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die its interest in the general state of public affairs . ^ his , in Scripture language , is todiscern the «« Signs of the Times . *! A writer has observed , in page 222 of your ldst liumber , that the day of the " Man of Sin is come to a close ; and con-¦
cludes , that ** Babylon the great is fallen /* Against this inference , Sir , depending upon your candour and impartiality , I enter my caveat , as premature , delusive , and dangerous . Your writer , feeling an amiable flow of rapture on the occasion ^ seems not to have perceived , that even if the city of Rome had been literally swallowed up by an earthquake , the Babylon of
the New Testament , spiritually called Sodom and Egypt , might still exist in all the disgusting turpitude of its description . If the little , inland , and insignificant city of Rome is the great Babvlon , then the solemn , the terrific visions of Daniel have
been desq ^ ibed -in vain ! The elevated diction , the pomp and prodigality of phrase , the lofty figures , and the glowing imagery of John the Divine , must be considered as little more than a play of words , the mere flourishes of rhetoric , monies parturientes ? If the city of Rome and its religion be the whole that constitutes Great Babylon , the profound researches of the immortal Newton , the luminous and
scrutinizing genius of the ever-memorable author of the History of the Corruptions of Christianity , the perspicuous discrimination of an Evanson , and the pathos of a -Bicheno , with the labors of other writers , who have believed in the unity of God , as a-doc * trirje generall y obscured by th < b apostacy of the churches , ' all these , I say , instead of building a foundation , have been beating the air ! But I hope better things , and you , Sir , I darexonclude , will
never suffer it to be forgotten , that when these great and good men have reasoned upon the fall of Babylon , they never confined that idea to an ecclesiastical state , or an individual city only ! They always connected their Rome or Babylon with the dragon , the scarlet-coloured beast , the civil power , the secular arm in alliance with the false prophet , the false church or
churches * One need not insist upon this point with the enlightened , the intelligent Unitarian ; but if there should be
any of your readers who may still think with the Lord Bishop of Worcester , and many others who profess to believe myste- * ries , " that Antichrist is merely an ecclesiastical power /* let them consult the letter of Mr . Evanson to the Right Reverend Bishop Hurd ; and then , if their prejudices in this respect are not removed , or shaken , it may be fairly presumed , tlieir ' s is
a composition for which something more powerful than reason and argument is required . To mey comparing small things with great , it appears from what I have lately read and digested , that the existence of J 3 a-
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The Pope not Antichristi 251
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1806, page 251, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1724/page/27/
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