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clefiaftical history. It is from an apocalyptical work of Dr. Creffener, and from a chapter wherein he is profeffedly treating on the firft date of the rife of the Beast,' that the paffage is taken. Antecedently to the quotation of it, it may be proper to inform the reader, that Juftinian was raised to the imperial throne in the year 527. In the beginning of his reign, says Dr. Creffener, Juftinian publishes an edict concerning his faith, wherein he 'threatens all who should diffent from it, that they should have no manner of indulgence; and that, upon the discovery of them, they should fuffer the law as profeffed heretics, which was to be banished the Roman 'territories, and which was never executed upon the generality of diffenters before. And here does his 'faith appear to be made the rule and measure of orthodoxy to the whole empire, upon a penalty which had 'terror enough in it. This faith he fends to pope John 'for his concurrence with him in it; and tells him, "that he did it to conform all to the church of Rome; "that it was always his desire to preserve the unity of "the apoftolic fee;"-and for that purpose "to bring "all the Eastern churches under his fubjection, and to "unite them to the fee of his Holinefs." Pope John's ' answer to him does repeat the fame thing out of his letter, with great thanks to him, as, that he did preferve 'the faith of the Roman church, and did bring all elfe ' under the subjection of it, and did draw them into the unity of it. Therein alfo does Juftinian expressly call 'the church of Rome the Head of all Churches, and de'fires a rule of faith for the bishops of the Eaft. The 'pope on the other fide confirms the emperor's faith to 'be the only true faith, and that which the Roman ⚫ church did always hold.-All this intercourse betwixt 'the pope and the emperor is inferted into the code of the Imperial law, as the ftandard and rule for all to Bb ' conform

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'conform to, under the penalty to be judged to be heretics.-Though the emperor's faith fhould be accounted 'orthodox, yet the inducing fuch a new penalty, which 'fhould force it upon the confciences of all men, as fo neceffary to falvation, that a man could not poffibly be

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a member of the catholic church without the profeffion ' of it, was certainly unwarrantable, and the first begin'ning of that tyrannizing power in the Roman church, ' which made the whole world to conform to all its arbi'trary decrees, and to worfhip it with a blind obedience to all its moft unreasonable commands.' Among the extravagant commands of Juftinian one was, that all fuch fhould be anathematised, who did not damn all thofe whom they called heretics: which certainly was ' one of the highest acts of tyranny over the confciences ' of the univerfal church, and which of all their injunctions was the most difficult to fubfcribe unto 13.

But probably there may be fome perfons, who may think, that the commencement of the 1260 years had better be dated from the year 547 than from the year 529; partly because Juftinian's tyrannic proceedings in his management of councils, in his perfecution of heretics, and in his endeavours to bring about a uniformity of faith throughout the Roman empire, cannot be supposed to have been carried nearly to their full extent earlier than that year1; and partly because they may be of opinion

13 Dem. of the Prot. Appl. of the Apoc. p. 306.

14 See Cressener, ut fupra p. 307–312. Justinian, fays the jesuit Petavius, innumerabilibus edictis Catholicæ fidei et ecclefiafticæ difciplinæ confuluit. Rationarium Temporum, p. i. 1. vii. c. 5. This celebrated emperor was an unfeeling bigot. The reign of Juftinian,' fays Mr. Gibbon,' was an uniform, yet various fcene of perfecution; and he appears 'to have furpaffed his indolent predeceffors, both in the contrivance of 'his laws and the rigour of their execution.' To the Samaritans of Paleftine he offered only the alternative of baptifm or rebellion.-It has

· been

opinion with Dr. Creffener and other writers, that in this calculation 18 years are to be deducted from the 12605, fince 1260 apocalyptic years, each confisting only of 360 days, amount to no more than 1242 folar or Julian years16.

Some quotations shall now be added, which may serve to illuftrate the opinion, that St. John by no means meant to intimate, that the conclufion of the 1260 years would be the epoch of the complete overthrow of civil or of spiritual tyranny. During the 1260 years, fays bp. Newton, the holy city, the true church of Chrift, was 'to be trodden under foot, which is the loweft ftate of fubjection; the two witnesses were not only to prophefy,

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but to prophely in fackcloth, that is in mourning and af'fliction; the woman, the church, was to abide in the wilderness, that is in a forlorn and defolate condition; and power was given to the Beast inσa1, not merely to ' continue, as it is tranflated, but to practife, and profper, ' and to do according to his will13.-It doth not there'fore follow, that the Beaft is to continue, to exist, for

'been computed that 100,000 Roman subjects were extirpated in the Sa'maritan war, which converted the once-fruitful province into a defolate ⚫ and fmoaking wilderness. But, in the creed of Juftinian, the guilt of 'murder could not be applied to the flaughter of unbelievers; and he 'piously laboured to establish with fire and fword the unity of the Chrif'tian faith.' Decl. and Fall of the Rom. Emp. vol. VIII. p. 320, 323, 324. On Mr. Gibbon's inaccurate use of the word pious (as it is an inaccuracy of which he is fond) I might here expatiate, were this a work adapted for fuch a difcuffion.

16 See Creffener ut fupra, p. 238, 239; and Fleming's Discourse on the Rife and Fall of the Papacy, p. 24—26,

17 XIII. 5.

18 See the word explained in the same way by Vitringa,

no longer a time". Though the power of princes and of priests over the perfons and the confciences of men was to decline at the termination of the 1260 years, and was fpeedily to fall into a weak and fhattered ftate; it is not therefore to be concluded, that at this epoch their authority was all at once to be overthrown, and their oppreffions were to ceafe in all the streets of the fymbolic city. Nothing,' fays the bp. of Worcester, has 'been more cenfured in protestant divines, than their temerity in fixing the fall of Antichrift; though there ' are certain data in the prophecies, from which very probable conclufions on that fubject may be drawn. Experience, it is faid, contradicts this calculation. But ' it is not confidered, that the fall of Antichrift is not a *fingle event, to happen all once; but a state of things, 'to continue through a long tract of time, and to be gradually accomplished.-Suppose the ruin of the Wef

tern empire had been the subject of a prediction, and fome had collected beforehand from the terms of the · prophecy, that it would happen at a particular time; ' when yet nothing more, in fact, came to pass, than the 'firft irruption of the barbarous nations; would it be certain that this collection was groundlefs and ill made, 'because the empire fubfifted in a good degree of vigour for fome centuries after? Might it not be faid, that the

empire was falling from that æra, or perhaps before; though, in the event, it fell not, till its fovereignty was fhaken by the rude hands of Attila, or rather, till it was laid flat by the well-directed force of Theodoric 20?'

At

19 Vol. III. p. 214, 382. See fimilar obfervations in the Evid, of Nat. and Rev. Rel. by Dr. Clarke, p. 432.

2 Vol. II. p. 71. And though nothing more came to pass in the year 1789 than the French Revolution; would it be certain that the fall of Antichrift might not be dated from that year, and that such an inference was

ground

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At the close of the 1260 years, fays the author of an Effay on the Numbers of Daniel and John, the Beast was to meet with a visible check to his power. The Beast will not be destroyed, fays Durham, at the expiration of the 1260 years; but, to use this early commenta. tor's own words, his power will be clipped, and his authority fhaken 22. The feventh trumpet, fays Mr. Whifton, which has the vials for its contents, is not to commence till after the 1260 years are expired; so that the 1260 years bring to a conclufion only the' Prevail'ing Tyranny of the Beaft.-But the end or deftruction of the Beast himself' will not take place 'till the end ' of the fame trumpet, or the conclufion of the vials 23. To the fame purpose speaks Dr. More. That the reign of the Beast does not end with the fixth trumpet' is, fays this learned writer, a thing I do eafily grant; but ' yet in the mean time, I contend that the fulfilling of his 42 months is at the exitus of the fixth trumpet, which respects the duration of the entireness thereof; which ' entireness was broken at the rifing of the witneffes.Unless the affairs of Europe fhould break of a fudden, as, Olaus fays, the Frozen ocean does, and then immediately finks (which is a miracle above belief), I see no * probability at all of any other fenfe of the stinting the reign of the Beast to 42 months than I have already ' declared24.'

groundless and ill made, because the antichriftian empire fubfifted in a good degree of vigour for fome years after? Might it not be faid, that the empire was falling from that æra, or perhaps before; though, in the event, it fell not, till its sovereignty was shaken by

or rather, till it was laid flat by

? Here are chafms in the fentence, which our ignorance of futurity renders necessary, and which must be filled up at a future time. "Burton's Eff. on the Numbers of Dan. and John, 1766, p. 263. 23 P. 88, 89..

22 P. 553.

24 On the Apoc. p. 263; and Myst. of Iniq. p. 380.