as he had before ufed the pronoun "that;" THE Son, that is, the genuine fon, refembling, imitating, and equal to his Father in all his iniquitous and ruinous qualities and actions, and thereby furpaffing all his other fons, or reprobate Powers, on earth, in fidelity to his will. But what does the apofile mean by perdition," the father of this very dutiful fon? For this we cannot be at a lofs, whether we confider the literal, or the figurative and fcriptural fenfe of the word. In the first it means deftruction of the exiftcnce of a thing, or utter ruin, from perdere, to kill or defiroy. And in fome paffages of holy writ, it refers to the utter deflruction of the foul, the effence and moft precious part of man in a future ftate*. In the fecond, it is ufed, among others, for one of the names of Satan, or the Devil, the author of the fall and perdition of man. Chrift himself, to fhow the heinoufness of the fin committed by Judas, in betraying the Son of God, the redeemer of mankind, calls him alfo "THE fon of perdition," the very fon of Satan. St. Paul, to fhow the horrid fin of Barjefus, that forcerer and atheift, who had oppofed the Holy Ghoft, addreffes him under a like metaphor: "O full of all fubtilty," fays he, “and "all mifchief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteoufnefs." So here the apoftle, ftriving to give an adequate defcription of the allmifchievous and deftructive nature of the Power to come, and to denote its fuperlative mifchief above all the temporal powers of the earth that had exifted before it, defcribes it by the yet more comprehenfive fign of "the fon of perdition," the true fon of Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; the great enemy of God and man. And as it was to come with all the authority, and to do the work of his father, who was a murderer from the b " * 1 Tim. vi. 9. Heb. x. 39. Rev. xvii. 8. Rev. xii. 9. † Acts xiii. 6. 10. "ginning," "ginning," there can be no doubt but his mifchief was to extend to the utter ruin of the fouls, as well as the bodies of men. With this natural and not overcharged interpretation of the fign let us inquire, whether it does not properly and perfectly fit the revolutionary power of France, and no other. And firft, as to the perdition of the fouls of men. It is to be obferv ed, that, during the pagan fiate of the world, the Powers that were, when incited by a thirst for dominion, that fource of war and human deftruction, fought to conquer only; and as the means of conqueft, to destroy the bodies of men, and that no farther than appeared neceffary to obtain their object. They never made religion the fubject of war or quarrel, but left the vanquished nation in the poffeffion of its own faith and mode of worship, and every man to the care of his own foul. Since the rife of Chriftianity, and its much to be lamented corruption, we have feen two great powers, Mohamed and the Pope, who have, in this refpect, furpaffed the pagan world in fpiritual domination. In the courfe of their ambition, they have added to force, artifice, fraud, and falfe religions, and made them the inftruments of gratifying their ungovernable defire of rule; and thus led the minds of men aftray from the revealed word of God, in the Gofpel of Chrift. But the principles and measures they adopted were neither fo finful in their nature, nor mifchievous to the fouls of men, as to efface from their minds every religious and moral rule of action; but, on the contrary, they inculcated faith in God, in his Providence, in a future ftate of rewards and punishments, and in all the divine truths flowing from God's infinite perfection; a few, fubfervient to the purposes of their ambition, excepted. But But the French republic erected itself with the undifguifed defign, with the determined purpose, manifefted throughout its established fyftem of law, and its whole public conduct, to deprive the foul of man of every incitement to virtue, and to leave no rule or guide for but "fin." It came to teach, that there is no future ftate of rewards or punishments, and that death is only an eternal fleep and it came with all the subtilty, and power of Satan, to feduce and compel mankind to disbelieve and deny the existence of the everlafting God, which is the fin of" blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft," a fin which Christ himself declares "fhall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world to come *." Such is the malice meditated, and, alas! too fuccessfully attempted against the immortal part of man, by this political fon of Satan. Its dreadful mischief is fo well known in the world, and fo deeply felt, that a fummary review of it only can be neceffary here. We have feen it, in the beginning of its career, profelyting a whole nation, computed at TWENTY FIVE MILLIONS of fouls, to its fyftem of atheism and anarchy, that small number of it alone excepted, whom it either banished, or, in cold blood, barbaroufly murdered. We have seen it, by its diabolical ingenuity and perfeverance, diffufing its pernicious doctrines, among foreign nations, in Holland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and even over the Alps into Italy, and thus deftroying the fouls of men, that it might gain the afcendancy and command over their bodies. We have feen its poisonous influence extended to Egypt, and the Indies in the Eaft, and to every part of civilized America in the Weft: and how much farther it may extend, time alone can discover. Thus it has precipitated mankind into the fame irremediable fiate * St. Matt. xii, 31. 32. which its father "Perdition" meditated in vain, when he tempted the parents of mankind to disobey the command of the God of truth. But it did not ftop at the mifery and "perdition" in which it had involved the immortal part of man: the deftruction of their bodies was alike the facrifice to its irresistible and gigantic tyranny. Thousands upon thousands of the people, after having been converted to atheism, were led to the field. of battle, and there fell victims to its endless ambition; perishing in a moment, without the least opportunity to repent of their blafphemy, and to make their peace with that God, whofe omnipotence they had treated with ridicule and contempt, and whose existence they had denied: and as to others who refused, or declined to drink of its deadly poifon, the number of fufferers was fo great, as to furpass all former precedent. One of its own hif torians tells us, it has ftained the country with "the blood of its pontiffs and priests, of its rich men " and nobles, and with the blood of every class of "citizens, without regard to rank, age, or sex.” Another reprefents its tyranny as "the reign of "terror and of death." Another emphatically reprefents France as "one vaft tomb:" and another calculates the diminution of its population, by its exterminating measures, from twenty-fix to nineteen million, in the fhort fpace of four years. And when future hiftorians fhall record the additional millions which have perifhed in confequence of its foreign wars, and the infurrections, affaffinations, and maffacres produced by its licentious principles, how vaft will be the amount of human carnage!!! We have read, and may again read, of the deftruction of mankind, through the pride and ambition of pagan powers, and of the Mohamedan and papal hierarchies A A hierarchies, during a courfe of twelve centuries paft; but what is the deftruction which even they have caufed, when compared to that of revolutionary. France in less than ten years? The fhortness of the time, and the immenfity of the number, revolt at all comparifon. Here, then, let me afk the candid and pious reader, however extenfive his mental abilities, after he has fully confidered all the principles and actions of revolutionary France, whether he can find, within the compafs of language, any. two epithets more ftrikingly and perfectly defcriptive of that political hydra, than "the Man of Sin, "the fon of perdition?" I have faid before, that the apoftle begins his prophetic history with general tropes, defcribing the Power foretold, and then defcends to particular defcriptions; and that all his marks, whether general or particular, harmonioufly unite to prove, that it would be dreadfully deftructive and confummately wicked. I have fhown the truth of the firft pofition, and fhall now confider the second. The Power foretold is called the "mystery of "iniquity." A "myftery" is a thing incomprehenfible to the intellectual powers of man; and, according to the Scriptures, is of two kinds. One is, that although the nature and mode of its existence cannot be comprchended, yet, from reafon and obfervation, we may be convinced of its real exiftence; fuch, for inflance, as the power inherent in the vegetable and animal world to generate and produce their proper kinds. This is a myftery, which is fo far from being contrary to reafon, that our judgments are convinced of it by the evidence of facts. Of the fame kind is "the mystery of godlinefs," and " the * 1 Tim, iii. 16. "mystery |