happiness of mankind, yet, if one were to frame his idea of it from their conduct as above described, would appear to be no better than a stratagem to enrich and aggrandize a few men, called ecclefiafticks, at the coft of impoverishing and enslaving the reft; from whence I ceafe to wonder at the contempt with which the profeffion of Chriftianity, without the power and spirit of it, hath been fometimes treated. PART. II. Of the Reformation, and its gradual progrefs, and the defects yet attending it. Of the woful darkness above described, which did for fome ages eclipse the brightness of the gospel-day, it hath feemed good to Divine Providence to forewarn us in the Revelation, where the church is fuppofed to be reprefented by the "woman clothed with the fun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars," and being with child, and perfecuted by the dragon "whofe tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did caft them to the earth; and he stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as foon as it was born; but the child being brought forth, and caught up to God and his throne, fhe fled into the wilderness," (a ftate of obfcurity) and was to remain there during the time appointed her of God which was but a limited time, and is believed to have been accomplished, and that the return of the church out of the wildernefs commenced at the reformation, and that this great work fhall be carried on and perfected in God's time. It muft indeed be acknowledged, to the glory of God's good providence, that even in the most dark and corrupt ages there was ftill preferved a faithful remnant, who bore witness against the prevailing corruptions, though the greater part of thefe were branded for hereticks by the ruling majority, whereof it is neceffary to fubjoin a few inftances. A. D. 815, Claudius, bishop of Turin, is ftigmatized for an arch heretick for teaching that the cross is not to be worfhipped, nor the fepulchres nor reliques of faints, and that pilgrimages are vain and for the like reafon were Petrus de Bruis and Henricus ex Monacho, A. D. 1119, branded for hereticks.* In the year 1146 lived Hildegardis, a prophetess, and indeed fo efteemed by the papifts themfelves, who among other things + prophefieth against the priests and prelates of the Romish church thus: Now is the law neglected among the fpiritual people, which neglect to teach and do good things; the mafter likewife and the prelate do fleep, defpifing justice, and laying it afide: and in a certain vifion the church appeared to her in the fhape of a woman complaining that the priests had bewrayed her face with duft, rent her coat, &c. and that they did not fhine over the people, neither in doctrine, nor example of life-that all ecclefiaftical order did every day become worse and worse, and that the priests did not teach, but deftroy the law of God: and for thefe horrible crimes fhe threateneth and prophefieth unto them God's moft heavy wrath and difpleafure, and doleful punishments. The crown of apoftolical honour shall be divided, because there fhall be found no religion among the apoftolical order; and for that cause shall they defpife the dignity of that name, and shall set over them other men and other archbishops, in fo much that the apoftolic fee of that time fhall have fcarce Rome and a few other countries thereabouts under his crown. And these things fhall partly come to pafs by incurfion of wars, and partly alfo by a common counfel and confent of the fecular and fpiritual perfons. Then fhall justice flourish, fo that in those days men fhall honeftly apply themselves to the ancient cuftoms and difcipline of ancient men, and fhall obferve them as ancient men did.' Synops Concilior. Paris 1671. Fox's Eccl. Hiftory, Vol. I. p. 237, 238. Ibid, Vol. I. p. 238.. A. D. 1160, one Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, applying himself to the ftudy of the Scriptures, and finding there no grounds for feveral of the popifh doctrines, and particularly tranfubftantiation, publickly opposed them. His followers, called Waldenfes, were grievously perfecuted by the reigning power, fome of them burnt to death, and others fcattered into divers countries; and indeed they did overspread a great part of * Europe, by which means (to the glory of God's Providence bringing good out of evil) the reformation was alfo fpread. Among others of their tenets were the following: That the church of Rome is Babylon fpoken of in the Revelation: that praying for the dead is vain, and a thing only found out for the lucre of priests: that the hoft is an idol: that the feafts and feftivals of the faints ought to be rejected: that preaching of the word is free to all men called † thereunto.' And indeed in that dark interval of time, between the year 1170 and 1470, many bore a publick teftimony against the corruption and abominable idolatry which was crept into the church; though commonly with the lofs of their liberties or lives; for a further account of whom I refer to the laft-cited author; and it is obfervable, to the glory of the power and providence of God, now as formerly, "choofing the weak things to confound the things that are mighty;' and that though there were fome learned men among thefe, many of them were mean perfons, mechanics, and feveral women, (who fuffered for their teftimony to the Truth) not for the moft part the men of the eftablishment, the mercenary priefts and bifhops, who were commonly their perfecutors, and hindered, as much as in them lay, the progrefs of the reformation. In the year 1370, lived Bridget, dignified by the * Rapin's History of England, Vol. III. name of Holy; the church of Rome having canonized · her not only for a faint, but prophetefs, who, notwithstanding, in her book of revelations, was a great. rebuker of the pope and of the filth of his clergy, calling him a murderer of fouls, a fpiller and piller of the flock of Chrift, affirming that the prelates, bishops, and priests, are the caufe why the doctrine of Chrift is neglected and almost extinct; that the clergy have turned the Ten Commandmens of God into two words, Da Pecuniam, or Give money; and prophefieth that the fee of the pope fhall be thrown down into the deep like a millftone.* But it were an inexcufable neglect, in a difcourfe of this kind, to fupprefs one fact redounding to the fingular honour of the English nation, or rather a notable inftance of God's goodnefs worthy of the moft grateful commemoration from the people of thefe nations, viz. that England was one of the first that was favoured with the dawn of the glorious light of the reformation, even long before the days of Martin Luther, viz. by the means of John Wickliff, who has been called the morning-ftar of the reformation, and was born about the year 1324, was: Divinity Profeffor in Oxford, and afterwards parfon of Lutterworth in Leicestershire. He flourished in the latter end of king Edward III. and the beginning of king Richard IId's time, about 130 years before ! the reformation of Luther.† He published certain conclufions against tranfubftantiation and the infallibility of the pope, and that the church of Rome was not the head of all other! churches. That the New Teftament is a perfect rule) of life and manners, and ought to be read by the people. He alfo declared againft the establishment of tithes, afferting them to be pure alms, and main Fox's Ecclefiastical History. |