extraordinary signs and prodigies both in the heavens and on the earth here described, evidently speak the majesty and power of him, whose approaching coming they are designed to announce. They therefore necessarily tend to reflect that glory on the Lamb, which was said to be his due. Apoc. v. 12.

The nature of the subject seems to require we should subjoin to the preceding account that other, which our Saviour himself gives of the same or similar prodigies. The assemblage of both will contribute to enlarge our knowledge of that interesting subject; and the comparison of them may serve as a proof, that the expressions used by St. John are to be taken in their natural acceptation, and not in a metaphorical sense, as some might imagine; many of his expressions being similar to those of our Saviour, which have been generally understood in their natural sense.

The account which Christ delivered of the prodigies we are speaking of, is to be found in St. Matthew, chap. 24. St. Mark, chap. 13, and St. Luke, chap. 21. His disciples having asked him by what signs they should know the approaching ruin of Jerusalem, and also what signs would precede the general dissolution of the world, Christ answers both questions. But in the first part of his answer he seems to assign the same prodigies for announcing both those events as the destruction of Jerusalem may be a very expressive figure of the destruction of the world. And in this sense the holy fathers have explained his discourse. In the latter part of his answer, Christ seems to confine himself solely to the pointing out of the signs, which will be the presages of the approaching end of all things.

He thus begins his discourse: "Take heed that no man seduce you. For many will come in my name, saying, I am He, I am Christ; and the time is at hand; and they will seduce many go you not therefore after them." The appearance of false Christs or false Messiahs was then the first mentioned by our Saviour, and first warning of the approaching fate of Jerusalem. That many such impostors rose up in Judea before the demolition of Jerusalem by the Romans, we learn from Josephus, in his history of the Jewish It is here the opinion of the holy fathers, that Christ intended also to intimate by the preceding words, that false Christs will arise in a similar manner in the last age of the world, and be a sign of its approaching end.

wars.

Our Saviour proceeds: "You shall hear of wars

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and rumours of wars: See that you be not troubled. these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and great earthquakes in divers places, and terrors from heaven, and there shall be great signs." These calamities happened before the ruin of Jerusalem, as the above-mentioned Jewish historian testifies. The same will likewise be experienced, it is supposed, in the last age. But Christ adds: "Now all these things are the beginnings of sorrows." Though great evils, they are only to be deemed the prelude of greater. Then he goes on: But before all these things they will lay their hands on you, and persecute you, and put you to death," &c. Here are the persecutions foretold, which fell upon the apostles and first Christians. The same will likewise rage in a more fierce manner hereafter under Antichrist.

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"And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many: and because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold." From this rise of false prophets or teachers of false doctrine, and the abounding of wickedness, before the fall of the Jewish nation, it is concluded by the holy fathers that similar unhappy circumstances will take place before the finishing of the world. And; indeed, that false prophets or false teachers will then arise, we shall see it again expressed in the sequel of our Saviour's discourse; and that iniquity will likewise abound, is fully intimated by what Christ said on another occasion: "When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on the earth?" Luke xviii. 8.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come." A new people of Christians was to be formed by preaching the gospel, before the Jews, the ancient people of God, were rejected, and their city and temple abolished. The gospel will likewise be preached with extraordinary zeal in the latter times over the whole earth, to stem the prevalence of imposture and depravity of morals, and to oppose in particular the furious efforts of Antichrist against religion.

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When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, he that readeth, let him understand. When you shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army, then know that the desolation thereof is at hand." Here

our Saviour points out to his disciples the most immediate sign by which they might know, that the ruin of Jerusalem was near at hand; namely, when they should see an idolatrous army arrive, with its heathenish gods, which are the abomination of desolation, and invest Jerusalem, that city which was always styled the holy place, or holy city. We shall see hereafter that Antichrist will also set up what is called "the abomination of desolation."

"Then they that are in Judea," continues Christ, "let them flee to the mountains. For there shall be then great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things may be fulfilled that are written. There shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would be saved: but for sake of the elect, those days shall be shortened. And they (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword; and shall be led away captives into all nations and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the gentiles till the times of the nations be fulfilled." Thus then the calamities and signs having all happened that had been foretold by our Saviour, the fatal time fixed for the vengeance of the Almighty was come, and Jerusalem was taken and razed to the ground by the Roman army under the command of Titus Vespasian; the temple was burned, the Jews slaughtered to an immense number, a few were reserved by Titus to be carried in triumph to Rome, and the rest were sold for slaves, and dispersed into all nations. This happened in year 70 of the Christian æra. Extreme were the calamities and miseries that people suffered in this war, by the plague, famine, and sword: they were even such as no nation had ever felt before. The Jews must have all certainly perished, had not God in his mercy shortened those days of vengeance for the sake of the elect, that is, for the sake of reserving a remnant of that people, who are to remain in captivity till the times of the nations be fulfilled, that is, till the number of the Gentiles, whom God will call to the Christian faith, be filled up; and then that remnant of the Jews will be converted, and acknowledge Christ for their Messiah.

the

In like manner, before the last coming of Christ to dissolve the fabric of the world, the calamities of war that will fall upon mankind will be very great, though perhaps somewhat inferior to those the Jews experienced on the above occasion.

to divide the Christians among themselves, to suscitate intestine quarrels, heresies, flames of mutual hatred, and exciting them to persecute one another with furious violence. In a similar manner that angel of the abyss, which Satan has employed as his agent in this fifth period of the Christian Church, in his character of Abaddon, effected his first destructive work of the reformation. When stopped and not allowed to make further progress in that pursuit, he then in the latter part of his agency has machinated and contrived to throw division among the Catholics themselves in different countries, particularly in that ancient and once flourishing Catholic kingdom of France; and it is well known throughout the whole world, what pernicious effects have been the consequence

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V. 12. One wo is past." The period of 300 years assigned to the power of the locusts, being expired, St. John then adds: "one wo is past." Before the angel sounded the fifth trumpet, see p. 141, three woes were pronounced to follow the sounding of the three last trumpets, namely, fifth, sixth, and seventh. And now the prophet tells us, that the first of these woes, which was announced by the fifth trumpet, is past. This wo therefore is the calamity occasioned by the swarm of locusts. I leave it to the reader to determine, whether the breaches and desolation made in the Church of Christ, as we have seen, by the reformation, be not truly a dis mal woe, and worse than any that has happened in the foregoing ages. Some part of this wo must also be referred to the convulsions that happened in different countries, particularly in France, and the impious attacks made there upon religion, as explained above.

When one reflects that, of the three hundred years allowed to the reign of the locusts, there remain only fifty or fifty-five to run," one cannot but wish with an earnest heart that the people represented by those insects would enter into a serious consideration of that circumstance. What a happiness! if, during this short remaining interval, some part of them at least would submit to see their errors, and the great mischief that has been done to the Church by their revolt against it. It is full time to lay down all animosity against their ancient mother, think of a reconciliation, and ask to be received again into her bosom. She is an indulgent parent, and her arms are always open, even to her rebellious children, when they come in tears to implore her forgiveness. They should be *This work was first printed in the year 1771.

sensible, that Christ is not only the protector of his beloved spouse, the Church, but also the avenger of the injuries done I to her. This power he has frequently exerted. The four preceding ages furnish us with the most evident proofs of it, under the respective four vials of the wrath of God. She was revenged in the punishment of her persecutors, the Roman emperors, in the first age. The Arians, who impugned her

faith and harassed her cruelly in the second age, felt also the avenging hand of the Son of God, whom with his Church they had blasphemed: after sore calamities, they were doomed to sink into annihilation. The third age exhibited to us a most conspicuous exertion of a two-edged sword of Christ, in the destruction of the cruel idolatrous Romans, for their having spilt the blood of his and his spouses children. The fourth age was distinguished by the punishment of the Greeks for their rebellion against the same Church, and the world still sees them groaning under slavery for their inflexible obstinacy. Such having been the conduct of the supreme guardian of his Church through the course of all the Christian ages, is it not an object of consideration highly interesting to the protestants, lest some such disaster should also be their fate? The Saviour of mankind waits with patience for the return of his strayed sheep, but their obstinacy at last forces his hand to strike. Unhappy children of the reformation! refuse not to hear the wholesome advice of the prophet Isaiah: Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found; call upon him, while he is near," lv. 6. Hear the voice of God speaking of Israel, and make the application: "Return, O virgin of Israel, return to thy cities," Jerem. xxxi. 21. And again : Be converted, O house of Israel, and do penance for all your iniquities; and iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit: and why will you die, O house of Israel? For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; return ye, and live." Ezech. xviii. 30, 31, 32. But if, deaf to all admonitions, they continue hardened in their own ways, what remains to be done but to lament their misfortune, and in bitterness of soul turn our eyes from the pouring out of the following vial:

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The pouring out of the fifth Vial of the Wrath of God.

Apoc. chap. xvi. 10. "And the fifth angel, (says St. John,)