we do not believe is bought at too dear a price. The old proverb, that "honesty is the best policy," will hold good in religion as well as every concern of human life. All the honor that can be acquired by religious hypocrisy is what Lord Mansfield would style "mushroom popularity ;" a popularity gained without merit, and may be lost without a crime. An honest man is the noblest work of God, said the immortal poet and philosopher. I must cut short this part of the subject, and barely give the names of the ten remaining gates.

3d. Neglect of the Bible and indolence in searching for truth.

4th. Implicitly trusting to the judgment of others in spiritual things.

5th. Pride of opinion.

6th. Fear of incurring reproach.

7th. False reasonings, and "vain philosophy after the

rudiments of the world."

8th. Erroneous expositions of the divine word.

9th. Prejudice caused by slander and misrepresentation. 10th. Flattery.

11th. Trusting to the authority of learned men.

12th. Threatenings of endless damnation for keeping back.

By these and such-like means, Babylon, the great city, has become thronged with inhabitants; but the time is coming when, notwithstanding her present greatness and opulence, silence will reign in all her streets, and not even the tread of a footstep shall be heard within her wall; the blackness and darkness of oblivion shall gather over her proud steeples and towers, and cover her very name with the shades of everlasting forgetfulness: then will the an

gel of God cry mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is FALLEN! Rev. xviii. 2. We pass

II. To notice the trade, wealth, and commerce of Babylon. The city is a place of great commerce; her merchants trade to all parts of the earth; dealers, both wholesale and retail, may be found even in America. The merchants are an enterprising race. They cross the ocean to trade with the inhabitants of scorching Africa and sultry India; they penetrate the depths of the wilderness to trade with every tribe of natives that roam the forest; they may be found in almost every city, town and village in our country; there is scarce a cottage so remote as to escape the vigilance of these retailers. They carry every variety of merchandize with them so as to suit every class of buyers. To the ambitious they, offer fame and promotion on condition of supporting their cause; to the visionary and romantic, they offer miraculous accounts of calls and conversions, and scores of religious novels-whilst the fancies of children are amused with interesting stories and "cunningly devised fables," inculcating the gloomy doctrines of Babylon. The merchants also deal largely in craft, deception, threats, flatteries and frowns. They traffic much in the prejudices and superstitions of the people. They have often been detected in carrying on a smuggling contraband trade with the civil power, with which they have always been conniving for the purpose of obtaining assistance from that quarter to enable them to prosecute their trade to better advantage.

In payment for these articles the merchants want money and power; they want the entire devotion of their customers to their cause and interest; they want the sole direction of their consciences; they want their personal attendance at every call; they expect of all their customers im

plicit obedience-a blind belief of all that the merchants tell them. In short, they want their temporal goods and possessions, and the whole direction of their consciences. In the context, verses 12 and 13, we have a bill of some of the articles in which the merchants trade: "Gold, silver, fine linen, silk, fine flour, beasts, slaves, and souls of men. This catalogue has been greatly increased in modern times. By dealing in these articles the merchants have in many instances become rich; they are clothed in fine wool and silk, and fare sumptuously every day; they have treasured up gold and precious stones in abundance. But alas! for their poor customers-many of them have lost their all by this trade. They have not only lost their temporal goods, but have lost their spiritual goods, which is far worse.— They have lost their peace of mind and hope in divine mercy; they have lost their confidence in God; in a spiritual sense, they have lost their house and home, and are Now wandering about in the wilderness of doubt, or the desolate regions of horror and despair. Thus the articles. for which they have paid so high a price, and which they were told were so necessary to their happiness, have proved to them to be a tremendous scourge. It seems that the merchants of the mystical city enrich themselves in temporal wealth at the expense of the spiritual want and bankruptcy of their customers. What a vastly commercial place is this city; its trade goes to all parts, and embraces every commodity of a spurious kind, both temporal and spiritual.— What city is like great Babylon? Rev. xviii. 18.

III. We are to point out some of the "sins" of which this city has been guilty. It will be borne in mind that Babylon is the church in its apostate state, and her merchants, sailors, &c. ambitious tyrannical priests, and ecclesiastics. This false church is what is called in the seven

teenth chapter of Revelations, "THE WOMAN," on whose forehead was written "MYSTERY, BABYLON, the MOTHER of HARLOTS and ABOMINATIONS of the earth"-see verse 5th; and at the 18th verse of the same chapter the revelator was told, "The woman which thou sawest is that great CITY which reigneth over the kings of the earth." The revelator in another place had a view of this "WOMAN" seated on a "scarlet coloured beast," and drunken with the blood of saints and martyrs.

The sins of which this city has been guilty may be briefly stated as follows:

1st. Selling her spurious merchandize.

2d. Conniving with the civil power, or uniting church

and state.

3d. Persecution for religious opinions.

The two first sins seem to be alluded to in the third verse of the chapter, where it is said "the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have waxed RICH through the abundance of her delicacies."

It is a sin to sell an article which he who sells it knows at the same time will prove a curse to him who buys it.— This sort of dealing seems to be one of the "crying" sins of many of the merchants of mystical Babylon. They persuade and drive people to pay them exorbitant prices for instilling into their minds, and the minds of their children, sentiments which prove a source of misery to them all their days, and plant their dying couches with thorns. Such speculation is certainly a "sin" that "cries even unto heaven."

Again, conniving with the civil power in order to compel people to purchase their commodities whether they are willing or not.

Aspiring ambitious ecclesiastics have always been directly or indirectly concerned in this high handed fraud. By conniving with the civil power, "anti-christ," the "beast," (or in other words the apostate church) once obtained such authority as to compel all, both bond and free, to receive his mark in their "hand" or "forehead"-none were allowed common privileges, even to "buy" or "sell" in "market,” unless he had the mark of the beast or number of his name: see Rev. xiii. 17. And are there not similar attempts being made in our own country to produce a similar state of things. Have not the leaders of a certain party already boasted that the civil government of this nation will be in their hands in twenty years? Have they not already declared their intention of forming a "christian party in politics" for the purpose of driving from office every man who will not "bow down" to the idols of modern self-styled orthodoxy; and while you see such desperate struggles for power making on every side-such mighty exertions to grasp the wealth of the nation! What do you think these things mean? Oh! can ye not discern the signs of the times?

The most daring "sin" of which any party of professing christians was ever guilty, is an attempt to mingle religion and politics together, and effect a union of church and state! "True religion" wants no support, and can receive no support from the coercive arm of the civil authority; but false religion will rise on that or any thing else, by means of which to grasp the objects of its ambition.

The third sin of Babylon is persecution. Oh! who can number the thousands and millions of victims that have perished through the intolerance of the false church.Christ declared that he came not to "destroy men's lives, but to save them;" but anti-christ has always manifested a disposition to destroy the characters or lives of all who