NOTES, &c.

(1)----THE SPIRITUAL INTEREST

OF ALL KINDREDS AND TONGUES AND NATIONS.---

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And they worshipped the beast, saying, "who is like unto the beast?-who is able to "make war with him. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months-And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven -And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, "and to overcome them :-and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and "nations."-This is the language of St. John, and that of St. Paul upon the same subject is very much like it :-he says, "that man of sin "must be revealed, who opposeth and exalteth "himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the "temple of God, shewing himself that he is "God;-whose coming is after the working of

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cr

Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying "wouders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ;-because they received not the love of the truth, that

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they might be saved."-Upon the passage just recited from the Revelation of St. John, it may be observed, that emblems, figures, and symbols, generally convey a very clear and intelligible meaning-Naval, military, or commercial representations, in alto or basso relievo, on marble or stone, convey information in a direct and pleasing manner to the mind of the spectator.-Emblen.s and symbols on coins and medals record the great achievements of illustrious individuals, or important and splendid national events, which only require examination to be immediately understood.-The canvass also, faithfully embodies ideas, and rapidly fills the mind with a recollection of past occurrences, either of a melancholy and painful, or of a pleasing and agreeable kind. These works of the labour and art of antiquity, are so far from being lightly valued, that they are held in universal estimation; and whenever Greece, or Rome, or Egypt affords us a specimen of this sort, it is considered as a treasure, worthy the attention of the learned and curious.-Can a good reason be assigned, why the descriptive symbols of an apostle of Christ, should not also be thought worthy of our closest examination and regard? Are they not likely to contain information of much higher value, of much

greater importance, than the figures and emblems which perpetuate the actions of heroes or barbarous nations? The figurative history of St. John, will reward all the labour and pains, we may take to understand it. It is delightful to anticipate from it, the prosperous circumstances belonging to the church, the beginning of which is already visible;-it is delightful thus to have ocular proof, that the source from whence he derived his knowledge was only in haeven, at the right hand of God.-A great and powerful spotted beast, is an admirable symbol of a fierce spirited and intolerant religion.-The spots upon it, will designate its various errors and false doctrine:-the feet of a bear, may aptly represent the silent and sure manner, in which it is able to steal imperceptibly upon its prey;and the mouth of a lion, is a just emblem of the terrible power it posesses to crush its prey when seized. Place this beast of St. John, by the side of the papal hierarchy, and say, whether they are not as like each other, as the figure, and the shadow which it casts.-The numerous false doctrines are the spots of the beast-the spies and emissaries of Rome, who steal into the houses of persons suspected of heresy, to destroy them, are well represented by the soft feet of the mischievous bear-and the horrible inquisition is well described by the powerful jaws of the savage lion.-Has the studious and reflecting Christian, any more difficulty in understanding, at the first glance, the meaning of

the figure St. John here draws, than the learned geometrician has in understanding the meaning of it, the moment he is shewn the diagram of the tenth proposition of the fourth book of Euclid.

St. Paul is less symbolic when speaking of the same false religion, and therefore the more easily to be understood:-indeed it is impossible to mistake his meaning

(2)---THE WESTERN ROMAN EM

PIRE

According to Gibbon, the provinces in Europe, south of a line running along the Danube and the Rhine, and across the German Ocean to the wall of Antoninus in Scotland ;—and bounded by another line, drawn south of Buda, by Durazzo across the Mediterranean to Africa, constitute the greatest part of the western empire. Here are to be found the ten kingdoms, which Sir Isaac Newton thinks, corresponded with the ten symbolical horns of the great apocalyptical beast.-History, with a correct pen, has drawn the character of the religion these kingdoms were compelled to embrace, and given au account of the oppression and sufferings they were obliged to endure, from the fourth to the seventeenth century, under the iron rods of ecclesiastical and civil tyranny ;-and has thus afforded the inquirer full opportunity of judging, whether, or not, the spiritual interest of

"all kindreds and tongues and nations" in that part of the world, has not been materially inju red by the Papal hierarchy-"Ignorance ali"enates from the life of God"-Slavery degrades human nature, and makes it "commit "works of iniquity."

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St. Paul's words, "except there come a fal, ling away first," can only apply to some church that had been previously christian.— They can neither refer to the Jewish church, nor to any system of Paganism.—A few of the leading tenets of the church of Rome, compared with the doctrine of Christ and his apostles, will set this question in a proper light.—

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THE GOSPEL.

The author of the Christian dispensation taught, "that the Lord our God is one Lord;" a doctrine so perfectly congenial with the creed of the Jews, that the discreet scribe, who was not far from the kingdom of God, echoed it back in the hearing of the assembled multitude, with, "well master, thou hast said the truth“there is one God, and there is none other but he."

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On another occasion Christ says, "thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve;" at the same time sternly rebuking the arch enemy, who was endeavouring to seduce him into a breach of the first