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Sects, has been always greater or beffer, according to his Obfervation, as the Violence of their Perfe cutions of the Faithful has been either more or lefs. ແ For because the Perfecution of Antichrift (Says be) shall be the greatest and sharpest, therefore fhall it also be the fhorteft, according to that of Mark xiii. And except that the Lord fhorten those days, no flefh fhall be faved: GC And for the very fame reason, because the MaSC hometan Perfecution has been milder than the others, as from the aforemention'd Differences evidently appears, therefore fhall its Duration be "much longer than of all the reft; and likewife because the Perfecution by the Idolaters has been as it were betwixt thefe, thence alfo has the Duration of them been proportionably meafur'd out by the most wife Providence of God, which difpofeth all Things wonderfully and sweetly ac-. cording to Weight and Measure. How just this Obfervation is, as to the former Part of it, will by the Calculation of the Monarchies foretold by Daniel, compared with the Hegira of the Maho metans, be prefently feen; and as to the latter Part of it, if the Words of Christ be not sufficient to decide this Matter, Time only will. However if this Affair fhall not be made in the Fourth Part of this Treatife fo very plain, as to put it beyond doubt; yet at least it will be feen not to be a precarious Hypothefis fondly taken up to amuse the Reader with, but fomething not undeferving the Confideration of fober Chriftians and Lovers of Truth.

XI. AND after all, fuppofing this Opinion of the Ancients fhould be but a Miftake, at the very worft there can be no Manner of Hurt in it; fince it will but the more excite us to be prepar'd against

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the Second Coming of Christ, and against thofe evil Times which may be thought to haften bis Coming, ut contra fummam perfecutorem (as the fame Burgenfis fays) fummus infurgeret liberator: But of the commonly receiv'd Notion amonft us the fame cannot be faid; for not to mention those evil Confequences which Grotius, Hammond, Thorndyke, and other Great Men have wifely already remark'd, it may not be altogether impro per or unfeafonable, here to infert an Obfervation of a worthy Friend, who is truly an Ornament to the University and Society whereof he is at present a Member, and than whom perhaps none also is better acquainted with the Merits of this Caufe, as the fame was lately communicated by Letter to a third Perfon, who has given his Leave the fame may be mention'd, for a Caution to all that are taken up with Apocalyptical Theories and Modern Schemes, only fuppreffing the Names- I should

be glad, fays he, to know what Advances "Mr. Whifton makes in the Arian Controverfie. It is my Opinion that he fell into this Miftake in ftudying the Revelations, and that finding from the modern Calculation of 1260, "that there must have been a Falling-away in "the Church about the Fourth or Fifth Century, " and not contented with the common Account of

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it, concerning the Encroachments and Innova❝tions of the Papacy, might apply it to the Arrian Controverfie, and fix the Beginning of it in eftablishing the Doctrine which is now Orthodox. Thus far be, and if Mr. Whifton be appeal'd to, I fuppofe he will hardly deny that this is the Truth. Not a few Obfervations there are befides which even thefe prefent Times may afford us of the ill Influence which this Novel Antipapiftical Notion

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Had it not been

about Antichrift hath bad, and still bath, not only upon the Church but upon the State alfo, in feveral Countries both Proteftant and Roman Catholick. France, Switzerland, Germany, and These Kingdoms are Witnesses hereof. To this is mainly owing the Extirpation of the Reform'd Religion in one Kingdom, and of the Epifcopal Conftitution of it in another: To this for certain we owe the Fighting Prophets of the Cevennes, and their wild Off-fpring here among us. for this, the Society of George Fox had furely never made the tenth Part of that Progrefs which it has done in little more than Half a Century of Years: Nor had there been probably near fo many Atheists, Deifts and Scoffers found in a Proteftant Nation; if we had not hereby exceeded the Bound's of Reformation and instead of Reforming the Church, as it needed, had not been for bringing in a New Church; tho' to the Tripping up of our own Heels by it, to make Laughter for Infidels. And what Use the Politicians have ever made of this Notion both in South and North Britain, is too well known; fo that if it were only to prevent the Dangers thereof to the State alone, should the Spirit of Forty One be conjur'd up here again, and Lambeth made the See of Antichrift as much as Rome, and both our Civil and Ecclefiaftical Conftitution damn'd for Antichriftian, it is humbly hop'd, fuch a Difcourfe as this cannot be altogether unacceptable to those who fincerely study the Peace and Interest of the Realm, with the Good of the Church; whatever their Opinion poffibly otherwife may be as to the Performance it felf, and the Grounds whereupon it is built.

XII. WHAT

XII. WHAT the Success of this Treatife may be in the World, I can pretty well guess from the prevailing Genius of the Times, and therefore shall not be concerned at the Cavils and Oppofitions of any that shall think fit to attack either the Book or its Author. If I am in the Wrong I am willing to be convinced, defiring nothing but the Propagation of Truth; having this Comfort ftill, that if I am miftaken, I am in good Company. The only Fapour I fhall beg of my Adverfary is this, that he will be fo generous as not to carp at any one or more exceptionable Paffages, of which fort I cannot expect but he may find many ; but that he will fet himself to demonftrate, that the Foundations and Principles of this Difcourfe are wrong, and I shall thank him for fetting me right. But if the judicious Reader upon mature Confideration fhall think I am in the right, as to the main, I hope it will not be without fome good Effects upon fober and unprejudiced Understandings; fuch as thefe I earnestly entreat, that they will put the Author into their Litany, as I do the Reader, That it will please Almighty God to keep us from that Hour of Temptation, which fhall come upon all the World, to try them that dwell on the Earth. Amen.

POST SCRIPT.

INCE this was written, and just going to the

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Edition of Ephraim Syrus printed from the Greek Bodleian MSS. a Thing fo much defired, and fo long wifh'd for by feveral Learned Men, (particularly by our Learned Countryman Dr.Cave, that Great Affertor of Primitive Antiquity) for which the Church and Learned World are indebted to Dr. Milles, a late eminent Ornament of that University; whom for his Noble Work upon the New Teftament, Pofterity will know how to ho nour: By whofe Copy left behind him after his Death, which he at his own Charge had cans'd to be tranfcrib'd with all Exactness from the faid Manufcripts, this Impreffion is made. In which there is a Pathetick Homily or Difcourfe of the End of the World and the Coming of Antichrift, which I am encouraged by fome Learned Friends who had the Revifal of thefe Papers, to tranflate into our own Language, and add to this Difcourfe as a most folemn and Authentick Teftimony of the Oriental Church, (which we are told had fo high a Veneration for the Writings of this Holy Father, as even to read the fame together with the Scriptures in their facred Affemblies) in Confirmation of the Doctrines advanced, or rather reviv'd, in this Ellay

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