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did the Lutherans, Zuinglians, and Calvinists, and CHAP. other parties of the reformers, abuse, imprison, and banish each other, is two well attested by ecclesias⚫tical historians of the sixteenth century."

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43. "Not to mention the blood of sectaries unjustly shed at home and abroad; Not only did the Episcopalians in England persecute the dissenters; but in Scotland, and during the commonwealth in England, these persecuted the Episcopalians. And what is perhaps more extraordinary, even in NewEngland, where the first colonists filed from the iron hand of oppression at home, they persecuted the Quakers and others who differed from their estab'lishment. How then (adds the writer) shall we ac'count for these enormities, but upon the principle, that it proceeds from the general depravity of hu'man nature."

44. And a general depravity it is, when the best men, in all their established sects and parties, are, by the confession of their own writers, diabolical persecutors. And if persecution is a diabolical, or devilish work, well said Christ of such, Ye are of your fa- See Jobra ther the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do : he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

45. Yet, by all these most horrid cruelties and abominable works, they established, what is called the CHRISTIAN WORLD, upon the principles of false teachers, corrupted priests, bloody emperors, imperious popes, and diabolical persecutors, including the ecclesiastical tyrants of every age, from CONSTANTINE, down to John Norton, and the rest of the protestant priest-hood under Governor Endicot.

viii. 33,

to 44.

D. 7.

46. But their diabolical works unmask their Christianity, and by the light of the Sun of righteousness, 2 Peter the foundations of their World are discovered, which hath been long kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men.

CHRIST's SECOND APPEARING.

PART VI.

THE EXTENT AND DURATION OF WHAT
IS CALLED THE CHRISTIAN WORLD.

CHAPTER I.

Worldly Christians contrasted with virtuous Believers in Christ.

THE

1.

HE disciples of Christ or learners of the gos- CHAP. pel, were first called Christians at Antioch. Under this name all were, in process of time included, who professed to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah. But when Antichrist arose, and assumed the name and authority of Christ, he was properly a false Christ, and his disciples of course must be false Christians; therefore the Christian world must mean that world of Christians who are the followers of a false Christ, and who wondered after the beast; while such as retained a measure of the true Christian faith and practice, must be called by some other name.

2. From what has been already stated concerning the rise and progress of Antichrist's dominion, it appears that after the days of the apostles, there remained but little room for the pure and undefiled religion of Jesus, on earth.

3. How far the fire of truth was extinguished, by those floods of error, which early began to be disgorged by false apostles and deceitful workers, and how extensively the influence of Antichristian corruption prevailed, is particularly worthy of reflection, in or der to discover the real distinction between the multi

I.

CHAP. tude who assumed the name of Christ, and called him Lord, Lord, and the virtuous few, who were careful to do the things that he said.

4. All that the false spirit could engage in his service, from his first rise, he did engage, and all that he engaged in his service he did corrupt, in the highest degree; so that in the progress of his dominion, as far as his influence extended, both men and things were most effectually changed for the worse.

5. Emperors, kings, and every class of civil rulers, became more tyrannical; laws and maxims of civil policy more cruel and oppressive; soldiers more barbarous; every kind of craftsmen more addicted to deception and fraud; and every art and science more perverted to the purposes of pride, luxury, and unrighteous gain.

6. All orders of priesthood were more corrupted, and learned greater arts of imposition and deceit ; the sacred scriptures were corrupted from beginning to end, both in the sense and application, especially the doctrines of Christ and his apostles. In a word, every thing that Antichrist could get hold of, or in any wise attach to his corrupt kingdom, whether it related to soul or body, to faith or practice, to time or eternity, he so corrupted that the whole creation was, in a moral sense, removed to a much greater distance from God.

7. Every age improved upon the corruptions of the past, and prepared a greater degree of corrup tion for the following; and thus it continued and increased until all the nations of the earth were corrupted; and as far as Antichrist's claim extended, nothing escaped his poisonous and corrupting influence, save those few enlightened souls who were willing to face death in all its most frightful forms, rather than come under his dominion.

8. Amidst all the presumptuous claims and high pretensions of the false spirit, by which the world was deceived, God did reserve the spirit of faith and of true virtue in his own power, and whenever it was poured out upon any people, the life and substance of that spirit was out of the deceiver's reach.

9. True, he could torture the bodies, corrupt and

I.

pervert the words, and maliciously misrepresent the CHAP. actions of those who possessed that spirit; but the spirit itself, by which they spake and were actuated, remained uncorrupted and undefiled through the whole of his pernicious reign, and is to this day, where ever it is found, a swift witness against all his deceitful claims to orthodoxy, and all his beastly works.

10. Yet it cannot be denied that a false Christ often had power to corrupt by flatteries, and draw into his communion, many who had, for a time, been actua ted by the spirit of truth, and bore a swift testimony against error and vice: whole societies of such were frequently overcome by the beast, and swallowed up in the general mass of corruption.

11. But the spirit of truth never could be overcome, nor led captive with them; but would again raise up others of the same description, separate from the catholic kingdom; and thus a measure of the true work of God, and the fruits of the spirit of truth, from time to time appeared, and stood as a monument to condemn the universal corruptions of a false religion, which overspread the earth under the name of Christianity.

12. Therefore, for the truth's sake, we are bound to distinguish between that spirit which ruled the motley mixture of Pagans, Jews, and pretended Christians, and that very different spirit which, in a separate and distinct people, was all along distinguished by the fruits of mortification and abstinence, piety, virtue, innocence, and simplicity of manners.

13. Cerdon, Marcion, Mani, Novatian, Hierax, Priscillian, and those who followed their example, would doubtless furnish a very different history from that of the contending philosophers, emperors, and popes, were their sentiments, their lives, and their actions justly recorded. Even the small traces of virtue, that have been transmitted down through the writings of their adversaries, are sufficient to show the striking contrast that existed between them and the great Christian hierarchy.

14. Under the various names of Marcionites, Manicheans, Bogumilans, Cathari, Beghards, Picards, Waldenses, Albigenses, Anabaptists, c. there ap

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