last fifty years,-a coincidence between actual events and prophecy sufficient to show us that the apparent contradiction in the latter may easily be reconciled, though beforehand we may not see how; sufficient to remind us that the all-watchful eye, and the all-ordaining hand of God is still over the world, and that the seeds sown in prophecy above two thousand years since, are not dead, but from time to time, by blade and tender shoot, give earnest to the future harvest. Surely the world is impregnated with unearthly elements, which ever and anon, in unhealthy seasons, give lowering and muttering tokens of the wrath to come!

In that great and famous nation which is near us, once great for its love of CHRIST'S Church, since memorable for deeds of blasphemy, which leads me here to mention it, and now, when it should be pitied and prayed for, made unhappily our own model in too many respects, followed when it should be condemned, and admired when it should be excused,-in the capital of that powerful and celebrated nation, there took place, as we all well know, within the last fifty years, an open apostasy from Christianity; not from Christianity only, but from every kind of worship which might retain any semblance or pretence of the great truths of religion. Atheism was absolutely professed; -yet in spite of this, it seems a contradiction in terms to say it, a certain sort of worship, and that, as the prophet expresses it, a strange worship," was introduced. Observe what this was.

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I say, they avowed on the one hand Atheism. They prevailed upon an unhappy man, whom their proceedings had forced upon the Church as an Archbishop, to come before them in public and declare that there was no GOD, and that what he had hitherto taught was a fable. They wrote up over the burial-places that death was an eternal sleep. They closed the Churches, they seized and desecrated the gold and silver plate belonging to them, turning these sacred instruments, like Belshazzar, to the use of their impious revellings; they formed mock processions, clad in priestly garments, and singing profane hymns. They annulled the divine ordinance of marriage, resolving it into a

mere civil contract to be made and dissolved at pleasure. These things are but a part of their enormities.

On the other hand, after having broken away from all restraint towards God and man, they gave a name to the reprobate state itself into which they had thrown themselves, and exalted it, that very negation of religion, or rather that real and living blasphemy, into a kind of God. They called it LIBERTY, and they literally worshipped it as a divinity. It would almost be incredible, that men who had flung off all religion should be at the pains to assume a new and senseless worship of their own devising, whether in superstition or in mockery, were not events so recent and so notorious. After abjuring our LORD and SAVIOUR, and blasphemously declaring Him to be an impostor, they proceeded to decree, in the public assembly of the nation, the adoration of Liberty and Equality as divinities: and they appointed festivals besides in honour of Reason, the Country, the Constitution, and the Virtues. Further, they determined that tutelary gods, even dead men, may be canonized, consecrated, and worshipped; and they enrolled in the number of these some of the most notorious infidels and profligates of the last century. The remains of the two principal of these were brought in solemn procession into one of their Churches, and placed upon the holy altar itself; incense was offered to them, and the assembled multitude bowed down in worship before one of them-before what remained on earth of an inveterate enemy of CHRIST.

Now, I do not mention all this as considering it the fulfilment. of the prophecy, nor, again, as if the fulfilment when it comes will be in this precise way, but merely to point out, what the course of events has shown us in these latter times, that there are ways of fulfilling sacred announcements that seem at first sight contradictory,-that men may oppose every existing worship, true and false, and yet take up a worship of their own from pride, wantonness, policy, superstition, fanaticism, or other

reasons.

And further, let it be remarked, that there was a tendency in the infatuated people I have spoken of, to introduce the old Roman democratic worship, as if further to show us that Rome,

the fourth monster of the prophet's vision, is not dead. They even went so far as to restore the worship of one of the Roman divinities (Ceres) by name, raised a statue to her, and appointed a festival in her honour. This indeed was inconsistent with exalting themselves "above all that is called God;" but I mention it, as I have said, not as throwing light upon the prophecy, but to show that the spirit of old Rome has not passed from the world, though its name is almost extinct.

Still further, it is startling to observe, that the former apostate, in the early times, the Emperor Julian, he too was engaged in bringing back Roman Paganism.

Further still, let it be observed that Antiochus too, the Antichrist before CHRIST, the persecutor of the Jews, he too signalized himself in forcing the Pagan worship upon them, introducing it even into the Temple.

We know not what is to come; but this we may safely say, that, improbable as it is that Paganism should ever be publicly restored and enforced by authority for any time, however short, even three years and a half, yet it is far less improbable now than it was fifty years ago, before the event occurred which I have referred to. Who would not have been thought a madman or idiot, before that period, who had conjectured such a portentous approximation to Paganism as actually took place?

4. Now let us recur to the ancient Fathers, and see whether their further anticipations do not run parallel to the events which have since happened.

Antichrist, as they considered, will come out of the Roman Empire just upon its destruction ;-that is, the Roman Empire will in its last days divide itself into ten parts, and the enemy will come up suddenly out of it upon these ten, and subdue three of them, or all of them perhaps, and (as the prophet continues) "shall speak great words against the MOST HIGH, and shall wear out the saints of the MOST HIGH, and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into His hand until a time, times, and the dividing of time." Now it is very observable, that one of the two early Fathers whom

1 Dan. vii. 25.

I have already cited', expressly says that the ten states (the "toes" of Dan. ii.) which will at length appear, shall be democracies. I say this is observable, considering the present state of the world, the tendency of things in this day towards democracy, and the instance which has been presented to us of democracy within the last fifty years, in those occurrences in France to which I have already alluded.

Another expectation of the early Church was, that the Roman monster, after remaining torpid for centuries, would wake up at the end of the world, and be restored in all its laws and forms; and this too, considering those same recent events to which I have alluded, is certainly worth noticing also. One of the Fathers, whom I have already quoted, expressly deduces from a passage in the xiiith chapter of the Apocalypse, that "the system of Augustus, who was founder of the Roman Empire, shall be adopted and established by him (Antichrist), in order to his own aggrandizement and glory. This is the fourth monster whose head was wounded and healed; in that the empire was destroyed and came to nought, and was divided into ten. But at this time Antichrist, as being a man of resources, will heal and restore it; so that it will be active and vigorous once more through the system which he establishes "."

I will but notice one other expectation falling in with the foregoing notion of the re-establishment of Roman power, entertained by the Fathers whom I have cited several times; viz. one concerning the name of Antichrist, as spoken of in the xiiith chapter of Revelation: "Here is wisdom," says the inspired

1 ... τούτων οὖν ἐσομένων, καὶ τῶν δέκα δακτύλων τῆς εἰκόνος εἰς δημοκρατίας χωρησάντων, καὶ τῶν δέκα κεράτων τοῦ τετάρτου θηρίου εἰς δέκα βασιλείας μερισθέντων, ἴδωμεν σαφέστερον τὰ προκείμενα. Hippol. de Antichristo, § 27.

2 ... τοῦτο σημαίνει, ὅτι κατὰ τὸν Αὐγούστου νόμον, ἀφ ̓ οὗ καὶ ἡ βασιλεία 'Ρωμαίων συνέστη, οὕτω καὶ αὐτὸς κελεύσει καὶ διατάξει ἅπαντα ἐπικυρῶν, διὰ τούτου δόξαν ἑαυτοῦ πλείονα περιποιούμενος. Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ θηρίον τὸ τέταρτον, οὗ ἐπλήγη ἡ κεφαλὴ καὶ πάλιν ἐθεραπεύθη, διὰ τὸ καταλυθῆναι αὐτὴν, ἢ καὶ ἀτιμασθῆναι, καὶ εἰς δέκα διαδήματα ἀναλυθῆναι· ὃς τότε πανοῦργος ὢν ὥσπερ θεραπεύσει αὐτὴν καὶ ἀνανεώσει . . . . ἐνεργήσει γὰρ καὶ ἰσχύσει πάλιν διὰ τὸν ὑπ ̓ αὐτοῦ ὁριζόμενον νόμον. Hippol. de Antichristo, § 49.

text, "let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred threescore and six." They both give a name, (the letters of which together in Greek make up this number) characteristic of the position of Antichrist as the head of the Roman Empire in its restored state, viz. the word Latinus, or the Latin king.

The earlier of these Fathers speaks as follows: "Expect that the empire will first be divided into ten kings; then while they are reigning and beginning to settle and aggrandize themselves, suddenly one will come and claim the kingdom, and frighten them, having for his name the very number 666; him recognize as the Abomination of Desolation. This is implied in the Apostle's saying, When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come on them'.'" Then he goes on to mention, together with two other words, the name of Latinos as answering to the number, and says of it, "This is very probable, since it is the name of the last empire;-for the Latins (that is, the Romans) are now in power 2."

The other Father thus speaks: "Since . . . . . the wound of the first monster was healed. . . . . and it is plain that the Latins are that empire, therefore he is called the Latin King (Latinus), the name passing from an empire to an individual "." anticipation will be fulfilled or not, we cannot say.

Whether this

I only men

1 "Scientes firmum numerum qui a Scriptura annunciatus est, id est, sexcentorum sexaginta sex, sustineant primum quidem divisionem regni in decem; post deinde, illis regnantibus et incipientibus corrigere sua negotia, et augere suum regnum, qui de improviso advenerit regnum sibi vindicans et terrebit prædictos, habens nomen continens prædictum numerum, hunc vere cognoscere esse Abominationem desolationis. Hoc et Apostolus ait, 'Quum dixerint,'" &c. Iren.

Hær. v. 30.

2 "Sed et Aarɛivoc nomen habet sexcentorum sexaginta sex numerum; et valde verisimile est, quoniam novissimum regnum hoc habet vocabulum. Latini enim sunt qui nunc regnant." Iren. Hær. ibid. He goes on, however, to say he prefers one of the other words.

3 . .. ἀλλ ̓ ἐπειδὴ προέφθημεν λέγοντες, ὅτι ἐθεραπεύθη ἡ πλήγη τοῦ θηρίου τοῦ πρώτου, καὶ ποιήσει λαλεῖν τὴν εἰκόνα, τουτέστιν, ἴσχυσε· φανερὸν δ ̓ ἐστὶ πᾶσιν, ὅτι οἱ κρατοῦντες ἔτι νῦν εἰσὶ Λατεῖνοι, εἰς ἑνὸς οὖν ἀνθρώπου ὄνομα μεταγόμενον γίνεται Λατεῖνος. Hipp. de Antichristo, § 50.