restoration to the Romish See, before the outpouring of the sixth Vial, must be considered as but preparatory to the fulfilment of the part figured in the prophecy of the text. I refer to that which I have already noted,-their issuing, forthwith on their resettlement at Rome, of official bulls, allocutions, and indulgences, asserting or implying all their old pretensions, as those that bore the character of Christ's Vicar' (rather of Antichrist); and their reinstitution of the Inquisition and of the Jesuits: these latter such reckless agitators for the advancement of Popery, that Vitringa thought the three frog-like spirits might one and all be in his time discerned in them.2 I say I regard this as but a preparatory step to their fulfilment of what concerns them in the prophecy of the text the authority they then sought to exercise being after the old model, and without the co-ordinate and associated power of the spirit from the Dragon, in ostensible alliance. Hence though alike in France under the Bourbons, Spain under Ferdinand, and Portugal under Don Miguel, (not to add also in Bavaria, Austria,3 Sardinia,* Naples,) there was a marked revival of Popery, and in some cases even the Inquisition was again brought into active operation,5 yet, this being contrary to the spirit of the age, a popular re-action ensued, and the legitimists, its friends of the old regime, were driven from their kingdoms.-But, in the mean while, the unclean spirit from the mouth of the Beast had been essaying its strength, conjunctively with that from the Dragon, in two countries under Protestant government, viz. Ireland and Belgium and the essay had been in either case crowned with success. After the agitation of Ireland to its very centre for years, chiefly by united Romish priests and revolutionary demagogues, the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill was past in 1829, as a preferable alternative to civil war and the next year, through the united : 1 See Vol. iii. p. 369, &c. 3 See Vol. iii. p 372. Ib. 366. Mr. Wilberforce notes in the year 1819 from Spain, that the Inquisition had then begun to against the damnable errors of Luther. Life, v. 77. 2 In Apocal. p. 975. hearing from a gentleman 6 So (if I remember right) the Duke of Wellington. action of kindred spirits, the Dutch Protestant King was expelled from Belgium.-Whereupon,-notwithstanding the almost cotemporary expulsion from France of its friends the Bourbons by a similar but sole dominant democracy,-the Papal Court, after hesitating for a while what course to pursue in the new conjuncture, being brought to a conviction that democracy was in the ascendant in Western Europe, and finding that the French people, all democratic as they were, professed Catholicism as the religion of the great majority of the nation, and that its King of the Barricades himself every way courted the Papal Church and Hierarchy,-I say under these circumstances the resolution was taken by it to shape its policy conformably.' As the Dragon, having learnt from the results of the first and great French Revolution that he could not let loose on Christendom his democratic atheistic spirit, all unmodified and alone, without the danger of a re-action following, in favour of order and perhaps even of true religion, 1 In the want of a direct account of the Conclave in which the matter was discussed, and the resolution taken, which I have seen, but forget where,-let me give the following extract from the Quarterly Review for June 1844, p. 165, on the point referred to, "There is an increasing disunion," it says, "in the Papal Councils. The doctrines of La Mennais have made great progress; and Padre Ventura, who was silenced because of the countenance he gave the French Abbé when at Rome, is again in favor, and preached the Quadragesimal sermons this year. Hence the O'Connellite faction in Rome, which has always been opposed by Father Routham, General of the Jesuits, as being against all government in Church and State, while assuming the mask of attacking only the supremacy of an heretical Church, has gained much support. That O'Connellite faction has, we grieve to say, been taken up by all the English Roman Catholics; and the admirers of La Mennais are talking more composedly of the possibility of their throwing off all connection with government every where, and placing themselves at the head of the revolutionists throughout Europe." The writer adds; "Some such desperate plunge seems indeed the natural death of a system so mighty, and with so much vitality as the Papal system still possesses. It cannot die the way of all flesh, and expire like a candle burnt down into the socket, with a bright perhaps but momentary glare. It must die in a convulsion, and such a convulsion as will shake Europe to its foundation."-I add this Paragraph for comparison and contrast with what Scripture prophecy says of the end of Popedom. It is observable that in the Pope's encyclical Letter of 1825, they who preached against the union of Church and State were represented as the authors of all mischief: but never more so since 1830. In a Bull of the present just elected liberal Pope, on occasion of his Coronation, I am informed that an indulgence is accorded to such as shall visit the holy places, and pray, among other things, for the exaltation of the Holy Mother Church, and for the extermination of heresies. (for religion, in some form or other the human soul craves after,') saw that an alliance was needed with his creature the Beast, and accordingly planned it in characteristic subtlety,-so the Beast perceived also its advantage, and accepted the alliance offered :-it being obvious that it was one intended to be open or more covert, according to circumstances; not perhaps without temporary quarrels, such as the better to mask the combination and offering a double seduction from the truth and gospel of Jesus, according as either infidelity or a corrupt antichristian Christianity might best suit the character of the country, the times, or the individual. It was after this that the unclean spirit from the mouth of the Beast, the Papal Antichrist, sped forth with that rapidity and power over the earth, that has of late years so astonished the minds of men. In England, (where, as before, I wish particularly to trace its movement,) the Reform Bill having been past in 1832, through the conjunction of Romanists (now admitted into Parliament) and the several sections of selfstyled liberals and democrats, results succeeded such as, in a manner and measure little anticipated, to strengthen the cause of Popery, alike in this country and abroad.— At home, through the near balance of parties, the turning of the scale of political power was found to be in the hands of the leader of the Irish Papal party and thereby, substantially, very much of the power of the Government itself devolved on him. Hence in the 1 So Homer, one of Nature's truest poets; Θεων χατευσ' ανθρωποι. 2 So lately, in France and Switzerland. [2nd Ed.] As I am passing my 3rd Edition through the press the progress of the revolutionary movement in Switzerland is furnishing striking confirmation to the view given in the Text. While the cry "A bas les Jesuites" has furnished the pretext to these movements, the result of the revolutions both at Lausanne and at Geneva has been, that the governments in either Canton, and the Roman Catholics there residing, associate and act on terms of friendship: a full toleration being given to the Roman Catholic worship, and the erection of new Roman Catholic Chapels permitted. Whereas the Helvetic Confession has been abolished by the popular Government of the Pays de Vaud, the mass of the faithful ministers driven to the necessity of quitting the National Church, and not only no Chapels allowed them, but no toleration even to their reunions in private houses. House of Commons the deference paid to Romish principles, discouragement of all upholding of the true religious principles of Protestantism, and not infrequent assertion (amidst the applause alike of the Romish and the democratic delegates) of the obscurity of the Bible, the equal probability of truth in the most contrary views of its essential dogmas, Popish as much as Protestant, and propriety therefore of a man's following the way of his fathers: assertions directly insulting, we may surely say, to Him who gave the Bible, and fitted to awaken feelings of the need of a surer guide to the interpretation of Scripture than Protestantism could offer; that is, if the Bible were indeed the word of God. So alike in the Houses of Parliament, and throughout the country, while Infidelity was encouraged on the one hand, Popery with its sure rule of faith, was encouraged and strengthened on the other. And now Romish chapels and convents and colleges sprang up with increased rapidity over England.3 Conversions became frequent. The press gave its powerful aid to the Roman Catholic reviews, magazines, and news cause. As a late example take the following from Lord Howick, in the Debate on the Irish Question, Feb. 19, 1844. "The Right Hon. gentleman (Mr. Shaw) said, 'We take our stand on the broad ground of religious truth.' If there were wanting one thing more than another to make the maintenance of an Established Church offensive to the Irish people, it would be the employment of this argument. It was as much as to say that the Catholics were wrong, and the Protestants right. What right had he to assume that the Catholic faith was false? More than half the world adhered to it." 2 In the case of a letter or document written by a parent to his child, on a matter avowedly most deeply affecting the child's well-being, would not that parent think it insulting, were a person to assert that he had deliberately so written the letter as that the child might take it as well the wrong way, as the right one; and that even on occasion of the child's application to himself for explanation, he still, notwithstanding his direct promise to the contrary, left the child in doubt? 3 The Reformation Society has published maps from time to time, in the course of the last fifteen years, illustrative of this their rapid and continued increase. The Catholic Directory for 1843, in a list corrected up to that time, enumerates 571 Roman Catholic churches or chapels, 9 colleges, 22 convents and monasteries; and states the number of the Romish missionary priests in Great Britain at 733. The splendour of some of the churches is made a matter of boast in it: especially of the new Metropolitan Popish Cathedral in St. George's Fields, which is to tower higher, when complete, than any London church but St. Paul's. To attract subscribers to the church-building, it promises in various cases that monthly masses, or an annual solemn requiem, shall be celebrated for the souls of the donors. 3 papers, many characterized by exceeding subtlety of argument, and not a little display of learning,'-as well as cheap religious controversial works,2 and tracts fitted for the multitude, obtained, and have ever since continued to obtain, wide circulation among Protestants : and romances, and novels, and works on poetry, history, music, architecture, all of the same character, helped forward the movement.-Meanwhile in Ireland, Popery was rampant. And as the unclean spirit, speaking from the altars of the Popish chapels, swayed and infuriated the blind multitude that worshipped before them, the Protestant clergy, in respect of their property, and sometimes even of their lives, were almost treated as without the pale of the law: their institutions for educating the poor in gospel-truth forced too often to give place to the unclean teaching of Popery; and the death's 1 Mr. Bickersteth, in his late Sermon, p. 13, enumerates the Dublin Review, the Roman Magazine, the True Tablet, the Catholic newspaper, Lucas's Penny Reader, the Tracts of the Catholic Institute, (a notice of which I see in the Catholic Directory for 1843, p. 184) and many others. He adds that the " Catholic" is published every week, having twelve quarto pages of close print, and containing reviews of modern books, Protestant journals, and Bishops' charges, &c. written with much subtle cunning and sarcasm; and that it is sent gratuitously to every Romish priest in Great Britain and Ireland, and to the heads of every Popish college and Institute for education in the United Kingdom. In another place (p. 35) Mr. B. gives an extract from the Phoenix of April 10, 1840, an Edinburgh Romanist paper, very characteristic of the union of Popery and democracy against our venerable Church. "Is this the tenth year of emancipation, and do we yet endure tithes and church rates? But the system is to be extended:-16,000 churches of error and falsehood, supported by insolent robbery and oppression, are not enough. Hundreds, nay, thousands more wrung from the sufferings of the poor Catholic and Dissenter, for the dispensation of doctrines which he abhors! . . . It must not, shall not be. Above all iniquity is the Established Church of England, founded in fraud, cemented with blood, and prolonged by ignorance; existing through more than Carthaginian perfidy and cruelty. Delenda est Carthago.” 2 E. g. the Derby cheap Reprint of Standard Roman Catholic Works: in which large works like Milner's End of Controversy are priced at but a shilling. 3 E. g. The Broad Stone of Honour, Geraldine, Pugin's Ancient Cathedrals, and other such works, in the various departments of literature. How unclean the fountain at Maynooth, and in the Irish Church, the name of Dens may suffice to show. And if such the fountain, what the streams ?— The Bishop of London in his late Charge, speaks of the Jesuits as "directing the education of a great part of the people of Ireland, as well as of many of the sons of the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry of England;" and adds a quotation from the Arrêt of the Parliament of Paris in 1762, characterizing them as a sect "d'impies, fanatiques, corrupteurs." p. 75.* In Feuerbach's Narrative of remarkable Crimes, compiled from the official records of the Courts in Bavaria, and published in 1839, we are told of Father |