bid meats as an act of piety, though God himself has commanded them to be received with thanksgiving; to make it praiseworthy devotion to worship images which God has called idolatry; to make it a part of merit before God to adore saints and angels, which God has foretold as beguiling us of our reward; as a part of religion, to contrive rebellion against kings whom God has called us to honour, and as a proof of zeal for God to perpetrate the most atrocious cruelties that ever man perpetrated on his fellow men; for the greatest of sinners to promise to forgive sin; to pretend to be the very fountain of all peace, and harmlessness, spotlessness, and purity, and yet be full of all wickedness, and stir up wars, and ruin countries, and destroy innumerable multitudes: to pretend to be the vicar of Christ, and instead of being meek, to be clothed with pride; instead of preaching, never to preach; instead of being a sufferer, to sit in all the pomp and glory of this world, reign over the earth, and wear his triple crown, full of precious stones and diamonds.

What a mystery of iniquity is that, which on the one hand will stretch the words "This is my body" to such a degree as to make it, by a priest's merely repeating it, work perpetual miracles, making Christ's glorified body everywhere; and stretch the words "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church," &c. &c. to make the Pope the successor of Peter, and the Church of Rome the centre of unity; and yet, on the other hand, contract the "Drink ye all of it," to none but priests shall drink it,' and interpret"Thou shalt not make thee any graven image," to it is lawful to represent God and the Holy Trinity by images.' What a mystery, too, to make celibacy of the clergy a part of superior devotion, when God speaks of forbidding to marry as a departure from the faith, and directs a bishop how to rule his house and children.

'There are,' says Frith, 'infinite other things wherein he contradicts Christ, insomuch that if it be diligently examined, I think there is no word that Christ spake but the other has taught or made a law against it.' O mystery of iniquity!-to

get the whole of the pure wheat of truth, and leaven every part with error; to get the whole canon of scripture, and make it only teach falsehood; to put the bright lamp to our paths into a dark lantern, and then say we have the truth, come to us for light, and keep men in a darkness that may be felt.

Popery is most ANTICHRISTIAN, an Antichrist, the Antichrist; many and successive deceivers, being, in the language of St. John, the deceiver, and the antichrist (ο πλανος και ο αντιχριστος). He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Not to confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is to be the deceiver and the antichrist. O how manifestly the whole system of Popery denies the Father! By its multitude of saints, mediators, and intercessors, it shuts out him whose name is Light, and whose name is Love. The whole system gives a representation of a severe Being, an austere and hard master, so that we can hardly discern anything of those boundless treasures of love with which the scriptures show us God so loved the world. Plenty have we of the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but where have we the spirit of adoption crying abba Father?

Popery is antichrist as it is directly opposed also to Christ and the reality of his coming in the flesh; and this it performs in the same mysterious way which peculiarly entitles it to its distinguishing name MYSTERY. It pretends not to deny, but to multiply the flesh of Christ: so to multiply it that any priest can turn flour and water at once into the flesh of Christ. O wretched delusion! which wholly destroys the reality of Christ's risen body in heaven in our nature, and there wearing our form, and gives us another flesh to be handled here below, and be again and again a sacrifice and atonement yet making on earth for our sins. But popery is opposed to Christ in every thing. It is opposed to the merit of his blood, by teaching men to rely on the merits of saints and works of supererogation. It is opposed to the efficacy of the cross by the doctrines of the mass and purgatory. It is opposed to his mediatorial kingdom and dominion, by setting councils against his word. It is opposed to the efficacy

of his Spirit. by washings and sprinklings of holy water to cleanse us. It is opposed to the authority of his word, by the traditions and authoritative interpretations of man. It makes war with his appointed sacraments, by multiplying them to seven, denying the cup to the laity and incum bering baptism with vain additions. It is opposed to the holy law of God, omitting the Second Command, adding commands of men, and destroying the force of God's law, if men will pay for indulgences. It is opposed to the gentle and paternal discipline of the gospel by vain austerities, and a voluntary humility not required. It is opposed to the charity and union of Christians, by the curses of its canons and the persecution of all who join not with it. This is the antichrist which has for 1200 years virtually dethroned Christ, and under the mask and appearance of his pure and holy gospel, has set up the virgin Mary in his room; the chief prayers, images, chapels, pilgrimages, and worship, being every where made by the papists in countries under their full influence, to the virgin rather than to Christ.

Whether this great apostasy may yet in these last days develope itself in a more daring and blasphemous and direct infidelity, interpreters of God's word have differed; the past fulfilment has been such as to meet the full description according to the opinion of men of the deepest wis dom and piety.*

The pope (not indeed in his individual, but in his official character, and in the succession of popes) is the man oF SIN,

• The publications establishing the Protestant view of antichrist are very numerous. It is the general interpretation of the Protest ant Commentators on the Scripture. (See Commentaries.) Gaulter, Frith, Danaus Fox, Whitaker, Fulke, Downame, Abbott, Beard Maresius, (who answers Grotins taking another view,) Keach, Halifax, Hurd, Cuning. hame, as well as the more general statements of Mede, Warburton, Bishop Newton, &c. &c. may be consulted. But for one wishing to come shortly to the conclusion, the Roman Missal and the Decrees, and Canons, and Catechism of the Council of Trent, compared with 1 Tim. 3. 2 Thess. ii., and Rev. xiii. xvii. will furnish ample evidence. Antichrist in St. John's Epistles is manifestly an appellative rather than a proper name of an individual.

and the son of perdition, foretold by St. Paul in his epistle to the Thessalonians, as the apostacy to precede the coming of Christ. He opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Apostacy specially refers to idolatry, and the worship paid to the virgin Mary and the saints, as is evident by their missals, is idolatry; as are the making of images of Christ and the saints, and the worshipping them. There is no scriptural reason to think that the man of sin is to be one individual, as in scripture a single person often represents a large body in their collective character. In the scriptures civil rulers or magistrates are frequently called "gods." Deut. x. 17; Exod. xxii. 28; Psalm lxxxii. 1, 6; John x. 34; and nothing can be more clear from all past history than the pope's opposing and exalting himself above all such. The pope began his Bull against Henry the VIII: The pope being God's vicar on earth, and according to Jeremiah's prophecy, set over nations and kingdoms to root out and destroy, and having the supreme power over all the kings of the whole world.' The title, his holiness the pope,' and the supreme pontiff,' his setting aside the commands of God, his conferring absolution, his omission of the second commandment in commonly circulated catechisms, and his assuming to preside in and over the visible church, remarkably accomplish the prediction of St. Paul. His coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceiv ableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. The deceitfulness of popery pretending to be so holy and yet being so vile, and the innumerable false miracles by which their system is propped up, are here set before us. Bellarmine says The eleventh note of the church is the glory

† See Cuninghame on the Church of Rome, the Apostacy in proof of this, and of the full application of this prophecy to the Pope.In addition to the writers before mentioned, Bishop Jewell on the Thessalonians, Manton on the Man of Sin, with the general Protestant Commentators on Thessalonians ii. may be consulted.

of miracles,' and he proceeds to instance it in miracles which he endeavours to enumerate down to the sixteenth age of the church, as if purposely to expound this prophecy, by showing its accomplishment in popery.

ROME IS THE BABYLON OF REVELATION. The word Babylon means confusion. It is the name of the city first founded by Nimrod, about 4000 years since, as the seat of a tyrannical and idolatrous empire. The Babylonian was the earliest of those four universal monarchies that prevailed over the earth, its character was ambitious and tyrannical, idolatrous, and hostile to God, lording it over others, superstitious and licentious, as we find clearly set forth in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Rome is called Babylon because it is in so many things like Babylon of old. There are two marks given in the 17th chapter of Revelation that make this plain. At the 9th verse we are told where she dwells: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. The general description of Rome by Roman authors is, that it was founded on seven hills. At the 18th verse it is also said, The woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. To no other eity did this description apply when the Revelation was given to John. All notions therefore that Babylon means corrupted churches or Christians with the devil at their head, are contrary to God's word. Babylon is in Rev. xviii. 2-4 distinguished from the nations and kings of the earth. She sits upon the many waters or nations of the world. Rev. xvii. 1.

These things are so clear that the most learned Roman Catholics agree with us in this view, though some of them have applied it to Rome Pagan, and others consider it unfulfilled. That it cannot, however, be Pagan Rome, is clear. Rome Pagan never forced its idols on other nations, but popery makes all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication. Rome Pagan could not be called a harlot a name only given to those that have apostatized from the true religion,-a name given to Jerusalem (Ezek. xvi. 35.) when it became idolatrous. Rome Pagan also was never desolated by fire so as not to

be restored, as it is here predicted that this Babylon should be. Nor did any thing of the kind take place when Rome became Christian. But if it were true that Rome Pagan was meant, then would there be still a remarkable testimony against Rome Papal, for in that case, as when Babylon is destroyed it is to become the habitation of every unclean and hateful bird, that interpretation would thus represent the pope, and cardinals, and jesuits, and monks now dwelling at Rome. To sup pose it unfulfilled is to contradict the plain words, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.'

What a most disgusting representation is thus given of this mystery of iniquity, A WHORE, a great whore, a mother of har lots, drunken with blood, drunken with the blood of the saints. What a horrible picture is this! Bossuet says, 'It must of necessity represent Pagan not Christian Rome, for to accord with the former she is properly named an harlot, but to represent the latter she should have been called a faithless spouse, an adulteress.' But in scripture an apostate, adulterous and idolatrous nation, or city, or church, is frequently called a harlot, Isaiah 1. 1; Jer. ii. 20; iii. 6; Ezek. xvi. 35; Rev. ii. 20, 21; Matt. v. 32; xix. 9. The term describes not a single act of idolatry, but the multiplied idolatries of its daily course. How strong is the language of the church of England on this point!* Now concerning excessive decking of images and idols with painting, gilding, adorning with precious vestures, pearl and stone, what is it else, but for the further provocation and enticement to spiritual fornication to deck spiritual harlots most costly and wantonly, which the idolatrous church understandeth well enough. For she being not only an harlot (as the scripture calls her) but also a foul, filthy, old, withered harlot (for she is indeed of ancient years) and understanding her lack

* See Homily on the Peril of Idolatry. The Protestant Commentaries on the book of Revelation, with slight exceptions, apply, Babylon to papal Rome. Cressener's Demonstration of the Apocalypse, Vitringa, Cuninghame, and Woodhouse, with Daubuz, Usher and Ouseley, Sir Isaac Newton, and Bishop Newton, are very valuable.

of natural and true beauty, and great loathsomeness, which of herself she has, does, after the custom of such harlots, paint herself and deck and tire herself with gold, pearl, stone, and all kinds of precious jewels, that she, shining with the outward beauty and glory of them, may please the foolish fantasy of fond lovers, and so entice them to spiritual fornication with her, who if they saw her, (I will not say naked) but in simple apparel, would abhor her as the foulest and filthiest harlot that ever was seen, according as appears by the description of the garnishing of the great strumpet of all strumpets, the mother of whoredoms set forth by St. John in his Revelation, who by her glory provoked the princes of the earth to commit whoredom with her.'

It was this view of popery which led the reformers to a decided separation from the church of Rome. As God commanded the Jews to come out of Babylon of old, (Isa. xlviii. 20; Jer. 1. 8; li. 6; Zech. ii. 7,) so he explicitly commands those in modern Babylon by a voice from heaven to separate from her. 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. The same God who has forbidden all unnecessary divisions, and who marks heresy and schism with special displeasure, bids his people, under the most awful threatenings, to depart from Rome. It is not lawful to separate from a pure church of Christ. It is a positive duty to go out from the fallen church of Rome. It is remarkable, too, in the whole history of England, how the blessing of God has distinguished those periods of her history in which her separation from Rome was most decided.

May we be guarded then against the false liberalism of this age. It is false charity to say papists are not in danger. It is true charity to say that those remaining in that corrupt communion and partaking of her sins will partake of her plagues. All liberality that is not founded on God's holy word is selfishness, infidelity and cruelty, calling evil good, and putting darkness for light.

Are these statements to be withheld? Who can say so who knows what God's

truth is, and how needful it is to his glory and our salvation? or what popery is? or what popery has done in years that are past, while the spirit which animated those of past days manifestly lives in their successors? Take only Mr. Scott's short summary of the cruelties of the church of Rome. No computation can reach the numbers who have been put to death in different ways on account of their maintaining the profession of the gospel and opposing the corruptions of the church of Rome. A million of poor Waldenses perished in France; 900,000 orthodox Christians were slain in less than thirty years after the institution of the order of the Jesuits. The duke of Alva boasted of having put 36,000 to death in the Netherlands by the hands of the common executioner during the space of a few years. The Inquisition destroyed by various tortures 150,000 within 30 years. These are a few specimens and but a few of those which history has recorded, but the total amount will never be known till the earth shall disclose her blood and no more cover her slain.' If such be the awful character and effects of popery and it be now increasing amongst us, it becomes us to speak very distinctly about it.

It also becomes us seriously to inquire into THE CAUSES OF THIS PROGRESS OF POPERY.

We may observe generally that Popery must have some sort of religious feeling to work upon. On the continent, infidelity has so crushed all religion, as to have left little for Popery to corrupt; but in America and England, there are religious consciences and feelings on which Popery, with its manifold delusions, may work; and when the simple faith of the Gospel has decayed, Popery comes with its soporific sedatives to quiet the conscience. Now this is very much the state of the Protestant religion.

There has been a great DECAY OF PROTESTANT PRINCIPLES. The precious doctrine of salvation by grace through faith has been extensively lost. The simplicity with which the Reformers kept to this point in their lengthened and suffering conflict was very remarkable. They had the whole of the Papal doctrine, in its varied forms of error to meet; and every

where they met it with the glorious truths of the Gospel of the grace of God. Christ, Christ, our only Saviour.-Justification by grace, through faith in him. not of works, but ever followed by good works wrought by the divine Spirit. This was the inscription on their banner in all their fearful warfare. None but Christ' none but Christ,' was their dying testimony. Their writings are full of the savour of that fragrant name. There has been a great departure from this spirit of the Reformation; and though there have been partial revivals, the general state of the Protestant church, like that of the Jewish, and of the early Christian churches, is that of decay from the first faith and love of the gospel. The corruption of man is remarkably shown in his continual tendency to fall away from God's truth. It is hard to keep that truth in its simplicity in our own hearts, and in our ministry. What faithful servant of Christ does not groan under his own unbelief and self-righteousness? But these things have become now in the course of centuries so intermingled with our divinity, so embodied in our practical and religious treatises, as very greatly to diffuse through Protestantism a leaven-as if taking the parable of the leaven as some have done in a bad sense, the woman had hid the leaven in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened.

The great means of extricating our selves from our difficulties is to press, press everywhere, as the reformers Tyndal, Bradford, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Jewell, Becon, &c., (not to say even Knox and Bale) did, simply the pure, faithful gospel message of God's love to the world in salvation, by Jesus alone, and through faith in his blood. This is the foundation; let this foundation stand prominent and distinct. The wood, hay and stubble of man's inventions will never stand the fiery trial that is coming. Let this be our distinguishing characteristic as a church; a full, free, distinct, constant proclamation of the saving name of Jesus Christ.

In the Scotch church there seems to the writer to have been a similar falling away from the Protestant principles of the early Reformers. He confesses that when he looks at the earlier confession of

faith of 1560, at Craig's Catechism of 1590, and the Geneva confessions received early in Scotland, and compares them with the present Westminster confession of 1647, he sees in the former a simplicity of Gospel truth, which is wanting in the more apparently accurate but refined and more artificial statements of the later creed. The difference is the simple statement of faith in the divine testimony, and the elaborating by the human intellect of a complete system of doctrine. The description given by each, of the doctrines of redemption, may show the writer's meaning more clearly. The statement of the confession of 1560, article nine, is simple and scriptural. He suffered for a season the wrath of his Father, which sinners had deserved, but yet we avow that he remained the only wellbeloved and blessed Son of his Father even in the midst of his anguish and torment, which he suffered in body and soul to make the full satisfaction for THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE.' So in Craig's Catechism, What is faith in Christ? A sure persuasion that he is the only SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD, but ours in special who believe in him,' (John vi.) So in the Geneva confession: Of his free mercy without compulsion, he offered himself as the only sacrifice to purge THE SINS OF ALL THE WORLD, So that all other sacrifices are blasphemous and derogate from the sufficiency hereof. NEITHER ARE ANY OTHER REDEEMED BY CHRIST, effectually called, justified, adopted, and saved, but the elect only.' There is here a want of that marked difference of statement respecting redemption and election, which we find so generally runs through the Scriptures, and which the church of England, in its catechism formed nearer the Reformation, has so briefly, and yet so fully and beautifully expressed. I learn to believe in God the Son, who redeemed me and all mankind; and in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the elect people of God.'

Another cause of the progress of Popery has been OUR DEPARTURE FROM THE BIBLE AS THE ONLY STANDARD OF DIVINE TRUTH. The testimony of the Reformers to this is very distinct. How plain our sixth article! How beautiful the language