kinds, especially in their conquered provinces; there increased, on the other hand, among the people in general, by natural connexion and consequence, indolence, rudeness, and dissoluteness in a restless and disturbing manner; and the example of the great and rich failed not of its influence upon the very dregs of the people, who now, in their own way, gave free course to the incitements of the corrupt heart, and developed all manner of gross sins and vices. A few valuable individuals, such as the stern Cato, and the distinguished orator and statesman Cicero, who also gave his mind to philosophical pursuits, could do nothing to stem the torrent of corruption, and were even themselves in part assimilated to the perverse notions of their loose contemporaries.

Rome, however, still contained a goodly number of her better citizens, who beheld with sorrow the long preserved liberty of their country fallen under the yoke of a single despot; and though they did not take the right method for its deliverance, namely, that which God approves or commends, yet some allowance must be made for the times and circumstances in which they lived, as also for their defective knowledge, by reason of which, their aim, though noble in itself, took a very wrong direction. The arbitrary despotism with which Cesar managed the people, and oppressed their liberties, gave occasion to these men to form a secret conspiracy against him; and, under the conduct of Brutus, a descendant of the ancient Brutus, who put an end to the monarchy, they undertook to assassinate

him. He fell, pierced with daggers, while presiding in the senate, B.C. 44; a warning example to all who evince much bravery in the conquest of others, and none in the denial of themselves.

But the Romans were no longer worthy of a free constitution of government; that is, they had become ripe for the severer discipline and monarchy of a despotic ruler. Brutus raised an army, but was beaten, and fell upon his own sword. Octavianus and Antony united to avenge Cesar's death, and then jointly governed Rome. But they soon disagreed, and came to open war, in which Antony fell at the battle of Actium, B.c.31; and Octavianus, Cesar's adopted son, quickly brought matters to such a crisis, that he got the whole power into his own hands, and dared to assume the name of Augustus, or the Illustrious.

With Augustus, had the Roman empire already attained its summit of glory; and, after his time, it gradually declined. The Roman empire was now the empire of the world, the centre about which all profane history turns, and to which all events recorded in it bear some relation. It was the centre of all nations, at least of all which were within its knowledge or influence. A power consolidated at home, and respected abroad, had been formerly the modest aim and ambition of the Roman people; but now, like a youth who turns some particular emergency to an assurance respecting his future destination in life, so Rome, from the period of the Punic wars, came to an assurance of her

being destined to become the mistress of the world; and, from that period, she laboured with a zeal which never lost sight of the attainment of this object. And as already before, so now still more than ever, was the iron character of this power, as "stamping every thing to pieces," made manifest: and the nations had severely to feel its selfish hardness, and its inflexible pride. It was the fourth beast in Daniel's vision, Dan. vii. 7, "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it." Thus was Carthage trodden down, and thus Jerusalem.

V.-RETROSPECT OF ANCIENT HISTORY.

THUS have the great empires of the world been, one after another, presented on the theatre of profane history; and each of them has, in its own way, summoned every effort to make its power the only valid and durable one, to shape the world after its own liking, and to establish the felicity of the human race by human wisdom. But from one such successive empire to another, and indeed from one century to another, it has been continually more and more evident that all the glory of the world passeth away, and that the real welfare of man is not to be expected from this world. At the very time when Rome had concentrated in herself, and brought to the highest perfection of enjoyment, all the advantages

and privileges of preceding empires, great military power, general commerce, activity and skill in every trade and profession, refinement and splendour of luxury and pomp, with education in arts and sciences; and when, from the union of power abroad, with the rise and developement of all the intellectual powers at home, the greatest things might have been expected for the deliverance and welfare of the nations, and more immediately of the Romans themselves; at that very period, the decline of the ancient order of things, and of the ancient nations, was preparing itself; and, at the trunk of the great tree, that stretched its verdant branches into all lands, a corroding rottenness had already commenced.

Except in the little country of Judea, there reigned in all lands idolatry in its various forms, and with it was almost every where inseparably connected the service of sin. Inasmuch, then, as the heathen, in the very places where encouragement and strength for what is good ought to have been derived, namely, in the temples of their gods, were here only the more incited and privileged to sin; we cannot wonder that all the bands of discipline and self-government became loosened, and that the shamelessness of vice increased with every succeeding century: but rather we must wonder that this did not happen sooner, more precipitately, and more entirely; that in a people in whom the foundation of morals was so undermined, there should still be found men who could avert from themselves the influence of the general corruption, keep themselves clean in the midst of defilement, and by

their faithfulness to their little knowledge, by their strong courage and remarkable self-denial, could shame many Christians of our own times. This striking phenomenon can only be explained by the fact, that God, though he "suffered all nations to walk in their own ways, yet left not himself without witness among them." Such "witness" of his among the heathen was manifold; but was comprehended only by the thinking, and the lovers of truth. The manifestation of God in their conscience, by the sight of his works, was at the bottom of all idolatry; which was only a distortion and disfiguration of that original true knowledge, to which nobler and more serious minds could always re-ascend out of the confusion of idolatrous legend around them. That God did much good to the heathen nations, giving them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, and filling their hearts with food and gladness, Acts xiv. 17, was a fact that could lead an ingenuous and observing mind to the recognition of his greatness and goodness; and even his judgments, which from time to time he suffered to fall upon a rotten member or portion or the human race, could serve to move such a mind into humble subjection to his power. Such seasons of judgment were those which came upon Sodom, Egypt, Tyre, Babylon, Carthage, and Jerusalem. Among the millions who were ruined by the conquering wars of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, and Julius Cesar, there may have been many a soul who, in the hour of severe trial, directed a sighing,