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lish the worship of images. Henry IV. Emperor of Germany, was depofed and excommunicated in the eleventh century, by Pope Hildebrand II. "Under that young and ambitious prieft, Innocent III: the fucceffors of St. Peter attained the full meridian of their greatness; and in a reign of eighteen years he exercised a defpotic command over the Emperors and Kings, whom he raised and depofed; over the nations, whom an interdict of months or years deprived, for the offence of their rulers, of the exercife of Chriftian worship.-In the Council of the Lateran, he acted as the ecclefiaftical, almoft as the temporal fovereign of the Eaft and Weft. It was at the feet of his Legate that John, King of England, furrendered his crown; and Innocent may boast of the two most signal triumphs over fenfe and humanity, the establishment of transubstantiation 2, and the origin of the Inquifition. At his voice, two crufades, the fourth and the fifth, were undertaken "." In the fame century b, in

a

z About the year 931, Paschafius Radbertus first maintained the real prefence in the Sacrament.

a Gibbon, vol. vi. p. 109.

Whitaker, p. 241.

9

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which the fame hiftorian fays, that "Charles the fourth received the gift or promise of the empire from the Roman pontiff, who, in the exile or captivity of Avignon, affected the dominion of the earth," the Monkish miffionaries kept the Papal banner flying in China; and Pope Benedict XII. received a folemn embaffy from the Khan of the Tartars. In the next age, Alexander IV. gave a rare specimen of Papal presumption, in dividing America between the Portuguese and Spaniards. "In the seventeenth century, Alphonfo Mendez, the Catholic Patriarch of Ethiopia, accepted, in the name of Urban VIII. the homage of the Emperor of Abyffinia and his court-I confefs, 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 swear true obedience, and at his feet I offer my perfon and kingdom,"

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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 Bel

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

fon, p. 9.

c. 3

larmine, when treating of the Roman Pontiffs, tells us that they must peculiarly well understand the authority of their own See. Let us therefore hear them fpeak from their apoftolical 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.”

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These are the words of Pope Pius V. in his Bull against Queen Elizabeth; towards the conclufion of which, Supported," he says, by the authority of him who hath feen fit to place him, however unequal to fo great a charge, in this fupreme throne of justice, he declares, in

This Bull may be seen 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.

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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 absolved from all oaths of allegiance to her, and those who obey her, involved in the like sentence of Anathema,

The See of Rome, as it was rifing to this plenitude of power, endeavoured to fupport 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 rifen 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 the earth, by means of thofe miracles which he had power to do. The Papal Sce 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 superftitious of the dark ages, to allow its pretenfions. The hiftory of Italy, France,

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2 Theff. ii. 10.

C 4

Spain,

Spain, and Portugal, more especiallycountries the most devoted to the interefts 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 ferve him: but not in the fight of God to ferve 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 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

f Vide Brightman, et Poli Synopf. in locum,,

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