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poral fovereignty ought alfo to end. Accordingly, we are told, "In that fame hour there "was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of "the city fell," to intimate that the refurrection of the witneffes fhall be accompanied by a great revolution, which fhall overturn the temporal fovereignty annexed to the Papacy. There appears a peculiar propriety in representing the temporal fovereignty here, by a tenth part of the city. Had it been reprefented by one of the horns, interpreters would have concluded, that fome other of the kingdoms had been intended, because the Pope's fovereignty in the Apocalypfe is invariably reprefented by the feventh head. Again had it been represented here by the feventh head, the fall of that would have implied the death of the beaft; or, in other words the diffolution of the whole fyftem of fpiritual tyranny, which would have led to an error; for the fpiritual jurifdiction of Antichrift is reprefented as fubfifting after the fall of the temporal fovereignty, till it is reduced by the vials.

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(1) Some have fuppofed that France is intended by the tenth part of the city; the late revolution has fully proved that application to be erroneous. France is already fallen from the dominion of papal Rome; but the time of its fall does not correfpond with that of the tenth part here mentioned, for the Pope reigns ftill, the Ottoman empire exifts, and the witneffes ftill prophecy in fackcloth.

In the fame earthquake which overturns the tenth part of the city, "feven thoufand names "of men are flain." Thefe are (according to fome), men of name; and it is probable, that an event fo humiliating to the pride of the church of Rome, as the lofs of the Papal fovereignty, cannot be effected without bloodfhed; while many of the fuperior clergy, being the perfons chiefly interested in its prefervation, may be put to death in the conteft: Yet I imagine, that by names of men, we are to understand focieties of men, and by their death, the diffolution of fuch focieties; particularly, that the feveral monaftic orders, and the focieties that owe their inftitution to human invention, fhall be done away. There are not fo many feparate orders as 7000; but every separate houfe, though belonging to the fame order is a diftinct fociety. If we number the feveral houfes belonging to all the orders, over all the countries fubject to the spiritual jurifdiction of Rome, they will amount to more than 7000. However, as the number feven is perfect, by the ufe of it, with the addition of 1000, the spirit of prophecy would intimate their great number; and that all of them fhall be diffolved. The completion of this prophecy will not appear improbable, when we reflect, that the Popish fovereigns have obliged the Pontiff, by his own decree, to diffolve the

fociety

fociety of Jefuits, though they might be justly ftyled the Janizaries of the Papal authority; and when we farther confider, that politicians in Popifh countries begin to esteem the feveral religious orders as useless burdens upon the state, if not abfolute nuifances to fociety.

SECTION V.

The fall of the Ottoman Empire.

The fame hour in which the witneffes arife, and an earthquke overturns the tenth part of the city, it is faid, Rev. xi. 14. " the fecond wo is

past." Now, by the fecond wo, or fixth trumpet, is meant the Ottoman empire. Whether it fhall fall fuddenly, and in confequence of the fame revolution which dethrones the Pope, or if it fhall gradually wafte away, and finally ceafe to exift at the fame time, though unconnected with that revolution as the caufe, the accamplishment of the prophecy only can determine. They are represented clearly as contemporary events, but the expreffions do not neceffarily imply that they fhall both be produced by the fame caufe. I find fimilar expreffions ufed (Rev. ix. 12.) concerning the Saracen empire, "One wo is paft." But the Saracen em

pire gradually wafted away, and at length wholly disappeared about the time the Turks were in four small dynasties on the banks of the Euphrates, ready to push their conquefts weftward. Juft fo the Ottoman empire may gradually decline and receive feveral humiliating blows, before the fall of the Pope's fovereignty; but at that time it shall wholly ceafe to be a fcourge to mankind in general, or to Chriftians in particular.

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CHAPTER III.

Of the Events which take Place from the founding" of the feventh Trumpet, to the fifth Vial, or the Deftruction of Rome.

WHEN these three remarkable events are accomplished, they may be confidered as evident figns of the famous æra folemnly announced to the prophet Daniel, chap. xii. 6. 7. "And one "faid to the man cloathed in linen, which was cc upon the water of the river, How long fhall "it be to the end of these wonders? And I "heard the man cloathed in linen, which was

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upon the waters of the river, when he held r up his right hand, and his left hand unto hea

ven, and fwear by him that liveth for ever, "that it shall be for a time, times, and an half: "and when he fhall have accomplished to scat"ter the power of the holy people, all these "things fhall be finished." The appeal to heaven by a folemn oath, intimates the certainty of the promised deliverance, in the appointed feafon, that the united efforts of earth and hell cannot prevent it, nor any unforeseen circumftances delay it, a moment longer than God has

appointed

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