LXXVII.

March 26, 1807.

BELOVED,

I CANNOT help sending you a few lines upon the present prospects of Zion's calamity. I have, from the first appearance of Satan's coming down among us with great wrath, (by the instrumentality of Tom Paine) seen the spirit of the disaffected in a most awful and perilous light. They have all along appeared to me as persons completely taken and entangled in that hour of temptation: and I have watched not a few; but never yet have seen one, whether professor or profane, either prosperous or in peace And true it is that one sin never comes alone "Man knows the beginning of sin; but who bounds the issues thereof?" says Spirah. These disaffected ones will, I doubt not, be the means of bringing in the man of sin; though I believe that this was far from the thoughts of many of them, and even now many of them do not wish it; but, being united in the same spirit, and having once wished them God speed, they shall and will share in all the evils they do; and must be partakers of these men's sins.

The different passages of scripture, which appear to me to point out the future progress of popery, are the following. "And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people all these things shall be finished,". Dan. xii. 7. These holy people are in this island, and I believe there are but few elsewhere. The catholics are now labouring, and the jacobins with them, to get into the army and navy, in order to influence both. Next they will get into the houses of parliament; and when once they can carry their point there the outer court will be given to the Gentiles, which means the Romans, Rev. xi. 2. When they have got possession of this, mass will be read in the churches, and popery in all its branches will be the established religion of Great Britain. And, as for our dead formalists, the Arminians also, and all the old dead and dry dissenters, these must unite with them; for "all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the beast, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from. the foundation of the world," Rev. xiii. 8. Having thus gotten possession of the outward court, the established church, and grasped all power, civil, ecclesiastical and military, they will then abolish the act of toleration, and scatter the power of the holy people; when they will get at the temple and the inward spiritual worshippers, and put a final stop to all real worship, and silence the witnesses of God; which are called two, including both churches and ministers. And, when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them; "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city. And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves," Rev. xi. 8, 9. This seems to be the last effort of the man of sin.

The death of these witnesses seems to be a political one, or slaying them as witnesses, that is, silencing them all together. And then the pope "shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in his glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him," Dan. xi. 4, 5. "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince; and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation;" but the elect shall be delivered. Dan. xii. 1. And when Michael stands up the Holy Spirit will descend. This time of trouble will last three years and a half. "And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them," (the slain witnesses) "and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven, saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up in a cloud," and appeared once more a cloud of witnesses for God, Rev. xi. 11. And under this display of power, from this cloud of witnesses, the man of sin will be discovered, by the light, and be consumed by the spirit of the Lord's mouth; and the ten kings in Europe, which now help the whore (being converted), will then hate her, strip her, and burn her, Rev. xvii. 16.

Our poor, honest, and faithful king seems to be the breath of our nostrils, for under his shadow we now dwell among the heathen; but when he is removed the prospect will bear a more gloomy aspect.

Farewell, the Lord bless thee! Ever yours,

W. H. S. S.

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