penny, is equivalent to 
 about fourteen cents of our money : and 
 there is a uniform agreement among the 
 learned, that at that time the denarius 
 was the usual wages per day of a 
 labourer. " As there are thirty-two 
 quarts, or one hundred and thirty-eight 
 
ns 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 half pints to a bushel, the chenix is not 
 quite one-fortieth part of a bushel. Allow 
 it, however, to be the fortieth part ; and, 
 at fourteen cents, the price of a bushel 
 will be five dollars and sixty cents. 
 This price, when the wages of a day- 
 labourer was as low as fourteen cents, 
 indicates great famine. Dabuz shows, 
 from ancient authorities, that in time of 
 plenty, twenty chenixes were sold for a 
 denarius. The scarcity must be great 
 when the price of wheat was raised 
 twenty to one ; and other bread corn in 
 proportion." (McLeod, p. 94.) 
 
 " And three measures of barley for 
 a penny." The proportional value of 
 wheat and barley, then, was as three to 
 one. The price of barley must have 
 been equal to one dollar eighty-seven 
 cents of our money ; indicative of ex- 
 treme scarcity. 
 
 " And see thou hurt not the oil and 
 the wine." The word translated hurt 
 signifies properly to do injustice ; as, 
 Matt. xx. 13, "Friend, I do thee no 
 wrong." Acts vii. 24, 26, 27, " And 
 seeing one of them suffer wrong, why 
 do ye wrong one to another. But he 
 that did his neighbour wrong thrust him 
 away." Rev. ii. 11, " He that over- 
 cometh shall not be hurt of the second 
 death," — shall suffer no injustice from 
 the second death. Chap. vii. 2, 3, " to 
 whom it was given to hurt the earth 
 and the sea, saying, hurt not the earth, 
 neither the sea, nor the trees." In the 
 verse before us, it appears to be taken 
 in its primary sense of injustice ; do no 
 injustice in reference to the oil and the 
 wine. These, it is well known, belonged 
 mainly to the rich : they were luxuries, 
 and were found only on the tables of 
 the wealthy. As it regards them, there 
 is thrown in a prohibition, — let the even 
 balances of justice be used in their dis- 
 tribution. This again intimates strong 
 temptation to mix, and medicate, and 
 practise fraud, because of extreme high 
 price : and is also a symptom of scarcity. 
 
 To this again corresponds the minis- 
 terial figures. In times of famine there 
 is opened a wide door for the out-going 
 of human sympathy. When, therefore, 
 the seal is opened, the third living crea- 
 
 ture, having a face as a man, calls the 
 attention of the church. If the children 
 cry for bread, and there is none, it is a 
 time for deep commiseration. How the 
 heart's sympathy kindles at the inter- 
 view between Elijah and the widow, who 
 was gathering sticks to bake her last 
 handful of meal ! On no occasion is 
 there a louder call for all that is tender 
 in human affection, to be exercised by 
 the ministers and members of the church, 
 than in times of famine. 
 
 Let us turn our eye upon the historic 
 page, and see if facts can be found to 
 sustain this exposition of the symbol. 
 Bishop Newton applies all this to the pe- 
 riod of the reign of the Septinian fami- 
 ly, about forty-two years ; during which 
 great scarcity prevailed. Vast efforts 
 were made to prevent the consequent mi- 
 series by laying up stores of provisions. 
 But here, as before, we may conceive 
 the seal to extend farther : and so cover 
 all the famine that occurred in the pe- 
 riod of the seals. Eusebius gives us an 
 awful description of famine and pesti- 
 lence, and seems to apply it to the reign 
 of Maximin ; but probably permitted his 
 eye to take a farther range. " But," 
 says he, " the rest of the inhabitants of 
 cities under him were dreadfully afflicted 
 both by famine and pestilence, so that a 
 single measure of wheat was sold for two 
 thousand five hundred Attic drachms. 
 Immense numbers were dying in the 
 cities, still more in the country and vil- 
 lages, so that now the vast population in 
 the interior was almost entirely swept 
 away — nearly all being suddenly de- 
 stroyed by want of food and pestilential 
 disease. Some, indeed, wasted away 
 to mere skeletons, stumbled hither and 
 thither like dead shadows, trembling and 
 tottering from excessive weakness and 
 inability to stand. So that now, in the 
 midst of the streets and lanes, the dead 
 and naked bodies, cast out and lying for 
 many days, presented a most painful 
 spectacle to the beholders." (Book ix. 
 chap, viii.) The heart sickening details 
 here described, it will be remembered, 
 are pointed out by a cotemporary. They 
 occurred, in part, during his own age, 
 and may the more safely be confided in. 
 
LECTURE XIII. 
 
 119 
 
 There was, also, severe famine in the 
 first year of the reign of Gallus ; and 
 this was speedily followed by pestilence, 
 which broke out in Ethiopia and spread 
 throughout the empire with fearful ha- 
 voc. (See Uni. Hist. xiii. p. 480.) Truly 
 the Son of God displayed his indigna- 
 tion in fearful terrors when he rode 
 forth upon the black horse of famine. 
 
 THE FOURTH SEAL. 
 
 Verses 7, 8. " And when he had 
 opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice 
 of the fourth living creature say, Come 
 and see. And I looked, and behold, a pale 
 horse: and his name that sat on him was 
 death, and hell followed with him." 
 
 1. Let us note the colour, — "a pale 
 horse," (^Xwpoj), a livid green, like the 
 complexion of a person long worn down 
 by diseases which prevail on flat, low 
 lands; where pestilential miasma abounds 
 — the colour of a corpse. We have 
 seen that the sword, famine and pesti- 
 lence are the three leading instruments 
 of God's judgments upon the wicked 
 nations. This represents the last. 
 
 2. The rider of the horse, he who 
 directs this terrible scourge, is, of course, 
 the Lion of the tribe of Judah. There 
 is no disease mentioned in scripture, 
 which is represented so immediately un- 
 der divine direction, as the pestilence or 
 plague ; and the conceptions of man 
 correspond to scripture. When David 
 had offended in numbering Israel, he 
 had his choice between war, famine and 
 pestilence as the instruments of his chas- 
 tisement. He chose the last, as being 
 most entirely and immediately under 
 the divine direction : " Let us fall now 
 into the hand of the Lord." " So the 
 Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel." And 
 it is manifest, that the Angel destroyer 
 that stayed his hand as it was stretched 
 out over Jerusalem, is the uncreated 
 Angel Jehovah, to whom David offered 
 sacrifice. 
 
 But this rider's name is death. Now 
 the Mediator is Lord of life; there is 
 therefore an incongruity in his being re- 
 presented under the personification of 
 Death. 
 
 To this objection, the first answer is 
 the statement just made, that the plague 
 or pestilence is peculiarly under God's 
 immediate direction. It is He that kills 
 by the sword, famine and pestilence. 
 This objection therefore, cannot be sus- 
 tained against the matter of the figure. 
 The pale horse is the Mediator's agency 
 to punish wicked men ; he himself di- 
 rects this agency. The objection then 
 lies solely against the sign, not against 
 the thing signified. 
 
 2. We have an analogous case in the 
 serpent as a symbol of wisdom ; and 
 an emblem of Christ. It is undeniable, 
 that the serpent elevated by Moses, was 
 a type of Christ. So he himself ap- 
 plied it. " As Moses lifted up the ser- 
 pent in the wilderness, so shall the Son 
 of man be lifted up." Now, the incon- 
 gruity here, is the more striking, because 
 the serpent was used by Satan as the 
 instrument of the first temptation ; and 
 hence too, he is called, " that old serpent 
 the devil." Still it is an emblem of wis- 
 dom, and such was the use made of it 
 by Moses according to divine direction. 
 So here, Jesus represents himself as the 
 executioner of death upon rebellious man. 
 He directs the plague-stroke where to fall. 
 
 3. But moreover, the supposed incon- 
 gruity is in our imagination. We have 
 ever accustomed ourselves to view death 
 as an object of extreme terror, and thus 
 to personify and paint him in hideous 
 colours. It will indeed, be very difficult 
 for him who has stood mute and ab- 
 sorbed, gazing upon the horrible demo- 
 niacal figure which the genius of our 
 countryman has placed upon the pale 
 horse as he plunges down the hill-side, 
 — happiness and health and life all flee- 
 ing at his approach ; for such it will be 
 difficult to overcome the influence of that 
 most terrific vision, and to bring his 
 feelings to endure the suggestion that 
 death on the pale horse is the Prince of 
 life, taking vengeance on men by the 
 instrumentality of the plague. But let 
 us not worship the painted canvass, nor 
 shudder even at this combination of co- 
 lours. It were as great folly to allow 
 the artist to drive us off the ground of 
 plain fact and common sense, by this 
 
120 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 wonderful painting, as to permit Ra- 
 phael to bend us down in humble adora- 
 tion before his Madonna. Let us keep 
 judgment on her throne, and set imagi- 
 nation to correct her own errors. If 
 West had spent the energies of his great 
 mind in giving us a painting of Death's 
 visit to 
 
 " The chamber where the good man meets his 
 fate," 
 
 how very different must have been the 
 result ! Then indeed we should not 
 have seen that grim countenance, that 
 haggard visage, those fiendish eyes, that 
 erect hair, intertwined with hissing ser- 
 pents, that arm outstretched and nerved, 
 ana forked disease like electric sparks 
 emanating from that clenched hand. 
 Far from it. Death would then have 
 come with a countenance arrayed in all 
 heaven's loveliness, joy sparkling in his 
 eye, grace upon his lips, robes of right- 
 eousness and a crown of glory in his 
 hand. Like the messenger of Egypt's 
 king, when he came to the cell of the 
 captive Hebrew youth to array him in 
 royal robes, and to put a chain of gold 
 about his neck, Death would have been 
 seen on the canvass riding in triumph 
 and splendour to bear the ransomed 
 spirit to his throne of brightness above 
 the skies. But the painter's object was, 
 to exhibit Death as he is viewed by wick- 
 ed men ; and doubtless, the Lamb of 
 God is not an object of complacency 
 and delight in the eyes of those who 
 have sinned away their day of grace, 
 in trampling under foot his blood. How- 
 ever difficult therefore, it may be for us 
 to vanquish our imaginations, still the 
 sober fact is, that the Mediator is the 
 God of providence, and the pestilence 
 is his ministering servant. 
 
 " And hell followed with him." The 
 word translated hell, is Hades, — the 
 grave opens wide her mouth to receive 
 those whom the plague smites down. 
 
 We should observe, that the plague 
 is, or at least has always been reputed 
 a contagious disease, originating in phy- 
 sical impurity. Hence, the natural re- 
 lation it sustains to war and famine, and 
 the eagle eye of vigilance to detect its 
 
 approach. Whatever promotes cleanli- 
 ness, will tend to arrest its progress. 
 Desolating fires consume its generating 
 causes. The city of London was ter- 
 ribly scourged with it in the reign of 
 Edward III., and in that of Elizabeth, 
 about 1563, twenty thousand persons 
 were cut off by it in one year, in that 
 city. In 1665, in the reign of Charles 
 II., ninety thousand perished. In 1666, 
 on a Sabbath day, a fire broke out near 
 London bridge, and raged with fury for 
 three days ; thirteen thousand houses 
 were destroyed. But this dreadful visi- 
 tation cured the plague. The city was 
 built up with wider streets and better 
 houses, and that fearful scourge has not 
 been known in London since. Turkish 
 cities are sinks of filth, and consequently 
 liable to the pestilence. Constantinople 
 has suffered often, and it will continue 
 to suffer, no doubt, until the moral fires 
 of Christianity and the natural element 
 shall combine for its purification. 
 
 Here we may note, that the vigilant 
 eyes of the Christian ministry are repre- 
 sented by the eagle-faced living ones. 
 Accordingly, during seasons of calamity 
 from this disease, they are peculiarly 
 active and watchful. Christianity has 
 almost entirely banished the plague. 
 Physically it dries up the fountains of 
 this disease, by the habits of cleanliness 
 which it produces. The sabbatic institu- 
 tion alone, is an antidote, — rather a pro- 
 phylactic remedy against it. Wherever 
 the sabbath and its attendant services 
 meet with proper regard, there the mass 
 of the people are lifted up to -habits of 
 natural purity. 
 
 Such is the fourth seal ; and we have 
 already cited Eusebius on the points of 
 its leading feature, pestilence. Bishop 
 Newton begins it with Maximin, the 
 Thracian giant, who was a ferocious 
 being, far more allied to the brute crea- 
 tion than to humanity. Fierce contests 
 for power desolated the land, and famine 
 brought pestilence in its train. An idea 
 may be formed of the horrors of these 
 times, by the fact, that from the death of 
 Nero in 69, to the reign of Maximin, 
 about 313 — a space of two hundred and 
 forty four years, there were more than 
 
LECTURE XIII. 
 
 121 
 
 f fty emperors : nearly all of whom 
 waded to power through blood, and then 
 fell by violence ; — only seventeen died a 
 natural death. 
 
 The latter part of verse 8, refers, as 
 we suppose, to the three seals which 
 symbolize war, famine, and pestilence. 
 Griesbach proposes and prefers a dif- 
 ferent reading, — introducing the sin- 
 gular instead of the plural. We have 
 it thus : " And power was given unto 
 them over the fourth part of the 
 earth " The question arises con- 
 cerning the antecedent of tliem. Who 
 are meant ? If we adopt Griesbach's 
 reading, him, then the answer must be, 
 Death : but if we retain them, it must 
 be the red, black, and pale horses. For 
 the apostle describes the manner in 
 which they are to kill the fourth part of 
 men ; by war, famine, and plague, add- 
 ing from Ezekiel, the noisome beasts, 
 which are an accompaniment of the 
 whole three. And so history has re- 
 corded it. Bishop Newton quotes a 
 Latin writer, who affirms that, upon the 
 approach of the ferocious Maximin and 
 his entrance into a certain city, he en- 
 countered five hundred wolves : the in- 
 habitants of the city having left it to 
 wild beasts. The terrible exactions of 
 taxation prevented much of the land 
 from being cultivated, and the insecurity 
 of property from this and other causes, 
 produced scarcity, and this famine, pes- 
 tilence ; and all furnished carcasses for 
 beasts of prey. 
 
 THE FIFTH SEAL. 
 
 Verses 9-11. "And when he had 
 opened the fifth seal, I saw under the 
 altar the souls of them that had been 
 slain for the word of God, and for the 
 testimony which they held : and they 
 cried with a loud voice, saying, How 
 long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou 
 not judge and avenge our blood on them 
 that dwell on the earth ? And white 
 robes were given unto every one of 
 them ; and it was said unto them, that 
 they should rest yet for a little season, 
 until their fellow-servants also, and their 
 
 16 
 
 brethren, that should be killed as they 
 were, should be fulfilled." 
 
 The Christian religion is exclusive in 
 principle and uncompromising in prac- 
 tice. It admits no other religion to be 
 true, and for that reason it cannot trim 
 and accommodate itself to the opinions of 
 men. Like all other moral truth, it is 
 immutable and eternal ; and therefore, 
 its direct and irreconcilable hostility to 
 all false systems. Its war upon error is 
 a war of extermination. During the 
 Valerian persecution, between A. D. 
 257 and 260, Dionysius, Bishop of 
 Alexandria, was brougbt before iEmilian, 
 the Prefect of Egypt, and asked to re- 
 cant and worship the heathen gods ; he 
 replied, " We ought to obey God rather 
 than man ; I worship God, who alone 
 ought to be worshipped." " Hear the 
 clemency of the emperor," says iEmi- 
 lian ; " you are all pardoned, provided 
 you return to a natural duty, adore the 
 gods who guard the empire, and forsake 
 those things which are contrary to na- 
 ture." Dionysius answered, " All men 
 do not worship all gods, but men wor- 
 ship variously according to their senti- 
 ments. But we worship one God, the 
 maker of all things, who gave the em- 
 pire to the most clement Emperors Va- 
 lerian and Gallienus, to whom we pour 
 out incessant prayers for their pros- 
 perous administration." " What can 
 be the meaning," says iEmilian, " why 
 you may not still adore that God of 
 yours, (supposing him to be a God,) in 
 conjunction with our gods?" Dionysius 
 answered, " We worship no other god." 
 " From this remarkable question of the 
 prefect, (says Milner, vol. i. 441,) it is 
 evident that men might have been tole- 
 rated in the worship of Jesus, if they 
 had allowed idolaters too to be right in 
 the main, by associating idols with the 
 true God. The firmness of Christians, 
 in this respect, provoked their enemies." 
 So, in the same persecution, Cyprian, 
 Bishop of Carthage, was brought before 
 the proconsul, and was asked by him — 
 " Are you Thascius Cyprian ?" " I am." 
 " Are you he whom the Christians call 
 their bishop?" "lam." " Our princes 
 have ordered you to worship the gods." 
 
122 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 " That I shall not do." " You will do 
 better to consult your safety and not 
 despise the gods." " My safety and 
 virtue is Christ the Lord, whom I desire 
 to serve for ever and ever." " I pity 
 your case," says the proconsul, " and 
 could wish to consult for you." " I do 
 not wish," says the prelate, " that things 
 should be otherwise with me, than that 
 adoring my God, 1 may hasten to him 
 with all the ardour of my soul ; for the 
 afflictions of this present time are not 
 worthy to be compared with the glory 
 which shall be revealed in us." The 
 proconsul, now reddening with anger, 
 says, " You have lived sacrilegiously a 
 long time, and have formed into a so- 
 ciety* men of an impious conspiracy, 
 and have shown yourself an enemy to 
 the gods and their religion, and have not 
 hearkened to the equitable counsels of 
 our princes, but have ever been a father 
 of the impious sect, and their ringleader : 
 you shall therefore be an example to the 
 rest and they shall learn their duty by 
 your blood. Let Thascius Cyprian, 
 who refuses to sacrifice to the gods, be 
 put to death by the sword." " God be 
 praised," said the martyr ; and while 
 they were leading him away, a multitude 
 of the people followed and cried, " Let 
 us die with our holy bishop." His head 
 was cut off by the sword. (Milner, 
 vol. i. 423.) 
 
 These extracts illustrate the exclusive 
 character of Christianity and its uncom- 
 promising resistance to all false religion. 
 It can form no alliance with error. A 
 true Christian can worship only the true 
 God. He can perform no act, whereby 
 the right of any idol to religious venera- 
 tion is expressed. He is consequently 
 looked upon by his enemy, as obstinate 
 and unaccommodating. The infidel, 
 whether nominally pagan or Christian, 
 whose conscience is elastic, as a Jesuit's, 
 can come and go over a large field ; he 
 is liberal, and will give and take: he is 
 not bigoted and cramped by the tight 
 bands of orthodoxy. Not knowing 
 what truth is, and of course having no 
 - love for it, he cannot conceive how a 
 , ■•''person should find any difficulty in wor- 
 shipping God the Creator, and at the 
 
 same time bowing the knee to the image 
 of the emperor, or the Virgin Mary, — 
 the Vesta of modern Rome. But, they 
 whose souls have been enlightened from 
 above, have been always ready upon 
 their Lord's call, to seal their testimony 
 with their blood, to hold fast the truth 
 in the face of danger and of death. To 
 reveal this characteristic is the province 
 of the fifth seal. Its matter concerns 
 times of persecution and martyrdom for 
 the word of God, — on account of the 
 doctrine of God and the testimony which 
 they held. "And I saw under the altar, 
 the souls of them that were slain." 
 This their position beneath the altar, 
 most forcibly represents their depen- 
 dence upon the atonement of Christ as 
 the foundation of their hope. The altar 
 of burnt offerings or place for sacrifices, 
 is a symbol of Jesus, the Lamb of God, 
 in all that part of his mediatorial work, 
 which consists in suffering for his people, 
 the penalty of the law. There is no 
 other place of safety for sinful man, but 
 under the altar, the covert of the Sa- 
 viour's blood. 
 
 These souls of the dead martyrs are 
 heard to pray with a loud voice, for the 
 judgments of God upon the persecutors 
 of the church. Or, perhaps it will be 
 more correct to say, they inquire how 
 long it shall be, before vengeance due, 
 shall be inflicted. This implies their be- 
 lief, that vengeance will come in its sea- 
 son. And the basis of this their belief, 
 is expressed in the attributes they ascribe 
 to their God, — holy and true. If God is 
 holy and true, he will punish unholiness, 
 and in so doing, prove true to his promise 
 that he will avenge his own elect. 
 
 Let us moreover, mark the objects of 
 this vengeance : " them that dwell on the 
 earth." That is, the inhabitants of the 
 Roman empire — especially the emperors 
 and leading men in the government. 
 
 From this, it is manifest that many 
 and extensive persecutions had already 
 occurred : — the day of retribution seems 
 to be long deferred. This may aid us 
 in locating the seal. The answer to the 
 prayer farther leads to its chronology. 
 They are informed, that they must re- 
 main contented and quiet for a time, until 
 
LECTURE XIII. 
 
 123 
 
 another or other persecutions should 
 be over. Legions of martyrs are yet to 
 bleed, before the destroying power shall 
 in turn be destroyed. If, therefore, we 
 can find violent persecution at a late date 
 of the Pagan empire, we may safely con- 
 clude, that this seal was opened a short 
 time before that: in a period of compara- 
 tive rest to the church. Such period 
 occurred immediately after the death of 
 the Emperor Aurelian, A. D., 275. 
 Somewhat preceding this, — from 257 to 
 260, had raged the Valerian persecution. 
 It was brought to a close by the captivity 
 of Valerian, who was conquered and 
 taken prisoner by Sapor, King of Persia. 
 " All authors agree, that he was taken 
 prisoner, carried in triumph into Persia, 
 and insulted in the most disgraceful 
 manner by that haughty conqueror ; 
 who, after having showed him loaded 
 with chains in all the chief cities of his 
 empire, treated him with great indignity, 
 making him his footstool whenever he 
 mounted on horseback. After his death, 
 (which was at least nine years after his 
 captivity,) his body was flayed by Sapor's 
 orders, preserved in salt ; and his skin 
 dressed, dyed red, and exposed in a tem- 
 ple ; where, to the eternal ignominy of 
 the Roman name, it was exhibited to all 
 foreign princes and ambassadors, as a 
 lasting monument of the power of the Per- 
 sian monarch." (See Univ. Hist. vol. xiii. 
 p. 486.) Thus, God began to avenge his 
 own elect, in the disgrace and death of 
 their bloody persecutor : and thus ended 
 the ninth general persecution. 
 
 Fifteen years later, Aurelian issued 
 an edict to exterminate the Christians ; 
 but he was cut off by a conspiracy of 
 his own nearest friends, A. D., 275. 
 From this to the Dioclesian persecution 
 in A. D., 303, the church experienced 
 little distress of this kind : and here, we 
 think, is the proper chronology of the 
 fifth seal. 
 
 This season of rest came to a close, 
 and legions of God's witnesses were 
 crowned with martyrdom. This time, 
 is called in church history, the Era of 
 martyrs, and the Era of Dioclesian, be- 
 cause of the vast numbers that suffered. 
 From Eusebius, who lived in the midst 
 
 of it, we will present a few extracts as 
 a sample of the whole. "We shall give 
 an account of the end of one, leaving it 
 for our readers to conjecture what must 
 have been the character of the sufferings 
 inflicted on others. He was led into the 
 middle of the aforesaid city, (Nicomedia) 
 before those emperors already mentioned, 
 (Dioclesian and Valerius.) He was com- 
 manded to sacrifice (to the heathen gods), 
 but, as he refused, he was ordered to be 
 stripped, and lifted on high, and to be 
 scourged with rods over his whole body, 
 until he should be subdued in his resolu- 
 tion, and forced to do what he was com- 
 manded. But as he was immovable amid 
 all these sufferings, his bones already 
 appearing bared of the flesh, they mixed 
 vinegar with salt, and poured it upon the 
 mangled parts of the body. But as he 
 bore these tortures, a gridiron and fire 
 were produced, and the remnants of his 
 body, like pieces of meat for roasting and 
 eating, were placed in the fire, not all at 
 once, so that he might expire soon, but 
 taken by little and little, whilst his tor- 
 turers were not permitted to let him alone, 
 unless after these sufferings he breathed 
 his last before they had completed their 
 task. He, however, persevered in his 
 purpose, and gave up his life victorious 
 in the midst of his tortures. Such was 
 the martyrdom of one of the imperial 
 domestics, worthy in reality of his name, 
 for he was called Peter." (Book viii., 
 chap, vi.) 
 
 We must bear in mind that this was 
 the treatment of a man, in whom the 
 emperor and his family had placed the 
 most unbounded confidence, and toward 
 whom they exercised a remarkable de- 
 gree of affection, up to the very hour in 
 which Dioclesian yielded to the urgency 
 of Galerius, and consented to the perse- 
 cution. He was a man whose tried 
 integrity had won all hearts to him- 
 self in the most sincere friendship. His 
 only crime was love to God and man, 
 exhibited in his devoted worship, and re- 
 fusal to bow to a heathen idol. 
 
 In chap. ix. the historian says, " But 
 it would exceed all power of detail to 
 give an idea of the sufferings and tor- 
 tures which the martyrs of Thebais 
 
124 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 endured. These, instead of hooks, had 
 their bodies scraped with shells, and 
 were mangled in this way until they died. 
 Women tied by one foot and then raised 
 on high in the air by certain machines, 
 with their naked bodies, and wholly un- 
 covered, presented this most foul, cruel, 
 and inhuman spectacle to all beholders : 
 others again perished, bound to trees and 
 branches. For, drawing the stoutest of 
 the branches together by machines for 
 this purpose, and binding the limbs of 
 the martyrs to each of these, they then 
 let loose the boughs to resume their na- 
 tural position, designing thus to produce 
 a violent action, to tear in sunder the 
 limbs of those whom they thus treated. 
 And all these things were done, not for a 
 few days or some time, but for a series 
 of whole years." "We, ourselves, have 
 observed, when on the spot, many crowd- 
 ed together in one day, some suffering 
 decapitation, some the torments of flames; 
 so that the murderous weapon was com- 
 pletely blunted, and having lost its edge, 
 broke to pieces ; and the executioners 
 themselves, wearied with slaughter, were 
 obliged to relieve one another." 
 
 And in ch. x. he continues, " For as 
 every one had the liberty to abuse them, 
 some beat them with clubs, some with 
 rods, some with scourges, others again 
 with thongs, others with ropes. And the 
 
 siaht of these torments was varied and 
 ^ ... . ... 
 
 multiplied, exhibitingexcessive malignity. 
 
 For some had their hands tied behind 
 them, and were suspended on the rack, 
 and every limb was stretched with ma- 
 chines. Then the torturers, according to 
 their orders, applied the pincers to the 
 whole body, not merely as in the case 
 of murderers, to the sides, but also to 
 the stomachs and knees and cheeks." 
 Again, in ch. xii., " Some had their 
 fingers pierced with sharp reeds run 
 under the nails. Others having masses 
 of melted lead, bubbling and boiling with 
 heat, poured down their backs, and roast- 
 ed especially in the most sensitive parts 
 of the body." 
 
 Such is a sample of the methods used 
 by Pagan infidelity, to convert men back 
 to the faith of idolatry ; such the means 
 by which thousands and tens of thou- 
 
 sands were released from sufferings, and 
 carried to the bosom of their God. 
 
 In conclusion, 1. There is no method 
 of gaining the victory, and the crown, 
 but by the blood of our victorious Re- 
 deemer. All acceptable prayer must 
 begin at the altar : and there is no rai- 
 ment of spotless white, but that furnish- 
 ed gratuitously from the wardrobe of our 
 triumphant King, — the fine linen of our 
 Saviour's righteousness, imputed to us 
 and received by faith alone. 
 
 2. The doctrine of materialism is 
 false ; for the souls of God's redeemed 
 exist in a state of conscious bliss, whilst 
 separate from the body ; and we have 
 evidence that they do intercede and pray 
 for themselves and others. But this is 
 no reason why we should pray to them. 
 Praying to them, implies their knowledge 
 of us and our case, — their omniscience : 
 " There is one Mediator." The angel- 
 worship of modern Rome, is simply the 
 demonology of Paganism. 
 
 3. The doctrine of purgatory, whether 
 Pagan or Popish, is groundless. These 
 souls were not in a place of punishment 
 or purification. They were in a place 
 of unspeakable felicity, arrayed in beauty 
 and in glory. Secure from their foes, 
 they prayed for their downfall. 
 
 It is the privilege therefore, and duty 
 of Christians, to pray for the outpouring 
 of vengeance, according to the good and 
 holy purposes of God. " Give them 
 blood to drink, for they are worthy." 
 
 4. The doctrines of the Bible are 
 worth contending for, even unto death. 
 So thought the martyrs under Pagan 
 Rome. They had not found that elastic 
 conscience, which many now suppose to 
 be such a great discovery. Bending the 
 knee, kissing the hand, would have saved 
 the life of the body, but they would 
 neither bend the knee, nor kiss the hand; 
 for in so doing they must lose the life 
 of their souls. 
 
LECTURE XIV. 
 
 125 
 
 LECTURE XIV. 
 
 THE SIXTH SEAL. 
 
 " And I beheld when he had opened the 
 sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earth- 
 quake; and the sun became black as sackcloth 
 of hair ; and the moon became as blood ; and 
 the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as 
 a figtree casteth her untimely figs when she is 
 shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven de- 
 parted as a scroll when it is rolled together ; 
 and every mountain and island were moved 
 out of their places. And the kings of the earth, 
 and the great men, and the rich men, and the 
 chief captains, and the mighty men, and every 
 bondman, and every free man, hid themselves 
 in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains ; 
 and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on 
 us, and hide us from the face of him that 
 sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the 
 Lamb : for the great day of his wrath is come, 
 and who shall be able to stand ?" — Rev. vii. 
 12-17. 
 
 " Because sentence against a wicked 
 work is not executed speedily, therefore 
 the heart of the children of men is fully 
 set in them to do evil." They forget 
 that " one day is with the Lord as a 
 thousand years, and a thousand years 
 as one day." They shut their eyes, 
 and harden their hearts against the 
 truth; but "though hand join in hand, 
 the wicked shall not go unpunished." 
 
 The same mode of reasoning often 
 beguiles even the wise virgins. They 
 sometimes slumber, and more frequently 
 become impatient and discouraged, when 
 the promised blessing of the covenant 
 does not advance to meet them as 
 promptly as their fond desires antici- 
 pate. They are ready to say, " Our 
 Lord delayeth his coming," — he hath 
 forgotten to be gracious. So, if prayer 
 is not answered in matter, form, and 
 time, according to the wishes of the pe- 
 titioners, they are too apt to conclude 
 that God's ear is no longer open to their 
 cry, or his hand is shortened that it can- 
 not save. 
 
 But both are in error. For every 
 work of his hand, and every purpose of 
 his heart, God has a time and a season, 
 and he will do all his pleasure. The 
 prayer of his own believing people he 
 will hear, and the veracity of his 
 pledged word he will vindicate, whether 
 it be in works of wrath or of mercy. 
 
 He has regarded the cries of his bleed- 
 ing church. He has ministered present 
 comfort to the souls of the martyred 
 saints, and has bidden them rest for a 
 little season : after the expiration of 
 which, vengeance just and due should 
 be visited upon their cruel tormentors. 
 This period now draws to a close, and 
 soon must the retributions of righteous 
 heaven be poured out upon the perse- 
 cuting empire. Just as the persecution 
 planned by Aurelian was about to burst 
 forth, it was arrested, as we have seen, 
 by his bosom friend's assassinating the 
 emperor. For a quarter of a century 
 after this, the church enjoyed compara- 
 tive rest, and during this time we have 
 supposed the fifth seal to have been 
 opened. The Dioclesian persecution, 
 the last and bloodiest of all, commenced 
 in A. D. 303, and during it, the " fellow- 
 servants" of the martyrs, mentioned in 
 verse 11, were slain. At the close of 
 this period of blood, or era of the mar- 
 tyrs, which lasted ten years, the sixth 
 seal was opened. 
 
 Verse 12. "And I beheld when he 
 had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there 
 was a great earthquake ; and the sun 
 became black as sackcloth of hair, and 
 the moon became as blood." 
 
 All principles of interpretation lead us 
 to look for the sixth seal in its regular 
 order, after the fifth and before the 
 seventh. To suppose that things men- 
 tioned in numerical order do not so oc- 
 cur, is to impute contradiction to the 
 writing where it is found. Matters may 
 indeed be so mentioned, as to time, 
 which are not so in other respects. 
 That which occupies the first place in 
 regard to time, may be the last in im- 
 portance. The numerical arrangement 
 may have reference to the beginning, 
 and not to the termination : as the seal 
 which is first in its commencement will 
 be the last in its completion. The vic- 
 torious rider of the white horse leads 
 the van, but he will also bring up the 
 rear, and enter last into the heavenly 
 Jerusalem. Still, in its proper sense, 
 the seals numerically follow each other. 
 
 The fifth exhibited a fearful pagan 
 persecution as just in advance, — a short 
 
126 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 period from the date of the seal. We 
 may therefore well look for the delayed 
 vengeance for which the souls under the 
 altar prayed, after the purpose and oc- 
 casion of the delay have been realized. 
 Therefore the propriety and necessity of 
 applying this sixth seal to that wonder- 
 ful revolution of the Roman empire from 
 paganism to Christianity. 
 
 There was a great earthquake, — a 
 great shaking or concussion. The ori- 
 ginal means simply a shaking : its ver- 
 bal form is translated in v. 13, shaken; 
 and in Matt. viii. 24, it is used to signify 
 a violent agitation of the sea, — " there 
 arose a great tempest in the sea ;" a 
 mighty concussion, by which the waters 
 were thrown into wild confusion. So 
 here, there was a great agitation, a fear- 
 ful commotion. The particular nature 
 must be determined by the nature of its 
 subject. A glance forward teaches us 
 that it was in the earth, because moun- 
 tains and islands were moved, and the 
 kings of the earth became terrified and 
 hid themselves. The translation, earth- 
 quake, is therefore correct in this place, 
 for the earth is the subject of the shak- 
 ing. 
 
 Let us first examine other passages of 
 Scripture, to see whether such language 
 as this before us is used to describe and 
 symbolize great revolutionary changes. 
 
 1. In Isaiah ii. we have an account of 
 some mighty revolution "in the last 
 days," when men shall enter into the 
 rocks, and hide in the dust : — " the idols 
 he shall utterly abolish, and they shall 
 go into the holes of the rocks, and into 
 the caves of the earth, for fear of the 
 Lord, and for the glory of his power, 
 when he ariseth to shake terrible the 
 earth. In that day a man shall cast 
 his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, 
 which they made, each one for himself 
 to worship, to the moles and to the 
 bats." (Verse 18.) 
 
 Here is a terrible shaking of the earth, 
 by which must be meant the nation as 
 a civil government. Yet the revolution 
 concerns mainly the religious and moral 
 system. The people are turned from 
 idolatry to the true religion. The fear 
 of God pervades the mass of society ; 
 
 their idols are demolished, and they re- 
 turn to the true worship of God : the 
 earth, or civil administration, must ex- 
 perience, therefore, an entire revolution 
 in its policy. 
 
 2. Similar language is applied to the 
 overthrow of Babylon, in Isaiah xiii. 
 For nearly twenty-five centuries this 
 prophecy has become history: — the 
 rider of the red horse passed over her 
 high walls, and through her brazen 
 gates, and the beauty of the Chaldee's 
 excellency has faded away. Our chief 
 concern is with the phraseology. Verse 
 10. "For the stars of heaven and the 
 constellations thereof, shall not give 
 their light : the sun shall be darkened 
 in his going forth, and the moon shall 
 not cause her light to shine." The 
 stars of heaven being symbols of reli- 
 gious teachers, doubtless allude to the 
 utter failure of her priests and wise men. 
 Nor are we to be surprised at the inti- 
 mate blending of the figures which refer, 
 most naturally, to the civil empire, with 
 those which are more properly under- 
 stood of the religious system : for we 
 must bear in mind that the two have 
 always been united in fact, and never 
 were known to exist separate and inde- 
 pendent of each other, in any pagan 
 country. So, in verse 13, " Therefore 
 I will shake the heavens," — the reli- 
 gious powers shall be greatly agitated, 
 — " and the earth shall remove out of 
 her place," — the civil government shall 
 be entirely overthrown. 
 
 3. In chapter xxiv. the prophet de- 
 scribes the utter destruction of Tyre, in 
 similar phrase : " The windows from on 
 high are open, and the foundations of 
 the earth do shake. The earth is utterly 
 broken down, the earth is clean dis- 
 solved, the earth is moved exceedingly. 
 The earth shall reel to and fro like a 
 drunkard, and shall be removed like a 
 cottage." (Verse 18.) "Then the 
 moon shall be confounded, and the sun 
 ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall 
 reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, 
 and before his saints gloriously." (Verse 
 23.) Such is the language in which 
 God represents the overthrow of his 
 church's foes. 
 
LECTURE XIV. 
 
 127 
 
 4. Very similar to this, is the mode 
 of expression of the prophet Haggai, in 
 reference to the first advent of Messiah, 
 and the revolution which took place. 
 " Yet once, it is a little while, and [ will 
 shake the heavens, and the earth, and 
 the sea, and the dry land. And I will 
 shake all nations, and the desire of all 
 nations shall come," (i. 6, 7.) This 
 is applied in Heb. xii. 26, 27, to the 
 change, whereby the Jewish ritual and 
 the entire system of peculiarities esta- 
 blished by the Sinai covenant, were set 
 aside, and the order of New Testament 
 worship introduced. " And this word, 
 yet once more, signifieth the removing 
 of those things that are shaken, as of 
 things that are made, that those things 
 which cannot be shaken, may remain." 
 
 A little farther on, the prophet adds, 
 " And I will overthrow the throne of 
 kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength 
 of the kingdoms of the heathen ; and I 
 will overthrow the chariots, and those 
 that ride in them ; and the horses and 
 their riders shall come down, every one 
 by the sword of his brethren," (verse 
 22.) We shall fully see that such is 
 the result of the New Testament dispen- 
 sation. 
 
 5. When Isaiah would present a fear- 
 ful conception of the ruin about to de- 
 scend upon Idumea, he says, " All the 
 host of heaven shall be dissolved, and 
 the heavens shall be rolled together as a 
 scroll ; and all their host shall fall down, 
 as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and 
 as a falling fig from the fig-tree," (xxxiv. 
 4.) The context here evinces that the 
 desolation of Edom is the thing meant. 
 
 6. When Ezekiel portrays the great 
 havoc made in Egypt, by the Babylo- 
 nian armies, it is in like terms. " And 
 when I shall put thee out, I will cover 
 the heaven, and make the stars thereof 
 
 'dark ; I will cover the sun with a cloud, 
 and the moon shall not give her light. 
 All the bright lights of heaven will I 
 make dark over thee, and set darkness 
 upon thy land, saith the Lord God," 
 (xxxii. 7.) In verses 11 and 12, we 
 have an exposition of these strong 
 figures. " For thus saith the Lord God, 
 The sword of the king of Babylon shall 
 
 come upon thee : by the sword of the 
 mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, 
 the terrible of the nations, all of them ; 
 and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, 
 and all the multitude thereof shall be 
 destroyed." These prophecies were ful- 
 filled in the invasions of Nebuchadnez- 
 zar and Cambyses, whose dark clouds 
 extinguished the glory of Pharaoh's 
 throne. 
 
 7. In the same manner the people of 
 Samaria, as described by Hosea, (x. 8,) 
 in their terror and consternation, are 
 represented as calling to the mountains, 
 " Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us." 
 
 8. The last case that we shall quote is 
 the memorable prophecy of Joel. " The 
 sun shall be turned into darkness, and 
 the moon into blood, before the great 
 and the terrible day of the Lord come," 
 (ii. 28.) This is applied in Matt. xxiv. 
 to the great revolution in the church, 
 from the Mosaic ceremonies to the sim- 
 plicity of gospel worship. 
 
 Such are some examples of the strong 
 and highly figurative expressions of the 
 Old Testament, when any overturning, 
 either civil or religious, or both, occurs 
 in the affairs of a people. These are 
 the prototypes of the context before us ; 
 they are every one borrowed from the 
 prophets, and we are obliged to under- 
 stand them in the same general sense in 
 which they used them. 
 
 It will be seen that we do not profess 
 to limit this phraseology to the times of 
 the sixth seal. On the contrary, it must 
 be manifest from the foregoing, that the 
 same symbols may be applied to various 
 revolutions, past and future. Undoubt- 
 edly it is used to describe the awful 
 grandeur and terribleness of Christ's 
 second advent, at the end of the world. 
 Our position is, that this language is 
 designed to exhibit the revolution in the 
 Roman empire, from its pagan and per- 
 secuting character, to its Christian form. 
 
 Let it then be our next task to point 
 out the historical facts which constitute 
 the antitype of the prophetic seal. 
 
 In A. D. 312, Constantine the Great, 
 the founder of the city of Constantinople, 
 was emperor in Gaul. He had been 
 proclaimed by the army, A. D. 306, 
 
128 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 upon the demise of his father, Constan- 
 tius Chlorus, who flied at York in Bri- 
 tain, on the twenty-fifth of July, (Univ. 
 Hist. xiv. p. 77.) At the same time, 
 Maxentius was emperor in Italy, and 
 had reduced Africa under his dominion. 
 Maximin was master of all that part of 
 the empire, which lay beyond the Thra- 
 cian Bosphorus. Licinius, as Csesar, 
 held Thrace and Illyricum. In the year 
 A. D. 305, Maximian, the father of 
 Maxentius, and father-in-law of Con- 
 stantine, had, together with Diocletian, 
 abdicated the purple. But not enjoying 
 himself in retirement as fully as he ex- 
 pected, he attempted to usurp the impe- 
 rial dignity, first from his son Maxen- 
 tius, in Italy, and afterwards from his 
 son-in-law, Constantine, in Gaul. He 
 had also, in this attempt, endeavoured 
 to assassinate Constantine, who, sus- 
 picious of his design, had placed a ser- 
 vant in his own bed, whom Maximian 
 actually killed, under the supposition 
 that he was his son-in-law. Constantine 
 having thus indubitable evidence of the 
 disposition which his father-in-law che- 
 rished toward him, by way of returning 
 the compliment, put him to death. 
 
 Meanwhile Maxentius, flushed with his 
 African conquests, conceived the idea of 
 cutting off the other three emperors, that 
 he might enjoy the glory of a solitary 
 throne, and of a sceptre extending over 
 the whole Roman world. He levied 
 great armies in Italy, and the provinces. 
 Upon hearing it, Constantine wrote to 
 him, dissuading him from the attempt. 
 He persisted : Constantine determined 
 to anticipate him, passed the Alps on 
 the Mount Cenis road, and advanced 
 upon Rome. His mind was greatly 
 agitated ; and he vacillated much in 
 regard to the deity to whose auspices 
 he should commend his campaign ; for 
 the custom was universal among the 
 ancient pagans, of selecting some one 
 of their gods, as the special patron of 
 each enterprise and warlike movement. 
 In regard to the same battle, his rival, 
 Maxentius, when aroused to a sense 
 of his danger, consulted the Sibylline 
 oracle, which gave this reply : on " that 
 day the enemy of the Romans will 
 
 perish," — which, of course, they would 
 construe in application to the vanquished, 
 whoever he might be. (See Gibbon's 
 Decline and Fall, chap, xiv.) 
 
 The reason, probably, of Constantine's 
 hesitancy on this occasion was, that a 
 large portion, — perhaps a majority of 
 his army, and the best of it — was com- 
 posed of Christians. This, and the fact 
 that his father Constantius had a decided 
 leaning towards the God of the Chris- 
 tians, and paid great respect to their 
 religion, though there is no satisfactory 
 evidence that he was truly a Christian 
 himself, produced a divided heart : and 
 during his state of mental indecision, he 
 is said to have seen the celebrated vision 
 of the golden cross. " Some God he 
 thought needful to protect him. The 
 God of the Christians he was most in- 
 clined to respect ; but he wanted some 
 satisfactory proof of his real existence 
 and power, and he neither understood 
 the means of acquiring this, nor could 
 he be content with the atheistic indiffer- 
 ence in which so many generals and he- 
 roes have since acquiesced. He prayed, 
 he implored with much vehemence and 
 importunity: and God left him not un- 
 answered. While he was marching 
 with his forces, in the afternoon, the 
 trophy of the cross appeared very 
 luminous in the heavens, higher than 
 the sun, with this inscription, ' Conquer 
 by this.' He and his soldiers were as- 
 tonished at the sight. But he continued 
 pondering on the event till night. And 
 Christ appeared to him when asleep, 
 with the same sign of the cross, and 
 directed him to make use of the symbol 
 as his military ensign. Constantine 
 obeyed, and the cross was henceforward 
 displayed in his armies." This state- 
 ment is taken from Milner, (ii. p. 54,) 
 which he condensed from Eusebius, who 
 afterwards instructed Constantine more 
 fully in Christian doctrine, and baptized 
 him ; and who affirms that he received 
 this account from the emperor himself, 
 under oath. Very many refuse to credit 
 this story : but it appears more reason- 
 able to believe, than to reject the whole. 
 That God should interpose at this fearful 
 juncture by some extraordinary display 
 
LECTURE XIV. 
 
 129 
 
 of his power is extremely probable. 
 Maxentius was a bloody tyrant, and put 
 the issue of this battle expressly on the 
 power of his gods, and in opposition to 
 the God of the Christians. 
 
 Besides, that Constantine should dream 
 on such an occasion, and just such a 
 dream as he reported, is also extremely 
 natural. The chief or only point of diffi- 
 culty, regards the day vision, and the 
 silence of other contemporary historians 
 and of the army. If the whole army saw 
 it, why does its validity rest solely on the 
 declaration of the emperor to Eusebius ! 
 On the other hand, the fact is undoubted 
 that Constantine did make the cross his 
 ensign ; and he did act consistently with 
 the whole statement. It is therefore un- 
 reasonable to reject the whole story ; 
 for we cannot then satisfactorily account 
 for unquestionable facts. 
 
 But to delay no farther : Maxentius, 
 contrary to the expectation of Constan- 
 tine and sound policy, marched to meet 
 him ; and the Gallic army was rejoiced 
 to find the Pretorian cohorts and their 
 emperor with other troops drawn up in 
 battle array, at the Saxa Rubra, nine 
 miles from Rome. There, on the 
 twenty-eighth of October, 312, the Pre- 
 torian cohorts fought their last battle ; 
 and most of them were slain in the very 
 lines they occupied. Those legions, 
 which so long had ruled the senate, the 
 people, and the emperors, fell never to 
 rise again, on the same field where the 
 cross first rose, never to fall. Maxen- 
 tius endeavoured to escape by the Mil- 
 vian bridge, according to Gibbon, (the 
 Universal History says that it was on a 
 bridge of boats ;) but was crowded off 
 into the Tiber, and sank deep in the 
 water. His body was found next day, 
 and his head was carried through the 
 city elevated upon a pole. His death 
 was a cause of great rejoicing to the 
 Roman people. (See Universal History, 
 xiv. 94.) 
 
 A few days after this, Constantine 
 published an edict prohibiting the de- 
 struction of the Christians. Thus ended 
 the Dioclesian persecution in the west, 
 after ten years of dreadful suffering. 
 The senate voted to Constantine all pos- 
 
 17 
 
 sible honours, and erected a triumphal 
 arch to commemorate his victory, which 
 does its duty to this day ; witnessing 
 still to every beholder, the conquests of 
 the Christian's friend, and evidently 
 alluding to his supernatural direction ; 
 for it says, " that by a divine instinct, and 
 with extraordinary courage, he delivered 
 the republic from the tyrant and his 
 whole faction." 
 
 We have here the first heaving of 
 this terrible earthquake — a heaving that 
 was felt in the extremest verge of the 
 Roman world. But the genius of Ro- 
 mulus had fled. The spirit of Numa 
 Pompilius was no more. No Cincinna- 
 tus ploughed the furrowed fields of 
 beautiful Italy. No Fabius led her 
 armies. The venal senate which to- 
 day placed the vilest of wretches among 
 the gods, to-morrow, when the masters 
 had changed, hurled him down with 
 curses on his head, to Tartarus. The 
 miserable rabble, who with three mil- 
 lions of tongues,* sang pasans of adula- 
 tion to a tyrant in the morning, shouted 
 with ecstacy at his destruction before the 
 setting of the sun. 
 
 Equally incompetent were the debased 
 populace and the degenerate senate to 
 estimate moral worth, and to stand up 
 for their rights. Constantine had scarce 
 left the city, when dissatisfaction dis- 
 played itself, because of his clemency 
 towards the Christians : and Rome was 
 never afterwards honoured with his 
 presence. 
 
 In the month of March following 
 were celebrated, at Milan, the nuptials 
 of Constantia, the emperor's sister, and 
 Licinius, his junior colleague. This 
 gave great offence to Maximin, the re- 
 maining colleague: as it seemed to com- 
 bine three fourths of the power into one 
 interest. The Eastern Emperor had 
 continued to carry out the edict of Dio- 
 clesian, with great severity against the 
 Christians. His jealousy induced him 
 to make a sudden rush upon Licinius ; 
 hoping to vanquish him before he could 
 have time to call in aid from Constantine, 
 who had passed the Alps into Gaul, to 
 quell an insurrection there. Maximin 
 advanced upon Thrace and Illyricum, 
 
130 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 by forced marches. Licinius slumbered 
 not in the lap of his Delilah. He met 
 the fierce and bloodthirsty persecutor 
 of the Christian church, and though his 
 army fell short of half that of his foe, 
 he routed him so completely, and so 
 terribly, that in twenty-four hours from 
 the time when the tide of battle turned, 
 Maximin entered his palace at Nico- 
 media, a distance of one hundred and 
 sixty miles from the field of his defeat. 
 But heaven's vengeance was at his heels : 
 he had shed much Christian blood, and 
 God had doomed his to be spilt. Licinius 
 pursued, and put him to death, with all 
 his family. Valeria, also, the daughter 
 of Dioclesian, and widow of Galerius, 
 another persecuting emperor, with her 
 mother, was taken and publicly executed, 
 and their dead bodies thrown into the 
 sea. " Thus," says the Universal His- 
 tory, (xiv. 110,) " were the families of 
 Dioclesian, Galerius, and Maximin, en- 
 tirely cut off and exterminated." The 
 persecutors who took the sword, pe- 
 rished by the sword ; and the Roman 
 earth experienced another swell of the 
 earthquake. 
 
 A third shock occurred the next year, 
 314, upon the occasion of Constantine's 
 bestowing another sister upon one Bas- 
 sianus, with a promise of sharing the 
 empire. This promise being somewhat 
 delayed, and Licinius being jealous of 
 Constantine, he entered into an intrigue 
 with Bassianus, to induce him to assert 
 his right, and compel the emperor to 
 redeem his promise. This resulted in 
 a civil war between the two brothers-in- 
 law. Licinius was worsted in two se- 
 vere battles, and was content to make 
 peace, which lasted eight years. This 
 period was employed by Constantine 
 in regulating and settling the affairs of 
 his government, and enacting several 
 laws favourable to the Christians : among 
 which was one passed in March, 321, 
 forbidding all secular employments on 
 the sabbath day. (Univ. Hist. xiv. 106.) 
 He also had occasion to conduct several 
 military expeditions against the Goths 
 and Sarmatians, in which he carried his 
 victories beyond the Danube. Gibbon, 
 ever the apologist of the persecutor, and 
 
 the perverter of historical facts, when- 
 ever it can be done to the prejudice of 
 Christianity, without too barefaced par- 
 tiality, admits, with evident reluctance, 
 the criminality of Licinius, in interrupt- 
 ing this peace. 
 
 In A. D. 323, Constantine, pursuing 
 the fugitives of a Gothic army which 
 he had routed in battle, had occasion to 
 pass a short distance beyond his own 
 boundaries, as settled in the treaty with 
 Licinius. The latter, who had long 
 envied the prosperity and success of 
 Constantine, especially in establishing 
 the empire upon a pacific Christian 
 basis, seized this as a pretext to break 
 with him. The former immediately 
 endeavoured to appease him by reason 
 and remonstrance ; but Licinius was 
 bent on war. Constantine's army was 
 almost entirely composed of Christian 
 soldiers, — his rival's as exclusively pa- 
 gan. No battle had ever yet been 
 fought where there was such a distinc- 
 tion of forces. Licinius, to induce the 
 pagans to join his army, had renewed 
 the persecutions of the Christians, with 
 great violence. (Mosheim, i. 254.) His 
 calculation proved correct : the pagans 
 flocked to his standard in vast multi- 
 tudes, so that he outnumbered his rival 
 greatly, both by sea and land. The 
 fourth great shock of the earthquake 
 occurred on the third of July, A. D. 
 323. It was a fiercely contested battle, 
 but through the incredible and daring 
 bravery of Constantine, it was soon 
 decided in favour of the Christian army. 
 He, accompanied by only twelve horse- 
 men, first plunged into the river Hebrus, 
 whose opposite bank was lined with 
 barbarians, fierce, stern, and determined 
 to prevent his gaining the shore. Emu- 
 lating the perilous example of their 
 leader, the army followed. One short 
 hour, — and thirty-three thousand of the 
 pagan host lay dead on the plain : the 
 rest fled. They rallied at the Straits of 
 Gallipolis, and were again routed by 
 Crispus, the son of Constantine. Then 
 followed a treaty, which Licinius imme- 
 diately violated ; for with incredible 
 celerity he levied another army, and 
 attacked Constanine at Chalcedon, the 
 
LECTURE XIV. 
 
 131 
 
 site of the present town of Scutari, 
 nearly opposite Constantinople. This 
 was his last and most desperate conflict. 
 It occurred on the eighteenth of Sep- 
 tember, 323, and resulted in the total 
 slaughter of Licinius's army. He fled 
 to Nicomedia, where he was soon be- 
 sieged, and at the earnest entreaty of 
 his wife, Constantine's sister, he was 
 admitted to the emperor's presence, ob- 
 tained pardon and his life on promise of 
 submission and quietness. He was sent 
 into Thessaly, and afterwards engaging 
 in treasonable correspondence with the 
 barbarians, he was executed by the em- 
 peror's orders. 
 
 Immediately after the final victory of 
 Chalcedon, and the captivity of Licinius, 
 Constantine, now sole master of the Ro- 
 man world, extended the same clemency 
 over the east, which the west had en- 
 joyed ever since the battle at the Red 
 Rocks. To perpetuate his name, and 
 the glory of his success, he traced on 
 the opposite shore the lines of a new 
 city, henceforth to be the imperial resi- 
 dence : and there stands Constantinople, 
 the monument of Christian triumph, and 
 of the civil degradation of the seven- 
 hilled city — (for Constantine never re- 
 turned, even to visit Rome) — the living 
 witness of the degeneracy of Christian 
 governments — destined, at a future day, 
 with Rome to sink, so far as she is a 
 source of religious fanaticism and tyran- 
 ny, in the chasm of some fearful earth- 
 quake, — and destined, too, to reappear, 
 under the banner of some future Con- 
 stantine, arrayed in the beauty and sim- 
 plicity of Christian dominion, when the 
 saints shall possess the earth. 
 
 Thus passed away for ever, the power 
 of persecution from heathen Rome. Thus 
 perished the principalities of paganism. 
 Thus was smitten the giant image before 
 the kingdom of the little stone. " Thus 
 did the religion of Jesus," — to borrow 
 the language of the American Paul, — 
 " thus did the religion of Jesus make 
 her way through the world — against the 
 superstition of the multitude ; against 
 the interest and craft of the priesthood ; 
 against the ridicule of wits, the reason- 
 ing of sages, the policy of cabinets, and 
 
 the prowess of armies ; against the axe, 
 the cross and the stake, she extended her 
 conquests from Jordan to the Thames. 
 She gathered her laurels alike upon the 
 snows of Scythia, the green fields of 
 Europe, and the sands of Africa. The 
 altars of impiety crumbled before her 
 march — the glimmer of the schools dis- 
 appeared in her light. Power felt his 
 arm wither at her glance ; and in a 
 short time, she who went forlorn and 
 insulted from the hill of Calvary to the 
 tomb of Joseph, ascended the imperial 
 throne, and waved her banner over the 
 palace of the Csesars. Her victories 
 were not less benign than decisive. 
 They were victories over all that pol- 
 lutes, degrades, and ruins man; in be- 
 half of all that purifies, exalts, and saves 
 him. They subdued his understanding 
 to truth, his habits to rectitude, his heart 
 to happiness." (Mason's Works, i. 266, 
 267.) 
 
 Thus did the God of the Christian 
 spread over the face of the sun of pagan 
 superstition, — the ruler of the Roman 
 world, — the blackness of darkness for 
 ever. Thus the baleful gleam of her 
 pale moon has gone out in blood. Thus 
 her lesser lights have hurried away be- 
 fore the looming brilliancy of the star 
 of Bethlehem, — or have fallen from their 
 zenith, " as fall untimely figs from the 
 fig-tree, when it is shaken of a mighty 
 wind." Thus departed her entire hea- 
 ven, with all its host, as a scroll that is 
 rolled together. Thus, from the hills of 
 Caledonia to the mountains of Armenia, 
 — from the frozen world beyond the Da- 
 nube, to the cataracts of the Nile, — the 
 Christian standard floated in triumph. 
 The religion of Calvary, and of the 
 cross, was henceforward the religion of 
 the empire. 
 
 With these facts before us, evincing 
 the happy adaptation of the grand, lead- 
 ing symbols, to express the prophetic 
 and the postscript history, we can have 
 no difficulty in regard to the expression 
 that remains. If the departure of the 
 heavens, like a scroll that is rolled to- 
 gether, represents the evanishment of 
 the pagan religious system : the removal 
 of mountains and islands is descriptive 
 
132 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 of the upturning of the strongholds of 
 pagan worship, and the extension of this 
 revolution to the provinces also. 
 
 Verses 15, 16, and 17, exhibit the 
 efforts of the emperors, princes, officers, 
 and all description of people allied to 
 the pagan interests, to save themselves. 
 " And the kings of the earth, and the 
 great men, and the rich men, and the 
 chief captains, and the mighty men, and 
 every bond man, and every free man, 
 hid themselves in the dens, and the rocks 
 of the mountains ; and said to the moun- 
 tains and the rocks, Fall on us, and hide 
 us from the face of him that sitteth upon 
 the throne, and from the wrath of the 
 Lamb ; for the great day of his wrath 
 is come, and who shall be able to stand ?" 
 
 Such has been, in all ages, the con- 
 duct of men driven to despair. History 
 abounds in examples of even self-de- 
 struction, from Saul, on Mount Gilboa, 
 to the record of the suicide of yesterday. 
 Every great revolution leaves the lead- 
 ers and warm partisans of the weaker 
 side, in a most unhappy condition. 
 Flight was unavailing in such a vast 
 empire as that of "Rome ; for there was 
 no passing over the limits of its power : 
 so that after such disaster as befell Lici- 
 nius and his generals, there was no 
 safety but in insignificance. All the 
 mighty, and the servants of the mighty, 
 and the rich who sold their wealth to aid 
 the vanquished, were doomed to death. 
 
 The better to understand this, it is ne- 
 cessary to know, that the custom was 
 exceedingly common in that age, for the 
 successful rival to exterminate every 
 vestige of the family-blood of the con- 
 quered . 
 
 So did Licinius to Maximin : his 
 children under eight years he slew ; 
 for they had the blood of an emperor 
 flowing in their veins. When such a 
 spirit pervaded the age, and constituted 
 its well known characteristic, we can 
 easily imagine how fearful must have 
 been the consequences of defeat. 
 
 From verse 16, it is impossible not to 
 see that the vanquished and now ago- 
 nized fugitives from the vengeance of 
 justice recognised the power of the Re- 
 deemer in their overthrow. Well did all 
 
 the great men in the Roman world know 
 that eleven years before this Constantine 
 was decidedly the friend oT Christianity. 
 Perfectly was it understood, that this 
 war of Licinius was a war against the 
 religion of the cross, and that, had he 
 succeeded, Nero, Domitian, Dioclesian 
 and Maximin would have become compa- 
 rative, like the poet's " good Aurelius," 
 amiable, and tender of Christian privi- 
 leges : and the Licinian persecution alone 
 would, in future, have attracted the no- 
 tice of the church and of mankind. The 
 enemies of Constantine themselves placed 
 the war upon this foundation. Their cry, 
 like that of the modern philosopher, was 
 ever, " Crush the wretch !" — " Away 
 with the Nazarene !" Hence their de- 
 spairing exclamation, " Hide us from 
 the wrath of the Lamb !" 
 
 A single observation, with a few illus- 
 trations of it, must close this lecture. 
 The observation is, that the triumph of 
 Christianity over paganism is an evi- 
 dence of its own divine origin. 
 
 Rightly to appreciate this, it will be 
 necessary to glance at the array of op- 
 position ; then at the agency and means 
 which were employed to overcome that 
 opposition ; and then again at the Gos- 
 pel's triumphant success. 
 
 Opposed to the religion of Jesus, was, 
 
 1. The vast system of the Jewish 
 ritual. It had stood, the admiration of 
 the Israelitish people, for fifteen centu- 
 ries. Its very antiquity, apart from all 
 the peculiar force of its sacredness, gave 
 it immense power. But when we add 
 the sanctity of religion, the solemnity of 
 its visible forms, and the growing pre- 
 judices of so many ages, to the venera- 
 tion which antiquity alone demands : we 
 can perceive that a system which should 
 spring up before it, and lay the Hebrew 
 lawgiver in the dust, must come with a 
 power little short of omnipotence. 
 
 2. The religious systems of the whole 
 world were against it. We use the 
 plural, — systems : because it is matter 
 of historical verity, that whatever diver- 
 sities in the forms of their divinities, and 
 the modes of their worship might exist 
 in the various heathen countries, they 
 were one, so far as opposition to Chris- 
 
LECTURE XIV. 
 
 133 
 
 tianity was concerned. The Roman Em- 
 peror was the high priest of the Roman 
 religion. All the hierarchies of the world 
 were hostile to Christ. With them, the 
 cross waged a war of extermination. 
 Not one of them could Christianity ac- 
 knowledge as a religion. With all its 
 professions of charity, it allowed no ac- 
 commodation to Pagan prejudice ; and, 
 for this reason, it was so excessively 
 hated of all. 
 
 3. A vast body of priests and depend- 
 ants on the Pagan altar, were its deter- 
 mined foes. Tens of thousands, wholly 
 devoted to them, and wholly supported 
 by them, were ready to vindicate with 
 their lives the religion of their gods. 
 What hordes of heathen priests had the 
 Gospel to contend with ! 
 
 4. The dependants upon the altar, not 
 priests, were still more numerous. Every 
 description of trade or craft had directly 
 or indirectly some gain by it. An ex- 
 ample we have, in the case of the silver- 
 smiths of Ephesus. 
 
 5. Contemplate the monied power. To 
 what do we turn our eyes, when we in- 
 quire for the heaviest investments of 
 capital ? Is it not to the temples of the 
 gods? Witness the Pantheon at Rome, 
 the Parthenon, — which, in sublime gran- 
 deur, looks down from the Acropolis of 
 Athens, to this day the unrivalled per- 
 fection of architectural beauty, — the Tem- 
 ple of Diana at Ephesus, and a thousand 
 others. On these, Genius had expended 
 his talents ; for these, Mammon had 
 hoarded his treasures; by these, Pericles 
 and Phidias, Augustus and Adrian, and 
 even Dioclesian, are immortalized. 
 
 6. The literature and the philosophy 
 of the world were equally stern in their 
 opposition. "What will this babbler say?" 
 was a compound of the opinion of the 
 learned, in regard to the new religion. 
 
 7. The civil tribunals of the world, 
 and the laws of the empire, which they 
 were bound to enforce, made Christianity 
 a capital offence. 
 
 8. The military prowess of Imperial 
 Rome — her countless legions — her vast 
 fleets — her consummate generals : how 
 fearful a host this ! And when combined 
 with all the preceding, into one complete, 
 
 well-digested, and arranged system of 
 opposition, what must be the strength 
 that can resist and overturn this whole 
 stupendous fabric? Where is the force 
 that can do it ? Who will enter the lists 
 against such a foe? 
 
 Turn we now to the twelve fishermen 
 of Galilee. What! these the instruments! 
 these pupils of a crucified malefactor as- 
 sault the united powers of earth's great- 
 est empire ! These poor illiterate Jews ! 
 — Yes, — such are the men destined to 
 revolutionize the globe ; to hurl down 
 the gigantic systems of twenty-five cen- 
 turies ; to pour contempt upon the gods 
 of the whole world, whose worship is 
 sustained by the laws, the learning, the 
 wealth, the military powers of the Eternal 
 City ; to pile Pelion upon Ossa, and de- 
 throne Jupiter ; to wrest the thunderbolts 
 of war from the hand of Mars, and 
 show the nations the weakness of his 
 arm, and the contemptibility of his idols; 
 to stultify all the philosophers of Greece 
 and Rome, Egypt and Chaldsea; to teach 
 and enforce a spotless morality, founded 
 in a pure religion ; to establish a repre- 
 sentative government, the application of 
 whose principles to the civil administra- 
 tion of nations, is destined to upturn all 
 the thrones of tyranny, and found, upon 
 the basis of imperishable truth, the free- 
 dom of the entire human race ; to tear 
 down every column of every heathen 
 temple, and eject from the Pantheon 
 itself Rome's thirty thousand gods ; to 
 cause the millions of Asia, Africa and 
 Europe, to bow down at the shrine of a 
 new divinity ; to dip the imperial purple 
 in the blood of Calvary, and wave the 
 banner of peace over the home of the 
 Csesars ! This is the work, — and the 
 fishermen of Galilee are its agents ! Are 
 they equal to the mighty task ? Let a 
 disenthralled world reply ! 
 
 But what achieved this bloodless, — 
 this glorious victory? What, but the om- 
 nipotence of truth ? Destroy this omni- 
 potence, and we have an effect without 
 a cause, — a stupendous miracle, without 
 a power to produce it. Can the credulity 
 of infidelity itself believe this? There- 
 fore, we conclude that the Christian reli- 
 gion had its origin on high ! 
 
134 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 LECTURE XV. 
 
 THE SEQUEL OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 
 Rev. chap. vii. 
 
 The blood of the martyrs is the seed 
 of the church. This proverb contains 
 an important truth. It is an historical 
 fact, that the heroic endurance of pain, 
 contumely, and death, operated as a pow- 
 erful influence in arresting the attention of 
 men, to the lives, characters, and princi- 
 ples of those who thus endured. Often 
 the instruments of executing an oppres- 
 sive edict became convinced of its ini- 
 quity : the slaughter weapon dropped 
 from their hands, and they surrendered 
 themselves victims of the rage which 
 they were expending upon others. 
 
 It will scarcely be pretended, that the 
 sufferings of Christian martyrs consti- 
 tuted an object of desire, and that for 
 the sake of enduring the like, Pagan exe- 
 cutioners became confessors, and thus 
 exposed themselves to death. And yet, 
 a modern Marcus Aurelius seems in- 
 clined to maintain the absurdity, in order 
 to devise a reason for the heroism of 
 Christianity, the unconquerable firmness 
 of its adherents, and its rapid increase 
 under persecution. But the Gospel's 
 victories over the Roman legions, can 
 never be accounted for, on the ground 
 that man naturally loves novelty, dis- 
 tinction, pain and death. A good prac- 
 tical argument, that infidels do not be- 
 lieve their own theory here, is found in 
 the fact, that with all their zeal for Deism, 
 they do not wish it to be advanced by 
 persecution unto blood and death. It is 
 seriously to be doubted, whether either 
 Hume or Gibbon would have preferred 
 death and the advancement of infidel 
 philosophy, to a good living and the con- 
 tinuance of the Christian superstition. 
 Any person, who will look into the books 
 of Martyrs, will surely not suppose 
 their sufferings could operate as motives 
 leading others to embrace their religion. 
 The true philosophy has just been hinted 
 at. Their patience under suffering con- 
 vinced the spectators that they firmly 
 believed their own doctrines ; and thus 
 
 led them to examine ; and so conviction 
 spread from the martyr's stake. But if 
 Christianity had been an imposture, a 
 system of falsehood, these examinations 
 would have led to its detection, and so 
 to its ruin. To no religion but the true, 
 which will bear close scrutiny, can perse- 
 cution be permanently beneficial. False 
 religions, or opinions of any kind, may 
 gain by it a little temporary advantage. 
 Distress will always excite sympathy ; 
 but if sympathy leads to close investiga- 
 tion into the false opinions, it will not 
 end in their permanent promotion. No 
 man will long suffer for false doctrine. 
 It is the embodiment of the truth in the 
 lives, the actions, and sufferings of Chris- 
 tians, that operates the influence in ques- 
 tion. It was not the death of the martyrs 
 that worked so mightily. Their moral 
 heroism convinced all men, that it had a 
 foundation in truth. We therefore con- 
 tend, that the groivth of the bush in the 
 midst of the fire, is proof of God's 
 presence in the midst of both. Not so 
 with any false religion. 
 
 Let us not be told that all creeds have 
 had their martyrs. It is not true in fact, 
 as it is true with Christianity. Nor is it 
 true with spurious Christianity. We 
 admit that Quakers have been burnt, 
 that Deists have been disfranchised, that 
 French Atheists have been guillotined, 
 that Prelatists and Romanists have been 
 shot; still, it is not an historical truth 
 that any of these, or any other sect of 
 false philosophy or religion, have had 
 their martyrs in the sense in which evan- 
 gelical Christianity has had hers. It is 
 not true that any false religionists have 
 been persecuted unto death, by hundreds 
 and by thousands and tens of thousands 
 for centuries together, formally and sim- 
 ply, because they held certain religious 
 tenets. Moreover, it never can become 
 true. It is an impossibility in the phy- 
 sical constitution of the human mind, 
 that men in great numbers, and for ex- 
 tended periods of time, should sell their 
 lives for sake of falsehood. Insulated 
 cases there have been, and cases where 
 small bodies highly excited, have suffered 
 death. But it has been more for the 
 pride of consistency, the fondness of no- 
 
LECTURE XV. 
 
 135 
 
 toriety, for the spirit of the body, than 
 out of love to error. But that a suc- 
 cession of men should keep up the de- 
 lusions of error, and die in great num- 
 bers, martyrs to falsehood, is as untrue 
 in philosophy as it is in history. Had 
 not a divine energy accompanied the 
 testimony of the martyrs, and made the 
 truth mighty, the church had sunk un- 
 der the deathfires of the ten general per- 
 secutions and the multitudinous ones of 
 a more limited extent. There is no 
 reasonable and satisfactory mode of ac- 
 counting for her survival, but upon the 
 ground exhibited to Moses in the sym- 
 bol ; the bush which he saw in Horeb 
 burned in the flame, but was not con- 
 sumed, because God was there. 
 
 For two hundred years had the church 
 been wading through blood ; not of her 
 foes, but her own. Many of her sons 
 did employ carnal weapons, but not for- 
 mally for her, or in her service. They 
 entered the armies of their country ; not 
 to fight for the upbuilding of Christianity, 
 but for their country. They were never 
 enlisted as Christians, and yet God did 
 so arrange it, that for the most part the 
 army was Christian which achieved those 
 victories of Constantine, which made him 
 master of the Roman world. 
 
 Now, we are not to suppose that we 
 have mastered history, because we have 
 recounted the story of wars and battles, 
 the rise and triumph of one dynasty, 
 the destruction and fall of another. Tbe 
 Christian historian has other and far 
 more important points in his eye. He 
 has all along been watching the kingdom 
 of the little stone, marking the develope- 
 ment of truth and its influence upon hu- 
 man society ; he has noted the secret 
 working of the leaven of his kingdom ; 
 he has eyed with intense interest, the 
 waning light of paganism ; he has seen 
 the elective principle eating its way to- 
 wards the vitals of despotism. This did 
 not escape the philosophic eye of the 
 historian of the Decline and Fall. Even 
 he has remarked the republican nature 
 of the ecclesiastical organization, and 
 in his apology for the Dioclesian perse- 
 cution, alleges that as a reason, and in 
 a degree, as a palliation, of the hatred 
 
 of the pagan emperors toward the Chris- 
 tians. They perceived, he intimates, 
 the rising up of a republican govern- 
 ment, under the forms of church policy. 
 Whether or not they perceived it, the 
 fact is so. The church in its elementary 
 purity is a republican system — a system 
 of representative government. Edmund 
 Burke, arguing against the hostile mea- 
 sures of Lord North in regard to Ame- 
 rica, referred to our democratic religion, 
 as evidence of our unconquerable attach- 
 ment to the l-epresentative principle, and 
 of the consequent folly of attempting to 
 extend taxation where representation did 
 not accompany it. The emperors of 
 Rome had better reason of policy for 
 persecuting the church than the kings of 
 England had for taxing the colonies with- 
 out their consent. But all availed not ; 
 for God is in the midst of Zion ; her 
 course is onivard ; and she finds at last 
 a resting place where she may breathe 
 freely, without the menace of a sword 
 over her head continually. This con- 
 sequence or rather concomitant of the 
 sixth seal, we have in chapter vii. 
 
 In the exposition we find a very gene- 
 ral agreement among interpreters. It is 
 a description of the events consequent 
 upon the opening of the sixth seal, and 
 constitutes a very important part of its 
 matter. 
 
 Verse 1. " And after these things, I 
 saw four angels standing on the four 
 corners of the earth, holding the four 
 winds of the earth, that the wind should 
 not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, 
 nor on any tree." 
 
 " The earth," or Roman empire, was 
 almost a rectangular figure, having its 
 longer dimensions extending east and 
 west, and its shorter north and south. 
 Hence our phraseology, longitude and 
 latitude, to mark distance in the two 
 directions. From this also we form the 
 conception of four corners, or angles, to 
 the empire. Each of these is represented 
 as the station of an angelic sentinel : — 
 that is, the agency which God employs 
 to send peace or war upon the people. 
 The wind, which often sweeps over the 
 land, and prostrates every thing in its 
 course, is here emblematic of all the 
 
136 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 instruments which God uses to execute 
 his vengeance. The sea, as we have 
 seen, is the mass of population, and the 
 tree is the representative of all the pro- 
 ductions of nature. The angels seen at 
 their posts respectively holding in check 
 the winds, do then forcibly exhibit God's 
 agents, by which he restrains all the foul 
 and fierce passions of men, in or out of 
 power, that they may not desolate the 
 world and distract and oppress thechurch. 
 
 Verses 2, 3. " And I saw another 
 angel ascending from the east, having 
 the seal of the living God : and he cried 
 with a loud voice to the four angels to 
 whom it was given to hurt the earth, and 
 the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, 
 neither the sea, nor the trees, till we 
 have sealed the servants of our God, in 
 their foreheads." This fifth angel doubt- 
 lessly prefigures the Gospel ministry, 
 who pray for a continuance of peace 
 and tranquillity, as favourable to the 
 spread of the Gospel. And such was 
 historically the case. There was a long 
 period of quietness and great external 
 prosperity, immediately consequent upon 
 the victories of Constantine, which con- 
 tinued without much interruption until 
 the death of Theodosius the Great, in 
 395, — a period of seventy-two years. 
 There were, indeed, various agitations 
 and commotions within the church ; but 
 there was no considerable violence from 
 without. The feet of the great giant 
 were lifted off from the neck of the 
 church, and she was mercifully per- 
 mitted to breathe freely. 
 
 The only material interruption occurred 
 during (he short reign of Julian, the Apos- 
 tate, another particular favourite of the 
 historian of the Decline and Fall. Julian 
 was nephew to Constantine, and had been 
 carefully instructed in the doctrines of 
 Christianity. But becoming enamoured 
 of the Platonic philosophy, he apostatized 
 entirely to paganism, and exerted all his 
 power, though cautiously, to restore pa- 
 ganism and suppress Christianity. To 
 falsify the New Testament prophecies, 
 he attempted, through the Jews, to re- 
 build the temple of Jerusalem ; but was 
 foiled by the supernatural interposition 
 of fiery balls, issuing from the ground 
 
 and driving off those employed at the 
 work. He did every thing that art 
 could do to sow dissension and bitterness 
 among the Christians, under pretence of 
 reconciling them. He expelled most of 
 the teachers, bishops, and others, from 
 their schools, and many were forced to 
 fly their country. He was peculiarly 
 enraged at Athanasius, Bishop of Alex- 
 andria, the illustrious defender of the 
 fundamental doctrine of the trinity. He 
 banished him from his country, and 
 would, beyond doubt, have executed 
 him, had not policy prevented. " I 
 swear," says Julian in a letter to Ec- 
 decius, prefect of Egypt ; " I swear by 
 the great Serapis, that unless on the 
 calends of December, Athanasius has 
 departed from Alexandria, nay from 
 Egypt, the officers of your government 
 shall pay a fine of one hundred pounds 
 of gold. You know my temper : I am 
 slow to condemn, but I am still slower 
 to forgive. — The contempt that is shown 
 for all the gods fills me with grief and 
 indignation. There is nothing that I 
 should see, nothing that I should hear, 
 with more pleasure, than the expul- 
 sion of Athanasius from Egypt. The 
 abominable wretch ! Under my reign 
 the baptism of several Grecian ladies 
 of the highest rank has been the effect 
 of his persecutions." After making 
 this quotation, his brother philosopher 
 adds, " The death of Athanasius was 
 not expressly commanded, but the pre- 
 fect of Egypt understood that it was 
 safer for him to exceed than to neglect 
 the orders of an irritated master," (chap, 
 xxiii.) He might with perfect truth have 
 added, that nothing but their overwhelm- 
 ing numbers, in Egypt and every where, 
 saved the Christians from a more than 
 Dioclesian persecution. In truth, when- 
 ever philosophy ascended the throne, the 
 church bled. The points of resemblance 
 between Julian's sentiments and those of 
 the transcendental Neologists of Ger- 
 many, France, and now it may be added, 
 America, are abundantly sufficient to 
 prove the truth of Solomon's remark, — 
 " There is nothing new under the sun ; 
 is there any thing of which it may be 
 said, See, this is new." By the same 
 
LECTURE XV. 
 
 137 
 
 steps which carried Julian up to the 
 summit of Olympus and the shrine of 
 Jupiter, are the modern Platonists as- 
 cending through the regions of " the 
 pure reason" into the To sv, — the pan- 
 theistic transcendentalism, which makes 
 so near an approximation to the perfect 
 sublime of " the absolute" atheism. 
 
 Had Julian succeeded in his Persian 
 expedition, and returned with the spoils 
 of the East and a victorious army, there 
 can be little doubt, but that the happy 
 tranquillity referred to on Constantine's 
 medals, would not have been of long 
 continuance. In mercy, however, to 
 his church, God directed a Persian ar- 
 row to the vitals of the infidel philoso- 
 pher, and so died the last pagan empe- 
 ror, after an inglorious reign of twenty 
 months. 
 
 But to return to the text. Sealing the 
 servants of God in their foreheads is a 
 manifest allusion to the great increase 
 of the church. Seals are impressed to 
 give securit)-. They are also a sign 
 and mark of property, and it is probable 
 there is reference to the custom then 
 prevalent, of marking slaves with a 
 brand. As the Roman master marked 
 his slaves to secure them to himself; so 
 God marks, with the seal of his covenant, 
 his believing people. This seal is on 
 the forehead, that it may be seen and 
 read of all men. 
 
 Now baptism is, and ever has been, the 
 public seal of God's covenant in the Chris- 
 tian church. Accordingly, history tells 
 us of very great numbers being admitted 
 into the church, by public baptism, du- 
 ring this season of tranquillity. 
 
 In verses 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, the num- 
 ber is stated, and the proportion from 
 each. One hundred and forty-four thou- 
 sand ; that is, twelve thousand from each 
 tribe ; except that Dan is left out and 
 Manasseh is taken in, as a tribe. A defi- 
 nite number is here put for an indefinite. 
 The next object that attracted the 
 apostle's notice, was an immense " multi- 
 tude which no man could number, of all 
 nations and kindreds, and people, and 
 tongues, which stood before the throne, 
 and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
 raiment, and palms in their hands : and 
 
 18 
 
 cried with a loud voice, saying, Salva- 
 tion to our God which sitteth upon the 
 throne, and unto the Lamb." These, we 
 are assured in verse 13, "are they which 
 came out of great tribulation, and have 
 washed their robes and made them white 
 in the blood of the Lamb." In other 
 words, the martyrs of Jesus, whose souls 
 were seen under the altar, and those who 
 were afterwards slain by the sword of 
 persecution. We are to note concerning 
 them. 
 
 1. Their numbers are very great: so 
 great, that man cannot cast the mighty 
 sum. The ingenuity of the learned his- 
 torian, just referred to, is taxed to the 
 utmost to fritter down this great multi- 
 tude to an inconsiderable handful ; as he 
 labours to make the Pagan persecutions 
 small, and merely local and incidental 
 trifles : slight blemishes upon a vast and 
 beautiful system. Not such is the in- 
 fallible record of prophecy : nor such is 
 the verity of historic detail. We may 
 refer to Pliny's letters to Trajan, where 
 he speaks of the whole province as in 
 clanger of being depopulated, as one 
 among many testimonies in the face of 
 the Pagan apologist. 
 
 2. Note their collection from all na- 
 tions. In every tribe and family of the 
 Roman empire, the persecutor's sword 
 sluiced many a Christian's veins. 
 
 3. Their position, — " before the throne 
 and before the Lamb." God's holy 
 martyrs are protected by the power of 
 his moral government, and the arm of 
 their Almighty Redeemer. They are 
 admitted to very peculiar honour and 
 happiness. 
 
 4. Their dress, — •■"clothed in white 
 raiment, and palms in their hands :" the 
 garments of purity and triumph, and 
 palms of victory. 
 
 5. Their employment, — -celebrating 
 the praises of redeeming love. They 
 ascribe their salvation to God and the 
 Lamb. 
 
 6. The means of their purity, — " have 
 washed their robes and made them white 
 in the blood of the Lamb." By this 
 have they gained the victory equally 
 over their own sins, and over their ex- 
 ternal foes. 
 
133 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 7. The perpetuity of their worship, — 
 " day and night in his temple." 
 
 8. Their unspeakable felicity, — "They 
 shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
 more: neither shall the sun light on them, 
 nor any heat;" — no evils shall befall 
 them. And their positive enjoyments 
 shall be great; "For the Lamb which 
 is in the midst, between them and the 
 throne, shall feed them, and lead them 
 unto living fountains of waters: and 
 God shall wipe away all tears from their 
 eyes." Thus, beautifully is described 
 their entire exemption from all pain, and 
 their perfect enjoyment of inexpressible 
 bliss. 
 
 In verse 11, the ranks of angels stand 
 round, or rather have taken their station 
 in a circle of the throne : they consti- 
 tute an outer-guard, encircling the glo- 
 rious scene. They are " all ministering 
 spirits, sent forth to minister to them who 
 shall be heirs of salvation :" and espe- 
 cially to the martyrs of Jesus. 
 
 In concluding the period of the seals, 
 let us remember, 
 
 1. The star of Bethlehem came from 
 the east. Westward the Sun of Right- 
 eousness takes his way. Steadily has 
 the light travelled from the rising of the 
 sun toward the going down of the same. 
 Let it be our care, that we present no 
 barrier to his progress ; but rather assist 
 in speeding his conquering car toward 
 the Pacific waves, and the isles of the 
 ocean. 
 
 2. Baptism is a public ordinance : the 
 seal of God is in the forehead of his 
 saints : therefore, the private administra- 
 tion of it is a contradiction. God's mar- 
 tyrs are not ashamed to receive the im- 
 press of his seal in the most public 
 manner. 
 
 3. Times of great external prosperity 
 are not necessarily times of internal 
 purity. Multitudinous additions are very 
 likelv to involve considerable numbers 
 of self-deceived professors. Weshall have 
 occasion to notice hereafter, that the acts 
 of toleration, and much more those of 
 establishment, had an injurious influence 
 upon the church : and it can readily be 
 perceived how persecution keeps the 
 body pure. 
 
 4. The angels of glory rejoice at the 
 progress of the Gospel ; though they can- 
 not sing the songs of appropriating and 
 triumphant faith. How will it be when 
 the work shall have been completed, and 
 all the ransomed throng shall stand be- 
 fore the throne, and before the Lamb? 
 
 5. Would you, my friends, each wear 
 a white robe, and bear a palm of victory? 
 W'ould you strike a note of joy in that 
 grand choir? Cast yourselves then before 
 the foot of the cross, — be sprinkled and 
 washed in the blood of the slain Lamb : 
 so shall your robes be spotless, — your 
 victory certain. 
 
 Do not sorrow over guilt unforgiven, 
 and mourn a heart impenitent and dead? 
 Does the conflict with the law of sin in 
 your members almost sink your soul in 
 despair? Lift up your head. Jesus 
 washes away all transgression by his 
 blood, — all pollution by his spirit, — all 
 tears by the hand of his love. 
 
 LECTURE XVI. 
 
 THE PERIOD OF THE TRUMPETS. 
 
 " And when he had opened the seventh seal, 
 there was silence in heaven about the space of 
 half an hour. And I saw the seven angels 
 which stood before God; and to them were 
 given seven trumpets. And another angel came 
 and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; 
 and there was given unto him much incense, 
 that he should offer it with the prayers of all 
 saints, upon the golden altar, which was before 
 the throne. And the smoke of the incense, 
 which came with the prayers of the saints, as- 
 cended up before God, out of the angel's hand. 
 And the angel took the censer, and filled it 
 with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth : 
 and there were voices, and thundcrings, and 
 lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven 
 angels, which had the seven trumpets, prepared 
 themselves to sound." — Rev. chap. viii. 1-G. 
 
 Time is a revealer of secrets. It is 
 measured only by motion ; and all its 
 movements are under the control and 
 direction of the God of Providence, — the 
 Lamb that was slain. Time, therefore, 
 and all time's offspring, are practical 
 disclosers of the divine purpose. God's 
 
LECTURE XVI. 
 
 139 
 
 will is made known in his works, and 
 therefore the importance of studying 
 both the book of revelation, and the book 
 of providence; — the pros-script, and the 
 post-script history. They are two mir- 
 rors, which reflect light mutually, and 
 make the objects between, visible on all 
 sides. Through a lapse of nearly three 
 centuries we have been tracing this pa- 
 rallel. We have held up the two mir- 
 rors, and it is hoped, have obtained 
 thereby many profitable visions, before 
 unseen ; or so imperfectly perceived, as 
 to be practically useless. We have re- 
 marked the gradual and slow, but steady 
 and sure progress of right principles. 
 We have seen the truth, by its inborn 
 energy, and the heroic sufferings of its 
 friends resulting therefrom, moving on 
 from victory to victory, until it fairly 
 expelled the fiend of despotism from the 
 strongholds of pagan polytheism, where 
 it had fortified itself in confident security 
 from the days of Nimrod, and of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar. For twenty-five centuries 
 had the gods of the nations lent their 
 influence over the minds of men, to the 
 dynasties, whose power thus created, 
 was again exerted for the upholding of 
 pagan superstitions. It is now an ad- 
 mitted maxim in political science, that 
 virtue, or sound morality, is indispensa- 
 ble to a free government. This maxim 
 is the secret of the church's success. 
 To embody it in human society is her 
 constant effort. It has ever been her 
 practice to aim at making men free 
 from the pollutions of sin, and giving 
 form to that freedom in the organization 
 of her social system. She erects a spi- 
 ritual dominion, whose life and soul is 
 the representative principle ; in order 
 that her members may learn submission 
 to law in the hands of their own chosen 
 agents. In this way, the church directs 
 her first blow to the root of despotism, — 
 the corruption of the human heart ; and 
 having, by the doctrines of grace, and 
 the power of the divine spirit which 
 accompanies them, released the indivi- 
 dual from the first and worst of all 
 bondage, and placed him under a go- 
 vernment of law, in the hands of rulers 
 chosen by himself, she has made him, 
 
 in the highest and most important sense, 
 free. This is Heaven's mode of unbind- 
 ing the captive ; and no other will ever 
 avail. Its unchanging law is, liberty in 
 fact, — afterwards liberty in form : deli- 
 verance from ignorance and sin, — then 
 deliverance from their influences and 
 effects in the hands of men. This order 
 of things exists in the nature which God 
 has given to his creatures ; and there- 
 fore it cannot be reversed. The chains 
 of political bondage might be broken 
 from the Russian serf; universal suf- 
 frage might be bestowed upon the whole 
 population of Britain and Ireland ; but 
 would they remain free ? No ; for the 
 minds of the vast majority are held in 
 grosser servitude than are their bodies. 
 We see, therefore, the unreasonableness 
 of attempting, by civil legislation, imme- 
 diately to make men free. Can legisla- 
 tion, directly and at once, purify the 
 heart, and enlighten the understanding? 
 Is Mexico freer now than before the 
 Spanish yoke was broken ? God's plan 
 is to release the individual from the 
 bonds which sin has imposed upon him, 
 and thus to prepare masses of men for 
 self-government. In this way only can 
 the sceptre of tyranny be broken for 
 ever. In less than three centuries this 
 plan quenched the lights of paganism, 
 and kindled the torch of truth in most 
 parts of the Roman empire. 
 
 We now proceed to the consideration 
 of the symbolical earth under its Chris- 
 tian form. 
 
 We have at present before us the 
 introduction to the trumpets. 
 
 " And when he had opened the seventh 
 seal, there was silence in heaven about 
 the space of half an hour." 
 
 The whole scene is still in the church ; 
 and silence in it betokens a deep and 
 marked attention. There is also mani- 
 fest allusion to the system of rites at the 
 temple. When the priest entered into 
 the most holy place, with the censer of 
 incense, " the whole multitude of the 
 people prayed without ;" not by audible 
 expressions ; but in deep and solemn 
 silence. From this Jewish custom, which 
 was extremely natural, it can readily be 
 perceived how the half hour's silence 
 
140 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 represents a period of great anxiety, 
 and an earnest expectancy of some 
 strange events. The phrase, about the 
 space of half an hour, plainly intimates 
 that no precise and specific time is in- 
 tended. It merely expresses a short 
 pause, such as that which occurs when 
 two armies, ready to engage, await the 
 word of command. 
 
 The most probable date of this short 
 silence is upon the death of the great 
 Theodosius, the last of Rome's heroic 
 emperors. He had been raised to the 
 imperial dignity by the favour of the 
 Emperor Gratian, and the acclamations 
 of the army, A. D. 379. At this June- 
 ture the perils of the empire were ex- 
 treme, because of the dark and terrible 
 war-clouds that still lowered in the north. 
 Gratian and the army looked on them 
 with considerable emotion. The fierce 
 hordes cf barbarians, who had furnished 
 to Constantine opportunities so nume- 
 rous of displaying his valorous spirit 
 and consummate skill, continued to bear 
 down from the north and east. All eyes 
 turned to Theodosius. He was the son 
 of a noble Spaniard of the same name, 
 who, standing high in favour and com- 
 mand with the Emperor Valentinian, 
 bad reaped his renown in Britain, Spain, 
 and Africa. The son inherited the talents 
 and had been trained in the camp of his 
 father. His merits and his father's in- 
 fluence soon procured to him the com- 
 mand of Moesia, under the title of duke. 
 His military prowess had been farther 
 developed by a great victory achieved 
 over an army of Sarmatians. But the 
 cruel and unjust execution of his father 
 by the order or connivance of the Em- 
 peror Gratian, induced him, at once, to 
 withdraw from the public service ; which, 
 by Gratian's permission, he did, and re- 
 tired to his paternal estate, near Valla- 
 dolid, in Spain. There he pursued the 
 duties of private life, until his sword be- 
 came necessary to the salvation of his 
 country. 
 
 On the ninth of March, A. D. 378, 
 the Emperor Valens fought with the 
 Gauls the disastrous battle of Hadriano- 
 ple, in which Valens was slain, and his 
 army cut to pieces. The East then lay 
 
 open to the barbarians. On this occa- 
 sion it was, that Gratian, the youthful 
 Emperor of the West, who, advancing 
 with all power and speed, to assist his 
 colleague Valens when he fell, selected 
 the exile of Valladolid as the bulwark 
 of the empire. " During the season of 
 prosperity," says Gibbon, "he had been 
 neglected ; but in the public distress, his 
 superior merit was universally felt and 
 acknowledged. What confidence must 
 have been reposed in his integrity, since 
 Gratian could trust, that a pious son 
 would forgive, for the sake of the re- 
 public, the murder of his father ! What 
 expectations must have been formed of 
 his abilities, to encourage the hope that 
 a single man could save and restore the 
 Empire of the East ! Theodosius was 
 invested with the purple in the thirty- 
 third year of his age." The fondest 
 hopes of all men were realized. For 
 sixteen years Theodosius turned the tor- 
 rent of war to the banks of the Danube; 
 twice he crushed usurpation and cruelty 
 and restored the Western Empire. But 
 whilst the whole Roman world l-egarded 
 him with just pride as their shield and 
 protection, and anticipated the felicities 
 of a long reign, he was suddenly carried 
 oft* by a dropsical disease, A.D. 395. 
 Thus four months only after his most 
 decisive victory over the revolted gene- 
 ral, Abrogastes, and Eugenius, the 
 rhetorician, whom the former had set 
 up as his tool, for an emperor, the 
 hopes of the world and the church were 
 blasted. It is necessary farther to re- 
 mark, that Theodosius had, from the be- 
 ginning, taken decided ground in favour 
 of the Trinitarians against the Arians, 
 and he had done much towards the 
 annihilation of pagan idolatry. At his 
 death, therefore, there was a general 
 panic in the empire ; and more espe- 
 cially in the church, — a dread and 
 solemn pause. All hearts, particularly 
 those of the Christians, trembled for the 
 consequences : for it was known that 
 the Gothic barbarians who hung upon 
 the northeast, were decided Arians. 
 " The Romans," says Gibbon, " were 
 terrified by the impending dangers of a 
 feeble and divided administration." This 
 
LECTURE XVI. 
 
 141 
 
 is the " silence about the space of half 
 an hour." 
 
 The trumpet is an instrument used to 
 increase the power of the human voice, 
 and to make its tones audible at a 
 greater distance than if unaided. Its 
 use was chiefly as a signal or call to 
 some special duty, particularly to pre- 
 pare for, and guard against coming dan- 
 gers. For in such purposes it was 
 divinely appointed. " Make thee two 
 trumpets of silver : of a whole piece 
 shalt thou make them, that thou mayest 
 use them for the calling of the assembly, 
 and for the journeyings of the camp. — 
 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall 
 blow with the trumpets. — And if ye go 
 to war in your land, against the enemy 
 that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow 
 an alarm with the trumpets." (Num. x. 
 1-10. See also Jer. iv. 5, 19, 20 ; vi. 
 17 ; Ez. xxxiii. 2-6 ; Joel, ii. 1.) The 
 sound of the trumpet is thus an alarm, 
 and a call to patient suffering or active 
 resistance to coming calamity. The 
 seven angels with the seven trumpets 
 perform an office very analogous to that 
 of the four living ones, accompanying 
 the seals. It is not of material conse- 
 quence whether we maintain them to be 
 symbolical of the ministry, or to be 
 the superhuman agency itself, whereby 
 the designs of Providence are accom- 
 plished. Perhaps the latter would most 
 perfectly correspond with what we are 
 to notice next. 
 
 Verses 3, 4. "And another angel 
 came and stood at the altar, having a 
 golden censer, and there was given unto 
 him much incense, that he should offer 
 it with the prayers of all saints, upon 
 the golden altar, which was before the 
 throne. And the smoke of the incense, 
 which came with the prayers of the 
 saints, ascended up before God, out of 
 the angel's hand." There can be no 
 diversity of opinion here. This is the 
 gospel ministry, who stand before God, 
 and begin all their work at the altar : — 
 all their hopes of successful ministration 
 are founded in the fundamental doctrine 
 of atonement. Through their instru- 
 mentality, the prayers of the saints 
 are called forth, and ascend and bring 
 
 blessing, or wrath, as the case may 
 be. 
 
 Verse 5. "And the angel took the 
 censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, 
 and cast it into the earth." This is a 
 different altar from the preceding one. 
 That was the golden altar of incense, 
 which stood in the holy place, imme- 
 diately before the ark, and on the oppo- 
 site side of the veil from it. But this is 
 the altar of burnt offerings, whence 
 always the coals were taken for burning 
 the incense in the censer, and on the 
 altar of incense. The act of throwing 
 coals from the altar upon the earth, 
 signifies that the calamities resulting 
 therefrom, fall upon the empire from 
 the doctrine of atonement itself. The 
 abuse and corruption of this leading 
 doctrine causes immense distress : and 
 we shall see most abundantly, before 
 we arrive at the close of this period of 
 the trumpets, that the sins of men in 
 denying, setting aside, or perverting it, 
 have been fruitful sources of heresy in 
 the church, and have made her the 
 sport of her enemies ; and we shall 
 also see, that the interference of the 
 kingdoms of the empire with this cen- 
 tral truth, has resulted in vast contro- 
 versy, confusion, and misery- 
 Verse 5. " And there were voices, 
 and thunderings, and lightnings, and 
 an earthquake." These are a compend 
 of the whole substance of the trumpets : 
 a kind of brief summary ; the details of 
 which we shall meet with as we severally 
 examine them. 
 
 Verse 6. " And the seven angels 
 which had the seven trumpets, prepared 
 themselves to sound." 
 
 From this introduction to the trum- 
 pets, we may deduce some remarks for 
 consideration. 
 
 1. We are taught the deep interest 
 which the church of God has in the 
 movements of the civil powers, and the 
 revolutions to which they are subject. 
 Whilst in the world, Christians, indi- 
 vidually and collectively, are " not of 
 the world :" but they are not therefore 
 to remain unaffected by its commotions, 
 and impossible is it that they should be 
 indifferent spectators of them. 
 
142 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 2. We cannot but perceive that the 
 prayers of the people of God have an 
 agency and instrumentality deeply affect- 
 ing the nations. Men may scoff, and 
 profess to feel regardless whether or not 
 the church pleads for them, or invokes 
 the vengeance of heaven upon them ; 
 yet this does not prove that they feel no 
 concern, and have no desire to be re- 
 membered in the supplications of holy 
 men ; much less does it prove that they 
 are without effect. So long as the in- 
 cense of prayer ascends, so long will 
 God's ear be open to hear, and his hand 
 extended to deliver. 
 
 3. The heaviest judgments of the 
 Most High will descend upon the de- 
 generate church which perverts the doc- 
 trine of the atonement. The same fire 
 that kindles the incense of acceptable 
 devotion, lights up the flames of God's 
 wrath. Let the church then guard with 
 peculiar care the grand truth of redemp- 
 tion by the vicarious death of the slain 
 Lamb : holding this in its purity, she 
 cannot fall ; forsaking and neglecting it, 
 she cannot rise. 
 
 THE FISST, SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH 
 TRUMPETS. 
 
 Rev. viii. 7. " The first angel sounded, 
 and there followed hail and fire, mingled 
 with blood, and they were cast upon the 
 earth : and the third part of trees were 
 burnt up, and all green grass was 
 burnt up." 
 
 Hail, fire, and blood cast upon the 
 earth, very strongly exhibit some ter- 
 rible invasions of the empire from the 
 north. The destruction of trees and 
 grass, as naturally represents the ruin- 
 ous effects cf such an invasion, — the 
 desolations of fierce and savage war. 
 The Western Roman Empire is pointed 
 out by the phrase, the third part. A 
 restraining influence had been operating 
 for some time upon the northern barba- 
 rians. The four angels prevented them 
 from "hurting the earth," — from com- 
 mitting injustice, violence, and outrage 
 upon the empire, its population, and re- 
 sources. But now, the trumpet alarm 
 
 is sounded, and one of these angels 
 withholds his influence, and this storm 
 of hail, fire, and blood, bursts forth. 
 The hail, we have said, indicates a 
 northern origin ; and, therefore, we may 
 look to the northeast, where was sta- 
 tioned one of the four angels. 
 
 We have already seen, that the seventh 
 seal opened upon the empire a view of 
 their fearful loss in the death of Theo- 
 dosius. A moment of breathless expec- 
 tancy in the church was followed by the 
 shrill and dread clarion of battle. His- 
 tory, accordingly, reflects back the light 
 of prophetic symbols. " If the subjects 
 of Rome," says Gibbon, (chap, xxx.) 
 " could be ignorant of their obligations 
 to the great Theodosius, they were soon 
 convinced how painfully the spirit and 
 abilities of their deceased emperor had 
 supported the frail and mouldering edi- 
 fice of the republic. He died in the 
 month of January, and before the end 
 of the winter of the same year, the 
 Gothic nation was in arms. The bar- 
 barian auxiliaries erected their indepen- 
 dent standard, and boldly avowed the 
 hostile designs which they had long che- 
 rished in their ferocious minds. Their 
 countrymen, who had been condemned 
 by the conditions of the last treaty, to a 
 life of tranquillity and labour, deserted 
 their farms at the first sound of the 
 trumpet ; [had a Christian historian 
 used such language, the unbelieving 
 philosopher would have suspected him 
 of writing with his eye on the pro- 
 phecy] and eagerly resumed the wea- 
 pons which they had reluctantly laid 
 down. The barriers of the Danube 
 were thrown open ; the savage warriors 
 of Scythia issued from their forests ; 
 and the uncommon severity of the win- 
 ter allowed the poet to remark, that 
 ' they rolled their ponderous wagons 
 over the broad and icy back of the 
 indignant river.' The unhappy natives 
 of the provinces to the south of the 
 Danube, submitted to the calamities 
 which, in the course of twenty years, 
 were almost grown familiar to their 
 imagination ; and the various troops of 
 barbarians who gloried in the Gothic 
 name, were irregularly spread from the 
 
LECTURE XVI. 
 
 143 
 
 woody shores of Dalmatia to the walls 
 of Constantinople." 
 
 Among the leaders of - these vast 
 hordes shone conspicuous, Alaric, who 
 had long served as a mercenary under 
 Theodosius, with large numbers of his 
 countrymen. In the Roman armies he 
 acquired that military skill which, when 
 combined with his native courage, made 
 him the most terrible scourge of the 
 empire : so that " The Goths," con- 
 tinues our historian, " instead of being 
 impelled by the blind and headstrong 
 passions of their chiefs, were now di- 
 rected by the bold and artful genius of 
 Alaric. That renowned leader was 
 descended from the noble race of the 
 Balfi ; which yielded only to the royal 
 dignity of the Amali : he had solicited 
 the command of the Roman armies ; 
 and the imperial court provoked him to 
 demonstrate the folly of their refusal, 
 and the importance of their loss. Alaric 
 disdained to trample any longer on the 
 prostrate and ruined countries of Thrace 
 and Dacia, and he resolved to seek a 
 plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a 
 province which had hitherto escaped the 
 ravages of war." The historian pro- 
 ceeds to detail his invasion of Greece ; 
 but we must present it in a more con- 
 densed form. Alaric traversed without 
 resistance the plains of Macedonia and 
 Thessaly, and poured his vast troops 
 through the Straits of Thermopylse, upon 
 the rich and fertile fields of Phocis, 
 Bceotia, Attica, and the land of the im- 
 mortal three hundred ; but there was 
 no Leonidas there; and the ashes of 
 Miltiades brooked the insult of the bar- 
 barian host. There was no man in 
 Greece, and but one in the world, who 
 could draw a blade, and brandish his 
 steel in the face of Alaric. Onward 
 rolled the torrent of barbarian invasion, 
 over the Arcadian groves, and the Pelo- 
 ponnesus : then its refluent wave turned 
 north, and swept the mountain tops of 
 Elis. But here it met a barrier. Stili- 
 cho had landed an army in the Gulf of 
 Corinth, and advancing upon Alaric, 
 soon enclosed him on Mount Pholoe, 
 near the sources of the Peneus ; he cut 
 off his supply of water, and the fierce 
 
 Goth, with the spoils of Greece, was 
 completely in his power, and must have 
 become his prisoner, but for one of those 
 strange freaks of folly which sometimes 
 throw themselves in the track of great 
 men, to make the world wonder. Secure 
 of his prey, Stilicho went to amuse him- 
 self with the theatrical games and las- 
 civious dances of the Greeks. Alaric 
 chose the hour for making his escape, 
 and when Stilicho returned to look for 
 his prey, it was gone. Alaric was safe 
 in Epirus ; and before the Roman could 
 overtake the Goth, an ambassador ar- 
 rived with a treaty between Alaric and 
 Arcadius, the emperor of Constantinople: 
 the Goth was appointed general of East- 
 ern Illyricum, and the Roman was order- 
 ed to retire from the territory of the East- 
 ern emperor. Arcadius thus rewarded, 
 with an honourable command, a revolted 
 subject, and the ravager of his kingdom ; 
 and prevented the kind interference of 
 his brother Honorius, from saving his 
 empire by the sword of Stilicho. 
 
 As might have been expected, a peace 
 bought with gold, and not with steel, 
 was of short duration. In a few months 
 the troops of Alaric, fattened upon the 
 spoils of Greece, and thoroughly equip- 
 ped from the exactions made off the 
 provinces, lifted up the captain-general 
 of Eastern Illyricum upon a shield, and 
 proclaimed him king of the Visigoths. 
 
 In A. D. 403, Alaric descended upon 
 Italy, with a large and well-furnished 
 army of infantry and cavalry. Terror 
 hung around his van, for desolation closed 
 his rear. He swept over Pannonia, Istria, 
 Venitia. The Adige, the Mincius, and 
 other branches of the Po, presented no 
 obstacle. Milan, the residence of the 
 emperor, was threatened. Consternation 
 seized the court ; — all hearts failed. But 
 Stilicho stood the shield of the Western 
 Empire, as he had nearly proved that of 
 the Eastern, against the same fierce foe. 
 There was, however, no army in Italy 
 to stand by him : he therefore left the 
 court, with instructions to throw obsta- 
 cles in the enemy's way, and evade him 
 as they could, till he should return with 
 a force fit to take the field. He crossed 
 the Rhetian Alps to the north ; arrived 
 
144 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 in time to quell an insurrection ; and 
 drew off the legions from the garrisons 
 along the Rhine, others out of Gaul, and 
 even from the borders of North Britain. 
 Meanwhile Honorius, the emperor, fled 
 from Milan, and being closely pursued 
 by the Gothic chief, was obliged to throw 
 himself into a small town called Asta, in 
 Piedmont: where Alaric immediately 
 formed a siege, pressed it with great vigor, 
 and had already summoned the town to 
 surrender, when the terror and agony of 
 the court were relieved by the approach 
 of the earnestly desired aid. " At the 
 head of a chosen and intrepid vanguard, 
 Stilicho swam the stream of the Addua, to 
 gain the time which he must have lost 
 in the attack of the bridge ; the passage 
 of the Po was an enterprise of much less 
 hazard and difficulty ; and the successful 
 action, in which he cut his way through 
 the Gothic camp under the walls of Asta, 
 revived the hopes and vindicated the 
 honour of Rome. Instead of grasping 
 the fruit of his victory, the barbarian was 
 gradually invested on every side, by the 
 troops of the West, who successively 
 issued through all the passes of the Alps : 
 his quarters were straitened, his convoys 
 were intercepted, and the vigilance of the 
 Romans prepared to form a chain of for- 
 tifications, and to besiege the lines of the 
 besiegers." The battle of Pollentia fol- 
 lowed, in which, " The skill of the gene- 
 ral and the bravery of the soldiers, sur- 
 mounted every obstacle. In the evening 
 of that bloody day, the Goths retreated 
 from the field of battle; the intrench- 
 ments of their camps were forced, and 
 the scene of rapine and slaughter made 
 some atonement for the calamities which 
 they had inflicted on the subjects of the 
 empire. The magnificent spoils of Co- 
 rinth and Argos, enriched the veterans 
 of the West : the captive wife of Alaric, 
 who had impatiently claimed his promise 
 of Roman jewels, and patrician hand- 
 maids, was reduced to implore the mercy 
 of the insulting foe: and many thousand 
 prisoners released from the Gothic chains, 
 dispersed through the provinces of Italy 
 the praises of their heroic deliverer." 
 (Gibbon, ch. xxx.) 
 
 Alaric retreated, and directed his 
 
 course through the Rhelian Alps, in- 
 tending to pour down the Rhine, and 
 enter Gaul. But Stilicho prepared for 
 him at the foot of the Alps, and a still 
 fiercer battle was fought near the walls 
 of Verone, and the Gothic king owed 
 his life to the swiftness of his horse. 
 
 Jn A. D. 406, another hail-storm burst 
 in from the North. Radagaisus, " the 
 king of the confederate Germans, passed, 
 without resistance, the Alps, the Po, and 
 the Apennines ;" and laid siege to Flo- 
 rence. Again the sword of Stilicho was 
 the safeguard of Italy, and the besiegers 
 were themselves soon besieged. " The 
 proud monarch," says the historian, "of 
 so many warlike nations, after the loss 
 of his bravest warriors, was reduced to 
 confide in the faith of a capitulation, or 
 in the clemency of Stilicho." 
 
 A fourth heavy cloud charged with 
 " hail, fire, and blood," arose in 408. 
 The indomitable Alaric reappeared in 
 the dark whirlwind, and ruled the storm. 
 But there was now no Stilicho in Italy, 
 or in the Roman world. This last of 
 her mighty generals, had fallen by the 
 hand of a cruel assassin, armed with the 
 authority, or at least the timid connivance, 
 of the base son of Theodosius. Stilicho 
 had done too much for the emperor and 
 for Italy ever to be forgiven. That sub- 
 ject to whom his sovereign is indebted 
 for his life and his crown, is placed in a 
 most perilous condition. Intrigue and 
 faction were too strong for valour and 
 heroism ; and he, whom all the legions 
 of the Goths and the Germans could not 
 vanquish, fell before the murderous blade 
 of envy : the last of the Romans died 
 by the hand of a half-legalized assassin. 
 
 The impassable barrier being thus 
 broken down, the Gothic hurricane 
 swept over Italy ; and Rome, which for 
 six hundred years had not seen the face 
 of an enemy, was doomed to feel the 
 weight of the barbarian's sword. She 
 purchased with her gold a short respite, 
 once and again, but in 410, " The King 
 of the Goths, who no longer dissembled 
 his appetite for plunder and revenge, ap- 
 peared in arms under the walls of the 
 capital ; and the trembling senate, with- 
 out any hopes, prepared, by a desperate 
 
LECTURE XVI. 
 
 145 
 
 resistance, to delay the ruin of their 
 country. But they were unable to guard 
 against the secret conspiracy of their 
 slaves and domestics ; who, either from 
 birth or interest, were attached to the 
 cause of the enemy. At the hour of 
 midnight, the Salarian gate was silently 
 opened, and the inhabitants were awaked 
 by the tremendous sound of the Gothic 
 trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty-three 
 years after the foundation of Rome, the 
 imperial city, which had subdued and 
 civilized so considerable part of man- 
 kind, was delivered to the licentious fury 
 of the tribes of Germany and Scythia." 
 (Gibbon, ch. xxxi.) Plunder, massacre, 
 and violence were continued for six days 
 in succession ; during which, all con- 
 ceivable crimes were perpetrated with 
 perfect impunity, by the brutal and fero- 
 cious soldier} 7 . 
 
 Whilst these four several storms were 
 expending their force upon Italy and 
 Greece, a similar fate was experienced 
 by Gaul and even Spain. The Alani, 
 Allemani, Vandals, Burgundians, and 
 Gothic tribes innumerable, overran these 
 provinces, and permanently established 
 themselves in various parts. And imme- 
 diately subsequent to the death of Ala- 
 ric, which was caused by disease, a few 
 months, — perhaps weeks only after the 
 sack of Rome — as he was about to pass 
 his army over into Sicily, and was also 
 meditating thence an attack upon Africa, 
 his brother-in-law and successor, Adol- 
 phus, was taken into alliance with the 
 Emperor Honorius, married his sister 
 Placidia, and was sent into Gaul as 
 master-general of the Romans. Thus 
 was Goth played off against Goth. He 
 subdued the Gallic invaders, passed the 
 Pyrenees into Spain, and was assassi- 
 nated at Barcelona. 
 
 Placidia, his widow, was afterwards 
 married to Constantius, a Roman gene- 
 ral in Gaul, and became the mother of 
 Valentinian III. ; and after the death of 
 her brother, Honorius, she ruled the 
 West, as empress-regent for her son. 
 Her two celebrated commanders were 
 iEtius, the Patrician, in Italy and Gaul, 
 and Boniface in Africa. iEtius plotted 
 the ruin of Boniface, and succeeded in 
 
 19 
 
 making it necessary for him to revolt to 
 save his life. Boniface, to strengthen him- 
 self, invited over from Spain Genseric, the 
 Vandal king ; but soon perceiving that 
 he had called over a master instead of 
 an ally, he endeavoured to oppose him, 
 but without success. This was in A. D. 
 429. 
 
 The last great hail-storm under this 
 trumpet, is the invasion of Attila the 
 Hun. The Huns sprang from the in- 
 terior of northern Asia, and moving 
 westward from the borders of China, 
 precipitated themselves upon Europe, 
 and filled up the open space left by the 
 various nations of the Goths ; they had 
 concentrated on the Danube, in the 
 country now called Hungary, under 
 Rugilas, their leader, whose power was 
 acknowledged from the Pontus Euxinus, 
 to the Hartz mountains. The death of 
 this mighty prince placed the sword in 
 the hand of his nephew, Attila. In 
 A. D. 451, he invaded Gaul at the head 
 of an army of seven hundred thousand 
 men, and laid siege to Orleans. iEtius, 
 the Patrician, in conjunction with Theo- 
 doric, king of the Visigoths, his ally, 
 flew to the relief of that important 
 town. Attila was forced to raise the 
 siege, and retrace his steps. But his 
 retreat was that of an angry lion. 
 iEtius and Theodoric pressed too close- 
 ly upon his heels to permit his escape, 
 and upon the field of Chalons, was 
 fought the last great battle of the Roman 
 empire, and there was won her last 
 great victory. The slaughter of that 
 terrible day is variously estimated by 
 historians, at from one hundred and 
 sixty-two thousand, to three hundred 
 thousand men. But this defeat only 
 exasperated the Huns ; for towards the 
 close of this very year, or in the be- 
 ginning of the succeeding one, Attila 
 descended upon Italy ; and the devasta- 
 tion of his march fully justified his 
 savage boast, " that grass never grew 
 where his horse's foot once trod." He 
 left Aquileia, Padua, and most of the 
 towns of Venitia, heaps of ruins. This 
 invasion it was, which occasioned the 
 rise of the modern city of Venice. 
 Many fugitives betook themselves to 
 
146 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 several small islands in the Adriatic, as i 
 a refuge from this " scourge of God," 
 and there laid the nucleus of the city 
 which led the way in modern commerce. 
 Attila ravaged Italy without any other 
 opposition than such diversions as yEtius 
 was able to effect, with an insignificant 
 force. The timid emperor and venal senate 
 purchased the safety of Rome by an 
 immense sum of money, given as the 
 dower of Honoria, the sister of Valen- 
 tinian, who was to have been bestowed 
 upon the barbarous Attila at a future 
 time, according to his demand. He re- 
 turned to his rude palace beyond the 
 Danube, added to his previous number 
 another beautiful wife, and upon that 
 very night, by a hemorrhage of tho 
 lungs, he was suffocated in his own 
 blood. Thus die away the terrible peals 
 of the first trumpet. It extends over a 
 space of fifty-seven years, — from 395, 
 to 452. 
 
 TRUMPET II. 
 
 Verses 8, 9. " And the second angel 
 sounded, and as it were, a great moun- 
 tain burning with fire, was cast into the 
 sea ; and the third part of the sea be- 
 came blood. And the third part of the 
 creatures which were in the sea and 
 had life died : and the third part of the 
 ships were destroyed." 
 
 The sea, to repeat it again, presents to 
 our view an agitated multitude. We 
 may then expect this burning mountain 
 to be precipitated upon the Roman peo- 
 ple before they recover from the excite- 
 ments occasioned by the former trumpet. 
 The Roman earth is the object under 
 consideration. When therefore Rome 
 is spoken of, in connexion with a burn- 
 ing mountain and the sea, the mind in- 
 stantly reverts to the flaming tops of 
 Etna and Vesuvius, which lay to the 
 south, and were the only burning moun- 
 tains familiar to that age. 
 
 A mountain, in its firmness and du- 
 rability, is a natural emblem of strength; 
 and symbolizes a government or nation. 
 " The mountain of the Lord's house 
 shall be established on the tops of the 
 mountains, and exalted above the hills, 
 
 and all nations shall flow unto it." (Is. 
 ii. 2.) In other words, God's kingdom 
 shall be founded upon, and hold its 
 sway over the kingdoms of this world, 
 and the race of man shall be its sub- 
 jects. 
 
 A mountain on fire, therefore, pre- 
 cipitated in its burning state into the sea, 
 is powerfully significant of a kingdom 
 or nation invading another by water. 
 Literally the effect must be terrible. 
 
 The turning of the third part of the 
 sea into blood, and the destruction of 
 the third part of the living things and 
 ships, betokens extensive devastation by 
 means of a maritime invasion. 
 
 These figures are probably borrowed 
 from Jeremiah li. 25, where he thus 
 speaks of Babylon ; " Behold I am 
 against thee, O, destroying mountain, 
 saith the Lord, which destroyeth all the 
 earth ; and I will stretch out mine hand 
 upon thee, and roll thee down from the 
 rocks, and will make thee a burnt 
 mountain." The power which Babylon 
 was permitted to exercise, was one of 
 God's chastisements upon his degenerate 
 church. In like manner, the power in 
 question is to be a scourge upon the 
 Roman sea, which includes the church. 
 
 This fearful judgment from the direc- 
 tion of the fiery mountains, occurred in 
 A. D. 455. Genseric, the Vandal king 
 in Africa, had, by incredible efforts, re- 
 vived the naval power of Carthage, and 
 had shown for some time a disposition 
 to make a descent upon Italy. But 
 iEtius was there, and he desisted. In 
 454, Valentinian assassinated .Etius 
 with his own hand, and with the only 
 sword he ever drew in a hostile way. 
 He also offended Maximus, a very 
 wealthy Roman, by an act similar to 
 that which resulted in the ruin of Tar- 
 quin the Proud. Maximus procured two 
 of the old soldiers of ^Etius, employed 
 by the emperor as household servants, 
 to assassinate Valentinian, which they 
 did openly in the Campus Martius ; upon 
 which Maximus was immediately pro- 
 claimed emperor. Eudoxia, the widow- 
 ed empress, secretly invited Genseric to 
 assault Rome, that she might be avenged 
 on the murderer of her husband. This 
 
LECTURE XVI. 
 
 147 
 
 invitation Gcnseric eagerly complied 
 with. He was a bigoted Arian, and was 
 pleased with an apology for giving a 
 blow to the opposing part)'. He landed 
 at Ostia, and rolled, like a huge burning 
 mountain, upon the devoted city. The 
 new emperor was utterly unfit for any 
 service ; and upon making his appear- 
 ance in the streets, in his endeavour to 
 fly from the city, was stoned to death. 
 From the fifteenth to the twenty-ninth 
 of June, 455, Rome was abandoned to 
 pillage, massacre, and all possible in- 
 dignities. Every thing which savage 
 rapacity could lay its hands upon, that 
 was esteemed sufficiently valuable to 
 remove, was transported on board the 
 Gothic fleet. " Among the spoils, the 
 splendid relics of two temples, or rather 
 of two religions, exhibited a memorable 
 example of the vicissitudes of human 
 and divine things. — The holy instru- 
 ments of the Jewish worship, the golden 
 table, and the golden candlestick, with 
 seven branches, originally framed ac- 
 cording to the particular instructions of 
 God himself, and which were placed in 
 the sanctuary of his temple, had been 
 ostentatiously displayed to the Roman 
 people in the triumph of Titus. They 
 were afterwards deposited in the Temple 
 of Peace ; and at the end of four hun- 
 dred years, the spoils of Jerusalem were 
 transferred from Rome to Carthage, by 
 a barbarian who derived his origin from 
 the shores of the Baltic." (Gibbon, ch. 
 xxxvi.) The Empress Eudoxia and her 
 two daughters were among the captives 
 carried to Carthage. 
 
 This trumpet comprehended not such 
 extensive havoc as the first ; it was of 
 shorter continuance, yet in itself a fear- 
 ful calamity. 
 
 Bishop Newton places this Vandal 
 invasion under the third trumpet, inter- 
 preting that of Attila as the burning 
 mountain. In this, for reasons already 
 stated, we deem him in error. Faber, 
 M'Leod, and others, place Attila under 
 the first, or hail-storm desolations. Mis- 
 taking the matter of the first trumpet, 
 Bishop Newton, of course, will be in 
 error as to the matter of the second, 
 third, and fourth. According to him, 
 
 therefore, Genseric is the star of the 
 third, and Momyllus the sun of the 
 fourth. These misapplications we will 
 endeavour to correct as we proceed. 
 
 trumpet in. 
 
 Verses 10, 11. "And the third angel 
 sounded, and there fell a great star from 
 heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and 
 it fell upon the third part of the rivers 
 and upon the fountains of waters, and 
 the name of the star is called Worm- 
 wood ; and the third part of the waters 
 became wormwood, and men died of the 
 waters, because they were made bitter." 
 
 A star, as has been said, is typical of 
 a prince or ruler. " There shall come 
 a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre out of 
 Israel," (Num. xxiv. 17.) This refers 
 ultimately to Messiah, the King of Zion. 
 Isaiah, also, in addressing Babylon, says, 
 " How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of 
 the morning ! how art thou cut down to 
 the ground, which didst weaken the na- 
 tions," (xiv. 12.) 
 
 The character of the ruler thus repre- 
 sented, will depend upon the matter of 
 the subject discussed. If the heavens, 
 the location of the stars, are used as 
 a symbol of political empire, then a star 
 is a civil governor or prince ; if as 
 ecclesiastical, then, of course, the star 
 is a religious teacher or ruler. Virgil 
 beautifully employs this figure, in appli- 
 cation to an illustrious Roman of the 
 Julian family. The civil government 
 in our text, is the object of the trumpets, 
 and consequently, the great star is the 
 great ruler in the political sky. 
 
 The falling of the star represents the 
 overturning of this prince, or ruler: 
 the imperial: dignity, the office itself, is 
 the thing meant ; not the individual 
 who holds that office. This star is said 
 to have been " lighted, as a lamp is 
 lighted." It may, perhaps, be pursuing 
 the metaphor too fir; yet we cannot 
 repress the notice of the beautiful adapta- 
 tion of this phrase to express a leading 
 characteristic of the Roman emperor- 
 ship. It was throughout, in theory and 
 in form, an elective monarchy: without 
 the voice of the senate and people, no 
 
143 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 emperor was duly invested with the 
 purple ; however talented and powerful 
 he might be, he was an unlighted star, 
 until his election : his authority to rule 
 must be derived through the senate. 
 
 Rivers, where by the earth in general 
 is understood the empire, will designate 
 provinces, and fountains will refer to 
 the smaller subdivisions : or if the earth 
 be the body politic, rivers will represent 
 the senate, and fountains the minor 
 offices of state. 
 
 If a " star burning like a lamp" were 
 plunged into water, there would be a 
 hissing noise, an agitation, and a bitter, 
 unpleasant taste. So when the great 
 and brilliant light of the Roman world 
 was extinguished, it left these uncom- 
 fortable results. 
 
 All human languages, probably, ex- 
 press pain, distress, affliction, by a me- 
 taphor derived from the sense of taste. 
 " The Egyptians made their lives bit- 
 4er." Job inquires " Why is life given 
 to the bitter in soul V " I will complain 
 in the bitterness of my soul." " Surely 
 the bitterness of death is past." " Waters 
 of bitterness" are sore distresses. 
 
 The star falling is called wormwood, 
 — bitterness itself, — and the effect of its 
 fall upon the waters, is to render them 
 bitter : and so to affect ruinously those 
 who drank of them. Great sufferings 
 are predicted to those who nearly or 
 more remotely depend upon the imperial 
 power for protection. 
 
 Dr. M'Leod has noticed the error of 
 Dr. Johnston in applying this star to the 
 bishop of Constantinople : and the in- 
 consistency of Bishop Newton, in inter- 
 preting it as Genseric, the Vandal, in 
 the very summit of his triumph. A 
 -similar mistake is committed in the ap- 
 plication of it to Napoleon, as first 
 consul of the French, in his Italian 
 campaign ; and so construing the rivers 
 and fountains literally, as the Po and all 
 its tributaries. This exposition is men- 
 tioned simply to express a regret that it 
 was ever published. 
 
 The true antitype to this symbol has 
 been pointed out by Mr. Mede, whom 
 Bishop Faber, Dr. M'Leod, and others, 
 follow. Romulus Augustus Augustulus, 
 
 the last of the Western Roman Empe- 
 rors, is this great fallen star. In him 
 the imperial dignity of Rome terminated. 
 " The life of this inoffensive youth," 
 says the historian so frequently referred 
 to, " was spared by the generous cle- 
 mency of Odoacer, who dismissed him 
 with his whole family, from the imperial 
 palace, fixed his annual allowance at six 
 thousand pieces of gold, and assigned 
 the castle of Lucullus in Campania, for 
 the place of his exile or retirement." 
 
 The various Gothic tribes who occu- 
 pied the fortresses of Italy, as mercenary 
 troops, in the pay of the emperor, be- 
 came impatient to obtain a fixed abode, 
 and petitioned Orestes, the father of 
 Romulus Augustus, who had procured 
 the imperial dignity for his son, but who 
 was himself really the ruler of Italy, 
 that he would bestow upon them one- 
 third of all the lands in Italy. Orestes 
 refused ; upon which Odoacer, the most 
 distinguished of the Gothic leaders, bade 
 defiance to the Romans, concentrated 
 all the barbarian mercenaries into one 
 army, attacked Orestes and the emperor 
 in Paria, took the town by assault, slew 
 Orestes, deposed his son, as above stated, 
 and proclaimed himself king of Italy. 
 Thus the last emperor, uniting in him- 
 self the name of Rome's founder and 
 that of her first emperor, let fall from 
 his nerveless grasp, the sceptre of the 
 Western world. Thus " the star of 
 empire," which had dazzled the eyes of 
 mankind from the rising of the Julian 
 constellation, in the person of Augustus, 
 sank for ever in the darkness of barba- 
 rian night. " This great revolution hap- 
 pened in the West in the year 476 of 
 the Christian era, five hundred and 
 seven years after the battle of Actium, 
 when the Roman monarchy was first esta- 
 blished, and one thousand three hundred 
 and twenty-four years since the founda- 
 tion of Rome." (Univ. Hist. xiv. 438.) 
 
 The state of Europe immediately after 
 the fall of the imperial star, was long re- 
 volutionary. There was no settled peace. 
 War after war desolated the earth. The 
 fountains of power lay in the will of 
 military chieftains, and sent forth the 
 turbid waters of ambitious strife ; and 
 
LECTURE XVI. 
 
 149 
 
 the nations quaffed in the bitterness of 
 their souls. " In the divisions and the 
 decline of the empire," says the histo- 
 rian, " the tributary harvests of Egypt 
 and Africa were withdrawn: the num- 
 bers of the inhabitants continually di- 
 minished with the means of subsistence, 
 and the country was exhausted by the 
 irretrievable losses of war, famine, and 
 pestilence. St. Ambrose has deplored the 
 ruin of a populous district which had been 
 once adorned with the populous cities 
 of Bologna, Modena, Regiurn. and Pla- 
 centia. Pope Gelacius was a subject of 
 Odoacer, and he affirms, with strong 
 exaggeration, that in iEmilia, Tuscany, 
 and the adjacent provinces, the human 
 species was almost extirpated." 
 
 TRUMPET IV. 
 
 Verse 4. " And the fourth angel sound- 
 ed, and the third part of the sun was 
 smitten, and the third part of the moon, 
 and the third part of the stars ; so as the 
 third part of them was darkened, and 
 the day shone not for a third part of it, 
 and the night likewise." 
 
 The sun is the ruler of the day, as 
 the moon and stars are of the night. 
 These luminaries, therefore, are apt re- 
 presentations of governmental power in 
 the political firmament. From the days 
 of Romulus, the Roman senate was the 
 sun of the Roman system ; the moon 
 and the stars, all the other offices, sub- 
 ordinate and dependent. 
 
 The Roman senate governed the Ro- 
 man world, under all forms of its ad- 
 ministration. Such is the undoubted 
 theory, and the general fact. True, the 
 pretorian cohorts, the standing army 
 in the pay of the emperors, upon their 
 demise, did often dictate to the senate 
 and people, who could do nothing but 
 echo back the shout of the camp. So 
 also did the barbarian invaders. Still 
 the senate was the sun, however ob- 
 scured, of the system. 
 
 The consular power may fitly be sym- 
 bolized by the moon ; and the stars, in 
 this connexion, are the inferior magis- 
 trates. Isaiah thus describes the down- 
 fall of Babylon. " For the stars of 
 
 heaven and the constellations thereof 
 shall not give their light ; the sun shall 
 be darkened in his going forth, and the 
 moon shall not cause her light to shine." 
 (xiii. 10.) 
 
 Babylon is illustriously, as we shall 
 see, a type of Rome. " The political 
 heaven, although shaken (by the third 
 trumpet), was not yet moved ; neither 
 were all its lights extinguished. In the 
 time of Odoacer, the Roman senate, the 
 consuls, and other magistrates, were only 
 subjected to a suspension for two years. 
 When Theodoric founded, in the year 
 498, the Gothic kingdom of Italy, he 
 permitted Rome to maintain, in its an- 
 cient government, some appearances of 
 its former splendour. It was in the year 
 566, after a series of bloody and doubt- 
 ful wars, that Italy was reduced into the 
 provincial form by the Emperor of the 
 East; the whole form of Roman govern- 
 ment was abolished ; the senate and con- 
 suls, and other magistrates of Rome en- 
 tirely put down ; and the proud city, the 
 queen of the nations, was reduced into 
 the miserable condition of a tributary 
 dukedom." (McLeod's Lectures, p. 138.) 
 
 In closing this lengthened lecture, we 
 would recur again to the truth which, in 
 pursuing the thread of prophecy and of 
 history, we are too prone to forget. Our 
 attention is called to the darkened sun, 
 the waning moon, the falling stars, the 
 rocking mountain, the heaving ocean, 
 the trembling earth : emotions powerful, 
 overwhelming, agitate our bosoms, and 
 we can scarcely collect our thoughts 
 sufficiently to inquire, why all these 
 amazing revolutions 1 Amid this wild 
 confusion, where is the God of order? 
 Has the Grand Mover indeed resigned 
 the helm of the universe, and abandon- 
 ed the world to this elemental strife? 
 
 On the contrary, He who silteth on 
 the circle of the heavens, guides the 
 tempest. He " dashes the potsherds of 
 the earth against the potsherds of the 
 earth," for mutual destruction, that he 
 may remove every obstacle out of the 
 way; and that he may prepare for the 
 extension of that kingdom, whose sway 
 shall be limitless. 
 
 But it will be said that the church 
 
150 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 suffers in these commotions. So did she 
 in the bondage of Egypt and of Babylon ; 
 so did she amid the agonies of Pagan 
 persecution. But in this very thing God 
 had a purpose to perform. Chastisement 
 was necessary, for she had degenerated 
 into various heresies. Many of her mem- 
 bers had denied the deity of Jesus, and 
 he now demonstrated it in the blood of 
 the nations. Alaric and Attila, Genseric 
 and Odoacer were semi-barbarians, who 
 had embraced the cold-blooded heresy 
 of Arius. Their swords were anointed 
 with the oil of Arian love. 
 
 We may hence learn what the church 
 and the world have to expect, whenever 
 and wherever a. totally corrupted Chris- 
 tianity shall gain the ascendant. Heresy 
 in the minority is the sleeping anaconda : 
 heresy in the majority is the roused mon- 
 ster, tightening his silvery folds around 
 the crushed bosom, and the quivering 
 heart of " the bride, the Lamb's wife." 
 Let infidelity with its chameleon hues, 
 Unitarianism, the present form of Arian- 
 ism, Universalism, Deism, Agrarianism, 
 — let these attain the majority in the 
 land, and the monster is awake, — his 
 eyes darting the fire of a Voltaire, his 
 tongue utteri'ng the blasphemy of a Paine, 
 he will spring upon his victim, and, in 
 his withering grasp, she will die. 
 
 But this shall not be. God has guarded 
 the Ark of the Covenant hitherto, — he 
 will guard it to the end. His ministers 
 are full of eyes ; the trumpet is at their 
 mouth ; the sword is in their hand ; and 
 while they do their duty, the republic is 
 safe. 
 
 LECTURE XVII. 
 
 THE FIRST WOE TRUMPET, OR SARACENIC 
 LOCUSTS. 
 
 " Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and 
 the people not be afraid ? Shall there be evil in 
 the city and the Lord hath done it? Surely 
 the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth 
 his secret unto his servants the prophets. 
 
 "And I beheld, and heard an angel flying 
 through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud 
 
 voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabiters of the 
 earth, by reason of the other voices of the trum- 
 pet, of the three angels, which are yet to sound."' 
 — Rev. viii. 13; ix. 12. 
 
 This angel who announces the three 
 woes, manifestly represents the ministers 
 of the Gospel, who in their various places 
 warned the people of the empire of the 
 coming desolations of war. In accord- 
 ance with this, there were many minis- 
 ters in the army, at the terrible battle of 
 Yermouk, mentioned in a previous lec- 
 ture; and as the lines came together in 
 close fight, " such," says Price, in his 
 Mohammedan History, i. 80, " is repre- 
 sented to have been the noise occasioned 
 by the mingled clamours of the priests 
 chaunting their gospels, and the motions 
 of their beads and chaplets, as to have 
 been compared to the distant roll of 
 thunder." Besides, there was a conside- 
 rable remnant of true Christian ministers 
 spread through the empire, and especially 
 in the provinces, who lifted up their 
 voices like a trumpet, and warned the 
 world against the coming wrath, on ac- 
 count of the general spread of Arianism, 
 Pelagianism, and image-worship. These 
 woes are to fall upon the inhabiters of 
 the Roman earth: and they indicate still 
 more fearful destruction than the four 
 preceding trumpets. The fourth, as we 
 have seen, announced the entire dissolu- 
 tion of the old Roman fabric: the senate, 
 the imperial dignity, the consulship, the 
 inferior magistracy as dependent on them, 
 all passed away ; and in A. D. 566, Rome 
 became a province of the Eastern Em- 
 pire. 
 
 The fifth trumpet we are to look for 
 after the fourth. Ch. ix. 1, "And the 
 fifth angel sounded ; and I saw a star 
 fall from heaven unto the earth ; and to 
 him was given- the key of the bottomless 
 pit. And he opened the bottomless pit: 
 and there arose a smoke out of the pit, 
 as the smoke of a great furnace; and 
 the sun and air were darkened by reason 
 of the smoke of the pit." 
 
 This chapter extends over the pre- 
 script history of Mohammedan impos- 
 ture, from its rise in A. D. 606, until it 
 attained its utmost height in A. D. 1672. 
 But this period of ten hundred and sixty- 
 
LECTURE XVH. 
 
 151 
 
 six years, is divided into three parts: the 
 Saracenic invasion, the Turkish in- 
 vasion, and the space that intervened 
 between the summit of Saracenic power, 
 and the rise of the Turkish. The first 
 period comprehends one hundred and 
 fifty years ; from G12 to 762, when the 
 Caliph Almanzor built Bagdad, and 
 ceased from conquest. The second ex- 
 tends to 1281, when the Ottoman Turks 
 wrested Cutahi from the Greek emperor, 
 which was their first permanentconquest. 
 This space of five hundred and twenty- 
 five years is intermediate between the 
 trumpets. The third is from 1281 to 
 1672, when Kameneic, in Podolia sur- 
 rendered to the Sultan's bashaw, which 
 was the last conquest of the Turks. 
 
 As to the first of these, detail is un- 
 necessary here, for we have already 
 traced the rise and progress of the Sara- 
 cenic locusts, until the conquest of Je- 
 rusalem, by the Caliph Omar, in April 
 637, with a glance at the fall of Antioch, 
 Tyre, Alexandria, Memphis, and all 
 Egypt. All that is necessary farther to 
 be said on this part, is simply an occa- 
 sional word upon the language of the text. 
 
 Verse 1. The fallen star is the Nes- 
 torian monk Sergius, called by Arab 
 writers Boheira. According to the Mos- 
 lem historians, "upon Mohammed's first 
 approach to Boheira, the monk observed 
 a sort of luminous or transparent cloud 
 round his head, that preserved him from 
 the solar rays ; as also, that the dry 
 trees, on which he sat, were every where 
 covered instantly with green leaves that 
 served him for a shade; certain signs 
 that the prophetic dignity resided in 
 him." (Univ. Hist. xix. 15.) Many 
 such fables they relate, plainly showing 
 that Boheira's agency in framing the 
 whole system was not small. The Ko- 
 ran itself contains abundant internal 
 evidence of its selection from Jewish 
 and Christian opinions, to a great extent. 
 
 The key given to this fallen star, is 
 the means he possessed, of opening 
 upon the world the bottomless pit, — the 
 abyss of this system of abominations ; 
 and of course his opening the abyss is 
 the concocting and digesting of this 
 scheme of error. 
 
 The smoke of the abyss, is the er- 
 roneous doctrines of the Koran, which 
 darkened the sun and the air, produced 
 obscurity and confusion among the peo- 
 ple, and eclipsed the glory of the Greek 
 empire. 
 
 Verse 3, describes the manner in 
 which the locusts came out of the smoke. 
 " And there came out of the smoke lo- 
 custs upon the earth ; and unto them 
 was given power, as the scorpions of the 
 earth have power." The Saracenic ar- 
 mies were collected and organized by 
 the immediate influence of the system 
 of false doctrine. It was religious fa- 
 naticism that created them. 
 
 In verse 4, the object against which 
 the locusts had a commission is pointed 
 out. " And it was commanded them 
 that they should not hurt the grass of 
 the earth, neither any green thing, nei- 
 ther any tree ; but only those men which 
 have not the seal of God in their fore- 
 heads." Many commentators seek a li- 
 teral application of this, and their search 
 is successful. The Saracenic invasion 
 was remarkably different from those of 
 the northern barbarians. The Prophet 
 and the Caliphs always gave special in- 
 structions to their generals-to spare the 
 country, and especially not to destroy 
 the palm-trees. There are very natural 
 reasons for this. The palm-tree is of 
 slow growth and very valuable on ac- 
 count of its fruit. The sandy deserts 
 of Arabia are extremely destitute of 
 trees, and therefore, the habits of the 
 Arabs led to their careful preservation. 
 This was not the case with regard to the 
 northern invaders of the civilized world. 
 But this literal accomplishment is pro- 
 bably not the chief thing designed. As 
 the locusts are a figure of the horsemen, 
 so ought we to understand the grass and 
 trees to be the people whom they invaded. 
 The precise object of their mission is not 
 to destroy and cut off men as natural 
 subjects of government. It is not men 
 as men, but as rejecters of the true re- 
 ligion, "who have not the seal of God 
 in their foreheads," who do not give open 
 evidence that they hold the truth in the 
 love of it. Infidels and nominal Chris- 
 tians are the objects of the trumpet. 
 
152 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 It may be well here to advert to a few 
 of the leading heresies which corrupted 
 the doctrine and the morals of the church, 
 and so made this Saracenic scourge ne- 
 cessary. 
 
 Arianism has been mentioned more 
 than once. It was the ancient form of 
 Unitarianism, and constituted one lead- 
 ing feature of Mohammedanism. It ap- 
 peared early in the fourth century, and 
 spread over most of the East, along the 
 African coast, and also to the north. 
 
 The Nestorian heresy arose about a 
 hundred years later. It took its name 
 from Nestorius, a proud and impious 
 bishop of Constantinople. This sect 
 maintained such a distinction between 
 the human and the divine natures in our 
 Saviour, as amounted to a denial of the 
 hypostatic or personal union, alleging 
 that the Godhead dwelt in, and was 
 united to, the man Jesus, only by ivill 
 and consent. It prevailed to a vast ex- 
 tent over the East. 
 
 Opposed to this, and having its origin 
 nearly at the same time, was the Euty- 
 chian heresy ; or, as it might be called, 
 the Monophysite, which denied the dis- 
 tinctness of the divine and the human 
 natures, but maintained that they blended 
 and coalesced into one. 
 
 The most fatal, however, of all the 
 errors of this age was Pelagian ism, not 
 because it was the most glaring depar- 
 ture from truth, but because it preserved 
 a semblance of truth and piety, whilst 
 it undermined the whole fabric of Chris- 
 tianity. It appeared late in the fourth 
 and early in the fifth century. " These 
 monks, Pelagius and his friend Celestius, 
 looked upon the doctrines which were 
 commonly received concerning the ori- 
 ginal corruption of human nature, and 
 the necessity of divine grace to enlighten 
 the understanding and purify the heart, 
 as prejudicial to the progress of holiness 
 and virtue, and tending to lull mankind 
 in a presumptuous and fatal security. 
 They maintained that these doctrines 
 were as false as they were pernicious ; 
 that the sins of our first parents were 
 imputed to them alone, and not to their 
 posterity ; that we derive no corruption 
 from their fall, but are born as pure and 
 
 unspotted as Adam came out of the form- 
 ing hand of his Creator ; that mankind 
 therefore, are capable of repentance and 
 amendment, and of arriving to the high- 
 est degree of" piety and virtue by the use 
 of their natural faculties and powers ; 
 that indeed, external grace is necessary 
 to excite their endeavours, but that they 
 have no need of the internal succours 
 of the Divine Spirit." (Mosheim i. 391 .) 
 This heresy was exceedingly popular, 
 for it accorded precisely with all the feel- 
 ings of proud and corrupt human nature. 
 Combined in various degrees with others, 
 it reduced the church to a state of fear- 
 ful degeneracy, and rendered it highly 
 consistent with God's government to lay 
 a heavy scourge upon her. 
 
 Yet the Christians were not to be 
 destroyed and utterly cut off, but only 
 greatly afflicted for five months ; — that 
 is, for one hundred and fifty days or 
 years. It was, therefore, just that space 
 of time from the first public efforts of 
 Mohammed until the last conquests of 
 the Saracens. 
 
 Verse 6, represents the extreme dis- 
 tress of the times : " And in those days 
 shall men seek death, and shall not find 
 it ; and shall desire to die, and death 
 shall flee from them." 
 
 Verse 7, compares the natural locusts 
 to horses, and the resemblance has often 
 been noticed. " And the shapes of the 
 locusts were like unto horses prepared 
 unto battle ; and on their heads were as 
 it were crowns like gold, and their faces 
 were as the faces of men." These 
 horsemen had also crowns like gold. 
 This refers to their turbans or mitres. 
 Bishop Newton quotes Pliny, and other 
 old writers, in proof that the Arabs 
 always wore a kind of crown, or turban, 
 which is their well-known custom at the 
 present day. In verse 8, their long 
 hair is spoken of, and yet, notwithstand- 
 ing this feminine characteristic, they are 
 fearful destroyers ; which is exhibited 
 under the idea of" teeth as the teeth of 
 lions." Verse 9, gives a description of 
 their defensive armour. " And they 
 had breastplates, as it were breastplates 
 of iron ; and the sound of their wings 
 was as the sound of chariots of many 
 
LECTURE XVII. 
 
 153 
 
 horses running to battle." The rapidity 
 of the Saracenic conquests is represented 
 by the wings of the locusts. As the 
 natural animals fly in vast clouds, so 
 as literally to darken the air, and make 
 a great sound ; so, in the charges of the 
 Saracenic cavalry, their chief force, they 
 flew and swept over the earth. In 
 verse 10, allusion is made again to their 
 scorpion-like tails, or the poisonous and 
 pestilential doctrines, which they every 
 where left in their train, and which 
 were ever productive of the most dis- 
 tressing and painful consequence to the 
 degenerate church. " And they had 
 tails like unto scorpions, and there were 
 stings in their tails : and their power 
 was to hurt men five months." Verse 
 11. "And they had a king over them, 
 which is the angel of the bottomless pit, 
 whose name in the Hebrew tongue is 
 Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath 
 his name Apollyon." The abyss, or 
 bottomless pit, is the seat and source 
 of the smoke : and the angel of the 
 abyss, is he who issues forth with the 
 smoke. He who opens the door is a 
 different person. This last we have 
 seen to be Sergius. Mohammed could 
 not write, — he could not open the pit of 
 his own evil machinations : he was in- 
 spired by Satan, whose prison is the 
 abyss : but it was not until the fallen 
 star opened the door, by his learning, 
 that Mohammed's demoniacal inspira- 
 tions could burst forth. The power 
 which rules for destruction has his 
 name, Abaddon, which in Greek is 
 Apollyon, and in English means a de- 
 stroyer. Manifestly, he who regulates, 
 impels, guides these ferocious hosts of 
 death, is their king. But who is it? 
 Satan, — Mohammed, — Napoleon Bona- 
 parte, — or the Mohammedan religious 
 system, as incarnate, first in Mohammed 
 himself, and then in the caliphs ? 
 
 In regard to the first, there can be no 
 substantial difference between it and the 
 last. It may, with perfect truth, be 
 affirmed, that Satan is the destroyer, 
 and the king of the Saracens. From 
 him came the religious system, and he 
 ruled in the caliphs. 
 
 As to the second, Mohammed, consi- 
 
 ' 20 
 
 dered as a man, was not king : the 
 ruling power he held and exercised for 
 the time. In this sense as being the 
 incarnation of Satan and his corrupt 
 system of religion, we have no objection 
 to the affirmation that Mohammed was 
 Apollyon : for in this sense, Apollyon 
 did not die with the man. 
 
 The third inquiry raises the question 
 of applying this woe trumpet to the 
 French Revolution. But this exposition 
 seems so ineffably absurd, that we might, 
 with equal justice, appropriate the name 
 Apollyon to the commentator who has 
 advanced it as to Bonaparte ; for he is 
 as much a destroyer of the sound inter- 
 pretation of Scripture as was the latter 
 of those who had not the seal of God in 
 their forehead. 
 
 We decide then upon the last power. 
 This destroying king is the religious sys- 
 tem of Mohammedanism, whose visible 
 form was embodied in the caliph. This 
 officer, as the incarnation of the religion, 
 is Abaddon. Life and death were his. 
 Destruction always followed his orders 
 to destroy. 
 
 After this brief exposition, let us take 
 a rapid glance at the history, resuming 
 from the capture of Jerusalem by the 
 Caliph Omar, in April, 637. 
 
 In 638, the remaining towns and for- 
 tresses of Syria fell under the power of 
 Omar : and Amru, his general, marched 
 upon Egypt. Mesr, the ancient Mem- 
 phis, presented little resistance, and 
 finally, " Alexandria is taken by the 
 Arabs, under the command of Amru 
 Ebn Al As, on Friday, in the beginning 
 of the month Al Moharrem, and the 
 twentieth year of the Hegira, after they 
 had besieged it fourteen months, and 
 lost before it twenty-three thousand 
 men." (Univ. Hist. xix. 329.) It was 
 twice retaken by the Greeks, but event- 
 ually passed with all Egypt, into the 
 power of the Saracens. (See id. 344, 354.) 
 In 647, the conquest of Africa, from 
 Alexandria to the Atlantic ocean, was 
 undertaken ; and Abdallah, who suc- 
 ceeded Amru in Egypt, marched on that 
 expedition with an army of forty thou- 
 sand men. They took Tripoli, penetrated 
 al most to Carthage, and returned to Egypt . 
 
154 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 Another expedition, under Akba, in 
 665, was yet more successful, and pene- 
 trated to the Atlantic. Still it was not 
 until near the close of this century, that 
 all northern Africa was finally and per- 
 manently brought under the spear of the 
 Arab, in the hand of Hassan. 
 
 They passed in 714 into Spain, and 
 subverted the kingdom of the Visigoths ; 
 which had subsisted for nearly three 
 centuries. Thence they were about to 
 cross the Pyrenees into France, under 
 their fierce and ambitious commander 
 Muta, who had laid his plan to sweep 
 over France, Italy, Illyricum, and Con- 
 stantinople, thus encircling the Mediter- 
 ranean ; but having fallen under the sus- 
 picion of ambitious designs inconsistent 
 with the glory of the Caliph, he was 
 ordered home, and died in exile of a 
 broken heart. 
 
 In 732, they again poured into France 
 from the south, under the command of 
 Abderame, and overran all the south- 
 west. " A victorious line of march," 
 says Gibbon, " had been prolonged 
 above a thousand miles from the rock 
 of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire ; 
 the repetition of an equal space would 
 have carried the Saracens to the con- 
 fines of Poland and the Highlands of 
 Scotland: the Rhine is not more im- 
 passable than the Nile or the Euphrates, 
 and the Arabian fleet might have sailed 
 without a naval combat into the mouth 
 of the Thames. Perhaps the interpreta- 
 tion of the Koran would now be taught 
 in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits 
 might demonstrate to a circumcised peo- 
 ple the sanctity and truth of the revela- 
 tion of Mahomet." 
 
 From such calamities was Christen- 
 dom delivered by the genius and for- 
 tunes of one man. Charles, the illegiti- 
 mate son of the elder Pepin, was content 
 with the titles of Mayor or Duke of the 
 Franks ; but he deserved to become the 
 father of a line of kings. In a laborious 
 administration of twenty-four years, he 
 restored and supported the dignity of the 
 throne, and the rebels of Germany and 
 Gaul were successively crushed 'by the 
 activity of a warrior, who, in the same 
 campaign, could display his banner on 
 
 the Elbe, the Rhone, and the shores of 
 the ocean. In the public danger, he 
 was summoned by the voice of his 
 country ; and his rival, the Duke of 
 Aquitaine, was reduced to appear among 
 the fugitives and suppliants. " Alas," 
 exclaimed the Franks, " what a misfor- 
 tune ! What an indignity ! We have long 
 heard of the name and conquests of the 
 Arabs ; we were apprehensive of their 
 attack from the east ; they have now 
 conquered Spain and invade our country 
 on the side of the west. Yet their num- 
 bers, and (since they have no bucklers) 
 their arms, are inferior to our own." 
 " If you follow my advice," replied the 
 prudent mayor of the palace, " you will 
 not interrupt their march, nor precipi- 
 tate your attack. They are like a tor- 
 rent, which it is dangerous to stem in its 
 career. The thirst of riches, and the 
 consciousness of success, redouble their 
 valour; and valour is of more avail than 
 arms or numbers. Be patient till they 
 have loaded themselves with the incum- 
 brance of wealth. The possession of 
 wealth will divide their counsels, and 
 ensure your victory." Pursuing this 
 policy, Charles kept aloof: but he spent 
 not the time in sloth or timid conceal- 
 ment. Every nerve was strained to 
 collect an army. The German, the 
 Swiss, and the Frank, thronged to his 
 standard. " No sooner," continues the 
 eloquent historian, " had he collected 
 his forces, than he sought and found the 
 enemy in the centre of France, between 
 Tours and Poictiers, (about one hundred 
 and seventy miles, southwest of Paris.) 
 His well-conducted march was covered 
 by a range of hills, and Abderame ap- 
 pears to have been surprised by his un- 
 expected presence. The nations of Asia, 
 Africa, and Europe, advanced with equal 
 ardour to an encounter, which would 
 change the history of the world. In the 
 first six days of desultory combat, the 
 horsemen and archers of the East main- 
 tained their advantage : but in the close 
 onset of the seventh day, the Orientals 
 were oppressed by the strength and 
 stature of the Germans, who, with stout 
 hearts, and iron hands, asserted the 
 civil and religious freedom of their pos- 
 
LECTURE XVII. 
 
 155 
 
 terity. After a bloody fight, in which 
 Abderame was slain, the Saracens, in 
 the close of the evening, retired to their 
 camp." The historian, after telling us 
 that the Arab leaders quarrelled among 
 themselves and decamped in the night, 
 proceeds : — " The joyful tidings were 
 soon diffused over the Catholic world ; 
 and the monks of Italy could affirm and 
 believe, that three hundred and fifty, or 
 three hundred and seventy-five thousand 
 of the Mahometans had been crushed by 
 the hammer of Charles ; while no more 
 than fifteen hundred Christians had been 
 slain in the field of Tours." This is 
 extravagant ; but however be the num- 
 bers, " the victory of the Franks was 
 complete and final : Aquitainc was re- 
 covered by the arms of Eudes ; the 
 Arabs never resumed the conquest of 
 Gaul, and they were soon driven beyond 
 the Pyrenees by Charles Martel, and his 
 valiant race." From this glorious vic- 
 tory, he was surnamed Martel, or the 
 Maul. 
 
 In the year 762, after various severe 
 battles, chiefly for the suppression of in- 
 surrections and the completion and se- 
 curity of conquests, partly achieved be- 
 fore, the Caliph Almanzor founded the 
 city of Bagdad, on the Tigris, called it 
 the city of peace, and made it the seat of 
 Mohammedan power, which it proved to 
 be in his own dynasty for five hundred 
 years. (See Gibbon, ch. xiii.) 
 
 Thus, from the first public preaching 
 of Mohammed, — the issuing forth of the 
 smoke and the locusts in 612, until the 
 year 762, when the Saracenic conquests 
 ceased, and their government settled 
 down into a specific form, is one hun- 
 dred and fifty years ; equal to five pro- 
 phetic months. Again the mirror of 
 history throws back upon our delighted 
 vision, the images of prophetic revela- 
 tion. 
 
 This striking coincidence renders it 
 proper, that we should again remark, 
 the strong proof for the divine inspira- 
 tion of this book and consequently of 
 the system of prophecy ! We have in- 
 dubitable evidence of the existence of 
 this tract of the Apostle's, five hundred 
 years before the events transpired, which 
 
 it so graphically describes. What eye,, 
 not omniscient, could see these things 
 all drawn out in order, time, and place, 
 centuries before their actual occurrence? 
 Who, but the Almighty Disposer of 
 events, could so regulate, as to brino- 
 about every particular precisely accord- 
 ant with the prediction ? 
 
 Be it so, that in this book there are 
 some prophetic symbols and language 
 difficult to be understood, and whose 
 harmony with facts is not clearly per- 
 ceptible : yet should not such exact ful- 
 filment, as we have seen in so many 
 cases, lead us to the conclusion, that 
 either the events to which they refer, 
 are lost in the imperfection of our histo-. 
 rical knowledge; or are yet beyond the 
 range of actual existence,— -still slumber- 
 ing in the womb of time? 
 
 Bet it so, that some explain and apply 
 many of them, as they do this trumpet, 
 to very different occurrences. To this, 
 as an objection against the inference, it 
 may be sufficient to say, that men often 
 differ in matters much less likely to pro- 
 duce contrariety of opinion, than the in- 
 terpretation of symbolical language. 
 There is frequently an eccentric per- 
 versity which seeks distinction in singu-. 
 larity, and makes absurdity the means 
 of carrying a weak mind into the public 
 theatre. The self-willed commentator, 
 moreover, has often strided the creature 
 of his own imagination and ridden be- 
 yond the reach of reason and common 
 sense, lest the plain and the figurative 
 language of prophecy should be so in- 
 terpreted as to expose the spiritual 
 whoredom of a degenerate church. 
 
 Still there is meaning, definite mean- 
 ing, in the prophetic language, in which 
 the great body of honest and correct 
 minds will and do agree. In the grand 
 outline there is substantial concord: and 
 in the unquestionable fulfilment of pro- 
 phecy, indubitable evidence of its divine 
 inspiration. Sound divines differ no 
 more in their expositions of the leading 
 prophecies, than do sound natural philo- 
 sophers in their interpretations of nature. 
 
 It is difficult to see how those, if any 
 such there be, — who deny that God 
 " worketh all things after the counsel of 
 
156 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 his own will," — or, that he knows all 
 things that take place from the begin- 
 ning of the world, can explain these 
 facts, in connexion with the prophecies, 
 or feel any force in this proof of the 
 divine origin of the Scriptures. Assur- 
 edly, if God does not absolutely fore- 
 know all that he himself will do, he 
 must " work by guess." And if he 
 thus work, he must have conjectured 
 here with admirable precision. The 
 deniers of foreknowledge and predes- 
 tination, must conceive, that Mohammed 
 did not spring into being at the time, and 
 place, and under all the circumstances 
 attending him, in consequence of God's 
 pre-arrangement : but it was a mere 
 matter of chance. Sergius, was not 
 created, and his fall did not occur ac- 
 cording to God's plan, but by accident 
 only. The progressive period of Sara- 
 cenic invasion was not limited, and 
 founded by any foreknowledge and or- 
 dination of God ; but it merely " hap- 
 pened so." The wonderful coincidence 
 of the prophetic language with the truths 
 of history, is not in the least owing to 
 an almighty, overruling power, bring- 
 ing things to pass, as he had predicted, 
 but is a most happy chance, — a beauti- 
 ful, though entirety fortuitous jumble of 
 atoms, through which is brought about 
 this precise fulfilment of John's predic- 
 tions ! Credat, Judceus Appelles ! 
 
 What a warning have we, in these 
 wonderful coincidences, to beware how 
 we corrupt the church, by departure 
 from the truths of the gospel ! The 
 moral causes of the church's abandon- 
 ment of the simple doctrines of Christ, 
 Arianism and Pelagianism, — kindred er- 
 rors, never long separated from each 
 other, — had infected the eastern sections 
 of it, and the scourge arose from the 
 same doctrines. Here also is to be noted 
 the mode of the divine administration. 
 Sin induces its own punishment, and 
 often out of itself. Every Mohammedan 
 denies the deity of Jesus, and is a self- 
 righteous man: — in other words, every 
 Mohammedan is both an Arian and a 
 Pelagian : and this scourge of God fol- 
 lowed the track of these combined here- 
 sies. Such is the fact : and the philoso- 
 
 phy it is not difficult to see and under- 
 stand. 
 
 Wherever these heresies prevail, the 
 standard of piety and morality is al- 
 ways lowered to man's present ability. 
 When that standard is lowered, — when 
 the law is changed by diminishing from 
 its rigid requirements to suit the present 
 inability of its subject, it invites to im- 
 morality, for its higher claims are re- 
 pealed. If a man cannot be bound by 
 the law to do what he is now unable to 
 do (which is the essence of Pelagianism), 
 then repudiation is all that is necessary : 
 the bonds of obligation are cancelled. 
 My friends ! the degenerate morality of 
 the day, which threatens to disgrace 
 these republics in the eyes of the world, 
 springs from the degenerate religion of 
 the day. Let the sentiment pervade the 
 public mind, that a man is not morally 
 and legally bound, — that he cannot 
 rightfully be held to do, what now, 
 through his own folly and crime, it may 
 be, he is unable to do ; — let this detest- 
 able sentiment pervade the land, and 
 seize the conscience of the nation, and 
 we will soon have universal repudiation. 
 The foundations of morals, and conse- 
 quently of society and government, 
 would be swept away ; anarchy and 
 wild misrule would soon compel the 
 miserable relic of a self-immolated peo- 
 ple, to fly for prolonged existence to the 
 protecting sword of whatever military 
 chieftain might chance to command the 
 largest force. To save the nation from 
 such a fearful catastrophe, it becomes us 
 to fix firmly the foundations of morality 
 in a pure religion, which honours the 
 Son of God with the whole glory of 
 man's salvation, to the utter exclusion 
 of human works ; which makes the soul 
 feel that it is spiritually dead, and utterly 
 unable to perform any holy act, until 
 made alive by the almighty energies of 
 God's regenerating Spirit. This pride- 
 humbling and Christ-exalting doctrine 
 alone can constitute the basis of that 
 morality, which will sustain the struc- 
 ture of a republican government, amid 
 " the wreck of empires." 
 
 We once more repeat it ; — that the 
 Ark of God is the glory of the nation. 
 
LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 157 
 
 Why could not the Arab invader pass 
 farther north ? To use again the lan- 
 guage of the brilliant but unbelieving 
 historian, " the Rhine is not more im- 
 passable than the Nile or Euphrates, 
 and the Arabian fleet might have sailed, 
 without a naval combat into the mouth 
 of the Thames." Why then did not 
 the heroic and victorious Arab pour his 
 overwhelming squadrons into the valley 
 of the Rhine? Why did not the "over- 
 flowings of Cush," sweep the base, and 
 roll back in terrific grandeur, from the 
 summit of the Alps ? Does it become 
 the proud philosopher to rest in simple 
 physical facts? Can he find no moral 
 cause for this amazing phenomenon ? 
 What then is his explanation? Nothing 
 at all but a side leer at the credulity of 
 Italian monks for believing that the Sa- 
 racens lost, on the field of Tours, such 
 an immense number in proportion to the 
 Christians. Does this become that 
 haughty philosophy, which scorns to 
 look upon history as a series of bald 
 physical facts, without seeing in them 
 the embodiment of important doctrines ? 
 Why was it, we ask, that Abderame with 
 his four hundred thousand Arabs, who had 
 never been known to turn their backs 
 upon a foe ; — many of whom had con- 
 quered in Persia, in Syria, in Egypt, in 
 Africa, in Spain, in southern France; — 
 why could they proceed no farther 
 north ? Why was it that three hundred 
 thousand of them turned their backs to 
 the field on the banks of the Loire? 
 How came it that this vast victorious 
 host passed away as the mists of the 
 morning, before the battle-axe of the 
 German, the .arrow of the Swiss, the 
 maul of the Frank ? 
 
 We challenge a response ; but infidel 
 philosophy is silent. We turn to the 
 Christian, and we have his reply. It 
 was because the Ark of God was de- 
 posited in the British Isles. At this 
 very period they were pre-eminently the 
 abode of Christianity, and the land of 
 missions. It was because from these 
 Isles had gone forth the heralds of 
 mercy ; missionary stations had been 
 taken all along the valley of the Rhine, 
 and Germany was then young in the 
 
 love of God's truth. It was because in 
 the deep fastnesses of the eternal Alps, 
 the more eternal gospel of God's grace 
 had taken deep root. And the historian 
 is deaf as well as blind, who does not, 
 in the death-clang of that fearful day, 
 and above all, in the din of that terrible 
 night, and the shouts of its triumph, 
 hear the louder voice of the eternal God, 
 " touch not mine anointed ; do my 
 projjhcts no harm.'''' This is the Chris- 
 tian's mode of accounting for the fact. 
 In northern France, in Britain, in Ire- 
 land, in Germany, in Switzerland, and 
 the verdant vales of Piedmont, the good 
 Shepherd had placed his flock. There 
 is the reason why a few thousands of 
 men, collected in the hasty efforts of a 
 few weeks, were enabled to give a death- 
 blow to the Saracenic invasion in Europe. 
 Pure religion is the only impregnable 
 bulwark of a nation's defence. Oh, my 
 country ! wouldst thou survive the last 
 battle for freedom ? Wou+dst thou drive 
 the last arrow through the heart of giant 
 despotism ? Wouldst thou stand by 
 when he falls, and mark his last con- 
 vulsive throes ? Wouldst thou 
 funeral pile with the bright 
 liberty in thy hand ? Cherish 
 gion of Jesus: — cherish it, — not in name, 
 — not by law, — not by force, — not by 
 power ; but cherish it in practice, in 
 holiness, in truth, and in love. " Blessed 
 is the nation whose God is the Lord, and 
 the people whom he hath chosen for his 
 own inheritance." 
 
 light his 
 torch of 
 the reli- 
 
 LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 THE SECOND WOE. 
 
 THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 At the close of the fifth trumpet or first 
 woe, the prophet proclaims, " One woe 
 is past ; and behold there come two 
 woes more hereafter." No intimation 
 is given in the expression, in regard to 
 the lapse of time between the woes. It 
 is merely said that two more shall come 
 " after these things" — after the facts 
 
158 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 prophetically detailed under the fifth 
 trumpet, whose historical developement 
 we have passed over with necessary 
 brevity : but how long after, must be 
 learned elsewhere. Probably the safest 
 method of prosecuting the inquiry, will 
 be to pass through the examination of 
 the context; and when we shall have 
 thus settled the meaning of the language, 
 to direct our attention to the chronicles 
 of the past, with the view of ascertain- 
 ing whether there be events on record 
 correspondent to the grand outline of an 
 honest exposition. 
 
 Verses 13, 14. " x\nd the sixth angel 
 sounded, and I heard a voice from the 
 four horns of the golden altar which is 
 before God, saying to the sixth angel 
 which had the trumpet, Loose the four 
 angels which are bound in the great 
 river Euphrates." 
 
 This blast of the trumpet, — this an- 
 nunciation of some approaching event 
 of great importance, is immediately fol- 
 lowed by a cry from the four horns of 
 the golden altar. But in his description 
 of the general scene (chap, iv.), the 
 Apostle does not mention the golden 
 altar ; neither does he speak of angels 
 as forming the outer circle. These are 
 brought in subsequently ; and so the 
 altar of incense is introduced here, as it 
 had been, in chap. vi. 9. It is the type 
 of Jesus, our Redeemer, in all that part 
 of his mediatorial office which consists 
 in intercession. The incense represents 
 the prayers of the saints, which ascend 
 acceptably only through the intervention 
 of " our Advocate with the Father." 
 The voice, therefore, is that of the Me- 
 diator, presenting the desires of his true 
 followers, and directing the agency to be 
 set on foot for the accomplishment of 
 God's purposes of wrath. The three 
 woes are to be executed upon " the in- 
 habiters of the earth," or Roman Em- 
 pire. This is one of the three, and 
 whatever it may be, we have here the 
 agents, receiving their commission. 
 This commission is from the Most 
 High, embodying as it were, the pray- 
 ers of his chosen, for destruction upon 
 the iniquity and violence practised within 
 the church and empire. 
 
 The burden of the charge is to 
 " Loose the four angels." These four 
 angels are undeniably four warlike, de- 
 vastating powers, for their task is, " to 
 slay the third part of men." It is a 
 work of blood which is put into their 
 hands. They are messengers of heaven, 
 of a very different character from many 
 others ; yet still they are sent to fulfil 
 its purposes of vengeance. 
 
 The coalition of these four powers 
 into one, in purpose and in action, must 
 be noted. This might be supposed to 
 lead to unity of organization. And 
 consequently, we find them spoken of 
 ever after as one body or power, com- 
 posed of immense numbers of horsemen. 
 The condition and locality demand 
 special attention. They are bound ; 
 this can mean nothing more nor less, 
 than that they are so situated as to be 
 checked and restrained, and thus pre- 
 vented from rushing forth to the work 
 of death. It plainly intimates their 
 temper and adaptation to such em- 
 ployment ; but that hindrances are pro- 
 videntially in their way, and they are 
 restrained. Therefore their being loosed 
 necessarily means such change in their 
 relative position as presents an entrance 
 for them upon a work to which they are 
 eagerly inclined. 
 
 Their locality is in the vast Euphra- 
 tean valley. The language is pro- 
 fessedly figurative. To take it literally, 
 in the river, when all else is symbolical, 
 would be manifestly using great violence 
 toward the Apostle. We are to look for 
 these four powers in the valley of the 
 Euphrates. 
 
 The period for which their services 
 are required is described in verse 15, — 
 " which are prepared for an hour, and a 
 day, and a month, and a year." Taking 
 then a day for a year," > *SfBd an hour for 
 a day, according to the prophetical com- 
 putation, we have the sum of three hun- 
 dred and ninety-one years and fifteen 
 days. During this period of time there- 
 fore, we are to expect this quadruple 
 power, — quadruple as to its origin, — to 
 prevail and spread devastation in its 
 van. 
 
 The specific object of this destructive 
 
LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 159 
 
 power is next to be remarked, — " the 
 third part of men." This phrase we 
 have seen to be descriptive of the Roman 
 Empire, whose lustre had departed. 
 Still the imperial power existed. Con- 
 stantinople claimed, and for some time 
 exercised, dominion over Italy. She was 
 looked upon as the seat of power, and 
 the Greek emperor was acknowledged 
 to be entitled to wear the purple. The 
 eye of the prophet views the body of the 
 empire as one. 
 
 Verse 16, presents the multitude and 
 character of the troops. " And the 
 number of the army of the horsemen 
 were two hundred thousand thousand ;" 
 or two hundred millions : literally, two 
 myriads of myriads : — a definite for an 
 indefinite number. The design is evi- 
 dently to convey the idea of vastly 
 numerous armies, composed of a species 
 of soldiery much more difficult to procure 
 and sustain than infantry. Cavalry had 
 always heretofore constituted a small 
 proportion of the effective force. Tt is 
 doubtful whether ancient history, or his- 
 tory prior to the period of this vision, 
 ever exhibited any large army consisting 
 chiefly of horsemen. 
 
 Verse 17, " And thus I saw the horses 
 in the vision, and them that sat on them, 
 having breastplates of fire, and jacinth, 
 and brimstone; and the heads of the 
 horses were as the heads of lions : and 
 out of their mouths issued fire, and 
 smoke, and brimstone." 
 
 This immense body of cavalry were 
 arrayed in brilliant equipments. For 
 the description is figurative. Their 
 breastplates were not made of fire, hya- 
 cinth, and brimstone; they were simply 
 of a fiery hue. So also of the other 
 colours. It is the adjectives which are 
 used, and they merely relate here to the 
 appearance of the horsemen. Amongst 
 them we are therefore to expect a preva- 
 lence of the flaming red, the brilliant 
 blue, and the bright yellow. 
 
 The heads of the horses indicate great 
 fierceness; they are said to be like lions. 
 The warrior succeeds to an amazing ex- 
 tent in infusing his own terrible spirit 
 into his steed ; so that the docile and 
 noble creature becomes infuriated, and 
 
 thirsts for blood with the eagerness of 
 his rider. 
 
 " Fire, and smoke, and brimstone," 
 are seen to issue out of their mouths. 
 This may be understood as bold and ex- 
 pressive figure. Job speaks of the war- 
 horse having " his neck clothed with 
 thunder," and the glory of his nostrils 
 as terrible. Of the leviathan he says, 
 " out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out 
 of a seething pot or cauldron. His 
 breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth 
 out of his mouth." But as the language 
 of our context is professedly symbolical, 
 we agree with the common interpreta- 
 tion, which finds in these a representa- 
 tion of the smoke, fire, and brimstone, 
 which are known to have been intro- 
 duced into the customs of war, at a 
 period long subsequent to that of the 
 first woe trumpet. We may therefore 
 expect to discover the use of gunpow- 
 der and fire-arms in this vast equestrian 
 army. From verse 18, we are led to 
 expect this new agent of destruction to 
 become very efficient. " By these three 
 was the third part of men killed, by the 
 fire, and by the smoke, and by the brim- 
 stone, which issued out of their mouths." 
 This language seems designed, as it is 
 admirably adapted, to forestall the former 
 interpretation, which makes the fire, 
 smoke, and brimstone merely a strong 
 poetic figure of the horse's fierceness ; 
 and to shut us up to the necessity of 
 understanding it as an allusion to the 
 new mode of warfare. It is the main 
 instrument of the ultimate success in 
 putting an end to the imperial power, 
 or destroying the third part of men. 
 
 In verse 19, is described the power of 
 their tails, in similar phrase as those of 
 the Saracenic horsemen. This, as we 
 have seen, represents the poisonous and 
 deadly influence of the doctrines they 
 left in their train. 
 
 Verses 20, 21. " And the rest of the 
 men which were not killed by these 
 plagues, yet repented not of the works 
 of their hands ; that they should not 
 worship devils, and idols of gold, and 
 silver, and brass, and stone, and of 
 wood ; which neither can see, nor hear, 
 nor walk. Neither repented they of 
 
160 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor 
 of their fornications, nor of their thefts." 
 We are here presented with a plain 
 delineation of the moral causes of this 
 desolating invasion ; and by observing 
 the most important facts, prophetically 
 set forth, we shall be aided, in locating 
 the prophecy upon history. We will 
 mark, therefore, some of the leading 
 vices of the church in the age referred to. 
 
 1. Demonology, — the worship of de- 
 vils or rather demons. The word demon 
 is used by Greek writers in the New 
 Testament to signify separate spirits, 
 good or bad. 
 
 The shades of departed heroes were 
 deified, and became objects of a kind of 
 secondary religious veneration, under 
 the name of demons. Many of the phi- 
 losophers supposed that some one of 
 these spirits had charge of each person : 
 and this opinion is not without counte- 
 nance from the words of our Saviour, in 
 which he says, concerning little chil- 
 dren, that " their angels do always be- 
 hold the face of their heavenly Father." 
 But no authority can be produced from 
 Scripture or reason, for the bestovvment 
 of religious worship on them. These 
 demigods are man's invention. Now 
 this demonology must prevail in the 
 church at the period of the rise of these 
 horsemen : and it will not be prevented, 
 although it will be scourged by them. 
 They will not repent of demon worship 
 or cease its practice. 
 
 2. Another cause of this terrible visi- 
 tation, and a characteristic of the people 
 upon whom it falls, is idolatry; they 
 will be found bowing down to idols of 
 gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood. 
 Images will be formed of these vari- 
 ous materials, by the third part of 
 men, for purposes of religious worship, 
 and so extensively will this prevail as 
 to become a crying evil, and call aloud 
 for the outpouring of divine wrath upon 
 them. Nevertheless the iniquity will sur- 
 vive the instrument of its chastisement. 
 
 3. When the religion of the pagan 
 finds a lodgment in the heart of the 
 Christian empire, the morality of the 
 former may be expected in the latter. 
 Degeneracy of morals ever follows cor- 
 
 ruption of religion. This idolatrous, 
 demon-worshipping age, is consequently 
 to be characterized by " murders, sor- 
 ceries, fornications, thefts," — evidences 
 of an impure state of society: and this 
 deluge of fire, brimstone, and blood, is 
 precipitated upon the " inhabiters of the 
 earth," as an expression of God's dis- 
 pleasure on account of these corruptions. 
 
 There are no less than sixteen parti- 
 culars set forth by the prophet, corre- 
 sponding to which, we are to look for 
 the historical facts. First, there are 
 four agencies or powers. Second, they 
 must be bound, or restrained from de- 
 structive action toward the empire. 
 Third, they must coalesce into one 
 mighty power. Fourth, their purpose 
 and aim must be conquest, havoc, and 
 blood. Fifth, they must be located in, 
 and spring up from, the Euphratean 
 valley. Sixth, they are to advance and 
 prosper for three hundred and ninety- 
 one years and fifteen days. Seventh, 
 their destination must be against the 
 empire. Eighth, their armies must be 
 immensely numerous. Ninth, they must 
 consist very largely of horsemen. Tenth, 
 they must use and depend for final suc- 
 cess in subverting the empire, on gun- 
 powder. Eleventh, their military equip- 
 ments and standards must partake large- 
 ly of the colours, red, blue, and yellow. 
 Twelfth, the cavalry are to be distin- 
 guished for indomitable ferocity. Thir- 
 teenth, their poisonous influence after 
 conquest, is like the Saracenic, and de- 
 signates them a Mohammedan body. 
 Fourteenth, the empire must be much 
 addicted to demonology at the time of 
 their rise. Fifteenth, it must be deeply 
 sunk into the idolatry of image worship. 
 Sixteenth, it must be degraded exceed- 
 ingly in its moral character. 
 
 We are not aware that* there is a 
 diversity of opinion in regard to this 
 subject. There is but one power, whose 
 history accords to all this, and beyond 
 doubt, it is the clearness of the provi- 
 dential exposition of the prophecy, — in 
 other words, the precise correspondence 
 of facts with the prophecy, which has 
 produced such perfect unanimity among 
 commentators. 
 
LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 161 
 
 Our eye must be turned to " the great 
 river ;" where have occurred most im- 
 portant and strange events. In this fair 
 valley, man was placed in all the beauty 
 of his first creation. Here he aposta- 
 tized from happiness, holiness, and God. 
 Here the green sod was first wet with 
 his blood, — the blood of murdered inno- 
 cence. Here was revealed to him the 
 glorious doctrine of forgiveness of sin 
 through the atonement. In this valley, 
 he planted his first colonies after the 
 flood. Here despotism had its first 
 throne, and wielded its first sceptre. 
 Here stood Nineveh, and Babylon ;. and 
 here they fell. Here Saracenic power 
 established itself, and from this centre, 
 • Mohammedan tyranny and oppression 
 flowed far and wide. Over the eastern 
 portions of these vast plains Ghengis 
 Khan poured the crimson flood of his 
 desolating invasion. And down from 
 the boundless steppes of Tartary rolled 
 into this valley, those immense masses 
 of men, which harassed and conquered 
 the Saracen, and were in turn van- 
 quished by him. In general, these in- 
 vaders embraced the Mohammedan re- 
 ligion, and took up their permanent 
 residence in different places. Among 
 these Tartar hordes, the Seljukian Turks 
 became conspicuous, and procured a set- 
 tlement for themselves at Iconium, in 
 Asia Minor, about the year A. D. 1074. 
 Their prince, or chief, was denominated 
 .officially, soldan, which is now softened 
 into sulta?i : and the government itself 
 was called a sultany. In process of 
 time, three other governments of the 
 same description were consolidated out 
 of the relics of the Saracens, who united 
 with the Tartar hordes, and held their 
 seats of power respectively at Bagdad, 
 Aleppo, and Damascus. Here we have 
 the four angels, or powers, about to be 
 united into one arid sent upon a work of 
 vengeance. 
 
 Almost simultaneous with the regular 
 organization of these governments, call- 
 ed Sultanies, commenced the crusades. 
 The Turks wrested Jerusalem from the 
 Saracens in A. D. 1065 ; and treated the 
 Christian pilgrims, who frequented that 
 city, with such indignity, as to arouse 
 
 21 
 
 Peter the hermit, and other zealots, 
 through whose agency, hundreds of thou- 
 sands of European troops were precipi- 
 tated upon the shores of Asia, for the 
 purpose of redeeming the Holy Laud. 
 These wars of the cross continued from 
 1096 to 1270, and kept in check the 
 gathering tide of barbarous population 
 from the borders of Thibet and China, 
 and the immense interior regions of Tar- 
 tary. But this restraint ceased with the 
 eighth crusade, about 1270. By the re- 
 striction which these wars imposed, were 
 the four angels bound, — by its removal 
 were they loosed. 
 
 About the middle of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, Erdogrul or Ortogrul, a Tartar 
 chief of great talents, son of Solyman 
 Shah, to whom the Turks proudly trace 
 their origin, passing westward in quest 
 of plunder and a new home, applied to 
 Aladin, Sultan of Iconium, for employ- 
 ment and a residence for his followers. 
 Aladin was troubled not a little to repel 
 certain hordes of Monghul Tartars, who 
 were pressing down upon him, and gladly 
 accepted the offer. He had indeed been 
 defeated, and was in imminent peril, 
 when the seasonable aid of Ortogrul 
 saved him. Aladin's new friends were 
 permitted to settle in a district of the 
 sultany, called Ancyra, the government 
 of which he conceded to them. It was 
 not long before Ortogrul found an occa- 
 sion of quarrel with the Greek Christians, 
 subjects of the emperor at Constantinople; 
 and in the year 1281, he wrested from 
 them Cutahi, the ancient Cotyeum. This 
 was the first conquest of the Seljukian 
 Turks, — their first victory over the im- 
 perial troops or dependents, — the first 
 blow toward the killing of the third part 
 of men. Bishop Newton adopts this in- 
 terpretation. 
 
 A few years after this event, Ortogrul 
 died, leaving Othman heir of his fortunes 
 and talents. From him the Turks pro- 
 fessedly derive their name and nation ; 
 for they dislike the epithet of Turk. 
 About the same time, Aladin, Sultan of 
 Iconium, also deceased, and was suc- 
 ceeded by his son of the same name. 
 Availing themselves of the occasion, the 
 Tartar hordes, who still passed down 
 
162 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 from the North and East, assailed the 
 youthful sultan, who was entirely rout- 
 ed, and fled for protection to Constanti- 
 nople ; where, according to some, he 
 was imprisoned, by the emperor. This, 
 however, is not duly authenticated. It is 
 nevertheless true, that the petty princes 
 in this part of Asia Minor, whether with 
 the advice and consent or in opposition 
 to the will of Aladin, is not determined, 
 did choose Othman as their leader, and 
 either conferred on him, or he assumed, 
 the title of Sultan or Emperor of the 
 Othmans. This occurred in 125)9 or 
 1300. (See Univ. Hist. vol. xxvii. p. 
 315, etc.) It is not necessary, nor is it 
 probable, that the name Emperor or even 
 Sultan, was at first given ; nor that his 
 followers were at first called Othmans. 
 His elevation was not owing solely to his 
 immediate followers. A common danger 
 united the various leaders of provinces 
 embraced within the mountains of Ar- 
 menia to Western Phrygia ; and as Oth- 
 man was most likely to prevail against 
 the Tartars, he became, by general and 
 tacit consent, their commander. After 
 checking these foes, he directed his vic- 
 torious bands to the settlement and con- 
 solidation of his government, and thus 
 paved the way for supreme and extensive 
 dominion. But, as before observed, the 
 first real acquisition from the Christian 
 empire was Cutahi in 1281. Eastward 
 they extended their arms, and shortly 
 brought into subjection, or perhaps rather 
 united with themselves, the Sultanies of 
 Damascus, Aleppo, and Bagdad. 
 
 In 1326, Brusa or Prusa, the capital 
 of Bithynia, surrendered to Orchan, the 
 son and successor of Othman. The next 
 year Nicomedia fell before him. Six 
 years later Isnick in Natorise, surrender- 
 ed. Having crossed over into Europe, 
 the Ottomans laid siege in 1361 to Adri- 
 anople, the capital of Romania, about a 
 hundred and fifteen miles north-west of 
 Constantinople. 
 
 In 1393 and 1396, the Hungarians 
 were twice defeated with fearful slaugh- 
 ter, by Bajazet and the Turks, at Nico- 
 poli, in Bulgaria, on the Danube. Baja- 
 zet was checked and humbled by the 
 invincible prowess of Timour Bee, or 
 
 Tamerlane, the second Ghengis Khan of 
 Asia ; or doubtless his victories over the 
 Christians would have been more ruinous, 
 and have proved fatal to the empire. 
 
 In 1403, Sigismund, Emperor of Ger- 
 many, was totally routed at Semendria, 
 in Servia, by the Othman troops under 
 the command of Musa, son of Bajazet, 
 who acted as regent. 
 
 In 1429. Amurath II., the sixth Otto- 
 man Emperor, wrested Thessalonica from 
 the Venetians ; but in 1435 and years 
 following, his progress was checked, and 
 he was vanquished in several severe 
 battles by Hunniades, the intrepid com- 
 mander of the Polish and Hungarian 
 troops, sent against him by Ladislaus. 
 
 In 1444, Ladislaus, commanding the 
 army in person, fought a great battle 
 with the Turks at Varnes, in Bulgaria, 
 in which the Polish king was slain, and 
 his army lost the day. 
 
 In 1453, Mahomet II. took Constanti- 
 nople by siege. Here, by way of pre- 
 eminence, fire-arms were used with great 
 effect. The cannon of Mahomet were 
 immensely large. One of them required 
 seventy yoke of oxen to draw it, and 
 projected a ball of three hundred pounds. 
 These balls were made of stone, and of 
 course must have been three times as 
 large as an iron ball of the same weight. 
 The forces employed by Mahomet in this 
 memorable siege and sack, are variously 
 estimated at from two hundred and fifty- 
 eight, to four hundred thousand men. In 
 1456, the Sultan advanced with his vic- 
 torious squadrons up the Danube, and 
 laid siege to Belgrade : but there stood 
 the invincible Pole; Hunniades was 
 again victorious, and the Othmans were 
 obliged to withdraw. 
 
 The Sultan in 1480, formed the siege 
 of Rhodes, with an army of one hun- 
 dred thousand men. But the Knights of 
 St. John were at this time the best dis- 
 ciplined troops in the world, and the most 
 lion-like heroes. The skill and bravery 
 of their defence, hurled back this vast 
 host, and retained the Levant in the 
 power of Christendom. 
 
 In 1514, Selim I., their ninth sultan, 
 marched against Ismael, King of Persia, 
 defeated him in the plains of Chalcedon, 
 
LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 163 
 
 and took Tauris. In 1516, he turned 
 his arms against Egypt, and gained the 
 battle of Aleppo, in which Kauson, Sul- 
 tan of Egypt, was slain. The next year 
 he gained a victory near Cairo, and 
 after capturing his foes caused thirty 
 thousand Mamelukes to be slaughtered. 
 This ancient and renowned country has 
 been ever since a provincial dependant 
 on the Sublime Porte. 
 
 In 1521, Solyman II., their tenth sul- 
 tan, formed the siege of Belgrade: and 
 there being no Hunniades at the head of 
 Polish lancers, that important post was 
 lost to the Christians. The next year, 
 he empolyed an immense force against 
 Rhodes, which the knights were com- 
 pelled to abandon, after one of the most 
 astonishing defences of which history 
 informs us. The indomitable relic of 
 this Christian army, however, made 
 good their retreat to Malta. In 1526, 
 Solyman gained the famed victory of 
 Mahatz, which Lewis II., King of Hun- 
 gary, yielded only with his life. In 
 1529, he formed the siege of Vienna, 
 with a vast army, but was forced to re- 
 'tire after a loss of eighty thousand men. 
 
 In 1535, he undertook the siege of 
 Malta, and concentrated upon it all his 
 military skill, and all his pride and 
 power : but in vain. The Knights of 
 St. John, who were organized to defend 
 Christendom, withstood successfully his 
 most strenuous exertions, and accom- 
 plished the most glorious defence re- 
 corded in the annals of war.— (Univ. 
 Hist. vol. 28, p. 60.) 
 
 In 1638, Amurath IV., the seven- 
 teenth emperor, after long and severe 
 conflict, recovered Bagdad from the 
 Persians, and treacherously slaughtered 
 thirty thousand men after they had sur- 
 rendered on capitulation, and laid down 
 their arms. 
 
 In 1663, Mahomet IV., the nineteenth 
 emperor, defeated the forces of the Em- 
 peror of Germany, and captured Neu- 
 hausel, in Hungary, a little eastward 
 from Vienna. But he was in turn van- 
 quished the next year by the imperial 
 troops under the command of General 
 Montecuculli, near St. Gothard. 
 
 In 1669, he retook Candia from the 
 
 Venetians, and declared war against Po- 
 land. In 1672, after a siege often days, 
 his bashaw captured Kameniec, the capi- 
 tal of Podolia in Poland ; and Wiesno- 
 wiski, the King of Poland, a deformed 
 monk, whom Jesuitical intrigue had 
 forced upon the throne in opposition to 
 his wishes, made a disgraceful treaty 
 with the Turk. Kameniec surrendered 
 on the twenty-seventh of August, 1672. 
 All Podolia, with this strong fortress, 
 was ceded to the Othmans, and a tribute 
 of twenty-two thousand ducats per an- 
 num was promised as the price of peace. 
 (See Univ. Hist, vol.49, p. 8.— Fletcher's 
 Poland, 83.) 
 
 This was the last conquest of the 
 Turks. The next year, in contraven- 
 tion of the treaty,* they invaded Galli- 
 cia ; but they met a rock ; John Sobieski, 
 the hero of Poland's heroes, took the 
 field. He advanced towards Kameniec, 
 with the design of retaking it : but deem- 
 ing it safest first to dislodge the Turks 
 from Chotzan, a town some twenty miles 
 from the great fortress, on the south of 
 the Dneister, he determined to attack 
 them. " But this was an enterprise 
 scarcely to be attempted with his slender 
 forces, which did not amount to thirty 
 thousand fighting men. The Turkish 
 army exceeded three hundred thousand 
 men, including the troops of Moldavia 
 and Wallachia ; the bashaw was so cer- 
 tain of victory that he had already forged 
 chains for the king and court, and sent 
 word to the sultan, that before the end 
 of the campaign, he would fix the Otto- 
 man standard on the walls of Cracow." 
 (Univ. Hist. vol. 49, p. 8.) The Walla- 
 chians and Moldavians, however, proved 
 unfaithful to their Ottoman masters, 
 and the Poles attacked them. " For 
 three days," adds the history, " the 
 Turk maintained his ground, and re- 
 newed the engagement by intervals ; at 
 last the skill and fortune of Sobieski, as 
 well as the superior valour of the Poles, 
 prevailed ; a complete victory was ob- 
 tained, terrible slaughter made, a multi- 
 tude of prisoners were taken ; and of 
 
 * Fletcher throws the blame of this violation 
 upon the Poles. 
 
164 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 the whole Turkish army not more than 
 fifteen thousand were suffered to make 
 their escape." Fletcher quotes Sobies- 
 ki's speech before the last onset : upon 
 viewing the gorgeous camp of the ene- 
 my, he concluded it by saying, "My com- 
 rades, in half an hour we shall lodge un- 
 der those gilded tents." He kept his word. 
 
 The next year Sobieski was elected 
 King of Poland ; and in the year follow- 
 ing, he fought with the Turks the des- 
 perate battle of Leopal, or Lemburgh, in 
 Gallicia ; where, with six thousand men, 
 he was attacked by the bashaw with an 
 army of one hundred thousand. The 
 Turks were, nevertheless, entirely routed, 
 leaving twelve thousand dead on the field. 
 
 In the year 1683, the Turks with a 
 vast army swept over Servia and Pan- 
 nonia, and formed the siege of Vienna. 
 The German emperor, Leopold, and his 
 brother-in-law, the Duke of Lorraine, 
 were ill prepared for such a visit. Con- 
 sternation pervaded the capital, and the 
 panic thrilled over Christendom. All 
 hearts quailed ; and the Christian world 
 almost felt itself at the mercy of the 
 Moslem. Agonizing and despairing Eu- 
 rope threw herself at the feet of John 
 Sobieski. The appeal was not in vain. 
 The Polish chief, with twenty thousand 
 lion-hearted men, rushed to the rescue. 
 " The victory," say the historians, " was 
 complete, and it was entirely ascribed to 
 the gallantry of Sobieski and the impe- 
 tuous valour of the Poles, whom nothing 
 could resist. The great Ottoman stan- 
 dard was taken ; all the vizier's im- 
 mense treasure and baggage, the ammu- 
 nition, provisions, and train of artillery, 
 amounting to one hundred and eighty 
 pieces of cannon, were the reward of 
 the conquerors, together with the glory 
 of having defeated an army of two hun- 
 dred thousand men, with the loss of no 
 more than six hundred private men and 
 three officers." 
 
 When one reads the history of these 
 illustrious deeds, and casts his eye upon 
 the map, with the inquiry, — where is 
 Poland? — where the gallant kingdom, 
 which twenty times rescued Europe 
 from the scimetar of the Turk, and 
 Christianity from the pollutions of Mo- 
 
 hammedism? and is answered — Poland! 
 there is no such kingdom ; she is ex- 
 punged, blotted out, annihilated; — how 
 the soul kindles in irrepressible indigna- 
 tion at the despotism of the czar, — the 
 base treachery of the emperor, — the 
 cold-blooded indifference of Europe and 
 the world toward the land of Sobieski ! 
 
 But our use of these facts is to illus- 
 trate prophecy. We have seen that the 
 first conquest of the Othman Turks was 
 Cutahi, in A. D. 1281. We have traced 
 their chief steps toward empire. We 
 have marked their last conquest, — that 
 of Kameniec, on the twenty-seventh of 
 August, 1672, exactly three hundred 
 and ninety-one years from the capture 
 of Cutahi. And could we ascertain the 
 precise day of Ortogrul's first conquest, 
 as we do that of his successor's last, the 
 prophecy would, doubtlessly, be found 
 true to a day. 
 
 The events subsequent to the fall of 
 Kameniec it was important for us to 
 know, in order to show that the cessation 
 of Ottoman conquests was not the re- 
 sult of their policy, — was not for want 
 of disposition or exertion on their part. 
 Other battles they did fight after August 
 twenty-seventh, 1672, very many and 
 very bloody. Efforts at extending their 
 dominion, great and vigorous, they did 
 make, but they added no permanent pos- 
 session to their empire. And wherefore 
 was it that they were unsuccessful in 
 their farther advances towards dominion? 
 Let the philosophic historian meet this 
 question if he can. But until he admits 
 the light of revelation, all will remain 
 obscure. This only can make every 
 thing plain. The Turkish horsemen 
 were commissioned of God to scourge a 
 degenerate church. Their commission 
 was to carry them onward for "an hour, 
 and a day, and a month, nnd a year," 
 or for three hundred and ninety-one 
 years and fifteen days ; and when that 
 term had expired, their progress was at 
 an end. Thenceforward the crescent 
 must wane. 
 
 In the facts developed, there are also 
 all the other particulars of the prescript 
 history. We have the four powers in, 
 or contiguous to, the Euphratean valley; 
 
LECTURE XIX. 
 
 165 
 
 they were checked by the crusades ; they 
 coalesced speedily into one; their ar- 
 mies were vastly numerous, and despe- 
 rately ferocious ; they were composed 
 chiefly of cavalry ; they made great and 
 effectual use of gunpowder ; their equip- 
 ments and standards bore the mingled 
 hues of red, blue, and yellow ; they left 
 the poison of the Mohammedan faith al- 
 ways behind them. The moral state of 
 the church was such as the prophet de- 
 scribes it. Gold, silver, wood, and stone 
 idols were every where commonly used 
 in the churches ; and lastly, the state of 
 morals corresponded thereto. In all Ro- 
 man Catholic Europe and the East, they 
 had fearfully degenerated. 
 
 Here then, is a coincidence that de- 
 monstrates the truth of the prophecy, 
 and at the same time, the divine inspi- 
 ration of the Christian revelation, whilst 
 it settles another great series of propheti- 
 cal facts, and thus fixes our chrouology 
 of prophecy. 
 
 But there remains this question, of 
 deep and practical import, — what is the 
 final cause of the arrest of the Turkish 
 and Mohammedan power? Why did 
 God limit it to this time and territory ? 
 
 This question is analogous to that 
 raised at the close of our consideration 
 of the first woe ; and the answer must 
 be similar. The valley of the Rhine 
 was the cradle of the Reformation. 
 There lay Heaven's most precious trea- 
 sure, the pure reformed church. There- 
 fore, the valley of the Euphrates could 
 not disgorge a flood of desolation suffi- 
 cient to overwhelm it. The eastern 
 empire suffered severely in this war; 
 because it was fearfully sunk into idola- 
 try and crime. For similar reasons, 
 the nations of eastern Europe, and the 
 Venetians, were also called to endure 
 much. Poland suffered gloriously ; for 
 Poland had for nearly a century received 
 into her bosom the pollutions of the 
 Church of Rome. It was not until 
 Henry of Anjou had abdicated, and Ste- 
 phen Batory, who brought in with him 
 the Jesuits, was elected king, that the 
 glory of Polish literature, religion and 
 liberty began to melt away. Even So- 
 bieski's iron nerve could scarce resist 
 
 the debasing influence of their intrigues. 
 But for the Jesuits, Poland would this 
 day be found in Europe. 
 
 So will God ever defend his true 
 church; so will he lay the rod of cor- 
 rection upon her, until she return from 
 her wanderings, and acknowledge him 
 as the only object of her devotion ; so 
 will he guide all things to the advance- 
 ment of her holiest interests, and his own 
 eternal glory. 
 
 LECTURE XIX. 
 
 THE LITTLE OPEN BOOK. 
 Rev. x. ; xi. 13. 
 
 It is not in the nature of penal evil 
 to produce penitential feeling. Men's 
 hearts are not made better, they are not 
 won to the love of the law and its au- 
 thor, by the sufferings which it inflicts. 
 The reason of this fact may be found in 
 the original law of self-preservation ; or 
 that inborn and indestructible principle 
 of our being which leads us to love life 
 and seek happiness. Of course, this 
 principle resists every thing that mili- 
 tates, or appears to militate, against our 
 peculiar enjoyment. For its own sake, 
 no man can love pain, nor can he behold 
 with complacency, the voluntary author 
 of his sufferings, as such. On the con- 
 trary, the minister of justice is very 
 likely to become an object of dislike to 
 him who suffers at his hand. It is not 
 easy for the sufferer to avoid associating 
 with his hated pains, the agent of their 
 infliction, although his judgment may 
 tell him that he is simply the executor 
 of law, and must obey its requirements. 
 The association revives the pain, and he 
 suffers again in imagination the evils he 
 had deemed past and gone. 
 
 Neither is it the design of penal evil 
 to produce penitential sorrow and refor- 
 mation of life. Its object is to glorify 
 justice and maintain the honour of the 
 laws. The ruler may, notwithstanding, 
 associate with the distribution of justice, 
 such other treatment of his subjects, as 
 
166 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 is adapted to produce a mellowing influ- 
 ence ; and thereby secure penitence. But 
 unless some accompaniment of this kind 
 do occur, in vain may we expect the vin- 
 dication of justice to ameliorate the heart 
 of man. We may not therefore be 
 greatly surprised at the effects of the 
 second woe upon the inhabitants of the 
 earth. No repentance results among 
 the third part of men ; no general relent- 
 ing and returning to God, among the 
 survivors of the Ottoman victories. De- 
 monology, idolatry, and immorality con- 
 tinue to prevail and abound. Conse- 
 quently, the righteous Governor, who is 
 a jealous God, will lift his hand higher, 
 and inflict still heavier vengeance upon 
 the rebellious earth. 
 
 To prepare for the third woe, by 
 pointing out its object, ■ nd the moral 
 reasons of it, is the desLn of the con- 
 text before us. It is a new vision, — 
 the fourth to which the Apostle's eye 
 was directed. 
 
 This tenth chapter exhibits the agency 
 by which the " little book" is brought 
 from heaven ; and the first thirteen 
 verses of the eleventh, give the contents 
 of the book itself. The former, we shall 
 pass over with rapidity. 
 
 Verses 1, 2, 3. " And I saw another 
 mighty angel come down from heaven, 
 clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was 
 upon his head, and his face was as it 
 were the sun ; and his feet as pillars of 
 fire ; and he had in his hand a little 
 book open ; and he set his right foot 
 upon the sea, and his left foot on the 
 earth, and cried with a loud voice, as 
 when a lion roareth : and when he 
 had cried, seven thunders uttered their 
 voices." 
 
 The phrase, " another mighty angel," 
 implies that one had been previously 
 seen. This we find to have been the 
 case, in chapter v. 2, where the original 
 is the same, but is translated, a " strong 
 angel ,-" and where the connexion shows 
 him to have been a created messenger 
 of God. In the present case, however, 
 we think, with Doctor McLcod, that the 
 uncreated angel, Jehovah, is intended. 
 This opinion is deduced from the con- 
 text. 
 
 1. His clothing is a cloud. Jesus 
 " was taken up, and a cloud received 
 him out of their sight." (Acts i. 9.) 
 And John, in this book, (ch. i. 7,) says 
 of him, "Behold, he cometh with clouds." 
 " And I looked and beheld a white cloud, 
 and upon the cloud one sat, like unto 
 the son of man." (xiv. 14.) 
 
 2. The " rainbow upon his head," 
 leads to the same conclusion. It is a 
 symbol of covenant promises, and stood 
 above the throne, (Ch. iv.) No in- 
 stance exists of this bow surrounding 
 the head of created angels. 
 
 3. His face being like the sun, seems 
 also to refer us to the description of 
 Christ, in ch. i. 16, — " his countenance 
 was as the sun shineth in his strength." 
 
 4. His " feet as pillars of fire;" — this 
 evidently directs our attention to the 
 same account ; " his feet like unt fine 
 brass as if thev burned in a furnace." 
 (Ch. i. 15.) 
 
 These will satisfy most readers, that 
 this angel is the Mighty God, our Re- 
 deemer. Yet his works and sayings, as 
 we advance, will greatly confirm if need 
 be, this conviction. 
 
 " He had in his hand a little book 
 open," or rather opened. It was not, 
 like the large book, given to him shut 
 up, and sealed, to intimate that the mat- 
 ters comprehended in it were all yet fu- 
 ture : but it was opened when he ap- 
 peared with it in his hand. He de- 
 scended with it, in the midst of passing 
 events, and whilst they were in a course 
 of developement. Therefore, this little 
 book is already opened. It is an epi- 
 sode, — a kind of large parenthesis, 
 thrown into another book ; having an 
 important connexion with, and influence 
 upon it ; yet whose matter may be con- 
 templated for a moment in a distinct 
 form. 
 
 The right foot is that which we most 
 naturally use when we wish to exert the 
 greatest power. The act of placing the 
 foot down upon any thing, very forcibly 
 expresses the idea of absolute dominion 
 and control over it. 
 
 This mighty messenger of God, 
 clothed with a cloud, and adorned with 
 a rainbow, whose face was bright as 
 
LECTURE XIX. 
 
 167 
 
 the sun, and his feet like fire, asserts 
 and exercises his authority over the agi- 
 tated sea of human population, and rules 
 amid their boisterous commotions, as 
 well as in the calm. He then lifts up 
 his voice, and by the thunder of his om- 
 nipotence, commands attention. To that 
 dread voice, seven thunders respond. 
 
 Verse 4. " And when the seven thun- 
 ders had uttered their voices, I was about 
 to write : and I heard a voice from hea- 
 ven, saying unto me, ' Seal up those 
 things which the seven thunders uttered, 
 and write them not.' " 
 
 It is manifest that the seven thunders 
 are signs of the matters contained in 
 the third woe. About to record what 
 the seven thunders had spoken, the pro- 
 phet was checked by a voice from hea- 
 ven, and directed to seal them, and not 
 to write them. This intimates with 
 beautiful simplicity that the time for dis- 
 playing or developing the things spoken 
 by these thunders, had not yet arrived. 
 If they were written, and the book open- 
 ed, they would be at once legible; but 
 the second woe is not yet over when this 
 vision is presented ; whereas, the matter 
 of these thunders belongs to the third. 
 He is therefore, directed not to write, 
 but to seal up and preserve them until 
 their proper time. 
 
 But this subject, — the last terrible 
 judgments of Heaven upon the anti- 
 christian powers, is cause of great in- 
 terest to the Church, and of deep 
 anxiety to her watchmen. It was in 
 reference to this very thing, that the in- 
 quiry was so eagerly pressed by the 
 man clothed in white linen : — " How 
 long shall it be to the end of these won- 
 ders ?" And the answer is : " Until a 
 time, times, and the dividing of time." 
 (Dan. xii. 6, 7.) In the present case 
 also, and in regard to the same matter, 
 the action is similar in form, and the 
 same in substance. 
 
 Verses 5, 6, 7. " And the angel 
 which I saw stand upon the sea and 
 upon the earth, lifted up his hand to hea- 
 ven, and sware by him that liveth for 
 ever and ever, who created heaven, and 
 the things that therein are, and the 
 earth, and the things that therein are, 
 
 and the sea, and the things which are 
 therein, that there should be time no 
 longer. But in the days of the voice of 
 the seventh angel, when he shall begin 
 to sound, the mystery of God should be 
 finished, as he hath declared to his ser- 
 vants the prophets." 
 
 The first particular to be observed 
 here is, the form, or outward action ac- 
 companying the oath ; " he lifted up his 
 hand toward heaven," an act most sig- 
 nificant of a solemn appeal to God, as 
 every oath is. This form of oath was 
 used by Abraham, Gen. xiv. 22 ; by 
 God himself, Deut. xxxii. 40, expressing 
 his custom ; Ezek. xx. 5, 15, 23, 28, 
 42 ; xxxvi. 7 ; xlvii. 14. 
 
 2. The person by whom he swears, — 
 the everlasting Creator ; nor is there any 
 other lawful oath than this. All by any 
 other, are idolatry, profanity, and a rob- 
 bery of God. 
 
 3. The matter concerning which he 
 swears, — " There should be time no 
 longer." Can this mean any thing less 
 than the ushering in of eternity, or the 
 end of measured duration ? But do the 
 latter part of the second woe, and the 
 whole of the third, lie in eternity? Can 
 the angel intend to affirm this 1 Impos- 
 sible, — for the prophecy afterwards de- 
 clares that" the second woe is past, and 
 behold the third woe cometh quickly;" 
 and so proceeds to detail the events of 
 it. The apparent difficulty is entirely 
 obviated by adopting the translation 
 suggested by Mr. Mede and Bishop 
 Newton, almost a century ago, and 
 approved by most critics since ; as it 
 must be by every person who will look 
 at it candidly. The Greek word, (src) 
 here, in conjunction with the negative 
 particle, not, translated, no longer, means 
 simply, yet: — " the time shall not be 
 yet." The only other instance in which 
 this little word stands connected with 
 (Xg°' v °s) time, in this book, is in chap, 
 vi. 11; where the souls of the saints 
 under the altar are told " that they 
 should rest yet, (In) for a little season." 
 All we have to do for the entire removal 
 of all difficulty, is to adopt this transla- 
 tion of both words, and then the mighty 
 angel swears, that " the season shall not 
 
163 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 be yet," — or, the season for the things 
 spoken by the seven thunders has not 
 yet arrived ; but it will come in its due 
 order. So is this word translated often, 
 " while he was yet speaking :" " there 
 are yet four months, and then cometh 
 the harvest," (John iv. 35.) " Yet a 
 little while, a little season, am I with 
 you," (vii. 33 ;) and the same occurs, 
 xii. 35, xiii. 33, xiv. 19. 
 
 4. The angel, having thus checked 
 the rising expectation, that the mysteri- 
 ous voice of the seven thunders must be 
 immediately realized by the occurrences, 
 proceeds to intimate when they may be 
 looked for, — in the days of the seventh 
 angel ; they belong to the third woe. 
 When the seventh trumpet shall begin 
 to sound, the church must have every 
 energy aroused, for then shall come the 
 finishing up of God's mysterious work 
 of vengeance ; which shall be com- 
 pleted according to the predictions of 
 the prophets. 
 
 5. The prediction referred to, is mainly 
 that of Daniel xii., where the same sub- 
 jects are spoken of; but the prophet's 
 deep anxiety to know the time and sea- 
 son, was checked ; and in this manner, 
 the things were sealed up, and thus 
 continued mysteries. 
 
 6. These awful predictions of ruin to 
 the Antichristian powers, are joyful ti- 
 dings to the church. The word trans- 
 lated, hath declared, is to evangelize, — 
 to announce good news. 
 
 Verses 8-11. "And the voice which 
 I heard from heaven spake unto me 
 again, and said, Go. and take the little 
 book, which is open in the hand of the 
 angel which sfandeth upon the sea and 
 upon the earth. And I went unto the 
 angel, and said unto him, Give me the 
 little book. And he said unto me. Take 
 it and eat it up ; it shall make thy belly 
 bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet 
 as honey. And I took the little book 
 out of the angel's hand, and ate it up ; 
 and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; 
 and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly 
 was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou 
 must prophesy again before many peo- 
 ples, and nations, and tongues, and 
 kings." 
 
 We learn that the contents of the little 
 book, which the prophet, like Daniel, 
 was so eager to devour, would indeed 
 be, at first, very agreeable, but after- 
 wards should afford much anxiety and 
 distress. The hope of deliverance, and 
 the belief that it will be effected, ani- 
 mates the spirit, and buoys up the heart, 
 even when the achievement, by means 
 of necessarily attendant evils, gives 
 much sorrow. The prospect and assu- 
 rance of glorious victory, in just and 
 honourable war, encourages the heart, 
 but the realization of it is not without 
 much bitterness of soul. Such we will 
 soon discover to be the contents of that 
 to which we now proceed. 
 
 THE LITTLE OPEN BOOK. 
 
 Chap. xi. 1-13. 
 
 This book may in general be divided 
 into two parts. 
 
 First. The ordinance and duties of 
 the Christian ministry during the twelve 
 hundred and sixty years of Antichrist. 
 
 Second. The witnesses of God during 
 the same period, and their enemy, the 
 object of the third woe. 
 
 First. " And there was given me a 
 reed like unto a rod ; and the angel 
 stood saying, Rise, and measure the 
 temple of God, and the altar, and them 
 that worship therein. But the court 
 which is without the temple, leave out, 
 and measure it not, for it is given unto 
 the Gentiles ; and the holy city shall 
 they tread under foot forty and two 
 months." 
 
 This, it will be observed, is a parti- 
 cular restriction to the internal opera- 
 tions of the ministry. In the first six cen- 
 turies of the Christian era, the church's 
 principal attention was to be turned out- 
 ward ; she was to be peculiarly a mis- 
 sionary body, and her foes were chiefly 
 external. The cherubim, consequently, 
 had their faces and eyes directed out- 
 ward, not indeed exclusively, but mainly. 
 Their faces looked in all directions. 
 After the rise and growth of Antichrist, 
 the case was different. The most dan- 
 gerous foes of the church were within 
 
LECTURE XIX. 
 
 169 
 
 her own bosom. Real Antichrist, under 
 the guise of Christianity, became hence- 
 forth her most ruinous enemy. The 
 spirit which was at work even in the 
 days of our apostle, was six thousand 
 years in consolidating his system ; and 
 so soon as the monster developement 
 occurred, there was war in heaven, — 
 the visible church and her ministry of 
 true-hearted men came to close conflict 
 with a formidable foe. This evil had 
 been foretold at an early period. The 
 Thessalonians appear to have been ex- 
 cited on the subject of the day of Christ, 
 as though it were at hand : but Paul 
 quiets their fears by assurances that 
 great and sore afflictions, in this state, 
 await the church, previously to the 
 second advent. A ruinous apostacy 
 must first spring up, " and that man of 
 sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; 
 who opposeth and exalteth himself above 
 all that is called God, or that is wor- 
 shipped ; so that he as God, sitteth in 
 the temple of God, and showeth himself 
 that he is God," (2 Thess. ii.) 
 
 He thus proceeds to delineate the 
 strong features of the Roman Catholic 
 apostacy. It is during the prevalence 
 of this, that the special ordinance before 
 us becomes requisite. Let us examine 
 into its details. 
 
 1. The first thing that meets our eye 
 is the measuring reed, or calamus, — 
 " like a rod." It was a straight, slender 
 cane, very convenient, and therefore 
 very generally used, for a measure of 
 longitude. In like manner, we call our 
 longest actual measuring instrument a 
 rod. In Ezekiel's vision of the glorious 
 city, the New Jerusalem, which is yet 
 to be, and to the description of which, 
 there is undoubted allusion here, the 
 reed is said to be " six cubits long, by 
 the cubit and a handbreadth," (chap, 
 xl. 5.) Preciseness of actual dimension 
 is here of little consequence ; the gene- 
 ral idea of a definite rule or measure, 
 being the thing intended. Our business 
 is evidently with the symbolical meaning. 
 
 This meaning can only be understood 
 by inquiring for the general use of the 
 operation of admeasurement : and we 
 find it always connected with the idea of 
 
 22 
 
 appropriation, or setting apart the thing 
 measured to a special service. Land, 
 which lies unappropriated, is unmeasured 
 until it is about to be passed over to in- 
 dividuals. The product of the ground is 
 measured when it is transferred from the 
 producer to the consumer. The cloth 
 on the merchant's counter is measured 
 when it is about to pass into the hand 
 of the wearer. Appropriation for special 
 use, is then the general idea of admea- 
 surement, and whatever instrument is 
 used for the purpose, is the instrument of 
 appropriation. The act of measuring, 
 indicates the transfer of the thing to the 
 use of him for whom it is effected. 
 
 What, therefore, is the only true and 
 infallible rule in things spiritual? Is not 
 the word of God ? Is not the church a 
 selection of men separated from the 
 world of mankind, by the energy of divine 
 truth? A careful inspection of Zechariah, 
 ch. ii., and of Ezekiel, ch. xli. 47, will 
 convince any person, that the man with 
 a line of flax and a measuring-reed in 
 his hand, represents the active agency 
 by which God lays out his spiritual city, 
 and the instrument with which the agent 
 works. In other words, the reed is em- 
 blematic of God's word, and he who 
 holds it, symbolizes the ministry of his 
 church. 
 
 2. The person who measures, is next 
 to be observed. It is John himself, who 
 herein represents that ministry, in whose 
 hands is deposited the power of govern- 
 ing the church according to the word 
 of God. 
 
 3. The source of this power is set 
 forth by the angel. He gives command, 
 " Rise and measure." This is the Angel 
 Redeemer, from whom the ministerial 
 commission must come. " All power in 
 heaven and earth is given unto me ; go 
 ye therefore, and teach all nations ;" — 
 go ye to the mountains, — hew out the 
 wood, — prepare the stone, — bring them 
 together, and build the house. 
 
 But this duty has three specifications: 
 the temple, the altar, and the people that 
 worship in the temple. 
 
 The temple is the spiritual framework 
 of the church ; the entire system of doc- 
 trines, ordinances, and government ; as 
 
170 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 contradistinguished from the individual 
 members of it. By measuring the tem- 
 ple, therefore, we are to understand the 
 faithful application of the rules, princi- 
 ples, discipline, worship, and ordinances 
 of religion to the social body, to see that 
 all things be " ordered according to the 
 pattern showed in the mount." During 
 the prevalence of Antichrist, ruinous 
 degeneracy will pervade the great mass 
 of nominal Christianity ; and therefore 
 special care must be exerted by the true 
 spiritual ministers, to preserve a pure 
 body in the midst of such corruption. 
 
 The altar is that of burnt offerings : 
 and the direction of particular attention 
 to it, intimates at once, its great import- 
 ance, and the untiring efforts that will 
 be made to pervert the ordinance which 
 it symbolizes. God, foreseeing that Satan 
 would ever direct his chief exertions 
 towards the abuse of this doctrine, and 
 especially by that radical heresy of Anti- 
 christ, " the sacrifice of the mass," 
 calls peculiar attention to it. He com- 
 mands his ministers to apply the line 
 and rule of his holy word to the altar, 
 to keep uncontaminated the doctrine of 
 atonement. 
 
 Those who worship at the altar and 
 in the temple, are the individual mem- 
 bers to whom discipline is to have more 
 especial reference. Now the first and 
 most important of all acts of discipline, 
 is the admission of members into the 
 communion of the church. This direc- 
 tion of the Saviour, intimates that during 
 the reign of Antichrist, there will be great 
 laxness. All kinds of iniquity and abomi- 
 nation will be tolerated within the corrupt 
 church, if only its members will be obe- 
 dient to the tyrant of Rome and his 
 minions. Hence the necessity for ex- 
 treme vigilance on the part of those 
 whom God will raise up, to sustain a 
 pure church and pure worship during 
 this period. 
 
 4. The evangelist is commanded to 
 leave out the court or area around the 
 temple, and not to measure it. The court 
 around the tabernacle was accessible to 
 all Jews, but not to any Gentiles, until 
 they had, at least, become proselytes of 
 the gate. This class of strangers were 
 
 then admitted into it, but had not access 
 to the altar and temple. Thus the court 
 became the symbol of loose or nominal 
 Christianity. 
 
 The translation, leave out, is not suffi- 
 ciently strong ; (hficiks g|w) cast entirely 
 out. It does not mean merely that in 
 measuring he should omit it ; but should 
 throw it off, — eject it as corrupt mem- 
 bers are ejected from the church. " Cast 
 ye the unprofitable servant into outer 
 darkness." " If thy right hand offend 
 thee, cast it from thee." " But Peter put 
 them all forth." We are here evidently- 
 taught, that the true spiritual church, in 
 and by her ministry, has the power, 
 and is bound to exercise it, of excom- 
 municating the spiritual corruption of the 
 apostacy. 
 
 The reason is then given. God hath 
 abandoned this court of nominal pro- 
 fessors to Pagan abominations. They 
 became " mad upon their idols," wor- 
 shipping images of gold and silver : and 
 God hath said in his wrath, " they are 
 joined to their idols, let them alone." 
 " Come out of her, my people, that ye be 
 not partaker of her plagues." 
 
 There can be no difficulty as to who 
 is meant by the court possessed by the 
 Gentiles. They are the same by whom 
 the holy city is trodden under foot for 
 forty and two months. The whole un- 
 broken chain of prophecy binds us to the 
 belief, that it is the same power which 
 " is to make war with the saints, and to 
 overcome them;" the Paganized, Chris- 
 tian Roman Catholic church. They are 
 called Gentiles or heathen, because vast 
 bodies of the barbarians who flooded the 
 empire, were admitted into the church 
 upon a mere profession of receiving 
 Christianity, whilst they retained all 
 their Pagan idols and worship. They 
 were called Christians, however, by the 
 debased clergy, who thus converted 
 China and Japan ; and are now baptizing 
 the Sandwich Islanders, allowing them 
 to retain all their idolatry, with the simple 
 change of the names of their gods. 
 Modern Rome exhibits the same demon- 
 worship, which ancient Rome did in the 
 days of Julius Caesar. The Virgin and 
 St. Peter, occupy the niches which the 
 
LECTURE XIX. 
 
 171 
 
 Parthenon once yielded to Venus and 
 Apollo. 
 
 5. We are next to mark the duration 
 of this triumphant apostacy— -forty and 
 two months ; or twelve hundred and 
 sixty prophetic days or years. It is the 
 same period during which the witnesses 
 are to wear sackcloth, whilst they pro- 
 phesy : and hence we proceed to the 
 
 Second Division of the Little Book : 
 the History of the Witnesses. — In this 
 we will be called to observe, 1. Their 
 commission, — it is from God, the Re- 
 deemer. 2. Their general character, — 
 they are witnesses. 3. Their number, 
 — two. 4. Their duty, — to prophesy. 
 5. Their distressed condition, — they 
 wear sackcloth. 6. The duration of their 
 distresses, — twelve hundred and sixty 
 years. 7. Their violent death, its cause 
 and circumstances. 8. The exultation 
 of their foes. 9. Their resurrection and 
 triumph. 10. The destruction of their 
 enemies, an overwhelming revolution. 
 
 1. The commission of these men is 
 from God, the Redeemer. They are 
 not unsent volunteers, but are called to 
 perform a specific service, which is 
 pointed out, and made plain before them. 
 And of course he who presents the com- 
 mission, will furnish all the means ne- 
 cessary for its execution. 
 
 2. Their general character. A wit- 
 ness is one who testifies or declares what 
 he knows in a given case. In the Greek 
 it is martyr ; which we i-estrict in Eng- 
 lish, to this specific kind of testifying. 
 Every one who declares what he knows, 
 is not, properly speaking, a witness. 
 There must be an occasion, and a lawful 
 call for the declaration of the truth. 
 Ordinarily, in human affairs, a person 
 who would thrust himself forward to a 
 tribunal, and voluntarily tender his tes- 
 timony to the court, would be suspected 
 of some sinister motive ; and his tes- 
 timony would lose in force by this 
 gratuitous movement. A witness holds, 
 in the judgment of mankind, a semi- 
 official station. He is a minister of jus- 
 tice between man and man ; and we 
 have an undefinable feeling, that no one 
 should take this office upon himself ex- 
 cept he be called. So the Saviour, who 
 
 in a pre-eminent sense calls himself the 
 " faithful and true witness," assumed 
 his office when called of God the Father. 
 He came into the world to testify to the 
 truth ; and all the moral precepts of the 
 Bible are his testimony. The prophecies 
 themselves are embodied in it, for " the 
 testimony of Jesus is the spirit of pro- 
 phecy." 
 
 All these forms of witness-bearing he 
 still practises. By the agency of his 
 authorized ambassadors, he still testifies 
 in his law, his gospel, and his prophetic 
 visions. Ministers of the gospel are his 
 "witnesses of these things," (Luke xxiv. 
 48.) This he declares after his resur- 
 rection, and after the delivery of the 
 ministerial commission, yet in connexion 
 with it. Though the ministry are, in a 
 very important sense, the witnesses of 
 Jesus ; yet we are not disposed to deny 
 this character and epithet to any private 
 Christian, whom God by special arrange- 
 ments of his providence, may call to 
 stand forth in the maintainance and de- 
 fence of the truth. Still we agree with 
 Doctor M'Leod, that there were many 
 true ministers and congregations of 
 Christians during the period mentioned, 
 who were not, in the emphatic sense of 
 this passage, witnesses; not having beem 
 called upon to testify in the precise form 
 meant. We also agree with Bishop 
 Newton, that these witnesses or martyrs, 
 are that entire body of faithful Christians, 
 lay and clerical, who, during this period, 
 stood up for the pure gospel in the face of 
 opposition more or less violent, and con- 
 tended against the evils, of the papacy: 
 many of whom sealed their testimony 
 with their blood. 
 
 3. They are said to be two in number, 
 in reference to the rule laid down by 
 Moses, which accoi'ds with sound prin- 
 ciples and the law of nature : that no 
 capital crime should be considered as 
 proved, unless two witnesses testify to 
 the facts. God will have a competent 
 amount of proof to establish against An- 
 tichrist, the truth of the scripture doc- 
 trines, and the corruptions of the man of 
 sin: and these witnesses will confront 
 him in the day of Heaven's vengeance. 
 
 4. The duty of these witnesses is de- 
 
172 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 scribed in a word, — they shall prophesy : 
 Verse 3. " And I will give power unto 
 my two witnesses, and they shall pro- 
 phesy a thousand two hundred and 
 threescore days, clothed in sackcloth." 
 Verse 4, " These are the two olive trees 
 and the two candlesticks, standing before 
 the God of the earth." They are 
 preachers of the gospel especially : and 
 they are what is symbolized by the 
 candlestick and the two olive trees of 
 Zechariah (chap, iv.) The olive tree 
 produces the oil, the oil supplies the 
 lamps, and thus light is perpetuated. 
 This vision is an improvement upon the 
 well-known symbol of Christ's prophetic 
 office, — the candlestick. Here was a 
 golden candlestick and golden olive 
 branches or trees, to represent the per- 
 petuity of the supply of oil : the whole 
 beautifully exhibiting that agency, by 
 which Christ will keep up the light of 
 his truth amid the dark ages of papal 
 superstition. " The seven candlesticks 
 are the seven churches;" and doubtless 
 the lamps of the candlesticks shining 
 like stars, are the ministers of the 
 churches. 
 
 Their work is farther described, verses 
 5 and 6, in allusion to some ancient 
 prophets : — " fire proceedeth out of their 
 mouth, and devoureth their enemies." 
 There is allusion to Elijah, and the de- 
 struction which through him God made 
 upon his enemies, in consuming them 
 with fire at the word of the prophet. 
 The second allusion is to the prayer of 
 the same prophet, that " it should not 
 rain upon the earth, and it rained not 
 by the space of three years and six 
 months." The third is to the miraculous 
 works of Moses in Egypt, when he 
 drew down upon the land the fearful 
 plagues of Jehovah. In like manner 
 God's witnesses, in the times of Anti- 
 christ, shall call down heaven's ven- 
 geance upon the bloody, apostate church, 
 and the nations whom she shall have 
 corrupted with her sorceries. Not that 
 these judgments shall come in miraculous 
 form, like those referred to ; but they 
 will come in answer to the prayers of 
 the witnesses, in all the fearfulness of a 
 felt reality. As Mr. Faber well expresses 
 
 it, " when it is said therefore, that they 
 have power to shut heaven, to turn the 
 waters into blood, to smite the earth icith 
 plagues, and to dart from their mouth 
 consuming fire ; these expressions must 
 all be understood, not in a causal, but in 
 a consequential sense. The judgments 
 which these prophets were severally 
 empowered to inflict, were not caused 
 by them as active agents, but were the 
 consequence of their ministry being 
 slighted." (ii. 17, 18.) 
 
 5. Their distressed condition, — they 
 are clothed in sackcloth, the garment of 
 mourning. This represents the spouse 
 of Christ, who was to be greatly afflicted ; 
 and of course her watchmen and her 
 guardians mourn. Ministers of the true 
 church, therefore, appropriately adopt 
 black as their only dress ; whilst Anti- 
 christ arrays himself in all the gorgeous- 
 ness of mingled drapery. 
 
 6. The duration of this period of 
 sorrow is the same twelve hundred and 
 sixty years of the reign of Antichrist. 
 
 7. The death of the witnesses : verse 7. 
 " And when they shall have finished 
 their testimony, the beast that ascendeth 
 out of the bottomless pit shall make war 
 against them and kill them." Verse 8. 
 " And their dead bodies shall lie in the 
 street of the great city, which spiritually 
 is called Sodom, and Egypt, where also 
 our Lord was crucified." 
 
 Particulars must necessarily be re- 
 marked here. 
 
 First. The time of their death: "when 
 they shall have finished their testimony." 
 But they are commissioned to bear testi- 
 mony forty and two months. Most as- 
 suredly, therefore, they are not to be 
 slain until the end of this period. What- 
 ever afflictions they may be called to 
 endure, they must still hold up the light 
 of the true gospel, and flare the glorious 
 torch beneath the maddened eyeballs of 
 the Lion, the Dragon, and the False 
 Prophet. 
 
 Secondly. The death itself. The death 
 literally of individuals cannot be meant: 
 for those who have, during twelve cen- 
 turies, borne testimony, have all died, 
 yet God's two witnesses still live. Indi- 
 vidual martyrs by thousands, — yea, and 
 
LECTURE XX. 
 
 173 
 
 tens of thousands, — have fallen, but the 
 two witnesses remain. What, then, is 
 meant by their death 1 We would in 
 turn ask, — what is meant by their life? 
 If we have a distinct idea of it, we shall 
 easily understand what their death is. 
 They are a social body, consisting of a 
 vast number of churches and their mi- 
 nisters. Now it is not the individual 
 men, but the social action of the body, 
 which constituted the testimony : and 
 the life of these witnesses was found in 
 their associated state. This is essential 
 to their capability to bear witness : if 
 they lose this capability, — if they are 
 dissolved and dissipated, and their social 
 existence is no more, — they are then 
 dead. 
 
 A minister of the gospel is ministe- 
 rially dead when his power of preaching 
 is taken away, though the individual 
 himself may be a living man still. If the 
 capacity of a witness to testify is re- 
 moved, the witness is destroyed: if it is 
 restored, he is resuscitated, — he lives 
 again. In the close of the tenth, it is 
 said that " these two prophets tormented 
 them that dwelt on the earth," — the fol- 
 lowers of the papacy. This was done 
 by their proclamation of the truth, and 
 by the administration of their ordinances. 
 The social existence and public preach- 
 ing of the witnesses is their testimony. 
 It is accordingly suppressed, and shep- 
 herd and flock are scattered by the 
 prowling wolf. This is their death ; 
 the Protestant trumpet is silenced ; the 
 social body that made its sounds to qui- 
 ver in the heart of Antichrist is dis- 
 solved. It by no means implies that 
 those who compose it are all dead as 
 individuals j for the language is sym- 
 bolical. Many individuals will then and 
 during that period hold the truth : but 
 not openly and socially. 
 
 Pure Christianity as a publicly he- 
 ralded religion will be suppressed ; and 
 she will be compelled to hide her hea- 
 venly face from the buffetings and scorn 
 of her pursuing foes. 
 
 But we must defer the remainder of 
 this exposition to another lecture. 
 
 LECTURE XX. 
 
 THE LITTLE OPEN BOOK, CONTINUED. 
 
 THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF THE 
 WITNESSES. 
 
 Rev. ch. xi. 7-13. 
 
 Wherever freedom of thought ex- 
 ists, there will be diversity of opinion. 
 And yet, were human reason any thing 
 like perfect, this would not be the case, 
 in regard to the more obvious and im- 
 portant principles that lie at the founda- 
 tion of society. Men might be expected 
 to agree in great matters : and espe- 
 cially might Christian men, who profess 
 to be guided by revelation, be expected 
 to agree in their construction of its lan- 
 guage. The truth, however, is, that 
 they often differ in their interpretations 
 of the language of the Bible : nor is this 
 indeed surprising; for there is no sub- 
 ject on which it is so reasonable to ex- 
 pect men who indulge freedom of thought 
 at all, to differ, as on the subject of reli- 
 gion ; and there is no field of criticism 
 in which we might as reasonably look 
 for a diversity of opinion, as in the 
 Bible. This is owing to two circum- 
 stances mainly ; — the imperfect know- 
 ledge men have of the languages of the 
 Bible, and the manners and customs of 
 the people to whom it was first given ; 
 and the infinite variety of feelings with 
 which men come up to the investigation of 
 Bible language and doctrine. It would 
 indeed be a marvellous miracle, if there 
 should be a perfect concord in reference 
 to minor matters. The utmost that rea- 
 son will allow us to expect is a substan- 
 tial agreement in the great leading doc- 
 trines. And this reasonable expectation 
 is realized, as to the Bible in general, 
 and as to prophecy in particular. We 
 had occasion to mention several points 
 of difference, and yet it is evident that 
 there is a general agreement among 
 those who, with proper preparation, en- 
 ter upon the work of prophetic expo- 
 sition. 
 
 This remark is prefatory to a point in 
 which we are obliged to differ from 
 
174 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 Bishop Faber, in regard to the death of 
 the witnesses. 
 
 " The witnesses" he says, " first re- 
 ceived political life in the years 1530, 
 1531, 1535 and 1537, by the formal 
 association of the Protestant German 
 Princes in the league of Smalkalde: and 
 shortly afterwards the Roman beast 
 under his last head, and at the instiga- 
 tion of his colleague the tivo-horned eccle- 
 siastical beast, began to make open war 
 upon them, with the view to crush the 
 Reformation in the bud. Infinite wis- 
 dom determined to try the patience and 
 faith .of the saints," by making him for 
 a short season completely successful in 
 his projects. On the twenty -fourth of 
 April, 1547, he totally routed the Pro- 
 testants in the battle of Mulburg; in 
 consequence of which defeat, their two 
 champions, who had given them political 
 life, the Elector of Saxony and the Land- 
 grave of Hesse, were compelled to sub- 
 mit to the emperor on terms of absolute 
 discretion. 
 
 The prophets were now politically 
 dead; but they were not long to continue 
 so : whence it is said, that they lay un- 
 buried. The place where their dead 
 bodies were thus exposed, was a street of 
 the great city, "spiritually called Sodom 
 and Egypt, where also our Lord was 
 crucified," (i. 2.) The bishop then pro- 
 ceeds to show, and does conclusively 
 show, that the great city is not Rome 
 literally, but the Western Empire : and 
 the street is not within the city of seven 
 hills literally understood ; but within one 
 of the kingdoms of the empire. He con- 
 tinues : " The tivo mystic prophets were 
 not, at the precise time alluded to by St. 
 John, to lie dead and unburied through- 
 out the ivhole of the great city ; but only, 
 as he expressly informs us, in one par- 
 ticular street or region of it. Now, since 
 their persecutor upon this occasion was 
 to be the beast under his last head, the 
 street of the city where they were to lie 
 unburied, must evidently be that region 
 of the empire which should be subject to 
 the more immediate jurisdiction of the 
 last head. Accordingly, in the very year 
 1547, when the prophets w ere politically 
 slain in Germany, the figurative street 
 
 under the special control of the last head, 
 they first obtained political life in another 
 street of the great city, where the last 
 head had no authority, by the accession 
 of Edward the Sixth to the throne of Eng- 
 land" (p. 24.) " Their bodies," he says, 
 " must lie unburied in this street of the 
 city, precisely three' days and a half; 
 that is, three natural years and a half" 
 He then speaks of their defeat at Mul- 
 burg in 1547, the rejoicing of their ene- 
 mies, the suppression of Protestantism 
 in Germany, the restoration of the mass 
 and other Popish rites, and thus leads on 
 to the resurrection of the witnesses. 
 " Accordingly, the Reformers again stood 
 upon their feet at Magdeburg in the Oc- 
 tober of the year 1550 ; and in the De- 
 cember of the same year defeated the 
 Duke of Mechlenbuz-g, and took him pri- 
 soner. Great fear now fell upon all that 
 saw them ; but the time was not yet 
 arrived, when they were finally to ascend 
 into the sy?nbolical heaven, in the very 
 sight of their enemies. This was at 
 length accomplished, by the peace rati- 
 fied at Passau in 1552, and confirmed 
 at Augsburg in 1555 ; by which the 
 Protestants were allowed the free exer- 
 cise of their religion. Then it was, that 
 the two prophets ascended into heaven, 
 or, in other words, became an acknow- 
 ledged church," (p. 25.) 
 
 The first objection to this exposition 
 is the indefiniteness of time in which the 
 witnesses received life; in 1530, 1531, 
 1535, and 1537. They were, accord- 
 ing to this, seven years in coming to 
 life. 
 
 The next objection is to the kind of 
 life which Bishop Faber attributes to 
 them : it is " political life" and conse- 
 quently they were " politically dead." 
 They received this political life from 
 " their two great champions, the Elector 
 of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse," 
 and this political life was necessary in 
 order that they might be capable of poli- 
 tical death, (p. 25.) Now, what is or 
 can be meant by the political life of 
 God's martyrs ? Is it their ecclesiasti- 
 cal existence as a social body? If so, 
 did the German princes create them a 
 church of God ? — a strange source this, 
 
LECTURE XX. 
 
 175 
 
 for God's witnesses to deduce their life 
 from ! 
 
 But thirdly, if their life, which they 
 were seven years in receiving from the 
 German princes, did not begin until 
 A. D. 1530, how did they prophesy or 
 bear witness before they were alive ? 
 The witnesses were to prophesy in 
 sackcloth, twelve hundred and sixty 
 years, whereas the prophesying of those 
 who received their life from the German 
 princes, could be but ten or seventeen 
 years. Who, then, were God's mar- 
 tyrs from 606 to 1530? Was he with- 
 out the competent number of witnesses 
 for nine hundred and twenty-four years ? 
 
 Again : they were slain in the battle 
 of Mulburg, on April 24th, 1547, and 
 " they first obtained political life, by the 
 accession of Edward Sixth to the throne 
 of England." They are slain on April 
 24th, 1547, and restored to life by 
 Edward's accession, which took place 
 on the 30th of the preceding January ; 
 and yet they must be dead three and a 
 half years ! 
 
 But farther still ; they are killed in 
 Germany, and their dead bodies (which 
 are restored to life before life is taken 
 away,) of course lie unburied where 
 they fell ; but they are resuscitated in 
 England, another street entirely: and 
 moreover, they stand upon their feet, 
 in Germany again, at Magdeburg, in 
 1550! 
 
 The only reply to these objections is, 
 that the witnesses prophesy individually, 
 socially, or ecclesiastically, but they die 
 politically, — the only death, Bishop Fa- 
 ber says, which a community can expe- 
 rience. But is not this an evasion ? 
 Are we to be told that the witnesses pro- 
 phesy in one sense, and die in another 
 sense, — prophesy individually, and die 
 politically? or bear witness socially or 
 ecclesiastically, and die politically? 
 
 The worm at the root of this gourd, 
 is the European and Antichristian idea 
 of a political or state religion. Evi- 
 dently, the bishop's acute mind is bewil- 
 dered with this thought. Scarcely can 
 he conceive of a church at all, but as a 
 complex, religio-political establishment. 
 " Before the prophets,'''' he says, " can 
 
 be capable of experiencing political 
 death, the only death to which a com- 
 munity is liable, they must receive po- 
 litical life. This never was the case 
 previous to the time of the Reformation ; 
 therefore Hie prophets cannot have been 
 slain before the Reformation," (p. 20.) 
 But what an assumption is this, — a body 
 of God's most devoted spiritual servants 
 suffering '■'•political death!'''' May we 
 not as reasonably speak of the Christian 
 ministry suffering literary or mathema- 
 tical death ! 
 
 Away then with these Antichristian 
 conceptions. God's two witnesses are, 
 as Bishop Newton and the majority of 
 sound interpi-eters agree, the entire body 
 of the true church, who during the 
 twelve hundred and sixty years of Papal 
 oppression and persecution, are called 
 upon in his divine providence to stand 
 out in opposition to the corruptions of 
 the Papacy; millions of whom sealed 
 their testimony with their blood. Now, 
 it is impossible to condense the historical 
 matter covered by this preaching of the 
 witnesses, into bounds consistent with 
 the limits of these lectures. It would 
 be most satisfactory to go into the detail, 
 and to show, by quoting the authorities, 
 that there have existed always many 
 pure churches who never fell into the 
 corruptions of the Papacy; but who still 
 emitted rays of divine light in the midst 
 of this darkness. There were congre- 
 gations and ministers, associations and 
 councils, not a few, who bore witness to 
 the truth. But this detail would occupy 
 too much space. Even Bishop Newton's 
 excellent summary of this matter, in 
 which he constantly quotes original au- 
 thorities, must be merely referred to. 
 
 But, notwithstanding all, Bishop Fa- 
 ber had in his mind the correct idea of 
 what the death of the witnesses con- 
 sisted in ; — the suppression of the true 
 religion : " Protestantism," he says, 
 " was in a manner suppressed," (ii. 24.) 
 Under this seventh branch of our gene- 
 ral division, we have pointed out the 
 time of their death ; — at the end of the 
 twelve hundred and sixty years of their 
 prophesying in sackcloth. 
 
 Thirdly, We proceed to the instru- 
 
176 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ment or agent by which they are to be 
 slain, — " the beast that ascendeth out of 
 the bottomless pit, shall make war 
 against them, and shall overcome them 
 and kill them." This beast is said (ch. 
 xiii. 1,) to " arise out of the sea, having 
 seven heads and ten horns, and upon 
 his horns ten crowns." And in xvii. 3, 
 7, and 8, he is called " a scarlet-coloured 
 beast, full of names of blasphemy, hav- 
 ing seven heads and ten horns ;" " the 
 beast that carrieth her." " The beast 
 that thou sawest, was, and is not, and 
 yet is," or as Griesbach prefers, — "shall 
 be," — " and shall ascend out of the bot- 
 tomless pit, or the abyss.'''' 
 
 We may not here delay in proof and 
 illustration, but simply state, that this is 
 the same moral monster which sprang 
 into being with the iron sceptre of Nim- 
 rod, — the same with Daniel's lion, bear, 
 leopard, and nondescript. Now it is the 
 iron kingdom, — the legitimacy of our 
 day. It was of old, — it is not now ex- 
 istent in any visible unity of head, and 
 it shall be. At present it is divided. It 
 ceased to be, as some will have it, upon 
 the dethronement of Augustulus, in 476, 
 and was revived by Charlemagne, in 
 800 ; or more correctly, it passed, as to 
 its visible form, to the eastern emperor, 
 on the fall of Augustulus, and was di- 
 vided again on the coronation of Charle- 
 magne. Upon the subversion of the 
 eastern empire by Mohammed II., in 
 1553, the Emperor of Germany re- 
 mained sole visible head, until the abdi- 
 cation of Francis II,, in 1806. There 
 is no concentrated unity visible now ; 
 still it exists; and the spirit and life are 
 there. But "it shall be," is the lan- 
 guage of prophecy. We are speaking, 
 it will be borne in mind, of unfulfilled 
 prediction, and, therefore, let it be re- 
 membered, that we only state what will 
 probably be. We arrogate prophetic 
 power no more than when looking upon 
 the heavens, we say, " it will be foul 
 weather, for the sky is red and lower- 
 ing." It is probable then, that at a 
 period not farther distant than twenty- 
 six years from the present,* the king- 
 
 * This was written, January, 1841. 
 
 doms of Europe, embraced within the 
 Roman empire, will concentrate their 
 power into one, so as to resuscitate the 
 Emperorship of Rome. Which of the 
 heads may be permitted to wear the im- 
 perial diadem, — whether Austria or 
 France, it were useless in us to con- 
 jecture ; yet of the general fact, there is 
 strong probability. Before the slaying 
 of the witnesses, the imperial dignity 
 will likely be revived in the house of 
 Austria, with something of its ancient 
 vigour, and become the centre of that 
 tremendous action, which will prostrate 
 the cause of Protestantism in Europe, 
 for a time. 
 
 Still, however, should the formal re- 
 vival of the imperial dignity not occur, 
 nor its unity become visible by the pro- 
 clamation, or the tacit recognition of an 
 Emperor of the Romans ; yet the power 
 itself, will concentrate into some Holy 
 Alliance, all its interests ; and we shall 
 have in reality, a unity or headship, 
 with a controlling power over the ener- 
 gies of the nations, — a grand league 
 confederated against the liberties of the 
 world. 
 
 Fourthly, The next circumstance re- 
 lative to the death of the witnesses, is 
 the place, — " in the street of the great 
 city." 
 
 In regard to this, no European has, 
 in our opinion, struck the vein of truth. 
 Nor is it probable that the publication of 
 the true interpretation would be permit- 
 ted within any territory under anti- 
 christian rule ; perhaps not even in Pro- 
 testant England ; — nor in the fatherlands 
 of Luther and of Knox. 
 
 Two reasons support this opinion. 
 God ordinarily draws a veil before the 
 face of his own beloved people, when he 
 is about to visit them with deep afflic- 
 tion. In great mercy, he conceals the 
 future from our eyes, when our know- 
 ledge of it could not avert from us the 
 coming calamities. Whose heart would 
 not fail, if he knew all the trials that 
 await him? Where is the soldier so 
 heroic, that he would move on with the 
 same firm step, if his eye could foresee 
 all the havoc, and carnage, and blood, 
 and death of the battle-field ? Our 
 
LECTURE XX. 
 
 177 
 
 Lord's disciples, notwithstanding that 
 the truth is so plain to us, could not un- 
 derstand from his language, the death 
 before their Master. Undoubtedly, their 
 eyes were mercifully holden, that they 
 should not perceive it. So again will he 
 in kindness hide from the eyes of the 
 lambs of his flock who must be slaugh- 
 tered, the slaughter weapon and the 
 hand that wields it, until the time is 
 near, that they may not anticipate the 
 pains of ten deaths before they suffer 
 one. It seems necessary for his own 
 most holy purposes, that European 
 Christians should be slow to understand 
 and believe the prophecies that foretell 
 these sad calamities, until the light 
 gleaming from the sword of their exe- 
 cution, reveals the dread reality This 
 appears a satisfactory reason for the 
 many strange and incoherent exposi- 
 tions given of the death of the witnesses 
 by the most learned commentators of 
 the old world. How can a pious Eng- 
 lish Episcopalian believe that "our most 
 holy, apostolic church" shall again fall 
 back, and for a time become a member 
 of Antichrist ? How can a warm-hearted 
 English Dissenter ever see evidence in 
 prophecy to convince him that the land 
 of Magna Charta, — glorious England, 
 shall again groan under the mercies of 
 another Laud, and stand aghast in mute 
 astonishment, at the mysteries of another 
 Star Chamber? 
 
 How can a Scottish Presbyterian ad- 
 mit to his heart the terrible conception, 
 that another Stuart shall again pollute 
 the altars at which minister the de- 
 scendants of Knox and Wishart? Or 
 the sword of another Claverhouse again 
 gleam in the peaceful glens of North 
 Britain ? 
 
 The other reason why these views 
 cannot be current in Europe, is, that 
 the interests of the aristocracy would 
 not permit them. Certainly, they could 
 not be published on the continent : pro- 
 bably, not in England. 
 
 But let us inquire for the place. This 
 labour, the symbolical description ren- 
 ders light. It is in a part of that great 
 city called, spiritually, Sodom. But 
 Sodom is the Scripture figure for all 
 
 23 
 
 moral pollutions, and is another name 
 for the spiritual courtesan, — the Roman 
 city. The other symbol is Egypt, by 
 which is meant, the land of bondage, — 
 the tyrannical oppressor of the church. 
 This also manifestly alludes to Rome, 
 not the city literally, but Rome, the 
 tyrannical antichristian power. 
 
 It is farther said to be the place 
 " where also our Lord was crucified." 
 The antecedent here is not Egypt, but 
 the city, where our Lord was crucified. 
 That is, where, spiritually, the Saviour 
 is crucified by the corruption of his doc- 
 trines and the persecution of his saints. 
 It is indeed literally true, that our Lord 
 was crucified within the Roman state, 
 and by the order or warrant of a Ro- 
 man governor. But it would be doing 
 violence to the text, to take it in this 
 sense ; for it is undeniably a figurative 
 passage. This city or state is spiritually 
 called Sodom ; our Lord is spiritually 
 crucified. And continually is Christ 
 crucified afresh, throughout the Roman 
 world, in the sacrifice of the mass so 
 called. In it there is a total rejection of 
 that one sacrifice which Jesus offered up 
 on the cross ; a denial of its sufficiency, 
 and the substitution of man's work in 
 its stead. This perpetual repetition of 
 the sacrifice by the priests, and virtual 
 denial of the efficiency of Christ's one 
 offering of himself, has been and is prac- 
 tised to this day in all the ten kingdoms, 
 and in nearly all, by express govern- 
 mental authority. Thus our Lord is 
 crucified in Sodom. 
 
 Another circumstance more particu- 
 larly defining the place, is the street 
 where the dead bodies are to lie unburied 
 for three and a half days. Now if the 
 great city is the Roman empire, then 
 must the streets of it mean the particular 
 kingdoms embraced within it. In some 
 one of the ten kingdoms into which it was 
 divided, must lie the unburied corpses of 
 the witnesses. 
 
 It may be useful to remark here, that 
 there are two words in the Greek testa- 
 ment, translated street. The one (^f«0 
 signifies any way or channel, as it were, 
 along which people flow, without any 
 reference to its width or capacity. The 
 
178 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 other (irXaTsfa) means, a broad way, 
 wide and capacious, a great public tho- 
 roughfare. We will cite all the places 
 where they occur that the reader may, 
 by inspection, satisfy himself of the cor- 
 rectness of this criticism. The former 
 occurs, Matt. v. 2, Luke xiv. 21, Acts 
 ix. 11, xii. 10. The latter, Matt. vi. 5, 
 xii. 19, Luke x. 10, xiii. 26, xiv. 21, 
 Actsv. 15, Rev. xi. 8, xxi. 21, xxii. 2. 
 
 It will be manifest that, as it is a most 
 literal, so it is a most expressive trans- 
 lation, to call it, the broad way of the 
 city, — the grand thoroughfare, — the 
 great mart, — the commercial emporium 
 of the empire. In that one of the ten 
 kingdoms, which, at the time of their 
 death, may and shall be, the broad way 
 of Europe, shall the bodies of the wit- 
 nesses lie unburied. 
 
 This is our next circumstance for 
 special observation, — the state and con- 
 dition of the true prophets, — they are 
 unburied. Bodies remain unburied fre- 
 quently through the contempt of the 
 enemies who occasioned their fall ; the 
 victors sometimes refuse to permit them 
 to be buried ; or from the inability of 
 the victors and the vanquished to give 
 attention to them. The slaughter of even 
 the victorious army may be so great, 
 that they are disabled for a time from 
 accomplishing this work ; still more so 
 with the vanquished. Or, again, bodies 
 remain unburied, when the death has 
 been sudden, and the circumstances cre- 
 ate a suspicion that it is not really death, 
 but only suspended animation, and there 
 is therefore a possibility of resuscitation. 
 Of these causes, the two last may 
 co-exist ; and indeed all these causes 
 may exist in reference to the two parties 
 in the war, taken severally. The ene- 
 mies may command the bodies to remain 
 unburied, out of contempt, and the friends 
 both from inability, because prevented, 
 and from indisposition, because of a hope 
 that they will revive. Now, that the 
 last is the case before us, the issue seems 
 to show. For the ninth verse appears 
 to describe the conduct of the friends of 
 the witnesses, whilst the tenth represents 
 that of their foes. This opinion rests 
 partly on the force of the word trans- 
 
 lated shall see. Its meaning is, shall 
 look upon, — shall carefully and intently 
 inspect. It is the word used so often in 
 chapter vi., and onwards : " Come and 
 see," — narrowly examine into. It is 
 well adapted to express the conduct of 
 friends who are unwilling to believe the 
 body dead, but who cling to the hope, 
 and watch for signs of returning life, 
 and will not therefore permit its burial. 
 
 Another ground of this opinion is, the 
 form of expression made use of, " And 
 they shall look from Hie peoples, and 
 tribes, and tongues, and nations," that 
 is, from the other portions of the world, 
 where reside those who shall have been 
 made the friends of the witnesses, by the 
 missionary labours described in ch. x. 
 11, — "thou must prophesy before many 
 peoples, and nations, and tongues, and 
 kings." From these various peoples and 
 nations, they shall look with intense in- 
 terest, to that broad ivay, to see whether 
 these, their friends, the witnesses, will 
 not make another effort. Yea, they will 
 look in the most confident expectation, 
 founded upon the sure word of prophecy, 
 that the Protestant cause, suppressed by 
 force and violence, will soon rise again, 
 and put its foes to confusion. Therefore, 
 they will not suffer their dead bodies, — 
 the great principles of church order and 
 doctrines, to be buried, — to be cast off 
 and abandoned to decay and hopeless 
 ruin. They will feel and think as the 
 Protestants felt and thought after the 
 battle of Mulburg, or the massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew's day : " faint, yet pur- 
 suing." 
 
 In farther support of this interpreta- 
 tion, which, for aught we know to the 
 contrary, is novel, let us refer to the 
 succeeding verse. If both the ninth and 
 tenth verses speak of the same class of 
 persons, — if those who shall see their 
 dead bodies and shall not suffer them to 
 be put in graves ; and those who rejoice 
 over them, are the self-same persons ; 
 then wherefore the necessity of the ex- 
 pression, — " And they that dwell upon 
 the earthV Is it not entirely superfluous 
 and even burdensome to the sense? — 
 " And shall not suffer their dead bodies 
 to be put in graves ; but shall rejoice over 
 
LECTURE XX. 
 
 179 
 
 them and make merry." This would be 
 the most forcible and natural expression, 
 if they are both used of the same per- 
 sons. But the new phrase, " they that 
 dwell upon the earth," is obviously calcu- 
 lated to point out a different class from 
 them of the " peoples, and kindreds, and 
 tongues, and kings." 
 
 The apostle therefore, proceeds to de- 
 scribe very opposite states of mind and 
 conduct. "They from the nations and 
 tribes," are looking with intent interest 
 upon the bodies, and are utterly reluctant 
 to bury them; but "they that dwell upon 
 the earth," exult and make merry, and 
 send gifts, — they are intent upon the 
 spoils of victory : felicitating one an- 
 other upon their deliverance from the 
 tormenting influences of the witnesses. 
 These heretics are now destroyed, their 
 goods confiscated, their churches burnt 
 or taken from them, purified by Popish 
 lustrations and Jesuitical exorcisms, and 
 fitted up for mass-houses, and idol-tem- 
 ples. The unadulterate truths of the 
 Gospel are so hateful to all Catholic Eu- 
 rope, that its suppression, by the prohi- 
 bition of Protestant preaching, will be 
 cause of gratulation over the entire Ro- 
 man earth. But whilst this exultation 
 progresses throughout the empire, it will 
 be far otherwise among other " peoples, 
 and tribes, and nations." Some portions 
 of Europe, perhaps Sweden and Den- 
 mark, which were never horns of the 
 beast, America, and the missionary sta- ' 
 tions of the Protestant world, now strong 
 Christian communities, — perhaps from 
 these, all eyes will be directed to the 
 broad ivay. 
 
 Nor does the language before us im- 
 ply that the witnesses shall not be killed 
 in any but one street of the city. The 
 broad way is not the most hopeless of 
 the nations, as it regards the true reli- 
 gion. On the contrary, we think it is 
 the least hopeless. The witnesses will 
 be slain and forthwith buried in all other 
 streets. The confederate powers will 
 completely succeed in suppressing free- 
 dom of thought, action, and worship. The 
 Protestant churches in the other streets 
 will be crushed, and their public testi- 
 mony for the truth, put down without any 
 
 present hope of speedy revival. But in 
 this broad ivay, it will be like the stump 
 of Nebuchadnezzar's great tree ; there 
 will be such tenacity of life as to survive 
 the desolating scourge : and it is the firm 
 belief of this, that will turn the eyes of 
 the whole Protestant world so intently 
 upon the great thoroughfare. Nor will 
 their expectations be disappointed. 
 
 9. We proceed to their resurrection 
 and triumph. Verse 11: "After three 
 days and an half, the spirit of life fronv 
 God entered into them, and they stood 
 upon their feet: and great fear fell upon 
 them which saw them." 
 
 The period during which the dead 
 bodies of the witnesses shall lie unburied, 
 is to be three years and a half. So long 
 will God be without witnesses, — without 
 a body or bodies of his true and faithful 
 followers, associated together, and bear- 
 ing public testimony against the corrup- 
 tions of the man of sin, and the tyranny 
 of the Popish governments throughout 
 the Roman earth. In other parts of the 
 world, he will have a competent number 
 of prophets, even during this season of 
 terrible rebuke. But at the end of this 
 period, the hearts of men will be revived 
 by the power of the Holy Spirit : they 
 will come out from their hiding-places, 
 as they have been wont to do after the 
 violence of the storm was over. " Come, 
 my people, enter thou into thy chambers, 
 and shut thy doors about thee : hide thy- 
 self, as it were for a little moment, until 
 the indignation be overpast." When this 
 occurs, " Thy dead men shall live, to- 
 gether with my dead body shall they 
 arise : awake, and sing, ye that dwell in 
 dust : for thy dew; is as the dew of herbs, 
 and the earth shall cast out the dead."~ 
 (Is. xx. 19, 20.) 
 
 Now, it is surely reasonable to expect 
 them to come to life where they died, and 
 their bodies lay unentombed. In the 
 very same broad way therefore, we must 
 look for this glorious resuscitation of the 
 Protestant cause. From their places of 
 secret retreat, and from the countries 
 whither they had fled, will individuals 
 issue forth, reorganize, and as public 
 bodies, with their public men at their 
 head, again publish the great doctrines 
 
150 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 of the Protestant faith. This is the resur- 
 rection of the witnesses. Their revival 
 will be accompanied by such evident 
 tokens of the divine presence and power, 
 — they will display such a spirit of holy 
 boldness, of daring courage and spotless 
 purity, as will overwhelm their perse- 
 cutors in utter dismay. Their foes will 
 gather from this display of heroism, and 
 from other sources of intelligence, that 
 the friends of free government and pure 
 religion, " from the peoples, and tribes, 
 and tongues, and nations," allied and 
 leagued together by an indissoluble cove- 
 nant, are about to pour in upon them, 
 with force and power irresistible. 
 
 In verse 12, the prophet proceeds to 
 depict the triumph of the witnesses. 
 " And they heard a great voice from 
 heaven, saying unto them, Come up 
 hither. And they ascended up to heaven 
 in a cloud ; and their enemies beheld 
 them." This, as is generally agreed, 
 describes their restoration to the state 
 and condition of a regular church, with 
 all the public ordinances of religion ; 
 and it affects the sense little, whether 
 we understand the voice of God direct, 
 or the voice of the church calling upon 
 the recently dispersed and dissipated 
 bands of witnesses to reassume all their 
 rights and privileges, and to proceed as 
 before their suppression, in their exer- 
 cise. This reorganization will be effected 
 in the face of their enemies, who shall 
 be spectators of it. It will not be a 
 private matter, done in a corner, and 
 unawares; but in the face of all Europe; 
 the inhabiters of the earth shall all be- 
 hold it. 
 
 10. The last thing to be noticed is, 
 the destruction of the church's foes. 
 Verse 13: " And the same hour was a 
 great earthquake, and the tenth part of 
 the city fell, and in the earthquake were 
 slain of men seven thousand ; and the 
 remnant were affrighted and gave glory 
 to the God of heaven." 
 
 First. The particular period is to be 
 observed, — " in the same hour." Co- 
 temporaneously with the restoration to 
 a true ecclesiastical condition, or the 
 public reorganization of the Protestant 
 churches in the broad way, will there be 
 
 a great earthquake : and beyond ques- 
 tion the powers and agencies which were 
 chiefly instrumental in that restoration, 
 will be instrumental also in removing the 
 hindrances to it, — in breaking the arm 
 of the oppressor. 
 
 Second. The earthquake, or, as we 
 have already expounded the term, the 
 concussion, results in the overthrow of 
 the tenth part of the city ; that is, the 
 fall of one of the ten kingdoms of the 
 Western Empire. Which one of the 
 ten must be gathered from the context. 
 This concussion is concomitant with the 
 restoration of a body of people in the 
 broad ivay, to a public social existence ; 
 a nation who had recently been crushed 
 by violence, but who now recover their 
 rights and stand upon their feet again. 
 Can any one doubt, that the concussion 
 is in this very broad way ; and the fall, 
 is the fall of this very tenth part of the 
 city ; which part is the subject spoken 
 of and is the only separate part men- 
 tioned in the context ? We cannot 
 hesitate. The tenth part that falls is 
 this very platea or broad tray itself. 
 But what is the fall ? Does it imply the 
 destruction of the people inhabiting the 
 commercial emporium, or only that of 
 the people or nation, as a part of the 
 city ? In other words, that the broad 
 way falls off from, and ceases to be a 
 part of the Roman city ; — that this tenth 
 horn, now the principal one as to in- 
 fluence and power, especially through 
 her wealth and commerce, is henceforth 
 severed from the head of the great beast ? 
 — that this toe no longer adheres to the 
 iron foot? Manifestly the broad %vay 
 or kingdom has become so thoroughly 
 Protestant, and so fully imbued with the 
 spirit of the two prophets, and their 
 triumph in it is so complete, that it is no 
 longer, and never will be, a part of the 
 Roman Empire. It is a new, a reno- 
 vated, a revolutionized kingdom, cha- 
 racterized by republican simplicity and 
 gospel sincerity. For, 
 
 Third. Another accompaniment, or 
 included circumstance of this revolution 
 is, that titles of nobility are abolished, 
 — " seven thousand names of men." 
 Bishop Faber, and many others cor- 
 
LECTURE XX. 
 
 181 
 
 rectly think, that this refers to titles of 
 rank ; but incorrectly apply it to the 
 suppression of titles in France during 
 the democracy. Sufficient is it for us 
 to see at present, that this revolution is 
 attended by the suppression of all titles 
 of nobility. The design and effect of 
 titles hereditary, and occasionally con- 
 ferred by mere authority, is to operate 
 upon the imagination, and strengthen 
 the hands of despotic power. Titles of 
 office are quite a different matter. 
 
 Fourth. The effect of this renovation 
 upon such of the witnesses' foes as do 
 not perish in this great street, is the last 
 thing described, — being terror-stricken, 
 they give glory to the God of heaven. 
 It is not said that they are all truly con- 
 verted, though doubtless many will be ; 
 but they all are constrained to recognise 
 in the events before their eyes, the doing 
 of the Lord, and to fear and tremble 
 before him. It is not to be understood, 
 that this remnant who are affrighted, 
 extend beyond the broad way. It re- 
 gards only the survivors of the revolu- 
 tion, within this tenth part of the city. 
 
 Before we proceed to the question, as 
 to which of the ten kingdoms this broad 
 tray is applicable, we will advert to the 
 only plausible objection that can well be 
 raised against this interpretation. It is 
 the allegation that the occurrences re- 
 ferred to, came in before the termination 
 of the second and beginning of the third 
 woe: consequently, that the death of the 
 witnesses cannot be at, and after the 
 close of the twelve hundred and sixty 
 years ; but must refer to some other 
 events. So Bishop Faber, as we have 
 seen, applies it to the defeat of the 
 Elector and Landgrave, A. D. 1547 ; 
 and when he comes to the earthquake, 
 in the very same context, and the fall of 
 the tenth part of the city, he refers them 
 to the French revolution, 1789 ; two 
 hundred and forty-two years after the 
 death of the witnesses : although the 
 text says that these events, the death 
 and the fall, occurred in the same hour. 
 He has a critique to show that hour is 
 used indefinitely, but fails to produce a 
 case wherein it stretches over two and 
 a half centuries. Agreeably to this, he 
 
 was before under the necessity of affirm- 
 ing that rsXsaWi, does not mean shall 
 have finished their testimony, but when 
 they are draiving near to finish it. This 
 is unwarrantable, yet even this will not 
 help out his interpretation. For the 
 whole period of their testimony is twelve 
 hundred and sixty years, which he 
 maintains ends in 1866. Surely then, 
 it is unreasonable to say, that "they are 
 draiving near to finish it" in 1547, 
 when he affirms they were killed, — 
 which killing must take place, when 
 they shall have completed their testi- 
 mony : and yet there remain three hun- 
 dred and nineteen years of their testify- 
 ing in sackcloth ! 
 
 Now our answer to this objection, 
 and one which would have saved Bishop 
 Faber from many most unhappy misap- 
 prehensions, and acts of violence in this 
 context, is simply the fact, that the little 
 open book, is not an essential part and 
 portion of the great sealed book. The 
 little book begins with verse 1, chapter 
 xi., and ends with verse 13. Its pur- 
 pose is to designate in general, the object 
 of the third woe, and to present a run- 
 ning history, or brief sketch of the wit- 
 nesses. It runs back to their origin, and 
 forward to their fall and final triumph. 
 It comprehends, as to time, the first two 
 woes, and a considerable part of the 
 third ; but it does not contain a history 
 of them. The circumstance .of its being 
 abruptly thrown before the eye of John, 
 and upon his page, in the close of his 
 account of the second woe, and just be- 
 fore he announced its conclusion, has 
 led many a reader into the inference, 
 that it is itself a part of the second woe. 
 Bishop Faber comprehends in this little 
 book the xi. xii. and xiii. chapters, which 
 with its preface, the tenth, make four 
 chapters: whereas the whole Apocalypse, 
 from the first opening of the sealed book, 
 consists of but seventeen. In actual 
 volume, the bishop makes the little book 
 nearly half as large as the other ; to 
 which the most of its matter belongs. 
 For it is evident that the second woe 
 had progressed almost to its close, and 
 the third had been spoken of and pro- 
 mised before the ano;el descended with 
 
182 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 the little opened book in his hand. 
 Bishop Faber's mistake therefore, in 
 embracing these matters in the little 
 book, is unpardonable. The most we 
 can admit, is a palliation of his offence, 
 from the fact that he is an Englishman, 
 and writes amid the heat of battle with 
 the French republicans. 
 
 We are now ready to meet that most 
 interesting question, — what does the 
 broad %v ay symbolize? In which of the 
 ten kingdoms of Europe is it probable 
 that the witnesses will lie unburied for 
 three and a half years? Where will 
 Protestant Christianity revive in irre- 
 sistible power, after it shall have been 
 crushed to the earth and suppressed ? 
 What nation is first and for ever to be 
 revolutionized and separated from Euro- 
 pean legitimacy and Antichristian ty- 
 ranny? 
 
 This question shall form the subject 
 of the next lecture. 
 
 LECTURE XXL 
 
 LOCATION OF THE SLAIN WITNESSES. 
 
 "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street 
 of the great city." — Rev. xi. 8. 
 
 In what street of the great city are 
 the witnesses to lie unburied ? 
 
 Which of the ten kingdoms is the 
 broad way, the commercial emporium 
 of Western Europe ? 
 
 Before proceeding to the examination 
 of this important question, allow me to 
 repeat the caution, for your benefit and 
 my own : let us not presume to pro- 
 phesy, in the strict sense of the word. 
 The future is God's, and ours only by 
 his promise, which is a revelation. He 
 has made it our duty to look forward 
 and watch the signs of the times : and 
 he who does this, in the use of reason 
 and Scripture language, must form opi- 
 nions as to coming events. But the 
 Bible is not responsible for our opinions, 
 unless they are deduced by fair and 
 correct interpretation, and by sound 
 logic, from its meaning. One may suc- 
 
 ceed in wrapping up a wrong opinion in 
 the very dress and livery of Scripture, 
 so that a discrimination cannot be made 
 between it and the right opinion. The 
 mistake, and the credulity which receives 
 it as true, will not change the divine 
 plan. God will unroll his own book in 
 due order; and our erroneous idea of its 
 meaning, in a given place, will be cor- 
 rected. But must no man ever attempt 
 to explain the language of the Bible re- 
 ferring to the future, through fear of 
 committing such mistake ? Who does 
 not see that the principle of this objec- 
 tion would shut up and prevent investi- 
 gation into the meaning of the historic 
 and didactic portions of Scripture also ? 
 for errors are as frequent here as in the 
 other. Would not this even foreclose 
 the avenues to natural science? Men 
 have reasoned incorrectly: they have 
 misread many pages of the book of 
 nature, and given wrong interpretations 
 of her meaning; must the natural phi- 
 losopher therefore arrest all farther in- 
 quiry into nature? By no means. We 
 will ponder her page ; and so will we 
 study the book of revelation, notwith- 
 standing there be some " things hard to 
 be understood," and in which many 
 errors have been committed. 
 
 Another preliminary remark, which 
 is also preparatory, is, that the prophe- 
 cies before us are a chain, or series, 
 running down from a distant period. 
 Along this chain we have passed our 
 hand ; we have taken up and inspected 
 many of its links, and marked their 
 length, their strength, and the actual 
 union of each with the preceding and 
 subsequent one. Occasional Iv we have 
 met with a few branching off from the 
 main line ; such as the prophecies con- 
 cerning the Jews' captivity in Babylon, 
 and their restoration ; — the particular 
 prophecies concerning the destruction 
 of Jerusalem, and the present dispersion 
 of that people : all these have their na- 
 tural relations to the leading chain ; and 
 may constitute, and will form, to any 
 patient inquirer, matter of interesting 
 discussion. We are following out the 
 great chain, and are told that it con- 
 sists of a hundred links. Having passed 
 
LECTURE XXI. 
 
 183 
 
 three fourths of them, we can be at no 
 loss as to our present position : but can 
 we tell where we shall be? We have 
 compared the facts with the predictions, 
 — the history with the prophecy, and 
 find a most striking agreement. But 
 hereafter, the facts lie in the future, and 
 can we tell what they are? Here is 
 language prophetic ; and here is lan- 
 guage historic. It is evident that they 
 agree : now from this fact, or rather 
 from a great number of such facts, we 
 can not avoid inferring, that similar 
 prophetic language, yet unfulfilled, must 
 refer to similar events. From past coin- 
 cidence of prophecy and history, we are 
 shut up, and cannot escape : such and 
 such must necessarily be, in the gene- 
 ral, the occurrences yet future. We 
 may be very certain of an important 
 coming event, and have a very near 
 approximation to a knowledge of time 
 and place, while we remain ignorant 
 of minute circumstances, precise local- 
 ity, and specific time. We shall all 
 die most certainly, and that before a 
 given number of years pass away; and 
 very probably we shall die in our own 
 country, surrounded by our own friends. 
 Here is accurate knowledge, and abso- 
 lute certainty, as to the generality , and 
 the important matter: probability only 
 as to minor and minute circumstances ; 
 but enough of all for practical use. So, 
 also, the great events of prophecy are 
 fixed ; although as to subordinate mat- 
 ters we are left in doubt. 
 
 That God's witnesses have lived and 
 prophesied, is certain ; that they are 
 not now lying dead, or that they have 
 never been killed, is certain ; and that 
 they will be put to death, and their 
 bodies lie unburied for three and a half 
 years, in the broad way of the Roman 
 empire, is equally certain. Our ques- 
 tion now relates to the locality of the 
 broad way. The answer to this can 
 only be probable ; and yet it may be of 
 infinite advantage to us to know the 
 grounds of even that probability. 
 
 It is then probable that Great Britain 
 is " the street" where the Protestant re- 
 ligion will be suppressed, and the pow- 
 ers of despotism prevail for three and a 
 
 half years; — where the cause of pure 
 Christianity and freedom will revive, 
 while for a time it will remain dead in 
 all the other streets ; — where the throne 
 of tyranny will first be cast down, and 
 titles of nobility be abolished, with the 
 thing itself, which is a greater evil than 
 the name. 
 
 But at once we hear the exclamation : 
 — " Great Britain ! She is the bulwark of 
 the Protestant Reformation, and has been 
 so since the days of her eighth Henry!" 
 Very true ; — she had indeed long been 
 the upholder of Protestantism : and at 
 this hour, the law regulating the suc- 
 cession, requires the sovereign to be a 
 Protestant, educated in that religion. 
 Consequently nothing short of a revolu- 
 tion can bring about such a change. 
 These admitted facts are indispensable 
 to the position we maintain. Let us 
 proceed to the reasons for believing that 
 Britain is the broad way. 
 
 1. This kingdom is a street of the 
 great city, or western Roman empire, — 
 a horn of the beast, — a toe of the iron 
 foot. On this point we are not aware 
 that there ever has been any diversity of 
 opinion. All commentators agree here. 
 At least we have never seen or heard of 
 a list of the ten kingdoms which did not 
 include England. 
 
 Now it is surely not necessary for us, 
 in order to evince the fulfilment of the 
 prophecy, to show that each of these 
 ten kingdoms was, from its very begin- 
 ning, a member of the antichristian 
 power. The prediction is verified if they 
 all were part and portion of it for a 
 longer or shorter period. And as it re- 
 gards England, there is on this point as 
 little room for diversity of sentiment. It 
 is not more certain that England was 
 invaded by Julius Csesar, and conquered 
 by the Romans, than that she submitted 
 herself to the yoke of Catholic domina- 
 tion, and bowed in subjection to the 
 Sovereign Pontiff. Indeed few of the 
 nations exhibited more debasing signs 
 of abject and cringing submission. In 
 the twelfth century Henry II. attempted 
 to carry out " the Constitutions of Cla- 
 rendon," which tended to secure the 
 state in some degree from the encroach- 
 
184 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ments of the church. This brought on 
 a most violent contest between the king 
 and Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, in the progress of which 
 the proud prelate was murdered by some 
 misguided noblemen. In the issue, how- 
 ever, his cause triumphed, and Henry 
 was obliged, by the Catholics, to walk 
 barefoot to the tomb of the tyrant, whom 
 the Pope, meanwhile, had raised to the 
 condition of a demigod. When at the 
 tomb the king was compelled to kneel 
 down and lay bare his back to the scourge 
 in the hands of the holy monks, who 
 took Christian satisfaction out of his 
 royal skin, for his disrespect to the Pope 
 and his maltreatment of the Roman 
 church and its members. 
 
 Other instances might be named of 
 base subjection to Catholic Rome ; and 
 the soil of the three kingdoms did often 
 drink in the blood of many of God's 
 martyrs, shed in obedience to Roman 
 Catholic dictation, by the arm of the 
 civil power. 
 
 2. England is now the only nation 
 that can lay any plausible claim to the 
 epithet of " the 2rfatea" — the commer- 
 cial mart of Europe. There is not an- 
 other to whom the title is applicable. If 
 there be, who will point it out? Where 
 is the nation that may be called the 
 broad way 1 England claims this ho- 
 nour, and all Europe and the world 
 award it to her. A narrow island, just 
 visible upon the map, — yet is she the 
 highway of the nations. 
 
 3. No kingdom in Europe embodies 
 so much Protestantism and so much 
 piety. Now where can we expect the 
 witnesses to be killed, to lie unburied, 
 and to revive again, but where they 
 are? Can they die where they do not 
 live? Can their testimony be suppressed 
 where it never was publicly borne? 
 Could the martyrs be slain at Rome, 
 at Vienna, at Madrid ? Clearly, then, 
 the fact that England has been and is 
 the stay of Protestantism in Europe, so 
 far from creating a probability that she 
 is not the platea, is prima facie evidence 
 that she is. She has been a sad eye- 
 sore to the Pope ever since the revo- 
 lution of 1688, when the Stuarts and 
 
 Catholicism were banished from the seats 
 of her power. 
 
 4. But, in connexion with this, we 
 may remark, that Protestantism is but 
 another name for liberty and representa- 
 tive government; as Romanism is a most 
 expressive term for tyrannical sway. 
 During the long struggles of centuries 
 which the British people carried on for 
 liberty, the perpetual recurrence of arbi- 
 trary power for aid, was to the church. 
 The Roman hierarchy was its main pil- 
 lar, whilst the Protestant witnesses, be- 
 fore and after the days of Luther, were 
 always found on the side of freedom 
 against the mitre and the crown. The 
 Reformation in England was indeed con- 
 trolled and in a good degree checked by 
 Henry VIII. The quarrel between him 
 and the Pope, as in the case of Henry II., 
 was simply for power; and it threw the 
 incipient Reformation into the wrong 
 hands ; — the hands of a bigoted Catho- 
 lic: for such was Henry. The only 
 change he was peculiarly anxious to 
 accomplish was the transfer of the mitre 
 of supremacy in spirituals to an English 
 head, and the retention of that head in 
 England, within the reach and control 
 of his own sword. Thus it happened,' 
 that the English hierarchy became, and 
 continues, to the throne of England, the 
 same main pillar which the Papal hie- 
 rarchy had been : with this great advan- 
 tage, however, that the king is the head 
 of the church. The king appoints the 
 English pope, whereas formerly the 
 Pope made the English king. Hence 
 the pith and political cunning of the 
 maxim of James : — " no bishop, no 
 king." But the true Protestants were, 
 and continue to be, the real asserters of 
 Christian and civil liberty. The English 
 and Scottish Whigs fought the battles of 
 freedom, and consolidated in the founda- 
 tions of the British constitution the grand 
 doctrines of the Great Charter. Now, 
 we ask again, where should we expect 
 to see the contest between despotism 
 and liberty arrive at its final crisis, — 
 where, so likely, as in the land of the 
 Covenanters? Can any, except a coun- 
 try largely Protestant, and extensively 
 free, become an object of peculiar vigi- 
 
LECTURE XXI. 
 
 185 
 
 lance, of perpetual machination, and con- 
 centrated wrath, from the Pope and the 
 Jesuits, the coalition of aristocratic in- 
 terests, and the revived imperial head ? 
 
 But it is evident that such is the fact 
 with regard to Britain. Upon her the 
 Papacy is concentrating its efforts. Hun- 
 dreds of Rome's commissioned minions 
 arc now at work in that island. Special 
 prayers are offered up beneath the dome 
 of St. Peter's, for its conversion to Ro- 
 manism. 
 
 5. Again : In no other nation of Eu- 
 rope can we see any probability of the 
 Protestant cause being suddenly revived, 
 and permanently restored, if it were 
 crushed. But in Britain there are two 
 peculiar characteristics which point to 
 such probability ; yea, to the certainty 
 of such a result. 
 
 First. She is a kingdom of colonies. 
 On her dominions the sun never sets. 
 Of these colonies, of any great import- 
 ance, Canada alone is largely Catholic. 
 All the rest are Protestant, except as 
 they cover and command a heavy Pagan 
 population. These colonies never were 
 within the Roman Empire ; few of them 
 existed, and none of any great force, 
 until after the partial separation of Bri- 
 tain from Rome. When therefore the 
 government, by a revolution, becomes 
 Catholic, the colonial dependencies will 
 be absolved at once from their colonial 
 subjection, and retaining their principles, 
 will, with the United States, which were 
 once colonies, constitute " the people, 
 and tribes, and tongues and nations," 
 who will look on, and not suffer the 
 dead bodies to be put in graves. More- 
 over, as before hinted, they are well 
 adapted to become places of refuge for 
 the fugitives, and to furnish auxiliaries 
 for their return. 
 
 It is farther worthy of note, that the 
 only strong colony, largely Catholic, 
 lies in the neighbourhood of a people 
 well able to check any movement made 
 towards a Papal persecution. The Pro- 
 testant population of these United States 
 never will stand quietly by, and witness 
 a Canadian St. Bartholomew's Day. 
 
 The second circumstance alluded to, 
 is England's naval ascendancy. This 
 
 24 
 
 is indeed part of her colonial system, 
 and may work wonders in these times. 
 We can readily see how the supremacy 
 of the Ocean, may be detached from the 
 supremacy of the Island. As in regard 
 to the colonies, so in the navy. This 
 change of the government will be sud- 
 den : it must be revolutionary. The 
 commanders of the fleets and armies, 
 and those under them, will have sworn 
 fealty to a Protestant crown, and will, 
 of course, feel themselves absolved from 
 their oath to the sovereign who will have 
 forsaken their religion. They will there- 
 fore feel free to throw their fortunes 
 and their forces in with the friends of 
 liberty, religion and the witnesses. Pe- 
 culiarly favourable to this are the prac- 
 tical results from the repeal of the test 
 act. Naiv, very many of the Indepen-. 
 dent and Presbyterian dissenters hold 
 commissions in the army and navy ; 
 and these will prove very unmanageable 
 materials, when government wishes to 
 support Popery. 
 
 We have an illustration in the recent 
 case of a Scottish officer who was court- 
 martialed at Malta, because of his re- 
 fusal to attend as a guard at some Papal 
 ceremonies. Thousands of such, we 
 may be assured, will be found in com- 
 mand, when the cause of the witnesses 
 shall need them. When orders shall 
 come to them from a Popish crown, 
 these men will lay their hands upon 
 their sword-hilts : — " Our fathers fought 
 against the House of Stuart and a Popish 
 succession, and their blood still flows in 
 our veins. We are for God, a free go- 
 vernment, and a pure religion." 
 
 But still we meet the exclamation : 
 How can these things be? How is it 
 conceivable that- Britain can become a 
 Catholic kingdom ? Are there any in- . 
 dications in Providence that such a, 
 change is possible? 
 
 Let those who waver under such 
 questions, bear in mind that England; 
 was a commonwealth in 1660. Pro* 
 testant dissenters, — Puritans and demo- 
 cracy, were in the ascendant : and in 
 1665, the Puritan rulers were cast down 
 and persecuted by the bigoted James II. 
 A change half so sudden as this mav 
 
186 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 bring about all that has been suggested 
 as probable. " Come and see," whether 
 the sky is red and lowering for such a 
 storm ; whether in and about this mart 
 of the nations, we can discover any fa- 
 cilities towards such a sudden and great 
 concussion. 
 
 Who can avoid noticing two grand 
 and fundamental errors in the British 
 constitution : the union of church and 
 state ; and the extreme defects in the 
 representative system ? 
 
 The former of these, as before stated, 
 is antichristian. The church of Christ 
 never can sustain ..that high and noble 
 feeling of independence on the arm of 
 flesh, which is so important to her spi- 
 ritual welfare, when she is compelled, 
 at every step, to lean for support upon 
 the civil government. If the ministers 
 of religion are maintained, — if their sa- 
 laries are paid by government, to this 
 whole extent are they under obligations 
 to the civil power ; and whatever of 
 strength there may be in these obliga- 
 tions, is diminished from the ties that 
 bind them to the church. Theoretically, 
 we cannot perceive how a body of 
 clergy, nurtured by the state, should 
 ever have entire devotion of heart to the 
 church ; and practically, we think that 
 it never is the case. Whenever religion 
 becomes a state affair, it becomes a state, 
 =*or as Bishop Faber would say, a po- 
 litical religion. Of facts illustrative of 
 this doctrine, ecclesiastical history, since 
 the age of Constantine, has never lacked 
 examples. 
 
 Nor let it be said that we speak un- 
 charitably. Ministers of the truth ought 
 to be pure-minded men, incapable of 
 being influence-d by such secular and 
 debasing motives. They should not fol- 
 low the Master for the loaves and fishes. 
 What they ought to be, and what they 
 are, we will find to be different ques- 
 tions. They are but men, and they 
 will ever, whilst on earth, be influenced 
 by the passions incident to humanity. 
 We may readily admit, that they are, 
 less than any class of men, under such 
 influences: still they are under them; 
 and the historical truth is, that the 
 church has always lost in purity more 
 
 than she has gained in other respects, 
 by an establishment. The moral nerve 
 of her independence has always become 
 paralytic, at the touch of Mammon's 
 wand, in the hands of the magistrate. 
 
 This evil is deeply seated in the Bri- 
 tish system. It is completely interwoven 
 into the web of her policy. She knows 
 no other. She does not believe it prac- 
 ticable to keep up an organized church 
 and a learned ministry, without a civil 
 establishment. Even the members of 
 the true church are so infected with this 
 leprosy, that it will require them to be 
 kept three and a half years in caves and 
 dens of the earth, before they will be 
 prepared to present themselves to the 
 priesthood of a purer altar for readmis- 
 sion. It will take much effort to con- 
 vince them, that the support of the 
 church directly and immediately by its 
 own members, will amount to no more 
 than intermediately, through the civil 
 tax-gatherer : and that this direct and 
 voluntary support of the ministry by the 
 people, must strongly tend to bind to- 
 gether pastor and flock. These lessons 
 they will be obliged to learn, even 
 though it be in the overturnings of revo- 
 lution. 
 
 The other radical error is the extreme 
 defects in their representative system ; 
 and we can only name some of them. In 
 the popular branch of their legislature, 
 there is but the semblance of equity in 
 the election of members. It can scarcely 
 be said that they are appointed by the 
 people. In the upper House, there is not 
 a pretension of the kind. The lords, 
 spiritual and temporal, are under no obli- 
 gations to the people. In regard to the 
 former class, there is direct opposition to 
 a fundamental law of Christ's house, in 
 the fact of their existence as members of 
 Parliament. " My kingdom is not of this. * 
 world," and yet the bishops as such', 
 form an important and very powerful 
 part of the civil legislature. There is 
 little probability this will ever be reme- 
 died by mild measures. Yet in a king- 
 dom freed from Antichristian corruption, 
 this can find no place. We can see from 
 this, the inevitable necessity of the great 
 concussion. The very principles on 
 
LECTURE XXL 
 
 187 
 
 which this House is organized, must be 
 abandoned. The lords are either here- 
 ditary, or created by an act of the sove- 
 reign. Both and each of these are in- 
 consistent with that principle of repre- 
 sentation which is indispensable to secure 
 the rights of the people, and which lies 
 at the foundation of scriptural church 
 government, — that right to rule over 
 men never can exist without their con- 
 sent. Whilst we contend, that govern- 
 ment is an ordinance of God, — that man 
 is so constituted as not to be able to exist 
 without it. He has made man for go- 
 vernment, yet the right to exercise it, 
 no particular individual can have, but 
 through the election of the governed. 
 This fundamental principle is wholly un- 
 known as to the House of Lords and the 
 throne : and the introduction of it, whether 
 through violence or by pacific measures, 
 will be a revolution in the English go- 
 vernment. 
 
 From the Pagan and Antichristian 
 principle of a state religion, springs, by 
 an inevitable necessity, if there is the 
 least portion of freedom in thought and 
 opinion, a class of dissentients ; generally 
 a number of classes. The very idea of 
 the government, especially if it be found- 
 ed in part on gratuitous and forced as- 
 sumption of power, prescribing and en- 
 forcing a state religion, is calculated 
 to produce opposition. This results in 
 a variety of sects opposed to the state 
 establishment : and it is to the dissenting 
 sects we wish to call attention at present. 
 In the three kingdoms united under the 
 British crown, they are probably a ma- 
 jority, including the Catholics. Now, 
 however these sects may differ among 
 themselves, there is a point in which 
 they all agree ; — in a feeling of hostility 
 toward the establishment, and, on this 
 question, toward the government. Hence 
 the union of dissenters, in opposition to 
 the late test act, embraced Trinitarians 
 and Socinians, Protestants and Catholics, 
 Congregationalists and Presbyterians, 
 Wesleyan and Whitfieldian Methodists, 
 all creeds and classes, and men of no 
 creed or class. 
 
 Add to this, what for its importance 
 perhaps might have been put down as a 
 
 consideration by itself, — the present po- 
 sition of the established church of Scot- 
 land. It is Presbyterian, and yet there 
 are several very powerful sects of Pres- 
 byterians, who differ in some small mat- 
 ters, and cannot go into the establishment. 
 There are also Episcopal and Catholic, 
 and other dissenters in Scotland. But 
 concerning the main body who constitute 
 the established church, there is a strong 
 probability that there will be an excision 
 and detrusion of the great majority from 
 the establishment. On the question of 
 patronage, the ministers and elders of 
 the Kirk, are at direct issue with the go- 
 vernment. They maintain that the peo- 
 ple of each congregation have a right to 
 choose their own spiritual guide, and that 
 the patron and the government have no 
 just power to force into a church a pas- 
 tor whom the people have rejected by a 
 deliberate vote. The cause has gone up 
 to the present Whig ministry, and to the 
 House of Lords ; and they have virtually 
 sustained the right of intrusion, or forcing 
 upon the people an unacceptable minis- 
 try. The ministers and elders, in Gene- 
 ral Assembly met, have voted in direct 
 opposition to the claim of the govern- 
 ment ; and the Scotch Presbyterians 
 never will abandon their principle. They 
 claim for themselves the right of electing 
 their own spiritual teachers, and that 
 right they will relinquish only with life. 
 This conflict is now going on. The 
 people will soon learn their strength, and 
 they will not be slow to extend the same 
 claim to their civil rulers, and assert their 
 right to choose these also.* 
 
 A third circumstance, tending to show 
 the probability of the English govern- 
 
 * This was first written in January, 1841. 
 Since that time, Sir Robert Peel and a Tory 
 ministry have come into power, and the whole 
 appearance of things augurs for the establish- 
 ment the most disastrous result. It is now, 
 (May, 1842,) highly probable that five or six 
 hundred ministers, with the great body of the 
 elders and people of course, will be ejected from 
 the legal establishment, and forced into dissent. 
 Should this occur, and the dissenting interests 
 combine, the English establishment will soon 
 begin to totter; and it is exceedingly proble- 
 matical, whether it can long survive a combined 
 assault. 
 
189 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ment becoming Catholic, is the state of 
 Ireland. She has a population of nearly 
 six millions ready for any action, that 
 they can be persuaded might probably 
 succeed in extending the power of Rome. 
 This population is the best possible ma- 
 terial out of which to make victorious 
 armies. Accustomed to rough and home- 
 ly fare, — to absolute subjection to their 
 spiritual rulers, without the thought of 
 asking a reason, they have, for centuries, 
 been influenced with a burning hereditary 
 hatred towards Protestantism. This popu- 
 lation, the Roman hierarchy are spread- 
 ing all over England and Scotland with 
 amazing rapidity, so that they may be 
 on the very spot where they will be need- 
 ed to slay the witnesses. The priests 
 have now an army of Irish, spread over 
 England and Scotland, under their un- 
 limited control, abundantly adequate, if 
 only they had the discipline, to set at 
 defiance all the regular troops on the 
 home service. And, farther, it is not at 
 all improbable, that under cover of a 
 " Temperance Society," the entire male 
 population of Irish Catholics at home, in 
 England and Scotland, yea, in America 
 too, are leagued and sworn together as a 
 Catholic party, and secretly pledged to 
 matters and things very different from 
 temperance. As to temperance, Sir 
 Robert Peel's recent report in the House 
 of Commons affirms, that the consump- 
 tion of spirits in Ireland, has been in- 
 creasing since the temperance move- 
 ments ; this clearly demonstrates, that 
 Roman Catholic Temperance Societies, 
 in Ireland at least, must be designed for 
 some other purpose, or else they are a 
 total failure. 
 
 Again, look at the combined efforts 
 in favour of parliamentary reform for 
 Ireland. There are constant meetings 
 in that country, professedly preparatory 
 to action on the question of reviving the 
 Irish parliament ; that is, in fact, for se- 
 vering Ireland from the crown, and es- 
 tablishing a distinct kingdom. Similar 
 meetings are holden in this country ; and 
 however attended and approbated by 
 hundreds of Protestants, no man who 
 has ever glanced at Popery can doubt 
 for a moment that all these meetings 
 
 are got up through Jesuitical influence : 
 they are Catholic movements. Now, 
 on the question of right or wrong as to 
 Irish independence, we say nothing at 
 present. The s\mp\e fact of these move- 
 ments, simultaneous with Catholic tem- 
 perance societies which increase the 
 consumption of spirits in Ireland, is all 
 we refer to, as probable evidence of a 
 coming revolution. The national debt 
 of England, contracted largely for sup- 
 porting wars, whose object chiefly was 
 to sustain arbitrary power, is another of 
 the circumstances bearing upon our ques- 
 tion. It is never expected to be paid ; 
 and the payment of the interest, renders 
 her corn-law restrictions necessary ; and 
 these again bear upon her immense po- 
 pulation of uneducated operatives with 
 a crushing weight. The condition of 
 these, who are the majority of her popu- 
 lation, is most deplorable, in regard to 
 mere subsistence ; still more so, in re- 
 gard to religion and morals. A very 
 large number are horribly atheistical 
 and deistical, and are maddened to fury 
 against religion, under the impression 
 that Christianity and arbitrary power 
 are indissolubly united, — that the Chris- 
 tian church is a political engine for op- 
 pressing mankind by exacting the tenth 
 of all products. Here then is a vast 
 mass reduced to that condition which 
 makes men willing to sell themselves to 
 whatever power has bread to purchase 
 them with. Thus the government, so 
 long as means can be had, can buy up 
 as many of these unfortunates as may 
 be necessary to answer any purpose ; 
 and if at any time therefore, it chooses 
 to change its religion and can obtain 
 funds from the Catholic powers, the 
 Protestant cause may be suppressed. 
 
 The moneyed and hereditary aristo- 
 cracy, which are partly identical, are 
 deeply interested in the national debt. 
 Never expecting to receive their princi- 
 pal, they feel much concerned in sup- 
 porting that system of rule which wiil 
 secure their interest. These dread the 
 trenchings of the people upon the power 
 of the upper classes ; and there is every 
 probability that this feverish state, pro- 
 duced by extreme exhaustion on the one 
 
LECTURE XXI. 
 
 169 
 
 hand, and repletion on the other, will 
 continue until the great earthquake, and 
 be greatly instrumental in its production. 
 
 The present sovereign, it is highly 
 probable, is married to a Roman Catholic. 
 The royal consort is indeed a Protestant 
 2~>oliticalltj . He could not otherwise be 
 the husband of England's present, and 
 the father of her future sovereign. But 
 his father and family being Roman Cath- 
 olic, renders it very possible that he was 
 so brought up himself, and if he made 
 religion a part of his politics to place 
 his blood on a throne, he may very rea- 
 sonably be expected, in case of the 
 emergency, to make politics a part of 
 his religion to keep it there. 
 
 How then will the present infant and 
 heir-apparent be educated? Of course, 
 in the true Protestant religion, according 
 to the act of settlement. But if his fa- 
 ther have the spirit of a Catholic and 
 the cunning of a Jesuit, would he wish 
 him educated openly in the religion of 
 Rome? Assuredly not. Such stupidity 
 could not be transported across the Eng- 
 lish channel. No, but the future sove- 
 reign will be trained nominally a Pro- 
 testant, but really a Catholic. 
 
 The theology recently divulged, and 
 now rapidly spreading in and from the 
 Oxford University in England, may have 
 an important bearing upon this question. 
 That University has always been Tory, 
 always on the side of non-resistance and 
 the divine right of kings and bishops. 
 James II. in his efforts to re-establish 
 Popery, first made trial of Cambridge 
 as an instrument for that purpose ; but 
 found such a determined resistance as 
 induced him to forbear. He then tried 
 Oxford, which also at first resisted. But 
 upon his changing some of its officers, 
 and threatening others, it yielded and 
 became his tool. Oxford is now fast 
 becoming what James and the Jesuits 
 wished it to be, really Catholic, though 
 nominally Protestant. It is more than 
 likely, that the Oxford divines, (the Trac- 
 tarians) are Jesuits under a very thin 
 disguise, — that they are in league with 
 Rome.* 
 
 * This was first written in January, 1841, 
 
 Now with such agency to guard the 
 education of the sovereign and nobility, 
 would the transition from Oxford high- 
 church Episcopacy to Roman Catholi- 
 cism, be a very great change? Would 
 it be any thing more than laying aside 
 a mask, which was so very like to the 
 wearer, that his own friends could 
 scarcely tell when his face was covered 
 with it, and when it was laid off? How 
 extremely easy therefore, may the trans- 
 ition become for the aristocracy and the 
 monarch, from Protestantism to Popery ! 
 
 Take then into consideration these 
 facts. Look at the radical, antichris- 
 tian error of a civil establishment of re- 
 ligion, — a union of church and state. 
 Look at the unsufferable and incurable 
 defects in the representative system ; at 
 the immense mass of dissenters and their 
 increased and increasing privations under 
 the oppressions of the establishment, 
 particularly the probable ejection of the 
 Scotch Presbyterians, — at Ireland, its 
 Protestant and Catholic dissenters ; its 
 vast strength ; its restless spirit, — at the 
 national debt ; its crushing weight falling 
 mainly upon the labouring poor; its ral- 
 lying the interests of the whole aristo- 
 cracy to support the system ; the impos- 
 sibility of its ever being liquidated, but 
 by repudiation, or by revolution. Look 
 at the sovereign and nobility, and the 
 strong possibility, that the next genera- 
 tion will be brought up with more than 
 usual pliability of conscience as to reli- 
 gious scruples ; the absolute growth of 
 Catholicism in Britain. Weigh all these 
 things and ask yourselves whether they 
 can abide thus for a quarter of a century, 
 — whether many of these evils are not 
 intolerable, and some of them utterly 
 inconsistent with a pure Christianity and 
 a practical freedom, — whether they do 
 not all portend a great concussion ? 
 
 when but little had appeared to justify the 
 opinion, in comparison with what is now be- 
 fore the public. It is now openly undeniable 
 that a strong and growing party in English 
 Episcopacy are real Romanists. Bishop Mcll- 
 vaine has made out this charge clearly on many 
 points, but especially on the great doctrine of 
 justification. Let the Tractarians go on and 
 prosper, and the Jesuits have little more to de- 
 sire ; Rome is transferred to England. 
 
190 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 That there has long been a heavy- 
 force pressing upon Parliament for re- 
 form in the House of Lords, is well 
 known. That its power is increasing 
 and concentrating is equally obvious. 
 All advocates of the elective principle 
 combine against that House. It may 
 and will labour to strengthen its barriers, 
 but assuredly the power increases faster 
 than the resistance, and the longer and 
 stronger, the more sudden and over- 
 whelming will be the sweep when they 
 at length burst away. We say when 
 the barriers of the aristocracy burst 
 mvay ; for we assume it, that they never 
 will yield to reason, persuasion and right. 
 It is not in the nature of usurpation to 
 abandon power voluntarily. 
 
 But even suppose it otherwise — sup- 
 pose the English aristocracy, spiritual 
 and temporal, and the crown, overcome 
 by reason and timidity, should evince a 
 disposition to yield to the people, to 
 eject the bishops from the House of 
 Lords, and to make its members elective ; 
 would the continental powers permit it ? 
 Would legitimacy on the Continent tole- 
 rate republicanism on the Island 1 Po- 
 land may answer the question. Mark 
 the jealousy with which they eye Ameri- 
 can republicanism, three thousand miles 
 distant. Would they tolerate it in their 
 own bosom ? 
 
 Therefore we conclude, that when- 
 ever the popular party will have so 
 gained upon their political opponents, as 
 to make them feel for their mitres, their 
 titles of nobility, and their perquisites, — 
 when the Lords spiritual particularly, 
 perceive that their position is a tottering 
 one, they will purchase interest. The 
 Oxford Jesuits will make overtures to 
 the O'Connell Jesuits. The former, in 
 behalf of the high church party, will 
 buy in the latter, acting for the 
 Pope and Catholicism and the conti- 
 nental sovereigns. The court and the 
 aristocracy, a majority of them at least, 
 will become Catholic ; the law of the 
 Protestant succession be repealed or 
 trampled under foot ; and thus Roman- 
 ism become the established religion of 
 Britain ; the Irish will rise at home and 
 all over Britain, and tender their services 
 
 to the converted court. Care will have 
 been taken to have the commanders of 
 the fortresses and fleets at home, and as 
 far as may be abroad, in the semi- 
 Catholic interest. An act will be passed, 
 settling the affairs of religion, containing 
 a section to promote uniformity ; this 
 act will be enforced at the cannon's 
 mouth, and thus will be lighted up the 
 flames of another Smithfield, and the 
 dead bodies of God's witnesses will be 
 piled up in the great street of the city. 
 
 Such, or something like it, will pro- 
 bably be the extinction of the glorious 
 lights of Protestant Christianity in the 
 British Isles. Painful thought ! How 
 distressing to the heart that looks for- 
 ward to the triumphs of religion under 
 the auspices of British Christians ! Yet 
 from this thought we cannot escape 
 Yes ! land of my fathers' sepulchres, 
 thou art to be again drenched with the 
 blood of God's holy martyrs ! Yes ! 
 glorious England, thy high towers shall 
 be prostrated ; — thy defences, almost 
 omnipotent, shall fall into the hands of 
 thy real foes. The wild ferocity of the 
 gigantic tornado will sweep over the 
 cliffs of Albion, — the hills of Caledonia, 
 — the green fields of Erin ; and pour 
 down in all their maddened rage upon 
 the wide Atlantic. 
 
 Christian brethren ! shall these bil- 
 lows reach us 1 We think so. The 
 despotism of Europe will never rest in 
 victory, whilst a, free government exists, 
 — especially a free government,oivhose 
 people speak the English tongue. I 
 
 Our true policy hitherto has "be'en, to 
 avoid European politics and alliances. 
 But then the day will come when they 
 will not keep aloof from us ; and then 
 we shall have no election. Flushed 
 with victory and triumph in England, 
 and enraged at the threatening encroach- 
 ments of the spirit of liberty, they will 
 come down upon us in great wrath, de- 
 termined to destroy the nation which has 
 so long been the source of this hated 
 spirit. 
 
LECTURE XXII. 
 
 191 
 
 LECTURE XXII. 
 
 POPERY IN AMERICA. 
 Rev. xi. 1-13. 
 
 Is it probable that the grand confede- 
 racy of all the aristocratical interests in 
 Europe, after crushing the Protestant 
 cause there, will attack America ? 
 
 To this question an affirmative answer 
 has been intimated. We have touched 
 upon the general grounds of the opinion, 
 and have promised some detail of reasons 
 in its support. Before proceeding to 
 this detail, it will be useful to state the 
 general grounds ; and the nature of the 
 power itself must be kept in mind. We 
 have supposed a coalition. All the in- 
 terests of arbitrary government; the he- 
 reditary and titled nobility; the moneyed 
 oligarchy ; the mitred spiritual power ; 
 the crowned heads ; — all these combined 
 into one, and perhaps under the visible 
 headship of the revived imperial dignity; 
 and thoroughly imbued with the spirit 
 of Popery, will have concentrated their 
 forces upon the citadel of Protestantism 
 in England and have prevailed. This 
 success will have added strength to the 
 bonds of their union ; and it is to the 
 essential character of this union, we 
 wish to call attention. Consider the 
 duration of this one complex power, — 
 this all-pervading spirit of legitimacy ; 
 and bring it into contrast with the cha- 
 racter of our government ; and the un- 
 compromising opposition of the two 
 must be evident. They cannot be re- 
 conciled. The elective principle pre- 
 supposes the power of civil rule to lie 
 in the people ; and to be derived through 
 them to the magistrates, who are the 
 agents of the people, employed by them 
 for a specific service. But the European 
 doctrine is, that all power resides origi- 
 nally in the mitre, the crown, and the 
 aristocracy ; and so far as the people 
 have rights, they are merely concessions, 
 kindly granted by their superiors, who 
 received them from God. These are 
 clearly opposing systems, and therefore 
 the high presumption, that, in the great 
 
 crisis of right struggling against power, 
 when the latter shall have succeeded in 
 Britain and Europe at large, it will 
 direct its victorious forces toward our 
 shores. Let us inquire for particular 
 circumstances favourable to this general 
 result, and that augment its probability. 
 
 1. The vast increase of Roman Ca- 
 tholics in this country. They are now 
 computed at one million, five hundred 
 thousand, or one-twelfth part of the en- 
 tire population. This will be accounted 
 a trivial matter : one in twelve cannot 
 effect much, even if inveterately hostile 
 to our institutions. Persons who thus 
 reason, seem to forget the difference be- 
 tween an enemy in the camp, under the 
 guise of a friend, and one in the service 
 and secrets of the opposing camp. One 
 traitor had well-nigh lost to America the 
 benefit of two campaigns. 
 
 2. This increase is by immigration. 
 A case of conversion from Protestantism 
 to Romanism, does occasionally occur, 
 but nothing is gained in this country by 
 proselytism. On the contrary, many 
 more come out from them and unite 
 with the true church, than apostatize to 
 them from the Christian faith. So that, 
 relatively to the Protestants, the Roman- 
 ists would be losing ground every year, 
 but for importation. The influx of 
 foreign Catholics probably exceeds fifty 
 thousand a year; which in twenty-four 
 years would amount to one million, two 
 hundred thousand. But their natural 
 increase, and the stimulus to importation 
 by our legislature, as hereafter men- 
 tioned, will most likely, for the whole of 
 this period, cause the Catholic population 
 to double twice for every once that the 
 whole population doubles. This, by the 
 year 1866, would give them about five 
 millions, or one eighth of the entire 
 Union. 
 
 There are two other sources by which 
 Catholicism will gain, — their public hos- 
 pitals and schools. In some states they 
 have command of the public charitable 
 institutions, and make them a means 
 of promoting their sectarian interests. 
 Their schools, however, are more influ- 
 ential. They are founded upon Jesuit- 
 ical principles. Great efforts are directed 
 
192 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 to the gratification of the eye, — the ear, 
 — all the senses and appetites, and thus 
 to win upon the good feelings of Pro- 
 testant children, and through them, to 
 pervert their minds. In the advertise- 
 ments of their schools, they generally, 
 if not always, pledge themselves not to 
 say or do any thing calculated to change 
 the religious belief of the Protestant chil- 
 dren. At the same time, they profess 
 to believe that these children are on the 
 road to perdition : being heretical in 
 their opinions, they must perish if they 
 continue so ; and yet these teachers 
 bind themselves by solemn, public pro- 
 mises, not to attempt to change their 
 religion. There is most gross inconsis- 
 tency between this promise and profes- 
 sion. If they really believe that these 
 children must be lost unless they re- 
 nounce Protestantism, and embrace Ro- 
 manism, how can they, with an honest 
 conscience, promise not to teach them 
 Catholic doctrines, nor draw them away 
 from the damnable tenets of the Pro- 
 testant heresy? Do any missionaries 
 among the heathen, in order to entice 
 pupils into their schools, pledge them- 
 selves not to teach them Christianity 1 
 Would any Protestant denomination in 
 the world sustain such a missionary? 
 Would any honest pagan make such a 
 promise in regard to his own religion ? 
 Not at all. This duplicity is the inven- 
 tion of the " mother of harlots." 
 
 But this promise is kept just in the 
 same Roman faith in which it is made. 
 Every thing that art and ingenuity can 
 devise, is done in Catholic seminaries to 
 influence the pupils favourably. The 
 teachers never indeed traduce Protest- 
 antism in the presence of Protestant 
 children. They never ask them to em- 
 brace Catholicism, or to read Catholic 
 books. They never argue, or otherwise 
 directly speak with them upon the doc- 
 trines of either party. But they place 
 before them and in their way, the sym- 
 bols of their superstition : they excite 
 their curiosity to inquire their meaning, 
 and being asked, they cannot withhold 
 a word of explanation. They never 
 urge them to worship the Virgin, or any 
 other saint, but they themselves do it in 
 
 their presence ; and, having won their 
 confidence, they raise in their minds the 
 question, " Can there be any great harm 
 in this ? My parents placed me here : 
 my teachers are good and kind : they 
 worship the Holy Virgin, — can it be 
 wrong then for me to do it ?" They 
 rather, at first, prohibit in very gentle 
 and mild terms, the newly admitted 
 pupil from reading Catholic books. Yet 
 they are careless to leave them occa- 
 sionally in their way, knowing well that 
 curiosity is not repressed by a prohibi- 
 tion so gentle, especially where the eye 
 invites while the voice forbids. 
 
 Another means is that of guarding 
 them from too free an intercourse with 
 Protestant friends. They allow no pu- 
 pils to write letters without submitting 
 them to the governors of the school. 
 Thus parents and guardians cannot 
 learn to what extent the child is pleased 
 or displeased with Catholicism ; for no- 
 thing on this subject is permitted to pass. 
 
 But it is impossible even to name the 
 ten thousand devices which they practise 
 to allure their pupils within their toils ; 
 and it is matter of astonishment, that 
 conversions to Romanism are not much 
 more frequent in Catholic seminaries. 
 For no Protestant children are ever sent 
 to them, who have previously been reli- 
 giously instructed at home ; as none 
 but parents who feel little interest con- 
 cerning the spiritual instruction of their 
 offspring, would ever think of placing 
 them in such perilous circumstances. 
 
 3. Let us look at the character of this 
 imported population in a religious aspect. 
 They have been drilled from infancy 
 into habits of perfect subjection to their 
 priests. This fearful subjection results 
 from their belief that the priest has 
 power to pardon sin, or to seal it on the 
 soul for ever. Pardon cannot be ob- 
 tained without confession, and thus all 
 the evil deeds which the individual has 
 ever committed are known to the priest. 
 It is the confessional that produces the 
 cringing submission so characteristic of 
 the laity; and the dogmatic tyranny of 
 the priest, which so strikingly contrasts 
 with the demeanour of Protestant cler- 
 gymen. Confessedly, the priests can 
 
LECTURE XXII. 
 
 193 
 
 keep the souls of the departed in purga- 
 tory, or deliver them from it. The 
 people believe ■ these absurdities, and, 
 consequently, the conscience is in the 
 priest's safe keeping. He can release it 
 from trouble, or fill it with consterna- 
 tion. Never .-was there an oppression 
 so fell, — so St&l -destroying as this. The 
 fear of God is nothing to an ignorant 
 Roman ; it is the fear of the priest that 
 can make his soul tremble. This ac- 
 counts for the fact so often realized on 
 our public works, where we are feeding 
 these slaves of a foreign foe, that after 
 our civil officers and military bands have 
 failed in preserving order, the priest has 
 quelled a riot with a word. The same 
 is true concerning mobs, which the 
 priest, with his symbols of superstition, 
 can suppress when their fury has baffled 
 all other power. In such cases as these, 
 do our laivs or Catholic priests pro- 
 tect us 1 
 
 4. The strong probability is, that this 
 population will increase, not absolutely 
 merely, but relatively to other immi- 
 grants, much more rapidly. If we 
 gained proportionally of Protestant po- 
 pulation, this influx would not augment 
 our danger. But now a decided majo- 
 rity of this immigration is Roman Ca- 
 tholic. This is owing to various causes ; 
 among which we may enumerate, first, 
 the efforts of the Leopold Foundation in 
 Austria, Italy, France ; at the head of 
 which, as to influence, stands the Empe- 
 ror of Austria and Prince Metternich, his 
 arch-diplomatist. This extensive and 
 most influential society do much to pro- 
 mote emigration to this country, directly, 
 by extending aid to the indigent to bring 
 them over to us ; indirectly, by their 
 emissaries and funds sent out hither, to 
 accommodate these people when here. 
 These appropriations are very great. 
 They have twenty-one bishops in the 
 United States, five hundred and sixty- 
 two priests, five hundred and forty-one 
 chapels, besides fifty in the course of 
 erection ; twenty-one colleges, • forty- 
 eight female seminaries, and a great 
 many other institutions under various 
 names ; all of which are planned and 
 managed for the spread of their sect, 
 
 25 
 
 which, they say, embracing the whole 
 world, numbers. a hundred and fifty-six 
 millions. 
 
 It is not difficult to see how such 
 liberal provision for their accommoda- 
 tion, and for the gratification of their 
 religious prejudices, must operate in ren- 
 dering them willing to emigrate. But 
 again ; 
 
 5. We hold out yet stronger induce- 
 ments. We tell these poor, degraded 
 slaves of spiritual and aristocratical op- 
 pression, that the moment they arrive 
 upon our soil they are its owners. Land 
 is given to them. They are not required 
 to renounce allegiance to His Holiness, 
 or other foreign masters. They are only 
 asked to delay for six months or a year, 
 and they may then be entitled to all the 
 privileges of the inhabitants of the soil. 
 This is the substance of our national 
 legislation in reference to the public 
 lands. American citizens have no ad- 
 vantage over foreigners ; and of course, 
 this will be made use of by the priests, 
 who, by means of such arguments, can 
 enlist thousands upon thousands of fo- 
 reign Catholics to come hither. Ac- 
 cordingly, since the Pre-emption Bill of 
 1841 passed into a law, immigration has 
 been rapidly increasing. A reference to 
 the number of immigrants quarantined 
 at New York, shows us' that they have 
 more than doubled. 
 
 That the Jesuits in this country have 
 had no agency in producing the present 
 system, "we can no more believe than we 
 can believe that their brethren in Europe 
 will not avail themselves of this as an 
 argument to promote immigration to 
 our shores. We do not affirm that to 
 win favour with them and their Catholic 
 importations, in order to secure votes, 
 is the leading object with our national 
 politicians. But we do say, that we see 
 not how any one who observed the Con- 
 gressional debates on the Pre-emption 
 Bill, could avoid perceiving that the 
 speakers were exceedingly careful not 
 to offend these immigrants. 
 
 This liberality of ours is very different 
 from what the Jesuits expected : it ob- 
 viates entirely the necessity of the fifth 
 rule, chapter first, of their Secreta Mo- 
 
194 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 nita, which is in these words : " In the 
 commencement, let our members be care- 
 ful in buying lands ; but if they should 
 purchase for us those well situated, let 
 this be done in the fictitious name of some 
 faithful and confidential friends; and 
 that our poverty may better appear, let 
 the estates which are near to places in 
 which we have colleges, be assigned by 
 the provincial to remote institutions, by 
 which it will be impossible that rulers 
 or magistrates can ever have certain 
 knowledge of the Society." On the face 
 of this rule it is evident that the Society 
 expected to operate influences hostile to 
 the magistrates of the countries where 
 they might locate themselves. This chi- 
 canery and deception would not be pre- 
 scribed, if honesty were at the founda- 
 tion of their system. 
 
 6. But it will be proper here to give 
 a slight account of the Society of the 
 Jesuits. It was founded by Ignatius 
 Loyola, a Spaniard, who obtained a 
 charter from Pope Paul III. in 1540. 
 Its declared object was to extend the 
 power of Rome, which had been very 
 much crippled by the Reformation. 
 Loyola thus addressed the Vatican : — 
 " Your ancient props no longer suffice ; 
 I offer you new support. You must 
 have a fresh army which shall cover 
 you with the arms of heaven and earth. 
 Light makes war upon you. We will 
 carry intelligence to some, darken know- 
 ledge in others, and direct it in all." 
 (Illustrations of Popery, p. 350.) 
 
 But the oath of the Jesuits will better 
 explain their intentions. It runs thus : 
 
 " I, A. B., now in the presence of 
 Almighty God, the blessed Virgin Mary,* 
 the blessed Michael the Archangel, the 
 blessed St. John Baptist, the holy apos- 
 tles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and the 
 saints and sacred host of heaven, and 
 to you, my ghostly father, do declare 
 from my heart, without mental reserva- 
 tion, that his holiness Pope Urban is 
 Christ's Vicar General, and is the true 
 and only head of the catholic or uni- 
 versal church throughout the earth ; and 
 
 * Here the omnipresence of Mary and others 
 is assumed. This is idolatry. 
 
 that by the keys of binding and loosing 
 given to his holiness by my Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, he hath power to depose 
 heretical kings, princes, states, common- 
 wealths, and governments, all being ille- 
 gal without his sacred confirmation, and 
 that they may safely be destroyed : 
 therefore to the utmost of my power I 
 shall and will defend this doctrine, and 
 his holiness's rights and customs, against 
 all usurpers of the heretical or Pro- 
 testant authority whatsoever: especially 
 against the now pretended authority and 
 church of England, and all adherents, 
 in regard that they and she be usurpal, 
 and heretical, opposing the sacred mo- 
 ther-church of Rome. I do renounce 
 and disown any allegiance as due to 
 any heretical king, prince, or state, 
 named Protestants, or obedience to any 
 of their inferior magistrates or officers. 
 I do further declare that the doctrine of 
 the Church of England, of the Calvin- 
 ists, Huguenots, and of others of the 
 name of Protestants, to be damnable, 
 and they themselves are damned, and 
 to be damned, that will not forsake the 
 same. I do further declare, that I will 
 help, assist, and advise, all or any of his 
 holiness's agents in any place, wherever 
 I shall be, in England, Scotland and 
 Ireland, or in any other territory or 
 kingdom I shall come to; and do my 
 utmost to extirpate the heretical Protest- 
 ants' doctrine, and to destroy all their 
 pretended powers, spiritual or otherwise. 
 I do further promise and declare, that 
 notwithstanding I am dispensed with to 
 assume -any religion heretical for the 
 propagation of the mother-church's in- 
 terests, to keep secret and private all 
 her agents' counsels from time to time, 
 as they entrust me, and not to divulge 
 directly or indirectly, by word, writing 
 or circumstance whatsoever ; but to exe- 
 cute all what shall be proposed, given 
 in charge, or discovered unto me, by 
 you, my ghostly father, or by any of 
 this sacred convent. All which, I, A. B., 
 do swear by the blessed Trinity, and 
 blessed sacrament, which I now am to 
 receive, to perform, and on my part to 
 keep inviolably. And do call all the 
 heavenly and glorious host of heaven to 
 
LECTURE XXII. 
 
 195 
 
 witness these my real intentions, and to 
 keep this my oath. In testimony hereof, 
 I take this most holy and blessed sacra- 
 ment of the eucharist ; and witness the 
 same further with my hand and seal in 
 the face of this holy convent." (Illus. 
 of Popery, 186.) 
 
 Substantially the same is the bishop's 
 oath, as ordained by Pope Clement VIII. 
 We quote a few of its expressions : — 
 "I will be faithful and obedient to 
 St. Peter, the apostle, and to the holy 
 Roman Church, and to our lord, the 
 lord N., Pope N., and to his successors, 
 canonically coming in." — " Heretics, 
 schismatics, and rebels to our lord, or 
 his foresaid successors, I will to my 
 power persecute and oppose." (See Bar- 
 row, Pope's Supremacy, 42.) 
 
 Here, then, we have 
 
 First. A claim put in upon oath, that 
 the Pope, a temporal prince at Rome, is 
 the head and absolute lord of the whole 
 American churches, and we owe him 
 allegiance. 
 
 Secondly. That this foreign potentate 
 has power to depose heretical, that is, 
 Protestant, kings, princes, states, com- 
 monwealths, and governments. Our 
 commonwealth may be put under a 
 curse by a foreign despot. 
 
 Third. The reason is given, — all 
 states, commonwealths, and govern- 
 ments are illegal without his sacred con- 
 firmation, and may therefore he safely 
 destroyed. 
 
 Fourth. Every Jesuit renounces alle- 
 giance to every state, government and 
 magistrate, whom the Pope has not 
 sacredly confirmed. His words are, " I 
 do renounce and disown any allegiance 
 as due to any heretical king, prince, or 
 state named Protestants, or obedience to 
 any of their inferior magistrates or 
 officers." And moreover, that he ivill 
 do his utmost to " destroy all their pre- 
 tended powers, regal or otherwise." He 
 is not to rest at mere dead opposition to 
 our government, but he has sworn to de- 
 stroy it. Thus the Jesuit, before he 
 comes to our country, takes an oath that 
 he never will owe our government any 
 fealty. He never can become a citizen 
 consequently, but by swearing in direct 
 
 opposition to this oath. Every foreigner, 
 in becoming a citizen, swears that he 
 renounces all allegiance to any and 
 every foreign prince, king, or potentate 
 whatever. But this oath he takes " be- 
 ing dispensed with," he swears falsely, 
 and becomes a citizen of the United 
 States. Yea, more ; he renounces the 
 Catholic religion, turns Protestant, and 
 takes the oath of allegiance to a Pro- 
 testant government and a Protestant 
 church, he remaining a Catholic still, 
 that by this deception and falsehood, he 
 may promote Popish interests. In the 
 eyes of his chur*ch and brotherhood, all 
 this duplicity is perfectly right, and he 
 receives for it the Pope's blessing. 
 
 Fifth. Notwithstanding this, every Je- 
 suit is bound by his oath to " defend the 
 doctrine," that the Pope has power to 
 depose princes, states, and governments j 
 that they are not legal without his sacred 
 confirmation, and "may safely be de- 
 stroyed." This the Jesuit's oath binds 
 him " to the utmost of his power" to de- 
 fend. Loyola's first proposition to the 
 Pope and his council did not contain the 
 pledge of unconditional submission to his 
 holiness, and it was rejected. But some 
 time afterward, he altered it, so as to 
 bind every member of the body to un- 
 qualified submission to his superior, and 
 the general of the order to the Pope. So 
 that there is an absolute and unlimited 
 subordination of every man's conscience 
 to the ghostly central despot. 
 
 Sixth. Every Roman Catholic bishop 
 is bound by his episcopal oath to be 
 obedient (obediens ero) to his lord, the 
 Pope, and to persecute and oppose, to 
 the utmost of his power, all Protestants. 
 But in this country his power is bounded 
 by a stronger; otherwise we should have 
 in every large town the holy office of the 
 Inquisition ; which, Bishop Hughes says, 
 may have been a good thing abused. 
 
 As might be expected from their pro- 
 fessed and sworn purpose, the Jesuits 
 became very soon the master politicians 
 of the day. They passed into all coun- 
 tries, and in all countries grasped at 
 power. To an amazing degree they 
 succeeded in throwing their toils around 
 all the courts in Europe ; and, by their 
 
196 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 secret co-operation, could manage to 
 make war or peace, just as might suit 
 the policy of Rome. For two hundred 
 years they were ostensibly or really the 
 master diplomatists of the world, and 
 had also arrogated to themselves almost 
 the whole business of education. Under 
 their vow of perpetual poverty, they 
 amassed half the wealth of most Catho- 
 lic countries, and were decidedly the 
 richest body of men ever associated to- 
 gether in Europe. To this, Bishop 
 Hughes's " good thing abused" greatly 
 
 contributed. Overgrown wealth fitted 
 
 . . . • 
 men for the Inquisition, unless they 
 
 parted with it freely to the society. When 
 once suspicion of heresy fastened upon a 
 rich man, and he sunk into the dun- 
 geons of'the Inquisition, his eyes rarely 
 saw the light of the sun afterwards. His 
 property was confiscated to the church 
 or society. The history of the Inquisi- 
 tion gives* the best and most correct idea 
 of the place of torment that could be col- 
 lected from earth. There surely never 
 has been so full and perfect an incarna- 
 tion of the devil exhibited in our world, 
 as was to be found presiding in its prin- 
 cipal courts. 
 
 But a gracious God at length heard 
 the groans and clanking chains from the 
 deep recesses of these Jesuitical hells, 
 and blasted the, counsels of these incar- 
 nate fiends. They were permitted to 
 overact, and in a degree to forget their. 
 fealty, and the principles by which they 
 had so long prospered.' Their intempe- 
 rances in civil things, and their ineffi- 
 ciency, brought them into disrepute. 
 They were forbidden privileges in vari- 
 ous kingdoms of Europe, and finally the 
 order was suppressed by Pope Clement 
 XIV., in 'A. D. 1773, by the withdrawal 
 of their charter. The depression of the 
 papal cause in France, Spain, Portugal, 
 and elsewhere, about the beginning of 
 the present century, caused the Vatican 
 to devise some means of reviving their 
 cause; and they determined to revive 
 the Society of the Jesuits. This was 
 done by Pope Pius VII., in A. D., 1814. 
 This society has its agents and its 
 organized bodies all over our country. 
 Those who compose it are nearly all 
 
 foreigners, brought up under despotic 
 governments, and sworn subjects of the 
 master tyrant. They are all, and must 
 all be unmarried men, who can never be 
 bound by ties of direct descent to our 
 soil and institutions. They cannot (at 
 least legitimately) leave a drop of their 
 blood running in human veins, to attach 
 them to our land of freedom. Yet they 
 pervade all our seats., of government : 
 especially are they keenly vigilant at our 
 national capital. They study charac- 
 ter ; they scrutinize men ; they weigh 
 political principles and parties'. No pub- 
 lic person of any note, ki church or state, 
 is unwritten in their books. Their com- 
 munication with their general at Rome 
 and the Vatican is constant. The Pope's 
 council of cardinals understand our pub- 
 lic men better than most of their o\vn 
 fellow-citizens do. Our questions of 
 policy are- all canvassed there, and 
 schemes are there planned which go 
 down into till our elections and affect all 
 our religious bodies. 
 
 How all this exists it is not difficult to- 
 perceive. . The priest, by the confession- 
 al, can command the votes of all his 
 people. He will not, however, concen- 
 trate his ten thousand upon any one 
 candidate, except it be on some great 
 occasions; such as the recent case of the 
 school law in New York. 
 
 On ordinary occasions,- however, their, 
 policy' is to place their* people upon dif- 
 ferent sides, in order to keep up the ap- 
 pearance of an entire absence of all con- 
 cert and combination. But when they 
 deem it necessary, the Jesuits and other 
 priests can poll every Catholic vote ; and 
 they and their followersare bound by oath 
 to do so. 
 
 Seventh. The nature' of our govern- 
 ment seems to invite to such union. In 
 a close canvass, a small body, acting 
 together and in moving mass, hold the 
 balance of power. This is evidently the 
 means by which the Catholics succeeded 
 in recently carrying their point. Both 
 political parties have long courted them, 
 for the very reason of their ability to 
 move in concert. Both parties are afraid 
 of the Catholic priests and especially of 
 the bishops. 
 
LECTURE XXII. 
 
 197 
 
 Another of our peculiarities makes us 
 vulnerable, that is, the entire severance 
 of the church from the state : from 
 which, by a slight perversion, has sprung 
 up one of the most ruinous maxims by 
 which the public understanding is led 
 astray : — that religion and politics have 
 nothing to do with each other. It is 
 trUe, our government has and ought to 
 hay^f no control over religion. But it is 
 not 'true that religious principle should 
 exert no influence over political men, 
 — that the citizen should not hold him- 
 self accountable to God for the exercise 
 of his political rights, — that civil officers 
 are under no religious obligations. 
 
 But mark now the practical use to 
 which this maxim, in its bad sense, is 
 put. If the nation from the pulpit is 
 warned to beware of Jesuitical influ- 
 ence, which it can be demonstrated, is 
 undermining the purity of elections and 
 the foundations of the republic, the ob- 
 jection is raised, that this is preaching 
 politics. If his Satanic majesty assume 
 the cowl and hood, and exhibit the ton- 
 sure, and become preacher, the public 
 press must henceforth be muzzled, for 
 politics must not interfere with religion. 
 If we tell our public servants that a 
 Jesuit cannot become a citizen by swear- 
 ing allegiance to our government, be- 
 cause his prior oath renders it impossi- 
 ble ; their reply is,, that religion has 
 nothing to do with politics. If we prove 
 that, whenever Roman Catholics have 
 the power, their principles bind them lo 
 persecute; and that historically this is 
 recorded fact ; they tell us, that in this 
 country, we are in no danger from 
 Popery. 
 
 Eighth. The impossibility of awaking 
 Americans to the conviction that there 
 is any danger, we name as the last and 
 not the least influential consideration, in 
 producing the belief, that the despotism 
 of Europe armed with bigotry and 
 guarded by Jesuitism will pour its legions 
 upon our shores. Demonstration after 
 demonstration, — the most cogent and 
 unanswerable arguments of all kinds, 
 have issued from the Protestant press 
 and pulpit; but all to little purpose. 
 To these arguments there is no refuta- 
 
 tion offered. They are simply passed 
 by. Our statesmen are afraid to touch 
 them ; probably from two reasons : they 
 are ignorant upon the subject of Popery; 
 and they wish not to be informed, lest 
 their judgments should be convinced, 
 that there is danger, and they would be 
 constrained to say and do what might 
 offend the Jesuits, and defeat their poli- 
 tical prospects. 
 
 Take now into consideration all these 
 circumstances. Think of the numbers 
 already in our country under fealty to 
 the despotism of Rome : their rapid in- 
 crease ; the sources of that increase, — 
 their schools for Protestant children ; 
 but especially emigration from countries 
 crowded to distress. Look at the great 
 facilities and inducements to emigrate. 
 Consider the efforts of the Leopold 
 Foundation, chartered by the Pope and 
 patronised by Prince Metternich, his 
 master, and all the Catholic aristocracy 
 of Europe. Look at the vast sums they 
 are expending in cathedrals, chapels, 
 colleges, in our country : at the strong in- 
 ducements our national legislation holds 
 out to them to emigrate, and the conse- 
 quent rapidly increasing numbers. Con- 
 sider the swelling legions of foreign Je- 
 suits, all sworn to support their foreign 
 master, and to use their utmost power 
 to destroy our heretical government ; 
 men who with the other priests have the 
 consciences of their people completely 
 under their control. Think of the per- 
 fect facility with which they can turn 
 the fate at an election, where there is a 
 close vote. Observe the notorious cha- 
 racter of the Jesuits for intermeddling 
 in politics, which disposition and talent 
 our free institutions invite them to in- 
 dulge and exercise. Mark the perfect 
 indifference of the great body of our 
 people, and especially the unwillingness 
 of our political men to look into this 
 subject ; and we may add, consider our 
 contiguity to Canada, Mexico, and the 
 heavy black Catholic population in the 
 West Indies, capable of being turned in 
 upon our southern country, with tre- 
 mendous effect, as invading foes. Take 
 all these circumstances into considera- 
 tion, and then say whether it be not ex- 
 
193 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 tremely probable, that the victorious 
 armies of the grand Papal alliance, hav- 
 ing suppressed Protestantism and liberty 
 in Europe, will make a desperate assault 
 upon us. With such facilities and in- 
 ducements as these, is it conceivable that 
 they will not turn upon us as their only 
 remaining foes, and their last prey 1 To 
 us, the probability appears so great, that 
 we will direct all possible efforts toward 
 preparation for such a result ; shall not 
 cease to blow the trumpet in Zion, and 
 to sound the alarm in God's holy moun- 
 tain. 
 
 It may be asked what the result will 
 be. As we are suggesting probabilities, 
 in reference to the future, what probably 
 will be the issue of the fearful conflict 
 which is anticipated 1 Does "the sure 
 word of prophecy" throw any light upon 
 the subject? We answer, that it does. 
 This much in general is certain ; Anti- 
 christ shall certainly be slain and his 
 body be given to the burning flame. 
 Protestantism, or the true religion, will 
 most assuredly revive. Its defenders, 
 after three and a half years of prostra- 
 tion, will arise and stand upon their 
 feet : the religion of the witnesses will 
 become triumphant, and walk forth in 
 the broad way, unmolested and honoured 
 in the highest degree : and the interests 
 of the opposing power will be crushed. 
 
 Thus far, in general, we see the steady 
 shining of prophetic light. But when 
 we descend to particulars, it becomes us 
 to speak with reserve and to suggest 
 probabilities. 
 
 1. It is probable, that the combined 
 forces of aristocratic Europe, in their 
 effort to establish rule in this land, by 
 establishing the Catholic religion, will 
 be foiled. The exotic will grow in our 
 soil, only in a forced and sickly manner. 
 Its nourishment must be brought from 
 Austria, Italy, or some sister country. 
 It must be bedewed with holy water 
 from the font at Rome, and the heat 
 which nurtures it must be the fires of 
 the auto-da-fe: and notwithstanding all, 
 the plant will sicken and die. Nay, 
 rather it will be hewn down by the two- 
 edged sword of a free press and a free 
 pulpit. We shall have a struggle, short 
 
 and transient ; but fierce and most de- 
 structive to our invaders. The approach 
 of it will unite all sects of religion and 
 all parties in politics, and these States 
 United, and fighting in defence of the 
 religion of the Son of God and the liberty 
 wherewith He has made us free, can 
 never be conquered. Back from our 
 shores they will be hurled with a tre- 
 mendous overthrow. Nor is it to be 
 believed that we will not follow them. 
 Is it probable, that having been forced 
 by them to depart from our wonted po- 
 licy, to enter into alliances with the 
 whole Protestant world, for the common 
 defence, we will draw off" as soon as 
 they shall have retired with the shatter- 
 ed remains of their invincible armada ? 
 If not, then and by that time, the 
 grand Protestant alliance, at the head of 
 which will stand in unassuming dignity, 
 the Republic, will have matured their 
 plans, and concentrated their forces, 
 which will pour in from the North and 
 the East, but chiefly from the West, to 
 intercept and pursue the retreating fleet 
 of the enemy. Those parts of the British 
 navy, which shall have remained faith- 
 ful, and shall have taken refuge in the 
 East, and in our seas and harbours, the 
 American navy, and a thousand priva- 
 teers, will hang upon their rear. Mean- 
 while, the Irish, Scottish, and English 
 Protestants will be active, though secret- 
 ly, and the moment in which the com- 
 bined fleet strikes the British strand, they 
 will spring to their feet, and hail their de- 
 liverers. 
 
 2. Then will follow the concussion ; 
 the court and leader of the Catholic aris- 
 tocracy, will be foi'ced to fly to the con- 
 tinent, and leave England in possession 
 of the friends of the witnesses. Thus 
 will fall the tenth part of the city, as 
 above described. 
 
 3. It is probable, that there will be 
 organized in the British isles, a govern- 
 ment much nearer the true principles of 
 equal rights, than they have hitherto 
 known. The hereditary nobility, the 
 mitred and mammon aristocracy, and 
 the national debt, will all perish together. 
 This terrible earthquake, will leave not 
 a wreck behind. 
 
LECTURE XXIII. 
 
 199 
 
 4. It is probable, that henceforth the 
 ocean will be all and for ever Protestant, 
 and the English language, be its mother 
 tongue. This perfect supremacy of the 
 sea, will give the recently revived wit- 
 nesses full leisure to perfect their plans 
 of government, and enable the dynasty 
 of the people, to acquire by experience 
 and practice, facility in the management 
 of public affairs. 
 
 In view of such probabilities, or if they 
 are barely possibilities, what ought to be 
 our course of policy 1 
 
 First. We should cherish the pure 
 principles of the Christian religion. 
 These will be pre-eminently the battles 
 of the Lord : and he is manifestly pre- 
 paring American seamen to fight them. 
 The victory in that day, will no.t be to 
 the strong, physically, nor to the multi- 
 tude : but the Lord of hosts will fight 
 for us. 
 
 Second. We must keep a vigilant eye 
 upon Popery within our precincts. And, 
 in regard to it, let us always distinguish 
 between Popery and the people deluded 
 by it. We should treat the people with 
 kindness, and endeavour to enlighten 
 them in the knowledge of the Gospel, 
 and so break the yoke from off their 
 neck. But the priests and nuns and 
 their horrible impurities, particularly 
 the Jesuits, we should watch narrowly. 
 These are Popery. By that day, this 
 party may have put in a President, some 
 more of our national judges and con- 
 gressmen, and in our legislatures, may 
 baffle strong majorities exceedingly, even 
 in a constitutional way, and by delay, 
 do much to aid the enemy. 
 
 Third. We should attend well to our 
 national defences. The true God is our 
 defence, but he makes use of means. 
 Let us look well to our wooden walls, — 
 rather let us make floating walls of iron, 
 and use all due diligence for our own 
 safety, that we may not have occasion 
 to reproach ourselves for having neglect- 
 ed a leading duty of the law of nature ; 
 and disqualified ourselves for the high 
 and honourable service to which our God 
 may call us. 
 
 LECTURE XXIII. 
 
 THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 
 
 Rev. xi. 14-19. 
 
 We have seen that the Saracenic in- 
 vasion progressed for one hundred and 
 fifty years, or five prophetic months. 
 That is, from the first public preaching 
 of Mohammed, in 612 to 762, when the 
 Caliph Almansor built Bagdad, and 
 ceased his conquests. We have also 
 seen, that the hour and day and month 
 and year, during which the Turkish 
 horsemen were to advance in their work 
 of desolation, commenced with the cap- 
 ture of Cutahi, by Othman, in 1281 ; 
 and terminated at the end of three hun- 
 dred and ninety-one years and fifteen 
 days, by the capture of Kameniec in Po- 
 dolia, in 1672. Between the close of the 
 first woe then, and the opening of the 
 second, there intervened a space of five 
 hundred and twenty-five years. But we 
 are told, that after the close of the second 
 woe, " the third cometh quickly." We 
 are therefore to expect the events com- 
 prehended under this third woe trumpet, 
 to commence within a period much 
 shorter than five hundred and twenty- 
 five years after the capture of Kameniec 
 in 1672. 
 
 But we must bear in mind, that the 
 period of time embraced in the seventh 
 trumpet, is the last subdivision 'of the 
 sealed book ; it runs forward to the end, 
 and is itself subdivided into the seven 
 vials. Consequently, it must cover a 
 very considerable portion of time, and 
 comprehend a very great number of 
 events. 
 
 These events, moreover, may be very 
 different in their character and bearings. 
 What is a heavy woe, a matter of deep 
 distress to one class of men, may be 
 matter of high joy to another. All the 
 three woes are such " to the inhabiters 
 of the earth," (ch. viii. 13,) that is, to 
 the citizens of the empire, who retain 
 the corrupt system ; whilst, to a great 
 extent, they are means of relief and 
 blessing, and consequently, cause of joy, 
 to the true church of God, comprehend- 
 
200 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ed within the degenerate church and em- 
 pire. Accordingly, we find the language 
 of exultation and triumph in this context, 
 not as limited to the beginning, middle, 
 or end of the period, but as descriptive 
 in general of the whole. Though still 
 depressed, the true church has yet fre- 
 quent cause of exultation. 
 
 Verse 15. "And the seventh angel 
 sounded : and there were great voices in 
 heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this 
 world, are become the kingdoms of our 
 Lord and of his Christ ; and he shall 
 reign for ever and ever." This language 
 has reference, obviously, to the period 
 chiefly at its close, when all the thrones 
 of tyranny shall be overturned, and the 
 governments of the nations shall be re- 
 organized, according to the representa- 
 tive democracy of the Bible, upon the 
 pure foundation of Christian morality. 
 
 Verses 16-18. "And the four and 
 twenty elders, which sat before God on 
 their seats, fell upon their faces and 
 worshipped God ; saying, We give thee 
 thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which 
 art and wast and art to come ; because 
 thou hast taken to thee thy great power, 
 and hast reigned. And the nations were 
 angry, and thy wrath is come, and the 
 time of the dead, that they should be 
 judged, and that thou shouldst give re- 
 ward unto thy servants the prophets, 
 and to the saints, and them that fear thy 
 name, small and great : and shouldst de- 
 stroy them which destroy the earth." 
 
 These elders or presbyters, are the 
 representatives of the churches. Their 
 ruling authority, which is designated by 
 the language, " sat before God on their 
 seats or thrones," is received from God 
 the Redeemer, and is exercised under 
 him for the people's good. Their action 
 here, bespeaks the existence of a church 
 worshipping God, and yet not by inter- 
 mediate objects, but directly. They 
 glance their eye forward to the triumph 
 of the true religion, the wrath and over- 
 throw of the nations, and the vindication 
 of the martyred saints. 
 
 Verse 19. "And the temple of God 
 was opened in heaven, and there was 
 in the temple the ark of his testament : 
 and there were lightnings, and voices, 
 
 and thunderings, and an earthquake, 
 and great hail." 
 
 This indicates freedom of access to 
 a pure and spiritual worship ; the temple 
 being the symbol of the true church, 
 which had been shut up by the corrup- 
 tion and tyranny of Rome ; but is now 
 opened by the Protestant Reformation. 
 The ark of the covenant, therefore, 
 which is the great standing type of jus- 
 tification by faith, is drawn forth to 
 public view. The reference here is to 
 the preaching of the Reformers, whose 
 leading star was this very doctrine of 
 justification by Christ's righteousness 
 imputed. 
 
 The lightnings and their accompani- 
 ments represent great commotions among 
 the nations. 
 
 The war of the great red dragon, to 
 which we must now proceed, exhibits 
 the same parties as were presented in 
 the little book. It is another represen- 
 tation of the conflict between Satan and 
 the true church of God. The principal 
 part has reference to- the period of the 
 vials. But preparatory to that, we are 
 carried back to earlier periods. 
 
 Chap. xii. 1,2. " And there appeared 
 a great wonder in heaven ; a woman 
 clothed with the sun, and the moon un- 
 der her feet, and upon her head a crown 
 of twelve stars : and she being with 
 child, cried, travailing in birth, and 
 pained to be delivered." 
 
 The word translated wonder, is tfyi^sibv, 
 a sign. Now a sign is significant of 
 something. The woman here signifies 
 the true spiritual church, the Zion of 
 God, the bride, the Lamb's wife. This 
 true church is embraced, comprehended, 
 as it were, within the larger body of the 
 apostate church, though not owning its 
 union. Nations, bodies of men, societies, 
 are often symbolized by a woman. 
 
 "High on a rock, in solitary state, 
 Sublimely musing, pale Britannia sate; 
 Her awful forehead on her spear reclined, 
 Her robe and tresses streaming with the wind." 
 
 In a similar manner the true church--is 
 often spoken of as the virgin daughter 
 of Zion, the mother of us all. 
 
 This symbolical woman is clothed 
 
LECTURE XXIII. 
 
 201 
 
 with the sun, — arrayed in light and 
 beauty; the brightness of the Sun of 
 Righteousness enshrouds her round 
 about. The true church rejoices in the 
 light of Zion's King. Yea, the very 
 pavement beneath her feet reflects, like 
 the moon, the brightness of that light in 
 which she is clad. " The street of the 
 city is pure gold, as it were transparent 
 glass ;" " and I saw, as it were a sea of 
 glass mingled with fire, — and the saints 
 stand on the sea of glass." So the 
 bright moon is the pavement on which 
 she stands. It may represent the laws, 
 government, institutions of the church, 
 which are but reflections of truth from 
 the Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 The stars, whose figurative meaning 
 has already been explained, have here 
 manifest allusion in their number to the 
 twelve apostles. This teaches, that the 
 pure ministry is a crown of glory to the 
 church : and that in the period referred 
 to there will be a renewed issuing forth 
 of the twelve preachers of the gospel. 
 This gives promise of increase ; ac- 
 cordingly, " as soon as Zion travailed 
 she brought forth," and doubtless the 
 allusion is to the advance of the church 
 in the age of the Reformation. 
 
 Verses 3-6. "And there appeared 
 another wonder (sign) in heaven ; and 
 behold, a great red dragon, having seven 
 heads and ten horns, and seven crowns 
 upon his heads. And his tail drew the 
 third part of the stars of heaven, and 
 cast them to the earth : and the dragon 
 stood before the woman which was ready 
 to be delivered, to devour her child as 
 soon as it was born. And she brought 
 forth a man child, who was to rule all 
 nations with a rod of iron : and her 
 child was caught up unto God and to 
 his throne. And the woman fled into 
 the wilderness, where she hath a place 
 prepared of God, that they should feed 
 her there a thousand two hundred and 
 three score days." 
 
 A great red dragon is the second 
 significant thing. Naturalists now are 
 acquainted with but one species of the 
 dragon, and it is perfectly harmless. It 
 is certain, however, that there were an- 
 cientlv fiery flying serpents of a venom- 
 
 26 
 
 ous and destructive kind. And it is not 
 at all improbable that there were large 
 and dangerous animals of this amphi- 
 bious character, of which the species is 
 now extinct. They were midway be- 
 tween the reptile or serpent, and the 
 quadruped : and most likely also am- 
 phibious ; for dragons inhabited water. 
 (Ps. lxxiv. 13.) "Thou brakest the heads 
 of the dragons in the waters." It is 
 also certain, that there were " dragons 
 of the wilderness." (Mai. i. 3.) The 
 poets perhaps made them more savage 
 and terrible than nature presented them. 
 The race is now probably extinct, as 
 other poisonous reptiles pass away be- 
 fore the face of man. The significant 
 thing here, is evidently designed a mon- 
 ster. Nothing ever existed in nature 
 like him, as a whole : and this poetic 
 fiction is necessary, because it is a 
 moral monster he is intended to sym- 
 bolize. 
 
 This dragon has seven heads and ten 
 horns. The former represent the seven 
 hills on which Rome is built ; the latter 
 the ten kingdoms into which the empire 
 was divided. He had also seven crowns' 
 upon his heads ; which denote the seven 
 forms of Roman government, of which 
 we shall speak hereafter. 
 
 The third part of the stars of heaven, 
 are the ministers of the visible church : 
 and the dragon's tail drawing, or drag- 
 ging them, and casting them down to 
 the earth, is the corrupting influence 
 combined with the violence which was 
 exercised to degrade the clergy ; and 
 which succeeded in converting the mass 
 of them into mere time-serving politi- 
 cians. Of course the tail of the dragon, 
 like that of the Saracenic locusts and 
 the Turkish horsemen, designates the 
 debasing doctrine he every where dis- 
 seminated. A false religion emanated 
 from him, and perverted the church by 
 corrupting the ministry first. 
 
 Having thus overcome the great body 
 of the clergy, and brought them into 
 subserviency to his views, the dragon 
 takes his position before the woman ; in 
 other words, the power symbolized 
 makes arrangements for watching the 
 increase of the church, with a view of 
 
202 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 destroying that increase, and so of sup- 
 pressing all true spiritual worship. 
 
 Here, with some hesitancy, we part 
 from the critics and commentators gene- 
 rally. The fifth verse is mostly applied 
 to the birth of Christ and his ascension 
 to the divine throne. This had been our 
 opinion too, but we have been con- 
 strained to apply the whole to Christ 
 mystically, — that is, to the converts, 
 those born into the spiritual kingdom. 
 The reasons are these. 
 
 Its application to the Saviour per- 
 sonally violates the chronology. The 
 matter of the third woe must be subse- 
 quent to the termination of the second 
 in 1672, that number of years after the 
 birth of Christ literally; and to refer it 
 to that event seems improper. 
 
 Again ; this application is literal, 
 whereas the whole prophecy here is 
 symbolical. The woman is to be taken 
 figuratively for the true church, and her 
 progeny ought to be understood in the 
 same sense, for the body of professed 
 Christians born. 
 
 The birth of the male child seems 
 also to be subsequent to the degeneracy 
 of the clergy, as designated by the dra- 
 gon drawing them with his tail; but, if 
 Christ personally be meant, it must be 
 long prior to this degeneracy. 
 
 And further still, — the woman is the 
 true church as contradistinguished from 
 the larger body of nominal Christians 
 in the ecclesiastical heaven : but this 
 distinction could not be applied thus, 
 without carrying us back to the Jewish 
 church, within which Christ was born ; 
 and thus chronology is again set aside. 
 Therefore we infer, 
 
 1. That the male child is the progeny 
 of the true church during the period of 
 the third woe: especially is there refer- 
 ence to the converts during the earlier 
 parts of the Protestant reformation. 
 They are represented by a male child, 
 because of their characteristic strength 
 and vigour, adapted to their work and 
 sufferings. 
 
 2. The male child is to rule, tfoifxaivsiv, 
 to act the part of a shepherd over the 
 nations, with a rod of iron; a strong 
 and firm, but homely sceptre. It does 
 
 not mean with a severe and tyrannical 
 sway. The language is taken from 
 Ps. ii. 9, where of Christ, it is said, he 
 shall rule the nations with a rod, — a 
 shepherd's staff; yet made of unyield- 
 ing materials. The sense is that, the 
 sons of Zion at this period shall, by the 
 influence and force of the pastoral office, 
 through the preaching of the truth, 
 operate a controlling power over the 
 nations. And this accords precisely 
 with the historical facts. Protestant 
 Christians did then, and they will much 
 more powerfully hereafter influence, and 
 thereby govern the world, through the 
 faithful preaching and exposition of the 
 truth of God. 
 
 3. This male child is caught up, or 
 caught away, as the same word is trans- 
 lated properly in the case of Philip, 
 (Acts viii. 38.) God often interposed 
 to deliver the Protestant reformers from 
 the power of their foes. His holy arm 
 was frequently made bare for their 
 rescue ; and they were separated from 
 the mass of corruption, and organized 
 formally into independent ecclesiastical 
 bodies, apart from the Catholic body. 
 
 4. The woman flying into the wilder- 
 ness exhibits the desolate state of the 
 true church. It is the same as the 
 saints prophesying in sackcloth ; and 
 the duration is the same. But the con- 
 struction of the language does not render 
 it necessary to understand the one thou- 
 sand two hundred and sixty days, as all 
 subsequent to the birth of the male child. 
 It merely expresses the idea, that her 
 wilderness or desolate condition is to 
 endure that length of time. 
 
 Thus much for the war of the woman 
 and the great red dragon, until the inter- 
 position of Michael : after that, it is the 
 war of Michael and the dragon. Our 
 first inquiry, is in respect to the bellige- 
 rents. Who is Michael ? Who is the 
 great red dragon 1 
 
 The word Michael signifies, who is 
 like God. It is an epithet of our Sa- 
 viour, " who is the brightness of the 
 Father's glory, and the express image 
 of his person." Daniel accordingly, de- 
 scribing these very same wars, says, 
 "at that time shall Michael stand up, 
 
LECTURE XXIII. 
 
 203 
 
 the great prince which standeth for the 
 children of thy people," (xii. 1) : and 
 he had mentioned him before under the 
 same name, "But lo! Michael, one of the 
 chief princes came to help me," — " and 
 there is none holdeth with me in these 
 things but Michael your prince," (x. 13, 
 21.) Under the same name, Jude men- 
 tions our Saviour, " Yet Michael the 
 archangel, when contending with the 
 devil — " We may remark here, by the 
 way, that there is but one archangel 
 known to the Bible. The word means, 
 prince or chief angel, and of course, 
 there is but one head to the angels of 
 glory. Poetry, not always orthodox, has 
 indeed created many ; theology knows 
 but one, the Lord our Redeemer. 
 
 In regard to the great red dragon, the 
 prophet leaves us no difficulty. Verse 
 9, " The great dragon was cast out, that 
 old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, 
 which deceiveth the whole world." The 
 devil signifies, literally, the deceiver, the 
 entrapper, the circumventer : and as a 
 proper name, the prince of the fallen 
 angels. Dr. George Campbell, of Aber- 
 deen, has shown satisfactorily, as we 
 think, that diabolus, which we have ab- 
 breviated into devil, is never applied in 
 scripture to any but one of the fallen 
 angels. It occurs only twice in the plu- 
 ral in the New Testament, and is em- 
 ployed both times in reference to wicked 
 men and women, (2 Tim. iii. 3, and 
 Tit. ii. 3) StafioXoi, false accusers. But 
 as a proper name, it belongs only to the 
 one arch-fiend. Demons many there are. 
 Spirits foul and false are often mentioned, 
 and this word is translated unhappily, by 
 the word devil, in our English Bibles. 
 There is, however, but one devil. He is 
 symbolized by the great red dragon. 
 
 The suitableness of the figure is very 
 apparent, as we are familiar with the 
 serpent in the same application. In na- 
 ture, the animal called dragon, differs 
 very little from the serpent : and this 
 last was the instrument of Satan in the 
 original attack upon man. Indeed, the 
 words are interchanged : for the dragon 
 of verse 3, is called serpent in verses 9 
 and 15. "That old serpent, — the ser- 
 pent cast out of his mouth waters." 
 
 But as the serpent was merely the 
 visible instrument which the devil used 
 to deceive and ruin our first parents ; so 
 the same evil spirit, called the dragon or 
 serpent, employs the Roman govern- 
 ment as his agent to harass and torment 
 the spiritual seed of the woman. This 
 arch-fiend refuses no instrument that may 
 be made available. A serpent, Imperial 
 Babylon, Imperial Rome, a horde of 
 French Illuminees, an ungodly philo- 
 sopher, poet or historian ; any thing he 
 accepts that may conceal his own native 
 hideousness, and within and from behind 
 which he may succeed in injuring the 
 saints of God. Herod was but the in- 
 strument of Satan, when he sought the 
 young child's life : Babylon carried cap- 
 tives the Jews, but Diabolus ruled her 
 tyrannical movements : pagan Rome 
 sluiced the best blood of the empire in 
 ten general persecutions, but the great 
 red dragon was incarnate in her : and 
 so here, the same seven-headed, ten- 
 horned, and ten-crowned government, 
 is the instrument : still it is that old ser- 
 pent, the devil, that persecutes the true 
 church of God 
 
 Having by anticipation settled the 
 question as to the belligerents in this 
 war, let us now proceed with the con- 
 text which describes the war itself. 
 
 Verses 7-9. " And there was war in 
 heaven : Michael and his angels fought 
 against the dragon, and the dragon 
 fought and his angels, and prevailed 
 not; neither was their place found any 
 more in heaven. And the great dragon 
 was cast out, that old serpent called the 
 devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the 
 whole world : he was cast out into the 
 earth, and his angels were cast out with 
 him." 
 
 It will be observed, that the seat of 
 this war is the ecclesiastical heaven. 
 From the period of the apostacy of Rome, 
 Satan used the corrupt antichristian 
 church as his leading instrument in op- 
 pressing the true body of pure worship- 
 pers. From the time that Boniface III. 
 was declared universal bishop, the devil 
 made the apostate church his defences, 
 Rome his head-quarters, and the Vatican 
 his citadel. Thence he sent forth his 
 
204 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 dark legions of error to execute the de- 
 crees of a gloomy superstition, and break 
 down the spirit of the nations into a base 
 and tyrannical subserviency. For more 
 than nine hundred years his chief in- 
 struments of warfare against the saints 
 of God were the ecclesiastical powers in 
 their various branches. Here was the 
 fiend incarnate. Ecclesiastical dictation 
 governed the world. Crowns were empty 
 baubles, until anointed, and placed upon 
 the head by the Pope's authority. Even 
 the imperial purple had no lustre, until 
 the holy chrism permitted its brilliancy to 
 shine forth. Oppression was ecclesias- 
 tical. Civil government was merely the 
 Pope's hangman and the devil's execu- 
 tioner. It is an historical verity, that 
 mankind, during these dark ages, felt 
 little, and little dreaded the tyranny of 
 the civil magistrate. Satan concentrated 
 all his despotism into the leaden sceptre 
 and the iron yoke of the " mother of 
 harlots and abomination of the earth." 
 These weighed down the spirit of the 
 human race. Whatever the civil powers 
 did toward crushing man to the dust, and 
 destroying the seed of the symbolical 
 woman, they did even this by the order 
 of the church, as directed by the devil 
 and his angels. 
 
 It was against these that the Son of 
 God, Michael and his angels, fought. 
 Sustained by his grace and strengthened 
 by his power, the masculine progeny of 
 the woman maintained the unequal but 
 not doubtful conflict. 
 
 But the dragon and his angels pre- 
 vailed not, iffyutfav, had not strength ; 
 that is, to succeed in overpowering and 
 destroying entirely the true church. On 
 the contrary, he was obliged in the end 
 to shift his quarters, so far as direct and 
 active assault was concerned. An eject- 
 ment was brought against them, and they 
 were forced to betake themselves to an- 
 other than mere ecclesiastical agency. 
 The supremacy of despotic rule, which 
 for a long time was acknowledgedly in 
 the Papal power, or ecclesiastical bod//, 
 passed again into the civil authorities. 
 The long war of the investiture was de- 
 termined in favour of the kings or ten 
 horns, and these again became Satan's 
 
 main dependence in crushing the spirit 
 of truth and of freedom. 
 
 Verses 10-12. " And I heard a loud 
 voice, saying in heaven, Now is come 
 salvation, and strength, and the kingdom 
 of our God, and the power of his Christ : 
 for the accuser of our brethren is cast 
 down, which accused them before our 
 God day and night. And they overcame 
 him by the blood of the Lamb and by 
 the word of their testimony : and they 
 loved not their lives unto the death. 
 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye 
 that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabi- 
 ters of the earth and of the sea, for the 
 devil is come down unto you, having 
 great wrath, because he knoweth that he 
 hath but a short time." 
 
 1. The locality of this great voice first 
 claims our attention. It is within the 
 ecclesiastical world. The true church, 
 it will be remembered, is geographically 
 and nominally included within the great 
 catholic body. But this is manifestly 
 not the voice of this body, but of the 
 followers of Michael. 
 
 2. It is the exulting language of the 
 Protestant Reformers, who dared to ex- 
 press their joy upon the defeat of the 
 Papal machinations. 
 
 3. The means of these victories thus 
 celebrated. Two are mentioned. They 
 conquered through the blood of the 
 Lamb, by the great doctrine of atone- 
 ment. And, that this was the leading 
 doctrine of Luther, Zuingle, Calvin, and 
 others, through which they preached 
 salvation by free grace, in opposition to 
 the Papal system of conditional salva- 
 tion, all their writings testify. 
 
 4. The apostle next notices the cheer- 
 ful self-devotion of the Reformers. They 
 counted not their lives dear unto them- 
 selves, but willingly exposed them to 
 the fierce opposition of their foes. 
 
 5. This partial destruction, this limit- 
 ation of the Papal authority, this eject- 
 ment of Satan from ecclesiastical power 
 and success by it, is cause of joy to the 
 true church, — the heavens and their in- 
 habitants. The term is changed to the 
 plural, that we may distinguish it from 
 the symbolical heaven of the first verse. 
 And who knows not the joy which per- 
 
LECTURE XXIII. 
 
 205 
 
 vaded the reformed ranks, when the 
 Papal arm was c ippled ? when that 
 power was no longer able to carry all 
 before it ? 
 
 6. But whilst as members of the true 
 church, the witnesses rejoiced at the 
 change, yet as members of the civil 
 community, they with all other dwellers 
 of the Roman e rth, or citizens of the 
 various kingdom; , are assured of coming 
 calamities, from the diabolical policy, 
 that would now more than ever be 
 practised in the civil departments. The 
 political diplomacy and standing army 
 system, more fully gone into since the 
 wane of direct ecclesiastical power, and 
 the stern and strong governments exer- 
 cised in modern Europe, are a full com- 
 ment upon this language. This period, 
 when Satan ceases to be an ecclesiastic 
 and becomes a politician, is to be but of 
 short duration ; yet during its continu- 
 ance, he will display great energy, great 
 wrath, — $u(jtov, rather spirit, life. And 
 we think the history of modern diplo- 
 macy and wars answers to the prophetic 
 delineation. 
 
 7. Satan's political career will be but 
 short, comparatively. For nine hundred 
 years, he played the monk, — he ruled 
 as the head of the church ; but as a 
 politician, he will flourish little over 
 three hundred. 
 
 Let us pause for a moment, and in- 
 quire, how the facts have been since the 
 Reformation, — how are they now ? Are 
 not all the kingdoms or governments 
 despotic? Are they not hostile to Chris- 
 tianity as a pure religion ? Is not Chris- 
 tianity viewed in every one of them, and 
 treated simply as an instrument of bol- 
 stering up their power? In Protestant 
 England, incomparably the least diabo- 
 lical of them all, how is it? Whilst it 
 is true, that there is a large body of pure 
 Christians, real and sincere worship- 
 pers of God, is it not equally true, that 
 the government views religion merely 
 as a part of state policy? Would not 
 the monarch, who is the head of the 
 establishment, crush all the dissenting 
 churches at a blow, if it could be done 
 with interest to the crown ? Does it 
 not support Romanism in Canada ? and 
 
 did it not, through the East India go- 
 vernment, until forced by public senti- 
 ment at home, oppose the introduction 
 of Christianity into Hindostan ? Does 
 it not at this hour sustain, in some sense, 
 paganism in that country? Could it not 
 by a simple order put an end for ever 
 to the bloody rites and horrible immola- 
 tions of the suttee ? But let us cite 
 verse 13. "And when the dragon saw 
 that he was cast unto the earth, he per- 
 secuted the woman which brought forth 
 the man child." 
 
 Is it not written in the face of Euro- 
 pean history, that the ten horns are hos- 
 tile to every thing but the state religion? 
 Have they not always been throwing 
 obstacles in the way of strictly evan- 
 gelical bodies? Have they not clearly 
 discovered the republican tendency of 
 pure Christianity 1 Look at Scotland, 
 France, Geneva and other parts of 
 Switzerland, and say whether the dra- 
 gon is not even now persecuting the 
 woman. 
 
 Vei'se 14. " And to the woman were 
 given two wings of a great eagle, that 
 she might fly into the wilderness, into 
 her place, where she is nourished for a 
 time, and times, and half a time, from the 
 face of the serpent." 
 
 Here is described in language not 
 easily misunderstood, the retreat of the 
 true church from the face of her tor- 
 mentors. She is obliged to fly, and 
 God furnishes her with wings, the means 
 of escape. And how often have the 
 Protestants taken refuge in mountain 
 cliffs, and in dens and caves of the 
 earth, that they might worship God their 
 redeemer ! How often have they assem- 
 bled by flight, literally in the wilderness ! 
 Though, as before said, the desolate 
 state is the chief thing intended to be 
 represented. 
 
 Fond fancy has often applied this 
 prophecy to the wilderness-land which 
 we inhabit, and the fact of its having 
 been a place of refuge for multitudes of 
 oppressed Protestants. This we have 
 long treated merely as a pleasing fancy. 
 But a full and candid examination of 
 the language, with a special eye to its 
 chronology, has constrained us to look 
 
206 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 more favourably upon it. Let us note 
 particulars. 
 
 It is an historical verity, that the 
 American colonies, now the United 
 States, were originally planted by re- 
 fugees from the oppressions of Europe — 
 oppressions by the civil government, on 
 account of religious opinions. The 
 Huguenot from France ; the Scottish 
 refugee from Holland, with the Hol- 
 lander himself; the English Indepen- 
 dent ; and the Scotch and English Pres- 
 byterians — these were the masculine 
 progeny of the woman, whom the devil 
 incarnate in European despotism forced 
 from their native lands ; but whom God 
 furnished with two wings of a great 
 eagle, by which they were wafted above 
 the Atlantic billows, and the more relent- 
 less billows of antichristian persecution, 
 to this wilderness. Prior to most of 
 these, the heroic Admiral Coligni, and 
 the noble Prince of Conde, had planned 
 and partly executed the planting of a 
 Protestant colony of Huguenots on the 
 Florida coast. The time for this had 
 scarcely arrived. God required the pre- 
 cious blood of these illustrious men to 
 seal the damnation of the French mo- 
 narchy on the eve of St. Bartholomew's 
 day. It remained, at a later period, for 
 some of their survivors in the same 
 glorious cause, to throw in the richest 
 blood of France upon our southern 
 shores. 
 
 Look at the dates of these events. 
 See whether the chronology of inspira- 
 tion and of history agree. The former 
 requires the colonies to be planted after 
 the maiming of the Papacy by the Pro- 
 testant Reformation. This reformation 
 began in 1517 ; its advocates were de- 
 nominated Protestants in 1529, from 
 their protest at the Diet of Spires. In 
 1530, the league of Smalkalde was 
 established ; in 1552 the peace of Pas- 
 sau; in 1598, the edict of Nantes passed 
 by Henry IV. of France gave rest to 
 the French Protestants. But there was 
 not a full and permanent settlement 
 until the glorious Revolution of 1688. 
 
 America was discovered in 1492, 
 when Martin Luther was just nine years 
 old. The colony of Massachusetts bay 
 
 was planted by the Plymouth pilgrims, 
 December 22d, 1620. 
 
 Do not chronology and history seem 
 both to say that this land was discovered 
 and prepared as a place of refuge from 
 the devices of Satan, operating in the 
 arbitrary governments of Europe? 
 
 Again, — the mode of her escape is to 
 be observed ; by eag! ;s' wings. The 
 true church often fled from her foes and 
 escaped destruction. But on this occa- 
 sion only is she furn shed with wings, 
 as if to lift her up wh :n no other means 
 are left. The fact here affirmed seems 
 well adapted to poin', out her escape to 
 a retreat otherwise inaccessible. Other 
 retreats she sought and found without 
 these aids ; but now a refuge is provided, 
 which she cannot reach unless wafted on 
 the pinions of a great eagle. Driven to 
 the utmost verge of Europe and just 
 about to perish in the ocean's wave, she 
 is supplied with such agency as enables 
 her to seek a resting-place in the distant 
 wilderness. 
 
 Now it is not necessary to maintain, 
 that all the true church fled thus ; but a 
 portion did. Nor do we say that the 
 natural wilderness is the main thing. 
 On the contrary, it is the morally deso- 
 late state, the afflicted condition, that is 
 chiefly intended. " O that I had wings 
 like a dove ! for then would I fly away 
 and be at rest." (Ps. lv. 6.) And God 
 says of his church, " I bare you on 
 eagles' wings, and brought you unto my- 
 self." (Exodus xix. 4.) The means 
 of escape is the thing implied in our 
 text, and this was the shipping, by 
 whose wings they are wafted to our 
 shores. 
 
 Yet after all, who shall say that the 
 Spirit of God, whose eye sees the end 
 from the beginning, designed in this lan- 
 guage, no reference to the eagle banner 
 of the American Republic? What rule 
 of sound interpretation is there to pre- 
 clude this? And if there be none, are 
 we not bound, by the rule which com- 
 mands us to take out of every writing 
 all that can be deduced from it by fair 
 criticism, in consistency with the subject- 
 matter discussed, to admit this very al- 
 lusion ? 
 
LECTURE XXIII. 
 
 207 
 
 Should we not therefore, allow that 
 the Spirit of Omnipotence glanced for- 
 ward and saw the persecuted Protestants 
 flitting across the broad ocean, — saw an 
 eagle-eyed ministry watching over the 
 seed of the woman, and the outspread 
 wings of the star-spangled banner che- 
 rishing the pure principles of religious 
 and civil freedom in this western land ? 
 Who shall say that this eagle of the 
 mountain cliff, commissioned as the mes- 
 senger of Jehovah, may not, in the day 
 of his appointment, dart across the wide 
 Atlantic, strike his talons to the heart 
 of Antichrist, and free at once the church 
 and the world from the triple bondage 
 of tyranny ! 
 
 Verses 15-17. " And the serpent 
 cast out of his mouth water as a flood 
 after the woman, that he might cause 
 her to be carried away of the flood. And 
 the earth helped the woman, and the earth 
 opened her mouth and swallowed up the 
 flood which the dragon cast out of his 
 mouth. And the dragon was wroth with 
 the woman, and went to make war with 
 the remnant of her seed, which keeps 
 the commandment of God, and have the 
 testimony of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Let us keep our eye on chronology. 
 The matters here described are subse- 
 quent to the eagle flight of the woman. 
 Let us also remember, that the serpent 
 is Diabolus, and that he at this juncture 
 is using the horns of the great Roman 
 beast, as his chief instrument of injury 
 to the true church. 
 
 The word translated flood, is the 
 same as that used in Matt. vii. 25, " the 
 floods came and beat upon that house 
 and it fell." It means a large mass of 
 water, confined by banks and rolling 
 along with great rapidity and force. 
 The banks are often undermined, and 
 whatever is upon them falls into the turbid 
 stream. Can we imagine a more striking 
 symbol to shadow forth that philosophy, 
 and those corrupt opinions, which under- 
 mine the edifice of individual and social 
 morality ; and cause the house to totter 
 before we are aware of the danger? 
 Thus infidelity sweeps offthe whole struc- 
 ture. Civil government and religious in- 
 stitutions sink in the boiling eddy of the 
 
 foul stream which issues out of the mouth 
 of the devil. Here is a most admirable 
 description of that horrible system of un- 
 godly philosophy which deluged Europe, 
 and which more especially overwhelmed 
 the people of France. Diabolus did not 
 design to destroy Popery nor despotism 
 with it. His aim was to destroy the 
 religion of the Bible and the morality 
 which springs from it, and so to engulf 
 the nations in a flood of anarchy ; well 
 knowing, that from its wild waters must 
 rise up an iron-handed oppression. 
 
 We are here taught, that after Satan 
 shall have been compelled to abandon 
 the hope of tyrannizing over the nations 
 by means of the ecclesiastical monarchy 
 as his chief instrument, he will betake 
 himself to the civil governments again ; 
 and during the period of his dependence 
 on them, he will use all manner of false 
 doctrines to corrupt its members and de- 
 stroy the foundations of society. 
 
 Among these may be named the all- 
 pervading heresy, known as Pelagian — 
 which is the grand error of the Papacy. 
 By this radical falsehood has the church 
 ever been tormented ; for it is the root 
 and foundation of all heresies. It be- 
 guiled man in paradise, and assuming a 
 hundred shapes it continues to lead him 
 down to perdition. 
 
 But the flood from the serpent's mouth 
 is a peculiar modification of this funda- 
 mental error. These turbid waters, are 
 the vulgar infidelity of Voltaire and the 
 French school ; the polite system of Bo- 
 lingbroke, Hume and the English school ; 
 the vile ribaldry of Paine, and the Anglo- 
 American school, if school it can well 
 be called, where stupidity teaches igno- 
 rance. All these came forth, foul and 
 fetid, from the mouth of Diabolus, and 
 were directed against the true church. 
 
 It is perfectly obvious that all these 
 forms of infidelity coalesce in one end, — 
 the destruction of the church of God. 
 And it is equally clear, that they have 
 a foreign origin ; we mean as to the 
 visible agency. Multitudes of native 
 Americans have been drawn into the 
 troubled whirlpool of their unbridled 
 abominations. But still, the devil, who 
 is the real author of them all, has en- 
 
208 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 listed the various interests of despotism 
 in Europe to facilitate his operations : 
 and he must be already infected with 
 the virus of this plague, who cannot see 
 a systematic assault carried on against 
 this republic, by foreign powers, through 
 the agency of a corrupt and diabolical 
 
 France, embraced, with avidity, athe- 
 istic doctrines ; they monopolized them, 
 as it were, for a time : and these doc- 
 trines very soon produced their legiti- 
 mate fruits ; upon which they themselves 
 and the other nations of Europe, became 
 terrified. Satan had proceeded too fast : 
 
 philosophy. War is indeed declared } and the fearful consequences of infidelity 
 openly against the Christian ministry in upon the civil affairs of the world, pro- 
 this land and against the church of duced a tremendous reaction. Mankind 
 God ; but under profession of warm at- ; stood aghast. The nations combined ; 
 
 tachment to religion. These men appro- 
 bate religion, but never disclose what 
 their religious belief is. We may read 
 their productions again and again, and 
 find nothing that would commit them to 
 
 atheism was checked by force, and the 
 world was saved from a suicidal grave. 
 Thus the earth helped the woman in 
 Europe. So was it in our own country. 
 The flood in some degree reached us : 
 
 any one of the peculiar distinguishing , but God had preserved our Washington. 
 
 doctrines of the gospel. Their religion 
 must be expressed in terms so broad and 
 general as not to offend Christian, Turk 
 or Jew ; angel, man or devil. The effort 
 here and now, like that of Voltaire and 
 his accomplices, is directed to this one 
 
 He stood firm at the helm, and steered 
 the noble vessel safely through the break- 
 ers, the eddies, and the whirlpools of an 
 infidel philosophy. 
 
 Verse 17. But, it will be asked, why 
 was the dragon so wroth at the woman 
 
 point ; to engraft their infidelity upon j and her seed, if it was the earth that in- 
 the popular element, — to infect the poor ! terposed ? The answer is simple. It was 
 
 and unlearned with their poison : well 
 knowing, that if they can make this 
 people believe that infidelity is a friend 
 to freedom, infidelity will become the 
 popular religion. Hence they are ex- 
 
 the woman's seed, the sincere worship- 
 pers of God, scattered up and down 
 through the nations, that constituted "the 
 salt of the earth," and saved the mass 
 from putrefaction. But for the moral 
 
 trcmely anxious to muzzle the pulpit ; ! stamina of the really pious people, there 
 and the scheme for accomplishing this had not been nerve and power in the 
 is, to make infidelity a part of politics ; I world to resist the fearful onset. These 
 then of course, the clergy must not ex- \ things are most evident. Can any one 
 
 pose it, for that would be interfering 
 with politics. 
 
 But these schemes for our destruction, 
 will be disappointed. The watchmen 
 on Zion's walls will lift up their voice, 
 point out the danger and the remedy ; 
 and the freemen of this land, will raise 
 
 be ignorant of the fact, that Britain was 
 the grand barrier against which this flood 
 spent its force in vain ; and from which 
 its billows rolled back upon their source? 
 But it was the vast body of real Protest- 
 ants, the male children of the woman, 
 that made Britain the deliverer of Europe 
 
 up an insuperable barrier to ward off* from the wars of infidelity. Hence the 
 
 these foul waters of death, that they may 
 not undermine the glorious fabric of our 
 political rights. 
 
 Verse 16. The earth helped the wo- 
 man, by drinking the waters of infidelity 
 
 wrath of Diabolus, and his warring with 
 the remnant of her seed. This conflict 
 now rages. The dragon even now 
 lashes himself to madness against the 
 pure church. His head erect, turns in 
 
 from the dragon's mouth. But is it con- ' all directions, and his glaring eyeballs 
 
 ceivable, that the despotic powers of 
 Europe, under satanic influence, would 
 knowingly yield to the woman any aid? 
 If not, what is meant by this 1 The 
 truths of history respond. The men 
 who held political power, especially in 
 
 watch the woman and her seed. Even 
 now, the eagle-eye of the American 
 church is upon him; the piercing glance 
 of her ministry meets him, and he 
 blenches and quails : and thus will he 
 be kept in check until the battle is over, 
 
LECTURE XXIV. 
 
 209 
 
 and he shall be chained and imprisoned 
 for a thousand years. \ 
 
 In conclusion, we adduce a few prac- 
 tical thoughts. 
 
 1. All oppressive rule is through the 
 agency of Satan. Government itself, 
 civil and ecclesiastical, is from God ; its 
 abuse and corruption are from the evil 
 one. 
 
 The degeneracy of the Christian minis- 
 try, and their degradation to mere time- 
 serving politicians, is also from him. 
 Every minister of religion who abandons 
 the Redeemer's service, and devotes him- 
 self to political intrigue, ought to be cut 
 off from the sacred office. Where do 
 we find the outcry against ministers aim- 
 ing at a union of church and state, but 
 among those who have shown a dispo- 
 sition to fall into the wake of the red 
 dragon? Upon their own heads be the 
 censure of such a charge. 
 
 2. Let us remember that the dragon 
 is in the seats of despotism. Hence 
 are to arise the persecutors of the true 
 church. Popery is indeed the secret 
 instigator, but the civil powers are to 
 make war against the witnesses and 
 slay them. It is our duty to guard our 
 shores, that Antichrist light not upon 
 them, that he seize not our government. 
 
 3. Infidelity is the present hope of 
 Satan : his present instrument of assault. 
 He is now labouring earnestly to work 
 it into the web of politics. The master- 
 stroke on which his efforts all now con- 
 centrate in our country, is to consoli- 
 date such an interest with his followers, 
 that they shall be courted by the two 
 leading political parties. Should this 
 occur, and should either party succeed 
 in winning over to its ranks the anti- 
 religious, the infidel, the agrarian, the 
 anti-clergy party, — whichever may suc- 
 ceed in such a wooing, most assuredly 
 will find God and his spiritual church 
 opposed to them. In deep sincerity and 
 with all becoming freedom, should we 
 entreat those, whose duty calls them to 
 public offices, to guard against such an 
 unhappy state of things. We fondlv 
 hope, that both the great parties of our 
 country will denounce the spirit of wick- 
 ed, reckless infidelity, will rise in the ma- 
 
 27 
 
 jesty of truth, and crush the spawn of 
 this serpent, ere it hatches into life its 
 hellish brood. Let them bruise Satan 
 under their feet. It is his imps mingling 
 in political strife that endanger the well- 
 being of our country. Away with agra- 
 rianism, infidelity and atheism. Then 
 our political horizon, freed from the vile 
 exhalations which Diabolus engenders, 
 will be pure for the breath of freemen : 
 then our political contentions will be the 
 emulation of brothers, and all end in the 
 good of the republic. 
 
 May God give us wisdom to build on 
 the solid r.ock of his own truth our state 
 edifice ; then let the flood beat as it may, 
 we shall only laugh at the passing tor- 
 rents as they roll and spend their fury in 
 vain, against our impenetrable bulwarks. 
 
 LECTURE XXIV. 
 
 THE SECULAR AND THE ECCLESIASTICAL 
 BEASTS. 
 
 Rev. xiii. 1-13. 
 
 Daniel's vision of the four beasts 
 coming up out of the sea, after it was 
 violently agitated by the four winds of 
 heaven, exhibits, as we have seen, the 
 rise of the four great monarchies from 
 the ocean of human population, excited 
 by the violence of corrupt passions. 
 These monarchies though diverse are 
 yet one : in form and accident differing 
 slightly ; in life and spirit one and the 
 same. The vision of John described in 
 this chapter, is manifestly identical as to 
 its subject, differing as to some accidents. 
 
 Verse 12: "And I stood upon the 
 sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise 
 out of the sea, having seven heads and 
 ten horns, and upon his horns ten 
 crowns, and upon his head the name of 
 blasphemy. And the beast which I saw 
 was like unto a leopard, and his feet 
 were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth 
 as the mouth of a lion ; and the dragon 
 gave him his power and his seat and 
 great authority." 
 
 The first thing that attracts notice 
 
210 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 here, is the common origin of this with 
 the beasts of Daniel. They come up 
 out of the agitated sea : tyranny springs 
 up from the midst of society, rendered 
 boisterous and turbid by the agency of 
 the prince of the powers of the air. 
 
 They are all (*)?ipia) beasts of prey : 
 however diverse, yet one in spirit. The 
 one beast of John comprehends the lead- 
 ing characteristics of the named three 
 of Daniel. There is here the boldness 
 and courage of the Babylonian lion, the 
 rou"h barbarity of the Medo-Persian 
 bear, the wily activity of the Grecian 
 leopard. Here are also the ten horns of 
 Daniel's nondescript. Now it is settled 
 beyond reasonable doubt, that this mon- 
 ster of the ancient prophet is a symbol 
 of the Roman empire; and with equal 
 certainty do we conclude that this Apo- 
 calyptic monster is the Roman civil 
 power. 
 
 We are, moreover, constrained to ad- 
 mit the substantial identity of the entire 
 four ; the latter embodying the visible 
 peculiarities and the essential spirit of 
 the whole. This unity, we have said, 
 is set forth in the great image of our 
 leading vision. The ten toes of the 
 monster man are the ten horns of the 
 monster beast. 
 
 Let us next observe the points of 
 diversity. 
 
 1. He has seven heads. So was it 
 said of the dragon (xii. 3) ; and also of 
 the scarlet-coloured beast (xvii. 3), on 
 which is seated the woman arrayed in 
 purple and scarlet. But in verse 9, we 
 are told that the seven heads " are seven 
 mountains on which the woman sitteth," 
 which points out Rome so distinctly that 
 all hesitancy is annihilated. No one 
 can doubt. These hills of the Imperial 
 City are, the Palatine, the Capitoline, 
 the Quirinal, the Esquiline, the Viminal, 
 and the Aventine. 
 
 We are further informed (xviii. 10) 
 that these hills are symbolical of seven 
 kings. This last universal monarchy 
 shall exist in seven different forms. Nor 
 can it be insisted that these forms shall 
 co-exist ; no more than the presentation 
 of the four beasts to Daniel at the same 
 time make it necessary for us to sup- 
 
 pose that they all must flourish simulta- 
 neously. On' the contrary, though seen 
 in vision at once, they exist by succes- 
 sion. Here also, the heads are forms 
 or modifications of the one supi-eme des- 
 potism. Accordant with this is the very 
 general agreement of commentators, that 
 these seven heads are the seven forms of 
 government which have existed in Rome: 
 the Kings, the Consuls, the Dictators, 
 the Decemvirs, the Military Tribunes, 
 the Emperors, the Patricians. 
 
 2. " Upon his heads the name of blas- 
 phemy." Each forehead has blasphemy 
 inscribed upon it. Each of these forms 
 of government is corrupt, and bears 
 upon its very exterior the evidence of 
 opposition to the true God, and the pu- 
 rity of his religion. Such is the histo- 
 rical truth. Rome has always been 
 idolatrous. For a short period indeed 
 under the emperors, after Constantine, 
 polytheism and idol worship were sup- 
 pressed ; but previously to that, the em- 
 perors favoured idolatry, and afterwards 
 fell back, and sold themselves to the 
 same abominations. 
 
 Now the source of this power is 
 pointed out. The dragon gave it to 
 him : Diabolus formed this city and 
 government for himself. He bestowed 
 upon the government its wisdom, cun- 
 ning, energy, and policy. 
 
 3. Another point of diversity is the 
 wounded head, which was again re- 
 stored. Verse 3. " And I saw, as it 
 were one of his heads wounded to death ; 
 and his deadly wound was healed ; and 
 all the world wondered after the beast." 
 One of these forms of ruling power was 
 wounded ; as a victim is bled for sacri- 
 fice, as an animal is stabbed in order to 
 slaughter it. It was seen to bleed, and 
 that nearly to destruction. This form 
 was well-nigh abrogated ; but before it 
 was utterly ruined, relief was obtained, 
 and it was restored. Here again history 
 must be the interpreter of prophecy. 
 Which then of the seven forms of go- 
 vernment in the Roman state was it, 
 that was suppressed for a time, and 
 again revived 1 Which head was pierced, 
 but did not bleed to utter ruin? 
 
 The wounded head is the sixth or 
 
LECTURE XXIV. 
 
 211 
 
 imperial form. Upon the death of the 
 great Theodosius, in the year 395, the 
 empire was divided between his sons ; 
 the eastern section being conferred by 
 his will upon Arcadius, and the western 
 upon Honorius. This might almost be 
 considered a dangerous wound. But in 
 476, as we have seen, the western em- 
 peror was deposed by Odoacer, who pro- 
 claimed himself king of Italy. Appa- 
 rently as to the Latin or western empire, 
 with which we have to do, the head was 
 dead ; but it was not so in reality. The 
 western half of the body was separated 
 from the imperial head, and death must 
 soon have ensued. But after seventeen 
 years, the kingdom of Odoacer passed 
 away, and that of Theodoric, the Ostro- 
 goth, took its place. This too was but 
 of short duration ; for about 553, under 
 the renowned Belisarius and Narses, the 
 generals of Justinian I., emperor of the 
 East, Rome and Italy were again re- 
 duced into subjection to the imperial 
 power, and thus the wounded head was 
 healed. The fame of Justinian's arms 
 revived the recollection of the old Roman 
 glory, and the influence of his code of 
 laws arrested the attention and com- 
 manded the admiration of the whole 
 empire : all the Roman world wondered 
 after the beast. 
 
 Verse 4. " And they worshipped the 
 dragon which gave power unto the beast; 
 and they worshipped the beast, saying, 
 Who is like unto the beast? Who, is 
 able to make war with him?" 
 
 All over the empire a fawning sub- 
 serviency was manifested toward the 
 tyrannical power, and through this, to 
 Diabolus, who invested the emperor with 
 this power, and by his influences in the 
 hearts of wicked men, sustained the 
 throne. This was indeed ever the case ; 
 but peculiarly so was it upon this occa- 
 sion of the great restoration of the glory 
 of the empire. It was peculiarly so also, 
 fifty-three years afterwards, when Pho- 
 cas created Boniface III. Universal Bi- 
 shop. The doctrine still maintained in 
 the empire of unconditional submission, 
 is as old as Rome. The most servile 
 adulation and base flattery was paid by 
 the bishops of Rome and the mass of 
 
 the people to the very basest of tyrants. 
 And it is worthy of particular notice 
 that his power in making war is especi- 
 ally the object of wonder and veneration. 
 
 Verses 5, 6. " And there was given 
 unto him a mouth speaking great things 
 and blasphemies, and power was given 
 him to continue forty and two months. 
 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy 
 against God, to blaspheme his name, 
 and his tabernacle, and them that dwell 
 in heaven." 
 
 The source whence this power for evil 
 is derived to him is not here particularly 
 mentioned. That was already done in 
 verse 2. The dragon invested him with 
 authority. The two great blasphemies 
 are, the divine right claimed for kings, 
 and the power of appointing bishops. 
 The scripture account of absolute des- 
 potism, is, that Satan gave it, and the 
 blasphemous slander of God is the ar- 
 gument by which the doctrine of legiti- 
 macy is sustained from the Bible. " All 
 power is of God ; the powers that be 
 are ordained of God," therefore iron- 
 handed despotism is a divine institution. 
 This is the conclusion of its friends, but 
 the word of truth proclaims it to be from 
 below. The same kind of logic will 
 prove the devil's own usurpations to be 
 right and proper. " It avails," says Dr. 
 McLeod, " Beelzebub, the prince, as well 
 as any of his servants or instruments. 
 Satan is powerful ; there is no power 
 but of God ; therefore it is wrong to re- 
 sist the adversary." 
 
 The fallacy here lies in a false as- 
 sumption. Paul says, " the powers that 
 be," s|outfjai, that is, the civil government, 
 is an ordinance of God ; but the assump- 
 tion is, that he means arbitrary power, 
 might without right. This is the logic 
 by which Diabolus has blasphemed the 
 Creator for a score of centuries. 
 
 The other blasphemy is, the civil 
 ruler claiming to appoint the spiritual 
 teachers. This was done pre-eminently 
 by Phocas. Now God has never given 
 that power to the civil magistrate, and 
 whenever he assumes it, it is an arrogant 
 intrenchment upon divine prerogative, it 
 is a blaspheming of God. His church 
 is not of this world, and right to exer- 
 
212 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 cise the ruling and teaching offices in it, 
 can never be derived from the govern- 
 ments of this world. 
 
 Our second remark on these verses 
 refers to the extent of duration ; forty 
 and two months. Continuance of being 
 is not designated here ; but only con- 
 tinuance of action in opposition to the 
 pure church. The word, to continue, 
 is not justified by the Greek text: it is 
 simply to act, — ffoiTJtfou. It is the same 
 word which in verse 4, is translated to 
 make, to carry on, to practise : and 
 marks the period during which the civil 
 authorities of the empire will carry out 
 their oppressive power derived from 
 Satan, under his instigation, for the in- 
 jury of the church. 
 
 Now that the ten horns, the civil 
 kingdoms of the Western Roman Empire, 
 have acted out these principles for the 
 last twelve centuries, we aver, but cannot 
 here go into the detail. It must be left 
 to the reader of history. 
 
 One more observation is required on 
 these two verses. These governments 
 have blasphemed God's tabernacle and 
 its worshippers, in that they have in ten 
 thousand forms, interfered and corrupted 
 religion, and traduced the sincere and 
 faithful servants of the Most High. 
 Every persecution which they have car- 
 ried on, was allied with this blasphemy : 
 for they justified it by false accusation 
 and corruption. 
 
 Verses 7, 8. " And it was given 
 unto him to make wamvith the saints, 
 and to overcome them : and power was 
 given unto him over all kindreds, and 
 tongues, and nations. And all that 
 dwell upon the earth shall worship him, 
 whose names are not written in the 
 book of life of the Lamb slain from the 
 foundation of the world." 
 
 The war with the saints is the same 
 as the war against the witnesses ; and 
 the universality of his dominion is, of 
 course, limited to the Latin earth. All 
 Europe acknowledged the supremacy of 
 the emperor, and paid homage to him ; 
 except the true worshippers of God. 
 These men would not acknowledge the 
 divine right of arbitrary despotism, 
 whilst they always admitted that civil 
 
 government is of God. Nor did they 
 ever allow the right of the emperor and 
 kings to dictate in matters of religion. 
 The elect of God, — those " whose names 
 were written, from the foundation of the 
 world, in the book of life of the slain 
 Lamb," are excepted from the univer- 
 sality of slavish and debasing adulation, 
 especially in religious things. 
 
 There is here a slight infelicity in our 
 English translation. It would seem 
 from the arrangement of the words, as 
 if the phrase " from the foundation of 
 the world," was designed to mark the 
 time at which the Lamb was slain ; 
 whereas it refers to the period when 
 their names were written in his book of 
 life. This infelicity has occasioned a 
 most uncouth comment on the passage. 
 The question arises,— how was the 
 Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world ? It has been answered that he 
 was slain in the divine purpose. Cut 
 look at chap. xvii. 8, " and they that 
 dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose 
 names were not written in the book of 
 life from the foundation of the world." 
 Clearly the period marked is not when 
 the Lamb was slain, but iclien the names 
 were written in the book of life. 
 
 The precise matter affirmed is, that 
 these registered soldiers of the cross, 
 whose names were written from eternity 
 in the Lamb's book of life, shall not 
 worship the beast, but shall lift up the 
 words of their testimony against him. Ac- 
 cordingly, as we have already seen, there 
 were during all that period, and are yet, 
 great numbers of determined and self- 
 devoted men in the church, whose voices 
 were raised against the tyranny of the 
 Pope, the emperor, and the devil. 
 
 Verse 9, 10. " If any man have an 
 ear to hear, let him hear. He that lead- 
 eth into captivity, shall go into captivity ; 
 he that killeth with the sword, must be 
 killed with the sword. Here is the pa- 
 tience and the faith of the saints." 
 
 There is here, first, a solemn invita- 
 tion and command not to be heedless. 
 It implies that some are asleep, and can- 
 not for that reason hear. Some are 
 senseless, and have no capacity to under- 
 stand the plainest language. They can 
 
LECTURE XXIV. 
 
 213 
 
 see no possible use in reading and study- 
 ing the Word ; at all events, the prophe- 
 cies are too obscure to be profitable either 
 for reading or explanation. 
 
 Still God will always have some to 
 obey his voice. He has never given 
 up all men to that carelessness and se- 
 curity which shuts its eyes and avers 
 that there is nothing to be seen: stops 
 its ears and affirms that no voice speaks 
 in divine revelation and providence. It 
 is undeniable that the obligation to hear 
 is pressed upon us in this passage. But 
 why is it thrown in just at this juncture, 
 unless because there is special reason in 
 the importance of the subject why men 
 should attend ? Is it not because there 
 is peculiar danger that they will not feel 
 without this particular call to the duty of 
 studying the prophecies, that measure of 
 interest in and devotion to it, which its 
 importance demands? 
 
 The apostle then glances forward to- 
 wards this long and dreary period of 
 Zion's sorrows, and speaks of deliver- 
 ance. Her captors shall themselves be- 
 come captives : her murderers shall 
 themselves perish by the sword. The 
 day of God's vengeance and the year of 
 his redeemed shall come. Here, in this 
 wilderness, where the woman sojourns, 
 is the place for trying the patience and 
 perfecting the faith of the saints, — a pa- 
 tience that wearies out the tormentors of 
 the woman and her seed, — a faith that 
 rises triumphant above the smoke, and 
 extinguishes the death-fires, of a thousand 
 persecutions. 
 
 We proceed to the two-horned beasts 
 of the earth ; in reference to whom we 
 shall have before us, 
 
 I. The beast, with his two horns. 
 II. His practice. 
 
 III. The image of the beast. 
 
 IV. His mark. 
 V. His name. 
 
 VI. The number of his name. 
 
 I. The beast and his horns. Verse 11: 
 " And I beheld another beast coming 
 up out of the earth ; and he had two 
 horns like unto a lamb, and he spake as 
 a dragon." 
 
 The origin is to be observed, — out of 
 the earth, — the Roman empire of the 
 
 West ; not the sea, or the violent com- 
 motions in the state. These may, indeed, 
 be great during the period of his pro- 
 duction; but his ascending, (<xva/3aivov) 
 his rising above and from the earth is 
 not directly owing to civil commotions. 
 He is a wild beast like the other, and 
 exists in the same region : a second fierce 
 universal monarchy. How can this be? 
 Two universal empires in the same world! 
 Is not this a contradiction? Two suns in 
 one system ! Obviously, in the same 
 sense, two universal despotisms cannot 
 cover the same territory. But if one be 
 a civil, and the other a spiritual or eccle- 
 siastical power, the thing is not incon- 
 ceivable. The ten-horned beast of the 
 sea, is Rome 'political, and we will short- 
 ly see that this two-horned beast of the 
 earth, is Rome ecclesiastical. 
 
 Toward the establishment of this po- 
 sition, let us proceed in search of the 
 horns. We must bear in mind, that the 
 horn is a symbol of power, or ruling in- 
 fluence. The two horns here must re- 
 present two kingdoms, or two forms in 
 which the beast exerts its power. These 
 horns are not crowned, as those of the 
 other beast. Can this omission be an 
 accident ? If not, then wherefore was it 
 made? Manifestly, to inform us that they 
 possess the ruling and governing in- 
 fluence, without the formality of coro- 
 nation : they are not truly separate 
 powers independent of the beast ; but 
 they exert their energies under his con- 
 trol. 
 
 These horns are lamb-like, and of 
 course, give the characteristic appear- 
 ance of a lamb to the whole animal ; 
 thus making it a suitable emblem of a 
 spiritual government, professedly on the 
 principles laid down by " the Lamb of 
 God, who taketh away the sins of the 
 world." The animal thus becomes the 
 representation of a mild and gentle 
 power, exercising its reigning influence 
 mainly through two branches, not inde- 
 pendent on the original source of the 
 power. 
 
 But these lamb's horns are, neverthe- 
 less, destined to carry out the sentences 
 of a dragon's mouth. This beast speaks' 
 like a dragon, — like Satan. His teach- 
 
214 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ing, and ruling, and judging, are diabo- 
 lical. Under a mild and unassuming 
 form, and the most amiable professions, 
 he bears down upon the true church with 
 the spirit of the arch-fiend. This leads 
 us to speak of, 
 
 II. His practice. Verses 12, 13, 14: 
 " And he exerciseth all the power of the 
 first beast before him, and causeth the 
 earth and them which dwell therein, to 
 worship the first beast, whose deadly 
 wound was healed. And he doeth great 
 wonders, so that he maketh fire come 
 down from heaven on the earth in the 
 sight of men, and deceiveth them that 
 dwell on the earth, by the means of those 
 miracles which he had power to do in 
 the sight of the beast ; saying to them 
 that dwell on the earth, that they should 
 make an image to the beast, which had 
 the wound by the sword and did live." 
 
 1. We learn that there is a perfect 
 harmony between the two beasts. The 
 ecclesiastical practises the power of the 
 civil, avails himself of it at pleasure : 
 and that not clandestinely, but openly, 
 before him, at his very face. This must 
 be either by concession or constraint. 
 The civil power is openly controlled by 
 the religious : and this, because it is used 
 for their mutual advantage. The cor- 
 rupt church brings the necks of the peo- 
 ple, all over the Roman world, to bow 
 servilely to the yoke of the civil beast. 
 
 2. Observe the arts by which this 
 base bondage is brought about. It is 
 by pretended miracles, — great signs. 
 The entire history of the apostate Ro- 
 man Catholic church is a comment upon 
 this phrase : their thousands of professed 
 miracles locate this part of the prophecy 
 upon them. 
 
 But let us not suppose that the beast 
 has power to work miracles or great 
 signs, so as to make fire come down 
 from heaven in reality. He practises 
 these signs, (iW) in order that, to the 
 end that, he may even make fire come 
 down. His success in bringing it down 
 is quite a different thing, from his suc- 
 cess in deceiving men into the belief 
 that he does it. 
 
 3. For we note again, that he is a 
 deceiver of mankind. This is one of 
 
 the characteristics of Antichrist, as Paul 
 describes him in 2 Thess. ii. 3-10 : 
 " whose coming is after the working of 
 Satan, with all power, and signs and 
 lying wonders ; and with all deceivable- 
 ness of unrighteousness in them that 
 perish ; because they received not the 
 love of the truth, that they might be 
 saved." 
 
 4. His next practice results in the 
 creation of an image of the beast. This 
 ecclesiastical beast so manages to influ- 
 ence the dwellers in the Roman world, 
 that they make an image of the secular 
 beast. 
 
 Before proceeding to the image, it 
 will be best to settle the question as to 
 the meaning of the two lamb-like horns. 
 The beast, we have said, is the universal 
 ecclesiastical empire, the Roman Catho- 
 lic church. It must be distinguished 
 from the Roman civil despotism. It 
 must also be distinguished from the 
 clergy, from the Pope, and from the 
 Papal office. It is that vast body of 
 laymen and ecclesiastics, monks, nuns, 
 bishops, priests, — all bound together by 
 a system of rules and laws, which con- 
 stitute them into one politico-ecclesiastic 
 empire. This huge fabric embraces all 
 the above-named classes. It is a stu- 
 pendous power, which lays hold of the 
 conscience, by its overwhelming influ- 
 ence, through the very conception of its 
 magnitude. It strikes the soul of man 
 with a kind of trembling dread. In 
 view of its tremendous force, he feels 
 unwilling to think for himself; his spirit 
 quails, and his understanding and heart 
 bow. 
 
 He is commanded to think as the 
 church thinks ; and to believe as the 
 church believes. She claims dominion 
 over his faith, and dictates the terms on 
 which she will admit him to heavenly 
 glory. To doubt her infallibility is 
 heresy ; to refuse submission, is damna- 
 tion. This is the beast of the sea, having 
 the horns of a lamb, and the mouth of a 
 dragon. 
 
 As to the two horns, we think Bishop 
 Newton, Bishop Faber, Doctor M'Leod, 
 and others, have given the correct inter- 
 pretation. They are the two great bodies 
 
LECTURE XXIV. 
 
 215 
 
 of the Romish clergy ; the Regulars and 
 the Seculars. 
 
 The former class are called Regulars, 
 from their habit of living under certain pe- 
 culiar systems of rules, — regidce, which 
 they have framed for themselves. They 
 include the vast legions of the monastic 
 orders, or the Monks. In order to un- 
 derstand the matter we must take a 
 glance at, 
 
 MONASTICISM. 
 
 This form of superstition may be 
 traced as far back as Origen, in the 
 third century. He was a very learned 
 man of Alexandria, and much addicted 
 to the Platonic philosophy. We should 
 probably not slander him by the aver- 
 ment, that he was the most successful 
 corrupter of Christianity that ever ap- 
 peared in the church, and yet he was 
 not generally accounted a heretic. Ori- 
 gen did for, rather against Christianity, 
 what the thousand and one German phi- 
 losophers of our day are labouring to 
 accomplish. He introduced into it a mys- 
 ticism which obscured what was plain ; 
 and hid what before was somewhat 
 obscure. " The divine reason" of Plato 
 is probably in its results about the same 
 with the pantheism of the present Ger- 
 man mystics. Origen gave an impulse 
 to this mystical philosophy, and also, 
 from the apprehension that all evil 
 sprang from matter, encouraged its mor- 
 tification by penances and self-inflicted 
 macerations of the flesh. This literal 
 mortification of the flesh, led speedily to 
 a life of retirement, self-denial, and star- 
 vation, under pretence of keeping under 
 the body. 
 
 Among these early hermits, one Paul 
 became much celebrated. He retired 
 into the deserts of Thebais, in Egypt, 
 and lived for ninety years, much like a 
 wild beast, only very religiously. His 
 fame was trumpeted over the world, and 
 operated wonderfully upon the self-right- 
 eous spirit of man, and induced numbers 
 to flee to the deserts to seek celebrity. 
 By the middle of the fourth century, 
 these had multiplied so far that one of 
 their number, named Anthony, conceived 
 
 the idea of collecting them together, and 
 organizing a society of monks : a phrase 
 containing a contradiction, as the word 
 monk signifies alone. Anthony pre- 
 pared a system of very strict rules of 
 austerity, and organized his monastery 
 in Egypt ; and thus began the regular 
 orders, (Mosh. i. 290.) Similar bodies 
 were speedily formed in Palestine, Meso- 
 potamia, and all the East and West 
 also, under various names, and with 
 various modifications of the Regulae. 
 There were the Coenobites, the Eremites 
 or hermits, the Anchorites, the Sarabites, 
 and many others. 
 
 That Satan was at the foundation of 
 all this, it is not difficult to believe : and 
 it is reasonable to suppose that collec- 
 tions of female recluses would be called 
 for. If one sex draw off, it were a phe- 
 nomenon inexplicable in human philoso- 
 phy, if the other would not do the same. 
 Accordingly, nunneries sprang up over 
 Egypt and the world. The corruptions 
 followed which Diabolus intended. 
 
 Monks who acquired reputations for 
 learning and piety, were often selected 
 as bishops. And as congregations in the 
 cities and large towns became wealthy 
 and numerous, and their pastors, of 
 course, acquired influence and fame, 
 these charges became objects of attrac- 
 tion ; and where the spirit of piety had 
 declined, of unholy ambition. For such 
 posts of honour, the monks were often 
 successful competitors. The various 
 monasteries and their inmates were sub- 
 ject to the spiritual authorities of the 
 districts where they resided. 
 
 But about the beginning-of the seventh 
 century a change took place. " The 
 progress of vice among the subordinate 
 rulers and ministers of the church was, 
 at this time, truly deplorable : neither 
 bishops, presbyters, deacons, nor even 
 the cloistered monks, were exempt from 
 the general contagion, as appears from 
 the unanimous confession of all the wri- 
 ters of this century that are worthy of 
 credit. In those very places that were 
 consecrated to piety and the service of 
 God, there was little else to be seen 
 than ghostly ambition, insatiable avarice, 
 pious frauds, intolerable pride, and u 
 
216 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 supercilious contempt of the natural 
 rights of the people, with many other 
 vices still moz'e enormous. There reign- 
 ed also in many places the most bitter 
 dissensions between the bishops and 
 monks. The former had employed the 
 gi-eedy hands of the latter to augment 
 the episcopal treasure, and to dz*aw con- 
 tributions from all parts to support them 
 in their luxury, and the indulgence of 
 their lusts. The monks perceiving this, 
 and also unwilling to serve the bishops 
 in such a dishonourable character, fled 
 for z'efuge to the emperors and princes 
 under whose civil jurisdiction they lived; 
 and afterwards, for their further security, 
 had recourse to the protection of the Ro- 
 man Pontiff". This protection they rea- 
 dily obtained ; and the imperious pon- 
 tiffs, always fond of exerting their au- 
 thority, exempted, by degrees, the mo- 
 nastic oi'dei's from the jurisdiction of the 
 bishops. The monks, in return for this 
 important service, devoted themselves 
 wholly to advance the intez'ests and to 
 maintain the dignity of the Bishop of 
 Rome. They made his cause their own, 
 and repi'esented him as a sort of god to 
 the ignorant multitude, over whom they 
 had gained a prodigious ascendant, by 
 the notion that generally prevailed of 
 the sanctity of the monastic order." 
 (Mosh. i. 453.) 
 
 For six hundred yeaz - s these inde- 
 pendent orders and establishments flou- 
 rished in wealth and influence, religious 
 and political. Many of them were called, 
 by kings and eznperors, to the highest 
 offices of state. Their power was, at. 
 various periods, absolute, both in civil 
 and ecclesiastical affairs. In the former 
 part of the thirteenth century, the old 
 existing orders had become peculiarly 
 indolent, and excessively vicious and 
 licentious ; as indeed they had been, 
 with little interruption, from the begin- 
 ning. Hence their efficiency was dimi- 
 nished. There was a necessity of new 
 instruments to crush the witnesses, and 
 therefore the four new orders of the beg- 
 ging brethren, or mendicant friars, were 
 instituted. This word friar is a cor- 
 ruption of the Latin Jraires, by which 
 the new orders were called. Many of 
 
 these were chartered and encouraged by 
 Pope Innocent III. in 1215 ; but they 
 increased so fast that the land was in 
 danger of being beggared by them. 
 Gregory X., therefoz'e, by the agency of 
 the Council of Lyons, in 1572, limited 
 them to four : the Carmelites, the Her- 
 mits of St. Augustine, the Franciscans, 
 and the Dominicans. (See Mosheim, ii. 
 368, 369.) 
 
 The two last mentioned took the lead ; 
 and by their vow of absolute poverty, 
 and a sanctimonious display of their 
 piety and devotion, became exceedingly 
 popular. " The power of the Doznini- 
 cans and Franciscans surpassed greatly 
 that of the other two ordez's, and ren- 
 dered them singularly conspicuous in 
 the eyes of the world. During thz'ee 
 centuries these two fraternities governed, 
 with almost univez'sal and absolute sway, 
 both state and church, filled the most 
 eminent posts, ecclesiastical and civil, 
 taught in the universities and churches, 
 with an authority before which all oppo- 
 sition was silent, and maintained the 
 pz'etended majesty and prerogatives of 
 the Roman Pontiffs, against kings, 
 princes, bishops, and hez'etics, with in- 
 credible ardour, and equal success. The 
 Dominicans and Fz'anciscans were be- 
 fore the Reformation what the Jesuits 
 have been since that happy and glorious 
 period, the very soul of the hierarchy, 
 the engines of the state, the secret springs 
 of all the motions of the one, and the 
 other, and the authors or directors of 
 evez-y gi*eat and important event, both 
 izz the religious and political world." 
 " These two celebrated orders z'estored 
 the [Roman] church from that declining 
 condition in which it had been languish- 
 ing for many yeaz's, by the zeal and 
 activity with which they set themselves 
 to discover and extirpate heretics [true 
 Christians], to undertake various nego- 
 tiations and embassies for the interests 
 of the hierarchy ; and to confirm the 
 wavering multitude in their obedience to 
 the Roman Pontiff." (Mosh. ii. 370, 
 373.) 
 
 These orders failed and became inef- 
 ficient about the time of the Protestant 
 Reformation, and the Pope, in 1540, 
 
LECTURE XXIV. 
 
 217 
 
 chartered another secret society for the 
 same general purpose, under the name 
 of the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, 
 whose origin and character have already 
 been described. 
 
 Thus we have found one horn of the 
 lion-mouthed lamb; a powerful instru- 
 ment of corruption and oppression. It 
 existed, it will be borne in mind, cotem- 
 poraneously with the beast, although it 
 did not develope itself for some consi- 
 derable time, so as to attract attention. 
 This was true of the beast himself. 
 Monks and nuns, — for the two are ne- 
 cessary to complete the system of moral 
 pollution — flooded the east, and were also 
 very numerous in the western or Latin 
 church, before it raised itself up from 
 the earth in its bestial character, in 606. 
 Not long after this, the pontiffs made 
 them independent of the bishops, as the 
 Emperor Justinian had before exempted 
 both from civil liabilities in some respects, 
 and their property from taxation, and 
 thus the right horn protruded from the 
 monster's head. All these orders were 
 dependent on the Pontiff* alone, and were 
 sworn to implicit obedience and subser- 
 viency to the Roman See. Many of the 
 most conspicuous men in Europe were 
 the abbots, abbes or brothers, as the 
 word signifies, of the monasteries, heads 
 of the various chapters of religious de- 
 votees. By virtue of their immense 
 landed estates in England, they were 
 admitted to seats in the House of Lords. 
 This continued from the seventh century 
 until Henry VIII. crippled the abbots 
 by confiscating their estates and expel- 
 ling them from the House. 
 
 The other horn of this leonine lamb, 
 the secular clergy, grew up also gradu- 
 ally. In the first ages of Christianity, 
 all presbyters were of equal authority 
 to rule in the Church, and those who 
 in addition to ruling, preached also, and 
 spent all their time in looking after the 
 spiritual interests of the people, were 
 called, for distinction's sake, overseers 
 or bishops, and among these also, there 
 was perfect equality. (Acts xx. 28.) 
 When, however, congregations, especial- 
 ly in the chief towns, became large and 
 wealthy, these overseers acquired very 
 
 28 ' 
 
 naturally a degree of influence propor- 
 tionate to that of their churches, and 
 thus the pure equality was practically 
 disturbed. In our own day, with all 
 our republican notions, it is extremely 
 difficult to avoid giving practically, an 
 undue influence in church courts, to city 
 pastors. Human nature was of old as 
 it is now, and thus to overseers or bi- 
 shops of rich city churches, great defe- 
 rence was justly and duly paid. They 
 were more frequently than less learned 
 and more obscure country members, 
 called to preside in the church councils. 
 Their opinions were sought, just as they 
 are now, in difficult cases, and had 
 greater weight, as is just, than those 
 of less prominent and learned brethren. 
 All this was natural and right. But 
 when piety and humility declined, as it 
 always does in city churches, first, be- 
 cause of the corrupting nature of wealth 
 upon the heart of man, then these influ- 
 ences and this actual power began to be 
 assumed, and finally claimed by the bi- 
 shops of the large towns. The first 
 obvious and decided step here was the 
 choosing of permanent moderators or 
 presidents of their church courts. This, 
 conceded for a while by the other mem- 
 bers to the city overseers, was gradually 
 claimed as a right. 
 
 Such is the origin of diocesan epis- 
 copacy. Even as late as A. D. 530, 
 when the Arian heresy raged in Africa, 
 and the parties were almost equally 
 divided, the Vandal king, Hunneric, 
 assembled at Carthage a council of 
 orthodox bishops, to the number of four 
 hundred and sixty-six, to dispute with 
 the Arians. (See Gibbon, chap, xxxvii., 
 who refers to Victor for a list of their 
 names.) There must therefore, at that 
 time, have been more than nine hundred 
 bishops in Africa. Could these have 
 been what is now meant by a bishop, in 
 the high church sense of the term 1 
 
 A similar strife for the pre-eminence 
 among the city bishops very naturally 
 followed. And as Rome and Constan- 
 tinople were the two great cities of the 
 Roman world, the overseers who in 
 them had gained the ascendancy, were 
 for the sake of distinction called pa- 
 
218 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 triarchs ; and the contest between them 
 and all others ceased by a universal 
 concession of their superiority. Still 
 between these two it continued, and 
 was carried on with great bitterness ; 
 until at length the question was settled 
 by Phocas in favour of Rome. John, 
 the Patriarch of Constantinople, had pre- 
 viously arrogated the title of Universal 
 Bishop. This gave great umbrage to 
 Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, 
 who wrote to the Emperor Maurice, se- 
 verely censuring John, and requesting 
 the emperor to punish or restrain his 
 pride. " And therefore I am bold to 
 say," he remarks, " that whosoever 
 adopts or affects the title of Universal 
 Bishop, has the pride and character of 
 Antichrist, and is in some manner his 
 forerunner in this haughty quality of 
 elevating himself above the rest of his 
 order. And indeed, both the one and 
 the other seem to split upon the same 
 rock ; for, as pride makes Antichrist 
 strain his pretensions up to Godhead, so 
 whoever is ambitious to be called the 
 only Universal Prelate, arrogates to him- 
 self a distinguished superiority, and rises, 
 as it were, upon the ruins of the rest." 
 (Jones's Church Hist. i. 220.) 
 
 Thus we see how the very same pro- 
 cess of gradual assumption on the one 
 hand, and concession on the other, which 
 resulted in the establishment of the Papal 
 supremacy, at the same time furnished 
 to the ecclesiastical beast his other horn, 
 the secular clergy. That is, it resulted 
 in such a regular subordination of powers 
 to each other, as rendered them in the 
 hand of ambition, an effectual instru- 
 ment of tyranny. The people are sub- 
 ject to presbyters of their own choice. 
 This is the primitive arrangement. But 
 now these presbyters are subordinated, 
 not as in the Bible form of government, 
 to the presbytery, but to the bishop ; the 
 bishop to the archbishop, and the arch- 
 bishop to the Pope. 
 
 Thus this vast ecclesiastical monarchy 
 is furnished with two most efficient sys- 
 tems of agency ; independent, of each 
 other, and both independent of the civil 
 government, as to the persons of their 
 officers and the property of their respec- 
 
 tive bodies : but both dependent upon the 
 dictation of the supreme head of the 
 church. And mightily did these instru- 
 ments of oppression and of power work. 
 Often did men of these classes, profess- 
 ing the mild religion of the Lamb, act 
 out all the wily and venomous policy of 
 the serpent, and all the ferocity of the 
 lion. We need only refer to Cardinal 
 Richelieu, at once the servant and mas- 
 ter of Louis XIII. and of France ; to 
 Cardinal Mazarine, who long governed 
 his country and his king, — whose 
 counsels dealt such havoc to the Hugue- 
 nots and Waldenses ; to De Retz, and 
 Ximenes, and Wolsey. Do not these ec- 
 clesiastics, and hundreds of others, stand 
 out upon the page of history as great 
 plotters of wily and wicked policy ? 
 What nation in Europe has not been 
 made to feel the goadings of these horns 
 *of the leonine lamb ? 
 
 Illustrating the craft of Rome in work- 
 ing by means of these two horns, Bishop 
 Faber remarks : " Well knowing the 
 truth of the maxim ' divide and rule,' the 
 artful pontiffs dexterously contrived to 
 play off owe kingdom against the other; 
 to govern the secular clergy by the in- 
 strumentality of the regular. 'Whenever 
 any bishop,' says Puffendorff, ' attempted 
 any thing against the Pope's authority, 
 the mendicant friars, with their clamours 
 and noise, pursued him every where, 
 like so many hounds, and rendered him 
 odious to the common people, amongst 
 whom they were in great veneration 
 through their outward appearance of 
 holiness ; and from thence it came to 
 pass that the bishops who opposed the 
 Pope's authority, never could make a 
 great party among the people. Besides 
 this, the friars always kept a watchful 
 eye over the actions of the bishops, giv- 
 ing continual advices concerning them 
 to their generals residing at Rome : 
 whereby the Popes were enabled to op- 
 pose timely any design intended against 
 their authority."'" (ii. 152.) 
 
 And such precisely at this day is the 
 use made of the Jesuit order of Regulars, 
 as we have more than once intimated. 
 Thus much for the two-horned beast of 
 the sea, and his deceitful practice. The 
 
LECTURE XXV. 
 
 219 
 
 other points will form matter of conside- 
 ration for the succeeding lecture. 
 
 LECTURE XXV. 
 
 THE TWO-HORDED BEAST OF THE EARTH, 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 Rev. xiii. 14, 15, 1G. 
 
 Verse 14: "And he deceiveth them 
 that dwell on the earth, by the means of 
 those miracles which he had power to do 
 in the sight of the beast ; saying to them 
 that dwell on the earth, that they should 
 make an image to the beast which had 
 the wound by a sword and did live. And 
 he had power to give life unto the image 
 of the beast, that the image of the beast 
 should both speak, and cause that as 
 many as would not worship the image 
 of the beast, should be killed." 
 
 The first question that arises here, is 
 as to which beast allusion is made. Is 
 it an image or likeness to the two-horned 
 beast of the earth or the ten-horned 
 beast of the sea that is intended ? A 
 careful inspection of the context will 
 enable any one to answer this question. 
 For it will be seen at a glance, that it is 
 the two-horned beast, that so deceives 
 the inhabiters of the earth, as to induce 
 them to make this image for the beast 
 that had the wound by a sword and did 
 live. Through his lying wonders he 
 deceives and entraps the people to rear 
 up a system similar to the secular beast, 
 or civil Roman despotism. 
 
 But secondly, the form which this image 
 shall possess is that of the wounded head ; 
 which, we have seen, is the Imperial. 
 The image, therefore, must be such a 
 form of power as to resemble the Impe- 
 rial. That it could be another supreme 
 civil emperor or king, cannot reasonably 
 be supposed, from the impossibility of 
 two such existing in the same empire. 
 
 Bishop Faber thinks, that the idol- 
 worship of the Roman Catholic church 
 is intended ; that the various images of 
 their superstition, is the image made to 
 ox for the beast. Two objections appear 
 
 to us, unanswerable against this. These 
 images are not representations of the 
 beast, but are like innumerable other 
 things, and are indeed more directly 
 for the use and benefit of the two- 
 horned, than of the ten-horned beast. 
 But again, this is taking the words in a 
 literal and plain sense ; whereas they 
 ought to be understood figuratively, as 
 all the other terms of the context are. 
 The sea, the earth, the beasts, the dra- 
 gon, every thing is symbolically under- 
 stood ; so also should the image be. It 
 must be the likeness of a universal mo- 
 narchical head, and as above stated, it 
 cannot be a civil head. Hence we agree 
 with Bishop Newton, Dr. McLeod, and 
 others, that, " This image is the Papacy. 
 The Pope of Rome is the most striking 
 representation of the old Roman empe- 
 rors, that can be conceived by the ima- 
 gination of man. He is the common 
 centre and cement which unites all the 
 distinct kingdoms of the empire ; and by 
 joining them, procures them a blind obe- 
 dience from their subjects." (Whiston.) 
 " He is the principle of unity," says 
 Bishop Newton, meaning, as we sup- 
 pose, the spiritual officer, not the man 
 but the Pope, — " he is the principle of 
 unity to the ten kingdoms of the beast, 
 and causeth, as far as he is able, all 
 who will not acknowledge his supre- 
 macy, to be put to death. In short he 
 is the most perfect likeness and resem- 
 blance of the ancient Roman emperors ; 
 is as great a tyrant in the Christian 
 world, as they were in the heathen 
 world; presides in the same city; usurps 
 the same powers ; affects the same titles ; 
 requires the same universal homage and 
 adoration. So that this prophecy de- 
 scends more and more into particulars, 
 from the Roman state or ten kingdoms, 
 to the Roman church or clergy, in par- 
 ticular, and still more particularly to the 
 person of the Pope" 
 
 Nor was this extended system of or- 
 ganization and of dependence part upon 
 part, and ultimating in a perfect concen- 
 tration of power in the spiritual head at 
 Rome, a mere fancy speculation, a dead 
 form, an abstract theory. The image 
 of the beast was not, as some monarchs 
 
220 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 in Europe are gradually becoming, mere 
 automatons, lifeless forms moved by an 
 influence not their own. The spiritual 
 empire had power to give it life, and ex- 
 erted that power. The energies of the 
 whole spiritual empire, embracing the 
 entire body of the Roman Catholic 
 church, and especially and particularly, 
 the two orders of clergy, were placed 
 under the actual control and direction of 
 the Pope ; so that this emperorship be- 
 came as real and energetical a govern- 
 ment as the civil emperorship. And as 
 the civil emperor required implicit obe- 
 dience upon pain of death, so does the 
 spiritual despot: disobedience to the Pope 
 infers death. 
 
 Now, that such a power was actual 
 and not merely theoretical, the history 
 of a thousand years most mournfully 
 testifies. Our difficulty, when we turn 
 the pages of history for facts illustrative 
 of this characteristic of the spiritual head, 
 is to select from the records of blood and 
 butchery : so terrible and so numerous 
 have been the massacres ordered and 
 enforced by Papal authority. Let us 
 turn our eyes upon the Alpine regions 
 of Europe. No fact is better known, 
 than that Christianity took possession of 
 many valleys upon the upper regions of 
 the Po, the Rhone, and their countless 
 tributaries, which pour down from these 
 vast mountain piles. In these peaceful 
 vales and retired glens, the pure worship- 
 pers of the true God, found for a long 
 time, exemption from many of the trials 
 and afflictions which others experienced. 
 Especially on the Italian side had Claude, 
 Bishop of Turin, watched over the flocks 
 of God in the vales of Piedmont and pre- 
 pared them for the slaughter. When per- 
 secution raged, they crept up the deep ra- 
 vines and narrow dells, into which a regu- 
 lar army could not march, and made their 
 dwellings among the rocks and worship- 
 ped God in the caves of the mountains. 
 Again, after the storm abated, they 
 would descend and occupy the lower 
 valleys, and migrate to neighbouring- 
 cities and provinces. Their success in 
 spreading the leaven of the kingdom, 
 soon called up the activity of their foes. 
 " A new order of holy war was pro- 
 
 claimed. And, by the authority of the 
 Pope, (says Sismondi, in his History of 
 the Crusades, p. 24,) the monks of Ci- 
 teaux, with a zeal outstripping that of 
 Peter the hermit, the great preacher of 
 the Palestine war, proclaimed a crusade 
 against the Albigenses. In the year 
 120S, in the name of the Pope, and of 
 the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, they 
 promised to all who should perish in this 
 holy expedition, plenary absolution from 
 all sins committed from the day of their 
 birth, to that of their death." A cam- 
 paign of forty days in so holy a cause, 
 was reckoned, by Papal infallibility, 
 merit enough to secure eternal salvation. 
 "Bull after bull was fulminated from the 
 court of Rome, and never had the cross 
 been taken up with a more unanimous 
 consent." " The preaching of a crusade 
 against the saints of the Most High, was 
 combined with the invention and active 
 agency of the Inquisition, in wearing 
 them out. While one class of monks 
 preached in every church a war of ex- 
 termination, year after year, another, 
 with Father Dominic at their head, 
 searched out in every village, the vic- 
 tims of Papal tyranny ; and the fires of 
 the Inquisition were added to all the hor- 
 rors of a war, of which the barbarous 
 atrocity never was exceeded. While 
 the Bernardines were recruiting soldiers 
 for the cross, Pope Innocent III. charged 
 a new congregation, (at the head of which 
 he placed the Spaniard, Saint Dominic,) 
 to go on foot, two by two, through the 
 villages, to preach the faith in the midst 
 of them, to enlighten them by controver- 
 sional discussions, to display to them all 
 the zeal of Christian charity, and to ob- 
 tain from their confidence exact informa- 
 tion as to the number and dwellings of 
 those who had wandered from the church, 
 in order to burn them when the oppor- 
 tunity should arrive. Thus began the 
 order of the preaching brethren of St. 
 Dominic, or of the Inquisitors." Again, 
 " As the crusade approached, the Bishop 
 of Beziers, (a city in the south of France,) 
 delivered to the legate of the Pope a list 
 of those among his flock whom he sus- 
 pected of heresy, and wished to see con- 
 signed to the flames. The citizens re- 
 
LECTURE XXV. 
 
 221 
 
 fused to surrender them to the avengers 
 of the faith, notwithstanding that the 
 assemblage of the tents and pavilions of 
 the crusaders was so great, that it appear- 
 ed as if the world was collected there. 
 All the inhabitants of the country had 
 taken refuge in Beziers. The city was 
 taken. The immense multitudes were 
 massacred in the churches, whither they 
 had fled ; seven thousand dead bodies 
 were counted in that of the Magdalen 
 alone. When the crusaders had mas- 
 sacred the last living thing in Beziers, 
 and pillaged the houses of all that they 
 had thought worth carrying off*, they set 
 fire to the city in every part at once, and 
 reduced it to a vast funeral pile. Not a 
 house remained standing, not one human 
 being alive. Historians differ as to the 
 number of the victims. The Abbot of 
 Citeaux, feeling some shame for the 
 butchery which he had ordered, in his 
 letter to Innocent III., reduces it to fifteen 
 thousand ; others make it amount to sixty. 
 The legate was profoundly penetrated 
 with the maxim of Innocent III., " that 
 to keep the faith with those that have it 
 not, is an offence against faith." (Sis- 
 mondi, 22, 25, 34, 37.) 
 
 " In the siege and assault of Lavaur, 
 the bishops, the abbots of Cordieu, who 
 exercised the functions of vice-legates, 
 and all the priests, clothed with their 
 pontifical habits, giving themselves up 
 to the joy of seeing the carnage begin, 
 sang the hymn, Vcni Creator. The 
 knights mounted the breach. Resistance 
 was impossible ; and the only care of 
 Simon de Montfort was to prevent the 
 crusaders from instantly falling upon 
 the inhabitants, and to beseech them 
 rather to make prisoners, that the priests 
 of the living God might not be de]rrivcd 
 of their j)romised joys. Our pilgrims, 
 (meaning the crusaders) continues the 
 monk of Vaux Cernay, collected the 
 innumerable heretics that the castle 
 contained, and burned them alive with 
 the idmost joy. The castle of Mont- 
 joyre was abandoned, but burned by the 
 crusaders. The castle of Cassero af- 
 forded them more satisfaction, as it fur- 
 nished human victims for their sacrifices. 
 It was surrendered on capitulation; and 
 
 the pilgrims, seizing nearly sixty here, 
 tics, burned them with infinite joy. This 
 was always the phrase employed by the 
 monk who was the witness and the 
 panegyrist of the crusade." (Sismondi, 
 76-76.) 
 
 " One of the articles of the capitula- 
 tion of the castle of Minerva, provided 
 that the heretics themselves, if they were 
 converted, might quit the castle and 
 have their lives saved. When the ca- 
 pitulation was read in the council of 
 war, Robert of Mauvoisin, says the 
 monk of Vaux Cernay, a nobleman, and 
 entirely devoted to the Catholic faith, 
 cried that the pilgrims would never con- 
 sent to that ; that it was not to show 
 mercy to the heretics, but to put them 
 to death, they had taken up the cross. 
 But the abbot replied, ' Fear not, for I 
 believe there will be very few converted.' 
 The legate (the abbot) was not deceived 
 in this bloody hope. The crusaders 
 took possession of the castle of Minerva 
 on the 22d of July, 1210; they entered 
 singing Te Deum, and preceded by the 
 cross and by the standards of Montfort. 
 The heretics were in the meantime as- 
 sembled, the men in one house, the 
 women in another, — and there on their 
 knees, and resigned to their fate, they 
 prepared themselves by prayer for the 
 punishment that awaited them. The 
 Abbot Guy de Vaux Cernay, to fulfil 
 the capitulation, came, and began to 
 preach to them the Catholic faith ; but 
 his auditors interrupted him by an una- 
 nimous cry ; ' We will have none of 
 your faith, said they, we have renounced 
 the Church of Rome, you labour in vain ; 
 for neither death nor life shall make us 
 renounce the opinions we have em- 
 braced.' The abbot then passed to the 
 assembly of the women ; but he found 
 them as resolute arid more enthusiastic 
 still in their declarations. The Count 
 de Montfort, in his turn, visited both. 
 Already he had piled up an enormous 
 mass of dry wood. 'Be converted to 
 the Catholic faith,' said he to the assem- 
 bled Albigcnses, ' or ascend this pile.' 
 None were shaken. They set fire to 
 the pile, which covered the whole square 
 with a tremendous conflagration. And 
 
222 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 the heretics were then conducted to the 
 place. But violence was not necessary 
 to compel them to enter the flames ; 
 they voluntarily precipitated themselves 
 into them, to the number of one hundred 
 and forty, after having commended their 
 souls to God, in whose cause they suf- 
 fered martyrdom," (64, 65.) In these 
 wars against the Albigenses, " the num- 
 ber of slain, in France alone, has been 
 computed at a million." (Mede in Apoc. 
 503. Keith.) 
 
 Two hundred and fifty years later, a 
 similar demoniacal crusade was waged 
 against the saints of the Most High, in- 
 habiting the valleys of Piedmont. For 
 many centuries, these vales had been 
 vocal with the praises of redeeming love. 
 " And the purer," says Keith, " that 
 was the doctrine, and the holier the lives 
 of the witnesses of Jesus, the more 
 surely ivere they clothed in sackcloth, 
 and the churchmen of Rome, thirsting 
 for their blood, would not be satisfied 
 till they were drunken with it. The 
 emissaries of the Inquisition at first 
 sought out their victims, who were either 
 immured in the dungeons of Turin and 
 secretly tortured or publicly executed, to 
 intimidate heretics. But to quote the 
 words of M. Acland. 
 
 " This was a process too slow and 
 too partial to satisfy the unrelenting 
 fury of the church of Rome. Bull 
 after bull, and army after army, issued 
 forth to the devastation of the valleys, 
 the spirit of which may be collected 
 from the following specimen. In 1447, 
 (Pope) Innocent VIII. having commented 
 on the heresies of the Vaudois, com- 
 mands all bishops, vicars, &c, to obey 
 his inquisitor, to render him assistance, 
 and to engage the people to take up 
 arms, with a view to so holy and neces- 
 sary an extermination. Accordingly, 
 he "ranted indulgences to all who would 
 make a crusade against the Vaudois, 
 and full authority to apply to their own 
 use, whatever property they could seize. 
 Animated by these spiritual and temporal 
 stimulants, eighteen thousand regular 
 troops, and six hundred uncommanded 
 vagabonds, burst upon the valleys ; and 
 had not a feeling of compunction speedily 
 
 visited the sovereign, (Philip VII. Duke 
 of Savoy,) the work of destruction 
 would have been complete." Such was 
 the merciless and more than fiendish 
 havoc, which for three or four centuries 
 desolated these valleys and parts adjacent. 
 " It were loathsome," continues Mr. 
 Keith, " to tell of children smothered in 
 their cradle, or dashed from the rocks, or 
 suffocated, together with their mothers, 
 in a cave; of villages burnt to ashes, 
 and their inhabitants exterminated; of 
 women flying by hundreds from a blazing 
 church, and butchered by a brutal sol- 
 diery ; or of the execrations of an in- 
 furiated mob, whilst the witnesses of 
 Jesus were suffering martyrdom. But 
 such allusions may here be needful, 
 while Piedmont is in view, that it may 
 be afterwards more clearly seen how 
 righteous are the judgments of God." 
 
 About two hundred years later, the 
 same spirit continued to work at Rome 
 and in Piedmont. Terrible was the 
 havoc which the Duke of Savoy perpe- 
 trated among these innocent and most 
 virtuous of his subjects. This excited 
 the indignation and aroused the spirit of 
 that great historical enigma, Oliver 
 Cromwell, — a man whose character will 
 never be understood, until republican 
 government and the Christian religion, 
 as modified by human infirmity, shall 
 have been much more studied, than ever 
 heretofore. " His name," says Jones, 
 (see Church Hist. 505,) " was terrible 
 throughout Europe ;" and " it was hard 
 to discover," says Clai-endon, " which 
 dreaded him most, France, Spain, or the 
 Netherlands." It is related of Cardinal 
 Mazarine, who at that time swayed the 
 councils of the French cabinet, that he 
 would change countenance at the very 
 mention of Cromwell's name; and it 
 passed into a proverb in France, that 
 " Mazarine was not. so much afraid of 
 the devil as of Oliver Cromwell." 
 
 This wonderful man interposed. The 
 lion shook his mane, and the bloody 
 cardinal and the bloodthirsty duke, 
 trembled, and the Piedmontese Chris- 
 tians enjoyed a respite. John Mil- 
 ton, Cromwell's Latin secretary, at 
 the Protector's order, wrote to most or 
 
LECTURE XXV. 
 
 223 
 
 all the sovereigns of Europe, and pro- 
 cured the arrest of this bloody persecu- 
 tion. The poet also threw his own feel- 
 ings into one of those energetic rhapso- 
 dies which swell and carry off the full 
 soul : 
 
 " Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose 
 
 bones 
 
 Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; 
 
 Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
 
 When all our fathers worshipped stocks and 
 
 stones. 
 Forget not : in thy book record their groans 
 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
 Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll'd 
 Mother with infant down the rocks. Their 
 
 moans 
 The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
 To Heaven. Their martyr'd blood and ashes 
 sow 
 O'er all th' Italian fields, where still doth 
 sway 
 The triple tyrant ; that from these may grow 
 A hundred fold^ who, having learn'd thy way, 
 Early may fly the Babylonian woe." 
 
 The allusion to mother and infant 
 here is a touching case. Sir Samuel 
 Morland, Cromwell's agent for the dis- 
 tribution of the subscriptions and collec- 
 tions made in England for the survivors 
 of the Waldenses, (which subscriptions 
 Cromwell headed with two thousand 
 pounds out of his private funds,) — who 
 lived three years among these scenes, 
 wrote a history of the persecution, in 
 which he says, " A mother was hurled 
 down a mighty rock, with a little infant 
 in her arms ; and three days after was 
 found dead, with the little child alive, 
 but fast clasped between the arms of the 
 dead mother, which were cold and stiff, 
 insomuch that those who found them 
 had much ado to get the young child 
 out." (Jones, Lee. 507.) Another mode 
 of torment and death practised by these 
 minions of the Pope, was to cut the 
 head off the young infant, and force the 
 mother to apply the headless babe to 
 her breast, in the position of a suckling. 
 Such is the satanic spirit of Antichrist. 
 
 One more quotation must close the 
 evidence of this spirit. It is from Hume, 
 whose Tory sentiments and infidel prin- 
 ciples, will not warp him toward the 
 pure religion. It is the celebrated case 
 of St. Bartholomew's massacre in 1572 : 
 
 when Charles IX. of France and the 
 Catholic clergy planned and executed 
 the murder of the Huguenots. Many in- 
 stances of perfidious cruelty had been 
 practised towards them, which had made 
 their chief men, among whom shone 
 conspicuous, the fearless old Admiral 
 Coligni and the heroic Prince of Conde, 
 very cautious how they committed them- 
 selves to their power. " The better," 
 says Hume, "to blind the jealous Hugue- 
 nots, and draw their leaders into the 
 snare prepared for them, Charles offered 
 his sister Margaret in marriage to the 
 Prince of Navarre, (a Protestant leader, 
 afterwards Henry IV. of France,) and 
 the Admiral (Coligni), with all the con- 
 siderable nobility of the party, had come 
 to Paris to assist at the celebration of 
 the nuptials, which, it was proposed, 
 would finally, if not compose the differ- 
 ences, at least appease the bloody ani- 
 mosity of the two religions. (Mark how 
 the arch-infidel gives a blow to Pro- 
 testant Christianity, — ' of the tivo reli- 
 gions :' as though the Protestants were 
 bloody persecutors.) The queen of Na- 
 varre, (the prince's mother, a decided 
 Protestant,) was poisoned by orders from 
 the court; the admiral was dangerously 
 wounded by an assassin : yet Charles, 
 redoubling his dissimulation, was still 
 able to retain the Huguenots in their se- 
 curity ; till, on the evening of St. Bar- 
 tholomew, a Cew days after the marriage, 
 a signal was given for the general mas- 
 sacre of the religionists, and the king 
 himself, in person, led the way to these 
 assassinations. 
 
 " The hatred long entertained by the 
 partisans against the Protestants, made 
 them second without any preparation, 
 the fury of the court ; and persons of 
 every condition, age, and sex, suspected 
 of any propensity to that religion, were 
 involved in an undistinguished ruin. The 
 admiral, his son-in-law Teligni, Soubize, 
 Rochefoucault, Pardaillon, Piles, Lavar- 
 din, men who, during the late wars, had 
 signalized themselves by the most heroic 
 actions, were miserably butchered, with- 
 out resistance ; the streets of Paris flowed 
 with blood ; and the people, more en- 
 raged than satisfied with their cruelty, 
 
224 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 as if repining that death had saved their 
 victims from farther insult, exercised on 
 their dead bodies all the rage of the most 
 licentious brutality. About five hundred 
 gentlemen and men of rank perished in 
 this massacre, and near ten thousand 
 of inferior condition. Orders were in- 
 stantly dispersed to all the provinces for 
 a like general execution of the Protest- 
 ants ; and in Rouen, Lyons, and many 
 other cities, the people emulated the fury 
 of the capital. Even the murder of the 
 King of Navarre and Prince of Conde 
 had been proposed by the Duke of 
 Guise ; but Charles, softened by the ami- 
 able manners of the King of Navarre, 
 and hoping that the young princes (Con- 
 de and Navarre) might easily be con- 
 verted to the Catholic faith, determined 
 to spare their lives, though he obliged 
 them to purchase their safety by a seem- 
 ing change of their religion." (Cook's 
 edition, vii. 191.) 
 
 Think of five hundred of the bravest 
 and most noble-hearted men in France, 
 men who had jeopardied their lives in a 
 hundred battles for the glory of their 
 country; think of ten thousand private 
 citizens, the most virtuous, indeed almost 
 the only virtuous citizens in it, all but- 
 chered in Paris in one night and day. 
 Think of the spiritual teachers, the 
 shepherds, becoming the bloody wolves 
 of the flock. Think of the young king 
 of a great nation plotting in cold blood 
 the murder of the people he was bound 
 to protect and make happy. Think of 
 him enjoying, as an amusement, the 
 sport of shooting at the Protestants as 
 they floated down the river Seine, which 
 he did from a window of a brick house, 
 which yet stands ; or at least did stand 
 in 1816, and was shown to travellers as 
 a relic of antiquity, interesting from this 
 use of it. Think of this hell-born plot, 
 and its dragon-like execution, atid ask 
 yourselves, is not this the work of that 
 old serpent, the devil, and Satan, who 
 is incarnate in the throne of despotism? 
 
 For, let it not be said, this is the work 
 of an ignorant and semi-barbarous age, 
 and the device of pagan brutality and su- 
 perstition. Far from it. It was planned 
 and executed under the express direc- 
 
 tions and by the agents of the Roman 
 Catholic hierarchy ; and the news of this 
 bloody tragedy was received at Rome 
 with the utmost ecstasy of joy; and 
 Pope Gregory XIII. celebrated it in the 
 church of St. Peter's with great pomp 
 and excessive rejoicings. 
 
 Why should we delay to mention 
 Patrick Hamilton, a young Scottish no- 
 bleman, who was burnt for heresy, at 
 the gate of St. Salvator's College, St. 
 Andrew's ; or Henry Forrest, who was 
 soon after burnt in the same city, for 
 saying that Patrick Hamilton died a 
 martyr ; and whom John Lindsay, who 
 assisted the bishop in burning him, ad- 
 vised that he should be burned " in some 
 hollow cellar ; for the smoke," said he, 
 " of Patrick Hamilton hath infected all 
 those on whom it blew ?" But we cannot 
 here write a book of martyrs. Sufficient 
 examples have been advanced to show 
 that, as it was prophesied, the Pope has 
 and exercises the power to kill all who 
 refuse to worship himself, the image of 
 the former beast. 
 
 We proceed to the mark of the beast. 
 
 Bishop Faber and Sir Isaac Newton 
 suppose the mark to be the cross and the 
 sign of the cross, used to such an absurd 
 extent in the Roman Catholic church. 
 And truly enough, these ceremonies from 
 the Roman missal, as he describes them, 
 are too contemptible for even the plays 
 of children, or the mummery of Pagan- 
 ism. 
 
 Bishop Faber's apology for his own 
 church, in using, what he calls the mark 
 of the beast, is, to our mind, an exceed- 
 ingly lame one. He says, " When our 
 dissenting brethren censure us for using 
 the sign of the cross in the baptismal 
 ceremony, because it is likewise used by 
 the Papists, they ought to consider that 
 the use of it is cither innocent or not in- 
 nocent, exactly according as it is reli- 
 gious or not religious. It was only by 
 a vain and cruel abuse of the sign of the 
 cross, that it became the mark of the 
 beast : had a circle or square been 
 thought by the Papists mor*e convenient 
 for their purpose, either of those figures 
 would, in that case, have been as much 
 the mark of the beast as a cross. If, in- 
 
LECTURE XXV. 
 
 225 
 
 deed, the Church of England either pro- 
 claimed a crusade against the dissenters, 
 or laid any mysterious iveight upon the 
 use of the cross in baptism, she certainly 
 would not, in these respects, have purified 
 herself from the corruptions oithe Pa- 
 pal beast." 
 
 But now, we ask, is not the crossing 
 which Bishop Faber describes from the 
 Roman missal, a religious use? When a 
 Papist crosses himself in the dark, is it 
 not a part of his religion, as really as 
 when a bishop crosses a babe at baptism? 
 But it is the " vain and cruel abuse" of 
 the sign of the cross, that makes it the 
 mark of the beast. It is not the sign 
 but the abuse, which constitutes the 
 mark. Here is a crucifix suspended 
 round the neck of an Oxford high 
 churchman; and here is another, simi- 
 lar to it, pressed to the heart of a Pa- 
 pist ; will some astute bishop tell us 
 which is the mark of the beast, and 
 which is not? 
 
 Again, the Bishop says, "She, the 
 Church of England, disapproves of the 
 endless cruciform evolutions of the Pa- 
 pists ; but she can discover no reason 
 why their vain mummeries should make 
 it sinful or superstitious in lier ministers 
 to sign a baptized child with the sign of 
 the cross, in token that hereafter he shall 
 not be ashamed to confess tlie faith of 
 Christ crucified.'''' But then our difficulty 
 lies here. We cannot see how the one 
 signing of Bishop Faber, differs from the 
 numerous signings of the Papist, except 
 simply in number. But if it is proper 
 to sign once, wherein lies the sin of 
 crossing a dozen of times ? Does the repe- 
 tition corrupt the sacred ceremony? Will 
 Bishop Faber or any other, explain how 
 a gilded cross upon a Roman Catholic 
 chapel, and a gilded cross upon an Epis- 
 copal bishop's dwelling really differ ? If 
 the one is the mark of the beast, of what 
 is the other the mark ? 
 
 We have two objections to the use of 
 the sign of the cross in baptism. It is 
 a Popish superstition, as Bishop Faber 
 allows, — if any mysterious weight were 
 laid upon it, it would be the mark of the 
 beast. Now we put the question to those 
 whom it may concern ; is it not viewed 
 
 29 
 
 as a mystery ? Is it not felt to be of 
 some importance ? Would the people 
 think the baptism rightly performed if it 
 were omitted? And as many who stickle 
 for this ceremony, hold to baptismal re- 
 generation, baptismal justification, and • 
 baptismal sanctification, would they think 
 a person either sanctified, justified, or re- 
 generated, unless he had been crossed 
 in due form ? 
 
 But the second and chief objection to 
 this sign of the cross is, that the Bible 
 nowhere enjoins it, either by example 
 or precept. It is said of God's saints, 
 " these follow the Lamb, whithersoever 
 he goeth." Did Jesus ever use the sign 
 of the cross in baptism ? Did the Lamb 
 ever command it to be done? Did any 
 of his inspired apostles, who baptized 
 sinners by thousands, ever cross any of 
 them ; or command them to be marked 
 with this sign, or to wear it upon then- 
 person ? If so, when, where, how ? 
 But it is said the sign of the cross was 
 used long before A. D. 606, when the 
 papacy sprang into Antichrist ; it is 
 therefore not a popish superstition. The 
 fact of this ceremony existing before the 
 Bishop of Rome became fully developed 
 into Antichrist, we admit ; but the infer- 
 ence is illogical : because nearly all the 
 corruptions of papal Rome were intro- 
 duced gradually, and most of them be- 
 gan, and many of them had advanced 
 considerably before 606. There were 
 many Antichrists in John's day ; and 
 the spirit was working from that time 
 onward. Many self-righteous ceremo- 
 nies existed, and image-worship particu- 
 larly. The fact that crucifixes were 
 worn and the sign of the cross practised 
 in baptism and on other occasions, prior 
 to the year 606, no more exempts them 
 from the class of popish superstitions, 
 than the fact of image-worship being 
 practised before, exempts it. 
 
 But after all, it is very doubtful whe- 
 ther this is the mark of the beast. The 
 more probable opinion is, that this mark 
 is any thing and every thing by which 
 men are known to belong to him. The 
 shepherd marks his sheep; the master 
 marks his slaves ; the general marks his 
 soldiers and his camp equipage. The 
 
226 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 mark may be the initials of the owner's 
 name, the whole name, his coat of arms, 
 his signet, any arbitrary sign by which 
 the thing may be distinguished as his. 
 The mark of the beast must be that 
 characteristic, or those characteristics, 
 whereby the followers of Antichristian 
 Rome are distinguished. 
 
 The mark or character, as the Greek 
 word may be rendered, must be what- 
 ever points out them on whom it is im- 
 pressed as members of the great system 
 of despotic rule. It is the two-horned 
 beast of the earth, that imprints the 
 character upon men, which evinces their 
 relationship to the civil despotism, as its 
 subjects and its upholders. Now it will 
 be remembered, that it is the same church 
 that influenced the inhabiters of the earth 
 to make the image of the beast, viz. the 
 Papacy, which as a head regulates even 
 the ten-horned beast himself. And it is 
 by disseminating its doctrines and its 
 ceremonies, its rites and superstitions 
 over the empire, that the church im- 
 presses the character of the beast upon 
 the mass of her population. This far- 
 ther explains the language of verse 14, 
 " they should make an image to, ox for 
 the beast." Because in modelling the 
 papal power like to the imperial, and in 
 bringing the nations to submit to the 
 Pops's supremacy, they apply the prin* 
 ciples, which, carried out, secure abso- 
 lute submission to the civil despotism 
 also. Thus it is to the ten. horned beast's 
 advantage that the image is made ; it is 
 for him. Just as pagan Rome sent the 
 image of the emperor to the provinces, 
 and required the leaders to bow to it ; 
 so when the degraded populace bow 
 down at the feet of the Pope, the image 
 of the emperor, they acknowledge that 
 supremacy, which is one and the same 
 in the civil and the ecclesiastical empire. 
 But we have anticipated the text. 
 Verses 16, 17. "And he causeth all, 
 both small and great, rich and poor, free 
 and bond, to receive a mark (^aga/f^a), 
 in their right hand or in their foreheads : 
 and that no man might buy or sell, save 
 he that had the mark, or the name 
 of the beast, or the number of his 
 name." 
 
 Here we must observe the phrase, 
 "he maketh all ;" it is the same word 
 which in verse 5, is translated, to con- 
 tinue, and which we have seen, means 
 simplv to act, or practise. He practises 
 upon all, small and great, and to the end 
 that — ha. (Jwtfiv — he may give to them a 
 mai-k. The leading design, and the 
 practical operation of the Romish reli- 
 gious system, is to mould all classes of 
 citizens into a certain character, which 
 shall subserve oppressive power, and to 
 limit, restrict, and confine, all rights and 
 privileges, civil and religious, to such as 
 have this character, and are thus sub- 
 servient. The first step towards giving 
 them this character, is blind submission 
 to ecclesiastical authority. Believe as 
 the church believes, and do as the church 
 commands. Once imbued with this 
 spirit of blind and unconditional sub- 
 mission, the people can be led just as 
 the hierarchy chooses. This tame sub- 
 mission is the supreme Catholic virtue. 
 
 But to enforce it, temporal interests 
 are also called in. And this leads to 
 another practice of the two-horned 
 beast. He so practises, " that no man 
 mi°ht buy or sell." The privileges of 
 commerce and trade are prohibited to 
 all, but to the sworn minions and ser- 
 vants of the Papacy. Thus he exercises 
 all the power of the first beast before 
 him. In this we have the Pope's inter- 
 dict represented. He claims, and has 
 often exercised, the power of interdicting 
 or forbidding all intercourse with a given 
 individual or nation, which has incurred 
 his displeasure: and in this case no other 
 people must trade with, or in any way 
 countenance the interdicted nation. Thus 
 Pope Paul III., offended at Henry VIII., 
 King of England, because that monarch 
 had executed Bishop Fisher, who was 
 also a cardinal, upon conviction of high 
 treason, first cited Henry to appear be- 
 fore himself at Rome, and answer to his 
 holiness for the horrible sin of punishing 
 a Roman Catholic bishop ; or in failure 
 of attendance, he should be excommu- 
 nicated, and England put under an in- 
 terdict. Henry treated the Pope's im- 
 pertinence as was proper; whereupon 
 Paul excommunicated him and all his 
 
LECTURE XXV. 
 
 227 
 
 adhering nobility, — " deprived the king 
 of his crown ; laid the kingdom under 
 an interdict; declared his issue by Anne 
 Bolcyn illegitimate; dissolved all leagues 
 which any Catholic princes had made 
 with him ; gave his kingdom to any in- 
 vader ; commanded the nobility to take 
 arms against him ; freed his subjects 
 from all oaths of allegiance ; cut off 
 their commerce with foreign states ; and 
 declared it lawful for any one to seize 
 them, to make slaves of their persons, 
 and to convert their effects to his own 
 use." Here is arrogated a power beyond 
 that of any king ; and no head of any 
 government in the world, but an imperial 
 one, ever attempted the exercise of such 
 tyranny. 
 
 His name, and the number of his name. 
 
 These we take together, for reasons 
 that will appear early in the discussion. 
 It has been, and is yet customary to em- 
 ploy the letters of the alphabet in writing 
 numbers. The first, letter of the Greek 
 alphabet, for example, stands for one, 
 the second for tico, and so on. From 
 this general practice arose the custom of 
 writing, as a cipher or symbol of a per- 
 son's name, not the letters proper in 
 their order, but the numerical letters, or 
 such as make up the number included 
 in the name. Thus, the number forty- 
 five expressed the name of our progeni- 
 tor, Adam, according to the Hebrew no- 
 tation. The number eight hundred and 
 eighty -eight includes the name of our 
 Saviour in Greek. Now the number 
 six hundred and sixty-six, we are as- 
 sured in verse 18, contains the name of 
 the beast. " Here is wisdom. Let him 
 that hath understanding count the num- 
 ber of the beast; for it is the number 
 of a man ; and his number is six hun- 
 dred threescore and six." 
 
 There is plain intimation here, of 
 some little difficulty in the interpretation. 
 It requires understanding to compute or 
 sum up the numbers so as to ascertain 
 the true name. And were the number 
 alone necessary, it could present little 
 difficulty. Many names might be se- 
 lected which Would contain this number. 
 But the prophet defines by other cha- 
 racteristics the name intended. 
 
 1. It must be the name of a great 
 tyrannical power, a universal monarchy; 
 a beast, whose authority is exerted by 
 two horns chiefly. 
 
 2. It must be the name of a people 
 who constitute the root of this universal 
 monarchy, and so is applicable to the 
 nation. 
 
 3. It must be the name of a man, or 
 the number of a man's name. 
 
 4. It must contain the number six 
 hundred and sixty-six. 
 
 In view of this text, Papists and in- 
 fidels, fastening their eyes upon the 
 number only, have amused themselves 
 and attempted to decoy others away 
 from the chief characteristics : the for- 
 mer with this last view ; the latter, to 
 make this challenged wisdom mere folly, 
 and so turn the Scriptures into ridicule. 
 They tell us that the number six hun- 
 dred and sixty-six is found, " in the 
 names Ulpius, Trajanus, Dioclesian, Ju- 
 lian the apostate, Luther, Romut, (the 
 Hebrew for Rome, which is held by 
 some who are neither Catholics nor infi- 
 dels,) Louis XIV., Cromwell, George III., 
 Napoleon." But let us not be drawn 
 away from the nest by this fluttering 
 bird. There is a clearness and a defi- 
 niteness here, which Jesuitry cannot so 
 easily pervert, nor indolence leave un- 
 examined under the plea of inscrutable 
 mystery. " Here is wisdom," says the 
 apostle ; and let no man say, here is 
 folly. " Let him that understandeth, 
 that hath a mind, count or sum up the 
 number of the beast." Does this mean 
 that it cannot be numbered, that no 
 certain interpretation can possibly be 
 found 1 Has the Holy Spirit, whose 
 words these are, called upon us to 
 count, whilst he has made the thing im- 
 possible ? Away with such impiety as 
 this. 
 
 But men differ as to the meaning of 
 this place : a hundred names contain 
 this number. Men also differ about 
 many texts in the book of nature. Thou- 
 sands of ignorant beings in the world, 
 and in this most glorious, at least most 
 boastful, of all the centuries, laugh at 
 the idea of the earth turning upon its 
 axis and round the sun ; of the sun 
 
228 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 standing still, and the earth putting its 
 dark body between the sun and the 
 moon. Did this ignorance and stupidity- 
 stop the earth itself or the science which 
 investigates its phenomena ; and force 
 the world into the conclusion that all 
 astronomical philosophy is a silly riddle? 
 He that studies God's books, whether of 
 nature or of revelation, of providence 
 or of grace, shall become wise. 
 
 Let us then search for a name, in 
 which the four above-mentioned cha- 
 racteristics meet, and then let us rest as- 
 sured in the certainty of truth. 
 
 Now it is remarkable that Irenseus, 
 who lived in the second century, has 
 given us the true interpretation here. 
 He was a Greek by nation, but was long 
 settled as a missionary at Lyons in 
 France, a city so fully imbued with his 
 spirit, that it stood out, for ages, a bright 
 spot on the broad disk of the glorious 
 Gallic church. This is the city of Peter 
 Waldo ; not indeed the founder, but the 
 reviver of the Waldenses : and blessed 
 be God, in this city the leaven of Wal- 
 densian doctrine is now working. Ire- 
 nseus has delivered the true key to the 
 meaning of this prophetic wisdom. Most 
 likely he received it from his master, 
 Polycarp, and he, from his master, John, 
 the divine. " No name," says Bishop 
 Newton, "appears more proper and suit- 
 able than that famous one mentioned by 
 Irenseus, who lived not long after St. 
 John's time, and was the disciple of Poly- 
 carp, the disciple of St. John. He saith 
 that the name Lateinos contains the 
 number 666 ; and it is very likely, be- 
 cause the last kingdom is so called, for 
 they are Latins who now reign ; but in 
 this we will not glory : that is, says the 
 bishop, as it becomes a modest and pious 
 man in a point of such difficulty, he will 
 not be too confident of his explanation." 
 (Vol. h. 203.) 
 
 The bishop gives the Latin in a note, 
 and perhaps he mistakes Irenseus's mean- 
 ing. Probably, by scd von hoc nos gloria- 
 mur, he means that against this kingdom 
 we will not glory. It is to be noted here, 
 that the use of ei, to express, in Greek 
 the force of the long i of the Romans 
 was frequent; and Irenaeus, himself a 
 
 Greek, so writes it when he expresses 
 the name in Roman letters. 
 
 Now, it is most reasonable, that John 
 should use the numerical force of the 
 letters in the language in which he wrote, 
 and not in a different alphabet, where 
 they, of course, might differ. In Hebrew 
 the same name would make the number 
 one hundred and fifty-nine. Besides, if 
 the numerical force is not to be taken in 
 the language in which John wrote, the 
 same license may take the three letters 
 by which the number is actually express- 
 ed by him in his Greek text, or their 
 analogous letters in any other language, 
 and thus make an entirely different num- 
 ber. But this would be to falsify, not to 
 translate, the apostle's words. 
 
 Let us now inquire for the four lead- 
 ing characteristics. 
 
 1. Lateinos is the name of a man, 
 the King of Latium : the founder of the 
 Latin nation ; which was indifferently 
 called after him and Romulus. The 
 latter prevailed chiefly as to the state, 
 whilst the former adhered as the name 
 of the language. 
 
 2. It is equally undeniable, that this 
 name passed over to the people, who 
 were called Latini. And the established 
 phrase in ecclesiastical and civil history, 
 especially after the division of the em- 
 pire, was — the Latin church, the Latin 
 empire ; as contradistinguished from the 
 Greek. 
 
 3. This word is also descriptive of 
 both the beasts. This is the strong rea- 
 son given by Irenreus ; and how any ob- 
 jection can stand before it,_ we cannot 
 see. Nothing is more undeniably true, 
 than that the Latin is the fourth empire, 
 the novissimum regwwm, as he expresses 
 it. If any thing is or can be certain, the 
 Roman or Latin beast is the fourth and 
 last. There is, therefore, as Bishop Fa- 
 ber most cogently argues, now no other; 
 and moreover, the prophecies assure us 
 there will be none other to whom the 
 name can be applied. The kingdom 
 which follows next after the Latin, is 
 the kingdom of the little stone, grown 
 into that of the great mountain. The 
 stupendous chronological giant of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, settles this question beyond 
 
LECTURE XXV. 
 
 229 
 
 a doubt. After the days of John, there 
 never was to exist, a new, universal, 
 despotic empire, distinct and separate 
 from the Roman or Latin. 
 
 4. Does the name Lateinos as clearly 
 and indubitably express the mystic num- 
 ber six hundred and sixty-six? In Greek 
 characters it stands thus : 
 
 A 30 
 
 A 1 
 
 T 300 
 
 E 5 
 
 1 10 
 N 50 
 O • 70 
 
 2 200 
 
 The number of his name, 666 
 
 Thus all the four characteristics con- 
 spire with chronology and prophecy, and 
 make it indubitably certain that the Latin 
 civil empire is the ten-horned beast ; the 
 Latin ecclesiastical empire is the two- 
 horned beast ; the Latin head of the 
 church is the image of the beast. , 
 
 It is worthy of remark, also, that in 
 all these, Latin is the language of official 
 communication and record. All inter- 
 national diplomacy must be in Latin ; 
 all records and laws in Latin ; all eccle- 
 siastical proceedings, and bellowings of 
 the Papal bull, must be in Latin ; all 
 preaching and prayers in Latin. The 
 Council of Trent went so far as to vote 
 the Latin Bible to be the only true and 
 originally authentic Bible. Every thing 
 must be conducted in Latin, until the 
 Protestant Reformation forced the Latin 
 dragon out^of his den, and compelled 
 him, in part, to abandon the Latin tongue, 
 that he might defend himself before the 
 people in a language which they could 
 understand. 
 
 We conclude the exposition of this 
 important context with a general sum- 
 ming up. The Latin or Roman empire 
 is the ten-horned beast of the sea. The 
 Latin or Roman Church is the two- 
 horned beast of the earth. The Latin 
 or Roman Pontiff or Pope is the image 
 of the ten-horned beast: the character- 
 istics of European society, so far as they 
 evince unconditional submission to arbi- 
 trary power in its amalgamated form of 
 
 church and state, are the mark of the 
 beast ; Lateinos is his name: six hundred 
 and sixty-six the number of his name. 
 
 Some practical remarks will close this 
 lecture. 
 
 1. Sabbath profanation is one charac- 
 teristic in the mark of the beast. In 
 what part of the Roman Catholic world, 
 where her power is dominant, do we 
 find the Lord's day consecrated to moral 
 and religious improvement ? Is it so in 
 Montreal, in Quebec, in New Orleans, 
 where Catholic influence is great, if not 
 pi'evalent, and do we find the day kept 
 holy to God ? Go to Paris. Is there 
 any such thing as a holy consecration 
 of the day to sacred things ? Wherever 
 we can trace the track of the beast, we 
 will find the crushed remains of God's 
 holy institution. The car of this Mo- 
 loch rides in fury over this hallowed 
 day. But what is the philosophy of this 
 fact? What is the policy of the two 
 beasts, and of the dragon now incarnate 
 in them? Manifestly this, — were the 
 day kept holy to God ; were the whole 
 Sabbath devoted to the instruction of the 
 people in the truths of the Bible and the 
 exercises of devotion, they would be- 
 come enlightened in the knowledge of 
 their rights and duties, and acquire a dis- 
 position to improve and enjoy them ; and 
 this would of course be fatal to the inte- 
 rests of oppression. The light of a pure 
 Christian Sabbath would dispel that dark- 
 ness which is essential to the dominion 
 of brute force. 
 
 But inasmuch as experience has fully 
 taught mankind the necessity of a perio- 
 dical relaxation of the physical ener- 
 gies, in order to physical health, it be- 
 comes the abettors of bestial dominion, 
 to find employment for the mass of the 
 people during this day of necessary re- 
 laxation. For, to turn out the whole 
 population, without any thing to attract 
 and divert their attention, would be un- 
 safe. Hence, in all popish countries, it 
 is a part of the policy of their masters, 
 civil and ecclesiastical, to plan public 
 amusements on the Sabbath. Hence 
 all kinds of dissipation, theatres, balls, 
 gaming establishments, military parades, 
 promenades, gardens for pleasure. The 
 
230 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ecclesiastical mummeries occupy the 
 morning ; after which, the whole mass, 
 people, priests, bishops, archbishops, 
 nobles, and princes, all prostitute the 
 remainder of the Sabbath to the service 
 of Satan ; all set the law of God at defi- 
 ance. Few men ever think of the policy 
 of their masters in this thing. These 
 masters understand it well ; for it is the 
 scheme which they themselves have con- 
 cocted, to occupy the attention of the 
 people and prevent it from dwelling on 
 their wrongs. Thus in England, when 
 the Stuarts would restore Popery, they 
 planned Sabbath amusements, and pub- 
 lished a book of sports and plays autho- 
 rized by royal license. The design 
 ostensibly was to please the ignorant 
 rabble ; really to corrupt the public mo- 
 rals, and thereby to render necessary a 
 compulsatory dominion. 
 
 Such, to this day, is the practice of 
 the same powers. Well do they know 
 that an ignorant and immoral people can 
 be governed by no other than an iron 
 hand ; therefore they foster corruption, 
 in order to create and perpetuate the 
 necessity for this mode of government. 
 Can any one doubt that this policy is 
 now working in our country? Is it not 
 clear, that foreign influences are con- 
 centrating upon our large towns to cor- 
 rupt their morals ? Are not our thea- 
 tres almost entirely sustained by foreign 
 importations ? 
 
 2. Roman Catholicism wears a lamb- 
 like gentleness, until it gains the power, 
 and then it>speaks like a dragon. How 
 very mild it is now in our land ! How 
 extremely fond of liberty and tolera- 
 tion ! How decidedly opposed to an 
 establishment of religion, a union of 
 church and state ! But how speaks the 
 present reigning Pope? Hear his lan- 
 guage. " Nor can we augur more con- 
 soling consequences to religion and the 
 government, from the zeal of some to 
 separate the church from the state, and 
 to burst the bond which unites the 
 priesthood to the empire. For it is 
 clear that this union is dreaded by the 
 profane lovers of liberty, only because 
 it has never failed to confer prosperity 
 on both." (Breckenridge's and Hughes' 
 
 Debate, p. 338.) Thus does the Pope 
 maintain in theory, what he has always 
 practised, when it lay in his power ; 
 combined the civil and religious autho- 
 rity into one practical despotic system. 
 To carry out this it was, that Philip of 
 Spain, instigated by the Popish ecclesi- 
 astics, sent the Duke of Alva into the 
 Netherlands to crush all opposers of this 
 doctrine. This fearful monster boasted, 
 says Hume, " that during the course 
 of five years, he had delivered above 
 eighteen thousand of these rebellious 
 heretics (the Protestants) into the hand 
 of the executioner," (vii. 201.) And all 
 these besides the tens of thousands who 
 were butchered by his savage soldiery. 
 
 3. The horns of this beast are both 
 in our country. The secular clergy, 
 bishops and priests are all over the land. 
 The regulars, Dominicans and Francis- 
 cans, but especially the Jesuits, are pass- 
 ing over us as the fiery dragons of the 
 Arabian desert passed over the Israel- 
 ijish camp. Now, we must ever remem- 
 ber that Rome has always claimed infal- 
 libility. She can never change her prin- 
 ciples; consequently, the work of her 
 clergy is now as it ever was : the ser- 
 vice of their foreign master they must 
 perform. They must put the mark of 
 the beast upon our people, and so bring 
 them into full and perfect subjection to 
 the two beasts. Accordingly, the fact 
 is plain, that they are much more zeal- 
 ous to educate our Protestant children 
 than to teach the wretched, ignorant 
 progeny of the Catholic population. 
 
 4. We, in these United States, do not 
 dwell within the Roman earth, whence 
 we infer, that we never will be brought 
 under the dominion of Rome. Our safety, 
 however, does not lie in our supineness. 
 The living creatures are full of eyes, 
 and the Argus eyes of the American 
 ministry are upon the Church of Rome, 
 and her machinations will not long lie 
 hidden. Let us remember that Rome 
 claims the same right to our soil that 
 she did in the days of Columbus ; and 
 the same authority to interdict nations 
 now that she exercised in the days of 
 Henry VIII. ; the same right to excom- 
 municate and dethrone and burn here- 
 
LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 231 
 
 tics. All she lacks is the physical 
 force. 
 
 5. The soul or mind of man must be 
 brought into bondage to sin before his 
 person can became a slave to tyrannical 
 power. This is fearfully illustrated in 
 the means by which the two-horned 
 beast keeps in political bondage the po- 
 pulation of Europe. It vitiates the mo- 
 rals of men by corrupting their religion. 
 Why should the very basest of the hu- 
 man race tread upon the neck of the 
 race? Why should the whole mass of 
 a people be ground down under the op- 
 pression of one man ? On no other 
 principle can this strange phenomenon 
 in the moral government of God be ac- 
 counted for, but this : that sin blinds the 
 understanding, debases the conscience, 
 and corrupts the morals, and for punish- 
 ment of these things they are delivered 
 over to bondage. 
 
 Lastly, we learn from this discussion, 
 the relation of pure Christianity to hu- 
 man freedom. It redeems the mind and 
 conscience from the thraldom of sin and 
 pollution, and makes the man morally 
 free. It fits him for a government of 
 moral law, and teaches him therein his 
 right to enjoy it. Here is the solution 
 of the historical fact, that every where 
 Protestant Christianity is the handmaid 
 of liberty and representative govern- 
 ment ; and Romanism the sworn ally of 
 legitimacy or arbitrary power. 
 
 Hence the vast importance, to this 
 nation and to the world, of a thorough 
 reformation in religion ; — the high and 
 sacred duty of guarding ourselves against 
 those who oppose the reformation prin- 
 ciples, by a corrupt Christianity on the 
 one hand, and by infidelity on the 
 other. 
 
 Be this the care of the church ; so 
 shall the religion of Jesus become the 
 religion of the world. 
 
 LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 Rev. xiv. 
 
 From scenes of tyranny, oppression, 
 and blood, and the abominations which 
 
 give rise to them, the heart of piety turns 
 away with disgust. To exhibitions of 
 moral excellence, and the peace, happi- 
 ness, and liberty, which results from 
 them, the same heart turns with com- 
 placency, joy and delight. If the mind 
 of man were perfectly pure, it might 
 perhaps, contemplate the iniquities of 
 Popery, and the horrors of despotism, 
 without danger or injury. But as we 
 are in fact tainted with evil, it is not safe 
 to give long and constant attention to 
 moral impurities. There is yet so much 
 within us which tends to assimilate and 
 coalesce with iniquity, that a prudent 
 man will carefully guard against ex- 
 hibiting continually before the eye of his 
 mind, examples of deep depravity. Ac- 
 cording to this principle are the sacred 
 Sriptures composed. Whether didactic, 
 historic, or prophetic, they never keep 
 us for any great length of time, in the 
 contemplation of crimes. Soon, from 
 the sickening scenes of impiety, they 
 call us to behold the reverse, and thus, 
 by contrast, make virtue and truth take 
 the firmer hold upon our better judgment, 
 and more thorough command of our 
 benevolent feelings. 
 
 This forms a correct reason for the 
 opinion, that good preaching consists in 
 the simple exposition or explanation of 
 the Scriptures, just in the order in which 
 God has written them. This method we 
 much prefer to mere sermonizing upon 
 detached texts, without ever taking up 
 the books of Scripture and expounding 
 them continuously. And it is departure 
 from this principle of continuous expo- 
 sition, that constitutes an objection to 
 the version of the Bible Psalms now in 
 very general use. Doctor Watts has 
 attempted, professedly, to improve upon 
 the sentiment, the very matter, and the 
 order, by various omissions and addi- 
 tions, to fit the Psalms for Christian 
 worship. This is unfair. If Pope had 
 taken the same license with the poems 
 of Homer, all the amateurs of Greek 
 poetry in the world would have cried, 
 Shame on the presumptuous intruder ! 
 But it is a pious and zealous Christian 
 divine who has taken this liberty with 
 the songs of Zion, and almost the whole 
 
232 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 church acquiesce in it. What would 
 we think of the French poet, who, pro- 
 posing to enrich French literature with 
 a versification of the masterpiece of the 
 English muse, should mangle and trans- 
 pose the torn limbs of the Paradise Lost, 
 until Milton himself might meet his first- 
 born on the highway and not recognise 
 it ? And must this literary butchery be 
 tolerated, because, forsooth, the victim 
 is the inspired Psalmist 1 Why should 
 the heaven-taught bard be misrepre- 
 sented thus 1 Let us rather have the 
 songs of inspiration as God inspired 
 them, and as nearly as is possible, and 
 consistent with the laws of English ver- 
 sification. God's order of thought is 
 doubtless best for his church. H any 
 one think he can write better spiritual 
 songs than the sweet singer of Israel, 
 let him do it: but let him not dress the 
 savoury meat which God hath prepared, 
 until all its substance and savour are 
 gone, and then present it to us as an 
 imitation of David's Psalms. 
 
 The order of thought in the Bible is 
 no doubt advantageous to the church, 
 and its diversity would effectually pre- 
 vent monotonous sameness in the pulpit. 
 If ministers would preach God's word, 
 — expound the scriptures continuously, 
 there would be an endless change of 
 matter and discussion. We have just 
 been viewing scenes of oppression, and 
 blood, and affliction to the church. If 
 we are weary of it, we have but to follow 
 on in the order of the text, and we will 
 find sufficient variety. In this xiv. 
 chapter we pass from the blasphemies 
 and blood of the man of sin, to the 
 blaze of light from the Sun of Right- 
 eousness, and the Eden bloom of his re- 
 deemed church. 
 
 Verses 1-5. " And I looked, and, lo, 
 a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and 
 with him an hundred and forty and 
 four thousand, having his father's name 
 written in their foreheads. And I heard 
 a voice from heaven, as the voice of 
 many waters, and as the voice of a 
 great thunder ; and I heard the voice of 
 harpers harping with their harps : and 
 they sung as it were a new song before 
 the throne, and before the four beasts, 
 
 and the elders ; and no man could learn 
 that song but the hundred and forty and 
 four thousand, which were redeemed 
 from the earth. These are they which 
 were not defiled with women ; for they 
 are virgins. These are they which fol- 
 low the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. 
 These were redeemed from among men, 
 being the first fruits unto God and to the 
 Lamb. And in their mouth was found 
 no guile ; for they are without fault be- 
 fore the throne of God." 
 
 Let not the glow of this language, the 
 splendour of this imagery, carry us away 
 from earth, the present abode of the 
 church. Let us not forget the chrono- 
 logical character of these prophecies, 
 and transfer this language to the future 
 state of heavenly rest, which it is so 
 aptly calculated to describe, and whence 
 it is indeed borrowed. It is a description 
 of the spiritual state of the true church 
 during the latter part of the twelve hun- 
 dred and sixty years of her oppression. 
 It is a vision of the Lamb, and his com- 
 pany and their doings. Let us examine 
 particulars in their order. 
 
 1. The Lamb is the same who opened 
 the seven seals ; the Lord our Redeemer, 
 in the precise character of atoner for his 
 people's sins. Ever and anon do the 
 scriptures bear us back and plant our 
 feet on the fundamental doctrine, the 
 Christ and him crucified. There is no 
 room for hesitancy here, and no need for 
 explanation. 
 
 2. Observe his position ; he has taken 
 his station and occupies it. Like the 
 commander of a great army in the field 
 and in the day of conflict, he has chosen 
 his post, and marks the struggles of his 
 hosts for that victory and triumph which 
 his own wisdom and power have made 
 sure to them in its proper season. 
 
 3. The place where he stands : Mount 
 Zion, the city of the living God, the true 
 church. " For the Lord has chosen 
 Zion ; he hath desired it for his habita- 
 tion. God is in the midst of her,- she 
 shall not be moved." 
 
 4. His company, — an hundred and 
 forty and four thousand, the whole body 
 of his believing people, the witnesses of 
 Jesus. 
 
LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 ■233 
 
 5. The mark of his people ; his Fa- 
 ther's name is written in their foreheads. 
 If we look back a few lines, it is impos- 
 sible we should not believe that this is a 
 contrast to the mark of the beast. And 
 this renders the exposition easy, in view 
 of what we have said relative to that 
 mark. The name of God is that by 
 which he is known, that which expresses 
 his essential attributes. His name upon 
 his people's forehead is therefore his holy 
 character impressed upon them, whereby 
 they are known to be his. They are 
 not merely secret and practical adherents 
 of his ; they have not his mark in their 
 right hand, or on their forehead : they 
 are openly and avowedly his. The fol- 
 lowers of the beast were partly marked 
 on their foreheads, openly and manifestly 
 with him ; many also were practically, 
 though not avowedly antichristian : but 
 these all have the Father's name on their 
 forehead, — are professedly God's wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 6. The spiritual joys of the church 
 are described in verses 2 and 3. And 
 the first audible sound is an immense 
 burst of voices, the thundering acclaim 
 of that vast multitude, symbolized by the 
 hundred and forty-four thousand. There 
 is, then, a distinction in the sounds, so 
 that the notes of their music can be 
 heard. Then the articulations of their 
 sounds fall upon the ear : the sentiments 
 they utter correspond to the glad feelings 
 they experience. In the next chapter, it 
 is called the song of Moses and of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 7. The propriety of instrumental mu- 
 sic in religious worship may possibly be 
 inferred from this language. True, the 
 action here is symbolical, and shadows 
 forth the high spiritual joys of the mili- 
 tant yet rejoicing church. Still, the 
 efficiency and the propriety of the sym- 
 bol it would be difficult to perceive, if 
 instruments were in themselves impro- 
 per. Be this point settled as it may, we 
 are certainly taught, that no music, in- 
 strumental or vocal, should destroy or 
 drown distinct articulation. The voices 
 should be such, that the words may be 
 distinctly heard, and so the sentiments 
 harmonize all hearts. 
 
 30 
 
 8. This song is sung in the presence 
 of the throne. Still, we must remember, 
 we are in sight of the scene described in 
 chapter v. The services of God's re- 
 joicing martyrs are conducted before 
 him, and in presence of the living crea- 
 tures, that is, the ministry and the elder- 
 ship of the church. 
 
 9. This song is known and can be 
 known only to the saints of God. " The 
 secret of the Lord is with them that fear 
 him, and he will show them his cove- 
 nant." (Ps. xv. 14.) Into his secret 
 only they who are redeemed from the 
 earth, or rescued from the power of 
 Rome, are introduced. History abun- 
 dantly shows, that their bloody persecu- 
 tors could never understand on what 
 principles, and by what wonderful power, 
 the martyrs of Jesus were upheld and 
 enabled to rejoice in the midst of such 
 unutterable anguish as they were com- 
 pelled to endure. 
 
 10. The character of these hundred 
 and forty-four thousand is expounded in 
 verses 4 and 5. Six particulars are 
 mentioned : 1. Their holiness. The 
 symbol of this is female chastity. As 
 the Scriptures often describe moral pol- 
 lution, and especially that of the Roman 
 Antichrist, under the figure of sexual im- 
 purity, so the spotless morality of the 
 true disciples of Jesus in this age is re- 
 presented by a virgin. 2. Their activity 
 is described by their following the Lamb. 
 They aim at entire conformity with his 
 example. And truly the witnesses of 
 God, during this period, gave most over- 
 whelming evidence of their humble and 
 devoted piety : they followed the Lamb 
 in tribulation and sorrow. 3. The man- 
 ner in which they became thus pure and 
 devoted : — they were redeemed from the 
 iniquities of men, and brought out and 
 separated from the pollutions of the Pa- 
 pacy, by the blood of the Saviour, and 
 the Spirit of his grace. 4. They stand 
 related to a vastly greater number. The 
 " first fruits" was a handful of grain, 
 cut from the first ripe part of the field, 
 and presented to God as a thank-offering, 
 and guarantee or promise of the full 
 harvest. This great multitude is to the 
 vastly greater multitude of the millen- 
 
•234 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 nian period, only as the handful to the 
 whole harvest. 5. Their guileless tem- 
 per. And never did humanity exhibit 
 more of this than among the VValden- 
 sian and Albigensian Christians. 6. They 
 are spotless before God. The Father 
 views his holy and faithful ones in the 
 face of his dear Son, and he sees in 
 them neither stain nor blemish. 
 
 But against this description of the 
 character, condition, and joys of the 
 saints in the period referred to, it may 
 occur as an objection, that, we have 
 already contemplated them as exces- 
 sively afflicted. They are harassed and 
 persecuted in a most shocking manner. 
 Where then is the consistency of repre- 
 senting them, at the same time, as filled 
 with joy and exultation, — as singing and 
 glorying in their blessed privileges ? 
 
 These individual believers, and the 
 true church, were indeed afflicted and 
 tormented in one sense. As to temporal 
 joys, and earthly pleasures, and worldly 
 goods, they were poor and wretched be- 
 yond conception. But in regard to their 
 better part, the undying spirit, — in re- 
 gard to inward blessedness, they enjoyed 
 a heaven upon earth. God filled the 
 soul with an unwonted measure of the 
 fire of divine love, whilst man was sur- 
 rounding the body with the consuming 
 flame. In this way only can we account 
 for the calmness, even joyful ness, with 
 which thousands of martyrs marched to 
 the stake. But no external tortures can 
 extinguish the bright flames of divine 
 love that burn within. How these things 
 can be, we know not : but that they are 
 so, hundreds who have ascended to 
 heaven in chariots of fire, abundantly 
 testify. 
 
 We have in the context, verses 6-13, 
 inclusive, three several visions of angels, 
 each angel announcing his own particu- 
 lar message for the church's instruction. 
 They are all emblematic of the ministry 
 of the church of God, but at different 
 periods, and in different circumstances. 
 Be it our care, from the circumstances 
 and burden of their messages respec- 
 tively, to ascertain the times and places, 
 and, of course, the aggregate of persons 
 intended. 
 
 Verses 6, 7. " And I saw another 
 angel fly in the midst of heaven, having 
 the everlasting gospel to preach unto 
 them that dwell on the earth, and to 
 every nation, and kindred, and tongue, 
 and people, saying with a loud voice, 
 Fear God, and give glory to him; for 
 the hour of his judgment is come : and 
 worship him that made heaven, and 
 earth, and the sea, and the fountains of 
 waters." 
 
 In the application of this passage, 
 there are diverse opinions, and some 
 must consequently be incorrect. Those 
 who pay little or no regard to chro- 
 nology, are under constant misappre- 
 hension in their prophetical expositions. 
 Similarity of phrase and circumstance 
 often carries them far away from truth. 
 Bishop Newton is peculiarly unhappy 
 here. He seems to make the first angel 
 to be Charlemagne ; because that em- 
 peror called the Council of Frankfort in 
 794, which condemned image-worship. 
 He also himself wrote, or caused to be 
 written, four books against image-wor- 
 ship, which from him are called the 
 Caroline books. 
 
 But the electoral emperor is the last 
 head of the ten-horned beast, as the 
 bishop maintains : he cannot, therefore, 
 certainly, be the angel of this text. Per- 
 haps, however, the learned prelate only 
 means that the gospel preachers whom 
 Charles encouraged, were the angel. 
 This would not be so great an error, 
 but still the chronology would be utterly 
 disregarded. 
 
 Mr. Faber is almost equally far astray. 
 He represents Luther and the Lutheran 
 churches as the first angel ; Calvin and 
 the Calvinistic churches as the second, 
 and the episcopal establishment of Bri- 
 tain as the third. Now we dislike the 
 division of that one glorious revolution, 
 the Protestant Reformation, into three 
 parts. In fact, it is one, and its actors 
 all felt it to be one; — one in origin, in 
 life, in spirit, in act, in execution. It 
 stands out, in the chronicles of ages, the 
 brilliant spot, to which the finger of His- 
 tory can point us no equal in her bio- 
 graphy of the world. This most illus- 
 trious of all historic dramas consists 
 
LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 235 
 
 of various acts, indeed, but the action 
 is one. 
 
 More felicitous is the exposition of Dr. 
 Scott, who applies it to the glorious 
 Piedmontese revival of religion, to which 
 we have already given some attention. 
 The angel is called another, in reference 
 to the angel whom John beheld flying 
 through the midst of heaven, denouncing 
 vengeance under the three woes, (chap, 
 viii. 13.) This angel is the same minis- 
 iry announcing to the entire Roman 
 world the everlasting Gospel. History, 
 in accordance with this, informs us that 
 the Albigenses and Waldenses held aloft 
 the light of truth in the midst of Papal 
 darkness ; and arrested the attention 
 and the opposition of the corrupters of 
 the church. 
 
 These messengers were to herald 
 mercy, not only in the heart of the Ro- 
 man earth, but to every " nation, and 
 kindred, and tongue, and people" within 
 it. For so ought it to be understood, — 
 " unto them that dwell upon the earth, 
 even to every nation." " Accordingly," 
 says Dr. Scott, " after immense slaughter 
 had been made of them by persecutions 
 and bloody wars, they still retained their 
 tenets; and being dispersed into all coun- 
 tries, they rapidly carried the everlasting 
 Gospel with them ; so that the Lollards 
 in England, and the Bohemians, and 
 many others in different places, seem to 
 have principally learned the Gospel from 
 them ; the Reformation itself seems to 
 have sprung from the seed which they 
 sowed, and watered with rivers of their 
 blood." 
 
 " It was," says Dr. McLeod, " in the 
 year 1180, that this revival commenced 
 among those who, for upwards of five 
 hundred years, had been distinguished 
 for their dissent from the established re- 
 ligion of the empire," (p. 465.) These 
 heralds call upon men to fear God, 
 and give glory to him, in direct contra- 
 diction to the preaching of the monks 
 and clergy, who are symbolized by the 
 two-horned beast, who constantly called 
 upon men to worship the beast, his 
 image, and the dragon who dwelt in 
 them. 
 
 Their reason for this call is, that the 
 
 time for God to punish the apostacy is 
 approaching, — " for the hour of his judg- 
 ment is come." This cannot refer to. 
 the period of the last judgment: the chro- 
 nology and connexion forbid it. Other 
 judgments of God innumerable there are. 
 
 " Now is the prince of this world judg- 
 ed." On any and every occasion when 
 large accessions are made to the true 
 church, the adversary of souls is judged. 
 The period referred to in our text, is one 
 of extensive revival ; when great num- 
 bers in Piedmont and adjoining territo- 
 ries of the Duke of Savoy, in the south 
 of France and Switzerland were turned 
 unto the Lord. The preachers became 
 more bold. Encouraged by the support 
 and countenance of Pierre Waldo, a 
 wealthy merchant of Lyons, they urged 
 the renunciation of idols, and the wor- 
 ship of the true God only. 
 
 It has been made a question, whether 
 this last clause, "worship him that made 
 heaven and earth," is to be taken lite- 
 rally, or symbolically. We incline to 
 the former, because when these preachers 
 dissuade from idolatry, they naturally 
 point out the true and only object of re- 
 ligious veneration. And instead of call- 
 ing him Creator, they use a periphrasis, 
 " him that made lieaven and earth.'''' 
 Worship ye God the Creator, and not 
 man invested with power, or images, or 
 pictures, or relics. The figurative in- 
 terpretation, however, is not inconsistent 
 with truth. It will then mean, Worship 
 ye God, who, providentially, made this 
 earth, or Roman state and church, this 
 agitated sea of human society, and all 
 the fountains of population that flow into 
 it. The other appears to us the best 
 sense. It enjoins, in a periphrasis, the 
 worship of God, the Creator ; in oppo- 
 sition to the man-worship of the Papacy, 
 and the whole demonology of Rome. 
 
 Verse 8. " And there followed another 
 angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, 
 that great city, because she made all na- 
 tions drink of the wine of the wrath of 
 her fornication." 
 
 Doctor Scott is not quite so happy in 
 his explanation of this verse. He ap- 
 plies it to the Bohemian Reformation in 
 the fifteenth century, and there is much 
 
236 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 plausibility in his remarks. John Huss 
 and Jerome of Prague, fought bravely 
 against the legions of Rome, and tri- 
 umphed gloriously, ascending like Elijah, 
 in chariots of flame. The cause of pure 
 Christianity greatly revived in Bohemia, 
 and the ashes of Huss, which were 
 thrown by his persecutors into the Rhine, 
 appear to have purified its waters, so 
 that they flowed not in the same direc- 
 tion of those in Ezekiel's vision, but with 
 a similar effect. Wherever they flowed, 
 the waters were healed, — every thing 
 shall live whither the river cometh. A 
 hundred years afterwards, the same doc- 
 trines spread along the banks of the 
 lower Rhine. Still the Bohemian Refor- 
 mation was not characterized by that 
 extensive and permanent effect ; it did 
 not, viewed as distinct from that of the 
 preceding and that of the subsequent 
 century, give such a blow to Papal 
 power as is implied in the language, 
 "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." This lan- 
 guage shuts us up to some great trans- 
 action that cripples the power of the 
 spiritual Babylon, and whose effects 
 leave her not till death. What can that 
 be but the ever-blessed Reformation of 
 the sixteenth century ! 
 
 Popish persecution had driven out 
 many of the Waldenses from their na- 
 tive land. The hungry pack of Papal 
 wolves, under promise from Rome 
 of rich prey, had rushed upon the 
 flocks of the Good Shepherd in the 
 peaceful vales, and driven all who were 
 not slaughtered and devoured up the 
 ravines into the higher Alps. Many 
 passed entirely over the northern and 
 western summits of these stupendous 
 barriers; and Switzerland became the 
 home of a thousand refugees from the 
 thousand fountains of the Po. Switzer- 
 land ! How the patriot blood warms at 
 the mention of her name ! History has 
 never done justice to the land of Tell 
 and of Calvin. When her genius shall 
 have been converted to the true religion, 
 and baptized in the Christian font, she 
 will take her station on the summit of 
 Mount Jura, and spreading out her un- 
 sullied tablets, will trace the records of 
 truth for the world's instruction. And 
 
 these records will show, that the waters 
 of life, like the countless Alpine streams, 
 flowed down in all directions, from the 
 country of Ulrich Zuingle, John Calvin, 
 and Theodore Beza. From her com- 
 manding position, she will point to Mont 
 Blanc as the appropriate symbol of the 
 Genevan Reformer, whose genius, tow- 
 ering above all other reformers, as the 
 monarch of the mountains above all 
 surrounding hills, pours the streams of 
 his light upon the churches of all sur- 
 rounding nations. Or, snatching the 
 pencil of the graphic muse, she will 
 sketch forth, for the instruction of man- 
 kind, the image of a pure and simple 
 republic, as it is reflected from the sil- 
 very surface of Lake Leman. 
 
 Switzerland was foremost in the Pro- 
 testant Reformation. " But it is well 
 known," says Doctor Maclaine, " that 
 so early as the year 1516, Zuingle had 
 begun to explain the scriptures to the 
 people, and to censure, though with great 
 prudence and moderation, the errors of 
 a corrupt church : and that he had very 
 noble and extensive ideas of a general 
 reformation, at the very time that Lu- 
 ther retained almost the whole system 
 of Popery, indulgences excepted. Luther 
 proceeded very slowly to that examina- 
 tion, from the prejudices of education, 
 which Zuingle, by the force of an ad- 
 venturous genius, and an uncommon 
 degree of knowledge and penetration, 
 easily got rid of. Zuingle had explained 
 the scriptures to the people, and called 
 in question the authority and supremacy 
 of the Pope before the name of Luther 
 was known in Switzerland. Besides, 
 instead of receiving instruction from the 
 German Reformer, he was much his 
 superior in learning, capacity, and judg- 
 ment ; and was much fitter to be his 
 master, than his disciple, as the four 
 volumes in folio we have of his works 
 abundantly testify." 
 
 It is very possible that the plot of the 
 Dominicans, at Rome, seven years be- 
 fore, had given an impulse to the inves- 
 tigations of Zuingle. This plot had for 
 its object the gaining of an ascend- 
 ancy for their order over the Francis- 
 cans. The Franciscans affirmed the 
 
LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 237 
 
 immaculate conception of Mary, which 
 the Dominicans denied. They used as 
 their tool one Jetzer, in order to get up 
 a series of miracles in Switzerland, for 
 the benefit of their order ; but pushing 
 the thing too far, they were detected. 
 Jetzer himself seized the prior of the 
 abbey where these pretended miracles 
 were wrought, and nearly killed him ; 
 he then escaped from the convent, and 
 threw himself upon the protection of the 
 civil power. Subsequently, a commis- 
 sion was sent from Rome, and four of 
 the monks were tried, condemned, and 
 executed. Thus the abominations of 
 Popery occasioned their bolder denun- 
 ciation by the Swiss Reformer. 
 
 At the same time it must be stated, to 
 the honour of Luther, that he was as 
 ignorant of the movements in Switzer- 
 land, as Zuingle was of those in Ger- 
 many. In the following year, 1517, 
 the Saxon broke with the Pope, and the 
 Lion of the Reformation lifted up his 
 voice, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." 
 This does not refer to the destruction of 
 Babylon, as is generally assumed; but 
 to her fall from the state and condition 
 of the true and pure church. It was the 
 doctrine proclaimed by Luther, Zuingle, 
 Le Fevre, and the other reformers, that 
 Rome had fallen dawn and worshipped 
 idols : she was a fallen star, — an apos- 
 tate church. 
 
 Our reasons for deviating here from 
 the commonly received interpretation, 
 will be given more fully when we come 
 to treat of the third great period, (chap, 
 xviii.) whose ministers will take up this 
 very burden of Babylon. 
 
 This simultaneous origin, without pri- 
 vity or concert, ought to be viewed at 
 least as a striking providence and evi- 
 dence that the spirit of the Lord was in 
 the hearts of these two noble asserters 
 of true doctrines, although they were 
 mutually ignorant of each other. 
 
 The reason of this great providential 
 developement, — the immediate procuring 
 cause of the terrible rebuke which Rome 
 now receives, is said to be her exceed- 
 ing corruption, and her influence in ex- 
 tending it over the nations. " She made 
 all nations to drink of the wine of the 
 
 wrath of her fornications !" So debased 
 had her clergy become, that they could 
 no longer be tolerated ; so desperate her 
 tyranny, that the yoke could no longer 
 be borne. God therefore raised up a 
 host of fearless-hearted men, and the 
 consequence was, that the corruption 
 has been checked, and the yoke of her 
 bondage greatly alleviated. The Pope 
 has never since been able to dictate 
 law to the world ; and the vilest of her 
 obscenities have been very much hemmed 
 in by the walls of her monasteries and 
 nunneries. For three hundred years 
 Babylon has been in the dust, — Rome 
 is the most debased of all powers. 
 
 It should be observed, before we turn 
 from this subject, that this angel is not 
 seen to fly in the midst of heaven, as 
 the preceding was. The Waldensian 
 revival did not result in an organic sepa- 
 ration from the church of Rome. These 
 numerous and revived churches still re- 
 tained a visible connexion with the Ca- 
 tholic body, whilst virtually they were 
 entirely separate. They were practical, 
 though not formal dissenters. But the 
 Reformation revival soon resulted in an 
 organic separation ; and hence this an- 
 gel's locality is not defined by the phrase, 
 in the midst of heaven, or the visible 
 Catholic church. This is true also of 
 the third angel. 
 
 Verses 9, 10. " And the third angel 
 followed them, saying with a loud voice, 
 If any man worship the beast and his 
 image, and receive his mark in his fore- 
 head, or in his hand ; the same shall 
 drink of the wine of the wrath of God, 
 which is poured out without mixture into 
 the cup of his indignation ; and he shall 
 be tormented with fire and brimstone, in 
 the presence of the holy angels, and in 
 the presence of the Lamb." We will 
 quote the particular passages, in imme- 
 diate connexion with the characteristics 
 of these heralds, and thus determine the 
 locality of the prophecy. 
 
 1. The ministry symbolized by this 
 angel, shall exhibit the lion-like spirit 
 of the Protestant Reformers, — " saying 
 with a loud voice." Clear and decided 
 language will they utter. No timid, 
 doubting state of mind, hesitating whe- 
 
238 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ther to say hard things against the 
 beasts and their image, or to speak 
 smoothly and fawningly. Having come 
 entirely out, and separated themselves 
 from the corruptions of Rome, they will 
 habitually look upon her as the " mother 
 of harlots and abominations of the earth ;" 
 and their language will be the fearless 
 and honest exposition of their thoughts 
 and feelings. 
 
 2. The burden of their song is a de- 
 nunciation of God's wrath upon the chil- 
 dren of the apostacy. " If any man 
 worship the beast." This regards the 
 secular beast, in which at this time, the 
 dragon, or Diabolus, is incarnate. Con- 
 sequently, tvorshipping the beast, implies 
 the maintenance of the whole doctrine of 
 legitimacy, — the divine right of kings, 
 the doctrine of non-resistance, of abso- 
 lute and unconditional submission : — 
 that system which looks upon kings as 
 the fountains of power, and their con- 
 cessions to mankind, as the original 
 source of human rights. 
 
 Another point is the worship of the 
 beast's image, that is, the Papal power. 
 They are guilty of this sin who bow 
 down to the Pope's supremacy ; who 
 look to him as the head ecclesiastic of 
 the church, — as supreme in spiritual 
 things. Thus all Roman Catholics wor- 
 ship the image of the beast. " After the 
 Pope is elected, he is pompously dressed 
 in his cassock, rochet, camail, a cap 
 of red satin, and shoes of red cloth. 
 Then he is carried in his chair before 
 the altar, upon which the cardinals 
 adore the Pope on their knees, kissing 
 his foot and right hand. The Pope, in 
 return, gives each cardinal a kiss on 
 the right cheek. Then the first cardi- 
 nal deacon announces the fact from the 
 balcony, in Ihese words, ' Annuncio 
 vobis guadium magnum, habemus Pa- 
 pain : I bring you glad tidings, we have 
 a Pope.' Upon which all the bells in 
 the city are rung, the cannons from 
 the Castle Angelo are discharged, and 
 music of every kind resounds through- 
 out Rome." 
 
 " In the evening, the new Pope is 
 conducted to Sixtus's chapel, and being 
 set upon the altar, is adored the second 
 
 time. After some childish ceremonies, 
 the Pope is carried under a magnifi- 
 cent scarlet canopy to the great altar of 
 St. Peter's church. There the cardi- 
 nals adore him the third time, who are 
 succeeded by the foreign ambassadors. 
 The Pope having subsequently blessed 
 the assembled multitude, is then placed 
 in his chair, and twelve men, in long 
 scarlet cloaks, support him on their 
 shoulders to his apartments. It is a 
 Roman dogma that the Pope's feet ought 
 to be kissed after the same manner, and 
 with the same respect, as the cross and 
 other holy images are kissed." In con- 
 formity to which position, Pope Inno- 
 cent III. in his decretal, affirms, " The 
 church being the spouse of Christ' 's vicar, 
 brought me in marriage full power 
 over all temporal and spiritual con- 
 cerns. ■ The mitre is llie emblem of the 
 latter ; and the crown of the former ; 
 and they both intimate that the Pope is 
 King of kings, and Lord of lords.'''' 
 When the ceremony of his coronation 
 takes place, " Then the mitre is taken 
 off, and the triple crown put on the 
 Pope's head by the cardinal deacon, 
 who thus addresses him. ' Receive this 
 tiara, embellished with three crowns, 
 and never forget, that you are the FatJier 
 of Princes, and Kings, the Supreme 
 Judge of the universe, and on the earth, 
 Vicar of Jesus Christ our JLord and 
 Saviour: " (See Illus. Pop. pp. 532, 
 533.) 
 
 Such is the worship of the beast and 
 his image, in all Roman Catholic coun- 
 tries. In England it is a little different. 
 There the monarch is head of the church. 
 And in this one particular, the English 
 monarchy is more strictly antichristian 
 than any other since the days of Phocas. 
 The ancient heathen emperors were 
 heads of the state religion, the chief 
 pontiffs. But Phocas conferred this upon 
 the Bishop of Rome, and ever since no 
 sovereign in the empire has been head 
 of the church, even within his own 
 kingdom, until Henry VIII. assumed 
 this power, which the crown still holds. 
 This dependence of the church on the 
 crown is purely antichristian. 
 
 Another point to be noticed is, the 
 
LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 239 
 
 acknowledgment, less or more publicly, 
 of their supreme devotion to the inte- 
 rests of this corrupt system ; " they re- 
 ceive his mark in their forehead and 
 their hand." 
 
 " The same shall drink of the wine 
 of the wrath of God, which is poured 
 out without mixture into the cup of his 
 indignation." A strong expression of 
 God's terrible judgments upon the apos- 
 tacy ; and which we shall hereafter see 
 under the vials of his wrath. 
 
 " And he shall be tormented with fire 
 and brimstone in the presence of the 
 holy angels and in the presence of the 
 Lamb." Verse 11. " And the smoke 
 of their torment ascendeth up for ever 
 and ever : and they have no rest day 
 nor night, who worship the beast and 
 his image, and whosoever receiveth the 
 mark of his name." This is also de- 
 scriptive of the agonies which will fol- 
 low upon the outpouring of the vials of 
 God's wrath. We pass it over until 
 that subject present itself in its order. 
 
 Verse 12. " Here is the patience of 
 the saints : here are they tha't keep the 
 commandments of God, and the faith of 
 Jesus." This is parallel with chap. xiii. 
 10, and need not detain us. During this 
 period the perseverance of the saints, and 
 their active and energetic faith, will be 
 very fully displayed in the sight of men 
 and God. 
 
 Verse 13. " And I heard a voice from 
 heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed 
 are the dead which die in the Lord from 
 henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, that 
 they may rest from their labours ; and 
 their works do follow them." 
 
 3. Another characteristic of these 
 preachers will be, their opposition to the 
 popish doctrine of purgatory ; and the 
 doctrine of human merit or works. The 
 theory is, that inherent and inwrought 
 grace becomes a stock of grace with 
 many saints, which is greatly increased 
 by penances and confessions, and these 
 works of supererogation, — works over 
 and above, what the individuals need for 
 their own justification, constitute a fund 
 in advance, available through the agency 
 of the priesthood as commissioned and 
 authorized by the Pope ; so that it may 
 
 be drawn upon to make up deficiencies 
 of others. Then the souls in purgatory 
 — a state of suffering, not hell, but a 
 place of purification by fire, may be re- 
 leased and admitted toheaven,throughthe 
 agency of the priests. But this agency 
 must be well paid for. A draft or series 
 of drafts on this stock may be purchased 
 of the priest, for a certain sum of money, 
 and a certain number of prayers and 
 penances. Such, briefly, is the system. 
 Now the prophet here tells us that this 
 shall be opposed by the preachers of the 
 third angel, who shall teach, that the 
 dead, those who die in the faith of Jesus, 
 do pass at once into a state of blessed- 
 ness, owr' ctgn, from, now, at once : not 
 after the priest shall have been paid to 
 release them from purgatory ; but from 
 the moment of their soul's departure. 
 Their good works do not precede them 
 in the sense of merit, to procure them 
 admittance ; but follow them as evi- 
 dences of their salvation by grace. The 
 moment they cease from their toils and 
 sorrows here they are blessed, and their 
 uprightness on earth evinces their salva- 
 tion by free grace. 
 
 Such being the works and doings of 
 those symbolized by the third angel, we 
 are prepared to answer the inquiry as to 
 who they are. And as the third follows 
 the second, we must look for them sub- 
 sequently to the Protestant Reformation 
 of the sixteenth century. We see no 
 body of preachers and no general re- 
 viving of evangelical religion, with the 
 features of deep and determined opposi- 
 tion to Popery, to whom the prophecy 
 is applicable. The fulfilment is yet 
 future : but confining upon the present. 
 The alarm just beginning to be sounded, 
 and the manifest growth of numbers 
 and of zeal for pure Christianity in 
 Geneva, Lyons, Montauban, Paris, and 
 other parts of France, — in Britain and 
 Ireland, in some parts of Germany ; and 
 especially in America, — these are the 
 beginning of great events. This third 
 angel is the body of evangelical minis- 
 ters who now labour, and in years to 
 come will labour much more efficiently, 
 to make the church see the connexion 
 between Popery and all who abet it, and 
 
240 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 the terrible judgments that await it. 
 Catholicism is manifestly waking up 
 for a last desperate effort ; and the 
 unblushing effrontery of her emissa- 
 ries, is arousing, and will arouse, the 
 Protestant world to a sense of its dan- 
 ger. The present movement on the 
 subject of Popery will continue ; the 
 prophecies that bear on it will be studied 
 more and more. The fearful conse- 
 quences of adhering to the despotic 
 system will be still more clearly ex- 
 hibited before the eyes of mankind, and 
 the essential hatefulness and tyranny of 
 the system be held up to the execration 
 of the race, until the day of Antichrist's 
 destruction shall come, and the ven- 
 geance be poured out that is written in 
 the word of God. In conclusion : 
 
 1. The stability of the true church is 
 beautifully represented by a mountain 
 that cannot be shaken : and that because 
 God is in the midst of her. The omni- 
 potent Redeemer is the arm of her pro- 
 tection ; she shall not be moved : and 
 though the followers of the Lamb may 
 appear few and feeble in our eyes, and 
 in the eyes of the world ; yet they are a 
 very great multitude, which no man can 
 number. 
 
 2. The true church presents an enig- 
 ma, or a paradox, — a strong .apparent 
 contradiction. Sorrowful, yet always 
 rejoicing: cast down, but not destroyed: 
 weeping, yet filled with joy and gladness 
 of heart. 
 
 3. The spiritual church of God's re- 
 deemed are characterized by purity. 
 These follow the Lamb withersoever he 
 goeth. If we would follow him ; if we 
 would be ready for our duties in the trials 
 of the coming times, let us study the his- 
 tory of God's martyrs. We should con- 
 verse with the spirits of the persecuted 
 Piedmontese. We should read the lives 
 of the witnesses at the light of the burn- 
 ing fagots that consume them. We 
 should emulate their purity. 
 
 4. It is no part of Christian charity to 
 dress up the monsterof spiritual abomina- 
 tions in the habiliments of the bride, the 
 Lamb's wife. True charity prompts to tear 
 off the harlot's mask, and expose her to 
 the scorn and derision of the world. The 
 
 subjects of her delusions we must pity, 
 and, if possible, pull them out of the 
 fire. But with regard to the corrupt 
 system of Popery, our motto should be 
 that of John Knox, " Spare no arrows." 
 For the destruction of Antichrist hasteth 
 apace. His next overthrow will be his 
 last, and the smoke of his torment shall 
 ascend for ever and ever. If we would 
 avoid the cup of the wine of the wrath 
 of God, poured out without mixture, we 
 must dash from us the cup of her abomi- 
 nations. 
 
 LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 Rev. xiv. 14-20; xv. xvi. 1-12. 
 
 " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye 
 gazing up into heaven? This same 
 Jesus which is taken up from you into 
 heaven, shall so come in like manner, as 
 ye have seen him go into heaven." Thus 
 were the disciples accosted by the angel, 
 after the cloud had closed upon their 
 divine Master, and hid him from their 
 sight. " Behold he cometh with clouds, 
 and every eye shall see him." The as- 
 cent and the descent of our mighty Re- 
 deemer is attended with the brightness 
 of a cloud. 
 
 Verse 14 : " And I looked, and be- 
 hold, a white cloud, and upon the cloud 
 one sat like unto the Son of man, hav- 
 ing on his head a golden crown, and in 
 his hand a sharp sickle." 
 
 This is the Messiah, — the Son of man, 
 arrayed in glory and terrible majesty : 
 his crown of royal authority upon his 
 head, and in his hand the instrument for 
 destroying. His field of harvest is the 
 world. He is its lord and ruler : he has 
 sowed and cultivated ; and he now comes 
 to reap it. 
 
 Whatever questions may arise as to 
 the particular part of the great field, or 
 the particular time of the cutting, there 
 is no room for hesitancy, as to the per- 
 sonage and the work in general, which 
 he comes to accomplish. Let us, as be- 
 fore on this chapter, make the matter our 
 index to its interpretation ; and already 
 
LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 241 
 
 we have settled two very important 
 points. 
 
 1. The being symbolized by the cloud- 
 enthroned personage, is the divine Re- 
 deemer, the possessor of the field. 
 
 2. The general object of his present 
 advent is to cut clown. 
 
 3. We may further remark, that the 
 sharp sickle is the instrumentality which 
 the Redeemer uses to execute his work 
 of cutting down. 
 
 Verse 15 : "And another angel came 
 out of the temple, crying with a loud 
 voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust 
 in thy sickle and reap ; for the harvest of 
 the earth is ripe." Verse 16 : ''And 
 he that sat on the cloud thrust in his 
 sickle on the earth ; and the earth was 
 reaped." 
 
 The third angel, (verse 9,) we have 
 already seen, represents the body of faith- 
 ful ministers, who, toward the close of 
 the twelve hundred and sixty days, an- 
 nounce the downfall of Antichrist. In 
 this verse, we have still another, a fourth 
 angel, emblematic of the ministry in the 
 true church. He came out of the tem- 
 ple, which, as the figure of the spiritual 
 church, in opposition to the heaven or 
 visible ecclesiastical body, (chap. xi. 19,) 
 stands open. This fourth angel must 
 therefore be the faithful ministry of God, 
 engaged in another part of the Master's 
 work. We accordingly see that their 
 action is different from that of the third : 
 he announced the fact of Babylon's fall 
 as just at hand ; this angel, in view of 
 that proximity, cries with a loud voice, 
 — the strong, bold language of an un- 
 wavering faith ; and the burden of his 
 cry is, that God would accomplish his 
 work of cutting down. This is the lan- 
 guage of prayer, and this angel is the 
 ministry who present, in the age referred 
 to, the prayers of the church to her glo- 
 rious and exalted King ; that he would 
 accomplish his work, his strange work, 
 and bring to pass his act, his strange 
 act ; that he would extend the right hand 
 of his power and lay the foes of Zion low, 
 as the grain falleth after the harvest-man. 
 
 This prayer is supported by two rea- 
 sons ; the season is come : and this be- 
 cause the harvest of the earth is fully 
 
 31 
 
 ripe. When the souls of the slaughtered 
 martyrs (chap. vi. 10) prayed for this 
 very same vengeance, they were com- 
 manded to be at " rest yet for a little 
 season," until all the proper events should 
 occur, — until the harvest should be ripe. 
 The prophet has arrived at that period, 
 and therefore now we have the same 
 prayer, officially presented through the 
 ministry of the church ; and it is pre- 
 sently considered. 
 
 He thrusts in his sickle, and the earth 
 is reaped. This unquestionably refers 
 to a season of terrible calamity. It is 
 the harvest of the earth. The harvest, 
 indeed, might symbolize the gathering of 
 the wheat into the Lord's garner, and 
 some writers so understand it. Accord- 
 ing to them, the harvest is a dispensa- 
 tion of mercy, a season of spiritual in- 
 crease, and, consequently, of joy to the 
 church. But that it rather refers to the 
 cutting off of his enemies, is, we think, 
 decided by the fact of the vintage being 
 thrown into the wine-press of the wrath 
 of God. The vintage and the harvest 
 here are undoubtedly emblematic of simi- 
 lar events : and the one, being unequivo- 
 cally a wrathful dispensation, settles the 
 character of the other. It is the Latin 
 earth that must be reaped, it is the dwel- 
 lers in it and participators and abettors 
 of its policy that are to be cut down. 
 Some great and fearful judgments of the 
 Son of man upon apostate Rome are 
 here described ; of a general and sweep- 
 ing character, like a harvest cutting. 
 
 Verse 17-20 : " And another angel 
 came out of the temple which is in heaven, 
 he also having a sharp sickle. And ano- 
 ther angel came out from the altar, which 
 had power over fire; and cried with a 
 loud cry to him that had the sharp 
 sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, 
 and gather the clusters of the vine of the 
 earth ; for her grapes are fully ripe. 
 And the angel thrust in his sickle into 
 the earth, and gathered the vine of the 
 earth, and cast it into the great wine- 
 press of the wrath of God. And the 
 wine-press was trodden without the city, 
 and blood came out of the wine-press, 
 even unto the horse-bridles, by the space 
 of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." 
 
242 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 Under this figure of a vintage, the 
 prophet exhibits another great and fear- 
 ful overthrow of the enemies of the 
 chosen church. The angel of verse 
 16, who conies out with the sharp sickle 
 from the temple, most probably repre- 
 sents the same person who previously 
 sat on the cloud. His work is the same 
 in kind ; his instrument is the same ; a 
 similar prayer is offered up to him as 
 was offered to the former ; and Jesus is 
 often called the angel or messenger. 
 
 The angel of verse 18, who comes 
 out from the altar, represents the faithful 
 ministry, now distinctly organized, and 
 separate from the Catholic body. His 
 coming out from the altar plainly inti- 
 mates his being engaged in ministering 
 in the service of the crucified One : it was 
 moreover represented as being the place 
 of refuge for the souls of the slain mar- 
 tyrs. This angel is also said to have power 
 over fire, rather, the fire, — that is of the 
 altar. Now, fire is a purifying agent. 
 The fire of the altar, which consumed 
 the victim, represents God's eternal jus- 
 tice, as the fire which consumed the 
 sacrifice our Saviour offered. The an- 
 gel's prayer, therefore, is a call upon 
 the just and holy ruler of the Lord's 
 vineyard, to thrust in his sickle, to exe- 
 cute a just sentence, and cut down the 
 wicked and apostate enemies of his 
 church. The reason in support of the 
 prayer is the same as in the case of the 
 harvest, though the expression be dif- 
 ferent. The maturity of the fruit marks 
 the time and constitutes the reason of 
 thrusting in the sickle. That is, when 
 a wicked generation has filled up the 
 measure of their iniquity, and made it 
 manifest that farther forbearance yields 
 no hope of reformation, then it is time 
 that the avenging hand of God should 
 be stretched forth, and the glory of his 
 moral government, vindicated in the in- 
 fliction of merited punishment. This 
 period has arrived ; and the sickle of 
 God's judgment is thrust in ; the clus- 
 ters of the great vineyard are gathered 
 and thrown into the wine-press of God's 
 wrath ; the apostate Roman church, and 
 the despotic Roman state, have re-ex- 
 hausted the cup of God's forbearance. 
 
 For many centuries he has borne with 
 them ; and now, for the glory of his 
 government, and the rescue of his op- 
 pressed heritage, he casts them down. 
 There is a comparison here drawn be- 
 tween the terrible slaughter which must 
 befall antichristian Rome, and the crush- 
 ing of the grapes in the wine-press. As 
 these are crushed beneath the foot of 
 him that treadeth in the winefat, so shall 
 these powers be dashed to pieces under 
 the forces which God will bring against 
 them. " I will tread them in mine anger, 
 and trample them in my fury." 
 
 Verse 20 intimates the place of the 
 wine-press and the terribleness of the 
 destruction. It is located " without the 
 city," — the Latin empire. The place, 
 therefore, of this last and fearful over- 
 throw of God's enemies will be exterior 
 to the western Roman world. It is 
 farther described by its dimensions, " by 
 the space of a thousand and six hun- 
 dred furlongs," that is, two hundred 
 miles. This, it has been observed, is 
 about the extent of the Pope's temporal 
 dominions. But the application of this 
 to the Roman Pontiff's territory is out 
 of the question ; because palpably con- 
 tradictory to the other point regarding 
 locality: it is within; but the wine- 
 press is without the city. Most repu- 
 table commentators apply it rightly to 
 the extent of the land of Palestine. 
 
 The terribleness of the destruction is 
 represented by the phrase, " blood came 
 out of the wine-press, even unto the 
 horse-bridles." Such is wont to be the 
 actual fact in great battles of the war- 
 rior, which are ever with confused noise 
 and garments rolled in blood. 
 
 The natural vintage commences in the 
 East, from forty-five to sixty days after 
 the harvest begins. It is the last general 
 cutting down in the season : and there- 
 fore must synchronize with the last of 
 the seven vials, for they are the seven 
 last plagues, or strokes of God's judg- 
 ments upon the antichristian powers. 
 
 As to the location of this prophetic 
 symbol, Bishop Faber appears to be cor- 
 rect, and for the reason just mentioned. 
 The seventh vial is the last tragical act 
 of the sealed book, and closes with the 
 
LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 243 
 
 conflict of Megiddo in the land extend- 
 ing " a thousand and six hundred fur- 
 longs." But if the vintage denotes the 
 last series of calamitous visitations upon 
 Antichrist, which will end in his utter 
 destruction ; and if, as we shall see, this 
 series will begin soon after the revival 
 of the witnesses, probably, about 1870, 
 then the six preceding vials must be 
 already poured out. 
 
 We see no propriety in Bishop Faber's 
 division of the seven vials into harvest, 
 vintage, and intermediate. On the con- 
 trary, we think the harvest and vintage 
 include all that remains of calamity. It 
 is a division of the whole into two parts. 
 The harvest includes six, and the vintage 
 the seventh vial. Now, if the vintage 
 begin to be cut down immediately after 
 the revival of the witnesses, as we sup- 
 pose, then this vintage must include the 
 earthquake and fall of the tenth part of 
 the city, (chap. xi. 13;) that is, the revo- 
 lution which will for ever detach Eng- 
 land, the extreme toe, from the giant 
 image. This being the commencement 
 of the vintage, A. D. 1870, if we deduct 
 from it the medium space between the 
 close of the natural harvest and the 
 opening of the vintage, viz. forty-five 
 days, it will bring us back to the year 
 1825, when the Ottoman emperor was 
 in course of being compelled to acknow- 
 ledge the independence of Greece. Let 
 us, however, not anticipate, but proceed; 
 and let the facts collated with the pro- 
 phecy, evince the correctness of the 
 opinion, that the first six vials are in- 
 cluded in the harvest, and the last under 
 the vintage of God's wrath. 
 
 Chap. xv 1-8. This exhibits the ar- 
 rangements preparatory to the pouring 
 out of the vials. " And I saw another 
 sign in heaven, great and marvellous, 
 seven angels having the seven last 
 plagues;- for in them is filled up the 
 wrath of God." A great sign : the 
 vision is, therefore, symbolical; not to 
 be understood literally. The angels are 
 God's agents for executing his wrath, by 
 inflicting his plagues upon the world. 
 " For by them is completed the ven- 
 geance of God." Our English transla- 
 tion is not the most happy here. It is 
 
 manifestly drawn from the notion of vials 
 afterwards bi-ought forward : as it pre- 
 sents the idea of filling up a cup, vessel, 
 or vial. This, however, is not the force 
 of the original, — iv aureus eVsXstfAr) o Oujxoj 
 rou ©sou — " by them is completed ox fin- 
 ished the vengeance of God :" in regard 
 to the antichristian power, they are the 
 completion or finishing of God's work 
 of vengeance; by them will it be utterly 
 destroyed. The great image will be re- 
 duced to impalpable powder, and dissi- 
 pated and lost for ever. 
 
 " And I saw, as it were, a sea of 
 glass mingled with fire : and them that 
 had gotten the victory over the beast, 
 and over his image, and over his mark, 
 and over the number of his name, stand 
 on the sea of glass, having the harps of 
 God. And they sing the song of Moses, 
 the servant of God, and the song of the 
 Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are 
 thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just 
 and true are thy ways, thou King of 
 saints. Who shall not hear thee, O 
 Lord, and glorify thy name ? for thou 
 only art holy ; for all nations shall come 
 and worship before thee ; for thy judg- 
 ments are made manifest." 
 
 The discovery of artificial glass, — for 
 it can scarcely be called an invention, — is 
 generally referred to the fourth century 
 before Christ. It is highly probable, 
 that with all the boasts of modern im- 
 provement, we are yet far behind the 
 ancients, in the more splendid produc- 
 tions of this article ; though we outstrip 
 them in extending its utility. During 
 the lifetime of John, and some forty 
 years before he wrote this book, Nero 
 paid a sum equal to about two hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars, for two large 
 glass vases ; carved and embossed in a 
 style superior to any thing known in 
 modern days. The ancient methods of 
 colouring glass are probably not yet 
 fully recovered. The brilliancy, variety, 
 and splendour of its hues made it a 
 matter of luxury, attainable only by the 
 very wealthy. Hence the propriety and 
 force of the expression before us. The 
 apostle saw the saints and martyrs of 
 God, who had gained a victory over the 
 powers of antichristian Rome, standing 
 
244 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 on a sea of glass, variegated • with the 
 brilliancy of flaming fire. A few years 
 previously, the two glass vases pur- 
 chased by Nero, were the admiration of 
 the empire. Now the pavement beneath 
 the saints' feet shines, — wide as the land 
 and broad as the sea, with a splendour 
 that eclipses the vases of the imperial 
 palace. What a forcible symbol of the 
 moral beauty and grandeur of God's 
 redeemed church! They plant their feet 
 on all that is deemed most valuable in 
 the empires of this world. 
 
 The posture of this glorious company, 
 is that of a choir, prepared to celebrate 
 the high praises of their mighty Re- 
 deemer, — " having the harps of God." 
 
 Again, we must notice the matter of 
 their triumph : — the song of Moses. The 
 reference doubtless is to the triumphal 
 procession, on the occasion of the over- 
 throw of Pharaoh and his host in the 
 Red Sea ; when Miriam and all the 
 women took timbrels and went out in 
 solemn and grave procession, — unhap- 
 pily translated dances, — and threw back 
 to the male procession, in tones of ex- 
 quisite sweetness and of thrilling power, 
 the chorus responsive, " Sing unto the 
 Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously ; 
 the horse and his rider hath he thrown 
 into the sea." 
 
 The song of Moses is one oT triumph, 
 on account of a victory, clearly and ma- 
 nifestly the Lord's. Hence its suitable- 
 ness as a memorial and prophetic sign 
 of the still more splendid victory of the 
 same Almighty Redeemer over anti- 
 christian Rome. For, 
 
 We again remark here, that the sub- 
 ject-matter or moving cause of this 
 triumph is the vengeance of God exe- 
 cuted upon the wicked nations and cor- 
 rupt church ; " for thy judgments are 
 made manifest." This renders it plain, 
 that the vision occurs, as to time, after 
 the harvest and vintage. It will become 
 a reality when Antichrist shall have 
 been slain, and his body given to the 
 burning flame; when the rider on the 
 white horse returns to Zion, arrayed in 
 .glory and bearing the spoils of a van- 
 quished and redeemed world. 
 
 " And after that I looked, and behold, 
 
 the temple of the tabernacle of the tes- 
 timony in heaven was opened ; and the 
 seven angels came out of the temple, 
 having the seven plagues, clothed in 
 pure and white linen, and having their 
 breasts girded with golden girdles. And 
 one of the four beasts [living creatures], 
 gave unto the seven angels, seven golden 
 vials full of the wrath of God, who 
 liveth for ever and ever. And the temple 
 was filled with smoke from the glory of 
 God, and from his power ; and no man 
 was able to enter into the temple, till 
 the seven plagues of the seven angels 
 were fulfilled." 
 
 The word here translated temple, sig- 
 nifies, the dwelling-place, or habitation ; 
 and is more especially applicable to the 
 most holy place, where peculiarly God 
 dwelt, between the cherubim. There is 
 manifest allusion also, to the tabernacle 
 structure and service. In this inner 
 apartment was the ark, containing the 
 two tables of the testimony — or the law. 
 This apartment is called the tabernacle 
 of witness. Into it the high priest only 
 was allowed to enter, and that with 
 blood from the alta*r of burnt offerings. 
 The angel of the vintage (xiv. 18) came 
 out from the altar. Here the whole 
 seven are seen to come out from the 
 temple or inner apartment, from God's 
 immediate presence, his dwelling-place. 
 How clearly does this show, that the 
 messengers of destruction are commis- 
 sioned of God : they are the ministers of 
 his vengeance. From the very mercy- 
 seat, the dwelling-place of the God of 
 grace, they issue forth ! 
 
 Their purity deserves notice. They 
 are arrayed in clean and white linen. 
 Spotlessly pure are the ministers of 
 God's justice. 
 
 Again, they receive the vials, or rather 
 golden goblets, from one of the living 
 creatures. The cup of the Lord's ven- 
 geance is put into the hands of those 
 who are commissioned and sent forth 
 from God's holy habitation, by the 
 ministers of the gospel. It belongs to 
 God to take vengeance ; but this he will 
 do in answer to the prayers of his 
 church. These prayers have long as- 
 cended, and the time being now come, 
 
LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 245 
 
 they ascend with increased fervour and 
 frequency from the lips of the Protestant 
 ministry ; and thus they, as it were, 
 deliver the golden goblets into the hands 
 of those whom God providentially calls 
 to punish the apostate church and em- 
 pire. 
 
 " And the temple was filled with 
 smoke." There is in this evident allu- 
 sion to the first erection of the tabernacle 
 and dedication of the temple of Solomon, 
 when the brightness of the Shekinah 
 was so dazzling, that human eyes could 
 not steadfastly behold it. The sentiment 
 of this last verse then obviously is, that 
 the final display of God's wrath upon 
 apostate Rome, will be attended by such 
 glory and terrible majesty, as might 
 overpower our vision and strike us blind 
 with the effulgence of its light. Men 
 will stand amazed and bewildered at the 
 grandeur of the scene. Even his own 
 people will perceive such new views of 
 the glory of God's justice, as will over- 
 awe their spirits, and make them shrink 
 back, for a little, from the very bright- 
 ness of his mercy-seat. 
 
 Chap.*xvi. 1, 2. "And I heard a 
 great voice out of the temple, saying to 
 the seven angels, Go your ways, and 
 pour out the vials of the wrath of God 
 upon the earth. And the first went, and 
 poured out his vial upon the earth ; and 
 there fell a noisome and grievous sore 
 upon the men which had the mark of the 
 beast, and upon them which worshipped 
 his image." 
 
 Here, properly speaking, begins the 
 third woe trumpet. The second 
 closed with the cessation of Turkish 
 conquest in 1672. Before this, how- 
 ever, the material of the third began to 
 collect. The horrible corruptions of an 
 apostate religion rankling in the veins 
 of the body politic and ecclesiastic could 
 not fail to break out in some part of the 
 body. Before the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century the spirit of irreligion 
 manifested, itself under the name of 
 Theism or Deism, or the religion of 
 nature. Many of these were men of 
 learning, who, sickened by the vile 
 mummeries of Popery, and yet not dis- 
 covering the true Christianity ; but real- 
 
 ly supposing that the papal supersti- 
 tions were the Christian religion, re- 
 jected it entirely. But though there were 
 many Deists on the continent of Europe 
 and in Britain, from the former part 
 of the sixteenth century onward, yet it 
 was not until about the middle of the 
 eighteenth that the poison began to draw 
 toward a grand centre, and at last to 
 appear in a huge chronic ulcer upon the 
 body politic. Such is the force of the 
 word, and such the significant emblem 
 by which the spirit of prophecy repre- 
 sents that system of infidelity which has 
 scourged Europe for the greater part of 
 two centuries. We agree with Bishop 
 Faber in the application of the first vial : 
 except indeed that his English blood 
 seems unwilling to admit its holding in 
 solution a due proportion of the poison. 
 
 The object of this vial is the earth. 
 It was to be poured " upon them which 
 worshipped the image of the beast" — 
 upon the friends of legitimacy, the ad- 
 vocates of despotic power ; and the ad- 
 mirers of the papal hierarchy. Now if 
 we run our eye over Europe and mark 
 out the plague-spots of infidelity, we 
 will find it in all the kingdoms. But 
 the virus of its poison most deeply in- 
 fected France, for there most had been 
 done to sustain the papal throne and the 
 despotic sceptre. Other nations, Britain, 
 Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Austria, 
 felt it in diminished measure; but all 
 felt it, and do still feel it. For we should 
 have remarked that the vials, though 
 they have a fixed and chronological 
 order of commencement, do notwith- 
 standing, run in part cotemporaneously. 
 Infidelity still works — the corruption of 
 this fretting sore yet infects the nations, 
 although all the six vials have been 
 poured out. 
 
 Verse 3. " And the second angel 
 poured out his vial upon the sea : and it 
 became as the blood of a dead man ; 
 and every living soul died in the sea." 
 
 Mr. Keith, who, like too many of the 
 British commentators, must find Napo- 
 leon and French democracy in almost 
 every hideous figure, confines this vial 
 To the maritime wars of the French 
 Revolution ; as he applies the first to 
 
246 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 the revolution of 1793 itself. He thus 
 takes the sea literally, which is to aban- 
 don all rules of symbolical language, 
 and to lead us into interminable confu- 
 sion. We concur again with Bishop 
 Faber, in making the sea revolutionary 
 France. There is here a natural order. 
 The nations are infected, especially 
 France, with a system of detestable doc- 
 trines, which tend to the subversion of 
 all the moral foundations of society, civil 
 and religious. The necessary and in- 
 evitable consequence is anarchy ; and 
 the farther consequence is blood and 
 desolation. Without religion of some 
 kind man is a fiend, an unchained tiger, 
 a ravenous hyena. 
 
 Let us take in connexion, the 
 Third vial. Verses 4-7. "And the 
 third angel poured out his vial upon the 
 rivers and fountains of waters ; and they 
 became blood. And I heard the angel 
 of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O 
 Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt 
 be, because thou hast judged thus. For 
 they have shed the blood of saints and 
 prophets, and thou hast given them blood 
 to drink ; for they are worthy ; and I 
 heard another out of the altar say, Even 
 so, Lord God Almighty, true and right- 
 eous are thy judgments." 
 
 The wars of the French Revolution 
 are here designated. In their progress, 
 kingdoms, and thrones, and dynasties, 
 were swept away as the chaff of the 
 summer threshing-floor. At least the 
 toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image, — the 
 same as the rivers and fountains here, 
 — were sorely beaten, and the clay and 
 iron broken to pieces. The nations 
 were drenched in their own blood. The 
 republican eagle, hovering over the head 
 of the First Consul, pounced and preyed 
 tipon the downcast nations, whom the 
 antecedent infidelity had corrupted and 
 rendered incapable of any other but the 
 government of brute force. 
 
 By the angel of the waters, we sup- 
 pose is meant, the ministry of the true 
 church, spread over the nations. They 
 ascribe to God righteousness in the midst 
 of these terrible visitations ; and point 
 out the evidence of it. These nations 
 have profusely shed the blood of saints 
 
 and prophets, and " Thou hast given 
 them blood to drink, for they are wor- 
 thy." And if we pass our finger over 
 the map, tracing the track of crusading 
 persecution, we will also trace the track 
 of this terrible scourge. France, first 
 of all, and above all, swam in suicidal 
 blood ; because France did most to sus- 
 tain Papal persecutions. Then the king- 
 dom of Savoy drank the blood of ven- 
 geance for the Waldensians slaughtered. 
 Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and 
 Switzerland, paid back again the blood 
 of Zuingle and his murdered friends. 
 
 But the same wars which inflicted 
 just vengeance upon the persecuting 
 nations, by the republican army, also 
 made provision for their still severer 
 rebuke, under the stern hand of the 
 Corsican, now vested with supreme 
 power. This is presented in verses 
 8,9. 
 
 " And the fourth angel poured out his 
 vial upon the sun ; and power was given 
 unto him to scorch men with fire. And 
 men were scorched with great heat, and 
 blasphemed the name of God, which 
 hath power over these plagtes : and 
 they repented not to give him glory." 
 
 Under the fourth trumpet, we con- 
 sidered the sun as symbolical of the su- 
 preme civil power remaining in the Ro- 
 man senate after the fall of the imperial 
 star. Here the sun is not introduced as 
 an enlightening, but as a burning body : 
 and, with Bishop Faber, we think, 
 strongly represents the military despo- 
 tism of the Emperor Napoleon. Under 
 the tremendous energy of his adminis- 
 tration, France and all Europe felt the 
 intense fires of military law, and the 
 fearful desolations of relentless war ; to 
 a degree, perhaps, not to be surpassed in 
 any portion of their history. 
 
 Besides, these wars, and this despotic 
 sway, and all the agonies endured from 
 them, produced no moral reformation, 
 no return to right principles, and the 
 acknowledgment of God as the governor 
 of the nations. 
 
 Verses 10, 11 : " And the fifth angel 
 poured out his vial upon the seat of the 
 beast ; and his kingdom was full of dark- 
 ness ; and they gnawed their tongues for 
 
LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 247 
 
 pain. And blasphemed the God of hea- 
 ven, because of their pains and their sores, 
 and repented not of their deeds." 
 
 The beast is the same secular, ten- 
 horned beast of the sea, to which Satan 
 (chapter xiii. 2) gave his power and his 
 seat, — his throne. The throne must, of 
 course, mean the supreme civil dominion. 
 This supremacy has always been recog- 
 nised in the imperial dignity. Accord- 
 ingly, Bishop Faber applies this to the 
 battle of Austerlitz, on December second, 
 1805, and the subsequent humbling of 
 the house of Austria, and compulsory 
 abdication of the purple, by the emperor, 
 August first, 1806. It is highly proba- 
 ble, had the bishop written the note of 
 June third, 1806, after the battle of Wa- 
 terloo, and final abdication of Napoleon, 
 he would have included that event too, 
 under this vial. The imperial dignity 
 had virtually passed, on December se- 
 cond, 1802, from Austria to France, 
 when Napoleon was crowned emperor, 
 by Pope Pius VII., in the church of 
 Notre Dame. But upon his abdication, 
 (June 22, 1814,) it became extinct. 
 Ever since, there has been no imperial 
 head ; it is now wounded to death. Dark- 
 ness covers the Roman sun. A congress 
 of sovereigns attempts to supply the loss 
 of the imperial unity ; but they are evi- 
 dently much embarrassed for a princi- 
 ple of action, which will not recognise 
 the doctrine of representation and con- 
 federation. They gnaw their tongues 
 for pain. The popular element, on the 
 one hand, is yet too much infected with 
 infidelity to render a free representa- 
 tion safe and practicable. Thus this 
 bitter vial continues to run out upon the 
 throne of despotism. The giant feels 
 his strength passing away. The hand 
 of God is upon him, and he knows it. 
 The little stone smites his feet and toes, 
 and he feels them crumbling to dust. 
 But there is no repentance, no reforma- 
 tion, no cheerful and voluntary recog- 
 nition of the true moral system, no 
 willing abandonment of power and the 
 corrupt and corrupting union of the 
 civil and the ecclesiastial authorities. 
 All advances toward free government 
 are by the power of truth commanding 
 
 public sentiment, and all in opposition 
 to the spirit of legitimacy. 
 
 Verse 12. " And the sixth angel 
 poured out his vial upon the great river 
 Euphrates ; and the water thereof was 
 dried up, that the way of the kings of 
 the east might be prepared." 
 
 The sixth trumpet summoned the four 
 angels, bound in the river Euphrates, 
 and the Othman Turks and their my- 
 riads of horsemen issued forth to exe- 
 cute God's wrath upon an apostatizing 
 church. The sixth vial announces the 
 gradual extinction of this same power, 
 under the symbol of drying up the 
 waters of the great river. Those who 
 are for applying this to Rome, appear 
 too wide of the mark to merit any refu- 
 tation. 
 
 We have already said, that if the 
 witnesses are to revive, and the out- 
 pouring of the vintage vial begin about 
 1870, then running back forty-five pro- 
 phetic days, the average space between 
 the harvest and the vintage, we should 
 find the time of the last harvest vial : 
 that is, 1825 must mark the running of 
 the sixth vial ; when the process of drying 
 up the symbolical Euphrates must be go- 
 ing on. With this tbe facts correspond. 
 In 1817 the first movement toward the 
 freedom of Greece, though it was not 
 his object, was made by the revolt of 
 Ali Pasha, in Albania. In 1821 Alex- 
 ander Ypsilanti, burning for the libera- 
 tion q{ his country, excited a revolt in 
 Moldavia. His forces were crushed and 
 himself taken prisoner. In 1822 his 
 brother Demetrius succeeded in arousing 
 his countrymen and convoking the meet- 
 ing of Epidaunus, — the revolutionary 
 Congress of Greece. They framed a 
 constitution. — provided for a senate and 
 an executive council. These bodies 
 were soon organized, and Mavrocordato 
 became the John Hancock of indepen- 
 dent Greece. And Tripolizzi and Na- 
 poli di Romania, Missolonghi and Ipsara, 
 Modon, Patras, Navarino, and all the 
 Egean Sea, proclaimed to the civilized 
 world that Greece was worthy of free- 
 dom : and the Ypsilantis, and Mavrocor- 
 dato, and Colocotrini, and Capo d'Istria, 
 Marco Bozzaris, and a thousand others, 
 
248 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 convinced the world by their heroic 
 deeds, that Greece was able to be tree. 
 At length popular opinion shamed the 
 European governments into action on her 
 behalf, and England, France, and Rus- 
 sia interposed ; and by the terrible naval 
 battle of Navarino, on the 21st of Octo- 
 ber, 1827, struck the last blow, whose 
 result was the acknowledgment of Greek 
 independence. Thus the drying up of 
 the Euphrates was begun. The Barbary 
 powers have but a nominal connexion, 
 and will probably fall to France. Egypt 
 has been nearly detached, but is for the 
 present thrown back into the stream by 
 an exterior force. Syria, including Pa- 
 lestine, is in a very precarious condition. 
 The Persians are encroaching upon the 
 Turks on the east, the Russians on the 
 north ; Austria watches on the west for 
 her share of the spoil, and England will 
 make sure of Egypt and Syria, with a 
 view to connexion with the East. The 
 next twenty-five years will see these 
 waters evaporated, and the great river 
 turned into stagnant pools. The cres- 
 cent must wane, little by little, until its 
 light goes out in everlasting night. 
 
 But whilst the ambition and cupidity 
 of the great nations are thus drying up 
 these waters, God's purposes are ad- 
 vancing. His end is to prepare the way 
 for the restoration of the Jews, — rather 
 of the whole house of Israel, to their 
 own land. The common application of 
 the latter part of this verse to the sons 
 of Abraham, is undoubtedly the correct 
 one. God, who gives us prophecy, and 
 who makes history to suit it, has assured 
 us that the Lord shall set his hand again 
 the second time to recover the remnant 
 of his people, which shall be left from 
 Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pa- 
 thros, and from Cush, and from Elam, 
 and from Shinar, and from Hamath, 
 and from the islands of the sea. And 
 he shall set up an ensign for the nations, 
 and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, 
 and gather together the dispersed of Ju- 
 dah from the four corners of the earth." 
 (Isaiah, xi. 11, 12.) 
 
 That the great body of Israel were 
 carried eastward is obvious : and, ac- 
 cordingly, this prophecy of their re- 
 
 turn, mentions chiefly the places in the 
 great Euphratean valley, to which they 
 were taken. Now they cannot be re- 
 stored according to the promises of pro- 
 phecy, until the Ottoman power is anni- 
 hilated, the Mohammedan religion sub- 
 verted. To prepare for that return, our 
 text assures us, is the object of drying 
 up these waters. 
 
 Where these kings of the East, or 
 from the rising of the sun are, is some- 
 what doubtful. Sir William Jones ex- 
 presses, hesitatingly, the opinion that the 
 Afghan Tartars were a part of them. 
 Dr. Grant has shown, satisfactorily, that 
 the Nestorian Christians are not the Is- 
 raelites, but a part of them. Other tribes 
 in the East are clearly of Israelitish 
 origin. Many are in Egypt, and not a 
 few in the isles of the sea ; that is, in 
 countries to the west of Palestine. 
 
 Now, that God is preparing for the 
 restoration of these to their fathers' land, 
 is plainly obvious. He has put into the 
 hands of Jews, in the isles of the sea, 
 abundant pecuniary means. England 
 and Prussia have united in establishing 
 a Christian bishop, of Jewish blood, in 
 Jerusalem, and are about to erect a ca- 
 thedral there. 
 
 Probably, this will result in a quarrel 
 between Protestant England and the 
 Turk, whereupon England will seize Je- 
 rusalem and Egypt, and make them pro- 
 vinces of the British empire. But the 
 future is God's. Hoiv these things will 
 be brought about, we know not. The 
 events, however, are not among the class 
 of contingencies. God will restore the 
 preserved of Israel in his own time, and 
 his own way. 
 
 LECTURE XXVIII. 
 
 THE JESUITS REVIVED. 
 
 " And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs 
 come up out of the mouth of the dragon, and 
 out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the 
 mouth of the false prophet. For they are the 
 spirits of devils, working miracles, which go 
 forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the 
 
LECTURE XXVIII. 
 
 249 
 
 whole world, to gather them to the battle of 
 that great day of God Almighty. Behold I 
 come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, 
 and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, 
 and they see his shame. And he gathered 
 them together into a place called in the Hebrew 
 tongue, Armageddon." — Rev. xvi. 13-16. 
 
 A chief difficulty in the writing and 
 the study of history is to preserve the 
 chronology of simultaneous events. The 
 mind of the reader is so perpetually 
 prone to assume the occurrence of the 
 facts in the order of the narrative, that 
 an effort is necessary to guard against 
 confusion of dates. Transactions per- 
 fectly simultaneous, but differing only 
 in locality, must necessarily be related 
 successively; and this inadvertently pro- 
 duces in our minds the idea that they 
 took place at different times. The same 
 is true in regard to prophecy. Simul- 
 taneous events must nevertheless be re- 
 lated successively : hence the appear- 
 ance of their subsequence, as to time, 
 and hence confusion results. Whilst 
 the mystic waters of the symbolic Eu- 
 phrates are drying up, — whilst the Otto- 
 man Turkish power is wasting away ; 
 these three unclean spirits like frogs, 
 are proceeding from the mouth of the 
 dragon, the beast and the false prophet. 
 We have seen that from 1825 and on- 
 ward, there has been a rapid decline of 
 the Mohammedan power. Let us now 
 consider the unclean frogs of the same 
 period. 
 
 They do not emanate from the stag- 
 nant pools of the dried up Euphrates ; 
 but from the devil, the beast, or civil des- 
 potism, and the false prophet, or the 
 Papacy. A few particulars will enable 
 us to determine what these symbolize. 
 
 1. The frog is an unclean animal, 
 according to the law of Moses. " And 
 all that have not fins, nor scales in the 
 seas, and in the rivers, of all that move 
 in the waters ; and of any living thing 
 which is in the waters ; they shall be an 
 abomination unto you." (Lev. xi. 9, 19.) 
 
 This is, therefore, a suitable emblem 
 of polluting spirits. 
 
 2. Their source is indicative, also, of 
 their character. The agency symbolized 
 by them, is commissioned and sent forth 
 
 32 
 
 by the connivance, concert, and advice 
 of this goodly triumvirate, Satan, the 
 civil despotism, and the Papacy. At 
 the head of this alliance, as to practical 
 efficiency, is Satan. He has given to 
 the beast, in his wounded and divided 
 state, his power and talent for conduct- 
 ing diplomatic agency; and the spiritual 
 power of Rome must cover over the 
 whole with the cloak of religion. 
 
 3. They are spirits of demons, — de- 
 mon-worshipping spirits. This agency 
 encourages and enforces the veneration 
 of saints ; they are teachers of demon- 
 ology, and prefer great pretensions of 
 possessing the powers supposed to belong 
 to the illustrious dead. Accordingly, 
 
 4. They are a miracle-working agency. 
 Whatever may be symbolized by these 
 frogs, they will practise miracles, so 
 called, as a part of their system of decep- 
 tion, and means of success. 
 
 5. Perhaps the natural habit of this 
 animal in regard to the Untie of its acti- 
 vity may be emblematic. It is chiefly 
 in the twilight and the dark. During 
 the day, they are in concealment ; at 
 least not conspicuously observable. So 
 this Satanic diplomatic agency will work 
 chiefly unseen. It will be a secretly 
 plotting body of emissaries. 
 
 6. We must notice to whom they are 
 sent, — " unto the kings of the earth." 
 These sly agents will find their way 
 into all the courts or kingdoms within 
 the Roman earth. But further ; " of the 
 whole world." This phrase is used in 
 Luke ii. 1, "all the world should be 
 taxed ;" obviously referring to the whole 
 Roman empire, proper and provincial; 
 and it is undoubtedly intended to teach 
 us that the secret spies of the triumvirate 
 will pass beyond the bounds of western 
 Europe, and practise their skill in all the 
 governments of the world. 
 
 7. The grand object of their mission 
 is to gather them, — the kings, the govern- 
 ments of all nations, together " to a war 
 of the great day of God Almighty." 
 This instructs us that this system of 
 agencies will " practise" upon the govern- 
 ments, with a view to bring about an 
 alliance against all interests opposed to 
 the powers of despotism. This war here 
 
250 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 referred to is to be attended by a display 
 of the almighty power of God, in so 
 signal, terrible, and glorious a manner, 
 as to distinguish the battle with which it 
 closes above all others. It is " a war of 
 the great day," — the day of God's over- 
 whelming judgments upon the grand an- 
 tichristian confederacy. 
 
 8. But we are informed that this coa- 
 lition and conspiracy will not be looked 
 for ; it will be sudden and unexpected. 
 " Behold, I come as a thief." God is 
 said to come in any dispensation of pro- 
 vidence which he brings about or per- 
 mits. Thus the formation of this great, 
 extended, and secret combination, is his 
 coming upon his church with a call to 
 duty and trial. By coming as a thief, 
 is meant, his unexpected call upon his 
 people to be up and doing. 
 
 9. The vigilant servant will meet a 
 reward correspondent to his vigilance. 
 " Blessed is he that watcheth, and keep- 
 eth his garments, lest he walk naked, 
 and they see his shame." We are here 
 shown, that however the great mass of 
 men in tlie whole world, will be found 
 slumbering at their ease, and utterly 
 unconcerned and incredulous of such 
 machinations and intrigues as these 
 agents shall be carrying on, there will 
 still be some on the watchtower. " I 
 have set watchmen upon thy walls, O 
 Jerusalem, which shall never hold their 
 peace, day nor night." 
 
 Some commentators have found diffi- 
 culty with this verse. They deem it 
 out of place, for they cannot see what 
 connexion it has with that which pre- 
 cedes or which follows it. Even so 
 learned a man as Beza suggests that it 
 has dropped out from the third chapter, 
 after verse 18. Bishop Newton, although 
 he rejects Beza's suggestion, seems to 
 think this verse not in its proper posi- 
 tion. But let us not attempt to improve 
 the Bible. Its author knew where to 
 throw in a caution of this kind. He 
 knew that the great body of men, and 
 even of Christians, at the period here 
 referred to, would be slow to believe in 
 such a union as the agents of the devil, 
 the Emperor and the Pope, would be 
 sent out to effect ; and threw in this 
 
 important passage, to catch the eye of 
 his own peculiar agents whom he would 
 raise up to counteract the machinations 
 of the Satanic diplomacy. 
 
 10. The success of their mission is 
 next to be observed. Verse 18 : " And 
 he gathered them together in a place, 
 called in the Hebrew tongue, Arma- 
 geddon." A difficulty arises here in 
 regard to the verb being singular, — he 
 gathered them. We should naturally 
 refer the action to the three unclean 
 spirits who were sent forth to gather 
 them. Some account for this change 
 from the plural number, by following 
 the Syriac translation, which, assuming 
 an alteration in one letter of the Greek 
 word, gives the sense in the plural, — 
 they gathered. But for this there is no 
 authority whatever. The prime mover 
 in this unholy mission is Diabolus, who 
 gave his power to both the beast and the 
 Papacy; and, therefore, the dropping of 
 the plural, and the adopting of the sin- 
 gular form of expression. He, the grand 
 moving power in all these operations, 
 collected together the kings of the earth, 
 or western empire, and of the whole 
 world, or those included in the eastern 
 also, i 
 
 Let us, before we designate the locality, 
 apply the symbols. The preceding re- 
 marks leave no room for doubt as to the 
 general agency referred to. It can be 
 none other than the various means now 
 in operation for the dissemination of 
 Popery throughout Europe, and the en- 
 tire world. The three principal regular 
 orders may be represented by the num- 
 ber three, the Franciscans, the Domini- 
 cans, and the Jesuits. Perhaps this is 
 only intended as a sign of completeness, 
 — a perfect system of agents: or proba- 
 bly, the number is incidental, as merely 
 alluding to their source. We will note 
 the characteristics. 
 
 1. The polluting influences of Popery 
 are proverbial : in a moral, religious, 
 and political sense. The celibacy of the 
 clergy as well regular as secular, has 
 been, and now is, a means and occasion 
 of most horrible impurities. The con- 
 fessional is the scene of such practices, 
 that delicacy will scarcely permit an 
 
LECTURE XXVIII. 
 
 251 
 
 allusion to them. We have already 
 seen how an oath can be dispensed with 
 in order to serve a political turn in 
 favour of the corrupt church : and, as 
 formerly observed, for unprincipled chi- 
 canery there is not another word in the 
 English language so expressive as Je- 
 suitism. 
 
 2. That the vastly increased efforts 
 of Roman Catholicism, now in progress, 
 are put forth by Diabolus, the civil des- 
 potism and the Papal power, is no secret. 
 And it is worthy of special remark, that 
 the formal restoration of the Jesuits in 
 1814, and their gradual introduction to 
 notice and confidence, runs parallel with 
 the waning of the crescent. They are 
 now found in all parts of the world. 
 They are peculiarly active among the 
 political intriguers of the age ; and their 
 missions ever follow, if they do not 
 precede, Protestant missions. In the 
 colonization of North America, they 
 pursued the Protestants, and laboured to 
 thwart their proceedings. So now they 
 are harassing our missionaries in the 
 South Sea Islands, and in every quarter 
 of the globe. 
 
 The recent reception of Prince Galit- 
 zin of Russia, into the Romish com- 
 munion, may be mentioned as an indica- 
 tion of their success beyond the bounds 
 of the Roman earth. A nobleman so 
 influential in the Imperial court, can 
 hardly be supposed to have taken this 
 step without the consent of his master. 
 Nor could that consent have been given 
 without a distinct expectation of more 
 intimate relations about to be entered 
 into between the Greek and Roman 
 churches. 
 
 3. These agents are given to demon- 
 worship, — to the veneration of departed 
 spirits : and, are not the present Romish 
 emissaries most active, — do they not 
 seem to be turning special attention to 
 the re-establishment, as it were, of this 
 very kind of worship] Very recent 
 developements show, that to reinstate 
 the saints, and particularly the Virgin 
 Mary, in the high honours from which 
 they have measurably fallen since the 
 days of the Reformation, is now a capi- 
 tal object of Papal exertions. 
 
 4. Equally clear is another point re- 
 lative to these unclean spirits : they are 
 a miracle-working agency. Now, that 
 the various emissaries of Rome have 
 recently been emboldened to put forth 
 this pretension is notorious. 
 
 The miracles of Prince Hohenlohe of 
 Germany are of late occurrence. Still 
 more so, an extatica of Italy ; and more 
 recently still, the fooleries of Mr. Foley, 
 a priest in Dublin. These things are 
 increasing; and the state of religious 
 credulity all over the world, and per- 
 haps not less in our own country than 
 in some less enlightened, is well adapted 
 to encourage such pretensions. The 
 human mind is prepared to receive 
 almost any opinion. The world is pass- 
 ing over from the scepticism which 
 characterized the eighteenth, to the cre- 
 dulity which characterizes the nineteenth 
 century. The public mind is ripe for 
 the delusions of a miracle-working priest- 
 hood. 
 
 5. Secrecy is also characteristic of 
 this system of agency : and can any one 
 be ignorant of the fact, that the religious 
 orders are sworn to secrecy ? We have 
 already seen what the Jesuit's oath binds 
 him to upon this point. How adroitly 
 was the St. Bartholomew's tragedy ma- 
 naged, — the gunpowder plot, — the assas- 
 sination of Henry IV. ! These are things 
 which must be managed in the dark. 
 We may surmise the power that ope- 
 rates certain political influences, but the 
 frogs are invisible in the clear light of 
 day : if we attempt to drag them forth, 
 the pure waters of truth instantly become 
 turbid, and they hide themselves imme- 
 diately in the pools of their own pollu- 
 tion. 
 
 6. The nations of the Latin earth, 
 will, by these agents, be brought chiefly 
 or totally to enter into an alliance for 
 the support of religion and government: 
 that is, of Romanism and tyranny. This 
 confederacy is now in progress. It is 
 clearly evident, that the governments of 
 England and Prussia are moving in that 
 direction : and late accounts from France 
 show a governmental movement towards 
 the oppression of the Protestant popula- 
 tion. Intrigues are, at this moment, ad- 
 
252 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 vancing in the Palace of the Tuileries, 
 precisely similar to those by which 
 Henry IV. was brought over from the 
 Protestant ranks, and induced to put his 
 conscience under the guardianship of 
 Jesuits and Jesuit morality. We may 
 soon expect to hear that Louis Philippe 
 has accepted a Jesuit confessor. 
 
 Now, all these efforts are directed to 
 the formation of one grand combination 
 of the arbitrary powers ; and will even- 
 tuate in that war of opinion, to which all 
 eyes, both in Europe and America, are 
 turned. 
 
 The place to which these forces are 
 drawn together, next demands our no- 
 tice. The Hebrew name here given, is 
 not found entire in any part of the Old 
 Testament : the interpretation is, there- 
 fore, doubtful. The first part of the com- 
 pound, may be derived from several He- 
 brew words, and having only the Greek 
 letters indicative of general sounds, we 
 cannot with absolute certainty, deter- 
 mine which of several possible deriva- 
 tions is the correct one. Of two, how- 
 ever, which chiefly divide the critics, it 
 is not greatly important which we adopt. 
 One signifies a mountain ; the other de- 
 struction. The place will be named or 
 called the Mountain of Megiddo, or the 
 destruction of Megiddo. We incline, de- 
 cidedly, to the latter, because it better 
 accords with the sense of the prophet ; 
 and for the reason mentioned by Bishop 
 Faber, that Arma, is the word used by 
 Daniel, (xi. 44,) when he describes the 
 going forth of the antichristian power, 
 " with great fury, to destroy and utterly 
 to make atvay many, — to devote religi- 
 ously to destruction. It will be a war 
 under pretence of religion, which the 
 dragon, the beast, and the false prophet 
 will bring about, by means of these un- 
 clean agencies ; and God will return the 
 utter destruction upon themselves, and 
 their hosts at Megiddo. 
 
 As to the latter part of the compound, 
 we have little trouble. The first men- 
 tion of Megiddo is in Judges i. 27, where 
 the historian is recording the instances 
 of neglect of the general order or com- 
 mand of God to Israel, that they should 
 utterly destroy or drive away the Ca- 
 
 naanites from the land. " Neither did 
 Manasseh drive out — the inhabitants of 
 Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabi- 
 tants of Meggiddo and her towns." 
 
 In the same book we have a glow- 
 ing poetic account of the discomfiture of 
 the Canaanitish forces by the Israelites, 
 under the command of Deborah and 
 Barak. " The kings came and fought ; 
 then fought the kings of Canaan in 
 Taanach by the waters of Megiddo : they 
 took no gain of money. — The river of 
 Kishon swept them away, that ancient 
 river, the river of Kishon." (v. 19.) 
 
 Again, it is mentioned in 1 Kings, iv. 
 12, — " Baana, the son of Ahilud, to 
 him pertained Taanach and Megiddo, 
 and all Beth-shean, which is by Zarta- 
 nah, beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to 
 Abel-meholah — " Again, among the 
 purposes for which Solomon raised re- 
 venue are mentioned, " to build the 
 house of the Lord, and his own house, 
 and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, 
 and Hazor, and Megiddo and Gezer." 
 (ix. 15.) This proves that it was a 
 place of some note ; a fortified city. 
 Accordingly, when Ahaziah, King of 
 Judah, retreated from Jehu, after his 
 ally Joram, King of Israel, had fallen 
 by the hand of that avenger of Naboth ; 
 " Jehu followed after him, and said, 
 Smite him also, in the chariot. And 
 they did so at the going up to Gur, 
 which is by Ibleam. And he fled to 
 Megiddo, and died there." (2 Kings ix. 
 27.) At this city also, was fought that 
 disastrous battle, in which fell one of 
 the best kings that ever swayed the 
 sceptre of David. " In his days Pha- 
 raoh-necho, King of Egypt, went up 
 against the King of Assyria to the river 
 Euphrates ; and King Josiah went out 
 against him : and he slew him at Me- 
 giddo, when he had seen him. And 
 his servants carried him in a chariot 
 dead from Megiddo, and brought him to 
 Jerusalem, and buried him in his own 
 sepulchre." (2 Kings xxiii. 29, 30.) To 
 this sorrowful event Zechariah has re- 
 ference in a prophecy relating to these 
 same times of the last battle. " In that 
 day there shall be a great mourning in 
 Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad- 
 
LECTURE XXVIII. 
 
 253 
 
 rimmon, in the valley of Megiddon." 
 (xii. 11.) 
 
 We are thus able to settle the geogra- 
 phical position of this place. Barak and 
 his ten thousand men had encamped on 
 Mount Tabor. Sisera, with his army and 
 nine hundred chariots of iron, lay along 
 between the foot of the mountain, and a 
 branch of the Kishon river. The waters 
 of Megiddo, by which they fought, can 
 be none other than this " ancient river" 
 of Kishon. The city of Megiddo, ac- 
 cording to Professor Robinson's esti- 
 mate, is about twelve miles distant from 
 Jezreel, which has given the modern 
 name of Esdraeelon to the great plain 
 that stretches from the foot of Mount 
 Carmel and the Bay of Akka, Acre, or 
 Ptolemais, towards the east, and parts 
 into three valleys, passing through to the 
 river Jordan. 
 
 Professor Robinson's account of this 
 locality is peculiarly interesting. Having 
 given a statement of the position of Na- 
 zareth, situated about thirteen miles 
 north of Jezreel, he proceeds : " After 
 breakfast, I walked out alone to the top 
 of the hill, over Nazareth, where stands 
 the neglected Wely of Neby Ismail. 
 Here, quite unexpectedly, a glorious 
 prospect opened on the view. The air 
 was perfectly clear and serene ; and I 
 shall never forget the impression I re- 
 ceived, as the enchanting panorama 
 burst suddenly upon me. There lay 
 the magnificent plain of Esdrseelon, or 
 at least, all its western part ; on the left 
 was seen the round top of Tabor over 
 the intervening hills, with portions of 
 the little Hermon and Gilboa, and the 
 opposite mountains of Samaria, from 
 Jenin westwards to the lower hills ex- 
 tending towards Carmel. Then came 
 the long line of Carmel itself, with the 
 convent of Elias on its northern end, 
 and Haifa on the shore at its foot. In 
 the west lay the Mediterranean, gleam- 
 ing in the morning sun, seen first far in 
 the south on the left of Carmel ; then 
 interrupted by that mountain ; and again 
 appearing on its right, so as to include 
 the whole Bay of Akka." " Seating 
 myself in the shade of the Wely, I re- 
 mained for some hours upon this spot, 
 
 lost in the contemplation of the wide 
 prospect, and of the events connected 
 with the scenes around. In the village 
 below, the Saviour of the world had 
 passed his childhood ; and although we 
 have kw particulars of his life during 
 those early years, yet there are certain 
 features of nature which meet our eyes 
 now, just as they once met his. He 
 must have often visited the fountain 
 near which we had pitched our tent ; 
 his feet must often have wandered over 
 the adjacent hills ; and his eyes, doubt- 
 less, have gazed upon the splendid pros- 
 pect from this very spot. Here the 
 Prince of peace looked down upon the 
 great plain, where the din of battles had 
 so oft rolled, and the garments of the 
 warrior been dyed in blood ; and he 
 looked out too, upon that sea, over 
 which the swift ships were to bear the 
 tidings of his salvation to nations and to 
 continents then unknown. How has the 
 moral aspect of things been changed ! 
 Battles and bloodshed have indeed not 
 ceased to desolate this unhappy country, 
 and gross darkness now covers the 
 people ; but from this region a light 
 went forth, which has enlightened the 
 world and unveiled new climes ; and 
 now the rays of that light begin to be re- 
 flected back from distant isles and con- 
 tinents, to illumine anew the darkened 
 land where it first sprung up." 
 
 On the same subject, another travel- 
 ler remarks : " Here, on this plain, the 
 most fertile part of all the land of Ca- 
 naan, (which though a solitude, we 
 found like one vast meadow, covered 
 with the richest pasture,) the tribes of 
 Issacher ' rejoiced in their tents.' In 
 the first ages of Jewish history, as well 
 as during the Roman empire, the Cru- 
 sades, and even in later times, it has 
 been the scene of many a contest. Here 
 it was that Barak, descending with his 
 ten thousand from Mount Tabor, dis- 
 comfited Sisera, and ' all his chariots, 
 even nine hundred chariots of iron, and 
 all the people that were with him,' ga- 
 thered ' from Harosheth of the Gentiles 
 to the river of Eishcn,' when < all the 
 hosts of Sisera fell upon the edge of the 
 sword ; and there was not a man left, 
 
254 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 when the kings came and fought the 
 kings of Canaan in Taanach, by the 
 waters of Megiddo.' It has been a 
 chosen place for encampment in every 
 contest carried on in this country, from 
 the days of Nebuchodonosor, King of 
 the Assyrians, (in the history of whose 
 war with Aphaxad, it is mentioned as 
 the great plain of Esdraselona,) until 
 the disastrous march of Napoleon Bona- 
 parte from Egypt into Syria. Jews, 
 Gentiles, Saracens, Christians, Crusa- 
 ders and antichristian Frenchmen, Egyp- 
 tians, Persians, Druses, Turks, and 
 Arabs, — warriors out of ' every nation 
 which is under heaven,' have pitched 
 their tents upon the plain of Esdrseelon, 
 and have beheld the various banners of 
 their nations wet with the dews of Tabor 
 and of Hermon." (Clark's Travels, vol. 
 i. 303.) 
 
 Such is the stage pointed out by the 
 finger of inspiration for the final act of 
 the great moral drama. There, in full 
 view of the spot where the Captain of 
 our salvation spent most of his earthly 
 pilgrimage, will he make bare his holy 
 arm for the destruction of his foes. 
 
 We are now prepared to look into the 
 detail of the seventh vial, which we 
 will defer for the present, that we may 
 turn our attention to a lew thoughts of 
 a practical nature. 
 
 1. Moral abominations are the ante- 
 cedent causes of oppressive government. 
 Physical power becomes then only ne- 
 cessary when moral power fails to secure 
 the desired result. Were it not for de- 
 linquencies physical force would not be 
 called in. It can therefore be under- 
 stood how despotic governments have 
 an interest in preventing the circulation 
 of the scriptures, and that measure of 
 religious training which fits man for 
 self-government. Therefore the bulls 
 of the Pope against the Bible Societies : 
 and for this reason, when all the other 
 diplomatic agents at St. Petersburgh fa- 
 voured the formation of the Russian 
 Bible Society, the minions of the Pope 
 opposed it ; and, after a few years of 
 secret operation, brought over the Em- 
 peror to oppose it also. Hence, as in 
 the case of Henry IV. of France, the 
 
 Jesuits always pander to the lusts of 
 princes when they discover that they 
 can by this means manage their own 
 purposes. 
 
 2. We may infer that secrecy, sworn 
 secrecy, in any association, is prima 
 
 facie evidence of criminal intention. The 
 stagnant pools of a corrupt church gen- 
 der in silence the frogs of Jesuitism. No 
 sooner were the secreta monita disco- 
 vered, and the records brought before 
 the civil tribunals in France, than the 
 influence of the Jesuits was broken. 
 Their invisibility was the magic spell 
 of their power. By this invisibility we 
 do not mean that the men, and the exist- 
 ence of their society, were unknown. 
 They were, before their suppression, 
 much better known than now. They 
 were owners of vast property, and the 
 individuals wore a dress peculiar to their 
 order : now it is not so. They walk 
 among us and we know them not. By 
 secrecy, therefore, we mean that their 
 plans and policy are invisible. All such 
 agency is dangerous to a community ; 
 and this feature alone, so inconsistent 
 with free institutions, and especially with 
 the openness, and candour, and liberality 
 of American systems of organization, 
 constitutes good and sufficient reason to 
 suspect evil designs. Honest freedom ab- 
 hors concealment ; roguery loves to work 
 in the dark. " For every one that doeth 
 evil hateth the light, neither cometh to 
 the light, lest his deeds should be re- 
 proved. But he that doeth truth, cometh 
 to the light, that his deeds may be made 
 manifest that they are wrought in God." 
 
 3. Combination springs from con- 
 scious weakness. It is only for the 
 accomplishment of works beyond indi- 
 vidual ability, that men associate. It is 
 only because the Pope and the other 
 powers feel their weakness, and conse- 
 quent peril, that the present extended 
 agency is set on foot to bring about the 
 great confederacy. The giant is pros- 
 trate and feeble, — apparently unable to 
 call his powers into full action for the 
 recovery of his almost lost dominion ; 
 and the sorceress is again applying her 
 cup to his lips, in the hope that the magic 
 waters of her enchantment will again 
 
LECTURE XXIX. 
 
 255 
 
 thrill along his nerves, and rouse up all 
 his dormant energies, that shall crush 
 the kingdom of the little stone, and leave 
 Mystery, Babylon, in possession of uni- 
 versal sway. 
 
 4. An age that can tolerate Mormon- 
 ism, Millerism, and other such fanati- 
 cisms, may be conceived very well 
 adapted to embrace the miracles of 
 Popery. We are perpetually told that 
 the absurd mummery of Roman mira- 
 cles can never impose upon a people so 
 enlightened as we are. How delightful 
 a self-complacency this ! We are too 
 intelligent a people to be misled by Je- 
 suit priests ! No, my friends ; the lax- 
 ness of this age in regard to religious 
 belief; the liberality falsely so called ; 
 the boastful pretensions to freedom of 
 thought : these fit us to become the dupes 
 of designing intriguers ; and irresistibly 
 invite them to practise their frauds upon 
 us. We have a vast population, to 
 whom all religious belief is alike; and 
 these will embrace any doctrines at all 
 which interest or caprice may dictate. 
 
 5. We see how naturally indifferent- 
 ism in religion, — liberal charity towards 
 all opinions, glides off, and makes reli- 
 gion a tool of state policy. This uni- 
 versal charity exposes itself for sale, and 
 demagogues are the bidders. He who 
 feels equally friendly to all religious 
 opinions, can, of course, accommodate 
 himself to each, in turn. Napoleon is 
 an infidel philosopher in Paris, a Catho- 
 lic at Rome, a Mohammedan in Egypt. 
 This is being " all things to all men," 
 in the Jesuitical sense of the phrase. 
 The politician must be a Catholic at ma- 
 tins, an Episcopalian at morning service, 
 a Presbyterian in the afternoon, a Unita- 
 rian in the evening, and a Methodist at 
 night. Few who aim at high office, there 
 fore, ever attach themselves to any Chris- 
 tian church, until after they retire from 
 public life. They feel that it might pre- 
 vent their advancement, for they per- 
 ceive that the nation requires suppleness 
 of conscience, and laxness of principle. 
 in her public servants. 
 
 6. The real incredulity of the igno- 
 rant, and the scepticism of the knowing 
 ones, as to the existence of a Popish 
 
 party, — a secret system of agency to 
 bring about a combination of interests to 
 sustain Popery, is one of the scriptural 
 evidences that this time is near at hand. 
 It is to come upon us by surprise. The 
 Protestant world, particularly Europe, 
 will slumber and not rouse up fully, until 
 the enemy have matured their plans, and 
 are ready for action. 
 
 Finally, the time approaches when 
 the ground must be inspected for the last 
 war. Every valley must be accurately 
 examined; every hill measured; every 
 harbour on the coast surveyed ; its sound- 
 ings and its bearings ascertained : that 
 when the period arrives, the friends of 
 truth and righteousness may be ready to 
 take their respective stations. And here 
 it is worthy of remark, that American 
 travellers have performed their share in 
 this part of the preparatory work. Pro- 
 fessor Robinson's labours have aided this 
 cause much ; but others, more at leisure, 
 will, no doubt, enter more fully into the 
 detail of this survey, so that a complete 
 military map of the country will be in 
 readiness. These things, the God of 
 Providence, who rules the destinies of 
 nations, will have arranged in their pro- 
 per order, time, and place. Nothing can 
 come unawares to the Captain of our 
 Salvation, who will rule the storm in the 
 battle of "that great day of God Al- 
 mighty." 
 
 LECTURE XXIX. 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION TO THE SEVENTH 
 VIAL, AND THE DESIGNATION OP ITS 
 OBJECT. 
 
 Rev. xvi. 17-21 ; xvii. 
 
 The existence of vast multitudes of 
 spirits, some holy and some unholy, 
 unconnected with bodies like our own, 
 is as plainly taught in the word of God, 
 as it is universally believed among men. 
 A professed Sadducee, indeed, may be 
 met with occasionally, who denies such 
 existence ; but it is doubtful whether 
 Sadduceeism is any thing more than 
 
256 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 self-conceit puffing up a vain man to 
 seek singularity by speculative oddities. 
 For after all his efforts to believe in the 
 non-existence of spirits, he cannot habi- 
 tually repress his conviction according 
 to the common faith of mankind. Of 
 the essence of spirit we are as ignorant 
 as we are of the essence of matter. We 
 have indeed a more immediate know- 
 ledge of the former than we have of the 
 latter. We have the evidence of con- 
 sciousness, — the highest possible evi- 
 dence of our mental activities, and 
 through them, of the qualities of matter. 
 But we have no knowledge whatever, 
 except by the actions of mind. 
 
 Equally ignorant are we of the mode 
 of existence, activity, and intercourse of 
 separate spirits. We know no more of 
 the manner in which spirit operates upon 
 spirit, than we do of the manner in which 
 it acts upon, and influences matter. But 
 no philosopher, no man of sense, con- 
 cludes that his soul does not influence 
 his body, because he cannot describe the 
 modus operandi. So no man of sense 
 will deny that spirits, apart from bodies, 
 influence and hold intercourse with one 
 another, because he understands not the 
 method of such intercourse. Nor is it 
 reasonable to murmur against God, be- 
 cause of this ignorance. It is doubtless 
 best for us to be thus ignorant, and when 
 the necessity for it ceases, he will give 
 us farther insight. What the Scriptures 
 teach in relation to angels, good and 
 bad, we may not delay at present to 
 inquire fully. One branch of the sub- 
 ject, however, lies directly in our path. 
 We are informed that " the spirit which 
 now worketh in the children of disobedi- 
 ence," is the prince of the power of the 
 air. This reference of the apostle (Eph. 
 ii. 2,) is to a general belief that evil spi- 
 rits, who are under the control of a 
 leader or prince, called Diabolus, inhabit 
 the air. They are spoken of as " prin- 
 cipalities and powers and spiritual wick- 
 ednesses." They seem to dread the 
 deep, for " they besought him that he 
 would not command them to go out into 
 the deep, — or abyss." (Luke viii. 31.) 
 This abyss we have seen is the source 
 of the Saracenic locusts, and of the 
 
 beast, (Rev. xi. 7; xviii. 8 ;) and into 
 it Satan, upon being bound, is cast and 
 shut up, (chap, xx.) It is evident then 
 that Satan and his subordinate apostles 
 much prefer the air as an abode, to the 
 abyss, and that for a time they are per- 
 mitted to move up and down therein. 
 
 " The seventh angel poured out his 
 vial into the air," — the peculiar mun- 
 dane abode of Satan and his legions. 
 Whilst confined in the abyss they are 
 harmless. It is when roaming at large 
 that they exercise an immense influence 
 for evil. This figurative action there- 
 fore teaches us, that the very origin, 
 source and energies of that empire, which 
 the beast of the sea, — the civil govern- 
 ment, — and the two-horned beast of the 
 earth — the ecclesiastical tyranny — unite 
 in conducting, is to be assaulted and de- 
 stroyed. The five first vials affected the 
 great antichristian power, in various de- 
 partments: — the earth, — the western em- 
 pire in general, — suffered from the poison 
 of infidelity : the sea, — the vast popula- 
 tion, — was agitated by it into a bloody 
 commotion ; the rivers, — the distinct 
 nations, — all experienced this thirst for 
 blood, and were made to drink it : the 
 sun, — the military despotism of Napo- 
 leon, — scorched or wasted the men with 
 fire : so also the throne 'of'the beast, — 
 the imperial dignity, which was sup- 
 pressed by the abdication of Francis of 
 Austria : the sixth then drTetl up the 
 mystic Euphrates, and simultaneously 
 summoned the missionaries of Antichrist 
 to assemble the nations. These vials 
 are all included in the harvest of God's 
 wrath. That upon which we now enter, 
 announces the vintage, — a cutting down ; 
 still better adapted to represent that 
 bloody dispensation of wrath, which he 
 conducts, who cometh " with dyed gar- 
 ments from Bozrah," — treading his ene- 
 mies in his anger, and trampling them 
 in his fury, and staining all his raiment 
 with their gore. 
 
 This vintage vial, it will be remem- 
 bered, like the natural vintage, which is 
 the last season of the summer's labour, 
 closes up the period of the church's 
 toil. As a vial, it respects the dis- 
 pensation of wrath upon the king's 
 
LECTURE XXIX. 
 
 257 
 
 enemies ; but, as is the case in regard to 
 some of the others, (the sixth, for ex- 
 ample,) there are concomitant and simul- 
 taneous events which still more deeply 
 interest the church. Consequently we 
 have here a great deal of detail. The 
 remaining verses of this chapter we 
 consider as a kind of general summary 
 statement of the grand points. Let us 
 examine them in order. The object of 
 this vial, we have mentioned ; it is the 
 air, or abode of Satan. 
 
 2. The issuing of the voice from the 
 temple and the throne, has a reference 
 to the description in chap. iv. He who 
 sits on the throne is God the Father, as 
 presiding over the whole. This voice is 
 therefore that of God himself. 
 
 3. The word,— "It is done." To 
 understand this, we must refer to chap. 
 xxi. 6, where the same expression 
 occurs ; and it comes in after the finish- 
 ing of God's judgments upon the Babylo- 
 nian Antichrist. It would therefore 
 seem to apply to the same matter con- 
 tained in the former part, or preface to 
 the little book (chap, x.) ; when the 
 angel commanded the apostle not to 
 write the matters uttered by the seven 
 thunders, but to seal them up ; and gave 
 as a reason, which he confirmed by an 
 oath, that the time was not yet ; " but 
 in the days of the voice of the seventh 
 angel, . . . the mystery of God shall be 
 finished. " -In the order of events, the 
 time has arrived : therefore the divine 
 voice' utters, "It is done." The mystery 
 of God is finished ; he has revealed his 
 wonderful designs in permitting this ty- 
 ranny to rise up, and oppress his church 
 for forty and two months. 
 
 4; There were voices, and thunder- 
 ings, and lightnings. These are the 
 same as in chap. x. 3, 4, There, in- 
 deed, the number of perfection is used, 
 — seven thunders: and when we enter 
 upon the detail, (chap. xix. 6,) we shall 
 find them called " mighty thunderings," 
 and discover their application to the 
 voices of triumph in the ranks of the re- 
 deemed. 
 
 5. " And there was a great earth- 
 quake, such as was not since men were 
 upon the earth ; so mighty an earth- 
 
 33 
 
 quake, and so great." This foretells 
 that a revolution in the kingdom of 
 Satan, which he exercises through his 
 agents, will take place. His dominion 
 will be completely overturned : a revo- 
 lution such as has not occurred since 
 the establishment of the Roman empire, 
 will result in the utter destruction of this 
 power. 
 
 6. Verse 19 : " And the great city was 
 divided into three parts." This is the spi- 
 ritual Babylon. The phrase " divided 
 into three parts," has divided critics into 
 a greater number. Some understand it 
 literally as the city of Rome ; some as 
 the western empire, and suppose that it 
 will be geographically separated into 
 three kingdoms ; some, that there will 
 be three factions, or national alliances. 
 Neither of these appear to us correct. 
 We are forced on to new ground. 
 
 It is evident that the great city " which 
 reigneth over the kings of the earth," 
 has been constituted, or created, as we 
 may say, by a gradual combination of 
 the three powers, — the religious, the 
 civil, the military. 
 
 We believe, and have before, we trust, 
 proved, that wherever this concentration 
 occurs, there is the spirit of Antichrist. 
 But it is not the Antichrist, until the 
 Christian religion is thus prostituted to the 
 purposes of tyrannical rule. This apostle 
 elsewhere teaches us that there were many 
 Antichrists in the world even then ; but 
 he speaks of one as the subject of pre- 
 vious prophecy, who is pre-eminently the 
 Antichrist. (It is to be regretted that 
 our translators omitted the article, 1 
 John ii. 18.) This is undoubtedly the 
 same whom Paul denominates " the man 
 of sin, — the son of perdition, — who op- 
 poseth and exalteth himself above all 
 that is called God, or that is wor- 
 shipped." 
 
 Now this amalgamation of powers 
 took place gradually, from the age of 
 Constantine until the era of Rome's 
 universal bishopric. Then the Anti- 
 christ stood forth fully revealed. We 
 believe that the terrible judgments of 
 God predicted in this entire scheme of 
 prophecy, have direct and main refer- 
 ence to this complex, yet consolidated 
 
258 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 power. The punishment of this " mys- 
 tery of iniquity," and remedying of all 
 its evils, is tlie design of all these trum- 
 pets and vials ; but especially of this 
 last. We believe, moreover, that the 
 cure which this vengeance is designed 
 to effect, will consist of a dissolution of 
 that union which constituted the Anti- 
 christ; that there will be a complete 
 deliverance of the holy spouse of Christ 
 from the polluting embrace of the civil 
 arm, and the unjust inflictions of the 
 sword ; that as Christ's kingdom is not 
 of this world, it must and it will be per- 
 fectly disenthralled from all earthly en- 
 tanglements, and stand forth a vast so- 
 ciety of pure and holy men, under a 
 simple spiritual discipline, whose appli- 
 cation will secure entire purity to its 
 members, and harmony in the working 
 of the whole, without in the slightest 
 degree interfering with the legitimate 
 action of the civil governments of the 
 world. On the contrary, it will prepare 
 and constrain them, by inward principle, 
 to the most perfect discharge of all the 
 duties devolving upon them as members 
 of the body politic. 
 
 In like manner, the events of this vial 
 will teach man the true line of demarca- 
 tion between the civil and military pow- 
 ers. This lesson the world has not 
 learned : it never has yet been under a 
 pure system of moral discipline, so as to 
 place before the minds of all men, dis- 
 tinctly and clearly, the idea of moral 
 power, in contradistinction from physi- 
 cal force, governing the human family. 
 
 Now, we think that the complete sepa- 
 ration of these three powers will take 
 place under this last vial, — that the only 
 Being in the universe who can safely be 
 entrusted with all three, will, in the day 
 of his vengeance, teach the great city, 
 and the whole world, that government of 
 man over man must be divided into three 
 parts, — that He, himself alone, can, with 
 safety to his universe, wear the crown, 
 the crosier, and the mace. 
 
 Such is our understanding of this triple 
 division of the great city. Such division 
 is the death of the Antichrist. But should 
 any one hesitate, — should he adhere to 
 the opinion that the great city is the civil 
 
 government on the one hand, or the 
 church on the other, then our general 
 conception is also at his service. For, 
 the partition of ruling powers into the 
 legislative, the executive, and the judi- 
 cial, either in church or state, amounts 
 substantially to the same thing ; and 
 wherever this exists, there is the home 
 of freedom and the rights of man. 
 
 A glance at the past history and pre- 
 sent position of western Europe, must 
 satisfy the candid that such a separation 
 has been progressing ever since the Re- 
 formation. The human mind has been 
 groping its way, and its every govern- 
 ment tends toward this threefold divi- 
 sion. It is undeniable that the entire 
 interests of Antichrist are arrayed against 
 it; and are putting forth a desperate 
 effort to sustain the old order of things, 
 by tightening the bands of allegiance be- 
 tween church and state ; but all will not 
 avail. 
 
 " And the cities of the nations fell." 
 By the cities of the nations are meant 
 the complex power alluded to before, 
 as it exists in the kingdoms of the ten 
 horns. The same system, which before 
 the Reformation was much more con- 
 solidated than since, still exists in each 
 and every kingdom of the ten. By 
 the falling of the cities is therefore to be 
 understood their falling off from the 
 great city, — their abandonment of the 
 church and state, — the antichristian 
 system. We saw, when expounding the 
 latter portion of the little book, that 
 England will be the first thus to fall off. 
 (See Lee. XX.) It is scarcely necessary 
 to add, that the word fell is capable of 
 this construction. It is chiefly applied 
 in the Apocalypse to prostration, as an 
 act of worship ; but also to the falling of 
 stars, as to the apostacy of the Christian 
 monk. (Ch. ix. 1.) Thus the govern- 
 ments in the different nations will fall off 
 from the grand antichristian confederacy; 
 and will ultimately array themselves 
 against the system, and will assist in 
 destroying the body of the beast, and 
 giving it to the burning flame. 
 
 The prophet then proceeds to point 
 out the vengeance of God, which will 
 overtake the great city. Verse 19: 
 
LECTURE XXIX. 
 
 259 
 
 " And great Babylon came in remem- 
 brance before God, to give unto her the 
 cup of the wine of the fierceness of his 
 wrath." What a collection of epithets 
 press upon our minds the terribleness of 
 her destruction ! 
 
 Verse 20 : " And every island fled 
 away, and the mountains were not 
 found." This refers, most likely, to 
 the entire remodelling of Roman king- 
 doms after the concussion. 
 
 Verse 21 : " And there fell upon men 
 a great hail out of heaven, every stone 
 about the weight of a talent : and men 
 blasphemed God because of the plague 
 of the hail, for the plague thereof was 
 exceeding great." 
 
 This imagery is manifestly borrowed 
 from Joshua x. 11, where the Lord is 
 said to have cast down upon the enemies 
 of his people, as they fled from the con- 
 quering sword of their pursuers, "great 
 stones from heaven upon them unto 
 Azekah, and they died ; and they were 
 more which died with hail-stones, than 
 they which the children of Israel slew 
 with the sword." This verse is there- 
 fore a representation of the fearful in- 
 terpositions of divine power for the de- 
 struction of the great apostacy. It also 
 teaches us that this destruction will not 
 be a simple conversion of Papists to 
 Christianity : for they blaspheme God ; 
 their afflictions do not soften their hearts, 
 at least, not the hearts of all, and turn 
 them away from their idolatries. All 
 such exposition is mere perversion. From 
 no part of the Bible, it is believed, are 
 we permitted to affirm that Popery will 
 be destroyed by the conversion of its 
 deluded followers, until after a most 
 fearful massacre of its combined forces. 
 
 Thus much for the introduction, or 
 general contents, of the vintage vial. 
 Chapter xvii. defines, in considerable 
 detail, the objects of these judgments. 
 It presents no entirely new conception, 
 but is evidently designed and well 
 adapted to shut out all doubt, and cut 
 off all possibility of cavil ; so that even 
 the most careless reader may not avoid 
 perceiving Rome, Rome, Rome in the 
 whole. 
 
 Verses 1, 2: "And there came one 
 
 of the seven angels which had the seven 
 vials, and talked with me, saying unto 
 me, Come hither ; I will show unto thee 
 the judgments of the great whore that 
 sitteth upon the many waters ; with 
 whom the kings of the earth have com- 
 mitted fornication, and the inhabitants 
 of the earth have been made drunk with 
 the wine of her fornication." 
 
 Doubtless, this is the angel that had 
 the seventh vial of judgment. He who 
 was commissioned to execute, would be 
 the most suitable to point out the sub- 
 stance of his own mission, and explain 
 its object and design. 
 
 Dan. vii. 9-15": "I beheld till the 
 thrones were cast down, and the Ancient 
 of days did sit, whose garment was white 
 as snow, and the hair of his head like 
 the pure wool : his throne was like the 
 fiery flame, and his wheels as burning 
 fire. A fiery stream issued, and came 
 forth from before him : thousand thou- 
 sands ministered unto him, and ten thou- 
 sand times ten thousand stood before 
 him ; the judgment was set, and the 
 books were opened. I beheld then, be- 
 cause of the voice of the great words 
 which the horn spake; I beheld, even 
 till the beast was slain, and his body de- 
 stroyed, and given to the burning flame. 
 As concerning the rest of the beasts, 
 they had their dominion taken away : yet 
 their lives were prolonged for a season 
 and time. I saw in the night-visions, 
 and behold, one like the Son of man 
 came with the clouds of heaven, and 
 came to the Ancient of clays, and they 
 brought him near before him. And there 
 was given him dominion, and glory, and 
 a kingdom, that all people, nations, and 
 languages, should serve him : his do- 
 minion is an everlasting dominion, which 
 shall not pass away, and his kingdom 
 that which shall not be destroyed." 
 
 This glorious scene is peculiarly fitted 
 to suggest the awful realities of the last 
 great day of judgment ; and so it is, 
 perhaps, generally understood. Never- 
 theless, the context shuts us up to the 
 necessity of applying it to the same 
 judgment described in the above verses 
 of the Apocalypse. The thrones cast 
 down, are the thrones of oppression, 
 
260 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 embraced in the antichristian confede- 
 racy. The Ancient of days, is the 
 God of providence, arrayed in all the 
 grand and terrible attributes of the God 
 of vengeance. The destruction of the 
 beast, and the delivery of his body to 
 the burning flame, is manifestly the same 
 with the judgment of "the great whore," 
 mentioned in the chapter before us, and 
 which is executed in chapter xix. Of 
 course, "the Son of man" is the Michael 
 of chap, xii., and the " King of kings" 
 of Rev. chap. xix. The " everlasting 
 dominion," is the kingdom of the little 
 stone, which shall fill the whole earth. 
 
 2. We have said that the vial is a 
 judgment. Perhaps the representation 
 of the same, under the symbol of a vin- 
 tage, is designed to show that the visita- 
 tions of God upon his enemies, have a 
 tendency to profit the church. The 
 cutting down and treading of the grapes, 
 destroy them as grapes, and represent 
 the ruin of the wicked ; but, concomitant 
 with this, is the profit of the vintager, 
 which exhibits the calamities of her foes 
 as blessings to the church. 
 
 3. This judgment has for its object 
 " the great whore that sitteth upon many 
 waters." Perhaps no human relation 
 is oftener employed in sacred writ to 
 designate that which the believer or 
 body of believers sustain to Christ, than 
 that of marriage : and no moral virtue 
 more efficiently denotes the holiness of 
 true i*eligion than chastity. Accordingly, 
 all violation of its laws are used figura- 
 tively, to describe unfaithfulness to God 
 our redeemer. Idolatry being the great 
 spiritual whoredom, the organized sys- 
 tem of idol-worship within the Christian 
 church, or rather, under the Christian 
 name, is designated b}' the spirit of in- 
 spiration by the ungainly epithet of "the 
 great whore." 
 
 4. The locality of this spiritual abo- 
 mination, is said to be upon " many 
 waters," which is explained in verse 15, 
 of "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, 
 and tongues." This is well adapted to 
 convey the idea of a vastly extended in- 
 fluence for evil. 
 
 5. The governments of the Roman 
 earth here carried on an illicit traffic 
 
 with this corrupting sorceress. As mar- 
 riages, or promiscuous intercourse be- 
 tween the sons of God and the daughters 
 of men before the flood, generated mon- 
 sters of iniquity, and led on the flood of 
 God's judgment, so the unholy union of 
 the powers which we have been con- 
 sidering, resulted in such evils as insure 
 the visitations of the Most High, in most 
 fearful forms, even to a deluge of fire. 
 
 6. Like the victims of sexual impuri- 
 ties, this spiritual abomination has her 
 intoxicating bowl of bewildering delights, 
 with which she stupifies the inhabitants 
 of the empire, and leads them after her 
 as an ox goeth to the slaughter, whilst 
 they know not that it is to the destruc- 
 tion of the precious life. 
 
 The prophet is then carried in spirit 
 into the wilderness, and there a vision 
 is presented and" explained to him. 
 Verses 3-7, " So he carried me away 
 in spirit unto the wilderness ; and I saw 
 a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured 
 beast, full of names of blasphemy, hav- 
 ing seven heads, and ten horns. And the 
 woman was arrayed in purple and scar- 
 let-colour, and decked with gold and pre- 
 cious stones, and pearls, having a golden 
 cup in her hand, full of abominations 
 and filthiness of her fornications. And 
 upon her forehead was a name written, 
 Mystery, Babylon the Great, the 
 mother of harlots, and abomination 
 of the earth. And I saw the woman 
 drunk with the blood of the saints, and 
 with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus : 
 and when I saw her, I wondered with 
 Great admiration. And the angel said 
 unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel ? 
 I will tell thee the mystery of the 
 woman, and of the beast that carrieth 
 her, which hath the seven heads and ten 
 horns." 
 
 This promised explanation is given 
 first, enigmatically as it were, to excite 
 a still higher degree of wonder. After- 
 wards, the detail leaves no remaining 
 difficulty. The astonishment of the 
 apostle, arose probably from two causes. 
 The sight of such splendour combined 
 with such pollution ; and the idea of a 
 woman, formerly used as a symbol of 
 the true church, now representing a 
 
LECTURE XXIX. 
 
 261 
 
 fearful persecuting power, rioting in the 
 blood of God's martyred saints. 
 
 We proceed with the angel's explana- 
 tion. Verse 8, " The last beast that 
 thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall 
 ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go 
 into perdition : and they that dwell upon 
 the earth shall wonder, whose names 
 were not written in the book of life, 
 from the foundation of the world, when 
 they behold the beast that was, and is 
 not, and yet is." 
 
 Let us enter into some of the par- 
 ticulars. 
 
 1. It is a wild beast, — a beast of 
 prey : fit emblem of a persecuting power. 
 It is the same essentially with the fourth 
 beast of Daniel : that is, the Roman 
 Empire, differing only in some accidents. 
 
 2. The enigma, — " it was, and is not, 
 and yet is," — is solved the moment we 
 fix the chronology of the vision ; or the 
 time in which the scene was presented. 
 Now this is when the woman arrayed in 
 purple is seated on the beast : this wo- 
 man is the apostate church uniting with 
 the civil power, which brings us down 
 to the middle ages, past the period in 
 which the Antichrist was developed. 
 Locating ourselves in this period, when 
 the empire was divided, we shall easily 
 understand why this apparently contra- 
 dictory language is used. 
 
 The wild animal was, — it existed ten 
 hundred and seventy-eight years in a 
 Papal state : it then ceased to be a beast 
 of prey devouring the church. From 
 the days of Constantine until after the 
 woman ascended it, and became its go- 
 verness, it is not a wild beast of prey ; 
 but it yet is a vast and mighty power, 
 though divided into ten kingdoms : and 
 upon feeling the corrupting influence of 
 the " Mother of harlots," it becomes 
 again a ravenous beast. 
 
 3. The source is the bottomless pit, — 
 the abyss. Its origin is the same as 
 that of the dragon (ch. xii. 3), who is 
 affirmed expressly to be " the devil, or 
 Satan." So also the Saracenic locusts 
 come out of the abyss. The " great 
 red dragon" has seven heads and ten 
 horns. These verses compared, as be- 
 fore mentioned, prove that the Roman 
 
 Empire was from the beginning a diabo- 
 lical government, subservient to Satan, 
 and conducive to the spread of his 
 dominion. 
 
 4. This power is ultimately to be 
 abolished, — " it shall go into perdition :" 
 not that the people of the ten kingdoms 
 which compose the body of the beast 
 shall be destroyed ; but the system of 
 tyranny shall be utterly overthrown. 
 
 5. The admiration of the dwellers 
 upon the Latin earth is next to be re- 
 marked. The angel characterizes them 
 by an exception, which implies that this 
 admiration of the beast will be general ; 
 all except those whose names were writ- 
 ten from the foundation of the world 
 in the book of life will be carried away 
 with the mysterious and astonishing ope- 
 rations of the beast and his rider. A 
 body there will be, during this period, 
 who, understanding the relations of the 
 beast and the woman, and their own 
 duties, will not be thus borne away in 
 gazing wonder at pretended miracles 
 and pompous parades. 
 
 The angel proceeds in verse 9 with a 
 word of encouragement to study these 
 subjects. " Here is the mind which hath 
 wisdom." Similar in force is the Sa- 
 viour's admonition in regard to Daniel's 
 vision, — " whoso readeth, let him un- 
 derstand." 
 
 6. " The seven heads are seven moun- 
 tains on which the woman sitteth." These 
 are the seven hills on which the city of 
 Rome was built, whose names have been 
 already given; and these are also em- 
 blematic of the seven forms of govern- 
 ment which have prevailed in Rome. 
 Verses 10, 11 : " And these are seven 
 kings ; five are fallen, and one is, and 
 one is not yet come, and when he cometh 
 he must continue a short space. And 
 the beast that was, and is not, even he 
 is the eighth, and is of the seven, and 
 goeth into perdition." 
 
 This passage is almost universally 
 applied to the forms of dominion in 
 Rome, which were mentioned in a pre- 
 vious lecture. Five of these had passed 
 away before this vision, and the sixth, 
 the Imperial, was then in power : the 
 Patriciate was not yet established. This 
 
262 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 form was substantially the same with 
 that known as the Exarchate of Ravenna, 
 whilst dependent on the eastern emperor. 
 " But," says Gibbon, " the most essen- 
 tial gifts of the Popes to the Carlovin- 
 gian race, were the dignities of France, 
 and of patrician Rome. After the re- 
 covery of Italy and Africa by the arms 
 of Justinian, the importance and dan- 
 ger of those remote provinces required 
 the presence of a superior magistrate ; 
 he was indifferently styled the exarch, 
 or the patrician ; and the governors of 
 Ravenna, who fill their place in the 
 chronology of princes, extended their 
 jurisdiction over the Roman city." The 
 historian having spoken of the transition 
 of this power to the Carlovingian race, 
 proceeds : " The Roman embassadors 
 invested these patricians with the keys 
 of the shrine of St. Peter, as a pledge 
 and symbol of sovereignty. Nor was 
 the Frank content with these vain and 
 empty demonstrations of respect. In 
 the twenty-six years that elapsed be- 
 tween the conquest of Lombardy and 
 his imperial coronation, Rome, which 
 had been delivered by the sword, was 
 subject, as his own, to the sceptre of 
 Charlemagne. The people swore alle- 
 giance to his person and family ; in his 
 name money was coined and justice ad- 
 ministered ; and the election of the Popes 
 was examined and confirmed by his 
 authority. Except an original and self- 
 inherent claim of sovereignty, there was 
 not any prerogative remaining, which 
 the title of emperor could add to the 
 patrician of Rome." (Chap, x.) 
 
 This form or head " must continue a 
 short space." Accordingly, in about 
 twenty-six years, Charlemagne was 
 crowned emperor by the Pope, and thus 
 the sixth head is revived, and becomes 
 the eighth, although it be really one of 
 the seven. When treating the parallel 
 passage, (chap. xiii. 3,) we had occasion 
 to say that the wounded imperial head 
 was restored or healed by the recovery 
 of Italy, and its reunion to the empire, 
 under Justinian. To this we may add 
 here, as not inconsistent, that this 
 wounded head was more properly healed 
 by the coronation of Charlemagne as 
 
 emperor. Verses 12, 13, "And the ten 
 horns which thou sawest are ten kings, 
 which have received no kingdom as yet; 
 but receive power as kings one hour 
 with the beast. These have one mind, 
 and shall give their power and strength 
 unto the beast." This is prospective : at 
 the time when John saw the vision, these 
 kingdoms were not in actual and formal 
 existence. They are to receive authority 
 as kings, in conjunction with the beast, 
 at the same time when the " mother of 
 harlots" mounts upon him, and he again 
 becomes a wild beast, or persecuting 
 power. 
 
 We agree with those who think that 
 the one hour marks, not the duration of 
 their power ; for this would imply a very 
 short period ; whereas the ten kingdoms 
 have existed more than thirteen cen- 
 turies ; but we think the design of the 
 angel is, to teach us that the rise of the 
 ten kingdoms, and the return of the 
 empire to its proper character, as a per- 
 secuting power, occurred about the 
 same time. Such is the historical truth. 
 The division of the western empire runs 
 chronologically parallel with the growth 
 of the Papacy, which is sustained by the 
 civil arm, and influences it to become 
 again a persecutor of the church. More- 
 over, the subordination of the ten to the 
 imperial monarchy is here noticed by the 
 an^el. They have received no king- 
 dom, (/3atfiXsia) or independent royal 
 authority ; they are quasi-kings, — as 
 kings they receive authority at the same 
 time in conjunction with the beast ; in 
 subordination and dependence on the 
 imperial throne. Thus the western em- 
 pire again became ferocious, is divided 
 and yet united, and its strength and 
 power for evil to the saints of God, re- 
 main deposited with the imperial head, 
 which is anointed by the sorceress, and 
 intoxicated with her cup. How asto- 
 nishingly comprehensive this proe-script 
 history ! Gibbon and Hume, Volney 
 and Voltaire, could scarcely compress 
 the historical matter of these two verses 
 within the space of one hundred octavo 
 pages. The first has actually spread it 
 over four or five large volumes. Verse 
 14, describes the outgoings of this per- 
 
LECTURE XXIX. 
 
 263 
 
 secuting spirit, from these kingdoms, 
 against the people of God. These shall 
 make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb 
 shall overcome them ; for he is Lord of 
 lords, and King of kings ; and they that 
 are with him are called, and chosen, and 
 faithful." 
 
 The succeeding verse, as already 
 said, defines the locality of the spiritual 
 courtesan. Verse 16, is undoubtedly, 
 prophetic of a period more distant than 
 the preceding. " And the ten horns 
 which thou sawest upon the beast, these 
 shall hate the whore, and shall make 
 her desolate, and naked, and shall eat 
 her flesh, and burn her with fire." 
 Verse 17 : " For God hath put in their 
 hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, 
 and give their kingdom unto the beast 
 until the words of God shall be ful- 
 filled." 
 
 The words of God here referred to, 
 are the prophecies concerning this apos- 
 tate church and empire, and the havoc 
 which they will make in their war 
 against the Lamb : and therefore he 
 puts into men's hearts to agree, and 
 conspire together against the Lord and 
 his anointed and his redeemed, that his 
 will to afflict, and scourge, and humble 
 his true church may be accomplished. 
 So he put it into Pharaoh's heart to op- 
 press the church in Egypt ; and so the 
 Assyrian king was made use of as a rod 
 of correction. We have here a divine 
 interpreter to explain all these historical 
 mysteries. God wrote the record first, 
 and then God himself made history to 
 correspond. 
 
 But again, there is to be a time when 
 these very governments shall hate the 
 harlot. This too the finger of Heaven 
 has written : the facts historic are not 
 yet brought about. They lie spread 
 out before Jehovah's infinite mind, but 
 a veil, which He only can remove, con- 
 ceals them from our eyes. Yet most 
 assuredly the time of their revelation is 
 not far distant. The nations were in- 
 deed partly aroused, and some per- 
 ceived dimly, the oppressive domination 
 of the sorceress, and a flush of indigna- 
 tion passed over them. Now she is ap- 
 plying her medicated bowl again to their 
 
 lips ; but when Jesuitism shall have re- 
 vealed its plots, and the civil powers of 
 the world shall have detected her true 
 character, their indignation will rekindle, 
 and burn with the fire of unquenchable 
 vengeance. 
 
 To cut off" all possibility of mistake as 
 to the symbol, the angel adds, verse 18, 
 " And the woman which thou sawest, is 
 that great city which reigneth over the 
 kings of the earth." There was no 
 power then, but Rome, and there has 
 been none other since that period to 
 whom this language can be applied at 
 all. Every effort, therefore, of the Pa- 
 pists to pervert and turn aside this con- 
 text from themselves, is utterly futile. 
 God has rendered it so plain, that all the 
 smoke of the bottomless pit cannot avail 
 to create a medium so obscure as to con- 
 ceal the truth, that the Roman Catholic 
 church is " the mother of harlots, and 
 abominations of the earth." 
 
 That Rome is meant here, is express- 
 ly admitted by Calmet. "St. Peter," 
 says he, "in his first Epistle, verse 13, 
 has marked it out by the figurative name 
 of Babylon. The church that is at 
 Babylon, elected together ivith you, sa- 
 luteth you,. St. John, in his Revelation, 
 points it out more than once by the same 
 name, and describes it in such a manner, 
 as can only agree to Rome; by its com- 
 mand over all nations ; by its cruelty 
 towards the saints ; and by its situation 
 upon seven hills. Rev. xviii." (See 
 articles, Rome, Babylon, vol. ii.) This 
 is candid for a Roman Catholic, and 
 renders it the less necessary for us to 
 dwell upon this topic. 
 
 Permit us farther to remark, that the 
 colour of the beast and of the woman is 
 equally unequivocal. Red, in all its 
 hues, has ever been a favourite colour 
 with Rome. A large proportion of the 
 priestly robes, and even the very capa- 
 risons of the horses and mules on which 
 the Pope and his cardinals ride, are of 
 this hue. So strongly is this distinction 
 claimed, that it has been made a criminal 
 offence in any but a cardinal to wear a 
 red cap. Every traveller who attends 
 the great festivals of the Romish church, 
 at the centre of its power, is struck with 
 
264 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 the correspondence between the prophecy 
 and the living reality, as exhibited in our 
 day. This is a chief reason why the 
 " mother of abominations" is so careful 
 to conceal these scriptures from the eyes 
 of the people. She fears to let them 
 have the opportunity of comparing the 
 language of John, with the things pass- 
 ing before their own eyes. 
 
 We are called to observe again the 
 decorations of this woman. How gor- 
 geous, — how costly, — and how imposing 
 and well-adapted to deceive the unwary ! 
 Accordingly, Roman Catholic historians 
 themselves, as well as others, have given 
 full and detailed accounts of various 
 splendid exhibitions connected with the 
 important ceremonies of the church. In- 
 deed, they boast of outdoing, on some 
 occasions, in the brilliancy of their dis- 
 plays, the most costly and dazzling caval- 
 cades of the mightiest sovereigns. The 
 coronations of the Popes are generally 
 turned to advantage in this way. " Alex- 
 ander Donatus hath drawn a comparison 
 between ancient and modern Rome, and 
 asserts the superiority of his own church, 
 in the pomp and splendour of religion. 
 You have a remarkable instance in 
 Paul II., of whom Plotina relates, that 
 in his pontifical vestments, he outwent 
 all his predecessors, especially in his 
 regno, or mitre, upon which he had laid 
 out a great deal of money in purchasing 
 at vast rates, diamonds, sapphires, eme- 
 ralds, chrysolites, jaspers, unions, and all 
 manner of precious stones, wherewith, 
 adorned like another Aaron, he would 
 appear abroad somewhat more august 
 than a man, delighted to be seen and ad- 
 mired by every one. But lest he alone 
 should seem to differ from the rest, he 
 made a decree, that none but cardinals 
 should, under a penalty, wear red caps ; 
 to whom he had, in the first year of his 
 Popedom, given cloth of that colour, to 
 make horse-cloths, or mule-cloths of, 
 when they rode." (Newton, ii. 220.) 
 
 Again, she rides upon the scarlet co- 
 loured beast. The rider governs the ani- 
 mal that bears him. This is, therefore, in- 
 tended to instruct us in regard to the do- 
 mination of this sorceress over the west- 
 ern empire. But, notwithstanding her 
 
 imposing appearance, like other courte- 
 sans, her very efforts to render herself 
 attracting have written her name upon 
 her forehead, — have made it plain to all 
 who have any powers of perception, 
 what her true character is. She wears 
 a threefold inscription. 
 
 Mystery. She puts in strong claims 
 to hidden knowledge and secret enchant- 
 ments. Calmet, in his enumeration of 
 the Christian mysteries, places among 
 them the " real presence in the Eucha- 
 rist, — the virginity of the Virgin Mary;" 
 and says, " the word mystery in the 
 Greek is equivalent to sacramentum in 
 Latin. It expresses the sacraments and 
 mysteries of the Christian church, and 
 chiefly the Eucharist, which is the most 
 sublime of all our mysteries." After 
 representing the apostles and primitive 
 preachers as in the habit of keeping 
 back and concealing parts of Christian 
 truth and ordinances, and speaking of the 
 Pagans as doing the same in regard to 
 their religion, he concludes, " But the 
 secrecy that was observed concerning 
 our mysteries was chiefly founded upon 
 their excellence and sublimity, which 
 made them inaccessible to the human 
 understanding, unless it was assisted by 
 the light of faith." 
 
 The other parts of her frontal inscrip- 
 tions we have already noticed sufficiently. 
 The only thing that calls for farther re- 
 mark is her persecuting character. " I 
 saw the woman drunk with the blood of 
 the saints, and with the blood of the 
 martyrs of Jesus." This phraseology 
 may appear tautological. It may be 
 supposed that " the blood of the saints," 
 and " the blood of the martyrs of Jesus," 
 must mean the same. But it will be 
 borne in mind that not every saint, nor 
 even every one who was put to death on 
 account of religious belief, is a martyr 
 in the specific sense of this Apocalypse. 
 A martyr or icitness is one who has 
 been duly called upon to testify : and 
 the martyrs of Jesus are specially those 
 associated bodies or churches who bear 
 public testimony to his truth, and seal it 
 by the sacrifice of their lives. Private 
 Christians, suffering indiscriminately in 
 the crowd, are saints, and in a limited 
 
LECTURE XXX. 
 
 265 
 
 sense martyrs ; but the martyrs are pe- 
 culiarly such as are formally called upon 
 to record their testimony in their own 
 blood. 
 
 Already have we seen " the great 
 harlot" rioting and exulting in the slaugh- 
 ter of God's witnesses : so that it is un- 
 necessary to dwell upon this feature of 
 her character here. Our closing re- 
 mark, after so extended an exposition, 
 must be brief. 
 
 1. We mention as a truth indubitable 
 where the Bible is believed, that a revo- 
 lution awaits the world, and is not very 
 far in the distance ; in comparison with 
 which all past revolutions among men 
 must sink into insignificance. This, if 
 we place any confidence in him who is 
 truth itself, we cannot refuse to believe. 
 The special object of it will be to punish 
 the corrupt church and the nations pol- 
 luted by her. Hence the corollary, — 
 moral impurities must sooner or later 
 cause the outpouring of the vials of God's 
 wrath. The nations which sell them- 
 selves to any system of falsehood, will 
 meet the rebukes of incensed justice. 
 
 2. The identity of the " mother of har- 
 lots" and the Roman Catholic Church is 
 here so perfectly demonstrated, as to exhi- 
 bit the denial of it in no other light than 
 that of the most abandoned effrontery. 
 The brazen sorceress herself can scarcely 
 display a greater degree of impertinence. 
 He who disbelieves must do it in the 
 face of the fullest and clearest evidence. 
 
 3. Modern refinement has outstripped 
 the Bible, and left its delicacy in the 
 shade. We can with difficulty bring 
 ourselves up to the task of pronouncing, 
 even officially in the pulpit, the names 
 by which the spirit of inspiration so fre- 
 quently designates the great defilements 
 of the apostate church. The popular 
 sensibilities are so extremely tender that 
 even a side allusion to them is deemed 
 a breach of decorum. This is probably 
 the case in a peculiarly high degree 
 within the ordinary walks of the harlot 
 herself. Roman Catholics are horrified 
 at the name, and shrink away from the 
 profane obscenity of its utterance. This 
 is both curious and natural. Indigna- 
 tion against a crime is displayed often 
 
 34 
 
 most violently by its last perpetrator : it 
 assists concealment. " Such is the way 
 of an adulterous woman : she eateth, 
 and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have 
 done no wickedness," (Prov. xxx. 20.) 
 Assuredly this delicacy springs not from 
 the high moral purity of the age. How 
 far it may result from the very opposite, 
 is a problem to be submitted for demon- 
 stration to the moralist. 
 
 4. We have here another illustration 
 of the doctrine that " God worketh all 
 things after the counsel of his own will," 
 and yet that the executors of the divine 
 purpose are held accountable. God put 
 it into the hearts of these kings to give 
 their power unto the beast, and yet he 
 punishes them for doing so. The l-eason 
 is obvious : they act voluntarily; they 
 mean not to honour God by afflicting his 
 people ; but on the contrary, they de- 
 sign to gratify their wicked lust. There- 
 fore the Judge of all the earth will put 
 the cup of calamity to their own lips, 
 and they shall drink it to the dregs. 
 
 LECTURE XXX. 
 
 THE SEVENTH VIAL. 
 
 PREPARATORY ARRANGEMENTS, CONTINUED. 
 
 Rev. xviii, ; xix. 1-10. 
 
 The lion hath roared, who will not 
 fear ? The Lord God hath spoken, who 
 can but prophesy ? In view of the ini- 
 quitous and oppressive system depicted 
 in the preceding chapter, how can one 
 whose soul has been sanctified by grace, 
 and his understanding enlightened by 
 the teachings of the word and Spirit of 
 God, refrain from the expression of his 
 indignation ? And if he be also called 
 of God to minister in holy things, how 
 shall he not lift up his voice like a trum- 
 pet, and let the church and the world 
 hear of these abominations which make 
 desolate, and of the judgments of Al- 
 mighty God, which must speedily over- 
 take the son of perdition. Should such 
 things be, and such judgments be about 
 
LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 to come, and the true ministry be igno- 
 rant of them and silent concerning them? 
 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, 
 but he revealeth his secrets unto his 
 servants the prophets ; and surely this 
 revelation is not for their individual be- 
 nefit ; but for the church : therefore, the 
 prophets must proclaim the message. 
 
 Now, as the reasonable expectation 
 is, so is the scriptural fact. This con- 
 text presents the action of at least a por- 
 tion of the Christian ministry, imme- 
 diately anterior and preparatory to, the 
 grand catastrophe. 
 
 This is the same angel, or in other 
 words, symbolizes the same body of 
 evangelical preachers, referred to in 
 chap, xiv., who herald the third glorious 
 revival of religion. The first, it will be 
 recollected, is the Piedmontese revival. 
 The second is the more illustrious re- 
 vival of the sixteenth century, when 
 men began to proclaim aloud the doc- 
 trine, that Rome had become apostate 
 from Christianity. " Babylon is fallen, 
 is fallen." This we intimated does not 
 refer to her destruction, but to her dege- 
 neracy. We then promised to touch 
 upon this exposition more fully. We 
 repeat the remark made in the last Lec- 
 ture, that the Greek word fall (iirstfs) 
 is often used in the Apocalypse to de- 
 scribe a falling down in adoration, and 
 for worship. Of twenty-one cases in 
 the whole book, it is used ten times in 
 this sense ; it is also applied to repre- 
 sent a falling off, an apostatizing, a for- 
 saking one's position and taking up an- 
 other. The stars of heaven fell (ch. vi. 
 IS), — rulers forsook their stations. Most 
 probably the ministers of religion and 
 the church became secularized. The 
 fallen star of the fifth trumpet (ch. xi. 1) 
 is an apostate minister of religion. So the 
 fallen Babylon is a degenerate church. 
 She has fallen from the state and con- 
 dition of a true church, from heaven, to 
 that of a secularized one. This doctrine 
 the Reformers every where preached, 
 and it was by this they aroused the na- 
 tions and themselves to look more nar- 
 rowly into the doctrinal principles essen- 
 tial to a true church ; and with what 
 vigour they sustained their attack upon 
 
 her abominations, and with what suc- 
 cess, the world's history testifies in its 
 brightest pages. 
 
 But however bold, and determined, 
 and vigorous, and successful, their as- 
 saults upon the strongholds of Roman 
 iniquity, the third revival will be charac- 
 terized by " another angel coming down 
 from heaven, having great power ; and 
 the earth shall be lightened with his 
 glory. And he cried mightily with a 
 strong voice, Babylon the great is 
 fallen." This angel's voice we now 
 begin to hear. He has, however, not 
 yet lifted it up to its full and command- 
 ing tones. The subject of Rome's apos- 
 tacy is only beginning to arrest the at- 
 tention of the ministry. A few peculiar 
 characteristics of this ministry we will 
 notice. 
 
 1. They have great power, great au- 
 thority, — (sfoutfiav.) It refers not to 
 their talents, abilities and understanding 
 of the subject of Romanism ; but to the 
 right and propriety of stripping t 
 harlot, and exposing the impieties and 
 pollutions of her idolatry and oppres- 
 sion. It is obvious, that the body of 
 Christians and ministers are not yet up 
 to the line of duty in this thing. Private 
 Christians seem sometimes disposed to 
 doubt the propriety of ministers attack- 
 ing Romanism. " There are good and 
 bad in all sects," say these mistaken per- 
 sons ; "there are some good Catholics ; 
 we ought to be charitable !" But who 
 taught you that charity, like the world's 
 love, is blind ? How did you discover 
 that the mother of harlots is the spouse 
 of Christ, and the parent of a holy seed? 
 Away with such charity ! She borrowed 
 her robe from " Mystery, Babylon ;" 
 she wears a veil very pleasing to the 
 harlot. True charity comes forth with 
 the Master's commission and authority 
 to proclaim the apostacy of Babylon. 
 
 2. This ministry will not tolerate the 
 covering up of this subject. Light will 
 attend them. Their preaching will not 
 consist of empty declamation and vague 
 skirmishing, — " the earth was lightened 
 with his glory." They will so study as 
 to understand the subject, and so under- 
 standing, they will make the world to 
 
LECTURE XXX. 
 
 267 
 
 understand it also. " The earth was 
 lightened ;" the governments and people 
 within this earth will be made, by the 
 Protestant ministry, to see in its proper 
 character, the Romish system on the 
 one hand, and the true Bible doctrine 
 on the other ; and this is preparatory to 
 their falling off from Antichrist, and to 
 the great earthquake. 
 
 3. Their ministry will not work in 
 secret, by an invisible agency, like 
 Rome. The faithful servants of God 
 are not a secret society : they seek to 
 be known openly. They have no pri- 
 vate rules of faith or principles of action. 
 All their efforts are directed to the great- 
 est possible publicity. They lift up the 
 voice like a trumpet. These men will 
 cry mightily with a strong voice : they 
 will not steal around and whisper their 
 fears into the ears of courtiers, and ma- 
 gistrates, and kings, that, " perhaps 
 Rome is wrong, possibly she is astray 
 in some things and ought to be reformed; 
 peradventure the union of church and 
 state may be of corrupting tendency ; it 
 might be prudent to inquire whether pa- 
 tronage and intrusion of ministers upon 
 the church, by civil force, against the 
 people's wish, may be an error." No 
 such course will they pursue. They 
 come in the spirit and power of Elias, 
 of Paul, of Luther, of Calvin, of Knox. 
 They lift up the voice, as when a lion 
 roareth. "Babylon the great is fallen;" 
 Rome has apostatized, she is no true 
 church of God. She has degenerated 
 into a synagogue of Satan, the habita- 
 tion, not the temporary residence, but 
 the fixed abode of demons and demon- 
 worship ; her every temple, from St. 
 Peter's, down, is a pantheon, full of 
 heathen idolatry ; all unclean spirits 
 like frogs, find in her a stronghold, and 
 she is the " cage of every unclean and 
 hateful bird." What a graphic descrip- 
 tion this, of the Popish nunneries, or 
 " prisons for unmarried women." Look 
 at these large and massive piles, these 
 strong stone walls, these iron-grated 
 windows, and say are not these prison 
 cages of every unclean and hateful bird? 
 Why the repetition of the word prison 
 here, if it be not designed to point out 
 
 the two classes of filthy abode ? " The 
 hold, (911X0007) — prison of every foul 
 spirit :" this represents the monasteries 
 or prisons of unmarried men, whence 
 indolence and vice send forth their vile 
 influence to pollute the atmosphere and 
 vitiate the moral health of the land ; — 
 " and a cage (cpuXax^,) a prison of every 
 unclean and hateful bird :" these are 
 the nunneries. These prisons are com- 
 monly contiguous to each other. The 
 nunneries are accessible to the monks 
 under such regulations and restrictions 
 as best subserves in each, the purposes 
 of their existence. 
 
 From such well-adjusted agency to 
 promote her spiritual and natural abo- 
 minations, the great scarlet courtesan 
 might reasonably be expected to be a 
 monster of iniquity. Accordingly, we 
 are informed of impurities, in Rome lite- 
 rally, and in all the courts and countries 
 that came under her spiritual dominion, 
 such as puts entirely m the shade, the 
 less horrible impurities of pagan Rome. 
 These things are alluded to in verse 3, 
 which may and ought to be taken in 
 both a literal and spiritual sense : and 
 these it is the authorized privilege and 
 the unpleasant duty of the ministers of 
 God, to point out and expose to public 
 scorn. 
 
 4. Verses 4, 5 : " And I heard another 
 voice from heaven, saying, Come out of 
 her, my people, thfc ye be not partakers 
 of her sins, and that ye receive not of 
 her plagues ; for her sins have reached 
 unto heaven, and God hath remembered 
 her iniquities." This is but another 
 voice of the same ministry. In the 
 former, they pointed out her wickedness 
 and pollution ; now they designate the 
 duty of entire separation from her. Ob- 
 serve, 
 
 1. Within the pale of this corrupt 
 church, there are yet people whom God 
 hath chosen, and whom he will call out 
 by his divine spirit, as he here calls them 
 by his living ministry. The church, 
 and especially the messengers of God, 
 have an important service to perform 
 towards those who are entangled in the 
 toils of the harlot. A very clear and 
 noted distinction there is between the 
 
268 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 woman and the people whom she leads 
 captive. The former must be destroyed, 
 and it will be by violence in part; but 
 many of the lambs of Christ's flock, 
 who are led astray and imprisoned by 
 her, may and will be delivered. This 
 distinction it is easier to observe in 
 theory than in practice ; and to this 
 difficulty we ought to address ourselves, 
 that we may enable the deluded followers 
 of the wanton to perceive that in op- 
 posing their deceiver, whom they yet 
 love, we are not opposing, but favouring 
 them ; that in letting light into the dark- 
 ness of her cells, we really show kind- 
 ness to the immured victims of this su- 
 perstition, convert the nun into a Mag- 
 dalen, and overturn the seraglio itself. 
 
 2. The ministers of the gospel will 
 teach and press upon those embraced 
 within the Papal influence, their respon- 
 sibilities for her crimes. If they know- 
 ingly and wilfully remain in her com- 
 munion, they are partakers of her sins ; 
 and, of course, the punishment of them 
 they cannot escape. 
 
 3. The near approach of her judg- 
 ments they will point out. How this 
 can be done without looking for the signs 
 of the times ; and how the signs of the 
 times can be perceived, in the total ne- 
 glect of the prophetic Scriptures, are in- 
 quiries for those who are thus negligent. 
 Such neglect will not, and it does not 
 characterize the n^nistry who shall 
 herald the great revival concomitant with 
 the seventh vial. They, with loud and 
 earnest importunity, entreat the unhappy 
 victims of these delusions to flee her im- 
 purities, if they would escape her punish- 
 ments. 
 
 In verses 6 and 7 we have the denun- 
 ciations of this angel : " Reward her even 
 as she rewarded you, and double unto 
 her double, according to her works ; in 
 the cup which she hath filled, fill to her 
 double. How much she hath glorified 
 herself, and lived deliciously, so much 
 torment and sorrow give her; for she 
 saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am 
 no widow, and shall see no sorrow." 
 
 These injunctions are laid upon those 
 who shall, either recently or remotely, 
 have obeyed the command to come out 
 
 from her, — the same referred to in chap, 
 xvii. 16. The governments and people 
 of the nations, upon a correct under- 
 standing of the nature and tendencies of 
 the antichristian system, will feel it to be 
 their duty, in obedience to this command 
 of God, utterly to destroy it ; and in exe- 
 cuting this sentence upon the Antichrist, 
 undoubtedly much individual suffering 
 will occur. 
 
 Her oivn cup shall be used to measure 
 her own punishment. That is, she shall 
 suffer in like manner as she afflicted 
 the saints ; but in a much higher de- 
 gree. Double unto her a double punish- 
 ment. There is to be a constant refer- 
 ence to her previous treatment of the 
 worshippers of God. Her torment all 
 along appears to be retaliatory ; not that 
 personal or individual revenge can have 
 any thing to do with it : but it is God's 
 vengeance ; his righteous retribution 
 upon the most unholy and wicked of all 
 human associations. 
 
 Her degradation and torment are also 
 to bear a relation to her pride and lofti- 
 ness. This makes it proper to remark 
 again the difference between the harlot 
 and the mass of individuals whom she 
 led astray in their ignorance. For it is 
 well known that the great body of pri- 
 vate persons in Roman Catholic coun- 
 tries do not live in ease and comfort. 
 They are much more abject and wretched 
 than in Protestant lands. But this very 
 abjectness results from her tyranny ; 
 and will aggravate her own punish- 
 ment when these oppressed individuals 
 shall discover her iniquities and for- 
 sake her. 
 
 Her destruction is spoken of under the 
 idea of a besieged city ; in one day, at 
 once, her plagues shall come: death, and 
 mourning, and famine ; and after these 
 comes frequently fire, for the entire de- 
 struction of the city. This language 
 regards the future, and we waive the 
 question concerning literal fire. We 
 may notice it when we arrive at the cri- 
 sis of the calamity, in chap. xix. 
 
 From verses 9 to 19, inclusive, we 
 have a detailed account of the lamenta- 
 tions of kings, merchants, mariners, and 
 all descriptions of persons who have 
 
LECTURE XXX. 
 
 269 
 
 profited by her traffic. They send up 
 loud waitings over her misfortunes. We 
 doubt not these things have had par- 
 tially, and will have more fully, a literal 
 accomplishment ; just as the crime used 
 to represent the spiritual apostacy has 
 a literal fulfilment in the atrocities of 
 the nunneries and confessionals. Yet 
 we are concerned more immediately 
 with the principal things intended, the 
 sense of loss and consequent distress, 
 experienced by the deluded followers of 
 the spiritual abominations. This whole 
 context is designed to impress the one 
 lesson, that great consternation and an- 
 guish will pervade the whole interests of 
 the Antichrist, upon the demolition of 
 the system. 
 
 A single explanatory remark seems 
 to us necessary. It relates to the ninth 
 verse, where the kings of the earth who 
 have been in league with the scarlet- 
 coloured woman, are represented as 
 taking the lead in this lamentation. 
 Whereas, in verse 16 of the preceding 
 chapter, they are said to hate her and 
 burn her with fire. The observation is, 
 that these relate to different periods of 
 time ; not far distant, indeed, but still 
 somewhat removed. The latter passage 
 refers, as we think, to a period subse- 
 quent to the destruction of Megiddo, 
 where the beast and the false prophet 
 will be taken. After this defeat, the 
 kings, who till now will be her allies, 
 will fall off, and prove her most bitter 
 foes. This we shall see hereafter. 
 
 Verse 20 : " Rejoice over her, thou 
 heaven, and ye holy apostles and pro- 
 phets ; for God hath avenged you on 
 her." The remark is scarcely neces- 
 sary here, that the whole church of 
 God, and especially her officers, must 
 take the side of God her redeemer, and 
 rejoice at the overthrow of his and their 
 enemies. 
 
 The mighty angel taking up a stone 
 like a great millstone, (verse 21,) and' 
 casting it into the sea, is strongly ex- 
 pressive of the suddenness and perfec- 
 tion of her overthrow : " thus with vio- 
 lence shall that great city Babylon be 
 thrown down, and shall be found no 
 more at all." The apostle proceeds to 
 
 depict the irrcvocableness of this de- 
 struction. 
 
 Verses 22, 23, 24 : " And the voice 
 of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, 
 and trumpeters, shall be heard no more 
 at all in thee ; and no craftsman, of 
 whatsoever craft he be, shall be found 
 any more in thee ; and the sound of a 
 millstone shall -be heard no more at all 
 in thee ; and the light of a candle shall 
 shine no more at all in thee ; and the 
 voice of the bridegroom and of the bride 
 shall be heard no more at all in thee ; 
 for thy merchants were the great men 
 of the earth ; for by thy sorceries were 
 all nations deceived. And in her was 
 found the blood of prophets, and of 
 all that were slain upon the earth." 
 
 Chap. xix. 1-10 : " And after these 
 things I heard a great voice of much 
 people in heaven, saying, Alleluia ; salva- 
 tion, and glory, and honour, and power, 
 unto the Lord our God : for true and 
 righteous are his judgments ; for he 
 hath judged the great whore, which did 
 corrupt the earth with her fornication, 
 and hath avenged the blood of his ser- 
 vants at her hand. And again they 
 said Alleluia. And her smoke rose up 
 for ever and ever. And the four and 
 twenty elders and four beasts fell down 
 and worshipped God that sat on the 
 throne, saying, Amen ; Alleluia. And 
 a voice came out of the throne, saying, 
 Praise our God, all ye his servants, and 
 ye that fear him, both small and great. 
 And I heard as it were the voice of a 
 great multitude, and as the voice of 
 many waters, and as the voice of mighty 
 thunderings, saying, Alleluia : for the 
 Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let 
 us be glad and rejoice, and give honour 
 to him : for the marriage of the Lamb 
 is come, and his wife hath made herself 
 ready. And to her was granted that 
 she should be arrayed in fine linen, 
 clean and white : for the fine linen is 
 the righteousness of saints. And he 
 saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they 
 which are called unto the marriage- 
 supper of the Lamb. And he saith 
 unto me, These are the true sayings of 
 God. And I fell at his feet to worship 
 him. And he said unto me, See thou 
 
270 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 do it not ; I am thy fellow-servant, and 
 of thy brethren that have the testimony 
 of Jesus ; worship God ; for the testi- 
 mony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." 
 This context is evidently a prolepsis 
 in the vision, an anticipation of the re- 
 sult of the great battle. Some think it 
 has special reference to the conversion 
 of the Israelites ; and we see no reason- 
 able objection to the speciality. But be 
 that as it may, it is plain that the church, 
 strong in faith, and assured, because of 
 the infallibility and omnipotence of her 
 king, of a glorious triumph, raises the 
 victor shout and the triumphal song before 
 the hour of conflict. In this are to be 
 observed, 
 
 1. The quarter whence this voice 
 arises is the church. For shortly after 
 it becomes evident, from the mention of 
 the throne, the Zdia, and the elders, that 
 the scene first presented to the apostle's 
 mind, (chap, iv.) was still in his eye. 
 This thundering acclamation is from 
 that vast multitude who surround the 
 circle of the elders, the whole body of 
 the church. This shout of praise and 
 thanksgiving:, is in obedience to the 
 command given a short time before in 
 chap, xviii. 20, " Rejoice over her, thou 
 heaven." 
 
 2. The matter uttered by this great 
 voice : Alleluia, — praise ye the Lord, or 
 Jehovah. From this arises the presump- 
 tion, that the context at least includes 
 the calling of the Israelites. This is the 
 first and the last word of the five Psalms, 
 from cxlvi. to cl. inclusive, from this 
 called by the Jews, the Hillel, which 
 were sung usually at the passover, and 
 understood by them to refer to the com- 
 ing of Messiah. Its fourfold repetition 
 within a few verses, greatly strengthens 
 this opinion. It is explained here, as 
 an ascription of salvation, and glory, 
 and honour, and power, unto him. Not- 
 withstanding their own active agency in 
 the discomfiture of their foes, and their 
 own consequent deliverance, they feel 
 that the whole efficacy and power are 
 from the Lord their God : to him there- 
 fore is it ascribed. " Not unto us, O 
 Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be 
 the glory." 
 
 3. The reasons of this triumphant 
 shout. God's judgments, which they 
 see as it were accomplished, are accord- 
 ing to truth and righteousness : true, in- 
 asmuch as they are agreeable to his pro- 
 mise of avenging his own elect : righte- 
 ous, because the iniquities of the grand 
 apostate were amply meritorious of such 
 a reward ; and because these judgments 
 are highly calculated to promote righte- 
 ousness and truth in the earth. Whereas, 
 the long tolerance of such abominations 
 emboldens crime and pi'omotes unholi- 
 ness. 
 
 4. The perpetuity of her destruction : 
 her smoke ascends for ever and ever ; 
 for ages and ages. Babylon had re- 
 ceived many checks or temporary judg- 
 ments, from which she recovered : whilst 
 we write, she is recovering from a severe 
 blow ; but the overthrow here celebrated 
 prospectively, is final ; there is no de- 
 liverance, no respite, no partial restora- 
 tion. The evidences of her torment 
 ascend eternally. 
 
 5. In this jubilee of joy, the officers 
 of the church, of course, unite ; and that, 
 if possible, with a more profound adora- 
 tion. They prostrate themselves, and 
 worship God that sitteth on the throne, 
 saying, Amen, Alleluia. 
 
 Verses 5 and 6 : " And a voice came 
 out of the thi'one, saying, Praise our God, 
 all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, 
 both small and great! And I heard, as 
 it were, the voice of a great multitude, 
 and as the voice of many waters, and as 
 the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, 
 Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent 
 reigneth." By coming out of the throne 
 cannot be understood here, the voice of 
 him who sat upon the throne, for the 
 matter spoken seems to imply different 
 persons. God himself would not say, 
 Praise our God. Therefore, it must be 
 understood as proceeding from one or 
 more of the living creatures who stood 
 near the throne, and so would, in refe- 
 rence to those at a distance, appear to 
 come in reality from it. It is the call 
 from the ministry of the church, upon 
 the whole inhabitants of the ecclesiastical 
 heaven, both small and great ; that is, 
 private men and public officers, to unite 
 
LECTURE XXX. 
 
 271 
 
 in the high praises of their victorious 
 King. 
 
 Immediately, this call is obeyed, and 
 the loud acclaim of redeemed millions 
 bursts upon the ear like the roarings of 
 rushing waters ; like the voice of God 
 himself, when with mighty thunderings 
 he rends the sky. The sentiment of the 
 vojce, is, in part, the same, Alleluia, 
 praise ye the Lord. And they add the 
 reason, — " for the Lord God omnipotent 
 reigneth." This is the same scene, and 
 the same ascription, which we have in 
 ch. xi. 17, and anticipates, as it does 
 there, the Mediator's full assumption of 
 his ruling power. This is more evident 
 from the next verse, where this vast 
 multitude swell the one note of gladness 
 and exultation and ascription of honour 
 to the Saviour ; because of the conver- 
 sion of the Jews and Gentiles, and the 
 just opening splendours of the great 
 spiritual marriage-supper. 
 
 Under this figure is set forth the 
 union between the Redeemer and the 
 nations, Jew and Gentile, now recently 
 converted unto God ; and the joys 
 consequent thereon. This forms a bold 
 contrast with the unhallowed union 
 between the beast and the kings of the 
 earth and " the mother of abomina- 
 tions." Several points of contrast may 
 be adduced. 
 
 1. Spotless purity characterizes "the 
 bride, the Lamb's wife." " To her was 
 granted, that she should be arrayed in 
 fine linen, clean and white." But the 
 apostate church is an harlot, exhibiting 
 to the moral sensibilities the most dis- 
 gusting impurities. 
 
 2. The robes of the pure spiritual 
 bride are conferred upon her by the con- 
 descension of her Lord ; to her it was 
 granted that she should be arrayed. 
 The fine linen is the righteousness of 
 saints : not their personal righteousness 
 or obedience to law ; for then it were no 
 gratuity. Her own " righteousness is as 
 filthy rags," utterly unsuitable to appear 
 in, but those granted to her are spotless- 
 ly pure. Not so the dress and decora- 
 tions of Mystery Babylon, which are of 
 her own procuring. The wages of her 
 iniquities have " arrayed her in purple, 
 
 and scarlet colour, and gold, and precious 
 stones, and pearls." 
 
 3. The union itself and the tenden- 
 cies are a contrariety. The bride of the 
 heavenly husband is bound by the law 
 to her heavenly husband as long as he 
 liveth — forever; it lifts her up to dig- 
 nity and honour; it results in blessed- 
 ness unspeakable and full of glory. The 
 connexion of the other is illicit, tem- 
 porary, debasing; and infallibly leads 
 downward to eternal shame and ever- 
 lasting misery. 
 
 Hence, the instruction of the angel to 
 John, " Write, Blessed are they which 
 are called to the marriage-supper of the 
 Lamb." 
 
 This exhibition of the divine conde- 
 scension, accompanied by the angel's 
 affirmation that these doctrines are true 
 and from God, seem to have produced 
 upon the apostle's mind the impression 
 that the angel who talked with him was 
 none other than the angel Redeemer ; 
 and he fell down at his feet to worship 
 him. He was immediately corrected. 
 " See thou do it not : I am thy fellow- 
 servant, — only a created messenger, — 
 and of thy brethren that have the testi- 
 mony of Jesus : worship God ; for the 
 testimony of Jesus is the spirit of pro- 
 phecy." 
 
 This passage is not without difficulty. 
 If this is an angel, a superior, human, 
 created spirit, how can he call himself 
 a fellow-servant with John ? How should 
 he say he was one of the apostle's bre- 
 thren that have the testimony of Jesus ? 
 Besides, the parallel case (chap. xxii. 9) 
 increases the difficulty. " I am thy fel- 
 low-servant, and of thy brethren the 
 prophets." We are thus in a dilemma. 
 We must either maintain that this is the 
 spirit of some departed prophet, sent as 
 a messenger of Jesus, or. we must find 
 some explanation of this language dif- 
 ferent from what would at a first glance 
 seem to be its meaning. To the latter 
 we incline, because we have no example 
 of redeemed spirits being sent as visible 
 messengers of God. 
 
 Fellow-servant: although the word is 
 every where else in the New Testament 
 undoubtedly applied to men, as being 
 
272 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 employed in serving the same Master, 
 is yet not inconsistent in its meaning 
 with its application to different orders 
 of intelligence, engaged in serving the 
 same Master, although their services 
 may very essentially differ. 
 
 Again ; the Greek text most literally 
 rendered in both cases, diminishes the 
 difficulty materially. " I am a fellow- 
 servant of thee and of thy brethren 
 having the testimony of Jesus ;" and 
 chap. xxii. 9, " I am a fellow-servant of 
 thee and of thy brethren, the prophets, 
 and of those keeping the doctrines of 
 this book." The texts do not say that 
 the angel is one of the apostle's bre- 
 thren, as our translation may be, and 
 probably is often understood to say. It 
 simply affirms that he is a fellow-servant 
 of his and a fellow-servant of his bre- 
 thren. There is nothing in this incon- 
 sistent with the idea of his being a 
 superhuman spirit. : for he was at the 
 moment serving, along with John, the 
 very same divine Master. He was also 
 keeping the testimony of Jesus and the 
 doctrines of this book : as intimated in 
 ch. i. 1 ; he sent his angel and signified 
 this revelation to his servant John. This 
 angel thus communicates the message of 
 Christ to the churches ; and so the testi- 
 mony from Jesus is the spirit of pro- 
 phecy : it is by the Holy Spirit, speak- 
 ing in the angel and in the prophet, that 
 Jesus, the true witness, bears his testi- 
 mony. 
 
 Let us sum up the leading practical 
 truths of this exposition. 
 
 1. To point out the delusions of the 
 apostate church, and warn all men to 
 beware of the intoxicating bowl of her 
 delights, is no dereliction of ministerial 
 duty. On the contrary, the signs of the 
 times plainly indicate that the requisitions 
 of God's word to cry with a loud voice 
 that she is an apostate, are specially 
 binding upon the ministry of this genera- 
 tion. " The prophet that hath a dream, 
 let him tell the dream; and he that hath 
 my word, let him speak my word faith- 
 fully, what is the chaff to the wheat? 
 saith the Lord." 
 
 2. We learn the duty of separation 
 from a corrupt church. Yet is there 
 
 some practical difficulty to know the time 
 and manner. Is a man justifiable in 
 separation for trivial errors, or slight 
 inconvenience? Is not this the sin of 
 schism? The only safe rule, we pre- 
 sume, is to remain and not break com- 
 munion, so long as one can remain with 
 a free conscience ; that is, whilst he is 
 permitted to worship God and enjoy the 
 ordinances in purity. But when the body 
 of a church forsake the foundation of 
 gospel truth, and endeavour to force 
 upon the members things in themselves 
 sinful, then the voice of God is, Come 
 out. Obedience to this voice is virtual 
 excommunication of the corrupt mass, 
 who have separated from God. 
 
 The matter of transit from one sect to 
 another, is quite a different affair where 
 the sects are both recognised as true 
 churches of God. There is here no 
 coming out, no separation, no excommu- 
 nication. It is only a transfer of a 
 soldier from one department of the great 
 army to another. But even this ought 
 not to be attempted without the authority 
 of the commander. No private Christian 
 or minister is justifiable in making such 
 transfer of himself, but upon clear con- 
 viction, that in the new connexion or 
 location, he can better serve the cause of 
 truth and righteousness. 
 
 3. The kings of the earth, the go- 
 vernments of western Europe, feel the 
 doctrines of Romanism to be of great 
 importance to them. Hence legitimacy 
 fondles upon the church, meaning by the 
 church, the civil establishment. Of 
 course, all who do not remain in the 
 communion of the state religion, are 
 looked upon with a jealous eye ; they are 
 not allowed to be members of the 
 church : but are kindly left to the un- 
 covenanted mercies of God ; that is, they 
 are delivered over to Satan. Protestant 
 Catholics do not indeed, like the Roman- 
 ists, expressly say, that communion with 
 the state church and her aristocratic 
 hierarchy is indispensable to salvation ; 
 but they only do not say it : they mean it. 
 
 Hence too, the rapid increase of the 
 Pusey faction, and the high favour to 
 which they are ascending in the English 
 Church. Their doctrine is the true 
 
LECTURE XXXI. 
 
 273 
 
 legitimacy, and will undoubtedly force 
 the evangelical part of the Episcopal 
 Church into its own ranks, or into dis- 
 sent ; as they have done the great body 
 of evangelical piety in the Kirk of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 4. The testimony of Jesus, delivered 
 to the church under the supernatural 
 guidance of the Holy Ghost, is his grand 
 instrumentality for the destruction of 
 Antichrist ; and therefore it is, that 
 Bible Societies, and all other means of 
 disseminating the Word of God, with- 
 out note or human comment, are so 
 odious and hateful to the great " mother 
 of harlots and abominations of the 
 earth." This opposition is manifestly 
 sound policy in her. It requires al- 
 most no sense to perceive, that where 
 the scriptures circulate freely among 
 a people competent to read them, the 
 tyranny which lords it over the con- 
 science, and vilifies the right of private 
 judgment, cannot long suppress the truth 
 and retain the intellect of man in chains 
 of darkness. 
 
 5. We learn the purifying influence 
 of true religion. The constitution of 
 man places his mind under the govern- 
 ment of truth. His faith rests on truth, 
 as his mind conceives it to be ; and his 
 actions will accord thereto. Conse- 
 quently, if his conceptions are correct, 
 if he properly perceive the relations he 
 sustains to God's law, his gospel, his 
 people, the feelings and actions of the 
 man will be consistent therewith : he 
 will be holy. Error leads to crime, but 
 truth to virtue. Darkness yields un- 
 fruitful works ; light, the fruits of right- 
 eousness, peace, and purity. The saints 
 are arrayed in fine linen, clean and 
 white. 
 
 If these things are so, most naturally 
 may we expect happiness to follow. 
 God is truth, and action according to 
 truth is action according to God ; this 
 his righteousness approves, and he will 
 reward with boundless felicity. Holiness 
 and happiness are inseparable. The 
 scriptures, therefore, continually repre- 
 sent the state of holy beings as one of 
 high enjoyment: and every approxima- 
 tion to entire purity, has its correspon- 
 
 35 
 
 dent degree of blessedness. We may 
 hence infer : 
 
 6. The deep interest we have in pro- 
 gressive sanctification. Every virtuous 
 action, every successful resistance to 
 evil, every flowing forth of the heart in 
 holy adoration to God, brings with it its 
 own reward, and gives a new motive to 
 increased activity in the ways of well- 
 doing. Thus is practically refuted the 
 objection against the doctrine of gratui- 
 tous salvation, that it leads to licentious- 
 ness, makes men indifferent to personal 
 holiness and active piety. We see here, 
 how the effect must be just the reverse : 
 and experience and observation corre- 
 spond to theory. The truth is blazoned 
 all abroad, that those who depend solely 
 on the grace that is in Christ Jesus for 
 their salvation, are the most virtuous of 
 the human race. 
 
 7. We remark, the gratuitousness of 
 the church's salvation. She is arrayed 
 in robes of righteousness indeed ; but 
 they are the donation of her Saviour. 
 She is purified and made white, but 
 it is in the blood of the Lamb. The 
 entire Bible and the experience and tes- 
 timony of the whole redeemed church 
 show, that salvation is all of grace. Let 
 it then, my friends, be our concern to 
 apply in due time and manner, at hea- 
 ven's wardrobe, that we may be gra- 
 tuitously arrayed in fine linen, and thus 
 be fitted to sit down at the marriage- 
 supper of the Lamb. 
 
 LECTURE XXXI. 
 
 THE KING OF MANY CROWNS. 
 
 "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a 
 white horse; and he that sat upon him was 
 called Faithful and True ; and in righteousness 
 he doth judge and make war. His eyes were 
 as a flame of fire, and on his head were many 
 crowns; and he had a name written that no 
 man knew but he himself: and he was clothed 
 with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name 
 is called The Word of God. And the armies 
 which were in heaven followed him upon white 
 horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 
 
274 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, 
 that with it he should smite the nations ; and 
 he shall rule them with a rod of iron : and he 
 treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and 
 wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on 
 his vesture, and on his thigh a name written, 
 King of kings, and Lord of lords." — Rev. 
 xix. 11-16. 
 
 Among the preparations for the final 
 overthrow of the great antichristian con- 
 federacy, we have noted, the agency 
 employed and now at work, towards its 
 thorough organization : the unclean spi- 
 rits like frogs, have gone forth to the 
 various governments of the world. We 
 have attended to the apostle's introduc- 
 tion, or summary contents of the seventh 
 vial. 
 
 We have endeavoured to follow the 
 text in its very accurate, clear, and full 
 description of the object of divine wrath : 
 this description we have seen is so mi- 
 nute and graphic, that it cannot be mis- 
 taken ; nor can it be mystified and pre- 
 vented so as to conceal the intention 
 of the sacred Spirit in the premises. 
 Western Europe embraces the king- 
 doms, whose apostacy has united them 
 into one interest, as completely as before 
 the dismemberment of the empire; and 
 this interest is under the control and 
 direction of the impure woman clothed 
 in scarlet. 
 
 We have adverted to the counter- 
 agency which has been sent forth from 
 the throne of God to warn the nations 
 of the coming trials, and to proclaim the 
 approaching judgments which he is 
 about to inflict upon his foes. We have 
 glanced hastily at the distraction, vexa- 
 tion and disappointment of the various 
 worldly interests affected by the com- 
 plete destruction of the great city. And 
 we have hearkened to the shouts of tri- 
 umphant joy, as they burst from the lips 
 of the great multitude who follow the 
 Lamb, and sit down ultimately at the 
 marriage-supper. 
 
 Before he developes the crisis, the in- 
 spired penman has now only to present 
 us with a view of the head and leader of 
 the armies of light. This he does in the 
 context, to which attention is now called. 
 
 1. The scene of this vision is laid 
 within the church : he saw heaven opened. 
 
 This phrase is well adapted to suggest 
 the idea of the church standing forth 
 clearly distinct in her character from 
 the kingdoms of this world, fully reveal- 
 ing all her doctrines ; without bars or 
 gates to shut in or keep out any. So, 
 in chap, xxi., where the description is 
 much expanded, it is said, " The gates 
 of it shall not be shut at all by day ;" 
 and that " there shall be no night there;" 
 the gates are always open: perfect free- 
 dom and perfect security, as well as 
 safety, characterize the church in this 
 age. 
 
 2. The principal figure in this picture 
 is the white horse and his rider. This 
 whole scene we understand, as the other 
 visions in this book, in a figurative sense. 
 A literal horse and rider, in the literal 
 heaven, none will contend for. The ques- 
 tion is, whom does it represent ? Our 
 response has long since been given. 
 Under the first seal we saw him ride 
 forth conquering and to conquer. Ever 
 since has he kept the field, vindicating 
 the cause of his friends, and holding in 
 check his and their enemies. Let us 
 remark some points of contrast between 
 him and his antagonist, whom he will 
 overthrow. 
 
 His array is white. That of the other 
 beast and his rider is red, scarlet, or pur- 
 ple. The rider is faithful and true ; the 
 power opposed to him is faithless and 
 false. The one judges and makes war 
 with entire rectitude ; the other displays 
 unrighteousness in both. In the admi- 
 nistration of civil affairs within the west- 
 ern Roman dominion, tyranny and op- 
 pression have long prevailed, and even 
 all the light of the Protestant Reforma- 
 tion has not availed to correct these 
 abuses ; cruelty has long presided in her 
 warlike movements. To a very great 
 extent they have been waged for pur- 
 poses of injustice and iniquity. 
 
 His omniscience is represented by his 
 eyes being a flame of fire. They are 
 light itself, searching, penetrating, radi- 
 ant with glory. Our divine Redeemer 
 is thus described in chap. i. 14 and 18: 
 " These things sayeth the Son of God, 
 whose eyes are as a flame of fire." "All 
 things are open and naked unto the eyes 
 
LECTURE XXXI. 
 
 275 
 
 of him with whom we have to do" — who 
 is our Judge. 
 
 We may notice next, his universal 
 dominion ; his headship over the nations; 
 " on his head were many crowns." The 
 crown or diadem, we have fully seen 
 the symbolic meaning of. Jesus went 
 forth with his bow, and one crown ; 
 now, he wears many ; plainly intima- 
 ting his successful war upon the usurpa- 
 tions of the antichristian beast with his 
 ten crowns upon his heads. The very 
 design of this war is to subvert un- 
 righteous domination, to place the ruling 
 authority among the nations of Europe 
 in the proper hands, and make the world 
 to know, that Jesus, our Immanuel, is 
 universal governor. How appropriate 
 the symbol ! As the elders cast their 
 crowns before him, acknowledging their 
 subjection to him ; so all diadems of 
 glory must be placed on his head. His 
 is an everlasting dominion, and all king- 
 doms must serve and obey him. 
 
 Let us not be understood in a literal 
 sense, in regard to this context. Christ, 
 we have no doubt, will appear in our 
 world personally, a second time ; but 
 this advent is providentially. In and by 
 the agency of his church, he will en- 
 lighten the world in the knowledge of 
 gospel truth and moral law ; and by 
 their power in the hearts of men, he 
 will sway his sceptre over a subject 
 earth ; and thus his head wears many 
 crowns. 
 
 3. The inscrutability of his being and 
 perfections. In his humanity, he is not 
 indeed unsearchable : he may be known 
 and read of all men. But in his higher 
 nature, as the Son of God, who can 
 find him out unto perfection ? What is 
 his name, or his Son's name, if thou 
 canst tell? The name of a thing is that 
 by which it is known and distinguished 
 from every thing else. God's name is 
 the sum of his incomprehensible attri- 
 butes, — his infinity, eternity, unchange- 
 ableness, omnipotence, omniscience, om- 
 nipresence. These all existing in the 
 person of our Redeemer constitute his 
 name. 
 
 4. " He was clothed in a vesture 
 dipped in blood." No one, we think, 
 
 can read this context and compare it 
 with Is. lxiii. without imbibing the con- 
 viction, that they regard the same person 
 and in the same circumstances. " Who 
 is this that cometh from Edom, with 
 dyed garments from Bozrah ? this that 
 is glorious in his apparel, travelling in 
 the greatness of his strength ?" Some 
 mighty conqueror, riding in the car of 
 victorious war, and crushing all opposi- 
 tion beneath his feet. " Who is this ?" 
 His response is, " I that speak in right- 
 eousness, mighty to save ?" Terrible in- 
 deed to destroy ; but it is in righteous- 
 ness that I judge and make war : and 
 this same power, that in justice spreads 
 havoc among my malignant foes, is 
 equally potent for salvation. 
 
 But if thou art mighty to save, whence 
 these tokens of blood and devastation? 
 How do these consist with saving men ? 
 " Wherefore art thou red in thine appa- 
 rel, and thy garments like him that 
 treadeth in the winefat?" These are 
 not evidences of a saving work. 
 
 " I have trodden the wine-press alone ; 
 and of the people there was none with 
 me. This work of vengeance is not for 
 the hands of mine own beloved ones ; 
 but I will myself execute my purposes 
 upon those who are my people's foes, 
 for I will tread them in mine anger and 
 trample them in my fury; and their 
 blood shall be sprinkled upon my gar- 
 ments, and I will stain all my raiment. 
 They have had time and space for re- 
 pentance. Their day of grace was 
 lengthened out. But they would none 
 of my counsel, and despised all my re- 
 proof. They have filled up the measure 
 of their iniquity, and the vial of my 
 wrath is also full, for the day of ven- 
 geance is in my heart, that I may 
 avenge mine own elect who cry unto 
 me day and night ; and the year of my 
 redeemed is come ; the time of their 
 deliverance has arrived and the oppres- 
 sor's arm must be broken." 
 
 Most certainly the blood upon his ves- 
 ture is the blood of his foes, sprinkled 
 upon it, as the blood of the grapes upon 
 the clothing of him that treadeth in the 
 winefat. This induces many critics to 
 prefer here, the reading of some ancient 
 
276 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 manuscripts and translations, a vesture 
 sprinkled with blood, as Isaiah has it. 
 The word dip implies putting the gar- 
 ment into blood, which is obviously not 
 the case here. The secondary sense of 
 (3u<ktu>, however, to colour, tinge, or dye, 
 after becomes the leading sense ; so it 
 is here ; and so Isaiah says, " I will 
 stain all my raiment." 
 
 5. " His name is called the Word of 
 God." " In the beginning was the 
 Word, and the Word was with God, 
 and the Word was God." The Logos 
 is an epithet of Messiah, and is used to 
 signify his eternal wisdom and the com- 
 munication of his doctrine to his church. 
 
 In verse 14, his armies are presented 
 to our view, following him, arrayed in 
 fine linen, white and clean. Their fol- 
 lowing him teaches, that in war, as well 
 as in peace, we may not act indepen- 
 dently of his example. Let us see to 
 it that his footsteps are before us. 
 
 Again : their riding upon white horses 
 and wearing white raiment, indicates the 
 justice of their cause and the purity of 
 their characters. It is also worthy of 
 remark that they have no armour, offen- 
 sive or defensive. Does this teach that 
 they are not to fight, at least in the work 
 of blood ; that they follow him to partake 
 of his triumph only; that the work of 
 destruction will be accomplished by him- 
 self alone, or by some other agency than 
 that of his people 1 The prophet's lan- 
 guage, " I have trodden the wine-press 
 alone, and of the people there was none 
 with me," (Is. lxiii. 3,) seems decisive. 
 To this agrees the apostle's language, 
 verse 15 : " And out of his mouth goeth 
 a sharp sword, that with it he should 
 smite the nations ; and he shall rule 
 them with a rod of iron ; and he tread- 
 eth the wine-press of the fierceness and 
 wrath of Almighty God." 
 
 The source of this sword would seem 
 to indicate a spiritual weapon only, — 
 " the sword of the spirit, which is the 
 word of God." This proceeds from his 
 mouth. The doctrines Christ taught in 
 the days of his flesh, and still continues 
 to teach, are the sword by which he 
 brings down many strong men wounded 
 and slain. In this sense the language 
 
 accords with the general current of 
 Scripture. There can be no doubt that 
 the preaching of the word is the grand 
 instrument of converting the world, and 
 thus of destroying its enmity against 
 God and his Christ ; and that this is 
 the peculiar office of the gospel ministry. 
 But the ruling with a rod of iron and 
 the treading the wine-press of God's 
 wrath, — these cannot be fairly explained 
 without the admission of judgments and 
 miseries great and very terri ble. There 
 is such a heaping up of epithets here as 
 cannot be reconciled with any but the 
 idea of exceeding great calamities upon 
 the nations. 
 
 We may not, however, be perplexed 
 with these apparent inconsistencies. For 
 be it remembered, the mercies of God and 
 his judgments, which are tokens of his 
 wrath, are often very nearly connected, 
 both in time and place. His vengeance 
 toward the foes of Zion is but the burn- 
 ing of his love toward the dwellers in his 
 spiritual Jerusalem. 
 
 Verse 16 : " And he hath on his 
 vesture, and on his thigh, a name 
 written, King of kings, and Lord of 
 lords." This title has been usurped by 
 the Pope of Rome, and in substance, if 
 not in form, applied to him by his admi- 
 rers. They claim, "that the Pope, as 
 supreme king of all the world, may 
 impose taxes on all Christians, and 
 destroy toivns and castles for the preser- 
 vation of Christianity." " God hath 
 made the political government subject to 
 the dominion of the spiritual church." 
 (See Barrow on the Pope's supremacy, 
 pp. 15-18.) 
 
 Such is the blasphemous presumption 
 of Antichrist: and hence the necessity of 
 the King in Zion exerting his almighty 
 power, and vindicating his own right to 
 the headship of the nations. Therefore, 
 hath he his title of supreme and univer- 
 sal dominion written or enwoven, accord- 
 ing to the custom of the great in those 
 days, into the texture of that part of his 
 vesture which covers the thigh, that it 
 may be seen and read of all men. 
 
 Thus arrayed in grandeur and in 
 glory, the Redeemer is represented as 
 proceeding to the final conflict, which is 
 
LECTURE XXXI. 
 
 277 
 
 to terminate the power of the grand con- 
 federacy against his church; to break in 
 pieces the iron, the clay, the silver, and 
 the gold, and to dissipate for ever the 
 fragments of that gigantic power, which 
 for so many centuries has trampled upon 
 the church of God and the governments 
 of the earth. 
 
 Verses 17, 18 : "And I saw an angel 
 standing in the sun ; and he cried with a 
 loud voice, saying to all the fowls that 
 fly in the midst of heaven, Come and 
 gather yourselves together unto the 
 supper of the great God ; that ye may 
 eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of 
 captains, and the flesh of mighty men, 
 and the flesh of horses, and of them that 
 sit on them, and the flesh of all men, 
 both free and bond, both small and 
 great." 
 
 In chapter xii. we had occasion to 
 show that the sun is an emblem of moral 
 light and purity, as well as of governing 
 power. The woman clothed with the 
 sun, and the moon under her feet, is the 
 church arrayed in the light of gospel 
 truth. The beauty of the emblem is 
 quite obvious. 
 
 The sun by its attractive force governs 
 the physical system, and thus represents 
 the controlling power in any system of 
 government, but as the source of light, 
 it is well adapted to designate moral 
 force ; for it is by truth that moral 
 agents must be governed. 
 
 In the passage before us, the angel 
 standing in the sun is the Christian mi- 
 nistry, or some particular portion of them, 
 that probably represented by the eagle, a 
 bird that approaches nearest to the sun, 
 and is said to be able to look directly in 
 its face. He is enrobed in light — clearly 
 and fully instructed in the grand doc- 
 trines of Christianity, and especially in 
 reference to its moral bearings upon the 
 destinies of mankind ; but perhaps, more 
 especially, thoroughly furnished with a 
 knowledge of the prophetic writings, and 
 thus enlightened by the sun of righteous- 
 ness. His position is also well adapted to 
 express the idea of perfect publicity ; he 
 occupies no dark corner ; he is not, as 
 many of his fellow-servants have been, 
 thrust into some doleful cave or inacces- 
 
 sible forest of the mountain, but in the 
 very centre and focus of light and of 
 power, he lifts up his voice, and delivers 
 his Lord's message. 
 
 2. The matter of this message is an 
 invitation to all the fowls of heaven, to 
 come to the supper of the great God. 
 The detail must be kept in subserviency 
 to the main design. Therefore, the ne- 
 cessity and importance of ascertaining 
 this, before we proceed to particulars. 
 The whole context presents the alarming 
 and revolting idea of a vast aceldama of 
 slaughter ; where mighty princes, and 
 their countless troops and squadrons, 
 having mingled in hostile conflict, now 
 lie, in ghastly devastation, spread all 
 over the great plain, a prey to the beasts 
 of the field, and to the fowls of the air. 
 Invariably, such are the accompaniments 
 of bloody war. Here God represents 
 this incident of war, as a feast provided 
 by him for the birds of prey. In Ezek. 
 xxxix. 17, a similar invitation is given, 
 in reference to the war of Gog and Ma- 
 gog ; and is extended to beasts, as well 
 as birds. " Speak unto every feathered 
 fowl, and to every beast of the field, As- 
 semble yourselves, and come; gather 
 yourselves on every side to my sacrifice 
 that I do sacrifice for you, even a great 
 sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, 
 that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood." 
 
 Now, it can be perceived, how this 
 must be in a literal sense. But, are we 
 justified in holding to a literal meaning 
 only, or can we with any propriety un- 
 derstand one part of the context literally, 
 and others figuratively? If not, what is 
 the symbolical meaning? If the angel is 
 part, at least, of the Christian ministry, 
 what is heaven? what are the birds? 
 what the supper? 
 
 Heaven is the church; the fowls, there- 
 fore, within the church, are the inhabiters 
 of heaven, the members of the church. 
 This accords precisely with the interpre- 
 tation just given of the angel: he preaches 
 in the church, and its members hearken 
 to his voice. This language is then an 
 invitation to the Christian world to come 
 up to a feast provided by her King. But 
 what a feast ! " That ye may eat the 
 flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains !" 
 
278 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 Let us not be revolted. The natural 
 fowls do devour even human flesh with 
 great zest, and this animal enjoyment 
 bears an analogy to the enjoyment of 
 God's people, upon beholding the entire 
 overthrow of his and their enemies. This 
 is the supper to which they are invited. 
 We see no incongruity in this under- 
 standing of the figures. This angel 
 ministry, calls upon the members of the 
 church to rejoice and be glad at the utter 
 destruction of her inveterate and irre- 
 concilable foes, as the birds of prey do 
 upon the discovery of a fresh battle-field 
 flooded with blood. 
 
 Verse 19 : " And I saw the beast, and 
 the kings of the earth, and their armies, 
 gathered together to make war against 
 him that sat on the horse, and against 
 his army." The application here is plain. 
 This describes the effect of that mission 
 to which our attention was called, under 
 the emblem of unclean spirits, like frogs. 
 They went forth to the kings of the earth 
 to gather them together to battle ; and 
 now we see them assembled ; at their 
 head, the beast of the sea. This strength- 
 ens the presumption, that the kings of 
 the Roman earth, will, prior to the final 
 catastrophe, conspire to resuscitate the 
 imperial dignity ; as the centre of unity 
 to the antichristian interests. As already 
 hinted, the house of Austria will, proba- 
 bly, regain the purple, and stand forth 
 the head of the last Papal confederacy. 
 Her present efforts in disseminating Po- 
 pery in our country, falls in exactly with 
 this idea. 
 
 But, as before stated, whether there 
 shall be a formal resuscitation of the 
 imperial head or not, the power is there; 
 and there are the kingdoms who give 
 their influence to him. Their armies 
 are present. This we are not obliged 
 to take figuratively, for the obvious 
 reason, that its literal construction is 
 necessary to fill up the picture and ren- 
 der it consistent, after we have taken 
 the beast and the angel as symbolical. 
 
 The object of this congress of kings, 
 and their armies, is also explained, — "to 
 make war against him that sat on the 
 horse, and against his army." It is a war 
 under pretence of religion ; waged against 
 
 Messiah himself, for the destruction of his 
 government and people, and the main- 
 tenance of the system of oppression 
 under which the church of God and the 
 people of the nations have groaned for 
 ages. 
 
 We have now, in reference to that 
 great war of opinion to which the world 
 looks forward with deep anxiety, pointed 
 out the parties ; they are the same who 
 have been in the field of conflict since 
 the days of Paradise : the same whom 
 Daniel beheld under various aspects; the 
 two great and irreconcilable interests of 
 sin and of holiness : the same kingdom 
 of the giant image and of the little stone. 
 The real parties, to reiterate the senti- 
 ment once more, are Satan and Jesus 
 Christ. The latter comprises the much 
 smaller portion of people within the 
 same territory, who hold the fundamental 
 principle, that God gave the earth, and 
 all its contents, to man, and not to 
 kings. 
 
 Such are the antagonist and irrecon- 
 cilable interests, which must and will 
 come together in this war ; but which 
 cannot part, unless we choose to say 
 that nonentity parts from substantial 
 existence. The greater visible power 
 will be annihilated. The less will tri- 
 umph, because it is the stronger, through 
 the almighty energies of its divine 
 leader. 
 
 We have pointed out the object of this 
 war, — the final destruction just alluded 
 to, and which follows in verse 20, " And 
 the beast was taken, and with him the 
 false prophet that wrought miracles be- 
 fore him, with which he deceived them 
 that had received the mark of the beast 
 and them that worshipped his image. 
 These both were cast alive into a lake 
 of fire burning with brimstone." 
 
 It is worthy of notice that the kings 
 are not mentioned here, but the false 
 prophet is ; whereas in the preceding 
 verse, they are named among the bel- 
 ligerents, but he is not. This seems 
 plainly to imply their comprehension 
 within the beast ; but moreover, the 
 false prophet not being put forward as a 
 warrior, is accordant with the general 
 course of the Papal policy, as it was 
 
LECTURE XXXI. 
 
 279 
 
 that of the Caliphs, or successors of 
 Mohammed. Whilst warlike move- 
 ments were planned and directed to a 
 great extent by them, they themselves 
 kept in the background as to actual 
 conflict on the ensanguined plains. 
 
 The seizure of the beast and the false 
 prophet, and their plunge into the burn- 
 ing lake, are the chief things before us. 
 These are not abstractions merely ; but 
 organized, incarnate, living realities. 
 The men in whom these powers are for 
 the time vested, and by whom they are 
 exercised, are the impersonation, as it 
 were, of the powers, and consequently 
 the powers that oppress and persecute 
 are seized when the men are seized in 
 whom they reside. TJte beast teas taken. 
 The ordinary force of the word trans- 
 lated was taken, is that of seizure by 
 force, as a legal officer seizes ; or a sol- 
 dier seizes the enemy and retains him a 
 prisoner. The person taken comes under 
 the power of the captor. 
 
 In this case the first seized is the 
 beast, that is, the person or persons who 
 stand at the head and embody the civil 
 power. These are immediately to be 
 made prisoners. And along with them 
 the false prophet or spiritual despotism. 
 This is defined by a reference to its ope- 
 rations. 
 
 It wrought miracles before the beast ; 
 by means of which he deceived — not the 
 beast, it will be observed ; for he knew 
 the tricks of the Popish minion, — he 
 perceived the legerdemain, and under- 
 stood all the private machinery by which 
 these false miracles were sustained, — but 
 he deceived by them the people who had 
 the mark of the beast; that is, before 
 explained, who had been brought over to 
 his views, principles, practices, and cha- 
 racter, and that worshipped his image, 
 or bowed down to the Popedom, in su- 
 preme veneration, as being the emperor 
 spiritual. This system of deception is 
 now advancing, as already noticed, over 
 most parts of Europe ; although it is pro- 
 bable it will not progress in Catholic 
 countries as well as in Protestant ; for 
 the reason that novelty there cannot aid 
 it so much as it may among us. We 
 are, perhaps, better prepared and more 
 
 willing to be deceived by pompous show 
 even than the ignorant masses of Euro- 
 pean population. But the deception is 
 referred to here as past ; it was by means 
 of these arts that they adopted the mark 
 and worshipped the image. The civil 
 used the spiritual despotism as an instru- 
 ment of deception, and became depend- 
 ent thereon, and thus the dependence 
 having become mutual, the coalition is 
 cemented by the necessities of its parts. 
 This cemented combination is the Anti- 
 christ. Hence the union of these parties 
 in their seizure. The high probabilities 
 are, that the Pope himself will be pre- 
 sent with the grand army of the anti- 
 christian confederation; at least, repre- 
 sentatively he will be, with a large body 
 of his most active agents ; who, together 
 with the civil leaders, will be arrested by 
 the Christian forces on the field of death. 
 
 But the literal is only a partial and 
 very subordinate fulfilment of the pro- 
 phecy. These arrested parties are to be 
 thrown alive into the burning lake. The 
 individuals, being incorrigible offenders, 
 must experience the vengeance of eter- 
 nal fire ; a fire, of which the burning 
 lake, beneath whose scorching billows 
 sank Sodom and Gomorrah, and the 
 other cities of the plain, to rise no more, 
 is but a feeble emblem. The fiery bil- 
 lows of Jehovah's unquenchable wrath 
 will close in upon them for ever. 
 
 Nor can we, without violence to the 
 text, indulge that spurious charity which 
 dethrones justice by supposing that this 
 is all figure, but shadows forth nothing. 
 They are cast alive into the lake. Surely 
 this is designed to convey the idea of 
 real, conscious misery. It is not their 
 dead bodies, but themselves alive, that 
 are thus precipitated amid fire and brim- 
 stone. And as the head so with the 
 body. The system must perish with the 
 men who embody it. Nothing can more 
 forcibly represent their utter, hopeless, 
 and painful destruction, than the lan- 
 guage before us. 
 
 After the seizure and utter destruction 
 of the leaders in this way, there shall 
 be a remnant, we are told, who shall be 
 slain. Verse 21 : " And the remnant 
 were slain with the sword of him that 
 
280 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 sat upon the horse, which sword pro- 
 ceeded out of his mouth : and all the 
 fowls were filled with their flesh." 
 
 The remnant, or the remaining ones, 
 evidently implies a large abstraction from 
 the number of the whole armies. Then- 
 leaders are cut off", and with them vast 
 multitudes besides ; still there are some 
 left ; and of these the apostle speaks in 
 this verse. We infer, that the grand 
 conflict is over ; the hosts of rebellion 
 are vanquished and chiefly slain. This 
 corresponds precisely with the statement 
 already examined (chap. xi. 13), where 
 the same phrase occurs, and in reference 
 to the same transaction : " the remnant 
 were affrighted, and gave glory to the 
 God of heaven :" " the remnant were 
 slain with the sword." Can these sig- 
 nify the same thing 1 Let us examine. 
 
 The sword that slew them proceeded 
 out of the mouth of the Captain of the 
 Lord's hosts. But we are told that out 
 of the same mouth proceedeth blessing 
 and cursing ; and this is true qualifiedly 
 of Messiah. It is the same mouth that 
 pronounces the opposite sentences of 
 judgment, Depart ye cursed, and, Come 
 ye blessed. If then we understand by 
 the sword, the word of God, it is true in 
 relation to that portion that were slain 
 or cast alive into the fiery lake, in the 
 former sense, — the sword of judgment 
 has fallen upon them. But as to the 
 others, the remnant, it is true in the 
 latter sense ; they became affrighted ; 
 they are convicted of sin, and converted, 
 and give glory to God. They are slain 
 with the sword, in the sense of Hosea : 
 " Therefore have I hewed them by the 
 prophets ; I have slain them by the 
 words of my mouth." (Chap. vi. 5.) 
 If this construction be maintained, this 
 slaying is a dispensation of mercy. The 
 sword of the Spirit enters the hearts of 
 this remnant; they are convicted and 
 turned to the Lord : their enmity is 
 slain. If the other meaning be carried 
 out, it is the word of God's judgments 
 that arms the sword of his vengeance for 
 their total destruction. To the former 
 we incline, mainly because the passage 
 already examined (chap. xi. 13) undoubt- 
 edly implies, that a remnant of the hostile 
 
 army will be converted : and other places, 
 as we shall hereafter see, encourage the be- 
 lief that a very great dispensation of mercy 
 will immediately follow this fearful judg- 
 ment. Bishop Faber thinks it probable 
 that the Jews will be in this hostile army, 
 in an unconverted state, and will be sud- 
 denly and miraculously turned unto God. 
 The fowls were filled with their flesh : 
 the triumphant Christian army will be 
 enriched by the spoils of the vanquished. 
 All the treasures plundered by their foes 
 from Egypt, Jerusalem and other places, 
 will be found in the camp and on the 
 field of combat. But there is a higher 
 and more important meaning. The con- 
 verted remnant will more fully enrich the 
 victors with a feast of spiritual rejoicing. 
 With what heartfelt exultation will the 
 Redeemer's friends throw open their 
 arms to receive the nations that will 
 thus be born in a day ! 
 
 Such is the apostle's brief account of 
 the crisis, in this great and extended 
 conflict, between the two kingdoms of 
 Christ and of Antichrist. Henceforth 
 the kingdoms of the earth will be new- 
 modelled, on principles essentially dif- 
 ferent from the former, and compatible 
 with the welfare of the church and the 
 glory of her Head. 
 
 We have several collateral passages 
 of Scripture to examine, which bear 
 upon, and throw light on this same 
 transaction ; but must defer them for 
 the present, and close with a few practi- 
 cal remarks. 
 
 1. War may be conducted on princi- 
 ples of righteousness. But it must be, 
 like the wars of Prince Messiah, for the 
 vindication of right, and not for conquest 
 beyond the rights of the crown. Wars 
 of mere ambition are of course iniquitous, 
 and must sooner or later bring down the 
 wrath of the King of kings. 
 
 2. The grand defect in the bond of 
 our national union is the absence of the 
 recognition of God as the Governor of 
 this world. We have omitted — may it 
 not be said refused? — to own him whose 
 head wears many crowns, as having 
 any right of dominion over us. The 
 constitution of these United States con- 
 tains no express recognition of the being 
 
LECTURE XXXII. 
 
 281 
 
 of a God : much less an acknowledg- 
 ment, that The Word of God, sways 
 the sceptre of universal dominion. This 
 is our grand national sin of omission. 
 This gives the infidel occasion to glory, 
 and has no small influence in fostering 
 infidelity in affairs of state and among 
 political men. That the nation will be 
 blessed with peace and prosperity con- 
 tinuously, until this defect be remedied, 
 no Christian philosopher expects. For 
 this national insult, the Governor of the 
 universe will lift again and again his 
 rod of iron over our heads, until we be 
 affrighted and give this glory to his 
 name. 
 
 3. Deception is unwise as the means 
 of increasing a party. The false pro- 
 phet deceived mankind into his toils. 
 " The lying tongue is but for a mo- 
 ment." Such converts and the system 
 which is thus built up, must come to 
 nought in due time. In politics it is 
 unsafe ; in religion it is despicable. If 
 misrepresentation and manoeuvring be 
 practised to gain converts, heaven's 
 blessings may not be expected to follow 
 it. " My children are men of truth, 
 that will not lie." Pretended miracles, 
 strange and marvellous conversions, and 
 all such scenes to deceive the simple, 
 savour of the man of sin, and belong, 
 whether formally or not, to the son of 
 perdition : and to perdition with him 
 shall they go, in the proper time. 
 
 4. That charity which is too tender 
 to inflict punishment due upon crime, 
 belongs not to the King of kings. It is 
 spurious and sickly. Sufficient for the 
 servant that he be as his Master. If 
 the tenderness of our sympathies equal 
 his, it will be well with us. But let us 
 take heed how we throw out our hand 
 to arrest the downward strokes of the 
 rod of his judgments. When he treads 
 the wine-press of the fierceness and 
 wrath of Almighty God, let us beware 
 how we censure him, or how, prospec- 
 tively, we revolt at the expressed pur- 
 poses of his vengeance. 
 
 5. We learn from this context, that 
 tyranny never lets go its grasp ; its 
 sceptre is held with the gripe of death. 
 Many good people seem to think, that 
 
 36 
 
 the kings of the earth are gradually re- 
 laxing as light pervades the mass of the 
 people ; and they are thus prepared for 
 self-government : the powers that be, 
 are yielding quietly to them. Thus, it 
 is supposed the element of freedom will 
 gradually advance, until Europe will 
 stand disenthralled, and that without a 
 struggle. Vain delusion ! Does not 
 every one see that all concessions from 
 kings to the people have been granted, 
 simply because they could not longer 
 be withholden ? Has not the trenching 
 of the popular element upon power been 
 the work of centuries? And yet how 
 much remains to be wrested in this 
 way ! Prophecy tells us, that the scep- 
 tres of oppressive rule must be broken 
 in the hands of those that hold them, or 
 snatched from them ; or rather, that 
 sceptre and hand together will be thrown 
 into the burning lake. 
 
 LECTURE XXXII. 
 
 THE LAST DAY THE TIME OF THE END 
 
 THE WAR OF THE KINGS OF THE 
 
 NORTH AND SOUTH, AND OF GOG. 
 
 Dan. xi. 40-45 ; xii. 1 . 
 
 Into questions of chronology this 
 course of lectures has often led us. 
 There are, however, two or three points 
 yet unsettled ; or at least, certain ques- 
 tions relative to two or three points have 
 not been fully examined. 
 
 When treating of the rise of the Papal 
 and Mohammedan apostacies, we placed 
 the date at A. D. 606, without suffi- 
 ciently discussing the whole subject ; 
 especially in reference to the former. 
 It may be proper now to redeem our 
 promise in this behalf. (See Lee. ix.) 
 On this question depends the date of the 
 great events yet future. 
 
 It was intimated to Daniel that the 
 book would be sealed and not intelligible 
 " even to the time of the end ;" but that 
 then there would be new light shed upon 
 it, — " knowledge shall be increased." 
 
282 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 Admitting that God's design is to con- 
 ceal precise dates, we may nevertheless, 
 without any presumption, study and 
 compare scriptures that speak of times 
 and seasons, with a view to a general 
 idea, and the probable period of " the 
 great earthquake." Preparatory to this, 
 we now take up the phrases, " last 
 days," or " latter days," and " time of 
 the end," as having an important bear- 
 ing upon these important dates. We 
 agree in the main here, with Bishop 
 Faber ; but shall endeavour to bring the 
 argument for our opinion to a more 
 thorough close. He has well remarked, 
 as the truth is, that last days, and latter 
 days, are phrases by which the same 
 Hebrew words are rendered into English. 
 But he has not said all that truth re- 
 quired here. 
 
 The Hebrew word for last, (flHriN*) 
 
 means uttermost part, or most distant 
 part of a thing, as was remarked when 
 speaking of the rise of the Mohammedan 
 power. Dan. viii. 23, — " in the latter 
 time of their kingdom ;" latter time here, 
 is the very word before us, and should 
 be, last part, referring, as the same word 
 does in Ps. cxxxix. 9, — " tittermost parts 
 of the sea," to place, and not to time : it 
 marks the locality of the goat's little 
 horn, the iast or most distant part. 
 
 But the chief defect is the omission of 
 the article, which the Hebrew text has 
 prefixed to days; the days, or these days. 
 Such is the proper force of the article : 
 it is not only definite, but it is also de- 
 monstrative ; it specifically points out 
 the subject. Thus, Psalm ii. 7, " Thou 
 art my son, this day have I begotten 
 thee." So in the phrase before us ; in 
 the last part of these days, signifies a 
 certain specific period, or number of 
 days, whose close or end is referred to. 
 
 With these explanations, let us examine 
 cases ; if not all, at least a sufficient 
 number to satisfy our judgments as to 
 the force of the phrase. 
 
 Gen. xlix. 1. Jacob calls together his 
 6ons, that he may tell them what shall 
 befall them " in the last days." But his 
 prophetic delineations of Judah's and 
 Joseph's character run on to the times 
 
 of Israel's restoration, and the glorious 
 reign of Messiah. 
 
 Num. xxiv. 13 : "I will advertise thee 
 what this people shall do to thy people 
 in the last days." The unhappy prophet 
 then depicts, in glowing colours, the fu- 
 ture glory of Messiah's kingdom. " I 
 shall see him, but not now ; I shall be- 
 hold him, but not nigh : there shall come 
 a Star out of Jacob, — out of Jacob shall 
 come he that shall have dominion." It 
 is a prophecy of the kingdom of the 
 great mountain ; it refers to the end of 
 the days of Israel's depression, at and 
 after which Zion shall arise and shine. 
 
 Deut. iv. 30 : " When thou art in tri- 
 bulation, and all these things are come 
 upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou 
 turn to the Lord thy God, he will not 
 forsake thee, neither destroy thee." And 
 xxxi. 29, — "and evil will befall you in 
 the latter days." In the former of these, 
 it is unequivocal ; it has reference to the 
 evils for which Israel was cut off, and to 
 the close of the period of his depression. 
 The latter refers to the same evils which 
 caused the dispersion ; but it is elliptical, 
 and consequently, not so specific, — ap- 
 pearing to apply the phrase to the earlier 
 times of Israel's sins, rather than to the 
 close of those times. This passage must 
 be explained in connexion with the for- 
 mer, which, on the same subject, is more 
 full, and thus bears relation to the con- 
 cluding period of Israel's evil-doing and 
 suffering. 
 
 Isaiah ii. 2: "And it shall come to 
 pass in the last days, that the mountain 
 of the Lord's house shall be established 
 in the top of the mountains, and shall be 
 exalted above the hills ; and all nations 
 shall flow unto it." This is perfectly 
 clear ; it expressly speaks of the restora- 
 tion of Israel : of course the last part of 
 these days alludes to the days or period 
 of Israel's dispersion and disgrace. 
 
 Jer. xxiii. 20 : " The anger of the 
 Lord shall not return^ until he have exe- 
 cuted, and till he have performed the 
 thought of his heart : in the latter days 
 ye shall consider it perfectly." Equally 
 plain is this passage. We have here the 
 same dispensation of Jehovah's wrath 
 upon the seed of Jacob for their iniqui- 
 
LECTURE XXXII. 
 
 283 
 
 ties, and the same repentance on their 
 part, which is immediately followed by 
 their restoration. 
 
 Jer. xxx. 24 : " In the latter days ye 
 shall consider it :" and in the next verse 
 it is added : " At the same time," — the 
 last part of the days of distress,— " will 
 I be the God of all the families of Israel, 
 and they shall be my people." 
 
 In chap, xlviii. 47, the prophet speaks 
 of the restoration of Moab from capti- 
 vity, and in xlix. 39, of the restoration 
 of Elam : both at the latter part of the 
 days ; and Daniel mentions Moab as one 
 that shall escape the power of the anti- 
 christian tyranny in the end of the days. 
 These may, therefore, be fairly placed 
 as examples of the same specific period. 
 
 Ezekiel, (xxxviii. 16,) speaking of the 
 war of Gog, says, " Thou shalt come up 
 against my people of Israel; — it shall be 
 in the latter days." According to the 
 more generally received interpretation, 
 this would place the last part of these 
 days beyond the millennium : certainly 
 then not at a time anterior to the resto- 
 ration of the whole house of Israel. 
 
 Hosea iii. 5: "Afterwards shall the 
 children of Israel return, and seek the 
 Lord their God, and David their king; 
 and shall fear the Lord and his goodness 
 in the latter days." 
 
 Micah iv. 1 : " But in the last days it 
 shall come to pass that the mountain of 
 the house of the Lord shall be esta- 
 blished in the top of the mountains, and 
 it shall be exalted above the hills, and 
 people shall flow unto it." These are 
 almost the precise words of Isaiah, and 
 leave, like those of Hosea, no room for 
 hesitancy. 
 
 Thus all the passages we are able to 
 refer to, combine to settle the question of 
 relative date ; the latter days, or the last 
 days, mark the last part of the season 
 of sorrow and depression to Israel, and 
 of course also confirm, or synchronize 
 with, the period of his restoration. 
 
 We proceed to the other phrase, 
 (VpnV — eth ketz> ) *f our sea rch has 
 not been unsuccessful, (as it readily 
 may be, having no Hebrew Concord- 
 ance at hand,) it occurs only in Daniel: 
 
 our labour, therefore, will be light. The 
 first case in order is in chap. viii. 17 : 
 " Understand, O son of man, for at the 
 time of the end shall be the vision," — 
 the vision will be accomplished. This 
 is embraced in Gabriel's explanation. 
 Daniel had seen the ram and the he 
 goat, and was exceedingly anxious to 
 understand the meaning of the symboli- 
 cal things and the symbolical actions ; 
 and especially as to the polluting tri- 
 umphs of the little horn. He had asked 
 as to its duration, and was answered, 
 that the pollutions should be brought to 
 an end in two thousand three hundred, 
 or, as a reading mentioned by Jerome, 
 two hundred days. But Gabriel is di- 
 rected farther to explain ; and he pro- 
 ceeds to say, that the indignation, that 
 is, of God, against his own people for 
 their sin which caused these calamities, 
 had an end and bound fixed to them ; 
 verse 19 : the last part of the indigna- 
 tion ; for there is a determined period of 
 the end. So in Hab. ii. 3 : " For the 
 vision is yet for an appointed time;" it 
 hath a specific period for its accomplish- 
 ment. The word here used is the same 
 as in Dan. viii. 19, but different from the 
 phrase before us, and; thus expository of 
 it. There is a season^as the word trans- 
 lated, time of the end, means, — a season 
 within which the vision, as to the events 
 which Daniel felt to be peculiarly inte- 
 resting, shall take place. 
 
 The other term, end, signifies simply, 
 cutting off, or cutting down, as in Hab. 
 ii. 10 : " Thou hast consulted shame to 
 thy house in cutting off many people." 
 Thus the force of the phrase is evident, 
 — the season of the cutting off. Gabriel 
 here refers Daniel to the period or por- 
 tion of time allotted by God to the work 
 of his vengeance, in cutting off the 
 wicked nations, as the season also of 
 the purifying of the sanctuary. 
 
 In chap. xi. 35, we have the next 
 instance of this phrase, — " to try them, 
 and to purge, and to make white, even 
 to the time of the end," — the season of 
 cutting off. 
 
 In chap. xii. 4 and 9, we find the only 
 remaining cases : " Shut up the words, 
 and seal the book, even to the time of 
 
284 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 the end :" and upon the prophet's ex- 
 pressing great anxiety to understand 
 farther the vision, he is told again, " Go 
 thy way, Daniel ; for the words are 
 closed up and sealed to the time of the 
 end." When that season approaches, 
 " many shall run to and fro, and know- 
 ledge shall be increased ;" the book of 
 providence will be expository of this 
 prophecy; "the Lion of the tribe of 
 Judah" will open the seals, and reveal 
 the secrets they cover ; " none of the 
 wicked shall understand, but the wise 
 shall understand." 
 
 It is plain then that not a point or 
 juncture of time, — not a particular mo- 
 ment in duration, is marked by this 
 season of cutting off", but a period or por- 
 tion comprehending a number of differ- 
 ent and complex operations and events. 
 To our mind there cannot be raised a 
 just objection against the application 
 made of this phrase to the period which 
 Gabriel mentions as commencing imme- 
 diately upon the close of the " time, 
 times, and an half," (xii. 7.) The ter- 
 mination or last part of these twelve 
 hundred and sixty days or years, marks 
 the beginning of the end, or cutting oft'. 
 The period itself comprehends seventy- 
 five years, divided into two sections, one 
 of thirty prophetic days, or years, and 
 one of forty-five, (chap. xii. 11, 12.) 
 
 We may here notice another view of 
 the times of Israel's depression, — the 
 days. It is held by the Rev. Edward 
 Bickersteth, and the Literal School, that 
 the expression, seven times, which occurs 
 in Lev. xxvi. 18, 21, 24, 28, is to be 
 taken for seven prophetic times or years ; 
 that is, seven times three hundred and 
 sixty, or two thousand five hundred and 
 twenty years, as marking the duration 
 from the captivity of Jacob, which took 
 place six hundred and seventy-seven 
 years before Christ, when Manasseh, 
 King of Judah, was carried captive to 
 Babylon, (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.) From 
 this they discover that the restoration of 
 Judah will occur in 1843 : because the 
 two sums make just two thousand five 
 hundred and twenty. 
 
 Other coincidences are also pointed 
 out. Tiglath Pilezer, it is said, was 
 
 called in by Ahaz, King of Judah, to 
 assist him against Israel : he slew Resen, 
 King of Israel, and carried off* a part of 
 the people. This occurred B. C. 740 : 
 and just two thousand, five hundred and 
 twenty years after, the French were 
 called in by the Americans, and im- 
 parted revolutionary principles back to 
 France. In B. C. 731, Shalmanezer 
 invaded Palestine, and brought Samaria 
 under tribute ; two thousand, five hun- 
 dred and twenty years after, in 1789, 
 the French republican movement com- 
 menced. In B. C. 727, the same king 
 carried Israel into captivity ; and two 
 thousand five hundred and twenty years 
 after, in 1793, the French Revolution 
 burst upon the world. Some other co- 
 incidences of the kind are presented, 
 and hence the inference is strengthened, 
 that these several dates are so many 
 beginnings and terminations of the days 
 of indignation or depression of Israel. 
 Particularly 727, is relied upon ; be- 
 cause of a double coincidence. Half 
 the period of two thousand, five hundred 
 and twenty, is equal to the prophetic 
 days of Daniel and of John : and de- 
 ducting B. C. 727, from twelve hundred 
 and sixty, brings us to A. D. 533, the 
 year in which Justinian issued an edict, 
 declaring the Bishop of Rome, Universal 
 Bishop, — the era on which this school 
 fix for the rise of the Antichrist ; then 
 adding the twelve hundred and sixty to 
 this, we are brought to 1793, the era of 
 the French Revolution, which many 
 English commentators fix upon, as at 
 least the inchoate end of the days, 
 restoration of Israel, and death of An- 
 tichrist. 
 
 Against all this, there is one insupera- 
 ble objection. At the end of the days, 
 the witnesses are to be slain, lie dead 
 three and a half days, and then revive. 
 But no event answering to these took 
 place immediately after 1793. This 
 scheme, therefore, though ingenious and 
 curious, is fanciful. There is also a 
 little trimming necessary in order to 
 make the dates suit. 
 
 Let us proceed now with the exposi- 
 tion. Verse 40, "And at the time of 
 the end shall the king of the south push 
 
LECTURE XXXII. 
 
 285 
 
 at him ; and the king of the north shall 
 come against him like a whirlwind, with 
 chariots, and with horsemen, and with 
 many ships ; and he shall enter into the 
 countries, and shall overflow, and pass 
 over." 
 
 The date first calls for our attention, 
 " at the time of the end," in, or during 
 the season of cutting off. It is conse- 
 quent upon the last part of the days of 
 depression; after the slaying and revival 
 of the witnesses. For it will be remem- 
 bered they are to be slain when they 
 shall have finished their testimony ; and 
 they were to testify twelve hundred and 
 sixty days clothed in sackcloth. The 
 war of these two kings must therefore 
 be posterior to the revival of the wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 It will be less difficult for us to deter- 
 mine what power the king of the south 
 is, by determining first the character 
 and locality of his adversary. The for- 
 mer shall wage war with the wilful king 
 mentioned in the preceding verse, — the 
 Antichrist : then the latter will assail 
 him with great spirit, and at first, with 
 triumphant success. Who is this north- 
 ern power 1 
 
 Our position here is, and one previ- 
 ously maintained, that there will be a 
 grand alliance of all the interests of 
 despotism, not simply in the Roman 
 earth, but in all Europe, and especially 
 including Russia. This alliance is "the 
 king of the north," and its leader is the 
 Gog of Ezekiel (xxxviii.) We invite 
 attention to this last position ; which 
 claims to prove the identity of Gog and 
 the king of the north. 
 
 This is evinced by the dates of the 
 wars : these are nearly the same ; — at 
 the time of the end. So in Ezekiel, 
 verse 16, as already quoted and exa- 
 mined, it is, " in the latter days," in the 
 last part of the days. But this corre- 
 sponds with the beginning of the season 
 of cutting off. The war of Gog must 
 therefore be expected shortly after the 
 termination of these days, and so, con- 
 sequently, within the time of the end. 
 
 The quarter of the world whence this 
 invasion comes leads to the same con- 
 clusion. His name and the direction of 
 
 his march show him to be the king of 
 the north : and so the names of Ezekiel's 
 nations and his declaration, are decisive; 
 verse 6, — " Gomer and all his bands ; 
 the house of Togarmah of the north 
 quarters, and all his bands ;" — verse 
 15, — " thou shalt come from thy place 
 out of the north parts." 
 
 The restoration of Israel, and their oc- 
 cupancy of the country of their fathers, 
 is expressly affirmed in the prophecy of 
 Gog, and it is against the restored na- 
 tion that the war is waged. Verse 8, — 
 " In the latter years thou (Gog) shalt 
 come into the land that is brought back 
 from the sword, and is gathered out of 
 many people, against the mountains of 
 Israel, which have been always waste; 
 but it is brought forth out of the nations, 
 and they shall dwell safely, all of them:" 
 — safely, or securely, apprehensive of no 
 danger. Israel shall be dwelling safely, 
 all of them without walls. The whole 
 prophecy renders this exceedingly plain. 
 
 The same is true as to the war be- 
 tween the kings of the south and the 
 north, though not so explicitly men- 
 tioned by Daniel here. " And he shall 
 plant the tabernacles of his palace be- 
 tween the seas, in the glorious holy 
 mountain." From these expressions it 
 is a fair inference, that the land is at the 
 time occupied by the people who con- 
 stitute it a glorious and holy land : at 
 present, as trodden down by the abomi- 
 nation of desolation, it is not glorious 
 and holy. Besides, we have seen that 
 the end of the days is the termination of 
 the captivity. Thus, this war of Gog 
 is a war against restored Israel, and is 
 evidently occasioned by dissatisfaction 
 with the restoration. Thus an object with 
 both is to afflict and crush restored Israel. 
 
 Another object is common to both. 
 It is " to take a spoil, — to take a prey, 
 to carry away silver and gold, to take 
 away cattle and goods, to take a great 
 spoil." (Ez. xxxviii. 13.) 
 
 So the king of the north " shall have 
 power over the treasures of gold and of 
 silver, and over all the precious things 
 of Egypt." (Dan. xi. 43.) This unity 
 of object is not without force towards 
 identifying the expeditions. 
 
286 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 We may notice their course farther as 
 to remote pointsof their invasion. "Persia 
 and Lybia with them." (Ez. xxxviii. 5.) 
 So Daniel also says, — " the Ethiopians 
 and Ly bians shall be at his steps," (xi. 43.) 
 
 Their armies are similar. Gog has 
 " horses and horsemen, . . . many peo- 
 people with thee, all of them riding upon 
 horses." The king of the north has 
 " chariots, and horsemen, and many 
 ships." Ezekiel does not indeed men- 
 tion chariots nor ships. But no army 
 is without the former ; and he speaks of 
 their destination to the isles (xxxix. 6), 
 which implies the possession of the lat- 
 ter. Their forces are also both very 
 numerous, and consist of various na- 
 tions, — a confederacy. 
 
 The similarity of phrase and figure, 
 as to the manner of their invasion, is also 
 worthy of notice. Gog shall " ascend 
 and come like a storm, thou shalt be 
 like a cloud to cover the land." So 
 " the king of the north shall come against 
 him like a whirlwind." 
 
 Gog perishes in the holy land. " Thou 
 shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel," 
 (xxxix. 4.) So " the king of the north 
 plants the tabernacles of his pavilion in 
 the glorious holy mountain," and there 
 Michael the Prince stands up and smites 
 him to destruction. 
 
 Thus the king of the north and Gog 
 enter upon their expedition at the same 
 time ; they proceed from the same quar- 
 ter of the world ; their armies are im- 
 mensely numerous, and are composed 
 of the same kind of forces ; they are 
 collected from the same nations; they 
 come with the same storm-like sweep ; 
 they pursue the same track ; they termi- 
 nate their most southern elongation at 
 the same Arabian and Lybian deserts ; 
 they fall upon the same restored Israel ; 
 they both seek the same gold, and silver, 
 and spoils ; and they both perish in 
 " the glorious, holy land." Can any 
 one doubt their identity? Gog, we then 
 conclude, is " king of the north," — the 
 head and leader of the antichristian com- 
 bination. 
 
 Other prophecies there are which refer 
 to this same war : two or three of the 
 principal we must also identify. 
 
 The war of the valley of Jehoshaphat 
 (Joel iii.) is the same with that of Gog 
 and the kings of the north and south. 
 
 The word Jehoshaphat is the proper 
 name of the son of Asa,. King of Judah 
 (2 Chron. xvii. 1, 2), one of the most 
 distinguished of David's line. It is the 
 name, for some time allotted, though 
 not in scripture, to the valley which 
 divides Jerusalem from Mount Olivet. 
 It is presented as the name of a valley 
 in the prophecy of Joel now before us. 
 Some have supposed that Joel alludes to 
 the valley near Tekah, about twenty 
 miles south of Jerusalem, where King 
 Jehoshaphat gained, without fighting, a 
 very celebrated victory over the united 
 forces of Ammon, Moab and Seir. (See 
 2 Chron. xx.) The allusion we think is 
 undoubted ; but not so as to use the 
 term Jehoshaphat as the proper name of 
 the place of the victory : there is no evi- 
 dence of its even having been so called. 
 The allusion is simply to the complete- 
 ness and the character of the victory. 
 It was a signal judgment of God, and 
 the place was called, from the thanks 
 and benedictions of the Israelites, the 
 valley of Berachah, or blessing. 
 
 But farther : the word Jehoshaphat, in 
 English, signifies the judgment of the 
 Lord. There is here a beautiful para- 
 nomasia, whereby an historical allusion, 
 most forcibly illustrative of the com- 
 pleteness and nature of the coming vic- 
 tory, is made by the word, as a proper 
 name ; and also a graphic description of 
 the coming war in the word understood 
 as an appellative, — the judgment of the 
 Lord. So the place is called " the val- 
 ley of the Lord's judgment." " Let the 
 heathen be wakened, and come up to the 
 valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of the 
 Lord's judgment, for there will I sit, 
 (Shaphat,) to judge all the heathen round 
 about." (Joel. iii. 12.) Thus the prophet 
 explains the figure and allusion. We 
 cannot avoid perceiving here the simila- 
 rity of circumstance to the scarlet-co- 
 loured woman and beast of the Apoca- 
 lypse. " Come hither, I will show thee 
 ike judgment of the great whore." (xvii. 
 2.) This judgment is the seventh or 
 vintage vial, in the season of cutting off; 
 
LECTURE XXXII. 
 
 287 
 
 and in describing the leader of the op- 
 posing forces, it is said, " in righteous- 
 ness doth He judge and make war." 
 The destruction of mystic Babylon is 
 the judgment of the Lord, and the place 
 where it will occur may well be called 
 the valley of decision, the valley of Je- 
 hoshaphat. 
 
 The time of this judgment identifies it 
 with Gog's war with the king of the south. 
 It is at the time of Israel's restoration ; 
 verse 1 : " when I shall bring again the 
 captivity of Judah and Jerusalem." And 
 to prevent the mistake of referring it to 
 the restoration from Babylon at the end 
 of seventy years, we are told that it re- 
 lates to a captivity among the western 
 nations. Verse 6 : " The children also 
 of Judah and the children of Jer sa- 
 lem, have ye sold unto the Grecians, that 
 ye might remove them far from their 
 border." But now this restoration syn- 
 chronized with the wars in question, and 
 thus the war in the valley of the Lord's 
 judgment must be identical with that of 
 Gog. 
 
 The generality of this war evinces 
 the same. "I will gather all nations." 
 " Assemble yourselves, and come, all 
 ye heathen." " Multitudes, multitudes 
 in the valley of decision." In such man- 
 ner the nations are congregated in God's 
 army. 
 
 Their destruction is entire ; God will 
 triumph ; and his enemies be completely 
 destroyed in both alike. 
 
 We may add here, while the text is 
 before us, a proof of the identity of all 
 these wars with the war of the seventh 
 or vintage vial of the Apocalypse. "Put 
 ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe ; 
 come, get ye down, for the press is full, 
 the fats overflow; for the wickedness is 
 great." (Joel iii. 13.) The vine-gather- 
 ing is evidently referred to ; and the 
 word translated harvest, is applicable to 
 the collecting of the grapes, as well as 
 grain. So in Isaiah xvi. 9 : " I will be- 
 wail with the weeping of Jazer the vine 
 of Sibmah, — for thy harvest is fallen." 
 In Joel also (i. 11) this word is applied 
 to the vintage : " Be ye ashamed, O ye 
 husbandmen ; howl, O ye vine-dressers, 
 for the wheat and for the barley ; be- 
 
 cause the harvest of the field is perished." 
 Hence is borrowed the Apocalyptic sym- 
 bols of the harvest and the vintage, the 
 two great periods of cutting off; and 
 thus we identify the vintage of Joel and 
 of John. 
 
 The same war is mentioned by Ze- 
 phaniah, (chap. iii. 5, 6, 19,) in con- 
 nexion with the restoration of Israel, 
 " from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia," 
 the overflowings of Cush, the most dis- 
 tant ravages of the Saracenic locusts, or 
 Cushites. Haggai also names it, and 
 specifies that " the horses and their 
 riders shall come down, every one by 
 the sword of his brother." 
 
 Zechariah is the only other which we 
 may delay to notice particularly. His 
 language is probably designed not to be 
 fully understood until after the event. 
 Still its obscurity does not justify us in 
 neglecting it altogether. We may partly 
 understand, and may profit much by it. 
 He will have us to know that Israel will 
 be restored to his own land. " The 
 Lord also shall save the tents of Judah." 
 
 This restored people shall be assaulted 
 by a general confederacy of the nations ; 
 the city shall be taken, and the people 
 carried away. Chap. xiv. 2 : " For I 
 will gather all nations against Jerusalem 
 to battle ; and the city shall be taken, 
 and the houses rifled, and the women 
 ravished ; and half of the city shall go 
 forth into captivity, and the residue of 
 the people shall not be cut off from the 
 city." Now this accords with the war 
 of Gog and the King of the North. It 
 is waged against restored Israel, and 
 they succeed at first, and carry off 
 much spoil, as, in verse first, is here 
 mentioned. 
 
 Then the Lord's indignation will turn 
 from his people to their foes. Verse 3 : 
 " Then shall the Lord go forth and fight 
 against those nations, as when he fought 
 in the day of battle." This is the 
 Michael of Daniel, and the King of 
 kings of John. This is he who says, 
 " My fury shall come up in my face ; 
 for in my jealousy and in the fire of my 
 wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day 
 there shall be 51 great shaking in the 
 land of Israel ; and I will call for a 
 
288 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 sword against him throughout all my 
 mountains, saith the Lord God : every 
 man's sword shall be against his bro- 
 ther. And I will plead against him with 
 pestilence and with blood ; and I will 
 rain upon him, and upon his bands, 
 and upon the many people that are with 
 him, an overflowing rain, and great 
 hailstones, fire, and brimstone," (Ezek. 
 xxxviii. 18.) This language is adopted 
 in the Apocalypse, when the overthrow 
 of the confederacy is described under 
 the vintage vial, as we have fully seen. 
 
 Having thus identified the war of 
 Gog, of the King of the North, of the 
 valley of Jehosaphat, of Zechariah's con- 
 gregation of nations, and of John's field of 
 Armageddon, we are entitled to use any 
 points in the prophetic history of any one 
 of them, in illustrating and explaining 
 any other. With this advantage, let us 
 proceed with the context. " He shall 
 enter also into the glorious land, and 
 many countries shall be overthrown ; 
 but these shall escape out of his hand, 
 even Edom, and Moab, and the chief 
 of the children of Amnion. He shall 
 stretch forth his hand also upon the 
 countries; and the land of Egypt shall 
 not escape. But he shall have power 
 over the treasures of gold and silver, 
 and over all the precious things of 
 Ejjypt ; and the Libyans and the Ethio- 
 pians shall be at his steps. But tidings 
 out of the east and out of the north shall 
 trouble him ; and therefore he shall go 
 forth with great fury to destroy, and 
 utterly to make away many. And he 
 shall plant the tabernacles of his palace 
 between the seas in the glorious holy 
 mountain ; yet he shall come to his end, 
 and none shall help him." 
 
 The first position is, that the king of 
 the north, or Gog, is the Roman Ca- 
 tholic antichristian power. It is unde- 
 niably a confederation, including most 
 of the European nations. Russia is 
 mentioned by name ; " Set thy face 
 against Gog, the chief of Rosh, Me- 
 shech, and Tubal." The word trans- 
 lated, prince, as many critics, with the 
 Septuagint, have shown, ought to be 
 taken as a proper name. Rosh, Mesach, 
 and Tubal were modified in progress of 
 
 ages, into Russia, or Russians ; Moschi, 
 or Muscovites ; and Tobeli, by whom 
 probably Tobolsk in Asiatic Russia was 
 settled. Gomer was the progenitor of 
 the Cimbric tribes ; and Togarmah occu- 
 pied a station, first in northern Asia 
 Minor, and thence migrated into the 
 north quarters. But this co-league will 
 embrace, at least in its progress, Cush 
 and Lybia. Perhaps France by that 
 time may have brought all northern 
 Africa into a state of colonial dependence, 
 and so may furnish from her Lybian 
 subjects, a conscription for the grand 
 army. 
 
 5. The king of the south is, of course, 
 the Protestant confederation. It will be 
 recollected, that in expounding the little 
 booh, we stated the probability and the 
 reasons at full length, that England is 
 the street or broad way where the wit- 
 nesses being slain, will lie unburied for 
 three and a half years ; that they will 
 then, upon the near approach of friends 
 and allies from all parts of the Protestant 
 world, and particularly from America, 
 come forth from their hiding-places, re- 
 organize, and take the field ; that the 
 antichristian confederacy, having been 
 foiled in their assault upon the United 
 States, will retreat, and about the time 
 of their arrival in Europe, will meet the 
 reorganized Protestant bands in Eng- 
 land ; that they will find the freedom 
 party so strong as to be, with these 
 allies on the rear of the retreating fleet, 
 too overwhelming for them ; that they 
 will abandon Britain, which will fall off 
 from Rome, and be for ever Protestant : 
 this is the tenth part of the Roman city 
 which is to fall in the earthquake. Now 
 we suppose (and we beg it to be borne 
 in mind, that we do not pretend to pro- 
 phesy, but from known fulfilled pro- 
 phecy, we conjecture what the meaning 
 of the language is, which is yet unful- 
 filled) we suppose this Protestant com- 
 bination, now consisting of the principal 
 people who speak the English language, 
 together with a large number spread 
 over all the other nations, but too few 
 to sustain a distinct church organization 
 in any, during these times, will revolu- 
 tionize England and all her colonies, 
 
LECTURE XXXII. 
 
 289 
 
 and reorganize her churches on Bible 
 principles, and her political institutions 
 on the representative doctrine; that they 
 will strengthen all their outposts by all 
 possible means; they will take a very 
 active part in the restoration of the 
 Jews, which, as Bishop Horsely on Isa. 
 xviii. shows, will be effected by a great 
 maritime power; they will also have an 
 army in the east for the purpose of their 
 defence ; this army is the king of the 
 south. He will fall back upon Egypt, 
 on the approach of the vast northern 
 tornado, and probably will have a fleet 
 in the Red Sea, to which they will be- 
 take themselves, and thus elude the king 
 of the north. By this time, the English 
 will probably have colonies on the Eu- 
 phrates, and a line of steamers plying 
 its waters ; the king of the south may 
 ascend this stream, or return by the 
 Elonitic arm of the Red Sea, with forces 
 greatly strengthened by detachments 
 from the valley of the Ganges, and 
 plan a junction near Jerusalem with re- 
 inforcements by sea from Europe and 
 America. 
 
 Tidings of this movement from the east 
 and from the north will reach the King 
 of the North, whilst in Lybia. He will 
 face about with great promptness, and 
 full of fury will rush forward to prevent 
 the Protestant forces from forming a 
 junction ; but, too late for this, will pitch 
 the general's tent and his camp in the 
 great plain of Esdrseelon : " between the 
 seas in the glorious holy mountain ; and 
 there he shall come to his end and none 
 shall help him." It is almost superfluous 
 to dwell upon this language. " Between 
 the seas," and " at the mountain of the 
 splendour or glory of holiness," surely 
 points out that portion of the Holy Land 
 which lies between the Mediterranean 
 and Dead Seas, or the Sea of Tiberias : 
 and as the great plain extends from this 
 last named sea, to the first, there appears 
 no room for hesitancy between it and the 
 Dead Sea. The locality of this last en- 
 campment is, undoubtedly, the same so 
 often referred to in the scriptures, and in 
 these Lectures. It must have occurred 
 to every reader, that little is said of the 
 King of the South in any of these pro- 
 
 37 
 
 phecies. Daniel barely mentions him 
 in verse 40, and passes directly on with- 
 out farther notice. Ezekiel leaves him 
 out of view altogether, except incidental- 
 ly, where he says, " I will call for a 
 sword against him," and in speaking of 
 his agency in burying Gog. He does 
 not distinctly affirm that he shall fight 
 at all. Zechariah infprms us that, " Ju- 
 dah also shall fight at Jerusalem," but 
 throughout, the Lord is represented as a 
 man of war ; Michael, the King of kings 
 fights for the destruction of his foes. 
 Therefore, 
 
 3. The subversion of the antichristian 
 confederation will be chiefly miraculous. 
 We say chiefly. The King of the South 
 and the restored of Israel, will consti- 
 tute a band of fighting men ; but small 
 relatively, and characterized by a firm 
 dependence upon the power of their Al- 
 mighty Redeemer. Like David with his 
 smooth stone, confronting the giant with 
 all his warlike accoutrements, offensive 
 and defensive, will the little stone oppose 
 itself to the colossal image. By blood, 
 indeed, Gog will be cut off; but chiefly 
 by the sword of his allies, and by pesti- 
 lence and famine. The design of this is, 
 
 4. That Israel and Judah, God's wit- 
 nesses and their friends, as well as their 
 foes, may see and know that this is Jeho- 
 shaphat, the Lord's judgment; "and I will 
 be known in the eyes of many nations, 
 and they shall know that I am the Lord." 
 " And I will set my glory among the 
 heathen, and all the heathen shall see 
 my judgment that I have executed." 
 
 Chap. xii. 1 : " And at that time shall 
 Michael stand up, the great prince which 
 standeth for the children of thy people ; 
 and there shall be a time of trouble, such 
 as never was since there was a nation, 
 even to that same time : and at that time 
 thy people shall be delivered, every one 
 that shall be found written in the book." 
 
 We have sufficiently illustrated the 
 first clause of this verse. The second 
 is parallel with the destruction of Gog, 
 where the prophet enters much more 
 into detail ; and gives us truly an ac- 
 count of most terrible havoc. Seven 
 years shall the wood of the weapons 
 and carriages of this annihilated army, 
 
290 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 suffice the neighbouring inhabitants for 
 fuel ; and seven months shall the house 
 of Israel be in burying the dead car- 
 casses. So extensive shall be the slaugh- 
 ter, that dead bodies shall, for that period, 
 be found scattered up and down the val- 
 ley and the adjoining hills. The same 
 idea of the extent of ruin is set forth by 
 Ezekiel, and Isaiah, and John, under the 
 figure of a great supper, where flesh and 
 blood of man and beast shall be served 
 up to all the fowls of heaven, and all the 
 wild beasts of the earth. 
 
 The last clause of this verse may 
 refer only to the deliverance of those 
 who were quite recently captured by 
 Gog's army, as mentioned by Zech. xiv. 
 2. " But at the very same time, thy peo- 
 ple shall be slipped away, every one 
 found written in the book." The lan- 
 guage seems to imply a removal, quietly 
 effected, without hurry and confusion : 
 and that it shall be complete as to the 
 whole body of them, — every one that is 
 registered or enrolled. To this opinion 
 we incline, rather than to suppose this 
 marks the juncture of their restoration 
 to their own land. Because this restora- 
 tion has already been effected. Still, 
 both may be true. The return of Israel 
 will assuredly have been in part effected, 
 before this period, and the captured por- 
 tion of the restored Israel, may thus be 
 covered by the hand of Jehovah in this 
 day of battle, and so secured from dan- 
 ger ; and afterwards a more full and 
 perfect restoration of all Israel be effect- 
 ed. But this point, we may not at pre- 
 sent press. Nor can we now discuss the 
 question raised by the next verse, rela- 
 tive to a pre-millennial resurrection. De- 
 ferring this to a subsequent Lecture, we 
 conclude with a brief remark. 
 
 This last battle will be characterized 
 by great ferocity. It will be the closing 
 and agonizing effort of despair : the dying 
 struggle of the giant, maddened and con- 
 vulsed by the presentiment, that his time 
 is short and his destruction certain. He 
 will, therefore, fight with the ferocity 
 which aims to die in the act of self- 
 revenge. 
 
 How safe the church of God is, and 
 how secure she will feel as this season 
 
 of cutting off opens up and progresses ! 
 There will be such intimations of the Sa- 
 viour's providential presence and power, 
 as will call into exercise a high degree 
 of faith ; and like King Jehoshaphat, she 
 will stand still and see the salvation of 
 the Lord. Particularly will this be the 
 case with the restored Israel. Fresh in 
 the joys of recent espousals, -will Judah 
 be animated with a burning zeal and 
 love to the Lord, and Israel will do va- 
 liantly. 
 
 LECTURE XXXIII. 
 
 THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST, AND 
 ITS OBJECT. 
 
 " This same Jesus, which is taken up from 
 you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 
 as ye have seen him go into heaven." — Acts, 
 i. 11. 
 
 " And I saw a great white throne, and him 
 that sat on it, from whose face the earth and 
 the heaven fled away ; and there was found no 
 place for them. And I saw the dead, small 
 and great, stand before God; and the books 
 were opened ; and another book was opened, 
 which is the book of life : and the dead were 
 judged out of those things which were written 
 in the books, according to their works. And 
 the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and 
 death and hell delivered up the dead which 
 were in them : and they were judged every 
 man according to their works. And death and 
 hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is 
 the second death. And whosoever was not 
 found written in the book of life was cast into 
 the lake of fire." — Rev. xx. 11-15. 
 
 Nothing is too absurd for human 
 belief. Every person who reads the 
 gospel history at once perceives, that 
 there was a child born at Bethlehem, 
 called Jesus Christ ; that he lived in 
 humble condition ; that about his thir- 
 tieth year, he entered upon the functions 
 of a public preacher ; that in a little 
 more than three years after this he was 
 arrested, arraigned, and put to death by 
 crucifixion ; that he arose from-the dead 
 and manifested himself to many of his 
 followers, and finally was separated 
 from them, and ascended, amid clouds, 
 beyond their anxious gaze. These facts 
 are set forth so plainly, that, to deny 
 
LECTURE XXXIII. 
 
 291 
 
 them, would seem a betrayment of gross 
 unbelief in the gospel history, or of 
 mental aberration ; and yet there have 
 lived many people, professing profound 
 respect for and confidence in the Scrip- 
 tures, who nevertheless maintained that 
 this was mere appearance and not at all 
 reality, — that Jesus had no true and 
 real body, but only a body of air, a 
 phantom ; that all his actions were 
 merely apparent, not real,-— his birth, 
 life, death, resurrection, and ascension 
 were only ideal conceptions. 
 
 It were surely a vain employment to 
 enter into serious debate with the de- 
 ranged intellects of such men. But is 
 it less idle seriously to debate the ques- 
 tion, whether Christ will come a second 
 time, — whether he will descend with a 
 shout, with the voice of the archangel 
 and the trump of God? Should a 
 Christian allow himself to- discuss the 
 point, whether his Master's words, oft 
 repeated and varied, so as to express 
 the idea in different forms, are true or 
 not? We shall not do it. We shall 
 rather assume, as indubitably true, that 
 the Redeemer's second personal advent 
 will be literal and certain as his first. 
 We shall not account it a debatable 
 question at all, whether this same Jesus 
 shall so come in truth and reality as he 
 went ; whether he shall descend indeed ; 
 whether " the Lord Jesus shall be re- 
 vealed from heaven, with his mighty 
 angels ; in flaming fire, when he shall 
 come to be glorified in his saints, and to 
 be admired in all them that believe ;" 
 whether " the Son of man shall sit upon 
 the throne of his glory, and before him 
 shall be gathered all nations." These 
 questions, rather this question, is not 
 debatable ; excepl with him who denies 
 the inspiration of the Bible. But with 
 those who admit the Scriptures to be 
 the word of God, we must consider this 
 question as settled. 
 
 Nevertheless, whilst we believe the 
 human nature of our Lord to have a 
 local abode, and, that it will move from 
 one portion of space to another, when 
 he shall descend as he ascended, yet are 
 there many subordinate questions, in 
 reference to the second advent, to which 
 
 our attention must be for a short time 
 given. 
 
 The first of these is the distinction 
 between the providential and personal 
 advents. By the former are meant 
 simply those exercises of the divine 
 wisdom and power which affect the 
 church and its members, the world and 
 the dwellers therein. The Saviour is 
 said to come in the movements of his 
 providence. Thus he came to the 
 churches of Ephesus and Pergamos, 
 " Repent— or else I will come unto thee, 
 quickly, and will remove thy candle, 
 stick out of his place — and will fight 
 against thee with the sword of my 
 mouth." (Rev. ii. 5-16.) His visits of 
 mercy, too, are spoken of as a coming. 
 " In all places where I record my name, 
 I will come unto thee and I will bless 
 thee." (Ex. xx. 24.) Parallel to this is 
 the promise, " For where two or three 
 are gathered together in my name, there 
 am I in the midst of them." (Matt, xviii. 
 20.) In this sense Jesus comes when- 
 ever he lifts the rod of his anger and 
 visits individuals or communities. He 
 comes in sickness or in death ; in showers 
 of blessings upon the land, and of hea- 
 venly rain and refreshing dew upon his 
 spiritual heritage ; he comes to dispense 
 his blessings in peace and prosperity on 
 the nations ; he comes to hold the cup 
 of his indignation to the blasphemer's 
 lip, and to smite the earth with a curse. 
 
 Now to distinguish these providential 
 advents from his personal coming is no 
 difficult matter theoretically, and when 
 the mind conceives of the two ; but cases 
 there are, where the scriptural mode of 
 expression leaves the subject dubious. 
 There is positive difficulty in determin- 
 ing whether the personal or providential ' 
 advent is intended. But these difficulties 
 do not in the least degree shake the 
 mind's confidence in the truth and reality 
 of either kind of advent ; we believe in 
 both, whilst we are uncertain to which 
 of them this or that particular context 
 may refer. A similar difficulty precisely 
 occurs relative to the first and the second 
 personal advents in several of the Old 
 Testament prophecies. Two objects are 
 seen at a distance, — two lights, for ex- 
 
292 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ample, in the darkness of night, and 
 nearly in the same right line ; one may 
 be twice as far off as the other, and yet 
 the beholder be at a loss to say which is 
 the nearer, or whether they are both 
 alike distant. What naked eye can mea- 
 sure the depth of space between itself 
 and two stars, respectively to itself and 
 to each other, and determine which of 
 the two is the farther off? So were 
 scriptures relating to the first and the 
 second appearance of the Star of Beth- 
 lehem. The bright rays of pi'omise, 
 prophetic of each, mingled as they pass- 
 ed through the vast tracts of time, and 
 fell with confused but delightful radiance 
 upon the gazing eye of the Hebrew's 
 faith, and lit up his soul with the bright 
 visions of hope that the Sun of Right- 
 eousness would ere long arise with heal- 
 ing in his wings. To him the personal 
 advent of Messiah was the all-absorbing 
 conception ; but to him, the distinction, 
 and the distance of his first and his 
 second coining, were of little practical 
 consequence. For a thousand years his 
 departed spirit has basked in the efful- 
 gence of that sunshine, a few rays only 
 of which reached him in the dim dis- 
 tance of this dark world ; and how ut- 
 terly insignificant and trivial must seem 
 the errors and confusion under which 
 his mind laboured whilst here ! So un- 
 important, in truth, therefore, do we con- 
 sider the controversies which still re- 
 main, as to whether certain passages of 
 scripture refer to the first or to the 
 second personal advent, or to providen- 
 tial advents only. These controversies 
 caonot reasonably produce a doubt as to 
 the truth of his providential coming, or 
 of his second personal coming. These 
 remain firm and indubitable, whatever 
 opinions men may form as to the appli- 
 cation of particular texts to either. Of 
 course it falls not within our prescribed 
 limits to touch these portions of scripture 
 in detail. It may be proper only to re- 
 mark, that each must be determined by 
 the general drift of the context, accord- 
 ing to the rules of construction ; and 
 common sense will greatly aid the in- 
 terpreter. 
 
 It has been already assumed, but is 
 
 worthy of formal statement, that there 
 are but two personal advents spoken of 
 in the scriptures. The first was when 
 the Saviour came burdened with the 
 guilt of his people, bearing our sins, the 
 sins of the world which he redeemed. 
 The other will be at the end of the world. 
 " Unto them that look for him shall he 
 appear the second time without sin unto 
 salvation." (Heb. ix. 28.) The same he 
 promised very explicitly in his sacra- 
 mental address at the last passover, and 
 first supper : " And if I go and prepare 
 a place for you, Iioill come again, and 
 receive you unto myself." (John xiv. 3.) 
 
 There is nothing express and direct in 
 scripture to show that he will not come 
 a third or fourth time personally. It is 
 not any where affirmed that he will not 
 so come. But the passages which speak 
 of his coming, when fairly and candidly 
 examined, do result in the conviction, 
 that there is but one personal advent 
 after his ascension from Mount Olivet ; 
 and though the phrase second advent, 
 or second coming, is not strictly scrip- 
 tural, yet all expositors acquiesce in the 
 thing expressed by it — the Redeemer 
 will come. 
 
 The manner of his coming regards 
 four things. His actual motion from 
 above, or a real descent, which has been 
 already before us. The personal appear- 
 ance and accompaniments. " Behold 
 he cometh with clouds." (Rev. i. 7.) 
 A cloud received him, and in the 
 clouds of heaven will the Saviour de- 
 scend. He cometh " in flaming fire," 
 — and it is a " fiery indignation" which 
 he will come to pour out upon the 
 wicked. " But the heavens and the 
 earth, which are now, by the same word, 
 are kept in store, reserved unto fire," — 
 " the heavens being on fire, shall be dis- 
 solved, and the elements shall melt with 
 fervent heat." (2 Pet. iii. 7, 12.) There 
 will be such a display of flaming gran- 
 deur as we cannot now comprehend ; 
 " who shall abide the day of his coming, 
 for he shall be as a refiner's fire ?" This 
 glory mortal eye cannot behold. He 
 will come without sin. He had borne 
 this away for ever at his first coming ; 
 now heisentirely free from all itseffects, — 
 
LECTURE XXXIII. 
 
 293 
 
 poverty, shame, sorrow, death, all are 
 gone. There will be a great sound of a 
 trumpet and the voice of the archangel ; 
 that is, Jesus himself will utter his awful 
 voice, and command the sleeping dead 
 into his glorious presence. 
 
 "When, lo! a mighty trump, one half concealed 
 In clouds, one half to mortal eye revealed, 
 Shall pour a dreadful note : the piercing call 
 Shall rattle in the centre of the ball ; 
 Th' extended circuit of creation shake, 
 The living die with fear, the dead awake." 
 
 His escort will be innumerable and 
 inconceivably glorious ; " and all his 
 angels with him." " Behold he cometh 
 with ten thousand of his saints." A vast 
 concourse of unredeemed angels and re- 
 deemed souls of men, will triumph in 
 his train. 
 
 The purpose of the second advent is, 
 to " take vengeance on them that know 
 not God, — to be glorified in his saints, 
 and to be admired in all them that be- 
 lieve." (2 Thess. i. 8-10.) " He shall 
 separate them one from another, as a 
 shepherd divideth his sheep from the 
 goats : and he shall set the sheep on his 
 right hand, but the goats on the left ; 
 then shall the King say to them on his 
 right hand, Come, ye blessed of my 
 father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
 you from the foundation of the world, 
 then shall he say unto them on the left 
 hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
 and his angels." (Matt, xxv.) 
 
 It will be difficult to induce the plain 
 reader to believe, that between the two 
 branches of this sentence, — " come, ye 
 blessed," and " depart, ye cursed," there 
 will actually elapse the space of a thou- 
 sand years. This is affirmed by the 
 Millenarians. They contend that the 
 dead in Christ are raised at the begin- 
 ning of the millennium, and the wicked 
 at the end of it. It appears to us, that 
 there is no good reason for such violence 
 as must, on that hypothesis, be practised 
 on this context. We have here an ex- 
 ceedingly simple process described ; and 
 we feel confident that no one ever ob- 
 tained the Millenarian notion from and 
 out of the context. On the contrary, it 
 describes one scene, one process of judg- 
 
 ment, and conducted at one time. The 
 results are summed up in a single brief 
 and very plain sentence. " And these 
 shall go away into everlasting punish- 
 ment ; but the righteous into life eter- 
 nal." Would any rational man ever 
 dream, that between the former and the 
 latter clauses of this verse, one thousand 
 years must intervene? 
 
 The same remark may be made as to 
 verses 31, 32, — " He shall sit upon the 
 throne of his glory : and before him 
 shall be gathered all nations ;" the right- 
 eous and the wicked are there and then 
 congregated for judgment, at the time 
 " when the Son of man shall come in 
 his glory." After all that we have seen 
 on this, we cannot believe that one part 
 of these " all nations," viz. the saints, 
 have been before him, in the obvious 
 sense of the place, for a thousand years ; 
 and now, at the end of it, the wicked 
 are also brought up. 
 
 Other passages indeed, perhaps all 
 that treat of the judgment, seem to 
 represent the sentence as passed upon 
 the two classes as simultaneous ; " for 
 the hour is coming, in the which all that 
 are in their graves shall hear his voice, 
 and shall come forth ; they that have 
 done good, to the resurrection of life ; 
 and they that have done evil, to the re- 
 surrection of damnation." (John v. 28, 
 29.) The two are co-existent; that is, 
 at or near the same time ; it is one judg- 
 ment, and not two long and tedious pro- 
 cesses. 
 
 The parable of the tares of the field, 
 and the draw-net with its good and bad 
 fishes, is a further exemplification : the 
 severance of the kinds, the casting away 
 of the one, and the treasuring up of the 
 other, are simultaneous. The Literalists, 
 with all their talent and ingenuity, and 
 it must be acknowledged, they display 
 a very considerable degree of both, ap- 
 pear to us to fail here. Surely between 
 the gathering together of the good, and 
 the casting away of the bad, the Lord 
 does not intend us to understand that 
 therewillintervenethewholemillennium! 
 
 It should be remembered that much 
 figure lies around this subject, in all 
 probability. With the Millenarians, we 
 
294 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 will admit, that we are liable to carry 
 our notions of human judicial forms to 
 the divine procedure, perhaps to an im- 
 proper extent. We imagine a bench, a 
 bar, witnesses, and subordinate officers, 
 and seem to think that a single day of 
 twenty-four hours, will wind up the 
 grand assize. But with all due allow- 
 ances for our imperfect conception of 
 these matters, we must think the Lite- 
 ralists do unwarrantably depart from 
 the literal meaning, and indulge in 
 fancy. Their idea of the judgment is 
 surely a vast departure from the literal 
 meaning ; the Anti-Millenarians, or ad- 
 vocates of the post-millennial advent, 
 are much better entitled to the epithet of 
 Literalists : they contend for a literal 
 judgment, according to the plain force 
 of the Scriptures, whereas the others 
 interpret the language very differently. 
 If we understand the Millenarian views, 
 as spread out in the Literalist, one, and 
 it is the chief, argument for the pre-mil- 
 lennial advent of Christ, is deduced from 
 that class of texts which speak of the 
 gospel dispensation as characterized by 
 a mixed population of good and bad, 
 tares and wheat, sheep and goats, wise 
 and foolish ; and these will continue 
 until the Son of man comes, — until the 
 second personal advent of Christ ; there- 
 fore they infer that the millennium can- 
 not precede this advent ; for then there 
 would be found no such mixture, because 
 in the millennium all will be holy. 
 
 To this we reply, that the parable of 
 the wheat and tares is expressly given 
 to illustrate the nature of the kingdom 
 of heaven ; which is, the reign of Christ, 
 as we have long since shown, and which 
 was begun before Daniel's vision, and 
 his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's 
 dream. The little stone then existed, 
 and was acting against the giant image ; 
 it exists now, and will exist, even on 
 earth, in a yet far purer state ; still it 
 is one and the self-same kingdom, under 
 varied circumstances. Now, the Lite- 
 ralists limit it to the millennial state, 
 and suppose that there is not now any 
 kingdom of God at all ; it is merely an 
 ens polentialis, but not an ens realis. 
 It can and will be, but is not. Hence, 
 
 they continually argue, from the expres- 
 sions which regard its future state, that 
 it exists not now. This has led to some 
 very highly spiritual, or anti-literal in- 
 terpretations of Scripture. For example : 
 the kingdom of God is within you — " the 
 kingdom of God shall be taken from 
 you, and shall be given unto a nation 
 bringing forth the fruits thereof." (Matt. 
 xxxi. 43.) They will not allow us to say, 
 that the kingdom of God was already 
 come in fact, but only in possibility. 
 
 It was proffered to the Jews, but they 
 rejected it. At this juncture, we affirm, 
 it was given to the Gentiles. The Lite- 
 ralist, however, replies, that it was post- 
 poned for about two thousand years, and 
 now exists only potentially. But when 
 Paul said to the Pergamese Jews, upon 
 their obstinate resistance, " It was neces- 
 sary that the word of God should first 
 have been spoken to you : but seeing ye 
 put it far from you, and judge yourselves 
 unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn 
 to the Gentiles," (Acts, xiii. 46,) is it not 
 manifest, that he acted out the declara- 
 tion of our Lord above quoted ? He turn- 
 ed to the Gentiles, and offered them the 
 kingdom, and they received it. The in- 
 vitation to the supper was in like manner 
 refused : the Jews rejected the kingdom. 
 We contend that the servants, the gos- 
 pel-preachers, went out immediately, and 
 as immediately compelled them to come 
 in, and the wedding was furnished with 
 guests. This proves that there was not 
 a delay of eighteen centuries during 
 which the table stood spread, but unsup- 
 plied with guests. Is not such a delay 
 of a prepared feast unseemly ! But the 
 Literalists affirm it when they deny that 
 the kingdom was actually given to the 
 Gentiles : they did not receive it, — its 
 bestowment " was postponed until the 
 second advent at the beginning of the 
 millennium." Is this dealing fairly with 
 the scriptures ? Let any person, not pre- 
 viously warped to a theory, duly com- 
 pare these passages together, and we are 
 persuaded, he will conclude, that when 
 the kingdom, that is, the coming under 
 the reigning influence of Jesus, was re- 
 jected by the Jews ; when the persons 
 first bidden to the supper refused it, it 
 
LECTURE XXXIII. 
 
 295 
 
 was then given forthwith to the Gentiles, 
 the persons gathered from the highways 
 and hedges. But the Literalists insist, 
 that this gathered church is the elect 
 church, distinct from, and not the real 
 kingdom of God : this present state is 
 not Messiah's reign, but a kind of inter- 
 regnum between the dethronement of the 
 prince and his restoration, — that eighteen 
 centuries have already elapsed since the 
 kingdom was rejected by the Jews, but 
 it has not yet been given to the nation 
 bringing forth the fruits thereof; this na- 
 tion is now gathering together, but not yet 
 gathered. Christ has yet no kingdom. 
 
 But to the other point of the Literalist 
 objection, we have a ready answer, 
 which, however, will require an inspec- 
 tion of another section of the Apocalypse, 
 (chap. xx. 7-10.) After the thousand 
 years shall come to an end, Satan will 
 be let loose, and will go forth upon his 
 old errand of deception. Gog and Ma- 
 gog will be stirred up. This is a dif- 
 ferent event entirely, as we have seen 
 from Ezekiel's war ; involving the na- 
 tions from the same quarters, indeed, but 
 distant from them in time by the whole 
 millennium. It is, moreover, likely that 
 the names are used here in express allu- 
 sion to the similarity, or indeed identity, of 
 the parties in most respects. All we need 
 say on the subject is, that another grand 
 apostacy will take place after the termi- 
 nation of millennial blessedness. There 
 is no way to avoid this construction of 
 the context. It cannot be explained away : 
 a terrible, rapid, and very great apostacy 
 will succeed the millennium, and there 
 will be a fearful onset of the apostate na- 
 tions, to crush the church of God. 
 
 Now, we contend, that just in the cri- 
 sis of this revolt and war, the second ad- 
 vent will occur. Is there any difficulty 
 in finding tares among the wheat? The 
 Son of man has for a thousand years 
 been cultivating his field with good seed; 
 the tares are all removed, and the fruits 
 of righteousness have been yielded very 
 abundantly ; but now, at the close of 
 this long and successful culture, the ene- 
 my hath stolen forth in the dark and 
 sowed his tares, and hence the second 
 war of Gog. Let it not then be asked, 
 
 where are the wicked to come from, 
 whom the Son of man will find at his 
 second advent? This objection is fore- 
 stalled. It is more. We turn this sword 
 back upon our pursuers. On their theory, 
 that Christ shall reign personally on 
 earth during the thousand years, in what 
 way do they account for this second war 
 of Gog ? Where now is the king ? Could 
 not his personal presence overcome the 
 adversary ? We submit it, therefore, to 
 the judgment of the student of prophecy, 
 whether this objection does not come 
 with tenfold more force against the Mil- 
 lenarian; whether our answer is not con- 
 clusive ? 
 
 Nor will the reply suffice, that the Gog 
 and Magog of Revelation, " the number 
 of whom is as the sand of the sea," are 
 the wicked dead raised to life again. 
 
 Because, first, the text says that they 
 are " the nations which are in the four 
 quarters of the earth," whom Satan goes 
 out to deceive. This cannot be applied 
 to those who have been dead as to the 
 body for a thousand years and under 
 the tormenting power of Satan. 
 
 Second. These could not be sub- 
 jects of their master's deception. The 
 very idea of Satan's deceiving them, im- 
 plies an apostacy from the truth, a turn- 
 ing away from the friendship of Christ 
 and his church to the enemy. 
 
 Third. They go up and compass the 
 camp of the saints. This is evidently a 
 movement voluntary and aggressive, led 
 on by Satan; but the resurrection of the 
 wicked dead is not by Satan's power, 
 but by Christ's ; it is not voluntary on 
 their part, but is constrained ; they are 
 dragged forth by the omnipotence of their 
 Judge. 
 
 Fourth. They assault the camp of the 
 saints; but the wicked dead will be ar- 
 raigned before their Judge and the saints 
 as assessors, and condemned ; a process 
 very unlike that here described. 
 
 Fifth. But farther still the judgment 
 and the resurrection come after this "war 
 of Gog. There is first a fire from God, 
 which devours this vast army ; then the 
 throne of judgment is set, and the dead 
 are raised, arraigned, condemned, and 
 executed. 
 
LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 It may be contended, in opposition to 
 this last objection, that this white throne, 
 and the dead, small and great, standing 
 before it, are not posterior in order of 
 time to the war and destruction of Gog, 
 but only in the order of the text. And 
 such cases, as we have already shown, 
 do often occur; but this is not one of 
 them. Gog's army are judged, but it is 
 not described by any terms that justify 
 the supposition of its including any but 
 the deceived nations, who, after the mil- 
 lennium, assault the camp of the saints : 
 they perish in war, and, of course, un- 
 der a judgment ; but it is partial and 
 not general, — it includes men of war, not 
 small and great. Fire came down and 
 devoured them ; and Satan that deceived 
 them is cast into the lake of fire ; but 
 these are not so cast in, — they are simply 
 destroyed on the field of battle: whereas 
 the result of the judgment which follows 
 is " the second death." We therefore 
 find no difficulty in explaining, on our 
 supposition, the fact, that when Jesus 
 comes after the millennium he finds tares 
 as well as wheat in the field. So far 
 from this creating a difficulty, it is a 
 part of our scheme. At the end of the 
 world, the Son of man will come per- 
 sonally and destroy the last grand con- 
 federacy, gather up the tares, bind them 
 in bundles, and cast them into the fire 
 of a temporal destruction ; raise all the 
 dead, justify the righteous, and cast all 
 these wicked into the furnace of his 
 eternal wrath. 
 
 There is considerable stress laid by 
 the Millenarian writers upon the fact, 
 that the second personal advent of Christ 
 was very generally expected in the pri- 
 mitive ages of Christianity : and indeed 
 they builded not a little upon the preva- 
 lence of this expectation down to the 
 eighteenth century. Of course, these 
 are not adduced as evidence direct of 
 the correctness of the opinion. Still 
 they have no small influence upon many 
 persons ; and therefore, we feel disposed 
 to make a remark or two on the subject. 
 
 The opinions of the early Chrstians 
 on doctrinal subjects and the meaning 
 of the language of scripture ought to 
 have no great weight with us ; and par- 
 
 ticularly in regard to prophecy. In 
 our view, their opinions have swayed 
 later times most unreasonably. Primitive 
 Christianity in the first and second cen- 
 turies was like primitive Christianity in 
 the nineteenth. At the present time, if 
 we wished a sample of simple, childlike 
 confidence in God, of unaffected purity 
 of character, we would go to some pros- 
 perous missionary station, and would 
 find the Hawaiian believers to excel 
 most American Christians in these re- 
 spects ; but we would not expect to find 
 them deeply versed in Christian doc- 
 trine ; and would not, by any means, 
 go to them, nor even to their religious 
 teachers, though educated in Christian 
 countries, to have difficult questions of 
 interpretation solved. They, like the 
 primitive Christians, have had means of 
 instruction much inferior to ours. 
 
 Every age is degenerate in that age ; 
 the former times were better than ours : 
 nevertheless the degenerate nineteenth 
 century possesses a great deal more 
 knowledge of scripture doctrine than the 
 first or second, the third or the fourth ; 
 we need not go to these for light. As- 
 suredly we should put more confidence 
 in the critical acumen of a pious scholar 
 now, than we should in a pious scholar 
 of the early ages. That an opinion, as 
 to the meaning of scripture, was held in 
 the second century, even by a devout 
 and learned man, is not as good a rea- 
 son to confide in it, as that it is at pre- 
 sent held by one who is pious and 
 learned. 
 
 But again, there is very special rea- 
 son, why the opinions of the early ages, 
 concerning the second advent, should • 
 have little, if any influence with us at 
 present ; it is because, they xoere grossly 
 erroneous. It is not denied, but much 
 insisted on by Literalists, that the early 
 Christians expected Christ to come in 
 person very soon, and in not a few in- 
 stances, this expectation cencentrated 
 upon particular times, and produced very 
 great excitement. Deluded people urged 
 themselves on to crowns of martyrdom, 
 in the distinct and expressed hope of 
 very shortly rising and reigning with 
 Christ. That many sinned under this 
 
LECTURE XXXIII. 
 
 297 
 
 delusion, by exposing themselves unne- 
 cessarily, and rushing upon death un- 
 called for, is not to be denied ; and has 
 been often deplored. But God's provi- 
 dence has a thousand times written 
 delusion and folly upon this course of 
 action. It is as clearly undeniable, that 
 they misunderstood the Bible language 
 on this subject, as it is that Mr. Miller 
 has been labouring under the same de- 
 lusion. Now, are these undeniable 
 errors proof that the same opinions are 
 . true at present ? The primitive Chris- 
 tians were pre-advent-millenarians, and 
 were grossly misled ; does this prove 
 the correctness of their interpretations of 
 these scriptures ? Mr. Miller is a pre- 
 millenarian-advent advocate, and has 
 deluded himself and thousands of others; 
 does this prove his opinion correct ? 
 This is one of the most singular argu- 
 ments we have met with ; and yet we 
 do meet with it continually in the wri- 
 tings of very learned and laborious 
 divines. 
 
 This misapprehension of scripture ap- 
 peared in St. Paul's day, and he rebuked 
 it : " be not soon shaken in mind, or be 
 troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, 
 as from us, as that the day of Christ is 
 at hand. Let no man deceive you by 
 any means; for that day shall not come, 
 except there come a falling away first, 
 and that man of sin be revealed, the son 
 of perdition." (2 Thess. ii. 1-12.) He 
 proceeds to describe Roman Catholic 
 Antichrist with a graphic pen ; and had 
 the primitive Christians understood these 
 matters as well as the church now does, 
 they would not have fallen into the very 
 mistakes against which Paul here warns 
 them. Shall their errors be an argu- 
 ment for their own repetition? Because 
 they went astray in the very face of 
 the apostle, must we believe the same 
 opinions? 
 
 The other remark refers to the notions 
 of later ages. More weight is attached to 
 these than is just. Millenarians claim 
 all authorities down to the eighteenth 
 century. That Christ should come a 
 second time was generally believed. But 
 that he should come personally prior to 
 the millennium, has been much oftener 
 
 33 
 
 imputed to authors than was justifiable. 
 We cannot enter upon this question ; 
 but from the frequent quotations in the 
 Literalists to prove this position, which 
 nevertheless do not prove it, we should 
 expect a scholar who should undertake 
 the investigation, to ascertain that the 
 doctrine of the pre-millennial-advent, has 
 been often found by its advocates where 
 it never existed. For example, the 
 Westminster Confession of Faith has 
 been alleged in favour of Millenarianism ; 
 but an examination of its contents will 
 not, we are persuaded, sustain the alle- 
 gation. But he who seeks for ghosts, 
 can find them almost any where after 
 nightfall. Let us curb imagination and 
 spur up judgment. 
 
 Again : Literalists allege that their 
 views of the second advent, and the 
 mode of its occurrence, operates a power- 
 ful influence for good upon the minds of 
 men, by keeping up constant vigilance: 
 that this alone secures full obedience to 
 the important command, " Watch there- 
 fore, for ye know neither the day nor 
 the hour, wherein the Son of man Com- 
 eth ;" and it is argued that the post-mil- 
 lennium advent views, lull to sleep, and 
 retain in inaction. 
 
 So far as this is used as an argument, 
 it contains a petitio principii : it as- 
 sumes the very matter in dispute. For 
 nothing but truth can produce a good 
 influence, and excite the Christian grace 
 of watchfulness. The entertainment of 
 a false expectation cannot call out a 
 holy vigilance; it may excite to foolish 
 means of escape, and foolish prepara- 
 tions ; ships may be chartered to sail 
 upon the ocean when the land shall be 
 on fire, and robes be in readiness, in 
 which to meet the Lord in the air ; but 
 it may well be questioned whether these 
 vain preparations draw sinners to the 
 only means of extinguishing the flames 
 of God's vengeance, and of arraying 
 themselves in the wedding garment of 
 the Saviour's righteousness. Great num- 
 bers, no doubt, may be deluded into the 
 church in this way ; but they would be 
 in less danger out of it, and the church 
 would be purer and more efficient, lack- 
 ing them. Before it can be logically 
 
LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 inferred, that this kind of watchfulness 
 is a grace and a benefit, it must be 
 proved that it springs from right princi- 
 ple ; and this cannot be inferred from 
 the effects, unless they are uniformly 
 good. On the contrary, we allege that 
 these excitements are delusive ; and the 
 history .of these opinions shows that they 
 result in spiritual declension. After the 
 heat of a millenarian fever passes off", 
 a deadly coldness follows ; and at this 
 present hour the collapse is in progress, 
 necessarily arising from the advent pro- 
 mised a month or two ago. 
 
 But farther : we are constrained to 
 believe, that this view diverts attention 
 from that advent which Jesus mainly 
 intended in his command to watch, be- 
 cause of the uncertainty of the time of his 
 coming ; that is, his providential advent 
 in, calls to special trials and particularly 
 in death. Men are led to suppose that 
 the literal and physical is more im- 
 portant than the spiritual advent; where- 
 as the reverse is true. The former de- 
 rives all its importance from the latter. 
 Christ will come to our souls at death, 
 and for this coming we must be ever 
 watching and ever ready ; and this is 
 the principal thing. If we have on the 
 robes of his righteousness ; if we are 
 washed in his blood ; if we are born of 
 and living in his Spirit, then are we 
 watching in the principal sense, for his 
 coming in death : and these relations 
 only make his personal, physical advent 
 of any consequence. 
 
 The great error and delusion of the 
 earlier Millenarians lay in magnifying 
 the literal above the spiritual advent, 
 and thus, fixing their eye on the wrong 
 object, they saw not at all the plain 
 Scriptures, which would have told them 
 that the literal advent could not take 
 place for many centuries, viz., until 
 after the reign of Antichrist. The daily 
 and hourly expectation of the personal 
 coming had its foundation in falsehood. 
 There was no ground in Scripture for 
 it. On the contrary, Paul's declaration, 
 above quoted, and many other Scrip- 
 tures, chiefly the whole grand system 
 of chronological prophecy, made it clear 
 to all but those blinded by Millenarian. 
 
 ism, that it could not be for many hun- 
 dred years ; the entertainment of this 
 expectation was, therefore, a delusion, 
 in direct opposition to express and spe- 
 cific Scripture testimony. It must, there- 
 fore, have led to mischief continually. 
 And this a priori inference is as true a 
 posteriori. History has set her seal to 
 it. The wildfire of Millenarianism has 
 always burnt out the spirit of piety in 
 the church, and left a sad ruin to be 
 rebuilt by the sober expectants of a spi- 
 ritual millennium, and the thousand in- 
 tervening spiritual advents of Christ to 
 his afflicted church. We go farther 
 than a simple repelling of the argument 
 drawn from the absence of a Millena- 
 rian stimulus to watchfulness. They 
 say that Christ might have come, and 
 may now personally come at any mo- 
 ment, and this belief produces vigilance. 
 We say, the second personal advent could 
 not occur until after the revelation of 
 Antichrist, and therefore the expectation 
 of it before was deceitful ; it could not 
 be founded on truth, and must be pro- 
 ductive of evil only. 
 
 Rev. xx. 11—15 : " And I saw a great 
 white throne, and him that sat on it, 
 from whose face the earth and the heaven 
 fled away; and there was found no place 
 for them. And I saw the dead, small 
 and great, stand before God : and the 
 books were opened ; and another book 
 was opened, which is tlie book of life ; 
 and the dead were judged out of those 
 j things which were written in the books, 
 i according to their works. And the sea 
 gave up the dead which were in it ; and 
 death and hell delivered up the dead 
 which were in them : and they were 
 judged every man according to their 
 works. And death and hell were cast 
 into the lake of fire. This is the second 
 death. And whosoever was not found 
 written in the book of life was cast into 
 the lake of fire." 
 
 This is a description of the general 
 judgment : a few remarks must com- 
 prehend all we can say upon the subject. 
 
 The Redeemer is this judge; to him 
 hath the Father committed all judgment, 
 because he is the Son of man. 
 
 It is difficult, and perhaps not prudent, 
 
LECTURE XXXIII. 
 
 299 
 
 to say how much of figure may be in 
 these words. Will there be a great 
 white throne literally, or is this merely 
 in reference to human procedure? The 
 Judge is a real person, in full possession 
 of human nature; why not allow the 
 throne to be as real as the person who 
 occupies it ? 
 
 From the splendours of this throne 
 the heavens and the earth fled away. 
 Is this literal, or does it mean the sym- 
 bolical heaven or ecclesiastical system, 
 and the civil government ? In this sense, 
 it is doubtless true. The government of 
 man is now at an end. But how far it 
 may be true literally, we cannot say. 
 " No place is found for them," and 
 where then will the judgment be held, 
 if neither in heaven nor on earth? Here, 
 our wisdom is to stand still ; what this 
 means will be known then and probably 
 very imperfectly known before. 
 
 After a tribunal is created, and all 
 the awful solemnities are adjusted, the 
 next step is to bring forward the persons 
 to be judged. The dead, small and 
 great, stand before God. This, in verse 
 12, is undoubtedly a prolepsis, an as- 
 sumption of the fact stated in verse 13, 
 where the fact of the resurrection is dis- 
 tinctly affirmed. The sea gave up her 
 dead. Death is personified ; he is the 
 king of terrors ; and hell, Hades, is the 
 invisible world, the kingdom of this king. 
 Both king and kingdom deliver up all 
 under their control. If the small and 
 great of the saints had been raised more 
 than a thousand years before, where the 
 propriety of this language, which cer- 
 tainly seems to imply all that ever were 
 in the state of the dead. 
 
 The good and bad appear to be in- 
 volved in this judgment. " The books 
 were opened ;" the book of the law, and 
 the book of the record of facts, and an- 
 other book which is the book of life : 
 and the dead were judged out of those 
 things which were written in the books 
 according to their works. The judg- 
 ment involves both classes, exactly ac- 
 cording to the Saviour's representation 
 in Matt, xxv : if so, what becomes of 
 the Millenarian idea, that the saints 
 had all been raised and judged a thou- 
 
 sand years before? We think the plain 
 reader would conclude from this lan- 
 guage, that all mankind, small and 
 great, good and bad, were, on this occa- 
 sion, raised from their long slumbers, 
 cited before the same solemn tribunal, 
 and judged according to their actual 
 character. 
 
 The glorious fact, — let it ever be re- 
 membered, that the Lord our Redeemer 
 will come, and will not tarry. At the 
 very moment fixed upon in the councils 
 of eternity, before the world was, he 
 will descend with a shout, with the voice 
 of the archangel and the trump of God. 
 Arrayed in the fiery habiliments of eter- 
 nal judgment, he will descend, and all 
 his saints with him. Surrounded with 
 ten thousand times ten thousand mightv 
 angels, he will come to be glorified in 
 his saints, and to be admired in all the\n 
 that believe. How difficult it is for us' 
 to realize the fact ! This same Jesus, 
 whom ye have seen buffeted, and 
 scourged, and crowned with thorns, and 
 nailed on the accursed tree, — this same 
 star that set in blood on Calvary, shall 
 arise, 
 
 " A sun, O how unlike 
 The babe at Bethlehem ! How unlike the man 
 That groaned on Calvary ! Yet he it is ; 
 That man of sorrows ! Oh how changed ! What 
 
 pomp ! 
 In grandeur terrible all heaven descends !" 
 
 " The day is broke, which never more shall 
 
 close ; 
 Above, around, beneath, amazement all ! 
 Terror and glory, joined in their extremes — 
 Our God in grandeur and our world on fire !" 
 
 We shall each one be present on that 
 day, at that solemn scene. Whatever 
 diversities of opinion may exist on other 
 points, there is perfect unanimity among 
 all readers of the Bible, in this. We 
 shall be there in our own proper per- 
 sons ; these spirits and these bodies will 
 be there ; these eyes shall see that grand 
 spectacle, — these ears shall hear that 
 thunder-toned trumpet. 
 
 Our respective relative position then 
 and there will be fixed and determined long 
 before that, by our actual character at 
 the hour of death. With the trooping 
 trains that descend in glory effulgent, we 
 
300 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 will come ; or from beneath with the le- 
 gions of woe, we shall be dragged forth 
 to meet our Judge. Awful thought ! A 
 few brief years, — it may be months or 
 days, — will decide our doom for ever! 
 How important the improvement of pre- 
 sent gospel privileges ! " Now is the 
 accepted time, now is the day of salva- 
 tion." " He that believeth on the Son 
 hath everlasting life ; and he that be- 
 lieveth not the Son shall not see life, but 
 the wrath of God abideth on him." 
 
 How, in view of these fearful and un- 
 deniable realities, dwindles the question, 
 whether our Lord's personal advent will 
 precede or succeed the period of millen- 
 nial blessedness ! Of what great conse- 
 quence can it be to the saved, whether 
 the soul shall reign with Christ on earth 
 or abide with him in heaven during that 
 period ? If our calling and election are 
 made sure by true faith and real repent- 
 ance, however this question may issue, 
 unspeakable, full, and perfectly unal- 
 loyed bliss is ours, for ever and for ever- 
 more. 
 
 LECTURE XXXIV. 
 
 THE IMPRISONMENT OF SATAN— THE 
 FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 Rev. xx. 1-6 ; Dan. xii. 2. 
 
 " And I saw an angel come down from 
 heaven, having the key of the bottom- 
 less pit and a great chain in his hand. 
 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old 
 serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, 
 and bound him a thousand years, and 
 cast him into the bottomless pit, and 
 shut him up, and set a seal upon him, 
 that he should deceive the nations no 
 more, till the thousand years shall be 
 fulfilled : and after that he must be loosed 
 a little season. And I saw thrones, and 
 they sat upon them, and judgment was 
 given unto them : and I saw the souls of 
 them that were beheaded for the witness 
 of Jesus, and for the word of God, and 
 which had not worshipped the beast, nei- 
 
 ther his image, neither had received his 
 mark upon their foreheads, or in their 
 hands ; and they lived and reigned with 
 Christ a thousand years. But the rest 
 of the dead lived not again until the 
 thousand years were finished. This is 
 the first resurrection. Blessed and holy 
 is he that hath part in the first resurrec- 
 tion : on such the second death hath no 
 power ; but they shall be priests of God, 
 and of Christ, and shall reign with him 
 a thousand years." 
 
 Ever since the introduction of sin into 
 our world, the maxim " might gives 
 right" has been practically adopted. The 
 stronger man has served himself of the 
 weaker. The more powerful tribe or 
 nation has disregarded the rights and 
 privileges of the more feeble, and borne 
 upon them with the hand of oppression. 
 To such a degree has this been the case, 
 that many contend that man's natural 
 state is one of war. Assuming this as 
 true, it would indeed follow, that the pre- 
 ponderance of physical force gives the 
 right of dominion. The vanquished is 
 first prisoner and then slave to the vic- 
 tor. From this bitter root has sprung 
 the whole deadly upas of oppressive 
 slavery. Traffic in human flesh results 
 from the admission, that strength is the 
 measure of right. This, of course, must 
 be admitted practicalh r , so soon as mo- 
 ral power ceases to be the ruling princi- 
 ple. Man is social, and must be go- 
 verned, and in his government, either 
 the moral or the physical element of his 
 nature must take the lead; if the former, 
 he is free ; if the latter, he is a slave. 
 Therefore, the latter has prevailed al- 
 most universally; and man has accounted 
 his inferior in this sense as under his 
 control. Captives in war, until Chris- 
 tianity corrects the evil, have always 
 been considered slaves, and generally 
 been treated as articles of traffic. Pri- 
 soners have been bound, especially pri- 
 soners of distinction, and led away in 
 chains, to grace the triumphs of their 
 captors. 
 
 To these customs there is a slight al- 
 lusion in the context before us. The 
 rebel hosts have been subdued. That 
 species of power to which they betook 
 
LECTURE XXXIV. 
 
 301 
 
 themselves in their war upon the true 
 church, her Almighty King has exerted 
 for their overthrow. We have seen the 
 visible agents and leaders in this war 
 vanquished and seized, and " cast alive 
 into the lake that burns with fire and 
 brimstone." But there is also an invi- 
 sible agency. The true originator of 
 the war and all its devastations is not yet 
 reached. This agent, too, must he 
 brought into subjection, and placed in 
 that position of degradation and suffering 
 to which his folly and crime entitle him. 
 For the execution of this work, an angel 
 is seen to come down from heaven, with 
 the key of the abyss, and a great chain 
 in his hand. 
 
 This angel symbolizes the ministers 
 of the gospel, — that vast body of holy 
 men whom God will raise up, whom he 
 is now raising up and imbuing with the 
 heroic spirit of the ancient martyrs, to 
 bear the glad tidings to all the earth. 
 After the restoration of the house of 
 Israel, multitudes of them will become 
 heralds of mercy, and preach with all 
 the zeal and energy of the primitive 
 martyr-preachers, Stephen, and Paul, 
 and Peter. Of the Gentiles, much 
 greater numbers will devote themselves 
 to the work of the ministry, and with a 
 measure of the spirit of missions, of 
 which the church now knows nothing, 
 will unite with the revived sons of Abra- 
 ham in spreading the savour of Mes- 
 siah's name over all the earth. This 
 great body of evangelical teachers, full 
 of zeal and of the Holy Ghost, will, in 
 the strength of the Lord their God, 
 seize Satan, bind him in chains, and 
 thrust him down into the abyss, — the 
 place of his torment, and fasten him 
 there. In other words, the power of 
 the Lord Jesus, accompanying the word 
 preached, will expel the foul spirit from 
 the hearts of men and from the govern- 
 ments of this world, and drive him out 
 from the air, where he now dwells ; and 
 force him into his own place of torment; 
 so that he shall no more tyrannize over 
 the nations, the souls and the bodies of 
 men, for the thousand years. 
 
 Such appears to us, to be the mind of 
 the Spirit in these verses. It differs, it 
 
 will be perceived, from the commentators 
 generally ; and for thus presuming, we 
 must render our reasons. 
 
 As to those who represent this angel 
 as Constantine the Great, and Satan as 
 Paganism, it is surely not, at this age of 
 the world, necessary to say a word, by 
 way of refutation. 
 
 The ordinary explanation is, that this 
 angel is Christ our Redeemer. The 
 Literalists, or pre-millennial-advent ad- 
 vocates, allege that he will come per- 
 sonally, before the thousand years, and 
 remain on earth all or chief part of that 
 time ; that at the commencement of the 
 period he will bind Satan, not in a strict 
 and literal sense with a chain, as we un- 
 derstand them ; but by his force and 
 power, he will raise the bodies of the 
 dead martyrs, and indeed all the saints, 
 and they with him shall live on the earth, 
 and be his ministers of state and officers 
 in the government of the world. 
 
 There are then three opinions before 
 us. The one first stated, that the angel 
 is a figure of the gospel ministry in their 
 revived state ; that the angel is Christ 
 himself, but not precisely as the Literal- 
 ists' understanding; and that it is Christ 
 personally and prior to the millennium. 
 
 To the second, with a little extension, 
 we have no objection ; and are disposed 
 to believe, that if its advocates were 
 called upon to explain and particularize, 
 they would speedily arrive at what we 
 have mentioned as the first, as we have 
 stated it. For if the angel be Christ, it 
 must be either providentially ox person- 
 ally that he comes down from heaven. 
 If providentially, and not personally, it 
 must be by some visible agency ; the 
 vision implies it. " I saw an angel come 
 down." All we object to, is the impro- 
 priety of maintaining the angel to be 
 the same personally with Michael the 
 Prince. For if it be meant that the 
 energy and power by which Satan is 
 bound is the Lord's, and that the minis- 
 try of the gospel is the agency by and 
 through whose means he will exert this 
 power, then this coincides with the first 
 view stated. To this the Hillel (Ps. 
 cxlix.) refers, " Let the high praises of 
 God be in their mouth; and a two-edged 
 
302 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 sword in their hand ; to execute ven- 
 geance upon the heathen : and punish- 
 ments upon the people ; to bind their 
 kings with chains, and their nobles with 
 fetters of iron : to execute the judgment 
 that is Written ; this honour have all his 
 saints." The judgment is not less the 
 Lord's, because of man's agency in its 
 execution. 
 
 Against this view, it may be objected, 
 that the key of the abyss cannot be en- 
 trusted to human hands, however holy 
 and full of zeal. But is it not obvious that 
 the kejrs of the kingdom are committed 
 to the elders of the church, who have 
 power to bind and to loose men, and 
 does not the Psalm quoted, show that 
 there is a sense in which they bind 
 princes. We have seen the key of the 
 bottomless pit in the hand of a fallen 
 star, an ajjostate Christian minister. Ser- 
 gius, the monk, opened the abyss ; he 
 unlocked the door, and let out the lo- 
 custs. Is there then, any incongruity in 
 the true ministry of God holding the 
 same key, and chaining down the great 
 foe of God and man ? Has the Redeemer 
 any other official visible agency to coun- 
 teract Satan and his works, to restrain 
 and check, and ultimately to suppress 
 his power over men, but the gospel mi- 
 nistry? Now this phrase, all of it is well 
 adapted to express these influences of 
 gospel preachers. The key and the 
 chain, the seizure and binding of Satan; 
 the thrusting him down, locking him 
 fast, and setting a seal upon the door : 
 surely these are not designed to be 
 literally understood; they are not phy- 
 sical operations, but spiritual, suited 
 to the spiritual nature of the culprit so 
 seized and imprisoned. The object of 
 the imprisonment is to prevent the arch- 
 fiend from injuring the church by de- 
 ceiving mankind ; and the doctrines of 
 the Bible are the appropriate instruments 
 of this restraint. By these two-edged 
 swords do the saints slay the prince of 
 evil, and bind the nobles of the land to 
 the throne of Messiah : by these they 
 thrust the arch-foe out of Christ's king- 
 dom, and keep him at bay, under the 
 impassable barriers of his prison. 
 
 The thrones mentioned in verse 4, are 
 
 the same which the prophet describes in 
 chap. iv. ; the seats of the presbyters 
 and symbols of their authority. The 
 truth here taught, is therefore exceed- 
 ingly simple. During the thousand years, 
 the presbyters, or ruling officers of the 
 church, will reign along with Christ, and 
 in the same sense in which he will reign; 
 differing from him only as to the mea- 
 sure of their influence. In what sense 
 the Mediator will reign a thousand years 
 has already been hinted. He will not be 
 personally present ; he will not sit, in 
 his humanity, upon a throne literally, 
 as kings are wont. We do not believe 
 in the doctrine of the pre-millennial per- 
 sonal advent of Messiah. But as this 
 belief now excites considerable attention ; 
 as there is much more plausibility in it 
 than many seem to suppose ; as it is 
 often spoken against, by persons who 
 seem to understand not whereof they 
 affirm, we deem it worthy of a distinct 
 discussion, and we shall defer it, there- 
 fore, for the present, and proceed with 
 the context. 
 
 Our idea of the governing power of 
 the church and its officers during the 
 millennium, has been in substance stated 
 before. The Redeemer and his people, 
 rather, he in and through them, will rule 
 by the power of truth and moral prin- 
 ciple in the heart. At great length, and 
 at the risk of being censured for repeti- 
 tion, we have laboured to show that 
 entire separation of the church and the 
 civil government is indispensable to hu- 
 man freedom. Of course, in the mil- 
 lennium the ecclesiastical will be wholly 
 distinct from the civil organization, yet 
 powerfully co-operate to its support, by 
 its internal moral force; and in this 
 sense it is that Christ and his saints 
 reign on the earth. 
 
 On this point we may here notice the 
 Millenarian view. It is precisely con- 
 trary of the above. There will be but 
 one organization. Christ will be king, 
 and the raised martyrs his subordinate 
 governors, judges, executors of law, and 
 there will be no other civil and no other 
 ecclesiastical government. 
 
 In view of this, we will admit that the 
 position often advanced, of the necessity 
 
LECTURE XXXIV. 
 
 303 
 
 of separating the two, in order to human 
 freedom, is not infringed upon in reality, 
 because that position is limited to govern- 
 ment in merely human hands ; but this 
 is, by hypothesis, under the direct per- 
 sonal control of the divine Saviour, and, 
 of course, must be infallibly free from 
 all injustice and oppression. If, there- 
 fore, the pre-millennial advent could be 
 sustained as an event foretold, there 
 would arise against it no just opposition 
 on the ground we maintain. 
 
 On the other hand, there can be 
 against us no valid objection, when we 
 maintain that during the millennium the 
 Saviour will reign providentially in his 
 church, by holy influences, governing 
 all hearts by abundant infusions of light 
 and love, and thus, and only thus, will 
 the saints sit on thrones of civil do- 
 minion. The fact of their being mem- 
 bers of the church will not place them 
 on civil thrones and invest them with 
 civil authority; but the fact of their 
 being truly holy and upright will cause 
 them to operate an incalculable and con- 
 trolling influence over all men. The 
 very same individuals who compose the 
 church, and some of whom shall be its 
 most influential rulers, will be citizens 
 of the commonwealth, and by the legiti- 
 mate working of the representative sys- 
 tem, will be rulers in civil government. 
 Thus standing in a twofold relation to 
 the church and to the civil government, 
 he brings the light, purity, and love fur- 
 nished by religion, and its Author, to 
 bear upon the direction of the civil 
 power entrusted to him : and this being 
 the case with the great body of mankind, 
 the dominion will be thus given to the 
 saints, and the little stone will become a 
 great mountain and fill the whole earth. 
 This dominion is not founded in grace, 
 as the fanatical Millenarians of the six- 
 teenth century believed : but the right 
 exercise of it is secured by grace. It 
 comes indeed from Christ ; but it is 
 given to man as man, and not to men 
 as church members, nor even as sub- 
 jects of grace. Civil government is an 
 original institution of God ; the gospel 
 is a remedial dispensation, or the dis- 
 pensation of a remedial law, and comes 
 
 in after civil government, which is lawful 
 and right when rightly administered, even 
 in pagan countries. But the want of light 
 secures immense defects in the adminis- 
 tration, until true religion enters and rec- 
 tifies the understanding and purifies the 
 heart : then its evils are corrected, and 
 it acknowledges the Lord as sovereign 
 of the world. In the thousand years, 
 this will be universal, or nearly so. The 
 angel, martyr-spirited ministry will bind 
 Satan, and restore the world to freedom 
 from the voke of his debasing bondage. 
 
 We proceed to the first resurrection. 
 Our position is, that the remaining part 
 of verse 4, and the whole of Dan. xii. 2, 
 refer to a spiritual resurrection, — a re- 
 vival of religion which brings back, as 
 it were, the spirit of the long-since-be- 
 headed martyrs ; just as John Baptist 
 was a revived Elias, because he came in 
 the spirit and power of the ancient 
 prophet. Concomitant with the restora- 
 tion of Israel and the destruction of 
 Megiddo, the spirit of the primitive mar- 
 tyrs will animate the ministry of the 
 church, and produce such zeal and de- 
 votion to God's glory and man's salva- 
 tion, that it will be like life from the 
 dead. Such, we understand to be the 
 meaning of this first resurrection. For 
 illustration and proof, let us advert to a 
 most important event of that age, pre- 
 dicted by another prophet. 
 
 Ezekiel (xxxvii.) gives us a detailed 
 account of a glorious revival in Israel 
 and Judah. This vision of the valley of 
 dry bones, is a most lively description of 
 one important branch of the first resur- 
 rection. It is expressly applied by the 
 spirit to the conversion of Israel and 
 Judah, their union and restoration to 
 their own land. "And they shall dwell 
 in the land that I have given unto Jacob 
 my servant, wherein your fathers dwelt : 
 and they shall dwell therein, even they 
 and their children, and their children's 
 children for ever: and my servant David 
 shall be their prince for ever." (Verse 
 26.) Now, it is to be specially noted, 
 that this immediately precedes the war 
 of Gog, which is in the time of the end. 
 Can any one doubt the identity in part 
 of this revival with the living and reign- 
 
304 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 ing' with Christ in the Apocalypse? 
 We said in part, for there are other and 
 more extensive branches of the same 
 general revival ; but surely the conver- 
 sion of Israel, which will be a nation 
 born in a day, will be as a resurrection 
 from the grave. 
 
 Again, our Saviour in John v. speaks 
 of a twofold resurrection, one spiritual 
 and the other bodily. Verse 25, " Ve- 
 rily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is 
 coming and now is, when the dead shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
 they that hear shall live." He had just 
 asserted the connexion between believing 
 and life, and, perceiving the rising doubts 
 of his auditory, he strengthens his ex- 
 pression, and assures them that he speaks 
 not of a coming to life at a future time, 
 but it now is, — the dead do now hear 
 and live. Most certainly, here is a 
 spiritual resurrection, a rising of the 
 spiritually dead. Then in verses 28, 
 and 29, he affirms the bodily resurrec- 
 tion ; " the hour is coming, in the which 
 all that are in their graves shall hear 
 his voice, and shall come forth ; they 
 that have done good to the resurrection 
 of life, and they that have done evil to 
 the resurrection of damnation." This 
 is equally unequivocal. It relates to the 
 bodily rising, and is analogous to the 
 two risings here mentioned. The first 
 is limited to the martyrs; indeed, if we 
 insist on exact literalism, to a small por- 
 tion of them only, viz. the " beheaded 
 for the witness of Jesus." It refers not 
 at all to their bodies, but expressly to 
 their souls. 
 
 Let it not be said here, that the word 
 souls is taken figuratively for the entire 
 persons ; as when it is said, " and there 
 were added unto them about three thou- 
 sand souls ;" for if this sense be insisted 
 on here, it must be maintained also in 
 chap. vi. 9, where the souls are seen 
 under the altar. Will it be admitted that 
 the entire persons here are intended ? 
 If such sense be wholly inadmissible in 
 the former, so it must be in the latter 
 case. If the human persons of the mar- 
 tyrs were not seen under the altar, nei- 
 ther here are the human persons of the 
 same martyrs raised to life : it is the 
 
 spirit (^ir^y)), the feeling intelligence, 
 and therefore there arises a very strong 
 presumption, that the bodies are not 
 here designed ; but only that the spirits 
 of the martyrs, — not in the sense of a 
 metempsychosis or Pythagorean trans- 
 migration, but in the scriptural sense in 
 which John the Baptist came in the 
 spirit of Elias, — were seen to animate the 
 revived church, and arm its missionaries 
 for heroic deeds. That such a revival 
 is to take place is not disputed, however, 
 and we may not dwell in proof: the 
 only doubtful point is whether the lan- 
 guage before us is designed to teach it. 
 Our business is to remove the difficulties 
 from the way of this application : and 
 we think there are but two remaining. 
 It is said, " But the rest of the dead 
 lived not again until the thousand years 
 were finished. This is the first resur- 
 rection !" The rest of the dead revived 
 not, — this is the most literal meaning. 
 The souls of the martyrs revived, lived 
 again, in the persons of those millennial 
 believers ; but the souls of the other por- 
 tion of the dead revived not, — they did 
 not live again, — did not reappear in the 
 millennial believers or unbelievers : for 
 the rest of the dead consist of these two 
 classes. Using the term then in the 
 very same sense in application to these 
 two classes, as to the class of martyrs, 
 the meaning is plainly this : the souls of 
 the ordinary believers who had not the 
 martyr spirit, did not revive ; a more 
 bold and self-denying spirit characterizes 
 the whole millennial church than was 
 found in them; nor did the souls of the 
 unbelievers revive : in that glorious day 
 such a class will not be found; they 
 will not hurt nor destroy in all God's 
 holy mountain ; and there will not be 
 need any more to teach every man his 
 brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all 
 shall know him. 
 
 Nor does the sixth verse present any 
 greater difficulty. The first resurrection 
 is the blessed revival of the martyr 
 spirit in the church ; and the second 
 death undoubtedly is the soul's death in 
 hell, its banishment into eternal destruc- 
 tion. Now we believe that every soul 
 that is born of God shall live for ever; 
 
LECTURE XXXIV. 
 
 305 
 
 he that believeth in the Son hath ever- 
 lasting life. If then all believers have 
 eternal life, and shall not come into con- 
 demnation, but are passed from death 
 unto life, how much more certainly 
 those in the millennial day, who will 
 have drunk in the spirit of Paul and all 
 the blessed martyrs ! On sueh the 
 second death hath no power. 
 
 Nor is there any thing here necessa- 
 rily implying that the individuals shall 
 live a thousand years ; that literally 
 there shall be no death ; although this 
 even would scarcely be a miracle. Hu- 
 man life once approximated that age; 
 and when grace shall have purified the 
 soul in a degree beyond what was real- 
 ized in the antediluvian believers, who 
 shall say that these bodies may not 
 experience almost immortality on earth, 
 and outlive Methuselah himself? With 
 the felicity and holiness of that period, 
 every analogy leads to the conclusion 
 that the life of man will be greatly pro- 
 longed. But this is not a question for 
 us ; it lies not in our way. Sufficient 
 is it to show, that such language as is 
 before us is used in scripture to express 
 a revival of the spirit and a mystical or 
 figurative resurrection ; where the de- 
 sign is not to affirm a literal raising of 
 the body to life. If it has been satisfac- 
 torily done, we are ready to proceed 
 to a similar inspection of the parallel 
 passage in Daniel, (chap. xii. 2.) 
 
 "And many of them that sleep in the 
 dust of the earth shall awake, some to 
 everlasting life, and some to shame and 
 everlasting contempt." The chronology 
 of the writer leads us here to understand 
 this of the same spiritual awakening ; 
 and yet the force of the language in our 
 English translation, has led most com- 
 mentators to the conclusion that a real, 
 bodily resurrection is intended. The 
 Literalists or Millenarians agree with us 
 here as to chronology, as they do in 
 the former case, and sustain from it 
 their doctrine of a pre-millennial resur- 
 rection of the bodies of the saints. The 
 point between us, is therefore, simply as 
 to the applicability of these two terms to 
 a spiritual awakening. Still, we hold 
 the chronology to be a part of a sound 
 
 39 
 
 argument for our view. At the acknow- 
 ledged season of this awakening, it is 
 admitted, there will be a great spiritual 
 revival of religion ; if then the phrase is 
 at all applicable, without doing violence 
 to scripture usage, we are entitled to 
 the benefit of the synchronism ; and 
 may infer the identity of this awakening 
 from the dust, and the admitted great 
 coming revival. 
 
 Again: the word translated sleep, signi- 
 fies to be languid, faint, nerveless. It is, 
 perhaps, used on three occasions, as 
 significant of bodily death. "For now 
 should I have lain still and been quiet, I 
 should have slept; then had I been at 
 rest." (Job iii. 13.) "So man lieth 
 down, and riseth not ; till the heavens 
 be no more they shall not awake, nor 
 be raised out of sleep.'''' (Job xiv. 12.) 
 "I will make them drunken, that they 
 may rejoice and sleep a perpetual sleep 
 and not awake, saith the Lord I" (Jer. 
 li. 39, 57.) But, ordinarily, when in the 
 Old Testament sleep is used for death, a 
 different word is employed. This always 
 occurs in the very common phrase, "slept 
 with his fathers," a periphrasis for death. 
 It means simply to lie down, without re- 
 gard to the kind, or manner, or purpose 
 of the act. Now we submit it, whether, 
 if Gabriel had designed to express na- 
 tural death here, he would not have used 
 the word applied so constantly in the 
 scriptures for that purpose? Why should 
 he use a term, whose meaning is quite 
 doubtful, whilst there was one at his 
 command which long practice had ap- 
 propriated to such a use ? There arises 
 thus, a high presumption, that bodily 
 death is not meant ; but only a great de- 
 gree of languor and heartless indiffe- 
 rence to the interests of religion. 
 
 But again, this presumption is strength- 
 ened by the connected phrases, " Many 
 from the sleepers of earthly dust ;" — 
 sleepers or sleeping oties of earth's dust, 
 may very well be understood to mean, 
 persons in love with earth and earthly 
 things ; in whom is no life, and activity, 
 and energy in regard to spiritual things ; 
 who in these are dull and lifeless. And 
 farther, " many from the sleeping ones 
 of earth's dust shall arise." The word 
 
306 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 translated shall arise, signifies, to stimu- 
 late or rouse up from languid inaction to 
 vigorous effort. As in Psalm xxxv. 23, 
 "Stir up thyself; and awake to my judg- 
 ment, — my God and my Lord." It can- 
 not mean here, and it never does mean, 
 the beginning of life, but only the re- 
 calling to energetic action of the life or 
 powers which were in an inactive or 
 nerveless state. Thus the natural and 
 proper force of the language does not at 
 all involve the idea of dead bodies of 
 men coming to life again ; but only of 
 persons in a careless and secure con- 
 dition, being aroused, rather arousing 
 themselves to vigorous action, shaking off 
 the dust of indolence, and calling their 
 powers forth into exercise. 
 
 Such will be the state of the world and 
 the church, immediately prior to the 
 great revival which ushers in the mil- 
 lennium : the latter will be only half 
 aroused, as it now is ; and the former 
 will be wholly stupid and languid as to 
 the great events in prospect. In verse 
 1st, the angel assures Daniel, that in 
 this season of unparalleled trouble, the 
 Israelites should be restored, as Ezekiel 
 teaches; "Thy people shall be delivered." 
 And farther, the very clods of Gentilism, 
 the sleeping ones of earthly clay, shall 
 stir themselves up, and inquire after the 
 Lord ; not only the bones, the inanimate 
 fragments of the whole house of Israel, 
 spread up and down the open valley, 
 " the dust of Jacob" will be stirred and 
 moved, bone to his bone ; but the cold 
 earth, that has slept for ages in all the 
 darkness of paganism and delusion, shall 
 be thrown into vast commotion ; the 
 blinded heathen, " multitudes, multitudes 
 in the valley of decision," and all over 
 the world, shall rouse up and act vigor- 
 ously in reference to religion and eternal 
 things. Of the vast masses of mankind 
 who shall thus be brought into energetic 
 action, some will inquire successfully, 
 and find the way to salvation, " and so 
 shall live for ever ;" " some to everlast- 
 ing life ;" others will spend their facul- 
 ties in perverting and opposing the truth, 
 as the Romans, Pagans, and the Mo- 
 hammedan-pagans, and all forms of he- 
 retics now do, and shall utterly perish, 
 
 " in shame and everlasting contempt." 
 Such is the spiritual awakening which 
 John denominates " the first resurrec- 
 tion." 
 
 It will be objected to this, that it is 
 not consistent with the plain meaning of 
 the English text, and tends to shake con- 
 fidence in our translation, and in any 
 fixed sense of scripture. All this is 
 true. Our translators undoubtedly did 
 intend to express the idea of bodily re- 
 surrection here, and English readers do 
 all so understand it ; and to take a dif- 
 ferent meaning from the words, must 
 operate to weaken their confidence in 
 the translation. Still, a faithful inter- 
 preter should disregard all authority un- 
 inspired ; and all readers ought to know 
 that there is no ultimate judge of contro- 
 versy but the original scriptures. By 
 the context and the natural force of the 
 original terms, we are shut up to this in- 
 terpretation, and must conclude that we 
 have in it the mind of the spirit. These 
 words do not teach a resurrection of the 
 body. 
 
 Paul makes evident allusion to the 
 resurrectionary character of Israel's re- 
 storation, in Romans xi., where he treats 
 of their cutting off and casting away, 
 and the incidental effects of it upon the 
 Gentiles. " Now if the fall of them be 
 the riches of the world ; and the dimi- 
 nishing of them be the riches of the 
 Gentiles, how much more their fulness 
 . . . if the casting away of them be the 
 reconciling of the world, what shall the 
 receiving of them be, but life from the 
 dead V Here is something very like a 
 resurrection: life from the dead. And 
 referring to the sense of several scrip- 
 tures, he says : " Awake, thou that sleep- 
 est, and arise from the dead, and Christ 
 shall give thee light." (Eph. v. 14.) 
 This, he intimates, is scriptural doctrine ; 
 the arousing of attention to the soul's 
 welfare is a resurrection ; but if on a 
 large scale, it may well be called, in 
 allusion to the raising of the body to life, 
 the first resurrection. 
 
 It may be well here to throw a diffi- 
 culty in the way of the Literalist's view 
 of Daniel xii. 2. They contend that a 
 resurrection of the bodies of the saints 
 
LECTURE XXXIV. 
 
 307 
 
 will occur at the commencement of the 
 millennium, and that the second resur- 
 rection will be of the bodies of the 
 wicked, after the close of the thousand 
 years. But if the awaking of these 
 sleepers from the dust of the earth be a 
 bodily resurrection, then it contains too 
 much for the Millenarians : because it 
 is expressly said, that some of the 
 sleepers shall awake to shame and ever- 
 lasting contempt. This therefore is a 
 resurrection of the wicked as well as of 
 the righteous, and consequently cannot 
 be referred to the first, if the first is only 
 that of the saints. 
 
 But again : the awaking from sleep is 
 one and the same, in reference to both 
 parts of the awakened ; many shall 
 awake, and of these many, some to life, 
 and some to shame and everlasting con- 
 tempt : clearly therefore, there is not 
 an intervention of a thousand years be- 
 tween the awaking of the former and 
 that of the latter. They awake at the 
 same time, and consequently this text 
 is not only unavailing to the pre-millen- 
 nial theory, — it is fatal to it. If this text 
 teaches a bodily resurrection, it cer- 
 tainly comprehends both righteous and 
 wicked ; and it is pre-millennial. We 
 conclude that it contains not this doc- 
 trine ; but simply affirms a great awa- 
 kening to the subject of religion, which 
 eventuates in the conversion of vast 
 multitudes to God ; whilst many, who 
 are aroused up for a time, fall back to 
 perdition. 
 
 But the Literalist objects, that if we 
 deny the first resurrection to be bodily, 
 the same mode of interpretation will lead 
 us to deny the second also. 
 
 We reply, that no second resurrection 
 is any where spoken of in the Bible, and 
 we think even this fact no small evi- 
 dence, that there is not a first and a se- 
 cond bodily rising from the dead. But 
 farther: there are abundant scriptures, 
 and of great variety, which declare that 
 the bodies of saints and sinners shall be 
 raised from the dust of death. Jesus 
 raised from the dead Lazarus, the 
 widow's son, and himself, literally, and 
 under circumstances to cut off all possi- 
 bility of gainsaying, and to prove by 
 
 facts the doctrine which he had previ. 
 ously proved from Moses. It therefore 
 appears to us, that Bishop Newton's and 
 the Literalist's fears are groundless. 
 There can no injury result to scripture 
 doctrine by contrasting their plain and 
 obvious meaning. If we have been 
 wrong in our apprehensions of their 
 meaning, let us not fear to rectify the 
 error. God's word is perfect and consis- 
 tent with itself. 
 
 In conclusion, observe : 
 
 1. The ministry of the pure gospel 
 are the appropriate agents for rescuing 
 the world from the dominion of Satan ; 
 they only can bind the dragon, thrust 
 him down into the abyss, and lock him 
 in. Civil rulers may bind the bodies of 
 men, and inflict punishment upon them 
 for crime committed ; but to chain the 
 spirit, to curb the licentious passions, to 
 bring the self-will of man under the 
 power of law, and to prevent the perpetra- 
 tion of iniquity bytheimplantationofholy 
 dispositions, they are not the appropriate 
 agents ; this is the work assigned by the 
 Author of spirits to the spiritual teach- 
 ers whom he has sent into all the world, 
 to preach the gospel to every creature. 
 
 2. Nearly allied to this is our second 
 remark, that there is no cure for the 
 maladies of our sinful world, but the 
 balm in Gilead, and no efficient applier, 
 but the Physician there. The doctrines 
 of the gospel reach the heart, and rescue 
 man from the tyranny of crime ; and so, 
 from the power of Satan : and thus the 
 enemy of souls is bouad. His power to 
 deceive the nations is taken away by the 
 blessed light of the glorious gospel. 
 
 3. We may conclude from these verses, 
 that there is an actual confinement and 
 limitation of Satan ; he is localized and 
 prevented from roaming abroad. Cre- 
 ated spirit has, necessarily, a local 
 habitation ; it cannot be present in two 
 places at once, however rapid its passage 
 from one place to another. Besides this, 
 Satan is to be imprisoned. God has per- 
 mitted him, thus far, to walk abroad 
 through our world. Whether this license 
 extends beyond our globe, we are not 
 informed ; but certain it is, that such 
 permit he has long enjoyed on the earth 
 
LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 and in the air. Yet this extends not to 
 all and every kind of action for evil. He 
 is restricted by the divine power, and 
 cannot do every thing which his malig- 
 nity prompts. As in the case of Job, he 
 was kept from destroying his life, so, we 
 may well believe, in all cases, that his 
 limit is marked out; his bounds are fixed, 
 which he cannot pass, to harm the church 
 or any of its members. This is by an 
 invisible operation of the divine power, 
 as is implied in that petition of the Lord's 
 prayer, "deliver us from the evil one." 
 But the language before us goes farther 
 than this : his power to hurt is restrain- 
 ed within different limits for the thousand 
 years : yea, his person is arrested : the 
 privilege of walking to and fro through 
 the earth is cut off, and the sanction of 
 law seals his imprisonment. 
 
 It were vain for us to inquire where 
 this abyss is ; sufficient let it be for us 
 to know that the arch-fiend will be so 
 bruised under the feet of the gospel mi- 
 nistry, that the church will enjoy a mil- 
 lennium of blessedness, free from his 
 accursed machinations. 
 
 4. The millennial spirit is essentially 
 a Popery-hating spirit : it is the spirit of 
 the martyrs, who have not worshipped 
 the beast, nor his image, neither received 
 his mark in their hands or upon their 
 foreheads. Such are they who shall live 
 and reign with Christ. The admirers 
 of despotism and Popery, yea, even those 
 who palliate and apologize for her abo- 
 minations, shall then be unknown. But 
 those who abhor her iniquities and re- 
 joice at her overthrow shall be blessed, 
 and being priests of God and of Christ, 
 shall reign with him a thousand years. 
 
 LECTURE XXXV. 
 
 POST-MILLENNIAL SCENES PERMANENT 
 
 STATE OF EARTH AND OF MAN. 
 
 Once more in the close of these lec- 
 tures let me remind you that they are 
 not prophecy, but only expository of 
 prophecy. It must have been observed 
 
 ;" his predictions will 
 their true and proper 
 
 frequently, that when we came to speak 
 of matters yet future, we used a guarded 
 language. We stated probabilities, and 
 about the time and in the manner men- 
 tioned. But we do not prophesy. The 
 propriety of repeating this caution here 
 will be evident, if you will but reflect 
 how often the scripture predictions them- 
 selves have suffered from the confidence 
 of interpreters, and the disappointment 
 of readers ; and this bad logic which 
 substitutes the inspiration of man in the 
 room of the inspired prophecy, and then 
 concludes from the expositor's mistakes, 
 that the words of inspiration have no 
 certain meaning. We are therefore ex- 
 ceedingly anxious, that the distinction 
 should be clearly made between our 
 opinions and the teachings of God's 
 holy word. " Let God be true, but 
 every man a liar 
 all be fulfilled in 
 
 sense, notwithstanding our errors and 
 mistakes. 
 
 Let these repetitions have full applica- 
 tion for the present Lecture. With cau- 
 tion we should always speak of the 
 future, where the language of inspiration 
 is in any degree obscure, and its mean- 
 ing doubtful ; with peculiar seriousness 
 and awe upon our spirits, when many 
 points are thus uncertain around a sub- 
 ject so solemn, important, and grand. 
 The final judgment, — the eternal doom 
 of man,— the closing scene in earth's 
 revolutions, — the most transcendent dis- 
 play of Messiah's glory and power, — 
 the permanent, the everlasting results of 
 his whole mediatorial service, in the fu- 
 ture and unchangeable condition of our 
 globe ! In view of such subjects, let us 
 keep our eyes upon that which is writ- 
 ten, and be cautious how we attempt to 
 go beyond it. 
 
 It is not our design to give a full ex- 
 position of these two chapters : but only 
 to seize the leading points presented in 
 them and in parallel predictions; and 
 to hold them up in such terms of gene- 
 rality and probability as shall be con- 
 sistent with the preceding caution ; pre- 
 fixing a remark or two not comprehended 
 in these chapters. 
 
 The first of these relates to the place 
 
LECTURE XXXV. 
 
 309 
 
 of the general judgment. Where will 
 Messiah's great white throne be esta- 
 blished, when before him shall be ga- 
 thered all nations ? Will it be on earth, 
 in heaven, or in the air? 
 
 This inquiry calls our attention to 
 Zechariah's words : " And his feet shall 
 stand in that day upon the Mount of 
 Olives, which is before Jerusalem on 
 the east, and the Mount of Olives shall 
 cleave in the midst thereof toward the 
 east and toward the west, and there 
 shall be a very great valley." (Ch. xiv. 
 4.) This passage and Ezek. xi. 23, 
 where is described the glory of the Lord 
 as going up from the midst of the city 
 and standing on the mount which is on 
 the east of Jerusalem, — the Mount of 
 Olives, is with plausibility used in favour 
 of the pre-millennial advent. The same 
 may be said of Ezek. xliii. 7, where the 
 Lord speaks of" the place of his throne 
 and the place of the soles of his feet, 
 where he will dwell with the children of 
 Israel for ever." All these, however, are 
 highly figurative, and we must not allow 
 ourselves to speak with confidence. A 
 candid and prayerful reading of them, 
 and of such others as represent Jerusa- 
 lem as the throne of his glory for ever, 
 will probably induce to the opinion, that 
 the second personal advent and the ge- 
 neral judgment, will occur near to the 
 place where the Saviour was last seen 
 by his disciples. What modifications 
 of the whole surface of the surrounding 
 lands and mountains may be effected 
 by his divine power, we cannot say. 
 But the judgment of reason finds an ob- 
 vious propriety in the manifestation of 
 his glory being made on the very spot 
 where his humiliation occurred, and 
 where his enemies for a time triumphed. 
 Without attempting to fix upon the 
 precise locality, we may advocate the 
 opinion that the judgment will take 
 place upon earth, from the general ex- 
 pressions used in reference to it, as the 
 object of Christ's coming. The Bible 
 often speaks of his coming to judge the 
 world, which obviously implies the ac- 
 complishment of that solemn service, 
 here. If not here, then to accomplish 
 it, he must go away, instead of coming. 
 
 Difficulties may be raised in the way 
 of this opinion. How could the literal 
 coming, and the literal erection of a 
 throne, and the literal arraignment of the 
 human race, — how could all this occur 
 on any one area? Where is the space for 
 so immense a court-room ? In view of 
 such interrogations, we only reply, that 
 all difficulties arising from our ignorance 
 merely, ought to have little weight. The 
 King will find a throne and a place for 
 it ; the necessary area for the parties 
 judged, and all the other requisites for 
 the completion of his glorious work. Let 
 us leave the detail to him, to be revealed 
 in due season. 
 
 It is probable, that after the judgment 
 is past, the saints, now justified, will be 
 lifted up from the earth ; and will remain 
 for a time separated from it. They are, 
 at this juncture, possessed of spiritual 
 bodies, incapable of dissolution, and in- 
 dependent of material support and sub- 
 sistence. Where? how long shall they 
 remain ? how to be sustained ? how em- 
 ployed? are inquiries we are not curious 
 to answer; we will rather advert to the 
 scriptures which seem to sustain the 
 opinion of their ascension. 
 
 Paul, in 1 Thess. iv. 13-17, endeavours 
 to allay certain fears and sorrows of be- 
 lievers, relative to the departed Chris- 
 tians ; he states the doctrine of Christ's 
 second personal advent, as we have al- 
 ready seen ; that of the resurrection of 
 the dead ; and, omitting to "mention the 
 change of the bodies of the living be- 
 lievers from gross flesh and matter to 
 spiritual bodies, (which he mentions in 
 1 Cor. xv. 51,) he proceeds, "Then we 
 which are alive and remain, shall be 
 caught up together with them (the raised 
 dead believers) in the clouds, to meet the 
 Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be 
 with the Lord." 
 
 The expression in the preceding verse, 
 — " the dead in Christ shall rise first," 
 has been applied improperly, by the 
 Literalists to prove the doctrine of a first 
 and a second bodily resurrection. Doc- 
 tor Wardlaw's criticism is, undoubtedly, 
 sound and true ; viz. that first, refers to 
 the ascension of the living. We who 
 are alive at the coming of the Lord shall 
 
310 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 not prevent, anticipate, go before them 
 which are lying in their graves. On the 
 contrary, the dead in Christ shall rise 
 first: they shall come up out of their 
 graves before the living shall ascend : 
 then (fwsim,-) afterwards ; first the rais- 
 ing of the dead, afterwards the ascen- 
 sion of dead and living, now both pos- 
 sessed of spiritual bodies. This is the 
 true sense, and the Literalists' attempt to 
 explain it away is an utter failure and 
 cannot be justified. 
 
 This context shows, that the saints, 
 raised from the dead and changed into 
 spiritual bodies, are caught up into the 
 clouds. The same word is used here, 
 as is employed when Plilip was caught 
 away by the spirit, after the baptism of 
 the Ethiopian prince. In like manner 
 Paul was caught up to the third heavens, 
 (2 Cor. xii. 24.) The man-child, (Rev. 
 xii. 5,) was caught up to God and to his 
 throne. Elijah was often carried thus 
 from place to place. It is idle, therefore, 
 to raise difficulty about the physical pos- 
 sibility of the thing. The law of gravi- 
 tation is the will of God, and he may 
 dispense with it or modify it at pleasure. 
 
 All the scriptures that speak of the 
 burning of the world, may be referred 
 to, as proof that the saints are first re- 
 moved from it. In Matt. xxv. we are 
 told that these shall go away into ever- 
 lasting punishment, into the lake that 
 burns with fire and brimstone ; but the 
 righteous into life eternal ; that is, shall 
 go away, he does not say, ascend or go 
 upward, but it is a reverse departure 
 from that of the wicked, which is down- 
 ward. 
 
 Correspondent with this idea is the 
 language of our context: " I, John, saw 
 the holy city, new Jerusalem coming 
 down from God out of heaven ;" it must 
 therefore have gone up previously. We 
 submit it then, whether it be not highly 
 probable, that after the sentence of judg- 
 ment, the saints and their Redeemer- 
 Judge, do rise from the earth and pass 
 away in glorious triumph from all its 
 pollutions, to dwell for a time in some 
 other portion of his vast empire. But 
 we may be aided to a correct opinion by 
 our next remark. 
 
 Immediately after the final judgment, 
 and the ascent of the righteous, this 
 globe will be overwhelmed in a deluge 
 of fire; and this will be the commence- 
 ment of that burning which will never 
 cease upon the persons of the finally 
 impenitent and unbelieving. Thus their 
 punishment begins on the very earth 
 where they have so often seemed to 
 triumph : and indeed, at this very last 
 departure of the Saviour and his people, 
 seemed to triumph. For, it may be, 
 that at the pronunciation, as it were, of 
 the sentence, the fiends of hell and the 
 apostate sons of Adam, who are in the 
 league and condemnation with them, will 
 make a rush upon the saints to destroy 
 them ; upon which, the almighty power 
 of their Lord will lift them up from their 
 foes on earth, and carry them away in 
 glory. This hint is thrown out, not as 
 an opinion even, but as a possibility, 
 and as a thing suggested by the phrase, 
 caught up. The scriptural use of the 
 original, is in application to snatching 
 away by force, to prevent another from 
 having and possessing the thing borne 
 away. We refer to all the cases, and 
 leave them to be examined at leisure. 
 Matt. xi. 12; xiii. 19; John vi. 15; 
 x. 12, 28, 29 ; Acts viii. 39 ; xxiii. 10 ; 
 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4 ; 1 Thess. iv. 17 ; Jude 
 23 ; Rev. xii. 5. As Enoch was snatched 
 away from the outstretched hands of his 
 persecutors, so perhaps may it be with 
 the righteous, from the judgment seat 
 and from earth. 
 
 But however this may be, certain it 
 is, that this globe shall be subjected to 
 a fearful and fiery catastrophe, — a real 
 conflagration. The account of this matter 
 given in 2 Peter ch. hi., precludes the 
 possibility of a figurative interpretation. 
 " The day of the Lord will come as a 
 thief in the night ; in the which the 
 heavens shall pass away with a great 
 noise, and the elements shall melt with 
 fervent heat; the earth also, and the works 
 that are therein shall be burned up." 
 The preceding context shows that this 
 must be understood literally; for it is 
 directly compared with the destruction 
 by the flood of waters, and he argues 
 that so certainly shall it be dissolved by 
 
LECTURE XXXV. 
 
 311 
 
 a flood of fire. The apostle is answer- 
 ing the taunts of unbelievers in our day 
 as well as his own. These argued as 
 those did, from the apparent delay (ren- 
 dered apparent by their own ignorance 
 in misunderstanding the promise itself,) 
 of the promised coming of Christ ; 
 " Where is the promise of his coming ? 
 for since the fathers fell asleep, all 
 things continue as they were from the 
 beginning of the creation. For this they 
 willingly are ignorant of that by the 
 word of God (the creating logos, Jesus,) 
 the heavens were of old, and the earth 
 standing out of the water and in the 
 water; whereby the world that then 
 was, being overflowed with water, pe- 
 rished : but the heavens and the earth, 
 which are now, by the same word, (the 
 divine logos,) are kept in store, reserved 
 unto fire, against the day of judgment 
 and perdition of ungodly men." If the 
 deluge was a literal flood of water, this 
 must be a literal flood of fire. But the 
 water did not annihilate the matter of 
 the globe. It modified its form, and 
 left it as the habitation of man, who, 
 having floated his destined period, de- 
 scended and re-occupied it. 
 
 What changes the fire may effect in 
 the structure of the globe, perhaps even 
 modern geology may find it difficult to 
 surmise ; but doubtless such, and only 
 such, as God wills. Nor can we be 
 censured as indulging in speculation 
 and fancy, if we suppose he will make 
 it, by this agency, a beautiful and a 
 glorious world, excelling, if possible, 
 that new and fair creation which he 
 pronounced very good, but which Satan 
 and sin soon defaced and deformed. He 
 will make it a fit abode for holy beings, 
 possessed of spiritual bodies. 
 
 Peter speaks a language here which 
 places this idea above the category of 
 probabilities. "Nevertheless, we, ac- 
 cording to his promise, look for new 
 heavens and a new earth, wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness." He has just 
 described the dissolution of the elobe 
 and its reduction to a fiery chaos. The 
 heavens being on fire shall be loosened, 
 separated one portion from another; and 
 the elements, — the primary particles of 
 
 matter, — burning shall liquefy, shall 
 flow in a liquid state. 
 
 We come now directly to the chapters 
 cited at the head of this lecture. After 
 this fiery process, we, believing God's 
 promise, expect new heavens, far brighter 
 and more glorious than those which now 
 shine with so much beauty. The grosser 
 matter that now hides from our view the 
 chief splendours of Jehovah's works, 
 will be removed from our atmosphere ; 
 or rather the atmosphere itself will give 
 place to a new element, which will let 
 in upon our dark world all the glories 
 of the eternal throne. This new heaven 
 and new earth are mentioned in the xxi. 
 chapter before us. " And I saw a new 
 heaven and a new earth ; for the first 
 heaven and the first earth were passed 
 away; and there was no more sea." 
 We have not here so much detail as in 
 Peter's description of the physical ac- 
 commodations for the renovated and 
 redeemed church ; it being the leading 
 purpose of the Spirit to describe the 
 spiritual heaven or church : he therefore 
 simply says, that the first heaven, and 
 earth, and sea, are no more ; but there 
 is a new order of things physical, adapted 
 to the new order spiritual ; which last 
 he immediately proceeds to describe. 
 
 " And I, John, saw the holy city, new 
 Jerusalem, coming down from God out 
 of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned 
 for her husband." 
 
 As Noah and the infant church were 
 caught up in the ark, and again de- 
 scended to the earth ; so the whole body 
 of God's redeemed, who were caught up 
 immediately before the universal deluge 
 of fire, will again descend and take up 
 their residence upon the renovated earth, 
 and there they will abide for ever. Peter 
 informs us that in this new earth right- 
 eousness dwelleth. On this idea, the 
 apocalyptic vision enlarges very fully. 
 From verse second to verse eighth in- 
 clusive, it exhibits the beauty, felicity, 
 and glory of this redeemed multitude; 
 their nearness to God, his abode with 
 them, his kindness to them, their freedom 
 from all pain, anguish, sorrow, death ; 
 the faithfulness of their Redeemer, the 
 abundant communication of all spiritual 
 
312 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 joys ; and the utter banishment, or ex- 
 clusion of all workers of iniquity from 
 the renewed world, into "the lake which 
 burnetii with fire and brimstone : which 
 is the second death." 
 
 Again : from verse ninth to verse fifth 
 in the next chapter, the same things are 
 brought forward, in a highly figurative, 
 but very beautiful description, in which 
 the renovated church is spoken of as 
 " the bride, the Lamb's wife," and sym- 
 bolized by a great city, constructed of 
 costly gems, in allusion to the twelve 
 tribes and twelve apostles, and the repre- 
 sentation of them by precious stones. 
 This gorgeous description, we cannot 
 enter upon in detail . it is well calculated 
 to impress the mind with a sense of the 
 beauty, glory, and perfection of that 
 happy world. 
 
 We may note, however, particularly, 
 the pure river of the water of life, clear 
 as crystal, proceeding out of the throne 
 of God and of the Lamb, as the stand- 
 ing scripture type of the Spirit and his 
 heavenly consolations : the tree of life 
 yielding twelve kinds of fruits, or rather 
 twelve fruits, fruit for every month, as 
 an emblem of Christ in his health-giving 
 and life-preserving influences; the pre- 
 sence of the God and Lamb, upon his 
 throne, reigning over an obedient and 
 adoring world ; and the effulgence of its 
 light as emanating from the Lord God, 
 even the Lamb. 
 
 This, it appears to us, is the true, pro- 
 per, and full meaning of those scriptures 
 which speak of the saints inheriting the 
 earth. Disposed to repine at the pros- 
 perity of the wicked, and their iniquitous 
 plots, David admonishes himself, or the 
 Lord admonishes him, not to murmur, 
 "For evil-doers shall be cut oft"; but 
 those that wait upon the Lord, they shall 
 inherit the earth. For yet a little while, 
 and the wicked shall not be ; yea, thou 
 shalt diligently consider his place, and it 
 shall not be. But the meek shall inhe- 
 rit the earth." (Ps. xxxvii. 8, 9, 10, 22; 
 Isa. Ix. 21; lxv. 9; Matt. v. 5.) "Blessed 
 are the meek, for they shall inherit the 
 earth." " But the saints of the Most 
 High shall take the kingdom, and shall 
 possess the kingdom for ever, even for 
 
 ever and ever." " And the kingdom and 
 dominion, and the greatness of the king- 
 dom under the whole heaven, shall be 
 given to the people of the saints of the 
 Most High, whose kingdom is an ever- 
 lasting kingdom, and all dominions shall 
 serve and obey him." (Dan. vii. 18, 27.) 
 
 Other texts, almost innumerable, there 
 are, which bear in the same direction, 
 and many of which, like these, do not 
 seem to admit of any natural and uncon- 
 strained interpretation, but the one we 
 propose. We therefore feel shut up to 
 the opinion of a literal restoration of the 
 earth, in a purified and probably in a 
 vastly enlarged form, to man, and of 
 man to the earth. Other reasons may 
 be given besides the plain and literal ex- 
 pressions of scripture. 
 
 As already observed incidentally, the 
 natural operation of fire is not to annihi- 
 late even the combustible bodies : it only 
 changes the form. The burnt body still 
 exists in its elements ; not one particle of 
 its matter is annihilated. On the sup- 
 position of the earth's never afterwards 
 becoming the habitation of man, the ques- 
 tion would arise, to what use will it be 
 appropriated ? Will it abide for ever, a 
 fiery chaos, and the residence of the 
 wicked? If so, how will the advocates 
 of this hypothesis explain the texts above 
 quoted ? If it do not continue the abode 
 and place of punishment of the wicked, 
 nor the beautified and glorious habitation 
 of the righteous, will it remain for ever 
 a globe of chaotic liquid fire? 
 
 To both these hypotheses we state the 
 insuperable objection, which may be con- 
 sidered the second general reason for our 
 opinion ; that for the earth to abide the 
 hell of the wicked, or a desolate chaos, 
 would be a triumph to Satan. The Re- 
 deemer leaves the battle-field in posses- 
 sion of the enemy. A portion of earth's 
 inhabitants, indeed, he bears to another 
 and a happier sphere ; but still the fact 
 that a world is desolated by sin, stands 
 a gloomy memorial of Satan's success. 
 Whereas, on the supposition of its puri- 
 fication, and of redeemed man, and his 
 glorious Redeemer returning and abid- 
 ing interminably upon it, in a state of 
 felicity superior to that which Satan at 
 
LECTURE XXXV. 
 
 313 
 
 first disturbed, the triumph of God the 
 Saviour over the powers of hell has here 
 an everlasting monument. And, though 
 a small portion of the human family are 
 still under the adversary's tyranny, yet 
 he and they are banished from the world, 
 or at least from its beautified exterior, 
 into the place of endless torment. 
 
 We may possibly be asked, whither 
 Satan and his legions are to be driven, 
 and where is the place of their abode ? 
 If the querist will tell us where the abyss 
 is, we may possibly be able to answer 
 his query. Is the abyss, or ^bottomless 
 pit, where Satan is to be chained a thou- 
 sand years, within the earth, or is it in 
 some other sphere ? Should the former 
 opinion be entertained, our answer is 
 obvious. God may continue the prison 
 of apostate spirits within the body of 
 our earth. A vast concave, subterra- 
 nean, sulphureous habitation may now 
 exist, " prepared for the devil and his 
 angels, where they shall be tormented 
 day and night for ever and ever." These 
 apostate spirits are not omnipresent, they 
 have a local habitation, and that in the 
 aggregate. They are driven away in 
 company ; and the natural presumption 
 is, that they abide for ever together, 
 mutual torments to each other. Their 
 locality will be such as most effectually 
 to subserve the ends of eternal justice ; 
 and for aught appears, the idea that the 
 abyss may be within the earth, and may 
 be the everlasting prison of lost souls, 
 is congruous in itself and not incon- 
 sistent with scripture. Equally so is 
 the idea that the surface of the globe 
 may be the inheritance of the saints for 
 ever. These would seem to answer the 
 ends of justice and to justify the divine 
 government of the victorious Messiah. 
 
 But again : these thoughts lead us on 
 to the magnificent conception, that this 
 earth of ours may be the battle-ground 
 of the moral universe, — the vast and 
 only field on which the war of sin 
 against holiness is to be brought to a 
 final issue. God may have selected this, 
 out of a thousand worlds, as the theatre 
 on which he would permit moral evil to 
 enter, and to come in collision with ho- 
 liness, with the view of exhibiting the 
 
 40 
 
 otherwise unknown attribute of mercy 
 in bold contrast with justice. Who will 
 affirm that sin has ever appeared in 
 other spheres, — that the Son of God 
 has been sent to quell insurrection in 
 other departments of Jehovah's bound- 
 less domain ? Who will deny the pos- 
 sibility of this being the only revolted 
 province of God's empire, — the only 
 one to which a Saviour could be sent, — 
 the only one wherein the Son of God 
 could be born and live, serve and suffer, 
 bleed and die, rise and reign in eternal 
 union with a created nature? Who can 
 assert that the organization of this mun- 
 dane system, for such a purpose, might 
 not give occasion meet for the morning 
 stars to sing together and all the sons of 
 God to shout for joy ? And who then 
 can aver, that the glorious idea of Jesus 
 Christ being a confirming head of in- 
 fluences to the whole moral universe, is 
 a mere conception of fancy '? 
 
 To us, this idea appears too magnifi- 
 cent to have had its origin in created 
 intellect. If not taught in the sacred 
 scriptures expressly, at least it is by 
 implication. Doctrines are laid down, 
 less or more distinctly, which imply and 
 suggest it. In his Epistle to the He- 
 brews, Paul takes occasion to repel the 
 arguments against the Messiahship of 
 Jesus of Nazareth, grounded on his low 
 condition at his first advent, and the 
 catastrophe with which he closed his 
 brief career among men. He avers that 
 such a life and such a death were not 
 inconsistent with the glory of his cha- 
 racter, if the relations in which he stood 
 be taken into consideration. He was 
 sent by God the Father on a most im- 
 portant mission ; the final cause or ulti- 
 mate end of which was to reveal the 
 glorious attribute of God's mercy, whilst 
 he should sustain unsullied the throne 
 of his justice. 
 
 The moral universe had an illustration 
 of divine justice in the punishment of 
 the angels who kept not their first estate; 
 and a display of the divine goodness in 
 the blessedness of all those who retained 
 their integrity. But the coalescing of 
 these two in mercy to the lost, had not 
 yet been held up to their admiring gaze. 
 
314 
 
 LECTURES ON PROPHECY. 
 
 Now, to exhibit the meeting of justice 
 and mercy, in, upon, and in relation to 
 the same moral beings, was the object 
 of this world's creation and of our 
 Lord's mission to it, including all that 
 followed. Standing in such relations 
 both to God, to man, and to the universe 
 of intelligent creatures, the humiliation 
 of Christ is not inconsistent with the 
 character of God as the creator and 
 governor of all worlds. On the con- 
 trary, "it became him, for whom are all 
 things, and by whom are all things, in 
 bringing many sons into glory, to make 
 the Captain of their salvation perfect 
 through sufferings." (Heb. ii. 10.) The 
 end does not sanctify the means. But 
 if the end be right and worthy of the 
 great God, and nothing subversive of 
 the principles of his law and govern- 
 ment be found in the. means, and they 
 be well adapted to ensure the end, all is 
 right and consistent. Such is the case 
 here. The end is the bringing of many 
 sons unto glory, — the display of God's 
 mercy in the salvation of the lost. This 
 is right and worthy of that Being who 
 is light and love. The means are the 
 humiliation, suffering, and death of his 
 own Son. Is there nothing wrong in this? 
 Not if that Son is the Lord of life, and 
 voluntarily surrenders his life for the 
 accomplishment, of so glorious a purpose. 
 And such is the truth. Jesus gives him- 
 self up most willingly to death, for us 
 all. Being Lord of life, he might lay it 
 down of himself, and resume it again. 
 
 Now, that these means were well 
 adapted to accomplish the end, the whole 
 gospel revelation, and the experience of 
 redeemed millions, plainly testify ; con- 
 sequently, there is a beautiful and glo- 
 rious consistency of the entire humilia- 
 tion of the Son of God, with the cha- 
 racter of God himself as he stands re- 
 lated to the whole creation. "It became 
 him," as the final cause and end of all 
 things, " for whom are all things ;" and 
 " it became him," as the efficient cause, 
 the creator, upholder, and governor of 
 all things, " by whom are all things," to 
 accomplish this work by these means. 
 Here we have the grand idea. God's 
 relation to the whole universe makes 
 
 it proper and becoming that he should 
 save sinners by his Son's death. This 
 death and its consequences are happily 
 adjusted and adapted to the other depart- 
 ments of the divine administration. 
 
 Two modes of this adaptation may 
 "be mentioned,— two ways in which the 
 death of Christ materially affects the 
 whole moral creation. First, it gives 
 the highest conceivable evidence of the 
 immutability of God's justice ; and thus 
 gives confirmation to rational intelli- 
 gence, that he will never change the 
 principle pf his government ; but sin 
 shall always be punished, and holiness 
 always be rewarded. If he would not 
 relax the strict claims of his law, in the 
 case of his own Son under his assump- 
 tion of the sins of men which he bore, 
 can it be supposed that he will ever 
 relax ? If he spared not the man that 
 groaned in Calvary, amid tears and 
 sweat and blood, appealing to a father's 
 love, whom will he ever spare when sin 
 lies upon him ? In like manner, if he 
 will reward with everlasting consolation, 
 the righteous, even though righteous by 
 the robes of the Saviour's procurement 
 and gift, and the washings of his spirit, 
 and not by their own personal merits, 
 who, that are righteous, will he ever 
 cast off? Thus holy angels are con- 
 firmed in their assured hope ; and, may 
 it not be that inhabitants of other worlds 
 may be informed of these things, and be 
 thus established in their trust and confi- 
 dence ? 
 
 The other mode of giving confirma- 
 tion to the moral universe may be this 
 new form of manifesting the love of 
 God. A question might arise, a fear 
 spring up in the bosom of holy angels, 
 upon their perceiving some apostatizing 
 and cast out of heaven, whether such 
 might not be ultimately their own fate. 
 What security have we that these crowns 
 of glory we shall always wear, that these 
 harps of praise shall always in our hands 
 be tuned to celebrate the divine perfec- 
 tions ? May we not also fall ? If such 
 is the nature of God's love, that he per- 
 mitted some angels to fall, oh, where is 
 our assurance that it may not be thus 
 with us ? If man in yonder world has 
 
LECTURE XXXV. 
 
 315 
 
 been left to sin and die, are we beyond 
 the possibility of so dreadful a doom ? 
 Where is the expression of God's love, 
 to which we can betake ourselves for 
 security against such fears, and safety 
 against such danger ? 
 
 To these anxious palpitations in an- 
 gelic bosoms, we may well suppose, the 
 promises pledged in the councils of eter- 
 nity for man's redemption, would give 
 direction toward Calvary. Of the mis- 
 sion of the Son of God to our world, the 
 holy angels cannot be supposed igno- 
 rant. They knew its object was to de- 
 stroy the works of Satan : and though 
 many things about his work they did but 
 dimly conceive, yet enough was known 
 to produce a feeling of intense interest. 
 Such an embassage, for such an object, 
 must enlist every holy feeling of the im- 
 mortal nature. Accordingly, Messiah be- 
 comes the archangel in the war upon Sa- 
 tan and his legions : he leads the trains 
 of light down to this revolted province. 
 Is it conceivable, that they shall minister 
 unto him and fight under his command, 
 and yet feel no interest in the result ? 
 Assuredly, they stood in close squadrons 
 around Gethsemane in the dark hour of 
 hell's last assault. Assuredly, they 
 clustered round his <cross, when man 
 forsook him and fled. Assuredly, they 
 escorted his pure spirit to the abodes of 
 
 bliss. Assuredly, they hovered over the 
 sepulchre, and when he burst the mortal 
 bondage of the grave, they felt that all 
 was safe. Now our crowns are secure 
 forever. That love which struggled and 
 bled and groaned and died for rebels, 
 will never cast us off. Oh, does it not 
 become the moral Governor of the uni- 
 verse to make the Captain of our salva- 
 tion perfect through sufferings ? Is not 
 he a confirming head to that universe? 
 What a magnificence does this throw 
 around Gethsemane and Calvary ! In 
 what splendour does it array the globe 
 we inhabit ! Polluted indeed, and de- 
 based, it has been and is, by sin ; but 
 renovated it shall be, and radiant with 
 the splendour of Messiah's throne, it 
 shall shine evermore the brightest star 
 in the galaxy of heaven ! 
 
 Sinner, dost thou wish to occupy a 
 place in this glorious world? Does thy 
 heart aspire to this blessedness? Then 
 hearken now to the accents of mercy. 
 " I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to 
 testify unto you these things in the 
 churches. I am the Root of David, the 
 bright and morning star. And the Spirit 
 and the bride say, Come. And let him 
 that heareth say, Come. And let him 
 that is athirst, come : and whosoever 
 will, let him take the water of life 
 freely !" 
 


 
 I N D E X. 
 
 Axtar of burnt-offerings, symbolic meaning, 
 
 122, 141. 
 Alaric, his descent, 143, invasion of Greece, 
 143. 
 proclaimed King of the Visigoths, 143. 
 his death, 145. 
 Alexander the Great, conquests, 42, 49. 
 Albigenses, persecutions of, 220. 
 Antiochus the Great, 52, 54. 
 Arcadius, Emperor of Constantinople, his treaty 
 
 with Alaric, 143. 
 Arianism, its rise and persecuting spirit, 74, 
 
 152. 
 Apollyon of Revelation explained, 153. 
 Ark of the Covenant, its type, 200. 
 Assyrian kingdom, 28. 
 Athanasius persecuted by the Arians, 136. 
 Attila invades Gaul, 145 ; Italy, 145. 
 Balances, symbolic meaning of, 116. 
 Baptism, use of cross in, 137, 138. 
 Babylon, description of, 29 ; Calmet's account, 
 30. 
 Jews' captivity, time of, 19. 
 Barbarian invasions, 143. 
 Beasts of Daniel, — first, 37 ; second, 40 ; third, 
 41 ; fourth, 62. 
 of John, living creatures, 95, 98. 
 of the sea, and of the earth, 209. 
 Belisarius, general under Justinian, 211. 
 Black, emblematical meaning, 116. 
 Boheira or Sergius, the Nestorian Aonk, 151. 
 Book, large rolled, 165. 
 
 little, expounded, 168. 
 Calvin, John, brief account of, 98. 
 Cherubim, their explanation, 98, 100, 103. 
 Church, its war aggressive, 113. 
 Charlemagne proclaimed and crowned King of 
 
 the Romans, 87. 
 Christianity, opposition to its progress, 132, 
 
 133. 
 Chalons, defeat of Attila by iEtius, 145. 
 Constantine the Great, his accession, establishes 
 Christianity as the religion of the em- 
 pire, 128, 129, 131. 
 founds Constantinople, 131. 
 Crown, symbol of ruling power, 94. 
 Crusades, their commencement, 161. 
 Cutahi captured by the Turks, 161. 
 
 Cyrus, his history, 35. 
 Cyril, an exposition by him, 85. 
 Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, 121. 
 Darius, the Mede, 47. 
 Death on the pale horse, 119. 
 Deism, teachers of, 107. 
 Denarius, its value, 117. 
 Demonology, characteristic of Popery, 160. 
 Diocesian Episcopacy, its origin, 217. 
 Dionysius, Bishop, Alexandria, 121. 
 Dominicans, persecutions by, 216. 
 Earth, symbolical, 114. 
 Earthquake, type of revolution, 126. 
 Elders, or presbyters, emblematic of, 106. 
 Edict of Nantz, revocation, and effects, 208. 
 Eusebius, his account of famines, 118; of per- 
 secutions, 123. 
 Eutychians, heretics, 152. 
 Faber, Bishop, on death of witnesses, 174. 
 
 on the sign of the cross, 224. 
 Franciscans, monks, 210. 
 Final judgment, place of, 301. 
 First resurrection, 300. 
 Galba, Emperor, revolt of, 109. 
 Gaul, invaded by Attila, the Hun, 145. 
 Genseric, invited into Italy, 146 ; invades Italy, 
 
 and sacks Rome, 147. 
 Government of Rome, various forms, 210, 261. 
 Gothic kingdom in Italy, its fall, 86, 87. 
 Gog, identity with the King of the North, 285, 
 286. 
 
 antichristian Rome, 288. 
 Gospel ministry, perpetual, 107. 
 
 its characteristics, 99. 
 Grotius, an opinion of, 64. 
 Heaven, symbolic meaning, 92. 
 Heira, Mohammed's retreat to, 77. 
 Horn of Daniel's prophetic fourth beast, 82. 
 Horse, type of, 111. 
 
 death on the pale, 119; white, 112; red, 
 113. 
 
 black, Keith's interpretation of, 116. 
 Infidelity, its aims in America, 208. 
 Irenaeus, his exposition, 228. 
 Jasper stone, symbolical, 93. 
 Jehoshaphat, war of the valley of, 286. 
 Jerusalem, taken by Omar, 79. 
 Jesuits, history, character, oath, 193, 194. 
 
318 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Jesuits, suppression of the order, 196; revival, 
 
 249, 250. 
 John, Apostle, his banishment, 92, 110. 
 Kameniec in Poland, taken by the Turks, 163. 
 King of many crowns, 273. 
 
 of the North, identity with Gog, 286. 
 of the South, 289. 
 Lateinos, name of the Papal power, 228. 
 Living creatures, 95. 
 
 Lloyd, Bishop, his list of the ten kingdoms, 69. 
 Licinius, marries the sister of Constantine, 129. 
 wars with Constantine, and death, 130, 131. 
 Lombard Kingdom, 83, 87. 
 Loyola Ignatius, founder of the order of Je- 
 suits, 194. 
 Luther before the Diet of Wurms, 98. 
 Machiavelli, his list of the ten kingdoms, 69. 
 Mark of the beast, what, 224. 
 Marcus Popilius Lenas, his embassage to Anti- 
 
 ochus the Great, 56. 
 Marathon, plain and battle, 46. 
 Marcus Antoninus, his persecutions, 115. 
 Martyrs, era of, 123. 
 Maximian, Emperor, death, 128. 
 Maxentius, Emperor, death of, 129. 
 Maximus, Emperor, accession, 146. 
 Megiddo, town and plain of, 252, 253. 
 Mercy-seat, symbolic meaning, 104. 
 Measuring reed, figurative meaning, 169. 
 Midst of the throne or street explained, 96. 
 Ministry of the gospel, characteristics, 98. 
 Michael, archangel, 202. 
 Mohammed, history of, religion, 75, 79. 
 Monasticism, its rise, 215. 
 Mountain, burning, explained, 146. 
 Nebuchadnezzar, his dream, 18; his image, 28; 
 
 the golden head of his image, 35. 
 Nero, Emperor, his persecutions, death, 109. 
 Nestorian heresy, — Sergius, a Nestorian monk, 
 
 152. 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, exposition, 67. 
 Newton, Bishop, various expositions of, 69. 
 
 234, 264. 
 Nimrod founds an empire, 29. 
 Nineveh, its origin, 30. 
 Oath, proper form, 167. 
 Odoacer, invasion of Italy, 148. 
 Origen, of Alexandria, corrupts religion, 75, 215. 
 Orleans, siege of, 145. 
 Ortogrul captures Cutahi, 161. 
 Othman founds the Ottoman Empire, 162. 
 ' Otho, Emperor, his defeat, 109. 
 Pelagian heresy, 207. 
 
 Periods, division of Apocalypse into, 109, 110. 
 Phocas, Emperor, declares the Pope universal 
 
 bishop, 73. 
 Plague, its desolations, 120. 
 Piedmontese, persecution and massacre of, 222. 
 Polentia, battle of, 144. 
 Poole, Matthew, his interpretation, 68. 
 Porphyry, his exposition of Daniel, 63. 
 Post-millennian scenes, 300. 
 
 Popery in America, 191. 
 Presbyters, their office, 99. 
 Prophecy, duty to study, 11. 
 Ptolemy, Philopater, his character, 52. 
 Radagaisus invades Italy, 144. 
 Reformation of the sixteenth century, 258. 
 Robinson, Professor, his description of the val- 
 ley of Jezreel, 253. 
 Rome, seven forms of government, 210, 261 , 262. 
 becomes a province of the eastern empire, 
 149. 
 Romish clergy classified, 215, 250. 
 Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor, falls as 
 
 a star, 148. 
 Sardius stone, figurative signification, 93. 
 Saracenic conquests, 153, 154. 
 Saxa Rubra, battle of, 129. 
 Seals, arrangement of* in the rolled book, 105 ; 
 chronology of, 109; first, 109 ; second, 113; 
 third, 115; fourth, 119; fifth, 121; sixth, 
 125, 134. 
 Second advent of Christ, 290 ; " Literalists' " 
 
 view of it, 295. 
 Seraphim, same as cherubim, 103. 
 Sealed book, its divisions, 108. 
 Seljukian Turks, history, 161. 
 Seven, number typical, 95. 
 Sigismund, Emperor, defeated, 162. 
 Silence in heaven, 139, 140. 
 Sismondi's history quoted, 220, 221. 
 Sobieski, John, defeats the Turks, is elected 
 
 King of Poland, saves Vienna, 163, 164. 
 Stilicho, Roman general, pursues Alaric into 
 
 Greece, 143 ; his death, 144. 
 Star, its symbolical meaning, 80, 147. 
 St. Bartholomew's massacre, 223. 
 Stone, the little, of Daniel, 22. 
 Theodosius the Great, his history, 140, 142. 
 Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, 145. 
 The latter days, meaning defined, 283. 
 Time of the end, its signification, 282. 
 Throne, representation of, 94. 
 Trajan, accession, persecutions by him, 114. 
 Trumpets, first, 142, 146; second, 146; third, 
 147; fourth, 149; fifth or first woe, 150; 
 sixth or second woe, 157; seventh or third 
 woe, 199, 245. 
 Valens, Emperor, his death, 140. 
 Valerian, fall of, 123. 
 Valentinian assassinated, 146. 
 Verona, bjfttle of, 144. 
 Venice, origin, 145. 
 Vespasian not the victor on the white horse, 
 
 110. 
 Vials, period first, 245 ; second, 245 ; third, 
 
 246; fourth, 246; fifth, 246; sixth, 247. 
 Vigilance characteristic of the ministry, 115. 
 Vitellius, Emperor, 109. 
 Witnesses, their office, death, resurrection, and 
 
 ascension, 173, 180. 
 Xerxes, 47. 
 Zuingle, 236, 237. 
 
 THE END.