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some degree, canonized by the name of the Holy Mother Guillotine.'"* Every writer who has narrated the horrors of this period concurs in representing them as the most remarkable development of human wickedness ever recorded in the history of mankind. It has been well remarked that history is but the record of the crimes of men; but the period of the "reign of terror" in France must stand distinguished from the black catalogue, as bearing fearfully on its front the hand of a righteous and indignant God, and marking by its extraordinary character a new era in the history of the world, and that era to be the commencement of the day of God's retributive wrath and vengeance.

The third Vial describes the first act of judgment poured out on the Papacy, emblematized by "rivers and fountains of waters," the sources of instruction to the people. The sixth verse clearly points out that this act of vengeance takes place upon a body of men, who "have shed the blood of saints and prophets."

It is predicted in chap. xiii. 10, which treats of the Papal persecutions, that a time should arrive, when he that leadeth into captivity, shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword, must be killed with the sword ;" and it is recorded, when the judgment of Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, is completed, that "in her was found the blood of prophets,

4 And the third

angel poured out his Vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters, and they became blood.

5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.

6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink ; for they are worthy.

7 And I heard another out of the altar

*Life of Napoleon, vol. ii. p. 296.

say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true und righteous are thy judgments.

and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth" (chap. xviii. 24). There can be no doubt, therefore, both from the symbolical language in the text, and from the close similarity of expressions, in the above references, (both passages manifestly alluding to the Papacy) that this Vial describes the first act of judgment upon the Papal hierarchy. Accordingly, we find the next remarkable feature in those eventful times was the two several campaigns into Italy, the seat of the Papacy, which the Republican armies made, under Napoleon, in the years 1797 and 1798. In the former year Bonaparte advanced towards Rome, and was prevented from the seizure of the Papal throne only by the treaty of Tolentino, which was obtained by the Pope at the sacrifice of three of his legations, Ferrara, Bologna, and Romagna, an immense sum of money, and the plunder of the chefs d'œuvre of the Vatican. But this was only a temporary indulgence. The year following the French army, under Berthier, entered Rome, took the city, made the Pope and his Cardinals prisoners, and banished them their capital. The Pope afterwards died in captivity, Rome was declared a republic, and the tree of liberty planted in the seat of the sacerdotal tyrant who for so many centuries had held Christendom under his bondage.

Such a revolution of opinion towards the Romish Church, which had so long enthralled the minds of men, can only be regarded as the work of an Omnipotent Being. Her hour was come; and, therefore, the angel of the waters ascribes righteousness to Him "who is, and was, and shall be, because he had judged thus:" and a voice from the altar, or the Church in heaven, acquiesces in her doom. The martyrs in heaven had been longing for her destruction, which, in chap. xiii. 10, is expressly

declared to be "the patience of the saints." We cannot regard such a singular innovation upon the established prejudices of centuries as an ordinary event; and how applicable the history has proved to the prophecy, we shall see by a reference to the same author from whom we have already made such copious extracts. This author describes Bonaparte* as having "first shaken the Papal authority, and as boasting, in his Egyptian proclamations, that he had thereby destroyed the emblem of Christian worship." In another part he says, when alluding to the degradation to which Bonaparte had reduced the Roman see, "Such was the celebrated compact, by which Pius VII. surrendered to a soldier, whose name was five or six years before unheard of in Europe, those high claims to supremacy in spiritual affairs, which his predecessors had maintained for so many ages against the whole potentates of Europe. A PURITAN MIGHT HAVE

SAID OF THE POWER SEATED ON THE SEVEN HILLS

'BABYLON IS FALLEN, IT IS FALLEN, THAT GREAT CITY.'" +

The particulars of this Vial, as brought upon the Papacy by the instrumentality of Bonaparte, are more minutely described in the prophet Daniel (xi. 22-28), wherein the two Italian campaigns are given in the history of the vile person who obtains the kingdom by "flatteries," and thus becomes the wilful king, or the first form of the infidel Antichrist. But this visitation, terrible as it was, was but a foretaste of the final doom of the Papal apostacy.

The extraordinary person who was made the principal instrument for the infliction of the third Vial is here introduced individually,

8 And the fourth angel poured out his Vial upon the sun; and power was given

*Life of Napoleon, by the Author of Waverley, vol. iv. p. 197. +Ibid, vol. iv. p. 340.

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unto him to scorch men with fire.

9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

under the symbol of the sun. The sun is an emblem of imperial dignity. The principle of Infidelity, described as ascending out of the bottomless pit, in chap. xi. 7, and which we interpreted, in that instance, as corrupting the government of a state, here assumes a personality as infidel head, the first form of Antichrist, the seventh head, or beast, of chap. xvii. 10. He is represented as being invested with the imperial emblem of the sun. This can only refer to France, as it was the sun of France that was darkened (chap. vi. 12); and that country has been the chief seat of the prophecy since, because destined to be the principal theatre of the European drama. It was in France the witnesses of God were slain, infidelity engendered, and, after undergoing herself a bloody ordeal of the Divine vengeance under the second Vial, became the inflictor of God's judgment on the Papal nations. It is, therefore, Napoleon Bonaparte, late Emperor of the French, who is symbolized by this sun of the fourth Vial, to whom was given power to scorch the men of the Papal earth with fire. How truly he fulfilled his commission of scourge of the Papal nations is well known. He made the round of all the ancient monarchies of Christendom, deluged every country with fire and blood, and mastered and took possession of every capital city of the Roman earth (save this sealed land), oppressing the people by every species of exaction, and subverting every form of government which had hitherto withstood the vicissitudes of successive ages. The "suns of Napoleon" was an expression in every French soldier's mouth: indeed, he acquired during his Egyptian campaign, from the rolling

fire of musketry, by which his victories were achieved the oriental appellation of " King of Fire.*"

He constantly regarded himself as commissioned by the Deity for the chastisement of the nations. The following occurs in his address to the inhabitants of Cairo: "Is there any one blind enough not to see that I am the agent of Destiny, or incredulous enough to call in question the power of Destiny over human affairs? Make the people understand, that since the world was a world, it was ordained, that having destroyed the enemies of Islamism, and broken down the Cross, I should come from the distant parts of the West to accomplish the task designed for me. Shew them that in more than twenty passages of the Koran + my coming is foretold: the day will come when all shall know from whom I have my commission, and that human efforts cannot prevail against me." "It was no wonder that others, nay, that he himself should have annexed to his person the degree of superstitious influence, claimed for the chosen instruments of Destiny, whose path must not be crossed, and whose arms cannot be arrested." At no period did this imperial sun appear invested with more powerful influence than in the month of May, 1812, at the rendezvous of the city of Dresden, previous to his celebrated Russian campaign, when all the Papal kings seemed to move around him, and to per

* Life of Napoleon, by the Author of Waverley, vol. iv. p. 60-74. + It is to be remembered that the Koran is a mixture of the truths of the Old and New Testament, with the absurdities of the Mahomedan impostor; and to this cause is to be ascribed the knowledge which the Turks at this present moment possess of the speedy downfall of their empire, and which was so unequivocally acknowledged in the first proclamation that issued from the Sultan at the commencement of the present war with Russia.

Life of Napoleon, vol. iv. p. 87. § Ibid. vol. vi. p. 300.

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