and denounce them as cut off from the body of Christ and from hope of everlasting salvation; foreseeing also, that she would exercise a wide and dominant sway for many generations, by boldly iterated assertions of Unity, Antiquity, Sanctity, and Universality; foreseeing also, that these pretensions would be supported by the Civil sword of many temporal Governments, among which the Roman Empire would be divided at its dissolution; and that Rome would thus be enabled to display herself to the world with the august attitude of Imperial power, and with the dazzling splendour of temporal felicity: foreseeing also that the Church of Rome would captivate the Imaginations of men by the fascinations of Art allied with Religion; and would ravish their senses and rivet their admiration by gaudy colours, and stately pomp, and prodigal magnificence: foreseeing also that she would beguile their credulity by Miracles and Mysteries, by Apparitions and Dreams, by Trances and Ecstasies, and would appeal to their evidence in support of her strange doctrines: foreseeing likewise, that she would enslave men by practising on their affections, and by accommodating herself, with dexterous pliancy, to their weaknesses, relieving them from the burden of thought and from the perplexity of doubt, by proffering them the aid of Infallibility; soothing the sorrows of the mourner by dispensing pardon and promising peace to the departed; removing the load of guilt from the op

pressed conscience by the ministries of the Confessional, and by nicely-poised compensations for sin; and that she would long flourish in proud and prosperous impunity, before her sins would reach to heaven, and come in remembrance before God *: foreseeing also, that many would thus be tempted to fall from the faith, and to become victims of deadly error; and that they who clung to the truth would be exposed to cozening flatteries, and fierce assaults, and savage tortures from her; -The HOLY SPIRIT, I say, foreseeing all these things in His Divine knowledge, and being the Ever-Blessed Teacher, Guide, and Comforter of the Church, was graciously pleased to provide a divine antidote for all these evils, by dictating the APOCALYPSE.

In that divine Book the Spirit of God has pourtrayed the Church of Rome, such as none but Almighty God could have foreseen she would become, and such as, wonderful and lamentable to say, she has now become. He has thus broken her magic spells; He takes the wand of enchantment from her hand; He lifts the mask from her face; and with His Divine Finger He writes her true character in large letters, and plants her title on her forehead, to be seen and read by all,-MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH †.

Thus, then, the Almighty and All-wise God Him

*Rev. xvi. 19. xviii. 5.

Rev. xviii. 5.

self has vouchsafed to be the Arbiter between Babylon and Sion, between the Harlot and the Bride, between Rome and the Church. And therefore, with the Apocalypse in our hands, we need not fear the anathemas which Rome hurls against us. The Thunders of the Roman Pontiff are not so powerful and terrible as the Thunders of St. John, the divine Boanerges of Patmos, which are winged by the Spirit of God.

What is it to us, that the Nimrod of Babylon declares, Ye cannot be saved, unless ye bow to me, when the Holy Ghost says by St. John, Come out of her, My People, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues?

Here then we have a divine Vindication of the Church of England, and of her Reformation; and our appeal is, in this great question between us and Rome, not to Bishop Jewel and Hooker, not to Bishop Andrewes and Archbishop Bramhall, admirable as their writings are, but it is to the beloved Disciple of Christ, and to the Holy Spirit of God.

Let the Church of Rome here behold the retribution which has even already fallen, in a most striking manner, upon her.

She rests her claims to supremacy and infallibi

* Hooker, viii. 3, 5, "the tyranny and oppression of that one Universal Nimrod who alone ruled all." Pope Boniface VIII. Extra. 1. Tit. viii. says, "Subesse Romano Pontifici, omni humanæ creaturæ declaramus esse de necessitate salutis."

lity on the succession of her Pontiffs to St. Peter ; and so she puts forth these claims in his name.

She claims to be the true Spouse of CHRIST; and demands obedience from all in His name.

Let her observe now how Almighty God has pronounced His sentence on these claims.

He has condemned them, in the most solemn and terrible language, in the Apocalypse by the voice of St. John, the dear companion of St. Peter, and the beloved Disciple of CHRIST.

Thus He has dealt with the outrage, of which Rome is guilty, against St. Peter and His Divine Lord.

II. We pass to another point.

Some persons, you are aware, there are, who, impelled by charitable motives, which are entitled to respect, have cherished a hope that a Union might one day be possible between the Churches of England and Rome; and some, perhaps we may add, have suffered themselves to be betrayed into suppressions and compromises of truth, with a view to this result.

It is indeed greatly to be wished, that if it so pleased God, all Churches might be united in the truth. It may, also, be reasonably expected, that, as the time of her doom draws near, many individual members of the Church of Rome may be awakened from their slumber,—that they may be excited by God's grace to examine their own position, and to contrast the present tenets of Rome with the doctrines preached

by Christ and His Apostles. Thus they may be enabled to purify the truth which they retain from the dross of corruption with which it is adulterated; thus they may be empowered by God's grace to emancipate themselves from her thraldom into the alorious liberty of the sons of God *.

Our own duty it is, my brethren, to do all in our power to accelerate this blessed work. But let us be sure that it will be impeded by all who disguise the truth. It will be retarded by all who connive at, flatter, or extenuate the guilt of Rome. It can only be furthered by uncompromising, though not uncharitable, statements of the sin and danger of communicating in her errors and corruptions.

And, of all the instruments which it has pleased God to give us for this holy labour of religious Restoration, none, it may reasonably be supposed, will be so effectual as the language of the Holy Spirit in the Apocalypse of St. John.

But His divine Voice forbids us to look for Union with the Church of Rome. We cannot unite with her as she is; and it forbids us to expect that Rome will cease to be Rome. It reveals the awful fact that Babylon will be Babylon to the end. It displays her ruin. It says that death, mourning, and famine are her destiny; and that she will be burnt with fire †. It shows us the smoke of her burning; and we look upon that

*Rom. viii. 21.

Rev. xvii. 16.

Rev. xviii. 9.