and restored the purity of the primitive church. Martin Luther in the year 1517, preached publickly in the church of Magdeburg, against the indulgences granted by the fovereign Pontiff; and by this magnanimous act began the reformation of religion. Then did Babylon the great fall from the height of her dominion-Then were the faithful followers of the Lamb animated with new zeal by the fuccefs of the first Reformers, and the voice from heaven was obeyed with alacrity, which faid, COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, THAT YE BE NOT PARTAKERS OF HER SINS, AND THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES

With the sublime account given by St. John, of the choir of the bleffed fpirits chanting a new fong to celebrate the revival of primitive Christianity, this new epoch of Prophecy commences. "Daniel had been informed concerning this power, whose look was more flout than his fellows, that the judgment should fit, and they should take away his dominion, to confume and to deftroy it unto the end. And St. Paul in the terms, that wicked one whom the Lord fhall confume with the Spirit of his mouth, and deftroy with the brightness of his coming b,

z Rev. xviii. 4.

a

Daniel vii. 20. b2 Theff. ii. 8.

cha

characterizes that gradual decline from the plenitude of his power, through the prevalence of the word of the Lord, intimated before by the Prophet, and more fully prefigured by St. John in the predictions of three several steps, by which the authority of Rome should be lowered among men. And I faw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, faying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the bour of his judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the fea, and the fountains of waters. While the proclamation here made, that the hour of God's judgment is come, is well calculated to turn, our thoughts to the fate of that power whofe dominion it was declared to Daniel, fhould then begin to be confumed, an attentive Reader may difcern, on perusing this paffage, a certain degree of abruptness in the introduction of this fymbol of the angel. From a choir of those bleffed fpirits in heaven who have been redeemed through the Gospel to a fresh publication of it on earth, seems a rapid transition; yet most precifely does this mark the mode in which

• Rev. xiv. 6.

the

the Reformation began.

For to that event

(which was in fact a republication of the Gofpel, and was fo termed in a Hiftory of its progrefs, quoted by Mofheim, Hiftoria Evangelii Renovati) every circumftance of this particular prediction is fuited, and pointedly to this purpose are the words of the ecclesiastical Hiftorian above mentioned, while the Roman Pontiff flumbered in fecurity at the head of the church, and faw nothing throughout the vast extent of his dominion but tranquillity and fubmiffion; and while the worthy and pious profeffors of genuine Christianity almost defpaired of feeing that Reformation on which their most ardent defires and expectations were bent; an obfcure and inconfiderable perfon arofe 'on a fudden, in the year fifteen hundred and feventeen, and laid the foundation of this long expected change, by oppofing, with undaunted refolution, his fingle force to the torrent of Papal ambition and defpotism "." How juftly does the latter part of this remark correfpond with the emblem of the text! Luther, fays the Hiftorian, laid the foundation of this long expected change: and this angel, the Apostle tells us, was feen to fly in the midst of heaven. Contrary to the general fate of the preachers

a Mofheim, cent. 16. fect, 1. ch. 2.

of

of new tenets, it was Luther's lot to proclaim his doctrine in the midst of the figurative heavens; before the Emperor and the Princes of the Empire affembled in open Diet. Patronized from the first by Princes, the Reformation was introduced into the countries where it took place, by the authority of the fovereigns themselves; not by a party first gained among the subjects, too powerful for the fovereign to refift. This emblematic messenger of God had too the everlasting Gospel; the Gospel, of which it is the fundamental doctrine, that there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man: this he preached unto them that dwell on the earth, faying with a loud voice, FEAR GOD, AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM. Luther, we are told, when the famous indulgences of Leo X. were proclaimed in Germany, raised his warning voice,' and in ninety-five propofitions, maintained publickly at Wittemberg, plainly pointed out the Roman Pontiff, as a partaker in the guilt of those who fold them, fince he fuffered, the people to be feduced by fuch delufions, from placing their principal confidence in Chrift, the only proper object of their trust.

66

Again, as the angel called on men to worship Him who made heaven and earth;

fo

fo after the appearance of an especial edict of Leo the tenth, in which that Pope commanded his fpiritual fubjects to acknowledge his power of delivering (I almost fhudder at the blafphemy while I tranferibe it) from all the punishments due to fin and tranfgreffions of every kind; Luther published a German tranflation of the Bible, the different parts of which being fucceffively and gradually spread abroad among the people, produced,' fays Mofheim,' a fudden and almoft incredible effect, and extirpated root and branch the erroneous principles and fuperftitious doctrines of the Church of Rome from the minds of a prodigious number of perfons,' with fuch precision did the symbol mark its antitype, by the angel having in his hand the everlasting Gofpel. And if the Reader wishes to fee how rapidly the Refor mation spread among the kindreds, tongues, and nations, he will find very fatisfactory in formation in the work above quoted. Wherein too he will difcover the commencement of a literal accomplishment of the words of Daniel to take away his dominion, in feveral fovereigns entirely withdrawing their realms from under the ecclefiaftical jurifdiction of the Roman Pontiff.

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• Whitaker, p. 249-252;