in the neighborhood. parish until the time of his death. He always retained the character of a pious, humble, and benevolent man. His parishioners, who long regretted the loss of their excellent pastor, loved and respected him.-In the privacy of his retirement at Brotherton, unpatronised and unrewarded, with scarce a single smile of favor to exhilarate his labors, or to animate his pursuits, he composed the whole of his Perpetual Commentary on the Revelation of St. John, with a learned and elaborate Preliminary Discourse concerning the principles upon which that revelation is to be understood. Were I inclined to use the embellishment of panegyric, I might expatiate at large upon his singular modesty, his most extensive and strictly accurate knowlege of the Greek and Latin authors, his happy application of that knowlege in elucidating the words of prophecy, his intimate acquaintance with the symbolical character and language of the Eastern nations, his temperate and discreet judgment, totally remoyed from the indulgence of fancy and capricious conjecture. The following anecdote was communicated to me from the best authority. When he had finished his Commentary, he went to Cambridge to consult Dr. Bentley, the great critic of the age". The doctor, as it is supposed, thinking that Mr. Daubuz would outshine him in learning and eclipse his glory, or, which is more probable, knowing that works of that kind, however excellent they might be, were little relished in those times, did not encourage him to publish it. Upon which Mr. Daubuz returned home, wearied in body and unhappy in mind, sickened of a pleuritic feyer, and died in a few days. The book was published soon after his death28. The merit of this pious and truly learned man seems to have been disregarded in his

He was a constant resident in his

27 The following fact is from Whiston's Memoirs of his Own Life, p. 107. Daubuz's Commentary on the Apocalypse, on account of the great critical sagacity of its author therein shewed, Dr Bentley had in high esteem.'

28 In the year 1720.

life-time; nor has due justice been done to his memory since his demise. We cannot but lament, that the strange and unaccountable predilection, which has long impeded the study of the Apocalypse and some other prophetic parts of scripture, should have rendered the literary reputation of this eminent divine less conspicuous 29."

CHAPTER VII.

ON A PROPHECY THOUGHT TO RELATE TO THE FRENCH

REVOLUTION.

In

THAT the book of Revelation is involved in no small degree of obscurity was stated in the fourth chapter. addition to this statement it may be observed, that the sources of this obscurity are numerous; and that particular difficulties are at present invincible. Indeed, wher difficulties are capable of being surmounted, their removal is often to be effected only by the labors of many success.ve commentators, and perhaps long after the completion of the event foretold. Thus, for instance, however we may explain the account of the witnesses in ch. xi. of St. John, some difficulties may probably, after all, remain unremoved. That explanation, therefore, which has the fewest, is

29 See an Address delivered to the Clergy of the Deaneries of Richmond, Catterick, and Boroughbridge, at the Visitation held in 1792. By Thomas Zouch, A. M. Rector of Wycliffe, Yorkshire. The long passage given above is taken from a note, which the Author of the Address has annexed to it.

1 See Hurd's xiith Disc. vol. II. p. 98–105.

2 Particular obscurities, that may be found remaining in it, (ught by no means to abate our attention to, nor deprive us of the great advantage and consolation to be reaped from, the general drift and design of it.' Mr. Pyle on the Rev. Pref. p. 12.

to be preferred3. This it is proper to premise, lest the unlearned reader should come to an inquiry of this sort, under the disadvantage of false notions, and should in consequence entertain expectations, which are unreasonable and not to be gratified.

It may here be remarked, that Mr. Fleming is not the only commentator, who has regarded France as being pointed out in the Apocalypse; and that the Fourth Vial is not the only passage of the Christian prophet, which is thought to relate to that country. In truth, so many scriptural interpreters have apprehended a Revolution in France to be predicted by the apostle, that I am fearful of exhausting the reader's patience by that enumeration of names, and that crowd of passages, which I shall adduce on the subject. It is not to one country that the advocates of this opinion have been confined. It has been maintained in England and Scotland, in Holland and in France: and of those who have favored it there appears to have been an uninterrupted succession, for above a century and a half. Universally will it be granted to carry the greater weight, because it is grounded upon the same passage, upon a portion of the xith chapter of the Apocalypse; and it will be abundantly evident, from the extracts to be alleged in the subsequent pages, that it is not upon random conjecture, but upon the ground of respectable reasoning, that the remarkable prediction in this chapter has formerly, with confidence, been applied to a future Revolution in France. But the very circumstance just mentioned, I mean the expectation being built upon one particular passage, however well it may be adapted to awaken the curiosity, and to gain the attention, of the judicious and considerate, will occasion this and the two succeeding chapters to be the less interesting, as it will throw over them an air of sameness. If a series of extracts be alleged,

3 In the interpretations of the Apocalypse, says Mr. Lowman, ' we are not to expect demonstrations, or such proofs as shall be liable to no manner of objections.' Pref. p. 27.

taken from writers, who interpret the same prophecy, and argue upon the same grounds, in those extracts much repetition is to be expected. Sensible of this, I have omitted many passages of commentators, relating to France, and grounded on St. John's description of the witnesses and their symbolic resurrection.

If it be the primary design of the book of Revelation, as Mr. Lowman every where labors to shew that it is, to afford support and encouragement to mankind amid their sufferings, and to animate them with a hope of better things to come+; the prediction of such an event, as the emancipation of twenty-seven millions of people from civil and ecclesiastical despotism, must I think be admitted admirably to correspond with this design.

In a prophecy, of so general a nature as the Apocalypse, and reaching to the end of the world; in a prophecy, communicated to the beloved disciple of our Lord, and the last of the prophets in the Christian dispensation, who was empowered to predict a long series of events with a copiousness and a degree of minuteness almost unexampled; it is far from being antecedently improbable, that some mention should be made of a couuntry so extensive and important as France, and that some trace should be found of a Revolution, which, in its consequences, has been regarded as likely to extend its influence to the whole human race, ultimately to meliorate the condition of Europe, and to accelerate the establishment of peace and liberty throughout the world. • Daniel and St. John,' says bp. Newton, 'exhibit a series and succession of the most Important Events from the first of the four great empires to the consummation of all things;' and that the French Revolution is to be classed among events, which are of the first importance in the history of mankind, few will be prepared to deny. 'Prophecy,' says the prelate just quoted in the last of his Dissertations, is, as I may say, history anticipated

4 All prophecy, says Vitringa, is given with this view. In Apoc. p. 661. 5 Vol. III. p. 423.

and contracted; history is prophecy accomplished and dilated and the prophecies of scripture contain, as you see, the fate of the most considerable nations, and the substance of the most memorable transactions in the world, from the earliest to the latest times. Daniel and St. John, with regard to these latter times, are more copious and particular than the other prophets. Their prophecies may really be said to be a summary of the history of the world; and the history of the world is the best commentary upon their prophecies.'

He who peruses the subsequent part of the present work will perhaps also see reason to believe, that the French Revolution is one of those great links in the chain of events, which reach from the promulgation of the gospel to that bright period, known indeed by the vague appellation of the Millennium, but assuredly announced by the voice of prophecy. Now if the French revolution should appear, after mature consideration, adapted materially to promote that OVERTHROW OF THE ARBITRARY MONARCHIES OF EUROPE, that DESTRUCTION OF ALL SACERDOTAL TYRANNY, and that INCREASED DIFFUSION OF CHRISTIANITY, which I regard as predicted by the prophets, and pointed out by them as antecedent to the Millennium; if, I say, it should be apprehended, that it is likely, in any great degree, to influence and to hasten those three illustrious events, without the accomplishment of which this promised period of permanent felicity can never arrive; there can be little ground for surprise, should it be discovered, that the book of Revelation contains not only some prophetic notices of the Protestant Reformation, but also of another mighty change in the European world, which is also destined to accelerate the arrival of that glorious æra. Did the French Revolution tend not at all to produce any of these great events, I readily acknowlege, that, however splendid it might be, considered in itself, still its insertion in the

6 This I believe is the opinion of most Protestant commentators. See Vitringa in ch. xiv. 6-12,