a race of men endued with more zeal than knowledge; devoid, for the most part, of reverence for Authority and Antiquity, and filled with unbounded confidence in their own sagacity, and idolizing their own private imaginations. And having once possessed themselves with a persuasion that they could not adopt a more effectual mode of assailing what they themselves disliked than by denouncing it as Popish, they denounced ancient Truths as modern Corruptions, and impugned Apostolic Institutions as if they were Papal Innovations. They involved them all in one sweeping accusation of Antichristian error and Babylonish pollution. Against them they sounded the Trumpets, and on them they would have poured out the Vials, of the Apocalypse.

Such was the use they made of this sacred Book.
And what was the result?

A re-action took place. The indiscriminate violence and wild extravagance of these eager zealots afforded an easy triumph to their Romish antagonists.

Some of their precipitate charges were easily refuted. It was proved, that many things which they had affirmed to be Antichristian, were really Apostolic; and that many things which they execrated as Popish, and would exterminate as Babylonish, had been authorized by the unanimous consent, and embodied in the universal practice, of the Christian Church.

Now mark the consequence.

Some of their accusations being thus ignominiously routed, it was inferred by many that the rest were no less futile; and because much was shown to be Apostolic which they had alleged to be Antichristian, therefore it came to be supposed that what was really Antichristian might be Apostolic also. And so the passionate zeal of the accuser wrought the acquittal of the accused; and some pious and sober-minded men, disgusted by the extravagant folly, and alarmed by the destructive violence, of these furious Religionists, ceased to regard Rome as Babylon; not from any amendment on her part, but only through the presumptuous ignorance and intemperate vehemence of her foes *.

What do we thence learn?

The necessity of sound reason and of sober caution, as well as of Christian charity, in the investigation of sacred truth. And, in the matter before us, we may rest assured, that none are more dangerous enemies of the cause of Christianity, as nobly vindicated and gloriously restored at our own Reformation; none are more effective partizans of Romish error and corruption, than they, who, in our own age, bring a blind accusation of Popery against every thing which displeases themselves.

This has been signally exemplified in the history of the Interpretation of the Apocalypse.

* Compare Bishop Warburton, Discourse xxviii. vol. x. p. 180, 181, ed. Lond. 1811.

They who employed it to denounce whatever they disapproved, brought discredit on this Divine Book; and they did all in their power to invalidate its solemn warnings against Romish Superstition, and to deprive the Church of its heavenly consolations.

We, therefore, have here a double duty. The Apocalypse is the Voice of God to the Church. On the one hand, although its prophecies have been misapplied by some, it is not safe for us to neglect their right application; on the other, we must be on our guard not to strain them beyond their proper limits, lest, by being applied where they are not applicable, they should become inapplicable where they ought to be applied.

II. Another consideration has had much weight with some members of our own communion, and has rendered them unable to see the Church of Rome in the Apocalypse.

It is the following argument, with which we are often encountered, both by Romanists and Protestant Nonconformists. If, they say, the Church of Rome is the Apocalyptic Babylon, then you yourselves, the Ministers of the Church of England, who derive your Holy Orders from Rome, are infected with the taint of Babylon: your ministerial commission, therefore, is liable to grave suspicions: the validity of your ministrations is questionable; in a word, by fixing the stigma on Rome, you have branded yourselves.

Such is the objection.

Assuredly the fear of it is as groundless, as the allegation of it is illogical.

We, my brethren, do not derive our Holy Orders from Rome-but from CHRIST. He is the sole source of all the grace which we dispense in our ministry. And, suppose we admit that this virtue flows from Him through some who were in communion with the Church of Rome, and that no charitable allowance is to be made for those who held her doctrines in a darker age-what then? The Channel is not the Source. The human Officer is not the Divine Office. The validity of the commission was not impaired by the unworthiness of those through whom it was conveyed. The Vessels of the Temple of God were holy even at Babylon: and, after they had been on Belshazzar's table, they were restored to God's altar. The Scribes and Pharisees were to be obeyed, because they sat in Moses' seat t. The Sacraments of Christ, administered even by Judas, were efficacious to salvation. The Old Testament is not the less the Word of God because it has come to us by the hands of Jews, who reject Christ. And so, the sacred commission which the Ministers of the Church of England have received from Christ, is not in any way impaired by transmission through some who were infected with Romish corruptions; but rather, in this preservation of the sacred deposit even in their hands, and in its conveyance to us, and in its purification

* Ezra i. 7.

Matt. xxiii. 2.

from corrupt admixtures, and in its restoration to its ancient use, we recognize another proof of God's ever watchful providence over His Church, and of His mercy to ourselves.

III. This leads me to warn you, my younger hearers, against two opposite errors. On the one hand, it is alleged by some, that, if Rome be a Church, she cannot be Babylon. On the other hand, it is said by others, that, if Rome be Babylon, she cannot be a Church. Both these conclusions are false. Rome may be a Church, and yet be Babylon: and she may be Babylon, and yet a Church. This truth will appear from considering the case of the Ancient Church of God. The Israelites in the Wilderness were guilty of abominable idolatry*. Yet they are called a Church in Holy Writ*. And why? Because they still retained the Law of God and the Priesthood t. So, also, Jerusalem-even when it had crucified Christ— is called in Scripture the Holy City ‡. And why? By reason of the truths and graces which she had received from God, and which had not yet been wholly taken from her.

A distinction, you see, is to be made between what is due to God's goodness on the one side, and to man's depravity on the other.

As far as the divine mercy was concerned, God's Ancient People were a Church: but by reason of

*Acts vii. 38. 41. 43.

+ Cp. Hooker, iii. c. 1 and 2. Matt. xxvii. 53.