Roman Hierarch, during the predicted period of 1" 1260 Days" of Prophetical years. We know, then, that Protestant England was formerly one of the "Ten Kings" and Kingdoms, which supported the Ecclesiastical Tyranny of Papal Rome, but that she has been providentially broken off from the galling yoke and dominion of the Papacy for upwards of three centuries past, and has protested, (solemnly, and nationally protested,) against the Theocratic and Despotic Power, (both temporal and spiritual,) of the Sovereign Roman Babylonish Pontiff, as Luther, Calvin, Wickliff, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and a Host of Reformers and Martyrs have witnessed by a good confession before God, and before

a cloud of Witnesses," even unto the Death. O, then, that it might be the good pleasure of our Sovereign Lord, the King of Great Britain, with his Counsellors of State, and the Nobles of these Realms, (as it was of KING JAMES I. in his "Premonition," and of 2 Lord John Napier, Peer of Marchiston, in the year 1593,) to "search out this Matter," and to see whether Protestantism or Popery can stand the Test of Scriptural Investigation. Since the days of the GLORIOUS REFORMATION, THE BIBLE has been the joy of our Land; it has been the bright resplendent SUN in our Religious Firmament; dispelling the dark clouds of Popery, Ignorance, and barefaced Infidelity: it has been a Light of Glory

1 Revelations xii. 6, 14.

2 "A plain discovery of the whole Revelation of St. John, &c. By John Napier, Lord of Marchiston." Fifth Edition. Edinburgh. 1645.

to those who sat in darkness and the Shadow of Death; its genial Rays have been shed in rich abundance (not only over the British Isles, but over the whole surface of the Globe,) by the agency of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Missionary, and many other religious Societies; the HOLY SCRIPTURES having been Translated (not into the Latin Vulgate for the [Now] Church of Rome, but) into upwards of 160 different Languages and Dialects.

The British Reformation Society is lending its Salutary aid for Ireland, a Country, the People of which, if moderately instructed in the Holy Scriptures, would, by the grace of God, presently discover the Horrors and Deformities of Popery, cast away its galling chains, which are infinitely worse than the fetters of Africa, (for the fetters of the soul, are worse than those of the body,) and leave its dark, deluding, and mysterious Priesthood, as the People of England did at the glorious Reformation, and also in the well-known Period of 1688, since which, (TILL NOW,) Popery has hid her Dragon Mouth in ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, and WALES, and skulked off to the unhappy shores of IRELAND, and this, this is the cause of Ireland's woes. Ye cannot serve God and the Pope! Shall we, then, as Protestants of Great Britain, in this enlightened and religious Age, assist in bringing back the "Dark Ages" of Popery? Shall we allow the Word of God again to be "clothed in sackcloth," that is, limited to the Language of Popery, which is LATIN? Shall we

1 Revelations xi. 3.

**

foster the "cunningly devised Fable," that the Protestant Religion and Popery are the same in substance? No, my Protestant friends, this is the "device of Satan," causing you to “BELIEVE A LIE" as you will easily perceive in St. Paul's forewarning to the Thessalonians, which, when you have read, Remember that is the exact Portrait of the Pope and Popery as drawn by the Pen of Inspiration: 1 ("for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope!")

2" Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU BY ANY MEANS: for THAT DAY shall not come, EXCEPT there come A FALLING AWAY first, and that MAN OF SIN be revealed, the Son of PERDITION; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped: so that HE AS GOD SITTETH in the TEMPLE OF GOD, shewing himself that HE IS GOD. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know wHAT witholdeth that HE might be revealed IN HIS TIME. For the MYSTERY of INIQUITY doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall THAT WICKED be

1 Romans xv. 4.

2 2 Thess. ii. 1—12.

revealed, whom THE Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even HIM, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; BECAUSE they received not THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH, that they might be saved. And FOR THIS CAUSE GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, that they should BELIEVE A LIE: that they all might be damned who BELIEVED NOT THE TRUTH, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.'

We see then the Reason why the Papal Antichristian Power has arisen; namely, to verify this prediction, and others coincident with it, as set forth in the Book of the Revelation of St. John; for, as the Primitive Christian Church was founded on "THE TRUTH," so it was foretold by St. Paul that the time would come when a "falling away" from "THE TRUTH" would "FIRST" take place; "because they received not the love of THE TRUTH." for this cause God shall send them STRONG DeluSION, that they should BELIEVE A LIE." Now what STRONGER DELUSION" could be "SENT" to any

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man, or Nation, than the " belief" that the Pope of Rome is the true Vicar of Christ, at the same time that he is the TRUE ANTICHRIST? What greater "LIE" can be "believed?" what greater “deceivableness of unrighteousness" can be set forth to men, than their "believing" that the Pope of Rome, who is the " Mystery of Iniquity," is the

Mystery of Godliness" and the representative of Christ? when at the same time St. Paul calls him in

the above words; "The Man of Sin," "the Son of Perdition," the Mystery of Iniquity, "that

TWO

wicked," to be revealed, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, (viz. St. Peter's at Rome,) "shewing himself that he is God." And will ye not believe that the Pope is very Antichrist? If ye will not, may I not well say unto you, what Christ said to the Jews on another occasion: "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures?" for the Event has followed the Prophecy as clearly as the Sun at noon-day, and this Prophecy of the coming of the "Man of Sin" is accordingly fulfilled by the Revelation of the Pope at ROME, he being the Beast with "Two HORNS like a LAMB, and HE SPAKE as a "DRAGON;" a character most clearly foretold, but not fully revealed till the sixth Century, that is, in the Reign of the Emperor Justinian, A. d. 533. Those, therefore, who consent to purchase the pardon of their Sins from the Pope for money, or from his Cardinal Legates, or from the Priests of his Roman Church, and those who remit them at such a price, are not "the children of God," but of Simon Magus, the Magician, and will receive his Reward, 2" because they think that the Gift of God may be purchased with money:" and "because God hath sent them strong delusion to believe this lie."

1 Revelations xiii. 11.

2 Acts viii. 20.