new to the ancient rites and institutions. These superstitious inventions were, in the time of Charlemagne, propagated from Rome among the other Latin churches, whose subjection to the Roman ritual was necessary to satisfy the ambitious demands of the lordly pontiff."* "It would be endless to enter into an exact enumeration of the various rites and ceremonies which were introduced for the first time in the ninth century." "In order to have some notion of the load of ceremonies under which the Christian religion groaned in this superstitious age, (the tenth century,) we have only to cast an eye upon the acts of the various councils which were assembled in England, Germany, France, and Italy. The number of ceremonies increased in proportion to that of the saints, which multiplied from day to day; for every new saint had appropriated to his service a new festival, a new form of worship, a new round of religious rites," &c.‡ Popery was distinguished by the yoke which it imposed, as well as by the darkness which it generated. Their union was natural. "The Grecian, Nestorian, and Jacobite pontiffs, that were any way remarkable for their credit or ambition, were desirous of transmitting their names to posterity by the invention of some new rite, or by some striking change introduced into the method of worship that had hitherto prevailed. This was, indeed, almost the only way left to distinguish themselves in an age, when all sense of the excellence of genuine religion and substantial piety being almost totally lost, the whole care and attention of an ostentatious clergy, and a superstitious multitude, were employed upon that round of external ceremonies and observances that were substituted in their place."§ "In Italy, Spain, and Portugal, where the feeble glimmerings of Christianity that yet remain are overwhelmed and obscured by an enormous multitude of ridiculous ceremonies, and absurd, fantastic, and unaccountable rites; so that a person who arrives in any of these countries, after having passed through other nations, even of the Romish communion, is immediately struck with the change, and thinks himself transported into the thickest darkness, into the most gloomy retreats of superstition."|| But, exclusive of these illustrations, the historian here incidentally adopts the language of prophecy, and describes the protestants as having "withdrawn their necks from the papal yoke. And this term, *Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. cent. vii. p. 2, chap. 4. Ibid. cent. x. † Ibid. cent. ix. § Ibid. cent. xii. Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. cent. xvii. § 11. p. 1. chap. i. § 5. as will incidentally be seen, is of frequent occurence in modern ecclesiastical history. The notoriety of the fact that the pope, as the head of the Romish church, held a yoke in his hand, might well render a proof of it superfluous. But it is meet that the period when it was fully imposed should be marked, as consequent to the rise of Mahometanism, and that the very word should be given as history records it. The inquisition, which at length fixed the yoke on the church of Rome, was an invention of the thirteenth century. And the slavish subjection of the mind to superstitious fears, was the power which, in his reign of darkness, the pope exercised in exalting himself and supporting the interests of the church by a multiplicity of ceremonies and observances, such as no other form of faith has scarcely ever, if at all, imposed upon the world. Sixty-eight holidays may yet be counted in any almanac. Doing according to his will, promoting image worship, persecuting the true worshippers of God, causing saints of his own creation to be honoured, and their altars to be enriched, dividing the land for gain, assuming, in virtue of his spiritual authority, a temporal power, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, enjoining penances without number, exercising an inquisitorial jurisdiction over the judgment and the consciences of men, and, by all deceivableness of unrighteousness, magnifying himself above all, the pope laid his yoke upon the clergy and the laity, upon kings and kingdoms; and, while light was turned into darkness, piety became a task, and degenerated into a formal and eternal round of unmeaning frivolities. The screw and rack in the dungeon, the pile and the faggot on the heath or in the street, the secret confession and the open recantation, the numbering of beads to count devotion, the self-inflicted lashing to expiate sin, the solemn procession or the solitary pilgrimage, the frequent fasting and the purchased absolution, holy days instead of holy men, bodily labour identified with godliness, all betoken and bespeak the papal yoke. The church, as destitute of true light, was black; and he who ruled over it also held it in bondage. The authority of the pope, or of the church of which he was the head, was supreme over the subjugated mind. No description is given of the symbol denoting the third form of religion, which was black, as of that which was white, and another which was red. Nothing is here told literally concerning it; nothing farther was seen but the horse and the rider, its colour and his yoke; but there was heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, and, unlike to the former, by a difference prominently marked, the symbolical description is continued. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures say, a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. A measure, or choenix, was equal to about a wine quart, and a penny, or denarius, a silver coin, about sevenpence in value, the usual price of a day's labour, when money was of more value, and grain cheaper than with us. Neither wheat nor barley, except they be exceedingly scarce, are ever wont to be measured and sold in quarts. And nothing can more clearly imply a time of scarcity and famine, than the measuring out of grain in so small quantities at so great a price. But as pertaining to religion, as forming part of a symbolical description, and not as seen on earth, but spoken by a voice from heaven, the words have not to be interpreted literally, but, it is presumed, must have a spiritual significancy. And comparing things spiritual with spiritual, and look ing to scripture alone for the interpretation of the symbol, the seeming obscurity may pass away with a word from that region of light. "Behold the days come, saith the Lord God," by the mouth of another prophet, "that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." Amos viii. 11. Another characteristic of popery thus unambigu ously appears. Christ was the bread of life, that came down from heaven, and when his word was withheld from men, it was such a famine in a religious view, that was prevalent upon the earth. There was a famine of the hearing of the word of God-and the seclusion of it from the people was a practised portion of the popish system. The Bible itself was a shut or sealed book; and the word of God was long heard only in another tongue. A famine of that word, on which alone the soul can be fed and live, accompanied the spiritual darkness, of which it was the cause, and the assumption and exercise of spiritual authority. That word, which is the granary of religious truth, was sealed up by the very hands that ought to have dispersed it, like seed and nourishment through the world. And instead of that food for the souls of men being plentifully supplied, that they might eat abundantly and live, it was doled out in the smallest portions, the Bible was a book prohibited to common use, the divine word was held unsafe without a human interpreter, short selections only were inserted in the missals; and the scarcity, and dearth, and famine of the word of God, was such, as fully to explain the import of the figure, when rightly understood and interpreted, as descriptive of religion, in a spiritual sense, a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny, But still, even in the view of heaven, there was something precious on earth, and a charge was given respecting it. When David had prepared a place for the ark, and when they set it in the midst of the tent that he had pitched for it, in the psalm which he delivered into the hands of Asaph and his brethren, he thus calls on the house of Israel, "Be mindful always of the covenant of the Lord which he had commanded to a thousand generations, even the covenant which he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance; when ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it. And when they went from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Sing unto the Lord all the earth; show forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations," &c. David, in the Psalms, and all the prophets testified of Christ. And the charge and reproof given even to kings, concerning his anointed and his prophets, coupled with the mention of the covenant with Abraham, which God had commanded for a thousand generations, of the everlasting covenant, seems at least to have a higher reference and significancy than pertains to the merely temporal blessings of the house of Israel,— and may serve to interpret the meaning of the words, See thou hurt not the oil and the wine. Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Of the two witnesses that shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth, it is said, If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, he must, in like manner, be killed, Rev. xi. 5. The |