cular city, but must necessarily include in its signification every society of true Christians, who embrace and practise the pure religion of the gospel, and acknowledge no Lord nor Lawgiver in religious concerns but Jesus Christ; so the former cannot be confined to any one church or city, but must needs extend to every society, in every nation, by whatsoever denomination they may call themselves, who adopt the anti-christian superstition which temporal power alone hath established, and alone continues to uphold. In this sense there is, indeed, a very just and striking correspondence between the thing signified and the sign: for as Babylon was the source of ancient, so hath the Orthodox Church been of modern, idolatry: as Babylon first aimed at universal empire, and enslaved the nations around it; so the Orthodox Church first attempted to establish an universal empire over conscience, and enslaved the minds of men: as the despot of Babylon decreed that all who would not worship the image he had thought fit to erect, should be destroyed in the burning fiery furnace; so the princes of the Orthodox Church condemned those who refused to conform to the idolatry they had established, to perish at the fiery stake; while the church herself, not satiated with such diabolical vengeance, hath impiously presumed to anticipate the final judgment of heaven, and doomed them in the next world to suffer everlasting burnings:

as Babylon desolated and laid waste Jerusalem, led captive the people of Israel, and compelled them to violate the principles of the law of Moses, and publicly to offer sacrifice to Pagan idols; so the Orthodox Church hath ruined and enthralled the Church of Christ, and compelled the professors of Christianity to contradict the very spirit and first principles of the gospel, and openly to embrace her catholic faith, and idolatrous mode of worship. Lastly, as the Assyrian metropolis projected the impracticable scheme of an universal union of mankind, and erected a common centre of unity for that purpose, which ended in the disunion and entire separation of the people from each other, by the confusion of tongues; so the Orthodox Church, wheresoever it hath been established, hath erected a common standard of religious belief, and wildly and vainly endeavoured to accomplish an universal agreement of opinion and uniformity of doctrine, and the attempt hath ended in the division and subdivision of Christendom into a very Babel of contending heresies and differing modes of fanaticism and superstition."-Letter to Hurd, p. 109, 2nd ed.

This view of our subject, though at first it may seem harsh, is really conducive to charity. It teaches that no one body of professing Christians is to be singled out, and held up for odium, as peculiarly stained with the characteristics of the

predicted apostacy; but that they are scattered, though in different proportions, over the whole of nominal Christendom. We turn from mutual accusation to inquiry after the portion of the evil which we may have shared, and endeavour to correct it. What Presbyterian does not blush at the stern hatred of his forefathers to Rome, as the only Antichrist? What Churchman should not be ashamed of such a paltry excuse for depriving his Catholic fellow-subject of civil rights? Our attention is drawn from men to systems; to religious tyranny, mystery, idolatry, fraud, persecution; they alone are held up to hatred, opposition, condemnation, and destruction.-May they perish, and for ever!

Yet it must be noticed, as forming a strong presumption against the Trinitarian Creed, that while in itself it seems to correspond with part of the account given in Scripture of the great apostacy, it has undeniably been closely entangled, and deeply involved, in the progress of that apostacy. That it is mysterious its advocates readily admit, and frequently they avow and dwell upon the fact, for the purpose of commanding reverence, avoiding explanation, or stopping inquiry. That it is idolatrous they also grant, unless its truth be established. The men whom Paul describes as corrupters of the faith, and believers of a lie, were its authors and pro

pagators. The Councils which destroyed Christian liberty were held for its defence. The succession of false miracles, which marked the apostacy, was wrought in its proof. The civil establishments, which degraded Christianity, propped up Trinitarianism. It was the faith given instead of the Bible, or subscribed with the Bible. Persecution has been its handmaid. Till very lately, even in this country, to deny it was an offence subject to heavy penalties. All this is ground for strong suspicion, anterior to any detailed examination of Scripture upon the subject.

The

How manifold are the evils which Antichrist (i. e. the assumptions and practices which have been enumerated, in whatever party they be found) has inflicted upon the human race! pure gospel was a rich source of blessedness. Every kind affection sprung up at its approach, like the flowers at the return of spring. Men learned to love their God, and one another. Dismally was the scene reversed, when a counterfeit gospel was palmed upon the world. The authors of that change are accountable for a mass of guilt and misery.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it seemed as if all Europe were propelled on Asia. Christendom was roused to a holy war. The cross decked the ensign and the weapon of slaughter. The minds of millions were maddened with super

stitious fury, and a road was cut to the holy sepulchre by battle, siege, murder, and massacreaye, indiscriminate massacre of sex and age, preparatory to religious procession to the tomb of Jesus! What is to be charged with these infernal deeds and passions, but the corruptions of Christianity?

What a miserable object is the ignorant and misguided slave of superstition! For him, the avenues of science are closed; the affections of benevolence are chilled; he worships an unknown God; he looks for salvation to his saint, and for. pardon to his priest; instead of being "a little lower than the angels," he is scarcely above the brutes; reason is absorbed in passion and instinct; he is played upon, and trodden upon, at his master's pleasure: and what has made himmade nations such things as these? The corruptions of Christianity.

They have also occasioned much infidelity. Man is not always to be condemned for not distinguishing between Christianity, in itself, and in the declarations and faith of all around him. We may sometimes see a man, of mighty mind and noble heart, entering the lists against the gospel, denouncing its author for an enthusiast, his apostles as deceivers, its records as forgeries, and its tendency as detestable. The corruptions of Christianity have dimmed his intellectual sight, and drenched his soul with moral poison.