Synod. On the 23d May, 1752, the exercise of ecclesiastical authority in the established church of Scotland deposed Mr. Thomas Gillespie from the office of the ministry, and he became the founder of the Relief Synod, which became one with the Secession Synod in 1847, under the designation of the United Presbyterian Church. It was the exercise of the same ecclesiastical authority within the church of Scotland by the non-intrusionists, in the deposition of the Strathbogie ministers from the office of the ministry, that actually occasioned the disruption of the church of Scotland in 1843, when the Free Church came into existence. But for coming into collision with the civil power, by the exercise of spiritual authority, the contest then waging might have been carried on long enough in the church courts. Who will deny that in every case the exercise of this power has been disastrous to those using it, and in all cases injurious, in its immediate effects, upon those against whom it has been exercised? At the present time, its exercise by the bishop of Exeter in England, in support of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, has done much to destroy itself, and prepare for the glory now coming. Among the Wesleyan Methodists, it is making distressing havoc; but there also it is destroying itself, and breaking up the way for a new state of matters. Its use in regard to discipline for alleged immorality, is not less destructive of itself, and injurious to the parties exercising spiritual power in this matter. In one city of the empire, Glasgow, it has displayed itself, or rather, God, in His providence, has displayed its pernicious tendency:-First, in the Secession body, in their refusal to receive back into their communion a brother minister who truly had sinned, (but who has not sinned?) but

who had also shown contrition, even in the very act of asking re-admission. This man is a living testimony against the principle which teaches men such unkindness to one another. In the Relief church, before its union with the Secession, the Glasgow Presbytery and the Synod were occupied two whole years about a matter which occasioned an amount of sin against God and against the brethren incalculable; whereas, what they were purging a man for, was scarcely discernible by themselves to be a fault. In the Free Church Glasgow Presbytery, a minister was for months under trial for offences, concerning which, the brethren must admit, that they had not the Scripture grounds for any accusation at all. The Presbytery condemned him; the Synod, by a majority of one, barely acquitted him; the Assembly, by a majority of three, barely acquitted him. It must have been a painful matter to all the christian brethren

-a duty they imagined it to be-but one which it would not be just to say they loved to discharge. This case, when finished by the church courts, was intended by God as an illustration of the utter hopelessness which must attend every attempt made by men to do that which the Lord of glory has not given power to enable men to do. Left in the hands of men, that case brought a scandal upon the christian name, did great injury to all who had any connection with it, placed the Presbytery in a most embarrassing position, and left a very general impression upon men's minds that the person libelled was a persecuted and ill-used man, and that because of other things which had previously transpired between him and his brethren. The Lord took the case into His own hands, and without troubling the Presbytery or any other earthly tribunal, He has taken away the cause of

reproach. Have ye not eyes to see what the Lord is doing, and ears to hear what the Lord is saying? When man took the husbandmanship into his own hands, he wrought confusion, occasioned strife, did much harm, and, after all, could not purify the church. When the Lord appeared as the purifier of His church, He spake, and it was done. He so confronted the sinner with his sin, that he fled forthwith; and thus He took away, in His adorable providence, the occasion of reproach. And who has not heard what has happened, through this very principle, to one of the most esteemed ministers of the gospel, a member of the Congregational body, in Glasgow? That good old man's heart is rent and torn, which it would not have been, if a brother did not exercise the imaginary right of accusing and judging another brother. Truly, our Lord has fulfilled His word, He has cast those who commit this kind of spiritual adultery into great tribulation; and He will destroy all the offspring of that woman Jezebel, and purify His people unto Himself, without the aid or intervention of

man.

Elijah the prophet lived in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. He of whom Elijah was a figure, is to come and restore all things; He will appear during the existence of spiritual Egypt and Sodom, of which powers Ahab and Jezebel were figures; and He will declare when He appears the time of their final destruction, just as Elijah of old foretold the time of the destruction of Ahab and Jezebel. The parallels in this part of God's procedure are numerous. We shall go backward to the first. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man. The ark built by Noah was a figure, so the apostle Peter writes. It was in length 300 cubits;

each cubit being a year, this signifies 300 years. From the appearance of Constantine the Great, until the woman Jezebel dates her existence, is from 306 to 606, that is 300 years. From Luther's collision with the pope, and his appeal to a general council of the church, until the birth of the man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, is also 300 years; that is, from 1518 to 1818. The ark was thirty cubits in height. So the man-child, when thirty years of age, was to be caught up unto God and to His throne: this corresponding with the age of Joseph when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt; also with the age at which the sons of Levi were eligible to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation; and further, with the age at which our Lord commenced His work: that is, the year 1848. When a woman brought forth a manchild, she was to continue thirty and three days purifying herself: so the churches in Great Britain, where this man-child has been born, have had thirty-three years of purification to pass through from the time of his birth; that is, from 1818 to 1851.

The waters of the flood prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days; so the locusts which arose out of the bottomless pit prevailed five months, or 150 prophetic years, being 148 ordinary years; this being the time that elapsed from 606 till 754, when the civil as well as the supreme spiritual power was lodged in the person of the pope; this being the abomination that maketh desolate, spoken of by Daniel the prophet. Noah was 120 years in building the ark: from 1803, already spoken of, to 1923, also spoken of, is 120 years. Noah was six hundred years of age when the flood came upon the earth; in the second month of his six hundredth year he entered

the ark. The pope, in the year 1206, his six hundredth year, entered the ark by which God has purposed to save His people, that ark being His church in Great Britain. In the six hundredth year thereafter, the flood of Napoleon's power had found its way to the pope of Rome; for in October, 1805, the pope was told by Napoleon, that although sovereign of Rome, Napoleon was its emperor. This was the Destroyer destroying, or threatening the destruction of destruction. In the same year

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and about the same time of the year, Wellington, whom God raised up, as He did Constantine of old, to deliver His church in the time of peril, landed in England, on his return from the East Indies. Then was fulfilled the second time what God said by the prophet Isaiah, “ Calling a ravenous bird, that is a warrior, from the east" Wellington did not appear in the character of a destroyer however; his was the high and honourable calling by heaven to be a deliverer. Then it was that God called upon that woman Jezebel to repent, and gave her space for repentance. On the 2d February, 1808, Rome was occupied by a large body of French troops, and on the 2d April in the same year the pope was confined a prisoner in the Quirinal palace. On 17th May, 1809, Napoleon issued a decree, formally annexing Rome to the French empire. On the 5th July in the same year, the Quirinal was surrounded by three regiments of soldiers under command of General Radet, and after a portion of them had forced their way into the pope's presence, on the following morning Rome was without the presence of a pope, he being carried "If any away. man have an ear let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity, he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword." (Rev. xiii. 9,