and salvation by fire, than purchase salvation now, at the cost of a present acceptance of the gospel, in a present renunciation of all sin, through faith in Christ only, and with submission of all things to him. But in every direction, in this organized Mystery of iniquity, the truth is effectually barricaded out, and its place is supplied by strong delusion. The nature of the system is such, in its daily sacrifice of the mass, its confessions and absolutions, its denial of justification by faith, its throwing men upon penances, sacraments, works, and priests for salvation, its veiling and withholding of the Scriptures, its doctrines of purgatory, its worship of images, its prayers to saints, and its many mediators instead of one, as to shut up every avenue by which the truth of the gospel could gain entrance to the soul.

When men were under the persecuting power of the Beast, they looked narrowly at these things, and studied the face of the Sorceress in the Book of Revelation; for if they did not find God's seal of reprobation on the system, why should they resist it unto death? If they could by any means see anything but anti-Christ in Rome, they would not lay down life by an uncalled-for opposition. But since the sword and power of persecution have been in a great measure taken away, and in personal security men's vigilance has been lulled, men have looked at Rome through Tracts for the Times, rather than through the visions of John in Patmos. By the application of semi-Papistical churches, and the rag-fair resurrection of formalism in purple and scarlet array, and the retrocession from Protestantism of some who dwell upon the earth, and wonder after the Beast that was and is not and yet is, the conscientious opposition against the great apostasy of Rome, as the Man of sin and Son of perdition, has been somewhat softened. And meanwhile the Papistical system seemed to be getting a temporary invigoration, like a dying old man, into whose veins an infusion of warmer youthful blood has been made from the frame of a vigorous subject. It is not the first time that the deadly wound of the Beast has seemed to be healed, and almost all the world has taken to wondering after him.

Nevertheless, the evidence of the correspondency which we have dwelt upon between the delineations of the Man of sin in the New Testament, and the Romish Church, as that man, in the world's history, has been growing stronger every century. It is becoming now more convincing than ever when the Papacy is beginning to tumble, and Rev. 17: 16, is in part fulfilled. As the correspondency has been proved in the development of the system, so will it be in the consumption. And it is remarkable that the correspondency was begun to be discovered and set before the world more than eight hundred years ago. The hand-writing on the wall was even then compared with the glowing image of the mystery of iniquity, and even then men were startled to behold it. THIRD SERIES, VOL. V. NO. 2.

11

The church of the Waldenses began this defection and proof. They wrote it down in a treatise upon anti-Christ, of as early a date as 1120; a treatise which, in many respects, is by far the most remarkable document of the middle ages. It comes to rise in the midst of complete surrounding darkness. It is a most vig. orous and stern delineation of anti-Christ in the Romish Church, as Paul's Man of sin and Son of perdition, and John's Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.

From the Waldenses, this judgment of anti-Christ as seated in the Romish apostasy passed over into England, and was in some measure re-affirmed by Wickliffe, from whom downward to the British Reformation, the proof and conviction were deepening and becoming more intense and impregnable. The bold, unsparing, unqualified, unhesitating invectives of Luther against Rome, the Pope, and the whole system, poured out with the vehemence of a passionate, great soul, impelled by irresistible conviction, did but set fire to innumerable stacks of opinions already prepared in many thinking minds, and gathering by degrees more in the unthinking. At length it grew in men's thoughts to be a truth almost as settled as the messiahship of Christ, that if anything could be proved of unquestionable correspondence with prophecy, it was the sole proprietorship of the Papacy and the Pope in those predictions of Paul and of John, of which we have endeavored to trace the counterpart characteristics. Accordingly, both on the Continent and in Great Britain, these predictions were wielded with effective boldness and great power, by the most learned and holy of the Reformers, against the factions of the Romish Church, and in demonstration of her wickedness. Every where the voice was heard come out of her, my people! and almost every where by some it was obeyed.

But by a great ruse of Satan, one of the most deadly iniquities of the Papacy was retained even in the Reformed Churches, in an adulterous connection between Church and State, and a usurpation of the prerogatives of God over conscience; and the Reformation stopped in mid career. Then those energies of the Reformed churches that might and should have been turned against Rome, were employed on mere forms among themselves, in battling for and against them, for the acquisition of temporal and ecclesiastical power and perpetuity. The Church took the State, and the State the Church in an embrace foreshadowed by the drunken woman on the scarlet-colored beast, and but little less fraught with spiritual evil than that apostate Church itself. The head of the State was made by constitutional organization the head of the Church, and to the Church so organized every subject was forced, by sacramental swearing and sealing, to belong, and then papistical intolerance, arrogance, and persecution were adopted. While the spirit and

The consequence has been inevitable.

opinions of the noble army of Reformers and martyrs have more and more died out of existence, the spirit and opinions, the old abandoned rites and superstitions, of the Papal system have more and more sprung up again and come to life. After a while, the impossibility or inconsistency of preserving and maintaining in a Reformed organization so much of the spirit and semblance of the Papacy, and at the same time branding the Papal church as antiChrist, has been seen and felt, and the Tracts for the Times, with other movements, have prepared the way for a sort of mongrel rechurching in men's opinion's of the excommunicated and apostate church, as the dear and true Mother, not of Harlots, but of the Reformed Daughters, and a veiling of the form of the great Whore of Revelations as the chaste spouse of the Redeemer.

Nevertheless, nothing can save it from the perdition to which it is hastening. It is the Son of perdition, it is the Mother of harlots. And while in quarters distant from the Seat of the Beast, the knight-errants of Church and State adultery are proclaiming against all comers the spotless reputation of " the great whore that sitteth upon many waters," at home the ten horns begin to hate the whore and make her desolate and naked, and to eat her flesh and burn her with fire. In her own familiar region of allurement and of power, men apply to her the Scriptural descriptions, and fasten upon her by irresistible demonstration the heraldry both of Paul's and of John's painting.

The end is near, and with it comes the freedom and glory of the church. Nation after nation will find the chains of National Church establishments thrown off, and the claims of the gospel, in full religious liberty, adopted. The Hierarchical Despotism in all its forms, and the pampered priest-craft dependent upon it, are almost at the death struggle. "When the State," says Baptist Noel in his late book, "withdraws from its paralytic and trembling limbs the couch on which it has been reclining, with royalty for its nurse, nothing will remain for it but the grave."

ARTICLE VIII.

THE CHINESE EMPIRE.

By REV. RUFUS W. CLARK, Portsmouth, N. H.

The Middle Kingdom: a Survey of the Geography, Government, Education, Social Life, Arts, Religion, &c. of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants. With a New Map of the Empire and Illustrations, principally engraved by J. W. Orr.—By S. WELLS WILLIAMS, author of "Easy Lessons in Chinese," "English and Chinese vocabulary," &c., in two volumes. New York and London. Wiley & Putnam, 1848. pp. 590, and 614.

AMONG the benefits conferred by our foreign missionaries, not only upon the general interests of human learning, but also upon the people to whom they are sent, and the missionary enterprise itself, the accurate and full compilation of information, such as is embodied in this and similar works, is not the least important. In order to quicken the churches, secure the adoption of plans of systematic benevolence, and awaken a general interest in the great missionary work, there needs to be a knowledge of foreign countries widely disseminated. The interest felt in the welfare of a distant people, will be, cæteris paribus, in proportion to the knowledge we have of their condition, wants, habits, and the facilities afforded for introducing among them the arts and blessings of civilization. And just the kind of knowledge that we need for this purpose, as well as to subserve the general interests of literature, is furnished by Medhurst, Williams, Gutzlaff, and Abeel, in regard to China; by Smith and Dwight in regard to Armenia: by Dibble in his history of the Sandwich Islands, &c. &c. When men visit these countries simply as travelers, diplomatists, merchants or geologists, they furnish us with information only in the particular department in which they feel the deepest interest. The traveler will give us a view of the external features of the country, its scenery, mountains, lakes, rivers; its works of art, with some account of the manners and habits of the people. The diplomatist will describe its government, courts, and jurisprudence. The merchant will inform us respecting the commerce of the country, its resources, amount of traffic, and articles of export; while the naturalist will confine himself to his favorite science. But the intelligent missionary, whose object is a philanthropic one, will give us a comprehensive view of everything of interest relating to the people among whom he dwelis. He will especially let us into their inner life, and spread out to view their intellectual

and moral condition. He will show how their social and political institutions grow out of their character as a people, while at the same time he gives a due degree of attention to other depart

ments.

Mr. Williams' work, affords a striking example and confirmation of these remarks. In his first volume he gives a view of the general features and geography of the empire; the extent of the population; the natural history, laws and government of China; the state of education; the structure of the Chinese language, with an account of their classical and polite literature. In the second volume we have a description of the architecture, dress, industrial arts, commerce, science, history, chronology, and religion of this strange people, with a view of their social condition and the missionary efforts which, at different times have been made in the Empire. The information given upon these interesting points, he has obtained from personal observation and experience, as well as from the most authentic sources within his reach. The latter he has evidently consulted with great diligence and candor; and the results of his labors are here presented to the world in an attractive and substantial form. Upon some points he may be rather too diffuse, and some sentences might have been grammatically improved :-but in addition to the literary merit of the work, its great charm lies in the fact, that it bears the marks of a truly Christian author.

With regard to the general scientific and historical writings of our missionaries, it may be safely affirmed, that we have been for the last half century, more indebted to them for a knowledge of foreign countries, than to any other class of writers. Being, for the most part, men of thorough education, sound judgment, industrious and patient habits-ready to any work of toil or sacrifice for the good of others; having the benefit of long residence among and familiar intercourse with the people whom they describe, they enjoy peculiar facilities for such a service. And as the missionary enterprise continues to enlist the talents and acquisitions of the church in its service, we shall look more and more to our missionaries for full and reliable information repecting foreign countries, especially the heathen world. For no motive but the highest form of benevolence-nothing but the spirit of the gospel could induce men of refinement, learning and taste, to exclude themselves from the advantages of civilized society, and dwell for a long series of years, or for life, with rude, ignorant and barbarous tribes.

But the value of the contributions of our missionaries to the cause of learning, is also strikingly seen in what they have done to improve the languages and literature of heathen nations. In some cases they have reduced languages to a written form; in others greatly facilitated their acquisition, and in numerous instances