صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

of a portentous tyranny, it is the heaviest curse which can befall a nation.

Since the whole prophecy of the Apocalypse relates to the Roman empire, the sun mentioned under this vial must be the sun of the Roman firmament: since the pouring out of all the vials takes place long posterior to the division of the empire, this sun must be the sun of the divided empire: and since the three first vials have carried us to the end of the harvest or the anarchical horrors of the French Revolution, this sun must mean the government of that state within the limits of the empire which at the present era is the most powerful. The prediction then of the fourth vial obviously intimates, that the frantic scenes of the harvest should be succeeded by a systematic military ty ranny, which should be exercised over the Roman empire by the government of the most powerful state then existing within its limits. The world, exhausted with the miseries of the symbolical harvest, and wearied with the wild struggles of licentious anarchy, should tamely submit to the lawless domination of an unrelenting despot. In pointing out the particular government intended by this scorching sun of the Latin or Papal firmament, the reader will doubtless have anticipated me. The present Popish states. are France, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sardinia, and Etruria. Of these, I apprehend, no one will be inclined to deny, that France is by many degrees

the most powerful; and consequently that its government must inevitably be esteemed the sun of the system*. To observe then the accurate com

pletion

*Should the present usurper of the throne of France, who already emulates the imperial rank of Austria, or should any successor of his at some future period, proclaim himself Emperor of the Romuns, and thus transfer the crown of Charlemagne from Germany to France, as it was heretofore transferred from France to Gerinany: he would then, like Charlemagne, be the representative of the last head of the beast. Buonapartè is already in fact master of Italy, and appears to be upon the eve of reviving the ancient kingdom of Lombardy. 1804.

[ocr errors]

Since this note was written, the usurper of the throne of the Bourbons has formally proclaimed himself king of Italy, and has encircled his brows with the ancient iron crown of the, Lombard sovereigns. Thus is one of the great maxims of German jurisprudence completely overturned; namely, "that the prince, who was elected Emperor in the German diet, ac"quired from that instant the subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome" (See Gibbon's Hist. of Decline and Fall, vol. ix. p. 191.). May 1805.

[ocr errors]

I have now to add, that the disastrous termination of the campaign of 1805 has made the chief of the French government the undoubted representative of Charlemagne, and consequently the last head of the beast. The house of Austria seems tacitly to have exchanged the title of Emperor of the Romans for that of Emperor of Austria: and, although Buonapartè has not yet formally assumed it, it can add nothing to his power when he does assume it, for he is already the uncontrouled emperor of the western continental Roman world. June 3, 1806.

Since this was written, a second disastrous campaign, that of 1806 and 1807, has completed and confirmed the overwhelming influence of France: the Germanic body has been dissolved: the empire of Germany has been transferred under a new title to France: and the head of the house of Austria has

[ocr errors]

pletion of the prophecy of the fourth vial, in which it is said that power was given to this sun to scorch men with fire, and that they were scorched with great heat, we have only to cast our eyes over the continent. A system of tyranny, hitherto unknown in Europe except in the worst periods of the Roman history, has been established, and is now acted upon by him who styles himself Emperor of the French: and the scorching rays of military despotism are, at this moment felt, more or less, throughout France, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and the west of Germany. A regular plan of making each man a spy upon his neighbour destroys all the comfort and all the confidence of social life: and France, with her degraded provinces, or, as they are termed with diplomatic mockery, allies, groans under the weight of endless requisitions, levies, and extortions, at once tormented herself, and the savage tormentor of others*.

It

has formally resigned the Carlovingian imperial dignity. Nov. 23. 1807.

* Even before the era of the Revolution, and previous to the vast acquisition of power made by France since that convulsion, the sovereigns of the Capetian dynasty were so conscious of their preponderating influence in Europe, that, with a kind of arrogant fatality, they assumed for their distinguishing badge the sun, with this motto, Nec pluribus impar, alone equal to many. This notion of superiority indeed was so familiar to Frenchmen, that the health of his sovereign is said to have been once proposed by a French Ambassador to Lord Stair,

under

It is not unlikely, that the influence of this vial will extend to the very commencement of the vintage*. The violence of democratical and atheistical madness, that dreadful harvest of God's wrath, has now abated: but, since part of the business of the intermediate vials is first to prepare that popish and infidel confederacy which will be finally broken in the days of the vintage, and afterwards to collect the kings of the Latin earth to the great battle of the Lord at Armageddon; the sun of military tyranny will most probably glare with unabated violence to the very time of the end, and be the principal immediate instrument both of forming and of directing that confederacy †.

The

under the very name of the sun. With the same idea no doubt the largest ship in the French navy was called the royal sun. Upon this sun, or the government of France, we have now beheld the fourth vial poured out, enabling it to scorch men with fire.

* Since this was written in the year 1804, the sphere of the influence of this scorching sun has been tremendously increased; and there is now scarcely any part of the western Ro-. man empire unaffected by its intolerable blaze. June 3. 1806.

I need scarcely add, that this sphere has recently been yet more increased. Nov. 23. 1807.

+ Mr. Sharpe thinks, that the scorching of the Sun means unlimited monarchy in general, operating in the keeping up of standing armies and martial law; and he censures the government of England for preferring regular troops to militia. In dependent of his unwarrantable extension of the symbol from the figurative sun of the European commonwealth to every separate star of its firmament, I cannot but think him a little unreason-♪`

able

The effect, produced both by these plagues and by the following ones, will only be blasphemy and hardness of heart, instead of a reformation of principles and practice. The earthquake, which overthrew the tenth part of the city, caused, as we have seen, the remnant of the seed of the woman to give glory unto the Lord: but the effusion of the vials upon God's enemies produces not the least tendency to repentance. We must not therefore look for any further reformation from Popery*; for the vials are instruments of God's wrath, not of his mercy. France accordingly has nominally returned, like a dog to its vomit, to her old alliance with the blasphemous corruptions of Popery: but, according to every account of eye-witnesses, she still really and individually strengthens herself in

the

able in his animadversions. It would certainly be a very happy thing for the country, if a standing army could be dispensed with; but, since it is our misfortune, not our fault, to live in the immediate neighbourhood of a horde of ferocious and well-trained banditti, we must, as we value our liberty and independence, be well prepared for their reception. A traveller finds it much more agreeable to pursue his journey without the incumbrance of arms, and without the fear of molestation: but, if his track lie through a country infested by robbers, he must either submit to the inconvenience of bearing weapons, or to the still greater inconvenience of being plundered. Were the nation defended by none but brave imperfectly disciplined troops, it would be ill able to cope with antagonists perhaps not less brave and with every advantage of discipline.

* I have already stated other grounds, besides this, when treating of the ten-horned beast, for adopting such an opinion.

« السابقةمتابعة »