fuse obedience to the ten-horned beast. It may represent those threats of the fire of divine wrath which would be denounced against those who should presume to think for themselves.. It may denote those fires of persecution which, though kindled by the secular power, were always sent forth from the church. It appears, also, that the second beast would deceive men by claiming the exercise of miraculous gifts. This last mark of the second beast is a very decisive one, because the pretension to work miracles, since the days of the apostles, has been rare. It will not be difficult, therefore, to decide, at first sight, what power in modern times has set up claims to the possession of the power of working miracles, and has by this means practised great deception on men.

Again, another mark of the second beast given in the prophetic account, is, that he would introduce into the empire the worship of images, or a new modification of ancient idolatry. The first beast had been an idolatrous power in its form of pagan Rome. In the conversion of the emperor Constantine it received a deadly wound; in that, idolatry was suppressed. But in process of time, the deadly wound was healed, by the empire's relapsing into idolatry in a different form. And this latter idolatry would be brought forward by the second beast. Now, the question is, what power, in connexion with the Roman empire, has been chiefly instrumental in introducing the worship of images? To this, there can be but one answer; it is popery.

Once more, another, and the last mark of the two horned beast in this vision, which we shall bring to view, is, that it causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead. By this is denoted a power which would have some visible token or emblem always conspicuous about their persons. What this mark, or sign was we are not informed; but it is a well known fact that the papists have a visible sign, or mark, which is always

conspicuous. Every papist carries with him in some conspicuous place the sign of the cross, either by a visible cross suspended upon his person, or by crossing himself before others as a mark of his religion.

One instance more we find in the Revelation of John, of the mention of this apostate power: it is in the seventeenth chapter. There an ecclesiastical apostacy is brought to view under the symbol of the GREAT WHORE, who is said to have committed fornication with the kings of the earth; and the inhabitants of the earth are said to have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. This power John saw represented as a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of the names of blas phemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in all the costly things of the earth, having in her hand a golden cup, to denote her command of the wealth of nations. The woman also was drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Can there be any question in candid minds what power is here represented? Where can we find an antitype, if not in the popish church? Those that question the application of these predictions to popery, are bound to point out the predicted. apostacy some where else.

SECTION XI.

MORAL INFLUENCE OF POPERY.

HAVING taken a comprehensive view of the system of popery, in its origin, its progress, its doctrines, its practice, and its fruits, it now remains that some results be deduced. These, however, must be very brief. We might here speak of the influence of popery on the intellectual improvement of man, and show that it is, and always has been, a determined enemy to the diffusion of knowledge of all kinds. It admits of nothing but what

can be made subservient to the interests of popery and most assuredly neither literature nor science, in their true and genuine character have any such subserviency. The schools and seminaries of which papists boast, and to which they invite the attention of parents, are only nurseries of popery. There children are environed with an influence and a supervision which can hardly fail to secure them while they live. The children of protestant parents are there literally imprisoned, under the plausible pretext of education; they are persuaded or compelled to become papists, and they may communicate nothing to parents but what passes the inspection of their masters. Indeed, when we find Gallileo arraigned and condemned by the inquisition for scientific discoveries, who can have any hope of a propitious influence from that quarter. But this is not the point on which I would now insist. There are interests more important than those of science. And the question is, what influence does popery exert over the morals of men? To answer this question correctly, look first at her principles. Hear her teach, that all kinds of deception, fraud, and lying are justifiable, when the glory of God and the good of the church require them; that no faith is to be kept with heretics, or those who differ from her; hear her teach that the pope can change the essential nature of moral good and evil; that he can make, by his fiat, sin to be holiness and holiness to be sin, and that he can dispense with all laws human and divine, and pardon all transgressions, and that what he does is infallibly correct. Taking this view of popery as to its moral, or rather its immoral principles and maxims, and who could expect any consequent influence but that of the most deadly character? Men will not rise higher in their practice than their standards, and they generally fall greatly below them. If then such are the standard principles of popery, what must be her practice, what her moral state, and her moral influence? Concerning this point we have only to revert to facts

which have been detailed, to obtain a complete answer. From Rome, the seat of life to popery, with her hundreds of licensed brothels, of the profit of which the pope participates, with her gambling, drunken cardinals, and her carnival soirees, we may go down through all the channels of her influence, and what do we find but a mass of moral corruption and putrefaction. Outwardly, she is fair and splendid, like the woman on the scarlet colored beast, she is gorgeously arrayed, she has a golden cup, and garments decked with jewels, and attracts the wonder and admiration of a credulous multitude. But enter her courts, go to the secret place of her sorceries, and you discover her real name and character; it is, Mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.

She has been zealous to spread her influence, and enlarge her dominion; and because her proposals are suited to the natural feelings of men, who love darkness rather than light in respect to religion, she has been vastly successful. But what has been the consequence? Who has not been made worse by her coming? Go to Asia Minor, go to the peninsula of hither India, go to South America, go to Canada, for an answer. Even paganism blushes at the corruptions of popery.

Plato, Seneca,

Confucius, and Socrates, would be degraded by a comparison with the morality of the pope, with all his holiness. Protestant countries and cities are wicked enough in spite of the influence which their religion exerts to check them; but they are paradise, to countries and cities" which lie under the influence of popery, which gives vigor and license to all the corrupt propensities of human nature. Indeed, popery has nothing vitally moral about it. It is a carcass of pretences, forms, show, epithets, and every holy thing that can be put in language or represented by grimace; but inwardly, it is all rottenness; and practically, it is the very smoke of the bottomless pit. Does any one ask, is not this a railing accusation?

I answer, no—it is the fair deduction from premises furnished by the whole course of authentic history for many ages. Papists may flutter and equivocate, but they are challenged to disprove the facts from which these consequences unavoidably flow.

Such being the moral influence of popery, it is almost needless to say that its civil influence is most pernicious. For all experience testifies that correct morals are the essential basis of good society and civil liberty. Not only will immoral persons be enemies to all wholesome laws and restraint, but their example will be spreading the pestilence around them, till the whole community becomes corrupt. Popery then, being a system of immorality, must be essentially inimical to all civil liberty and free institutions. They cannot be papists, who advocate, or even tolerate republican principles in sincerity, any more than a man can serve two masters. All papists, from the nature of the case, must consider their allegiance to the pope as paramount to every other, they are then really the subjects of a foreign power, and the vassals of despotism, and all oaths of allegiance contrary to this are among their dispensable lies and frauds, and will be so found in the hour of trial. They will always side with any faction that is most favorable to their master the pope. This is the testimony of observation. So it has been in Spain, so it is in Portugal, so it has been and is in the states of South America. The fruits in that fair field of liberty have been blighted and withered by the influence of popery. And though they talk of liberty, they know it not. In a word, show me a country, or a state on which the sun ever shines, where popery is in the ascendant, or where it is predominant, that enjoys any thing like civil liberty, or has any rational prospect of such enjoyment. Produce a solitary example of desirable civil society, that is, desirable for its equal rights, its free institutions, its enlightened population, under the baleful influence of popery. Show me a free press, or a trial by jury, in all the domains of popery.