Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/257

 body of the clergy, both regular and secular, are to endure towards the conclusion of the 1260 years. "And when they shall have finished their testimony," that is, when they shall have come to the conclusion of that witness for Divine truth, which was to be exercised during the 1260 years, and which during that period was with varied success to uphold the Catholic faith in the West, the East being ground down under the feet of Antichrist: then, says the Apostle, "the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss, shall make war upon them, and shall overcome them, and kill them." Now this prophecy, we believe, is not yet fulfilled, although we believe that its fulfilment is near at hand. That a tremendous persecution of the Catholic Church is coming may well be gathered from all that has happened in the world since the middle of the last century. The suppression of the holy society of Jesus, which, in an evil hour, was wrung from Pope Clement XIV. by the secular power, followed up as it was by a violent persecution of the Church, especially in France, by the suppression of monasteries and convents, the desecration of innumerable churches and chapels, the confiscation of ecclesiastical property, the abolition of tithe, and the inundation of impiety, which spread desolation from one end of Christendom to the