?:. . v -■, )jC(C>A'A"''."iX','.i.i.iQ li i^li.in I _) i.in.<(i,)'i'iVi,H •ti I i I iM I ■ ?i 1 ^■^<^'%.<%<^-% # LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I $\H^ -- |opgngM|o. ^^^ -. ..L..? I I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^ THE GREAT CONFLICT, CHRIST AND ANTICHRIST, THE CHURCH AND THE APOSTASY, ^B ^^abolrreb bg tlje prophets mxii Jelhuateb ht Jistorg. By H. LOOMIS, Af THOE OF " The Land of Shadowing Wings ; or, Emfibk of tiib Sea.'' " Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her glfi^; that ye receive not of her plagues." — Rev. xviii, 4. NEW YOKK : NELSON & PHILLIPS. CINCINNATI: HITOHCOGK & WALDEN. 1874. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, Ly NELSON & PHILLIPS, in the Ofiice of the Librarian of Congress at ^Yaslilngtoii. PREFACE. -4~»- THE great question of the hour is the influence and designs of the Papacy on the religious and civil insti- tutions of this country. Romanism, standing alone and by itself, would not be a power much to be dreaded. But in its facile combination with every other evil in the land — igno- rance, demagogism, and political vil- lainy — its supreme, unprincipled selfish- ness in the promotion of its own inter- ests — its sworn allegiance to a foreign power now in collision with nearly all the civil powers of Europe — its cherished principles of infallibility, and its divine right to control all the civil governments 4 Preface. of the world — its dark and insidious Jesuitism in the management of its af- fairs and in the gaining its ends — make it a power to be carefully watched, if not dreaded. Every enlightened patriot, in love with a free republican government by a moral, intelligent people — every Chris- tian who loves the truth as it is in Jesus, and the souls of his fellow-men — should be awake and ready for the gathering conflict. " It was while men slept" that the " enemy sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way." The real nature and character of this vast, wide-spread, and yet compact or- ganization — this foreign power ever}^- where operative for its own ends, among us — should be more generally studied and known by every American, every Christian, as it has been delineated by Preface. 5 the prophets of God, and written out in its terrible history. But far the larger share of the minis- try of the different Protestant denomi- nations are so overwhelmed with the demands for much preaching, and the daily pressing calls for other ministerial labors, that they have neither the time, nor, often, the facilities, for the study of the prophecies relative to, or the vo- luminous histories of, this power. The same is still more generally true of the laity, both old and young, of the com- munity. Furthermore, so much has been written on the prophecies, and so diverse have been the interpretations, and so dark are many of the symbolical repre- sentations in these visions, and so much historic knowledge is required for any just appreciation of the prophetic writ- ings, that the great mass of Bible readers 6 Preface. even, turn away from them, as incompre- hensible and unprofitable. Yet they are in the Bible ; " and all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine and instruction in right- eousness." The following pages are designed for just these classes of readers ; to meet what seems to the writer a great and present want in the state of the public mind in this country on this increasingly absorbing subject. This little volume does not profess to be a critical exegesis or exposition of the predictions of the Great Apostasy, but only to group them together, and to give such a general outline, such gen- eral principles of interpretation, of their symbolical representations ; in short, to throw so much light on these pages of prophecy as to lead the reader with a Preface. 7 new, clearer, and deeper interest, to the study of the whole Bible for its own in- terpretation of itself : nor does it profess to go at length into the many voluminous and able histories of Romanism, but only to gather from them a few indis- putable facts to convict Rome of being THE Antichrist seen and denounced by the prophets of God in their visions of the Almighty. The book is by design a small volume, to be within the reach of the many, can be read through in a few hours ; yet it presents the great features of the terrible Antichrist of the prophets, the promi- nent, admitted facts in its bloody history, and the obvious arguments against this oppressive and dangerous system. It is not its object to awaken prejudice or ill- will against the masses or individuals involved in that strange delusion, but to 8 Preface. awaken a deeper sympathy and a more tender earnestness in efforts for their enlightenment and conversion to Jesus from the errors and thick darkness of Romanism, and so utterly to consume it from the earth by the genuine conver- sion of its deluded votaries. To God and the Church catholic is the volume dedicated by the Author. Brooklyn, N. Y., 70 Hanson Place, 1874. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE OPPOSING POWERS IN THE CONFLICT. The Prophecies — Questionable Principles of Interpretation — The Opening History of the Conflict Page 13 CHAPTER II. THE KEY TO RIGHT INTERPRETATION. The Visions of the Earlier Prophets confined to the Mes- siah — Only Ezekiel and Daniel seem to have had Visions of the Great Apostasy 27 CHAPTER III. THE LAST ANTICHRIST OF THE PROPHETS. Nebuchadnezzar's Dream — The Interpretation — Daniel's Vision — The Explanation 34 CHAPTER IV. THE NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES OF THE ANTICHRIST. Paul's Epistles to the Thessalonians and to Timothy — The Traditions of the Early Fathers 44 lO Contents. CHAPTER V. THE VISIONS OF ST. JOHN. Meaning of the Symbols in the Vision — Symbols of the True Church — Symbol of the Opposing Power — The Symbols of the Apostasy — The Beast that Was, and Is Not, and Yet Is — The Deadly Wound of the Beast — The Opening Con- flict — The Opening of the Six Seals — The Sounding of the Seven Trumpets — The Pouring Out of the Seven Vials — The Prophetic Marks of Antichrist Page 49 CHAPTER VI. THE HISTORY OF ANTICHRIST, OR THE APOSTASY. The first mark verified by History — An Apostasy Gradual in its Development — Beginning in a Declension in the Apostles' Days — The Judaizing Tendency of some of the Early Christians to the Head and Horns — Cypri- an's Agency in the Third Century — Controversy about St. Pe- ter's Chair 78 CHAPTER VII. the second mark is the time of its manifestation. The Little Horn growing up among the Ten Horns — The Two- Horned Lamb — History of the Beginning and Growth of the Papacy — The Condition of the Civil Roman Empire at the same time — Its breaking up into the Smaller King- dom g6 Contents. i i CHAPTER VIII. THIRD — THE TRIPLE CROWN, AND REIGN OVER THE KINGS. History of the Reign of the Roman Pontiffs over the King- doms of Europe — St. Patrick not a Roman Catholic — For the Information of Irishmen — How Ireland became Roman — How it came under the British Crown Page iii CHAPTER IX. FOURTH AND F[FTH — HE SITS IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD. The Blasphemous Assumptions of the Papacy — Holds the Keys of Heaven and Hell — The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth — History of Papal Intrigues in Temporal Government 148 CHAPTER X. SIXTH — DRUNKEN WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS. History of Roman Persecutions — Slaughter of the Paulicians — History of the Inquisition — Its Murders — Slaughter of the Waldenses and Albigenses — Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day — Slaughter of Jews and Saracens 174 CHAPTER XI. SEVENTH — THE OVERTHROW, OR FINAL DESTRUCTION. The Instruments of her Destruction — Gored by the Horns of the same Beast that has Carried Her — The Final Consump- 12 Contents. tion by the Word of God — History of the Bible in Ger- many, England, and in all Europe, and in American Romish Countries Page 198 CHAPTER XII. THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH IN THIS CRISIS OF THE CONFLICT. I. A Bible Education of the Nation — The Bible in the Common School — 2. The Bible to be Carried into the whole Roman World — The Spirit with which we should meet Ro- mans 216 THE GREAT CONFLICT. -♦-♦-♦- CHAPTER I. THE OPPOSING POWERS IN THE CONFLICT. And then shall that Wicked be Revealed, whom the Lord shall Consume with the Spirit of his Mouth, AND shall Destroy with the Brightness of his Coming. — 2 Thess. ii, 8. AN infidel, who was wont to ridicule the Bible as a tissue of cunningly devised fables, dreamed one night that he was weighed in the balances : in one scale was the Bible, and he in the other, and the Bible outweighed him. The politico-religious system, Roman- ism, is being weighed in the balances. It is in one scale ; the Bible, the word of God, in the other. The passage of Scripture at the head of this chapter 14 The Great Conflict, intimates that Rome will not only be out- weighed and found wanting, but utterly consumed by the Spirit of his mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of his coming. I have assumed in the above remark that the " Wicked," or the Lawless One, as it might be rendered from the Greek in the passage, is Roman Ca- tholicism, which I propose to prove be- fore I have done with the subject ; that the Bible, or the revealed word and Gos- pel of God, is intended by the term, " Spirit of his mouth ;" and by the " bright- ness of his coming," that word and Gos- pel illumined by the effective agency of the Holy Ghost. That is to consume Romanism. We have brought into view two antagonistic principles, or rather their incarnations in two antagonistic powers, both determined on and strug- gling for universal empire. Nothing less is the fixed purpose of each. The As Shadowed by the Prophets. 15 one, "by the manifestation of the truth to every man's conscience in the sight of God," seeks for a willing, cheerful sub- jection, by, in, and over the hearts of all — a reign of righteousness, and peace, and good-will, a universal, individual self-government, under the law of Christ the King. The foundation and efficient principle of the other, is unquestioning, implicit obedience to a superior ; a government by force, or fraud, or high-sounding as- sumptions ; a power " whose coming is after [or according to] the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders," or deceptive prodigies, " and with all deceivableness of unright- eousness in them that perish." The foundation principle of the one is implicit faith in the infinite God and obedience to his law. That of the other is the devil's coun- terfeit of a true faith, substituting for i6 The Great Conflict, the " image and superscription," or sig- nature and seal of God, that of finite, fallible man, the Pope, the episcopacy, or the general of the Jesuits. The one elevates the governed to their proper manhood, " kings and priests unto God and the Lamb." The other dwarfs and belittles the individual man- hood of its subjects, almost ignores their individuality, and masses them under an unmitigated tyranny over the reason, conscience, souls, and bodies of its de- luded vassals. This has been the great conflict for empire for more than twelve cen- turies. It is now at a dead-lock. If the Bible is diffused among the nations, its truths accepted, and its principles wrought by the Holy Ghost into all hearts, Rome perishes, and is found no more at all. If the Bible by any means can be kept back from the nations, or the minds of As Shadowed by the Prophets. 1 7 the people be diverted from it by a trashy, trivial, skeptical, or a pretentious scientist literature — substituting for sci- ence mere hypotheses, often little better than day dreams of fanciful brains — or its truths be obscured by any substitute for it, Rorne may hold on its way, and if she can destroy the book, Romanism may live and maintain its sway over its dark dominions. There is doubtless a kind of sincerity in the ruling classes of that system, such a sincerity as Paul had when he thought he ought to do many things contrary to Jesus of Nazareth. They doubtless do think it would be better for the world, certainly for themselves, to be under the universal sway of the infallible Pope ; and, for the perfect peace of that empire, that the Bible should be kept out of the hands of the common people, that they may all look to, and be taught by, the priesthood, the doctrines of Rome. 1 8 The Great Conflict, With their views we cannot, therefore, so much blame them for their opposition to the Bible. There is another good ground for that opposition. The book contains a Daguerreotype likeness, a perfect de- scription of that system — its rise, its character, its triumphs, its reign, and its downfall. No fugitive from justice would like to meet in every place a paper con- taining his description and photograph ; we could not blame him for concealing, or burning, them if possible. PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. We find in some of the later prophets the system delineated with wonderful accuracy. But there has been so many diverse, and even contradictory, inter- pretations of prophecy, (even Rome has her interpreters and interpretations,) that it may seem like entering " dream- land" to refer to the word of prophecy As Shadowed by the Prophets. 19 in proof of any thing. But has there not been a somewhat general mistake among interpreters of prophecy, founded on an erroneous principle of interpre- tation ? The prophets on the general subject of the Messiah and his kingdom, and his enemies, have delineated the conflict of principles ; the contests of spiritual pow- ers — Christ and Satan, as old John Bun- yan has it — for the possession of " the town of Mansoul ;" the conflict of the spirit in man and the Holy Spirit above him, on the one side, and the flesh, (the animal,) the world, and the devil on the other, in the individual — antagonisms that on a vast scale have involved in their sweep the whole of humanity. This con- flict of underlying principles in the spirit world has ever been cropping out here and there, and repeating itself over and over again in the facts of human history — individual, national, and universal. The 20 The Great Conflict, war is pre-eminently a religious war — • the conflict of the ages — that has stirred the race from the beginning till now, and will till the consummation, till the true triumphs over the false. The true religion of the race is its FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FaTHER. It had two sides from the beginning, comple- ments of each other for the perfecting of its unity. Godward, it was a system of GRACE on the one side, and of law on the other ; manward, it was a system of FAITH on the one side, and of works, or obedience to law, on the other ; the per- fection of faith and law too. The great Leader, on the one side — the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, the Christ of the Christian — appears first in Eden, in his assumed incarna- tion, in the likeness of man, and walks and talks with Adam and Eve, to strengthen fellowship, and trust, and communion with him. As Shadowed by the Prophets. 21 Satan, the opponent, in his assumed incarnation — the sly, wily, and then probably beautiful and fascinating ser- pent — appears in the same Eden, and from that incarnation gets his name and memorial through all generations : " The Old Serpent — the devil and Satan." He makes his first attack and gains his first victory on the weak side, the legal side, of religion ; and has carried on the same tactics ever since, as the history of the worlds religions abundantly shows. They are all, save one, the true Chris- tianity, but a combined apostasy from the faith, with the legal element or re- liance on vain works as the warp and woof of the whole. But his victory there was only his defeat, as ever since ; for while Adam was perfect, he was not PERFECTED, till through the knowledge of good and evil he came to a higher fel- lowship through a humbler, stronger faith. 22 The Great Conflict, THE OPENING HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT. " Now the serpent " — Satan's " chosen incarnation" — "was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made ; and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden." " No," replies the woman, " he hasn't said any such thing. But ' we may eat ' of the fruit of the trees of the garden.' He has been wonderfully benevolent and kind, and given all that heart can wish, or nature require, * but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.' " In the LAW or prohibition he is benev- olent and kind too. " It is poison ; he has warned us against danger." " Aye," sneers the serpent, " God knows better ! * Ye shall not surely die : . . . but be as gods, knowing good and evil.' " By the As Shadowed by the Prophets. 23 subtle insinuation, doubt, the first doubt and distrust, is awakened in the womanly mind. Can it be that God, after all, in this command is not entirely sincere and frank, that he has any sinister or con- cealed motive toward us ? It was but a step from the doubt or weakened faith to the transgression of the law. Through FAITH — perfect confidence — the law is ful- filled and faith made perfect ; but never can faith be attained through the law. That access to the tree of life has been guarded ever since by the " double flam- ing sword." Faith comes now thro.ugh GRACE. The incarnated antichrists ever since have been apostacies from the faith — falls from grace to the law ; and the conflict has been the efforts to scale the battlements of heaven to the citadel ; the tree of life, without Christ, in spite of Christ, in opposition to Christ, and in the strife has crucified Christ. The masterpiece of Satan in this warfare has 24 The Great Conflict, been the great apostacy from the Chris- tian Church, pre-eminently The Anti- christ. The patriarchs and prophets through different ages, in their inspirations, have been let up into the visions of the great King, the Conqueror, to take a survey of the whole field of strife through the ages. Very dim indeed most of the vis- ions were, seldom entering into details of delineation, only glimpses in totality of the same vast field of conflict, in heaven and on earth — in spirits and in nature — in the spirits of fallen man, and the whole creation in sympathy, under the curse. They have been permitted to see so much of the plan of the grand campaign as was necessary for the guid- ance of the sacramental host of God's elect on that field of strife. The interpreter uninspired, with little or no sympathy with the Hebrew proph- ets, has seen in, or near his own age, As Shadowed by the Prophets. 25 detached skirmishes, or even hard-fought battles, but indecisive in the results or final consummation of the campaign, and has written them down as the fulfillment of the prophetic vision. They were in the vision, perhaps, but too small for notice or description. The interpreter has confined himself too much to the phenomena — detached historic events — and lost sight too much of the underly- ing principles or causes of the conflict. Even in the phenomena — the earthly history of the strife — the prophet has been like a traveler lifted to some mountain height to see the history through ages, as a vast mountain range casting its profile for hundreds of miles along the sky. The interpreter is often, like the same traveler, so near the range that he has lost sight of all except one peak, that fills his vision. He writes it down as the prophet's vision, when it was hardly an infinitesimal point in the 26 The Great Conflict, vision. So another at another point writes out his interpretation. Hence the endless variety and confusion of interpretations; and many turn away from the " sure word of prophecy," as the most uncertain of all uncertainties. As Shadowed by the Prophets, 27 CHAPTER II. THE KEY TO RIGHT INTERPRETATION. IT seems to me that the very first prophecy ever uttered, and that not through a prophet, but by Jehovah himself, in saddened Eden, is the key to all general prophecy : " And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel." I say general proph- ecy ; for particular prophecies relative to individuals, or single national events, often had little bearing on the great conflict, and the fulfillment, sometimes little more than the prophet's commis- sion. The visions of the earlier patri- archs and prophets under the old dis- pensation are filled with the Messiah, his advent and mission, his humiliation 28 The Great Conflict, cind sufferings, his conflicts and triumph, the redemption wrought out by him through faith alone in his name ; in the struggle with the opposing principle of self-salvation by the deeds of the law, always and ever involving in itself the spirit of Antichrist. It becomes incar- nated finally in the Levitical priesthood and Jewish Sanhedrim — an apostacy from God's own institution — the first organized, incarnate Antichrist. It be- came of its father, the devil and Satan, and crucified the Lord of glory. THE VISIONS OF THE EARLIER PROPHETS. Any one who will carefully compare these visions of successive patriarchs and prophets, will be struck with their won- derful similarity ; with the fact that they were evidently visions of the same thing: the Messiah, his works, his conflicts, his glory. The plaintive moans of Job, of David, of Isaiah, in their depths of grief As Shadowed by the Prophets. 29 and sympathy with each other, poured forth In the deep rich tones of Hebrew- poetry, seem but the echoes back on the ages from the cross of, in the prophetic visions, the ever-present Man of Sor- rows — the crucified. These ancient saints and prophets were God's own il- lustrations of a true religion of faith, unsullied by, but brightened under trials, so brought into sympathy with the great central illustration — the Divine, immac- ulate God-man tempted, rejected, cruci- fied, yet without sin. Jeremiah seems to have been so over- borne with the calamities of his nation as seldom to rise above them, but to see something of the moral influence of the captivity on the nation and on the world, and the reformation and restora- tion after seventy years. Isaiah's visions are often full and glowing in the future glories of Messiah's kingdom, but he seems to have seen little of its conflicts 30 The Great Conflict, after his resurrection. The visions of some of the prophets more clear than of others, brightening generally with suc- cessive prophets, a gradual unfolding of revelation, till Daniel fixes the precise time of Messiah's appearing and " cut- ting off, but not for himself" This prediction is so remarkable that I quote it, with Dr. Prideauxs note on it, (Dan. ix, 24-26:) "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the trans- gression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteous- ness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command- ment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be SEVEN weeks and threescore and tv/o weeks : the street shall be built again, As Shadowed by the Prophets. 31 and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for him- self ; and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." — Ga- brieVs explanation of the vision. " The commencement of the whole period of seventy weeks, or four hun- dred and ninety days, or (a day for a year) four hundred and ninety years being reckoned from the seventh year of Artaxerxes, (Ezra vii, 11 ;) when the walls of Jerusalem were built, and its inhabitants restored to its ancient laws, falls upon the four hundred and fifty- seventh year before the Christian era. To four hundred and fifty-seven yoars before the birth of Christ add twenty-six years after his birth, and it makes four hundred and eighty-three years, (or the 32 The Great Conflict, SIXTY-NINE weeks of four hundred and eighty-three days,) which brings us to the year of John the Baptist's preaching of the advent of the Messiah. Add one week of seven days, or seven years, and it brings us to the thirty-third year of our Lord, the year of his crucifixion." — Prideaux, He came at the precise time predicted ; yet bHnded Israel, with this prophecy In their hands acknowledged to be from God, have been waiting these eighteen HUNDRED years for their Messiah ! To all this is added the clear prediction, in the same passage, of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the dis- persion of the Jews among all nations ; the end of the Levitical priesthood and the altar sacrifices ; the signal vengeance on the first Antichrist for the rejection and crucifixion of Christ. While the earlier prophets seem to have seen little of the conflicts after the As Shadowed by the Prophets, 2)Z ascension, Ezekiel and Daniel in Babylon, in the midst of the captivity, with the visions of the near approach of the deliv- erance, and the overthrow of Israel's op- pressor, the Babylonian Empire, seem to have had foreshadowed to them in the midst of these stirring events the visions of the far-off conflict of the Church. Ezeklel's visions of Gog and Magog ; of the symbolic temple ; of the waters issu- ing out from under the eastern gate till it is a river to swim In ; of the trees on either side, with the leaves for healing of bruises, are remarkably like the visions of John on Patmos of Gog and Magog ; of the New Jerusalem ; of the River of Life ; of the trees on either bank, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. They seem in the descriptions like two artists, with a perfect unity of design, engaged on the same picture ; the last, in more vivid colors, bringing it out into a clearer and fuller light 34 The Great Conflict, CHAPTER III. THE LAST ANTICHRIST OF THE PROPHETS. UNDER the guidance of the gen- eral principles unfolded in the preceding chapter, let us look for the Antichrist, or apostasy from the Chris- tian Church, of the prophets, and then at history, to see if Roman Catholicism, or the Papacy, is that Antichrist. It seems to me that the wonderful visions of Daniel, with the clear expla- nation of them by the angel Gabriel, and the historic fulfillment of them in part, furnish a key to the more wonder- ful visions of John on the island Patmos. Daniel was in Babylon, in the captiv- ity, near six hundred years before Christ. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has a remarkable dream five hundred and seventy years before Christ, but As Shadowed by the Prophets, 35 could not remember or recall it in the morning. In his intense and restless anxiety to know the dream and its inter- pretation, he calls all the wise men of Babylon together, and offers rich re- wards for the dream and its interpreta- tion, or their death if it is not made known to him. This ultimately brings the captive Jew into notice, and finally makes Daniel the prime minister of the empire ; and, what was much more, brings Daniel's God, the God of heaven, to the knowledge of the monarch and his subjects. THE DREAM. God reveals to Daniel, in a night vision, the dream and the interpreta- tion, which he presents to the king : " Thou, O king, sawest and beheld a great image, whose brightness was ex- cellent, and the form thereof was terri- ble. This image's head was of fine gold, 36 The Great Conflict, his breast and arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, which smote the image on the feet that were of iron and clay and break them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor ; and the winds of heaven carried them away that no place was found for them : and the stone that smote them became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." " This is the dream." THE INTERPRETATION. The dream is interpreted to mean the four great empires : the Babylonian, " the head of gold ;" the Medo-Persian, " the breasts and arms of silver;" the Mace- donian or Grecian, " the belly and thighs As Shadowed by the Prophets, 2)7 of brass ;" the Roman, " the legs of iron," with the lesser kingdoms of Eu- rope into which that empire was broken, " the feet and toes, part of iron and part of clay." It has already covered twenty-four hundred and forty-two years of history, fulfilling the prophecy with wonderful accuracy to the present time, 1874. DANIEL'S VISION. Twenty-nine years after the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, according to the chronology of some, five hundred and forty-one years before Christ, in the first year of the reign* of Belshazzar, Daniel had another vision, giving another sym- bolical representation of the same range of history. " Four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from an- other." " The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings ; I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, . . . and it 38 The Great Conflict, was made to stand upon the feet as a man." Babylon again, but the empire in a decline; two years afterward Baby- lon was taken by the Medes and Per- sians. " And the second like to a bear, . . . and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it." The Medo- Persian again. " The third was like a leopard which had upon its back four wings of a fowl ; the beast had also four heads." The Grecian empire again, un- der the four generals of Alexander the Great, after his death. " After this I saw in the night visions, and beheld a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it had great iron teeth ; it devoured and brake in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it ; and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it ; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold there came up among them another little horn, before whom there As Shadowed by the Prophets, 39 were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots ; and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things." The Roman empire again, with its division into the kingdoms of Europe, the ten horns answering to the ten toes of the image. Much effort has been made to find precisely these ten kingdoms, much learning displayed, with considerable variety of interpretation. The map of Europe has changed every century since the breaking up of the Roman Empire. It seems to me that the number ten is used because it was natural for the Im- age to have ten toes. You cannot make a picture or symbol enter Into the pre* else particulars of a written description. It was broken up into smaller kingdoms ; ten, or more or less of them at different times. But what filled Daniel with the great- est astonishment was the little horn. 40 The Great Conflict, It was a new vision of the future ; none of the preceding prophets had seen it before, certainly not with any distinct- ness of view. " Then I would know the truth," says Daniel, " of the fourth beast, . . . and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell ; even of the horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows." " And I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, until the ancient of days came (the permanent or enduring of days — the eternal) and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." Then comes the angel's ex- planation of the vision : " Thus," he said, " the beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole As Shadowed by the Prophets, 41 earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings, (or king- doms,) that shall arise, and another shall rise after them ; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws ; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of times, (1,260 years.) But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his domin- ion to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and domin- ion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." Daniel had said in the closing part of 42 The Great Conflict, his vision : " I beheld till the thrones were cast down, (or set in haste for the judges in the impending judgment,) and the ancient of days (the Eternal) did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool ; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him : thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thou- sand stood before ; the judgment was set, and the books were opened." A final settlement with, and overthrow of, the great enemy by the breath of his mouth, and the brightness of his glory. " I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake ; I beheld even till the beast was slain and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." " I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven. As Shadowed by the Prophets. 43 and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him." The Jehovah of Israel, the Incarnate One, the Conqueror, glorified as the Eternal Son of God, assuming his right to reign as God. " And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." How very like these descriptions of Daniel to those of John of the same per- sonage in the visions of Patmos ! 44 The Great Conflict, CHAPTER IV. THE NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES OF THE ANTICHRIST. FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE years after the vision of Daniel, related in the preceding chapter, when the THREE BEASTS of the vision had passed into history — " had their domin- ion taken away, though their lives were prolonged for a season and time " — under the reign of the fourth beast, and within little more than three hundred years of the breaking of the Roman Empire into the kingdoms of the ten horns, or ten TOES of the great image of Nebuchad- nezzar's dream, in the fifty-second year of the Christian era, Paul writes to the Thessalonians : " Let no man de- ceive you by any means : for that day shall not come, (the day of the return, or As Shadowed by the Prophets. 45 coming of Christ and of the end of the world, as some taught,) except there come a falling away first, and that Man of Sin be revealed, the Son of Perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is wor- shiped ; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things ? And now ye know what with- holdeth (or holdeth back, or hindereth) that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : only he who now letteth will let (or hinder) until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked (law- less one) be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the bright- ness of his coming : even hifyi whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying won- 46 The Great Conflict. ders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2 Thess. ii, 3-10. Five years afterward, in the year 57 or 58, Paul writes to Timothy: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth/' i Tim. iv, 1-3. What had Paul " told the Thessaloni- ans when he was with them ? " The great apostasy, the terrible Antichrist, seems to have been a subject well un- derstood among the early Christians, though little was written, and that As Shadowed by the Prophets. 47 knowledge handed down orally for two or three centuries. The early fathers in the Church seem to have well under- stood what prevented or held back the revelation of Antichrist. Tertullian, who wrote very early in the third century in defense of the Christians against the charge that they were unconcerned for the safety of the Roman emperor, says : " We are under a particular necessity of praying for the emperors, and for the continued state of the empire, because we know that the dreadful power which hangs over the whole world, and the conclusion of the age, which threatens the most horrible evils, is retarded or delayed by the time appointed for the continuance of the Roman Empire. This is what we would not experience, and while we pray it may be deferred, we hereby show our good will to the perpe- tuity of the Roman State." The same writer, in his comments on the passage 48 The Great Conflict, in Paul's epistle, " Until he be taken out of the way," says : " Who but the Roman Empire, which being dispersed into ten of kings, shall introduce Antichrist ? " Chrysostom, who wrote early in the FIFTH century, about fifty years before the breaking up of the Empire, comment- ing on the same passage, says : " When the Roman Empire shall be taken out of the way, then shall the Man of Sin come ; when that shall be overthrown, he shall invade the empire and attempt the rule both of man and God." As Shadowed by the Prophets, 49 CHAPTER V. THE VISIONS OF ST. JOHN. ABOUT the year 96, twenty-six years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and three hundred and eighty years before the breaking up of the Western Roman Empire, or change in the reign of the FOURTH BEAST of Daniel's vision to the reign of the ten horns and of the little horn ; and six hundred and thirty-seven years after that vision, John has the remarkable vision or revelation on the Island of Patmos. The symbolical rep- resentations in this vision are so grand, and the coming history of the Church and its opposing powers, involving the whole race of earth down to the consum- mation, unfolded in the vision, is so vast, that it is impossible to cramp it, as some interpreters have attempted, into a pre- 4 50 The Great Conflict, diction of the destruction of Jerusalem, on the weak chronological argument that it was delivered before that event, or the weaker one, that it was retro- spective. Prophecy never goes back on history to symbolize or dimly shadow that which had already been plainly written out ; nor can it be cramped into the commotions and final destruction of the Roman Empire. It takes up the visions of Daniel at the point where they had already become history, and unfolds in more minute detail and brighter coloring the same subject of the visions, both of Daniel and John, down to the end. The grand theme, and great wonder of both prophets, is the struggle of the Little Horn and the saints of the Most High for empire. The stirring events of the Revelator's times did but foreshadow the coming conflict. Satan, in the first incarnate Antichrist, had gained another great As Shadowed by the Prophets. 5 1 victory. Christ had been crucified, dead, and buried, but it turned to a terrible defeat. The Conqueror comes up from the grave and ascends to the throne of the " Ancient of days : that incarnate Antichrist had been signally overthrown in the terrible doom of Jerusalem, and the nation scattered among all nations, as a standing monument through the ages of Messiah's victory." What next ? What is the Church to look for in the future 1 At that, point, while the oppos- ing hosts are gathering for a new con- test ; for the guidance and support of God's host on that field, the visions of Patmos unfold the vicissitudes of that coming conflict and the final triumph of the King and his saints. MEANING OF THE SYMBOLS IN THE VISION. John is commanded to write "the THINGS WHICH ARE, AND THE THINGS WHICH SHALL BE HEREAFTER." 52 The Great Conflict, Daniel's fourth beast, the Roman Civil Government, comes up to view as then existing — the thing that is ; but it has a future, too, that must be presented under a similar, but a more full and enlarged, symbol — that of "the first BEAST " of the Revelation, " with seven heads and ten horns, (the same number of Daniel's fourth beast,) and upon his horns ten crowns." This symbol in- cludes the things which are and which shall be hereafter. The messages for the seven Churches of Asia also revealed to him the then condition of those Churches, and their future extinction if they did not resist the already incipient workings of "the great Apostasy" among them. It only marks the position of the prophet in history, from which, un- der Divine illumination, he sketches that wonderful historical painting of the future. Let us bring into view the symbols, As Shadowed by the Prophets. 53 or rather the powers symbolized, in this wonderful vision, not precisely in the order in which they are related, but in the order or array of battle. We have still the same two spiritual powers ar- rayed in the coming conflict, the Son of God on the one side, '' and Satan, the old serpent, and the devil " on the other, with their armies, the true Church, and the Apostasy, or false Church, and the world. The symbolical representations of the spiritual power, on one side, are : First, " One like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with ^a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire ; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they were burned in a furnace ; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars ; and out of his 54 The Great Conflict, mouth went a sharp two-edged sword ; and his countenance was as the sun shin- eth In his strength." " And when I saw him," says the Revelator, " I fell at his feet as one dead." The symbol blends the human and Divine in Jesus glorified. How similar the descriptions, both of Daniel and John, of the same- person- age ! and how similar the effect of the vision on each ! The second symbol of the same per- sonage is : " And I beheld a throne was set in heaven, and One sat upon the throne ; and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone ; and there was a rarnbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." Jesus in his Godhead glorified ; as Dan- iel has it, "One like unto the Son of man coming to the Ancient of days." The third, or threefold symbol : " He is the LION of the tribe of Judah; the ROOT of David ; the Lamb as it had been As Shadowed by the Prophets, 55 slain." The only one "worthy," or that had power, "to open the book or to look thereon." Jesus in his manhood, in his humiliation, as Redeemer and revealer of God to man.' The fourth symbol : " He is the Faith- ful and True on a white horse ; his eyes as a flame of fire, and on his head many crowns ;" " clothed in a vesture dipped in blood ; and his name is called the Word of God." Jesus in the conflict, through his own blood, leading his armies to victory. SYMBOLS OF THE CHURCH. His armies, the sacramental hosts, the true Church, is presented under four dif- ferent symbols. First. " The two witnesses, clothed in sackcloth, prophesying a thousand two hundred aud threescore days]^ (one thou- sand two hundred and sixty years.) Second. " A W031AN clothed with the 56 The Great Conflict, sun;" shod with the moon, "the moon was under her feet ;" " crowned with twelve stars," enrobed in God's own glo- rious creations ; " but travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered ;" her child caught up into heaven ; she winged to fly into the wilderness, to be protected from the power of the great red dragon, the same one thousand two hundred and sixty years. Third. " The four and twenty eld- ers clothed with white raiment, and on their heads. crowns of gold:" "and the four living creatures (badly translated beasts in our version) full of eyes before and behind;" "each had six wings," " full of eyes within." The Church vic- torious and triumphant. Fourth. "The new Jerusalem com- ing down from God out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband." This symbol is the climax of a series of like symbols running through all the proph- As Shadowed by the Prophets. 57 ets : from the tabernacle, made after a precise pattern, in the wilderness ; the TEMPLE in Jerusalem; the temple of Ezekiel's vision, to the perfection — the NEW Jerusalem of John's vision. The successive developments of these sym- bolical representations contain a minia- ture history of the Church. It is the Church nomadic in the wilderness ; the Church settled in the land of promise, but under carnal ordinances ; the Church in captivity in Babylon, but there wield- ing a more mighty moral and spiritual power over the nations than ever before ; and the Church triumphant over all the earth. " All nations walking in her light." There Is another symbol, chap, xi, i, 2, that seems to include both the true Church and the Apostasy, so intimately connected, that the developing Apostasy into a distinct organization seems yet but the outer court of the true Church. " And there was given me a reed like 58 The Great Conflict, unto a rod ; and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not ; for it is given unto the Gentiles : and the holy city [the true Church] shall they tread under foot forty and two months." The same twelve hundred and sixty years. SYMBOL OF THE OPPOSING POWER. The spiritual power underlying all its incarnations — the chief in this conflict with the Son of God — is " the Old Ser- pent, the devil and Satan." The sym- bolical representation of him is "The Great Red Dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads ; and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." What a symbol ! If an artist wished to characterize good- ness, benevolence, meekness, wisdom, As Shadowed by the Prophets. 59 strength, all the virtues, he would need to paint but one head and face ; but if he would characterize cunning, craft, ma- liciousness, malice, revenge, malignity, all the evil passions of which a spirit is capable, and then blend the spirit with the animal, and bring out selfishness, gluttony, brutality, beastliness, all the possible evil passions of the two natures combined, he would need to paint seven heads and ten horns to delineate the whole : then add to it the slimy body of a vast snake with a tail in its malig- nant wrigglings and writhings casting down many great men, and even great lights of the Church, to the earth. If there is such awful and tremendous force in the symbol, what must be the power of the creature symbolized? He dared in Eden to give the Son of God the lie. He is "red " with the blood of the nations shed in mutual slaughter. He has made the history of the race 6o The Great Conflict, under God's government, an impenetra- ble mystery. He reigned in God's own Jewish Church "an accuser of the breth- ren," a persecutor of the small number of the faithful prophets and saints who did believe in the Son of God, in the Divin- ity of the Messiah, and hurried on that Church to the rejection and crucifixion of Christ. He has ever been the op- poser of the Sonship of the Messiah, of the Divinity of Jesus, though sometimes, in view of the retribution," believing and trembling." But in that imagined victory he was cast out of heaven — the Church. The resurrection and ascension made the divinity and power of Jesus so over- whelmingly clear and convincing, that multitudes, even of his crucifiers, believed on him : perhaps the " sealed hundred and forty and four thousand " and a great " host of the nations that no man can number." As Shadowed by the Prophets. 6i The Christian Church is founded on that rock. The true saints cannot be shaken from it. Satan can no longer control the Church or abide in it ; he is cast out of heaven down to the earth, " and has come down with great wrath, for his time is short." He cannot crucify Christ again, but he can make war with his seed, and shed the blood of the saints ; he must have his incarnation an organized power. He cannot rule the true Church again, or draw it over to his work, but he can draw an apostasy out of it, and make a counterfeit Church to deceive the na- tions. This visible incarnation of Sa- tan's forces on earth was the burden of the Revelator's vision. THE SYMBOLS OF THE APOSTASY. The first symbol is " The false PROPHET, that wrought miracles before the Beast, with which he deceived them 62 The Great Conflict. that had received the mark of the Beast, and them that worshiped his Image." This is the power pitted against the " Two Witnesses." It does not seem to me that this symbol has much to do with Mohammedanism. It is pre-eminently a characteristic of the Papacy, and yet may be even wider than that in its sig- nificancy, including any thing or organ- ization seeming to be religious, yet without the root of the matter, the real foundation principle of Christianity. The second symbol is the two-horned LAMB coming up out of the earth. He has an earthly origin, and is a beast, though a lamb in appearance, and meek- ness, and gentleness, yet he has "two horns," "and speaks as a dragon." " He exercises all the power of the first beast, and causeth all the earth, and all that dwell therein, to worship (bow down to) the first beast whose deadly wound was healed ; and he doeth great wonders, so As Shadowed by the Prophets. G'^ that he maketh fire come down from heaven, in the sight of men, and de- ceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of these miracles." He causes an image to be made of the first beast, and has power to give life to the image. He adds a spiritual or ecclesiastical power to an earthly government, and through that power brings the governments un- der his sway. Can the intent of this symbol or its application be mistaken ? Could the origin of the temporal power of the Papacy, or the blending of the spiritual with the temporal in the gov- ernment of the nations, be more clearly symbolized? It is only an amplification or enlargement of Daniel's vision of the Little Horn, representing the same pe- culiar features of the same power. In connection with this symbol I can- not forbear to notice a peculiarity in the angel's explanation to John of the meaning of the symbol of the woman 64 The Great Conflict, and the beast that carried her, especially of the " BEAST THAT WAS, AND IS NOT, AND YET IS." " The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth, and are seven kings," or kingdoms, as it should be rendered, or forms of civil gov- ernment ; " five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come. . . , And the BEAST that was, and is not, even he is the EIGHTH, and is of [out of] the seven, and goeth into perdition." Five forms of gov- ernment of Daniel's beast, or five heads of John's beast, had passed into history and passed away — kings ^ consuls, dictators, de- cemvirs, and military tribunes, John was under the sixth head, or imperial form, " ONE IS," " the other is not yet come" — the power of the ten horns. But what is the EIGHTH beast that comes up out of the seven, and " was, and is not, and yet is ? " The religious element, paganism, had always been a controlling power in the civil governments symbolized by the As ShadoiJOed by the Prophets, 65 BEASTS in Daniel's vision. The pontifcx maximus was a controlling office in the whole history of the Roman Empire before John's day. Paganism was a false religion, and its control was by craft and deception and force ; an earthly beast-power in the government of men. After the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God, and the diffusion and prevalence of Christianity, this power in the Roman Empire was greatly weakened, for a time, under the reign of Constantine the Great, almost annihilated, and this pagan persecuting power had ceased to annoy the Church, so that it might be said of this " beast- power " " it is not," and yet it is ; its ele- ments in a few centuries developed into the Papacy, a religious power, almost pagan, false, and earthly in all its princi- ples of control over men ; the eighth beast coming up out of, and of the beast- ly nature of the seven — the synonym and 66 The Great Conflict, synchronism of the " two horned lamb" and the little horn of Daniels vision. The third symbol is the great whore, the woman, sitting on the scarlet col- ored beast, arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, " having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication," " drunken with the blood of the saints," and of the " martyrs of Jesus." She is the pretended spouse of Christ, yet in the closest inti- macy with the potentates and kings of earth, adopting their principles of craft and force in the government of this world. In return and to that end, she is decked and ornamented by them with all earthly arts and accomplishments, to gain influence and power over the im- aginations and minds of men. It is a perfect contrast to the description of the true Bride, clothed in God's own gar- ments of nature, simplicity, and beauty. As Shadowed by the Prophets. 67 The fourth symbol is " Babylon the Great," "that great city which reign- eth over the kings of the earth." This symbol is so blended in the description with that of the woman, that there is no mistaking the fact that they both mean one and the same thing. All these symbols of the false or counterfeit Church give it an earthly and Satanic origin, on a religious prin- ciple indeed, but deceptive and antag- onistic to the principles at the founda- tion of the true Church of Christ. But THE Antichrist is not yet com- plete. This religious organization, or earthly incarnation, must have a sup- port more exclusively of earth and earthly ; and this earthly power or or- ganization, as its chief support, must also have its symbol. So we have a FIFTH SYMBOL. " Out of the sea," where Daniel's four beasts came from, " comes up the first beast" of John's vision, 68 The Great Conflict, with " seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the names of blasphemy." The very heads and horns of the Old Ser- pent, but on the body of the beast, and crowned. " And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority." Satan blended with the beast in human civil governments over the nations. The symbol is not that of the false Church, or the Apostasy, but of civil governments not founded on right, and justice, and GOOD WILL, but on might, and lawless AUTHORITY, and SELFISH, UNPRINCIPLED POWER, the BEAST-POWER of lawless self- ishness and brute force. It has not so much to do with the forms of human government as with their spirit or char- acter. A democracy may have more of the beast-nature and blind force in it than absolutism, or even military despotism. Such were the civil governments in As Shadowed by the Prophets. 69 the days of Daniel and of John, and such have they been to a greater or less de- gree down to this day. But the ten TOES of Nebuchadnezzar's image were part clay and part iron. Human rights, under law, began the struggle with law- less despotism in government, and the conflict has waged on through the ages, and will, till the Decalogue becomes the constitutional law of nations, and the people of the saints of the Most High rule over the earth. The rights of the people under law have become so potent under the long, long struggle, that not an ambitious mortal now — unless it be the infallible Pope or his blind votary — is so foolhardy as to dream of universal empire by craft or by might. The peo- ple have become a power, and, when fitted for it, will have the government. For a long time in the strife civil gov- ernments were the chief support of the Apostasy— in league with it, the armor- 70 The Great Conflict, bearer of it. The little horn grew out of the head of the beast ; and so the Apostasy partook of the substance and nature of the beast, so close was the. alliance to make a full Antichrist. It has been the pet animal of the scarlet lady — the beast on which she rode through all the battles of the dark ages, and rides still. For even in this nine- teenth century, in this great republic, in this metropolitan city, she sits on the same beast under the head of indicted thieves, receiving for her vote-offerings millions on millions of dollars to deck herself, and to keep the beast in power to still steal for her support and luxury in her harlotry with the beast-powers and rulers of earth. In this symbol, or seven-headed beast — or rather in the history of it — is one peculiar characteristic or fact we cannot pass without notice. Says John : "And I saw one of his heads as it were As Shadowed by the Prophets. 71 wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed." It was that which made " all the world wonder after the beast," and which the " second beast, the two horned lamb," helped to heal, and made so much of in the government by the "head that was wounded to death and did live." THE DEADLY WOUND HEALED. The breaking up of the Roman Em- pire under its imperial head, or form of government, after a dominion of more than twelve hundred years, and part of that time well-nigh universal, by the barbarian hordes from" the North, in A. D. 476, would seem to the world to be the death of empire, the end of all hu- man government, of order or civilization, a dissolution into anarchy and utter con- fusion ; but anon the same principle of organization, the same beast-power of government, appears in the " ten horns" 72 The Great Conflict, of the same beast, till under Charle- magne, crowned A. D. 800, and soon reigning over nearly all the former Western Roman Empire, the deadly wound is fully healed. Not only that, but the ecclesiastical or spiritual power of Rome comes into the alliance, and soon gains the ascendency, and, with its Divine rights of kings and popes, makes an iron government, more potent, tyran- nical, and oppressive than any despot- ism the world had ever groaned under. What a fulfillment ! * * After I had completed the manuscript of the pres- ent volume, the recent very interesting, clear, and able volume of Professor Pond, D.D., of Bangor, " The Seals Opened ; or. Apocalypse Explained," fell into my hands. I was most agreeably surprised, and greatly strengthened, to find that what I had written, so nearly in outline coincides with his more thorough and schol- arly investigations of the Apocalypse, and more full de- scription of the fulfillment of the predictions, the only essential difference being : he makes the first beast of John's vision to symbolize the kingly or temporal power of Papal Rome, and the deadly wound of the head of the beast to be healed in the rise of that kingly power. The As Shadowed by the Prophets. 73 In these symbols, these marvelous pro- phetic pictures, we have arrayed before us the powers and forces for the contest. Then the conflict opens in the opening of the seven seals, the sounding of the seven trumpets, and the pouring out of the seven vials. It seems to me that this is but a threefold representation of the great features and facts in the his- tory of the then impending struggle. Were you to describe a great battle, you would be obliged to describe the movements of the right wings of the contending armies, the left wings, the centers, and the final movements of the reserves, while together it is but one description of the whole battle. blasphemous characteristics given to the beast would seem to indicate that, but it seems to me that that beast includes the whole of the fourth beast of Daniel with the ten horns, all the civil powers under the sway of the ec- clesiastical or spiritual power of Rome, Of course that includes the temporal power of Rome, or the little horn of Daniel's vision. The Pope crowned Charlemagne, and so healed the deadly wound of one head of the beast. 74 The Great Conflict, The first to the sixth seals do, indeed, bring into view more clearly the first pages or acts in the history of the con- flict ; such as the triumphs of the Gos- pel in the second and third centuries, and the reaction and pagan persecutions and commotions in the Roman Empire to the triumphs of Christianity under Constantine. But the seventh seal seems to include the whole of the seven trum- pets, and run through to the same con- summation with the seventh trumpet and the seventh seal. The first four trumpets and the first four vials pass over the same field of history, and are remarkably alike in description ; in both it is the sea^ the earth, the rivers, and fountains of water, and the sun, as the theaters of the acts or history, and the effects of the judgments very similar. The seventh vial brings out the consum- mation more clearly than the seventh seal or trumpet, but all run to the same As Shadowed by the Prophets, 75 consummation, and the same with that of Daniel's vision. It does not seem to me that Mohammedanism is brought into view as a distinct opposing power of the Church. As matter of fact, it has never done the true Church much in- jury, but it has held the Papacy in check, and prevented its universal em- pire. The terrific Saracen and Turkish wars, and the duration of them, as the wrath of God on the race, are evidently brought into view in the fifth and sixth, or " first and second woe " trumpets, as the consumption of the Eastern Roman Empire. We have in the preceding pages only designed to give in brief a mere outline, or general view, of these prophetic pict- ures or symbols, without entering into particulars, or considering objections, or the great variety of interpretations of different expositors. We would lead the reader to the prophets themselves, 76 The Great Conflict, to compare prophecy with prophecy, and then to study the history of their fulfill- ment, that he may become wiser in bib- lical knowledge than his teachers are. THE PROPHETIC MARKS OF ANTICHRIST. What are the marks or characteristics of Antichrist left by the prophets 7 1. It is an APOSTASY growing up grad- ually out of the true Christian Church. 2. The TIME of its appearing or incar- nation into a system. It grows up with, and in the time of, the ten horns of the fourth beast. 3. It takes the place and assumes the POWER of the three horns, wears the TRIPLE CROWN, and exerciseth all the power of .the first beast, and reigneth over the kings of the earth. 4. Its BLASPHEMOUS ASSUMPTIONS. " It sits in the temple of God, and speaks great words against the Most High," ''and thinks to change times and laws," As Shadowed by the Prophets, "jy " forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats." 5. It is the "MOTHER OF HARLOTS," " and abominations of the whole earth," " with signs and lying wonders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness." 6. "It WEARS OUT THE SAINTS of the Most High," " is drunken with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus." 7. The instruments of its destruc- tion; hated by the horns of the same beast that has given its power to her and supported her. " They shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire." She is to be consumed finally and fully "by the Spirit of His mouth and the brightness of his revelation." yS The Great Conflict, CHAPTER VI. THE HISTORY OF ANTICHRIST, OR THE APOSTASY. ALL the marks left by the proph- ets, related In the previous chapter, do not, and cannot, apply to any organ- ized system or power that has ever ex- isted on earth, save one. They do not apply to Mohammedanism; that was not an apostasy from the Christian Church, and it never assumed the place of God in his temple. They do not apply to the Greek Church only as a branch of the Roman, for though an apostasy, it has never made such impudent assump- tions, nor has it ruled over the kings of the earth. They cannot apply to Martin Luther, as the Romans say, or any indi- vidual man or potentate, or any Protest- ant branch of the Church, or all of them As Delmeated iit History. 79 together, in either or all of these pro- phetic marks or characteristics. They do apply with singular exactness and clear- ness to Roman Catholicism — the Papacy. Each mark or feature, and all in combi- nation, is a perfect photographic deline- ation of that power. Its whole history is a marvelous fulfillment of all the prophecies relating to Antichrist. In proof of this position, from its his- tory, we enter a vast field, in which the difficulty is not so much to find abun- dant proofs, as, from their exuberancy, to make selections, so as to keep within our prescribed limits of a volume for popular use. Its first mark is, It is an APOSTASY from a true faith in Jesus, gradual in its development and growth. It began to work even in the apos- tle's days, as a religious declension, after the first great revival on the day of Pen- tecost, and during much of the first cen- tury, under/ the preaching of the apostles 8c5 The Great Conflict, and early Christians ; a sliding off from the solid foundation laid in Christ ; an obscuration of the doctrine of salvation by a living faith in Jesus alone ; a sub- stitution of a religion of works and hu- man merits, for faith ; and the specula- tions of human philosophy, falsely so- called, relative to the Godhead ; and about the Divinity and humanity of the Lord that bought them. The messages to the seven Churches of Asia are warnings against the beginnings of the insidious workings of the great APOSTASY. John in his epistles warns the Christians of his day against the Antichrists already existing among them. Its development into an organized sys- tem was held back by the pagan perse- cutions of the Roman Empire during the second and third centuries ; but early in the fourth century, under the external prosperity of Christianity in the reign of Constantine the Great, it began a more As Delineated in History. 8i rapid growth in the substitution of a splendid ecclesiasticism, for a living evangelism, of external forms, for a liv- ing faith. So gradual and insidious was its coming, that it is impossible to fix the precise date of the beginning of the Papacy, and consequently of its end, after a reign of 1,260 years. It is a singular fact that the very FORM in which our Saviour clothed the FOUNDATION PRINCIPLE of the true Church, has been perverted and made the foundation of the apostasy. At a certain time, when Jesus was alone with his disciples in a place of prayer, he asks them, " Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am ?" " They answered and said, " Some say thou art John the Baptist; some say, Elias ; and others, J eremias, or one of the proph- ets." " Others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again." He saith unto them, " But whom say ye that I am "^ " 82 The Great Conflict. And Simon Peter answered and said, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Si- mon Bar-jona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee. Thou art Peter, (nerpo^ — pe- TROS,) and upon this rock (ravrr) r^ nerpa — • this THE petra) I will build my Church." Petra was a great rock, petros a little stone. On the spiritual experimental knowledge of the Divinity — Godhood of Jesus, revealed by his Father — is the foundation of the Church. Regenerated souls through that knowledge are made LIVING STONES, as Peter was a little stone of the spiritual temple, founded on — framed into — that great foundation Rock, so by that knowledge made partakers of its nature. As matter of fact, Peter in the full faith and possession of that heaven-revealed truth, as a key to the As Delineated in History. %'i^ kingdom of heaven, did unlock the new dispensation of that kingdom on the day of Pentecost, even to the murderers of Jesus, convicted, stricken to the heart by his fearless and bold assertion of that great foundation truth — the Divinity and resurrection of the murdered Jesus. By the perversion of the form, and the real and practical, though not professed, denial of the principle, the apostasy has founded itself on Peter, and his pre- tended successors, the infallible popes. It has slidden off the rock — the spiritual truth — and tries to find a foundation on its shadow, the mere form of the truth, and even perverts the form. It is a singular feature in the character of the apostasy, and a singular fact in its historic development, that even re- generate souls, even some of the great lights of the true Church, began to for- get, or practically depart from the spir- itual character of the kingdom of heav- 84 The Great Conflict, en, the real unity and strength of the Church, through its simple faith in Christ, its Divine Head, alone, and its power of defense and aggression through the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son ; to a reliance on an outward, com- pact, and catholic organization of the Church with a visible headship — an arm- ing and fitting the Church by an earthly organization, on an earthly pattern, to compete with and defend itself against other earthly powers ; in other words, to a sliding away of the Church from being a spiritual power, to become an earthly physical force. After this an alliance with the State became natural enough. The incipiency of this tendency may be traced to the errors and dissembling of Peter himself — the apostle to the Jews ; to the Judaizing of the Petrine Chris- tian, back from faith to keeping the law as the essential of religion, and to the bondage of a priesthood or ecclesiastical As Delineated in History. 85 orders and governors, or patterning the Church after Judaism. That tendency became the Ebionism of the following centuries, and slid, naturally enough, into the hierarchy, not through a few design- ing, ambitious men, though they were not wanting, but through the religious declension and consequent errors of the mass of the Church. That great light of the Church, Cyp- rian, who became Bishop of Carthage A. D. 248, two years after his marked and remarkable conversion and baptism, and who suffered martyrdom A. D. 258, sowed broadcast in his writings the seeds of episcopacy, prelacy, and the papacy, in his zeal for the visible unity and earthly headship of the Church, for its strength and defense against its enemies. In his tract De Unitate Bcclesice, as quoted by Dn Schaff, " he teaches that the Church was founded from the first by Christ on Peter alone, that, with all 86 The Great Conflict, the equality of power among the apos- tles, unity might still be kept prominent as essential to her being. She has ever since remained one in unbroken episco- pal succession." With all this he de- nies, at the same time, the supremacy of Roman jurisdiction. At this early day, in the midst of the terrible persecu- tions of the third century, the true and the false are so intermingled, the true Church and the apostasy so blended, that it is impossible to date the distinct existence of the latter, or when it should be sufficiently matured to be thrown off from the former. WHERE WAS ST. PETER'S CHAIR ? In the latter part of the fourth cen- tury, A. D. 384, what might be termed, perhaps, the beginning of the rise of the two horned Lamb, the Apocalyptic ** SECOND BEAST out of the earth," " Greg- ory Nazianzen was patriarch of Con- As Delineated in History. Sj stantinople, and Siricius, Bishop of Rome. There was for some time a con- test for the supremacy of the two bish- oprics, and a doubt relative to the loca- tion of St. Peters chair. He had been Bishop of Antioch in Asia, and Bishop of Alexandria in Africa ; and Mark, w^ho was affirmed to be his baptized son, Bishop of Rome." * One of these honored places ought to be the seat of supremacy ; but which ? Constantinople had become the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, and there- fore also had claims. The two horns of the meek lamb seemed, even at that ear- ly day, somewhat disposed to gore each other. Gregory the Great became Bishop of Rome A. D. 590, and although he sup- posed he occupied the chair of St. Peter, made no pretensions to supremacy, and rebuked John, Bishop of Constantinople, * Urwic's " Triple Crown," p. 158. 88 The Great Conflict, for assuming the title of " Universal Bishop," using in his letters the strong prophetic language, as it turned out in the end : " Whoever adopts or affects THE title of universal BISHOP, HATH THE PRIDE AND CHARACTER OF ANTICHRIST." He wrote long and earnest letters to John, and also to the Emperor Mauritius, against such an assumption as against the doctrines of the Apostles Paul and Peter, and highly detrimental to the interests of the ministry and the Church. His letters seem, however, to have been unavailing, both with John and his suc- cessor ; for though John died not long after, his successor, Cynacus, adopted the same pompous title. Gregory does not seem himself at this time to have been Antichrist, but grounded on the faith of Augustine and Paul, more devoted to the spiritual in- terests of souls than to any outward, worldly suprerrjacy or aggrandizement. As Delineated in History. 89 It was Gregory who, about the year A. D. 597, sent out that Christian mis- sion to England, under the conduct of the monk Augustine, with his forty mis- sionaries, by which that nation was Christianized In form, at least, though there were evangelical Christians In the mountains of Wales before, perhaps converted under the ministry of Paul himself His later letters, however, to the usurper, murderer, and tyrant, Pho- cas, on his accession to the throne, throws a dark shade over his character as a Christian bishop. His fulsome flat- tery and almost blasphemous praises of that most cruel and meanest of tyrants, his reproaches of the murdered Mauri- tius, to w^hom, while emperor, he had ad- dressed equal flatteries, make us feel that he, too, though apparently at one time a " star of heaven," was involved In the sys- tem as in the folds of the tail of the Old Serpent, and " cast down to the earth." 90 The Great Conflict, Notwithstanding his opposition to the title " Universal Bishop," that preroga- tive of the papacy, he has been declared a SAINT, perhaps qualified to be a Roman saint rather throuo^h his fall than his piety. His discussions of the subject, the ri- valry between Rome and Constantinople for the primacy, and the usurpation of the throne of the empire by Phocas, prepared the way for the title to be fixed on his successor, Boniface III., a few years after, which has adhered to every Pope of Rome since, down to Pius IX. The earthly and exceedingly vile origin of this assumption that dates the real beginning of the Papacy, or the full organic development of the great Apostasy, as many authors think, require a few passages of history to elucidate. As Dcliiicatcd in History. qt THE CHARACTER OF PHOCAS, WHO DECLARES THE FIRST POPE. " Phocas was a native of Asia Minor, of obscure and unknown parentage, who entered the army of the Emperor Mau- ritius as a common soldier, having at- tained the rank of centurion. He hap- pened in A. D. 602 to be with his com- pany on the banks of the Danube, when he headed a mutiny against the emperor among his troops, caused himself, to be proclaimed leader of the insurgents, and marched with them on Constantinople. The unfortunate Emperor Mauritius, with his wife and nine children, fled in a small bark to the Asiatic shore ; but the violence of the wind compelled him to land near Chalcedon, from whence he dispatched Theodoslus, his eldest son, to implore the friendship of the Persian monarch. " The Patriarch of Constantinople, Cy- nacus, consecrated the successful usurp- 92 The Great Conflict, er, in the Church of St. John, the Bap- tist, emperor. Phocas three days after made his pubHc entry, drawn by four white horses, amid the acclamations of the thoughtless rabble, to the palace." His ministers of death were dispatched to Chalcedon. They dragged the Em- peror Mauritius from his sanctuary. His five sons were successively mur- dered before the eyes of their agonizing parent, at each stroke the emperor cry- ing out, " Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgments are righteous!^ The tragic scene was finally closed by the execution of the emperor himself, in the twenty- third year of his reign and sixty-third year of his age. The flight of Theodo- sius, the eldest son, was intercepted by a rapid pursuit or deceitful message, and he was beheaded at Nice. " In this massacre the usurper had spared the widow and three daughters of the late emperor." They afterward As Delineated in History, 93 took refuge in a church, then regarded as an inviolable asylum. The Patriarch Cynacus, moved by pity and by the sa- credness of the sanctuary, would not permit them to be dragged by force from that refuge. The vindictive tyrant, fearing to offend the Church at this early stage in his reign, desisted from violence and by most solemn oaths and promises of safety induced the ladies to quit their asylum. They soon after became the victims of his relentless fury, and Con- stantina and her three innocent daugh- ters were beheaded at Chalcedon, on the same ground stained with the blood of her husband and five sons." ^ All this was but the beginning of the murders of this vile wretch. To this monarch, Satanic beast, Boni- face III. applied for the title of Univer- sal Bishop, to be conferred on himself * Gibbon's " Rise and Fall," as quoted by Bowling's '* History of Romanism," pp. 58, 59. 94 The Great Conflict, and his successors, Bishops of Rome. The vindictive Phocas had not forgotten the manly defense of the helpless em- press and daughters by Cynacus. He forbade the assumption of the title ever after by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and in A. D. 606 conferred it on Boni- face and his successors. Boniface III., first Pope made so by the pious Phocas, and given authority to reign over all the bishops, archbishops, priests, and monks of the Roman Catholic world, truly became the " horn more stout than his fellows, right out of the head of the beast," Phocas ; by the declaration of the great Saint Gregory himself, " Anti- christ." Shade of St. Peter, look down on this farce, this brutish Satanic apos- tasy, assuming thy chair that thou never didst assume or occupy, thy prerog- atives that thou never didst assume or own ! Who, from its whole history, its pres- As Delineated in History. 95 ent condition, the condition of the merely nominal Christianity over which it holds sway, can doubt for a moment that it is pre-eminently the great apos- tasy from a true Christianity, both in principle and practice ? g6 The Great Conflict, CHAPTER VII. THE SECOND MARK IS THE TIME OF ITS MANIFESTATION. IT is the little horn, and grows up among the " ten horns." It is re- vealed at the time of the breaking up of the Roman Empire by the Goths, Vandals, and other barbarous tribes of the North, and its division into the smaller kingdoms of Europe. Another symbol of the same power, which marks with almost equal accuracy the time of the rise or appearance of that power, is the second beast, the TWO-HORNED LAMB, that comes up from the earth about the time of the wound- ing to death of the last head of the FOURTH BEAST, or the breaking up of the Roman Empire, and soon has all the power of the first beast of Revelation As Delineated in History. 97 — the FOURTH BEAST of Daniel — and makes an image of the first beast, and gives life to the image — gives an ecclesi- astical and spiritual power to an earthly form of empire, and causes all the world finally to worship the beast, to bow down under that double empire, secular and spiritual. Early in the fourth century (A. D. 312) Constantine the Great came to the throne, and recognized Christianity as the religion of the empire, and put an end to the pagan persecutions. In A. D. 330 he removes the seat of em- pire to Constantinople. Valentinian comes to the throne of the Western Empire, with its seat at Milan instead of Rome, A. D. 364, while his brother Valens was given the throne of the Eastern Empire. Soon after Val- entinian came to the throne he made a " law that no man should be compelled in his religion," and virtually the Chris- 98 The Great Conflict, tian religion became the religion of the State. Though he referred the appoint- ment of the Metropolitan Bishop to a council of pastors, it soon began to be un- derstood of his successors that the em- peror was the head of the Church as well as of the empire, and the Church, with its bishops, under the control of the State.* Leo, surnamed The Great, acquired the episcopal chair at Rome A. D. 440. Du Pin, a Roman Catholic historian, writes : " He maintained his dignity with so much splendor, vigilance, and authority, that he rendered himself more famous in the Church than any of the Popes that had been before him since St. Peten He not only took a partic- ular care of the Church of Rome, and of those other Churches which were subject to his metropolis, but he ex- tended his pastoral vigilance over all the Churches of the East and West." * " Triple Crown," p. 183. As Delineated in History. 99 This testimony is designed to be com- mendatory, and shows that the Papacy had made no inconsiderable advance in power at this early day. As another instance of its growth, Leo obtained a decree from Valentinian III., a mere youth, " That, for the peace of the Church, complete submission should be rendered to the Roman Bish- op. It declares that the primacy of the apostolic seat having been established by the merit of the Apostle Peter, by the dignity of the city of Rome, and by the authority of a holy synod, no pre- tended power shall arrogate to itself any thing against the authority of that seat. For peace can be universally pre- served only when the whole Church acknowledges its ruler. Resistance to the authority of the Roman Bishop is declared to be an offense against the State. It is established, as a settled ordinance for all time, that as well the loo The Great Conflict, Gallic bishops as the bishops of all other provinces, could not properly un- dertake any thing without the authority of the Pope of the Eternal City."^ The Council of Chalcedon, consisting of six hundred and thirty bishops, called by the Emperor Marcian about the mid- dle of the fifth century, or about A. D. 451, decreed "that the Bishop of Rome should have the primacy, but the Bishop of Constantinople equal rights." Leo was represented at the Council by his legates, who happened to be out of the house when the decree was passed, and who, when informed of it, replied : " They should report the matter to the Apostolic See, the first bishop of the world, who might himself judge of the in- jury done his see." " Leo was highly incensed when informed of the action, and nothing could sooth him till the Pa- triarch of Constantinople wrote him a *" Triple Crown," pp. 184, 185. As Delineated in History. loi letter of servile apology, professing that the offensive canon had been passed without his concurrence, and renouncing the honor it conferred upon his see." * To this importance and stoutness had grown the " Little Horn " by the middle of the fifth century, or A. D. 451, al- though, as related in the previous chap- ter, it only gained its full imperial au- thority from Phocas in A. D. 606. CONDITION OF THE CIVIL ROMAN EMPIRE. What was the state of the Roman Empire at the same time 1 Toward the close of the fourth and early in the fifth century the decaying Roman Empire began to break up. The provinces of the empire, Britain, Germany, Gaul, Spain, and the north of Africa, were first to feel the shock of successive waves of the northern hordes. " Innumerable nations," says St. Jerome, "took posses- * " Triple Crown," p. 187. I02 The Great Conflict, sion of the whole of Gaul. The QuadI, the Vandals, the Sarmatians, the Alani, the Gepidse, the Heruli, Saxons, Bur- gundians, Germans, and Pannonians — horrible republic ! — ravaged the whole country between the Alps, the Pyrenees, the ocean, and the Rhine. Assur was with them. Mayence, formerly a famous city, was taken and sacked, and thou- sands of its inhabitants massacred. Worms was ruined by a long siege. The people of the powerful cities of Rheims, Amiens, and Arras ; the Morini, situated in the far parts of Belgium, and the in- habitants of Tournay, Spires, and Stras- bourg, were transported into Germany. Aquitaine, the Lyonnaise, and the Narbo- naise were entirely devastated, except some few of the towns, and these the steel smote without, while famine deso- lated them within." It was not long before these waves, crowding wave on wave, flowed over into As Delineated in History. 103 Italy, and on toward the seat of empire. About A. D. 405 a deluge of barbarians, consisting of Vandals, Snevi, Burgun- dians, Goths, and Alani, numbering not less than two hundred thousand fighting men, under the command of Radagaisus, poured down upon Italy." Although this host, by the wary generalship of Stilicho, were hemmed in, and compelled by famine, in A. D. 406, to surrender to the Roman arms, the respite to the falling empire was of short duration ; for Alaric the Goth, two years afterward, (A. D. 408,) entered Italy a second time, turn- ing Ravenna, a strong fortress where the emperor resided, marched straight on Rome, and laid siege to it. The Ro- mans, shut up and dying in multitudes by famine, were compelled to purchase a peace. Alaric's terms were, ''All the gold and silver in the city, all the rich and precious movables, all the slaves of barbarian origin." When asked in a I04 The Great Conflict, suppliant manner by the ministers of the Senate of Rome, " If such, O King, are your demands, what do you intend to leave us?" "Your lives," replied the haughty conqueror. He, however, modi- fied the terms somewhat, and Rome, which had not been violated by a hostile army for six hundred years, purchased a temporary release for an enormous amount of gold and silver and merchan- dise, and Alaric retired to winter quar- ters. The Emperor Honorius, secure in the fortress of Ravenna, refusing to ratify the treaty made by the Romans, Alaric returned next year (A. D. 409) and took possession of the city, and con- ferred the sovereignty of the empire upon Attains, Prefect of Rome. Hono- rius still refusing to treat with him, he returned a third time, and gave up the city to plunder, pillage, and a terrible slaughter of her citizens ; though, as Alaric and his followers were Christians As Delineated in History. 105 in name, the churches and religious houses were spared.* In A. D. 439, Genseric, the Vandal, had completed the conquest of Carthage and the Roman provinces of Northern Africa. Attila,justly called the "Scourge of God," the leader of the Huns, after ravaging Germany, Scythia, Thrace, Mac- edonia, and Greece, poured his victori- ous hosts into Gaul, but was defeated by the Romans and their Gothic allies in the bloody battle at Chalons, (A. D. 451.) " The next year the Huns poured like a torrent upon Italy, and spread their rav- ages over all Lombardy." The fugitives from this invasion formed ultimately the Venetian Republic.f In A. D. 455 Rome was again taken and pillaged by a horde of Vandals from Africa, led by the fa- mous Genseric. In A. D. 476, Odoacer, chief of the Heruli, without much resistance took •^ Wilson's Outlines, t Ibid. io6 The Great Conflict, possession of Rome, abolished the title of Caesar and Augustus, and proclaimed himself king of Italy ; and the Roman Empire was no more, after an existence of over twelve hMndred years, and part of that time reigning over nearly the whole earth, except India and China. Of the condition of affairs just before the final fall of the empire, Symmachus, the heathen pontiff, augur, and prefect of Rome, says, in a letter to a friend : " You complain that I send you no nar- rative of public events. What if I an- swer. It is better to let them pass unno- ticed ? The ancient oracles have grown dumb ; in the grotto of Cumse are read no mystic characters ; no voice issues from the tree of Dodona; no chanted verse is heard amid the vapors of the Delphic cell. And we, mortal and impo- tent, who owe our very existence to the act of a religious demigod, may wisely learn from the silence of heaven, and As Delineated in History, 107 ponder in quiet over the sad history of our race, for which the book of prophecy has no longer a leaf." Such the lament of a heathen over humanity without God, without government, without law, in its utter helplessness. The old empire lies prostrate. " The body of the fourth and terrible beast of Daniel has been given to the burning flame." The fount- ains of the great deep — the great sea of humanity — has been broken up, and all civil government and order is over- whelmed. The old empire is trodden down by the commingled barbarians of Europe and Asia, amid the confusion of various languages and ideas, and customs and religions, an utter chaos ; society dissolving in its helplessness into its elements of savage individuality and isolation. But " the beast which thus had a wound by a sword did live." The bar- barians swept over the empire like a io8 The Great Conflict, torrent for plunder and rapine, and passed on. Some of the great cities re- sisted with considerable success, others purchased exemption from pillage, and the fugitives, even from sacked and des- olated towns, returned after the flood had passed over. The necessities of humanity compelled a sort of organized governments. These municipal govern- ments naturally took on the familiar forms of the Roman Republic under Roman laws — a government by the peo- ple. Many of these municipal govern- ments had not been disturbed, but per- mitted to continue by the conquerors under their general sovereignty. These city governments, under the influence of the necessities and rights of the peo- ple on the one side and the power and sovereignty of the conquerors on the other, becoming provincial governments, and the commingled races becoming separate, or the stronger gaining ascend- As Delineated in History. 109 ency over the feebler races, they develop finally into the kingdoms of Europe of the following centuries. And last, but by no means least, and at the same time, the religious element of Christianity comes in with its plastic power to bring order out of this utter confusion. Many of these barbarous tribes had already in form been Christianized, and the super- stition of other dark tribes in this super- stitious age led these barbarians to great deference toward the ministers of religion. The Church became a mighty power in giving form to the new order of things. Church honors and places and sanctions were sought by peoples and nobles and conquerors and kings. Could a prophetic picture or symbol of the horns, for protection and aggres- sion, gradually growing up out of the old beast-power, with the " little horn," more stout than its fellows, gradually growing up in the midst of them, more no The Great Conflict, accurately shadow the events, or the historic facts more perfectly fulfill the prophetic symbol ? The great apostasy takes an organ- ized form, assumes power, and appears on the stage of action amid the very surroundings and at the very time pre- dicted. As the empire went down in divisions into smaller kingdoms the Papacy came up. As Delineated in History. 1 1 1 CHAPTER VIII. THIRD — THE TRIPLE CROWN, AND REIGN OVER THE KINGS. THE TRIPLE CROWN TAKES THE PLACE of the three " little horns," and as- sumes the reign over the kings of the earth ; a lamb in appearance, but with two horns, and speaks like a dragon ; assumes all the power of the first beast, makes an image of it, and causes all the world to worship it, or bow under its sway. In A. D. 752 Pepin, having obtained the approval of Pope Zachery to the measure, dethroned Childeric III., the lawful king of France, and sent him into a convent, assumed the government, and was crowned king of France soon after- ward by Pope Stephen II., the successor of Zachery. 112 The Great Conflict. In A. D. 753 Alstulphus, king of the Lombards, invaded the exarchate, and laid siege to Ravenna. Eutychius, the last of the exarchs, after a brave but un- availing defense, fled with the remnant of his army to his master, the Emperor Constantine, at Constantinople. Thus ended the exarchate of Ravenna as a province of the Eastern Empire. Aistulphus, elated with this victory, sent a messenger to Rome demanding its submission as a part of the conquered province. Pope Stephen, in this emer- gency, appealed to the Emperor Con- stantine, at Constantinople, for aid, or for such a treaty with Aistulphus as might continue the exarchate ; but the emperor was too much occupied with the Saracens, at that time, to send an army, and without that any treaty was impossi- ble. Failing in that, the Pope appealed to the Virgin Mary, and St. Peter, and St. Paul, and a host of other saints, carrying As Delineated in History. 113 their Images in solemn procession, but with no better success. In this extremity Stephen crossed the Alps to visit Pepin in person, to implore the aid of the king of France. Pepin returned with him, leading his victori- ous army in person. In the mean time Stephen had been adroit enough to gain a promise from Pepin not to restore the exarchate to the emperor, but to give it to St. Peter. Aistulphus was besieged in his cap- ital, Pavia, and the Lombards, after a feeble resistance, were obliged to submit to the arms of France, and, as the price of peace, to deliver up the exarchate to the Pope, " with all the cities, castles, and territories thereto belonging, to be forever held and possessed by the most HOLY Pope Stephen and his successors in the Apostolic See of St. Peter.''^ * These facts are derived from " Bowling's History of Romanism," pp. 168, 169. 8 114 The Great Conflict, Pepin had no sooner returned with his army to France than Aistulphus, en- raged at the Pope for bringing the French invasion on Lombardy, and for his former repeated threats of Divine vengeance against him for wresting the exarchate from his " most religious son, the emperor," and concluding, very nat- urally, that he had as much right to it as Pepin or the Pope, resolved not to fulfill the treaty, and soon laid siege to Rome, " declaring to the people that he came not as their enemy, but as the enemy of the Pope ;" " that if they would deliver up the city they would be treated as friends ; if not, he would level the walls, and none of them should escape to tell the tale." The Pope immediately dispatched the Abbot Fulrad with most earnest let- ters to Pepin and the French dukes to come to the rescue of St. Peter, promising them " a hundredfold in this world, and As Delineated in History, 115 in the world to come life everlasting." As the siege was pressing, and the Pope s affairs becoming every day more critical, and hearing nothing from Pepin or the abbot, he began to fear his ap- peals in his former letter had not been strong enough to induce Pepin to cross the Alps again so soon, and hit on another expedient of Papal skill and device for the interest of the Church, and receives a letter directly from St. Peter himself from heaven, through his postmaster, the Pope, to Pepin. SIMON PETER'S LETTER FROM HEAVEN. Commencing thus : " Simon Peter, a SERVANT AND APOSTLE OF JeSUS ChRIST, to the three most excellent kings, Pe- pin, Charles, and Carloman : to all the holy bishops, abbots, presbyters, and monks ; to all the dukes, counts, com- manders of the French army, and to the whole people of France: grace unto you, ii6 The Great Conflict, and peace be multiplied." " I am the Apostle Peter, to whom it was said, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,' ' Feed my sheep ;' * And to thee will I give the keys,' etc. As this was all said to me in particular, all who hearken to me and obey my ex- hortations may persuade themselves, and firmly believe, that their sins are forgiven them ; and that they will be admitted, cleansed from all guilt, into life everlasting." " Hearken therefore to me, TO ME, Peter the apostle and SERVANT of Jesus Christ; and since I have preferred you to all the nations of the earth, hasten, I beseech and conjure you, if you care to be cleansed front your sins, and to earn an eternal reward, hasten to the relief of my city, of my Church, of the people committed to my care, ready to fall into the hands of the wicked Lombards, their merciless ene- mies.- It has pleased the Almighty that As Delineated in History, 1 1 7 my body should rest in this city ; the body that has suffered for the sake of Christ such exquisite torments ; and can you, my most Christian sons, stand by unconcerned, and see it insulted by the most wicked of nations ? . . . Our lady, THE Virgin Mary, mother of God, joins in earnestly entreating, nay, commands you to hasten to me, to fly to the relief of my favorite people, reduced almost to the last gasp, and calling in their ex- tremity night and day upon her and upon me. . . . The thrones and domin- ions, the principalities and powers, and the whole multitude of heavenly hosts, entreat you, together with us, not to delay, but to come with all possible speed and rescue my chosen flock from the jaws of the ravening wolves ready to devour them. My vicar (Stephen) might, in this extremity, have recurred, and not in vain, to other nations ; but with me the French are, and ever have ii8 The Great Conflict, been, the first, the best, the most deserv- ing of all nations ; and I would not suf- fer the reward, the exceeding great re- ward, that is reserved, in this and the other world, for those who shall deliver my people, to be earned by any other."* This letter of St. Peter, of which we only give a part, is made to reiterate or indorse all that the Pope had written in his former letter. (What a pity that Stephen had not lived in our day of novel, novelette, and story writing ; his creative genius would have made books that would have had a great run, en- riched publisher and author, and spread his fame far and wide !) This letter, direct from heaven from St. Peter, was dispatched by a messen- ger in great haste to Pepin ; it met him, with a large army, on the plains of Lom- bardy, within a day's march of the Alps. * This letter of St. Peter is found in the " Codex Caro- linus," as quoted in Dowling's History, p. 171. As Delineated in History, 119 (Peter ought to have known that.) He soon laid siege again to Pavia, and drew Aistulphus away from Rome to defend his own capital. He was soon obliged to sue for peace, which Pepin granted on condition that he would carry out the former treaty, add to the exarchate the city Comacchio, pay all the expenses of the war, and an annual tribute to France of twelve thousand solidi of gold. Pepin having bound Aistulphus by oath to these conditions, had a new instru- ment drawn up, and signed by himself, his two sons, and the chief barons of France, conveying all these twenty-one cities, including the Pentapolis and provinces, to be forever held and possessed by St. Pe- ter and his lawful successors in the See of Rome. He appointed the Abbot Fulrad his commissioner to receive in the Pope's name all the places named in the docu- ment. The abbot, attended by the com- missioners of Aistulphus, visited every I20 The Great Conflict, city, received hostages and the keys, and conveyed them to Rome, and laid the instrument with the keys on the tomb of St. Peter, about A. D. 755, " The am- ple measure," says Gibbon, "of the exar- chate, might comprise all the provinces of Italy which had obeyed the emperor and his vicegerent ; but its strict and proper limits were included in the terri- tories of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara. Its inseparable dependency was the Pen- tapolis, which stretched along the Adri- atic from Rimini to Ancona, and ad- vanced into the midland country as far as the ridges of the Apennines." The Duchy of Ferrara, included in the above, was added to St. Peter's patri- mony by Desideratus, Duke of Tuscany, in consideration of the Pope's aid in gaining for himself the succession after the death of Aistulphus, which occurred soon after his treaty with Pepin. So the Papacy received its ecclesias- As Delineated in History. 121 tical or spiritual power from the usurper and tyrant, Phocas, and its temporal power or triple crown from the usurper Pepin, as rewards for the Pope's counsel and aid in the usurpation of Pepin. Adrian, elected Pope K. D. 772, re- ceived the homage of Rieti and Spoleto, cities of Lombardy, but allowed them to choose a duke among themselves. In A. D. 774, Charlemagne, sending the last king of the Lombards into a convent, assumed the title of King of France and Lombardy. Having deliv- ered Rome and the Papacy from the Lom- bards, he visited Pope Adrian, and was received in the greatest splendor by him. In doing the honors of the occasion, the king and the Pope were evidently striv- ing to outvie each other. ** Rorne was really subject to Charles, and he con- firmed the grants made by his father, Pepin, to the patrimony of St. Peter." After twenty-six years of wars and 122 The Great Conflict, conquests, Charlemagne again visited Rome, Leo III. occupying the chair of St. Peter. "At the Christmas Festival, A. D. 799, Charles, to gratify the Ro- mans, appeared in the Church of St. Peter in the dress of a Patrician. After the celebration of the holy mysteries, Pope Leo suddenly placed on Charle- magne's head the golden crown of em- peror, and conferred on him the iron crown of the kingdom of Lombardy. The dome resounded with the acclama- tion of the people — 'long life and VICTORY TO Charles, the most pious Au- gustus, crowned by God the great and PACIFIC emperor of THE RoMANS.' The head and body of Charlemagne were consecrated by the royal unction ; after the manner of the Cesars, he was saluted or adored by the pontiff; his coronation- oath represents a promise to maintain the faith and privileges of the Church ; and the first fruits were paid in his As Delineated in History. 123 rich offerings to the shrine of the apostle." ^' Charlemagne and succeeding princes added other cities and provinces to the papal government, and the Papacy still wears the triple crown of " the three horns plucked up before it." The em- pire of Charlemagne extended over France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Transylvania, Istria, Croatia, and Dal- matia, and the Pope had transferred his allegiance from the sovereign of Greece to the Emperor of the West. After three hundred years of chaos, and confusion, and slaughter, by and among the northern barbarians, the em- pire is restored, order reigns, modern civilization dawns on Europe. " The deadly wound of the beast is healed." An Image was made of it, and life given to the IMAGE. To an earthly empire was added an ecclesiastical, a spiritual * Gibbon, chap. xlix. 124 The Great Conflict, power, making a government more po- tent and terrible than the first beast of Revelation, or the fourth beast of Daniel. From this time onward for nearly seven hundred years the power of the papacy increased, till it held su- preme sway over the kings and mon- archs of Europe. FORGERY OF THE PAPACY FOR REGAL POWERS. " The celebrated forged decretals, or canons of councils and ordinances of Popes, brought to light in the ninth cen- tury, assert the supremacy of the Church above the State, aggrandize the episcopal orders, and especially declare the papal sovereignty to be ultimate and absolute — a Divine rule subject to no human control." " They were appealed to with- out suspicion in public transactions, and used by Popes from Nicholas I. from his first acquaintance with them (A. D. 864) v/ithout any opposition, till the Refor- As Delineated in History. 125 matlon led to the detection of the for- gery." EarHer and more brazen than this was the forged deed or document of con- veyance of Constantlne the Great to Pope Sylvester, assigning to " Blessed Sylvester " and his successors, to the end of time, the Lateran palace, crown, miter, escort, couriers, and horsemen ; in short, all the retinue or courtly luster of an empire." It also confers on " Blessed Father Sylvester and his successors the city of Rome, all Italy, and the prov- inces, places, and cities of the western region, to remain subject to the pontiffs and the holy Church of the Romans. Popes Adrian I. and Leo III. used this document in argument with Charle- magne for his favor to the Holy See. Under the warrant of this forged grant of Constantine the custom of crowning the Pope at his enthronement in Peter's chair began with Nicholas I., the em- peror acting as equerry. 126 The Great Conflict, In A. D. 1073 Hildebrand came to the Papal throne as Gregory VII. The German emperors had claimed the right of approval of a papal election. Henry III. of Germany had called a general council at Scutari, A. D. 1046, and de- posed the three pretenders to the pope- dom — Gregory VI., for simony; Bene- dict IX. and Sylvester III., for the same, and scandalous lives in general. Greg- ory VII. called a council about A. D. 1075, which " denounced a curse against any one who should accept the ' invest- iture ' as an ecclesiastical appointment at a layman's hands." Henry IV., em- peror of Germany, opposed this action, insisting on his right to a voice in a papal election. Gregory summoned him to Rome to answer for his refractory conduct. Henry called a council of Ger- man bishops at Worms, which passed a decree deposing Gregory from the pa- pal throne. Gregory at once anathe- As Delineated in History, 127 matized, excommunicated, and deposed Henry. Partly through discontent among the States of the empire, which the priests under the Pope could readily create, and partly through the universal dread of the Pope's maledictions reaching to the next world, the emperor at last had to pass the Alps in the dead of the un- usually severe winter of A. D. 1077 to present himself, a bare-headed and bare- footed suppliant, at the gate of Gregory's palace. " Gregory was at Canossa, a fortress near Reggio, belonging to his faithful adherent, the Countess Matilda. The emperor was admitted, without his guards, into an outer court of the castle. There the greatest monarch in Europe waited three days and three nights, in only a woolen shirt and with naked feet, before he was admitted to an audience of the Pope, shut up with the tender and loving Countess Matilda." "In the end, 128 The Great Conflict, through his humiliation, and prayers, and tears, aided by the intercessions of per- sons In favor with his holiness, papal mercy condescended to grant Henry the honor of kissing the Popes toe, and abso- lution on condition that he would not reassume the title, or dare to exercise the functions, of emperor till a congress should be held to decide upon the case."* The arrogance of the Pope in his reign over the kings of the earth seems to us at this day Incredible. Says Dr. Lanigan, an Irish Catholic historian : " A letter of Pope Gregory VII. to Turlogh, king of Ireland, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, nobles, and to all Christians inhabiting Ireland, much in the style of several other letters writ- ten to various kings, princes, etc., claim- ing not only spiritual, but temporal and political superiority over the kingdoms and principalities of Europe ; having *" Bowling's History," p. 244; "Triple Crown," p. 243. As Delineated in History. 129 insinuated his claim over Ireland, he gives directions to the king to refer to the Pope whatever affairs might require his assistance. How Turlogh acted under this injunction we are not informed ; but this much is certain, Turlogh remained independent king of Ireland till A. D. 1086, when he died at his chief palace, near Killaloe." ST. PATRICK NO ROMAN. Ireland became Christian at an early day, very much under the missionary labors of St. Patrick, who was by no means a Roman Catholic, for he lived and preached and died before that sys- tem was hardly developed, certainly not to any very great extent. Of the evangelization and Churches of Ireland Dr. Lanigan says : "It is uni- versally admitted that there were Chris- tians in congregations in Ireland before the mission of Palladius, in A. D. 431, 130 The Great Conflict, but how or by whom the Christian faith was introduced into this country it is impossible to determine. Palladius re- mained but a very short time." ^ " Pat- rick had become deeply interested in the inhabitants of the. country, by hav- ing spent some years among them in slavery. Making his escape, he reached his home, near Boulogne, in France, and then came back to labor for the people's souls. But whatever may have been his success, he settled not the country in subjection to the Roman Pontiff, nor according to the present hierarchical form of government, for we are told that he planted three hundred and sixty- five Churches, over which were placed three hundred and sixty-five bishops, and three thousand presbyters. (Congrega- tional or Presbyterian form of govern- ment.) Indeed, the controversies be- tween the Irish missionaries and the * " Ecclesiastical History of Ireland," vol. i, p. 9. As Delineated in History. 131 legates of Rome on the continent, or what has been said of them, is sufficient proof that for three centuries after the death of St. Patrick, A. D. 460, the Irish Churches were not in fellowship with 'St. Peter's Chair.'"* Up to the death of Turlogh, (A. D. 1086,) Ireland had been ecclesiastically free, and in politics self-governed. All the attempts of the Papacy to bring her into bondage had failed. HOW IRELAND BECAME ROMAN. Now let Irishmen know how Ireland became Roman Catholic. Here and there approximations toward the pre- latical form of government had oc- curred in the pastorates of the Irish Churches. "Gillebert, Bishop of Lim- erick, went to the continent. There his self-complacency was somewhat marred *NenniuR, in Usher's " Religion of the Ancient Irish," chap. viii. 132 The Great Conflict, by appearing unaccustomed to the style of service of the Roman Churches. He became zealous for bringing all the Irish modes of worship, of which there was a great variety, into agreement with the order of Rome. He wrote more than one treatise * for the purpose of procur- ing that the various schismatical orders with which almost all Ireland is be- wildered may yield to the one Catholic and Roman office.'" "It is probable," says Lanigan, " that Gillebert was en- couraged in his proceedings by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, although it can scarcely be supposed that Anselm supplied him with his bad arguments ; but he did not succeed at that time, at least to any extent, in setting aside the Irish offices." For his services in this direction, however, he was appointed Legate for the Pope in Ireland by his holiness. Paschal II. " The Roman authorities of the conti- As Delineated in History. 133 nent made loud and severe complaints of the state of the Church in Ireland. Among them, the far-famed St. Bernard states, as an instance of what he calls paganism, the multiplication of bishops as a thing unheard of since the begin- ning of Christianity." "St. Bernard," continues Lanigan, " was not aware that this was owing to the Irish system of chorepiscopi. Yet I allow that it was carried too far; at any rate, it was not 'paganism' and he was mistaken in sup- posing that the multiplication of bishops was a thing unheard of; for it is well known that in the earlier times of the Church a bishop was placed in every town where there was a considerable number of the faithful. (See Fleury, ' In- stit.au Dr, Bed.' ^diVt I, chap, iii.) So what St. Bernard says of Ireland, namely, * that almost every Church had a bishop of its own! was actually followed, as there was usually in those times only 134 The Great Conflict, one Church in each town. Nor was there any law against fixing bishops in small cities or towns prior to one of the Council of Sardica, which, by the by, was not generally followed.""^ " Malachy, who held the episcopate of Armagh, sympathized much in the views of Gillebert. He meditated that his see was entitled to rank with the metropol- itans of other countries, and he coveted a palliufn, that his dignity might be known throughout Christendom. But he thought it becoming to unite another see (Cashel) with his own, as applicant for the same honor. * St. Malachy being arrived in Rome, waited on the then Pope Innocent II., by whom he was most kind- ly received.' The Pope hearing from him an account of the state of things in Ireland, and how he had exerted himself, appointed him his Legate Apostolic for * Lanigan, as quoted in the "Triple Crown," pp. 253-355. As Delineated in History. 135 all Ireland, in the room of Gillebert, who had resigned the office through advanced age." At his request the sees of Cashel and Armagh were readily confirmed, but on his application for the palliums, the Pope replied, ' This is a matter which must be transacted with greater solem- nity. Do you, summoning the bishops and clergy, and the chiefs of your coun- try, celebrate a general council, and after you have all agreed on this point, apply for the palliums, by means of respect- able persons, and they shall be given you.'* " This reply of Innocent was the right one for his purpose. The gift of a pal- Hum was tantamount to the receiver taking an oath of fealty to the Pope. The whole Irish nation. Church and State, must, in due form, succumb, and by 'respectable^ deputies, request at the pon- tifical hands the favor of being made a * "Eccl History of Ireland," chap, xxvii, sec. 4. 136 The Great Conflict. slave ; and then, but not till then, the Pope will, in his clemency and condescen- sion, grant that the fetters shall be put on and firmly riveted forever." * According to Lanigan, (A. D. 1148,) " Malachy held a council at Innispatrick, when the business of the palliums was considered, and it was resolved that the required application should be made. The chair of St. Peter was at this time filled by Pope Eugenius, and Malachy wishing to go on the affair, it was agreed that he should bear the request of the nation to the vicar of Christ. Malachy died on the way ; but Eugenius was too generous to allow that sad event to deprive the Irish of the pontifical grace they sought. Under his Holiness's commission came Cardinal Paparo a few years afterward, with full powers to hold a synod, and, to make assurance doubly sure, to bestow four palliums instead of * " Triple Crown," p. 256. As Delineated in History. 137 two — one each on Armagh and Cashel, first sought, and one each also on Dublin and Tuam."* " Thus, after a long struggle, the Churches of Ireland surrendered to Rome. Ecclesiastically, the rose and the thistle had for centuries graced the tiara; and now the lowly yet lovely shamrock was torn from its soil and twined on the triple crown. Ah ! twined on the triple crown indeed ! not to flour- ish, but to wither ! For where afterward was heard the fame of Ireland's saint- ship or scholarship, or of her high civil- ization or independence of her sons ? By the pride and perfidy of her clergy, Erin became the sworn vassal of the Roman lord."f "It seems as if she sacrificed in toto her heart and strength for freedom the instant she bent her knee in presence of the Pope." * See Lanigan, the Irish Catholic Historian, t Ulrich's " Triple Crown," p. 257, 138 The Great Conflict, This occurred, according to Lanigan, A. D. 1 152. Now let Irishmen learn how Ireland came under the British crown. " Hav- ing thus sold herself for nought to the Pope, she had soon to hear her owner say, * Shall I not do what I will with my own ? ' " HOW IRELAND CAME UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN. In A. D. II 54, an Englishman by the name of Breakspear was placed in the chair of St. Peter. An Irishman might say, " Bad omen in that man s name ; it betokens mischief of some kind." Break- spear was crowned Pope under the name Adrian IV. Soon after Henry II., king of England, set his heart on the fair SISTER, Erin, to add her to his domin- ions, John of Salisbury, chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, applied to Pope Adrian, as supreme, for a grant of it to his sovereign, that he " might ex- As Delineated in History. 139 tend the boundaries of the Church, ex- tirpate the weeds of vice from the Lord's field, and promote the knowledge of the true faith among its unlearned and rude people." Lanigan, the Irish Catholic historian, says of this transaction be- tween King Henry and Pope Adrian : " What an apostolic and exemplary sov- ereign was Henry Plantagenet! It is strange that the Pope should have list- ened to such stuff, while he knew the palliums had been sent, only three or four years before that time, to Ireland by his patron and benefactor, the good Pope Eugenius III., who was, as St. Bernard states, a very worthy man ; that many good regulations had been made ; that there were excellent bishops in the country, such as Gelarius, of Armagh, and Christian, of Lismore ; and that the Irish Church was not then in so degenerate a state as to require the pious exertions of such a king as Henry." 140 The Great Conflict. Adrian thought differently from Dr. Lanigan. In the plenitude of his pon- tifical authority he granted what was asked. Though somewhat lengthy, we give Adrian's bull transferring Ireland to the crown of England, as given in Leland's " History of Ireland," book i, chap. i. ADRIAN'S DEED OF TRANSFER OF IRELAND TO ENGLAND. "Adrian, Bishop, servant of the serv- ants of God, to his dearest son in Christ, the illustrious king of England, greeting, an apostolic benediction. " Full laudably and profitably hath your magnificence conceived the design of propagating your glorious renown on earth, and completing your reward of eternal happiness in heaven ; while, as a Catholic prince, you are intent on en- larging the borders of the Church, teach- ing the truths of the Christian faith to As Delineated in History. 141 the ignorant and rude, and exterminat- ing the roots of vice from the field of the Lord ; and for the more convenient execution of this purpose, requiring the counsel and favor of the Apostolic See ; in which the maturer your deliberation, and the greater the discretion of your procedure, by so much the happier, we trust, will be your progress, with the assistance of the Lord, as all things are used to come to a prosperous end and issue, which take their beginning from the ardor of faith and the love of re- ligion. "There is, indeed, no doubt but that Ireland, and all the islands on which Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, hath shone, and which have received the doc- trines of the Christian faith, do belong to the jurisdiction of St. Peter and of the Holy Roman Church, as your excellency also doth acknowledge. And therefore we are the more solicitous to propagate 142 The Great Conflict, the righteous plantation of faith in this land, and the branch acceptable to God, as we have the secret conviction of con- science that this is your bounden duty. "You then, most dear son in Christ, have signified to us your desire to enter into the island of Ireland, in order to reduce the people to obedience unto laws, and to extirpate the plants of vice ; and that you are willing to pay from each house a yearly pension of one penny to St. Peter, and that you will preserve the rights of the Churches of this land whole and inviolate. We therefore, with that grace and accept- ance suited to your pious and laudable design, and favorably assenting to your petition, do hold it good and acceptable, that, for extending the borders of the Church, restraining the progress of vice, for the correction of manners, the plant- ing of virtue, and increase of religion, you enter this island, and execute As Deliiieated in History. 143 therein whatever shall pertain to the honor of God and the welfare of the land ; and that the people of this land receive you honorably and reverence you as their lord, the rights of their Churches still remaining inviolate, and reserving to St. Peter the annual pen- sion of one penny from every house. " If, then, you be resolved to carry the design you have conceived into effectual execution, study to form this nation to virtuous manners, and labor by yourself, and others whom you shall judge meet for this work, In faith, word, and life, that the Church may be there adorned, that the religion of the Christian faith may be planted and grow up, and that all things pertaining to the honor of God and the salvation of souls be so ordered that you may be entitled to the fullness of eternal reward from God, and obtain a glorious crown on earth through- out all ages." 144 The Great Conflict, " This bull, thus framed," says Le- land, "was presented to King Henry, together with a ring, the token of his investiture, as rightful sovereign of Ire- land." By this piece of pious bombast was Ire- land brought under the English crown. Poor Ireland still hugs the bond and hates the bondage ; and she must groan under it till she goes to the root of the matter, and frees herself from her real bane, and cause of all her sufferings and degradation — Romanism ; freed from that, English domination will soon van- ish. TRANSFER OF THE BRITISH CROWN TO THE POPE. Innocent III., who came to the Papal throne in A. D. 1194, excommunicated King John, sirnamed Lackland, and de- posed him for resisting the Pope's will in the election of one of his favorites, As Delifieated in History, 145 Cardinal Langton, to the vacant See of Canterbury as archbishop. John refused to acknowledge Langton. The Pope put his kingdom under interdict, annulled the oath of allegiance of his subjects, and commissioned the king of France to invade England and annex it to his own realm. "John had to submit, and, in order to remove the interdict," in the presence of Pundulf, the Pope's legate, in the Church of the Templars, the king, surrounded by the prelates, barons, and knights, took, in the usual manner, an oath of fealty to the Pope. At the same time, to com- plete the transaction of this extraordi- nary day. May 15, A. D. 12 13, he put into the hands of the Pope's legate a charter subscribed by himself, one archbishop, nine earls, and two barons. This instru- ment testified that the king, as an atone- ment for his offenses against God and the Church, had determined to humble 10 146 The Great Conflict, himself In imitation of Him who, for our sake, had humbled himself even unto death ; that he had, therefore, not through fear or force, but of his own free will, and with the unanimous con- sent of his barons, granted to God, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to Pope Innocent and Innocent's rightful successors, the kingdom of England and Ireland, to be held by him, and of the Roman Church in fee, by the annual rent of one thousand marks, with the reservations to himself and his heirs of the administration of justice and the peculiar rights of the crown." * The crowns of England, France, Ger- many, Italy, and all the nations of Chris- tendom, were held at the Pope's dis- posal. Is not this the horn with the triple crown, " more stout than his fel- lows," " speaking great words against the Most High — the beast that has all * " Triple Crown," p. 268. ^ As Delineated in History, 147 the power of the first beast, and reigns over the kings of the earth ? " * Does not the Papacy alone, of all other pow- ers on earth, stand convicted, by its his- tory, of this charge brought by the prophets of God against the Apostasy? 148 The Great Conflict, CHAPTER IX. FOURTH HE SITS IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD. THE Blasphemous Assumptions of THE Papacy. The Pope not only rules as temporal sovereign over the kings of the earth, setting up one and deposing another, with the authority of God, and claims the same prerogative yet, as the last allocution of the present Pope, Pius IX., shows most conclusively, but he sits supreme in the spiritual tem- ple of God. The Papacy professes to be Christ's vicegerent on earth, to manage God's affairs among men, not only in the State, but in the Church; to hold the keys of death and hell ; to anathematize, excommunicate, and consign to hell ; to remit sin and pledge heaven, " exalting itself above all that is called God." As Delineated in Histoiy, 149 "It changes times and laws and sea- sons." It substitutes for the true an- other Gospel, another way of salvation. To perpetuate and keep the race pure, God in his infinite benevolence instituted marriage in Eden ; creating them male and female, he stamped his law irrevoca- ble in the nature of the race. To make men superlatively pure and holy, the Pope revokes the law and forbids to marry. God gave meats for food, " to be received with thanksgiving," an emotion of soul that elevates into fellowship with God. To work up into a most holy state by will-work and worship, the Pope commands to abstain from meats, and multiplies fasts. God commands all men every-where to repent and believe in Jesus. The Pope commands confession to a priest, and to do penance as a meritorious way of sal- vation. God declares there is but one Medi- 150 The Great Conflict, ator, Jesus the righteous. The Pope has canonized and made many interces- sors, and commands the worship of saints and images, and adoration to him- self as the infallible expounder and ex- pression of God's will. God regards the reason, conscience, and FREE WILL of man made in his own image, and through them manifests him- self to the soul. The Pope regards neither, but commands a blind faith in his own infallibility and unerring com- mands. All these blasphemous assump- tions, and many more, are too patent to require the historical day and date of the papal bulls promulgating them. An indelible mark of the antichrist so plain that he who runs may read it. FIFTH THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOM- INATIONS OF THE EARTH. The very laws of the Papacy in defi- ance of and in reversal of God's laws, As Delineated in History, 151 could but work out their legitimate and baneful results. Many of the Popes, a large share of the priesthood, and many of the high dignitaries of the Romish Church, through the dark ages and in the dark nations, under the almost exclu- sive sway of Romanism, even in this day, have been and are notorious for their debaucheries and licentious lives. Chas- tity among popes, cardinals, bishops, and priests, and kings and princes Roman, at one time was almost unknown. Fe- male virtue in queens, princesses, concu- bines, and female retainers of popes, cardinals, and priests, as little known. Exceptions there were in the worst of times, but even these more generally were found among the dissentients from Rome. But with all this notorious cor- ruption of individual lives, I apprehend this characteristic is more strictly appli- cable to the false principles of govern- ment lying at the very foundation of the 152 The Great Conflict, system. "She has committed fornica- tion, and lived deliciously with the kings of the earth." She professes to be the spouse of Christ — a spiritual kingdom ; but she has disregarded utterly the laws and principles of his spiritual reign in and over the hearts of men ; and in the unhallowed union of Church and State, (in all the past nature and condition of the State,) prostituted herself to the BEAST, or earthly powers in Government, and adopted its principles and practices to subdue and govern the world ; and KINGCRAFT and PRIESTCRAFT in combi- nation have at one time ruled the world, and at another the wily harlot has out- witted the craft of her lovers and sup- porters, and ruled alone over them and the world too. We need only to quote a few passages of her history to verify these assertions. Says Sir James Stephen (of whom it is ^^ic}, " He has more completely mas- As Delineated in History. 153 tered the subject, as to research, than any other Protestant writer,") in an ar- ticle in the " Edinburgh Review " of April, 1845 * " Except in the annals of Eastern despots, no parallel can be found for the disasters of the Papacy dur- ing the century and a half which fol- lowed the extinction of the Carlo- vingian dynasty. Of the twenty-four popes who during that period ascended the apostolic throne, two were mur- dered, five were driven into exile, four were deposed, and three resigned their hazardous dignity. Some of these vicars of Christ were raised to that awful pre- eminence by arms, and some by money. Two received it from the hands of princely courtesans ; one was self-ap- pointed. A well-filled purse purchased one papal abdication, the promise of a fair bride another. One of these holy fathers pillaged the treasury and fled with the spoils, returned to Rome, ejected 154 The Great Conflict, his substitute, and mutilated him in a manner too revolting for description. In one page of this dismal history we read of the disinterred corpse of a former Pope brought before his successor to receive a retrospective sentence of depo- sition ; and in the next we find the judge himself undergoing the same posthu- mous condemnation, though without the same filthy ceremonial. Of these heirs of St. Peter, one entered on his infal- libility in his eighteenth year, and one before he had seen his twelfth summer. One again took to himself a coadjutor, that he might command in person such legions as Rome then sent into the field. Another, Judas-like, agreed, for certain pieces of silver, to recognize the Pa- triarch of Constantinople as Universal Bishop. All sacred things had become venal. Crime and debauchery held revel in the Vatican, while the af^icted Church, wedded at once to three husbands, (such As Delineated in History. 155 was the language of the times,) witnessed the celebration of as many rival masses in the metropolis of Christendom." The eminent Roman Catholic histo- rian, Du Pin, quotes from Cardinal Ba- ronius : " At that time," (the tenth cen- tury,) exclaims the cardinal, " how de- formed, how frightful was the face of the Church of Rome ! The Holy See was fallen under the tyranny of two loose and disorderly women, who placed and displaced bishops as their humors led them on ; and, what I tremble to think and speak of, they placed their gallants upon St. Peter's chair, who did not deserve the name of popes. For who dares say that these infamous persons, who intruded without any form of jus- tice, were lawful popes ?" etc. "In such terms as these," says Du Pin, " does this cardinal, who cannot be supposed to be an enemy of the Church of Rome, la- ment its sad state during the tenth cen- 156 The Great Conflict, tury." Moshelm says of this period : " That the history of the Roman pontiffs of this century is a history of monsters, a record of the most atrocious villainies and crimes, is acknowledged by all the best writers, and even by the advocates of the papacy," in proof of which state- ment his translator, Murdock, quotes largely from Cardinal Baronius. " About the commencement of the tenth century almost the whole power and influence in Rome was concentrated in the hands of three notorious and abandoned courtesans — Theodora, and her two daughters, Marozia and The- odora. This state. of things arose from the almost unbounded influence of the Tuscan party in Rome, and the power of these women over the chiefs of this party. Morazia cohabited with Albert, a powerful count of Tuscany, and had a son, named Alberic; she also had anoth- er son by his holiness Pope Sergius III., As Delineated in History. 157 named John, who came to the papal throne A. D. 904. This bastard son of Serglus was afterward raised to the Pa- pacy, through the influence of his licen- tious mother, as Pope John XI. Even the Cardinal Baronius confesses that Pope Sergius was the slave of every vice, and the most wicked of men. "John, first deacon, and afterward Bishop of Ravenna, was engaged or drawn into a criminal intrigue with Theodora, the younger, that she might bring him from Ravenna to Rome, where she resided, upon the death of Pope Lando, A. D. 914. She had sufficient in- fluence to raise him to the papal throne, to facilitate her adulterous intercourse. " Pope John XII. was the nephew of John XL, the bastard. Such were his shameful and open debaucheries that, on the general complaint of people and clergy, the Emperor Otho ordered a trial of the Pope. In Otho's letteY, or 158 The Great Conflict, citation, he says : * You are charged with such obscenities as would make us blush were they said of a stage-player. I shall mention to you a few of the crimes laid to your charge, for it would require a whole day to enumerate them all. Know, then, that you are accused not by some few, but by all the clergy as well as the laity, of murder^ perjury^ sacrilege^ and incest with your own sis- ters, etc. We therefore entreat you to come and clear yourself of these imputa- tions.' To this letter his Holiness re- turned the following laconic answer : "'John, servant of the servants of God, to all bishops. We hear that you want to make another Pope. If that is your design, / excommunicate you all in the name of the Almighty, that you may not have it in your power to ordain any other ^ or even to celebrate mass! " The emperor and his council, how- ever, notwithstanding this bull, ventured Jis Delineated in History. 159 to disregard both the doctrine of papal infallibility and the apostolic succession of John, and deposed him. On the ap- proach of the emperor he had fled from Rome, but returned again after Otho's departure, and, in concert with his female favorites and several persons of rank, compelled his successor to fly from a conspiracy to murder him, to the protec- tion of the emperor. He committed frightful enormities on some of the bish- ops and clergy who had appeared against him. The triumphs of this enormous villain, however, were but short. Soon after he was caught in bed with a mar- ried woman and killed on the spot, some Romish authors say by the devil, but probably by the husband in dis- guise. These Popes are still on the cata- logue as regular links in the apostolic succession from St. Peter. *" Bowling's History," pp. 217-219. i6o The Great Conflict, So generally corrupt were the priest- hood under this debauching, lawless system of Roman celibacy that these cases were by no means exceptional. " In the tenth and eleventh centuries concubinage was openly practiced by the clergy, and was regarded by Popes and prelates as a far less crime than to marry a wife. * Any person, clergyman or layman, according to the Council of Toledo in its seventeenth canon, who has not a wife, but a concubine, is not to be repelled from the communion if he be contented with one.' And his holiness^ Pope Leo, confirmed the action of the Council of Toledo and this act of the Spanish prelacy. This action was con- firmed as a part of the canon law of the Church by Pope Gregory XIII. For- nication, therefore, is sanctioned by a Spanish council, a Roman pontiff, and a canon law of the Romish Church, and so not only tolerated by Pope, bish- As Delineated in History, i6i ops, and clergy, but preferred to matri- mony,""^ as the less sin, if sin at all. This the LAW of the " mother of harlots, the abomination of the earth!" How can you change an Infallible law of an infallible Church under the guidance of infallible Popes ? O ye virtuous priests and bishops, as I have no doubt some of you really are, come out of her, as Father Hyacinthe has done, and obey God's law ! HER POLITICAL HARLOTRY. In her political intrigues with the kings and potentates of earthly govern- ments we have another class of her abominations. Hlldebrand, as Pope Gregory VIl.j ascended the throne In A. D. 1073 as a reformer. The haughty spirit of this Pope was exhibited in a previous chap- ter, in his treatment of Henry IV. of * " Bowling's History/' p. 224. 1 62 The Great Conflict, Germany. The barons and people of Henry IV. could not stand the insult to their monarch ; war was declared, Rome taken, and Gregory dethroned, but again regained the papal throne. So the vicar of Christ, in his kingdom not of this world, is mixed up with the kings of earth in wars and the intrigues of an earthly kingdom ; derives his chief glory and greatness in his final ascendency and tri- umphs over them all, till all crowns are held in vassalage to him. Besides that of Germany, he bestowed the crown of Russia, exacting an oath of fealty from the prince on whose brow he placed it. He declared the king of Poland de- prived of his authority, and decreed that the country should no longer be a re- gal realm. He enjoined an act of abdi- cation on the Greek Emperor. He claimed Hungary, Sardinia, and Dal- matia as dependent on the Roman See. He admonished Spain that St. Peter As Delineated in History. 163 was the supreme lord of her sons and her soil, and that it would be better for her to fall into the hands of the Saracens than cease to do homage to the vicar of Christ. He exacted tribute from the Duke of Bohemia. "From Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, who lived in familiar and unimpugned intercourse with him, he received an assignment of dominions, and others that might come to her in reversion — the most magnificent grant ever made to the chair of St. Peter." * " Boniface, Marquis of Tuscany, father of the Countess Matilda, and by far the greatest prince in Italy, was flogged before the altar by an abbot for selling benefices. The offense was much more common than the punishment, but the two combined furnish a good specimen of the eleventh century." f * "Triple Crown," p. 245. t " Hallam's Middle Ages," chap, viii, note. 164 The Great Conflict, Nor was the condition and character of the Papacy improved in the following centuries. " The mother of harlots " waxed worse and worse. Alexander VI. ascended the papal throne A. D. 1492. This bachelor Pope had sons and daugh- ters, and soon became ambitious to establish a hereditary succession on the throne; to marry off and establish his natural children. "The efforts of this Pope in this direction affected the pol- itics of all Europe." Says Ranke of this Pope, in his " History of the Popes :" " His chief aim, during his whole life, had been to gratify to the utmost his love of ease, his sensuality, and his ambition." His son, Caesar Borgia, a monster of wickedness, entered into the views of his father, but for himself alone. " He had caused his own brother, who stood in his way, to be murdered and thrown into the Tiber." " His brother-in-law was attacked and stabbed on the steps of the As Delineated in History, 165 palace by his order." The wounded man was nursed by his wife and sister, who cooked his food themselves to secure him from poison. The Pope had set a guard before his house to protect his son-in-law from his son. " Caesar Borgia, however, burst into his chamber, drove out his wife and sister, called an executioner, and commanded the unfortunate prince to be strangled." "He killed Peroto, Alex- ander's favorite, while clinging to his patron, and sheltered by the pontifical mantle. The Pope's face was sprinkled with his blood." " Rome trembled at his name. Caesar wanted money and had enemies ; every night murdered bodies were found in the streets. Men lived in seclusion and silence ; there was none who did not fear his turn would come. Those whom force could not reach were taken off by poison." " There is a perfection in de- 1 66 The Great Conflict, pravity. Many of the sons and nephews of Popes attempted similar things, but none ever approached Caesar's bad emi- nence ; he was a virtuoso in crime." " It is but too certain that Alexander once meditated taking off one of the richest of his cardinals by poison ; his intended victim, however, contrived, by means of presents, promises, and prayers, to gain over his head cook, and the dish which was prepared for the cardinal was placed before the Pope. He died of the poison he had destined for another."* With him died the prospect of heredi- tary succession to his family. Such have been many of the Holy Fa- thers and their households ; surely not ensamples for the flock ! poor proofs of papal infallibility or the holiness of cleri- cal celibacy ! a terribly muddy channel for the flow of apostolic succession. * Ranke's " History of the Popes," vol, i, pp. 48-50, Translated by Sarah Austin. As Delineated in History. 167 Such has been the system not only cropping out here and there in individ- ual corruptions, but as a system in es- sence, in its intrigues and carnal policies, in its struggles for power with the kings and potentates of earth. She has lived deliciously with them, conformed to them in rivalry for earthly glory and luxuries and power. ROME'S LYING WONDERS AND DECEPTIVE ARTS. Add to all this her craft and " lying wonders, and deceivableness of unright- eousness," by which she still deludes and holds sway over her ignorant votaries, and you have all the characteristics of the " great whore, the mother of har- lots." Her fictitious lives of pretended saints, too puerile for the credence of half grown children ; her pretended miracles of the winking and weeping picture of t68 The Great Conflict, the Virgin Mary ; the holy house at Loretto, in which the Virgin was born, its holy porringer, in which the infant Jesus received his pap, and the veritable vail of the Virgin Mary, all carried by angels through the air from Nazareth to Loretto, and duly certified by the priests to the awe-stricken and adoring votaries ; the liquefaction of the blood of St Janua- rius ; the pieces of the wood of the veritable cross on which Christ died, enough of them in the Roman world to more than freight a thousand-ton ship ; the relics or bones of dead saints, certi- fied by popes and bishops to be the ver- itable bones of the martyrs ; the letter of St. Peter from heaven through Pope Stephen to King Pepin — such are the cunning sorceries of the harlot. Such was she in her fascinations through the dark ages of stupid ignorance, and such she is yet in the nineteenth century. Witness the holy coat of Treves, exhib- As Delineated in History. 169 ited by Arnold, Bishop of Treves, and his clergy, in solemn pomp and proces- sion, as the veritable seamless coat of Jesus, in the year 1844; and the wide- spread controversy in Germany, under the lead of John Ronge, a Roman Cath- olic priest, against the lying decep- tion of the bishop. Look into our own enlightened America. Witness the Rt. Rev. Dr. Bayley, Bishop of Newark, in New Jersey, heading a solemn procession, in presence of two thousand people, into the Church of the Virgin in Hobo- ken, on Sunday, June i, 1856, to conse- crate that church by a deposit under the altar of somebody's bones, dug up somewhere near Rome, in Italy, certified by Pope Pius IX. to be, and blessed as the veritable bones of St. Quietus, and a vase of his blood, given as a special grace by his holiness the Pope to this highly favored Church in America. See "Dowling's History" (pages 792-794,) 170 The Great Conflict, for the somewhat lengthy, solemn, and eloquent speech of Bishop Bayley on that momentous occasion. I wonder if the bishop could keep a sober face next day on meeting any of his clergy ? Were Bishop Bayley and his clergy (in- telligent, scholarly men, or ought to be) honest on that day ? His ignorant Irish auditors were, doubtless, and swallowed all down as veritable truth, and placed themselves under the powerful protec- tion of St. Quietus, or St. Quietus' or somebody's bones. Still later, on the i6th of May, 1874, witness the departure from our shores, from New York, of one hundred dev- otees, religious pilgrims, composed of grave Roman bishops, seven or eight vicar-generals, at least one judge of an American court, professors in Roman colleges, and other very respectable citi- zens, with their costly offerings to the shrine of Lourdes, in France, made As Delineated in History. 171 sacred by the story that a little French peasant girl, aged fourteen, named Ber- nedette Soubirous, had an apparition, or saw a beautiful, angel-like virgin in a grotto at the foot of the Pyrenees, on the nth of February, 1858, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. While two lit- tle girls were with her, she alone had the vision. These visions were repeated for fifteen successive days, with one excep- tion, often in the presence of many peo- ple, but none of them could see any thing except the ecstatic appearance of the little French maid. On the 25th of March, the festival of the Annunciation, on the fourth entreaty of the little maid for the name of her visitor, it was an- nounced : " I AM THE Immaculate Con- ception." Such is the story. It is told in skillful, beautiful, and glowing terms, and is very fascinating to young imaginative minds. A fountain gradually burst forth from the spot, and its healing waters 172 The Great Conflict, have already, according to the story, per- formed many miraculous cures all over the world. The Bishop of Tarbes, in whose bishopric is Lourdes, appointed " a commission of prudent and learned men to investigate the matter," who, " after four years' search into the mira- cles and other statements, have placed the authenticity of the facts beyond all question." " In a brief, of September 4, 1869, Pope Pius IX. confirmed the de- cision of the bishop. This vision, next to the Pope's infallibility, is quoted as a chief indisputable proof of the truth of the dogma of "The Immaculate Conception." One hundred educated Americans have crossed the Atlantic repeating the ten days' novenas, or prayers, to " our Blessed Lady of Lour- des"—" The Immaculate Conception," to visit and do homage at her shrine. Now say, has the enchanting harlot remitted any of her fascinating arts, her As Delineated in History. 173 deceptive charms, her lying miraculous wonders and allurements, or lost any power over her real votaries in the light of the nineteenth century, and in this enlightened land — the only land in which Pius IX. says he is really Pope ? Yet Protestants there are silly enough to school their daughters and sons in institutions under such professors, and under her fascinations ; and doctors of divinity there are who advocate yielding to her demand to take the Bible out of our national system of education. Could the prophetic delineation, " the mother of harlots, the abomination of the whole earth," the mistress of " signs and lying wonders and all deceivableness of unrighteousness," be more accurately fulfilled than by the well-authenticated history of the papacy? This indelible mark is fixed on her frontlets. An hon- est jury before the testimony could but bring in the verdict, guilty. 174 The Great Conflict, CHAPTER X. SIXTH DRUNKEN WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS. "^ T HAS WORN OUT THE SAINTS OF I THE Most High — drunken with THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS OF JeSUS. " About A. D. 660, a new sect arose in the East named ' Paulicians.' " They seem to have been evangelical Christians, and rejected altogether image-worship, which began to prevail early in the eighth century in the East, and extended finally over^ the West. This growing corruption of the Roman Church was approved and adopted as one of its doc- trines by the second Council of Nice, called, probably, for that purpose by the Empress Irene herself, a bigoted image worshiper, A. D. 784. This inhuman monster, who had probably taken off her As Delineated m History, 175 husband, the Emperor Leo IV., by poi- son, who was an opposer of image-wor- ship, and caused the eyes of her son, Constantine VI., also an opposer, to be put out, to render him incapable of the throne, was the fit instrument of Pope Adrian to restore image-worship, and has been highly praised for her piety and zeal by Cardinal Baronius, and even her crimes commended, as they were for the interests of the Church. It was not long before a bitter perse- cution fell upon the Paulicians. Theo- dora was regent, or acting empress, of the Eastern Empire during the minority of her son, Michael III., who came to the throne A. D. 842. She also was a bigoted image worshiper ; " and although the persecutions of this sect had experi- enced some intermissions, under her reign they broke out afresh. She had established image worship, and exerted herself beyond any of her predecessors 176 The Great Conflict, against the Paullcians. Her inquisi- tors ransacked Lesser Asia in search of them ; and she is computed to have killed by the gibbet, by fire, and by the sword, a hundred thousand persons."* It may be inquired. What had the Papacy to do with this ? " Her cruelties and superstitions de- served the applause of Nicolas, who be- came Pope in A. D. 858. In a letter he highly approves her conduct, and ad- mires her on account of her implicit obedience to the Holy See. 'She re- solved,' says the historian of the Em- peror Michael, 'to bring the Paulicians to the true faith or cut them all off, root and branch.' ' Pursuant to that resolu- tion, she sent her noblemen and magis- trates into the provinces of the empire, and by them those unhappy wretches were crucified, some put to the sword, and some thrown into the sea and * Milner's " History of the Church." vol. i, p. 573. As Delifieated in History, 177 drowned.' ' The Pope, alluding to this bloody massacre, in the same letter commends Theodora for the manly vigor she exerted, ' the Lord co-operating,' as he blasphemously adds, ' against obsti- nate and incorrigible heretics.' ' Why sol he adds, * but because you followed the directions of the Apostolic See! " * THE INQUISITION. The Inquisition was established by Pope Gregory IX., A. D. 1233; thrown open and broken up by Napoleon Bona- parte, A. D. 1808, but re-established in the States of the Church, Tuscany, and Sardinia, A. D. 18 14. In the archives of this institution have been found the secret plans for the massacre of the Waldenses in A. D. 1605 and 1620, and documents relative to the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day in France, Au- gust 24, 1572. In A. D. 1 48 1 two hun- * Milner's "History of the Church," vol. i, p. 574. 12 178 The Great Conflict, dred and ninety-eight, condemned as heretics by the Inquisition, were burned at the stake in Seville, Spain, and two thousand in other parts of Andalusia, and seventeen thousand were subjected to various and rigorous penalties. From A. D. 1483 to 1498, fifteen years, eight thousand and eight hundred suf- fered martyrdom under various torments in Spain alone. From A. D. 1499 to 1506, seven years, the inquisitor-gen- eral condemned to the flames one thou- sand six hundred and sixty -four. From A. D. 1507 to 15 1 7, ten years, the car- dinal inquisitor-general, Ximenes, con- demned to death two thousand five hun- dred and thirty-six. From A. D. 1483 to 1808, three hundred and twenty five years, thirty -one thousand nine hundred and twelve were burned at the stake, and seventeen thousand six hundred and fifty-nine, who had the temerity to fly and make their escape, were burned in As Delineated in History. 179 effigy; two hundred and ninety-one thousand four hundred and fifty were subjected to various rigorous punish- ments for worshiping God according to the dictates of their own consciences, but not in accordance with Rome. The number martyred in Portugal, and in Spanish and Portuguese colonies, Sicily and Sardinia, cannot be ascertained, though it is known to be large. In En- gland, during bloody Mary's reign, two hundred and eighty-eight were burned at the stake. Some authors estimate "that the Inquisition has destroyed, by various tortures, one hundred and fifty thousand lives within thirty years." The Inquisition at Rome continued in full operation till the declaration of the Roman Republic, February 9, 1849. The first act of the Constituent Assem- bly was the abolition of the Inquisition. It was thrown open to public gaze, with its hall of judgment, its instruments of i8o The Great Conflict, torture, and its evidences of dark and foul murder. " The -//(^/j/ Inquisition is situated under the very shadows of the dome of St. Peter's Cathedral. Its ' cham- ber of archives/ filled with voluminous records, and papers, and correspondence, with collateral branches in both hemi- spheres, is immense. On the third floor, over a certain door, is inscribed, * Speak to the first inquisitor I Over another, 'Nobody enters this chamber except on pain of exco7nmunication! Over another, opposite to the first, is inscribed, 'Speak to the second inquisitor^. That chamber was the solemn hall of judgment, or doom- room. ' Upon opening the last-named door a trap door was exposed over a broad cylindrical pit eighty feet deep, and so ingeniously provided with pro- jecting knives and cutlasses that the bodies of the victims must have been horribly mangled in the descent. At the bottom of this abyss quantities of As Delineated in History. i8i hair and beds of moldering bones re- mained." " In another part of the build- ing was an entrance to a vault, which seemed to pass beneath the whole pal- ace, in which lay heaps of human bones of both sexes, scattered over the floor." " Perhaps," says an eye-witness of these horrors, " the unfortunate nun who was found in her cell when the Republic threw open the doors of this prison- house of death might tell us something that would aid in explaining these discoveries." " Other prisoners were re- leased from these dungeons ; one, a bishop, who had been in his cell twenty- five years." Another, a monk from a republic in South America, was released from a twelve years' imprisonment in the Convent of Aracoeli, and, when brought before the National Assembly, declared that he had not the most distant idea what he was imprisoned for, but had given up all hope of ever being released." 1 82 The Great Conflict, When, in 1850, five months afterward, the army of the French RepubHc, un- der the presidency of Louis Napoleon, conquered Rome, broke up the Roman RepubHc, and restored Pope Pius IX., the Inquisition was again restored. It would be easy to prove that these Satanic cruelties toward the saints of the Most High are not the effects of here and there a tyrannical Pope, but in accord- ance with, and under the authority and commands of, the canon law of the Romish Church, ever unchangeably the same, except under surrounding circum- stances and restraints not under her control. Who knows what goes on in the convents and nunneries of England and the United States } In the days when the Holy Inquisition, this Romish court of torture and mur- der, was in its glory with full powers, the common mode of summoning its victims was by the officers of the Inquisition, As Delineated in History. 183 denominated familiaries, or spies, who, generally in the dead of night, driving up in a carriage, knock at a door. Some one from the house inquires from an opened window, " Who is there ? " The reply is the terrible words, " The Holy Inquisitionr Perhaps the inquirer is the father of an only and beloved daughter, and in terror hears the name and the command to deliver up that daughter to the Holy Inquisitio7i ; or it may be wife, or son, or father. Not a question must be asked, not a murmur must escape the lips, on pain of a like terrible fate. She is hurried into the carriage and to the terrible court, without friend, or adviser, or counsel, and within those horrid prison walls not a shriek or groan or sigh of agony must escape the lips of the sus- pected or accused. Perhaps some un- guarded word has escaped the lips against idolatry, or something has been learned or suspected through the confessional. 184 The Great Conflict, " The next day the bereaved family- go into mourning for the lost, as one dead, with the dismal uncertainty of what torture, or death, or prison-life, or doom awaited the loved one, but must conceal tears of grief to avoid the same terrible fate." Rome is the grim mur- deress, " that wears out the saints of the Most High." But Rome has not been contented with these individual murders, under these sanctimonious forms of trial by this high court of the Inquisition, through ingenious methods of torture, with Sa- tanic cruelty to extort confessions or recantations from the defenseless vic- tim ; she has delighted in the wholesale slaughter of the followers of Jesus. SLAUGHTER OF THE ALBIGENSES AND WAL- DENSES. Under the reign and bulls of Pope Innocent III., early in the thirteenth As Delineated in History. 185 century, that terrible crusade against the Waldenses and Albigenses, in the south of France, was preached through Eu- rope, and an army of from three to five hundred thousand fierce, fanatical, and brutal soldiery were enlisted in the service of the Papacy, under a solemn league and covenant, to exterminate heretics. Count Raimond VI., of Tou- louse, a province in the south of France, though a bigoted Catholic, either from policy or humanity, could not consent to shed the blood of his best and innocent subjects, and, although he signed the pa- pal agreement in this league, was perse- cuted and publicly flogged on the bare back by an abbot, and afterward excom- municated, for his little zeal in the bloody work. (Yet Rome never put heretics to death ; it is the civil power, for trans- gressing the civil law.) After this humiliation of Raimond, his nephew, Roger, Viscount of Bazieres, applied to 1 86 The Great Conflict, the Pope's legate, offering to make some humiliating concessions, but being re- pelled with haughty scorn, prepared to defend, as best he might, Bazieres and the stronger fortress of Carcassonne. Having placed Bazieres in the best po- sition of defense he could make, he retired to Carcassonne. The fanatical crusaders in great hosts soon appeared before Bazieres, about the middle of July, A. D. 1209. The bishop of the place had previously visited the Pope s legate, giving him a list of his flock sus- pected of heresy, and then returned and exhorted submission to the Pope. The brave defenders, the Albigenses, made an unexpected sally and onset on their enemies, but were repelled with great loss by the fanatical multitudes, and followed so closely that the besiegers found themselves in possession before they were themselves aware of it. The knights, or leaders of the Romish party, As Delineated in History. 187 becoming aware that they had gained the stronghold without a siege or much fighting, asked the Pope's legate, Arnold Amalric, how they should distinguish the heretics from the Catholics. ''Kill all ; the Lord will know well those that are his]^ was his reply. There were at the time about sixty thousand residents, and those gathered from the surround- ing country, who had taken refuge in the city. Of this great multitude " not one person, male or female, old or young, were spared alive. The city was set on fire in various places at once, and the next day was a heap of smoking ruins over the charred remains of sixty thou- sand bodies of its inhabitants ; not a house was left. The Viscount Roger shut himself up in the stronghold of Car- cassonne. The Pope's legate resorted to one of those Jesuitical tricks of which Rome is the adept. He induced an officer of the army, a relative of Roger, i88 The Great Conflict, to go and induce him, by solemn prom- ises of a safe conduct and return, to come to the legate to treat for peace. The unsuspecting viscount trusted the honor of the legate, and suggested that a little more lenity toward the Al- bigenses would be more likely to draw them back into the fold of the Church. The treacherous legate replied that the inhabitants of Carcassonne could take their own course, but it was unnecessary that he (Roger) should trouble himself about the matter, as he was now a pris- oner. He was thrown into prison, and died soon after, probably by poison ; in- deed, the Pope admits in one of his let- ters that he died a violent death.* At the loss of their leader the inhab- itants were reduced to the greatest dis- tress, but, in consequence of a rumor to that effect, searched for and discovered a subterraneous passage to the strong *"Dowling's History," pp. 314-316. As Delineated in History. 189 castle of Cabaret, about three leagues distant, and during the night all the in- habitants made their escape through this gloomy way and dispersed them- selves throughout the country. The besiegers were surprised soon after at the utter silence that reigned through the city. The details of the slaughter, maim- ing, and treachery toward those of the poor Albigenses who survived in many of the castles and cities In the provinces, beggars belief. In one Instance one hun- dred and forty were consumed together on a vast pile of wood gathered for the occasion. At the same time the women were collected In a building; It was set on fire, and those attempting to escape through the windows were thrust back with the pikes of Rome's soldiers. In such scenes abbots and monks, in their zeal for religion, greatly rejoiced. Such were the tender mercies of the professed iQO The Great Conflict, spouse of Christ In her drunkenness with the blood of the saints. About A. D. 1400 a sudden and vio- lent outrage was committed upon the Waldenses inhabiting the valley of Pra- gela, in Piedmont. The Romish party residing in the neighborhood suddenly attacked them in the month of Decem- ber. The surprised Waldenses fled to the mountains of the Alps, which were covered with snow. Multitudes of them were slain by their pursuers, " swift to shed blood," on the way. Of those who escaped to the mountains, fourscore in- fants were found frozen to death during one night, and many of the mothers lay dead By their sides. Nearly a century later, in consequence of the ferocious bull of Pope Innocent VIII., a fearful persecution was carried on against the Waldenses in the valley of the Loire and Frasslnetto. The inhab- itants fled from the Pope s soldiery, and As Delineated in History, 191 concealed themselves In caves in the mountains. Their hiding places were discovered, and large quantities of com- bustibles were placed at the mouths of the caves and set on fire. Four hundred children were suffocated in their cradles, or in the arms of their dead mothers; while multitudes, to escape death in so terrible a form, precipitated them- selves from these caverns to the rocks below, and were dashed in pieces, or, escaping death in this form, they were slaughtered by the brutal soldiery. More than three thousand men, women, and children perished in this persecution, so that the Waldenses of these valleys were exterminated. In A. D. 1545 the Waldenses in the south of France were subjected to a fearful persecution and slaughter, and their country was left desolate. In A. D. 1560 the Waldenses in Calabria, in the south of Italy, were slaughtered 192 The Great Conflict, like sheep, according to the Romish his- torian, after they had surrendered to their merciless captors. The doctrine and practice has been the extermina- tion of heretics. > In A. D. 1686, in the persecution of the Waldenses, fourteen thousand were thrown into prisons, eleven thousand of whom died in four months. It is estimated that fifty thousand Hussites perished in the religious wars and persecutions against them during the reign of Charles V. of Germany, and that three hundred thousand Waldenses and Albigenses perished In the same way. The Duke of Alva boasted that he had slain eighteen thousand heretics in six months, and that by various modes of Satanic and merciless cruelty. He has also boasted that in the Nether- lands he had> in a few years, put to death by the common executioners thirty-six thousand. As Delineated in History. 193 MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. But the climax of horrors, of Satanic and Romish perfidy and cruelty, at which the world did then, and does still, stand aghast, was the massacre of St. Barthol- omew's day, August 24, 1572; planned and cacried out by that dissolute, de- bauched, fascinating, artful female mon- ster, Catherine de Medici, queen mother of the imbecile, miserable Charles IX. of France. To lull the Protestants into greater imagined security, and draw the princi- pal men among them into the trap, she had promoted a matrimonial alliance between her daughter, Princess Marga- ret, and Henry IV., of Navarre, a Prot- estant prince, and invited the leading Protestants to the nuptial feast. Amid the gayeties and festivities of that occasion, at a concerted signal at the hour of midnight, the cold-blooded 13 194 The Great Conflict, butchery of the Protestants commenced, and before daylight eight thousand were weltering in their blood in the streets and houses of Paris, and thirty thousand throughout France before the end of a single week ; some say eighty thousand. Though the Pope may not have been let into the secrets of the plan before its execution, he joined in a Te Deum and great exultation at the first intelligence, and had a medal struck as a memorial in honor of the deed. May 6, 1576, three years, eight months, and twenty-one days after that night of horrors, of the slaughter of the witness- es, whose dead bodies may have lain literally " unburied three days and a half in the streets of the great city which is called Sodom, where our Lord was cru- cified : " at the peace de Mansieres, by an edict of the king, Protestants were granted a full and free exercise of their religion in all parts of France, except As Delineated in History, 195 Paris and twelve miles around ; and twenty-five years afterward, by the Edict of Nantes, a full toleration of their re- ligion. The perfidy and horrors of that slaughter sent a thrill through Europe ; even Papists stood aghast at it, and be- came alarmed at their own victory, and the slain and living witnesses towered up to heaven in the sight of their ene- mies. During the wars under the celebrated League of the sixteenth century, to ex- terminate Protestants, probably more than one million Waldenses perished in poor deluded, priest-ridden, war-scathed France. It is estimated that 50,000,000, some say 70,000,000, have lost their lives by the persecutions and wars of the Papacy on Protestants, or dissentients from its authority in matters of religion. In A. D. 1685, the Edict of Nantes was revoked by Louis XIV., and ixova fiveto 196 The Great Conflict, eight hundred thousand Protestants, the best blood and conservative element of the French nation, fled from France. As the direct result, the French Revolu- tion and " Reign of Terror " came on in 1793. To all this slaughter of dissentients and persecution of Protestants, add the slaughter of Jews and Saracens during the Crusades and before ; and what lan- guage is so terribly true and as the VOICE OF God? — " And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and the martyrs of Jesus, and of all that were slain upon the earth." Her crimes have towered up to heaven ; her punish- ment is capital punishment, the irrevo- cable decree has gone forth ; it is a sen- tence of death to the Roman papacy. The SYSTEM is essentially, irredeemably Antichrist. The irrevocable doom of the system does not necessarily involve the destruction of the deluded peoples As Delineated in History. 197 involved in it. The voice of the Al- mighty rings through all her dark do- minions — " Come out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her sins and her plagues." 198 The Great Conflict, CHAPTER XL SEVENTH THE OVERTHROW, OR FINAL DESTRUCTION, THE INSTRUMENTS OF HER DESTRUC- TION. " The horns shall hate her and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire." The very beast that has carried her shall turn upon her and gore and destroy her. Henry VHI., a true horn of the beast, and of the nature of the beast, early In the sixteenth century quarreled with the Pope, not from any religious scruples or for conscience' sake, for Henry had little of either, although " defender of the Romish faith," but because his rider would not humor his brutish propensities, he took to goring her, and threw off the papacy from the English nation, and Britain has been the As Delineated in Histo7y. 199 bulwark against papal aggressions ever since. She had previously had some gorings from some of the emperors of Germany ; they had hated her, while obliged to carry her. The political events in Europe of the last thirteen years have been on this power as the successive shocks of "the great earthquake." The battle of Solfa- rino, June 24, 1859, took part of Italy from the Pope, and gave it to Victor Em- manuel. The battle of Sadowa broke up the papal concordat with Austria, so that, as the Emperor Joseph said, he must either give up the concordat or his crown. The revolution in Spain re- deemed that nation from papal domina- tion, probably for all future time. The battle of Sedan, September 2, 1870, made the Emperor, Napoleon III., the last prop of the temporal power of the Papacy, a prisoner of war, and the empire was lost to him and the Pope forever. 200 The Great Conflict, She said, " I sit a queen and shall see no sorrow;" and in July i8, 1870, the Pope declared the dogma of papal infal- libility. On the same day Napoleon III. declared war against Prussia, and in less than two months lost his crown and his empire ; and Victor Emmanuel — auspi- cious name — marched into Rome, and the Pope's temporal power went down " like a millstone into the deep, to be found no more at all." Where now the BEAST that carried her ? There is not a horn of it left that is not turned against her. No monarch or potentate trembles now at the Pope's bulls, or the thunders of the Vatican. All the potentates of Europe and the world laugh at the puer- ile allocutions of the " Vatican prisoner." Poor old man ! head of the Roman Church, there is not a crowned head in Europe so base as to do him hearty reverence. The Pope himself says he is not Pope except in the United States of As Delineated in History. 201 America. What a contrast to the Papa- cy of Leo X ! Could history more ac- curately fulfill the prediction ? " They shall hate her and make her desolate, and burn her with fire." The Popes own bitter complaints of the treatment of the Papacy by the Governments of Europe, set his own seal to the truth of this mark of Antichrist. But the end, perhaps, is not yet. The present obsti- nate struggle going on between the Papacy and the civil powers of Europe may culminate in a still more marked and signal overthrow. THE FINAL DESTRUCTION BY GQD'S WORD. But the final end and complete con- sumption of Antichrist is to be by " the spirit of His mouth " — the Word of God — the Bible. That has already kindled a flame that can never be quenched ; it will burn to its utter perdition. The discovery and study of the Latin 202 The Great Conflict, Bible by Martin Luther, In the convent at Erfurt, early In the sixteenth century, enlightened, regenerated, reformed, and fired one heart, and through it spread that reformation over the continent of Europe. The Papacy, though rallying occasionally, has been in consumption ever since, from which it can never recover. The art of printing brought to consid- erable perfection, during the last half of the fifteenth century, several transla- tions of the Bible into German during the same time and soon after especially Luther's translation from the Hebrew and Greek of the whole Bible, printed complete In A. D. 1534, and multiplied by large editions, which fixed the principles and spirit of the Reformation In the Ger- man heart, consumed Romish supersti- tions out of It, awakened a spirit of free- dom and independent Inquiry that has effectually arrayed the larger share of As Delineated in History. 203 that solid German race, with its lan- guage spoken by nearly 56,000,000 peo- ple, against Rome for all time ; an irre- parable loss to that power in Europe. But a far greater loss to that power is yet to be noticed. HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. The translation of Tyndale's New Testament into the English language was printed A. D. 1525 ; the translation of Coverdale's whole Bible was printed A. D. 1535, and placed in all the church- es by royal decree in 1536 ; and by royal license, in 1537, in the families, to be read without let or hinderance. Cranmer's Bible was printed A. D. 1539; the Ge- neva Bible was printed A. D. 1560 ; the Bishop's Bible a few years after ; and by a canon law of 15 71, in the reign of Elizabeth, " All archbishops and bishops were required to have a copy of it in thejr halls for the use of strangers, and 204 The Great Conflict, by a canon of 1603 it was ordered to be used as the authorized version in all the churches, and finally our present English version of King James appeared A. D. 161 1. For nearly a century the discus- sions of a translation of the Bible into the vernacular for the use of all the peo- ple had been going on, and these various translations had been made, and large editions circulated ; till at last, in self- defense, Rome was obliged to translate the Bible Into English, and the Douay Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate of the Old Testament by Gregory Mar- tin, and combined with a former transla- tion of the New Testament published at Rheims, in France, in A. D. 1582, was printed at Douay, A. D. 16 10, one year before our present authorized version. It Is a remarkable fact that during all this period the English language itself was In a formative state, and perfecting itself; while a translation of the Inspired As Delineated in History. 205 word, from the original Hebrew and Greek, with religious care and the com- bined learning of the nation, was being perfected, so that the language and its Bible has grown up together into an inseparable union ; and the heart of the English-speaking race has become so imbued with the principles, the religion, the civil liberty, the religious freedom, and the self-reliant individuality taught by the Bible, that no place is left in that heart for the blind subserviency and childish superstition of Rome ; so that the race, with its Bible-imbued language, stands out as a wall of fire — a quenchless flame against Antichrist. Nearly eighty millions of the English- speaking race are by their commerce, their superior intelligence, and indomi- table energy, diffused through all quar- ters of the globe. Rome must turn away the heart of that race from its open Bi- ble, from its intense love of freedom, and 2o6 The Great Conflict, convert It back to the ignorance and superstition and darkness of the Papacy, and subvert the British Government and our own republic, and blot out the race, or go down before it. The English Bi- ble in the English language, in the En- glish-speaking heart, is too much for it ; it is the Word of His mouth that is con- suming the Papacy away from the earth, till no place is found for it. But this is not all. THE BIBLE IN ROMISH NATIONS. Rome can no longer keep the Bible out of the hands of the Latin races — of the people under her rule — as through the dark ages. It is not only in English and German, but in all the languages of Europe, that the printing-press, terrible engine against the Papacy, is pouring it into all the families of the nations. In Italy, and Rome itself — the very seat of the beast — the " word of God is " As Delineated in History. 207 no longer "bound." In full view of the Vatican, on the opposite side of the Tiber, under the very eye of the Pope, is the prominently lettered sign of the beautifully fitted up depot of the British and Foreign Bible Society, well replen- ished with Italian Bibles for the people of Rome and Italy, and Bibles also in all the languages spoken in that metrop- olis of the Roman Catholic world ; a power far more potent and damaging than the decrees of Henry VIII., mis- chievous as they were, against the ful- minations of Rome in the days of its power. Evangelical Christians, without the fear of Pope or Inquisition before their eyes, with the open Bible, worship God in public assemblies, according to the dictates of their own consciences. The Pope has once permitted a public discussion between his chosen cham- pions and Protestants with Bible argu- ments on the question whether St. Peter, 2o8 The -Great Conflict, the first Pope, ever was in Rome. A question of no importance to Protes- tants, but, if decided in the negative, it leaves the Papal succession decapitated. The Pope will probably never consent to a renewal of the discussion in public. Within a few years over forty evan- gelical Churches have been gathered and organized in Italy. Thousands of Bibles every year are distributed and eagerly read, for the long prohibited book has now all the attractions of novelty, and the people wonder why it has been kept from them so long. It is only about three years since the liberty of Protestant worship was grant- ed in Spain, the land of the Inquisition, and already there are upward of twenty evangelical congregations in which are considerable numbers of converted souls from Romanism and sin. In Madrid alone are seven evangelical Churches ; and the Word of God, with its light and As Delineated in History. 209 its truth, is sounding out through the nation, and its former darkness and bigotry is passing away. As Rome goes down, the nation awakens into a new life. During the late war between France and Prussia more than eighty thousand French soldiers were compelled to cross the Swiss frontiers to avoid falling into the hands of the Prussians. They were disarmed and quartered in Switzerland till peace. Multitudes of them were supplied with Bibles and Testaments in their native language. At the declara- tion of peace they were followed by mis- sionaries back to France. Gratitude for kind treatment, and the gift of the Word of God, has wrought a wonderful change in their religious views ; and the remark is common among the more intelligent of them, " If France does not become Protestant in ten years she is lost." The destruction or consumption of Roman- 14 2IO The Great Conflict, ism by the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus is, indeed, the salvation of France. The Bible alone in the hands, and its truths in the intellects and hearts of the people of Europe will redeem her from the darkness and delusions and degrada- tion of Romanism. But it is not in Roman Europe alone that the Bible is doing its glorious work. In Roman America, too, it is bearing the light and life of salvation. In 1847, during the war with Mex- ico, many Bibles went with the United States army to the city of Mexico. Says Major-general S. Casey: "Rev. Mr. Norris was sent out by the Amer- ican Bible Society, and succeeded, by the aid of the Government trains, in transporting to the city quite a number of Spanish Bibles and Testaments, which were deposited in my quarters." " I dis- tributed Bibles and Testaments in fam- ilies of my acquaintance, and through As Delineated in History. 211 the assistance of other officers over one hundred copies were distributed among families of their acquaintance." " I can- not but think that the year's presence of the American army in Mexico was of great benefit to the people." " I know that the Scriptures were taken by mem- bers of the army, and I believe the Mex- icans became possessed of them even before the Bible Society operated on that field." ^ The fruits of this Bible distribution and reading have become wonderfully apparent within a few years. The British Bible Society also followed the French army into Mexico with the Bible. It was then a prohibited book by Mexican law ; but conquest gave the word of God to some of the people, and it has proved good seed. A woman with the Bible in her hands and the love of Jesus in her heart has been too mighty for Rome and her priesthood. *" Christian World," February, 1873. 212 The Great Conflict, Not long after the war of 1847 Miss Mellnda Rankin opened a school for Mexican children in Brownsville, Texas, on the borders of Mexico, and Inhabited largely by Mexicans. There soon grew up a demand for the Spanish Bible even across the border — the more, probably, because then it was a prohibited book — and over fifteen hundred Bibles found their way, through this agency, into Mexican families in Northern Mexico. In 1865 she moved across the river to Monterey, and established a female sem- inary there, and through colporteurs and missionaries has distributed thousands of Bibles. The result has been the gath- ering of several evangelical congrega- tions in that part of Mexico. This work for several years has been under the patronage of the American and Foreign Christian Union. In Central Mexico the work has been still more marked, and the success more marvelous under As Delineated in History, 213 the labors of Rev. H. C. Riley, a mis- sionary of the same Society. By the diffusion of the Bible and preaching the Gospel over sixty congregations have been organized, with over thirty preach- ers of the Gospel, several of them con- verted Roman priests. Two of the finest churches in the city of Mexico have been transferred by the Govern- ment to the use of evangelical congre- gations. "In i860 the liberal party gained the ascendency over the priestly party, and proclaimed full toleration for the Bible and the Protestant religion." Give Mex- ico the Bible — a new book to the people — and the Gospel, and Romanism, the incubus and curse of that country, is doomed. In all the South American Republics, and in Brazil, the Bible, in spite of the Roman priesthood, is gradually making its way among the people, and awakening 214 The Great Conflict, them to a knowledge of human rights, not only to civil liberty, but to the liberty of reading and studying God's revealed will for themselves ; and the Governments, long under the dominion of the priests, are every year becoming more liberal and tolerant of religious liberty, and more bold to defend it. Under these successive shocks of " the great earthquake," by the providence and word of God, the institutions of Romanism in Europe and the world, as "the cities of the nation," in the pro- phetic description, are falling. " The great city " is already " divided into three parts" — the Infallibilists, led by the Jesuits and the Pope ; the Old Cath- olics, under the lead of Dollinger, Rein- kens, Von Schulte, Huber, Friedrich, Hyacinth, and others; and the Evan- gelicals, under Gavazzi and other con- verted priests, who are making their escape from falling Babylon. As Delineated in History. 215 How wonderful the changes in a few short years ! How is it possible that the old prophets, looking from the dim- ness of their times through the inter- vening darkness of the ages, could have seen more clearly or described more ac- curately the old foe of God and the Church, consuming as in fire " by the spirit" of his mouth and the brightness of his revelation. Who can read and compare with each other these remark- able predictions, then read through the history of the ages of their perfect ful- fillment, and not stand in awe before the Bible as Gods own voice from heaven to men ? 2i6 The Great Conflict, CHAPTER XII. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS AT THIS CRISIS IN THE CONFLICT. AT this crisis in the great conflict between Christ and Antichrist, be- tween the Church and the Apostasy, what is our duty as Christians ? In the heat of the " battle of the great day of God Almighty," we are brought to the point of seeing the enemy giving way at all points. It seems only neces- sary to bring up the reserves for the last, final charge, to gain a complete vic- tory. Still, we are not to be too confi- dent ; there is life and vigor in the enemy yet with its allies, the corrupt powers of earth, and nowhere more than in this land. It may rally, and give us disaster yet, if we fold our arms and lose the As Delineated in History. 217 ^advantages already gained. The danger is in a parley, a compromise. "There are not wanting men among us, in our ranks — learned, eloquent, good men — who look and wait for the reform of this sys- tem ; who expect Rome to be reformed and brought into fellowship with all the Churches of Jesus. The system is inca- pable of a reform. Luther tried it, and failed. The Old Catholics in Germany, Belgium, and France, while holding on to the hierarchy in form, are trying it ; have given a constitution to protect the Church against the tyranny of the Pa- pacy ; have lopped off the mariolatry and idolatry, and papal infallibility and obligation to auricular confession, from their division of the old system ; and, still more, are giving the people the Bible and the Church service in the vernacular. In such work we most cor- dially " give them the right hand of fel- lowship." They are traveling the road 2t8 The Great Conflict, that, Luther trod, only now the , Pope's bulls have lost their terrible power, and the occupant of the Vatican, like Bun- yans Giant Despair, can only make faces and grin at them. They are al- ready excommunicated from the vene- rated Church, only that has not now in it the terrors of hell. If they are strong enough to carry the people with them in lopping off all the errors of the system, they will find nothing left of it, but that the people have returned to a primitive apostolic Christianity. They will find Rome what Luther found her, " the mother of harlots and abomination of the whole earth." But it is said " there is so much Chris- tian doctrine and truth at the founda- tion of the system it can be reformed and preserved." There is truth at the foun- dations of all religions — Mohammedism, paganism, heathenism. Idolatry, in all its forms, grows out of the true yearn- As Delineated in History, 219 ings of the human understanding for a FORM, an incarnation of the infinite, in- comprehensible One. Is the system of Buddhism and Mohammedism, there- fore, to stand, or be reformed? Is the system of Judaism, God's own institu- tion, though wrapt up and obscured and falsified " by the traditions of men," to last because there was truth at the foundation ? Sweep away the heresies of Rome, and the system is gone. Strip off the traditions of men, and there is nothing left of it. Truth only is left ; that it could not pervert or destroy. If the first Antichrist, the levitical priesthood, the Jewish Sanhedrim, with their system of bloody rites, could have been reformed and perpetuated after the crucifixion of Christ, this can be. That was not intended for reform, but destruction, and the blood of the proph- ets and of Jesus fell upon that Apostasy. If we read prophecy aright, the blood of 220 The Great Conflict, the millions of the martyrs of Jesus must fall upon this in a most signal display of Divine justice, such that the world shall see and acknowledge that God hath avenged the Church on her. It is time for us to be done with our Protestantism against the errors of Rome. The whole hierarchy is base and baseless as a system of Christianity. It is the substitution of another founda- tion for the true — " a building on the sand." It is, in its very nature and es- sence. Antichrist. Let a member of that Church become a truly enlightened Bi- ble Christian, and the system, or his con- science, or both, will drive him out of it. There can be no fellowship between Christ and Antichrist. It is doomed of Heaven to utter destruction. The masses, under the delusions of the sys- tem, may be reformed, and, we believe, are to be reformed out of it, till it shall be found no more at all ; and the halle- As Delineated in History, 221 lula of earth and heaven shall come up before God. " For he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hands." THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. The pressing duty devolving upon the Church at the present hour is, mani- festly. First. To maintain our position where we stand, not to weaken our front before the enemy by any dalliance or compro- mise. We must maintain the Bible, a Bible education, and a Bible Christian- ity here at home in this country, for here, at this hour, is the field of the hot- test conflict ; this land is expected to be won for Rome by the votaries of that system. Second. "We must carry the war into Africa ;" we must, at the same time, in- vade the whole Roman world with the 222 The Great Conflict, Bible and the pure Gospel of Jesus. This is pre-eminently the work for the day above all other fields of Christian effort. There would seem to be no need of argument on this point, were it not for the fact that some in our own ranks — officers, too, and high in the Church — seem disposed to counsel dalliance and compromises; to parley, and yield po- sitions to the foe. Rome covertly attacks our national system of popular education, but as a feint attacks what she calls our Protest- ant Bible in the common school. "Well," says one, " they are citizens of our com- mon country, and entitled to all its free- dom and privileges, and our Bible to them is a sectarian book; compromise the matter, and, to save the common school system, take the Bible out." What other sect, Jew or gentile, complains of our version as being a sectarian Bible ? Who does not know that their war is As Delineated in History. 223 not with the version, but with the Bible in any version ? But we deny that our version, without note or comment, is a sectarian Bible even to Romans. Most of it is derived from Roman translators, by men educated in that system, though martyred, perhaps, for translating the book at all into the vernacular. This point, however, I would yield. I would furnish Roman Catholic chil- dren with the Douay version, their own accepted Bible. There is no difficulty in using both versions in the same class. All would soon see how very slight the difference in the sense, except the Ro- man notes, and some of them so mani- festly weak attempts to warp the text out of its simple and obvious meaning to support the errors of that Church, that the mind of a child could hardly fail to see it. We gain nothing, even with Rome, by taking the Bible out of our common 224 The Great Conflict, schools ; indeed, she professes that the Bible is not the real objection, but our schools are Godless, the more so if the Bible is out. She demands a religious training of her own choice. It must be a Roman Catholic education. As na- tional schools cannot be taught in her exclusive way, she demands that the system be broken up, and a large share of the public money be handed over to her Church, to educate their children in their way, or, much more likely, keep them in ignorance. She demands a sec- tarian training, not a national education. She works for Rome, chiefly, contin- ually, and not for our free, intelligent republic. A system of unsectarian gen- eral education, on the broad morals and religion of the Bible, does not suit her, for the very reason that it would not promote her interests. Says the same writer : " I should like to have the Westminster Catechism As Delineated in History. 225 taught in our common schools as in olden times, but it is not the duty of the State to give a theological education, but it is its duty to give a secular edu- cation." A SECULAR education ? Pray, what is that ? You may give your dogs, and horses, and oxen, and asses a sec- ular education, an intellectual training, too, and so teach them to use their mus- cles for your ease, and comfort, and wealth and that of the State. But can you give an immortal being an exclu- sively secular education, as if an earthly existence and earthly relations were all of him, as with the brutes that perish .? What would the State make him by its SECULAR education ? A gladiator ? an athlete? a prize-fighter.^ a trained sol- dier for the army 1 — as if the nation and the world were to be governed by physical force ; as if government were only an earthly organization or compact system of forces for earth alone, without 15 226 The Great Conflict, moral sense or religious obligation. Rome would not object to that system of education if you will let her give her form and shaping to it, and cramp the religious element inherent in humanity into her cardinal doctrine — source of her power — of implicit, unquestioning obe- dience to a superior. But it will be said we include in a secular education grammar, geography, arithmetic, the natural sciences, and his- tory. Teach grammar without awakening the religious element or moral sense ! What is the origin of language ? For whom is it ? Who capable of its use ? Whence came it but from a Father in the heavens? To whom but his chil- dren, for communion with him and with each other? Teach geography, and leave the moral sense, the religious element, untouched ! The mountains, the rivers, the ocean, the As Delmeated in History, 227 earth, whence are they ? They are all changing, and, with all things material, passing away. Only the Unseen, that lies behind and beneath them all, is changeless, and permanent, and real — the Eternal. The sciences of numbers, of quantities, of measures, what are they but rational ideas in the immortal mind, both the power of knowing and the knowledge of the laws of the phys- ical universe ? Awaken all these ele- ments of thought and knowledge, and set the intellect to coursing through the vast dominions of the infinite God, and leave the religious element in the soul untouched ! Study the history of the race on earth, and find no God in his- tory, no unseen, supreme Power gov- erning the nations as he pleases ! An exclusively secular education is a soph- ism, a vagary, an impossibility. If you educate immortal mind, you must educate it wholly, in all its powers, as immortal, 228 The Great Conflict, or dwarf It and pervert it. Besides, for what purpose does the republican State educate, but to teach the whole mass rational self-government under just laws ? but to make intelligent, moral, honorable, good citizens, under a sense of moral obligation to the State and to each other ? but to make them legis- lators for the public good ? To think of accomplishing such an object without a moral and religious element in its ed- ucation is a stupid absurdity. It is the solemn duty of the State, for its own protection and safety, to educate its cit- izens for good and useful members of the State. Such education should be compulsory. No child capable of moral and intellectual improvement should be permitted to grow up in ignorance. Such universal education is an imper- ative necessity to the safety and perpe- tuity of our free republic. It is not a " Godless " education, nor a As Delineated in History, 229 technical " theological" training, that the State demands. I would not have the Westminster Catechism, nor the Thirty- nine Articles, nor the Methodist Disci- pline, nor any other sectarian formula, taught in the State schools. I know none of them are found in form in the Bible, and it is somewhat doubtful whether all the sentiments of either of them are found in God's word. No, we want a national, unsectarian, intellectual, moral, and religious education on the broad principles of the Bible in our common schools. Who objects to it ? Not the Jew, for we stand on common ground relative to the books of the Old Testa- ment ; and while he denies the inspira- tion of the New Testament, and some of its facts, perhaps, he does not object to it as a school book. Not the unbeliever in a Divine revelation at all, for the Bible, as a school book, can do his chil- dren no harm. The objection comes 230 The Great Conflict, alone from a priesthood owing alle- giance to a foreign Government. The impudent demand is a war on the Bi- ble in the vernacular of the people ; a war on general intelligence and inde- pendent thought; a war on civil and religious freedom ; a covert scheme to subvert the Government or bring it under Roman rule. Under Bible truth, free, independent thought, general intelligence, Romanism consumes as in a flame ; it must put out the fire or perish. So we cannot so much blame her efforts to extinguish the flame and bring the youth of the land under her own training. The strug- gle for life, and gnawing her tongue for pain, is to be expected, for she is tor- mented in this flame. An independent government of religious freedom and civil liberty is too much for the " Scarlet Lady ; " she prefers to ride the old beast of the " seven heads and ten horns." As Delineated in History. 231 But it will be said — it is said — that Governments have no religion, and there- fore they cannot and it is not their duty to teach religion. Religion is an indi- vidual affair, and it is the duty of the Church only to teach religion to the individual. That may be in part true of a military despotism, or of any absolute- ism under priestcraft or kingcraft, or both combined, or of an anarchy under the combined passions of a lawless rab- ble ; but what of an organized govern- ment of law under the combined will of the whole people ? It is not true, and cannot be true of such a government, for such a government cannot subsist with- out a religion, without moral obligation, resting on the immutable law of right and equity. If a religion is implanted in the heart and life of the individual from any source, the aggregation of indi- viduals make the democratic or repub- lican government, and such a govern- 232 The Great Conflict, ment has of necessity a religion as a foundation of oaths and contracts, and the protection of inalienable rights, and judicial punishments for violation of law and right. Whatever may have been the governments of the past, the world is verging toward a religious government, in which the voice of the people is the voice of God, and the immutable law of God is the law of the people's govern- ment. The " bugaboo " of the " union of Church and State " need not alarm any one, when God rules both of them by the law of love and equity. It is only a perverted Church and a perverted State, made a double tyranny by the union, we need fear ; and such has been the rule of Rome, and will be again anywhere, if she can gain the ascendency. The Bible in the hands of all the people, and God's word in the hearts of all, will make a State what a State ought, and is, to be, a government that has a religion. Let no As Delineated in History. 233 man — no enlightened patriot will — aid Rome to put out that light, and hold back that glorious consummation of a perfect State, toward which our republic, with all its faults, verges more nearly, perhaps, than any civil Government now on the globe. But furthermore, no permanent or stable Government ever has existed or can without a religion, unless it be the French Government under Robespierre, and that soon broke up, (so it is no exception to the remark,) and no infidel Frenchman can wish the return of such a Government. The religious element is so much a part of man, so essential to him, that no Government can hold sway over the race without a religion as an essential element and controlling power in It. It is not necessary or expedient, in the present Imperfection of the State or the Church, that it should have an established 234 The Great Conflict, Church as the depository or expounder of the States reHglon. Religion, the true, is one thing, and the organized form of it into the Church is another, and sometimes quite another and diverse thing. In all the history of the race, in all the books ever penned, no book so simply, so clearly, so beautifully embod- ies and unfolds the true religion of and for humanity as the Bible. No ! no ! we will not suffer the foundations of our glorious republic to be sapped and ruined by a concealed, insidious foe. Our system of national, republican edu- cation must be sustained and perfected, and made universal, and the Bible in it, as the foundation of all right self-govern- ment under law. Give up the Bible ! knock away the very foundations of the State ! then try to build the superstruct- ure on nothing but the blind will of an Ignorant, Immoral, senseless rabble. To the Decalogue, the great constitution As Delineated in History, 235 of God-governed nations ; to the legisla- tion of Moses (no, not of Moses, but of God) we go for all right legislation ; to the Bible history of nations as unfolding the foundations of national prosperity and power, and the causes of national degradation and ruin ; to its peerless, truthful biography, unfolding human goodness and greatness, and human vice and degradation, as causes and results of both ; to its pure, unalloyed ethics and morals ; to its matchless and sublime poetry ; to its Divine prophecies, the pre-written history of the ages, we go for the light and the life of our country's government, as well as the light and the life of our immortal souls. Let all the children, all the coming generations, read it, till it becomes familiar as household words ; pure and simple, let it be a part, and a foundation part, of our nation's education. Shall we pluck out our eyes, and our children's too, at the artful in- 236 The Great Conflict, sinuation of the old serpent, seven head- ed in his wiles, but foe of God and man, or at the specious appeals and subtle arguments of his incarnation, his vice- gerent on earth ? Will our own be- loved and respected friends join in the request and argument ? Away with all such parleying, all such stupid fallacy ! We will neither give up the common school, nor the Bible in it. This is the unshaken, undaunted front the people must present to the foe ; if politicians waver, let them retire, or go over to the foe. Secondly. We must carry this conflict with the vigor of a final charge into all the dominions of Rome. We have at the present moment a singular advan- tage in this direction. The Bible is a NEW BOOK to the masses of Roman Cath- olics. It comes to them with all the freshness and interest of novelty. Even the Papal prohibition of the Book to As Delineated in History, 237 the masses, in the present state of the Roman world, with the exception of Ire- land, perhaps, stimulates the desire to know what is in the Book about which there has been so much controversy. God's spirit, too, in a wonderful manner, goes with his Word, and unfolds its truth to the consciences and hearts of its eager readers or hearers just waking out of the delusions of Romanism. Many of them, converted and in love with the book, are eager to carry the boon to their deluded countrymen. The great want at the present hour, in this conflict, is not so much laborers, as money to sustain those agencies already in the field, and preparing by God's word and Spirit for the work. Those agencies are already springing up in every Rom- ish country on the globe, generally among the poor in this world's goods, but who would gladly, often in the midst of persecution, become Bible colporteurs. 238 The Great Conflict, Sabbath-school teachers, and Bible read- ers, to their own kindred and country- men, and lead them forth from the dark- ness and delusions of Romanism into the light and liberty of the Gospel of Jesus. The American and Foreign Christian Union, undenominational in its board and its missions, seemed to be the best organized agency in this country for this field of foreign mission work, and has for years occupied these fields in Italy, Spain, Mexico, and other South Amer- ican Republics, with no inconsiderable success. We deeply regret, therefore, the recent action of that Board in giving up its foreign work, though compelled, perhaps, by the late denominational movements on those fields, and the con- sequent probable withdrawal of patron- age from that Society. We did hope there was one agency through which the Protestant Church As Delmeated in History. 239 could present a united front to Roman- ism. Romanists have a strong attach- ment to the term Catholic — the Holy Catholic Church, the universal Christian brotherhood, where " Christ is not di- vided." They have strong prejudices against the various names, even, of the different Protestant sects. It has been the stand- ing argument of their bishops and priests against the private interpretation of the Scriptures, and placing the Bible in the hands of the people, that it has led to such divisions of the Church ; albeit the Protestant Church, with all its de- nominationalism, is more nearly a unit to- day than Romanism, with all its boasted unity. But I deny in toto that " private interpretation " by the common people, regenerate souls, ever has made these divisions and sects in the Church. In the " inner court " of the temple of God on earth, where the Holy Ghost reveals 240 The Great Conflict, the truths of the Bible to "babes," teach- able, trusting souls, there has ever been " the unity of the Spirit In the bonds of peace." The conflicts and divisions have ever been in the " outer courts," among the learned, the " wise, and prudent," about the frame-work of the Church ; not so much about the truth in the Bible's own inimitable exhibition, appre- hensible by the common reason, received by simple faith, as the outward mani- festation, or scientific formulas and log- ical definitions by which the learned have tried to bring them within the grasp of the finite understanding, to meet the demands of the speculative and skeptical. Those early conflicts with errors and heresies that led to the first Nicene Council, of over three hundred bishops, (A. D. 325,) and the second Council, at Constantinople, (A. D. 381,) that ma- tured the Nicene Creed as the author- As Delineated in History » 241 itative interpretation of the Bible, or the exhibition of Christian doctrines, were the works of the learned, to whom the Bible was accessible, almost alone, be- fore the art of printing. This principle of authoritative inter- pretation by the few learned, for the many, went into Romanism, grew with its growth and strengthened with its strength, till the Bible became alto- gether unnecessary for the common people, and the authoritative decrees of councils and the bulls of Popes assumed and presumed to declare God's will to men. This, and not " private interpre- tation," is the source of the struggles and divisions in the Church of Rome, that resulted at last in Protestantism against the tyranny and heresies of a Church without the Bible. When in the early days of the Refor- mation there was a return to God's word and its teachings, the Bible was in the 16 242 The Great Conflict, hands of the common people to but a very Hmited extent ; few, even, were able to read it. The reformers were obliged, therefore, to draw out from it, compends of Christian doctrine, rules of Church organization and government, and forms of worship. Amid the stirring contro- versies of the times, the thick darkness from which they were just emerging; the various nationalities; the different tem- peraments and mental characteristics of the great Reformers, the wonder is not that these creeds are so many, but that they are so few, and in their essential characteristics so similar. They are still the foundations of the various modern sects and denominations. They are still taught first to the children of the Church, then, somehow, Bible interpreta- tion by the teacher is made to conform so that it is still in a sense authoritative teaching, not private interpretation, that keeps up the sects and divisions. As Delineated in History. 243 The Bible has been the best abused book, both by friends and foes, of any book ever penned. The arbitrary ar- rangement of its books in our ver- sion, and, indeed, all versions, trans- lated and original ; the mangling of subjects, by divisions into chapters and verses, has tended greatly to obscure the sense of the sacred books to the un- learned and common mind ; hence to a very great extent the ignorance, indiffer- entism, and skepticism that prevail. The people do not study, understand, and interpret the book for themselves. Now let us have the books in their chronological order, the successive vis- ions of the patriarchs and prophets, in the midst of the surroundings in which the visions were revealed and uttered. Let us have the revelation as God has gradually unfolded it to the world, with its wonderful unity of design and fixed end and aim, through so many ages, by 244 The Great Conflict, so many inspired authors. Give it to the youth, to the little children of all the people, as the first book of knowledge — God's book. Lay the creeds aside as monuments of the wisdom of the past. *' Worship God in spirit and in truth," without the forms or with the forms, as convenient or of little worth ; and under the teachings of the Holy Ghost, in the " private interpretation " by the common people, the world would soon see such Church unity, not only in spirit, but in organization and form, as has not been seen since the day of Pentecost ; and sec- tarianism, and skepticism, and Roman- ism vanish away before the power of God's word revealed in the hearts of men. Romanists have strong prejudices also against a conversion to Presbyte- rianism, or Congregationalism, or Meth- odism, or any other sectarianism ; but being already Catholic Christians, not that prejudice to a real conversion to As Delineated in History. 245 Christ, to a true Catholic Christianity, that is only giving up the errors of Romanism to become a true Catholic Christian, Any denominational organization has these prejudices to encounter, these difficulties to meet, which a union effort might avoid. It would be a new and wonderful development in Divine Providence if, in this last conflict with Antichrist, and the united efforts of Christians to con- vert a Roman world to Christ, a true Catholic Christianity should spring up, and sectarian denominationalism should fade away, and a divided Christianity should become one, including evangel- ized, converted Roman Catholics, and the Church stand up in its united strength in the spirit and inspiration of its Divine Head and Redeemer. What is Mohammedism, or pagan- ism, or Judaism, or skepticism before 246 The Great Conflict. such a power? It is Christ on earth again in a glorified, triumphant incarna- tion. Let us not go forth after Romans as Methodists, or Presbyterians, or Con- gregationalists, or Baptists, or Dutch Reformed, or Episcopalians, but as Chris- tians with the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus to convert them to Christ, to a true Catholic Christianity. One word as to the spirit with which we should labor for the conversion of Roman Catholics. We cannot forget the blood of the martyrs the Papacy has shed ; but with the spirit of Paul toward his persecuting countrymen, " I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ " (crucified as he was) " for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh," could I but save them in and from their mistaken zeal against Christ ; and in the spirit of the dying Jesus' last prayer, " Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," should we go As Delineated in History, 247 forth for the utter destruction of this Satanic, soul-destroying system by the conversion and eternal salvation of its deluded subjects. In all the history of missions, when and where has Divine Providence opened such a field for the immediate and ear- nest efforts of the Church, as among the two hundred millions of Roman Cath- olics ? They have already the cardinal doctrines and great facts of Christianity — the existence of one Triune God, the incarnation of the Son of God, the atonement through Christ — they are al- ready awaking, amid the incoming of a general intelligence, from the slumbers of their long night of error and delu- sion ; they need but the Bible, borne by warm evangelical hearts imbued by its truths, and a new life from the dead springs up, and they come out from Rome to Christ. What the power and results of such 248 The Great Conflict, a conversion ? Mohammedans, pagans, and Jews have known Roman Christian- ity as a persecuting power, yet they sup- posed it to be Christianity. They have seen it as a false light, and despised it as a delusion ; but that system perishes, and with it the prejudices of a world against it ; and the true Church of Jesus stands forth in its stead three hundred fnillion strong, as God's host arrayed in a new and more Divine glory, to conquer the world by prayer, by love, by the Holy Ghost. With this accession, and this great host united in one solid phalanx, and the conquest of the rest of the world is quick and easy ; but leave the Roman world in its present state a few years without the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus, and a hard, cold, brutish, ignorant infidelity against all religion usurps the place of papal rule, and a more dismal night of deeper darkness settles down on those millions and on the world. As Delineated in History, 249 Will the Church permit it? Can she lose this occasion, and be guiltless ? " 'Tis but an hour to fight." It is but a little sacrifice now of treasure, and ease, and luxury, and the victory, the glorious triumph of the Church, is cer- tain ; the kingdoms of this world be- come the kingdom of Christ, and one THOUSAND MILLION of voIces of all lan- guages, " as the voice of many waters," sound the " halleluias to the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us, and made us kings and priests unto God and the Lamb." THE END. THE OR, THE EMPIRE OF THE SEA. By H. Loomis, late Corresponding Secretary of the American Seamen's Friend Society. i6mo., pp. 279. Price, $1 25. The first edition of one thousand copies having been called for in less than three months, the Pub- lishers are encouraged to issue another, append- ing brief notices of the volume from the Newspaper Press. From Christian Advocatei For thirty years, first as Chaplain, and afterward as Secre- tary, the author of these discourses has been in the service of seamen. A thinker as well as an agent, he has developed a line of thought respecting the sea, its men and business, in their relation to the evangelization of the world, which to many readers will be entirely new. He writes with clearness, fervor, and power. Prophetic passages are brought out and specially applied to the commerce of to-day. " The land shadowing with wings" of Isa. xviii, 1-3, he holds to be "the United States as the ultimate commercial center and mis- sionary nation of the earth," which seems to be providenHally the fact, whether so seen by the prophet or not. The book richly merits a wide circulation for its vigorous thought, its fresh life, its beautiful presentation of great truths, and still more for its adaptedness to stir up the reader, whether preacher or layman, to mi^^sioimry zeal and power. X From New York Observer. " The Land of Shadowing Wings" is the title of a book, by Rev. Harmon Loomis, D.D., in which he gives the con- densed extract of discourses which won so many hearts and dollars for the American Seamen's Friend Society during the generation of his Secretaryship. If the many thousands who heard Dr. Loomis's earnest arguments and fervid plea for the sailor will revive their recollections of them by reading his book, they will find their spirit and aroma compressed and preserved. A good and popular cause was fortunate in secur- ing and so long retaining so able an advocate. He is an independent, original thinker, and while all readers may not accept his exegesis of Scripture, and especially the theory that gives the title to his book, they must admire the ingenuity, ability, and variety of his arguments and illustrations. From New York Evangelist. BY T. L. CUYLER, D.D. My neighbor, Rev. Dr. H. Loomis, has issued a capital volume since he left the Seamen's Friend Society and *' went into dry dock." There is a most spiritual and practical chap- ter in the work on giving to the Lord only such sacrifices as cost us something ; it is a most timely word on self-denial for the sake of Christ's treasury. Dr. Loomis preached to my congregation so eloquently and convincingly on this theme last Sabbath that they doubled their usual contribution for a certain benevolent object. Let me close this letter by sug- gesting whether, in many professedly Christian households, old-fashioned godly self-denial is not one of " the lost arts." From New York Evening Post. " The Land of Shadowing Wings." The explanation of this somewhat fantastic title is found in the fact that the author understands Isaiah to mean America when he speaks of " the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia." The design of the book is to exhibit the agency of man on the sea, and the effect of that agency upon civilization; to favor missionary enterprise; and, in general, to encourage and inform the sailor and all those " that go down to the sea in ships." 2 From Presbyterian, BY REV. J. E. ROCKWELL, D.D. I have been reading, with an interest which only increased as I advanced, a little work, by the Rev. Dr. H. Loomis, called the " Land of Shadowing Wings." The work itself will repay the perusal. It is the result of many years' expe- rience, and of long and earnest labor in behalf of those who "go down to the sea in ships." It indicates serious thought and study, as well as a warm and affectionate interest in the cause of which he has so long and successfully plead. I am sure no pastor can read it and not have his attention awakened and his sympathies aroused for the work which the Seamen's Friend Society is doing. No one can read this work and not feel that the sailor is to be one of the agents which Christ will use in the building up of his kingdom. From Christian Intelligencer. Thirty years of service in behalf of sailors entitles the author to a respectful hearing on this topic. Tracing his- torically the agency of man on the sea in connection with the march of civilization and Christianity, he presses upon the Church the duty and blessing of the conversion of this mighty agency to the service of God among the nations. The best part of this volume is that which shows the providential mis- sion of the commerce and travel of the oceans, and stirring arguments for increasing the moral and religious care of the sailor on deck and on shore. A Southern Chaplain's Opinion. " I have read the discourses," says a seamen's chaplain in a Southern port, *' with a great deal of interest, and most heartily thank you for their publication. T should think that quite a number of those who were so interested in the sermons ' The Daughter of Tyre ' and ' The Mission of Commerce,' which you preached here, would be very glad to get the book containing them, as well as the others, especially the last, which is full of such grand thoughts of the mission and destiny of America." 3 From New York Independent. The book will be a pleasant souvenir to those persons who have heard the discourses ; and those to whom this felicity has not been granted will find upon its pages exegesis, history, anecdote, prophecy, and exhortation in great variety. From Sailor's Magazine. ** The Land of Shadowing Wings." Under this title Rev. Dr. Loomis has launched upon the treacherous sea of popular favor a volume comprising the discourses preached by him in behalf of the seamen's cause during his long Secretaryship. We bespeak for it the consideration of his numerous friends throughout the country. Those who have been privileged to hear Dr. Toomis will recognize in his printed sermons many of the characteristics that make his preaching particularly effective. He has an in- teresting way of setting forth the truth, and a happy facility in illustration. He holds somewhat advanced views, especially on the pro- phecies, and maintains them with eloquent, if not always irresistible logic. His book is worth reading, and even those who may not agree with some of his positions will admit its ability and fascination. From Daily Christian Witness. "The Land of Shadowing Wings." Under this somewhat mysterious title Mr. Loomis has given us a very earnest and practical appeal for prayer and effort in behalf of two millions of hardly-treated, much-neglected seatnen. The author's translations of the Hebrew Scriptures are invariably beautiful and not improbable. From Hartford Religious Herald. The apt motto of this volume is *' The sea is His, and he made it," and the author says it is " not a volume of sermons on the ordinary topics of the pulpit, but of pleadings for the sailor and for the restoration of the empire of the sea to its rightful Sovereign. " This benevolent purpose is well executed. The book is an interesting and instructive one, more par- ticularly to those who " do business in the great waters." 4 From Boston Congregatlonalist. There is much that is interesting and profitable in the "Land of Shadowing Wings," which is a study of the great and wide sea, and of its needs in the light of the Gospel, by one who has long been connected with evangelistic effort in behalf of seamen. The concluding chapter is curious, and worthy of examination by students of Scripture, as giving the author's interpretation of Isaiah xviii, 1-3 ; which passage he applies with considerable ingenuity, to say the least, to the United States. This is a book for Sunday-school libraries. BY MONTAGUE. " The Land of Shadowing Wings ; or, The Empire of the Sea," is the title of collected discourses by Rev. Harmon Loomis, D.D., for twenty-seven years the Corresponding Secretary of the American Seamen's Friend Society. Here are to be found, in all freshness and in very attractive form, the powerful arguments and appeals which have so often moved so many in your neighborhood, as well as elsewhere, for the Christianizing of seamen. From California Christian Advocatei The mission of this volume is to the Church no less than to seamen. From Bethel Banner, Chicago. "The Land of Shadowing Wings; or, The Empire of the Sea." This is a volume, from the press of the Methodist Book Concern. Nelson & Phillips, by Rev. H. Loomis, D.D., for twenty-seven years Corresponding Secretary of the American Seamen's Friend Society. The first and sixth chapters discuss the Bible rule and prin- ciple of giving as a means of grace to the giver and for the redemption of men, and ought to be in every Christian family wishing to know their duty and privilege on that subject. The last two chapters are exegetical from that old store- house, the Hebrew of God's word, of the Forty-fifth Psalm, that vivid poetic description of the Messiah, as teacher, war- rior, conqueror, king, and bridegroom, ^t the marriage of the «5 bride, the Lamb's wife ; and of that dark chapter, the eighteenth of Isaiah, which the author has undertaken to show, is a picture that fits with admirable exactness the United States as ultimately holding the Empire of the Sea. Whether the author is right or wrong in the exposition, at all events his interpretation looks quite plausible, and will hold till somebody gives a better one. These chapters are worthy the attention of those who love the study of the Bible. The chap- ters on the mission and on the conversion of commerce are worthy the attention of business and commercial men. The volume abounds in touching, and sometimes thrilling, incidents in the life of the sailor, and we hope, for the sake of the sailor and the cause, it will find many readers. Rev> Titus Coan, of Hilo, S. I., says: I have read "The Land of Shadowing Wings," by ex-Sec- retary Loomis. I like it. The thoughts and style are orig- inal, bold, vigorous, graphic, comprehensive, beautiful, and pioneering. The idea that America is the '* Land of Shad- owing Wings " (Isa. xviii) is novel, and quite interesting. Of its correctness I am not able to affirm or deny. Let Bib- lical and Oriental scholars give a better exegesis if they can. Each of the ten chapters has its peculiar merits, and all are excellent. But were I to select one out of the ten in which I was most deeply interested, I would take the ninth, entitled, " The Daughter of Tyre. " But the whole book is a gem. In thought and style it is logical, truthful, earn- est, eloquent, evangelical, and often tender and pathetic. I hope it will have a wide circulation, and continue to speak long after its author is dead. 6 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Jan. 2006 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Parte Drive Cranberry Township. PA 1 6066 (724)779-2111 13 y na LIBRARY OF CONGRESS bill •■ ff;iti h QVi W.fc^jf SWM