rebuke St. Peter more feverely than any other of the apostles, (Matt. XVI. 23.) Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offenfe unto me, for thou favoreft not the things that be of God, but thofe that be of men; and especially just after giving him that high encomium (ver. 18.) Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church? May we not reasonably prefume that he spake and acted thus, as foreseeing that divine worship which would idolatrously be paid to the one, that fupremacy which would be tyrannically arrogated to the other, and which that very encomium would impertinently be brought to countenance ? How came it to pass that our Saviour in inftituting his holy fupper (Matt. XXVI. 26, 27.) faid of the bread, only Take, eat, but of the cup more particularly, Drink ye all of it? May we not probably fuppofe that it was defigned to prevent or obviate their facrilege, who would have all indeed eat of the bread, but priests only drink of the cup?-Why were the vices of the Scribes and Pharafees left fo particularly upon record, if not chiefly for the correction and reproof of their natural iffue and defcendents, the clergy of the church of Rome? Read the whole 23d Chapter of St. Matthew, and you will find that there is not a fingle woe de

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nounced against the former, but as properly belongs, and is as ftrictly applicable to the latter. Binding heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and laying them on mens fhoulders; doing all their works for to be feen of men; fhutting up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither going in themfelves, neither fuffering them who are entering to go in; devouring widows houfes, and for a pretence making long prayers; compaffing fea and land to make one profelyte, and when he is made, making him twofold more the child of bell than themselves; making useless and frivolous diftinctions of oaths; obferving pofitive duties, and omitting the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; making clean the outfide, but within being full of extortion and excess; outwardly appearing righteous unto men, but within being full of hypocrify and iniquity; building the tombs of the prophets, and garnishing the fepulchres of the righteous, honoring the dead faints, and at the fame time perfecuting the living; are as ftrong marks and characters of the one fect as they were of the other.-Do not forbidding implicit faith and obedience to men, (Matt. XXIII. 9.) Call no man your Father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven; forbidding the worship of angels, (Col. II. 18.) Let no man beguile you of your reward,

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in a voluntary bumility, and worshipping of angels; forbidding all pretences to works of merit and fupererogation, (Luke XVII. 10.) When ye shall have done all thofe things which are commanded you, fay, We are unprofitable fervants, we have done that which was our duty to do; forbidding the clergy to lord it over God's heritage, (1 Pet. IV. 3.) Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being enfamples to the flock; forbidding the fervice of God in an unknown tongue, as St. Paul hath done at large in the 14th Chap. of his first Epistle to the Corinthians: Do not all these and such like prohibitions, I say, neceffarily fuppofe and imply, that one time or other thefe particular errors and abuses would creep into the church? and in what church they are publicly taught and practiced, no man can be infenfible. Such texts of fcripture are as much predictions that these things would be, as they are arguments that they should not be. For laws divine and human are not leveled against chimerical and mere imaginary vices, fuch as never are, never will be brought into practice; but are enacted by reafon of those enormities, which men either have committed or are likely to commit, and which the lawgivers wifely foreseeing are therefore willing to prevent.-Why doth St. Paul admonish the Romans particularly to beware of apoftafy?

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apoftafy? (Rom. XI. 20, 22.) Be not high-minded, but fear; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. Surely this is a strange way of addreffing the Romans, if the church of Rome was designed to be the infallible judge of controverfies, the center of unity, and director of all religion.View the picture that both St. Peter and St. Jude have drawn of false teachers, and confider whom it most resembles in all its features. (2 Pet. II. 1. &c.) But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there fhall be falfe teachers among you, who privily fhall bring in damnable herefies, even denying the Lord that bought them; And many fhall follow their pernicious ways, by reafon of whom the way of truth fhall be evil Spoken of; And through covetousness fhall they with feigned words make merchandize of you, &c. (Jude 4. &c.) Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lafciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jefus Chrift; Thefe filthy dreamers defile the flesh, defpife dominion, and Speak evil of dignities; Thefe be they who feperate themselves, fenfual, having not the Spirit ; &c.--What St. Paul hath predicted concerning the corruption. of the last days, is too much the character of all fects of Chriftians, but the application more properly belongs to the members of the church of Rome. (2 Tim. III. 1 &c.) This know also, that in the

the last days perilous times fhall come: For men shall be lovers of their own felves, covetous, boasters, proud, blafphemers, difobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy; Without natural affection, trucebreakers, falfe accufers, incontinent, fierce, defpifers of thofe that are good; Traitors, beady, highminded, lovers of pleafure more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.- ---Such are the direct prophecies, and fuch the general intimations of popery; and we have the better right to make this application of the general intimations, as the direct prophecies are fo plain and particular.

II. It is not only foretold, that fuch a power as that of the pope and church of Rome should be exercised in the Chriftian world; but to prevent any mistake in the application of thefe prophecies, the place and the perfons likewife are pointed out, where and by whom it fhould be exercifed. The prophet Daniel (Chap. VII.) hath described four beafts or four kingdoms; and out of the fourth beaft or kingdom, he faith, fhall arife ten horns or ten kings or kingdoms; and among them or after them fall come up another little born; and he shall be divers from the reft; and he fhall have eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth Speaking great things, and