The Earth Helping the Woman

The Catholic Dragon, or Man of Sin power, incorporate in the unbaptised episcopal emperor, Constantine, and in the ignorant and superstitious ecclesiastics whom he had associated with himself in synodical session, was the effluent pursuer of the woman, who rejected the traditions and commands of the tribunal which had arraigned and condemned her, and all her seed, as odious and pestilent heretics. Having lost their cause at Rome and Arles, the Anti-catholic Donatists and appealed for the last time to Constantine himself, who in A.D. 316, examined the whole affair at Milan, in the presence of the contending parties. The issue, as might be expected from the character of the judges, was not more favourable to the Donatists than the decisions of the previous councils, which were confirmed by the sentence he pronounced. Condemned by the Bishop of Rome, and by that bishop’s imperial master, “this perverse sect,” as they are styled by Mosheim, are said to have loaded the emperor with “the bitterest reproaches,” and complained that Osius, bishop of Cordova, who was honoured with his friendship, and was intimately connected with Cæcilianus, had, by corrupt insinuations, engaged him to pronounce an unrighteous sentence. “Perhaps their complaint,” says Gibbon, “was not without foundation, that the credulity of the emperor had been abused by the insidious arts of his favourite, Osius. The influence of falsehood and corruption might procure the condemnation of the innocent or aggravate the sentence of the guilty.” Be this as it may, “the Dragon, the old serpent, incited to great wrathfulness by these irritating trials, which disturbed the serenity of the party in power, deprived the anti-catholic Donatists of their churches in Africa, drove their bishops into exile, and carried his resentment so far as to put some of them to death.

This was the commencement of the Catholic Dragon’s wrath against the woman, and of the war he waged against the remnants of her seed—ver. 7. The immediate effect of these violent measures, were desperate commotions and tumults in Africa, as the Donatists were exceedingly influential and numerous in that wing of the great eagle. But these insurrections were regarded by them with the utmost detestation and abhorrence; and, therefore, though a persecuted people, we are not to attribute these popular uprisings in their defence to a spirit of recrimination in them against their “christian” oppressors. The Donatist Remnant had fled “into the wilderness” of Getulia that they might be “out of sight of the serpent”—of “the first Christian emperor” and his catholic myrmidons, who had seized their property, exiled their teachers, and put some to death. Upon this, the Spirit of Deity stirred up the indignation of “the Earth”—of those who, though neither catholics nor Donatists, had spirit enough to defend the oppressed against imperial and ecclesiastical tyranny, and that in their own irregular and violent way.

This situation of affairs may be illustrated by the following supposition. Christadelphians where known are in very bad odour with “every name and denomination,” against which they protest as the Anti-christian “Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.” Suppose these were to lay aside all their animosities and strifes, and to combine to suppress and exterminate them with fire and sword; would not the “infidels,” who have predilection for no sect, oppose force to force in their defence? There can be no doubt of it: and, though Christadelphians deprecate, and would discountenance all violence in their behalf, the infidels, as in the first French Revolution, would make the quarrel with the oppressor their own; and the most horrible cruelties would probably be perpetrated upon the enemy under the pretence of assisting them. To a certain extent, such an event occurred in the epoch of the American revolution, when the infidel leaders of revolt against British tyranny in church and State, interposed between the episcopal church and the Baptists and other sects it was oppressing, and proclaimed an equality of rights for sects of every name. But they were not content with proclamations; they drew the sword, and watered the earth with blood for seven years, to establish it. Shall we charge the Baptists and Quakers of that day with appealing to the arbitrament of arms against the Established Church of England, because they, in common with others, obtained exemption from future whippings and incarcerations on account of their religious principles, by the triumph of revolutionary unbelievers? Even supposing many Baptists and Quakers were found in the ranks of the insurgents, as no doubt there were, should we, therefore, condemn the Baptist and Quaker bodies as baptized in human gore? A community is not to be condemned as a murderer of its species, because of the delinquency of some of its adherents; if so, then most of the apostolic churches would have to be condemned as anti-christian. The case, however, is entirely altered where a sect, as the Catholic Anglo-Episcopal, in its corporate capacity, condemns, imprisons, and puts to death as heretics, those who assert the imprescriptible and inalienable right of judging what is truth for themselves. Here the murder of “heretics” so-called, is the crime of the whole body; which, as in the case of individuals, will sooner or later suffer the just penalty of the divine law. The case of the Donatists is parallel to our supposition. The indignation of the people was roused, and in the language of the prophecy, “the Earth ran with help to the Woman.” The emperor and his party were alarmed, and Constantine endeavoured by embassies and negotiations to allay the disturbances, but without effect.

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Author: John Thomas

Keywords: persecution, Christian persecution, persecution of Christians, great eagle, two wings of the great eagle, Roman eagle, isolation, expulsion, exile, Constans, Donatist, Donatists, Circumcellions, Novatians, Arians

Bible reference(s): Rev 12:14-16

Source: “The Earth Helping the Woman,” The Christadelphian, Vols. 36-37, Nos. 426-9, December 1899–March 1900.

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