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"pagan Rome) which had the wound by the fword, and did live *"

To make an image of any thing, is to reprefent it by fome likeness or resemblance of the original. This may be done by fculpture, painting, writing, or oral defcription. To fulfil the text, then, the Convention must have reprefented the fimilitude of pagan Rome in fome great and remarkable feature, of her general political conduct. Now, of all the ftates which had ever exifted, pagan Rome only had deified liberty, worshipped, celebrated its fame in her feftivals, erected a ftatue to it, made it her tutelar god, and pretended to regard it, as the great aim and end, of all her political conduct. Has not the Convention held out to the people of France this great and fingular feature of pagan Rome, or, in other words, only "faid to them that dwell on "the earth, that they should make an image to the "beaft which had the wound by the sword, and did "live?" It has faid to the people, Let us make a ftatue to Liberty; and they have done it. They have deified it formally and publicly; they have offered incense at its altar, made it their great tutelary god, and have declared to the world, that their fole defign is to "reform," to" fraternize," or to give liberty to the human race. And that the French, and all other nations, might worship it, "the tree of liberty" was ordered to be erected, as its fubftitute and reprefentative, in every department of the republic, and in every conquered country.

*The prophet here evidently alludes to pagan Rome, the beast which was, 66 as it were, wounded to death," by Conftantine the Great, in the fourth century, who abolished pagan idolatry, or its ecclefiaftical head; and which "deadly wound was healed" by the Pope, when he established his idolatry in the beginning of the feventh century.

+ Rev. xiii. 3.

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Ver. 15. And he had power to give life "unto the image of the beaft, that the image "fhould both peak, and caufe, that as many as "would not worship the image of the beaft, "fhould be killed."

Strange it will feem, fhould we find, that the two events, predicted in this verfe, namely, that of the beaft giving "life" to an "image" made of inanimate matter, fo that it thould not only speak, but caufe to be deftroyed all who fhould refufe to worship it, has been clearly fulfilled: and yet it is not more ftrange than it is true; for it feems to have been the will of God, that, in the very act of blafpheming and denying his exiftence, the Convention, with all their cunning, fhould not be aware, that, by performing, among others, thofe two feemingly impoffible deeds, they fhould demonftrate, beyond all poffibility of doubt, his providence and omnifcience in fulfilling the prophecy. It is well known (as I have before had occafion to obferve, and as appears neceffary here to repeat), that the Convention, immediately after the ftatue of Liberty was placed in the church of St. Genevieve, procured a woman of the name of Momoro, a common actress, the infamous companion of Hebert the atheift, to represent the image of their goddess, Liberty. This deluded woman, decorated with all the extravagant finery of dress, followed by the Convention, and an immenfe multitude of people from all parts of France, paraded through the streets of Paris to the temple of Liberty, where, affuming the character of the image, the delivered an oration, prepared for her by the Convention, to celebrate its virtues, and to inflame the minds of the people with a zealous attachment to the atheistical conftitution; and it produced the wifhed for effect. If the people had been before enthufiaftically attached to the Pope and his idola

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try, they now became furioufly devoted to the Convention and its atheifm, and spent the remainder of the day in frantic joy, riot, and debauchery.

A captious difputant may, perhaps, object, that here the woman fpake, and not the image, according to the literal fenfe of the text. The answer is, that the language is figurative, in which one thing is put to denote another. Befides, it is a maxim without a figure, "Qui per alium facit, facit per fe." "That which is caufed to be done by another, is done by the perfon or thing that caufed it to be done." If a man kills another with a fword, we do not fay the fword committed the murder, but the man who caufed the fword to do it. Now the Convention, who made the "image," had certainly a right of reprefenting it by fomething elfe, bearing its fimilitude. The Convention made the image, which was a fymbol of their atheistical liberty; and they conftituted a living atheift, and the miftrefs of an atheift, with much propriety, to reprefent it; and, in its name, to deliver an oration, fuch as they would have compelled it to deliver had it had life. And thus the "image" was the caufe of the woman's appointment and oration; and in ftrict conformity to the text, when tranflated from its metaphorical into its literal meaning, the Convention "gave life "to the image, fo that it did fpeak."

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Again, the prophet farther declares, that the beaft fhall" caufe that as many as would not worship the image, fhould be killed." However extraordinary this power may feem, we fhall alfo find it manifeftly fulfilled by the image: for the Convention had no fooner feen the frantic enthusiasm raised in the people, by the oration in favour of liberty, than they perfuaded themselves they had obtained the great end of their frauds, by fecuring a number of devotees, fufficient to

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fupport their defpotifm. Under this prefumption, they proceeded to pafs many decrees, more unjuft and fanguinary than ever difgraced the most barbarous tyranny. By these decrees all perfons who dared to worship the true God, and did not worship and affift in maintaining the atheistical fyftem of liberty, over which the "image" prefided as its tutelary god; every person who would not facrifice, at its altar, all the gold and filver he poffeffed, by delivering them into the public treasury, and receive in its ftead, worthlefs paper; every perfon who would not give to the officers of the municipalities, those priefts of the goddess, an account of the produce of his induftry, that it might be facrificed to the ufe and defence of the image; or, in other words, to support the tyranny of the Convention; every perfon who, being called upon by their arbitrary requifitions, refufed to devote their lives and property to the propagation of the doctrines of the image, by joining their armies raised to compel mankind to embrace them; in fhort, all who would not, with activity and zeal, affist in promoting the atheistical liberty of the image, were adjudged to be "fanatics and moderés,' enemies to the unity, indivifibility, and fovereignty of the republic. Commiffioners were appointed to execute these fanguinary edicts, and they performed the horrid task with unprecedented barbarity, fparing neither fex nor age, and even extending their cruelty to infants unborn. And thus the Convention has evidently fulfilled the prediction, by "caufing as many "as would not worship the image of the beaft to "" be killed."

Ver. 16. And he caufeth all, both small "and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to "receive a mark on their right hand, or on "their forehead."

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To diftinguish their partizans from others, the French demagogues, in an early stage of their revolutionary career, devifed certain marks by which they might be known; and, among others, the "bon"net rouge," or "cap of liberty," and the " tri"coloured cockade." Thefe, the members of the Convention themselves, the executive committees, municipalities, and all the officers of the republic, children, adults, and aged, the rich and poor, the mafter and fervant, wore upon the "forehead," and had the cockade fixt on "the right hand" (or fide) of the cap, to fhow their attachment to the conftitution.

Ver. 17." And that no man might buy or "fell, fave he that had the mark or name, or "number of his name."

We have seen the mark of the beaft in the cap of liberty, and the tri-coloured cockade; and as the name of a thing is a more permanent defignation of it than a mark, we muft look for the "name, or the "number of his name," in fomething more fignificative and important to à ftate, than a mere mark. I therefore apprehend, that the prophet here alludes to all those who bore any civil or military office, under the state of which the beaft is the type: for these acted for and in the name of the ftate, and therefore they are properly defcribed by perfons having its

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name, or the number of its name," which is the fame thing. Now it is a well-known truth, that the people in France have been obliged to enter into fome public office or employment, or to wear the cap of liberty and tri-coloured cockade, in order to enjoy the right of buying and felling," and other common privileges of citizens; and that all perfons who have refufed to ferve the republic, or to wear the mark, have been immediately enrolled in the lift of fanatics and moderés; and suspected of treafon

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