efforts, sometimes made by beasts of prey, after they have been mortally wounded. The mortal wound of the papal power, seems evidently to have been inflicted at the French revolution; and consequently, we have every reason to suppose, that the judgment then began to sit, to consume and destroy its dominion to the end.

We have thus discovered, that the application of history to the first and second propositions, leads equally to the conclusion, that the twelve hundred and sixty years ended in the year 1792; and as we arrive at this common result by chains of argument which have no mutual connection, the great and interesting fact which is thus proved, receives from this circumstance, further confirmation, and is established on the ground almost of positive certainty.

PROPOSITION THIRD.

The witnesses are to prophesy in sackcloth during the whole twelve hundred and sixty years; therefore, when they put off their sackcloth, the twelve hundred and sixty years are ended.

PROPOSITION FOURTH.

The mystical woman, the Church, is to be concealed in the wilderness during the whole twelve hundred and sixty years; therefore, when the woman begins to emerge from the wilderness, that period is elapsed.

Sackcloth is the garb of mourning, and the prophesying of the witnesses in sackcloth implies their being in a state of mourning on account of the little effect produced by their ministry on the apostate

inhabitants of the earth. The period, therefore, when they cease to mourn (i. e. when they put off their sackcloth), must be marked by a great and powerful revival of religion.

In like manner, the abode of the woman in the wilderness signifies that the true church shall be in a barren and unfruitful state, and hidden from the eyes of men. Therefore the time when the woman shall begin to emerge from the wilderness, must likewise be marked by a great and wonderful progress of true religion; and as there is not any more conspicuous mark of spiritual barrenness than indifference about the salvation of others, when the period of the barrenness of the woman shall elapse, it may be expected, that the desire of Christians to evangelize the heathen and the Jews, which had appeared for many ages to sleep, will suddenly revive, and lead to such general exertions for these blessed ends, as shall mark a new era in the history of the Christian church.

Having made these preliminary remarks, let us next turn to history. There have been three eras of light in the church: 1st, That of the apostles; 2dly, That of the reformation; 3dly, The period in which we now live. We may expect to find each of these eras marked in the Apocalypse. The first or apostolic era is accordingly distinguished by the going forth of the rider on the white horse, in the first seal, conquering and to conquer. The second era is pointed out, as I have endeavoured to prove, by the resurrection of the slain witnesses, and their ascension into the symbolical heaven; by the earthquake, and fall of the tenth part of the city. The

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third era has already been distinguished by events in the church, of so transcendently important a nature, and of which the future but daily growing consequences are hidden as yet from our eyes, that it bears all the marks of that period when the witnesses are to put off their sackcloth, and the woman to emerge from the wilderness.

No attentive observer, indeed scarcely the most superficial observer, can be ignorant of the great and wonderful change which has taken place in the christian church within the last twenty-five years. This change is so stupendous, that it has attracted the attention and alarmed the fears even of infidels. The present period has been distinguished, not only by a great revival of religion within the church, but by the formation of new institutions, before unheard of, for the dissemination of the light of Christianity over the world. The efforts of these societies have been attended with the most signal success. The British and Foreign Bible Society, instituted only a few years ago, has new impetus to the moral universe.

already given a "It is perhaps only because we live in an age of rapid mutations " and of gigantic conquest, that we contemplate the "movements of this society without astonishment. "Its operations deserve, with respect to their "colossal magnitude, to be ranked with the rise and "fall of empires. A map of its conquests would "embrace almost every circle of latitude. It has "visited the earth in almost all its several quarters, "and there is scarcely a wind of heaven which is "not charged with its high commission." *

* Christian Observer, for the year 1810, p. 775; and if such

The general advancement of the cause of Christ is well described in the following passage from a respectable periodical work: "In the review of the

past, to which we are naturally led on this occasion, "the circumstance with which we are most forcibly "struck, is the different aspect which the Christian "world exhibits at the present moment, from that "which it bore at the commencement of our course. "Nor is the aspect altered only; it is improved 66 beyond the fondest dreams of the visionary. If we "could suppose some calm calculating Christian ob"server to open his eyes, after a ten years' sleep, "on the passing scene, would he not find himself "almost in a new creation?

"For many an age has the church of Christ been earnestly praying and longing for the coming of "his kingdom, while there have often been no cheering appearances to strengthen the faith, or support the hope, of the pious worshippers. And "had not the harp of prophecy soothed the suffering "world with the prospect of a brighter day-a day "in which the prayers of the faithful should be fully answered, and all the dark and bloody superstitions " which have deformed the earth, being swept away, "the light of the Lord should arise on Zion, and his

glory be seen in the midst of her; when the Gen"tiles also shall come to this light, and kings to the brightness of this rising-they might well have despaired to see the goodness of the Lord in the "land of the living.

"To the dawning, however, of this day-the

language might justly be used in 1810, by what forms of expression shall we describe the progress of this wonderful institution in 1817.

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hope of all the saints on earth-the joy of all "the angels in heaven-the object of the prophecies "and prayers of the church for more than "three thousand years a day which transported "with rapture those who beheld it even in distant "anticipation; to the dawn of this blessed day we "seem to be now approaching. It is impossible to regard the signs of the times without perceiving that the foundation is now laying for a new and "better state of things. Contemplate the unex"ampled pains which are taken to instruct the poor; "the glow of holy zeal which is spreading itself "around for the distribution of the sacred volume; "and the harmony with which Christians of every "name have united to diffuse its blessed light! "See Missionaries going forth with a spirit truly apostolic, to carry the glad tidings of salvation to every corner of the earth; the scriptures trans"lated into more languages than distinguished the

day of Pentecost, and dispersed into more lands than ever the apostles visited; all sects and parties "who bow the knee in the name of Jesus, rising as

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by one consent, yet without any previous concert, "to carry on this labour of love! Behold our kings, "and our princes, and the nobles of the land, bright

ening their honours by patronizing this divine "work! But look to the east and to the west, to "the north and to the south-the whole moral universe is moved. Like some of the effects which "have recently been produced in the material creation, by a power hitherto unknown, we perceive every direction the dry bones shaken and starting "into life, as if struck by some mighty and per

" in