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were the Philofophers, and other leading men in France, at that time unbelievers in Christianity, or Deifts, but Atheists, denying the being of a God b." And the triumphant entry of Voltaire into Paris immediately before his death in 1778, when viewed with all its extraordinary attending circumstances, may well be confidered as announcing a very general apoftacy from the church of Chrift, in all ranks of people ©.

We have seen that it is according to the ufual courfe of God's Providence to make a people, remarkable for their wickedness, "the rod of his anger."-We have feen, from the courfe of Prophecy, that the power appointed to execute his wrath upon "the kingdom of the beaft," was to be at the fame time the cause of its own mifery.And we have feen the Revolution in France, which is univerfally allowed to be in its origin, its principles, and its confequences, unparalleled in the hiftory of the world, to be the work of the Infidel Antichrift, and the accurate accomplishment of

Priestley's Faft Sermon, 1794.

See Robifon's Account of the Clergy in France,

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Prophecy, while it baffles explanation upon any principles derived from experience, or any other fource of human knowledge.

It has been shown alfo, that "the reign of the Image" is to be the last great effort which the of mankind will be perenemy mitted to make against the Religion of Christ, and that it is to be made, in the hands of God, the minister of punishment and correction to the earth. And it will be confeffed, that the power which Infidelity has raifed up, and continues to direct in France, is peculiarly fuited to be the fcourge of nations, and the trial of their faith. This wonderful Power acknowledges no principles, religious or moralno customs, political, civil, or civilized-of a nature to reftrain the full exercise of cruelty, licentiousness, and rapine; and the crimes and horrors which have marked its reign, exceed all past experience of the depravity of man. The most favage bordes that history mentions, appear to have had, among themfelves at leaft, fome law, fome faith, fome honour, fome generofity, fome humanity. But where fhall we find thefe. qualities in the creed, or in the conduct of apoftate Infidelity? Can we conceive more

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tremendous inftruments of the wrath of God, than a people thus deftitute of every principle which can diftinguifh men from brutes, or demons; and befides, remarkable for natural activity, vivacity, ingenuity, and impetuofity, and for acquired skill in all the arts of civilization, in all the deceivableness of fins?

It is a painful task to search the registers of wickedness and woe; and I shall spare my Readers and myfelf a long enumeration of the crimes and horrors which distinguish that System of rapine and treachery, of cruelty and blafphemy, by which the Atheiftic monsters of France hold their wretched country in more direful flavery than ever yet existed, while they execute the judgments of the Almighty upon a guilty world. But the neceffity of supporting a novel opinion upon a facred subject, by the teftimony of FACTS, must conquer the feelings of difgust and fenfibility, and enable me to give a fketch of this terrific power, and then select some striking testimonies to the fidelity of the defcription. For it yet remains for me to prove, that the principles and conduct of the civil power now reigning in France, are precisely

the

the fame with the principles and conduct of Voltaire's disciples, and that it exercises a tyranny equal to the tyranny of Antichristian Rome: and therefore that Antichriftian France must be confidered as the delegate of the fecond beaft (that is, the Infidel Antichrift), and " the image" or exact resemblance, of the tyranny of the first beast, as well as of the principles of the fecond. For the likeness to both appears to be plainly intimated by "having power given it both to Speak, and to kill"-to exercise the office of a falfe teacher, and of a civil tyrant,

It is then upon France, emblematically reprefented as " the fun," that we conceive the angel has poured out the fourth vial of wrath. It is in France that the fecond beaft has caufed his followers to make the image to exercife his power over the confciences and liberties of men, and by Democratic Tyranny and fanatic persecution of the Religion of Chrift, to fhow his determined enmity to the Lamb of God, and to speak great words of blafphemy against the Moft High." It is from France

See Introductory Chapter, vol. i. p. 402,

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that he has extended his defolating fway over the fairest portion of Europe, and excited the aftonishment and the fears of the world. This is the power well known by the common appellation of JACOBINISM, which, nurfed by Ambition, Vanity, and Atheism, has founded the pillar of French Republicanism upon the ruins of the palace, the throne, and the altar; that has reared it amid heaps of flaughtered victims, and cemented its parts with their blood. This is the power which, trained in the schools of Philosophism, affumed the drefs of mildness, virtue, and religion; but, when arrived at full maturity, difcovered its fanguinary and deftructive fpirit, and avowed its oppofition to every institution, human and divine, that obstructed its gi

• Manuel accufed the Jacobins of all the evils fince the Revolution, March 1ft, 1793. See Goudemet's Hiftorical Epochs, tranflated by Dr. Randolph, p. 45. Marat, the friend of the people, afferted in the Jacobin club, Dec. 19, 1793, that, " in order to cement liberty, the National Club ought to strike off 200,000 heads200,000 free heads have already fallen in battles, &c." A la place du fupplice, Madame Roland s'inclina devant la ftatue de la liberté, et prononça ces paroles memorables: "O. liberté! que de crimes on commet en ton nom!" Appel à l'Impartiale Poftérité, par la Citoyenne Roland, p. 165. tom. i.

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