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employed all the thunder of his rhetoric (in which faculty he excelled) against its corruptions; exclaiming, that the minifters of Christ were become the fervants of Antichrift; and that the beast of the Apocalypfe had feated himself in the chair of St. Peter [s].

[S] MINISTRI CHRISTI SUNT, ET SERVIUNT ANxTICHRISTO [Serm. fup. Cantic. xxxiii.]—It is true, by Antichrift, he seems not to mean the Pope, but, in general, an evil principle, which then domineered in the church. Yet he refers us to the famous paffage in the first Epistle to the Theffalonians, ch. ii. And he tells us in his 56th epistle, that he had heard one Norbert, a man of exemplary piety, fay, That Antichrist would be revealed in that age. Hence it feems probable, that fome one person or power was in his eye. After all, he fays, that Norbert's reafons did not fatisfy him. Yet, in another epiitle, he afferts exprefsly-Bellia illa de Apocalypfi, cui datum eft os loquens blafphemias, et bellum gerere cum fanctis, PETRI CATHEDRAM OCCUPAT, tanquam leo paratus ad prædam. Ep. cxxv: which was, in other words, to call the Pope, Antichrist. It is evident that St. Bernard applied the prophecies in the Revelation to the fucceffor of St. Peter.-I mention these things fo particularly, to fhew, what his fentiments on this head really were; which have been mifrepresented by hafty writers, who tranfcribe from each other, without examining, themselves, the authorities, they quote.

But

But this charge was now fo general, and founded so high, that it reached the ears of others, befides prelates, and churchmen. Hiftorians relate, that it made an impreffion on our military king, Richard I; who, being at Meffina in Sicily, in his way to the Holy Land, and hearing much of the learned Abbot Joachim of Calabria, (a man, famous in thofe times for his warm invectives against the Roman hierarchy;) had the curiofity to take a lecture from him on this fubject. His text was, Antichrift, and the Apocalypfe; which he explained in fo pointed and forcible a manner, as was much to the fatisfaction, we are told, of his royal auditor [t].

[t] CAVE, H. L. vol. ii. p. 278. ROG. DE HOVEDEN, ANNAL. Pars poft. p. 681. ed. Franc. 1601.In this age [XIIth], was composed a very reinarkable tract on the subject of Antichrift, which may be seen in Mede's Works, p. 721.-Mr. Mede fuppofes, and feems indeed to have proved, that the true doctrine of Antichrift was, and was intended to be, a mystery, or fecret, till the 12th century. Whence it follows that the teftimonies, hitherto alledged, are only paffionate

6. The first appearance of the people, called Waldenfes or Albigenfes, was in this age; but, in the next, the XIIIth cen

or declamatory exaggerations, or to be esteemed, as he fays, pro parabolicè et nar aünow dictis, declamatorum more. Works, p. 722.

I admit the truth of the obfervation; but hold, that the use of the deduction, here made, is not in the least affected by it. For my purpose in giving this catalogue of witnesses to the doctrine of Antichrift, was not to justify that doctrine, in the true, that is, Proteftant fenfe of it (for then, not only the preceding teftimonies, but even fome of the following, would have been omitted) but merely to flew that the general, at leaft, and confufed idea of fome fuch doctrine did, in fact, fubfift in the antient Christian church. That what idea they had of this doctrine was founded on the prophecies, is clear from the terms in which they express themfelves. And, though the doctrine itself was very imperfectly conceived, and inconfequentially applied by them, ftill their language fhews that they had fome notion of a corrupt spiritual power, which was, in their fenfe of the prophets, to domineer in the church of Rome : whence I draw this conclufion (for the fake of which, this whole deduction is made,) That the prefent application of the prophecies concerning® Antichrist to papal Rome, is not wholly new and unauthorized; as the prejudice, I am here combating, fuppofeth it to be.

tury,

tury, they prevailed to that degree, that Crufades and Inquifitions were thought little enough to be employed against them; We may know what the guilt of this people was, when we understand from their books, and from the teftimony of the great hiftorian, Thuanus, that a leading principle of their herefy was, To treat the Pope as Antichrift; and the church of Rome, as Babylon; on the authority of the prophecies contained in the Revelation [u].

Other [w] teftimonies occur in the history of this age. But I must not omit that of

[u] VITRINGA in Apoc. p. 747. Amft. 1719. USSER.De Eccl. fucc. & ftat. e. vi. and viii: THUANUS, 1. vi. f. xvi. vol. i. p. 221. ed. Buckley.

[w] See, efpecially, the famous fpeech of Everhard, bishop of Saltzbourg, at the affembly of Ratisbonne, in the time of Gregory the IXth; inferted at large in Aventinus, Ann. Boior. 1. vii. p. 684. The following extracts from it will be thought curious. Hildebrandus ante annos centum atque feptuaginta primus fpecie religionis Antichrifti imperii fundamenta jecit. p. 634.

Flamines illi Babylonia [meaning the Bishops of Rome] foli regnare cupiunt, ferre parem non poffunt, non defiftent donec omnia pedibus fuis conculcaverint,

.our

our famous hiftorian, Matthew Paris; who hath taken care to inform us, that his contemporary, Robert Groftête, Bishop of Lincoln, the most confiderable of all the English bishops, and equally renowned for his affection to civil and religious liberty, was fo much in earnest in fixing this charge on the fee of Rome, that, as it had been the common theme of his meditations during life, fo it occupied his dying moments; the Pope, and Antichrift, being, as he tells us, among the laft words of this zealous prelate [x].

atque in templo Dei fedeant, extollanturque fupra omne id, quod colitur. Ib.

Nova confilia fub pectore volutat, ut proprium fibi conftituat imperium, leges commutat, fuas fancit; contaminat, diripit, fpoliat, fraudat, occidit, perditus homo ille (quem Antichriftum vocare folent) in cujus fronte contumelia nomen fcriptum eft, "Deus fum, errare non poffum," in templo Dei fedet, longè latéque dominatur. Ib.

-Reges decem pariter exiftunt- Decem CornuaCornuque parvulum - Quid hâc prophetiâ apertius? p. 685.

[x] MATTH. PARIS, ad ann. 1253. p. 874. ed. Watts, 1640.

VOL. II.

D

7. The

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