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should be so blind to their interests, as to discard so powful, so active, and so zealous an ally as the church; and should, notwithstanding the recollection of past, and the hope of future, services, meditate her ruin, and declare open war against her.

When St. John says, the ten horns-shall eat the flesh of the whore of Babylon, and burn her with fire, the slightest attention to these expressions, it might be apprehended, would be sufficient to persuade him, who is conversant in the language of prophecy, that they are to be figuratively understood. Yet bp. Newton, notwithstanding he admits that the former of these prophetic clauses is symbolical, nevertheless supposes, that to burn her with fire is to be literally understood, and signifies, that the city of Rome shall be totally consumed by fire. He thinks it worthy of the wisdom of the divine author of the Apocalypse, that an ample portion of it should relate to the conflagration and desolate state of the papal city; and declares it to be his opinion, that the whole of the xviiith ch. consisting of four and twenty verses, is of an import thus confined. This opinion, having been long ago advanced, is opposed by Dr. More. After observing, that to burn with fire signifies only to consume and destroy, and to make to cease to be what it was, he says, 'I must confess I see no necessity of any such war, as should aim at the burning of the ancient city of Rome, but that this prophecy may be fulfilled without any such martial noise, or ruins, or garments rolled in blood20.

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The ten horns shall hate the whore, &c. These words, says Brenius,' do not require, that they should all, at the same time, rise up against the whore, but it is sufficient for their punctual verification, that now these, now those, should conceive, on different occasions, a detestation of her, until at length, with united force and council, they conspire for her destruction.' Accordingly we find, that this prophecy has already begun to be fulfilled. The French

20 Myst. of Iniq. p. 306..

nation have overthrown their hierarchy, despoiled her of her ornaments, and resumed her territorial revenues.

To prove that the explanation I have offered of St. John's words is no novel interpretation; I shall quote from two writers of the last century, and first from the celebrated Dr. John Owen. The ten horns, which thou sawest upon the beast, being now shaken, changed, and translated in mind, interest, and perhaps government; these hate the whore, and shall make her desolate.' And, a little farther, he states his opinion in more decisive language, and does not employ a perhaps. Speaking of the 'total destruction of Babylon, the man of sin, and all his adherents; he says, as Sampson, intending the destruction of the princes, lords and residue of the Philistines, who were gathered together in their idol-temple, effected it by pulling away the pillars whereby the building was supported, whereupon the whole frame toppled to the ground; so the Lord, intending the ruin of that mighty power, whose top seems to reach to heaven, will do it by pulling away the pillars and supporters of it, after which it cannot stand one moment. Now what are the pillars of that fatal building? Are they not the powers of the world, as presently stated and framed ?—In this mighty work the Lord Jesus Christ will make use of the power of the nations, the horns of them, that is their strength, Rev. xvii. 16. They must hate the whore, and make her desolate, and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. Now whether this can be accomplished, or no in their present posture, is easily discernible.-Are not most potentates tied by oath, or other compact, to maintain either the whole or some part, of the old tower, under the name of rites of holy church, prelates, and the like? And can any expect, that such as these should take up the despised quarrel of the saints against that flourishing queen"? Doubtless no

21 Dr. Owen means the whore of Babylon, of whom St. John says (xviii 7), that she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see She is no widow, because she has a marriage-contract, or ra

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such fruit will grow on these trees, before they are thoroughly shaken.' My next citation is from Mr. Haughton's Treatise on Antichrist. By horns here, it is not needful to understand kings in the strictness and formality of the notion.' By the ten horns is meant only, the supreme power of the ten nations, by what names or titles soever they are called. Christ by the earthquake will shake down those powers, in whom are found a deal of carnal and popish dregs, and set up those in their room that are men of other spirits, pares negotio, fit for such a business as Christ hath in hand. Doubtless, the ten horns are the ten supreme Powers of Europe, who shall do the deed, that is so much desired and prayed for23.'

On the prophet's emblem of horns enough has been said. The meaning of the other symbols I now proceed minutely to develope. And the ten horns shall hate the whore of Babylon. For the church of Rome, and every ecclesiastical tyranny, the new governments shall entertain sentiments of fixed detestation and abhorrence. They shall make her desolate, i. e. they shall cause her false worship to be abandoned: and they shall, adds the prophet, make her naked, i. c. shall bring shame and disgrace upon the antichristian church; for nakedness is, says Dr. Lancaster, a symbol of these ideas. Her flesh also they shall eat. On these symbols I quote from Dr. Lancaster. Flesh signifies the riches, goods, and possessions of any person or subject, conquered, oppressed, or slain.' For proof of this, appeal may be made to the Psalms, to Isaiah, to Micah, and to Zachariah. And thus in Dan. vii. 5, to devour much flesh is to conquer and spoil many enemies of their lands and possessions. All the oneirocritics concur in the same exposition of this

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ther because she carries on an adulterous commerce, with the kings of the earth. 'He,' says Dr. Owen, that thinks Babylon is confined to Rome, and its open idolatry, knows nothing of Babylon, nor of the New Jerusalem. Col. of Serm. serm. 37.

22 Col. of Serm. serm. 32.

23 P. 98, 99. The ten horns in this passage Lowman explains of the tions of Europe.

symbol.' For instance, the Indian interpreter, in Achmet, says compendiously and at once, flesh is universally interpreted of riches. To the same purpose speaks also Artemidorus.' To eat, when it comes under the notion of devouring, signifies destruction any way, or taking from others.' From this clause of the prophet, says Daubuz, ' it appears, that the Secular powers, who shall attack this whore, will not only strip her of her riches and revenues, but shall appropriate them to themselves.' To conclude the whole, they shall burn her with fire. These are both symbols of destruction. I, therefore, cannot employ any words, which will suggest a more correct idea of their meaning, than those of Mr. Cradock upon this passage. They shall utterly destroy her.'

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The destroyers of the symbolic Babylon, says Daubuz, will appropriate her riches to themselves. It will, indeed, be admitted, that every hierarchy, which is antichristian, it is proper to dissolve; and, when dissolved, to whom can its possession so properly revert as to the nation, in whose bosom it was seated, and to the government, which they have thought proper to constitute? On the right which a state possesses to alienate the lands, and to terminate the existence, of an established church, the Vindicia Gallica of Mackintosh may be consulted. The lands of the church,' says this able reasoner and eloquent writer, possess not the most simple and indispensible requisites of property. They are not even pretended to be held for the benefit of those who enjoy them. This is the obvious criterion between private property and a pension for public service. The destination of the first is avowedly the comfort and happiness of the individual who enjoys it.' It is coníessed, that no individual priest is a proprietor. Now if all the priests, taken individually, are not proprietors, the priesthood, as a body, cannot claim any such right. For what is a body, but an aggregate of individuals, and what new right can be conveyed by a mere change of name?-All men who enter into the public service must do so with the implied condition of subjecting their emoluments, and even

their official existence, to the exigencies of the state.— The property of individuals is established on a general principle, which seems coeval with civil society itself. But bodies are instruments fabricated by the legislator for a specific purpose, which ought to be preserved while they are beneficial, amended when they are impaired, and rejected when they become useless or injurious.'

'The treaty of Westphalia,' says Mr. Mackintosh, 'secularised many of the most opulent benefices of Germany, under the mediation and guarantee of the first Catholic Powers of Europe. In our own island, on the abolition of episcopacy in Scotland at the Revolution, the revenues of the church peaceably devolved on the sovereign, and he devoted a portion of them to the support of the new establishment. When at a still later period, the Jesuits were suppressed in most Catholic monarchies, the wealth of that formidable and opulent body was every where seized by the sovereign". A foreign writer, speaking of the emperor Joseph, and his hostility to the monks and abbés of his dominions, says, 'Here you see the good which war effects in christianity; for war costs immense sums, and princes borrow. New wars, new debts, which must be paid. The treasury being empty, what is to be done? The only remedy is to strip the clergy of their wealth; and necessity obliges monarchs to recur to this sole remaining expedient. Were our Calvin a witness of these events, he would thus address us. Admire, brethren, the impenetrable ways of Providence! The Being of Beings, who abhors the horrible and sacrilegious superstition into which the church has fallen, makes not the voice of the sage the instrument to render truth triumphant ; nor deigns to work miracles to root up error! What then is the instrument this Being employs for the destruction of monks; and to cause those vile and impure organs of fanaticism to vanish from the face of the earth? Kings, brethren, Kings! That is to say,

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