Another consequence of the change, and a very important one too has been, that it has disconnected its followers from all the saints and sages of venerable antiquity and thrown us upon a dreary waste, in which the eye is refreshed neither by flower nor by fruit. It has cut them off from all affinity and relalationship with any one saint in the calendar, whether native or foreign; from "spirits without a home and without a name" on earth, but who have inherited "an everlasting name" in the imperishable home of the blessed, for whom altars have been erected in every department of Christendom, and whose memories are enshrined in the hearts of all true believers. And what an unenviable position to be in! unable to claim any share in the glory of these illustrious saints-with as wide a gulph between them, as between Lazarus and Dives-compelled to acknowledge the value, but without any partnership in the property-unworthy and unwilling to worship in the same temples in which they proffered their holy orisons, and in which they sacrificed the adorable mysteries, (unless perchance desecrated by the overthrow of both shrine and altar)—they are condemned to stand aloof in silent admiration at the crowds of faithful votaries who daily come to supplicate their intercession, with a devotion to which they remain wholly insensible. Should they not feel humiliated at the spectacle? Should it not startle them into reflection on the cause?-that they should find strangers, where they ought to meet brethrenthat they alone should be sceptics, where all others are true believers? Why! it is a blessed thing to be associated with such beings, even in the humble position of suitors for their protection. What a wayward spirit must have taken possession of their minds, that they see it not! Hath not the Lord, in his wrath, mingled for them the spirit of a deep sleep, and shut up their eyes?† How, otherwise, should they not discern the futility of their principles, which they declare to be calculated for unity and Catholicity? For are they not disunited everywhere, even in their own house; and are they not Catholics only amongst themselves? Let them but pass the limits of their own shores, and they are at once strangers in the land; they encounter an angel with a flaming sword at the gate of every sanctuary, because driven from the blessed plains of paradise in virtue of their disobedience, they are condemned to hard and unprofitable labour amongst the thorns and briars, and to wander like outcasts upon the face of the earth. Victims to their infidelity, they are alike aliens to a steadfast faith, as to a quiet conscience, and are become the inheritors of a vineyard, which ever baffles their skill and refuses its produce. Every hand is against them, and their hand is against every other; their days are days of warfare, and the battle never ceases within their borders. Even when at her best, there is something so little about the interests and concerns of a mere national isolated Church, in comparison with the gigantic concerns of the universal, that the thought of her must ever fall short of • Isaias xxix. 10. satisfying the mind, or filling the heart, as it is in the nature of being, that they desire to be filled and satisfied. Rome, on the other hand, has ever commanded a mysterious reverence, which, even in the days of temporal oppression and humiliation, has won her the sympathies of the world, and pointed to her as the future hope and refuge of all that was good and virtuous. The imagination ever lingers over her as on a sunny and sacred spot; the cradle of Christianity, the nurse of empires both spiritual and temporal, the mother and guide of all the faithful in all the domain of God; fertilized by the blood of martyrs, sanctified by the piety of confessors, and rejoiced by the penitence of sinners. Armed with privileges, and with power never entrusted to any other city, with power to bind or to loose, to bless or curse, the limits of her dominion, circumscribed only by the utmost boundaries of the earth, with all the nations under the sun for her inheritance, she stands unrivalled and alone. Yet, all participation, in the glory of this spiritual and mysterious kingdom, has England likewise forfeited by her apostacy. Even in matters of samller moment, how strikingly are not the characteristics of the two religions portrayed! In Catholicity, the most delightful associations, like so many cherished friends, follow and accompany you at every step, as you advance in her long and varied course-the presiding genius over music, painting and sculpture; over history, eloquence, poetry, and philosophy. While Protestantism, dating only from a period of unrivalled excellence in the arts; has, nevertheless, nearly, if not entirely, discarded them from her service -she cleared the landscape of all its beauties, and left it cold, dull, dreary and desolate. Contrast their respective ceremonials, the furniture, beauty and decoration of their respective temples! What an imposing spectacle is a pontifical high-mass in St. Peter's, with all its gorgeous splendour, and picturesque magnificence, under the glittering fane which the inspiring genius of christianity has lifted into the cloudso f heaven! Does it not transport us from this world into the next, to the choirs of angels, the altar of incense, and the throne of the Lamb? Can we dwell with the same mind upon the cold, tedious, heartless, lifeless worship, in its naked and mishappen rival in the national Church? Again; when death hath summoned us to our final reckoning, and the Church is called upon to perform the last sad offices over the lifeless corpse, and for the departed spirit, in what a different feeling is it not accomplished! In Catholicity, it is a real christian function--a long and solemn line of cloistered monks and pious clergy, bearing the emblems of our redemption in presence of the corpse envelloped in a blaze of light, to tell of the hope of a blissful immortality -all chaunting in mournful cadence, a requiem for the departed soul, propitiating heaven in mitigation of her penalties, praying that the justice of God may be satisfied, and that the repentant sinner may speedily rest in his eternal home! Then the propitiatory sacrifice offered up on the altar of the Most High, before a supplicating multitude, impressed by the appalling spectacle of death-and we have a lesson for the living, and a blessing for the dead! But, turn we to the same scene under the Reformed religion, and what is it? Is there any thing so sickening to the heart as a great London funeral? Not an emblem of christianity about it; belonging entirely to this world, without any reference whatever to the next-a long, long pageantry of empty carriages in mere mockery of woe, and so singularly emblematical of the hollowness of the religion in whose service they are engaged! and when the poor, forlorn remains have been consigned to the grave, which is but too truly "covered with the dismal shade of death," the final scene of the drama is still in keeping with the rest, and a monument is erected over them in a Christian Church, too often in total forgetfulness of heaven, recording only the deeds of earth, represented under the symbols of heathen mysticism. All her religious services,-for the same may be said of all,-being thus lowered in their character, and all her former religious associations being thus severed and lost, having descended from her proud pre-eminence in the commonwealth of Christendom, and faith, hope, and charity, having each and all of them waxed cold and dim under the revolution of feelings, and war of principles, which, as we have seen, have never ceased to infest her, as the most fearful consequence of her schism; let us for a moment consider whether she has gained any thing to compensate for all this, even among the transitory concerns of this fleeting world. We have already seen what, in this respect, she was, before the fatal epoch we have endeavoured to illustrate; let us view her, for an instant, in her present condition. In lieu of monasteries, we have workhouses; in place of voluntary charity, an unfeeling compulsory assessment for the poor; jails are multiplied or enlarged; whole masses of the population are unemployed and starving; while vice and crime are increased beyond all former precedent and turbulence reign throughout. We have principles of equality, where we had heretofore principles of subordination; a spirit of worldly ambition and insatiable covetousness, where formerly was a chivalrous sacrifice of self, and a generous outlay of riches for the public good. Coarse, vulgar, riotous mirth, have been substituted for the light-hearted, innocent amusements of the people; among the higher ranks, society is overgrown, and the best feelings of the heart are supplanted by pride, envy, hatred, emulation, and contention; while a universal, luxurious extravagance has dissipated the means of benevolence, and handed over half the ancient estates of the kingdom to the Jew and the stockjobber. Still she has had her reward, and what is it? "The harvest of the river is her revenue: and she is become the mart of the nations . . . . her merchants are princes, and her traders the nobles of the earth." But with the reward of Tyre, may she not also inherit her chastisements ?" and the earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, THEY HAVE CHANGED THE ORDINANCE, they have broken the everlasting covenant.— THEREFORE shall a curse devour the carth, and the inhabitants thereof shall sin: and therefore they that dwell therein shall be mad, and few men shall be left." Long indeed have these prophecies been fulfilled amongst us-long have "the inhabitants of the island" been delivered over to a spirit of religious madness, and the faithful adherents of the ancient and everlasting covenant are but a few-a mere remnant of the inheritance of Christ! FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY-FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. In proportion as we approach the term when a series of prophecies, which have been delivered at different times, are to receive their accomplishment, in the same degree will it be found that these prophecies which are last in order of time, are more explicit, contain more minute details, and afford more ample grounds of determining their accomplishment, than those by which the event. was orginally announced. We find the application of this principle in the predictions of Daniel and of St. John, which foretold the destruction of Pagan Rome and the triumph of the Church which Jesus Christ was to found. These events were at first simply announced by the Hebrew prophet to Nebuchodonosor, (Dan. II.;) they were more fully exhibited by him to his grandson Baltassar; but they have been depicted by the 'beloved disciple' in such clear and distinct colours, that it is scarcely possible to err in determining the event by which this series of predictions was fulfilled. Agreeably to the plan pursued in our last number, we shall first copy the 17th chapter of the Apocalypse, as having special reference to our subject, and then make an effort to elucidate its meaning. CHAPTER XVII. 1. "And there came one of the seven Angels, who had the seven vials, and spoke with me, saying: Come I will shew thee the condemnation of the great harlot, who sitteth upon many waters. 2. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication; and they who inhabit the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her whoredom. 3. And he took me away in spirit into the desert. And I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads, and ten horns. 4. And the woman was clothed round about with purple and scarlet, and gilt with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abomination and filth of her fornication. 5. And on her forehead a name was written: A mystery: Babylon the the great, the mother of the fornications and the abominations of the earth. 6. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And I wondered when I had seen her with great admiration. 7. And the Angel said to me: Why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast which carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 8. The beast which thou sawest was and is not, and shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into destruction: and the inhabitants on the earth (whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world) shall wonder, seeing the beast that was and is not. 9. And here is the understanding that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sitteth, and they are seven kings: 10. Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come: and when he is come he must remain a short time. 11. And the beast which was and is not; the same also is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction. 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but shall receive power as kings one hour after the beast. 13. These have one design, and their strength and power they shall deliver to the beast. 14. These shall fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because he is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with him are called, and elect and faithful. 15. And he said to me: The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and nations and tongues. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest in the beast: these shall make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire. 17. For God hath given into their hearts to do that which pleaseth him ;— they that give their kingdom to the beast till the words of God be fulfilled. 18. And the woman which thou sawest is the great city which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth." Although exhibited under a somewhat different figure, it is easily seen that the same event which Daniel foretold to Nebuchodonosor and Baltassar is here predicted; namely, the triumph of the Messiah's kingdom over the fourth kingdom which we have already shown to be that of Rome. This conclusion will be rendered still more evident by a detailed examination of every circumstance of this prophecy. V. 1. "Come I will shew that the condemnation of the great harlot, who sitteth upon many waters." The great harlot is Pagan Rome, as is evident from the concluding verse of this chapter;-"And the woman which thou sawest is the great city which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth." The epithet of "harlot" is given |