authority (as the Romish Church doth) over our faith, for she requires no man to believe those Articles, but at worst only thinks it convenient that none should receive orders, to be admitted to benefices, &c. but such as do believe them (not all as Articles of our faith, but many as inferior truths) and requires subscription to them as a test, whereby to judge who doth so believe them. But the Church of Rome requires all, under pain of damnation, to believe all her long bead-roll of doctrines, which have only the stamp of her authority, and to believe them too as Articles of faith; or to believe them with the same Divine faith that we do the indisputable doctrines of our Saviour and his Apostles."-A Collection of Cases, and other Discourses lately written to recover Dissenters to the Communion of the Church of England, p. 308.

I will conclude this long article with two extracts from Le Bas's Life of Wiclif, which together with the preceding quotations, I would recommend to the serious consideration of those who may feel disposed to adopt the intrinsically and essentially Popish principle that "Scriptures and tradition taken together are the joint rule of faith."

"The objections urged at that day, and still more confidently in subsequent ages, by the Romish Church, to the liberty of free access to the Scriptures, are now tolerably well known to every Protestant; and it may very safely be conceded, that there is about them, at first sight, an air of plausibility, which may well render them dangerous and embarrassing to many an honest mind. It is insisted, that the sanctity of the Divine Oracles is tarnished by the rash curiosity of ignorant men; that the Word of God, when cited by all parties, either for refutation or defence, is degraded into an implement of unhallowed warfare; that the appeal to private judgment engenders a spirit of arrogance, a contempt for authority, and a lust for perpetual innovation; that its tendency is to break down the solid unity of the faith, and to shiver it into frag

ments; to stretch over the Church the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness and desolation. And by those writers who have lived since the period of the Reformation, it has been broadly asserted, that the innumerable swarm of sects which have sprung up under this system, are to be regarded as a plague, wherewith the displeasure of heaven hath manifested itself against this insane presumption. The answer to all this, must of course, be now perfectly familiar to every intelligent Protestant. The members of any reformed community will always be prepared to reply, that apparent and external unity is much too dearly purchased by a general sacrifice of private judgment; that schism itself is a less evil than an uniformity of error and corruption; and that no multiplication of divisions could be so pernicious, as the universal prostration of intellect and conscience before the authority of an uninspired tribunal. Such is the point of view, under which the subject unavoidably presents itself to every tolerably well-informed understanding at the present day." * * * * * "IT WILL BE SEEN THAT THIS VINDICATION UTTERLY DISCARDS THE NOTION, THAT THERE CAN BE ANY AUTHORITY IN MATTERS OF FAITH, COORDINATE WITH THAT OF THE BIBLE. THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH, THE DECREES OF BISHOPS, POPES, OR COUNCILS, ALL ARE HERE THRUST DOWN TO A RANK IMMEASURABLY BELOW THE EMINENCE OF THE INSPIRED WRITINGS. THE SCRIPTURE ALONE IS TRUTH.-THE SCRIPTURE ALONE IS THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH,'-THESE ARE THE GRAND AND SOLID MAXIMS UPON WHICH, AS UPON THE ETERNAL ROCK, WICKLIF BUILT UP THE DEFENCE OF HIS GREAT UNDERTAKING, AND, INDEED THE WHOLE FABRIC OF HIS SCHEME OF REFORMATION. WE HAVE THE VIGOROUS GERM OF PROTESTANTISM, CAST BY HIM WITH A BOLD HAND, INTO THE GENEROUS SOIL OF HIS COUNTRY, THERE TO LIE FOR A LONG AND TEMPESTUOUS PERIOD, TO ALL APPEARANCE DORMANT AND POWERLESS, TILL THE SEASON

SHOULD ARRIVE FOR ITS STARTING INTO LIFE."-The Life of Wiclif. By Charles Web Le Bas, M.A., p. 235, and 239.

No. 6.

It can be no matter of surprise that writers who manifest so marked and decided a leaning to popery as the authors of the Oxford Tracts-a leaning, of which accumulated evidence has been adduced in the preceding pages; should most carefully avoid any reference to the prophecies which were, I believe, almost, if not entirely, without any exception, applied to the apostate Church of Rome by all the most eminent divines who turned their attention to those prophecies during the first century after the Reformation. But their punctual and exact fulfilment in the whole history of that great apostacy, as well in their general outlines, as in their more minute details, has ever tended to invigorate and confirm the faith of those who have not been under the influence of any such unfavourable bias.

Of these prophecies, the second chapter of the second epistle to the Thessalonians forms a very interesting portion. In this chapter a conspicuous place is held by the man of sin, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. As attempts have been made of late years, in different quarters, to introduce dangerous innovations respecting the usual application of this and other predictions to the papal power: dangerous, inasmuch as such varieties of interpretations derogate greatly from the value of prophetic evidence, unsettle the minds of Christians, and render an essential service to the cause of Romanism; I will here reprint Bishop Jewel's lengthened commentary upon it, which probably is little known, and which I have no hesitation in pronouncing perfectly unanswerable. In doing so,

the orthography of the learned prelate will be retained, as it has been in two previous extracts.

"VERSE 4. Which is an aduersarie, and exalteth himselfe against all that is called God, or that is worshipped: so that he doth sit in the temple of God, shewing himselfe that he is God.

This the Apostle speaketh of Antichrist. Hee is the man of sinne, and the sonne of perdition. It will be somwhat hard to treat of this matter, and to open the words of this Scripture. Whatsoeuer I shall speake, it will be ill taken of many, and many will doubt of the truth of my speeches; such affection they beare to him whom the Apostle disciphereth to be Antichrist. Albeit, whatsoeuer I wil vtter in opening the Apostle's words, shall be such, as the holy Scriptures and learned writings of the holy fathers haue left vnto vs, and the Church of God hath prooued, and at this day doth prooue to be true. God promised, that Christ should come into the world, euen the Shiloh, vnto whom all the people should be gathered: and that he should be the hope of Israel, and deliuer his people from their sinnes. God made promise of him to Adam and to Abraham, Dauid, &c. The Scriptures are full, and the prophets make often mention of this promise. Old men, and yong men, and all the people waited for the fulfilling thereof, and said: Send him whom thou wilt send. And againe: Ye heauens send the dew from aboue, and let the clouds drop downe righteousnesse: let the earth open, and let saluation and iustice grow foorth. And againe: God will come and saue you. Thus was euery eie bent vpon him, and euery heart waited for his comming. But when the fulnesse of time was come, God sent foorth his Sonne made of a woman: that wee might receive the adoption of the sonnes. He was in the world, and the world knew him not. He came vnto his owne, and his owne received him not. Light came into

the world, and men loued darknesse better than light. They

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to whom the promise was made, and which wished for him, and made all their common talke of the hope of his comming, when he came they knew him not; they reuiled him, and said: Behold a glutton, and drinker of wine, a friend vnto publicans and sinners. They called him Beelzebub: and a false prophet, and a seducer of the people. Him they did take by the hands of the wicked: they betraied him, they denied the Holy One and iust: they hanged on a tree, and killed the Lord of life. Such was the receiuing of Christ. This did they to him through ignorance. It was not giuen them to know the secrets of the kingdome of heauen. They haue not known the Father, nor whom he hath sent, Jesus Christ. Therefore saith he: I confesse vnto thee Father, Lord of heauen and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and learned, and hast revealed them to babes: euen so Father because it so pleased thee.

Now as the comming of Christ was, such is the comming of Antichrist. God hath foretold of his comming. Daniel hath foretold. Christ, and his Apostles, Paul and Iohn haue foretold it, the Scriptures, and old fathers make often mention hereof. There is none, neither old nor yong, neither learned nor vnlearned, but he hath heard of Antichrist. They hate his name, and detest him, before they know him. But here you may marke the wonderfull sleight and subtilty of Satan. The world shall looke after the comming of Antichrist. He shall not faile but come. All men shall carry hatred against him, and reckon him abominable, and yet their eies shall be blinded, and their hearts deceiued, so that they shall not know him. They shall hate his name, and imbrace his doctrine: he shall couer himselfe with a cloke of holinesse. They shall thinke they doe good seruice vnto Christ, but shall therein doe seruice vnto Antichrist.

The divers fantasies of men haue deuised many sundry fond tales of the person of Antichrist. Some say hee should bee a