In leading proof of the Babylonian character of the Papal Church the first point to which I solicit the reader's attention, is the character of Mystery which attaches alike to the modern Roman and the ancient Babylonian systems. The gigantic system of moral corruption and idolatry described in this passage under the emblem of a woman with a
"GOLDEN CUP IN HER HAND" (Rev.xvii.4),
"making all nations DRUNK with the wine of her fornication" (Rev. xvii. 2; xviii. 3), is divinely called
"MYSTERY, Babylon the Great" (Rev. xvii. 5). That Paul's
"MYSTERY of iniquity," as described in 2 Thess. ii. 7, has its counterpart in the Church of Rome, no man of candid mind, who has carefully examined the subject, can easily doubt. Such was the impression made by that account on the mind of the great Sir Matthew Hale, no mean judge of evidence, that he used to say, that if the apostolic description were inserted in the public
"Hue and Cry" any constable in the realm would be warranted in seizing, wherever he found him, the Bishop of Rome as the head of that
"MYSTERY of iniquity." Now, as the system here described is equally characterised by the name of
"MYSTERY," it may be presumed that both passages refer to the same system. But the language applied to the New Testament Babylon, as the reader cannot fail to see, naturally leads us back to the Babylon of the ancient world. As the Apocalyptic woman has in her hand a CUP, wherewith she intoxicates the nations, so was it with the Babylon of old. Of that Babylon, while in all its g lory, the Lord thus spake, in denouncing its doom by the prophet Jeremiah:
"Babylon hath been a GOLDEN CUP in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad" (Jer. li. 7). Why this exact similarity of language in regard to the two systems? The natural inference surely is, that the one stands to the other in the relation of type and antitype. Now, as the Babylon of the Apocalypse is characterised by the name of
"MYSTERY," so the grand dis tinguishing feature of the ancient Babylonian system was the Chaldean
"MYSTERIES," that formed so essential a part of that system. And to these mysteries, the very language of the Hebrew prophet, symbolical though of course it is, distinctly alludes, when he speaks of Babylon as a
"golden CUP." To drink of
"mysterious beverages," says Salverte, was indispensable on the part of all who sought initiation in these Mysteries.
* These
"mysterious beverages" were composed of
"wine, honey, water, and flour." * From the ingredients avowedly used, and from the nature of others not avowed, but certainly used,
* there can be no doubt that they were of an intoxicating nature; and till the aspirants had come under their power, till their understandings had been dimmed, and their passions excited by the medicated draught, they were not duly prepared for what they were either to hear or to see. If it be inqui red what was the object and design of these ancient
"Mysteries," it will be found that there was a wonderful analogy between them and that
"Mystery of iniquity" which was embodied in the Church of Rome. Their primary object was to introduce privately, by little and little, under the seal of secrecy and the sanction of an oath, what it would not have been safe all at once and openly to propound. The time at which they were instituted proves that this must have been the case. The Chaldean Mysteries can be traced up to the days of Semiramis, who lived only a few centuries after the flood, and who is known to have impressed upon them the image of her own depraved and polluted mind.
* That beautiful but abandoned queen of Babylon was not only herself a paragon of unbridled lust and licentiousness, but in the Mysteries which she had a chief hand in forming, she was worshipped as Rhea,
* the great
"MOTHER" of the gods,
* * with such atrocious rites as identified her with Venus, the
MOTHER of all impurity, and raised the very city where she had reigned to a bad eminence among the nations, as the grand seat at once of idolatry and consecrated prostitution.
* Thus seat was this Chaldean queen a fit and remarkable prototype of the
"Woman" in the Apocalypse, with the golden cup in her hand, and the name on her forehead,
"Mystery, Babylon the Great, the MOTHER of harlots and abominations of the earth." The Apocalyptic emblem of the Harlot woman with the cup in her hand was even embodied in the symbols of idolatry derived from ancient Babylon, as they were exhibited in Greece; for thus was the Greek Venus originally represented,
* and it is singular that in our own day, and so far as appears for the first time, the Roman Church has actually taken this very symbol as her own chosen emblem. In 1825, on the occasion of the jubilee, Pope Leo XII. struck a medal, bearing on the one side his won image, and on the other, that of the Church of Rome symbolised as a
"Woman," holding in her left hand a cross, and in her right a CUP, with the legend around her,
"Sedet super universum," "The whole world is her seat." * Now the period when Semiramis lived,--a period when the patriarchal faith was still fresh in the minds of men, when Shem was still alive,
* to rouse the minds of the faithful to rally around the banner for the truth and cause of God, made it hazardous all at once and publicly to set up such a system as was inaugurated by the Babylonian queen, We know, from the statements in Job, that among patriarchal tribes that had nothing whatever to do with Mosaic institutions, but which adhered to the pure faith of the patriarchs, idolatry in any shape was held to be a crime, to be visited with signal and summary punishment on the heads of those who practised it.
"If I beheld the sun," said Job,
"when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, and * my mouth hath kissed my hand; this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that is above" (Job xxxi. 26-28). Now if this was the case in Job's day, much more must it have been the case at the earlier period when the Mysteries were instituted. It was a matter, therefore, of necessity, of idolatry where to be brought in, and especially such a foul idolatry as the Babylonian system contained in its bosom, that it should be done stealthily and in secret.
* Even though introduced by the hand of power, it might have produced a revulsion, and violent attempts might have been made b y the uncorrupted portion of mankind to put it down; and at all events, if it had appeared at once in all its hideousness, it would have alarmed the consciences of men, and defeated the very object in view. That object was to bind all mankind in blind and absolute submission to a hierarchy entirely dependent on the sovereigns of Babylon. In the carrying out of this scheme, all knowledge, sacred and profane, came to be monopolised by the priesthood, * who dealt it out to those who were initiated in the
"Mysteries" exactly as they saw fit, according as the interests of the grand system of spiritual despotism they had to administer might seem to require. Thus the people, wherever the Babylonian system spread, where bound neck and heel to the priests. The priest were the only depositaries of religious knowledge; they only had the true tradition, by which the writs and symbols of the public religion could be interpreted; and without blind and implicit submission to them, what was necessary for salvation could not be known. Now compare this with the early history of the Papacy, and with its spirit and modus operandi throughout, and how exact was the coincidence! Was it in a period of patriarchal light that the corrupt system of the Babylonian
"Mysteries" began? It was in a period of still greater light that that unholy and unscriptural system commenced, that has found such a rank development in the Church of Rome. It began in the very age of the apostles, when the primitive Church was in its flower, when the glorious fruits of Pentecost were everywhere to be seen, when martyrs were sealing their testimony for the truth with their blood. Even then, when the Gospel shone so brightly, the Spirit of God bore this clear and distinct testimony by Paul:
"THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY DOTH ALREADY WORK" (2 Thess. ii. 7). That system of iniquity which then began it was divinely foretold was to issue in a portentous apostacy, that in due time would be awfully
"revealed," and would continue until it should be destroyed
"by the breath of the Lord's mouth, and consumed by the brightness of His coming" (Ibid. v. 8). But at its first introduction into the Church, it came in secretly and by stealth, with
"all DECEIVABLENESS of unrighteousness." It wrought
"mysteriously" under fair but false pretences, leading men away from the simplicity of the truth as it is in Jesus. And it did so secretly, for the very same reason that idolatry was secretly introduced in the ancient Mysteries of Babylon; it was not safe, it was not prudent to do otherwise. The zeal of the true Church, though destitute of civil power, would have aroused itself, to put the false system and all its abettors beyond the pale of Christianity, if it had appeared openly and all at once in all its grossness; and this would have arrested its progress. Ther efore it was brought in secretly, and by little and little, one corruption being introduced after another, as apostacy proceeded, and the backsliding Church became prepared to tolerate it, till it has reached the gigantic height we now see, when in most every particular the system of the Papacy is the very antipodes of the system of the primitive Church. Of the gradual introduction of all that is now most characteristic of Rome, through the working of the
"Mystery of iniquity," we have very striking evidence, preserved even by Rome itself, in the inscriptions copied from the Roman catacombs. These catacombs are extensive excavations underground in the neighbourhood of Rome, in which the Christians, in times of persecution during the first three centuries, celebrated their worship, and also buried their dead. On some of the tombstones there are inscriptions still to be found, which are directly in the teeth of the now well-known principles and practices of Rome. Take only one example: What, for instance, at this day is a more distinguishing mark of the Papacy than the enforced celibacy of the clergy? Yet from these inscriptions we have most decisive evidence, that even in Rome, there was a time when no such system of clerical celibacy was known. Witness the following, found on different tombs:--
