The Holy Scripture - english version B.indd - Sabbat

John's Foreview of Romanism.357then those concerning the reign, of the power in question.First then as to its rise. The predicted head rises from the Roman empire. Itis therefore Roman. So is the Papacy. We have called the system which ownsthe pope as head Romanism, because its seat is the seven-hilled city.Secondly, the predicted persecuting power grows up in the second stage ofRoman history. It is the seventh or last head of the old empire revived. Now this isthe exact position of Papacy. The Papacy belongs to the second or Christian stageof the Roman empire. It grew up among its Gothic horns or kingdoms. It was therevival of a power which had been slain. When the papan empire was overthrownthe Papal rose in its place. First the Cæsars ruled in Rome, then the popes. TheGoths overthrew the Roman empire in the fifth century ; Romulus Augustulusabdicated the imperial dignity in A.D. 476. This was the " deadly wound" of theseventh head. From that date the Papacy grew with freedom, grew up among theGothic horns or kingdoms. Note this feature - the Papacy belongs to the secondor Christian of the Roman empire. It was a horn among the Gothic horns. It was arevived head. The power of the Cæsars lived again in the universal dominionof the popes.The Papacy was small at its beginning, but grew to great dominion ; itexercised as wide a sway as the Cæsars it succeeded ; all Europe submitted toits rule ; it claimed, and still claims, a power without a rival or a limit. Hallam,as we have already remarked, says of the thirteenth century, the noonday ofPapal power: " Rome inspired during this age all the terrorof her ancient name. She was once more mistress of theworld, and kings were her vassals." (HALLAM: " History of the MiddleAges," Fourth Edit., p. 368.) - Remember the proud title taken by the popes, rectororbis - ruler of the world. In this also the Papacy fulfils the prophecy.Observe, secondly, that extraordinary feature both in Daniel and theApocalypse, the mouth of this power. Both the horn, in Daniel, and the head, inJohn, has a mouth, ... " a mouth speaking great things." This feature is marvelouslyfulfilled in the Papacy. What a mouth has that Latin ruler ! What a talker !what a teacher ! what a thunderer ! How has he boasted himself and magnifiedhimself, and excommunicated and anathematized all who have resisted him?Has the world ever seen his equal in this respect? All the Gothic kings were hishumble servants. He was, by his own account, and is, the representative of Christ,of God, ruler of the world, armed with all the powers of Christ in heaven, earth,and hell. He is infallible ; his decrees are irreformable. A mouthindeed is his, a mouth speaking great things!Notice, in the third place, his warring with the saints. In the Apocalypse weread, " It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcomethem." I will not do more here than remind you of the fact that, terribly as thesaints suffered under the Cæsars of pagan Rome, they suffered far more terriblyand far longer under Papal Rome. Let the massacres of the Albigenses, theWaldenses, the Hussites, the Lollards, the massacres in Holland and theNetherlands, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the massacre in Ireland in1641, the tortures of the Inquisition, the fires of the stake kindled over andover in every country in Europe - let these speak and testify to the fulfilment