none of those things which conftitute the fum of Popish doctrine. In this age too, Heringer, Abbot of Lobes, near Liege, wrote expressly against the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, as, did alfo Alfric in England..

Early in the eleventh century, there appeared at Orleans fome heretics, as they were called, who maintained, that the confecration of the priest could not change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and that it was unprofitable to pray to faints and angels. They were condemned by the council of Orleans, in the year 1017. Not long after these, appeared other heretics in Flanders, who were also condemned by the fynod of Arras, in the year 1025. They denied the reality of the body and blood of Chrift in the eucharist. They gave no religious worship to the cross, to images, to temples, or altars. They denied purgatory, and the efficacy of penance to abfolve the deceased from their fins. Berengarius, a native of Tours, and Archdeacon of Angiers, wrote profeffedly against the doctrine of transubstantiation, and called the church of Rome" a church of malignants, the council "of vanity, and the feat of Satan."

In the twelfth century, Fluentius, Bishop of Florence, taught publicly, that Antichrift was come into the world. St. Bernard inveighed

loudly

loudly against the corruptions of the clergy, and the tyranny of the Popes, faying, "that "they were the ministers of Chrift, and ferved "Antichrift." Joachim of Calabria gave a discourse concerning Antichrift and the Apocalypfe, to Richard I. of England, at Meffina, on his way to Palestine, in which he faid, " that "Antichrift was already born in the city of "Rome, and that he would be advanced to "the apoftolical chair, and exalted above all "that is called God, or is worshipped." Peter de Bruis and Henry his difciple, taught in feveral parts of France, "That the doctrine of "tranfubftantiation is falfe; that prayers and "maffes for the dead are unprofitable; that "priefts and monks ought to marry; that ve"neration for croffes is fuperftition." For thefe doctrines, the one was burnt, and the other imprisoned for life. Arnold of Brefcia held opinions contrary to thofe of the church concerning the facrament, and preached mightily against the temporal power and juris diction of the Pope and the clergy, for which he was burnt at Rome, in the year 1155, and his afhes were thrown into the Tyber, to prevent the people from expreffing any veneration for his relics. But the chief witnesses of this age were the Waldenfes, fo called, from Peter Waldo, a rich citizen of Lyons, and a confiderable

confiderable leader of the fect, and the Albigenfes, who received their name from Alby, a city of Languedoc.

In the thirteenth century, the Waldenfes and Albigenfes multiplied fo faft, and inveighed. against the corruptions of the church of Rome fo loudly, that a croifade was proclaimed against them, by the reigning Pope, which ended in depriving the Count of Thouloufe of his dominions. William of St Amour, a Doctor of the Sorbonne, wrote a treatise of the perils of the last times, 2 Tim. iii. 1. in which he applies the prophecy to the mendicant orders of his own time. In this age too lived Robert Greathead, Bishop of Lincoln, who faw fo clearly into the prophecy concerning Antichrift, that the Pope and Antichrift were his dying words.

The Waldenfes and Albigenfes continued to multiply in the fourteenth century; and being perfecuted in their own country, fled for refuge to other nations. They were denominated Lollards in Germany, from one Walter Lollard, who preached about the year 1315, against the authority of the Pope, the interceffion of faints, the mafs, extreme unction, and other ceremonies of the church of Rome, and was burnt alive at Cologne, in the year 1322. The fame doctrines were taught in England, and spread over Europe

U

Europe by the famous John Wickliff, rector of Lutterworth,

In the fifteenth century, Sawtre, parish-priest of St Ofith in London, was the first burnt for herefy in England, in the reign of Henry IV. A few years afterwards, Thomas Badby was convicted of herefy, and burnt in Smithfield, In the next reign, Sir John Oldcastle, Baron of Cobham, was charged with being an abettor of the Lollards, and examined before the Archbi shop of Canterbury. He declared against tranfubftantiation, penances, the worshipping of the crofs, the power of the keys, and afferted that the Pope was Antichrift. He was denounced a heretic, and delivered over to the fecular power. Before the day appointed for his execution, he efcaped out of prison, but was afterwards taken, hanged as a traitor, and burnt hanging as a heretic. In this age too, John Hufs and Jerom of Prague maintained and propagated the doctrines of Wickliff, for which they were burnt as heretics by the council of Conftance, and fuffered death with heroic fortitude.

C

In the fixteenth century began the Reformation; and from that period the united voice of the Proteftant world bears witnefs to the corruptions of the church of Rome. Nor is it unworthy of remark, that the name of Proteftants was given without any reference to the prophecy; yet it

is of much the fame import with that of witneffes, the term applied in the prophecy to Chrift's faithful followers during the reign of Antichrift. Besides the general voice of the Proteftant world, certain perfons have, in the present and the preceding century, directed the attention of mankind to the fcripture prophecies, concerning the Antichriftianism of the Papacy, and church of Rome, which became the more neceffary, as the indolence of fome and the artifice of others had almoft lulled Proteftants afleep and the influence of fashion had drawn a veil over these prophecies, in the seventeenth century, almoft as impenetrable to the generality, as the ignorance which obfcured them in former ages. Of these, in the preceding century, were Jofeph Mede, a fellow of Chrift's College, in Cambridge, a man who seems to have understood the prophecies better than any who appeared before him fince the days of the apoftles, Peter Jurieu, one of the ministers of Rotterdam, a French refugee, James Durham, one of the minifters of Glasgow. I might alfo mention the famous Lord Napier, the discoverer of the logarithms, who wrote a treatife on the Apocalypfe, published at Edinburgh, in the year 1645.

In the prefent century, the celebrated Sir Ifaac Newton, Charles Daubuz, vicar of Bro

therton,