I

THE

Introduction.

Am very fenfible the greatest part of what is offered in the following Effay, may be found in

Treatifes already Published, and accordingly I have mentioned the Authors: and yet poffibly the Reader may find fome things fuggefted, here and there, which he has not met with before. However it does not fall to every ones share to have the Books cited; and fome of them are rarely to be seen in New-England: befides, the Collating many things thus together, will fave both time and pains to fuch as have Libraries, and want Leisure to Search them.

If any bould inquire what occafion there is at this time of the Day for an Oration against Popery; is the Proteftant Intereft in any hazard from that Quarter? I answer, the Church Militant will never be out of danher Walls; ger, and therefore fhe has Watchmen fet upon *And tho' our LORD JESUS CHRIST will certainly make good bis great Promife; That the Gates of Hell fball never be able to prevail against His Church, ( Mat. xvi, 18. & Dan. ii. 44.) Yet I know of no other Charter that any of the Proteftant Churches in particular have for

Ifa. 62. 6.

their Security, than what runs with a quam diu fe bene gefferint,or in the words of the Prophet Azariah, 2 Chron. xv. 2. Hear ye me Ala, and all Judah, and Benjamin, The LORD is with you (or will be with you, for it may be tranflated in the future Tenfe) while you be with Him. Befides which, the unfearchable Sovereignty of GOD in His Difpenfations of this Nature, is always to be remembred & adored. What became of the feven famous Churches in Afia, thofe Golden Candlesticks among whom the Son of GOD once walked? Where are the flourishing and numerous Chriftian Churches that were fometime fince in Bohemia, Hungaria & Piedmont? But Oh! thou Enemy! whatDefolations haft thou wrought in our Days in France? The time was *, when the Reformed could there count two thousand one hundred & fifty Churches; in most of thefe two Minifters, in fome five; the Church of Orleans bad feven thoufand Communicants: But their Bodies now lye dead in the Street of the great City, &c. Rev. xi. 7, 8. In the Year 1686. not a fingle Church left, or a reformed Minifter to be feen in all that Kingdom. As to Great Britain: He must be a Stranger to the British History that does not know how frequently our Holy Religion, together with the Civil Liberties of the Nation, has been in the utmost danger from the Days of Queen Elifabeth; fometimes by fecret Attempts, at other times by open Violence, thro' the Influence of the Jefuits, with their Affociates, and other Emifarys of the Church of Rome. And tho' our British Mountain,by the Divine Favour feems

* Anno 1571. Quicks Synodicon.

at

at present to ftand strong, by the Settlement of the Imperial Crown of Great Britain in the Princess SOPHIA, and the Heirs of Her Body being Proteftants; Yet where is the Seer, that dare fay.to our Jerufalem, her Warfare is Accomplished? Who among us can tell how long thefe Halcyon-days will laft? Or, whether the Clouds may not return after the Rain. A great & learned Divine * Speaking of the Romish Church has these words, "The common Enemy is ftill in Being, and hath great Power in the «World, and we know not what advantages our too com→ "mon Iniquities may from the Justice of a righteous GOD "give him against us, so that we have no reason to be "Secure". And tho' the Man of Sin, from the Days of the bleffed Reformation especially, has been Confuming by the Breath of CHRIST's Mouth,yet he will not be deftroyed till the Brightness of His coming. And 'tis the Opinion of many Judicious Divines,That immediately before the final Ruine of Antichrift,there will be fuch a time (tho' a bort one) for Diftrefs of Nations, and of Tribulation to the Church of GOD, as the Ages past never faw.

How near thefe great & laft Changes of the Church and World are, with the exact time & order wherein they are to be Accomplished, are Matters too high for our Prophe tical Chronologers: Whatever they may pretend to, the Arrows are beyond them: there is no fixing the certain Time for the Events of any Prophesy before the Accomplishment: (at the End it fall Speak, Habak. ii. 3.)

*Mr. Howe in his Sermon on the sth. Nov. 1703:

And

And because we know not when these things, or the coming of the Son of Man fball be, therefore the Churches, and all private Christians are folemnly charged ( and it is at their utmost Peril,if they neglect it) to Watch & Pray, Mark xiii.13. & ult.to be Sober & Vigilant, 1 Pet.v.8. Diligent, that they may be found of Him in Peace, without Spot & Blameless, 2 Pet.iii.14. And not led away with the Error of the wicked. And to mention no more, it is very Obfervable, that the Church of Philadelphia, who had a gracious Promife of being kept from (or in) the hour of Temptation that should come upon all the World, to try them that dwell on the Earth,is jet awfully Admonished in thofe words, Behold I come quickly, hold fast that which thou haft, that no Man (or no one, Andais) take thy Crown, Rev. iii. 6, 10, II.

I have done with the Preface when I have faid, that the Reader must not expect here to find any thing like a general Charge against the Romish Church, (fuch a work wou'd fill Volumns, and has actually fo done :) The Defign of the Effay being only to open two Articles of her Indictment and yet Ex Pede Herculem, from a Foot by the rule of proportion we may make an Estimate of the Man of Sin.

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AN

An ESSAY to Explain that Paffage in the Revelations, Chap. XVIII.v.1.3. and Slaves and Souls of Men; with an Application thereof to the Church of Rome.

T being a Matter of such mighty Confequence to the People of GOD in the feveral Ages of the Church plainly to discover Anti-chrift, that fo "they might "not touch the unclean thing", but be feparate; 'Tis not to be wonder'd at, that the HOLY GHOST in giving the Character of Mystical Babylon, the Mother of Harlots,&c. fhould defcend to fuch Particulars as we meet with in this,and the preceding Chapter. For here we find the Apoftate Church described from her Pofture, Sitting, v. 3. I faw a Woman Sit, &c. thus old Babylon Sat as a Queen: Her Garb & Attire, v. 4. fhe was arrayed with Purple, and deckt with Gold, and precious Stones, &c. Notice is alfo taken of her Complexion, and Condition; She was Scarlet Coloured,and drunk with EgAll Diblood;

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