The History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland

In the beginning §1of his Sermon, he showed the great love of God towards his Church, whom he pleased to forewarn of dangers to come, so many §2years before they come to pass. He briefly treated of the state of the Israelites, who then were in bondage in Babylon, for the most part, and made a short discourse of the four Empires, The Babylonian, The Persian, That of the Greeks, And the fourth of the Romans; in the destruction whereof, rose up that last Beast, which he affirmed to be the Roman Church; for to none other power that ever hath yet been, do all the notes that God hath showed to the Prophet appertain, except to it alone; And unto it they do so properly appertain, that such as are not more then blind, may clearly see them. But before he began to open the corruptions of Papistry, he defined the true Church, showed the true notes of it, whereupon it was built, why it was the Pillar of Verity, and why it could not err; to wit, Because it heard the voice of the only Pastor, JESUS CHRIST, would not hear a stranger, neither would be carried with every wind of Doctrine. Every one of these heads sufficiently declared, he entered to the contrary; and upon the notes given in his Text, he showed that the Spirit of God in the new Testament gave to this King other new names; to wit, The man of sin, The Antichrist, The Whore of Babylon. He showed, That this man of sin, or Antichrist, was not to be restrained to the person of any one man only, no more then by the fourth Beast, was to be understood the person of any one Emperor. But by such names the Spirit of God would forewarn his chosen of a body and a multitude, having a wicked head, which should not only be sinful himself, but also should be occasion of sin, to all that should be subject unto him (as Christ Jesus is the cause of Justice to all the Members of his Body) and is called the Antichrist, that is to say, One contrary to Christ, because that he is contrary to him in Life, Doctrine, Laws, and Subjects. And there began to decipher the lives of divers Popes, and the lives of all the Shavelings for the most part: Their Doctrine and Laws, he plainly proved to repugn directly to the Doctrine and Laws of God the Father, and of ⟨p. 77⟩Christ Jesus his Son. This he proved by conferring the Doctrine of Justification expressed in the Scriptures, which teach that man is justified by Faith only;