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wrath, which are to be poured out upon the mystical Egypt, and which is now taking place. Next, he is to be snared, or deceived by some false appearance of returning prosperity and power, which will eventually turn out to be only a stratagem of war on the part of the enemy, and an irrecoverable disaster to the man of sin, and his powers.‡ And at last, the tragedy will conclude with his being taken, and a suitable doom assigned to this spiritual Sodom.§

"Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said we have made a covenant with death, and with hell, are we at agreement."-We have a noble doctrine in our church, the doctrine of purgatory; which is as true as the gospel, and truer too, for his holiness, who is infallibility

*Rev. xv, 6.

Isa. ix. 10.-Mal, i. 4. See sect. vii. p. 221. The death of the witnesses, and temporary triumph of the spiritual tyrant. Rev. xix. 19, 20, § Rev. xx. 10: xi. 8. See sect, xxiv. The mystical name for the church of Christ in general, though here applied to the corrupt part of it.

itself, and above the scripture, has established it by his own ipse dixit.* By the help of this valuable discovery of a terra incognita, in the netherlands of Hades, and under the sovereign jurisdiction of the pope, let our lives be ever so wicked, yet we have nothing to fear. "We have a covenant with death, and

The blasphemous contempt with which they treat the word of God, in calling it the shop and forge of heresy, a nose of wax, a black gospel,-inky divinity; and preferring their own traditions, as much as ever the jews did, before the scripture ; is occasioned by its contumacy, in refusing to come to the pope, at his bidding, as the surly mountain did to Mahomet: and and as there is a considerable interval of distance between them, it is unsuitable to the dignity and superiority of his Holiness to budge to it. Their canon law affirms frequently, that the church is above the scripture, and Pighius de Hierarch. Eccles. 1. i. c. 2. says,—“ omnis quæ nunc apud nos est scripture authori tas, &c. &c.-all the authority which we now attribute to the scriptures, necessarily depends upon the authority of the church.” -And the same is maintained by Eccius and others, — Hermannus says, "scripturas tantum valere, &c.--that the scriptures are no more to be valued than Esop's fables, unless it were for the testimony of the church.”—Prierius against Luther says," that the authority of the pope is greater than that of the scriptures."-Pope Nicholas I. says, "vetus et novum &c.the New and Old Testament are to be received, BECAUSE pope Innocent hath passed a sentence that they shall be received."And for this, Cardinal Baronius, ad. Ann. 553. N. 224, gives

with bell we are at agreement."—Our bar gain is struck for a fixed price, and our market made both for this world and the world to come. A sum of money, proportionate to the present exigencies of his Holiness, and the quantum of indulgences we need, will surely redeem our souls out of purgatory, and

us a reason." Because (says he) it depends upon the mere will and pleasure of the pope, to have what he pleases sacred, or of authority in the church "2

Turtullian, in Apol. c. 5, laughs at the pagans for first making their own gods, and prescribing what degree of respeck shall be paid them, before they worshipped them. “Apud vos de humano arbitratu &c.-amongst you, the divinity you adore is brought to be weighed in the balance of human will and pleasure; so that you may be rather said to be propitious to the gods, than they to you: for according to your course, unless god please man, he shall not be god."

Pighius calls the gospel "nigrum evangelium-the black gospel:" and Eccius, inken divinity,-a nose of wax; and he adds "that the permitting of the people to read the Bible, was the invention of the devil;" which is as good as to call our Saviour and his apostles such; since it was he who bid us “search. the scriptures," and they added "that they were able to make us wise unto salvation."-The above-named authors are all of high authority in the church of Rome, and their opinions are con firmed by abundance of similar witnesses on the part of his Holiness, Hist, of Popery, v. ii. p. 153.

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prevent their entrance there at all, if we pay well for it. We are therefore well covered, both for body and soul; and "when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made LIES our refuge, and under FALSEHOOD have we bid ourselves. Therefore thus saith the Lord God. Behold! I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation. Judgment also will

I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. And the bail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall over flow the hiding place."

The sarcastic raillery of the prophet in this place, (in making these blind idolators of Ma buzzim, or gods, and saints protectors, instead of the alone Mediator and Saviour Jesus Christ, to shelter themselves under the covert

The scourge prepared for these scornful men in Zion, of which the prophet speaks, is at this time actually passing through the popish empire; and the heretic Luther himself could not have given a more heretically plain description of it, and them, and their covenant with death, than this heretic prophet

here does.

of å system of falsehood, and a refuge of lies and imposture,) is very similar to that of Elijah mocking the stupid worshippers of Baal, and encouraging them to redouble their efforts to awaken the sleeping god. (1 Kings, xviii.27.) He then preaches to them the gospel of the alone Saviour of mankind, and foretells the restoration of it out of that darkness, and disgrace, and oblivion, to which popery had consigned it: the clearing again of this sure foundation stone, from the popish rubbish, with which it had been overlaid and buried for ages; and the sweeping away (by the revolutionary hail and tempest of divine wrath) the wretched hiding place and refuge of lies, and covenant with death, which they had built upon it. And that instead of these, there should be erected a building of God, not made with bands, nor depending upon pious frauds and sanctified imposture for its support, but founded on this rock of truth, and consolidated in every part by the principles of righteousness and judgment, as a building is by line and plummet.

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