SECTION XVIII. Many of the scripture prophecies so constructed, 451 SECTION I.. The different apprehensions of the freethinker and the man of religion, on the present revo◄ lutionary state of the world. THE present afflicted and degraded condition of Europe, and the visible as well as secret causes which have led to such a state of things, together with the consequences likely still to result from their continued operation, present a subject of reflection which will excite various emotions and apprehensions in the minds of mankind. We behold, within the period of a very few years, a great and momentous change effected by means which human sagacity had not foreseen, neither perhaps if it had been foreseen, could the fury of the hurricane have been turned aside, or its desolating effects prevented by any efforts of merely human wisdom. B That balance of power, which cost our fathers so much blood and treasure to maintain upon a tolerable equipoise, is now thrown to the ground and broken to pieces, and a monstrous overgrown empire is built up out of its fragments in a short space of time. We now hear no more the high tone of a spirit of jealous independence amongst the astonished nations, but have seen them accepting the galling iron yoke with a pusillanimous servility to the stern dictates of their common master; and even thrusting their own necks prematurely into the collar, like the wretch who precipitated himself headlong into the abyss from the apprehension of dying. Or if upon occasion some have spurned it from them indignantly, fortune hath not smiled upon their efforts to do it effectually; but as the bullock kicking at the pricks, is nevertheless flogged on to his inevitable drudgery, the degrading badge of slavery within a while has been forced on the necks of the indignant insurgents, with so much the rougher hand for the vigour and spirit of the unavailing resist→ ance. When Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, the prophet Jeremiah was commanded of God to proclaim to that devoted city, the necessity of its submission to the pagan king. The prophet preached to a degenerate people, repentance of their sins, and a quiet acquiescence in the doom which their wickedness had been long treasuring up for them, against this day of retribution: he boldly discharged his dangerous office, and in the name of God pronounced them worthy to be slaves, and he assured them that they would bring upon themselves a tenfold punishment by any at tempt at resistance against the scourge which God himself had charged with a commission against them, and which could not be turned back. A man might almost be tempted to >think there was something of a similar fatality in those events which have placed the world in a situation so greatly changed and almost daily changing; a fullness of time, which will not be put off by force or policy, and a yoke fabricated by the hand of destiny, and which may not be refused by those nations to which We see several once independent it is sent, |