viction has the Apostate Church betrayed, that she has been marked out in the prediction; that she has prohibited, by the solemn act of a council, all discussion on a subject, in which inquiry was likely to prove dangerous to her impious pretensions.176 Vendit Alexander sacramenta, altaria, Christum; 176 Lateran. Concil. Sess. XI. Decemb. 19, 1516. A late writer has entered into a laborious defence of the Romish Church from the charge of idolatry, polytheism, and antichristian usurpation: see Nimrod, ut supr. Vol. III. p. 313, seq. By confounding the term Antichrist with Pseudochrist, and polytheism, as prohibited in the first commandment, with heterotheism,' as he terms it; he finds it very easy to refute the charge since it is certain the Pope does not pretend to be Christ, nor worship a God, to the exclusion of Jehovah. The sophistry of this mode of defence is so shallow, as not to need exposure. It may be, however, expedient to offer a few words on the authorities by which it is supported. On the force of alì and dos, in composition, I shall be pardoned for wasting no length of exposition. If the authentic text' of the Vulgate is consulted, it will be found, that ', Exod. xx. 2. means coram me;' aud therefore signifies, not as he interprets than, or without me,' but before, or with me:' and is thus directed, not against the heterotheist, but the polytheist. If 2 Kings x. 29, 30, be consulted, it will be found, that the idolatry of Jehu is expressly denounced as sin, and that his commendation lay in the obedience of a specific command, which he was deputed to execute. And if Hos. iii. 1. 4. 5. viii. 4-8. 11. x. 1—3. Such is the tyranny by which the Church of Christ has been oppressed from the year 736, for nearly eleven centuries. What may be the part assigned the Antichristian power, by whom this usurpation has been maintained, for the residue of the period of 1260 years, which we are assured its transgression shall not outlast, remains of course among the secrets of the Sovereign Disposer of all things. Whether the adulterous Church will continue to support the masquerade of pagan mummeries, or flinging aside the disguise, stand forth in the unblushing nakedness of professed infidelity, we can at present form but a vague conjecture. Of those who have indulged in such speculations, some are disposed to look forward to a time when resuming her expiring strength for a final and desperate effort, she shall rise up the persecuting power, by which the last fatal blow will be struck against the reformed religion. In this spirit of anticipation, it has been observed by Bishop Newton, with less prudence than he usually dis 5-8. xiii. 2. 4. be examined, it will be perceived, how much countenance, in favour of idolatry,' is to be deduced from the promises of God, or the declaration of his Prophct. On the gratuitous assumptions, respecting the patriarchal religion and cherubim, in which the advocate's observations commence, it cannot be necessary to throw away an observation. But if Isai. v. 20. be consulted, he may probably learn from it, with what reward his labors will be recompensed, in entering into such discussions. plays on such occasions, that before the end of the second woe, it should seem, that the Papists 'will make a great and successful effort against ⚫ the Protestant religion."77 Much is to be apprehended, I am fully aware, from the unbaffled zeal, with which the Popish ministry' compass sea and 'land,' to gain a proselyte to their opinions. Much is to be feared from the slender scruples by which they are witheld, in sanctifying the means by the end, where so desirable an object is to be accomplished. The venerable antiquity to which their Church lays claim, the reverses to which it has been subjected, in an unequal contest with the terrorist and infidel, have excited a feeling of pity at her depressed state, which is easily improved into tenderness for her errors. The school of adversity in which her Clergy are trained, imposes a discipline for the reformation of their morals, which more prosperous circumstances have but relaxed and corrupted. The power which they arrogate to exclude those out of their pale from salvation, and the claims which they advance to miraculous operation in confirmation of their pretensions, have an imposing influence on the vulgar mind. Even the most cultivated and informed is not always proof against the voluntary mortifications and penances by which the votarists of this Church seek to establish a character for higher sanctity 177 Newton ut supr. Vol. II. p. 414. and self-denial. But to these causes a counteracting force is opposed in the daily extension of 'liberal opinions:' to the growth of which nothing has more largely contributed than that reaction which has been produced by the removal of the pressure which she imposed; an unrestrained freedom of inquiry having suddenly followed its total restriction. The mad precipitancy which at present impels the nations, who are freeing themselves from her trammels, to shake off all legitimate authority, has produced a licentiousness of thinking and acting, which, in begetting religious indifference, will in some measure insure religious toleration. The convulsion, by which all settled order is daily broken up, in the countries which she has held so long in subjection to her tyranny and superstition, though it may not produce a more improved or permanent state of things, will atleast raise insuperable obstacles to the exercise of her persecuting spirit. Extremes are indeed found to follow very closely after each other, and superstition and impiety have been consequently observed to alternate their influence over the opinions of nations, as well as of individuals: not less certainly than the sea is subject to its flux and reflux, or the seasons to their vicissitudes. With the intrinsic shallowness of the present age there is however a presumptuous confidence and pretence of information, which is M rather calculated to beget scepticism than to foster credulity. The tendency of the human intellect, in its march,' being thus in the direct road to infidelity; I am inclined rather to acquiesce in the opinion of another speculator upon these subjects, who looks to the opposite quarter of the heavens, from that to which most persons are disposed to turn, for the cloud which is to rise, overcharged and darkening with destruction. The fatal blow, by which he apprehends the great victory and triumph of irreligion will be achieved, and in which he fears the Church of Rome will be overwhelmed, will be struck by the sworn Antichristian associations, which are banded together under the semblance and title of masons.178 As he more than insinuates that the ambitious schemes of the Popes have from an early period been advanced by these secret engines;179 and as they are now in a great degree composed of apostates from the Romish communion; there is nothing inconsistent in this supposition and the prophetical intimations which have been given us of the persecuting power of the last days. And if we may venture to draw a conclusion from the signs of the times, which we are commanded to observe; 180 the conjecture appears to be not without foundation. A stimulus to the intolerant zeal of those sworn associations arises 178 Nimrod ut supr. Vol. III. p. 405. 553. conf. 568, 569. 179 Ibid. p. 537, 538. 180 Matt. xxiv. 32, 33. |