PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. -non retrorsum vela dare, atque iterare cursus cogor relictos Hor. Carm. 1. i. Ode 34. Nor am I forced to furl the sail, Or put about the helm, and check the gale; THE late retrograde motion of the revolutionary changes, which have come forward in quick succession for the last twenty-five years, * will incline some persons to accept, in a general sense, that prediction in Rev. xv. 8, concerning a peculiar and merely partial obscurity of prophecy, as if it referred to an universal, and not a particular interdiction, from entering into the temple. "And the temple was fil led with smoke, from the glory of God, and a from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues were fulfilled." Smoke, as a symbol of prophecy, may be understood in two senses, a good or a bad one. When it is declared to proceed "from the glory of God, and from his power," it must be understood to mean only a salutary and temporary darkness, as far as the servants of the temple are concerned in it; and it will only tend the more clearly to illustrate the wisdom and justice of God's judgments, upon the return of light. Such a darkness as this is the necessary accompaniment of the ANCIENT of DAYS, represented here as coming to institute his grand session of judgment upon the beast, at the end of his 1260 years, as had been foretold by Daniel vii. 9, of which St. John is, in the following chapter, proceeding to give the particulars in full.-The psalmist · describes the same thing in similar terms. (Ps. xcvii. 2, 3.) "Clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, (Dan. vii. 10, 11,) and burneth up his enemies round about."-This is not like the darkness of the fifth vial, a perfected judgment of itself, but is rather the prelude to the whole series of the seven, which are about to be executed in the sight of the lamb, and of the angels of the churches, standing round about him, to witness how the accomplishment may correspond with the predictions given of it. (Rev. xiv. 10.) The darkness in the temple cannot therefore be meant to affect them, but refers altogether perhaps to their persecutors, who at this time particularly, are excluded from the privileges which these enjoy, (Rev. xiv, 3. see 2d, Exodus, vol. iii, p. 35,-40,-44,-112-). It is very natural to suppose that the reformed churches will be favoured by heaven, with a correct idea of the meaning and tendency of these judgments, notwithstanding the general darkness of the times, and the apparently intricate perplexity in which human affairs seem now and then to *be involved. The footsteps of a wise and just providence will be at all times still discernible, and a steady pursuit of one invariable plan in the whole series of the vials, may be seen amidst the "smoke from the glory of God, and from his power," which to the bestial party, involves every thing in darkness. In a contrary sense, symbolical smoke signifies a darkness which is prejudicial, and is itself generally a prelude to the punishment of the enemies of God. It imports a peculiar perturbation of the faculty of reflection, which is inflicted itself as a judgment, and leads the incorrigible through an infatuation of bigotry to the errors of their sinful choice, into the very measures which tend to their own undoing. The maxim " quem deus vult perdere, prius dementat," has been often verified by the unaccountable conduct of men of great natural talents, but at the same time of superlative wickedness; and in few instances more visibly than in the fall of BUONAPARTE. According to my idea, this is well accounted for by Dan. xii. 10, and St. Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 11, which the poet turns thus: "Hear the just law, the judgment of the skies! Cowper's Prog. of Error. The smoky errors of MOHAMMEDISM, to which the churches of Asia became obnoxious, in punishment of their neglect of the warning given them, are very accurately represented in their origin and consequences, by this symbol of smoke, which arises, not as here it doth, "from the glory of God-; but from the infernal ABYSS, whence all judicial darkness originates. And therefore when St. John is found introducing the same symbol of the ABYSS a second time, with consequences, and an association of ideas appropriate to it, about the time of the near finishing of the testimony of the witnesses, it is reasonable to interpret the symbol, on its occurrence again, by the same rule and in a like analogy.--We must suppose that St. John would thereby insinuate a striking similarity in these two portions of his prophecy; and that the rising of this last beast from the ABYSS, should be accompanied by somewhat of a judicial darkness of a similar nature, which should be impressed upon the infatuated minds of its victims, by the like means of delusion and the sword, which had previously smoothed the way to empire for Mohammed.* * On the accuracy of St. John, in never applying the same hieroglyphic in contrary senses, and avoiding every possible occasion of unnecessary obscurity, I have offered many remarks. (See Prophecy in the index). These are |