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best and greatest, Vice-God, The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, The Most Holy who carrieth the Most Holy : nor does he disapprove of the flattery which tells him, that he was named God by the pious Emperor Constantine ; that the same is the dominion of God and of the Pope ; that the power of the Pope is greater than all created power, extending itself to things both celestial and terrestrial and infernal; and that the Pope doeth whatsoever he listeth even things unlawful, for he is more than God.

The little horn is described, as thinking to change times and laws, and as having them given into its hand or as having them yielded up to its own mere arbitrary dictation.

Thus, by instituting new modes of worship, by imposing new articles of faith, by enjoining new rules of practice, and by reversing at pleasure the laws both of God and of man', the Bishop of Rome has evinced himself to be that extraordinary character, whom Daniel exhibits as elevated above all law, and whom St. Paul (in manifest reference to the present oracle) announces under the precise aspect of the lawless one.

The little horn, by a series of relentless persecutions, is to wear out the saints of the Most High.

Accordingly, the Papacy has ever been notorious for its blood-thirsty and persecuting spirit: from age to age, it has been even drunken with the blood

'Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 260—264. 8vo. edit, 1790.

of the saints: ́and, from age to age, it has incessantly attacked with fire and sword those faithful servants of God, who protested against its corruptions, and who refused to partake of its idolatries'.

1

It is not unfrequently retorted by the Romanists, that Protestants also have been known to persecute those who differed from them. To attack the Romanists, therefore, on the score of persecution, is a mere exemplification of the adage, Clodius accusat machos.

We must confess the lamentable truth, that, in some instances, Protestantism has been thus polluted: yet, when we consider how slow the mind of man is to receive propositions, which at length become familiar and appear altogether incontestable, we shall not perhaps wonder at the circumstance, however we may deplore it. The sanguine spots of Rome long, more or less, adhered to those, who had reformed themselves from her superstitions: and the lessons, which had been learned in a corrupt school, were often but too faithfully carried into practice. This was only to be expected: for, except in cases of actual inspiration, the breaking in of light will always be gradual. Hence, in common equity, the masters ought to be blamed, rather than the scholars.

Be this, however, as it may, there is a vital and essential difference, in the matter of persecution, between Popery and Protestantism, which ought never to be overlooked; though, for obvious reasons, the modern advocates of the Roman Church, prudently pretermit it. Persecution is part and parcel of Popery: but, in Protestantism, it is merely incidental.

In making this assertion, I speak advisedly, not inadvertently: and I substantiate it on the very principles of Popery and Protestantism themselves.

A special doctrine of Popery is the infallibility and immutability of the Catholic Church so called, in all points which have been authoritatively determined by ecumenical Councils. Now the duty of persecuting and exterminating heretics with fire and

The reign of the little horn is limited to a period of three prophetic times and a half or 1260 natural years.

sword is unreservedly propounded by at least two ecumenical Councils, the third and fourth Councils of Lateran. See Concil. Later. III. can. 27. Labb. Concil. vol. x. p. 1522, 1523; and Concil. Later. IV. can. 3. Labb. Concil. vol. xi. p. 147-151. Such being the case, in a Church which avowedly can neither err nor change, the duty of persecution becomes an immutable and perpetual article of faith, always existing and binding, though not always capable of being carried into practice:) nor can this conclusion be avoided by any modern Romanist, unless he be content to pronounce, that two ecumenical Councils have erred, and consequently that what he denominates the Catholic Church is both fallible and mutable. Persecution, therefore, is inherent in Popery: it is a part, an integral part, of the very system: nor can the Roman Church ever shake off its imposed obligation, without at the same time renouncing its own infal libility.

But, with Protestantism, the matter is the very reverse. Unfettered by the chains of an imagined infallibility, Protestants censure and disown, without scruple, whatever deeds of their predecessors they observe to be unwarrantable and unscriptural. In their system, persecution is incidental, not inherent. Their fathers, so far as they practised it, learned the evil lesson in the school of Rome: but the deeds of their fathers they neither justify nor recognise as forming any part of their code of belief and duty.

In short, Popery stands precluded, by her own claim of infallibility and immutability, from reprobating and disowning the sanguinary abominations, which have systematically characterised the Roman Church. She may retort the charge of persecution upon Protestantism, to serve the purposes of controversy and to mislead the sciolists of a babyish liberalism: but she well knows, that she dares not to join her rival, in pronouncing all

Accordingly, from whatever point we reckon this period, the Papacy has domineered during the space of at least twelve centuries.

3. We have now ascertained both the ten larger horns and the eleventh smaller horn of the great Roman beast: from these premises, therefore, we shall be fully prepared to identify the three primary kingdoms, which are destined to fall before the eleventh little horn or the spiritual kingdom of the Papacy.

(1.) In order, however, that such an investigation may be satisfactorily conducted, we must begin with inquiring into the import of the prediction concerning their fall.

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persecution for conscience sake, by whomsoever and whensoever conducted, to be damnable and accursed and abominable and unscriptural. Hence it is, that, whatever may be the language employed by private Romanists, the highly respectable Mr. Butler for instance; their Church acknowledges not their unauthoritative assertions. Mr. Butler may give a theological colour to the political executions of the Elisabethan age; or, if he be able, he may, with my free consent, prove them to be cases of religious persecution: but, while he knows that all persecution is reprobated by at least modern Protestants, he will, I suspect, find it beyond the limits even of his extensive reading to produce an instance, where the twenty seventh and third canons of the third and fourth Lateran Councils have ever been formally condemned and disowned, as impious and unscriptural, by the Pope and Cardinals and Bishops of the Roman Church speaking authoritatively ex cathedra. When prophecy makes persecution a badge of the eleventh little kingdom, it does it, I apprehend, under the aspect, not of incidentality, but of systematic and indivisible inherency.

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Now the fall of the three horns is described, with somewhat varied phraseology, in three different passages of the vision of the four wild-beasts. · In the first passage, Daniel himself is the speaker. I considered the horns : and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots'.

In the second passage, Daniel is also the speaker. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up and before whom three fell,

But, in the third passage, the interpreting angel is the speaker. The ten horns are ten kings, that shall arise out of this kingdom: and another shall rise behind them ; and he shall be diverse from the first; and he shall subjugate three kings'.

There is a difference in the phraseology of these three passages, which I conceive to be not accidental but designed

When Daniel is the speaker, he simply describes the appearance which presented itself to him in the vision. As he was contemplating the ten horns of the wild-beast, he beheld an eleventh little horn gradually and stealthily springing up behind and among them. While this eleventh horn was thus increasing in size, three of the first or the original

I Dan. vii. 8.
2 Dan. vii. 19, 20.
3 Dan. vii. 24.

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