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apoftafy? (Rom. XI. 20, 22.) Be not high-minded, but fears-otherwife thou also shalt be cut off. Surely this is a strange way of addreffing the Romans, if the church of Rome was defigned to be the infallible judge of controverfies, the center of unity, and director of all religion.- -View the picture that both St. Peter and St. Jude have drawn of falfe teachers, and confider whom it most resembles in all its features. (2 Pet. II. 1. &c.) But there were false prophets alfo among the people, even as there shall be falfe teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable herefies, even denying the Lord that bought them; And many fhall follow their pernicious ways, by reafon of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of; And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandize of you, &c. (Jude 4. &c.) Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lafciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jefus Chrift; Thefe filthy dreamers defile the flesh, defpife dominion, and Speak evil of dignities; Thefe be they who feperate themselves, fenfual, having not the fpirit; &c.--What St. Paul hath predicted concerning the corruption of the last days, is too much the character of all fects of Chriftians, but the application more properly belongs to the members of the church of Rome. (2 Tim. III. 1 &c.) This know alfo, that in

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the last days perilous times shall come: For men fhall be lovers of their own felves, covetous, boafters, proud, blafphemers, difobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy; Without natural affection, trucebreakers, falfe accufers, incontinent, fierce, defpifers of thofe that are good; Traitors, beady, highminded, lovers of pleafure more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. -Such are the direct pro

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phecies, and fuch the general intimations of popery; and we have the better right to make this application of the general intimations, as the direct prophecies are fo plain and parti

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II. It is not only foretold, that fuch a power as that of the pope and church of Rome fhould be exercised in the Chriftian world; but to prevent any mistake in the application of these prophecies, the place and the perfons likewife are pointed out, where and by whom it fhould be exercised. The prophet Daniel (Chap. VII.) hath described four beafts or four kingdoms; and out of the fourth beaft or kingdom, he faith, fhall arife ten horns or ten kings or kingdoms; and among them or after them fhall come up another little born; and he shall be divers from the reft; and he fhall have eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth Speaking great things,

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and a look more ftout than his fellows; and he Shall fubdue and pluck up by the roots three of the firft horns or kings; and shall speak great words against the most High, and fhall wear out the faints of the most High, and think to change times and laws. Daniel's firft kingdom is the Babylonian, the fecond is the Perfian, the third is the Macedonian or Grecian, and the fourth can be none other than the Roman'; and the Roman empire, upon its diffolution, was divided into ten kings or kingdoms. is in the western or Latin empire that these ten kings or kingdoms are to be fought and found; for this was properly the body of the fourth beaft, the Greek or eastern empire belonged to the body of the third beaft: and out of the western Roman empire, by the incurfions of the northern nations, arofe ten kings or kingdoms; of whom having mentioned the names before, we need not repeat them here. Now who is the little born that was to fpring up among thefe or after thefe; who as a politico-ecclefiaftical power differeth from the other ten powers; who hath eyes like the eyes of a man, that is (1) is a feer, as Sir Ifaac Newton fays, επίσκοπος or bimhop in the litteral

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(1) Sir Ifaac Newton's Obferv. on Daniel, Chap. 7. p. 75. VOL. III.

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(2) Iren.

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litteral fenfe of the word; who hath a mouth speaking great things, bulls and anathemas, interdicts and excommunications; who hath a look more fout than his fellows, affuming a fupremacy not only over other bishops, but even a fuperiority over kings and emperors themselves; who hath pluckt up by the roots three of the first borns, the exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the ftate of Rome, and is dif tinguished by the triple crown; who speaketh great words against the most High, setting up himself above all laws divine as well as human; who weareth out the faints of the most High, by wars and maffacres, inquifitions and perfecutions; who changeth times and laws, inftituting new religions, and teaching for doctrins the commandments of men; are questions which I think cannot admit of much difpute; there is only one person in the world who can fully answer all these characters.

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The blafphemous king described in the 11th Chapter of Daniel, (ver. 36-39.) who shall do according to his will, and shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall Speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and Shall profper till the indignation be accomplished, who shall not regard the God of his fathers, nor the defire of wives, but in his eftate fhall bonor Ma

Mabuzzim, and the defenders of Mahuzzim fhall increafe with glory, and shall caufe them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain; is indeed a more general character comprehending the tyrannical and corrupt power of the eaftern church as well as of the western. But when we confider, how much and how far the Latin hath prevailed above the Greek church ; how the fupremacy, which was first claimed by the patriarch of Conftantinople, hath been fully established in the bishop of Rome; how much more abfolute the will of the Roman pontiff hath been than of the Byzantine emperor; how the pope hath exalted himself and magnified himfelf as a God upon earth; how much more the Latins have degenerated from the religion of their fathers than the Greeks; how the defire of fingle life and the worship of the dead, which first began in the eastern parts, have been carried to the greateft highth in the western empire; how much the jurisdiction and authority, the lands and revenues of the Roman clergy have exceeded thofe of the Greeks; how while the Greek church hath lain oppressed for several centuries, the Roman hath ftill profpered, and in all probability still may profper till God's indignation against the Jews be accomplished; in fhort when we confider, Cc 2

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