Having contemplated this prophetic description, we pause, and consider-with humble and devout prayers to the Holy Ghost for His spiritual illumination

What City in the world corresponds to this description?

It is not the literal Babylon; for she was not the Queen of the Earth in St. John's age. It is some City which then existed, and would continue to exist almost to the end of time. Among the Cities which then were, and which still survive, one was seated on seven hills. The name of each of her seven hills is well known. She was universally recognized in St. John's age as the seven-hilled City. She is described as such by the general voice of her own most celebrated writers for five centuries; and she has ever since continued to be so characterized. She is represented as such on her own Coinage, the coinage of the world. This same City, and no other, then reigned over the Kings of the Earth. She exercised universal sovereignty, and boasted herself Eternal. This same City resembled Babylon in many striking respects;-in dominion and wealth, in geographical position and historical acts, especially with regard to the People of God. This same City was commonly called Babylon by St. John's own countrymen. And, finally, the voice of the Christian Church, in the age of St. John himself, and for many centuries after it, has given an impartial and almost unanimous verdict on this subject; and confirms the judgment

pronounced, in clear and solemn tones, in this Divine Book, by the Holy Spirit of God,-that the SevenHilled City, that Great City, the Queen of the Earth, Babylon the Great, of the Apocalypse, is no other than ROME.

LECTURE XII.

REV. xvii. 7.

And the Angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the Mystery of the Woman.

In the preceding Discourse we commenced an exposition of the prophecies contained in the Thirteenth to the Nineteenth chapter of the Apocalypse; and it was shown that they refer to the City of Rome. We now advance a step further in the argument; and our present enquiry is,

Whether these prophecies refer to Rome in her spiritual as well as temporal character, that is, whether they concern her, not only as a City, but as a CHURCH?

In examining this question we shall be careful to impute nothing to the Church of Rome on private authority. All that we shall assert concerning her shall be derived from her own accredited documents and public acts. And we shall endeavour to prosecute the enquiry in a spirit of charity as well as of truth, never forgetting that these awful prophecies were dictated by the Holy Spirit of Peace to the Blessed Apostle of Love.

These predictions are full of warning and instruction to all in the present times; and, if they have been fulfilled, then, as you have been already reminded, we have here another convincing proof that the Apocalypse is from God, and that all its remaining prophecies concerning a Judgment to come, and concerning Eternal bliss and Eternal woe, will be fulfilled likewise. Let us then examine them with the seriousness they deserve, and with humble prayer to the Holy Spirit to "cast His bright beams of light" upon our minds, that they may be "enlightened by the doctrine of the blessed Apostle and Evangelist St. John."

The great City, the City on the Seven Hills, the City which in the age of St. John reigned over the Kings of the earth, the mystical Babylon enthroned upon many waters, this, we have already seen, is, and can be, no other than the City of Rome. And Rome it was acknowledged to be by the concurrent voice of the Christian Church in the age of St. John, and for many centuries after it.

So strong, indeed, is the evidence of this identity, that Romish Divines have not been able to resist it. It is enough to mention three most eminent among them,-Bellarmine, Baronius, and Bossuet*. "St. John in the Apocalypse," says Cardinal Bellarmine †,

Similar avowals might be cited from other eminent Romish Divines, e.g. Salmeron, Alcasar, Maldonatus, Cornelius à Lapide. Bellarmine de Rom. Pont. ii. c. 2. § Prætereà, tom. i. p. 232, ed. Colon. 1615.

"calls Rome Babylon; for no other city besides Rome reigned in his age over the Kings of the Earth, and it is well known that Rome was seated upon seven Hills." "It is confessed," says Cardinal Baronius*, "that Rome is signified in the Apocalypse by the name of Babylon." And the language of the celebrated French Prelate, Bossuet †, in his Exposition of the Book of Revelation, is: "The features (in the Apocalypse) are so marked, that it is easy to decypher Rome under the figure of Babylon."

Such is the avowal of the most learned Divines of papal Rome.

How, then, you may enquire, could they acknowledge Rome to be the Apocalyptic Babylon, and yet remain in her communion?

The answer is, they affirmed that what St. John predicted of Babylon, and of the Woman seated upon the seven Hills, concerned Rome only as a City, and not as a Church. And, they added, that it respected Rome while yet heathen, but did not refer to it as Christian.

This was their hypothesis. But it is worthy of remark, that this solution did not satisfy other Romish

*Baronius, Annal. ad A. D. 45, num. 18.

+ Bossuet, Préf. sur l'Apocalypse § vii. C'est une tradition de tous les Pères que la Babylone de l'Apocalypse c'est l'ancienne (?) Rome. Tous les Pères ont tenu le même langage. Avec des traits si marqués c'est une énigme aisée à déchiffrer que Rome sous la figure de Babylone.