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Council. Now let our readers ponder the manner in which Maur Cappellari, calling himself Gregory XVI., denounces these gentlemen in his "Brief," addressed to the titular Bishop of Heliopolis. We cite it from pp. 130, 131, of the official "Complete Catholic Directory, Almanac, and Registry, for the year of our Lord, 1843," published at Dublin:

"GREGORY XVI. POPE.-Venerable Brother -We have long been uneasy at all that has been done (at Gibraltar) against the rights of the Church and injuries to your own dignity. But it is, above all, bitter to our heart to see some Catholics conspiring the ruin of holy things, who, on account of the functions confided to them, should have been foremost in the path of duty. Some laymen, who have no other authority than that given by the bishop to the ædituos of the Church, have dared to rise up against your authority and to despise the decree you had published, forbidding the receiving of money for the administration of the sacraments; and thus, against the sanction of the canons, and even the will of Christ our

Lord, they attempted to usurp the government of holy things. Having in vain solicited against you our Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, they despised its authority, and were not ashamed to appeal to laics, and even to heretical magistrates; and it was by their command, venerable brother, that you were thrown into prison, where you were detained until the beginning of last month. Whilst these events were passing, we, who have the solicitude of all the Churches, and who dis

charge the highest functions of the apostleship, felt this injury, and raising our voice from the height of the Holy See, we publicly protest against the injury done to the sacred order and Catholic institution. We therefore solemnly declare, by our apostolic authority, that the said edituos have violated and trampled under foot the liberty of spiritual power and its most sacred rights, We declare them guilty of the most manifest audacity, and full worthy of the

penalties adjudged by the canons. However,

we warn and beseech them in our Lord to remember the censures and spiritual punishments decreed by the apostolical constitutions and general councils against those who dare to perpetrate such things, so that they are incurred ipso facto; and as we hold on earth the place of Christ, who came to seek and to save that which was lost, we desire nothing more than to see them detest their crime, and sincerely return to the respect and obedience due to you."

Here the bishop of the Latin Church at Rome arrogantly claims to "hold on earth the place of Christ," and denounces as "audacious laymen" those who appealed in defence of their rights to "heretical magistrates," and fulminates against them the penalties adjudged by the canons."

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The same rapacious spirit which was displayed at Gibraltar, by the titular Bishop of Heliopolis, has been manifested in the United States, where the Romish clergy are endeavouring to take all the property belonging to the churches. out of the hands of the laity. This measure has, of course, been resisted by the laity. In the supreme court of Louisiana, a decision has been made adverse to the demands of the priests. One of the Romish congregations has likewise refused to obey the mandate of the titular Bishop of New York.

It were not difficult to adduce additional instances illustrative of the real spirit of Popery; but the preceding may suffice. Papists are triumphing in the anticipated ascendency of Popery. But they are chaunting their songs of victory before the battle is gained.

THE MYSTIC BABYLON.

THE VOICE FROM HEAVEN TO THE PIOUS MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.

BY THE REV. EDWARD BICKERSTETH, RECTOR OF WATTON, HERTS.

"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."-REVELATION XVI. 4.

EVER since the fall of man, the great controversy between light and darkness has been carrying on in our world. The Divine testimony against the old ser

pent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel, contains the

history of the world fulfilling to this day. Before the flood we see it in individuals and families, from Cain and Abel to the Deluge. After the flood we see this conflict commencing in its national and political form, in the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom, the building of Babel, and the dispersion of the builders; and in the families of the sons of Noah, and then in the call of Abraham.

The unity of evil throughout the four great empires of the earth, is set forth in the remarkable prediction of the great image given in the second chapter of Daniel; where we have Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, all set forth as one image. The unity of the true Church also, whether Jewish or Christian, is continually set forth in the word of God. Christ, we are told, hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Christian believers are come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Here are the two opposing powers of light and darkness, truth and error, Christ and Belial. These two powers are still more plainly contrasted in the New Testament. Satan is called the god of this world, and boasts that the kingdoms of this world and all the glory of them are given to him. But all power in heaven and earth is really given to our Lord Christ, and he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. There are also the followers of each, the children of darkness and the children of light, the children of the wicked one, and the children of God; the world lying in wickedness, and those chosen out of the world, whose conversation is in heaven.

The controversy is still continued the war is still waging. The true Church is marked by Divine faith realizing things unseen and hoped for, by union to an invisible head, Christ, our Saviour. The false Church is marked by reposing on man's traditions, by looking to a visible head, and by worldly tyranny and fraud. In these things we may discern on the one hand the mystic Jerusalem, and on the other hand the mystic Babylon.

There is an infidel feeling among professing Christians, which scoffs at the highest part of Divine truth, as if it were

mere enthusiasm to attend to it. The enemy of souls having felt that such truth lays the axe at the root of all his falsehood, seeks in every way to throw contempt upon it: he would by all means have men cast away the shield which God has given them; and never wield this sword of the Spirit divinely prepared for us, to enable us to resist Popery. God preserve us from the foolish simplicity of being prevailed upon to neglect any part of our divine armour, when fighting with foes within or foes without the visible Church.

We will consider-I. THE TRUE MEANING OF BABYLON IN THIS PROPHECY. II. HER SINS BEFORE God. III. THE PLAGUES TO COME UPON Her. IV. THE

SOLEMN CHARGE TO COME OUT OF HER. And first

THE TRUE MEANING OF BABYLON IN THIS PROPHECY.

clearly ascertained, as the whole scope It is peculiarly important that this be of the prophecy, and the whole course of our practical conduct is affected by it. It is a part of the Divine wisdom and goodness, that he has here left sufficient darkness to stumble those willing to remain in error, and given sufficient light to those really desiring the truth. He has given us marks and evidences that cannot easily be mistaken by candid, truth-loving minds, really in this matter, searching to know, that they may do, his will.

1. BABYLON IS A POWER WHOSE SEAT AND CENTRE IS ROME. There are three clear marks of this. The seven heads of the Beast are interpreted as seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. (Rev. xvii. 9.) The common title of Rome is the "seven-hilled city, the Queen and Lady of the world." "It was not better known," says Cressener, "by the letters of its own name, than by these appellations."* Babylon is farther described as the great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. This description comes from the angel, for the express

Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Propertius, Martial, LuSee the testimonies he gives from Varro, can, in his "Demonstration of the Apocalypse," p. 9.

purpose of telling St. John the mystery of the woman and of the beast which carrieth her. He speaks in the present tense, and no other city had this character in that day but Rome, which reigned over east, west, south, and some parts of the north, to the end of the then civilized world. What but being misled could be the fruit of such an explanation, if Rome were not intended! This fixes its application. Farther, the unity of the great image, Babylon in its head, Persia in its silver breast and arms, Greece in its belly and thighs of brass, and Rome in its feet of iron, and the toes part of iron and part of clay, leads us to the same conclusion. We see one combination of evil seeking to preserve that, which, as being destructive of man's holy happiness, God has determined to bring to nought. The voice of prophecy is here so clear, that the Romanist maintains this truth equally with us Protestants, only applying the prediction, some to Pagan Rome, and some to an Antichrist at Rome yet to come. Alcazar, a learned Spanish Jesuit, who studied the Apocalypse much, says, "that it is plain from the characters of

* The remarks of Mede, on the 17th chapter of Revelation, are very weighty: "This vision concerning the great whore and the Beast bearing her, is opened to John and us by the angel (which he is not used to do) by a most plain interpretation, without doubt to the end that by the benefit of the interpretation thereof, as being the chief vision of all the rest, the other mysteries contained in the Revelation hitherto indeed shut up, but with wonderful contrivance depending upon it, might be revealed. Here, therefore, be attentive, and lest the angel shall have taken this pains in vain, as far as it concerns thee; remember this well, that the interpretation of the allegory or para. ble (such as this of the angel) is not a new allegory or parable-therefore do not thou look after, I know not what ages of the world, or such like feigned things-it is thy part to ap ply the interpretation already given it to the things themselves." Mede has also observed, "The Roman empire was believed to be the fourth kingdom of Daniel by the Church of Israel, both before and in our Saviour's time; received by the disciples of the apostles and the whole Christian Church, for the first 400 years, without any known contradiction. And, I confess, having so good ground in Scripture, it is with me little less than an article of faith.' -Mede's Works, p. 736. He establishes this at length, pp. 711-716.

the Beast in the Revelation, and from its allusion to the ten horned beast in Daniel, that this whole beast is nothing but the Roman empire." Bellarmine says, "John every where calls Rome Babylon. Neither was there any other city in St. John's time that reigned over the kings of the earth; and it was everywhere known that Rome was built on seven hills." At a later period, Bossuet maintains the same sentiment, stating that the city of Rome is manifestly designed by the mark of the seven hills. So far then Protestants and Romanists are generally agreed.*

Those who would see farther how fully the Romanists prove that Babylon is Rome, may consult Cornelius A. Lapide on the 17th chapter of the Revelations. He endeavours to escape the Protestant application of it to Rome Papal by distinguishing between Heathen Rome and Christian Rome. He says, time of Constantine, was Babylon; under Con"Heathen Rome, under the emperors to the stantine it became Christian and pious, and ceased to be Babylon, and became the faithful city, the Zion beloved of God. At the end of the world, forsaking faith, piety, Christ, and his chief Bishop, it is again made Babylon. the city from the Church, and Rome from the And this the Lord permits that we may discern

chair of Peter." There is, doubtless, a measure of truth in this statement, but it has been exactly met in the prophecies of the Revelation. The progress of the seals marks the growing corruption of the Church. As long as the visible Church was pure, it is represented by the white horse, then it became red or fire-coloured; then black, and lastly pallid, or livid and deadly. (See Woodhouse and Cuninghame on the Apocalypse.) While the visible Church of Rome was the means of protecting and extending the true faith, though with more and more corruption, it was represented by the four horses of the first four seals. When it ceased almost altogether as a system to diffuse Christian truth, and became itself the persecutor of the true Church, then the cry of the martyrs under the 5th seal is heard against it, and the Church of Rome appears next, not as a warlike horse, but as a horrible beast. (Rev. xiii. 11-18.) The name Babylon is not given to her in the course of the prophecy, till this second beast from the earth, with two horns like a lamb, and speaking as a dragon, had appeared; nor till after the first angel message of the Reformation had exhorted men to fear God and worship him. (Rev. xiv. 6-8.) Then first we have announced this complete character of the apostacy, as well as its fall, under the name Babylon. This may account for what has stumbled some Protest. ants, that any should have been living under

2. BABYLON IS A POWER YET TO BE DESTROYED. The various predictions of the following chapters, connected as they each are with Old Testament prophecies, abundantly show this. There have never been any judgments on Rome, Pagan or Christian, at all corresponding to the judgments here predicted, which repeatedly testify a complete and eternal overthrow, so that it shall be found no more at all. And it is remarkable that those overthrows by enemies which have visited Rome, took place not under its Pagan emperors, but under its Christian emperors; after it had become avowedly Christian, it was Alaric and Genseric, with their Goths and Vandals, who took and plundered Rome. Its burning, in the reign of Nero, was before the Apocalypse was written. The things directly connected with the predicted overthrow of this city are, as we see in the following chapter, the triumph of the whole Church, Jew and Gentile, and the marriage of the Lamb to his bride fully prepared for him. I heard a great voice in heaven saying, Hallelujah, (the only part of the New Testament in which this word occurs is in this

chapter, and it brings in by implication, in a prophecy where no word is used without its deep meaning, the restored Jewish branch as well as the Christian Church,) Hallelujah salvation, and glory, and honour, and power unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornications. Upon the Hallelujahs of all the servants of God are

Babylon and not know it. It is not till the second angel announces it that Babylon is thus called.

We may see God's design of love even in the long-suffering with which he endured this corruption. It was a part of that infinite wisdom and goodness which intends ultimately that his truth should pervade and bless the whole earth. He allows his most precious gifts to be abused by human corruption before he redeems them from the evil of that abuse, that he may bring to pass in the end the largest and fullest blessings. The chaff shall remain while it covers and protects the wheat, and shall only be removed when it is worthless. Joab shall be spared as long as he assists David, but shall be cut off when he rebels against Solomon.

added, Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth: let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. On this immediately follows the appearance of Christ under the glorious title, the Word of God, and his open triumph over his remaining enemies. Babylon is then yet to be destroyed, and with her destruction is connected the full triumph of Christ and his glorious kingdom.* In

THE WASTING OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE PRECEDES THE FALL OF ROME. The drying up of the Euphrates in the typical history of the destruction of Babylon of old, preceded its fall, and the drying up of the mystical Euphrates, it is clear from the chronological course of the Apocalyptic prophecy, precedes the fall of the mystical Babylon. The river Euphrates was one great means of defending Babylon. It is used in the Old Testament as the figure of the people, power, and glory of the kingdoms in which it is situated. Thus, Isaiah viii. 7, 8, predicts. Behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory, and he shall come up over his channels, and go over all his banks. Thus, accord

ing to the general consent of Protestant inter

preters, the river Euphrates, which is men tioned both in the 6th trumpet and in the 6th vial, refers now to the Turkish empire, the 6th trumpet pointing out its commencement, and the 6th vial its overthrow. It may also have a larger reference to the national defences and glory which support the Babylonian empire, and which are now drying up. Great Babylon, it is predicted, came in remembrance before God under the 7th vial. Under the 6th vial poured out on the great Euphrates, or the Turkish empire, the waters thereof are dried up. The symbol of waters, is, by the Angel referring to those waters on which Babylon the Great sits, explained to mean peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. We behold this visibly in the wasting of the Turkish empire, and the same thing is also manifest spiritually in the wasting of the defences of Popery and her national glories. The European powers at this moment deeply feel that the preservation of Turkey is necessary to the prolonged peace and safety of the European kingdoms, and all their policies are directed to this end. The fall of Turkey then opens the way for the fall of the European kingdoms, adhering to the Papacy. The drying up of the waters of the Euphrates, not only prepares the way of the kings of the East, but from the going forth of the unclean spirits noticed under the same vial, the kings of the earth and of the whole world are gathered together to the battle of the

this also we have the concurrence of lead ing Romanists. Cornelius A. Lapide, answering those who referred it to the fall of the Jewish commonwealth, says, "that this of a prophecy makes the Apocalypse a history, for the Jewish state was put down before writing these things" and Ribera says, " He is blind that does not see that the judging of the head (ch. xi. 18) cannot be fulfilled before the time of the last judgment." So Malvenda on ch. xix. says, "It is manifest that this denotes the burning of Babylon, that is of Rome in the end of the world." Ribera says, that " Rome shall be utterly burned, not only for its former sins, but also for those which it shall commit in the last times, is so manifestly to be known from these words of the

Apocalypse (chap. xiv. 10), that the silliest man in the world cannot deny it."* Thus far then Protestants and Romanists are agreed.

3. In Babylon THERE IS AN INTERMINGLING OF GOD'S FAITHFUL SERVANTS WITH HIS ENEMIES. The people of God, who had been led captive and detained in Babylon, are charged, when the fall of Babylon is announced, to come out of her. There was this intermingling in Babylon of old. The faithful Daniel was even in chief authority under its king Nebuchadnezzar, who was himself converted to God, and truly honoured him. After this, when Belshazzar returned to idolatry, and his kingdom was overthrown, Ezra and his companions, and afterwards Nehemiah, returned from the captivity. In all we say against the Church of Rome as a system, let us never be understood as denying the season of purity and excellence of that Church, nor the existence of faithful servants of Christ now amongst them. God honoured Christian emperors, and while his servants and the followers of Babylon remain intermingled together, Papal kingdoms are spared; but

great day of God Almighty. We gain then here another mark of the connexion of Babylon and Rome, and the true character of both as detaining in bondage and captivity, one the literal, and the other the spiritual Sion, to be

delivered on its overthrow.

* See these quotations in Cressener's "Demonstration," page 26.

generally the governing power, and the avowed system, have in the whole past history of Rome been antichristian and idolatrous, and judgments on Popery, more and more open the way for the escape of God's faithful people. - Yet as Babylon wastes, both the Church of Christ and open infidelity gather strength. In Popery there are conjoined together both truth and error. In infidelity there are avowed enmity and opposition to God's truth. Babylon contains then an intermingling of the people of God and his enemies; while the beast, the kings of the earth, and the false prophet, in the last stages make open war with the Lamb, and then are for ever put down and cast into the lake of fire.

4. BABYLON IS ONE IN CHARACTER AND CRIME WITH PAGAN ROME. As the woman is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth, so both Pagan and Papal Rome have been the great persecutors of the Church of Christ. For the first three centuries, in ten general persecutions, the power of Pagan Rome and its vast authority were employed to suppress and destroy true Christianity; in her was found the blood of the prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. When the empire became Christian, for a season its power was exerted in favour of the Church of Christ, as marked in the triumphs of the heavenly host. (Rev. xii. 10, 11.) Nor in this was it unlike its type Babylon of old. The same Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who had required all to worship the golden image, afterwards required all to honour the true God, and was himself, in the end, truly humbled and converted; and yet his successor Belshazzar returned to idolatry, and the kingdom was overthrown. We need not here enter into those steps, of the return of Rome to idolatry, which are so clearly marked in the Book of Revelation. It is sufficient to say that the Church of Rome, by degrees becoming Papal, at length became again idolatrous, similar in character and crime to Pagan Rome, and justly acquired its proper New Testament designation of Babylon. Popery, gradually growing in strength from the time of Justinian, reached its height under Innocent

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