the Church of Rome. Rome is now a Heathen City, the Queen of Paganism; but, God be praised, she will, ere long, become the Capital of Christendom. And the Church of Rome is, by Christ's appointment, the Mother and Mistress of Churches. He who now rules at Rome is a pagan prince; but let a few centuries elapse, and the Sovereignty of Rome will pass into other hands: it will be swayed for more than a thousand years by the Bishop of Rome. He is infallible; the arbiter of the Faith; the Centre of Unity; the Vicar of Christ. One thing is needful: remain in communion with him. Obey him; then nothing can harm you. You will be blessed for

evermore.

What a simple rule! how easy of application! Can it be supposed, that St. John would not have commended it? Can it be imagined, that the Evangelist St. John–or, rather, the Spirit of God would have observed a profound silence on this most momentous matter? that He should not have breathed a syllable about it? And yet, if the Church of Rome is not the Harlot City, if she is not Babylon, then she is not even once mentioned in the Apocalypse! Indeed it is expressly affirmed by Bossuet, that there" is not a single trace of her in this whole book*." Her very existence is ignored. And yet the

Bossuet, Pref. § viii. Il n'a aucune vue d'une Eglise. Les Protestants non pu trouver dans l'Apocalypse la moindre marque d'une Eglise corrompue. Pref. x. he calls, "Rome une Eglise, dont il n'y a aucun vestige dans tout le livre."

Apocalypse is a prophetic History of the Church; and Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches. How incredible! How impossible!

But there is another alternative; and that we know to be true. Rome is described in the Apocalypse. The Holy Spirit is not silent concerning her. He speaks largely of her. He displays her in distinct form and colour; He reveals her as Babylon*.

II. Let us again put the same case. Let these prophecies concern Rome as a pagan City, and not as the papal Church.

What then? Here are divine prophecies-prophecies large and full-commended in the most solemn terms to the pious meditation of the Church, even till Christ comes t; and yet they can afford warning and comfort only to a few for a short period after they were published. For Pagan Rome was sacked in the year of our Lord 410, little more than three hundred years after the Apocalypse was written; and then, we are told by Bossuet and other Romish Divines, Babylon fell!

What a lame fulfilment of these predictions! Give every advantage to the supposition. Allow that they were believed by early Christians to be consummated in Heathen Rome;-which is not the

* The reader is here referred to a small tract by the learned Dr. Townson, (Works, ii. 239-312, ed. Churton, Lond. 1810,) on Babylon in the Revelation," which he cannot fail to peruse with interest and advantage.

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Rev. xxii. 19, 20.

case; then what follows? Some few Christians are instructed and consoled by them; and, observe, instructed to do what? To avoid the Idolatry of Heathen Rome. Not to sacrifice to Jupiter! Not to burn incense to the statue of the Roman Emperor! What! Did they need a new prophecy from Patmos to teach them that? St. Peter and St. Paul had done this. All the Apostolic martyrs had done this. The Apocalypse was not necessary to save them from Apostasy. No; with reverence be it said, here was no worthy crisis for the intervention of the Holy Spirit of God.

But now change the hypothesis. Suppose Babylon to be, not a pagan City, but a corrupt Church, such, alas! as Rome is. Then all is clear. Here is a new form of evil. Spiritual Idolatry; Anti-Christ sitting in the Church. And such an Anti-Christ; one clothed as an Angel of Light. Teaching error disguised as Truth. Hiding deadly corruptions under the fair forms of Antiquity, Sanctity, Unity, and Universality. A Harlot claiming to be the Bride. Babylon professing to be Sion. An Anti-Christ pretending zeal for Christ, and gilding all his sins with the glorious name of Christ. Here is a strong delusion, one that may ensnare the world. Here is a fit occasion, an urgent exigency, for the interference of the Holy Ghost. Here is a most profitable exercise of His Divine Office of prophecy, guidance, and warning to the Church. Behold here a fit Mission for the Comforter!

And, if such a corrupt Church as we have now described has at any time existed, and has continued to exist for many centuries, and does now exist in the world; yes, has so existed, and does still exist, at Rome and if the Apocalyptic Babylon is confessed on all hands to be the City of Rome, then we here see a conclusive proof that the Babylon of the Apocalypse is not only the Roman City, but the Roman Church*.

III. At this point, we feel constrained to address a few words to some excellent persons, who affirm that the real conflict in our own times is not between one form of Christianity and another, but between Christianity and Infidelity, which they pronounce to be the true Anti-Christ; and who either overlook these prophecies of the Apocalypse, or draw them aside from their aim, and are even impatient with those who retain them in their true direction.

* The following is the remarkable conclusion of Peter John Olivi, a Monk of the Franciscan Order in the thirteenth century, in his Postils on the Apocalypse. "Per hanc sedem Bestiæ designatur carnalis Clerus in hoc quinto tempore regnans, et toti Ecclesiæ præsidens . . . unde et quidam putant quod tam AntiChristus mysticus quam proprius erit Pseudo-Papa, Caput Pseudoprophetarum. Hæc mulier stat hic pro Romaná gente, et imperio tam prout fuit quondam in statu paganismi quàm prout postmodum fuit in fide Christi, multis tamen criminibus cum hoc mundo fornicata. Vocatur ergo Meretrix Magna." Other equally striking passages from these Postils will be found in Appendix D.; they may be compared with the citations from the Abbot Joachim, of the twelfth century, in Appendix C.

Bb

Alas! it is too true that we have much to dread from Infidelity: their fears in this respect are ours. But here we observe, that it is not the main end and aim of Christian Prophecy, to warn men now against Infidelity, any more than it was formerly, against Paganism.

Christ has pronounced His sentence in a clear and solemn voice, once for all, against Unbelief: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned*.

Any subsequent voice could only weaken the force of this divine Verdict.

But it is the legitimate aim and the beneficent end of Christian Prophecy, to warn the world against the insidious designs and mysterious workings of deadly error, under the specious guise of Religion.

And even because Infidelity is to be dreaded, this warning was necessary to be given; for the state of those who use Religion as a cloak for sin and error is worse than that of Heathens †, and corrupt Religion is the most prolific source of Atheism ‡.

Looking, then, at the previous declarations of

*Mark xvi. 16.

Hooker, Sermon v. 9. "Mockers (Jude 18) are they that use Religion as a cloak; who kiss Christ with Judas, and betray Him with Judas . . . who use truth to subvert truth, yea, Scriptures themselves to disprove Scripture . . . Surely the condition of these men is more lamentable than is the condition of Pagans and Turks."

In the present times, all will do well to ponder the words