A Dissertation on the Book of Revelation

Excerpt from A Dissertation on the Book of Revelation

John himself, in his epistles, complains of it, and Po ter and Paul foretold the same. Under the fourth sound, the third part of the-sun, (or gospel light,) was smitten; the third part of the moon, (or brotherly love,) suffered the same fate, and the third part of the stars, (those once faithful luminaries of the church,) became dim, and lost their former lustre; on which account, there were three woes, or calamities, to afilictthe chris tian world, under the three succeeding sounds, by rea son of its apostacy from the truth; for under the fifth sound the bottomless pit was opened by Constantine; smoke, or gross ignorance and error, arose out of it, and the first woe commenced, under the locusts, or numerous false teachers of those days; they also form ed an uncharitable creed, at their first general coun cil at Nice, A. D. 325. Under the sixth seal, the man of sin grew to full sta ture, wearing his triple crown, attended by his six hun dred and sixty six bishops, and two hundred millions of the inferior orders; these are all considered by the prophet as murderers, gross idolaters, and persecutors, and they would not repent; these brought on the second woe, and the Athanasian creed is also the ba sis of their faith.