and their revenues principally confifcated, not by the rapacity of monarchs, but by the authority of nations and the decrees of legiflatures.

There is another prophecy of the apocalypfe, where the fymbol of eating flesh is a fecond time introduced, which more immediately concerns the fceptered tyrants of Europe themselves. It is in ch. xix. The latter part of it there has before been occafion to quote and to explain. It was to the deftruction of the antichriftian church, as established in different parts of the European world, and to the confiscation of its revenues, that the prophecy, which I last explained, plainly referred. The paffage which follows foretells the complete destruction of the antichrif tian monarchies of Europe, and the confifcation of those mighty treasures and immense poffeffions, which the antichriftian princes and their respective partisans have so diligently accumulated,

Whilft he, whofe name is called the Word of God, is represented in v. 15 as treading the wine-prefs of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God; in verfes 17 and 18, 19 and 20, the prophet fays, And I faw an angel Atanding in the fun; and he cried with a loud voice, faying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together to the fupper of the Great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horfes, and of them that fit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both fmall and great. And I faw the beaft, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that fat on the horfe, and against his army. And the beast was seized, and with him the falfe teacher27, who fhewed before him

27 In the Common Translation it is the false prophet. A part of the last Sentence I have given, as tranflated by Mr. Wakefield.

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thofe

thofe wonders, by which he feduced them that had received the mark of the beast, and the worshippers of his image: and both were caft alive into a lake of fire. On the decorum of the 'fymbols themselves Dr. Lancaster may be cited. This deftruction of them is represented, as a fa'crifice to God's juftice, and as fuch, attended with a feaft28; it being the custom of the Jews and Gentiles to 'feast upon the flesh of the victims offered in facrifice. And therefore fince their flesh is to be eaten, the birds ⚫ of prey, who are observed to follow armies and fall upon the flain, are invited to the feast, which is called the 'great fupper of God, as being a perfection and com'pletion of the judgments of God.'

To explain, as fome commentators have done, a large part of the foregoing prophecy, as fignifying the flaughter of the antichristian princes of Europe29, appears to me too literal an interpretation. It points not fo much to their defeat, as to the confequences of that defeat.

The false prophet, and the ten-horned beast, were caft alive into a lake of fire; i. e. the antichriftian church and antichriftian monarchies of Europe are to be utterly destroyed. At the fame time, to use the prophetic diction, the flesh of kings, of captains, and of mighty men, and of all men, both free and bond, both fmall and great, is to be eaten. 6 Here,' fays Dr. Lancafter, the destruction of the beast, and the falfe prophet, and their adherents, is represented as a total destruction, from which not so • much as one of whatever quality or condition will ef

6

18 God having decreed to deftroy, and facrifice to justice, the beast, the 'falfe prophet, and their obftinate adherents, they, and all they have, serve ⚫ him to make up his feast.' Daubuz.

29 That the prophecy juft cited denotes 'literally great flaughter of men,' is the opinion of Dr. Priestley. Faft Serm. for Feb. 28, 1794, P. 12. 2o It is proper to acquaint the reader, that the word men is not in the original.

cape.'

cape.' But,' fays Daubuz, it must be limited to the fubject in question.' It is to be confined to the partisans of civil or of ecclefiaftical tyranny. They are the perfons, whose privileges are to be facrificed, and whose power is to be overturned.

Any attempt to explain the fymbolic import of the flesh of horfes being eaten, I do not remember to have seen. That it forms only a part of the general description, and admits not of a separate interpretation, is by no means improbable. A particular and appropriate explication of it would, however, it must be admitted, be more fatisfactory. As the preceding expreffions of kings, captains, and mighty men, which are introduced in a fimilar manner to the word horfes, are, it is agreed, to be understood not fymbolically, but literally; it is poffible, the latter expreffion may fignify, that those lands and poffefsions, which have hitherto been employed, by princes, by nobles, by the long line of their imitators, and by all the various retainers of a modern monarchy, for the maintenance of those innumerable horfes, which serve no other purpose than to mount cavalry in war, or to gratify the defires of vanity and luxurious indolence, shall be converted to other ufes, and appropriated to objects of folid advantage and general utility. Certainly this is not an unimportant circumstance to the happiness of mankind. There are few countries of Europe, in which the fubfiftence and comforts of the mafs of the people are not materially affected, and in which they are not rendered more scanty and precarious, by the crowds of horses which are unneceffarily kept; and which are maintained in confequence of the nature of the fubfifting governments, the prevalence of falfe ideas, and the extreme inequality which exifts between the different ranks of focie. ty. Even of philosophers there are, I believe, but few, who are apprized of the magnitude of the evil.

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All

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All the fowls, that fly in the midst of heaven, are, fays the prophet, to be gathered together to the fupper of the Great God. As birds of prey,' says Daubuz, feed up⚫ on carcafes, fo thofe that take the goods of other men eat as it were their flesh; which, in the fymbolic language, ALWAYS fignifies riches or substance. Now the fymbol is in itself indifferent. The commiffion is that which makes the act lawful when God invites, who has a fupreme power to bestow, the goods of this world as he pleases; and in this case it is an act of his justice, but it ' is an evil to them that suffer by it. They are evil to them at least, though these birds of prey be such as do 'well in accepting God's offer.As heaven fignifies the .' fupreme powers,' the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven denote, 'fuch as in this Revolution are, or become, of a fuperior condition. Or perhaps all the princes and * others who shall divide the fpoils are only reckoned in 'an inferior state and under-governors, because none is now fupreme.' This ftatement of the accurate Daubuz, had he employed fome other word, instead of princes, would, I believe, have been perfectly correct. The principal agents in the seizure and diftribution of the confifcated property of the ten-horned and two-horned beafts, denominated by the prophet the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, appear to denote fuch perfons, as fhall occupy official fituations in the newly-erected governments, though, from the nature of thofe governments, none of them will be invefted with fupreme power.

After alleging those memorable words of the prophet, in v. 21, that all the fowls were filled with their flesh, Daubuz fays, This Great Revolution must produce a Great Change in the Secular Government, and Pro'perty of Lands, within the territories of corrupted Chrift'endom.' That there has already been a complete change, in these two important refpects, in the dominions of one

of

of the most powerful horns of the Secular beast, every European is apprized.

I fhall conclude the chapter with fome ftriking observations of an illuftrious writer. If,' fays Sir I. Newton, the last age, the age of opening these things, be now approaching, as by the great fucceffes of late interpreters it feems to be, we have more encouragement than ever to look into these things. If the general preaching 'of the gofpel be approaching, it is to us, and our posterity, that those words mainly belong: In the time of the end the wife shall understand, but none of the wicked 'fhall underftand. Blessed is he that readeth, and they 'that hear31 the words of this prophecy, and keep thofe ⚫things which are written therein 32-As the few and ob * fcure prophecies concerning Chrift's first coming were 'for fetting up the Christian religion, which ALL NATIONS HAVE SINCE CORRUPTED; fo the many and 'clear prophecies, concerning the things to be done at Chrift's fecond coming, are not only for predicting, but ' also for EFFECTING, a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and SETTING-UP a kingdom wherein dwells righteoufnefs. The event will prove 'the apocalypfe; and this prophecy, thus proved and un'derstood, will open the old prophets, and all together 'will make known the true religion, and establish it. For he that will understand the old prophets must begin with this; but the time is not yet come for understanding them perfectly, because THE MAIN REVOLUTION, ' predicted in them, is not yet come to pafs. In the days of the voice of the feventh angel, when he shall begin to 'found, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath

1i. e. fays Vitringa, that understand. This, indeed, is a frequent sense of anew.

22 Apoc, i. 2.

• declared