prayers of saints, or as the earnest of the protection, and the fee-simple of the mediation of demi-gods? Who could go to do penance at a shrine, and depart acquitted, without leaving a token of respect and gratitude to the saints through whose prayers and merits he was forgiven? Or how could they be honoured but with the most valuable, precious, and pleasant things? If the virtues of the saints were to be rather purchased than practised, who would not pay? And when divine protection, absolution, and indulgences were commodities for which a price could be paid, and heaven itself entered into for money, what more profitable traffic could there be? Nay, such, in the catholic creed, is the potency, or rather the omnipotency, of gold, and the universality of its influence over spiritual as well as over terrestrial things, that it has been rendered available for a purpose, compared to which the fable of old Charon was folly, and a credulity was cherished, to which the belief of it was wisdom; and men-as in such a faith they could not fail to do-paid for themselves, while living, and for their friends when departed, not for passing, but, on the farther side of the dark unknown, for repassing Lethe,-for masses to be said for the dead, in which all the holy saints are invoked, and prayers are offered up, "to hasten the day when they shall be delivered from the mansions of sorrow, to shorten the time of their expiation, and through the prayers and good works performed in the church, to receive them into the eternal tabernacles."*

In honour of the saints, in cure for the souls of the living, and in care for the souls of the dead, the church of Rome secured for itself an earthly possession. The king, who did according to his will, and held such an high and dark dominion, by honouring

Cath. Prayer-Book, pp. 390, 391.

the saints and increasing their glory, still exalted himself above all, and made the saints which he created subservient to his purposes, and the instruments of his power.

France

And he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain. He caused them to rule over many. Under popery, not only was trust universally reposed in the merits and intercessions of many gods-protectors, but there was not a country in Europe that had not specially its patron saint.St. George for England, St. Andrew for Scotland, was the rallying cry, by which, in either country, Britain was ruled as authoritatively as subjects by a king. And what monarch's name in the sister isle ever had a charm and power over Irish Catholics like that of "St. Patrick for Ireland ?" was the fair domain of St. Dennis, though the doctors of the Sorbonne sometimes mitigated his sway. St. James had full possession of Spain, and still holds there his dark dominion. St. Mark was the dominant saint in Venice, and even the republic yielded to his authority, and subsisted in his name. St. Januarius, whose power has outlasted that of many of his compeers, still holds, by right of miracle, his lingering reign over Naples. Each kingdom was the same, and had a saint above a monarch. Nothing but a shadow now remains of a power which, however terrible, was itself but a shade-though it long rested deeply on the minds of men. In some countries it was dissipated at the Reformation by the light of the gospel; and infidelity has lately arisen to clear it away-but on dispelling the cloud, it shews only the unfathomable gulf. Yet to this day the liquefying of the blood of St. Januarius, may show by what simple means the saints were caused to rule over many, and how, in their name,

the pope and his priesthood had a power in their hands more imperative than a sceptre. No despotism on earth was ever like unto that which ruled over the abject mind.

The fancied protection was given to the people; but to the saints, for behoof of the church which espoused or created them, pertained the gain no less than the honour. They were not only honoured with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pleasant things, but the land was divided for gain. Church-plate, once a term of extensive significancy, and church-lands, are not unintelligible words, wherever popery prevailed; and it is not an obscure or ambiguous interpretation which they give to the text. Even the tribe of Levi-itself a twelfth in Israel, and entitled to its portion-had no inheritance in the land. The tenth part of the produce was theirs ; for their labour was not to be in the field, but in the sanctuary. They were set apart for a holy priesthood unto the Lord, and all that pertained to the worship of God, or to the rites and sacrifices enjoined by the law, it was their office to fulfil. But the inmates of a monastery, in whatever land, rested not satisfied with the portion which the Levites held in Judea. Unlike to them, the popish priesthood had an inheritance in land, and divided it for gain. The most pleasant portion was selected as their own, and, with a devotion of questionable disinterestedness, they fixed the residence of the saints, the abodes of images, the seats of bishops, or any of their strongholds, in the choicest spot of a fertile plain, in the sheltered glen, or in a rich meadow by a river's side. To bishoprics, abbeys, priories, and monasteries, lands were abundantly attached. But whoever may have gifted the fairest portion of their domains for the benefit of the church and the good of their souls— or whatever may be the civil right and tenure by

which they may be held, we apprehend that there is no other charter by which the "divine right" to them could be maintained, but the concluding words of this prophetic description-which all the subtility of a Jesuist could scarcely wrest to such a purposethat here form the crowning characteristic of papal domination.

The judgment of a bishop, and of a rector, may here be defered to, and their testimony may not be held as either superfluous or misplaced. "That the

principal teachers and propagators of the worship of Mahuzzim, the bishops, and priests, and monks, and religious orders, have been honoured, and reverenced, and almost adored in former ages-that their authority and jurisdiction have extended over the purses and consciences of men; that they have been enriched with noble buildings and large endowments, and have had the choicest of the lands appropriated for church lands, are points of such notoriety that they require no proof, as they will admit of no denial."* "The secular possessions of the pope are called St. Peter's patrimony, and Peter's pence was a tax levied from the several countries subject to the popedom. This, with a variety of emoluments, from the incomes of the bishops and clergy, and the disposal of the richest preferments, commonly to foreigners, were the "price" or valuable consideration for which he divided the land; and doubtless this dividing of the earth among the Mahuzzim was made a source of great gain, accruing from the several countries thus placed under the guardian care of these several saints."+

豪

Bishop Newton on the Prophecies. Disser. xvi.

+ Scott's Commentary.

CHAPTER VIII.

AND at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries ; and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore (and) he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the seas in the glorious holy mountain: yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. Ver. 40 to 45.

The appointed time during which the papacy was to prosper, and the men of understanding were to be purified and made white and tried, was itself the last great period comprehended in the vision. In the sequel of the prophecy it is asked—(c. xii. 6.)— "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" or, more literally, how long to the end of these wonders. "It is not the end of a period, but of the wonders," as Mr. Cunningham judiciously remarks, "which is the