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condemn as apoftafy and rebellion in the h. The Jews never totally rejected the true y worshipped him through the medium of or in conjunction with fome other beings: the members of the church of Rome (5) fame idolatry and apoftafy in the worship of ne adoration of the hoft, in the invocation of aints, and in the oblation of prayers and virgin Mary, as much or more than to God ver? This is the grand corruption of the arch, this is the apoftafy as it is emphatically deferves to be called, the apoftafy that the warned the Theffalonians of before, the had also been foretold by the prophet Da

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oftafy be rightly charged upon the church of lows of confequence that the man of fin is ot meaning this or that pope in particular, in general, as the chief head and fupporter afy. The apoftafy produces him, and he tes the apoftafy. He is properly the man of on account of the fcandalous lives of many by reafon of their more fcandalous doctrins es, difpenfing with the moft neceffary duties, g or rather felling pardons and indulgences to bominable crimes. Or if by fin be meant cicularly as in the Old Teftament, it is evinow he hath corrupted the worship of God, ed it from spirit and truth to fuperftition and the groffeft kind. He alfo, like the falfe s, is the fon of perdition, whether actively as ufe and occafion of deftruction to others, or being deftined and devoted to destruction Te oppofeth; he is the great adverfary to God xcommunicating and anathematizing, perfedeftroying by croifadoes and inquifitions, by d horrid executions, thofe fincere Chriftians, he word of God to all the authority of men. n emperor of Rome may have flain his thou

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THE PROPHECIES.

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of innocent Chriftians, but the Chriftian bishop of hath flain his ten thoufands. There is fcarce any y, that hath not at one time or other been made ge of thefe bloody tragedies: fcarce any age, that Lot in one place or other feen them acted. He h himself above all that is called God or that is ped; not only above inferior magiftrates, but e above bifhops and primates, exerting an abforifdiction and uncontrolled fupremacy over all; ly above bishops and primates, but likewise above and emperors, depofing fome, and advancing obliging them to proftrate themselves before o kifs his toe, to hold his ftirrup, to (6) wait oted at his gate, treading (7) even upon the and (8) kicking off the imperial crown with his nor only above kings and emperors, but likewife Chrift and God himself, making the word of God of Fect by his traditions, forbidding what God hath nded, as marriage, communion in both kinds, of the fcriptures in the vulgar tongue, and the nd alfo commanding or allowing what God hath en, as idolatry, perfecution, works of fupererogand various other inftances. So that he as God fitthe temple of God, fhewing himself that he is God. herefore in profeffion a Chriftian, and a Chriftian

His fitting in the temple of God plainly implies ing a feat or cathedra in the Chriftian church: fitteth there as God, efpecially at his inauguration, e fitteth upon the high altar in St. Peter's church, keth the table of the Lord his footftool, and in -fition receiveth adoration. At all times he exerivine authority in the church, showing himself that -d, affecting divine titles and attributes as holiness allibility, affuming divine powers and prerogatives emning and abfolving men, in retaining and forfins, in afferting his decrees to be of the fame or authority than the word of God, and command

to he

under the repolt. of the fas

or greater damnation. Like another Salmoneus he is proud to imitate the ftate and thunder of the Almighty; and is ftiled, and pleafed to be (9) ftiled, 'Our Lord God the pope; another God upon earth; king of kings, and lord of lords. The fame is the dominion of God and the pope. To believe that our Lord God the pope might not decree, as he decreed, it were a ' matter of herefy. The power of the pope is greater than all created power, and extends itself to things celeftial, terreftrial, and infernal. The pope doeth whatsoever he lifteth, even things unlawful, and is 'more than God.' Such blafphemies are not only allowed, but are even approved, encouraged, rewarded in the writers of the church of Rome; and they are not only the extravagances of private writers, but are the language even of public decretals and acts of councils. So that the pope is evidently the God upon earth: at leaft there is no one like him, who exalteth himself above every God; no one like him, who fitteth as God in the temple of God, Jhowing himself that he is God.

But if the bishop of Rome be the man of fin, it may feem fomewhat ftrange that the apoftle thould mention these things in an Epiftle to the Theffalonians, and not rather in his Epiftle to the Romans. But this Epiftle was written four or five years before that to the Romans, and there was no occafion to mention the fame things again in another epiftle. What was written to the Theffalonians or any particular church, was in effect written to all the churches, the epiftles being defigned for general edification, and intended to be read publicly in the congregations of the faithful. When St. Paul wrote his Epiftle to the Romans, he had not been at Rome, and confequently could not allude to any former difcourfe with them, as with the Theffalonians: and these things

(9) Dominus Deus nofter papa. Alter Deus in terra. Rex regum, dominus dominorum. Idem eft dominium Dei et papæ. Credere Dominum Deum noftrum papam non potuiffe ftatuere, prout ftatuit, hæreticum cenferetur. Papæ poteftas eft major omni poteftate creata, extendit que

fe ad coeleftia, terreftija, et infer

nalia. Papa facit quicquid libet, etiam illicita, et eft plus quam Deus. See these and the like inftances quoted in Bishop Jewel's Apology and Defenfe, in Downham's treatife de Antichrifto, and Poole's English Annotations. See likewife Barrow's treatise of the Pope's Supremacy in the Introduction.

were

were not proper to be fully explained in a letter, and especially in a letter addreffed to the Christian converts at the capital city of the empire. The apoftles with all their prudence were reprefented as enemies to government, and were charged with turning the world upfide down; (Acts XVII. 6.) but the accufation would have been founded higher, if St. Paul had denounced openly, and to Romans too, the deftruction of the Roman empire. However, he admonished them to beware of apoftafy, (Rom. XI. 20, 22.) and to continue in God's goodness, or otherwise they shall be cut off: and afterwards when he vifited Rome, and dwelt there two whole years, (Acts XXVIII. 30.) he might have frequent opportunities of informing them particularly of these things. It is not to be fuppofed, that he difcourfed of these things only to the Theffalonians. It was a matter of concern to all Chriftians to be forewarned of the great corruption of Christianity, that they might be neither surprised into it, nor offended at it; and the caution was the more neceffary, as the mystery of iniquity was already working. The feeds of popery were fown in the apostle's time; for even then idolatry was stealing into the church, (1 Cor. X. 14.) and a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, (Col. II. 18.) ftrife and divifions, (1 Cor. III. 3.) an adulterating and handling of the word of God deceitfully, (2 Cor. II. 17. IV. 2) a gain of godliness, and teaching of things for filthy lucre's fake, (1 Tim. VI. 5. Tit. I. 11.) a vain obfervation of feftivals, (Gal. IV. 10.) a vain distinction of meats, (1 Cor. VIII. 8.) a neglecting of the body, (Col. II. 23.) traditions, and commandments, and doctrins of men, (Col. II, 8, 22.) with other corruptions and innovations. All heretics were in a manner the forerunners of the man of fin; and Simon Magus in particular was fo lively a type and figure of the wicked one, that he hath been mistaken, as we fee, for the wicked one himfelf.

The foundations of popery were laid indeed in the apostle's days, but the fuperftructure was raised by degrees, and feveral ages paffel before the building was completed, and the man of fin was revealed in full perfection, St, Paul having communicated to the Theffa

lonians

lonians what it was that hindered his appearance, it was natural for other Chriftians alfo who read this Epiftle, to inquire what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time; and the apoftle without doubt would impart it to other Chriftians as freely as to the Theffalonians; and the Theffalonians and other Chriftians might deliver it to their fucceffors, and fo the tradition might generally prevail, and the tradition that generally prevailed was that what hindered was 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 diffolved and broken into pieces, the empire of the man of fin would be raïfed on its ruins. How this revolution was effected, no writer can better inform us than (1) Machiavel. "The emperor of Rome quitting Rome to hold his re"fidence at Conftantinople, the Roman empire began "to decline, but the church of Rome augmented as faft. "Nevertheless, until the coming in of the Lombards, "all Italy being under the dominion either of emperors

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or kings, the bifhops affumed no more power than "what was due to their doctrin and manners; in civil "affairs, they were fubject to the civil power.-But "Theodoric king of the Goths fixing his feat at Ra

venna, was that which advanced their intereft, and "made them more confiderable in Italy; for there being no other prince left in Rome, the Romans were "forced for protection to pay greater allegiance to "the pope. And yet their authority advanced no far"ther at that time, than to obtain the preference before the church of Ravenna. But the Lombards having "invaded, and reduced Italy into feveral cantons, the

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pope took the opportunity, and began to hold up his "head. For being as it were governor and principal at "Rome, the emperor of Conftantinople and the Lom"bards bare him a refpect, fo that the Romans (by me"diation of their pope) began to treat and confederate with Longinus [the emperor's lieutenant] and the

(1) Machiavel's Hift. of Florence, Book 1. p. 6, &c. of the English translation.

"Lombards,

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