at the demolishing of the monafteries here in England, in the time of Henry VIII. as well as in Germany, and various other places FORBIDDING, and abstaining from, certain meats is a matter of great consequence in the church of Rome. Temperance is highly becoming all who name the name of Jesus; but as for making it a sin to eat any thing, which God has provided for that purpose, is only to follow the traditions of men and to reject the commands of God. DENYING the Scriptures to the common people, is becoming the wisdom of that church which maketh the Word of God of none effect. Chrift faith, Search the Scriptures; a popifh prieft fays, no; at your peril; the scriptures are not for common people; muft receive the law at our mouth. O be ever jealous of those who would make little of the word of God: I fear we have many of that stamp in England, who, if they would speak out, have no very great efteem for the bible. Let us efteem the words of God's mouth above thousands of gold and filver. you 5. ONE can but admire how clearly the apostle faw all this apoftacy, many ages before it took place, when he said, Now the fpirit fpeaketh expressly, that in the latter times fome shall depart from the faith, giving beed to feducing fpirits, and the doctrines of devils. Speaking lies in hypocrify, having their confcience feared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God created to be be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. I pafs by their faints' days, relicks, various modes of caftigation, pilgrimages, holy water, garments, holy places, fanctuaries, &c. and only take notice of one thing more, respecting their difcipline, and that is, forbidding liberty of confcience, though that privilege is granted them in most, if not in all, proteftant countries. Hence arofe all those horrible maffacres, and destroying of what they called hereticks, a bloody register indeed! What we read of pagan perfecutions, the actions of the firft beaft, + is truly fhocking; but it is nothing to the transactions of the ecclefiaftical beaft. Hath the former flain its thousands? the latter has its tens of thousands, and that by ways and means the most barbarous and cruel, infomuch that one would wonder how fo many ways and means of torture could either be invented, or even inflicted. . Hence arose the Inquifition, called, ironically enough, the house of mercy, and what is practised in those regions of woe, thofe habitations of cruelty, only God and the poor fufferers can tell. Untold numbers of young females have been hurried into thefe fuburbs of hell, either by open violence, for at one time none durft oppose them, or by deep decep tions; and when these fanctimonious villains had fatiated their brutal lufts, the poor victims were fe Tim. iv. 1 4. C 2 + Rev, xiii. cretly cretly made away with to prevent any difcovery.* Among the dark characters which mark out the limbs of this beaft the apoftle mentions their being without natural affection, truce breakers, falfe accufers, incontinent, &c. Now this dreadful description is fully verified in those fiends in the fhape of man; for the dearest friends are delivered up; all ties of kindred or friendship are diffolved. They can deliver up their greatest benefactors, when the gratifying of either their luft or avarice calls for it, with the greatest compofure, yea and make it a meritorious action to the bargain. Also these fathers of mercy can stand by, while the poor victims are enduring the most inconceivable tortures, agonizing in the most dreadful manner, for their mouths are often fo gagged that they cannot cry, yet, I fay, these monsters can ftand, or fit by, take fnuff, finoak tobacco, and talk with each other in the most indifferent manner, only the furgeon and phyfician stand by to prevent the poor creature the mercy of dying; and the refpite is only to add new cruelty to the unhappy fufferer, by prolonging his life for another horrid entertainment. These difmal peft houfes are now abolished in most parts, except in Spain and Portugal, which is one happy omen that the down fall of the whole fabrick is haftening on apace. *See Mr. Bower's efcape from the inquifition, and the defuription of that infernal region in Southwell's church hiftory. † 2 Tim. iii. 3. II I II I THEREFORE proceed to confider, the abolishing of the whole babel of antichrift, as a happy prelude to the glory of the latter days. For it hath been, and still is, a grand impediment to the spreading of the pure gospel. What methods God may be pleased to take to bring about this defired end, 1 pretend not to tell; for both times and manners he has reserved in his own power, to accomplish his own defigns, but may not think proper to communicate them to us. I. THE Prophet Daniel, no doubt, had a view of the rife and tyranny of the antichriftian beast, especi ally in his seventh chapter, and also of his final deftruction. After he hath fpoken of the downfall of the four grand empires, namely, the Babylonian, the Perfian, the Greecian, and the Roman; which had, each in their turn, vexed the faints of the Moft High, and also the ten kingdoms which the Roman empire fhould be divided into, he then speaks of a horn, or a power, which fhould rlfe quite different from the other four horns; He fhall fpeak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the faints of the Moft High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hands, until a time, and times, and the dividing of times. But the judgment fhall fit, and they shall take away his dominion, to confume and to destroy it unto the end. Then follows the glorious reign of the faints. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole C 3 whole heaven fhall be given to the people of the faints of the Moft High; whofe kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.* Here is a very clear and exprefs prophecy, great part of which has already been dreadfully accomplished, as I have fhewn in the foregoing pages, and the remaining part will affuredly be fulfilled in God's appointed time, as fure as that he hath spoken it. And as this image rofe gradually, very probable the destruction may be gradual alfo. For the mystery of iniquity did begin to operate in the apoftolic days, only he that would let or hinder, to wit the Pagan government did hinder, until that was taken away; until the Roman Emperor fhould profefs himfelf a chriftian, as Conftantine in the year 325 did, and loaded churchmen with the greateft honours, and then began that wicked to be revealed whom the Lord will confume with the breath of his mouth, and the brightness of his coming. 2. THE breath of bis mouth, I take to be, the effectual preaching of his gofpel; and this has already begun to weaken that deftructive fabrick. Indeed, there was a long dark night of apoftacy, from the year 400, until the year 1100; and then did the Angel begin to pour out his vial upon the feat of this beaft, and his kingdom was full of darknefs; then the breath of his mouth begun to blow. The first heavenly breeze feems to have been in the val # Dan. vii. 25-28. lies |