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TRIPARTITE DIVISION OF THE GREAT CITY.
“The Great City was divided into Three Parts.”
SUMMARY.
“THE AIR”—APOCALYPTIC EARTHQUAKES PRINCIPALLY POPULAR COMMOTIONS ON A GRAND SCALE—THEY ORIGINATE MILITARY DESPOTISMS—THE FOUR APOCALYPTIC EARTHQUAKES—GOD THE AUTHOR OF REVOLUTIONS—THE NEW NAPOLEONIC DESPOTISM A NECESSITY, YET ONLY PROVISIONAL—FORMER THREEFOLD DIVISIONS OF THE GREAAT CITY—A PERMANENT TRIPARTITION IMPOSSIBLE—TWO OF THE THREE PARTS DEFINED—THE TAIL OF THE DRAGON—THE BEAST OF THE EARTH INDICATED—THE THIRD OF THE THREE PARTS POINTED OUT—THE MARITIME PROTECTORATE OF THE HOLY LAND, AND THE JEWS—THE THIRD PART OF THE THREE REDUCED—THE END OF THE BRITISH LION AND AMERICAN EAGLE CONTEMPORANEOUS.
The division of the City of the Seven Hills into three wards—a city which contained, in 1847, about 175,000 Gentiles and 8,000 Jews, would be a subject unworthy of note in a prophecy concerning the overthrow off the European Sisterhood of nations, numbering a population of 262,000,000 of souls. The division in the text is affirmed, not of the town called Rome, but of “the Great City” which elsewhere we have shown is co-extensive with the Roman Empire itself.
The subject before us appears in the sixteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, and the nineteenth verse. The tripartite, or threefold division of the Great Roman City, is represented as one of the events resulting from the pouring out of the Seventh Vial upon “the Air,” which symbolises the constitution of the Roman City or empire. If the electrical forces of the natural world were to operate with extraordinary power, the clearest sky would become obscured with dark and portentous clouds, vivid lightnings would dart their forked fires and flash their sheets of flame, the rattling thunder, though but a murmuring voice at first, would roar and boom through the heavens, and the solid earth itself would shake. These would be the effects of the electric fluid poured out largely upon the Air. The sun would be darkened, and the stars and constellations would be obscured, and the earth would tremble, and hail would pour down like grape from the cannon’s mouth.
These phenomena are used in the prophecy of the Seventh Vial to illustrate the effects of the pouring out of the fierce wrath of God upon the Political System of the Roman City as at present constituted. The electrical effects of his indignation, under this Vial, are recorded in the history of Europe during the last 22 years. The dethronement of Charles X, the division of the kingdom of the Netherlands, the fall of Poland, the civil wars of Spain and Portugal, the dethronement of Louis Philippe, the Italian and Hungarian wars, the siege of Rome, and the usurpation of Napoleon—are “the voices, thunders and lightnings”—the earnest of that terrible popular convulsion, or “earthquake,” whose first tremblings shook the world in 1848—which have rendered portentous the heavens of the Great City.
“The whole earth was of one language.” That is, all its people. In the Apocalypse, “the earth” is often put for the people in contradistinction to their rulers; as, “the Earth helped the Woman” when she was persecuted by the Dragon, or constituted authorities of the Great City, or “powers of the heaven:”—“the Earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the Dragon cast out of his mouth after the Woman to sweep her away;” that is, the people defeated the Imperial army sent to destroy the disciples of Jesus in a certain country.
When the people of the Great Roman City become excited, and in their rage proceed to deeds of violence, to the extent of shaking “the powers that be,” their commotion is apocalyptically styled “an earthquake.” There have been several earthquakes of the kind, and great ones too. There was a great popular commotion resulting in a military despotism under Constantine, in the fourth century, by which the constitution of “the Great City” was entirely changed—Revelation 6: 12-17. There was another, but not so great, headed by Julian, in the same century—Revelation 8: 5. There was a third, and greater one, in the eighteenth century, that overthrew the French monarchy, and gave rise to the military despotism of Napoleon—Revelation 11: 13. And lastly, there is a fourth, the effects of which have only been partially and slightly developed as yet; that namely, which began in 1848, and has given birth to the military despotism of Louis Napoleon—Revelation 16: 18. This popular commotion, in its full manifestation, is described as—
“A great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.”
It is therefore to exceed the Constantinian, Julian, and French revolutions, which were all made by the populace of the Great City. The fourth apocalyptic earthquake is described by Daniel as “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time”—Daniel 12: 1. It is clear then that the world has not seen the worst of it; for the last four years, with all their horrors, have not been so troubled as in the time of the Reign of Terror and the military despotism of Napoleon 1. The worst is certainly to come, and will make the ears of every one tingle that only hears the report of it.
It is a remarkable, and by no means accidental, circumstances that the Four Earthquakes have all resulted in the establishment of as many military despotisms, to wit, those of Constantine, Julian, Napoleon and Louis Bonaparte. The populace, without an army and a chief, are inefficient to any great work. They can set the ball in motion, but they cannot give it direction. Revolutions come from God.
“He changes the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings:”—
“He ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and sitteth up over it the basest of men”—Daniel 2: 21; 4: 17.
The populace is a mere element in the situation—a pawn moved by the hand of God on the political chess-board of the Great City. They can accomplish nothing that they will to do, because their will is not the will of God. Hence, in all revolutions, the people are disappointed. If they acquire power they cannot retain it; reaction overtakes them, and makes their condition worse than before. This has been pre-eminently the case in the French revolutions. They have preached liberty, and established despotism. The liberty is their will; the despotism, God’s. A military despotism was necessary for the removal of “him who letteth”—2 Thessalonians 2: 7; therefore he raised up Constantine to do the work. The history of this conqueror shows what the work was, and how he performed it. Again, a military despotism was needed to punish Constantine’s successor and his abandoned court; therefore he sent Julian from Paris to execute his will. For three years paganism governed the Great City, and ejected the Catholics, calling themselves “christians” but unworthy of the name, from all places of honour, profit, and power. A reign of terror, established in Chalcedon, rewarded all court profligates according to their deeds. Julian was a pagan, and therefore the more fit for the work to be performed. His mission was to punish men who, though professing Christianity, crucified its founder afresh, and put him to open shame. A devout Catholic would not have answered the purpose. The sword was therefore placed in Julian’s hand, and thus one great sinner punished many, and then met his own merited perdition on the battle-field.
The French planted trees of Liberty, covered their heads with her cap, and burned incense to her praise; but God placed a sword in her hand, and bade her do the work of death upon the enemy of himself and people. Napoleon turned liberty into a despot, and in her name chained her worshippers, and slew the Beast of the sea. This was his mission, and right valiantly he performed it, for God was with him.
But there is more work to do—more than in the nature of things the first Napoleon could accomplish. If he had completed the work, “the mystery of God, as he hath declared it to his servants the prophets,” would have been finished before the 1335 day-years had expired. This could not be permitted, because it would have falsified the arithmetic of prophecy, which is as much God’s truth as the gospel itself. The deadly wound given to the Beast by the Napoleonic sword of the Lord hath been healed to some extent. But its destiny is to be killed outright, and his dying carcase, found in the Beast of the earth, given to “the burning flame,” by being “cast alive into the” apocalyptic “lake of fire and brimstone.” The sword hath therefore more work to do upon “the Powers that be,” which energise the Queen-Power of the Seven Hills. The work is necessary in order that an occasion may be created for the King of the North to possess himself of the fourth or Iron Monarchy, and as the potter of the situation, to fabricate the Feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image out of the Iron and his own Clay. To create this occasion, or opportunity, a Military Despotism is needed as the sword of the Lord. The earthquake of 1848, which is now in progress, was for the manifestation of this necessary tyranny. We know not whether the individual now at the head thereof is to carry into effect the purposes of God in its establishment. This is not revealed, nor is it a matter of any consequence. The prophecy is not of persons, but of POWERS. Whatever tyrant commands the situation of things will be the proper person for the time being, or God would very soon put him out of the way, and set up a more efficient actor in the closing scenes of Gentile affairs.
The Despotism recently established in the Broadway of the Great City is a military democratic power. It is not destined to be permanent, but provisional only. As we have said, it has a certain work to do, and when this is accomplished, it will fall. It cannot possibly continue, because France is one of the Toe-kingdoms, and must be attached to the Feet of the Image as a constituent of the Ferro-aluminous dominion of the Czar. But before this military democracy is superseded by the restoration of the Bourbons imperially subject to the Autocrat, it will subdivide the Great City into Three Parts, that is to say, the countries included within the limits of the Roman empire will be partitioned between three great powers. This will not be the first, but it will be the last, time the Roman dominion has been thus divided. In 311, it suffered a threefold division under Constantine, Licinius, and Maximin. In 324, it was reunited under Constantine; but in 337, it was divided into three parts again, and according to the divisions ruled by his sons Constantine, Constans, and Constantius. The former two dying, Constantius became the sole ruler of the Great City in 350. Since that time there has been no threefold division off the empire until Napoleon 1. In 1806, the Roman territory acknowledged three emperors, to wit, the Sultan, Francis of Austria, and Napoleon. In 1815, this division was abolished by the overthrow of Napoleon, since which time the Great City has existed pretty much as it is with the exception of certain modifications in relation to Egypt, Greece, Belgium, and France.
The prophecy before us, however, announces that it is to be divided into three parts again, as a result off the mighty earthquake in which the Great City is to be entirely destroyed. When we contemplate its present constitution there can be no doubt as to the means of this tripartite division. The threefold division of the imperial territory, and the maintenance of those divisions, is only possible by war. There are only two Legs to the Image, not three; therefore the three divisions, when established, must be again reduced to two—and it is the fighting arising from the efforts to effect this reduction that brings the armies of all the nations of the Great City to battle against Jerusalem, where they meet their final overthrow as the forces of one bishorned imperial confederacy. The French empire, if revived, will constitute one of the three divisions. This, however, is a purely meteoric affair, flitting across the political heavens to disappear forever before even the end come. We say, not a permanent empire; because France is one of the ten, and can only be a Toe, not a Leg of the Image. French imperialists are ambitious of a phantom that will be the ruin of their state. Their ambition, however, is useful. They will cause the tripartite division of the city, but be compelled to take up the humble position of a dependant constituent of one of the two surviving thirds.
One of the three parts is the Ten-Horned Dragon; another third part is the Two Horned Beast and his prophet: but the difficulty of the problem is, What constitutes the third? —The hostile third, whose expulsion from the Great City combines the forces of the other two-thirds to effect it, and causes them to invade the Land of Israel?
The Seven-headed and Ten-horned Dragon symbolises a power in the imperial territory, co-existent with the Second Appearing of Christ—Revelation 20: 2. The description of this symbol, or “sign in the heaven,” occurs in the twelfth chapter, where “his tail” is said to draw “the third part of the stars of the heaven, and to cast them to the earth.” This power is the great antagonist of God’s people, who are styled symbolically, “The Woman;” first, of his spiritual Israel, as in the days of Diocletian and Galerius, in the end of the third and beginning of the fourth centuries—Revelation 12: 4, 13, 17; and secondly, of his natural Israel at the future crisis of the Advent. The Tail of the Dragon is synchronical with the Feet of the Image. Its power in the Latter Days resides in its Tail, as the power of the Image resides in its Feet. With its tail it casts down a third of the stars of the political heaven to the earth; that is, the Dragonic power becomes paramount over a third part of the Great City. The Stars are the Ten-horns which appear on his head without crowns, being no longer independent kingdoms, but subject to the seven crowned majesty of the Dragon. Their previous existence as Crowned Horns is represented in the Ten-horned Beast of the bottomless pit, or sea—Revelation 11: 7; 13: 1; 17: 3, whose existence, as an independent confederacy, it is the mission of the recent usurpation finally to destroy. By this we mean to say, that the doings of the French despotism will result in the transfer of the sovereignty of the Ten Kingdoms to the power that shall possess the Dragonic Third of the Great City. When this is effected the Beast of the Sea, having fulfilled his 42 months, appears no more upon the prophetic page. The Horn-Kingdoms exist, but not as they do now. Their kings can rule according to a policy of their own at present; and can declare war and make peace without consulting other powers, if they please. This, however, is an order of things which is shortly to pass away; and instead of many tyrants over several district kingdoms, they will be subjected to the will of one man, the Autocrat of the Dragon. Thus the Dragon resumes the power over the territory he had ceded when the Ten Horns established themselves in the Great City in the fifth and sixth centuries—Revelation 13: 2, 4.
The Beast and the False Prophet are also found contemporary with the Second Appearing of Christ as well as the Dragon. This appears from these words of John:
“I saw the Beast, and the Kings of the Earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the Beast was taken, and with him the False Prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the Beast, and them that worshipped his Image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone”—Revelation 19: 19-20; where their adherents are “tormented in the presence of the Holy Angels, and in the presence of the Lamb”—Revelation 14: 10.
This Beast is the Beast of the earth, having Two Horns—the one, the Eyes and Mouth of Daniel’s Little Horn; the other, the Little Horn itself. The two horns of the Beast of the Earth are “like a Lamb,” but it speaks like a dragon. This represents the character of the power. It assumes to be christian, but is imperial, and has all the malignity and venom of the old serpent. One of the lamblike horns of this dominion, answering to the Eyes and the Mouth, represents the Queen-power of the Seven Hills, whose chief styles himself “His Holiness;” the other horn is the Austrian power, which is also Roman, because of its possessing Noricum, Pannonia, and part of Dacia, Illyricum and Italy, whose chief also designates himself by the lamb-like predicate of “His Apostolic Majesty!” The spiritual and temporal dominion, then, of His Holiness, and His Apostolic Majesty, is represented by the Beast of the earth, with Two Horns, to show that it is supervised by Two Dynasties distinct the one from the other, yet in a certain sense united at the base. If you would speak of “His Holiness” in the millennium of his glory, which has passed away, you would style him “the Image of the (sixth head of the) beast which had the wound by a sword (the Gothic) and did live:” but if you would speak of him now, and henceforth, till he is cast alive into the apocalyptic lake of fire and brimstone, you would style him “the False Prophet.” His Austrian Majesty’s dominion, then, which is the Beast of the earth, and the Pope, the prophet off the dominion, will continue alive, that is in official existence and power, until His appearing who is called “FAITHFUL AND TRUE.” Their continuance will be guaranteed by the power of the Dragon, who will cooperate with them, and strengthen them, and with his potter’s clay unite the Beast-Leg and the Dragon-Leg, and the Ten Toes into the one Ferro-aluminous sovereignty of the Great City off the Latter Days. But, though the Dragon be stronger than the Beast, the power of the Dragon will be broken first. He is broken in the battle of Armageddon, after which the Dragon-horns confederate—Revelation 17: 13—with the Two-horned Beast, and “make war with the Lamb, who overcomes them”—Revelation 17: 14, and seizes upon their kingdoms for himself and people—Revelation 11: 15; 20: 4.
Here, then, are two third parts of the Great City—the Dragon-third, and the Terrene-Beast third; let us now see if we can discover the third third part.
In the list of peoples constituting the company to be assembled unto Gog, Egypt, Edom, Moab, the chief of the children of Ammon, and the Jews then in Palestine, are not mentioned. Gog is the chief of the Dragon power, and is by Daniel styled the King of the North. Egypt is not subject to him until the last act of the tragedy in which he is concerned. It is invaded at length and subdued—Daniel 11: 42; but till invaded it belongs to a hostile power. He also invades Palestine—Ezekiel 38: 8; Daniel 11: 41, 45, which must therefore likewise belong to an enemy—an enemy too strong to be entirely vanquished, inasmuch as he fails to subjugate the province of the Roman Arabia—Daniel 11: 41.
The antagonists of the Dragon and the Beast, who are confederates, is a power in the north and east—Daniel 11: 44, styled by Ezekiel, “Sheba and Dedan, and the Merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof”—Ezekiel 38: 13. This is the Anglo-Indian power “beyond the rivers of Khushistan”—Isaiah 18: 1; that is, east from Jerusalem and beyond the Euphrates and Tigris. The British possess Aden and Sheba, but not Dedan as yet. Their East India Company of merchants are the Merchants of Tarshish who govern India under the auspices of the British Lion. This northern and eastern power, “which sends its ambassadors by the sea,” is “the land shadowing” Israel “with its wings,” and consequently the enemy of the Dragon who invades their country in the Latter Days. It takes possession of Edom, and Moab, and Ammon, Seba, &c., by which it maintains its ascendency in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf. This is the reason why “Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon,” escape out of the hand of the Dragon king of the north. They are occupied by Britain, which thus becomes the Moab, &c., of the Latter Days, and the subject of the prophecies therefore concerning Moab at the crisis of the restoration of the throne and tabernacle of David. Referring to the time when the Dragon shall make war upon Israel, then colonised to some extent in Palestine, and who seek refuge from the invasion, God saith to the Maritime Protectorate, “Hide the Outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine Outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the Spoiler.” While thus protected, the Dragon-Feet are smitten by The Stone which brings the invader to an end; therefore continues the prophet, “the extortioner is at an end, the Spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.” Then mark what comes next, “And in mercy shall the Throne be established; and HE shall sit upon it in truth in the Tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness”—Isaiah 16: 3-5; that is, by making war in righteousness, that he may plant it in all the earth.
From this, and much more that might be said upon the subject, we conclude that events in progress will bring about the subdivision of the Great City into three parts, which will be possessed by Russia, and Austria, and France, sustained by Britain, represented by the Dragon, Beast, and Merchant-power of Tarshish. When the Czar becomes head of the Dragon he will have acquired Constantinople and much of Turkey, provisionally, for his third. The Beast may have Switzerland, the Tyrol, Pannonia, Illyricum, and the States of the church, for his part, besides his possessions beyond the limits off the Great City: while France and its ally, the Tarshish-power, will occupy the isles of the Mediterranean, Syria and Palestine, Egypt, and the Roan Africa and Arabia, as its third part; the sovereignty over Belgium, Spain, Sardinia, Portugal, Naples, Greece, Hungary, and Italy, being in dispute.
This partition, however, will not be permanent. The three parts will be reduced continently to two. Britain will lose her imperial ally with all his conquests of the third part, with perhaps a small exception besides the Roman Arabia. France and the rest of the ten kingdoms become Dragonic Horns; and Britain is left to carry on the war as she best can. She will certainly lose Egypt, Palestine, and Syria; also Libya and Ethiopia, which are to be at the steps of the king of the north. The ambition of Russia and Austria will be to possess themselves of the “sacred localities” of Israel’s land, and to overthrow Britain. Their fury will be great—Daniel 11: 44, but though they will take possession of Jerusalem they will find it “a burdensome stone,” and “a cup of trembling”—Zechariah 12: 2-3. Their hosts will be discomfited and cut to pieces, so that only “one sixth part” shall escape from the land to tell the news of their irreparable defeat—Ezekiel 39: 2. Their hatred of Israel and the Tarshish power will be their ruin. Lured on by the retreat of the British from Egypt and Syria, the Imperialists will flatter themselves that the East will soon be theirs without a rival! But they know not the thoughts of God. In their case pride will assuredly precede a fall—even the fall of the Imperial Image on the mountains of Israel’s land—Ezekiel 39: 4; Daniel 2: 45; 11: 45; 8: 25.
Politicals in this country imagine that Britain will be overthrown by the Continental League of European despots, unless aided by the United States in the approaching contest. This is a great mistake. The British power, old as it is, will endure as long as this Confederacy. Britain cannot fall until her mission is accomplished. Energised of God, she has withstood the world in arms, and will doit again. She has wealth enough, and men will not be wanting. She will gain many victories, and experience many defeats; still she will carry on the war until Christ appears to conquer for God, and for himself and people. We rather think that the policy of the Union will change. Kosshuth will convert the people who are fond of “glory,” and they will choose an intervention policy which their “servants” must carry out. It is quite possible, therefore, that an alliance will be formed, as much desired by America as Britain. Be that as it may, Christ will judge them both, and that power will fare the best which yields most promptly to his commands, and shows the most favour to his people Israel.
EDITOR.
January 15th, 1852.
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Religion is the best armour in the world, but the worst cloak.
