troversy between the Proteftant and Papal Chriftians to a short iffue. I know, the advocates of Rome pretend, that, not a sense of duty, but a Spirit of revenge operates in the minds of Proteftants, when they affect to lay fo great a stress on the Apocalyptic prophecies. "Reward ber, even as fhe rewarded you [b]" is, they say, another of their favourite texts, by which they take themselves to be as much obliged, as by that which they fo commonly alledge for quitting her communion. It is not, therefore, to cover themfelves from the imputation of fchifm, but, to authorize the vengeance, they meditate against us, that we are stunned with the cry of Antichrift and Babylon [i]." To this charge, I can only reply, That, if any Proteftant writers have put that sense on the words-reward her, as she rewarded you-they muft answer for their own te [b] Rev. xviii. 4, [] M. de Meaux: L'Apocalypfe avec une explication. Avertisement aux Proteftants, p. 303, &c. Par. 1690. VOL. II. Р merity merity and indifcretion. They, who understand themselves, and the language of prophecy, disclaim the odious imputation. They fay, That they neither admit the lawfulness of perfecution in any cafe, on the account of religion, nor have the least thought of inftigating the Christian world to any fanguinary attempts against the Papacy. What the event may be in the councils of Providence, is another confideration: But they neither avow, nor approve those principles, which tend to produce it. They, further, infift, That the two paffages under confideration, though, both of them, expreffed in the imperative form, require a very different construction: That the language of prophecy feems very often to authorise what it only foretells; and to command that which it barely permits that, therefore, the fense of such paffages is to be determined by the circumftances of the cafe; that, where obedience is lawful, there the preceptive form may be admitted; but, where it is not, there nothing nothing more is intended than the certainty of the event: That this diftinction is to be made in the prefent cafe; for that Christianity doth not allow vindictive retaliations, or boly wars, for the fake of religion, and that offensive arms taken up in the cause of God (how confidently foever fome have justified their zeal by the authority of the Jewish Law, ill-applied) are abominable and antichriftian: Whence we rightly conclude, that-reward her, as she rewarded you are words not to be taken injunctively; while thofe other wordscome out of her, my people-expreffing nothing but what it was previously our duty to do, are very clearly to be fo taken. Laftly, We fay, that the context in the two places alledged, juftifies this distinction. Come out of her, my people. Why? That ye be not partakers of her fins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. The reason is juft, and fatisfactory. Reward her. Why? No reafon is affigned, or could be affigned confiftently with the spirit of the Christian P 2 religion: religion: It only follows, as fhe bas rewarded you-words, which exprefs only the measure, and the equitable grounds of the allotted punishment, not the duty of Chriftians to inflict it. I return, then, from the confutation of this cavil (the most plausible, however, as well as invidious, which the wit of Rome has started on this fubject) to the conclufion, before laid down, That the completion of the Apocalyptic prophecies in the Papal apoftafy, if feen and confeffed, affords an unanswerable defence and vindication of the Proteftant churches. This conclufion, that THE POPE IS ANTICHRIST, and that other, that THE SCRIPTURE IS THE SOLE RULE OF CHRISTIAN FAITH, were the two great principles, on which the Reformation was originally founded. How the first of thefe principles came to be DISGRACED among ourselves, I have fhewn in another difcourfe [k]. It may now be worth while to observe, in one word, through [k] Sermon VIII. what what fatal mismanagement the latter principle was even generally DISAVOWED and DESERTED. When the Reformers had thrown off all respect for the Papal chair, and were for regulating the faith of Chriftians by the facred fèriptures, it still remained a queftion, On what grounds, thofe fcriptures should be interpreted. The voice of the church, fpeaking by her fchoolmen, and modern doctors, was univerfally, and without much ceremony, rejected. But the Fathers of the primitive church were still in great repute among Proteftants themselves; who dreaded nothing fo much as the imputation of novelty, which they faw would be fastened on their opinions, and who, befides, thought it too prefuming to trust entirely to the dictates of what was called the private fpirit. The church of Rome availed herself with dexterity, of this prejudice, and of the diftrefs to which the Protestant party was reduced by it. The authority of these antient and venerable inter P 3 |