parts; the overthrow of Babylon; and the battle of Armageddon, to which the kings of the earth had begun to gather themselves together under the preceding vial.

Here it may be proper to remind the reader, that the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth chapters of the Apocalypse, all belong to the last vial; and are in fact on ly a more enlarged account of some of the most promi nent events contained by it*-The seventeenth chapter opens with a description of the great scarlet whore, who had long tyrannized over the faithful, and who was now about to be destroyed for ever. It fully sets forth the mystery of her union with her beast, of her name Babylon, of the three-fold state of her beast, of the rise of the beast's last head, and of the flourishing condition of the woman while the ten kings gave their power to the beast and made war upon the Lamb by persecuting his disciples. And it intimates that a great change should nevertheless take place in the sentiments of those kings, so that they should afterwards hate the whore, and make her naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. This intimation seems to be given as it were by the way, and must not therefore be confined merely to the days of the last vial. It is in fact a sort of climax, extending from the era of the Reformation down to the final destruction of the whore. She was first made naked and desolate by the alienation of the Abbey lands in protestant countries, and by the withdrawing of whole nations from her communion. Her very flesh was next eaten by the sale of the Church lands in revolutionary France, by the secularization of the German ecclesiastical electorates and monastic principalities, and by the temporary erection of an atheistical republic in her capital. But she will not be utterly burnt with fire till the time of the end, till the fatal day of Armageddon.† The ten kings however, as

* See the introductory chapter of this work.

In the same battle with the little born or the barlot the Roman beast under his last, Bead will perish. "I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld, even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” (Dan. vii. 11.) I apprehend, that the explanatory words of the angel addressed to Daniel mean precisely the same as the particular passage in the Apocalypse now under consideration. They shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end." (Dan. vii. 26.) The dominion of the born

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Bp. Newton rightly observes, cannot literally mean all the ten kings, but only a certain part of them; for some are afterwards described as leagued with the beast, and as fighting and perishing in the cause of the false prophet: consequently those, who are friendly to the whore, cannot be among the number of those who are instruments in the hand of God of finally burning her with fire-The eighteenth chapter contains an account of the final overthrow of Babylon-And the nineteenth chapter describes the battle of Armageddon.

1. The earthquake, by which the great city is divided into three parts, manifestly signifies, according to the usual import of prophetic language, some very great revolution, by which the Latin Empire shall either be divid ed into three sovereignties, or into three prefectures, like the ancient Roman empire. At the period when the French monarchy was overthrown, the city was already divided into several different parts, symbolized by the ten horns of the beast. Hence it is said, that, in that earthquake, a tenth part of the city fell. But here, by this yet future carthquake, the Latin city is to be divided only into three parts. What the precise meaning of this prediction is, and how the city will be divided into three parts, time alone can discover.

2. The fall of the spiritual Babylon, described at large in the eighteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, relates to the same event as the destruction of the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast: they both equally predict the complete subversion of the Papacy. This is not to take place, till af

began to be taken away at the Reformation, when many of the kings withdrew their realms from the spiritual jurisdiction of the Pope; but it will not be entirely consumed and destroyed till the end, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

* Rev. xix. 19.

Mr. Kett imagines that the earthquake, by which the great city was divided into three parts, is the Reformation; and that the three parts, intended by the prophet, are the three confessions (as they are called) Popish, Lutheran, and Calvinistic. Vol. i. p. 413.) We cannot however admit this earthquake to have any connection with that important period, unless by a manifest violation of St. John's prophetic chronology. The earthquake, which divides the city into three parts, takes place under the last vial : whereas the reformation is contemporary with the war of the beast against the witnesses, and happened under the sixth trumpet, before any one of all the seven vials was poured out. Mr. Kett, as if conscious that this objection would be made to his scheme, endeavours to invalidate it; but, I think, quite unsuccessfully.

ter the end of the 1260 years;* when the witnesses shall have ceased to prophesy in sackcloth, and when in one apocalyptic season the judgment of Babylon is come.

3. Exactly contemporary with the fall of the spiritual Babylon, or the adulterous church of Rome, will be the overthrow of its supporter the secular Babylon, or the tenhorned Roman beast. The power of both will be broken in the same battle of Armageddon. This is abundantly manifest from the concurring testimony both of Daniel and St. John. We learn from the former of these prophets, that the last or Roman beast is to be slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame beeause of the voice of the great words which his little horn spake; and that the reign of this little horn is exactly to continue 1260 years. We learn from the latter of them, that the same ten-horned Roman beast is to practise prosperously, in his revived or idolatrous state, the very same period of 42 months or 1260 years; and that he is to be destroyed, along with his colleague the false prophet or two-horned beast, in their last great battle against the Word of God. Now the two-horned beast or false prophet is the same ecclesiastical power as the harlot or spiritual Babylon: consequently, if the spiritual Babylon were fallen before this battle, it is evident that the false prophet could not, along with the temporal beast, have been engaged in it. Hence it appears, that the fall of the spiritual Babylon and the battle of Armageddon will be precisely contemporary, both taking place together after the termination of the 1260 years.‡

• Probably at the end of 30 years after that period, or at the end of Daniel's 1290 years.

I have already stated that Babylon means the rubole Roman Empire both temporal and spiritual: the temporal Babylon being the same as the ten-horned beast; and the spiritual Babylon, as the two-horned beast.

Mr. Mede separates the fall of Babylon from the overthrow of the false prophet, and imagines that in point of time it will precede it. This opinion is built upon the idea, that Babylon is the literal city of Rome, instead of the whole papal empire. I cannot think, that it is by any means well founded, or that it at all harmonizes with the general language of the Apocalypse, in which the great city universally means, not the literal city, but the empire, of Rome. This being the case, whenever the beast and the false prophet are routed at Armageddon, the temporal and spiritual Roman empire, or the mystic Babylon, will be overthrown. Mr. Mede places the fall of Babylon under the fifth vial, and the destruction of the beast and the false prophet under the last. Comment. Apoc. in Phial. V. et VII.

As for the battle of Armageddon, in which the beast and the false prophet are to be overthrown, I take it to be the concluding event of the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, mentioned by Daniel. It is the same likewise as the dreadful slaughter of the Gentiles in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, predicted in such forcible terms by Zechariah and Joel. This will sufficiently appear from comparing, as I shall presently do, all these different prophecies together. At the close of the time of trouble foretold by Daniel, the infidel king is to come to his end, none helping him; and at the beginning of the time of trouble, which synchronizes with the first effusion of the seventh vial and with the termination of the 1260 years, the restoration of the Jews is to commence. At the period of the great battle of the nations, described by Zechariah and Joel, which synchronizes with the destruction of the infidel king and the battle of Armageddon, the Jews are represented as having been brought back to their own country. While, in the battle of Armageddon, predicted by St. John, which I apprehend to be the last event under the seventh vial, the beast, the false prophet, and the kings of the Latin earth, are to be completely routed with dreadful slaughter by the Almighty Word of God; and an end is for ever to be put to their tyrannical and persecuting domination over the Church.

The beast, who is to take so active a part in this last great struggle, is the same septimo-octave head as that, which St. John had before identified even with the whole beast himself. To which horn of the beast the dignity of the Carlovingian Emperorship of the western Roman world will then be attached, it is impossible to determine before the event. Humanly speaking, it seems upon the eve of quitting for ever the horn of Austria. Should this be the case, and should it once more revert to France along with the old Carlovingian sovereignty of Italy,†

Rev. xvii. 11.

Since this was written in the year 1804, the Carlovingian sovereignty of Italy has reverted to France. May, 1805.

And I may now add, that yet more recently the Carlovingian Emperorship of the West has been transferred to France; consequently the Infidel king and the last bead of the beast are now identified. June 5, 1806.

the infidel king, at the close of the great apostatic drama, would be identified with the last head of the beast. As for the false prophet, who is to be one of his allies in this impious war, we have already beheld a political reconciliation, or, as it is styled, a concordat between him and Antichrist: the contrariety therefore of Infidelity to Popery will be no impediment to the accomplishment of the prophecy, that the beast and the false prophet shall be taken banded in arms together. And, with regard to the possibility of uniting all the Popish powers in one common confederacy, the growing influence of papisticoinfidel France, and the ease with which she compels the surrounding vassal states to take up arms in her cause, sufficiently shew, even without the aid of prophecy, that such an union is not only possible, but probable.†

The preceding vial testifies, that, after this confederacy has been formed, it will be gathered together by secret diabolical agency to Armageddon, subsequently to the downfall of the Ottoman empire: and there is every reason to believe, that it will be directed at once against the converted Jews now beginning to be restored by the prevailing maritime power of the day, and against their protectors the protestant maritime states which keep the commandments of God and which have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Hence it will probably be a sort of infernal league or crusade of all the atheistico-papal powers against the converted Jews and their defenders the Protestants; of the South against the North of Europe; of the dragon and his adherents against the symbolical woman and the remnant of her seed. The time of the end however is not yet arrived: and few probably of the present generation will live to behold even the beginning of the restoration of the Jews and the commencement of the Antiohristian expedition to Palestine, still less therefore the

* It may be observed, that Bp. Newton here again considers the beast, not as the Papacy, but as the temporal Latin empire; while he justly conceives the false prophet to mean the ecclesiastical power of the Pope. "These enemies are the beast and the false propbet, the Antichristian powers civil and ecclesiastical, with their armies gathered together, their adherents and followers combined and determined to support idolatry, and to oppose all reformation." Dissert. on Rev. xix.

+ I have already observed in a preceding note, that, since this was written, we have reason to believe that the bestial confederacy has begun to be formed. June 5, 1806.