Page images
PDF
EPUB

by which the second coming of our glorious Redeemer should be certainly known, until the last times or the latter times of the Roman government, when the second wo is to have its completion, which will be to the wise, a key by which the whole plan will be opened up to them -This will take place, as the Revelation informs us, soon after the witnesses shall finish their prophesy in sackloth.-Some short time previous to this great era, the government of the beast" that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit," shall arise, attended with so many express marks of certainty, that doubt shall no longer remain, with those wise servants of God, who by faith and perseverance, shall carefully attend to the prophetic warnings of the word of God.

Let us then seriously look back and ascertain those remarkable circumstances, pointed out by divine revelation, that will attend and be consequent on the government of the Beast, and the slaying of the witnesses of God, when they are about to finish their testimony.

The signs of this eventful period are:

1st. The rising of a government from the great mass of the common people, and of the lowest orders in society, which in its commencement and progress shall be new and unusual; and that at a time when transgression shall come to the full.

2d. This government, when risen, shall make war on the witnesses of God, that is, the word and ordinances of revealed religion, and the institutions for the support and propagation of it.

3d. This government, contrary to all human expectation, will prove successful and victorious, for a time, against both civil order and discipline, and every thing sacred and holy; and of consequence, will have power

to suppress and do away all forms and appearance of the worship of the one only living and true God, through Jesus Christ;-to abolish all the usual instruction given in the Churches, by the preaching of the Gospel ;—to destroy all public veneration and respect for the Lord's day, with its ordinances, as commemorative of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the great event on which the whole Gospel system so essentially depends.

4th. That many nations and governments, of differing characters and politics, being either united with, or in fear of this new and uncommon government of the beast, shall look on all this destruction of civil and religious rights and privileges which once they highly esteemed, with a kind of apathy, if not of countenance and support; and without other interference than indirectly to prevent a total annihilation of these witnesses of God; signified by not burying their dead bodies; but leaving them in the street of the great city, so as not to prevent their resurrection at the appointed time.

5th. The "people of the earth," that is, the common people, now immersed in sin and profanity, who are wholly attached to earthly things, and belonging to the government of the beast, and those nations in amity with her, shall be greatly elated with this supposed emancipation from the duties of civil society, and the obligations of religion; and shall rejoice in the idea of being no longer tormented by the preaching of the Gospel, the discipline of its authority, and the jurisdiction of its ministers.

6th. This war of the beast arising out of the abyss, is different from that formerly waged against the company of the saints generally, by those who, notwithstanding publickly professed a respect for the Gospel and its

authority this being now in a particular manner directed against these witnesses of God, or the word and ordinances of the Gospel, by its professed enemies and blasphemers, is to be followed by different consequences. The effect of the first was, that all the nations of the earth should wonder after and worship that beast with seven heads and ten horns, or the revived Roman government, which has been fully verified; but the war of this beast arising out of the abyss, is to be followed with great fear falling on the followers of the first beast, prefiguring the members of the Roman empire, and the Roman Catholic communion throughout the world. Then follows the resurrection of the witnesses, the destruction of the great city, and the restoration of the Jews to their ancient Jerusalem.

7th. This success over, and destruction of these witnesses of God, shall yield but a delusive joy, and be of short duration, designated by three days and an half, which, in Scripture language, means a short period, and generally three years and an half; and although, during this period, they may appear to be wholly depressed or done away, yet shall the principle of life in them remain, revive, and they at length be restored to higher respect and esteem than ever. They will, together with the possession of Jerusalem, as mentioned in Daniel, and the burning of the great city, as the last remarkable event under the second wo, become unequivocal signs of the times, and a confirmation of the ending of the second wo, mentioned by St. John. This, of course, will produce a happy certainty, over the whole system of the Apocalypse, to the attentive observer of the footsteps of Divine Providence.

8th. But to increase the brightening evidence, and multiply proofs of this extraordinary period, whereby the servants of God will be enabled to support a lively faith in his promises, this war shall arise in one of the ten kingdoms of the first beast with seven heads and ten horns. It will bring about, therein, a great and uncommon revolution, in which that kingdom, or government, shall be cut off from and become the means of subverting, if not wholly destroying the Roman Pontiff's power, both civil and ecclesiastical.

9th. That in this revolution, all titles of dignity and honour, (prefigured by the slaying of the names of men, as mentioned in the margins of our Bibles) among the greatest part of the nobles and great men of the nation, perhaps both civil and ecclesiastical, shall be destroyed and taken away, and those that are left, being affrighted, shall give glory to the God of Heaven, by voluntarily relinquishing them, through fear of the government arising out of the bottomless pit, and as incompatible with the principles of the government, established by this second beast, or antichrist.

Here, then, are no less than nine very uncommon and remarkable events, of great consequence, in or by means of this government of the beast arising out of the abyss, or bottomless pit, being one of the ten, into which the Roman empire has been divided, that are to meet together as in a centre, for the instruction and confirmation of those who are rejoicing in the hope that is set before them. These, altogether, will amount to such conclusive proof, as to determine their minds, and lead them to keep their loins girt, and their lamps trimmed and burning, ready to go out to meet the Bridegroom.

These great events, being so expressly foretold, are to prove the ending of the second wo, and the expiration of the 1260, 1290, and 1335 years, to tolerable demonstration; and by tracing back from this period, whenever it shall happen, we may find the rising of the man of sin, and calculate his and antichrist's fall with certainty, which is so speedily to introduce the approach of the glorified Messiah, at his second coming to this our guilty world; when all the nations of the earth, shall become the nations of our Lord, and the earth shall be covered with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea.

When such a government shall arise, attended with these infallible marks of certainty, we may well consider it, as announcing to an astonished world, in the strong language of inspiration, the approach of the herald of the skies, proclaiming in a voice of thunder, "Babylon is fallen !—is fallen !—that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.-Babylon the great, (the mystical Babylon, which is seated on seven hills) is fallen !*—is fallen! and be

* 1 Peter, 5th and 13th, the Church, which is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you, &c.

N. B. Peter, it is said, was then at Rome.

In the fifteenth century, even in Italy, many, and among others, the famous Savanarola, had the courage to declare that Rome was become the image of Babylon, and this opinion was soon adopted by multitudes of all ranks and conditions.†

In 1510, Lewis 12th, king of France, provoked by the insults of Pope Julius 2d, caused a medal to be struck with his own portrait, bearing the title and arms of king of France and Naples, and the motto perdam Babylonis nomen. I will destroy the name of Babylon.t

† 2d vol. Gregg. Hist. of Christian Church, 250.
Roscoe's 2d Leo. X. 100.

« PreviousContinue »