beaft. That we might be at no lofs to diftinguish it on its appearance, it is intimated that it should not be fo much a civil as an apoftate ecclefiaftical power: It is a harlot, oppofed to the bride the Lamb's wife that it should greatly abound in wealth, and worldly grandeur: The woman was arrayed in purple and fcarlet, and decked with gold, and precious ftones, and pearls :—that its dominion should not be confined to its own immediate territories: Power was. given it over all kingdoms and tongues and nations :that its authority fhould not be derived from its own conquests, but from the voluntary confent of a number of independent kingdoms to come under its yoke: The kings of the earth have one mind, and fall give their power and ftrength unto the beaft that it should be diftinguished by its blafphemies, idolatries, and perfecuting spirit: Upon her were the names of blafphemy. They should make an image of the beaft, and as many as would not worship the image of the beaft were to be killed. And the woman was drunk with the blood of the faints :-that its perfecutions fhould extend to fuch a length as for no man to be allowed the common rights of men, unlefs he became fubject to it: No man might buy or fell, fave be that had the mark, or the name of the beaft, or the number of his name :-that its power fhould continue for a time, times, and half a time, forty and two months, or one thousand two hundred and fixty days; during which long period God's witneffes should prophefy in fackcloth, be driven as into a wilderness, and, as it were, flain, and their bodies lie unburied:-finally, that they who gave it an exiftence should be the inftruments of taking it away: The kings, or powers, of the earth shall hate the

[PART II. whore, and burn her flesh with fire.* Whether all, or any part of this be falfehood, let hiftory and obfervation determine.

It has often been obferved that the prophecies of the Meffiah were fo numerous and explicit, that at the time of his appearance there was a general expectation of it, not only in Judea, but in all the neighbouring nations and is not the fame thing obfervable at this time of the fall of antichrist, the converfion of the Jews, and the general spread of the gospel?

Once more, The facred writers have predicted the oppofition which Christianity should meet with, and defcribed the characters from whom it fhould proceed. In the last days, fay they, perilous times will come, for men shall be lovers of their own felves, covetous, boafters, proud, blafphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, falfe accufers, incontinent, fierce, defpifers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Again, There fhall be mockers in the last time, who fhall walk after their own ungodly lufts; filthy dreamers, avho defile the flesh, defpife dominion, and speak evil of dignities; raging waves of the fea, foaming out their own fhame; wandering ftars, to whom is referved the blackness of darkness for ever.† Let Mr. Paine, and other infidels confider well the above picture, and ask their own confciences, Is this a falfehood?

Bishop Newton in his Differtations has clearly evinced the fulfilment of feveral of thefe and other fcripture prophecies; and has fhewn that some of

* Rev. xi, xiii. and xvii. Chapters.

† 2 Tim. iii. 1-4. Jude.

them are fulfilling at this day. To those Differta tions I refer the reader. Enough has been faid to enable us to determine which production it is that deferves to be called "a book of falfehoods," the prophecies of Scripture, or the Age of Reafon.

CHAP. II.

The harmony of Scripture with truth, evinced from its agreement with the dictates of an enlightened confcience, and the refult of the clofeft obfervation.

IF

brazen mirror were found on fome remote uninhabited ifland, it might be a doubtful matter how it came thither; but if it properly reflected objects, there could be no doubt of its being a real mirror.

The Bible was written with the profeffed defign of being profitable for reproof; nor was there ever a book fo adapted to the purpose, or fo effectual in its operation in disclosing the inward workings of the human mind. Thoufands can bear witnefs from experience that it is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged fword, piercing even to the dividing afunder of foul and fpirit, and a difcerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Its entrance into the mind giveth light; and light which difcovers the works of darkness. Far from flattering the vices of mankind, it charges without ceremony every fon of Adam with poffeffing the heart of an apoftate. This charge it brings home to the confcience, not only by its pure precepts, and awful threatenings, but oftentimes by the very invitations and promifes

of mercy; which, while they cheer the heart with lively hope, carry conviction by their import to the very foul. In reading other books you may admire the ingenuity of the writer; but here your attention is turned inward. Read it but seriously, and your heart will answer to its defcriptions. It will touch the secret fprings of fenfibility, and if you have any ingenuoufnefs of mind towards God, the tears of grief, mingled with those of hope and gratitude, will, ere you are aware, trickle from your eyes.

Whatever particular vices you may have been addicted to, here you will discover your likeness ; and that not as by a comic reprefentation on the theatre, which, where it reclaims one perfon by fhaming him out of his follies, corrupts a thoufand; but in a way that will bring conviction to your bofom.

Come fee a man that told me all things that ever I did, is not this the Chrift? Such was the reafoning of the woman of Samaria; and who could have reafoned better? That which makes manifeft must be light. But this reafoning is applicable to other things as well as the Meffiahíhip of Jefus. No man can forbear faying of that book, that doctrine, or that preaching which tells him all things that ever he did, Is not this the truth? The fatisfaction afforded by fuch evidence approaches near to intuitive certainty: It is having the witness in ourselves.

Should it be objected that though this may fatisfy our own minds, yet it can afford no evidence to others-I anfwer, It is true that they who fhun the light cannot be fuppofed to poffefs that evi, dence of its being what it is, as those who have

come to it that their deeds may be made manifest : yet even they, if at all acquainted with the Bible, must be aware that the likeneffes which it draws are in a confiderable degree their own. It is not to ferious Christians only that the gospel is a mirror. Many who never look into that perfect law of liberty from choice and delight, fo as to be bleffed in their work, but only glance at it in a tranfient and occafional way, yet perceive fo much of their own character in it, as to be convinced that it is right, and that they are wrong. The fecret conviction of thoufands who hear the word, and do it not, resembles that of Pharaoh, The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. The impreffions of fuch people, it is true, are frequently fhort in their duration : like a man who feeth his natural face in a glafs, they go away, and ftraightway forget what manner of perfons they are but the aversion which they discover to a serious refumption of the fubject, places it beyond all reafonable doubt, that, let their hearts be as they may, the Scriptures have commended them felves to their confciences. They have felt the point of this two-edged fword, and are not difpofed to renew the encounter. That this is the cafe not only with nominal Christians, but with great numbers of profeffed deifts, is manifeft from the acknowledgments of fuch men as The Earl of Rochefter, and many others who have relented on the near approach of death. This is often a time in which confcience muft and will be heard; and, too often for the liking of furviving acquaintances, it proclaims to the world, that the grand fource of their hatred to the Bible has been that for which Ahab