Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

period of his government; and, keeping your eye all along on the ecclefiaftical and civil ftate of our western world (the predicted theatre of all thefe tranfactions) fee, if you can help concluding, I do not fay at what precife time, but about what time, Antichrift appeared; fee, if the commencement of his reign be not fo far determined as that you may be certain of its being long fince paft; and fee, if very much, at leaft, of that allotted period, through which his dominion was to continue, according to the prophecies, be not, by the evident átteftation of history, now run out.

To DRAW, then, what hath been faid on the feveral marks of Antichrift, to a point. Confider, within what part of the -world, he was to appear; in what feat or throne, he was to be established; of what kind, his fovereignty was to be; with what attributes, he was to be invested; in what feafon, or about what time, and for how long a time, he was to reign and profper: Confider these FIVE obvious characters of Anti

chrift,

chrift, which the prophets have distinctly fet forth, and which, from them, I have fucceffively held up to you: And, then, compare them with the correfpondent characters, which you find infcribed, by the pen of authentic history, on a certain power, fprung up in the Weft; feated in the city of Rome; calling himself the Vicar of Chrift yet full of names of blafphemy, that is, ftig, matized with thofe crimes, which Chriftianity, as such, holds moft opprobrious, the crimes of tyrannic dominion, of perfecution, and even Idolatry; and laftly, now fubfifting in the world, though with evident fymptoms of decay, after a long reign, whofe rife and progress can be traced, and whose duration, hitherto, is uncontradicted by any prophecy: Put, I fay, all these correspondent marks together, and fee if they do not furnish, if not an abfolute demonstration, yet a high degree of probability, that apoftate papal Rome is the very Antichrift, foretold.

At least, you will admit that these correspondencies are fignal enough to merit your attention, and even to justify your pains in looking further into fo curious and interefting a fubject. Ye will fay to yourselves, That the prophecies concerning Antichrift deferve at least to be confidered with care, fince in fo many striking particulars, they appear, on the face of them, to have been completed.

This conclufion it is prefumed, is a reafonable one: And the end of this difcourse will be answered, if ye are, at

length, prevailed upon to draw this conclufion.

SER

SERMON XII.

USES of this Inquiry into the Prophecies,

REV. xxii. 7.

Behold, I come quickly: Bleffed is he that keepeth the fayings of the prophecy of this book,

B

EFORE we engage in a work of time and difficulty, we naturally ask, "CUI BONO, to what confiderable end and purpose, are our labours to be referred ?"

Although it may, then, be prefumed, that enough hath been said on the prophecies to excite a reasonable defire of looking further into them, and even to produce a general perfuafion, that they have been,

[ocr errors]

or may be, understood; yet, it may quicken your attention to this argument, and fupport your industry in the profecution of it, to fet before you the USES, which may refult from a full and final conviction (if such fhould be the iffue of your inquiries), That thefe prophecies are not intelligible only, but have, in many inftances, been rightly applied, and clearly fulfilled.

Thefe USES are very many. I fhall collect, only, two or three of the more im'portant, for your confideration.

[ocr errors]

Though every period of prophecy be inftructive, that which takes in the great events and revolutions, which have come to pass in tlie Chriftian Church, is, for obvious reafons, more especially interesting to us, who live in these latter ages of the

world.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Of the numerous predictions, contained in either Teftament, which, it is prefumed, refpect thefe events, the most confiderable by far, because the most minute and cir'cumftantial, are thofe of St. John in

the

« ZurückWeiter »