The following questions therefore arise here:

14. Has not the Church of Rome fulfilled the Apocalypse in the eyes of men, and does she not proclaim her own identity with the Woman in the Apocalypse, even by the outward garb of scarlet, gold, precious stones, and pearls, in which she invests her Pontiff at his election, and in which she then displays him to the world?

And has not she fulfilled the Apocalypse, and proclaimed her own identity with the Woman whose name is Mystery, the Mother of Abominations, by commencing every Pontificate with making the Pontiff her own idol, by lifting him up on the hands of her Cardinals, and by placing him on God's Altar, and by kneeling before him as he sits upon that Altar, and by kissing his feet? Does she not make herself the Mother of Idolatry, by paying such adoration as this in the person of her Cardinals, and by receiving it in the person of her Pope? And, by her long practice of this particular form of abomination, has she not identified herself with the Apocalyptic power, whose name is Mystery, and also with the "Mystery of Iniquity," described by the Apostle St. Paul as enthroned in the Temple and Sanctuary of God. And by placing her Pontiff to be adored, like the Most High, in God's presence on God's Altar in a Christian Church, as Antiochus Epiphanes placed an idol to be adored on God's Altar in the Temple at Jerusalem, has she not identified him with the Lucifer, the King of Babylon, whose pride and fall

are pourtrayed by Isaiah', and with the Abomination

2

of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, and by our Blessed Lord Himself?

15. These questions may be further elucidated by reference to another very striking prophecy.

Zechariah, whose spirit appears to have been imbibed, as his language is adopted, by St. John, beholds, in one of his Visions, an Epha, or Measure, and a Woman seated in it3.

An Angel points to the Woman, and says, "This is Lawlessness," 'ANOMIA, Such is the word in the Septuagint.

Thus speaking, he presses her down in the Epha, and places a mass of lead on her mouth.

Then two women appear, who have the Spirit in their wings, and they take up the Woman in the Epha, and carry her away.

The Prophet asks whither they are taking her. The angel replies, to Babylon.

What, now, is the meaning of this Vision?

It is spiritual.

The Epha is a measure, the symbol of equity. With this measure, well filled and running over, the Woman ought to have dealt out the spiritual food,

See above, pp. 343, 344. Cf. Witsii Miscell. Sacr. p. 650, lib. iii. c. 2. 2 The following was written in the twelfth century: Dictum Danielis nono convenit modernis Prælatis et Ecclesiæ Rectoribus ; videlicet Cum videritis desolationem." Joachim Abbas, in Jerem. c. 37. 3 Zech. v. 5.

A a

the bread of life, to God's people'; but she is not Equity, but "Lawlessness," and the Epha is not full, but empty she has neglected her duty, and she is punished by the instrument with which she has sinned, the Epha; it is empty, and she is placed in it, and her mouth is stopped with lead. That is, the faithless Church is silenced, and is removed from her place, and made desolate :-carried to Babylon; or, as the Septuagint expresses it, a house is built for her in the land of Babylon 2.

Observe, the Woman is called Lawlessness.

This word, "Lawlessness," is a prophetical word, which connects the predictions of Zechariah and St. Paul, in the same manner as the words "Abomination" and "Mystery" connect those of Daniel, St. Paul, and St. John.

Our Lord, in the same prophecy as that in which He speaks of the setting up of the Abomination of desolation, speaks also of the overflowing of Lawless

ness 3.

name.

And St. Paul, in the prophecy before mentioned, calls the power, which claims adoration, by the same He entitles it the Mystery of Lawlessness. And he designates its head, the Lawless one. the Apostle adopts the language of Zechariah, as made ready for him in the Greek Version. He iden

Thus

1 The reader will perceive some points of resemblance between this Vision and the Third Seal.

2 Zech. v. 11.

3 'Avopía. Matth. xxiv.12.

tifies the Mystery of Lawlessness with the Woman described as Lawlessness by that Prophet.

And now turn to St. John: he also adopts the Prophet's imagery and language. The Woman whose name is Lawlessness, as described by Zechariah, is carried in the Epha to Babylon, and placed there. And the Woman in the Apocalypse is Babylon.

Another question then arises here; Has not the Church of Rome, by suppressing God's Word, instead of dispensing it, identified herself with the Woman in the empty Epha, the woman whose mouth is stopped with lead, whose name is Lawlessness, and whose house is Babylon; and has she not thus, also, identified Herself, in another respect, with the Mystery of Lawlessness, as pourtrayed by St. Paul, and with Babylon, as described by St. John, which will be cast into the sea like a millstone', never to rise again?

2

The same Prophet, Zechariah, uses a remarkable expression in another place, Woe to the IDOL Shepherd! that is, to the Pastor, who is adored in the place of God. Woe to the idol Shepherd, that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened *.

1 Rev. xviii. 21.

The word, used for a vain thing, an idol, in Lev. xix. 4.

1 Chron. xvi. 26. Psalm xcvi. 5; xcvii. 7. Isaiah ii. 8. 18. 20, and elsewhere.

3 Zech. xi. 17.

4 Zech. xi. 17.

Such is the voice from heaven to the idol Shepherd and such is the woe denounced on him who boasts himself to be the UNIVERSAL SHEPHERD', and sits, as an IDOL on the Altar in the Temple of God, and is worshipped in the place of God.

2

V. We pause here, and sum up what has been said.

Either the claims of the Church of Rome are just; or they are not.

1. If they are, she is infallible, and indefectible. She is the Mother and Mistress of all Christian Churches. Her Pontiff is the Universal Pastor; the Centre of Unity; the Father of the Faithful; the Supreme Head, and Spiritual Judge of Christendom. And it is the duty of all to obey him.

Now, we hold in our hand the Apocalypse of St. John, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Voice of

1 Petrus Asilus de Tyrann. Antichristi (ap. Wolf. Lectiones, ii. 824) says, Papa sibi soli sumi Pastoris nomen, ideo fit ut impleatur prophetia Zachariæ de Pastore stulto, quem B. Hieronymus Antichristum in extremis diebus comparentem et Christi gladio succumbentem vel succubiturum interpretatur.

2 St. Jerome's words on the prophecy of Zechariah xi. 17 (Tom. iii. p. 1779) are very remarkable. "O pastor et idolum! tam sceleratus est Pastor, ut non idolorum cultor sed ipse idolum nominetur, dum se appellat Deum et vult ab omnibus adorari." Cf. Heidegger, Myst. Bab. ii. p. 546. Ceremonia quâ Papa in altari Templi D. Petri sedens a Cardinalibus cernuis adoratur divinum cultum apertissimè redolet. Cum Papam sic in altari consistentem adorant quid aliud quàm Deum seu idolum suum (Zech. xi. 17) ibi divino cultu prosequuntur ?

3 Rev. i. 1.