fefs, faid the Emperor on his knees, that the Pope is the Vicar of Chrift, the Succeffor of St. Peter, and the Sovereign of the world: to him I fwear true obedience, and at his feet I offer my perfon and kingdom."

с

And to fhow the high prerogatives to which the Church of Rome holds itself intitled, we have only to appeal to their own writers for authentic proofs. Cardinal Bellarmine, when treating of the Roman Pontiffs, tells us that they muft peculiarly well underftand the authority of their own See. Let us therefore hear them speak from their apostolical chair.

"He who reigneth on high, to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth, hath committed the one holy Catholic and Apoftolical Church, out of which there is no falvation, to be governed with plenitude of power by one only on earth; namely, by Peter the prince of the Apostles, and by the fucceffor of Peter, the Roman Pontiff. This one he hath conftituted a prince over all nations, and all kingdoms; to pluck up, wafte, deftroy, plant, and build."

Babylon in the Revelation of St. John, by Townson,

Thefe

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

66

66

by the authority of him who hath seen fit to place him, however unequal to so great a charge, in this fupreme throne of justice, he declares, in the plenitude of his Apoftolical authority, the faid Elizabeth laid under a fentence of Anathema, deprived of all right and title to her kingdom, her subjects abfolved from all oaths of allegiance to her, and those who obey her, involved in the like fentence of Anathema.'

The See of Rome, as it was rifing to this plenitude 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 ghofts, and of perfons affirmed to be risen from the dead. Such is the exact conduct of him who was predicted to come after the working of Satan, with all power, and figns, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, who deceiveth them that dwell in

This Bull may be feen at length in Camden's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, under the year 1570, and in Burnet's Hift. of the Reformation, vol. ii. Collection of Records,

p. 377,

c 3

the

the earth, by means of thofe 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 perfuaded the credulous and the fuperftitious of the dark ages, to allow its pretensions, The history of Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal more especially-countries the most devoted to the interests of the fovereign Pontiffs- -can abundantly prove the frequency and the extent of pious frauds. The legends of the Roman faints are filled with accounts of miracles reported to have been wrought for the establishment of corrupt doctrines, and idolatrous worship,

"It is obfervable, that the Man of Sin is faid to perform his miracles, in the fight of Men in order to deceive them, and in the fight of the beaft in order to serve him: but not in the fight of God to serve his cause, or promote his religion, Now miracles, vifions, and revelations, are the mighty boast of the church of Rome; the contrivances of an artful cunning clergy, to impose upon an ignorant credulous laity. Even fire is pretended to come down from heaven, as in the cafe of St. Anthony's

с 2 Theff, ii. 10,

fire, and other inftances cited by Brightman', and other writers on the Revelation; and in folemn excommunications, which are called the thunders of the church, and are performed with the ceremony of cafting down burning torches from on high, as fymbols and emblems of fire from heaven. Miracles are thought fo neceffary and effential, that they are reckoned among the notes of the Catholic Church; and they are alleged principally in fupport of purgatory, prayers for the dead, the worship of faints, 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 fay, if they are all fictions and counterfeits? They are indeed fo far from being any proof of the true church, that they are rather a proof of a false one; they are, as we fee, the diftinguishing mark of Antichrift "."

Tocorroborate thefe obfervations, let us turn to the defcription of the church in the tenth century. "Both Greeks and Latins placed the effence and life of religion in the worship

↑ Vide Brightman, et Poli Synopf. in locum. Newton, vol. iii. p. 236, 237,

Mofheim, vol. i. p. 456.

of images and departed faints, in fearching after with zeal, and preferving with a devout care and veneration, the facred relics of holy men and women; and in accumulating riches upon the Priests and Monks, whofe opulence increased with the progress of superstition. Scarcely did any Christian dare to approach the throne of God, without rendering first the faints and images propitious by a folemn round of expiatory rites and lustrations.The fears of purgatory, of that fire which was to destroy the remaining impurities of departed fouls, were now carried to the greatest height, and exceeded by far the terrifying apprehenfions 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 faints; while from the pains of purgatory they knew their was no exemption. The clergy therefore, finding these fuperftitious terrors admirably adapted to increase their authority and promote their intereft, used every method to augment them, and by the most pathetic discourses, accompanied with monftrous fables and fictitious miracles, they laboured to establish the

The worship of images was established at the second Council of Nice, A. D. 787. See Lowman, p. 206. doctrine