into great confusion, and from which it is high time it should be disburthened.

4th. In the 13th chapter and first ten verses of the Apocalypse, St. John unfolds the prophetic history of the Church of Rome, under that of "the Beast which he Saw rise up out of the sea." He begins with a full and complete description of that ecclesiastical domination, her rise, and the source whence it derived its great authority; and then proceeds to narrate in detail its transactions and exploits, its dominion and tyranny over other sovereign states, their servile subjection to the despotic authority of that Church, her wars against and her persecutions of the Church of Christ, the period during which her tyranny and oppression should prevail, the loss of her power, and the particular manner and means of her fall. Having thus foretold the coming of one enemy of the Church of Christ, he proceeds in the next verses to predict the coming of another; and he not only calls it "another Beast," or Power, which he saw " coming up out of the earth," but accordingly describes it by marks and signs totally different from those by which he had described the first Beast, and of which he had just before written the history; and therefore expressly calls it "another Beast, which he saw come up out of the earth." And yet, Sir, contrary to the established rule of mankind in the formation of all languages, of affixing certain ideas of things to certain sounds or words, the commentators whom you have followed in your construction of the figurative marks of the second Beast, contend, they are both descriptive of the first Beast, the Church of Rome; and to support this wild theory, you have distorted and perverted the figures, into meanings which no language will justify. Do you believe that the Prophet understood what was revealed to him, and that he knew how to communicate it to mankind in their own language? If you do, you must believe with me, that he VOL. ii. T

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did not mean to refer to the first Beast, or the Church of Rome, but to "another" Power, distinct and different from her; or you must believe that he meant to mislead and deceive. Were you to tell us, that you saw a man of such a description, and then add, and I saw another man, describing him by marks entirely different; and were we to contend you meant to convey to us an idea of the same man, and not another, would you not conclude that we were deranged in our understandings, or had lost the meaning universally affixed to the word another? How then can you expect, that mankind can receive a construction so contrary to their settled ideas? Some apology might be made for your predecessors in this "mischievous" error, which has thrown the Apocalypse into great confusion, as they wrote before the second Beast had come; and might incautiously conclude, no other enemy but the Church of Rome was to come; but for you, who have heard his ravings and denunciations against the Church of Christ, and seen the dreadful progress he had made towards its destruction, to be not only silent, but the first to censure with severity all those who have thought it their duty to warn Christians against its seduction, no apology can be made.

5th. There are other " notions" in your Commentary upon the Apocalypse, which neither the nature of this Address, nor my leisure will permit me to notice at present; and yet there is one which I cannot pass over in silence, because it has misled many antecedent commentators, and has a direct tendency to deceive others in future.

St. John, in the preceding part of the Apocalypse, having foretold the opposition and persecutions which the Church of Christ would have to encounter during her militant state, from the powers of Paganism, Mahomedanism, Popery, and Atheism, gives us the history of another, the last and yet more formidable enemy, by the appellation of the "Great Whore, or Babylon

the Great," under the seventh and last vial. (chap. xvi. from ver. 13 to the end.) Now I affirm without hesitation, that it is impossible for any serious seeker after truth, upon a candid perusal of the two first verses, not to perceive that they are descriptive of a combination or grand confederacy, of many, if not all, the ungodly Powers upon earth, who are to be " gathered together to the battle of the great day of God Almighty."* The principal parties in this confederacy, namely, the Dragon, the Beast, and the false Prophet, their spirits or ambassadors, the Powers to whom sent, the formation and design of the confederacy, the gathering of their hosts together, and the time, and place of the battle, are clearly described. And when we examine the descriptive marks of this enemy, they are as widely different from those of the Church of Rome, as from those of any other Power that ever existed upon the earth. To place this truth in a light that excludes all refutation, let us compare their different marks.

The Church of Rome is described (see chap. xiii)

As a Beast, a single and individual Power. (Rev. xiii. 1.)

Is simply called, a Beast. (Ibid)

Is prefigured by a Beast, the symbol of a wicked Pow

er.

Has upon its seven heads

Babylon the Great is described (chap. xvii)

A Confederacy, or a Power, formed by a mixture and combination of many Powers. (chap. xvii. 14, 15.)

Has a variety of names, besides Babylon the Great, as the Great Whore, Mystery, the Mother of Harlots, and Abomination of the Earth. (Ibid, v. 5)

By the Great Whore sitting upon a Beast, to denote the wicked Confederacy.

The Beast on which the

* Rev. xvii. 14-xix. 19, 20.

one name, the name of Blas Great Whore is to sit, is to

phemy.

Derived her Power and great Authority, from the Dragon, or the Emperor of Rome. (ver. 2.)

Was to continue forty and two months, or 1260 years, and has continued upwards of 1200. (ver. 5.)

Was to come, and has come, in the early part of the Christian dispensation; and accordingly did so, in the year 606.

The fall and end of her power were to be by her captivity, and she has been carried into captivity by French Atheism; and remains in that state, under the yoke of Atheistical France. (ver. 10.)

be full of Blasphemy, to denote the blasphemous nature of all the combined Powers. (ver. 3.)

The great Whore is to derive her Power from the Kings of the Earth, and of the whole world. (ver. 14.)

The great Whore is to continue one hour, or a short time. (chap. xvii. 10, 12.)

The great Whore of the Confederacy is not to come, until the latter end of the Christian dispensation, or until "the great day of God Almighty," (chap. xvi.)

The grand Confederacy or Babylon the Great," is to be utterly broken and destroyed; the "Beast," and "the False Prophet," two of the confederated Powers, are to be "taken, "and cast into the lake of "fire, burning with brim"stone." (chap. xviii. 20)

Thus whether we consider the origin of the two Powers, their descriptive names, the derivation of their respective great Authority, the times of their coming, the periods of their continuance, or the manner of their fall and destruction, they are totally different and inconsistent. And yet you, Sir, following modern commentators, have applied the figures descriptive of "the Great Whore or Babylon the Great," to the same power, the Church of Rome. By what strange and unwarrantable licentiousness in the exposition of the

word of God you have done this, it is impossible to conceive. However, there can be little doubt, if it has not given rise to, it has greatly countenanced that slander, which we hear so commonly cast upon the Apocalypse, by the unbelievers of the present day, of its" wild and visionary allegory," and that in the construction of it," any thing and every thing may be made of it." To rescue the Revelation, that important part of the Word of God, from the insignificance in which it was buried during the dark ages of Popery to disburthen it from the misconstructions under which it has laboured, during and since the Reformation; and to repel the groundless slander so commonly cast upon it by modern unbelievers; were the objects in my view in writing the Commentaries. And I will again repeat, that far from being so vain of my own abilities, as to think I could accomplish a task so arduous of myself; I hoped for, and invited the aid of the pious and learned. And should I, instead of fair discussion and argument, meet with from all of them, as I have met with from you, nothing but general rebuke and undefined censure, it will not discourage me in the laudable design.

One word more, to account for this, as you will pro- bably call it, extraordinary Dedication of the following Prophetic History of the Church of Rome, to you in preference to many other exalted characters of the Church of England. It was partly to show the errors of your explanation, and application of divers texts of the Apocalypse; and partly with the hope of convincing you of a truth, of which an unbiassed perusal of my Commentaries ought to have convinced you: that-though an enemy to the blasphemous and atheistical monster which has lately established its power in France, threatening to overthrow, and must overthrow, the divine system of Christianity, unless the Providence of God shall interpose to prevent it; yet I am no friend VOL. ii,

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