"in the presence (98) of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb," until the mysstery of God be finished in her total destruction.

From the due consideration of these things which have lately passed, or are now passing before our eyes, we must of necessity be led to this conclusion:-that the sounding of the seventh trumpet either hath begun, or is near at hand, and the third woe is already far advanced, and that we are much nearer to the consummation of the mystery of God, than the computation of the times, made by the generality of commentators, would allow us to think of course, that some other more convenient date is to be sought out for the commencement of the first prophetic period, or the reign of the little horn, now terminated.

It is evident that it must agree in all respects with the marks and characters given

(98) ενώπιον των αγίων αγγέλων, &c. Rev. xiv. 10. “Before (that is in full view of) the holy angels, (the ministers of the true churches,) and before the Lamb, or Christ, the true head of the churches."

in the prophecy, and it was the apparent, rather than exact, coincidence of the historical facts commonly assigned, that has misled the commentators to fix upon dates which have not answered to the event. Mr. Sharp's exposition of the prophecy of the other beast, which gave command to the subject nations, that they should make an image of the beast which had the wound by the sword, and yet did live, and who also had "power to give life to the image," when made by the apostate church, is the only one I have seen that can agree both with the circumstances of the prophecy, and the time of its completion. Perhaps even this may not be entirely free from all difficulties, or possibility of exception.And indeed I conceive it essential to the nature of prophecies connected with the great prophetical periods (designed to be retained more or less, under a seal of secresy, until the end of the world), that they shall not be susceptible of the clearness of a mathematical proof, although we may have data sufficient to settle our prophetical creed upon very strong grounds of probability. (99)

(99) Remark of Mr Sharp upon vol. i. p. 205 of the Second Exodus"The pabal omnipotence was-not. set up by

In the account of the Two WITNESSES, Sec. vii. vol. 1, and Sec. xxiv. vol. 2, it was a circumstance strongly insisted upon, that their last persecution, death, and resurrection, were events of too much consequence in the prophetic history, to be of trivial importance in the occurrences of the world, or to have escaped the notice of expositors, if that prophecy had really received its accomplishment.

Charlemagne, but by the eastern emperor Justinian, long before Charles the great. For if the eighth head of the beast commenced so late as the year 600, it would have 250 years longer to exist: whereas on the contrary, the TRIPLE CROWN on the scarlet cap of the pagan Pontifex Maximus, is already completely fallen. No other time is applicable therefore to the commencement of the 1260 years of Antichrist's tyranny, but only the era in which the eastern emperor Justinian conquered Rome by Bellisarius, and carried away VITIGES, the king of Rome, as a captive to Constantinople. Whereby Justinian acquired the western branch of the empire in addition to the eastern, which part had before been rendered an OTHER BEAST, by its having been separated from ROME, during the wars of the Goths and Vandals, &c,

For by the conquest of the third king of Rome,-(the third of the three first of the ten kings which reigned in Rome, in succession, as the seventh head,) Justinian acquired an additi onal horn, the western branch of the Roman empire, in addition to the eastern which he had before, thereby completing his prophetical character of an OTHER BEAST, having two horns like

very

The most learned commentators, MEDE, the TWO NEWTONS, and others, were my authorities for this opinion, and until a full and satisfactory account can be given of the finishing of their testimony, and the remarkable events which are to signalize the end of it, I think no hypothesis whatever, on that subject, can be received with implicit credit, however fair its pretensions may seem in some respects. It was this difficulty, that obliged the abovenamed learned men to acquiesce in the assignment of a period of time, for the end of the

a lamb, (by professing christianity,) but speaking like a DRAGON, like the imperial power of the sixth head. Whereby he exereised all the power of the first beast before him,even assuming, like many of the former emperors, an affectation for divine power by the titles avToxęatwe, divus, augustus, numen &c.—And therefore when he proclaimed the bishop of Rome to be the UNIVERSAL HEAD of the church, he completed the character of the other beast.

The bishop of Rome had previously prepared himself to be an image of the beast, (the former imperial power of the western branch in Rome,) by assuming the pagan title of Pontifex Maximus, which had been held by all the emperors of the western branch, till they were "taken out of the way," no long. er to let, or prevent the rising of the MAN OF SIN. the papal PONTIFEX MAXIMUS was really the living image of the first beast, and was set up by the emperor Justinian, upon the throne of the dragon, to be worshipped."

Thus

reign of the beast, very remote, notwithstanding the wasting consumption he has been in, slow at first, but latterly more rapid, (a certain indication that his end was not far off,) ever since the reformation: yet no immediate symptoms of his dissolution had appeared, notwithstanding his weakness; and the witnesses were still living, and prophesying against the corruptions of the apostate church.

The existence of the witnesses at this day, is therefore one point in which the very ingenious system of Mr. Sharp seems still liable to objection, not a very formidable one, probably, to a gentleman of his great learning and talents; yet a solution of the difficulty it throws in our way, seems indispensably necessary, and perhaps would have been given along with his hypothesis, if it had occurred to him in the light of an objection. Until he is disposed, at some convenient time, to give a better, I must in the proper place for it, suggest something of my own to that ef fect. (100) The signs of the times, and the

VOL. III.

(100) See Section 50.

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