3. Let us again put the same case. Let these prophecies concern Rome as a pagan City, but 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'; 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 some of the early Christians to be consummated in Heathen Rome ;-which is not the case;-then what follows? Some few Christians were instructed by them; 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 Ghost. But now change the hypothesis. Suppose Babylon

1 Rev. xxii. 19, 20.

to be, not the City as pagan, but the City and Church of Rome, such as, alas! she now is. Then all is clear. If Rome were indeed what she claims to be, then St. John would not have failed to recognize her as such. But if those claims are false, then she is guilty of impiety and blasphemy in putting them forth. And we charge her with that. And, therefore, looking at her we say,-Here is a new form of evil. Spiritual Idolatry; an 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. Requiring implicit submission under pain of everlasting damnation. 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 Christ's glorious name. 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!

1 As was before said, p. 274, the Author of these Lectures does not identify the Apocalyptic Beast with the infidel Antichrist mentioned in St. John's Epistles. (1 John ii. 18. 22; iv. 3. 2 John 7.) The one ought, he thinks, to be regarded as distinct, and not to be confounded with the other. It must be remembered, however, that St. John says (1 John ii. 18), "there are many Anti-Christs." More is said on this subject in his Sermon on the "Man of Sin," pp. 6. 11.

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'.

4. 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; and who either overlook these prophecies of the Apocalypse altogether, and seem to forget their existence in the Canon of Holy Scripture, or else draw them aside from their aim, and are even impatient and angry with those who retain them in their true direction.

Alas! it is too evident that we have much to

1 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 Anti-Christus mysticus quam proprius erit Pseudo-Papa, Caput Pseudo-prophetarum. Hæc mulier stat hic pro Romana 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.

dread from Infidelity; their fears in this respect are

ours.

1

And we are not disposed to deny that the AntiChrist briefly noticed by St. John in his Epistles is an Infidel Power.

But it is not the main end and aim of Prophecy, to warn men now against Infidelity, any more than it was formerly, against Paganism. Infidelity proclaims itself. And Christ has pronounced His sentence in a clear and solemn voice, once for all, against Unbelief: 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 end of Christian Prophecy, to warn the world against the insidious designs and mysterious workings of deadly error, masked under the specious guise of Religion. Satan is never so much to be feared as when transformed into an Angel of Light 3.

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 Reli

1 See preceding note, p. 313. 3 2 Cor. xi. 14.

2 Mark xvi. 16.

4 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."

gion is the most prolific source of Atheism'. If the claims of Rome are false, they prepare the way for Infidelity.

Looking, then, at the previous declarations of Scripture concerning Unbelief, and at the true ends of Christian Prophecy, and at the perils of the World from Infidelity, and at the language and spirit of these Apocalyptic prophecies, we feel persuaded that the form of Anti-Christianism contemplated by them is not a heathen or infidel, but a religious, one.

5. But to return. The Woman, who is called the Harlot, sits on the Beast as on a throne, that is, she governs it, and is supported by it. The Beast on which she sits is represented as having ten Horns bearing

1 In the present times, all will do well to ponder the words of our great English Divine, Bp. Bull. Speaking of certain Romish corruptions, he says, "Wise men have thought that the authors of these romances in religion were no better than the tools of Satan, used by him to expose the Christian Religion, and thereby to introduce Atheism. And indeed we are sure, that the wits of Italy, where these abominable deceits have been, and are, chiefly countenanced, were the first broachers of Infidelity and Atheism in Europe, since the time that Christianity prevailed in it." Bp. Bull, Serm. iv. vol. i. p. 106, ed. Oxf. 1827.

2 Heidegger's note deserves attention: (Myst. Babylon. i. 53.) “Meretrix a Bestiâ distinguenda est. Meretrix in Bestiâ sedet eamque regit, subjicit, et ad facienda imperata flectit. Bestia, multitudo regnum constituens, meretricem Baσrájeι . . . Eadem utrobique Babylon sed parte imperante et parente discreta."

3 These Ten Horns, as Mede observes, are not to be regarded as distributed among the Seven Heads, but as issuing from the Seventh Head.