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utter." They fung as it were a new

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fong before the throne,—and no man "could learn that fong, but the hun"dred and forty and fourthousand which were redeemed from the earth."

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After this fublime account of the choir of spirits of just men made perfect, a new epoch of prophecy commences. Daniel had been informed concerning this power whofe look was more ftout than his fellows, that the judgement fhould fit, and they should take away his dominion, to confume and to destroy it unto the end. And St. Paul in the terms, "that wicked one whom the "Lord fhall confume with the spirit of "his mouth, and deftroy with the brightness of his coming," characterizes that gradual degradation from the plenitude of his power, through the prevalence of the word of the Lord intimated before by the prophet, and

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more

more fully prefigured by St. John in the predictions of three feveral fteps by which the authority of Rome should be lowered among men. "And I faw "another Angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlafting gospel

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to preach unto them that dwell on the

earth, and to every nation, and kind

red, and tongue, and people, faying "with a loud voice, fear God, and "give glory to him; for the hour of his

judgement is come: and worship him "that made heaven, and earth, and the "fea, and the fountains of waters."

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While the proclamation here made that the hour of Gods judgement is come, is well calculated to turn our thoughts to the fate of that power whose dominion it was declared to Daniel fhould then be confumed, an attentive reader may difeern on perusing this pasfage a certain degree of abruptness in the introduction of this fymbol of the Angel

Angel.

From a choir of thofe who have been redeemed through the gospel to a fresh publication of it seems a rapid transition; yet moft precifely does this mark the mode in which the reformation began. For to that event (which was in fact a republication of the gofpel, and was fo termed in a history of its progress quoted by Mofheim, Hiftoria Evangelii renovati,) every circumftance of this particular prediction is fuited, and pointedly to this purpose are the words of the ecclefiaftical hiftorian above mentioned, "while the Roman pontif flumbered "in fecurity at the head of the church, "and faw nothing throughout the vast

extent of his dominion but tranquillity and fubmiffion, and while the worthy and pious profeffors of ge"uine Chriftianity almoft defpaired of

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feeing that reformation on which their "moft ardent defires and expectations

were bent, an obfcure and inconfider.

"able

"able perfon arofe, on a fudden, in "the year fifteen hundred and feventeen, "and laid the foundation of this long "expected change, by oppofing, with "undaunted refolution, his fingle force "to the torrent of Papal ambition and "defpotifm." (Mofh, Cent. 16, Sect. 1. Ch. 2.). How justly does the latter part of this remark correfpond with the emblem of the text! Luther fays the hiftorian, laid the foundation of this long expected change; this Angel, the apostle tells us, was afterwards followed by two others in his preaching. And as we proceed the correspondence becomes ftill more remarkable. In the midft of Heaven this Angel was feen to fly; and contrary to the general fate of the preachers of new Tenets, it was Luther's lot to proclaim his doctrine in the midst of the figurative Heavens; before the Emperour and the Princes of the Empire asfembled in open diet, Patronized from

the

the first by Princes; the reformation was introduced into the countries where it took place, by the authority of the Sovereigns themselves; not by a party first gained among the fubjects too powerfull for the fovereign to refift. This emblematick meffenger of God had too the everlasting gofpel; the gospel of which it is the fundamental doctrine, that there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, this he preached unto them that dwell on the earth,

faying with a loud voice, fear God, "and give glory to him." Luther, we are told, when the famous indulgences of Leo the tenth were proclaimed in Germany, raised his warning voice," and in ninety five propofitions maintained publickly at Wittemberg, plainly pointed out the Roman Pontif as a partaker in the guilt of those who fold them, fince he fuffered the people to be fuduced by fuch delufions from placing their principal

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