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" evil," and promifing, that in fuch cafe "they "fhould be as gods *;" that is, fhould live in a ftate of equality with him, and poffefs the fame uncontrolled liberty of action, and independence. By means imitative of, and exactly fimilar to this Satanical fraud, the revolutionary demagogues have "deceived" the people of France, by perfuading them to believe, that if they would throw off their allegiance and fubordination to their lawful king, they fhould be as kings, fhould be above all hú "man laws," themselves poffeffing the "fovereign "power." But the fubtilty and horror of the fraud do not end here: they have furpaffed the cunning and wickedness of Satan himself. They have perfuaded the people to believe, that if they would deny the existence of the God of heaven, and abjure Jefus Chrift, they fhould be above all law, divine as well as human, be fubject to no rule of action, but that of their own wills, nor to any fear of punishment, here or hereafter. And that they might formally, as well as in fpirit, imitate the infernal delufion of Satan, they have invented and substituted the tree of liberty for "the tree of knowledge," and prevailed on the people to "cat of its fruit," by accepting the firft conftitution of the revolutionary republic.

To convince the reader that this is not an exaggerated picture, I entreat him to attend me in a brief recapitulation of the principles, upon which this confiitution of the republic was founded. It begins with holding out to the people the following fpecious falfehoods, as fundamental truths: that "the caufe

of all their misfortunes is their ignorance of their "own rights," thus excluding from the caufes of human misfortunes the probationary ftate, and fallibility of man, and the providence of God over

Gen. ii. iii.

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him: that "men are before (prior to and above) the "law;" meaning, before or above the law of God. or man; a state which exalts them above their Creator, and annuls their obedience to him: that "all men are equal by nature," a pofition utterly false, and absolutely deftructive of the fubordination, rational order, and peace of the world ordained by God that" fovereignty refides in the people,' which is to fay, that the right of governing refides in the people governed; the greatest of all impracticable abfurdities, and the monftrous parent of anarchy: and that "liberty (meaning the liberty of man) is a " right or power of doing every thing that does not "hurt the rights of others:" thus teaching, but deceiving the people, that they poffefs, independently, a right to commit any crimes, however finful, against their God, or themselves, in which the rights of other men are not concerned; fuch as blafphemy against their God, and all manner of intemperance and pollution, fodomy, beftiality, and that moft enormous and frightful of all crimes (blafphemy excepted), fuicide. Such were the exalted privileges, the fpecious falfehoods, and abominable lies held out in their Bill of Rights, to feduce and cheat the people to accept it.

How ftrong the analogy between this fraud and that imposed by the ferpent on our firft parents! In both inftances the deception was fubtilely contrived to work upon, and captivate the pride and ambition of man; paffions, the most unlimited in their extent, and the most liable to be perverted. In both inftances the objects of deception were the deftruction of all fubordination and order, the introduction of anarchy and uproar, an univerfal rebellion of mankind against their God, and the utter ruin of the human race! In the firft, mankind were to be "as gods;" ia the fecond, the people were to be as

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fovereigns,

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fovereigns, fubject to no Providence, and knowing no God in both they were alfo to enjoy abfolute liberty, equality, and independence, unreftrained by any rule of action, except their own "free fuffrages."

Enchanted by the magic of fuch exalted rights, the people of France" ate of the tree of liberty," and approved and accepted of the fraudulent and monftrous conftitution, to their ruin. For those demons of deception, the Convention, had no fooner prevailed on the people, thus to truft them with fovereign power for one year, than by a decree they made it perpetual; and thus, by one bold manœuvré, deprived the people of their atheistical liberty and equality, and of their chimerical fovereignty, and, at the fame time, of all the promifed fecurity of their lives and properties.

Thus become guardians of the flock, like the wolf in the fable, they destroyed every barrier of its safety, and lived, as it were, upon the carcafes of the people, whom they had deceived. Instead of fuffering them to enjoy the promised liberty, equality, and fovereignty, they reduced them, by a diverfity of decrees, to a state more abject than any Afiatic or African flavery. Infiead of liberty, they deprived them of the right of following any rule of action, either moral or reli gious, unless it promoted the execrable defigns of the tyrants. Inftead of the promifed fecurity of property, after having unjustly feized upon the property of tens of thousands, they paffed a decree, declaring, that "all property belonged to the nation," meaning themfelves; and accordingly they seized upon and disposed at their pleasure, of all they wanted, to fupport their avarice, ambition, and defpotifm. Inficad of the promised fecurity of the perfons and lives of the people, they have dragged, against their wills and the dictates of their confciences, multitudes of

men

men to the field of battle, to enforce their atheistical anarchy upon mankind: and to prevent all oppofition to their cruel and favage measures within the republic, they exercised all the artifice of invention, in devifing the means of murdering the greatest numbers in the shortest time; or, as they themselves termed it, "en maffe."

But the text is yet more explicit and pointed, in defcribing the very means by which this national deception fhould be accomplished, the foundation of: its revolutionary power laid, and alfo by which it fhould be established. And these means are certain "miracles which he" (the beaft of the earth, which I have before fhown, is the type of the republic) "had power to do in the fight of the beaft," or in the fight of the Pope. But what were the "miracles," or wonders by which this great deception was to be effected, and the foundation of the revolutionary republic laid? The firft and greatest wonder, out of which the others arofe, was the fudden converfion of a great majority of the people of France, enthusiastically devoted to the Papal church, from that fuperftition to French atheism, to French liberty and equality. The fecond, the infatuated and abject condefcenfion of the first nobility and clergy, in mixing with, and putting themselves upon a perfect level with the loweft rabble of France, of which the Convention chiefly confifted; and thus, by an implicit furrender of their ancient rights and dignities, adding firength to the popular notions of national equality. The others were, the deftruction of the Baftile; the bribing and corrupting the military force of the kingdom; the imprisonment of the monarch.; his dethronement; the intimidation, among the Convention, of the friends to monarchy, to order and peace, by the lowest and most ungovernable and abufive of the female fex; the actual abolition of the ancient

rights of the nobility and clergy, &c.; all which wonderful events took place as it were in the fight of the Pope, and before the " Bill of the Rights of Man" was proposed to the nation; and each of which had a natural tendency to facilitate its acceptance. When the delufive influence of the whole is confidered, it is impoffible not to perceive the very means, the very miracles or wonders, referred to in the text, by which the Convention had prepared the mind of the nation to accept the Bill of Rights, and to fwallow all the impious, atheistical, and abominable frauds contained in it. It is equally obvious, that, had not those wonderful events been previoufly concerted, and brought to pafs by the revolutionists, the nation could not have been fo cheated out of their focial privileges, nor the fraudulent Bill of Rights ever have been propofed, and much less accepted.

The nation thus deceived, it was farther neceffary, not only to continue the public mind under the delufion, but to excite in it an enthufiaftic attachment to the conftitution, left the people should discover its frauds, and overthrow it. For these purposes the requifite measure remained to be adopted, and the Convention immediately pursued it; a measure which the prophet describes fo plainly and exprefsly, that it is impoffible for an unbiaffed mind, to entertain a doubt refpecting its being the event foretold. For, after having referred to the wonders which fhould lead to the acceptance of the conftitution in the former part of the verse, he tells us, in the latter, that "the beaft of the earth," or the Convention now representing the French nation, typified by the word earth, fhall

Ver. 14. Say unto them that dwell on "the earth (the people of France), that they "fhould make an image unto the beaft (or 66 pagan

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