The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

"He sells merits, the forgiveness of sins, the sacrifice for the quick and the dead; he makes
merchandise of the souls of men; he lays filthy hands upon the Lord's anointed; he
removes kings and deposes the states and princes of the world. This is Antichrist; this is
his power. Thus shall he work and make himself. So shall he sit in the temple of God. The
people shall wonder at him, and shall have him in reverence; they shall say, Who is like
unto the beast? Who is so wise, so mighty, so godly, so virtuous, so holy, so like unto God?
So intolerable and monstrous shall be his pride."
Cranmer, who when sorely tried by his persecutors recanted, but later repented, when
brought to the scaffold to be burnt, said:
"Forasmuch as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be
punished therefor; for may I come to the fire, it shall first be burned; and as for the Pope, I
refuse him as Christ's enemy, and Antichrist, with all his false doctrines."
When the fire was kindled and began to burn near him, he stretched out his arm and put
his right hand into the fire, holding it there immovable, his eyes being lifted to heaven and
often repeating the words: "This hand hath offended; O this unworthy right hand!" And
finally, as the flame inclosed around him, he said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" and
died.
John Bradford when led to the stake, took a fagot in his hand, kissing it; and then standing
by the stake, with both hands uplifted to heaven, he cried,
"O England, England! repent thee of thy sins; repent thee of thy sins; beware of idolatry;
beware of false Antichrists; take heed they do not deceive thee."
All of these saints of God sought to expose the errors and abominations and usurpations of
Romanism, and called upon their fellow-Christians to come out of this false system. These
men were the successors of those mentioned as the faithful ones of "Thyatira," and the
"few names even in Sardis" who had not defiled their garments.--Rev. 2 and 3.
It will be seen, therefore, that in the beginning of the sixteenth century it became evident to
some of the Lord's saints, chiefly through an understanding obtained of the visions of the
Prophet Daniel and of St. John, and also the Second Thessalonian epistle of the Apostle
Paul, describing this great corruption of Christianity, that reform was impossible, and a
loud cry went forth for God's saints to separate themselves from this corrupt and
idolatrous Church. This warning cry continued to be heard and heeded to a greater or less
extent until the close of the eighteenth century, at which time the Papacy, as we have seen
in other visions, suffered the greatest humiliation it had ever experienced up to that time.
This was at the hands of Napoleon; and since then the Papacy has become more and more
humiliated, by being shorn of its landed estates as well as of its power and influence by
other rulers. Thus was fulfilled the prediction of the gradual consumption of the Mother
system's power and influence, foretold by the Prophet Daniel and by St. Paul, as well as by
St. John.