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GERMANY.

Verse "

4.

REVELATION, CHAP. VI.

"A

ND there went out another horse that was red, and power was given to him that fat thereon, to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another."

At the head of a victorious army*, Otho paffed the Alps and fubdued the Kingdom of Italy, delivered the Pope, and for ever fixed the Imperial Crown in the name and nation of Germany.

From that memorable Æra, two maxims of public Jurifprudence were introduced by force, and ratified by time.

I. That the Prince who was elected in the German Diet, acquired from that inftant the fubject kingdoms of Italy and Rome.

*Gib. Vol IX. p. 191.

II. But

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II. But that he might not legally affume the Titles of Emperor, and Auguftus, till he had received the Crown from the hands of the Roman pontiff.

We therefore conceive the word, " red," to denote a Sovereignty inferior to that of an hereditary Emperor; by being elective among the Princes in Germany. Since it is the country where military Tactics have been more ftudied, and from whence the other States have acquired their fkill in that Science and as it has been hitherto involved in continual wars, it may fairly be prefumed that the latter part of the verfe particularly applies to this Empire.

ENGLAND.

ENGLAND.

Verfe"

5.

REVELATION, CHAP. VI.

'A

ND I beheld, and lo, a black horse, and he that fat on him had a pair of balances in his hand." Here we find depicted the fpirit of our Constitution, and the spirit of our Laws, having Juftice for their bafis.-Mr. Fleming has taken the Sun to represent France: furely we may, with equal propriety, fuppofe the black horse, in this verfe to apply to our bleffed country.-Especially as the black horse at Charing Crofs, may be confidered as a national work *. It was the purchase of the country at large. It was paid for with the money voted by Parlia

* The Commons, on the 30th of June, 1678, voted the fum of £70,000, for folemnizing the funeral of King Charles I. and erecting a monument to his memory.

The fine equeftrian statue at Charing Crofs, was erected with part of this money. British Chronol,

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ment

ment to defray the funeral expences of a king whom his antimonarchical fubjects had murdered; befides there is no other empire in Europe to which the figurative expreffions in the verse can apply.

CHAP. XI.

We agree with former writers that the two witneffes, are the Old and New Teftament; for we have no other prophecies to which a Christian can refer. Befides, this chapter is only an elucidation of Dan. chap. 7. ver. 25. because it fhews that the fufferings of the Gospel would be general over the then known part of Europe. Viz. " They shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and fixty days in fackcloth." We read of the blue and We read of the blue and green factions in the Greek, and of the idolatry in the Latin churches, and of various herefies, fchifms, and fectaries which exifted at the time this date commenced; and particularly of the Emperor, who died a heretic*. And as in the next chapter it is declared that the Gospel fled into the wilderness, we may conclude that idolatry is increased, and that it may be faid the witneffes barely existed.

*Gib. Vol. 8. p. 328.

Daniel

Daniel has foretold that an Empire would arife out of the Earth. In ver. 7, we have another Empire.

*

Verfe 7. And when they are finishing their testimonies, "The beast that afcendeth out of the bottomless pit, fhall make war against them, and fhall overcome them, and kill them.'

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Verfe 11. "And after three days and a half (three years and a half) the fpirit of life from God entered into them; and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that faw them."

Verfe 13. "And the fame hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell."

The word "afcendeth," we conceive alludes to the killing of the witneffes, (that is the diffemination of Antichriftian doctrines, the banishment of the priests, and the dethronement of the King) which took place prior to the first year of the French Republic, in A. D. 1792.-Sept. 22.

* We follow this reading from Antichrift.

CHAP.

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