"myftery of God *;" that is, of his eternal felfexistence, with his attributes of infinite wisdom, and power, and juftice, and goodness, the glorious first caufe, and Creator and Ruler of all things; the nature and mode of whofe exiftence furpass the utmoft extent of human ideas; and yet from demonftrations, as innumerable as his works, we know, to an abfolute certainty, that they do exift.

The other kind of "mystery" is that which is the wicked invention of man, founded on the "belief of a lie," and therefore its exiftence is contrary to reason, and alfo incomprehenfible. It is "THE mystery of iniquity" alluded to by the apostle, as characteristic of "the Man of Sin," and which can be nothing else but that myftical tenet, that there is no firft caufe, no God, the creator and ruler of all things, but that the univerfe is the offspring of chance: a falsehood so contrary to the dictates of reafon and common fenfe, that every object, which prefents itfelf to the perception of man, flatly contradicts it; "a "lie" fo horrid and ruinous, that human nature, frail as it is, ftaggers at the thought, and fin itself ftands aghaft. And yet it is impoffible for the unprejudiced mind to confider the tremendous principle upon which the French nation has formed, established, and supported its revolutionary republic, without perceiving this "mystery of iniquity" no longer inexplicable, as confifling in the denial of a

God.

The apoftle proceeds to this farther mark of the Man of Sin;" he was to oppose and exalt "himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." Here are two diftinct marks, by which the power, prefigured as " the Man of Sin,"

* Rev. X. 7.

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† 2 Theff. ii. 11.

Thould

Of thefe, for the

fhould be known when he came. fake of fhowing with what wonderful exactness the predictions are fulfilled by the facts, I fhall treat in

their order.

First, then, it is exprefsly and literally foretold, that the person referred to, by "the Man of Sin," was to" oppofe ALL that is called God." The apostle does not confine the oppofition to the God of heaven, but extends it to all things elfe that is called God. To fulfil the latitudinary meaning of this fentence, the oppofition must be made, not only to the God of truth, and his divine laws, natural, moral, and revealed, but to every other thing worfhipped, or known heretofore, by the name of a God; to all virtue and religion of every kind and denomination, by whomfoever invented or taught.

Now what power muft it be that will answer to this unambiguous and literal defcription, but one perfectly atheistical? And where fhall we find it but in France? If we may give credit to the hiftorians of her late revolution, the establishment of atheism, upon the ruins of all religion, was the plan fecretly refolved upon, by the revolutionists, long before its execution, becaufe neceffary to its accomplishment; and that, to prepare the minds of mankind to unite in this wicked project, the following impious and blafphemous doctrines and tenets were difperfed in innumerable books and pamphlets, not only throughout France, but Europe. That the God of the philofophers, Jews, and Chriflians, is but a chimera, and a phantom! That the phenomena of nature do not prove the existence of a God! That they are but the neceffury effects of matter prodigiously diverfified! That the fear of God is the beginning of folly! That the foul of man has no more reality, than the chimeras and fphinxes! That it is the body that feels,

I

thinks,

thinks, and judges! That the immortality of the foul is a barbarous and falfe tenet; and that death is only an eternal fleep! with many other of the like fallacious and impious tendency: pofitions and dogmas not only in direct oppofition to the existence of one fupreme God, and every divine truth, proceeding from his infinite wisdom, rectitude, and perfection, and demonftrated by his works, but to all the moral, focial, and religious principles, established by the lawgivers and fages of antiquity, who had been deified for their fuperior knowledge and virtue, or had ever been "called God." And when we fhall hereafter have occafion to examine the code of policy, with which the republic has been ushered into the world, we shall find it to be founded upon the fame blafphemous principles. In the mean time, he that hath an eye may fee this indifcriminate oppofition to all "that is called God," to all religion and virtue, in her public abjuration of the God of the universe, and his bleffed Son; in her having deified the corrupt and fallible human reafon, and unreftrained liberty of man; in her public creed, or catechifm, in which the conftitution is recommended to be worshipped as God, and the members of the convention as faints; in the dedication of all the churches, to the paffions of human nature; in the numerous acts, frauds, and falsehoods, hereafter commented upon, directly tending to fubvert the light of reafon, of confcience, and of the revealed word of God; and in thus leaving mankind without any fafe and reasonable guide to direct their actions, that they might become the bewildered and eafy dupes of anarchy and tyranny. And if any farther proof of the completion of this part of the pro phecy can be neceffary, it may be feen in the numerous proclamations, and refolves to fraternize, or profelyte, all mankind to horrible atheism, whatever may be the object of their worship,

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"The

"The Man of Sin" is not only to oppose all that is called God," but all that is worshipped. Now to worship is to adore a God: but it alfo means, and is commonly made ufe of, to fignify the refpett or reverence we entertain of a fellow creature, on account of his authority or official character in civil fociety, or of his virtues as a man: and this is evidently the meaning of the text. In this fenfe the oppofition, alluded to by the apoftle, must be to all kings, princes, magiftrates, and authorities whatfoever, and to every thing that is good. How accurately and peculiarly has this mark been fulfilled in the revolutionary power of France, the learned Abbé Barruel, in his Memoirs of Jacobinifm, can tell us. He there points out the feveral fources whence it arofe, and the means by which it was eftablished, among many other facts, as fulfilling the prophetic marks of " the Man of Sin," defcribed in this very verfe. His defcription is exactly the fame with that of the apoftle, with this only difference, that the latter is more brief and comprehenfive than the former. The apoftle calls it an oppofition to " all

that is worthipped;" that is, as I have juft before explained it, to all that is reverenced, refpected, or feared in civil fociety: and the Abbé ftyles it," a

confpiracy, not only against all kings, but against "all governments, against all civil fociety." But let the conftitutional code of this political monfter fpeak itfelf; for it exhibits the beft teftimony of the nature of its own defigns. What mean these three political dogmas, that "fovereignty refides in the

people;" that " man is above the law;" and that "all men are equal by naturé "If "fovereignty re"fides in the people," who are to constitute the members of civil fociety, and to be the objects of the fovereignty? If man is above the law," there can be no civil office or duty. And if "all men are equal by nature," there can be no fuperior degree of virtue to

refpecti

respect; there can be no moral obligation. In a word, thefe principles, which confiitute the effence of their jurifprudence, are as repugnant to the nature of civil fociety, as they" oppofe" all order and fubordination; all virtue, all morality, and every thing which the reason of man refpects, values, or "worShips," according to the text.

Secondly, "The man of Sin" is not only to oppose," but " exalt" himself above all that is called God. A man exalts himself above another, in his own conceit, when he decries the power, abilities, or wisdom of another, which is fuperior to his own. And thus the Power foretold is, in its own opinion, to exalt itself not only above the God of heaven, but all that is called God: In fulfilling this prophetic part of the text, thefe conceited fools, the revolutionary philofophifts, took it into their heads, that they were wiser than all the great philofophers and legiflators of antiquity (many of whom had been adored as gods, for their fupereminent wifdom and virtue), than all modern legislators, and even than the God of heaven. Hence it was that they began by ridiculing and decrying the Chriftian religion: thence they paffed to all religion, all virtue, inorality, and truth, whether derived from the ethics of the greatest and wifeft men that ever lived, or from the moral and revealed laws of the God of righteoufiefs, the fountain of all truth; and holding them all in contempt, have erected their republic upon the rotten revolutionary pillars of impiety, atheism, and anarchy: and thus, in ftri conformity to the literal fense of the text, have "exalted" the Republic, not only above the God of truth and infinite perfection, but above all that has ever been called God, and all that has been adored for wisdom and virtue.

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But