fophy and fcience, tafte, politeness, and all the finer and humanizing arts *. And * As many as have heartily drunk of the cup of Rome's fornication, whatever has been their temper, character, or conduct before, their principles and actions inftantly affume a fanguinary tincture like the fcarlet and purple which the forceress wears. Though mild, pacific, humane, and generous otherwise, they can no longer be fo in any thing wherein religion is concerned. The best feelings are flified, the most amiable difpofitions tainted and fpoiled, when the poisonous fpirit and principles of Popery are imbibed. Papifts are made of one blood with the rest of mankind which dwell on the face of the earth. They are not naturally born more cruel, fanguinary, vindictive, treacherous, than other men; but their religion has made them fo. Innumerable inflances might be given of the truth of this, in many popes, emperors, kings, ftatefmen, generals, foldiers, bishops, etc. were it needful. Even gentle, delicate females, contrary to the characteristic of the fex, have become fierce deftroying fiends: the timorous things who start at feathers and fly from insects, who have charmed and conquered at balls, and languished at operas, who have fhined in all the elegant frivolous accomplishments, and wallowed perpetually in all the foftening pleasures of courts, have been animated, by the evil genius of Popery poffeffing them, into daring perfecutors, and brought to regale themselves with a maffacre, and to inuff in, like delicious perfume, the fmoke of a billet and the afcending effluvia of a roafting heretic. Witnefs the abandoned Katherine, the fair, the gay, the gallantish Mary, etc. Nor has learning and philofophy always been proof against it; the church of Rome can boaft of her philofophers and literati, her men of genius and fubtilty, as well as her opponents: and it is well known, that fome of the moft diftinguished orators, poets, paint. ers, hiftorians, and critics, which have adorned the later ages of the world, have belonged to her communion. Nay, it deferves confideration, that that very Rome, which hath fent abroad the deluge of fuperftition, tyranny, and perfecution through the world, hath alfo preferved, and diffused through the nations the knowledge and taste of painting, mufic, feulpture, and what are called the fine arts: and the feat of thefe to this day, and the school where they are acquired in perfection, is none other than the feat of the beast. But all fuch accomplishments may be brought into coalition with any religion; as they have actually been combined with the Romish, taken into its fervice, and have contributed greatly to ftrengthen its antichriftian empire. more Nor is it needful to go back to the Gothic and barbarous ages to difcern the intolerant, the cruel, the fanguinary spirit of Popery: it appears fufficiently in thofe reckoned enlightened and refined. Nor need we appeal to the nations rude and ferocious, but to the most civilized and polite. France ftands diftinguished among the latter; but in France it hath appeared equally dreadful, and no less powerful, than in Spain and Italy. In no nation hath it caufed more mifchief and havock. Nor need we go fo far back as the age of Lewis the Saint, nor the times of the league when the demon of cruelty feemed to be al together And who were the perfons who have been expofed to all this treatment, and have been made to bear all the infamy and punishment of heretics? Thofe who would prefume to read the Scriptures, or deny the traditionary non together let loofe, but to the age of Lervis, the Great, the celebrated Augustan age for politeness, tafte, and letters. It was then men were outlawed, fined, robbed, imprifoned, banished, fent to the galleys, dragooned, tortured, and put to death for religion. Then houfes were pillaged, goods fequeftrated, woods cut down, temples, houses, and caftles demolished, because they were infected with herefy. The families of noblemen and gentlemen, as well as of the lower quality, were fubjected to the mercy of domeftic fiends quartered upon them; who beat them with ftaves, and dragged them to churches;-plunged them in wells, with ropes under their arms; hung them by the hair or feet, and smoked them with straw or brimftone; forced them to turn fpits, without intermiffion, whole nights and days together; kept them from fleep seven, eight, or nine days; threw buckets of water on their faces; held kettles turned downwards over their heads, whereon they made a continual noife; beat a dozen of drums close to the beds of the fick, for whole weeks, without intermiffion: to fome they promised a little repofe, on condition they held in their hand a burning coal fo long as one repeated flowly a Pater-nofter. Infants were taken from the breafts of their mothers, feparated by thin partitions, and left to die of crying and hunger, within hearing of their mothers, etc.-And all to make them good Catholic Chriftians. Such as rejected the hoft, after receiving it, were condemn. ed to be burnt alive: the bodies of those who refused the facrament, when dying, were carried forth on hurdles, and thrown into the common jakes.-A number of Protestants having, one day, affembled on the ruins of their temple, for faft-、 ing and prayer, were befet and fired upon by dragoons, many were killed upon the fpot, more afterwards hurnt alive, and hanged; their minifter Daniel Chamier was broken upon the wheel in a horrible manner; having received fifty blows of the iron bar upon the fcaffold before they gave him the coup de grace, and left lingering in his exquifite torments three days together. The fate of Homel, another worthy and aged divine, was nearly the fame. He received forty blows of the bar; and after every limb and bone was broken, he was kept in life forty hours after he was reduced to this condition, he was afked by his mercilefs judges, "if he would die a Roman Catholic." He answered, “How, my lords! had it been my defign to have changed my religion, I would have "done it before my bones had been thus broken in pieces."--He died full of joy, kiming even his judges; and never gave one cry for all the blows laid on him after the firft.-With good reafon might the author of the Age of Lewis fay, "It was a frange contrast, that from the bofom of a voluptuous court, where the fweetness of manners, the graces and charms of fociety reigned, "fuch hard and impitiable orders should proceed." Account of the Perfecutions, etc. p. 20, etc. Quick, Synodic. p. 130, 135, etc. Voltaire, Siccle, stc. tame ij. 1207. Bajnage, Hift. etc. I. ii. ch. 7. 4. i. p. 544. : fenfe fenfe of dreaming fools; who would not acknowledge an old dotard to be God on earth, and that he cannot err though he mistake-and who would not believe, that black is white, vice virtue, and virtue vice, upon his word: thofe who would not believe, that their divine Creator could be made and unmade at pleafure, and be chewed and fwallowed; but obftinately perfifted in maintaining, that bread is bread, and wine wine; who reckoned the Pope Antichrift, the hoft an idol, and purgatory a fable; who refused to fall down and worship blocks almighty; who believed a Christian might go to heaven without the interceffion of the Virgin, or the wounds and merits of St. Francis or St. Dominic-We might enumerate the whole articles of the Proteftant fyftem, for maintaining of which, multitudes, in past times, have been condemned, and perfecuted with all ecclefiaftical and civil pains, and which have been a thousand times declared heretical, and are judged and declared to be fo by the established, doctrines, the standing laws, and decrees of the church of Rome, unto this day*. In That the church of Rome confiders all Proteftants under the notion of he-'' retics and fchifmatics, and that they deferve to be treated accordingly, is what 1 fuppofe no man till now ever doubted, unless we perhaps except the author of a late letter in vindication of the Roman Catholics, who, in order to turn off the natural and deferved odium which muft fall upon his church and party on this account, would fain per uade credulous Proteftants, whether he believe it himself or not, that they have now no concern in the laws made against heresy, nor any thing to fear from them, because they do not apply to them any longer. His words are" Thefe laws fubfift only where the Roman Catholic "religion is the univerfally received religion of the country, and when "a new herefy appears among them, and has not yet taken root; for when, "through the difpofition of divine Providence, any new fyftem of religion prevails, and is established, thefe laws have no more place; the Roman Catholics ceafe to exert even their fpiritual jurisdiction against it, and by their principles, in order to restore religion, are obliged to return to preaching and fufferings." It may reasonably be fuppofed that this gentleman and his brethren care not how foon they were relieved of the painful and trouble fome task of preaching and fuffering, to which they have been forced to return, after their other engines for propagating the faith, and destroying herefy failed them; nor would they be forry to see that religion they mean fpeedily restored with all the good old canons and code of laws appended to it, ་་ -ke In the fentences paffed, and the anathemás launched forth against the Vaudois, the Albigeois, the Wickliffites, the Taborites, the end of their miffion. If these affertions have any fenfe or meaning, it can be only this, that Rome will yield (as all things elfe mui) to dire neceffity; that he must suffer that which the cannot hinder; and that he will difpenfe with the execution of her laws when the is not able to execute them, and that Catholics will be f gracious as not to intercommune, confifcate, or burn those who are Aronger than themselves, and have them entirely at their mercy. In short, it is nothing more than if he had told us, that thefe laws fubfift only where they fubfift, and that they have no more place, when others by superior power are established in their place—A truth which none would readily have been ignorant of, though this fage writer had not been so careful to remark it. The affertions in any other fenfe are entirely falfe. Whether Proteftant nations ought not to thank the difpofition of that Divine Providence which brought them out of the reach of Rome's jurisdiction, and rescued them from the claws of thefe voracious laws, rather than the charity of Papifis, or the change of the principles and fpirit of the Romish church, any one may judge. As for the pretended difference between new and old herefy, or herefy Springing and herefy rooted, it is evidently invented to serve a turn: ner has it ever been practically observed by the church in former times, when there was the fame reafon for it as now, and in cafes to which the rule was equally ap plicable. In the mean time, if Proteftants are no longer to be ranked with heretics, and treated as fuch by the church of Rome, fo far as her power extends, this gentleman might have informed them, what denomination they now bear, and in what clafs of mankind they are canonically considered. If he fay they are in the ftate of heathens, Jews, Turks, etc. the compliment will not be much more flattering, nor will their cafe be greatly mended, though it must be owned, whatever favour has been shown to any without the church, has been on the fide of thefe rather than the other. Or if he should be disposed to look on them as brethren, that have ever been abiding in the faith and unity of the Roman-Catholic church, and to ftretch out the right-hand of friendship and fellowship to them, would not the univerfal voice of that church reclaim,— and every Pope, council, and writer in it, rife up and condemn him ?-What then would become of all the folemn fentences and decifions relating to the faith, and all the anathemas of councils, particularly that of Trent? In this he would have very few even of modern Papifts to join him. They are taught very oppofite doctrine in the Catechifm of Father Turbervil, which hath been much cried up by the Roman Catholics, and had a great run among them, especially in England; it is entitled An Abridgement of Christian do&rine, and was approved, recommended, and licenfed by Dr. W. Hyde, profeffor of divinity in the English college of Douay, and cenfor of books-A fpecimen of which doctrine follows. What is the church? A. It is the congregation of all the 'faithful under Chrift Jefus,and his vicar upon earth, the Pope, Q. Wherein doth the unity of the Catholic church confit? A. In holding priestly abfolution rites, the Lutherans*, the Zuinglians, &c. which have bee occafionally and repeatedly confirmed, yea, from year to year, folemnly renewed at Rome +, the prefent race of Protestants folution from fins in adoring Chrift's body and blood, &c 'These are no matters of indifferency, but high fundamentals.- 2. What mean you by the church's unity? A. That all her members obey the fame fupreme head and his magiftrates, profefs the fame faith, even to the leaft article, and ufe the ⚫ fame facraments and facrifices. 2. Who are thofe who are not to be accounted ⚫ members of the church? A. All fuch as are not in the unity of the church, by a molt firm belief of her doctrine, and due obedience to her paftors; as Jews, Turks, heretics, &c. 2. How do you prove all obstinate novelists to be heretics? A. Because they wilfully ftand out against the definitive fentence of the church of God, and will not fubmit to any judgment or tribunal which ⚫ Chrift hath left on earth for deciding fuch doubts as they themselves are pleafed to move, but will be tried only by their own idle brain, and the dead letter of the Scripture. 2. Why are Proteftants and other fectaries fo divided? A. One reason is, &c. 2. What think you of fuch as accufe the church of errors in faith, and of idolatry? A. Truly I think them to be heretics or • infidels, &c.' Anfw, to Mr. W. A. D.'s Lett, to G. H. &c. are * Luther and all his followers were repeatedly configned to perdition here and hereafter after the bull of Pope Leo, condemning 41 propositions in Luther's books, and injoining him to retract in fixty days under pain of excommunication, he proceeded to publish folemnly his bull of excommunication against him and his adherents, which he also added to the bull in Cana Domini, in which they "curfed eternally, declared guilty of treafon, deprived of all their honours " and goods, and all the clergy injoined to preach against them in all places.” He then folicited earnestly by his nuntio, and by letters, the Emperor Charles, and all the princes of Germany, to employ all their power and authority against them; which produced the citation of Luther to the affembly of Wormes, and the imperial edit against him from thence, which banished him from all the Jands of the empire, as a madman, a demoniac, a devil clothed in human shape, a heretic, a fchifmatic; interdi&ting him from fire and water, and intercourie with all mankind; ordering that, after the term of twenty days, he should be feized and caft into prifon, that he might be ligouroufly punished, &c. Sleidan. Maimbourg, &c. †The bull in Cena Domini is a proof of this. This is one of the most solemn excommunications of the church of Rome, denounced every year on Maunday Thursday (which is that preceding Good Friday) against heretics and those who are contumacious and difosedient to the Holy See. Pope Paul in his bull in 1536, fays, "That it is an ancient custom for the fovereign Pontiffs to pronounce that excommunication on the holy Thurfday, to preferve the purity "of the Chriftian religion, and maintain the unity of the faithful." Since the Reformation it contains the following claufes: "We excommunicate and ana"thematize, in the name of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, |