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MEDE'S
APOSTASY
OF THE
LATTER TIMES.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION,
BY T. D. GREGG, A.M
LONDON:
R. GROOMBRIDGE, PANYER ALLEY, PATERNOSTER ROW; L. AND J. SEeley, fleet-STREET; AND G. RIDGE, MERCURY Office, sheffield.
MDCCCXXXVI.
SHEFFIELD:
G. RIDGE, PRINTER, MERCURY OFFICE, KING-STREET.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
Ordinary Mode of conducting the Controversy with the
Papists-Private Judgment..
There is a Rule of Faith collateral with the Scripture
Danger of denying this Rule-Strong Roman Catholic
Argument
PAGE
V
vii
X
Mode of meeting the Roman Catholic Argument...
There is, however, a Right of Private Judgment; but,
then, the Church also has its deciding Right...
An Objection stated and met-Dissenters and the Foreign
Reformed Churches considered
xiii
xviii
xxii
How the Right 'of Private Judgment may co-exist with a
due Submission to the Church..
xxiv
Popery in England and Ireland-The Contrast-The duty
of Protestants as Witnesses for the Truth of God...... xxxvii
God foretold that his whole Church should fall into Apos-
tasy, and yet that the Gates of Hell should not prevail
against it-The Consistency of these two Truths illus-
trated
On the Name of the Beast
...........
.........
The real Point at issue between us and the Papists-The
only valid Objection which they could bring against us
treated of
Catalogue of English Bishops from the Apostles
Ordination of Archbishop Parker
....
...
xlvii
lvi
lix
lxiv
Excellence of this...
What we learn from the Dissenters..
lxxiii
lxxiv
NOTICE OF THE PRESENT EDITION
lxxvi
EXTRACT FROM LACTANTIUS, AN EARLY CHRIstian Wri-
TER, CONCERNING THE END OF THE CHRISTIAN DIS-
PENSATION
lxxvii
The World thought to be about to continue in a State
of Sin for Six Thousand Years....
Wickedness and Misery of the Times of Apostasy, and
the Judgments on it
lxxix
lxxx
The Progress of Things after the Fall of Pagan Rome. lxxxiii
EXTRACT FROM LUTHER
xci
THE APOSTASY OF THE LATTER TIMES.
A Treatise on 1 Timothy, chap. iv., ver. 1, 2, &c.
CHAP. I.-The Dependence of the Text upon the last Verse
of the preceding Chapter-Why, in the Description of the
Mystery of Godliness, the Words (assumed into Glory)
are set last-Division of the Subject-The Author's three
Reasons for rendering the Text differently from the com-
mon Translation
CHAP. II.-Apostasy in the Scripture imports "Revolt" or
"Rebellion"-That "Idolatry" is such, is proved from
several Passages in Scripture-By "Spirits," in the Text,
are meant " Doctrines"-Doctrines of Demons are to be
taken passively, viz. for Doctrines concerning Demons-
Several Instances of the like Form of Speech in the Scrip-
CHAP. III.-Demons (according to the Theology of the Gen-
tiles,) were-1. For their Nature and Degree, a middle Sort
of Divine Powers between the Sovereign Gods and Mortal
Men-2. For their Office, they were supposed to be Medi-
ators' and Agents between the Celestial Gods and Men.-
This proved from Plato, Plutarch, Apuleius, Celsus in
Origen, and St. Austin-The Doctrine of the Mediation of
Demons glanced at, and reproved by the Apostles. Coloss.
ii. 8.-The Distinction of Sovereign Gods and Demons
proved out of the Old Testament, and elegantly alluded to
in the New. 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6.......
CHAP. IV. The Gentiles' Doctrine concerning the Original
......
of Demons, viz. that they were the Souls of Men deified,
or canonized, after Death-This proved out of Hesiod,
Plato, Trismegist, Philo Biblius, the Translator of San-
choniathon, Plutarch, Tully-Baal, or Bel, or Belus, the
first deified King; hence Demons are called in Scripture,
Baalim-Demons and Heroes, how they differ-Demons,
called by the Romans Penates, Lares, as also Dii Ani-
males, Soul Gods-Another and a higher Kind of Demons,
such as never dwelt in Bodies: these answer to Angels, as
the other (viz. the Soul Demons) answer to Saints
CHAP. V.-The Manner and Way of worshipping the Demons
and retaining their presence, viz. by consecrated Images
and Pillars-That Images were as Bodies for Demons to
animate and dwell in-The Worshipping of Images and
Columns a piece of the Doctrines of Demons-This proved
out of Trismegist, Porphyry, Arnobius, Minucius Felix, &c.
-The Worshipping of Demons in their Reliques, Shrines,
and Sepulchrei, another piece of Demon Doctrine-That
the Gentiles' Temples were nothing but the Sepulchres of
dead Men-The gross Idolatry of the Egyptians.
CHAP. VI.-A Recapitulation or Summary of the Doctrines
of Demons-How the Severals thereof are revived and
resembled in the Apostate Christian Church-That the
word "Demon" is sometimes in Scripture taken according
to the Theology of the Gentiles, and not always for an
Evil Spirit-That it is so to be taken in the Text was the
Judgment of Epiphanius; an observable Passage quoted
out of him to this purpose..
CHAP. VII.-Why those Words in the Description of the
Mystery of Godliness (received into Glory) are set last-
That praying to Saints glorified, as Mediators and Agents
for us with God, is Idolatry-For the Proof of this several
Grounds are laid down-To be prayed to "in Heaven," to
present our Devotions to God, and to deal as an Agent and
Mediator between us and Him, is a "Prerogative" appro-
priate to Christ, a Flower of his Glory and Exaltation to
sit at God's right Hand, a Royalty incommunicable to any
other-That none but Christ our High Priest is to be an
Agent for us with God in the Heavens, was figured under
the Law, in that the High Priest alone had to do in the
most holy place, and there was to be Agent for the People
-That though Christ in regard of his Person was capable
of this God-like Glory and Royalty, yet it was the Will of
God that he should purchase it by suffering an unimitable
Death-This proved from several Testimonies of Scripture