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POPERY AND INFIDELITY.

The Apostle Paul, knowing that these things must come to pass before the second coming of the Lord, (in 2 Thes. ii. from the 2nd verse,) exhorts the church in these words, "Be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." (Referring to the coming of Christ to judgment.) "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth" (hindereth)" will let" (or obstruct)" till he be taken out of the way: and then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be

damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Here is evidently a prophetic description of the deceitful and bloody church of Rome, whose head is the Pope, described as "the man of sin, who putteth himself in the place of God." Now, I will just ask the opponents of scripture, how they can have the barefaced effrontery to ascribe the above prediction, penned upwards of five hundred years prior to the appearance of the man of sin, (the pope,) to the cunning craft of men? For, what, but divine inspiration, could possibly have foretold to such a nicety, the diabolical character of the impostor, and the season he would appear, namely, not till after the power of pagan Rome was destroyed; and there can be no mistake as to whom the prediction refers, because no other personage that has ever appeared on the earth, has so exactly answered to the description there given. He is said to "exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Now, compare the above with the titles which that impious monster blasphemously assumes to himself, and by which he is addressed, namely, Dominus Deus Noster Papa-the Lord our God the Pope; Sanctisimus Pater, Sanctisimus Dei-Holy Father, Holy God.

Thus does the blasphemous pope exalt himself above all that is called God, and thus has he been, and is worshipped as God, sitting in the temple and usurping the place of God, and, while he had the power, causing kings to bow to him, and deposing from their thrones such as dare to set him

at defiance, and committing such to death who could not conscientiously receive his damnable doctrines" doctrines of devils." And nothing can more clearly apply to the church of Rome, than the following quotation from St. Paul's first Epistle to Timothy, iv. 1, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." Now the church of Rome has been notorious for that peculiar and unnatural tenet, the forbidding her priests to marry wives; and so strict has she been in exacting obedience to that abominable doctrine of devils, that she has been known to bastardize the children of those priests who preferred the matrimonial state to the mock celibacy of the hypocritical croaking monks; as it is recorded, that in the year 1074, Pope Gregory (Hildebrand) prohibited the married priests from officiating in the service of the church, and forbad the laity to hear them perform mass; and so the unmarried monks were increased. And in the reign of King Henry the Second, Cardinal John De Crowe held a council against married priests, and exclaimed against the monstrous wickedness of rising from the side of a wh- (for so the filthy hypocrite called the wives of the priests) to perform mass; but on the evening of that very day he was detected in a brothel. The affair was so notorious," says Matthew Paris, a monk of their

own church," that it could not be denied; whilst the cardinal exchanged great honour for the profoundest disgrace."

Thus does the cruel, hypocritical, croaking, and beastly church of Rome, by her unscriptural ecclesiastical decrees, forbid her priests to marry; and thus does she, without any scriptural authority, (as far as respects her priesthood,) set aside an ordinance appointed of God as a type of the union of Christ and his church—an ordinance given to our first parents in Eden, when the Almighty Creator commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth: which ordinance the priests of the Mosaic dispensation conformed to, as likewise the majority of the ministers of Christ, from the Day of Pentecost until the instalment of the first pope into his antichristian office—an interval of upwards of five centuries. Therefore, the papists have neither scripture nor tradition for that abominable doctrine of devils. But, that matters not to the papistical church, who speaketh lies in hypocrisyfor, hypocritical lies does she speak, when she promulgates her doctrines of devils and traditions, for the word of God; and it is an historical fact, that, whilst her priests have professed celibacy, they, in their convents, have in past times (and no doubt do now) practised the most abominable crimes, contrary to nature; for, when Cromwell demolished the monasteries in England, it was discovered that fornication, joined with crimes most heinous equal to, if not exceeding, those of Sodom and Gomorrah-were indulged in by those very monks and friars, who made such professions of celibacy; and those facts

at the time were published to the whole nation. And yet those deceitful hypocrites would cite, condemn, and execute persons for eating meat on a fast day—another abomination set forth in the text, "And commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." Thus is the abomination of Rome to a nicety described in scripture prophecy.

But this antichrist, or man of sin," is to be destroyed-" And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." And, in spite of all the blasphemous superstitions, and bloody edicts of the papal church, the gospel of Christ still triumphs; and the infidel power which has sprung out of her vile apostacy, is at the present time making her desolate, and stripping her of her illgotten wealth, idolatrous pomp and influence. Thus is infidelity and popery of every description clashing together, and, like a potter's vessel, dashing to shivers. The breakers are come up against her, and the "man of sin" is nearly stripped of the power which he has for centuries wielded over the nations of the earth; and the pope, who used to depose kings at his pleasure, and at whose anathemas the kings of the earth used to tremble, is now looked upon as an infamous impostor, or spiritual mountebank-and God grant that the time may soon arrive, when his power will be totally annihilated. But, at

the present time popery is spreading most alarmingly; it seems to be mixed up with almost every thing in our nation, whether political or religi