then devise a method to rescue them by the means of a second representative, who was to partake of their nature without their sin, that He might take the burden of their sin upon Himself; and, to enable Him to sustain it and atone for it, it was absolute that He should possess another nature, which was Divine, and capable of attaching infinite virtue to His sufferings. Thus, having joined the nature of the fallen to the nature of the eternally just and holy, He placed Himself in a position to suffer the punishment of sin in a manner to remove the curse which was suspended over the land.

III. The result of the satisfaction obtained by the death of the sons of Saul was that "God was entreated for the land;" which means, literally, that the cause of the famine which desolated the country in consequence of Saul's perfidy and cruelty was solely removed by the satisfaction received through the death of his sons. The displeasure of God, who hates sin of every description, was thus pacified. He consequently heard the intercession of David, smiled upon the people, and restored happiness and prosperity within the borders. In like manner He has declared the satisfaction which He received through the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him He was well pleased. All His attributes were glorified in what was done; love and justice, mercy and holiness, grace and truth embraced each other at the foot of the tree on which the Saviour was hanged. There they met in perfect harmony, every obstacle being removed from the way of their union. He, as it were, looked around from the cross, and spoke in the language of David, "What ye shall say, that will I do for you." The demands were presented and met; every debt was cancelled, atonement was made for every transgression, and in the words, "It is finished," sounded the key-note of reconciliation between God and

man.

God was henceforth to be intreated for the land. He would hear the intercession of His Son for us, who "ever liveth to intercede for us." His mediatorial prayers are suc

cessfully offered on our behalf, so that through Him we have free access to the Father. He will also be entreated by us. We can approach Him in reverence without fear, being encouraged to come boldly to a "throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

None now need be discouraged, for God, having received satisfaction, declares, "Though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." The wicked may therefore "forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." The invitations of the Gospel are replete with encouragement. Sinner, do not despair; come as thou art, with a penitent heart, and He will receive thee.

120

The Seventh Sunday after Trinity.

EVENING SERVICE.-Second Lesson: 2 Thess. ii.

Verse 8.-" And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming."

SINCE the religion of innocence ceased, truth has never existed in the world without error. Though truth be older than error, yet error is not much younger than truth. Antichristianism is almost as old as Christianity. The mystery of iniquity soon appeared after the revelation of the mystery of godliness. The Thessalonians were soon shaken in their profession of the truth by the introduction of error. That error

manifested itself in a wrong notion of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, which some had evidently imposed upon them as being just at hand, thus troubling and unsettling them in the doctrines which they had been taught. St. Paul labours to enlighten them on the subject, telling them that, though the coming of Christ was a fact to be believed as an encouragement to fidelity and perseverance, yet the time of His coming had not been revealed; therefore he would not have them unfit themselves for the vocations of life, which such a notion would conduce, nor subject Christianity to disrepute, which would be the consequence of a disappointed expectation. Then he produces an argument which was to him, and would be to them, a convincing proof that the second coming was not near at hand. "Let no man deceive you, for that day shall not come except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." The reference was to some general apostacy or defection of the visible Church from the faith of Christianity

as then existing. The question arises-to what did the Apostle refer? It was to something future, and something that would not occur for a considerable time. The spirit, it is true, was already invoked. Satan watched his earliest opportunity to introduce the leaven into the meal; but there was a preventive force to check the progress. What was to appear he calls " that man of sin, the son of perdition." By the man of sin" is to be understood no one particular person, but a succession of persons possessing the same spirit and claiming the same power. The man of sin is also the "son of perdition," first destroying others, and lastly being destroyed himself. The man of sin and the son of perdition is in the text called that "Wicked" or, as the original word may be translated that lawless one, which is a most appropriate epithet. There has arisen no person, nor succession of persons, in the Christian Church, from the time of the Apostle to the present, unto whom the language employed here can be applied but one. That the reference is made to the apostate Church of Rome there can exist no doubt, for all the characteristics of that apostacy literally correspond with the picture drawn here by St. Paul. It is a true photograph of the Papacy, and in holding it up for your inspection we shall notice first, its rise; secondly, its character; and thirdly, its end.

I. The rise of the Papacy as described here by St. Paul. 1. We find that it originated in a gradual degeneracy from the true faith of the gospel. "For that day shall not come except there be a falling away first." Even in the days of the Apostles the falling off commenced; errors crept in, and the simplicity of Christ crucified was substituted by the introduction of doctrines and customs which dimmed the lustre of the pure gold. The Apostle John lived to see heresy becoming rampant, and many who had been instructed in the doctrines and discipline of the Apostles resorted to traditions and fables which soon afterwards rent asunder the peace and prosperity of the Church. The "mystery of iniquity" did

already work, and only waited an opportunity to manifest itself in the virulence of its destructive dispositions. Heathen persecutions tended to keep together for a time the flock of Christ, and to check the spread of antichristian principles among themselves; but as soon as those persecutions were relaxed, internal degeneracy increased, and a desire for supremacy and power divided those who should be one into contending sections. Early did the Bishop of Rome claim a superior position, chiefly on account of his being the bishop of that city which held authority at the time over the rest of the civilized world. Then

2. The Apostle mentions a great obstacle on the way of the man of sin- being at once revealed. "And now ye know what withholdeth." "Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way." The power which obstructed the immediate appearance of Antichrist is not named. The Thessalonians knew to whom he alluded; a consideration of policy probably was the reason why the name is not mentioned here. The word translated letteth means to possess or occupy. Some one was in possession of something which was an obstacle on the way of Antichrist, to be revealed as it would be at some future period. This impediment is generally understood to be the Roman empire. The man of sin could not rise to his greatness so long as that empire stood in its grandeur. The seat could not be filled by two imperial powers at once; while the Roman Empire possessed Rome the seat was occupied, and, till it became vacant, it could not be the seat of Antichrist. Why did not the Apostle name the power which withheld? It was that he might not incense the Roman emperors against the Christians, which he must have done had he said openly, "Antichrist shall not come until the Roman empire be destroyed." But that which then "let" was to be taken out of the way, not at once, but gradually, as the sequel proves. There was an inward decay, and then an outward pressure to accomplish the end.

The prophet Daniel spoke of four great empires, the last