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the purposes of God, will also participate in the fatal effects of this noisome and grievous sore..

How far all this has been fulfilled in the combination of continental tyrants, Popish and Protestant, against France, and for the support of civil and ecclesiastical oppressions and corruptions, and by the consequences which have followed; and how far recent and passing events justify us in considering the present war, and its calamities, as the fulfilment of the prophecy before us, must be left to every man's judgment. But there is no one, I think, who is versed in these subjects, but will allow, that there is a very strong and singular resemblance between the picture and the times.

And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea. We have already observed, "that although sea, in the prophetic, or symbolic language, often signifies multitudes of people, and nations, agitated with war, yet, as others have noticed, it has often a different meaning; for the prophets use it to signify the inhabitants of islands, maritime countries and cities, and naval affairs; and even for all those foreign countries which lay, beyond the sea. So that by the sea here, on which the second vial of wrath is poured, we may, without offering the least violence to the sacred language, understand those islands, maritime coasts, and countries, and those naval people and naval affairs of Europe, on which the judgiments of God are to fall, as a punishment for their corruptions, and to make way for the reign of peace and righteousness.

We have seen what calamities the second trumpet brought upon the people who inhabited maritime countries, and what destructions were made at sea, and on islands, and the sea coasts (whither the Goths had never penetrated) by the Vandals, Suevians, Picts, Scots, and Saxons, and other northern nations. They carried destruction far and wide, from the northern seas to the pil lars of Hercules; on the bosom of the Mediterranean, and on all its shores; but Gaul, Spain, and Britain, were the countries to which they gave the death blow. These maritime calamities commenced almost every where at once (A. D. 407.) and but a few years after the Gothic hail had begun to fall upon the earth; and continued to prevail during that long storm, till the entire ruin of the R

western empire was effected. How near a resemblance there may be, between the calamities of the second trumpet, which turned the third part of the sea into blood, and destroyed the third part of the living creatures, and of the ships, which were in the sea, and those of the second vial which cause the sea to become as the blood of a dead man, and destroy every living soul in the sea, is not for me to determine. Time only can inform us of this. And what share this country may experience of God's wrath, it would be presumptuous to say. If our crimes are small, our share will be small too. I can only lament that Great Britain, the land of liberty and justice, has unnecessarily, and rashly rushed into a tempest, which threatens to lay all Europe in ruins; has joined issue in a cause, which may well make our hearts tremble for the safety of that ark, which contains our long beloved, though mutilated constitution, and liberties.

If the seventh angel sounded in ninety-two, on the fall of the French monarchy, as is extremely probable, and if the vial on the earth began at that time to be poured out, then I think, the second angel of vengeance began to pour out his vial on the sea in the year ninety-three, when the maritime countries joined the Antichristian tyrants in their cruisade against the liberties of France, and when the naval power of Europe was put into motion. But though this second angel might then begin to incline his bowl, preparatory to a fuller stream, yet we cannot suppose the full current of wrath to be yet pouring. must expect to see something more striking than what has yet happened to identify this period of prophecy. For every eye shall see.

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But though this is the case, still the naval destructions, and maritime calamities have not been few or small. coasts of France, and of Belgium, have been drenched with blood. The British seas, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic ocean, to the West-Indies, have witnessed the destructions of war, and the calamities of the times. One of the great maritime countries of Europe, Holland, which, in ninety-three, joined the tyrants of Germany, and Italy, for the support of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny, has experienced the calamities of a revolution, and both its civil government, and its Antichristian religious establishment, have been swept away, with those of France, from the face of the earth. And, to say nothing of those countries which lie more inland, as Liege, Luxemburg, &c.

the Belgian provinces (maritime, though nothing naval,) have experienced the same fate. These countries were among the first which were separated from the Roman western empire; and here, in the island of the Batavians, and in Brabant, then known by the appellation of Toxandria, the Franks first obtained a permanent settlement, and laid the foundation of their kingdom; and who, having about the year 412, assisted the maritime, Gaulish provinces, especially those of Britany, Normandy, Picardy, and Flanders, to shake off the Roman yoke, possessed themselves of the Belga, and of Germania Prima, and Secunda. And, as early as the reign of Clodion, they extended their conquests as far as the river Seine.* Britain, after the settlement of the Franks in Batavia and Brabant, was the next province which was completely separated from the Roman jurisdiction. Surely such wonderful, and unusual changes, as we have lately seen, must portend some singular revolution in the affairs of men, and be the prelude of a new era in the history of the hu

man race.

Perhaps some may be offended at the epithet, Antichristian, which I have applied to the Presbyterian church of Holland. I will explain myself-I mean not to abuseAlthough it must be granted that the religious establishment of the United Provinces, was one of the least Antichristian established churches in Christendom; yet, so far as it was a creature and engine of the state, it was undoubtedly so. This is the body, and life, and soul, of this monster of mischief. The church of Holland has been, perhaps, the least persecuting, and bloody, of all the established churches in Europe; and in this country a sanctuary was opened for the persecuted of all persuasions, when the surrounding nations, popish and protestant, were plundering, harassing, and murdering the conscientious disciples of Jesus, of whom the world was not worthy. And seeing that the Dutch church has been one of the least corrupt and persecuting, therefore, though its fall was necessary, it has been comparatively gentle; and while the fall of the Gallican church has shook all Europe, and its sound has been heard to the remotest corners of the earth, the fall of the church of the

Gibbon, Vol. III. page 214. VI. page 98-101. Unive.. Anc, Hist. Vol. XVI. page 455. XVII. page 271.

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United Provinces has scarcely been felt, or heard of, by its nearest neighbours, nor is one wandering exile to be seen.

But, among the numerous prophecies in the Old Testament, which relate to the judgments of God upon the corrupt nations in the latter days, are there not some which may assist us in our inquiries respecting the subject under consideration? It is probable that there are. I think those prophecies, recorded in the xxviith and xxviiith chapters of Ezekiel, are of this description. Here, under the names of Tyrus and Zidon, the prophet appears to denounce the heaviest woes against some maritime and commercial countries, which, for their pride, luxuries, oppressions, and abounding corruptions, are, about the time of the peaceful settlement of the dispersed tribes of Israel in their own land, to experience the most awful overthrow.

Nor let any be surprised, that predictions about the fate of people, whose cities have long ago been no more, should be supposed to be applicable to any maritime countries and naval powers of the present day. The idea is not novel. Such application is supported by the first authorities. That these prophecies of Ezekiel, respecting Tyrus and Zidon, may refer to some enemies of the church of God, in the latter days, was the opinion of Dr. Gill, Mr. Lowth, and many others. This opinion is grounded on the conclusion of the predictions, chapter xxviii. 24-26. And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel; nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them that despised them, and they shall know that I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God, when I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people, among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land, that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards: yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God. "This is not to be fulfilled (says Dr. "Gill) at the return of them from captivity in Babylon; "for the ten tribes, or house of Israel, did not then re"turn-but in the latter day upon the destruction of An"tichrist, when all Israel shall be saved." Mr. Lowth, in his comment on Ezekiel, xxxviii. 17. gives it as his opi

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nion, that it is probable, that the multitude of Gog, which is to make war upon God's people, in the latter days, may be prophesied of under the names of such nations as were the chief enemies to the Jews in the particular times of each prophet. As the Assyrian, Isaiah, xiv. 24, 25. Micah, v. 5. "The same enemy (he adds) may probably "be intended under the figure of Tyre; see the note on chap. xxviii. 24. of Egypt, &c." Let us see the note to which he refers us-There shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel. "The following verse, "shews that this promise chiefly relates to the general "restoration of the Jews, when all the enemies of God's "church, and truth, are vanquished and subdued: often "denoted, in the prophetical writings, by the names of "Edom, Moab, and other neighbouring countries, who 66 upon all occasions shewed their spite and ill-will against "the Jews." Indeed, I think, this passage, with which these predictions are concluded, is decisive to determine them to relate, not only to ancient Tyre and Zidon, but to some countries bearing a resemblance to them as maritime and commercial cities, which are to experience dreadful calamities, previous to the general restoration of the Jews, and deliverance of God's church. In favour of this double sense of some of the prophecies, quotations might be made from a great number of the most celebrated writers, and best biblical scholars. Mr. Lowth, on Isaiah, x. 20. says, "It is usual with the prophets, when they "foretel some extraordinary event in or near their own "times, to carry their views on farther, and point at "some greater deliverance which God shall vouchsafe to "his people in the latter ages of the world." Thus, in his note on Micah, v. 5. he supposes, with the learned Mede, the destruction of the Assyrian, there foretold, to be a prophecy of the destruction of some remarkable enemy, or enemies to God and his truth, before the consummation of all things. And Bishop Hurd, whose sentiments we have before noticed, contends also for this double sense of many of the prophecies. "The style of "the prophet so adapting itself to this double prospect, as "to paint the near and subordinate event in terms that emphatically represent the distant and more consider. "able."*

* Vol. I.

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