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A COMPLETION OF THE PROPHECIES

WITH

RESPECT TO THE PAPAL POWER, OR ANTICHRIST,

FROM THE RECENT ACTS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

[Continued from Page 38 ]

To shew the high prerogative of which if France, Spain, and Portugal, more especially— the Church of Rome holds itself intitled, countries the most devoted to the interests of we have only to appeal to their own writers the sovereign Pontiff's-can abundantly prove for authentic proofs. Cardinal Bellarmine, the frequency and the extent of pioes frauds. when treating of the Roman Poutiffs, tells The legends of the Romish saints are filled us that they must peculiarly well under- with miracles reported to have been wrought stand the authority of their own Sec. for the establishment of corrupt doctrines, and ns therefore hear them speak from their aposidolatrous worship. tolic chair.

Let

"It is observable that the Man of Sin is said to perform his miracles in the sight of men, in order to deceive them, and in the sight

the sight of God to serve his cause, or promote his religion. Now miracles, visions, and reve

"He who reigneth on high, to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth, hath committed the one holy Catholic and Apos-of the beast, in order to serve him: but not in tolic Church, out of which there is no salvation, to be governed with plenitude of power by one only on earth; namely, by Peter, thelations, are the mighty boasts of the church prince of the Apostles, and by the successor of Peter, the Roman Pontiff. This one he hath constituted a prince over all nucions, and all kingdoms; to pluck up, waste, destroy, plant, and build."

These are the words of Pope Pius V. in bis Bull against Queen Elizabeth; towards the conclusion of which, " Supported," he

says,

"by the authority of him who hath seen fit to place him, however unequal to so great a charge in this supreme throne of justice, he declares, in the plentitude of his Apostolical authority, the said Elizabeth laid under a sentence of Anathema, deprived of all rights and title to her kingdom, her subjects absolved from all oaths of a legiance to her, and those who obey her involved in the like sentence of Anathema."

The See of Rome, as it was rising to this plentiude of power, endeavoured to support itself by every appeal to the peculiar favour of heaven. Many of the Popes confirmed their authority by the pretended evidence of ghosts and of persons affirmed to be risen from the dend. Such is the exact conduct of him who was predicted to come after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteous ness, who deceiveth them that dwell on earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do The Papal See has laid claim to the power of working miracles, as to one of the marks of the true church, and persuaded the credulous and the superstitious of the dark ages, to allow its pretensions. The history of Italy,

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of Rome; the contrivance of an artful cunning clergy, to impose upon an ignorant credulous laity. Even fire is pretended to come down from heaven, as in the case of St. Anthony's fire, and other instances cited by Brightman, and other writers on the Revelation; and in solemn excommunications, which are called the thunders of the church, and are performed with the ceremony of casting down buruing torches from on high, symbols and emblems of fire from heaven. Miracles are thought so necessary and essential, that they are reckoned among the notes of the Catholie Church; and they are alleged principally in support of purgatory, prayers for the dead, the worship of saints, images, and relics, and the like (as they are called) Catholic doctrines. But if these miracles were all real, we learn from hence what opinion we ought to frame of them; and what then shall we say, if they are all fictions and counterfeits? They are indeed so far from being any proof of the true church, that they are rather a proof of a false one; they are, we see, the distinguishing mark of Antichrist."

To corroborate these observations, let us turn to the description of the church in the tenth century. "Both Greeks and Latins placed the essence and life of religion in the worship of images and departed saints, in searching after with zeal, and preserving with a devout care and veneration, the sacred relics of holy men and women; and in accumulating riches upon the priests and monks, whose opulence increased with the progress of super

stition. Scarcely did any Christian dare to ⠀ remitting the penalties imposed upon traus approach the throne of God, without rendering first the saints and images propitious by a solemn round of expiatory rites and lustrations. The fears of purgatory, of that fire which was to destroy the remaining impurities of departed souls, were now carried to the greatest height, and exceeded by far the terrifying apprehensions of infernal torments; for they hoped to avoid the latter easily, by dying enriched with the prayers of the clergy, or covered with the merits and mediations of the saints; while from the pains of purgatory they knew there was no excmption. The clergy therefore, finding these superstitious terrors admirably adapted to increase their authority and promote their interest,|| used every method to augment them, and by the most pathetic discourses, accompanied || with monstrous fables, and fictitious miracles, they laboured to establish the doctrine of purgatory, and also to make it appear that they had a mighty interest in that formidable region."

The sovereign Pontiff exercised the authority he had obtained in making and publishing edicts and constitutions for the establishment of idolatry. Divine honours were conferred upon reputed saints, who were solemnly canonized according to the regular forms of consecration. As they were supposed to be possessed of divine power, the most fervent prayers were offered up to them-the name of God, and of them that dwell in heaven, was blasphemed, and the Supreme Being was deprived of the glory and worship due to him aloue, and the name of the genuine saints and angels was abused by setting them up as mediators and intercessors for mankind. The divine laws were changed. In the Popish mass-books, and in the tables written in the churches, the second commandment, so directly pointed against all idolatry, was omitted; and, in order to make up the complete number of the Decalogue, the tenth commandment is divided into two. It has been the practice of the Church of Rome for many ages, to dispense for money with the duc observance of the precepts of the Gospel, and to sell indulgences, pardons, and absolutions, even for crimes of the most atrocious nature. Of the progress of this infamous traffic, we may judge by the account given of it in the twelfth century.

"When the Roman Pontiff's cast an eye upon the immense treasures that the inferior rulers of the Church were accumulating by the sale of indulgeuces, they thought proper to limit the power of the Bishops in

gressors, and assumed almost entirely thin
profitable traffic to themselves. Ju con-
sequence of this new measure, the Court of
Rome became the general magazine of in-
dulgences: and the Pontiffs, when either
the wants of the Church, the emptiness
of their coffers, or the demon of avarice
prompted them to look out for new sub-
sidies, published not only an universal, but
also a complete, or what they call a plenary
remission of all temporal pains and penalties,
which the Church had annexed to certain
transgressions. They went still farther, and
not only remitted the penalties which the civil
and ecclesiastical laws had enacted against
transgressors, but audaciously usurped the au-
thority which belongs to God alone, and impiously
pretended to abolish even the punishments which
are reserved in a future state for the workers of* ·
iniquity; a step this, which the Bishops with
all their avarice and presumption had never
one
once ventured to take." He opened his mouth
in blasphemy against Gol. "God alone hath
given power to forgive sins," is the declara.
tion of our Lord.

"When a new Pope is inaugurated, he is clothed with the pontifical robes, and crowned, and placed upon the altar of the church of St. Peter at Rome, and the Cardinals come and kiss his feet, which ceremony is called adoration. They first elect, and then they worship him; as in the medals of Martin V. where two are represented crowning the Pope, and two kneeling before him, with this inscription, Querm creant, adorant-whom they create they adore." Can any one be a spectator of this impions ceremony, and not be struck by the appearance of the Man of Sin who exalteh himself, and as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God!

"Among the Catholics, Cardinal Orsi says, there is no one who dares deny, or can deny, that Jesus Christ has instituted a monarchy, or form of monarchical government in his church, and that the supreme head of this monarchy is the Roman Pontiff." This is declared with great solemnity from the portico of St. Peter's Church, in the presence of a numer ous assembly at the coronation of a Pope; when a Cardinal Deacon having taken the mitre from his head, another places on it the triple crown, and says, "Receive this Tiara adorned with three crowns; and know that thou art Father of Princes and Kings, Governor of the Globe of the Earth, Vicegerent of our Saviour Jesus Christ."

With such pretensions to more than mortal honours, agrees the language of Gregory II.

addressed in his Epistle to the Emperor Leo.

the the truth.

Had the great Apostle of the Gentiles beheld in the ages that succeeded his own, the sects of Encratites and Apostolici, who observed the most rigid abstinence, and condemued marriage as an unholy state-Had he seen the numerous monks, who, form

Anachorets, devoted themselves to a recluse life, and gradually overflowing like a torrent, first the Greek, and afterwards the Latin Church-And if he had lived to see all Europe covered with religious houses, and those houses peopled with nuns and friars of all denominations, who, in common with the Popish laity, preserved during Lent, and at other times, the injunctions of the sovereign Pontiff, to abstain from flesh-The great Apostle might have drawn a more full pic ture; but he could not have given a more striking sketch, by a few masterly strokes, than he has done.

Now the spirit speaketh expressly, that in in the eigth century, which will show how the latter times some shall depart from the faith, soon the sovereign Pontiff began to exalt him-forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain self, even when affecting a style of humility-- from meats, which God hath created to be received "Are you ignorant that the Popes are the with thanksgiving of them which believe and knew bond of union, the mediators of peace between the East and West? The eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility; and they revere as a God upon earth the Apostle St. Peter, whose image you threaten to destroy. The remote and interior kingdoms of the West present their homage to Christ and his Vicegerent." Similar were the presumptuous, or rathering the different classes of Cœnobites and blasphemous appellations either claimed or approved by his successors. Innocent III. asserted the Popes held on earth the place not of mere men, but of the true God. Martin V. in the instructions which he gave to the ambassadors whom he sent to Constantinople, styled himself the Most Holy and the Most Blessed, who has the celestial empire, who is Lord upou Earth, Successor of St. Peter, the Christ of the Lord, the Master of the Universe, the Father of Kings, and the light of the world." An Archbishop thus addressed Leo X. "All power is given unto you, and he who said all excepted nothing." This Pope suffered himself to be styled Divine Majesty. Paul V. allowed himself to be called Vice-God, and received the prophetic Janguage of Jeremiah and Daniel as applicable to himself. Thus the authority with which for many centuries the Popes claimed the disposal of the dominion of the earth, the obedience which they required to their decrees, and the exalted and impious titles which they assumed or authorized, demonstrate the full establishment of the predicted universal empire. Modern like ancient Rome kept the world in subjection to its laws it devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet.

But where, it may be asked, are any traces to be found in the prophecies, of those peculiar institutions and practices which have || distinguished the Church of Rome so very remarkably from all others—the celibacy of her clergy, the institution of her fasts, and spirit of persecution, that has so often drawn the sword against the more pure professors of the Gospel.

We learn from Mosheim, that the great work ascribed to the monastic orders, the sup port of the Papal authority, was more especially performed by two mendicant classes of monks. The power of the Dominicaus and Franciscans surpassed greatly that of the other two orders, and rendered thein singularly conspicuous in the eyes of the world. During three centuries these two fraternities governed, with an almost universal and absolute sway both state and church, filled the most eminent posts ecclesiastical and civil, taught in the universities and churches, with an authority, before which all opposition was silent, and maintained the pretended Majesty of the Roman Pontiffs, against Kings, Princes, Bishops, and Heretics, with incredible ardour and equal success.' And since the reformation, the Papal pretensions to universal supremacy have been supported with equal zeal, and even carried into another hemisphere, by that order who have assumed the very name of Jesus.

[To be continued.]

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Engraved for the 3 Number of the New Series of La Belle Assemble Pub by J. Bell April 1.1810.

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