P. V.

THE WORKS OF ANTICHRIST.

V.

'to the fancy of the six doctors," who had received CHAP. their orders from, and were under the protection of the princes; for those earthly princes were clothed with the dignity of ecclesiastical, as well as civil supremacy, according to the established principles of the Reformation.

34.In the second is exhibited one of the strongest 'instances of that persecuting and tyrannical spirit, 'which the Protestants complained of in the church ' of Rome, even a formal condemnation of all those 'who differed from these six doctors."

See p.278 and Note [f]

35. This condemnation branded with the denomi'nation of heretics, and excluded from the commu'nion of the church, all Christians, of all nations, More 'who refused to subscribe these doctrines. 'particularly, in Germany, the terrors of the sword 'were solicited against these pretended heretics, as 'may be seen in the famous Testament of Brentius." 36. A modern Protestant Divine, speaking concerning the American French war, and referring to Davies' the war of the beast against the Lamb, spoken of in vol. i. p. the book of Revelation, says, "Now who can tell, 62. but the present war is the commencement of this 'grand decisive conflict between the Lamb and the beast, that is, between the Protestant and Popish powers

37. The same divine, in a succeeding sermon to the militia, makes the following remarkable profes sion of the Protestant religion: "Follow peace with

all men, is one of the principal precepts of our holy 'religion. And the great Prince of Peace has solemnly pronounced, Blessed are the peace-makers.” But what follows next? The sound of "wars and "The God of fightings." Plausible reasonings. peace proclaims "To arms!" Blessed is the brave soldier!-Cursed is he that keepeth back his sword "from blood!"

38. This may serve as a specimen of the whole Protestant religion from beginning to end. Alluring names and titles, Confessions of Faith, and forms of Concord manifestly false. Specious professions of the religion of the Prince of Peace, the holy religion of the peaceable Lamb; all contradicted by practice, maintained by violence, and mingled with blood.

Sermons

403. Ser

CHAP.

V.

vol. ii. p.

62.

39. Children naturally follow the example of their parents in faith and practice. It is truly painful to a Davies feeling mind to see the contradictory professions, of Sermons, protestant divines, so called. While on one page of 414. Ser. their works you see their plausible professions of the, pure, the peaceable, the holy, the meek and merciful gospel of the Lamb of God, with a solemn declaration that bloodshed is not the pattern for imitation under the gospel; on the next you may see the "important duty of shedding human blood, upon "penalty of falling under the tremendous curse of "God." Such is the deceitfulness and contradiction of a false religion.

ibid.

P. 415.

Doddr.

in Loc.

Newton

40. The Protestants have stated, and that very justly, that the Papal power, in being supported by on Proph a regular clergy and secular princes, was, according Hist. of to prophetic language, a beast. Names and titles Redemp. without matters of fact to support them, are shadows without substance.

Diss. xiv.

P. 431.

41. It was the beastly and tyrannical conduct of Constantine and his successors which supported the Catholic power, arising out of the commotions of the peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, that constituted the beast that came up out of the sea: and it was the cruelty and insatiable thirst for blood, that constituted the same a scarlet coloured beast under the Papal power.

42. But there was another beast, which came up out of the earth. Then, as the Papal power constituted a beast, in being supported by the unnatural combination of the regular clergy and secular princes; so the Protestant power as evidently constituted a beast, in being supported by the like unnatural combination of secular princes and a regular clergy.

43. The Reformation was divided into two princi pal and contending powers, each professing the pure and peaceable gospel of the Lamb of God, and supported their cause by shedding blood and while they practised imprisonments, banishments, and putting men to death for their sentiments, and presented the terrors of the sword against those who differed from them, wherein did they differ from the Papists ?

44. And what then was the Protestant power, by

Vl.

which they established their divided and contentious CHAP. churches, but a fulfilment of that prophecy, And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a drag- 11.12. n? And he exercised all the power of the first beast.

Rev. xin

CHAPTER VI.

Particular Changes effected by the Reformation.

THE

HE first change of importance which the Protestant Reformers established, was that which went to supply the office of the pope; without which the Reformation must have appeared essentially deficient.

2. Universal experience and observation had confirmed the necessity of a common head of influence. A body without a head is a monster in nature, and no less so in civil or religious society. The titles, offices, and power of the pope, or universal father, were never called in question; but it was professedly for the perversion of the sacred office, the abuse of pow er, and the false application of titles, that the reformers protested against, and separated from the church of Rome.

3. Doubtless all parties agreed that the church ought to have a Lord God, a God on earth, a judge of all controversies, &c. but the Protestants denied that this dignity belonged to the bishop of Rome; it therefore remained for them to point out, to whom it did belong.

4. It must be a matter of the utmost importance, for a nation to change their God. The high pretensions of the Roman pontiff, as the vice-gerent of Christ on earth, were not to be supplanted by trifles. He had too long bewitched the people, giving out that himself was some great one, and had gained too deep an interest in the faith of the multitude, to be rivalled, at once, by a monk or a friar.

CHAP.
VI.

Ecel. Re 538.

5. The powerful and superstitious empire had, for ages, been accustomed to receive the word of God, as they supposed, from their prime bishop, their apostolic vicar, by whom kings reigned, and princes decreed judgment; of course, when his authority was disannulled by men of an inferior rank, it behoved them to furnish the people with the true judge of all controversies, the true God on earth, who should deliver the true word instead of the old false one.

6. And what could the natural sagacity of man devise, so suitable for the purpose as those sacred and adorable words, which the most ancient catholic churches received from the pens of the learned Fathers, and which Augustin and other great saints denominated the Canon of Scripture ?*

7. When the Reformation commenced, it is said, searches," the ignorance of the priests was extreme. Num'bers could not read, and the very best seldom saw 'the bible. Many doctors of the Sarbonne declared, and confirmed it by an oath, that though they were ' above fifty years of age, yet they had never known 'what a New-Testament was."

8. "Luther never saw a bible till after he was twen

6 ty-one years of age, and had taken a degree in arts.

Carlostadt had been a doctor of divinity eight 'years before he read the scriptures." Now when these very learned and sagacious doctors had found those inestimable records of truth, it is not easy to imagine how great a field of reformation they would naturally present to view, in their conflicting circum

stances.

9. And what could there be within the comprehension of human reason, that might so justly fill the papal chair, as that which both Papists and Protes

The catholic Fathers were the first who had the misguided confidence to change, and corrupt, and curtail the Scriptures, in order to satisfy their sordid thirst for honour and dominion. They made use of such of the sacred waitings as were likely to support them in their carnal reasonings and vain philosophy, and rejected the rest, which have perished under their usurped dominion. The Fathers themselves declare, That they wrote not what they found but what they understood-and some they blotted out, fearing lest Heretics should have abused it." Our Fathers also declare, (says Barclay That whole verses were taken out of Mark, because of the Manicheass" But Luther far surpassed the zeal and confidence of his fathers, in changing and corrupting every thing sacred In order to maintain his inconsistent and pernicious solifidian system of Imputed Righteousness, he rejected the whole epistle of James, and called it "an epistle of straw." See the beginning of Luther's Works. Barclay's Ap. p. 10, 81. Armi. Mag. Vol. II. p. 283.

VI.

tants called the word of God. This most plausible CHAP. rival of the Roman pontiff did not long elude the notice of the reformers; therefore their appealing to a general council, was but a mere evasion to serve their purpose, for a time; their grand appeal is, more emphatically, said to have been, to the word of God.

10. And as the word of the pope had been heretofore respected as the infallible word of God, and he from whom this word came, was called another God on earth; in order therefore to stand upon equal ground with the Papists, the Protestants must receive the canon of scripture as another God upon earth, seeing that from it they receive the infallible word of God, and must ascribe to their Bible, every office and title which the Papists ascribe to their prime bishop.

11. The scriptures had all along been preserved in the catholic church, according to the edition formed in the Alexandrian school, and never, as yet, had claimed any authority, but as they were expounded and applied by those who were called church guides: but in the hands of the reformers, they were destined to a place and a name above every name in heaven or upon earth, for the purpose of exalting the Protestant priesthood above all that had gone before them, the pope himself not excepted.

12. So important an office could never have been assigned to a book, which had for hundreds of years been in use, and at the discretion of men, without its being very much reformed; hence the scriptures had to undergo a new translation, which Luther commenced in the year 1521, and being afterwards assisted cel.Misby Aurogallus, a profane author, it was but a little vi.p.193. while before all the Protestant states were furnished with this new vicar of St. Peter, this infallible judge of all controversies.

13. But whether a translation of the scriptures, by an apostate monk, and a profane writer, could claim any greater authority than the former head of the catholic church, any person of sense may judge from the following assertions of bishop Challoner.

tory, vol.

14. He affirms that," the first Protestants corrupt- Grounds 'ed the scripture, in all their translations, to make it

of Cath.

Doc.