which was toward the north; and behold, there sat women

weeping for Tammuz." Tammuz was a pagan god of prostitution. And his female votaries were (not in the temple indeed; but sufficiently near) weeping for him; or worshipping their God!-a fit expression of all their abominations. Idolatry, infidelity, and lewdness combine, and form a threefold cord.

7. The highest grade in this image temple is next presented. "Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O thou son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me to the inner court; and behold, at the door, between the porch and the altar, were about five-and-twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord; and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun, toward the east!" This class had improved their lessons, and reached the goal designed. While some had started back, and would not go the whole length; these had hardened themselves, and ventured up to the darling highest grade; and taken the position designed. Now they could exclaim (as they in fact did) "No monarchy above."—" There is no God." "The fear of the Lord is so far from being the beginning of wisdom; it is the beginning of folly!" "Death is an eternal sleep." "Marriage is an intolerable monopoly." "Modesty is but refined voluptuousness. “Christ is an impostor. "The God of Christians is but a chimera!" Away with the Sabbath;-away with all restraints upon the passions of men.— Religion is the serpent to be crushed. Then we have the "age of reason;" and the "perfectibility" of man! These were, literally, the first outbreakings of the five-and-twenty men in the last chamber of the image temple; or the smaller number, who could go up, without fear, to the highest degree of wisdom! who could see divinity in their light in the east; but none in Christ-none in God! No priests; no censers now; no clouds of incense. Pious pretences all are cast away, when they have reached the end long had in view. The whole is a deep school of atheists; the deepest school of Satan ever planned!

8. "Then said he to me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing that they commit the abominations that they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; and lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore, I will deal in fury; mine eye shall not spare; neither will I have pity. And though they cry in mine ears with

a loud voice; yet will I not hear them." They could make light of all their preparations. If any remonstrated, O it was all innocent, all good; no evil would follow; none was intended! God says, Is it a light thing? The violence in France, filling Europe with blood, for twenty-five years, cutting off ten millions of people, and the violence which is yet to cover the world, and introduce all the horrors of the battle of the great day, which will sweep the earth of the wicked, will give the true meaning of their "filling the earth with violence!"-and will decide whether it was all a "light thing!" Their "putting the branch (sprig) to their nose," may allude to some custom of their order, best known to themselves. But it will end in a fulfilment of the stroke in Isa. xxvi. 11, of the same period;-"The fire of thine enemies shall devour them."

9. This vengeance in the next chapter follows;—or the battle of the great day; which shows the time and events of the image temple. The chosen of God are here sealed, to exempt them from the ruin of Antichrist, which follows. The going of the beast into the bottomless pit, as given in Dan. vii. 11, Rev. xix. 19; in the seventh trumpet, seventh vial; and in Rev. xiv. and many other places, is then given; and all people destitute of the mark, are utterly cut off! See chap. ix.

10. I will now exhibit the light reflected on this eighth chapter of Ezekiel, in some of the epistles. In 2 Pet. ii. and iii. chapters, and in Jude, the pencil of heaven has drawn these characters to the life. Please to read the chapters. Peter here says, "That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets; -knowing this first, that there shall come, in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?" Peter here calls us to be mindful of warnings given by ancient prophets, of these very men. But in no other writings of ancient prophets, are we so clearly warned of these infidels of the last days, as in Ezek. viii. He must then, have referred to this. Jude says of these men, that they are "crept in unawares-who were of old ordained to this condemnation." In the Greek, progegrammanoi;-fore written, or predicted to it; alluding, no doubt, to Ezek. viii. In no other prophet were they so clearly forewritten, as here. See the sameness of characters in the following. Peter and Jude say of them as follows (some in the one, some in the other, and some in both); "Privily bringing in damnable heresies; denying

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the Lord that bought them; and bringing on themselves swift destruction.' 66 'Crept in unawares; ungodly men; turning the grace of God into lasciviousness; denying the Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." And in the image temple, they have crept in by a secret door; are in hidden conclave; and they deny God: "God seeth us not; God hath forsaken the earth!" And in their very religion, they deny Christ; resting on their own priests and incense! "Filthy dreamers," says Jude.—Their designs being sensual; and their plans as much at war with common sense, as are the most idle dreams! "Wells without water,clouds without rain, carried about with the tempest, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame,sporting with their own deceiving,-speaking great swelling words of vanity,-pretending to great wisdom and good; but their plans are destitute of both. "Beguiling unstable souls, having forsaken the right way, and gone in the way of Balaam," who would curse the people of God, and plotted with Balak for their defilement. "Having gone in the way of Cain," who murdered his brother. "Trees without fruit; twice dead, and plucked up by the roots, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. Tremendous contrast with their fancied light in the east, worshipped in their image temple! These strokes are lively comments of Inspiration on the men in the chambers of imagery! And their incipient fulfilment appeared in the Voltaire and Weishaupt system of light, under cover of masonry! Jude says of them; "These are they that separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit." And in their image chambers, they were separated indeed from all the world besides; as well as sensual; and destitute of the Spirit of God. Where Christ, as the only Mediator, is excluded, the Holy Ghost never comes! Of their licentiousness, these apostles say; Having eyes full of adultery, that cannot cease from sin,"—"defile the flesh "—in the lusts of uncleanness alluring through much wantonness." And in their image chambers (the parent text of these strokes) they havecloistered near them-their " women weeping for Tammuz!" France has given the practical comment. And how grossly others have since united in the same, the last great day will unfold! Jude says to us, "Remember the words that were spoken before of the apostles, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time, walking after their own ungodly lusts." Jude here must have re

ferred to the warnings of Peter just given; and the warning of Paul, 2 Tim. iii. 1-5; which see. This warning of Paul is of deep interest;-is now fulfilling;-and should be fully committed to memory; and felt in every heart. One more warning of them in Jude is this; verses 14, 15; "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying; "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment," &c. Striking it is, that this precious fragment of primitive revelation should thus be preserved from before the flood, as the words of Enoch, that translated saint, to warn of the perdition of Antichrist;-the beast from the bottomless pit;-the infidels of the chambers of imagery! David, in his last words, gave the same, in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7, which please to read, in connexion with Mal. iv. 1-5. The prophet Isaiah has much to say of the going of this infidel host of the last days, into perdition; and of the Millennium. Of the former, he speaks in chapter xxviii., as "in covenant with death, and with hell at an agreement; making lies their refuge, and under falsehood hiding themselves;" and he goes on to assure them of their utter destruction. In chap. lix., he says of them;-"In transgressing, and lying against the Lord, speaking oppression and revolt, uttering from the heart words of falsehood; judgment is turned back, and justice standeth afar off, truth is fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey!" The battle, and the Millennium there follow. Thus we have some of the parent texts of both Peter and Jude; and we have, by these apostles, lively comments on the characters in the chambers of imagery. And both Peter and Jude give an awful view of their going into perdition. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also, these filthy dreamers."-Or, they shall sink in a similar manner. "Wo unto them,-they shall perish in the gainsaying of Corah,"-"to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."-" shall bring upon themselves swift destruction,"-" whose damnation slumbereth not. Peter illustrates this their going into perdition, by the eternal damnation of the fallen angels; and the destruction of the old world! Thus abundantly does Inspiration describe the rise, character, and destruction of this beast from the bottomless pit.

Let us not fail of deriving benefit from being contemporary with this horrid system of infidelity of the last days. Let us both learn wisdom from it; and keep clear of all affinity with it. Its fatal breath, its philtered poisons, its infernal subtleties-(for they are spirits of devils going forth "),-its multiform influence, and the legions of its propagators, would, if it were possible, "deceive even the very elect!" "All the world wondered after the beast." But his mark will expose to the vials of wrath. Deliver thyself, O Zion!"

LECTURE XXXIII.

REVELATION XVIII.

Ver. 1. And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

2. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

3. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

4. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

5. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

6. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double, according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double.

7. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she