CHAP. VIII.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

In opposition to the conclusion stated in the close of the preceding chapter, it may be said, that those scenes of trial and suffering on which it is founded, have long since closed. The supposed Vials of Wrath have long ago expended their fury. The nations have for several years enjoyed the blessings of peace. The ancient thrones have been reestablished. The former dynasties have been restored. The affairs of Europe have been brought back to nearly the same condition in which they were before the French Revolution. And how does this state of things comport with the Scriptural representation which has been given of the "Time of the End?" How can the present season be a part of the period of judgment?

In reply to this objection, it may be sufficient to repeat a remark which was made in an early part of this work, namely, that there are no grounds from Scripture, nor from the analogy of God's general dealings with mankind, to infer, that the judgments to be inflicted in this period, would continue throughout it in equally active

operation, or even without some occasional intermission and, perhaps, on investigating the Scriptural marks of this period, it may be found, that an interval of seeming repose, and of comparative cessation from suffering, may constitute one of its characteristic and distinguishing features. But, in the mean time, let not appearances lead to the adoption of an unsound and erroneous conclusion. Let it not be hastily imagined, that the judgment has altogether terminated, because it seems for a time to be mitigated; or that the effects of the Vials have ceased to operate, because their fury, on their first effusion, has expended itself. The Papal nations, indeed, are for the present enjoying, beyond expectation, the seeming blessing of peace. But are they really tranquil within? Is not the interior still portentously agitated with the effects of those revolutionary principles, which, during this period of judgment, have been industriously sown among them? The thrones of the Papal earth have been re-established. But do they stand on as secure a basis as they stood before the French Revolution? Are not some tottering to their very foundations? And do not others betray their weakness and their fears by the despotic and arbitrary measures with which they are labouring to prop and uphold their falling power? The Papal monarchs are reinstated.

But are they restored to that strength and eminence which they formerly possessed? Are they not quiescent, because they are exhausted; ir active, because they are crippled and impoverished? Let the general political posture of the Papal kingdoms at the present season be compared with the attitude which they presented previously to the year 1792, and it must surely be admitted, that even now the judgment has not ceased to sit.

But this admission will be still more readily conceded, if the survey be extended to the state of the Papal Church. One most obvious result of the late visitations throughout the kingdom of the Beast, was the diminution of the power and resources of the Little Horn. The confiscation of ecclesiastical property was a measure, which never failed, in a greater or less degree, to follow the march of the revolutionary war. The rapacity of one party, and the necessities of the other, furnished them with a sufficient pretext for seizing and secularizing the revenues and treasures of the church. But, in stripping her of these, they spoiled her of her defence, and made her naked. The Papal Church indeed has to this day lost nothing of her former spirit; nothing of her enmity and hostility to the word and truth of God; nothing of her lofty, extravagant, and exclusive pretensions; nothing of her bigotry

and superstition; of her ambition and claim to universal sovereignty. In all these respects she is still essentially the same; while modern circumstances may have served more strongly to call forth, and in some particulars more strikingly to develope her real character. But, in the mean time, she has lost much of her power to enforce her pretensions. She has lost much of the means and abilities which she once had to injure others and to protect herself. In losing her wealth, she has lost her sinews and her strength. By the dissemination of infidel opinions, by means of the revolutionary armies, on the one hand, and by a partial introduction of a better principle, through the way thus opened for them, on the other hand, she has lost also much of her former influence over the minds of men within her own communion. Awakened in some degree to think and judge for themselves, they are no longer disposed to render to her that blind devotion, and that servile homage which she once exacted from them. So that, contrasting her present with her former state, it cannot be denied that she exhibits the marks of weakness and decline: and shews that the hour of her visitation is at

* In illustration of this remark, the attempt of the present Pope to reduce by his spiritual authority the Mexicans, and to bring them again under the power of Spain, may be satisfactorily cited.

hand. It is to be expected, indeed, that she will yet struggle hard for victory; will muster her forces, and call forth all her energies; and may perhaps again imbrue her hands in the blood of the saints. But every effort will only expose and increase her weakness, and will accelerate her fall. The language of the Prophet is verified in her present appearance and condition. "A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols."*

So far, then, does a review of the state of the Papal kingdoms and church since the year 1792 confirm, by an additional testimony, the exposition which has been given of the 1260 years, and tends to establish the proposition, as it respects the termination of this distinguished period.

But the line of argument which it has been found expedient to adopt, establishes more than it has been brought to prove. For, in tracing the events which have taken place in the Papal earth, since the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet, and which have stamped so distinct and peculiar a character on the times during which they have occurred, it has been also simultaneously shewn that the period of " the Time of

* Jeremiah, 1. 38.