Now there is the guilt of much "righteous blood," on the Antichristian Church. It is not merely true that individuals of her communion have persecuted the faithful servants of God-she has practised and sanctioned persecution as a Church. Professing to be" the Spouse of Christ," she has nevertheless "shed the blood of his saints like water," and is accordingly represented in the inspired prophecy as "intoxicated with their blood."-" A calculation of the sufferings inflicted by the secular "beast" upon the saints over all the nations of christendom, would astonish the world. Probably not less than fifteen millions of men have lost their lives for their attachment to the truth, and their opposition to heresy, since the rise of Antichrist. Were all the saints in christendom to be slain on the present day, it would not equal the number of the martyrs against the man of sin, who have already "sealed their testimony with their blood."*

* A million of the Waldenses perished in France: nine hundred thousand of the orthodox suffered in 30 years after the institution of the order of the Jesuits: the Duke of Alya boasted of having put 36,000 to death in the Netherlands, by the hands of the common executioner. In 30 years, the Inquisition destroyed a hundred and fifty thousand.

In France, during 50 years, from 1530 to 1580, a million of Protestants lost their lives; Charles XII. glorying in his letters to the Pope, that he had massacred 70,000 in a few days! At the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, by Lewis

The martyrs of Christ under Popery sought not revenge. They died with their Lord's intercession in their lips-" Father forgive them, they know not what they do." But their blood, like that of "righteous Abel," calls aloud for vengeance. "I saw," says John, "under the altar, the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" And the solemn appeal made by their

......

XIV. it is computed that a hundred thousand were murdered, and a million driven from their country... .. Before the States of Holland established their independence, there were put to death, in the reign of Charles V., about 50,000; in the succeeding fifteen years about a hundred thousand; and more than half a million fled their country. How many more must have fallen in the war for religion and liberty which they waged, with few intermissions, for almost 80 years! . . . . . Besides those who were put to death in the early persecutions in Scotland, Charles 11. and James H. involved the Protestant throne of England in the blood of the martyrs, in their attempts to restore the nation to the communion of the Church of Rome. .... About 2000 of the most eminent ministers in England, and 300 of the most faithful in Scotlaud, were driven from their charges, and tortured or murdered. Two hundred thousand families were reduced to poverty; and above 60,000 persons in England and 18,000 in Scotland, suffered either banishment or death. Brown's Church History.

innocent blood to the holiness and veracity of God will not be disregarded. A short while they are bidden to rest, honoured and happy in the invisible world, until the number of their martyred fellowservants and brethren shall be fulfilled; and then, when the iniquity of the persecuting power is completed, the judgment shall come. The wasting plagues, and the decisive overthrow which God will inflict on the Antichristian kingdom will be a public and striking manifestation of his holiness and truth, a vindication of the character and cause of his persecuted people, and a condemnation, before all the world, of the great and ungodly empire by which their blood has been shed. Regarded in this view, the judgments that are to be inflicted on Mystical Babylon appear altogether in accordance with the retributive character, and the holy government of God; and in this view, the Church is represented as adoring and rejoicing in them-" Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus: For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.*

III. THE OVERTHROW OF MYSTICAL BABYLON WILL BE FINAL.

This seems to be intimated by the strongly empha

Rev. xvi. 5, 6.

tic symbol employed to represent it:-"A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, this with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown, and shall be found no more at all.”—What action could more expressly denote final ruin than this? A millstone sunk in the mighty deep is irretrievably lost-consigned to oblivion; and thus shall it be with Babylon, when the judgments of the Almighty have passed over her— she shall sink to rise no more.

The same thing seems to be intimated in the very graphic description of Babylon's desolation contained in the twenty-second and twenty-third verses :"And the voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee."-These verses unquestionably portray a scene of utter and perpetual ruin. They tell us, in the first place, tha Babylon's approaching overthrow will include the total extinction of her ecclesiastical state, and the abolition of her whole system of idolatry and superstition. Pomp and magnificence, unknown in the ordinances of Jesus Christ, have characterised her institutions. The high charms of music she has em

ployed for the purpose of delusive fascination. The goodly arts of painting and statuary she has prostituted, like the pagans of the ancient world, into subservience to her idolatry. And, like them, even at noonday, does she decorate with lighted candles the temples of her superstition, and the tombs of her departed saints. But all this scene of idolatrous illusion will ere long pass away. The voice of music shall be heard in her no more. The skill of the artist shall

be needed by her no more.

The burning taper shall illuminate the scenes of her idolatry no more. The darkness of oblivion shall close over her institutions, her influence, and all her glory; and nought shall be heard of her save the loud wail of her impenitent minions, and the high gratulations wherewith the servants of God will celebrate her fall.

But this is not all. It is intimated, I apprehend, in the verses before us, that, in token of God's displeasure against the great Antichristian power, the CITY which has been its peculiar seat-where its throne has stood-and whence its unhallowed decrees have been issued forth, will be converted into a scene of utter desolation. The prophecies of the Old Testament against Chaldean Babylon, had reference, you are aware, not merely to the passing away of her power, greatness, and glory, but to her total ruin as a city." I will rise up against them," said God by his prophet, denouncing Babylon's doom, "and I will cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant,