were events, which no man could have foreseen or expected, at the time in which the predictions were delivered. The fuccefs of the gofpel is certainly to be understood by what is faid in the antient Jewish prophecies concerning the great extent and glory of the Meffiah's kingdom; but our Lord himself muft have had a more particular view to it in feveral of his parables, as in that concerning the small grain of mustard-feed, which grew into a great tree; the fmall quantity of leaven, which leavened the whole lump; and many others, by which he profeffedly represents the wonderful spread of his gospel; and it must have been with the fulleft affurance of this event, that he folemnly commiffioned his difciples to go and preach the gospel to every creature. It is not improbable, but that our Lord might fpeak prophetically, when he called himself the light of the world, and faid, No man cometh to the Father, but by me. No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son fhall reveal him, &c. If thefe declarations were meant to extent beyond the time and country in which they were delivered, the history of mankind affords a ftriking proof of the fulfilment of them; and the present state of the world makes it exceedingly probable, that no people will ever attain to just and useful conceptions of God, &c. but by the gospel, and that by this means all nations will, in due time, acquire them. That there was to be a great corruption of christianity was expressly foretold not only in the book of Revelation, in which the rife, progress, and utter destruction of some great antichriftian power are moft certainly defcribed, but alfo in other writings of the apoftles, and efpecially thofe of Paul, as 2 Theff. ii. 1, &c. 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 fpirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Chrift 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 fin be revealed, the fon of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; fo that he, as God, fitteth in the temple of God, fhewing himself that he is God. The coming of this antichriftian power, he farther fays, v. 9. is after the working of Satan, with all power, and figns, and lying wonders, and with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness, in them that perish; becaufe they received not the love of the truth, that they might be faved. And for this caufe God shall send them Strong delufions, that they should believe a lie. This apoftle reprefents this corruption as having begun even in his time, though that monftrous antichriftian power could not receive its full eftab- VOL. I. lishment Jifhment till fome other power, which was then in the way (by which he probably meant the Roman empire) fhould be removed. But whenever it fhould be established, he exprefsly foretels its utter deftruction, v. 6, &c. And now ye know what withholdeths 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 fhall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall confume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy: with the brightness of his coming. The particulars of this great corruption of chriftianity are more diftinctly expreffed by the apostle Paul, in his first epiftle to Timothy, iv. 1. Now the spirit fpeaketh expressly, that, in the latter times, fome fhall depart from the faith, giving heed to feducing spirits, and doctrines of dæmons ; fpeaking lies in hypocrify, having their confcience feared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and communding to abstain from meats which God bath created to be received with thanksgiving, of them who believe and know the truth. It is impoffible not to perceive in these prophecies, efpecially if they be compared with others in the book of Daniel, and of the Revelation, the plain characters of the church of Rome; allowing for the obfcurity of many of the phrafes by which the Papal ufurpations on the rights of God and man are here expreffed. Thefe prophecies have been fully accomplished, the Popish corruptions and and ufurpations having proceeded almost without interruption, for more than fourteen hundred years. That fo fimple a religion as the christian should have been fubject to fuch dreadful corruption,, must have appeared improbable, at the time of its first promulgation; the like not having happened to the Jewish religion, or, indeed, to any other religion under heaven. And yet when the corruption was established, and had been fupported by all the temporal powers under heaven, for the fpace of many centuries, and was intimately incorporated with the civil conftitutions of those ftates, its general restoration to its primitive purity must have appeared much more improbable; and yet fuch progrefs has been already made in this great work, that there can be no doubt but that. in due time, the whole prophecy will be com pleted, and chriftianity be once more what it originally was. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. |