Few Christians are aware of the devilish vileness of Popery now. It is putting on, in the days in which we live, especially in England, all the forms of apparent innocence, and beguiling, bewitching meekness, “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness,” as the Apostle says, so that many are duped by its false pretensions, and many think that, in these “enlightened days,” Popery is not that dire bloodthirsty thing that it once was. Romanism consists chiefly of three prominent things. In it, and by it (i) the faith of Christ is perverted; (ii.) the offices of Christ are insulted; and (iii.) the redeemed of Christ are persecuted.
The redeemed of the Lord are and always have been, persecuted by it. This is a fact that requires little proof; one must be very ill-acquainted with the history of the Church to know that, wherever and whenever Popery has had power the real saints of God have always been the victims of its fury. Could the accursed dungeons of the Inquisition tell what barbarities have been committed there; could the solitary confinements of the monasteries tell what groans and sighs are going up there; could those infernal prisons which have been erected in our own beloved country unfold the scenes they witness, and give up the female victims who have been decoyed and betrayed into these horrid dens, and would give a thousand worlds to get outside those walls again—what proof should we have even around us now, of the persecuting spirit, the murderous disposition of “the man of sin”! Or shall Spain and Portugal tell of the tens of thousands hurried into eternity by Popish intrigue? Shall France develop the horrors of black Bartholomew’s Day—the men, women and children, by thousands, butchered without reserve by the fury of Popery? Shall the reign of bloody Mary in our own country be exposed, and all its horrors exhibited to view? Shall Smithfield throw up, as by an earthquake, the stakes, and the ashes and bones of martyrs, that have burned for Christ? Shall these be revealed at the day of judgment?
Ye people of God, come out of her and touch not the unclean thing; preserve your high and holy distinction as heaven born souls. The time of trial is at hand, when those who have only the name of Christianity will go over to Popery in shoals, to partake openly of her sins, preparatory to their receiving of her plagues (Rev. xviii. 4). Indeed this falling away is already commenced in the seats of learning, and among the nobles of the land. Oh, may the court and the throne be kept unsullied by Antichrist!