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was our duty to do; forbidding the clergy to lord it over God's heritage, (1 Pet. IV. 3.) Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being enfamples to the flock; forbidding the fervice of God in an unknown tongue, as St. Paul hath done at large in the 14th Chap. of his first Epift. to the Corinthians: Do not all thefe and fuch like prohibitions, I fay, neceffarily fuppofe and imply, that one time or other thefe particular errors and abuses would creep into the church? and in what church they are publicly taught and practifed, no man can be infenfible. Such texts of fcripture are as much predictions that thefe things would be, as they are arguments that they Jhould not be. For laws divine and human are not leveled against chimerical and mere imaginary vices, fuch as never are, never will be brought into practice; but are enacted by reafon of thofe enormities, which men either have committed or are likely to commit, and which the lawgivers wifely forefeeing are therefore willing to prevent.-Why doth St. Paul admonish the Romans particularly to beware of apoftafy? (Rom. XI. 20, 22.) Be not high-minded, but fear;--otherwife thou alfo fhall be cut off. Surely this is a ftrange way of addreffing the Romans, if the church of Rome was defigned to be the infallible judge of controverfies, the center of unity, and director of all religion.-View the picture that both St. Peter and St. Jude have drawn of false teachers, and confider whom it most resembles in all its features. (2 Pet. II. 1, &c.) But there were falfe prophets alfo among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable herefes, even denying the Lord that bought them; And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reafon of whom the way of truth fhall be evil spoken of; And through covetousness Shall they with feigned words make merchandife of you, &c. (Jude 4, &c.) Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lafcivioufnefs, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jefus Chrift; Thefe filthy dreamers defile the flesh, defpife dominion, and speak evil of dignities; Thefe be they who feparate themfelves, fenfual, having not the fpirit; &c.-What St. Paul hath predicted concerning the corruption of the laft days, is too much the character of all

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fects of Chriftians, but the application more properly belongs to the members of the church of Rome. (2 Tim. III. 1, &c.) This know alfo, that in the laft days perilous times fhall come: For men fhall be lovers of their own felves, covetous, boafters, proud, blafphemers, difobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy; Without natural affection, truce-breakers, falfe accufers, incontinent, fierce, defpifers of thofe that are good; Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; Having a form of godlinefs but denying the power thereof.-Such are the direct prophecies, and fuch the general intimations of popery; and we have the better right to make this application of the general intimations, as the direct prophecies are fo plain and particular.

II. It is not only foretold, that fuch a power as that of the pope and church of Rome fhould be exercised in the Chriftian world: but to prevent any miftake in the application of thefe prophecies, the place and the perfons likewife are pointed out, where and by whom it should be exercised. The prophet Daniel (Chap. VII.) hath defcribed four beafts or four kingdoms: and out of the fourth beaft or kingdom, he faith, fhall arife ten horns or ten kings or kingdoms; and among them or after them fhall come up another little horn; and he shall be divers from the reft; and he shall have eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth fpeaking great things, and a look more Stout than his fellows; and he shall fubdue and pluck up by the roots three of the firft horns or kings; and fhall Speak great words against the moft High, and shall wear out the faints of the moft High, and think to change times and laws. Daniel's firft kingdom is the Babylonian, the second is the Perfian, the third is the Macedonian or Grecian, and the fourth can be none other than the Roman; and the Roman empire, upon its diffolution, was divided into ten kings or kingdoms. It is in the western or Latin empire that these ten kings or kingdoms are to be fought and found: for this was properly the body of the fourth beaft, the Greek or eaftern empire belonged to the body of the third beaft: and out of the western Roman empire, by the incurfions of the northern nations, arofe ten kings or kingdoms; of whom having mentioned the

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names before, we need not repeat them here. Now who is the little horn that was to fpring up among these or after thefe; who as a politico-ecclefiaftical power differeth from the other ten powers; who hath eyes like the eyes of a man, that is (1) a feer, as Sir Ifaac Newton fays, Toxoros or bishop in the litteral fenfe of the word; who hath a mouth speaking great things, bulls and anathemas, interdicts and excommunications; who hath a look more ftout than his fellows, affuming a fupremacy not only over other bishops, but even a fuperiority over kings and emperors themselves; who hath pluckt up by the roots three of the first horns, the exarchate of Ravena, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the state of Rome, and is diftinguished by the triple crown; who fpeaketh great words against the moft High, fetting up himself above all laws divine as well as human; who weareth out the faints of the most High, by wars and maffacres, inquifitions and perfecutions; who changeth times and laws, inftituting new religions, and teaching for doctrins the commandments of men; are questions which I think cannot admit of much difpute; there is only one perfon in the world who can fully anfwer all thefe characters.

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The blafphemous king defcribed in the 11th Chapter of Daniel, (ver. 36-39.) who shall do according to his will, and fhall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall profper till the indignation be accomplished, who shall not regard the God of his fathers, nor the defire of wives, but in his eftate fhall honor Mahuzzim, and the defenders of Mahuzzim fhall increase with glory, and fhall caufe them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain; is indeed a more general character, comprehending the tyrannical and corrupt power of the eastern church as well as of the western. But when we confider, how much and how far the Latin hath prevailed above the Greek church; how the fupremacy, which was firft claimed by the patriarch of Conftantinople, hath been fully established in the bishop of Rome;

(1) Sir Ifaac Newton's Obferv. on Daniel, Chap. 7. p. 75.

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how much more abfolute the will of the Roman pontiff hath been than that of the Byzantine emperor; how the pope hath exalted himself and magnified himself as a god upon earth; how much more the Latins have degenerated from the religion of their fathers than the Greeks; how the defire of fingle life and the worship of the dead, which firft began in the eaftern parts, have been carried to the greatest highth in the western empire; how much the jurifdiction and authority, the lands and revenues of the Roman clergy have exceeded thofe of the Greeks; how while the Greek church hath lain oppreffed for several centuries, the Roman hath ftill profpered, and in all probability still may profper till God's indignation against the Jews be accomplished; in fhort when we confider, how entirely this character agrees with that of the little horn, and how much better it agrees with the head of the Roman than with the head of the Greek church, the particular application of it to the bishop of Rome may well be juftified, efpecially fince St. Paul himself hath applied it in the fame manner.

St. Paul hath drawn the man of fin, the fon of perdition, (2 Theff. II.) an exact copy and refemblance of the little horn and the blafphemous king in Daniel: and this man of fin muft neceffarily be a Chriftian, and not a Heathen or infidel power, becaufe he is reprefented as God fitting in the temple of God. He is defcribed too as the head of the apoftafy or the falling away from the faith; and this apoftafy is afterwards (1 Tim. IV. 1.) defined by St. Paul to confift in worshipping of demons, angels and deceased faints: and no man furely can have any reafon to doubt, who is the head and leader of this apoftafy, the patron and authorizer of this worship. The apoftle hath communicated to the Theffalonians, what it was that hindered his appearing. (ver. 5, 6.) Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you. these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. What this was the apoftle hath no where exprefly informed us; but if tradition may be depended upon in any cafe, it may certainly in this. For it is the conftant and current tradition of the fathers, that what withholdeth is the Roman empire: and

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therefore the primitive Chriftians in the public offices of the church prayed for its peace and welfare, as knowing that when the Roman empire fhould be broken into pieces, the empire of the man of fin would be raised on its ruins. They made no queftion, they were fully perfuaded, that the fucceffor to the Roman emperor in Rome would be the man of fin: and who hath fucceeded to the Roman emperor in Rome, let the world judge and determin.

St. John too hath copied after Daniel, and (Chap. XIII.) exhibits the Roman empire under the fame emblem of a beaft with ten horns. It is evident that he defigned the fame as Daniel's fourth or laft beaft, becaufe he represents him as a compofition of the three former, with the body of a leopard, the feet of a bear, and the mouth of a lion. He defcribes him too with the qualities and properties of the little horn, speaking the fame blafphemies, acting the fame cruelties: and having plainly feen what power was intended by the one, we have the lefs reafon to hesitate about the other. But to diftinguish him yet more, the number of his name is defined to be fur hundred and fixty fix. It was an ancient practice to denote names by numbers; and this number must be refolvable into fome Greek or Hebrew name, to which all the characters here given may agree. It is an early tradition derived from (2) Irenæus, who lived not long after St. John's time, and was a difciple of a difciple of this apostle, that the number 666 includes the Greek name Lateinos or the Latin empire. Or if you prefer a Hebrew name, as St. John hath fometimes made ufe of Hebrew names, it is no lefs remarkable that this number comprehends alfo the Hebrew name Romiith or the Roman empire. For more clearnefs and furenefs ftill, a woman is fhown (Chap. XVII.) riding upon this fame beaft, and her name is Babylon the great; but Babylon was deftroyed long before, and by Babylon all agree, was meant Rome. The feven heads of the beaft are likewife explained to be feven mountains on which the woman fitteth, which all the world know to be the fituation of

VOL. II.

(2) Irèn. Lib. 5. Cap. 30. p. 449. Edit. Grabe.
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Rome.

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