which that very encomium would impertinently be brought to countenance?How came it to pass that our Saviour in inftituting his holy fupper, Matt. xxvi. 26, 27. faid of the bread, only Take, eat,' but of the cup more particularly, Drink ye all of it? May we not probably fuppofe that it was defigned to prevent or obviate their facrilege, who would have all indeed eat of the bread, but priests only drink of the cup?-Why were the vices of the Scribes and Pharifees left fo particularly upon record, if not chiefly for the correction and reproof of their natural iffue and defcendents, the clergy of the church of Rome? Read the whole 23d Chapter of St Matthew, and you will find that there is not a fingle woe denounced against the former, but as properly belongs, and is as strictly applicable to the latter. Binding heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and laying them on mens fhoulders; doing all their works for to be seen of men; fhutting up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither going in themfelves, neither fuffering them who are entering to go in; devouring widows houfes, and for a pretence making long prayers; compaffing fea and land to make one profelyte, and when he is made, making him twofold more the child of hell than them. felves; making useless and frivolous diftinctions of oaths; obferving pofitive duties, and omitting the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy, and faith; making clean the outside, but within being full of extortion and excefs; outwardly appearing righteous unto man, but wi thin being full of hypocrify and iniquity; building the tombs of the prophets, and garnishing the fepulchres of the righteous,' honouring the dead faints, and at the fame time perfecuting the living; are as ftrong marks and characters of the one fect as they were of the other. -Do not forbidding implicit faith and obedience to men, Matt. xxiii. 9. Call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven;' forbidding the worship of angels, Col. ii. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary humility, and wor fhipping of angels;' forbidding all pretences to works of merit and fupererogation, Luke xvii. 10. . When ye fhall have done all thofe things which are commanded you, fay, We are unprofitable fervants, we have done

Hh3

that

that which 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 service of God in an unknown tongue, as St Paul hath done at large in the 14th Chap. of his firft Epiftle to the Corinthians: Do not all thefe and fuch like prohibitions, 1 fay, neceffarily fuppofe and imply, that one time or other these particular errors and abufes 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 fhould not be. For laws divine and human are not levelled against chimerical and mere imaginary vices, fuch as never are, never will be brought into practice; but are enacted by reafon of those 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 ;-otherwise thou alfo fhalt 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 centre of unity, and director of all religion.-View the picture that both St Peter and St Jude have drawn of falfe teachers, and confider whom it most resembles in all its features, 2 Pet. ii. 1, &c. But there were false prophets alfo among the people, even as there fhall be falfe teachers among you, who privily fhall bring in damnable herefies, even denying the Lord that bought them; And many fhall follow their pernicious ways, by reafon of whom the way of truth fhall be evil fpoken of; And through covetoufness shall they with feigned words make merchandise 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 themselves, 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 fects of Chriftians, but the application

more

more properly belongs to the members of the church of Rome, 2 Tim. iii. 1, &c. This know alfo, that in the last days perilous times fhall come: For men fhall be lovers of their own felves, covetous, boasters, proud, blafphemers, difobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy; Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false 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 godliness, 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 inti mations, as the direct prophecies are so plain and parti cular.

II. It is not only foretold, that such a power as that of the pope and church of Rome fhould be exercised in the Christian world; but to prevent any mistake in the appli cation of these prophecies, the place and the perfons like. wife are pointed out, where and by whom it fhould be exercifed. The prophet Daniel, chap. vii. hath defcri bed four beafts or four kingdoms: and out of the fourth beast or kingdom, he faith, fhall arifeten 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 fhall have eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things, and a look more ftout than his fellows; and he fhall fubdue and pluck up by the roots three of the first horns or kings; and fhall speak great words against the most High, and fhall wear out the faints of the most High, and think to change times and laws.' Daniel's first kingdom is the Babylonian, the fecond 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 eastern empire belonged to the body of the third beaft: and out of the western Roman empire, by the incurfions of the northern nations, arofeten kings or kingdoms; of whom having mentioned the names before, we need not

repeat

repeat them here. Now who is the little horn' that was to fpring up among these or after. thefe; who as a politi co-ecclefiaftical power differeth from the other ten powers; who hath eyes like the eyes of a man,' that is a feer, as Sir Ifaac Newton fays, exigueres or bishop in the literal 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 the 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 Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the state of Rome, and is diftinguifhed by the triple crown; who fpeaketh great words against the most High,' setting up himself above all laws divine as well as human; who weareth out the faints of the moft High,' by wars and maffacres, inquifitions and perfecutions; who changeth times and laws,' inftituting new religions, and teaching for doctrines the com mandments of men; are questions which I think cannot admit of much difpute; there is only one person in the world who can fully answer all these characters.

The blafphemous king defcribed in the 17th Chapter of Daniel, ver. 36-39. who 'fhall do according to his will, and shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and fhall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and fhall profper till the indignation be ac complished, who fhall not regard the God of his fathers, nor the defire of wives, but in his eftate fhall honour Mahuzzim, and the defenders of Mahuzzim fhall increase with glory, and fhall cause them to rule over many, and fhall 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. 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 bifhop of Rome; how much more abfolute the will of the Roman pontiff bath been than that of the Byzantine emperor; how the pope hath exalted himself and magnified himself,' as a god

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

But

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 first began in the eastern parts, have been carried to the greatest heighth 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 feveral 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 himfelfhath 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 resemblance of the little horn and the blasphemous king' in Daniel; and this

man of fin' muft neceffarily be a Chriftian, and not a Heathen or infidel power, because 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 confilt 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 apostle had 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 exprefsly 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 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