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there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

SECTION XL.

Strange blindness of papists to the wrath that pursues that devoted system of error.-The cup of fury sent round to the nations in its connection--The reign of terror, the consequence of it.-The doctrine of Balaam, in the true spirit of popery.-Modern popery divested of nothing but power ;—it remains still as objectionable to protestants as ever, and is the cause of the woes which now afflict the christian world.-England's exemption through divine mercy, provided for by the prescience of God,-but can only be perpetuated to the end of the indignation, by adhering to the original principles of the reformation.

HE may well be pronounced blessed and happy, "ter, quaterq. beatus," whose lot shall be cast in that time of sabbath to the people of God, when we reflect upon the frightful contrast by which it is to be immediately pre

ceded. For from the time of the going forth of the commandment to draw the avenging sword, it does not appear there is likely to be any considerable respite to the plagues of ROME, any more than there was to those of EGYPT. They then trod one upon the heels of another in quick succession, and the piteous cry of terror and anguish was more piercing and loud at every stroke.

The world has been kept in a continued state of suspense and alarmed expectation from the first uplifting of the STONE, and the new and still more tragical tale of every succeeding year's occurrences, surpasses that of the years of woe that are gone by. The monster Antichrist, like a huge oak, the growth of centuries, hath struck so deep his roots, and insinuated himself so intimately into the constitution and fabric of almost all the governments of Europe, that the convulsions of his expiring agonies will shake the civilized world, as it were, to the "The Lord will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will shew the lighting

centre.

down of his arm with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire; with scattering, and tempests, and hailstones. And in every place where the rod of correction shall come, which the Lord shall lay heavily upon him, in battles of shaking will he fight with it."*

The prophets have made use of the most terrible images, to represent the havoc which the BREAKER will make in the present subsisting state of the earth, before all be reduced to that chaos from which the new world of the millennium is to be regenerated. "Fear and the pit (of Tophet), and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth," and by one or the other of these judgments a great part of mankind will be destroyed, as were the sinners in Sodom, which would not take warning of the predicted punishment." The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth

shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall

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be removed like a cottage, and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise* again."

TRANSGRESSION, and continuing blindness, and impenitency under it, is the cause of all its woe. For the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their thefts." For these things cometh the long predicted wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. "Behold the

Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth, FOR THEIR INIQUITY; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." The infatuated partisans of this ancient and detestable superstition,

*Isai. xxiv. 17.

Rev. ix. 20. See Sect. xxv. p. 164.

Isai. xxvi. 21,

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