by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound'.

The Roman Empire in its widest extent, or the geographical platform of the great metallic image when completed, is the stage on which the drama of the Apocalypse is exhibited: and the term, by which that Empire is designated, is sometimes the earth and sometimes the world. Now the three woes are described, as alike affecting the inhabiters of the earth: consequently, their common geographical characteristic is, that they are three woes to the people of the Roman Empire. Accordingly, the Saracenic woe and the Turkish woe mainly affected the eastern wing of the Empire; though they likewise tormented, to a certain extent, its western wing. The third woe, therefore, must similarly affect the Roman Empire, either in the east or in the west or throughout its whole ex

tent.

With this geographical note, the supposed period of the third woe has hitherto perfectly corresponded. It has eminently been a woe to the entire Western Empire; and its effects have been felt also in Syria and in Egypt. So we may safely affirm at present: but, from the account of it which is more fully given under the seven vials, we have reason to expect, that it will ere long be a woe to the Roman Empire in its widest extent; for to this grand

1 Rom. viii. 13.

apocalyptic period belong, both the future tyranny of the revived seventh head of the beast, the downfall of the Ottoman Power, the wars of the wilful Roman king in Syria and Egypt and Palestine, the restoration of the Jews during a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, and the final overthrow of the antichristian faction between the Dead Sea and the Levant.

3. To the chronological and geographical badges of the third woe, we have now only to add those generic characteristics, which homogeneity requires that we should ascribe to the third woe, as well as to its two predecessors: I mean RAPID MILITARY CONQUEST and FURIOUS HATRED OF CHRISTIANITY.

Now, by these characteristics, the supposed period of the third woe has been marked quite as eminently as the periods either of the first or of the second.

In an incredibly short space of time, Revolutionary France, either republican or imperial, may be said to have subjugated nearly the whole of the Western Empire and to have carried her victorious arms into regions where the Roman eagle never flew. Nor was her progress marked by mere vulgar conquest only; the very basis of the Revolution was a fanatical hatred of Christianity: and, if (in the language of Daniel) Mohammedism, whether professed by the Saracens or by the Turks, was remarkable for magnifying itself even against the Prince of the allegorical host; Revolutionary France has been no less conspicuous, for speaking

marvellous things against the God of gods, and for impiously disregarding the Desire of women.

She has been checked, it is true, in mid career: but this has only happened, exactly according to the sure word of prophecy. She has prospered, until her defiance of the Most High was completed; and then the tide of retribution turned against her she has been successful, until the fifth angel poured his vial upon her imperial throne; and then her kingdom became full of darkness. Yet, from prophecy, we are taught to expect, that the same short-lived seventh head of the Roman beast, which was slain by the sword of violence, will in due time revive; that this resuscitated head will subjugate the whole Papal Empire of the West, and form it into one grand irreligious confederacy against Jehovah and against his Christ; that the same military head will conquer Syria and Egypt and Palestine; that it will go forth, with great fury, to devote many to utter destruction; but that, at length, when the third woe shall have spent itself, this revived last head of the beast, under which we are taught the beast himself goes to destruction, will come to its end, none being able to help it, between the seas, in the vicinity of the holy mountain, in the tremendous fight of Armageddon.

Thus, when the several leading characteristics of the third woe, chronological and geographical and generic, are all duly considered; I cannot but think, that we have attained to as high a degree of moral certainty as the nature of the subject will

admit, that the period of the third woe commenced, in the year 1789, with that most strongly and prominently and calamitously marked event the French Revolution. The conquests of the Mohammedan, and therefore antichristian, Saracens occupy one distinguished period in history: the conquests of the Mohammedan, and therefore antichristian, Turks occupy another distinguished period. After these two periods have rolled away, where shall we find a third equally and similarly distinguished; a third, moreover, destined rapidly to succeed the termination of the second? To such a question, it will be difficult to give any answer save the following that the conquests of the infidel, and therefore specially antichristian, French, with the amazingly extensive consequences which have already resulted and which (as we learn from the explicit declarations of prophecy) will hereafter result from their tremendous Revolution, must be viewed as occupying that third eminently distinguished period which we sought after. Now the Saracens and the Turks are almost universally allowed to be the subjects of the two first woe-trumpets insomuch that such an application of those two trumpets constitutes, as I have already observed, two grand land-marks or beacons in the wide field of prophetic exposition. But are they more worthy of a place in the oracles of God, than the daring impieties, the unheard of miseries, and the vast changes throughout the whole Western Empire, which have flowed from the French Revolu

tion? In matter of fact, that Revolution has constituted an eminent and remarkable and perfectly characteristic woe to the inhabitants of the earth or to the nations of the Roman Empire, whether or not it be the beginning of the specific third woe announced by the warning angel: and, since every future historian will be compelled to reckon a new order of things from this dreadful convulsion; it is surely the reverse of improbability, that the year 1789 should have been selected, by the Spirit of prophecy, as one of the grand eras of the Apocalypse.

On the whole, I cannot deem it either unreasonable or incongruous to suppose, that the third woetrumpet began to sound at the commencement of the French Revolution, and that what we have hitherto seen of that Revolution constitutes the first portion of the third woe. Its second and concluding portion is yet future: for the woe itself does not pass away, until the contents of the still uneffused seventh vial shall have been exhausted.