life; and it would cease to be evil, when it should cease to be deceitful and false. The heathen idolaters believed the objects of their worship to be divine. The Jews in the wilderness, when they worshipped the golden calf at the foot of the Mount, in their own view were holding a feast to Jehovah. Saul, in his foul perjury and murder committed against the Gibeonites, thought himself zealous for the Lord. The Pharisees professed to be full of zeal against blasphemy, when they crucified the Son of God; and fancied they were doing God service, while they murdered His apostles and His holy martyrs. If a false profession, joined to a seared conscience are allowed to reverse the nature of crime, the foundations are destroyed, and what can the righteous do? It will then be easy to excuse every sin and blasphemy which has ever issued from the heart of fallen man. Our business, then, as interpreters, is with the true character of the little horn, and not with deceitful professions. The scriptures deal with realities; not with names; with the true nature of men's actions, and not with the fair pretences by which they may be disguised. For "the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is discerning in the thoughts and intents of the heart."

The truth, indeed, of the interpretation, which refers the little horn to the papacy, is only confirmed by the thick veil of sophistry under which the "great words" of pride and blasphemy have been disguised. The reality is not altered; but the danger of deception to the church is increased tenfold. The need for a divine caution is thus more apparent and manifest. All the precedents of scripture confirm this view. Seldom or never are the disciples warned, in the gospels, against the open idolatry of the Gentiles; time after time they are warned against the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees. In the epistles just the same contrast appears. The warnings against the sins of heathenism are

far less frequent than those which are aimed against Jewish corruptions or internal heresies. Hence the very reason for which some would divert this prophecy to some future and infidel power, only confirms its application to the papal dominion. The evil is here far more lasting, its character more seductive; and hence there is tenfold need of a divine caution against a danger so perilous to the church of God.

Let us suppose a rebel, in some distant province, to forge the royal seal and handwriting, and pretend to act in the name of the sovereign. He then claims to himself entire and unreserved allegiance. He abrogates whatever laws he pleases, and enacts contrary ones in their room. He enforces his own statutes by the severest punishments against those who still adhere to the old laws of the kingdom. He clothes himself with the robes of state, applies to himself the royal titles, claims immunity from the laws even of his own enacting ; and pretends that all the statutes derive their sole force from his sanction, and must borrow their meaning from his interpretation. Last of all, he banishes, strips of their goods, imprisons, and puts to death, all those subjects who abide by the laws of the king and reject his usurpation. Surely, in this case, the pretence of governing in the monarch's name does not excuse, but aggravates the rebellion. It lessens greatly, it is true, the guilt of the deceived subjects, but increases, in the same proportion, the crime of their deceiver. And if simple minds were deluded by his impudent claims, and mistook his forgery for a real commission; in such a case we might well look for some proclamation from the court of the king, far more than in the daring conquests of an open invader. These direct, hostile inroads would require arms only to repel them. The faithful armies of the king would be sent at once to chastise the aggression. But to crush a rebellion so artfully disguised, further means would be employed. A wise and paternal sovereign would be careful first to unmask the delusion, and by open proclamation disclose the wicked forgery

practised on his seal and his name. Then, and not before, when simple and loyal hearts could be deceived no longer, when the rebellion was stripped of its disguise, and no alternative left but repentance or open treason, we might expect the patient warning of love to be exchanged for the armies of vengeance, and the sword of righteous execution to go forth against the leaders of rebellion.

Such is the true nature of the present vision. It is a warning in clear language, from the king of heaven, that in the latter times, after the Roman empire is divided, a power of these high and daring pretensions will arise to vex and harass the church of Christ. It is an indignant protest from the upper sanctuary, against those enormous fictions and impious frauds on which, from first to last, the papal supremacy has been reared. And it is also a faithful warning to all the obstinate adherents and followers of papal idolatries, of the divine sentence pronounced against this doomed system of evil. For "the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end."

CHAPTER XII.

THE CHARACTER OF THE LITTLE HORN.

THE PAPAL PERSECUTIONS.

DAN. VII. 25.-" AND SHALL WEAR OUT THE SAINTS OF THE MOST HIGH, AND THINK TO CHANGE TIMES AND LAWS; AND THEY SHALL BE GIVEN INTO HIS HAND, UNTIL A TIME AND TIMES, AND THE DIVIDING OF A TIME.

THESE words reveal to us a second feature in the character of the little horn, systematic persecution of the saints of God. It will be the object of this chapter to examine how far the description can be justly applied to the Church of Rome.

That the papacy is, in its very essence, a persecuting system, is too plain to admit of doubt: its own advocates glory in the fact, as one great merit of their church. Two points, however, remain open to controversy; first whether the saints of God have been among the objects of that persecution, or heretics only; and next, whether it is so essential to Popery as a system, and in practice, began so early and lasted so long, as to fulfil the words of the inspired description. To solve these difficulties we must trace, in order, the definition of heresy in the Roman church, the laws enacted against heretics, and their practical execution from age to age. Last of all, those objections which have been raised will be shortly examined.

The definition of heresy in the Church of Rome may be gathered conclusively from the following extracts,

taken from the authorized documents, laws, and decrees of the papacy.

Decret. II. xxiii.

v. 42. Pelagius the Pope.

Let not the vain speeches of men deter you-who say that the church persecutes, while she represses those things which are committed. They err, who prate idly in this manner. No one persecutes, but he who compels to evil. The authority of canonical Scripture, and the truth of the rules given by our fathers, teach us that schism is an evil, and that men of this kind must be repressed by external power. Whoever is separated from the apostolic see, is doubtless in schism, and strives to set up an altar against the universal church. Do then yourselves what we often exhort, knowing your Christian purpose; and take pains that they who have presumed to commit such things, be brought in fit custody to the most pious prince.

The same definition re-appears in another letter, embodied in the same canons.

v. 43. Pelagius to Narses the Patrician.

What shall I say of the Ligurian, Venetian and Istrian bishops? whom it is fit that you should repress by your excellence and power, and you suffer them to glory in their rustic folly, in contempt of the apostolic see. Do not hesitate to compress men of this kind by the princely and judicial power, because the rules of the fathers have especially enjoined this; that if any one erect another altar, or make a schism, he be excommunicated and condemned; and if he despise this, he be crushed by the public powers.

Here we see that a want of absolute submission to the Roman see, without other offence or false doctrine so much as pretended, is made a full warrant for the sword of persecution.

v. 44. Pelagius the Pope.

Both divine and human laws have decreed that they who are divided from the unity of the church, and wickedly disturb its peace, be repressed even by secular power.

II. xxv. 1. 5.

Damasus the Pope.

They who willingly violate the canons are condemned by the Holy Spirit; since they blaspheme the Holy Ghost, who presume