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twelve apostles , and treading sublunary things beneath her feet . And this , John says , was a great wonder to see the relisrion whose doctrine
• was universal benevolence , exalted to that throne whose chief principle of action was , that right was always founded on might . Ver . 2 describes the state the woman had been in during the period between the ascension of Jesus , A . D .
33 , and the period of female gestation , two hundred and eighty days , at the end of which period the true religion was delivered of Christianity . Gal . iv . 19 .
Ver . S describes what the apostle thought a great wonder , that when pure Christianity had been exalted to the throne of the Caesars , idolatry should be found there clothed in
imperial robes , and casting down the stars , i . e . the rulers who continued in their profession of idolatry , from the heaven of power to the earth . And yet whilst he did this seemingly in
favour of the woman , or Christianity , he stood over her , ready like a serpent to swallow her offspring at the momejpt of its birth . 5 . And she brought forth the child , who in hiss infant state
was caught up to heaven , or the throne of power , put in its infancy under the tutelage of the Caesars , till he had gradually acquired that strength which should enable him to subdue and rule all nations .
Ver . 6 . And the woman , or true religion , fled into the Wilderness for 1260 years , the same state as the witnesses are in , prophesying in sackcloth , with these differences : 1 . The date for the two witnesses teaching in sackcloth , is from A . D . 531 , or the
enthronement of the beast , whereas this period commences A . D . 313 , the Dragonic Christianity : the second difference is , that in the xith chapter the effect is spoken of , and here is mentioned the cause , persecution . The persecution of Christianity was , therefore , to last till 1573 , the time of the
Reformation ; but though Christianity then ceased to be persecuted , political power was to hold in neglect and contempt the Scriptures , till 1791 : at that period they were to revive and have their due weight upon society . These remarks are important as fixing the periods of the commencement of each church , and are therefore a key for the
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unlocking the wards of this otherwise mysterious book . Chap . xii . 7—12 , describes the serious contest that took place between the professors of Christianity and the
professors of idolatry , for the ear of the Caesars during this period ; and ver . 8 , that Christianity succeeded in obtaining- political power ; and ver . 9 , that idolatry and all its messengers lost their Heathen tithes and offerings , and entered again into the mass of the
people ; that , ver . 10 , true Christians considered this triumphant state as lasting ; that persecution should now cease for ever ; the 1 Ith , patience © t the suffering Christians and the fortitude of its martyrs having now overcome all opposition ; ver . 12 , but that
the effects would be terrible to the barbarous nations , as to them tlie idolaters would flee and excite them to war , which would bring on those nations destruction , from the mighty arm of the Imperial Defender of the Christian faith .
Ver . 13 , shews what would be the real state of Christianity at this time ; not what its friends fondly expected , a religion of purity and peace , but , that on the contrary , though Christianity
would be the imperial religion * the same idolatrous mind which had governed Pagan Rome would rule Rome Christian , and persecute true Christianity , and cause it to hide itself in mountains and caves and deserts for
1260 years : vers . 14—17 , and would have destroyed it , but that men of the world , from worldly motives , would occasionally be its protection . Chap . xiii . 1 . John now sees the
Roman empire in its German form , rise out of the conflict of nations , the Clovinian empire ; ver . 2 , describes it as the fourth empire of Daniel , and marks it to be the same Roman power by saying , that he had his authority
from the dragon , xii . 3 ; ver . 3 , further describes him as the same power which , under Augustulus Romulus , was destroyed by war , but was now healed by the consular dignity being granted by the eastern emperor to
Clovis and his sons : ver . 4 , the general acknowledgment among the nations of the .-.-right of the Greek emperor to confer this dignity , and of the merit of Clovis to possess it : vers * 5—8 , the blasphemous character of this beast and the cruelty witfo which it should
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318 Biblical Criticism . —On the Contents of the Book of Revelation . No . Ill ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1819, page 318, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1772/page/38/
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