"the Lombards quarters without any interrup"tion, fo great reverence they bare to religion "in those days. Being arrived and honorably "received in France, he was after fome time "dismissed with an army into Italy; which

having befieged Pavia, and reduced the Lom

"bards to distress, Aiftolfus was conftrained to "certain terms of agreement with the French, "which were obtained by the interceffion of "the pope.-Among the reft of the articles of "that treaty it was agreed, that Aistolfus should

reftore all the lands he had ufurped from the "church. But when the French army was "returned into France, Aiftolfus forgot his en

gagement, which put the pope upon a fecond application to king Pepin, who fupplied him

again, fent a new army into Italy, overcame "the Lombards, and poffeffed himself of Ra"venna, and (contrary to the defire of the "Grecian emperor) gave it to the pope, with

"all the lands under that exarchate.-In the "interim Aiftolfus died, and Defiderio a Lom“bard, and duke of Tuscany, taking up arms "to fucceed him, begged affistance of the pope, "with promise of perpetual amity for the future. "At first Defiderio was very punctual,-de

livering up the towns as he took them to the

pope, according to his engagement to king Dd 3

Pepin;

Pepin; nor was there any exarch sent after"wards from Conftantinople to Ravenna, but "all was arbitrary, and managed according to "the pleasure of the pope. Not long after

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Pepin died, and Charles his fon fucceeded in "the government, who was called the great "from the greatness of his exploits. About the "fame time Theodore the first was advanced

" to the рарасу, and falling out with Defiderio "was befieged by him in Rome. In his exi<< gence the pope had recourse to the king of France, (as his predeceffor had done before

66

him) and Charles not only supplied him with "an army, but marching over the Alps at the "head of it himself, he befieged Defiderio in

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Pavia, took him and his fon in it, sent them "both prisoners into France, and went in per"fon to Rome to vifit the pope, where he adjudged and determined, that his Holiness being "God's vicar, could not be fubject to the judgment. of man. For which the pope and people together declared him emperor, and Rome began again to have an emperor of the west: "and whereas formerly the popes were con"firmed by the emperors, the emperor now in "his election was to be beholding to the pope;

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"by (2) See Bishop Jewel's Apology and Defenfe, p. 313, 314, ̧ 430, &c. (3) Undecima

"by which means the power and dignity of "the empire declined, and the church began "to advance, and by these steps to ufurp upon "the authority of temporal princes."

In this manner the emperor of Rome, or be who letteth, was taken out of the way, and the bishop of Rome was advanced in his ftead. In the fame proportion as the power of the empire decreased, the authority of the church increased, the latter at the expenfe and ruin of the former; till at length the pope grew up above all, and άνομος the wicked one was fully manifefted and revealed, or the lawless one as he be called;

may

for the pope (2) is declared again and again not to be bound by any law of God or man. His coming is after the energy of Satan, with all power, and fgns, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness: and doth it require any particular proof, or is it not too generally known, that the pretenfions of the pope, and the corruptions of the church of Rome are all fupported and authorized by feigned vifions and miracles, by pious frauds and impoftures of every kind? Bellarmin reckons (3) the glory of miracles as the eleventh note of the catholic church: but the apostle affigns them as a diftinguishing (3) Undecima nota eft gloria miraculorum. Bellar, de Notis ecclefiæ. Lib. 4. Cap. 14.

Dd 4

(4) Lightfoot's

guifhing mark and character of the man of fin. The church of Rome pretends to miracles, Mohammed disclaims them; and this is one very good reafon, why the man of fin is the Pope rather than the Turk. There hath been printed at London, fo lately as in the year 1756, a book intitled The miraculous powers of the church of Chrift afferted through each fucceffive century from the apostles down to the prefent time: and from thence the author draweth the conclufion, that the catholic church is the true church of Christ. They must certainly not receive the love of the truth, but have pleafure in unrighteousness, who can believe fuch fabulous and ridiculous legends, who hold it a mortal fin but to doubt of any article of their religion, who deny the free exercife of private judgment, who take away the free ufe of the holy fcriptures, and fo fout up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither going in themfelves, neither juffering them, who were entring, to go in. If they will still maintain their miracles to be true, yet they are no proof of the true church, but rather of the contrary. They are the miracles here predicted, · and if they were really wrought, were wrought in favor of falsehood: and indeed it is a proper retaliation, that God in his juft judgments should Jend men firong delufion that they should believe a

lie, who received not the love of the truth that they might be faved; a proper retaliation, that he fhould fuffer fome real miracles to be wrought to deceive those, who have counterfeited fo many miracles to deceive others.

But how much foever the man of fin may be exalted, and how long foever he may reign, yet at laft the Lord fhall confume him with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall deftroy him with the brightnefs of his coming. This is partly taken from the prophet Ifaiah, (XI. 4) and with the breath of his lips fall he flay the wicked one: where the Jews, as Lightfoot (4) obferves, put an emphafis upon that word in the prophet the "wicked one, as it appeareth by the Chaldee paraphraft, who hath uttered it He fall deftroy the wicked Roman." If the two clauses, as it was faid before, relate to two different events, the meaning manifeftly is, that the Lord Jefus fhall gradually confume him with the free · preaching of his gospel, and shall utterly destroy him at his fecond coming in the glory of his Father. The former began to take effect at the Reformation, and the latter will be accomplished in God's appointed time. The man of fin is now upon the decline, and he will be totally abolished, when Christ fhall come in judgment. The

(4) Lightfoot's Works, Vol. 1, p. 296.

kingdom

(5) дуть