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LECTURE LVII.

THE RELIGION AND MORALITY OF THE CHURCH OF rome.

REV. ix. 20, 21. And the rest of the men, which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk :

Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

THE verses before us partake of the same prophetical character with those already considered; but they are written in a style very different from that which is commonly employed by this prophet. Here we meet with almost nothing that can be said to be figurative. The language is plain, simple, and familiar ; and must be understood in the same sense in which we would undoubtedly have taken it, supposing the terms and expressions had been used in his gospel, or in any of his epistles. They are intended to describe the hardened and unfeeling state of those who are called the rest of the men, and who were not killed by the judgments either of the first or of the second of the woe-trumpets.

The first point to be determined is, Who are meant by these hardened and impenitent men? The text is not without intimations which may lead to a discovery. They are such as were not killed by the army of the horsemen. And, as the ravages of this army were spread over all those regions of the East where the religion of Jesus Christ had been propagated, we must look for them in the West, where neither the plague of the locusts was permitted to torment, nor the plague of the horsemen to destroy the inhabitants. They cannot be understood of the sealed company, because that company

were genuine worshippers and not idolaters; they had another heart than those impenitent sinners possessed. They cannot be understood of any other than the followers of Antichrist, whose sway was specially exercised in those countries where neither the Saracens nor Turks were permitted to come.-To render the propriety of this application still more obvious, you have only to recollect, that, about the time in which John saw a great star falling from heaven, he saw a smoke like that of a furnace rising up out of the pit. The former, we have seen, must be understood of the Antichristian and the latter of the Mahometan delusion.. These wicked interests began to prevail about the same time; and any person acquainted with history knows, that in the period of this trumpet, all the inhabitants within the ancient territorial possessions of the Romans, except the sealed company, had embarked in the cause of one or other of these two interests. And as the men that were not killed are distinguished from the horsemen, they cannot be meant of any other than the followers of Antichrist.-The verses are a supplement to the prophecy of the trumpets; in which, after describing the deplorable state of the East, by the events of the first and second woe-trumpets, the prophet, before he enters upon another subject, gives a general view of the religious and moral condition of the West. He had left the inhabitants of that region shrouded in the darkness of a terrible eclipse; but as to how they were exercised during this period of darkness he had said nothing. Here he informs us, and thus concludes the prophecy of the trumpets, with a view of the two great divisions of the Christian world.-The propriety of this application will appear still more evident, by considering the different particulars of the description.

Before entering, however, upon this review, it may be proper to remind you, that the errors and abominations of Popery were much better understood in the early periods of the Reformation, than by the greater part of Protestants in the present day. Popery was then viewed as the common adversary of Protestants; and every one endeavoured to make himself

acquainted with those errors and abominations which, by his public profession, he had bound himself to oppose. Since those days, the friends of Reformation have been greatly divided among themselves. Their quarrels and contentions have been of such long continuance, that they have in a great measure forgotten the appearance of their old and implacable enemy. Hence multitudes, through mere ignorance of the tenets of Popery, speak of them as if they were perfectly harmless; as if the whole system were changed; the harsh features of the beast not only softened, but so completely altered and improved, that the affairs of Protestant countries would be equally safe in the hands of Catholic as of Protestant rulers and statesmen. But Popery breathes the same intolerant spirit that ever it did; and so far as the articles of the Popish faith are known to Protestants, they have not undergone the smallest change to the better. They are the same as settled by the council of Trent in the middle of the 16th century. A summary of these articles was given by Pius IV. commonly called the creed or confession of Pope Pius, and which, in almost all Catholic countries, continues to be received as the common standard of the Catholic faith. We therefore do them no injustice while we judge of their opinions by a rule to which they themselves profess adherence.-There is hardly any part of Scripture in which we have a more compendious, and at the same time a more simple and luminous account of the errors and abominations of Popery, than in the verses before us; they therefore merit particular attention, both because the circumstances of our own times require that Protestants should know the true character of the Popish church, and because the better you are acquainted with it you will more fully apprehend the meaning of the descriptions of the Popish state and interests, in the subsequent parts of the Revelation.

The subject of these verses is divided into two distinct branches, of which the one contains an account of the idolatries, and the other of the immoralities of the church of Rome. Her idolatries are specified in ver. 20., and are of two kinds;

one respects the object, and another the manner of her worship. The first is described under the notion of demon-worship, or the worship of devils; and the second, under the notion of the worship of idols.

With respect to the first we are told, that the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils-You are not from this to suppose, that the Romish church hath instituted rites and ceremonies, or appointed public festivals to be celebrated in honour of devils, or that she has given any thing like a public sanction to the formal worship of wicked spirits; but unless she can free herself from the charge of requiring formal acts of worship to be paid to other gods besides Jehovah, she cannot free herself from the just imputation of this crime. However excellent the object, if it be not clothed with the perfection and excellency of God, worship paid to it is represented in Scripture as worship paid to the devil; hence all the gods of the Heathen are called devils. All the gods of the nations are idols,' (Septuagint, devils,) Psal. xcvi. 5. And the apostle assures us, that the things which the Gentiles sacrificed they sacrificed to devils, and not to God, 1 Cor. x. 20. The worship of the Gentiles was not limited to the rites which were celebrated in honour of the infernal gods; they supposed the sun, and moon, and stars, to be beneficent deities, and honoured them, not because they dreaded them, but because they were supposed to be possessed of the most friendly disposition towards men. For the same reason they paid their adorations to Jupiter, whom they considered as the common parent of the human family, and whom they usually styled the Father of gods and men, the greatest and the best of beings. Nevertheless, the whole of their worship is represented, in both the Old and New Testament Scriptures, as the worship of devils; and such is the account also that is given of the worship of the ten tribes. When they revolted from the house of David, they did not mean to change their God as well as their king. They still intended

to serve Jehovah, but under a new form, by paying their adorations through the external medium of the calves which were set up at Dan and Bethel. It is nevertheless said of Jeroboam, that he made priests for the high places and for devils, 2 Chron. xi. 15. And in the wilderness, when they bowed down before the golden calf, and professed through that symbol to keep a feast to Jehovah, their worship is said expressly to have been the worship of devils, Deut. xxxii. 17.

In vain do Roman Catholics plead, that the text under review contains no charge against them, as it is no part of their creed that devils should be worshipped, nor are any of the rites and ceremonies of their church instituted in honour of devils; because, from the texts just quoted, it appears, that if worship be given to any being that is not God, this, according to the mind of the Holy Ghost, is the worship of devils. The reason must be obvious. God and Satan are two masters, whose interests are directly opposed to each other. It is impossible to serve both; and therefore all the honour and service which are not given to God, he must consider as bestowed upon his rival. Now, Catholics will not deny that they worship saints and angels as well as God. It is one of the articles of their public creed, That the saints reigning with Christ are to be worshipped, and that their relics are to be had in veneration!' and when they worship these inferior beings, they generally ascribe to them the very same excellency which they ascribe to God himself, and thus set them as high as their Maker. Thus, in that celebrated hymn called Te Deum, generally sung on high festivals, and on occasion of some splendid victory, they ascribe something like infinite holiness and other divine perfections to the Virgin Mary. They call her, holy, holy, holy Mary; they style her the queen of heaven, the vein of mercy, and the refuge of a sinner. And as if she were in reality possessed of all that excellency which they ascribe to her, they implore her to do for them such acts as are competent for God himself only to perform. Have mercy upon us, Lady, have mercy upon us; let thy mercy be