awful is the description of the whore in this attitude, drunken with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. We may yet have from popery and democracy in union, a more fierce persecution than the Church of Christ has yet endured, one, as Cecil puts it, 'general, bitter, purifying, cementing.'

But popery with all its allies and followers, is doomed to FINAL AND SPEEDY DESTRUCTION. It has long been consuming by the word of God, but it has yet to receive its final overthrow. There are two parts of this overthrow ;

First, DEMOCRACY; the ten horns without crowns, or the kingdoms of the Roman Empire in its last state, are described as making her desolate. The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. Something of the beginning of this we have probably already seen in France, Spain, and Portugal.

But the great and final destruction is at THE COMING OF THE LORD. The testimony of St. Paul here is above all exception; (2 Thess. ii. 8.) speaking of the Man of Sin, he says, then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming. That coming, in the writer's view, can be nothing less than the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him, mentioned in the first verse of the chapter, and the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus, mentioned in the former chapter. It is the time in short, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. O awfully glorious, and quickly approaching day of Christ! infinitely desirable to his people! infinitely terrible to his enemies! the Lord himself prepare us and make us ready for it.

But what, in the mean time, are the duties of the FAITHFUL WITNESSES FOR CHRIST? He will ever have his faithful witnesses, the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church. Their character

is, that they have the Father's name written on their foreheads; the divine likeness is imparted to them by the Holy Spirit; this likeness marks their love, purity, holiness, mercifulness, and righteousness; they are not defiled with women, they are free from that spiritual whoredom or idolatry, which marks the papacy, and they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes, not swayed by human authority, but by the leadings of the Divine Redeemer; they hear his voice and they follow him; his word is their law, and his Spirit their guide. O how difficult to attain this character amidst all the temptations of this evil world!

The duties of the faithful witnesses by which they approve their fidelity to Christ our Lord, in these trying times, are GENERALLY such as follow:

PRAYER AND WATCHFULNESS. The scriptures very much insist on these things, with reference to these very days. Matt. xxiv. 42; xxv. 13. Mark xiii. 33-35. Luke xxi. 16. Watch ye, therefore, and pray that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. The Reformers were eminently men of prayer. How striking the testimony to Luther, 'Not a day passes in which he does not employ in prayer, at least three of his very best hours.' Similar is the testimony to Latimer-In prayer he was fervently occupied, wherein, oftentimes, he continued so long kneeling that he was not able to rise without help.' Here was the secret of their firmness in stemming the flood of wickedness, and the root of that success which God gave them over popery.'

Entire DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD, as it is the genuine effect of the Protestant principles of our free salvation, truly received through the gift of the Holy Spirit, so it is the special duty and safety of these days; I say safety on that statement of our Lord, Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it. Gospel principles bring us to a complete surrender of our

1 In the Litany of Edward the Sixth's days, this clause was added. after privy conspiracy, From the tyranny of the bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities,' good Lord deliver us.

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selves as a living sacrifice unto God. (Rom. xii. 1.) Nothing short of this is Christianity, and nothing but believing the death of God's only Son for our sins, can really raise the heart in joyful love to this state. This was the spirit of our Reformers. When Ridley was told, by his renegade chaplain, West, he must either agree or burn,' he wrote (8th April, 1554) an answer of beautiful simplicity and devotedness. (See Godly Letters of Martyrs, page 40, 41.) In this he says, It is a goodly wish that you wish me, deeply to consider things pertaining unto God's glory, but if you had wished also, that neither fear of death, nor hope of worldly prosperity, should hinder me from MAINTAINING GOD'S WORD, AND HIS TRUTH, WHICH IS HIS GLORY AND TRUE HONOUR, it would have liked us well. * I esteem nothing available for me which will not further the glory of God. # * * I know the Lord's words must be verified in me; that I shall appear before the incorrupt Judge, and be accountable to him for all my former life. And although the hope of his mercy is my sheet anchor of eternal salvation, yet I am persuaded that whosoever wittingly neglects and regards not to clear his conscience, he cannot have peace with God, nor a lively faith in his mercy.' It is an affecting fact, that West's apostacy (though covered over with pretended religion) could give him no peace. After receiving the bishop's letter, he pined away with grief and remorse, and presently died. (See Ridley's Life of Ridley.) There is no lasting safety but in God's love being so believed as to lead us to entire devotedness, and, blessed be God, this is our happiness as well as our safety. It is the loss of genuine Protestant principle that has occasioned the loss of this devotedness, and has made formal Protestantism, wherever it be, a dead letter as to any power and influence. The Holy Spirit gives us, in a believing view of God's glory, as displayed in the death of Jesus on the cross for us, the same mind that God has; we love what he loves, hate what he hates, have one end with him, and are wholly his : thus to know him, to be like him, to glorify him, and to enjoy him, is our happiness, now and for

ever. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

KNOWLEDGE OF THE PECULARITIES OF POPERY, and of THE SCRIPTURAL ANSWERS to them is another duty in this day. The great peculiarity is the artfully sustained system, salvation by works of man, under the mask of salvation by grace through faith; all other parts of the apostacy flow from this evil fountain. Cramp's text book of popery will shew you their accredited principles; and to meet all that they can bring, you will find ample materials in Bishop Jewell's Defence of his Apology, in Archbishop Usher's Answers to a Jesuit (just republished, at the Cambridge University Press), Bedel's Letters to Wadsworth, Bishop Hall's No Peace with Rome, and Bp. Gibson's Preservative against Popery, and above all, as full of the sweet spirit of the gospel of Christ, in Fox's Book of Martyrs. The Protestant memorial, by my friend Hartwell Horne, is also a most valuable little compendium of information. A full knowledge of the Bible, and especially of the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians, Timothy, and the Thessalonians, and of the Revelation, will furnish the infallible answer to all that popery can say. Let us never be drawn from the main bulwark of Protestantism, the sufficiency of the scriptures. (2 Tim. iii. 15-17.) The selections from the works of the Reformers, given in the volume to which these remarks are introductory, may shew you the scriptural foundations of Protestantism.

CONFESSION OF CHRIST is a duty at all times; whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Matt. x. 32, 33. O may this awakening and encouraging motive powerfully impress all our minds at this time. May we ourselves be taught, by the Spirit, the things of Christ, and have thus clear views of salvation by grace in all its riches, freeness, fulness, and extent; a salvation for sinners as ample as the world, treasured up in Jesus for all men, and received and

enjoyed by simple faith in the divine testimony, a faith filling us with joy and peace in the very act of believing God's precious promises concerning Christ our Saviour. The first Christians overcame the pagan persecutors, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and we shall overcome, in these days, by similar means. "Witnesses" is the very name of our character and office till our Lord returns, and our testimony is, We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

TO TAKE HEED TO THE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY, is another general duty of these days. The command is given positively; ye have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed. The neglecters of it are called scoffers, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? the evil servant is described as thinking my Lord delayeth his coming; the blessing on a due regard to prophecy, is repeated at the beginning and the end of the most difficult book of prophecy. (Rev. i. 3; xxii. 7.) O what Christian dare then throw slight and ridicule upon this study! Say you it has led to all sorts of enthusiasm and extravagance of error? But is it not one of Satan's devices, to discredit that which most tends to his overthrow? It is our light in the darkness, (2 Peter i.) it is our comfort in the hour of sorrow. (1 Thess. iv. 14-18.) Hope, clearly developed in prophecy, is the very helmet of salvation in the battle, (1 Thess. v. 8.) and the anchor of the soul in the tempest. (Heb. vi. 19.) Attend then to prophecy.

Prophecy at this era, points out three SPECIAL duties as incumbent on the Church of Christ, under the sublime imagery of three angels going forth from God. (Rev. xiv.) Let us notice the office of these angels.

WORLD.

The first duty, is, to SEND THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come, and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and

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