which, linking ancient to modern times, for the space of twenty-four centuries, without the want of a single essential fact, or the transposition of a word, are as prominently marked in the book of Daniel, as in the history of the world.

In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, on the opening of the seals, we may come and see on earth what John saw prefigured in heaven; and the whole view of the religious state of man, within the compass and even without the limits of all the kingdoms which Daniel foretold, and in the long retrospect of more than seventeen centuries, since the Revelation was given, is open before us; and we see a pure and primitive Christianity; a murderous Mahometanism; the dark superstition and spiritual tyranny of the Romish church, while all was black; and infidelity, in its livid paleness, till, spiritually, all was death; together with the persecuted followers of the Lamb, till even in their faith and patience they could not forbear from crying out, How long, O Lord? Again, looking to the political state of the world, and the various phases of such a changeful thing, we see, as if eclipses, whether partial or full, were noted in a book and calculated to their time, how, after a period of silence in heaven, and of suspended judgments on earth, and also of commotions preparatory to the downfall of Rome, the Goths and Vandals, like a storm of hail and fire, overspread and desolated the Roman world;-how Genseric ravaged the coasts and burned the fleets of the Romans, and was like unto a burning mountain cast into the sea; how Attila, burning cities in his course, and blazing like a star, ravaged the land of a thousand streams, spread his devastations within the borders of Italy, along the Po and its tributary waters, between the Alps and the Appenine, falling the fountains and rivers of waters. upon And part after part having thus been dismembered from the

empire, looking upon the imperial city, no longer a terror to the world, we see the seditious hosts, under rebellious chiefs, severing the north of Italy from the diminished empire, and establishing a rival metropolis in Milan. From hence, too, from the waters that were made bitter, the western empire was extinguished, till the sun, the moon and the stars were smitten, and the emperor, the consuls, the senate were no more. Where the emperor had reigned the pope arose; and a kingdom, or spiritual domination, diverse from all others, was gradually established on the earth. Instead of trumpets which sounded for a moment, or wars that speedily effected their objects, woes that endured for ages, came upon Christendom. As previously earthly warriors, seeking to establish an earthly dominion, devastated and finally demolished an empire, which was itself built up by war and cemented by blood, so, in like appropriate judgment, a false religion became the scourge of an apostate church. The coincident exhaustion of the eastern empire, which had first conferred on the pope the supremacy of the churches, and the fall of the great king, who had threatened the last remnant of the empire of the Cæsars with annihilation,-by which mutual destruction the power and pride of Persia was humbled in the dust, and the blaze of its glory turned into blackness, smoothed the path of the Mahometans from the deserts of Arabia to the banks of the Indus and the shores of the Atlantic. The period of the two first woes was marked by centuries. The first hurt and tormented, from the one end of Europe to the other; the second became a settled woe, and, after a preparation of nearly four centuries, the sultan of the Turks occupied the throne of the Cæsars. From the taking of Constantinople, half a century, marked by continued impenitence in Western Europe, intervened till the time of the Refor

mation, which descended upon the earth like a mighty angel from heaven, with a little open book in his hand. After the establishment of the Reformation, itself of angelic likeness, and resplendent with light like pillars of fire amidst surrounding darkness, seven great successive wars ensued, affecting the interests of protestantism, and from which the political settlement of Europe and America took the form it maintained at the eve of the French Revolution. After the seven thunders had uttered their voices, time was to be no longer; and it was given to John to prophesy again.

The various forms of religion, and commotions or revolutions of kingdoms, having thus successively passed in vision before him, a reed, like unto a rod, was put into his hand, and he was commanded to measure the temple of God and the altar, and them that worship therein. The testifying of the witnesses, clothed in sackcloth; the contest of the church from first to last; the enemies that consecutively arose to destroy or subvert the kingdom of God and of his Christ, are described or measured, as if they had been a platform at his feet, over which he had only to stretch the measuring line in his hand. To us, its termination. may not yet be distinctly seen, after eighteen centuries have, in a large measure, filled up the space, which then had no local habitation but in the eye of the prophet, and which nothing on earth could then touch but the reed that was given him. Yet the oftrepeated limits of one space in time, and one eventful period in history, supply the more abundant data for warranting the presumption, if not confirming the opinion, that the 1260 years, from the time that the churches were given into the hands of the pope till the time that the judgment began to sit, comprised a period which, taking its date in the reign of Justinian, terminated in the revolution of France. If

such a presumption be borne out by Scripture and by facts, then, so far as hitherto brought down, the prophetic, political, and ecclesiastical records would jointly bring us to the same point, and lead us to the entrance on a new order of events. These, however, like all that preceded them, have not to be tried by verisimilitude alone, but each must exhibit its own defined character, as well as occupy its appointed place, if the judgments of God be indeed so manifest that not a word could be wrested in accordance with a fancy, without distorting the figure set before us in the oracles of God.

Returning, then, to the exact point to which history had brought us down, we may trace the analogy anew, but in a defined and more distinctive form, between the words of prophecy and the records of history. The "state of Europe," in respect both to the character of the philosophy which prevailed at that very period, and the political excitements which betokened an approaching convulsion, is thus summarily described;-of the former, it is said,

"A set of men, many of them of talents of the first order, arrogating to themselves the exclusive title of philosophers, and actuated at first, perhaps, by a zeal for the truth, carried on an incessant warfare against all that they were pleased to designate as superstition and vulgar prejudice. But theirs was not that philosophy which elevated above all low and grovelling passions, and, irradiated by light from heaven, views with pity rather than contempt the aberrations of man, and seeks by mild and gentle methods to lead him into the way of truth. It was heartless, cold, and cheerless; its summum bonum was sensual indulgence or literary fame, and few of its professors displayed any real dignity of soul; its favourite weapon was ridicule; it attacked not only the absurdities of the popular faith, but it levelled its shafts

at the sublimest truths of religion; it shook the firmest bases of social order, and sought to rob man of all lofty hopes and aspirations. Every mode of composition, from highest science and most serious history, down to the slightest tale, with which was often joined a sickly affected sensibility, calculated to gain it admittance into the female bosom. The consequence was, as might be expected, a general laxity of principle.

"The chief seat of this philosophy was France, where a court corrupt and profligate, beyond, perhaps, any which Europe had yet witnessed, had utterly degraded the minds of the upper classes of society. The efforts of the virtuous Louis XVI. to stem this torrent were unavailing; national vice was not to escape its merited chastisement. The middle orders were disgusted and galled by the privileges of the noblesse, and their excessive pride and insolence; the writings of the philosophers, and the scandalous lives of many of the clergy, had shaken their reverence for religion; the abuses and oppression of arbitrary and extravagant government were keenly felt; the glorious struggle of the English for liberty in the last century, and the dignity and prosperity consequent on it, awakened the aspirations of the better disposed; the achievement of American independence filled the minds of many enthusiasts with vague ideas of freedom and happiness beneath republican institutions; and the lower orders in general looked forward to any change as a benefit.

"IT WAS A TIME OF INNOVATION, TURMOIL, AND VIOLENT CHANGE. The English colonies had thrown off the bridle of the mother country, whom she curbed too straitly. The kingdom of Poland had been most nefariously dismembered. Gustavus III. of Sweden had overthrown the aristocracy, and made himself absolute. A contest arose in the United Provinces,