papal beast with its imperial head healed, from two very similar expressions which are used of the one and the other in v. 8 of chapters xvii. and xiii.—viz. "And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world;"" And they that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Also, because, in v. 3 and 4 of chap. xiii., we are told, that after the deadly "wound (of the imperial head) was healed, all the world wondered after the beast [the very expression which we find used in v. 8 of this chapter]; and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast." So that here we have two different sorts of idolatry, the worship of the dragon, the emblem of the city of Rome under the imperial head at the birth of our Saviour, of which the woman is typical — by the scarlet-coloured beast; and the worship of the scarlet-coloured beast, or papal beast with his wounded imperial head healed-by the false prophet, the beast with two horns like a lamb that cometh up out of the earth. But whether the worship of the woman, or city of Rome, by the papal scarlet-coloured beast, and of this latter by the beast with two horns, typical of the false prophet, be carried on simultaneously during the second Antichristian period, or the former idolatrous worship runs its course before the latter begin, we cannot be positive.

If the period of 1260 days or years in chap. xii. 6, be the papal period- the forty and two months of chap. xi. 2—in another form, then we must consider the formula of time in chap. xii. 14, as a disguised expression of the 1260 days or years of chap. xi. 3, during which the scarlet-coloured beast, or papal beast with its imperial head healed, will enforce the worship of the woman, the type of Rome; and the beast with two horns like a lamb, the type of the false prophet, will simultaneously enforce the worship of the scarlet-coloured beast. But if we consider the 1260 days or years of chap. xii. 6, to be the second Antichristian period of chap. xi. 3, then it appears likely that there will be two Antichristian periods yet to run their course, during the first of which the scarlet-coloured beast would worship his idol the woman, the emblem of the city of Rome; and during the second of which the scarlet-coloured beast should, in his turn, be worshipped by the beast with two horns like a lamb, the emblem of the false prophet.

Towards a solution of these difficult and perplexing questions, if the reader will be attentive to observe, as we have pointed out in the exposition of the eleventh chapter of the Revelations given in this Dissertation, that it is likely, from some expressions in v. 6, that the seven trumpets would sound during the 1260 days or years of the two witnesses prophesying in sackcloth; and that it is at the sounding of the fifth trumpet that a star fell from heaven, and that to him was given the key of the bottomless pit, chap. ix. 1, 2, out of which came the locusts, with a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit; and that at this very time of the sounding of the fifth trumpet, a cry of

"Wo, wo, wo to the inhabiters of the earth" is uttered by an angel; and that this cry of "Wo to the inhabiters of the earth" is heard at the time when Satan (the star ?) is cast down from heaven in the narrative of chap. xii., immediately after the close of the 1260 years, during which the woman, the true church, seeks seclusion in the wilderness,-he may be inclined to believe that these 1260 years are not those of the papal, but of the second Antichristian period.

Before the close of this Dissertation, we may, perhaps, be expected to give our opinion under what seal we are living at the present day. This is a very difficult question indeed to determine. But we should be disposed to believe that the fifth seal was opened in the year 1806; because we think that they that were crying for vengeance on them that dwell on the earth, are the souls of those which were slain for their testimony during the papal period; and that they were told to "rest for a little season, (a second Antichristian period ?) until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as they were, (by future Antichristian powers?) should be fulfilled.”

OUR heavy task is done. We have filled the pages we appointed for this essay. To those who can find no pleasure in the study of prophecy, the condensed reasoning in the body of this work will prove dull, flat, and unprofitable indeed. To those, however, who are anxious to read the past and future history of the Roman earth, in the transcripts from the book of Providence which the prophets have left us, the faint and glimmering light which we have been able to throw upon the dark pages of prophecy, will be followed, we hope, with no heedless regard. Much more we could have written upon the subject of the present work, and easily have swelled the book to twenty times its size; but, by so doing, we are afraid that we could not have multiplied to the same extent the reader's knowledge; for, study with what ardour and industry we will the divine oracles of the future, as mystically set forth by the prophets, much of them must still remain to be explained by those events in profane history in which they are fulfilled.

If God should be pleased to lengthen our days, however, our labours upon the field of prophecy shall not end here. The Sunday hours which our professional duties leave sacred, shall be sedulously devoted to the cultivation of it by implements of husbandry, some of which at present are not, perhaps, upon the most improved construction, and some even altogether awanting. Yet, limited as our resources have been, we crave neither mercy nor indulgence at the hands of critics for this little work. Our purpose in writing it, was the illustration of God's Word. If we have committed errors, we shall be most happy to have them pointed out; indeed, ourself shall be the first to do so, if, upon a further study of this subject, we find that on some points we have been wrong. In so difficult a research, it is vastly easier to err, than to arrive at the truth. To err is human, and we pretend to no inspi

96 ON THE PROPHECIES OF SACRED SCRIPTURE.

ration, like some of the prophets of the new light-those men who would gladly swell their vanity and distinction by imputed works of extraordinary power, but who, alas! seem to be equally deserted by the powers of light and of darkness. In speaking thus lightly of the pretences of certain men of the present day to extraordinary gifts, we would not wish to insinuate that God could not, if he so pleased, endow his faithful children with the miraculous gifts which distinguished the apostles and disciples of the early Christian church; we only hazard the opinion, founded on actual observation, that the Almighty at the present day seems chary of bestowing such extraordinary gifts, and seems to reserve them for greater purposes of his providence than exalting the pride of individual men sighing and praying for distinction above their brethren. Perhaps the first miracles which the history of the Christian church will have to record, will be those wrought by St Paul's man of sin; which faithful Christians, however, will discover to be from the working of Satan, because, unlike the miracles of the apostles and disciples of the early church, they will be wrought for a bad purpose, viz. to entice to the idolatrous worship of the image of the papal beast.

FINIS.

ANNAN:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CUTHBERTSON.