UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA tacy 57 him up to a proper reflection upon his apos from Christ and truth, and led him to repentance; since they grow out of his very sins which draw them down, and thus hold up to bis face "the things that he has done," as if represented in a mirror. In chapter sixteenth, the divine signal is given, and the fatal revolution in the affairs of the hitherto rampant and imperious BEAST unexpectedly opens upon him. "The first angel went and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image." The striking analogy between these seven plagues upon the kingdom of the man of sin, and the ten plagues upon PHAROAH and EGYPT, has been hinted at already; and it is so frequently and obviously apparent, that the one may well be imagined typical of the other. In the literal Egypt the judgments fell only upon the subjects of the unbelieving and impious tyrant, while the servants of God" had lighe and health in all their dwellings." The very same is now the case in the mystical Egypt.The vial is poured upon the earth, but it is only the subjects of antichrist (distinguished by his mark,* and by a superstitious reverence for his person, amounting to idolatry) that are affected by its operation, A grievous ulcer is the effect of the first vial; and, no doubt, it is to be understood in The mark of the beast I have shewn in the preceding section, to be the sign of the cross, which is notoriously used in a manner that has a nearer affinity to magic and witchcraft,— sins often charged by the ancient prophets upon "the wellfavored harlot," (Nahum iii, 4; Micah v. 12; Isa. xlvii, 9; Rev. ix. 21,) than the gospel of Christ. Their worship of the image of the beast is manifest from the medals of Pope Martin the fifth, where two cardinals are represented crowning the NEW DEITY, and two kneeling before him, with the inscrip tion-"Quem creant adorant-Him whom they create they adore," Newton vol. iii. p. 24Q. It is also prophetically intimated by our Saviour's forbidding a superstitious reverence to be paid to any human authority, under the magisterial name of FATHER, (Mat. xxiii. 9,) as the pope is called "HOLY FATHER," and as the very name in latin (PAPA, or POPE) signifies. They are stiled papists from papa, as christiaus are so named from Christ, whom they worship a figurative sense, of some moral or spiritual grievance, which occasions as much pain and danger to their hierarchy, and power, and influence, as an incurable ulcer does in the natural body. Ulcers of this grievous and incurable nature originate from the bad habit of body, and the malignant nature of the humours, which form the constitution itself, and admit of no cure without a radical change, which is in many cases impossible. This is the case with POPERY. The whole system is so exceedingly corrupt, that the causes of its disso with the same divine honors. The maný blasphemous titles given to the pope by the schoolmen and canonists, are alone sufficient to denominate the papists worshippers of the beast. See Sect. ix. p. 250. Solus adoretur CHRISTUS, sed numina vana, Hist. Popery. Be God supreme o'er all the suppliant world, elegancies of fashion, been introduced here from abroad. And to this source may readi ly be traced that shameful oblivion of the restraints of conscience, the obligations of honor and friendship, and of the common sense of moral rectitude which has been rapidly upon the increase amongst us; and has made a still more rapid and extensive progress in some of those nations which have lately been made to "drink of the cup of fury," not originally prepared for them." For thus saith the Lord, behold! they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup, have assuredly drunken, and art thou he that shalt altogether go unpunished?"* The levelling principles of anarchical republicanism, and the inordinate appetite for plunder, whetted by a pre-conceived and too well founded contempt and hatred of the religious orders, and borne out to all lengths by an atheistical spirit of free-thinking, have proved such an ulcer to the worshippers of the beast and his image. It is an evil bred in the very con Jeremiah xlix. 12. stitution and frame of THE MAN OF SIN, and the natural effect of his previous wickedness and total corruption; and it has, at length, broke out suddenly into the wasting drain of the French revolution, which was still only "the beginning of sorrows" to the kingdom and confederacy of antichrist." Behold! all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk on in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow. "And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea.' The former plague seems to have infected chiefly the higher orders with its malignant effects, and punished the "blind leaders of the blind," by laying the foundation of the miseries consequent upon their unprincipled licentiousness; and which soon overtook *Isaiah 1. 11. As insects lay their noxious eggs in a proper nidus where suitable nourishment will be administered to them, for the time requited. |