"whose coming is after the WORKING OF SATAN, with all power and signs, and LYING WONDERS; and with all DECEIVABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS in them that

perish; because they received not the love of the truth,

Ecclesiastical History) all, in confirmation of the spuriousness of these Epistles. Well, be the matter as it may, it is, I know full well, quite sufficient for yourself and your Church to be told; however absurd these papal documents may be in their pretentions, or ridiculous as to their authenticity or genuineness; that in the 13th Century, Pope Gregory IX. ordered these Decretals to be collected and added to those of Gratian. At the same time in order that your whole Church should be enlightened by such a marvellous blaze of light, as might be expected, to emanate from so very brilliant productions!!! We are informed (See Jo. Chiflet, De Juris utriusque Architectis, cap. vi. p. 60.) that this Pope in order to instil correct views of the Papal Jurisdiction into the minds of the Clergy, commanded the Decretal Epistles to be read in all the Colleges of Europe. It is also to be observed that towards the conclusion of the same Century, Pope Boniface VIII. gave them also the SACRED stamp of his HOLY authority by ordering them to be enlarged and republished. It may not be amiss, en passant, to inform my readers, with your indulgence, that this Vice-God and Creator-creating Pontiff lived, according to the concurrent testimony of all your own historians, a life of the most barbarous, disgusting, and horrid sensuality; nay more, he has been undeniably charged with an habitual practice of unmentionable, unnatural crimes; nor was the manner of his death, less outré, than the tenor of his debauched life. Did he not leave this world, "his imperious soul being wounded in a vital part," a martyr to the effects of disappointed avarice and ambition?-gnawing, as we are told, his fingers, and knocking with the utmost desperation his head against the wall; " a magnanimous sinner (say the ancient Chronicles of the times) who entered like a Fox, reigned like a LION, and died like a Doa." (See his character ably delineated by the masterly pen of Gibbon, in vol. xi. p. 306, Edit. of 1807.) What wonder then, I am willing to exclaim, that such an illustrious example, and so admirable an ecclesiastical champion of Papal prerogatives, felt himself priviliged continually to teach and uphold his peculiar dogma, that, "submission to the Pontiffs was necessary for the attainment of salvation;"-laying claim, with a devotedness surpassing even one of his predesessors, the renowned Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. to a supreme and irresistible dominon over all the powers of the lower world; and in the exhaustless fertility of his fine immagination, planning, and instituting, as the last legacy of Papal contrivances, the unheard of, and novel invention of the Jubilee, so late as the year 1300 A. D. A happy device, indeed, to communicate the overflowing treasures of such precious merits, committed in trust to the pious charge of his Holiness; and this for so noble a purpose, as granting a PERIODICAL PLENARY ABSOLUTION;

that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them STRONG DELUSION, that they should believe A LIẺ: that they all might be DAMNED who believed not the TRUTH but had pleasure in unrighteousness (v. 9-12)—

at the convenient rate of replenishing the royal exchequer;-of playing the pander to the licentiousness and corruptions of a city, which, as it is without trade, and wallowing in indolence, is crumbling and almost decayed;-and of enriching the tradesmen, the tavern and brothel keepers of the Holy City, by the inundating swarms of devout and impatient pilgrims, so eagerly panting, to get a glimpse of the Apostolical Churches, and the invaluable sacred depositaries of countless relics!!! A Saint, here, has cause to hide his head and blush; but undoubtedly the gazing philosopher is not to be censured, if he can hardly stifle an expressive smile, either at the gainful triumph of the priests, who, as is recorded, have been complacently obliged to stand, during the happy season, both night and day, with rakes in their hands, to collect without counting, the heaps of gold and silver, that were poured in the altar of St. Paul (Papa innumerabilem pecuniam ab iisdem accepit, nam duo clerici, cum rastris, &c. See the Chronicon Astense, in the xi. vol. p. 191, 192 of Muratori's Collection, and a Romish Priest): -or at the ebullition of happiness expressed in the delighted conntenances of the citizens, so fortunate as to have their solicitations granted to them, by the yielding consideration of Pope Clement VI. of having the profitable return of the Jubilee accelerated, by a period of fifty years beyond its original Institution. (See Muratori's Antiq. Ital. tom. iii. p. 344, 481.)-The inquiring reader who is anxious to investigate thoroughly the multifarious details of the Jubilees, from their origin, in the Pontificate of Boniface, in the year 1300, to that of Benedict XIV. in 1750, is particularly recommended to peruse the 3 vols. 12mo. of Mr. Chais, a French Protestant Minister at the Hague, entitled ("Lettres Historiques et Dogmatiques, sur les Jubiles et les Indulgences;") where he will find abundant cause, for either laughing or weeping over, the crimes, the intrigues, the debaucheries, the frivolous levities, exceeding the utmost bounds of Chivalry or Romance, that are acted during the festivities of this renewed figment of Paganism. Let us now return from this rather tedious digression to the consideration of these famous Decretal Epistles-which were, as the segacious Gibbon has declared (Decline and Fall, vol. ix. p. 159.) fraud--the resource of weakness and cunning; for the strong though ignorant Barbarian, was often entangled in the net of sacerdotal policy. The Vatican and Lateran were an ARSENAL and MANUFACTURE, which, according to the occasion, have produced or CONCEALEd a various collection of false or genuine, of corrupt or suspicious acts, as they tended to promote the interest of the Roman Church." Notwithstanding this or any other historians testimony, these documents, levelled though they may have been, by the judgments of eloquent critics, the biting satyr of Poets (see Orlando Furioso of

a

and of him too, whose character, mission, and office are thus comprehensively included; and by the faithful page of the historical records of friends and foes, of partizans and rivals, as well likewise of disinterest

Ariosto xxxiv. 80.) the contempt of historians, and the tacit or modest censure of your own advocates; still is their reign sanctified by such a false and obsolete title among you, as even to provoke the scornful smile of Popes themselves, at the credulity, and faithswallowing appetites of the credulous vulgar; (Perroniana, p. 77.) and this magic pillar of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of your Popes, is still resorted to as undoubted authority, with the same good fortune which has attended the Sibylline oracles; as their edifice is still proudly gazed at, though the foundations have been so often and so completely undermined. Now what do these Decretals teach? Take one example out of a thousand; "possumus supra jus dispensare" i. e. "we the Popes are able to grant dispensations above law." (See Decret. Greg. iii. 8. iv, with which also compare Extrav. Comm. 208 et passim.) 3d. And in addition, Sir, to the above, can you contradict the well-authenticated fact, of a learned Romish doctor, Cornelio, in a speech, which met no opposition, but was hailed with a silent acquiescence, before the Holy, Infallible Council of Trent, arguing and declaring, that, from the scriptural expression "FEED MY SHEEP" as also from the Canon Law and its Glosses, the Pope can dispense, with the utmost plenitude, "IN ALL THE LAWS OF GOD." "Le Pape pouvoit dispenser même dans tout le droit divin?" (See the highly celebrated history of the Council of Trent, by a most distinguished member of your communion, Fra. Paolo Sarpi, translated into French by another distinguished Romanist of the Gallican Church, Courayer, 2 vol. p. 436.) Nor need we long be ignorant of the reasons why such plenitude of omnipotence, is attributed to your Popes. Your own multifarious dissertations in proof of all this, will soon solve the difficulty. Enough, methinks has been already said; attend however to a few more authorities, with which, your own recondite Archives furnish me, in respect to the Divine attributes and super-Divine prerogatives, claimed by your Spiritual and Temporal Heads; and clothed in language far superior to the gorgeous draperies, and pompously swelling titles of Oriental Sovereignty. Did not Stephen, Archbishop of Petrarca, with an excess of Blasphemy almost incredible, declare as an acknowledged doctrine of Romanism, and as such was unhesitatingly received and approved of by a General Council, assembled within the very walls of the Palace of the Lateran, in the sixteenth Century, that, Pope Leo X. possessed "power above all powers, both in Heaven and in Earth" or "Potestas supra omnes potestates tam cœli, quàm terræ ?" (See Labbé Concil. Edit. of Venice in 1728, vol. 19. p. 924, with which compare p. 700, 920, 927.) And was not this very same Pope in that Council styled "The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the Saviour of Sion?" (The general reader is re

B

ed unimpassioned, and contemporary chroniclers, so fully, and so perspicuously developed, according to the Prophetic Symbols, of "THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY," (v. 7) and of " THE SON OF PERDITION." (v.3).

To expose, then, Sir, the almost inexplicable and

commended to consult the learned Daubuz's reflections on the place here refered to in the Apocalypse; being next to the English Mede, and Vitringa of Franeker, the soundest Expositor of these abstruse prophecies.) But who was this Leo X. ? Yes, the very Monster who has been accused by his own creatures of the grossest impiety and the rankest Atheism, and who has been handed down to posterity, as the Father of an INFAMOUS SPEECH, received even now as a colloquial proverb among the profane and unbelieving; which he has been reported by contemporary historians as having often smilingly uttered in the presence of a kindred soul-his own Secretary-Cardinal Bembo, and by him also plainly, and fully recorded, calling the BLESSED GOSPEL of the Divine Saviour "A LUCRATIVE FABLE." Nor was the servant, a less notorious infidel and atheist than the master his Holiness! We are informed that Bembo, habitually wallowed, in the very steeps of impure libertinism; -the father of a numerous illegitimate offspring;-and was constantly in the habit of excusing himself for neglecting the Scriptures, lest the reading of them should affect his latinity, which he proudly boasted was modelled upon Ciceronian purity!!! (See the Historical Dictionary of Moreri-a Romish divine, and the Critical Dictionary of Bayle.) Accuse me not of harshness in designating Leo, the Mæcenas of the sixteenth Century a monster! What better epithet does the ruffian deserve; who following in the steps of MANY of his predecessors, that sat in Saint Peter's chair; has copied their gross examples, by indulging in the habitual practice of such horrid crimes, that cannot even be mentioned without fearfully outraging the feelings of common modesty? I may quote, veiled in a foreign garb, the joint attestation of two of the most celebrated historians of the times in which he lived, and who were not only members of your communion, but the protégés and favorites also of Leo; both having received high preferments from him, and one of them (Jovius) a Pension! "non caruit etiam infamia, quod parum honesté nonnullos e cubiculariis adamare!!!" (See Jovius, 192, and Guicciard. xiv.) An accusation also confirmed by the renowned Romanist, Bruys, in his (Histoire des Papes, 4 vol. p. 417,) and in some measure likewise by Thuanus, a Papal historian of deserved and great celebrity, in his (Histor. 1. 1. p. 13,) where he says "Pope Leo X. a man giving himself to all licentiousness!!!" And yet, Sir, this was the Vicegerent of God, who presided over the Council of the Lateran in the year 1517; the last but one, ever convened or believed in as ECUMENICAL by your Church; to whose decrees and precepts you have sworn passive and implicit obedience :-and this Council, as if to uprear the blasphemics of your Papal system to a de

interminable mysteries of such continued, deluding

Working" of the long-practised iniquities, of the heaven-marked HARLOTRY, of your nefarious system; -yea, even to unveil its hideous front, in all the

gree, unparalleled even in the darkest ages of priestcraft, superstition, and monkish ignorance; and unappalled by the polluting presence of an impious, blaspheming libertine, or the atrocious horrors of a debauched infidel; -filled up as it were the poisoned cup of Popish blasphemies to the very brim, by ratifying the Bull of Pope Boniface VIII. which taught the subjection of all Christians to the Roman Pontiff as necessary to eternal salvation; and that in the Supremacy there was the exertion of a power, which could wield at pleasure the temporal and eternal interests of worlds. No, not even this was sufficient; we find also that this same Council held forth that "the Pope was by every one to be WORSHIPPED." And of course you are not ignorant, how perfectly agreeable the PRACTICE of your Church, is to such enactments. By this we shall see what construction, your Infallible Heads allow, even with the irresistible force of example, to be put upon a doctrine, which if it be held PRACTICALLY, as it is unanswerably in THEORY;-there remains nothing further to be done, but to cast upon your whole system, the unanswerable accusation of blasphemy and idolatry, of the most awful stamp, and the blackest dye: and this at the very entrance of the inexplicable labyrinth of your Church's circuitous rounds of neverending creeds. Well, is it not at this very day recorded in the ROM. PONTIFICAL. in the Inauguration Offices of your Popes; that when the Tiara, or Triple crown, corresponding with the Triple Key on their arms, the EMBLEM of their threefold sovereignty over the Terrestrial, Infernal, and Celestial Worlds, is placed upon their heads; the act is accompanied with these words, "Receive this diadem, adorned with three crowns; and know yourself to be Father of Princes and Kings, Ruler of the World, and Vicar upon Earth of our Saviour Jesus Christ!!!" ("Accipe Tiaram Tribus Coronis ornatam ; et scias te esse Patrem Principum et Regum; RECTOREM ORBIS; in Terra Vicarium Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi!") And at this august ceremony, are not the Pontiffs, clothed in their Pontifical robes, placed upon the High Altar in St. Peter's Church, making the Table of the Lord their FOOTSTOOL, and occupying a Seat which is specially denominated God's Seat; -a name, by the way, which is given exclusively to the Pope's chairs in all the sacred ceremonies? Does he not in this position receive the ceremony, called the ADORATION; which consists in the prostration and adoration of the entire worshiping Sacred College of the seventy-two Cardinals, representing under their Vicar the disciples of Christ, kissing his feet, and invoking him in terms, of the most execrable blasphemy? And are there not at this day Medals to be seen, in commemoration of Martin V. (the Pope who condemned Wickliffe, and had John Husse with Jerome of Prague, his followers, burnt at the murderous stake;) on