No capital fin ought to be tolerated, altho' for the 'fake of avoding a greater evil. He who is guilty of mortal fin ought not to enjoy any fecular or ecclefiaftical dignity, nor is he to be obeyed. Confirmation, which the bishops celebrate with anointing, and extreme unction, are by no means con'tained among the facraments of the church. Auricular confeffion is trifling; it is fufficient for every one in his chamber to confefs his fins unto • God. Baptifm ought to be celebrated without any mixture ' of holy oil. The ufe of church-yards is vain, invented for the 'fake of gain; in whatsoever ground human bodies are buried, it maketh no difference. The temple of the great God is the whole world; they confine his majefty, who build churches, monafteries, and oratories, as if the divine goodness would be 'found more propitious in them. 'Sacerdotal vestments, ornaments of altars, palls, corporals, chalices, patins and veffels of this fort are of no C moment. 'A prieft in any place, at any time can confecrate the body of Chrift, and adminifter it to those who defire it; it is fufficient, if he repeat only the facramental words. The fuffrages of the faints reigning with Chrift in heaven are implored in vain, forafmuch as they cannot help us. The time is confumed in vain in finging and faying the canonical hours. We thould ceafe from work on no day, except that which is now called the Lord's day. The feftivals of faints are altogether to be rejected. The fafts alfo inftituted by the church have no merit ' in them.' Thefe were the opinions of the Bohemians or Huffites, for which they fought as well as difputed against the pope and emperor. At first they were victorious under the. the conduct of the famous John Ziska; and when they were beaten at last, they retired into the mountains and caves, where they continued diftinguished by the name of the Bohemian brethren till the time of the Reformation. Even in the bofom of the church of Rome there were many good men, who called aloud for a reformation in faith as well as in morals, in doctrin as well as in difciplin. One inftance is more particularly worthy of our attention. Jeronimo Savonarola (3) was a Dominican, celebrated in all Italy, and especially in Florence, for the great purity and ftrictnefs of his life and doctrin. He preached freely against the vices of the age, the luxury, avarice, and debauchery of the Roman clergy in general, and the tyranny and wickedness in particular of pope Alexander VI and his fon Cæfar Borgia. In his difcourfes fermons and writings, he preffed the neceffity of holding a general council and of making a general reformation: and he wrote particularly a treatise (4) intitled The lamentation of the spouse of Chrift against false apoftles, or an exhortation to the faithful that they would pray unto the Lord for the renovation of the church. But what was the fruit and confequence of all his pious zeal? He was excommunicated, he was imprisoned, he was tortured, he was burnt; which he fuffered with all poffible conftancy on the 23d of May 1498, and in the 46th year of his age. All perfons of any note or eminence bear a double character in the world, and fo doth Savonarola, his admirers extolling him as the best of men and the prophet of God, his enemies reviling him as the worst of impoftors and hypocrits; but if his works may speak for him, they are, in the (5) opinion of Dupin, full of grace and maxims of piety; he fpeaketh freely there against the vices, and teacheth the moft pure and the moft exalted morality.' We are now arrived at the fixteenth century, fæculum reformatum as it hath been called, or the age of reformation. The materials had in great meafure been collected, and the foundations had been laid deep before, but this age had the happiness of feeing the fuperftructure raifed and completed. All the Chriftian world almoft had groaned earneftly for a reformation: and pope Adrian himfelf (6) acknowledged the neceffity of it, and promifed to begin with reforming the court of Rome, as the fource and origin of evil. Erafmus and others led the way; and Luther began (7) publicly to preach against the pope's indulgencies in the year 1517, which is ufually reckoned the era of the reformation. So that during all the dark ages of popery, from the first rise of the beaft down to the Reformation, there have conftantly been fome true and faithful witnesses of Jefus Chrift, who, tho' they may have fallen into fome errors and mistakes, (as indeed who is altogether free from them?) yet it may charitably be prefumed, held none which are contrary to the fundamentals of the Chriftian faith, and deftructive of falvation. Many more there were without doubt than have come to our knowledge; many more might have been collected, and this deduction drawn out into a greater length: but I have ftudied brevity as much as I well could: and they who are defirous of feeing a larger and more particular account of the witneffes may find it in (8) Flaccius Illyricus, in the Centuriators of Magdeburg, in Ufher, in Allix, in Spanheim, and other authors. Here only fome of the principal inftances are felected; but this deduction, fhort and defective as it is, evidently demonftrates however, that there hath not been that uninterrupted union and harmony, which the members of the church of Rome pretend and boast to have been before the Reformation: and at the fame time it plainly evinces, that they betray great ignorance, as well as impertinence, in afking the queftion Where, was your religion before Luther? Our religion, we fee, was in the hearts and lives of many faithful witneffes; but it is fufficient, if it was no where elfe, that it was. always in the Bible. "The Bible, as Chillingworth (9) fays, the Bible only is the religion of protef 66 tants. 15 And the feventh angel founded, and there were great voices, in heaven, faying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Chrift, and he fhall reign for ever and ever. 16 And the four and twenty elders which fat before God on their feats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, 17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God almighty, which art and waft, and art to come; becaufe thou haft taken to thee thy great power, and haft reigned. 18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they thould be judged, and that thou fhould give reward unto thy fervants the prophets, and to the faints and them that fear thy name, fmall and great, and fhouldft. deftroy them which deftroy the earth. We are now come to the feventh and laft trumpet, or the third woc-trumpet, and the feventh trumpet as well as all the trumpets being comprehended under the feventh feal, and the feventh feal and all the feals being conftituent parts or members of the fealed book, it is evident that the feventh trumpet cannot any way belong to the little open book, but is plainly diftinct from it, the little book being no more than an appendage to the fixth trumpet, and the contents all compre (9) Chillingworth's Religion of Proteftants. Chap. 6. Sect. 56. hended hended under it, or at leaft ending with it. The forty and two months of the Gentiles treading the holy city under foot, and the 1260 days of the witneffes prophefying in fackcloth are 1260 fynchronical years, and terminate at the fame time with the fall of the Othman empire or the end of the fixth trumpet or fecond woe-trumpet. And when the fecond woe is paft, it is faid, (XI. 14.) behold, the third woe cometh quickly. At the founding of the feventh trumpet (ver. 15.) the third woe commenceth, which is rather implied than expreffed, as it will be defcribed more fully hereafter. The third woe brought on the inhabitants of the earth is the ruin and downfall of the Antichriftian kingdom: and then, and not till then, according to the heavenly chorus, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Chrift, and he shall reign for ever and ever. St. John is rapt and hurried away as it were to a view of the happy. millenium, without confidering the fteps preceding and conducting to it. At the fame time the four and twenty elders, or the minifters of the church, (ver. 16, 17, 18.) are reprefented as praifing and glorifying God for manifefting his power and kingdom more than he had done before and give likewife an intimation of some fucceeding events, as the anger of the nations, Gog and Magog, (XX. 8.) and the wrath of God, difplayed in their deftruction, (XX. 9.) and the judging of the dead, or the general judgment, (XX. 12.) and the rewarding of all the good, fmall and great, as well as the punishing of the wicked. Here we have only a fummary account of the circumstances and occurrences of the feventh trumpet, but the particulars will be dilated and inlarged upon hereafter. And thus are we arrived at the confummation of all things, through a series of prophecies extending from the apostle's days to the end of the world. It is this feries which has been our clue to conduct us in our interpretation of these prophecies and tho' fome of them may be dark and obfcure, confidered in themfelves, yet they receive light and illustration from others preceding and following. All together they are as it were a chain of prophecies, whereof one link depends |