ple, scrupled not to assert, that in order to cement liberty, the national club ought to strike off 200,000 heads. "As for the privilege of extending mercy to the condemned, it was contemptuously disclaimed; and all applications for pardon were rejected with the declaration, that the enlightened government of republican France, possessed no such power. It was esteemed indeed a sufficient crime to be suspected of being a supicious person." Their comedians publicly challenging and denying God; the pupils of their new republican school appearing at the bar, and declaring, that all religious worship had been suppressed in their section, and that they detested God; and, horrible to relate! their establishing a tan-yard under the auspices of government, to manufacture into leather the skins of their murdered fellow-citizens; their drowning, under guards of soldiers, their new born infants, born of lewd women kept by the officers in Gen. Jourdan's army, as related by Count Sidon, who was present; and numerous other enormities, which exclusively characterize the annals of modern France;-these are things well known. And they strikingly corroborate the evidence exhibited, that we behold in that nation the rise of the Antichrist of the last time.

The succeeding predictions (Dan. xi, 38,) the French nation have precisely fulfilled. They soon fell under a military despotism; and have become a great and terrible empire. The people who magnified themselves above God, and all legitimate authorities, have received their foreign god, their emperor, from an origin, which their fathers knew not; and have honored him with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pleasant things; or with Imperial magnificence. A Corsican youth, of ordinary descent, was admitted to an under office in a company of artillery in the republican French army. His activity at the siege of Toulon, in 1793, excited the attention of the national agents; and he was advanced. His subsequent rise was rapid. Within a few years the French received him, and honored him, as

*Faber, vol. ii, p. 205.

their First Consul. And his subsequent, Imperial magnificence, his victories, and his distributions of the nominal crowns of his conquered nations to his kindred, and favorites, appear fully to accord with the forecited passage, Dan. xi, 38, 39. And a god, whom his fathers knew not, shall he honor with gold and silver and precious stones and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds, with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory. And he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land (earth) for gain. In the whole of the passage afore-cited from this chapter, relative to the infidel Power, we find a train of particulars, which have been fulfilled, in their order, in France; but which, I believe, have never been fulfilled in this order in any other nation; and there now appears no human probability that they can ever be fulfilled in any other nation.

Have we then any reason to doubt of the correctness of applying the passage to the French nation? And especially considering the origin of their revolution, which will by and by be noted. When this is considered, we shall find also that in the French, as far as they have proceeded, we behold an inceptive fulfilment of the prophecy in Rev. xii, concerning the devil's com-. ing down to the earth in great wrth; and of the prophecy in Rev. xvii, concerning the beast, that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, and is bearing the Papal harlot to her execution. The gross Infidel system, instigated by the great dragon, in the former of these passages, has most strikingly appeared in France; and appears to be fulfilling in what has been called the Christian world. And the features of the beast in Rev. xvii, are conspicuously prominent in that nation, so far as they have proceeded. Examine the prophetic picture. Then look at the French nation. And you will be constrained to say, the picture there has its original; the prediction, its accomplishment. The seventh head of the old Roman beast, continuing a short space, has been verified in the Terrible Republic. The succeeding head, numerically the eighth, but yet of the seven; being the sixth healed from its deadly wound, is now pre

şented before our eyes. This new beast from the bottomless pit, of scarlet color, covered with the deeds of blasphemy, forming to himself his ten horns, bearing the Papal power to his execution, with the world wondering after him, is now upon the stage, manifested with dreadful precision. And the events of Rev. xviii, are fulfilled, or fulfilling. Some of the most important parts of the dominion of Papal Babylon have indeed been exhibited to the world, as the habitations of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. The rod of iron for the work of judgment there implied, is presented before the nations. Papal Babylon has fallen; and the judgments of God on Papal nations are in the most conspicuous train of fulfilment.

The above ideas will be corroborated, when we come to ascertain the real origin of the late unprecented commotions in Europe. This origin stands clearly exposed in the writings of Dr. John Robison, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, in a volume published in 1797, entitled, "Proofs of a Conspiracy, &c." And in the volumes of Abbe Barruel, a French Catholic, who wrote Memoirs on the French revolution. In both these works, although the plans of the authors are very different, and the writers were of different kingdoms, and different religious educations, and unacquainted with the object of each other; yet the same points are clearly ascertained. They give the same original letters, mottos, and watch words; and in short, disclose the same systematic plot, laid to introduce anarchy and Atheism, under the notion of enlightening mankind.

As much of the evidence concerning the fatal scheme of Illuminism, was first given in this country by these writers, it may be suitable to make some remarks upon their characters.

SECTION III.

The Characters of Dr. Robison, and the Abbe Barruel.

MUCH pains have been taken to abate the force of the testimony of these authors; particularly of the former. This perfectly agrees with the well known arts of Illuminism. Men who have adopted such maxims as the following; "The goodness of the end sanctifies the means; We must gain our opposers, or ruin them; Hurl the javelin; strike deep; but conceal the hand that gives the blow;" might be expected to assail, with the weapons of false accusation, the characters of those who should attempt to unveil their wickedness. Accordingly as soon as Professor Robison's Proofs were circulated in this country, and excited alarm, scandalous accounts were propagated in news papers against his character. These accounts have been proved, from authentic documents, to have been utter falsehoods. In the process of these proofs, the excellency of Professor Robison's character has been incontestably substantiated. The history of his life has been made public; which exhibits him as a man of distinguished usefulness; of the first degree of erudition; and of the most unimpeachable veracity and integrity. From youth he has been in public life, In 1774 he was invited by the Magistrates of Edinburgh to the Professorship of Natural Philosophy in the University of that city; which ranks very high among the literary institutions of this age. In 1786 he was elected a member of the Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, of which Mr. Jefferson is the President, In 1797, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Manchester. In 1799, the University of Glasgow, where he had received his education, conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws; at which time, contrary to their usual custom, they gave a very particular, and flattering account of his nine years study in that University. He was Secretary to the Royal

*See Payson's Modern Antichrist.

Society of Edinburgh. And in 1800 he was unanimously elected a foreign member (of which they admit but six) of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petersburgh; which is one of the three highest in reputation in Europe. These facts evince that Dr. Robison was one of the most eminent literary characters in Europe. Would he then have risked his reputation, in giving such a publication to the world, if he were not, from the most authentic documents, sure of its correctness? It is incredible! As to Dr. Robison's moral character, it is established beyond doubt. The following is an extract from a letter written by one of the most respectable literary men in Scotland. Leave was not obtained to give his name; though, it is presumed, he would not have made objection. "Professor Robison's character is so well established among those, who know him best, that it would be ridiculous, at Edinburgh, to call in question his veracity, or abilities. I had read many of his authorities in German originals, before his book was published. And the first notice I received of his book was in the preface to Dr. Erskine's Sketches of Ecclesiastical History, where you will see the honorable testimony, that he gave to Mr. Robison, and the great expectation that he had from its publication."

The Rev. Dr. Erskine, so celebrated in America, and neighbor to Dr. Robison, in a letter dated Edinburgh, Sept. 25, 1800, says, "I think highly of Professor Robison's book. Some of the most shocking facts it contains, I knew, before its publication, from a periodical account of the church history of the times, by Professor Koester, at Glessen, of which I lent to Professor Kobison all the numbers, relating to that subject." In a subsequent letter of June 13th, 1801, Dr. Erskine, having heard of some of the aspersions of Dr. Robison's character circulating in America, says, "Had these reports been sent to Edinburgh, for their palpable falsehood, they would have been despised and detested." Mr. J. Walker, a reputable inhabitant of Great-Britain, wrote an attestation to the excellent character of Dr. Robison, to Professor Boetiger, of Germany, who had written some aspersions on Dr. Rob