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then the city, the papal kingdom, which is to receive a terrible loss by the falling away of France. Whereas FRANCE ITSELF WILL INCREASE BOTH ITS STRENGTH AND GLORY, BY THAT FALLING OFF AND WITHDRAWING58.

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Speaking in the following pages of the monks and the French clergy, and of what will happen to them in consequence of this great Revolution, this able anonymous commentatator declares his expectation (and it is an expectation which has certainly been realised), that their Societies shall be put down, and that they shall banish themselves out of the realm upon their not finding it to be their interest to continue. Indeed the first event,' says our divine, is the death of seven thousand names of men:' and he conjectures that this may be a figure, where seven thousand men of name, that is, of quality, reputation, and dignity. These men of name are doubtless either the doctors, whe make a great deal of noise in France, in the Sorbonne, in the Society of the Oratory, in the Society of the Jesuits, and among the clergy; or else persons of quality, who are distinguished from others by THEIR BIRTH and by their honor-but we may take the words of the text literally and without a Figure. Seeing there shall be no more of that kind of Doctors who are distinguished by their Societies and Fraternities, no more monks, no more Jesuits, and it may be no more arch-bishops, no more abbots, no, more cardinals in the kingdom 59.'

It is observable, that this commentator, when figuratively interpreting the text, declared, it may refer either to men of rank in the state, or to ecclesiastics: but the abo

58 P. 233-236. In v. 11. it is said, they ascended up to Heaven. Now says Dr. Goodwin on this verse (p. 170), ascending into Heaven is used to express an obtaining of new power, freedom, and glory.' But of this passage more hereafter.

59 P. 236, 237. In another place, this commentator says, 'the vast riches of the relates and of the other ecclesiastics, being the strong buttresses of the papacy; the loss of their revenues may very well be one of the means, which God in his providence will make use of to destroy and abolish them,' p. 264.

lition of titles of nobility was an event so novel and unprecedented, that, when he gives the literal interpretation of the same words, he does not, as the reader would expect, pursue his own ideas to their consequences, by pronouncing the words of St. John to be applicable either to titles in the church, or in the state, but passes over the latter in silence He was perhaps apprehensive, that such an explication would have thrown over his whole scheme, in the eye of the world, an air of wildness and improbability; not to mention, that the language of prophecy, previous to its fulfilment, must, in many points, be necessarily dark and

undecided.

By Jurieu an exactly similar course is pursued. He is conscious of difficulty being attached to the passage.' And in the earthquake were slain seven thousand; in the Greek it is seven thousand names of men, and not seven thousand men. I confess that this seems somewhat mysterious: in other places we find not this phrase, names of men, but simply for men. Perhaps there is here a figure of grammar, called hypallage casus, so that names of men are put for men of name, i. e. of raised and considerable quality. But I am more inclined to say, that here these words, names of men, must be taken in their natural signification.' Whilst, however, he gives the preference to this mode of interpretation, he understands not the words in a sense sufficiently enlarged. After stating that the Reformation in France shall be total, he says, the orders of monks and nuns shall perish for ever, This is an institution so degenerated from its first original, that it is become the arm of Antichrist; these orders cannot perish one without another. Thus it appears, that, on their abolition at least, the ideas of Jurieu were abundantly clear and decisive.

60 So Wetstein explains the words, conceiving that they mean men of Title and Nobility. By Vitringa also and other commentators this explication is embraced; and it must be confessed, that this mode of understanding them furnishes a very excellent sense, and prefectly corresponding with the events of the French revolution.

61 Vol. II. p. 268.

I now quote from a work, written by the learned Dr. CRESSENER, and published above a century ago. After laying it down as certain and incontrovertible, that by the Tenth Part of the city must be meant the Tenth Part of the Babylonish empire,' and observing that the empire is set out by the figure of a Beast with Ten Horns, which are said to be Ten Kingdoms, Rev. xvii. 12, 17;' he declares that The Tenth Part of the city may very well signify THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE,' and that, with respect to the symbolic resurrection of the witnesses, it is very difficult to imagine where this CAN happen but in the Kingdom of France.

After quoting so largely from a nameless French commentator, I shall introduce some extracts from another anonymous author, who was of our own country, and towards the middle of the present century wrote a pamphlet expressly on this subject63. But his train of thinking has, in a great degree, been anticipated by my citations from earlier writers. Having observed that with respect to v. 13, the only inquiry is: what is the particular state or kingdom, pointed out to us by the Tenth Part of the city;' he declares that the result of his inquiry is, that 'those only give a true account of the matter, who interpret the Tenth Part of the city of the kingdom of FRANCE.' On the symbolic meaning of an earthquake this anonymous writer appears to have had ideas correct and comprehensive, We learn by former accounts in this book, where the same expression is used, that it intends remarkable commotions in a state or kingdom; and such as are attended with a Revolution in the body politic, or form of government.'

62 Judgm. on the Rom. Ch. p. 85, 138, 139.

63 of the title the following is a principal part. A Dissertation on the 13th and 14th Verses of the XIth. Ch. of the Revelation : : or, an Enquiry into the true object of the Second Woe. With probable reasons for shewing, that the Tenth Part of the City is descriptive of FRANCE. This very scarce tract was printed for John Bird, Black-Fryars; and, though without a date, was evidently written in 1747, which the author in p. 33 styles the cur rent year.' 64 P. 7.

Accordingly he concludes, that in France there will be a < DISSOLUTION OF THE PRESENT FORM OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE INTRODUCTION OF A NEW SYSTEM, BOTH IN CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL MATTERS, within that dominions."

Of the eight reasons which he has alleged, I shall notice four. 'When the old Roman empire was broken into Ten Kingdoms, by the inundations of the Goths and Vandals, and other Northern nations; FRANCE was the last of those kingdoms in succession and establishment. It was after the Nine, and so made up the complement of Ten. It was properly THE TENTH in order of rising, and as such was the very kingdom, which completed the papal, antichristian Beast; I mean the Secular Beast, to which the papacy, or Second Beast with two horns, owes its existence and support. Hence it is very observable, that the Gold crown, which Clovis the first Christian king of France sent to Rome, is still called Le Regne (the Kingdom), as much as to say, that they looked upon their kingdom,-as now completed, by this avowed accession of France'

Another reason for the present application is, that France, more lately, in its extent of dominion, not only answers to the Tenth part of the European share of the Old Roman empire: 'but it is also for influence and power, the most considerable of all the other kingdoms, who originally consented to give their interest to the Beast.'

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'Once more, it deserves our notice, that as France was the last of the Ten Kingdoms, in which the Secular antichristian Beast was completed; so it is certain, it is now the only one that has not yet suffered a Revolution."

Lastly, he observes, that the present interpretation farther bids fair for the truth,' because France is now the most powerful of all the Catholic states'; and therefore on a Revolution happening in this country seem to depend

65 P. 24, 25. In p. 17 he had observed, that one remarkable effect,' will be a Revolution in Religious Principles.'

66 P. 11.

the fall of Antichrist himself (the Western or papal however), and therefore most of, if not all, the grand events belonging to the seventh trumpets.

In favor of the idea that France is the Tenth Part of the city, I am happy in being able, before I conclude the chapter to appeal to a name, which stands so high in the learned world, that, on a subject like this, it is impossible to cite any superior authority. It is to Vitringa" I refer ; a writer of the most profound erudition and the correctest judgment, with whom every biblical student ought to cultivate an intimate acquaintance.

THE Street of the Great City, mentioned in v. 8, wherein the witnesses are symbolically represented as lying dead, may, he says, be reasonably understood to signify, as learned men have already remarked, some distinguished kingdom or country of Europe, in which so great is the concourse of men, that it may be regarded as being like a

67 It has,' says another apocalyptical writer and a member of the English hierarchy, been justly concluded by some of our most eminent writers, that most probably France will in time be one of those powers, that will destroy the kingdom of the Beast.' Burton's Ess. on the Numbers of Dan. and John, 1766, p. 304.

68 P. 11--22.

69 This great man was born in Leuwarden, the chief city of West Friesland in 1659, and died of an apoplexy in the year 1722. As early as his 22d year he was made professor of the Oriental languages in the college of West Friesland; and he afterwards accepted the professorship of Theology and Ecclesiastical History. We are assured by Ortwinus, who was rector of this college, that, from the high estimation in which his academical lectures were held, there was so great a concourse of students to attend them, from Germany, Scotland, and every part of the Netherlands, from France, Poland and Hungary, that the rooms intended for their reception as auditors were frequently incapable of containing them. At the funeral of this excellent man all those attended belonging to his college and native town, who were distinguished by their rank, their learning, or their personal worth. Vir erat, says Ortwinus, antiqua et prisca virtute et fide, gravis, sincerus, humanus, blandus, facilis, affabilis, in exprimendis animi sententiis candidus, colendis amicitiis constans, honestatis denique ac pietatis studiosissimus. See Ortwinus's Introduction to the Funeral Oration of Vitringa, which was pronounced by that great Orientalist, Albert Schultens.

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