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Ethan Smith (1762-1849)
Key to the Revelation
 (1st ed., 1833, 2nd ed., 1837)
  • Title Page
  • Preface
  • Index

  • Part One   (pp. 1-164)
  • Part Two  (pp. 165-396)

  • Transcriber's Comments

  • More on Ethan Smith



    • Dissertation on Prophecies (1811)   |   Key to Figurative Language (1814)
    Pamphlets (1814-7)  |  Character of Christ (1814)  |  View of Hebrews (1823)


      (note: the text on this page is still under construction)


    (go back to page 164)






    LE C T U R E   XIV.

    Second General Division of the Revelation.

    REVELATION  XII.

    The object of this chapter seems to be to furnish a general view of the two great combatants, -- the church and the devil, -- during the Christian era, till near the Millennium. We are hence led back to the commencement of the Christian era; and thence to traverse again the period given in the first general division, through which we have passed, as was shown in the first lecture. Of some of the events, given in the first general division, this second division gives also a view, but under different figures; and it gives some events not presented in the first division. These two general divisions furnish a great facility to the exposition of the Revelation. The church of Christ, in this chapter, is presented under her most appropriate figure -- a female, in a significant position, state and habiliments; -- praying and laboring for the birth of her offspring. *

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    * Some have been of opinion, that the events of this chapter were to extend only through the period which preceded the rise of popery. To perceive the incorrectness of this view, consider;

    1. The object of the chapter, which is an introduction to the second general division of the book, by exhibiting the two contending parties, the church and the devil. The struggles and contentions of these parties were to continue till the Millennium. The same reason, then, which presents these parties at all, must operate to present them, till the struggle shall close in the millennial glory of the church, or very near that period.

    2. The war between the true church and the papal see, was much longer, and of deeper interest, than was the war between the church and the pagan Roman emperors. Hence, that was more likely to be the "war in heaven," noted in this chapter, than was that with the pagan emperors.

    3. The war of the first Christian ages, in the pagan empire, is given in this chapter before, and distinct from the war in heaven here noted. That was given in the standing of the dragon before the woman to devour her offspring; and having his symbolic body formed from the form of that empire. The subsequent war then, in heaven, must have been in later ages.

    4. This war in heaven is subsequent to the flight of the woman into the wilderness, verse 6. But this event took place at the maturity of the papal beast, and it commenced the noted 1260 years of her wilderness state. Certainly, then, the subsequent war in heaven was with the papal see.

    5. The imagery of this war decides that it was the war with popery, and

     


    166                                           LECTURE  XIV.                                          


    Ver. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

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    not the war with paganism. It is "in heaven!" the symbolic heaven of the professed church of Christ. But a system of paganism can never be so denominated.

    6. The casting out of the dragon from heaven to earth does not fitly accord with his frustration in the subversion of paganism. But it fully accords with his fall in the commencement of the fall of popery, in the reformation. This fall of Satan was indeed a symbolic fall from heaven to earth; from the mystical heaven of the papal church, to the earth of more open opposition to the cause of Christ. The heaven is a symbol of the visible church, not of paganism. See Heb. xii. 26.

    7. The occasion of praise, on Satan's being cast from heaven, is such as well accords with a view of the papal system, but not the pagan. "For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before God, day and night." The papal persecutors accused the witnesses before God indeed; as rejecters of Christ's vicar on earth, and his true system. But the pagan persecutors never accused the persecuted to God; for they themselves both really and professedly denied him, in holding to their false gods.

    8. The cause of the rage of Satan, after being cast from heaven is such as fully accords with the time of the reformation from popery; but not at all with the time of the revolution in Rome: "Because he knoweth he hath but a short time!" At the time of the revolution in Rome, the Bible predicted a Ion? time fnr thfi ransp of Satan: fifteen or sixteen hundred years, at loaal! But at the lime of the reformation, in the sixteenth century, the predicted time of Satan began indeed to be short!

    9. The casting of floods from the mouth of Satan, in the closing parts of this chapter, fully accords with what has actually taken place in these last days, in the Voltaire system, and the horrors which followed: but it accords not so fitly with any thing thut took place in or soon after the pagan empire.

    10. The devil in the dragon, actually continues his contentions, -- as the game dragon, -- with the church, till he is bound at the commencement of the Millennium, and shut up in the bottomless pit. Rev. xx. 1,2. In Rev. xiii. 2, the dragon gives his power to the beast, in days long subsequent to the revolution subverting paganism in the year 320, in Rome. And in Rev. xvi. 13, after the sixth vial (about this period in which we live), one of the three unclean spirits, like frogs, is from the mouth of the dragon, showing that the very scenes of the twelfth chapter are still in operation, and will be till near the battle of the great day.

    Thus the views given of the chronology of the events of this twelfth chapter, must be correct. And the events of the chapter occupy the period from the commencement of the Christian era, till near the battle of the great day of God. And the writers who insist that they relate only to the period antecedent to the rise of popery, have nothing to support their sentiment, but much to refute it. The one argument, that the war in heaven, in this chapter. is subsequent to the first flight of the church into her wilderness etatu by the persecutions of popery, fully oversets their theory. This wilderness state of the church was to he 1260 years under persecutions of popery. But it agrees with nothing that took place under paganism. This war of the devil then, was in the papal heaven, -- the symbolic heaven of the professed visible church, in its papal corruption.

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          167


    We have here a striking emblem of the true church of God; an emblem well known through the sacred oracles, -- a virtuous female. Among the symbols of the church, is found the "the bride, the Lamb's wife!" She is "the king's daughter, all glorious within." She is the spouse of Immanuel, through the Songs of Solomon. "My dove, my undefiled, is one. She is the only one of her mother. She is the choice one of her that bare her." This emblem John seemed to behold in the upper regions of the air, in the visible heavens; which is a most fit symbolic position of the church. The church is herself known under the emblem of the heavens, -- meaning the visible heavens. Inspiration says, "Yet once more, and I shake not the earth only, but also the heavens." Or, not only earthly kingdoms, but the nominal church. This symbolic woman seemed to stand in the front of the sun, with his bright rays dazzling around her. This is a most lively figure of the union of the true people of Christ with him, the Sun of righteousness, -- of their position in heavenly places, and their interest in the avails of his perfect provisions of gospel grace for their justification and preparation for glory. And it is a lively emblem of their special illumination by the Spirit of God, -- of their Christian graces, and their fruits of holiness; also of the gracious accommodations of the church, with all needed gifts for her edification. The church is thus "clothed with the sun." "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise."

    This woman has "the moon under her feet." This may remind us of several things. The church had, at the commencement of the Christian era, risen superior to the moonlight of the old dispensation. Those rituals reflected the rays of the Sun of righteousness only as the moon in the night reflects the light of the pun upon us, while the sun itself is hid from our view. But the Christian church rose superior to that moonlight system, and received her light from Jesus Christ himself. Her first teachers and members literally beheld their Saviour; and all their successors are blessed with the literal record which God gave of his Son. Of this rich blessedness, the moon's being under the feet of this symbol of the church, in our text, was an emblem. And the same emblem likewise reminds us of the power of the Christian faith, which overcomes the world, and places it under the feet of every true child of God. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." It impresses the superior glory of heavenly

     


    168                                           LECTURE  XIV.                                          


    things above things earthly, and renders saints dead to the world, and to sin; while it raises the heart of grace to the glory of God, and makes men have their conversation in heaven. To finish the sublime climax, this woman wears a crown set with twelve gems, called on account of their brilliancy, stars. This is an emblem of her royalty. The followers of Christ are called a royal priesthood, and they are said to be made kings and priests unto God. Christ, the king of glory, thus adorns them with his own royal honors, which are here denoted by a crown with twelve points, at the top of each of which a star is seen to shine. To what can these ornaments of the crown of the church allude? No doubt they allude to the twelve apostles, and their succession the gospel ministry. Christ in this book assures us, "the stars are the angels (ministers) of the churches." Such honor our Lord puts upon his ambassadors. "These things saith he who holdeth the stars in his right hand, and who walketh in the midst of his golden candlesticks." Paul speaks of his converts as his crown of joy. And ministers of Christ are to the church her crown of joy. And the number of these stars seems fixed by the fact that the number of the apostles was twelve. *

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    * There is a special reason why the twelve apostles should be viewed as twelve stars in the crown of the church. They were not only the first in commission in the gospel ministry; but they were the most signal witnesses of the divinity of the Bible. Their exclusive excellence in this. respect appears as follows. The evidence arising from their testimony, sealed with their blood, rests not on the mere opinions of men; but on infallible facts, which facts infallibly establish the divinity of our Bible. These facts are, the life, death, resurrection and ascension to heaven of the Lord Jesus Christ! Of these facts, the twelve apostles were eye-witnesses. And they unitedly declared them at the peril of their lives. No selfish ends could have induced them to do this; for it was in direct opposition to all the worldly interest and popularities of that day, and to the prejudices of the heart of fallen man. When men lay down their lives in support of their favorite opinions, it evinces nothing more than that they are sincere in the belief of those opinions: but the certainty of the correctness of those opinions must rest on other evidence. Their martyrdom in favor of those opinions furnishes not this evidence. Many have died in favor of paganism. But when men lay down their lives in support of certain facti, which they have seen and known, and this for a sufficient length of time, and under circumstances in which they could not have been deceived; when twelve men thus testify, at the peril of their lives, and testify too, to facts publicly known to all people in the same region, and not dared to be denied by any, even the most violent enemies; the evidence in favor of such facts becomes perfect. And what are those facts in the present case? They are such as infallibly to decide that our Bible (the Old and New Testaments) is the word of God. If the infinite God was indeed on earth, manifest in the flesh, wrought miracles in the view of all men, and did what Jesus did;

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          169


    This part of the emblem of the church may denote also the doctrines of grace, propagated by the twelve apostles. These doctrines the church receives, and maintains; and hence she is called "the pillar and ground of the truth." The distinguishing truths of gospel salvation, supported by the twelve apostles, and the gospel ministry, have been indeed bright and precious gems in the crown of the church. Let who will turn aside to their crooked ways; the immutable truths of Christ are ever the same; and they lie at the foundation, and form a crown of man's eternal glory. Let them be hated and opposed by the dragon, by false teachers and their followers; the true members of the church will not fail to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. She here finds her good hope through grace. And when men will not endure sound doctrine, but heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and will turn to fables; the people of God will support these twelve stars, and be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

    Ver. 2. And she being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

    3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

    4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

    The delicate sjate of this symbolic woman is significant and impressive, and shall receive attention under the fifth

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    then the evidence of the gospel, thus established, is infallible. Most of the facts thus evinced by this senses, and the united testimony of the twelve apostles, lay open to the inspection of all around. They were seen and acknowledged, to the vast vexation of the enemy. And the writers of these facts gave their testimonies apart, with no appearance of trembling concert, or fear of being detected in falsehood; writing "as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Some things which these separate witnesses thus wrote, seem at first view to differ: but on close investigation they are found to agree. The writers herein discover their fearless honesty; and that they were no impostors. Such infallible witnesses were the twelve apostles. Well then, might they be represented by twelve stars in the crown of the church. They were those "who had accompanied Christ all the time that he went in and out among them, to be witnesses." "Ye are my witnesses unto the ends of the earth."

     


    170                                           LECTURE  XIV.                                          


    verse. Who this dragon is, we are not left to conjecture. In verse 9 he is called "the devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world." The fallen angels are spoken of as legions, because they are many. It is immaterial whether the whole race of them are comprised in this red dragon, or only their leader, the prince of devils. Probably all the race of fallen angels are included. They are all united as one, against the church. This symbol derives its form from the old pagan Roman empire, because it was the prime instrument of the devil's operations at the time of this vision, and for a number of subsequent ages. The dragon has seven heads and ten horns, because Rome had been built on seven hills; and also its dynasty was to be known under seven distinct forms of government, as will be shown in the exposition of the secular Roman beast, chap. xiii. and xvii. And, as the beast has ten horns; the dragon is noted as having the same. The dragon is red, as that pagan empire (the prime instrument of his annoyance) was stained with the blood of the saints. The dragon has his seven crowns upon his heads, as no doubt the devil managed at his pleasure the distribution of the crowns of that empire. The devil here received his symbolic form from a description of pagan Rome, which was then the signal instrument of his persecutions of the church; but he did not cease to be the persecuting dragon, when pagan Rome was no more. The devil is still known under the same name in the last days. See Rev. xvi. 13, and xx. 2. Here, at the battle of that great day of God, the dragon is found aiding the event. And this figure suggests how fully Satan manages the wicked powers of the earth. The pagan empire was here noted as the body, and the devil the soul of this dragon. So fully does Satan work in the children of disobedience, and lead them captive at his will. By the dragon's tail drawing a third part of the stars of heaven, and casting them to the earth, we may understand that, by his infernal influence, he could, to a great extent, depose dignitaries of the Roman empire, and hurl them from their stations, when not likely to answer his infernal designs. And the position of the dragon, -- standing before the woman, to devour her offspring as soon as it is born, -- gives a striking view of the vigilance and the power of the wicked one, to destroy the seed of the church. It was the malicious eye of this same infernal agent, that watched the birth of the babe of Bethlehem, to devour him by Herod. Here was the influence which instigated that Roman governor

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          171


    to direct the wise men of the east to bring him word after they had found their infant Saviour; pretending his wish to worship him; but intending to destroy him. The same Satanic influence was operating, when the same Herod, upon finding the eastern sages had not in this thing obeyed him, sent forth his soldiers, and cut in pieces the infant children of Bethlehem. Here was a deed fully in character with the great red dragon standing before the woman, to devour her offspring as soon as born. A similar thing we find in Exod. i. 16 -- 22; the decreeing of the death of the male children of the people of God in Egypt. The prophet Ezekiel (chap. xxix. 3) says, "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon, that lieth in the midst of the river." Pharaoh is here called the great dragon, meaning the crocodile of the river of Egypt, which must be supposed to have devoured the infants of Israel cast into it; because that tyrant had ordered those infants to be cast into the river. This, we may conceive, is the parent text of the passage under consideration: in the latter, the dragon is red, and takes his head and horns from the ancient form of the Roman empire. The noted means of the devil's opposition to the church were to be, -- persecution, errors, heresies, paganism, the man of sin, and the infidelities of the last days. When Satan became alarmed at the propagation of Christianity, he instigated first the Jewish rulers, and then the pagan emperors, to persecute the church with deadly hatred. To this the position of the dragon in our text alludes.

    Ver. 5. And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

    This man-child born to the church, alludes, we may believe, both to her Saviour, and to her spiritual succession. It was Christ who was to rule all nations with his rod of iron; Ps. ii. 9. And he was to be born of a woman, born of the church; she is instructed to say, "For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder." To this our text seems to allude. The church, under both the Old and New Testaments, is but one and the same church. "My beloved is one." And the Old Testament church was long ardently desiring the birth of her Saviour, and praying for the event. "O

     


    172                                           LECTURE  XIV.                                          


    that the salvation of Israel was come out of Zion!" Simeon and Anna were waiting at the temple for this event. Pious kings and prophets had long done the same, in their ardent desires for the birth of Christ. He was accordingly known as "the desire of all nations!" His birth was then preeminently the desire of the church. And well might she be denoted by the figure in our text, a woman bringing forth her son, who was to rule all nations with his rod of iron! This was a most happy figure of the church at that period, just introductory to the new and last dispensation. * This accords with the first promise of Christ, as the seed of the woman. The birth of Christ was above all other events, glorious; and was the foundation of the new birth of all his spiritual seed. Most happy and appropriate is

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    * Some have made the following objections to the man-child here being Christ: Christ was born before the text was written; and "the writer here spoke as a prophet, and not as an historian;" hence events then future must have been exclusively intended. Reply. -- This seems plausible; but it haa no weight. The writer, John, it is true, was speaking as a prophet. But if, to exhibit events then future to the best advantage, something on which they rested was already past; prophets repeatedly took the liberty to commence with that past event. This is a fact. In Rev. xiii. 15, the writer stands in vision on the bank of the sea, and beholds the secular Roman beast rising from its billows. This was the same beast and event with what we find given in the same figure in Dan vii. 7, as distinct from the papal power. But this secular Roman beast had risen ages before this view of it given to John in Rev. xiii. 1; though he was then "speaking as a prophet, and not as an historian," no less than in our text. The object of the Holy Spirit then was to predict things future relative to this beast. But he takes the liberty to commence the description with a view of the origin of this beast, notwithstanding this event was then long past. It was necessary he should do thus, in order to form a whole of the event to be described. The same thing is done in Rev. xvii., when predicting the beast of the last day, to arise from the bottomless pit just before he goes into perdition, in the battle of the great day of God. This power of infidelity of these last days is there prefigured as a new beast from the world of wo; and at the same time, as a healed head of the old secular Roman beast. And, in order to identify him with that beast, he is here described as having seven heads and ten horns; while yet the first of those seven heads existed before the birth of Christ, and most of them were now for a long time past events. It is thus a plain case, that when a whole is to be presented to view, an essential part of which is already past, the prediction commences with that past event; just as in our text. See another instance of it. -- Daniel beheld in vision, the rise and progress of the four great eastern empires; and he was led to predict them as events then future, because various of them were then future. But the Babylonian empire was then past: yet he commenced with this, as though it had been future, because he would give a whole. Another objection has been, "Christ was born of the Jewish, and not of the Christian church!" Had this objector forgotten, that the Jewish church and the Christian church were both essentially one? God never had but one church, -- one vineyard, -- one olive-tree. These, and all similar objections, then, are wholly without weight.

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          173


    it then, that it should be placed at the head of the events given in this general division of the Revelation. But the figure in our text includes also the new and spiritual birth of all the seed of Christ, as the children and succession of the church. They are "born again;" and noted as born of the church. Paul speaks of Jerusalem (the church) as being "the mother of us all." Isaiah speaks of Zion (the church) as travailing, and her children being born. Paul says, "My little children, for whom I travail in birth again, till Christ be formed in you." See also Isa. xxvi. 17, 13, among the parent texts of this rich figure. The Psalmist says, "Of Zion it shall be said, this man was born in her." "The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there." The new birth of the children of Christ rests on the literal birth of the Saviour. Both then may be included in the figure in the text. -- Both are out of the course of nature; both are by special promise. The birth of Isaac (given by special divine promise) was a type both of the birth of Christ, and of the new birth of the seed of Christ, the seed of the church, as might be shown from express divine testimony, and as the church well know. All were by promise, and by special divine intervention. The literal birth of Christ was an earnest of the new birth of his chosen. Christ was the true spiritual seed of Abraham: and in him believers are "the seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise." Most fitly then, does the birth in our text exhibit both of these events. As Christ was to rule all nations with his rod of iron, so he engages that his spiritual seed shall do the same, Rev. ii. 26,27; "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessel of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of my Father:" alluding to Ps. ii. 8, 9, where the Father officially gives this same power to Christ. Christ here puts the honor of it on his people, and thus unites them to him as they are found united in the text. Jesus Christ was, while an infant, in a mystical sense caught up to the throne of God, in his infallible protection from the rage of Satan in Herod. The same clause of the text had a literal fulfilment in Christ when he ascended to heaven, and literally took the throne of the universe. And the spiritual seed of the church are also mystically caught up to the throne of God in the infallible protection which God affords them in his covenant and providence.

     


    174                                           LECTURE  XIV.                                          


    Some have expressed an opinion that the man-child in the text alluded to Constantine, who was the instrument of the revolution in the Roman empire from paganism to Christianity, in the fourth century. But this is to degrade the sacred passage. It may be a fact however, that the passage may have received a kind of illustration in the case of Constantine; as it did also in Martin Luther, and many other men-children of the church, or eminent instruments of good to her. Such were men-children of the church indeed! and they were remarkably protected against the shafts of the enemy, as though caught up to the throne of God. And it was a fact, that after the revolution in the empire, the church was protected by its strong arm from further persecution from paganism. A son of the church sat on the throne of the empire; and persecuting pagans were put down. But this clause of the text has a meaning infinitely more noble, in that Christ is on the throne of heaven; and his church in her succession is under Almighty protection in every age.

    Ver. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

    The devil, finding himself confounded in the subversion of his beloved paganism, and the establishment of Christianity in the empire, began ere-long to exhibit his deep management in getting up another power most hostile to the kingdom of Christ; -- another persecuting power, but under the Christian name. The Man of Sin arose, "whose coming was after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." The true church was then, at the rise of the papal beast, driven to her wilderness state of 1260 years. This is the same depression, and for the same period, with that of the two witnesses prophesying in sackcloth, in the first division of the Revelation, chap. xi. 3. The ancient church in Israel was made to sojourn in the wilderness of Arabia a painful season, before they could enter Canaan, that type of good things to come. This seems to have been a kind of prelude to the wilderness state of the church in our text, and to that in verse 14, which precedes her millennial glory. But, in this her depressed state, God would not fail nor forsake her. Even in this state of exile, she should not

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          175


    fail of being upheld and protected. The history of the true followers of Christ through the dark ages, and under the insults and persecutions of the papal see, gives the exact description of this wilderness state of the church. And her supports in that depressed state give the true sense of the clause, "that they should feed her there!"

    History furnishes the fact, that the line of the true followers of Christ was indeed preserved, for a great course of centuries, in a kind of literal wilderness, in the valleys of Piedmont and Dauphiny, where the churches of the Albigenses and Waldenses were, for a very long time, the keepers of the pure doctrines of grace. Here was a kind of literal fulfilment of the text, united with a mystical fulfilment of it in the depressions of the true followers of the Lamb during much of the long period noted. This view may facilitate the exposition of the next flight of the woman in verse 14, where she is borne on eagles' wings to another wilderness.

    Ver. 7. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels,

    8. And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

    9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

    We have here the war between Satan and his legions on the one hand; and Jesus Christ and his followers on the other. The seat of this war is represented as high in the visible region of the air. This position is a fit emblem of the professed church of Christ on earth. It here denotes that this war of the devil was carried on against Christ in a church, and by a people that bore his name, and yet were utterly hostile to him. This was the case indeed in the papal church. This church carried on a continual war against Christ in his two witnesses, who in the text are noted as the angels of Michael, a name of Christ, importing one like God, and meaning God in humanity. These true followers of Christ, the corrupt antichristian church of Rome persecuted as heretics, and put to most cruel deaths very many thousands of them. For many ages this

     


    176                                           LECTURE  XIV.                                          


    battle progressed with great fury on the part of the dragon in the papal church. He caused this mother of harlots and abominations of the earth to be drunken with the blood of the saints, and (with her two horns of a lamb) to speak like a dragon; Satan caused this impious Man of Sin to "exalt himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped. So that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God!" -- claiming to be "his holiness," perfect, and infallible! Well may such a war be represented as carried on in a region high in the visible heavens. This war was long and terrible through the dark ages.

    But the time of the devil's defeat arrived; the time for the commencement of that series of divine judgments which should issue in the total destruction of the papal delusion. The dragon should no longer be found reigning undisturbedly over the kings of the earth, in that hateful papal system. He should no longer hold his position as among the stars of heaven. This falling of the dragon from heaven took place in the Reformation, in the sixteenth century, by the instrumentality of Martin Luther, and his associate reformers. The papal system was then stripped of its gaudy hypocritical attire, and was exhibited to the world as a corrupt, blasphemous, and most abominable system of the wicked one. This was a fall of Satan indeed. And it was most fitly prefigured by the falling headlong of a great red dragon, and of his hosts of minor dragons, from an exalted height in the visible heaven to the earth! This infernal enemy of the people of God is here called "the old serpent," in allusion to the serpent which the devil entered in paradise to deceive the mother of the human race. He is called the devil, to tell precisely who he is, and that he is the accuser. He is called "Satan," as being an enemy. And it is added, "who deceiveth the whole world," to warn man of his fatal influence to delude and to ruin. This fatal influence of delusion he has been permitted of God to exercise in all ages hitherto, to the eternal ruin of by far the greater part of the human family, deceiving the whole world. Most potent spirit of delusion! having multiform wiles. suited to all meridians, ages, climes, and circumstances of men! "Fly from this fell deceiver's snares: O sons of Adam, fly!"

    Ver. 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          177


    our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

    11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

    12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Wo to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

    The spirits of the just made perfect in glory, and the saints on earth, on this occasion, gave glory to God in the highest. Their souls unitedly leaped for joy, that the papal masterpiece of the devil's imposition was at length detected in its filthy abominations! -- and that, as far as the Reformation prevailed, it had fallen into its merited contempt! The devil had here, by his first-born son, the pope, and by all the clan of his subordinate papal authorities, accused the true followers of Christ, -- accused them day and night before God, of being guilty of great impiety in their rejection of the blasphemies and mummeries of popery. The two witnesses were indeed thus accused continually, and for ages. But the Protestants had here obtained a glorious victory over them, and over Satan, by their reliance on Jesus Christ; and their prayers, and bold persevering testimonies borne for Christ, even at the peril of their lives. In this they had prevailed. Such prayers and testimonies shall never be in vain. If the answer to their prayers tarry long; wait for it: for at the end it shall speak, and will not lie! All the holy family, in heaven and earth, were called upon to rejoice on the occasion; -- a very different improvement from what was made in the courts of Satan and the papal court. A wo is now heard, denounced against "the inhabiters of the earth, and of the sea," because of the rage of the wicked one. This address is made to the unbelieving mass of mankind, whether in continents or isles. For the rage of Satan, and his new inventions of mischief, would be in proportion to the greatness of his defeat; and to his perceptions of the shortness of his remaining time to do mischief on earth. He would, thenceforth, redouble his furious exertions. And this was found to be in fact the case, as the abominable

     


    178                                           LECTURE  XIV.                                          


    code of the Jesuits (which was then soon got up), and as the more horrid system of illuminism, can testify. Satan had formerly seen the fall of his beloved system of paganism in the Roman empire. He had then, with vast labors and perseverance, got up his still more beloved system of popery; which had most fully answered his purpose, for many centuries. But now this too was exposed in its hateful abominations, -- had fallen from its zenith, and had commenced its plunge, like a huge rock dislodged from the top of a steep mountain. This event Satan perceived to be but a prelude to his final confinement in the bottomless pit. His rage then was full.

    Most interesting are the position and the dress of the symbolic woman. "Ye are the light of the world." -- "A city set on a hill." -- "Clothed with the sun, -- the moon under her feet; crowned with twelve stars." Happy indeed, if all professors did, in heart and life, well answer to this figure. True saints do, in a good degree, answer to it.

    But behold the position, strength, and malice of the devil! -- How important to hear and obey the divine injunction given in relation to him! such as, -- "Give no place to the devil," -- "Whom resist steadfastly in the faith," -- "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices," -- "Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour," -- "Watch, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." Wretched is the state, and most fearful the prospects, of those who are led captive by Satan at his will. He will surely lead them down to the burning lake, unless prevented by a miracle of grace. "Shall the prey of the mighty be delivered?" Satan is mighty; and sinners are his prey. Most certainly would a new-born infant fall a prey to a great red dragon, if left in his grasp. Great indeed is the honor put upon the newborn succession of the church, that it should be included with the Captain of our salvation, in the symbolic man-child who shall rule all nations; and who is caught up to the throne of God. Verily, their cause will live; and it will fill and bless the world. Who would not be of their blessed community? Here is the city of salvation; the city of our God. If the devil was foiled in the Reformation, which was the commencement of the sinking of popery; his rage was but invigorated. And it is not now

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          179


    confined to old papal lands. We may be assured the dragon has not failed of visiting this land of the pilgrims. He has found his way hither. And great are his efforts to ruin the true church in America. May the church of Christ here awake to her dangers, and her duties. And may her prayers, alms, vigilance, and evangelical efforts for the conversion of souls be such as to accord with her height of privileges. When Zion travails, spiritual children will be born. God assures, "I have never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain." If Satan rage; your spiritual succession, O Zion, will be kept as though caught up to the throne of God. Say then, The Lord is my strength and my salvation; of whom shall I be afraid? I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. "The Lord is my light, and my salvation!"

    But, O sinners, out of Christ, -- what is your standing, in the light of the figures in our text? Will you continue to be led captive by Satan at his will? He designs to convey you down to his own infernal abodes. Will you go? Will you cheerfully follow him thither? -- What then must be your future and eternal reflections in hell? They will constitute the worm that dieth not; and they will furiously blow the fire, which shall not be quenched. Turn then, to the strong-hold, ye prisoners of hope! you may now escape the jaws of the infernal dragon. He that is stronger than the strong man armed, is now ready to be your salvation. O hear, and improve his proclamation of "liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." The prey of the mighty may now be delivered. Fly, then, from the tyrant of the world of despair -; lest his empire over you be eternally confirmed, and your endless perdition with him be inevitable!




     

    [ 180 ]





    L E C T U R E   XV.

    REVELATION  XII.

    Ver. 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child.

    14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might flee into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

    In the sketch given in this twelfth chapter of the Revelation, of the struggles between the church and Satan, from the commencement of the Christian era till near the battle of the great day of God, we are in our text brought to events of the latter part of the sixteenth century, and of the former part of the seventeenth. Satan, in the events of the antecedent verses, found himself and his legions cast out, by the Reformation, from the symbolic heaven of high popularity in the Romish church, to the earth of open opposition to Christ. This forced upon him a keen conviction that his remaining time on earth was short. The devil now therefore set himself to invent new forms of opposition to Christ. And his infernal court soon gave birth to that most detestable order, the Jesuits, who proved powerful supporters of the sinking popery. See fourth vial. This code of imposition was the masterpiece of the kingdom of darkness, till the still deeper scheme of illuminism arose, as copied from it with vast improvements, and having infidelity, instead of popery, for its latent object. By the aid of the Jesuits, the dragon now instigated new and horrid persecutions; to which the first verse of our text alludes. He "persecuted the woman," -- the Protestant church; a sketch of which persecution shall here be given.

    Louis XIV repealed the edict of Nantz, in which tolerance had been given to the Protestants in France; and he in a short time destroyed and banished two millions of his subjects. The noted massacres of Protestants in France, in Ireland, and in Poland took place. Also the violent

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          181


    and deadly persecutions raised against the pious Piedmontese, and the slaughter of Protestants in other lands, not excepting Britain, the land of our fathers. Many, even there, were forced to seal their Christian testimony with their blood. Scott, upon that period, says, "No computation can reach the number of those who have since the Reformation been put to death for their maintaining of the profession of the gospel, in opposition to the church of Rome. A million of poor Waldenses perished in France. Nine hundred thousand orthodox Christians were slain, in less than thirty years after the institution of the order of the Jesuits. The duke of Alva boasted of his having put to death thirty-six thousand in the Netherlands, by the hands of the common executioner, in the space of a few years. The Inquisition destroyed by various tortures one hundred and fifty thousand, in thirty years." Thus the dragon in his mighty rage at his loss in the Reformation, persecuted the woman, as had been predicted in our text. The flight of the church (in verse 14) followed. The true followers of Christ had, a thousand years before, been; depressed to a state, called a wilderness. at the rise of popery; as predicted in verse 6 of the context. The true sense of the second flight (that in our text) expositors have failed of giving, on account of the duration which seemed to be ascribed to it, which is 1260 years. This was the length of time ascribed to the first flight, verse 6. That first wilderness state was to be 1260 years from the time of the manifestation of the papal beast, to the battle of the great day, when Antichrist should go into perdition; and. to the second flight the same length of time seems to be ascribed, which has led writers on the subject to conceive that the two accounts (one in verse 6 and one in verse 14) must allude to the same event. But this confounds the chronology and the events of the chapter. The difficulty which has led to so great an error, can easily be removed. The account of the duration of the second flight (that in our text) must be elliptically expressed. It is as though the writer had said, the church thus flew to her new retreat, for the 1260 years; meaning for the remaining part of that well-known period. That this is the sense, is evident from the necessity of the case. For this flight, be it what it may, is within several centuries of the close of the noted 1260 years; and hence the sense must be, for the remaining part of that period! And we find language similar to this, relative to the 1260 years, both in the Old and New

     


    182                                           LECTURE  XV.                                          


    What then was this second flight? To aid in furnishing an answer, let the following suppositions be made. Suppose a new continent had been lately discovered, when those Protestants were thus persecuted; a continent in a part of the world distant from the face of the old papal Roman earth; a vast continent, embracing all the climes,

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    * "A new thing," long after the rise of both the secular Roman beast, and of popery, had been shown to Daniel, viz., the rise of a system of infidelity, in the last days. The question was asked, "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" i. e. How long is it from the rise of this infidel influence, to the battle of that great day of God? And the reply is, "for a time, times and an half," which is the 1260 years, which had before (chap vii. 25) been ascribed to the duration of the papal horn; and is afterward, for the same reason, ascribed to the duration of the depression of the witnesses, Rev. xi. 3, and to the same event, as a wilderness state of the church, Rev. xii. 6. It could not therefore mean that this infidel system, after it should arise in the last days (many centuries after the rise of popery), should remain 1260 years; but only to the close of that term. The end of the wonders should come at the end of the 1260 years. This fully answered the design of the interrogator, "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" We have the same elliptical use of the same period, and for the same reason, in Rev. xiii. 5. The secular Roman beast, there given, is noted as continuing 1260 years. But this could not have been designed as the whole duration of that beast: for he had risen before the Christian era. See Dan. vii. 7. Its whole continuance, then, is about 2000 years; and yet here 1260 is the time ascribed to it. The meaning necessarily is (as when the same thing is noted in Daniel, in the above passage), he continues to the close of the 1260 years. This mode of speech we may suppose to have been common in Israel. They had their jubilee, recurring after every lapse of forty-nine years, or on each fiftieth year, as their year of release. When then an Israelite at any period of the forty-nine years fell into bondage; the question would arise, how long has he lost his liberty? The answer would be, the forty-nine years; meaning, to the close of that known period from the present time. None would understand that reply as meaning that such a man has the whole of that period now to serve; but only the remaining part of it, be it more or less. Such is the sense of the length of the flight in our text.

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          183


    fertilities of soil, beautiful varieties, and natural conveniences, desirable for the habitation of the greatest and most happy people on earth. Suppose it to have been put into the minds of the best of the Protestants, under their cruel persecutions, to flee over a vast ocean, to form their settlement in this new world, in order to find a peaceful asylum for the rights of conscience, and the rights of man. Suppose them entering on the flight, and by the signal protection of Heaven, safely reaching that far distant continent. Suppose God there protects them, increases them, and causes them to become a great and renowned nation, established in the enjoyment of the rights of conscience and of civil liberty, and on a political eminence which overlooks the old world, and causes the thrones of tyrants there to tremble. Suppose their descendants soon to multiply into a great nation, to become the envy of all other nations, and to bid fair to be the great means of the conversion and bliss of the world. Suppose the church of Christ there to flourish far beyond all other churches on earth, and to form there a seat for the commencement of the special showers of the Spirit of grace in the last days, and to seem to be clearly destined to give a new and correct model to the whole militant church of Christ. Let these things be supposed; and then let the question be asked, What and whither is the second flight of the woman in the Revelation? Would you not immediately point to this new region of the church, and say, thither was her flight, and there is her gracious lodgment, assigned by propitious Heaven? This is all reality, as the American church can testify. The thing was transacted by our pilgrim fathers. As this exposition of the text is wholly new, and as it gives an interpretation of great interest to the church on earth, if correct; I shall here adduce my arguments in favor of the correctness of it.

    1. The time of the flight of our pilgrim fathers to this continent accords with the flight in our text. The latter was after the dragon saw that he was cast out from his papal height of impositions by the light of the Reformation in the 16th century; and after his subsequent persecutions of the church of Christ. And this was the very time of the flight of our pilgrim fathers to this western continent.

    2. The occasion of the flight of our pilgrim fathers hither, most fully accords with the occasion of the flight in our text. About the commencement of the seventeenth century, numbers of devout Protestants in Britain, being

     


    184                                           LECTURE  XV.                                          


    deeply pained with the relics of popery, which they found to be still held in the established English church, entered into covenant with each other that they would take the liberty to regulate their faith and religion only by the word of God. Several large churches thus united under their own pious pastors. But this liberty taken, so offended the established English church, that a spirit of persecution soon rose upon these Dissenters with fury, which did not content itself with cruel mockings merely, but it proceeded to cruel prosecutions and imprisonments. Some of these pious people were now forced to flee, and leave their families and means of living; and new scenes of persecutions commenced. It would be affecting, and much to my purpose, to give here a full history of the trials, emigrations, and perplexities of the Puritans in Britain, which led the way to the flight of this people to America; but this would exceed my proposed limits. I will content myself then, just to notice, in the old well-known track, their removal to Holland, and thence over the Atlantic.

    The trials and vexations of these our fathers, before they left their native land and continent, were such, as were kindly designed of God to lead them to "cease from man," and trust in him alone. They were especially calculated and designed to lead the Puritans to the knowledge of the civil and religious rights of man. Of this rich benefit they would have failed, had their various entreaties for some degree of lenity been listened to by their oppressors; -- even as Luther (the great reformer) would have failed of accomplishing the designs of Heaven in the Reformation, had the pope listened to his proposals for accommodation. But, as in the case of Luther, the Most High designed to make thorough work in reformation, and hence permitted not the pope to comply with Luther's conciliatory proposals; so, in the case of the Puritans, whom God was preparing for a flight to America; he designed effectually to shake them off from all papal superstition, and to bring them to a new and distant retreat; that a cradle might here be formed for the knowledge and enjoyment of the rights of conscience, and of civil liberty. Such was the cruel conduct of the persecutors of these Puritans, that they were driven to determine on fleeing their country. After much prayer and consultation, they resolved to escape to Holland. But the English government forbade their departure, and barred the vessels of their harbors against them. They however found means to get on board

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          185


    a vessel for Holland; but the captain betrayed them. And, after being robbed of their clothing, and their females being insulted, they were forced back, and some of them were imprisoned. Such horrid barbarities increased instead of diminishing their numbers. They were again attempting to enter on board a ship for Holland; when a British armed force was seen rushing upon them. The captain of the vessel, with some on board, slipped away, as the wind was favorable, and was gone. Some husbands had got on board without their wives and children, as the latter were up a creek at a little distance. All on shore fell into the hands of this armed force, who brandished their swords over the heads of this defenceless band with savage voices. This furious armed band led off these helpless captives, hurrying them from place to place, and delivering them from one officer to another, till their fury was allayed.

    But these persecuted Puritans found means to flee from their cruel country: and they arrived in Holland. In Leyden they found floods of vice, and soon learned that this was not their home, that they must seek another region. After twelve years' residence there; they mutually conceived a strong desire to seek a home in a remote part of the world; and, with much prayer and mutual counsel, they resolved to brave the Atlantic, and to fly to the new continent, then lately discovered in the west. Says a noted writer, "They became satisfied that they had as real an indication of the Divine will, that they should thus do, as had Abraham that he should leave his Chaldean territory, for the land of promise."

    3. The character of this band of the worshippers of God who fled to America, was such as fully to accord with the sublime figure in our text. They may be said to have been selected of God from the mass of even the Protestant multitudes, to people a new world, and to commence what was divinely determined here to be done; even as a husbandman selects and cleanses his best wheat, to seed a new and peculiar field. They were most barbarously slandered; but were the very best of people. The evidence of this is full, and is given in a periodical publication in the following description of our pilgrim fathers: "They were the most remarkable body of men the world ever knew. For many years they were the theme of unmeasurable invective and derision. They were exposed to the utmost licentiousness of the press and of the stage, at a time when the press and the stage were licentious. The public would

     


    186                                           LECTURE  XV.                                          


    not take them under their protection, but they were abandoned without reserve to satirists and dramatists. The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from their contemplation of eternal things. Not content with acknowledging in general terms an overruling Providence; they ascribed every event to the will of that Being for whose power nothing is too vast, and for whose inspection nothing is too minute. To know, serve, and enjoy him, was with them the great end of existence. The ceremonious homage which too many substitute for the pure worship of the heart, they rejected. Instead of being content with occasional glimpses of God; they aspired to gaze fully on his brightness, and to commune with him as it were face to face. The difference between the greatest and the least of mankind, seemed with them to vanish. They despised all the dignitaries of this world. If they were unacquainted with many works of philosophers; they were deep read in the oracles of God. If their names were not found in the registers of heralds; they believed them to be recorded in the book of life. If their steps were not accompanied with splendid trains of servants; legions of ministering angels had charge of them. Their palace was a house not made with hands. Their diadems were crowns of glory. On the rich, on nobles, and on priests (so called) they looked down with pity; while they deemed themselves to be richer in more precious treasures; eloquent in a language more exalted; nobles by the right of grace; and priests by the imposition of mightier hands. The meanest intelligent was in their view a being to whose destiny a trembling importance belonged; and on whose slightest actions the spirits of light and darkness looked with anxious interest. Events which short-sighted mortals ascribe to earthly causes, had in their view been ordained from above. The same Puritan seemed to be made up of two different sorts of men; the one all self-abasement, penitence, gratitude, and love; the other inflexible, sagacious. The one could prostrate himself in the dust before God; the other feared not to set his foot on the neck of a tyrant. In devout retirements the Puritan prayed with groans and tears, and seemed to hear the lyre of angels, and the tempting whispers of fiends. But when the same Puritan took his seat in council, or girded on his armor for war, -- how changed! People who knew nothing of these godly men, but their plain visages, might laugh. But they had little reason to laugh when

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          187


    encountering them in the hall of debate, or on the field of battle. These fanatics, -- falsely so called, -- brought to their civil and military affairs a coolness of judgment, and an immutability of purpose, which some people thought inconsistent with religion, but which in fact were the fruit of it. The intensity of their piety made them tranquil to every thing else. This their ruling sentiment had subjected to itself hatred, ambition, and worldly fear. With them, death had lost its terrors, and pleasure its charms. They had indeed their smiles and their tears, but not for things earthly!" Such were our pilgrim fathers, who fled from dire oppression for righteousness' sake, across the Atlantic, and peopled New-England. No people on earth, if the Jews be excepted, ever had equal reason, with us, to venerate and to rejoice in the character of their ancestors. Happy are those of their descendants who possess the mantle of their evangelical spirit!

    4. The trials of our pilgrim fathers, even after those which have been noted as occasioning their flight to those wilds of America, were such as well to accord with the figure in our text, of their flight being into a wilderness! They set forth for their distant retreat. But they must be made to feel, at the outset, that they were indeed entering on trials; such trials as we can perceive were well denoted by the figure of a wilderness state. Though their coming hither has proved to have been of such vast importance to the church, and to the world; yet almost every thing seemed to withstand the event. One of their vessels, soon after their voyage was commenced, sprang aleak; and they must return from sea, to refit. In a second attempt of the voyage, they must be driven back from sea by a tempest. They put to sea a third time; and another tempest seemed to dispute their passage; insomuch, that they began devoutly to fear that Heaven was against them; and that they must relinquish their enterprise. But God meant not so. He designed to try them indeed, and to a degree which should bear some proportion to the importance of the occasion and of the state on which they were entering. But Heaven would see to it that this flight of such deep interest to the church in the last days, should not fail! God would bear this select band of the woman's seed to the place of their distant retreat, on the eagles' wings of his special providence and grace, though it were over a dangerous ocean. They should safely reach the place of their destination; and the rock of Plymouth

     


    188                                           LECTURE  XV.                                          


    should receive them from the watery element. They were brought to this place without their own design; having agreed with the captain to land them at the mouth of the Hudson (New-York). God led them by a right way; yet no thanks to the treacherous captain." There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand." The band of pious Pilgrims must first people New-England. And God had here prepared the way for them, having by a plague the year before cut off nine-tenths of the natives; while at the mouth of the Hudson the natives were very numerous and powerful, and might soon have destroyed the feeble band of the Pilgrims.

    The destination of this people of God was indeed to a wilderness. Grant that the term is found in a figurative passage, and means a wilderness of trials: nothing is abated from the beauty of the figure from the fact, that near the front of their mystical wilderness must stand a literal one; and such an one as the world besides could not furnish, -- a wilderness of nine thousand miles in length, and filled with savage beasts and savage men; -- and this feeble band thrown into it just at the setting in of winter! On this literal wilderness they must enter, and convert it into a habitation for themselves and their descendants. Vastly greater and more terrific was this their literal wilderness, than was that of the church in her first flight, -- the wild alpine valleys of the Waldenses and Albigenses. The terrors of this literal wilderness of America, uniting with the other trials , dangers, deaths and privations, which our fathers here experienced, most strikingly exhibit to us the fitness and the strength of the figure, that this flight of the woman should be to a wilderness. The early history of this band of' God's worshippers further illustrates the strength of the figure. * Read their trials from the natives; their

    * To see something of these trials of the woman, recollect the following items. The first company of the Pilgrims was 101: and in less than four months, 46 of them were no more. The Pilgrims early purchased land of the natives, and made friendly arrangements with them, which continued for fifty years, with the exception of one short war with the Pequots in Connecticut, which closed in 1637: but in 1675, a tremendous war, called Philip's war, commenced. This noted chief (living in Rhode Island) foresaw the extinction of the natives of the land unless a blow could be struck to prevent it, by the extermination of the new inhabitants. To accomplish this, he laid a deep plan, and combined in union all the Indian tribes in this part of the continent, to make a united attack upon the settlements of our fathers: and with such vast secrecy was this plan laid and kept, that the

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          189


    early wars with them; their subsequent wars with the French and Indians from Canada; and the revolutionary struggles with the mother country: and from these afflictions, the figure received further illustrations. And what further illustrations may be given to this figure, in trials still awaiting the American church, from infidelity, licentiousness, and from local national interests and jealousies, -- the prevalence of Romanism, the deep system of the infidelity of the last days, and the wars of Satan against "the

    ______

    infant colonies learned nothing of it till the tempest began to burst upon them. It opened upon the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies, and soon after it burst upon the New Hampshire settlements, upon the banks of the Piscataqua river; where men, women and children were cut in pieces, houses burnt, flocks destroyed, and many people dragged off into the wilderness by savage bands. After three years of much horror, the noted Philip was slain, and a peace was obtained, which continued ten years.

    Philip was a son of Massasoit, the noble Indian chief, who was a great friend to the Pilgrims. The latter gave his youngest son the name of Philip, who after his father's death became a great warrior and enemy to the English. The last and great battle with him was fought Dec. 19, 1695. His head-quarters were in a swamp, in the middle of which were several acres of high land, where were many Indian families and their provisions. A battle of three hours was here fought, in which 700 Indian warriors fell dead, and 300 more died of their wounds, and their chiefs were slain: 600 wigwams were burnt, with many of their aged, their women, and their children. The loss of the Pilgrims was considerable. Philip escaped; but was the next July shot through the heart, and his tribe became extinct, as did many other tribes in those regions. In this war our fathers lost about 600 men of the flower of their strength; 12 towns and 600 dwelling-houses were destroyed. In 1688, the French and Indians combined in a war of eleven years which occasioned vast horrors. In 1703, another war of ten years commenced with redoubled fury. After this a peace of nine years ensued. Another bloody struggle of three years commenced, called Lovell's war; who, at the head of a band of volunteers, flung himself into the head-quarters of the warlike Pickwackets; and though he and most of his heroes fell, the scene filled the Indians with terror; and a peace ensued. Thus out of fifty years, twenty-seven were consumed in bloody contests. In 1737, a throat-distemper commenced, which continued long, and was vastly fatal. In Kingston, N. II., 40 were attacked, and not one of them survived. One town buried 113; another 100; another 127; another 88; another 99; another 122; another 210; and another 104. In 1744, commenced a war between England and France, which brought the French and Indians from Canada, against our infant settlements, for sixteen years, called the old French war. In this, the sufferings of our frontier settlements were great and perplexing; none could safely labor in their fields. The trembling mother, when committing her children to rest, felt a torture of soul, lest before the next morning both she and they might be slain or burnt alive. In 1760, peace was restored: but the horrors of the war of our Revolution soon after occurred. These are a few hints of the wilderness state of our pilgrim fathers.

     


    190                                           LECTURE  XV.                                          


    remnant of the woman's seed here that keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ;" -- time and events will decide. It would not be strange, should they see yet trying days before the Millennium. Most interesting was this flight to America among the events of the last days, and towards the conversion of the world; wonderful in relation to the rights of conscience, to civil liberty, and to the introduction of the Millennium! "So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west," says Isaiah, in predicting the commencement of the Millennium. It then follows, "and his glory from the rising of the sun." A church in the west then, was to be planted to commence the Millennium; from which church light should roll back to the most distant east; and to the various extremities of the world. We may hence be assured, that whatever calamities may befall our national government (in which but too little concerning God is maintained), the remnant of the woman's seed here who keep the commands of God, God will keep as the apple of his eye.

    5. It is believed no valid objection can be made against this view of the flight in our text. Should a latent murmur be heard that this is doing too much honor to the church in America; and should it be asked, Is this the only people of God on earth? Reply; -- The view given of the figure does not say thus. But it does indeed honor this new and modern germ of the church of Christ, as being blessed with the signal display of divine grace and protection, as being destined to meliorate, essentially, the state of Zion on earth; to form here a nucleus or a renovating point, for the conversion of the world. It shows that the pilgrim fathers were brought hither to form a cradle for the liberty of conscience and the rights of man; to be as a beacon on a mountain which overlooks the world, and shall catch the eyes of distant realms, and teach them lessons never before known. A branch of the church so signal may well be denominated the woman (the church), -- at least by that well-known use of speech, the synecdoche, which elegantly puts a part for the whole. And when such a part is in fact a peculiar embodying of the original essence of the whole, after the other parts had become vastly degenerated, and this new branch is going to give a new complexion to the whole; it may well be honored with the name of the whole. And such has been the destination of the

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          191


    church planted in this western world. Already has it shed a benign influence over the churches of Christ in the old continent not excepting the church in Britain.

    6. So signal an event as this, might most surely be expected to be found in prophecy. A great object of prophecy is to give an antecedent view of events in and contiguous to the church, in which she has a deep interest: that she may be prepared to meet them; or at least may see in them the faithfulness of God, and the truth of his word, when the events are fulfilled. For these objects, the outline of the most interesting events from the commencement to the close of the Christian era, was antecedently furnished in the figurative language of the Revelation. And could so vast an event as that under consideration be overlooked in the details of events in this book? and this too, when things far less interesting are found in this predicted line of events? It is incredible. The celebrated President Edwards was confident that the church in America must have a place among the prophecies. And we have in one of his volumes a labor of seven pages, to find something in the prophecies clearly alluding to it. But he and all others, strangely failed of fixing their eye upon our text.as a striking prediction of it. This twelfth of the Revelation, which sketches the course of the most interesting events for the part of the Christian era antecedent to the Millennium, is the part of this book where the prediction of this event might be expected. And it is found in the very part of this chapter where it might have been expected; -- an event following and occasioned by the persecution which followed the Reformation in the 16th century. Place your eye then, -- as I attempted to do, -- at the place and time when the Puritans were driven to extremities by the persecutions of Jesuits, and other enemies of the pure evangelical truth; and see to what region the body of the best of that people did in fact flee from the face of the papal dragon to some far distant realm. You will find no other event so well answering to the figure as this; and none that has even the least degree of claim to it compared with this. And this great event then occuring does most fully accord with the prediction in our text.

    7. Let us listen to some remarks of celebrated writers relative to this flight of our pilgrim fathers to America; and learn how fully the event did in their opinion accord with this figure, while yet they had no idea of our text as

     


    192                                           LECTURE  XV.                                          


    alluding to it. Says Mr. Owen, -- "Multitudes of pious peaceable Protestants were driven by severities to leave their native country, and seek a refuge for their lives and their liberties in the worship of God in the wilderness in the ends of the earth." Says Dr. Mather, -- "They were driven to seek a place for the exercise of the Protestant religion according to the light of their consciences, in the deserts of America. The church of the exiles were driven out into the horrible wilderness, merely for being well-wishers to the Reformation." He adds, "they were now to transplant themselves into a horrible wilderness." "Our Lord Jesus Christ carried some thousands of reformers into the retirements of the American desert, that he might give a specimen of good things to which he would have his people elsewhere aspire and rise. This is at last the spot of the earth which the Lord of heaven spied out, for the seat of such transactions as require to be noted in history. Here it was," he adds, "that our Lord intended a resting-place for the reformed church." This great man speaking of the miseries of the exiles while they had been under the English hierarchy, says, "The mountain of ice lying then upon them was now broken by the opening of a retreat into a wilderness." Thus wrote that great observer of divine Providence, Dr. Mather, upon this flight of our fathers. He adds, "198 ships were employed in their passing the perils of the seas in the accomplishment of this renowned settlement; and but one miscarried." An early writer in New-England says, "The charter obtained by the Pilgrims here, soon after their arrival, seems to say to the pious in old lands, "Desert your seats; flee your country!" And concerning the many who did thus, he says, "Gentlemen of ancient and most honorable families, ministers of the gospel, merchants, artificers, and husbandmen, to the amount of some thousands, for twelve years, carried on the transplantation." "And it was a banishment," he adds, "rather than a removal." To men of education, and of property, it was afflictive. Their hazard was of an extraordinary nature. And nothing less than a strange and strong impression from Heaven could have produced such movements. God seemed to have served a summons upon the spirits of these his people in England, stirring up thousands who had never seen each other with a most unanimous inclination to leave all the pleasant accommodations of their native land, and to pass a terrible ocean, into a more

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          193


    terrible desert, for the pure enjoyment of divine ordinances. *

    8. Let the language of the Pilgrims themselves be heard in testimony. Stating the reasons of their flight to America they say, "It will be a service to the church, of great consequence, to carry the gospel into those parts of the world, and raise a bulwark against the kingdom of Antichrist, which the Jesuits labor to raise up in all parts of the world. All other churches in Europe have been brought under desolation. And it may be feared, that the like judgment is coming upon us. And who knows but God has provided America to be a refuge for many whom he means to save from the general destruction? The whole earth is the Lord's garden, given to be tilled and improved. Why, then, should we stand starving here? Why should we suffer whole regions to lie waste! What can be a nobler work than to erect and support a reformed church? If any known to be godly who are rich and prosperous should unite with this reformed church at the hazard that must attend, the example would be of vast benefit, and would add vigor to faith and prayer in behalf of the new and remote plantation." Thus ample is the evidence, that this flight of the pilgrim fathers fulfilled the prediction in our text.

    This transportation is noted in the text as being on "two wings of a great eagle." God said to Israel relative to their flight from Egypt to Canaan; "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." Exod. xix. 4. This

    ______

    * In Dwight's Travels, we have the following, in his remarks on Plymouth and the Pilgrims: "When I call to mind the history of their sufferings on both sides of the Atlantic; when I remember their preeminent patience; their unspotted piety; their immovable fortitude; their undaunted resolution; their love to each other; their justice and humanity to the savages; and their freedom from nil those stains which elsewhere have spotted the character even of companions in affliction; I cannot but view those illustrious brothers an claiming the veneration of all their posterity. The institutions, civil, literary and religious, by which New England is distinguished, here began. Here the manner of holding lands in free soccage, now universal in this country, commenced. Here the right of suffrage wan imparted to every citizen, not disqualified by poverty and vice. Here was formed the first establishment of the local legislature, called town-hirelings, and of the peculiar town executive, styled selectmen. Here the first parochial school was set up, and the system for communicating to every child in the community the knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic. Here was the first building, in our country, erected for the public worship of God. The first religious assembly of New England was here gathered; and the first minister called and settled by the voice of the church and congregation On these simple foundations has since been erected our structure of good: order, peace, liberty, knowledge, morals and religion."

     


    194                                           LECTURE  XV.                                          


    proverbial speech might arise from the fact, that eagles are said to bear their young on their wings just before they are able themselves to fly. And hence arose the promise, Isa. xl. 31; "They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles!" *

    As there is a beauty and strength in the figure of God's bearing Israel on wings of eagles, in their transit from Egypt to Canaan; there is no less beauty in the application of it to our pilgrim fathers. And their being planted in this land may be viewed as having a special interest in the following sublime passage, alluding primarily to Israel as planted in Canaan; but ultimately to us in our pilgrim fathers: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it; thou preparedst room before it; and didst cause it to take deep root and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it; and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedar. She sent out her boughs unto the sea; and her branches unto the rivers." The pious in our States may read this passage with the same interest as did ancient Israel. It may be viewed as having been no less really fulfilled in our case (as to the peopling of this new world), than in theirs. Such is the evidence that our first settlement of New England was in fulfilment of that second flight of the woman in the Revelation.

    Great then, is our debt of gratitude to God which should be most deeply felt by the descendants of the Pilgrims. Such rich blessings call loudly for equal improvement and

    ______

    * If it be true, as is attempted to be shown in my "View of the Hebrews," that the address of the prophet Isaiah (chap. xviii.) is to the good people of our United States, -- "Ho, land shadowing with wings," &c., -- this prophecy may reflect light on the "two wings of a great eagle," in our text. The appellation of "land shadowing with wings," may allude to the figure of our continent; or to the protecting form of our government, or both. The figure of North and South America is like the two wings of a great eagle; as the map of them will show. And the form of our government, as well as our distance from the tyrannies of old lands, may well suggest the two wings of a great eagle, as our most fit national emblem, or coat-of-arms. The following sentiment has been expressed upon the floor of Congress, as well as felt in the civilized world; "Our government was the first successful effort among men to establish rational liberty. Our fathers instituted, upon the broad principles of equity, the system of equal representation; trial by jury; freedom of speech; freedom of the press; and religious toleration. And, to this hour, the system stands a proud example to the world, unsurpassed, unequalled. As ours was the first, so it may be the last hope of civil liberty. No other considerable place remains on the globe where a second effort can be made under like auspices." -- (Committee of Congress.)

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          195


    praise. What other people on earth are under so great obligations to God? Surely then, they ought to attempt by prayer, alms, and all their talents and influence, great things in behalf of the kingdom of the Redeemer. Great things are to be accomplished for the conversion of the world. And great should be the zeal, piety, faithfulness and perseverance of the seed of the woman here, to have a most exalted agency in the great work of salvation at this momentous period. The people of God here, -- being exalted to heaven in privileges, -- should, in heart, tongue and life, utter this song, sung in our context upon the Reformation; "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the glory of his Christ." If this song befitted the Protestants three hundred years ago; it as well befits the present children of the Pilgrims borne hither as on the wings of a great eagle, by divine grace. The church in our nation is indeed as a city set on a hill; -- a standard high upon a mountain that overlooks the world. It is a light to shine to the ends of the earth. May its rays fall propitious not only upon the remote heathen world, but upon the remnant of the natives of our continent; and upon the ignorant and wretched among ourselves! May it thus prove a fact, that we are destined to hold a high rank among the means of converting the world. Let this be our motto, "Arise, and build; and the Lord be with thee." May our agency bear as conspicuous a part in the introduction of the Millennium, as our origin (in the text) has done among the wonder of the last days. May it occasion a speedy and universal emancipation of slaves; and thus blot out this disgrace of our nation, and of humanity.



    L E C T U R E   XVI.

    REVELATION  XII.

    Ver. 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

     


    196                                          LECTURE  XVI.                                         


    When the dragon saw that the woman was thus safely conveyed to her new and distant retreat, he with new rage commenced furious efforts of opposition. He clearly perceived that the influence of her civil and religious institutions would not only till her own vast region, but also would endanger his kingdom of popery and despotism in old lands, and even his dominion of the vast pagan world. Something the devil now saw must be done to prevent this; or all was lost. There was now therefore produced in his infernal courts that masterpiece of infidelity first known to the world under the name of Illuminism. This was an improvement made upon the code of the Jesuits, which had been the vast annoyance of the Protestant cause, till the Jesuits were banished from the courts of Europe, as a murderous band. This new system of boasted philosophy was conceived and brought into operation by Voltaire, the noted infidel philosopher of France, who combined in this impious design a group of infidel philosophers, and a number of crowned heads in Europe. His first and sworn object was the destruction of the Christian religion. His scheme, after it was conceived and brought into operation, was improved and brought to a kind of perfection by the celebrated Wheishaupt of Germany, as a system of light. And it was propagated and carried into effect in those despotic countries under the cover of speculative masonry. This new system was by far the most subtle, deep, and efficient of any which ever was devised among men; and it was propagated over the world by floods of secret agents, called propagandists (propagators) who were furnished with ample funds for their purpose. Their dependence was on poisoning the sentiments of mankind; obtaining the management of the means of education, of governments, and of armies, to promote their designs. They managed the revolution in France in 1789, and their numerous armies took the field. A military empire soon arose, and floods of terror poured forth with a velocity which seemed like a flood indeed from the mouth of the infernal dragon. It was designed and calculated to revolutionize the world, overturning all true religion and morality, and all virtuous civil government. Its professed object was to render the human race happy, by freeing them from all restraints upon their lusts and passions. But the real object of this horrid scheme was cautiously concealed from their candidates, and men in the lower orders of their system; and it was gradually revealed to candidates for the higher degrees,

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          197


    as it was found they could endure it without alarm. This execrable scheme of Voltaire, under the express design of showing that "one man could overturn the Christian religion," took effect in old Catholic countries like fire touched to a trail of powder. Their noted watchwords were, "Crush the wretch!" -- meaning Christ; "Strike deep, but hide the hand!" "The world must be bound by invisible hands!" The development of this system is to be found in the "Proofs of a Conspiracy," by Dr. John Robison, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh; in the Abbe Barruel's "Memoirs of the French Revolution;" and in Dr. Payson's "Modern Antichrist." These horrid floods Satan found means to roll over Christendom. Lodges of illuminees were planted throughout the civilized world; grasping and polluting the means of education, and laboring by sly intrigue to fill with men of their own order all places of trust and of interest. In these movements of the dragon, the United States of America were by no means overlooked. So fair a seat of Zion was the first object of Satan, though his plot commenced in old lands. This is learned in our text and context, where the woman in her distant retreat is represented as the great object of Satan's rage. This scheme was formed in the hotbed of papal corruption; or in the infidelity resulting from it. The flood must there be first collected, and thence poured forth over Europe, and over the Atlantic. As masonry had been its successful cover in old lands; it was still depended on as its successful vehicle through the world. This system of wickedness s]yly planted itself by the side of speculative masonry, with a view to lead its members, through degrees before unknown, under the notion of finding exalted wisdom. Masons of high repute saw and deplored the fact, that their order was capable of such a horrid use; and they sounded the alarm and fled from it, as we find in the aforenamed European authors. Lodges of illuminees were early planted in our States, as has appeared from ample evidence, though they were cautious to conceal the name. President Dwight, in 1798, wrote thus: "Illuminism exists in our country. And the impious mockery of the sacrament described by Robison has been acted here." He again says, speaking of the rise of this order; "Under these circumstances were founded the societies of Illuminism. They of course spread with a rapidity which nothing but fact could have induced any sober mind to believe.

     


    198                                          LECTURE  XVI.                                         


    Before the year 1786, they were established in great numbers through Germany, Sweden, Prussia, Poland, Austria, Holland, France, Switzerland, Italy, England Scotland, and America." In all these places (adds Dr. Dwight) was taught the grand sweeping principle of corruption, "that the goodness of the end sanctifies the means." This writer said he received his information from a principal officer of the American masons. A letter was intercepted from a lodge of Illuminism in Virginia, to a lodge of the same order in New-York, in which were emblems of carnage and death, and things unknown to the grades of masonry which had previously existed in this country. This letter was from the lodge Wisdom, which was a branch of the Grand Orient of Paris, and was the 2260th descendant from that parent stock. This great number then of lodges of their order, must have been planted at least in the twelve afore-noted different nations. And in this letter it appeared that there were many lodges of this order in our United States. A mason of high standing at the south, in a letter to President Dwight, dated March 3d, 1800, says, "The lodge in Portsmouth, to which you allude, called the French lodge, was considered by me as under the modern term of masonry" (Illuminism). In another letter to the same, he says, "That you had good grounds to suspect the designs of the lodge at Portsmouth (Vir.) I have no reason to doubt. Their work was to effect the plans of France in this country." A member of that lodge was heard to boast that he belonged to a lodge in Europe in which the French revolution of 1789 was planned. A gentleman of the first respectability, who had been grand master of all the lodges in the State in which he lived, informed me, upon reading my Dissertation on the Prophecies, that while he was thus a grand master, a bundle of papers from the eastern continent came by a natural mistake into his hands. That in it were masonic emblems, masonic language, and things apparently of great design, but all perfectly above his comprehension. This was before he had heard of Illuminism. He knew not what to make of it; and said, when Illuminism was disclosed by Robison and Barruel, he was fully prepared to believe the account. And his influence with his masonic brethren in the State where he lived was so great, that when they began to express resentment at the disclosures of these things, he hushed them to peace, -- telling them the disclosures were true, and they ought to know

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          199


    it. In a printed oration delivered before the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of New-York, Feb. 1801, by their grand chaplain, Rev. John Earnst, is the following warning: "The deep designs of masons, called the Illuminati, who have almost inundated Europe, and are fast gaining ground in America, have clearly demonstrated the abuse which untiled masonic lodges have met with, and how they, when not guarded, can be revolutionized and moulded at pleasure." Happy, had such warning been taken! A man of name, who with his wife was a professor of religion, informed me that their son had occasion to reside some years in one of the middle States, and he returned a gross infidel. He told them he had learned this in a society there instituted from France; and assured them that such societies abounded in our nation, and soon a gospel minister would not be supported. If any of them existed, they would be objects of scorn. The Christian religion (he said) was all an imposition, and soon would be no more. Gertanner, in his Memoirs of the French Revolution, said, that the propagators of the French masonry were (in 1791) fifty thousand; and that their funds were at that time, six millions of dollars. These men were sent over the civilized world, and liberally dispersed in America. It was a maxim in their code, that "it is better to defer fifty years, than to fail of success by too much precipitancy." Such notices should not be misimproved by the friends of religion and of liberty. Robespierre declared that revolutionary designs were the object of the diplomatic mission of Genet to this country. His haste and imprudence to effect these designs, soon, by the faithfulness of Washington, occasioned his recall. He however took up his residence in this country, and no doubt learned that greater caution was needful in this nation. In an intercepted letter of the noted French Fauchet, this object of French Illuminism in our land was fully exposed. The insurrection in the west of Pennsylvania was occasioned by it; to suppress which, required an army of 15,000 men, and a million of dollars, -- precious fruits of the infidel system planted in our country. Even Washington himself was denounced by this hateful foreign influence, and was declared to be an enemy to his country! That best of men noticing this base treatment, in a letter to a friend, said, that their abuse of him was in "such indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, or to a notorious defaulter." In another letter to a friend, he said, "They

     


    200                                          LECTURE  XVI.                                         


    (the French) have been deceived in their calculations on the powerful support from their party here; though it is doubtful still, whether that party, which has been a curse to this country, may not be able to continue their delusions." He said again, in a letter, "That those self-created societies which have spread themselves over this nation, have been laboring incessantly to sow the seeds of distrust, jealousy, and discontent, -- hoping thereby to effect some revolution in our government, -- is not unknown to you. That they have been the fomenters of the western insurrection, admits no doubt." When this father of his country retired from the presidential chair, he was most shamefully denounced and insulted by this same hateful influence; and the friends of the nation were called upon to keep a jnbilee on the occasion. The language thus boldly used against this best of men and father of his country, was abusive, cruel, and false. No wonder then, that that great and good man, in his farewell address, warned his beloved nation as follows: "Beware of all secret combinations, under whatever plausible character."

    Such were the floods which flowed from the mouth of the infernal serpent, and which rolled even over the Atlantic to America. On the old continent these floods were vaslly terrible, as is shown in lectures on chapter xvii., to which the reader is referred. The floods of horror there rolled mountains high, rolling in seas of blood and revolutions, rolling for a quarter of a century, and plunging ten millions of the human race, as has been calculated from high intelligence, * in premature death. The French armies which swelled these floods were vast, most successful, and terrible. Zion trembled for her ark, and said, "These be the days of vengeance!" An army of 400,000 men (as has been shown) were finally seen moving with the most powerful preparations, into the north of Europe, with a design to sweep away the last barriers against a universal military despotism. But this was overruled to bring things to a kind of crisis for the time then present in favor of Zion and of liberty.

    Ver. 16. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

    ______

    * President Dwight.

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          201


    The church's necessity is God's opportunity. When the floods of dangers seem about to overwhelm the cause of Zion, God interposes like the earth's opening her mouth, and burying every enemy; as in the case of Korah and his company. When they seemed about to destroy all the order and peace of Israel; the earth under their feet clave asunder; and they went down alive into the pit, which closed again upon them. This was an emblem of God's protection of his cause. And though but one exactly such a case ever occurred; yet multitudes of events have occurred in a measure similar; -- like the destruction of Haman, which set at liberty the Jews from the effects of his vile decree. God often causes some providential event to occur, to confound the enemies of Zion, and to protect his cause; as in the case of the Egyptians plunged in the Red Sea; while Israel moved in safety through the deep. In this point of light, our text assures that the church shall be safe. And though her enemies rise and roar like a flood; Christ sits on the whirlwind, and directs the storm. And heaven's high arches scorn the swelling ocean. The foe is confounded; and Christians rejoice. When creature help fails, God's arm brings salvation. So it has been from the beginning; and so it will be to the end of time. In this general sense, our text has had a thousand fulfilments. But it was designed for one, and only one, great chronological fulfilment; a great fulfilment in its order of events. For this we must inquire. The order of events, already noted in comments upon this chapter, shows us where to look for it. The great emperor of the age (it was generally said) exulted, that when several obstacles in the way of his universal empire were removed, "he would henceforth trample on all the rights of neutrality!" His army, the best appointed possible, of 400,000 men, was put in motion, himself at their head, to remove these remaining obstacles. He would first move into the north, and take up by the roots the empire of Russia. England then would easily fall. And America would of course lie prostrate at his feet. And the dragon imagined that this would accomplish the designs of the great infidel system.

    But the rod of iron, formed for judgment on the Roman earth, was now overleaping the bounds of its providential commission: and his plans were lost. That vial of divine wrath on the seat of the papal beast, and filling it with darkness, was now going to draw towards its close. The army of the north was accordingly annihilated, and swallowed

     


    202                                          LECTURE  XVI.                                         


    up as floods indeed; as was shown in particulars of the event in Lecture x., which see. The accomplishment of the judgment in our text may well remind us of that of Korah and his company, when the earth under their feet began to part asunder. And the language of our text. we may conceive, was borrowed from the catastrophe of those ancient enemies of Israel in the wilderness. It is, accordingly, predicted of the infidels of the last days, that they shall "perish in the gainsaying of Korah." Any thing that should providentially destroy those efforts of the kingdom of darkness, would amount to an accomplishment of our text. The figure alludes to all that actually did confound those efforts of the enemies of the church. The French army fled, and fell by the way, -- as has been shown. Their bodies were indeed literally mingled with the Russian earth, as though swallowed up in it. The horrors of that retreat exceed everything else found in history, if we except the destruction of Jerusalem. The emperor escaped; and with only one man accompanying him reached his capital. His vast army, by these terrors and the scenes at the river Berezina, were literally destroyed. New armies were raised by this emperor; and subsequent tremendous battles were fought; in which the French, from time to time, were vanquished, till the battle at Waterloo concluded the empire of Bonaparte. The swelling of the floods of the dragon on the Roman earth was here swallowed up. The confederation of the Rhine had been broken; and the remainder of its flood here sunk. A striking exposition thus appears given of the feet and toes of the great Roman image -- being "part of iron, and part of clay; partly strong, and partly broken;" and the parts not cleaving to each other. The long predicted coalition, like a whirlwind from the north, had prostrated that dynasty. See Dan. xi. 40. The earth opened her mouth, indeed! Earthly or national motives had induced this coalition of the powers of Europe to combine in self-defence for the swallowing up of these floods of the dragon. One strong pillar, on which hung the confident hopes of the infidels of the age, crumbled, and was lost. The beast from the bottomless pit, with this new wound in his head, now fell (for a time at least) into his characteristic non-existence. For he is "the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." Zion had been marked out for a prey. Her enemies had predicted her ruin; and appearances seemed to favor it. But a cloud by day, and a fire by night, moved between Israel and the Egyptians,

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          203


    while passing the sea. This cloud flung light upon the church, and darkness upon infidels. "The Lord thundered; the Highest gave his voice; hailstones and coals of fire. His lightning lightened the world; the earth trembled and shook." The abominations of that system of infidelity had been much unfolded, and its first and general efforts confounded. Its workmen were now forced to descend to deeper caverns, and to operate with greater caution. And to this they no doubt, betook themselves with great vigor. The friends of Zion rejoiced to find the snares of death thus far broken, and a sudden and wonderful reverse of things blessing the church, and the world. This lit up a smile on faces long petrified with horror. The sun of general peace broke through the cloud, smiled on the nations hid long from its rays. And many fondly hoped the sun of the millennial kingdom had risen. Here their fond hopes were clearly premature. But wonders of salvation had indeed been wrought.

    Ver. 17. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

    Satan is ever ready when one of his plans fail, to renew it, or invent another. When the power of the persecuting Jews failed; he instigated the pagan Roman persecutions. When paganism in the Roman empire ceased, and the government became Christian; the devil got up first his Arian heresy, and then his papal throne. By the formation here of an image to the pagan beast, in the false religion of popery under the Christian name; Satan more than restored his beloved paganism. And when he was ejected from his papal heaven by the Reformation; he soon brought forward his code of the Jesuits, and hence raised his new persecutions, as has been noted. When the woman fled as on her eagles' wings; Satan brought forward his system of Illumimsm, as has been shown. With this, he was going if possible to destroy the cause of Christ from the earth. And when these floods are thus far swallowed up; may we not believe new and mighty efforts will be made? What then, is the sense of this warning in the text? The flight of the woman, to a distant retreat from the face of the dragon on the papal earth, had much enraged him: and this rage is heightened by the failing of his floods thus far. Whither

     


    204                                          LECTURE  XVI.                                         


    now does Satan betake himself, to make war with the remnant of the woman's seed? Does not the text give intimation? He now goes away from the old Roman earth, probably to the place to which the woman fled. And is not this a most natural event? -- Is it not the church here of which he is the most jealous? Why should he not then, next go where she is? Three marks are given in the text of the character of the people, with whom he goes to make this new war. "The remnant of the woman's seed." This is the pious part of the descendants of the woman in the region whither she fled. A part of them are hostile to Christ; but a remnant are indeed his friends. "Who keep the commands of God." They maintain a signal degree of evangelical purity, and holy obedience. No other brunch of the Christian church is equal in this to the pious remnant of the seed of the woman in our United States. "And have the testimony of Jesus Christ." In some special way, this remnant of the woman's seed have the tokens of the presence, gracious power and approbation of Christ. And is not this a fact with the remnant of the descendants of the Pilgrims here, who are indeed pious? Does the testimony of Christ equally attend any other part of the Christian world? This is the part of Zion, selected of God for the showers of his grace. Christ here peculiarly seems to say, "Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow forth." This is noticed by the Christian world; and inquiries have been publicly made across the Atlantic, why it is thus. And this fact not only identifies the American church with the seed of the woman in our text, but it affords an additional reason why Satan should now turn his first attention to this region, as the principal field of his operations. Between twenty and thirty years ago I was led to view this text as of deep interest to this nation; that Satan would ere-long excite new troubles here. This sentiment I gave then to the public; and it is now manifestly fulfilling.

    But what mode of warfare would Satan be likely here to instigate? It is manifest, from what has been said, that his economy long has been to labor to repair broken systems; and under some new or specious pretence, to render them more efficient than ever. His old systems then, of popery, of French infidelity, and of gross licentiousness, he may be expected to labor to bring here into more effectual operation. It is at a time not far from the present, that we read of the three unclean spirits like frogs, coming from the

     


                                              CHAPTER  XII.                                          205


    mouth of the dragon, of the beast, and the false prophet; spirits of devils, working wonders, and going forth unto the kingdoms of the earth, and of all the world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty! Rev. xvi. 13, 14. These denote three powerful kindred influences to pervade the world equally under the agency of Satan. That from the mouth of the dragon (the devil) means a general spirit of licentiousness, either in sentiment or practice, or both, -- any or all kinds of blasphemy and wickedness. That from the mouth of the beast, is the scheme of infidelity first known as Illuminism; which is shown to be the beast from the bottomless pit full of the names of blasphemy; -- operating in dark and crooked schemes of government, or policy, in dark and mysterious caverns. This is to lead the van in the battle of the great day. See chap. xix. 19, and Dan. vii. 11. It will be found operating in the devil's war with the American church. And the spirit from the mouth of the false prophet, is a new effort of popery; falling in Europe, but attempting; great things in America. The church in our States has much to fear from these three kindred systems. Two or them are deep, and systematic; while that from the mouth. of the dragon, will affect vast classes of people who will! work in no deep system, but will be abandonedly wicked in their own way, -- licentious, Sabbath-breakers, profane, riotous, oppressive and cruel, intemperate, brawling, scoffers, and formers of mobs, proudly and maliciously torturing fellow-creatures. These three classes, the old serpent will manage in his war against the true people of God in our land. If they have no concert in view; their invisible manager has his object in view to be by them effected. And much is to be feared from them. * See lecture 28, on.

    ______

    * A fruit of the same spirits was the driving of the missionaries from their stations among the Cherokees, and Choctaws; immuring them in prison, in open violation of our national constitution; as was decided in the national court; holding them in prison a year; violating national treaties with those natives; robbing them and driving them from their own lands. For this, God will reckon with our nation. See 2 Sam. xxi.; where a three years' famine was sent upon the land of Israel for violating their treaty with the* Gibeonites, which yet was fraudulently obtained; but should have been kept. Repentance and restitution alone removed the national calamity. God will plead the cause of the oppressed, whatever be their state of civilization, ot their color, or should they be claimed as property. Christ has his eye upon' all the human family, and wo will be to those who dare to oppress beings made in the image of God, and for whom Christ died. He will recognize all abuse done to them as done to himself, and will show to revengeful oppressors that he has an arm of vengeance.

     


    206                                          LECTURE  XVI.                                         


    chap. xvi. 13, 14, on these unclean spirits. They have been planted in our land. That from the mouth of the beast, was more than fifty years ago here planted; and not for amusement; but for great effects. It has been most active in dark recesses, from the time of its introduction into our States; which was before the year 1786. It was not formed for inactivity or amusement in Europe; nor is it so in America. In Europe their real designs were perfectly curtained from their candidates in the lower degrees of masonry. While they were amused with various things; they were as ignorant of the real designs of their higher orders as a child unborn. And when the designs of their leaders burst out in bloody operations; honest members of the lower degrees fled. One of them, in an address to his masonic brethren, said, "Brethren and companions, give free vent to your sorrow. The days of innocent equality are gone by. However holy our mysteries may have been, the lodges are now profaned. Let your tears flow: attired in your mourning robes attend; and let us seal up the gates of our temples; for the profane have found means to penetrate into them. They have converted them into retreats for their impiety; and into dens of conspirators. Within the sacred walls they have planned their horrid deeds, and the ruin of nations. Let us weep over their legions, whom they have seduced. Lodges that may serve as hiding- places for conspirators, must for ever remain shut to us, and to every good citizen." The celebrated Professor Robison of Edinburgh, who had been a first-rate mason, sounded the same alarm. He renounced the order; and advised all his brethren in the masonic world to do the same.

    We are thus warned of dangers attending the seed of the woman, in these States. May the Christians of our land awake to their dangers, and their duties. May the warning voice of heaven arrest their hearts; such as the following, -- "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour." "The devil is come unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time." "Whom resist steadfastly in the faith." "Resist the devil, and he shall flee from you." Christ says, of these very days, "Watch!" -- "Watch ye, and pray always; that ye may be accounted worthy to escape those things which shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." "Come, my people, enter into thy chambers."

     


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    "Seek the Lord, all ye meek of the earth. Seek righteousness; seek meekness; it may be ye may be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."



    L E C T U R E   XVII.

    REVELATION   XIII.

    Ver. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

    2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

    3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

    4. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

    5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

    6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

    7. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nation