and a wondrous sublimity, which, while it connects earth with heaven and time with eternity, and reveals to man, that he is formed, for expatiating on a wider and grander theatre, that he is reserved to partake of a nobler-a more exalted destiny-points out likewise its Divine original, by the unspotted holiness of its precepts, -by the perfect aptitude of its various parts to the nature, weaknesses, and wants of man,-by the majestic splendour of its sanctions, -by the inconceivable greatness of its objects,-and by the overflowing measure of wisdom, goodness, mercy, and love, so wonderfully and plenteously

well endure, the stubborn fact, that the entire motley parade of their degrading and superstitious rites, had their beginning at a very late period in the annals of the Church; and that their Novelties, owe their origin, to periods of the greatest darkness, the most impure morals, and the most unhallowed licentiousness, that ever the pen of an historian has been obliged to describe. One example out of a thousand, may suffice to illustrate this undeniable truth. In this very century, i. e. the eleventh, it would be tedious to enumerate, in a circumstantial manner, the new inventions that were imposed upon the Western World, under the specious titles of piety and zeal, by the superstitious despotism of these papal Monsters; -who, it would appear, fondly, and industriously imposed upon their unfortunate and ignorant dupes, such galling burdens, as might inspire the panic of superstition; -as well to cloak their own hateful enormities, as to strike dismay, by the terrors and wonders of their boasted, superhuman powers. Among the endless novelties of these ridiculous inventions, we will just mention that Sergius III., the Father of the illegitimate John XI. (!), first ordained the bearing of candles in the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, thence called Candlemas day; the dignity of Cardinal was first instituted; Investitures first introduced; the Feast of All Souls first appointed by John XIX. ; Swords, Roses, &c. first consecrated by Sergius IV. on Christmas night, to be sent as tokens of love, to Princes, whom the Popes desired to court and flatter; the Sabbath Fasts first introduced by Gregory VII; and the Cistertian, Carthusian and Whipping orders(!), with many others were first founded in this Century. In the thirteenth century, Albertus Magnus, Provincial of the Dominican order in Germany; the illustrious Preceptor of St. Thomas Aquinas -the Angelic Doctor-the great luminary of the Scholastic world (Bayle), -says "they that now preside over the church, are Thieves and Plunderers; Robbers, not Guardians; Spoilers, not Protectors; Destroyers, not Shepherds; Deceivers, not Guides ; perverting, not teaching the Doctrines of the Gospel. These are the forerunners of Antichrist, the enemies of the Flock of Christ!"

displayed, throughout each, and all of its diversified

details.

It must, then, assuredly be acknowledged, that, of all the subjects, which the grasp of human intellect, is permitted to approach, Religion in its origin and end-in its causes and effects,-ought pre-eminently to occupy a place of transcendent, and supreme importance, in the estimation of every true friend of man, and in every genuine lover of social order. How deeply enraptured should we contemplate this characteristic and exclusive privilege of man, which would seem, even now in his fallen state, to reserve for him

These

(In Johannem, cap. x.). And to these may be added the additional testimony of William Holcot, -" The Priests of this time are like the Priests of Baal; they are Apostate angels; the Priests of Dagon; the Angels of Hell!" (In Libro Sapientiæ, lectio 182.). most highly esteemed Doctors of the Romish Communion, supply us with an indisputable body of corroborative evidence, in confirmation of what St. Bernard declared, as has been already shown, and of his still more extraordinary declaration, -" that the putrid contagion, in his day, crept through the whole body of the Church, and the malady was inward and could not be healed. The actions of the Prelacy in secret, were too gross for expression!" (Bernard. p. 1728.-" Serpit hodie putrida tabes, &c."). And for the present, we are quite as disposed, as Bernard, to leave the mid-night miscreancy of the Roman Bishops, in its native, and congenial darkness. 3rd. The warmest partizans, and devoted creatures of the Papacy, have described the tenth century, as has been already fully exhibited, in language, which almost staggers belief. The historians of that period, assert, that, -"all virtue fled from the Pontiff and the people. The Romish Church was filthy and deformed, and the Abomination of Desolation was erected in the Temple of God!" (See Giannone's "History of Naples," Book vii. p. 5. edit. of London. Bruys' "Histoire des Papes," vol. ii. p. 208. With whom also Sabellicus, Baronius, and Du Pin coincide). 4th. The eleventh century has been described in the same frightful colours. "Piety aud holiness," all the historians confess, "had fled from the earth, whilst irregularity and iniquity among all, and, in an especial manner, among the clergy, every where reigned. The sacraments, in many parts of Christendom, ceased to be dispensed. The few men of piety, from the prospect of atrocity, thought the reign of Antichrist had commenced, and the world hastened to its end." (See Paris, (Matth.) Historia, p. 5. edit. of Zurich, 1589. Bruys' " Histoire des Papes," vol. ii. p. 316. Glaber, Baronius as before quoted, and Spondanus teach the very same thing). The twelth and thirteenth centuries, were, if possible worse. We have already given St

A

alone of all the countless multitudes, in the midst of Creation's boundless realms, the impress of Divinity itself! How glorious a possession, has ungrateful, rebellious man, here to boast of, were he but to remember that its origin is the bosom of his heavenly Father's mercy, and the yearnings of his pitying love! With what emotions of adoring gratitude ought man's inmost breast to thrill, if he ever call to mind the causes of this divine and mysterious love! Ah! but human apostacy, rebellion, ingratitude, and corruption may have caused this unparalleled display of the attributes of Deity, in providing an infinite atonement

Bernard's disgusting picture of these ages, confirmed by a large number of the most unexceptionable testimonies. Morlaix describes this period thus, -" Piety and religion seemed to bid adieu to man; and for these were substituted treachery, fraud, impurity, rapine schism, quarrels, war, and assassination. The Throne of the Beast (!) seemed to be fixed among the clergy, who neglected God, stained the Priesthood with impurity, demoralized the people with their hypocrisy, denied their Lord by their works, and rejected Revelation, which God gave for the salvation of man!!!" (Morlaix and Honor. in Bruys' "Histoire des Papes," vol. ii. p. 547.). 5th. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, have been delineated in terms of execration, by the pens of the greatest, and most distinguished writers of modern ages. Cardinal Alliaco says, "the Church is come to such a state, that it is worthy of being governed only by reprobates!!!" (Alliaco in Hardouin's "Collection of Councils," vol. i. p. 424.; and Lenfan's Councils, vol. ii. p. 276.). Mariana, the very renowned Spanish historian, and who had been a distinguished Professor in several of the most reputable Jesuitical Colleges, mentions this age, thus," every enormity had passed into a custom and law, and was committed without fear. Shame and modesty were banished, while, by a monstrous irregularity, the most shocking outrages, perfidy, and treason, were better recompensed, than the brightest virtue. The wickedness of the Pontiff descended to the people!" (Mariana's "Histoire d'Espagne," vol. v. p. 718. edit. of Paris, 1725.). The description of Ægidius is equally terrible. "Licentiousness reigned. All kinds of atrocity, like an impetuous torrent, inundated the Church; and, like a pestilence, infected nearly all its members. Irregularity, ignorance, ambition, unchastity, libertinism, and impurity triumphed; while the plains of Italy were drenched in blood, and covered with the dead. Violence, rapine, adultery, incest, and all the pestilence of villainy, confounded all things sacred and profane!" (Labbé, "Concilia," vol. xix. p. 670. Bruys', "Histoire des Papes," vol. iv. p. 365. Mariana's "Histoire d'Espagne, vol. v. p. 770.). The portrait of these times drawn by the highly celebrated Pico of

a sovereign remedy-a present and never-failing help, to meet the ruinous condition, the forlorn wretchedness of hopeless, and helpless creatures and yet, the recipients of such ineffable mercy, be sunk in the depths of apathy, benumbed by the hardihood of indifference, and steeled by the obduracy of ignorance, and the languor of unthankfulness! It is, nevertheless, for the creature to feel and remember, that his disdainful scorning of the repeated mercies of his Creator-that his proud reliance on his own unassisted powers weakened by sin and misery, in an envious contempt and thoughtless rejection of the

Mirandula-designated by Politian as the Phoenix among all the great geniuses of the age--and who may be regarded as the Admirable Crichton of Italy; is equally striking, and equally hideous. It has been copied in Roscoe's ("Life of Lorenzo de Medici," vol. vi. p. 68.). "Men abandoned religion, shame, modesty, and justice. Piety degenerated into superstition. All ranks sinned with open effrontery. Virtue was often accounted vice, and vice honoured for virtue. The sacred temples were governed by Pimps and Ganymedes, stained with the sin of Sodom! Parents encouraged their sons in the vile pollution. The retreats, formerly sacred to unspotted virgins, were converted into brothels, and the haunts of obscurity and abomination! Money, intended for sacred purposes, was lavished on the filthiest pleasures, while the perpetrators of the defilement, instead of being ashamed, gloried in their profanation" (Compare in addition to Roscoe, Mirand. in Bruys' "Histoire des Papes," vol. iv. p. 397.). This disgusting picture of the Papacy drawn so vividly by the transcendent, and brilliant genius, of Pico of Mirandula, prepares the way for the testimony of Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, or Pope Pius II., who was elevated to the Popedom in the fifteenth century. This Pope, would certainly have come down to posterity, as one of the most illustrious of his order, on account of his extensive genius, and valuable labours to enrich the republic of letters (Mosheim); but his Pontifical fame is tarnished in consequence of his illicit intrigues with a lady at Strasburgh, the fruit of which was a son! (Platina); -and because of his egregious impudence and perfidy, in publishing a solemn retraction, of all that he had once written and spoken in favour of the council of Basil, which he defended, with the utmost vigour, against the Pope; declaring without either shame or hesitation, that, "as Æneas Sylvius, he was a Damnable Heretic; but, as Pius II. he was an Orthodox Pontiff !"-and, in consequence likewise, of his marvellous decision, upon a furious controversy, that was agitated with the bitterest rancour, between the two powerful and jealous orders of the Dominicans and Franciscans, whether "the blood which Christ shed upon the cross belonged to the Divine

Providence of his Sovereign Lord-that a wilful and continued departure from the primeval purity, and celestial lustre of his first creation-and that a determined and inveterate apostacy from the Author of his being and the Preserver of his existence, were the causes, which drew not forth the awful vials of the righteous wrath of the Creator's consuming vengeance, but produced the manifestations of a love, and of a beneficence, not even equalled by the implacable hatred, and multiplied rebellion of the perverseness, of our sinful, and corrupted nature. And in this exceeding greatness of our Creator's forbearance, and of the

nature, and was considered as an object of divine and immediate worship." The latter contended eagerly for the negative, the former, with as much unsubdued fury, for the affirmative side of the question. "But (says Mosheim, Cent. XV. Part ii. chap. iii. §. 14.) after much altercation and chicanery, the Pontiff thought proper to impose silence on both the parties in this miserable dispute, in the year 1464; declaring, at the same time, that both sides (!) of the question might be lawfully held, until Christ's Vicar upon earth should find leisure and opportunity for examining the matter, and determining on what side the truth lay.' This leisure and opportunity have not as yet been offered to the pontiffs." But we should not now occupy ourselves upon discussing either the moral or religious delinquencies of Pius II., but hasten to his testimony, more particularly, as he declares himself no longer a damnable heretic, but an orthodox Pontiff. He proclaims-" that Charity is grown cold amongst the Popes and clergy; and Faith totally destroyed, whilst Pride, Avarice, and Luxury, bear undisputed sway" (In Epistola ad Casparem Schlickium, and Paralipom. Uspergen in Clement. V., given in Jewel's Apology, chap. v. Notes. Isaacson's translation.). We need not, then, wonder that a Popish Prelate apostrophized the Eternal City-Rome, in these appalling words, -" Oh! miserable Rome, who in the time of our ancestors produced the shining lights of the Holy Fathers, in our days nothing has proceeded from thee but darkness, desolation, and Eternal Infamy" (Arnulphus in Concil. Rheim. given in Jewel's Apology, ibid.). This character, will not appear astonishing to such of my readers, as are acquainted, with the Pontificate of Sixtus IV., who sat in St. Peter's chair for thirteen years during this Century. The following facts, Romanists themselves, do not attempt to deny. Pope Sixtus, besides being accused of murder, has been condemned for the vilest debauchery. His Infallibility and Holiness, established, and licensed Brothels! He became Head of the Stews, as well as of the Church. The cruel, but lucky malice, and lampooning spite, of his biographers, say, that, he presided with equal ability and applause, in the temples of God and Venus! But what Sixtus