Star.
London, England, 1808-03-17 00:00:00

Cliairr. For those who say a sheer. its miracles and
the will be convinced," might, if they were not blind,
see a wonderful miracle of daily occurrence—the rise
and fall of empires, accompanied with circumstances,
which " make men's hearts fail them for fear," set
political sagacity at defiance, and, in their issue, prove
the wisdom of this world to be only folly. They
might see all these happening exactly as foretold in
the Scriptures of Truth many ages before, and at the
precise time appointed for their completion.
In the strictures, which I am about to offer, I mean
to confine myself chiefly to the Apocalypse, and to
those prophecies, which collaterally embrace the same
events. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him, and 'which he sent and signd by his Angel unto
his servant John, who bare record of the word of God,
and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that
he saw, was given for the express purpose of :hewing
unto his servants things that were shortly to come to pass—
( Rev. i. 1.) We may therefore be assured that this
book, instead of being mysteriously unintelligible, as
some men assert, and as others have tended to make it
by their explanations, is sufficiently plain to be under-
stood. So far is it from being presumptuous, that it
is the duty of the servants of Gon, to search into the
divine purposes which it unfolds; and blessed is he that
reaeleth and they that hear the words of this prophecy.
But in applying the historical events, which fulfil
prophecy, the method, which has been most commonly
practised, must not be followed by those, who would
attain, in any measure, a true understanding of the
book, and who are really desirous to hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches.
Such is the natural obstinacy and pride of the heart
of man that, however strong the evidence may be to
the contrary, he is ever inclined to give any interpre-
tation of Scripture, and to apply any events as the
fulfilment of prophecy, excepting such as militate
against his own opinions, or those of his sect : To this
must be ascribed the practice that has generally been
followed by commentators—of collecting facts from his-
tory, and then forcing the book to speak the sane things.—
Indeed many of the eventsin history are so applicable,
that, even in this loose way, it is scarcely possible to
miss them all ; but, when this method is followed,
many facts must be overlooked and many more be
misapplied, even by those who are in search of the
truth. The Church of Rome is so palpably Anti-
christian in its doctrines and practice, that persons of
every other communion, seeing how very applicable
many parts of the prophecies are to her abominable
usurpations, excluding themselves from the censure,
load her with every kind of odium ; and, generally,
instead of examining how far the same character may
belong to their own church, content themselves with
declaiming against her idolatry, superstition, and ty-
ranny—few men ever thinking it at all necessary to
examine the conversation received by tradition from their
fath.:rs. The Church of Rome, it is true, is the mother
of harlots, but she is such as a Church : therefore the
harlots her daughters, are churches.—Since then there are
many daughters of Babylon, to determine who they
arc, is a question of the utmost importance, and de-
serves the most serious investigation of every enquirer
after truth ; for whatever other qualifications a man
may possess ; if he be afraid to investigate this ques-
tion, he never can arrive at a right knowledge of the
meaning of the prophecies.
The order I propose to follow in the observations
which I have to offer on the prophecies, will be—
I. To enquire what Sealed Booi it was, which John
saw opened by the Licn of the Tribe of Judah, and the
nature of its contents, as declared by the removal of
its seven seals, and the sounding of the rrven trumpets ;
and here I hope to prove that the scaled book was
that of the Prophet Daniel, and that it is now an
Open Book.
11. To examine the Book that has been thus opened
(viz. Daniel) and shew now exactly its predictions
have been verified.
111..T0 explain the prophecies delivered by John,
in consequence of his eating the book, by the command
of the Angel, after it was opened—Prophecies which
he was commanded to prophecy against many people,
and nations, and tongues, and Kings.
In the course of this investigation, I humbly hope,
1. To prove, in the most plain and intelligible style, i
to the satisfaction of the unprejudiced, that all the
leading periods of time, in which the wonderful
events predicted by Daniel and John, were to take
place, are given in the books themselves ; and that,
therefore, the events must be found and ascertained
by the dates, and not the dates by events assumed as
the fulfilment of these predictions, which is an abso-
lute inversion of the natural order of things.
€2. To point out, and in many instances with con-
siderable precision, those events which actually were
an accomplishment of these prophecies; and,
3. To ascertain from the dates and the 64 Signs of
the Mies," the period to which we are now arrived.

THE EVENING STAR.

LONDON.

THURSDAY, MARCH 17.
PRICE OF STOCKS THIS DAY AT ONE CLOCK.
Consuls, for money, 644—for April, 6414—ReOduced shut.
(Thulium *—Excheq. Bills, 4s. pr.
• PRICE OF STOCKS YESTERDAY.
3 per Cent. Red. Ann*. shut India Bonds, 1.. dis.
:1 per Cent. Cons. 64i Ex. Bills, :Is. 4s. pr.
1 per Cent. Navy 9611 English Tickets, 211.
Imperial 3 per Cent. 631 Cons. for acc. 641
Imperial Ann. 7 11-16 Bank Stock for opg. 2324

The long expected FIFTH REPORT of the COMMIS-
SIONERS of MILITARY INQUIRY, which has just made
its appearance, discovers several abuses in the Medi-
cal Department, particularly in the accounts of the
Plymouth Hospital in the years 1796, 1797, and
1798. The Report, including the Appendix, extends
to 274 pages : we shall give large extracts, as s3on
as we can possibly find room.