empire after the subversion of Judaism, to enter on another, that of papal persecution, to endure throughout an appointed time, so, after the man-child was born, and survived in defiance of all the power of the dragon, the woman fled into the wilderness, and, under another form, and even directly named, the serpent again was her persecutor. In the things noted in the scripture of truth, an "appointed time" of persecution succeeds to the early tribulation of the Christians, during which second and defined period, many were to fall, to be tried, and to be purged, and to be made white. And the period to the end of the wonders is declared to be a time, times, and a half, Dan. xii. 7. The saints of the Most High were to be given into the hands of the papacy (the little horn of the fourth beast) until a time, times, and the dividing of time, (half a time,) Dan. vii. 25. The two witnesses were to testify a thousand two hundred and threescore days. It is specially to be noted that BOTH these forms of expression, or different modes of determining the same period, are repeated, in the exact terms, in the vision now before us, whereby all those prophecies are linked together, and identified as descriptive of the same power, retaining, as otherwise they do, a manifest uniformity and entire accordance, (see Table). And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand, two hundred and threescore days, ver. 6. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and a half a time, from the face of the serpent, ver. 14.

Some evidence will afterwards be adduced to show the probable commencement and termination of the 1260 years.

The dragon, during the second great period of

persecution, and after a Christian church had been formed, is spoken of under another form and it was from the face of the serpent that the woman fled into the wilderness. As, at the beginning, believers had to wrestle with the rulers of the darkness of this world, and with spiritual wickedness in high places, or against the great red dragon which stood ready to devour the man-child at his birth, so even in the days of the apostles the mystery of iniquity began also to work in another form; and that wicked one was to be revealed in his time, or after the subversion of the western empire, whose coming is after the WORKING OF SATAN, with all powers, and signs, and lying wonders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness, &c. And the great dragon is that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. The same prince of darkness had but separate agents, and wrought but by other means. The persecution against the saints was not less satanic, under papal than under imperial Rome. The knights or kings who slaughtered them at the dictation of a monk, were not more humane than Roman lictors, and Simon de Montfort was, in cruelty, another Nero. He was, as the philosophical historian relates, "the representative of THE EVIL SPIRIT; the prototype of all the persecutions they had endured." Nor, when he forebore from the more gentle slaughter by the sword, that, in committing the saints to the flames, the priests might not be deprived of their expected joy, were they less fiendish than he. The old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, wanted not incarnate demons as the agents of his will, against those who would despoil him of his reign. But the brethren overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.

While the church of Christ, who came to dispossess Satan of his kingdom, lay obscure in the wilderness in a depressed and suffering state, it may be remarked, that it was with two wings of a great eagle that the woman, who was clothed with the sun, fled thither. There was no abode or resting-place in Judea, nor in the lesser Asia, nor in Greece, where first she had flourished; nor was she suffered to remain in the rich plains of southern France ;* but on the remote Alps, in some of the most sequestered of the villages of Piedmont, amidst the fastnesses of rocks and the wilds of the desert, and literally in an Alpine region where eagles dwell, the existence of the gospel was preserved, in an active and embodied form, and the church of Christ had there her seat in the wilderness. But even there the trial of the faith of the brethren was, that they loved not their lives

tus.

The Albigenses may be traced to a remote region of the earth, as well as to an early age of the church. The Paulicians, or disciples of Paul, were first established in Armenia and PonAnd after suffering severe persecutions, they were transplanted, about the middle of the eighth century, from Armenia into Thrace. "A confession of simple worship and blameless manners is extorted from their enemies; and so high was their standard of perfection, that the increasing congregations were divided into two classes of disciples, of those who practised, and of those who aspired. It was in the country of the Albigeois, in the southern provinces of France, that the Paulicians were most deeply implanted; and the same vicissitudes of martyrdom and revenge which had been displayed in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, were repeated in the thirteenth century on the banks of the Rhone. The laws of the eastern emperors were revived by Frederic the Second. The insurgents of Tephrice were represented by the barons and cities of Languedoc. Pope Innocent III. surpassed the sanguinary fame of Theodora. It was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes of the crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far excelled by the founders of the inquisition; an office more adapted to confirm than to refute the belief of an evil principle. The visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or Albigeois, were extirpated by fire and sword," &c.-Gibbon's Hist. vol. x. p. 187, c. 54.

unto the death; and peaks of mountains seemingly inaccessible, and caves in the rocks, were frequently their only resort, in the place which the Lord had prepared for them.

These few observations have been hazarded, in the hope that they may not altogether tend to mystify mystery, or to obstruct the understanding of what has been called the most difficult part of the book of Revelation. But that which cannot yet be seen clearly in all its parts, cannot be fully defined. And it is not on such themes that we should dare to give scope to any vain imaginations. It were folly, not wisdom, to attempt to be wise above what is written. And to tear asunder that which time may not yet have fully unfolded or unsealed, were to do violence to the word of God. Yet we may read, that besides the long period during which the woman remained in the wilderness, mention is made of war in heaven, of the discomfiture of Satan and his being cast unto the earth of his great wrath at last, because he knows that he has but a short time-of woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea-of the flood cast out of the serpent's mouth after the woman—of the earth helping the woman and swallowing up the flood, and finally of the wrath of the dragon, and his making war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus.

The contest of the church is not yet over; nor can all the forms of its warfare be yet literally described.. Time may not yet have unfolded that by which alone the prophecy can be unsealed. The judgments of God may be manifest, and yet his strange work may remain to be done. But while thus there may still be needful exercise for the patience as well as the faith of the saints, there may, at the same time, be some warrant for believing that the expiry of the

twelve hundred and sixty years is not a period of repose to the church or to the world. It is the ceasing of the time during which the witnesses were to testify, and in which the kingdoms of the western empire were to be given into the hands of the church of Rome. But it is not said that they were to be easily, or in a moment, wrenched from its grasp. There was still to be war in heaven-great wrath on the earth-and there is the announcement of another woe. The papal kingdom was not to rest in peace, after wearing out the saints of the Most High. Nor was the strife of the kingdoms of this world against the kingdom of Christ at an end, that they should all serve and obey him. On the termination of the 1260 years, the judgment, as often repeated, and as still remains to be shown, was to sit upon the papacy, which was to be consumed and destroyed until the

end.

The infidel power, which was at last to arise, was destined to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts, or kingdoms, of the earth. Whatever the flood may be that the serpent cast out of his mouth against the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood, we know that against the church of Christ all the gates of hell never shall prevail. Superstition shall be swept from off the earth. That which destroys it, may seem to overwhelm the church; but yet the truth shall be established for ever. ، Now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of these things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”—Heb. xii, 27, 28.

The conclusion of this vision shows the last struggle of the church, the death, perhaps, of the witness