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/269

 the final destruction of Babylon. And this may be called the fermentation of the infidel or rationalistic element, which was generated by the Protestant principle of bringing all things to the bar of private judgment and individual interpretation of Scripture, as separated from tradition. The effect of this fermentation has been unfolded by the history of the last three centuries, and it will be still more unfolded. It has produced a countless host of discordant sects, issuing in complete rationalism and infidelity, the result of which has been not only to paralyse faith, but even to destroy all healthy action in the body politic. It is to this that we may trace up all the anarchical and revolutionary outbreaks, that for the last century and a half have, with ever-increasing force, shaken and disorganized the whole framework of the civilized world. It is this fermentation, which we believe is to issue in the utter destruction of Babylon, that is, of the present social organization of mankind, and the subsequent establishment of the Church empire, that is, of the kingdom of the stone, cut out of the mountain without hands.

The first effect of this rationalistic fermentation manifested itself in the sixteenth century, when learned men, abandoning the Divine philosophy of the Catholic Church, such as