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And VISION FOURTEENTH, narrated in chap. xxi. and xxii. which contains the new Jerufalem.

All these vifions are marked, and their import explained in the commentary. A great part of this book contains prophecies which have been fulfilled before the present time. The true meaning of thefe may therefore be learned more minutely from the actual events as they are recorded in hiftory. The vifion of the fix feals predicted events which have fince actually happened, from the days of the apostle John to the year of Christ 325; and the feventh feal opens up the fucceeding period. The vifion of the fix trumpets predicted events which have taken place from the year of Chrift 325 to the year 1090; and the seventh trumpet opens up the following period. In point of time, chapters i. iv. v. x. and xv. which are introductory, comprehend general periods of time, as extensive as the particular chapters do to which they are introductory. Chapters ii. and iii. are historical of the actual state of the seven

Chriftian

Christian churches then in Afia, about the year of Christ 95. Chapters vi. viii. and ix. predicted events, the last of which took place before the year of Christ 1 100. Chapter vii. predicts events which run from the year of Chrift 325 to the year 2000. Chap. xi. the two witneffes prophefying in fackcloth; chap. xii. the woman in the wildernefs; chap. xiii. the beaft with the seven heads and ten horns, with crowns on his horns, and the name of blafphemy on his heads; and chap. xvi. the feven vials, all predict contemporary events, which run parallel to one another from the

year of Chrift 756 to the year 1999: So that, in this year, 1790, 1034 years of the time are run, and only 209 years remain to complete all the events predicted in thefe four chapters. Chap. xiv. predicts events which fhall happen in the end of the year of Chrift 1999 and the beginning of the year 2000. Chap. xvii. is an explanation of the predictions contained in chap xiii. and therefore relates to the fame period from 756 to 1999, Chap. xviii. predicts and defcribes an event which fhall happen in the end of the year 1999,

Chap,

Chap. xix. predicts one which shall take place in the year 2000. And chapters xx. xxi. xxii. predict and defcribe events which shall happen from the year 2000 to the year 3000, with fhort, and in point of time indefinite, hints of the state or the world after the year 3000; of a final judgement, and of a future and eternal ftate.

All the periods of time are particularly explained and established upon fixed principles in the commentary. In explaining the text, I have taken neither the larger divifion of a chapter, nor the smaller one of a verse at once; but I have always been regulated by the nature of the paffage itself. When the paffage confifted of an hieroglyphic, it was always taken under view at once, whether it was larger or finaller. This certainly is the rule of nature; for to divide a complete figure is to mangle and mifreprefent it. But where the paffage is made up of detached fymbols, or detached alphabetical defcriptions, fo as a fingle verfe or a few verfes could be understood by themselves, I have viewed fuch paffages in one or a few verfes together. Convinced that marginal

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notes

notes and references break the thread of the subject, distract the attention of the reader, and occafion confufion and fatigue to him, I have thrown the quotations from histories into the body of the commentary. On this plan, to have quoted a great variety of hiftorians on each event would have fwelled the work too much: Therefore the reader is here referred to the following historians: Eufebius Pamphilus, Socrates Scolafticus, and Evagrius Scolafticus, their church histories; Lewis Ellies Dupin, doctor of the Sorbonne, his Church-history; and Edward Gibbon, his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman empire. These hiftorians agree with Mofheim's Church hiftory, in their account of facts and dates, as the inquifitive reader will fee, by comparing him and them together, on the respective periods to which the events belong. Indeed Mr Gibbon acknowledges in exprefs words his general agreement with Mofheim, and gives that hiftorian the character for learning and candour which he justly deferves. In a note on chap. xv. at figure 103, he fays, "In the history " of the Chriftian hierarchy, I have, for the

"moft

"moft part followed the learned and candid "Mofheim."

Indeed I might have faved the readers and myfelf this trouble: Because all the events predicted in this book are of fuch magnitude and importance, and fo generally known, that all hiftorians are agreed as to the natures and times of them. The following are the editions of the books which are most frequently quoted in the commentary:

Caroli Sigonii hiftoria, de Occidentali imperio, Hanoviæ, typis Wechelianis, 1618, folio.

Mofheim's Church-history, translated into English by Maclaine, in 2 vols, quarto. London. 1765.-Of this historian I have made much use, not only on account of his high character, but also because, in his notes, he refers to all the early hiftorians of character, who had written upon the fame fubjects with him.

Tranflation of Sleidan's hiftory of the Reformation, by Edmund Bohun, folio, London 1689.

Tranflation of Mezeray's hiftory of France, by John Bulteel, folio, London 1683.

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