scription from the most stupendous to the most absurd. It has ever acted on the principle " populus yult decipi," and that it is right to deceive them for their own good, or, the good of the Church. The whole system, so far as it is distinctive,1 is a sys- tem of falsehood, or false pretensions, supported by deceit.
4. Antichrist is to be a persecuting power. Is not this true of the papacy ? It has been drunk with the blood of the saints. It not only persecutes, but it justifies persecution, and avows to this day its purpose to enforce its dominion by the rack and the stake wherever it has the power. This is involved in its justification of the past, and in its making it a duty to suppress every form of religion but that of Rome. The thirty years' war in Germany ; the persistent attempts to exterminate the Piedmontese ; the massacres by the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands ; the horrors of the inquisition in Spain ; the dragonnades and the massacre of St. Bartholomew in France, over which Te Deums were sung in Rome, show that the people of God can hardly have more to suffer under any future antichrist than they have already suffered, and perhaps have yet to suffer, under the papacy.
5. Antichrist, according to the Apostle, was to oppose and ex- alt himself above all that is called God or is worshipped ; " so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." This is true of no worldly power. It was not true of Antiochus Epiphanes, who is regarded as the type whence the prophetic portrait of Antichrist was drawn. It was not true of any of the Roman emperors. Some of them allowed them- selves to be enrolled among the thousand gods of the Pantheon ; but this falls very far short of the description here given. It is, however, all true of the papacy, and it is true of no other power which has yet appeared upon earth. Paul does not concern him- self with theories, but with facts. It is not that the popes openly profess to be superior to God ; or, that in theory they claim to be more than men. It is the practical operation of the system which he describes. The actual facts are first, that the popes claim the honour that is due to God alone; secondly, that they assume the powers which are his exclusive prerogatives; and thirdly, that they supersede the authority of God, putting their own in its place. It is thus they exalt themselves above God.
1 This qualification is necessary. Papists of course hold the truths of natural religion; and many of the distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel. This is to be acknowledged. We are not to deny that truth is truth, because held by Romanists ; nor are we to deny, that where truth is, there may be its fruits. While condemning Papacy, Protestants can, and do joyfully admit that there are among Romanists such godly men as St. Bernard, F&illon, and Pascal, and doubtless thousands more known only unto God. vol.. hi. 52
818 PART IV. Ch. in. — the second advent.
They assume the honour which belongs to God not merely by claiming to be the vicars of Christ on earth, and by allowing them- selves to be addressed as Lord and God, but by exacting the sub- mission of the reason, the conscience, and the life, to their author- ity. This is the highest tribute which a creature can render the Creator ; and this the popes claim to be their due from all man- kind. They claim divine prerogatives as infallible teachers on all questions of faith and practice, and as having the power to forgive sin. And they exalt their authority above that of God by practi- cally setting aside his word, and substituting their decrees and what they put forth as the teachings of the Church. It is a sim- ple and undeniable fact that in all countries under the effective dominion of the pope, the Scriptures are inaccessible to the peo- ple, and the faith of the masses reposes not on what the Bible teaches, but on what the Church declares to be true.
Even such a writer as John Henry Newman, in an essay written before his formal adhesion to the Church of Rome, uses such lan- guage as the following : The question is, u Has Christ, or has He not, appointed a body representative of Him in earth during his absence ? " This question he answers in the affirmative, and says, " Not even the proof of our Lord's divinity is plainer than that of the Church's commission. Not even the promises to David or to Solomon more evidently belong to Christ, than those to Israel, or Jerusalem, or Sion, belong to the Church. Not even Daniel's prophecies are more exact to the letter, than those which invest the Church with powers which Protestants consider Babylonish. Nay, holy Daniel himself is in no small measure employed on this very subject. He it is who announces a fifth kingdom, like 4 a stone cut out without hands,' which • broke in pieces and con- sumed ' all former kingdoms, but was itself to * stand forever.' and to become i a great mountain,' and • to fill the whole earth.' He it is also who prophesies that 4 the Saints of the most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever.' He 1 saw in the night visions and behold one like to the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and there was given Him dominion and glory and a king- dom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him.' Such too is Isaiah's prophecy, • Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lobd from Jerusalem, and He shall judge among the nations and rebuke many people.' Now Christ Himself was to depart from the earth. He could not then in his own person be intended in these great prophecies ; if He acted