Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

troops of Charles the Fifth, a Catholic Prince, who styled himself Emperor of the Romans, A.D. 1527. Nine months it remained in the possession of the Imperialists; and every hour was stained by some atrocious act of cruelty, lust, or rapine. The constable of Bourbon had fallen in the attack of the walls; and the death of the general removed every restraint of discipline from an army which consisted of three independent nations, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the Germans. "It is impossible to describe," says Robertson in his History of Charles the Fifth, "or even to imagine, the misery and horror of that scene which followed. Whatever a city taken by storm can dread from military rage, unrestrained by discipline; whatever excesses the ferocity of the Ger. mans, the avarice of the Spaniards, or the licentiousness of the Italians could commit, these the wretched inhabitants were obliged to suffer. Churches, palaces, and the houses of private persons were plundered without distinction. No age, or character, or sex, was exempt from injury. Cardinals, nobles, priests, matrons, virgins, were all the prey of soldiers, and at the mercy of men deaf to the voice of humanity. Nor did these outrages cease, as is usual in towns which are carried by assault, when the first fury of the storm was over; the Imperialists kept possession of Rome several months; and, during all that time, the insolence and brutality of the soldiers hardly abated. Their booty in ready money alone amounted to a million of ducats; what they raised by ransoms and exactions far exceeded that sum. Rome, though taken several different times by the northern nations, who overran the empire in the fifth and sixth centuries, was never treated with so much cruelty by the barbarous and heathen Huns, Vandals, or Goths, as now by the bigoted subjects of a Catholic monarch."

[merged small][ocr errors]

But the first vial of the wrath of the Ancient of days, did not affect the city alone: the Reformation was a grievous sore to the Holy Roman Church and to the French successors of the Greek Emperors of the Romans. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Prussia, Livonia, England,

Scotland, the United Provinces, and the principal part of Switzerland, revolted from his Roman Holiness; and France was desolated with civil wars for more than a hundred years, from 1560 to the revocation of the edict of Nantes, 1685, by the introduction of Calvinism there. The subjects of the German Emperors also, half of whom separated from the see of Rome, were visited with a most grievous calamity, when a furious civil war of thirty years' duration, carried on between the Catholic League and the Protestant Union, desolated the Empire, 16181648. The Revolution of religion did not convulse merely the church, it influenced the politics, and changed the form of government in many of the states of Europe. Democracy and Calvinism were introduced into Geneva, 1535-the Republic of Holland took its rise, 1579royalty was abolished in England under the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, 1653-and in the same country, 1688, bounds were set to the royal authority by the production of the original contract between the king and the people.

2 And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

SECTION III.

Second Stage of the Session or Republication of the Mystery,

The second stage of God's session in judgment on the Empire and Papacy, produces the first most extensive and sanguinary wars of modern Europe: the great war of the North, 1700-1721; the general war of the Spanish succession, 1701-1713; the general war of the Austrian succession, 1740-1748; and the general war

Ее

occasioned by the disputes between France and England concerning their American settlements, 1755-1763. This was the era of Louis XIV. Marlborough, Charles XII. of Sweden, Peter the Great, Frederic III. of Prussia, and Pitt. As the last vial was characterized by the wars of religion, this is marked by the wars of ambition. A.D. 1700-1763.

3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea.

SECTION IV.

Third Stage of the Session or Republication of the
Mystery.

The effect of the last vial was upon the Empire in general; the effect of this is upon the kingdoms or peoples, which compose that Empire, in particular. In the former, kingdom waged war against kingdom to please the ambition of princes: in this the kingdoms are divided against themselves-it is the war of the peoples with their princes. The war of England with her American Colonies, or Anglo-American Revolution, A.D. 1775— the FRENCH REVOLUTION, A.D. 1789, in which France loses 1,500,000 of her children-revolution in Poland, A.D. 1791, after many civil wars, and its dismemberment by the king of Prussia, Emperor of Germany, and Emperor of Russia, A.D. 1772--civil war in Geneva, A.D. 1782-revolution in Holland, A.D. 1795-revolution in Venice, A.D. 1797.-revolution in Switzerland, A.D. 1798-revolution and insurrections in the Milanese, and institution of the Cisalpine Republic, 1796, 1797-the cession of the Papal states to France, their union with the Cisalpine Republic, and revolution of Rome, 1796, 1797, 1798-revolution of Genoa, and establishment of the Ligurian Republic, 1797-civil war and rebellion in

Ireland, 1798, 1799-insurrection in Malta, 1798-revolution in Egypt, 1798-revolution in Tuscany, 1798— revolution of the Vaudois and institution of the Lemanic Republic, 1798-revolution in Naples and Parthenopean Republic, 1799-Syrian expedition, 1799-insurrection and anarchy in the Seven Ionian Islands, 1801. In the French Revolution all orders of Christians, ecclesiastics as well as lay, recognize the just punishment of God on a wicked and atheistical generation for the crimes of their bigoted forefathers, who, under the first vial, for more than a hundred years deluged France with the blood of the Huguenots, 60,000 of whom were massacred on the eve of St. Bartholomew, at the instigation of Charles IX. and 400,000 compelled to seek refuge in foreign countries, after a twentieth part of their body had been put to death, and others had been hunted down like wild beasts on the mountains, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became 5 blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say,

Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. 6 For they have shed the blood of saints and

prophets, and thou hast given them blood to 7 drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

SECTION V.

Fourth Stage of the Session or Republication of the Mystery.

Since the fall of Constantinople, the Sun of the LatinoGreek Empire shone by the glory of the kings of France;

but Napoleon, besides his right to the inheritance and title of the Eastern Emperors of the Romans by his usurpation of the seat of the French Monarchs, might have possessed some claims to their throne through the family of Calomeros, i.e. Buonaparte in Greek, of the Comnena dynasty, with whom it is imagined he was connected. In the execution of the two plans, by which this tyrant endeavoured to erect an universal monarchy of his own, viz. the Federative and Continental Systems, he subverted most of the existing dynasties of Christendom, and deluged Europe with blood. France alone lost 5,500,000 of her children under his military despotism. By the former system, he placed his own family or his generals on the thrones of Holland, Naples, and Spain, and made the princes of the German Empire his vassals; by the latter system he endeavoured to dry up the resources of the only state which preserved its independence against him, viz. Great Britian and Ireland, by shutting out its commerce from the rest of Europe. During his fifteen years usurpation, he and his agents cost the French Empire 944,760,467 francs, independently of military expences, which made an annual deficit of 55 millions. But the rest of the men" in the two Præfectures of the Gauls and Italy, who smart under his tyranny, do not yet perceive the finger of God in these judgments—the remnant are not yet affrighted, nor give glory to the God of heaven. Their iniquity has not yet come to the full by the three and a half years' slaughter of the witnesses of the truth.

[ocr errors]

8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to 9 scorch the men with fire. And the men were

scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory.

« PredošláPokračovať »