even this was prepared in him from the very day that he was created, although he was originally perfect in his ways. The Pope, after his apostasy, sought to cover his spiritual nakedness with splendid attire and gaudy devotion. He arrayed himself in purple and scarlet, and decked himself with gold and precious stones and pearls *. He allured his votaries with the charms of music and the multifarious rites of a splendid superstition †. Though six centuries elapsed ere the man of sin was revealed, the mystery of iniquity was already working even in the apostolic age ‡. The seeds "of corruption were sown, but they were not yet grown up to any maturity. The leaven was "fermenting in some parts, but it was far from having yet infected the whole mass §."

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We have seen how accurately the character of the mystic prince of Tyre answers to that of the Bishop of Rome; and we may safely venture to assert, that there is no other potentate of these

66

Rev. xvii. 4. xviii. 16. Platina relates, that "in his pon"tifical vestments Pope Paul II. outwent all his predecessors, especially in his regno or mitre, upon which he laid out a "great deal of money in purchasing at vast rates diamonds, "saphires, emeralds, chrysoliths, jaspers, unions, and all man

ner of precious stones; wherewith adorned like another "Aaron, he would appear abroad somewhat more august than a man, delighting to be seen and admired by every one.” Lives of the Popes, P. 414. cited by B. Newton.

+ Rev. xviii. 22.

See Bp. Newton's Dissert. xxii.

2 Thess. ii. 7.

last

last days, either popish or protestant, to whom the character will at all answer: let us now attend to the predicted time and method of his overthrow.

When the prince shall perish, there shall be ne more a rankling thorn to the house of Israel of all those that despised them; but they shall be gathered to their own land from the people among whom they have been scattered. Hence it will necessarily follow, both that the prince was a ranking thorn or great persecutor of the Jews, and that he will perish at the era of their restoration. In modern history we find, that the papal little horn has been the great promoter of all the persecutions and oppressions which the Jews have suffered, compelling them to apostatise and bow down before idols and relics, taking their children from them in order that they may be educated in the superstitions of Popery, robbing them of their property, banishing and even murdering them *. And from prophecy we find, that this little horn is to be destroyed at the close of the 1260 years; that is to say, at the period when the Jews begin to be restored. The prince is to be destroyed by the instrumentality of the strangers, the terrible of the nations. The Scriptures abundantly testify, that the Jews, who have long been wanderers upon the face of the earth whence they may emphatically

*See Bp. Newton's Dissert. vii.

+ Dan. vii. 11, 25, 26. xii. 1,7.

be

be styled the strangers*, will at the time of the end become a principal instrument in the hand of God of punishing all their oppressors; the chief of whom, because the instigator of all the rest, has ever been the Pope.-The prince is to die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of the strangers. The Pope, or false Romish prophet, is to perish in Palestine; as the Jews formerly inflicted the vengeance of God, in the same country, on the various wicked uncircumcised nations of the Canaanites.-The prince is to die the death of them that are slain in the midst of the sea. The Pope, who has so long sat upon the many symbolical waters, is to perish during a time of unexampled trouble and confusion, the waves and the sea roaring, men's hearts failing them through fear. The prince is to be devoured by a fire from the midst of him, and to be cast to the ground a

I wish this remark concerning the strangers to be considered only in the light of a conjecture. It is possible, that by them may not be intended the Jews, but some fierce northern nation, which there is reason to expect from prophecy will be very instrumental in punishing the sins of the Roman Babylon during the time that Antichrist is engaged in his expedition against Palestine. This matter will be discussed more at large, when I treat of the prophecies of Daniel and St. John. It is worthy of remark, that Vitringa, in summing up the particulars wherein the literal Babylon is typical of the mystical Babylon, enumerates the attack made upon it by fierce northern nations, the Medo-Persians and their allies, which terminated in its destruction. See the passage cited in the notes on Prophecy V. † Isaiah xli. 15, 16.-Obad. 18.-Zechar. xii. 6.

spectacle

spectacle to all the kings of the earth. The Papacy is to waste away by an internal fire; which has already begun to consume it; the ten horns of the Roman beast, are to hate the whore, and to make her desolate and naked, and to eat her flesh, and to burn her with fire; she is finally to be completely destroyed by a fire, which may likewise be said to come out of her, even the house of Judah, which will be gathered out of her empire, and which will become like a hearth of fire among the wood and like a torch of fire in a sheaf* ; and then all the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, will bewail her and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning -The mystic Tyre is to be brought by her rowers into deep waters, and to be broken by the east wind in the midst of the sea. The power of the Papacy is to be brought by its supporters, the beast and the kings of the earth, into great trouble; and to be broken by a violent wind, or dreadful war, in the midst of the symbolical sea, in the eastern region of Palestine -Finally God will cast the prince out of his holy mountain as profane, and will make him a terror among the nations, and will cause that he shall never be any more. In a similar manner the dominion of the little papal horn shall be utterly con

+ Rev. xviii. 9.

* Zechar. xii. 6. ↑ "Tempestuous winds, or the motion of clouds, for wars." Sir Isaac Newton's Observ. on Dan. and St.John P. 18.

sumed

sumed and destroyed; and the kingdom shall be given to the saints of the Most High, or those who conftitute that pure millennian church out of which the horn shall be for ever cast: the man of sin shall be consumed by the spirit of the Lord's mouth, and shall be destroyed by the brightness of his coming: the beast and the false prophet shall be taken in arms against the Lord, and shall be cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone: Babylon the great shall become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, and shall be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all; in short the papal tyrant, who had so often excommunicated and thrust out of what he termed the catholic church, all who refused to partake of his idolatry and to pollute themselves with his abominations, shall now himself be cast with ignominy out of the true church of Christ; and shall be for ever separate from those, who had come out of his spiritual empire, in order that they might not be partakers of his sins, nor receive of his plagues *.

When

For the manner in which the character of this prince is applied to the literal prince of Tyre, the reader may consult Abp. Newcome's translation of Ezekiel. I confess it appears to me totally inapplicable either to Ithobal or any other Phenician sovereign. According to his grace, the rankling thorn was removed when Nebuchadnezzar subdued all the ancient enemies of the Jews. But this falls very far short of the plain