108 THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY,
law, and should we not have an exact representation
of the papacy during the days of its supremacy ?
It may be objected that whereas the papal church
was comparatively a unit, and henee could act in
harmony in all its departments in enforcing its dog-
mas, the Protestant church is so divided as to be
unable to agree in regard to what doctrines shall be
made imperative on the people. We answer, There
are certain points which they hold in common, and
which are sufficient to form a basis of co-operation.
Chief among these may be mentioned the doctrine of
the conscious state of the dead and the immortality
of the soul, which is both the foundation and super-
structure of spiritualism, and also the doctrine that
the first day of the week is the Christian Sab-
bath.
It may be objected, again, that this view makes
one of the horns, the Protestant church, finally con-
stitute the image of the beast. = If the reader sup-
poses that the Protestant church constitutes one of
the horns of the two-horned beast, we reply that this
Is a conception of his own. No such idea is here
taught ; and we mention this objection only be-
cause it. has been actually urged as a legitimate con-
sequence of the positions here taken. The question
is also asked, If the Protestant church constitutes one
horn, may not the Catholic Church constitute the
other? Under the shadow of that hypothetical «if,”
perhaps it might. But neither the one nor the other
performs such an office. In Chapter Six of this
work it was shown that the two great principles of
Republicanism and Protestantism were the proper
objects to be symbolized by these two lamb-like
horns. But there is the plainest distinction between
Protestantism as an embodiment of the great princi-
ple of religious liberty, and the different religious
bodies that have grown up under its fostering in-
: son to fear “already formed?” Bu
= pone in principle always leads to corruption mm prac
E tice. And so Paul, in 2 Tim. 3:1-53, sets forth b he
| condition of the professed church of Christ in the
blast days. A rank growth of twenty heinous sins,
AN IMAGE TO THE BEAST. 109
PE i i re 1 > spublican-
r — just as plain as there is between Repul :
E ence, liberty. and the individual who lives in
the enjoyment of such liberty.
i therefore, that the Protestant church is to furnish
the material for the image, involves no violation of
the symbolic harmony of this prophecy.
The supposition,
Let us look a moment at the fitness of the mate
rial. We are not unmindful of the noble service the
Protestant churches have rendered to the world, Jo
humanity, and to religion, by introducing an E ©
fending, so far as they have, the great principles 0
Protestantism. But they have made a fatal mis-
= i ir Ir ines into creeds, and
| take in stereotyping their doctrines 1n 5,
| thus taking the first step backward toward the
spiritual tyranny of Rome.
Thus the good promise
eligl sttered con-
they gave of a free religion and an unfette
£ \ JR SN o f private
=. sc s already broken; for if the right of p
FE Sudgment is allowed by the Protestant church, why
| ‘are men condemned and expelled from that church
E for no other crime than honestly attempting to obey
the word of God, in some particulars not in accord-
ance with her creed? This is the beginning of apos-
a tasy. Read Chas. Beecher's work, “The Bible a
ve \ EEL «Ta he . testant church,”
Sufficient Creed. Is not the Pro A
. «apostate?” Is not the apostasy which we
he asks, « apostate? § p But, apos-
with no redeeming virtues, shows that the fruits of
i the Spirit will be choked and rooted out by the
\ for
‘ks of the flesh. We can look nowhere else
this prenre of Paul's to be fulfilled, except to fhe
Protestant church; for the class of which he speaks
maintain a form of godliness, or the outwars services
of a true Christian worship. And is not the chure