vials. And as we know, from the annals of the world, that God has ever punished the wicked in all ages, pulling down kingdoms and states whenever the measure of their iniquities* has been full, and fetting up others in their ftead, according to his righteous purposes, can it be fuppofed, with any degree of reafon, that his juftice and his power are now afleep, when his all penetrating eye fees men furpaffing all former times in finful and ungodly lufts? when he fees whole nations, "mockers" of his holy word, and, with the most daring impiety, and outrageous blafphemy, proclaiming to the world, that' HE DOES NOT EXIST; and when he fees thefe fons of Belial, with unceafing exertions, diffeminating, throughout the world, the poifon of atheifm, with defign to fruftrate the purposes of his holy will? I say, can we fuppofe that a God, whofe " eyes are too pure to behold evil, or to look upon iniquity §," has fuffered them to proceed in their nefarious defign, without pouring out the juft wrath of his indignation, to abate, if not to stop, its progrefs?

But, for farther fatisfaction on this point, let us' take a view of the state of Europe, during the course of the last thirteen years. Has the been at peace with God, and enjoyed his merciful and all-powerful protection? On the contrary, we have feen her" afflicted with wars, in which all her princes and states have been parties, and in which all their fuffering people have, more or lefs, been involved. We have feen unheard-of fcenes of public rapine and devastation; of infurrections, rebellions, and civil wars; of poifonings, affaffinations, and maffacres ; of revolution upon revolution; of the wrecks of kingdoms and the fall of ftates; and of the deftruction of incalculable millions of the human race.

* Dan. ii. 44. † Jude, 18. 1 Sam. ii. 12.

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§ Hab. i. 13. Surely

Surely these are the wrathful judgments of indignant and offended OMNIPOTENCE!

Thefe judgments, no ferious mind can doubt, but that the French nation, in its revolutionary career, has alone called down; and, therefore, the prophet in foretelling the events of the feven vials, in the order of time in which they were to come to país, reprefents the firft vial, as poured out upon that ungodly and atheistical nation. And," fays he, "the first (angel) went and poured out his vial "upon the earth;" meaning the fame nation, which he had before defcribed, in the thirteenth chapter and eleventh verse, as "coming up out of the earth;" and which, in the comment upon that chapter, I have shown is a prophetic figure of France, in her atheistical state. But, as the word earth is often ufed, in prophetic language, as a figure for divers nations, he adds a more particular mark, to fhow that he here alludes to the fame nation he had before defcribed. And there" fell a noifome and.

grievous fore upon the men which had the mark "of the beaft, and upon them which worshipped "his image:" evidently referring to the people of France, who wore the national marks of the red bonnet and tri-coloured cockade; and who worshipped the image of their god, Liberty, as the objects who were to be afflicted by the "noisome and grievous "fore."

But what does the prophet mean by a "noi"fome and grievous fore?" He could not mean that a great nation fhould be afflicted with a "fore," in the manner of a man, or other animal. This feems highly improbable; and yet this is the literal fenfe of the word. We must then look for his meaning in allegory, of which the Apocalypfe for the moft part confifts. And here we fhall find,

that,

that, in a beautiful figure, he compares the government, or body politic of the French nation in its atheistical state, to the body of a man when afflicted with "a noifome and grievous fore." To do justice to the allegory, we muft confider the disease of a man in a leprous ftate, from its commencement to its termination in death, and then compare it with the late wretched ftate of the French nation. The human body is fick, when the fluids become vicious and corrupt, and no longer perform the offices affigned them by nature. When the vicious and corrupted parts of the fluids break out into ulcers through the skin, that covering which protects the whole body from harm, it is faid to be fore; and when the ulcers become offenfive and putrid, and spread over the whole body, it is then afflicted with a "noifome and grievous fore," which muft end in its diffolution. So it is, in every refpect, with the political body of a civil fociety; for this, like the natural body, is fubject to disease and death. If the political fluids, or the people, who, while they perform the duties of citizens, affigned them by the nature of their government, nourish and support it in health and vigour, become difcontented, licentious, and tumultuous, it is feeble and fick. When this licentiousness breaks through the laws, the political skin, which covers and fecures the fociety from injuftice and wrong, into infurrections and civil wars, it is diftreffed and fore. And if thefe infurrections and civil wars become general, and break out into open rebellion and treafon against the state or body politic, attended by all the horrors of impiety and licentiousness of atheism, it may be faid, with the ftricteft propriety, to be afflicted with "a "noisome and grievous fore," or a political leprofy, which muft alfo terminate in its deftruction. Such is the picture of a finking ftate, at the crifis of its diffolution, drawn by the allegorical pencil of the

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the prophet in five words. Is it not beautiful throughout? How brief the figurative expreffion, and yet how comprehenfive in defcription! Can we find, in Homer, Virgil, or Milton, a figure equal to it in elegance and fublimity? It is, however, the real portrait of the French monarchy from the year 1788, to the year 1792, when it was destroyed, and a republic eftablished in its ftead.

During this period (the period which embraces the events of the firft vial) the political body of the French nation was covered over with political boils and ulcers, from the crown of the head to the foles of her feet. The monarch, the head of the state, was weak and ever undecided, refolving and receding, rejecting and then embracing the very measures he had before rejected, however corrupt and ruinous; in fhort, fo enfeebled by the ulcerated condition of the whole politic body, that he was incapable of executing any, when nothing but the frongest meafures could heal the distempered ftate. The members of his cabinet were corrupt, perfidious, and ambitious; adding to the public confufion, in hopes to ride profperoufly even in the whirlwind of anarchy, and to direct the form. The national councils, which, for the most part, confifted of the illiterate dregs of the people, were often changing from bad to worfe. The moft folemn and important of their debates were attended by anarchy and uproar, ever filencing the voice of reafon and juftice. Their decrees were formed by factions without, and paffed by the intimidating clamours and vociferations of the lowest dregs of the people in the galleries, hired for the purpose, within; all tending to increase the public diforder, and, in fhort, to deftroy the conftitution. The magiftracy, to whom the execution of the laws, and the prefervation of the public peace, were committed, not only entirely neglected

neglected the duties of their offices, and thus let the people loofe from all the restraints of law; but joined with others to break through the laws, and to aggravate the public diftemper. Thus the fluids of the head, and that part of the civil fociety called the State, no longer able nor fit to perform the offices affigned them by the conftitution, became vitiated and corrupted, as it were, like the blood of a man when tending to a deadly and incurable leproty.

But this is, by no means, all that is implied in this prophetic figure. The powers of the State, or body politic, foretold, muft not only be corrupt. ed, but the corruption must break through the, laws, the political skin, fo as not only to be grievous to the patient, but to be fo fraught with injuftice, villainy, and wickedness, as to be difgufting and offenfive to all upright and good men: for nothing fhort of this can answer to the figure of " a noifome and grievous" political "fore." Now, to fhow the fimilitude be tween fuch a fore, and the late political ftate of France, I fhall only have occasion to take a fummary view of the prominent facts, which produced the revolution. It is well known, that before the year 1788, and when the monarchy was in the foundest health and vigour, the great mass of the people of France, of all ranks and degrees (a fmall remnant excepted), had drunk large draughts of that most deftructive of all poifons, atheism. They had been taught to believe, that there was "no God! no "future state of rewards and punishments;" and that death was only the eternal fleep of the foul." Having thus loft all fenfe of their duty and obedience to the GOD OF HEAVEN, it was not to be expected that they would long retain a fenfe of their fubordination to a man, to their king. Hence it became the fashionable topic, to fpeak of their fo-. vereign, of the SON OF GOD, and even of GOD HIM