nion with each other; and that from the time of their feparation, the former fhould become in reality the Roman empire, the only kingdom in thẻ world, during the period to which this prediction. refers, known in antient prophecy, and therefore ftiled the Earth; but that the latter fhould continue fo closely in the purity and fimplicity of the gofpel, that they should still be called the Kingdom of Heaven, the name which is given to the real church of Chrift, both by the prophets and the evangelifts.

This prediction was verified in the early and keen contefts for pre-eminence among the members of the Chriftian church, and for uninftituted, (and which is the fame thing) for abrogated ceremonies, which took place as early as the days of the apoftles; and which afterwards increased to fuch a height as to form the huge fabric of the Roman hierarchy, which was completed when Pepin king of France vefted the Pope of Rome and his fucceffors with a temporal dominion in Rome in the year of Chrift 756.

Verfes 10th, 11th, 12th.—And I heard a loud voice faying in heaven, Now is come falvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ for the accufer of our brethren is caft down, which

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which accufed them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their teftimony; and they loved not their lives. unto the death. Therefore, rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Wo to the inhabiters of the earth, and of the fea; for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a fhort time..

In the preceding verfe, the feparation of the church of Rome from thofe Chriftians who adhered to a church inftituted according to the fimple rule of fcripture, is juftly. reprefented as a victory obtained over Satan and his difciples. In these verfes, the church of Chrift is reprefented as rejoicing on account of that victory. The voice which proclaims this triumph is in heaven, the church of Christ. When the church of Rome appeared in fo great outward pomp and fhew, and was endowed with fuch large temporal poffeffions, the men of the world would imagine that the victory was on the other fide; but real Chriftians judged otherwife, and better. They knew that in matters of religion outward pomp, fhew, and tempo. ral poffeffions are not to be compared with the belief of truth, the pure worship of God, the practice

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of universal righteousness, and the enjoyment of real happiness. Therefore, they confidered it as a great victory that the attempts of Satan to corrupt the purity and fimplicity of the Chriftian church had been defeated, and that by them he had corrupted only that church and kingdom which was the very oppofite to the Christian church. On this occafion they rejoice, because by cafting Satan with his difciples out of the church the arm and strength of God and the power of Chrift are displayed, and Christianity appears again in that purity in which fhe offers eternal salvation to her votaries.

Thefe difciples of Jefus, who under his protection and affistance overcame the difciples of Satan, were victorious by the merit of the blood of Christ, and that full confidence which they repofed in it as the only fufficient atonement for the fins of men. It was this which made them defpife all the luftrations, penances, maffes, and indulgences of the church of Rome. They reafoned juft. ly, when they concluded that if Chrift took away fin by the one facrifice of himself, that if he is the propitiation for our fins, and not for ours only but alfo for the fins of the whole world, all these modes of expiating fin are vain, absurd, and impious.

They overcome him alfo by the word of their teftimony. They did not fight with carnal weapons. They knew that fire and fword could ne

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ver enlighten the understanding, convince the judgement, perfuade the will, nor purify the heart; but they believed and uniformly expreffed the truth, in spite of all oppofition. No perfecution could make them deny Chrift and Christianity, or even cease to give their explicit teftimony to them. This teftimony was one great inftrument, by which under God they overcame Satan and his difciples. It had a natural tendency to victory. Had they been intimidated and filenced, how could the truth have been tranfmited to the rifing generations, or to men in heathen countries? or how could men have been fatisfied that they did believe thofe truths, which they did not profefs? But if their enemies could by no other way hinder them from giving their teftimony to the truth, could they not put them to death, and thus completely filence them? This they frequently did, but even by this they could not overthrow the kingdom of Chrift, because his difciples loved not their lives unto the death. Death, in all the moft terrifying dress which men could give it, could not fright them from their attachment to the truth. They fealed their teftimony to the truth with their blood, wherever providence called for fuch a feal. That firmnefs, fortitude, and triumph with which they gave their teftimony at the stake, and when expiring amid all those worse than favage cruelties with which the Roman empire ftands difgraced, in an

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age in which it boafted of its high civilization and refinement, convinced the fpectators that they were serious in the belief of their religion, that it afforded them joys and profpects with which they would not part for property, liberty, and even life itself; and that they were fupported by a divine power. By means of their sufferings many were converted to that divine religion which rendered its votaries fo far fuperior to the pleasures and the sufferings of this life, and among thefe not a few of their perfecutors. Thus their blood proved the feed of the church.

On account of this victory thus obtained, the heavens and they that dwell in them, the church of Chrift, and all her votaries, are called upon to rejoice. But while this event is a subject of great joy to the church of Christ, it is a cause of wo to the earth, the Roman empire, and to the sea, the fluctuating and diffolved ftate of thofe countries over which the heathen empire formerly extended, during the period of time, from the diffolution of the empire by the Goths, Vandals and other barbarous nations, until the empire fhould be fettled again under the Papal government. Great fhall be their wo, because the devil fhall lead them deep into error, delufion and fin; because he is caft out of the Christian church, and finds it impoffible for him completely to deceive God's chofen and fealed ones, and because he knows that the time

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