Mede's Apostasy of the Latter Times. with an Introduction

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1845 edition. Excerpt: ... INTRODUCTION. The name of Mede has long stood deservedly high among the interpreters of prophecy and champions of the Protestant faith. Besides his solid piety and evident honesty in the pursuit of truth, his writings are marked by acute sagacity, various and discursive reading, and a close research into the Word of God. These excellencies are all conspicuous in the following treatise, on the Apostasy of the Latter Times. It bears marks, indeed, of that rough and unfinished style, which he owns as a fault in one of his letters; but for close and varied research, happily applied to illustrate an important warning of Scripture, few works can claim equal praise. No treatise, perhaps, has had a more powerful and lasting effect in unmasking the Christian idolatries of former ages, and thus forming a strong bulwark against the proud pretensions of the Roman Antichrist. The work seems doubly seasonable at the present moment. Writers in our own Church are busy in the effort " to purge away the filth and scum " of Romish legends, and to pour them B by Lives of the Saints, in a filtered and sentimental form, on the sacred fountains of youthful thought. It is well, therefore, that the warning of the Spirit against the " hypocrisy of legendmongers" should be explained from history, and sounded loudly in the ears of the Church. Thus, with God's blessing, many souls may be rescued from the subtle delusion, who might else be fatally bewitched with these pleasing love-potions and sorceries of Home. The enemy may for the last time come in like a flood: but, in these prophetic warnings, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a mighty standard against him. A treatise of such a kind, so weighty for its learning, and so decisive in its tone, cannot fail to have...