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النشر الإلكتروني

TO THE

SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH VISIONS

OF

ST. JOHN.

THE JUDGMENT OF THE WOMAN AND THE MYSTERY OF HER AND THE BEAST.

Every member of the church in the Roman Empire originally exercised his rights of kingship and priesthood bequeathed him as his inalienable inheritance by his Lord: his kingship, in having a share in the government of his church, in having a voice in the election of his ministers, whether bishops, or priests, or deacons; his priesthood, in possessing the right of private judgment on the signification of holy Writ, and serving God according to the dictates of his conscience without the interference of other Christians. The church was thus the spouse of Christ and clothed with the sun of righteousness. But when the Beast or Roman Emperor began to interfere in the administration of it, and the rights of the people to be gradually usurped by their ministers under the connivance of the civil magistrate, then the church gave up the principles of her constitution, and broke her mystical union with her Lord. Henceforth the church became the whore of the Beast, or Roman Emperors, and the Mother of the Harlots, or national churches, who adhered to the ten gothic dynasties of kings who have been nearly ever since contemporary with the Roman Emperors. For the first three centuries there was no alliance of Church and State. Christ declared his kingdom was not of this world. perors thought otherwise, and they, with the kings, centred all the power within themselves, and the Popes or bishops whose jurisdiction they encouraged, till these latter became too insolent, and some of the kings entirely broke with them and have declared themselves the only supreme heads of the church on earth ever since. The consequence of the alliance of

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Church and State is, that one set of Christians consent to surrender those very rights which make them Christians, their liberty of thinking for themselves, and acting for themselves, into the hands of a few, and to suffer those few to buy and sell them as they think proper, in order to enjoy the protection and honours of the State, while the others, who are faithful and true to their Lord and their principles, are obliged to undergo whatever persecution the more favoured sect may think proper to inflict upon them, in order to make them come over to their party, or deter the more cowardly from joining them. The alliance of religion and politics was no new principle of civil government: it had existed in all states. Under the seven administrations of civil power, the BabylonicAssyrian, Medo-Persian, Greek, Egyptian, Syrian, Roman and Latin, fools or knaves have pursued the same line of policy in enervating the human intellect by leaving the formation and maintenance of religious opinions to the civil magistrate. In the time of St. John the first five had fallen, the Roman then existed, and the Latin had not yet come, and when it came, it continued for the short space of 115 years. The new administration of the civil power called the eighth, with which the Christian church stood in the closest connexion, was but the revival of an old one, one of the seven, that of the Greek or as they styled themselves, Roman Emperors, "which was and is not" in respect of St. John's days, but rose again in full power under Justinian, to whose plan of church rule the ten gothic kings, and their successors, who settled in the Roman Empire, though in other respects they have not cleaved one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay," yet have agreed and given their kingdoms. And this administration, though it went into perdition by the Turks, yet has been continued since in the line of French kings by the sale of the Greek Empire by Andrew Paleologus to Charles VIII. A.D. 1453, "and was and is not, and yet is," ever since: one of whom it seems will lead a confederacy of kings to the mount of mustering to put down the true principles of the church, which declare Christ alone to be king and lord of his kingdom, and will partially succeed in his attempt. But the false church is then to be destroyed by her former adherents, and the Beast and False Prophet with her.

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XVII. 1. And there came one of the seven angels

which had the seven vials, and talked with me saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth 2 upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the in

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habitants of the earth have been made drunk 3 with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads, 4 and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness 5 of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS of 6 THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with

the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I 7 wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads 8 and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the

world, shall regard with awful respect the beast 9 that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth; 10 and they are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he 11 cometh he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, he is both the eighth, and of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten

kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings at the same time with 13 the beast. These have one mind, and shall give 14 their power and strength unto the beast. These

shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is LORD OF LORDS, AND KING OF KINGS: and they that are with him 15 are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith

unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and 16 nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his

will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. 18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great

city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

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