Chapter XVII.

The woman arrayed in purple and scarlet.

And there came seven angels with minds versed in that new train of thought, having the seven seals, saying: Come hither and 1 will show you the judgment of nations steeped in gross darkness, and so it was foretold, that the truth of apostolie prophecy requires that the world at the present time should be in a state of complete and universal apostacy, and like unto a piece of clay in the hands of the potter, divinity doth but mould them into things as they are.

2. And the kings of the earth, with their kings of one hour, have committed pretence, humbug, deceit, and fraud.

3. And he carried me away in the spirit, and glancing backwards I saw their hallucinations, their orthodoxy and their clericalism, and they had horns, hoofs, and tails.

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4. And John is not to be understood literally, when he said the monster was a woman, for poor, weak, dear thing, she had no hand in it. It was man. It was man. And his lordly conception of his manly and earth-born soul.

5. And on the forehead of learned ignorance was a name written, Mystery, Babylon, the Great: The mother of handots and abominations of the earth.

6. And I saw her drunken with the blood of the sants and with the blood of Jacob, and pondering thereon I marvelled greatly.

7. And the angel said to me, Wherefor didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

8. The beast shall go into perdition, and all minds shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they comprehend their fables and their seducing spirits, and their doctrines of devils, and which had been adorned and embellished with figures of speech, and with scarlet and tropical sentences.

9. When his laws were patent to all thinking minds, and Bill in his satire doth but consume them with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy them with the brightness of his coming.

10. And before leaving, they exploited the earth and borrowed where they could, and King Debt did enslave them, and of other kings there were seven times seven, and some were struggling to be emperors, and some did totter and some did fall, whilst not one of them would cede heaven and hell, and they saw not the true word of God.

11. And that day cometh that shall burn them as an oven, and all cloggers, wasters, and exploiters shall be stubble to be burned up.

12. And many lesser lights received power for a short time with the beast, and were thus greatly honoured, of which Bill had his doubts. Jacob sought for spreckled lambs, and Bill like wise for a better brand, but they did look for it in a psychological saturation into lambs, dams, and rams, of things of the best, and to help them he did feed them with a pure and adequate dictionary.

13. And they watched frenzied finance as you would a barometer, getting millions by hook or by crook from that far distant lender in that great city where many loans were granted and more were declined. And no one begged for a year in which to remove an ever increasing burden, and the church did wink and remain silent, yet its mouth called for its hypothesis, and did present unto Bill a full list of its miracles, and he found none at all, nor was there ever any, and he did meekly assert that the burden of proof fell upon those who maintained them.

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14. And against his logical discovery they stood dumb. Still true it was man's arbitrary sign in language was Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and those believing were called and chosen and faithful.

15. And their erstwhile faithly superstructure, and its dogma of immortality, made peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues a very bad lot.

16. It had been said that which ye have already hold fast till I come, and he came an unwelcome guest, but facts and him they must receive, and the false church shall be made desolate and naked, and they shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

17. He was the desire of all the nations, and did overturn by throwing fresh light upon the cerebral of man. Even so the father quickeneth whom he will into a new truth, as he did in sundry past times with Moses and Isaiah, and Aristotle and Jesus, and they one and all did perform his will, and did tell it out among the heathen, and their lives did bless mankind. But who is right? Moses and the Apostles did say, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto you: him shall you hear in all things, what soever he shall say unto you. Christendom astray doth say the him here referred to is the Son of God, was God, is God, and now sitteth at the right hand of God. But Moses said that prophet was like unto him who was mere man, and not perfect and not divine. And Jesus said he came not to condemn the prophets. Yet he made himself God, and high above Moses. Bill sat down and cast up, and agreed with Israel that the prophet would be like unto Moses, and of his brethren, and a mere man of the world. God's great constancy, and great uniformity, and great stability within the arena of his natural laws were with Bill in his thoughts and in his summation. Christendom, which has been astray, hath built an edifice on parabolic style, and garnished it with signs, wonders and miracles, all which did lead man into darkness, and from things as they are, and the promise hath ever been, when knowledge doth increase this edifice shall fall, and fall it must.

18. And the woman seen by Divine John was but the sects of the earth, of whom Bill speaks literally, and he did move in and out amongst them with a rational mind of great risibility, and with style rough and ready taught them doctrines held by the early fathers, and all had said that it could not be explained, nor could it be comprehended, but Bill did show unto man the true connection between soul and body.