In the first advent of Christ, when the Son of God became the Son of man, the mystery of the kingdom of God was made manifest, “even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” To this revelation of divinity in humanity those had looked in all the ages whose minds had been able to discern the meaning of the prophetic utterances. From the time when the original promise was made in the garden that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, this clothing of divinity with humanity had been declared in a variety of statements and typical experiences. When Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the rulers, meeting the procession on the Mount of Olives, asked the question, Who is this? “the disciples, filled with a spirit of inspiration, are heard above all the noise of the crowd, repeating in eloquent strains the prophecies which answer this question. Adam will tell you, It is the seed of the woman that shall bruise the serpent’s head. Ask Abraham, he will tell you, It is Melchisedec, King of Salem, King of Peace. Jacob will tell you, He is Shiloh of the tribe of Judah. Isaiah will tell you, Immanuel, Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Jeremiah will tell you, The Branch of David, The Lord our righteousness. Daniel will tell you, He is the Messiah. Hosea will tell you, He is the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial.” When “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,” the mystery which had been revealed and yet hidden in symbol and prophecy became a concrete fact—God manifest in the flesh. This is the mystery of godliness. “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; he who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” This opening up of the divine purpose to angels and men made it forever clear that the eternal Son had not simply been given for man, but to man, and the truth was taught with a positiveness hitherto unknown that the gift of the Seed was the essence of every promise, and that only in the acceptance of the gift of the Seed could any promise be realized. And even though Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, so that his bodily presence was no longer experienced by his disciples, yet in his humanity he had connected man on earth with the throne of God, and he had promised his constant presence with the believers, in the gift of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. And so the mystery of the gospel was proclaimed and revealed, and the power of a present Christ was manifested, and the church prospered, even though its testimony for Christ was sealed with the blood of many martyrs. But in the very generation during which this mystery had been thus wrought into fact and testified of to the whole then known world, such a perversion of this gospel began to manifest itself as afterward developed into that chiefest counterfeit of the gospel, that masterpiece of deception—the papacy. The apostle Paul wrote of this as “the falling away,” and the apostle John designated it as “the antichrist.” And even in their time the foundation of this great apostasy was being laid. In one of his very earliest epistles Paul wrote of this, saying, “The mystery of iniquity doth already work,” and he warned the church of it in his farewell words to the elders of the church at Ephesus: “I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” By the teaching of these “perverse things” the gospel of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” was perverted, and an attempt was made to lay another foundation than that which had been laid. The corner-stone of the true gospel foundation is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, and that he is the Head of the church. This is the mystery of godliness, and upon this foundation the true church rests. The corner-stone of the perversion of the gospel is that the pope of Rome is the vicegerent of the Son of God, and takes his place as the visible head of the church. This is the mystery of iniquity, and upon this foundation the false church rests. The mystery of iniquity is simply a counterfeit of the mystery of godliness, and its whole intent is to shut Christ out of his place in the plan of salvation, to take away from the gospel that which has constituted its very essence from the time of the original promise. The blasphemous nature of this counterfeit gospel, and the terrible perversion of the mystery of godliness which is found in this mystery of iniquity are thus described by one who has given much study to this system:— The great primal truth of God’s unity and supreme and exclusive government was supplanted in the old world by the device of making men adore inferior divinities, not as God, but as representatives and vicegerents of God. So in the modern world the leading Christian truth respecting Christ, and the oneness of his mediation, has been supplanted by the device of other mediators, and of another Christ,—antichrist. Popery is the counterfeit of Christianity,—a most elaborate and skilfully contriven counterfeit,—a counterfeit in which the form is faithfully preserved, the spirit utterly extinguished, and the end completely inverted. This counterfeit church has its high priest,—the pope,—who blasphemes the royal priesthood of Christ, by assuming his office, when he pretends to be Lord of the conscience, Lord of the church, and Lord of the world; and by assuming his names, when he calls himself “the Light of the world,” “the King of Glory,” “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” Christ’s Vicar and God’s Vicegerent. This counterfeit church has, too, its sacrifice,—the mass,—which blasphemes the sacrifice of Christ, by virtually teaching its inefficiency, and needing to be repeated, as is done when Christ’s very body and blood are again offered in sacrifice by the hands of the priests of Rome, for the sins of the living and the dead. This church has, moreover, its Bible, which is tradition, which blasphemes the Word of God, by virtually teaching its insufficiency. It has mediators,—saints and angels, and especially the Virgin; and thus it blasphemes the one Mediator between God and man. In fine, it blasphemes the person and office of the Spirit as the sanctifier, because it teaches that its sacraments can make holy; and it blasphemes God, by teaching that its priests can pardon sin, and can release from the obligations of divine law. Thus popery has counterfeited, and, by counterfeiting, has set aside, all that is vital and valuable in Christianity. It robs Christ of his kingly office, by exalting the pope to his throne; it robs him of his priesthood in the sacrifice of the mass; it robs him of his power as Mediator, by substituting Mary; it robs him of his prophetic office, by substituting the teachings of an infallible church; it robs God the Spirit of his peculiar work as the sanctifier, by attributing the power of conferring grace to its own ordinances; and it robs God the Father of his prerogatives, by assuming the power of justifying and pardoning men. Thus the counterfeit Christianity of Rome is as extensive as the real Christianity of the New Testament: it substitutes other objects of worship, other doctrines, other sacraments; all of which, however, in the letter, have an exact correspondence with the true. The forms of Christianity have been faithfully copied; its realities have been completely set aside. Thus Satan has carried his object, not by erecting a system