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A N

ESSAY

ON THE

MERCHANDISE

O F

Slaves and Souls of Men;

REVELATIONS XVIII. 13.

WITH AN

APPLICATION

Thereof to the

Church of ROME.

Dudley Paul

By a GENTLEMAN.

Vivere qui Sancte cupitis, difcedite Roma.
Omnia cum liceant, non licet effe bonum.

King of Spain's Memorial to Pope Urban the VIII.

Printed at BOSTON in NEW ENGLAND:
AND

Reprinted at LONDON, for JOSEPH DOWNING,
in Bartholomew Clofe, near Weft-Smithfieled, 173 2.

BX

1767
D85

BX 1767 .D85

I

THE

Introduction.

AM very fenfible the greatest Part of what is offered in the following Effay, may be found in Treatifes already Published, and accordingly I have mentioned the Authors: and yet poffibly the Reader may find fome things fuggefted, here and there, which he has not met with before. However, it does not fall to every one's Share to have the Books cited; and fome of them are rarely to be feen in New-England: befides, the Collating many things thus together, will fave both Time and Pains to fuch as bave Libraries, and want Leifure to fearch

them.

IF any should inquire, what Occafion there is at this Time of the Day for an Oration against Popery; is the Proteftant Interest in any Hazard from that Quarter? I answer, the Church Militant will never be out of Danger, and therefore fhe has Watchmen fet upon her Walls *; And tho' our Lord JESUS CHRIST will certainly make good bis great Promife; That the Gates of Hell fhall never be able to prevail against his Church, Mat. xvi. 18. and Dan. ii. 44.) Yet I know of no other Charter that any of the Proteftant Churches in particular have for their Security, than what runs with a quam diu fe bene gefferint, or in the Words of the Pro

A 2

phet

* Isaiah lxii. 6.

,

phet Azariah, 2 Chron. xv. 2. Hear ye me Afa, and all Judah, and Benjamin, The Lord is with you, (or, will be with you, for it may be tranflated in the future Tenfe) while you be with him. Befides which, the unfearchable Sovereignty of GOD in his Difpenfations of this Nature, is always to be remembred and adored. What became of the feven famous Churches in Afia, those Golden Candlesticks among whom the Son of God once walked? Where are the flourishing and numerous Chriftian Churches that were fometime fince in Bohemia, Hungaria, and Piedmont? But Ob! thou Enemy ! What Defolations haft thou wrought in our Days in France? The Time was * when the Reformed could there count two thousand one hundred and fifty Churches; in most of these two Minifters, in fome five; the Church of Orleans had seven thousand Communicants But their Bodies now lye dead in the Street of the great City, &c. Rev. xi. 7, 8. In the Year 1686, not a fingle Church left, or a reformed Minifter to be feen in all that Kingdom. As to Great Britain; He must be a Stranger to the British Hiftory that does not know how frequently our Holy Religion, together with the Civil Liberties of the Nation, has been in the utmost Danger from the Days of Queen Elizabeth; fometimes by fecret Attempts, at other times by open Violence, thro' the Influence of the Jefuits, with their Affociates, and other Emiffaries of the Church of Rome. And tho' our British Mountain, by the Divine Favour, feems at prefent to stand Atrong, by the Settlement of the Imperial Crown of Great Britain in the Princefs SOPHIA, and the Heirs of her Body being Proteftants; Tet where is the Seer, that dare fay to our Jerufalem, ber Warfare is accomplished? Who among us can tell bow long thefe Halcyon-days will laft? Or, whether the Clouds may not return after the Rain. A great and learned Divine †, Speaking of the Romish Church, has thefe Words,

*

Anno 1571.

+ Mr.How, in his Sermon on the 5th Nov. 1703.

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Words, "The common Enemy is ftill in Being, and bath Power in the World, and we know not what great "Advantages our too common Iniquities may, from the Fuftice of a righteous GOD, give him against us, fo "that we have no Reafon to be fecure". And tho' the Man of Sin, from the Days of the bleffed Reformation efpecially, has been confuming by the Breath of CHRIST's Mouth, yet be will not be deftroyed till the Brightness of his Coming. And it is the Opinion of many Judicious Divines, That immediately before the final Ruin of Antichrift, there will be fuch a Time (tho' a short one) for Diftrefs of Nations, and of Tribulation to the Church of GOD, as the Ages paft never faw.

HOW near thefe great and laft Changes of the Church and World are, with the exact Time and Order, wherein they are to be accomplished, are Matters too high for our Prophetical Chronologers: Whatever they may pretend to, the Arrows are beyond them: there is no fixing the certain Time for the Events of any Prophecy before the Accomplishment: (at the End it shall speak, Habak. ii. 3.)

AND because we know not when thefe Things, or the Coming of the Son of Man fhall be, therefore the Churches, and all private Chriftians, are folemnly charged (and it is at their utmoft Peril, if they neglect it) to Watch and Pray, Mark xiii. 13. & ult. to be fober and vigilant, 1 Pet. v. 8. diligent, that they may be found of him in Peace, without Spot and Blameless, 2 Pet. iii. 14. And not led away with the Error of the Wicked. And to mention no more, it is very obfervable, that the Church of Philadelphia, who had a gracious Promife of being kept from (or in) the Hour of Temptation that fhould come upon all the World, to try them that dwell on the Earth, is yet awfully admonished in thofe Words, Behold, I come quickly, hold faft that which thou haft, that no Man (or no one, undeis) take thy Crown, Rev. iii. 6, 10, 11.

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