THE BEARER OF THIS CROSS DOES NOT PRAY IT MAY

PASS FROM HIM.

What must be the feelings of a Brother in view of such known honors paid to the instrument of his cruel death? It does not improve the matter to pay this homage to an Image of the weapon-to lift up the Image †, to gild, and wear it for a charm of the person, for an ornament of the house, and of the house of God. It does not lessen the offence to make this idol minister to the pomp of public worship, to the pride of life, the vanity of fashion, or sale of an article stamped with the image. No; this pagan image is a false cross, from which the holy apostles would shrink in horror, however the multitude of their successors honour it. This is a make-believe cross of pearl, gold, and precious stones, which the wearer cannot pray that it may be taken away from him, and which the multitude naturally covet, should it please God to give it them! How impious and blind to call this image the cross of Him who said, “ Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt" (Mark xiv. 36). All the images of the heathen are an abomination in His sight. How much more those of Christendom, and, most of all, "the glory cross," borne in solemn procession, adorned and set up in the house of the living God, to honour the most cruel death of His beloved Son at the hand of envious murderers! How much better such manners are in this age than those of the thirteenth century, when the visible head of the churches ordained festivals sacred to the memory of the various instruments of torture which afflicted our Lord unto death, the reader will judge.

"YE HAVE HEARD THAT THE ANTICHRIST SHALL COME."

That there should arise out of the fourth or Latin empire of the prophet Daniel a little horn of singular power, to make war upon the saints, and to prevail against them till the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom (Dan. vii. 21), and that a lamb-like creature, having a dragon voice, should arise, which doeth great wonders, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth (Rev. xiii. 16), is holy prophecy. Eminent divines, for above sixteen centuries, have regarded the Antichrist of 1 John ii. 18, and the man of sin, 2 Thess. ii. 3, as identical with the little horn and with the lamb-like beast. For that there should be an apostasy, followed by the manifestation of "that son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or is σeßaoua (any visible object of reverence), so that he as God sitteth in the temple, or church, of God, showing himself that he is God," is holy scripture, is apostolic prophecy, illustrated and confirmed by all ecclesiastical history, and by the daily news. I can no more close my eyes to this strong delusion, and to the manifestation of this wonderful power, than the infallible Church and Pope himself can close their eyes to the coming of a personal Antichrist, who shall destroy the Church, and shall be himself and the whole world together destroyed, at the coming of our Lord to the great judgment, which is the belief and doctrine of the Roman Church from the beginning to this day.

Antichrist, foretold by the prophets, and expected in all the Churches, when set before our eyes, should not appear strange; nor should the beholder be filled with conceit while calling attention to this great apostasy; for we are every one in it, and in some measure of it, in our day and generation. Placed under the same temptations, no people

could of themselves have better escaped from the snares of the world, the flesh, and the devil, in which great Rome lies taken. Her Church, till the reign of Constantine, was most tried and purified by the persecutions, and after that most corrupted, not at once, by the triumphs of the Gospel. Her pagan senate, distinguished for lordly manners, great authority and untold wealth, held for two generations, after Rome was taken by Constantine, to the old religion, in contempt of the new religion, which confessed a crucified Jew for its author, and had neither images, incense, nor altars in its ceremonial. Thus the faith of the Church was wounded in the Roman capital, and throughout the empire, by a profane mixture of pagan manners and customs, received from the ancient mythology, and sustained by the pride and grandeur of the Latin aristocracy. Succeeding generations naturally follow in the steps of their fathers, whether Pagan or Christian-whether in the teaching of the apostles, or of the ancient mythology. We do not palliate the corruptions of the apostasy; but beholding them with an afflicted heart, we would be warning all and judging none: "For who maketh thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" (1 Cor. iv. 7.)

That infant mystery of iniquity, which already worked in the apostle's day, slowly grew, from the fourth to the ninth century, to be a bold, proud, and lawless mother, decked in royal purple and gold, "and upon her forehead her name written," in plain terms and familiar characters (Rev. xvii. 5). Yet many bright eyes cannot see it, or, seeing, cannot read the character right. Beginning in the days of Paul and John, "that Wicked" has grown, so that, although not many can see him, his "great voice" is heard, from the palace to the hamlet, throughout Christendom. Is not the Scripture warning lost on such? For,

"Now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass ye might believe" (John xiv. 29).

There is, or is yet to be, in this dispensation on the earth, an extraordinary creature rising out of the head of the fourth beast, according to the Scripture (Dan. vii. 7 and 20) having "two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him; and causeth the earth, and them which dwell therein, to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven in the sight of men ; and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by the means of those miracles which he had power to do, in the sight of the first beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by the sword and did live. . . And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666" (Rev. xiii. 11).

Let me neither attempt to prognosticate future events, nor to turn away my attention from what the prophets have spoken, compared with the history of the nations passing before our eyes. The Latin king, which is the tenhorned creature of Daniel, was wounded in the heart of its unity (A.D. 476), and yet lived in its laws and language, in its religion and many members, among the barbarians which 'dismembered it. In the seventh century, the Bishop of Rome practised and prospered. In the eighth, he disowned his allegiance to the emperor, excommunicated him, and took the government of Rome into his own hands. He re

vived the wounded empire of the West (A.D. 800), and crowned Charlemagne its emperor, whose title has descended through Germany and Austria from that date to 1871. For although, in 1810, abandoned by Austria, it is revived in Germany now. Thus the bishop made an image to the first beast, which had the wound by the sword and did live: and for 1000 years he inspired it with energy to execute his will, He gave it a sign, or a mark which all citizens must receive, own, and defend, if they would have the protection of the royal emblem, and of its maker. Irenæus (A.D. 180 to 200), counted the number of the beast, and found it Lateinosfor the kingdom, 666. The official language of the chief Pontiff, the maker and inspirer of the imperial image is Latin, and the reader for himself can count the name and number of a man in Greek numerals:

"Which is the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man

A. a. T. E. い V. 0. 30+1+300+5+10+50+70+200) (Lateinos), and his number is 666."

If the beast which "had two horns as a lamb, and he spake as a dragon" be the Latin, then the image he made "to the beast which had the wound by the sword and did live"-whose "deadly wound was healed,"—is the imperial throne set up anew by the Papacy in the person of Charlemagne and his successors (A.D. 800), and the name of the creature in Greek is Lateinos: which counts this number of his name, 666.

Again, whosoever that wonderful creature may be, his real mark put "in their right hand, or in their foreheads," who serve him must be conspicuous to all eyes. And that no man might buy or sell, hold office or honour or dignity in the Latin realm, save he that had the † or the nam of the beast, or the number of his name, on the fron of his business or calling, in acknowledgment of th spiritual and of the temporal power of the Pope, and the