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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 16

THE SEVENTH TRUMPET, OR THIRD WOE

1. The Great Voice


 
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"And I heard a great voice from the Nave, saying to the Seven Angels, Go forth, and pour out the vials of the wrath of the Deity into the earth" - verse 1.

 

The Seven Angels previous to the appearing of the Ancient of Days, as already shown, are the Seven Spirits of the Deity operating instrumentally through "the Powers that be". Now, what John sees and hears in vision, is a dramatic representation of what is to be transacted in the moves of the pieces upon the board by the HAND that manipulates them. The Powers are so many chessmen upon the great Babylonian chessboard, whose policy and movements do not originate from themselves, but "from the Nave;" whence issue the impulses which cause them to utter great voices, and to make moves, which are often disastrous, and even fatal to themselves; but which in no wise disturbs or impedes, but judiciously secures the final success of the incomparable Player in the Nave, who manipulates the game. Hence, when John "heard a great voice from the Nave" seventeen centuries before the beginning of the third woe, he heard an utterance symbolically prophetic of a declaration, proclamation, or manifesto, which should lead to the development of the events of the seven vials. The great voice he heard was evidently symbolical of this, because the words of the great voice were a command to the Seven Angels, and therefore to the Powers, to go forth and begin the work of pouring Out the wrath of the Deity into the earth.

That which was represented to John as issuing from the Nave, the Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ caused to issue from the Powers, and therefore from himself, in that great voice they unitedly proclaimed, and sent forth from PILLNITZ, July 27th, 1790. This was coeval with the earliest shocks of the "great earthquake". The famous treaty of this date prepared for the invasion of France. The Powers regarded the cause of the French king, then threatened by the revolution, as their own. In the declaration of Pilnitz, they required that he should be free to go wherever he pleased, that is, to join their standard; that he should be replaced on his throne, that the Assembly should be dissolved, and that the princes of the Holy Roman empire having possessions in Alsace, should be reestablished in their feudal rights. In case of refusal they menaced France with war, in which all the Powers would concur who had guaranteed the French monarchy.

This great voice only irritated the Assembly and people of France. They demanded by what right the princes of Europe combined to interfere in their government; by what right they gave orders to a great people, and imposed conditions upon it; and since the sovereigns appealed from them to force, they prepared themselves for resistance. The frontiers were put in a state of defence, 100,000 of the national guards were levied, and they waited with assurance the attacks of the kings, well convinced that the French people, animated by the Spirit of the Revolution, "the Spirit of life from the Deity," and within their own frontiers, would be invincible.

Under the patronage of the Pillnitz Coalition, "the Emigration" was making alarming progress. The two brothers of Louis XVI, the prince of Conde and the Duke of Bourbon, had protested against the king's acceptance of the Constitution, as he had no power to alienate' the rights of the ancient monarchy. This protest soon circulated through France, and produced a great effect upon their partisans. The officers left the army, the nobles abandoned their chateaux, and whole companies deserted, to enroll themselves in the anti-revolutionary regiments on the frontiers. Those who refused to emigrate were threatened with being degraded to the class of the people, when the nobility should return victorious. The Emigration was styled "External France," and was formed in the Austrian Low Countries, and in the neighboring electorates. The Counter-Revolution was openly prepared at Brussels, at Worms, and at Coblentz, not only under the protection of Foreign Courts, but even with their assistance. This fact identifies "the emigration" with the operation of the "Great Voice;" through the emissaries of which in the interior of France, it was enabled to combat the Revolution in its camp, and to foment civil war.

In preparing the situation for the outpouring of the First Vial, there were the European Coalition of the diademed horns, the Kings of the Earth, and the Image of the Beast; together with the Emigrant Nobility and non-juring Priests beyond the frontiers: also the Revolution, with its priestly and royalist enemies within the country. The refractory ecclesiastics lost no opportunity of exciting a diversion which might prove useful to the emigrants. "The priests, and more especially the bishops," says the Marquis de Ferrieres, "employed all the resources of fanaticism, to rouse the lower classes, both in town and country, against the civil constitution of the clergy," which was fatal to the dominion of the Pope in France. The bishops commanded the priests no longer to celebrate what they call "divine service" in the same churches with the constitutional clergy, lest the people should confound the two modes of worship, and the two orders of priesthood. "Independently," he adds, "of the circular letters addressed to the curates, instructions designed for the people were distributed through the country. In these it was stated that it was not allowable for any one to receive the sacraments from the hands of the constitutional priests, who were designated as intruders; that all who participated in them became guilty, by their mere presence, of mortal sin; that those who were married by the intruder should not be regarded as married; that they would draw down a curse upon themselves and their children; that no one was to hold communication with them, nor with those who had separated themselves from the church; that the municipal officers who installed them became apostates like themselves; that even at the moment of installation, the ringers of the bells and the sacristans were to abandon their duty. These fanatical addresses produced the effect expected by the bishops, and religious dissension broke out in all quarters".

The revolt of the disaffected popish faction occurred chiefly in thedepartments of Calvados, or Gevaudan, and of La Vendee. These provinces were not much disposed to welcome the Revolution, because the middle and more intelligent class was far from numerous there; and the populace, or ignorant multitude, were blindly devoted to the clergy and nobility, upon whom they depended. Such a population as this had to be prepared, therefore, for a severe visitation of the wrath of the first vial. This preparation was effected by the opposing forces brought to bear upon them. The Emigration without, and the refractory ecclesiastics within, operating upon a brutal and superstitious multitude, was perceived by the Legislative Assembly to be a danger for the Revolution, which required to be crushed out by the most vigorous appliances. It decreed, that all Frenchmen assembled beyond the frontiers found to be embodied on Jan. 1, 1792, should be treated as conspirators, and become liable to the punishment of death, and confiscation of property for the benefit of the nation: while the refractory priests were commanded to take the oath of citizenship, under pain of being deprived of their pensions, and of being declared suspected of revolt against the law.

But Louis XVI was unwilling to sanction any measures taken against the Emigrant Noblesse, protected by the Powers; and the seditious priests, their allies, throughout the land. He therefore, vetoed the decrees against them. By this use of his prerogative in their favor, he came to be regarded by the people as the accomplice of the enemies of the Revolution. The rejected decrees were not replaced by others. The Assembly, however, dispatched a message to the king by Vaublanc, saying, "Sire, scarcely had the Assembly cast its eyes on the situation of the realm, when it perceived that the troubles which still agitate it have their source in the criminal attempts of the French Emigrants. Their audacity is supported by the German Princes. These hostile preparations, these threats of invasion, require armaments which absorb immense sums, which the nation would have poured with joy into the hands of its creditors.

"It is for you, Sire, to put an end to them, it is for you to hold, in addressing foreign powers, the language which becomes the sovereign of the French people! Tell them, that every country that continues preparations against France, must be numbered among her enemies; that we will religiously regard our oath of attempting no conquests; that we offer to live with them in brotherly neighborhood, and to grant them the inviolable friendship of a free and powerful people; that we will respect their laws, their customs, and their constitutions; but that we require in return that ours should be respected! Tell them, lastly, that if the princes of Germany continue to countenance preparations directed against the French, the French will carry into their country, not fire and sword, but liberty! It is for them to calculate what may be the consequence of this awakening of the nations!"In consequence of this message, the king yielded to the general wish. He notified the German princes to cause all hostile meetings and dispositions of the French emigrants to cease in their States, or he would regard them as enemies; and wrote to the emperor of Germany to interpose his authority, as head of the empire, to avert the evils which any longer obstinacy on the part of some of the Germanic Body might occasion.

The steps taken by Louis XVI relative to the princes of the empire, were supported by military preparations. Three armies were formed under the command of Rochambeau, of Luckner, and of La Fayette. On the other hand, Austria gave orders to marshal Bender to defend the Elector of Treves if he were attacked, and ratified the conclusions of the Diet of Ratisbon. These demanded the restoration of the possessionary princes; the Diet refused to allow that they should be indemnified in money for the loss of their rights; and left to France the choice only of the re-establishment of feudality in Alsace, or war. These two resolutions of the cabinet of Vienna were of a very hostile nature. Her troops marched upon the French frontiers, and proved clearly that France was not to trust to her inaction. Fifty thousand men were stationed in the Low Countries; six thousand were posted in the Brisgaw, and thirty thousand were dispatched from Bohemia. This formidable army of observation could at a moment's notice, be rendered an army of attack.

The Assembly felt that there was an urgent necessity of compelling the Emperor to decide. They regarded the emigrants as his instruments. They were desirous of anticipating this dangerous league of sovereigns, and of preventing it from having time to prepare itself. They therefore required the emperor to explain before Feb.10, 1792, in a clear and precise manner, his real intentions with regard to France, whose situation was daily becoming more and more dangerous. The answers of prince Kaunitz to the explanations demanded were by no means satisfactory. He even refused to treat directly, and the baron of Cobentzel was charged with replying that Austria refused to depart from the conditions she had imposed. The re-establishment of the monarchy on the basis of the royal sitting of June 23, the restoration of the property of the clergy, of the lands of Alsace with all their rights to the German princes, and of Avignon and the Venaissin territory to the Pope, such was the ultimatum, or among the last echoes of the "Great Voice," which brought about the outpouring of the first of the Seven Vials. All possibility of agreement was at an end, and the maintenance of peace was no longer to be expected. All that now remained to be decided on was whether to wait for  commence the war.

This question was determined April 20, 1792. Louis XVI, attended by all his ministers, presented himself before the Assembly on that day, and caused General Dumourier, then minister of war, to make report on the political situation of France. He concluded his recital of grievances by advising war against Austria. The king then proposed a declaration of war, which was received by the National Assembly with a deep and silent emotion. After the king had retired, they determined to meet in the evening, when the war was resolved on almost unanimously. Thus was begun with the chief of the confederate powers, that war which lasted a quarter of a century, which confirmed the Revolution triumphantly, and which changed the whole face of Europe.

By this historical sketch, the reader enlightened in the knowledge of the Deity with spiritual understanding, will be enabled to perceive the working of the Seven Spirits on all the agents of the situation, on the Powers, the emigrants, the refractory priests, the French king, political parties in the Assembly, the clubs, and the populace, to bring on a crisis in which there would be found scope for the outpouring of wrath upon the worshippers of the Beast's Image, and upon the men who had the Beast's Sign. The sketch illustrates, not only the "great voice", or note of preparation for war, but what  the Seven Angel-Spirits did in obedience to the command, "Go forth!" They issued "from the Nave," July 27, 1790; and reached the crisis predetermined, April20, 1792, a period of twenty-one months. This was a short period, but pregnant with events, which after seventy-five years, are still in process of development(*).

 

 

 


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