66 general or for the most part were given

over to a great Blindness: And from "their Example giveth a Warning to the "Chriftians, converted from the Heathen 66 Religion, particularly to the Romans, not to be fecure or to boaft, as if not the "fame could happen unto them. His Words "in the 11th Chapter, Verfe 19, and the following, are thefe: Thou wilt fay then (namely thou Church of the Converted Gentiles, whom he exprefly nameth Ver. 13.) The Branches (that is, the Jews) were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of Unbelief they were broken off; and thou ftandeft by Faith. Be not high minded 66 (or as he faith Ver. 18. Boaft not against "the Branches) but fear. For if God Spared not the natural Branches, take heed left He alfo Spare not thee. Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God: on them which fell Severity; but towards thee, Goodness, IF thou continue in His Goodness; Otherwise THOU ALSO SHALT BE CUT OFF. Where he plainly fuppofeth that the fame might happen to the Church of the Gentiles, particularly to that of the Romans, unto which he then did write; what had happened to the Jews namely, for the greatest "Part to fall off, and confequently to be

rejected and deprived of the Promises "made unto them. And indeed what St. "Paul only fufpected, that it might happen one time or other, that was afterwards plainly revealed by our Saviour r to His moft Beloved Difciple St. John,

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that it should come to pafs in the latter Days, namely,as of old Jerufalem the Faithful City became an Harlot, and full of Murσε derers, Ifa. 1. 21. fo in the end of the World Rome,the Mother of many Churches, fhould become the Mother of Harlots (or Fornications) and Abominations of the Earth; and that with her the Kings of the Earth would "commit Fornication (that is, Idolatry) and "the Inhabiters of the Earth would be made "Drunk with the Wine of her Fornication, and fhe her felf would be drunken with the Blood of the Saints, (that is, of the Chriftians, which were fo called by the Apostles, as appears from their Epiftles, particularly from the Beginnings or Titles of them) and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus. Rev. xvii. 2, 5, 6. which is also repeated Chap. xviii. And whatever is to be faid. of the other Parts of the Revelation of St. John, in this Point it is fo very plain, that all the Jefuits themselves who have written Comments upon this Book (except perhaps one) have freely acknowledged and confeffed, that St. John hath foretold, Rome fhould in the latter Times of the World fall into Idolatry, and other CC horrible Abominations; and that by her cc almost all the Nations and Kings would' be deceived, and as it were bewitched by her Inchantments, that is, Falfe Reasonings; and that those who would not comply with her, would be cruelly perfecuted, and their Blood fhed without Mercy.

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THIS Argument taken from the ScriptureProphecies concerning the Church of Rome, was more fully profecuted by him in the aforementioned Treatife, as alfo in another Latin Treatife to which is given the Title of Nova Babylon, that is found among his Manufcripts; the Subject whereof is the corrupt State of the Gentile Church, and more particularly the Apoftafy of the Western, or Roman, Part of it, by Spiritual Fornications and Abominations, according as had been forefeen in Spirit. But this being fufficiently evident, fhall not be infifted on: and fo I proceed to fhew what it was that inclined the learned Doctor, who was a moft Free Thinker in all the Controverfies betwixt the Church of Rome and us,to stop here; and not, to go all thofe Lengths which many of our Proteftant Writers too, haftily have done, to the great Weakening of their Caufe, and the no fmall Difparagement of their Underftandings. For feeing that fome Great and Learned Men by pushing here Matters too far, had not done that Service which they intended, but had instead thereof very much exposed themselves; he thought it Prudence not to lay his Charge heavier than he was able to make out, nor to go beyond what he could be warranted in from the moft Antient Monuments of Our Religion.

Now his Reasons why this Spiritual Adultery of the Church of Rome, and Departing from her first First Love, cannot properly be faid to be an Antichriftian State, or Worship, but only fuch a Falling Away as

doth

doth naturally tend to introduce it; are taken from the Notion of Antichrift, and of his Kingdom, which is found in the Holy Scriptures, more efpecially in the Writings of + See and + St. John the Beloved of his Lord,and is the 1 John ii. uncontroverted Doctrine of the Primitive with Rev. Fathers, which they may be fuppofed to xiii.6. and have had from Apoftolical Tradition. Whence Joh. v.43. he was not for confounding the Prophecy

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in the 13th with that which follows in the 17th and 18th Chapters of the Revelation; but confider'd them as two diftinct Prophecies. And as he was clear that Rome in its prefent corrupt State is a Myftical Babylon; he was as clear alfo for the Opinion of Irenaus, Hippolytus, Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, and other Antient Catholick Writers, that Antichrift fhould be "Arou☞, a certain Lawlefs Tyrant, or Beaft, making War with the Chriftians and overcoming them; who would blafpheme God, and deny Christ. But let us hear fome of his Reasons.

I. HIS First Reafon then for a Diftinction betwixt Apoftate Rome and Antichrift, and for the Preference of the Antient to the Modern Notion, is, That the Ten Kings adhering to Antichrift, and confequently Antichrift himself fhall make War with and overthrow Rome: And that Rome fhall be refra&tory, and will oppofe him and them. But the Kingdom of Antichrift will not be divided against it self; therefore the Kingdom of Antichrift and the Kingdom of Myftical Babylon, or the Roman Papacy, are Two diftinct Kingdoms. For it is exprefly written con

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cerning these Antichriftian Kings, or Confederates with Antichrift, that they shall abominate this Babylon mortally, and shall not only make her defolate and naked, but fhall eat up with the Sword the Flesh of her Inhabitants, and then burn her City with Fire, Rev. xvii. 6, If therefore Babylon the Great, in the Myftery be according to the Angel's Interpretation that Great City, which then reigned over the Kings of the Earth, Ver. 18. and which is granted on both hands to be Rome and if Antichrift and his Allies, even the very fame that make War with Chrift and his Followers, Ver. 14. are also to make War with Rome and her Followers, and are in this War to be Conquerors; how can it be that Rome that is to be Conquer'd and quite Destroy'd, can ever be that Antichrift whofe Princes are to be the very Inftruments of this Defolation, and who muft afterward be caft himself into the Pit of Deftruction? Therefore Antichrift and Babylon are not the fame.

II. His Second Reafon for the aforefaid Distinction of Antichrift and Babylon, and for explaining and confirming his Hypothefis, that the Court of Rome may be Babylonish, without the Pope's being therefore Antichrift, is a Corollary of the former, and is grounded upon this Pofition, viz. The Kings of the Earth that cleave to Babylon, or that spiritually commit Fornication with Rome, and the Kings that cleave to the Beast, i. e, Antichrift, are by no means the fame, but very different. Which he thus proves. The Antichriftian