next campaign promises, if possible, still more surprising successes.

The loss of men sustained by the armies of France from 1791, to 1796, was calculated at twelve hundred thousand. And beside this loss, the number of murdered citizens, including men, women, and children, during the reign of terror, is said to have been two millions.

Such a series of events could not have been without some deep and most mischievous plot. And such a plot the history of Illuminism unfolds.

SECTION V.

The re-establishment of Popery by Bonaparte not incon sistent with Atheism being the characteristic of the French Empire.

THE present French emperor has evinced, by his proclamation in Egypt, and by other documents, that, in point of sentiment, he was not unprepared to become a prime leader of the Antichristian Empire.* Bona

The object of Bonaparte's expedition into Egypt, in 1798, is expressed in the following extract from an intercepted letter, written by a major in his army, dated Grand Cairo, July 28, 1798. "The government have turned their eyes toward Egypt and Syria; countries, which by their climate, goodness, and fertility of soil, may become the granaries of the French com. merce, her magazine of abundance, and in course of time the depository of the riches of India. It is most indubitable, that, when possessed of, and regularly organized in, these countries, we may throw our views still farther, and in the end destroy the English commerce in the Indies, turn it to our own profit, and render ourselves the sovereigns also of these parts of Africa and Asia. All these considerations united have induced our government to attempt the expedition to Egypt. That part of the Roman power has been governed, for many ages, by a species of men called Mamalukes, who have Beys at the head of each district. They deny the authority of the Grand Seignior, governing tyrannically, and despotically, a people and a coun try, that in the hand of a polished nation, would become a source of wealth and profit." Kett, vol. ii, p. 268,

parte's re-establishment of Popery forms no objection to his being an Atheist, nor to Atheism being the characteristic of the French Empire. For this characteristic the French nation clearly and officially assumed,

But Bonaparte had the subtlety to disguise this object, by the following proclamation in Egypt; in which his own real senti. ments may be learned. "In the name of God, gracious and merciful. There is no God but one; he has no sou, or associate in his kingdom." Here is an express and designed denial of Christ, and of the Christian Religion. One God must be acknowledged. For the Mohammedan Egyptians acknowledge him: And Bonaparte was now courting them! He proceeds; "The present moment, which is destined for the punishment of the Beys, has been long anxiously expected. The Beys coming from the mountains of Georgia and Bajars, have desolated this beautiful country. Bonaparte, the general of the French republic, according to the principles of liberty, is now arrived; and the Almighty, the Lord of both worlds, has sealed the destruction of the Beys. Inhabitants of Egypt! when the Beys tell you, the French are come to destroy your religion, believe them not, it is an absolute falsehood. Answer those deceivers, that they are only come to rescue the rights of the poor from the hands of their tyrants; and that the French adore the Su. preme being, and honor the prophet, (Mohammed) and his holy Koran; (the Mohammedan Bible.) All men are equal in the eyes of God; understanding, ingenuity, and science alone, make the difference between them. As the Beys therefore do not pos sess any of these qualities, they cannot be worthy to govern the country. The Supreme Being, who is just and merciful toward all mankind, wills, that in future none of the inhabitants of Egypt shall be prevented from attaining to the first employ. ments, and the highest honors. The administration, which shall be conducted by persons of intelligence, talents, and foresight, will be productive of happiness and security. The tyranny and avarice of the Beys have laid waste Egypt, which was formerly so populous and well cultivated. The French are true Mussul. mans; (disciples of Mohammed.) They have at all times been the true and sincere friends of Ottoman emperors; and the enemies of their enemies. May the empire of the Sultan therefore be eternal. But may the Beys of Egypt, our opposers, whose insatiable avarice has continually excited disobedience and insubordination, be trodden in the dust and annihilated! Our friendship shall be extended to those of the inhabitants of Egypt, who shall join us; as also to those, who shall remain in their dwellings, and observe a strict neutrality, and when they have seen our conduct with their own eyes, shall hasten to submit to us. But the dreadful punishment of death awaits those, who

and for years retained. And they have not since taken a single step to change this national characteristic, nor to evince, that Atheism is not their real sentiment, as a nation. It has been ascertained, that the French as a nation are Atheists. In support of this, let Dr. Priestley testify: And no one will suspect the Doctor to have been greatly prejudiced against them! He relates the following; "When I was myself in France, in 1774, I saw sufficient reason to believe that hardly any person of eminence in church or state, and especially in a great degree eminent in philosophy or literature, (whose opinions in all countries are sooner or later adopted by others) were believers in Christianity. And no person will suppose, that there has been any change in favor of Christianity in the last twenty years. A person I believe now living, and one of the best informed men in the country, assured me very gravely, that (paying me a compliment) I was the first person he had ever met with, of whose understanding he had any opinion, who pretended to believe in Christianity. To this, all the company assented. And not only were the philosophers, and other leading men in France at that time, unbelievers in Christianity, or Deists; but they were Atheists; denying the being of God." (Priestley's Fast Sermon. 1794.)

The French are to be denominated, in the language of prophecy, from the characteristic of Atheism, which they did, in their revolution, by national authority and undisguisedly assume. The remarks of authors, relative to the ancient ten horns of the Roman beast, (whether they were correct in their application of those horns, or not,) illustrate my present idea. They tell us, it is suffi

For them

shall take up arms for the Beys, and against us. there shall be no deliverance; nor shall any trace of them remain. All the inhabitants of Egypt shall offer up thanks to the Supreme Being, and put up public prayers for the destruction of the Beys. May the Supreme God make the glory of the Sultan of the Ottomans eternal; pour forth his wrath on the Mama. Jukes; and render glorious the destiny of the Egyptian nation." (Kett, vol. ii, p. 258–261.)

The hypocrisy and Atheism exposed in this siren chant, need no comment. They exhibit the heart of their subject.

cient to answer to the prophetic characteristic of the beast's having ten horns, if we can find precisely ten kingdoms, at any one time, into which the old empire was divided. For it is not supposed, that the precise number ten continued. New conquests, subdivisions, or unions, soon deranged and altered their number from being precisely ten. But it is sufficient, that it once was precisely ten. So in the present case. It is enough to affix to Antichrist the characteristic of Atheism, that he officially assumed this characteristic; maintained it for years; and has never discovered the least real disapprobation of Atheism! His character then is Atheism notwithstanding that political views, and a kind of necessity, have induced the tyrant of France to re-establish Popery as his nominal form of godliness. The nation derives its characteristic, in the language of prophecy, not from this circumstance, but from its antecedent, undisguised profession of Atheism. Popery is re-established by the French emperor merely as a tool of ambitious policy. After the French nation had been torn for years by factions, and drenched in the blood of two millions of its murdered citizens, beside the seas of blood shed in war, it was there clearly ascertained by woeful experience, that subordination and civil government could never be maintained, without adopting some kind of religion. The Papal sys

tem, the tyrant of France found most subservient to his views. This he therefore nominally adopted, instead of Mohammedism, as when in Egypt. But this manœuvre did by no means obliterate the national feature of Atheism, which they had officially assumed. They had adopted, and, in the language of prophecy, still possess, this essential characteristic of Antichrist.

The following is the finishing of a description, given by Mr. Yorke (who was present) of the celebration of the re-establishment of Popery by Bonaparte. "These are the principal incidents, which occurred at Notre Dame.

* Cicero said of Catiline, "Had he not possessed some apparent virtues, he would not have been able to form so great a design, nor to have proved so formidable an adversary."