collision. All he gained by this temporizing policy was to perish with the sword. For he thereby caused the devastation of Italy by the successive armies of each Potentate, the subjugation of all the free governments, and at length the plunder of Rome and his own captivity. He died, leaving the Vatican shorn of the allegiance of the northern kingdoms, of England, of considerable part of Germany, and some Cantons of Switzerland; and filled with mortification and anguish of mind at beholding his nephews involved in a deadly quarrel for the sovereignty of Florence, obtained at the price of much treachery and violence, and therefore so much debasement of the religious influence of the Papal See. And, let it be remembered, Clement VII. had instructed his Nuncio to proceed with vigour against Luther and his adhe

rents.

This unfortunate Pope was succeeded by Paul III. of the house of Farnese. This Pontiff convened the Council of Trent, and supplied Charles V. with money and troops against the Protestants. He took the sword—and the sword did not depart from his house. 'One day the Pope, who was a firm believer in astrology, thought himself placed beneath the most fortunate stars, and that he could conjure down all the tempests which threatened him, and appeared unusually cheerful at the audience. He recounted the fortunate passages of his life, and compared himself with the Emperor Tiberius. On that very day his son, the possessor of all his acquisitions, the heir of his fortunes, was fallen upon by conspirators, in Piacenza,

and murdered! The end of all was that the Pope thwarted, betrayed, almost sold to the Emperor by those very Farneses, his own family, for whom he had sacrificed so much of the true interests of the Popedom, and incurred so much obloquy, died of a broken heart!' (Ranke's Popes of the 16th and 17th Centuries.)

It is written," he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity." We see this exemplified in the captivity of Pope John XXIII. 'It was one of those remarkable instances of the conduct of Divine Providence with which the history of the Council of Constance abounds, that John XXIII. himself, the unrighteous persecutor of Huss, was soon after brought as a prisoner to the same castle of Gottleben, and lodged in the same place with the victim of his cruelty.' (Milner's History of Church, vol. iii. p. 344.)

It is written, "He that taketh the sword must perish with the sword." We see an instance of this in the case of Frederic II. The edicts which he published against heresy were brutal, and not exceeded by the most barbarous emanations of the Vatican. It was his will that heresy be entirely banished from the whole extent of his empire. He deprived heretics and all who abetted them of all benefit of appeal, and ordained that their children to the second generation be deprived of all temporal benefits and all public offices, unless they came forwards and denounced their parents. Frederic took the sword.He also perished with the sword.He was accused of favouring and fostering heretics! Nay, more, he was ac

cused of rendering himself guilty of heresy by his contempt of pontifical censures, and his unholy alliance with the Saracens ! Thus, then, did this prince according to the strict letter of his own constitutions become liable, on his condemnation by the church, to the monstrous penalties contained in them. Assuredly, when he lent his obsequious sword to swell the catalogue of the crimes of the Romish Church, he was already preparing for his latter years the tempest which disturbed and tormented them; nor did it happen without the Spirit of God that his calamities were inflicted by that same hand whose darkest atrocities had been approved and directed by himself.' (Waddington's Hist. of the Church, pp. 420-447.)

The horn of France took the sword at the inauguration of Henri II. and during the reign of Louis XIV. But the massacre of 60,000 Protestants on St. Bartholomew's day, has been awfully avenged by the horrors of the French Revolution, when the First Vial was poured out, and the streets of Paris ran down with Roman Catholic blood.

The horn of Spain has taken the sword, and is now perishing with the sword. 'Spain boasts of having extirpated the reformed opinions from her territory: but she has little reason to congratulate herself on the consequences of her blind and infatuated policy. She has paid and is still paying the forfeit of her folly and crime by the loss of civil and religious liberty, and by the degradation into which she has sunk among the nations.' (Dr. M'Crie's Hist. of the Reformation in Spain, p. 375.)

Rome has taken the sword against Protestants; and has been more than once drenched with Catholic blood. It is impossible,' says Dr. Robertson, to describe or even to imagine the misery and horror of the scene' in 1527. Cardinals, nobles, priests, matrons, virgins, were all the prey of soldiers, and at the mercy of men deaf to the voice of humanity. Nor did these outrages cease, as is usual in towns which are carried by assault, when the first fury of the storm was over the Imperialists kept possession of Rome several months and during all that time the insolence and brutality of the soldiers hardly abated. Their booty in ready money alone amounted to a million of ducats: what they raised by ransoms and exactions far exceeded that sum. Rome, though taken several different times by the northern nations, who overran the empire in the fifth and sixth centuries, was never treated with so much cruelty by the barbarous and heathen Huns, Vandals, or Goths, as now by the bigoted subjects of a Catholic monarch.' Since this period the Fifth Angel has poured out his Vial upon Rome, and the Pope has been compelled for a time to go into captivity.

Here, then, is the patience and faith of the saints. God has fulfilled his word and will fulfil it again. Let Protestants therefore commit their cause to the Most High, who has said, "Vengeance belongeth unto I will recompense, saith the Lord and again, The Lord shall judge his people." The Papacy, which has taken the sword, shall perish with the sword. We believe that the Pope has yet 150 years to prac

me;

:

tise. But in the year 1987 his allotted period of 1260 years expires. His kingdom will than be overthrown. The Seventh Angel will then pour out his Vial, and Rome will "come up in remembrance before God to give unto her the wine of the cup of the fierceness of his wrath." The third woe, the woe of Infidelity, will then commence, and Rome will have for her head an INFIDEL РОРЕ. The destruction of this MAN OF SIN, this INFIDEL head of Rome will synchronize with the coming of Christ ;-" whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming (the Epiphany of his Presence)."

Christ and His pretended Vicar will then meet face to face. The Pope "shall stand up against the Prince of Princes; but he shall be broken without hand." We will give the comment of the great LUTHER upon these words of Daniel: "But he shall be broken without hand." The Apostle expresses this Pope's destruction thus,-whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, &c. (2 Thess. ii. 8.) The laity therefore shall not destroy the Pope and his kingdom; though that is what he continually and miserably fears. No! he and his wicked rabble are not deserving of so light a punishment. They shall be preserved until the coming of Christ, whose most bitter enemies they are, and ever have been. This is the way in which he ought to be punished, who rises up against all, not with manual force, but with the spirit of Satan. Thus, Spirit shall destroy spirit, and