The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. For God hath set the egyptians against the egyptians; and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom."* (Isai. xix. 11.)

Doubtless we have nothing to fear from the scourge of popery, if only we persist not in drawing it upon ourselves. God hath cut

That this destruction by civil discord, the effect of a perverse spirit, infatuation of counsel, or as Saint Paul describes it, strong delusion, relates to the mystical egyptians, and not to that country anciently and in modern times known by the name of Egypt, seems evident: because Egypt was never distinguished by a division into several distinct kingdoms, nor were any such effects of civil discord, so remarkable as to be worthy of the notice of the spirit of prophecy, ever recorded in history of that country. But of mystical Egypt it may be said with Saint John, that she reigneth over the kingdoms of the earth, and has peoples, and tongues, and kindreds, and nations subject to her spiritual dominion ;-and with Nahum, iii. 17, that "her crowned are as the locusts, and her captains as the great grasshoppers," for number.

any

out work sufficient for its occupation, without interference of ours: for "wheresoever the carcass (of popery) is, there will the eagles be gathered together." In vain do they fly from clime to clime, and from european thrones to trans-atlantic colonies; so long as the rank scent of the rotten carcass remains about them, it will still attract the ravenous eagles in full pursuit of their predestinated prey.

Cœlum non animum mutat, qui trans maré cúrritz

Who flees from heaven's pursuing wrath shall find
His climate chang'd, he cannot change his mind!

If the dire work of death were already gone through in Europe, there are still other regions which the gloomy genius of destruction must visit. For the decree is gone forth from the Lord, and who shall turn it back? And if another executioner were wanting, they must of necessity wreak upon themselves the vengeance written; "city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.” “And I will feed them that oppress thee, with their

Y Y

own Resh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am thy Sa viour, and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." (Isai. xlix. 26.)

In the above prophecy (Isai. xix,) of the judgments of God upon the mystical Egypt, God threatens that he "will destroy the counsel thereof," and "they shall seek to their idols" in vain, and find no relief in the mummery of a system of superstition, in all respects more allied to necromancy and witchcraft, than to the spirit of the gospel of Christ. And St John (Rev. ix. 20,) describes the im→ pénitency and fatuity superinduced upon the mind, by that monstrous superstition, to be such, that even while the fiery indignation is falling around and destroying them, yet"the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and

See note*, sect. vii. p. 194. pery and paganism is the very same.

The demon worship of po.
In Rome it is performed

brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

The prophet adds, that God will give these worse than egyptian idolators "over into the band of a cruel lord; and that a fierce king shall rule over them."-And St John in consistency with several prophecies, says that Christ will "rule his apostate subjects, and bruise them with a rod of iron."* The instrument of Providence (who is to be proxy for Christ, in this hour of judgment, as the emperor Titus was in his wrath upon the jews) has a plain and legible commission made

in the same temples, on the same altars, and before the same images with changed names. This description of St John relates to the eastern empire, and the apostacy of the church there; which has been nearly destroyed by the plagues of the Saracens and Turks. But the drawing is equally true if ap plied to the latin, or western church; whose judgment is described afterwards. Their murders and sorceries have been the same.

1

ii. 9.-Rev, xii. 5: xix. 15.

out for him in prophecy, with a suitable preamble, (Isai. x,) setting forth the causes for which this power is intrusted into his hands; and the extent to which it may be carried. The prophet begins with reciting the corrupt practices of that civil power, or spiritual and political hierarchy, against which the divine war is denounced." Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed."To say nothing here of the pope's management of the decrees of general councils, or of his own wicked bulls, or other impious papal constitutions; the anathemas he has pronounc ed unjustly, the laying interdicts upon whole kingdoms, deposing of kings, and selling of thrones, at the evil suggestion of his own malice, or pride, or avarice, have been numerous and grievous enough to make up a heavy article in the charge against him."To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless." -Nothing can be more notorious, than that