teftants may read their own odious character, and fearful doom: and, in the ufage these met with, they may still fee the treatment they may expect, if ever Rome, for their fins, fhall again be able to enforce her authority, and make good her threats. Nor only from the unvarying doctrines and canons of the Romish church, but alfo from the present standing laws and barbarous edicts of Catholic princes, occafionally executed with no lefs barbarity, they may still perceive that Popery is no lefs unrelenting, intolerant and perfecuting in the eighteenth century, the boafted age of improvements, than in the fixteenth, or any of the darkest ages ** 66 66 From "and by the authority of the bleffed apoftles Peter and Paul, and by our own, "all Huffites, Wickliffites, Lutherans, Zuinglians, Calvinifts, Huguenots, "Anabaptifts, Trinitarians, and apoftates from the faith, and all other heretics, "by whatfoever name they are called, and of what foever iect they be; as alfo "their adherents, receivers, favourers, and generally all defenders of them; together with all, who, without our authority, or that of the Apoftolic See, knowingly read, keep, print, or any ways, for any cause whatever, publicly or เ privately, on any pretext or colour, defend their books containing herefy, or "treating of religion." It also excommunicates pirates and other public robbers, thofe who impole new tolls and taxes without fpecial permiffion of the Pope,and all thofe princes and magiftrates of every order and degree, whether emperors, kings, dukes, chancellors, prefidents and counsellors of parliament, judges, &c. who exalt the fecular jurifdiction above the ecclefiaftical, who feize the goods of the church, invade her immunities, who abuse prelates, take tithes of the clergy, or judge ecclesiastical caufes or churchmen,-or who appeal from the Pope to a future council, &c.—All which are cafes referved to the Holy See,, from which no prieft can give abfolution except in articulo mortis. This excommunication is read by a cardinal-deacon, in prefence of the Pope, cardi nals, bishops, and a crowd of people. His Holine's appears in a porch, with two peacocks tails, one on each fide of his ears; and, after the reading of the bull, takes a lighted torch, and throws it out into the place before his palace, to give the greater force to his anathema. A canon is alfo difcharged from the caftle, which the populace are made to believe makes all the heretics in the world to tremble. Moreri. Du Moulin. State of Europe for March 1704. Bennet against Popery. Proteft. Cat. * Every Catholic country affords a proof of this. In the greater part of them the old conftitutions, framed according to the pattern fhewed at Rome, remain untouched, and the most fanguinary laws unrepealed. Religious liberty is entirely banished from them, and legal toleration for Proteftants unknown. If any of them have admitted a change in their eftablished laws, in favour of the ReBb formation, 1 From what hath been faid on this head, we may now Infer, That Papifts can never be true friends, or confcientious fubjects, to a Proteftant government ;-that their promifes and oaths ought to bear no faith in it;-that, by the spirit and principles of their religion, they are irreconcileable enemies to Proteftants, as fuch; being not only avowed foes to their religion, but alfo to their authority, property, liberties and lives: and confequently, for Prote ftants to protect that party, and contribute to its strength, is to refign all prudent care of their own prefervation, and court their own deftruction. formation, or granted privileges to Proteftants, they have been determined to this from motives very different from thofe of duty, equity, or liberality of sentiment. Perhaps, no inftance of this kind can yet be given which has not drifen from force or unavoidable neceffity, fear, political interefts, or treaties fettled and guaranteed by counterbalancing powers: nor have fuch conceffions been made or continued without the remonftrances and proteftations of the court of Rome, and the whole body of ecclefiafties. Popery, doubtlefs, has from the beginning received various modifications, and hath been ever subject in some measure to controul from the force of contrary principles and jarring interefts ; and though of late, from various caufes and circumftances, it hath been more cor fiderably checked than in fome former periods, yet its nature ever continues the fame; and often, in defiance of all reftraints and correctives, it has difplayed its old genius and fpirit, down to the prefent times. Some recent inftances of perfecuting violence, in the prefent century, we have formerly remarked. To thefe others might be added, particularly from the hiftory of France, where Popery is fuppofed to appear with greatest moderation, and wears its most hu mane drefs. As Lewis XIV, continued his cruelties against his Proteftant fubjects to his death, fo his grandfon ceafed not to pursue his defign, and even to improve on his example. In his time the barbarous laws and edicts of the former reign were revived and enforced, fometimes with circumstances of greater severity against thofe whofe only crime was their religion, who carried their veneration for their fovereigns, and their care not to offend their Catholic neighbours, perhaps to a culpable excefs. This was done by the edicts of 1724, 1745, and the year following, which occafioned, more especially at the laft of these periods, a grievous perfecution of the Proteftants, particularly in Dauphiné, Languedoc, Montauban, and Vivarais; for an account of which we must refer the !reader to the publication entitled, Popery always the fame. From the year 1745, in the space of fifteen or twenty years, feven or eight Proteftant minifters were put to death in France, befides the multitudes which were fined, imprisoned, fent to the gallies, killed by foldiers, c. The The last article in the Popish fyftem we take under review, which is of importance in the present argument, is, the authority whereby the faith and practice of Roman Catholics are regulated and determined, and the infallibility fuppofed to belong to it. In the Romish church all is refolved into mere abfolute authority, which at no time, and in no cafe, may be queftioned or oppofed. The principles of her faith are so prescribed and fixed for every man, as to supersede rational inquiry and private judgment, and to leave no room for fcruple, doubt, difference, or change. Nothing more is left to her members, than to receive implicitly her dictates, and blindly refign themfelves to her direction. The whole rule of Catholic faith and obedience is reducible to the fole authority of the church; and in whatever way this authority is declared, whether it be conveyed in the channel of the Scriptures*, or tranfmitted under * Though Romanists profess to receive the Scriptures, and acknowledge their divine authority, yet this, with them, is nothing elfe than another name for the authority of their church, seeing they allow the Bible no authority but what it derives from the church, nor any fenfe but what the is pleased to impose upon it; nor will they permit any knowledge of it but what comes through the lips of the living oracles, the priests: they have pronounced it to be in itself nothing but a dead letter, and a dumb rule; fo that it can never be heard to peep or mutter but through the organs of these fpiritual jugglers, who will take care that it speak then only what they please. Tetzel, Eccius, and Sylvester Prierias, in oppofition to Luther, maintained, "That the word of God derives all its "authority from the church and the Pope, and that it is a herefy to deny it ;" and that indulgences were established by an authority greater than that of the "Scripture, because the church and the Pope appointed them."-The council of Rome, held in 1076 under Gregory VII. ordained, “That no chapter nor "book fhould be held to be canonical without the Pope's authority."-In the gloffes upon the Decrees, it is maintained, "That the Pope may difpenfe with "the Scripture by interpreting the fame."-Richard du Mans afferted in the council of Trent, "That the Scripture was become ufelefs fince the schoolmen "had established the truth of all doctrines; that though they were formerly "read in the church for the inftruction of the people, and ftill read in the fer "vice, yet it ought not to be made a ftudy, because the Lutherans only gained "those who read it."-Gregory VII, in his epistle to the king of Bohemia fays, "I will never confent that the service fhould be performed in the Sclavonian " tongue for God intended that his Scripture fould be concealed, for fear left " it should be contemned if every one should read it. If a contrary usage has Bb 2 "sometimes under the mufty veil of the fathers *, or delivered in the form of traditions †, or expreffed in papal refcripts and de cretals, "fometimes been tolerated, on account of the weakness of the people, it is a "fault which ought to be corrected. Your fubjects are very imprudent to make "this demand; I will oppofe it by the authority of St. Péter, and you ought, " for the glory of God, to resist them with all your might.”—Mr. Arnaud requires abfolute fubmiffion to traditions, and the church, because other wife the Scripture, in" whatever language it is read, can only be the occafion of making "the gospel of Jefus Chrift the gospel of the Devil."-" Without the autho "rity of the church, fays Baile the Jefuit, "I would believe St. Matthew no << no more than Titus Livius."-Bellarmine compares the teftimony which the Scripture affords of its own divinity, to the testimony which the Alcoran of Mahomet gives of itself to be defcended from heaven, and puts them both on a level. Basn. Hist. de la Relig. tome iì. l. iv. ch. 1. Sylv. Prier. Dial. Luth, Op. t. i. f. 159, et 166. Fra. Paolo, Hift. du Conc. de Trente, l. ii. p. 178. Arn. Def. de Versi, p. 63. Bellarm. de Verbo Dei non fcripto, l. i. c. 4. Baron. an. 1076, § 33. The council of Trent decreed, "That the Holy Scripture fhould not be "expounded or interpreted contrary to the fenfe followed by the holy mother' "church, nor contrary to the uniform consent of the fathers, even though there "fhould be an intention of keeping fuch expofitions fecret; and that the offen"ders against this canon fhould be punished by the ordinaries."-Hence the following is an article in Pope Pius's creed: "I receive the Holy Scripture, "according to that fenfe which holy mother church (to whom it belongeth to judge of the true fenfe of the Holy Scriptures) hath held, and doth hold; nor "will I ever receive and interpret it otherwise than according to the unanimous confent of the fathers." Paolo, Hift. du Conc. 1. ii. p. 182, &c. + The fecond council of Nice appointed, that thofe who defpifed traditions fhould be excommunicated.-Pope Nicolas I. declared, "That it would be an abomination to fuffer the traditions received from the fathers to be abolished; and that the laws of the emperors could never be brought into comparison "with the canonical decrees of apoftolical and evangelical traditions."-In the catechism of Father Turbervil are the following questions: What is the rule of faith by which the church conferves her infallibility? A. Apoftolical tradition, or receipt of doctrine, by hand to hand, from Christ and his apoftles. 2. Can the church err in faith, standing to this rule? A, She cannot." -The council of Trent in the 4th feff. eftablished unwritten traditions as belonging to the canon of faith and manners, and decreed, "That all should re"ceive, with equal reverence, the books of the Old and New Teftament, and "the traditions concerning faith and manners, as proceeding from the mouth "of Chrift, or infpired by the Holy Spirit, and preferved in the catholic "church; and that whosoever knowingly, and of deliberate purpose, despised "traditions, should be anathema." Hence the creed eftablished by the council 'contains this article: "I do moft firmly receive and embrace the apoftolical and " ecclefiaftical gretals, or other ecclefiaftical canons *, or announced from the chairs of schools and univerfities, or exhibited in the kr ecclefiaftical traditions, and other ufages of the Roman church."-These traditions, held fo facred, contain no truths of the Chriftian religion, but the privileges, temporal rights of Popes, bishops, &c. and are only a specious pretence for error, fuperftition, and the impofitions of tyranny. Conc. Nic. ii. t. 7. Decret. Grat. d. x. c. x. et d. xii. c. 5. Cathol. Faith and Pract. p. 54. Fra. རྣ * Clement II. fays, "To the Romish See every knee fhall bow of things in "earth; that, according to the Papal pleasure, the gate of heaven is opened "and fhut; and if any, driven by diabolical influence, fhall make oppofition to "the decrees of the Roman Pontiffs, they are declared to be excommunicated, "bound with an anathema, and delivered over to eternal death."-Stephen V. or VI. afferts. That the whole church of Chrift throughout the world is go "verned by the decree of the Roman Pontiffs and fuch as will not be obedient "to them, eos excommunicando excommunicat, maledicendo maledicit, perpetuo "anathematis vinculo in folubiliter colligat." Clement VI. declares, "That it be"longs to the Pope alone to make general canons; that the pontifical authority "is not fubject to the imperial or regal, nor to any power on earth; that his determinations are authentic concerning faith, fo that it is true whatever he "determines to be fo, and false and heretical which he judges falfe and here"tical.""There is reafon to believe," say the Decretals, that thofe who "violate the canons voluntarily and without neceffity, or who fpeak evil of "them, or who favour thofe who do fo, blafpheme the Holy Spirit."-Nay, thefe are declared to be of equal or fuperior authority to the Scriptures: "If "the Decretals fhould not be received," fays Nicolas 1. "neither will the "Holy Scriptures be received which are not comprehended in the canons. It will doubtlefs be faid that there is a decree of Pope Innocent, by which we .86 are obliged to receive the Old and New Teftaments; if fo, for the fame rea"fon, the Decretals ought to be received as well as the Scripture, becaufe we "have a decree of Pope Leo which confirms them, declaring, if any one vio"late them, he shall not obtain pardon; and that decree is confirmed by Pope Gelafius." There is alfo a decree which exprefsly ranks the Papal Refcripts and Decretals among the canonical Scriptures: as in the 19th diftinction of the canon in Canonicis. which bears this infcription, The Decretals are reckoned among the canonical books.—In a word, Gregory XIII. exprefsly declares in his bull, which prefaces the laft edition of the Ecclesiastical Code, "That his de"fign in caufing revise, correct, and amend the former editions thereof was to preferve the faithful in Chrift in the true faith, and to remove from them every occafion of wandering out of the way." So that whatever is contained or injoined in the canon law, refpecting either faith or morals, may juftly be confidered as the doctrine of the Romish church. Spanh. Hift. col. 1520, etc 1747. Raynald, an. 1351. Decret. 1. p. dift. xix. 6. 1 et 2. p. causa. qu. 1. writings |