1802 - A Commentary On The Revelation - Historical Testimony To Present Day (Rev. E. W. Whitaker)

A
COMMENTARY
ON THE
R E V E L A'T I O N
OF'
S-T. JPHN;
A'CC8MPAJU'J_D WITH
HISTORICAL TESTIMONY
OF ITS
ACCOMPLISHMENT
TO THE
PRESENT DAY.
BY THE
REV. E. 1. TJ7HITAKER,
RTCTOR OF ST, MILDRED'S, CANTltRJIURT 0
LONDON:
PlllN'J'ED_ l'OR. F, AND C. R.IVINGTON,
NO, 6:&1 ST, PAUL'S CHUR.CHYAllD;
aY Y& A}II> J.Aw, IT. JOHN'SSQ..UAl:&, CLUa-1\NWILI.,
1802.
TO THE
RE'f7D. THOMAS RENNELL, D.D.

c. c. tc.
IN TESTIMONY OF ESTEEM FOR THE CHARACTER
HE HAS MANIFESTED OF A FAITHFUL AND
VIGILANT TEACHER
OF
THE
TRUTH,
IN
WARNING HIS COUNTRYMEN AGAINST THJt

JNSIN,UATING ARTS AijD
ANT{CH&l8TlAN
J>OCTRlNES OF 'TE ROMANISTS;
THIS COMMENTA!lf' ON A VISION,

!N WHIH THE RIS, \HARACTERISTICKS, _AND
HISTORY OF THE PAPAL PQWEll WERE Ml
RACULOUSLY
DELl.NEATED ACES PREVIOUS
TO ITS APPEARANCE, IS DEDICATED,
BY HIS PELLOWLABOURER,
THE AUTHOl!B.
T&,rp, May,
1802.
iPREFACE.,
wee
ALTHOUGH' the pejudices
whih:
formerly fd A1ihly imbibed againft anf at
tempts to explai'n the Book of .the ReveiaJ
,.
tion are,'. by the . ildeavons l -w.hich"' have.

been. futcefsfuly - p9rfud ttv lucite fr,
much. diminuhed in r all breafts :but. thofu ot1
the;. weakeit and leaft . informed , ;
fome fiilI:
I lli9uJd tdeed here. have excepted th prejudieet of

the J>apifis,. wch do not 'arife from either mere follyor
ignoce, but from. hardnes .of heart, and contempt of
the word' of God; or a juclidal blindnefs in their.attach.,
'
mcnt to that antichriftian power fo Ofo'ngly chatae\erized

aod fo decidedly condemned i the: Vificmi--See on thi,
point Thefa. ii. 11.
temaid
P R E FA C E
remain which call for notice, yet not fo

much on the goodnes of the ground on
which they are raied, as on account of
the obtinacy with which they are retained.
Among thee, one is the figurative language
in which th Viin is delivered; this, it is
fuppoed, renders it almot impoible to give

any determinate and fure contrution of it.
But let thoe, on whom this objection has

made any imprestion, confider, that figura
tive language mut be, not only as intelli
gible as any other, provided the Being who
ues it explains the ymbols he employs, but
even more accurate and more impreive than
that of mere words and letters; becaufe thefe
are at bet but arbitrary ymbols, whereas em
blematical repreentations bear in nature a

refemblance to the objects which they are
-
employed to repreent; and it is on the fat

of the Scriptures themelves fupplying a key
to the emblems in this Book, that the fol-
lowing Commentary proceeds.

.
,"
Another
,
,
FRzrace.
Another objection, though not les weak,
equally common, is, that many
Expoitors
have failed in their endeavours to acertain
the meaning of this coure of preditions.

But if the ill ucces of thoe before us were
admitted to be a good reaon for relinquih

ing frther attempts, what dicovery in any
Kne would ever have been made? First at

tempts Have feldom ucceeded; and if the
object be at all valuable, it may justly b
thought cheaply purchaed even at the ex
pence of many; while if, by preceding trials,
the end be not perfectly obtained, yet the
finai archievement of it is generally rendered

more eay by them, the mistakes to be
avoided better acertained, and the difficul
ties that preent themelves diminihed by a

more intimate knowledge of them: all which
circaistanees have taken place in relation to
the preent fubjet; on which not only the
partial dicoveries, but even the errours of
thoe who have gone before him, afford no

-
A 4
fmall
P R E FA C E.
fmall afirstance to an interpreter of the prefent day.

:
But there is moreover a third objection,
which I'am aware is likely to be made to *

this Commentary in particular. Men gene
rally wih to put off the day of account as
long as they can; and confequently to the

warning here given of the very near approach
of the hour of retribution, they may be in:
clined to reply, that the coming of the day
of the Lord, in the fenfe in which we are
now peaking ofit, has, from the publication

of the Gopel, continually been holden forth
as near at hand; and if the Apostles ima

gined it to be clofely impending
in their
time, and till it is not yet arrived, on what

ground can I peak fo confidently, as I feem
to do, of its being at fo fmall a distance?
To this I have to
reply, that my confi
dence is founded on a mot ferious, attentive,

Nand
i
*
*
*
PREFACE.
and long-continued investigation of what the

holy writers really teach on this point: from
this I am peruaded, that the expreions
ued by the Apotles do not necearily mean,

that that day hould come in their age; nay,
on the other hand, that fome of their decla
rations prove the contrary. The pouring

of the divine wrath on the Jewih nation,
the overthrow of their polity, and the vanih
ing of the ritual law, may be poken of in
Scripture under the terms of the coming
of the kingdom of God, and the end of

all things. As when our Lord faid, Ve- - .
rily I fay unto you, That there be fome

fianding here, which hall not taste of death,
till
they have feen the kingdom of God
with
power,
come
Mark ix. 1. and of St. John,
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is
that to thee? of which that Evangelist him

felf has oberved, that the Lord faid not,
He hall not die: but if I will that he
tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
John
FR**4eg.
John xxi. 22, 23. But St. Paul, though in

His first Epistle to the Thefalonians he peaks
in the firt peron of thoe who hall remain
till the coming of the Lord, Then we
which re alive, &c. yet appears, by his
words to Timothy, to have been fenible,

that he hould be called hence before that
time; I am now ready to be offered up,
the time of my departure is at hand, 2Tim,
iv. 6. St. Peter, too, had had the fane thing
with regard to himelf revealed to hiw by

his divine Master, and therefore, in the first
chapter of his feconEpitle, writes, Know.*
ing that hortly I mut put off my taberhacle,
even as our Lord Jeus Chrit hath fhewed
aie :" and in the latter part of the fw

Epistle arms us againt the very objein
I am combating, by telling us, that with

the Lord a thouand years are but as one
day; and hinting, that He will not retur,
fill all expectation of Him is nearly perihed .

from amng men, and fcoffers hall exclaim,
-
' .
** Where
PREFA.cE.
" Where is now the promife of his
coming 3
For fince the fathers fell aflep, all things

continue as they were from the beginning of
the creation.
But while St. Peter thus fuggeted that

feveral ages might intervene before the
conummation of all things, St. Paul has

fketched and St. John filled up the draught
of a line of circumstnces extending from
their own age to that time, and this fiiie

being finite, mut confequently become mre
abbreviated every day, the portions of it, as
we pas them, being still marked by the

gradual evolution of the circumstances pre
dited. To thee we are authoritatively

commanded under or Lord's general in
junction, What I ay unto you I ay unto

all, Watch, to pay attention. On thee
we are repeatedly urged in the Book before
us, after a manner the most imprestive, to

keep our minds fixed; and as here the pro
phecy
PREFACE,
phecy becomes fo particular, as to fpecify

even the years of the duration of that power,
which is to be finally destroyed by the com
ing of the Lord, we have the mot demon
. ftrable ground, from the length of time that
power has already been in existence, for
afferting, that that coming is now near at
hand.
While if convinced of this ourelves
we do not put the brethren in mind of it,

we hall at the part of faithlefs watchmen,
and fubject ourelves to all the heavy woes

denounced againt fuch.
Thus much I have thought it neceary to,

fay in reply to the objetions above peci
fied. I once had an intention of fubjoining

review of the doubts which have by fome
been exprefied of the authenticity of the
Book itelf; but on confidering the fa
tisfactory anwers the principal of them

have already received, and on the mot fe-,
rious
.reflection finding
the weight of thoe

lat
P REFACE.
lat made or repeated as not more than that

of the duft on the balance in comparifon
with the tetimony in its favour, I hall
confine myelf on this point to oberving,
fince we have a test of the truth ofa prophet

given us on divine authority, we cannot, if
the predictions of this Book have
proved
true, confiftently with faith in the moral

government of God, believe that an impotor
wrote it;
yet
himelf to
be that John, who bare record
as the writer of it declares
of the word of God, and of the tetimony
of Jeus Christ, and of all things that he

faw, and who was banihed to the ile of
Patmos, an impostor he mut have been,
unles he were the Evangelift and Apotle
John. And if thou ay in thine heart,

How hall we know the word which the Lord
hath not poken? When a prophet peaketh

in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow
not or come to pas, that is the thing which
the Lord hath not fpoken, but the prophet
,
hath
PREFACE.
hath poken it preumptuouly; thou halt
not be afraid of him. Deut. xviii. 21, 22.

The inference from
this direction palpably is
a general rule, that if the thing do come to

pas, that is the thing which the Lord hath
fpoken; and what confirms this inference is,
that one exception is fpecified in the thir

teenth chapter of the fame book, If there
arife among yo a prophet or a dreamer of
dreams, and giveth thee a fign or a wonder,
If the fign or wonder come to pas whereof

he pake unto thee, faying, Let us go after
other Gods:Thou halt not hearken unto
the words of that prophet, or that dreamer
of dreams, for the Lord thy God proveth
you.Thus then the whole question of the

authenticity of this book rets on the fat of
the words of it having been accomplihed.

That they hitherto have been fo, I think, I
may ay, I know; and I trut my Reader
will be of the fame opinion, when he has pe
rued the following pages.

*
The
PREFA C E.
The very prominentfigure which the papal

power makes in this viion, where it is der
fcribed as not les inimical to the true fol

lowers of Chrit than the ancient Roman
empire, and as acting by the impule of

Satan, will naturally occafion in the Reader
very ferious thoughts on the encourage

ment, which the dotrines of that apotate
church now find in thee kingdoms: at the
fame time the contancy with which it is
holden up as the great perecutor of God's
witneffes even to the lat, will convince him,
that the notion lately taken up of the ap

pearance of Anti-Chrit under different
charaters is not only an errour, but one
which may prove highly pernicious in its
confequences, in drawing the attention of

Chritians from a quarter on which they
ought ever to keep the triteft guard. To

prevent any diminution of vigilance here, is
a reafon of coniderable weight with me for

4
publihing
- P R E FA C E.
publihing this Work, which, if read with

the fincerity with which it is written, will
be found to have no uncertain found.
May, 24, 1802.

*
c o N T E N T s.
Intropueronx
CHAPTER-The Times and Seaons
which our Lord had declared the Father had put into His
own Power, in fome Meaure revealed in this Viion
Refutation of thoe who would confine the Extent of it
to Heathen RomeImpreive Calls to attend to it made
on Mankind by preent CircumstancesStatement of the

Principles on which this Interpretation proceeds.
SECT.
I, Remarks on the Exordium of the Book, and th
Appearance of our bleed Saviour in His glori

fied State to the Apotle.
II. The Epitles to the Seven ChurchesThe Accom

plihment of the Menaces contained in them.
II. The Scene of the Divine Preence-Explanation of

the emblematick Objets preented to the Apostle
as abiding therein.
IV. Commencement of the prophetick History on the

Succeion of Nerva to the Empire of Rome
Charater of the Period that intervened between
this Event and the Acceion of Commodusof
that from thence to the Establihment of Severus

**
2.
QIA
CON TEN TS.
SE CT.
on the Throneof that from his Reign to Maxi

mins Obtainment of the PurpleThe Perfecu
tions that distinguihed the Interval between the
Death of Valerian and the Succeion of Con
ftantine to the EmpireThe Triumph of Chrif
tianity over the ancient Idolatry, and the Removal

of the Seat of Empire from Rome.
V. Predition of the Extenion of the Church, and its
Accomplihment The Trials to swhich true
Christians
expoed through
under the
Suc
ceffors of were
Contantine,
theearlier
Prevalence
}
of Herefy and the Apotacy of Julian, forehewn

by the Sealing the Servants of God.
VI. The firt Trumpet accomplihed in the Attack on
the Roman Empire made by Alaricthe fecond
in that by Attilathe third in that by Genferic
and the fourth in the Subverion of the Western,
or proper Roman Empire, by Odoacer.
-
VII. Commencement of the three last Trumpets, or

WoesThe firt that of the Saracensithe cor
rupted State of the Eastern Church, which

brought on this WoeMahomet affifted in the
Fabrication of his Coran by a Charater preig- .

nified by a Star fallen from HeavenThe Anti
types to the Cave of the bottomlefs Pit, and to
the Angel of it-The Emblem of the Locusts

verified in the Saracenic Hosts,
VIII. The fecnd Woe inflited through the Ottomans
... The Subverion of the Eastern Empire by Ma
homet II. by the Means defcribed in the Viion
The continued Impenitence of the ret of
Chritendom,
`-
IX. Fruit
CONTENTS,
SE CT,
- IX. Fruitles Attempts of the Cruadets-Sufferings.f
the Eastern ChristiansSuggestion of the final

Juntion of the Fates of the Eastern and the
' Western Churches.
w *
X. The Contents of the little Book-Retrofpetive
View of the Attempts of Satan to destroy the

Church, from Contantine to the Settlement of
the Barbarians in the Roman Provinces.
XI. The Rife of the Papal PowerIts Charateriticks

The deadly Wound given by the Sword to
that Head of the ancient Empire, in which thc
Ditatorial and Pontifical Powers were united,
thus healedProofs of the motley, yet un

changeable Charater of this PowerOf his
ArroganceSanguinary DipoitionAntichrif
tian Claims, Dotrines, and Pratices; by which
the Title of Antichrift is demontrated to belong
in a peculiar Manner to him-Mode in which
the Sovereigns of Chritendom gave their Power

and Strength unto himAnecdotes of his Blaf
phemyhis IdolatryHow Rome the Mother
of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth-
The Impurities that flowed from thenceProofs

of dreadful Corruption of Morals among the
Papal Clergy, and particularly among the Popes
themfelvesOrigin of the Monatick Societies

their CharaterSuberviency to the Bihops of
Romethrough them the mot abolute Power
conceded to the Popes, and
Perecutions raied
againt thoe who paid not a blind Obedience to

Rome.
XII. A
CONTENTS.
SECT.
XII. A Line of a few faithful Witnees continued under

all thee Corruptions until the Reformation-the
: Rife of this fudden-the Evils introduced under
Cover of it, and their Confequences to the pre
fent Day-Suggetion of the gathering together

of the Jews.
XIII. Emblems of the Perecutions carried on againt

the Protetants, and of their Triumph over
them; with the AccomplihmentExplanation
of the Plagues of the feven Vials, with Proofs of
the Sufferings of Christendom from the Effets of
them, even in the preent Hour-Concluion.
A COM
A
COM MENTARY
O N TH E
REI ELATION OF ST. JoHN.

- esse
e Seee
HNTRODUCTORY CHAPTER,
W HEN
our Lord was now about to be
taken up into heaven, and his apotles

aked Him, Lord, wilt Thou at this time
retore again the kingdom to Irael? He

faid unto them, It is not for you to know
the times or the eaons, which the Father
hath put in His own power An anfwer

which feems to be referred to in the opening
of this book, which is called The Revela
tion of Jeus Chrit, which God gave unto

Him to fhew unto His fervants things which
mut hortly come to pas. For in this
prophecy the times and the feaons after

***
which
*
*
A Commentary on the
which the eleven enquired, are in a confider

able meaure pointed out, and the great
events which would mot materially affet
the church from the time at which the viion
was given to that of our Lord's return pre
dited, fo as to mark the order of their fuc
interpreters in
deed, who have retrained the extent of it
ceffion.
There have been
within a much horter period, that of the

duration of heathen Rome : but as St. Paul
declared, that that power of whoe then fu
ture appearance Chritians were warned, and

who would oppoe and exalt himelf above all
that is called God; and whoe coming hould

be after the working of Satan, with all power.
and igns and lying wonders, would be de

ftroyed only by the brightnes of the Lord's
coming; and St. John does decribe the rife,
the reign, and the detruction of fuch a power,
by the coming of the Lord; it is nianifet
that the power of pagan Rome, which has

long ceaed, cannot be coval with the con
tinuance f the power thus predicted: and,

conequently, groundles mut be the imagi
nation
of fuch interpreters.
.
, : - rig ... .
;* c : , :;
et
: -
...
re: .
Won
Revelation of St. John.
Wonderful indeed it is, that men eminent

for their acquaintance with the facred wri
tings, of deep thought, and extenive abili

ties, hould have taken up an opinion fo
palpably inconitent with the apostolick de
clarations.
For St. Paul divided the whole
time between that of his writing to the

Thefalonians and the return of his divine
Mater into two periods : the one . that of
the continuance of him who impeded the

appearance of the
blaphemous power, that
hould be detroyed by the Lord's return;

and which impeding power was in the pri
mitive church undertood to be the Roman
empire; and the other, that of the duration

of the blaphemous power itelf. (See the
econd chapter of the econd epistle to the

Thefalnians.) In trit harmony with which
it was in the Revelation forehewn, that the
, antichriftian power decribed as the beat

with feven heads and ten horns in its lat
ftate, hould arife on the fall of the wetern,
that is, the proper Roman empire, and con

tinue until the glorious appearance of the
King of kings, and Lord of lords.

B 2
Now
A Commentary on the
Now the extent of the propheies of this

book being thus etablihed, it immediately
becomes apparent, that the bleflings pro

nounced on thofe who read and hear the
words of it, are purpofely pronounced gene
rally,as extending to all the generations which

fhould intervene between the delivery of it,
and the conummation of all things; and,
confequently, we of the preent day are fo

lemnly called on by an heavenly invitation
to make ourelves acquainted with its con
tents. . The late extraordinary events that
have taken place in the states into which the
Roman empire was divided, have excited the

attention of many to thefe contents: and I
cannot doubt but thofe events ferve, in the
divine difpenfation, for circumtances, through
which, thoe who are wife enough to be vigi
lant in attending to the manifetations of the
divine interpoition, are ditinguihed from ,
thofe, who are bad enough to think lightly

of their connection with their Creatour.
Under this, perfuaion the importance of at

tention appears to be fuch as to call for every
exertion on the part of the preachers of the
Gopel to fix the thoughts of enquirers on

* -
the
the truth, by tating it in the mode which

may make it mot eay to be undertood,
tranlating thoe things, which for wife
and
reaons were foretold in figurative terms, into
common language; that fo being compared
with the events, the truth of the prophecies

may be feen, and this wonderful attetation
Gopel of His Son have its

jut effet, in making men ferious in their
of God to the
regard, fincere in their obedience to that

dotrine, to which God hath vouchfafed
thus to fet His feal,
Perceiving, therefore, that the mall trea
tife I have already written with this view,

was not fufficiently explicit for the generality
of readers, I now purpoe to endeavour to
expound more diffuively all the pars of this
prophetick book, which have already been
accomplihed: being the more encouraged

to fuch an attempt by feeing that late events
have jutified the ideas I entertained of the
purport of fome important paages of it ;

while different interpretations given by others
have by fats been proved falfe. The method
I hall purue is this; to give at the com
B 3
mencement
A Commentary on the
mencement of every ditint portion of the

vifion an account of the contents of that part
diveted of all figurative language : then to

fubjoin the text; throwing into notes the
reaons on which I have interpreted the fe
veral ymbols; and clofing the whole fetion
with hitorical tetimony of the completion
of that part of the prophecy.

To avoid as much as poible every danger
of mifcontrution, I hall give no explana
tion of a ymbol, which is not jutified by

fome text of holy writ, nor make any appli
cation of a prophecy to events which accord
not as to both time and place with the line
of predition. So long as attention be paid
to thee particulars, we may have fome con

fidence in the juftnefs of an application ; but
experience proves, that when they are difre
garded, men only wander into the boundles
regions of conjeture.
With, then, the mot humble and earneft
petition to the Light Himelf, that He would

deign to give me undertanding in thee His
words, and enable me to expound them for

-
the
the manifetation of His glory, and the edi

fication of His church ; for the converion of
the finner, the conviction of the gainfayer,
and the confirmation of the faithful, I pro
ceed to the equally aweful and honourable

tak ; mot feriouly exhorting my readers to
confider,
that
they are not now to
be led into
a matter of mere literary invetigation, but

of pratical conequence ; tO the contemplation of the regular appearance of the igns of
the constant though gradual approach of that

day, when the great Judge of the world will
appear to put away every thing which offend

eth, and all who
do iniquity out of His king
dom, and gathering His own fervants toge

ther to
reign before them gloriouly.
A Commentary on the
SECTION I.
HIS facred book commences with a
ftatement of its own title; which is fol-
lowed by a benedition on thoe who hould

read and attend to it, and the apotle's falu
tation of the churches to which itis addrested,

and a fubequent doxology. This exordium
extends to the end of the 8th vere: and the
particulars obervable in it (befides that which

I have already noticed) are, firt, the refe
rence to
the
tetimony of this faithful fervant
of his Master, whether intended folely of his
general testimony, for which he was at the

time of the viion in banihment, or of that
which he had given in his general epitle ;

for in either cafe the fimilarity of
language
to that which he had before ued is worthy
of remark, as affording a strong argument,

that no one but John the Apotle was the
writer of this book. Here he decribes Him
felf as Him who bare record of
God, and the
the word
testimony of Jeus Chrit,
of
and
all
all things that he aw. In the beginning of

his firt epitle he had written, That which
was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have feen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands
handled, of the word of life;that which we

have feen and heard declare we unto you.
And next, we may remark the very trong

impreion which the particulars of the viion
itelf had made on the apotle's mind, mani
fested by his borrowing part of his language

from it; as the feven pirits which are before
His throne to ignify the Holy Ghotterm
ing our Lord Himelf the faithful Witnefs,
and Him that hath made us kings and priets

unto God and His Father.
Ver. 1. The Revelation of Jeus Christ,

which God gave unto Him, to hew unto His
fervants things which mut hortly come to
pas: and He fent and ignified it by His

angel unto His fervant John :
2. Who bare
record of the word of God, and of the teti
mony of Jeus Chrit, and all thirfgs that he
faw. 3. Blested is he that readeth, and they

that hear the words of this prophecy, and
keep
A Commentary on the
} ()
keep thoe things which are written therein:

for the time is at hand.
4. John to the feven churches which are

in Aia: grace be unto you, and peace, from
Him which is, and which was, and which is
to come; and from the feven pirits which
are before His throne ;
5. From Jeus
Chrit, who is the faithful witnefs, and the
firt begotten of the dead, and the prince of

the kings of the earth. Unto Him that
our fins in His
loved us, and wahed us from
own blood ; 6. And hath made us kings

and priets unto God, and His Father; to
Him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen.
7. Behold, he cometh with
clouds; and every eye ihall fee Him, and

they alo which pierced Him: and all kin
dreds of the earth hall wail becaufe of Him.
Even fo, Amen. 8. I am Alpha and Omega,

the beginning and the ending, faith the Lord,
which is, and which was, and which is to
come, The Almighty.
After this exordium the apofile proceeds
to mention the divine appearance which he
'
faw;
Revelation of St. John. -
11
faw; decribing it in the tyle of the ancient
prophets, and particularly in that of Daniel:

and by comparing the appearance decribed
in the tenth chapter of that prophet, and this
made to St. John, we may fee how our Lord,
having entered into His glory with his af
fumed nature, is, according to His prayer,
glorified with that glory which He before
had.
He who appeared unto Daniel, was
clothed in linen, and girded with fine gold

of Uphaz: His body like the beryl, and
His face as the appearance of lightning;
His eyes as lamps of fire, and His loins and

feet like in colour to poliihed bras, and the
voice of His words like the voice of a multi-
tude.
Here is very nearly the fame decrip
tion, though heightened in fome particulars,

and with the addition, that the head and the
hairs were white like wool, as white as finow:
the attribute in Daniel of the Ancient of
Days, and confequently emblematical of the

eternity claimed alo by this divine perfon
age, when He faid, I am the Firt and the
Laft.
A declaration which cannot be re
conciled with the words of God by the pro
phet Iaiah, chap. xliv. 6. Thus faith the

-
Lord
12
A Commentary on the
Lord the King of Irael, and his Redeemer

the Lord of hofts; I am the Firt, and I am
the Lat; and befides me there is no God;
but through the recolletion of what our
Lord taught when He was on earth by fay

ing, I and the Father are one. But here
it is obervable, that the garment is girt
about the breaft, as the priets wore theirs,

Chrit having as fuch now entered into the
heavens, the real holy of holies, for us,
The voice coming from behind necearily
drew the attention of the apofile the contrary
way to that to which it was before directed;
thus, it hould feem, calling his thoughts from

his own preent state, to that of the church at
large through the whole period of its conti
nuance on this earth.
The mytery of the feven golden candle

fticks, as well as that of the feven tars, is
explained in the text itelf: though on the

lat it may be proper to inform readers not
F|
vered in eccleiatical hitory, that the bihops
of the primitive churches were tiled the An

gels of the churches: and St. Paul has taught
-
UIS
13
us the interpretation of the fword, which

proceeded from the mouth of this glorious
Being, to be the word
of God.
The evangelift, overpowered with the ma

jety of the vifion, fell down, as one dead,
when he was encouraged with a peech,
which began with nearly the fame words
which he had once before heard from the

mouth of his Lord : Fear not: I am the
Firt and the Laft, and the living One, al

though I became dead, and behold I am
alive for evermore, amen: and have the keys

of hell and f death.
For fo hould the
former part of this pastage in strict propriety

be tranlated; and I conceive it too, that this
alteration would more trongly preferve the
fenfe of the original.

Ver. 9. I John, who am alo your brother and companion in tribulation, and in
the kingdom and patience of Jeus Chrit,
was in the ifle that is called Patmos, for the
word of God, and for the tetimony of Jeus

Chrit. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day, and heard behind me a great voice as
of
A Commentary on the
trumpet, II. faying, I am Alpha and
of a
Omega, the Firt and the Lat : and what

thou feet write in a book, and fend it unto
the feven churches which are in Afia: unto
Ephefus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Per

gamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis,
and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
12. And I turned to fee the voice that pake
with me : and being turned I aw feven
golden candleticks; 13. and in the midt of
the feven candleticks one like unto the Son
of Man, clothed with a garment down to the
feet, and girt about the paps with a golden

girdle.
14. His head and His hairs were
white like wool, as white as fnow; and His
eyes were as a flame of fire; 15. and His

feet like unto fine bras, as if they burned
in a furnace ; and His voice as the found of
many waters. 16. He had in his right hand
fevem tars: and out of His mouth went a
fharp two-edged fword : and His counte
mance was as the fun fhineth in his strength.

17. And when I faw Him, I fell at His feet
as dead. And He laid His right hand upon
me, aying unto me, Fear not; I am the First

and the Lat : 18. I am He that liveth, and
-
WaS
Revelation f St. John.
15
was dead; and, behold, I am alive for ever

more, amen ; and have the keys of hell and
of death. 19. Write the things which thou
haft feen, and the things which are, and the
things which hall be hereafter. 20. The
mytery of the feven tars which thou awet
in my right hand, and the feven golden can
dleticks : the feven tars are the angels of
the feven churches; and the feven candle
fticks
which
thou aweft are
churches.
the feven
SECTION
II.
Tiir epistles to the feven churches, which

* follow next, if confidered only as ad
drested to thoe particular churches, contain
little prophetick but that which relates to the

-
then future fate of thoe churches themelves.
i Neither is the style in which they are written

fuch as to require much elucidation. I hall
therefore preface this portion of the text ra
ther with an account of the state of thoe
-
- -
churches
16
A Commentary on the
churches at the time of the viion, than with
an attempt to paraphrae what is fufficiently

plain: though of this fiate itelf, indeed, very
few particulars can be colleted from the ec
clefiatical hitorians. It is manifet, however,
from the epitle to the angel of the church

of Ephefus, that before the date of it the
words which St. Paul fpake to the elders of
that church, when he lat aw them, had been
fulfilled ; For I know this, that after my
departing hall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not paring the flock: alo of
your own felves hall men arife, peaking
pervere things, to draw away difciples after
them. Ats xx. 29, 30.
And well too does
the commendation here given to the bihop

of that church, who might not improbably
be Timothy himelf, (for the charges of tranf
greffions made in thefe epifiles are not to be

confidered as peronal, but as intended againt
the body of each church in general) well, I

fay, does that commendation agree with the
charge which St. Paul had given him to try
the candidates for the office of a teacher.
And no les does the mention of pretended
apostles correpond with his having fo parti

-
cularly
17
cularly declared himelf ordained an apofile
in his firt epistle to Timothy, chap. ii. 7.

Whereunto I am ordained a preacher,
and an apotle, (I peak the truth in Christ,
and lie not ;) a teacher of the Gentiles in
faith and verity: and in his fecond epifile
to the fame, chp. i. 11. Whereunto I am
appointed a preacher, and an apoftle, and a
teacher of the Gentiles. The epitle too of
Ignatius, bihop of Antioch in the fecond
century, to this church, contains a trong
fuggestion that fome teachers of impure doc

trines, like the Nicolaitans, had made their
appearance in it. Be not deceived, my
brethren," ays that holy martyr, corrupters

of an houe hall not inherit the kingdorn of
God. If then thoe who do thee things ac

cording to the fleh fuffer death, how much
more if a man corrupt through evi doctrine

the faith of God, for which Jeus Chrit was
crucified i fuch an one having become filthy

fhall go into the unquenchable fire, as like
wife he who heareth him. . What fome of
the detrines of the Nicolaitans were, is
mentioned in the epitle to the angel of the

church of Pergamos, where we are informed,
*
that
318
A Commentary on the
that they taught, in direct contradition to
the articles which the apostles folemnly en

joined all the churches to oberve, to commit
fornication, and eat things facrificed to idols:
and Daubuz quotes Irenus as charging
them with living promicuouly, and, con
fequently, eteeming adultery a matter of

indifference.
Ephefus was notorious for her
numerous pretenders to the power of work

ing miracles, in thoe who tudied magick :
and here too lived the great herefiarch Ce

rinthus, whoe errours were numerous, and
his propagation of them bold. So fully does

every tetimony we have tend to prove, that
the tate of the church of Ephefus was fuch
as this letter to her bihop uppoes. This

epifile concludes with a menace of fudden
detrution to that church on failure of at
tention to the merciful warning thus fent.

In repect to the state of the church whoe
bihop is next addreed, the Jews, whoe in
jurious fpeeches are here noticed, and who
were Jews outwardly only, and therefore ac

cording to the apotle, Rom. ii. 28, 29. not
Jews, were in Smyrna particularly inimical
-

19
to the Chritians: for they are noticed in
the history still extant of the martyrdom of
Polycarp, probably the very bihop to whom
this epitle was fent, to have readily affifted,
according to their cutom, in colleting ma
terials to make the fire with which he was
burnt. Whether the ten days of perecution

here mentioned were intended literally, or
metaphorically, that is, of years, or yet to
expres merely an indefinite continuance of

perfecution, that which followed when Poly
carp fuffered in the reign of Marcus Aure
lius, or the general perecution under Dio
cletian, will upply the accomplihment; while

it is to be oberved, that there is no menace
of the candlesticks being removed. And for

that uperiour firmnefs and attachment to his
Lord noticed in this miniter, (the applaufes,
like the cenfures in thee epitles, not being

merely peronal) fuch are charaterized, both
in the epitle written by Ignatius to this
church, and in that to her bihop himelf.
In the firt we read thee words; For I
undertand, that ye are perfeted
in faith,
immoveable, nailed to the cros of the Lord

Jeus Christ both in fleh and fpirit: and in
-
the
C 2
*
20
Commentary on
the
the addres of the other we find the following

fo correpondent with the hope, given in the
text, of the fupport of Christ ; To Poly

carp, bihop of the church of the Smyrne
ans, but rather who is himelf under the
inpection of God the
Father, and the Lord
Jeus Chrit: and in the epitle itelf, Sup

port all, as alo the Lord thee.
The next epitle is directed to be fent to
the angel of the church of Pergamos; the
fituation of whoe pot is, perhaps, defcribed
as Satan's feat, in reference to the great
temple of culapius in that city, a feigned

deity, who was uppoed to have appeared,
- and had been worhipped under the form of
a ferpent; the very criptural emblem, of the
great oppofer of truth, and adverary of man

kind, As to the martyrdom of Antipas, or
the particular state of this church, history

has handed down to us nothing certain; but
that he was, like thoe in the neighbouring
cities, pfected with the falfe and impure
dotrines then fo prevalent in Afia, little

doubt could be entertained, even if we were
not astured of it by the text: and that her

members
Retelation of St. jf.
21
members did not repent, her fate coinciding

with the menace there uttered againt her,
for uffering thoe who were abominable to

her divine Mater, the Nicolaitans that were
in her, is a fufficient aflurance.
Nearly the fame crimes are laid
to the
charge of th angel of the church of Thya

tira; but the reaon of the corruption of this
church being afcribed to Jezebel is, perhaps,
to be fought, not fo much in the immediate,

as in the mytical application of thee words
to fome future tate of the church in general.

Hitory fays nothing of the tate of this
church in particular: we only know, that
the tood among thoe in which the offences
laid to her charge were prevalent : but it
merits notice, that although fevere judge-
ments are denounced againt the corrupted

part of her children, entire detruction is
not poitively menaced.

The church whofe
angel is next addrefied,
that of Sardis, is accued of greater depravity

than any one yet mentioned, and fudden is
the viitation with which he is threatened;
,
C 3
but
A Commentary on the
22
but of her
B, fiate we have no more infor
mation than of that of the church to the
bihop of which the immediately preceding
epistle is addreed.
The epitle to the angel of the church of
Philadelphia is of a different complexion,
containing a promife of prefervation through
the approaching hour of tryal. Of the pre
tended Jews here mentioned, Ignatius, in

his epitle to this church, takes notice; But
if, faith he, any one would interpret Ju
daim unto you, hear him not: for it is bet
ter to hearken to Chritianity from a man
that is circumcifed, than to Judaim from
one uncircumcied.
The lat bihop addreed is that of the
church of Laodicea;
the tate of which it

appears was depraved indeed, and which is,
confequently, menaced with utter detruc

tion : a doom which, like that of all the
others, was preciely executed; as will be
proved, when I have fet the words of the

text before the reader.
CHA P.
23
CHAP. II. Ver. 1. Unto the angel of

the church of Ephefus write; Thee things
faith He that holdeth the feven tars in His
right hand, who walketh in the midst of the

feven golden candleticks; 2. I know thy
works, and thy labour, and thy patience,
and how thou canft not bear them which
are evil: and thou haft tried them which ay

they are apotles, and are not, and haft found
them liars: 3. and haft borne, and haft patience, and for my name's fake haft laboured,
and haft not fainted. 4. Nevertheles I have
fomewhat againt thee, becaue thou haft left

thy firt love. 5. Remember therefore from
whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do
the firt works; or elfe I will come unto thee
quickly, and will remove thy candletick out

of his place, except thou repent. 6. But this
thou haft, that thou hatet the deeds of the

Nicolaitanes, which I alo hate.
7. He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit

faith unto the churches; to him that over
cometh I will give to eat of the tree of life,

which is in the midt of the paradife of God.
8. And unto the angel of the church in
Smyrna write; Thee things faith the Firt

,
C 4 -
**
and
24
A Commentary on the
and the Laft, which was dead, and
# alive;
9. I know thy works, and tribulation, and
poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the

blaphemy of them which ay they are Jews,
and are not, but are the ynagogue of Satan,
10. Fear none of thoe things which thou

fhalt fuffer: behold, the devil hall cat fome
of you into prifon, that ye may be tried :
and ye hall have tribulation ten days : be
thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee
a crown of life. 11. He that hath an ear,

let him hear what the Spirit faith unto the
churches; He that overcometh, fhall not be
hurt of the fecond death. 12. And to the
angel of the church in Pergamos write ;

Thefe things faith He which hath the harp
fword with two edges : , 13. I know thy
works, and where thou dwellet, even where
Satan's feat is: and thou holdet fat my

name, and haft not denied my faith, even in
thoe days wherein Antipas was my faithful
martyr, who was flain among you where Sa
tan dwelleth.
14. But I have a few things
againt thee, becaue thou haft there them
that hold the dotrine of Balaam, who taught

Balak to cat a tumbling-block before the
-
children
25
children of Irael, to eat things acrificed unto

idols, and to commit fornication. 15. So haft
thou alo them that hold the doctrine of the
Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. 16. Re

pent; or elfe I will come unto thee quickly,
and will fight againt them with the fword of
my mouth. 17. He that hath an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit faith unto the
churches; To him that overcometh I will
give to eat of the hidden manna, and will
give him a white fione; and in the tone a

new name written, which no man knoweth
faving he which receiveth it.
18. And unto
the angel of the church in Thyatira write;

Thefe things faith the Son of God, who hath.
His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are
like fine bras; 19. I know thy works, and
charity, and fervice, and faith, and thy pa
tience, and thy works; and the lat to be
more than the firt. 20. Notwithstanding
have a few things againt thee, becaue thou

fuffereft that womam Jezebel, which calleth
herelf a prophetes, to teach and to feduce
my fervants to commit fornication, and to
eat things acrificed unto idols. 21. And I

gaye her pace to repent of her fornication ;
and
26
Commentary on
the
and he repented not. 22. Behold, I will

cat her into a bed, and them that commit
adultery with her into great tribulation, ex

cept they repent of their deeds.
23. And I -
will kill her children with death: and all the

churches hall know that I am He that fearch
th the reins and hearts; and I will give

unto every one of you according to your
works, 24. But unto you I ay, and unto

the reft in
Thyatira, as many as have not
known this doctrine, and which have not

known the depths of Satan, as they peak;
I will put upon you none other burden.

25. But that which ye have already hold
fat till I come.
26. And he that overcom
eth, and keepeth my works unto the end, to
him will I give power over the nations: 27.

and he hall rule them with a rod of iron, as
the vestel of a potter hall they be broken to

fhivers: even as I received of my Father.
98. And I will give him the morning star.

29. He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit faith unto the churches.

CHAP. III. 1. And unto the angel of the
church in Sardis write; Thefe things faith
He that hath the feven Spirits of

.
God, and
the
*.
*,

27
the feven stars; I know thy works, that thou
hafi a name that thou livefi, and art dead.
2. Be watchful, and trengthen the things
which remain, that are
ready
to die; for I
have not found thy works perfet before God.

3. Remember therefore , how thou haft re
ceived and heard, and hold fat, and repent.

If therefore thou halt not watch, I will come
on thee as a thief, and thou , fhalt not know
what hour I will come upon thee. 4. Thou

haft a few names even in Sardis which have
not defiled their garments; and they hall

walk with me in white : for they are worthy.
5. He that overcometh, the fame hall be
clothed in white, raiment ; and I will not blot
out his name out of the book of life, but I
will confes his name before my Father, and

before His angels. 6. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit faith unto the
churches. 7. And to the angel of the church
in Philadelphia write ; Thee things faith He
that is holy, He that is true, He that hath
the key of David, He that openeth, and no
man fhutteth; and hutteth, and no man

ppeneth ; 8.
I know
thy works: behold, I
have fet before thee an open
door, and no
man
28
A Commentary on the
man can hut it: for thou hast a little ftrength,

and haft kept my word, and haft not denied
my name. 9. Behold, I will make them of
the ynagogue of Satan, which fay they are
Jews, and are not, but lie; behold, I will
make them to come and worhip before thy
feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
10. Becaue thou haft kept the word of my
patence, I alo will keep thee from the hour

of temptation, which hall come upon all the
world, to try them which dwell upon the
earth. 11. Behold, I come quickly: hold
fat that which thou haft, that no man take
thy crown. 12. Him that overconneth will

I make a pillar in the temple of my God,
and he hall go no more out : and I will
write upon him the name of my God, and
the name of the city of my God, which is
new Jerualem, which cometh down out of
heaven from my God: and I will write upon
him my new name.
13. He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit faith unto

the churches.
14. And unto the angel of
the church of the Laodiceans write; Thefe

things faith the Amen, the faithful and true
witnes, the beginning of the creation of God;

15,
29
15. I know thy works, that thou art neither

cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot.
16. So then, becaue thou art lukewarm, and
neither cold nor hot, I will pue thee out of
my mouth. 17. Becaue thou fayet, I am
rich, and increaed with goods, and have

need of nothing; and knowet not that thou
art wretched, and miferable, and poor, and
blind, and naked: 18. I counel thee to buy
of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest

be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayeft
be clothed, and that the hame of thy naked

nefs do not appear; and anoint thine eyes
with eye-alve, that thou mayeft fee. 19. As
many as H love, I rebuke and chaften; be
zealous therefore, and repent. 20. Behold,
I tand at the door, and knock: if any man
hear my voice, and open the door, I will
come in to him, and fup with him, and he
with me.
21. To him that overcometh will
I give to fit with me in my throne, even as I

alo overcame, and am fet down with my Fa
ther in His throne.
22. He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit faith unto
the churches.
P ROOF
.A Commentary
30
P R O OF OF
on the
A C C O MI P L T S HIM E N T.
For hitorical tetimony of the execution of

the above-recited menaces on thee churches
of Aia, it might be ufficient to quote the

following paffage from an authour who has
manifeted his enmity to the name of Chrit
by one of the mot bitter, as well as mot
crafty attacks ever made; but as I have met

with a fomewhat more particular account of
their fate, that too hall be laid before the
reader. That by Mr. Gibbon then runs thus:

The captivity or ruin of the feven churches
of Afia was confummated.
In the lofs of .
Ephefus, the Chritians deplored the fall of

the angel, the * extinction of the firt can
dletick of the Revelations:-the circus and
three tately theatres of Laodicea are now

peopled with wolves, and foxes; Sardis is re
duced to a miferable village; the god of
Mahomet is invoked in the mochs f Thya

tira and Pergamos; and the populounes of
* The reader will oberve, that in the prediaioniti,

the removal of the candlestick, not the extinction of it, which
is threatened.
Smyrna
31
Smyrna is upported by the foreign trade of

the Franks and Armenians.
Philadelphia
alone has been faved by prophecy or cou
rage : at a difiance from the fea, forgotten
by the emperors, encompasted on all fides

by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended
their religion and their freedom above four

fcore years; and at length capitulated with the
proudet of the Ottomans. Among the Greek

colonies and churches of Afia, Philadelphia
is till erect; a column in a cene of ruins.
Such is the relation of the different lots of

thee churches in the Hitory of the Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire. I hall now
trancribe what the authour of a Sytem of

Geography, publihed in 1792, gives as an
account of their preent tate. The cele
brated city of Ephefus is now only a poor

village of twenty or thirty houes. The most
remarkable buildings in this (the inhabited)

part is the old church of St. John the Evan
gelit: the Turks have converted it into 18;
moque; but its greatet ornaments were car
ried to Constantinople to adorn the moque

ereted there by Sultan Soliman. The larget
-
and
A Commentary on the .
and richet city at preent in Afia Minor is
32
Smyrna, or Ifimir. The goodnes of its harbour

hath caued it to be rebuilt feveral times after
it had been detroyed by earthquakes.
It is
faid to contain 15,000 Turks, 10,000 Greeks,

1800 Jews, 200 Armenians, and 200 Franks,
Here reides an archbihop of the Greek

ehurch, a Latin bihop, who has a falary
from Rome; and the Englih and Dutch
factories have each a chaplain. However,
by fucceive calamities, (i. e. earthquakes,
fires, and plagues,) the city has been fo
much reduced, that its former conequence
is never likely to be retored. Pergamos is
now a very indifferent town.
Thyatira
ftands, &c. where are feen the ruins of fe
veral marble trutures, though the modern

houes are only built with clay.
Pt however
carries on fome trade in eorn and cotton.
Sardis is now a poor village, on the river

Pa&tolus. It was detroyed by an earth
quake; there are however till fome noble
ruins, which afford a proof of its ancient,
grandeur
Philadelphia is fallen from its
ancient grandeur; however, according t

fbme travellers, it has till 2000 Christian
5
inha
Revelation of St.John.
33
inhabitants, who have four churches.
Lao
dicea was a large city, but is now uninha

bited *.
SECTION III.
Tiit firt portion of what the apotle was

commanded to commit to writing being .
thu completed, the Revelation next pro
ceeds to the things which were then future,
-
termed in the text of our tranlation things

which mut be hereafter, but literally in the
original after thefe. To have thee pour
trayed unto him, the apotle heard the firt
voice which had poken to him like a trum

pet, fpeaking to him from heaven, and com
manding him to come up thither. On which
his mind being immediately under the im
preion of the Holy Ghot, he beheld the
mot glorious, but mot aweful fight of the
Almighty feated on His throne; whoe

*
ap
Payne's Univeral Geography, Vol. I.

D
pearance
34
Commentary on the
pearance was that of pure effulgence, in

which there is no darknes at all.
In the
fame, however, were dicernible thoe colours

which exprefs mercy and jutice: and all
around the throne was a rainbow, the fym

bol of God's covenant with mankind, and of
, that colour only which it is mot eay for the
human eye to contemplate. Around the
throne too were four and twenty feats, on

exprestive of their purification, and with crowns ignificative of their
which fate in robes
triumph, the repreentatives of thoe who are
made kings and priests unto God, out of

every kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation. Exprefive and known emblems of
the divine power and authority proceeded
from the throne: and before it was the
fymbol of the
feven fpirits of God, which
have been interpreted of the perfet power

of the Holy Ghot; and there too was alo
the laver of regeneration; by both of which
a man must be born to be admitted to the
divine prefence. And round the throne,
with their bodies partly under it, were four

living creatures, as repreentatives of thoe
who miniter unto God, for the congregation

*
of

true Irael difpered throughout
of the
the
world ; each living creature being one that
formed the tandard of one quarter of the
camp of the Iraelites. From thee incef
fantly proceeded a fong of praife, as in the

Jewih temple there were choruffes employed
day and night in praiing God; and this
fong was anfwered by the homage of the
four and twenty elders, who cat their crowns

before the throne, and worhipped Him that
fat thereon.
On the right hand of Him
that fat on the throne appeared a book in
the ancient form, that of a roll, confifting of

feven parts or kins, each fealed with a eparate
feal, fo that on opening one, the fix others
ftill continued cloed: and then a mighty

angel, with a loud voice, made proclamation
for one who was worthy to open the book ;
and no one in the univere was found able to
open or look on it.

The apotle
being
fo affeted at this as to
weep much, one of the elders confoled him

with information, that the Redeemer of the
world had prevailed to open the book: on
which St. John looked, and beheld in the

-
D 2
midft
36
Commentary on the
midst of the throne, and within all the at

tendants on it, an emblematical appearance
of our blefied Saviour; who took the book

out of the right hand of Him that fat on the
throne ; and before whom, when He had
taken it, the four living creatures, and the

four and twenty elders prtrated themelves,
and offered the prayers of thoe in whoe be
half they were appointed to come near unto
God; and fang a new fong, even one unto

the Lamb who had redeemed them unto
God by His blood, out of every kindred,

and tongue, and people, and nation: which
WaS followed by a doxology to the Lamb,
pronounced by ten thouand times ten thou
fand, and thouands of thouands of angels;
and cloed with a chorus of every creature
in the univere, afcribing blefling, and ho
nour, and glory, and power to Him that fat
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for
ever and ever: the four living creatures an

fwering, Amen; and the four and twenty
elders falling down, and worhipping Him

that liveth for ever and ever.
A
CHAP.
Recelation of St. John.
37
CHAP. IV. Ver. 1. After this I looked,
and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:

and the firt voice which I heard was as it
were of a trumpet talking with me ; which

faid, Come up hither, and I will fhew thee
things which mut be hereafter.
2. And
immediately I was in the Spirit: and, be
hold, a throne was fet in heaven, and one

fat on the throne. 3. And He that fat was
to look upon like a japer and a fardine

fione*: and there was a rainbow + round
* Ver. 3. Like a japer and a fardine stone.] The bafis
-of all gems, when pure, is wholly diaphanous. The jafper
is of a white and blueih (k colour, and bright. This

brightnes is the ymbol of favour, the light of God's
countenance being ued to expres that by the Palmist,
Pal. iv. 6. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy counte
nance upon us : and in Pfal. xxxvi. 9. In thy light we
fhall fee light. The fardine ftone is red, a gem of the
ruby kind. Fire and burning coals are employed in Scrip
ture as ymptoms of the divine wrath, as in Pfal. xviii. 7, 8.
Becaue He was wroth, there went a moke out of His

notrils, and fire out of His mouth devoured; coals were
kindled at it : and in Hab. iii. 5. Before Him went

the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet.
+ Ver. 3. A rainbow.] Gen. ix. 13. I do fet my

bow in the cloud, and it hall be for a token between me
and all the earth, &c. Whence the rainbow is by the

Palmist stiled the faithful witnes in heayen.
".
D 3
about
38
A Commentary on the
about the throne, in fight like unto an eme

rald.
4, And round about the throne were
four and twenty feats: and upon the feats I

faw four and twenty elders fitting, clothed
in white raiment*; and they had on their
heads crowns of gold f. 5. And out of the
throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings
and voices: and there were feven lamps of
fire burning before the throne, which e

the feven fpirits of God.
6. And before the
throne there was a fea of glas, like unto

crytal: and in the midft of the throne, and
round about the throne, were four beafts #,
full of eyes before and behind, 7. And the
firft
* Ver.4. White raiment.] Chap.vii. 14. Have wahed

their robes, and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb.
-
+ Ver. 4. On their heads crowns.] e Tim. iv. 7. I ,
have fought a good fight, I have finihed my coure, I have

kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown
of righteoufnes.
Ver. 6. Four beasts.] Thefe are repreented nearer
the throne than the elders; and by Chap. v. 8, 9. offer
together with the elders (who, perhaps, as the imagery

of this viion correponds with the temple fervic, are
twenty-four, becaue into fo many coures the priets were
divided, as appears by 1 Chron. xxiv.) the prayers of the

-
faints ;
39
firt beat was like a lion, and the fecond
beat like a calf, and the third had a face as

man, and the fourth beat was like a flying
eagle. 8. And the four beats had each fix

wings about him, and they were full of eyes
within: and they ret not day and night,

faying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Al
mighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
9. And when thoe beats give glory, and
honour, and thanks to Him that fat on the
throne, who liveth for ever and ever, 10. the
four and twenty elders fall down before Him

that fat on the throne, and worhip Him that
liveth for ever and ever, and caft their crowns
before the throne, faying, 11. Thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and ho
nour, and power: for Thou haft created all

things, and for thy pleaure they are and
were created.
f.ints; a priestly office, to come near in the performance

of which every other but a priet is forbidden by Numb.
xvi, 40. The four figures, beides correponding with
what are faid to have been the four standards of the camp
of Irael mentioned Numb. ii, well repreent the congrega
tion omnium animantium.
D 4
CHA P.
A Commentary on the
CH A P. V. Ver. 1.
And I faw on the
right hand of Him that fat on the throne a

book written within and on the back fide,
fealed with feven feals. 2. And I aw a
ftrong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,
Who is worthy to open the book, and to
loofe the feals thereof? 3. And no man in

heaven, nor in earth, neither under the
earth, was able to open the book, neither to

look thereon. 4. And I wept much, becaue . '
no man was found worthy to open and to

read the book, neither to look thereon.
5. And one of the elders faith unto me,

Weep not: behold the Lion of the tribe of
Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to
open the book, and to looe the feven feals
thereof. 6. And I beheld, and, lo, in the
midft of the throne, and, of the four beats,
and in the midt of the elders, tood a Lamb
as it had been flain, having feven horns and

feven eyes, which are the Spirits of God
fent forth into all the earth. 7. And He
came and took the book out of the right
hand of Him that fat upon the throne.
8. And when He had taken the book, the

four beats and four and twenty elders fell
down
V
41
down before the Lamb, having every one of

them harps, and golden vials full of odours,
which are the prayers of faints. 9. And

they fung a new fong, aying, Thou art
worthy to take the book, and to open the
feals thereof: for Thou waft flain, and haft
redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of

every kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation; 10. and haft made us unto our God
kings and priets; and we hall reign on the .
earth. 11. And I beheld, and I heard the

voice of many angels round about the throne
and the beats and the elders: and the num

ber of them was ten thouand times ten thou
fand, and thouands of thouands; 12. fay
ing with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb

that was flain to receive power, and
riches,
and widom, and trength, and honour, and
glory, and blefling. 13. And every creature

which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
under the earth, and fuch as are in the fea,

and all that are in them, heard I faying,
Bleling, and honour, and glory, and power,
be unto Him that fitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
And the four beats faid, Amen.
14.
And the
four
"A Commentary on the
42
four and
twenty
elders fell down and wor
fhipped Him that liveth for ever and ever
SECTION IV.
HEN the Lamb opened the firt feal,
the apotle being called by one of the

living creatures to come and fee, looked, and
faw depited on that part of the roll which
'
was then unfolded, the repreentation of the

Roman emperour (and in him that of the
feries of emperours who fucceeded him) un

der whoe reign conquet led to a period of
general tranquillity. The emblem was that

of one having a bow, and fitting on a white
horfe, who went forth conquering and to

conquer.
On the opening of the fecond feal, and on

a imilar fummons from the fecond living
creature, St. John looked, and beheld a
-
fymbol of the next line of emperours, under

whom
|
|

whom
in the
whom
Barth,
43
civil wars hould rage, This confifted

figure of one fitting on a red hore, to
it was given to take peace from the
and introduce a fcene of mutual
flaughter; and to him was given a great

fword,
The third eal, to mark the contents of

which the apotle was called by the third
living creature, exhibited on its being opened
the ymbols of a period during
which the
laws hould be executed with impartiality,
and proviions reduced to a fair and eay

price.
On the fourth being opened, and he being

fummoned by the fourth living creature to
come and fee, he decried the mot ignifi
cant emblems of extraordinary ravages of

death upon earth,
The opening of the fifth feal exhibited the

fouls of martyrs crying to God to avenge
their blood; with a fuggetion that others
fhould pas through the fame fufferings, ere
the
44
Commentary on the
the divine jutice would execute fentence on

the perfecuting power.
And the fixth exhibited emblems of
great revolution and overthrow of the ruling

powers of the world, who had refued to
obey God, and to receive the gopel of
Chrit.
*
CHAP. VI. Ver, 4. And I aw when the
Lamb opened one of the feals, and I heard,

as it were the noife of thunder, one of the
four beats, faying, Come and fee. 2. And
I faw, and behold a white horfe * : and he

that
|-
# Ver. 2. A white horfe.] The well known emblems

ued in ver. 12, 13, 14. of this chapter, (fcriptural authority
for my interpretation of which hall be produced under

them,) leaving no room to doubt, that the change there
predicted was to take place among the then governing
powers of the earth, the events preceding that change mut
by analogy be fuppoed to pas among the fame powers;
and, confequently, the ucceive periods marked in this
and the fubequent verfes are to be fought for in the hif
tory of the Roman emperours. But it is of confiderable

importance to acertain the period at which the prophecy
commences, becaufe, though, in a more advanced stage
of it, it comprizes the repreentations of feveral cotem

porary
that fat on him had a bow: and a crown
was given unto him: and he went forth

*
conquer
porary coures, yet it likewife fupplies us with a regular

feries of events, extending to the confummation of all
things: and therefore by fixing the ra of its commence

ment, we gain a line highly ueful toward preventing our
adoption of any interpretation inconfistent with the regu
lar order of the hitory given in this wonderful dicloure.
, And happily the words employed in Chap, iv. 1. evi
dently fhew, that the firt ucceion of emperours pre
figured in it was to commence after the ceaing of the
Flavian family. Becaue, even if the apotle were fa
voured with the Revelation while Jerualem was yet
ftanding, the words rendered by our tranlators hereafter
ugla raviz, (after thee things) mut be applied to the time

after the fall of that city, which event the apostles always
feem to have conidered as an ra. And, confequently, if
we take what alone the text jutifies, the beginning of a
fucceion for the opening of the first feal, it must be the
commencement of that which immediately followed the
family under whoe rign Jerualem was detroyed. * But
more neceary still will the fame concluion be, if we
allow what has much the ftronger tetimony from history,
that St. John was not favoured with this vifion until the
reign of Domitian. The period therefore prefigured by
the image of the first feal, was that which intervened from
the ucceion of the emperour Nerva, to the interruption
of fucces and tranquillity which occurred under Com
modu. And further, if we reflect, that in the nineteenth

chapter of this book, the Commander of the armies in
heaven
A Commentary on the
46
conquering and to conquer. 3. And when

he had opened the fecond feal, I heard the
fecond beast fay, Come and fee.
4. And
there went out another horfe that was red*:
and power was given to him that fat thereon

to take peace from the earth, and that they
fhould kill one another: and there was given

unto him a great fword +.
5. And when he
had
heaven is repreented as riding on horfeback, we hall fee

an analogy preferved in repreenting thoe who were pe
cifically termed Commanders (Imperatores) as riding on
horfeback too.
* Ver. 4. Harfe that was red.]
For the ymbolical
import of this colour, fee the note on the third vere of

the fourth chapter.
+ Ver. 4. A great fword.] A stronger instance of the
perverfenes of criticim can hardly be given than what
has been exhibited by fome, in contending, that by the
emblems of this feal is ignified a period of peace, in direct
contradiction to the general ue of them, and in oppoition

to the very words of the text. Nay, though hitory,
which is allowed to be the best interpreter of prophecy,
yield the clearet proofs of its completion in the mot ap

poite fenfe, mot learned pains have been taken to prove
that herein is predicted a feaon of tranquillity. It is indeed rather unuual for conquerours to receive peace .
from thoe they have vanquihed, though dare pacem gen
tibus may be the happy lot of fome of them; a great fword

too is commonly a fign of war; but uch are trifling ob
*
ftacles
Rvelation of St. John.
47
had opened the third feal, I heard the third

beat fay, Come and fee. And I beheld,
and lo a black hore; and he that fat on
him had a pair of balances in his hand.

6. And I heard a voice in the midft of the
four beats fay*, A meaure of wheat for a

ftacles in the way of commentator: and irkfome as it is,
it becomes neceary to oppoe the progres of this strange

mistake by proving, that the original word here tranlated
take from is ued in that fenfe, and that the natural mean
ing of the word rendered fword is a weapon with which
to fight. Firt, then, in the 17th chapter of the 1t of
Samuel, ver. 34. the word 2.au Gaveiv is by the Lxx
ued in the fenfe of auferre, when David fays, there
came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the
flock: and in the 16th of Numbers, ver. 15, it is ued

in the fame fenfe: and for uzxzip, the very derivation,
of it from uzxn proves its connection with fighting;

while in Matt. x. 34. our bleed Lord ues this very
word in contradistinction to peace; Think not that I
am come t fend peace on the earth : I came not to fend
peace, but a fword, (uzxzipav.)
* Ver. 6. A voice in the midst of the four beasts.] This
fhould feem to proceed from the throne, thus afcribing
the gifts of corn, wine, and oil, immediately to God, in
confonance with the words the Lord before pake by the
prophet Hofea, For he did not know that I gave her
corn, and wine, and oil. Therefore I will return and take
away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the

feaon thereof, &c. Haf. ii. 8, 9.
penny,
8
48
A Commentary on the
penny, and three meaures of barley for a

penny ; and fee thou hurt not the oil and
the wine *. 7. And when he had opened the
fourth feal, I heard the voice of the fourth
beat ay, Come and fee. 8. And I looked,

and behold a pale + horfe : and his name
that fat on him was Death, and hell followed
with him. And power was given unto them
over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with

fword , and with hunger, and with death,
and with the beafts of the earth.
9. And
when he had opened the fifth feal, I aw

under the altar the fouls of them that were
flain for the word of God, and for the teti
mony which they held : 10. and they cried

with a loud voice, aying, How long, O Lord,
holy and true, doft thou not judge and

* Ver. 6. Hurt not, &c.] Daubuz justly oberves, that
this may be rendered Do no injutice as to the oil and
wine, which makes a clofer connection with the preced
ing fentences.
t Ver. 8. Pale horfe.] Gr. x AwG., i. e. pale green, the

colour of dieae.
# Ver. 8. With fword.] Pouaiz, here rendered fword,

is properly a Thracian weapon; a circumflance parti
cularly worthy of obervation, becaue Maximin, the first
of this feries of emperours, was a Thracian.
avenge
-
49
avenge
ouf blood on them that dwell on the

erth? 11. And white robes were given
unto every one of them; and it was faid
unto them that they hould rest yet for a

little feafon, until their fellow-fervants alo
and their brethren, that hould be killed
s they were, hould be fulfilled. 12. And
fbeheld when he had opened the ixth feal,

and, lo, there was a great earthquake*;
**
*
is? : :
',
', :
* -
*yer. 12. A great earthquake.] For interpreting this

into a fymbol of the removal of thoe things that are
haken, we have a direct apostolical authority in the 26th
and 27th vere of the 12th Chapter of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, whoevoice then hook the earth: but now he

hath
earth
promied, aying, yet once more I hake not the

only, but alo heaven. And this word, yet once
more, fignifieth the removing of thoe things that are

fhaken. . By the prophets Haggai and Jeremiah the
images here ued are applied to expres imilar circum

stances, the overthrow of kingdoms and detruction of
the power of idolators. In the 2d Chapter of the first of

thee prophets we read, vere 21, 22. I will fhake
the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the
throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the
kingdoms of the heathen. And in the 4th Ch. of Je
remiah, ver. 23, 24, of the removal of the Jews for their
fins; I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form

and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I be- .
held the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the .
hills moved lightly.
--
and
*
A Commentary on the
50
and the fun* became black as fackcloth

of hair, and the moon became as blood,
13. And the tars of heaven fell unto the
earth, even as a fig-tree cateth her untimely
!
- -
:::
| :::::
2- 1
| * Ver., fg. The fun became, &c.] In Joeph's dream,

related Gen. xxxvii. 9, thee images are applied even to
the chief perons of a private family, fo that they inay

here well ignify fomething les than the chief maif.
trates of the empire itelf, viz. the chief rulers of the

Pagan worhip; though in the former fenfe the prediction
was verified in the fall of the heathen emperours, by his

conquest of whom Constantine obtained the fole dominion
of the Roman empire; and in that fenfe are the emblems
fed by the ancient prophets,
of which, as a thing fo well
known to every reader of theScripture, I hall not mul.

tiply proofs, but quote only ver. 9, and 10, of the 13th
Ch. of Iaiah of the overthrow of another idolatrus

city by a conquerour who was in his employment of de
livering the people of God, the parallel of Constantine.'

Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with
wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land defolate: and He

fall destroy the finners thereof out ofit; for the stars of
| heaven nd the constellations thereof han not give their
light: the fun hall be darkened in his going forth, and

the moon hall not caue her light to hine. But I must
not ornit the obervation of Mr. Daubuz, that the noon
repreenting the econd power in the state, that is the pon

by being mortally wounded portended the over
throw of the idolatrous hierarchy, which at this period
took place.
figs,
51
figs, when he is fhaken of a mighty wind.

14. And the heaven departed as a fcrowl
when it is rolled together; and every moun

tain and ifland were removed out of their
places. 15. And the kings of the earth, and

the greatmen, and the rich men, and the chief
captains, and the mighty men, and every
bond-man, and every free man hid themelves

in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16, and faid to the mountains and rocks, Fall
on us, and hide us from the face of him that

fitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb. 17. For the great day of his wrath

is come, and who hall be able to tand ?
**
: P ROOF OF A CCQ M P L I S H M ENT,
* It appears by the tetimony of Mr. Gib

bon, whom no one will fufpet of unfairly
presting any thing into the fervice of Chri
tianity, that after the death of the Roman
Emperour Domitian, on the cloe of whoe

reign I have hewn this portion of the pro
phecy begins, there appeared a fucceion of

emperours, under whom the empire was car
-
E 2
ried
| 52
A Commentary on the
ried to its greatet extent: beginning in

deed with the hort reign of Nerva, but
quickly proceeding to the triumphant one of
Trajan (whoe pillar, with that of Antonine,
in commemoration of their victories, being

ftill extant, yields a very remarkable teti
mony to the accuracy with which this period
is decribed) and ending with that of Marcus
Aurelius. This hitorian in his firt Chapter,

fpeaks of Trajan, as of a prince by whom the
peaceful ytem of his predeceflors was inter
rupted by cenes of war and conquet; and
of this whole period of properity in the fol

lowing terms.. If a man were called to
fix a period in the hitory of the world, dur

ing which the condition of the human race
was mot happy and profperous, he would,
without hefitation, name that, which elaped
from the death of Domitian to the acceion

of Commodus. Gibb. Ch. 3, ... He fays,
that this tranquillity and happines of the
mpire were diturbed by Commodus, whoe

cruel vanity made him at the part ef the .
gladiator; forming thus a fatal correpon
dence with the emblem of the fecond feal;

And there was given unto him a great
fword.
53
fword. While on the death of his fuc

ceffor Pertinax this predition was yet in
another mode fulfilled.
For then the fol
diers of the Prtorian guards affumed the
prerogative of difpofing of the empire, and,

in the words of Mr. Gibbon, ran out upon
the ramparts, and with a loud voice, pro
claimed that the Roman world was to be

dipoed of to the bet bidder by public
auction. After the purchae of which by
Didius Julianus, again in correfpondence
with the emblematick fword, a cene of civil
dicord between feveral candidates for the

throne enfued, until Severus gained full pof.
feffion of it. Thus was the predition con
tained under the emblems of the fecond

feal completed,
The period preignified by the
contents
of the third feal was at its commencement
, distinguihed, according to the writer jut

quoted, by the enation of falutary laws
firmnes, and a con

stant and liberal ditribution of corn and pro
viions. Ch. 5, p. 125; and ended with an
emperour whoe paternal care, we are told,
executed with inflexible
to
E 3
Ch. 6,
A Commentary on the
Ch. 6, p. 156, reduced the price of provi
vifions, and the interet of money; thus
wonderfully correponding with the types
under which particulars like thee were ha
54
dowed out: A man on a black horfe, with
balances in his hand, and a proclamation of

a regulated price of corn, (high indeed,
which circumtance called for the regulation
prefignified, and which actually took place)
with a charge to do no injutice as to the oil
and wine.
The completion of the fourth feal com

menced with the fucceion of the tyran
Maximin to the empire ; of whom the hif
torian already repeatedly quoted, notices

not only the favage appearance and the op
prefions fo grievous as to excite through
out the Roman world, a general cry of in
dignation imploring vengeance on the com
mon enemy of human kind; but that
g confication, exile, or imple death, were
eteemed uncommon inftances of his
lenity,
Some of the unfortunate fufferers he ordered
to be fewed up in the hides of flaughtered
animals, others to be expoed to wild beasts,

-
'
others
Revelation of st.
Join.
55
others again to be beaten to death with clubs.

Ch. 7; including Maximin, fix princes were
in the fpace of a few months cut off by
the fword: and fuch were the confequent

flaughters and evils under them, and their
fucceors; when civil wars, irruptions of bar

barians, and struggles for the throne by
thofe who are called the thirty tyrants, all
contributed to the general devatation, that
at the clofe of Mr. Gibbon's Tenth Chapter,

we meet with this remark, We have the
knowledge of a very curious circumtance of

fome ufe, perhaps, in th melancholy calcu
lation of human calamities. An exact regiter

was kept at Alexandria of all the citizens
entitled to receive the distribution of corn,

it was found that the ancient number of
thofe comprized between the ages of forty

and feventy had been equal to the whole
fum of claimants, from fourteen to fourcore
years of age, who remained alive after the
reign of Gallienus, Applying this fat to
the mot corret tables of mortality, it evi
dently proves that above half the people of

Alexandria had perihed; and could we venture to extend the analogy to the other pro
^ -
e4
vinces,
A Commentary on the
56
vinces, we might fufpet that war, pestilence,
and famine had conumed in a few years the
moiety of the human fpecies. Behold death

and hell following him! and mark this fatal
tetimony of a writer, who in many paages
betrays a bitter enmity to the name of
Chrit, to the truth of this predition ! Ob
ferve the accuracy with which he invetigates
the extent of the mortality in full proof of
the prophecy; as if he were by a uperior

power obliged to contribute to the evidence
of the truth of that Gopel he had prefumed
to attack! Indeed fo very remarkable are
two other paages of this part of his hitory
to the fame purpofe, that I cannot refrain
from laying them before the reader. I
trancribe the firt from the 282d page of
his firt volume,
There is till extant a
mot favage, mandate from Gallienus to one

of his minifters, after the fuppreion of In
genuus, who had affumed the purple in Il
lyricum. It is not enough, fays that foft

but inhuman prince, that you exterminate
fuch as have appeared in arms: the chance
of battle might have ferved me as effec
-tually, the male fex of every age mut be

*
* *
extir

57
extirpated; provided that in the execution
of th children and the old men, you con
trive means to fave our reputation. Let
every one die who has dropt an expreion,
who has entertained a thought againt me,
againt me the fon of Valerian, the father and
brother of fo many princes. Remember that

Ingenuus was made Emperor; Tear, kill,
hew in pieces.
I write to you with my own
hand, and would inpire you with my own

feelings,
The next of thefe remarkable paages isin
page 285 of the fame volume, But a long
and general famine was a calamity of a more

ferious kind.
It was the inevitable confe-
quence of rapine and oppreion, which ex

tirpated the produce of the preent, and the
hope of future harvets. Famine is almot
always followed by epidemical difeafes, the
effets of fcanty and unwholefome food.
Other caues muft however have contributed
to the furious plague, which from the year

two hundred and fifty to the year two hun
dred and fixty-five, raged without interrup
-
tion
A Commentary on the
58
tion in every province, every city, and almost

every family of the Roman empire. During
fome time five thouand perons died daily
in Rome; and many towns, that had ecaped
the hands of the barbarians, were entirely

depopulated.
Neither is there wanting proof of the

fourth evil predited under this feal having
fallen during the pecified period on the
Roman empire, Julius Capitolinus, as quoted .

by Daubuz on the place, writes, that five
hundred wolves together entered a city to

which Maximin had betaken himelf; and
Arnobius, who wrote about the year three

hundred, has left a complaint in thee words:
When were wars waged with wild beats,
and battles with lions? Not before our age.
When were the people destroyed by ve
nomous ferpents? not before our age.
Thus then, behold the full accomplih
ment of the emblematick predition; be

hold death fet on a pale horfe, and hell fol-
lowing him, and power given unto them over

:
s-
the
Revelation of St. John,
59
the fourth part of the earth, to kill with
fword, with hunger, and with death, and .

with the beats of the earth !
-
,
-
,:
,
{ {i }
The interval between pat perecutions and

future jut impending, fignified by the em
blems of the fifth feal, was manifet in that
period which fucceeded the dreadful dif.
tractions
above-mentioned, from the death
of Valerian, (of whoe behaviour towards,
the Christians, Mr. Gibbon peaking, ays,

in the lat three years and a half of his life,
listening to the infinuations of a miniter

addited to the fupertitions of Egypt, ha
adopted the maxims and imitated the feves
rity of his predeceor Decius) to the lat and
mot fevere of all the perecutions under the
reign of Diocletian and his afociates in the

empire; and of which period the hitorian
writes, that the diciples of Chrit palied

above forty years in a tate of properity,
far more dangerous to their virtue than the
feveret trials of perecution,Chap. 16.
And as to the interruption of this period of
peace, and the commencement of the per

fecution predited in the text, the hitorian
-3 .
having
60
.*
A Commentary on the
having remarked, that notwithtanding this

feeming fecurity, an attentive oberver might
difcern fome fymptoms that threatened the
church with a more violent perecution than
any which it had yet endured; proceeds to

state the circumtances which led to the per
fecution, and afterwards continues thus:
The next day the general edit of perfecu
tion was publihed, and though Diocletian,
ftill avere to the effuion of blood, had mo
derated the fury of Galerius, who propoed,
that every one refufing to oster acrifice

fhould immediately be burnt alive, the pe
nalties inflited on the obtinacy of the Chrif
tians might be deemed fufficientiy rigorous
and effetual.
It was enated, that their
churches in all the provinces of the empire

fhould be demolihed to their foundations;
punifhment of death was denounced

againt all who hould prefume to hold any
and the
fecret affemblies for the purpoe of religious

worhipthat the prebyters and bihops
fhould deliver all their facred books into the
hands of the magitrates; who were com

manded under the feveret penalties, to burn
them in a public and folemn mnner. After
taking
-

61
taking fuch effectual meaures to abolih the
worhip, and to difolve the government of

the Christians, it was thought neceary to
fubject to the mot intolerable hardhips the
condition of thoe perverfe individuals who
fhould still rejetithe religion of nature (fuch
is the falfezando impious phrae ued by

Mr. G.), of Rome, and of their ancetors.
Perons of liberal birth were declared inca
pable of holding any honours or employ

ments; flaves were for ever depriyed of the
hopes of freedom, and the whole body of the
people were put out of the protection of the

law. The judges were authorized to hear
and to determine every action that was
brought againt a Chritian.
But the Chrif
tians were not permitted to complain of any

injury which they themfelves had fuffered.
This new pecies of martyrdom fo painful
and lingering, fo obcure and ignominious,

was, perhaps, the mot proper to weary the .
contancy of the faithful: nor can it be
doubted that the paffions and interets of
mankind were dipoed on this occaion to
fecond the defigns of the emperors. The
author then proceeds to relate the cruel ex

eCutlOn
62,
A Commentary on the
ecution of a Chritian, who had torn down
the imperial edit, and exprefied at the
ame time by the bitterest invetives, his

contempt as well as abhorrence of fuch ty
rannical governments, tating, that he
was burnt or rather roasted by a flow fire,

and that his executioners exhaufted on
him every refinement of cruelty; and he af.

terwards writes, that the Christians being fuf;
pected of fetting fire to the palace of Dio

cletian, jealoufy and refentment prevailed
in every breat, but epecially in that of
Diocletian. A great number of perfons dif:
tinguihed either by the offices which they
had filled, or by the favours which they
had enjoyed, were thrown into a prifon.
Every mode of torture was put in pratice;
and the court as well as the city, was pol
luted with many executions. Farther on

he declares, that many Chritians fuffered
martyrdom for not delivering up the facred
toks; , that their churches were in fome
provinces stut, but in others the terms of

the edit were literally complied with; and
after taking away the doors, the benches,
and the pulpit, which they burnt as it were
1
'
in
63
in a funeral pile, they completely demolihed
the remainder of the edifice. But fevere
as it appears from the portion of the tef:

timony of this author already produced, this
perecution was, numerous as muft have
been thofe fellow-fervants and brethren of
the former martyrs, who mut have beeh
killed, still it had not yet arrived to its

highet rage; for in the very next pagerta
the last quotation, Mr. Gibbon, fays, that

the reentment or the fears19f Diocletian,
at length tranported him beyond the bonda

of moderation, which he had hitherto pre:
ferved, and he declared in a feries of crue
edicts his intention of abolihing the Chri

tian name. By the firt of thee, edits, the
governors of the provinces, were directed
to apprehend all perons of the eccleiastical

*
order; and the prifons detined for the vilet

criminals, were foon filled with a multitude
of bihops, prebyters, deacons, readers, and
exorcits. By a fecond edit, the magitrates
were commanded to employ every method
of feverity, which might reclaim them from
their odious fupertition, and oblige them to
return to the etablihed worhip of the gods

This
A Commentary on the
This rigorous order was extended by a ubi.
fequent edit to the whole body of the Christ
64
tians, who were expoed to a violent and
general perfeqution. Instead of thoe falui

tary reftraints which required the diret and
folemn testimiony of an accufer, it becam

the duty as well as the interet of the imp:
rial offiters to dicover, to purue, and to
torment the most obnoxious among the faith

fal! - In the coure of what the historiai
calis a general idea of this perecution; h

fys, p. 576, the rigorous edicts of Dioele
tian were strictly and cheerfully executed by

His aociate Maximian, who had long hated
the Christians, and who delighted in acts of

Blood and violence. In the autumn of the
firt year of the perecution,
the two em
perors met at Rome to celebrate their tri
umph; feveral opprestive laws appear to have iued from their ecret confultations, and the
diligence of the magitrates was animated by

the prefence of their fovereigns.. After Dio
eletian had diveted himelf of the purple,
Italy and Africa were administered under
the name of Severus, and were
expoed with
out defence to the implacable reentment of

-
his
i Revelation of St. John.
his master Galerius.
63
The last pastage I
hall trancribe from this authour, in proof of

the feverity of this perecution, is from pages
578 and 579 of his firt volume. But when
Galerius had obtained the fupreme power and
the government of the Eat, he indulged in

their fulleft extent his zeal and cruelty, not
only in the provinces of Thrace and Afia,
which acknowledged his immediate juridic
tion; but in thoe of Syria, Paletine, and
Egypt, where Maximin gratified his own in
clination, by yielding a rigorous obedience
to the ftern commands of his benefator.
Such is this writer's account of the ninth
general, perecution. His account of the

lat opens thus: But this treacherous calm
was of hort duration, nor could the Chrif
tians of the Eat place any confidence in

the character of their fovereign. , Cruelty
and uperstition were the ruling paffions of

the foul of Maximin.
The former fuggeted
the means, the latter pointed out the objets

of perfecution; the emperor was devoted
to the worhip of the gods, to the tudy of

magie, and to the belief of oracles; the
F
prophets
-
66
A Commentary on the
prophets or philoophers, whom he revered

as the favourites of heaven, were frequently
raied to the government of provinces, and
admitted into his mot fecret councils. By
the influence of the magitrates (the hif
torian afterwards oberves) and of the facer
dotal order, a great number of dutiful ad
drefies were obtained, particularly from the
cities of Nicomedia, Antioch, and Tyre,
which artfully repreented the well known in
tentions of the court as the general fenfe of
the people, folicited the emperor to confult

the laws of jutice rather than the dictates of
his clemency; exprefied their abhorrence of
the Chritians, and humbly prayed that thee

impious fetaries might at leaft be excluded
from the limits of their repective territories.

The anwer of Maximin to the addres he
obtained from the citizens of Tyre is till ex
tant; he praies their zeal and devotion in

terms of the highet fatisfaction, decants on
the obtinate impiety of the Chritians, and
betrays, by the readines with which he confents to their banihment, that he confidered
himelf as receiving, rather than as con
ferring an obligation. The priets, as well as

the
*
67
the magitrates, were empowered to enforce

the execution of his edits, which were en
graved on tables of bras; and though it was
recommended to them to avoid the effuion
of blood, the mot cruel and ignominious

punihments were inflicted on the refractory
Chritians.
And here I hall clofe the hitorical tef
timony of the completion of the preditions
of this feal, conceiving that this ample evi

dence of an enemy is ufficient to fatisfy any
reader of fair and honet heart of their accu
rate accomplifhment.
For the fubjet of the next, The overthrow
of the ruling powers of the world, who had .
refued to obey God, and receive the Gopel
of Chrit, it is
unneceary
to make extrats
from history in proof of facts fo well known

as thoe of the emperor Contantine having
embraced Christianity, and removed the feat
of empire from the city of Rome to that of

Contantinople. By his victories the great
patrons of heathen worhip, who had carried
on the perecutions above detailed, were de

-
F 2
troyed,
68
A Commentary on the
Rroyed. By his converion, and the edits

which in confequence of it he by degrees
istued againt the pratice of idolatry and fu
perstition, the honour paid to the hot of
heaven was withdrawn.
The fun was de
prived of his glory, and the moon of her

fplendour; and the teachers of the heathen
- world (apparently charaterized by the tars,
which are ued as guides by the wanderers of
the night) fell from their exalted tation.
While by the removal of the government
from, what may not improperly be termed
the throne of idolatry, Rome to Contanti

nople, whoe inhabitants, as the above cited
hitorian tetifies, afterwards boated, that
their city had never been polluted with idols,

the figurative heavens departed as a croll,
And fince the feven hills of the new city mut
have been in part covered with inhabitants
from the feven hills of the old, (for fo many
were there in each) and as well as the great
men, many plebeians likewife mut have fol
lowed the migration of the court, the iflands
{for fo mot fatally were the plebeian habita
tions in Rome termed), together with the hills,

were moved out of their places. While thoe
**
who
69
who had conpired to perecute the Chri

tians, mut have been tricken with terrour on
feeing them become triumphant.

But farther, in repect to the metaphorical
language of this pastage, in which it is faid

that the fun became black as fackcloth of
hair, the following particulars stated by
Mr. Gibbon ought not to be omitted. That

before his converion, the devotion of Con
ftantine was peculiarly directed to the genius
of the fum, the Apollo of Greek and Roman

mythology; and that the fun was univer
fally celebrated as the invincible guide and
protetor of Contantine. Ch. 20. Yet fuch
was the change, that in the words of the

fame hitorian, many years before his bap
tifm and death, Contantine had proclaimed
to the world, that neither his peron or image
fhould ever more be feen within the walls of
an idolatrous temple. Neither hould it be

pasted over in filence, that that emperour, who
afterwards endeavoured to retore the worhip
of idols, was peculiarly addited to the fer

vice of the fame feigned deity.
For he,
(Julian) fays the fame writer in Chap. 23,

F 3
dedicated
A Commentary on the
7o
dedicated a dometic chapel to his tutelar

deity the fun; and every morning he faluted
the parent of light (uch are the words of

Mr. G.) with a facrifice: the blood of another
vitim was hed at the moment when the fun
funk below the horizon; and the moon, the
stars, and the genii of the night received

their repetive and feafonable honours from
. . the indefatigable devotion of Julian. In
forehewing then the imperial reception and
etablihment of that dotrine which by its
prevalence finally overthrew this upertition
fo trongly prevailing in that very age in two
imperiale breafts, was there not fomething
peculiarly proper in the ufe of the emblem
of the fun, moon, and tars being fhorn of

-their glory, and deprived of their influence?
i
. . .
*
* *
, :
.
-
' . .

*
71
SECTION V.
AFTER
having thus depited the tri

- umph of Chritianity over idolatry, and
the removal of the feat of empire under Con
ftantine, the prophecy proceeds in the 7th
Chapter to mark the fufpenion of the judg
ments by which the Roman empire hould
finally be overthrown, during a feafon of ex
tenfion of the gopel, and another period of
trial to the fervants of God, formed by the
prevalence of herefies, and all the perfecu
tions to which they fhould give rife, and in
which thoe who were approved hould be
made manifet, having pasted unvanquihed
through fo great tribulation.

CHAPTER VII. Ver. 1.
And after
thee things I faw four angels tanding on the N
four corners of the earth, holding the four

fhould not
winds of the earth, that the winds
blow on the earth, nor on the fea, nor on any
tree. 2. And I aw anotherangel acending

F4
*
from
A Commentary on the
72
from the Eat, having the feal of the living

God: and he cried with a loud voice to the
four angels, to whom it was given to hurt

the earth and the fea; 3. aying, Hurt not
the earth, neither the fea, nor the trees, till
we have fealed * the fervants of our God in

their foreheads. "4. And I heard the number
of them which were fealed; and there were
fealed an hundred and forty-four thouand

of all the tribes of the children of Irael.
5. Of the tribe of Judh were fealed twelve
thouand; of the tribe of Reuben were fealed

twelve thouand; of the tribe of Gad were
fealed twelve thoufnd; 6. of the tribe of
Afer were fealed twelve thouand; of the

a
, !!!
..
'. '
... * Ver. 3, Tili we have fealed, &c.] Thoe who have
received the Holy Spirit are in fcripture faid to be fealed

with it. See & Cor. i. 22. Ephef. i. 13. and iv. 80. But
as the fervants of Gd are here fealed manifestly for the
purpofe of distinguihing them from others, St. Paul's
declaration to the Corinthians, i Epist. xi. 19. There

mut be alo herefies among you explains the ymbol
most eaily of trial by herefy; epecially when compared
with the declaration that the multitude came out of great

tribulation, and the following testimony of the miferies
which the orthodox Christians fustered from the cruelty
of the Arians.
tribe

73 '
tribe of Nepthalim were fealed twelve thou
fand; of the tribe of Manafies were fealed
twelve thouand; 7. of the tribe of Simeon were
fealed twelve thouand; of the tribe of Levi
were fealed twelve thouand; of the tribe of
Ifachar were fealed twelve thouand; 8. of
the tribe of Zabulon were fealed twelve thou
fand; of the tribe of Joeph were fealed

twelve thouand; of the tribe of Benjamin
were fealed twelve thouand.
9. After this
I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which

no man could number, of all nations, and
kindreds, and people, and tongues, ftood be

fore the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hands;

10. and cried with a loud voice, aying,
Salvation, to our God which fitteth upon the

throne, and unto the Lamb. 11. And all
the angels stood round about the throne, and

about the elders and the four beafts, and fell
before the throne on their faces, and wor

fhipped God, 12. faying, Amen; Bleing,
and glory, and widom, and thankgiving,
and honour, and power, and might, be unto
our God for ever and ever, Amen.
13. And
ne of the elders anwered aying unto me,

What
*
74
A Commentary on the
What are thefe which are arrayed in white
robes? And whence came they? . 14. And

I faid unto him, Sir, thou, knowet; and he
faid unto me, Thee are they which came

out of great tribulation, and have wahed
their robes, and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb; 15. therefore are they
before the throne of God, and ferve Him
day and night in his temple; and He that

fitteth on the throne fhall dwell among them;
16. they hall hunger no more, neither thirft
any more; neither fhall the fun light on
them, nor any heat; 17. for the Lamb
which is in the midft of the throne fhall feed
thera, and fhall lead them unto living foun
tains of waters: and God hall wipe away

all tears from their eyes." -*
P Roof of AccoM PLIS HM BENT. . .
, The tranquillity of the time that uc

ceeded the vitory of Contantine over the
heathen emperors is remarkably commemo
rated by fome medals of Contantine, on the
revere of which are incribed the words,
-
beata
*
Revelation of si. John.
'75
beata tranquillitas, blefied tranquillity;

the progres of the gopel under the fame is
alfo noticed by hitorians whom the reader

may fee quoted by Bihop Newton on the
place. It is to the accomplihment of the
emblematick fealing in the fenfe in which I
have more particularly interpreted it, that I

fhall now produce evidence.
The contentions which in this age aroe
between the Chritians themfelves concerning different points of dotrine were not the
only circumtances, which tended to demon

trate who would honetly feek, and fincerely
obey the truth; but the temporary revival of
paganim under Julian had, as we learn from
the writer, to whom I am fo much indebted
for elucidating the completion of this part of
the line of prophecy, contributed to the fame
purpoe.
It is indeed (fays this ueful authour)
more than probable, that the restoration and

encouragement of paganim revealed a mul
titude of pretended Chritians, who from
motives of temporal advantage, had acqui

-
efced
A Commentary on the
76
efeed in the religion of the former reign,

and who afterwards returned with the fame
flexibility of confcience, to the faith which

was profefied by the fuccefiors of Julian.
Gibbon, Ch. 23. And how much, at a later
period, pretended were mingled with real

Chritians, and that too in the manner which
the ditintion of thefe lat by fealing them
indicates, we have another tetimony from the

fame umfufpeted pen. The churches were
filled with the enereafing multitudes of un
worthy profelytes, who had conformed, from
tempora motives, to the reigning religion:
nnd whilft they devoutly imitated the pof
tures, and recited the prayers of the faithful,
they fatisfied their conciences by filent and
fricere invocation of the gods of antiquity.
Ch. 28.
And, now, were not thofe who ef
caped from the errours and fcandals of herefy

on the one hand, and from the contagion of
hypocriy on the other, fo as to preferve the
integrity and purity of their principles and

pratices, amidt furrounding temptations,
really fuch conquerours through Christ, as to
anfwer to the emblem of a multitude standing
before the throne, and before the Lamb,
-
clothed
77
clothed with white robes, the enigns of in

nocence, and having palms, the ymbols of
triumph, in their hands?
How fevere were the miferies inflited on
the truly faithful, not by the heathen pere

cutors only, but by the barbarians too, who
had embraced Chritianity under the Arian
herefy, may be imagined from the following
account of what a large body of Chritians
fuffered, who were delivered by order of Hun
neric, king of the Vandals, to the Moors of
the Defert.
A venerable train of bihops, prebyters,

and deacons, with a faithful crowd of four
, thouand and ninety-ix perons, whoe guilt

is not precifely afcertained, were torn from
their native homes by the command of Hun
neric. During the night they were confined
like a herd of cattle amidst their own ordure;
during the day they purued their march
over the burning ands; and if they fainted

under the heat and fatigue, they were goaded
or dragged along, till they expired in the
hands of their tormentors.
Refpectable ci
tizens,
78
Commentary on
the
tizens, noble matrons, and conecrated vir

gins, were tripped naked, and raied in the
air by pullies, with a weight fufpended at

their feet. In this painful attitude, their
naked bodies were torn with fcourges, or
burnt in the mot tender parts with red hot
plates of iron: the amputation of the ears,
the nofe, the tongue, and the right hand,
was inflited by the Arians; and though the

precife number cannot be defined, it is
evident, that many perons, among whom
a bihop and a proconful may be named,
were intitled to the crown of martyrdom.

Chap. 37.
How decriptive of and how appropriate

to fufferers like thefe, is the account given
to the evangelit of thofe feen in the viion !
-
--
SECT.
Revelation of St. Jolin.
79
SECTION VI. .
Tiie
*
prophecy next proceeds to point

out the feveral teps -by-which, firt,
the diffolution of the wetern, or proper R

man empire into ten kingdoms was to be
brought about, and then its tota destruc

tion when under that form of ten states.
And this portion of the Revelation opens
with an alluion to the fervice of the Jewih

temple, in which filence was oberved during
the time ofoferingtheincente. And now while

fuch a filence there bet exprested the hum
ble devotion of the worhippers, fo here it
ftrongly implies in the fpetators and minif
ters of the divine judgments, an anxious
expetation of what was about to be inflite
on the earth.
The inflictions themelves, as they tended

to detroy, in both its primitive and later
form, the fourth great empire of Daniel,
(the total fall of which under him whom
St. Paul declares the Lord hall detroy
*
-
with
A Commentary on the
with the brightnefs of His coming, is, like

that of Jericho, the firt tep towards the
kingdoms of the earth being given to the

faints of the mot High) the inflictions, I
fay, tending to this end are marked as the

ftages of the fall of that city were, by the
founding of even trumpets.

But before this founding of the trumpets
commences, what would at that eaon be
the tate of the world, is foretold by an em

blem mot ignificant of a period in which
the corruptions prevailing among Chritians

(and flowing, perhaps, from their properity,
intimated by the cener being of gold) would
render much incenfe neceary to make their
prayers acceptable: and this being placed
immediately before the founding of the trum
pets, fuggets, that the ubject of thee pray

ers was the averion of fomething to be called
for by thoe trumpets; and what could this
be, but that of the detrution of the Roman
empire, for the duration of which we know
the ancient Chritians were wont to pray.

It is plainly fuggested, that the petition for
fome delay would be accepted; yet all fur
5
ther
81
ther applications on that head are dicou

raged by a mot ignificant emblem, that of
the cenfer being cat away': while the filling
of it with fire from the altar but too plainly
indicates, that the ucceeding troubles fhould
at leaft be forwarded by thoe who miniter
at the altar; and the immediate ucceion
of voices, and thunderings, and lightnings,

and an earthquake, manifeted, that though
the founding of the trumpets hould be de-
ferred, yet ome judgments hould immedi- .

ately follow.
-
After the
predition of thefe, the pro
phecy proceeds to the feveral great circum
ftances by which the fall of the empire fhould

be forwarded. The firt is the irruption of
an hoftile army, which hould deal detruction
by fire and fword among both the great and

fmall of the proper Roman empire, and take
from it every flourihing appearance. The
fecond a mighty conquerur, who hould
work equal detruction by fea: and the third

another conquerour coming as the fcourge . '
of heaven, to deal the fame degree of mifery
on the interior parts of the country, and
G
cauing
-
, 82
A Commentary on the
cauing many to perih by the afflition he

hould bring on them. The fourth the final
overthrow of the imperial government of
Rome. This period of predictions ends with

the 12th verfe of the 8th chapter: the text
of which is as follows:
CHAP. VIII. Ver. 1. And when He had
opened the feventh feal, there was filence in

heaven about the fpace of half an hour.
2. And I aw the feven angels which tood
before God ; and to them were given feven
trumpets. 3. And another angel came and
ftood at the altar, having a golden cenfer;
and there was given unto him much in
eenfe,
that he hould offer it with the
prayers of all faints upon the golden altar

which was before the throne.
4. And the
fmoke of the incene which came with the
Prayers of the faints, acended up before

God out of the angel's hand. . 5. And
the angel took the cenfer, and filled it
with fire of the altar, and eat it into the
earth: and there were voics, and thun
derings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

G. And the faven angels which had the
feven
feven trumpets prepared themelves to found.

7. The firt angel founded, and there fol
lowed hail mingled with blood, and they were
cat upon the earth : and the third part* of
tres
* Ver. 7. The third part, &c.] To afcertain the men

ng of the diviions here made of the Roman world, (a
phrae under which that empire is; in conformity with
- ancient writers, frequently mentioned by the authour of
the History of its decline and fall) we may ground our

reaoning on the well-known emblem ued under the
fourth feal to expres the ruling powers of the state, that
s, the heavenly bodies. Since by analogy we may hence
infer what is meant by the earth, on which the hail an

fire are under this first trumpet cat. For as the earth is,
in its natural fituation, oppofte to the heavens, fo are
the ubjects oppofite to the rulers of a country; and the

most distant ubjects, thoe for intance on the brders of
an empire, the Inoft fo. Again ; ince the earth includes
in it the rivers and prings, the storm of hail and fire poured
upon the former will be found to extend to the towns and
villages, which (as I hall prefently prove) must by ana
logy be included under the emblem of rivers and foun

tains of water. The fecond trumpet brings an heavy
infliction on the fea, which is in Scripture frequently ap:
plied to multitudes and to armies; and being generally

confidered, and epecially by the fcriptural writers, as at
a distance, and bounding the land, well repreents the

troops of an empir employed in dfece of its frontiers,
while this explanation of the fea leads at once to that of
the fountains and the rivers: for thee, preerving the ana
G 2
logy
84
Commentary on the
trees * was burnt up, and all green

was burnt up.
8.
And
graf,
the fecond angel
founded, and as it were a great moun
tain + burning with fire was cat into

the fea: and the third part of the fea be
came blood; 9. and 'the third part of the

creatures which were in the fea and had life
died; and the third part of the hips were
destroyed. 10. And the third angel founded,

logy founded in the acknowledged interpretation of the
emblem of the celestial bodies, can be no other than the

fources and treams by which the multitude of waters is.
replenihed; which are, in fact, the villages, towns, and
cities of a country, for thence are its armies recruited:.

for the fignification of the hail here mentioned, in the
28th chapter of Iaiah, ver. 2. a mighty enemy (the king
of Ayria) is compared to a tempet of hail, and a de
froying storm.
* Ver. 7. Trees, &c.] In Ia. xxxvii. 24. the great and
chofen men of Judah are characterized under the em
blems of tall cedars and choice fir-trees. Of the grafs

the fame prophet exclaims, chap. xl. 6, 7. All fleh is
grafs; and furely the people is grafs.
* Ver. 8. A great mountain.] The kingdom of Babylon

is called a destroying mountain, Jer. li. 25. Behold, I
am againt thee, O detroying mountain, faith the Lord,
which destroyet all the earth: and I will stretch out mine
hand upon thee, and roll thee down the rocks, and make
thee a burnt mountain.
and
85
and there fella great * tar from heaven, burn

ing as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the
third part of the rivers, and upon the foun
tains of waters; , 11. and the name of the tar

is called Wormwood: and the third part of
the waters became wormwood; and
many
men died of the waters becaue they were

made bitter. 12. And the fourth angel
founded, and the third part of the fun i was
fmitten, and the third part of the moon, and
the third part of the tars; fo as the third

part of them was darkened, and the day
fhone not for a third part of it, and the
night likewife.
* Ver. 10. A great star.] In Numb. xxiv. 17. a con
quering prince is foretold under the emblem of a tar
I hall fee Him, but not now : I hall behold Him, but
not nigh: there hall come a Star out of Jacob, and a
fceptre fhall
rife out of Irael, and hall fmite the corners
of Moab, and detroy the children of Seth.
+ Ver. 12. Sun, &c.] In the 7th vere of the 32d chap
ter of Ezekiel, the overthrow of the kingdom of Egypt is
characterized by thefe figures: And when I hall put
thee out, I will cover the heavens, and make the tars
thereof dark; I will cover the fun with a cloud, &c.

*
G 3
P ROOF
B6
4 Commentary on the
PROOF OF A C COM PLIS HM ENT,
ALTHOU G H every one acquainted with

eccleiatical hitory knows, that at this time
corruption had made a mot lamentable pro

gres among the acred order, and the preva
lence of herefies be in itelf a fufficient proof
of it, I mut yet, in puruance of the plan
propoed, lay before the reader two pastages

from the Hitory of the Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire on this fubjet. The
firt of thefe is part of an extract made by
the authour from an hitorian of the age,
** The ardour of Damaus and Urfinus to
feize the epifcopal feat (of Rome) furpaffed

the ordinary meaure of human ambition :
they contended with the rage of party. The
quarrel was maintained by the wounds and
death of their followers: and the prfet,
unable to appeafe or reit the tumult, was
constrained, by fuperior violence, to retire
into the uburbs. Damaus prevailed.One
hundred and thirty-even dead bodies were
found in the Bafilica, where the Chritians
held their religious aemblies; and it was

-
long
87
long before the angry minds of the people

refumed their accutomed tranquillity. When
I confider the plendour of the capital, I am

not aftonihed that fo valuable a prize fhould
inflame the defires of ambitious men, and
produce the fiercet and mot obtinate con
tefts. The fuccesful candidate is fecure,

that he will be enriched by the offerings of
matrons; that as foon as his drefs is com
poed with becoming care and elegance, he

may proceed in his chariot through the
fumptuouf
ftreets of Rome; and that the
nes of the imperial table will not equal the

profufe and delicate entertainments provided
by the tate and at the expence of the Ro

man pontiffs. Chap. 25.
The other paffage on this head I extrat

from the account of the perfecution of the
Donatits, given in the 33d Chapter of the
fame work. By thefe feverities, the fana

tics were provoked to madnefs and defpair:
the detroyed country was filled with tumult

and bloodthed: the armed troops of Circum
cellions alternately pointed their rage againt
themelves or againt their adveraries. Un

G 4
der
A Commentary on the
88
der thefe circumtances Genferic
liewed him
felf to the Donatits as a powerful deliverer:
the conquet of Africa was facilitated by the

ative zeal or fecret favour of a dometic
fation ; and the intolerant pirit which dif

graced the triumph of Chritianity, contri
buted to the los of the mot important
province of
the wet,
And for the troubles predicted in the fifth
vere of the Chapter before us; In the reign

of Valentinian and Valens, we find the pre
lude to the fall of the empire (which, ac
cording to Mr. Gibbon, Chap. 26. may
justly be dated from the reign of Valens)

in the permifion granted to the Goths to
pas the Danube, and the exertions made
by the officers of Valens, that not a ingle
barbarian of thoe who were referved to fub
vert the foundations of Rome, hould be left

on the oppoite hore. The whole mas of
people which compoed this formidable emi
gration,
muft have amounted to near a mil
lion of perons of both fexes and of all ages.
If then we view this multitude as repreented

by the hitorian, before their pastage cover,
-
ing
89
ing a pace of many miles along the banks

of the river ; and with out-tretched arms,
and pathetic lamentations, loudly deploring

their
pat misfortunes and their preent dan
ger; and after their paffage, firt becoming,

through the ill ufage of the imperial officers,
clamorous, and then commencing hostilities;

which continued for feveral years, and in
which the
emperour himelf was flain ; and
the extenive provinces from Confiantinople

to the Julian Alps being ravaged by the
barbarians, exhibited a mot ditresful cene
of rapes, mafiacres, and conflagrations; we

fhall not be at a lofs for the voices, and
thunderings, and lightnings, nor even for

the earthquake, which followed the fall of
the cener.
f
And yet for the literal occurrence of this

lat we have the further tetimony of the
fame writer. In the fecond year of the
reign of Valentinian and Valens, on the
morning of the 21t of July, the greatet

part of the Roman world was haken by a
- violent and detructive earthquake. The im
prestion
was
communicated to the waters;

the
90
A Commentary on the
the hores of the Mediterranean were left
dry by the udden retreat of the fea; great
quantities of fifa were caught with the hand;

large vefels were tranded on the mud, and
a curious fpetator amued his eye, or rather
his fancy, by contemplating the various ap
pearance of vallies and mountains, which had
never ince the formation of the globe, been
expoed to the fun. But the tide foon re
turned with the weight of an immenfe and
irrefitible deluge, which was feverely felt on

the coat of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece,
, of Egypt: large boats were tranported, and
lodged on the roofs of houfes, or at the diftance of two miles from the hore: the people,
with their habitations, were wept away by
the waters; and the city of Alexandria an
nually commemorated the fatal day, on
which fifty thouand perfons lot their lives
in the inundation. Chap. 26.
-
, But while the circumstances attendant on

the fall of the cener are thus verified by hif
tory, the acceptance of the prayers previoufly
offered is no lefs fo, in the properous reign
of Theodofius the great, during which the
impending
*
91
impending ruin of the empire was delayed

for fixteen years; and of whom Mr. Gibbon
has left us the following eulogium: The
genius of Rome expired with Theodoius, the

lat of the fucceflors of Augutus and Con
ftantine, who appeared in the field at the
head of their armies, and whoe authority

was univerally acknowledged throughout the
whole extent of the empire. Soon after the
deceae of this emperour clouds of barbarians

poured in upon different provinces of the
empire; he died, fays Mr. Gibbon, in the
month of January ; and before the end of
the winter of the fame year the Gothic na

tion was in arms. Ch. 30. In the very feafon
of hail, and from the cold regions of the
north, did thee torms firt arife; the bar
riers of the Danube, were thrown open; the

favage warriors of Scythia iued from their
forefts.The various troops of barbarians
that gloried in the Gothic name were irregu
larly pread from the woody hores of Dal
matia to the walls of Contantinople. Their
great leader Alaric, relinquihing the idea of
taking that capital, turned his teps towards
Greece, in his march whither, meeting with

IlO
A Commentary on the
92
no refitance, the fertile fields of Phocis

and Boeotia were intantly covered with a
deluge of barbarians, who mafiacred the
males of an age to bear arms, and drove
away the beautiful females, with the poil and

cattle of the flaming villages. The travellers
who viited Greece feveral years afterwards
could eaily dicover the deep and Bloody
traces of the march of the Goths.
Let the reader weigh the feveral particu

lars here noticed.
The various troops of
barbarians ravaging the country like partial

ftorms of hail; then uniting, and with the
fury of a wide extending tempet detroying
all that reited, driving the cattle and the
helples part of the human fpecies before
them; and leaving on the face of the land
fuch deep traces of fire and flaughter, that
the coure of their ravages could be difco
vered for years afterwards. Then let him
confider, what images could be more proper
to prefigure fuch events, than hail and fire
mingled with blood being poured on the

earth? -
..
Yet
93
Yet the language of the predition fug

gets the appearance of more armies than
one to manifet its completion; and accord

ingly two years after the above expedition
of Alaric had been checked by Stilicho,
there broke out a rebellion of the Otrogoths

in Phrygia, under a leader named Tribigild; .
and the ravages of this torm are thus de
fcribed by the hitorian: The vineyards

and the fruitful fields between the rapid
Maryas, and the winding Meander, were
confumed with fire; the decayed walls of the
cities crumbled into duft at the firt troke
of the
enemy; the trembling
inhabitants
ecaped from the bloody mafiacre to the

hores of the Hellepont; and a coniderable
part of Afia Minor was defolated by the re
bellion of Tribigild. Ch. 32.

In feafons where hail prevails, one storm has
fcarcely pasted ere another arifes. In the
year three hundred and ninety-nine Tribigild
had affaulted the eatern empire; in four
hundred Alaric attacked the wetern; forcing
his way through Pannonia and the Julian
Alps; beieging Aquileia; and conquering

the
94
A Commentary on the
the provinces of Itria and Venetia. Then

being loft to the hitorian for fome time
(which pace Mr. G. fills up with another
anecdote unnecefiary to be trancribed here,
and one of an old countryman, who is re
preented as trembling for his trees, his co

temporary trees, which mut be detroyed in
the conflagration of the whole country. A
circumtance fo trongly marked as might
well induce one to think, that it was fatally
preferved to anwer the very image of the
predition, and the third part of the trees
were burnt") in four hundred and three he

again appears approaching the imperial refi
dence of Milan; when being driven from
thence he turned towards Rome, but at
lat was chafed by Stilicho from Italy. Yet

fcarcely was he departed, when, to borrow
the hitorian's own metaphor, a dark cloud

began to collet all along the coat of the
Baltic; which in four hundred and fix burt
in thunder upon the banks of the Upper

Danube: from whence the torm paed on into
Italy. An hoft of confederate Germans
under Radagaifus invading that country,

pillaging, or detroying many of its cities;
at
95
at length laid fiege to Florence, near the

walls of which an end was put by Stilicho
to both the conquets and life of this bar
barian chief.
A large body of the German army, how

ever, still remained under Alaric, and thee,
confifting of
various tribes, Suevi, Vandals,
Alani, and Burgundians, decended, indeed

like hail mingled with fire upon Gaul; and
by them we are affured, a cene of peace
and plenty was fuddenly changed into a de
fert; and the propect of the fmoking ruins
could alone distinguih the folitude of nature
from the defolations of man. The flourihing

city of Mentz was furprized and detroyed;
and many thouand Chritians were inhu
manly mafiacred in the church. Worms pe

rihed after a long and obtinate fiege; Straf
burgh, Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras,
Amiens, experienced the cruel oppreion of
the German yoke; and the confuming flames

of war pread from the banks of the Rhine
over the greatet part of the feventeen pro
vinces of Gaul.
That rich and extenfive
country as far as the ocean, the Alps and the

1
Pyrenees,
96
Commentary on the
Pyrenees, was delivered to the barbarians,

who drove before them in a promicuous
crowd, the bihop, the fenator, and the

virgin, laden with the fpoils of their houfes
and altars.
In the year four hundred eight Alaric .

again invaded Italy, pillaged feveral, cities,
ravaged a large extent of country, and fo
lemnly affirming, that he was compelled by a
fecret and upernatural impule to diret his

march to the gates of Rome, laid fiege to
that metropolis; the inhabitants of which,
opprefied by plague and famine, at length
agreed to ranfom themfelves and their city.
But this yielded only a hort relief, fince on the
emperour Honorius' refuing to comply with

his demands, Alaric returned, and was ad
mitted into Rome: from whence, after having
fet up a new emperour, he departed. But
having degraded this phantom ofroyalty, and

being till at variance with, and provoked by
Honorius, he in four hundred, and ten re
turned the third time to the capital, which

was unexpetedly betrayed to him at the
hour of midnight, and delivered to the li
centious
97
centious fury of the tribes of Germany and

Scythia. At their entrance they fired the
adjacent houes to guide their march, and
ditrat the attention of the citizens; and
the flames conumed many private and public

buildings. A cruel flaughter was, made of
the Romans, and the treets of the city were
filled with dead bodies, which remained
without burial during the general conflagra

tion; and whenever the barbarians were pro
voked by oppoition, they extended the pro

micuous mafiacre to the feeble, the innocent,
and the helples.
-
In fix days Alaric evacuated Rome, and

marched into the fouthern provinces of Italy,
detroying whatever dared to oppoe his paf
fage, and contenting himelf with the plun
der of the unrefisting country. Nor did the

Goths leave it till after his deceae, when they
had reigned over it four years without con
troul: having in their ravages, flaughters, and

conflagrations, exhibited a cene which bears
no common fimilitude to the repreentation of
hail and fire mingled with blood, being caft
-
upon
A Commentary on the
upon the earth, whereby a third part of the
98
trees were burnt up, and all the green grafs..
Still the completion of this trumpet hould

not be difmified without noticing, that one
cotemporary writer compares thee very incur
fions of the Goths to a torm of hail. (See
Claudian De Bello Getico, v. 173, as quoted
by Bihop Newton on the place). And another
(Philotorgius Eccl. Hift. L. ii. C. 7.) re
lates, that the preditions were literally ac

complihed, in tating that detrutive earth
quakes overturning cities and houes from
their foundations, cat them into inevitable

detrution.
And deluges of water from the
fky, and in other places flaming droughts

and flahes of fire, and hail too fo large as not
to be holden in a man's hand, and weighing
as much as eight pounds, fell in many

places,
The next great invader of the imperial ter

ritories, and who executed the particulars
predited under the fecond trumpet, was

Attila with his Huns; and the part of the
Roman
------ ----
~------ -- ---

99
Roman empire which he, by falling on it
turned into blood, was the figurative fea, con
fifting of the troops and garrifons which de
fended her frontier. Although at the fame

time his irruption contributed alo to the
detrution of her hips in a literal fenfe: for
hitory testifies, that Attila by invading the

empire enabled Genferic to obtain the com
mand of the fea, while the imperial forces
were employed in repuling the former; and
the coffequence of this was, the ruin of the
emperor's naval power.
By a mountain we find repreented in
fcripture not only a city, but a tate orking

dom, as the ftone which was cut out without
hands, in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar re
lated in the 2d Chapter of Daniel, and be
came a great mountain, was a repreentation

of the kingdom of the Meffiah. And as in
a volcano or burning. mountain, like that
mentioned under this trumpet, it is the head
from which the ymptoms of fury proceed,

.fo in this nation of the Huns, their leader At
tila betrayed a violence of charater accu
rately correponding with the type. Of him,

H 2
Mr.
A Commentary on the
Mr. Gibbon fpeaks in the following terms;
100
the haughty teps and demeanour of the

king of the Huns exprested the confcioufnes
of his uperiority above the ret of mankind,
and he had a custom of fiercely rolling his .

eyes, as if he wihed to enjoy the terror which
he inpiredhe delighted in war, and the
barbarian princes confeed, in the language
of devotion or flattery, that they could not
preume to gaze with a steady eye on the di
vine majesty of the king of the Huns." And

again, This is a faying worthy of the fero
cious pride of Attila, that the grafs never
grew on the pot where his horfe had trod.

. The terility occaioned by the eruption of a
burning mountain cannot be better paral

elled; and how great that mountain was of
which he formed the head, may be conceived
from the following pastage of the hitory:

When Attila collected his military force,
he was able to bring into the field an army
of five, according to another account of even
hundred thoufand barbarians. Ch. 34.
How this enormous mountain executed

the evil predited next claims our attention.
-
'The
101
The Illyrian frontier, ays the hitorian, was

covered by a line of catles and fortrefies, and
though the greatet part of them confitted
only of a ingle tower with a mall garrion,

they were commonly fufficient to repel or to
intercept the inroads of an enemy, who was
ignorant of the art, and impatient of the
delay of a regular iege. But thee flight
obtacles were instantly fwept away by the

inundation of the Huns, they detroyed with
fire and fword the populous cities of Sirmium,

and Singidunum, of Ratiaria and Marciano
polis, of Naistus and Sardica, where every

circumtance in the difcipline of the people,
and the contitution of the buildings, had
been gradually adapted to the fole purpoe
of defence. The whole breadth of Europe,
as it extends above five hundred miles from

the Euxine to the Hadriatic, was at once invaded, and occupied, and deolated, by the
myriads of barbarians, whom Attila led into

the field.
'
'
Surely the rapidity of this defolation an
fwers well to that of a country overwhelmed .
by a fallen mountain. And for the repreen

II 3
4
tation
102
' . A Commentary on the
tation which the prophecy contains of much,

very much blood to be hed, befides what
mut have flowed in the circumtances already
noticed, the hitory proceeds to tetify till

further the completion of it. Three ar
mies of the eatern empire were vanquihed

in three fucceive engagements.
From the
Hellepont to Thermopyl and the fuburbs of

Contantinople, he (Attila) ravaged without
refitance and without mercy, the provinces of .
Thrace and Macedonia.
The words the mot
exprestive of total extirpation and eraure are

applied to the calamities which they inflited
on feventy cities of the eatern empire,

Thee ravages were topped by a treaty
with the emperour of the eat... But four
years after Attila again threatened both em
pires; and in one year more atually invaded
Gaul; and torming in his way the greatet
part of the cities, advanced into the heart of
the country; when at length he was met and

defeated by tius, the imperial general.
This however prevented not his penetrating
the next year into Italy, where after destroy

ing the city of Aquileia, fo that the fuc
,
ceeding
Revelution of St. John.
103
ceeding generation could fcarcely difcover its

ruins, he
reduced the cities of Altinum,
Concordia, and Padua (in the words of Mr.

Gibbon fo applicable to the effets of a burn
ing mountain) into heapsofftones andahes. .

Several other cities uffered under his ra
pacious cruelty, and Attila extended his ravages over the rich plains of modern Lom
bardy. After which on a prefing applica
tion, he granted peace to the Romans; and

retiring into his own dominions, in a few
months fell by a fudden death: which occa
fioned too the diolution of the empire of the
Huns; and yielded in this particular full
correpondence to the criptural figure of a

burnt mountain, according to the paflage
from the prophet Jeremiah I have quoted in
a note above,
Neither, as I have before fuggested, is

this trumpet unattended by a literal com
pletion as to the detruction of the hips:
fince within its period, during the wars of

Attila, and by his inftrumentality, was fet up
a naval power, which detroyed that of Rome.

H 4
Of
A Commentary on the
104
Of this the Englih hitorian of her Decline
and Fall informs us in the following paf
fages. The alliance of Attila maintained

the Vandals in poffeion of Africa. An en
terprize had been concerted between the
courts of Ravenna and Contantinople for
the recovery of that valuable province; and
the ports of Sicily were already filled with
the naval and military forces of Theodoius.
But the ubtle Genferic, who pread his ne
gotiations round the world, prevented their
deigns, by exciting the king of the Huns
to invade the Eatern
empire.
Ch. 34.
Thus far the naval power of the empire

was only prevented from ating: but from
this flowed, as a confequence, the rife of
Genferic's dominion of the fea. He re
folved to create a naval power, and his bold
refolution was executed with ative and
fteady pereverance: and after an interval of

fix centuries, the fleets that iffued from the
port of Carthage again claimed the em

pire of the Mediterranean, which they
exercied fo abolutely it eems, as to conquer
Sicily, fack Palermo, and make frequent
~
decents
105
defcents on the coats of Lucania,- Ar
maments expenive and ineffectual were pre

pared for his detruction, but the defigns of the Roman government were repeatedly
baffled, and the interpoition of his formi
dable confederate the king of the Huns re
called the emperors from the conquet of
Africa to the care of their domestic fafety.
The naval power which rofe by the affif,
tance of Attila, afterwards grew to fuch

magnitude, that in the pring of each year
the Vandals equipped a formidable fleet in
the port of Carthage; and their arms, we

read, fpread defolation from the Columns of
Hercules to the mouth of the Nile.
Mark then, in thefe uncontrouled ravages

of the Vandals, one confequence of the burn
ing mountain's falling on the figurative fea,
that one third part of the hips in the natural

were detroyed !
The burning mountain of the fecond trum
pet being thus exhauted, two years after
Genferic, the conquerour repreented by

the
106
A Commentary on the
the great tar of the third, who had already

fignalized himelf by wresting the province of
Africa from the Romans, proceeded from
thence to Rome. Before, however, I detail any
of the hitory of his ravages, I think it incum
bent on me to trancribe from Mr. Gibbon
the following fingular anecdote of him, which

fo wonderfully accords with the decription
of him given in the text, as a tar falling
from heaven. That he was accustomed, when
on hoisting fail, he was aked by his pilot,

what coure he hould steer? to reply with
pious arrogance; Leave the determination to

the winds, they will tranport us to the guilty
coat, whoe inhabitants have provoked the
divine justice.
Such was the opinion which Genferic, even

in advanced age, entertained of his own in
ftrumentality; and how thoroughly he per
formed the tak astigned him under this trum

pet, the hitorian's account of his particular
expedition to Rome will evince.
* The reigning emperor was roued to no
tice him only by the news of his having dif
,
embarked
107
embarked at the mouth of the Tyber. So

fell he at firt on the riverin three days he
advanced from the port of Otia to the city
of Rome, the gates of which were opened

without reitance. But in pite of the
fupplications and promife of mercy, Rome
and its inhabitants were delivered to the
licentioufnes of the Vandals and Moors,

whoe blind paions revenged the injuries of
Carthage. The pillage lated fourteen days

and nights; and all that yet remained of
public or private wealth, of facred or pro
phane treaure, was diligently tranported to

the vefels of Genferic.
The unfortunate
empres with her two daughters, the only

furviving remains of the great Theodoius,
was compelled as a captive to follow the .
haughty Vandal; who immediately (mark the
rapid progres of the meteor!) hoifted fail,
and returned with a properous gale to the

port of Carthage.
Many thouand Romans
of both fexes were carried off, and their dif
trefs was aggravated by the unfeeling barba

rians, who in the diviion of the booty epa
rated the wives from their hubands, and
the children from their parents. Suh was

* ** * *
the
108
A Commentary on the
the wormwood which fell on the river of

Rome, and on the fountain of her waters!
Genferic in the remainder of his life em
ployed the power, which he had obtained

by the help of Attila, in turning the feas of
the Roman world into blood.
Under the
reign of Ricimer Italy was afflited by the

incfiant depredations of the Vandal pyrates,
At Zacynthus he mut literally have made
the waters bloody, by cating, as he did, the
mangled bodies of five hundred noble citi

zens into the fea. And in the year four
hundred and fixty-eight, by the destruction
of the larger part of the fleet which the em
peror of the Eat had fent againt him, he

again became, fays Mr. Gibbon, the tyrant
of the fea: the coats of Italy, Greece, and
Afia were again expoed to his revenge and

avarice, Tripoli and Sardinia returned to his
obedience; he added Sicily to the number
of his provinces; and before he died, he be
held the final extinction of the empire of the

west. So truely did the fall of the mountain
ef the Huns caue the fea to be turned into
blood; and fo truely did the star called

WOTIYl
' e
109
wormwood embitter the rivers, and the foun
tains of waters to the detrution of many.

Ere I pas on from the completion of the
preditions under this trumpet, I cannot re
frain from calling the attention of the reader
to a paflage in the life of Genferic, remark
able for containing a literal accomplihment
of his making the waters deadly. In note
fifty-two on his thirty-ixth Chapter, Mr.
Gibbon tells us from Prifcus, that by way of

reducing Mauritania to a defert,- that he
might defeat the operations of the Roman

emperor, he burnt the villages and, poi
foned the prings. And how could he more

exactly fulfil the character of a tar burning
like a lamp, falling on, and at the fame
time
embittering the waters?

Under the three firt trumpets the intru
ments, by which the judgements were exe
cted, are defcribed, but under the fourth
the event folely is mentioned, as if brought

about at once with little proces. And thus
it came to pas: for the lat of the Roman
emperors, called in derifion Augustulus,

v
was
WaS
110
. A Commentary on th
was depoed by Odoacer with no other exer
tion than that requifite for taking the city of

Pavia, executing the emperour's father, who
had fht himelf up in it, and flaying his
uncle in an ation near Ravenna.
And the
monarch who was dethroned (Mr. Gibbon

oberves) would be lefs intitled than his more
immediate predeceors to the notice of pof
terity, if his reign, whih was marked by
the extinction of the Roman empire in the

wet, did not leave a memorable atra in the
hitory of mankind.
SECTION VII.
E who letted, according to the words
of St. Paul before noticed, being now

taken out of the way; and nothing remain
ing to withhold but that the man of fin

fhould be revealed, the Revelation, as it
might be expected, proceeds to the dicovery

.*
of

111
of the rife of this extraordinary power: the
remaining trumpets including under them

the whole of its duration; and the founding
of them being preceded by a folemn denun
ciation of great affliction to the inhabitants
of the earth from what hould happen under

----
;
*:
'
';
',
The inflitions under the former trumpets
were chiefly directed againt the western em

pire; but with thoe of the three lat the whole
Chritian world, if not more, nay, as it ap
pears by the completion, certainly more, is
menaced. Neither can we too much admire
thofe deciive marks of foreknowledge, which
are given in the method of decribing the
approaching evils. For as the general apof

tacy of Christians in which the church of
Rome took the lead, was in the eatern part

of Chritendom punihed by their ubjuga
tion, firt to the Saracens, and then to the
Turks; while the authority of the prince of . .
the apotacy continued to prevail in the

wet; to prevent confuion in the prophecy,
it was necestary, that the fortunes of thee
* '
tWO
A Commentary on the
two different regions hould be from this pe
112
riod feparately delineated. But how could

this be done beforehand but under the 'di
retion of a Being, who aw the order and
connexion of events while yet the future, with
as certain an eye as an hitorian difcerns
them when they are pat? I mot earnetly
beg the reader to weigh well this quetion,
and to bear it in his mind, while he perues
the following account of the two lines of events

contained in the prophecy.
For I am per
fuaded, that the mot fceptical, with all the

latitude in which he may be inclined to con
fider the power of conjeture, the probability
of coincidence, and the like, mut yet deem

it morally impoible, that any falfe prophet,
who fat down to compoe a courfe of pre
tended preditions, relating to the fortunes

of a particular body of men, hould defcribe
it as to be divided in the lots it contained
after a particular period, and thence purue

the different hitory of the two eparate divi
fions through a coure of ages, with fo much
truth as to have his account jutified, even

generally by the event.
-
But
Revelation
of St. John.
113
But to return; a distint arrangement

being thus neceary, in the order of the re
lation, the firt place was naturally due to

the eat, as containing both the birth-place
of Chritianity, and the cene of the fina
perecution of its profefors: Jerualem being
deftined under the Gentiles, as well as under
the Jews, to be tained with the blood of
martyrs, and the meaure of the iniquity of

the former, as well as that of the latter, being
to be filled up by prophaning the city of the
great King, by the murder of His witneffes;
and accordingly the fcene of the fifth and
fixth trumpets, or the two firt woes, is found
in the eat, while what happened at the
fame time in the wet is defcribed as the
eontents of a little book, which was given
the apofile to eat it up. The woes them
felves, it has been ably obferved by the juty
celebrated Daubuz, are pronounced againt
the inhabitants of the earth or land, a phrafe

ued in fcripture to denote the idolatrous in
habitants of Canaan in contradistinction to
the Ifraelites, or people of God; and confe
quently the angel flying in the midt of
heaven, and proelaiming the woes, may well

2. -
be
114
A Commentary on the
be interpreted as fignifying a warning to be
given by the appointed preachers of God's

word to thoe who were infeted with it to .
repent of their idolatry and all the vicious

pratices confequent on it. That this would
not be attended to is fufficiently ignified by
the founding of the fifth trumpet; on which
St. John faw the emblem of a falfe teacher,
who hould be empowered to open the well of

the bottomlefs pit, and on its being opened
there arofe out of it fmoke, a fymbol of
divine judgment, fo great in itelf as to leffen
the plendour and weaken the influence of
the governing power of the world, and from
this moke proceeded the repreentatives of a

numerous hot of cavalry, of a nation noted
for wearing their hair long.
Their com
mistion manifeted, that the form of locuts,
under which they appeared to St. John, was

figurative only, while it exprested the power
given them to be, not, like that of the If
raelites when they came into the land of

Canaan, to exterminate the nations, but
only to torment them for the emblematic
term of five months, which in the language
qf prophetic computation amounts to one

hundred
*
*
115
hundred and fifty years; during this the
evils inflited by them would be very grievous,

for they would pread a falfe dotrine among
men, and advance it by force; their military
power bearing down all oppoition. It was
declared likewife, that they hould have at

their head a monarch, who hould be the
angel of the bottomlefs pit, and whoe title
in both Hebrew and Greek hould be the

detroyer; the vifion thereby fuggeting,
that fuch he would prove to both thoe na

tions; and the rapid coure of thee de
froyers, and the fact of their retiring as foon

as they had executed their commiion, are
pointed out by the account of them being
followed by the declaration that one woe

is pat by; behold there come two woes
more hereafter.
* ."
Char. VIII. Ver. 13. And I beheld,

and heard an angel* flying through the
midft of heaven, faying with a loud voice,
* ver is. Anangd.] In Ch. i. eo, and throughout

Ch. ii. and iii. the bihops of the churches are directly called.
the angels of them.
12
Woe,
A Commentary on the
116
Woe, woe, wo, to the inhabitants of the
earth by the reafn of the other voices of the
trumpet of th three angels that are yet to

found ! . '
: Cnar. IX. Ver. 1. And the fifth angel
founded; and I aw a tar* fall from heaven
unto the earth: and to him was given the

key of the bottomles pit+- 2. And he opened
the bottorales pit; and there aroe a moke

'
QU$
* *
*
*
| * Ver. 1. A star.] The original accurately tranlated
fays, a star which had fallen from heaven; a type of one

who ha once been a teacher of righteoufnes; (for fo we
read in Daniet xii. 3. And they that be wife hall fhine

as the brightnes of the firmament; and they that turn
many to righteoufnes as the stars for ever and ever,) but
was now fallen from that character.

Ver. 1. Of the bottomlefs pit.] Our tranlators have
here omitted the words ** of the well, which are in the
original, and yield no finall light towards the true appli

cation of the prediction, as the reader will fee in the state
rnt of the prf of it-
Ver. e. Afinske.] When God in his wrath overthrew

the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the fnoke of them is de
fcribed in nearly the fame terms s are here ued, the

finoke of the country went up as the finoke of a furnace,
that was the moke of brimstone and fire; and the bottom
lefs pit in cripture is poken of as the place of confinement

2
of

117
out of the pit, as the fm9ke of a great fur
nace, and the fun* and the air were dark
ened by reafon of the moke of the pit.
3. And there came out of the fmoke locuts +
upon the earth; and unto them was given
power, as the feorpions of the earth have
power. 4. And it was commanded them

that they hould not hurt the grafs of the
earth, neither any green thing, neither any
tree; but only thoe men which have not
the feal of God in their foreheads.
5. And
of Satan and hisangels, asin Luke viii. 81, and they (the
devils) befought him that He wauld not command them to
go out into
the deeps and in Rev. xx. 3. and cast him
(Satan) into the bottomlefs pit; and in Ia. xiv. 31. moke
is directly applied to ajudicial viitation: Hwl, O gate:
Cry, O city; Thou whole Palestina, art diffolved; for
there hall come from the north a finoke, &c.
*
* Ver. 2. The fun.] See notes on Ch. vi. 12. and viii.
12.
+ Ver.3. Locusts.] Joel ii. 25. The locust hath eaten,

the canker-worm, &c. my great army.
# Ver. 8. As the feorpions of the earth have
-
power.]
This particularis perhaps mentioned to fuggest, that though
their eemmiion was not to exterminate, yet fuch would
be the sting left by their falfe doctrine, that if not cured,
it would, like that of fcorpions, caue death, not merely

corporal indeed, but death eternal.
I 3
* ***
to
. A Commentary on the
;118
to them it was given that they hould not

kll them*, but that they hould be tor
mented five months: and their torment was
as the torment of a fcorpion which triketh a
man. - 6. And in thoe days fhall men feek
death, and hall not find it: and hall defire
to die, and death hall flee from them.

. 7. And the hapes of the locuts were like
unto horfes prepared unto battle ; and on
their heads were as it were crowns like gold,
faces were as the faces of men.

8. And they had hair as the hair of women,
and their
and their teeth were, as the teeth of lions.
9. And they had breastplates as it were
breastplates of iron +; and the found of their

wings was as the found of chariots of many
horfes running to battle.
10. And they had
tails like unto fcorpions, and there were

ftings in their tails; and their power was to
* Ver. 5. Not kill them.] Perhaps this is intended to
be applied to their stings, which would not immediately

kill.
. ..
Ver. 9. 0f iron.] Foramuch as iron breaketh in
pieces, and ubdueth all. Dan. Ch. ii. 40.

.. .
# Ver. 10. Stings in their tails.] : Ia. ix. 15. The
prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
-
* *
* *
hurt
119
hurt men five months*. 11. And they had

a king over them which is the angel of the
bottomlefs piti , whoe name in the Hebrew
tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek hath

his name Apollyon. 12. One woe is pat;
and behold there come two more woes here
after.
*
P R O OF OF A C C O M P LI S H MI EN T.
FRM the fall of the proper Roman em
pire by the depoition of Augutulus in the

* Ver. 10. Five months.] This mode of expreing years
by days in the cafe of infliction of the divine judgements
may be feen with an authoritative explanation in Num.
xiv. 34. where is denounced on the children of Irael
forty years fuffering for their refufing to go up and take

poeion of the promied land; according to the number
of the days in which they were earching the land.
Forty days, (ays the text) each day for a year, hall ye
bear your iniquities, even forty years. The fame type
is ued in Ezek, iv. 6. Thou halt bear (faid the Lord
to that prophet) the iniquity of the houe of Judah forty
days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.
+ Ver. 11. Bottomlefs pit.] Here the phrae is fimply

the bottomlefs pit, which feems to make the denomination
equivalent to the minister of Satan.
Ver. 11. Apollyon.] Abaddon fignifies in Hebrew,
as Apollyon in Greek, the destroyer.
| |
I 4
year
12
A Commentary on the
year four hundred and feventy-five to the

year fix hundred and fix, in which Mahomet
firt retired to his cave (the well of the bot
tomlefs pit) to hatch his impoture, there in

tervened one hundred and thirty-one years.
During this period Mr. Daubuz oberves,

the face of the Chritian church was wholly
changed, and defaced with fupertition and

idolatry in the invocation of angels, faints,
martyrs, and the like; as likewife in the
worhip of the material cros, and even images
of men, which then began to be fet up in
the churches, and private oratories: and by
the heathemih honours given to the relicks
of dead men; which were made the tutelar
deities of nations and perons. The remnant

of the Pagans, and all the Arians, Romans,
and Vandals, were fwallowed up, and be

came one general body of corrupted Chri.
tians. To this tetimony the authour of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire adds

his fuffrage in fo ample a manner, that were
I to trancribe from his writings all the paf

fages that might be adduced in upport of it,
they would fwell my work beyond the fize
quo
propoed. I hatherefore restrain my
tations
121
tations to an intance or two of the worhip

of patron faints and a trange God.
So early in his hitory as in the year four

hundred and one, we find him recording the
worhip of the Virgin Mary in his forty-e

venth Chapter; and in the fame we read that
the emperor Jutinian had fecured the pa
tronage of the Virgin, and St. Michael the
archangel; and that his recovery from a
dangerous difeafe, was afcribed to the mi
raculous fuccours of the holy martyrs Cofmas
and Damian. His general, Narfes, is in

the forty-third Chapter declared to have paid
his devotions to the author of vitory, and
the blefied virgin his patronefs. And Mr.

Gibbon affures us, that at the end of the .
fixth
century the
genuine or fi&titious relicks
of St. Peter and St. Paul were adored as
the palladium of Chritian Rome. And at
the very time when this woe was taking place

in Mahomet's beginning to propagate his
dotrine, the corruption of the Chritians is
thus defcribed: The Chritians of the fe
venth century had infenibly relaped into a

femblance of paganim: their public and pri
.
Vate
A Commentary on the
vate vows were addrested to the relics and
images that digraced the temples of the eat:
The throne of the Almighty was darkened
122
by a cloud of martyrs, and faints, and angels,

the objets of popular veneration; and the
Collyridian heretics, who flourihed in the

fruitful foil of Arabia, inveted the Virgin
Mary with the name and honours of a god
defs.
Neither did thee idolatrous pratices pas

without reprehenion from thoe Chritians
who were not involved in them. It appears
by fome pastages from the works of Jerom

quoted by Daubuz, that Vigilantius a priet,
who feems to have lived in Gaul, oppoed the

invocation, and worhip of faints; prayers for
the dead; the adorations of relicks and
images; the burning of tapers by day; and

, the coelibacy of the clergy: and he boated,
that he had many bihops on his fide. And
the rife of Antichrift, which took place with

the firt of thefe woes, was openly denounced
as approaching by Gregory bihop of Rome,

in his complaints againt John bihop of
Constantinople, for astuming the title of
-
univeral
Revelation qf St. John.
123
univeral bihop; which complaints were

made to the great ones of the earth in an
open manner; as the angel flew in the midt
of heaven, and proclaimed the woes.
It was after thee warnings that Mahomet
retired in the year fix hundred and fix into a
cave to
compoe his Coran,
the literal notice
of its being derived from fo particular fpot

given in the prophecy is unhappily loft in
our tranlation by the omistion of fomething

to correpond with the Greek term for cave,
but which is itelf indeed fuch as is more par
ticularly exprefive of thofe caverns, which,
on account of the fprings they contain, emit
vapours, and were by pagan upertition,
often confidered as the feats of oracles, and
fources of inpiration. And does not this

emblem mot fully decribe the rife of a pre
tended revelation ? Or, when fuch anwering .
in all points to the predition was propagated
at the period to which this prophecy relates,
does not the literal circumtance of its rife
from a cave, both fix the application, and
demontrate the truth of the prophefy? And

that fuch was the origin of the Coran, we
learn
- *
-*-*
*,
A Commentary on the
learn from Mr. Gibbon's declaration, that
124
Mahomet during the month Ramadan in

each year withdrew from the world to the
cave of Hara, and conulted the pirit of
fraud and enthuiafm.
But although Mr. Gibbon himelf does

not cordially admit the fat I am about to
mention, hitory upported by very trong
evidence to be found in the Coran itelf tef
tifies, that Mahomet was affifted in the fa
brication of his Coran by an apotate Jew;

if not alo by a renegade Chritian monk.
The name of the former is faid to have been

Abdia, the fon of Salem; he was a Perfian
Jew; and from the charge of being affisted
by him Mahomet endeavoured to clear him
felf in thefe words of the Coran quoted from
the fixteenth Chapter of it in his life, at
tached to Ockleys Hitory of the Saracens:
they fay, certainly fome man teaches him;
he whom they mean fpeaks a barbarous lan
guage, but the Coran is in the Arabic tongue,

full of instrution and eloquence. The weak
nefs of this defenee is fuch as trongly cor
roborates the charge, which being further
fupported
-
125
fupported by what is on all hands acknow

ledged, nay gloried in by the impotor and
his followers, that he himelf could neither
write nor read, while there are in his book
many things borrowed not only from the

Old as well as the New Tetament, but like
wife from the Jewih Talmud, leads us at

once to the antitype of the tar that had
fallen from heaven, in one who having
known the will of God, and been confi
dent, that he was a guide to the blind, a

light to them which are in darknes, an in
ftrutor of the foolih, becoming an affitant
in producing a doctrine contrary to the
truth, and hotile to the race from which he
fprang. By his means was the well of the bottomlefs pit opened, and how the moke that
arofe from it obcured the then figurative fun,
the emperor of the eat, the reader will fee,
when I state to him the fucces of the Sara
cenic armies. That it farther brought on a
fpiritual darknes by obcuring the light of
the truth, the fate of the gopel in the
countries ruled by the diciples of Mahomet
fufficiently evinces, without taking into the

account the following words of the hitorian
1Il
126
A Commentary on the
in defcribing the treatment of Christians

dwelling there; a decent reverence for
the national faith is impoed on their fer
mons and converations; and the facrilegious
attempt to feduce a Muffulman will not be
fustered to ecape with impunity.In a time

however of tranquillity and jutice the Chrif
tians have never been compelled to renounce
the Gopel, or to embrace the Koran; but

the punihment of death is inflited for the
apostates who have profested and deferted

the law of Mahomet. Ch. 15.
Retritions
like thee, and epecially the lat, (which, if

I undertand the writer under the affeted
brevity or tudied obcurity of the pastage,

comprehends the fentence of death on all
who are concerned in the converion of a
Mahometan) when laid on the leions of
truth, amount to obcuring it; though we

add not the effet of other circumtances
which have impeded the influence of the
Gopel, and diminihed the number of its
difciples in the regions under the dominion

of the Muffulmen.
Yet -
127
Yet till, even in a literal fenfe, was this
prophecy of darknes fulfilled, fince an Ara- .

bian hitorian, quoted by Bihop Newton,
writes, that in the feventeenth year of
Heraclius half the body of the fun was

ecliped; and this defet continued from
the former Tifrin to Haziran, (that is, from

Otober to June) fo that only a little of its
light appeared*.
Neither can I leave this portion of the

predition without noticing, that while the
dotrine of Mahomet was thus decribed by
the fpirit of prophecy under the type of a
fmoke darkening the fun and air, the im
potor himelf choe to ay, that this pre

tended revelation was made to him during
the nigt.
As out of the moke came locuts upon

the earth, fo the pretended divine miion of
Mahomet was the immediate caue of the
Saracens (of which very nation, it is to be
oberved, the Scripture itelf has poken as

kocusts in multitude; fee Judgesvii. 12.) over
* See Newton on the place.
runnung
t28
A Commentary on the
running the countries they did. When his

fucces had given him power, the prophet
of Medina, (Mr. Gibbon tells us in his 50th
Chapter) affilmed, in his new revelations, a

fiercer and more fanguinary tone; which
proves that his former moderation was the
effect of weaknes. The means of perua
fion had been tried, the feafon of forbear
ance was elaped, and he was now com
manded to propagate his religion by the

fword, to detroy the monuments of idolatry,
and without regarding the fantity of days
or months, to purue the unbelieving nations
of the earth. And we confequently find

in the next page the following lefon: The
fword, fays Mahomet, is the key of heaven
and hell: a drop of blood hed in the caue
of God, a night fpent in arms, is of more

avail than two months of fating or prayer:
whoever falls in battle, his fins are forgiven:

at the day of judgment his wounds hall be
as replendent as vermilion, and as odorife
rous as muk; and the los of his limbs hall
be fupplied by the wings of angels and

cherubim. To which may be added the
following instance of the connexion between

the
*e
129
the dotrine and the conquets: it is, that

when on his declaring war againt the Ro
mans, and preparing to march, the Molms
were dicouraged, and among other hard
fhips with which they had to encounter, they

all alledged the intolerable heat of the fum
mer, (in the words of Mr. Gibbon) Hell .
is much hotter, replied the indignant pro

phet.
* .
The completion of the predition of the

appearance of a numerous hot of cavalry in
the actual eruption of the Arabian armies
under Mahomet and his fuccefors I have
partly anticipated, in bringing forward the

circumtances I have jut tated: as to the
accuracy of the feveral points of fimilitude;
the first of thee is, that power was given

unto them, as the fcorpions of the earth have
power. Now we are informed by Goldmith,
in his Hitory of the Earth and animated

Nature, that there are few animals more
formidable, or more truly mifchievous, than

the fcorpion. As it takes refuge in a fmall
place, and is generally found heltering in
houes, fo it cannot be otherwife than that
-
1t
130
A Commentary on the
it mut frequently fting thoe among whom

it refides. But its malignity in Europe is
trifling when compared to what the natives
of Africa and the Eat are known to experi
ence. Here are noticed two circumstances
remarkably applicabie to the followers of

Mahomet: firt, what belongs to them as
propagators of falfe dotrine, that they fre
quently fting thofe among whom they refide;
and then, that the extent of the michief
wrought by them in Europe is trifling, in

comparifon with what they have done in
Africa and the Eat; the great cenes of
the ravages of the Saracens.
The direction given them that they hould
not hurt the grafs of the earth, neither any
green thing, neither any tree, met with its
coincidence in that command given by the

caliph Abubeker to his troops, noticed by
Mr. Gibbon ; Detroy no palm-trees, nor
burn any fields of corn ; cut down no fruit
trees.
As to the time during which it was fore

told they hould torment men; this, literally
taken,
131
taken, is the period during which the flights

of natural locuts are generally feen: but if
figuratively undertood, according to the

prophetick mode of deigning time, which
has been already explained by extracts from
holy writ, there were jut one hundred and
fifty years from Mahomets beginning to
preach publickly in the year fix hundred
and twelve, to the firt fettlement of the
Saracens by the building of Bagdad in fe

ven hundred and fixty-two; to which city
Al. Manfur, the founder of it, gave the name
of the City of Peace, in allufion to the wars
of his people being then at an end.

-
- ' ,
As the evils arifing from a falfe dotrine
could not be more trongly announced by

any ymbol than by that of the text, they
had tails like unto fcorpions, and there were
ftings in their tails; o the first propagation

of their dotrine was the caufe of the mifery
fell on a very extenive trat of coun
which
try, and the poterity of thoe inhabitants of

the conquered regions who would not re
sceive their creed, still fuffer grievouly, on

K 2
. /
account
132
A Commentary on the
account of the difference
between their own
, faith and that of their conquerours.

4
Every one at all converant with history

is already apprized, that almot innumerable
multitudes of the human race, have been

fwept away by their ravages in Europe, Aia,
and Africa; here therefore I hall deem it
fufficient merely to produce, as to fome in
fiances, the concordant fuffrage of that im

partial witnes, whoe evidence I have, for .
manifet reafons, fo contantly ued in de
montrating the completion of prophecies of
which the events fell within the limits of his
hitory.
Now how far the dotrine of the
impotor (Mahomet) is chargeable with the
principles on which his followers in this

point ated, may be colleted from the fol
lowing general refletion of the hitorian; .
The ue of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty
and injutice, were often fubfervient to the
propagation of the faith; and Mahomet
commanded or approved the affaffination of
the Jews and idolaters who had ecaped the
field of battle.
That thefe leions were not
forgotten, the following anecdotes will prove.
.
#
In
Revelation of St, John.
133*
In the fifty-firt Chapter we read, that in

the firt year of the firt caliph his lieutenant
Caled fought many fignal battles on the
frontiers of Peria; and by the tetimony
of a Mahometan hitorian, an, immenfe
multitude of infidels were flaughtered, and
fpoils infinite and innumerable were acquired

by the victorious Molems. The very next
year was fignalized by the battle of Ainadin,
in which the Arabs, under the condut of
the fame Caled, flew above fifty thouand

of the ubjects of the Greek empire. After
the flaughter, of fome thouands more, Da
macus was taken, partly by torm, and
partly by capitulation; when the ferocious

Caled wihed to pt all the inhabitants to
the fword ; but being prevented from that,
he afterwards purued a numerous company
of men, women, and children, who had left
the city under benefit of the capitulation,

and under the plea that the three days he
had allowed them for their retreat were ex
pired, overtook them far advanced in the

imperial territories, and except, ays Mr.
Gibbon, a captive who was pardoned and
dimified, the Arabs enjoyed the ftisfaction
-
K 3
of
134
*
A Commentary on the
of believing, that not a Christian of either

fex ecaped the edge of their fcymitars,
To thefe instances of the destructive pro

grefs of this power I will only add that of, ,
the battle of Yermuck, fought about three
years afterwards, in which, according to the
report of an Arabian general, copied by the

hitorian, though he affets to doubt its ac
curacy, one hundred and fifty thouand
Greeks and Syrians were detroyed. If the
reader reflet on thefe tetimonies of the fe
rocity of the Saracens, he will be amply con
vinced, that miferable indeed mut have been

the tate of the inhabitants not only of the
countries which they had overrun, but of
thofe into which they were likely to advance;
fo that to purue the metaphor of the text,

while they continued yet on the wing, what
multitudes mut have been in perpetual and

s mot ditresful anxiety from the fear that a
flight of barbarians (Mr. Gibbon's own
phrae)
fhould reach their reidence, and
force their wives and daughters from them
into fervitude the mot abominable! And,

while they were thus employed, could thoe
/
***
who
Revelation of St.
John.
135
who fuffered under them at all enjoy their

lives; or rather, mut not myriads have ear
netly wihed for death to deliver them from
their opprefiors ?
That the forces of the Saracens confisted
in cavalry is too well known to call for the
prodution of proof; and the next particular,
that they hould have on their heads as it
were crowns, was accomplihed in the uual
dres of the Saracens: for the ancient crown
was not that complicated ornament which
modern monarchs wear, but a imple diadem

furrounding the head, the turban being
fomething between that and thoe of our

days : and as wearing fuch the prophet
Ezekiel fpeaks of the people of Arabia in
the forty-econd vere of his twenty-third
chapter : And with the men of the com

mon fort were brought Sabans from the
wildernes, which put bracelets upon their
hands, and beautiful crowns upon their
heads. But if this portion of the decrip
tion be taken as figurative, and ignifying
their affumption of command, mot correctly
has it been accomplihed in the followers of
K 4
Mahomt
136
A Commentary on the
Mahomet pretending to a commiion to

fubdue all nations.
The term ued in the

original proves, that their having the faces
of men is not mentioned in oppoition to
their hair being like that of women, (as it

is known that the Saracens wore theirs long)
and confequently fomething elfe mut be in
tended by the notice of this circumstance.

Now it has been oberved, that man is fome
times ued in Scripture in a low fenfe, to

denote the weaknes and vilenefs of the race,
and that conequently the face of a man may
fignify a mean and depicable countenance.

Now, in fact, it appears by the tetimony of
the very learned Bochart, that the name of
, Saracens was given to thefe Arabians from
contempt, they being in reality what Sarik
in Arabick fignifies, a thief and robber,

That Mahomet fully anwered to the cha
racter of a detroyer given him not only

here, but in the prophecy of Daniel, where,
in the twenty-fourth , vere of the eighth
chapter, it was foretold, he hould detroy
wonderfully; the account already given of

the flaughters made by the arms of the
Saracens
*
137
Saracens demontrates ; to which what I
fhall adduce in proof of the rapidity of their

conquets, will add fomething. But here I
muft infert an additional tetimony produced
by Daubuz on the place; who having quoted
Grotius as aying, that Mahomet afferted,

that he was fent not with miracles but with
arms; and obferved the cruelty depiced by
its being declared, that they had teeth as

lions teeth, adds from Abulpharagius, that
in the time of the chalif Valid lived one
Hejajus, who had caued to be lain of illu

trious and chief men one hundred and twenty
thouand, befides thoe of the common people
and thoe flain in war, together with fifty
thoufand men and thirty thouand women
who died in his prifons : and that of the
great Abu Molem, who raied the houe of
Abbas, the fame hitorian reports, that he had
detroyed fix hundred thoufand men known,
beides thoe that were unknown, and thoe

whom he had flain in wars and battles.
For the
remaining particulars, the rapid
coure of thefe detroyers, and their fudden
retreat after their commiion was expired :

-
I need
138
A Commentary on the
I need only preent to the reader the follow

ing extracts from the Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire. With the fame vi
gour and fucces they invaded the fucceors
of Augutus and thoe of Artaxerxes, and the

rival monarchies at the fame intant became
the prey of an enemy whom they had been

fo long accutomed to depife. In the ten
years of the adminitration of Omar, the

Saracen reduced to his.obedience thirty-ix
thouand cities or catles, and detroyed four
thouand churches or temples of the unbe
lievers. And one hundred years after Ma
homets flight from Mecca, we are told, the
dominions of his fucceflors extended from
India to the Atlantic ocean, over Peria,
Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain : an extent

of empire fo great, that we may well join in
the hitorian's reflection at the opening of his
fifty-econd Chapter; When the Arabs firt
iffued from the defert, they mut have been
furprized at the eae and rapidity of their

own fucces.
Her fovereignty (peaking of Arabia)

was loft by the extent and rapidity of her
conquets:
a'
139
conquets: the colonies of the nation were

fcattered over the Eat and Wet, and their
blood was mingled with the blood of their
converts and captives. After the reign of

three caliphs, the throne was tranported
from Medina to the valley of Damacus,
and the banks of the Tigris; the holy cities :

were violated by impious war; Arabia was
ruled by the rod of a fubject, perhaps of a
ftranger ; and the Bedoweens of the defert,
awakening from their dream of dominion,

refumed their old and olitary independ
ence.
The
firt fixed establihment of the caliphs
was made at Bagdad: In this city of peace,

fays the hitorian, amidt the riches of the
Eat, the Abastides difdained the abstinence

and frugality of the firt caliphs, and apired
to emulate the magnificence of the Perian
kings. Through this alteration of manners,

together with the triple diviion of the cha
liphate, were the torments fuffered from thee
emblematic locuts abated; and
their rein
forcements from the region of the cave of the
bottomles pit cealing, they became more

like other nations,
SECT.
140 .
A Commentary on the
SECTION VIII.
FT E R the relation of the events of the
fecond trumpet, we read, The fecond

woe is pat by, behold, the third woe cometh
quickly! the difference between this denun

ciation and that uttered on the concluion of
the firt woe, One woe is paft by; behold,

there come two more woes hereafter; evi
dently indicates, that between the ceafing of

the first and the commencement of the fecond
woe, there hould be an interval of fome con
fiderable duration; with which intimation the
event accurately correponded. But when

the fixth trumpet had founded, the viion
preented a very intelligible emblem of the
corruptions of the church being fuch, that

the Almighty was no longer pleaed with
their offerings; and that where they would
otherwife have found protetion, thence the
fentence itelf of their punihment would pro
ceed. The intruments of that punihment
fhould be, it was declared, four leaders of
very
141
very numerous hots of cavalry, until then

confined to the river Euphrates, who hould
bear trong marks of being judicially armed

againt the countries they hould overrun,
and being let into the Roman empire, by

means of cannon added to their hofts, over
throw the eatern, the then only remaining
part of that empire; and that thee horfemen

hould alo propagate a fale dotrine, and
that particularly through their commanders;
but that even their fufferings under this
chatifemnt would not avail to bring thoe

Chritians who were not detroyed by it, to
repent of their idolatry, their perfecutions,
their impotures, their impurities, or their
dihonesty.
T EXT.
CHAP. IX. Ver. 13. And the fixth an

gel founded, and I heard a voice from the
four horns of the golden altar* which is be
fore
* Ver. 13. Horns of the golden altar.] Exod. xxx. 10.
And Aaron hall make an atonement upon the horns of
it once a year. And as it (the golden altar) was the
-
|-
place
A Commentary on the
fore God, 14. aying to the fixth angel whicii
|142
had the trumpet, Loofe the four angels

which are bound * in the great river Eu
phrates.
15. And the four angels were
loofed, which were prepared for an hour,

and a day, and a month, and a year, for to
flay the third part of men.
16. And the
number of the army of the horfemen were N.

two hundred thoufand thouand; and I
heard the number of them.
17. And thus
I aw the horfes in the viion, and them that
fat on them, having breaftplates of fire, and

of jacinth, and of brimtone f : and the heads
of
place on which peace with Heaven was to be fought, o
was any altar of God that of refuge from human venge
ance, as we learn from the direction concerning wilful
murderers in Exod. xxi. 14. But if a man come pre

fumptuouly upon his neighbour, to flay him with guile,
thou balt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
* Ver. 14. In the great river, &c.] On or at, Gr. but
fuchitoo was the fignification of our particle in, as I think

appears even from the tranlation of the Lord's Prayer, ,
in earth as it is in heaven, without recurring to its
etymology.
t Ver. 17. Bregstplates of fire, and of jacinth, and of
hrinstone.] In Exod. xx. 30. Aaron's breatplate, in
which were to be put the different coloured tones, is
called
143
of the horfes were as the heads of lions*;

and out of their mouths iffued fire, and
fmoke, and brimtone. 18. By thee three

was the third part of men-killed, by the fire,
and by the fmoke, and by the brimtone,
which iued out of their mouths.
19. For
their power is in their mouths, and in their
ferpents,
and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
tails: for their tails were like unto
20. And the ret of the men which were not

killed by thefe plagues yet repented not of
the works of their hands, that they hould
not worhip devils, and idols of gold, and

called the breastplate of judgment; and it is to this that I
conceive alluion is here made, thee colours marking the
figni
fied by thee three colours, which mark devatation, dark
bearers to be intruments of the divine judgments,
nefs, and defolation; three judgments inflicted in a very

remarkable manner through the Ottomans.
* Ver. 17. As the heads of lions.] Lions are poken of
in Scripture not only as datructive beats, which roam
about feeking whom they may devour, (by which, as in

the cafe of the Saracens, it may be fuggested, that thefe
are ministers of Satan) but as employed to execute the
wrath of God on nations who fear not God: (ee 2 Kings

xvii. 25.) and the faces of lions is a phrae ued in Chro
nicles to ignify undaunted courage : but here, perhaps,

the roaring of that animal may be alluded to.
filver,
*'
144
A Commentary on the
filver, and bras, and tone, and of wood;
which neither can fee, nor hear, nor walk:

21. Neither repented they of their murders,
nor of their forceries*, nor of their fornica
tion, nor of their thefts.
-
P R O O L'
* Ver. 21. Nor of their forceries.] The original word

fignifies in its primary fenfe medicinal applications, and
therefore may well include all thoe feigned modes of
curing piritual diforders practifed by the papists. For

thus the prophets and priets of the Jews were reproved
for healing the hurt of Jerualem flightly, and for even
after correction continuing to do fo, and therefore were
menaced with still feverer judgments. I hearkened and
heard, but they fpake not aright: no man repented him of

wickednes, faying, What have I done?" every one
turned to his coure, as the horfe ruheth into battle. Yea,
his
the ftork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and
the turtle, and the crane, and the fwallow oberve the time
of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of

the Lord. How do ye fay, We are wife, and the law of the
Lord is with us ? Lo, certainly in vain made He it; the
pen of the fcribes is in vain. The wife men are ahamed,
they ar dimayed and taken : lo, they have rejected the

word of the Lord, and what widom is in them? There
fore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to
them that hall inherit them: for every
one from the least
even unto the greatest is given to covetoufnes, from the
prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falfely; for
they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people
flightly,
*
145
-*
P Roof of Acco M PLISHMENT.
SonIE
centuries had elaped after the cesta
tion of the ravages of the Saracens before the

Ottomans, in whoe conquets this portion
of the prophecy was completed, appeared ; .
and the
number of
leaders
here mentioned,
four, is particularly pecified by hitory to
have existed at two periods among them

when at the Euphrates : the firt, when
Soliman Shah, retreating. from the Tartars
under Ginchiz Khan, came thither with his
three fons, and was himelf drowned in en
deavouring to pas it: and the fecond, when

/*
flightly, aying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

Were they ahamed when they had committed abomina
tion ? nay, they were not at all afhamed, neither could
they bluh: therefore hall they fall among them that fall;
in the time of their viitation they hall be cat down, faith
the Lord. Jer. viii. 612. But while the word will
thus include the piritual quackery of difpenfations, in
dulgences, &c. the meaning of forceries mot undoubtedly

belongs alo to it, and under this it extends to all the
feigned miracles of the papal clergy, not excepting the

leading one of tranubstantiation.
-... .
L
*
his
146
A Commentary on the
his youngeft fon Ortogrul purued the route,

together with his own three fons, of whom
Othman was the younget. This remark
able number four, thus twice exemplified in
the leaders of this particular body of Turks,

though mentioned by DHerbelot, as quoted
by the very learned Daubuz on the place, is
not noticed by Mr. Gibbon; who however
informs us, that Ortogrul, as the foldier or

ubject of Aladdin, fultan of Iconium, (from
whom, we learn through D'Herbelot, he had
begged a little fpot of ground on which to
fix himelf) establihed at Surgut, on the

Sangar, a camp of four hundred families or
tents: and that It was on the twenty-fe
venth of July, in the year twelve hundred
and ninety-one of the Chritian ra, that
Othman firt invaded the territory of Nico

media; and the fingular accuracy of the
date feems to dicloe fome forefight of the

rapid and detructive growth of the mon
fter. That fuch accuracy of date hould
be preferved as to the operations of a power
which prophecy had faid was prepared for

the hour, and day, and month, and year, is
indeed very remarkable; neither does it feem

*
lefs
147
les fo that this accuracy hould be thus

prefied on our obervation, by a writer who
is perpetually blapheming revelation: and
who afterwards, compelled as it were to bear
tetimony to the truth of the gopel he had

mocked at, informs us further, that in the
principal atchievement of this power when it
had arrived at its maturity, through the at
tachment of Mahomet the Second to atro
logy, he had fixed for the attack by which
Constantinople was taken on the twenty

ninth of May, as the fortunate and fatal
hour. And again, But in this great and

general attack, the military judgement and
atrological knowledge of Mahomet advied
him to expect the morning, the memo
rable twenty-ninth of May, in the fourteen
hundred and thirty-third year of the Chri
tian ra:At day-break, without the cuf
tomary fignal of the morning gun, the Turks

affaulted the city by fea and land.
But this is not all that hould be tated as
to the accomplihment of the predition in
the number of the miniters; for previous to

this there were, as it has been oberved by
-
L2
Bihop
148
A Commentary on the
Bihop Newton, four principal fultanies or

kingdoms of the Turks, bordering upon the
river Euphrates: one at
Bagdadanother
at Damacusa third at Aleppoand the

fourth at Iconium.
Thefe four fultanies fub
fifted feveral years afterwards; and the ful

tans were bound and retrained from extend-
ing their conquets farther than the terri

tories and countries joining to the river Eu
phrates, primarily by the good providence of

God, and fecondarily by the croifades or ex
peditions of the European Chritians into the

holy land in the latter part of the eleventh,
and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Nay the European Chritians took feveral

cities and countries from them, and confined
them within narrower bounds. But when
ay end was put to the croiades,
and the
Christians totally abandoned their conquets

in Syria and Paletine, as they did in the
latter part of the thirteenth century; then
the four angels on the river Euphrates were
loofed. Newton's Prophecies, vol. 3. p. 114.

But hould it be thought, that as the time
determined for the ravages of the Saracens
-
WAS -
figuratively exprested,
Wa:S
149
this alo mut be
the fam; even under this interpretation the

period mentioned will be found to have met
its accomplihment in the time during which

the Ottomans continued to prevail againt
the Chritians. For it is wondorfully re

markable (fays the learned writer
I have lat
quoted), that the firt conquet mentioned in

hitory of the Othmans over the Chritians, was
in the year of the Hegira fix hundred and

eighty, and the year of Chrit twelve hun
dred and eighty-one. For Ortogrul in that
year (according to the accurate historian
Saadi) crowned his vitories with the conquet
of the famous city of Cutahi upon the
Greeks. Compate three hundred and ninety

one years from that time, and they will ter
minate in the year ixteen hundred and fe
venty-two: and in that year, as it was hinted
before, Mohammed the Fourth took Ca

miniec from the Poles, and forty-eight towns
and villages in the territory of Caminiec
were delivered up to the fultan upon the
treaty of peace. Whereupon prince Can

temir hath made this memorable refletion,
this was the lat vitory by which any advan

-
I, 3
tage
150
A Commentary on the
tage accrued to the Othman tate, or any

city or province was annexed to the ancient
bounds of the empire. Agreeably to which
obervation, he hath entitled the former part
of his Hitory of the Growth of the Othman
Empire, and the following part of the Decay

of the Othman Empire. Other wars and
flaughters, as he fays, have enfued; the
Turks even befieged Vienna in fixteen hun

dred and eighty-three, but this exceeding
the bounds of their commiion, they were
defeated. Belgrade and other places
may
have been taken from them, and furren

dered to them again: but still they have ub
dued no new tate or potentate of Chrif
tendom now for the fpace of between eighty
and ninety years; and in all probability

they never may again; their empire appear
ing rather to decreae than increae. Here
then the prophecy and the event agree ex
actly in the period of three hundred and
ninety-one years; and if more accurate and
authentic hitories of the Othmans were
brought to light, and we knew the very day

wherein Kutahi was taken as certainly as we
know that wherein Kaminiec was taken, the
like
151
like exactnes might alo be found in the fif
teen days.
In the fubequent words of the apotle,
and the number of the army of the hore

men were two hundred thouand thouand,
in the original, two myriads of myriads,
there fcarcely need be pointed out to the
reader's attention, a mode of exprestion
common in all languages, and in none more

frequent, or under greater variety than our
own, the ue of a definite for an indefinite
number. And for the counting their armies

by myriads, this, it has been oberved, is par
ticularly the custom of the Tartarian tribes;
while perhaps it has been that of the power
denominated in the prophecy of Daniel the
king ofthe north, from the time of Xerxes to
that of the Ottomans. Neither hould it be
left unnoticed, that Mr. Gibbon himelf has

more than once ued this term in peaking of
the Turkih troops, Of thee too much the

greater part have ever been, in confonance
with the prophecy, cavalry; particularly on
Othman's invaion of the empire no other

forces are mentioned; Mr. Gibbon oberv
1ng
L 4
*
|
-
A Commentary on the
152
ing that all his troops had confified of

loofe fquadrons of Turkman cavalry. And
again, the primitive ubjets of Othman
were the four-hundred families of wandering
Turkmans, who had followed his ancefiors
from the Oxus to the
thee
Sangar. But that
hereditary troops were multiplied in
each campaign by the acceion of captives

and volunteers. Hence they encreaed
under his ucceflors to thoe numerous hots
prefignified in the viion, and for which the

Turks have been fo remarkable: the majo
rity however till continuing horfe; as at the
final fiege of Contantinople, when in an
army of two hundred and fifty-eight thou
there were, according to n hi

torian quoted by Mr. Gibbon, only fifteen
fand men,
thouand
janizaries,
troops which are known
to be the principal infantry of the Ottomans,

fo that if we even allow above forty thouand
foot to have been then collected together

under other denominations, there will remain
for the number of the army of the horfemen

on this ingle occaion literally twenty myriads,
or two hundred thouand!
|-
Daubuz
1
153
Daubuz and Newton oberve, that thoe
-
which are noted in the text as colours viible

in
the breat plates of the horfemen, are fuch
as the Turkih troops much affet; but I

having offered another interpretation to that
paage, mut refer the reader for the com
pletion of it to the known ravages and mi
feries produced by their arms.
But for the
fire, fmoke, and brimtone, which are repre

fented as iffuing out of the mouths of the
horfes; and by which it is faid, one third
part of men were flain; the names of thefe
ingredients immediately fugget the idea of

gunpowder.
How worthy of attention then

,
is it, that this very power hould not only

have ued cannon, intruments of detrution
unknown in the
days of the apoftle, but thofe
too of an enormous fize! Yet to this the hif--
torian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire bears ample tetimony in the follow

ing paflages.
-
Among the implements of detrution,

he (Mahomet the Second) tudied with pe
culiar care the recent and tremendous difco
very of the Latins; and his artillery fur
paffed
154
A Commentary on the
pafied whatever had yet appeared in the

world. A foundery was etablihed at Adria
nople; the metal was prepared; and at the
end of three months, Urban produced a
piece of bras ordnance of tupendous and
almot incredible magnitude; a meaure of
twelve palms is affigned to the bore, and
the ftone bullet weighed above fix hundred

pounds. And again, the great cannon of
Mahomet has been eparately noticed; an
important and viible object in the hitory
of the times: but that enormous engine was
flanked by two fellows almost of equal mag

nitude: the long order of Turkih artillery
was pointed againt the walls; fourteen bat
teries thundered at once on the mot accef
fible places; and at one of thefe it is ambi
guouly exprested,
that it was mounted with
one hundred and thirty guns, or that it dif
charged one hundred and thirty bullets.

With fuch engines was Constantinople, the
capital of the eatern empire, overthrown:
and thus was realized the ymbol of one
third part of men being killed by the fire,

fmoke,
and brimstone proceeding out of their
mouths.
v
The
15
The lat particular here noticed by St. John
of the Ottomans is, that with their tails they
do hurt; that is, like the Saracens they

fhould propagate a falfe dotrine. Now that
under the Turkih empire the falfe doctrine

of Mahomet has been pread with no les
zeal than under the Saracens, and that, . '
as I have interpreted the ymbols, particu

larly through their commanders, is too well
known to need the prodution of any tef
timony of hitory; yet to fhew, that even
Mr. Gibbon continues to bear witnes to the

completion of this prophecy even to the lat
particular of it, I trancribe a pastage which

may be confidered as containing a reafon for
the power of their mouths and their tails to
do hurt, being fo clofely conjoined in the
text: ince it fhews, that conquet was the
means of propagating their faith. To pro
pagate the true religion was the duty of a

faithful Mufulman: the unbelievers were his
(the fultan Amurath the Second's) enemies,

and thoe of the prophet; and in the hands of
the Turks, the fcymetar was the only intrument of converion.
By
156
-
Commentary on the
By the declaration made in the fourteenth
Chapter of the Revelation, that the third

woe cometh quickly after this fecond is paffed
by, is fuggeted the continuance of this
power of the Ottomans until nearly the con
fummation of all things; a permanence of

empire in which the event has hitherto accu
rately correponded with the predition; that
is, for nearly five hundred years; and this
too in a particular which on a comparifon
with the fate of other eatern dynaties ap
pears too uncommon- to have feemed at all
probable. Nor even as to this very remark
able fat are we without the tetimony of our
hitorian of Rome. In the Turkih empire
the mot daring rebel, he oberves, has

not preumed to acend the throne of his lawful
fovereign. While the tranfient dynaties of
Afia have been continually fubverted by a
crafty viir in the palace, or a vitorious ge
neral in the camp, the Ottoman fucceion
has been confirmed by the practice of five

centuries: and is now incorporated with the
vital principle of the Turkih nation.
Ch. 65.
The
157
The lamentable impenitence and hardnes

of heart with which thoe who were not de
ftroyed by thee two woes have looked on
them is the next thing noticed in the viion.

And to this impenitence, manifeted by their
continuing in the pratice of the crimes men
tioned in the text, not only hitory, but our
own experience bears witnes. I hall referve
feveral authorities which might be produced
in proof of this to be brought forward with

fill greater propriety on future mention of
thefe abominations: at preent it will be fuf
ficint to lay before the reader the following

extrats manifeting, that even in the de
cency of public profeion, much more in

pratice, the fufferings of the eatern part of
Christendom did not induce the western to

lay afide the offences which had brought
down thee fearful judgements on their
brethren.
The worhip of demons or de
parted pirits, here termed by our tranlators

devils*, was fo far from being relinquihed
* For found arguments for the interpretation I have
thus applied to the original word, the reader may fee Mede's
very learned differtation on the apostacy of the latter
times.
by
A Commentary on the
| 158
by thoe within the pale of the church of

Rome, that the Council of Trent abolutely
etablihed it by a canon worded with that
duplicity, which charaterizes more than one
of its decrees. The holy fynod charges
all thoe to whom is committed the office of
teaching, that they diligently intrut the
faithful concerning the interceffion and invo

cation of the faints, teaching them, that the
faints reigning together with Chrit do offer
their prayers to God for men: that it is

good and ueful fuppliantly to invoke them,
and to flee to their prayers, help, and affiftance, to obtain bleflings from God through
his Son Jeus Chrit, who alone is our Re
deemer and Saviour. But that thoe who
deny that the faints enjoying eternal happi

nefs in heaven are to be invoked, or who
aflert either, that they do not pray for men,

or that the invoking of them, that they may
pray for even each of us, is idolatry, or re
pugnant to the word of God, or inconfiftent
with the honour of the one Mediator of God
and man, Jefus Chrit, or that it is foolih to
fupplicate by voice or in pirit thoe who are

reigning in heaven, think impiouly.
-
Council

Council of Trent.
Fid. Cath.
159
Sest. 25. in Hook's Reg.
Here it is plainly taught that the faints

are to be invoked, and that recoure is to be
had to their prayers and help and afliftance,
and yet the conitent council call Chrit the

one Mediator between God and man. Thoe
too who deny them to be poffested of power

to hear the prayers made on earth, that is,
who refue to acknowledge them to poes
the divine attribute of omnifcience, are ac
cued of thinking impiouly. If this be not

to etablih the worhip of departed pirits;
what is? Since whether they be prayed to
to offer prayers for men through Chrit, or

to offer them in their own names only, still
prayer is made unto them ; and furely the

folemn offering of this is an at of religious
worhip.
But under this authority what is the atual
practice of the papits in this repect? If we

look into their books of devotion, which are
compiled with the greatet caution, becaue

printed for the ue of thoe who dwell in
-
this
160
A Commentary on the
this country, where their impoitions are in

the greatet danger of being expoed, we find
prayers direted to various faints; nay, and to
angels: as fpecimens of which I hall lay the
following three before the reader. They are
printed in a book intitled, A Manual of
Prayers and other Chritian Devotions, revied and corrected with large additions by
R. C. D. D.London. 1768.
P. 122. A
prayer to all the blefied faints in heaven.

O all ye holy and elect of God, for whom
He prepared an eternal kingdom from the
beginning; I befeech you, by that charity

, wherewith He loved you, to have pity on me
a mot miferable finner, and obtain that I

may be reconciled to my Creator, before I
am taken out of this world by death.
blefied Mary, mother of God, and great

mediatrix of finners to Chrit, obtain for me
a right faith and firm hope; perfet charity

and true humility; with the excellent graces
of patience, chaftity, and fobriety; and after
the coure of this hort and vain life, ever
lating happines. O holy St. Michael, with

all the thouands of glorious angels, pray
for me; that by your intercestion I may be

kept
-
161
kept from the power of my adverary; and,
God, purenes of
heart, and strength of faith, I may hereafter
attaining here the love of
be received into the joys of eternal glor.

O holy patriarchs and prophets, vouchfafe to
obtain for me repentance and pardon, con
tinence, and godly perfverance, and in the

end eternal life. O ye blefied apotles of
Chrit our Lord, deliver me by your prayers
from my fins, defend me from the pains of

hell, recue me from the powers of darknes,
and bring me to thy everlating kingdom *.

I beeech you alfo, O ye glorious martyrs of
God, that perfect charity, incere love, a
pure mind, a chafte life, and remiion of my

fins, may be given me by your holy inter
cestions.
Holy confeors of God, pray fr
me, that it may pleae Almighty God to

blot out all my offences, and to inpire me
with the defire of heavenly things,
reverence for virtue.
Aflift me,
and a du
all you hol
virgins with your prayers to God, that H

will adorn my foul with th excellent virtus
* However unintelligible this may be, o I find it in

that which I believe is the chief book of devotions printed
for the ufe of the Englih Papists.
MI
of
162
Commentary on th',
of humility and chastity, and after the coure

of this mierable life, bring me to the fel
-
lowhip of your perpetual bleflednes.

ye faints of heaven, have compastion
O all
n me
and pray for me, that through your interce
fion I may obtain from Almighty God perfect

compuntion of heart for my finful life, a
clear and quiet concience at my death, and
then for ever, the joys of a never-ending fe

licity. Through Jeus Chrit our Lord, &c.
Amen.
P. 109. A prayer to our blefied lady.

Hail, O mot holy and blefied virgin Mary,
full of celetial grace, and replenihed with

beauty and comelines, of whom, and by
whom it pleaed our Saviour Jeus Chrit, the
Son of God, the King of Heaven, the

Brightnes of His Father's Glory, to be born
and nourihed ; obtain for me, O blefied lady,
of thy, only begotten Son, whatever thou
knowet to be necestary for the falvation of
my foul. O holy mother of God, help my

frailty and weaknes; aflift me this day in all
my calamities, temptations, and dangers 3
but epecially, at the hour of death, vouch

-
--
fafe
163
fafe not to depart from me, that by thy

prayers and protetion I may be afe in that
lat and dngerous battle. Amen.
P. 133. A prayer to our blefied lady.

O pious virgin Mary, mother of God! I be
feech thee by the great love thou bearet to

thy dear Son, my Lord and Saviour Jeus
Chrit; vouchafe to obtain for me a true
forrow for my fins, a perfect guard over my

fenfes, an humble reignation of myelf, and
the exercife of thoe virtues wherewith thou
didt fo highly pleae his Divine Majety.

I alo mot humbly requet thee to direct my
ways in thofe paths which may be mot
agreeable to the will of thy Son, and con
ducing to the falvation of my foul. Amen.

* Ere I leave this
farrago
of
idolatry and
blaphemy, I mut point out to the reader's no
tice, firt, that in fom pafages ofit the faints

immediate intercestion with God is prayed
for, that remistion of fins may be obtained
fimply throu gh it; fecondly, that our Lord
is mot prophanely and blaphemouly stiled
the only begotten M Son

of Mary;thirdly,
and,
2
vi
A Commentary on the
164
thirdly, that the prayers are in fome parts fo

worded, that our bleed Saviour appears to
be confidered as a mediator between the pe

titioner and his own fervants.
Confider the
concluion of the firt prayer, and the paf

fage of the lat, commencing with I be
feech thee by the great love. Nor can I
refrain from begging the reader here to call
to mind the following words of Mr. Gibbon's
decription of the very corrupt state of the

eatern church before the irruption of the
Sarcens; the Chritians of the feventh
century had infenibly relaped into a fem
blance of paganim: their public and private

vows were addreed to the relicks and images
that digraced the temples of the eat: the
throne of the Almighty was darkened by a

cloud of martyrs, and faints, and angels,
the oljeis of popular veneration ; and the
Collyridian hereticks, who flourihed in the
fruitful foil of Arabia, inveted the virgin
Mary with the name and
the honours of a
oddefs. And comparing thefe pratices

which brought on the two firt woes, with
tho that are still perfified in, confider from

the fimilitude of the crimes how much rea
-
fon

165
fon there is to expet a fimilitude of punihment in the inflition of the third woe.
Having I conceive demontrated that the
papits literally worhip departd pirits, and

confequently the completion of this particular
of the predition, I proceed to that of the
worhip of idols of gold and ilver, &c.
In regard to this the fame council, still pre-.

ferving the fame equivocal mode of expref
fion, in the twenty-fifth feion
decreed,
That the images of Chrit, and the virgin

mother of God, and other faints, are particu
larly to be kept and retained in churches:
and that due honour and reverence be paid

to them; not that it hould be believed, that
there is in them any divinity or virtu fr

which they hould be worhipped; or that
any thing is to be aked of them, or that any"
truft is to be placed in images, as was for:"

merly done by the Gentiles, who placed
their hopes in idols; but becau th hnr"
which is hewn theih, is rfrred to the pr

totypes they - repreent, that through the
images which we kis, and befre which w
uncover our heads'and' prostrate ourelves"

M S
We
----
A Commentary on the
166
we may adore Chrit, and venerate the faints
whoe likenes they bear, The very point
which has been establihed by the decrees of
councils, but particularly of the econd
council of Nice againt the oppofers of
images. But if it hould at any time happen,
that the hitories and narrations of holy,
fcripture, when that hall be expedient for the
unlearned vulgar, are exprefied by prints

and delineations, the people hould be taught,
that the Deity is not therefore drawn, as if
He could be feen with the eyes of the body,
or exprested by colour or figure.

.
: : r:
, !
Now fince idolatry conisteth not merely
in what men may chue to define it to be,

but in what is actually forbidden as fuch in
holy, writ, if we are therein commanded not
to bow down to an image, which w
expresly,
are in the fecond commandment, the very
thing here fantioned by the council, the

prostration of ourelves before images is ido
latry forbidden by the criptures; not to
mention that the prohibition to mke any,
kind of repreentation of the Deity is as ex
pres as that of worhipping it when

-
( et
167
Yet fuch repreentations the council allow;
and the continuance of thefe pratices by

thofe in the communion of the church of
Rome is an accomplihment of the prophecy.

While by their acknowledgment, that if this
reverence were paid to the images themelves
it would be idolatry, and faying they avoid that
by referring it to their prototypes, they con- :
fefs, that they do really worhip them whoe
images they are, and thus in truth plead

guilty to the former charge of worhipping
departed pirits, . '
The mot remarkable murders committed

by the corrupted Chritians who were not
fwept away by the Saracens or the Turks:

being thoe of the perecutions, to thee I
have ventured to apply the words of the i

text. . How little the progres of the external
enemies of Chritendom prevented thoe
within its pale from committing fuch murders
the hitory of the reformation, and the fan
guinary meaures by which the adherents of
the papacy endeavoured to check it, fuffi
ciently fhew.
*
...
M 4
I hall,
168
A Commentary on the
I hall not here give any quotations con

taining accounts of the cruelties pratied by
the Inquiition, though they properly come
under this, head, but only mention in proof
of the accomplihment of this part of the
prophecy, what Mr. Gibbon in his 16th

Chapter quotes Grotius as faying, that one
hundred thouand Protetants were detroyed
in the Netherlands only by the hands of the
executioner; and Davila's affertion in the
fifth book of his Civil Wars of France, that
it was credibly reported, that the Hugonots.

flain in that kingdom during the mafiacre of
St. Brtholomew amounted to more than
forty thouand. Since, thefe two fats are

abundantly fufficient to prove, that the pro
festors of Christianity in the wet did not re

pent of their murders. And that they conti
nued likewife to pratife their forceries, the
feigned miracles of the papal clergy and their
modes of mileading and impoing on their,
followers by indulgences and dipenations as
fully evince. In Bihop Burnet's Hitory of:

the Reformation, V. 1, p. 243, of the edi
tion of 1681, we meet with the following ac

count of fome pretended miracles: For
their
T69
their images, fome of them were brought to

London, and were there at St. Paul's Cros,
in the fight of the people, broken; that they

might be fully convinced of the juggling
impotures of the monks; and in particular,
the crucifix of Boxley in Kent, commonly
called the Rood of Grace; to which many

pilgrimages had been made, becaue it was
oberved fometimes to bow, and to lift itelf

up, to hake, and to tir head, hands, and
feet, and to roll the eyes, move the lips, and
to bend the brows: all which were looked on
by the abued multitude as the effects of a
divine power.
Thefe were now publickly
dicovered to have been cheats.
For the
fprings were fhewed by which all thee mo
tions were made.
Upon which John Hilfey,
then Bihop of Rochefter, made a fermon,

and broke the rood in pieces. There was
alfo another famous impoture difcovered at
Hals in Glouceterhire, where the blood of
Christ was hewed in a vial of chrital, which
the people fometimes faw, but fmetimes

they could not fee it: fo they were mad
believe, that they were not capable of fo
fignal av favour, as long as they were in

-
mortal
170
Commentary on the
mortal fin, and fo continued to make pre

fents, till they had bribed heaven to give
them a fight of fo blefied a relick. This
was now dicovered to be the blood of a
duck, which they renewed every week: and
the one fide of the vial was fo thick, that
there was no feeing through it; but the other

was clear and tranparent; and it was fo
placed near the altar, that one in a fecret

place behind, could turn either fide of it.
outward. So when they had drained the :

pilgrims that came thither, of all they had
brought with them, then they afforded them the favour of turning the clear fide outward; .
who upon that
went home very well fatisfied.

with their journey, and the expence they :
had been at,
And
for their
indulgences,
the fame hif- .
torian, in the collection of records to the firt .

book of his fecond volume, p. 151, of the i
'
edition abovenamed, produces as taken from )
the book of hours for the ufe of Sarum the ,

following paage: Our holy father Sixtus
the Fourth hath granted to all them that

being in a tate of grace, fay this prayer fol- ,
-
lowing
171
lowing immediately after the elevation of the

body of our Lord, clean remiion of all their
fins perpetually enduring" ! ! ! To this I
mut add the following extract from a little
pamphlet which I myelf purchaed at the
printer's about two years ago, the title page :
of which runs thus, General Intrutions
for gaining the Indulgences annexed by his .

Holines the Pope, to Beads, Rofaries,
Croffes, Images, commonly called Medals,
blefied by his Holines, or by fome other
Perons deputed by him. London: Printede
by T. P. Coghlan, No. 37, Duke-treet,
near Grofvenor-fquare, 1788. In p. 7, of
this trat begin Particular instructions or

(Q. for?) indulgences annexed to roaries
or beads, known by the name of St. Bridget's
beads, blefied by the fuperiors of her order,
or the order of our Saviour, or by any priet

appointed by the pope; which intrutions .
open thus, Our holy father pope Benedito
the Fourteenth, by brief, bearing date Ja
nuary the fifteenth 1743, granted new in
dulgences to the roaries or beads of St.
Bridget, blefied by the uperiors of mona
teries, or other priets of the order of our
-
Saviour,
172
A Commentary on the
Saviour, or of that of St. Bridget, or by

other priets fecular or regular, who have
been impowered; which indulgences had
been formerly granted by the popes Leo the
Tenth, and Clement the Eleventh, and ap
proved, December the fourth 1714, by the

holy congregation of indulgences and re
licks.
Then follow the feveral articles, of
which I hall felect five as most appofite to

the preent purpoe. The fourth runs thus: .
- Each perfon may gain thefe indulgences
either for himelf or for the fouls in purga
tory by applying the fame to them. Be
nedit XIV. 1742. The fifth thus: Who
foever hall recite the faid rofary, or at leat

five-tens thereof every day during one whole
year, may chue at leaft one day in faid year,
when being heartily forry for his fins, and

having confested and communicated, he hall
pray for peace among Chritian princes, the
extirpation of herefies, and the propagation

of the true faith, fhall obtain a plenary in
dulgence of all his fins, or may apply the

fame to the fouls in purgatory. Clem. XI.
1714. The fixth thus, Whooever hall
recite this roary or five-tens at leaft one day

-
1Ir
173
in every week, and fhall confes and com

municate on the fetival of St. Bridget,
fhall viit his parih church, or fome other,
and there pray as above, hall gain a
ple
nary indulgence of his fins. Benedit XIV.

1743.
The feventh thus: Whoever on
his death-bed, after recommending his foul

to God, after confeion and communion, if
not prevented by fome impediment, being
heartily forry for his fins, hall pronounce the

name of Jefus as he is able, hall gain a ple
Benedit
XIV. And the eighth thus: Whooever
fhall daily recite the faid beads, during one
nary indulgence of all his fins.
whole month, fhall viit a church, and pray

as above, hall gain a plenary indulgence of
all his fins.
Benedit XIV.
Behold here the accomplihment of the
predition, that the wetern church hould

under all the fearful warnings received, con
tinue their forceries.
But let the reader,
while with jut admiration he oberves the

word of God thus tand unto the end, reflect
tao on the evil tendency of thee equally ab
furd and prophane tenets, which the papal
clergy
.
i74
A Commentary on the
clergy thus teach their followers; tenets

which in lieu of the quetion of the apotles
once put to their divine Mafter, Lord

-who can be faved? fugget exatly the op
poite quetion,
the
fared? jf
the feventh article
Who cannot be
particulars direted
in
above trancribed can gain a man a plenary
- indulgence for all his fins.
In the articls df
their faith fettled by their councils the pa

pits are indeed cautious of aying any thing
which appears
dianretrically oppoite to the
fcriptures; but in the application of the doc

trines they thus guard in theory to pratice
all this caution is abandoned, and the indul
gence of fins here proclaimed mut be re

ceived as the unlettered Chritian will under
ftand it; and he doubtlesly will interpret it
as much as postible in favour of his paffions

amd his hopes: and thus by the ignorant,
that is and always will be the majority of the
papacy, a death-bed repen

tance, even of this flight kind here recom
mended, will be fuppoed to obliterate every
fin: and then, are the crimes of Ireland more
adherents of the
than may be expected from fuch principles?

:
- -
- .
How
*
175
How much the enforcement of the celibacy

of the clergy has led to the commiion of the
next crime mentioned in the text, I need not

go about to prove ; nor that idolatrous prac
tices have in the church of Rome univerally
wherever they have prevailed, been acom
panied with carnal impurities. But it mut

be noticed, both with regard to this and the
crime next noticed, and which cloes the re
proachful lift, that we need not look only

within the pale of the Roman church for
them, fince as all who fin after the imilitude
of the beat tand expoed, and without re
pentance will be overtaken by the fame con

demnation, o the accomplihment of this
prophecy takes place on every Christian who

is not induced by the conideration of the
divine judgements pat to flee to the mercy of
God for protetion from thoe which are fo
rapidly approaching.
,
176
A Commentary on the
SECTION IX.
H E vifion next proceeds to the appear

ance of an angel different from any
mentioned, who being

repreented as a mighty angel furrounded
with a cloud, and having a fymbol of a co
St. John had before
venant of mercy on his head, and being em

ployed to denounce the divine judgement in
the fame manner in which, as the prophet
Hoea declareth, God hall roar before His
people, hould feem to ignify Michael the
great Prince, who is mentioned in Daniel as

ftanding up for the children of His pople.
He held in his hand a little book, and as ifcom
miioned to declare the fates of both eat and
wet, land and fea, he fet his right foot on the

fea, and his left on the earth, and when he had
pronounced his menace, in what we may per

haps not improperly term the language of the
Lion of the tribe of Judah, feven great multi
tudes uttered their voices under the ymbol of
feven thunders, fignifying, as it is evidently
fuggeted
-
177
fuggeted by what follows, a readines to

accomplih what the angel had threatened,
that is, it hould feem, the deliverance of
the holy land out of the hands of the ene

mies of Irael; and the apotle was going to
record what the thunders had uttered, but he
was commanded by a voice from heaven to

put a feal on what they had faid, and not
ratify by recording it. When the angel rejeted the fervice proffered by thee multi
tudes, by folemnly fwearing that the time
for what they propoed hould not be yet;

but when the feventh angel hould found,
accomplihment of
then after the
the catter
ing of the power of the holy people, or at

the gathering together of Judah and Irael,
- hall the mytery of God be accomplihed,
and the divine Providence no longer feem to
forget His own city, and the place which He

chofe to put his name there.
After this de
claration the apostle received another com

mand from heaven to impres on his inward
parts the things noted in the book which
the angel had in his hand: and on aking the

angel to give it him, the former told him,
that the contents would at firt feem pleafant,
*
'
'
, but
A Commentary on the
but on digestion become tidings of bitternes
178
unto him; which however he mut deliver to
the world concerning many peoples, and na

tions, and tongues, and kings.
After this St. John had given to him a

reed like unto a rod, or, as the original word
is by the facred writers fometimes ued, a
fcepter, (for that enfign of majety was for
merly no more than a rod) in which there may
perhaps be intended an alluion to that reed,
which was in derifion put into the hands of
his divine Master, when He was in mockery
hailed King of the Jews; for with this the
apotle was directed to meaure the temple

of God, and the altar, and them that wor
hip therein, (a trong intimation that the

true worhippers of God hould be confined.
within a fmall portion of the fcene of revela
tion) and leave the outer court to be trodden
down with the holy city by the Gentiles for

the pace of twelve hundred and fixty years;
during which time he was told it hould be
given to the Jewih and Gentile churches to
tetify to the truth of the gopel in a state of
much humiliation, but that although in a
ftate

179
flate of degradation and mourning, they
fhould yet be fupported in their tetimony,
by thoe afflitions coming on the world
which they hould denounce.
And here ends that portion of the pro

phecy relating to the eatern part of Chri
tendom, which has yet arrived at its ac
complihment; of the ret, therefore, I hall
fpeak no farther than to ay, that it appears

to contain in fome meaure the juntion of the
fates of the eatern and the wetern churches
in the great tyrant of the latter, the papal
power, being openly declared to be that

which hall for a time triumph over the two
witneffes. Had the very plain annunciation
of which fat been attended to, much vain
and groundles fpeculation concerning the
final destruction of that power might have

been faved.
THE
TEXT.
Chapter X. Ver. 1. And I aw

another mighty angel ome down from
N 2
heaven,
180
heaven,
A Commentary on the
clothed with a cloud: and a* rain
bow was upon his head, and his face was as

it were the fun, and his feet as pillars of
fire. 2. And he had in his hand a little

book open : and he fet his right foot upon
- the
fea, and his left foot on the earth, 3. and

cried with a loud voice, as when a lion
roareth: and when he had cried feven thun
ders uttered their voices+: 4. and when the

feven thunders had uttered their voices, I
was about to write: and I heard a voice
from heaven faying unto me, feal up thoe

things which the feven thunders uttered, and
write them not . 5. And the angel which

-
I faw
Ver 1. A rainino wa upon his head.] See before
Chap. iv. 3.
t. Ver. 3. Seven thunders uttered their voices.] In Chap.
xiv. 2. and xix. 6. the voice of a great multitude is com
pared to thunder.
the notes on
# Ver. 4. And write them not.] By the prophet Jere

miah to
write down is ued in the fenfe of recording an
irreverible decree: O earth, earth, earth, hearthe word
of the Lord. Thus faith the Lord; Write ye this man

childles, a man that hall not proper in his days: for IlO
man of his feed hall proper fitting upon the throne of

David, and ruling any more in Judah. Jer. xxii. 29, 30.
-
And
181
I faw tand upon the fea and upon the earth
lifted up his hand to heaven, 6. and fware

by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who
created heaven, and the things that therein
are, and the earth, and the things that
therein are, and the fea, and the things that therein are, that there hould be time no .
longer*. 7. But in the days of the voice of

the feventh angel, when he hall begin to
found, the mytery of God hall be finihed f.,
as he hath declared to his fervants the pro
phets. 8. And the voice which I heard
from heaven fpake unto me again, and faid,
Go and take the little book which is open in
the hand of the angel which tandeth upon
the fea and upon the earth. 9. And I went
unto the angel, and faid unto him, Give me
And therefore the command given from heaven not to
write down what thefe thunders
faid,
feems to be
equi
valent to a refual of the divine ratification of it.
* Ver.6. There hould be time no longer.] In the original

it is, Time hall not be yet.
+ Ver. 7. The mystery of God/hall befinihed, &c.] Dan.
xii. 7. When He hall have accomplihed to fcatter the
power of the holy people all thee things hall be fulfilled.

And St. Paul to the Corinthians 1. xv. 52. At the last
trump, &c.
N 3
t.
|-
the
Y
A Commentary on the
182
the little book; and he faid unto me, Take

it and eat it up; and it hall make thy belly
bitter, but it hall be in thy mouth fweet as
honey. 10. And I took the little book out
of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was
in my mouth fweet as honey: and as foon
I had eaten it my belly was bitter. 11. And
He faid unto me, Thou mut prophefy again

before many peoples, and nations, and
tongues, and kings.

CHAPTER XI. Ver. 1: And there was
given me a reed like unto a rod ; and the

angel tood, faying, Rife and meaure the
temple of God, and the altar, and them that
worhip therein. 2. But the court which is

without the temple leave out, and meaure it
not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and
the holy city hall they tread under foot
forty and two months*. 3. I will give power
unto my two witnefesf, and they hall

a
pro
* Ver. 2. Forty and two months.] See note on Chap.

ix. 10.
+ Ver. 3. My two witneffes.] In the 43d Chapter of

Iaiah that prophet, who was a type of Christ. and the
-
Jewih
183
prophefy a thouand two hundred and three

fcore days, clothed in fackloth., 4. Thee
are the two olive-trees and the two candle

Jewih people are denominated the witneffes of God;
Ye are my witnees, faith the Lord, and my fervant
whom I have chofen.
When our Lord before His af
cenfion told the apotles, that they hould receive power,

after that the Holy Ghost was come upon them, He added,
And ye hall be witneffes unto me, both in Jerualem and
in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of

the earth. Thefe paages are ufficient to prove that the
true worhippers of God, and epecially the preachers of
His pure word, are His witnees; and not only the fact
of thee last having been repeatedly fent by two and two,
but the ministry of the gopel being on the first preaching

of it, divided as it was, into two parts, the one of the cir
cumciion, and the other of the Gentiles, will account for
two being here named, and point out as the two bodies of
men intended (for that they are metaphorically only indi
viduals, their prophefying during the pace of twelve
hundred and fixty years manifets) the Jewih and the Gen
tile Christians. Whiletheir being termed in the ubequent

vere the olive-trees, and the two candlesticks ftanding
before the God of the earth, needs no other elucidation
than what is afforded by St. Paul's application of the em

blem of an olive-tree both to Jews and Gentiles in his .
Epistle to the Romans, and the application of candlesticks

to churches in the firt Chapter of this Book, with our
Lord's words to His diciples, Ye are the lights of the
world.
N 4
fticks
184
A Commentary on the
Ricks standing before the God of the earth.

5. And if any man will hurt them, fire pro
eeedeth out of their mouth, and detroyeth

their enemies: and if any man will hurt
them, he muft in this manner be killed.

6. Thee have power to hut heaven, that it
rain not in the days of their prophecy*:
and have power over waters to turn them to
blood, and to ' fmite the earth with all
plagues, as often as they will.
7. And when
they hall have finihed their tetimony, the

beat that acendeth out of the bottomlefs
pit hall niake war againt them, and hall
overcome them, and kill them.

* Ver. 6. Thefe have power to hut heaven that it rain
not, &c.] In holy writ the prophets are faid to do that
which in the name of the Lord they declare hall be done,
Thus in the firt Chapter of Jeremiah, ver. 9, 10. And
the Lord faid unto me, Behold I have put my words in

thy mouth. See, I have this day fet thee over the nations
and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down,
and to detroy, and to throw down, and to build, and to
plant. In like manner, the power here given to the

witnees may be interpreted of the menaces they hall by
the word of the Lord denounce against the world for dif
obe, in, His gof el, and the execution of which menaces
the nati ns feel, however they refue to repent.
P Roof
Revelation of
St. John.
185
* -,
P Roof of AccoM P LIsHMENT.
It is well known that to refeue the holy
land out of the hands of the Mahometans

was the objet of the cruades, the number
of which was feven: the following account

of the manner in which the exhortation
of pope Urban the Second to undertake

the firt cruade was received at the council
of Clermont is taken from Mr. Gibbon.
The orator was interrupted by the hout of

thouands, who with one voice, and in their
rutic idiom exclaimed aloud, God wills
it, God wills it.
It is indeed the will of
God, replied the pope; and let this me
morable word, the inpiration furely of the

Holy pirit, be for ever adopted, as your
cry
of battle, to animate the devotion and cou
rage of the champions of Chrit. Now to

fuch a cry how appoite the angel's anwer,
The time hall not be yet. While by the
holy city till continuing under the dominion

of the followers of Mahomet his other decla
ration remains uncontroverted.
The
186
A Commentary on the
The fenations of the apotle on becoming

acquainted with the contents of the little
book are exatly fuch as we might preume
would arife from his receiving information of
that which has atually come to pas; that
while expoed to perecution in the eatern,

the profeion of the gopel hould in the we
tern empire be countenanced by the ruling
powers; but yet that the Chritianity thus
profeed, would in the dotrines be wonder
fully corrupted, and in the pratice of it be

made till more abominable.
That the true worhippers of God have

been confined to a fmall portion of the
fcene of revelation both in the eat and in
the wet (for the period at which the apotle

was commanded to eat the little book eems
manifetly to fugget, that from thence the

fortunes of the wetern church are in fome
meaure alluded to), the known prevalence
of the impious forgeries and impure doc

trines of Mahomet in the eat, and the as
well known tyranny of the papal power in

the wet, with all its concomitant forgeries,
blaphemies, idolatry, and impurities ufi
ciently
' *
Revelation
ciently prove.
of St. John.
187
But as the emblem of ome
worhippers continuing in the temple and

about the altar has in the wet met with its
antitype in the pure dotrines of the gopel

being retained by fome, pite of the general
apotacy, fo in the eat it has done the fame
in permiion having been granted to Chri
tians till to worhip at Jerualem. This we
learn from Mr. Gibbon, who having tated,
that prior to the capture of that city by the

Saracens, the Perfians under the reign of
Choroes the fon of Nuhirwan took it by af

fault, fays, the fepulchre of Christ, and the
fiately churches of Helena and Contantine
were confumed, or at leaft damaged by the
flames; and the mafiacre of ninety-thoufand
Chritians is imputed to the Jews and Arabs,
who fwelled the diforder of the Perian
March. Ch. 46.
From this period (A.D.
614.) with little interruption has the city

been in the hands of the enemics of the
gopel; but with this attendant circumstance,

that in the midt of it, even while thus poffeffed by their adverfaries, the Chritians
have retained a place of worhip. In the

apitulation with Omar, (Mr. Gibbon fpeaks)
-
the
188
-A
Commentary on
the
the inhabitants had stipulated the afurance

of their religion and property. The articles
were interpreted by a mafter againt whom
it was dangerous to diputebut a peculiar
quarter was referved for the patriarch with
his clergy and peopleand the epulchre of
Chrit, with the church of the Reurretion,
was till left in the hands of his votaries.
A crowd of pilgrims from the eat and wet

continued to viit the fepulchre, and the ad
jacent fantuaries.Harun Alrahid, the
greatet of the Abaffides, without refigning

the ubtantial dominion, preented the em
peror (Charlemagne) with the keys of the

holy fepulchre, and perhaps of the city of
Jerualem. From this time, as the hito
rian continues to relate in his fifty-eventh
Chapter, the Chritians continued with little

interval to be permitted to viit Jerualem in
pilgrimage till the commencement of the
cruades; and even when thee expeditions had ceafed, and the vitorious Turks had
demolihed the churches and fortifications of
the Latin cities, a motive of fear or avarice,
fays the hitorian, till opened the holy

epulchre to fome devout and defenceles
{}
pilgrims.
z
189
pilgrims. And that this has been continued
to the preent age, fufficiently appears from

the tetimony of our more modern travellers.
While therefore we jutly reprobate the
fupertition that acribes to pilgrimages the

merit of good works; ince we mut till fup
poe, that many who have undertaken this
burdenfome tak, have, however mitaken,
acted from fincere faith and unfeigned piety;
does not the recorded fact, that there has
been, and is till left a place in the holy city,

where thoe who wih to do fo, may render
this homage to Chrit, though the ret be in
poleffion of His adveraries, evidently corre

fpond with the emblem of the holy city and
outward court being given to the Gentiles,
while fome worhippers remain in the temple,
and about the altar? Neither can I leave it
unoberved, that they are about the very

altar on which the great Sacrifice for the fins
of the whole world was offered, even mount
Calvary. And for the prophefying of the

witnestes in fackcloth in the Eat, the fame
writer bears to the accomplihment of this

portion of the predition the following teti
si
mony:
*v
190
A Commentary on the
mony: The captive churches of the Eat

have been afflited in every age by the ava
rice or bigotry of their rulers; and the ordi
nary and legal retraints mut be offenive to

the pride or the zeal of the Chritians. About
two hundred years after Mahomet they were

feparated from their fellow-ubjects by a tur
ban or girdle of a lefs honourable colour:
intead of horfes or mules, they were con

demned to ride on affes, in the attitude of
women : their public or private buildings

were meaured by a diminutive standard;
in the treets or the baths it is their duty to
give way or bow down before the meanet
of the people; and their tetimony is rejected,
if it may tend to the prejudice of a true be
liever.
Ch. 51.
In addition to this account of general af

flitions, I could trancribe from the fame
writer others of particular perfecutions fan
guinary and cruel; but I think I have pro

duced enough to demontrate, that under the
dominion of the Mahometans the profeors

of the Gopel tetify their faith indeed in
mourning ; and the prophecy is expres, that
fo
191
fo they hall continue to do, though perhaps

not under the fame oppreors, until the
twelve hundred and fixty years be accom
plihed.
SECTION X.
The conneting circumtances in the fates

of the eatern and the wetern churches
being thus decribed, the viion proceeds to a

more particular decription of the tate of the
lat, during the period that the former hall
continue under the Mahometan yoke, pre

facing the account with a fuccinct repreen
tation of the attempts which would be made
by Satan, through the minitry of the pagan ,

emperors of Rome, to prevent the etablih
ment of Christianity in the empire, by de- .
ftroying a fon of the church detined to fuc
ceed to the imperial throne: and on failure
of this, and the conequent overthrow of

idolatry
- 192
A Commentary on the
idolatry after Contantine had ucceeded to

the fole command of the Roman world, his
proceeding to perecute the church, which
ecaping by the divine protection, of which
the imperial power was in part the intru

ment ; his next finding means to diret
againt her an inundation of foes, which,
however, hould be fwallowed up by the

empire itelf; the barbarians who compoed
it, adopting the laws, manners, and religion
of the nation they conquered; and laftly,
fince this tratagem hould prove without
effet, his returning to make war with all
the remnant of true Chritians in the mode
decribed in the fubequent portion of the

prophecy.
CHAP. XII. Ver. 1. And there appeared

a great wonder* in heaven; a woman clothed
with the fnf, and the moon under her feet,

and
.*
* Ver. 1. A great wonder.] Gr. an important ymbol.

+ Ver. 1. Clothed with the fun, &c.] The Sun of
Righteoufnes, mentioned Mal. iv. 2. who is the pro

teor of the church; for the church is throughout the
Scripture repreented under the emblem of a woman be

loved of her Lord as a wife hould be of her huband;
*
**
fee
Revelatim of St. John.
193
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

2. And he being with child cried, travailing
in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3. And
there appeared another wonder (ymbol, Gr.)
in heaven; and behold a great red dragon*,

having
fee Ephef. v. And Chrift having, as we are told in
Col. ii. triumphed for us over the ceremonial law, that
by whoe periods many obervances of that law were re
gulated, the moon being under the feet of the church,
mot aptly repreents the state of the christian church after
the Moaic dipenation was done away.The twelve stars

too, according to the text in Daniel I have before referred
to, that they who turn many to righteoufnes hall fhine

as the stars for ever and ever; most accurately deigns
thoe twelve by whom the world was converted to Chri
tianitythe twelve at the head of the church.
* Ver. 3. A great red dragon, &c.] In the feventh of
Daniel, ver. 7. the empire which it was declared hould

break in pieces the dominions of the Babylonian, Medo- Perian, and Macedonian empires, is characterized as a
beast dreadful, and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and
having ten horns; this was no other, as appears from the

event, than the Roman empire. And in Chap. xvii. of
this Book, the beast which is repreented as carrying the
woman that was the type of the city which in St, John's
time reigned over the kings of the earth, the city, beyond
all controvery, of Rome, and which beast mut confe
quently be the emblem of that empire of which that city

was the capital, that is, the Roman, had feven heads and
O
ten
#*
A Commentary on the
having even heads and ten horns, and feven
104
crowns upon his heads. 4. And his tail

'drew the third part of the fiars of heaven,
and did cat them to the earth: and the
*
dragon fiood
before the woman which was
ready to be delivered, for to devour her child
as foon as it was born. - 5. And he brought

forth a man child, who was to rule all nations
with a rod of iron*: and herchild was caught

up to God, and to His throne f. 6. And the
woman fled into the wildernefs, where he
*
, '. ,
' , , ; : !-
' {
'
ten horns, and is repreented as having been lain under

one of its heads, and again restored under the eighth form,
and conequently is only this beast under another state:

and therefore this beast is the Roman empire, and, as it .
appears from his acts, in the pagan state.

* Ver. 5. Rod of iron.] Although this be a charater
istick of our bleed Saviour, and in its full extent appli
cable folely to Him, yet, like various others, it may, with
more limited import, be applied to another perfon, made
the instrument of heaven in the particular expreed by it.

,
+ Ver. 5. His throne.] As every throne which God

giveth, but particularly that from which the peculiar
people of God are ruled, may with proprity be called

His Throne, fo in 1 Chron. xxix. 23. that to which So
lomon ucceeded, under whom an establihed temple was

raied for the name of the Lord to rest there, is called the
Throne of the Lord.
-
hath
195
hath a place prepared of God, that they

fhould feed her there a thouand two hun
dred and threefcore days*. 7. And there
was war in heaven i ; Michael and hi angels
fought against the dragon; and the dragon

fought and his angels, 8. and prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in
heaven. 9. And the great dragon was cat
out, that old ferpent, called the Devil, and
Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:

he was cat out into the earth, and his an
* Ver. 6. A thouand two hundred and threefcore days.]
It is fcarcely neceary to repeat, that days are in the
prophetick book ymbolically ued for years. ,

+ Ver. 8. In heaven.] That heaven is frequently fed
to expres the governing powers, has been already proved.
Ver. 9. Into the earth.] It was this that gave occaion
for applying the term pagans to the retainers of the ancient

idolatry, becaue after the banihment of it and its priests
from the court, it became confined to the inhabitants of
the country and the villages, thoe who dwelt in the latter
being in Latin termed Pagani; and the eagernes of the
church of Rome to bring thee within her pale was the
ground of thoe accommodations of dotrines and ceremo

nies, by which, in lieu of the pure and piritual worhip
of the firt
Christians,
fhe
gradually introduced
that re
markable conformity, which now exits between the ido
latry which formerly reigned in ancient, and that which is

now prattied in modern Rome.
-
O 2
gels
196
Commentary on the
gels were cat out with him. 10. And I heard .

a voice faying in heaven, Now is come falva
tion, and trength, and the kingdom of our

God, and the power of His Chrit: for the
accufer of our brethren is cat down, which
accued them before our God day and night.
11. And they overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb, and by the word of their tef

timony; and they loved not their lives unto
the death. 12. Therefore rejoice, ye hea

vens, and ye that dwell in them.
Woe to
the inhabitants of the earth, and of the fea!
for the devil is come down unto you, having

great wrath, becaue he knoweth that he hath
but a fhort time. 13. And when the dragon
faw that he was cat unto the earth, he per
fecuted the woman which brought forth the
man child.
14. And to the woman were
given two wings of a
great eagle*, that he
* Ver. 14. Great eagle.] Exod. xix. 4. Ye have feen
what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on

eagle's wings, and brought you unto myelf: and in
Ezekiel, chap. xvii. the kings of Babylon and Egypt are
repreented under the emblems of two great eagles: how
well then may the eagle here be interpreted of the Roman
empire, whoe imperial standard was an eagle?
might
197
might fly into the wildernes* into her place,

where he is nourihed for a time, and times,
and half a time, from the face of the ferpent.

15. And the ferpent cat out of his mouth
water as a flood+ after the woman, that he
might caue her to be carried away of the

flood. 16. And the earth helped the woman,
and the earth opened her mouth, and fwal
lowed up the flood which thdragon cat out

of his mouth.
17. And the dragon was
* Ver. 14. Wildernes.] The wildernes was the place in

which Ifrael fojourned immediately previous to their en
tering on the promied land; and where the true worhip
pers of God were hidden from the world.
+ Ver. 15. Water as a food, &c.] An invaion of foes is
foretold under the ymbol of a flood by Jeremiah, ch. xlvii.
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the pro
phet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh fimote
Gaza: thus faith the Lord, Behold waters rife up out of
the north, and hall be an overflowing flood, and hall over
fw the land and all that is therein; the city and them that
dwell therein: then the men fhall cry, and all the inhabit
ants of the land hall howl.
Ver. 16. The earth, &c.] It is hardly neceary to

prove, that the term earth or land is in fcripture ued for
the inhabitants of it, among whom the barbarians were
lostbut if the reader will look forward to Chap. xix. 2.
he will fee it thus ued,
o 3
*---
-*-*
- * s---"
wroth
198
A Commentary on the
wroth with the woman, and went to make .
war with the remnant of her feed, which
keep the commandments of God, and have

the tetimony of Jeus Chrit.
~
P ROOF OF A C C O MI P L IS H MI EN T.
THE history of the perfecutions ufficiently

fhew, that former emperours had endeavoured
to prevent the progres of Chritianity: but
his pagan copartners in the empire, by
at
tempting to detroy Contantine, truck at

him on whom the Chritians had fixed their
hopes of deliverance; and therefore his ecape

from them all mut have tended trongly to
impres on the minds of his believing fub
jets the aflurance, which Mr. Gibbon tells
us they entertained, that the elevation of

Contantine was intimately conneted with
the deigns of Providence. Of the. de

ftrutive intentions of the mot formidable
of his opponents, Galerius, this hitorian
has given the following intimations. The
favour of the people and foldiers who had
named him (Contantine) as a worthy can

*
didate
199
didate for the rank of Car, ferved only to
exaperate the jealouy of Galerius ; and

though prudence might retrain him from
exercifing any open violence, 'an abolute
monarch is feldom at a lofs how to execute
a fure and ecret revenge. Every hour in

creaed the danger of Contantine, and the
anxiety of his father, who by repeated letters

exprefied the warmet deires of embracing
his fon. The permillion of the journey was
relutantly granted ; and whatever precau-
tions the emperour might have taken to in

tercept a return, the confequences of which
he with fo much reaon dreaded, they were
effetually diappointed by the incredible di
ligence of Contantine. .
l.
*-
si
And, Is there no refemblance of a child
of the church being caught up from the
dragon who tood ready to devour him, even

in this first ecape of Confiantine from that
ferocious and pagan emperour, who was evi
dently watching to detroy him?
His danger, however, was not over; for,
when on his father's deceae he was eleted
o 4
emperour
200
A Commentary on the
emperour by the foldiers, the fame authour
obferves of his acceptance of the purple,

The throne was the objet of his defires ; "
and had he been les atuated by ambition,
it was his only means of fafety. He was well
acquainted with the character and fentiments

of Galerius, and fufficiently apprized, that if
hewihed to live, he mui determine to reign.

How bitter too that enmity was againt which
he was thus fecured, the behaviour of his
adverary on receiving notice from Contan
tine, that he had been elected emperour by

the army, indicates: The firt emotions of
Galerius were thofe of furprize, diappoint

ment, and rage; and as he could feldom re
ftrain his paffions, he loudly threatened, that
he would commit to the flames both the
letter and the mestenger. At this time,

indeed, he was placed on the throne with
this remarkable circumtance attending him;

that he was the fon of a father who had long
enounced polytheifin. Yet was not the
accomplihment of the predition complete
until, after the ucceive overthrow of Maxi
mian, Maxentius, and Licinius, (all of whom,

the fame hitorian tetifies, attempted his
detrution)
*
201
destruction) he became fole emperour. And

then, too, the overthrow of paganim, pre
figured by the victory of Michael over the

devil, was brought about in the etablihment
of the Gopel.
-
Having already jutified my interpretation

of the throne of God, mentioned in the text,
by proving, that that to which Solomon was
raied was for denominated, I cannot here

omit to notice a reemblance between thee
two monarchs in the following points. As
to Solomon, after a period of wars and tur
bulence, it was given to build a temple where
the ark of the covenant might ret; fo to
Constantine, after a feafon of trouble to its
profeors, (marked by the pains and travail
of the woman) was it granted to afford an
etablihment to Chritianity. Again ; as

Solomon's acceion was oppoed by a rival
whom he vanquihed, fo was that of Con

tantine by thoe whom he fubdued: and,
laftly, if the behaviour of Contantine toward
the clofe of his life hould excit a doubt of

his being made the fubjet of fo important a
predition, the latter days of Solomon formed

a difgraceful contraft to thoe in the begin
ning
-
A Commentary on the
ning of his reign ; yet was he in the earlier
202
period of his glory, made a type of that

perfect charater, which has fince appeared
as the true King of Irael.
* *
* * *
But further it was forehewn to the evan
gelii,
that this elevation of a child of the
church to the throne hould not put an end
to the struggles of Satan to retain the feat of

government ; and in perfet correpondence
with this not only in the reign of Julian was
paganim again advanced to the throne, but
its final removal from all authority was not
effeted, as appears from Mr. Gibbon's
twenty-eighth Chapter, until the reign of

Theodoius the Great, when paganim was
formally renounced at Rome by a vote of
the fenate.
-
Although thus baffled, however, the great

adverary of mankind omitted not to pro
ceed, as the prophecy declared he would, to
*
attack the church by other means, and thoe

perhaps more effetual than that of perfecu
tion, by the corruption of its members. In
confequence of this corruption aroe nume
TOUS
/
203
rous herefies, which are reported by Mr.

Gibbon, and were acribed by cotemporary
writers (it is well worthy of remark) to the
fuggetions of Satan. By the prevalence of

thefe, and increaing depravity of both prin
ciples and pratice, had he nt received the
divine fupport through the intrumentality of

the imperial power, noted in the viion by
the wings of a great eagle, the church would
in all probability have been overwhelmed:

a concluion jutified by what we have in
this age feen of the rapidity with which
fchifim decends to fcepticim, and fcepticim

to determined infidelity. Among thee cor
ruptions the ancient idolatry prang up in a
and,
new form ;
in remarkable conitence
with the text, the hitorian of the Roman
empire has feen it proper to join in the fame
Chapter the final detrution of paganim,

and the introdution of the worhip of faints
and relics among the Chritians.
Hitoric evidence of the Roman empire

*
having been
inundated by hofts of barba
rians in the period here deigned, has already
been produced in Set. VI.
That thee
barbarians embraced the faith of thoe they
COIl
204
A Commentary on the
conquered as well as their civil intitutions,

and thus became confounded with the ancient
inhabitants of the regions fubdued, is fo vell

known, that in attetation of it here I will
produce only the following hort paage from

the hitorian already fo often quoted, who,
when fpeaking of Italy alone, when under
the dominion of the Goths, writes thus:
The civil adminitration, with its honours
and emoluments, was confined to the Ita
lians; and the people till preferved their
dres and language, their laws and cutoms,

their peronal freedom, and two-thirds of
their landed property.
*
To the laft step of the malice of Satan our

attention is particularly called by the ex
preion of the text, The dragon was wroth
with the woman, and went to make war with
- the remnant of her feed, which keep the

commandments of God, and have the teti
mony of Jeus Chrit:
and the more extra
ordinary the intruments he made ufe of in

this warfare, the les the oppoition he has
met with in it, the greater the fucces it has

had in the world, and the more trongly it
IS
205
is characterized in cripture, the more strict

is the obligation on every one who profees
himelf a believer in Chrit, to afcertain the
power pointed out, and trive to avoid being
implicated in any degree in an apostacy here

plainly charaterized as diabolical.
SECTION XI.
Tii E prophetick hitory of this wonderful

-
viion is now brought down to the fet

tlement of the barbarians which overran the
Roman empire in its different provinces.

After receiving the predition of this under
the emblems explained above, the apotle
conceived himelf to be tanding on the fea
fhore, when he fay rife out of the fea (and
by the fea it hould be noted is by fcriptural
writers often marked the wetern point of the
compas), the emblem of a body politick,
and which is afterwards in Chap. 17, au
5
thoritatively
v
f .
206
Commentary on
the
thoritatively explained to be the proper

Roman empire) which had been overwhelmed
with woes and troubles, as afcending again
to notice and power. In conidering the

characteritics of this power, thoe mentioned
in the 17th Chpter
mut be taken into the
account with thoe which are enumerated in
the 13th - now immediately before us; and

therefore without further notice, I hall con
fider what is faid in either place but as parts
of the fame defcription.
This empire then, under the figure of a
fcarlet-coloured wild beat having feven heads,
(explained afterwards to be ignificative of

feven kings) was declared to have had in the
coure of its previous duration feven fuc

ceffive forms of government; (for ucceive
they are expresly marked to have been) and
by having ten horns (authoritatively explained

alfo of ten co-temporary kings) to have
within the extent of it, after its recovery, ten
kingdoms, whoe fovereigns hould come into
power at the fame time with this leading

power pecifically characterized by the beat,
and hould unite in fupporting it with their
power
*
|

While
power and trength.
the feven
207
pre
vious forms of government are all charac
terized as blaphemous. By the potted kin

of the beat and his reemblance of a leopard,
the motley yet unchangeable character of the
power, together with his crafty vigilance for

prey, was preignified; by the feet of a bear
was he characterized as climbing to domi

nion and clofely retentive of his prey ; and
by his having the mouth of a lion were his
haughty violence 'and great rapcity de

figned; and laftly, by his receiving from the
dragon his power, throne, and great autho
rity, he was mot artificially (if we may ue

that term in this cafe) marked as the Anti
Chrit: Since an offer of all the kingdoms of

the world, as delivered into his hands to give
to whom he would, was by the tempter made
to our ever-blefied Saviour, who with dignified
contempt rejeted the proffered bribe, which
has by this charater, his blaphemouly pre

tended vicar, been accepted.
One of the feven heads of this empire ap
peared as having been wounded to death but

healed again, the recovery of the dictatorial
and
!
A Commentary on the
and pontifical government of Rome in one
perfon, which had been eparated by the
aflaffination of Julius Car, when the fenate
too paffed a decree that the office of ditator
fhould never be revived, being thus fore
208
fhewn.
It was further made known to the apotle

that all the earth would be tricken with
wonder at this recovered power, and bow

down to the dragon who had given it autho
rity, and to the power itelf; challenging the
world to produce its equal, or one who could

combat with it.
Moreover this power it was declared fhould
be most remarkable for its arrogance and

blaphemies: blapheming the name and ta
bernacle of God and the inhabitants of hea
ven.
Its capital, it was accurately fpecified,
fhould be the city of Rome, in which the

colours of purple and fearlet fhould be par
ticularly affeted; and ornaments of gold,
precious tones, and pearls, plentifully fcat
tered, from whence hould fpread through all
the earth idolatry, perecution, and other

-
abominations;
Y
v
Revelation of St.
John.
209
abominations; while that city hould con

fider itelf as queen of the nations, and ex
alted beyond the danger of reverfe. For uni

veral hould be the empire of her fovereign,
and he hould make war with the faithful
followers of Chrit, and fubdue them, conti
nuing his warfare againt them the whole of
his duration, that is 1260 years.
To this decription of the then future ty

ranny is added a particular warning to all
capable of liftening to it, to attend to its
contents, with an aurance that the divine
vengeance will in the end overtake the guilty

power, though its duration will form a tryal
of the faith and patience of true believers.
And in truth, fo fpecifick, fo trongly and
nicely marked is this delineation, that no

honet mind can be at a los to perceive,
whether fuch a power has atually appeared

on the earth, or not. Since unles its ap
pearance has been fuch as to attract general
notice, the predition cannot have been ful

filled. . But if it has, the charateritics
noted are fuch as can meet in one power

alone; becaue the time, the place, and the
fupremacy, are all particularly defigned; and

p
there
210
A Commentary on the
there can be but one fupreme ruler in the

fame place, and at the fame time. That
this time is determinately pointed out , as
following that of the fettlement of the bar
barians in the dominions of the Roman em
pire has been already noticed; and the
place is in the feventeenth Chapter particu

larly limited by a. declaration, that the city
which reigned over the kings of the earth at
the time of the vifion hould be its capital.

Unles then any man can fairly doubt either
of what power Rome has been the capital
fince the fettlement of the northern invaders;
or, whether he reigned over the earth in St.
John's time; he cannot fairly doubt, whether

the power here preignified be the papal.
But after having had the rife of this fin
gular and very extraordinary power thus pre- . .
fignified unto him, the evangelit was hewn
under the emblem' of another wild beaft
rifing out of the earth (which as placed in
oppoition to the fea may be confidered as
fignificative alo of the eastern portion of the

world), and having two horns like a lamb,
though he fpake as a dragon, a fubordinate
power, under the direction of two lines of
97: ..
si
"
men,

211
men, which affecting rigidly to follow the precepts of felf-denial of the meek and holy
Jeus, hould yet exercife in the mot op

prefive manner all the authority of the
firt power, under his eye, and make the
earth and its inhabitants bow down to that
power. For he would work many wonders,

and by them deceive the multitude, direting
them to make an image to the renovated
power, to which image he himelf would,
impart fuch life and fpirit, that by means of
it, whoever would not bow down to it hould
be flain ; and he would farther cut off from
all the privileges and benefits of ociety

thofe who would not acknowledge the autho
rity of that power, by fubmitting to the
forms of being received among his fervants;
or taking his name, or the number of his
name ; which number hould exprefs various
particulars applicable to the papacy.

CHAP. XIII. Ver. 1. And I tood
upon the fand of the fea*, and I aw a
beat
-
* Ver. 1. The fea.] Since the Mediterranean or

great fea (as it is styled Joh.i. 4.) lay all along the western
P 2
coat
212
A Commentary on the
beat* rife up out of the fea+, having even

heads and ten horns, and upon his horns
ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of
blaphemy. 2. And the beat which I faw
was like unto a leopard, and his feet were
aS
coast of the holy land from north to outh. Hence =
(ang. the fea) often denotes the west. Gen. xxviii. 14.
Exod. x. 19.xxvi. 22. Ia. xlix. 12, andal. Parkhurst's
Hebrew Lexicon under t-
* Ver. 1. A beast.] As this and the following em
blems of heads and horns are authoritatively explained in

Chap. 17 , there is no occaion to detain the reader with
quotations from other parts of cripture in proof of the
justice of the interpretation above given to them.

+ Ver, 1. Out of the fea.] Palm xiv. 8. The floods
of ungodly men made me afraid.lxix. 1. Save me,
O God, for the waters are come in unto my foul.2. I

am come into deep water where the floods overflow me.
-nd again, ver. 14. Let me be delivered from them
that hat me, and out of the deep waters.and Palm
xxiv. 2. If it had not been the Lord who was on our
fide, when men roe up against us.-4. Then the
waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our
foul, -5, then the proud waters had gone over our foul.
, Ver. E. A leopard.] Jer. xiii. 23. Can the Ethiopian
change his kin, or the leopard his fpots? Then may ye
alo do good, that are accustomed to do evil. And
Ch. v. 6, A leopard fhall watch over their cities; every
one that goeth, thence hall be torn in pieces. And

Hof.
2s
as the feet of a bear*, and his mouth as the
mouth of a lion + : and the dragon gave,

him his power, and his feat, and great autho
rity. 3. And I aw one of his heads as it

were wounded to death ; and his deadly
i
wound
Hof. xiii. 7. As a leopard by the way will I oberve

them.
* Ver. 2. A bear.] The feet of this animal, by which .

it is known it both climbs and strangles its prey, are the
only parts of it afcribed to the best.

+ Ver. 2. A lion.] Deut. xxxiii. 2o. He dwelleth as
a lion, and teareth the arm, with the crown of the head.
And Hof. xiii. 8. There will I devour them like a
lion.
. . .. ' ,
.
Ver. 2. And the dragon gave him, &c.] St. Luke iv.s.
And the devil, taking Him up into an high mountain,

fhewed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of timie. - 6. And the dvi faid unto Him, all
this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them: for
that is delivered unto me; and to whomfoever I will I
give it. 7. If thou thou therefore wilt worhip me, all

fhall be thine.
"
ver 3. Waunded to death.] As the interpretation I
have ventured to give to this paage is I believe quite
novel, I may justly be required to state my reaons for
differing from the feveral expoitors which have preceded
me.
Let me then beg the reader attentively to reflect,
that though this wounded head has been generally con

fidered as the fixth or imperial form of government
P 3
pre
valent
A Commentary on the
wound was healed: and all the world won
214
dered after the beat. 4. And they wor

fhipped
valent in Rome, the text does not, either here or in Chap.
17, pecify which it is; while confidering it as fuch has

in truth introduced great difficulties into the interpretation
of this part of the prophecy, and been the means of cover
ing it with confufion, through the endeavour to affign
their due proportion to the meaures in which the em
peror of Germany and the pope have fucceeded to the
power of the Roman emperors. This effect of it is alone

fufficient to raife a preumption against the justice of the
interpretation generally received; but there must be added
to it, that when the beast is in Chap. xvii. 8. characterized

as the beat that was, and is not, and yet is, it is felf
evident, that it can neither be in repect to the body of the
empire that he is faid not to be in existence in the days of
St. John, nor yet in regard of the fixth or imperial head,

which then was flourihing; it remains therefore, that it
mut be in repect to fome other head, which had before
been, in confideration of which he is faid to be of the
feven.
Which then of the previous heads had been
wounded to death? For the merely having fallen will not
come up to the decription by which the fate of this is

distinguihed from that of the other heads. The kings
were only expelled, the confuls were uperfeded. Two
only of the decemvirs were put to death, and neither of
them, as it appears, by the fword; the military tribunes

were only laid afide; but the last perpetual dictator was
wounded to death by the fword, and a vote of the fenate
paed, declaring that the offices hould never be revived.

-
And
Revelation
of St. John.
215
fhipped the dragon, which gave power unto .

the beat: and they worhipped the beat,
faying,
*
ftronger reemblance preferved

between the dictatorial and the papal, than between the
And that there is a much
imperial and the papal power, a review of the following
particulars will demonstrate. The imperial power was for

the most part hereditary; this the papal is not, any more
than the dictatorial, but elestive.
nuance of a
During the conti
dictator all other authorities were
fufpended,
the popes claim a right pecifically to prohibit the exer

cife of even the imperial functions themelves, to depoe
the fovereigns from their thrones, and abolve their
fubjects from all obligations to obedience: and they have

not only claimed, but abolutely exercied this dic
tatorial right. Again the dictator had under him an officer

who exercied in a very fingular manner all his authority,
viz., a mater of the hore; and thus is the fecond beat
characterized as performing pecifically the like office

before the firt.
And laftly, the dictator which received
the wound
by the fuch
fwordis the
waspope.
a perpetual dictator and
pontifex
maximus;
s. i
It certainly appears more eay and natural to uppoe;

that the head which was healed hould be the last which
had fallen, but even the common interpretation makes it
not this; ince the exarchate intervened between the em
perors and the popes. Neither ought it to pas unnoticed,

Augutulus, in whom the imperial line ceaed, was
only depoed, not put to death, by Odoacer.
Let then thefe feveral particulars be laid together, that
that
ver. 8. of Chap. 17, stands in need of fatisfactory expla

P 4.
, nation,
A Commentary on the
faying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is
216
able to make war with him?
5. And there
was given unto him a mouth fpeaking great

things and blaphemies; and power was
given unto him to continue forty and two
months. 6. And he opened his mouth in

blaphemy againt God to blapheme His
name, and His tabernacle, and them that
dwell in heaven. 7. And it was given unto
him to make war with the faints, and to
overcome them: and power was given him
over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
B. And all that dwell upon the earth hall
worhip him, whoe names are not written in
44
the book of life of the Lamb flain from the
foundation
of the world. 9. If any man
,!
-
nation, which as far as I have feen, it has not yet met with,
but which this interpretation eems to upply. That by
the fame many and great difficulties which attended the
folution of the allegory of the beast are entirely removed,
That the particulars repecting the head which had been

wounded to death are completely ubstantiated, and a
mot triking fimilitude proved between the head that was
formerly wounded, and that which has for fo many ages

depotically ruled at Rome; and, I conceive, that the
reader will have little caue to heitate at receiving the
interpretation I have given.

i
have
217
have an ear, let him hear. 10. He that

leadeth into captivity fhall go into captivity:
he that killeth with the fword, mut be

killed with the fword.
Here is the patience
and the faith of the faints.
11. And I be
held another beat coming up out of the

earth; and he had two horns*, like a lamb,
and he fpake as a dragon.
12. And he ex
rcifeth all the power of the firt beat be*

fore him, and eaufeth the earth and them
which dwell therein to worhip the beast, whoe

deadly wound was healed. 13. And he doeth
great wonders, fo that he maketh fire coma
down from heaven on the earth in the fight

of men, 14. and deceiveth them that dwell
on the earth by means' of thoe miracles

which he had power to do in the fight of the
beat; aying to them that dwell on the

earth, that
they fhould make an image
* Ver. 11. Two
to
horni.] In Dan. x. the tvo horns of.
the ram are explained by the angel to be emblematical of

of tbe kings of Media and Peria.
+ Ver. 14. An image.] The idolatrous cutom of the
-
Romans of making images of their emperors and worhip

ing them is well known; but I cannot but state to the
reader a remarkable circumstance recorded in the hitory

of
218
A Commentary on the
the beast, which had the wound by the

fword and did live. 15. And he had power
to give life unto the image of the beat, that
the image of the beat hould both peak,
and caue that as many as would not worhip
theimage of the beat hould be killed. And

he caued all, both mall and great, rich and
poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in

their right hand or in their foreheads: 17.
and that no man might buy or fell, fave he
that had the mark, or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name. 18. Here
is wifdom, Let him that undertandeth count
the number of the beat: for it is the num

ber of a man, and his number is fix hundred
three fcore and fix.
of the last perpetual distator; it is this; that after his

funeral oration was pronounced, to excite the people to
revenge-againt his murderers, there was produced a
jointed image of him in wax, contrived to exhibit the ap
pearance of his wounds; the fight of which is faid to

have tranported the multitude even to madnes.
-
P R O OF
219
*.
P Roo F of Acc M PLISIIM ENT.
Tur particulars contained in this portion

of the prophecy are fo various, that to avoid
confuion in preenting the proofs of their
completion to the reader, it feems neceary
previouly to give him fome idea of the ar

rangement intended to be made of them.
After demontrating then the rife of the
power foretold, and its identity with that
which before funk under a fea of calamities,
my purpoe is to invetigate and prove the

accomplihment of the feveral particulars of
his charater and condut fpecified in the
text of any of the pastages in this Book,

where he is mentioned, in doing which the
decription given of his capital will necearily

be conidered.
Now after the barbarous nations whoe
irruptions had overwhelmed the proper Ro

man empire were fettled in Italy, out of the
tumultuous fcene and troublous times that
yet continued, there did in fat arife wet of
that part of the earth where the apotle was

#
favoured
22O
A Commentary on the
favoured with the vifion, that power which

for feveral fuccefive ages maintained fo ex
traordinary and depotick a dominion over
Chritendom, and whoe influence, though

diminihed, is yet neither annihilated, or
likely immediately to be fo. To this reco
very of the Roman power ahdo its re-afcen
fion in a feafon of troubles, the hitorian of
that empire thus bears witnes in his forty

fifth Chapter:- Like Thebes, or Babylon,
er Carthage, the name of Rome might have
been erazed from the earth, if the city had
not been animated by a vital principle, which

again retored her to honour and dominion.
Then having fiated the effect which the po
festion of the genuine or fititious relicks of
the apofiles had in this work, he informs us,
that the temporal power of the popes in
fenibly arofe from the calamities of the

times: and, that Gregory the Great, who,
previous to this eletion, had at the Byzan
tine court, as nuncio of the apotolic fee,
boldly aumed in the name of St. Peter,
a tone of independent dignity, which would

have been criminal and dangerous in the
mot illutrious layman of the empire, was

after
221
after his elevation to the papacy, involved

by the misfortunes of Rome in the bufi
nefs of peace and war; and it might be
doubtful to himelf, whether piety or ambi
tion prompted him to fupply the place of the

abent fovereign. Here then behold unex
ceptionable tetimony of the beaft's rifing up
out of the fea; and that he was the very
fame that had been for a time overwhelmed,
however his different heads might fucceively

have fallen, is evident from the tetimony
of the fame writer; who relates,
that after
the dethronement of the lat wetern em

peror (by which fell the fixth head) the con
querors of Rome, though barbarians, re

tained her etablihed forms of civil po
lity, and her ancient provinces till called

themelves Roman, while he was deprived
of power to exercife any juridiction over

them.
In his thirty-ixth Chapter Mr.
Gibbon oberves of Odoacer who had de
poed Augutulus, He repeted, though a

conqueror and a barbarian, the intitutions,
and even the prejudices of his fubjects.

After an interval of even years, Odoacer
retored the confullhip of the wet.

-
Of
Tueodoric,
222
Commentary on the
Theodoric, the vanquiher and fucceor of
the King of Italy, we read, he fervilely co

pied the intitutions, and even the abues of
the political ystem which had been framed

by Contantine and his uccefors. He al
lowed a pre-eminence to the perfon and rank
of the eatern emperor. The alliance of the
eat and west was annually declared by the

unanimous choice of two confuls; but it
fhould feem that the Italian candidate, who
was named by Theodoric, accepted a formal
confirmation from the fovereign of Contan

tinople. The Gothic palace of Ravenna re
flected the image of the court of Theodofius

and Valentinian. The prtorian prefet, the
prfet of Rome, the qutor, the mater of
the offices, with the publick and patrimonial
treaurers, till continued to at as miniters
of tate, and the fubordinate care of jutice

and the revenue was delegated to feven con
fulars, three corretors, and five preidents,
who governed the fifteen regions of Italy,
according to the principles, and even to the
forms of Roman juriprudence. The civil
administration with its honours and emolu

ments, was confind to the Italians; and the
-
people
223
people till preferved their dres and lan

guage, their laws and cutoms, their peronal
freedom, and two-thirds of their landed pro
perty.
Such was the state of Rome and Italy

under the mot powerful of the Gothic mo
narchs, and his modest ucceors fo far imi

tated (or rather exceeded in this point) his
repectful behaviour to the eatern emperour,
that they put not their images on their coins,
but were fatisfied with adding their own
names to the head of the reigning emperor.
And, after a reign of fixty years, the

throne of the Gothic king was filled by the
exarchs of Ravenna, the repreentative in
peace and war of the emperor of the eat.

But if the reader compares the words of
the hitorian quoted fome lines back, her
ancient provinces still called themelves Ro

man, while he was deprived of power to erer
cife any juridition over them, with the
following account of her beginning to refume
that power under her new head, he will fee

the beat in the very at the vifion fo accu
rately
-
A Commentary on the
rately decribes, that of rifing out of the fea:
224
* even the exitence, the union, or the tran
lation of epicopal feats was decided by his

(Gregory's) abolute dicretion, and his fuc
cesful inroads into the provinces of Greece,
of Spain, and of Gaul, might countenance

the more lofty pretenions of fucceeding
popes.
Having demonstrated the rife and iden

tity of this power to have tallied with the
prophetick defcription of them, the charac

teriticks by which he is fo distintly marked
are next to be confidered.
The firt of thee is his colour, fcarlet,

which was the fame which was worn by the
Roman emperours in the time of war, and thus
peculiarly defignative of him to whom it was
given to make war with the faints. While

the woman who repreents his capital is de
fcribed as arrayed in purple and fcarlet;
both colours much affected by modern as
well as ancient Rome. The Treatife on the

Conformity between Modern and Ancient
Ceremonies cites the book of Sacred Cere
8
monies,
225
monies, in proof that the pope's habit and

fhoes were of purple, as well as the habit of
the cardinals, whom Julius II. the authour

fays, tyled fenators of the city of Rome; and
Du Meulin quoted by Daubuz oberves, that
the pope Paul II. (the immediate ucceor
of Julius) firt ditributed fcarlet cloth to his
cardinals, as well for themelves as for their

mules.
While the habit of the ancient
augurs, who deceived the people by their

pretended divinations, and to whom therefore
this woman who hath made the inhabitants
of the earth drunk with the wine of her for
nication, bears, in that particular, fo trong

a reemblance, was of fcarlet wovn
upon
purple.
The fecond charateritick by which this
power is marked is feven heads, and upon
thee heads the name of blaphemy. Thee

the interpreting angel declared to contain a
double ymbol, ignifying, on the one hand,

feven mountains on which the impure and
idolatrous capital was feated, and on the
other, even ucceive kings, (or forms of

government; for it appears from the 7th
Q
and
A Commentary on the
and 11th Chapters of Daniel, that the crip
226
ture varies not the emblem on account of
any difference in thee) who had or hould

rule over the Roman empire. As to the
feven mountains, it not only is well known,
that ancient Rome was built on feven hills,

but from paflages in feveral of her writers, it
is plain, this fituation was conidered as a
prominent and favourite feature in the de
fcription of their city. Martial, Propertius,
Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and Varro, have all
particularly noticed it, fo that the deignation

is intelligible and expres. And for the feven
kings, the five forms of government which

preceded the imperial, are enumerated by
by two of the bet Latin historians, Livy
and Tacitus, as follows, kings, confuls, dic
tators, decemvirs, and military tribunes with

confular power; at the time of the viion
exited the imperial, and after the fall of that
by the depoition of Augutulus, the next

was the exarchate, which continued but a
fhort time; thus accurately fulfilling the
words of the angel in Chap. 17, ver. 10,

five are fallen, and one is, and the other
is not yet come; and when he cometh, he

mut
227
mut continue a hort pace. The eighth it
was declared hould be the beat itelf, but

who, conidered as a head, was one of the
feven recovered from his deadly wound, and
which head, I mut again beg the reader to

oberve, had, according to the expres decla
the eighth and eleventh veres of

the feventeenth Chapter, already been in the
ration of
apotle's time, but then was not, and was to

arife out of the deep.
And being thus ex
presly afcertained to be in no fmall meaure
the re-appearance of one of the five which
had then fallen, and their number itelf pre

cluding all idea of either confuls, decemvirs,
or military tribunes, the whole enquiry lies
between the regal and the ditatorial powers;
and this the fingle circumtance of the fecond
beat, who exercifes all the power of the firt
under his eye, eems to me fufficient to de
termine; though I have already mentioned
others, and hall tate, as evidence of the
accomplihment of this portion of the pro
phecy, yet more. Let the reader then com

pare the words above cited from Mr. Gib
bon concerning Gregory the Firt, that he
was involved by the misfortunes of Rome
Q 2
*
in
A Commentary on the
in the bufines of peace and war; and it
might be doubtful to himelf, whether piety
or ambition prompted him to fupply the
place of the abent fovereign; with thee
pastages from two writers on the customs of
the Romans: the firt is Godwyn, who in
the twelfth Chapter of the fecond Setion of
228
the third Book, writes, whenfoever the Ro

mans found themfelves encumbered with dan
gerous wars, or any other eminent dangers,
they preently chof a dictator, to whom

alone was committed the authority and rule
of the whole kingdom. The fecond paffage
is from Kennett, Book the third, Chapter
the fifth: The true and proper ditator
was he; who had been inveted with this
honour upon the occaion of dangerotis war,

fedition, or any fuch emergency as required
a fudden and abolute command.
What a
fimilarity is here diplayed in the rife of

thee powers! Nor is that which exits be
tween their meaures of authority les.The

ditator Kennett tates, was to rule with
abolute authority even above the laws them
felves. And Godwyn fays he was called
ditator, becaue the people obeyed his

-
words,
229
words, and populi magiter, or master of

the people, inafimuch as none could make
their appeal from him unto the people.

And what is the difpenfing power claimed
by the popes, and the haughty titles they
have affumed, but a renewal as it were of the
fame privileges? Jurieu quotes the Canonits
as aying in plain terms : That there is no

fovereign power but in the pope: that the
authority of God and of the pope is the fame

thing: that whooever fay otherwife, are
wretched flatterers, who deceive the kings
, and princes of the earth. And in the bull
- of Sixtus the Fifth againt the king of Na

varre and prince of Cond, dated Sept. 12,
- 1685, as quoted by the authour of the Con

formity between Ancient and Modern Ce
remonies from Mezeray's Hitory of France,
is the following paflage: the authority de

legated to St. Peter and his fucceflors, by
the infinite power of the Eternal, is above
all power of the kings of the earth; that
theirs it is to enforce the obervance, and to
punih the infringers of it; by pulling them
from their thrones, how powerful foever they

be, and cating them to the earth, as miniters
of
Q 3
/
23O
A Commentary on the
of Satan. And within a few pages after that

of the lat quotation from Jurieu, that is, in
the firt Chapter of his continuation of the
accomplihment of the prophecies, are thefe
remarkable lines: But what needs fo much
proving of a thing, which is not denied, yea

is boated of Read but Steuchus, bihop of
Eugubium, about the donation of Contan
tantine ; Blondus in his Roma Retaurata;
Thomas Aquinas on the 2d Chapter of the
2d Epitle to the Thefalonians; Lipius in
the preface of his book de Magnitudine Ro
man; they all confes, and take a pride in
- faying, that the majety of the Roman em
pire is retored in the papal power; that this
new monarchy, is made of a religion, and
an imperial power; that by means of the
church of Rome, is accomplihed the oracle
which was given to old Rome, Imperium fine
fine dedi. That the pope is a perpetual dic
tator.
Herein the completion of the predition is
not only demonstrated, but other circum

ftances of fimilarity are brought forward.
As for the perpetual dictatorhips of both

8
Sylla
Revelation
of St. John.
231
Sylla and Julius Car, (fays Kennett) they

are confested to have been notorious viola
tions of the laws of their country. And

what are the
papal afumptions, but breaches
of all laws human and divine?
The new
monarchy, ay the writers above referred to

by Jurieu, is made up of a religion and im
perial power. And had not Julius Car
united in him the offices of perpetual dic
tator and pontifex maximus? Fetus's defi
nition of this lat is thus given by Kennett:
Judex et arbiter rerum humanarum divi
narumque, the judge and arbitrator of di

vine and human affairs, who quotes likewife
Polydore Virgil, as making no quetion,
but this was an infallible omen of the au
thority which the bihop of Rome enjoys to

this day, under the name of pontifex max
imus.
And thus have we found the two titles
which were borne by the head wounded to

death by the fword, applied by his own
partizans to the pope as jutly due unto
him.
Q 4
The
A Commentary on the
232
The next circumtance noticed in the
viion is that there was upon the heads of
the beat a name of blaphemy; this has been

fuppoed to allude to the blaphemous titles
the Roman emperours affumed, and their
permitting themfelves to be worhipped
as
gods; which indeed fufficiently accomplihes

the words: but I rather conceive, it alludes
to the heads as ymbols of the feven hills,

and the name of blapheniy is the woman
fitting thereon; whoe blaphemy will after

wards be proved.
-
- -
- -
The ten horns fignified, the angel likewife
declared, ten kings who hould receive au

thority as kings at the fame time with the
beat, and this emblem has found its com
pletion in the number of kingdoms which

aroe within the extent of the ancient Roman
empire at the time of the rife of the papacy,

and of thofe which have contributed to the
fupport of it; the round number of thee

having been uniformly ten.
But it may not here be
improper
to ob
ferve, that this completion of the prophecy

* . . .
WaS
233
was long ago noticed in expres and very

ftrong terms; for Eberhard bihop of Saltz
burgh, as quoted by Creffener in his De

montration, did about the year 1240, de
fcribe the uurpations of the papal authority

over the imperial, with application to the
beat in the Apocalype. The emperor,
-
fays he, is now no more than a name. The

ten kings, who have parted the world among
them, do destroy it, rather than govern it;

under them is grown up that little horn,
which has eyes and a mouth peaking proud

things. What can be clearer than this pro
phecy? Turn over the annals; all the trange
things our Mater forewarned us of are al
ready come to pas.
The motley character of this power, pre

fignified by its fpotted kin, is ufficiently
manifet in the mixture of eccleiatical and
temporal authority which it exercifes; and

the heterogeneous mixture of tates con
neted with it, having different views, and

different interets, fome trong, fome weak.
In Pallavicini's Hitory of the Council of

Trent, cited by Burnet in his Hitory of the
Reformation,
234
A Commentary on the
Reformation, the neceity of this mixture

of authority in the pope is afferted in the
following words: That there mut be a
temporal principality in the church, that all
things which fupport that principality are to
be at leat tolerated, though they may be con
trary to the primitive patterns, and to the firt
delivery of the gopel by Chrit and His
apotles. A principle which had long before

been applied to pratice; for Boniface the
Eighth, ays Jurieu, had the impudence to
write to Philip the Fair; We will have thee
know, that thou art fubjet to us, both in
fpirituals and temporals. Yet even this is
not in reality more than his predecestor In

nocent the Third had claimed in his fermon
on the coronation of a pope, quoted by the

author of the Conformity between Modern
and Ancient Ceremonies.
The church,
who is my poue, does not at her marriage

come to me empty handed; he has betowed
a precious, an invaluable dowry On lme ; an

abolute power in fpirituals, an extenive au- .
thority in temporals. She has given me the .
mitre for the enign of my piritual, and the

crown of my temporal juridition; the mitre
23
235
as priest, the crown as King; constituting

me His vicar, who bears this incription writ
ten on His thigh, and His vetment, the
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords."

But in the fpots of the leopard there was
likewife depited the unchangeablenes of the
charater of the power: and this has been
fully verified in its contantly retaining the

falfe dotrines it has once embraced. In
deed this
in error is a necery
pereverance
confequence of its claim to infallibility,

which obliges it to maintain whatever it has
once avowed to be right. Examine the de
crees of the council of Trent, and you will
find, that far from renouncing, they establih

the errours of Rome. Compare the dipen
fations and indulgences granted even fince
the reformation; nay, thoe of the preent
day, and though they be more guarded, fee,
if at the bottom they be a bit les blaf
phemous than thoe formerly given. I have

already laid before the reader fome of late
date, and from the mode of obtaining them
he may, I think, be fatisfied that the traffick
till goes on in the old way. The intrutions
.
, '
annexed
236
A Commentary on the
annexed to St. Bridget's beads are thus in
troduced: Our holy father pope Bene

dit XIV. by brief, bearing date January 15,
1743, granted new indulgences to the ro

faries or beads of St. Bridget, blefied by the
fuperiors of monateries, or other priets of
the order of our Saviour, or of that of St.
Bridget, or by any other priests fecular or

regular, who have been impowered; which
indulgences had been formerly granted by

the popes Leo X. and Clement XI. and ap
proved, December 4, 1714, by the holy
congregations of indulgences and relicks.

And at the end it is added, To obtain any
one or all thee indulgences, the beads mut
be blefied by one of the perfons mentioned
above. The holy congregation of indul
gences and relicks, according to the tenor of
a decree, istued November 26, 1714, stritly

forbids thefe beads to be fold, becaue they
are blefed, or to be lent for an unlimited
time, on pain of lofing the indulgences an

nexed to the fame. However by another
decree, dated February 18, 1745, the lender
not the borrower may avail himelf of thee
indulgences.
If loft no other beads can be
fubstituted

237
fubstituted in their place, unles blefied by
one of the perons abovementioned.
Thus the corruptions, which from their

grofines and the unbluhing effrontery with
which they were pratifed, did, through the

divine mercy, in the beginning of the fix
teenth century, lead to the Reformation, are
yet continued in the nineteenth; with more
caution indeed, becaue the indulgences
themfelves are not fold, though, I prefume,
the roaries to which they are attached, are
fo ; but the fame blaphemous pretenions of
forgiving fins, and releaing fouls from tor
ments in a feparate tate, are preferved.
Neither is this the only particular in which
the unchangeable charater of the papal

power is viible. It might naturally be fup
poed, that after the manner in which their
forged miracles have been deteted and ex
ofed, after their worhip of faints, (and mul
titudes of thefe even of doubtful charater)
and of relics, has been holden up to the

contempt and digut of the chritian world,
they would be more cautious of producing
legends,
A Commentary on the
238
legends, which any one who is acquainted

with and believes the facred writings, mut
know to be either falfe, or permitted only
for trials of the peoples tedfatnefs in adher
ing to the true worhip of God. Yet have
I now before me a treatife, publihed fo lately

as in the year 1756, intitled, The miracu
, lous Powers of the Church of Chrit afferted
through each fucceive Century, from the

Apotles down to the preent Time; in
which are reported, as incontetable, miracles

fcarcely to be furpafled by any the darknes
of the tenth century would have admitted.

Of thefe others may be brought forward in
proof of the accomplihment of another part

of the prophecy; at preent I will trancribe
only what I think fufficient to demonstrate
that the fame lying fpirit, the fame feared
concience uniformly prevails, age after age,

in this apotate and idolatrous church. The
writer of the abovementioned treatife, then,

fpeaking of the foundres of the reformation
of the difcalced Carmelites, in the fixteenth
century, whom it has pleaed fome pope to
make a faint, for her enormous falfehoods,
it may be preumed, fays, that in one of her

'
works,
239
works, called The Way of Perfetion, he

declares, that our Lord was, many times,
pleaed to let her fee Him in the facred hot.

In particular, going one day to receive the
blefied acrament, he aw Him in great ma
jety, in the hands of the priet, in the hot
which he was going to adminiter to her.
At the fame time he undertood, by a vifion, ,
that this fame priet was in the tate of fin,
which troubled her exceedingly. But, fays
fhe, our Lord Himfelf faid unto me, that I
fhould pray for him ; and told me, that he

had fuffered what I had feen, that I might
undertand what power and force the words
of confecration have; and that God would
not be kept from thence, how wicked foever
that priet were, who pronounced them *.
Of John Francis Regis, a Jefuit, who has

likewife been canonized, the fame authour
writes as follows This blefied man was
called to receive the crown of life on the
lat day of the year 1640; ince which time
numberles miracles have been wrought at

*
* See the treatife quoted above, p. 272.

*
his
240
A Commentary on the
his relicks, even by the very duft of his

tomb. The archbihop of Vienne, in a let
ter written to his holines the pope, Otober
11, 1710, peaks thus: During the life of

St. John Francis Regis, all eteemed and re
vered him as a faint; but the opinion they
had conceived of his fantity is greatly in
creaed, ince his death, by the great num

bers of miracles which God daily works at
his tomb, to make him more illutrious: the
duft of his tomb is carried into all the pro
vinces of the kingdom, and is carefully pre
ferved as an univeral remedy againt all dif

eafes. And twenty archbihops and bihops,
in their letter to Pope Clement XI., attet
the fame. We congratulate ourelves, fay

they, that it hath pleaed God to raife, in
our days, n apotolical man among us, en
dued with the grace of miracles.We are
witneffes, that before the tomb of St. John
Francis Regis, the blind fee, the lame walk,

the deaf hear, the dumb peak, &c.
For the fatisfation of the reader, con
tinues the fame pitiably deluded writer,
I hall trancribe, from the faints life,
- fome
- Revelation of St. John.
241
fome more circumstantial accounts of the
wonders done by his interceffions.

92 6
* i
Magdalene Arnauld, a religious woman
of St. Mary's at Puy, aged fifty years, was
reduced to the lat extremity by a formed

dropy, joined with a palfy. When the phy
ficians were of opinion that he could not
furvive half an hour, a relick of theofaint
was, put into her hands. After he had
kified it with devotion, he faid, Great fer
vant of God, my only defire in this world is
to accomplih the adorable will of God. If

I wih my health restored, it is only to re
pair, by a fervent life, the tepidity of my
former condut. Obtain for me from God
one year more to make a holy preparation
for death, and to fatisfy the divine justice by

penance.
Having faid this, he applied the
relick to her tomach ; that moment he
found herelf cured, the montrous fwelling

was abolutely difperfed. The day follow
ing he roe at four of the clock with the
community, and affifted at divine office in
perfect health. At the year's end he de

parted this life. Fourteen eye-witnests o!'
|-
the
A Commentary on the
, 242
this religious
the dieae and recovery of
woman, and of her prayer to St. Regis, at
teted upon oath the truth of this miracle.

2. Few readers, I believe, who hall have pe
rued thee extrats, but will think I have
fufficiently proved the unalterable continu

tance of this power in her blaphemous fale
thoods for the promotion of idolatry. Con
ceiving, therefore, that enough has been faid
-to demontrate the unchangeablenefs of the
a character of the papacy, I proceed to the

: characteriticks pourtrayed under the em-,
-blem of a bear's feet; thoe of climbing to
dominion, and being clofely retentive of

this prey. . .
1
3i
..
'
v Let the reader call to mind only the, gra
dual rife of this power; from the earliest

sages of Chritianity, when the bihop of
Rome was known to his own congregation
-only; through the period of his firt obtain

-ing a degree of repet from prefiding over
the church of the metropolis, to that of his
-astumingaright toprefcribe to other churches;

when, according to the extract before given
s s
: .
from
1
243
from Mr. Gibbon, even the exitence, the '
union, or the tranlation of epifcopal feats
was decided by his abolute dicretion; and

then that of his accepting, what had a few
years before been tigmatized as a mark of

Antichrift, the title of Univeral Bihop;
from this to his tyling himelf the Vicar of
Chrit, and fuffering himelf to be called in
fallible; and, laftly, to his declaring himelf,
as Sixtus the Fifth in his bull to Queen Eli
zabeth, a prince over all nations. Let

him recollet, how the popes gradually EX
tended their dominion in this our own coun-
try, from the time of Augutin the monk,

when the Britih church knew nothing of
the pretended rights of the fee of Rome,

until the pope procured the kingdom to be
reigned to him by the terrified John:then

let him confider, what could more accu
rately mark this mode of obtaining power
than the decription of climbing to it. And
for the ferocious firmnefs with which the
popes retain their ufurped authority, this

has
been manifeted
in their well known
contet with fovereigns about invetitures,

in the great exertions made to confirm and
, R2
fecure
A Conmentary on the
244
fecure to the body of the clergy their claim

of exemption from all fecular burdens, as
!when Alexander III., by the authority of
the third council of the Lateran, forbad all
rulers and magitrates, under penalty of ex

; communication, to lay any taxes on the lands
of the clergy; and by the anathemas pro

-nounced on thee points: but above all by
establihment of the inquiition, which
was originally occaioned, as Mofheim tates
, the
"in Cent. 13. Chap. 5. Set. 2, 3. by the in

-creafe of fets, which though they differed
-from each other in various repets, yet were
llunanimouly agreed in this one point, viz.
1That the public and etablihed religion was
a motley ytem of errors and fupertition;
and that the dominion which the popes had
ufurped over Chritians, as alo the authority
they exercifed in religious matters, were un

lawful and tyrannical. To top the increae
i of thefe difienters from the church in Nar
bonne Gaul, where it was particularly great,

Innocent III., about the commencement of
the thirteenth century, fent legates extra

ordinary, continues this hitorian, into
the outhern provinces of France, to do

-
what
245
what the bihops had left undone, and to

extirpate herey, in all its various forms
and modifications, without being at all fcru
pulous in uing fuch methods as might be
necestary to effect this falutary purpoe.
Thee piritual champions, who engaged in

this expedition upon the fole authority qf
the pope, without either afking the advice
or demanding the uccours of the bihops,

and who inflited capital punihment upon
fuch of the heretics as they could not con

vert by reafon and argument, were ditin
guihed in common
difcoure
by the
title of
Inquiitors, and from them the formidable

and odious tribunal called the Inquiition
derived its origin. And as the etablih
ment of this tern court was instreality for
the fupport of the papal uurpations, fo has

it, I believe, feldom been known to releae
the prey it has once feized, from pity to its

cries, or from compaiion for its ufferings,
If we reflet on the criptural emblems,
and conider tyrannical and haughty kings

as repreented by beats, the image of a
lion's mouth will immediately fugget the

R3
proud
A Commentary on the
246
proud roaring of the chief of thefe, the king

of beafts ;
and
confequently the open af
fumption, the avowed claim of that rank

by the pope; while the teeth contained in
that mouth will deignate a dipoition to much fanguinary ravage. We need look
but a little way into the papal hitory for
the completion of this part of the predic
tion. I have already quoted the words of
Innocent the Third, Boniface the Eighth,
and Sixtus the Fifth, claiming a fuperiority
over all the monarchs of the earth.
Of this
claim being allowed, Lord Lyttelton gives

a remarkable intance in the fpeech of the
Earl of Arundel to the pope in the year.
1164; in which are thee words Epe
cially in the prefence of fo great a perfon,
to whoe nod and authority all the world
does and ought to ubmit*. And another
the fame writer records in the 247th page of
the fame volume in the following terms
Louis added more truly, that he had re

ceived the archbihop from the hands of the
pope, whom he accounted his only lord upon
* Hist. of Henry II. vol. IV. p. 77. '

-
'
earth.
247
earth. And of its being exercied Jurieu

has made the following obervation Di
vers popes have depoed emperours and kings.

They took away the empire from Henry IV.,
Frederick I., and Frederick II. They deprived feveral families of
the kingdom
of
>
Naples, and betowed it on others.
Inno
cent III. gave the kingdom of England
to
Philip Augut, king of France. After that

he affumed it to himelf, and made
King
John pay him homage for it, as his tributary

and vastal. Alexander VI. gave the Wet
Indies to the kings of Spain, by the title of

kingdom: Julius II. took away Navarre
from its lawful fovereigns to betow it on the
Spaniards. The popes have fettled impots

and taxes throughout all their dominions,
and appointed receivers to collet the money,
They have forced the greatet monarchs ac

tually to kis their feet; they have trod upon
the necks of princes; and kicked their crowns
from off their heads as foon as they had put

them on, and made them hold the tirrup
while they gat on horfeback: they have

-
obliged them to come and ak pardon on

their knees, in the habit of penitents, ftrip
R 4
ped
, *
248 ,
A Commentary on the
ped of their royal robes: they have fent

fwords to princes, to let them know that
they have all their power and authority from
them; they have pronounced anathemas

againt all who would not obey them, and
declred them to be accurfed, of what rank,

quality, or condition foever they be, who
fhould refue obedience*.
So much for the
proud roaring
of the
beat: his fanguinary difpofition the perfe- ,

cutions he has fet on foot fully prove, On
this part of the papal character Mr. Jurieu
has a whole chapter; from it I hall lay be
fore the reader the following extract By
thefe methods, and this diabolical ambition,
from the time of Henry IV. and Pope Gre
gory VII. until that of the Emperour Lewis

of Bavaria, and Pope John XXII. i. e. du
ring the pace of 300 years, the popes turned

Germany and Italy into a field of blood, in
which one might have feen the fon in arms
againt his father; fathers fheathing their
fwords in the bowels of their children; fub

* Jurieu'sChap.
Continuation
of
Prophecies,
x,
' "the Accomplihment of the
...
; ::
jets
249
jets rifing up againt their princes, and

princes i obliged to hed the blood of their
fubjets, and to lay wate their own coun
tries. Cities were broken into parties that

eut throats, and mafiacred each other; yea,
families, were divided, and one kinfman mur
dered another, in this fury which was infpired

by the papacy. The combats, the battles,
the fieges of cities, the millions of men who
perihed in thoe three ages cannot be num
bered. Henry IV. alone, for his hare, fought

above fixty battles, or fights, in thoe wars
which the popes raied againt them.The
papacy, which is a devouring beat, which
tears in pieces on the right hand and on the

left, whilft it hed fuch treams of blood of
its own fubjets, at the fame time poured

Out
great torrents of that of the children and
fervants of God.
For, in the very fame
centuries, the popes raied thoe cruel per

fecutions againt thoe whom they named
Waldenfes, Albigenes, Henricians, and poor
, men of Lyons.All Languedoc was filled
with devatations. Beziers, Carcaffone, Tho
loufe, felt the rage of antichritian falfe zeal:

the cities were burnt to ahes; the inhabi
-
tants
250
A Commentary on the
tants were butchered, the women ravihed,
their goods plundered by the army of cros

bearers, who wore the ign of the cros on
their fhoulders, and had the rage of hell in
their hearts.
Thoe who were taken by
them were burnt alive. For fifty or fixty

years Languedoc was a very theatre of
cruelty: the fury of the inquilitors had nei
ther bridle nor bounds; the innocent and
the guilty, the Albigenes and thoe who
were none, were buried under the fame ruins.
A hundred and fifty of them were burnt at

one time at Grenoble. In other places the
unmerciful foldiers fell upon the common
people, and without ditintion butchered
old men, women, and children.
Thus were the Waldenes and the Albi
genfes treated for three or four hundred

years. The feries of time hath brought us
to the lat century in which the rage of the
papacy caued fuch horrid tragedies. Ger
many faw itelf filled with armies under the
condut of Charles V. for the rooting out of
herefy, i. e. for the fhedding of rivers of
human blood.
France aw other and wore

-
tragedies :
Revelation of St.
John.
as
tragedies: for forty years the rage of the
papacy turned it into a theatre, on which the

flower of the French nobility was detroyed;
princes of the blood were murdered; two kings,
Henry III. and Henry IV., were aflaffinated;
cities were bathed in blood; maacres were
made in every province.Behold the fpirit
of the papacy!the fame fpirit intended to
have blown up by a powder-mine the king

of England, together with all the nobility of
the kingdom. It hath gone from one plot

to another againt all the tates and heads
which fupport the Reformation. In the
year. 1641 it caued in Ireland a rebellion,
accompanied with the mot horrid maacre

that was ever heard ofWe fee it perfecuting the faithful in Bohemia, in Sileia, in
Hungary, in Moravia. Firt in the year

1620, upon pretext of rebellion and dif
loyalty, the Bohemians were murdered,

hanged, driven out, and banihed. In the
year 1670 the Hungarians were perecuted,
their temples demolihed, their ministers tor

mented by a cruel perecution, and at lat
fent to the gallies. In the year 1655 the

Waldenes, ubjets of the duke of Savoy,
were
.
*
A Commentary on the
252
were murdered in the vallies, and barbarities
ued towards them, that are unknown to In

dians and Cannibals.
In the year 1685, in
purfuance of the repealing of the edit of

Nantes, all France is covered with foldiers,
who plunder, force, and torment all the
Protetants, to compel them to fign an ab

juration, and to go to mas: who kill and
murder all thoe who meet but to pray unto
God: and who exercife all kinds of cruelties

againt thofe, whoe confciences will not com
ply with the religion of the court.Laftly;

if we had a mind to prove that the papacy
is cruel, bloody, and murderous, by the vir

tue of their religion, and the articles of
their faith, we might relate the cruel execu
tions that their councils have given order
for; as thofe of John Hufs and Jerom of
Prague, burnt by the order, and in the very

fight of the council of Contance.
Long as may appear this enumeration of
fanguinary atrocities, it is not the whole of
what the writer has made; nor indeed has
he noticed the perecutions carried on in the

Netherlands during the reign of Philip II.,
- -
'
OT
253
or that of which his wife was guilty in this

country : enough however are, I conceive,
particularized to prove, that the difpofition

of the papal power to fpill blood has mani
feted itelf to be equal to that which the

emblem of the text preignified; I hall now
therefore proceed to demontrate the next
thing indicated in the text, That this would
be an antichritian power; oppofite in princi
ple and in practice to the dotrine of Christ.

I mut firt, however, tate to the reader, that
as the emblem of the dragon is ued to ignify

both the great enemy of mankind and the
idolatrous fovereigns of Rome, when the fuc
ceffors of thee lat had again relaped into
idolatry, they naturally became antitypes to

this figure, and confequently the completion
of the predition, even in this fenfe, of the

pope's receiving his power, his feat, and
great authority from the dragon, fhould
not be paffed over unnoticed.
It was, then, ,
the emperour Phocas who granted the title

of Univeral Bihop to Boniface the Fourth,
a tyrant whom we may eaily prefume well

calculated to be the intrument, the viible
agent, and even the repreentative of Satan,

by
. A Commentary on the
254
by the following decription of him given by

| . Mr. Gibbon Phocas does not appear to
be les hateful in the exercife than in the ac-
quiition of power: the pencil of an impartial

hitorian had delineated the portrait of a
'monter; his diminutive and deformed per
fon, the clofenes of his fhaggy eye-brows,
his red hair, his beardles chin, and his cheek
disfigured and difcoloured by a formidable
car. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even

of arms, he indulged in the fupreme rank a
more ample privilege of luft and drunken

eneshis favage temper was inflamed by
paffion, hardened by fear, exaperated by

refitance or reproach. That the popes
fhould be thus dignified by a man of the
, above defcription, will, I mut conceive,
ftrike the reader as a trong coincidence;
but when he is informed that Mr. Gibbon
, has preerved and owned the jutice of the
epithets applied by a cotemporary poet to

Phocas, the lawles and life-corrupting
dragon of the monarchy; he will think,
that by thee circumstances was little les

than expresly marked the arrival of that
period, in which the dragon was to give
v
the
255
the beat his power, his feat, and great au

thority.
:::
. . .
'
, !
'
But to return to the oppoition between

a the principles and pratices of the popes and
the dotrine of Chrit. So many are the
particulars in which this oppoition is viible,
that I am under fome difficulty with which

tot begin: however, the fupremacy affumed
by the pope over all the church being one of
thies mot triking features of that power, I
willi firt confider the inconitency of this
with the precepts of our blefied Lord.
';od
as
* *
* i * -
:: :
zi. In the twenty-third chapter of St. Mat

thews Gopel we read at ver. 8. But be
not called Rabbi: for one is your Mater,
even Chrit; and all ye are brethren. And
call no man your father upon earth': for one

is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither
be ye called maters: for one is your Mater,

even Chrit. Compare with thee prohibi
tions the titles which the
popes have either
astumed, or under which they have permitted

themelves to be addrefied. ~ I have already
quoted an authorized publication, in which
*
the
256
A Commentary on the
the pope is by his followers called Our

Holy Father; but this, though exactly the
appellation our blefied Saviour ued when
addrefing himelf to our Father which is in
heaven, as admitting of a different fenfe, is

not fo open and bold a trangreion of the
prohibition cited, as what Dr. Barrow, quoting
the original authorities, afferts was advanced
in the lat Lateran council in the very ear of

the pope, when one bihop tyled him
Prince of the World; another oratoricalled
him King of Kings, and Monarch of the

Earth; another great prelate faid of him,
that he had all Power above all Powers both
-of Heaven and Earth*.
Neither is this
any thing fo poitive as the words of Pius

the Fifth in his bull againt Queen Elizabeth,
'quoted by the fame writer He that reign
eth on high, to whom is given all power in

heaven and in earth, hath committed the
one holy catholick and apostolick church,

out of which there is no falvation, to one
alone on earth, namely, to Peter, prince of
* See Barrow's Treatife on the Pope's Supremacy,
Introd.
Sect. 2.
the
257
the apotles, and to the Roman pontiff, fuc

ceffor of St. Peter, to be governed with a
plenitude of power. . Yet even this lat,
though repugnant to the words of the Lord,
appears to fall hort of the antichritian ar

rogance of Boniface the Eighth, of whom
there is a decree extant in the canon law,
fays the fame learned authour, running thus:

We declare, fay, define, pronounce it to
be of neceity to falvation, for every human

creature to be ubject to the Roman pontiff.
To come however, at length, to a literal as
well as implied contradition to the words
above quoted from St. Matthew, the doc

trine of the papal fupremacy, in fpirituals
particularly, is thus defined The apoto
lical chair and the Roman high-priet doth
hold a primacy over the univeral church;

and that the Roman high-priet is the fuc
ceffor of St. Peter, the prince of the apotles,
and the true lieutenant of Chrift, and the
head of the church; and that he is the fa

ther and dotor of all Chritians; and that
unto him in St. Peter full power is committed

to feed, and diret, and govern the catholick
church, under Chrit; according as is con
-
tained
A Commentary on the
tained in the ats of general councils, and in
the holy canons*.
258
And in the quotation made of this canon

by Hook, the words are till tronger; for
intead of the univeral church; there runs
the whole globe; and in lieu of fimply the

head of the church, the head of the whole
church.
Every one tolerably vered in the apotolick

writings, knows that our Lord and His
apotles have taught us, that far from being
entitled to claim any thing as of merit for

aught we can do towards God, we have been
in a mot expres and folemn manner admo
nihed, after we have done all we can, to
confider ourelves as having done nothing

more than what of trit obligation we were
bound to do.
St. Luke xvii. 9. Doth he
thank that fervant becaufe he did the things

that were commanded him? I trow not.
So
likewife ye, when ye hall have done all
thoe things which are commanded, ay, We

* Ats of the council of Florence, quoted by Barrow.
Ibid.
a TG
259 .
are unprofitable fervants: we have done that
which was our duty to do. It is manifetly
too the dotrine of cripture, that we are

bound to love God with all our heart, and
with all or foul, and with all our trength,
and with all our mind : and that our bodies
and pirits being God's, we can render Him

no fervice with either, but what is due unto
Him; becaue we are His by purchafe.

And ye are not your own, faith St. Paul,
for ye are bought with a price: Therefore
glorify God in your body and in your pirit,
which are Gods. I Cor. vi. 19.
.*
But the papal dotrine on this head, even

as tated by the council of Trent is, Ifany
one fay, that the good works of a justified
peron are fo the gifts of God, that they are

not the good merits of the perfon jutified,
or that he being justified by the good works
which are done by him through the grace of

God, and the merits of Jeus Chrit, of whom
he i a lively member, does not truly merit

an encreae of grace, eternal life, and the
obtainment of eternal life itelf, (provided
however that he depart in a tate of grace)

s 2
and
260
A Commentary on the
and even an encreafe of glory; let him be

anathema. Concil. Trident. Seff. 6. Can. 32.
ap Hook Reg. Fid. Cath. And as ated on

by the popes it is as follows in an extrat
made by the writer jut quoted from the Bull
Unigenitus of Clement the Sixth : The

merits of the blefied mother of God and of
all the elet, from the firt righteous man even

to the lat, are known to yield a fupport to
the heap of infinite treaure from the blood
and merits of Chrit. Of the conumption

or diminution of which there is no degree
of fear to be entertained, as well on account
of the infinite merits of Chrit, as becaue
the more there are drawn to righteoufnes by

the application ofit, by fo much the heap of
the merits themelves encreafeth. So that
we need hardly proceed to the authorities

that Bihop Taylor cites in his Diffuaive from
Popery, to be convinced, that they go as far
in this point as he afferts in the following
paage: For in the church of Rome they

now pretend that there is an infinite of de
grees of Chrit's merits and fatisfation be
yond what is neceary for the falvation of
His fervants: and (for fear Chrit hould not
5
have
Revelation
of St. John.
261
have enough) the faints have a furpluage of

merits, or at leaft of fatisfations, more than
they can fpend, or themfelves do need; and out

of thefe the church hath made her a treafure,
a kind of poor-man's box; and out of this, a

power to take as much as they lift to apply
to the poor fouls in purgatory; who becaue

they did not fatisfy for their venial fins, or
perform all their penances which were im-
poed, or which might have been impoed,

and which were due to be paid to God, for
the temporal pains referved upon them, after
He had forgiven them the guilt of their
deadly fins, are forced fadly to roar in pains

not inferior to the pains of hell, excepting
only that they are not eternal. That this is
the true tate of their article of indulgences,
we appeal to Bellarmine. Taylor's Diffua
five from Popery, Part 1. Ch. 1. Set. 3.
Compare now thee things with the doc
trine of the gopel, and fee whether they are

not directly contrary to the words Chrit.
While pite of all the fophiftry, evafions, and
denials of which they fo unbluhingly make
ue, it is plain from the indulgences till
-
s3
iffued
262
A Commentary on the
iued by the popes that they continue to at
on the fame ground.
But the mention of the merits of the faints
fuggets the many blaphemous things taught
by the papits concerning the blefied virgin.
Scarcely any reader of the gopel but mut

be tricken with the appearance there is of
our Lord's being particularly careful to avoid

giving His diciples any reafon to think her
interpoition could be of ue to them. When
at the wedding in Cana he fuggeted the
want of wine, He rather checked her for in
terfering, Woman, What have I to do with

thee.
When He was told, that he waited
for Him at the door of the ynagogue, He

manifeted no particular readines to attend
her; but was pleaed to turn His dicoure
to a defcription of thoe charaters whom
He would eteem as His mother and his
brethren. And lastly, when about to yield

up His life, He gaye directions for her future
fupport in a mode declarative only of His
own authority, making her dependant on

one of His diciples. How oppoite then to
all this is that dotrine, which makes Mary
^ .
.
th
.
263
the mother of Jeus the head of all creatures,

the mot excellent that ever was created, the
mediatrix of finners, the giver of grace,
which denominates her interceffion glorious,
and calls her the queen of heaven, the mother
of mercy, who can ufe her maternal influence
to induce her Son to liten to the prayers of
her worhippers! How oppoite is the condut of that power which has canonized for
a faint the impious, prophane, and blaf
phemous Cardinal Bonaventure, who has

applied the whole Book of Palms, and the
. Te Deum to her,
"
Again. Our blefied Saviour and His

apotles were wont to exhort their hearers
to fearch the fcriptures; and jutly fevere
was his rebuke to the Jews for attending to
their traditions in
God.
preference to
the word of
But the council of Trent in its fourth
feffion, as quoted by Jurieu, decreed, that
traditions ought to be regarded with the
fame reverence and veneration that is given

to the fcripture. And Baronius, no mean
dotor of their church, afferts, that tra
dtions excel the criptures, becaue the holy
s 4
fcriptures
264
A Commentary on the
fcriptures cannot fubfift unles confirmed by

tradition; . whereas
traditions keep their
ftrength entire, without the holy writings.

And cardinal Hoius, with all the blaphemy
of the papacy: The criptures deprived of

the churches tetimony, have no more autho
rity than op's Fables. And in another

place: It would go better with the church
if there were no written gopels.
Nor is this to be confidered as the opinion
merely of an individual, for Dr. Eveleigh
in the third of his very able and learned

Bampton Letures, has in page 85 the fol
owing note: See in Stillingfleet's Council
of Trent Examined and Difprovedan account

of the teps by which the ue of the fcrip
tures in the vulgar tongue was denied to the
people. Having been partially retrained by

particular popes, it was publickly forbidden
by the
Lateran council under Innocent the

Third, and at length finally and folemnly
prohibited by the council of Trent, p. 51

58. And though Pius the Fourth afterwards
permitted the ue of the fcriptures in the
vulgar tongue; yet was this permiion foon
recalled
(~
265
recalled by pope Clement the Eighth. See thc

preface to king James's Bible, p. 3. And
p. 113, in the fame Leture, in note ", are
the following obervations on the fame fub-
jet ; Moheim fays, the popes permitted

their champions to indulge themelves openly
in refletions injurious to the dignity of the
fcriptures, and by an exces of blaphemy
almot incredible to declare publickly, that ,
the edits of the pontiffs and the records of
oral tradition were feperior in point of au

thority to the expres language of fcripture.
vol. iv. p. 213. To the fame effect bihop
Jewell fays, indulgences (fays Pierias) have
not been made known to us by the authority

of , fcripture, but by the authority of the
Roman church and Roman pontiffs, which
is greater. Pergius too hefitates not to fay,

that without the command of the Roman
church, even the plainet cripture mut not

be truted to. Apol. pro Eccl. Anglic.
p. 121. And fuch at length was the confe
quence of the early corruptions introduced
into chritianity by philoophy, and of the at

tempts afterwards made to conceal and vilify
the fcriptures ; that after the Lutheran con
troverfy
266
A Commentary on the
troverfy had been long carried on, many of

the monks in Scotland were fo ignorant of
their contents, as to charge Luther with
being the author of that wicked book called

the New Tetament.
mus, vol. 1. p.
Jortin's Life of Eraf,
126.
After the explicit declarations of great

fupporters of the papal empire above tated,
we need not be aftonihed at fuch dotrines
as are diametrically oppoite to fcripture, as
tranubtantiation, the denial of the cup to

the laity, the worhip of angels and images,
&c. &c. being obstinately perfited in on the

*
core of tradition.
But if we have any re
gard for truth we mut confes, that the

power who requires the reception of fuch te
nets is in reality antichritian.
I will detain the reader on this portion of

the prophecy little longer than flightly to
touch on two other particulars in which this

oppoition to the gopel is manifet: for
enough I conceive will then have been tated
to demonstrate that this power has proved
antichritian in the fenfe of oppoing Chrit;
ef ecially
w
267
epecially as fome other proofs of the fame

will necearily appear in invetigating the
completion of other parts of the viion.
' Firt then our Lord declared, Whooever
doth not bear his cros and follow Him can
not be His diciple; and He told His dif

ciples before He left them, that in the
world they fhould have tribulation. And
St. Peter tells us, that to fuffer we are called;
but if, when ye do well, and fuffer for it,
ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with

God. For even hereunto were ye called.
1 Pet. ii. 20, 21.
And St. Paul, 2 Tim. iii.,
12. Yea, and all that will live godly in

Chrit Jeus hall fuffer perecution. Yet in
contradition to the words of thee very
apotles, whom they call the founders of

their church, and even to the declaration of
the Lord Himelf, we find Bellarmine a je
fuite, and confequently devoted to the in
terets of Rome, and a cardinal and confe

quently of high authority, who was too one
of their chief diputants, as well as one of
the fairet of them, having incurred by his

fair dealing the cenfure of fome of his bre
thren; this man, I ay, we find teaching that

temporal
268
A Commentary on the
temporal profperity is a note of the true

church.
2dly. We read, as delivered by our Sa

viour Himelf, Whofoever therefore hall
break one of thefe leaft commandments, and
fhall teach men fo, he fhall be called the
leaft in the kingdom of heaven. St. Matt.

v. 19. And again, But I fay unto you,
That every idle word that men hall fpeak,
they hall give account thereof in the day of
judgment. St. Matt. xii. 36. And His

apotle St. James tells us, that whooever
fhall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one point, he is guilty of all. St.Jamesii. 10.
But bihop Taylor aures us from Bellarmine,
that the papits teach that one whole kind of
fins are venial in their own nature, fuch
which if they were all together, all in the
world conjoined, could not equal one mortal

fin, nor detroy charity, nor put us from the
favour of God; fuch, for which no man can
perih, etiami nullum pactum effet de remist
fione, though God's merciful covenant of

pardon did not intervene. Here behold
again a loofenes of morality, both primarily
contrary
269
contrary to that of the gopel, and then in it

felf leading to all thoe concluions in excue
of impurity of life in which the works of the
Roman cafuits abound, and of which occa
fion will hereafter offer to bring forward fome

intances.
I mut not however cloe the proofs of this
being an antichritian power without requet

ing the reader to notice, that as what has
now been faid denotes the pope to be anti
chrift in the fenfe of oppoing Chrit, fo in
the other fenfe in which the word may be
taken, that of ating intead of Chrit, it be
longs to him without a rival; fince he alone

claims the title and authority of vicegerent
of Chrit.
This fat, that while in one fenfe
the name is epecially applicable to him, it

has alo another in which it is applicable to
nome but him, places the accomplihment of
this portion of the prophecy in a light fo
ftrong, that it hould feem mut penetrate any
but utter darknes.
In the former part of this fetion many

proofs appeared of the next particular notieed
by
270
A Commentary on the
by the apostle, the general obedience paid

to this power, and that that in fat was fuch
as, to be properly defcribed by the term
worhip or fall down before him; but here
being come to the decription of this fubmif
fion, I hall conider the feveral paages in

which it is decribed in the preent and the
feventeenth Chapter under one view; laying
before the reader the flavifh fervice which
was paid him both by kings and people;
when the former with one mind gave their
power and strength unto him;" and the latter

with admiration exclaimed, Who
is like
him?
Neither does it feem eay to enter on this

tak more properly than by trancribing the fol
lowing obervation from Leti's Life of Sixtus
the Fifth, in the begininng of which the
author writes thus: Among all the mo
narchies which, from the creation of the
world to the preent time have been feen to

reign with abolute dominion over the world,
that of the Roman pontiff may for evident

reaons be faid to furpas all others either
that are vanihed among the clouds of hea
thenim,
Rerelation of St. John.
271
thenifin, or that have deemed it glorious in

the mid-day of Chritianity to protrate
themelves reverently at the feet of the pon
tifical monarchy.
Whence arifes that belief
which at preent reigns among the generality

of the people, that is, that as the fun is the
monarch of all the planets of heaven, o the
monarchy of the pontiff precedes in majety
'all the monarchies of the other kingdoms:

perhaps becaue fuch has been the will of the
emperours and kings, in rendering obedience
with the knees to the ground to the pontiff;

a clear tetimony of a monarchy without
equal; and acknowledged fuch not only by
thofe tates which are attached to it through
their own interet, but alfo even by the
enemies themelves who are born to envy it.
But this obedience of the other monarchs

has been manifeted by a till more folid
proof than the at of reverence mentioned
in the lat quotation; for thus writes one of
the greatet enemies of Chritianity in direct
attetation to the accomplihment of the
prophecy. In all the catholic countries,

the teps may till be feen which the court
-
of
272
A Conmentary an the
of Rome has formerly taken towards uni

veral monarchy. All the fovereigns of the
catholic religion at their acceion fend em
baffies of obedience, as they are called, to the
pope. Each crown has at Rome a cardinal,
who affumes the title of protetor. Voltaire's
Age of Louis the XIVth. Ch. 1.

Here let the
reader
confider what muft
have been the depth of ubmiion fhewn to

the pope by all the fovereigns of Chriten
dom, when they condecended thus to put

their interets under the protetion of the car
dinals, who are his creatures.
But that
they gave even their peronal fervices to ex

alt him appears, from among numerous
proofs, by the following words of a noble

hitorian before quoted: They both (the
kings of France and England in the year

1162) had foon afterwards a meeting with
Alexander (the third pope of that name) at
Touci upon the Loire, where the two kings

walking a foot on each fide of his horfe, held
the reins of his bridle, and led him to a
pavilion which was prepared to receive them.

4.Jpeiacle (fays Baronius) to God, and an
gels,
||
273
gels, and men, fuch as had not yet been feen

in the world! It was indeed astonihing:
but the emperour himelf, by the bigotry of
the times, had been compelled to fubmit to
a like humiliation. For at the ceremony of

the firt reception in Rome he held the
ftirrup of Adrian the Fourth, much againt
his own will, after a long and very warm
dipute with that pontiff. When the vene

ration for the papacy was carried fo high,
and fuch a kind of idolatry was paid to the
perons of the bihops of Rome, even by the

greatet princes, a tory which Baronius has
related in his annals under this year will not
feem incredible. He fays, that when Alex
ander made his firt entrance into Mont
pellier, among the Chritian nobility that
attended him on his way in a folemn pro

ceion, there was a Saracen prince or emir,
who reverently came up to him, and kifed

his feet, he being on horfeback ; then knelt
down before him, and bowing his head
adored him as the holy and good God of

the Chritians.
He does not tell us that
Alexander in any manner reproved him for

his blaphemous error; but on the contrary
T
takes
27#
A Commentary on the
takes notice that he hewed him extraordinary

kindnes; and adds, that all who faw it were
filled with great admiration, and applied to
the pope the words of the prophet David,

All the kings of the earth hall worhip him,
and all nations hall ferve him. Thus, in
that age of ignorance and credulity did uper

ftition even deify the bihop of Rome ! . But
it is a till more fhocking
impiety,
that a
learned cardinal, who lived in the feven
teenth century, hould relate fuch a fat

without expreting the leaft diapprobation of
it; nay, rather with an air of complacency
and applaue*.
After reflecting on this extrai, remark
able for the aptnes of the remarks made by
the historian to the preent purpoe, as well

as for the fats related in it, the reader may
poibly think it would be to detain him
needlesly were I to accumulate tetimonies
on a point already fo fully proved as the

worhip of the pope, or the world's wonder
- ing after him; a phrae which Daubuz has
* Littelton's Henry II. B. 2. V. 3. p. 14, 15.
fhewn
275
fhewn to fignify to go after him, or be of his

party. I hall therefore now proceed to a
more particular tatement of the manner in
which the fovereigns of Europe have given
their power and trength unto the beaft.
And this they have done firt by donations,
and fuffering him to draw the wealth of their
feveral kingdoms to him, and thus fupport
ing him with what might have augmented
their own revenues; and then they fought
his battles, and thus upheld his power with
their forces.
I have already quoted Jurieu as faying,

that the popes fettled impots and taxes
throughout all their dominions, (thoe he
means of all the fovereigns that were within
the pale of the Roman church) and appointed
receivers to collet the money. In the
fame author the reader may fee the many
contrivances they were permitted to employ,

and have made ue of, to draw money from
every part of Chritendom. Our own coun
try, we know, was at one time little les than

farmed out by them; fince the Italians who
were appointed to benefices here did abfo
T 2
*
lutely
-
276
A Commentary on the
lutely receive more than the public revenue

of the kingdom amounted to.
In the notes
in p. 455 of Lord Lyttelton's Hitory, V. 3.

are thee words. The fum of their revenues
(that is of the Italians refiding in England)

was found to be fixty thouand marcs a year;
to which fum the annual revenue of the
whole kingdom of England did not amount.

But in both places is meant not the king's
private patrimony or landed etate but the
public revenue of the kingdom.
-
And fr maintaining his power with their

forces, the emperour, at his coronation, fays
Jurieu, takes an oath, that he will cordially
pay to the church of Rome, the duties of

obedience, defence, and protetion. That
this oath has not always been negleted

hitory tetifies; Charles the Fifth himelf,
though before hotile, became afterward the
champion of the pope, and his fon Philip II.

more than equalled his fathers zeal, and
many have been the military expeditions car
ried on for the fupport of the papal interets;
among which we may well reckon repeated

cruades which in reality exhauted the
-
realms
realms of thoe kings that were

the Roman pontiff.
277
devoted to
As to the religious worhip of the dragon

by the fubjets of the beaft, it appears, fays
Daubuz, in the abolute conformity and fub
ftitution of the preent Romih worhip to the
ancient pagan. This perfet conformity hath
been made out very plain. Firt, becaue the
ancient Romans and the new Roman Catho
licks have the fame objets of worhip and ce
remonies. Both had and have thee five forts

of objets ; firt, a fupreme God; fecondly, an
gels or inferior gods; thirdly, human fouls ca
nonized or deified; fourthly relicks and mo
numents of dead men; fifthly, images. Se
eondly, the ceremonies of the dragon's reli
gion are ued in the religion of the corrupted

Chritians, the fubjets of the beat: fo that
in fubmitting to the beat therein they alo

worhip the dragon. Holy water hath fuc
ceeded the aqulutrales; patron faints to the
lares and penates; canonization to the apo
theofes; the pope to the fupreme pontiff; the

cardinals, monks, and nuns anwer to the fla
mines, aupices, augures, and vetales; the al

-
T 3
tarS
A Commentary on the
278
tars to the like pagan altars; the burning

lamps to the immortal fires in the temples;
proceions to the pomps; fhrines to the cha
riots of the Gods; rogations to the ambar
valia;
carnaval to the bacchanalia; and
many fuch other things of the like nature,
And that which is more furprizing, the very

idols and their appurtenances, worhipped in
the time of the dragon's reign, have been
worhipped by the fubjets of the beat. At
Rome and other places the very idols and
the temples of the heathens, by only changing

the name, have been ued in the corrupted
church. Thus at Rome, the tatue of Ju
piter Capitolinus is become a St. Peter, by

changing only the thnder-bolt into two
keys. At Bourdeaux, an old tatue of Ju
piter on an eagle, became a Chrit acending
into heaven; and does not the pope neglet his
title of bihop to take that of pontifex max

imus, which is merely Roman and pagan.
Though Tertullian gave the bihop that title

to mock him.
-
Eramus fays, Olim Venus
agebat curam naufarum, quia nata crede
batur er mari: ea quoniam defiit curare, fuf
feia est huic matri non virgini virgo mater.

!
'
'
That
279
That the honours paid to the martyrs were
conformable to the pagan worhip of de

parted men or dmons is fo plain, that St.
Autin is forced to elude it by lefening the
worhip given to the martyrs; but the people
went further than St. Auftin would have,
and that excue is now ueles. Now as
Grotius well
oberves on this
place, they
really worhip the devil, who worhip idols;

for they ignorantly promote his kingdom ;
1 Cor. x. 20. wherein he only follows what
the primitive writers have afferted. .
The revival of this fervice of the dra
gon being thus proved, we may now turn
our attention to the behaviour of the beast

himelf when elated at the ubmistive obe
dience he met with; the firt particulars of
which noticed are the arrogance and blaf
phemy of the power. Having necearily
been led in the former part of this fetion to
anticipate much of the tetiomony of thefe,

by the mention of feveral circumtances that
might have been produced as fuch, I mut
beg the reader to recollet what has there
been faid, that intead of repeatingit here, I
T4
may
280
A Commentary on the
may now only have occafion to add the addi

tional proofs which follow.
We learn from Baronius, as quoted by
Barrow in the Introdution to his Treatife on
the Pope's Supremacy, that Gregory the

Second, on his dipute with the emperour
Leo Iauricus about image worhip, did ef
fetually caue both the Romans and Italians
to recede from obedience to the emperour;"

in which, according to the refletion of Ba
ronius, he did leave to poterity a worthy
example, that heretical princes hould not be
fuffered to reign in the church of Chrit; if,
being warned, they were found pertinacious

in their error. How this worthy erample
was followed the enfuing dedu&tion will ma
nifest. About fixty years after this, Adrian

the Firt faid boldly, We do by general
decree contitute, that whatever king, or
bihop, or potentate, hall hereafter believe, or
permit that the cenfure of the Roman pontiffs
be violated in any cafe, he hall be an exe
crable anathema, and hall be guilty before

God as a betrayer of the catholick faith.
And Nicholas the First cat many imperious

fa yings
2B1
fayings and threats at king Lotharius; thee

among others: We do therefore by apof
tolical authority, under obtestation of the
divine judgement, injoin to thee, that in

Triers and Colen thou houldet not fuffer
any bihop to be chofen, before a report be

made to our apotlehip. And again, that
being compelled thou mayet be able to re
pent, know, that very foon thou halt be truck
with the eccleiatical fword; fo that thou

mayet be afraid any more to commit fuch
things in God's holy church. And Gregory
the Seventh faid, We, holding the tatutes of
our holy predeceffors, do by apotolical autho
rity abolve thofe from their oaths, who are
obliged by fealty or acrament to excommu
nicate perons, and by all means prohibit that
they oberve fealty to them. And the fame
daring wretch: For the dignity and de
fence of God's holy church, in the name of Al
mighty God, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghot, I depoe from imperial and

royal adminitration king Henry, fon of
Henry, fometime emperour, who too boldly
and rahly hath laid hands on thy church;
and
282 .
A Commentary on the
and I abolve all Chritians, ubjet to the

empire from that oath whereby they were
wont to plight their faith unto true kings:
for it is right, that he hould be deprived of
dignity, who doth endeavour to diminih the
majesty of the church. And Pope Urban

the Second in his Twelfth Epitle recom
mended the doctrine, that ubjets are by

no authority contrained to pay the fidelity
which they have fworn to a Christian prince,

-- who oppoes God and his faints, and vio
lateth their precepts. An intance of which

he gave in granting a privilege to the canons
of Tours: which (faith he) if any
emperour,
king, prince, &c. hall wilfully attempt to

thwart, let him be deprived of the dignity of
his honour and power.
After him Pachal the Second deprived

Henry the Fourth, and excited enemies to
perfecute him; telling them, that they could
not offer a more acceptable facrifice to
God, than by impugning him, who endea
voured to take the kingdom from God's
church.
And
283
And in the year 1212 Innocent theThird,

( that true wonder of the world, as Bar
row calls him, thus unpremeditately, it hould
feem, applying the words of St. John, and
all the world wondered after the beat,)

affirming the pontifical authority fo much
to exceed the royal power, as the fun doth
the moon, made experiment of this power,
by depoing the emperour Otho the Fourth,
whom as rebellious to the apotolical fee,
he firt did trike with an anathema;
then
him, perevering in his obstinacy, did, in a

council of prelates held at Rome, pronounce
depoed from empire.
Which authority was avowed by the La
teran council under this pope, wherein it was
ordained, that if a temporal lord, being

required and admonihed by the church,
fhould neglect to purge his territory from
heretical filth, he hould by the metropolitan
and the other comprovincial bihopsbe noofed
in the band of excommunication: and that .
if he hould flight to make fatisfation within

a year, it hould be fignified to the pope, that
he might from that time demounce the ub

*
jets
A Commentary on the
jets abolved from their fealty to him, and
expoe the territory to be eized on by
284
Catholicks.
* *
Some years after which Innocent the

Fourth crupled not to exemplify the fame
doctrine, by declaring the emperour Frede

rick the Second his vastal, and denouncing,
in his general council of Lyons, a fentence of
deprivation againt him in thee terms: We

having about the foregoing and many other
his wicked mifcarriages, had before a careful
deliberation with our brethren and the holy

council, feeing that we, although unworthy,
do hold the place of Jeus Chrit on earth,
and that it was faid unto us in the perfon of

Saint Peter the apotle, Whatever thou halt
bind on earth,the faid prince (who hath
rendered himelf unworthy of empire and

kingdoms, and of all honour and dignity,
and who for his iniquities is caft away by
God, that he hould not reign or command,
being bound by his fins and cat away, and

deprived by the Lord of all honour and dig
nity) do fhew, denounce, and accordingly
by fentence deprive, abolving all who are
held
285
held bound by oath of allegiance, from

fuch oath for ever; by apotolical authority
firmly prohibiting, that no man henceforth
do obey or regard him as emperour or king;
and decreeing, that whoever hall hereafter

yield advice, or aid, or favour to him as
emperour or king, hall immediately lie un
der the band of excommunication.
And Boniface the Eighth, in a decree

extant in the canon law, faith, One fword
muft be under another, and the temporal

authority mut be fubjet to the piritual
powerwhence if th earthly power do go

atray, it mut be judged by the piritual
power.
And this definition, including what has

been before quoted, We declare, fay, de
fine, pronounce it to be of neceity to fal
vation, for every human creature to be fub
jet to the Roman pontiff, was expresly

confirmed by one of their general councils; .
for we (faith Pope Leo the Tenth, in his
bull read and pasted in the Lateran council)
do renew and approve that holy constitution,

-
with
A Commentary on the
with approbation of the preent holy council.
Accordingly Melch. Canus faith, that the
* Lateran council did renew and approve that
286 .
r.
extravagant (fo called becaue it is written in

no order or method) contitution: and Baro
nius faith of it, that all do affent to it, fo
that none diffenteth, who doth not by dif

cord fall from the church.
Being now arrived at the period of the
Reformation, one might fuppofe the popes
would then have become more cautious in
their arrogant claims; but, far from that, in
Bihop Burnet's Hitory of the Reformation,

Vol. II. p. 342. we read, that in 1556 the
then pope, Paul the Fourth, being angry

with the emperour for affuming that title
without his approbation, fent him word,
that he would let him know, to his grief,
how he had offended him.
He came to
talk in as haughty a tyle, as any of all his

predeceflors had ever done, that he would
change kingdoms at his pleaure. He boated
that he had made Ireland a kingdom: that
all princes were under his feet, (and as he
faid that, he ued to tread with his feet
-
againt

-
287
againt the grond;) and he would allow no

prince to be his companion, nor to be too
familiar with him: nay, rather than be driven
to a mean ation, he
world on fire.
would
fet the whole
And in the bull before
mentioned, as iflued by Pius the Fifth

againt Queen Elizabeth, that pontiff de
clares, that he, thereby deprives the queen
of her pretended right to the kingdom, and

all dominion, dignity and privilege whatfo
ever; and abolves all the nobles, ubjects

and people of the kingdom, and whoever
elfe have fworn to her, from their oath, and
all duty whatoever, in regard of dominion,

fidelity and obedience.
And in the fame tone Sixtus the Fifth, in

his bull againt Henry king of Navarre, and
the prince of Cond We deprive them

and their poterity for ever of their domi
nions and kingdomsBy the authority of

thefe preents, we do abolve and fet free all
perons, as well jointly as feverally, from any

fuch oath, and from all duty whatoever in
regard of dominion, fealty, and obedience;
and do charge and forbid all and every of

-
them,
288
A Commentary on the
them, that they do not dare to obey them,

or any of their admonitions, laws, and com
mands.
I need fcarcely fugget to the reader, that
in producing this string of arrogant claims,

I have alo necearily brought forward proof
of much blaphemy, in the pretences repeat
edly made to authority to abolve men from
the obligation of oaths; till as it is proper
that a fuller demontration hould be given
that this part of the charater is applicable
to the papal power, I hall felet a few more
from thofe numerous intances of this which
hitory has recorded.
But before I finally
leave the ubjet of what I particularly un

dertand by its arrogance, or fpeaking great
things, I mut requet my reader to pay fome

attention to the following words of Pope
Eugenius to the Greeks, when telling them

what they mut affent to, if they would be
received into communion with him. The

pope will have the prerogatives of his church,
and he will have appeals to him; and to feed

all the church of Chrit as hepherd of the
fheep. Befide thee things, that
he may
have
289
have authority and power to convoke general
fynods, when need hall be; and that all the

patriarehs do yield to his will*.
But the beat, it is declared, befides fpeak
ing great things, hould open his mouth in

blaphemy againt God, to blapheme His
name, and His tabernacle, and them that
dwell in heaven. Now from a fufficient num
ber of instances it is plain, that in cripture

language to affume the authority or receive
the worhip of God, is to blapheme againt
God and His name. When our Lord (St. .
Luke v. 20.) had faid to the man fick of the
paly, Son, thy fins be forgiven thee, he

was accued of blaphemy, and thought it
right to anfwer the accuation by particular
izing His own authority: thus, it hould feem,
acknowledging, that had He not had fuch
power, the charge would have been jut.
How fully then hve the popes jutified this

againt themelves, and yielded
accuation
accomplihment of the prophecy, that fo this

power hould blapheme, both by the pre
* Barrow ibid.
U
rogatives
290
A Commentary on the
rogatives they have dared to astume, and

the titles under which they have permitted
themfelves to be addreed!
In Jurieu's Continuation of the Accom
plihment of the Prophecies, Chap. 10. we

read among the particulars which that writer
declares he trancribed word for word from

the pope's decretals, councils, bulls, and in
fcriptions, and the references to the originals
ExceptionsThat
the pope is greater than all the faints in
heaven; yea, greater than the angels, greater
of which are given in his
than the whole church.That he ought to

be adored by all nations; that he exatly
refembles God; that it is written of him,
Let all the kings of the earth worhip him;'

that he hath power in heaven and in earth,
and ought to rule from fea to fea.
However flocking the blaphemy of fuch

declarations may appear, the claim to divine
authority in reality asterted by the dipena

tions and indulgences the Roman pontifis
have preumed to grant, partake no lefs of

the fame guilt. One formal intance of each
of
**:
291
of thee I have extracted from Mr. Gibbon's
work. In his account of the tranlation of

the crown of France from the reign of Chil
deric to that of Pepin, this contant witnes

to the truth of the prophecies fays The
mayor and nobles were bound by an oath of
fidelitythe common ambaadors addreed
the Roman pontiff to dipel their fcruples,
or to abolve their promifethe ucceior of

St. Peter affumed the charter of a divine
ambafiadorthe Franks were abolved from

their ancient oath, but a dire anathema was
uttered againt them and their posterity, if

they hould dare to renew the freedom, ex
cept in favour of the holy and meritorious
race of Carlovingian princes. And in his
fifty-eighth Chapter, on opening his account
of the cruades, the fame writer reports, that
in the council of Clermont that pope

(Urban the Second) proclaimed a plenary
indulgence to thoe who hould enlit under
the banner of the Cros; the abfolution of
all their fins. This, with what he further
mentions in his fifty-ninth Chapter, of the
repetition of the fame piece of blaphemy at

the jubilees, would be ufficient to etablih
U 2
the
| 292
A Commentary on the
the charge of blaphemy on the papal power; .

but the unparalleled preumption of that
power being made fo important an objet,
by the divine widom having feleted it as
a ubjet of prophecy, the very extraordi
nary manner in which it has been mani

feted deferves to be confidered till more
extenively.
In the fecond volume then of Burnet's
Hitory of the Reformation, there is pre

ferved a colletion of fome of the chief in
dulgences then in the Englih offices, and

the following are taken from the Book of
the Hours of the Blested Virgin Mary, for
the ufe of Sarum; printed at Paris in 1526.
*
FoLIo 38.
To all them that be in a tate of grace,

that daily fay devoutly this prayer before
our blefied Lady of Pity, he will fhew
them her blefied vifage, and warn them
the day and the hour of death; and in their
last end, the angels of God hall yield their
fouls to heaven; and he hall obtain five

hundred years, and fo many lents of par
4
don,
293
don, granted by five holy fathers, popes of

Rome.
It mut be confested, that the reward here
proffered to the worhippers of the Virgin for

the daily repetition of a fingle prayer before
her image, would, if it were not to be pur

chaed at the expence of the breach of the
divine commandment, by bowing down be
fore an image, be mot amply bountiful.

But may it not fairly be aked, What necef.
fity was there for thee five holy fathers to
grant fo many years and lents of pardon to

perfons already fecure of being at their death
carried by the angels to heaven? Did thefe
holy fathers think the certainty of the Vir

gin's favours were to be doubted? iffo, why
teach their people to worhip and truft to
her? or, did they not fee the inconitency
of their indulgences with their own doctrine?
And in either cafe what becomes of their
infallibility? But have you not (a zealous
papift might perhaps ak me) here em

ployed the term image, when there is none
fuch in the indulgence? To hew, therefore,

U 3.
that
294
Commentary on
the
that my explanation is on good authority,

mark the following.
-
* - * - FoLIo 42.
Our holy father, Sixtus the Fourth,

pope, hath granted to all them that devoutly
fay this, prayer before the image of our
i.
Lady, the fum of eleven thouand years of

pardon.
..
Now what word, or wit, or impudence,

can deny, that Pope Sixtus the Fourth has
here propounded a reward for trangreffing
the fecond commandment? for even hould
they refort to their wonted mode of defence,
v
and endeavour to quibble on the term em
ployed in their Latin tranlation of this law,

and fay, that it is not recommended to pray
to the image, the original term fignifies to
bow down before, and protrate one's felf;
and in what poture are prayers faid, or re

ommended to be faid, when the word de
youtly is ued, but in that of an humble

-
votary? .
:
*
FOLIQ
295
*
Fo LIo 50.
Thefe be the fifteen Oos, the which the
holy virgin St. Bridget was wont to ay daily

before the holy rood in St. Paul's church at
Rome: whofo fays this a whole year, hall
deliver fifteen fouls out of purgatory of his
next kindred, and convert other fifteen fin
ners to a good life; and other fifteen righ

teous men of his kind hall perfevere in good
life; and what ye defire of God ye hall have
it, if it be to the falvation of your fouls.
-
FoLIo 54.
. .
To all them that before this image of

pity devoutly fay five pater-noters, and five
ave-maries, and a credo, piteouly beholding
thoe arms of Christ's pastion, are granted

thirty-two thouand feven hundred and fifty
five years of pardon; and Sixtus the Fourth,
pope of Rome, hath made the fourth and the

fifth prayer, and hath doubled his forefaid
pardon.
FoLIo 56.
This epitle of our Saviour fendeth our
holy father, Pope Leo, to the emperour Ca

*
U 4
rolo
- 296
Commentary on the
rolo Magno; of the which we find written,

Who that beareth this bleffing upon him,
and faith it once a-day, hall obtain forty
years of pardon, and eighty lentings, and he
fhall not perih with fudden death.

FoLI o 57.
This prayer made by St. Auftin, affirm

ing who that fays it daily, kneeling, hall not
die in fin, and after this life fhall go to the
everlating joy and blifs.
FOLIO 58.
Our holy father the pope, John the

Twenty-econd, hath granted to all them
that fay devoutly this prayer following, be
tween the elevation of our Lord, and the
three Agnus Dei, ten thouand years of

pardon,
FoL1o 61.
Our holy father, Sixtus the Fourth,

hath granted to all them that be in the tate
of grace, faying this prayer following imme

diately after the elevation of the body of our
Lord, clean remistion of all their fins perpe

*
tually
297
tually enduring. And alfo John the Third,

pope of Rome, at the requet of the queen
of England hath granted to all them that

devoutly fay this prayer before the image of
our Lord crucified, as many days of pardon
as there were wounds in the body of our
Lord in the time of His bitter paffion, the

which were five thouand four hundred and
fixty-five.
FoL1o 65.
Thee five petitions and prayers made

St. Gregory, and hath granted unto all them
that devoutly fay thee five prayers, with five
pater-noters, five ave-maries, and a credo,

five hundred years of pardon.
FoLIo 66.
Thefe three prayers be written in the

chappel of the Holy Cros in Rome, other
wife called Sacellum Sant Crucis feptem
Romanorum, who that devoutly fay them,
they hall obtain ten hundred thouand years
of pardon for deadly fins, granted of our
holy father John the Twenty-econd, pope
of Rome.
FOLIO
298
A Commentary on the
FoL1o 68.
Who that devoutly beholdeth thee arms.

of our Lord Jeus Christ, hall obtain fix
thouand years of pardon of our holy father
St. Peter, the firt pope of Rome, and of
thirty other popes of the church of Rome,

fucceors after him. And our holy father
Pope John the Twenty-econd, hath granted

unto all them, very contrite and truly con
fested, that fay thefe devout prayers follow

ing, in the commemoration of the bitter
paffion
of our Lord Jeus Chrit, three
thouand years of pardon for deadly fins,
and other three thouand for venial fins,

and fay firt a pater-noter, and ave-maria.
FOLIO 72.
This mot devout prayer faid the holy

father St. Bernard, daily kneeling in the
worhip of the mot holy name Jefus.
And
it is well to believe, that through the invo

cation of the mot excellent name of Jeu,
St. Bernard obtained a fingular ward of per
petual confolation of our Lord Jeu Chrit.
And

299
And thefe prayers written in a table that
hanged at Rome in St. Peter's church, nigh

to the high altar there, as our holy father
the pope evely is wont to ay the office of
the mas; and who that devoutly, with a
contrite heart, daily fay this orifon, if he be
that day in a tate of eternal damnation,
then his eternal pain hall be changed him

in temporal pain of purgatory; then if he
hath deferved the pain of purgatory, it hall
be forgotten and forgiven, through the infi
nite mercy of God.
Now if we feriouly confider the contents

and tendency of thee indulgences, we hall
foon difcern, that the favage cruelty of the
feveral animals, of parts of which the ymbol
of the papal power is in the vifion repreented
as compounded, by no means exceeds that
which is here demonstrated to exit in the

breafts of thoe who can thus pread toils for
fouls. For to teach the people that they can

obtain both forgivenes of their fins and ever
lating happines by obervances like thefe,
(even although they had no mixture of cri
minality in them, as they have that of ido
latry,)
300
A Commentary on the
latry,) what is it but holding out to them

encouragement to forfake real righteoufnes,
and to neglet the purfuit of that holinefs,
without which no man fhall fee the Lord;
and by intruting them to truft in that which
cannot deliver, mileading them to their de
ftrution? And when this is done to raife the
credit and fill the coffers of the Roman pon
tiff, by thoe who profes to be preachers of

the gopel, what is it but under the cover of
fheeps clothing to at the part of devouring

wolves ?
But this is not the only reflection that

ought to be made on this heap of blaphe
mous abfurdity. For firt we may fee from
it, that however the partizans of Rome may

wih to evade this charge of blaphemy made
on the popes, by denying that the indulgences
they give extend further than venial fins and
temporal penalties, they themelves in truth
pretend, that they reach to deadly fins, and

the punihments menaced to them.
Secondly, While we admire the exuberant

bounty of the popes in fuch liberal grants of
--
pardon,
3O1
pardon, and epecially that of John the

Twenty-econd, and recollet how happy it
is that the treaure they have to dipene is
infinite, we cannot but be tricken with the
great uncharitablenes viible in thoe of their
communion, from purgatory itelf not being

kept clear; ince fo eay is the tak of deliver
ance from it made by the compaffionate be
nevolence of thee charitable pontiffs, that
very mall indeed mut be the care of that

perfon for his relations, who will fuffer any
of them to remain therein, when by a few
prayers he may deliver them by whole com
panies, fifteen at a time! (See before extrat
from Folio 50) Nay, the very exertions of

thofe who are fet apart for religious exercifes
would preferve a contant tranfit, a crowded
line of fouls paffing from purgatory to the

realms of blis, by what may be called the
pope's highway.
-
Thirdly; No man can well read the above.
extract from Folio 61 without admiring the

wonderful information to be derived from
tradition, when he learns the exact accompt

-
of
302
A Commentary on the
of fo great a number of wounds as were in

flited on the body of our bleed Saviour.
But, laftly, I conceive there is fcarcely
any ferious Chritian who will not look with
indignation on thoe grofs falfehoods, by
which it here appears that endeavours were
ued to make men uppoe the earliet bihops

of Rome, and even an apofile, guilty of the
fame madnes of blaphemy that later pre
lates have pratifed, and on the fhameles
pretence of indulgences gained from St.
Peter.
But to the blaphemy contained in thee

affumptions of the divine prerogative, in for
giving fins and difpenfing with the laws of
God, muft be added the papal pratice of
permitting the titles, and even the very name
of God to be given to the bihops of Rome.

Lord Lyttelton oberves of the age of our
Henry the Second, that thoe times thought
it no blaphemy to give to the pope the ho

nour of God; a remark which was occa
fioned partly by a letter of Becket's, of which
*
the

the noble author
fpeaks
303
as follows But
as he (Becket) durft not quarrel with the

the pope, he had recoure to fupplications,
and wrote a letter to that pontiff, in a mot
extraordinary tyle, diretly praying to him,
and imploring his help, in phraes of crip

ture appropriated to God: Rife, Lord, and
delay no longer; Let the light of thy coun
tenance fhine upon me, and do unto me ac
cording to thy mercy, and to my wretched

friends who faint under too heavy a burthen;
Save us, for we perih; Let us not be con-
founded amongst men; Let not our adverfa

ries infult over us, yea, the adverfaries of
Christ and the Church : Let not our fortune
be turned into deriston by this nation and
people, becaue we have invoked thy name

to our affistance.
Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but in the name of our Lord Jeus
Christ make unto thyfelf a great name; Re

pair thy Glory, clear up the honour of thy
reputation, which upon the return of that
ercommunicated and perjured fchifmatick
John of Oxford, is by his fale report cer

tainly funk in thefe parts*.
* Lyttelton's Henry II. Vol. IV. p. 247.

Such
304
, A
Commentary on the
Such was the hocking blaphemy ad

drefied to a pope by one who has fince been
canonized, who has to this day a fetival ob
ferved to his honour by the papits, and
whoe affitance they do not heitate to fup

plicate God may be extended to all thoe
who implore it.
-
I hall cloe the tetimony of the very

name of God being given to the pope in a
few lines trancribed from the fame part of
Jurieu's work from which the lat quotation
was made Lastly, it is in the pope him
felf, in whom we have an exact accomplih

ment of the fcripture preditions, that paint
forth the feat of antichrift as a feat of pride:
he will be tyled Santiffimus Dominus noster,
Our mot holy Lord:-will, on many occa

fions, be called, Our Lord God the Pope
his divine Majetythe vitorious God and
man in his fee of RomeDeus optimus mari
mus, and Vice-God-named God by the

pious emperour Contantine, and adored as
God by that emperourthe Lamb of God
that taketh away the fins of the worldthe
mot holy, who carrieth the mot holy.
-
. In
...
305
In truth it is an unpleaant tak even to

trancribe fuch horrid profanenes, and there
fore, as I am convinced, I have produced

proofs enough of the accomplihment of this
part of the prophecy to fatisfy all but thoe
who would not be fatisfied, even though one
rofe from the dead: I hall proceed to the next particular declared in the text; That
the blaphemy of this power hould alo be
directed againt the tabernacle of God. Now
on the authority of fcripture we may apply
this phrae to two fubjets, befides that which
it literally fignified, but which at preent exit

eth not: the firt is the Church, or Congre
gation of true Chritians, which St. Paul de

fcribes as growing up into a holy temple
in the Lord; and the fecond is the Body
ef our Lord, of which He Himelf, St. John
informs us, fpake as a temple.
Now in regard to the former of thee,

how boldly the popes, in the midt of all
their corruptions, and under all their apo
flacy, have aumed
to their church the name
of the only true Church of God, of the only
Spoue of Chrit, of the Queen and Mother

-
- - - --
of
306
A Commentary on the
of all Churches, out of which there is no

falvation, thus blapheming that venerable
title, is well known : as it is likewife, that
they brand all thoe who will not partake in

their abominations, but continue in the
dotrine of Chrit as delivered to us in His
words by thoe whom He commiioned to

teach the world, with the opprobrious title
of Hereticks, and formally confign them to
all the curfes confequent on the divine wrath.
And for the latter, by their dotrine of tran
fubtantiation, in which they affert that a
wafer is changed by the words of confecra

tion into the true tabernacle of the Deity,
and caue men to worhip a piece of bread

as Him, who is the fame yeterday, to
day, and for ever, and by which they have
given occaion to fo many blaphemous for
geries and profane legends, they have com
pletely fulfilled what was thus predited of

them.
The last objects of the blaphemy of the

beat fpecified in the vifion are thoe which
are in heaven.If by thee are to be under

ftood the angels, how much they are blaf
-phemed
-
307
phemed by men who teach that adoration is

acceptable unto them, may be difcerned from
the words of an angel to St. John when he
attempted to worhip him, recorded in this
very Book; I fell down, ays the evan
gelift, to worhip before the feet of the
angel which fhewed me thefe things. Then
faith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I
am thy fellow-ervant, and of thy brethren
the prophets, and of them which keep the
fayings of this book: worhip God. Chap.

xxii. 8, 9.
But till more grosly are thee
celetial beings blaphemed, it hould feem,
when they are flandered as acting in upport

of the idolatrous abominations of the papal
power by appearances, peaking in viions,

&c. &c.
If among them in heaven are to be

reckoned the faints, the fame obervations
may be repeated as applicable to thefe.
In
, the 10th Chapter of the Acts we read, And

as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him,
and fell down at his feet, and worhipped

him. And Peter took him up, faying, Stand
up; I myelf alo am

a man. Yet apotle
to this
x 2
v
- -
*:
A Commentary on the
303
apotle have the pops the hardines to refer

for authority to lord it, as they do, over the
flock, and for the origin of their blafphemous
pretenions; as we fee in the above extrat
from the Book of Hours St. Peter dragged
in as a granter of indulgences. But above
all other faints the blefied Virgin is the mot
blaphemed by the papifts. Some of the
things written of her by the authours of
legends are literally too indecent to be laid
before modet eyes; but for thoe readers
who are yet unacquainted with the pature of
their forgeries, I tranfcribe two tales men
tioned by Mede in his book of the Apotay
of the later Times. The one he quotes from
the feventh book of Carius That the
Virgin faid to a certain foldier, I will be thy

wife, come and kifs me, and made him do
fo : The other from an Italian book, called
The Miracles of the Blefied Virgin, printed

at Milan 1547; A certain abbes being
great with child, the holy Virgin, willing to
cover her crime, did in her tead preent

herelf before the bihop in form of an abbes,
and fhewed by ocular demontration that he

was not with child.
-*
Lastly,
Revelation of si. John.
309
Lastly, however, them that are in hea

ven being compared with what we read in
the firt epitle of St. John, There are
three that bear record in heaven, fuggets
a probability that herein may be foretold
that hocking blaphemy of which the papits
(and would to God none but the papits!)
are guilty in making pretended repreenta
tions of the mot holy Trinity; in which
fenfe, as well as in the foregoing, it is uffi
ciently manifet, that the predition has been
accomplihed.
The next characteristick of this power is

Idolatry, which though in fat included in
the charge of blaphemy made on him in
this thirteenth chapter, is in the feventeenth
fpecifically predited by the feat of his empire
being declared to be Mytery, Babylon the

great, the Mother of Harlots and Abomina
tions of the Earth. For every reader of
the holy criptures knows, that the prophets

ued the term Fornication figuratively to
fignify Idolatry; and for this crime the an

cient city of Babylon was eminently infa
mous, and in all probability the very pot

( *
X 3
wherein
310
A Commentary on the
wherein this fin firt began; and fo great has

been the imilarity between the fate of that
city and that of Rome, that in the fifth cen
tury the following remark was made on it by
Oroius, as cited by Daubuz. Babylon,
1164 years after it had been founded by
the Medes and their king Arbatus, having
been plundered too by its governour, was
deprived of her wealth, and her dominion,
and even of her monarch: yet he herelf
remained in fafety for fome time after. In
like manner Rome, too, after jut as many

years, that is 1164, being broken into by
the Goths and their king Alaric, and his
companion, and plundered of her wealth,
not of her dominion, till continues and
reigns fafely.
Although fo far by fecret
decrees the whole order of circumtances is

preferved, fo as to fuit both cities; fo that
both there its governour Artabus took po
festion of the kingdom, and here Ataulphus

the governour of this attempted to reign;
yet in this only by the merit of the Chritian
emperour Honorius was the profane
attempt
obviated. Therefore I thought thee things
ought to be mentioned on this account par

-
ticularly,
311
ticularly, that by fo great a mytery of the

unfpeakable judgments of God being partly
laid open, thoe who fimply murmur about
Chritian times may undertand, that the
fame God ordered the times, both in the
beginning to the Babylonians, and at lat
to the Romans: that it is of His mercy that
we live; but that we live in mifery, proceeds
from our own want of temperance.
Behold
a fimilar rife of Babylon and of Rome ! a

fimilar power, imilar greatnefs, fimilar times,
fimilar bleings, fimilar ufferings*.

And that trong is the refemblance be
tween thee cities in the particular at prefent
under conideration, the reader will be fully
convinced who confiders, that old Rome was
in truth the foter-mother of every uperti

tion and every form of idolatry that was
brought to her: a fact thus trongly atteted
by the hitorian of the Decline and Fall of
her Empire: Rome, ays he, the capital

ofa great monarchy, was incestantly filled with
fubjects and trangers from every part of the
*
* Oroius ap. Daubuz, p. 373.

X 4
world,
312
A Commentary on the
world, who all introduced and njoyed the

favourite upertitions of their native country.
Ifis and Serapis at length astumed their place
among the Roman deities, mor was this in
dulgence a departure from the old maxims
of government. In the puret ages of the
commonwealth, Cybele and culapius had
been invited by folemn embaffies, and it was
cutomary to tempt the protectors of the
beieged cities, by the promife of more dif
tinguihed honours than they pofiested in

their native country.
Rome gradually be
came the common temple of her ubjects;

and the freedom of the city was betowed on
all the gods of mankind. . And that modern
Rome has not in this point fallen from the
former pre-eminence, the reader may learn

from Mr. Gibbon's forty-ninth Chapter; and
epecially from his report of the war fup
ported by the pope and the Italians, in de
fence of images, which the eatern emperour

purpoed to detroy. The following extracts
from this account will fhew how openly and

earnetly idolatry was then upholden by papal
authority. Gregory the Second, in an epitle
yet extant, repreented the chritian images,
*
*
. .
** as
813
as the genuine forms of Chrit, His mothe
and His faints, who had approved, by a crow

of miracles, the innocence and merit of this
relative worhip. In a tranlation of part

of the letter itelf we find this pastage; Th
eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility;
and they revere, as a God upon earth, th

apostle Peter, whoe image you threaten to
detroy. The hitorian afterwards informs
us, that when, by the emperour's order, the

images of Chrit and the Virgin, and of the
angels, martyrs, and faints were abolihed in

all the churches of Italy, the country, on
the admonition of the pope, took arms,
and the Italians fwore to live and die in
defence of the pope and the holy images.

But, fince the strength of expreion be
ftowed on this particular in the vifion is fuch
as to call on us to pay it till more confidera
tion, let us examine, whether in later ages
Rome has hewn a lefs open or lefs tenacious
attachment to idolatry. In the feventeenth
chapter, the angel fpeaks of this city as her
with whom the kings of the earth have
committed fornication :
|
befides then her

OWI]
314
A Commentary on the
own pratice we mut enquire too, whether

the nations have not joined in her idolatry?
How far the veneration which he encou
rages her followers to pay to departed faints,

even if it proceeded no farther than to dedi
cate churches to their names, naturally tends
to lead the ignorant to idolatry, may be dif

cerned from the following anecdote related
in Jortin's Remarks on Eccleiatical Hif
tory, and properly quoted by Dr. Eveliegh

as proving to what a degree religious tra
dition may be corrupted : Some Saxon
monks, who had formerly introduced the
gopel into Rugia, dedicated a church there

to their patron St. Vitus. The inhabitants
afterwards relaped into paganim, forgot the

true God, and, when they were converted
again about the year 1170, they were found

to be given up to the worhip of the idol
Suantovit, which they had derived from
St. Vitus.
Now if the mere dedication of a church
thus led to the manufature of an idol, when

in Rome itelf the relicks of the faints are,
-
laid
315
laid up in churches; when her authorized
books, nay, her popes and her councils teach

her people to pray for their mediation; when
by her publick and principal pators the

greatet miracles are acribed to their re
licks; when
the books that deliver the
grofiet forgeries concerning them are never

dicountenanced by authority, as many, many
others are; when indulgences are granted in
honour of thefe faints, and notices of fuch
difper.sd in print; nay, when the fecond

commandment is obliterated from many co
pies of thoe of the firt table, becaue the

dotors of her communion are concious, that
the pratices of their church are inconfiftent

with it, are not all the excees that have
flowed or may flow from thefe things jutly

to be charged on the parent of them ?
- What then have thefe exceffes been ? From
a few pecimens let the reader judge of the

ret.
I have in my poffeffion a fmall trat, en

titled, The Catholic Devotion of the
Bleed Virgin, with the pratice thereof.

By
516
A Commentary on the
By the Rev. Robert Manning. Printed by

T. Coghlan, No. S7, Duke-street, Grofvenor
fquare, 1798. The editor of which declares,
that his reafon for republihing this work
was, that the two fubjets treated in it have
of late years ecaped the attention of the

pulpit and the prefs; and he exprefes his
convition, that in point of devotion to the
virgin, real defeis are far more to be feared

than real erceffes. The authour himelf in
his Grounds of Devotion,
having entered
protet againt confidering the virgin as any
more than a creature (the very reafon we

may in paffing oberve, why he hould not be
worhipped at all), and tated, that therefore

all the devotion paid to her hould be only
relative, and not beyond the bounds of mo
deration and decency, and that it is idolatry
to offer her (mark the ufual fophitry of the
papists on this ubject!) the worhip which is

due to God alone; he afferts, we may fafely
fay, that he is the mot excellent creature
that ever was created, and ufes the words
(he affirms) of Chryostome, declaring, that

fhe furpaes in greatnes both heaven and
earth; and that while the heavenly powers
"
ftand
317
ftand before the throne with fear and trem
bling, and covering their faces, he prefents

mankind to Chrit, and it is through her we
obtain the pardon of our fins. Then having
particularized the extraordinary favours re
ceived by her from God; (for half of which
the cripture yields not the leaft foundation)
he aks, Whether here is not encouragement

enough to pay a particular devotion to the
blefied virgin, and repofe an entire truft and
confidence in her intercestion?
And after
running through a tring of reafoning founded .

on a groundlefs affumption, and in which
there is no fmall mixture of blaphemy, he
afferts, that God will alway honour her as
queen of heaven, and has inpired the church
to pay her ertraordinary honours, he at length
concludes, that if we can but render her our
advocate to her Son, we cannot put our eter

nal interets into better hands.
Having thus affigned what he is pleaed to
call the grounds of the devotion to the bleed
virgin, this writer proceeds to give direc
tions relating to that kind and degree of it,
againt which he thinks no exception can be

-
made:
A Commentary on the
320
their dependance on their blind guides more

abfolute: accordingly the devotions which
they performed, the offerings which they
made at the fhrines of the faints, and the
very exprefions which their teachers dared

to make ue of, all tend to prove, that they
had drunk of the cup Rome adminitered to
them even to inebriation.
Mede in his Apostacy of the Later Times

obferves, that it was the ordinary conclu
fion of the legends of the Latin churches,

that fince God hath done thus and thus by
His holy martyr, or, fith God hath by fuch
miracles honoured this martyr, Let us pray
unto him, that by his merits and interceffion
we may obtain falvation. And Number
29, in Burnet's Colletion of Records, con
tains fome of the collets and hymns to

the faints in the hours ad ufum Sarum,
printed at Paris, 1520; in which immediate

adoration is offered to them, and thoe things
are aked of them, which God only gives;"

from whence I have trancribed the following
collets.
.. "
Holy
321
Holy mother of God, who haft wor

- thily merited to conceive Him whom the
whole world could not comprehend; by your
pious intervention wah away our fins, that,
being redeemed by thee, we may be able to
acend to the feat of everlating glory, where
thou abidet with thy Son for ever.
Part of a prayer to the virgin, to the fayers
of which pope Celetine granted three hun
dred days of pardon: Comfort a finner,

and give not thine honour to a tranger or
the cruel; I pray thee, queen of heaven.
Have me excued with Chrit thy Son, whoe
anger I dread, and thoroughly fear his
wrath, for againt thee only have I finned.
O virgin Mary, be not etranged from

thou who art full of heavenly grace.
me,
Be the
guardian of my heart, impres me with the
fear of God, betow on me integrity of life,

and give me honety of manners: and grant
that I may avoid fin, and love what is
righteous, O virgin weetnefs, there never

has been, neither is there fuch, &c.
Y
O George,
322
A Commentary on the
O George, renowned martyr, praife and

glory becomes thee, who haft had a rich por
tion of warfare, by whom the royal damfel,
preenting herfelfin forrow before the worst of

dragons was faved, even in foul: we beg thee
from the bottom of our hearts, that with all

the faithful we may be joined to the citizens
of heaven, being wahed from our uncleannes,
and that at the fame time, with joy, we may
be with thee in glory, and our lips may render

praie to Chrit with glory.
TO ST. A L B A N -
We now beg you patron, industrious

preacher, who art our true glory, loofe the
crimes of thy fervants by thy fupplications.
Such are four of thee idolatrous compost

tions, in which the multitude were taught to
addres themelves to thoe whom they had

chofen for their tutelar faints; the ret I will
* not tranlate, that my more learned readers

may not lofe the pleaure they mut receive
from thefe monkih
rhymes.
w
Virgo
323
Virgo fingularis, inter omnes mitis nos

culpis folutos, mites fac et catos: Vitam
prta puram, iter para tutum, ut videntes
Jefum, femper colltemur.
Martyr Christophore,
Fac nos mente fore,
Pro falvatoris honore,
Dignos Deitatis amore,
Promiffo Chriti,
Confer folamen,
Quia quod petis obtinuisti, Et mentis tolle gravamen,

Da populo triti,
Judicis xamen,
Bonaqu moriendo petisti, Fac mite (fit nobis) Amen.

O Willielme, pastor bone, Confer opem et depone,
Cleri Pater et Patrone,
Vit fardes, et coron,
Munda nobis in agone,
Coelestis da gaudia.
O vos undena millia,
In vit me defendite,
Puell glorio,
Virginitatis lilia,
Martyrii Rof,
In morte vos oftendite,
Prebendo mihi juvamen,

Supremum ferendo folamen.
To sT. PETER AND ST. PAUL.
Beate Petre qui maxima referas, claudis

verbo coeli limina, fume pius vota fidelia,'
peccati cuncta diffolvendo vincula. Sacra

Paule
ingere dogmata, illutrans plebis pec
tOra.
AF
Y 2
. N
324
***
A Commentary on the
IN DIE MNIUM SANCToRUM.
Mariam primam vox fonet notra, per

quam nobis vit funt data prmia: Regina
qu es mater, et cata, folve notra per Fi

lium peccamina. Angelorum concio facra, et
arch-angelorum turma inclita, notra diluant
jam peccata prftando fupernam coeli glo
T1A.III
To thee mut be added the following of
which Lord Lyttelton has jutly oberved,

that Chrit is deired to ave the fouls of
the fupplicants, not by His own blood, but
by Beckets.
-
Tu per Thom fanguinem,

Quem pro te impendit,
Fac nos, Chrifte, fcandere,
acendit.Verficle. Gloria
et honore coronati eum Domino: Refp. Et
Quo Thomas
contituiti eum fupra opera manuum tu

arum.
Ut ejus meritis et precibus a Gehenn in

cendiis liberemur.
* In
* - *#:;.
325
In thefe prayers the reader will oberve,
that not only faints and angels are befought
to waih away fin, but redemption is in ex
prefs terms afcribed to the virgin Mary, and .

fhe is petitioned for her Son's fake to remit
fins.
If this be not idolatry, what is ?
However, that it may not be faid, thee are

errours, which the followers of the pope have
now laid afide, (though even in that cafe the
accomplihment of the predition would be
proved) I mut here add, that in the direc
tions relating to the devotion of the virgin
I have already mentioned, the office and li
tanies compoed in honour of her are parti

cularly recommended. A copy of this office
I have now before me, printed at Antwerp
in 1703, as lately reformed, and publihed

by the command of pope Pius V. with
indulgences and prayers appointed by that
pontiff, and hymns revied by Urban VIII.
Thee indulgences are various for faying various parts of the office; and among other
things prefixed to the office is a very defec
tive copy of the ten commandments, from

which the fecond is entirely omitted, as alo
/
Y 3
the
326
A Commentary on the
the greater part of the fourth, and the tenth

is divided into two to preferve the due num
ber. Here too is the following doxology re
commended by an indulgence of Leo X.
in which the reader will fee, that the fame
glory is given to the virgin and all faints as

to God. To the holy and undivided
Trinity; to the crucified human nature of
our Lord Jeus Chrit; to the prolifick pu

rity of the mot blefied and mot glorious
virgin Mary; and to the community of all

faints, be everlating praie, honour, power,
and glory from every creature, and to us re
mifion of all fins, through endles ages of
ages, &c.
-
In the office of praie for Easter we find

this blaphemous falutation : Rejoice,
queen of heavenbecaue He whom thou

haft merited to bear, is rifen as He faid.
And in the prayers for the fame eaon the

following: Protet, O Lord, thy people,
and preferve them with perpetual defence
who confide in the patronage of thine apotles
Peter, and Paul, and the other apotles,

|
And
327
And for the time between Pentecot and
Advent this repone: Hail, queen, mother

of mercy, our life, fweetnes, and hope, hail.
To thee, we banihed fons of Eve cry. To
thee we figh, groaning and weeping in this

valley of tears. Ah then, our advocate, turn
to us thoe merciful eyes of thine; and after
this exile, fhew us the blefied Jefus, fruit of
thy womb. O merciful, O pious, O weet

virgin Mary. Further in this work we meet
an hymn, in which the virgin is thus ad
drefied, together with God: Remember,

O Creator, &c.Mary, mother of grace,
fweet parent of mercy, do thou protet us
from the enemy, and receive us at the hour of
death. And a little further this prayer: O
God, who haft given to mankind the rewards
of eternal falvation by the prolific virginity of
the blefied Mary; grant, we beeech thee,
that we may perceive that he intercedes for
us, through whom we have deferved to receive
the Author of Life, our Lord Jeus Chrit
thy fon, &c. The lat pecimen of idolatry

I hall extract from this office is the following
hymn, wherein authority over our Lord is evi
dently afcribed to the virgin. Hail, tar of

|-
Y 4
the
A Commentary on the
328
the fea, benignant mother of God, and perpe

tual virgin, propiious gate of heaven. Taking
that hail, from the mouth of Gabriel, eta
blih us in peace, changing the name of
Eve. Looe the chains of the guilty, bring

forth light to the blind. Drive away our
evil, demand all good things. Shew thyfelf
to be a mother.
Let Him who fubmitted
to be born of you for us, receive our prayers

through thee. The remainder of this re
markable hymn has already been quoted from
Burnet.
And now having begged the reader fe
riouly to conider, whether thefe are not

really devotions fit for fuch only as are
drunk with errour, I will proceed to tate to

him part of the contents of the Litanies
of the Virgin contained in the Englih
Manual of Prayers before mentioned. In
the horter Litany we read thefe hocking
expreions: Daughter of the Eternal Fa
ther; fpoue of the Eternal Spirit; mother of
our Creator; refuge of finners; advocate of
all Chritians; queen of angels. The Litany
of Loretto opens thus: We fly under your

-
protection,
529
protetion, O holy mother of God! Depife

not our prayers in our neceities, but ever
deliver us from all dangers, O glorious and
blefied virgin ;and contains the following
titles as given to the virgin:- Gate of hea
ven; health of the weak; comfort of the af

flited; help of Chritians; queen of faints.
In the fame book are prayers provided for
-
women in travail: and as the hymn to the

virgin above cited, Hail ftar of the fea;
naturally reminds one of the heathen worhip
of Venus according to one poet's: Sic te

diva potens Cypri; and another's, Venus
orta mari; fo to a reader acquainted with
Terence, and recollecting the title of Regina

Cli bestowed on, the virgin, the following
prayer will not improbably fugget a fimila

rity between thus calling on the virgin when
a woman is in that fituation, and the Juno
Lucina fer opem of the Andrian. To

thee, and to thy holy interceion, O virgin
mother of God, all women labouring in child
birth fly; repel them not in their neceities,
but help them with thy powerful prayers,
O
glorious and ever-bleed virgin.

The
A Commentary on the
330
The following prayer in which the merits

of the virgin and all faints are infisted on
without even any mention being made of their
Saviour, and the ubequent confeffion, in

which all the faints are again made objets of
the fame worhip as Almighty God, hall
cloe my proofs of the devotions offered by
the multitude, being fuch as to demontrate
that they have drunk of the wine of the

fornication of Rome. Accept, O mot
gracious God, by the prayers and merits of

the blefied virgin Mary, and of all faints, the
office of our fervice. If by thy grace we
have performed any thing according to our
duty, in thy clemency regard it; and what

we have done with negligence, mercifully
pardon it. Who liveth, &c.

I confes to Almighty God, to the
, blefied virgin Mary, to blefied Michael the
archangel, to blefied John the Baptit, tO
the holy apotles Peter and Paul, and to all
the faints, that I have exceedingly finned in

thought, word, and deed, through my fault,
through my fault, through my mot grievous

fault.
*
But
331
But I have moreover afferted above, that
the offerings made at the hrines of the faints
proved the fame thing. In tetimony of this

then, while we read in Rapin, that Lewis the
Seventh of France made a pilgrimage to
Becket's tomb at Canterbury, on his way to
which he was met by our Henry the Se
cond, who accompanied him thither, and
that both the kings there offered up their
prayers; and that that of France, on leaving

the city, gave confiderable preents to the
church where the faint lay interred; which
preents Hoveden tates as follows: He of
fered at Becket's tomb a maffy cup of pure
gold, and gave to the monks 100 modii, i. e.
7200 gallons ofwine yearly, and freed from all

toll whatoever they hould buy in his king
dom; all which he confirmed by a charter
under his feal.
Of the multitude of of
ferings for lefs dignified votaries we may
form fome idea from the following pastage of

Lord Lyttelton's Hitory: What the public
opinion was of the greater benefit of oblations
to this wonder-working faint than of thoe
made to Chrit, appear from the leger-books

at Chrit-church in Canterbury, where in one
year
332
A Commentary on the
year the offerings at the three principal al

tars tood thus: At Chrit's altar 3. 25. 6; at:
Becket's 832. 12.3; at the virgin's 63. 58. 6.
And the next year, at Chrit's altar 0, 0.0;
virgin's 4, 1. 8.
at Becket's 954. 6. 8; at the
Indeed (continues the noble writer) the
greatet wonder is, not that Chrift hould
have nothing, or next to nothing offered to

Him, when Becket had fo much ; but that
the offerings to the faint hould exceed thoe

to the virgin in the proportion here fiated*.
This however is a point on which it is very
unneceary to multiply proofs, as every pro

tetant of any information has heard of the
numerous offerings made to the virgin at the

places where her mot famous images have
been placed, and to various faints where any
of their reliques have been fuppoed to be
preferved; and as it is too a thing gloried in
by the papits themelves.Thus in the ex
poition of the holidays given in the Manual
of Prayers, a feat is pointed out to com
* Lyttelton's History of Henry II. B. IV. p. 367, in
the note.
--
ImeHhOraf6

333
memorate this very faint being put into a
richer hrine, and pilgrimages to St. James,

of Compotella, are poken of
7 July. The tranlation of St. Thomas,

of Canterbury; a feat ordained by a pro
vincial contitution in the time of Simon
Ilip, archbihop of Canterbury, to be ob

ferved throughout the whole nation, in me
mory of his facred relicks being taken up
and repoed in a more cotly hrine, and in a
more eminent place in his cathedral, where
it was had in great veneration until the days

of
King Henry VIII. Anno 1539.

25 July. St. James, called the Great,
brother to St. John the Evangelift, was

about the feat of Eater, beheaded at Jeru
falem, by Herod Agrippa, his relicks were
upon this day tranlated to Compotella in
Spain, where they are had in great venera
tion, people reforting thither from all parts
of Chritendom to pay their pious devotions,

and fulfil their vows.
. .
.
Such
334
A Commentary on the
Such are the fetivals even now recom
mended to the obervation of the papists in

England; and fuch the expreions by which
their teachers cruple not to encourage them
to pay an impious reverence to the remains
of an ambitious prelate, who conpired to

betray the rights of his fovereign and the
independence of his country to the uurped

power of the Roman pontiff. Thefe expref
fions however are not thoe to which I before
alluded; I then had in mine eye a paflage
from Jurieus, which as it contains fo com
plete and jut an expoure of the idolatrous

language of the Roman dotors, and is fup
ported by quotation of the author's,. I will
here trancribe at length: it is to be found
in the Fourteenth Chapter of his Continua
tion of the accomplihment of the prophecies.
It begins thus We cannot I uppoe be

blamed, if in difcovering the nature of the
popih worhip, we make ufe
of the
authors
who have wrote books, to guide the devo
tion of the people. Now if their directions

be not idolatrous, and lead not diretly to
idolatry, we are content to be counted liars.

Firt,
335
First, thee books and thee teachers, acribe

without any cruple a divinity unto creatures.
They call the virgin Mary, a deity and god
des. One of thefe authours thus fpeaks to
her: O virgin, have you forgotten your hu
manity, becaufe you have been deified ? It
is a cardinal of the church of Rome, who

fpoke at this rate in the eleventh century:
which lets us fee, that thee idolatrous ex
cestes are not new. A much later writer
faith of the virgin, that he is advanced to a

kind of equality to God. Another, that her
bofom is the ocean of the Deity. O holy lady,
faith another to her, I know that nothing is hid
from you, and that by your deity, you er
aily understand all my faults. The Lord

hath faid to our lady, Sit thou at my right
hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool.
I uppofe that to fit at the right hand of

God, is the fame as to obtain divine honour;
at leaft we take it fo, when we explain the
article of Chrit's acenion. The jefuite

Delrio giveth the virgin the titles of Optima
and Maxima, i. e. mot good, and mot

great; we know, that the Romans gave
thee to none but the fupreme of their gods,
and
4
336
A Commentary on the
and that Christians have bestowed them on
the infinitely perfect Being. The jefuite

Turfellin, with innumerable others, calls her
at every foot, diva, i. e. goddeffe. My god
deffe, the jefuite James du Jardin. ' The
jeuite Rapin,
who is
now living,
famous for
his writings in profe and vere, faith of her,

diva, quam rebus trepidis benignam. Lipius
calls our lady of Hall, dea Hallenis, the
goddeste of Hall. Thefe are poets, you will

fay: therefore that none may lay the blame
of fuch language on the licene of poey, we
mut know, that Philip Berrald, Ambroe,

Catharini, cardinal Bembo, in their profe,
call her by the fame name of goddes. Ber
nardin de Butis, Antonin, archbihop of
Florence, would have her ftyled dea dearum,
the goddes of goddeffes. Now thefe god

preides, are
deffes, over whom the virgin
all the faints of heaven.

as
many
female
And thus we
have
deities, as there are ca
nonized women in the calendar, They
do
not only style the virgin a goddefs, but prove

her to be fo, and take their arguments from
this, That there is an infinite diference
between her and her fervants, even as there

}S
337
is an infinite difference between God and
His worhippers; and from this, that we

may meaure the divine greatnes, by the
greatnes of the virgin: and from this, that
fhe is the mot noble chamber of the most
holy Trinity; and from this, that God faid
to her, thou halt be changed into me; and

again from this, that befides e being of glory
and grace, he hath effe Dei, the being of

God; and laftly, from this, that God is not
only in her by his grace, but in the way of
identity, i. e. is become one with her.
If the virgin be a goddefs, and all the

other hee-aints be inferior goddeffes, and
confequently, all the men-faints be inferior
gods, it mut not be doubted, that all our
good things come from them both. At
this rate thefe devout gentlemen peak:
No favour comes down from God to us, but
through the hands of the bleffed virgin. The
virgin is the queen regent of paradife, the
country of grace and mercy. The treafures
of the Holy Spirit were given her as her
dowry, and paradie as her portion : there
fore all the gates of heaven are at her devo
Z
votion.
A Commentary on the -
338
votion. It is through her hands that all the
happines which heaven lets fall into our foules

doth pas.
She is the lady treaurer of
heaven; the dipenfer of all the gifts of God;

fhe is the neck, through which Jefus Christ
fends down all pirituall fenfe and motion into
His church. She ruleth over earth, heaven,
and hell. She is the high and mighty prin

ces, of the heavenly potentates. She is uni
verfal queen.
A queen feven ways; for fhe
hath feven kingdoms. The most important af

fairs qf the Trinity pas through her hands,
.fo that all the citizens of heaven, the inha
bitants of earth, the fouls in purgatory, nay,
in hell, do acknowledge her as their mistres,

and humbly bow the knee before her. The
angels are the fouldiers of the virgin. She
faith to one, Go, and to another, Come. She

turns about the heavens, giveth light to the
, fun, governs the world. Her dominion is
vast; for fhe not only commands the crea
tures, but even God himelf, as being His
mother.
She hath a power over her Son,
founded upon a better right, than that of

other mothers. . [N.B. This piece of hor
rid blaphemy is quoted from a faintOne
Revelution of St.
John:
339
St. Bonaventure.] For our Saviour hath a

greater obligation to the virgin Mary, than
other children have to their mothers.
She
hath requited God for all that he received

of Him. She hath difcharged herfelf by
way of retribution ; yea, he hath requited
God for all that we receive from Him. It is

true we are debtors to God, but as for the
virgin, God is a debtor to her; for the vir
gin hath done more, or as much, for God, as
God has done for mankind. Jeus Christ,

by imitating the virtues of Mary, difcharged
His office of Saviour. The virgin, together

with her Son, is the caue of the creatien of
the world.
It is for her and for Him, that
God created the whole univerfe. All believers
are eleted and predestinated through the
virgin. She is the book of life. She me

rited to be the mother of God, and to be
the mother of all mankind.
Every thing
that is fpiritual flowes from Jeus as the fa
ther, and from Mary as the mother of it.

She is more merciful to finners, than Jefus
Christ. . It is not poible that thofe hould be

Javed, from whom Mary turns away the eyes
Z 2
of
340'
A Commentary on the
of her mercy; and it is abolutely neceffary,

that thoe fhould be justified, toward whom
fhe turns her eyes. It is against her alone
that we fin.
If a man finds himelf profe
cuted by the justice of God, he may appeal to

the virgin. The mother's mercy hath often
faved thoe whom the Son hath a mind to
damn: one condemned by the Son, is faved
by the mother. If a man were in hell, the
virgin is able to fetch him out.

Every body hath heard of the red
ladder, and the white ladder; the
red
is that of Jeus Chrit; the white is that

of the virgin.
All thoe who had a mind
to go up by the ladder of Jeus Christ,

were tumbled from the top to the bottom;
and all thoe who went up by the ladder of
the virgin got into paradie. It is the virgin
that gave her Son to men, and facrificed
Him for them. She offered Him by agree
ment with the Father, and by conformity to
the Son, and thus offering Him for all, Jhe

hath procured the falvation of all.
The
clients of the virgin repreent themfelves, as

-
/1In
. 341
in fufpence between the Son and the mother,
between the milk and the blood, not knowing
which way to turn.
It is eay to conclude, what kind of wor
fhip is to be given to one, that is, and doth,
fo many things. Therefore they fay, that
the invocation of the virgin is of abolute
neceity, and that thoe who pray not to

her, are as bad as thoe who blapheme her.
They beg of her in expres terms whatever
is defired from God; heaven, pardon offin,
grace, repentance, victory of the devil.
It is not enough to pray to the virgin, you
mut adore her: every knee mft bow to hen,
adoring her as fovereign queen of men and
angels. And this adoration is not to be
mere external adoration, but internal.
The
angels themelves adore the virgin, and have

adored ever fince he was born. (Mark
this intance of blapheming thoe that dwell
in heaven!) On the account of her own holi
nefs men owe dulia to her; on the account
of her maternal relation they owe her hy

perdulia; and becaue he touched our Sa
viour, the adoration of latria is due to her.
-
z 3
Thofe
A Commentary on the
342
Thoe who well perform thee fervices, though

never fo negligent of their duty towards God,
though villains, robbers, debauchees, &c. they
can not be damned, becaue they have been
clients of the virgin. This they prove by
innumerable examples of thoe whom the
virgin hath by trange miracles brought
back, as it were from the gates of hell, be
caue they had been her votaries. And as

an evidence, how pleafing this adoration is to
the virgin, he hath wrought more miracles
within thefe lat feven or eight hundred
years, than God hath wrought ince the cre
:ation, by Moes and the prophets, by Jeus
Chrit and His apotles, and by all the faints
together.
Her images have poken, they
have fung, they have refifted the fire and the

hammer, they have fored in the air like
birds, they have fwet blood, and oyle and
milk have run from them ; fome of them
have been turned into fleh; they have

wept, lamented, groaned; they have made
the lame to walk, the blind to fee, the deaf
to hear. They have cured all kinds of dif
eaes, and wrought all forts of prodigies,
For thee reafons people will go to the end

----
*
W
of
343
of the world to viit thee confecrated

images; they kifs, fall down before them,
and render them an external' worhip, ac

companied with a mot fervent internal devo
tion. They rubb their chaplets or beads,
their handkerchiefs upon thefe images, and
wear about them thefe chaplets and cloths
which have touched the images of the virgin, and believe, that they are relicks which
have a virtue to preferve from all evills. That
which we have difcourt concerning the vir
gin, may be applied to faints proportionably.
There is no folly or extravagance that we have

now related, but every order of monks fay
fuch like of their founder and authour: th
cordeliers and capuchins of their S. Francis;
the jacpins of their S. Dominick; and in
general of all the pretended faints of their
orders, they are more holy than feraphin;

they raie the dead; they heal all difeafes,
the whole creation is fubjei to them.
If this dreadful blaphemy affet the
reader as much in the perual, of it as it.
hath me in the trancribing,
heavy as are the

judgements which have already fallen on
z 4
Rome,
344 .
A Commentary on the
Rome, and thoe who have partaken in her

abominations, he will be tricken with ad
miration at the divine forbearance, that they

have not been tenfold greater, and look
with unfeigned horrour at any encreae of
probability that thee truly antichristian and

diabolical dotrines hould meet with con
nivance from the government, or a favour
able reception among the people of our own

country.
--
e, e
, But having thus demontrated the ido

latry of the power preignified by the beast,
the next partieular to be confidered confifts
in the impurities which certainly are included

in the title appropriated to his capital, the
mother of harlots and abominations of the
earth. Since it is not only her idolatry

which every country and city of Chritendom
copied by choofing and worhipping patron

faints, but the very loofe principles her mi
nifters have taught, and the many devices

of which they have made ue to render hopes
ef falvation, and the practice of vice com

patible, have encouraged the growth of the
groflest licentiounes; and the center of her
a s
- - - -- -
.*
empire,

345
empire, Italy has, I believe, incontrovertibly
been for centuries, the very focus of vice.
Having already however ufficiently expoed
her doctrine of indulgences, and hewn the
tendency of it to delude men into an opinion
that they may pas their lives in fin, and yet

obtain pardon and happines at the lat, it is
totally unnecestary to add nything more to
prove, that the debaucheries and profligate
lives of any of her communion are (according

to a proverb of long tanding concerning the
Spaniards, that they are the bet catholicks,
and the wort Christians) conneted with the
principles they are taught. I hall therefore,

after extracting from Jurieu fome remarks
on the impure doctrines of ome of the prin
cipal guides of the Romanists, only bring
forward a tetimony or two to the tate of
morals among her clergy in particular; from

which it will be eay to conceive what it mft
have been among thoe who were under their
care and direction, and looked and were
taught that they could look only to them for

instruction.
*
-a
'
*----
--
66.
The
346
A Commentary on the
- The canonits are another kind ofmouths
whereby the dragon, the best, and the

fale prophet do fpeak.
Burchard, bihop of
Wormes, Albertus abbot of Gemblour, An
felme bihop of Lucca, Ives bihop of Char

tres, Gratian a Beneditine monk of Bo
logna, Raimond of Penna Forte, were the

principal compoers of the papal laws, and
of thoe decrees of the papacy, the bod

whereof makes up the canon law. .
It may be faid
truly, that
..
there is no
folly, filthines, extravagance,, or blaphemy,

which is not to be found in thefe authors of
the canon law. In one place we read that a

community of wives is a very good thing,
and that Plato, who would have introduced
it, was the wifet ofall the Greeks: in another

we read, that fornication and having concu
bines, is that which is to be allowed.
The third fort of dotors who peak for

the papacy, and manifet what pirit it is of,
are the cafuits. The writers of Port Royal
in our age have laid open the unclean fpirit

of
347
of popery in their morals. Fully to under

ftand the filthines of this pirit, you mut
read the books which have been writ to in
ftruct the directors of concience, and teach
them what questions to put to the penitents

who come to confeion, and the works of
Burchard, Sanchez de Matrimonio, Emanuel

Sa, Tolet, and feveral others, and you will
find thoe intrutions can teach a man more
abominations than are known by pratice in
the mot infamous places of debauchery.

After this you mut read the deciions of their
cafuits upon the caes of concience, and

concerning the nature of mortal and venial
fins, and you will foon perceive, that there
are no crimes, which they do not excue, to
lerate, and make light of According to
thefe men, imple fornication implies , no
guilt or malice ; that to kill an infant in his
mother's womb, by cauing abortion, is no

murder; that an unmarried woman may be
made to mifcarry to fave her credit; that it

is not adultery to lie with a married woman,
if her huband confent; that a backbiter,
who doth calumniate you, may be killed, to
prevent reproach; a man is not obliged to

put
348
Commentary on the
put away his concubine if he be neceffary to
him for his diverion and delight.
It is
lawful to defire the death of a father to en
joy his estate; it is not neceffary to falvation

to believe cither paradife or hell, but only in .
general to believe in God; the command to

love God is not at all obligatory; the fin
of luaury and fodomy are fins of the lowest
rank ; no one at of love to God is neceffary to
falvation; contrition (attrition) is fufficient,
that is the fear of hell. The toleration of
which lat maxim, M. Jurieu tells us, was
even ratified by pope Alexander the Seventh.

The tetimonies relating to the tate of
morals among the papal clergy, which I mean
to produce, are thefe: Dr. Eveleigh in his
third Bampton Sermon fays, The prelates
who filled the apotolical chair about the minth
and tenth centuries, have furnihed the ene
mies of Chritianity, no les than the enemies
of the abufes ofit, with inexpreible matter of
invetive. They feem to have been permitted
by Providence to prove the extreme folly, as

well as blaphemy, of thoe pretenions to in
fallibility, which have been made for the
#
bihops
349
bihops of that fee. There was a fucceion

(fays Stillingfleet) of not les than fifty bihops
fo remarkable for their wickednes, that Annas
and Caiaphas (fetting only afide their con

demning Chrit) were faints in comparion of
them. And in a note, this learned preacher
has quoted from Jortin's Remarks on Eccle

fiatical Hitory the following paffage: The
prelates and clergy were in general as igno
rant and profligate as can well be conceived:
and the popes were not men but devils."

And Moheim, when peaking of the plan
which Gregory the Seventh had formed for

raifing the church above all human authority,
fays, that that pontiff had many kinds

of oppoition to encounter, but none more
unfurmountable than that which arofe from
the two reigning vices of concubinage and

- fimony, that had infeted the whole body of
the European clergy. The Roman pontiffs,
from the time- of Stephen the Ninth, had
combated with zeal and vehemence thefe
monftrous vices, but without fucces.
And
then this hitorian adds in a note, mon
firous vices we may justly call them. For

though it be true, that in the methods Gre
/
gory
350
A Commentary on the
gory took to extirpate thee vices, he vio

lated not only the laws of religion, but alo
the ditates of natural equity and jutice, and
under the mak of a pious zeal, committed

the mot crying and abominable enormities;
yet it is certain, on the other hand, that
thefe vices produced the mot unhappy effets
both in church and state, and that the fup

preion of them was now become abolutely
necefary. There were indeed, among the
clergy, feveral men of piety and virtue,
who
lived in the bonds of wedlock, and thee
Gregory ought to have pared.
But there
was alo a prodigious number of eccleiatics
throughout Europe, not only of priests and

canons, but alo of monks, who lived in the
bonds of a criminal love, kept, under the
title of wives, mistreffes which they difmisted

at pleaure, to enjoy the fweets ofa lcentious
variety, and who not only fpent, in the mot
profufe and fcandalous manner, the revenues
and treaures of the churches and convents to
which they belonged, but even ditributed

a great part of them among their ba
tards.
Strong
351
Strong are thee tetimonies, and great is

is the corruption of morals they pourtray,
but a till more horrid picture is given of the

extreme corruption of the popes and the
members of the papacy for feveral confe
quent centuries in the Eighth and Ninth

Chapters of Jurieu's Continuation of the
Accomplihment of the prophecies; with
which I would not trouble the reader on ac
count both of the filthy crimes particularized

in it, and of its length, but that I feel it my
duty not to omit any thing, which may be
at all likely to prevail on a fingle individual
to dread, and exert himelf againt the progres which the Romanits are now making
towards drawing the inhabitants of this
iland backinto the toils of their blaphemous
and idolatrous tenets: a progres encouraged

by the impious indifference of fome to all re
ligion, by the guilty fupinenes of others, and
in many, poibly, by a judicial infatuation,
that they hould believe a lie, becaue they
have not attended to the truth, but had
-
pleaure in unrighteoufnes.
66
It
A Commentary on the
It is from the tenth century we muft
352
begin the history of the abominations of the

popes. Pope Formofus died in the year 897.
By means of a fation of villains his feat
was filled by one called Boniface, who had
twice before been depoed, once while a dea
con, and a fecond time when he was a priet.
This Boniface, turned out of the chair by
another fation, gives place to Stephen VII.
who made himelf very famous by a remark

able ation, in cauing the body of Formofus
to be digged out of its grave, and a proces
to be made againt him, upon this pretence,
that he uffered himelf to be tranlated from
another bihoprick to that of Rome, con

trary to the canons, and fo his body was
thrown into the Tyber. The historians who

write the lives of the popes, charaterize him
as a profigate wretch, and make him to have

governed only fifteen months. Two popes
followed, whereof the one fat in that chair
but four months, and the other no more than
three weeks.
After this came John IX.
who continued three years, fay fome.One

Benedit ucceeded him on the one hand,
-
whilft
Revelation
of St. John.
Sergius,
other, did alo exercife the pontifical
whilt a vile fellow, named
353
on the
power,
as appears by the records of thoe times.
Leo V. followed upon the death of Benedit,

who at the end of forty days was impri
foned by another pope, named Chritophorus,
who had the chair but feven months. Hera

are at leaft feven or eight popes in that
number of years, becaue they turned out

and trangled one another.
This Chritophorus was turned out by
another villain named Sergius, of the fation
of the marquis of Tucany. Here we ought |

to perufe the confeion of Baronius himelf,
who enters upon the tenth century, with
rage and paffion, calling it the leaden, the

iron age, a century of horror and darknes.
At this time ruled thoe two mot notorious
ftrumpets, Theodora, a Roman dame, mot

infamous for her lewdnes, and her daughter
Marofia, wife to Albertus, marquis of He
truria, and concubine of this pope Sergius,

who at the fame time kept the mother and
the daughter, to reward them for raifing
him to be pope by their influence and au

A A
thority.
*
354 ,
A Commentary on the
thority.
One Athanafius fucceeded him,
concerning whom we have no account: it is

mt eay to imagine the caufe, for as this
pope was one of the cabal of Theodora and
Marofia, he was of the like character with

his predeceors. After him comes Lando,
who to oblige the infamous Theodora, pre
ferred a priet of Ravenna, named John, to
the bihoprick of Bologna, and afterwards to
be archbihop of Ravenna. But Theodora,
not finding it for her convenience to have her
gallant at fuch a ditance from her, quickly

makes away with Lando, and makes this
John the Tenth, by name, bihop of Rome.

Some hitorians fay, that this John was the
fon of pope Sergius by Marofia, Theodora's
daughter. This pope then was the fon ofapope,
and kept his grandmother Theodora to be his
whore. This monter postested the chair fix

teen years, and left it by a violent death; for
Marofia, who is reputed by fome authours to
have been his mother, caued him to be put

in prifon, and there to be tifted under a bed.
She made Leo VI. pope in his room, who

furvived but fix months, and died in prifon
of a violent death, as his predeceor did.
6
Stephen
-
Revelation gf St. John.
35$
Stephen VIII. fucceeded him, and he was

permitted to
continue in the chair till it was
thought fit to place John XI. in his room,

who, according to the opinion of feveral
authours, was Marofia's baftard by Pope

Sergius, and not John X., as Platina would
have it. This John had his own mother
Marofia for his whore.
Albertus, the fon
of Marofia, by her marriage with Albertus,

marquis of Tucany, imprifons both Marofia,
and John XI., his brother by the mother's
fide.
This latter dies there, and leaves his
feat to Leo VIII., of whom Platina gives

this great commendation, That he did no
thing worth remembering. Thoe that fol

lowed till the year 956 had the good fortune
to be almot buried in filence.
It was otherwife with Stavian, fon of

Albertus, marquis of Tucany, who was made
pope at feventeen years old. His crimes
were very enormous, but they are well known
alo by all the world.
In him did Rome fee
another Nero, a fecond Heliogabalus. The

Lateran palace became the mot publick
bawdy-houe ofll Europe; an honet woman
could not with any fafety perform her devo

-
A A 2
tions
356
4 Commentary on the
tions in the mot publick places; for women

were ravihed even in the churches. Befides
that, he offered incene to the devil, and
invoked Jupiter, and the other gods of pa
ganifm. The emperour Otho, coming to

Rome, caued this monter to be depoed;
but he formed a party againt the emperour,

by which an infurrection was made, and much
blood was hed. Otho remained mater, and

fet up another pope ; but as foon as he left
the city, to return into Germany, the whores

at Rome fet him again upon the chair, and
thrut out the other pope, whom the empe

rour had made. Otho, who again prevailed
over the feditious at Rome, being dead, another villain, who called himelf Boniface VII.,
feized Pope Benedit VI., and caued him
to be strangled in prifon. Another tyrant,

of the fation and family of the marquis of
Tucany, named Benedit VII., turned out

this Boniface VII., who was forced to fav
himelf at Contantinople; whither he carried

all the moveables, and as much of the trea
fure of St. Peter as he could with him.
Some time after he comes back to Rome,
and puts himelf again in the chair, where

he
- 357.
he found one named John XIV., whom he
throws into prifon, and there he is tarved to

death. Eight months after this, he himelf
dies, and is dragged through the treets to
be thrown on a common dunghill. Behold,
thee are the gods of the papacy*!
The eleventh century, faith Baronius,

began with a report which pread itelf
far and near, that antichrift was come, and
that ere long we hould fee the end of the

world. . He confeffeth, that the horrible
villanies which had been feen in the church,
and were yet to be feen there, gave occaion

to this report. . . In this eleventh century,
until the middle of it, the Roman chair was
poffested by men every whit as vile and mon

*
ftrous as their predeceors. The marquistes

of Tucany, who did whatever they pleaed
at Rome, continued to bestow the popedom

on their kindred, or to fell it unto trangers,
* To this day the Romanists continue the blaphemous
practice of calling the pope, the Lord God, as appears
from a confeion of faith found in the pocket of a priest
during the late rebellion in Ireland, and reported by Sir

R. Mugrave,
A A 3
It
~
A Commentary on the
It was in this century that there was one
358
pope but of ten years old, the fon of Alber

tus, count of
Tucany.
He was called Be
nedit the Ninth, and was one of the vilet
monsters that ever fat in the papal chair, or

in the world. Cardinal Benno affures us,
he was a forcerer; that he facrificed to devils
in the woods, and that he drew the love of
women by magical charms, When this Be

nedit IX. had reigned peaceably for the
fpace of ten years, another fation of villains
created another pope, under the name of
Silyester III. Benedit IX. fells his hare

in the papacy to one named John, and
retires to his own houe to live in privacy;
but returns within a few months, and fets
up himelf again for pope, without thruting

out the other two, fo that Rome had three
popes in three distinct churchesThoe

three wretches might longer have postested
the honour and the profits of the papacy, if

a fourth, more cunning than they, had no
peruaded them to part with their dignity
in his favour, on condition that they
might
retain thoe church revenues, which they

before enjoyed, This Gratian, for fo that
priest
359
priest was called, he buys the popedom, but

doth not long enjoy it. Clement II. takes
his place, and continued in it but nine
months, and then was poifoned by Dama
fus II., who ucceeded him. This Damafus,
after three and twenty days, was himelf

poifoned by one. Gerard Brazuta, who was
kept in pay for uch work by the holy fee;
for Cardinal Benno tells, that he had poi
foned feven or eight fucceflively.
We fee then what fort of men were
bihops of Rome till the middle of the ele

venth century. But the cene begins to
change. : For-two hundred years the popes
had been prostigate and debauched, mon
fters of filthines, worfe than Sardanapalus.
Afterwards we meet with fuch as were merci
lefs furies, whoe debaucheries are hardly taken
notice of, becaue their ambition and pride
tranported them to that degree, as made

their other vices to be les obervable,In the
catalogue of thee popes we meet with one
Honorius III., whom Matthew Paris tyles,

Leo feritate, fanguifuga avariti, a lion for
rage and fury, and an horfe-leech for covet

-
AA 4
oufnes,
A Commentary on the
360
oufnes.One Boniface VIII., who entered
into the popedom as a fox, lived there as a

lion, and left it as a dog.One BeneditXII.,
who bought the fifter of Petrarkus, not of
Petrarque himelf, who abhorred the popes,

their perons and their lives, but of Gerard,
his brother.One John XXII., who was
depoed in the Council of Contance, as an
heretick, fimoniack, perjured, murderer, poi
foner, adulterer, and fodomite.
After the Council of Contance we find
Alphonfus Borgia pope, under the name of

Calitus III.To him fucceeded Pius II.,
who confeffes his debaucheries in the books
we have yet extant of his.Quickly after

comes Paul II., declared enemy of all honet
men, &c.After this wemeet with Sixtus IV.,
who from being a cordelier got to be pope;

whoe character Baptita Mantua hath left
us: he faith in hort, that he was luxurious,
debauched, a drunkard, adulterer, and what
ever can be imagined that was abominable.

To this Sixtus ucceeded one Innocent VIII.,
who was lacivious beyond meaure, and had
eight bastard fons, and as many daughters.

-
Imme
361
Immediately after this we find Alexander VI.,

whoe enormities were fufficient to efface the
memory of all thoe of his predeceors.
He
purchaed the popedom with money; he lived

there in incet with the famous Lucretia, who
was his own daughter, whom he married to

his own fon, Car Borgia.After him comes
Julius II.
This was he who had fuch fa
mous quarrels with Lewis XII., king of

France; on which occaion that king coined
a medal, on which was a pope with a triple

crown, and on the revere thee words, Per
dam Babylonis nomen, I'll detroy the name

of Babylon.
!
Leo X. fucceeded him. It is notorious,

that he did not fo much as believe a God;
and one day told Cardinal Bembo, That
this fable of J. Christ hath done us good

fervice.Adrian VI. ucceeded him. They
fay he was an honet man, but a bad pope:
thus the papits themelves fpeak of him.
Clement VII. comes next: Guicchardin tells
us he was a batard, a knave, a hypocrite, a

, coward, credulous, a flave to his domesticks,
and yet proud,Paul III, ucceeded him.
Never
362
A Commentary on the
Never was the memory of any man loaded

with more heinous accuations. He had fold
his fifter, Julia Farnefe, to Alexander VI. for
a cardinal's hat., He lay with another of

his fifters, and out of jealoufie poifoned her.
Laura Farnefe, his niece, was his mifs : he
endeavoured befides to debauch another
niece, which was young and handfome : he

lay with his own daughter Contantia, and
poifoned Boius Sfortia, her huband.
book that came out after his death accueth
him of all this: if but a quarter be true, it

would be enough.-John Maria de Monte
was chofen pope by the name of Julius III.,

the mot voluptuous man in the world. He
was fufpeted of, &c,-Clement VIII. was
accued to be a poifoner, a murderer, guilty

of fimony, a fodomite, a perjured villain, an
ndulterer, guilty of fupertitious divinations,

and facrilege. Thus ended the lft age. As
for the popes of our age, they are well known.
We know that Rome is always Rome. We
need only read the writings, of the papits
themelves, fuch as the Life of Donna Olym
pia, the mifs of Innocent X., the Syndicat

of Alexander VII., and a hundred other
-
pieces
363
pieces of this nature; which are called libels,

and fatires, but do inform us of many truths.
All this is the least part of what might

be faid on this head. It is an ocean of ini
quities which cannot be drawn dry. In a
word, we muft know, there hath not been a
throne in the world defiled with fuch abomina
tions. We find above 25 popes convited or

accued of magick, Cardinal Benno reckons
up feveral in les than fifty years*. He was
a cardinal of the Roman church in the time
of Gregory VII. It is true, he was a bitter
enemy of that pope, and conequently, it

may perhaps be faid, that he is immoderate
in fpeaking of him. But I would fain know
what interet he could have in painting out

in fuch a manner the feven popes that were
predeceors of Gregory VII. ? what
rage
could induce him to difhonour a church in

which he was a cardinal and arch-prebyter,
if there had not been the force of truth,

and the wife Providence of God, who would
furnih us with this witnes? We find in the
holy fee examples of the mot horrid bru

* See the prophecy before, Chap. ix. 21.talities
-
A Cominentary on the
talities that ever paganim was guilty of in
cet, adulteries, fodomies, whoring, &c.
364
To this account of the corruption of the

Roman pontiffs (my extrat of which I have
confined, as far as praticable, to the parti
culars which come under this portion of the
prophecy) is fubjoined a report of that of
their followers, from which I mui lay before

the reader the following pastages.
We hall go no further back than we
have done in our account of the popes, i. e.
we will only confider this corruption down

from the tenth century. And as to this
century, we will produce no other evidences

of the extreme corruption which then pre
vailed, befides the notoriety of the thing,
and the confent of all historians. Since

Cardinal Baronius confeffeth it, I believe
none will quetion it: he faith, It was an
iron age, on account of its hardnef, and bar

rennes; a leaden age, on account of the
uglines of the vices, which broke out as a

deluge; and an age of darknes, on the ac
count of ignorance. This torrent overflowed

all
365
all the places which were joined to this

church : the author of Faciculus Tempo--
rum informs us, that in mot places, not fo

much as the acraments were adminitered;
that magick, and the art of making charms,

and bewitching people, were almot the only
learning of the priets.
*
The eleventh century was not better:

we may confult the hitorians of that age,
and Baronius, who on their report tells us;
That befides fimony, the field of Christ was

overgrown with thorns and nettles, which
fpring from the hameful putrefation of the

fleh, and dunghil of corruption: that all
fleh had corrupted its way, f that it feemed

that a deluge was not fufficient to wah away
the filth; and that thefe horrid fins called
for the fire of Gomorrah.
The twelfth century comes next. We

may fee how St. Bernard, a miracle-working
faint, and confequently of good credit, and
Honorius ofAutun, the two gravet authours

of that twelfth age, do paint it forth. The
piture is made up of all kinds of fornications,
adulteries,
366
A Commentary on the
adulteries, incets, detetablevillanies, and ats

of the utmot filthines. This is St. Bernard's
account; he confeffeth, That if one had dig
ged through the wall of the anctuary, as

Ezekiel did, he might have feen far greater
abominations than thoe the prophet faw.
There was no order of men that was found:
and Honorius of Autun ranks in order
princes, monks, priets, nuns, and nunneries,

and all orders of men, giving a particular
account of their horrid abominations.
The
corruption of the thirteenth cen
tury was every whit as bad, yea, wore;

even as a torrent in its progres fwells and
grows greater. We may judge of this by

One instance related by Matthew Paris; In
this thirteenth century, an. 1245, the Coun
cil of Lyons (which is reckoned among the
general ones) was held. At the concluion
of this council . Cardinal Hugo preacheth
a fermon, in which he had this paffage,
addreffing himelf to the citizens of Lyons:

My friends, fince we came into this city, we
have been good benefaiors to you, and brought
you in very great gain. For at our coming
-
hither,
367
hither, we found but three or four whore
houes; but at our going away, we leave but

one: 'tis true, it reacheth through the whole
city, from the east gate to the west gate.

The corruption of manners mut be worfe
than Sodom, when impudence gets into the
pulpit of Jeus Chrit; or rather, that mut
be the pulpit of antichrift, where men take
the liberty to fpeak fuch abominable jefts- We have credible witneffes of the cor
ruption of the fourteenth century. For in

tance, one Alvares Pelagius, a good friend
of Pope John XXII., whom he defended
againt Occam. He fets forth the cloyters
of his age as places of protitution, where
debauchery, gluttony, idlenes, drunkennes,
luxury, filthy converes, impure difcoures,
lacivious touches did reign.He epecially

fets forth the horrid fin of Sodom, a fin
which reigned even in the quire of the mot

augut and venerable churches. We may
likewife confult a grave author, Marfilius of
Padua, who hath fet forth Rome as it was in
his days, exactly like that of Babylon, of

which we have feen the defcription in the
Apocalype.
A Commentary on the
368
Apocalype.
But none hath fo painted to

the life the corruption of the fourteenth
century as Petrarch, the greatet wit and

fcholar of his age.
There are two and
twenty letters of his which have no infcrip

tion: in them he reckons up all the villanies
of the Nero's, of Heliogabulus's, of Sarda
napalus's, of Caligula's: he addeth the wick
edneffes feigned by the poets, the crimes of

. Paipha, of Medea, of Hercules when mad,
of OEdipus and Thyetes; and finds all thee
too little to afford a true idea of the corrup
tion of the Roman church in that age : fo

that he requets from God the return of the
Nero's, and the reurrection of the greatet

monters of impurity and cruelty, as a lefs
mifery, than that the church was opprefed
by.
We may judge concerning the tate of
the Roman church in the fifteenth century,
by the chaftity of that venerable affembly,
the Council of Contance. In the catalogue
of thoe who attended on this council, we
find 600 barbers, 450 women of pleaure,
and 320 jugglers and stage-players. For

.
nication
369
nication in that age was a meer triste.
neas Sylvius, who was afterwards pope by

the name of Pius II., confestth it without
the leat hame: a good evidence to prove

the chastity of the age, and clergy in ge
neral. If we would hear another witnes
concerning the manners of the Roman church
in the fifteenth century, we may bring Nicholas de Clemangis, archdeacon of Bayeux.

He wrote a treatife on purpoe, which he
calls De Corrupto Ecclei Statu. There

are no crimes, debauches, diforders, bruta
lities, ignorance, drunkennes, luxury, impu

rity, and abominations, which do not find
place in the decription which he makes.
The fixteenth century was the age when
the Reformation began.
If we would be
affured concerning the corruption of the

Roman church at that time, we need only
hear the confestions, which our adveraries
make at this day. Read Maimbourg's Hitory of Lutheranim, and Mr.
Arnauld'
Apologie for Catholicks, and all thoe who

have either writ the hitory of the church of
the lat age, or have made remarks on that
*
B B
hitory.
370
A Commentary on the
history.
Beides, we have the confeffions of
the papits of the fame age, of Pope Adrian

the Sixth, of Cornelius Muffe, bihop of
Bitanto, who, in the midfi- of the Council
of Trent, faid, That there was no filthines,
how monstrous foever, no villainy, no impu

rity, with which the people and clergy were
mot defiled. We have the tetimony of the
famous Mantuan, and of the learned, Epen
fus, who make fuch difmal and affrighting
defcriptions of the manners of the Roman
city and church in general, that one cannot
forbear trembling as he reads them.

It is faid, that, however, thee diorders
are pat, and that we cannot any longer
juftly charge the church of Rome with them.

But, firt, if this were true, it doth not con
tradit the truth of what I have alledged:

it is a certain truth, that the church of Rome,
for feven or eight ages, was funk into this
extreme corruption. But, beides, Where
is this reformation of manners, which they
fo much glory in? In all the countries where
there are no protetants to infpet the de
portment and manners of the papits, things
AT62
---
*...
*
*
37 1
are almot at the fame pas. We have hif.

torians, travellers, and writers of travels, who
tell us that in Italy and Spain, convents are
places of protitution; the monks are em

ployed to execute the wort of villanies, and
the priets are mot notorious pimps. We
may onult a Relation of the Commonwealth
of Venice, writ by M. de S. Didier, a papit,

and a thouand other books, that are in every
ones hands.
It is true, in fome countries the outfide
is fomewhat altered.
But how long hath
this continued ? and how far doth it reach ?
It is in this preent age, that the bihop of

Bellay hath fet forth the cloiters as the re
ceptacles of idle drones, who live on the
charge of the publick, &c.It is in our days,

and within thee twenty years, that the be
haviour of all the convents of Cordeliers, in
all France, hath been dicovered. The Fac

tum of the Nuns of Province (the mot
notable piece that hath feen light thee hun
dred years) hath told us, that thee wretches
turn the nunneries, which are committed to
them, into infamous places to game and drink
B B 2
in,
572
A Commentary on the
in, where they convere very laciviouly with

the nuns, where both words and ations are
licentious, where the highet debauches are
ated, where the nuns take the monks into

their beds, and fuffer themelves to be de
bauched, even at the foot of the altar. This,

I ay, is very lately done, yea, it is univer
fal.
It is not one convent alone that is thus
guilty; the Fatum tells us, that the very

fame is acted in all the ret.
The
piece is
too curious and too remarkable to be neg

leted. It ought to be read, that we may
there fee the preent and modern holines of
the papacy-large citations may be read in

our legal exceptions againt popery.
The hitory of Magdalen of Bavent, a
nun of the convent of Louriers in Normandy,

is of as freh a date.
This wretched crea
ture, together with the greatet part of the

nuns of that convent, ated fuch abomina
tions, that would make one tremble, at the
intigation of two priets, who were diretors

of that houe. Thoe curfed monters were
wont to fay mas to the honour of the devil:
it is to be read in the proces. The matter

WaS
373
was examined in the parliament of Rouen:

the convent was razed, the diretors were
burnt, Magdalen Bavent was imprifoned,

feveral of the nuns were fentenced, and dif
pered into obcure places; fome were pu

nihed with perpetual imprionment. The
bufines was huhed up to prevent the fcan
dal. Thus when the veil is never fo little
drawn afide, we defcry villanies, covered
with a pretence of reformation.
Such are the extracts I thought it right
to lay before the reader from Mr. Jurieu,
both on account of the very powerful teti
mony they contain of the accomplifhment of
this particular of the prophecy, and becaue
they will, I think, to every man who is not

infatuated, ferve as good reaons for oppofing
the continuance of thoe monatick etablih
ments in this kingdom, which the charity of

the nation permitted to be made when per
fecution was raging on the continent.It is
now time to proceed to the next head, the
proof of the perecuting dipoition of papal

power itelf
BB 3
The
374
A Commentary on the
The learned prelate, whoe elegant dif

coures form the firt coure of Warburtonian
letures, has remarked, that the church of
Rome prides herfelf in the fire of her zeal in

the perecution of hereticks, which Mr. Bof
fuet regards as fo little dihonourable to his
communion, that he thinks it a point not to
be called in quetioncalls the ufe of the

fword in matters of religion an undoubted
rightand concludes, that there is no illu
fion more dangerous, than to confider tole
ration as a mark of the true church. Thus .

(continues the bihop) this great dotor of
the catholic church towards the clofe of the
lat century. And, jut now, another emi

nent writer* of that communion very roundly
defends the murder of the Bohemian martyrs
at Contance, and (what is more provoking
ftill) the fraud and ill faith through which
the pious and tender-hearted fathers of that
council ruhed to the perpetration of it . .
I have already given fome extracts from
Jurieu, decribing the cruelties exercied in

* M. Crevier Hist. de l'Univerit de Paris
Hurd's Lectures, Vol. II. p. 175,

**
Languedoc
- 375
Languedoc at the etablihment of the inquiition ; already I have been led to men
- tion the maacres of Paris and of Ireland
in the feventeenth century, as well as the

flaughters made in the Netherlands: not
unnecearily, therefore, to detain the reader

on a topic fo well known, as well as fo dif
gufting, I will here add only that, as in

page 254 of the Conformity between modern
and ancient Ceremonies, we find it related,
that Cardinal Bellarmin, Genebrard, and
others, reproachfully boat, that under Inno
cent the Third the throats of one hundred
thouand Albigenes were cut in one day.

So Bihop Burnet has recorded, that fo lately
as 1557 the then pope was earnet with all

the princes of Chritendom to fet up the
inquiition in their dominions: a defire that
was fo attended to in England, that many
were the burnings during the reign of Mary.

And that this fpirit is by no means extinct,
let the late nefarious proceedings of the

adherents of the papacy in Ireland bear
witnes, concerning which Sir Richard Muf
grave tet fies, , on the declarations of the
-
BB 4
Romanits
376
A Commentary on the
Romanits themfelves, that the rebellion
was purely a religious war: and in page

359 of his firt volume, confirms this affertion
by tating, that the camp at Vinegar Hill
was contantly attended by from ten to
twenty priets, who daily faid mas at the
head of each rebel column, and afterwards

pronounced an exhortation to animate them
in the extirpation of herey, and in the ex
cluive etablihment of their own, the only

true orthodox faith : and in page 363,
Every morning, when the rebels paraded

on Vinegar Hill, they put to death from
fifteen to thirty protestants in their preence,

as an amufement to them. And the con
festion of James Beaghen, given in the Ap

pendix, N 198, concludes with thee very
remarkable words, uttered fpontaneouly after
ll the quetions put to him were finihed;
Now, gentlemen, remember what I tell
you; if you and the protestants are ever in

the power of the catholicks again, as they
are now in yours, they will not leave one of
you aliv; yu will all go mack-mooth ;

even thoe who campaigned with them, if
-
'
things
things had gone
377
well with them, would in
the end have been killed.
I have
heard
them fay fo many times.
With this fo pregnant proof, that the

leopard changeth not his pots, I hall con
clude my demontration of the accomplih

ment of what the vifion contains repeting
the charater of the ten-horned beaft. There
immediately follows an admonition which

merits the mot ferious attention not only
on account of the authority from which it
comes, but alo becaue it is pointed againt

a pecies of condut of which unnumbered
instances have preented themelves, that I

mean of thofe who juftly, indeed, offended
at the falfe dotrines and horrid pratices of
the Romanits, intead of confidering that

this departure from Chritianity affets not
the truth of the Gopel, nor the purity of

its precepts, treat both as unworthy of at
tention : whereas firm faith in the divin
perfection, and fincere readines to obey the
will of God, would lead men patiently to
enquire, whether fuch corruptions may not
have taken place among the profers of

.*
the
578
A Commentary on the
the Gopel, confistently with the heavenly
origin of the dipenation; and this enquiry,

duly made, would produce a convition of
what I am ftriving throughout this work to
impres on my reader, - that the hitory of
the papal power, by exhibiting the accom
plihment of the prophecies relating to it,
yields an irrefragable argument of the divine
authority of the writings in which thofe
prophecies are contained. Of the evils which
this entire renunciation of Chritianity tends
to produce in fociety, and of the characters
which thoe become who are guilty of it,
Europe has lately had melancholy experi
ence; and hould the tream now take a dif

ferent turn, and thoe who have hewn them
felves mot eager to detroy, become equally
vehement in their endeavours to re-etablih
and extend the papal influence; as it would

be a vicifiitude by no means without exam
!
ple, fo does the very poibility of fuch a

change yield firong grounds for calling the
attention of Chritians to the folemn warn
ings this wonderful book of the Revelation
contains. To proceed, therefore, to the next
particular, What hitory has preferved of the

-
rife,
379
rife, charater, and condut of the bodies of

men prefignified by the emblem of the two
horned beaft.
As we know that the empire which the

popes have ufurped over Chritendom has
been extended and upported principally by

the monatick orders, and that by the mem
bers of thee miracles and igns have been
forged, to fecure that ubmifion to the fee

of Rome, which they have ever preached;
fo the rife of thee orders was exatly fuch
as that of this beat is defcribed to have
been. For on account of the fituation of

their country with regard to the Mediterra- .
nean, the inhabitants of Judea were wont to
conider the phrae, towards the fea, as

equivalent to wetward; and thus the apotle's
predition, that the former beat hould rife

out of the fea, or the wet, was in this ac
ceptation literally accomplihed.
So, like
wife, if we here confider the land as expref

five of the oppoite point, the words, and
I beheld another beat come up out of the

earth, will be found to have been accom
plihed in the monatick life having arifen
from
$o
A ommentary on the
from the t. And further, as one of the

ealamities which raied the influence of their
bihop, Gregory the Firt, over the Romans,
was the flood which pread over the lower
parts of Rome, when the vallies between the

feven hills were (as Mr. Gibbon relates) in
undated by the welling of the Tyber; thus

verifying in another intance the emblem of
his rifing out of the waters; fo the dwelling of

fome of the earlieft monks in caves, thus de
fcribed by Mr. Gibbon: They often ufurped

the den of fome wild beast whom they af
feted to refemble, (Here let the reader mark
the very admirable co-incidence between the
type and the antitype !) they buried them

felves in fome gloomy cavern, which art or
nature had fcooped out of the rocks; and
the marble quarries of Thebais
are till in
fcribed with the monuments of their per

nance; forms a lively correpondence with
the imilitude of the two-horned beat com
ing out of the earth.
But if from thee accomplihmnts in a

literal, we proceed to enquire after a com
pletion of the emblems in a figurative fenfe;

aS
381
as the fea has already been tated to repre

fent a feafon of calamities and
turbulence;
and the jutice of this charater of the age in

which the papal fovereignty arofe, has been
proved from the words of the hitorian; to
preferve the economy of the ymbols, the
rife of that body which was feen coming out
of the earth, hould be found to have taken
place in a eafon of properity and peace.

Now mark the record, properity and peace
introduced the ditinction of the vulgar and
acetic Chritians. With this mot remarkable
declaration Mr. Gibbon, in his Thirty-eventh

Chapter, introduces his account of the origin
of the monks.
The fame feafon is mentioned by Moheim

as that of their rife. The progres of this
fect (the mystics), fays that historian, ap

pears evidently from the prodigious number
of folitary monks and equetered virgins,

which, upon the return of tranquillity to the
church, had overrun the whole Chritian
world with an amazing rapidity. Many of

this order of men had, for a long time, been
known among the Chritians, and bad led
filent
382
A Commentary on the
filent and olitary lives in the defarts of
Egypt.
But Antony was the firt who
formed them into a regular body, engaged

them to live in fociety with each other, and
prefcribed to them fixed rules for the direc
tion of their conduct.
Thee regulations
which Antony had made in Egypt, were the

year following introduced into Paletine and
Syria by his diciple Hilarion.From the
Eat this gloomy intitution paffed into the
Wet. Moheim's Eccl. Hit. Cent. 4. p. 2.

Ch. 3.
The next emblem mentioned by St. John
is, he had two horns like a lamb. Now
if according to the interpretation I have

already given, from the analogy to the horns
of the ram in the Eighth Chapter of Daniel,
we confider thefe as repreenting two claies
of men, who pretended in the humility and
purity. of their lives to imitate that Lamb of
God, Who had not where to lay His head;
our ufual informant tells us, that at firt
the monks were divided into two clastes, the
Coenobites and the Anachorets, . And from
the eccleiatical hitory jut quoted we learn,

-
- --
that
- 383
that in a later age the great work afcribed

to them, the fupport of the papal authority,
was more epecially performed by two men-
dicant orders of monks, who might well be

termed the two horns of the beaft.
The
power of the Dominicans and Francicans

furpaffed greatly that of the other two orders,
and rendered them fingularly conpicuous in
the eyes of the world.
During three cen
turies thee two fraternities governed with an
almot univeral and abolute fway, both

ftate and church, filled the mot eminent
pots eccleiatical and civil, taught in the uni

verfities and churches with an authority,
before which all oppoition was filent, and
maintained the pretended majesty of the Ro

man pontifis againt kings, princes, bihops,
and heretics, with incredible ardour and fuc
-
ces.
And for the affected inoffenstvenes of cha
rater, fo fignificantly intimated by this beat,

having horns like a lamb, though he fpake
as a dragon; the three ordinary vows, com

mon to all the monatick orders, are, it i
well
A Commentary on the
well known, thoe of poverty, chastity,
384
and
obedience ; and, as thefe have continued to

be profeed by the latet, fo we have the
evidence of Mr. Gibbon, that they were *

avowed, nay, pratifed by the earlieft. Thus
for the firt; the candidate who apired to
the virtue of evangelical poverty, abjured at
his first entrance into a regular community,

the idea, and even the name, of all eparate,
or excluive postestion; the brethren were

fupported by their manual labour; and the
duty of labour was trenuouly recommended
as a penance, as an exercife, and as the mot
laudable mean of fecuring their daily fub
fiftence. Ch. 37.
And the fame authour
tetifies as to the fecond vow, that the coeli
bacy which was at firt a voluntary act of de

votion in the monks, being afterwards fer
cured by a folemn and perpetual vow, was
made the fubjet of an irrevocable engage
ment, ratified by the laws of the church and
the tate. And of the lat, that of obedience,
he writes, A blind ubmiion to the com
mands of the abbot, however abfurd, or even
eriminal, they might feem, was the ruling

principle
Rerelation of St. John.
385
principle, the firt virtue of the Egyptian

monks; and their patience was frequently
exercied by the mot extravagant trials.
But for the vehemence of charater; whicl
the viion ignified hould till exit under this

affetation of humility and purity, furely,
the denunciation of the wrath of heaven, the
excommunications, and the anathemas
pro
nounced by the monks in all ages againt

thoe who have oppoed their dotrines, to
gether with the depotic dominion they have
exercifed in the name of the pope, prove -fufficiently the completion of thefe words,
and he fpake as a dragon. Though, to .
preferve the line of tetimony, I hall, in
proof of the original violence of the monatick
character, trancribe the following pastage

from the hitorian: The peace of the
Eatern church was invaded by a fwarm of
fanatics,
incapable of fear,
or reaon, or hu
manity; and the imperial troops acknow

ledged without hame, that they were much
lefs apprehenfive of an encounter with the
fiercet barbarians.
C C
For
----
386
A Commentary on the
For the next particular, that this beat

fhould exercife the authority of the former
for the promotion of his interet; and that
for the extenion of his dominion he hould
do great wonders in the fight of men; Mr.

Gibbon testifies, that in the earlieft ages of
their influence, the monks pretended to work
miracles, and the people gave credit to their

pretenions: A believing age was eafily
peruaded, that the flightet caprice of an
Egyptian or a Syrian monk had been fufficient
to interrupt the eternal laws of the univere.
The favourites of heaven were accutomed to
cure inveterate difeafes with a touch, a word,
or a distant mestage; and to expel the most

obtinate dmons from the fouls or bodies
which they poffested; they familiarly ac

coted, or imperiouly commanded the lions
and ferpents of the defert; infued vegetation
into a faples trunk; upended iron on the

furface of the water; paffed the Nile on the
back of crocodiles; and refrehed themelves
in a fiery furnace.
Ch. 37.
Neither in later ages did either of the two
last mentioned characteriticks prevail in a les

|
degree.

degree.
387
In the 2d chapter of the 2d part
of the thirteenth century of Moheim's Ec
cleiatical Hitory we meet with this tef.
timony: While the pontifis accumulated

upon the mendicants the mot honourable
ditinctions, and the mot valuable privileges

which they had to betow; they expoed
them till more and more to the envy and
hatred of the ret of the clergy; and this
htred was confiderably increaed by the au
dacious arrogance that difcovered itelfevery
where in the condut of thefe fupercilious
orders. They had the preumption to de
clare publickly that they had a divine im-
pule and commiffion
to illutrate and main
tain the religion of Jeus; they treated with

the utmot infolence and contempt all the
different ranks and orders of the
priesthood;
they affirmed without a bluh, that the true

method of obtaining falvation was revealed
to them alone, proclaimed with otentation
the fuperior efficacy and virtue of their in
dulgences, and vaunted, beyond meaure,

their interefts at the court of heaven, and
their familiar connexions with the Supreme

Being, the virgin Mary, and the faints iri
C C 2
glory.
A Commentary on the
388
glory.
By thee impious wiles, they fo de
luded and captivated the miferable and

blinded multitude, that they would not en
trut any others but the mendicants with the
care of their fouls, their piritual and eternal

concerns.
We may give, as a fpecimen of
thee notorious frauds, the ridiculous fable,
which the Carmelites impofe upon the cre

dulous, relating to Simon Stockius, the ge
neral of their order, who died about the be
ginning of this century. To this eccleiatic,
they tell us that the virgin Mary appeared,

and gave a folemn promife, that the fouls of
fuch as left the world with the Carmelite
cloak, or fcapulary, upon their fhoulders,

fhould be infallibly preferved from eternal
damnation.
And here let it be obferved to the ato
nifhment of all, in whom the power of uper
ftition has not extinguihed the plainet dic

tates of common fenfe, that this fiction, ri
diculous and impious as it was, found patrons

and defenders, even among the pontiffs.
Here the historian fubjoins the following

note: The late pope Benedit XIV. not
withtanding
*,

389
withstanding his pretended freedom from fu
pertition and prietly fraud, has deigned to
appear among the fupporters of this grofs
fition, though he defends it with his uual
air of prudence and timidity, in his Book de
Festis B. Mari Virg.
Nor hould it be omitted, that it appears
from Sir Rich. Mugrave's work before
quoted, that among the Romanits of Ire

land, the faving power of the fcapulary is
ftill mot implicitly believed, and commonly
ated on; whence the reader may again in

fer, How far from changed is the nature,
How far from detroyed the power of the
beaft,
It is fufficiently known, that Becket of

Canterbury fell for fupporting the encroach
ments of Rome on the rights and property

of his own country; and confequently all the
miraeles afferted to be wrought by him may

juftly be confidered as forged for the promo
tion of the papal dominion. The history of

thee therefore affords fair pecimens of the
accomplihment of this part of the prophecy
C C 3
relating
A Commentary on the
relating to the two horned beat. And I
hall accordingly now lay before the reader
an extrat from Lord Lyttelton's Work,
containing an account of one of thee im
:390
pious frauds.
Gervafe of Canterbury fays, that two
volumes of miracles, performed by the dead
archbihop, were extant at Chrit-church in

Canterbury when he wrote, and affirms, that
they equal all thoe of the gopel. In proof
of which he tells us, that not only difeaes of
all kinds were healed by the invocation of
his name, but members cut off, and eyes
pulled out, were retored to the bodies from
which they had been eparated, and the dead
wre raied to life.To which Matthew
Paris adds, that he alo retored life to dead
birds and other animals.
/
This, I preume, he did at idle times

for amuement. But we are informed by
Gervae of Canterbury, that , a priet at
London, named William, was truck dumb

on the feat of St. Stephen, the proto-martyr,
and by a vifion was ordered, for the recovery

of
..
391
of his peech, to viit the body of the new

martyr at Canterbury, and drink his blood.
He did fo, and recovered the perfect ufe of
his tongue: on the fame of which miracle
the martyr's blood, mixt with water, was
fent over the whole world, and given to the
fick, who by drinking it were retored to
health ; as, moreover, fome dead perons
were to life, by having it infued into their
mouths.
Nor are we to fuppoe, that thefe teti

monies of the fantity of Becket were only
received by the vulgar. The archbihop

-of Sens, in a letter to the pope, delivered to
poterity by Roger de Hoveden, told his ho
lines very gravely, that the wax lights which
were placed about the corpe of Becket be
fore his interment, happening to go out in
the night, he roe up, and lighted them
again himelf; and that after his obequies

were
performed by the monks, as he lay
upon his bier, he lifted up his right hand,

and gave his benedition to all the affembly
there preent. One is afhamed to repeat all
the hocking aburdities, which the zealots of
CC 4
thoe
A Commentary on the
392
thoe times were not afhamed to acribe to

the power and widom of God, operating, as
they pretended, to the honour of this pre

late, whom, on the report of his great and
innumerable miracles, and on a folemn ex- .

amination of them by two cardinal legates
(as the words of the bull itelf declare) pope
Alexander fainted.
Bt, in an age of fuch
eay and implicit faith, it is no wonder that

his holines (however incredulous he himelf
may have been) hould vouch for the truth of

thee ridiculous fitions, feeing that the con
troverfy between the church and the crown
would more eastly be determined to the ad

vantage of the church, by the credit given
to them, than by any other means.Who
but a dmoniack (fays John of Salibury in
one of his letters) will affirm, that the caue
which crowned its patron with fo much glory
was unjut? But befides the general interet

of the fee of Rome, Alexander had another
which was peronal to himelf. It is very
well oberved in the fame letter, that whereas
many doubted whether Alerander was the
true pope or not, the miracles qf Becket de
cided that question in his favour, as they

A
393
could not have been done by one engaged in

a fchifin. This argument was concluive;
and therefore John of Salibury not unrea

fonably exprees the utmot furprize, that
his holines hould fo long delay to admit
Becket into the catalegue of faints.
. As no people have been reduced to a
more fervile fubmistion to the Roman pontiff,
or continue to believe all the lying legends
of Rome with more implicit faith than the
Irih, I will venture to produce one pastage

more from the above writer exprefive of the
frauds ued to make them fubmiive to the
papal emistaries.
In order to enable Malachy to hring

about this converion of the Irih to the dif
cipline and canons of Rome, Bernard affirms,

that he had received the power of working
miracles in as eminent a degree as any of the
ancient faints of the church.
One of thefe
miracles was the punihment by fudden death
of a man, whom the faint could not convince
of the real prefence in the facrament. But

*
that
394
A Commentary on the
that the reader may judge of the credit due

to the relater of thee wonderful works, H.
fhall trancribe an account he gives of two

that were performed in an oratory built by
Malachy. Mulier totis difioluta membris,
plautro veta illuc, pedibus. fuis remeavit
domum un duntaxat nocte non frustra in
loco fanto prftolata mifericordiam Domini.
Alia qudam ibidem pernotabat in oratione,

quam forte reperiens folam homo barbarus,
accenus libidine, et fui minime compos,

irruit rabiofus in illam.
Convera illa et
tremefata fufpiciens, advertit hominemrple

num diabolico fpiritu. Heus tu, inquit, mi
fer, Quid agis? Confidera ubi es, reverere
hc fanta, Defer Deo, Defer fervo ipius
Malachi, parce et tibiipi.
Non detitit
ille furiis agitatus iniquis. Et ecce (quod

horribile ditu eft) venenatum et tumidum
animal quod bufonem vocant, vifum reptans

exire de inter femora mulieris. Quid plura?
terrefatus refiliit homo, et datis faltibus
continuo de oratorio exiliit.
Ille confus
receit, et illa intacta remnfit, magno qui

dem et Dei miraculo, et merito Malachi.
What
5
395
What mut we think of all the legends

on which the church of Rome has built her
faith in the faints he has canonized, when
he who tells fo feriouly this ridiculous tale

for
the edification of the faithful, and for the
honour of St. Malachy, is no les a peronage

than St. Bernard, one of the oracles of that
church! But that the bigotry of thoe
times hould receive even thee fables with
a pious veneration, when told by learned

monks and founders of orders, is not half fo
furpriing, as that in the preent age, and in

a country fo enlightened as England, the
miracles of Becket, as incredible as thoe of
'~\
Malachy, and reported by writers whom-no

papift will think of greater authority than
St. Bernard, hould be till urged as an un
deniable proof of the anctity of his caue.

Here the noble hitorian refers to Philipps
Life of Cardinal Pole. . A imilar exprestion
of furprize I have already been led to utter
at an anonymous authour of the middle of
the lat century, who infifts upon the mira
culous powers of what he calls the church of
Chrit, that is, the church of Rome, down
to the then preent time; with a very few in
- -
- - -
ftances
396
A Commentary on the
ftances more from his work of the miracles
pretended to be wrought for the purpoe of

promoting the worhip of the first beaft, I
will cloe the tetimony of the accomplih
ment of that particular; and in thee confine

myfelf to fuch as he avers to have been per
formed fince the Reformation.
Among thefe he dwells confiderably on the

miracles afcribed to the jefuit Francis Xavier,
who, he fays, raied in different parts of the

Indies no les than nine perons from the
dead. And befides being favoured with the
gift of tongues, he was, in his conferences
with the Bonzes of Japan, enabled to fatisfy
with one only anfwer, the questions of
many perons, on very different fubjects, fo
as to give them to undertand what they de
fired to know, in the fame manner as if he

had anfwered each of their feveral demands
in particular.
This writer quotes one Antonio Quadras,
attesting to the provincial of Portugal in thee

words: A Japanefe informed me, that he
had feen three miracles wrought by father
Xavier
Xavier in his country.
397
He made a perfon
walk and peak, who was dumb and taken
with the paly ; he gave voice to another,

mute; and hearing to one that was deaf.
And afterwards fubjoins, As to the gift of
healing difeafes, it were endles to recount
the many wonderful cures, which were per

formed by his minitry. He fometimes fent
even children, whom he had baptized, to
touch the fick with his beads, or his crucifix,
or his reliquiary, and to repeat over them

the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Com
mandments, by which means many mira
culous cures were wrought. And at the
concluion of his catalogue of miracle-work
ing faints for that century, he writes: I
fay nothing of the wonderful works of St.

Francis of Paula, St. Cajetan, St. John de
Deo, St. Ignatius, St. Thomas de Villa

Nova, St. Peter of Alcantara, St. Francis
Borgia, St. John a Cruce, and many other

illutrious faints, who flourihed in the fix
teenth century.
But I cannot forbear ob
ferving, firt, &c.and, fecondly, that all the
perons fo conpicuous for thee upernatural

gifts,
398
A Commentary on the
gifts, were zealous members of the catholic

church.
Under the following century, of the jefuit

John Francis Regis, he afferts, that fince his
death, numberlefs miracles have been
wrought at his reliques.
Two of thoe
which he has feleted from this endles ca
talogue I will trancribe: the firt of John

Gapar Montezeymar of Puy, who having
laboured for feveral years under a rupture ;
on the 29th of January, 1674, his pains
were fo violent, that it was thought death
would foon be the confequence.
In this dif
tres, he made a vow, that, if it hould pleae

, God to grant his recovery, he would go
on a pilgrimage to St. Regis's tomb. He
had fcarce made an end, when he found him
felf abolutely cured."

The next I hall extrat is that of a re
ligious woman of the viitation at Moulins

was fuddenly cured of a dropy and palfy by
performing a novena, or nine days devotion,

to beg the intercestion of St. Francis Regis. .
I now,

I now, I conceive, have
399
producedenough
not only to prove the point before us, but to
digut my reader with thefe impious for

geries, in which He, who hath declared,
that He will not give His glory to another, *

is blaphemouly introduced exerting His
divine power to promote the worhip of dead
men. But to complete the demontration,
that the great end purued in thee fictions

is the fame which was fo expresly marked
by St. John, I mut add to the extrats al
ready made from Moheim the following,

in which it will be feen, that the firt step
towards making the monatick orders the in
ftruments of papal uurpation was the re
moval of them from under that of the bihops,
into the immediate juridition of the popes,
by which they were brought to exercife
whatever authority he had delegated to them,
exatly as predited in the text, before
him, or, in our more popular phrae, mot
accurately equivalent to that here ued
under his eye.
The imperious pontiffs always fond of

exerting their authority, exempted, by de
-
grees,
40
A Commentary on the
grees, the monastic orders from the juridic

tion of the bihops. The monks, in return
for this important fervice, devoted themelves
wholly to advance the interets, and to main
tain the dignity of the bihop of Rome. They
made his caue their own, and repreented
him as a fort of god to the ignorant multi
tude, over whom they had gained a prodi
gious acendant by the notion that generally

prevailed of the fantity of the monatic
order.
Now was not this ating as his prophet?

Was it not caufing them who dwell on the
earth to worhip the firt beaft, whofe deadly
wound was healed ?
That he himelf confi-
dered and employed them as his miniters

to this end, we learn from the fame writer.
The monatic orders and religious focieties

have been always confidered by the Roman
pontiffs as the principal fupport of their authority and dominion. It is chiefly by them
that they rule the church, maintain their in
fluence on the minds of the people, and

augment the number of their votaries.
4
And
And immediately preceding
401
the firt paf
fage I have cited from this hitorian:The

Dominicans and Francicans were before the
reformation what
the
Jefuits have been
fince that happy and glorious period; the

very foul of the hierarchy, the engines of
the tate, the fecret fprings of the motions of
the one and of the other, and the authours
and diretors of every great and important

event both in the religious and political
world.
If then any man have an ear, Let him
hear thefe plain attetations of conformity

between the apoftle's predition of the means
by which the papal dominion hould be ex

tended, and thoe by which it has in the
event been carried to an height fo extraor
dinary as the concluion of this portion of

the viion intimates, in declaring that the
fale prophet, or two-horned beat, hould

prevail on the inhabitants of the land to
make an image to the firt beaft, and hould
have power to give breath to that image,
that it might both utter its ditates, and

D D
caue
A Commentary on the
caufe thoe who would not worhip it to be
put to death. For what was this image
which was made to the beat, but the papal
authority and empire (particularized by the
celebrated Puffendorff by the title of the Ec
clefiastical Monarchy) atually etablihed over
the world through intrumentality of the
402
monatick orders? Before this work was ae
complihed, the papal dominion was in fat

but a fhadow of itelf, a faint appearance of
the beat which had the wound by the fword
and did live; but when they had perfeted
it, there was formed (in the fame fenfe in

which the apotle to the Hebrews ues this
very term, in oppoition to that of hadow,
Heb. x. 1.) the very image of the beat, be
fore which fmall and great, rich and poor,
bond and free, fell down and worhipped.
The tetimonies I am about to quote, there
fore, hall go to prove, in the first place, that

the monks were the grand promoters of this
eccleiatical monarchy in its regular eta
blihment over the nations; and afterwards
the reality and great extent ofits power when

thus etablihed.
For

403
For the firt of thee points, after the fe
veral quotations above made that are appli
cale to it, the reader, I believe, will think
the following paflage from Puffendorff's In

troduction to the Hitory of Europe, which
fo remarkably points out a monk ating as
th pope's vicar, for the perfon who firt led
the bihops and clergy to acknowledge them
felves fubjet to the pope, and confequently
to diclaim the juridiction of their native fo

vereigns, fufficient to etablih it.
Afterwards in the eighth century, when

great diforders and debaucheries were be
come frequent among the monks and clergy,

an Englih friar, whoe name was Winifred,
and who afterwards called himelf Boniface,
did out of a particular zeal take upon him

felf the reformation of the manners and lives
of the clergy; and did endeavour to etablih

the Chritian religion in feveral parts of Ger
many, but efpecially in Thuringia and Friez
land. This man, to acquire the greater au
thority to himelf, had devoted himelf to the
interet of the Roman chair, from whence he
received the epifcopal pall, and the title of
D D 2
archbihop
-
404
A Commentary on the
archbihop of Mayence, having alo been
contituted by pope Gregory III. his vicar,
with full power to call councils, and to con

stitute bihops in thofe places, which were by
his affistance converted to the Christian faith,
and with ample recommendations to thoe
nations, and to Charles Martel, the then
grand mater of France, that he hould take
him into his protetion, which he very wil
lingly did. And when afterward his fon

Carlomannus fhewed a great forwardnefs to
have the church dicipline regulated, Boni
face was very willing to take upon him this
office to the great advantage of the Roman
chair. He alfo at the requet of Carlo
mannus called a council in Germany, and at
the requet of Pepin feveral fynods in France,
where Boniface always was preident in the
quality of legate of the Roman chair. In the
firt council the clergy figned a certain con
feion of faith, whereby they obliged them

felves, not only to maintain the catholic faith,
but alo to remain in confiant union with the
Roman church, and to be obedient to the fuc
ceffours of St. Peter.
This Boniface alo was
the firt, who put it upon the bihops of

-
Germany
405
Germany to receive the epicopal pall from

the pope, who fentit to the bihops of France
without their requet, thereby to unite them

with the Roman chair.
And when once
thee ornaments were become cutomary
amongt them, they were put upon them af

terwards as of abolute neceflity, and the
epicopal function was forbidden to be ex
ercied by them before they had received thee

ornaments*.
The account here given of the two-horned

beat exercifing the power of the firt beat
before him, advancing his worhip and di
reting them who dwell on the earth to
make an image to him, could hardly yield
apter tetimony of the accomplihment of the
words of the vifion, had it been written pur
pofely to evince their completion, whereas,

in all probability, the authour had no idea
of the true explanation of the prophecy:

which, by the bye, fuggets one reaon for .
which it might poibly be couched in terms
* Puffendorff's Introduction to the Hit. of Eur. Edit. 4. .
p. 380.
DD 3
fo
4O6
A Commentary on the .
fo myterious, that the hitorical tetimony of

its accomplifhment might be given in the
mot natural and unfufpeted manner,

But for the reality and great extent of this
power, we find in the fame authour the
above cited paffage followed by thee words,
Beides this, the popes afumed to them
felves an authority of giving leave to the
bihops to remove from one epicopal fee to

another, and obliged all the wetern bihops
to receive their confirmation from Rome,
for which they were obliged to pay a certain
fum of money as an acknowledgment, which
was fince converted to annals (annats), The

popes alo by making void the deciions of
the provincial fynods or aemblies, overthrew
their authority; wherefore when every body
plainly perceived that the decrees of thee
aemblies could produce no other effets
but to be continually annulled by the popes,
without as much as hearkening to any rea
fons, they were by degrees quite abolihed,
Pope Gregory VII, alo forced the bihops

to fwear an oath of fealty to the pope,
and by a decree forbid that none hould dare

tQ
407.
to condemn any one that had appealed to
the pope. They were alo not forgetful in

fending legates or nuncios to all places,
whoe buines was, to exercife in the name
of the pope the fame authority which had

formerly belonged to the bihops, metropo
litans, and provincial affemblies.

In this pastage is mentioned an oath of
fealty which Gregory VII. impoed on the
bihops, but much later than his time, even
fince the reformation, Pius IV. decreed, that
very beneficed clergyman hould fwear true

obedience to the Roman pontiff, the ucceor
of St. Peter and vicar of Jeus Chrit.
But what that true obedience doth import
(faith Barrow in his Treatife already quoted),

or how far the papal authority in the pope's
own fenfe and according to the public pirit

of that church, doth tretch, is more explicitly
fignified in the oath which all bihops at their
confecration, and all metropolitans at their
inftalment, are required to take; the which
as it is extant in the Roman pontifical, fet out
by order of pope Clement VIII. doth run
in thee terms,
*
D D 4
. I N.
A Commentary on the
408
I N. elet of the church of N. from

henceforward will be faithful and obedient
to St. Peter the apotle, and to the holy

Roman church, and to our lord, the lord N.
pope N. and to his fucceors canonically

coming in. I will neither advie, conent, or
do any thing that they may loe life or mem
ber, or that their perfons may be feized, or
hands any-wife laid upon them, or any in
juries offered to them under any pretence
whatoever. The counel which they hall
entrut me withal, by themfelves, their mef
fengers, or letters, I will not knowingly re
veal to any to their prejudice, I will help
them to defend and keep the Rman papacy,
and the royalties of St. Peter, faving my
order, againt all men. The legate of the
apotolick fee, going and coming, I will ho
nourably treat and help in his neceffities.
The rights, honours, privileges, and autho
rity of the holy Roman church, of our lord

the pope, and his forefaid fuccefors, I
will endeavour to preferve, defend, increafe,

and advance. I will not be in any counfel,
action, or treaty, in which fhall be plotted
against our faid lord, and 'the faid Roman

-
church
Revelatin of St. John.

409
church any thing to the hurt or prejudice of
their perons, right, honour, tate, or power;
and if I hall know any fuch thing to be
treated or agitated by any whatoever, I

will hinder it to my power; and as foon as
I can, will fignifie it to our faid lord, or to
fome other by whom it may come to his
knowledge. The rules of the holy fathers,
the apotolick decrees, ordinances, or dif

poals, reervations, proviions, and mandates
I will oberve with all my might, and caue
to be oberved by others.
Heretics, fchif
maticks, and rebels to our faid lord, or his
forefaid fucceors, I will to my power perfe

cute and oppoe.
\
Unneceary as it is to trancribe any

more of this curious oath, fince here is fully
fufficient to hew that this image was com
pletely organized, for the purpoe of perfe

cuting all who would not worhip it; till I
have a few paages from other writers which
will perfect the decription of it, as well as

tetify to its cauing thoe who did not impli
citly fubmit to it to be put to death. "The
firt of thefe are from the hitorian of our
Henry
#10
A Commentary on the
Henry IId. in the 102d page of whofe firt

volume of the third edition we read It
being now an etablihed notion, that all me

tropolitans were only the vicars or rather
viceroys of the pope, in their feveral pro
vinces; and the pall was the enfign of their
office. This was too lightly given way to
by kings, and proved in its confequences
one of the deepet arts, by which the policy
of the court of Rome upported its power.

For thus all the greatet prelates who might
have affeted an independence on that fee,
had another objei of ambition fet up, viz. an

independence on their own fovereigns, and
an imparted hare of the papal dominion over
all temporal powers. And again p. 153.

He (Henry I.) did not enough confider,
how much the deign of detaching the clergy

from any dependence upon their own fove
reign, and from all ties to their country, was

promoted by forcing them to a life of celi
bacy, but concurred with the fee of Rome,
and with Anfelm its miniter, in impoing
that yoke upon the Englih church, which

till then had always refued it.He was alo
prevailed upon to fuffer a legate a latere,

-
the
411
the cardinal of Crema, to preide in a

council held at London upon this and other
matters, in derogation to the metropolitan
rights of the archbihop of Canterbury;
thereby confirming that dangerous and de
grading fubjetion to the bihop of Rome,
which his father had brought upon the

church of England.
-
In the conformity between modern and
ancient ceremonies we meet with the fol
lowing obervations on this eccleiastical mo

narchy.
The pagan emperors and high priests

exated tributes and taxes from all the pro
vinces of the world. The pope likewife has
his tribute, which all Europe pays him, and
is called Peter-pence. They, upon the con
quet of any country, caued the inhabitants
to learn the Latin tongue, in token of their

fubjetion. The Pope has commanded all
churches dependent on him to have their
public fervice in Latin, as an evidence of his
dominion. A licence was granted by the

emperour's authority for any peron to kill
-
thoe
412
A Commentary on the
&
thoe whoe bodies had been devoted to the
infernal gods. The pope likewife gives a

dipenation to thoe who hall be incited by
a godly zeal for the catholic religion to kill
perfons excommunicated.
The writer too who has hitherto borne evi
dence fo contant to the completion of the
various parts of this viion continues his tef

timony here likewife.
From his account
compared with that of others it appears,
that
in Europe, Afia, Africa, and America, the

voice of the image was heard, and its com
mands obeyed; and it prevailed to have my

riads put to death, who would not worhip
it. In the fame century in which Mr. Gib
bon fays, that Charles the Fourth received
the gift or promife of the empire from the
Roman pontiff, who in the exile or captivity
of Avignon affected the dominion of the
earth; the monkih miionaries kept the

papal banner flying in China, and pope Bene
dit the Twelfth received a folemn embay
from the Khan of the Tartars. In the next

age, Alexander the Fourth (fays Moheim)
gave a rare fpecimen of papal preumption in

dividing
413
, dividing America between the Portuguee

and the Spaniards. - And the manner in
which for fome centuries the popes arrogated
to themfelves the difpofal of the earth, and
the acquiecence their decrees met with,

prove indeed that there was then ereted the
very image of an univeral empire, which,
like that ofancient Rome, devoured, brake in
pieces, and tamped the reidue with its feet.
And Mr. Gibbon has a later example of its

fucces, which though but temporary, fully
unveils to us both the image, and thoe who
call on the nations to worhip it. The tranf
ation took place in Abyffinia, in the year

fixteen hundred and twenty-ix.
A jefuit,
Alphonfo Mendez, the catholic patriarch of

thiopia, accepted in the name of Urban
the Eighth, the homage and abjuration of
his penitent. I confes, faid the emperour
- on his knees, I confes that the pope is the
vicar of Chrit, the fucceflor of St. Peter,
and the fovereign of the world, to him I

fwear true obedience, and at his feet I offer
my peron and kingdom. A fimilar oath

was repeated by his fon, his brother, the
clergy,
A Commentary on th
414
clergy, the nobles, and even the ladies of

-
the court.
The account of this image will not be

complete unles there be added to it, that
after the dicovery of the pandet of Juti
nian at Amalphi in 1137, The Roman
law acquired fuch credit and authority, that
it fuperfeded, by degrees, all other laws in
the greatet part of Europe, andNo fooner
was the civil law placed in the number of
the fciences, and confidered as an important

branch of academical learning, than the
Roman pontiffs, and their zealous adherents,
judged it not only expedient, but alo highly
necefiary, that the canon law hould have the
fame privilege. There were not wanting
before this time certain colletions of the
canons or laws of the church; but thee
colletions were fo detitute of order and
method, and were fo defetive both in
repet to matter and form, that they could

not be conveniently explained in the fchools,
or be made ue of as ytems of ecclei

astical polity. Hence it was, that Gratian,
a Bene

415
a Beneditine monk, belonging to the con
vent of St. Felix, and Nabor, at Bolonia,
and by birth a Tucan, compoed about

the year 1130, for the ufe of the chools,
an abridgment, or epitome of canon law,
drawn from the letters of the pontiffs, the
decrees of councils, and the writings of
the ancient dotors. , Pope Eugenius III.
was extremely fatisfied with this work, which
was alo received with the highet applaufe
by the dotors and profeors of Bolonia, and
was unanimouly adopted, as the text they
were to follow in their public lectures. The .
profeors at Paris were the firt that followed
the example of thofe of Bolonia, which, in
proces of time, was imitated by the greatet

part of the European colleges.As, how
ever, the main deign of this abridgment of
the canons was to upport the depotim;
and to extend the authority of the Roman
pontiffs, its innumerable defects were over
looked, its merits were exaggerated, and,
what is till more furpriing, it enjoys at this
day, in an age of light and liberty, that high

degree of veneration and authority, which
was inconiderately, though more excuably

lavihed
'
416
A Commentary on the
lavihed upon it in an age of tyranny, uper

ftition, and darknes.Moh. Eccl. Hit.
Cent. 12. p. 2. Ch. 1.
And forthe perecutions raied againt thoe

who would not bow down to it, Puffendorff,
in the work already mentioned, tells us, that

whenever any bihop attempted any thing
againt the pope's authority, the mendicant
fryars with their clamour and noife purued

him every where like fo many hounds, and
rendered him odious to the common people,
amongt whom they were in great veneration, .
through their outward appearance of holines;

and from thence it came to pas, that the
bihops who oppoed the pope's authority never
could make a great party among the common
people. Beides this, the fryars always kept

a watchful eye over the ations of the
bihops, giving continual advices concerning
them to their generals refiding at Rome,
whereby the popes were enabled to oppoe
timely any deign intended againt their au
thority. And thee fryars proved the main
obtacle, why the bihops could not fo effec
tually oppoe the pope's authority which he

affumed
417
affumed over them; fo that being detitute

of means to help themelves, they were
forced to follow the current.Page 384.
Having already poken of the inquifition,

I hall only here remind the reader, that all
the murders committed under that nefarious
establihment are in fact perpetrated in fup

port of the worhip of this image, and cloe
the evidence of the completion of this pro

phecy of perecution with the following paf
fages from bihops Burnet and Newton.
The former in his First Book of the Hitory

of the Reformation, relates the murder of
Richard Hunne, by means of the clergy of

London, in 1514, for fuing a clerk, for
bringing him into a court that fat by autho

rity of the legate; and in page 31, of the
fame book tates, that the fourth council
of Lateran decreed, that all hereticks hould
be delivered to the fecular power to be extir

pated. If a man had but poken a light
word againt any of the contitutions of the
church, he was feized on by the bihop's
officers, And if any taught their children

-
E E
the
A Commentary on the
the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Command
ments, and the Apotles' Creed in the vul
gar tongue, that was criminal enough to
bring them to the ftake, as it did fix men
and a woman at Coventry in the Pastion
418
Week, 1519.
The lat of the two learned prelates I have

mentioned in his Differtation on the Pro
phecies, in dicouring on this place fays,
If any difient from the stated and autho

rized forms, they are condemned and excom
municated as heretics; and in confequence of
that they are no longer uffered to buy orfell;

they are interdited from traffic and com
merce, and all the benefits of civil fociety.

So Roger Hoveden relates of William the
Conqueror, that he was fo dutiful to the

pope, that he would not permit any one in
his power to buy or fell any thing, whom he

found difobedient to the apotolic fee. So
the canon of the council of Lateran under
pope Alexander the Third, made againt the
Waldenes and Albigenes, injoins upon pain

of anathema, that no man prefume to enter
tain
419
tain or cherih them in his houe or land, or

erercife traffic with them. The fynod of .
Tours in France under the fame pope, orders
under the like intermination, that no man
fhould prefume to receive or affift them, no riot

fo much as to hold any communion with them
in felling or buying, that being deprived of

the comfort of humanity, they may be com
pelled to repent of the error of their way.

Pope Martin V. in his bull fet out after the
council of Contance commands in like man
ner, that they permit not the heretics to

have houes in their ditricts, or enter into
contrats, or carry on commerce, or enjoy

the comforts of humanity with Chritians.
In this repet, as Mede obferves, the falfe
prophet fpake as the dragon.
For the dra
gon Diocletian publihed a like edit, that no
one hould fell, or adminifter any thing
to
the Chritians, unles they had firt burnt in
cene to the gods, as Bede alo reheareth in

the hymn of Jutin Martyr; they had not
the power of buying or felling any thing, nor

were they allowed the liberty of drawing
water itelf, before they had offered incenfe
-
E E 2
to
420
A Commentary on the
to detetable idols. Popih excommunica

tions are therefore like heathen perfecu
tions: and how large a hare the corrupted
clergy, and epecially the monks of former,
and the Jefuits of later times, have had
in framing and enforcing fuch cruel inter

dits, and in reducing all orders and de
grees to fo fervile a tate of fubjection, no

man of the leaft reading can want to be
informed.
For the number of the beat; as it is de
clared, That it hould be one of thoe notes

by which the men, who hould be permitted
to buy or fell, hould be ditinguihed, we
are retrained in our fearch for the accom
plihment of it to thoe names which are

not only applicable to the beaft himelf,
but from which
alo his followers have
been denominated. Although therefore it

be highly deferving of obervation, that
the very words faid to have been infcribed
on the Vatican palace at Rome, Vicarius
Filii Dei, exactly contain the number 666,

in the numerical letters found in thoe
-
three
421
three words * ; though the words of the

title Dei Vicarius generalis in terris do the
fame +; yet as the followers of the pope
have not been denominated after thee titles,

thee affift not in proving the accomplih
ment, of the words. But this is not the
cafe with the name mentioned by Newton
Romiith, which both applies to the beat,
or power which dwells at Rome, and is
transferred
to the worhippers of it in the
title Roman Catholicks: neither is it fo with
Lateinos (when written in Greek charaters),

given as the uppoed name by Irenus;
which is applied likewife to the Latin church,
* V 5
i
+ D
1
100
500
1
100 ,
50
50
D
i
500
1
*E
and
422
A Commentary on the
and the justice of the epithet is hewn, by

their fcriptures, their fervice, their laws, being
all in Latin.
- As the reader may not have the work of
Newton by him, I will trancribe his proof
of thee words containing the number, and
with that cloe the testimony of the accom

plihment of this fetion of the prophecy.
)200
A 30
h 6
f&
? 40
-300
?- 10
? 10
T400
666
* 1 10
y
50
o 70
g200
666
S EC
Revelation of St, John.
428
SECTION XII.
H E vifion havng thus decribed the

curfes inflited on, and the evils per
mitted to overtake a finful world, and pre
dited the extent, and deignated the cha

rateriticks of the papal tyranny while it
reigned unoppoed, proceeds to fhew, that
during the whole of the calamitous period
defcribed, there till would be a company of
true fervants of God, who, under his pro
tetion, hould pas through all thefe evils,
and triumph with their Saviour, undetroyed

by the calamities, unaffected by the corrup
tions of the earth. Before the judgments
began to take place, thee, as related in the
feventh chapter, had been marked out as
the fervants of God, and now their fong of
triumph (learned from thoe who dwell in
heaven itelf) is, after their having been
made perfect through fufferings, expreive
of a meaure of joy which no others can
either feel or utter. And this declaration

-
EE 4
of
424
A Commentary on the
of the continuance of fome in true obedi
ence to the Gopel during the whole of the

general apotacy, and of the hymn fung be
fore the throne of God, as well as learned by
them, is introdutory to other circumtances
advere to the fucces, and tending to the
diminution of the power of the beat; accord
ing to what St. Paul had, in his fecond epitle
to the Thefialonians, declared, that the Lord
fhould confume that wicked one with the
fpirit of His mouth.
For St. John faw an
emblem of that renewed promulgation of the

Gopel, which, by the preaching of Luther
among the great ones of the earth, took place
at the Reformation, and was addreed as
widely as the dominion of Rome itelf ex

tended, calling on the nations to ceafe from
their idolatry, and give glory to God the
Creatour of all things; becaue the time for

the beginning of this judgment of the beat
was come. And this mestenger of heaven
was followed by another, as Luther was, de

nouncing in fterner language the fall of Rome
on account of her corruptions. And yet a third
call it was fignified hould be made on men to
ceae from worhipping the beatandhisimage,
OI
425
or becoming in anyway ubfervient to the pa

pacy, under the penalty of the utmot wrath
of God, and the ceafeles pains of hell. The

ftate of things confequent on thee circum
tances, it was then declared on the divine
authority, hould be fuch, as to caufe a feafon

of trial fo fevere to thoe who would fincerely
keep the commandments of God, and walk in
the true chritian faith, that they hould jutly
be denominated Bleffed, to whom a death
in the Lord hould give ret from their la

bours.
The remainder of this fourteenth
Chapter is employed in decribing the har

vet and the vintage of the earth: of which,
as apparently yet future, I can venture to
fay only, That they feem to deignate a fur
ther harvest to the Gopel by the call of the

Jews, and the coming in of the fulnes of
the Gentiles, and the vengeance of heaven
wrecked, in the land of Juda itelf, on thoe
who have apotatized from the truth.

TEXT.
CHAP. XIV. Ver. 1. And I looked,

and lo, a Lamb ftood on the mount Sion,
and with Him an hundred and forty and

four
A Commentary on the
426
four thouand, having His Father's name

written in their foreheads*. 2. And I heard
a voice from heaven, as the voice of many

waters, and as the voice of a great thunder:
and I heard the voice of harpers harping

with their harps: 3. and they fung, as it
were, a new fong before the throne, and

before the four beafts, and the elders: and no
man could learn that fong, but the hundred

and forty and four thouand, which were
redeemed from the earth.
4. Thee are
they which were not defiled with women,

for they are virgins. Thefe are they which
follow the Lamb whitherfoever He goeth.
Thee were redeemed from among men,
being the firt fruits unto God and to the
Lamb.
5. And in their mouth was found
no guile: for they are without fault before

the throne of God.
6. And I aw another
angel fly in the midt of heaven+, having

the everlating gopel to preach unto them
that dwell on the earth, and
to every
Ila
* See Chap. vii.

+ Ver. 6. In the midst of heaven.] For the host of heaven
being emblematick of the rulers of the earth, fee the note
on the 12th vere of Chap. vi.
.. .
tion,
427
tion, and kindred, and tongue, and people:

7. aying with a loud voice, Fear God, and
give glory to Him ; for the hour of His
judgment is come*: and worhip Him that

made heaven and earth, and the fea, and
the fountains of waters.
8. And there fol
lowed another angel, faying, Babylon is

fallen, is fallen, that great city, becaue he
made all nations drink of the wine of the
wrath of her fornication.
9. And the third
angel followed them, faying with a loud voice,

If any man worhip the beat, and his image,
and receive his mark in his forehead, or in
his hand,
10. the fame fhall drink of the
wine of the wrath of God, which is poured
out without mixture into the cup of His in

dignation; and he hall be tormented with
fire and brimtone in the preence of the holy
angels, and in the preence of the Lamb:

11. and the fmoke of their torment afcend
eth up for ever and ever: and they have no
ret day nor night, who worhip the beat

* Ver, 7. For the hour of His judgment is come.] Dan.
vii. 26, But the judgment hall fit, and they hall take
away his dominion, (that of the little horn,)
to confume
and to destroy it unto the end.

and
428
Commentary on the
and his image, and whooever receiveth the

mark of his name. 12. Here is the patience
of the faints: here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of
Jefus.
13. And I heard a voice from hea
ven faying unto me, Write, Bleed are the

dead which die in the Lord from henceforth :
yea, faith the Spirit, that they may ret from

their labours; and their works do follow
them. - 14. And I looked, and behold a
white cloud*: and upon the cloud one fat

like unto the Son of man, having on His
head a golden crown, and in His hand a
fharp fickle. 15. And another angel came
out of the temple, crying with a loud voice
to Him that fat on the cloud, Thrut in thy
fickle, and reap: for the time is come for

thee to reap; for the harvet of the earth is
* Ver. 14. Behold a white cloud, &c.] Pal. civ. 3.
Who maketh the clouds His chariot. St. Matt. xxiv.
30. And they hall fee the Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven, &c.
+ Ver. 14. A fharp fickle.] The word of God is

fharper than any two-edged fword. Heb. iv. 12.
# Ver. 15. Out of the temple.] See Chap. xi. 1.
ripe.
ripe *.
429
16. And He that fat on the cloud
thrut in His fickle on the earth, and the
earth was reaped. 17. And another angel

came out of the temple which is in heaven,
he alo having a fharp fickle. 18. And
another angel came out from the altar, which
had power over fire, and cried with a loud
voice to him that had the harp fickle, faying,
Thrut in thy harp fickle, and gather the
cluters of the vine of the earth; for her
grapes are fully ripe. 19. And the angel

thrut in his fickle into the earth, and ga
thered the vine of the earth, and caft it into
the great wine-pres of the wrath of God.

20. And the wine-prefs was trodden without
the city, and blood came out of the wine
prefs, even unto the horfes bridles, by the
fpace of a thouand fix hundred furlongs+.
* Ver. 15. Harvest of the earth is ripe.] The fields
are already white unto the harvet. St. John iv. 35.
+ Ver. 20. A thouand fix hundred furlongs.] This is
the extent of the holy land promied to Abraham as an

inheritance of poeion.
P Roo F
430
A Commentary on, the

P Roof oF AccoM PLISHMENT.
The firt part of this Chapter admits of

external proof of its accomplifhment no fur
ther than through what has appeared in the

dedu&tion of circumtances made in the coure
of this Commentary, That there have been

in every age fome Chritians, who confented
not to the general apostacy; yet thefe, like
the feven thouand who had not bowed the
knee to Baal, were furely known to Him

alone who fearcheth the heart. But as when
we look back to the end of the lat Chapter,
where the affairs of the beat are repreented
in the mot flourihing tate, the appearance
of the angels here introduced as calling on
men to leave his communion, appears fudden
and
unexpected.
Such, in fat, was the
commencement of the Reformation; for to
that event (which was in reality a republi

cation of the Gopel, long concealed from
the people, and was fo termed in an hitory

of its progres quoted by Moheim, Historia
Evangelii renovati) every circumtance of this
particlar predition is fuited; and pointedly

tO

451
to this purpofe are the words of the ecclei
atical hitorian now mentioned : While
(ays he) the Roman pontiff flumbered in

fecurity at the head of the church, and faw
nothing throughout the vat extent of his do
minion but tranquillity and fubmiffion ; and
while the worthy and pious profeors of ge

nuine Chritianity almot depaired of feeing
that Reformation, on which their mot ar
dent defires and expectations were bent; an

obfcure and inconfiderable peron arofe, on
a fudden, in the year 1517, and laid the
foundation of the long expeted change, by
oppofing with undaunted reolution his fingle .
force to the torrent of papal ambition and
depotifm *. How juftly does the latter

part of this remark correpond with the em
'blem of the text!Luther, fays the hito

rian, laid the foundation of this long expeted
change ; this angel, the apotle tates, was
afterwards followed by two others in his

preaching. And as we proceed the corre
fpondence becomes till more remarkable.
* Moh. Cent. 16. Seft. I. Ch. ii.
. - In
432
A Commentary on the
In the midt of heaven this angel was feen
to fly; and, contrary to the general fate of

the preachers of new tenets, it was Luther's
lot to proclaim his doctrine in the midt of

the figurative heavens; before the emperour
' and the princes of the empire affembled in
open diet. Patronized from the firt by
princes, the Reformation was introduced into

the countries where it took place by the au
thority of the fovereigns themelves; not by
a party firt gained among the fubjects too
powerful for the fovereign to refist. This

emblematick meflenger of
God had
too the
everlating gopel; the gopel of which the
fundamental dotrine is,
that there is one
God, and one mediatour between God and
, man. This he preached unto them that
dwell on the earth. Luther, we are told,

when the famous indulgences of Leo th
Tenth were proclaimed in Germany,
his warning voice, and in ninety-five propo

fitions, maintained publickly at Wittemberg,
plainly pointed out the Roman pontiff as a
partaker in the guilt of thoe who fold them,
fince he uffered the people to be feduced
by
483
by fuch deluions from placing their principal

confidence in Chrit, the only proper objet
of
their truft.
Again, as the angel called on men to

worhip Him who made heaven and earth;
fo, after the appearance of an epecial edit
of Leo the Tenth, in which that pope com

manded his fpiritual fubjets to acknowledge
his power of delivering from all the punih
ments due to fin and tran/greffions of every
kind; Luther publihed a German tranlation
parts of which
being ucceivelyand gradually pread abroad
of the Bible, the different
among the people, produced, ays Moheim,

a fudden and almot incredible effect, and
extirpated, root and branch, the erroneous
principles and fupertitious dotrines of the
church of Rome from the minds of a prodi

gious number of perons. With fuch pre
ciion did the ymbol mark its antitype, by
the angel having in his hand the everlating
gopel.
And if the reader wihes to fee how
rapidly the Reformation pread among the

kindreds, tongues, and nations, he will find
very fatisfatory information in the work
-
above
F F
/
r
*
A Commentary on the
434
above quoted; wherein, too, he will dicover

the commencement of a literal accomplih
ment of the words of Daniel, which I have
cited in the note on the feventh vere of the
Chapter before us, to take away his domi

nion, in feveral fovereigns entirely with
drawing their realms from under the eccle
fiatical juridition of the Roman pontiff.
No fooner is the account of the firt angel

and his work finihed, than another is re
preented as following him. And was not

Luther thus immediately followed in the
tak of reducing the papal authority by
Zuingle, Calvin, and their diciples? The
preaching of the firt angel was indeed an
attack upon the empire of the beaft, but
not f poitively hotile as this. Now in a
mnner fimilar to the former did Luther
begin
the Reformation: for when the de
claration of his opinions had raied him many

adveraries, while he difputed firmly againt
them, he at the fame time addrefied him
-
fif by letters, written in the most ubmistive

and repetful terms, to the Roman pontiff,
and to feveral of the bihops, hewing them
*.
1.
the
435
the uprightnes of his intentions, as well as

the jutice of his caue, and declaring his
readinefs to change his fentiments as foon as
he hould fee them fairly proved to be erro

neous. But more rough from the firt was
the aflault of the ucceeding reformers: by
the denial of the bodily prefence in the Eu
charit, the charge of idolatry was at once
made; and when, by opening the fcriptures,
the daring uurpations and profane claims
of the head of the Roman church were once
expoed, protetants no longer hefitated to

apply the name of Babylon to Rome, and
mot rapidly did he fink from her, affimed
- height. And thus the weight of authority
being removed, the falfity of her dotrines

and the enormity of her pratices caued the
fubequent preachers to denounce the divine

vengeance on thoe who continued to parti
cipate in abominations, of the guilt of which

they were fufficiently apprized.
This was
done with a voice, the found of which went
far, by the Englih Reformers; and if the

reader, who recollets not this, will but look
into the writings of the divines of this church

for more than a century after the Reforma
FF 2
tion,
A Commentary on the
436
tiori, he will find them replete with admoni

tions of the kind; he will fee them conti-
nuing the charge of deadly fin on Rome in

the articles and homilies; neither under all
the indifference manifeted to truth by thoe

who have been applied to to top the prac
tices of the emistaries of Rome among us,

under the little encouragement given by
thofe in power to continue our refitance to
the beat, are their publick difcoures, even

in the preent day, we truft, entirely detitute
of thoe warnings, which the continuance of
the abominations till renders requifite.

As the trials preented to the Christians,
who, litening to thee calls made on the
divine authority of the holy criptures,
(which trials prang from the perecutions

that were for many years carried on againt
all who renounced any of the tenets of
the idolatrous church) eparated themfelves
from the pollutions of the papal worhip,
were very fevere; torrents of blood being
fhed, and the mot refined cruelties exercifed
to top that defertion from her communion,

which the publick dicovery of the corrup
*
tIONS
e-
437
tions of Rome caued throughout Christen

dom ; fo fince the period of the Reforma
tion peculiar have been the difficulties with
which thoe who are defirous of preferving

that faith, and that only which was once
delivered to the faints, and to keep a con
fcience undefiled, have had to truggle. Who
ever duly reflets on the numerous fets and
licentious dotrines, which, from the abufe
of the liberty then gained, have been pro

pagated throughout Europe, will readily acknowledge this. Not content to top when
delivered from the papal corruptions, many
have endeavoured to detroy every religious
retrition : It is alo to be conidered,
fays Puffendorff, (in exat confonance with
what has been already tated, as well as fully

to our preent purpoe,) That this Reforma
tion was not undertaken after mature deli
beration, and as it were on purpoe to form

or fet up a new tate; but this great Revo
lution happened upon a fudden, and unex

pectedly, fo that the whole work was carried
on as ccafion offered, and by degrees. And
though Luther was the firt that gave the

alarm, yet the ret did not think themelves
FF 3
obliged
-
A Commentary on the
obliged to follow precifely his opinion, but
were alo ambitious of having contributed
438
fomething towards the Reform

ation. This
occaioned diputes among themelves and

;
becaue nobody had an authority among
them to decide thee controverlie
s, each
party perfifted obtinately in their opinion;

from whence aroe fuch fchim, that they
became negletful of the common enemy,
and fell upon one another. This furnihed
the popih party with a very probable argu

ment, who cried out aloud, The hereticks
were fallen into confuion among themfelves,

as not knowing what to believe; and ince
they had left the church of Rome, they were
brought into an endles labyrinth. There
were alo a great many of the protetants,
who, under pretext of the gopel, did lead
an impious and candalous life, as if by the
liberty of the gopel they had obtained a

licene to abandon themelves to all forts
of vices.
Becaue fome dotrines falfely
acribed to the gopel were dicovered to be

ill-founded, all that are peculiar to it have
been preumed to be falfe; and that ridicule
which was jutly levelled againt impoture
and

439
and hypocriy, is employed, with much
fhameles approbation, againt the precepts
of purity and the dictates of truth. Some
have affected to retain as much of Christi

anity as fuits with their own inclinations ;
while others (more generous, indeed, in their
enmity, fince they declare it openly), with

mot preumptuous pretenions to deeper
knowledge and fuperiour widom, not only
apparently glory in their own dibelief, but

incestantly trive to eradicate from the breaft
of others all faith in revelation. Surely thoe
who pas through a land fo infested unhurt,

are truly blefied: and that thefe lamentable
conequences have drawn their origin from

the abue of the religious liberty gained t
the Reformation, even that hitorian whoe
work I have mot repeatedly quoted,
has
noticed. Yet the friends of Christianity

are alarmed at the boundlefs impule of en
quiry and cepticim. The preditions of
the Catholicks are accomplihed: the web

of mytery is unravelled by the Arminians,
Arians, and Socinians, whoe numbers must

not be computed from their feparate con
gregations : and the pillars of Revelation
FF 4
a l'E
440
A Commentary on the
are haken by thoe men who preferve the

name without the fubtance of religion; who
indulge the licence without the temper of

philoophy*.
For the explanation I have ventured to

propoe of the remainder of this chapter I
have the following remarks to offer, and
earnetly wih to obtain for them, as the

impartial, fo the mot ferious attention of
the reader; for my fincere defire is, that all
I have written, or may yet write, may be
tried by two tets, fcripture and fact.
That in the gathering together of the
Jews the divine interpoition hall be viible,
we are astured by other pastages of holy writ.
On this point the prophet Iaiah peaks
plainly in the eighth and following verfes of
his fifty-econd chapter. To it does Hofea
bear witnes in the latter part of his firt
and eleventh chapters. To the fame does
Micah tetify in his lat chapter; and indeed
fcarcely any prophet is there but has poken

*
* Gibbon, Chap. liv.

-
diretly,
441
diretly, or by alluion, to this particular.

That as the ancetors of the Jews were the
intruments of the living God in extermi

nating the polluted nations of Canaan, fo
they hall be the fame in taking out of the
kingdom of the Mefiah whatoever offend
eth, is trongly indicated, as in other fcrip
tures, fo in the lat veres of the eleventh
and fixteenth Chapters of this Book: and

that the land of Juda fhall be the theatre
of the divine vengeance, is in various places
mot clearly pointed out. Laily, too, that

the pope hall, for a time, triumph at Jeru
falem, is above, in the feventh and eight
veres of the eleventh Chapter, expresly de

clared. As therefore the preervation of the
Jewih people in a state of eparation from
all others in all the revolutions of human af
fairs through fo many centuries to the pre

fent day, forms fuch a call on men to ac
knowledge their God as the only Lord of

all, as is not to be rejected without the ne
cestary conviction of thoe who are guilty of
it; fo the very extraordinary circumtances
which have lately occurred, viibly clearing
the way for the accomplihment of this pre

*
dition
A Commentary on the
442
diction concerning the papal power, cannot

be overlooked without the mot daring inat
tention to thoe figns for which Chritians
have been commanded to watch, without
the mot impious unconcern to His judge

ments, who has warned us of the approach
of a period at which He will take unto Him
felf His great power and reign.
After having been uppoed to be entirely

brought to an end, we have feen the pope
not only again feated on his throne, but
again acknowledged for the head of religion
of a great majority of that nation whoe ar
mies had driven him into exile. By a very
remarkable coure of events the ancient cene
of revelation has lately been brought forward

to the notice of the world again; and were
only three circumtances to take place, all of
which, I am confident, the reader will ac

knowledge appear not improbable, the world
would fee this power feated where it is fore
told judgement fhall overtake him.
The
circumtances to which I allude are thee;

the fall of the Turkih empire, which, on the
event offurther encroachment in Italy, (which
*
I con
443
I confider as the fecond circumtance) would

open the way, according to the new dotrine
of indemnities, for an exchange with the
pope for the city of Rome. And on what

city would either he or his followers fo pro
perly fix their choice for him whom they

call the Vicar of Chrit, as that of Jeruar
lem? his being placed in which makes the
third circumtance.
Let it therefore be con
fidered, that for the completion of this par

ticular predited, there needs only, firft, what
every one daily expets, the diflolution of
the Ottoman empire; fecondly, what is little
lefs probable, the extenion of the encroach
ments in Italy to the capital of the Ecclei
atical State; and, laftly, what, after thee

two, would be a circumstance as likely as
either of them, the removal of the feat of
the papacy to Jerafalem; and it will be feen,

that even were it to pleae God that events
fhould run in this coure, (and ten thouand
other ways tending to the fame end are in

the command of His providence) we tand
within fight, as it were, of the ats, by which
will be given to the Son of man dominion,

and -
444
A Commentary on the
and glory, and a kingdom, that all
people,
nations, and languages, hall ferve Him.
: If then, after fairly weighing thefe things

without endeavouring to deceive himelf, and
yet, giving no more weight to each circum

ftance than in its own nature it really merits,
when the line of events extending towards
the predited conummation hath been ithus
far unravelled by facts, any one can harden
himelf against the belief of the near ap

proach of the kingdom of our Lord and
Saviour Jeus Chrit, and hut his eyes to
the light which is given to lead him to fal
vation, fuch a man cannot jutly deem him

felf harhly dealt with, if it be thought that
he prefers darknes to light, or fuppoed that
the obduracy of heart he manifets is ju

dicial.
SEC
SECTION
445
XIII.
THE
apotle here fuggests, in a manner

eay to be undertood, that the fign he
is going next to mention relates to the fame
period which fome of thoe already defcribed
repet; And I aw another ign. The
fign itelf was that of the inflition of feven
particular judgements, denominated the feven
lat plagues; and that, it is particularly stated,

becaufe in them is filled up the wrath of God,
as if it were intended hereby to caution us .
againt conidering them as termed lat merely
in point of time, and conequently to give

fome latitude to the eaon in which the
completion of them may be looked for.

But previous to the apotle's proceeding
to fpecify thee judgements, he mentions the
appearance of a chorus of thoe who had

triumphed over all the powers of the pa
pacy, joining in fongs of vitory and thankf
giving, and tanding, as having lately pafled

-
1t,
446
A Commentary on the
it, by a fea of glas, mingled with fire (both

the temptations and profecutions through
which they had paed being thus trongly
characterized). The hymn in which they

united is particularized as the fong of Moes
the fervant of God, and the fong of the
Lamb; expreive of the power, jutice, and
truth of God, and acknowledging His fole
holines, and the effet His jut judgements
will have in glorifying His name among all
nations. In this deignation of the martyrs
and confeffors of the Reformation (for to
thoe this emblem is accurately applicable)
there is clearly an allufion to the ancient.

deliverance of the people of God from the
Egyptian bondage; and the fame continues

to be carried on in the pecification of the
plagues themelves. And thee martyrs being

feen after the firt appearance of the feven
angels, but previous to the commencement of
their minitry, appears to indicate, that their
perfecutions hould extend into the period of
the plagues, but are noticed in this place
to prevent any interruption of the narration
relating to the effects of the bowls. The

angels who were to pour out thee, to fignify,
*
I con
447
I conceive, that they were miniters of in

flitions denounced by prophets under the
law, habited like thoe who were wont to
be miniters in the temple, came from the

tabernacle of the tetimony in heaven, and
receiving the bowls (for, according to our ue

of the terms, this exprestes the meaning of
the original word much better than vials) they
were to pour out upon the earth, in fuch a
mode as indicated, that it was principally on
one portion of the earth they were to fall,
and all power of interceding for the remiion
of thefe plagues being taken away, the feven
angels were direted by a command from
the divine prefence to pour forth their
bowls.
As the firft menace againt Pharaoh was,

that God would harden his heart; fo, here,
the words of the preachers, prefignified be

fore in the fourteenth Chapter, firt calling
on all people to repent, and then requiring
the fervants of God to leave the communion
of the corrupted church, having been oppoed,

and the pope, like Pharaoh, having,refued
to let the people go, and in his cruel efforts
to
448
A Commentary on the
to retrain them being fupported by his
fol
lowers, the firt judgement was that of giving

them up to their falfe dotrines and their
vices; both of which are in fcripture com
pared to putrifying fores. The fecond was
that of foreign war, and particularly naval;
and that extending through the whole world.

The third that of civil.
The effet of the
fourth bowl prefignified fore oppreion on

the part of the ruling powers of the world,
and mot hardened impiety in their ubjets.
That of the fifth afilition, vice, and igno

rance in the Eccleiatical State : and the
fixth the gradual decay and final removal of

the Ottman empire; when fome noiy and
filthy orators, rifing to a rank in fociety by
no means due to them, hould fpread over
the world, to bring the kings of it over to

the party of antichrift. And the confequence
of the pouring forth of the feventh was fuch
as to indicate a
complete revolution over the
whole globe, preceded by great diturbances

and fymptoms of the divine wrath, and the
appearance of a mighty hot pouring down

on men by a divine commistion.
T EXT.
. , *
Revelation of St. John:
449
T EXT:
CHAP. XV. Ver. 1. And I aw ano

ther fign in heaven, great and marvellous,
feven angels having the feven lat plagues;

for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
2. And I aw, as it were, a fea of glas
mingled with fire : and them that had got
ten the victory over the beast, and over his
image, and over his mark, and over the
number of his name, tand on the fea of
glas, having the harps of God. 3. And

they fing the fong of Moes the fervant of
God, and the fong of the Lamb, aying,
Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord

God Almighty; jut and true are thy ways,
Thou King of faints. 4. Who hall not fear
Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for
Thou only art holy: for all nations hall
come and worhip before. Thee; for Thy
judgments are made manifest. 5. And after

that I looked, and behold, the temple of the
tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was
opened : 6. And the feven angels came out
oo
of
450
Commentary on
the
of the temple *, having the feven plagues,

clothed in pure and white linen, and having
their breats girded with golden girdles.
7. And one of the four beats + gave unto
the feven angels feven golden vials full of
the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and
* Ver. 6. And the feven angels came out, "&c.] Of the .
prophets who have fpoken of the final judge
ments of God on all nations, the words of Jeremiah in
ancient
his twenty-fifth Chapterare, I believe, the most expres.

Thus in the 15th vere: For thus faith the Lord God
of Irael unto me, Take the wine cup of this fury at my

hand, and caue all the nations, to whom I fend thee, to
drink it ; and they hall drink, and be moved, and be
mad, becaue of the fword that I will fend among them.

And ver, 31. A noife fhall come even to the ends of
the earth; for the Lord hath a controverfy with the na
tions; He will plead with all fleh; He will give them
that are wicked to the fword, faith the Lord.
Thus
faith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil hall go forth from
nation to nation, and a great whirlwind hall be raied up

from the coats of the earth, &c.
+ ver. 7. And one of the four beasts, &c.] That each

of the living creatures was one that formed the tandard
of one quarter of the camp of the Iraelites, is mentioned
before in Sect. III.
Hence it hould eem that any at
in which one of them only miniters, relates primarily to
to one quarter of the world.
e VeT.
-,
4.
451
ever*. 8. And the temple was filled with

fmoke from the glory of God, and from His
power; and no man was able to enter into
the temple f, till the feven plagues of the

feven angels were fulfilled.
CHAPTER XVI. Ver. 1. And I heard
a great voice out of the temple, faying to

the feven angels, Go your ways, nd pour
out the vials of the wrath of God upon the
earth. 2. And the firt went, and poured
out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a
noiome and grievous fore upon the men
which
* Ver. 7. God, who liveth for ever and ever.] The

divine attribute of Eternity feems here noticed to fugget,
that thefe effects of the wrath of God were no more than
what had been menaced long before.
Ver. 8. And no man was able, &c.]
By the law
both the atonement for fins of ignorance, and that of

the trefpas offering, were to be made in the tabernacle.
Ch. iv. and vi.
CHAPTER xvi. Ver. 1. And I heard a great voice
out of the temple.] If. lxvi. 6. A voice of noife from
- the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord
that rendereth recompence to His enemies.
-
Ver. 2. Sore.] If. i. 5. Why hould ye be stricken

any more? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole
GG 2
head
A Commentary on the
452
which had the mark of the beaft, and upon

them which worhipped his image. 3. And
the fecond angel poured out his vial upon

the fea; and it became as the blood of a
dead man: and every living foul died in

the fea*.
4. And the third angel poured
out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of

waters; and they became blood. 5. And
I heard the angel of the waters fay, Thou
art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wat,
and halt be, becaue Thou haft judged thus.

6. For they have hed the blood of faints and
prophets, and thou haft given them blood
to drink, for they are worthy. 7. And I
heard another out of the altar fay, Even fo,
Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are
thy judgments. 8. And the fourth angel

poured
Out
his vial upon the fun; and power
head is fick, and the whole heart faint. From the fole
of the feet even unto the head there is no foundnes in it;
but wounds, and bruifes, and putrifying fores. And
St. Paul, 2, Tim. ii. 17. of evil teachers, And their
word will eat as doth a canker.
* Ver. 8. And the fecond angei, &c.] For the autho
rity on which the interpretation of this and the following

veres to the 8th inclufive proceeds, fee in Sec. 6. note on
: Ch. viii. ver. 7.
W28
453
was given unto him to corch men with fire.

9. And men were corched with great heat,
and blaphemed the name of God, which
hath power over thee plagues: and they re

pented not to give Him glory. 10. And the
fifth angel poured out his vial upon the feat
of the beat: and his kingdom was full of

darknes*; and they gnawed their tongues
for pain, 11. And blaphemed the God of
heaven becaufe of their pains and their fores,
and repented not of their deeds. 12. And the
fixth angel poured out his vial upon the great

river Euphrates ; and the water thereof was
* Ver. 10. Full of daringf.] Of darknes being ued

to ignify distres we have an instance in If. v. 30. And
if one look to the land, Behold darknes and forrow, and

the light is darkened in the heavens thereof. For vice,
in Prov. ii. 13. Who leave the paths of uprightnes to:
walk in the ways of darknes. And for ignorance, in
Ia. lx. e. For behold darknes hall cover the earth,

and grofs darknes the people.
+ Ver. 12. The great river Euphrates.] A conqueror

(as was before stated) being in holy cripture compared to
an overflowing strean, and the Ottomans having been
characterized by the four angels on the river Euphrates,
the drying up the ftreams of that river most properly

marks the annihilation of their (which is a military) go
Vernment.
GG3
dried
454
A Commentary on the
dried up, that the way of the kings of the

Eat might be prepared. 13. And I faw
three unclean pirits like frogs*, come out of
the mouth of the dragon, and out of the
mouth of the beat, and out of the mouth of

the fale prophet. 14. For they are the pi
rits of devils working miracles, which go forth
unto the kings of the earth and of the whole

world, to gather them to the battle of that
great day of God Almighty. 15. Behold,

I come as a thief. Bleed is he that watcheth,
and keepeth his garments, left he walk naked,

and they fee his fhame. 16. And he ga
thered them together into a place called in
the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 17. And

the feventh angel poured out his vial into the
air; and there came a great voice out of the
temple of heaven, from the throne, faying,

It is done.
18. And there were voices and
thunders, and lightnings; and there was a

great earthquake, fuch as was not fince men
* Ver, 13. Frogs.] Pf, cv, 30. Frogs in abun
dance, in the chambers of their kings. It is worthy of
obervation, that the frogs here alluded to, and thoe above,
are the only animals of that kind mentioned in fcrip
ture,
Were

455
were upon the earth, fo mighty an earth
quake, and fo great, 19. And the great
city was divided into three parts, and the
cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon

came in remembrance before God, to give
unto her the cup of the wine of the fiercenes
of His wrath. 20. And every iland* fled
away, and the mountains were not found.
21. And there fell upon men a great hail out
of heaven, every tone about the weight of a
talent; and men blaphemed God becaufe
of the plague of the hail; for the plague

thereof was exceeding great.
P Roof of AccoM PLISHMENT.

IN the Hitory of the Reformation, even
in this iland, many circumtances are pre
ferved, in which the triumphs of the Re
* Ver. 20. And every iland, &c.] Of the great Ba
bylon I conceive; and then the interpretation will proceed
on the fame authority as that given of the fame images in
Sect. 4, in notes on Chap. 6. Where alo the emblem of
the earthquake is explained, as in the note on Ch. viii. 7,
is that ot the hail.
GG 4
formed
456 -
A Commentary on the
formed here depicted were realized.
Of thefe
I will felect only one intance recorded by
Bihop Burnet,
. '
*
In the fame year (1541) Rustel, a Fran

cican frier, and one Kennedy, a young man
of eighteen years of age, were brought be
fore the archbihop of Glagow. That bihop

was a learned and moderate man, and was
much againt. thee cruel proceedings; he was
alo in great credit with the king, having been

his tutor. Yet he was forced by the threat
enings of his brethren to go on with the per
fegution. So thoe two, Ruffel and Kennedy,
being brought before him; Kennedy, that

was young and fearful, had refolved to fub
mit and abjure. But being brought to the
bar, and encouraged by Rufiel's difcourfes,
he felt fo high a meaure of courage and joy
in his heart, that he fell down on his knees,
and broke forth in thee words: Wonderful,
O God, is thy love and mercy towards me,
a miferable wretch: for now, when I would

have denied Thee, and Thy Son, my Sa
viour, Thou haft by Thine own hand pulled

me back from the bottom of hell, and given
4- -
- -
::
ple
457
me mot heavenly, comfort, which hath re

moved the ungodly fear that before opprefied
my mind. Now I defie death; do what
you pleae; I thank God I am ready.So
they were burnt; but at their death they ex
prefed fo much contancy and joy, that the
people were much wrought on by their be
haviour. Ruffel encouraged Kennedy, his
partner in fufferings in thee words: Fear
not, brother, for He is more mighty that is
in us, than he that is in the world; the
pain which we hall fuffer is hort and light;
but our joy and confolation fhall never have
an end, Death cannot detroy us, for it is
detroyed already by Him, for whoe fake we
fuffer. Therefore let us trive to enter in by
the fame ftrait way which our Saviour hath
taken before us*.
But if from the individual instances of

triumph over all the power of the enemy, we
pas on to conider the objet and the de
ftruction of the famous Armada of Spain, I

think we hall fee an almot literal completion
# Hit, of the Reformation, Vol. 1, p. 310.
-
of
458
A Commentary on the
of this part of the prophecy; when the inha

bitants of our own country, and in them, (I
believe we may without arrogance venture to
fay) under heaven, the bulwark of the Re
formation, was preferved from the fiery trials,
which the bigotry of that foldier of the pope,

Philip the Second and his executioners, were
preparing for them. When by the ufe of
firehips the fea was in reality mingled with
fire, and folemn thankgivings were both in
England and Holland, (and by the fituation

of thee countries on the very fea hore, (as it
were) offered to God alone for this mighty
deliverance.
But there was a medal struck on this oc

caion. Part of the infcription of which fo
much refembles the fong recorded, that it
ought to be inferted in the History of the

Accomplihment of that Prophecy which
contains it. This coin is defcribed as follows
by Evelyn in his Numifmata: That ever
memorable and triumphant piece truck by
publick order of the defeat of the Spanih ar
mada (anno mirabili 1588) which in its antic
and foretable preents us with, firt a formal

-
convention

459
convention of the pope, cardinals, bihops,
emperour, king Philip II. and other poten
tates in their robes of tate, fitting in conful
tation, bound about their eyes and blind
fold; the ends of the fillets ticking up (mif

taken by M. Bigot for affes ears) on their fe
veral heads, with this infcription: O ccas
hominum mentes, O peiora cca ! and
about the circle, durum est contra flimulos
calcitrare. Secondly, in potica, a fleet of
fhips dahed againt rocks and finking, Veni,
vide, vive.
About the circle, Tu Deus
magnus, et magna facis. Tu folus Deus.

Such is this medal, and had I acces to the
works that might be fearched for them, I

have no doubt but others as trongly at leaft
correponding with the predition, might be
found.
Before I point out to the reader what has
already fallen on the world of the plagues

repreented by the effects of the bowls being
poured forth, it is proper to oberve, that

from the eleventh vere of the Sixteenth
Chapter it is clear, that thefe do not take up
distinct periods, or continue each only a

fpecific
A Commentary on the
460
fpecific eaon; but that they endure for a

confiderable time, and are in general nearly
cotemporary with each other.
- For the first of them therefore fignifying

that there hould be no further reformation,
but that the followers of the pope in general

fhould become hardened in their falfe doc
trines, and obdurate in their evil practices.

Above a century ago Puffendorffexprefied an
opinion, that for the future, in all probability,
the pope would by degrees gain ground on:
the protetants, and stated what makes any.
real reformation in the dotrine of his fol
lowers impoible; that if it hould once be

granted, that the pope hath hitherto main
tained but one fingle erroneos point his in

fallibility would then fall to the ground; and
if that were removed, the whole fupertruc
ture of his eccleiatical fovereignty, which is
founded on it, mut fall too. Confitently

with this idea the council of Trent, to which
all the countries under the papal juridition

had looked for fome reformation, did in truth
little elfe than etablih the ancient corrup

tions, and confirm that by which they were
-
all
461
all fupported, the papal authority; which

they atually acknowledged fo far as to ub
mit all their decrees to the confirmation of
the pope. And thus Brent, in his Epitle

dedicatory to his Tranlation of the Hitory
of that Council oberves, that by the devices
of the adherents of the bihops of Rome, .
that which was defired by all godly men,
as the only remedy againt all the errors in
manners and dotrine both in church and
commonwealth, and epecially againt the

greatet enormities of the popes themfelves,
hath been wrested to a quite contrary ue,

to weaken the lawful right of kings and prin
! ces, to pervert the dotrine and hierarchie
of the church of God, and to lift up the pa

pacy to an unufferable height of pride. This
is that holy and great ynod of which the

Romanits boat themfelves fo much. And
at the end of his tranlation, the fame writer
hath given fome extracts from Letters con

cerning the councell written in the time
when it was held. Among thee the firt is
the following from a letter of Lanac, the
French ambastador reident in the councell
written to his Sovereign: We have not as

1
yet
462
A Commentary on the
yet propoed the articles of Reformation, be

caue we well perceive that they will give eare
to nothing that may hinder the profit and .
authoritie of the court of Rome. Befides,

the pope is fo much mater of this councell,
that his penioners, whatoever the emperor's

ambastadors or wee do remonstrate unto them,
will do what they lift.
The next is from a letter of de Pibrac,

another ambaador of the fame nation to the
queen mother. My lords the legates, to
gether with the Italian bihops which came
from Rome, made a kind of decree, that no

thing fhould be propoed for the fathers to
conult of, but by the legates only, or at the
leaft, nothing but what pleaed them. This
we have feen oberved even to the hutting

up of the councell.
From a letter written
by the queen mother herelf to Lanfac is the

following pastage; If the promifes which
the legats do make unto you, and the opinion
which I have of their dignitie and integritie
do compel me to hope for fome good from

the councell, on the other fide that which I
have hitherto oberved concerning their man

IMET
463
ner of proceeding quite contrarie to their

words, makes mee feare that this whole
councell of ours is nothing but a faire appear

ance of flours, without any fruit or amendment at all.
And laftly, from a letter from du Ferrier

and de Pybrac to the French king Ofan
hundred and fiftie prelats, which then were
preent in the councell, a whole hundred had

conpired together, and fubcribed (as the
faid legats have affured us) not to vote any
article of the reformation, until the articles
of princes were propoed and given to the
fathers. This hath not onely beene done, but
it hath been done more rigorouly (contrarie
to all law both divine and humane) then at
the firt, &c.
As thee letters form incontrovertible testi
mony of the pirit that reigned in the council,
fo the following paages from Moheim's

Hitory will hew, that in exact confonance
with the predition, things became afterwards
only worfe and worfe by means of the two-
horned beast. The council of Trent was

*
affembled,
. A Commentary on the ,
aembled, as was pretended, to correct, il
luftrate, and fix with perpicuity, the doc
464
trine of the church, to retore the vigour of
its dicipline, and to reform the lives of its

miniters. But in the opinion of thoe who
examine things with impartiality, this af
fembly, intead of reforming ancient abues,
rather gave rife to new enormities; and many
tranfations of this council have excited the
jut complaints of the wifeft men in both

communions. They complain, that many
of the opinions of the fcholatic doctors on de
licate points (that had formerly been left un
decided, and had been wifely permitted as
fubjects of free debate) were, by this council,
abfurdly adopted as articles of faith, and re
commended as fuch, nay impoed, with
violence, upon the conciences of the people,
under the pain of excommunication. They
complain of the ambiguity that reigns in the
decrees and declarations of that eouncil, by
which the diputes and diffenions, that had

formerly rent the church, intead of being
removed by clear definitions, and wife and
charitable deciions, were rendered, on the

contrary, more perplexed and intricate, and
A
*.
were
465
were in reality propagated and multiplied,

intead of being fupprefied or diminihed.
Nor were thee the only reaons of com
plaint; for it mutt have been
afflicting
tO
thofe that had the caue of true religion and

Chritian liberty at heart, to fee all things
decided in that
aembly, according to the
depotic will of the Roman pontiff, without

any regard to the ditates of truth, or the
authority of Scripture, its genuine and au
thentic fource, and to fee the aembled fa
thers reduced to filence by the Roman le

gates, and deprived, by thee infolent re
preentatives of the papacy, of that influence
and credit, that might have rendered them
capable of healing the wounds of the church.
It was moreover a grievance juftly
to be com
plained of, that the few wife and pious re
gulations,
that were made in that council,
were never fupported by the authority of the

church, but were fuffered to degenerate into
a mere lifeles form or fhadow of law, which
was treated with indifference
and tran
grefied with impunity. To fum up all in one

word, the mot candid and impartial ob
fervers of things confider the council of

HI H
Trent
466
A Commentary on the
Trent asan affembly that was more attentive

to what might maintain the depotic autho
rity of the pontiff, than folicitous about en
tering into the meaures that were necefiary
to promote the good of the church*.
And in the next page, Notwithstand

ing all this, fuch as are defirous of forming
fome notion of the religion of Rome, will do
well to confult the decrees of the council of -
Trent, together with the compendious con

festion of faith, which was drawn up by order
of Pius IV. Thofe, however, who expet
to derive, from thee fources, a clear, com
pleat, and perfect knowledge of the Romih

faith, will be greatly diappointed; to evinc
the truth of this affertion, it might be ob
ferved, as has been already hinted, that,
both in the decrees of Trent and in this papal
confeffion, many things are exprefied in a
vague and ambiguous manner, and that de
fignedly, on account of the intetine diviions
and warm debates that then reigned in the
' church.
This other fingular circumtance
* Moheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 45 12.
might
467
might alo be added, that feveral
tenets are
omitted in both, which no Roman Catholic
is allowed to deny, or even to call in question.

But, waving both thee coniderations, let it
only be oberved, that in thee decrees and
in this confeion feveral dotrines and rules
of worhip are inculcated in a much more

rational and decent manner, than that in
which they appear in the daily fervice of the
church, and in the public pratice of its

members.
(This is true, obferves the tran
lator of this hitory in a note, in a more efpe
cial manner, with repet to the canons of

the council of Trent, relating to the dotrine
of purgatory, the invocation of faints, the
worhip of images and relicks. The terms
employed in thefe canons are artfully chofen,
fo as to avoid the imputation of idolatry, in
the philoophical fenfe of that word, for in
the fcripture fenfe they cannot avoid it, as
all ufe of images in religious worhip is ex

presly forbidden in the facred writings in
many places. But this circumpetion does
not appear in the worhip of the Roman Ca
tholics, which is notoriouly idolatrous in both
fenfes of that word).
*
Hence, the hitorian
H H 2
himelf
468
A Commentary on the
himelf proceeds, we may conclude, that the

jutet notion of the dotrine of Rome is not
to be derived fo much from the terms made
ufe of in the decrees of the council of Trent,

as from the rea
fignification of thefe terms,
which mut be drawn from the cutoms, in
ftitutions, and obervances, that are, every

where, in ufe in the Romih church. Add
to all this another confideration, which is,
that in the bulls ifued out from the papal

throne in thefe latter times, certain dotrines,
which were obcurely propoed in the council

of Trent, have been explained with fufficient
perpicuity; and avowed without either he
fitation or referve. Of this Clement II. gave
a,
notorious example, in the famous bull, called
Unigenitus, which was an enterprize as au

dacious as it proved unfuccesful.
As foon as the popes perceived the re
markable detriment their authority had fuf

-fered from the accurate interpretations of the
Holy Scriptures, that had been given by the

learned, and the perual of thee divine oracles,
which was now grown more common among
the people, they left no methods unem

ployed
- 469
ployed that might difcourage the culture of

this mot important branch of facred erudi
tion. While the tide of refentment ran high,
they forgot themfelves in the mot unac
countable manner. They permitted their
champions to indulge themfelves openly in
reflexions injurious to the dignity of the acred
writings, and by an exces of blaphemy al

mot incredible (if the pastions of men did
not render them capable of the greatet enor
mities) to declare publickly, that the edits
of the pontiffs and the records of oral tradi
tion, were fuperior, in point of authority, to
the expres language of the Holy Scriptures.
But as it was impoible to bring the acred
writings wholly into difrepute, they took the
mot effetual methods, in their power, to
render them obfcure and ufeles.
For this
purpoe the ancient Latin tranlation of the

Bible, commonly called the Vulgate, though
it abounds with innumerable gros errors,
and, in a great number of places, exhibits
the mot hocking barbarity of tyle, and the
mot impenetrable obcurity with refpet to
the fenfe of the infpired writers, was declared,
by a folemn decree of the council of Trent
iI II 3
2.Il
470 ,
A Commentary on the
an authentic tranlation. It was eay to fore
fee, that fuch a declaration was every way

adapted to keep the people in ignorance, and
to veil from their undertandings the true
meaning of the facred writings. In the
fame council, farther teps were taken to ex
ecute, with fucces, the deigns of Rome.
A fevere and intolerable law was enated,
with repet to all interpreters and expoitors
of the fcriptures, by which they were for
bidden to explain the fene of thee divine
books, in matters relating to faith and prac

tice, in fuch a manner, as to make them
fpeak a different language from that f the
church and the ancient doctors. The fame
law further declared, that the church alone
(i. e. its ruler, the Roman pontiff) had the

right of determining the true meaning and
fignification of cripture. . To fill up the
meaure of thefe tyrannical and iniquitous
proceedings, the church of Rome perfifted
obtinately in affirming, though not always

with the fame impudence and plainnes of
fpeech, that the Holy Scriptures were not.
compoed for the ufe of the multitude; but
only for that of their piritual teachers; and,
:
of
471
of confequence, ordered thee divine records

to be taken from the people in all places,
where it was allowed to execute its imperious
commands.
It is true (the hitorian had oberved
before in page 450) the court of Rome, and

all thoe who favour the depotic pretenions
of its pontiff, maintain that he alone, who
governs the church as Chrit's vicegerent, is
entitled to explainand determine the fenfe

of cripture and tradition in matters per
taining to falvation; and that, of confe
quence, a devout and unlimited obedience is

due to his deciions. To give weight to this
opinion, Pius IV. formed the plan of a coun
cil, which was afterwards instituted and con

firmed by Sixtus V. and called the congre
gation for interpreting the decrees of the

council of Trent.
This congregation was
authorized to examine and deide, in the
name of the pope, all matters of fmall mo

ment relating to
eccleiatical dicipline,
while every debate of any confequence, and
particularly all diquiitions concerning points

of faith and dotrine, were left to the deci
H II 4
fion
472
A Commentary on the
fion of the pontiffalone, as the great oracle

of the church.
Here the incorrigible obduracy of the

papacy is fufficiently manifeted, and that
the fame appeared in corruption of morals as
well as of dotrine, by the help of the mo
natick orders, we learn in the fame Setion,
page 460.
There was no uccefful attempt made
in this century, to correct or improve the

pratical or moral fytem of dotrine, that was
followed in the church of Rome; nor, indeed,
could any make fuch an attempt without
drawing upon him the difpleaure, and per
haps the fury, of the papal hierarchy. For,
in reality, fuch a projet of reformation
feemed in no wife conducive to the interets
of the church, as thefe interets were under
ftood by its ambitious and rapacious rulers.
And it is undoubtedly certain, that many

doctrines and regulations, on which the
power, opulence, and grandeur of that church
effentially depended, would have run the
rik of falling into dicredit and contempt, if
the
473
the pure and rational ytem of morality, con

tained in the goipel, had been exhibited in
its native beauty and implicity, to the view

and perual of all Chritians without ditinc
tion.
Little or no zeal was therefore exerted
in amending or improving the dotrines that

immediately relate to pratice. On the
contrary, many perons of eminent piety and
integrity, in the communion of Rome, have
grievouly complained (with what justice hall

be fhewn in its proper place) that as foon as
the jefuits had gained an afeendant in the
courts of princes and in the chools of learn
ing, the caue of virtue began viibly to de
cline. It has been alledged more particu

larly, that this artful order employed all the
force of their fubtle distinctions to fap the
foundations of morality, and, in proces of
time, opened a door to all forts of licentiou
nefs and iniquity by the loofe and diolute
rules of conduct they propagated as far as

their influence extended. This poifonous
dotrine fpread, indeed, its contagion, in a
latent manner during the fixteenth century;

but, in the following age, its abettors ven
tured to expoe fome pecimens of its turpi

tude
474
A Commentary on the
tude to public view, and thus gave occaion

to great commotions in feveral parts of Eu
rope.
The promife above given to fhew in its
proper place with what jutice complaints

were made, that the caue of virtue declined
as foon as the jefuits had gained an acen
dant, is by this historian performed in the

following pastage, beginning in page 352 of
his fourth volume.
If we take an accurate view of the re
ligious ytem of the Romih church, during

this (the feventeenth) century, both with re
fpect to the articles of faith, and rules of
pratice, we hall find, that, intead of being
improved by being brought fomewhat nearer
to that perfect model of dotrine and morals

that is exhibited to us in the Holy Scrip
tures, it had contrated new degrees of cor
ruption and degeneracy in mot places, partly
by the negligence of the Roman pontiffs,

and partly by the dangerous maxims and
influence of the jefuits. This is not only the
obervation of thoe who have renounced the
Romih
/
**

Romih communion, and in the
475
depotic fiyle
of that church are heretics; it is the com

plaint of the wifet and the worthieft part of
that communion, of all its members who have
zeal for the advancement of true Christian

knowledge and genuine piety.
As to the dotrinal part of the Romih
religion, it is faid, and not without foun
dation, to have fuffered extremely in the

hands of the jefuits, who, under the con
nivance, nay, fometimes by the immediate
affitance of the Roman pontiffs, have per
verted and corrupted fuch of the funda
mental dotrines of Chritianity as were left
entire by the council of Trent. There are
not wanting proofs fufficient to fupport this
charge; inafmuch as thee fubtle and infi
dious fathers have manifetly endeavoured
to diminih the authority and importance of
the Holy Scriptures, have extolled the power
of human nature, changed the fentiments of
many with repect to the neceity and effi

cacy of divine grace, repreented the medi
ation and uferings of Chrit as les powerful

and meritorious than they are faid to be in
the
*
476
Commentary on the
the acred writings, turned the Roman pontiff

into a terretrial deity, and put him almot
upon an equal footing with the divine Sa
viour; and finally, rendered, as far as in
them lies, the truth of the Chritian religion
ambiguous, by their fallacious reafonings, and
their fubtile but pernicious fophitry. The
tetimonies brought to fupport thefe accua
tions by men of weight and merit, particu

larly among the Janfenits, are of very great
authority, and it is extremely difficult to
refue our affent to them when they are im
partially examined; but, on the other hand,
it may be eaily proved, that the jefuits, in
ftead of inventing thefe prenicious dotrines,
did no more in reality than propagate them

as they found them in that ancient form of
the Romih religion that preceded the Re

formation, and was directly calculated to
authority of the pope, and the
power and prerogatives of the Romili church,
to the very highet pitch of depotic grandeur.
raife the
To inculcate this form of dotrine, was the
diret vocation of the jefuits, who were to
derive all their credit, opulence, and influ
ence, from their being conidered as the

8
main
477 ,
main fupport of the papacy, and the pecu

liar favourites of the Roman pontiffs. The
chief crime then of the jefuits is really this,
that they have explained with more opennes
and perpicuity thoe points, which the lead
ing managers in the council of Trent had en

tirely omitted or flightly mentioned, that
they might not hock the friends of true re
ligion, who compoed a part of that famous
affembly.
Thefe extrats will, I conceive, be thought
fufficient in proof of obduracy having been
manifeted by the followers of the pope as
far toward our own times as the feventeenth
century. That their church is not fince im

proved in morals, the extrats I have al
ready given from indulgences till in force de
montrate; while they, with what I have
quoted from their preent books of devotion,
fhew that they are by no means reformed in
dotrine.
And how far the atheifm which
has long reigned fecretly among the mem
bers of that apostate church, and burit out

in all its baneful effects in the French re
volution, manifets a judicial hardnes of
heart,
W
478
A Commentary on the
heart, I need not tell the reader.
But from
all I have tated under this head, it is, I ap

prehend, clear, that from the hour of which
it was predited, that then they hould begin

to take place to the preent, the awful and
detructive
effects of the firt vial have been
viible.
t
It is clear from the paffages I have tran

fcribed, that the ancient tyranny, blaphemy,
and idolatry of the church of Rome till con
tinue unrepented of and unamended. It is
clear that the miniters of it, intead of pro

fiting by the warnings which God Almighty
hath in His infinite mercy and forbearance

vouchafed to fend them, and correting
their condut by the holy lefons of the acred
writings, have, in truth, taken away the key
of knowledge, and enter not in themfelves, .
and them that were entering in have hin
dered; and that impurity of life meets with
no lefs indulgence and encouragement among
them than it formerly did. And therefore

to the future increafe of thefe evils, as well as
to their extenion to thoe who fin after the
fimilitude of the beat, let me not ineffec

*
tually
Y
479
tually beg the reader's most fincere and wake

ful attention.
The difference between the naval wars
with which ancient Rome was menaced
under the emblem of a burning mountain

being cat into the fea, and one third of it
becoming blood, when confequently only

one third of the creatures which were in the
fea died, and thoe with which apotate
Chritendom is threatened under the fecond

vial as extended to all the world is fo trongly
marked, that it calls for particular oberva

tion; while the accomplihment of it is no
les forcibly characterized.
For fince the
nations of Europe have (in confonance with

the very ancient promife given to their an
cetor Japhet, that God would enlarge him)
formed fettlements in Afia, Africa, and Ame
rica, their armaments have alo been fent
nto thoe parts of the globe, and thus the

wars commenced in Europe have ever fince
extended over the whole earth. While by

the political ytem etablihed in the time of
the emperour Charles the Fifth, a quarrel between any two fovereigns has generally
-
implicated
A Commentary on the
implicated others in it, and at length, the
480
complicated interets and felfih views of com

merce did in the war which is jut clofed, in
volve every tate of Europe, with their de
pendent colonies. How great the flaughters
have been in thee contets, hitory relates,
and proves that in the coure of them every
fea has been tinged with blood. Nei
ther can I omit to infert here the words
of Waton, in the ninth book of his hif
tory of Philip II. concerning the battle of

Lepanto, fought on the 7th of Otober,
1571. The fea for feveral miles was tinged
with blood, and covered with mangled limbs
and carcafes. After this the wars between
Spain and her revolted provinces, and between
the fame country and our own, extended on
the ocean far and wide; and that through
the age of Lewis the Fourteenth to the pre

fent hour the naval wars have been waged
on a more and more extended fcale, no
feader, who has even a fmall acquaintance
with hitory, need be apprized. So that the
accomplihment of the effets of the fecond
vial even to our own time is ufficiently elu
idated.
.
And
481
And for the civil and land wars preigni
fied under the third vial; thee have pre

vailed not only in Germany, Flanders,
France, and our own country, but extend
ed into the Perfian empire, and through
the vat peninfula of India. And indeed by
means of thee have the European fettle

ments repeatedly been made. But in no
age or place have they appeared with a more
fanguinary apet, than in our own time and
oppoite our own fhores, when the predic
tion has been literally fulfilled. For not
only mot of the principal rivers of Europe,
the Danube, the Po, the Tyber, the Rhone,
the Loire, the Scheldt, the Maefe, the Mo
felle, and the Rhine have been dyed with

blood, but from the number of carcaes of
thoe who had been newly flain, which were

at one time cat into the Seine at Paris, the
inhabitants of that city, who, it is well known,

drink chiefly of that river, mut literally have
drunk the blood of the flaughtered. And
when here was the chief cene of the horrid
maacre
of St. Bartholomew, in which fo
many thouands of reformed Chritians fell

under the merciles hands of the papits, how
I I
fatally
A Commentary on the
482
fatally does fuch an occurrence appear to

correpond with the words of the angel of the
waters, and of that over the fire: Thou art
righteous, O Lord, which art, and wat, and

fhalt be, becaue thou haft judged thus. For
they have hed the blood of faints and pro
phets, and Thou haft given them blood to
drink; for they are worthy.Even, fo, Lord
God Almighty, true and righteous are thy

judgments.
The ytem of oppreion on the part of
the fovereigns of Europe, fignified by power

being given unto the fun to corch men, com
menced in the time of Charles the Fifth;
not only in his aiming, as Dr. Roberton re

lates of him, at rendering the imperial
power depotic; but through the vat ac
ceffion of power which he acquired in his Spa
nih dominions, in which by his fucces in
the war, with the commons of Catile, he ex
alted the royal prerogative on the ruin of
the privileges of the people, and by the

king of France alo gaining in the fame age
abolute power, examples which have ince.
been fo copied, that Voltaire remarks of our
-
.*
James
483
James the Second, that it nettled himi

not a litttle to fee fo many princes in Europe
reigning with a depotic fway: thoe of Swe
den and Denmark had lately too become
abolute; in hort, England and Poland
were now the only remaining kingdoms,
where the liberty of the people and mo
narchy fubfifted together*. The lat of
the kingdoms here named has fince ceaed
to form an exception; and by the ubjuga

tion of Holland, Switzerland, and Genoa,
to the French yoke, there is now not a tate
left in Europe, deferving notice, except our
own country, that is not fubject to depotic
fway; for I cannot pay fo ill a compliment

to my reader's difcernment, as to imagine
he thinks otherwife of France itelf.
But further; coval with thee encroach

ments on the privileges of the fubjets of
Europe was the introduction of standing

armies, and that ytem of the balance of
power which they have been found neceary
to fupport: and have not the perpetual im

*
Age of Lewis XIV.
Vol. I. Ch. xiv,
I I 2
posts
*
*
484
A Commentary on the
pots requifite for the maintenance of fuch

forces been, in truth, a fource of very great
fufferings to the people from their go
vernours ? who, it ought to be oberved,
while feeking only the accomplihment of

their own various counfels, have, without
being fenible of the minitry in which they

have been employed, been in reality fulfil
ling the words of Him, whoe purpoe none
can difannul.
Thee fufferings, moreover,
are not likely, from prefent appearances, to

be diminihed; fince, whoever reflects on the
confequences which the confideration of the

miferies necearily attached to anarchy na
turally tends to produce, will fee, that the
enormities which have been committed in
our days, under the pretence of fecuring

liberty, will, in the end, only bring (and
with the confent of its fubjets, extorted by

the neceity of the times) the government
of every country nearer to a military defpo
tifm ; the preent fate of France, and of
every country that has not ecaped its fangs.
And, therefore, as Europe has already, in

great part of it, felt in centuries pat thee
plagues, the prefent profpet is fuch as to
yield
*/
485
yield the tronget grounds to fufpet, that

in the progres of that on which we have
now entered, they will encreafe to all the
predited height. And for the effet fuch
fufferings may have on the inhabitants
of the countries opprefied; Did the fuf
ferings of the French under Lewis XIV.,
which were exactly of the kind here foretold,
bring them to repentance? Or, under all the
afflition which the retles ambition and
vexatious profuion of their government have

brought on them, Have they done otherwife
than advance to more hocking degrees of
- impiety and blaphemy?
I mut here notice a medal, faid to have
been truck at Rome in the year pat, (1801)

on the fubjet of the retoration of the papal
chair. It repreents on one fide the buft of
Pius the Seventh, and on the revere the
church of St. Peter, on which the fun fhines
with this infcription, Sol refulget. The idea
exhibited on this medal is applicable to my

interpretation of the ymbols under both this
and the following vial.
II 3
As
486
A Commentary on the
As to the fubjet of the fifth vial; as the

fplendour of the papal throne was much
ecliped by the Reformation, fo has it lately

met with a temporary extinction, and even
now the effects of the lat viitation, in which

the whole papal territory (for to that primarily
alluion may here be made) was expoed to
the ravages of an hoft of the mot merciles
- plunderers that ever ravaged a devoted coun

try, mut continue to make it a dreary fcene
of bitter fufferings. Of many of thoe peci
mens of art which were wont to allure the
traveller thither, is the capital of it now
ftripped : and thus has one of the ten horns
begun (according to the words of the Wifion,

in the fixteenth vere of the feventeenth
chapter) to make her deolate and naked;"

while the probability of her fovereign being
finally removed from it, and of ignorance,
vice, and mifery increaing, not only in his
preent temporal, but throughout his fpiri
tual domain, opens to our view a path,

through which this plague may arrive at its
perfect accomplihment.But hould it oc
cur to the reader, that under the interpreta

tion

tion I have above
487
given of the plague of the
fore, they hardly would blpheme God on

account of that, however they might do fo
for their other fufferings; let it be confi
dered, that it is the corruption of the papal

dotrines that has occaioned a total hip
wreck of all faith among many, who feem
to be of that communion ; and that the
horrid profanations which have of late years

been committed in the very centre of the
Roman Catholick countries, aroe, in part,

from that debaed tate of ignorance as to
the real dotrines of religion
and found prin

ciples of ation, into which, through the fault
of their teachers, the bulk of the people had
funk: and that what they have uffered from

the hardened tate of thee teachers, and all
the impofitions and oppreions to which that
hath given rife, would very eafily lead them,

ignorant and vicious as they are, to blaf
pheme God for the fufferings they under
went from men.
With regard to the effects of the fixth

vial; though the Ottomans were not topped
in their career of conquet until the following

-
I I 4
century,
A Commentary on the
century, it appears, that the stability of their
488
empire began to be haken when the fultans

firt ceaed to go forth with their armies.
The force of arms (fays Mr. Eton, in his
intrutive Survey of the Turkih Empire,
p. 28) first ubjugated the countries which

form their empire, the force of arms alone
could retain them in ubmiion ; and it is
owing to the decline of the military pirit of

the Turks, that the members of fo vat a
body are, at the preent day, fo feeble and
difunited,From the moment that the latter

(the Janizaries) beheld their chief no longer
animated with a brave and warlike pirit,
the machine of government was thrown into
diforder; the moving power was no longer
the pring which hould have directed, and

the reaction of the exterior parts towards
the centre was totally detroyed.
And again in p. 63. Thefe haughty

and celebrated legions were long the terror
of furrounding nations, and continued to be
looked upon as formidable until the middle
of the feventeenth century. At that time
theTurkih power ceaed to aggrandize itelf;

.
, 489
it made a paufe in its conquests, a paue
prophetic of that downfal towards which it

has fince fo rapidly verged, and which eems
now to threaten a peedy approach, The
steps which led to this degradation are
eaily difcernible. The dicipline of this fe
rocious foldiery could only be upheld by fovereigns equally ferocious: no fooner did the
fultans quit the fatigues of the camp for the

debaucheries of the Harem, than the Janiza
ries difdaining their command, broke out into
fedition, and dethroned the monarch who ap
peared unworthy of empire. And it appears

from p. 151, that it was Selim II. who fuc
ceeded to the imperial throne in 1566, who
fet the ruinous example to his ucceors
of not going himelf to the wars, but carried
them on by his lieutenants.
To what a degree the streams of this

mighty river, which once fwept all before it,
are now dried up; with how weak a current
that which formerly raged as a refistles

torrent, now creeps along, is viible to all
Europe; while the idea of the Turks them
felves as to their future lot of being driven

into
490
A Commentary on the
into Afia by a power to the north-east of

them, does mot wonderfully accord with
the prophecies gone before concerning them.

The lower orders, ays the writer jut
quoted, are at the preent day peruaded,
that the Ruffian tandard will enter Con
ftantinople through a certain gate, faid to.

be pointed out by an ancient prophecy; and
the great men are fo far from oppoing this
weaknes by uperior energy, that they look

to the Afiatic hore as a fecure retreat from
the fury of the conquerors.
How awful a tetimony is

vine
/*
this to the di
origin of the Gopel, that a great em
pire, and all the furrounding tates, hould be

expecting its removal at the very time when
the preditions of the Revelation have de
clared it to be at hand!
For the remainder of this vial; that propa

gandits of the corrupt dotrines of the papacy
have long ago been fentinto the remoter parts
of the world, is well known. How the mot
able and indutrious of them have conduted
themelves, we may in fome meaure judge

from
'
491
from the following words of Moheim: It

has been alo laid to the charge of the Jefuits,
that they reduced their pernicious maxims to

pratice, epecially in the remoter parts of
the world.
This the famous Arnauld, to
gether with fome of his janfenit brethren,

have undertaken to prove, in that laborious
and celebrated work, La Morale Pratique des

Jefuites. In this important work, which
confits of eight volumes in otavo, and of
which a fecond edition was publihed at
Amterdam in 1742, there is a multitude of
authentic relations, documents, fats, and
tetimonies, employed to demontrate the cri

minal condut and pratices of the Jeuits.
That that mot pernicious tenet inculcated
by, the Illuminati, who have lately contri
buted fo greatly to the corruption of feveral
princes of the earth, and made them enemies
to Chrift, That it is lawful to do evil, that
good may come of it, the end
anctifying
the means, was drawn from the maxims of '
the Jefuits, by the great German leader of

this new fet, eems highly probable, if we
ompare it with the following oberved to
have
492
A Commentary on the
have been adopted by that ociety, That

actions intrinfically evil, and directly con
trary to the divine laws, may be innocently
performed by thoe who have fo much power

over their own minds, as to join, even ideally,
a good end to this wicked ation, (or to peak
in the tyle of the Jeuits) who are capable
of dire&ing their intention aright*.

In the Jefuits, then, who once influenced
the cabinets of almot every nation within
the pale of the Roman church, and in the
propagandits of the atheitical fect which

has of late occafioned fuch detriment to the
caue of religion in Europe, may perhaps be

commenced the accomplihment of the pro
phecy of the unclean pirits, which came out
of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the
mouth of the beat, and out of the mouth of

the falfe prophet; time will develope a fuller
and more accurate completion as to the num
ber, the charateriticks, and the ats of thefe:
which obervation will, indeed, in fome mea
fure, apply to all the forementioned plagues,

* See Moh. Cent. 17. Sect. II.
P. l.
-
IlOne
493
none of which, I conceive, are yet arrived at

their full height, while the effet of the fe
venth is pofiibly not yet begun; and there
fore, at this point, the Commentary I have
ventured to attempt mut stop, and I myelf

take leave of my reader in the few following
lines.
In the introdutory chapter I tated it as

my intention, to trive to avoid every danger
of mifcontrution, by giving no explanation
of a ymbol but what hould be justified by

fome text of holy writ, nor making any ap
plication of a prophecy to events, which ac
cord not, as to both time and place, with the
line of predition. In the lat particular, I
believe, I have accurately kept to my inten
tion: with regard to the former, I have been
compelled to depart from it in two intances;
that of the feet of the bear in the thirteenth
Chapter, and that of the frogs in the fix

teenth; there being no text in fcripture to
elucidate thee. However, both being ani

mals very well known, fuch affifiance was
lefs neceary; and I peruade myelf that
the reader will not complain, that in fo long
a line
494
Commentary on the
a line of ymbols, two only hould not hav

fcriptural authority for the interpretations
given of them; fince he himelf may mft
eaily judge, whether thoe made ufe of be
forced. To him, too, I may confidently ap
peal for the truth of my declaration, when .
I affirm, that I have not been induced, by

any preconceived hypotheis, to wret the
words of the Wifion to a particular meaning;
but that, taking thoe words for my guide,
I have looked into hitory for the proofs of

their accomplihment; which having found in
an uninterrupted feries, correponding with
the line of the prophecy, I have laid the
record before the reader; thus furnihing
him with fufficient premies to determine for
himelf, with becoming deciion, on the truth
of the preditions, and to proceed to examine
all the important confequences of that truth:
And, therefore, the more forcibly I have been
ftricken with the wonderful correpondence
-
between the predition and event, through
the whole coure of this invetigation, the

-
more anxious do I feel to impres on him a

jut fenfe of the obligation on every indivi
dual, to whoe ears thee things reach, to
pay
495
pay the mot unfeignedly earnet and reve

rend attention to a difpenfation, to which
the Deity has thus manifetly fet his
feal.
From what has been laid before him, he
cannot but perceive, that the grand confum- :

mation, of which all the prophets have teti
fied ince the world began, is now near at
hand: in fat it appears, that we, of the
preent age, are almot in the lat cene of
this prophetick drama; we are come to fuch
a point in it, that human expetation does,
from the tate of the world itelf, look for
fome of thoe very circumtances, which the }
Prophecy declares both to be at no great

ditance, and almot immediately to precede
the revelation of the kingdom of heaven.
Againt this light, then, what hould in

duce us to clofe our eyes ?the hope of .
avoiding the judgements menaced? But
have any of thoe which were predited for
times pat failed to arrive in their feaon ?
Here is a quetion of fat already determined
in the negative by the tetimony brought
forward in this Commentary. And, confe
quently, fince the ancient Roman Empire
*
has
496
Commentary on the
has been overthrown; fince the Mahometan

Power has really rifen, flourihed, and fallen
into decay; fince among the states of mo

dern Europe one of a peculiarly mixed cha
rater has arifen, whoe capital is the city of
Rome; fince the head of this has, by means
of the monatick fraternities, exercifed a mot
tyrannical power over the fouls of men ;

fince his pernicious dotrines till continue,
and among all the revolutions which have
convulfed Europe, he yet remains the ac
knowledged head of the mot numerous
communion of thoe who call themelves
Chritians; fince, I fay, all and every of
thee circumtances are incontrovertibly true,

without excue mut all thofe individuals re
main, who will not prepare themelves to

meet the ret of the events announced in
this wonderful book; the lat of which are

the coming of the Lord Jeus Chrit, to take
unto Himelf His own univeral kingdom,
and His rewarding every man according to

his works.Here, then, furely, I may jutly .
take up the words of Moes, and fay, I call

heaven and earth to record againt you this
day, that I have fet before you life and

-
death,
497
death, blesting and curfing; therefore chufe

life.I may borrow thoe of St. Paul,
I take you to record this day, that I am
pure from the blood of all. For I have not
fhunned to declare unto you the whole
counel of God. And I may conclude
the whole in the language of the viion to
Ezekiel, Whooever taketh not warning;
if the fword come, and take him away, his
blood be upon his own head!
*
F I N IS,
t.
**
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1802 - A Commentary On The Revelation - Historical Testimony To Present Day (Rev. E. W. Whitaker)

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A

RE'f7D. THOMAS RENNELL, D.D.

WARNING HIS COUNTRYMEN AGAINST THJt

J>OCTRlNES OF 'TE ROMANISTS;

THIS COMMENTA!lf' ON A VISION,

DELl.NEATED ACES PREVIOUS

TO ITS APPEARANCE, IS DEDICATED,

ALTHOUGH' the pejudices

tion are,'. by the . ildeavons l -w.hich"' have.

I lli9uJd tdeed here. have excepted th prejudieet of

mcnt to that antichriftian power fo Ofo'ngly chatae\erized

remain which call for notice, yet not fo

fuppoed, renders it almot impoible to give

But let thoe, on whom this objection has

are at bet but arbitrary ymbols, whereas em

blematical repreentations bear in nature a

employed to repreent; and it is on the fat

lowing Commentary proceeds.

have failed in their endeavours to acertain

the meaning of this coure of preditions.

admitted to be a good reaon for relinquih

Kne would ever have been made? First at

finai archievement of it is generally rendered

ties that preent themelves diminihed by a

partial dicoveries, but even the errours of

thoe who have gone before him, afford no

fmall afirstance to an interpreter of the prefent day.

which I'am aware is likely to be made to *

long as they can; and confequently to the

now peaking ofit, has, from the publication

as near at hand; and if the Apostles ima

time, and till it is not yet arrived, on what

reply, that my confi

dence is founded on a mot ferious, attentive,

and long-continued investigation of what the

ued by the Apotles do not necearily mean,

rations prove the contrary. The pouring

of the kingdom of God, and the end of

rily I fay unto you, That there be fome

they have feen the kingdom of God

Mark ix. 1. and of St. John,

If I will that he tarry till I come, what is

that to thee? of which that Evangelist him

John xxi. 22, 23. But St. Paul, though in

which re alive, &c. yet appears, by his

words to Timothy, to have been fenible,

with regard to himelf revealed to hiw by

aie :" and in the latter part of the fw

I am combating, by telling us, that with

fill all expectation of Him is nearly perihed .

" Where is now the promife of his

For fince the fathers fell aflep, all things

But while St. Peter thus fuggeted that

conummation of all things, St. Paul has

their own age to that time, and this fiiie

we pas them, being still marked by the

dited. To thee we are authoritatively

junction, What I ay unto you I ay unto

us, after a manner the most imprestive, to

phecy becomes fo particular, as to fpecify

While if convinced of this ourelves

we do not put the brethren in mind of it,

and fubject ourelves to all the heavy woes