Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

be desolate for ever.

main in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates; And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her." And in Rev. xviii. 21. it is said of Babylon the Great its antitype, that "a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." No adequate comparison can be made between the crimes of the Heathens and Papists; for the religion of the former was a system of fable; but the latter have blasphemed the sacred system of Christianity by their impious and idolatrous worship. In this respect they have sinned after the similitude of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, whom Daniel thus addressed: “And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not hum

bled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified." Therefore as God wrote upon the wall of the Babylonish king's palace, the words Mene, Mene, which Daniel interpreted to Belshazzar as follows: "This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it:" so likewise is the kingdom of Antichrist, or Babylon the Great, numbered; and in due time it shall be finished, according to the Scriptures. The system of numbering which® God has used in counting the Beast is the literal valuation of the Greeks, a heathen invention; and, consequently, the very similitude of the religion of the Latin kingdom, which, though professedly Christian, is exactly similar to the Pagan superstition, differing from it almost solely in the objects of adoration, the Latins worshipping the saints and angels instead of the fabulous deities of the Heathens. The Greeks, who, like the Latins, have been great idolaters, escaped not the vengeance of the Lord, as has been seen in the preceding chapter. Because of the horrid impieties which the

Greeks had been guilty of for a very long period, the Othmans were permitted by God to prevail against the Christian worship (so called) in the

east. And the Othmans have not only subdued the nation of the Greeks, but have introduced into the conquered countries the religion of Mohammed; and to this day the transgression of desolation, or Mohammedanism supported by the desolating sword of the Othmans, still afflicts the eastern world, where the religion of Christ flourished for a considerable period. Seeing then that the Greeks have so righteously suffered such things because of their great idolatry, shall the Latin world escape, which has persecuted with far greater cruelty the true church of Christ? It is impossible. Therefore saith God (Rev. xviii. 4, 5.) to his people who dwell in the great city Babylon, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." This Divine admonition is of incalculable importance, for "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast

and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." Let the Roman Catholic world attend to these awful words ere iniquity prove their ruin; for it is written of Babylon the Great, that

66

her plagues shall come IN ONE DAY, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her."

FINIS

3. AND T. CLARKE,

PRINTERS,

38, ST. JOHN'S-SQUARE, LONDON.

« AnteriorContinuar »