engaged in the service of Antichrift, instead of the 'miniftry of the Lord Jefus; it is our duty, as we value the favour of God himself and our own everlasting hap

piness, to return, at every hazard, to the profeffion of * evangelical truth and purity. Our Saviour himself has 'laid down the alternate of our conduct in very plain lan guage. Hear HIM; and confider which ye will choose. Every one, that hath forfaken houfes, or brethren, or 'fifters, or father or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my fake, and the Gospel's, fhall receive a hun'dred fold now, with perfecutions, and in the world to 'come eternal life.-Whofoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, in this adulterous and finful generation, of him alfo fhall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels20.' In verfes 9 and 10 the Kings of the earth are reprefented as lamenting the fall of the antichriftian church. These who were supported by it, in reducing their sub'jects to flavery in civil matters,' fays Mr. Pyle,

will ' have nothing left but-to bewail the ruin of fuch a well laid and truly politic fcheme of imposing upon the ' minds of men.' The merchants of the earth, it is faid in v. 11, fhall weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth her merchandize. They are,' fays Dr. More, eccle‚ fiaftics or spiritual persons, which, in reproach to their 'worldliness in their pretended holy and spiritual func

6

tions, are here called the merchants of the earth11.’ These are her teachers, says Mr. Pyle, who have so 'long made a trade of religion, and a gain of godliness; enriching themselves upon the fpoils of men's understanding and properties; fhining by the mere ignorance

19 Mat. xix. 29. Mark x. 29, 30.

Mark viii. 38. Wakefield's Four Marks of Antichrist, p. 9. "That livings in the English church are publicly bought and fold like merchandize, the advertisements in our newspapers are fufficient to attest.

' and darkness thrown upon the minds of their deluded 'people; trafficking with the fouls 22 of men, as the old · Tyrians did with their bodies.' Her merchants,'

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fays Daubuz, engross all the real wealth of the world to 'bring to her, and her returns and exportations are in paper and bills drawn upon Heaven and Hell, never to 'be accepted. However these pass among the common 'people in payment, as if they were of real value. The * merchant,' he adds, who discovers the means of procur. ing purchafers for them, is altogether carelefs about ' their intrinsic value.' A little farther it is faid (v. 14), And the fruits that thy foul lufted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou fhalt find them no more at all. These great and opime preferments and digni'ties,' fays Dr. More, which thy ambitious and worldly 'mind fo longingly hankered after,-All these are va'nished never to appear again.' And it is added in v. 19, that they had been made rich by reafon of her coftliness, that is, as Dr. More explains it, out of that treasure of honours, dignities, preferments, and offices, wherewith fhe was able to enrich thefe merchants.' My quotations from ch. xviii. I conclude with a paffage, which announces, in the strongest and most decifive language, the violent downfal of the fymbolic Babylon. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millftone, and caft it into the fea, faying, thus with violence fhall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

"In v. 13 the fouls of men are specified as one of the commodities in which they trade: but perhaps this phrafe is not to be understood according to its obvious application,

CHAP.

CHAPTER XIV.

ΟΝ THE

EXTENSIVE DIFFUSION OF ANTICHRISTIANISM IN WHAT IS CALLED THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

THE

HE facts stated in the appendix to chapter XII. were fufficient to fhow, that the church of Rome rather adopted the opinions and practices which were before prevalent in the Christian world, than introduced new ones of her own. She had little indeed to do, but to imitate the conduct of the oriental priesthood, to make some leffer improvements and alterations, and to transfer the elevated authority which others exerted to herself. Long before the haughty claims of the Roman pontiffs were admitted, the foundation of superstition was laid deep and on a very broad scale. Nor could abfurdity easily be pushed to a greater extent. But notwithstanding this, there are not a few proteftant interpreters who think proper to apply, without difcrimination, all the prophecies relative to the corruption of Christianity folely and exclufively to the church of Rome; as if antichriftian fuperftition and tyranny were no where to be found but within the verge of that church, or, if elsewhere found, had ceafed to be offenfive to the Deity.

That the celebrated Dr. Hartley, who in his inquiries after truth was exempt from the bias of party and from views of intereft, is not to be ranked in this class of protestants, the following citation will evince. . There are

many prophecies, which declare the fall of the eccle'fiaftical powers of the Chriftian world. And though

each,

་

each church feems to flatter itself with the hopes of being exempted; yet it is VERY PLAIN, that the pro

phetic characters belong to all. They have all left the true, pure, fimplé religion; and teach for doctrines 'the commandments of men. They are all merchants of the earth, and have set up a kingdom of this world, abounding in riches, temporal power, and external pomp. They have all a dogmatizing fpirit, and per'fecute fuch as do not receive their own mark, and wor'fhip the image which they have fet up.-The corrupt governors of the feveral churches will ever oppose the true gospel, and in fo doing will bring ruin upon them'felves'.' A late able and ingenious member of the eftablished church, speaking of the fall of the figurative Babylon, fays, how far this danger may extend; and ' whether to all the churches who are guilty of the apoftafy, by preferring and establishing the doctrines of men before the precepts of the gofpel, may be well • worth inquiry; especially as the whole Ten Kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided seem to be 'included in the threat, both in St. John's Revelation, and the prophecy of Daniel'." The church of Rome,'

fays

2

Hartley on Man, 1749, vol. II. p. 370.

Thoughts on the Grand Apoftacy, by H. Taylor, rector of Crawley and vicar of Portsmouth, author of Ben Mordecai's Apology for embracing Christianity, p. 138. Of the English writers on prophecy whom I have quoted, the greater part are clergymen in the established church. Besides Mede, More, Whiston, and Daubuz; besides bifhops Hurd, Newton, Chandler, Patrick, Newcome, and Hallifax; there are Mr. Pyle, who was minifter of Lynn Regis in Norfolk, and prebendary of Salisbury; Mr. W. Lowth, prebendary of Winchester and rector of Buriton in the county of Southampton; Dr. Lancaster, vicar of Bowden in Chefhire; Mr. Cradock, rector of North-Cadbury in Somerfetshire; Mr. Brightman, rector of Haunes in Bedfordshire; Mr.Waple, vicar of St. Sepulchre's and archdeacon of Taunton; Dr. Creffener; Dr. Worthington, prebendary of York and vicar of Blodwel in Shropfhire; Dr. Wells, rector of Cotefbatch in

Leicef

fays another writer of diftinguished eminence, belonging to our ecclefiaftical establishment, is not the only church that wants amendment. Other Chriftian focieties, which ⚫ have separated themselves from her and from her groffer • defects, are departed more or less from the original fim'plicity of the gospel, and have mixed fome doctrines of men with the word of God3.'

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A learned member of one of our English Universities, speaking of the emigrant French clergy, fays, if the apocalypse be a divine communication; and if our 'creeds be their creeds; our ecclefiaftical courts their ' ecclefiaftical courts; our liturgy a copy of theirs; a confequence will follow of which we are not aware; and of which time will not fail to be the mighty ar'biter*.' And the fame gentleman, with a reference to the downfal of the Gallic hierarchy, afks a queftion, which the advocates of high church principles will find difficult to anfwer. If,' fays he, we be ' of that chosen people, who have in truth come out of Babylon, who partake not of her fins, and merit not of her plagues; why fhould we appear unprepared, or difinclined, to comply with the angelic 'mandate, and begin, at least, fome prelude to that song

Leicestershire and Bleachley in Bucks; Dr. Apthorp, rector of St. Mary Le Bow; Mr. Gray, vicar of Farringdon, Bucks; Dr. Jortin, prebendary of St. Paul's, vicar of Kensington, and archdeacon of London; Dr. Hammond, rector of Penfhurft, and prebendary of Chrift Church; Dr. Whitby, rector of St. Edmund's Church, and prebendary of Taunton Regis; and Dr. Th: Burnet, mafter of the Charter-Houfe. When any of thefe have been induced, by the infpection of prophecy, to utter any fentiments, adverfe to the interefts of ecclefiaftical establishments; of them at leaft it cannot be suspected, that they have done it upon light grounds, or from the influence of prejudice..

* Jortin's Rem. on Eccl. Hift. 2d. ed. vol. II. p. 436.

4 A Serm. preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, Dec. 19, +793, p. 12. It is by the Rev. Mr. Garnham, fellow of that college.

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