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God had in view, by permitting fo extraordinary a power as that of the Pope to arife in the western church, may require that the fame power should arife likewife in the eastern church. The design seems to be that of a wife physician, who, finding peccant humours in the body, brings on a fuppuration to collect and diflodge them, that the health may be reftored. The peccant humours of profeffing Christians appeared early, and increafed gradually. At length they formed the Papal hierarchy, around which as a centre, the fuperftitious and finful tenets and practices, mingled with Christianity by the cunning of Satan, and the infirmity of man, are collected; forming a huge impofthume on the body of the church, exceedingly deformed to look at; but, when ripe, it fhall be lanced, and the humours thus diflodged; the health of the fpiritual conftitution fhall be restored. But in regard the Greek church did not collect round this centre, it appears to be the progrefs of the fame design, to permit the fame power to arise in Judea, for the exprefs purpose of collecting the corrupted Greek church round him, as their centre; that, when this second fuppuration is lanced by the fword of the Jews, the church may be purified, and prepared for her millennial ftate.

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These conjectures feem to be confirmed by the express teftimony of Zechariah, chap. ix. 13. "When I have bent Judah for me, filled the "bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy fons, "O Zion, against thy fons, O Greece." The prophet states the parties in the battle of Armageddon. On the one hand are the Jews then converted, on the other the fons of Greece, as the chief supporters of the beast. Now, the only community bearing the name of Greeks, fince the fall of the Greek empire, is the Greek church. It is probable, therefore, they shall conftitute the great part of his fubjects before the battle. The Papal power, thus erected in Judea, shall continue to profper, receiving the fubmiffion of ignorant and deluded nations, until the Jews are converted; an event fo fatal to his autho rity, that the spirit of prophecy represents it as the fixth vial of God's wrath, poured out on the beaft and his kingdom. But, before I proceed to show the effect of it on his dominion, I fhall first delineate from the prophecies the circumftances that precede their converfion, and then the manner in which it is effected.

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SECTION II.

A virulent Perfecution of the Jews is carried on by the Papal Power, in a great Part of Afia and Africa.

ONE circumftance clearly revealed, is, that the Jews fhall be in very great distress immediately before their converfion. To this purpose are the expreffions of Jeremiah, chap. xxx. 4.-9, 10." And these are the words that the "Lord fpake concerning Ifrael, and concern

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ing Judah. For thus faith the Lord, We have "heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not "of peace. Afk ye now, and fee whether a ઃઃ man doth travail with child? Wherefore do "I fee every man with his hands on his loins, "as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned " into palenefs? Alas! for that day is great, "fo that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be faved out of "it. For, it shall come to pass in that day, faith "the Lord of hofts, that I will break his yoke " from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, "and ftrangers fhall no more serve themselves "of him: But they shall serve the Lord their "God, and David their king, whom I will "raise up unto them." Of this trouble, paint

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ed in fuch lively colours, it is faid, "That Ja"cob fhall be faved out of it ;" that is, it shall end in deliverance. And when fhall that be? "In that day,-when ftrangers shall not more "ferve themfelves of him;" that is, at the clofe of their long difperfion. faved, "They fhall ferve the Lord their God, "and. David their king;" that is, they fhall fubmit to the Meffiah. Thefe circumftances are applicable to the period immediately preceding their converfion, and to that only.

But being thus

This circumftance is confirmed by the prophet Ezekiel, chap. vii. 16.-18. "But they "that escape of them, fhall escape, and shall be "on the mountains like doves of the vallies all "of them mourning, every one for his iniquity. "All hands fhall be feeble, and all knees fhall "be weak as water. They shall also gird them"felves with fackcloth, and horror fhall cover "them; and fhame fhall be upon all faces, and "baldness upon all their heads." From the beginning of the chapter, the prophet describes the defolation of the land of promise, by the Roman difperfion. But in order to afford fome confolation to the faithful, he obferves, verfe 16. That a "remnant fhould escape;" that is, after all the calamities of their difperfion, who hould be brought to a fenfe of their fin, and be made to mourn over it: He then defcribes that diftrefs

diftrefs which, in the courfe of providence, would be the mean of bringing them to a sense of fin. So that it immediately precedes their converfion.

The Prophet Daniel predicts the fame trouble, with this addition, That it should be the greatest the nation had ever experienced, chap. xii. 1. "And at that time fhall Michael ftand up, "the great prince which ftandeth for the chil"dren of thy people; and there shall be a time "of trouble, fuch as never was fince there was

a nation, even to that fame time: And at that "time thy people fhall be delivered, every one "that shall be found written in the book.” Here are three circumftances which fix the period of this trouble to that immediately preceding their converfion. The expreffion, “ at that "time," in the beginning of the verse, connects 4t with the end of the reign of the blafphemous king, mentioned in the clofe of the preceding chapter. It is likewife the time at which Michael fhall ftand up for the nation of the prophet. I confider Michael as a disguised name for the Meffiah. If he had called him Meffiah here, it would confound this period with that of his first appearance, formerly mentioned in the prophecy of the feventy weeks, chap. ix. 24. This "ftanding up for them," intimates the manifestation of him to Ifrael,-at the fame

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