the seed of Abraham, let his own Church become nothing, that He may be exalted. Let the blind and captive Samson pull down the pillars of the house upon himself if so be Dagon and his worshippers may fall with him. Of this fall, the next chapters are to tell us. I receive them as records of a triumph that has been won, and, therefore, as an undoubted pledge and assurance of a triumph that shall be won, for God and for

man.

LECTURE XVII.

THE GREAT CITY.

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition : and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings

one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These

with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome ake war

for he is

Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.-REV. xvii.

IN a former chapter, we had the vision of a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet. In this chapter, we read of a woman on whose forehead was written "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth." That the two visions answer to each other, all have perceived. A Protestant controversialist would tell us at once that the first describes the true Church of God, which has been kept alive upon the earth through different ages-obscure in the sight of man, in the eyes of its Divine Lord beautiful and glorious; that the latter points to the Papacy, which has been seated on a throne full of outward grandeur and power, but marked with God's sign of doom as idolatrous and apostate.

An interpretation which has penetrated into the mind of a nation like ours, which affects our popular speech, colours our devotions, it is not safe to discard. There must be a significance in it. If we are indifferent to that significance, we are in danger of missing some of the lessons which the prophecy has been meant to teach, of contracting it according to some individual conceit, of reducing it into mere antiquarian lore.

But there are other applications of the title, great Babylon, which, on the same principle, we ought not to overlook. It has been bestowed upon the city of London, the very capital of Protestantism, and our consciences have accepted it as appropriate. Again, the most earnest religious teachers have exhorted their hearers to flee from Babylon, to avoid any intercourse with the Babylonian harlot, meaning by either phrase that world which Romanists as well as Protestants renounce in their baptism. Whilst we are doing justice to one of these forms of speech, we should try whether it is not possible to do justice to all three. If we adhere strictly to the book itself, I believe that we may.

I have given you my reasons for considering that the vision of the woman clothed with the sun, and about to bring forth the man-child, is a vision of humanity, under its true aspect; in itself weak and feminine; great only while it looks up to a glory above its own, which becomes its vesture; poor and incomplete till it has found a Son of Man who is also a Son of God, who does not tarry upon earth, but is carried to the throne of heaven, who there is to be recognised as our living Head, our Redeemer, our Representative. The discovery of this true Head of Man, and of the glory of Man in Him, I regarded as the subject of the vision. Before this discovery could be made, there was war in heaven; when it was made, the adversary was cast down from heaven. There was no more darkness over the form of Him who sat upon the throne. Those who confessed the Crucified Man to be at His right hand, could overcome all doubts and temptations by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony. But there was war upon the earth. The

adversary had not ended his battle here, but was carrying it on with fury. What that battle was, who would be engaged in it, we were to learn as we proceeded.

Taking the first vision in this sense, it would, I thought, justify those who said that the Church was implied in it. If the Church is that body which, in its own life and acts, is appointed to testify of a Son of Man and a Son of God, to say that humanity is only complete in Him, to bid men claim the glory which He has claimed for them; to tell them that the face of God has been fully manifested in the only begotten Son, and, therefore, that we know it to be a face of clear, unclouded light; it must, in its hour of deepest sorrow, which has been its hour of greatest triumph, represent the woman who sees the sun above her head and the moon at her feet. She must be in danger of looking at the moon rather than the sun— at herself rather than at her Divine Head.,

On the other hand, I have shown you how the idea of a woman forgetting her true lord, and becoming a harlot, is embodied in all the language of the Old Scriptures, and is the illustration of all national transgressions. This harlotry is, of necessity, attributed, in the Old Testament, to Israel-to Israel exclusively -to Israel because it is said to have been claimed as the bride of an unseen and spiritual Lord. The sin which earns for it this disgraceful name is idolatry. It forgets its unseen King, and becomes the worshipper of visible things-it becomes a creature of sense. In doing this, it tries to be like the nations round about, whereas it was set in the world to tell those nations that they were created for another service, for a nobler fellowship. For this crime,