of the kingdoms of the globe, and no more likely to be a degraded nation, than the loftiest of the present powers of the earth. No nation ever erected such durable monuments of the arts. No country numbered so long a catalogue of kings. Its learning was proverbial. The population of its cities and of its country, as recorded by ancient historians, almost surpass belief. It was the granary of the world, the cradle of science. But now for more than two thousand years has it been sinking into degradation. During all that time, every endeavour to emancipate it, and fix a prince in it, has failed. Of a late attempt all Europe was witness. It is thus that in the silent march of events, unnoticed perhaps by politicians and philosophers, the hand of Providence accomplishes its own purposes.12

3. From nations, let us pass on to those surprising sketches of the vast divisions of the world, as connected with the church, which the pen of inspiration has drawn, and which the history of all ages has been filling up. I select two, one in the patriarchal age, the other in the time of the captivity.

"Cursed be Canaan," said the patriarch Noah; 66 a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren -Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant-God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant."

Into what history can we look without seeing traces of the fulfilment of this prophecy? I see the guilty Canaanites yielding their country to Joshua. I see the Phoenicians first, and then the Carthaginians, subdued by the Greeks and Romans, the hosts of

12 Gibbon and Volney speak without reserve of the degradation of Egypt. I need not say that I allude in the above sentence, to the attempt of the French under Napoleon Bonaparte to conquer Egypt, and erect it into a great nation.

Japheth. I sigh over the ills of Africa, peopled with the descendants of Canaan, which has been desolated for so many ages by the Romans, Saracens, and Turks, and, for the last two hundred years, by the abhorred traffic in human flesh.13

But I turn from this scene, to "bless the Lord God of Shem," who gave the promises to Abraham and his seed, and through him to the world; who made his land and descendants the seat of religion, the nursery of the church, the spot where the Saviour was born, and whence the gospel was first promulgated.

Still I see that "God has enlarged Japheth" beIvond either Canaan or Shem. Above half of the human race has descended from his loins. For centuries, arts and science and civilization and religion have taken up their abode amongst his posterity. "He has dwelt in the tents of Shem"-receiving the gospel from his race," obtaining that dominion, under the Greek and Roman empires, which the descendants of Shem for a long time chiefly possessed-and holding in these later times the largest and most valuable countries of the east, as colonists and merchants, abiding in the tents of another people.

But I must advert, for a moment, to that more detailed geographical and chronological chart of the empires of the world, traced out by the hand of the prophet Daniel almost eighteen hundred years after the prediction of Noah. You know the portentous image which the inspired prophet describes. You

13 Undoubtedly, so long as any remains of this trade are unlawfully and unjustly cherished in the West Indies, it will continue to be the foulest disgrace to Christendom, and to the British nation, that ever marked the enlightened countries of Europe. The law of God, not prophecy, is the rule of our conduct.

14 The principal success of the gospel, in the calling of the Gentiles, has hitherto been amongst the descendants of Japheth.

know "the head of gold," representing the empire then existing, the Babylonian-" the breast and arms of silver," the Medo-Persian, which succeeded it, on that conquest of Babylon under Cyrus, to which we have just adverted-" the belly and thighs of brass," the Macedonian under Alexander and his successors' -"the legs of iron, and feet part of iron and part of clay," the Roman empire which subdued the Mace-donian, and which, in the sixth century of the Christian æra, was dismembered into ten kingdoms. "The kingdom of the stone cut out without hands" is expounded, as you remember, by the prophet himself, of that spiritual and heavenly dispensation to be established by "the Son of Man," and which proceeding by mild, and, to our wisdom, feeble means, resembled a stone cut out without human skill; but which, in its progress, is destined to "smite the feet of iron and clay, and break them to pieces, and fill the whole earth."

Can any thing give an adequate idea of the magnificence of the divine inspiration in these rapid delineations of all the revolutions of the world during all ages; especially when considered in contrast with those minute details of the overthrow and abiding state of separate cities? The mind is lost in the contemplation of the foreknowledge of God.

But I proceed to notice, what is connected with the last topic,

III. The predictions OF THE APOStacies of the

For it is impossible to look back to the history of the church, without seeing the lamentable departures from the pure faith and obedience of the gospel which have prevailed for so many ages. In the east, the seventh century saw the impostor Mahomet infatuate with his delusion the inhabitants of the fairest portion of Christendom; whilst in the west, a gross

corruption of the doctrines and precepts of the gospel darkened the glory of Christianity. Nor does any thing more afflict the mind of the sincere Christian, or open a wider door to the objections of the unbeliever, than the perversions of the doctrine of the Christian church. Under the pressure of such considerations, it is an extraordinary relief to turn to the word of prophecy, and see the predictions of these very apostacies, delivered many centuries before they took place.

I dwell not on the features of the eastern antichrist, as painted in the book of Daniel, and the kindred language of St. John, because I hasten to notice what more immediately presents itself before our eyes, the great western apostacy. Let us first see how it is delineated by the prophetic pencil of Daniel. We there find it set forth as a seducing power, that was to arise after the conversion, downfall, and division into ten sovereignties of the fourth, or Roman einpire -little, in comparison of these others as to secular authority, but claiming and obtaining an universal spiritual authority over the body of the western kingdom,-acquiring and maintaining this through policy and craft, procuring a voluntary surrender of power from really superior sovereigns, and using it to become a leader to others in apostacy, persecution, and various kinds of opposition to the truth.15

With these criteria, I compare St. Paul's description in the New Testament of the apostacy, or falling away, when "the man of sin should be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God; whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteous

15 Daniel vii. 19-25.

ness in them that perish-God sending them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. The mystery of iniquity," adds the apostle, " doth already work; only, he who now letteth, will let, until he be taken out of the way." In this delineation, I find the same distinctive features as in the description of the prophet, with the additional marks of blasphemous usurpation of the place and authority of God-a mystery of iniquity, which was already insinuating itself when the apostle wrote, but which was let or hindered, by the jealous authority of the Roman empire, united then under one potent government; but which would be revealed when the downfall and dismemberment of that empire should remove the obstacle to its development.

The same great apostle resumes the subject in his first epistle to Timothy, and foretels that in "the latter time, some should depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats"-particulars all falling under the same heads as those before enumerated.

We next come to the closing visions of prophecy in the Revelation of St. John, and, lo, a delineation of the same corruption as in the prophet, the same times assigned to it, the same geographical and chronological position in the map of prophecy-all leading to the confirmation of our previous notices, and adding many other decisive indications. The apostacy is here described as a power having a mouth speaking great things, and even blasphemies: it makes war with the saints; it has horns like a lamb, but speaks as a dragon; it doth great wonders, and deceiveth those that dwell on the earth. It is called " Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth." It is further depicted as a