nological table affixed to Mofheim's ecclefiaftical history, ufes the following terms fo applicable to the point before us, "here (in the Pantheon) Cybele was fucceeded by the Virgin Mary, and "the Pagan deities by Christian martyrs. Idolatry ftill fubfided; but the

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objects of it were changed." Thus ftrongly marked is the establishment of an idolatrous power, in the very feat of that which had before fallen! Neither does the paffage I am now about to transcribe from the historian of the Roman empire, describe a man, whom we might not easily fuppofe well calculated to be the inftrument, the visible agent, and even the reprefentative of Satan : "and Phocas does not appear to be "lefs hateful in the exercise than in the

acquifition of power. The pencil of

an impartial historian has delineated, "the portrait of a moǹfter; his dimi"nutive and deformed perfon, the close

S 3

"nels

"nefs of his fhaggy eyebrows, his red

hair, his beardless chin, and his cheek

disfigured and difcoloured by a for"midable scar. Ignorant of letters, "of laws, and even of arms, he in

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dulged in the fupreme rank a more

ample privilege of luft and drunken"nefs-his favage temper was inflamed by paffion, hardened by fear, exafpe"rated by refiftance or reproach.

That the Pope fhould be thus dignified by the hands of a man of the above defcription will, I must conceive, flrike my reader, as a ftrong coincidence: but when he is informed that Mr. Gibbon has preferved and owned the juftice of the epithets applied by a cotemporary poet to Phocas," the lawless and life

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corrupting Dragon of the monarchy;" he will think, that by these circumstances, 'was little lefs than exprefsly marked the arrival of that period, in which the

Dragon

Dragon was to give the beast "his power, and his feat, and great autho-"thority."

After what manner this authority fhould be employed is the next parti-. cular of the evangelift's prediction: or,. in, other words, he next proceeds to draw the character of the potentate that fhould arife. The terms in which he had been characterized by Daniel and St. Paul, I have before noticed; to thefe accounts. St. John adds, (befides what has been already quoted from the thirteenth of the Revelation,) in the fixth verfe of that chapter, "and he opened "his mouth in blafphemy against Ged,

to blafpheme his name and his Taber"nacle, and them that dwell in Heaven." and the woman reprefenting the capital of his ftate in the feventeenth chapter is declared to be "the mother of harlots sand abominations of the earth," And

to

to be drunken with the blood of the

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faints, and with the blood of the Mar. tyrs of Jefus." Now if we call to mind the well known circumftance of Idolatry being fpoken of in the holy writ under the name of fornication and abomination, three particulars of the character of the beaft will appear to be foretold, Idolatry, blasphemy and tyranny. For as to his being an ecclefiaftical, as well as civil power, and Rome being ́the feat of his government, these points are so plainly marked in the prediction, and are so evident in the Papal history, that it seems needlefs to dwell on them. Neither, fince the exiftance of the others has been fully proved by my predeceffor in this line; and particularly the proofs compreffed in a most elegant and con. vincing manner by the learned Prelate, who now prefides in the Church of Worcester, fhall I notice them any further than to bring forward the teftimony

of

of my unprejudiced witness to the truth of the prophecy on thefe points.

The mode in which the charge of idolatry is here laid, by Rome being termed "the mother of harlots and "abominations of the earth," claims our attention on account of the admirable accuracy with which this defcription is applied. For old Rome was the Fofter-Mother of every fuperftition and every mode of idolatry that was brought unto her. Rome, fays her English hiftorian, "the capital of a great "monarchy, was inceffantly filled with fubjects and ftrangers from every part "of the world, who all introduced and

enjoyed the favourite fuperftitions of "their native country. Ifis and Serapis "at length affumed their place among "the Roman deities, nor was this indulgence a departure from the old

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maxims of government. In the pureft

ages