When these things are considered, it will be perceived that the reign of the Papacy has been by far the most melancholy visitation wherewith the Church has ever been exercised; nor can we hesitate to acknow→ ledge, that the permitting this "mystery of iniquity” to exist, and to oppose and triumph over the Church for so long a period, is one of the most inscrutable dispensations of the Almighty-a dispensation, the mystery of which will never be penetrated by the people of God, until they contemplate it amid the light of that better world where they "shall know even as they are known."

At the same time, there are two considerations which, when we meditate on this painful subject, must not be forgotten.

I. In the darkest times of the reign of Antichrist, our blessed Lord left not himself without witnesses to his truths and his cause. The Church of Rome, once so famous, had, indeed, ceased to be a Church of Christ. She had so corrupted the Christian doctrines and worship with heathenish opinions and ceremonies, that she had become a synagogue of Satan"-" the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit ;”. and amid all the pomp and magnificence that continued to distinguish her temples and her ritual, there was this melancholy motto on all her observances→→ "the glory hath departed." But during all this time, even when "the world wondered after the beast," our

Lord Jesus had his Church of faithful saints scattered here and there through the benighted regions of the Antichristian earth. He maintained, in various places, a succession of witnesses for his truths-few, it might be, in number, and greatly unknown to each other, but faithful to him, and to "the word of his patience." In our own isles of the sea, for example, as well as on the Continent of Europe, he raised up, from generation to generation, a number of resolute and holy men, who cleaved to him when all around them had forsaken him, and, in their own little spheres preserved the light of the glorious gospel, when the surrounding world was involved in darkness. In a very special manner, the Lord Jesus Christ had his testimony in the ages of darkness among the memorable people known by the name of the Waldenses. Dwelling in the deep, sequestered vallies of the Alps, unheeded by the rest of the world, and having little intercourse with other people, these witnesses for God preserved during many ages the purity of Christian truth and worship, and defiled not themselves with the abominations of Rome. Persecution, it is true, entered at length the peaceful retreats of this simple people; surrounding princes were with ungodly zeal excited against them-army after army assailed them-till at last the greater part of them were exterminated, and the few who remained driven into strange lands, where they wept over the desolations of Zion, and and cried to Him who is the "refuge of the oppress

ed," that he would arise and plead his own cause. But even this exterminating persecution was overruled for good. For by means of these witnesses for Christ, when expelled from the land of their fathers, the testimony of Jesus was extended to other lands, and the light which they scattered abroad was no unimportant mean of introducing the blessed reformation.*

* In these notices we are furnished with an answer to the scornful question with which Popish writers have been accustomed (as they thought, unanswerably) to assail their Protestant opponents-" Where was your religion before the days of Luther." If by our religion are meant its sublime and holy doctrines, we reply they were (where theirs are not to be found) IN THE BIBLE. Or, if by our religion are meant those who publicly maintained it, we reply they were to be found among the illustrious and holy men, who, in the successive periods of the Papal reign, and in various parts of Europe, lifted up their testimony against the abominations of Rome. They were to be found, especially, among the Culdees in Ireland and the Scottish isles, among the Lollards in England and Germany, the disciples of John Huss and Jerome of Prague in Bohemia, the Albi-, genses in France, and the Waldenses in the vallies of Piedmont. These were the confessors of Christian truth in the days of Popish darkness and apostacy. They kept the doctrines and institutions of Christianity pure, when they were utterly lost in the Church which professed to be their deposi tory and guardian; and visited though they were with the terrible inflictions of Papal wrath, "having trial of cruel mockings, and scourgings, and bonds, and imprisonments, being stoned, sawn asunder, slain with the sword, and

II. Under all the darkness and persecution of the Papal reign, the faithful people of Christ were supported and cheered by the prophecies of Holy Scripture, which assured them that the deliverance of the Church was approaching. If the apostacy, tyranny, and persecution of the Church of Rome had come on the disciples of Christ, without any intimation being given them of these things before-hand, and without any assurance of the ultimate overthrow of the Antichristian power, such a disastrous and unlooked-for visitation would have been apt to break down their courage, to wear out their patience, and to induce them to say, with Zior. of old, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me."→→→ But this was not permitted to be. In mercy to his Church, the Redeemer had before-hand revealed to his servants" the things which must shortly come to pass." He knew the dangers with which his cause was to be menaced in the latter days, and what a stumbling-block they would prove to his people, and how they would, in some instances, induce the des

doomed to wander in deserts, in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth," they were those " of whom the world was not worthy," they were honoured of God to maintain a testimony for his cause until the times of Reformation,"they overcame through the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony," and they are now inheriting the conqueror's crown.

ponding apprehension that their Master's interest was utterly overwhelmed; and therefore, as an antidote to every thing of this kind, he placed in their hands the lamp of prophecy, to be their light and their comfort amid all the darkness and sorrow of their future history, to let them see that on high, above all the clouds that might impend over the Church, her Head was enthroned, regulating their movements, and letting loose or restraining their storms as might best conduce to His glory and her advantage, and to assure them that the blissful period was determined when he would arise, overthrow his adversaries, and "make the place of his feet glorious."-This light of divine prophecy has been the joy of the Church in all the past days of her suffering state,-under its guidance she has even gloried in tribulation-and her martyred confessors have been gladdened by it amid torture and death, for it taught them to anticipate a time when " the Man of Sin" would be consumed, and great Babylon would " come into remembrance before God."

This, my friends, is the subject to which I propose, at this time, to direct your attention; and I have enlarged in these introductory remarks more than I would otherwise have done, in order to impress your minds with its importance. Whatever may be the sentiments and feelings of men estranged from vital religion-immersed in secularity, and alive only to