Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

"poftles and prophets, for God hath avenged

[ocr errors]

you on her," Rev. xviii. 20. She readily obeys the divine mandate : " After these things "I heard a great voice of much people in hea

66

ven, faying, Alleluia: Salvation, and glory, "and honour, and power, unto the Lord our "God: for true and righteous are his judg "ments: for he hath judged the great whore, "which did corrupt the earth with her forni❝cation, and hath avenged the blood of his fer"vants at her hand. And again they said, Al"leluia. And her smoke rofe up for ever and And the four and twenty elders, and "the four beafts, fell down and worshipped "God that fat on the throne, faying, Amen; ,, Alleluia," Rev. xix. 1, 2, 3, 4.

66 ever.

This event shall prove the occafion, not only of joy, but likewise of increase to the church of Chrift. Many chained to the furperftitions of Popery by ftrong prejudices, until that period, fhall then be fet free, being convinced by the word and providence of God. They fhall hear with efficacy, "A voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not "partakers of her fins, and that ye receive not "of her plagues," Rev. xviii. 4. The gospel, which had a free courfe from the period that the feventh trumpet founded, fhall now be preached with increasing zeal, and additional

fuccefs

fuccefs. "And there followed another angel, "faying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great "city, because fhe made all nations drink of "the wine of the wrath of her fornication'," Rev. xiv. 8.

CHAP

(1) Mede, Newton, and fome others, fuppofe the voice of this angel to have been fulfilled by the Albigenfes and Waldenfes; but the arguments already advanced, p. 186. to refute their opinion refpecting the preceding angel, will apply here. The voice of this angel is pofterior to the former; and therefore, after the founding of the feventh trumpet. Befides the repetition of this voice, chap. xviii. 2. clearly fixes the period to the fifth vial, of which that chapter is an enlarged explication.

[blocks in formation]

Of the Events that take place from the Destruction of Rome to the Battle of Armageddon, or Seventh Vial.

SECTION I

The Papal Power is erected in Judea.

N order to trace the progress of events far

IN

ther, a question must be refolved, which will readily occur here. Seeing Rome is destroyed, and rendered uninhabitable by the fifth vial, and the beaft and falfe prophet are destroyed only by the feventh vial, Where fhall the refidence of the beaft be during the period that elapfes betwixt the fifth and seventh vials?

I answer, In the land of Judea, in the city of Jerufalem. I embrace this opinion, not from any preconceived prejudice, but upon the teftimony of the truth. It never once entered into my mind, until a careful perufal of the prophecies firft fuggefted, and then con

firmed it with convincing evidence. Because this circumftance is clofely interwoven with the events that follow after, and that a knowledge of it is neceffary to understand their connection, I fhall briefly ftate the evidence on which it refts.

I. It appears to me to be afferted in the most explicit manner, by the prophet Daniel, chap. xi. 41. and 45. "He fhall enter alfo into the glori"ous land. And he shall plant the tabernacles "of his palace betwixt the feas in the glorious "holy mountain." The prophet having fhewn in the 40th verfe a fuccefsful attack made on the blafphemous king, by his European neighbours, (as I have already explained it), pursues the fequel of his ftory; he fhews, that in confequence of this attack, being forcibly expelled from his former refidence, he (the blafphemous king) should enter the glorious land, or land of Judea, (fo termed, ver. 16. of this chapter, and chap. viii. 9.) and that his entrance fhould not be for a transient visit, but for a stated refidence in the city of Jerufalem, fituated betwixt the dead fea to the east, and the Mediterranean to the weft; " He shall plant the taber"nacles of his palace betwixt the feas in the glorious holy mountain." I may appeal to every unprejudiced perfon, whether this be not

[ocr errors]

the.

the most obvious, natural, and unconstrained meaning of the paffage. But in regard a perfon of fo great authority in interpreting fcripture prophecy, as Jofeph Mede, gives a different turn to this paffage, it will be necef fary to examine his opinion. He supposes the pronoun he, in the beginning of verse 41ft, and downward, to refer to the king of the north, and not to the blafphemous king, which alters wholly the fenfe of the paffage. It is true, that the king of the north is the perfon last spoken of in the preceding verfe; but it is likewife true, that the transition from one perfon to another in the prophecies is very fudden, and in no paffage of the prophecies more fo than in this chapter; fo that the ftrict rules of grammar, which require the pronoun to refer to the perfon last spoken of, in a discourse like the prophet's, is but a flender foundation to build on, without other corroborating circumftances. For instance, it is faid, ver. 6. "The king's daugh"ter of the fouth fhall come to the king of the "north to make an agreement: but he shall "not retain the power of the arm; neither shall "he ftand, nor his arm. Here the pronoun he, ought in ftrict propriety to refer to the king of the north, as the perfon last spoken of; but the following claufe corrects that application, and fhews that the king of the fouth is intend

[ocr errors]

ed.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »