from the destruction which is to overwhelm the Papal Roman empire. The wicked in Protestant countries, and particularly in our own highly favoured nation, are much more inexcusable than those who live amidst Popish darkness and superstition; I can, therefore, see no Scriptural ground for believing, that they will be more favourably treated. But as this country is now unquestionably the focus of evangelical light for the whole world, and as there is also reason to conjecture, that we are probably the people marked out by prophecy, for commencing the conversion and restoration of Judah, many persons may probably think, that for the sake of all this good we as a nation shall be spared. But it ought to be considered, that in like manner, the divine light of the Gospel first emanated from the Jewish nation, to the whole Gentile world, and yet the body of that people which believed not, were given up to destruction. The denunciations of those awful calamities, which are to visit the world before the establishment of our Lord's kingdom, are without any limitation, particularly as it respects the nations of the fourth monarchy. The whirlwind of the Lord is every where "to fall with pain on the head of the “wicked.”*—“Wheresoever," says our Lord, "the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered "together." The righteous only, who are first typified by the 144,000 sealed ones, and are afterwards described as a great multitude whom no man could number, are brought out of the great

*Jer. xxx. 23. + Matt. xxiv. 28.

tribulation, as the Christian Jews were saved from the destruction of Jerusalem. The great progress of real religion in this country affords indeed much cause for consolation and thankfulness; and without doubt it has been already instrumental in averting from us the cup of desolation, which has passed from nation to nation on the Continent; but unless it be followed by general repentance, it can afford no well founded expectation, that we shall ultimately escape the judgments, which are about to overwhelm an unbelieving and apostate world. I have observed in a former passage, that there are at present very far from being any indications of such national repentance; and that on the contrary there is melancholy and growing evidence of the rapid increase of wickedness and profligacy in this kingdom. Unless then we avert our eyes from the plainest declarations of Scripture, we cannot fail to perceive that our prospects are of a very alarming nature. These considerations ought surely to awaken the Christian to pray more earnestly for his country, and to quicken his own diligence, that he may individually be accounted worthy to escape the approaching wrath, and to stand before the Son of Man.* These views will also lead us to look with some degree of suspicion upon those late interpretations of prophecy, so flattering to our national vanity, whereby we are taught to identify the British nation with the 144,000 sealed ones of the Apocalypse, that are to be preserved from the calamities of the third woe,

Luke xxi. 36.

and with the harpers standing on the sea of glass who sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. To

say the least of these interpretations, it is neither easy to reconcile them with the present moral and religious state of this country, nor with the emphatical declaration of God to the children of Israel, contained in the prophecies of Jeremiah, “I am with "thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I "make a full end of all the nations whither I have "scattered thee, yet will I not make an end of thee: "but I will correct thee in measure, and will not "leave thee altogether unpunished."+

If indeed we saw any appearances of that deep humiliation and repentance which are the genuine and blessed fruits of national affliction, when duly improved, we might gladly listen to the tale of peace, and even amidst the appalling prospects which surround us, we might take down our harps from the willows, and tune them to one of the songs of our Zion. But until such fruits are discernible, it is a rash and dangerous perversion of the Scriptures to take to ourselves promises, to which our national character does not correspond. I would here call the attention of the reader, to

† Jer. xxx. 10, 11.

* Rev. xv. 2, 3. The interpretation here alluded to, identifying the 144,000 with the British nation, came from the pen of Mr. Frere, and was, with the rest of his system, adopted by Mr. Irving. I have sufficiently refuted it in my Critical Examination of the scheme of these writers, the last of which, if I am correctly informed, has at length abandoned it. Indeed I should hope, there is no one, who at this time of day, would not be ashamed of such an interpretation.-April, 1832.

the close analogy which is observable between the past dispensations of God to the Church and the world, and the conclusions at which I have arrived, respecting the actual prospects of the nations of Christendom. In every new development of his plan of mercy and salvation to the human race, it has hitherto pleased God that mercy and judgment should as it were go hand in hand. The calling of Abraham and the birth of Isaac, were nearly coeval with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire from heaven. The Exodus from Egypt was associated with the desolation of that kingdom by the ten plagues, and the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. The establishment of Israel in the land of Canaan, was effected by the extirpation of a great part of the aboriginal inhabitants. The settlement of the crown of Israel in the person and family of David was accompanied with dreadful wars, whereby the remainder of the Canaanitish nations were brought into subjection or destroyed. The return of Judah from the Babylonish captivity, was preceded by the fall of the empire of Assyria. That dispensation whereby the Gentiles were received into the Church in the room of the Jews, was followed by the destruction of Jerusalem with circumstances of so awful a nature as made it a fit type and emblem of the judgments of the last days. In concluding, therefore, that the glorious inauguration of our Lord in his millenial kingdom, which is to be ushered in by his second advent with the clouds of heaven, shall likewise be signalized by the most terrific displays of the Divine wrath against

an unbelieving world, we not only are guided by the unerring testimony of prophecy, but we might even, a priori, without any express assurances to that effect, have been led to form similar expectations, from an attentive study of the dispensations of providence in past ages.

It remains for me to observe, that the second causes, by which the approaching desolations are probably in a great measure to be effected, have long been in active operation. They consist of those dreadful principles of political, moral, and religious insubordination and disorganization, which burst forth at the French Revolution, and have ever since been working, sometimes openly and at others more covertly, in the body politic. These principles are the natural and necessary fruit of the general diffusion of unsanctified knowledge among all classes of society. As the fall of our species in the persons of our first parents proceeded from the desire of forbidden knowledge, so the last great crisis of the world will probably arise from the actual dissemination of carnal worldly knowledge, or that false science which will not submit itself to the revealed will of God, but rises in rebellion against all divine and human government and authority. From this source proceed all those

Let no one here misrepresent my meaning, as if I were the enemy of the diffusion of true knowledge. False knowledge, or, as Mr. Southey well calls it, half knowledge, is a moral poison. True knowledge is wholesome food. If we warn a man against poison, does it follow that we mean to starve him? Half knowledge leads men away from God, and doubtless it will be one part of the awful punishment