d to the horses bridles." *

Thus from the general tenor of prophecy it appears that infidelity
will have overspread the world _when the Son of man shall come_ to
reign upon it: And as this agrees to no other coming of his foretold
by the prophets, there can be no reasonable doubt what _coming_ is
intended in the text. If we keep these things in mind, we will not
wonder at the declensions of religion and prevalence of infidelity.
They will remind us of the remark made by our Savior to his sorrowing
disciples just before his sufferings, "these things have I told you,
that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of
them."

Before, or about the time of this _coming of the Son of man_,
Antichrist will fall--Mahomedan delusion terminate--"The Jews look to
him whom they pierced, and mourn--be gathered the second time" from
their dispersions, and returned to their own land, and the fullness of
the Gentiles be brought in. Perhaps these may be the signs of Christ's
coming, intended by the resurrection of the witnesses, When these
events shall take place "the Lord will be king over all the earth. In
that day there will be one Lord and his name one."

* Revelation xiv. 15, 20.

REFLEXIONS

If we do not mistake the coming of the Son of man, here referred to,
gloomy is the prospect now immediately before us. Hitherto God hath
had his witnesses; but ere long they will cease from their labors, and
leave infidelity undisturbed.

That the cause of the redeemer was to be depressed, before its
universal prevalence in the latter days, is plainly revealed. The only
difficulty is to ascertain the manner. Bishop Newton expects another
confederacy of the catholic powers to destroy the followers of the
Lamb, which will so nearly succeed, that for a short term none will
dare to appear as his followers. But if infidelity was to intervene
the antichristian defection, and prevalence of religion in the latter
days, is this hypothesis probable? Is it not more reasonable to expect
that destruction of the witnesses in another way, and by other
enemies--by the mockers and scoffers of the last times, who should be
generated by papal error and superstition? And doth not the present
state of the world confirm these expectations? The catholic religion
hath been declining for several ages. It received a deadly wound from
Luther and his associates, which hath not yet been healed. From that
period it hath dwindled, and is now little m