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constantly objected its encroachment on the supremacy of Christ. Of him, whom the Father hath given to be head over all things to the Church,157 to whom he has committed the œcumenical dispensation until it is perfected in glory,158 they assert it to be the eternal, inalienable prerogative, to unite in his person, as a priest for ever after the order ' of Melchisedech,159 the regal and pontifical character. 160 And the apologists of the papal usurpations, have found so little to advance in detraction from these claims, that they have admitted them without reservation.161 But from the time to which we refer the manifestation of Antichrist, the Pope has fearlessly exhibited himself, as an intruder into this dignity. The title of Vicar of Christ,' can have no meaning if it does not signify the substitute of Christ: but under this title, the formal recognition of the Pope, as the successor of Peter, is exacted from the members of his Church, under the most solemn mode of adjuration.

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To the

' Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ, the successor

' of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, I promise ' and swear true obedience.'162

Although it must

157 Eph. i. 22. 158 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25.

160 Casaub. ubi supr. p. clv. clvi. clviii.

159 Heb. v. 6.

161 Nimrod. ut supr. Vol. I. p. 18, 19. 339, 340.

162 Confess. Trident. ut supr. Romanoque Pontifici, B.

'Petri Apostolorum principis successori, ac Jesu Christi Vicario,

veram obedientiam spondeo ac juro.'

L

necessarily follow from the nature of vicarial representation, that the principal is in reality superseded, and the substitute invested with the authority which is resigned; 163 the Vicars of Christ' do not depend in the usurpation of this authority on merely negative claims. They have not only invaded the priestly function of Him whose place they impiously presume to supply, in asserting their right to an universal episcopate; but they have usurped the royal, in arrogating a civil supremacy over the Emperor, who, at the very epoch of the great apostacy, was not only excommunicated but formally deposed.164 Not to insist on the absolution from their allegiance, which they have given to the subjects of princes; even of the more moderate Pontiffs, who, while they set themselves in the throne of Antichrist, have acknowledged a distinction between the civil and ecclesiastical supremacy; all have implicitly usurped this mixed authority, which is the indefeisible prerogative of Christ. Not merely in renouncing all temporal subjection, while they asserted a spiritual supremacy over princes; but in freeing their subjects, if ecclesiastics, from their obedience, and asserting their right to summon them to councils, has the impious claim been ipso facto advanced.165

163 Nimrod ut supr. Vol. III. p. 507, 508.

164 Vid. supr. p. 52. n. 109.

165 Vid. Casaub. ut supr. p. cxli.

It has been nothing more than consistent, that the authority which has been thus founded in usurpation, should be maintained by tyranny, and extended by persecution. Of the adulterous Church which has been prefigured by the Evangelist, under the harlot of Babylon, it has been accordingly declared, that she should satiate herself with the blood of the martyrs.166 The transfer of the civil authority from pagan to christian hands, it might be reasonably supposed, would lead to the introduction of a more mild and tolerant sway. 'The beast' in which it was imaged has accordingly assumed the semblance of christian forbearance: though it had horns, they were like the horns. ' of a lamb.2167 But having formed a coalition with the civil power, in which the spirit of paganism had revived; having engaged in alliance with the 'beast that was and is not and yet is;168 the secular arm was soon summoned in aid of the spiritual usurpation of the Church.169 She signed the victim's doom, and delivered his sentence, but avoided the odium of the execution. Those who disavowed her supremacy, and disclaimed her communion, were accordingly dealt with as rebels against her authority. Orders, religious and military, were embodied for their conversion or suppression;

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166 Rev. xvii. 6. 167 Ibid. xiii. 11. 168 Ibid. xvii. 8. 169 See Observ. on Concess. to the R. C. Claims, p. 11. n. * p. 19. n. †.

and they were given up, under the denunciation of heresy, to the fanatical zeal of crusades." 170 By the engines of destruction with which they were now assailed multitudes perished, that infinitely outnumbered those, whom the fury of paganism had cut off.11 Delivered up to the sword and the faggot, the inquisitor and the soldier, they were swept away, in the indiscriminate slaughter of war and massacre until this exterminating fury was suspended by the reformation, since the dawning glory of which, the warring elements have subsided into a calm. The usurpation, indeed, has not been resigned, nor the intolerant spirit disavowed; although the power to maintain and extend it has been fortunately restrained. The flame of persecution has been stifled; but a fire still lurks in the embers, to rekindle which, should the fuel be administered, will require little more than a breath.

By such palpable marks has the coming of Antichrist been proved, that with the exception of those whom God has given up to strong delusion, from their predisposition to be deceived, few have been found to entertain a doubt as to his identity. Even among the members of his own communion, the Sovereign Pontiff has found some, who have openly denounced him as the predicted person.

170 Usser. de Stat. et Success. Eccles. p. 260, 261. sq. 171 Clarke's Martyrology, p. 83. 86. 113, &c.

173

When a Christian Prelate first assumed the title of Universal Bishop, the usurper was denounced, from the papal chair, as the precursor of Antichrist.172 Nor has the Pope, in his encroachment on the divine supremacy, failed in finding among the very Bishops in his communion, those who have accused him of verifying, in his person, all that had been foretold of that mysterious being.' Nay so palpable is the resemblance, that the civil and ecclesiastical sovereigns, who shared between them the Imperial territory and power, mutually recognised each other in the faithful description of the apocalyptic Prophet. It is indeed amusing to find Pope Gregory IX. pointing at the Emperor Frederick II., as the beast that rose up out of 'the sea;' and the Emperor retaliating on the Pope, with the charge, that he was the Antichrist 'who deceived the world.'17 A particular Pope has been occasionally selected for his enormities, as the person in whom the adversary of Christ had manifested himself; and a justification of the choice deduced from the Revelations."175 So plain a con

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172 S. Gregor. Lib. VI. Epist. xxx. xxxiv.

173 Usser. de Stat. et Success. Eccl. p. 36, 37. 174 Vid. Nimrod, ut supr. Vol. III.

p. 443, 444.

175 Thus, as the author of Nimrod observes, Ibid. p. 498., Alexander VI. was branded with the number of the beast, 6,6,6. For the honor of the Popedom, I shall restore the first couplet of the epigram, which its apologist suppresses: