men worshipping the wafer because they call it God.  But above it is the Pope’s chair, and if he were to occupy it he would sit there with that which they call God, and worship as God, beneath his feet.  Can anything be a more exact fulfilment of the words, ‘Exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped?’

The third is the prophecy of the woman in Rev. xvii.  The application of this to the Church of Rome is less disputed than that of either of the other two, for the seat of the woman is decided by the 9th verse to be the seven-hilled city, which is almost universally admitted to be Rome.

Now it is not my object to study the details of these prophecies, and there is only one point to which I invite your careful attention—one most important point common to all the three, viz. that the final overthrow will be preceded by a consuming process.  It will not be a sudden destruction in the height of prosperity, but will be the final act after a period of wasting and defeat.  If these three passages refer to Rome, as I fully believe they do, then Rome will be first consumed and then destroyed.

In Daniel it says (vii. 26), ‘The judgment shall sit.’  It seems clear from the context, that this does not mean the great day of judgment, but the commencement of judgment on her sins here upon earth.  ‘And they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end.’  There is, therefore, a consuming process before the end.  The word here rendered ‘consume’ conveys the idea of a gradual process, and not a sudden blow; and teaches us that there will be a wasting before the final overthrow.

In 2 Thess. ii. 8, exactly the same process is described, and in almost the same words: ‘Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy at the brightness of his coming.’  He will first consume him by His word, and ultimately destroy him at His advent.

It is just the same in Rev. xvii.  There you meet with the old beast, the ten-horned beast of Daniel; and ten horns still representing ten kings; and when we reach the close of the chapter we find these ten kings all turned against the woman: so that, instead of being ridden and governed by her, as they were when she was riding on the beast, they are now turned against her, and agree in consuming her.  ‘The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.’ (Verse 16.)

Without stopping to look into the detail, which it is impossible to do in a short lecture, it appears clear that all these passages agree in predicting a period during which the Papacy will be consumed before its final fall.  This will be brought about partly by the power of truth, and partly by the change of mind in the kings.  But whatever be the agency, the result is the same.  ‘They will take away his dominion, to consume, and to destroy unto the end.’  And this you mark is the last great process before the coming of our blessed Saviour, for the final destruction will be by the brightness of His coming.

And now comes the question, Has this consuming process begun?  Is it, or is it not, in progress?  I know that some fainthearted people will say, ‘Oh, no!  Rome is making dreadful progress, and must soon triumph.’  But surely that opinion is contrary to fact.  Surely it may be proved, from the great facts of European history, not merely that the consumption has begun, but that it has been going on during the last few years with peculiar and unexampled speed.

Let us look at a few great European facts, not at little things that happen to fall within our own observation, but at great facts that are conspicuous before the world.

Rome has always claimed, as she does still, dominion over all the kingdoms of the world, and she used to exercise it over all those of Western Christendom.  Her claim even went so far that, by the common consent and advice of his barons, the King of England once ‘resigned England and Ireland to God, to St. Peter and St. Paul, to Pope Innocent, and his successors in the Apostolic chair: and agreed to hold these dominions as feudatory of the Church of Rome, by the annual payment of one thousand marks.’ [30]  Imagine any one standing up amongst the barons of England, and making such a proposal now!  That dominion of the Papacy is taken away, and taken away, as I believe, for ever.

When the dominion was gone he made concordats, or compacts, with the different states; in which, with varying conditions, it was agreed that he should uphold them by his spiritual power, and they uphold him by the secular arm.  It is a most remarkable fact, that within the last fifteen years almost all of these concordats have been brought abruptly to a violent end: those with Naples, Tuscany, and the Italian Duchies in 1858; that with Austria, including Venice, in 1866; with Spain in 1868; with France in 1870; and with Bavaria in 1873.  There may be others remaining in force, but I know of none.  According to the best information I can obtain, all are dissolved.  The Papacy has lost all its political power.  The ten kings have shaken off his government, and there is not one left that submits to his authority.

But more than that.  The Pope of Rome used to be king over a considerable portion of Italy.  But he is now deposed.  The States of the Church are incorporated with united Italy, and the Pope is king no more.  They have taken away his dominion.  His sovereignty is at an end.  Five years ago it received its death-blow, and shall we not acknowledge that the consuming process is begun?

But further still.  The Church of Rome used to have vast estates.  The convents which used to swarm through Italy were richly endowed with landed property.  But as soon as the kingdom of Italy was well established, those convents were broken up and their property confiscated.  And now that the Pope has been dethroned in Rome, a similar measure has been passed for all those within the city, and on the 20th of October, 1874, they received notice of their dissolution.  It looks very much as if the kings were eating up the flesh of the woman. [32]

But some will say, ‘Ah, but in religious matters Popery is making progress, for it is winning so many perverts to its errors.’  I know there are perverts, and I am deeply grieved at it, but I doubt whether Rome’s progress is as great as many think.  It has been calculated that in the year 1801 there were in Great Britain and Ireland twenty-seven Romanists out of every hundred of the population, but that in 1869 there were only eighteen.  The proportion, therefore, had actually diminished from twenty-seven to eighteen per cent.

But take a wider range, and look at the great facts of European history.  At the Lateran Council in 1513, after all the so-called heretics had been silenced or burned, it was proclaimed, ‘No one now