before thou hast implored the gods to finish what thou art about to begin." Hierocles, it appears, had caught a ray of the morning star which Jesus Christ hath made to shine on the earth. I make use of M. Dacier's translation. (See Bibliotheque des anciens Philosophes, tom. ii, p. 185, &c.) "Pythagoras describes in these words two things which con. cur in aiding us to find the true good. These two things are, the voluntary movement of our soul and the succours of Heaven; for although the choice of good be free, and depends upon us, nevertheless, as we derive from God this liberty and ability, we stand in continual need of the Divine support to co-operate with us, and accomplish what we request; for prayer is a medium between our seeking and the gift of God. She addresses that Being who produced us, and who, after having given us a being, giveth us also a well being. And how shall any one receive this well being, if God do not bestow it? And how shall God, who only hath the power of bestowing, give it to those who, being masters of their own movements, will not even deign to request it by prayer? Thus, then, on the one hand, we should not rest solely in our prayers, but follow them by our exertions; and, on the other hand, we should not wholly confide in our actions, but solicit the succours of Heaven; and that we must also join prayer to action, as the form to the matter. Py. thagoras leads us to request that which we do, and to do that which we request; for he makes but one of these two: Do not begin,' says he, to put thy hand to a work before thou hast prayed the gods to finish,' &c. In short, it is wrong to attempt any thing as if it depended upon us to accomplish it without the succours of God; neither ought we to content ourselves with mere words in prayer, but to exert our utmost efforts to obtain what we request: for otherwise we either embrace only an impious virtue, and without God, if I may be permitted to speak so; or we prefer a mere prayer devoid of action. And that impiety which is in the first part, will entirely ruin the essence of virtue; and the inaction which is in the latter, will absolutely destroy the efficacy of prayer. How can that be good which is not done according to the rule or will of God? And if what we perform is to be done according to this rule, is there no need of the succours of the same God to accomplish and perfect the same? For virtue is the image of God in the reasonable soul; and all images have need of their original in order to exist: but in vain we possess this image, if we have not our eyes continually fixed on the original, whose resemblance only makes the beautiful and good: would we then acquire active virtue we must pray; but in praying we must act, and see that in our actions we always regard the Divinity, and the light with which he is surrounded: that which excites us to wisdom is continual action, in constantly addressing our supplications to the First Cause of all good. The soul which attaches to this cause, and purges herself, as the eye, to render it more clear and quick, is excited to prayer by her application to good works; and by the plenitude of blessings which results from prayer, she redoubles her application, in uniting petitions to good actions, and in assuring and fortifying these good actions by the Divine intercourse. Finding herself in part illuminated from above, she performs what she performs by prayer, and requests by her prayer what she performs. And thus results the union so necessary between prayer and action."

Behold the true philosophy! See the truth and modesty! How much superior is the language of this Pagan philosopher, to that of these selfsufficient philosophers! O you who think, with M. Rousseau, to merit from heaven by a heap of contradictions, and by a monstrous and unmeaning compilation of the most grand truths, and the most monstrous errors, if you attack revelation,—at least respect true philosophy, and do not cast your veil of antichristian opinions over the truths of the ancient philosophers, which blazed forth amidst the thick shades of heathen darkness.

If the doctrine of Hierocles upon prayer do not appear preferable to that of Rousseau's philosophy, admit this at least, that Rousseau sometimes wrote as a Christian; for, like the poets who sung of Castor and Pollux, his thoughts were sometimes in the heaven of truth, and some. times in the infernal glooms of error. Behold Rousseau, the true philosopher, full of admiration for the Gospel! "The greatest of all wants (says he) is that of feeling our wants. Let us be humble in order to be wise: let us see our feebleness, and we shall be strong. Thus, at one and the same time, let grace and liberty reign: slaves by our own weakness, we shall be free by prayer; for it depends upon us to implore: and to obtain strength, which we cannot derive from ourselves." This last doctrine of M. Rousseau is perfectly conformable to the Gospel. Those then who imbibe the poison which this philosopher has scattered in some parts of his works, ought also to taste the antidote which he offers in others.

In taking the liberty of producing certain contradictions of M. Rousseau, the reader is invited to do justice to the beauty of his style, and the sublimity of a great number of his thoughts, by which he hath justly merited a place in the republic of letters.

LETTER ON THE PROPIIECIES.*

REV. SIR,-I was very much surprised to hear you read part of a letter written on the impending revolutions; they have often been, for some years, the subject of my meditations, and of many conversations with a great divine abroad. That gentleman, as eminent for his uncommon learning, as he is remarkable for the use he has made of it, from his youth, showed the greatest inclination to dive into the apparent obscurities of the prophecies contained in the Bible. That inclination increased with his knowledge and piety; it followed him every where. When upon his travels, he generally got what light he could from the learned in that uncommon branch of knowledge, and had several conferences with Sir Isaac Newton and others.

The following letter by Mr. Fletcher on the prophecies, written in the year 1775, was communicated to Mr. George Story, several years ago, by a gentle. man from Yorkshire, now resident in London. The superscription was lost, but it appears from the contents that it was addressed to the Rev. Mr. Wesley.

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For these fifty years he has spent his time in making himself fectly master of the oriental languages, (which are become as familiar to him as Greek and Latin,) and in comparing and explaining the various prophecies scattered in the Old and New Testament. Therefore, if his labours have been attended with a blessing from above, and a measure of God's Holy Spirit, he is, in all appearance, a man most likely to discover what God has been pleased to hide, for a time, under the veil of prophetic figures. As I have often read his works, both those that have been printed, and those which he has not yet been able to publish, on account of the strong opposition of several people, I shall take the liberty to give you a short account of his system.

It is, as far as I can judge, pretty much the same as the gentleman's whose letter you read lately, and supported by the numerous train of his arguments; it seldom fails either to silence or convict those that oppose it; it agrees with the tenor of the whole Bible; it gives such grand ideas of God's justice in punishing the wicked, and his faithfulness in remembering the gracious promises he has made to the faithful; it squares so well with history and chronology, (I would almost say, with the present state of the world,) that if it be not true, one must confess it is at least very probable. This has been owned by numbers of clergymen, and even by some of those who, because the Lord delays his coming, think that the work shall always remain in the same state.

Let me beg of you, sir, for the sake of that gentleman, whom I have great reason to honour, not to judge absolutely of him by what I shall say; considering that clear water, running through a foul pipe, may easily contract a disagreeable and muddy taste. I confess I want a competent knowledge of Scripture, and the degree of profane learning, necessary to illustrate it; so that if you observe in these sheets any inconsistency, it is probably all my own.

According to that divine's opinion, we are come to the last times: the grand catastrophe of God's drama draws near apace; he shall soon be avenged, first of his unfaithful servants, and next of his barefaced enemies; in a few years he will "purge his floor," and "burn the chaff with unquenchable fire." Every Christian ought then to prepare himself for that day, which "will come as a thief in the night;" and to labour for a living faith, the ark which alone will carry us safe to the harbour, amidst the universal deluge of wo which is going to overflow the earth.

Here follow some of the reasons on which his opinion is founded:(1st.) Consider Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which is a rough sketch of the world's four universal revolutions. Three are past long ago; the empires of the Assyrians, Persians, and Greeks, have disappeared. The iron legs, that represented the strength of the Roman empire under the consuls and emperors, have had the same fate: the feet only remain, which being "made of clay and iron, partly weak and partly strong," express plainly the remains of the Roman monarchy, which is nothing but a weak compound of spiritual and temporal power, and does not cleave better together than iron to clay. And whereas the feet of the statue ended in ten toes, so was the Roman empire divided into ten kingdoms: these were still united together by the clay, i. e. the pope's erroneous religion and idolatrous worship.

"In the days of these ten kings," says the Prophet Daniel, ❝ shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: for it shall swallow up all these kingdoms, and stand for ever: forasmuch as a stone cut from the mountain without hands," (a small number of true Christians sent from Mount Sion, without the hand of mortal man, and by the Spirit of God alone; or Jesus himself, the corner stone,) "shall smite the feet of the statue," the last of the four monarchies; "and the pieces of it shall become as the chaff, carried away by the wind, and no place shall be found for them; but the stone that shall smite the image will become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth." (2dly.) Compare with this the vision of the seventh chapter, where the fourth beast that had iron teeth, to devour all, answers clearly to the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar's image; for as this had ten toes, so that had ten horns: viz. the ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided; those of Burgundy and Lombardy; that of the Vandals; the eastern, and western empires; England, France, Spain, Portugal, and Poland. Between these ten horns did another come up, i. e. the pope; who aggran. dized himself at the expense of the other kings, and before which three of the horns fell, the kingdoms of Lombardy, Burgundy, and that of the Vandals, who were once possessed of a great part of France, Spain, and Africa, but are now no longer known but in history.

This horn had eyes; i. e. an appearance of wisdom, and a great deal of fraud; " and a mouth that spake great things against the Most High: it warred against the saints ;" and so has the pope; millions have fallen, as so many victims to his cruelty, pride, and persecuting spirit. But we are near the time when, having fully "prevailed against them, they shall be given unto him for a time, times, and a division of time:" but after this last raging of antichrist, his body shall be destroyed: then the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess it for ever and ever this will be an end of the matter; and if any one meditates thereon with singleness of heart, his thoughts, like Daniel's, "will be troubled in him, and his countenance changed, and he will keep the matter in his heart." (3dly.) Compare again this vision with that which is contained in the following chapter, where the prophet, having foretold the ruin of the Persian empire, the conquest of Alexander, and the division of his dominion between four kings, comes at once to the little horn that should spring from one of them; namely, from that of Greece or Macedonia: for as the Spirit of God had shown the prophet before all that concerned the beginning of the fourth kingdom, he passes lightly over it, to come to the main point, the rising of the little horn, at whose destruction the empire of the saints shall begin.

Let it be remembered here, that Constantine, having transported into Greece the seat of the Roman empire, renewed (as it were) that of Macedonia, of which Byzantium was one of the chief cities; and that it was under him, and his successors, that the bishop of Rome increased in honours, and began to lift up himself above all the bishops and pa. triarchs in the world; so that in two or three hundred years he "waxed exceeding great in the pleasant land, and cast down, and stampt upon" kings and emperors, those stars in the heaven of government; he took away the daily sacrifice, abolished or quite disfigured the true worship of God and Jesus, and cut down the truth to the ground, with his army.

Here the prophet heard a saint asking another saint, How long the Church should be thus corrupted and desolate? And the answer was, till the end of 2300 days, and then the sanctuary should be cleansed.— Here is a number given; a number by which we may know that we are come to the very time the Spirit of God had in view: a number which fixes the beginning of the things that are coming upon the earth: let us take some notice of it.

1. When shall the sanctuary begin to be cleansed, in such a measure, as to deserve to be taken notice of by the Spirit of God? At the end of 2300 days; which are proved to be prophetic days, and to signify each a whole year, by the prophecy of the seventy weeks, and many other places of Scripture. 2. What is the epocha from which we must begin to reckon those 2300 years? It is evident it must be the time of the vision itself, which the prophet has taken particular care to observe; for in the first verse of the chapter, "In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, (says he) a vision appeared to me, even unto me Daniel."

3. But how can we know certainly the time of Belshazzar's reign? I must own, this question is not so easily answered as the others; but it can be resolved, with some knowledge of history and chronology: for if we compare the writings of sacred and profane historians; if we trust the canons of Ptolemy, which have been tried by astronomical observations, with Petrarius, Ússerius, Prideaux, and others, we shall agree that Belshazzar (the same whom the historians call Niricasoolassar, or Neriglissor,) having killed Evilmerodac, the son of Nabocolasser, or Ne. buchadnezzar, seized upon the Assyrian throne, A. M. 3476, i. e. 559 years before Christ, or as Torniel will have it, about twenty years after: because asserting that Evilmerodac, (instead of two years, which the above-mentioned chronologists give to his reign) enjoyed the diadem twenty-three years, which would make the reign of his successor, our Belshazzar, begin about 538 years before Christ. If we admit the first opinion, which is more probable, it follows that the third year of Belshazzar's reign falls in 556 years before Christ, which is the epocha wanted; add to it four or five years, on account of the difference of the Judaical year of 360 days, and ours that is 365, and above; add three years more for the time that Belshazzar had reigned when Daniel had the vision, and we have about 550, which being substracted from 2300, give the year 1750, for the cleansing of the sanctuary; or for such a tolerable progress in the cleansing of it, as may be taken notice of, and attract the eyes of all those who wait for this cleansing of God's Church.

4. If any one should ask, what happened so remarkably about that time, as to show that the sanctuary is in some degree cleansed, or that this important work is really carried on with any tolerable success; I would answer, that God was working at that time, and still works such a work as never was seen since the apostles' days; he has sent some chosen servants of his, both in these kingdoms and abroad, who, by the manifest assistance of God's Spirit, have removed the filthy doctrine of justification by works, and the outward Christless performances of moral duties, which pollute the sanctuary, and make it an abomination to the Lord. The Holy Ghost is given, and the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of believers as in the days of old; and the Lord has taken VOL. IV.

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