Thomas of Erceldoune

“ And indeed the late sharp and bloody persecution of the Protestants in France, Savoy, and at present in Ireland, may be part of what this pious man hinted at; but if God for our sins should suffer us to fall into further affliction, we are sure the joy of the wicked shall be but for a moment, and that in due time Rome shall finally fall, And the kings of the earth shall hate the whore, and snake her desolate, and naked, and burn her with fire. ”

“ The outward court, says he, Is the formal Christian, whose religion lies in performing the out-side duties of Christianity, without having an inward life, and power of faith and love, uniting them to Christ; and these God will leave to be trodden down and swept away by the Gentiles, but the worshippers within the Temple and before the Altar, are those that indeed worship God in Spirit and Truth, whose souls are made his Temples, and he is honoured and adored in the most inward thoughts of their hearts. ”

“ THIS great divine, in a time when it was least expected the Papists should gain any power or advantage, declared, that he confidently expected great calamities, and that a sad persecution would fall upon the Protestant churches of Europe ; therefore, said he to his friend that made further enquiry: Fool not yourself with hopes of its being over, I tell you that all you have yet seen, is but the beginning of sorrows, to what is yet to come upon the Protestant Churches of Christ, who will ere long fall under a sharper persecution than ever has yet been upon them ”