according to the ancient predictions, are to be headed up in the general apostasy of the Gentiles. In one word, it is a mystery of wrath, error, and demoralization, directly opposed to the mysteries of grace, holiness, and salvation, which St. Paul, in concert with the other apostles, was charged to proclaim to the universe. This mystery of grace it was that, having lain hid during the past ages, has been disclosed in the prophetic Scriptures, "according to the knowledge of every people, that they may obey the faith," a mystery which is nothing else than "Jesus dwelling in us, and who is become the hope of our glory." (Rom. xvi. 25; Col. i. 26.) It is this that separates us from the mass by an election purely gratuitous; this it is that justifies us by faith and its all-powerful grace, and makes us eternally happy by the communication of its blessedness.

Hence, then, a mystery is achieved in us only so far as we acknowledge in heart and spirit, to Christ's honour, that in the work of our salvation, "all is from Him, all is by Him, and that to Him alone pertains the glory in every age.' (Rom. xi. 36.) From this it is easy to understand that the mystery of Christ is to make men truly religious, to give glory to God, which is his due, to put man in his proper place, to make him confess with his mouth and believe in his heart, his utter poverty, his entire impotence, his deep corruption, his fearful unworthiness,-to make him acknowledge at the same time the almighty power of God on the human heart, in the dispensation of his gifts, his signal justice towards some, his immense pity towards others of the human race. By these means a reasonable creature yields to his Author and Redeemer the perfect homage of a humble, submissive faith, of a salutary fear, of an unbounded confidence and love without measure.

By a consequence quite natural, the Mystery of Iniquity, of which the apostle points out to us the first buddings after the origin of Christianity, consists properly in refusing to God the glory which is his due, in making man forget his impotence and nothingness, in inspiring him with a presumptuous confidence in his own powers, in teaching him to speak, not indeed with the mouth, but by the intimate dispositions of the heart, in the language of that impious King of Babylon, "I will ascend to heaven, I will be like the Most High.' Pride so insolent seems incomprehensible. Even those who open their hearts to this monster take care not to identify themselves with it when it is put before their eyes in all its deformity. But can we reflect a moment and not see, that

this attempt, which horrifies us in the King of Babylon and of Satan, whose type he was, becomes the very crime of man when he affects to make himself righteous by his own powers, and to decide on his own eternal destiny? To make true righteousness spring up in the heart, is, in the judgment of the holy doctors, a work more grand than the creation of heaven and earth: this is, par excellence, the work of Jesus Christ; this is the end and fruit of his incarnation, and of all the mysteries which have followed in its train. Hence it is evident, that by arrogating to himself the power to produce this miracle, man sets his throne hard by the throne of God, becomes his rival, and makes himself like the Most High. Such is once more the Mystery of Iniquity. It is composed of two principal poisons, which still flow from one common source, I mean, pride, and love of independence. The first is Pharisaism, the second a false philosophy. It is on these two bases that Satan has erected his detestable mystery, to blind and corrupt them in the course of every age, and to frustrate, as far as they are concerned, the grand work of “God manifest in the flesh," by substituting the way of the law for the way of faith, and the presumptuous efforts of free-will for a humble acknowledgment of one's misery and a firm confidence in the gratuitous, but all-powerful, pity of the Saviour.

In making Israel swallow his first poison, Satan achieved his object of rendering the true Messiah useless and odious: he plunged the whole nation into apostasy, as St. Paul teaches us," Israel trying to fulfil the law, in order to arrive at righteousness, yet did not attain to that which could confer it. Wherefore was this? Because they sought for it, not by faith, but as if they could attain to it by the works of the law, for on that stumbling-block they fell." It is "by unbelief (that is, feelings of pride opposed to the way of faith) that the natural branches of the true olive were broken off." It was this venom of Pharisaism which false apostles-Jews by birth, but hypocritically Christians,—full of false zeal for the law and jealousy against St. Paul, strove to spread in all directions; with this they would have inoculated all the rising Churches, had not the apostle combated with all his powers their pernicious teaching.

But these teachers of lies have left only too many heirs of spirit and errors. Pharisaism has, from age to age, assumed different forms, but without ceasing to diffuse its poisons, to make proselytes to the Prince of pride, to form zealous co operators in the Mystery of Iniquity. It attacked, with

more or less success, the necessity of the grace of Christ and its precious characteristics. But whether it has conducted itself with more impudence or cunning, it has always preserved its venom, by erecting free-will into a rival Divinity, and paying to it the homage of all that is important and decisive in the work of righteousness and eternal salvation. To this prime source of the Mystery of Iniquity there was soon joined a proud philosophy, which wills not to be responsible to any but herself for her peculiar knowledge, which cannot resolve to bind herself under the wholesome yoke of faith, which dares to lower the highest mysteries to the level of a foolish reasoning, and insolently blasphemes that of which she is ignorant. It is this which, coming from the school of Plato, has crept into the Church and given birth to so many heresies.

From the union of these two poisons has been formed the third leaven of iniquity in the bosom of the Church: I mean, that deplorable style of spirituality which, under the vain idea of lofty contemplation and senseless disinterestedness, dares to treat with God as equal with equal, boasts of not accepting anything at his hands (either for its own peculiar perfectness or for its eternal happiness), which flatters itself with being able to arrive at the most eminent virtue, while, at the same moment, it puts aside and tramples underfoot the mysteries of Christ, his grace, his law, the chief good, the enjoyment of God himself; an extravagant heroism, a monstrous indifference, which is the height of pride and, as the essential character of this chef-d'œuvre of Satan, seeks to liberate man from the empire of God himself.

It was easy to foresee the bitter fruits which would grow from this empoisoned trunk. If man has no need of anything but himself to attain unto righteousness, and, by means of it, to supreme happiness, there would have been no need for the Word to descend from heaven and join himself to human nature. Thus there has been found, since the first ages of the Church, a number of presumptuous spirits, such as a Cerinthus, an Ebion, a Paul of Samosata, who denied the mystery of God incarnate, and who saw nothing in Jesus Christ but a simple messenger, like many others; not God the Redeemer of our fallen nature, not the fountain and the dispenser of true righteousness. If we can approach to God and treat with Him without a Mediator, if we have no need of either offering or priest to appease the Divine justice, what good is it to conceive a plurality of persons in the Godhead, and charge one of them with the commission of reconciliation of the

human race? Can we in this case feel astonished that Sabellius, and other heretics, have dared to treat as chimeras the sacred dogmas of the Trinity and incarnation.

Lastly, all the world knows that to the monstrous absurdities which the pride of false righteousness and a mad philosophy brought forth, a carnal spirituality failed not to add its notorious mischief, and thus completed the last feature in the Mystery of Iniquity, which Satan is working out in the Church; a mystery which, like a dark storm, traverses, with more or less outrage, every past century, and which, having caused up to this time so many disasters in religion, will end by weakening and infecting with its poisons, and at last with perverting the whole Gentile Church.

If we examine, in good faith (de bonne foi), the different features which the harlot in the Apocalypse is said to possess, it is very difficult not to recognise, under this emblem, the "City of Rome."

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"I will tell thee," says the angel to St. John, "the mystery of the Woman and the Beast, who has seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the Woman is seated. Inasmuch as it is a woman that thou sawest, this is the great city that ruleth over the kings of the earth.”

That there may be some other city that sitteth on seven hills besides Rome is, indeed, very possible, but the reigning over the kings of the earth as well can be predicted of Rome alone. She alone of all that are built on seven hills has, in the first place, reigned over the kings of the earth by a temporal dominion, and for eighteen centuries has continued to lord it over a large number of princes, kings, and people, by the ascendancy of her religion. No other city in the world shares this remarkable characteristic with the city of Rome. This first point is not, cannot be disputed. But next to this it is natural to inquire, if it is of Rome while yet Pagan, or of Rome when become Christian, but degenerate and corrupted, that John speaks under the name of Babylon the Great? It is certain, in the first place, that the Babylon, which the apostle describes with features so marked and frightful, its abominations and future ruin, cannot be the ancient city of that name so often accursed by the prophets. The terrible catastrophe which he pictures is for a far-distant future.

Next, the first, or literal Babylon was no longer in existence when John wrote his Revelation. Buried in her ruins, humbled to the dust, she had been for a long series of years the refuge of the vilest reptiles and dragons, as Isaiah had fore

told. What likelihood is there that the prophecy of John should have for its object a city which is no longer in existence, in which no person in the world now takes any interest, and of which no traces remain but in the pages of history? But once more, this point is clearly a settled one.

Neither can it be Pagan Rome that the apostle mentions. The guilty city in question is shown him as a profound mystery. She even carries her name written on her front (Rev. xix. 5); and the apostle was seized with astonishment on beholding it. Her guilt is excessive; the severest punishment will be far below her deserts. But these abominations are cloked over with a certain external covering which conceals her deformity. It requires great attention and a superior light to discover what she is, and what she deserves in the judgment of truth.

But if the design of St. John had been to speak of ancient Pagan Rome, how could it have been astonishing, how would it have been mysterious or difficult to comprehend that an idolatrous city, openly the enemy of the true God, bent on abolishing her worship and exterminating his worshippers, should be odious in his eyes and devoted to a signal punishment? There is, then, no reason to believe, that, in throwing his eyes down the perspective of the future, from which he was separated by so many centuries, the holy apostle points us to a Christian city, but still such as shall then be depraved and corrupted, charged with guilt, making religion subservient to her pride, domination, and avarice, and such as shall merit God's pouring over her the vials of his indignation. It is to her to whom he applies the mournful epithet, which will attach to her towards the end of the second dispensation, the Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth.

It is from her principally that there will burst into open day the abuses and mischief, which in the last times are destined to inundate the Gentile Church, and consummate the Mystery of Iniquity, by substituting for the spirit of the Gospel an unbridled pride, a violent desire to invade and subjugate every thing. Blinded by ambition, this mysterious woman will change the august but moderate prerogatives into foolish and turbulent pretensions, which cause infinite evils to religion and Governments. She will be in her own eyes, and wishes to be in the eyes of all throughout the world, an absolute ruler, set free from all law, and superior to every power, the only source and fulness of all authority. She will strive to put under her feet, all that is greatest in that age, all that is most eminent in religion. She will believe that she