violent persecution. In the year 303, Diocletian the Roman emperor commenced the last persecution of the church under the heathen empire of Rome. God interposed, and upon the death of Constantius Chlorus, who died in Britain in the year 306, raised up Constantine, who was called the Great, and by him delivered the church. What is recorded in the book of Daniel concerning Babylon of old under Nebuchadnezzar, and of Persia under Darius, was intended to teach in a figure how civil governments would act in matters of religion till the time of the end. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, and commanded all to fall down and worship it upon pain of being cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace; and as has been the case in all subsequent ages, God's people were made the victims; for on that occasion, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused compliance, and were cast into the furnace. God interposed for their deliverance; and when Nebuchadnezzar saw that, he then went to the opposite extreme, which is not less hateful to God, and not less injurious to His cause. He made a decree that every

people, and nation, and language which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill. Nebuchadnezzar's conduct in this matter is a figure of what has taken place during the existence of the Roman empire, prior to the appearance of the woman Jezebel. One-half of the time, till the year 303, it was a persecuting power against the truth; the other half, till the year 606, it was a persecuting power for what is called the truth. Darius the Median was a figure of the man who was to do God's pleasure upon spiritual Babylon. His conduct

is also a figure of the conduct of that kingdom, which should be raised up in the last days, in which God would first reveal Himself, and out from which would flow into all the earth the knowledge of the Lord. It was not to an idol which Daniel was asked to pray, but to a man, and he was prohibited from praying to His God. This is the sin which the woman Jezebel has taught the nations of the earth. The christian church could not, so long as the Spirit of life was in it, permit any man to come between the church and God. Jezebel, the spiritual Sodom, however, appeared, and as in the case of Naboth, in process of time she accomplished a union of spiritual and civil authority. Then appeared the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. The church of Rome, with the pope as the acknowledged head of that system, is represented by our Lord under the figure of that woman Jezebel. She has killed the church, crucified afresh the Lord of glory, and put Him to an open shame. In the year 1206, the pope commenced a successful assault for supremacy over England. The death of the archbishop of Canterbury in the preceding year, furnished a pretext for forcing upon the king of England the man of the pope's choice to fill the vacant see. In this year, pope Innocent sent orders to the bishops of London, Worcester, and Ely, to lay the kingdom under an interdict, in case the monarch refused to yield and receive Langton as archbishop. This resulted in the prostration of the English monarch's power at the feet of the pope of Rome; and during the time of the pope's supremacy, England, the future deliverer of the world, was compelled to pray unto a man sitting in the temple of God, and being worshipped as God; yea, exalted above all that is called God; for

God does not ask for Himself what the popes and the priests of Rome have demanded, upon pain of torture and death, for themselves. Thus Darius commanding all to pray unto himself, a man, and prohibiting from praying unto God, was a figure of the state of England from the year 1206, which is in prophetic reckoning 1215, each year from the year 606 being, when calculated in fulfilment of prophecy, a year of 360 days. In the year 1534, which is in prophetic reckoning 1548, on the 3d November, the English parliament declared the king supreme head of the church of England on earth. From thence began the reformation in England, being ultimately supported by the government; but then also, as in the case of Darius, after the deliverance of the prophet Daniel, the king took order in God's house, joined the king's house to the house of God and although the truth has been supported and defended, it has been by a man, and wherever that is done, man sits as God in the temple of God. In the year 1863, which is prophetically 1881, this connection will virtually The Roman civil power was 303 years allied to heathenism after the return of Christ from Egypt. Darius commanded prayers to be made to him alone for thirty days; but Nebuchadnezzar commanded his idol to be worshipped, "at what time they heard the sound of the cornet," &c. Each day being a year, indicates that the power which Darius prefigured would be of thirty years longer continuance, than the power prefigured by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; so that from the year 1215 prophetically, to the year 1548 prophetically, being respectively 1206 and 1534, in ordinary reckoning, is 333 years, being thirty years more than the Roman civil power had persecuted and oppressed the christian

cease.

church. From 303 to 606, from which year the woman Jezebel dates her career, is 303 years; and from 1548 prophetically, that is 1534 common years, to 1881 prophetically, that is the year 1863 in ordinary reckoning, is other 333 years, still preserving the difference of thirty years, as prefigured by Darius. The two periods put together, during which a man occupies God's throne in England, now Great Britain, make 666 years. "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six." (Rev. xiii. 18.)

What is chiefly condemned by the Lord in this epistle is the investing of one man with a spiritual power over another man. Jezebel is the great spiritual whore in this respect, but she has children, the Lord tells us. It is part of the display of the manifold wisdom of God, as revealed in this world, that He has chosen men's own delusions, and with them accomplished His own glorious purpose; and in the present case, the Destroyer has destroyed destruction. It is to the very exercise of this spiritual power that we owe, under the good providence of God, the reformation which took place in the sixteenth century. Had the pope left Luther alone, he might have lived and died in obscurity. But the persecuting spirit of the system was called into operation, and on the 28th November, 1518, Luther, perceiving that he had nothing to expect from Rome, appealed at Wittemberg from the pontiff to a future council of the whole church. Thus what is termed church discipline, and which is not well-pleasing to Jehovah, even when limited to ecclesiastical censures, became the instrument under God's hand, of kindling that fire which is now a

flame, and will soon have consumed the mother of harlots. The effects of the exercise of human power over men in matters of religion, have been similar in all sections of the church since the reformation. In the year 1662, the act of uniformity made it criminal to dissent from the episcopal church in England, and exposed all dissenters to persecution. Because of it more than 2000 ministers were turned out of the episcopal church, forming the source from which the nonconformists in England take their rise. These, like Peter, who when the ship was yet 200 cubits from the shore, that is 200 years from the last year in which the present church and state connection shall exist in England-these men, seeing the Lord who is invisible, girt their fishers' coats unto them, and naked, as regarded the protection of man, cast themselves into the sea. Their successors are now a numerous body in England, and have done much to prepare the country for that change which now awaits it. Man meant it in harmGod has overruled it in mercy-the Destroyer has actually destroyed himself. In Scotland, in the established church, the exercise of the same power by the General Assembly, on 14th May, 1733, when they appointed Mr. Ebenezer Erskine to be rebuked and admonished by the moderator at their own bar, brought about that secession in Scotland which now numbers among its adherents not much fewer of the population than the established church itself. In the year 1747, within this same branch of the church, then called the Associate Synod, the exercise of ecclesiastical power in a still more modified form, that of a majority deciding for and governing the church in a way adverse to the views of a large minority, brought about the disruption of the