^ '^ 1 o o v tt v ^ > % - V Six .>.** % <^o ,x •^ V r >r ^ I must positively assert he will; else this vial were not a judgment upon him and the Romish party. But if yet again the question be, when this is to fall out, and how? I must tell you, that I have nothing farther to add to what I have said as to the time. But as to the manner, how this is to be done, our text does lay a foundation for some more distinct thoughts. Therefore, in the fourth and last place, we may justly suppose, that the French monarchy, after it has scorched others, will itself consume by doing so ; its fire, and that which is the fuel that maintains it, wasting insensibly, till it be ex- hausted at last towards the end of this century. * Days in a Prophetical and Julian Year. Year One year 360 365 360 365 Two ditto 720 730 360 365 Three ditto ., 1080 1095 Half ditto 180.. , 183 1260 1278 12 This Prophetical Discourse of Robert Fleming, in 1 701, not only points to the overthrow of the French monarchy in 1794, and the fatal blow the papal authority will thereby receive, but likewise seems to look on them as they are at this day proving to be, — the forerunners of its rapid decline, and speedy downfall. The Visions and Predictions of J. Daut, delivered before the Senate at Frankfort. Extracted from a copy translated from the Dutch; printed 1711. And the Lord God showed me, in a vision of the night, a certain spiritual person, who was a virgin, and had a great printed table in her hand, which she held twice before my eyes, in which I saw written, Great Pestilence ! and within, round about the brim or verge, stood cities and men described in their forms, and by them stood written the names of the several places and men. And Great Pestilence was written round about the whole edge, as one city stood after another; the one was marked for the plague* the other not ; and one man was marked out for the plague, another not. Thus it was round about the mar- gin. And a voice cried unto me, Death is come 13 in at their windows ! And the virgin that held the table said unto me, I will now go away, and declare unto all men in the cities and countries, the judgment of the plague. And I saw her depart, and cry out unto cities and countries to repent; for the Lord would smite them with great pestilence. And I followed this spiritual virgin, and I also declared all these things that I had seen and read in that printed table, upon which arose a great tumult among the people; and the plague came, and took away great mul- titudes. And the Lord of Hosts called unto me the next night, and said, Arise, my messenger, arise, my servant, and write this saying which I shall tell thee, to wit, thus: "The Lord God will arise with the judgment of his jealousy, and smite the whole city of Vienna, with the towns and countries round about her, far and near, with great pestilence and famine, towards the east and towards the north, towards the west and towards the south, as I shewed thee written in the before-mentioned table, which I represented to thee in a vision. Therefore preach repentance unto the city of Vienna, with the cities and countries round about her, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Hosts, change your wicked Cain's minds, and cease from unrighteousness. And you rulers in the land, exercise justice, and cease from your wick- c 14 edness, with which you cause the land to sin ; and all ye that dwell in cities, towns, and coun- tries, must humble yourselves before my great and high majesty, whether high or low, young or old, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, for I the Lord am a jealous God." And the Lord God said unto me, "Take up a lamentation for the Roman empire, and for their kings and princes, from the 32d chapter of Eze- kiel, with an appendix, as I shall tell thee : — * " And it came to pass in the twelfth year, on the first day of the twelfth month, came the word of the Lord unto me, saying," ver. 2. " Son of man, take up a lamentation for the destroyer, that hath destroyed my chosen Israel, that I have named after the spirit, in the Roman land of op- pression, and say unto him, Thou art like a lion of the nations, and as a whale in the seas $ and thou comest forth with thy rivers, which are thy people, and troublest the waters of the people with thy feet, of kings, princes, mighty ones, judges, rulers, captains, counsellors, sheriffs, earls, noblemen, and such like, wherewith thou troublest the water of the people. " Moreover, I will make many people's hearts afraid, when I cause the nations to see thy plagues, and many countries which thou dost not know ; yea, many nations shall be affrighted at thee, and their kings shall be terrified, when I shall brand- ish my sword against thee, they shall stand alto 15 gether amazed, and their hearts shall fail them by reason of thy fall." And the Lord God showed me a horrible city, in a vision, that was full of cruelty and idolatry. I asked the Lord, what city that was, and what was the name thereof? And the Lord said unto me, " It is the capital city of Rome, and the whole land thereof; that greatest of whores, and the beginning of all abominations that have been committed in Christendom. O, woe unto thee, thou blood-thirsty, murderous city of Rome ! I will send forth the sword, famine, and dreadful pestilence, as the messengers of my fierce wrath upon you, murderers ; for you of Rome, you, even you, have shed, and caused to be shed, so much blood of my faithful and true witnesses, that it is beyond all number and measure. " Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will bring strangers upon thee." ver. 7. u The Turks and Swedes, and all manner of tyrants of the heathen nations, with all the kings in Christen^ dom, and their people, these shall draw their swords against the beauty of wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness, and they shall bring thee down to the pit ; and thou shalt die as those that are slain in the midst of the sea. " O Rome ! O R/;me ! I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth, in the sight of the whole world. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee, that thou art so suddenly 16 brought down, and canst never rise again, saith the Lord God/' These prophecies, out of the prophet Ezekiel, God commanded me to set down here; for he spake mouth to mouth unto my soul, and com- manded me very earnestly to write, as he should tell it me* And now here it stands, as God did command me : whoever now shall despise it, and shall speak and judge evil of it, will bring a heavy judgment upon his own neck. This has God written by me his pen, John Maximilian, as a warning to every one ; therefore let no man deceive himself, for God will not be mocked, and whatsoever he does is just and right. It is seldom in predictions or this kind that they are fulfilled literally; but, if the effect is produced as foretold, we may almost consider the prediction as verified. In this instance, that which was to have been effected by plague, pestilence, and famine, has been brought about in a manner almost miraculous by the sword. Rome, which amongst the various convulsions of the christian world had been held in a sacred neutrality, was overturned, not it is true by Turks and Swedes, but by a nation considered catholic, and at the period of this vision so cruelly bigoted in the cause of that religion, as to butcher thousands of its own subjects under that vain pretext; but who, as if for the purpose of verifying this and other 17 similar predictions, lost all sense of religion, and became more heathenish than the most barbarous nations. By it, the triple crown of the Pope was hurled from his brow, his power both spiritual and temporal was overthrown, even his person made captive, and Rome, the mistress of the arts, as well as the head seat of religion, stripped of those choice collections of ages which had long been the admiration of the world ; and so fallen from her power, as to become the seat only of a small military command. Looking to the re- lative situation of France and Rome, at the pe- riod of the vision, and the wonderful changes that had taken place to accomplish the fulfilment of it, joined to the subjugation of Vienna, and the dismemberment of the Germanic body at the same period, and by the same wonderful means* — we must look upon it as an astonishing prediction preternaturally verified. "Extracted from Dr. John Gill's Sermon, preached December 2/, 1752. Ps. lxxxvi. ver. 3. The destruction of Antichrist will be by the spirit of Christ's mouth, and the brightness of his coming ; that is, by his coming in a spiritual c3 18 way ; or through the word of his mouth, his gos- pel attended by his spirit and power ; which will shine out with so much lustre, splendor, light, and glory, as will chase away the darkness of popery, and enlighten the minds of people, to see into all the fopperies, absurdities, and wickedness of that religion. This work will be greatly effected by the pour- ing out the seven vials of God's wrath, or the in- flicting the seven last plagues upon the anti- christian states, upon the western and eastern antichrist, the Pope and Turk ; who must be both removed to make way for the spiritual reign of Christ. The first five of these vials concern the western antichrist and his dominions; between which and the trumpets there is a great correspondence, though they respect different times and persons. The first vial will be poured out upon the earth, and designs those popish countries which are upon the continent, as France, &c; and as the first trumpet brought the Goths into Germany, so the first vial will bring great distress upon the popish party, and issue in a reformation from popery. The second vial will be poured out upon the sea, and may intend the maritime powers be- longing to the see of Rome, particularly Spain and Portugal • and as the second trumpet brought the Vandals into these places, so this vial will effect the same, and bring wars and desolations 19 into them, and make a change in their religion. The third vial will be poured out upon the rivers and fountains of waters, which may point to those places adjacent to Rome, as Italy and Savoy ; and as the third trumpet brought the Huns into those parts, so this vial will bring in large armies hither, which will cause much bloodshed, and a great revolution in church and state. The fourth vial will be poured out upon the sun, which must denote some person or persons of great dignity and influence ; and, as the fourth trumpet brought destruction upon the emperor of Rome, the sun of the empire, and upon governors under him, signified by the moon and stars ; this vial will bring on the ruin of the pope of Rome, the sun of the antichristian empire, with all his cardinals, bishops, priests, &c. Now these several vials, as they will be so many plagues on the western Antichrist, and make so many breaches and ruins upon his states and do- minions, so they will be so many gradual steps to the advancement of the glory and kingdom of Christ, and issue in the reformation of these places from popery. The sixth vial will be poured out on the river Euphrates, which designs the Turk- ish empire, in the midst of which that river is : and as the sixth trumpet let loose the four angels, or heads of the Ottoman family into Europe, so this vial affects the same empire, and brings de- struction on it, signified by the drying up the waters 20 of that river, as Babylon's destruction is expressed by the drying up of her sea, Jer. li. 36. which will make way for the kings, or kingdoms of the east, the kingdoms of Persia, and Tartary, and others, to receive and embrace th§ christian re- ligion : this is the second, or Turkish woe, which shall pass away, when the kingdoms of this world will become Christ's, and his dominion will be from sea to sea, from the Mediterranean sea to the Persian sea, and from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth. The seventh vial will be poured out upon the air, the whole kingdom of Satan, in all the branches of it, who is the prince of the power of the air; and this vial will clear the whole world of all the remains of Christ's enemies, pagan, papal, and mahometan, which the other vials left, or did not reach ; and now will Christ's kingdom be in its full glory. Now the heathens, papists, pagans, and mahometans, will perish out of his land, and these sorts of sin- ners will be consumed out of the earth, and such wicked ones will be no more. But I must not forget the conversion of that considerable body of people the Jews, who have been preserved a distinct people for several hun- dreds of years, for this purpose ; the conversion of these people will be 6udden, and of them alto^ gether ; a nation shall be born at once. It looks as if their conversion would be like that of the apostle Paul, and he seems to hint that it 21 will when he says, that he, in obtaining mercy, was a pattern to them which should hereafter believe. There will be' great peace and prosperity of all kinds, inward and outward, spiritual and tempo- ral ; in those days of the Messiah's spiritual reign, shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth ; violence shall no more be heard in their land, nor wasting and destruction within their borders. This destruction of Antichrist England has been most strenuously endeavouring to effect for a long time, and in the midst of all her financial distresses, borne down as she has almost been by taxation — large and unexampled has been the fund, swelled even bj^ the widow's mite, wdiich she has brought forward to circulate the gospel in all languages to the farthest corners of the earth 3 and by this means she has in a great mea- sure realized this first clause of the extract from Dr Gill's sermon, and prepared the way for the pouring out the second and third vials: the first appearing to relate to the French revolution ; the second, to those of Spain and Portugal, just effected ; and the third, to Naples, and other Ita- lian states, which the march of the Austrian troops may tend to expedite, and which, with other appearances on the political horizon, better sur- mised than spoken of, may hasten the fourth, 22 in the interpretation of which I differ from Dr. Gill, nor can I see any just reason for his omission of the fifth, which seems directly to point at the final overthrow and destruction of the papal authority. The learned Ahtedius, his Speculum Mundi, and Chronology of the Prophetic Numbers. — Ex- tracted from a 'work entitled, " Catastrophe Mundi;" printed 1683. 1. God alone hath reserved to himself the exact knowledge of future things, as the incommu- nicable prerogative of his Divine Majesty : there- fore it is impossible any man, though never so clear-sighted, should compile an accurate chrono- logy for time to come, or define the punctual moments pf futurity ; yet is not therefore the explanation of prophetic numbers to be omitted, for since God hath expressed certain numbers in the histories and prophecies of his word, it would be too great both sloth and ingratitude not to weigh, and with reverence and the fear of the Lord inquire into them, 2. In observing the great conjunctions or re- volutions of the planets, as superstition and over- scrupulous diligence is not to be approved, so 23 neither is negligence or contempt thereof to be allowed. 3. The twelfth chapter of Daniel ought to be our pole-star in explaining prophetic numbers, for there we are led, as by the hand, from the building of the second temple to its destruction ; and from the destruction thereof, which was Anno Christi 69, by a term of days he numbers first 1290, and then 1335 ; that is, in all (with the 69 years which were elapsed from Christ's birth, to the overthrow of the temple) 2694 years ; from which, if we deduct the 1000 years, Rev. xx. 2, we shall be brought to the year of our Lord 1694, whence we may gather that the seven vials are to be poured forth at or before that time, or their significations to continue no longer. 4. The most eminent mutations from the year 1060 to 1700 may be gathered from the plane- tary conjunctions, compared with the apocalyp- tical numbers, which point out the years 1622, 1625, 1636, 1642, 1683, and 1694. 5. The comparing of histories one with an- other, the observation of the stars, and a diligent inspection into the manners of men, do much conduce towards our predicting of human things. 6. Those philosophers that are more skilful in astronomy reckon four monarchies, not accord- ing to the prevalency of kingdoms, but according to the four coasts of the world. The first was of $4 the east, being the Assyrians : the second, south- ern, that of the Persians and Greeks : the third western, of the Romans : the fourth, of the north, which God shall shortly set up in the northern parts by the Lion of the North, to the great amazement of those who slight the Divine Apo^ calypse, and that harmony which here we are pointing at. The 1000 years mentioned in the tweatieth chapter of the Revelations shall begin about the year 1694, and end 2694? ; during which time Satan shall be bound, but afterward being let loose for a small time, he shall stir up Gog and Magog; that is, the professed enemies of the church against the saints ; but shall be suddenly overcome, and then our Lord Christ shall come in glory. A Prophecy recited by Mr. Lilly, in the year 165 1, relating to the French nation. A certain prince, as religious as a Turk, shall overspread that people's most fruitful terri- tories, and wars and desolations will be occasioned by the unruly nobility, who, by their civil dissen- sions, shall occasion the ruin of the French Mon- archy. And if you will know near the time of 25 this great mutation, it shall be when a certain king, called Henry, is twice made a king, and a duke of Florence turned protestant. The French king shall be driven out by his own people, for he will exercise very great ty- ranny both against his subjects and the church of Christ, being instigated or stirred up thereunto by the bishops and Romanists, who being bribed with money, shall traiterously seduce and betray him. This he shall seem to do in favour of his kingdom or allies, but when he shall be removed and deceived, he shall be left all alone in ba- nishment, abandoned by those that he confided in. This does not appear to refer to the late French revolution : it has not been, but remains yet to be fulfilled. A Henry is but just named, per- adventure to enter on a sea of troubles ; and the time when this prediction will be verified is per- haps when the last great struggle to restore Pa- pacy takes place, which seems likely to be about the time that this Henry will be calculated from his age to take a part in it. 26 A Prophecy of the Turkish empire. Delivered by some of their own Diviners in the Persian Lan~ guage. OuR monarch shall come, he shall dispossess the unbelieving prince of his kingdom : he shall subdue the red apple, and make it yield to his government. And if happily the christian sword prevail not unto the seventh year, he shall over- rule them unto the twelfth year : he shall build castles, plant vineyards, and fortify his gardens with walls : he shall increase in issue ; but after the aforesaid twelfth year, the sword of the Christians shall approach, which shall put the Turks to flight, utterly vanquishing and destroy* ing them. This Prophecy I find recited in a treatise, en- titled " A Discoursive Problem concerning Pro- phecies, by John Harvey, Physician of King's Lynn in Norfolk," (who appears by that work to have been a very learned and great-read man) published in the year 1580. How the overthrow of the Ottoman empire is to be accomplished, we know not : the present interference of Russia in the affairs of Persia may lead to it, and pave the way eventually for the great predicted empire of the north. 27 The Cry of a Stone; or a relation of something spoken at Whitehall, by Anna Trapnel, (being in the Visions of God,) relating to Governors, Armies, Churches, %c. Extracted from the original work, printed 1653. Ttvo things are foretold by all the prophets shall be brought to pass, which seal up the pro- phecies and finish the mystery of God : the Lord's appearing in his glory upon Mount Sion, and the darkening of sun and moon, that is, the shaming, confounding, and casting out of all wisdom and power, and whatsoever is but the excellency and glory of man. I finding my heart in a very low dead frame, much contention and crookedness working in my spirit, I asked of God what was the matter ? He answered me thus : I let thee see what thou art in thyself, to keep thee humble ; I am about to shew thee great things and visions, which thou hast been ignorant of. Then broke forth a vision as to the horns. I saw four horns, which were four powers ; the first was that of the bishops, that I saw was broken in two and thrown aside : the second horn, more white, had joined to it an head, en- deavouring to get up a mount, and suddenly it was pushed down and broken to pieces: the third horn had many splinters joined to it, like 28 to the scales upon the back of a fish, and this was presented to be a power or a representative consisting of many men, having fair pretences of love to all under forms ; this I saw broken and scattered, that not as much as any bit of it was left. As to the fourth horn, that was short, but full of variety of colours, sparkling, red and white 5 it was said to me, this is different from the three other, because great swelling words and great offers of kindness should go forth to all people from it, like unto that of Absalom, speak- ing good words to the people in the gate to draw them from the honest David. But it is not now as it was in times past, that a kingly progeny should reign, for that was but for a time, and then after they should be judged, destroyed, and taken off, and be no more, and then shall the kingdom of the Lord Jesus come forth, and all the kingdoms of man thrown down before it *. . England, 'tis only by thy parliaments that thou canst be ruined; but beware of those who, by promising more than can be realized, would hasten and make more sure thy downfal. Look steadfastly to the substance of 1688, and follow not the shadow of 18 19, Wonderful are the * This last passage corresponds to a degree of exactness with Christopher Love* See his Prophecy, p. 48. 29 ways of Providence, and most mysterious his decrees. Repine not at an ill, however grievous, which is ordained to work its own cure. Unani- mity forms the strength of nations ; where there is no opposition there can be no struggle, there can be no bloodshed. This vision, if it is to be considered as a pre- diction, is dark, mysterious, and dangerous to unravel. The Knowledge of the Times ; or hovo long it shall be until the End of Wonders. By John Tillinghast) a servant of Jesus Christ. From the original, printed 1654. It is a most certain truth, that every pro- phecy left us in the word of God hath in itself sufficient characters to lead us, by comparing the characters of it with the mind of God in other prophecies, to the knowledge of the sub- stance of that truth that is in it held forth ; for otherwise the word should be imperfect, and not able to expound itself. For an example, I shall pitch upon Daniel's little horn, which is one of the most famous pro- phecies in all the scripture, That the kingdom of the little horn must be D3 30 in the latter days ; the reason is, because the ex- treme and utmost part of Nebuchadnezzar's great image, viz. the feet and toes, Dan. ii. 4 I, 42, 43, are the same with the little horn| chap. vii. To whose kingdom this phrase is most pro- perly applicable, the apostle's use of the same phrase, 1 Tim. iv. I, 2, 3, doth clearly teach us, that this kingdom of the little horn must neces- sarily appertain to the Roman monarchy* That it cannot be any power distinct from, and succeeding the Roman monarchy, is also clear, 1. Because no place in Daniel, or elsewhere, doth so much as once countenance any such opinion as this, viz. That there should be any worldly government succeeding the Roman mon- archy. Nay, let me say, the scripture is clear against such a notion, for it is manifest, Dan. vii. 12, 13, 14, Rev. xix. II, 12, compared with ver. 19,20, that the destruction of the beast, i. e. the Roman monarchy, is under Antichrist. 2. Because the beast is slain, his body de- stroyed, and given to the burning flame; and that for the blasphemies of the little horn, Dan. vii. 11. This beast, I say, can be no other but the fourth and last beast, ver. 7, which beast is the Roman monarchy. Hence I gather, That the government of the little horn cannot be a government distinct from the Roman monarchy, a thing the Roman mon* 31 archy has nothing to do with ; for then, why is the Roman monarchy punished for the blas- phemies of the little horn ? Thus much for the character of the little horn. I shall, in the conclusion, add this word, That as the foregoing characters agree to none so fitly as the Romish Antichrist (to whom as these, so all the characters besides them in Daniel, will most aptly accord), so in case the Romish Anti- christ be not the little horn, it will necessarily follow that we have nothing left us from first to last in this prophecy that concerns Antichrist's rage against the saints and holy city, his tyranny over, and oppression of the nations, which now hath continued, in such manner, as the like was never before it. 1. In respect of a new kind of power bearing rule all this time, the like to which was never found in any of the preceding monarchies, no not in the world before. 2. In respect of a new kind of idolatry, wor- shipping a breaden god, saints, relics of saints, &c. an idolatry never heard of in the world before. 3. In respect of a new kind of tyranny, tyran- nizing over the conscience, and forcing it, making merchandize of the souls of men, Rev. xviii. 12, 13. 4«. In respect of a new kind of oppression ; op- pressing the people, robbing them of their wealth and substance, by craft, &c. I say, that a time having such noted charac- ters upon it, as never had time in the world before, should by the Holy Ghost (whilst less things are observed) be wholly buried in silence, cannot be thought. The sum of all this is, that as those characters of truth left us in the naked letter of the text are the most certain rule to go by, to find the mind of the Holy Ghost in prophecies ; so, walk- ing by that rule, Daniel's little horn is, and can be no other, but the whole body of the Romish Antichrist. Here I find myself under the necessity of dif- fering totally from the interpretation of Tilling- hast ; in the doing of which I am supported by the opinion of Archbishop Tillotson, &c. Vide extracts from Tillotson's Sermons, infra. In the first place, I look not upon the little horn as having any reference to the preced- ing dream of the image: the stone that over- whelms — which, I look upon as representing the christian religion, which in due time is to be universal, bowing down all before it, and as the stone was cut out from the mountain without 33 hands, so was our Saviour conceived by the Virgin Mary without mortal aid, as here ty- pified. But to return to the 7th chapter of Daniel, at the 7th v^rse, the fourth beast represents ac- cording to all authorities the papal authority, — the Pope, or Antichrist, supported by the ten catholic sovereigns, its power was of a different character from all that had ever preceded it, and the little horn which arises out of it, 1 look upon as representing Napoleon, before whom three of the horns or kings were humbled. This, as at verse 0, prepares the way for the extension of God's kingdom, by the propagation of the gospel and the diffusion of civil and religious liberty, as in verse 12, where, as with the kings of Spain, Naples, and Portugal, although their despotic power is taken away, their lives are to be prolonged for a season or time, which appears as if those and other kingdoms in which reform takes place should remain gra- dually improving by the gospel, for still another century, till, as at verses 13 and J 4, the king- dom of Christ, by the restoration and reformation of the Jews* and general extension of Chris- tianity, shall become universal. This interpretation wants the 25th verse, to refer to the 23d instead of the 24th to make it .correct. 34 Extracts from Lord Chesterfield's Letters, 8vo edition, 1775. LETTER CCLXV. London, Dec. 25, 1753. The first squabble in Europe that I foresee, will be about the crown of Poland, Wherever you are, inform yourself minutely of, and attend particularly to, the affairs of France; they grow serious, and in my opinion will grow more and more so every day. The king is despised, and I do not wonder at it ; but he has brought it about to be hated at the same time, which seldom happens to the same man. His ministers are known to be as disunited as in- capable: he hesitates between the church and the parliaments, like the ass in the fable, that starved between two hampers of hay ; jealous of the parliaments, who would support his autho- rity; and a devoted bigot to the church, who would destroy it. The people are poor, conse- quently discontented: those who have religion are divided in their notions of it ; which is say- ing, that they hate one another. The clergy never do forgive, much less will they forgive the parliament : the parliament never will forgive them. The army must, without doubt, take, in their own minds, at least, different parts in all these disputes, which upon occasion will break i 35 out. Armies, though always the supporters and tools of absolute power for the time being, are always the destroyers of it too, by frequently changing the hands in which they think proper to lodge it. This was the case of the Praetorian bands, who deposed and murdered the monsters they had raised to oppress mankind. The Janis- saries in Turkey, and the regiments of guards in Russia, do the same now. The French nation reasons freely, which they never did before, upon matters of religion and government, and begin to be spregiudicati ; the officers do so too; in short, all the symptoms which I have ever met with in history, previous to great changes and revolutions in government, now exist, and daily increase in France. This letter may very properly be considered both prophetic and admonitory ; prophetic as it related to the French empire, where its predic- tions have been fulfilled ; and highly worthy of attention in all other states where, when similar symptoms appear, they should beware of like consequences. — Ed. 36 LETTER CCXLIV. London, April 13, O.S. 1752, They tell the king (speaking of France) very respectfully, that in a certain case, which they should think it criminal to suppose, they would not obey him. This hath a tendency to what we call here revolution principles. I do not know what the Lord's anointed, his vicegerent upon earth, divinely appointed by him, and account- able to none but him for his actions, will either think or do, upon these symptoms of reason and good sense which seem to be breaking out all over France; but this I foresee, that before the end of this century, the trade of both king and priest will not be half so good a one as it has been. Du Clos, in his reflections, hath observed, and very truly, " qu'il y a un germe de raison qui commence a se de'velopper en France." A dA veloppement that must prove fatal to regal and papal pretensions. Prudence may, in many cases, recommend an occasional submission to either ; but when that ignorance, upon which an implicit faith on both could only be founded, is once removed, God's vicegerent (meaning the king) and Christ's vicar (or clergy) will only be obeyed and believed, as far as what the one or- ders, and the other says, is conformable to reason and truth. 37 The following remarkable Prophecies are taken from the xvork of Michael Nostradamus, the cele- brated physician to Henry II. king of France, and "mere first published in the year 1555, and re-published, voith a Translation and Annota- tions, in London, 1(572. CENTURY I. LXX. French. Pluye, faim, guerre, en Perse non cessee, La foy trop grande trahira Ie monarque ; Par la finie en Gaule commencee, Secret augure pour a un estre parque. English. The rain, famine, war, in Persia being not ceased, Too great credulity shall betray the monarch ; Being ended there, it shall begin in France, A secret omen to one that he shall die. Annot. The meaning of the two first verses is, that while the rain, famine, and war, shall be in Persia, a monarch shall be betrayed by his cre- dulity. The third verse signifieth that this rain, famine, and war, being ended in Persia, it shall E 38 begin in France. And the fourth verse, that this shall be an omen to a great person of his ap- proaching death * LXXII. French. Du tout Marseille des habitans changee, Course et poursuite jusques pres de Lion, Narbon, Tholoze, par Bourdeaux outragee, Tuez, captifs presque d'un milion. English, Marseille shall wholly change her inhabitants ; These shall run and be pursued as far as Lion ; Narbon, Tholoze, shall wrong Bourdeaux ; There shall be killed and taken prisoners almost a million. Annot. Marseilles is a sea town in Provence, Narbon and Tholoze are cities of Languedoc, and Bourdeaux is the chief town in Gascony ; the rest is easy to be understood. * No sooner had the treaty of peace been settled between Lord Cornwallis and Tippoo Saib, than war was declared against France, which proves a striking instance of the truth of this prediction. 39 CENTURY in. XL1X. French. Regne Gaulois, tu seras bien change, JSn lieu estrange est translate l'empire, En autre mceurs et lois seras range, Rouan et Chartres te feront bien du pire. English. French kingdom, thou shalt be much changed ; The empire is translated in another place : Thou shalt be put into other manners and laws; Rouan and Chartres shall do the worse they can to thee. Annot. Rouen is the chief city of the province of Normandy, and Chartres the chief city of that of Beausse. CENTURY IX. LIT. French. La paix s'approche d'un coste et la guerre, Oncques ne fut la poursuite si grantle, Piaindre homrae et femmene sang innocent par terre, Et ce fera de France a toute bande. 40 English. Peace is coming on one side, and war on the other ; There was never so great a pursuing ; Man, woman shall bemoan, innocent blood shall be spilt, It shall be in France on all sides. CENTURY XII. LXXL French. Fleuves, rivieres, de mal seront obstacles, La vielie flame d'ire non appaisee, Courir en France, cecy come d'oracles, Maisons, manoirs, palais., secte rasee. English. Brooks and rivers shall be a stopping to evil, The old flame of anger being not yet ceased, Shall run through France, take this as an oracle, Houses,, manors, palaces, sects, shall be rased. Swift time spreads on, brings such a fate with it, To which proud France's grandeur must submit ; The pope, priests, masses, and their gods of wood, Their idol temples too wherein they stood, With all that hated pageantry, shall come, By God's just judgment, to eternal doom. 41 Extradedfrom William Lilly $ Works, 1645. The star in Cassiopeia, 1572, those many ap- paritions of comets, since those unaccustomed sights in the air, greater and lesser conjunctions of the planets in the fiery Trygon, multitude of eclipses, both solar and lunar, are sad messen- gers of the downfall of one, nay, I say, of many families of Europe. Yet if my search into the most secret cabinet of astrology doth not delude my impartial judg- ment, my more serious conceptions tell me, there's a man, or family in Europe, is not far from attaining an excess in dominion and sove- reignty. The time of this man's growth, or families, to such an height, draws on and near ; the time is not mensurable in days, or months, nor in centuries of years (this was predicted 1644) ; the unnatural war of every country helps forward, and prepares the matter, while the good man (if he be born) sleeps quietly until that angel, appointed his guardian, excite him in a moment to rouse up his meditating thoughts, and to convert consultation into ac- tion. As the state of France, &c. now stands, how incredible and improbable a thing do I speak of, or should do, if I should deliver, that a man, not e 3 ^2 yet in action, should turn the fate of those king- doms in a moment. I may be derided for predicting so much. Hast thou the same decrees ascending on the cusp of the seventh? (speaking astrologically. ) Art thou a king ? thou shalt have war unlooked for ; enemies without number, domestic and fo- reign, shall invade thee; look to be plunged to purpose, and to suffer discontent without period ; those as dear unto thee as thy wife in thy bosom shall betray thee by indirect counsels. Hast thou the said degree upon the cusp of the fourth house? Art thou emperor of Con- stantinople? Thy father left thee more king- doms than thou shalt leave thy son : lose part of thy dominions, I desire thee ; the fates will have it so. Art thou of the noble Austrian family i or art thou king of France, Spain, or Denmark ? be all or any of you assured to have a share in these calamities; a part or parcel, an arm or a branch of your kingdoms will be lopped off from you. The courts of all princes shall be stricken dead with fear, horror, and amazement : privy coun- sellors shall be trampled down like dirt under our feet. Here's many old laws and customs to be abrogated; here's many ancient families to be deprived of their inheritances ; here's erection of new customs, laws, perhaps a new govern- 43 ment ; here's nation against nation, as much plundering at sea as at land ; here's one would rise to be greater than his forefathers; ambition deludes him, and death deprives him of all monarchical intents. Prediction of Baron de Swedenbourg, tvho wrote 40 years ago. Extracted from Arcana Coeleste. w La noble nation Frangoise -se soulevera tout a coup, brisera ses fers, et renversera la putain de Babilone." The noble French nation will rise at once, shake off her fetters, and will destroy the whore of Babylon. Revelations, chap. xi. ver* 13. Mr. Turien, who wrote many years ago, in- terprets this earthquake to mean great commo- tions in states and kingdoms, and the city there mentioned to signify the kingdom of France, which shall break off from the court of Rome, rejecting the pope's supremacy, and wholly 44 change the face of religion in that country ; and of this opinion are several other learned men ; which, if so, we cannot but look upon the late and present great commotions in France, to be no other but a particular preparatory to the ac- complishment of this wonderful prophecy. Extracted from John Wilson* s Sermon. Before antichrist's fall, one of the ten king- doms which supported the beast shall undergo a marvellous revolution, Rev. xi. 13. u The same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell.*' By which tenth part is to be understood one of the ten king- Count Guibert, an officer of distinguished talents, who wrote 20 years ago, has the following re- markable passage in his writings, viz* There is to spring up a people of a manly genius, which arises to shake off its fetters, and settle a form of government, the whole of which will increase its force ; it will frame just laws, and call forth a revolution. This people is the French. 45 doms into which the great city Romish Babylon was divided : this many take to be the kingdom of France, it being the tenth and last of the kingdoms as to the time of its rise, and that which gave to Rome the denomination of a beast with ten horns, and also it being the only one of the ten that was never conquered since its rise. However unlikely this and other prophe- sied events may appear at the time, yet the Almighty hand of the only wise God can soon bring them about when least expected. Predictions of Mr, Christopher Love. A few nights after he was sentenced to be beheaded on Tower-hill, which was on the 22d day of August, 1651, ten days before his ap- pointed time, by the sentence he received at the bar, being one night visited by two of his inti- mate acquaintances, or bosom friends, as he himself called them, they began to complain of the cruelties of the times, and the malice and usage of time-serving brethren ; to which Mr. Love answered, 45.) yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. The follow- ing remarkable prophecy is fulfilling at or near these times, as delivered long ago by Johannes Amatus, in his Prophetical Pleiades, which runs thus: i( I foresee (says he) great wars and com- bats, with extraordinary shedding of blood, occa- sioned by the civil discords of the great men oi the kingdoms ; I do see wars, the fury whereof shall last some time ; provinces divested of their people, and many strong holds and noble houses shall be ruinated ; and the cities shall be for- saken of their inhabitants, and in divers places the ground shall lie untilled. There shall be a great slaughter of the people, and many chief persons shall be brought to ruin ; and there shall be nothing but deceit and fraud amongst them, whereupon shall ensue the aforesaid great commotions among the kingdoms and people of the world. There shall be likewise great muta- tions and changes ; the right hand of the world shall fear the left, and the north shall prevail against the south. 6i The Lord will destroy those images which thou hast set up for thyself (speaking of Louis the Fourteenth) and all thy statues — the cour- tiers of France — and all the court of France. Versailles, which thou hast raised for thy lust and grandeur, shall be thrown to the ground. Paris (that imperial city) shall be convulsed 5 the royal family shall be dreadfully afflicted, and thy iniquities shall be avenged on thy grand- children. Lyons, I shall scourge thee ; thou, Toulouse, shalt be reduced to ashes ; and thou, Bourdeaux, though favoured, shalt not be with- out chastening/' John Lacy ends his prophecy with these words : " Thus shall England be less visited with my judgments than France." 52 Prophecy of the Trench r evolution, from a publica- tion by the late Mr. Peter Jurieu, in 3687. Rev. xi, 13. and fell outward, and any stones fell into the brook ? it signified the direct contrary ; to this he added* that the Cholmondeley family, whose seat it was, kept several workmen in yearly pay to support 77 the wall, and every month to inspect it all round; that it was buttressed both within and without; and the week before it fell, the workmen gave in their report, that it was so strong, it might reasonably last a hundred years without any repairs. This, I assure you, is not only what the old man told me, but what I have heard from several others, and can get well attested, if it is thought proper ; as also the particulars of the falling of the wall, which are these : " Upon the 4th of August, 1688, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, being a calm and clear day, without the least breath of wind, that wall fell flat inwards, all at once, and not so much as one single stone fell outwards." This happening so little a while before the Revolution, it was taken notice of as an accident which was very much to our advantage ; and, as there was a greater rising for the Prince of Orange in Cheshire than in any other county in England, why may we not imagine that Nixon's prophecy contributed very much to it ? The objection to this may be, that the owner of the house of Thomas Cholmondeley, Esq. was a i Jacobite; and it is not likely that any thing ' about him could bode well to the Revolution; but his being a Jacobite gives the greater autho- rity to the prediction, and the fulfilling of it ; for it is not likely that one, who was an enemy lo the Prince of Orange, should let a H3 78 miracle be wrought in his house in favour of the happy change he soon afteraccomplished. I should not have made this digression, had not some silly people, almost as stupid as Nixon, but by, no means so well gifted in prophecy, given out that the falling of the wall denoted the rising of the Pretender; and this just as he was running away from Scotland. I cannot help observing to you on this occasion, that some of us in this county were strangely spirited by your prophecy. When the rebels advanced to Preston, we were told that they intended to march through our county into Flintshire and Denbighshire : if they had, their route must have been through Delamere forest, where Nixon lived and prophesied ; and the miller Peter, with his countrymen, were resolved to have given them such a reception, as would have given very great credit to your prophecy, which is abused when any interpretation is ap- plied to it that has an eye to Popery and slavery ; for, as great a fool as Nixon was, he was not so stupid as our modern zealots, nor ever dropt a word against the Protestant religion. To return to old Woodman : he informed me farther, that after it was known what a prophet farmer Crowton had in his family, Mr. Cholmon- deley sent for the fellow, and kept him at his house, giving him in charge to his steward, whom he ordered to try whether he could make 79 any thing of him, and teach him to read ; but Nixon's stupidity increased upon him, the more the steward endeavoured to improve him ; and the most he could do with him, was to make him hold his goad right, and drive oxen at plough. As he was once in the field with the rest of Mr. Cholmondeley's servants, he let fall his goad on a sudden, as he had dropt his budget and bottle formerly. He stood motionless after the same manner, with his eyes fixed towards heaven. The servants talked to him, and beat him to get to his work, but all to no purpose. He remained in a sort of trance for the space of an hour ; and then recovering, he took up his goad, and went on with his business as though nothing had befallen him. One of Mr. Chol- mondeley's men asked him, what ailed him ? and why he stood so long ? to whom Nixon replied, that he had seen those things which man never saw before. He then discoursed to the servants, that crowded about him for near two hours, and spoke as reasonably as the best of them could have done, without any manner of hesitation in his discourse. He foretold the civil wars, the death of King Charles I. the restoration of King Charles II. the abdication of King James II. the Revolution and glorious war with France, and the flourishing state of this kingdom afterwards - y adding, that these things will as certainly happen, as that I 80 shall be sent for by the King, and be starved to death. When he had finished his speech, he returned to his natural dulness and silence ; and unless he had been in one of his trances, he was always dull and mute 3 but while he was uttering his prophecies, he spoke clearly, and with an air of assurance that they would be ac- complished. The servants,, as soon as they came home, told their master of this prodigy; and Mr. Cholmondeley ordered them to write down as much of it as they could remember, which they did, and it is preserved in that family to this day ; together with some less material hints, as hard weather, and scarcity of provisions, &c. which ' would certainly happen. That family has always locked it up as a treasure, and whatever pains I have taken to procure a copy of it, I could never succeed, and despair now of getting it. Mr. Egerton, of Oulton, who is nearly related to the Cholmondeley family, has a copy of it also, but he will not part with it. Both of these families do lay great stress on Nixon's predictions ; and I must tell you, they are two of the most ancient and honourable families in our county. You have mentioned Nixon's being sent for to court by King James L Woodman says it was thus: when he came to court, that the King gave him in charge to one of his officers, commanding him to keep him in close confine- ment, and to make strict observations on his 81 behaviour, that he might be assured there was nothing of imposture in him. This gentleman kept Nixon locked up, and going in a hurry with the King to Theobalds, he forgot to take care of him, and leave him provisions till his return, by which means he was starved to death. It must be observed that Nixon could not speak, except it was immediately after he came out of his trance, and never could be brought to pronounce a sensible word more than ay or no, as hath been said, unless when he was pronouncing his oracles. There happened something with respect to Nixon and his going to court, like what I met with in the pamphlet you sent me, called The Drummer of Tedworth ; for, as that drummer left beating when King Charles's courtiers came to be upon the watch with him, and would not satisfy their curiosity ; so our clown of a prophet, after he came to court, was entirely dumb, and pronounced no more prophecies. It is said he was not long there before he was starved to death. Nixon was very grateful to his master Chol- mondeley ; he prophesied that the heir to be born to the family, threescore and ten years' after, should be endowed with very eminent qualifica- tions, and arrive at greater honours than any of his ancestors had done -, that he should dis- tinguish himself by his loyalty and services to the king then reigning 5 and that, after the happy settlement which would succeed the 82 struggle, the peace would be lasting, with a continued series of honours and glory to the nation. This child, said Nixon, shall be known by the appearance of an eagle at the time of his birth, with the circumstances mentioned in your prophecy. A long time before the eagle ap- peared, the country people used to look out for it ; and as often as the lady of Vale Royal lay in, they would cry, Where is the eagle ? When will Nixon's heir be born ? The appearance of the eagle was about five and twenty years ago : the lady who lay in was aunt to Henry St. John, late Lord Bolingbroke ; when she was in labour she heard great shoutings and acclamations of joy ; and inquiring the reason, was told, The eagle, so long talked of, is come. Upon which her sister and Mr. J. S. who are both living, went to the window, saw the eagle sitting on the bough, and looked at it above a quarter of an hour. It was seen also by several thousands of people; and is such a confirmation of Nixon's prophecy, that the truth of it is no where doubted of, either by gentle or simple. There is some variation in the original prophecy from what is mentioned in your pro- phecy about the competitors for the kingdom ; the Germans, Dutch, and Danes, are to conquer those that bring fire and famine, plague and murder, in the folds of their garments j and we can understand none but the French by such bloody invaders ; none but French Papists would bring such destruction among Protestants. As for the miller Peter, he was born about the time of the Revolution ; and Nixon prophesied that he should have two heels on one foot, and be knighted; the two heels he hath already, but the spurs are not come to his lot. Yet, however, the country people in this neighbourhood have made a knight of him these many years, and honest Peter, the miller, is Sir Peter in every one's mouth. I must here correct an error of Mr. Addison, in his Freeholder, who has not read your pro- phecy with that attention and regard which a thing of such importance deserves ; for he gives the miller two thumbs, whereas Nixon gives him two heels. A mistake in the text of a prophecy is of a very dangerous consequence 5 and I doubt not, but upon this notice, in future edi- tions this error will be corrected, and justice done to honest Peter the miller. I am, sir, yours, W. E. 84 Tillotson's Sermons ; edited by R. Barker, D. D. vol. 2. p. 321, being the second Sermon from Rev. xiy. 13. written about 1 687-8, at the time of the Persecution of the Protestants in France. The consideration of the extreme sufferings which are to fall upon the faithful servants of Christ in the last times, and which seem now to be begun in the world, should make us very- contented to leave this world, and glad of any- fair opportunity and excuse to take our leave of it, and to be out of the reach and danger of j those violent and more than human temptations, with which our faith and constancy may be assailed; nay, to esteem it a particular grace and favour of God to us, to be taken away from the evil to come, and to prevent, if God sees it good, those extremities of sufferings which are coming upon the world. These seem now to be begun in some part of it : they, in our neighbour nation, have a bitter cup* put into their hands ; a cup of astonishment to all those that hear of it. Whether this be that last and extreme persecution spoken of here by St. John, I shall not pretend positively to determine. It is plainly distinguished in the visions from that under the first beast, described * The revocation of the edict of Nantz. 85 Rev. xiii. from verse 1 to 1 1 . And chap. xvii. there is a description of the beast upon which the woman sitteth, on whose forehead is a name writ- ten, — " Mystery, Babylon the Great." And this beast is there said to have seven heads and ten horns, which are thus explained by St. John, xvii. 9, 10. u And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings ;" that is, (as is generally agreed by interpreters), a succession of seven governments. And verse 12, 13, 14. u And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten kings, which have received no kingdoms 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, and shall make war with the Lamb." And verse 18. "And the woman which thou sawest, is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." So that this beast is plainly the Roman em- pire ; and the woman that sitteth upon her is the great city standing upon seven mountains, which reigneth over the kings of the earth ; which can be no other than Rome, as is agreed by interpret- < ers an all sides. Bellarmine (1. 2. c.2. de Rom. Pontif.) confesseth that St. John, in the Revela- tions, every where calleth Rome Babylon, as Ter- tullian, saith he, hath noted, and as is plain from chap. xvii. where Babylon is said to be seated on i 86 seven mountains, and to have dominion over the kings of the earth ; there being no other city than Rome which, in the time of St. John, had dominion over the kings of the earth, and that Rome was built upon seven hills is famous. Thus much Bellarmine acknowledgeth, con- strained by the force of truth, and for another small reason, namely, because St, Peter writes his first epistle from Babylon ; by which, if Rome be not meant, they have no proof from scripture that St. Peter was ever there. Indeed, they of the church of Rome would have it to be only Rome pagan ; but that cannot be, because this beast, after his last head was wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, had power given him to continue two and forty months, or as it is elsewhere expressed, 1260 days, that is, in the prophetic style, so many years ; and likewise, because it was not to begin till the ten kingdoms, into which the Roman empire upon its dissolution was divided, were set up, which was not till after the western em- pire was overthrown and destroyed by the Goths and Vandals. And lastly, because this is that Rome, or Babylon, which should finally be de- stroyed, and cast as a millstone into the bottom of the sea, never to rise again, which is yet to come. And of this beast it is said, that he should make war with the saints, and overcome them, chap. xiii. 7» — that is, that he should raise 87 a long and great persecution against them, which should try their faith and patience. Ver. 10. " Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. The beast, then, with ten horns, must be Rome governing the ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was broken ; and this can be nothing else but Rome papal, to which the ten kings are said to give their power, and to which they were, in a most servile manner, subject for several ages, as is plain from history. And, to confirm this, it is very observable that the ancient fathers generally agree, that that which hindered the revealing of the wicked one, (spoken of by St. Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 7, 8,) was the Roman empire, and that being removed, the man of sin, or antichrist, was to succeed in its room. I shall produce a few testimonies to this purpose, but very remarkable ones. Tertullian, expounding what St. Paul means by him that withholdeth or letteth, hath these words : Quis nisi Romanus status, &c. Who is that but the Roman state, which, being broken into ten kings, shall bring on antichrist, and then the wicked one shall be revealed i And, in his Apology, he gives this reason why the christians should pray for the Roman emperors, and the whole state of the empire, because the greatest mischief hang- ing over the world is hindered by the continuance of it. St. Chrysostom, speaking of that which hinders the revelation of the man of bin, u This," 88 says he, " can be no other than the Roman em- pire ; for, as long as that stands, he dares not show himself; but, upon the vacancy or ceasing of that, he shall assume to himself both the power of God and man." St. Austin, in his Book de Civit. Dei, " No man," says he, the lily and rose. Jucunditas cru- ris, the joy of the cross. Montium custos, the keeper of the mountains. Sidus olorum, the constellation of swans. Defiumine mag- no, of the great river. Bellua insatiabi- lis, an insatiable beast. 1622. A Florentine, which city is so call- ed from flowers, and has a rose in its arms. 1644. Commended for his strict regard to justice and tem- perance, &c. Urban VIII Elected Aug-. 6, 1622. Died July 29, 1644. Innocent X. Elected Sept. 15. 1644. Died Jan 7. 1655. Alexander VII, Elected April 8, 1655. Died May 22, 1667. Clement IX. Rospigliosi, he had Elected June 20, the star and swan 1667. Died {in his arms. Oct. 9, 1669. Clement X. Elected April 29, 1670. Died July 20, 1676. Innocent XI. Elected Sept.21 ; 1676. Died Aug. 12, 1639, Altieri, born at the time of a great inundation of the river Tiber, Odischalchi, the present Pope, called an insatiable beast, because of his great covetousness. 1. Alexander 8th. Elect. Oct. 6th, 1689. Died Jan. 30, 1691. 2. Innocent 12th. Jul. 12th, 1690. Sept. 7, 1700. 3. Clement Hth. Nov. 3d, 1700 4. Innocent 13th 1721.— 5. Benedict 13th 1724. 6. Clement 12th. 1730 7. Benedict 14th. 1740. 8. Clement 13th. 1758. Feb. 3, 1769. 9. Clement 14th. May 19th, 176.9. Sep. 22,1774. 10. Pius 6th. 1 775. Deposed. M 122 The Symbols and Hieroglyphics of all the Popes y in order > that shall be hereafter. 1 . Pcenitentia gloriosa, A glorious penitent. 2. Rastrum in porta, A rake in the gate. 3. Flores circumdati, Flowers encompassing* 4 & Debona religione, Of a good religion. 5. Miles in bello, A soldier of war. 6. Columna excelsa, A lofty pillar. /. Animal r urate 9 A rural animal. 8. Rosa Umbrice, A rose of Umbria. 9. Visus velox, A quick sight. 10. Peregrinus apostolic u& , An apostolic pilgrim. 11. Aquila rapax, A ravenous eagle. 12. Canis et coluber, A dog and snake. 13. Vir religiosus, A religious man. 14. De balneis Hetruria, From the baths of Tus- cany. 15. Crux de cruce, Cross of cross. 16. Lumen de ccelo. A light from heaven. 17. Ignis ardens, A flaming fire. 18. Religio depopulato, Religion laid waste. 19. Fides intrepida, Faith fearless. 20. Pastor angelicus y An angelic pastor. 21. Pastor et nauta, Both shepherd & sailor. 22. Flosjlorum, The flower of flowers. 23. .De medietate lunce, Half the moon. 24. Z)e labore solis, The labour of the sun, or an eclipse. 25. Gloria olkre, The glory of the olive. 123 After which our Irish prophet concludes : tc In the last persecution of the holy Roman church, one Peter, a Roman, shall possess the chair, and feed the sheep in many tribulations ; which being accomplished, the seven-hill'd city shall be destroyed, and the dreadful judge shall call the people to judgment. Hitherto the words translated out of the before-mentioned book Flosculi Historici" There being, according to this man's reckon- ing, twenty-six of their Unholinesses behind, if we shall allow (according to our usual estimate of a man's life) seven years to each, it will amount to 1 82 years, that is, to the year of our Lord 1865, before the final destruction of the papacy and that bloody city shall be completed : but the prayers of the faithful, and the cries of the martyrs from under the altar, may, 'tis like, sooner draw down and accelerate the just judg- ments threatened to this Babylon and spiritual Sodom. 124 The Predictions of Peter du Molin: extracted from his book y intitled The Accomplishments of the Prophecies. Translated 1613. P. 411. As for the time of three days and a half, during which the bodies of the faithful wit- nesses shall be cast out through all the quarters of the Roman church ; it is manifest, that St. John doth hereby shew us how long the perse- cution of the church, under the Roman hier- archy, must continue. For to know how long this time shall endure, and to how much the three days and a half will amount unto, we are to note, that the three days and a half make half a week, which gives us to understand, that the Holy Ghost here under the name of a week doth comprehend the whole time of the beast's reign, and doth advertise us, that the persecu- tion shall last half the time of this reign. Since, therefore, he shall reign 1260 years (as we have showed before,) it followeth that the Roman hierarchy shall persecute the faithful 630 years. Now I do not find, that the church of Rome did begin to persecute and to use cruelty in general against all that did withstand her doctrine till the time of Rerengarius, whom pope Nicholas 125 the Second compelled to recant by force, in the year 105g ; and ever since the popes have per- secuted such as have maintained the same doc- trine. If then you add the 630 years to 1059 years, you shall find that the persecution of the church under the pope shall have an end in the year of our Lord 16Qg. This 'term once ex- pired, the truth that was oppressed shall lift up her head afresh, and the faithful witnesses shall be seen to stand up again, who shall astonish the church of Rome, As a Specimen of the extraordinary Visions and Revelations of sundry persons, given in a book, intitled A Cry from the Desert, printed 1/07, / have selected the following Pieces, tvith a Pre- face to the work written by J. Lacy. For fur- ther particulars of the gifts of these people in prophecy, I refer the curious to the Pastoral Letters qfPtter Jurieu, printed 1688 ; the His- tory of the Edict of Nantes, Vol. III. \6Q5 ; or J. Lacys Prophetical Warnings y 1/07- PREFACE. Though we are assured that all scripture was given by in- spiration, and was written for our instruction, yet there are many now who deny that privilege to the yet unfulfilled pro- M 3 126 phecies of it, though even against the obvious tendency of the words themselves; for whereas mention is made by Isaiah of new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- ness. The time when, and the manner how, this glorious dispensa- tion is to take place being darkly pointed out in the holy writ, many excellent persons have for an age past employed their studies to inquire after it ; no wise man can think, that in search they were, or are, still misemployed. Taking it then for a truth, without controversy, that there is to be a state of the church on earth more resplendent than ever yet there has been ; and conceiving it agreeable to those methods of divine wisdom and compassion which are left us upon saqred record, that some farther previous discoveries will be made from Heaven of its commencement ; to the end that the unbelieving and abominable part of mankind, in rejecting the obvious notices thereof, may be left without excuse, to fall under the direful strokes of almighty vengeance ; and that the true followers of the Lamb may prepare to render him all glory, and to partake of the magnificence and triumphant joy of his marriage- feast. A considerable part of holy writ does evidently point out this glorious dispensation, touching the calling of the Jews, the conversion of all nations, the destruction of Anti- christ, an universal Holiness to the Lord; and, in fine, the kingdom of God on earth. 'Tis then no enthusiasm to make these the subject of our daily prayers, nor consequently to make them the subject of our expectation. Where there seems a necessity of a further revelation, the time being come (till then reserved in the father's hand,) who knows but the testimony of Jesus is to be the spirit of prophecy, sent down again into the world ? Granting this to be the testimony, it is certain, God is absolute master and disposer of his own favours ; he was not restrained to the tribe 12/ of Levi, to choose a prophet under the law, nor to the scribes and doctors to make an apostle. The prophecy of Joel, quoted by St. Peter, in the Acts, is allowed by many not to be so fulfilled by the Pentecost, but that a more full accomplishment thereof is yet to come. The author having, in November last, seen of these Cami- sars, Mr. Boissier, Mr. Marion, Mr. Fage, and Mr. Cavalier, being persons professing to be inspired, he soon gathered from their discourses, that the tidings they brought to us were the speedy approach of the great things promised throughout the whole scriptures, and which are meant by the words in our Lord's Prayer, " thy kingdom come;" the matter seemed to him of an high nature, not fit to be despised, and also re- quiring great caution and scrutiny, he examined all the objec- tions he could either hear or think of: and the better to found a judgment thereof, he visited all the natives of the Cevennes that were then to be found in town ; the effect of which was a full satisfaction in himself of the truth of divine inspiration in the Cevennes, and as the history of so amazing a providence well verified, he gave the same to be made public. A Cry from the Desnrt. — An extract of some mi- nutes of Mr. Matthew Boissier ; written and signed by his own hand. Soon after the peace of Ryswick, anno 1697, I went for a while to Loriol, the place of my birth, in Dauphiny. There some friends in- vited me to go to a meeting hard by, on the Lord's-day morning following. When I came to the assembly, there was a girl preaching with 128 an eloquence and fluency to me most admirable. This girl, after the Spirit of God had honoured her with his gifts, learned a little to read. When her sermon was over, there came in many more, who showed a great desire to hear her. She said she was no ways able of herself to gratify them 5 but presently fell upon her knees, and earnestly besought God, of his good pleasure, to unloose her tongue, that she might again declare his word, for the consolation of his people. She was immediately answered ; the Spirit fell upon her, and she made a long prayer. Methought I heard an angel, so charming were the words that came from her mouth. After prayer she set a psalm, and tuned it melodiously ; then she gave us a discourse, so excellent, so pathetic, so well digested, with that holy gracefulness and ardent zeal, that we could not but believe it was more than human that spoke in her. A poor simple girl, as she was, could never certainly be capa- ble of speaking at that rate. I went away, pierced to the very heart and soul, and full of the impression of those wonderful things that faithful servant of God had pronounced, and I wrote down a good part of them, as well as I could remember. She quoted many texts of the Old and New Testament, as if she had the whole Bible by heart (several of which are expressed in the said minutes ;) and she applied them so aptly, that it ^affected us strangely. She expressed a 129 sad lamentation for the deplorable condition of the churches of France ; for those that were in the dungeons or in the galleys, in the convents or in banishment ; adding, that our sins were the sole cause thereof: but she uttered, at the same time, the noblest and sweetest consolations possible, promises of mercy, peace, grace, feli- city, and joy everlasting. She declared these things in the name of God, all-sufficient, and abounding in goodness, to those who obstinately reject not the paternal solicitations of his kind- ness. She promised also, on the same part, after a manner very powerful, exact, and pressing, that religion, in its purity, should be re-esta- blished in the kingdom. I saw several times at Geneva, a girl of Lan- guedoc, who had inspirations. She said several things in the ecstacy that concerned myself, and whereof it was absolutely impossible she should be informed in a natural way* She enjoyed a wonderful communion of the Spirit of God. Compan gave me a long recital of the marvel- lous things which passed before the eyes of all in the Cevennes, and which may, I think, and ought to be accounted miracles ; and of some things which befel himself, which cannot be looked upon other than the manifest and imme- diate works of the Almighty. 130 Isabel Charras, of Les Roches, declared the ]Qth of February, 170(5. I left France in the year 1696. From the beginning of 1689, for seven years complete, until my leaving that country, I saw in the Vel- lay abundance of people of every age and sex, that fell into violent agitations of body in an ex- traordinary manner ; during which they uttered large discourses, very pious, and strongly hor- tatory of repentance. They had also predictions of the ruin of mystical Babylon, with assurances that the church would speedily be delivered out of affliction. They were forewarned and di- rected in a multitude of things, relating either to their own particular conduct, or to the religious assemblies (held almost daily in secret) for their safety. They always spoke good French in the inspiration, though they never could at other times ; and during their discourses then, they spoke in the manner as if the Divine Spirit had spoke in them, saying, I tell thee, I declare to thee, my child, &c. One John Heraut, of our neighbourhood, and four or five of his children, had all of them the gift of inspiration. The two youngest were, one of five and a half, and the other seven years old, when they first had it. I have seen these many a time in their ecstacies. 131 Lucretia Clare, one of extraordinary piety and meekness, my particular acquaintance, received the gift of exhortation at the age of sixteen or seventeen : she made admirable discourses to the assemblies. Having a long time laboured in God's vineyard, she had a command by inspira- tion to withdraw to Geneva. She was convoyed thither in safety by Divine Providence, through a sea of dangers, where she died three years after, to the great affliction of all that knew her. But her end was so glorious and happy, that those who lamented her could not, however, but testify a joy for the endless felicity of that select servant of God. Durand Fage declared, on the 25th of January, 1 706 — 7 > °t London, and signed the same. Being born at Aubais in Languedoc, before I left that country, which was in anno 1705, I saw many infants under agitations, and speaking by inspiration ; of whom the youngest, I remember distinctly, was a girl of five years old, in the vil- lage of St. Maurice, near Yousy. In the month of July 1 702, was the first reli- gious meeting I was at, which was held in a field near St. Laurence de Gouse, by night, wherein 132 were many lights. A girl of eleven years old, who could not read, and on all other occasions was a sheepish child, was seized there with in- spiration, having some little agitations of body, and especially of the breast. It surprised and affected me to see with what freedom and bold- ness she spoke, with a shrill and loud voice ; saying first, " Fall down, ye people of God ! prostrate yourselves humbly before him; and let our trust be in the name of the Lord !" Con- tinuing, then, a pretty long prayer, and after- wards an exhortation, that lasted about three- quarters of an hour, speaking good French, as I am certain this little girl could not do of herself, no more than she could have spoken those ad- mirable good things that came from her. Those among us who had the gift properly of exhorta- tion had not their speech interrupted with gulp- ings, as others, except only in the beginnings of their discourses ; after that there was such a readiness of utterance, it was easily discernible that their mouth was but the organ of a supe- rior power. This poor girl was the child of one Dumas, of the village of Manably : she had been put into the prison by her own father, because of her inspirations ; whence she escaped, and hid herself at St. Laurence de Gouse^ which was al- most all Protestants, that hid her from house to house, and maintained her. 133 The Visions of Christ, Kotterus, compiled by Johannes Comenius, (printed 1664), concerning the ruin of the Roman e?npire 9 and destruction of Babylon. On the llth day of June, in the year of our Lord 1616 S there first of all appeared an angel in the shape of a man to Kotterus, as he was going forth, and said unto him, " Friend, stay a little ; I must deliver something to you, which you must declare to the ecclesiastical and civil magi- strates." Kotterus being amazed at this sum- mons, and knowing not what to say, the angel proceeded, and told him, that the anger of God was kindled against mankind, and that in fury he hastened to inflict punishment on them, un- less they repented 5 and above all things he 1 would punish them for their pride and impurity, and for the contempt of God, and of his word. Having spoke these words, the angel vanished from his sight; but five days afterwards he ap- peared to him again, and repeated the same things ; adding, The lion of the tribe of Judah shall roar against the whore of Babylon. Behold she is now falling, but is not yet fallen, but presently shall fall. O thou cold, thou thirsty, and pre- sumptuous city ! it is not the height nor the N 134 strength of thy walls shall defend thee ; but they shall fall with thee. O, thou cold and deceitful city, who thinkest thou standest sure ! behold the time is coming when thou shalt totter, and thy horrid lies, and false perverting of the scrip- tures, and thy great impurities, shall come to light 5 for the scripture shall discover thy spi- ritual fornication. O you kings, you princes, and potentates, who do flatter her, and drink the wine of her im- purities, and partake of the cup of her blas- phemies, you are all like unto her that leads you on, hypocrites ! brothers by name, but the eclipsers of the truth of God. Behold, the dry and withered tree of the east begins to shoot forth her leaves, and her blushing knots ; but the tree of the north doth stand unmoved. Behold, the lion* of the north begins to rouse himself, and two other of the same colour do follow him, who will pluck up that tree in the south, root and branch. O that thou hadst known the day of thy visitation! but glory be to him, who alone worketh wonders. The spirit, on the next day returning, repeated the same words ; and added, Those hundred and forty-seven weeks are three weeks of the year of jubilee, in which a great mystery is compre- * This, in Daut's Prophecy, is declared to be a Charles of Sweden. 135 bended, and pertaineth only to those that are extraordinarily illuminated ; but be not thou in- quisitive after it, but look only to those things which are commanded thee. After a little silence, the angel proceeded, O Babylon! fair but painted, and destitute of a true foundation ; false is thy doctrine, false thy life, and evil thy works. Two and forty months shall quickly now be expired ; and the three days, with half a day, shall come to an end ; and the spirit of life shall return into those, whom thou, O wicked Babylon, hast murdered 5 and the five months of thy judgments will quickly be accomplished. Go into Paradise, and behold the disobe- dience of Adam ; consider and behold the wicked works of the old world, who refused to submit themselves to the government of the spirit of God; examine the scriptures, and behold Sodom, Pharaoh, and Jerusalem ; and you shall find that far greater sins are now committed against God. Adam died, the old world was overwhelmed in the flood, and others were punished for their iniquities: and shall not God now strike Rome ? Consider what Daniel, Christ, and John, spake of these times, that such a tribulation should come, as was never in the world before. It hath been told you, that God will punish with fire, sword, and pestilence; and it hath been told you, that in the last days there will be a great 136 defect of faith, hope, and charity. If Rome had continued in the light, and not despised it, such heavy and horrible judgments would never have fallen upon them. A remarkable Prophecy of St. Thomas of Becket ; written in Latin, 11 70/ novo in the library of the church of Canterbury , and printed at Oxford 1666. Thomas of Becket, lord chancellor of Eng- land, archbishop of Canterbury, lived in the 12th age, in the reigns of king Stephen and Henry II. He was born in London, and studied in the university of JParis. At his return into England, Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, made him his archdeacon. Henr}^ II. succeeded king Ste- phen ; preferred him in the very first year of his reign to be lord chancellor of England, in which honour he carried himself very high in his reti- nue, housekeeping, furniture, &c. In France he served king Henry with a body of men, whereof 700 were of his own family, with whom he did good service; but being raised to the see of Canterbury, he sided with the pope, and begun the great controversy between regnum and sacerdotium, the crown and the mitre. 137 THE PROPHECY. The lily shall remain in the better park, and shall enter into the land of the lion, they wanting his assistance, which the beasts of his own king- dom shall tear with their teeth, and shall stand in the field among the thorns of his kingdom : at length shall the Son of Man come with a great army, passing the waters, carrying beasts in his arms, whose kingdom is in the land of wool, and feared by the whole world. The eagle shall come out of the east with his wings spread upon the sun, with a great multitude of his people, to the help of the Son of Man. In that year, camps shall be torn, great fear shall be in the world, and in some parts of the land of the lion shall war be amongst many kings, and there shall be a flood of blood. The lily* shall lose his crown, with which the Son of Man shall be crowned, and for some years following shall there be man}'' battles amongst Christians. ****** ****"*** The head of the world shall be to the earth. The Son of Man and the eagle shall prevail, and there shall be peace over the whole face of the earth : then shall the Son of Man receive a wonderful sign, and shall go into the land of promise. * By the lily is meant France. N J 138 Extracted from John Tillinghasfs Works 9 1 654. Daniel's description of the Jour monarchies in four prophecies, and Chrits's kingdom succeeding them, showed in the following table. First Prophe- cy, chap. ii. Second Pro- phecy, chap. Third Pro- phecy, chap. Fourth Pro- phecy, chap. Golden Head, ver. 32, 38. FIRST MONARCHY. First Beast, ver. 4. SECOND MONARCHY. Silver Breast and Arms, ver. 32, 39. Second Beast, ver. 4. Ram with two Horns, ver. 3, 4, with 20. The matter delivered by voice, ver. 1,2. THIRD MONARCHY. UNITED. Belly of the Image, ver. 32. Third Beast as swift and winged, ver. 6. He-Goat's great Horn, ver. 5, 6, 7, 8, with 21. Mighty King, ruling with great Domi- nion, ver. 3. The Images' Thighs, ver. 32. Third Beast as having four Heads, ver. 6. He- Goat, four notable Horns, ver. 8,22. The matter delivered by voice, ver. 4, 5, to 14. 139 First Prophe- cy, chap. ii. Second Pro- phecy, chap, vii. Third Pro.. phecy. chap. viii. Fourth Pro- phecy, chap, xi. Iron Legs, ver. 33, 40. FOURTH M FIRST Fourth Beast as Warlike, subduing Na- tions, ver. 7. ONARCIIY. STATE. Little Horn, in its first waxing, great, ver. 9. King of the North de- scribed, ver. 14, to 21. Feet of Iron and Clay, ver. 33, 41, 42, 43. SECOND Little Horn, ver.8,20,21, 24, 25, 26. STATE. Little Horn, in its second waxing, great, ver. 10, 11, 12,24, 25. Vile Person, ver. 21 to 40; and King of the North, ver. 40 to the end. CHRIST'S KINGDOM; or Fifth Monarchy. Begins as a stone in the days of the ten Roman Kings, chap. ii. ver. 34, 44. Becomes a mountain filling the earth, upon Christ's appearance, and total dissolution of the Fourth Monarchy, chap. ii. ver. 35. chap. vii. ver. 13, 14, with 26, 27. — A Prediction of Dr. Sibly ; printed in his Illus- trations of the Occult Sciences, 1/84, page 1050, of the Revolutions of Kingdoms and States. The significators (speaking astrological! y) which represent the court of France, show a dig- 140 position to disturb the peace of Great Britain, through the insidious and ambitious views of a female who takes the lead in state affairs. The active position of Venus and Mercury, con- joined in this scheme, denotes much restlessness and instability in the councils of that country, which seem distracted by the arbitrary will of the Gallic queen, here represented by Venus, up- held and assisted by light, volatile, time-serving men, pre-noted by Mercur}', the creatures of the queen, who from motives of avarice, and views of ambition, will be forward to raise ca- bals ; to oppose the common hopes and interests of the people ; to plunge the nation into discord and contention, and eventually to bring about disputes with their neighbours, or wasteful war among themselves. Hence will probably follow great disturbances amongst the heads of the church, and lead to new discoveries in the annals of popish supersti- tion and religious persecution, which the people of that unhappy country seem inclined to shake off, with the shackles of slavery, misery, and want. In fine, here is every prospect, from the disposition of the significators in this scheme, that some very important event will happen in the politics of France, such as may dethrone, or very nearly touch the life of the king, and make victims of many great and illustrious men in church and state, preparatory to a revolution 141 or change in the affairs of that empire, which will at once astonish and surprise the surround- ing nations. A remarkable description of the End of the World, some thousand years since delivered in Greek acrostic verses, the initial letters making up these words, Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Sa- viour, delivered by Sibylla Erythrea, and re- cited by St. Augustine, in the 4th Book, and 23d Chapter, of his Treatise de Civitate Dei, which I shall give in the words of him who trans- lated that excellent book into English, as Jvl- loweth. I n sign of doomsday the whole earth shall sweat, E ver to reign a king in heavenly seat S hall come to judge all flesh : the faithful and U nfaithful too before this God shall stand. C orporai shall he sit, and thence extend H is doom in souls, the earth shall quite lie waste, R uin'd, o'ergrown with thorns, and men shall cast I dols away, and treasure ; searching fire S hall burn the ground, and rage with fatal ire T hrough seas and skies, and break hell's black- est gate. 142 S o shall free light salute the blessed state O f saints : the guilty lasting flames shall burn ; N o act so hid, but thence to light shall turn ; N or breast so close, but God shall open wide ; E ach where shall cries be heard, and noise be- tide O f gnashing teeth ; the sun shall from the sky F Ly forth, and stars no more move orderly. G reat Heav'n shall be dissolved ; the moon de- prived f all her light : places at height arrived D epress'd, and vallies mounted to their seat. T here shall be nought to mortals high or great ; H ills shall be levell'd with the plains ; the sea E ndure no burthen ; and the earth, as they, S hall perish, cleft with lightning, every spring A nd river burn ; the fatal trump shall bring V nto the world from Heav'n a dismal blast, 1 ncluding plagues to come for ill deeds past, O Id Chaos through the scatter'd mass appears ; U nto this bar all kings come prisoners, R ivers of flaming brimstone drown their tears. U3 A Warning to the World ; or the prophetical Num- bers of Daniel and John; calculated by the Rev. Mr. Clarke 9 1769. I was led by extraordinary impressions (to me at least extraordinary) to compute the num- bers of Daniel and John, who are both prophets, highly favoured and beloved of God, and the counterparts to each other. They comprehend the beginning and the end of the great Babel or confusion, which sin has brought into works of Aleim Jehovah. I was led to consider at what time the Theo- cracy, or proper government of the God of Israel, ended, from the ancient departure out of Egypt, when the judges and rulers of his prior kingdom were cast off, by their desire of kings, that they might be like the nations about them. This event fell out in the year 427, when Saul was appointed king : then was the parallel sug- gested to my mind, that about this time of the Evangelical Theocracy, the Antichrist of a false interpretation and representation of the gospel was nourished with riches, honours, and plea- sures, in the courts of the eastern and western emperors 3 who did, by these means, as much destroy the spirit of the gospel, as a Theocracy, 144 or peculiar kingdom not of this world, as the kings of Judah and Israel before destroyed the spirit of the law, and the prophets. This was near 10Q5 years before the Christ of God, the king and head of Israel, promul- gated the Theocracy over all nations, in the Beloved Son, the heir of all the Father's works, and the blesser of all people. These two numbers of 427> and 1095 years, make 1522, nearly the time of the reformation, which was only a partial redemption of the church. Let the time of the full redemption be mea- sured by the number 666 9 with 1095, which will make 1761. If this be measured backward, under the Abrahamic covenant, we shall meet with Jacob, the father of the twelve patriarchs, who receives his father's blessing, recorded in Gen. xxviii. 2,3,4. This time comprehends a period of 176O years, or nearly so, before the true Jacob or wrestler for heavenly blessings came ; before Christ, in the most principal part of the charac- ter of Jacob the type, as a supplanter or heeler, wrestled with flesh and blood, and the world, and Satan, the God of this world, and obtained the blessing for all flesh, in the days and sufferings of his own flesh. Measure this time from the spiritual Jacob, or Messiah, it is just ending, 145 when he begets the twelve tribes from the na- tions, figured out by their heads, the twelve apostles, as being the number of the first-born children. After this I was conducted to calculate the last number of Daniel, in the close of his pro- phecy with the 427 years. These two numbers contain 17 62 years. The words of this concluding prophecy are, 1 • Blessed and holy is he that cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days; but go thy way till the end be, for thou i shalt rest, and stand in the lot at the end of the days." Within a few years of this time of 427, under the gospel, there was a pope, whose name was ' Sixtus the Third ; which period nearly corre- j sponds to the time of the Theocracy departing under Moses. This circumstance ought to appear an extra- ordinary /mark to those, who believe that the I whore of Babylon, and the great city, and the beast, signify the corrupt church of Rome only; since the third sixth in all the languages of the world, answers to 666. But should this number compose the name of the beast, and fix his time of rising, it must be remembered, that the whore rideth on a scarlet or purple coloured beast ; hence it cannot be o 146 interpreted without a proper distinction. The whore appears to be the same character as Baby- lon the Great, which contains all the peoples, and multitudes, and kindreds and tongues. As the particular church of Rome, through the base and abject submission of other churches, and more especially of the churches of Africa, had the chief hand in bringing in one confusion, or false lip of interpretation after another; she may be considered, as the most eminent Anti- christ, full of false tongues and stammering lips : but in what light can she answer to the name, Mystery, or Babylon the Great, whose character is so plainly marked by comprehending the peo- ples and tongues, and languages and nations, and in which was found all the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. Words cannot describe the world more clearly, which our Saviour so continually uses in the Gospel of St. John ; and which very word his disciple scatters through his epistles. After that, my mind was guided to compare the time when the temple of Solomon was seized by the Babylonians after it was built, and the prophets of that temple had written. The siege of Jerusalem fell out in the year 428, from the foundation of it ; and the temple was taken about two years after. This is near the same time as that wherein the Theocracy was de- 147 parted, after the Exode from Egypt; and by adding the 1 335 days of Daniel, it would expire in 1763, or 1765. At the expiration of the 1335 days, added to 428 years, we may look for the first resurrection of the martyrs, and other eminent servants of God, who will rise from the glory of the holy place, the first heavenly sanctuary, or taberna- cle, where they are now, and go into the holy of holies. I proceed to compute the number 666 9 with the one thousand two hundred and sixty days of John, in Rev. xi. 3, and with the time, times, and a half (or part,) of Daniel. My mind was guided to consider Antiochus the type of Daniel. He is the figure of an insolent power, and a de- filer of the new sanctuary, who should rise up i under Christ, and do horrible impieties in the temple of God, as he did before, for three years I and a half. This is the number of time, so fa- mous among the Jews on his account. This event fell out 168, or 167 years before Christ : hence we must reckon the number 666 9 for a series of years, from the type Antiochus to the j rise of the antitype, which will carry us down to 498, or 497 years after Christ. Here the anti- type must be expected, who must sit in the tem- ple of God, showing himself that he is God : he must reign three years and a half of prophetical time, or 1260 years. Wherefore, this will bring 148 us to the year 1758, or 1759, when the slaying of the witnesses, at the end, or towards the ex- piration of their testimony, will in all appearance begin. This will lead us also to a remarkable period of time relating to the Jews of the old temple; for we shall come within a few years, when the Babylonian Thalmud, that spiritual captivity of the mystic rites and vessels of Moses's tabernacle, was proclaimed with universal joy and triumph : and which has bound the Jews fast in chains of intellectual darkness to this day. As both periods are disputed, let us reckon 1260 years for the two witnesses in sackcloth ; and they will end in 176O, or 1765. At this time the Jews may be expected to convert to the Messiah in small portions, but not all at once. Now Babylon, with her strife and discord of 70 tongues, will soon be put to silence by golden bells which hung on the garments of the typical high-priest, and which will in the spirit be found so many tongues or voices, pro- claiming the great high-priest, the ever-blessed Son of God, Jesus, Saviour of all men. I was next led to compare the going forth, or | beginning of this number, from the night of Bel- I shazzar's impious feast, with all the great lords and concubines of his vast kingdom, when they j in mockery drank out of the sacred vessels of the temple taken away by his father. 149 This feast was celebrated 538 years before Christ, according to the most approved chrono- logical tables ; and it will run down to 1/62, under Christ. The kingdom of this type was taken at midnight, and himself slain by Cyrus a type, who put an end to the temporal captivity of Judah : how greatly will the antitypes be ful- filled in Jesus Christ ! In the last place, the prophet Daniel informs us, that he (the Messiah) shall confirm the co- venant with many for one week ; and in the midst or dividing of the week, he shall cause the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of Abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined J shall be poured upon the desolate. The 70 weeks make 4Q0 days : by centuries, a double jubilee of the Jewish and Gentile church united, they are 49,000 years : by ten times seven hundred for each week, they will fill up 7000 years, according to the mystic or spi- ritual sense of the ancient Hebrews, who al- lowed such a space of time for a week of the world. Seven of these weeks run through the seven weeks of Pentecost, and through the seven sab- batic years to the great year of jubilee. In equal portions the 70 weeks come round to 49,000 years, and coincide with the types of o3 150 Moses in the weeks of Pentecost, and in the seven sabbatic years to the jubilee. The 120 years of Noah the type were short- ened before the deluge : the Egyptians, Cbal- dees, and Persians, preserved the memory of the 120 years, and intercalated a month at the end of every 120 years, which they called the great moon. One hundred and twenty jubilees make 6000 years, but they will be shortened before the deluge of fire ; and the seventh moon, the great moon of the Jewish sacred year, will be brought on before its full period in this first f week or age. The only number remaining in Daniel is that of the 12Q0 days, in the last chapter. This extends thirty days beyond the 1260 of St. John : it is to be explained in the great sense of ages of ages succeed, which are mentioned in so many places of the gospel, the antitype of the law of shadows. These days are to be divided in a double por- tion for jubilees, and a third for centuries, the end of time with the Jewish and Gentile church engrafted into one body. Eight hundred and sixty jubilees make 43,000 years : the first week or age of 7000 being added, they fill up the fifty days of Pentecost, and the fiftieth year of jubilee. Then will these types of times or ages be fulfilled in the everlasting gospel i 151 of Jesus Christ, according to the eternal pur- pose, which God purposed in our Lord. Thus Moses bears witness to the universal re- demption, at the end of these ages, by the jubi- lees of the law ; and Jesus Christ bears his testi- mony by the centuries of the gospel. These numbers and calculations shall be now drawn into a short view. The /O years of Jeremiah, in chap. xxv. 12, and xxix. 20, were understood by Daniel, and appear to be the JO weeks of years which Ga- briel informs him of at the 24th verse. These 70 weeks contain 4g0 days: and these days, by allowing a double jubilee or the cen- tury, the end of time with the church of the Gen- tiles^ will make 49 5 OCO years. This number will answer to the seven sabbatic years up to the jubilee. Thus are filled the seven ages of the gospel, before the Messiah shall have finished his glorious triumph over sin and death, and shall bring in everlasting righteousness, and seal : up the vision and prophecy. The proper Theocracy under the law was thrown off by asking a king about the year 457 from the Exode : the Theocracy under the gos- pel was departing about this time. The distin- guished number of Daniel of 1335 days, in chap, xii. 12, measured from this year of the Son of God, runs down to 1762. trs of this period we meet with 152 the pope Sixtus the third, or Third Sixth; by adding these four years, we shall come no lower than 1766. The temple of Solomon the type was taken by the Babylonians in the year 430 from its building ; but the siege of Jerusalem began in the 42Sth year of the temple. Under the Mes- siah, the true Solomon, or Prince of Peace, and builder of the heavenly temple, the spiritual in- terpretation and genuine sense of the sacred writings ceased about this time. If we measure these periods by the 1335 days of Daniel, they will expire in 1763, or 1765. The numbers of St. John of 666, and 1260 days for the prophets in sackcloth, added toge- ther, make 1926 years. Measure them from Antiochus the type defiling the temple under the law, 168 or 167 years before Christ, to his antitype under the gospel^ or the power of An- tichrist, and we shall be brought to 1758, or 1759. Again, let the time of the Babylonian Thai- mud, proclaimed after Christ in the year 500, or 505, be computed: let us reckon the 1260 days, or so many years, before the two witnesses of God, Moses and the Messiah, the law and the gospel, rise out of sackcloth, and come forth in glory, and we shall come to the year 1760, or 1765. If we reckon the number of 2300 days ap- 153 pointed for the cleansing of the sanctuary from the impious feast of Belshazzar the type, and the taking of Babylon 538 years before Christ, it will conclude in 1762. No time carries more flagrant marks than the present age of the fall of Babylon, when every kingdom is looking out for more gold and silver, and precious stones, and odours, and wine, and ointment, like the Jews of old at the first revelation of the Messiah. His second revelation will be as in the days of Noah, of Lot, and Jerusalem. He will hide his advent under the spiritual glories of the new covenant and kingdom, from the profane and sensual heart; from the rich and noble according to the flesh, when the humble and lowly in heart, in whatever part of the earth and station of life shall find God and Christ revealed and manifested in their souls, and shall be ready with the holy garment of the bride, to meet the bridegroom at his open manifestation and marriage. 154 Fatality of Rome, by Mr. John Pell, D. D. See Aubrey's Miscellanies, Thej that called the city of Rome Urbs JEterna seemed to believe that Rome could never be destroyed. But there have been great numbers of men, that did verily believe, that it shall have an irrecoverable overthrow. Writers have proceeded so far, as to foretel the time of Rome's final ruin. Some said that Rome's perdition should happen in the year of Christ 1670. Many men believe, that some of the prophe- cies in the Revelations do reach far beyond our times, and that the events of future times will unclasp and unseal a considerable portion of the Apocalypse. One of the reasons, that recommended the number of 1670, was because it is the sum of 410, and 1260. Historians agree, that in the year of Christ 410, in the month of August, Rome was tram- pled under foot, and her heathen inhabitants were miserably slaughtered by the victorious army of Alaric, a Christian king of the Goths. Paulus Diaconus saith, August the 24th was the day of king Alaric's taking Rome. Kendrenus saith, it was August 26th ; perhaps the army 155 first entered the 24th, and the king followed not till two days after, As for the other number 1260. It is twice found in the Revelations of St. John, chap. xi. 3. " My two witnesses shall prophecy a thou- sand two hundred and sixty days." And chap, xii. 6, " Should feed the woman in the wilder- ness, a thousand two hundred and threescore days/' And it is there expressed in another form, (42 times 30) chap. xi. 2. " The Gentiles shall tread the holy city under foot forty and two months." Chap. xiii. 5, " Power was given to the blasphemous beast to continue forty and two months. ,, Chap. xii. 14, u The woman is nourished in the wilderness for (Kcucbv nod tmupdf kcc) faiM Kctips) a season and seasons, and half a season." See Acts, i. 7 ; 300, and 720, and 180, are equal to 1280. So it seems every xccipo hath 360 days, or twelve months, at thirty days to a month. No doubt Daniel had given occasion to this expression, chap. vii. 25, " A time, and times, and the dividing of time." No man can ground any distinct reasoning upon such general words. But yet it is not tied to a just number of days (as 360,) but is capable of various in- terpretations in several prophecies. Daniel useth a plural in both places, and not a dual (two times, and two seasons,) nor doth John say, two seasons : but, by his numeral illustration, he I5d teaches us to understand him, as if he had said, (chap. xii. 14,) " For three seasons and half a season:" I say numeral illustration. For I take it to he no other than an easy example (12 and 24 and 6 are 42) to direct the sons of the pro- phets not yet arrived to the skill of dealing with difficult supputations of numbers not then disco- verable; as Rev. xiii. 18, " Here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast." By 1260 days, almost all the interpreters un- derstand so many years ; but not a year of 360 days, because they find no nation that hath so short a year. The Egyptians had a year of just 365 (lays ; but before St. John was born, the Romans had forced them to allow 365^, as we use now in England. In an inquiry concerning Rome, it is fit to consider the length of a Roman year. (I may justly say a Roman moved ; for no city ever had their years, length and form of a calendar, de- termined, settled, and commanded, with so much absolute authority as Rome had.) Julius Caesar, by an edict, commanded that number of 365^ to be observed, and therefore it is called a Julian year. Three Julians and a half have days l2/8f . Again (instead of adding 1260,) add 1278 years, and days 118 to the year of our Lord j 410, August 24. The sum shows the year of j 157 our Lord 1688, August, 142, that is, eleven days before the end of December, 1688, old style. This is the nearest or soonest that can be ga- thered by Apocalyptic account (reckoning from Alaric,) to point out the time of Rome's final ruin. But if it happens not, men will make no more reckoning of Alaric ; but begin a new ac- count from Attila, in the year of Christ, 453, which brings us down to the year 1/31. St. Augustine writes somewhere to this pur- pose, viz. iC That it were to be wished that some skilful mathematician would take the pains to 'examine and consider the mathematical parts of the holy scripture." MIRACULOUS PROPHECIES, PREDICTIONS, Sfc. PART III. MIRACULOUS PROPHECIES, PREDICTIONS, PART III. Introductory Address to the Prediction of Mr. W. B. by J. Lawrence of Bristol, 1794. The present is a period most momentous and in- teresting, and any thing to which credit can be given, by persons of piety and discernment, that tends to throw light on transpiring events, must be both pleasing and welcome to every serious observer of providential occur- rences. The following Prediction was uttered in the company of several ministers and private gentlemen, by i a person of unblemished morality, piety, and bene* Tolence, as well as of good understanding and judgment. As far as there appears to be a consistency with scrip- ture prophecy in this prediction, the Editor attaches belief to it, and as good men who lived in the last cen- tury have clearly foretold several things that have p3 162 already happened, very similar to what is here predicted, the Editor is the more inclined to send it out into the world as a very strong probability. — Besides, the wore} of infallibility points clearly at the approaching end of antichristianism and tyranny ; and consequently, in order to effect the destruction of the " Man of Sin," and all his dark kingdom and retinue, and to fulfil the word of Sacred inspiration, things like those that are here pre- dicted must transpire, as sure as God has spoken them -, and so far as this prediction agrees with divine pro- phecy, so far it is really true. And as they declare they ground all their confidence in future events, on the books of the Old and New Testaments, the society alluded to in this prediction are the more entitled to respect and belief. The Rev. Christopher Love has a very remarkable sentence in his predictions, vide part 1 . p. 48. " Observe, my dear friends, while you read my calculation of the dates in the books of Daniel and the Revelation, which the Spirit of the Lord led me into ; for he will reveal it to some of his own before the time comes. The nearer it approaches, the more will the seals be taken away, and increasing light will be given to God's people. For the Lord does nothing without revealing it by his Spirit to his servants the Prophets. He destroyed not the old world till he had revealed it to Noah. — He did not over- throw Sodom and Gomorrah without making it known to Abraham, &c. I do not mean that any new prophets shall arise, but that the Lord by his Spirit shall cause knowledge to abound among his people — whereby the old prophets shall be clearly and perfectly understood. %> Of this truth I am fully certain, that the same divine Spirit which dictated all Scripture prophecy, as well as every other part of sacred writ, can give to those men God may be pleased to appoint sucfv insight into scrip- 163 ture predictions as none beside can conceive of, unless blessed in the same manner. Nor do I believe that any part of ihe sacred volume is so dark that no oue can understand it. No ! for that Spirit which taught the Prophets to speak, can teach other men to understand clearly what the Prophets mean. Now, as the lise and reign of the OKI Testament Babylon was foretold by the Old Testament prophets, so the rise and reign of the New Testament Babylon is likewise foretold. The per- secutions of the Jewish church by the Old Babylon were predicted exactly, both as to commenc .nent and con- summation, so are the persecutions of the Protestant Church by the Popish Synagogue, both by New and Old Testament Prophets. And as the captivity of the Jews in Babylon was predicted to continue 10 years (which were exactly fulfilled) so the reign of the popish Synagogue is predicted to be 1260 years ; which will undoubtedly be fulfilled also. It is clear, that the time, times and an half, spoken of by Daniel, and the three days and an half, by St. John, Rev. xi. 11. — and the 1260 days in the same chapter, are synonymous, i. e. mean the same thing, and signify 1260 prophetical years. On this particular I shall quote a passage from Fleming's Apocalyptical Key. — (i The three grand numbers, 1260 days, 42 months, and time, times and an half, are not only synchronical, but must be interpreted prophetically, so as that, years must be understood by days. That these three numbers are synchronical, will appear plain to any impartial con- siderer, that will bo at pains to compare them as we have them in the Revelation, viz. the 1260 days, chap. xi. 3. and chap. xii. 6. the 42 months, chap. xi. 2. and chap, xiii. 5. and the time, times and an half, chap. xii. 14. For is it not clear, that the Gentiles treating down the lioly.city 42 months, chap. xi. 2. is the cause of the wit- 164 nesses prophesying for 1260 days in sackcloth, v. 3 ? And is not the woman or Church's being in the wilderness for the same term of days, chap. xii. 6. a new represen- tation of the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth ? See- ing this must be while the beast is worshipped and served by the whole Roman world, during men's lunacy of 42 months, chap. xiii. 5* — And therefore, seeing the woman is said to be in a wilderness state of desolation and persecution, for a time, and times, and an half time, in order thus to be preserved from the beast and serpent^ as we see chap. xii. 14, it is likewise plain, that this number of three years and an half must be the same with the two former numbers. Only it is to be observed by the way, that as these numbers are synchronical or the same, so it is easy to prove they must be understood pro- phetically for years. Now that 1260 days cannot be taken literally, but prophetically, will appear from hence ; that it is impossible to conceive how so many great and wonderful actions, which are prophesied of, eould fall out in that short time. Such for example, as the obtaining power over all kindreds, tongues, and nations ; the world's wondering at and submitting to the reign of the beast, &c. Besides, the 1260 days are the whole time of the papal authority, which is not to be totally destroyed until the great and remarkable appear- ance of Christ, upon the pouring out of the seventh vial. Therefore we may certainly conclude, that it must take up some centuries of years to carry on this abomination that maketh desolate." The above reasoning on the dates in Scripture is so clear and plain, and so consistent with the events of Providence, that no doubt can be entertained of the agreeableness of the interpretation to the mind of the spirit of God, and the meaning of the sacred prophecies with which these dates are connected. Consequently 165 if we can come at the time in which the reign of popery may be said to begin, we may easily point out the time with a good degree of precision, in which it will end. Now, we find several very eminent authors are agreed in beginning the papal reign A. 1). 606. If to A. D. 606 or 529 We add 1260 Years, 1260 It points out A. D. 1866 1789 But to come at the time the Holy Ghost points out, we must reduce 1260 Julian or common years to pro- phetic years. The prophetic years consist of twelve months containing exactly thirty days each; conse- quently the prophetic year is composed of 360 days xactly. But the Julian or common year, consists of 365 days, 5 hours, and 49 minutes ; the minutes we shall not regard, but notice the additional days and hours. Now the 5 hours, in the term of 1260 years, will amount to 262 days 2 hours, making more than half a year, which is not wholly to be neglected. Now, to come more exactly to the time pointed out by the Holy Ghost, for the Destruction of Popery, we must Multiply 1260 Prophetic yean By 5 Days To these 6300 Days Add - - 262 Days Divide these by - 360) 6562 (18 years 82 days. From 1 260 Julian Years Subtract 18 yrs. 82 Days 1242 yrs. 278 Days 16(5 To the year 606, add the 1242 years, and it points out A. D. 1848. But take out the 278 days, and it points out the beginning of 1847. So that if 606 was the commencement of the papal in- terest, 1847 or 1848 will be its ending, or very near that period. — But there are others who date the beginning of the popish influence much earlier than 606, and perhaps with very good reason, for the Apostle Paul, in II. t Thess. chap. ii. says, that the Mystery of Iniquity was at work when he wrote that Epistle. And the Apostle John, in his first Epistle, 4th chap, and 3d verse, says, that Antichrist was then in the world. And in his third Epistle, he tells us of one Diolrephes, who loved to have the pre-eminence, and who prated maliciously against the Brethren, and cast them out of the church. And I suppose his reason for it was because they would not submit to his supremacy. His proud spirit could not bear to be opposed. On this ground it appears to me quite rational to suppose, that this proud infernal popish spirit had gained mightily before the year A. D. 606. In fact, I have no doubt, but that the Bishop of Rome had formed his plan, and avowed his principles long before that year. And though the wicked Phocas, the Emperor, did not declare him universal Bishop, till A. D. 606, yet he had declared himself such, long before that. By consulting Fox's Acts and Monuments, pages 116 and 117, and a few further on, it is easy to be discerned, that the popish authority had risen in Gre- gory's time to a great height indeed, and the many gross and scandalous ceremonies that were then in use, toge- ther with the enormous power that the Bishops of Rome then had, seems to me to justify the dating the com- mencement of Popery, so early as A. D. 558, to which if we add 1260 prophetic years, it points A. I). 1800. If this be a just calculation of Po> ery's commencement, no doubt remains but that AD. 1800, or very near that? 167 will produce its total and final overthrow. I am very sensible, that many think differently on this subject, and tell us that Popery will remain many years longer. I would not offend them, nor be too confident in my own opinion ; but I think with Mr. Fleming, that many great men have made great mistakes for want of attend- ing properly to common and prophetic time. On these principles I take the liberty to send forth the Predictions following as very strong probabilities. And considering the tendency of transpiring events, I am much strength- ened in the conjecture. As there is certain scripture ground to believe that the Jews will be converted, and Mahometism be destroyed; so it may be strongly pro- bable that these events are near. It has been observed by several pious and judicious divines, that each new century has produced some new and great events in the Christian church and world : Therefore, to me it seems but rational to suppose that the following Predictions may be true. And I am free to tell, and bold to de- clare, that I really believe some very surprising and astonishing events will transpire before this century closes, and on the commencement of the next ; and as I entirely agree in the probability of the Predictions of several eminent men who have dated the same, I shall -transcribe such parts as teud to illustrate Mr. B.'s Pre- diction ; and close the whole with a few serious and pertinent remarks. I now close this prefatory discourse ■by wishing my readers a happy degree of the Holy Spirit's illumination in this, and in every divine subject. 168 The very peculiar and extraordinary Predictions of Mr. W. B ; a Gentleman noto living in London. He says 5 — that in January 1789, he had many serious impressions on his mind, and being doubtful what would be the result of them, as he was engaged in his business on a certain day, he suddenly heard a voice saying to him, — ' ' Go to Avignon, in France." His mind was greatly impressed with this command, and he tried to evade its force, but could not; and fell in an agony on the floor, in which situation he lay about half an hour ; then he arose, and went in- to a parlour and endeavoured to compose him- self. But instantly he heard another voice say- ing to him, — 'Write out thy accounts, and provide thyself with money/ — He instantly obeyed the command, and proceeded to business immedi- ately, and felt such an energy in attending to it, that he performed mora in two hours than he usually did in two days. Having settled his accounts, and taken such a sum as he thought necessary for his journey, just as he was about to depart, his friend J. W. called on him to inquire if he had any thing on his mind relative to a journey to Avignon in France. Mr. B. said lie had, and was going that day : to this Mr. W. replied, he could not 169 go that day, because he was unprepared ; but on the next day he set out and came up with Mr. B. on the passage from Dover to Calais, he having set out before him, but was detained by contrary winds till Mr. W. came up with him. They embarked together, and landed at Calais, in two hours, and proceeded to Paris in company. When arrived at Paris, they went to a person's house whom Mr. B. knew ; here they were kindly received and generously treated ; and a kind interposition of divine providence it ap- pears to have been, for by this time they had only three sous left. After a few days' stay at this citizen's house, he generously and liberally supplied them with money for the remainder of their journey to Avignon, and told them he had laid by the money he then gave them for his own journey to Avignon, but was now con- vinced that it was they, and not him, that were called thither. Thus furnished, they set out on the next day, and arrived at Avignon in about three weeks. Here they were ignorant of the people, and of their language, and in a great measure of the object of their journey. But providentially they i met an Englishman with whom Mr. B. had a slight acquaintance. He accosted them, and told them, they were expected there by seven associates who had met at Avkmon thirteen years ago, in consequence of impressions or corn- el 170 mands similar to those of Messrs. B. and W. These seven were of different nations. One Russian, one Prussian, one Pole, two French, and two Italians from Rome. The Englishman introduced them and was their interpreter. They were received as brethren, and finding they were exhausted, in an uncomfortable dress through travelling so far, and had again only three sous left, they furnished them amply with clothes, and generously supplied them with money. Here they continued seven months. During this period, they had many extraordinary com- munications made to them, not only from the records of the society (which are a daily journal) but also, through the medium of angels, with whom they assert they personally conversed. They say likewise, that they met regularly every evening at 7, and in a familiar manner comme- morated the death of Christ, by eating bread and drinking wine $ and conversed together on the subject of their future destiny. The oldest member always presides at the meetings. They were often sensible of the presence of angels by various sounds, as well as by their visible ap- pearances. Mr. B. was told by these associates that they had been expected for some time, and as a proof of that, they referred him to a distant record in their journal, where their names had been entered as persons who should join their society. 171 While they were here, they had many and great discoveries made to them of the prophecies of scripture ; and of important events depending : but at present, he said, he was not at liberty to mention them fully, as the veil was not yet to be removed ; but before the close of the present century many and great would be the revolutions in Europe and other parts of the globe. That the Turkish Empire will be destroyed by the instrumentality of a boy, then only eleven years of age, residing at Rome. That this boy is conscious of his important destin)', and under the immediate and daily in- structions of spiritual and angelic agents. That the superstition of Mahomet is to be annihilated by a general conversion to Christi- anity, and the destruction of many of its vota- , ries. That the downfal of the papacy is also at hand, and that Rome itself will be involved in destruction. fe That the present pope will not live long. At his death, there will be two competitors for the papal chair, neither of whom through cabals in the conclave will succeed : but a third will arise 'and will be elected, and this will close the scene of papal tyranny and authority. That the Jews will be converted to Christian- ity, and restored to Palestine, and their country become the glory of all lands. 172 That there will be no Counter-revolution in France. But that Government will be improved to a greater degree of purity and perfection. [Here I beg leave to introduce a passage from Daut's Prophecy, pages 55 and 56, in Prophetic Extracts, vide 1st part, p. 12. — < For he shall smite France sorely-, and then will heal her again ; and France shall at last turn to God, after she hath been laid waste, and will then be very acceptable to the Lord. Yea, Amen!" The following passage also, by another au- thor, is equally striking. Vide Fleming, part 1, page 7. It was published in 1701. " The present French king, (that is, the French King that reigned in 1701 ;) takes the sun for his emblem, and these words for his motto; Nee pluribus impar (Not matched by many.) But he or his Successors, and the Mo- narchy itself at least, before the year 1794, may be forced to acknowledge, that in respect to neighbouring potentates, he is even € . singulis im- par,' (a match for none.) But as for the ex- piration of this fourth vial, I fear it will not be until the year 1794. Then I suppose the fourth vial will end, and the fifth commence by a new mortification of the papacy." See Apoc. Key, page 53. I now return to the remainder of Mr. B.'s pre- dictions.] 173 That England will have a share of calamity; but it will emerge from its trial, and become as glorious, if not more so, than France. That Italy in general will become a scene of distress and horror. That Spain will be restored to Liberty ; in that country the spirit of those revolutions is already at work, and the effects will soon appear. That there are seventy or more associates under like impressions in different parts of Eu- rope, who know they shall be instrumental in these events. That they know the names and places of abode of many of those designed for these purposes, who are yet ignorant of any such impressions. That the information they derive from the Angels is in figures or characters, that are re- duced to words and sentences by one of the associates. That the medium is not unlike the Urim and Thummim, by which Moses and Aaron were in- formed of the divine will. That the distant associates correspond regu- larly with each other by numbers or figures, a key to which they are all possessed of. That a Turkish woman was directed by a voice to assume the dress of a Russian officer, and to go to Angona alias Ancona in Italy, where she should meet with a man in the Russian uniform, whose directions she was to follow : she obeyed Q3 m and went. One of the seven associates at Avig- non had the same directions to proceed to.An- gona, they arrived at the gates the same day and hour ; he conducted her to Avignon, where she remains. That they are ordered not to interfere with any sect of religion, or any system of policy, but to wait in their various situations for the period of their more public appearance. That they ground all their confidence in the approaching events on the books of the old and new Testaments. That many of the prophecies supposed to have been fulfilled already are now depending on that which respects the boy at Rome. And he says that this boy is as clearly and distinctly revealed in one of Isaiah's predictions as Cyrus was, although his name is not mentioned. (In answer to a query on that head, Mr. B. declared that himself and his associates are no disciples of E, Swedenburg.) As a further illustration of the preceding pre- dictions, I shall here transcribe another passage from Mr. Christopher Love, published in 1651. " Out of thee, O England, shall a bright star arise, whose light and voice shall make the hea- then tremble and submit to the glorious Gospel of the Son of God. He shall be as a son of thunder to the wicked ; as a lantern to the 175 Jew's, to lead them to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Vide 1st part, page 48. " I die in that thought, and really believe that my calculation on the Rev. of St. John, and the prophecy which St. Jerom copied, and translated out of the Hebrew language, and which was written on Seth's pillar, which is said to have stood from before the deluge, and was built by Seth the son of Adam, and this Prophecy writ- ten on it by Enoch, is also true, and is as follows ; ditto page 4Q. x< Great earthquakes and commotions by sea and land shall come in the year of God 1779. " Great Wars in Germany and America, in 178a. " The destruction "of Popery and Babylon's fall, 1790 * f God will be known by many in the year 1795. " This will produce a great man. — The f stars will wander, and the moon turn as blood in 1800. " Africa, Asia, and America, will tremble in 1803. " A great J earthquake over all the world in 1805. * That is, — by the Revolution in France that year, f Meaning- the popish clergy, and all false teachers. \ Signifying either a dreadful war, or a thorough re- novation of the christian church. 176 " Godwill be universally known by all. Then a general reformation and peace for ever, when the people shall learn war no more. " Happy is the man that liveth to see this day." As an illustration of the destruction of the Popish clergy predicted above, I shall transcribe the prophecy of Hildegardis from Fox's Acts and Monuments of the Christian Martyrs, page 261. Hildegardis was living in the year A.D. 1146. The prophecy was approved and published by Martin Luther. " In those days (that is, in the days of the gross corruptions of Popery) shall rise a senseless people, proud; greedy, and subtle, without faith, who will eat the sins of the people, holding a certain order of foolish devotion under the feigned cloak of beggary : preferring themselves above all others, by their feigned devotion, arro- gant in understanding, and pretending holiness : walking without shamefacedness or the fear of God : inventing many new mischiefs strong and stout. But this order shall be cursed by all wise men, and faithful christians. They shall cease from all labour, and give themselves over to idleness, choosing rather to live through flattery, and begging ; moreover they shall study together how they may perversely resist the teachers of truth, and stay them together with the noblemen. How to seduce and deceive the nobility, for the 177 necessity of their living, and pleasures of this world : for the devil will graft in them four prin- cipal vices, (that is to say) Flattery, Envy, Hy- pocrisy, and Slander. Flattery, that they may have large gifts given them : Envy, when they see gifts given to others and not to them : Hy- pocrisy, that by false dissimulation, they may please men : Detraction, that they may extol and commend themselves and backbite others, for the praise of men, and seducing of the sim- ple. Also, they shall instantly preach, but with- out devotion or example of the Martyrs : and detract the secular Princes, taking away the Sacraments of the church from the true pastors, receiving alms of the poor, diseased and miser- able, and also associating themselves with the common people ; having familiarity with women, instructing them how they shall deceive their husbands and friends by their flattery and de- ceitful words, and rob their husbands to give it unto them : for they will take all these stolen and ill-gotten goods, and say, Give it unto us, and we will pray for you, so that they being curious to hide other men's faults, do verily forget their own. But alas ! they will receive all things of rovers, pickers, spoilers, thieves and robbers, of sacrilegious persons, usurers, adul- terers, heretics, schismatics, apostates, whores and bawds, of noblemen, perjurers, merchants, false judges, soldiers, tyrants, princes, of such as live J 78 contrary to the law, and of many perverse and wicked men; following the persuasion of the devil, the sweetness of sin, and delicate and transitory life, and fulness, even unto eternal damnation. " All these things shall manifestly appear in them unto all people, and they, day by day, shall wax more and more wicked, hard-hearted, and deceitful, but their hypocrisy shall be found out, and then shall their gifts cease.* And then they shall go about their houses like hungry mad dogs looking down upon the earth, and drawing in their necks like doves, that they might be satisfied with bread. Then shall the people cry out on them, woe be unto you, ye miserable children of sorrow ! the world hath seduced you, and the devil hath bridled your mouths ; your flesh is frail, and your hearts without savour ; your minds have been unsteadfast, and your eyes delighted in much vanity and folly ; your dainty bellies desire delicate meats, your feet are swift to run unto mischief: remember, when you were apparently blessed, yet envious ; poor to appear- ance, but rich ; humble in semblance, but proud : simple in the sight of men, but mighty flatterers ; unfaithful betrayers, perverse detracters, holy hypocrites, subverters of the truth, overmuch upright, unsteadfast teachers, delicate martyrs, * Ask the French emigrant clergy if this is" not true? 179 confessors for gain : meek but slanderers, reli- f gious but covetous, humble but proud, pitiful i but hard-hearted; liars, pleasant flatterers, per- I secutors, oppressors of the poor, bringing in new sects of your own invention : thought merciful ' but found wicked, lovers of the world, sellers of pardons, spoilers of benefices, unprofitable ora- tors, seditious * conspirators, drunkards, lusting for honours, maintainers of mischief, robbers of the world, insatiable preachers, men pleasers, seducers of women, and sowers of discord, of whom Moses the prophet spake very well in his song. A people without counsel or understand- ing. I would to God they did know, and un- derstand, and foresee the end. You have builded up on high, and when you could ascend no higher, then did you fall as Simon Magus, whom God overthrew, and struck with a great plague. So likewise through your false doctrine, naughtiness, lies, detraction and wickedness, are you come to ruin. And the people shall say unto them, go ye teachers of wickedness, sub- verted of truth, brethren of the deceiver, fathers of heresies, false apostles, who have feigned yourselves to have followed the life of the apos- Itles, and yet have not fulfilled it in any part ; ye sons of iniquity, we will not follow the knowledge * Here again let us look at the priests of France, and other popish countries, and see who are conspirators. 180 of your ways, for pride and presumption has deceived you, and insatiable concupiscence has subverted your erroneous hearts. And when you would ascend higher than was meet or comely for you, by the just judgment of God, you are fallen back into perpetual opprobrium and shame." Surely nothing can be more descriptive than the above, of the character and disgrace of the Romish rabble, lately witnessed in France. God hath his times of retribution, and now they are come. The Romish Synagogue and her agents have filled the streets of divers towns and cities in France with protestant blood, and now blood has been given them to drink in large draughts ! And striking it really is, those very places where persecution raged most, have: now suffered the severest effects of the present commotions. But that the justice and equity of the divine procedure may more strikingly appear, we will take a retrospective view of papal proceedings against the Protestants, in the years 1570, 1572, and 1573. First, in \5f0 9 in the city of Orange many thousands of Protestants were slain in the most barbarous and inhuman manner that can be con- ceived. The bloody emissaries of popery broke into their houses without the least warning, and murdered men, women, and children. Some they 181 stripped naked and threw out of high rooms into the streets: some they smothered in their own houses with smoke : others they killed with the sword and other weapons, and then threw their bodies to the dogs! One would think it must puzzle the prince of darkness to find out such master-pieces of monstrous cruelty. In the same year, by order of Charles IX. dreadful mur- ders were perpetrated in Roan and Dieppe ; while the protectants were engaged in divine worship, they flew upon them like lions and devils, destroying all they possibly could. Now, let the above places view the revenging hand of •God, and repent of their crimes, and abandon that accursed religion. But the above is no- thing when compared with the Parisian massacre, on August 24th, 1572. An infernal stratagem was contrived by the king and his party, to collect all the chief pro- testants in France at a pretended celebrated marriage in Paris, between the Prince of Na- varre and the king's sister. This was a master- piece of infernal craft, which too well succeeded. By this, it was pretended that all animosities were ceased, and that nothing but friendship and j good understanding should from henceforth pre- vail betwixt the king and his protectant subjects. But, behold, Lucifer had metamorphosed himself the more effectually to destroy. The protestants believing the pretensions that were held out to 162 them, great numbers of them resorted to Paris from all parts. The marriage was apparently celebrated, and every thing seemed to invite the protestants to quietness, peace, and security. But behold, a watch-word is adopted, a set of murderers appointed, who, at the time fixed on, (the dead of night) rushed out like fiends ; and in the first place murdered Admiral Coligni, and the leading men of the protestants : having ef- fected this butchery, they flew on all ranks of each sex, and murdered men,, women, and chil- dren, to the number of ten thousand, and up- wards : and so great and terrible was this in- fernal slaughter, that the streets were filled with dead bodies, and ran in streams of blood. To be rid of them, they carried the dead bodies by cart-loads, and threw them into the river, inso- much that the river was stained with human, protestant blood ! This was not confined within ; the walls of Paris, but other places shared the same fate. Lyons particularly ; Orleans, Thou- louse, and other places ; insomuch, that a num- ber of good men, not less than thirty thousand, were massacred in about four days ! O Lord, how long thy patience has endured ! surely thou art a God of long suffering ! But now the-blood- stained scarlet whoref begins to feel thy strokes! May she totter, may she tremble, may she fall to rise no more ! But we must not forget what effect the news 183 of this most horrible affair had upon his unholi- ness at Rome. As soon as it had reached his ears, he caused Te Deum to be sung, proclaimed a jubilee, in honour of this most worthy achievement : his cardinals and himself walked ki procession, amidst cannons roaring, bells ringing, and popish [.saints singing, for the victory they had gained over the heretics ! Ye popish friends of French despotism, say, Was not this downright popish Christianity? How would you be loaded with infallible blessings if you could but once more raise the diooping, dying cause of his unspotted holiness. But we apprehend your efforts are too feeble, your schemes too futile, and your friends too few, and that they are likely to be much fewer. And our reasons for it are the following : We find, that God himself has said, I will visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the chil- dren, unto the third and fourth generation of them ;hat hate me, &c e Here we wish to remind you that at, and soon after the above period, upwards )f one hundred thousand protectants were slain 3y your forefather? ; and in the persecutions of the Waldenses and Albigenses, there were nurdered no less than one million. The Duke M Alva alone is reported to have murdered whirty-six thousand ! In the latter persecutions 3f the French protestants, no arithmetic can 181 count the number of the slain of the Lord's people. Therefore, unless you have repented of your own personal crimes, and renounced the bloody religion of your forefathers, we imagine that ye yourselves have these very crimes to answer for : and should this be found to be the case, you will never succeed in your projects of restoring this ancient tyranny. But we have to add further, that our God hath told us by the prophet Joel, chap. iii. verses 15, 16 : " The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining," &c. And by the prophet Haggai, chap. ii. verses 6, 7 : " That he will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dryland. That he will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come. And that he will fill his house with glory." Permit us here to give you a comment on the above texts. By " sun and moon, 5 ' we understand those powers and states that have shone upon and cherished the papal synagogue. By " stars," we understand the Romish clergy; and by their being " darkened," &c. imports their total and final ruin and removal, By "shaking the heavens, 5 ' we understand those shaking storms of wrath which shall undoubtedly come upon the apostate Romish church, and all the false teachers, and truth corrupters in Christendom. By u shaking 185 the earth/' &c. we understand wars and civil commotions, which will wholly destroy all cor- rupt and oppressive governments. By " the de- sire of all nations," we understand Jesus Christ, not only in his first coming in the flesh, but also in his more glorious and triumphant i coming in his spiritual and evangelic king- dom. And permit us to say, we firmly be- i lieve that this coming of his is even at the door. We will not say that the ungodly will not be first punished and plagued, for we think they cer- tainly will ; but those days of terror will be short, ; and that too for the " elect's sake." For such reasons as these, and many more beside, we think, that the papal friends of despotism will i fail in their enterprises. For be it remembered, that " Jehovah reigns, and doth as he pleases in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants Vof the earth, and none can stay his hand. His purpose shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure." But we will just ask the question, what will be I the condition and circumstances of men when all this comes to pass? We answer to this, that God himself has described it, by comparing it to new i heavens and a new earth. See Isaiah, chap. lxv. verses 17, 18, 19. " For behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth ; and the former shall Mot be remembered, nor come into mind. But \ R3 186 be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create : for behold, I create Jerusalem a re- joicing, and her people a joy. And I will re- joice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying/' Here let us comment again:— u I create new heavens,*' &c. i. e. the christian churches shall be so renovated, purified, and multiplied, that all who bear rule will be just and good men: the consequence will be, that there will be no oppressors nor oppression ; and the condition of man will be so astonishingly altered for the bet- ter, that the church and the world may well (at that time) be compared to a new creation of heaven and earth. fi Oh long expected day, begin ! Dawn on the realms of woe and sin !" Watts. And here let us observe, this is already begun in Christendom, and no doubt but the hand that began it will complete it : and the regeneration that is begun in Christendom is going out into all the heathen world. Here let us quote a passage from " Prophetic Extracts/' pages 73 and 74. €i Also I saw in a vision the sun arise as a bridegroom, adorned with glory and majesty, and 187 in full lustre and brightness, in the east and in the north, and all the isles of the heathens were in a moment enlightened at once*, as by a flash of lightning : for the sun is near unto them when he rises in the east. And I beheld, that in all places where it was yet dark, that the light dawned; yea, the uttermost places of all among the na- tions were enlightened : and they came forth out of all corners of the earth, and out of all hidden places, and they lifted up their eyes to the wonderful light of the sun, and they were, as it were, covered with the lustre f of the light. And all nations were at once gathered to the sun^ which is the Sun of righteousness, Christ in the children of God. And I saw that the eyes of all the blind were opened, yea, of all the na- tions that would but look upon this wonderful light ; and all the islands of the nations were very joyful, because of this glorious sun, and praised God that he had vouchsafed them to see that wonderful light : and they sang new songs, and rejoiced with great triumph. And they saw the dead sea J tremble in all parts, and there was heard up and down a great noise of waters running together $ and the great sea was full of brightness, clear as crystal. And I asked the * Refer to pages 17 and 18, and observe Love's Pro- phecy. I f Rev - xii * !• u I sa w a woman clothed with the sun.'* \ The papal synagogue. 188 Lord what this great noise of the waters was, and why they made such a noise, and gave forth such a voice ? And the Lord answered me very graciously, and said, They are the tribes, tongues, and languages of the nations, whom I have gathered together to myself, to be my people; therefore they are so glad, and do so triumph in, and do so praise and bless me their God and Fa- ther; for they shall, from this time forth and for ever, daily praise me, and glorify my name. Amen, yea, Amen." This author goes on promising and threaten- ing almost all nations, but especially the Eu- ropean nations, in this peculiar style. And really, when we consider the complexion of the present times, we see too much reason to suppose there is something in his sayings that is more than human. In pages Jb, J6, and 77, he says, " And the Lord said again to me, Cry out, Oh ! oh ! and woe unto Christendom ! for from henceforward I will utterly root out the greatest part of them from off the earth, and will cut off great nations, from my wicked Christendom, by the mighty warlike deluge of the Turks : they shall cover thy whole land with a great multitude of people that I will bring upon thee ; for I will judge thee by my servant, the great Ishmael, and will slay you, ye wicked Christians." (Russia and Prussia probably.) « And the Lord God said unto me, I 189 will give command to the Emperor of the Turks, my servant Ishmael, to deal with the ungodly very unmercifully, who do so much despise me, till they be totally rooted out of the earth ; for I will reject the serpentine and adulterous anti- christians from before my face, so that the house of the wicked shall rule and reign no more over the little house of the righteous. ?? And the Lord said, Declare it to the king- dom of the Eagle, and say, the light shall be taken from thee, and thou shalt be left to sit in darkness; for my sun shall no longer shine upon thee, which thou hast so often darkened with thy great wickedness. Page 78. I will uncover the whole Roman empire, and strip her before all nations, and take away the veil. Then shall they see her shame, and she shall blush before me, and then I will pursue them sorely with the sword, famine, ravenous beasts, and the plague. Page 79. Thus saith the Lord God to me, I will from henceforth command all my winds to assemble from the four quarters of the earth, and storm one against another ; so that the north and east winds shall come with great tem- pestuousness, and wage war against the south and west winds ; and the south and west winds shall w T ar against the northern and easterly winds, and in the end I will give victory unto the east and north winds. And they shall march through Poland, Saxony, Germany, and 190 up and down, to and fro, in the breadth and length ; through Hessen, and along the rivers Maine and Rhine, up and down in Holland, through the whole upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Suabia, Franconia, and their principalities and earldoms, the whole lower Palatinate, even into Alsatia; yea, from Burgundy, Brabant, Flan- ders, Spain, and France, to — ♦ And I will make the land a place of confusion/' We are by no means fond of giving any cre- dence to every pretender to extraordinary im- pulses, nor could we have paid any regard to the above very singular predictions, did not tran- spiring events even constrain us to notice them. When we consider that the author published them so early as 1710, we cannot but admire the wonderful agreement of them with what is now act- ing, and yet seems to be coming forward. We are .sure of this, that God can make his will known to whom, and in what manner and in what measure he pleases. Besides, others have spoken to the same effect, though not so fully and specifically. The foregoing predictions, both by L. and B. intimate like things : and the Scriptures we have quoted and commented on seem to signify the things which this author foretells. Happy would it be, if the fomenters of war and bloodshed would be warned, and forbear ; and seek for the things that make for peace. But they, alas! alas ! have one design, and the Almighty quite a 191 different one S Theirs is a design of ambition and revenge ; but the design of the Lord is of mercy to his chosen, and of judgment to his and their foes. But let them take the prophet's ad- vice, Zech. chap. ii. 13. "'Be silent, oh all flesh, before the Lord; for he is raised up out of his holy habitation. " It may not be amiss if we insert here a pass- age from u Dr. Owen's Sermon," which he preached before the parliament of England, April igth, 1649. See page 25 of the doctor's Sermon. " The Lord Jesus Christ, by his mighty power in these latter days, as antichristian tyranny draws to its period, will so far shake and trans- late the political heights, governments, and strength of the nations, as shall serve for the full bringing in of his own peaceable kingdom : the nations so shaken becoming thereby a quiet habitation for the people of the Most High." Page 47? he says, " When Christ was to come in the flesh, John the Baptist comes a little before : a new light, a new preacher. And what does he discover and reveal ? Why, he calls them off from resting on legal ceremonies, to the doctrine of faith, re- pentance, and Gospel ordinances ; tells them the kingdom of God is at hand; instructs them in !the knowledge of him who was coming. To 'what end was all this? only that the minds of 19* men, being enlightened by his preaching, who was a burning and shining lamp, they might see what the Lord was doing. " Every age has its peculiar work and light. Now, what is the light which God manifestly gives in our days ? No new doctrines, as some pretend; but plainly the peculiar light (of some) of this generation, is that discovery, which the Lord hath made to those of his peo- ple, of the mystery of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny ; the opening, unravelling^and revealing the antichristian interest, interwoven and coupled together in civil and spiritual things, into a state opposite to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. This is one of the greatest discoveries of our days. What judicious Christian is there among us that cannot discern, that for many generations the western nations have been juggled into spiritual and civil slavery by the legerdemain of the whore, and the potentates of the earth, made drunk with the cup of her abominations ? how the whole earth has been roiled into confusion, and saints hurried out of the world, to give way to their combined interest ? Hath not God un- veiled that harlot (at least to the discerning of his own people,) and made her naked, and ex- posed her abominable filthiness ? — Is it not evi- dent to those who have but half an eye, that the whole present constitution of the government of the nations is £0 cemented with antichristian 193 mortar from the very top to the bottom, that without a thorough shaking they cannot be cleansed ? This then plainly discovers, that the work which the Lord is now doing relates to the untwining of their close combination against himself, and the kingdom of his dear Son. And as sure as he has begun, he will go on, and finish this great and glorious work.'' Surely, if the doctor was now living, he could not describe the present times and the signs of them in more glowing colours, nor with more I minute exactness ! CONCLUSION. Notwithstanding the foregoing predictions and prophecies bear the most unquestionable marks of divine authenticity, it is past doubt some of an infidel and atheistical description may disbelieve and scoff at the same. To such we observe, that the time is at no great distance when they will be constrained to believe, and to bewail their former unbelief, from a sight and a sense of the things predicted of! — To those who have learned to believe, by receiving the ' wisdom that cometh from above,' we suggest an imitation of the example of those ' noble Bereans' who daily searched the Scriptures, as the most ef- fectual mode to obtain undeniable evidence of 194 the truth and reality of what they heard. From such a conduct the clearest convictions of the truth will arise, and the mind be enlightened to discover the signs of the times in the most effec- tual manner. That all may be thus convinced and thus enlightened, is our most ardent prayer. John Houblon and the Rev. John Wesley : 1/89- A terrible Vision. This person, a smith by trade, was a hearer of the late Mr. John Wesley, and a communicant at his chapel in the City-road. Being a very industrious man, and of a very fair character and severe morals, Mr. Wesley frequently called upon him. In the last year of Mr. Wesley's life, calling one forenoon on Houblon, he appeared dispirited and sad ; and being asked the cause, he acknowledged it arose from a terrible dream which had been repeated to him three several nights, He dreamed he saw the angel of the Lord descend from heaven, bearing in his right hand a flaming sword, and in his left a balance ; his head touched the heavens, and his counte- nance beamed such terror, as made the hearts of all the inhabitants tremble. A voice then thun- dered from heaven, saying, " Time is." He then 1Q5 saw London filled with foreign soldiers, and the streets strewed with carcasses and human blood, and fancied he was fighting for the right of the Prince of Wales. Mr. Wesley, upon hearing this, prayed with him, and comforted him, en- joining him to search the Scriptures diligently, where he would find that God Almighty had often vouchsafed to warn his righteous servants in visions by night, and that if he continued to lead a holy life, he might expect such warnings; adding, that he had long foreseen troublesome times in this country, but hoped, so far advanced in years as he was, that the Almighty, in his mercy and goodness, would not suffer him to tarry till the judgment came. Mr. Andrew Steward, Minister of Dunagor in Scotland : 1 634. — Wars in Britain. — Deaths of remarkable Persons. The night when he died, several godly and grave Christians were with him, when he said, '* The bloody wars of Germany shall never be balanced with the wars to come of these three kingdoms/' After holding his peace a little, he said, " I tell you what must be : the broken co- venant of Scotland must be renewed, the forma- 196 Jity of Ireland must be purged, the prodigality of England removed, and the sons of Saul hung up before the sun ;" by which last words, none knew what he meant. Dr. Porteus, Bishop of London: 1794. — Signs of the Present and Future Times, Vide a Charge to the Diocese of London. The present times, and the present scene of things, in almost every part of the civilized world, are the most interesting and the most awful that were ever before presented to the in- habitants of the earth ; and such as must neces- sarily excite the most serious reflections in every thinking mind. Perhaps all those singular events to which we have been witnesses, unparalleled as they undoubtedly are in the page of history, maybe only the beginning of things; may be only the first leading steps to a train of events still more extraordinary; to the accomplish- ment, possibly, of some new and unexpected, and at present unfathomable designs, hitherto reserved and hid in the counsels of the Almighty. Some, we know, there are, who think that cer- tain prophecies, both in the New Testament and 197 the Old, are now fulfilling ; that the signs of the times are portentous and alarming ; and that the sudden extinction of a great monarchy, (France) and of all the splendid ranks and orders of men that supported it, is only the completion in part of that prediction in the Gospel, that the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, , before the second appearance of the Messiah to judge the earth; all which expressions are well known to be only figurative emblems of the great powers and rulers of the world, whose de- struction, it is said, is to precede that great event. As to myself, I pretend not to decide on these arduous points. I pretend not either to prophesy or to interpret prophecy ; nor shall I take upon myself to pronounce whether we are now approaching (as some think) to that mille- nium, or day of judgment, or to any other great and tremendous and universal change predicted in the sacred writings. But this I am sure of, that the present unexampled state of the chris- tian world, is a loud and powerful call upon all men, but upon us above all men— to take pecu- liar heed to our ways, and to prepare ourselves for every thing that may befall us, be it ever so novel, ever so calamitous. In one of this bishop's sermons, preached at St. George's church, Hanover-square, but pro- s 3 198 bably not published, he is said to have re- marked, That that man must be a very super- ficial observer indeed, who could not perceive in the present wars something of a very uncom- mon nature ; adding, from his own calculations, founded on the prophetic writings, he thought the happy period called the millenium was not then more than sixty years distant at the most. Sir Isaac Newton: 1/18. — -Universal extent of the Grand Apostasy. All nations have corrupted the christian reli- gion since its setting up. The giving ear to the prophets is a fundamental character of the true church. The authority of emperors, kings, and princes, is human 5 the authority of councils, synods, bishops, and presbyters, is human ; the authority of the prophets is divine, and compre- hends the sum of religion, reckoning Moses and the apostles among the prophets. And if an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel than what they have delivered, let him be accursed. (Gal. i. 8, 9.) Their writings contained the co- venant between God and his people, with in- structions for keeping the covenant, instances of *99 God's judgments upon them that break it, and predictions of things to come. While the people of God keep the covenant, they continue to be his people ; when they break it, they cease to be his people or church, and become the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not. (Rev. ii. 9.) And no power on earth is autho- rized to alter this covenant. POLITICAL PREDICTIONS OF THE MOST EMINENT LITERARY CHARACTERS; MORE PARTICULARLY AS REGARDS THE PROBABLE FATE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. From Hume, Smollett, Johnson, Dr. Price, Lord Shaftes- bury, a British Bard in 1066, &c. &c. PART IV. POLITICAL PREDICTIONS, PART THE FOURTH. Extract from Essay on Public Credit, by David Hume, Esq. 1787. We have always found, where a government has mortgaged all its revenues, that it necessarily sinks into a state of languor, inactivity, and im- potence. As it would have required but a mo- derate share of prudence, when we first began this practice of mortgaging, to have foretold, from the nature of men and ministers, that things would necessarily be carried to the length we see ; so now it may not be difficult to guess at the consequences. It must, indeed, be one of these two events; either the nation must destroy public credit, or public credit will destroy the nation. It is impossible that they both can sub- sist after the manner they have been hitherto managed, in this as well as in some other coun- 204 tries : it is not altogether improbable, that, when the nation becomes heartily sick of their debts, some daring projector may arise with visionary schemes for their discharge; and as public credit will begin by that time to be a little frail, the least touch will destroy it, as happened in France during the regency $ and in this manner it will die of the doctor t but it is more probable, that the breach of national faith will be the necessary effect of wars, defeats, misfortunes, and public calamities, or even per- haps of victories and conquests. I must confess, that when I see princes and states fighting and quarrelling amidst their debts, funds, and public mortgages, it always brings to my mind a match of cudgel-playing, fought in a china-shop. How can it be expected that sovereigns will spare a species of property, which is pernicious to them- selves and to the public, when they have so little compassion on lives and properties that are use- ful to both ! Let the time come (and surely it will come) when the new funds created for the exigencies of the year are not subscribed to, and raise not the money projected ; suppose either that the cash of the nation is exhausted, or that our faith, which has hitherto been so ample e begins to fail us : suppose that in this distress the nation is threatened with an invasion ; a re- bellion is suspected, or broken out at home; a squadron cannot be equipped for want of pay, 205 victuals, or repairs ; or even a foreign subsidy cannot be advanced — what must a prince or minister do in such an emergency? The right of self-preservation is unalienable in every indi- vidual, much more in every community; and the folly of our statesmen must then be greater than the folly of those who first contracted debt, or, what is more, than that of those who trusted, or continue to trust this security, if these states- men have the means of safety in their hands, and do not employ them. The funds created and mortgaged will, by that time, bring in a large yearly revenue, sufficient for the defence and security of the nation. Money is perhaps lying in the exchequer, ready for the discharge of the quarterly interest. Necessity calls, fear urges, (reason exhorts, compassion alone exclaims. The money will immediately be seized for the current services, under the most solemn protestations, perhaps, of being immediately replaced. But no more is requisite — the whole fabric, already tot- tering, falls to the ground, and buries thousands in its ruins. And this, I think, may be called jthe natural death of public credit ; for to this period it tends as naturally as an animal body to its dissolution and destruction. The balance of power in Europe our grand- fathers, our fathers, and we, have all deemed too junequal to be preserved without our attention and assistance ; but our children, weary of the T 206 struggle, and fettered with encumbrances, may sit down secure, and see their neighbours op- pressed and conquered; till at last they them- selves, and their creditors, lie both at the mercy of the conqueror. And this may properly enough be denominated the violent death of our public credit. These seem to be the events which are not very remote, and which reason foresees as clearly almost as she can do any thing that lies in the womb of time ; and though the ancients maintained that, in order to reach the gift of prophecy, a certain divine fury, or madness, was requisite, one may safely affirm that, in order to deliver such prophecies as these, no more is necessary than merely to be in one's senses, free from the influence of madness and delusion. If such were the forebodings of Hume in j 1787? who fancied he foresaw the strongest |ti cases that could occur to expose the dilapida- It tion of the public finances, and the shifts to Id which a chancellor of the exchequer and a dis- tressed ministry might be driven ; how nearl}' (had he lived to this day) would he have thought the country was arrived at that state, when hi* prediction would be fully verified! when., after six years of peace, large loans were still requi- 207 lite, and raised ; the national faith broken by a nisapplication of the sinking fund ; and every species of finesse resorted to by the issue of ex- chequer bills, and the creation of a floating debt, to conceal the deficiency of the revenue : whilst, at the same time, the standing army was arge beyond precedent, and the expenditure as profuse and lavish as if the public coffers were overflowing; as if taxation did not overpower ;:rade, or the extension of pauperism depress industry ! jDr. Smollett : J 77 i s — Universal War ; Dis- charges to Priests ; and Lessons to Kings. From a letter written to a friend a few months before his death. France appears to me to be the first proba- ble theatre of any material change. If we con- sider the weakness, profligacy, and abandoned debauchery of the French court, which they, iwhose situations entitle to be the best judges, 'represent as a second Sodom ; the poverty, mi- sery, and discontent of the lower classes; and the violent desire of change, glowing and burn- ing in the breasts of those who are the most able, and indeed the only people in whose power it is 208 to bring a change about : we need not hesitate to assert, that some great revolution must ensue, in the course of a few years, in the government, religion, and manners of the people of that coun- try. Were it possible for me to live to witness it, I should by no means wonder to see the principles of republicanism predominant for a while in France ; for it is the property of extremes to meet, and our abstract rights naturally lead to that form of government. Whenever a revolution upon such grounds as these shall happen in France^ the flame of war will be universally lighted up throughout Eu- rope, either from the inhabitants catching the contagion, or from the apprehensions of their re- spective governments. I see it in the clearest light, that the people of France, Germany, and Italy, (but more especially the latter) are about to become weary of the impositions of religion, and the galling fetters of slavery : and I be- hold a new order of people about to arise in Europe, who shall give laws to lawgivers, dis- charges to priests, and lessons to kings. 209 Dr. Samuel Johnson : 1756. — Fatal difference be- tween the French and English mode of carrying on Commerce, fyc. See some Thoughts on Agriculture, both Ancient and Modern, &c. From the Visitor. j " Trade and manufactures must be confessed often to enrich countries; and we ourselves are indebted to them for those ships by which we J now command the sea, from the equator to the poles, and for those sums with which we have shown ourselves able to arm the nations of the north, in defence of regions in the western hemisphere : but trade and manufactures, how- jever profitable^ must yield to the cultivation of lands in usefulness and dignity, ** Commerce, however we may please ourselves with the contrary opinion, is one of the daugh- ters of Fortune, inconstant and deceitful as her mother; she chooses her residence where she is least suspected, and shifts her abode when her continuance is in appearance most firmly settled. jit is apparent, that every trading nation flou- rishes, while it can be said to flourish, by the courtesy of others. We cannot compel any people to buy from us or to sell to us 5 a thou- sand accidents may prejudice them in favour of our rivals ; the workmen of another nation may labour for less price; or some accidental im- t 3 210 provement, or natural advantage, may procure a just preference to their commodities ; as expe* rience has shown that there is no work of the hands, which, at different times, is not best per- formed at different places. I am far from in- tending to persuade my countrymen to quit all other employments for that of manuring the ground — I mean only to prove that we have at home all that we can want, and therefore that we need feel no great anxiety about the schemes of other nations for improving their arts, or extend- ing their traffic ; but there is no necessity to infer, that we should cease from commerce be- fore the revolutions of things shall transfer it to some other regions. Such vicissitudes the world has often seen ; and therefore such we have rea- son to expect. We hear many clamours of de- clining trade, which are not in my opinion always true ; and many imputations of that de- cline to governors and ministers, which may be sometimes just and sometimes calumnious. But it is foolish to imagine that any care or policy can keep commerce at a stand, which almost every nation has enjoyed and lost 5 and which we must expect to lose, as we have long en- joyed it. " There is some danger lest our neglect of agriculture should hasten its departure. I cannot forbear to wonder how that commerce, of which we promise ourselves the perpetuity, shall be 211 continued by our descendants ; nor can restrain a sigh when I think on the time (a time at no great distance) when our neighbours may deprive us of our naval influence by refusing us their timber.'' In the doctor's Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain, written in 17-56, he gave several serious reasons, which may account for the loss of our commerce, the increase of the ill will of strangers towards us, and the causes by which it was excited. He says, " It is un- pleasing to represent our affairs to our own dis- advantage ; yet it is necessary to show the evils which we desire to be removed ; and therefore (he is speaking of our American colonies and the French) some account may very properly be given of the measures which have given them their present superiority. They are said to be supplied with better governors than our colonies have the fate to obtain from England. A French governor is seldom chosen for any other reason than his qualifications for his trust. To be a bankrupt at home, or to be so infamously vicious that he cannot be decently protected in his own country, seldom recommends any man to the government of a French colony. Their officers are commonly skilful either in war or commerce, and are taught to have no expectation of honour or preferment, but from the justice and vigour of their administration. 212 " Their great security is the friendship of the natives, and to this advantage they have certainly an indubitable right, because it is the conse- quence of their virtue. It is ridiculous to ima- gine that the friendship of nations, whether civil or barbarous, can be gained and kept but by kind treatment 5 and surely they who do intrude, uncalled, upon the country of a distant people, ought to consider the natives as worthy of com- mon kindness, and content themselves to rob, without insulting them. The French admit the Indians, by intermarriage, to an equality with themselves ; and those nations with which they have no such intercourse, they gain over to their interest by honesty in their dealings. Our factors and traders, having no other purpose in view than immediate profit, use all the arts of an European counting-house to defraud the simple hunter of his furs. ft These are some of the causes of our present weakness: our planters are always quarrelling with their governors, whom they consider as less to be trusted than the French; and our traders hourly alienate the Indians by their tricks and oppressions ; and we continue every day to show, by new proofs, that no people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous !" 213 M. d y Archenholtz : 1789. — On Armed Commerce \ and the Fate of Carthage. Since the time of Cromwell (with whom ori- ginated the famous navigation act) the real or pretended reason for all their wars was com- merce alone. They have never acceded to any treaty of peace since the protectorate of that great man, (except the unfortunate one of 1783,) which did not procure them some incontestable advantages in favour of trade. All their states- men, however differently they may have thought in respect to other matters, have agreed unani- mously in the great national principle ; even in the most critical situations this was never for- gotten. The reason is apparent; it alone could make their administration popular, cover their blunders, and acquire them reputation. The moral character of the English (he else- where observed) has indeed degenerated, but notwithstanding this, it is still estimable 5 for it is not from its parliament, its oriental depre- dators, and the crews of its privateers, who all aim at a certain end, that we ought to judge of the nation. Many members of parliament aspire at eminent situations, and allow themselves to be corrupted ; so do also the adventurers who leave 214 Europe with an intention to plunder Asia; and it is the very nature of pirates to rob and slaughter. One of the principal reasons of mo- dern venality proceeds from the great number of nabobs, who, on their return from India, attempt, at any price, to purchase a seat in parliament ; and this also is the cause of the impunity which they experience for the enormous crimes com- mitted in that part of the world. William Crowe, L. L. B. if SI. From a Sermon before the University of Oxford, on the 5Ui of November. The causes of national prosperity and distress are often to be found (where they are naturally to be sought for) in national practices and prin- ciples ; and surely that state cannot but be in a perilous condition, where on one hand corrup- tion maintains a wide and increasing influence, acknowledged but uncontrolled, and prodigal be- yond example on the other. Yet these,, or other practices as bad as these, are but as diseases, which a sound constitution may throw off, and again recover its pristine health. Much worse 215 is the case when national principles are vitiated, When (for instance) it is asserted, with a wicked boldness, that corruption is useful and necessary ^to the government; or when those plain and sacred doctrines of civil liberty, which no so- iphistry can perplex, and no strength of argu- ment refute, are slandered with the injurious name of empty speculations. These are dread- ful and fatal tokens ; and unless some antidote can subdue their malignity, the constitution in which they are found will soon decline into that state of agony and despair, when its evils shall be both intolerable and incurable ! From a Declamation delivered in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1794. If then the increase of our commerce has been n all its branches impolitic, and in many unjust ; if Great Britain, herself a paradise, has been the scourge of the world ; if at home we have bar- tered public spirit for riches, health for dissipa- tion, and content for luxury ; if, to enrich the merchant, we have ruined the peasant 3 if, in the jpursuit of grandeur, we have slackened our morality, and checked our population ; our pris- 216 tine vigour is undoubtedly decayed, and we may apply to Great Britain the words of Goldsmith, in their fullest extent : — " 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,*' &c. Lord Shaftesbury: 1724. Danger of Slavish Principles. This noble author, in his Miscellaneous Re- flections, enlarging upon the idea of our country, observes, " But what, after all, if there be a con- quest or a captivity in the case ? a migration > a national secession or abandonment of our na- tive seats for some other soil or climate ? This has happened we know to our forefathers. And as great and as powerful a people as we have been of late, and have ever shown ourselves, under the influence of free councils, and a tole- rable ministry — should we relapse again into slavish principles, or be administered long under such heads, as having no thought of liberty for themselves, can have much less for Europe, or their neighbours $ we may at last feel a war at home, become the seat of it, and in the end a conquest. We might then gladly embrace the hard condition of our predecessors, and ex- 217 change our beloved native soil for that of some remote and uninhabited part of the world." Englishmen ! that which made your land a land of plent}^ of health, of hospitality, and re- joicing, was, that it was the famed land of rational liberty and impartial justice ; where every in- dustrious individual could earn an honest liveli- hood, and enjoy in safety the fruits of Ills labour : but mark well, as you depart from the sacred principles of the constitution of 1688, the people shall become poor, the nobles despised ; liberty shall be restricted, the laws defied 5 the poor man's bed shall be taken from under him by the tax-gatherer, and the House of Commons occupied in making savings from the greasepot of the monarch's kitchen ; justice shall be mocked and laughed to scorn, if, instead J of depressing vice, it lends itself to infamy and court intrigue ; and the sacred lawn of the i high dignitary of the church, instead of being met and looked up to with reverence and love, shall be shunned and abhorred, if, by unreflecting dogmas, confusing moral with political, it should pander to princely immorality: till at length all ranks and stations shall lose their rights, di- )■ stinctions, respect, reverence, and love. Sir Robert Talbot. — 1762. Singular Vision on the probable Fate of England — The Causes and Marnier of its Decline. Vide Letters on the French Nation, &c. This gentleman was one ofthe few who had the best opportunity of being well acquainted with this subject, as he not only attended the Duke of Bedford to Paris that year, but was also attached to the legation which made the peace, under the administration of the Earl of Bute. No man, it seems, could be more strongly persuaded how much it was the interest of England to keep the peace thus made, or of the untoward conse- quences, should a war party prevail ; and these, it appears, the ingenious writer thought he could best represent under the similitude of a ' dream, which is to be found in the forty-second | page of his first volume of Letters, addressed to various noblemen, prelates, gentlemen, and others. Writing to Mr. Robert S — - — , an alder- man of London, on the subject of his dream, he tells him — " It was about half an hour after three in the morning, the time when the digestion being completed, especially with a man accus- tomed to digest roast beef, the stomach has no gross vapours to send to the brain. It was on a Saturday — I thought I was in Hanover Square — I saw the brilliant gilded statue — it was no 21Q longer that of our victorious King George. The image was entirely changed, and I should not have known that I had been in that square, but by the steeple of St. George's church, which spoils the view of it. The statue was that of a woman, whom I easily distinguished by her sym- bols, and knew to be Great Britain. The figure was colossal; her attitude warlike, but stiff. Her head (her capital), was of a disproportioned largeness — her face was bloated — and her fea- tures, altered by a violent contraction of the muscles, foretold an approaching convulsion. Her two monstrous fists were clinched, and all bloody ; they seemed only to hang by some strings of nerves, to two dry, skinn}' arms, so nailed to the shoulders, that they could have no action but what was given to them by the motion of the whole body — the belly was as flat as the breast was high. It might be said, that there were no bowels — the navel was almost fixed to the back bone — the thighs and legs were lost amidst marine trophies, beyond which some feet of a different form extended themselves, out of all proportion, and without being finished. " My resentment was raised against the artist, and I expressed it without reserve, when a hoarse voice bawled out in my ear, mysterium — a my- stery. I suspended my displeasure, in order to consider the rest of the work. The pedestal was a heap of bags and chests,' on which, in the 220 most natural attitudes, leaned four large figures' representing Wealth, Pride, Ambition, and Liberty — Roubilliac could not carve any thing more elegant. I heard a great noise, which made me turn my head — I saw an immense mul- titude gathered together, in the midst of which I cowld distinguish a great number of Portuguese and German Jews, come from Holland, and mixed with ours. As I recollected it was Sa- turday, I was greatly surprised ; and I said to myself, that some very powerful interest was at stake, since for it the Israelites neglected the precept of their law. " My eyes returned to the statue time enough to perceive a devil, or fiend, dressed partly like a Frenchman, and partly like an Hollander, who holding in his hand a lighted match, crept like a miner under the pedestal. Some dreadful cries apprised me that he had not escaped the notice of the multitude ; but the despair that was painted on all their faces, and which displayed itself by the most violent contortions, left me no room to doubt, that he had been observed too late. In fact, some eruptions of smoke and flame proclaimed his operation — the bags were con- sumed, and the chests burst. I was in hopes, that being filled with gold, the metal would resist the fire, and continue to form the base ; so that the only consequences might have been displacing the statues, which, at the worst, would only have 221 been blackened ; but instead of gold, I only saw some oak leaves, which their moisture preserved but a moment from the violence of the flame. The detached statues fell with a horrible crash, i and this waked me.'' By the answer of Mr. Alderman S. to this letter it appears, that by the largeness of the head of Britannia in the dream, he understood our unwieldy metropolis — by the thighs, he (Understood the navy, navigation, and commerce — the feet, our colonies in the East and West .Indies — and by the hands, Scotland and Ireland. The immensity of London, he observed, the wealth and pride of its inhabitants, had their ^admirers, who pretend that they are essentially suitable to a monarchy, which has the empire of jihe sea, and of commerce : that Tyre was a head in a very different manner proportioned to Phoenicia, while we have the right of the strong- est, as the law of arms has absolutely determined [the cause in our favour, though we might yet ( have a hearing on the costs, damages, and in- terest. It does not appear, that any thing said by this, r any other correspondent of Sir Robert Talbot, :ould persuade him, " that any thing should be jnore dearly prized by the British ministry than jhe maintenance of peace.'' In the 25th letter, to Lord Viscount F. he emarks, *' that Tyre, Venice, and Holland u3 222 would never have been disturbed by the great powers, if their wealth had not emboldened them to vie in strength with the states which they sur- passed in riches. Carthage, England, and France, were destined by their internal power to snatch, at their first flight, the success which small states do not experience till after they arrive at their apogee. Then, according to the nature of things, there is a confederacy against them, and consequently in the same proportion as they increase in riches, they approach to destruction. " " The address of our King William, in making all Europe take the alarm at France, has brought that crown near that inevitable period — we must necessarily have our turn, as soon as France shall have a declaimer, with organs as proper for that political office as were those of our William III." He then justly calculates, that the com- merce of the whole universe would not be suf- ficient for ten millions of English in the two worlds, if they should apply themselves to it (as they latterly have done), as the only object of their study and industry ; it will, nevertheless, be certain that it cannot be maintained, but as a conquest, and by force of arms. " Now," he adds, " can any thing be more ab- surd, than to imagine, that a monarchy exposed to weak or gloomy reigns, to minorities, and to regencies, should struggle for ever with success 223 against all Europe combined for her humiliation ? Without doubt, my lord, Great Britain must lower her flight. Europe will remind us of the balance of commerce, as she has reminded France of the balance of power. The address of our statesmen will immortalize them, by contriving for us, (if it be possible) a descent which shall not be a fall, by making us rather resemble Holland than Car- thage and Venice." i Dr. Price , 1776. — Observations on Civil Liberty \ section 5. " None, who know me, can believe me to be . disposed to superstition. Perhaps, in the present j instance, I am not free from this weakness. I fancy I see in these measures (alluding to the « American war) something which cannot be ac- | counted for, merely by human ignorance. I am inclined to think that the hand of Providence is in them, working to bring about some great ends. In this hour of tremendous danger, it would become us to turn our thoughts to Heaven. u This is what our brethren in the colonies are doing ; but what are we doing ? Shocking thought ! — we are ridiculing them as fanatics — we are running wild after pleasure, and forgetting 224 every thing serious and decent at masquerades — we are gambling in gaming houses — trafficking for boroughs — perjuring ourselves at elections, and selling ourselves for places. Which side then is Providence likely to favour ? " In America we see a number of rising states, in the vigour of youth, inspired by the noblest of all passions — the passion for being free. Here, we see an old state, great indeed, but inflated and irreligious — enervated by luxury — encum- bered by debts — and hanging by a thread. May we not expect calamities, that shall recover to reflection (perhaps to devotion) our libertines and atheists } " But, suppose the attempt to subjugate America successful, would it not be a fatal pre- parative for subduing yourselves ? Turn your eyes to India — there more has been done than is now attempted in America — there Englishmen, actuated by the love of plunder, and the spirit of conquest, have depopulated whole kingdoms, and ruined millions of innocent people by the most infamous oppression and rapacity. The justice of the nation has slept over these enor- mities. Will the justice of Heaven sleep ? Are we not now execrated on both sides of the globe ? " To conclude — an important revolution in the affairs of this kingdom seems to be approach- ing. If ruin is not to be our lot, all that has 225 been lately done mast be undone, and new mea- sures adopted, For my own part, if this is not to be the consequence of any future changes in the ministry, and the system of corruption, latefy so much improved, is to go on — I think it totally indifferent to the kingdom, who are in, or who are out of power/ ' Dr. Aikin.— 1793. " For the reformation of a whole people, and especially of the higher classes, nothing can be relied upon but one of those grand remedial pro- cesses, which are probably within the moral plan of Providence. Nations, whom along course of prosperity has rendered vain, arrogant, and luxurious 5 in whom increasing opulence has generated increased wants and desires,y^r the gratification of which all barriers of honour and justice are broken down ; who are arrived at that state in which, according to the energetic ex- pression of the Roman historian, they can nei- ther bear their vices, nor the remedies of them — are only to be brought back to a right sense of things by some signal catastrophe, which shall change the whole form of their affairs, and oblige 226 thjem to set out afresh, as it were, in the tvorld. A conviction that such events are necessary, and that they are kindly intended as remedies of greater evils than tliey immediately occasion, is the only consideration that can tranquillize the heart of a benevolent man, who lives in a period 'when these awful operations are in a peculiar man- ner carrying on. It may reconcile him to the various delays and fluctuations in the progress to- wards a final event, which he cannot but ardently desire. When he wishes for a speedy settlement of things by the quiet operations of reason, with- out any of the harsh methods by which stubborn vices are to be forcibly eradicated, he wishes for an impracticability as great as the surgeon, who would hope to cure an inveterate cancer with- out the knife or the caustic."— Vide Letters from a Father to his Son, p. 1 82. Mrs. Barbauld. — 1811. Approaching Revolu- tion in Commerce, fyc. &;c. Vide Eighteen Hundred and eleven, a Poem. le Eagerly (says a reviewer) will the leaves of this work be opened by all whose ears have 2£7 been charmed by the genius of its well known author: but the lover of his country will almost forget the delight he is wont to take in the ef- fusions, whilst his heart trembles at the solemn truths, and melts at the sad anticipations of this deeply interesting poem. Heaven grant that the melancholy strain may not prove the voice of prophecy !" I After a pathetic description of the miseries and crimes of war, we meet with the following lines : — And think'st thou, Britain, still to sit at ease, An island queen, amidst thy subject seas, While the vex'd billows, in their distant roar, But soothe thy slumbers, and but kiss thy shore? To sport in wars while danger keeps aloof— Thy grassy turf unbruised by hostile hoof? So sing thy flatterers ; but, Britain, know— Thou, who hast shared the guilt, must share the woe. Nor distant is the hour: low murmurs spread, And wtiisperM fears, creating what they dread : Ruin, as with an earthquake shock, is here ; There the heart witherings of unutter'd fear; And that sad death, when most affection bleeds, Which sickness only of the soul succeeds. Thy baseless wealth dissolves in air away, Like mists that melt before the morning ray. No more on crowded mart or busy street, Friends meeting friends, with cheerful hurry, greet Sad on the ground thy princely merchants bend & Their alter'd looks, which evil days portend : 228 They fold their arms, and watch, with anxious breast, The tempest blackening in the distant west. Yes, thou must droop ; thy Midas dreams be o'er : The golden tide of commerce leaves thy shore. Dr. Goldsmith. — 1769. Ruinous tendency of Monopolies and false Refinement. Vide the Citizen of the World. " As the Swedes are making concealed ap- I proaches to despotism, the French, on the other hand, are imperceptibly vindicating themselves into freedom. When I consider that those par- liaments presume even to mention privileges and freedom, who, till oflate, received directions from the throne with implicit humility ; when this is considered, I cannot help fancying that the ge- nius of freedom has entered that kingdom in dis- guise. If they have but three weak monarchs I more successively on the throne, the mask will be laid aside, and the country will certainly once more be free. " The German empire, that remnant of the majesty of ancient Rome, appears on the eve of dxisolution. The members of its vast body want every ti* of government to unite them ; and J 229 seem feebly held together only by their respect for an ancient institution. The very name of country and countrymen, which in other nations makes one of the strongest bonds of government, has been here for some time laid aside -, each of its inhabitants seeming more proud of being called from the petty state which gives them birth, than by the more well known title of Ger- vraan. " This government may be regarded in the light of a severe master and a feeble opponent. The states which are now subject to the laws of the empire, are only watching a proper occasion to fling off the yoke; and those which are be- come too powerful to be compelled to obedience, ■now begin to think of dictating in their own '.turn, The struggles in this state are, therefore, inot in order to preserve, but to destroy, the ancient constitution; if one succeeds, the go- vernment becomes despotic 5 if the other, several ■states will subsist without even nominal subor- dination 5 but, in either case, the Germanic con- stitution will be no more. f Sardinia, on the 10th of December, 1798; Ferdinand N. Kiug of Naples ; Charles IV. Ferdinand VII. Cings of Spain, in May, 1808; and Gustavus IV. Y 242 annihilated * y a great kingdom effaced from the map of Europe f . I have seen England lose in eight y ears half North America, after possessing it for more than a century. I have seen her (verifying the sentiment of an ancient, that the empire of the sea gives that of the land) take the Cape of Good Hope, and the island of Ceylon from the Dutch ; Malta, Egypt, and several colonies, from the French. I have seen her dictate the law to the King of Denmark at Copenhagen, and carry her victorious arms into the most remote parts of the world. I have seen this same England, in 1780, resist the combined efforts of Europe, of America, and of the North- ern powers, who formed an armed neutrality against her maritime dominions ; I have seen her, in the revolutionary war, often destitute of allies, and alone opposing the enormous power of France, of Italy, of Denmark, and of RussiaJ. I have seen the son of an English gentleman go out to India, as writer to a mercantile com- pany (but quitting this service when very young to embrace the military life), afterwards rising .King of Sweden, arrested on the 13th of March, 1809, by his uncle (the Duke of Sudermania), who was elected King in his stead on the 15th of the following June. * Holland, Sweden, Venice, Genoa, and Lucca. f The kingdom of Poland. \ After the treaty of Luneviilc. 243 to the head of the army, dethrone a powerful Prince in the East, place another on his throne, conquer a part of Khulostan, and raise the British dominions in that quarter to the pre- eminence it now enjoys*. " I have seen what has no example in history, a little Corsican gentleman conquer Italy; force the Emperor of Germany to make a disgraceful peace f j U ke Malta in two days; Egypt in a month ; return from thence, and place himself on the throne of the Bourbons, and all in less than four years (from May 1700, to November "I have seen him transport his army and ar- tillery Id the midst of winter over the most difficult pass of the Alps, and in a single battle J decide at once the fate of Germany and of Italy. I have seen the same Corsican gentleman order the pope to Paris, in 1-04, to crown him Em- peror o f t h e Fr e n c h , a n d a ; t.e r w a r d s depose tins same pope, and deprive him of the temporal possessions which his ancestors had enjoyed for more than 1000 years §. * Lord Clive, from 1747 to 1767. f The peace of Campo Formio,oii ll*e I7th r>f October, 1797: preliminaries were s ; gn. 244 " I have seen him declare himself king of Italy. I have seen him braving a formidable league which was directed against him, march to Vienna, and even into Hungary, in six weeks; give the law three times to the Emperor of Ger- many * ; compel him to abdicate the Imperial crown of the Caesars, deprive him of a part of his dominions, force the Emperor of Russia twice to retire f , and soon after oblige him to march to his assistance against the Emperor of Austria. " I have seen him destroy the power of the King of Prussia in fifteen days, and strike all Europe with dismay : I have seen him dethrone five Kings j, and create eight others §; annex Holland to France ||, dictate to Spain as if it were one of his provinces, employ her forces as his own, and at last take possession of the whole kingdom. In short, I have seen him extend his * By the treaties of Campo Formio, 1797 ; of Lune- ville, 9th of February, 1801 j and of Vienna, 14th of October, 1809. f At Austerlitz, the 2nd of December, 1805, and by the peace of Tilsit, the 8th of July, 1807. X The kings of France, of Naples, and Sardinia, and two Kings of Spain, Charles IV. and Ferdinand VII. § The Kings of Etruria, of Italy, of Naples, of Hol- land, of Bavaria, of Wurtemberg, of Saxony, and of Westphalia. || The 15th of December, 1809, the day of the most ceremonious and extraordinary divorce which is men- tioned in history. 245 dominion farther than that of Charlemagne, and find nothing could resist his ambition but the King of Great Britain ; sometimes alone against the whole host of European power, and some- times with the troops of the continent in his pay. Had Mr. Dutens lived but a few years longer, how greatly might he have increased this long list! He would have seen Great Britain, aided only by raw troops, drive the veterans of France before her armies, through the Peninsula, freeing Portugal and Spain, and carrying her victorious arms even into France itself. He would have seen the same little Corsican gentleman, as if the former wonderful actions he had achieved were but preludes to this mightier undertaking, assemble an army of five hundred thousand men, with sixty thousand cavalry, forty thousand artillery horses, and \2CO pieces of cannon, drawing forth, to back it, the resources of France, Holland, Germany, Itaty, Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Poland, &c., for the purpose of overwhelming the Russian empire, and by an overland expedition extirpating the British power in India. He would have seen him, in the plenitude of his power, overturning all obstacles that opposed him; and after defeating and dispersing the combined Y 3 246 Russian armies, burn, pillage, and destroy the ancient Russian capital*. He would then have seen this same being, against whom personally earthly power appeared as if it could oppose no obstacle, sink, like snow before the sun ; and his conquering thousands — his invincible troops, of whom he had so loudly boasted — driven before the snow and Cossacks, the instruments of Heaven, like chaff' before the wind: the finest, best disciplined, and highest appointed army that ever the world afforded, beat, dispersed, nay annihilated, by raw, un- disciplined, and almost savage troops ; and that in less than two short months f. — Sic transit gloria mundi. He would have seen this mighty man, who had * September 14th, 1812. -f Extract from the 29th bulletin of the Russian cam- paign. — " Our cavalry was dismounted to such a degree, that it was necessary to collect the officers who had still a horse remaining, in order to form four companies of 150 men each. " The generals there performed the functions of cap- tains, and the colonels those of subalterns. This sacred squadron, commanded by General Grouchy, and under the orders of the King of Naples, did not lose sight of the Emperor in all these movements. The health of his Majesty was never better." Montteur, December \7th, 1812. 247 been sixteen years extending his gigantic power, who had taken possession of most of the capitals of the continent of Europe as a conqueror, and had pillaged them of the choicest of the works of art and genius, to enrich Paris, which he declared should be thenceforth the emporium of the arts, the city of opulence and philosophy, and where the world should hereafter study them, instead of Florence or Rome : He would have seen this man in little more than sixteen months, driven nearly from one extremity of Europe to the other, chiefly by Cossacks and militia, or new raised troops ; beat successively in as many battles as he before had gained, obliged to abdicate his throne, and yield up Paris to the conquerors *. He would have seen two of his brothers, that he had made kings, dethroned and exiled ; his brother-in-law dethroned and shot ; his sisters, whom he had made queens and princesses, exiled and despised ; his Empress and son sepa- rated from him; and the Empress deprived of her dignity, to which her own father was a party ; a king, humbled to the dust, and who had long been obliged to subsist on the bounty of a na- tion ever looked upon as inimical to his family and nation, raised again to the throne, after an * April 6th, 1814. 243 exile of 22 years ; and that same king, before he was well invested with the royal sceptre, driven again into exile, deserted by his army, his court, and subjects. He would have seen the same Corsican gen- tleman, who had before so often astonished the world, with a few followers, from a single vessel, which had escaped the vigilance of his keepers, land on the extremity of a large empire, * in the face of the army, the constituted authorities, and the guarantee of the principal powers of Europe; quietly proceed, without a shot being fired, and take possession of the capital and throne, re-as- suming the reins of government, and directing all the energies of the empire as quietly, and with as much facility, as if he had never quitted them. He would further have seen this same man, who for so long a time had been in the habit of deciding the fate of the greatest empire in a single campaign, once more have the tide of victory turn against him ; and in three days fight- ing, and one grand pitched battle, lose, not only a fine, a gallant, and highly appointed army, but his capital and crown ; the conquerors marching in sixteen days from Brussels to Paris f. * Napoleon landed at Frejus, March 3rd, 1815. i Battle of Waterloo, 18th June, 1815, and capitu- lation of Paris July 3rd, following. 249 He would thus have seen the idea of Lord Hawkesbury and the threat of the Duke of Brunswick, which had been so much laughed at by the world, twice realised in the short space of 16 months : and the King, who had Pi_d in March, deserted by his subjects, reinstated on his throne in July, after an absence of 16 weeks, by a combination of sovereigns. He would have seen Paris, Vienna, Moscow, Warsaw, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, Copen- hagen, Naples, Dresden, Amsterdam, Brussels, nay the capitals of every Christian country throughout the world, excepting those of Great Britain and Sweden, taken possession of by their enemies, or laid under contributions. He would have seen the British empire, after quietly submitting for 22 years to unexampled contributions, stigmatized as disloyal and dis- affected, and on that score the grand bulwark of its liberties suspended ; and he would have seen that measure scarcely effected, when, on the death of the amiable Princess Charlotte of Wales, such general, unaffected, unprecedented grief was evinced, as completely falsified the in- famous assertion of the disloyalty of the people. He would have seen three kingdoms, Spain, Naples, and Portugal, in the space of six months emancipated from the galling chains of despotism and b'gotry, by means of their respective armies, 253 and enjoying limited monarchies and representa- tive governments. And had the reverend gentleman sought for that grand cause which effected (if not all) the greater part of the most wonderful of these mighty events, he might have traced it to that inherent love of liberty, that national anxiety for the rational enjoyment of life, which appertains to all human beings, according to their various religious tenets, climates, soils, and political associations. The love of glory, and a high sense of military honour, may effect wonders, under such leaders as an Alexander, or si Caesar, or a Frederick, a Charles of Sweden, or a Napoleon : under them, men, as machines, are brought to the highest perfection to which human military mechanism can arrive : but when every indi- vidual is to act a hero's part; when the broken ranks display enraged warriors, instead of dis- heartened fugitives ; then must the cause of the state be the cause of the individual ; not as a hireling, but as a principal. It was this stimulus which caused the French armies, at the commencement of the Revolution, to defy the united efforts of the veteran armies of Europe; and, added to this stimulus, the promises they held out to other nations to eman- cipate them from slavery, afterwards, under Buonaparte, facilitated their road to conquest : 251 they enabled him to destroy a veteran Prussian army, at Jena, under a Brunswick ; as his broken promises and insults to that kingdom, and the hopes held out to them by their sovereign, incited the land vveh r and raw levies of that country, under Blucher and Bulow, to retrieve the cha- racter of the Prussian soldier. By such means, and by such means only, can the conquests of the great capitals of Vienna, Berlin, and Paris be accounted for, against the forces, and by the forces with which they were accomplished. When the patriotic feelings and good wishes of a nation accompany the mandate of the sove- reign ; that nation, according to its numerical strength, in opposition to other powers, may, from the foregoing examples, be looked upon as invincible, and the ultimate success of its cause as certain ; but when sovereigns, trusting to the magnitude of their armies, enter on wars, against the wishes, or where the interests of their sub- jects are not concerned ; they have found, as (when for the future they trust to the strength of their military forces to protect or assist them in subverting or invading the laws, rights, or liberties of their subjects) they will find, they can do wrong ; and that in such dependence, they trust to a broken reed, as three recent example* have well proved. 252 Still Austria, and what is most irreligiously termed the Holy Alliance, are at this very day seeking to bring about their own downfall, and the fulfilment of the prophecies recited in this work, by that blind and infamous interference against the budding liberties of independent states, that should, and perhaps may, before much time elapses, produce another and more enlightened crusade on the part of subjects as well as sovereigns, in favour of political and religious liberty, and the realization of those great and happy prospects, which all nations and all persons but such, as Archbishop Usher says, " are wor- shippers in the outward court," should hope to be near at hand. Here the Editor conceived he had brought his labours to a close, but whilst looking over the last proof sheet, the report of Earl Grey's speech at the Durham County meeting appeared in the papers ; he was too proud of hearing his opinions and his labours supported by so eminently high an authority not to insert an Extract from it. " It was impossible," said his lordship, cc to view without feelings of great alarm and sorrow the internal state of the country, particularly the distress of the manufacturing and commercial 223 classes. Our external situation was equally fearful. The desire of liberty , which had been encouraged by the Sovereigns of Europe, when they wished to combat, and put down their com- mon enemy, Napoleon, was now counteracted by a base co^piracy, under the false, hypocritical and blasphemous title of the Holy Alliance. " When he looked back at these circumstances, and regarded them in conjunction with the past, and with probably yet contemplated proceedings against the Queen, Heaven seemed to speak in signs and omens; and he could not better de- scribe the times than by quoting a passage from an inspired writer : — ' And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity $ and the seas and the waves roar- ing — men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on earth/ u This was the true state of the anxiety felt by the country — sorrow and shame for the past ; fear and apprehension for the time to come. Under such circumstances, his only hope, and their best resource, was to be found in the prin- ciples of the constitution, and in the spirit of the people. That hope was confirmed by the con- duct that day of the assembly he was addressing : Let all England follow the example they were z 254 setting : let them approach the throne like men < who knew their rights, and knowing, dare maintain,' against the threats of power, and the blandishments of corruption j sober, but enthu- siastic ; firm, but prudent; moderate, but reso- lute and fearless; and the country might yet be saved." THE END, LONDON : Thomas davison, Lombard street, whitefriars. i j - tdS '1