But let us go over the several parts of the prophecy :

Verse 3.-" Before the coming of the day of the Lord there was to happen a falling away, or an apostasy." And accordingly what an apostasy from the true Christian worship, doctrine, and practice, hath happened, and is supported by the Church of Rome! Instead of worshipping God with simplicity, and in spirit and truth, they have introduced external pomp and numerous ceremonies, which strike upon the senses, and engage the attention without mending the heart.

Instead of worshipping God through Jesus Christ, (the only Mediator between God and men,) they have substituted the doctrine of demons; that is, of the spirits of men departed out of this life, who (as they pretend) intercede with God for us; and they invoke the Virgin Mary more frequently than God himself. They have not only succeeded Rome heathen in the seat of empire, but have also apostatized into their imagery and idolatry.+ Though they have indeed disguised it with new names and different pretensions.

Instead of the Christian doctrine, they have apostatized from the faith; and in many countries taken from the common people the liberty of reading the Scriptures in their mother tongue, that they might with the more ease propagate their own delusions.

For, having in a forcible and violent manner restrained the liberty of private judgment, they have with less difficulty substituted, instead of the most excellent doctrine of the Gospel, their own articles of faith, and the forged traditions and lying legends of their Church. And, not content barely to propagate ignorance, they have dared most impudently to commend it, and call it the "mother of devotion."

Their encouraging the apostasy in practice will be taken notice of under the sentences that immediately follow.

This grand apostasy was to proceed gradually to its height. But, when it came to such a pitch, then was to be revealed one, who should deservedly be called the "man of sin" and " son of perdition."

That this phrase may denote a succession of persons, one after another, though but one at a time,‡ may appear from Deuteronomy xvii. 14-20, where the phrase "King of Israel" must be understood, not of one King only, but of a succession of Kings; and from several

See the Popish Catechism, printed 1734, chapter 8. Concil. Trident. Sess.

+ See the account given by Dr. Middleton, who was himself at Rome, and had thereby an opportunity to observe the similitude between the religion of ancient and present Rome. With which compare Roma Antiqua, &c., recens; or, the Conformity of Ancient and Modern Ceremonies, showing from indisputable Testimonies, that the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome are borrowed from the Pagans. Written in French before 1666; translated into English by James du Pré. London, 1732. See also Sir Isaac Newton's book on the Prophecies, &c., p. 204. See Dr. Henry More, &c., p. 219, &c.

*

texts, where the Jewish High Priest is spoken of as one person, though any one in that succession of High Priests is thereby intended.

And to whom can the title of the " man of sin" so properly belong as to the succession of the Bishops of Rome for many past centuries? There have been among them not only some of the vilest of mankind, notorious for their cruelty, infidelity, debauchery, simony, covetousness, intolerable pride and ambition, and all manner of wickedness; but by their indulgences, pardons, and dispensations,† which they claim a power from Christ of granting, and which they have sold in so infamous a manner, they have encouraged all manner of vile and Lev. xxi. 10; Num. xxxv. 25, 28; Josh. xx. 6; Heb. ix. 7. + See the late Popish Catechism, chap. x.

I have now by me Laurence Banck's Tara S. Cancelariæ Romanæ; that is, "The Tax of the Sacred Roman Chancery." And Mr. Bayle (in his Dictionary, under the article "Banck, Laurence ") hath given us the history of this remarkable book; in which there is a very particular account how much money was to be paid into the apostolic or Pope's chamber for almost all sorts of vices. Ex. gr." He who had been guilty of incest with his mother, sister, or other relation, either in consanguinity or affinity, is taxed at v. gros. The absolution of him who has defloured a virgin, vi. gros. The absolution of him who has murdered his father, mother, sister, wife, v. or vii. gros.

"The absolution and pardon of all acts of fornication committed by any of the Clergy in what manner soever, whether it be with a Nun, within or without the limits of the nunnery; or with his relations in consanguinity or affinity, or with his god-daughter, or with any other woman whatsoever; and whether also the said absolution be given in the name only of the Clergyman himself, or of him jointly with his whores, with a dispensation to enable him to take and hold his orders and ecclesiastical benefices, and with a clause also of inhibition; costs thirty-six tournois and nine or three ducats.

"And if, besides the above, he receives absolution from sodomy or bestiality, with the dispensation and clause of inhibition, as before, he must pay ninety tournois, twelve ducats, and six curlins.

"But if he only receives absolution from sodomy or bestiality with the dispensation or clause of inhibition, he pays only thirty-six tournois and nine ducats. A Nun, having committed fornication several times, within and without the bounds of the nunnery, shall be absolved, and enabled to hold all the dignities of her order, even that of Abbess, by paying thirty-six tournois and nine ducats.

"The absolution of him who keeps a concubine, with dispensation to take and hold his orders and ecclesiastical benefices, costs twenty-one tournois, five ducats, and six carlins."

This is a translation of the very words of the book itself. Only some articles are wanting in one edition. However, even these articles also are in the most perfect and correct editions.

This book has been several times printed both in Popish and Protestant countries; and the Protestant Princes inserted it among the causes of their rejecting the Council of Trent. When the Papists saw what use the Protestants made of it, they put it into the list of prohibited books. But then they condemned it only upon the supposition of its having been corrupted by (the Protestants, or) heretics.

But let them suppose as much as they please that it has been corrupted by heretics, the editions of it which have been published in Popish countries, and which the Papists cannot disown, as that of Rome, 1514; that of Cologne, 1515; those of

wicked practices. Instead of showing men the necessity of sincere repentance, unfeigned faith, and an holy life and conversation, they have contrived numberless methods to render an holy life needless; to indulge men in the greatest and most abominable vices, and yet assure them of heaven, even without a thorough repentance, provided they will sufficiently pay for their admission.

The form of indulgences a little before the Reformation was so ample, that rich men were unconcerned what sins they committed, as knowing that they could, living or dead, purchase a pardon. For suppose they neglected it in their life-time, it was but leaving so much money by will at their death for masses and indulgences, and they were assured that all would be forgiven them. Can such notorious wickedness always escape without an eminent perdition?

How justly may present Rome, for her persecution, idolatry, and notorious wickedness, be deemed "mystical Babylon," and be (spi ritually or figuratively) called "Sodom and Egypt," + (where wickedness had risen to an amazing height, and the people of God have been under a long and cruel bondage,) and the "mother of fornications and of the abominations of the earth.”

Verse 4, if rightly translated, would, I think, have run thus: "Who opposes himself;" that is, to Christ; "and exalts himself above every one that is called a god, or (even) the imperial dignity; so that he, as a god, sits ‡ [enthroned] in the temple of God, showing himself

Paris, 1520, 1545, and 1625; and those of Venice, one in the sixth volume of the "Oceanus Juris," published in 1533,-the other in the fifteenth volume of the same collection, reprinted 1584;-these editions, I say, are more than sufficient to justify the reproaches of the Protestants, and to cover the Church of Rome with confusion. The Popish controvertists, who have not a word to say against the authority of the edition of Rome, or that of Paris, &c., are under great perplexity. However, since the Protestants have made so great an handle of this book, the Papists pretend that (though some of the Popes have been guilty of such infamous practices, and suffered such books to appear; yet) the Church of Rome in general abhors them. A fine proof of the infallibility of their Popes!

But the Church of Rome has never shown, by the suppression of these taxes, that she has had them in abhorrence. They have been printed (as has been already observed) thrice at Paris, twice at Cologne, and twice at Venice. And some of these editions have been published, since Claude d'Espence, a Popish Doctor, exclaimed publicly against the enormities of this book.

The Inquisition of Spain, and that of Rome, have condemned the book, only as they suppose it to have been corrupted by heretics.

I must add, that the suppression of such a work is not a sure sign of disapproving the rules it contains. This may only signify that they repented of the publication of it, as it gave so fair a handle for the heretics to reproach the court of Rome, and to wound the Church of Rome, through the sides of the Pope. These ought to be esteemed mysteries of state, arcana imperii, not fit to be divulged. • Revelation xi. 8; xvii. 5.

+ Ibid.

Katioai, so the word signifies Rev. xvii. 15; and xviii. 7; answering to Psalm ix. 4; xxix. 10; cx. 1; Ezek. xxviii. 2; Zech. vi. 13.

VOL. XVIII. Third Series. FEBRUARY, 1839.

I

to be a god." true Christians.

"Who opposeth himself;" that is, to Christ and And who hath done this more than the Church of Witness their infamous Crusades, and the cruel massacres of the Albigenses and Waldenses, of whom they are said to have slain above nine hundred thousand.*

Rome?

In about thirty years from the first founding of the order of Jesuits, above eight hundred thousand of the Protestants were put to death by the hand of the executioner only; besides great numbers who perished several other ways, of whom we have now no particular account remaining. The Duke of Alva boasted of his having, in a few years, cut off thirty-six thousand Protestants in the Netherlands.t

The horrible and infernal court of Inquisition is said, in about thirty years, to have consumed § one hundred and fifty thousand by various kinds of torments; and still remains in Spain, Portugal, Italy, an hell upon earth, the terror of human nature, on purpose to hinder all free inquiry, and to keep mankind in the greatest ignorance of the true religion, and in a most slavish subjection to an hierarchy of ambitious, lazy, and debauched Priests.

The cruel imprisonment, scourging, and burning of the Martyrs here in England,|| and the horrid and prodigious massacres in France and Ireland, can never surely be forgotten. No benevolent person can read the accounts at this distance of time, without weeping eyes and a bleeding heart.

Persecution is a distinguishing characteristic of this apostate. If to wear out the saints of the Most High, and to slay such as are witnesses++ for truth, virtue, and liberty, and that bear their testimony against impositions, violence, and persecution; if to make war with the saints, and frequently to prevail against and overcome them; and even to be drunk §§ with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus; if these things, I say, can possibly be accomplished, they have been, and still are, accomplished by the cruel and tyrannical Church of Rome.

By" every one that is called a god," must be understood earthly Magistrates, or temporal Princes; for Osòs, without the article, doth often sig

Whoever would see a faithful and authentic account of the rise, progress, and laws of the Inquisition, and of the inhuman treatment that such as differ from the Church of Rome there met with, let them read Limborch's "History of the Inquisition," translated by Mr. Chandler; as also Isaac Martyn's account of his own sufferings in the Inquisition; and the account lately published by Mr. Coustos of the dreadful tortures he underwent in that black and infernal prison. See also Dr. Geddes's brief account of the Inquisition, in his Tracts.

§ See Mede's Works, p. 504.

I See Fox's "Acts and Monuments."

See More's "Mystery of Iniquity," p. 167, &c.
Ibid. xiii. 4-7.

++ Rev. xi. 7, 8.

** Daniel vii. 25.

SS Ibid. xvii. 6.

nify "a god ;" and here it is evidently opposed to ỏ sòs, "the God," or "the one true God," in whose temple this "man of sin" was to sit. So Psalm lxxxii. 6, 7: "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the Princes." And verse 1 of that Psalm: "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judges among the gods."*

But as Σέβασμα seems to be an allusion to Σέβαςος, the Greek name of the Cæsars, or Roman Emperors; it is possible that the Apostle might, in both the phrases, refer to the Roman Emperors; who, after their deaths, were most of them enrolled among the gods. Nay, Caius, before his death, laid claim to divinity, and would needs be acknowledged and worshipped as a god.

That by "the temple of God," where this impostor was to fix his seat, may be understood the Christian church,† will appear, if it be considered that the Christian church is, in the New Testament, often called the temple of God," or compared to the temple. In this temple it is prophesied, that the "man of sin" would exalt himself above all temporal Magistrates, Kings, and Emperors. And it is very easy to point out the accomplishment of this part of the prophecy. For how proudly hath the Bishop of Rome thus exalted himself, and been styled by his flatterers and vile dependents, "a god, § who ought not to be called to an account; the supreme Deity on earth; King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, by whom Princes reign, and upon whom the right of Kings depends!" Nay, the Glossater upon the canon law hath given him the blasphemous title of our Lord God the Pope! || And the Popes have acted accordingly; absolving subjects from their allegiance to their lawful Princes, fomenting and raising rebellions, ¶ deposing or murdering rightful Princes, and setting up others in their stead. With what pride and haughtiness have they called Emperors their vassals! and even obliged some of them to hold the bridle till his Holiness the Pope has mounted his horse; or even to bear up his train after him, when his Holiness has been pleased to walk in a pompous procession! Nay, with what amazing insolence have the Romish Priests whipped Kings and sovereign Princes! and the Pope has even set his foot on an Emperor's neck.

He has claimed the sole right of nominating, investing, or confirming the Princes and Rulers of the earth.

If this be not to "exalt himself above all that is called a god,” ** or

• See also Ezek. xxviii. 2, 6, 9; John x. 34, 35; 1 Cor. viii. 5.

+ Austin, De Civ. Dei, lib. xx., cap. 19.

1 Cor. iii. 16, 17; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Ephes. ii. 20-22; 1 Tim. iii. 15; Heb. iii.

6; 1 Pet. ii. 5-7; Rev. iii. 1, 2.

§ Vide Canon. Distinct., c. 96. Satis evidenter.

1746.

|| Ibid.

Of which we had a most notorious instance so lately as the years 1745 and

In this expression, there seems to be an evident allusion to Daniel xi. 36.