And made war with the saints and prevailed against them. An indiscriminate massacre of more than two millions of the human race sufficiently indicates a most savage power, but by no means attaches to it the peculiar attribute of "wearing out the saints of the Most High:"—a characteristic this, strongly expressive of spiritual tyranny, or persecution exercised upon others merely for their religious opinions; and truly applicable to the Church of Rome, which punishes good men as being heretics, professes enmity against them as such, and is utterly regardless of the guilt (however notorious) of her own followers; while those, who dissent from her, become the victims of her inexorable rage. A serious protestant, conversant in the inspired writings in which the portrait of an Antichrist is delineated as with a pencil of light, will hesitate to pronounce the members of the Church of Rome the saints of the Most High. Without violating the law of Christian charity, he must consider them as professors of a religion abhorrent from the purity of the gospel, as involved in idolatrous and superstitious practices, as men who have not repented of the works of their hands, "that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk: neither repented they of their murthers; nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts." Are they not to be included with those who have worshipped the Beast and his Image; and have received his mark upon their foreheads and in their hands? The blood of such men has been prodigally shed; and it is strikingly remarkable, that the French anarchists have introduced the horrors of carnage principally into Popish countries; as if those nations, which profess the purity of the Protestant religion, were providentially preserved from danger. This is peculiarly the case in the present moment, when Spain and Portugal are involved in all the calamities of war. In these provinces of the old Roman Empire, for many ages, Popish superstitions and Popish cruelty have exercised their dominion without restraint. It must be an arduous attempt to frame a system of prophetic interpretation from the events of the present times, however aweful and tremendous. In France, one revolutionary plan has rapidly succeeded another. Like the kings, who in Shakspeare's animated scene appear before the amazed Macbeth and vanish into nothing, the despots of that wretched country have been suddenly hurled from their seats, to make room for others, who in their turn have experienced the same fate. The storm does not always rage: it's fury has * Some few instances, however, have occurred of Protestant countries suffering from the invasion of the French armies. gradually subsided, and a more tranquil scene of things has been unfolded. The character of the power prefigured by this Little Horn is more fully developed by St. Paul. But we are not to expect a complete description in any single passage of the prophetic volumes. It is only by a comparison of the different prophecies, that we can obtain a comprehensive view of the subject before us. By adding to the description of the Little Horn in this vision of Daniel the representation of the Man of Sin, and the Apostasy of the Latter Times by St. Paul, we may be enabled to discover the Apostate Power predicted in these sacred pages. In that, which lately avowed the principles of Voltaire in a neighbouring kingdom, it will surely be idle to look for the peculiar marks given by the Apostle-the wORSHIP OF SAINTS-the FABRICA TION OF FALSE MIRACLES-MONKISH AND CLERI- CELIBACY-PAGAN DISTINCTION OF MEATS. CHAPTER VI. The Little Horn of the He-Goat in the eveningmorning Vision represents the Power, whose seat of government was in Pagan and Papal Rome. The Little Horn, whose rise and progress are described in the eighth chapter of Daniel, is emblematical of the power which fixed it's seat of government at Rome, and which first manifested itself to the inhabitants of the East by it's conquest of Macedonia, one of the four kingdoms into which that of Alexander the Great was divided. When the Great Horn of the He-Goat was broken in the midst of his strength, four other horns came up in it's place toward the four winds of heaven; and out of one of them* came forth a Little Horn, which waxed exceeding great toward * The Little Horn appeared, while all the four Horns were existing. Hence the Power, which is prefigured by this Horn, existed before the extinction of the Powers represented by the four Horns. So that this Horn cannot describe Mahomet and his successors; as not being contemporary with any of the kingdoms denoted by the four Horns. the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land*. It cannot escape the notice of the reader, who is in the least degree conversant with ancient history, that the Romans, previously to their establishment in those kingdoms which formed the Third or Grecian Empire, attacked Macedonia. But the military force which they employed upon this occasion was so insignificant †, and their disasters were so considerable, that they incurred the contempt of Perseus it's sovereign, as well as of the kings of Pergamus, Illyricum, Syria, and Egypt; who, if they had felt any apprehension of their impending danger, by their united efforts might have easily crushed the common foe. If the councils of Perseus had been influenced by common prudence, or if his irresolute and perfidious conduct had not entirely alienated the affections of his subjects, the progress of the invader might have been promptly restrained. But the fortune of Rome prevailed. That spot, which appeared in it's rise no bigger than a man's hand, gradually swelled into a vast cloud, * Dan. viii. 9. Those, who suppose Mohammed to be the Little Horn, maintain that although his rise was not in Syria, as soon as he invaded that kingdom he became a Little Horn out of one of the four subverted Horns of the He-Goat. In the same manner, the Roman Power did not become a Little Horn, until it invaded Macedonia. |