him up to a proper reflection upon his apose tacy from Christ and truth, and led him to repentance; since they grow out of his very sins which draw them down, and thus bold up to his face "the things that he has done,” as if represented in a mirror.

In chapter sixteenth, the divine signal is given, and the fatal revolution in the affairs of the hitherto rampant and imperious BEAST unexpectedly opens upon him. "The first angel went and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there tell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon then which worshipped bis image."

The striking analogy between these seven plagues upon the kingdom of the man of sin, and the ten plagues upon PHAROAH and EGYPT, has been hinted at already; and it is so frequently and obviously apparent, that the one may well be imagined typical of the other. In the literal Egypt the judgments fell only upon the subjects of the unbelieving and impious

tyrant, while the servants of God "had light and health in all their dwellings." The very same is now the case in the mystical Egypt.The vial is poured upon the earth, but it is only the subjects of antichrist (distinguished by his mark, and by a superstitious reverence for his person, amounting to idolatry) that are affected by its operation.

A grievous ulcer is the effect of the first vial; and, no doubt, it is to be understood in

*The mark of the beast I have shewn in the preceding section, to be the sign of the cross, which is notoriously used in a manner that has a nearer affinity to magic and witchcraft,sins often charged by the ancient prophets upon "the wellfavored harlot," (Nahum iii, 4; Micah v. 12; Isa. xlvii. 9; Rev. ix. 21,) than the gospel of Christ. Their worship of the image of the beast is manifest from the medals of Pope Martin the fifth, where two cardinals are represented crowning the NEW DEITY, and two kneeling before him, with the inscription-"Quem creant adorant-Him whom they create they adore.' Newton vol. iii. p. 240.

It is also prophetically intimated by our Saviour's forbidding a superstitious reverence to be paid to any human authority, under the magisterial name of FATHER, (Mat. xxiii. 9,) as the pope is called "HOLY FATHER," and as the very name in latin (PAPA, OF POPE) signifies. They are stiled papists from papa, as christians are so named from Christ, whom they worship

a figurative sense, of some moral or spiritual grievance, which occasions as much pain and danger to their hierarchy, and power, and influence, as an incurable ulcer does in the natural body. Ulcers of this grievous and incurable nature originate from the bad habit of body, and the malignant nature of the humours, which form the constitution itself, and admit of no cure without a radical change, which is in many cases impossible. This is the case with POPERY. The whole system is so exceedingly corrupt, that the causes of its disso

with the same divine honors. The many blasphemous titles given to the pope by the schoolmen and canonists, are alone sufficient to denominate the papists worshippers of the beast. -See Sect. ix. p. 250.

Solus adoretur CHRISTUS, sed numina vana,
Intereant, summus rector in orbe regnat.
Mox fore confido, quod toto pectore sancti
Cantabunt, cecidit, cecidit BABYLONICA THAIS.
Hist. Popery.

Be God supreme o'er all the suppliant world,
And popish idols to perdition hurl'd.
In christian hearts ador'd let Jesus reign,
His saints rehearsing in prophetic strain
Rome's destiny. The Babylonish whore,
Thais is fall'n-is fall'n-to rise no more,

lution lurk in its constitution and nature, and at length break out into an open sore, which sets all remedies at defiance.-"From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."* This spiritual ulcer is the spawn

and natural effect of a corrupt religion, which leads thinking minds directly to infidelity and absolute atheism. The established religion of the church of Rome has long been the common butt of ridicule to all their philosophers, and to not a few even of their church dignitaries, to say nothing here of the popes themselves; than whom (for the greater part) a more infidel and wicked set of miscreants never existed, as their own authors are obliged to confess.† Blasphemy and infidelity towards all religion, constitute the chief topics for the display of wit in popish countries, as

*Isaiah i. 6.

+ Cardinal Baronius acknowledges frequently in his Annals, that many of the popes were horrible monsters, and rather apostates than apostolical bishops.

may indeed be easily imagined, where a continued blasphemy "against God and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven," (Rev. xiii. 6) makes up the whole business of the MASS, and the popish worship in general.*

This kind of blasphemous levity upon the most solemn topics of religion, has, with other

of

It is not improbable but the reformation of religion, which was the beginning of Rome's fall, and was always considered and felt by the papists as a SORE of the utmost magnitude and malignancy, may be here principally meant. The soreness all the popes, to whom the subject of reforming the church was proposed, and the crafty and wicked evasions to which they have had recourse to shift off the necessity of it, and when that could not be done, the means used to frustrate the good effect expected from the coUNCIL of TRENT, are so many re narkable coincidences with this prophecy. The reformation broke out in direct opposition to their utmost endea Yours to stifle and suppress it, and the PALLIATIVES applied by their popish council only aggravated the pain, and heightened the threatening aspect of the ULCER; which hath been from that time to them an incurable sore, and a continual and wasting drain. It began also at the time here assigned, at the opening of the temple of THE TESTIMONY in heaven, and being the first plague, a longer space was allowed for the possibility of their repentance, before the others came on in quick succession.