as it was to come with all the authority, and to do the work of his father, who "was a murderer from the beginning," there can be no doubt but his mischief was to extend to the utter ruin of the souls, as well as the bodies of men.

With this natural and not overcharged interpretation of the sign let us inquire, whether it does not properly and perfectly fit the revolutionary power of France, and no other. And first, as to the perdition of the souls of men. It is to be observed, that, during the pagan state of the world, the Powers that were, when incited by a thirst for dominion, that source of war and human destruction, sought to conquer only; and as the means of conquest, to destroy the bodies of men, and that no farther than appeared necessary to obtain their object. They never made religion. the subject of war or quarrel, but left the vanquished nation in the possession of its own faith and mode of worship, and every man to the care of his own soul. Since the rise of Christianity, and its much to be lamented corruption, we have seen two great powers, Mohamed and the Pope, who have, in this respect, surpassed the pagan world in spiritual domination. In the course of their ambition, they have added to force, artifice, fraud, and false religions, and made them the instruments of gratifying their ungovernable desire of rule; and thus led the minds of men astray from the revealed word of God, in the Gospel of Christ. But the principles and measures they adopted were neither so sinful in their nature, nor mischievous to the souls of men, as to efface from

their minds every religious and moral rule of action; but, on the contrary, they inculcated faith in God, in his Providence, in a future state of rewards and punishments, and in all the divine truths flowing from God's infinite perfection; a few, subservient to the purposes of their ambition, excepted.

But the French republic erected itself with the undisguised design, with the determined purpose, manifested throughout its established system of law, and its whole public conduct, to deprive the soul of man of every incitement to virtue, and to leave no rule or guide but "sin". It came to teach, that there is no future state of rewards or punishments, and that death is only an eternal sleep: and it came with all the subtilty, and power of Satan, to seduce and compel mankind to disbelieve and deny the existence of the everlasting God, which is the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost," a sin which Christ himself declares "shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, nei"ther in the world to come*."

Such is the malice meditated, and, alas! too successfully attempted against the immortal part of man, by this political son of Satan. Its dreadful mischief is so well known in the world, and so deeply felt, that a summary review of it, only can be necessary here. We have seen it, in the beginning of its career, proselyting a whole nation, computed at TWENTY FIVE MILLIONS of souls, to its system of atheism and anarchy, that

St. Matt. xii. 31. 32.

small number of it alone excepted, whom it either banished, or, in cold blood, barbarously murdered. We have seen it by its diabolical ingenuity and perseverance, diffusing its pernicious doctrines, among foreign nations, in Holland, the Netherlands, Switzerland Germany, and even over the Alps into Italy, and thus destroying the souls of men, that it might gain the ascendancy and command over their bodies. We have seen its poisonous influence extended to Egypt, and the Indies in the East, and to every part of civilized America in the West: and how much farther it may extend, time alone can discover.. Thus it has precipitated mankind into the same irremediable state which its father "Perdition" meditated in vain, when he tempted the parents of mankind to disobey the command of the God of truth.

But it did not stop at the misery and “perdis tion" in which it had involved the immortal part of man: the destruction of their bodies was alike the sacrifice to its irresistible and gigantic tyranny. Thousands upon thousands of the people, after having been converted to atheism, were led to the field of battle, and there fell victims to its endless ambition; perishing in a moment, without the least opportunity to repent of their blasphemy, and to make their peace with God, whose omnipotence they had treated with ridicule and contempt, and whose existence they had denied: and as to others who refused, or declined to drink of its deadly poison, the number of sufferers was so great, as to surpass all former precedent..

One of its own historians tells us, "it has stained "the country with the blood of its pontiffs and "priests, of its rich men and nobles, and with "the blood of every class of citizens, without regard to rank, age, or sex." Another represents its tyranny as "the reign of terror and death," Another emphatically represents France as "one vast tomb:" and another calculates the diminution of its population, by its exterminating measures, from twenty-six to nineteen millions, in the short space of four years. And when future historians shall record the additional millions which have perished in consequence of its foreign wars, and the insurrections, assassinations, and massacres produced by its licentious principles, how vast will be the amount of human carnage!!! We have read, and may again read, of the destruction of mankind, through the pride and ambition of pagan powers, and of the Mohamedan and papal hierarchies, during a course of twelve centuries past; but what is the destruction which even they have caused, when compar ed to that of revolutionary France in less than ten years? The shortness of the time, and the immensity of the number, revolt at all comparison. Here, then, let me ask the candid and pious reader, however extensive his mental abilities, after he has fully considered all the principles and actions of revolutionary France, whether he can find, within the compass of language, any two epithets more strikingly and perfectly descriptive of that political hydra, than "the Man of Sin, the son of perdition?"

I have said before, that the apostle begins his prophetic history with general tropes, describing the Power foretold, and then descends to particular descriptions; and that all his marks, whether general or particular, harmoniously unite to prove that it would be dreadfully destructive and consummately wicked. I have shown the truth of the first position, and shall now consider the second.

The Power foretold is called the " mystery of iniquity." A "mystery" is a thing incomprehensible to the intellectual powers of man; and, according to the scriptures, is of two kinds. One is, that although the nature and mode of its existence cannot be comprehended, yet, from reason and observation, we may be convinced of its real existence; such, for instance, as the power inherent in the vegetable and animal world to generate and produce their proper kinds. This is a mystery which is so far from being contrary to reason, that our judgments are convinced of it by the evidence of facts. Of the same kind is "the mystery of godliness," and "the mystery of Godt," that is, of his eternal self-existence, with his attributes of infinite wisdom, and power, and justice, and goodness, the glorious first cause, and Creator and Ruler of all things; the nature and mode of whose existence surpass the utmost extent of human ideas; and yet from demonstrations, as innumerable as his works, we know, to an absolute certainty, that they do exist.