be exactly similar to that between pure spiritual truth, seen in its unclouded, abstract nature, and the same truth veiled over with symbolic language, or invested with a covering of images taken from the world of nature and the ideas of man in his natural state of existence; or between the interior contents of the Holy Word and its literal form : and thus it will be seen, that to speak of clouds when thereby is meant the literal sense of the Holy Word, is a mode of expression which is also founded in the very nature and immutable relations of things.

(S.) The meaning then of this prophecy, and the means by which the "renovation," which Dr. Jortin saw must be intended by it, will be brought about, may now, it is hoped, be sufficiently evident. If it be true that by the clouds are signified Divine Truth in its lowest or ultimate form, which is the same thing as the Word in its literal sense, it follows, that when the Lord informs us that his second coming will be in the clouds, we are to understand, that it will be effected by an opening of the true meaning of the Holy Word on which account, in the passage which we have noticed from the Psalms, the clouds are called the Lord's chariot; a chariot signifying doctrine or instruction, and it being by means of the letter of his Word, and never without it, that the Lord communicates instruction to man. And when we are apprised, that the Lord always takes the title of Son of man in reference to his character as Divine Truth, and as Divine Truth adapted to enlighten human minds, we see with what peculiar propriety it is that he announces his coming, in this character, in the clouds, and with power and great glory; these phrases denoting, that within, and out of, the letter of the Holy Word, the efficacy and light of pure Divine Truth will be made apparent.*

* See the signification of clouds, when mentioned in Scripture, further illustrated in the Appendix, No. IV.

3. The last example which we are to offer of the applicability of the Science of Analogies to the interpretation of the prophetical part of the Word of God, is to be taken from the writings of the Apocalyptic Divine; and we have selected his vision of spiritual Babylon; the relation of which, after mentioning that an angel came to shew him the vision, he commences thus: "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls; having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus."* The description is continued through the whole of this and of the following chapter.

As soon as men began freely to examine the Scriptures, at the time of the Reformation, the palpable manner in which the Roman Catholic religion is portrayed under the emblem of this woman, struck every mind; and from that time to this it has been generally admitted by Protestants, that the Harlot of Babylon is the Roman Catholic Church. The application is undoubtedly just yet the deep reason of the various symbols employed, has not, perhaps, been generally seen. For instance: Why is she called, not Rome, but Babylon? Should it be answered, Because Babylon was the greatest enemy and destroyer of the church of God under the Mosaic dispensation: the question will recur, Why, under a dispensation of an entirely representative character, was the king of Babylon made the instrument of destroying the metropolis of Judea and the tem

*Rev. xvii. 3 to 6.

ple of God? Doubtless it must have been, because a representative character attaches also to Babylon, whenever it is named in the Holy Word: and if modern Rome is spiritually called Babylon, it must be, because the representative character of the Scripture Babylon has become the real one of the Roman Catholic Church.

(1.) When the situation of the places mentioned in the Holy Word, does not alone, as in the case of the land of Gog, indicate what principle they symbolize, it is necessary to note the chief circumstances predicated respecting them; which will generally point to the truth.

Among the various motives to action by which mankind are governed, there is none which exercises a wider influence than the love of power. This is little attended to among ordinary individuals, because cases do not often occur for its exercise in a very extended form; and the innumerable instances in which it displays itself in little matters, escape attention from the very circumstance of their frequency. Yet almost every family will furnish us with instances of persons who are desirous to domineer over those around them: and that the principle is deeply rooted in human nature, in its present state, is evinced by its spontaneous developement in the minds of the young. Ore cannot become domesticated in a seminary for youth, without seeing it strongly displayed: even the greatest care on the part of the master can seldom prevent the exercise of cruel tyranny on the part of the stronger children over the weaker. But when we turn our view from private scenes to public, the monster stalks before us in the most gigantic form. How many conquerors, miscalled heroes, figure in the pages of history, who have spent their lives in the endeavour to aggrandize their power by the subjugation of the surrounding nations! and how many sovereigns, whom the vicinity of more powerful states has prevented from signalizing themselves by foreign conquests, have gratified their lust of dominion by striving to render their authority

in their own kingdoms more absolute, setting their own will above the laws, and disposing at pleasure of the property and lives of their subjects! In short, the lust of dominion in private and in public, with the cruelty and oppression with which it is associated, is the source of the greatest evils which afflict mankind : even the lust of gold, -the auri sacra fames,-so celebrated for the mischiefs of which it is the origin, is, in comparison, a gentle demon. The lust of dominion, soften it as we may by the milder names of ambition and the love of power, is the most direful evil which can reign in the human heart and it cannot be doubted, that, when encouraged there, and made the ruling motive of the life, it must finally sink its victim to the lowest gulf which yawns in the kingdom of darkness to swallow up the wicked of mankind.

But if the lust of dominion in general is of so direful a character, what must we think of it when it seeks to accomplish its ends by hypocritical pretences? If to endeavour to subjugate others to its own caprice by the arms of the flesh, is a crime of so deep a die; what does it become when it employs, in the same design, the artillery of heaven? If to desire to rule over all the kingdoms of the world, is so corrupt a lust; what words can express its atrocity, when it seats itself on the pinnacle of the temple, and arrogates such a sovereignty as belongs to God alone? This, it must be admitted, is the worst form which the lust of dominion can ever assume. And this most dreadful form of this most pernicious lust, is what is specifically represented by Babylon in the Holy Word: as will appear by noticing what is generally predicated of it in the passages where it is mentioned.

The place which the Greeks called Babylon was by the Hebrews called Babel. The first occasion on which it is mentioned in Scripture, is, when its first building is related. It is said to have been built by Nimrod; and its representation may in some degree be gathered from the

character given of its founder, of whom it is said, that "he began to be a mighty one in the earth," and that "he was a mighty hunter before the Lord;"* by which is generally understood, that he was a hunter whose game was men, a conqueror whose pursuit was power. Next we have an account of the erection of the tower of Babel : and the purpose of the builders is so stated, as to leave no doubt of the symbolic meaning of the place they built for they said, "Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name.Ӡ Whatever might be the nature of the historical fact here referred to, it is plain that the terms in which it is related must be intended to convey a spiritual meaning: for it is impossible to suppose that any persons could think it practicable literally to build up to heaven: under this mode of expression, then, is intimated the desire of some who lived at that time, to found a dominion that should arrogate authority over the souls of men as well as their bodies.

But there is no passage which exhibits more plainly than is done in a prophecy of Isaiah, the meaning of Babylon, as denoting the lust of ruling over both the bodies and souls of men, by perverting the doctrines of the church, and inventing fictions and imposing them as such doctrines, so as to establish, by their means, an unlimited dominion. The prophet exclaims, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations? For thou saidst within thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." It is from this passage that the prince of the devils has acquired the name of Lucifer: yet whoever will attentively read the whole chapter, must see clearly, that

* Gen. x. 8, 9.

+ Ch. xi. 4.

Isa. xiv. 12, 13, 14.