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which is heavier to thofe on whom it unhappily falls, than that paid to the Sultan; and they are generally prevented from complaining out of fear left the next ship should take revenge "

Such is the government, and fuch are the complicated miferies, under which the East has groaned for many centuries! The fecond woe has been of long duration; but from the view we have just taken of the decline and prefent ftate of the Ottoman empire, we are furely authorized to conclude that it now draws near its clofe. It will not however terminate the allotted period of affliction; for when this woe fhall be paft," behold, a third woe cometh quickly"—while the fixth trumpet continues to found.

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In the fhort account already given of the declining power of the Papal Antichrift, we

Eton, Preface, p. 5.

When Omar, the Saracen Califf, took Jerufalem by capitulation in A. D. 637, the Chriftians were not allowed liberty of worship, but on the most severe and humiliating conditions. See Ockley, Pococke, &c. Omar built a mofque on the fite of Solomon's Temple, which remains. to this day, walled round at fome distance, and it is death for either Jew or Chriftian to enter the enclosure.

have feen the effects of fome of thofe vials of wrath which were to be fucceffively "poured out upon the men who worship the BEAST and his IMAGE. And the prefent state of Rome (fuppofed to be under the influence of the fifth vial) may be confidered as a confirmation of the opinion long ago formed by several of the most able Commentators, that the fixth vial, which is to be "poured out in the river Euphrates," or the dominion of the Mahometan Antichrift, would be contemporary with the third woe. The following Chapter will perhaps enable us to conjecture how far the reign of the IMAGE, made at the fuggeftion, and acting by the power of the SECOND BEAST, appears to correspond with the THIRD WOE ; and how far it feems probable that "the remainder of wrath" will fall with peculiar violence upon the votaries of the INFIDEL ANTICHRIST, or, in other words, upon shippers of the IMAGE.'

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CLASS

CLASS II.

CHAPTER THE THIRD.

THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE INFIDEL POWER OF ANTICHRIST.

FROM the paffages in Scripture which have

been brought forward to the observation of the reader in the Introductory Chapter, in order to display the revelation concerning the different branches of Antichrift, we find that the Holy Spirit has spoken in explicit terms, not only of those who were to corrupt the faith, as the Papists have done; oppofe it with open force, as has been the practice of the Mahometans; but of those who were firft to undermine it by every infiduous art, and finally, by the union of fraud with violence, were to establish the dominion of Infidelity "in the laft days." We have feen that fuch perfons were clearly foretold in the Prophecies of Daniel,

Daniel, St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Jude, and St. John. And their characters, principles, conduct, and fuccefs are fo clearly represented, that these infpired writers have in a manner anticipated the history of those " false teachers,' who have been in the past and in the present age diftinguished by the name of Free-thinkers, Sceptics, Philofophifts, or Illuminati. These predictions have been shown to be generally applicable to fchifmatics and infidels in every period, but to have a particular reference to those who should arife in "the latter times,' and occafion a great Apostasy from the church of Chrift.

The rife and progrefs of Jacobinifm, which feems to include every fpecies of Infidelity,: and may be defined to mean Hoftility to Religion, to Virtue, to Monarchy, to Laws, to Social Order, Rank and Property, - have been examined with industry, and displayed with. correctnefs, by the Abbé Barruel and Profeffor Robifon. The facts brought forward in fupport of their affertions, have baffled the ingenuity of Jacobinifm itself to difprove. And thefe facts have clearly fhown, that a CONSPIRACY was actually formed for the extinction. of Chriftianity, and the abolition of Government and Social Order, by a set of men whose

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names demand the execration of mankind. They prove, incontrovertibly prove (or neither the scheme nor its fuccefs could find belief in any rational mind untainted with its poifon), that the SYSTEM established for the execution of this plan was extended to every country, with unexampled perfeverance, art, and fecrecy, and threatened univerfal ruin; that this fyftematic confpiracy has been the MAIN SPRING of the revolution in France; and that the POWER created by this revolution has, in return, become its chief Support and coadjutor. This fimple statement will, I truft, recal to the reader's mind the interpretation of "the fecond beast and his image," which was offered to his consideration in the Introductory Chapter.. And he will readily perceive, that I have mentioned the unconnected evidence of Barruel and Robifon as particular confirmation of this idea, because thefe writers have beft difplayed that union of fraud with force, which conftitutes and diftinguishes this Antichriftian power. They beft have proved this new philofophy, as it is called, to breathe as rank a fpirit of perfecution against Christianity itself, as ever difgraced the name of Religion in the form of Popish bigotry. They beft have shown the connexion between Infidelity and Civil tyranny, fo long denied, but now made visible to the aftonished

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