venly manna in the desert. He bears her on the Two Wings of the Great Eagle through the vast wilderness. In her present sufferings she sees a pledge of her future glory. For these trials have been predicted by St. John; and he, who has predicted them, has also revealed her triumph. The one have been, and are; the other will be. Therefore, though she is in the Wilderness, she does not faint. She rides on the Eagle's wings. She loves to be like her Lord. She looks for severer trials yet. The Church will be like Christ, even to the end. She will have her Gethsemane-her Calvary. But beyond them all she sees the Mount of Ascension-the cloud of her glory-the crystal sea-the Throne of God.

LECTURE VIII.

REV. xiii. 9.

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

IT has been shown in previous Discourses that the Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, is rightly received as a work of the Evangelist St. John, and that it holds a peculiar place as the Seal of the Bible. Let me now invite your attention to some striking visible proofs of its Inspiration.

The Apocalypse is a prophecy; and it has now been in the world for nearly eighteen centuries.

The question therefore arises,-Have its predictions been in part already fulfilled?

If they have, then, among other important deductions from that fact, we have in such fulfilment a demonstration of its divine origin; and we have also presumptive evidence that the other predictions of the Apocalypse, concerning the Last Great ThingsJudgment, Heaven, Hell, and Eternity-will be fulfilled likewise.

Besides, the Apocalypse, as may readily be shown', is a Manual of Christian Faith and Practice, and if it is inspired by God, then we have here another proof of the divine origin of the doctrines of the Gospel, and of the truth and importance of Christianity.

I. You perceive then that this question is a very momentous one—“Have the prophecies of the Apocalypse been fulfilled?"

It has been my endeavour to offer some reply to it already by an expository comment on this Book; and, with this view, we have commenced at the opening of the Apocalypse, and have proceeded as far as the Thirteenth Chapter.

Here we resume our undertaking; and it is my hope to prosecute it to the close of these Lectures.

At this point, in the course of our Exposition, we pause to observe, that the particular prophecies which will now engage our attention, and to which the present Discourse is introductory, are fraught with warning and admonition to ourselves.

1. What then are these prophecies to which we now refer? and how have they been fulfilled?

Our reply is as follows:

Having been led in these Discourses to devote the best faculties at command to this solemn subject, I should feel myself guilty of culpable dereliction of duty in the sight of Almighty God, if I did not

1 And as is shown in the last Lecture of the present volume.

declare my conviction, that the prophecies contained in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Chapters of the Revelation of St. John the Divine, and which describe the guilt, and pourtray the punishment, of the mystical BABYLON, have been partly accomplished, and are in course of complete accomplishment, in the CHURCH of ROME.

This, I well know, is a grave assertion; and ought not to be made without the most serious deliberation.

The Church of Rome was planted by Apostles of Christ; it was watered by the blood of Martyrs; it was fostered by dews from heaven. For many years, in succession, its faith was spoken of through the whole world'. It was long the burning and shining light of Western Christendom.

To affirm then that this Church, having been once espoused as a chaste Virgin 2 to Christ by Apostolic hands, has been false to her plighted troth; that she has forgotten the love of her espousals'; that she has played the harlot; that she has allured, and still allures, the nations of the earth to spiritual adultery; that she makes merchandise of men's souls*; that she is pourtrayed by the Holy Spirit in the Apocalypse as a second Babylon; that she is designated by Him-not, what she claims to be, as the Mother and Mistress of Churches-but as the Mother of spiritual

! Rom. i. 8.

3 Jer. ii. 2.

2 2 Cor. xi. 2.

42 Pet. ii. 1-3. cp. Rev. xviii. 11-17.

fornications and abominations of the earth'; and to make this assertion publicly, in this the Church of a Christian University, is to venture upon an act which involves the deepest responsibility; and which cannot be performed, except with feelings of awe, and emotions of bitterest sorrow.

But this assertion, my brethren, is now solemnly, deliberately made; made after a careful examination of the evidence of the case; made after a diligent consideration of the arguments on both sides of the question; made under an imperative sense of duty; made in your ears, in the presence and House of God.

2. Some, I am aware, may exclaim, How uncharitable is such an accusation! how inconsistent with the mild and loving spirit of the Gospel, to arraign a Christian Church, one so distinguished as the CHURCH OF ROME, for amplitude, dignity, and antiquity; and to brand it with such an ominous name to characterize it as BABYLON.

But, we reply,

Who wrote the Apocalypse? The Apostle and Evangelist St. John. He was a Son of Thunder; but he was the beloved Disciple of Christ: he was the Apostle of Love. And this divine Boanerges fulmined forth God's judgments in love.

As the rolling thunder breaks forth from the dark summer-cloud, and as the cloud is gilded with

Rev. xvii. 5.