Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

former rights and privileges, left them in a state of nature, which is a civil death. And as these despotic acts were done in Rome, the prophet has, with wonderful and circumstantial accuracy, foretold the fact of "every living soul," of the Roman society, dying in the sea, or in Rome. In this dead state, the people remained until the French general established a Jacobin republic of his own creatures and tools.

I will not conclude this subject without recurring to some former hints given by the prophet respecting this great event, so interesting to the welfare of the Christian church. After having foretold, in the first part of the eleventh chapter, the rise of the church of Rome, under the metaphor of "a beast rising up out of the sea," with her artful seductions, and violent persecutions of the church of Christ, he predicts, in the tenth verse, her destruction. "He "that carrieth into captivity shall go into cap

tivity; and he that killeth by the sword shall "be killed by the sword." Now it requires no argument to prove, because it is well known, that the Popes of Rome, from the commencement of their power, have carried millions of the church of Christ from the light of his Gospel, into the dark captivity, of a blasphemous idolatry. And those whom they could not seduce by their arts, frauds, forgeries, pretended visions, and false miracles, they have put to death by the Inquisition and the sword, until there was scarcely a ray of the sublime truths of Christianity to be found, in the western part

Bb

of the world. Now, has not this prophetic verse been completely fulfilled? Have we not seen millions upon millions of the Papal church carried from under the influence of the Pope, into a yet more dark and terrible captivity, that of atheism? And have we not seen the Pope himself literally taken captive, and "go into captivity; and all his mighty power and dominion overturned in one day by the "sword" of France?

[ocr errors]

And it is farther worthy of remark, before I leave this topic, that in the same chapter the prophet also foretels the period during which the Papal power should exist. "And power "was given unto him (the Pope) to continue forty and two months," which, in prophetic language, is 1260 years. The period of the continuance of a thing must be calculated from the time of its " rise," to its dissolution. The power of the Pope certainly commenced, and was established, in the year 606, notwithstanding the incongruous and unsettled opinions of commentators. For it was in that year the bishop of Rome was created Pope by a commission from Phocas, then Emperor of Rome, and supreme head of the Christian churches, constituting him and his successors universal bishops. It was in the next year that he formally and publicly established his idolatry in the Pantheon at Rome, by changing the names of the heathen gods and goddesses, to those of the deceased martyrs and saints, and

* Ver. 5.

ordered their images to be worshipped. If then we date the rise of the Pope from that epoch, we shall find, upon inquiry, that upwards of 1211 prophetic years from that time are already elapsed, and that this is about the time pointed out by the text, in which we ought to look for the decline of Papal influence, and the delivery of the Christian church from Papal persecution, and from her captivity. Indeed, as I have before shown, the power of the Pope has already received a deadly wound in his late fall and captivity, and the desertion of his adherents and supporters in France, and other parts of Europe. And although there are some looking up to him as their deified patron, there is a strong probability that his power can never revive to any dangerous extent; and in the course of less than forty years, the remainder of the 1620, it will be little more than a shadow among nations, according to the several predictions of the prophet.

Vial 3.-Ver. 4." And the third angel e poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of water,and they became blood."

This vial gives us a more literal and unequivocal decription of the country and people, upon which it was to be poured out, than the last. It is to be poured out upon that country which contains the greatest number of "rivers and fountains of water." If this be the natural sense of the verse, there can be no doubt but that Germany is that country. It contains a

greater number of rivers and fountains than any other country upon the earth. Examine the map of the world, and then cast your eye upon Germany, and you will see the great river Oder emptying its waters into the Baltic, upon the north; the Elbe, the Weser, the Rhine, and the Meuse, into the German Ocean on the west; the Rhone and the Adige on the south; and the Danube and the Drave into the Black Sea on the east; and all their innumerable springs and fountains rising in ancient Germany; and after watering that country, pouring out their floods into their respective oceans. So many and so great rivers and fountains are not to be found in any other country whatever, and therefore we may safely conclude, it is the country upon which this vial was to be poured out. Ancient Germany heretofore has had her wars, in common with other nations. They have been partial only; nor has her independence been in danger. But never until the last has the whole of Germany been involved. Never before has she suffered such havoc and desolation, lost so much territory, so many of her people, and so much blood. The Netherlands, Holland, Switzerland, and all the states of the left bank of the Rhine, after they have endured all the woes, that the rapine and cruelties of war could inflict, have been reduced from a state of independence among nations to the galling yoke of republican and atheistical despotism; from a state of commerce and wealth, to poverty; and from a

state of social order, peace and happiness, to that of internal discord and anarchy, the worst of all woes. Nor has the desolating arms of France stopped here. They have penetrated into the heart of Germany, not as common enemies, but as rapacious and blood-thirsty vultures; destroying the people, levying the heaviest contributions; and seizing upon property wherever found; until the emperor, trembling for the fate of his throne, has been obliged to accept of a most ignominious peace, dictated by his unprincipled and unrelenting enemy himself a peace which will enable that enemy, at his pleasure hereafter, to overwhelm Germany with numbers, and to trample upon its throne. Such seem to be the judgments of an Almighty God, lately inflicted upon this unhappy country, for her apostacy from his holy word to papal idolatry, and the innumerable cruelties and persecutions committed upon the church of Christ.

I am naturally led to the last sentiment, by the two following verses. In them the prophet informs us, that after the first three vials were poured out, he heard " THE ANGEL OF THE WATERS" say, "thou art righteous, O Lord, "which art, and wast, and shalt be, because "thou hast judged thus*. For they have shed "the blood of the saints and prophets, and "thou hast given them blood to drinkt." We ask here, where are the nations to be found

* Ver. 5.

† Ver. 6.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »