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and then they worship him; as in the me dals of Martin V. where two are reprefented crowning the Pope, and two kneeling before him with this infcription, Quem creant, adorant-whom they create, they adore." Can any one be a fpectator of this impious ceremony, and not be ftruck by the appearance of the Man of Sin who exalteth himself, and as God fitteth in the temple of God, fhowing himself that he is God??

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Among the Catholics, Cardinal Orfi fays, 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 fupreme head of this monarchy is the Roman Pontiff 9." This is declared with great folemnity from the portico of St. Peter's Church, in the prefence of a numerous afsembly 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,

• Newton, vol. iii. p. 240.
• Townson's Babylon, p. 11.

2 Theff. ii. 4.

Governor

Governor of the Globe of the Earth, Vicegerent of our Saviour Jefus Chrift."

With fuch pretenfions to more than mortal honours, agrees the language of Gregory II. addreffed in his Epistle to the Emperor Leo, in the eighth century, which will fhow bow foon the fovereign Pontiff began to exalt himself, even when affecting a ftyle of humility-" Are you ignorant that the Popes are the bond of union, the mediators of peace, between the East and the Weft? The eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility; and they revere as a God upon earth, the Apoftle St. Peter, whose image you threaten to destroy. The remote and interior kingdoms of the Weft present their homage to Chrift and his Vicegerent." Similar were the prefumptuous, or rather blafphemous appellations either claimed or approved by his fucceffors. Innocent III. afferted that the Popes held on earth the place not of mere men, but of the true God. Martin V. in the inftructions which he gave to the ambaffadors whom he sent to Conftantinople, styled himself the Most Holy, and the Most Blessed,

Gibbon, vol. v. p. 107.

who

who has the celestial empire, who is Lord upon Earth, Succeffor of St. Peter, the Christ of the Lord, the Master of the Univerfe, the Father of Kings, and the light of the world. An Archbishop thus addreffed Leo X." All power is given unto you, and he who faid all, excepted nothing." This Pope fuffered himself to be ftyled Divine Majefty. Paul V. allowed himself to be called Vice-God, and received the prophetic language of Jeremiah and Daniel as applicable to himself. Thus the authority with which for many centuries the Popes claimed the difpofal of the dominion of the earth, the obedience which they required to their decrees, and the exalted and impious titles which they affumed or authorized, demonftrate the full establishment of the predicted univerfal empire. Modern like antient Rome kept the world in subjection to its laws: it devoured, brake in pieces, and ftamped the refidue with its feet.

But where, it may be asked, are any traces to be found in the Prophecies, of thofe peculiar inftitutions and practices which have diftinguished the Church of

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Rome fo very remarkably from all others -the Celibacy of her clergy-the inftitution of her Fafts-and the Spirit of Perfecution, that has so often drawn the sword against the more pure profeffors of the Gospel?

Now the Spirit Speaketh exprefsly, that in the latter times fome fhall depart from the faith, FORBIDDING TO MARRY, AND COM

MANDING ΤΟ ABSTAIN FROM MEATS, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth1.

Had the great Apostle of the Gentiles beheld, in the ages that fucceeded his own, the fects of Encratites and Apoftolici ", who obferved the most rigid abftinence, and condemned marriage as an unholy stateHad he feen the numerous monks, who, forming the different claffes of Canobites, and Anachorets, devoted themselves to a reclufe life, and gradually overflowed like a torrent, first the Greek, and afterwards the Latin Church-And if he had lived to see

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all Europe covered with religious houses, and thofe houses peopled with nuns and friars of all denominations, whò, in common with the Popish laity, preserved during Lent, and at other times, the injunctions of the fovereign Pontiff, to abstain from flesh-The great Apoftle might have drawn a more full picture; but he could not have given a more striking sketch by a few masterly ftrokes, than he has done".

"We learn from Mofheim, that the great work afcribed to the monaftic orders, the fupport of the Papal authority, was more efpecially performed by two mendicant claffes of Monks. The power of the Dominicans and Francifcans furpaffed greatly that of the other two orders, and rendered them fingularly confpicuous in the eyes of the world. During three centuries these two fraternities governed, with an almost universal and abfolute fway, both

▾ Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 9.

z The Prophecy concerning the establishment of the monaftic orders, ftrikes with the greater force, when we recollect that thofe orders were the great fupports of the Papal authority.

ftate

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