-the diffusion of the Scriptures. The Septuagint version followed, and arose out of, the circumstances of the reign of Alexander.-The formation of the Bible societies of Europe commenced in 1805. The former in rather more than half a century from the end of the Macedonian empire; the latter in one year from the beginning of the French. The difference, slight as it is, may have arisen, in the former instance, from a providential design of deferring the work until the Greek language had full opportunity to pervade the East, and until the impediment naturally existing to the diffusion of the Scriptures, in a period of universal war, had been removed by the partial return to tranquillity. The same objection not subsisting in the latter period with respect to language; Europe was no sooner relieved from the excessive terrors of democratic revolt in the bosom of every state, by the formation of an imperial government in France, the death-blow to democracy; than the Bible was instantly sent forth, to bear its light through all nations.

CHAPTER L.

THE FUTURE.

THAT since the beginning of the Christian era, a succession of remarkable changes have continued to operate on society; and that those changes are of so distinct a character, as to present themselves to the eye in regular periods; is a plain fact of history. The first four centuries were ages of religion; times occupied in the advance of Christianity, and consummated by the fall of Heathenism, in the reign of Theodosius. Nearly four centuries more were ages of blood; times of barbarian invasion, and general war, consummated in the establishment of the Popedom as a spiritual and temporal monarchy. Nearly five centuries more were ages of darkness; times of privation of religious, and of all, knowledge, consummated by the establishment of the Popedom at the head of universal monarchy, the fall of the Waldenses, and the submission of all the European kingdoms. Nearly five centuries more combined the character of ages of com

parative light, and yet ages of religious persecution a period of violent struggles for and against Protestantism; of great severities exercised by the Inquisition; and of massacres and banishments inflicted on the Protestants throughout Europe the whole consummated by the outbreak of a spirit of infidelity and rebellion in France, yet which, by abolishing the Inquisition in all lands, destroyed the last public instrument of religious persecution.

But it is also a plain Scriptural fact, that those changes were distinctly contemplated by Providence. In the prophecy given to St. John, before the close of the first century, under emblems which form the common prophetic language, were detailed to him the exact succession, as well as the peculiar nature, of those changes.

After a most solemn summons to his attention, as about to see a great unfolding of the future, he is shown, first, the emblem of a monarchy going forth to complete the triumph of religion.-He is next shown the armed emblem of an age of slaughter; the rider on a horse coloured with fire and gore.-Next follows the rider on a horse of darkness, holding the balance by which he makes himself the judge of truth and conscience, and proclaiming an universal famine of "the bread of life."-Then follows the ghastly rider, on a horse of a lighter hue; the emblem of an age of comparative knowledge, but bringing with him

the power of the grave, persecution, death, and Hades. The consummation of this period we have but just passed. Then follows the period on which we are entering; evidently a period in which the coldness and growing infidelity of the religious world will call down chastisement in the form of desolation; a period in which multitudes will fall away, and many will be slain for their adherence to religion. This shall be followed by a period of fearful retaliation on the powers of the earth, which have perpetrated those violences; when the whole fabric of empire shall be shaken. Connected with this period, or in close succession, shall be the recall of a large portion of the Jewish nation to the religion of the promise, the acknowledgment of Christianity.-The prediction then declares the second coming of the Lord of Christianity; the establishment of an era of religious peace and happiness on earth, as large as man is capable of enjoying, until his transfer to a higher state of being. Such is the prophecy of the 6th and 7th chapters of the Revelation.

If the theory of the three Cycles be true, the future events of the third will be, as in the two former, -a falling away of the majority of the visible Church into religious negligence or direct infidelity, followed by a great and visible chastisement of the Church, as in the days of Epiphanes; with partial changes, until religion shall seem to be extinguished, as at the fall of Jerusalem and

the destruction of the Jewish nation. This again shall be followed by the general ruin of the devastators; the mighty calling to the mountains to fall upon them, and shield them from the day of Divine wrath and this display of the Divine anger followed by the still more abundant display of the Divine mercy; the earth becoming a great religious empire, under either the visible or virtual domination of Christianity.

So far, the deductions from the two former Cycles for the history of the third, are confirmed by the prophecy of the seven seals. But the Cycle should go further, and contain the two extraordinary events, of a revolt against the Divine sceptre, and of the rapid extinction of that revolt by some memorable act of Deity; the whole closing in the commencement of a new and more illustrious course of Providence. We find those events fully established by the direct declarations of Scripture, that, after the power of evil shall have been divinely coerced, for a time, Satan shall again be let loose from his chain, and shall go forth and "deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth;" while, in this new and vast temptation, there shall be no departure from the common principle of the Divine government, the permission of trial for the purpose of compelling man's own observation to mark the line between the pretender to virtue and the possessor of virtue. The true worshipper shall be sustained, in the utter

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