We prefer, then, the primitive fathers of the church, to Sylvefter a Prierio, and fome other canonifts and we prefume as much knowledge and zeal for the Catholic religion in Gregory the Great and his predeceffors, as in any of his fucceffors, in ages less refined.

The oppofition given, in Catholic countries, to the establishment of the inquifition,-the death of the inquifitors by the hands of the people, and the general odium it raised,—prove that the fparks of the moderation and meekness recommended in the gofpel, and practifed in the primitive times, with regard to people of a different perfuafion, were not quite extinct, even in the ages of darkness and barbarism. Popes themselves oppofed its introduction into Venice and whether from policy or piety, I shall not take upon me to determine.

But Berkely remarks, that, "if policy in"duced a pope to oppofe its introduction in "a certain ftate, policy might have induced. "another pope to introduce it into his own."* I am convinced he was not mistaken in his conjectures.

The pope was in poffeffion of a city which formerly gave birth to fo many heroes, befides a good territory bestowed on him by several

Minute Philofopher.

fovereigns. He thought it high time to look about him, when all Europe was in one general blaze. The liberty of the gospel, preached by Muncer and several other enthusiasts, threw all Germany into a flame, and armed boors against their fovereigns. As he was a temporal prince, he dreaded for his fovereignty, as well as other crowned heads in his neighbourhood; and the more fo, as his foldiers were better skilled in saying their beads, than handling the musket,

Great events, the downfal of empires, and the rife or destruction of extraordinary characters, are commonly foretold in oracles, both facred and profane; and he found himself in the fame dubious and critical fituation with Montezuma, when the Spaniards landed in America:

"Old prophecies foretel our fall at hand, "When bearded men in floating caftles land."*

..

Long before the reformation, the dimensions of his city were taken the line was extended over its walls; and it was difcovered that it was the great city, built on seven hills, the "harlot that had made the kings of the earth "drunk with her cup; and that her fovereign "was Antichrift, the man of fin," mentioned

Dryden's Indian Queen.

by

by St. Paul, in his epiftle to the Theffalonians, Wickliff, Hufs, and Jerome of Prague, had laid down as a rule, many years before, that popes, princes, and bishops, in the state of "mortal fin, have no power:" and a state of grace was, doubtlefs, incompatible with the character of Antichrift. Jerome of Prague, who was burnt afterwards at Conftance, to fhew that Rome was the harlot of the Revelations, after beating a monk, and drowning another, dreffed, one day, a prostitute in a pope's attire, with the three-crowned cap, made of paper, on her head, and in her head-dress, without being fo careful of the rest of her body, leads the female pontiff, half naked, in procession through the streets of Prague, in derifion of a religion professed by the magistrates.

Some well-bred divines there are, who juftify fuch proceedings, on the principle that it was requifite, at that time, "to cry aloud, and use "a strong wedge to break the knotty block "of Popery." I do not believe there is a wellbred Proteftant living, who would applaud either martyr or divine, who would exhibit such a merry fpectacle in the ftreets of Dublin or London; or who would fhed a tear for his lofs, if, after exhibiting fuch a fhew in Rome or in Paris, he fell into the hands of the inquifition,

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or were sent to the gallies. The gospel-truth is no enemy to decency.

St. Paul, in pleading his caufe before Feftus, did not inveigh against his veftal virgins, the adulteries of his gods, or the wickedness of his emperors. Let a religion of state be ever fo falfe, the magiftrate who profeffes it, will feel himself infulted, when it is attacked in a grofs, injurious manner: and, if apologies can be made for indecenci and feditious doctrines, under pretence of overthrowing idolatry, fome allowance must be made for men who think themselves infulted by fuch attacks,

The pope, then, as a fovereign prince, had every thing to dread, when the thrones of the German princes began to totter from the fhocks of infpiration: but what ftill increased his alarms, was-the unfolding of the Revelations, which held him up to all Europe, as the Antichrift, the general enemy of Chriftians, who should be destroyed. Left any one fhould miss his aim, it was proved from the Revelations, that he was the beast with ten horns; and, in bearing down fuch a game, the world was to be renewed, and the peaceful reign of the millennium, during which Chrift was to reign with the faints on earth, was to begin. The time was approaching. Old John

Fox, the martyrologist, fays, that "after long "study and prayers, God had caft fuddenly "into his mind, by divine infpiration, that the forty-two months must be referred to the "church's perfecution, from the time of John "the Baptift." This calculation was to bring on the pope's deftruction about the year fixteen hundred. Brightman was more precife, and foretold the final downfal of the pope, in the year fifteen hundred and forty-fix: others in fifteen hundred and fifty-fix: and others in fifteen hundred and fifty-nine. Luther came clofer to the famous æra; and published his prophecy, in which it was revealed to him, that the pope and the Turk would be destroyed in two years after the date of his oracle. This, certainly, was a close attack on the pope, who, in all appearance, did not like to die so foon, even of a natural death. He apprehended the accomplishment of the oracles the more, as at that time almost every one was infpired, and ready to do any thing for the deftruction of Antichrift.

Alexander Rofs, in his view of religion, describes numbers of thofe prophets, and amongst the reft one Hermannus Sutor, a cobler of Optzant, who professed himself a true prophet, and Meffiah Son of God: a very dangerous neighbour for Antichrift! This man, to receive

the