'that so many Jews are allowed to remain in Salonica; the excitement thus given to trade is apt to blind true believers.' Alas! the thousand ships which might find secure anchorage in the superb harbour of Constantinople, would seek in vain for the rich freights of silk, cotton, and wool, which ought to await their coming: such is the character of its people and their rulers, that no native capitalists have ever been emboldened to accumulate a store of merchandise, to tempt the rapacity of the sultan; and vessels which trade to Constantinople have frequently occasion to go to Salonica, Smyrna, or some other port, for return cargoes."

* Russia, pp. 3, 4.

CHAPTER IV.

GENERAL APOSTACY AND INFIDELITY.

ANOTHER peculiar era in the accomplishment of prophecy connected with "the last times," is the wide extension of Infidelity, and of course, a general dereliction of moral and religious principle throughout the ten kingdoms of the papal apostacy, and of" the whole world" of professing Christians.

This depraved state of society, which we imagine to be the last and engrossing form of the grand apostacy, merits peculiar consideration, and is found to possess a prominent and distinctive character in the word of God.

"It is remarkable," says Mr. Bickersteth," that the very command to attend to the subject of prophecy, is accompanied with the forewarning that it would be scoffed at, as if to arm the Christian, minding this important part of divine truth, against the peculiar snare to which he would be exposed. Just before the apostle gives his awful account of the day of the Lord, he says, 'I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be MINDFUL of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?""

2 Peter. III. 4-7. For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they a willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

All those who "live without God in the world" are dead to the operations of his moral and physical government, and to the harmony which subsists between his word and his works. All events and changes, the progressive or declining condition of empires, kingdoms, and states, wear no extraordinary appearance to such persons, beyond the previous events of history. They They are alike unmindful of the fulfilment of Scripture, and of the fearful consummation to sinners which it reveals, as a necessary consequent on the defection from true religion, so general at the present period. The apostle was inspired to foretell and so to expose the cause of their blindness, which is, "walking after their own lusts." They are by no means ignorant of Christ's coming to judge the world in righteousness," as of many other doctrines of our religion, having been brought up in the bosom of professing Christendom. Thus he proves, by the most apposite example, that they are willingly ignorant,"—that is, wilfully neglectful to examine and compare God's works with his word; which, in reference to the deluge, mutually correspond,-testify the truth in every part of the globe, and are standing monuments and sure guarantees of the further fulfilment of the Divine judgments, and that " by fire" on ungodly men.

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a Prov. XVII. 16; John II. 19, 20. ing." Col. I. 17.

B Gr. "consist

"There is much, it must be confessed in the apostacy of multitudes and the rapid progress of infidelity, to awaken our fears for the virtue of the rising generation; but nothing to shake our faith, nothing which Scripture itself does not give us room to expect. The features which compose the character of apostates, their profaneness, presumption, lewdness, impatience of subordination, restless appetite for change, vain pretensions to freedom, and to emancipate the world, while themselves are the slaves of lust; the weapons with which they attack Christianity, and the snares they spread for the unwary, are depicted in the clearest colours by the pencil of prophecy.

"To obliterate the sense of Deity, of moral sanctions, and a future world, . . . is evidently the principal object of modern sceptics; the first sophists who have avowed an attempt to govern the world without inculcating the persuasion of a superior power. The immaculate holiness of revelation is precisely that which renders it disgusting to men who are determined at all events to retain their vices.-Betwixt vice of every sort and in every degree, and the religion of Jesus, there subsists an eternal discord.-When at the distance of more than half a century, Christianity was assaulted by a Woolston, a Tindal, and a Morgan, it was supported by the labours of a Clarke and a Butler, a Doddridge, a Leland, and a Lardner, with equal reputation and success.'

2 Timothy III. 1. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, †unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce

* Sermon on Modern Infidelity, by Rev. Rob. Hall.
See Supplement, No. IV.

*

breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, & ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes band Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also was. But evil men

and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. See also 2 Peter 11.

These, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption." These are the unjust, who are reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished, and to whom "the mist of darkness is reserved for ever." And in ver. 1-3, we have a full description of the nature of this apostacy :-" But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of; and through covetousness, shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not;" and then it is declared in ver. 4-9, that God will deal with them after the example or type of the destruction of the ungodly by the flood, and of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire.

a Deut. XXIX. 4; XII. 42, 43.

Prov. xiv. 6; John 11. 20, 21; v. 44 ; b Exod. vII. 11, 22.