תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub
[graphic]

Etched & Engraven by Hadeldor

irt for I. Bell Proprietor of the Weekly

[ocr errors]

OBSERVATIONS ON WILLS.

ticular attentions which tend to cherish expectation, he is perfectly disengaged from the force of the above reasons, and at liberty to leave his fortune to his friends, to charitable and public purposes, or to whom he will; the same blood, proximity of blood, and the like, are merely modes of speech, implying nothing real, nor any obligation of themselves.

There is always, however, a reason for providing for our poor relations in preference to others who may be equally necessitous, which is, that if we do not, no body else will; mankind, by an established consent, leaving the reduced branches of good families to the bounty of their wealthy alliances.

connected with religion, than any other instruments of conveyance.

Succession in estates must be regulated by positive rules of law, there being no principle of natural justice whereby to ascertain the proportion of the different claimants, not to mention that the claim itself, especially of collateral kindred, seems to have little foundation in the law of nature. These regulations should be guided by the duty and presumed inclination of the deceased, so far as these considerations can be consulted by general rules. The statutes of Charles the Second, commonly called the statutes of distribution, which adopt the rule of the Roman law, in the distribution of personals, are sufficiently equit

two-thirds to the children: in case of no children, one-half to the widow, and the other half to the next of kin; where neither widow nor lineal descendants survived, the whole to the next of kin, and to be equally divided amongst kindred of equal degrees; without distinction of whole blood and half blood, or of consanguinity by father's or mother's side.

The not making a will is a very culpable omission, where it is attended with the follow-able. They assign one-third to the widow, and iug effects: where it leaves daughters or younger children at the mercy of the eldest son; where it distributes a personal fortune equally amongst the children, although there be no equality in their exigencies or situations; where it leaves an opening for litigation; or lastly, and principally, where it defrauds creditors; for by a defect in our laws, which has been long and strangely overlooked, real estates are not subject to the payment of debts by simple contract, unless made so by will; although credit is in fact given to the possession of such estates. He, therefore, who neglects to make the necessary appointments for the payment of his debts, as far as his effects extend, sins, as it has been justly said, in his grave; and if he omits this on purpose to defeat the demand of his creditors, he dies with a deliberate fraud in his heart.

Anciently, when one died without a will, the Bishop of the diocese took possession of his personal fortune, in order to dispose of it for the benefit of bis soul; that is, to pious or charitable uses. It became necessary, therefore, that the Bishop should be satisfied of the authenticity of the will, when there was any, before be resigned the right he had to take possession of the dead man's fortune, in case of intestacy. In this way, wills, and controversies relating to wills, came within the cognizance of Ecclesiastical Courts; under the jurisdiction of which, wills of personal (the only wills that were made formerly) still con tinue; though, in truth, no more now a-days

The descent of real estates, of houses, that is, and land, having been settled in more remote and ruder times, is less reasonable. There never can be much to complain of in a rule, which every person may avoid by so easy a provision, as that of making his will; otherwise, our law in this respect, is chargeable with some flagrant absurdities; such as that an estate shall in no wise go to the brother or sister of the half blood, though it came to the deceased from the common parent; that it shall go to the remotest relation the intestate has in the world, rather than to his own father or mother, or even be forfeited for want of an an heir, though both parents survive; that the most distant paternal relation shall be prean uncle or own cousin by the ferred to mother's side notwithstanding the estate was purchased and acquired by the intestate himself.

Land not being so divisible as money, may be a reason for making a difference in the course of inheritance, but there ought to be no difference but what is founded upon that reason. The Roman law made none.

A. P.

[blocks in formation]

MR. EDITOR,

A COMPLETION OF THE PROPHECIES

WITH

RESPECT TO THE PAPAL POWER, OR ANTICHRIST,
FROM THE RECENT ACTS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

never did exist; and that what we call predictious are only histories written, in a prophetic style and manner, after the events had happened. To prove this, no one tolerable argument has hitherto been adduced. On the contrary, there are all the proofs and autho

I TRUST it will not be contrary to the plan of your Miscellany to admit some observations upon the late affairs of Europe, which,|| wonderful and inscrutable as they seem to be, I consider as having been long traced out by the finger of prophecy, and prepared for oc-rities, which the nature of the inquiry admits, currence and action in the present æra of the world.

that the Prophets prophecied in such and such ages; and you have as much reason to believe these, as you have to believe any ancient matter of fact whatever; and by the same rule that you deny this, you might deny the crediblity of all ancient history.

The age in which we live presents one of the scenes of that great and awful drama which was to be expected near its close. The general plan and economy of the Almighty government, which is the fuluess of the Gentiles, For the most remarkable series of proand the diffusion of Christianity, so as to over-phecies, that in which all Christians are deeply spread the earth like the waters, are in these interested, we have the joint suffrages of Pagan latter times more fully developed and under- as well as Christian authors-that the predicstood. The foggy vista of the ancient pro-tions were pronouced at least two hundred phecies is now better seen through, and as years before the birth of him to whom they the plot, originally contrived by divine wis-allude. No one will deny the well authentidom and goodness, thickens as it draws near cated fact of history, that the Septuagint its close, future events are more clearly con- translation of the Bible into Greek (out of the jectured by comparing them with the past, original Hebrew), from which the Vulgate and by reasoning upou that harmony and copy has chiefly been rendered, was made by uniformity of purpose which will be always the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the found to prevail in God's moral, as well as in great Egyptian Maecenas of his age. We know his natural government. then, that the prophecies relating to the birth of Christ were written at least two hundred || years before his birth, supposing that this Greek copy of the Bible had been the first that ever appeared in the world, and that, contrary to common sense, an original Hebrew text had never existed.

One of the strongest evidences for the truth of revealed religion is that series of prophecies preserved in the Old and New Testaments. Many of these prophecies are not yet fulfilled, though uttered some thousand years ago; but this is no argument against their completion. Prophecy is of the nature of its divine Author, with whom a thousand years are but as one day, and therefore they are not fulfilled punctually at once, but, according to a fine remark of Lord Bacon, "they have spring-when they purport to have been written? Is it ing and germinant accomplishments through many ages, though the height and fulness of them may refer to some one age."

It is the prerogative of God alone, or of those commissioned by him, to foretel future events; and the consequence is so plain and necessary, from the believing of prophecies to the believing of revelation, that an infidel bas no way of evading the conclusion, but by denying the premises.

So many ages have passed since the spirit of prophecy ceased in the world, that several persons are apt to imagine that such a thing

But if we are satisfied that these prophecies were published two hundred years before the birth of their objcet, why should we hesitate to grant that they were actually written in the age

easier to predict an event which shall occur two hundred years hence, than to predict one which shall occur within eight hundred years? If the darkness of future events can be penetrated by the eye of prophecy at all, why should we bound the vision by the arithmetic of centuries?

It is one great excellency of the evidence drawn from prophecy for the truth of reli. gion, that it is a growing evidence; and in this respect we, who live in these latter times, have eminently the advantage of those who lived even in the days of Moses and the Prophets of

Christ and his Apostles. They were happy in- ǹ whom I consider as another Cyrus; a special deed, in hearing their discourses, and seeing || agent and instrument of the divine will con

their miracles, and doubtless "many righteons men have desired to see those things which they suc, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which they heard, and have not heard them,” Matthew, c. 13, v. 17; but we have this advantage over them, that several things, which were then only foretold are now fuifilled; and what were to them only matters of faith, are become facts and certainties to us, upon whom the latter ages of the world have come. God, in his goodness, has provided for, and meted out to every age its portion of evidence wherupon to establish his truth. Mi racles were the great proofs of revelation in the first ages who saw them performed; prophecies are the great proofs of revelation to the last ages who see them fulfilled. All pretence, too, for denying the truth of Scripture is by those means absolutely precluded; for how can it be pretended that the prophecies were written after the events, when it appears that the latest of the prophecies were written and published near eighteen hundred years ago, and the events have many of them been accomplished several ages after the predictions, and are accomplishing in the world at this present time; that in respect of the overthrow of the Papal power in particular, which is the subject of this discussion.

|| ducted, visibly, by the Almighty hand, and allowed the use and enjoyment of a large share of temporal prosperity, as one of the incidental consequences upon acts concurring with his own ultimate designs.

We are therefore reduced to this necessity, that we must either renounce our senses, and deny what we read in our Bibles, together with what we may see or observe in the world: or else we must acknowledge the truth of prophecy, and, in consequence of that, the truth of divine revelation.

Let us theu take hold of this sacred thread, as a clue to guide us through those mazes of divine wisdom which we may be suffered to explore; and let us console ourselves, that if the shine of the temple, the glorious Sheckinab, the mark of the visible presence of God under the Jewish economy, be withdrawn from us, we have the more certain and stedfast light of prophecy; we have a Temple of our own in the holy Scriptures, in which the mysteries of God are enshrined, and sealed up in his holy repository. We have a Mount Sinai which, though wrapt in clouds and darkness, emits, every now and then, a ray of light and glory, to cheer us on our journey, and direct us in our path.

We have lately seen an end of the Papal power; to the extinction of which the prophecies of Revelations have been applied upwards of five hundred years. The destructive blow has been dealt by a great conqueror,

The temporal exaltation of such an agent, and the seeming consequent irregularity in the economy of rewards and punishments, siguities nothing when brought in comparison with the good of the general purpose. The felicity and glory are personal; they are those of the man and the individual whilst the good, to be wrought by his instrumentality, is perhaps, a change in the whole system of the moral and the Christian world.

Permit me, Sir, impressed with these ideas, to call the attention of your readers to the prophecies of Scripture which this man seems more especially appointed to fulfil. 1 mean those prophecies which relate to the overthrow of the Papal power. If there be any thing replete with truth, curiosity and interest, it is this subject. Your female readers, Sir, will find it, even in point of entertainment, as full of interest as any story they ever read of mere iniagintion; and when they consider that it is the voice of truth and revelation, that the interest embraces the whole compass of created beings; that the author is God and the hero is Christ, and the machinery and the action are those of the moral world; when they consider these things, I expect that they will follow me through this and the next paper with seriousness and attention; my purpose is briefly to trace the rise, progress, establishment, and destruction of the Papal power of Antichrist.

I pretend to little originality, and shall freely make use of the assistance and words of others. The foundations upon which the interpretation of prophecy immovably stand, were not the work of one or two hands. In this dark, but rich mine, numbers have toiled, and still toil on; but it may with justice be said of our English interpreters that they have contributed a rock of native granite, to form a pedestal for Christian prophecy, upon which she is so securely mounted, that neither infidelity nor fanatiscim can shake her.

As the papal power was the greatest corruption of Christianity, it cannot be thought extraordinay, that more of the prophecies of Revelations are applicable to it than to auy other branch of Antichristian power.

As both Mahometanism and Infidelity consisted more of open hostility, they were likely to be better distinguished by Christians,

without the aid of such strong prophetic light, as that which is afforded to expose, and to i ring in full view, the counterfeit Christis auity fthe Church of Rome.

A combination of prophecy with history will show with what perfect exactness this Papal power of Antichrist is marked out by the prophets Daniel, St. Paul, and St. John.

To guide our inquiries to the right points of observation, St John has designated, by certain appropriate allusions and descriptions, the peculiar nature of this power, the time when it began to manifest itself to the world, and the seat of its authority and government.

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. This wonderful beast with a crown on each horn, and a blasphemous inscription on each of his seven heads, denoted the new form of government that was to be erected in the city of Rome, by the great commotions of the world, after the Imperial power had been destroyed, and the empire was divided into ten distinct and independent sovereignties.

[ocr errors]

the seven heads of the beast that carried her are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, and the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Rome is well known to be built upon seven hills; and at the time when this revelation was communicated to St. John, its dominion was extended over all the known world.

Furnished with these plain directions by the Apostle, we proceed to trace the gradual rise and progress, decline and fall of the man of sin, as presented to our view by history and the course of present events.

The temporal dominion of the Pope arose out of the ruins of the Roman empire.

"During a period of two hundred years," says Gibbon, "Italy was unequally divided between the kingdom of the Lombards, and the Exarchate of Ravenna. The offices and professions, which the jealousy of Constantine had separated, were united by the indulgence of Justinian; and eighteen successive Exarchs were invested, in the decline of the empire, with the full remains of civil, of military, and even of eeck siastical power. Their immediate jurisdiction, which was afterwards consecrat

over the modern Romagna, the inarshes or valleys of Ferrara and Commachio, five maritime cities, from Rimini to Ancona; and a second, inland Pentapolis, between the Adri

In the mystical description which the Aposed as the patrimony of St. Peter, extended tle afterwards gives of this beast, it will greatly assist our inquiries to discover by a given number, when this Antichristian power shall arise; and from thence ascertain with more precision what power is meant by the pro-atic coast and the hills of the Apennine Three phetical representation. Here is wisdom: let him that hath understanding, count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man, and his If we number is six hundred threescore and six. compute this number 666 from the time when St John saw this prophetic vision, we shall find that this new power was established at the termination of this mystic number of years.

:

St. John was banished to the isle of Patmos in the latter part of the reign of Domitian, and returned from thence immediately on his death. Domitian reigned from 81 to 96. Now St. Johu saw the vision in the isle of Patmos ; and it is generally acknowledged, that the Papacy received the temporal power, and be came the beast, in 756.

subordinate provinces of Rome, of Venice,
and of Naples, which were divided by hostile
lands from the palace of Ravenna, acknow-
ledged, both in peace
and war,
the supremacy
of the Exarch. The Duchy of Rome appears
to have included the Tuscan, Sabine, and La-
tian conquests, of the first four hundred years
of the city; and the limits may be distinctly
traced along the coast, from Civita Vecchia,
to Terracina, and with the course of the Tyber
from Ameria and Narni to the port of
Ostia."

"The Bishops of Italy and the adjacent islands acknowledged the Roman Pontiff (Gregory the Great) as their special metropolitan. Even the existence, the union, or the translation of episcopal seats, was decided by his absolute discretion; and his successful inroads into the provinces of Greece, of Spain, and of Gaul, might countenance the more lofty pretensions of succeeding Popes.

The seat of this power is fixed at Rome. That great city, which in the times of Pagan idolatry had been the mistress of the antient world by the force of her arms, became in more modern ages, by the establishment of her spiritual laws, so much exalted in power, as to || reign over the kings of the earth. The woman, upon whose forehead was inscribed Mystery, Baby-ing the Italians not to separate from the body lon the Great, the mother of Harlots, and abomninations of the earth, is, according to the explanation of the angel, the city of Rome; for

"In 728, Italy revolted from the eastern, or Greek Emperor Leo; but the Popes exhort

of the Roman monarchy, the Exarch was per-
mitted to reside within the walls of Ravenna,
a captive rather than a master and till the '

« הקודםהמשך »