Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/209

Rh by great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, neither shall be, is signified, as in other passages throughout the word, the infestation of truth by falses, to such a degree, that not a single truth remaineth which is not falsified, and brought to its consummation; this is understood also by the abomination of desolation in the same passages, and also by the overspreading of desolation, and by the consummation in Daniel, and in the Revelation, by the circumstances described above. All this was a consequence of men's not acknowledging the unity of God in trinity, and his trinity in unity, in one person, but in three, and thence founding a church on the idea of three Gods in the mind, and the confession of one God with the lips, whereby they have separated themselves from the Lord, and that to such a degree, that they have no idea left of the divinity in his human nature, when nevertheless he is God the Father in the Humanity, on which account he is called the, Isaiah ix. 5, and saith to Philip, He that seeeth me seeth the father, John xiv. 7, 9. But it will be asked, what is the source or fountain, from whence such abomination of desolation as is described in Daniel, Chap. ix. 27, and such tribulation as never was, nor shall be, Matt. xxiv. 1, 2, hath sprung? I answer, The faith which universally prevails throughout the Christian world, with its influx, operation, and imputation, according to traditions. It is a wonderful thing, that the doctrine of justification by this faith alone, although it be no faith, but a mere chimera, is received in all Christian churches as the main-spring of divinity, that is, is taught by the clergy as the first and ruling doctrine of true theology. It is this faith which all young students in divinity eagerly learn, and imbibe in the universities, and which afterwards, as if under the influence of heavenly wisdom,