Qass. 
 
 Book. 
 
 5"4 
 
4 
 
 
OLD CHRISTIANITY 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 PAPAL NOVELTIES. 
 
 INCLUDING A REVIEW OF 
 
 DR. MILNER'S "END OF CONTROVERSY." 
 
 v 
 
 GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Kat rjpsv e'g ayye\os tox v P°S At0ov o>s fiv\ov neyav, ko.i e3a\ev ct? ttjv 0a- 
 Xaaaav, Xsycav Ovras hpurjiiari (3\ndri<reTai Ba/JvXcdv fi peyaXr) iroAts, kcu oi yoi 
 eipevn en. 
 
 " And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it 
 Into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon b« 
 thrown down, and shall be found no more at all."— Rev. xviii. 21. 
 
 " No falsehood can endure 
 Touch of celestial temper, but returns 
 Of force to its own likeness."— Miltow. 
 
 FIFTH AMERICAN, FROM THE FIFTH DUBLIN EDITION. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY LEART & GETZ. 
 
 NO. 133 NORTH SECOND STREET. 
 
 1854. 
 
T 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by 
 
 M. Sokin, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 In Exchange 
 
 j University 
 MAY 7- 1934 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 American Preface, 11. 
 Address, 15. 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Thayer's challenge, page 17 — Character of the Christian 
 religion, 1 9 — The Scripture a true guide to salvation, 20 — Its different 
 versions agree on every doctrine, 20 — Pope Clement XIV. and Dr. 
 Manning acknowledge it a sure rule of faith and practice, 20 — The 
 author's correspondence with Mr. Thayer, 21 — Dr. Atterbury on Arch- 
 bishop Tillotson's controversies with papal divines, 22 — The author 
 takes up Mr. Thayer's challenge, and writes his " Defence of the Old 
 Religion against Papal Novelties," which, after passing through four 
 editions, remains unanswered ! 24 — Remarks on a scandalous letter to 
 the author, 25 — A solemn address to Roman Catholics, teachers, and 
 people; and to Protestant teachers and people, 26 — Impqrtant argu- 
 ments, 31. 
 
 THE TRENT CREED STATED. 
 
 The Roman Catholic clergy are bound by oath to believe and teach 
 it, 37 — Important observations thereon, 40 — A notable extract from the 
 Missal, with interesting remarks, 44 — 46. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 ON EXTREME UNCTION. 
 
 A host of Protestant writers unanswered, 50 — Extreme unction no 
 sacrament, 50 — The Trent canons on it, &c, self-opposed, 51 — The 
 
 3 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 Trent council in great perplexity, 53 — It and holy orders cannot stand 
 together, 54 — Not found in James v. 14, 55 — The apostolical use of 
 it, 57 — The refusal of it to condemned persons, not sick, exposes it, 58 — 
 Dr. Challoner, in its defence, self-entangled, 59 — It and purgatory de- 
 stroy each other, 62 — Pope Innocent overthrows it, 64 — St. Augustine, 
 with a host of fathers, &c, opposed to it, 66 — Interesting conversation 
 with a priest and two laymen on it, 62 — 67 — Extreme unction ruinous 
 both to clergy and laity, 68 — Weighty questions, by a sick man, to the 
 anointing priest, 70 — The priests, forced to give up this sacrament as 
 false, are, with their council, engulfed in sworn self-contradiction ! 73 — 
 Mr. Thayer's challenge retorted, 76. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 INFALLIBILITY DESTROYED. 
 
 Definition, 77 — Propositions, 78 — Papal doctrines framed to subserve 
 the papacy, 80 — The dogma on intention opened; was designed to 
 prostrate the people to the clergy, but, in its reaction, must prostrate and 
 annihilate themselves, 81 — Popery a necessarily persecuting religion, 
 85 — Infallibility proved a chimera, by four arguments, 87 — Scripture 
 destroys it, 89 — " Thou art Peter," &c, examined, 90 — The ancient 
 fathers opposed to it, 93 — It involves blasphemy, 94 — Peter had no 
 supremacy, 96 — The popes claim to it an imposture, 98 — Pope Gregory 
 declares it to be the mark of antichrist, 99 — The popes exhibited by 
 Cardinal Baronius, Platina, and others, as the most flagitious monsters, 
 103 — The gates of hell can never prevail against the church of Christ, 
 106 — Her true characters stated, 106 — They attach to all true Protestant 
 churches, 113 — The papal church corrupt; eight general councils 
 against her, 126 — Her infallibility destroyed, is clearly of antichrist, 128 
 — An important note and warning, ibid. 
 
 Doctor Milner's defence of his church, one hundred and twenty-two 
 pages of his book are overthrown by a few plain observations, 116 — He, 
 Bossuet, and Manning, did not believe themselves, 122 — He destroys 
 his church at once, 123 — The gates of hell prevail against her, 125 — He 
 is confuted on extreme unction, seven sacraments, infallibility, supre- 
 macy, &c, 129 — Predestination retorted, 132 — His claim to sincerity 
 not tenable, 133 — His defence of indulgences and purgatory destroyed, 
 166 — His purgatory is the third heaven, 172 — It constitutes its clergy 
 
CONTENTS. 5 
 
 false prophets, antichrists, 174 — He is defeated on the sacrifice of the 
 mass, host-worship, transubstantiation, and half-communion, 278 — 284 
 — He is wholly exposed on private confession and absolution, 298 — He 
 is shameful on worship in a strange tongue, 318 — On invocation he 
 completely destroys himself, his character, and cause, 336 — 343 — His 
 defence of miracles is most ridiculous, 346 — His effort, in seven letters, 
 for his pope's rule of faith, is futile, and utterly ruins him, his pope, 
 church, and clergy, beyond remedy, 375 — The Scriptures the true rule 
 of faith, 376 — His artifice with regard to antichrist, and Dr. Doyle's 
 sophism, blown up, 379. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 PTTRGATOBY A FIGMENT. 
 
 Trent council and her clergy entangled in sworn self-contradictions 
 and absurdities by purgatory, 134 — Cardinal Fisher and other doctors 
 confess it a novelty, 137 — It is disowned by St. Patrick and the fathers, 
 138 — Strange notions of some fathers that the blessed virgin and all 
 saints pass through a purging fire, 141 — No place in Scripture for pur- 
 gatory, 142 — 1 Peter iii. 19, and other Scriptures examined, 143 — St. 
 Athanasius and Bede's judgment, 146 — Dr. Challoner and the Roman 
 Catholic catechism annihilate purgatory, 148 — The blood of Christ the 
 only purgatory, 149 — The oath that binds the papal clergy to purgatory, 
 compels them to pronounce the Scriptures, the apostles, the ancients, 
 &c, false, 151 — It is a source of much impious wealth, 152 — Questions 
 to be put to a priest on it, 152 — An excellent argument from Dr. A. 
 Clarke, 154. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 
 
 The doctrine stated, 156 — Their use. 157 — Indulgences, purgatory, 
 and masses, cannot stand together, 158 — They exalt the pope and de- 
 grade Christ, 159 — The pope's cruelty, and an extract from Tillotson, 
 159 — Indulgences a source of gain, 160 — The ancients and eminent 
 papal doctors against them, 161 — Dr. Moylan obtains an indulgence for 
 Cork, from Pius VII., 163 — A curious extract, a note, 164 — The church 
 that hath them is, by a papal doctor, pronounced the school of Satan, 166 
 
 1* 
 
O CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 TRANSUBSTANTIATION AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 
 
 When this doctrine began, 177 — Eight important propositions, 178 — 
 Canons and creed of the Trent council, 181 — Drs. Gother and Chal 
 loner refuted, 183 — Reason, Scripture, and antiquity against it, 189 — 
 Conversation with a priest, also an anecdote from Magher, note, 190 — 
 Transubstantiation incompatible with Christianity, 193 — Objections an- 
 swered ; the term, " body of Christ," in five different senses, 195 — Papal 
 divines against it, 197 — Dr. Challenor on the 6th of John fully con- 
 futed, 199 — The true meaning supported by seven short arguments, 
 200 — The Trent council's threefold sense of the eucharist, 20 1 — Popes, 
 doctors, and fathers contend that by " flesh and blood" was meant, not 
 the eucharist, but grace, 202 — The expression, "verily and indeed 
 taken," in the church catechim, vindicated, 205 — The mass canon de- 
 stroys the corporal presence and its ministers, 206 — Testimony of the 
 fathers and others on the eucharist, from nearly the apostle's days to the 
 thirteenth century, 207 — Pope Nicholas II. and Pope Gregory VII. op- 
 posed to each other on this dogma, 219 — It was no article of faith till 
 an. 1215, 219 — Helvetian confession on the eucharist, 221 — That of the 
 Protestants of France, 222— That of England, 223— That of Luther, 
 and the papal story about him and the devil — his character, 224, 250 — 
 Calvin's testimony, 226 — Concluding remarks, 226 — 231. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 SACRIFICE OF THE MASS ANTICHBISTIAN - . 
 
 The doctrine stated, with propositions destructive of it, 232 — The 
 mass necessarily subversive of Christianity, 233 — Fathers and papal 
 doctors against it, 234 — The mass and priesthood destroyed by the 
 Trent canon, 235 — Drs. Barrington and Challoner, in its defence, con- 
 found and cover themselves with eternal disgrace, 236 — St. Paul destroys 
 it, 237 — Objections answered, 239 — Conclusion, 240. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST GROSS IDOLATRY. 
 
 The decree for it, 243— Propositions in confutation of it, 244 — The 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 decree contains seven blasphemies, 245 — No informed pope or priest 
 ever believed this doctrine, 246 — The pope assumes to be true God, and 
 above God, note, 248 — Horrible impieties of the Trent council, 249 — 
 Difficulties of this worship, 254 — Dr. Doyle bound to idolatry and de- 
 struction, 254 — The impious craft of Costerus, 255 — The more wicked 
 the doctrine, the more solemnity used in practising it, 256 — Priest 
 above angels and men, 258 — Yet they know not if they are either priests 
 or Christians, 259 — M. Felix on pagan god-making, compared with 
 papal god-making, 260 — The beast and his image, 263 — Concluding 
 remarks, 264. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 HAEF-COMMUNTON A GRIEVOUS NOVELTY. 
 
 Christ's institution stated, 266 — Propositions, 267 — The decrees of 
 the councils of Constance and Trent, prohibiting the cup, and charging 
 the Lord's institution with error, 267, 268 — The fathers, papal doctors, 
 &c, against half-communion, 269 — Bellarmine's confession, 271 — Arch- 
 bishop Synge on this subject, 272 — Dr. Challoner's sophistries exposed, 
 273 — The expression, » mv», the priest's main proof, sifted, 275 — Con- 
 clusion, 276. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 OST THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 The divine warning, 284 — Its characters found in the Pope's church ; 
 first mark, false doctrines, fourteen, stated from, 289 to 300 — Priestly 
 forgiveness of sins a gross error, 290 — Protestant absolution stated and 
 explained, 292 — Auricular confession reprobated by St. John Chrysos- 
 tom, &c, 293— This doctrine blasphemes the Son of God, 294— This 
 was framed for the papacy by the Trent council, as the priest's master- 
 piece, yes, and the people's ruin ! 295 — Stated by Dr. Challoner, is plain 
 priestcraft, 296 — Without three requisites that are impossible, the whole 
 is useless ! 296 — It is owned that such pardons are false ; and it follows, 
 that the ministers of them are false prophets, antichrists, 297 — Mark 2d. 
 The time of the rise of the predicted apostate, as stated by Pastorini, &c, 
 300— Mark 3d. Place of his abode, Rome, 306— Mark 4th. Pride and 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 exaltation above all men, 310 — Mark 5th. Scarlet array, 312 — Mark 
 6th. Mother of harlots, 313 — Mark 1th. Worship in a strange tongue, 
 introduced an. 666, by Pope Vitalianus, 3 1 3 — A notable advice to Pope 
 Paul III. against the Bible as the foe of the church, 317— Mark 8th. 
 Forbidding marriage an inlet to great wickedness, 319 — Mark 10th, 
 Fornication, as its result, polluting all classes of men, and all orders of 
 clergy, 321— The testimony of Petrarch and Bridget, 327— Mark 11th. 
 Idolatries, image-worship, 329 — Invocation of angels and saints in pagan 
 blasphemy, 331 — Not taught by God in any age, nor by Christ or the 
 apostles, 332 — It entangles the Trent Council in self-contradiction, and 
 destroys both teachers and people, 334 — Twenty-eight popes, with Car- 
 melites and others, belie the blessed Virgin, 335 — No prayers but to God 
 through Christ, 338 — Invocation involves the danger of supplicating the 
 damned, 343 — Mark 12th. Faxse miracles. A demonstration thai 
 no true miracle has been wrought in the church of Rome for more than 
 twelve hundred years past, 344 — 356 — Mock miracles in the Breviary 
 and Scapular, &c, 345 — Mr. Thayer converted by imposture, 346— Dr. 
 Doyle and Dr. Murray's miracles detected, 348 — Miracles by magicians 
 and demons, 349 — By heretics, 353 — By devils, 353 — How true and 
 false miracles can be known, 354 — Priests put to the test, 355 — Dr. 
 Stillingfleet's fine caution, 356 — Decrees of a synod in Tuam, in 1817, 
 and ratified in Rome, against miracle mongers, note, 356 — Mark 1 2th. 
 Believing a lie ; the predicted great lie, and its dangers, 357 — Mark l^th. 
 Persecution by the beast and drunken woman, &c, 359 — Papal decrees 
 for destroying the saints, 360 — Popes chastise kings and emperors; bull 
 against Queen Elizabeth, 362 — Pastorini's luminous description of the 
 bloody woman and her beast, note, 363 — Thanksgivings to God for 
 Protestant ascendancy, 365 — The bloody Rhemish notes, &c, 366 — 
 Protestants undone when priests get power, 367 — Mr. D. O'Connell's 
 vast inconsistency, 367 — The -papal creed the dire parent of these evil 
 notes and butcheries, 368 — No informed pope or priest ever believed this 
 wicked creed, 369 — Mark 15th. Number of his name, 666, is found in 
 Aarzivoc, " Latin," compared with Vitalianus's Latin service in 666 — 
 369, 315 — Mark 16th. False god, antichrist; how the pope is made a 
 god, and shows himself such, 373 — He exalts himself above and oppo- 
 seth himself to God, 374 — He blasphemes God and his tabernacle, 377 — 
 He is the antichrist, 378— Mark 17th. Duration, antichrist's rise, pro- 
 gress, and end, 378 — Conclusion, 383. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Interesting remarks; papal baptism, &c., considered, 386 — That of 
 Dells, 388 — The oaths on popes, bishops, priests, papal kings, and on 
 Ribbonmen, to uphold the papacy and destroy Protestants, 388, 389— 
 False prophets, antichrists, 393 — Protestant rule of faith infallible, 393 — 
 No informed man can be a priest, 393 — The church of Rome can never 
 be reformed, 393. 
 
 Glossary, 395. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 FIRST AMERICAN EDITION 
 
 An American by birth, a Protestant by choice, ex- 
 perience, and profession, I cannot but view with feel- 
 ings of the liveliest concern every question involving 
 the interests of either our beloved country, or the church 
 of God. Popery I regard as a question of this class, 
 as having a natural and necessary tendency to mar 
 the beauty of Christianity, regarded either as a sys- 
 tem of morals, or as a revelation of religious truth. 
 
 Where is the country on the map of this wide 
 world ever subjected to its sway, that may not justly 
 number the influence of popery on its civil and 
 social affairs as one of its heaviest calamities, and 
 indeed as the source of most of its misfortunes. 
 
 Popery is truly "semper eadem," always the same 
 evil thing, dishonouring God and destroying men 
 whenever it has the ascendency, and may be fitly 
 compared to those dreadful clouds that at once shut 
 
 11 
 
12 AMERICAN PREFACE. 
 
 out the light of heaven and blight the prospects of 
 earth, smiting the lofty oak and mountain ash with 
 fire, and the humbler vegetation with mildew and 
 rust. 
 
 Whether, as some wise and good men fear, in the 
 inscrutable counsels of Heaven popery is again to 
 have the ascendency, or otherwise, we shall not ven- 
 ture to predict. One thing, however, is certain, that 
 they ardently wish it, — that they seek it, — that they 
 will not be satisfied without it, — that they will use 
 every means to obtain it, — and that, if they succeed, 
 they will act over again the foulest deeds of deception 
 and death that pollute the annals of time gone by. 
 
 Before we reconcile ourselves to slumber while 
 our enemies are busily engaged in sowing tares, let 
 us lay this one thing to heart, that as there is no 
 greater earthly blessing that we can transmit to our 
 children than their civil and religious privileges, so 
 there is no event under heaven that would more in 
 fallibly deprive them of both than the ascendency 
 of Romanism. 
 
 Two things are to be attended to, if we would pre 
 vent that ascendency which has ever been the death- 
 knell of civil and religious freedom; let the word 
 of God have free course, let it be freely circulated 
 among them, and let persons of Protestant pretensions 
 read fair and manly expositions of the dogmas of Ro- 
 manism. Let them see the man of sin unmasked, 
 and flee from his hideousness. 
 
AMERICAN PREFACE. 13 
 
 The work now before the reader is one of life and 
 energy, and animated by the spirit of an ardent Chris- 
 tian and a faithful preacher; it glows with all the 
 attributes of truth. The publisher, therefore, confi- 
 dently commends it to the favour and patronage of all 
 who prefer old Christianity to papal novelties, per- 
 suaded that such as receive its doctrines and spirit 
 will be both wiser and better Christians. 
 
 M. SORIN. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Since all sincere Roman Catholics, and Protestants, 
 believe that our Lord Jesus Christ taught the true re- 
 ligion wholly, and agree that his apostles taught it as 
 perfectly as did He, and wrote the doctrine as* accu- 
 rately, though not so often as they taught it, (for this 
 would be idle tautology,) and as both believe the New 
 Testament is of divine inspiration, so must they be- 
 lieve that it hath the whole doctrine which Christ first 
 taught. And in this they are the more confirmed, 
 when, after all that has been said, no doctrine can be 
 found in the one version, that is not, (self-contradic- 
 tions avoided,) found in the other also. To deny 
 therefore that Christ's whole doctrine was thus di- 
 vinely written, or that it is not in the New Testament, 
 they must agree, involves instant infidelity, as being 
 a daring denial of the apostles' integrity and divine 
 inspiration. 
 
 Shall it not then follow, first, that if this religion, 
 this gospel thus taught by our Saviour, be the sure 
 way to eternal glory, it must be God's best gift to 
 man, and that whoever would keep it from man, is 
 man's worst foe, and Christ's opponent, i. e. an anti- 
 christ? 2d. That whereas Christ and his apostles 
 taught it to the multitudes unrestrictedly, and that as 
 none but a devil or wicked man could censure this, so 
 
 15 
 
16 ADDRESS. 
 
 must he who now blames this example, be either ig- 
 norant or insane, or a wicked man and of the devil ; 
 3d. That as this way of Christ is the sure and narrow 
 way to heaven, so must that doctrine that opposes it 
 be the certain broad road to hell ; lastly, that as they 
 who take the same road, must assuredly meet in the 
 same town it leads to, so must they who carefully 
 cleave to the gospel, be exactly such Christians as 
 Christ himself taught, be one in faith and love to God 
 and mankind, and must undoubtedly meet in heaven. 
 This is my belief; and must, I judge, be that of every 
 sincere Christian, of every informed, honest man. 
 
 The Author. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Shall all but man look out, with ardent eye, 
 For that great day which was ordained for man ! 
 Great day of dread, decision, and despair, 
 At thought of thee, each sublunary wish 
 Lets go its eager grasp, drops the world, 
 And catches at each reed of hope in heaven. 
 At thought of thee ! and art thou absent, then 1 
 
 Ah, no ! I see, I feel it : 
 
 I see the Judge enthroned, the flaming guard, 
 
 The volume opened, opened every heart, 
 
 A sunbeam pointing out each secret thought ; 
 
 No patron, intercessor none; now past 
 
 The sweet, the clement, the mediatorial hour : 
 
 For guilt no plea, to pain no pause, no bound ; 
 
 Inexorable all, and all extreme t Young. 
 
 Salvation will ever be a paramount consideration 
 with every man who is conscious that he is shortly to 
 appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive 
 according to the deeds done in his body. To find the 
 road to salvation, then, that he may walk therein and 
 escape eternal misery, will consequently claim his first 
 attention. That "narrow way" laid down by our 
 Saviour in the Scriptures, Protestants are taught to 
 believe to be the only safe way ; but Mr. Thayer hav- 
 ing judged otherwise, has written a book, to call them 
 into what he has considered the right way.* When 
 
 * The following is the challenge contained in his " Catholic Contro- 
 versy :" — 
 
 " Mr. Thayer, Catholic priest, will undertake to answer the objections 
 any gentlemen would wish to make, either publicly or privately, to the 
 doctrine he preaches ; and promises, if any one can convince him he is 
 2* 17 
 
18 PREFACE. 
 
 the gauntlet is thus thrown down, to examine the 
 subject maturely cannot by any candid man be 
 deemed improper. 
 
 Mr. Thayer has, we see, proposed to open the eyes 
 of Protestants ; and we, so far from being displeased, 
 ought to be thankful to him. As we profess to follow 
 the light wherever it appears, we should therefore 
 esteem the man, whosoever he may be, that shall dis- 
 cover to us the truth of God, as our friend, the beloved 
 of God, and the enemy of the prince of darkness. Matt. 
 v. 19. Phil. i. 18. To hate or oppose any such per- 
 son because not of our party, would betray the most 
 stupid ignorance and bigotry; seeing Christ our Lord, 
 to whose example and instruction all should ever 
 attend, reproved his apostles for having, in their mis- 
 taken zeal, prevented a man from doing good — from 
 casting out devils in his name, because he followed 
 not with them ; saying, with awful threatenings, to 
 discourage all such conduct forever, "Forbid him not, 
 for he, that is not against us, is on our part." Mark 
 ix. 39, 42. But, on the other hand, it must not be ex- 
 pected that we can suffer ourselves to be led astray — 
 to receive a new gospel from even an apostle, or an 
 angel from heaven. If the doctrines which this gen- 
 tleman has proposed to support can be proved false, 
 
 in error, he will publicly and solemnly abjure it, and recant his present 
 belief, as he has done the Protestant religion, in which he was educated. 
 I stand forth in defence of the genuine Popery, as taught in the coun- 
 cils, catechisms, and schools of the Catholic church ; I not only offer this 
 public disputation, but I even conjure the ministers, if they have real 
 love for souls, to accept it, that the people's eyes, who are kept in dark- 
 ness, may be opened to the light. I also desire them to come armed 
 with all the arguments which Tillotson, and other champions of Pro- 
 testancy, ever used in its behalf. 
 
 "JOHN THAYER, Catholic Missionary." 
 
 N. B. It is a plan, a ruse, adopted by the papal writers, to assume 
 the highest possible tone of confidence and sincerity with regard to the 
 purity of their faith, and uprightness of their motives before God, when 
 no informed priest can be ignorant that his faith is flatly opposed to 
 Christ ! See for a specimen of this practice, Dr. Milner's preface to " End 
 Of Controversy." 
 
PREFACE. 19 
 
 no man can blame us, or consider we treat him or his 
 friends ill, when, in obedience to God, we reject them. 
 
 The old religion, that of our Lord Jesus Christ, is 
 a religion of truth, goodness, peace, and love to God 
 and all mankind. This religion, older than the foun- 
 dations of the earth, dwelt in the bosom of Deity, and 
 from thence has issued forth to our lower world, to 
 illumine and purify man, and, having enriched him 
 with its unsearchable riches and glory, and filled the 
 earth with its splendours and felicity, to return with 
 him to his God, from whom it came, and place him, 
 amidst the acclamations of the heavenly hosts, as an 
 heir of God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ, safe, and 
 forever, in that inheritance that is incorruptible and 
 undefiled, and which fadeth not away. 
 
 That our Lord Jesus Christ was the purest and 
 wisest teacher that ever appeared among men, and 
 that to establish this religion on earth, and therewith 
 bless all the families thereof, and by his death atone 
 for their transgressions, and thus prepare and finally 
 receive them, to glory, was the chief end, to accomplish 
 which he condescended to visit our world, is agreed 
 on by all — at least by all Christians. That the apos- 
 tles, the blessed virgin, and the other disciples who 
 then lived, learned this holy religion of him, and en- 
 joyed it with him ; that he taught it so fully and so 
 completely that it never can be amended ; and that, 
 therefore, to add to it or take away from it, must 
 argue great arrogance and impiety; that, consequently, 
 this most blessed religion is the only safe and blissful 
 way for all Christians to everlasting life; and that 
 none who reject it, being fairly laid before them, can 
 be happy here or hereafter, is likewise admitted. 
 
 This holy treasure, this religion of God, notwith- 
 standing the folly and madness of corrupt men, and 
 the malice of Satan, who would banish it from the 
 earth, is, through the providence and goodness of God, 
 still preserved among men, and. stands on record m 
 that book called the Bible, the New Testament espe- 
 
20 PREFACE. 
 
 cially. And however great a diversity of opinion 
 may have prevailed among Christians, and unhappily 
 divided and distracted them, so that most dreadful 
 and shameful contentions have, age after age, been 
 found amongst them, yet, when the copy of the Bible, 
 which each party has, is brought forward from the 
 different parts of the earth and compared, their agree- 
 ment, with so very little comparative difference, con- 
 sidering the many furious contentions of their owners ; 
 the lapse of time since the days of Moses to the end 
 of the Jewish economy, and from the days of the 
 apostles, when the New Testament was first written, 
 to this day; the various translations they have under- 
 gone ; and the many thousand times they have been 
 copied by so many different hands, especially before 
 the happy invention of printing, is most admirable, if 
 not a miracle, and wonderfully displays the divine 
 superintendence and mercy of the Lord to his crea- 
 tures, however unworthy, in thus preserving to them 
 this invaluable record. The Bible, then, being the 
 only safe record to be relied on, the copies of which, 
 in the hands of the different parties, so wonderfully 
 agree, and in which this religion is found, is the book 
 all men should, therefore, love and cleave to. 
 
 "The gospels," saith Pope Ganganelli, vol. i. let. 40, 
 " contain the religion of Christ, and are so plain, that 
 the meanest capacity can comprehend them." Saith 
 Dr. Manning, in his Moral Entertainments, "The 
 answer of Christ to the young man, who wished to 
 know from him the way of salvation, saying, < How 
 readest thou?' teacheth us, that if we will be rightly 
 instructed in the ways of salvation, we must go to the 
 divinely inspired writings. The gospel is that which 
 we must follow ; by it we must be judged, and by it 
 stand or fall in that day; and happy is he that shall 
 •be found able to meet that awful question of the great 
 Judge, < How readest thou V " If this, therefore, be 
 the Book to which all Christians should adhere, no 
 
PREFACE. 21 
 
 other book or man should be allowed to contradict it, 
 or to add to it or detract from it. For if any book, 
 purporting to teach religion, contradict it, it is plain 
 the Bible or that book must be rejected. If it be only 
 in agreement with the Bible, it adds nothing to it, 
 though it may explain ; but if it add or diminish, the 
 divine anathema is immediately incurred. Hence, any 
 doctrines not found in, or contrary to the New Testa- 
 ment, are not from Christ, and cannot be necessary to 
 any man's salvation, but should be instantly rejected 
 as novelties; as saith St. Paul, "Though we or an 
 angel from heaven, (or any other man to the end of 
 time,) preach any other gospel to you, let him be ac- 
 cursed." Gal. i. 8. Now, if the twelve apostles, or an 
 angel from heaven, would, in this case, be had ac- 
 cursed, should not every other man tremble exceed- 
 ingly, and carefully look to himself, lest he teach any 
 new doctrine ? 
 
 Each man who loves his own soul, his neighbour, 
 and, above all, his God, ought, nay, is commanded, to 
 contend, yet in love and humility, for this faith or 
 religion once delivered to the saints. Therefore, when 
 Mr. Thayer's Controversy appeared, and was found 
 to contain several new, i. e. unscriptural, and conse- 
 quently dangerous doctrines, I wrote to him immedi- 
 ately, and made inquiries concerning them, which 
 shall be found in the following sheets. However, not- 
 withstanding his many invitations and promises, " that 
 he would answer any gentleman, either personally or 
 by letter, any questions on these subjects he proposed 
 to defend," he returned me,after waiting for six months, 
 no answer. I wondered at this, and wrote to him 
 again most pressingly for his promised answer, but in 
 vain ; my questions he would not touch, but sent me 
 a few lines directing me to read certain Roman Catho- 
 lic books ; books in which, however, no answers to my 
 questions could be found; and advising me, if I would 
 be saved, to enter into the Roman Catholic church as 
 
22 PREFACE. 
 
 he had done. As I now saw his challenge was mere 
 gasconade, my hopes of any answer were at an end. 
 And as I saw no other pen raised against him, and con- 
 sidered the danger many might be exposed to from such 
 a specious but fallacious challenge, strange doctrines, 
 and other like crafty proceedings, I found myself, in 
 some sense, in conscience bound, and strongly moved 
 to publish my inquiries to him : and thus, though a 
 weak instrument in the hand of that God who maketh 
 weak things to confound things that are mighty, try 
 to preserve the unsuspecting and weak from seduction. 
 
 That many able and learned works have been writ- 
 ten on these subjects, by Protestants — works which the 
 author is of opinion have never been, nor ever can be 
 fairly answered — is most true. But answers which con- 
 sist of railing, witticisms, evasions, or mere sophistry, 
 such as have been returned to those Protestants, can- 
 not be deemed answers, except by the ignorant or 
 prejudiced; yet, such in general have been those given 
 them. I shall, for the reader's satisfaction, give him, 
 out of many, one instance. 
 
 The amiable, learned, and accomplished Dr. Atter- 
 bury, whose fame now needs no eulogy from me, 
 writing in defence of his friend Archbishop Tillotson, 
 in his Vindication of him against N. Cressy, a Roman 
 Catholic writer, above one hundred years ago, thus 
 speaks in page 13: "If any mere human author ever 
 wrote with strength of argument and demonstration, 
 as well as accurateness of style and strength of ex- 
 pression, it was certainly the late Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury. Yet N. Cressy, the author of the ' Modest 
 Account,' represents him 'As without sound sense or 
 solid argument, and that (his friend) Mr. Serjeant was 
 much superior to the ingenious Tillotson ;' in answer 
 to which, I shall refer the reader to the preface of the 
 first volume of the archbishop's Sermons, where he 
 will find a full and satisfactory account of the contro- 
 versy between them, and plainly discover how little 
 
PREFACE. 23 
 
 N. Cressy is to be depended on for his character of 
 men, as well as his judgment of controversies in reli 
 gion, and how trifling an author Mr. Serjeant is. 
 N. Cressy pretends that the archbishop has been re 
 futed by Scripture, reason, and the authority of the 
 fathers; but when we read the arguments he is pleased 
 to afford us in his book, the reader will judge on how 
 sandy a foundation he has built." Mr. Cressy breaks 
 out thus : 
 
 a Dr. Tillotson has obliged us with a treatise written 
 on purpose, which he calls a Discourse against Tran- 
 substantiation. In this piece I meet with as copious 
 a collection of scurrility, injurious language, of notori- 
 ous and manifold impositions, and so much disinge- 
 nuity in citing of authors and managing their authori- 
 ties, as I believe was ever possible for any man who 
 had ever so little esteem for his credit, to bring within 
 so narrow a compass." 
 
 * This," says Dr. Atterbury, " is so heavy a charge, 
 and of so venomous- a nature, and levelled against a 
 person of such dignity and worth, that if N. Cressy 
 cannot make plain proof of it, he must pass among 
 all men of common honesty and sense for a barefaced 
 calumniator." And p. 91, "I had like to have forgot- 
 ten the challenge which this champion of the Roman 
 cause makes to all his adversaries, ' That if any one 
 will bring but one single argument, in mood and 
 figure, to prove that transubstantiation doth contradict 
 either sense or reason, I sincerely promise 1 will be 
 of his opinion the very next moment. N. Cressy.' " — . 
 Saith Dr. Atterbury, " This is so light and boyish, that 
 I shall only make this reply to it, That when he has 
 returned a serious or solid answer to any one para- 
 graph of the archbishop's treatise, or made good 
 one leaf he has written, his challenge shall be ac- 
 cepted." 
 
 All I shall say here, is, while men take upon them 
 selves to defend doctrines not taught by God, mere 
 
24 PREFACE. 
 
 human inventions, I never can expect any other sort 
 of answer from them. 
 
 Now, although many such Protestant works have 
 been written, and written to purpose, they are in gene- 
 ral so voluminous and so learned, that few compara- 
 tively can procure or comprehend them ; therefore, I 
 was, and still am of opinion, something short, plain, 
 and cheap was wanted, that the less affluent especially, 
 and others who have not much time to spare, might 
 with facility so far comprehend these subjects as to be 
 preserved from delusion on the one hand, and, on the 
 other, be taught to appreciate the Bible, and be led 
 thereby, through the grace of God in Christ Jesus, to 
 certain salvation. Hence, however inadequate to such 
 an undertaking, and notwithstanding the very little 
 time I could spare, I have ventured to take up my 
 pen, and cast my small mite into God's treasury. If 
 any man has hitherto been preserved or shall be pre- 
 served, or be stirred up thereby, to God be the sole 
 glory, who alone can work in man to will and to do 
 of his good pleasure. 
 
 My first edition, containing but forty or fifty pages, 
 was written in haste, and printed in 1312. My second 
 edition, containing upwards of one hundred and forty 
 pages, was printed in Limerick,* (where Mr. Thayer 
 
 • ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 "Just published, and now ready for delivery, the Inquiries of Mr. 
 Ouseley, Irish Missionary, addressed to the Rev. John Thayer, Roman 
 Catholic Missionary, in consequence of his public challenge, in his 
 1 Catholic Controversy, 3 to all Protestants, ministers especially. In 
 this work, the following interesting subjects, viz. Extreme Unction, In- 
 fallibility of the Church of Rome, Supremacy of the Pope, Purgatory, 
 Indulgences, Transubstantiation, Sacrifice of the Mass, Divine Worship 
 of the Host, &c. &c., are fully entered into and discussed ; and are 
 proved by Scripture, and by solid arguments, never to have been taught 
 by Christ or his apostles ; and that this is fact, is for the most part con- 
 fessed by many eminent Roman Catholic divines, by the council of 
 Trent itself, and by Popes Gelasius in the fifth century, Gregory in the 
 sixth century, and by others, as will appear in this work," &c. Lime- 
 rick, Jan. 28th, 1814. 
 
PREFACE. 25 
 
 then lived,) in 1813, and was advertised in the public 
 papers there, in 1814. 
 
 The following post, a little tract, about eighteen or 
 twenty pages, signed " Layman," was advertised as 
 an answer to mine of 1812, to Mr. Thayer, ten lines 
 only of which, the author, having garbled, pretended 
 to answer; at the same time refusing any reply to my 
 doctrinal questions, except a torrent of the most un- 
 qualified scurrility. I instantly prepared a reply to 
 Mr. Thayer, believing him to be the author of it, ad- 
 vertised it, and put it to press ; but having removed 
 to Ulster, and Mr. Thayer having died shortly after, 
 I deemed it unnecessary, and withdrew it. I got a 
 third edition printed in 1814, which I enlarged, and 
 put similar advertisements in the Belfast, the Newry, 
 and the Derry papers, &c, proposing therein, if any 
 one would give a fair answer to my work, I would 
 turn to the pope's church ; but no answer has to this 
 day appeared ! 
 
 Another edition of this little work was called for, 
 which I prepared and published, with considerable 
 additions, in 1821. This, in the hand of God, has 
 since then been made a blessing to many of my coun- 
 trymen, who were entangled in the errors it combats. 
 A fifth edition is now earnestly sought. I pray God 
 to assist me in improving it, to his own glory, and for 
 the good of many. 
 
 All candid men of every denomination of Christians, 
 seeing mankind so slow to virtue and so prone to vice, 
 will be ready to acknowledge, that, because of this 
 proneness to evil, and the entire purity of the doctrines 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, while few are found to fol- 
 low him, multitudes follow with great avidity, either 
 the mere forms of reMgion, regardless of its power ; 
 or, which is still worse, the corrupt inventions of men, 
 well called superstition?, because these, being agreeable 
 to corrupt nature, crosa not the depv.ved dispositions 
 of the heart. And it is notorious ifi<u not a few of the 
 
 3 
 
26 PREFACE. 
 
 very teachers of religion are found in the same trul ,. 
 deplorable state. The Roman Catholic teachers do 
 acknowledge, " that none shall enter heaven but pure 
 and holy persons, who, possessing the Spirit of God 
 thereby keep his holy commandments, and die in 
 the state of grace." This is the language of theii 
 best writers and catechisms. They also declare 
 "That all who are found in any mortal sin are 
 certainly children of the devil ; and that when 
 these die, they go, not even into purgatory, but 
 into the bottomless pit with the devil and his an- 
 gels: for only souls in a state of grace, not fully 
 purged from all their sins, go to purgatory to be 
 purged," as they tell us. Now when we look at 
 their tables of mortal sin, the catalogue is great 
 indeed. They count " seven capital sins ; six against 
 the Holy Ghost ; ten against the ten commandments ; 
 four crying sins ; sins against the baptismal and eu- 
 charistical covenants ; and against their neighbour, by 
 not striving to reclaim him ; all the catalogues of sins in 
 the New Testament and in the Old. All these are mor- 
 tal sins, and damning to the soul." Where then is the 
 man freed from mortal sin ? Can one out of one thou- 
 sand be found ? How many of the clergy themselves 
 are free ? Where is that righteous man who lives in 
 a state of grace, and proves it by keeping, not the vain 
 commandments of men, but the holy commandments 
 of his God, to be found ? Alas ! how few are they, 
 and how hard to meet with them ! What then is to 
 become of them, or of what use is it to amuse them 
 with a name ? The priests themselves admit, the 
 church of Christ on earth or in heaven can have no- 
 thing to do with the wicked — with those in mortal 
 sin ! Now, should all those, both clergy and people, 
 on whom mortal sin can be found, be drawn out of 
 their churches and parishes, and be separated from 
 the righteous, as shall be done by the Judge of all in 
 that last great day, who would be left behind ? W T ould 
 
PREFACE. 27 
 
 one out of one thousand ? Is this statement exagge- 
 rated ? Not one of them will say it is ; for their own 
 best writers make the same lamentation over their 
 awful state ; and daily observation but too much con- 
 firms it. Should not the friends of perishing humanity 
 then labour to awake them from their dreadful slum- 
 ber ? Should not the clergy look about them for their 
 own and their people's eternal safety? and, instead of 
 stickling for doubtful, nay, self-contradictory doctrines, 
 which, from their effects, it is plain, do the people no 
 good ; should they not rather lead them to the pure 
 fountain, the doctrines of Christ, which save the soul, 
 and in which all are agreed ? For such is the power 
 of sin, it cannot be dethroned in any man by any hu- 
 man inventions, but by the doctrine and spirit of Christ 
 only. "Ye have obeyed," saith St. Paul, " from the 
 heart that form of doctrine delivered unto you ; being 
 then made free from sin, ye became the servants of 
 righteousness, of God, ye have your fruit unto holi- 
 ness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of 
 sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. viii. 18, 22, 23. May 
 God help us to run to this only relief. 
 
 The Protestant clergy also freely admit, that the 
 mere forms of even the religion of God, however dili- 
 gently attended to, if rested in, will be of no avail to 
 the soul's salvation. For, that there can be no salva- 
 tion without also a true and deep repentance towards 
 God, whereby sin is loathed and forsaken and the soul 
 transformed, and a divine faith in our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, which justifies freely and purges the conscience 
 from guilt, is the doctrine they hold and maintain. So 
 saith Bishop Burnet, on the 11th Article, "It is then 
 only we are freed from wrath, when we are justified 
 and have peace with God." That there must be ob- 
 tained by this faith, " an inward spiritual grace, to be 
 a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness;" 
 that until this new birth be obtained, or " we be born 
 
28 PREFACE. 
 
 again," we are children of wrath and hell.* That by 
 this special grace alone, we are enabled to perform 
 our duty to God and our neighbour, is stated excel- 
 lently well in the Church Catechism ; as is our duty 
 to God and man, thus : " My duty to my God, is to 
 believe in him, to fear him, to love him with all my 
 heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my 
 strength ; to worship him, to give him thanks, to put 
 my whole trust in him, to honour his holy name and 
 his word, and to serve him truly all the days of my 
 life. Duty to my neighbour : To love him as myself, 
 and to do unto all men as I would they should do 
 unto me ; to love, honour, and succour my father and 
 mother ; to honour and obey the king, and all in au- 
 thority under him ; to keep my body in temperance 
 and chastity; to keep my hands from picking and 
 stealing, my tongue from evil speaking, lying, or slan- 
 dering ; not to covet or desire other men's goods, but 
 to learn and labour truly to get my own living, and be 
 content in that state of life unto which it may please 
 God to call me;" and finally, after having thus " lived 
 a pure and holy life, to come to God's eternal joy." 
 This lovely religion, which every one may readily 
 see is that which Jesus Christ our Lord taught, is the 
 religion of Churchmen, and of all Protestants of all 
 ranks and orders, generally ; to which if they would 
 attend, as they are bound to do, has there ever been, 
 or could there be now, a more blessed excellent peo- 
 ple of God on the face of the earth ? Nothing but the 
 blindest prejudice or ignorance will deny this. But, 
 alas ! how thinly scattered are they who ornament 
 this holy doctrine of God their Saviour. 
 
 How is it that men are thus led astray, some resting 
 in mere forms of religion, and others in these vain and 
 useless doctrines and commandments of men, fitly 
 called superstitions, and which this little work is 
 
 * See the 9th Article of the Church of England. 
 
PBEFACE. 29 
 
 intended to combat ? The answer to this important 
 question is given by St. Paul, Rom. viii. 7, 8 : " The 
 carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject 
 to his law, neither indeed can be ; so then, they that 
 are in the flesh (under the power of this carnal 
 mind) cannot please God." It is because of this, 
 therefore, God's pure doctrine is so neglected by- 
 teachers' and people ; and forms, or the foolish inven- 
 tions of men, are so sought after. The conclusion 
 then is plain ; men must rise up against this carnal 
 mind, and deny themselves; and believe in and 
 call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to destroy this chief 
 work of the devil, or otherwise they must ever be 
 averse to pure religion, love formality, or superstition, 
 and sin, and perish everlastingly. 
 
 But, as God is our common Father, and has com- 
 manded us to be holy ; and as our Redeemer, Jesus 
 Christ, who is to judge us in that last day, and 
 who is the sole author of eternal salvation to those 
 who obey him, has commanded all his disciples 
 to love one another; otherwise, no man can be his 
 disciple ; in searching for truth, in " contending for 
 that faith once delivered to the saints," and which 
 we are commanded to do ; we must be careful not 
 to depart, on any pretence, from the principles of 
 truth and charity, as this would be a fatal error, 
 ending in our certain ruin. Therefore, as on the one 
 hand, he that " contends for the faith once delivered 
 to the saints," and enters into discussions with his 
 fellow-mortal and brother, in order to rectify his real 
 or supposed errors, and lead him into the paths of 
 truth and salvation, ought to guard against every 
 appearance of acrimony, ill nature, or contempt be 
 cause of his opinions, and to deal with him as in the 
 presence of Christ, and in his spirit, with gentleness, 
 candour, and love, that thus he may win his brother ; 
 so, on the other hand, he that has a sincere love for 
 the truth of God, in preference to all systems, old or 
 
 3* 
 
SO PREFACE. 
 
 new, and a real f osire to save his own soul and ihf 
 souls of his neigntiours, ought ever to evince it, by 
 kindly, affectionately, and dispassionately examining 
 the arguments laid before him, and replying with 
 openness and love, not as to an enemy, but to a dear 
 friend. In this way alone should discussions of this 
 nature be conducted. God and man would then be 
 pleased, and the results would be felicitous and glo- 
 rious. 
 
 If any doctrines be proved by fair argument to ter- 
 minate, necessarily, in infidelity and irreligion, they 
 cannot be from God, and are therefore pernicious; 
 but if the doctrines herein discussed are proved thus 
 to terminate, they ought to be quickly dismissed for- 
 ever. 
 
 For to obey men in matters of religion, is mere su- 
 perstition and vain worship, as our Saviour tells us, 
 Mark vii. 7 — 9. God commands us, " To prove all 
 things, and hold fast that which is good." 1 Thess. 
 v. 21. And the apostle gives the Galatians commission, 
 "To try themselves and their doctrine, and to ana- 
 thematize any, in case of varying from the gospel." 
 Gal. i. 8, 9. And St. John says, "Believe not every 
 spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God." 
 1 John iv. 1. And our Lord declares, "If the blind 
 lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch" Matt. 
 xv. 14. Now, if a man will not obey God, and thus 
 examine, when he hath opportunity, and may do so, 
 how can he be saved? But how can he try or 
 prove his faith, or know his religion, whether it be 
 from heaven or the invention of men, if, in obedience 
 to man, who may perhaps have an interest in keeping 
 him in ignorance, he neglect to search the Scriptures, 
 the true record of God, where that religion which is 
 from heaven may be found ? To say the Scriptures 
 ought not to be read or searched, except with notes 
 to explain them, is plainly to accuse Christ and his 
 apostles of misleading the people; for, there were 
 
PREFACE 31 
 
 none of these notes, now among us, then to be found ; 
 nay, it is to charge Abraham in heaven, too; for 
 these all commanded to read Moses and the prophets, 
 and the other Scriptures also ; and carefully to guard 
 against the glosses of the Pharisees. Let man then 
 be silent, God obeyed, and the Bible be searched, 
 with humility, faith, and prayer. 
 
 Seeing that the church of Rome claims infalli- 
 bility, as her strong foundation ; to be the " only 
 church of God, out of which there is no salvation ; 
 and the mistress of all churches; and that all other 
 churches are heretical and schismatical, and are so 
 many schools of Satan ;" if, in the course of these 
 discussions, she be proved guilty of many gross 
 errors, nay, if in even one article only of her faith, 
 she be convicted, all her lofty claims are, with every 
 informed mind, at once destroyed, her foundation 
 taken away, and straightway she tumbles to the 
 ground; a misled world is disabused, the cause of 
 truth, which she had for many ages violated, is vindi- 
 cated, and all those venerable churches she had pro- 
 scribed as schools of Satan, and so long laboured to 
 render execrable to all men, her own people espe- 
 cially, are delivered from her calumnies ; and, being 
 found in agreement with holy writ, are vindicated 
 as true churches of Christ. And however they may 
 happen to differ in minor matters — matters of disci- 
 pline or opinion — this no more prevents them from 
 belonging to Christ and being of his holy church, 
 and of that one faith which he delivered to the 
 apostles and the other saints, than the many orders 
 of friars, nuns, &c, widely as they differ in opi- 
 nions and discipline, are thereby prevented from 
 belonging tc the pope and to the same papal creed 
 and church. 
 
 Hear these few arguments. 1st. The above Scrip- 
 tures teach, that God's holy will is, that we must not 
 trust either men or angels, but the gospel only; and 
 
32 PREFACE. 
 
 that if on any account whatever we neglect to search 
 and try, and earnestly contend for that faith which 
 Christ delivered to the saints, or fall far short of it, 
 we shall be reprobates. But it is most plain, that 
 he who would forbid or discourage such search, is of 
 a mind and will contrary to Christ's, and would, if 
 attended to, necessarily make men reprobates. Now, 
 that will that is contrary to Christ's, must be repro- 
 bate, and the mind of. antichrist and Satan. Hence, 
 that church or pastor which would discourage, for- 
 bid, or punish men, for making such diligent search 
 for the faith, must clearly be of antichrist and of 
 Satan. 
 
 Arg. 2. When a body of men make oath, that a 
 matter is thus and thus, and yet own they cannot be 
 sure it is so, are they not forsworn ? But the papal 
 clergy are sworn on the Gospels, " that after consecra- 
 tion, no bread or wine remains in the eucharist, but 
 Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity ;" yet they 
 openly confess in their very Missal, (see its Rubrick,) 
 "that there are many cases," not possible to be 
 known, "in which the consecration fails, and there 
 is no sacrament." Hence, they are sworn to say 
 things are thus and thus, (this applies to all their 
 sacraments,) and are forced to own, they cannot 
 know if they be so or not ! How then, or when are 
 they to be believed ? What therefore is the conclu- 
 sion ? This is a serious question. 
 
 Arg. 3. Should a king resolve to punish such as 
 dare add to or take from his laws ; and yet, if some 
 add new laws, and swear to punish those who dare 
 reject them, must not he or they fall ? Now, Christ 
 has pledged himself to destroy, in eternal fire, such 
 as shall add to or take from his gospel. Rev. xxii. 18. 
 Gal. i. 8. Yet, the papal church has added many 
 new articles of faith, (see the Trent creed,) and is 
 sworn on the Gospels to punish, as heretics, such as 
 refuse them. Hence, as Christ cannot be conquered, 
 
PREFACE. 33 
 
 she must either repent and forsake her new doctrines, 
 or be destroyed. Rev. xviii. 4 — S. 
 
 Should some minor inaccuracies occur in any part 
 of this work, which (because of the author's frequent 
 interruptions and absence from the press, on account 
 of his missionary labours) is not improbable, the 
 reader is requested kindly to correct them with his 
 pen. And if some repetitions of some singular 
 papal doctrines, made, the more deeply to impress 
 them on the reader, be observed, indulgence in this 
 is claimed. 
 
 Much as the author — weary of beholding his Sa- 
 viour's holy religion disfigured, the vile inventions of 
 men set up, and the world misled — wished to give his 
 fellow-men his views on the subjects herein discussed, 
 he could not, from the nature of his avocation, pos- 
 sibly have accomplished this, in even its present form, 
 had he not been, at two or three periods, confined by 
 affliction. 
 
 Having addressed the former editions to Mr. 
 Thayer — the two first in his lifetime — although much 
 new matter has been added, the same address has 
 been retained; for, as his numerous brethren who 
 hold his tenets, remain, so are they at liberty, if they 
 shall judge any thing incorrect, to reply, if they wish. 
 
 When all are agreed, that the only sure way of 
 salvation for men is Christianity, or the religion 
 taught by our Redeemer, preached by his apostles, 
 and also written by them in the gospel, or New Tes- 
 tament, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, with 
 as infallible certainty and accuracy as they taught 
 it; (which to deny, is to overthrow the gospel and 
 Christianity altogether ;) I say, when all sensible Ro- 
 manists believe this, as much as do Protestants; 
 when the versions of the New Testament of both, 
 are, in substance and doctrine, in such close agree- 
 ment, and when both confess that any doctrines 
 (bund at variance with that of this sacred book, is 
 
34 PREFACE. 
 
 accursed, and is indeed the broad road to destruction, 
 in which neither wish to walk, why then should 
 either of them suffer themselves, on any pretence or 
 influence whatever, to receive from men or angels 
 any doctrines opposed to the gospel of God their Sa- 
 viour? Another consideration that deserves notice, 
 is, whereas the doctrine of both their Testaments is 
 one and the same, did both cleave to these blessed 
 books, solely and sincerely, with faith and prayer, 
 how could they possibly have any essential difference 
 of religion, or avoid being entirely such Christians as 
 were those taught by Christ himself and his apostles ? 
 But if any essential difference exist in their religion, 
 must it not be clearly on this account, that the one 
 party or the other have been so far cheated and 
 deluded as f ,o have received some accursed doctrines, 
 at variance with the gospel of truth ? This must be 
 the fact, the certain fact; for the differences of all 
 who, avoiding self-contradictions, cleave to the gospel 
 solely, will, on close inspection, be found trifling, and 
 in reality to amount to nothing. What have these 
 parties now to do, but simply and promptly to exa- 
 mine if they have got any doctrines at variance with 
 the gospel, and instantly cast them away? Nor 
 must they listen to apostle or angel who would pre- 
 vent them, on pretence of their incompetency to ex- 
 amine, or other such ground; for so is the divine 
 command. Gal. i. 8, 9. 2 Cor. xiii. 5. 1 John v. 9. 
 The following pages will quickly enable them to 
 make the discovery with all facility, that Christ never 
 taught the proper sacrifice of the mass, masses for 
 the dead, Latin service, ha If -communion, purgatory, 
 invocation of angels, #c, supremacy, jubilees, in- 
 dulgences, private confessions, infallibility, adora- 
 tion of the eucharist, image worship, celibacy of all 
 clergy, extreme unction, and the like. If these, then, 
 are human figments to exalt the pope and his clergy, 
 and debase mankind, and must lead to ruin; if to 
 
PREFACE. 35 
 
 refuse to quit them is clearly to refuse being saved ; 
 and if the rejection of them be the order of God, and 
 leads to salvation, who but men bent on their own 
 ruin, madmen, can longer persist in them? If the 
 Roman clergy cannot prove Christ taught these things, 
 they cannot deny they are impieties, and they should 
 quit them, or the people should bid them farewell 
 forever. 
 
 Now, if the doctrines which I in this little work 
 combat, be found unscriptural — be opposed to Christ 
 and his gospel, and therefore to salvation ; in a word, 
 be clearly antichristian, and that any soul be thereby 
 warned, and, in the hand of God, saved from error 
 and death eternal, to him be all the glory. 
 
 The Author. 
 
THE 
 
 TRENT CREED UNDER POPE PIUS IV. 
 
 TO BELIEVE AND OBEY WHICH, THE PAPAL CLERGY ARE 
 BOUND BY OATH ON THE GOSPELS. 
 
 Bulla, S. D. N. D. Pii, divina The bull of Pius IV. by divine 
 providentia Papse IV. — Super for- providence, Pope, relative to the 
 ma juramenti professionis fidei. form of oath of the profession 
 
 of the faith. 
 PiusEpiscopus,servus servorum Pius, Bishop, the servant of the 
 Dei ad perpetuam rei memoriam. servants of God, for the perpetual 
 
 remembrance of the deed. 
 
 Injunctum t nobis Apostolicse servitutis officium, fyc. — 
 "The office of our apostolical ministry enjoins us promptly 
 to execute these decisions of the holy fathers, with which 
 the Almighty God has, for the good of his church, inspired 
 them, &c. Whereas, therefore, by the decree of the coun- 
 cil of Trent, all pastors, who shall henceforth be placed 
 over cathedrals and principal churches and their dependen- 
 cies, or who, intrusted with the care of souls, are provided 
 for, must be obliged to make public profession of the ortho- 
 dox faith, and to promise and swear that they will continue 
 obedient to the church of Rome ; we, desirous that all this 
 should be diligently attended to by all so intrusted, in 
 what department soever, whether in monasteries, convents, 
 houses, and such like places, whether called regular, mili- 
 tary, or by what name soever, and that the profession of 
 the same faith may be uniformly exhibited to all, and one 
 only and certain form of it might be made known to all 
 men, and published in every nation by those whom, under 
 the prescribed penalties, it concerns, do strictly command, 
 by our apostolical authority, that the following aforesaid 
 profession of faith be solemnly made, according to this 
 form only : 
 
 4 37 
 
38 THE TRENT CREED. 
 
 Ego, N, firma fide credo, fyc. — "I, N, firmly believe 
 and profess all and every thing contained in this creed 
 which the holy Roman church tiseth." Then follows the 
 Nicene creed. 
 
 "I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
 heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. 
 And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of 
 God ; begotten of the Father before all worlds ; God of 
 God ; Light of Light ; true God of true God ; begotten, 
 not made, being of one substance with the Father; by 
 whom all things were made ; who for us men, and for our 
 salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by 
 the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man ; 
 was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate ; he suffered 
 and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according 
 to the Scriptures ; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth at 
 the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again with 
 glory to judge the living and the dead ; of whose kingdom 
 there shall be no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord 
 and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the 
 Son, who with the Father and the Son together is w@r- 
 shipped and glorified ; who spoke by the prophets ; — and 
 one holy, catholic, and apostolic church : I acknowledge 
 one baptism for the remission of sins ; and I look for the 
 resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. 
 Amen." 
 
 After this are the twelve new articles of the Trent creed 
 
 "1. Apostolicas et ecclesiasticas traditiones, &c. — Apostolical and 
 ecclesiastical traditions, and all other observations and constitutions of 
 the same church, I most firmly admit and embrace. 
 
 " 2. I also admit the Holy Scriptures, according to that sense which 
 holy Mother Church, whose right it is to judge of the true meaning and 
 interpretation of the sacred Scriptures, hath held, and doth hold ; nor 
 will I ever receive and interpret it but according to the unanimous con- 
 sent of the holy fathers. 
 
 " 3. I profess likewise that there are seven true and proper sacraments 
 of the new law, instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, and necessary to 
 the salvation of mankind, though not all for every one ; to wit, Baptism, 
 Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, 
 and Matrimony ; and that they confer grace; and that of these, Bap- 
 tism, Confirmation, and Orders cannot be repeated without sacrilege. 
 
 " 4. I embrace and receive all and singular those things concerning 
 original sin and justification that have been defined and declared by the 
 most holy council of Trent. 
 
THE TRENT CREED. 3.0 
 
 "5. I likewise profess, that in the mass is offered unto God a true, 
 proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead ; and that 
 in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist there is truly, really, and 
 substantially the body and blood, together with the sou! and divinity of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that there is made a conversion of the whole 
 substance of the bread into his body, and of the whole substance of the 
 wine into his blood ; which conversion the Catholic church calls 
 transubstantiation. 
 
 "6. I also confess that under one kind only is taken whole and entire 
 Christ and a true sacrament. 
 
 " 7. I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls 
 there detained are assisted by the suffrages of the faithful. 
 
 " 8. And, likewise, that the saints reigning with Christ are to be 
 worshipped and invocated, and that they effbr prayers for us to God, 
 ind that their relics are to be venerated. 
 
 " 9. I most firmly assert that the images of Christ and of the mother 
 of God, ever virgin, and also of the other saints, are to be had and re- 
 tained, and that due honour and veneration be given them. 
 
 " 10. I also affirm that the power of indulgences was left by Christ 
 to his church, and that the use of them is most beneficial to Christians. 
 
 " 11\ I acknowledge the holy, catholic, and apostolic Roman church 
 as the mother and mistress of all churches ; and to the Pope of Rome, 
 successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ, 
 I promise and swear strict obedience. 
 
 " 12. I also firmly receive and profess all other things which, by the 
 sacred canons, and general councils, and especiaily by the most holy 
 council of Trent, have been delivered, defined, and declared ; and all 
 things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatever, that by the church 
 have been condemned, rejected, and anathematized, I likewise condemn, 
 reject, and anathematize." 
 
 Hanc veram Catholicam fidem, extra quam, nemo sal- 
 vus esse potest, fyc- — "This true Catholic faith, without 
 v/hich no man can be saved, which of my own accord I 
 now profess and truly hold, I the same N. do promise, 
 vow, and swear, that the same I will carefully hold and 
 confess, entire and inviolate, most constantly, (by God's 
 help,) to my latest breath, and that, as far as in me lies, I 
 will take care it shall be held, taught, and preached by all 
 those that are my subjects, or by them whose care shall in 
 my office belong to me. (Sic me Dens adjuvet et hscc 
 sancta Evangelia Dei.) So help me God, and these holy 
 Gospels of God. 
 
 Nulli ergo omnino hominum Uceat hanc paginam 
 nostras voluntatis aut mandati infringer e vel ausu teme- 
 rario contrarie, fyc. "No man whatever must attempt to 
 infringe this declaration of our will and commandment, or 
 
40 THE TRENT CREED. 
 
 rashly dare contradict it ; but if any shall presume to do so, 
 he shall know that he thereby incurs the indignation of 
 Almighty God, and of his apostles SS. Peter and Paul, 
 given at Rome, at St. Peter's, a.d. 1564 — and 5th year of 
 our pontificate." — Instit. p. 22, 23, 24. 
 
 The Oath on Schoolmasters and Doctors. — Jid hot 
 omnes ii ad quos universitatum, fyc. " Moreover all those 
 to whom the care, visitation, or reform of universities and 
 general studies belong, must take diligent care, that the 
 canons and decrees of this holy synod, be received entire 
 by these universities ; and that, according to these rules, 
 the master, doctors, and other teachers in such universities, 
 must teach and interpret those things which belong to the 
 Catholic faith ; and that they bind themselves, by a solemn 
 oath, in the beginning of each year, to this observance."— 
 C. Trent, sess. xxv. cap. 2. 
 
 Thus, is it evident, that the papal clergy are obliged to 
 be sworn on the Gospels to three particulars : — 1st, to the 
 church of Rome ; 2d, to the pope ; and 3d, to believe and 
 propagate her doctrines, and, by the same oaths, to oppose 
 every thing contrary thereto — "(and so were schoolmasters 
 sworn.) This fully accounts for that constant watch they 
 keep, and anxiety they evince, lest the people should read 
 any doctrine, or hear any preachers but their own, lest they 
 should get enlightened and discover the dreadful secret ; 
 namely, that this whole creed or faith is a mere human 
 fabrication, as pernicious to man as it is to God most 
 hateful. How ignorant, how fatally unsuspecting of all 
 this craft are the people! and how astonishing, if not 
 miraculous, that the gospel of truth has ever broken forth 
 from all those dire and ingenious trammels and guards ! 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE ABOVE. 
 
 Observ. 1. Since no man can believe that the opposite 
 of what he knows to be truth is true, and it being confessed 
 by all, that the Nicene creed of fifteen hundred years' 
 standing, is true ; most conclusive then is it, that no inform- 
 ed pope, priest, or other person, ever did, or ever can 
 believe, that this Trent creed which they are sworn to 
 teach, opposed as it clearly is to the Nicene, is by any 
 means divine truth ; for truth can never oppose truth. To 
 the most superficial observer must it be plain, that every 
 
THE TRENT CREED. 41 
 
 article of this last creed is framed to enhance the pope's and 
 clergy's power and fill their coffers, and hence that it is 
 a soul-destroying system of human fabrication and cor- 
 ruption. 
 
 2. The council of Nice, which in 325 framed the Nicene 
 creed, pronounces in one of its canons, That any man who 
 shall henceforth add any more articles of faith to those 
 then specified, is accursed. And Pope Celestine, a. d. 423, 
 in his epistle to Nestorius, in defence of that creed, has 
 these words, "Who is not judged worthy of an anathema 
 that either adds or takes away from it? for, that faith which 
 was delivered by the apostles requires neither addition nor 
 diminution." But the council of Trent and Pope Pius in 
 1564, in the face of all this, add twelve new articles at a 
 stroke, nor once blush to pronounce those who shall presume 
 to refuse any of them, accursed. And although these coun- 
 cils thus necessarily anathematize each other, yet the papal 
 doctors are sworn to believe and teach both are infallible ! ! ! 
 And while both creeds plainly contradict one another, as 
 shall presently most clearly appear, yet they are, never- 
 theless, decreed by the infallible council to be one and the 
 same true faith ! JRisum teneatis ? 
 
 3. The Nicene, or former part of this creed, declares 
 " Christ was incarnated by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin 
 Mary and was made man." But in the 5th article of the 
 new part of the same, that is, of the Trent creed, it is 
 defined and declared, " that Christ's body and blood are 
 really, substantially, and truly made, by consecration, of 
 the whole substance of the bread, and of the whole sub- 
 stance of the wine." Here, then, are two sorts of Christs 
 from entirely different sources, exhibited in one compound 
 creed!!! By one part thereof, the Nicene, "Christ was 
 born, crucified, suffered, w r as buried, rose again, ascended 
 into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, and shall 
 come to judge all men." &c. But by the other, he was 
 not born, nor crucified, &c, but was made of bread, and of 
 wine, and yet the papal clergy are sworn to believe and 
 teach the two are the same ! As all these contradictions 
 are, to be sure, pronounced divine truths ! so, their people, 
 rational beings, must believe this, because their clergy 
 teach them to do so ! ! ! 
 
 4. By the first article, traditions, and papal decrees, &c, 
 
 4* 
 
42 THE TRENT CHEED. 
 
 (mere inventions of men,) must be admitted, and embraced 
 too; but by the second, the Holy Scripture is coldly to be 
 admitted only, not embraced, and that under must severe 
 and cautious restrictions. Who can forbear noticing this ? 
 And, when we turn to sess. iv. Becretum de Edit., &c, 
 a. d. 1546, and to the rules, De libris prohibitis,* it is 
 obvious their dread of the Scriptures is such that it cannot 
 be concealed. 
 
 Behold how difficult it was to obtain leave to read the 
 word of God, even when translated by Roman Catholics 
 
 * De libris prohibitis, regulse x., &c, " Ten rules fitly framed by 
 Fathers chosen by the Trent council, and approved by Pius IV., in his 
 Constitution, which begins, Dominici, on the 4th of March, 1564." 
 
 " Rule 4. Cum experiment o manifestum sit, £(C., whereas, it is 
 plain by experience, were the Holy Scriptures read every where in the 
 vulgar tongue, more injury than good would follow ; yet if permission 
 to read translations of the Bible made by Catholics only, may with 
 safety be granted to some, who by such reading, might reap godly 
 benefit, this must rest with the judgment of the bishop or inquisitor, 
 together with the counsel of their parish priest. In such cases it may 
 be given ; but they must have a license from the bishop in writing ! 
 Qui autem absque tali facultate ea legere seu habere presumpserit, 
 nisi prius bibliis ordinario redditis, peccaforum absoluiionem preriptre 
 non posset, S(C. " But he that without such license shall presume to 
 read or have such books, unless he instantly deliver them up to the 
 ordinary, cannot receive the forgiveness of his sins. And the book- 
 seller, who, without such license, shall sell or otherwise grant the Bible 
 in the vulgar tongue, &c, shall forfeit the price of the books, and be 
 otherwise punished at the bishop's discretion, according to the nature 
 of his offence. Nor may the monks, without such license from their 
 prelates, read or buy them. 
 
 " Rule X. Liberum tamen Episcopis, Sfc. — " But, yet, the bishops 
 or inquisitors general, are, by their license which they have, authorized 
 to prohibit, in their kingdoms, provinces, or dioceses, those very books 
 that appear to be permitted by those rules, if they shall judge fit." So, 
 after all the pains of procuring this said license, it can be rendered null 
 in an instant ! and then the Bible must not be read. 
 
 Ad extremum vero omnibus fidelibus, Sfc. — " Lastly, the faithful are 
 commanded, that none must dare read or have any books contrary to 
 the prescribed rules of this Index ; but if any one shall read or have 
 books of heretics, or of any author on heresy, or condemned and pro- 
 hibited on suspicion of false dogmas, he instantly incurs the sentence 
 of excommunication. And he that shall read or have books of any 
 name that are so forbidden him, besides the guilt of mortal sin into 
 which he falls, he must be severely punished, according to the judgment 
 of the bishops." 
 
 If this be not worse than Egyptian bondage, let common sense decide. 
 
THE TRENT CREED. 43 
 
 themselves ! See what dread this church ever had of the 
 Bible. Thank God ! the darkness is greatly passed, and 
 the true light is increasing. 
 
 4. This third new article of faith is unqualified jargon : 
 for, " seven Christian sacraments," as per sess. vii. can. 1. 
 are insisted on, " as instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ," 
 which is proved false. See the discussion on extreme 
 unction, where holy orders and it clearly destroy each 
 other. And if a sacrament cannot be without Christ's own 
 institution, such as baptism and the eucharist alone have, 
 then, none of the other five, according to their own show- 
 ing, are Christian sacraments at all, because for them no 
 institution from Christ can possibly be found in all the 
 book of God. 
 
A CURIOUS EXTRACT 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 PUBLIC MASS BOOK OR MISSAL, 
 
 {Page 53, Sfc.) 
 
 DE DEFECTIBUS TjV CELEBRATIOjYE MSSARUM OCCURRED 
 TIB US." 
 
 "RESPECTING DEFECTS OCCURRING IN THE MASS. 
 
 "Potest autem defectus con- 
 tingere ex parte Materiae conse- 
 crandae; et ex parte Formae 
 adhibenda?, et ex parte Ministri 
 conficientis. Quidquid enimhorum 
 deficit, scilicet, materia debita, for- 
 ma, cum intentione, et ordo sacer- 
 dotalis in conficiente, non conficitur 
 sacramentum." 
 
 "Mass may be defective in 
 the Matter to be consecrated, in 
 the Form to be used, and in the 
 officiating Minister. For if in 
 any of these, there be any defect, 
 viz., due matter, form, with inten- 
 tion, and priestly orders in the 
 celebrator, no sacrament is con- 
 secrated." 
 
 Be defectibus Funis. — The defects in the Bread. 
 
 1st. "Si panis non sit triticeus, 
 vel si triticeus, admixtus sit granis 
 alterius generis, in tanta quantitate 
 ut non maneat panis triticeus, vel 
 si alioqui corruptus, non conficitur 
 sacramentum. 
 
 2d. "Si sit confectus de aqua 
 rosecea, vel alterius distillationis, 
 dubium est an conficiatur. 
 
 3d. " Si caeperit corrumpi, sed 
 non sit corruptus ; similiter, si non 
 sit azymus secundum morem eccle- 
 siae Latinae, conficitur ; sed, confi- 
 ciens graviter peccat." 
 
 1st. " If the bread be not of wheat, 
 or if of wheat, it be mixed with such 
 quantity of other gr-ain, that it doth 
 not remain wheaten bread ; or if it 
 be in any way corrupted, it doth 
 not make a sacrament. 
 
 2d. " If it be made with rose or 
 other distilled water, it is doubtful 
 if it make a sacrament. 
 
 4d. " If it begin to corrupt but ig 
 not corrupted : also, if it be not un- 
 leavened according to the custom of 
 the Latin church, it makes a sacra- 
 ment; but the priestsinsgrievously." 
 44 
 
PUBLIC MASS BOOK OR MISSAL. 
 
 45 
 
 Be defectibus Vini. — Of the defects of the Wine. 
 
 "Si vinum sit factum penitus 
 acetum, vel penitus putridum, vel 
 de uvis acerbis seu non maturis 
 expressum, vel ei admixtum tan- 
 tum aquse, ut vinum sit corruptum, 
 non conficitur sacramentum. 
 
 " Si post consecrationem cor- 
 poris, aut etiam vini, deprehenditur 
 defectus alterius speciei, altera jam 
 consecrata; tunc si nullo modo 
 materia quae esset apponenda haberi 
 possit, ad evitandum scandalum 
 procedendum erit." 
 
 " If the wine be quite sour, or 
 putrid, or be made of bitter or un- 
 ripe grapes : or if so much water 
 be mixed with it, as spoils the 
 wine, no sacrament is made. 
 
 " If after the consecration of the 
 body, or even of the wine, the 
 defect of either kind be discovered, 
 one being consecrated; then, if 
 the matter which should be placed 
 cannot be had, to avoid scandal, he 
 must proceed." 
 
 Be defectibus Formse. — The defects in the Form. 
 
 " Si quis, aliquid diminuerit vel 
 immutaret de forma consecrationis 
 corporis et sanguinis, et in ipsa 
 verborum immutatione, verba idem 
 non significarent, non conficeret 
 sacramentum." 
 
 " If any one shall leave out or 
 change any part of the form of the 
 consecration of the body and blood, 
 and in the change of the words, 
 such words do not signify the same 
 thing, there is no consecration." 
 
 Be defectibus Ministri. — The defects of the Minister. 
 
 " Defectus ex parte ministri 
 possunt contingere quoad ea, qua? 
 in ipso requiruntur, hsec autem 
 sunt, imprimis intentio, deinde 
 dispositio animse, dispositio corpo- 
 ris, dispositio vestimentorum, dis- 
 positio in ministerio ipso, quoad ea, 
 qua? in ipso possunt occurrere. 
 
 " Si quis non intendit conficere, 
 sed delusarie aliquid agere. Item 
 si aliquse hostiae ex oblivione rema- 
 neant in altari, vel aliqua pars vini, 
 vel aliqua hostia lateat, cum non 
 intendat consecrare, nisi quas videt ; 
 item si quis habeat coram se un- 
 decim hostius, et intendat conse- 
 crare solum decern, non determi- 
 nans quas decern intendit, in his 
 casibus non consecrat, quia requi- 
 ritur intentio, &c, &c, &c. 
 
 "Si hostia consecrata dispareat 
 vel casu aliquo aut vento, aut mi- 
 raculo, vel ab aliquo animali accep- 
 ta, et nequeat reperi ; tunc altera 
 consecratur. 
 
 " The defects on the part of the 
 minister, may occur in these things 
 required in him, these are first and 
 especially intention, after that, dis- 
 position of soul, of body, of vest- 
 ments, and disposition in the ser- 
 vice itself, as to those matters 
 which can occur in it. 
 
 " If any one intend not to con- 
 secrate, but to counterfeit ; also, if 
 any wafers remain forgotten on the 
 altar, or if any part of the wine, or 
 any wafer lie hidden, when he did 
 not intend to consecrate but what 
 he saw ; also, if he shall have be- 
 fore him eleven wafers and intend- 
 ed to consecrate but ten only, not 
 determining what ten he meant, in 
 all these cases there is no consecra- 
 tion, because intention is required ! ! 
 
 " Should the consecrated host 
 disappear, either by accident, or by 
 wind, or miracle, or be devoured by 
 some animal, and cannot be found ; 
 then let another be consecrated. 
 
46 
 
 PUBLIC MASS BOOK OR MISSAL. 
 
 " Si post consecrationem cecide- 
 rit musca vel arnea, vel aliquid 
 ejusmodi in calicern et fiat nausea 
 sacerdoti, extrahat earn et lavet cum 
 vino,finita missa, comburat et com- 
 bustio ac lotio hujusmodi in sacra- 
 rium projiciatur. Si autem non 
 fuerit ei nausea, nee ulium pericu- 
 lum timeat, sumat cum sanguine. 
 
 " Si aliquid venenosum ceciderit 
 in calicem, vel quod provocaret vo- 
 mitum, vinum consecratum in alio 
 calice reponendum est, et aliud vi- 
 num cum aqua apponendum denuo 
 consecrandura, sanguis repositus in 
 panno lineo vel stuppa tamdiu serva- 
 tur donee species vini fuerint desic- 
 catae, et tunc stuppa comburatur et 
 combustio in sacrarium projiciatur. 
 
 " Si aliquod venenatum conti- 
 gerit hostiam consecratam, tunc 
 alteram consecret, et sumat modo 
 quo dictum est; et ilia servetur 
 in tabernaculo, loco serperato donee 
 species corrumpantur, et deinde 
 mittatur in sacrarium. 
 
 "Si in hieme sanguis congeletur 
 in calice, involvatur calix in pannis 
 calefactis, si id non profkerit, pona- 
 tur in fervente aqua prope altare, 
 dummodo in calicem non intret 
 donee liquefiat. 
 
 "Si per negligentiam, aliquid de 
 sanguine Christi ceciderit, seu qui- 
 dem super terram, seu super tabu- 
 lam, lingua lamhatur, et locus 
 ipse radatur quantum satis est, et 
 abrasio comburatur: cinis vero in 
 sacrarium recondatur. 
 
 " Si sacerdos evornet eucharis- 
 tiam, si species integrae appareant 
 reverentur sumantur, nisi nausea 
 fiat ; tunc enim species consecratse 
 caute separentur, et in aliquo loco 
 sacro reponantur donee corrum- 
 pantur, et postea in sacrarium pro- 
 jiciantur ; quod si species non ap- 
 pareant, comburatur vomitus, et 
 cinires in sacrarium mittantiw." 
 
 "If after consecration, a gnat, 
 a spider, or any such tiling fall 
 into the chalice, let the priest swal- 
 low it with the blosd, if he can ; 
 but if he fear danger and have a 
 loathing, let him take it out, and 
 wash it with wine, and when mass 
 is ended, burn it, and cast it and 
 the washing into holy ground. 
 
 " If poison fall into the chalice, 
 or what might cause vomiting, let 
 the consecrated wine be put into 
 another cup, and other wine with 
 water be again placed to be conse- 
 crated, and when mass is finished, 
 let the blood be poured on linen 
 cloth, or tow, remain till it be dry, 
 and then be burned, and the ashes 
 be cast into holy ground. 
 
 " If the host be poisoned, let 
 another be consecrated and used, 
 and that, be kept in a tabernacle, 
 or a separate place until it be cor- 
 rupted, and after that be thrown 
 into holy ground. 
 
 " If in winter the blood be frozen 
 in the cup, put warm clothes about 
 the cup ; if that will not do, let it 
 be put into boiling water near the 
 altar, till it be melted, taking care 
 it does not get into the cup. 
 
 "If any of the blood of Christ 
 fall on the ground by negligence, 
 it must be licked up with the 
 tongue, the place be sufficiently 
 scraped, and the scrapings burned * 
 but the ashes must be buried in 
 holy ground. 
 
 " If the priest vomit the eucharist, 
 and the species appear entire, he must 
 piously swalhiu it again ,• but if a 
 nausea prevent him, then let the con- 
 secrated species be cautiously sepa- 
 rated, and put by in some holy place 
 till they be corrupted and after, let 
 them be cast into holy ground; but 
 if the species do not appear, the vomit 
 must be burned and the ashes thrown 
 into holy ground." Marvellous ! 
 
PUBLIC MASS BOOK OR MISSAL. 47 
 
 Who can possibly believe that any rational beings could 
 have such a religion, such rules as these, did he not read 
 them with his own eyes ? Had it been told him, he would 
 doubtless have deemed it mere banter? So then, this 
 clergy grant that in twelve or thirteen cases the consecra- 
 tion is null, and there is then no true sacrament, and that 
 which is received is false ! The adoration of it then is 
 idolatry, and the offering up this false mass to God for souls 
 in purgatory, or otherwise, is mockery and sacrilege, as is 
 the whole service ! Add, that these cases are impossible 
 to be guarded against ! But if the priest should happen to 
 observe some defect as he officiates, to prevent detection by 
 the people, he must go forward, yes, and thus plunge all 
 into idolatry ! When Christ never taught such principles, 
 who in his senses can deem himself safe in such a church 1 
 
 So then this clergy are sworn to believe, that their 
 eucharist, or wafer, is Christ's body, blood, soul, and 
 divinity, and yet thus confess, that in all these cases, 
 (impossible to be known,) there is a failure, and then in 
 the eucharist is no Christ, but the wafer only and the wine. 
 
 And farther they tell us, that the host, i. e. Christ, may 
 happen to be lost by some accident, or carried off by wind, 
 or eaten by an animal— a mouse, a dog, or cat, or by a 
 spider or fly falling into the cup, which the priest must in 
 this case swallow if he can, and then may vomit, and take 
 out of the vomit, and then adore and devoutly swallow it 
 up again. Or he may be frozen up, and released by hot 
 water, &c, &c. Now should not every layman, at least, 
 put this question to himself: Do any of these degrading 
 things happen to the true Christ in heaven ? If not, this 
 must be a fictitious papal Christ, which all who care for 
 their souls should beware of. Strong and deep must be 
 the delusion of those doctors who teach such enormities, 
 and of the people who madly abide with them ! May the 
 Almighty awake them from their awful stupor. 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 EXTREME UNCTION NO SACRAMENT. 
 
 TO THE REV. MR. THAYER^ 
 
 Limerick, February 18, 1812. 
 
 Sir — Having yesterday come to this city, a friend put 
 your book, " The Catholic Controversy ," into my hands : 
 it now lies before me. I see, with no small pleasure, your 
 repeated professions of sincere desire to know and propa- 
 gate the truth of God, the gospel of Christ. In pages 11, 
 12, you tell us, the infallibility of the church of Rome, 
 and of her doctrines, in this gospel, over which you so 
 much rejoice ; that this is the most essential point to all 
 Christians, so that whosoever rejects it, is deemed a heretic, 
 and cannot be saved!! yet declaring yourself open to con- 
 viction, and ready to answer any fair questions or objec- 
 tions that may be made to your doctrines. This, I confess, 
 if the infallibility of the church of Rome be the true gospel, 
 I am still an unbeliever; for I never have been able to 
 receive it. 
 
 I rejoice, however, to find a man that will fairly and 
 honestly answer any questions on this subject that may be 
 asked. As I also, in my little search after truth, have for 
 some years, and with some attention too, considered this 
 very system, which has so wonderfully captivated your 
 heart ; and yet, to which, after the most careful and dispas- 
 sionate investigation of which I am capable, I have many, 
 very many and increasing objections. 
 
 Give me leave, sir, to say, you would have abundantly 
 more satisfied me, had you written a fair and rational 
 
 5 49 
 
50 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 answer to some of those books already published against 
 the peculiar tenets of your church, viz.* Tillotson's " Ser- 
 mons against Transubstantiati-on," Bishop Usher's 
 " Friendly Advice to the English Catholics" Peter Du 
 Moulin's "Anatomy of the Mass — The Mass dead and 
 buried without hope of resurrection" Meagher on the 
 Mass; and some of the writings of Jewell, Sharp, Butler, 
 Synge, Seeker, Porteus, Bennet, Poole, Needham, &c, &c. 
 
 Had you so done, you would have more effectually 
 served the cause you wish to support, and induced every 
 serious inquirer to think more favourably of it, than by 
 giving us a new book with nothing new in it ; nothing but 
 what you allow, and we well know to have been collected 
 from former writers of your church, and which has been 
 again and again fully and ably refuted. 
 
 The answers you give to the objections brought against 
 you, are, in my judgment, very easily overturned, and will 
 by no means satisfy any rational or informed mind, even of 
 your church. The sort of arguments you make use of, and 
 the way you slip over some things, that should not be 
 lightly passed by, show that your cause is very weak if 
 not altogether indefensible ; which shall quickly appear, is 
 clearly the case. 
 
 EXTREME UNCTION NO CHRISTIAN SACRAMENT. 
 
 Permit me, sir, to trouble you with a few questions con 
 cerning extreme unction, one of your seven sacraments. 
 
 1st. How can you prove that extreme unction, which, 
 according to the council of Trent, you are sworn to believe 
 to be a sacrament, and necessary to salvation, is a sacra- 
 ment of Christ's own institution, without which, your 
 church allows there cannot be any true Christian sacrament 
 at all? 
 
 2dly. If it be a sacrament, and necessary to salvation, 
 why do you refuse it to persons going to die by the sen- 
 tence of the law, not having any bodily sickness, to whom, 
 however, you deny no other sacrament? and why do ye 
 tell them they can go to heaven without it ; but that others, 
 
 * The answers given by Dr. Sarjeant, &c., made up of sojphistry and 
 witticisms ; or by ridicule and abuse, as has been the mode of others ; 
 and whicn leave the main questions untouched, are neither rational nor 
 manly, and are unworthy any man's notice. 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 51 
 
 even such as have bodily sickness if they neglect it cannot 
 be saved ? This appears quite a paradox. 
 
 A Christian sacrament you define to be a sensible sign of 
 an inward grace, instituted by Christ himself, &c. 
 
 Dr. Challoner, in " Catholic Christian" thus explains it: 
 
 " Ques. — What are the necessary conditions for a thing 
 to be a sacrament ? Page 3. 
 
 Ans. — 1st. It must be a sacred, visible, or sensible sign. 
 
 2dly. This sacred sign must have a power annexed to it 
 of communicating grace to the soul. 
 
 3dly. This must be, by virtue of the institution of 
 Christ." 
 
 Page 4. — "As in baptism* Christ's institution is found 
 in Matt, xxviii. 19: 'Go teach all nations, baptizing them 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost;' and in St. John iii. 5 : 'Except a man be born of 
 water and of the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter the kingdom 
 of heaven.' " 
 
 Page 23. — "The sacrament of the eucharist was insti- 
 tuted by our Lord Jesus Christ, at his last supper. Matt. 
 xxvi. 26, 27. Luke xxii. 19." Thus, the bishop brings 
 Christ's own words for the institution of baptism and the 
 eucharist. But we shall see when his proofs are examined, 
 if he can do so as it regards extreme unction. 
 
 Now I require of you, reverend sir, where are the words 
 of Christ for the institution of this extreme unction to 
 be found ? Fly not from my question : answer me if you 
 can ? 
 
 I know the council of Trent tells us, in sess. 14, chap. 
 1, can. 1, (cursing all that dare disbelieve,) "That in the 
 6th chapter of St. Mark, Christ's institution of the extreme 
 unction is to be found," " Jl Christo Domino nostro, apud 
 Marcum, 6 cap., quidem insinuatum ;" and that it was 
 published by S4. James, 5th chapter, "per Jacobum apos- 
 tolum promulgatum." The council pretends no other 
 authority in the whole book of God, but this single hint, 
 said to be in Mark vi. ! ! ! So we see, when they could 
 find no words of Christ for this extreme unction, (which it 
 seems they were determined at all events to have,) they 
 take for it another foundation, even an insinuatum, a hint, 
 a conjecture ; and curse all who will not admit it! I ask, 
 is this sufficient to satisfy any man of candour or inform* 
 
52 
 
 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 tion, even of yourselves ? So, then, popes may conjecture 
 that Christ spoke what words they wish, build sacraments 
 or what whimsies they please on them, and make laws to 
 coerce men to receive them ! To crouch to such spiritual 
 tyranny argues the deepest infatuation ! 
 
 But lest I should be charged with unfair garbling, I shall 
 adduce the enjire law of the council concerning it ; and 
 which, when examined, must indeed amaze all who con- 
 sider it ! 
 
 CONCERNING THE INSTITUTION OF EXTREME UNCTION. 
 SESS. 14, CAP. I. INST. SACRAM. EX. UNC. 
 
 "Instituta est autem sacra hsec 
 unctio infirmorum, tanquam vere 
 et proprie sacramentum Novi Tes- 
 tament!, a Christo Domino nostro, 
 apud Marcum,quidern insinuatum, 
 per Jacobum autem apostolum 
 fidelibus commendatum ac promul- 
 gatum. ' Infirmatur,' inquit, ' quis 
 in vobis : inducat presbyteros ec- 
 clesise, et orent super eum, un- 
 gentes eum oleo in nomino Domi- 
 ni : et oratio fidei salvabit infir- 
 mum: et alleviabit eum (instead 
 of eytgu clutov, eriget eum) Domi- 
 nus ; et, si in peccatis sit, dimitten- 
 tur ei ;' quibus verbis, ut ex apos- 
 tolica traditione,per manus accepta, 
 ecclesia didicit." 
 
 "Tbis holy anointing of the sick is 
 
 INSTITUTED, AS IT WERE, tO be a 
 
 true and proper sacramentof the New 
 Testament ; hinted at indeed by 
 Christ our Lord, in St. Mark, but 
 recommended and preached to the 
 faithful by the apostle St. James ; 
 he saith, ' Is any sick among you, 
 let him send for the elders of the 
 church, and let them pray over him, 
 anointing him with oil in the name 
 of the Lord, and the prayer of faith 
 shall save the sick, and the Lord 
 shall ease him (raise him up,) and 
 if he be in sins they shall be for* 
 given him,' by which words the 
 church hath learned this, as it were 
 from apostolic tradition received 
 by hand." 
 
 THE CANONS FOR EXTREME UNCTION. 
 
 Can. 1. Si quis dixerit, extre- 
 mam unctionem non esse vere et 
 proprie sacramentum a Christo 
 Domino nostro institutum et a 
 beato Jacobo apostolo promulga- 
 tum ; sed figmentum humanum ; 
 anathema sit. 
 
 Can. 2. Si quis dixerit, sacram 
 infirmorum unctionem non conferre 
 gratiam nee remittere peccata, nee 
 alleviare infirmos; sed jam ces- 
 sasse, quasi olim tantum fuerit 
 gratia curationum ; anathema sit. 
 
 "If any shall say, extreme 
 unction is not truly and properly 
 a sacrament instituted by Christ 
 our Lord, and preached by the 
 apostle St. James; but that it 
 is a human invention, let him be 
 accursed. 
 
 " If any shall say, that the holy 
 anointing of the sick doth not confer 
 grace, nor remit sins, nor relieve the 
 sick; but that it had long since 
 ceased, as if of old, it hath only 
 been the grace of healing, let him 
 be accursed." 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 53 
 
 Let any man of candour examine this extraordinary 
 chapter and these two canons, and shall he not see that the 
 council themselves were fully aware that they were going 
 aside from truth in forming this sacrament ? 
 
 In the penning of the chapter or preamble respecting 
 extreme unction, they manifest much caution. But in can. 
 1, they determine at all events to strike a bold stroke ; they 
 at once lay aside all restraint and fear ! The reader will 
 mark this ! 
 
 In the chapter, they say the extreme unction was insti- 
 tuted ; but they don't once attempt to say it was by Christ; 
 they only modestly assert "Ae insinuated it!" he hinted 
 at it " insinuatum quidem"* Nor do they say it was a 
 positive sacrament, but only (tanquam) as it were, a sacra- 
 ment. They do not once presume to say that they have 
 any positive institution in Scripture for it, but only that the 
 church learned it from a tradition come by hand "accepta 
 per manus." What a strange foundation for a sacrament, 
 sworn to have been taught by Christ! Who can endure 
 such self-contradiction ? 
 
 In the face of this, however, and as a standing and lasting 
 evidence of their blindness and infusion, they form, and 
 leave on record, a canon, insisting that Christ himself did 
 positively institute the extreme unction as a true and proper 
 sacrament ; yet, in the chapter, they confess he did not, for 
 that he only hinted at it: and then enjoin it as an article of 
 faith, with a curse on any who shall deny it, or call it a 
 forgery. 
 
 * The author of the History of the Council of Trent, page 351, tells 
 us, " that the words ' instituted by Christ our Lord, in St. Mark,'' were 
 first written ; but a divine present at the council observed, ' if the apos- 
 tles were not made priests till the last supper, it would seem a contradic- 
 tion that the unction which they had administered before, was a sacra- 
 ment, and that priests only are ministers of it.' But some who held 
 extreme unction to be a sacrament, answered, ' that Christ made them 
 priests at that time, concerning that action only.' Yet it was thought 
 too dangerous to affirm this absolutely. Therefore, instead of the word 
 institution, they put insinuatum" One thing from this is clear, that 
 the council saw. that as the unction then ministered was not by priests, 
 so it was not a sacrament; and this thev prove, by putting out the word 
 instituted, and putting in another word sounding like it, merely to 
 amuse the people. But by and by, they clap in the word institutum 
 again, to serve their purpose ! shame, where is thy blush ! 
 
 5* 
 
54 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 And in the second canon they curse all who shall say, 
 it was only the grace of healing, or of miraculous cures, 
 which was intended, of old, by the anointing; which proves, 
 that they saw evidently, from the Scriptures, that this was 
 the very use of it; and which had been already objected 
 against them ! 
 
 What would you, sir, or any of your friends say, if Pro- 
 testants were thus to form sacraments, and at the same time 
 unblushingly confess they built them on mere conjecture ? 
 Would you not, as an honest man, and defender of Christ's 
 holy religion, execrate such deceptions, and lift up your 
 voice as well as your pen against them ? Yet, the council 
 of Trent, the holy infallible council! three hundred bi- 
 shops, with the pope at their head, during their nineteen 
 years sitting, made diligent search to find some word of 
 Christ for this their extreme unction, and having failed, 
 they yet stop not to build it on a foundation palpably false, 
 rather than want it : and then make a law, that all their 
 successors forever shall swear and teach, " that they be- 
 lieve Christ instituted the sacrament of extreme unction,'''' 
 though it is acknowledged under their own hands, as we 
 have just seen, they built it on a mere conjecture, an insi- 
 nuatumlll 
 
 tO* Before I go farther, suffer me, sir, to adduce an 
 argument, from premises granted by the council itself, 
 which involves it in this plain dilemma ; that the extreme 
 unction is no sacrament; or, that the apostles were not 
 made priests at the last supper, as the council affirms they 
 were, and thus overthrows its own infallibility at once. 
 
 The council, sess. 14, cap. 3, declares that the ministers 
 of extreme unction are " episcopi aut sacer dotes ab ipsis 
 rite ordinati;" "bishops or priests truly ordained by them." 
 And in sess. 22, cap. 1, "quos tunc, (in novissima ccena,) 
 Novi Testamenti sacerdotes constituebat ;" "that it was 
 not till the last supper that our Lord ordained the apostles 
 to be priests of the New Testament." 
 
 When the apostles administered the unction to the sick, 
 Mark vi. 13, they were then priests, or they were not 
 priests. If they were priests then, they were not made 
 priests at the last supper ; and the council, in affirming they 
 were, have erred : or if they were not priests then, or til. 
 the last supper, the unction, not being ministered by 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 55 
 
 priests, was no sacrament ; and the council in declaring it 
 was a sacrament, has greatly erred. In either case, the 
 council has overthrown its own infallibility, and that of the 
 church of Rome ! ! ! The doctors were aware of this con- 
 clusion as it regarded the priesthood, conferred, as they 
 say, at the last supper, therefore it was that they put in the 
 word insinuatum, and put out institutiim as before 
 noticed. But this relieves them nothing, for the conclusion 
 remains the same. 
 
 Another blow at the root is this. As there was no pro- 
 per sacrifice till the death of Christ, and none was in the 
 last supper, nor therefore in any eucharist forever, so were 
 not the apostles ever made proper sacrificers or priests at 
 all, nor of course were any others forever. And if no such 
 priests were ever divinely appointed, it follows, that the 
 office is a mere human fiction, and extreme unction is 
 impossible to be a true sacrament, and is but a fiction also. 
 And as all fictions are accursed of God, then can this 
 fiction, extreme unction, never be a blessing, but a curse, 
 of course. 
 
 But when, however, we turn to the sixth chapter of 
 Mark, for even this hint, behold ! there is no such thing at 
 all ! not one word from Christ about any unction what- 
 ever ! but only the simple narrative of the evangelist, 
 telling of the ceremony which the apostles used in miracu- 
 lously healing the sick, as commanded them by our Lord, 
 in the third chapter, 14th and 15th verses. "He gave 
 them- power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils,'' 
 and again, chapter xvi. 18, "They shall lay hands on the 
 sick and they shall recover ;" and Luke x. 9, " And into 
 whatsoever city ye enter, heal the sick that are therein." 
 And this they did, as the evangelist in chapter vi. 13, nar- 
 rated. "And they preached that men should repent, and 
 they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many 
 that were sick, and healed them''' of their bodily diseases. 
 Let any one examine these passages, even in the Douay 
 Testament, and he will quickly find this statement to be 
 correct. 
 
 And that it is to this bodily cure, to be thus miraculously 
 effected, St. James refers, and to this only, not to any sa- 
 crament, is "fully manifest from his own words in his 5th 
 chapter, " Aadevst m svifiw;" Injirmatur quis in vobis? 
 
56 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 Is any sick among you, (of a bodily disease,) let them cak 
 for (the " rtpea^vtspovi") the elders or presbyters of the 
 church, and let them pray over him, anointing- him with 
 oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith, of a 
 miracle-working faith, (such as Elias had, v. 17, and St. 
 Paul, Acts xxviii. 8,) " vaoto tov xafxvovta" — salvabit in- 
 firmum vel labora.item, " shall save the sick man" from 
 his sickness — from the (incommoda ac labores morbi) " the 
 pains and agonies of his disease," as the council of Trent, 
 sess. 14, chap. 2, confesses. Kat syspeiav tov 6 Kuptoj — Et 
 eriget eum Dominus, " And the Lord shall raise him up," 
 (not alleviabit, ease him,) as the council of Trent, Dr. Chal. 
 and others do write ; thus, striving to evade the manifest 
 force of the apostle's expression, " syspn avtov," raise him 
 up ; and that, contrary even to the Rhemish Testament, 
 which has the words " raise him up." This raising up 
 of the sick man, then, is evidently, from his sickness to 
 health again, and perfectly agrees with the miraculous cures 
 in St. Mark, as already stated ; and so, at once overthrows 
 your extreme unction, which you call " sacr amentum exe- 
 untium, sacr amentum finis vitse" "the sacrament of the 
 dying, the sacrament of the end of life," and so, rather of 
 putting the sick man down into his grave ; which cannot 
 mean, raising him up. Disprove this reasoning if you are 
 able. 
 
 " And if he has committed sins they shall be forgiven 
 him." This clause alone destroys extreme unction, — which 
 you say is intended to remit sins, — for, if there be no sins 
 to be remitted, the extreme unction is quite needless. *N"ow, 
 the sick man might have been afflicted, (as the man was 
 " with blindness," John ix. 3,) not because of any sin, as 
 the apostle intimates in the words " If he has committed 
 sins," but only for the glory of God, that the miracle being 
 wrought on him, his health being thus miraculously restored ; 
 and also that unbelievers seeing it might be convinced, (see 
 Acts iii.,) and with him glorify God. St. James's anointing, 
 which would have been effectual, even on the supposition 
 that the man had not committed sin, miraculously to raise 
 him up, was, therefore, it is plain, for healing only ; and not 
 at all to remit sins ; and of course utterly overthrows yours, 
 which pretends to have the remission of sins for its object. 
 
 The meaning of the apostle is evidently this : If the sick 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 57 
 
 man, by any particular sin, brought this sickness on him- 
 self, as a judgment from God ; (as did those mentioned in 
 1 Cor. xi. 29, who, for unworthily eating the Lord's supper, 
 were afflicted with weakness, sickness, and even death,) 
 (see also 1 John v. 16,) being now penitent, his sin or sins 
 shall be forgiven him, as well as his afflictions miraculously 
 removed, not by the anointing only, but by the prayer of 
 faith, the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man, who 
 had the power given him in those days of working such 
 miracles. Even the apostles themselves, who had the gift 
 of healing, 1 Cor. xii. 30, though commanded to heal the 
 sick in every town, and village, yet could do so, only on 
 particular occasions and times, which they knew within 
 themselves, by the Spirit they possessed ; for St. Paul left 
 Trophimus, his friend, sick at Miletus, and could not bring 
 him with him, because he could not then heal him. 
 
 Therefore, they did not anoint indiscriminately as ye 
 do, all the dying sick, but only such as they, by the Spirit 
 of God, knew were to be healed. This anointing, then, 
 was not to help them to die well, nor yet to heal all ; for 
 then all should have been anointed and raised up, and 
 saved from sickness, and also from death itself, and none 
 would die. 
 
 We have examined the New Testament again and again, 
 and although we read there of oil being used for several 
 and different purposes, yet we can find no oil consecrated 
 or unconsecrated, to agree with this extreme unction, to 
 help people to die well, defend them against the devil at the 
 hour of death, or remit sins, as yours is pretended to do. 
 We find oil used for cleanliness, Matt. vi. 16, "When ye 
 fast," saith our Lord, " anoint your head and wash your 
 face, &c. : for hospitality, Luke vii. 46, "Thou didst not 
 anoint my head with oil," saith he, reproving the inatten- 
 tive Pharisee : for miraculously curing the sick, as a cere- 
 mony only sometimes used, and joined with the prayer of 
 faith, as we have just seen, Mark vi. 13 : for burial, Matt. 
 xxvi. 10 — 12, " She hath wrought a good work on me," 
 saith Christ, " for, in pouring this oil upon my body, she 
 hath anointed me for my burial." John xii. Observe, it 
 was not by an apostle or priest he was anointed, but by a 
 woman ; (what will ye priests say to this ?) — not for his 
 death, but for his burial, as the Lord said ; nor was it with 
 
58 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 oil blessed by a bishop, or consecrated, without which yov 
 say it could not be a sacrament, she anointed him ; no, bu 
 with costly oil of spikenard, not to teach us extreme unc 
 Hon, but as a strong evidence of her love, which Chris* 
 said should be spoken of in all places to her praise, contrary 
 to the judgment of Judas who had reproved her for that act 
 She perfumed or embalmed him, as was the custom then 
 used among the Jews for the dead before burial, and also 
 after it. So, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped 
 up our Lord's dead body, for his burial, with 100 lbs 
 weight of rich ointment or spice. John xix, 40. And the 
 women brought sweet spices and ointments the third day 
 after our Lord's death and burial to anoint him, in the tomb 
 Mark xvi. 1. Luke xxiii. 56; xxiv. 1. Where, in all this, 
 is there any shadow for extreme unction ? 
 
 So, through the whole Testament, any more than in St. 
 Mark or St. James, there is not the least mention made of 
 any oil to help people to die well, or in any wise to favour 
 extreme unction. Where then was it found ? How, I ask 
 you, can you now prove, what you are on your oath to be- 
 lieve and teach, that " extreme unction is a sacrament of 
 Christ's institution ?" It is not in the power of man to an- 
 swer. And yet your church obliges you to believe that 
 Christ did institute this sacrament ! a strong mark of her in- 
 fallibility ! ! ! Now, sir, what think you of your light, to 
 which you so pressingly invited all Protestant ministers ? 
 Will you still stand forth in defence of the genuine popery ? 
 Support it if you can. 
 
 Having fully proved that the extreme unction lias no place 
 in the word of God ; I shall now proceed to maintain, that 
 the practice and writings of your clergy and the laws of 
 your church to thid day, prove against yourselves, that it is 
 no sacrament, nor necessary for any man's salvation ; and 
 that in saying it is a sacrament and necessary, ye contradict 
 yourselves. 
 
 Now, jour "law forbids you to minister the extreme 
 unction to any, but to persons who come to the use of rea- 
 son, and are in danger of death by bodily sickness."* 
 Therefore, ye will not anoint persons in the hour of death, 
 who have not such sickness, who are going to die by the 
 
 * See " Catholic Christian Instructed," on this subject. 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 59 
 
 sentence of the law, let them desire it ever so much ; but 
 ye will give them the eucharist, which ye allow to be above 
 all your other sacraments, which proves ye do not judge 
 them unworthy of any ; and ye tell them they have no need 
 of the extreme unction, that the others are quite sufficient, 
 and that they can go to heaven without it. Now, if they 
 can so well do without it, then it is not necessary ; and if 
 not necessary, it is no sacrament J and if no necessary sa- 
 crament, as ye grant, Why may not all men do without it, 
 seeing God is no respecter of persons? And now I press 
 you again, How can you prove it necessary, and yet not ne- 
 cessary ? He is no common champion indeed who shall 
 do this. 
 
 Thus you evidence to all men, you do not believe the 
 extreme unction to be a sacrament ordained by Christ, or to 
 be at all necessary to any man's salvation ; and thus ye 
 fully contradict, what ye are obliged, nay sworn to believe, 
 receive, and teach, to wit, " That Christ did ordain it, and 
 that it is necessary ! ! !" Must not this alarm you ? 
 
 Your Bishop Challoner, with all his ingenuity, is mightily 
 perplexed (as we see in page 112 of his " Catholic Chris- 
 tian") when he wants to prove the extreme unction to be a 
 sacrament ; as are all your writers. He cannot find any 
 words of Christ for it, in any part of the Bible, as he did 
 for the Lord's supper and baptism ; he is at his wit's end; 
 he must defend, if possible, his infallible church, but, alas ! 
 he cannot find weapons ; at length he ventures to lay hold on 
 St. James's words, and unblushingly presses them into his 
 service : yet he knew well, by so doing, he directly contra- 
 dicted himself, as I shall prove ; but then, they were the 
 only words he could find, that seemed at all to look that 
 way ; so he slips them in, hoping the pious fraud would 
 not be observed. 
 
 In the first place, he was fully aware, that the very 
 apostles themselves had no power to add or diminish, Gal. 
 i. 8, or to form any sacrament or doctrine whatever, but 
 only, to publish, explain, and enforce those already taught 
 and appointed by Christ. So St. Paul, when explaining 
 and enforcing the Lord's supper, 1 Cor. xi. 23 ; refers to 
 our Lord's own words, Luke xxii. 19 ; and St. Peter, on 
 baptism, Acts x. 46, refers to Matthew xxviii. 19. And, 
 therefore the bishop knew that St. James's words in the 
 
60 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 5th chapter of his epistle, having no reference to any words 
 of Christ, except to those for healing the sick, St. Mark vi. 
 13, as already noticed, could not be made a foundation for 
 this extreme unction. His corrupting the words (eriget 
 eum, raise him up, into alleviabit, ease him, as before ob- 
 served) proves against him, he saw clearly the text did not 
 favour him, nor mean what he would have it. 
 
 Secondly. He knew, even the council of Trent did not 
 attempt to build extreme unction on St. James's words, but 
 on a hint pretended to be given by Christ himself, as we 
 have before remarked; and he could not forget, that in 
 pages 3, 4, of his book, he laid it down as an unalterable 
 proposition, " that a sacrament cannot be without Christ's 
 own institution, nor can have any virtue at all but from 
 it;" and instanced the Lord's supper and baptism, with 
 proofs, yet in page 112 of his book, he entirely departs from 
 this his own proposition, and in direct opposition to it, 
 steals in and substitutes the words of St. James, " 7s any 
 sick," &c, for the words of Christ, and thus contradicts 
 and upsets himself; and also proves to every observer, he 
 entangled himself in this dilemma, That a true Christian 
 sacrament cannot be without Christ's institution ; and can 
 be' without it. Hence his own proposition is false ; and 
 extreme unction is no sacrament, but a fiction, a fraud, 
 which he could not with all his ingenuity defend. And 
 thus, he at once ruins his cause, his infallibility, and church 
 together ! ! ! 
 
 The bishop did what he could ; but to convert falsehood 
 into truth is a hard task indeed ; yet his book is deemed 
 the best defence of the religion of Rome that can be found, 
 certainly it is one of the most ingenious ; but errors sustained 
 by ingenuity are the more to be detested. Thus have 1 
 proved that your own writers and practice make it evident, 
 extreme unction is a forgery ; and yet your solemn oath 
 obliges you to believe and teach it as God's truth ! ! ! 
 
 Before I close this part of my inquiry, permit me to ask 
 one question more. If the extreme unction be indeed a sa- 
 crament to remit the sins of dying persons ; has not he, 
 who is at the point of death and not sick, sins to be re- 
 mitted, as well as he that is sick ? Why then will you not 
 anoint the one, and thus remit his sins, as ye do the other's. 
 Now answer me. Because the church, for some good 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 61 
 
 reason, has forbid it. Cruel church ! to forbid a poor dying 
 man's sins to be remitted ! But why, I pray, has your 
 church forbid it ? I can't tell. You can't tell, or you are 
 loth. But I can soon tell, and I will too. Your council 
 or church, when appointing this sacrament, foresaw a ques- 
 tion might perhaps be started by some busybody, or some 
 Protestant, Will you anoint this man, not sick, now at the 
 hour of death, as you do the sick man, and by what autho- 
 rity will you do so ? If ye should reply, We will anoint 
 him, and by St. James's authority, who commanded the 
 dying sick to be anointed. But he might cry out, Is he 
 sick? Then ye would be caught, ye could not answer, 
 and the cheat would be manifest. So, to prevent this dis- 
 covery, this nonplus, the council decreed not to anoint any 
 not sick. View the subject as ye will, does it not still be- 
 come more and more evident St. James's anointing was 
 only for the miraculous curing of the sick, and to raise him 
 up to health, and not to remit his sins and help him to die 
 Well, as ye pretend. But by refusing to anoint him, and 
 confessing he is safe without it, are ye not equally non- 
 plused ? 
 
 But the council of Trent and " Catholic Christian" tell 
 us, (yet without any proof,) the use of this (pretended) sa- 
 crament is, to defend the dying Christian in that important 
 hour from the assaults of Satan, as with a certain impreg- 
 nable bulwark, " tanquam prsesidio quovis firmissimo 
 munire" and to finally purge him from any sins, at least 
 venial or temporal, that may have been till then unremoved, 
 and so fit him fully for heaven, sess. 14, chap. 2, can. 2. 
 How frightful if not true, as being a cheat, at the very hour 
 of death ! 
 
 Now, if by this extreme unction all these grand things 
 are done, and every fault or sin which might till then have 
 remained on the soul are entirely removed forever, as ye 
 say, why then go to purgatory to atone for them over again ? 
 and why so many masses to hasten those poor mortals out ? 
 Certainly, this does not appear reconcilable. 
 
 But, if ye believe the souls of those thus anointed do not 
 go to purgatory, and I am very sure they do not, for I shall 
 presently prove there is no such place, why then do ye say 
 so many masses, when employed and paid for them, to de- 
 liver those from it who are not in it ? Do ve not then wil- 
 
 6 
 
62 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 fully " offer Christ," as ye say, " as a price to the Father," 
 for nothing at all ! and also defraud the people of their mo- 
 ney ! Or if ye say, he is in purgatory, how could that be, 
 if the anointing purines from all sins ? Then ye must have 
 deceived the people when ye taught them, the anointing 
 cleansed any sins that might have remained till then, and 
 purified the soul. Thus, the guilt of a wilful mockery of 
 God, or of wilful fraud, must be the certain consequence of 
 saying masses for any who have been anointed before death. 
 Hence, you should say no masses for any who have been 
 anointed, to relieve them from purgatory ; or you ought to 
 give up extreme unction as useless : otherwise you involve 
 yourself in the above painful consequences, which, in the 
 eyes of every thinking man, must be most shocking ! Thus, 
 sir, it is manifest, if extreme unction be true, it destroys 
 purgatory ; and if purgatory be true, extreme unction is 
 false ; they alternately destroy each other. 
 
 Nothing save the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ alone, 
 applied by the Holy Ghost, through faith, can purify the 
 soul. " The blood of Jesus Christ," saith holy John, 
 "cleanseth from all sin;" and that in our lifetime only ; 
 for, if we die in our sins, we are undone. The Scriptures 
 testify of no other way. So, it is manifest, extreme unction 
 has no foundation in truth. 
 
 Then, it is to be concluded that infallibility which teaches 
 this extreme unction and the like, so far from being the 
 gospel of Christ, a guide from heaven, as you would have 
 it believed, must be the very reverse, even an ignis fatuus, 
 which leads those who follow it into such inextricable diffi- 
 culties and errors as are inconceivable ; and is only an in- 
 genious instrument of the temporal wealth and domination 
 of the pope and his clergy, and of the spiritual slavery and 
 ruin of mankind. 
 
 I once waited on the Reverend Priest Ainwright, who I 
 learned, had been very violent against his flock, and 
 accosted him thus: "Sir, I am a preacher; I have been 
 informed of your great displeasure at some of your people 
 for having heard our doctrine. I wish to lay it before you, 
 and shall be gladly reproved, if you can point out my error." 
 
 'Sir," said he, "you know we don't allow sal ," 
 
 he hesitated, not willing, I suppose, to give me pain. 
 •''Proceed, sir," said I, smiling, "speak it out. You were 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 63 
 
 going to say, you don't allow salvation out of your 
 church." "Just so," said he, mildly. " Surely, sir, you 
 have too much information and good sense to believe as you 
 have said. Which, sir, let me ask you, is this sentiment 
 sound divinity, or ecclesiastical policy to keep your flocks 
 with you ? Not sound divinity surely ; for, I suppose you 
 would not think it right to contradict the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the virgin Mary, and the apostles. The holy Mary saith, 
 ' God's mercy is on all that fear Mm, from generation to 
 generation.'' Luke i. 50. St. Peter testifies, * God is no 
 respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth 
 God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.'* 
 Acts x. St. Paul declares the same, Rom. ch. ii. and x., 
 * There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, 
 but the same Lord over all, is rich unto all that call upon 
 him, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
 shall be saved.'' And to crown all, Christ himself pro- 
 claims, viii. 51, 'He that keepeth my saying, shall never 
 see death ;' and Mat. vii. l He that heareth these my words, 
 and doeth them, shall be likened to a wise man who built 
 his house upon a rock.'' And, sir, will you deem it right 
 to contradict all these ?" 
 
 "But our councils define, as I have said." "Your 
 councils, sir, often contradict one another. Your councils, 
 sir, against Christ ! against the apostles ! and against the 
 virgin Mary ! How impious must be such councils ! and 
 how deeply deluded are they who are guided by them ! 
 What? Councils opposed to Christ, must be of Antichrist!" 
 
 "But, don't you speak against our anointing ?" "Per- 
 haps we do, and I myself particularly; and don't you your- 
 selves do so also?" "How so?" "Don't you say, if a 
 man be not in a state of grace before he is anointed, the 
 anointing can do hirn no good?" "Certainly, we allow 
 that." " Now, if he be in a state of grace before it, is he 
 not then accepted with God and safe?" " Yes." " Then it 
 is needless, and why use it? Thus you yourselves are 
 obliged to own it useless in either case. But why, sir, do 
 you curse the people for hearing me, and such like persons ; 
 for hearkening to what you now see you cannot contra- 
 dict?" "Surely, sir," replied he, "I cannot help it, I 
 must do so ; the bishop orders me, and I must obey hirn, 
 or abide the consequences." But to return 
 
G4 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 You may now, reverend sir, possibly fly from the word 
 of God to antiquity, and tell me that Pope Innocent, in 
 the fifth century, gave directions to the Bishop of Eugubium 
 concerning the anointing of the faithful sick, and calls it a 
 kind of sacrament; that Bede also speaks of it, and that it 
 has long been practised by good Christians, and by some 
 eminent for learning and piety, and why not now likewise? 
 
 I answer, your church allows no true sacrament can be 
 without Christ's own institution, which, it is plain, this 
 has not; and no antiquity posterior to Christ, found teach- 
 ing any doctrine he and his apostles taught not, must be 
 regarded, much less supply the want of his institution, for 
 the apostle curses all who do this, " If we or an angel from 
 heaven teach you any gospel but what we have taught 
 you, let him be accursed." Gal. i. 8. 
 
 But Pope Innocent, coming four hundred and sixteen 
 years after, is entirely too late ; besides, even he is against 
 you, for he proves that in his day extreme unction was no 
 sacrament, as you hold it ; if it were, would the bishop who 
 wrote for directions to him, (which you admit,) and whom 
 he, by letter, permits to anoint the sick, not with such oil 
 as you use, but with the oil of chrism, which was used for 
 several purposes ; I say, were it a known and received 
 sacrament among Christians, would the bishop be so 
 ignorant of it? For he asks Innocentius these two ques- 
 tions, " Whether the sick might be anointed with the oil of 
 chrism ? and whether the bishops might anoint with it ? 
 These questions fully manifest this anointing was not in 
 use before. 
 
 Innocent answers him, "It was not only allowable for 
 him to do so, but that it might be lawfully used by all 
 priests, nay, and by all Christians too, not only in their 
 own necessities, but in those of any of their friends." 
 So, you see, he does not confine the ministering of it to the 
 clergy alone, as doth the council of Trent, but the laymen 
 might also minister it; therefore, by your own rule, it was 
 no sacrament. Ep. Innocen. lmo ad Decent. Eugub. 
 Episcop. vol. i. 
 
 Besides, his calling it a kind of sacrament, showeth 
 plainly it was only something that resembled, but was not 
 really a sacrament ; and many such things had they among 
 them which they called a kind of sacrament, as the sacra- 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 65 
 
 merit of prayer, of washing, &c. "The ross of Christ, 
 (saith Pope Leo, in ser. ii. de resur.) is a sacrameul 
 and an example." Added to this, it was not of pure 
 oil, which, with you, must be the matter of this sacra- 
 ment : but of chrism, a compounded substance of oil and 
 balm. 
 
 As for what is found in Bede, CEcumenius, and in other 
 writers of your church, and in the councils of the eighth 
 and ninth centuries, concerning anointing, it clearly ex- 
 presses the use of it, not as a sacrament for the good of the 
 soul, but as a rite, which, as they thought, carried with it 
 healing to the body, being the use for whi»;h it was first 
 applied by the apostles ; and so it is still used in the Greek 
 church.* 
 
 We hear of no sacrament of anointing, mentioned by the 
 writers of the first three centuries, nor in the fourth, though 
 the writers, and particularly the councils of the fourth age, 
 abound in rules concerning the sacraments ; nor in all their 
 canons respecting penitents when in their last extremities 
 is there so much as a hint given concerning the last unction 
 or its virtues. 
 
 Let the Lives of Saints, written by your own authors, 
 (suppose Alban Butler's, &c.,) be consulted, and does it 
 appear that any one of the saints, for several hundred years 
 after Christ, got any extreme unction to help him to die 
 well? And had it such virtues as you say, or were it at 
 all used, could it have been thus entirely forgotten and 
 unheeded ? 
 
 Hear now a few of your own writers, and be astonish* I ; 
 Cajetan, Maldonat, Suarez, &c. 
 
 Cardinal Cajetan on St. James v. saith, " Neque oppa- 
 ?y£," &c, "it neither appears by the words nor by the 
 effect, that St. James speaks of the sacrament of extreme 
 unction, but rather of that unction which our Lord appointed 
 in the gospel, to be used on sick persons by his disciples. 
 For the text does not say, is any man sick unto death, but 
 absolutely, is any sick? and it makes the effect to be the 
 recovery of the sick, and speaks but conditionally of the 
 forgiveness of sins, whereas extreme unction is not given 
 but when a man is almost at the point of death; and as the 
 
 * Bede, vol. ii. sec. 5. 
 6* 
 
66 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 form of words then used sufficiently shows, it tends directly 
 to the forgiveness of sins."* 
 
 Maldonat, in loco si sacramentum, &c, "If the sacra- 
 ment of extreme unction be not here in St. Mark vi. where 
 is it?" 
 
 Chemnitius saith, "The progress of this unction clearly 
 shows it to be no sacrament: for first, the apostles anointed 
 the sick with common oil to heal them ; then others began 
 to add benediction and to consecrate the oil, but yet they 
 used it to the same end for which the apostles used it 
 before, viz., to cure the sick miraculously, as appears by the 
 miracles said to be done with holy oil by St. Martin, and 
 many others, &c. But when at length miracles were quite 
 ceased, the ceremony of anointing still went on."t 
 
 Saurez,J on extreme unction, tells us, "that Hugo of St. 
 Victor, Peter Lombard, Alexander of Hales, Altissidore 
 &c, (eminent schoolmen,) denied this sacrament to have 
 been instituted by Christ; and by plain consequence, it was 
 not a true sacrament." Now all these fathers, and other 
 great doctors, who have taught that Christ instituted only 
 two sacraments, viz. baptism and the eucharist, come to 
 the same conclusion, unavoidably so ! We shall hear 
 them. 
 
 St. Augustine saith, § " While Adam slept, Eve was made 
 out of his side ; when Christ was dead, his side was pierced, 
 that thence might flow the sacraments by which his church 
 is formed."—" Sacraments in number fewest, in practice 
 easiest, in signification highest ; by which he formed the 
 society of the new people ; such are baptism and the com- 
 
 * Vol. ii. tit. 7, p. 60. 
 
 f Vol. ii. sect. 2, tit. 7, page 74. 
 
 t Inter Catholicos nonnulli negarunt sacramentum ext. unct. fuisse a 
 Christo institutum ; ex quo plane sequebatur non esse veruin sacra 
 mentum ; ita vero sensit Hugo de S. Vict. 1, 2, de Sacram. c. ii. quern 
 secutus est. Pet. Lomb. Magister- Pist. in 4, 23. Alens. qu. 8, m. 2 
 Altissiod. 1, 4. Sum. Tract. 7, c. 1. Saurez in 3 Pars. Thomas disp. 39 
 sec. 2, torn. 4. 
 
 § " Dormienti Ad anise fit Evade latera ; mortuo Christo percutitur latus, 
 ut profluant sacratnenta, quibus formetur ecclesia." — " Sacramentis nu- 
 rnero paucissimis, observatione facillimis, significatione prsestantissimis, 
 societatem novi populi colligavit ; sicuti est baptismus et communicatio 
 corporis et sanguinis ipsius." — " Hsec sunt ecclesia? gemina sacratnenta.'' 
 Augus. tract. 9, in Joan. Leo. ep. 22. Ep. 118, ad Januat. torn. 2. De 
 Symb. ad Cathsec. torn. 9. 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 67 
 
 munion of his body and blood," — " these are the twin 
 sacraments of his church," <fcc. 
 
 " The doctors of this (sixth) age, as those of former 
 times, acknowledged only two sacraments, baptism and the 
 Lord's supper."* 
 
 Venerable Bede, following St. Augustine, writes, " Eve 
 was framed out of Adam's side ; so from Christ's side hang- 
 ing on the cross issued the sacraments, to wit, water and 
 blood, whereby the church is .constituted."! 
 
 Cassander tells us, (Consult, art. 13,) "That until the 
 days of Peter Lombard, (anno 1145,) scarce any author 
 could be found who rashly set down any certain number 
 of sacraments, save those two of our salvation, of which 
 there is no dispute. "J * 
 
 Alexander of Hales, on Confirmation, saith, " Sine 
 prssjudicio dicendum," " for, without prejudice, it must 
 be acknowledged, that neither did our Lord institute this 
 sacrament or dispense it, nor did his apostles ; but it was 
 appointed (in concilio Meldensi) by the council of Mel- 
 dain," in France. Hallensis Sum. pars iv. quaest. 23. 
 
 Thus it is evident all real antiquity, and eminent papal 
 doctors too, as well as Christ and his apostles, are against 
 this extreme unction, as is your own practice likewise, to- 
 wards those of your own church, dying by the law, as I 
 have already stated,§ and yet ye are sworn that you believe 
 
 * " Duo tantum sacramenta theologi hujus sextae setatis agnoscunt." 
 Illyric. Catalog, test. Verit. 1, 6. 
 
 ■j- Sicut ex latere Adam, &c. Beda in Psal. 41, torn. 8. 
 
 i Nee temere quemquam reperis ante Petrum Lombardum qui certurn 
 aliquem," &c. 
 
 § I once met a man in the county of Sligo, who, upon explaining to 
 him that extreme unction is no sacrament, exclaimed in Irish too, " Now 
 I can understand what has long puzzled me. I was present at the exe- 
 cution of a big man in Sligo, for robbing Mr. Gilmore. When he was 
 cast out the rope broke, and he fell to the ground. His leg was broken : 
 and the priest hastened down to him, and moving off the soldiers from 
 him, he anointed him, saying, in my hearing, • Thank God, I can now 
 do here for you what I could not do there above.' This amazed me 
 above any thing, why it was that he could not do it above as well as 
 below ! I have often thought of it since, but never could once think 
 of the reason of it ; but now I see it most clearly, that not for the sick 
 soul, but for the sick body, it was intended. And I am thankful !" 
 
 Another, in Maryborough prison, while visiting the prisoners, said to 
 me, " Why don't you, sir, believe the Bible 1 St, James says ' Pe 
 
G8 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 Christ ordained it ! ! ! Now, sir, can it be possible you 
 will still continue in this ruinous- delusion yourself, and 
 lead and keep others in it, or are you not afraid of God so 
 to do? 
 
 And because the council of Florence under Pope Euge- 
 nius, and that of Trent by Julius III. and Pius IV., have 
 about two hundred and fifty or three hundred years ago de- 
 creed to make such sacrament, must we therefore receive 
 it as the ordinance of our God ? must we believe a lie ? 
 God forbid. They impiously curse all who reject it. God 
 and his apostles curse all who dare teach or receive it, or 
 any other new doctrine. Whose curse then should we 
 dread ? 
 
 It is probable you may now say, What harm can it do ? 
 Will not those who believe in it be more earnest to have 
 their clergy by them in that hour of distress, to admonish 
 and comfort them ? 
 
 I answer, I have no objection dying persons should have 
 their clergy or other pious persons by them in that awful 
 hour, to comfort and encourage them, but all this they 
 might have without any decoy or deception. But when 
 oil is brought to them as a sacrament ordained by our Lord 
 Christ, when it was not, but is a false sacrament, then I 
 conceive there is incalculable harm in it to both clergy and 
 people. 
 
 To the clergy, by obliging, nay swearing them, when 
 taking orders or preferment,* to believe a falsehood, and 
 
 anointed by the clergy,' &c, and you don't mind him." "But I do 
 mind him," I replied, " but you mistake him ! His anointing was not 
 a sacrament for the soul, but was used for a miraculous healing of a 
 sick body. And as a proof, if two in this prison be to die for the same 
 crime to-morrow, and that one of them should take very ill in body, the 
 priest will anoint him, but not the other, though his soul is as ill as the 
 other's is." " You are quite astray, sir ; he will anoint them both, the 
 one as soon as the other." " You don't know your religion yet," said I. 
 " But I will soon prove to you I do," answered he, and ran for his book, 
 which he opened on the place, and found I was correct, that none can 
 be anointed except he be in danger of death by bodily sickness, he ex- 
 claimed, " I am wrong ! we are all wrong ! Not a man in a thousand 
 of us knows this, and all should know it. Now I see how the matter 
 is, I see it all." 
 
 * There are priests who deny any such oath to exist. Their creed 
 (see p. 30,) however, proves it. But, Do they teach these things, which 
 we say they are sworn to teach 1 They do 1 Then what is the differ- 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 69 
 
 to teach it all their days; namely, "that Christ instituted 
 a sacrament,'''' which he did not ; and that it is necessary 
 to salvation, when ye are obliged to allow it is not, as I 
 have fully proved, thus destroying yourselves at the very 
 threshold. Now if they who, after being warned, believe 
 a lie and teach it, shall be all damned, as saith the apostle,* 
 what greater mischief then could befall the clergy ? 
 
 To the people it is destructive, as by it they are led into 
 a fatal delusion, in thinking it a sacrament ordained by 
 Christ for their eternal good, when it was not; and expect- 
 ing that there is in it some wonderful virtue, (firmissimum 
 quod-dam presidium,) "a most strong defence and safeguard 
 against all devils at death's approach, remission! of any sins 
 that might have remained till then, ease in sickness, and a 
 full purifying of the soul for glory," as ye tell them ; I say, 
 thinking that all those great and wonderful virtues are in it, 
 and are for them in that last hour, when it is all false. Thus 
 are they lulled into false security, and are decoyed into the 
 snare of the enemy of souls, to their ruin. 
 
 And that they have these wonderful expectations from 
 this pretended sacrament is manifest ; first, from the eager- 
 ness with which they seek for the priest, to minister it to 
 the dying, for were it at midnight, or in places the most 
 difficult of access, he must be sought out and brought thi- 
 ther to lay on this seal of Christ, as they term it, before the 
 soul departs. But the priest sometimes will not go. Well 
 indeed may he laugh in his sleeve at their credulity ; for if 
 he possess any information he must know it is but a pious 
 fraud; and, secondly, it is further evident from their great 
 diligence to get at and prevail on Protestants who live 
 among them, when in danger of death, now at length to 
 send for the priest to get this sure badge of salvation, this 
 divine anointing, assuring them and affirming, they cannot 
 be saved without it, or out of the church, for that St. James 
 (whom they wholly mistake) has commanded it. And 
 
 ence? If the doctrines be of God, what harm to vow, nay to swear to 
 teach them ; but if false, to teach them, whether sworn or not, to do so, 
 is wickedness. 
 
 * 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. 
 
 j- Cujus unctio delicta si quse sint adhuc expianda ac peccati reliquias 
 abstergit, segroti animam alleviat et confirmat. Trent, sess. 14, cap. 2 
 Alas ' what deliberate falsehood is here ! 
 
70 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 mightily indeed do they rejoice if they can prevail with 
 them ; and this they too often do, especially with the 
 ignorant and lower orders of Protestants. I am sure there 
 are more converts made thus to popery in this kingdom, by 
 the people and this delusion, than by all the other efforts of 
 the clergy put together. However such deceptions may 
 for a season serve temporal purposes, O what will be the 
 end? 
 
 Thus did Simon Magus, who by his artifices and sorce- 
 ries, for a long time, persuaded the people of Samaria, that 
 he was some great one, and had the great power of God, 
 to whom they all, from the least to the greatest, gave heed ; 
 they believed him and were thus deceived, till at length the 
 apostles came and told the truth, and disabused them. Acts 
 viii. 9 — 11. Surely this infallibility must be this said 
 Simon's son ; and he must be blind, indeed, who does not 
 see the affinity. Now, if a witness convicted of lies be 
 turned down, as a false witness, and the cause he came to 
 support be lost; infallibility, then, the so much boasted 
 foundation and supporter of the church of Rome exclu- 
 sively, being already convicted of deception, is therefore a 
 false infallibility, a false witness, and must be turned down 
 also ; and that church it was called to support must sink 
 with it ; prevent it who can. But this conclusion is un- 
 avoidable, therefore its stroke is mortal, and the building 
 thereon falls to rise no more. 
 
 Suppose a priest to come to any sick man, to anoint him, 
 and that he should ask, "Please your reverence, was it 
 Christ himself instituted the extreme unction, and what is 
 the proof?" The proof lies upon you, the minister of it, 
 that he did appoint it. Now if 300 bishops assembled in 
 council, were not able to find out any words of Christ 1 s 
 institution for it, and had at length to confess he only 
 hinted at it, which hint itself it seems is not to be found ! ! 
 how, then, can you attempt to prove it, much less to mi- 
 nister it ? 
 
 Secondly. Can you be certain with the certainty of 
 faith, that the oil with which you are about to anoint me is 
 rightly consecrated, and is free of every defect, in the 
 matter, form, minister, and intention ? that the matter is 
 pure oil of olives, that the words of consecration were of 
 Divine appointment, and have been truly and fully pro- 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 71 
 
 nounced ? that the bishop when he breathed on the oil, and 
 said, "Active spiritum sanctum" " O oil, receive the Holy 
 Ghost," did intend, and indeed believe it possible to endue 
 the oil with divine virtue, and did really infuse the Holy 
 Spirit into it? And that the bishop who consecrated it was 
 a true bishop; that no defect was in his ordination; or that 
 he who ordained him was qualified so to do, having no de- 
 fect in his own baptism, or ordination, or intention ; and so 
 backwards, ad infinitum? Otherwise ye allow the ordina- 
 tion is null, and his consecration void ; and then all is de- 
 ception and ruin to men's souls. 
 
 Thirdly. Are you certain that in your present office you 
 are a lawful and true priest ? Gabriel Biel affirms,* " No 
 priest that celebrate th can know evidently, whether he be a 
 priest ; because he cannot know evidently, whether he be 
 baptized or lawfully ordained." And Cardinal Bellarmine 
 tells us why, "Because, it depends upon the intention of 
 the minister, and none can see another man's intention.f 
 And surely the council of Trent, sess. 7, can. 11, and our 
 missal assert the same, " That without due intention in the 
 minister, all is void !" all is lost! Now, rev. sir, tell me, 
 are you sure of all this ? And how can you ? If not, then 
 you cannot know but you are about being guilty of sacrilege 
 as to yourself, and also of giving me a false sacrament. Me- 
 thinks, then, you should no more venture to minister it 
 than I to receive it. And lastly, doth not our Lord con- 
 demn the vain doctrines and inventions of men ; and more 
 still such as tell lies of him, saying, He ordained this or the 
 other sacrament or doctrine, which he did not? Do not he 
 and his apostles declare they shall be accursed who do such 
 things ? 
 
 If the ministers, then, of such new sacrament or doctrine 
 be thus accursed, which I think should make them tremble, 
 so must the receivers too; even as our Lord hath said, "If 
 the blind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the ditch;" 
 therefore I dare not receive this doctrine, — this extreme 
 unction, which is evidently an invention of men, lest I incur 
 
 * "Nullus celebrans, potest evidenter scire, se esse sacerdotem, quia 
 non potest evidentur scire se fuisse baptizatum, aut legitime ordinatum." 
 Gab. Biel, in Epit. Can. Missas. 
 
 \ " Sacramentum, non conficiatur sine intentione ministri, et inten« 
 tionem alterius nemo videre possit." Lib. Just, cap 8. 
 
72 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 the displeasure of Christ. I can plead ignorance no longer. 
 Added to this, the apostle saith, 2 John 9, 10, 11, "If there 
 come any unto you, and bring not this (Christ's) doctrine, 
 receive him not into your house, neither bid him God- 
 speed, for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of 
 his evil deeds." So you see, in order to be safe, we must 
 abide in the old doctrine. Should I join with you, reverend 
 sir, and receive this extreme unction, this new sacrament, 
 I should then be partaker of your evil deeds. And St. 
 Paul tells us we must believe the truth only, and not un- 
 righteous or fabulous things, lest "God should send us 
 strong delusion to believe a lie, to our damnation." 2 Thess. 
 ii. 10—12. 
 
 Let me now ask you, sir, were you and all your frater- 
 nity, even the very pope, sure you would be thus interro- 
 gated, what would you do, what could you say ? Would 
 you venture to approach any such intelligent persons with 
 your extreme unction, or with any other of your matters, 
 for which you have no proof? Such inquiries would be 
 as fatal to you all as David's stone was to Goliath of Gath 
 and his hosts. Are these, think you, "trifling and insig- 
 nificant questions, the effect of derangement, and not worth 
 your notice?" If they are not — if they cannot be answered, 
 the ruin of your church must follow, except ye cease from 
 these horrible superstitions and false dogmas. 
 
 Perhaps you will think, Why does this man so press 
 me, so hard pursue me through every lane, and on this 
 point so particularly? I answer, I do so, not to injure 
 you, sir, but to destroy your new gospel — your infallibility, 
 which teacheth this false doctrine ; for if it be destroyed in 
 this one point, which I think is now done beyond the pos- 
 sibility of contradiction, it is destroyed altogether. And 
 thus the foundation of the whole Babel building is entirely 
 overthrown, even as a lighted match, put to a train at any 
 one part of a mined fortress, in an instant blows up the 
 whole with a dreadful overthrow. Now your infallible 
 council teacheth, (sess. 7, can. 1,) "If any one shall say 
 that these sacraments of the new law have not been all 
 instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, or that they are more 
 or fewer than seven, let him be accursed."* 
 
 * Si quis dixerit, sacramenta nova? legis non faisse omnia a Jesu 
 
NO SACBA.MENT. 73 
 
 But extreme unction, one of these seven, is in the first 
 instance, hy many irresistible arguments, now taken out of 
 your hands, and overthrown as a false sacrament; second, 
 it has been just proved, that holy orders and it, and purga- 
 tory and it, necessarily destroy each other; third, that the 
 ancient fathers, and some of your own most learned divines, 
 too*, deny any sacraments to be of divine institution, or of 
 the new law, or to have been in the ancient church, save 
 two only — baptism and the eucharist ; and, lastly, that all 
 this is true, is confirmed, at this moment, by the gospel : 
 hence this canon is palpably false ; and the council that 
 decreed it — that decreed " seven sacraments of the new law 
 were instituted by Christ, (being five too many,) and swore 
 her clergy to believe and teach this forever: I say this coun- 
 cil, being thus guilty of daringly belying Christ, destroying 
 her clergy, and deceiving mankind, was therefore a most 
 false council, and such of necessity was her infallibility 
 also. But if this council, and the church of Rome, which 
 teacheth the very same sacraments and doctrines at this 
 hour, be one and the same church, is it not undeniably con- 
 sequent that she is of exactly the same character, and is by 
 no means the spouse of Christ, but is a most fallacious and 
 dangerous church? 
 
 Now, that a church thus bound on oath to teach fictitious 
 sacraments and false dogmas too, cannot be the church of 
 God, is not only the voice of common sense and of revela- 
 tion, but is openly confessed by able advocates of the 
 church of Rome. I shall just mention one, a writer of 
 celebrity, Dr. Manning. His words are, "The church of 
 Christ can only be that which believes wholly and entirely 
 the doctrine that was taught by Christ, and delivered by his 
 apostles. That church that would teach any one point of 
 doctrine contrary to the revealed word of God, and there- 
 fore heresy, would not be the chaste spouse of Christ, bu' 
 an harlot, and the school of Satan, and the gates of hell 
 would prevail against her." — "Short Method with Pro 
 
 TESTANTS," p. 29, &C. 
 
 1. So then it is an undeniable fact, that the church oi 
 Rome teacheth, and hath bound her clergy on oath to 
 
 Christo, Domino nostro, instituta ; aut esse plura vel pauciora quara 
 septem, viz. baptismum, — extremam unctionem, &c, — anathema sit 
 Con. Trhl. sess. 7, can. 1. 
 
 7 
 
74 EXTREME UXCTION 
 
 teach sacraments and doctrines never taught by Christ, 
 nay, actually opposed to him and his gospel ; and her Doc- 
 tor thus owns, (but for what end he best knew,) "that the 
 church that is thus guilty is not the church of Christ, but 
 an harlot, the very school of Satan, and the gate to hell." 
 2. The teachers of such a church, and of doctrines thus 
 opposed to the Lord and his gospel are pronounced by the 
 Holy Ghost "accursed." Gal. i. 8. 3. They who wilfully 
 follow such teachers must "fall into the gulf," as saith 
 Christ. The same saith St. Ignatius, "That wretch who 
 by his wicked doctrine corrupts the faith of God, which 
 Jesus Christ sealed with his precious blood, shall descend 
 into fire unquenchable, and they also who hear him," ad 
 Ephes. With all this before his eyes, what should every 
 candid man in the church of Rome, who regards his eternal 
 salvation more than his prejudices, now think of himself, 
 or resolve to do, and promptly do ? Ought not all such be 
 alarmed, and listen instantly to the voice of the Lord, ear- 
 nestly and pathetically crying to them, "Go out of her, my 
 people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you 
 receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto 
 heaven, and the Lord hath remembered her iniquities." 
 Apoc. xviii. 4, 5, Rhemish. This expression, "her sins 
 have reached unto heaven" is remarkable. But what sins 
 could a church possibly commit greater than to swear her 
 clergy to teach the people sacraments and doctrines never 
 taught by Christ or his apostles ? and which, therefore, 
 striking at his very throne and his people's salvation, are 
 emphatically said "to reach unto heaven V J This calls for 
 deep consideration, and also much prayer to God for grace 
 and guidance ! 
 
 Were parents to know these monstrous and impious 
 errors, and that ye are bound, nay, sworn to believe and 
 teach them all your days, would they ever after this think 
 of preparing their offspring to be clergy in your church ? 
 Or if the young men themselves were timely apprised of 
 them, would they, upon any account, join your church? 
 No, they would flee terrified; and so would there be a 
 speedy end of your colleges, monasteries, nunneries, and 
 church together. Thus will it most assuredly be. 
 
 Permit me now, sir, to remind you of your promises 
 and invitation. To preserve your character as a man of 
 
NO SACRAMENT. 75 
 
 truth, and to avoid the charge of vain boasting-, you are 
 absolutely bound to give a fair answer to my questions, or 
 make a public recantation of your present faith ; otherwise 
 you involve yourself, in the eyes of all men, in the charge 
 of deliberate deception. 
 
 When Goliath of Gath (1 Sam. xvii.) defied the armies 
 of Israel, David cried out, "Who is this uncircumcised 
 Philistine that defieth the armies of the living God ?*' 
 Then trusting in his God, with his sling and stone he came 
 forward, nay, ran to meet this boasting and colossal gladia- 
 tor, who, at the head of his hosts, and puffed up with his 
 self-importance, relying on the mightiness of his fancied 
 and invincible strength, the irresistibility of his ponderous 
 and massy weapons, and the impenetrability of his com- 
 plete armour, morning and evening for forty days present- 
 ing himself, challenged, and cried aloud, "I defy the armies 
 of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight to- 
 gether." And when at length he spied David, with his 
 little sling and stones, running towards him, to him he said, 
 despising him, "Am I a dog, that thou comest thus? Come 
 to me, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air, and 
 unto the beasts of the field." 
 
 Little did this haughty fool know that they were the 
 armies of the living God he was thus defying; and less 
 again did he or his multitudes suppose that so trifling an 
 instrument would prevail against him ; that that little stone 
 from David's sling would so soon put him to silence for- 
 ever, nay, throw him on his face a dead man ; or that his 
 own sword should cut off his own head, and all his army 
 be that very day routed ! — But God humbleth the proud ! 
 
 But his challenge was modesty itself compared with yours 
 He called only for one champion — you come running from 
 Rome, clothed in the consciousness of your invincibility, 
 and- in the complete armour of your impenetrable infalli- 
 bility!! you throw down the gauntlet! and by the aid of 
 your army (your friends) who scattered your books and 
 your challenge, you call on the two worlds, Europe and 
 America! on all the ministers, to come to combat, to come 
 with all the strength they could possibly collect, and all the 
 arguments of the sacred dead, even of all those champions 
 of protestantcy, (that is, of gospel Christianity,) who have 
 ever written in its behalf. Tremendous challenge ! What 
 
76 EXTREME UNCTION 
 
 was Goliath's to it? But as David, nothing frightened, ran 
 to meet Goliath, so, sir, I come to you, numbly trusting, 
 not in myself, who am but mere weakness and insignifi- 
 cance, but in the living God, and armed with simple, art- 
 less, mighty truth. 
 
 And now allow me to return your own words to you : 
 " I stand forth," in all my weakness, not for this or the other 
 system or party, but in the defence of the genuine and in- 
 fallible gospel of the God of heaven, even the genuine 
 religion of Christianity, as taught by the blessed Jesus and 
 his apostles, and by their real followers in every age, and 
 also by all true Protestant teachers to this day, as it stands 
 on record in the Holy Scriptures, the true record of God, 
 and in the concordant writings of these holy men. 
 
 I not only thus publicly take up your bold and wanton 
 challenge, but I conjure and entreat you and all the priests, 
 if ye have real love for souls, which you so repeatedly de- 
 clare you have, to come forward and answer my questions, 
 that the people's eyes, who are kept in darkness, in ten- 
 fold night, may be opened to the light; and spare not to 
 bring all the arguments that Bossuet, Challoner, and all the 
 other champions for popery ever used in its behalf: you 
 will want them all, for I have many questions to ask. I 
 now, therefore, hope you will feel yourself obliged to an- 
 swer: or, like slain Goliath, sink into the silence of death, 
 never to open your mouth more. 
 
 To conclude, I again entreat you to consider well all I 
 have said, as you are to account to that Judge in that awful 
 day; and now at length turn from this delusive infallibility 
 to that gospel which alone is the best guide, (as Pope Gan- 
 genelli himself admits, Ep. 40,) and which teacheth neither 
 error nor contradictions, but leads to safety and peace in 
 the way everlasting all such as cleave to it. 
 
 "Vive, vale, si quid novisti rectius istis, 
 Candidus imperii : si non, his utere mecurn." 
 
 Your friend and servant in the Lord Jesus 
 
 GIDEON OUSELEY, 
 
 IRISH MISSIONARY. 
 
LETTER II. 
 
 INFALLIBILITY DESTROYED; 
 
 CHURCH OF ROME OVERTURNED. 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 
 
 Rev. Sir, — When I wrote to you last, I mentioned that 
 your arguments in defence of your church, those on infalli- 
 bility and transubstantiation especially, were to me and 
 every calm observer both superficial and inconclusive ; 
 which, it seems, so pained you, that (as you tell me in 
 your letter) you appealed to your congregation to judge 
 whether they were so or not. But had you brought forward 
 my arguments, and read them likewise, then it might be said 
 you did indeed give them an opportunity of judging. 
 
 Now as to this infallibility. You declare, " it is not in 
 the pope," (for if it were, what need then of a council?) 
 " nor is it in a council, in the whole of the bishops together," 
 (for if it were, what need then of a pope?) "but it is in the 
 majority of the bishops united with their head the pope." 
 " Our church," (say you,) " by virtue Of her infallibility, to 
 which she alone has an exclusive title, claims a divine right 
 to regulate the faith of all Christians. This is our funda- 
 mental tenet, our stronghold ; if this be solid, the plain 
 consequence is, that every Christian is bound to submit his 
 conscience to her decisions, and to receive her interpretation 
 of Scriptures. And until this our foundation be overturned 
 all attempts to show the usurpations of our church are ex- 
 tremely ridiculous ; but when it is proved we are deceived 
 in this, when this our stronghold is once destroyed, then. 
 
 7* 77 
 
78 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 indeed, all our pretensions fall at once to the ground ; then 
 only may the Scriptures be pleaded for as the only rule of 
 faith, and the independency of conscience be established." 
 Cath. Cont. p. 64, 117, 118. 
 
 Before I proceed to reply, suffer me to premise a few 
 propositions. 
 
 1st. We believe there is a God possessed of all possible 
 perfections, who never maketh that to be false which is in 
 itself true, or that to be true which is in itself false. To 
 deny this, would be to say, that he could destroy his own 
 attributes, his truth especially, — to assert which would be 
 blasphemy. 
 
 2dly. That he requireth of his rational creatures nothing 
 that is impossible, but things rational and possible. To 
 deny this, would be to say, he is cruel and unjust, (for to 
 require any one impossibility is the same as to require all ;) 
 and, as it would destroy his justice and mercy, would be 
 blasphemy. 
 
 3dly. Of those whom he hath favoured with a divine 
 revelation of his will, such as Jews and Christians, he re- 
 quireth that they should be diligent, and in the use of every 
 prudential means labour to know it, and conscientiously 
 conform themselves to the same, according to their several 
 abilities. Thus acting, they are saved. But to neglect this, 
 to please any man or indulge their own corrupt hearts, is at 
 their own peril and self-condemnation. Now all who with 
 humble attention and prayer, read and believe the law of 
 God by Moses, will thereby, through the agency of the 
 Divine Spirit, be soon brought to know, that, because of 
 sin, they are under the curse, and shall feel a troubled 
 heart, godly sorrow, and a salutary self-despair. To drive 
 them thus to Christ, is the principal use of the law. To 
 the want of these effects, through ignorance of the spiritu- 
 ality of the law and unbelief, must chiefly be attributed all 
 that profaneness, formality, and needless schisms which are 
 too often found among Christians. But the gospel instruct- 
 ed! the heavy-laden and self-despairing sinner concerning 
 Christ, and also to look up to the Father of mercies for the 
 aid of the Divine Spirit, to enable him to believe in Him with 
 a heart unto righteousness, which, when done, he is instantly 
 justified by faith; the curse, guilt, and grief pass away; and 
 the peace of God, through him, succeeds, and sweetly over- 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 79 
 
 flows and comforts the soul ! And the love of God being 
 shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, his joy is then 
 unspeakable ! Such are born again ! and their misery is 
 turned into felicity, which will never forsake them so long 
 as they walk obediently, even till they arrive in heaven. 
 
 4thly. In thus acting according to God's holy word, al- 
 though they should happen to differ in their views of reve- 
 lation on some minor points, yet provided it be not wilful, 
 but perhaps through incapacity or a difference in mental 
 powers, &c, it is not imputable, it is not culpable. To 
 deny this, would be to deny the second proposition, and 
 would be blasphemy. 
 
 5thly. Of all those to whom he hath not vouchsafed an 
 immediate revelation of his will, he only requires diligent 
 attention to the abilities they have — to reason and conscience, 
 and every the best light they can attain according to their 
 circumstances. Thus, they are in their degree safe. To 
 deny this, or any of these propositions, would be to blas- 
 pheme, because it would be saying, God requireth impos- 
 sibilities. 
 
 Thus every truly sincere follower of Christ, every con- 
 scientious Christian, however he may happen to differ from 
 another, must be saved. Thus the nations of the world 
 also, it is evident, are through mercy not excluded ; nay, 
 are accepted. Acts x. 35. Rom. ii. 10, 11 ; x. 12. Thus, 
 none in the world can be lost or damned, but he who 
 through wilful neglect or wilful sin damns himself. 
 
 Had Christians of all denominations but viewed the sub- 
 ject of religion thus, and hearkened to the counsel of him 
 who said, "Love one another," they would not, upon 
 every little difference of opinion, have been so ready to 
 doom each other to the devil, nor have filled the world with 
 their disgraceful and pernicious quarrels ; but would have 
 walked in amity, kindness, and sweet forbearance one with 
 another, and thus ornamented the gospel of God. 
 
 But the church of Rome, choosing unhappily quite an- 
 chor way than the gospel, fixes upon a strange guide 
 indeed, even infallibility, which she, claims exclusively ; 
 and by which, with her other peculiar doctrines, such as 
 transubstantiation, &c. &c, she, through the weakness ol 
 deluded princes, by the Inquisition, that engine of mischief 
 to man, and by many other evil arts, hath from age to age 
 
80 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 filled the world with massacres, miseries, destruction, and 
 wo ! O what a fearful gospel is this infallibility ! 
 
 Now it is very manifest to the eye of sober reason, that 
 these her peculiar doctrines, the result of great talents, and 
 of much labour and perseverance, were all framed to exalt 
 and enrich the clergy, and bring the people, from the prince 
 to the peasant, all, into the most abject submission to them. 
 By infallibility, they persuaded them, " they alone had the 
 true and safe church, out of which all must be damned ; 
 they alone had a right to interpret scripture, and regulate 
 the faith of all Christians." By transubstantiation, they 
 would show forth the power and honour they had received 
 from Christ, even to make himself on their altars, and in 
 this, to be above angels, and even the virgin Mary: "for 
 unto them was it not granted, but unto the hierarchy of the 
 church," as saith Gabriel Biel, in his 4th Lesson on the 
 Canon of the Mass. And by the public worship given to 
 their host or wafer, even the same given to God! they 
 confirmed this idea of their very wonderful power. By 
 penances, auricular confession, and absolution, they came 
 at the people's secrets, even of the most indelicate nature, 
 with their circumstances, which, by the decree of the coun- 
 cil of Trent, they were obliged to confess ; and then they 
 must submit to the penances laid on them, at the will of the 
 clergy, else they could have no absolution, nor, therefore, 
 salvation. By purgatory, indulgences, and masses for the 
 dead, they would show their power with God in the other 
 world as well as in this, and thus made gain of the people 
 in the other world also. By holydays, which they them- 
 selves made, in flat opposition to God, who said, "Six days 
 shall thou labour and do all thy work;" by forbidding 
 the marriage of relatives not forbidden in Scripture, and 
 many other such things, they raised themselves thus above 
 the Scriptures, and taught the people to come to them most 
 submissively, to ask leave to do what God had never for- 
 bidden. Yes, to be permitted to work on the holyday, or 
 1o eat flesh in Lent, or be married to some relative, for whicu 
 they must by all means pay, and smartly too ! Never was 
 any people more injured. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 81 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF INTENTION. 
 
 But of all the doctrines calculated to favour them most, 
 and raise them to their highest wish, that of the doctrine of 
 intention;* appears foremost. Except the priest possessed 
 intention in his consecration, there could be no sacrament, 
 it would be null : then, though apparently married, bap- 
 tized, &c. &c, yet would they nevertheless be unmarried, 
 unbaptized, &c. &c, and so must live in a state of fornica- 
 tion and heathenism; their penances, confessions, and abso- 
 lutions could be of no avail ! and the adoration of the mass 
 would become wicked idolatry ! and thus would they all, 
 at the will of the priest, be damned together. 
 
 To prevent all which evils, seeing their salvation must 
 hang solely upon this intention in the priest, they must feel 
 it necessary ever to be attentive to him, and never, upon 
 any account, vex him, that he might always have and exert 
 this intention. 
 
 That the priests do expect this trembling attention and 
 abject submission from their flocks, is a fact that meets the 
 eye of daily observation ! And so far from discouraging 
 this baseness of mind, this degrading superstition, they (the 
 priests) promote it, from tender years up to gray hairs, as 
 much as possible ; so that the people, who fear so little to 
 violate the laws of God, yet look up with fear and awe to 
 them, as if they were gods upon earth, often saying, " Who 
 has such virtue as the priest?" "Sefar innoid Iosa Croisda 
 agirinn er a taliv e," — "He is in the place of Jesus Christ 
 to us on earth." 
 
 This was the very error of the Jews, who hated and 
 
 * The canon of the Trent council, on intention - . — "Si quis 
 dixerit in ministris dum sacramenta conficiunt, et conferunt, non requiri 
 intentionem, saltern faciendi quod ecclesia facit, anathema sit." " If 
 any man shall say, that in the minister, while consecrating and minis- 
 tering the sacraments, intention is not required, of doing what the church 
 doth, let him be accursed." Con. Trid. sess. 7, c. 11. 
 
 " Neque potest quis," &c. " No man can be certain, by the cer- 
 tainty of faith, that he receives a true sacrament ; because it depends on 
 the intention of the minister ; and none can see another man's intention." 
 Bellar. lib. 8, c. de Justine. 
 
 ** Nullus celebrans," &c, saith G. Biel. " No officiating minister can 
 know certainly that he is a priest ; for he cannot evidently know if ho 
 be baptized, or whether he be lawfully ordained." Epit. Can. Miss 
 
82 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 rejected Christ and his gospel, and thus cleaved to the 
 priests and their superstitions, till God's wrath came on 
 them to the full ! 
 
 While this clergy contemplated the great benefits which 
 thus accrued to them from this doctrine of intention, even 
 the full subjugation of the people, and through the blind- 
 ness of their hearts, to which it seems God gave them up 
 in just judgment for their daring conduct and Babel build- 
 ing, were delighted with the prospect before them, little 
 did they think or foresee they were preparing a rod terribly 
 to scourge themselves, a complete instrument of their own 
 undoing. For while this doctrine exalts them thus to the 
 summit of their desires, it is but for a moment, it is but to 
 precipitate them headlong into utter annihilation ! For if, 
 by the want of intention in them when they ministered, 
 the people were destroyed, so, by the want of the like in- 
 tention in those who baptized and ordained themselves, 
 must themselves be destroyed. So that now, if they have 
 not been rightly baptized and ordained by such as were 
 rightly qualified and had right intention, and they again by 
 other such persons, and so on back to the very apostles, (a 
 thing impossible,) they have no true baptism nor ordination 
 at all ; and this operating on the whole body of the clergy, 
 must necessarily exterminate them all. 
 
 For if by this doctrine the people are brought into such 
 perplexities that it is impossible for them to know whether 
 their clergymen be lawful or be Christians at all, or whether 
 themselves be Christians or have received any true sacra- 
 ment, (as Bellarmine confesses,) or whether what they do 
 receive, being false sacraments, are not hastening their dam- 
 nation ; so also are the priests, from the highest to the 
 lowest of them, unavoidably plunged into the same abyss 
 of uncertainty and misery; because it is impossible for them 
 to know whether they be priests as above noticed, and as 
 Gabriel Biel (one of them) is obliged to allow; or whether 
 all their services be not so many sacrileges, hastening their 
 own destruction and that of their people ! 
 
 Thus by this famous canon of intention, found in the 
 council of Florence and in that of Trent — by this conspi- 
 cuous child of the infallibility, is the entire papal church, 
 clergy, people, with all the high pretensions of the papacy 
 precipitated into instant ruin, and swallowed up as in 2 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 83 
 
 moment. Thus corruption terminates in its own ruin ! ! 
 Should they deny this canon, its existence would confront 
 them ; if they deny its power, they destroy the infallibility; 
 if they confess it, they unpriest themselves. Do what they 
 will with it, it hangs upon them, it ruins them, they cannot 
 escape it ! This conclusion is irresistible ! 
 
 Now as by these false and fraudful doctrines the people 
 have been the trembling slaves and dupes of the papal 
 clergy, so, by the simple inquiry of the people, as soon as 
 they shall rouse to it, shall the whole body of the former fall 
 into instant annihilation ! 
 
 Let any inquirer approach the next priest or bishop, and 
 ask him, " Do you allow there is a canon insisting upon the 
 necessity of intention in the ministering clergyman in order 
 to the integrity of a sacrament ?" If he says, " There is no 
 such canon," he instantly is confronted by the canon itself, 
 as already stated, and by the rubrick of his missal ; but if 
 he admit it, and yet says, "It is frivolous and is not bind- 
 ing," then he destroys his own foundation, and ruins him- 
 self; for if the canon be foolish and false, then the infalli- 
 bility which in two councils decreed it was foolish and false, 
 and so drops into annihilation; and the church founded on 
 it, which for three centuries back taught it, was foolish and 
 false also, and so falls headlong with it. But if he allow 
 there is such a canon, then he is involved in immediate 
 ruin, for the next question will be, "How can you possi- 
 bly know whether you are a priest ? or whether you are a 
 Christian at all ?" At this question he must be startled and 
 amazed ! He must own, according to his religion, it is a 
 thing impossible to be known, whether he has been truly 
 ordained, or truly baptized, or is a true clergyman! 
 
 And, sir, if you don't know, and if none of you know, 
 how alarming must be the situation of us all, to whom you 
 have been ministering, not knowing but we have been re- 
 ceiving false sacraments all our lives ! How came you 
 then to assume the office, and venture to minister in holy 
 things, and thus bring destruction upon yourselves, on us, 
 and our little ones ? Ye tell us your infallibility is a safe 
 guide to heaven: if so, why does it not lead yourselves 
 out of these difficulties which so press you, and defend you 
 and us from the risk of that damnation which is consequent 
 on receiving false sacraments, and of worshipping a false 
 
84 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 host. And if it will give no help, no relief to you or us, 
 it is good for nothing ; how then can it be a sure guide to 
 heaven, or be from Christ? 
 
 Should a physician, or a body of them, confess, " We 
 cannot possibly know that we are true physicians, or that 
 our prescriptions will not kill, and our medicines poison," 
 who after this could be so mad as to employ and pay them ? 
 But ye confess ye are not sure but your sacraments are 
 sacrilegious and false, consequently damnable. The appli- 
 cation is obvious : we must therefore bid you farewell, nor 
 suffer ourselves or little ones to be longer deceived. In- 
 quiry thus spreading through the land, nay, through the 
 world, and being pressed upon the papal clergy, they could 
 not stand before it — they must fly and hide themselves. 
 
 Thus would they be overthrown to a man, from the pope 
 on his throne to the lowest ecclesiastic. Thus must the 
 whole papal church with all its apparatus go into ruins at 
 once, (as I have said,) even as the mill-stone which the 
 mighty angel cast into the flood: so must Babylon sink to 
 rise no more again forever ! ! Thus would the world be 
 rid, as in a moment, of this great mother and arrogant mis- 
 tress of all churches, this prolific parent of deceits and arti- 
 fices, that has filled the nations for so many ages with per- 
 nicious superstitions, grievous contentions, confusion, into- 
 lerance, and blood ! Who that knows history can deny this? 
 
 And now, methinks, the whole ingenious edifice of the 
 papal building, put together with such care and industry for 
 so many ages, and of which its partisans have so mightily 
 boasted, crying out, " What church is like unto it, or can 
 compare with it ?" may be likened to a curious puzzling- 
 stick, out of which some unsuspected hand pulls the little 
 key peg, and lo ! instantly it falls to pieces. 
 
 To behold these men who, before the fatal touch of in- 
 quiry had reached them, appeared even as gods, took to 
 themselves such hauteur and greatness, and fancied them- 
 selves as an order above mortals ; yes, in dignity of office 
 •' above, kings and emperors, nay, the angels, and the virgin 
 Mary, the very queen of heaven herself," as they tell us : 
 to see these in an instant precipitated from all this height 
 into their own nothingness, their borrowed plumes pulled 
 off, their infallibility, that strong rock of their majestic 
 church, crumbled to dust under their feet in a labyrinth of 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY 85 
 
 difficulties, degraded beneath rationals, and finding them- 
 selves, after all, to be but poor deceived deceivers, and shrink- 
 ing from the dreaded touch of inquiry ? (sad reverse!) I 
 say, to see all this, not only proves the truth of my asser- 
 tion or demonstration, but also confirms the words of in- 
 spiration, "How are the mighty fallen!" 
 
 From this view of things, the following natural observa- 
 tions force themselves upon us : 1st. That any church, thus 
 liable to be pulled down by the hand of inquiry, and to 
 crumble under the rays of light which are now so multi- 
 plying on the earth, must, in order to preserve herself from 
 such impending ruin, either radically and quickly reform 
 herself, and humbly follow the simple light of reason, con- 
 science, and revelation, even as stated in my five proposi- 
 tions; or otherwise, to keep off this dreaded light and in- 
 quiry, she must necessarily be intolerant and persecuting, 
 when practicable — when not restrained by the strong arm 
 of power. To give power to such a church, is to overthrow 
 truth, and destroy the rights of mankind. It would be just 
 the folly of a fond parent, putting weapons into the hands 
 of a wickedly disposed, mischievous boy, to destroy per- 
 haps himself and his family : for, in proportion to her in- 
 crease of power and corruption on the one hand, and of 
 light and inquiry on the other, so must the greatness of the 
 struggle and confusion be; for light and darkness can never 
 agree. This conclusion is firm, and this observation is 
 perfectly applicable, and should never be lost sight of. A 
 church that is sworn to teach till death, doctrines flatly op- 
 posed to that gospel which she knows and even swears to 
 be God's truth, and that is sworn to root out, as soon as 
 practicable, all who refuse to do as she does, should never 
 get the rod in her hand, — should never, by any means, get 
 power to do her will. 
 
 2. From the year 606, in which the papal church first 
 got power from the Emperor Phocas over all other churches, 
 that she has been of a persecuting spirit, in every age, to 
 this day, is a fact that cannot be denied by any who consult 
 the page of history. Here stand recorded her horrible 
 violences against all such as, preferring God's pure faith to 
 human corruptions, refused to be subject to her or her pope : 
 and her unceasing efforts to extirpate them as heretics, by 
 procuring royal edicts against them, making all magistrates 
 
 8 
 
86 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 and even crowned heads,* to take an oath to root them out, 
 (which is further evident by that taken in the reign of 
 Henry V. in England, in 1414, when " it was made death 
 and loss of property to read the Bible in English, or be a 
 heretic ;" and by the bloody statute and six articles of 
 Henry VIII., which made jt burning to speak or write 
 against transubstantiation, &c. ;) her keeping the Bible 
 from the people ; her bloody Inquisition, where she could 
 have it, to deter the people from inquiry, &c. &c.t I say, 
 these are facts, and such evidences of her true character as 
 cannot be denied, nor should be concealed. And it is to be 
 deplored that she is unchanged ; that this is too much her 
 spirit still, as is obvious by the Spaniards so lately refusing 
 Christian burial to Sir John Moore, the English general, 
 who was slain in their own defence, because he was a Pro- 
 testant ; by their refusing any religion to be in the kingdom 
 but the papal ; and by the strong opposition of the pope's 
 nuncio to, and his grievous lamentation for the abolition 
 of the Inquisition by the Cortes, (anno 1813.) which, as he 
 said, " pained his very heart." And lastly, by the constant 
 opposition of the Romish clergy, to this day, to all gospel 
 preachers, and to any of their people hearing them, or hear- 
 ing or reading 1 any religious books but their own; all which 
 go to prove that persecution is still her motto. 
 
 But if every one would fly from all such intolerant 
 churches, as indeed they should, soon would persecution 
 expire ; for then should the pastors, rather than lose their 
 flocks, cease their violences, and admit free inquiry after 
 truth ; and thus would all soon be peace, harmony, and 
 love. Then should Wi have, as it were, a heaven on earth 
 below. 
 
 3d. As every persecuting system, of whatever name, is 
 manifestly false, and ought to fall, and, by the increase of 
 light and inquiry, and by the judgments of God, must fall; 
 shall it not strengthen our faith and love to Him, and in- 
 crease our veneration for the page of revelation, when we 
 find it there written, " That as a millstone is cast into the 
 sea, thus with great violence, must Babylon be thrown 
 
 * See the 3d can. 4th council of Lateran. 
 
 ■j- See that inimitable work by M. Villars, a Frenchman, which won 
 the prize proposed, about the year 1802, by the French Institute. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 87 
 
 down" ? Rev. xviii. Thus we behold how sweetly reason 
 and revelation harmonize together. 
 
 Although what has been already said may lead every in- 
 telligent mind to see that infallibility is no more than a mere 
 fiction, yet, as it has done so much evil, I shall, through 
 divine aid, farther proceed to prove it utterly false and im- 
 possible, and thus finally overthrow it. " Infallibility," as 
 we have seen, " is not in the pope, is not in the whole of 
 the bishops, but is in the majority of the bishops united 
 with their head the pope;" that is, "it is not in all the 
 bishops," and " it is in all the bishops !" Or many fallibles 
 make an infallible, many curve lines make a straight one, 
 and many naughts make whole numbers ! This is the doc- 
 trine of the papal church ! Hear the following arguments. 
 
 1st Argument. — The decrees of a council must be com- 
 pleted and ended, before they are presented to the pope for 
 confirmation. If they be then wrong, his confirmation can- 
 not make them right ; or if they be right before, his con- 
 firmation can add nothing to them. Then to say, that in- 
 fallibility springs from the junction of this confirmation, 
 which by itself is nothing, with the decrees of a council, 
 which by themselves are nothing, is to say, it springs from 
 the junction of two nothings ! Therefore such infallibility 
 is false and impossible. 
 
 2d. As a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and 
 as infallibility cannot spring forth from any thing unlawful, 
 it is then an admitted fact, that, " in order that the decrees 
 of a council may be lawful, the bishops must be free;" but 
 the bishops being all bound to the pope, " to be ever obedient 
 to him, (see Appendix,) nor ever do any thing against his 
 interest," are not free ; therefore their decrees cannot be 
 lawful. Hence such decrees never can be infallible : there- 
 fore infallibility arising from such must be false and impos- 
 sible. This must be as obvious as that a jury who are my 
 copartners, and are sworn to promote my interests, are not 
 fit to decide equitably in any cause between me and others. 
 
 3d. The pope and council murt be lawful, and must know 
 that they are lawful and true bishops, before their decrees 
 can be lawful or infallible ; but in order to know this, they 
 must know that they are truly baptized and truly ordained. 
 But this, according to the doctrine of intention, is impos 
 sible to be known. That their decrees then are lawful 
 
88 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 must ever be impossible to be known, therefore can they 
 never be infallible ; consequently, papal infallibility must 
 be ever impossible and false. 
 
 4th. The bull of Pope Julius II. saith, " If any pope be 
 simoniacally chosen by any of the cardinals, upon any gift 
 or promise whatever, his election is, ipso facto, null, and 
 the cardinals may oppose him so chosen as if guilty of 
 heresy ; nor should any one look on such an one as pope, 
 but should avoid him as a magician or heathen," &c. Bull 
 Jul. II. 
 
 Pope Sixtus Quintus was elected* simoniacally, (as were 
 others too ;) he was not therefore a true pope, but as a 
 heathen or magician, and all the cardinals made by him 
 were illegal ; and no pope elected by illegal cardinals can 
 be a lawful pope. But Cardinal Montallo, Sixtus's nephew, 
 with forty votes entered into the conclave, and elected Ur- 
 ban VII. ; therefore Urban, thus illegally chosen, was not 
 a lawful pope ; nor was Gregory XIV., nor Innocent IX., 
 being similarly chosen, and all of whom died within little 
 more than one year. Nor could Clement VIII., chosen by 
 the same, be a true pope ; nor was any cardinal created by 
 these popes, who were not legal nor better therefore than 
 "heathens or magicians," lawful; and hence, could no pope 
 or cardinals ever after be laivful, or be other than " hea- 
 thens !" What then becomes of the church of Rome and 
 her infallibility ? or of those who pin their faith on her and 
 her pope ? 
 
 When all these plain arguments, from extreme unction, 
 the doctrine of intention, and the four just stated against 
 infallibility, and which challenge disproof, are considered, 
 and when infallibility is your foundation, O ye people of 
 
 * " A case in point is that of Sixtus V. Having promised under his 
 hand to Cardinal d'Eeste (who had great influence) that he would never 
 during his popedom create Jeremiah Matthew a cardinal; and having, 
 in violation of his faith, afterwards created him cardinal, d'Eeste wrote 
 to Philip II. King of Spain, and sent him the instrument signed by the 
 pope's own hand. Whereupon the king (an. 1580) sent the Duke of 
 Guise ambassador extraordinary to Rome, to intimate to Pope Sixtus his 
 intention of calling, according to the bull of Julius II., a general council 
 to inquire into his simoniacal election. When the pope received this 
 message and the instrument signed by himself, he fell into so great per- 
 plexity that he died soon after, which put an end to the proceedings." 
 See Stillingfleet, p. 125. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 89 
 
 the cnurch of Rome, must you not count it extreme madness 
 to believe such matters ? Yet, incredible and unaccountable 
 as it is, all this has been believed by nations, and multi- 
 tudes, and peoples ; yes, and is still believed ! Must you 
 not see then that they have been bewitched ? But this has 
 been prophesied more than seventeen hundred years ago by 
 St. John, Rev. xvii. 2, 4, 15, 18; and xviii. 23. "And the 
 woman whom thou sawest, having a golden cup in her 
 hand full of abomination and filthiness, is that great city 
 seated upon seven mountains, which reigneth over the 
 kings of the earth. And the inhabitants of the earth have 
 been made drunk with the wine of her fornication," that is, 
 false doctrines: "for by thy sorceries were all nations 
 deceived !" 
 
 INFALLIBILITY DESTROYED BY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Having thus far chased infallibility through every lane, 
 and proved it to be a falsehood and impossibility, I now 
 come to dislodge it from its last stand, namely, the Scrip- 
 ture. The papal clergy do assert, That Christ is the author 
 of it: as if falsehood could proceed from him! The nations 
 believing this were deceived. The scriptures adduced for 
 its support are chiefly Matt. xvi. 18. "Thou art Peter, and 
 upon this rock will I build my church," <fcc, and in Matt. 
 vii. 24, "The wise man buildeth his house upon a rock." 
 Dr. Challoner,* Dr. Manning,! the Douay Testament, and 
 also Mr. Thayer, do confess, "That on these two texts 
 doth rest the whole weight of their infallibility. 
 
 To demolish this building of so long standing is a serious 
 work ; I must then proceed with care, and therefore shall 
 premise the following propositions : 
 
 1st Prop. — Every dispensation of a revelation from God 
 must be consistent with itself, and the Christian being the 
 most bright and perfect, must therefore in all its parts har- 
 monize with itself, with the perfections of God, and with 
 right reason, of which he is the author, else would it not 
 be perfect. 
 
 2d Every interpretation of this revelation, or of any of 
 
 * Challoner's Catholic Christian, 
 f Manning's Short Way to end Disputes, p. 25, 29. 
 8* 
 
90 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 its parts, when in perfect agreement with the whole, and 
 with right reason, must be true. 
 
 3d. Every interpretation of this revelation which is con- 
 tradictory of it, or of any of its parts, must be false. 
 
 4th. Every system of religion built upon such false in- 
 terpretation, as far as it is false, must necessarily be so far 
 false also, and vice versa. 
 
 5th. Hence, every man with due care can readily distin- 
 guish between that system which is false and that which is 
 true, between that which is in all its parts consistent and 
 that which is inconsistent ; and instead of foolishly trusting 
 the assertions of any men, may with certainty choose the 
 good and refuse the evil, and thus be saved. — And this 
 course the divine command, "Let no man deceive you — 
 prove all things, hold fast that which is good" proves 
 to be right. He then that neglects this plan and this blessed 
 command deserves to perish. 
 
 Now I proceed to state the interpretation given by the 
 papal church to the above-mentioned scriptures, on which 
 they seat themselves as on a mountain of brass ; but the 
 touch of truth shall quickly crumble it into dust. , 
 
 "Thou art Peter, and upon this Peter, as upon a rock 
 of invincible strength, next to myself, will I build my one 
 and only church, out of which there can be no salvation, 
 and I appoint thee to be the chief pastor or head thereof, 
 whom all are to believe and obey, in token whereof I give 
 thee the keys to bind and loose, enduing thee with all ful- 
 ness of power and authority; and what thou doest on earth 
 1 will ratify in heaven ; and I grant thee the power of in- 
 dulgences also, even to relieve souls £som purgatory; and 
 the gates of hell shall never prevail against this church and 
 rock — they shall be ever infallible. And to all these privi- 
 leges shall the bishop of Rome, as thy successor, be also 
 entitled to the end of the world." This is exactly what is 
 claimed by this church. 
 
 I shall state the whole passage, Matt. xvi. 15, "He saith 
 unto them, but whom say ye that I am? 16 ver. And Si- 
 mon Peter answered and said, thou a¥t the Christ, the Son 
 of the living God. 17 ver. And Jesus answered and said 
 unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and 
 blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which 
 s in heaven. 18 ver. And I say also unto thee, that thou 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY, 91 
 
 art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and 
 the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 ver. And 
 1 will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; 
 and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in 
 heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
 loosed in heaven." 
 
 Our paraphrase of it is as follows: "Jesus saith, Blessed 
 art thou, Simon, for while mistaken men judge me to be 
 only a prophet, my Father hath showed thee, (as he doth 
 to all true believers,*) that I am the Christ. This is the 
 only foundation! which hath been from the beginning of the 
 world, and was that of the prophets, % and shall be of my 
 apostles also; and on this very foundation or rock, which 
 thou hast now confessed, will I build my church, in which 
 thou also, Peter, shalt be a principal builder and lively 
 stone, § as shall thy fellow apostles ; and to thee, (with 
 them,!|) I give the keys^f of true doctrine and discipline. 
 And against this my church of holy, persevering, obedient 
 believers in every age, shall the gates of hell never prevail." 
 
 This interpretation makes 1st, the rock to be Christ. 
 2d. His church, true believers. 3d. Their security, his 
 promise, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against them." 
 
 If this meaning be proved consistent and true, and the 
 other false and discordant, then it must be that infallibility 
 built on the latter rests on a falsehood, and is destroyed, and 
 the church of Rome is overturned. 
 
 Now, if our interpretation agree with the Scriptures, with 
 the original Greek, with reason, together with the ancient 
 Fathers, it must (per proposition 2) be indubitably true. 
 
 The controversy here is not, whether Christ be the great 
 foundation of his church, (for in this all are agreed,) but it 
 is this, whether the term rock, in this passage, belongs to 
 Christ or to St. Peter; on the decision of this one word, 
 this single point, they stand or fall ! If this fail them — if it 
 is proved the term rock belongs to Christ alone, and not to 
 Peter, they are undone ! They confess their chief, their 
 only foundation is gone, and all their pretensions fall to the 
 ground at once ! And yet, though the term should belong 
 
 * John i. 49 — xi. 27. 1 John v. 10. Gal. i. 1 6.— iv. 6. 
 
 f 1 Peter i. 19, 20. Rev. xiii. 8. + Eph. ii. 20. 1 Peter ii. 4, 6, 
 
 § 1 Peter v. 1. Rev. xxi. 14, 19. 
 
 || John xx. 21, 23. Matt, xviii. 18. J Luke xi. 52. 
 
92 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 to Peter, it will do them no service, as I shall shortly 
 prove. 
 
 Why such multitudes who are of the Papacy, and so 
 many of them learned men, should thus dread that the term 
 rock should mean Christ, and hazard their all, their very 
 existence, upon a single expression, nay, upon one ambi- 
 guous word, and not rather on the whole Scripture, must 
 appear most amazing, if not suspicious too ! But the sur- 
 prise will cease, when it is understood, this supremacy and 
 infallibility they contend for, they confess, St. Peter him- 
 self, from whom they wish to derive it, could not have, 
 except from this solitary expression, this one word. But 
 if from this expression it shall appear he could not be en- 
 titled to any such privilege, nor even ever so much as 
 thought of any such thing, what then becomes of their 
 cause ? it falls to pieces. To us, however, who fix our 
 faith, not on any dexterous invention, or cunning and inge- 
 nious fable, founded on or drawn from any one mere insu- 
 lated word, liable to be tortured to mean any thing or 
 nothing, but on the broad basis of eternal truth — on the un- 
 erring and harmonious gospel of Christ, which we know 
 all the apostles preached, and Peter too, (nor dare he or 
 any of them do otherwise ;*) to us, sir, it matters not to 
 whom the term rock belongs, as you shall quickly see. I 
 now go to our proofs of Scripture, selecting a few out of 
 many. 
 
 1st, Is from St. Peter himself, 1 Peter ii. 6 — 8, "Behold 
 I lay in Sion a chief corner-stone, (or rock, verse 8,) elect, 
 precious : and he that believeth on Him shall not be con- 
 founded." Here, as above, we have, 1st. The foundation, 
 the rock, Christ. 2dly. His church ; believers on him. 
 3dly. The promise they shall not be confounded; or " the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against them."t 
 
 2d scripture : John x. 27, 28. " My sheep hear my 
 voice, and I know them, and they follow me ; and I give 
 unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither 
 shall any pluck them out of my hand." 
 
 Here again, the foundation is Christ, and his voice or 
 gospel. 2d. His church ; they who hear and follow him. 
 3d. They shall never perish ; or "the gates of hell," &e. 
 
 * Gal. i. 8, 9. Rev. xxii. 18. 
 j- See Acts iv. 11. Rom. x. 11. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 93 
 
 3d scripture : Matt. vii. 24. " Therefore, whosoeveT 
 neareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken 
 him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; 
 25. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the 
 winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell not ; for 
 it was founded upon a rock." Christ and his doctrine is 
 the rock. 2d. The church, to the end of time ; all obedi- 
 ent believers cleaving to him alone, like the wise man's 
 house built upon the bare rock. 3d. The storms and floods, 
 i.e. "the gates of hell, shall not prevail against them;" 
 here is no mention of St. Peter, or of any secondary rock. 
 This last is the very scripture (however implacable, and 
 which turns against themselves) which they brought to sup- 
 port them.* Hence St. Peter himself supports our inter- 
 pretation. We are in agreement with him, and with Christ 
 our Lord, and the whole Scriptures on this point. 
 
 II. The original Greek and Latin. If it were written, 
 "Ertt tov-to ta iIet'po" — "Super hunc Petrum;" "Upon 
 this Peter," &c, they might have had some shadow or plea 
 for their system ; but it is not so. The words of Christ 
 are, " Xv ft llti?po$, xai srti favtrj frj rifT-pa," " Thou art Peter, 
 and upon this 7ts>tpa, rock," which thou hast confessed, &c. 
 Your Latin Vulgate has "Tu es Petrus et super hanc pe- 
 tram" making an evident distinction, as doth the Greek, 
 between Petrus, Peter, the masculine gender, and petram, 
 rock, the feminine. Hence, the original tells against them. 
 Added to this, we find in the Old Testament many passages 
 designating Jehovah by the term "rock." Deut. xxxii. 4, 
 " He is the rock. 15. Jeshurun forsook God — the rock of 
 his salvation." 2 Sam. xxii. 2 — 32, The Lord is my rock. 
 Who is a rock save our God ? xxiii. 3. Ps. xxxi. 3 ; 
 xviii. 2 — 46, &c. 
 
 III. That Christ and his unchangeable gospel and inspired 
 servants should govern the consciences and direct the faith 
 of all Christians in every age, is consonant with reason. 
 But that any one fallible, frail mortal, should be appointed 
 to do so, is more absurd, vastly so, than for one king to 
 think to govern with strict equity all the individuals of all 
 the nations of the earth ! Hence reason is against them. 
 
 IV. The ancient Fathers. — St. Augustine, (on Matt 
 13 ser.) "Be verbis Domini, tu es ergo Petrus" &c 
 
 * See also 1 Cor. iii. 11. Mark xvi. 15. 
 
94 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock which thou hast con- 
 fessed, upon this, which thou hast acknowledged, saying, 
 'Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God;' I will build 
 my church ; that is, upon myself, the Son of the living 
 God, I will build my church," &c. 
 
 St. Hilary, (Can. 16, de fundam. Eccles.) "Unum igitur 
 hoc est immobile fundamentum" &c. " This one founda- 
 tion is immoveable, that is, that one blessed rock of faith, 
 confessed by the mouth of Peter, « Thou art the Son of the 
 living God.' " — '(De Trinit. 1. 6.) "Super hanc confessioni? 
 petram ecclesise eedificatio est. 19 " The building of the 
 church is upon this rock of confession." And again, "hsec 
 fides " &c. " This faith is the foundation of the church ; 
 this faith hath the keys of the kingdom of heaven: what 
 this faith shall loose or bind is bound and loosed in hea- 
 ven." 
 
 Origen, "Si autem" &c. " It was truly said unto Peter, 
 4 Thou art Peter, and upon this stone will I build my church,' 
 &c. ; yet it seemeth to be said to all the apostles, and to 
 every perfect faithful man, because they all, as Peter, be 
 stones ; on them all the church of Christ is builded, and 
 the gates of hell shall prevail against none that are such." — 
 Horn. 5, in Ec. 
 
 Bede (on this place "Tu es ergo," &c.) saith, " Meta- 
 phorice," &c. " It is said unto him by a metaphor, Upon 
 this rock, i. e. the Saviour, whom thou hast confessed, the 
 church is builded." 
 
 I might easily multiply authorities of this nature, but let 
 these suffice. Thus is the 1st point manifestly proved, 
 viz. The full harmony of the Scriptures, of reason, of the 
 original Greek and Latin, and of the ancient fathers, with 
 our interpretation, that the term rock, in Matt. xvi. 18, be- 
 longs to Christ and not to Peter. 
 
 2d Point: The discordancy of their interpretation proved. 
 " The Scripture," say they, " can have neither authority nor 
 meaning, but when infallibly interpreted by their church!" 
 Then, their church must have had infallibility before such 
 interpretation of Scripture, and therefore, before any such 
 scriptural infallibility could have existed ! That is, they 
 had it before they could have had it ! Whence came it ? 
 From Scripture. From Scripture, " a book with them, 
 without meaning or authority," they could not possibly 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 9.5 
 
 have derived it! Where they got it then, let them tell. 
 And this is "their strong foundation;" yet where they 
 found it they know not ! But they go about to seek it and 
 its proof from Scripture, and so ruin their cause ; for if 
 from Scripture they must have it, then they grant the pre- 
 vious independency and authority thereof : which at once 
 overturns their foundation from the very bottom, and so 
 their boasted infallibility expires as in a moment. For it 
 is an eternal principle, and rule of reason, never to prove 
 one thing by another, till that other is first well proved :"* 
 nor can that, thus proved, ever afterwards prove that by 
 which itself was proved, any more than a son begotten by 
 his father, can afterwards beget his father. Yet as they 
 nevertheless claim it now from Scripture, (Matt. xvi. 18,) 
 I shall proceed to destroy even that claim, by proving that 
 Peter is not that rock of Christ's church meant in the text. 
 
 1st argument. That Peter is not the rock. When two 
 witnesses are brought to prove any fact, to succeed they 
 must agree; if not, that cause is lost. But they bring 
 Matt. vii. 24, "The wise man builds his house upon a 
 rock," that it may agree with Matt. xvi. 18, to prove that 
 Peter is the rock ; but that it refuses to do, or to mention 
 Peter at all. So their proof fails, and Peter is not the rock. 
 
 2d. St. John saith, "He that committeth sin is of the 
 devil ;" and Drs. Challoner, Butler, &c. &c. teach, "When 
 any one even consents to any one mortal sin after baptism, 
 he instantly falls from God to the devil, becomes the slave 
 of Satan, and an heir of hell." But St. Peter, after these 
 w r ords of Christ, "Thou art Peter," &c, sinned, nay, 
 committed mortal sin; for he denied Christ, and cursed, 
 and swore he knew him not, and thus told grievous lies. 
 Matt. xxvi. 74. Therefore Satan or the gates of hell pre- 
 vailed against him ! Now the gates of hell could not prevail 
 against the rock meant by Christ, but they prevailed against 
 Peter, therefore Peter was not that rock Christ meant. 
 They, then, who teach St. Peter was the rock of the church 
 meant by Christ, by consequence teach that Christ was a 
 false prophet ! For it comes to this, either their interpreta- 
 tion in this point is false, or Christ was a false prophet, 
 which to say is blasphemy. But St. Peter was raised up 
 again, therefore the gates of hell did not finally prevail 
 
 * For this would be the fallacy logicians call "reasoning in a circk." 
 
96 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 against him. This is a fallacy; for if it be prophesied of a 
 pillar that it shall never fall, if it fall even once, though it be 
 soon built up again, the prophecy would be false. Ergo, St. 
 Peter, who fell, although raised up again, was not the rock. 
 And that he was not the foundation or rock is confirmed by 
 the Holy Ghost, (Eph. ii. 20,) saying, That the foundation 
 of the apostles and prophets was the same, even Christ. 
 
 ST. PETER WAS CHIEF PASTOR SUPREME HEAD, AND SHOULD 
 
 BE OBEYED. 
 
 For Jesus saith, "Simon, I have prayed for thee, feed 
 my sheep, feed my lambs; I give thee the keys," &c* 
 
 Not so ; he was not made chief pastor or head ; and for 
 the following reasons, viz. : 
 
 1st. Having not only by other arguments, but now by 
 the mighty sword of Scripture, cut infallibility to pieces, 
 supremacy, which was to grow out of it, is therefore at 
 once annihilated. And surely no one will say, when Peter 
 was giving false counsel, (Matt. xvi. 22,) that he should be 
 obeyed; for the Lord said to him, "Get thee behind me, 
 Satan, thou art an offence to me." Nor was he to be be- 
 lieved except when telling truth, not when telling lies cer- 
 tainly. Matt. xxvi. 74. Nor to be followed when mislead- 
 ing the flock. Gal. ii. 11. Here St. Paul withstood him 
 and reproved him sharply ! 
 
 2d. These scriptures, which are said to confer this 
 honour on St. Peter, when examined, prove the very con- 
 trary. Their meaning is plain. Saith Christ, " Satan, 
 (spying thy self-sufficiency,) desire th to have thee, but I 
 have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou 
 art converted, strengthen thy brethren," lest any of them 
 ever fall, shamefully fall, like thee. Peter being then warned 
 of his danger by his Lord, should have prayed to him for 
 divine aid, that his faith might not fail. For when divine 
 promises are given to men, unless we inquire of the Lord 
 to fulfil them, they shall profit us nothing, (Ezek. xxxvi. 
 37,) but rather increase our condemnation ! And when he 
 was restoring him to his forfeited office, he, in opposition to 
 the three times he denied and dishonoured him, asks him 
 three times, "Simon, lovest thou me?" Peter feeling this 
 
 * Luke xxii. 32. John xxi. 15, 18. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 97 
 
 sharp though tender reproof, answered with, grief, "Yea, 
 Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." Then Christ saith, 
 " Feed my sheep, and my lambs, i. e. my old and new fol- 
 lowers, and no more by such conduct dishearten or destroy 
 them, but feed and encourage them by thy example, doc- 
 trine, and suffering even death for my name. The keys 
 or commission given to preach the gospel, and regulate 
 Christ's kingdom or church according thereto, was given to 
 all the apostles equally.* Where then in all this is there any 
 ground for supremacy ? The apostles saw none ! 
 
 3d. Christ would not allow of any headship among 
 them, but taught them they were all to be equal. "Be not 
 ye called rabbi, {master,) for one is your Master, even 
 Christ, and all ye are brethren "\ We see a strife among 
 them who should be greatest,^ which could not be, had 
 they understood Peter to have been appointed chief, and 
 which our Lord reproves, as he did above. " The kings 
 of the Gentiles," said he, "exercise lordship over them, 
 but ye shall not be so." That is, there shall be no king 
 or head among you, but each one shall strive to be least, 
 servant of all, and all be subservient to each other. The 
 apostles sent Peter and John to Samaria to preach.§ Now 
 he that was sent could not be greater than those who sent 
 feim, as our Lord testifies. || Again, he is called to a strict 
 laccount by the other apostles. ^ St. James, not St. Peter, 
 decides in the council where Peter was present, saying, 
 "My sentence is," &c. James, Cephas, or Peter, and 
 John, are equally called pillars.** 
 
 4th. St. Paul overturns every such idea ; he tells us, 
 "That himself was taken up to the third heaven ;"tt 
 " That he was in nothing behind the very chiefest apos- 
 tles," and declares, "The care of all the churches fell 
 upon him."f{: "That he was appointed apostle of the 
 
 * John xx. 21, 23. Mark xv. 15. Matt, xxviii. 19, "Go ye into all 
 the world." 
 
 j- Matt. xxii. 8, 10. 
 
 * Matt. xx. 25, 26, 27. Luue xxii. 24, 25. 2 Cor. i. 24. 1 Peter v. 3. 
 § Acts viii. 14. \ John xiii. 16. ^ Acts xv. 19. 
 **Gal.ii.9. Rom.xi. 13; xv. 16. \ \ 2 Cor. xii. 2— 1 1 ; xi. 5— 28. 
 ++ Says St. Chrysostom, " To St. Paul was committed the whole 
 
 world, — he had an anxious solicitude for all the churches throughout 
 the world. Than St. Paul no one is greater, to him no one is equal. 
 If he laboured more abundantly than all the rest of the apostle*., he will 
 
 9 
 
98 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 Gentiles, as Peter was of the Jews;" and boasts his great 
 authority, saying, " That he withstood Peter to the face 
 because he was culpable."* A most notorious falsehood, 
 all this, if St. Peter were chief head. Now if any were 
 our chief head, being Gentiles, it must have been St. Paul, 
 not St. Peter, who was the apostle of the Jews. 
 
 5th. Seeing St. John was our Lord's kinsman, always 
 next him, leaning on his bosom, speaking to him for the 
 other apostles, when none else of them did do so, and re- 
 ceiving his Holy Mother in charge from him, when on the 
 cross ; also his great labours, and being the survivor of 
 them all ; surely it must be thought he was the chief. But 
 there was no such thing, no chief, they were all equal. 
 Hence no supremacy existed. 
 
 6th. The ancient Fathers declare against it. 
 
 Origen, Horn. 5, on Exodus. Si autem super unum 
 ilium Petrum, &c. " But if thou thinkest that the uni- 
 versal church is built by God upon this one Peter, what 
 sayest thou of James and John, the sons of thunder, and of 
 every other apostle ?" St. Cyprian de unitate ecclesise. 
 Quamvis apostolibus omnibus, &c. " The same thing, 
 verily, were all the apostles that Peter was, endued with 
 equal fellowship of honour and authority." Many testi- 
 monies of this kind might be adduced. 
 
 Now if St. Peter himself had no infallibility nor supre- 
 macy, as is fully proved he had not, then, for the pope to 
 succeed to it, is most ridiculous, and is such an imposture 
 as none but the silliest dupes could countenance. 
 
 I shall now propose to him and all his clergy a few ques- 
 tions, which, if they be not past feeling, must mightily 
 agitate them. 
 
 1st. Supposing Peter was even endued with these pecu- 
 liar prerogatives, how came the Pope of Rome, and not the 
 Patriarch of Antioch, or any of the eastern bishops to suc- 
 ceed to and possess them ? 
 
 2d. Is the succession of the Bishops of Rome to St. Peter, 
 an article of divine institution and faith ? It is, or it is 
 not : if not, then it is not of God, and binds no man ; and 
 
 be more abundantly rewarded. And as he was greater than they, it is 
 just that he will enjoy (t»? mutato) ri/u»() the highest honour and the 
 first seat among them." De laud. Paul. Oper. vol. i. 517. 
 * Gal. ii. 7. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 99 
 
 so expires. But if it be, where have we any word of God, 
 by which alone divine faith comes, which appoints it to 
 him ? Now they are caught, they can find none ; the con- 
 clusion then is manifest, it is but a scandalous usurpation 
 •and imposture on mankind. 
 
 3d. Was the first Bishop of Rome, whether Linus, Cle- 
 mens, &c.,* supreme head of the whole church of Christ? 
 He was, or he was not. 
 
 If God hath appointed in his holy church, 1st, the apos- 
 tles, as the chief officers therein; 2d, Prophets, &c. 1 Cor. 
 xii. 28 ; and that St. John was then, and for thirty or thirty- 
 six years alive, after St. Peter's death ; I demand who was 
 then St. Peter's successor, and supreme head ? John, the 
 aged, the beloved apostle, or Linus, the new bishop ? Now 
 again you are at your wit's end ; if you say Linus was, you 
 oppose all reason and God's appointment of the apostles as 
 chief, and thus subvert the gospel : or if you must confess 
 St. John was indeed the then supreme head, you ruin your 
 cause ; your infallibility, supremacy, &c, are lost forever. 
 For if there were any such thing at all, and could descend, 
 it must have been from the last apostle, St. John. But from 
 him, who never lived in Rome but in Asia, ye do not, could 
 not claim it. Hence for the pope to have any just claim to 
 supremacy is impossible ; it is the grossest of all imposi- 
 tions. And seeing it is such, what must the claimant's cha- 
 racter be expected to be, but that of the greatest deception 
 and iniquity? So might it be expected, and so we find it. 
 I shall adduce a few testimonies out of multitudes ; and the 
 first shall be from a Bishop of Rome himself. 
 
 THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFF DEPICTED. 
 
 St. Gregory the Great, a Pope of Rome, (about the year 
 594.) in his letters to John, Bishop of Constantinople, who 
 first sought the supremacy, and to the Emperor Mauritius, 
 and his empress, &c. &g. 
 
 " Gregory, to John, Bishop of Constantinople. — Let your 
 
 * Tertullian de Prsesc. haeret. c. 32. Ruffinus, Recog. p. 398, and 
 the Latins in general, make Clement first Bishop of Rome ; but Jerom, 
 Hier. Vir. illust. c. 15, and others, maintain a contrary opinion, and place 
 Linus immediately after the apostles ; this latter opinion Alvan Butler 
 endeavours to establish. — Lives of Saints, vol. iv. 
 
100 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 holiness acknowledge, that i Discipytlis Dominus dicit, au- 
 tern nolite, vocari rabbi, units enim Ma gist er vester est, 
 vos omnes fratres estis,' &c. ' Our Lord says to his dis- 
 ciples, ' Be not ye called rabbi, for one is your Master, and 
 all ye are brethren.' What therefore, most dear brother, 
 are you, in the terrible examination of the coming Judge, 
 to say, who, generalis pater in mundo vocari appetis? 
 desire to be called, not father, only, but the general father 
 of the world ? 
 
 " Beware of the sinful suggestions of the wicked. Of- 
 fences must indeed come, but wo to that man by whom 
 the offence cometh. Behold, the church is rent by this 
 wicked world of pride ; the hearts of the brethren are of- 
 fended. Have you forgotten what truth saith ? ' Whoso 
 offendeth one of these little ones who believes in me, it 
 were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his 
 neck, and he plunged into the depth of the sea.' 
 
 "Scriptum est enim, charitas non qussrit quse sunt sua. 
 1 For it is written, charity seeketh not her own.' Behold 
 you, our brother, arrogate to yourself the things of others. 
 Again, it is written, ' preferring one another in honour ;' 
 and you endeavour to take it away from all, and usurp it 
 wholly to yourself, against reason and right. I beg, I en- 
 treat, and I beseech, with all possible suavity, that your 
 brotherhood resist all these flatterers who offer you this 
 name of error, and that you refuse to be designated by so 
 foolish and so proud an appellation. For I indeed say it 
 with tears, and from the inward anguish of my bowels, that 
 to my sins I attribute it, that my brother cannot to this day 
 be brought to humility, who was made bishop for this end, 
 that he might lead the minds of others to humility. It is 
 written, ' God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the 
 humble:' and again it is said, 'He is unclean before God, 
 who exalteth his heart ;' hence, it is written against the 
 proud man, 'Quid superbis, terra et cinis ?' 'Earth and 
 ashes, why art thou proud?' And truth itself saith, 'Every 
 one that exalteth himself shall be humbled ;' who, that he 
 might by humility bring to the way of life, has vouchsafed 
 to point out unto us what he taught, saying, ' Learn of me, 
 for 1 am meek and lowly of heart.' For this, the only be- 
 gotten Son of God took upon himself the form of our in- 
 firmities : for this, the Invisible became not only visible, 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 101 
 
 but despised : for this, he bore the insults of reproaches, 
 shameful mockings, and most grievous sufferings, that an 
 humble God might teach man not to be proud. Because 
 the pride of the devil was the origin of our destruction, the 
 humility of God is found the instrument of our redemption. 
 For our enemy, created with all other things, wished to be 
 seen exalted over all things : but our Redeemer remaining 
 great above all things, hath thought fit to become little 
 among all things. What then do we bishops say, who 
 take the place of honour from the humility of our Re- 
 deemer, and yet imitate the pride of his enemy? 
 
 " Perpende, rogo, quia in hac presumptione pax totius 
 turbatur ccclesiae" &c. "Consider, I entreat you, that by 
 this rash presumption is the peace of the whole church 
 disturbed, and the grace poured out in common upon all 
 contradicted : in which you can increase only in proportion as 
 you carefully decrease in self-esteem, and become the greater 
 the more you restrain yourself from this name of proud and 
 foolish usurpation ; love humility, therefore, my dearest 
 brother, with your whole heart, by which concord among 
 all the brethren and the unity of the holy universal church 
 may be preserved. Truly, when Paul the apostle heard 
 some say, ' I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas,' 
 he, vehemently abhorring this tearing asunder of the Lord's 
 body, by which they, in some sense, united his members 
 to other heads, cries out, Was Paul crucified for you, or 
 were you baptized in the name of Paul ? If then he would 
 not suffer the members of the Lord's body to be, as it were, 
 particularly subject to certain heads beyond Christ, and 
 they apostles too, what will you say to Christ the head of 
 his universal holy church, in the trial of the last judgment, 
 who endeavour to subject all his members under the title 
 of universal? Whom, pray, do you propose to imitate by 
 this perverse name, but him, who, despising the legions of 
 angels, his companions, endeavoured to break forth, and 
 ascend to an elevation peculiar to himself, that he might 
 seem to be subject to none, and to be above all of them ? 
 Who also said, ' I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my 
 throne above the stars of heaven ; I will be like the Most 
 High !' For, what are all your brother bishops of the uni- 
 versal church, but the stars of heaven, whose lives and 
 preaching give light among the sins and errors of men, as 
 
 9* 
 
102 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 in the darkness of night ? Above whom, when yon thus 
 desire to elevate yourself by this haughty title, and to 
 tread down their name in comparison of yours, what lo 
 you say but I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my 
 throne above the stars of heaven? Are not all the bishops 
 the clouds of heaven, which water by their preaching, and 
 glitter by the light of good works ? whom, whilst you, oui 
 brother, despising and endeavouring to depress under you, 
 what else but this do you say, but what the old enemy said, 
 * I will ascend above the height of the clouds ?' 
 
 "Atque ut cuncta brevi singulo locutionis astringam," 
 &c. And that I may sum up all in one word : the saints 
 before the law, the saints under the law, and the saints 
 under grace, the gospel — all these, making up the perfect 
 body of our Lord, are constituted but members of the 
 church ; none of them would ever have himself called uni- 
 versal. Let your holiness then acknowledge how he must 
 swell with pride who covets to be called by this name, 
 which no true saint would presume to accept. Were not, 
 as your brotherhood knows, my predecessors in this apos- 
 tolical see, which I now serve by God's providence, called 
 oy the council of Chalcedon to this offered honour? but 
 none of them would ever allow himself to be named by 
 such a title — none snatched at this rash name, lest if he 
 should seize on this singular glory of the pontificate, he 
 should seem to deny it to all his brethren. 
 
 " Sed omnia quae prsedicta sunt, Jiunt: rex suptrbise 
 prope est et quod diet nefas est, sacerdotum est prsepara- 
 tus exitus (vel exercitus ei) qui cervice militant elationis." 
 "But all things which are foretold are come to pass; the 
 king of pride approaches, and O, horrid to tell ! the going 
 forth of (or the army of the priests) is ready for him, who 
 fight with the neck of pride, though appointed to lead to 
 humility." Lib. 4, ep. 38. 
 
 To the Emperor Mauritius and the empress. — "Now 
 this brother by a presumption never before known, contrary 
 to the precepts of the gospel, and to the decrees of the ca- 
 nons, usurping a new name, glorying in new and profane 
 titles, which blasphemy be far from every Christian heart, 
 would be called universal bishop ; but in this his pride what 
 doth he but show the time of antichrist approaches, be- 
 cause he imitates him who, despising his brother angels, 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 103 
 
 would rise to a height peculiar to himself, that he might 
 be subject to none. When he who is called universal falls, 
 the church that hath consented to that profane name hath 
 rushed headlong from its state ; but far be that blasphemous 
 name from the hearts of Christians. To consent to that 
 wicked word universal is nothing else but to destroy the 
 faith." Lib. 4, ep. 38. 
 
 Then, according to Pope Gregory, it was antichristian, 
 blasphemous, and diabolical for any bishop to assume the 
 title supreme head, and heresy and a losing of the faith for 
 any one to acknowledge it, and that all should strive against 
 it to death. Hence, from this pope's testimony, it is pretty 
 evident that St. Peter had nothing to do with it. Yet in a 
 few years, in 606, his own successor, Boniface III., by the 
 aid of the Emperor Phocas,* took this very title, which 
 Gregory called execrable. Thus has a Pope of Rome, with 
 great point and accuracy, more than twelve hundred years 
 ago, marked the distinct character of the man of sin, the 
 son of perdition, as being a Christian bishop with an army 
 of priests, taking to him in his pride the title universal or 
 sovereign pontiff, that is, antichrist ! 
 
 Baronius, a cardinal himself, writes, (a. d. 827,) " That 
 for one hundred and fifty years together the popes were 
 rather apostates than apostolics, and that they were thrust 
 into the papal chair by the power of harlots, and the vio- 
 lence of the princes of Tuscany; they were monsters, men 
 of most base life, most destructive morals, and in every 
 manner most defiled."! And, on An. 912, he cried out, 
 " What was then the face of the Roman church? How 
 most foul ! when most powerful and most filthy prostitutes 
 ruled and governed in Rome, by whose will the sees were 
 changed and bishopricks given away; and that which is 
 horrible to relate, their lovers, false popes, were thrust in 
 violently into Peter's chair."f And speaking of John XL, 
 
 * " Phocas iratus Ciriaco Episcopo Constantinopolitano adjudicavit 
 titulam (Ecumenici Pontijici Romano soli." — Baronius, An. a. c. 606. 
 " Phocas, being incensed against Ciriacus, Bishop of Constantinople, 
 who had assumed the title, granted the title sovereign pontiff to the 
 Roman bishop." 
 
 •f- Homines monstrosi, vita turpissimi, moribus perditissimi, usque- 
 tjuaque fcedissimi. — Baronius, An, 897. 
 
 T Quod tunc facies ecclesise Romanse] Quam fcedissima, &c. — Ba 
 loniuo, An. 912, § 12. 
 
* 04 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 bastard to Pope Sergius, by the courtesan Marozia, who 
 came to the popedom in the year 931, he saith, "The Ro- 
 man church suffered herself to be so villanously oppressed 
 by such a monster." And "John XII. who, at the age of 
 eighteen, by means of these prostitutes, attained to the 
 papacy in the year 955," is abhorred by the said Baronius 
 "as an execrable monster." 
 
 Luitprandus and the Fasciculus Temporum say that this 
 John being caught in the act of adultery, was so beaten by 
 the devil, that he died of it.* 
 
 In the council of Rheims, in the reign of Hugh Capet, 
 Arnulphus, Bishop of Orleans, who presided there, speaks 
 thus : " O, lamentable Rome, which in the time of our an- 
 cestors hast brought forth bright shining lights, but now 
 thou hast poured out such monstrous darkness as shall be 
 infamous to future ages!" 
 
 Sigonius, in the beginning of book the 7th of the reign of 
 Italy, a. d. 984, says, "Boniface, who made himself to be 
 called John XL, having put to death two popes, usurped 
 the papacy by violence and by money." Baronius, in a. d. 
 985, calls him "a thief and a robber, that had not one hail 
 of a true bishop." 
 
 Genebrand, on the year 1037, "The popes of this time 
 being introduced by the emperors, rather than elected, were 
 monsters. Thus the lawful succession hath been troubled 
 as of old under the synagogue, in the times of the kings 
 Antiochi." 
 
 In the year 1033, Benedict IX. being but ten years old, 
 was created pope by the faction of his father, the count of 
 Tuscula. This pope is described as a monster by Baro 
 nius, Platina, the Fasciculus Temporum, and by Petrus Da- 
 mianus in his epistle to Nicholas II. 
 
 Platina speaks thus of three popes, who about the year 
 1044 held the papacy: "Henry II., being entered into 
 Italy with a mighty army, and having called a council, 
 constrained Benedict IX., Sylvester III., and Gregory VI., 
 as three horrible monsters, to forsake the magistrature or 
 popedom." 
 
 Hear Stella, another Romish divine : " Many of the popes 
 of Rome have erred ; Marcellinus sacrificed to idols, Libe 
 
 * Luitprand.— Lib. 6, cap. 1 1. Seigber. ad An. 963. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 105 
 
 rius and Felix were Arians, Anastasius II. was deposed for 
 heresy, John XXII. said Christ was above the Father and 
 the Holy Ghost." — Stella on Luke xxii. 31, p. 280, col. 1. 
 
 "And after the year 1300," (says Baronius,) "there 
 were several popes at the same time, for many years two 
 or three together, each having his church, anathematizing 
 the others and their churches, and calling them devils and 
 antichrists. (So it seems they were all cursed together!) 
 And in 1414 were three, Benedict XII., Gregory XIII., and 
 John XXIII., deposed by the council of Constance, and 
 Martin V. was elected." So four of these worthies were 
 then living! And who of all these, I now ask, was the suc- 
 cessor of St. Peter to the holy see, or the vicar of Christ ? 
 Or were these churches and popes, or any of them, in- 
 fallible, and which was it? O, delusion unparalleled ! 
 
 Passing by many other arguments, and to close this 
 point, I demand, was there for five hundred years after 
 Christ any such thing as supremacy or infallibility claimed 
 at all, much less by divine right, by the church of Rome, 
 or by any other church ? If not, as may be easily proved, 
 and that the church of Rome was, by several of the first 
 councils, decreed to be of equal authority only with other 
 ancient churches, her claim now is therefore a novelty. I 
 shall insert out of many only two proofs. 
 
 1st. The general council of Nice, in the year 325, as 
 Dupin states: "We ordain that the ancient customs be 
 observed, which gives power to the bishop of Alexandria 
 over all the provinces of Lybia, Egypt, Pentapolis, be 
 cause the Bishop of Rome hath the like jurisdiction over 
 all the suburbicary regions." Can. 6, An. 325. 
 
 2d. In 451, the general council of Chalcedon, consisting 
 of six hundred and thirty bishops, decreed as follows: (Can. 
 Penult.) 
 
 " Whereas the old see of Rome hath not been unde- 
 servedly distinguished by the fathers with some privileges, 
 because that great city was the seat of empire ; the fathers 
 of Constantinople were prompted by the same motives to 
 distinguish the city of new Rome with equal privileges ; 
 thinking it fit that the city which they saw honoured with 
 the empire and the senate, and equalled in every civil and 
 religious privilege with old Rome, should likewise be 
 equalled in ecclesiastical matters.' 
 
106 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 These prove that the divine claim of the Bishop of Rome 
 to be supreme, &c. &c, was not then even thought on. 
 
 I might swell my little work with such like testimonies 
 from these and other Roman Catholic writers, but this 
 much is more than sufficient, 1st, to stop the mouths of 
 those uncandid writers who, knowing these facts fully, yet 
 shamelessly reproach Protestants, who follow Christ and 
 the Bible only, as followers of Luther and others, against 
 whom, however, no such evils ever were or could be 
 charged, as against these heads of your church; 2dly, 
 (without wishing to give pain to any tender mind,) to con- 
 vince you all how foolish and dangerous it is to turn aside 
 from Christ and follow any men, especially such monsters 
 and their wicked system of religion, which it appears they 
 are sworn never to alter; and, 3dly, to show, that as a cor- 
 rupt tree cannot yield good fruit, so, from such flagitious 
 heads, what fruit, what churches but the most corrupt could 
 be anticipated ? And exactly so do we find it. 
 
 "THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST THE 
 CHURCH." 
 
 Against the gospel church — the holy, Catholic, and apos- 
 tolic church of Christ — the gates of hell, the powers of 
 darkness never did, never can prevail, for the mouth of the 
 Lord hath spoken it. But as the infallible gospel teacheth 
 us concerning a true church and a false, — the church of 
 God and the synagogue of Satan; and that should we mis- 
 take the one for the other we should be undone, ("for if the 
 blind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the gulf,") so 
 doth it behove us to give all diligence to know the one from 
 the other, that we may choose the good and escape the evil. 
 
 The church formed by our Lord himself in Jerusalem is that 
 we should first contemplate as our pattern and guide. Her 
 characters were sanctity, apostolicity, unity, and catholicity. 
 1st. The few of which our Redeemer composed that church 
 were humble, penitent, believing, obedient, holy men and 
 women, none other would he receive; for his word is, "Ex- 
 cept ye repent ye shall all likewise perish."* " No man can 
 come to me unless it be given to him of my Father — all 
 
 * Luke xiii. 3 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 107 
 
 therefore, that hear and learn of the Father come unto me— - 
 all that the Father giveth me, (thus taught their guilt, cor- 
 ruption, and helplessness,) shall come to me, and him that 
 cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out."* Again, "If 
 any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, 
 and his wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and 
 his own life also, (in reference to their being hindrances,) 
 he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear 
 his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. "t 
 " Be ye holy, for I am holy.";}: " Without holiness no man 
 shall see the Lord."§ "Except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God."|| None but such 
 awakened, devoted persons would he then or will he ever 
 receive or approve of as members of his holy church. 2d 
 mark, apostolicity. That is, their doctrine, sacraments, and 
 discipline were purely such as the apostles received in com- 
 mission to teach the whole world forever. 3d, unity. They 
 were united together under their great Head, Jesus Christ, 
 in the spirit of faith, and love to God and man, according to 
 their Lord's criterion, " By this shall all men know that ye 
 are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."^ 4th, 
 catholicity. Catholic means universal ; but this infant 
 church, then composed of only a few persons, could not in 
 respect to extent or numbers be universal, yet in other re- 
 spects it was catholic; 1st, prospectively, that is, when this 
 little church, "this little stone cut out of the mountain with- 
 out hands, should become a great mountain, and fill the 
 whole earth;"** and, 2d, it was catholic as being a divine 
 model for all Christian churches forever. For the Lord 
 said to Moses, " See that all things be done according to 
 the pattern showed thee in the mount ;"tt even so is 
 Christ's command, in regard to his church, to all his ser- 
 vants forever. (llopsvOsvtts hv padytsvaate, &c. Euntes 
 ergo.) "Go ye, therefore, and teach, or make disciples 
 of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, (StSaaxovifs^ do- 
 centes,) teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you, and behold I am with you all days, 
 
 * John vi. 37—45. f Luke xiv. 26, 27. 
 
 i 1 Peter i. 16. § Hebrews xii. 14. 
 
 H John iii. 3. f John xiii. 35. 
 
 ** Dan. ii. 34—45. Isa. ii. 2. ff Heb. viii. 5. 
 
108 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 even to the consummation of the world."* Yes, with those 
 only who teach all things he commanded will Christ ever 
 be, but with none else. Hence, as that church, framed by 
 his own infinite wisdom in Jerusalem, is mother^ of all 
 Christian churches, and the perfect pattern or model for all 
 churches forever, most plain it is, therefore, that no church 
 can please him but such as agree with that model. Such 
 as this were the seven churches in Asia, those of Galatia, 
 Rome, Corinth, Colosse, Thessalonica, &c, while they 
 continued pure, all having the same gospel doctrine, disci- 
 pline, and sacraments — baptism, and the Lord's supper, 
 "one body and one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
 tism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and 
 through ail, and in us all. "J 
 
 That such were those churches the epistles to them prove ; 
 and they unitedly formed the one catholic church, and each 
 was fitly "the pillar and ground of truth." All this is con- 
 sonant with our three creeds: "I believe the holy catholic 
 church." "I believe one catholic and apostolic church." 
 " Whosever will be saved, it is needful, above all things, 
 that he hold the catholic faith, i. e. the faith intended for 
 every creature — the gospel. 
 
 This view of the genuine catholic church is fully sup- 
 ported by the ancient fathers. Justin Martyr, next to the 
 apostles' days, says, "Ecclesia enimper universam orbem" 
 &c. " The church is that which is extended throughout the 
 earth, and has received the faith from the apostles and 
 their disciples." Adv. Haeret. 1. 1, c. 2.§ Again, (c. 1,) 
 "It is the voice of reason, and ever attended to by men 
 truly pious and worthy the name of philosophers, that truth 
 alone is the thing to be had in the highest honour, and to 
 hold the first place in the affections, and the ancients to be 
 followed not one step farther than they are followers of 
 truth." 
 
 Tertullian's rule is, " That a church is to be accounted 
 apostolic if it hold consanguinity of doctrine with the apos- 
 
 * Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. f Gal. iv. 26. 
 
 # Ephes. iv. 26. 
 
 § St. Jerome and Theodoret insist on this as truth, " That Jerusalem 
 is the mother church ;" and Irenaeus, (1. 4.) saith, " We are to adhere 
 to those who, having received the gift of truth {charissima vcritatis) do 
 preserve the doctrine of the apostles." 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. l09 
 
 ties."* Again, he saith, " The apostles having planted 
 churches of Christ in Jerusalem, immediately went thence 
 and declared the same doctrine of the faith to the nations 
 of the earth, and then settled churches in each city ; from 
 whence other churches have the same doctrine, and, from 
 them others, daily called apostolical churches, as their off- 
 spring. It is necessary that every genus should be traced 
 up to its origin. So many and great churches, therefore, 
 are all that one prime apostolical church, from whence all 
 other such churches do come ; and thus they all are prime 
 and apostolical in regard to their unity, as long as there is 
 that communication, that title to brotherhood, and common 
 mark of peace and hospitality."! 
 
 Again, he saith, (cap. 13,) "The creed of the apostles 
 i. e. the gospel, is the rule of faith laid down by Christ; 
 and opposition to this rule is what constitutes heresy. Obe- 
 dience to this rule will save thy soul. To know nothing 
 contrary to this rule is to know all things." And, (cap. 40,) 
 "From whence come heresies? from the devil; and they 
 differ not at all from idolatry: both come from the same 
 father of lies." Cap. 44. " Preserve the FAITH in the 
 bond of peace, as you regard salvation. For those are 
 things which nobody will forsake who is mindful of future 
 judgment, when we must all stand before the tribunal of 
 Christ, to give an account of our faith in the first place." 
 
 St. Augustine writes, "Verbum quod Grece dictur, 6%ov, if 
 &c. " The Greek term 6%ov, is, in Latin, totum, whole, 
 or universal ; 6%ov is not one, but the whole, or universal ; 
 and hence is the phrase xado^xov, catholic, derived."^— 
 Tom. 7, c. 3, contra Gaundent. Again, "In Jerusalem, 
 communion began first, and from remote places came 
 nearer, until it entered into Africa, and so dispersed itself 
 all over the world. From my Father God, and this my 
 
 * Tamen in eadem fide conspirantes non minus apostolicae deputantur 
 pro consanguinitate doctrinse. De prescrip. adv. Hseret., cap. 32. 
 
 ■j- Statim igitur apostoli per Judseam contestata fide in Iesum Christum, 
 et ecclesiis institutis, dehinc, in orbem profecti eandem doctrinam ejus- 
 dem fidei nationibus promulgaverunt et proinde ecclesias apud unam- 
 quamque civitatem condiderunt, &c. Omne genus ad originem suam 
 recenceatur necesse est : itaque tot ac tantas ecclesise una est ilia ab 
 apostolis prima ex qua omnes, &c. Tert. de Prsescrip. adv. Haeret., c. 20 
 
 10 
 
HO INFALLIBILITY 
 
 mother church, will I never be separated by other men's 
 calumnies." In Petilianum. And again, "Behold Rome, 
 behold Carthage, behold several other cities ; these are 
 king's daughters, and have delighted the king, and all make 
 up but one queen — one church."* 
 
 Again, saith he, (cap. 2,) to Donatus, "Quid rogo futuri 
 sumus" <fec. " What are we to do ? Let us not have it 
 spoken, I say this, and thou sayest that : but let us hear, 
 Thus saith the Lord. There are assuredly the books of the 
 Lord, to whose authority we both subscribe ; to them we 
 both are subject: that is the place, then, where we are to 
 seek the church; there let us debate our cause. Let us 
 despise and cast from us those allegations which we make 
 one against the other, and which are not taken from the 
 divine books, but from elsewhere ; for I desire the church 
 to be proved, not by human documents, but by divine 
 oracles." And, on Gal. i. this father says, " We must not 
 assent to catholic bishops, if they hold any thing contrary 
 to canonical Scripture ; although he were an angel that 
 holds a wrong opinion, we must not obey him." And, (in 
 Epist. in Balur. p. 287,) he saith, " If we Africans were to 
 deliberate on what community of Christians we should unite 
 with, I say, we ought to adhere to that which we find in 
 the Bible." 
 
 St. Ambrose writes, (in Lucam ix.) "If there be any 
 church that does not hold the foundation of apostolic doc- 
 trine, it ought to be forsaken, lest it infect others with its 
 heresy : they are not the heirs of Peter who have not the 
 faith of Peter." 
 
 The council of Constantinople (can. 15) directs, "that 
 when a bishop preaches heresy in the church, the people 
 should depart, and separate themselves from his com- 
 munion." 
 
 Theodoret says, " There is one church throughout the 
 world, and, therefore, we pray for one holy catholic and 
 apostolical church, extended from one end of the earth to 
 the other, which is divided by cities, and towns, and vil- 
 lages ; so that there are infinite and innumerable churches 
 
 * Ecce Roma, ecce Carthago, ecce aliae et alise civitates, filise regum 
 sunt — et ex omnibus fit una quaedam regina." August, on Ps. 44. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. Ill 
 
 on the islands and continent ; but all these are reduced to 
 one, being united in the agreement of the same true doc- 
 trine."* 
 
 St. Jerome saith, " The church of Christ is not strayed 
 from its limits, that is, from the Holy Scriptures. Those 
 things which they invent and forge of themselves, as by 
 apostolical tradition, without the authority and testimony 
 of the Holy Scriptures, the word of God dasheth in 
 pieces. "t 
 
 St. Lyrins (cap. 3) writes, "Quod ubique, quod semper, 
 quod ab omnibus creditum est, hoc est etenim vere et pro- 
 prie catholicum," &c. " That which everywhere, at all 
 times, and by all Christians, has been believed, that is in- 
 deed truly and properly catholic. These doctrines, then, 
 should be our first and principal care to find. For there is 
 nothing truly catholic but what truly and fully comprehends 
 all these." And, (cap. 4,) " Whatever we find to have 
 been taught by all, unanimously, clearly, and constantly, 
 there let us fix our faith, and rest satisfied." Again, fol- 
 lowing St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine in expounding 
 Gal. i. 8, 9, Praeterquam quod evangelizavimus, Kac sx sitcsv, 
 <fcc, thus he speaks : " He (the apostle) saith not, if they 
 preach things contrary, but if they preach ever so little dif- 
 ferent from the gospel which we have preached unto you, 
 and, of course, in any degree contrary to it, let him be 
 anathema." 
 
 Again, (cap. xxx.) " The character of catholics is this, 
 to preserve inviolably the sacred depositum of the holy fa- 
 thers committed to their trust, to condemn profane novelties, 
 and, as the apostle commanded over and over, to pronounce 
 the anathema upon any one whatever who should attempt 
 to preach another gospel." 
 
 And (cap. 15) " Quid ergo si episcopus" &c. "What 
 then, if a bishop, deacon, doctor, nay, or a martyr, should 
 fall from the rule of faith, would this give a sanction to 
 heresy ? Are we to try the truth by the man, or the man 
 by his faith? But an inspired governor of the church, 
 
 * Theod. in Ps. 47, torn. i. p. 589. 
 
 •j- Ecclesia Christi non est egressa de finibus suis, i. e. de Sanctis* 
 Scripturis. Sed et alia quae absque autoritate et testimonio Scriptura 
 rum, quasi traditione apostolica, sponte reperiunt, percutit gladius Dei, 
 Hieron. in Hagg. cap. 1. 
 
112 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 Moses, will answer this question: Deut. xiii. 'If there 
 arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams,' that is, 
 a teacher in the church, so able as even to give thee « a sign 
 or wonder, and that that sign come to pass too.' Well, and 
 what then ? ' And if this prophet shall say unto thee, 'Let 
 us go after other gods,' — what, I pray thee, are these gods, 
 but strange errors, — 'let us serve them,' that is, 'let us 
 believe these false doctrines and follow them.' Well, and 
 what is the conclusion ? ' Thou shalt not hearken to the 
 words of that prophet, because the Lord your God proveth 
 you, whether you love the Lord your God with all your 
 heart and with all your soul.' This is, doubtless, a great 
 and powerful proof of your love, when he, whom you look 
 upon as a great prophet or doctor, and stickler for the truth, 
 and whom you greatly revere and love, privily drops his 
 baneful errors, and so artfully mixes them with truth, that 
 whilst you are so blinded by the authority of the deceiver, 
 you cannot presently perceive the deceit, (and most hard it 
 is to condemn the doctrine, whilst you admire the doctor,) 
 and not to hearken to him or follow him ; this is, indeed, 
 proof of love to God." Lyrins, cap. 15. 
 
 And (cap. 17) he saith, "Keep, said the apostle to 
 Timothy, this deposition, this talent of catholic faith, 
 sacred and inviolable. Gold thou hast received, gold re- 
 turn. Never go about, I charge thee, to put off one thing 
 for another, nor ever have the impudence or knavery to 
 downface the world with lead or copper for gold. Be sure 
 to restore gold, not in resemblance only, but real, true, pure 
 gold." 
 
 Clemens of Alexandria writes, "No man is with us a 
 Christian but he who is pious and religious ; so that this, 
 in short, is our state that follow God. Such as are our de- 
 sires, such are our discourses, and such as are our dis- 
 courses, such are our actions, and such as are our actions, 
 such is our life." Ad. Gen. p. 7'6. And, says Justin Mar- 
 tyr, "Do any live otherwise then as Christ hath com- 
 manded ? they are no Christians, though with their tongues 
 they ever so smoothly profess the Christian doctrine." 
 A.pol. cap. 2. 
 
 St. Basil saith, "Let no man impose upon himself with 
 inconsiderate words, saying, Though I am a sinner, yet I 
 am a Christian. But hearken, sinner, all wicked men 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 113 
 
 shall be bundled together in the great day of the divine ven- 
 geance, and shall be indiscriminately thrown into the merci- 
 less and devouring flames." In Isai. cap. 1. 
 
 From all this most plain is it, that what renders a church 
 truly Christian or catholic, is her holding and practising the 
 pure gospel doctrine of Christ, and it only. And that this 
 is the very judgment of all orthodox Protestant churches at 
 this hour, differ as they may in minor matters, must from 
 the following authorities be obvious to every candid person. 
 
 A canon, set forth in 1571 by the reformed church of 
 England, is, "That the clergy must never teach any thing, 
 as matter of faith religiously to be observed, but that which 
 is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, 
 and also to the catholic fathers and ancient bishops of the 
 church." Lib. Can. Eccles. Anglic, cap. vi. p. 19. 
 
 Art. xix. of the church: "The visible church of Christ 
 is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure ivord 
 of God is preached, and the sacraments duly ministered 
 according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that are 
 requisite to the same." Articles of Religion. 
 
 Art. xx. "It is not lawful for the church to ordain any 
 thing that is contrary to God's word written, neither may 
 it expound one place in Scripture so as to be repugnant to 
 another. Wherefore, though the church be a witness and 
 a keeper of Holy Writ, yet it ought not to decree any thing 
 against the same." — Ibid. 
 
 Art. xxv. "There are two sacraments ordained by Christ 
 our Lord in the gospel, that is to say, baptism and the Lord's 
 supper." 
 
 Art. vi. " Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary 
 to salvation; so that whatever is not read therein nor may 
 be proved thereby is not to be required of any man, that it 
 should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought re- 
 quisite or necessary to salvation-" 
 
 The unity, the happy similarity of features, in the grand 
 essentials of Christianity, of the ancient Christian churches 
 with Christ's pure model church, and of all faithful Pro- 
 testant churches with both, must, to every unprejudiced 
 observer of the above documents, be most obvious. And, 
 as the religion of these ancient churches was not of man, 
 but from God himself, by his gospel and his grace sent, 
 down from heaven, so must it be evident to every honest 
 
 10* 
 
114 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 testants is precisely from the same source, even the ao?pcl 
 and orrace of God, and not in anywise from any human 
 being, whether good or bad. For not the messenger, but 
 the message of God, the gospel, embraced by faith, is the 
 soul's salvation. That unity, with regard to any system 
 of theology which men may please to adopt, can consist with 
 a vast diversity of opinions in circumstantials, such as 
 forms, phrases, and a variety of other matters, so that the 
 body may possibly be divided into little communities, is 
 matter of daily experience. Pagans are divided into their 
 several castes, (each having its own brahmins,) ad infini- 
 tum, yet no one denies that they are one great body of 
 idolaters. The Jews had their Pharisees, Sadducees, Esse- 
 nes, Herodians, Nazarites, &c, yet were they one church. 
 In the church of Rome are clergy secular and regulars, with 
 their many orders, Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, 
 Carmelites shod and unshod, Jesuits, Szc. Szc, all differing 
 from each other in minor matters, opinions, forms, regula- 
 tions, &c, and often found sharply contending with one 
 another, as was the case of the Jansenists and Jesuits, 
 Franciscans and Dominicans, in reference to the immacu- 
 late conception of the Blessed Virgin, freewill, grace, &c. 
 &c, yet they all are one body, subject to one faith and 
 one head, the pope and his creed. If, then, Protestants be 
 thus found divided into different communities, and having 
 minor differences in non-essentials, such as forms, opinion.-, 
 and discipline, yet rejecting all human doctrines and all 
 teachers that vary from Christ, and cleaving to him and his 
 faith or gospel alone, according to the best of their judg- 
 ments before God, who can wonder or can deny that they 
 all are one body in Christ — one great Christian church? 
 I say, who, on rational principles — who, save some splenetic 
 bigot, can possibly deny that they all are Christ's ? For 
 their gospel, their worship, their sacraments,* and their 
 aversion to all false doctrines are the same as those of the 
 ancient churches, and of that of Christ and his apostles. I 
 
 * St. Augustine (Epist. 118, ad Januar.) says, concerning the sacra- 
 ments of Christ's ancient church, ("Sacrament is in numero pauciisi- 
 mis, in observafione facillimis, in significatione prse-stantissimis, Socie- 
 tutem n»vi populi colli gavit") "In number the fewest, two only, easy 
 to be observed, and in meaning most sublime." 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 115 
 
 maintain, therefore, that all those Protestants that are thus 
 faithful are one body in Christ, even as so many branches 
 in one vine, some more beautiful, luxuriant, and productive 
 than others, yet all bearing fruit similar in quality belong 
 to the same parent. On this point I have been thus parti- 
 cular, because that on the one hand designing men, wh 
 lie in wait to deceive, have hereby very often succeeded in 
 leading astray those who do not observe it; and, on the 
 other, there have not been wanting some rash men, who, 
 not possessing just discernment, and mistaking, like the 
 apostles "who forbade the good man that had not followed 
 with them,"* have ignorantly slighted, nay, persecuted their 
 own brethren in Christ, whom, because of some frivolous 
 difference in non-essentials, they unwittingly looked on as 
 enemies ! By this species of ignorance, immense mischief 
 has been done to the cause of God on earth. And it should 
 not be forgotten that the inspired penman tells us, That, 
 even in his day, (because in this our imperfect state such is 
 our weakness, we know in part only. 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 12,) 
 of those who had embraced the gospel, "one said I am of 
 Paul, another I am of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of 
 Christ." 1 Cor. i. 12. And thus they had their minor 
 differences ; but who will say that for this they were not 
 nevertheless one in Christ? Not to notice this with deep 
 attention must evince extreme weakness of intellect, or great 
 malignity and bigotry. And if against Christ and his gos- 
 pel church the gates of hell can never prevail, then, as no 
 informed Protestants have any faith but that from Heaven, 
 the gospel only, so must it follow that the gates of hell can 
 never prevail against faithful Protestants or their churches. 
 For let evil men plot as they may, greater is he that is for 
 them than all that are against them. With the pious Wes- 
 ley, then, can they individually and collectively sing — 
 
 " A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify, 
 A never-dying soul to save, and fit it for the sky. 
 Arm me with jealous care, as in thy sight to live, 
 And 0, thy servant Lord, prepare, a strict account to give. 
 Help me to watch and pray, and on thyself rely, 
 \ssured, if I my trust betray, I shall forever die." 
 
 * Luke ix. 49. 
 
116 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 DOCTOR MILXER THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, ETC. 
 
 That there were among the Jews false prophets, and a 
 synagogue of Satan; that among Christians would arise 
 " an apostate and false churchy with the man of sin, the 
 son of perdition, at its head;" and that even in the days of 
 the apostles, "this mystery of iniquity, the lust of domi- 
 nancy, was already working," the Scriptures testify. But 
 as this subject shall come under more particular discussion 
 when I shall come to the latter day apostacy, I shall here 
 be brief. 
 
 The famed Doctor Milner, in his book, the " End of 
 Controversy," which now is looked on in some sort as the 
 standard of the Roman Catholic clergy and people, and 
 their text-book, has 122 pages in part ii. solely on his 
 church, to prove that she only is God's church. But I must 
 take the liberty of proving against him, that in the whole 
 he has not one sound — one tenable argument ; nay, that he 
 has been only beating the air, and casting dust into his 
 readers' eyes ! He spends his strength first in vilifying the 
 Protestant Reformers, on pretence of their being the authors 
 of the Protestant religion, which he therefore insinuates is, 
 as it were, of yesterday — is a corrupt novelty only ; whereas, 
 haying their books and articles before his eyes, (as above 
 stated,) all disclaiming every religion save that which is 
 from God himself — even the gospel, and his grace which 
 cGmes by the Holy Ghost from heaven, he, therefore, must 
 have known that he was deliberately slandering them ; than 
 which, what more desperate iniquity can be conceived? 
 The palliative of ignorance cannot be allowed in his case. 
 And, secondly, he defends, at great length, what nobody 
 disputes — the purity of Christ's ancient church ! This he 
 did as a ruse, to make men think that his church is pre- 
 cisely the same ; whereas, the truth is, no two things can 
 more widely differ ! But could he have but shown us that 
 our gospel varies from Christ's, or that Pope Pius IV. 's 
 creed is in unison with the gospel, then had he done some- 
 thing to purpose. When neither of these, however, could 
 he have done, silence then had best become him. This no 
 candid man will deny. That this whole book of his is, I 
 am constrained to say, a tissue of abuse, misrepresentation, 
 and mere sophistry, mixed up with an artful affectation of 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 117 
 
 sincerity, the better to make it pass with the unwary, (a 
 practice generally adopted by the writers on that side,) is a 
 matter that shall, I judge, be quickly made clear as the light 
 to the most superficial observer. Here we shall adduce 
 some specimens of this species of craftiness and warfare, at 
 which every pious and sensible man must blush. 
 
 I. In his Address, to the Right Reverend the Bishop of 
 St. David's, (pp. 19, 20,) he writes, "My lord, whatever 
 excuse there may be for the inconsistency of other men, 
 there would evidently be none, in religious matters, for per- 
 sons of your lordship's and the writer's profession and 
 situation, should they, for their prejudices or temporal ad- 
 vantage, mislead others in a matter of eternal consequence. 
 Such conduct would be hypocritical, perfidious, and ruin- 
 ous. In fact, my lord, if, as Christ assures us, some of the 
 arraigned, at the great day of universal trial, will rise up 
 against others and condemn them for their peculiar guilt, 
 (Matt. xii. 41,) how heavy a condemnation will poor bewil- 
 dered souls call down upon those faithless guides who have 
 led them astray ! Or rather, how severe a vengeance will 
 the good Shepherd himself, who laid down his life for his 
 sheep, take of those hirelings, who have not only left his 
 sheep to be caught and scattered by the wolf, but have 
 themselves killed and destroyed them ! (John x.) For all 
 these important motives, let us, my lord, dismiss eve^ - 
 selfish interest, human respect, and prejudice, from, our 
 minds, in the discussion of religious subjects, and, with the 
 utmost sincerity and ardour of our souls, follow truth 
 whithersoever she leads us." 
 
 What an expression of sincerity, and of apparently deep 
 piety have we here ! Who could for a moment entertain 
 any suspicion of the least unfair dealing in any man, a 
 divine, especially, who could thus express himself before 
 God ? Facts, however, are stubborn things ; they are too 
 mighty when put in competition with mere words. But we 
 must hear him a little more. 
 
 II. Writing to Mr. Brown, (part ii. letter xiv. p. 5,) he 
 says, "Dear sir— Nothing is more clear to natural reason, 
 than that God cannot be the author of different religions ; 
 for being the Eternal Truth, he cannot reveal contradictory 
 doctrines ; and being at the same time the Eternal Wisdom, 
 and God of Peace, he cannot establish a kingdom divided 
 
118 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 against itself. Hence it follows, that the church of Christ 
 must be strictly ONE ; one in doctrine, one in worship, 
 and one in government. The mark of UNITY in the 
 true church is also clear from holy writ : ' There shall be 
 one fold and one Shepherd.' John x. 16. 'I pray for all 
 that shall believe in me, that they may be one.' xvii. 21. 
 In like manner St. Paul inculcates the unity of the church, 
 saying, ' We being many, are one body in Christ.' Rom. 
 xii. 5. And again, ' There is one body and one spirit, one 
 Lord, ONE FAITH, and one baptism: Eph. iv. 4, 5. 
 
 III. "Now, sir, I maintain it, (saith he, let. 16,) that 
 this original and great church, called the Catholic church, 
 is, and ever has been, strictly ONE, in all the above men- 
 tioned particulars, and first in her faith and terms of com- 
 munion. The same creeds, namely, the Apostles' creed, 
 the Nicene creed, the Athanasian creed, and the creed of 
 Pope Pius IV., drawn up in conformity with the definitions 
 of the council of Trent, are everywhere recited and pro- 
 fessed to the strict letter : and the same articles of faith and 
 morality are taught in all our catechisms," &c. 
 
 He (in letter 50) outdoes, if possible, all that went before. 
 Saith he, " It remains, my dear friends and brethren, for 
 each of you to take his and her part ; but remember that 
 the part you severally take is taken for eternity ! On this 
 occasion, therefore, if ever, yon ought to reflect and decide 
 seriously and conscientiously, dismissing all worldly respects 
 of whatever kind, from your minds ; ' for what exchange 
 shall a man receive for his soul V (Mat. xvi. 20 ;) and what 
 will the prejudiced opinion of your fellow-mortals avail you 
 at the tribunal, where we are all so soon to appear, and in 
 the vast abyss of eternity in which we shall quickly be all 
 ingulfed ? Will any of them plead your cause at the bar ! 
 or will your punishment be more tolerable from their 
 sharing in it ? Finally, with all the fervour and sincerity 
 of your souls, beseech your future Judge, who is now your 
 merciful Saviour, to bestow upon you that light to see your 
 way, and that strength to follow it, which he merited for 
 you, when he hung for three hours your agonizing victim 
 on the cross. 
 
 "Adieu, my dear friends and brethren; we shall soon 
 meet together at the tribunal I have mentioned ; and be as 
 sured that I look forward to that meeting with a perfect 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY 119 
 
 confidence, that you and I, and the great Judge himself, 
 shall all concur in approbation of the advice I now give 
 
 yOU. J. MlLNER." 
 
 Bossuet, Bishop of Meux, in his " Exposition," writes, 
 " There is ever this unfortunate fact standing against here- 
 tics, which they have never been able to palliate, that of 
 their novelty ," &c. 
 
 Doctor Manning saith, " The church of Christ can only 
 be that which believes wholly and entirely the doctrine 
 taught by Christ, and delivered by his apostles. If the 
 church would teach any one point of faith contrary to the 
 revealed word of God, she would lose all faith, and would 
 cease to be the chaste spouse of Christ, but would be a 
 harlot, and the school of Satan; and the gates of hell 
 would prevail against her," &c. — Short Method with Pro- 
 testants, p. 29 — 52. 
 
 This much from these divines is a specimen more than 
 enough, first, of their bold but wholly untenable assump- 
 tions, as well as of their glaring and shameful self-contra- 
 dictions ; and secondly, of the awful unity or agreement 
 of these men, and indeed of all their modern writers espe- 
 cially, to adopt this most fraudful plan. For what can be 
 more shameful or more fraudful than to take for granted what 
 should be first proved, and what none can grant? and to 
 assume, in the face of the plainest facts, as divine and incon- 
 testable truths, what are direct opposites, and falsehoods most 
 palpable ? Than which, what course more base, impious, and 
 odious, in the eyes of every honest man, and of God, could 
 possibly be conceived, and the more especially when it is 
 considered, that soul concerns — even the eternal destinies 
 df multitudes — are involved ? 
 
 What man, I again repeat it, after perusing these extracts, 
 /eplete with so much apparent piety and sincerity, and put 
 forth with such nerve, too, but would be led to look on the 
 whole as sterling, as indubitable truth ? That any deception 
 could in any wise be plotted by such men, who for a mo- 
 ment could possibly suspect? But the sequel will more 
 than prove how much we maybe mistaken. Such wicked- 
 ness and hypocrisy, as facts evince the existence of, can 
 scarce be possible. 
 
 In lefeience to these extracts from these learned bishops, 
 to none of them, save one, could any informed Christian 
 
120 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 possibly object, did he not know their utter inconsistency 
 with the principles of these writers. But what, if they 
 believed not themselves ! Nay, if it be made clear as 
 noon-day, they did not believe a word of it; what will 
 Dr. Milner's admirers then think of all this ; and what 
 must be not only their astonishment, but horror, when, after 
 all these his professions of piety and sincerity, they shall 
 find he by no means believed what he was saying? To 
 come then at the point at once, we shall ask only one sim- 
 ple question, Can any sensible man when he contradicts 
 himself think he speaks truth ? Can any man in his senses 
 believe that the opposite of what he knows to be truth is 
 truth 1 or that things that vary from one another are yet the 
 same ? But Dr. Milner was no idiot ; he, surely, had the 
 use of his reason, and withal was a well-informed, studious, 
 and acute theologian; it must follow, then, if no such man 
 who contradicts himself can believe himself, that he (Dr. 
 Milner) did not in any wise believe himself in what he 
 wrote ; and therefore that he knowingly and deliberately 
 designed to mislead his readers. (This applies to the 
 others, and to all such writers too.) This charge is of so 
 serious and so astounding a nature, that nothing short of the 
 clearest facts possible can at all justify it. If such facts, 
 however, can be brought to substantiate it, every one will 
 allow the writer would be criminal against God and man 
 had he concealed them. 
 
 We must then proceed to the proofs that Dr. Milner did 
 not believe himself ; and also, by a few observations, shall 
 overthrow not only his 122 pages in defence of his church, 
 but his whole book, on which he bestowed so much time 
 and labour. This, I trust, every candid man must be con- 
 strained by the force of truth presently to admit. 
 
 In the second paragraph (letter xiv. to Mr. Brown, part 
 ii.) the doctor lays down these premises : " That God can- 
 not be the author of different religions, or of contradictory 
 doctrines ; and that he could not have established a king- 
 dom divided against itself. Hence, that the church of Christ 
 must be strictly ONE ; one in doctrine, in worship, in go- 
 vernment," &c. Than all this, nothing can be more true. 
 He adds, " Now, sir, I maintain it, as a notorious fact, that 
 this original and great church, called the (Roman) Catholic 
 church, is, and ever has been, strictly one in all the above- 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 121 
 
 mentioned particulars : and, first, in her faith and terms of 
 communion," (that is, worship and government.) " The 
 same creeds — the Apostles' creed, the Nicene, the Athana- 
 sian, and the creed of Pope Pius IV., are everywhere pro- 
 fessed to the strict letter." 
 
 Here we lay hold on and arrest the doctor ! Who will 
 now come forward to say that he believes himself when 
 writing this paragraph? By his mention of the Trent creed 
 of Pius IV., though he left out the term " Roman," yet it 
 is plain that by " this original great catholic church," he 
 meant the church of Rome. That the gospel only was the 
 faith of Christ's original church, and of all the ancient 
 churches, those of the first three centuries especially, before 
 Arianism and other errors sprung up, none will attempt to 
 deny ; nor to the three creeds first mentioned, that were 
 framed afterwards, do I conceive there can be any solid or 
 well-grounded objection. But how the creed of Pius IV., 
 framed more than 1500 after Christ, and at this moment 
 found at complete variance with the gospel, and with the 
 other three creeds, is, or ever was in any wise the faith of 
 Christ's original catholic church, or of the ancient churches, 
 we wish to see proved. But if no man that ever lived can 
 show or prove it, then the doctor's " notorious fact" turns 
 up to be a palpable notorious falsehood! Again, " If no- 
 thing is really catholic but what was believed [semper) 
 always, (ubique,) in all places, [et ab omnibus,) and by all 
 Christians," as saith St. V. Lyrius, how then is it a "noto- 
 rious fact" that Pope Pius's new faith is the faith of all 
 ages, <fec, or is at all Catholic? Who will maintain this? 
 None. To call that new and corrupt faith, catholic, is 
 therefore to be guilty of another " notorious untruth." 
 
 We maintain that Pope Pius's creed is opposed to the 
 gospel and to Christ, and that the articles of that faith in- 
 volve necessary self-contradiction : instance, the proper 
 sacrifice of the mass, the supreme adoration of the bread 
 or wafer, the worship of the cup, the offering them up for 
 the souls in purgatory, invoking angels and departed 
 saints, rosaries, private confessions, indulgences, ex- 
 treme unctions, jubilees, worship in a forbidden tongue, 
 celibacy, supremacy, &c. &c. This little volume proves 
 all this. How then, we, thirdly, ask, can it be "maintained 
 as a notorious fact,'' 1 that all these self-opposing and gospel- 
 
 11 
 
122 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 opposing doctrines ever have been, or now are, strictly 
 ONE with the doctrines of Christ, or are the faith of his 
 gospel and original church? When it cannot be maintained, 
 it then is a third falsehood. 
 
 Another " notorious fact" of our sapient doctor is, " that 
 the worship of his church of Rome is, and ever was, one, 
 strictly one with Christ's original church." Not a word 
 of this did he or could he have believed ! For, passing by 
 that his Trent creed is at variance with the other three 
 creeds, as well as with the gospel, we ask a fourth ques- 
 tion, Did Christ's original church ever practise the follow- 
 ing many sorts of religious worship, viz.: — 1. The adora 
 tion of the sacramental bread ; 2. Of the cup ; 3. The wor- 
 ship of angels and of saints by invocation ; 4. The worship 
 of images by bowing down before them with prayers and 
 uncovered head ; 5. The worship of sacred relics ; and, 
 6. The worshipping in a foreign tongue, &c? Who can 
 now answer for him ? If no answer can be given, is not 
 this another "notorious falsehood," and "unfortunate no- 
 velty?" 
 
 Again, could Dr. Milner have believed "it to be a noto- 
 rious fact" that his seven sacraments are one, strictly one, 
 with those of the original Catholic church? We have 
 shown, on extreme unction, in treating on the ancient sacra- 
 ments, (p. 63,) that the ancients, as well as the gospel, 
 testify that only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's 
 supper, were ordained by Christ, or found in the original 
 church; and we have proved that holy orders and extreme 
 unction could not consist together. If this fact also cannot 
 be maintained, is it not another falsehood? Now, as all 
 these are contradictions, who will say the doctor believed 
 them as truths ? 
 
 Lastly, government. The doctor "maintains as a no- 
 torious fact," that "his church is in government strictly 
 one with the original Catholic church." Where is he who 
 can support this ? We have abundantly proved that he has 
 hitherto failed in every point to uphold his assumptions, 
 and showed his doctrines, sacraments, &c, at variance with 
 truth. We now do the same here: we demand, has God 
 ever appointed any persons, who teach doctrines and sacra- 
 ments at variance with himself and his gospel, to govern 
 his church ? When it is plain Christ never sent any such, 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 123 
 
 but said, " Beware of false prophets — you shall know them 
 by their fruits;" who sent them? save one of themselves, 
 their head the pope. How, then, are such governors and 
 government strictly one with the pure original church, 
 whose pastors and government were to these the very 
 opposite? Here, then, again, is his "notorious fact" a 
 notorious contradiction to all truth. And hence most 
 plain is it that neither did Dr. Milner, nor Dr. Manning, 
 nor Bossuet, believe themselves when they made such pro- 
 fessions ! ! ! 
 
 As " God is not the author of different religions or of 
 contradictory doctrines, nor ever set up a kingdom — a 
 church divided against itself," as the doctor states : and as 
 it is now proved that the doctrines, the worship, the sacra- 
 ments, and the government of the doctor's or the pope's 
 church are quite at variance with those of Christ's original 
 great catholic church, it must then instantly follow from 
 these premises that it is impossible that God is the author 
 of the religion, of the worship, or of the sacraments of the 
 church of Rome, or of her government. Who then is her 
 real author can now be no secret to any man of the least 
 mind. And having proved the doctor's creed is at variance 
 with Christ, his gospel, and the old creeds, so is his cate- 
 chism also with God's commandments ; that, against image- 
 worship, the second, is left out, as is the fourth also (save 
 one line) — " Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy 
 work," and holydays are daringly set up in opposition to 
 it; and the tenth is split into two, to make the people think 
 they have the ten in Exodus. From these few observations 
 what now is the conclusion, the necessary conclusion, and 
 which fearlessly challenges all his admirers on earth to 
 obviate ; what is it but this, in the first place, that the 
 whole of his book is a heap of mere sophistries and misre- 
 presentations, which, at the touch of truth, fly like chaff 
 before a storm? 2d. That as his church and doctrines, &c, 
 are found opposed to Christ, and as it is granted that what 
 is opposed to Christ is antichrist, so must he be their au- 
 thor ! Tremendous ! 3d. That as those doctors could not 
 be supposed ignorant of these arguments, nor of the writ- 
 ings of their own learned men, as Cardinals Fisher,* D'Al 
 
 * Fisher, <le Captiv. Babyl. c. 10. 
 
124 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 liaco,* Cajetan,t Drs. Scotiis,^ Durand,§ Polydore Virgil, 
 Lindan, Clemangis, Salmeron, Bannes, and many others, 
 confessing that transubstantiation, the worship of the eucha- 
 rist, half- communion, purgatory, indulgences, &c, are new 
 doctrines, and cannot be proved by Scripture, and there- 
 fore are mere human fabrications, and of course are, as 
 Bossuet and Manning say, "novelties and heresies," and 
 "that the church that teacheth them is not the spouse of 
 Christ, but an harlot, and the school of Satan, against 
 which the gates of hell have prevailed;" how then, with 
 all these facts before their eyes, could all their professions 
 of piety and sincerity be possibly looked on other than as 
 hypocritical falsehoods before God? 
 
 4. That when the faith, worship, and government of all 
 informed and faithful Protestant churches are essentially 
 one with the ancient churches and with each other, though 
 divided in minor opinions or forms, like fair and stunted 
 branches in one vine, who in his senses should stay one 
 hour from the same, or one hour in the church that has so 
 undeniably apostatized from the primitive faith ? 
 
 It being an admitted fact, " that false doctrine and its 
 teachers are accursed of God, and that the church which 
 hath them is indeed prevailed against by Satan, and is his 
 school and synagogue," when these doctors, Milner and his 
 brethren, are thus found teaching so many doctrines at va- 
 riance with Christ, and so many sorts of worship opposed 
 to him, and are sworn so to teach all their days, most clear 
 then is it to the weakest capacity that against their church 
 and them Satan hath prevailed. But it is granted, " wicked- 
 ness or mortal sin is another engine whereby the gates of 
 hell prevail against the church," — now it is allowed by all 
 the papal clergyl) "that there are seven deadly sins; six 
 against the Holy Ghost ; four crying sins ; and ten against 
 the ten commandments, together with all those in the cata- 
 logues of the Old Testament and of the new, all mortal, 
 and any one of which corrupts and destroys the soul : and 
 
 * D'Alliaco, 4 Sent. qu. 6, art. 1. 
 ■f Cajetan apud Saurez, torn. 3, disp. 44. 
 i Scot, in 4 Sent. cap. 2, qu. 4. 
 § Durand, 4 Sent. dist. 10, qu. 1. 
 
 H See Dr. Challoner's "Meditations," and "Catholic Christian," Man 
 ning's " Mor. Entert." Gallagher's " Irish Sermons," &c. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 125 
 
 that any layman or clergyman who by practice or desire 
 allows himself in any of them, (let his zeal for the pope or 
 his church be ever so great, it profits him nothing,) is not 
 of the church of Christ, but belongs to the devil, and is of 
 his synagogue." Should then all the clergy and people 
 found daily practising these or any of these sins, be but 
 put out of the papal church, as Christ in that dread day 
 shall separate all such sinners from his people and kingdom 
 forever, who would remain? Would one out of a thousand 
 escape? Where then is the church of Christ? Were the 
 lung's army thus found corrupted by rebellion, so that scarce 
 one of a thousand was free, would it not be allowed that it 
 had ceased to be his, and had gone over to his enemy? 
 Who of any candour, therefore, can for an instant deny that 
 the gates of hell have, by much heresy and wickedness, 
 awfully prevailed against the church of Rome? " Her sins 
 have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her 
 iniquities, therefore go out of her, that you receive not of 
 her plagues." Rev. xviii. Rhemish. 
 
 Dr. Milner having totally failed in the first and chief 
 mark of his church, that of "divine unity''' with Christ's 
 universal church, in either "doctrine, worship, or govern- 
 ment," he must then necessarily fail in all his other marks 
 also, viz. sanctity, catholicity, apostolicity, and miracles. 
 For as corruption cannot produce purity, his doctrines and 
 worship being found opposed to Christ, cannot, of course, 
 possibly produce sanctity, nor therefore have any affinity 
 to catholicity or apostolicity, nor can any miracles be ever 
 wrought in such a church except " those of the three frogs." 
 Rev. xvi. 13. For to affirm that God, who cannot lie or 
 endure a lie, would grant divine miracles to support false 
 doctrines or lies, is not only absurd, but the highest blas- 
 phemy. Having thus exhibited Christ's genuine church, 
 and the utter falsity of Dr. Milner's, — and having, by these 
 few observations, overturned this whole third part of his 
 crafty production, and exposed its sophistries beyond possi- 
 bility of contradiction, I must now, before I proceed further, 
 close this article on infallibility. 
 
 If it be ridiculous in any church whose doctrines ind 
 worship are thus most corrupt, to claim infallibility, when 
 the popes and councils of the Roman Catholic church are 
 found thus in many corruptions and self-contradictions, such 
 
 11* 
 
126 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 claim by them must be monstrous. We have already ad- 
 duced popes and their churches respectively vehemently 
 contending against each other; sometimes two, and even 
 three at a time. Some of these wonderful heads were con- 
 demned of heresy. Pope Liberius, in the fourth century, 
 subscribing the Sirmian decrees, became an Arian, as did 
 Pope Felix; and, in fact, as St. Jerome tells us, ("ingemuit 
 totus mundus et Arianum se esse miratus," Dialog, adver. 
 Lucif. c. 7,) "The whole world groaned, and wondered at 
 itself to have become Arian;" so that all the bishops and 
 clergy at that time of blindness became Arians, except 
 Athenasius and three or four more. When the whole of the 
 bishops, nearly, with Liberius, the pope, at their head, 
 were thus Arians, was their church then infallible? Canus, 
 a papal writer, records that Pope Honorius was, according 
 to Epiphanius, Bede, and also to the seventh general coun- 
 cil, convicted of the heresy of Monothelism.* The council 
 of Nice, (An. 325,) consisting of three hundred and eighteen 
 bishops, made two decrees, one against any appeals of ex- 
 communicated persons to remote churches — the other (Can. 
 6) is, Mos antiquus in Egypt o t &c, "The old custom re- 
 mains, that the government in Egypt, Lybia, and Persa- 
 polis should belong to the Alexandrian bishop, because the 
 Bishop of Rome also hath the same old custom over the 
 suburbical cities. Let Antioch and other provinces have 
 their privileges.! St. Augustine, in a council of two hun- 
 dred and seventeen bishops, reproved three popes, viz. Zo- 
 zimus, Boniface, and Celestine, for forgery of a canon in 
 the council of Nice, "because, that as God does not endue 
 a single man with justice and deny it to innumerable others, 
 so each bishop is to mind his own charges, and not inter- 
 fere with others." 
 
 In the space of five hundred and forty years, twenty-two 
 hundred and eighty bishops, who composed eight general 
 councils, decreed against the pope and the church of Rome, 
 and condemned their pretensions; first, by limiting the 
 Roman diocese in common with other patriarchs ; secondly, 
 by equalizing the Bishops of Constantinople with those of 
 
 * " Honorium quomodo ab errore vindicates quem haereticum fuisse 
 tradit Epiphanius, Beda, totaq. denique septima synodus." — Canus loc 
 theol. 1. 65. 
 
 j- Binnius, tons. 1. in cone. Nice 1, cone. Eph. 434. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 127 
 
 Rome, as both being imperial cities, (hence not on the 
 ground of anydivine right;) thirdly, in preventing the Bishops 
 of Rome or others from ordaining any bishop in the Isle 
 of Cyprus ; the fourth and second do the same ; fifth con- 
 demns the sentence of Pope Virgilius ; the sixth and seventh 
 condemn Pope Honorius (as above;) the eighth imposes a 
 canon on the church of Rome to prevent their Sunday feasts 
 in Lent, saying, "We will this canon be constantly observed 
 in the church of Rome." 4th con. Constantinople. Bin- 
 nius, torn. 3, p. 149. 
 
 St. Cyprian, in the second century, called a council of 
 eighty-seven bishops, and condemned Pope Victor's ex- 
 communication of the bishops of Asia, in regard to Easter. 
 Firmilianus affirmed, " Victor hereby hath cut himself off 
 from the flock of Christ." 
 
 Pope Celasius, (anno 496,) upon some Christians tainted 
 with Manicheism, (who believed that as wine causeth in- 
 toxication it must therefore be of the devil,) refusing to par- 
 take of the cup in the last supper, decreed as follows : — 
 "That such as did not receive the eucharist in both kinds 
 should be excluded from both : because one and the same 
 mystery cannot be divided without sacrilege." Also, "That 
 the sacramental elements cease not to be of the nature and 
 substance of bread and wine."* To this did all his clergy 
 agree. But the very contrary of ail this did Pope Martin 
 V. and the council of Constance decree, anno 1414, sess. 
 13, as did Pius IV. and the council of Trent, anno 1564, 
 saying, " That after the consecration no bread or wine 
 remain." Trid. sess. 13, can. 1; sess. 21, can. 2. 
 
 And the council of Nice, anno 325, and of Ephesus, anno 
 334, decree, with an anathema, " That no new article for- 
 ever shall be added to the creed or faith of Nice." But the 
 council of Trent, in more than twelve hundred years after, 
 add twelve new articles to this very creed, pronouncing an 
 anathema " on all who will not embrace them." 
 
 Now we ask, were all these self-contradictory popes and 
 councils infallible ? The church of Rome says they were ! ! ! 
 And every pope is sworn to support their decisions, and to 
 uphold and enforce them to the least tittle, "even to the 
 shedding of his blood." Con. Constance, sess. 39 ; con 
 Basil, sess. 37. 
 
 * Gel. de duab. naturis, cont. Eutych. 
 
128 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 Now, let every man of the least sense consider all these 
 arguments, thus plainly laid before him, against the infalli- 
 bility of the church of Rome and the supremacy of her 
 popes, and ask himself, is there a tittle of truth in these 
 claims, — councils against councils, popes against popes, 
 creeds against creeds, — distracting the world, and destroy- 
 ing the souls and bodies of men ? And now, reverend sir, 
 say, is this infallibility, that is the parent of all these mis- 
 chiefs, of God ? If you say it is of God, you are undone, 
 because it is blasphemy; and if you must own it is not, 
 you are undone, for your strong rock is destroyed and your 
 church overturned, and all her usurpations and pretensions 
 fallen to the ground ; conscience is rendered independent, 
 and Scripture the only safe rule of faith, and thus both are, 
 by the force of common sense and truth, forever emanci- 
 pated from the dire and degrading shackles of papal infalli- 
 bility. And as it most clearly is not of God, it must follow 
 that it is of satanic origin, is of the very " spirit of proud 
 antichrist," as saith Gregory the Great, which is come forth 
 to oppose God, and destroy man by his fell seductions. 
 
 And is not this that very destroyer of whom the holy 
 prophesies warn us, " that was to come with all deceivable- 
 ness of unrighteousness," to turn away the world from the 
 faith, and would lead them after fables and false dogmas ; 
 and that would also cause them to persecute and murder the 
 saints, even those who follow the gospel? Is not this he 
 of whom it is said by St. John, that " he would continue 
 forty-two months, i. e. twelve hundred and sixty years, 
 the man of sin sitting in the temple of God, during all these 
 ages, (by succession, of course, as one man could not live 
 so long,) still upholding the very same system of iniquity. 
 As the reign of this dynasty began in 606, it must now soon 
 come to a close.* 
 
 We have no thought that these arguments, that have been 
 advanced to prove that this infallibility and its church are 
 the enemies of the human race as well as of the Lord, will 
 ever be answered. It now, therefore, remains for every 
 
 * 606 added to 1260 years, are 1866; take the present year, 182.7, 
 
 ^frorn this, 39 remain. Take 5^ days, (being the difference between the 
 
 ancient year of 360 days and the year of 3605^,) and multiply these 
 
 by the 1260, it makes nearly 19 years, which taken from 39, leave about 
 
 20 years to close the scene. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 129 
 
 one concerned about his soul to make his choice, either to 
 side with Christ, and his gospel and people — even those 
 who follow him and it, or with this infallible deception and 
 its partisans. Choosing this latter, they must expect the 
 result, the threatened result — " they shall drink of the wine 
 of the wrath of God, and the smoke of their torments shall 
 ascend up forever and ever." Rev. xiv. But if they wisely 
 submit to the former, and take his holy counsel, " Come 
 out of her my people, that ye receive not of her plagues," 
 Rev. xviii., such shall save their souls alive. 
 
 I shall now return to Dr. Milner, and let my reader see 
 the manner in which he essays to support, but how feebly ! 
 those points which I have examined and overturned. We 
 have already seen the full third of his book, with all his 
 lofty claims to the church of Christ, prostrated, as in a trice, 
 by a few plain matter-of-fact observations. With regard to 
 extreme unction, he has on it an elaborate letter, (part iii. 
 letter 44,) in which he says not a word to purpose, except 
 belying St. James and contradicting himself, and the gos- 
 pel, and all antiquity, be sound arguments ! He well knew 
 there can be no true sacrament without Christ's own insti- 
 tution of it ; which, when he saw in this case he could 
 not find,«he rolls it over at once on 'St. James that he found 
 it, and had formed this sacrament ! Whereas, it is most 
 evident, that the apostle spake of no sacrament for the dying, 
 but of the Lord's mercy in healing or raising up to health 
 the sick, by a miracle, as I have already fully explained. 
 Moreover, he knew from the gospel and the ancients — St. 
 Augustine and others, with Pope Innocent, whom he men- 
 tions, but suppresses his words, and also from Cardinal 
 Cajetan, &c. &c. — that no such sacrament had existed, and 
 that only two were divinely instituted in our Lord's life- 
 time, but after his death none ; yet he desperately contra- 
 dicts the whole, as every one who reads him may see. 
 Now if in this he can be vindicated, let it be done. 
 
 On his seven sacraments he treats in letter 20. The two 
 which the gospel teaches, baptism and the Lord's supper, 
 he miserably mangles, and turns them from their divine 
 design. The first, which is ministered " In the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," 
 should call to our recollection, that the baptized should con- 
 sider themselves bound to the ten commandments of me 
 
130 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 Father : to Christ and his gospel, to obey them ; and to 
 yield themselves to the Holy Ghost, — to dwell in them all 
 their days, in order to bring forth his heavenly fruits. But 
 instead of this, all men, by the papal baptism, are bound to 
 receive mutilated commandments — the second and fourth, 
 mostly, being suppressed — and to obey the pope and his 
 creed, which are flatly opposed to the law and gospel, as 
 these sheets clearly demonstrate. And the eucharist is 
 similarly treated in a vast diversity of ways, which shall 
 presently be made manifest; and all to subserve the unwor- 
 thy purposes of domination over mankind. With regard to 
 the other five, conscious, as he unavoidably was, that Christ 
 never did appoint them, he is obliged to say, " Though 
 these holy rites had not been endued by Christ with a 
 sacramental grace, yet practised, as they are, in the catho- 
 lic church, they should still be considered great helps to 
 piety and Christian morality; and what I have asserted 
 concerning these Jive sacraments in general, is particularly 
 true with respect to the sacrament o£ penance" &c. Here 
 the truth slips out, that he was well aware Christ is not the 
 author of these five; and yet he«dares impute them to him ! 
 Nor were they owned or practised in the original catholic 
 church ; hence, most clear is it, that that catholic church 
 and the Roman church are not one, but direct opposites. 
 And he tells " that they are helps to piety" Now, what 
 less is this than saying, that the Lord, who appointed them 
 not, was a defective teacher! and that his pope and church 
 teach the ways of God more truly ? If this be not blas- 
 phemy, let common sense judge ; and if such pretended 
 sacraments — such human corruptions, that thus involve ne- 
 cessary blasphemy — can " be helps to piety and morality," 
 and not the very reverse, let all concerned for their eternal 
 destiny well consider, and see if, after this, they should 
 venture upon any such sacraments or human inventions, 
 and which are, indeed, confessed such ! penance or private 
 confession especially, which, as he most extols, should 
 therefore be most avoided. 
 
 In reference to the doctrine of " intention," he passes it 
 over very slightly; and "infallibility" he cannot defend, 
 except he could make infallible corruption infallible purity. 
 On "supremacy" he is very weak indeed; he tries to prop 
 it up by some quibbles. (Letter 46.) He has not, how- 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 131 
 
 ever, a sing?.e solid argument- in his twelve laboured pages 
 on it. Whoever will read what I have advanced, shall find 
 all his assertions to be empty as air. He asserts " St. Peter 
 derived it from our Lord." Matt. xvi. 18. Whereas, in a 
 few verses after this text, Christ calls him "Satan;" and, 
 as I have already showed, forbids all supremacy and pride, 
 on pain of eternal wo. And he must grant, that nothing 
 that he might pretend to adduce from the fathers, when it 
 would go to contradict Christ or plain facts, can for a mo- 
 ment be listened to ; and the more especially as I have met 
 and silenced all such allegations, and now challenge their 
 disproof. He unblushingly represents Origen and Cyprian 
 as affirming, " that the church is built on Peter, and that 
 Rome is the mother church and root of catholicity ," in 
 flat contradiction to the apostle, or rather to the Holy Ghost 
 which inspired him, calling "Jerusalem the mother of all," 
 (Gal. iv. 26,) and also "the root,'" (Rom. xi. 18 — 24,) 
 and " that the foundation of the apostles and prophets is 
 the same." Eph. ii. 20. Who can depend on a man that 
 thus states against God himself, in any thing he says ? 
 Nay, what he could believe himself, was impossible. He 
 here argues, " That, as some special dignity was conferred 
 on Peter," (a thing that nobody denies,) "he therefore was 
 made supreme." But this is false, as it confounds primacy 
 (Peter being the first, after Christ's resurrection, to preach 
 the gospel to Jews and Gentiles) with supremacy. And 
 this is his art and strength ! But every novice may know 
 that one may be foreman of a jury, and yet have no power 
 or voice beyond any of the rest — no dominancy over them. 
 Hence, as his arguing is all mere froth and talk, he makes 
 out nothing ! 
 
 All his book is of this character — all elaborate sophistry ; 
 and in no part is it more palpably so than in the first — that 
 on the true rule of faith. Here he egregiously commits 
 himself; he says and unsays in the same breath. He 
 affirms, " Christ did not intend men should learn their reli- 
 gion from a book, but from preaching ; that he wrote no- 
 thing, nor commanded his apostles to write, but to preach." 
 Yet he presently tells us, " That Christ inspired them to 
 write the gospels and other parts of the New Testament;" 
 and " that the Scripture is not a perfect rule of faith;" yet 
 " that on reading the New Testament, we have the strongest 
 
132 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 proofs of its being an infallible guide in the way of salva- 
 tion ;" and, " that most true it is, the Scriptures cannot 
 mislead us," &c. (See letter viii. 2d and 3d pages; also 
 ix. x. xi.) So then, " the gospel is an infallible guide, but 
 not a perfect rule;" i, e. not an infallible guide ! This is 
 logic with a witness, worthy of such a doctor ! But more 
 of this anon. 
 
 He is most diligent in searching out all the faults, errors 
 and discrepancies of Protestants, especially of the first Re- 
 formers, with the view, doubtless, that his own inveterate 
 ones of the present time might pass in the smoke and elude 
 observation. That these men, however sincere, might, 
 after the long night of papal darkness in which they were 
 held, upon their first emerging from it, have weak eyes, 
 and many confused notions and crude ideas, like unto those 
 " who saw men as trees walking," is not to be wondered 
 at; it is what we might look for. Every freckle on them 
 is, with him, a cancer ; but the real cancers of his own are 
 only freckles, and their putridity perfect soundness ! In his 
 church are Jansenists, Augustinians, Dominicans, &c, strong 
 predestinarians,* and Jesuits, Franciscans, Carmelites, &e. 
 &c. ; as strongly opposed to each other's ideas, as being 
 very wickedness and absurdity. But on all this he is quite 
 silent, inasmuch as they cleave to the pope and the faith of 
 Pius IV. Yet on Protestants, in similar circumstances, — 
 some branches of them judging they should hold predesti- 
 nation and election to a certain extent, and others contend- 
 ing that the gospel does not warrant any such notions, (as 
 did the Wesleys, &c.,) but all conscientiously cleaving to 
 
 * Note on Rom. ix. 11, "Not yet born," &c. By this example of 
 these twins, and the preference of the younger to the elder, the apostle 
 shows that God, in his election and grace, is not tied to any particular 
 nation, prerogatives of birth, or any foregoing merits, as the Jews ima- 
 gined ; for, as antecedently to his grace he sees no merits in any, but 
 finds all involved in the common lump of sin and condemnation, and all 
 children of wrath, there is no one whom he might not justly leave in 
 that lump ; so that whomsoever he delivers from it, he delivers in his 
 mercy ; and leaves in his justice whom he leaves in it : as when of two 
 equally guilty, the king is pleased, out of pure mercy, to pardon one, 
 whilst he suffers justice to take place in the execution of the other." 
 "What! without any gospel offer to them 1 Impossible! Here is high 
 predestination in Milner's church, with a witness ; and yet he ridicules 
 ethers for it. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 133 
 
 Christ and his gospel according to their several abilities, and 
 carefully discarding all human inventions, — I say, on these 
 he falls like a tempest, and confounds them together, as all 
 holding, as he asserts, the same impieties; although they 
 are daily, and at present with Christian kindness, thank 
 God, labouring to correct each other, in reference to any 
 views contrary to the gospel any might mistakenly hold ; 
 for they are all agreed, that any notion or doctrine opposed 
 to the Scripture is indeed impious. Where, then, was hit, 
 honesty — his candour, that what he counted only mistakes 
 in his own orders, he makes impieties in Protestants ? And 
 with such ill-natured matters does he fill up his book, yet 
 able to find no argument to defend the really monstrous 
 tenets of his own church. Nor is he ashamed, in the face 
 of the clearest possible facts, to insist, as he does, (let. xix.) 
 " that his church holds the very same doctrine now, that 
 the church held in the apostolic age ! nor suffers any per- 
 son in her communion to change it, or even to question any 
 part of it ;" although he was well aware, the twelve new 
 articles of the Trent creed were never taught by the apos- 
 tles or their Lord ! How such glaring untruths and incon- 
 sistencies can be reconciled with all his high professions of 
 sincerity, let common sense determine ; or how such as- 
 sumed sincerity can be looked on otherwise than as a ruse, 
 a trick to cover a design to promote the spread of papal 
 doctrine, and lull men into a fallacious security, is beyond 
 my ability to comprehend, nor do I expect ever to see the 
 man who can account for it on any other ground. And 
 satisfied I am, that when my countrymen shall discover 
 this horrible artifice and hypocrisy to mislead them, they 
 will with indignation rise up, to a man, against it, and flee 
 from it forever. 
 
 When closing the next articles — -the doctrines of purga- 
 tory and indulgences — I shall again notice Dr. Milner's 
 chicanery. 
 
 I am, reverend sir, yours, 
 
 GIDEON OUSELY. 
 
 12 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 NO INFORMED POPE OR PRIEST EVER DID OR EVER 
 CAN BELIEVE IN PURGATORY! 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER.* 
 
 Rev. sir, — The council of Trent (sess. iv.) saith, "Evan* 
 gelum quod Dominus noster Jesus Christus Dei Filius, 
 proprio ore primum promulgavit" &c. " That the gos- 
 pel which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, first 
 preached with his own mouth, and afterwards commanded 
 to be preached by his apostles to every creature, is the 
 fountain of all saving truth and good morals," &c. The 
 solemn oath that binds you, sir, the pope ; and his clergy, 
 to these excellent words of this canon, is flatly opposed to 
 purgatory; and that which binds you all to the canon, "de 
 purgatorio ;" (constanter tenere purgatorium esse, sess. 
 xxiv.) " constantly to hold that there is a purgatory for 
 souls not fully purged," &c, is totally opposed to the for- 
 mer canon ! Hence it follows, that as no man in his senses 
 can believe self-contradictions, so can none of you possibly 
 believe there is such a place as purgatory, and believe the 
 gospei is true ; nor can any of you from this labyrinth ever 
 
 * Extract of a sermon against the Methodists, by the Rev. John 
 Thayer, preached in St. John's Chapel, in Limerick, Feb. 3d, 1811: — 
 " True it is," saith he, (after some scolding,) " the Methodists do not 
 curse nor swear, they do not tell lies, they are not drunkards, they are 
 strict observers of the Sabbath, and above all things, they are remark- 
 able for their great charity and regard to their fellow-creatures ; this 
 they possess in so eminent a degree, as makes me blush for my own 
 fiock; but still, they are not of the true church, inasmuch as they dj 
 not belong to the church of RomeP 
 
 134 
 
PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 135 
 
 be able to escape, but by the rejection of purgatory, and 
 indeed of the papacy and its dogmas altogether. As no 
 authority opposed to the gospel can be regarded by you or 
 me, I shall now beg to attend to this dogma of your church. 
 
 Your definition of the mass is this : "What is mass, but 
 Jesus Christ himself, with all his merits and satisfaction, 
 which we present to God the Father for the souls in pur- 
 gatory, as the price of their redemption?" 
 
 " The sacrifice of the mass is truly and properly propi- 
 tiatory for the living and for the dead ; (for those in purga- 
 tory;) because the same Christ is therein contained, and 
 unbloodily immolated, who once offered himself bloodily 
 on the cross."— Council of Trent, sess. 22, cap. 2, can. 3, 
 and Forma Fidei. 
 
 To offer or present any thing, therefore, as a price for 
 the redemption of souls from purgatory, to the Father, but 
 Jesus Christ, would, with you, be a great profanation. 
 Now if it should happen, (which ye allow in many cases 
 it may,) that the bread and wine in the mass are not changed 
 by virtue of the words of consecration into the real natural 
 body of our Lord Jesus Christ — as it is not possible that they 
 could, Christ having been born of a woman, and never made 
 of bread and wine ; — in this case, I say, you allow in your 
 book, and in the General Missal, pages 53, 54, " that Christ 
 is not in the mass — nothing is there but mere bread and 
 wine still ;" then, this profanation must, you allow, be the 
 consequence, and that in the mass can no sacrifice be. 
 
 There are more than twelve cases particularized in pages 
 70, 71, 72, of your book, and in your Missal, any one of 
 which, you own, renders void the consecration, and totally 
 prevents the transubstantiation ; and then Christ is not in 
 the mass : viz. " if there be any defects in the m,atter,form, 
 intention, or pninister, the consecration is null and void." 
 See page 44, an extract from the Missal. 
 
 Now it is very certain no man breathing, priest or lay- 
 man, can possibly be sure that these defects are avoided ; and 
 if not, all the service of the mass is idolatry and profana- 
 tion. This you grant; then these consequences are un- 
 avoidable. 
 
 1st. As ye cannot offer the sacrifice without worshipping 
 the host, if the consecration be void, then only bread and 
 wine, and not Christ being there, they who worship the 
 
136 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 host after this inefficient consecration, which ye all con- 
 stantly do, be it true or false, worship mere bread and wine, 
 and are, as ye allow, guilty of most stupid idolatry and 
 wickedness ! 
 
 2d. Only bread and wine being in the mass, they are 
 offered unto God as a price for the souls in purgatory! a 
 goodly price, truly ! Bread and wine worshipped by men 
 and offered to God as a price for souls to release them out 
 of purgatory! Is not this a most foul and shameless pro- 
 fanation ? 
 
 Now I demand, 1st, was the sacrament, which Christ 
 himself blessed and ministered with his own hands, a sacri- 
 fice properly, or at all propitiatory for sin ? 2d. Was it 
 worshipped with divine or with any worship ? 3d. Was 
 it offered up to God on any account ? And, lastly, was it 
 any way inferior to any since ministered by man ? 
 
 The 1st was impossible, as there could be no proper 
 propitiation but the death of Christ, which had not then 
 taken place ; the 2d was not done, no worship was given 
 to it, — this the council of Trent confesses, as we shall see 
 hereafter, — and as it was given only to be eaten in remem- 
 brance, then it could not be Christ, and so was not transub- 
 stantiated, except ye will presume to affirm that he ivas 
 eaten before he died on the cross, and yet was not eaten, 
 for he was crucified after; the 3d, it was not offered to God, 
 as the evangelists tell us, but was given to men to be eaten; 
 and to the last you must answer, it was not inferior, — no 
 sacrifice forever could surpass it, and if not, by making your 
 sacrament to be also a sacrifice properly propitiatory, to 
 be divinely worshipped, and to be offered up to God for 
 the living and for the souls in purgatory, all which are 
 opposed to his, and yet ye are on your oath " to believe, 
 practise, and teach ;•' then must it not follow that his sacra- 
 ment, which was not propitiatory, nor was worshipped, 
 differs from yours, and that yours is therefore infinitely 
 above his ? Is not this exalting yourselves above him, and 
 a climbing up to the highest possible blasphemy ? nay, a 
 taking to yourselves the very character of the man of sin, 
 the son of perdition, of antichrist? And are you not aware 
 of the punishment that is likely to follow? Rev. xiii. — xix. 
 20. Hence, no sacrifice is in the mass, to offer it there- 
 fore for souls must be profane ; and hence you must either 
 
PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 137 
 
 quit it and purgatory, or secure your own ruin. For, let 
 me now ask you, can you or the people, after knowing all 
 this, judge yourselves safe in persisting in the dangerous 
 service of your mass, and still use them to take souls out 
 of purgatory? And if such be the means to rescue souls 
 from it, then, it is to be concluded, there is no such place 
 of God's appointment. 
 
 And that there is no purgatory, but that it is a mere in- 
 vention of the church, to enrich the clergy and to frighten 
 the ignorant and keep them in subjection, (for who would 
 not be in awe of and attentive to the man that has power 
 quickly to hasten him out of a terrible fire, as bad as hell 
 itself?) I say that there is no purgatory may appear still 
 more evident from the following reasons: — 
 
 1st. The thing is encumbered with so many and such 
 inextricable difficulties and absurdities, as I have just stated, 
 that it must be dismissed as contrary to all common sense ! 
 
 2d. Although the council of Trent, in the "Forma Fidei," 
 and in the "jDecretum de Purgatorio" obliges her clergy 
 to swear, " constantly to hold, and most diligently to 
 teach, that there is a purgatory," &c, yet in the face of 
 all this, many of your most learned and eminent divines 
 have had the candour and courage to leave it on record for 
 posterity, that no such thing can at all be proved. 
 
 Your Bishop Fisher saith, in Confut. Luth., art. 18, 
 " Many are tempted now-a-days not to rely much on in- 
 dulgences, for this consideration, that the use of them ap- 
 pears to be new and very lately known among Christians. 
 To which I answer, It is not very certain who was the first 
 author of them ; the doctrine of purgatory was a long 
 time unknown, was rarely if at all heard of among the 
 ancients, and to this day the Greeks believe it not ;'* nor 
 was the belief of either purgatory or indulgences so ne- 
 cessary in the primitive church as it now is ; so long as 
 
 * The Greeks, in their apology to the council of Basil, {de Igne Pur- 
 gatorio. p. 56,) say, " We own no purgatory fire; we have received no 
 such thing, nor doth our eastern church confess it." 
 
 And at the end of the apology, p. 93, "For these causes the doctrine 
 proposed of a purgatory fire is to be rejected and cast out of the church, 
 as that which tends to slacken the endeavours of the diligent, and which 
 hinders them from doing their utmost to be purged in this life, since 
 another purgatory is expected after it." 
 
 12* 
 
133 PURGATORY A FlGMUSfT. 
 
 men were unconcerned about purgatory, nobody inquired 
 after indulgences." Thus we see the bishop confesses, 
 " purgatory and indulgences were neither known nor ne- 
 cessary in the primitive or pure church. A notable con- 
 fession this from a papal doctor! " Indulgences were now, 
 though not of old, necessary.'' Necessary for what? 
 Why, for enriching the clergy, to be sure, that these being 
 sold, and masses said, money might thus be raised; and 
 so indulgences, and a purgatory out of which tormented 
 souls might be thus released, were then luckily, or rather 
 wickedly thought on, as a fit expedient for this end ! But 
 of indulgences more hereafter. 
 
 Otto Frising, an old historian and a Roman Catholic 
 bishop, and contemporary with St. Bernard, Chron. anno 
 1146, tells us, " The doctrine of purgatory was first built 
 upon the credit of those fabulous dialogues attributed to 
 Gregory I. about the year 600." And for the prayers made 
 to deliver souls from thence, (that gainful article of the 
 papal church,) we are told by your own authors, " That 
 the first who caused them to be appointed by the church 
 of Rome was Odillo, Abbot of Clugny, in the year 1000."* 
 
 3d. The ancient fathers knew nothing of purgatory. 
 St. Augustine, it is true, once had some debates in his mind 
 about it, when he wrote his Questions, de octo dulcitiis. 
 He then said, "That such a matter as a middle state for 
 purgation might be inquired of;"i for that notion that 
 some might not be good enough for heaven, nor yet bad for 
 hell, which, though feasible at first view, is yet both irra- 
 tional and unscriptural. (For every soul is either the ser- 
 vant of God or of Satan ; and there are different degrees of 
 glory in heaven, and of punishments among the damned ; 
 therefore there is no neutrality — no middle place.) I say 
 this crude notion, the offspring of heathenism, especially 
 of Plato, Virgil, and Homer, might at first view have hastily 
 entered his mind, as it doth now of many of the unthinking. 
 But on maturer examination he saith, " We read of heaven 
 and of hell, but the third place we are utterly ignorant of; 
 yea, we find it is not in the Scriptures ."% — " Nor will 
 
 * Ranul. Higden. Polychron. 1. 6, c. 15. Petrus Damian. Vit. 
 f August, de Civit. Dei, 1. 21, cap. 26. 
 
 i Tertiam penitus ignoramus, imo nee esse in Scripturis Sanctis in- 
 venimus, &c. Serm. 14 de Verb. Dom. et Hypog. 1. 5, cont. Pelag. 
 
PUEGATOnT a figment. 139 
 
 any thing help thee but what is done while thou art here. 
 As the last day of man's life finds him, so the last day of 
 the world shall hold him."* Again, "Nee est ullus ulli 
 medius locus" &c, " Nor is there, for any body, any 
 third place that he can possibly be in, but with the devil, 
 who is not with Christ."t 
 
 Justin Martyr, (quest. 75,) pronounces, " That imme- 
 diately after death there is made a separation between good 
 and bad men, and that the good are carried into Paradise." 
 Irenaeus, lib. 1, cap. 2, declares, " The wicked shall be 
 cast into eternal fire." Cyprian, in his Sermon on Mor- 
 tality, says, " The just, when they die, are called to a place 
 of shelter and rest." Gregory Naz. says, in Encomio 
 Caesaris, " That the souls of good people, when they are 
 freed from the body, do forthwith enjoy an incredible plea- 
 sure, and joyfully fly unto the Lord." St. Cyril, lib. 22, 
 on St. John's gospel, avers, " That the souls of the faithful 
 are perpetually with Christ, and pass not through any place 
 of pain or torment." 
 
 St. John Chrysostom, in his second homily on Lazarus, 
 saith, " When we shall be departed out of this life, there 
 is then no room for repentance ; nor will it be in our power 
 to wash out any spots we have contracted, or to purge 
 away any one of the evils we have committed." 
 
 St. Ambrose, cap. 2, de Bono Mortis, " He that, before 
 he goeth out of this world, hath not received remission of 
 his sins, shall never, in the other world, be admitted into 
 the country of the blessed" 
 
 And St. Jerome determines, " That in this life we may 
 be assisted with prayers and good Christian counsels, but 
 afterwards, when we are summoned to appear in the other 
 world, the prayers of Job and Daniel will not be heard, 
 nor can avail in any one's behalf, but every man must bear 
 his own burden." 
 
 St. Patrick writes, " Tria sunt habitacula sub omnipo- 
 tentis Dei nutu. Primum, imum, medium," &c. " Three 
 abodes there are under the government of Almighty God ; 
 the first is heaven, second hell, third, this world. In hell 
 
 * In quo enim quemq. inveniret suus novissimus dies, in hoc eum 
 comprehendet mundi novissimus dies. August, de peccat. et merit, et 
 remiss. Epist. 86. 
 
 f Aug. lib. 1, c. 28. 
 
140 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 none are good, in heaven none bad, and both are supplied 
 from the middle, in which are both good and bad. The 
 servants of God go to God, and the servants of the devil to 
 the devil."* 
 
 Gregory the Great, it is true, had at times, from some 
 strange visions and ghosts, as he thought, some crude no- 
 tions about a purgatory. (Dial. 4, c. 35.) Yet, on Eccle- 
 siastes xi. 3, " If the tree fall toward the south or the north, 
 where it falls there it shall be," he thus remarks, " The 
 just one, in the day of his death, falleth southward, and the 
 sinner northward ; for the just is, by the favour of the 
 Spirit, carried into bliss, but the sinner, with the apostate 
 angel in his benumbed heart, is reprobated and cast away." 
 And again, " At the time of a man's dissolution, either the 
 good or evil spirit receives the soul as it comes from its 
 fleshly habitation, and shall keep it with itself without any 
 change at all forever ; so that being exalted once, it never 
 can fall into punishment, nor, being plunged into eternal 
 torments, can it ever be thence delivered. "t 
 
 Tertullian, (de Anima, cap. ult.) is cited as entertaining 
 notions of purgatory when a Montanist, but in his Pre- 
 scriptions he is very express, saying, " This their doctrine 
 (of purgatory) being compared with the apostolical, will 
 itself, by its diversity and contrariety, pronounce that it had 
 for author neither any apostle nor apostolic man."± 
 
 And yet ye priests now persuade the people your masses 
 and prayers will nevertheless avail in the other world! ! 
 And is this, indeed, your judgment, O ye ancient goldly 
 men, that there was not in your days any purgatory? But 
 were you now in the world ye might learn another lesson; 
 ye might see thousands of masses, &c. <fcc, going forward, 
 pretending to release poor souls out of it! It is now men 
 are wise ! 
 
 * Pat. de trib. hab. MS. Jac. Bib. Reg. Usher. 
 
 j- In die mortis sua? Justus ad austrum cadit, peccator ad aquilonem, 
 &c. Cum humani casus tempore, sive sanctus, sive malignus spiritus 
 egredieutum animam claustra carnis acceperit, et in aBternum secum, 
 sine ulla permutatione retinebit, &c. — Greg. Naz. Mor. 1. 12, cap. 3. 
 Idem I. 8, cap. 13. 
 
 t " Ipsa enim doctrina eorum cum apostolica comparata, ex diyersitate 
 et contrarietate sua pronunciavit, neque apostoli alicujus actoris esse, ae- 
 que apostolici." — Tertul. Prsescrip. advers. Hseres. cap. 32. 
 
PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 141 
 
 "Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis" 
 " God's holy truth was loved and taught of old ; 
 But times are changed — now lies are taught for gold." 
 
 Thus many of your learned doctors, and also the ancient 
 fathers, overthrow purgatory, confessing it to be only a 
 human invention, — a novelty; and yet your infallibility 
 teaches you and your brethren " to offer Christ in your 
 mass to his Father to release souls from it" ! ! ! 
 
 Notwithstanding all we have said, and much more that 
 we might adduce from the ancient fathers, against any idea 
 whatever of this new invented papal purgatory fire, — yet 
 papal doctors fail not boldly to cite them for it, as they have 
 done the Scriptures also, in which, it will presently be proved, 
 there is no trace whatever of such a matter. It is true, 
 many of the ancients had a great variety of notions among 
 them of a curious sort, respecting the purifying of souls, 
 and prayers for them. Many of them concluded, as a man 
 is not fully delivered from all the curse of sin till he, at the 
 resurrection, receives his body again, that the prayers and 
 offerings of the living would be helpful to the blessed for 
 their increase of felicity till then. Hence, in the liturgy of 
 the church of Constantinople, said to be St. Chrysostom's, 
 is this prayer, "We offer unto thee, God, this reason- 
 able service for those who are at rest in the faith, especially 
 for our most holy, immaculate, and most blessed lady, 
 the mother of our Lord, the ever blessed" And in the 
 liturgy of the church of Egypt, ascribed to St. Basil, Greg. 
 Naz., and Cyril of Alexandria, — "Be mindful, O God, 
 of thy saints, our holy fathers the patriarchs, prophets, 
 apostles, martyrs: especially the holy, glorious, and ever 
 blessed virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord," &c. Thus 
 did St. Ambrose pray for Theodosius, of whom he had be- 
 fore said, "He enjoys everlasting light and continued 
 tranquillity" And thus did Greg. Naz. for his brother 
 Caesarus. Thus Cyp. Dion. Ariopag., &c. 
 
 Origen, and all of his cast, (which were many, such as 
 Lactantius, St. Hilary, St. Ambrose, St. Basil, &c.,) be- 
 lieved, " That all, even wicked men and devils, after being 
 purged by fire according to their demerits, should at length 
 be saved at the last day, and that all should pass through 
 fire at the great judgment." And St. Hilary, in Psalm 
 118, saith, "The virgin Mary herself shall pass through 
 
142 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 it." Cardinal Bellarmine, though in his 1st book he pro- 
 duces these to support the papal purgatory, yet in the 
 beginning of his 2d book he confesseth, "All the above 
 are for that universal fire or purgatory at the day of judg- 
 ment, through which all must pass, the virgin Mary herself 
 not excepted."* Therefore they prayed for all, good and bad. 
 
 St. Jerome, (Comment on Isai. 65,) judged, " Though 
 devils and other wicked men should be damned, yet wicked 
 Christians, who continued in the church in their lifetime, 
 after having suffered punishment in the other world, should 
 meet mercy from the judge," — therefore was of opinion 
 "prayers and offerings should be made for these." But 
 who of the church of Rome, any more than we, now be- 
 lieves in any of these whims ? What colour, then, can 
 they afford purgatory? I might multiply quotations, and 
 swell my book with such and many more of their strange 
 notions ; but this shall be sufficient, and go to account for 
 these prayers for the dead formerly made use of, and that 
 they were never used for souls in any purgatory. We 
 may, from all this, now see that the Scripture is the only 
 record on which we may safely repose, to guide us in the 
 way of peace and save us from all such wild fancies. 
 
 4ihly. The Holy Scriptures afford no room for purgatory. 
 Christ our Lord saith, " There are twelve hours in the day, 
 when men ought to work ; work while ye have the day, for 
 the night cometh when no man can work :" when the night 
 of death cometh, the die is cast forever ; the destiny is 
 fixed, never more to be revoked. St. Paul tells us, " If our 
 earthly tabernacle were dissolved, we have a house eternal 
 in the heavens." And again, " When we are absent from 
 the body we are present with the Lord." So, not in pur- 
 gatory, unless it will be affirmed the Lord is in purgatory. 
 
 We are told in the gospel, Luke xxii. 43, " The beggar 
 died and was carried by angels (not into a limbo or purga- 
 
 * Non defuerunt qui purgatorium adeo probarint, ut nullas paenas 
 nisi purgatorias post banc vitam agnoverint ; ita Origines sensit qui et 
 dsemoni bus tandem sal utem policetur." Bellarmine says, "That some 
 there were of the ancients who were so partial to purgatory, that they 
 allowed of no punishments after this life but purgatory only ; so thought 
 Origen, who promised salvation even to the devils themselves." Bellar. 
 lib. de Purgat. cap. 2. How foolish, then, are papal doctors to try to 
 make purgatory out of such crude notions, even as doth Milner. 
 
PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 143 
 
 ory, but) into Abraham's bosom, to paradise;" whither 
 'the penitent thief went also," as saith Christ. And, in 
 Luke ix. 30, we read, " Moses and Elias appeared on 
 mount Tabor, in glory, with our Lord, and with James, 
 Peter, and John." So, it seems, they were not confined 
 in limbo patrum before the death of our Lord, as ye say, 
 but fallaciously say, were all the saints. Then, it is to be 
 concluded there was no such place. St. John saith, " They 
 who die in the Lord are blessed, and do rest from their 
 labours."* Scripture might be heaped upon scripture to 
 prove there is no purgatory. And many of your own able 
 writers declare this, that Scripture is not for purgatory, as 
 we shall now see. 
 
 Picherellus, one of your doctors of the Sorbonne, doth 
 confess, that "St. John, by this last mentioned scripture, 
 hath put out forever the fire of purgatory." And again, 
 "There is no fuel in Scripture, either to kindle or main- 
 tain the fire of purgatory. "t 
 
 Bellarmine (in loco) confesses, "Purgatory cannot, by 
 any rule of logic, be proved from the 12th of St. Matthew, 
 as the sin there mentioned was never to be purged, being 
 damnable." Yet, as many papal writers affect to find much 
 in this text, I shall stop to spend a few thoughts on it. 
 
 Christ, in verse 32, declares, " The blasphemy against 
 the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, 
 neither in the world to come." Dr. Challoner remarks on 
 these words, " Our Lord would not have mentionedybrg'^e- 
 ness in the world to come, if sins, not forgiven in this 
 world, could not be forgiven in the world to come; then, 
 there must be a purgatory; for no sin can enter into hea- 
 ven to be forgiven there, and in hell there is no forgiveness 
 at aU."J 
 
 I reply — 1st. As God cannot contradict himself, nor be 
 unjust or a respecter of persons, then it will follow, that if 
 any sin or guilt can be forgiven in the other world, all can 
 be forgiven ; and the scriptures which say, "If we die in 
 our sins, we perish forever,"§ must be false ! For, if even 
 one sin, however small, can be forgiven there, then, accord- 
 ing to true impartiality, all such, of all mankind, can be 
 
 * Rev. xiv. 13. j- In Missa. p. 155, and cap. 2, p. 115 
 
 * Cath. Christian, p. 123. § John viii. 21, 24. 
 
144 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 similarly forgiven. If so, all those put together must be 
 equal, at least, to one sin a shade or two greater ; so, this 
 one, according to the same impartiality, must also be for- 
 given : and then, all of that kind and of all men, must also 
 be forgiven ; for God is no respecter of persons ; and thus 
 all sins whatever that are remissible at all, or at any time, 
 might be thus pardoned after death ; and so would the 
 Scripture prove false, and Christianity be annihilated. But 
 if it cannot be that all sins may thus be remitted after death, 
 then can no sin be pardoned after death ; for if one sin can 
 thus be pardoned, all can, as I have now proved. Hence, 
 ye must either affirm that God is unjust— is a respecter of 
 persons, and a self-contradictor, which is blasphemy — or 
 give up the idea of any sins being forgiven after death. No 
 sophistry can avoid this conclusion. Then, by this text, 
 there can be no purgatory ! 
 
 2dly. He must be very ignorant indeed who knows not 
 that the phrase world to come, (sv cucort <?« fis^ovtt,)* has, 
 in Scripture, another meaning besides the state of the dead ; 
 and to play upon an ambiguous word, to serve a turn and 
 mislead the ignorant, is not only shameful imposture, but, 
 as it is an attempt to give a false view of the divine will, is 
 such wickedness as incurs the heaviest displeasure of God. 
 Messiah's kingdom on earth, or the gospel dispensation, is 
 called the age, or world to come, as distinguished from the 
 Jewish age, or world, which then was. Heb. ii. 5 ; vi. 5 ; 
 xii. 27, 28. Then, the meaning is, This blasphemy shall 
 not be forgiven, neither in the present Jewish (anovi) dis- 
 pensation, or world, neither in the (cucoia) age, or world, of 
 the Messiah, however mild. Here, then, is no room for 
 purgatory ! 
 
 3dly. Should the expression even mean the other world, 
 yet will it not prove what ye want ; for then it will refer to 
 the day of judgment, and to the final triumph of the right- 
 eous over all sin and the consequences of it. Death was 
 the last consequence ; but now being delivered from that 
 by the resurrection of their bodies, and by the forgiveness 
 they had received on earth being ratified and published be- 
 fore all men, by the Judge, in that day: then it may be said 
 in the fullest sense, their sins are indeed and forever for- 
 
 * Matt. xii. 32. 
 
PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 145 
 
 given them, never to relapse more. To this St. Paul seems 
 to refer, when he talks of " The Lord's showing mercy in 
 that day." 2 Tim. i. 18. Thus, forgiveness in this sense 
 (i. e. a ratification of that received on earth) can be in the 
 world to come, without the necessity of resorting to this 
 absurd purgatory. I might say, lastly, it could readily 
 respect a certain Jewish opinion: they judged, "If a man 
 was executed for any crime, his death expiated it, and he 
 suffered none in the other world." 
 
 Maldonat (in loco) owns " it cannot be proved from the 
 5th of Matthew, as the prison there spoken of is hell and 
 not purgatory." 
 
 Peter de Soto allows it cannot be proved from 1 Cor. iii. 
 15, "As it is not persons, but vain doctrines, called wood, 
 hay, stubble, which some well meaning but mistaken teach- 
 ers affirmed to be true, that shall in the day of judgment 
 be tried by fire and be burnt, and themselves shall hardly 
 escape, even as one escapeth out of the fire." 
 
 As to 1 Peter iii. 19, 20, " By which he (Christ) went 
 and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometimes 
 were disobedient, when oncje the long-suffering of God 
 waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a prepar- 
 ing," — although the annotators on the Rhemish Testament, 
 and all the other papal writers, proclaim with much tri- 
 umph, that "here, at least, is ample proof for purgatory;" 
 yet, when the passage is but a little examined, it falls to the 
 ground at once. Souls in a state of grace and obedience, 
 are they only, which, ye say, are sent to purgatory but, 
 unluckily for your purpose, those mentioned there by Saint 
 Peter, " iv ere disobedient, incredulous souls, and ungodly," 
 as he calls them in 2 Pet. ii. 15, — consequently were in a 
 state of mortal sin, and therefore could not at all go to pur- 
 gatory ; souls which refused to believe or hearken to Noah, 
 when Christ, by his spirit in him, (1 Pet. i. 11,) preached 
 to them to repent. They are, therefore, now in the prison 
 of hell, as they then obstinately continued in the prison of 
 sin, and of wilful and avoidable unbelief and disobedience. 
 Bede, as you shall presently see, was of this very judgment, 
 as was Athanasius, (Ecumenius, &c. Besides, ye affirm 
 that Christ, after his death, went to deliver all the souls of 
 the just from limbo, there detained from the beginning of 
 the world ; but again unluckily for you, the word, or verb 
 
 13 
 
146 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 in the text is ^x^vhv) "preached " and not "delivered." 
 Again, in it is no mention whatever of the just of all ages, 
 but "of the incredulous," the " cwtM0j?oaffc," of one period 
 only, the days of Noah. Thus this scripture fully turns 
 against you and your doctors : and I have already destroyed 
 your limbo ; for I have shown Moses and Elias were not 
 confined in it, but were at large, having appeared in glory 
 on the mount before our Lord died at all. And if they were 
 in no confinement, in no limbo, before his death, neither 
 was any of the patriarchs ; for our God is no respecter of 
 persons : therefore, there was no more limbo then than 
 purgatory now. 
 
 Bede, who lived more than one thousand years ago, citing 
 the judgment of Athanasius on 1 Pet. iii. 20, thus saith, 
 " Ille qui in nostris temporibus," &c. " He who in our 
 times, coming in the flesh, preached the way of life to the 
 world, even he himself came before the flood, and preached 
 to them who then were unbelievers and lived carnally. For 
 even he, by his Holy Spirit, was in Noah and in the rest 
 of the holy men which were at that time, and by their good 
 conversation preached to the wicked men of that age, that 
 they might be converted to better manners." Fulk, in loco, 
 sec. 2, p. 808. Hence it is plain St. Peter affords no help 
 for purgatory. 
 
 Your last resource is 2 Mac. xii. 39. To this, when 
 hard pressed, ye all run as to your dernier resource; but it 
 will not do, it makes nothing for purgatory. The book is 
 not canonical, is not divinely inspired. The Jews, to whom 
 the oracles of God were committed, as St. Paul (Rom. iii.) 
 tells us, never received it into their canon. Pope Gregory, 
 on the book of Job, saith, " Though the Maccabees be read 
 for edification, yet they are not canonical." And your 
 Sixtus Senensis informs us, that the famous Melito, Bishop 
 of Sardis, a man of great judgment and piety, took a jour- 
 ney to the eastern churches, where the apostles principally 
 preached, to find out the true canon of Scripture, and re- 
 turned with the very same canon which Protestants now 
 have; but, for the Apocrypha, "it was not found in their 
 canon." " Non est inventus." 
 
 Do not your great writers, Cardinal Bellarmine, Canus, 
 and Andradius, confess that the fathers, Melito, Origen, 
 Athanasius, Eusebius, RufBnus, Hierom, and Amphilocius, 
 
PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 147 
 
 held the same? Bellarmine (de Verbo Dei, 1. 1, c. 10, in 
 principio) saith, "All those books vjhich the Protestants do 
 not receive, the Jews also did not receive" To which add, 
 that the council of Laodicea, anno 364, and that of Car- 
 thage, ratified by the Popes of Rome, held the same cata- 
 logue of canonical Scriptures with us, leaving out the Apoc- 
 rypha altogether, as we do. Then the books of Maccabees 
 cannot be any support for purgatory ! 
 
 2dly. Notwithstanding the council of Trent, in the ple- 
 nitude of its infallibility, pronounced, in the face of all 
 these authorities, (council against council !) the book of 
 Maccabees, &c, to be canonical, divinely inspired, hoping 
 that then it would serve their turn for praying for the dead, 
 offerings, purgatory, &c, yet its author, in as plain words 
 as can be, flatly denies it, and refuses the honour they would 
 force on him; for, in the 15th chap. 38th ver., he owns 
 himself only an historian, performing his work : " If 
 meanly and slenderly, (saith he,) it was what I could attain 
 to :" and in the xiv. 42, 43, he commends Rezias for kill- 
 ing himself; a doctrine quite contrary to inspiration : and, 
 (with many other absurdities,) he tells us that Antiochus 
 died three times ; first, in Babylon, in his bed, 1 Mac. ii. 6; 
 then, he is stoned in the temple of Nanea, 2 Mac. i. ; lastly, 
 he dies in the mountains by a fall from his chariot, 2 Mac. 
 ii. 9. This puts us in mind of a story of a gentleman that 
 told this lie, That he shot a deer, at one shot, through his 
 right ear and left hinder leg : but how was he puzzled to 
 make it appear true ! So here you have not an inch of 
 ground to stand on. And lastly, those there mentioned, 
 who were slain in the battle, were idolaters, as the place 
 itself proves; who, therefore, being in mortal sin, could not 
 have gone to purgatory: this ye allow. Consequently, the 
 money sent as an offering to the Jewish priests to pray for 
 the dead, could not have been to relieve the souls of those 
 idolaters out of purgatory; but probably it was for this end, 
 that the priests might pray to God for them, that the sins 
 of those who were slain for their idolatry might not be 
 visited on the living, who perhaps neglected to reprove 
 their idolatry in due time ; as in the case of Achan. Josh, 
 vii. 1—11 ; xxii. 20. 
 
 But further: your own catechism, and your great cham 
 
148 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 pion, Bishop Challoner, (but doubtless without intending it,) 
 destroy purgatory altogether. 
 
 Your catechism affirms, " The Holy Ghost abides in the 
 souls of the just." The bishop, in his book of Meditations 
 on the Holy Ghost, declares, " Nothing can be wanting to 
 that soul that is so happy as to possess the Holy Ghost, 
 because it possesses the very fountain itself of all possible 
 good ; and that whoever does not possess this Holy Spirit, 
 does not belong to Christ, but is possessed by Satan and 
 belongs to him, according to the apostle, (Rom. viii. 9,) ' If 
 any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his.' " 
 So here is no medium : the just man, says your catechism, 
 "possesses the Holy Ghost;" and the bishop says, "he 
 wants nothing; the sinner is possessed by the devil, and is 
 his." Since, then, he that hath the Spirit is safe, and that he 
 who hath it not belongs to Satan, what is purgatory for, as, 
 according to these, neither just nor unjust are to go to it ? 
 And thus it is clearly a mere fiction. 
 
 Further, I ask, first, As soon as mortals die, is not their 
 eternal destiny fixed ? If it be, how can it be fixed again ? 
 And if it cannot be unfixed, of what use, then, can any thing 
 be to them after death ? 
 
 2dly. If Christ, by once offering himself, hath made full 
 propitiation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, 
 and doth perfectly purify all those who truly believe on 
 him, and that, in this life only ; then there can be no other 
 way of purification hereafter : therefore no purgatory. 
 
 But all this is most true, as saith the beloved apostle, 
 (1 John i. 7,) " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth 
 us from all sin. Ver. 9. He is faithful and just to forgive 
 us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness — for 
 he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, 
 but for the sins of the whole world." Heb. ix. 12, " Christ 
 by his own blood, entered once into the holy place, having 
 obtained eternal redemption for us. 26. Nor yet that he 
 should offer himself often. 27. But now once in the end 
 of the world hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sac- 
 rifice of himself, x. 10. We are sanctified through the 
 offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. 11. And 
 every priest standeth daily ministering and offering often- 
 times the same sacrifice, which can never take away sins. 
 
PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 149 
 
 12. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, 
 forever sat down at the right hand of God. 14. For by one 
 offering he hath perfected forever them who are sanctified. " 
 I cannot but observe here, if Christ, after once offering him- 
 self, and once only, for our sins, forever sat down at the 
 right hand of God, as saith the apostle, how say ye that he 
 offers himself daily and in many places at the same time, 
 by the hands of your priests upon your altars ? If this be 
 not a flat contradiction to the apostle, I don't know what is. 
 Either then ye are mistaken in thinking ye offer his natural 
 body daily — and O, how great is that mistake! — or the 
 apostle asserted falsely, when he affirmed so abundantly, 
 " That he offered himself but once, and then sat down for 
 ever on the right hand of God, never to be offered more.' 
 Seeing then that Christ hath fully atoned for us by his own 
 blood, and doth perfectly purify every true believer, there 
 cannot then be any purgatory. To say ye offer him un- 
 bloodily, ruins your cause ; for, " Without shedding of 
 blood there is no remission of sins," saith St. Paul. Heb. 
 ix. 22. But ye shed no blood in the mass ; therefore there 
 is in it no propitiation, no remission of sin ; and then, the 
 mass sacrifice to rescue souls from purgatory, must, if the 
 apostle speak truly, be a dangerous deception. 
 
 3dly. All persons die in a justified or condemned state ; 
 if justified, " they have peace with God," saith holy Paul, 
 Rom. v. 1,* and so are not to be tormented after death; but 
 if condemned, then they are damned forever ! Hence the 
 justified go to immediate rest, and the condemned enter 
 upon instant and eternal torments ; and therefore purgatory 
 is a deception. 
 
 If, as it is pretended, the venial sins, so called, of true 
 believers, and a debt of vindictive temporal punishment, 
 said to be due to mortal sin, have not been so atoned for by 
 the great sacrifice of the cross, or so forgiven by God to 
 the penitent whom he freely justifies, — " But that they are- 
 still liable to the guilt of temporal punishment, and to be 
 atoned for in this world by penances and good works, or in 
 the world to come, in purgatory, before he can enter the 
 kingdom of heaven," (council of Trent, sess. 6, can. 30,) 
 then this consequence must follow, that God's own justi- 
 fication of sinners who penitently believe in the Lord, 
 * And Rom. viii. 1. 
 13* 
 
150 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 whereby they enjoy peace and felicity by the Holy Spirit 
 dwelling in them, is not sufficient to save them from all 
 sin and future torment without the priest's pardon also ! 
 That is, except they pay, and perform the penance he shall 
 choose to enjoin, they shall, though pardoned by God him- 
 self, be nevertheless tormented in purgatory ! What a 
 blasphemous doctrine ! What a grasp after undue power 
 over a fatally credulous people ! 
 
 But, I ask, where did Christ say he would forgive the 
 great sins freely, and would punish the small, or exact a 
 temporal debt in purgatory ? Should a good king proclaim 
 full forgiveness to all returning deserters of their crimes and 
 debts, but when they return, that it is reported of him that 
 he imprisons and miserably scourges and lacerates them 
 every day for many years, and yet tells them they are 
 nevertheless forgiven: would we not conclude either that the 
 king was not good, but a lying, hypocritical tyrant or mad- 
 man, or that the author of such report was a designing, diabo- 
 lical defamer? Now, God has promised "full forgiveness to 
 returning sinners, and that their sins shall never be men- 
 tioned." Ezek. xviii. But did he afterwards punish them 
 in purgatory, it would be to deceive them. Therefore it 
 must follow, 1st. Either that God is not good, or these 
 purgatory preachers, to serve their own ends, have misera- 
 bly blasphemed him. 2dly. That Christ's satisfaction is 
 not complete, or these teachers are false : for that only is 
 perfect to which nothing needs be added. 3dly. That remis- 
 sion of all sins is not altogether a free gift, as we, in part 
 at least, satisfy for them ourselves. 4thly. That Christ is 
 not our only Redeemer from all sins ; for by penances, mor- 
 tifications, indulgences, masses, or in purgatory, we atone 
 for some ourselves. 5th. That if, by some doings or suf- 
 ferings of our own or of others, any sin can in any part be 
 satisfied for, then an increase of these must satisfy for more, 
 and at length all might be thus satisfied for. If so, the 
 death of Christ was consequently needless, as St. Paul 
 argues. Gal. iv. For it has been already proved that it 
 saves none after death from any sin. But to assert any of 
 these things is evidently blasphemous. Now to preach up 
 human merit, or a purgatory in which we can atone for any 
 sin, is in effect to assert all these things, and therefore to 
 teach blasphemy ! ! 
 
PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 151 
 
 Yet the bull of Pope Pius IV., dated at Rome, Nov. 1564, 
 prescribing what is to be received upon oath as the true 
 Catholic faith by the papal clergy, among many other new 
 articles lays down this, "Constanter teneo purgatorium 
 esse, animasque ibi detentas fidelium suffragiis juvari" 
 " I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the 
 souls there detained are assisted by the suffrages of the 
 faithful." Now, is it not evident that thus to swear and 
 teach there is a purgatory, is to swear that the apostles, the 
 ancient fathers, and many of your own eminent clergy, 
 who denied purgatory, were all liars, and that the Scrip- 
 tures, which teach no such doctrines, are therefore false? 
 Alas ! what a doctrine to receive, and be sworn to teach ! 
 To say souls in purgatory are relieved by Christ's blood, 
 applied by masses, &c, is to contradict himself, who saith, 
 "If we die in our sins, we cannot be saved." John viii. 21. 
 
 But who are they that go into this purgatory ? Ye tell 
 us none who are in mortal sin go to it, for that these fall 
 into hell, but such alone as are in a state of grace, true 
 believers ! ! 
 
 Now, if none who are in mortal sin go to it, on this 
 ground few go to it at all. But do ye never say masses for 
 any of those after death who have lived unholy lives, and 
 died in mortal sin ? And if ye know in your conscience 
 ye do, and that daily, for every one who is able to pay you, 
 then do ye not, by consequence, offer Christ for those in 
 hell ? By such conduct, besides the impiety of it towards 
 God, do ye not strongly encourage wickedness, and help 
 to people Satan's dark abode? 
 
 Thus is it manifest, from reason, Scripture, ancient fa- 
 thers, and from many of your own eminent writers, &c, 
 that there is no ground whatever for purgatory. 
 
 And if there be no such thing, then all things connected 
 with it must fall also ; offerings, prayers for the dead, in- 
 dulgences, masses, months' minds, and the whole farrago 
 of human inventions which were pretended to be useful to 
 rescue souls out of it, together with infallibility, which 
 taught these ruinous follies. No ingenuity or learning what- 
 ever can uphold them ; they must come down ; the stroke, 
 the mighty stroke of divine truth to them is mortal ; and 
 thus this market is entirely spoiled, and this source of im- 
 pious gain dried up at once, at least among any thinking 
 
152 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 people. No wonder, then, if the merchants shall mourn 
 and cry out, and be very angry when they see that their 
 wares shall be bought no more at all forever. Rev. xviii. 11. 
 
 To behold men, and men of reason and information, too, 
 in the nineteenth century, and in a land where they are 
 surrounded with the effulgence of gospel light, gravely 
 attiring themselves to release souls from where they know 
 they are not, and offering masses, i. e. Christ to his Father, 
 as they pretend, for their release ; and yet confessing in 
 their public missal, as has been already noticed, they know 
 not whether it is Christ they thus offer or not, and then 
 receiving offerings for the dead, — for performing this most 
 extraordinary service is not only ludicrous, but altogether 
 horrifying to every thinking mind. The practice of the igno- 
 rant pagans, who send money with their dead to pay their 
 way to another world, but which their brahmins take for 
 themselves, is nothing compared to this ! 
 
 And truly most men are led to think it is not because ye 
 believe souls are tormented in purgatory and feel for them 
 that ye hasten to perform these services, for then the poor 
 would share your pity as well as the rich, but rather to get 
 at the offerings ye receive on such occasions. And this 
 appears very manifest, because when poor persons die who 
 have nothing to give, they are little if at all heeded; no 
 masses or months' minds for them, — let them get out as 
 well as they can. But when the rich die they are well at- 
 tended, they shall have abundance of masses and what not. 
 Surely your own people as well as we observe this, and 
 must judge the whole is but a juggle to make money; yet 
 because it is the custom, they submit to the deception rather 
 than make themselves particular, or have war prepared 
 against them by the clergy, as saith Micah, iii. 5. 
 
 Now suppose for a moment some of them would take 
 courage and question you a*follow: 
 
 Good sir — You are come to celebrate mass for my de- 
 parted friend, to take him out of purgatory; before you 
 begin, be so kind to answer the few following questions : 
 
 1. You will please to inform me, Are you sure there is 
 a purgatory? and do you know where it is? how do you 
 know this, and what are your proofs ? 
 
 2. E>o you know that my friend is certainly there ? and 
 how do you know this ? 
 
PURGATORY A PIGMENT. 153 
 
 3. If anointed persons are thereby finally purified, as ye 
 tell us, what has brought him to it ? 
 
 4. If he be indeed in it, are you sure masses, indulgences, 
 offerings, &c, will release him? Has God, who fixed his 
 doom irrevocably, yet commanded him to be thus released? 
 Where is your proof? 
 
 5. Are you qualified to say these masses ? How are you 
 certain you are a priest at all, as it depended on the qualifi- 
 cation and intention of him who baptized you ? And how 
 could you know the intention of another ? without which, 
 you confess all is null and void. 
 
 6. How are you sure Christ is really in the mass, seeing 
 there are such a multitude of cases in which ye own the 
 consecration fails, and then Christ is not in it, and it re- 
 mains bread and wine only? 
 
 7. Now, would you for any consideration worship bread 
 and wine ? and yet it may be it is bread and wine that are 
 still in the mass, and not Christ. How, then, could we be 
 safe in worshipping it ? 
 
 8. If it be idolatry to worship bread and wine in the 
 place of Christ, as you confess it is, how can you certainly 
 preserve us, and yourself too, from this wickedness and 
 destruction, should we worship the host at your mass ? 
 
 9. Has Christ commanded the sacrament of the altar to 
 be worshipped ? or has that given by his own hands been 
 worshipped ? If not, is yours better than, and above his, 
 and is it his will I should worship it ? 
 
 10. Has Christ, or have his apostles ever practised any 
 such worship ? or have they ever commanded any such 
 service to take souls out of purgatory ? 
 
 Before I can permit any mass to be performed, you will 
 have the goodness to answer every one of these ten ques- 
 tions. But I fear they are not to be answered ; and until 
 they are, I should, were I now "to worship the host, fear 
 incurring the immediate guilt of idolatry and wickedness. 
 
 Were you, sir, and your brethren, sure your people would 
 thus boldly interrogate you, would you, or any of you, ven- 
 ture to come to them with your masses to take souls out of 
 purgatory? And if no mass was permitted to be said till 
 ihese questions were fairly answered, a mass more, I dare 
 say would never be said! no, not one forever; and sc 
 
154 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 
 
 would purgatory and Popery together quickly expire, never 
 more to trouble the world. 
 
 I cannot belter conclude this subject than by the follow- 
 ing observations from the learned Dr. Adam Clarke, in his 
 Sermon on Salvation by Faith, (Acts xvi. 33,) p. 24. 
 ' " What remains to be considered," saith the doctor, " is 
 the merit of sufferings ; their capability to atone for sin, 
 and their tendency to purify the soul. I presume it will be 
 taken for granted, that there was no suffering in the world 
 previously to the introduction of sin. Suffering is an im- 
 perfection in nature. If an intelligent creature be found in 
 a state of suffering, and of suffering evidently proceeding 
 from the abuse of its powers, it naturally supposes that 
 such creature has offended God, and that its sufferings are 
 the consequences of its offence, whether springing immedi- 
 ately from the crime itself, or whether inflicted by divine 
 justice, as a punishment for that crime. As sufferings in 
 the animal being are the consequence of derangement, or 
 disease and dissolution; derangement and disease, by which 
 the regular performance of the animal functions is pre- 
 vented, and the destruction of these functions ultimately 
 effected, never could have existed in animal- beings as they 
 proceeded from the hand of an all-perfect and intelligent 
 Creator. They are, therefore, something that has taken 
 place since creation, and consequently did not spring from 
 God. As it would be unkind, if not unjust, to bring multi- 
 tudes of innocent beings into a state of wretchedness ; hence, 
 the sufferings that are in the world must have arisen from 
 the offences of the sufferers. Now, if sin have produced 
 suffering, is it possible that suffering can destroy sin ? We 
 may answer this question by asking another: Is it possible 
 that the stream produced from a fountain can destroy the 
 fountain from which it springs ? or is it possible that any 
 effect can destroy the cause of which it is an effect ? Rea- 
 son has already decided these questions in the negative ; 
 ergo, suffering, which is the effect of sin, cannot possibly 
 destroy that sin of which it has been the effect. To sup- 
 pose the contrary, is to suppose the grossest absurdity that 
 can possibly disgrace the understanding of man." This is 
 irresistible ! 
 
 Seeing that by the above arguments, out of many more 
 
PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 155 
 
 which might be advanced, and by the testimonies of so 
 many ancient fathers and eminent papal doctors, purgatory 
 is proved not to have been heard of for several ages after 
 Christ, and to be but a mere human invention, a novelty, 
 proceeding from Satan and his school, an imposture on 
 men to deceive their souls, and filch them of their money, 
 must it not then be subversive of Christianity, and lead men 
 to ruin ? And as God never gave any man authority to 
 teach heresy or imposture, how then can they who teach 
 this doctrine be God's ministers ? Must they not therefore 
 trace their authority to another source 1 But as purgatory 
 is a prime article of your faith, and so lucrative to all your 
 clergy, and also so earnestly enjoined by your church on 
 you and them, '•'•to teach and preach it most constantly 
 and diligently to the day of your death; 11 you, sir, and 
 your brethren, will therefore, in its defence, and of your 
 own character, which it so deeply involves, and of the pro- 
 mise you made and published, " that you would defend it, 
 with the other articles of your faith, against all opposers," 
 feel it your duty now to rebut all I have advanced against it, 
 or otherwise, forsaking it, and all such like novelties, turn 
 to Christ and his unerring gospel alone, that henceforth, 
 as brethren beloved, thinking and speaking the same things 
 which he hath taught us, we may finish our course in peace, 
 and appear with joy and not with grief before him in that 
 day, and may hear him say, in the presence of angels and 
 men, " Well done, good and faithful servants, enter ye into 
 the joy of your Lord." 
 
 I am, Rev. sir, 
 
 Your friend and servant in Christ Jesus our Lord, 
 
 GIDEON OUSELEY 
 
 5th edit., May 5, 1827. 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 
 
 Rev. Sir, — The Trent council teacheth, " that after God 
 has justified the penitent sinner by his grace, and remitted 
 the guilt of his eternal punishment, yet his sin is not so 
 wholly blotted out but that there still remains the guilt of 
 temporal punishment due to his justice, which debt the par- 
 doned sinner must discharge, either in this life by penance, 
 &c, or hereafter in purgatory, before he can enter the king- 
 dom of heaven."* And "the council farther teacheth, that 
 Christ has granted to his church the power of granting in- 
 dulgences, which extend to this very debt or satisfaction, 
 and by which she can remit it wholly or in part in certain 
 circumstances. And that the use of them — of these celes- 
 tial treasures — is very salutary to the faithful, and must 
 be retained in the church. "t 
 
 This pretended u guilt of temporal punishment," of which 
 the gospel teaches nothing, is the ingenious, impious, and 
 sole foundation of purgatory, indulgences, jubilees, months' 
 minds, prayers and masses for the dead, and of all the Babel 
 
 * Si quis post acceptam justificationis gratiam, cuilibet peccatori poeni- 
 tenti ita culpam remitti, et reatum seternae poense deleri dixerit, ut nullus 
 remaneat reatus poena? temporalis exsolvendae vel in hoc saeculo, vel in 
 futuro in purgatorio, antequam ad regna coelorum aditus patere possit ; 
 anathema sit. Con. Trid. sess. vi. can. 30. 
 
 j Decretum de indulgentiis. Cum potestas conferendi indulgentias a 
 Christo ecclesiae concessa sit, &c, sess. 25, sess. 21, cap. 9. See Dr. 
 Milner, End Cont. part iii. let. 42. 
 
 156 
 
INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 157 
 
 building of the church of Rome. Here are her celestial 
 treasures !! ! Thus she can contrive to plunder the foolish, 
 by remitting part or the whole of this preposterous and 
 fraudulent debt, a debt founded wholly in falsehood. When 
 the publican, the adulteress, the great sinner, the thief on the 
 cross, the prodigal, the very murderers of Christ, were for- 
 given, it was fully: no debt of temporal guilt remained on 
 them, nor was any priestly penance imposed.* And it is 
 observable, that when they pretend to forgive, yet is it in- 
 sinuated by modern casuists that most probably penance 
 enough was not laid on, so that room is thus made for some- 
 thing more to come. This we shall notice more fully here- 
 after. Alas ! shall men ever remain dupes and fools ? 
 
 Robertson gives us the following account of the use and 
 form of indulgences, as practised in the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century, and which so disgusted the sincere as to 
 cause the Reformation to commence. 
 
 " May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on and absolve 
 thee by the merits of his most holy passion. And I, by 
 his authority, and that of his blessed apostles St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, and of the most holy Pope Leo X. &c, granted 
 unto me in these parts, do absolve thee, first, from all eccle- 
 siastical censures, and then from all thy sins, transgressions, 
 and excesses, how enormous soever they may be, even such 
 as are cognisable by the holy see alone ; and as far as the 
 keys of the holy church extend, I remit to you all punish- 
 ments which you deserve in purgatory on their account ; 
 and I restore you to the unity of the faithful, and to that 
 innocence and purity which you possessed at baptism; so 
 that when you die the gates of punishment shall be shut, 
 and the gates of Paradise and delight opened ; and if you 
 shall not die at present, this grace shall remain in full force 
 when you shall be at the point of death. In the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 He gives us also the language of the clergy who pub- 
 lished them — as follows: 
 
 "If any man shall purchase letters of indulgence, his 
 soul may rest secure with regard to its salvation. The souls 
 confined in purgatory, as soon as the money tinkles in the 
 chest, instantly escape from that place of torment and as 
 
 * Luke xviii. 14; xv. 21, 22; vii. 42; xxiii. 43. John viii. 11 
 Acts ii. 38 ; iii. 19 ; xiii. 39 ; xv. 8, 9. 
 14 
 
158 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 
 
 cent? into heaven ! The efficacy of indulgences is such, 
 that the most heinous sins would be remitted and expiated 
 by them, and the persons he freed from punishment and guilt. 
 This is the unspeakable gift of God, to reconcile men to 
 himself. Lo ! the heavens are open ; if ye enter not in now, 
 when will ye enter ? For a little money you may redeem 
 the soul of your father out of purgatory from torments. 
 If you had but one coat, you ought to strip yourself in- 
 stantly and sell it in order to purchase such benefits."* 
 How can any sensible man hesitate to turn away with horror 
 from the whole of these shameful and audacious figments ? 
 
 The papal advocates, however, from the shock occasioned 
 by the Reformation, have since then been more cautious, 
 and by their ingenious definitions of them have laboured to 
 soften them down and keep out of sight their real nature, 
 affirming they are chiefly used to mitigate penance or 
 church censures. I shall mention just one of them, by 
 way of specimen. Dr. Challoner, (Cath. Christ, p. 107,) 
 saith, "An indulgence is the releasing a true penitent from 
 the debt of temporal punishment due to sin, which punish- 
 ment the penitent must either discharge by way of satisfac- 
 tion and penance here, or suffer in proportion to his debt." 
 Suffer where? Wliy, in purgatory. " For souls in pur- 
 gatory, departed in Christ, not fully purged, is the sacrifice 
 of the altar to be offered, to relieve and release them."t 
 But the indulgence remits the debt at once, as above. 
 
 So, then, should enough of indulgences be but procured, 
 purgatory must lie waste ; surely, then, whether they be 
 masses or indulgences that can so quickly save people from 
 such dismal burning, they must be worth much indeed ! 
 and so we find the papal clergy understood it. But it must 
 be noted, masses and indulgences alternately destroy each 
 other: for if masses release souls, what need is there of 
 indulgences ? and if an indulgence will do, what need of 
 masses ? Again, if Christ be in the mass, and that many 
 masses are offered to release a soul out of purgatory, yet, 
 when " the pope's indulgence does it at once," then it will 
 conclusively follow that an indulgence is above all these 
 masses, and therefore superior to Christ, " who is," ye 
 
 * Robert. Hist. Charles V., vol. ii. p. 30. 
 
 f Defunctis in Christo nondum ad plenum purgatis. Cone. Trid 
 sess. 6, can. 30, sess. 22, cap. 2. 
 
INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 159 
 
 say, "in the mass, soul, body, and divinity;" and thus the 
 pope, who is sole author of the indulgence, must therefore 
 be very far above Christ, and of course be the antichrist 
 the man of sin. But the indulgence may be had for a few 
 shillings, hence must it also follow that these few shillings 
 for which it can be had are better than the mass sacrifice, 
 i. e. than Christ, soul, body, and divinity ! ! ! Solve this 
 who can. So Christ, by this papal doctrine, is made to be 
 of less value than a few shillings ! Even Judas and the 
 high priests did not rate him at so low a price. See now 
 what your doctrine leads to, — even to blasphemy and im- 
 mediate infidelity! But ye say, "Christ himself is the 
 author of these indulgences." If so, He is the author of 
 these absurdities, which to say, you must allow, is the high- 
 est blasphemy ! 
 
 I would just remark, If the pope's indulgences can thus 
 release souls from purgatory ', why does he not at once re- 
 lease them all ? Our Lord asks the Pharisees, " If an ox, 
 an ass, or a sheep fall into a pit, which of you will not lift 
 it out? And is not a man better than a sheep?" But it 
 seems the pope is of another mind, and deems an ass better 
 than a man ; for he has less pity for men, whom he leaves 
 burning in purgatory, than they for an ass or sheep which 
 they would not leave in the pit one day. Now to keep 
 men in torment — to detain them there till the money is paid 
 for them, perhaps a few shillings or the price of an old 
 coat — is it not to act like Satan, or St. Peter's "false pro- 
 phets, who made merchandise of the people "? 2 Pet. ii. 3.* 
 But why does not the pope keep himself out of it ? For, 
 the many masses offered for him after his death, which are 
 never intended for those in heaven or in hell, proclaim, he 
 is himself gone to the flames of purgatory! And if he 
 was grand treasurer of the church, how is it, that he could 
 not find as much spiritual treasure in it, even one indul- 
 
 * " We," saith Archbishop Tillotson, " make no money of the mis- 
 takes of the people ; nor do we fill their heads with fears of new places 
 of torment, to make them empty their purses in a vainer hope to be 
 delivered out of them : we do not, like them, pretend a mighty bank and 
 treasure of merits in the church, which they sell for ready money, giv- 
 ing them bills of exchange from the Pope on Purgatory ; when they 
 who grant them have no reason to believe they will avail them, or be 
 accepted in the other world." Til. vol. iii. serm. 30, p. 320. 
 
160 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 
 
 gence, as would keep himself from torment? And how 
 then was there any for others ? So, it is evident, he knew 
 his indulgences were mere deceptions! 
 
 We have just seen that one indulgence is of more value 
 than many masses ; but now, in the case of the pope, we 
 are taught that the masses are better ! But if the indulgence 
 be a deception, worth nothing, as this case proves it is, and 
 yet is^ above many masses; masses are, therefore, most con- 
 clusively, worth nothing. But if the " mass be Jesus Christ 
 himself with all his merits," the conclusion then is most 
 shocking, namely, that Jesus Christ and all his merits are 
 worth nothing! doctors and doctrines most blasphemous 
 and infidel ! When these papal doctrines thus conclude in 
 necessary blasphemy and infidelity, who not bent on per- 
 dition should cleave to them ? 
 
 Nor was money alone in abundance thus obtained by 
 these indulgences, but also by them soldiers were procured 
 to fight for the popes. Gregory VII., by his legate, Anselm, 
 Bishop of Lucca, grants to those who would fight against 
 the Emperor Henry IV., the full remission of all their sins. 
 This is owned by C. Baronius himself. Pope Victor III. 
 granted the same to those who would fight against the Sara- 
 cens. And Alexander III., in the twelfth century, grants 
 the same, and " an eternal reward, to all who would fight 
 against the Albigenses," because they would rather obey 
 Christ and his gospel than the pope. Thus did Pope Ca- 
 lixtus II., anno 1122; Eugenius, in 1145; Clement III., 
 in the year 1195, &c. 
 
 Says Bishop Burnet, "A jubilee was after the massacre 
 of Paris granted to all who had been in this butchery ; and 
 they were commanded to go and bless God for the success 
 of that action. The pope sent Cardinal Urson, his legate, 
 to France, to thank the king for so great a service done to 
 the church, and to desire him to go on, and extirpate heresy, 
 root and branch, that it might never grow again. And 
 as the legate passed through on his journey to Paris, he 
 gave a plenary indulgence to all who had been actors in 
 the massacre !" Burnet on the 39 Articles. 
 
 I shall now refer you to Crawshaw's History of Indul- 
 gences, as ffiven in the principal churches of Rome, pub- 
 lished in London by Bernard Alsop, in 1622 ; for inserting 
 them here would not answer my designed brevity. But 
 
INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 161 
 
 even what have been adduced serve fully to prove what I 
 first asserted, that purgatory — and also indulgences, &c. 
 &c, first heard of in the eleventh century, as saith Stilling- 
 fleet — are mere ingenious inventions, to subserve and en- 
 hance the papal grandeur, and minister to the desires and 
 opulence of the clergy, every one of whom is to have his 
 share by them and purgatory, &c. I shall only add one or 
 two more of another sort. In the Salisbury Primer is re- 
 corded, " that Pope John XXII. granted a pardon or indul- 
 gence of one million of years for devoutly saying three 
 prayers written in the chapel of the holy cross in Rome." 
 And the same book saith, " that John XII., for reciting an- 
 other prayer therein as they pass by any church-yard, they 
 shall have an indulgence of as many years as there have 
 been bodies buried there since its consecration." Again, 
 " That for saying one prayer beginning with l O boneJesu,' 
 power is granted to change the pains of hell into those of 
 purgatory, and after that, those pains again into the joys of 
 heaven." This prayer was written on a table, and placed 
 in St. Peter's church in Rome, at the high altar where the 
 pope says mass.* O that all men had but right views and 
 feelings on this and all such subjects ! how soon then would 
 priestcraft be at an end, and men give glory to God alone, 
 love and obey him, and live in amity and peace with each 
 other. May our God and Saviour hasten this happy time I 
 
 That indulgences and purgatory are but mere frauds is 
 gathered even from papal doctors. Cardinal Cajetan writes 
 thus in 2d chapter of Indulgences ; "If we could have any 
 certainty concerning the origin of indulgences, it would 
 help us much in the disquisition of the truth of purgatory ; 
 but we have not by writing any authority either of the Holy 
 Scriptures, or ancient doctors, Greek or Latin, which afford 
 us the least knowledge thereof."! And Alphonsus de Cas- 
 tro writeth, " Many things are known to us, of which the 
 ancierits were altogether ignorant, as purgatory, indul- 
 gences, &c."J 
 
 * Horse B. Virginis Maria? ad Salisburiensis ecclesise ritum cum Ora- 
 tionibus et indulgientiis, &c. Paris, an. 1529. See Birckber's Evidence, 
 — Fellow of Oxford Col. part i. p. 70, edit. London, 1637. 
 
 -j- De Ortu Indulgientarum si certitudo habere posset, veritati inda 
 gandas opem ferret, &c. Cajet. cap. 2, de Indulg. Opusc. torn. 1, tract 
 15, cap. 1. 
 
 \ Alphon. de Cast. adv. Haeres. 1. 12. tit. Purg. f. p. 258. 
 14* 
 
162 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES 
 
 Gabriel Biel, on the Canon of the Mass, lect. 57, saith, 
 " We must confess, that before the time of Gregory, (anno 
 596,) the use of indulgences was very little if at all known, 
 but now the practice of them is grown frequent ; for the 
 Church, without doubt, hath the spirit of Christ her spouse, 
 and therefore erreth not."* 
 
 Navarrius, the pope's penitentiary, saith, " What is th 
 cause that among the ancients so little mention is made of 
 indulgences, and among the moderns they are in such use? 
 John of Rochester, most holy and reverend for his dignity 
 of bishop and cardinal, hath taught us the reason, saying, 
 that the explicit faith of purgatory or indulgences was not 
 so necessary in the primitive church as now; and again, 
 while there was no heed taken to purgatory, and no man 
 inquired after indulgences, because thereupon dependeth 
 the property and worth of them."t 
 
 Saith St. Anthony, Archbishop of Florence, (whom the 
 pope canonized,) "Touching indulgences, we have nothing 
 expressly cited in Holy Scripture ; although the saying of 
 the apostle be alleged on this subject, (2 Cor. ii. 10,) ' For 
 what I have pardoned, if I have pardoned any thing, I have 
 done it for your sakes m the person of Christ;' nor are 
 they found at all in the writings of the ancient doctors, but 
 of the modern. "J 
 
 Cardinal Fisher saith, " So long as there was no care 
 about purgatory, nobody looked for indulgences, for from it 
 proceeds all regard for indulgences. When purgatory was 
 but so lately known to the universal church or received, it 
 is not to be wondered at that in the first time of the church 
 there were no indulgences. Of purgatory in the ancient 
 fathers there is no mention at all, or very rare, and to this 
 day the Greeks believe it not, and the Latins did not all at 
 once, but by little and little receive it."§ 
 
 * Dicendum quod ante tempora B. Gregorii, modicus vel nullus fuit 
 usus Indulgentiarum, nunc autem crebrescit usus earum, quia, &c. G. 
 Biel, lect. 57. 
 
 + Quare autem apud antiquos tam rara, et apud recentiores tam fre- 
 quens Indulgentiarum mentio"? &c. — Navar. Com. de Joel et Indulg. 
 p. 545. 
 
 * Anton. Sum. S. Theolog. part 1, tit. 10 & 3, de Indul. fol. 202. 
 Venetiis, an. 1582. 
 
 § Quamdiu nulla fuerit de purgatorio cura, nemo qusesivit indulgen- 
 tias ; nam ex ilia pendet omnis indulgentiarum existimatio,; quum ita- 
 
INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 163 
 
 Notwithstanding those testimonies, the gain by them, it 
 appears, is so great, that they are even in our day, (most 
 shameful to think on !) persisted in and practised. Take a 
 view of the plenary indulgence sent by Pope Pius VII. to 
 Dr. Moylan, Bishop of Cork, granted on the 14th of May, 
 1809, and published in Cork anno 1813, as appears by the 
 following extracts from the doctor's pastoral address: 
 
 " Beloved brethren, — Animated with the warmest desires 
 of promoting your eternal welfare, we resolved, immediately 
 on completing our cathedral chapel, to establish a mission 
 in it of pious exercises and instructions for the space of a 
 month, and in order to induce our brethren to attend there- 
 at, and to profit by those effectual means of sanctifi cation, 
 we applied to the holy see for a solemn plenary indulgence, 
 in the form of a jubilee, which the holy father was most 
 graciously pleased to grant by a bull, as follows: — 
 
 " ' Pius VII., by divine providence, pope, grants unto 
 each and to every one of the faithful of Christ who, after 
 assisting at least eight times at the holy exercise of the 
 mission, (in the new cathedral of Cork,) shall confess his 
 or her sins with true contrition, and approach unto the holy 
 communion — shall visit the said cathedral chapel, and there 
 offer up to God for some time pious and fervent prayers for 
 the propagation of the holy Catholic faith, and to our inten- 
 tion, a plenary indulgence, applicable to the souls in pur- 
 gatory by way of suffrage, and this in form of a jubilee.'' 
 
 " Such, beloved brethren, is the great, the inestimable 
 grace offered to us by the vicar of Jesus Christ ; prepare, 
 beloved, prepare your hearts to receive the fulness of the 
 divine mercy; it is offered to all — let no one refuse to 
 accept of it. Let sinners by its means become just, and 
 let the just by it become more justified. It is written, God 
 will hear us in the acceptable time ; surely this holy time 
 of indulgence must be that most acceptable time. Those 
 days of grace and mercy must be the days of your salva- 
 tion. Ah ! profit of them ; be reconciled to your offended 
 God. If you neglect this grace — if you suffer this holy 
 time of indulgence to pass without profiting by it, there is 
 
 que. Purgatorium tam sero cognitum ac receptum ecclesi® fuerit uni- 
 verse. Apud Priscos nulla vel quam rarissima fiebat mentio, sed et 
 Graecis ad hunc usque diem non est creditum purgatorium esse, &c. 
 RofFens. Assert. Lutheran. Confut. art. 1 8. 
 
164 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 
 
 every reason to fear that the time of God's mercy shall pass 
 away from you, never more to return. Behold, the trea- 
 sures of God's grace are now open to you ! The ministers 
 of Jesus Christ, invested with his authority, and animated 
 by his Spirit, expect you with a holy impatience, ready to 
 ease you of that heavy burden of sin under which you 
 have so long laboured. Were your sins as red as scarlet, 
 by the grace of the absolution and application of this 
 plenary indulgence, your souls shall become white as 
 snow, &c. 
 
 " Wherefore, dearly beloved, that you may all know that 
 which, according to the bull of his holiness, is necessary 
 to gain the benefit of this plenary indulgence, granted in 
 form of a jubilee, you will observe, 
 
 "First, That it will commence in the new cathedral 
 chapel on the first Sunday in Advent, being the 28th day 
 of November instant, and to continue to the festival of St. 
 John the evangelist, the 27th day of December. Second, 
 To gain this plenary indulgence it is necessary to be truly 
 penitent, to make a good confession, &c, according to the 
 above bull and intention of our holy father the pope, five 
 paters, and five aves, and a creed, to the above intention, 
 fulfil the above obligations. Thirdly, All priests approved 
 of by us to hear confessions can, during the above timu 
 absolve all such persons as present themselves with due- 
 dispositions at confession in order to obtain this plenary 
 indulgence, from all sins and censures reserved to the 
 holy see or to us, they enjoining on such persons as are 
 thus absolved, a salutary penance. 
 
 "We order this pastoral letter and instruction to be read 
 in every chapel of our diocese, in town and country, at 
 every mass, on Sunday the 14th, the 21st, the 28th of No- 
 vember instant, and on Sunday the 5th of December next. 
 Given at Cork, Nov. 2, 1813."* 
 
 Here is an indulgence of our own day, in exact unison 
 with those of Leo X. for " all sins and censures" 
 
 See the indulgences in the " Scapular," St. Francis 
 "Cord," &c, some plenary, and some partial, forgiving 
 two-sevenths of their sins, &c.f 
 
 * Letters of "Amicus Hibernicus," printed at Dublin, 1816, (by the 
 Rev. Peter Itoe, of Kilkenny.) 
 •J- " By a plenary indulgence a man returns to the state he was in 
 
INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 165 
 
 The voice of inspiration is, " If we or an angel from 
 heaven preach any other gospel to you but that we have 
 preached, let him be accursed." " If any man shall add to 
 the words of this book, God shall add unto him the plagues 
 that are written in this book. And if any shall take away 
 from the words of the book of this prophesy, God shall 
 take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the 
 holy city, and from the things which are written in this 
 book." Gal. i. 8. Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 
 
 We have just seen, by the confession of several learned 
 papal cardinals and doctors, that indulgences were neither 
 taught nor practised by Christ or his apostles, nor in the 
 primitive church, but are of modern invention ! These, 
 then, being held up as " replete with grace and salvation," 
 are therefore a new gospel, a gospel which the apostles or 
 ancients knew not. Hence, instead of being the vehicles 
 of all these blessings, must they not, if the apostle spake 
 truly, be the very contrary, — be curses to all concerned in 
 them ? And i3 it not most strange that now, in the nine- 
 teenth century, the same darkness should continue as pre- 
 vailed in the dark ages, and that men of sense and learning 
 should not be terrified at such divine denunciations hanging 
 over their heads, and cease from these lamentable decep- 
 tions ! ! 
 
 If a doctrine be promulgated as from God, to the children 
 of men, and as replete with all these inestimable blessings, 
 graces, and certain salvation, as above exhibited in the ad- 
 dress and bull, and if yet it be found that this doctrine or 
 these directions so laid down did not in any wise proceed 
 from God, must it not then clearly follow, let the temporal 
 
 after baptism, and did he die that instant his soul would go at once to 
 Paradise, without passing through purgatory." — p. 25. " On the day 
 of admission into the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Car- 
 mel, and receiving the habit, all the faithful receive a plenary indul- 
 gence." Pope Paul V., p. 38. And Honorius III. and Nicholas IV. 
 promised to all such who confess and pray for the extirpation of heresy 
 the general pardon of all their sins." — p. 45. " To those who, having 
 confessed on every Sunday of the year, visit the churches of the Car- 
 melite order, an indulgence of eighty-seven years and eighty-seven qua- 
 rantines, with the remission of two-sevenths of their sins // / Sixtus 
 V." Edited by the very Rev. T. Coleman, Provincial of the C. Car 
 melites of Ireland, Dublin, 1826, and sanctioned, he says, by twenty 
 eight popes, &c. 
 
166 DR. MILNER ON INDULGENCES 
 
 gam made thereby be ever so great, that the whole is from 
 the grand enemy of God and man, the father of lies, is as 
 well blasphemy against Christ as it is an imposture on men 
 to their utter ruin ? ~nd that those who are occupied in pro- 
 mulgating such doctrines and practices, cannot in this be 
 the "ministers of Christ, nor be animated by his Spirit " 
 but are the direct opposite ? This is granted by papal doc- 
 tors themselves. " That church" saith Dr. Manning, 
 " that would teach any doctrine bat that taught by Christ 
 and delivered by his apostles, would not be the chaste 
 spouse of Christ, but an harlot, and the school of Sa- 
 tan." Short Method, p. 29, 59. 
 
 But this doctrine of indulgences, which Dr. Moylan has 
 so extolled as proceeding from God, and containing so 
 many blessings, is just proved never to have been heard of 
 for many ages after Christ. Hence it demonstrably follows, 
 it is from " the school of Satan," and that all who propa- 
 gate these impostures, are therefore by no means the minis- 
 ters of Christ. The ponderous weight of this awful con- 
 clusion, the doctor and his friends must feel; and must find 
 it their duty, in their own defence, to confute all the above 
 papal doctors, and all antiquity and Scripture, and prove 
 against them that these indulgences are from God, belong 
 solely to the pope to distribute, contain all these blessings 
 for the living and the souls in purgatory, and that Christ 
 appointed them to be obtained by the "fives" &c, as above 
 specified ; or otherwise, he must fall under all these dread- 
 ful imputations, for attempting to forgive sins in a way 
 Christ never appointed ; and must expect all the curses de- 
 nounced in the Scriptures against those who preach a new 
 doctrine. But if this task prove impossible, he and his 
 brethren should instantly repent, make restitution, give 
 back the people's money thus obtained, and ask pardon of 
 Christ for having taught such delusive doctrines, and teach 
 them no more. 
 
 DR. MILNER ON INDULGENCES AND PURGATORY. 
 
 Before we finally dismiss these subjects, we must take 
 leave to redeem our pledge, and bring Dr. Milner's defence 
 of them under some brief examination. And first, it is a 
 fact that will be freely admitted, that when any advocate is 
 
EXAMINED AND CONFUTED. 167 
 
 found contradicting himself, mis-stating others, but, above 
 all, falsifying the gospel of God, or, in other words, belying 
 his God to his face, no authorities he can cite, no quotations 
 he brings, nothing that he says after this, can for a moment 
 be minded, much less relied on by any man of sense ; for 
 he that dares to turn God's truth, which every one has or 
 can have at hand, into a lie, can it be supposed that he will 
 not do the same with the writings of men, when he cannot 
 be so readily detected, because they are not at hand, or that 
 he will stop at any thing when it serves his purpose? 
 2dly. When a writer is seen labouring hard to make others 
 receive as truth what is flatly opposed to that which he 
 knows, nay, swears is truth, can he be deemed an honest 
 man? or can any one, however large his stretch of charity, 
 say that he believes himself? or contemplate him other 
 than as a deliberate and odious deceiver ? When Dr. Mil- 
 ner's arguments and proceedings in defence of his system 
 shall have been weighed, I question if his warmest admirers 
 shall not be constrained to blush, nay, be sickened to the 
 heart for him. On the subject of indulgences, ("End of 
 Controversy," let. 42,) while I pass by his empty declama- 
 tion and heap of quotations, that can be of no other possible 
 use but to try to impress the ignorant that he has the world 
 of truth at his back, like a crafty general that makes a great 
 show of a vast army at a distance, but when, nothing terri- 
 fied, we draw near to them, lo ! it is all a cheat, they are 
 but paper soldiers, puppets only ! I say, while this sort of 
 stuff we leave to others to admire, we adduce the weight 
 of all he has said in the following curious extract. 
 
 Saith he, (in accordance with his Trent council,) " The 
 essential guilt and eternal punishment of sin can only be 
 expiated by the precious merits of our Redeemer, Christ : 
 but a certain temporal punishment God reserves for the 
 penitent himself to endure! lest the easiness of his pardon 
 should make him careless about falling back again into sin. 
 Hence, satisfaction for his temporal punishment has been 
 instituted by Christ, as a part of the sacrament of penance ; 
 and this very satisfaction is only efficacious through Christ. 
 As the promise of the Lord to his apostles — St. Peter in 
 particular — and their successors, is unlimited; * Whatsoever 
 you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven,' (Matt 
 xvi. 19;) so, the church believes and teaches, that her juris 
 
168 DR. MILLER ON INDULGENCES 
 
 diction extends to this satisfaction, so as to be able to remit 
 it wholly or partially ', in certain circumstances, by what is 
 called an indulgence ! St. Paul exercised this power in 
 behalf of the incestuous man, (2 Cor. ii. 10 ;) and the 
 church has claimed and exercised the same power ever 
 since the time of the apostles down to the present ! But 
 there must be a just cause for the exercise of it ; namely, 
 the greater good of the penitent ! or of the faithful, or of 
 Christendom in general ! and there must be a certain pro- 
 portion between the punishment remitted and the good work 
 performed. Hence, NO ONE CAN EVER BE SURE 
 THAT HE HAS GAINED THE ENTIRE BENEFIT 
 OF THE INDULGENCE, THOUGH HE HAS PER- 
 FORMED ALL THE CONDITIONS APPOINTED 
 FOR THIS END ! ! ! And it is the received doctrine of 
 the church, that an indulgence, when truly gained, is not 
 barely a relaxation of the canonical penance enjoined by the 
 church, but also an actual remission, by God himself, of the 
 ivhole, or of part of the temporal punishment due to* it in 
 his sight! I This explanation of an indulgence, conform- 
 ably to the doctrine of theologians, the decrees of popes, 
 and the definitions of councils, ought to silence the objec- 
 tions and suppress the sarcasms of Protestants on this 
 head!!!" 
 
 That this is indeed the real doctrine of his council and 
 of his infallible church to this hour, none will dispute ; but 
 that in the whole of it there is a tittle of truth, and that he 
 could believe there is, who of the least information will at- 
 tempt to affirm ? He assumes as divine truths the follow- 
 ing most monstrous propositions : 1 . That when God acquits 
 a penitent of one — the eternal guilt, he still holds him under 
 another guilt — the temporal. 2. That he himself must 
 endure this latter, and must atone for it here, in the way 
 his clergy shall appoint, or in purgatory. 3. That this 
 mode of satisfaction was instituted by Christ. 4. That to 
 his church he has committed, by an unlimited promise, nil 
 power to manage this whole business. 5. That such is her 
 jurisdiction, she can remit the eternal guilt in the sacrament 
 of penance, and the temporal guilt — the whole of it, or a 
 part! — by the same, but especially by an indulgence, as did 
 St. Paul, and as the church has ever since always done ! 
 or, lastly, by masses ; these two last extending to purgatory 
 
EXAMINED AND CONFUTED. 169 
 
 also ! (This must not be forgotten.) 6. Because there 
 must be a just proportion between the punishment remitted 
 and the good work, i. e. the penance enjoined by the pas- 
 tor ; no one can ever be sure, let him perform it ever so 
 well, that he has obtained the entire of the remission he 
 aimed at ! ! ! Hence, of course, his doubts and alarm must 
 ever continue, and his church must devise other new plans 
 for his relief, viz. more penance, more indulgences, a jubi- 
 lee, extreme unction, and, at the end, purgatory, with more 
 indulgences still, masses, and what not, to extricate the poor 
 soul ! ! ! Who of the least penetration but must see, in the 
 whole, the most injurious, deliberate, and palpable jugglery 
 and priestcraft, to drain and enslave the people? and also 
 that every one of these assumptions are blasphemous un- 
 truths ? 
 
 The doctor knowing, nay, being sworn, "that the New 
 Testament is infallible truth," and that the opposite of it is 
 falsehood; and reading therein, that when God justifies a 
 penitent sinner by his grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, 
 "HE JUSTIFIES HIM FROM ALL THINGS"— gives 
 him his Holy Spirit, with "love, joy, and peace in his 
 soul," and giving him the spirit of adoption to witness his 
 salvation to his heart, and incline him to every good word 
 and work, and help him against the devil, the world's al- 
 lurements, and the sinful propensities of nature — the flesh, 
 " He makes him an heir of grace — his reconciled child, and 
 a joint heir with Christ,"* as in a moment. Yes, as in a 
 moment, " he is passed from death unto life,"t and from 
 condemnation, in every sense, to justification and divine 
 peace, so as that " there is against him no law." And 
 hence, in the Christian dispensation, the last and best of 
 all, no such thing as any guilt of temporal punishment 
 abides on any whom God thus justifies from eternal guilt. 
 I say, when Dr. Milner had before his eyes all this, and the 
 many testimonies just adduced from his own doctors, Car- 
 dinals Fisher, Cajetan, &c, " that no indulgences or pur- 
 gatory were known in the first ages of the church," can anv 
 man in his senses say he believed a word he wrote to sup- 
 port indulgences or purgatory, &c. ? 
 
 * Acts xiii. 38; x. 43. Rom. iii. 24; vi. 6, 7; v, 1— -5, 16; vi. 1$ 
 - 22 ; viii. 1, 16, 17, 33; x. 12, 13. 
 
 i John v. 24. 1 John i. 7—9. Gal. v. 22, 23. 
 15 
 
170 DR. MILNER ON INDULGENCES. 
 
 His first proposition, " that God divides guilt, and while 
 he pardons the greater freely, leaves the penitent himself to 
 atone for the less, which he must do by the aid of the 
 clergy," as it of course makes out work for them both here 
 and in purgatory, so is it the foundation, the impious and 
 fell foundation of all the rest, and of the clergy's evil power, 
 (for as it is wholly opposed to the gospel, foul, impious, and 
 accursed must the doctor himself have believed it to be,) so 
 that when this is taken away, when this is blown up by the 
 force of gospel truth, the whole structure must rush head- 
 long, Babylon then must fall, — fall to rise no more ! Little 
 is it therefore to be wondered at that the gospel, which, if 
 applied, must thus shatter Babylon and her crafty doctrines 
 to atoms, is dreaded more than any thing ! ! Did the doctor 
 harden himself against all truth and his conscience when he 
 told the world that Christ instituted indulgences, &c, that 
 St. Paul practised them, and that the Christian church has 
 done so ever since? What ! did he indeed believe a syllable of 
 this? No, truly. For when God forgives all guilt, then none, 
 it is plain, remains on the justified Christian; and to insti- 
 tute a mode to remove what exists not is preposterous, and 
 to impute such to Christ is diabolical blasphemy ! When 
 St. Paul and the Corinthians received the wicked man again 
 into the Christian society after he had repented, did they 
 lay any penance on him, more than did Christ on the peni 
 tent adulteress, saying to her, "neither do I condemn thee, 
 go, and sin no more?" John viii. 11. Where then, in all 
 this, is there any papal indulgence ? 
 
 Oh, where was the doctor's shame, candour, or con- 
 science, to tell such stories, such wicked tales of Christ 
 and his apostles ? But he says, " the church always prac- 
 tised these matters." The doctor, it seems, does not know 
 how to blush ! His own doctors, (who had not, it appears, 
 arrived then at priestcraft's perfection,) tell him " the first 
 churches of Christ heard nothing of these doctrines," yet 
 he and his brethren of modern times are deaf to them. 
 Hence most conclusive is it he did not, could not believe a 
 sentence of all he said in defence of indulgences or purga- 
 tory, as every one not an idiot or judicially blinded may see, 
 and yet goes on quoting with all effrontery! ! But who in 
 his senses can receive a word of it ? On the next article, 
 purgatory, he is equally ridiculous 
 
DR MILNER ON PURGATORY. 171 
 
 DOCTOR MILNER ON PURGATORY. 
 
 On this subject, too, the doctor is, as usual, profuse in 
 declamation and pompous vapouring, and most abundant in 
 quotations, as if he had both friends and foes to side with 
 him. But it is all finesse. And we must say of his reve- 
 rence occidit miseros crambe repitita magistros, he pat- 
 ters over the old cold rounds again, and does nothing. And 
 much as he quotes from the ancients, and their praying for 
 the dead, (as Origen and others of them who, mistakenly 
 believing there was no hell, but a fire that all the saints, even 
 the Blessed Virgin, must pass through, taught that prayers 
 should be made for them, as I have noticed elsewhere;) 
 I say, much as he quotes such for purgatory, I must affirm 
 he could not believe himself that they meant any such 
 thing, but used them merely to serve his purpose. The 
 sum, however, of all he says on the subject in the shape 
 of scriptural argument, is in the following passage in 2d 
 page of his forty-third letter. 
 
 Saith he, " What place, I ask, must that be which our 
 Saviour called Abraham's bosom, where Lazarus reposed, 
 (Luke xvi.) among the other just souls, till He, by his 
 passion, paid their ransom ? Not heaven, but evidently a 
 middle state. Again, of what place is it that St. Peter 
 speaks, (iii. 19,) where Christ preached to those spirits that 
 were in prison? It is evidently the same that is mentioned 
 in the apostles' creed, He descended into hell, not the hell 
 of the damned, surely, but the prison above mentioned, 
 or Abraham's bosom; in short, A MIDDLE STATE." 
 This is the strength of all he writes. 
 
 That devils are not yet come to their worst torments, 
 (nor, therefore, are wicked men,) is clear from the gospel. 
 Matt. viii. 29. Said they to Christ, "Art thou come to tor- 
 ment us before the time ?" Hence it may be said they are 
 in a middle state, " reserved under darkness to that day;" 
 and the saints will not arrive at their highest glory till at 
 the resurrection they shall get their bodies, and then "take 
 possession of the kingdom prepared for them." Matt. xxv. 
 34 Hence Abraham's bosom may well be termed a middle 
 state, yet neither are in any state of mutation, nor hence in 
 
172 DR. MILNER ON PURGATORY 
 
 any purgatory. Besides the New Testament, to which 
 whatsoever is opposed Dr. Milner and all his brethren be- 
 lieve is falsehood, teacheth us abundantly that as death leaves 
 men such shall the judgment find them. "All must appear 
 before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may 
 receive the things done in his body, according to that he 
 hath done, whether it be good or bad."* Hence can no 
 change whatever take place from death to that day. The 
 converse of this proposition the doctor must believe, even 
 on oath, would be falsehood ; therefore could neither he nor 
 his church teach that there is a purgatory, where a change 
 can be made, and souls be relieved, without believing they 
 were teaching absolute untruth ! And of course they could 
 not avoid believing that, by every quotation they adduced, 
 every word they spoke, every mass they offered, and every 
 prayer they made or caused to be made to rescue souls from 
 purgatory, or in any wise change their state, they were 
 opposing Christ and his gospel, — teaching the direct oppo- 
 site to truth, and deceiving mankind. I repeat it, all this 
 they either must have believed of themselves as clearly as 
 that night is not day, or have taken leave of their reason 
 and become worse than bedlamites. 
 
 Having thus demonstrated that no man in his senses, and 
 that at all believes in Christ and his gospel, can possibly 
 believe in purgatory, prayers for the dead, indulgences, and 
 the rest of it, and that all who practise such doctrines are 
 impiously following falsehoods, and the father of them of 
 course, and flying daily in the face of God to their undoing, 
 I shall now notice the doctor's curious arguments, or rather 
 sophistries. 
 
 " That souls are in a middle state, called Abraham's 
 bosom, or Paradise ; and that this middle state is the hell, 
 the prison into which Christ descended with the pardoned 
 thief, and therefore is purgatory," the doctor argues ; and 
 thus at once proves his point most manfully and most mar- 
 vellously too ! that certainly there is a purgatory. 
 
 Now let us see : " This middle state of the saints is, with 
 us, Abraham's bosom or paradise, the third heaven ;" so far 
 are both agreed. But with him and his church, "this same 
 
 • 2 Cor. v. 1, 10. Rev. xx. 12. Matt. xxv. 34—46. 
 
EXAMINED AND CONFUTED. 173 
 
 middle state is also a prison, a hell, a purgatory!" and, 
 consequently, " all the saints, with Moses, Elias, Lazarus, 
 &c , were, before Christ's death, in this prison or bosom 
 of Abraham, comforted together till Christ descended to 
 release them !""* So then, with the doctor, " the bosom of 
 Abraham, or purgatory, or the third heaven, (2 Cor. xii. 4,) 
 is a prison, is hell, is purgatory;" if not, he can find, it ap- 
 pears, no purgatory! Well then, first, "this is a prison, 
 and Lazarus, Abraham, Moses, <fcc, were held there, and 
 could not get out by any means, till Christ, after his death, 
 went down to preach to them and release them." But did 
 the doctor in his haste forget, " that Moses and Elias ap- 
 peared in majesty on the mount with the Lord, and Peter, 
 James, and John, and there conversed with Him about the 
 death he was to suffer?" (Luke ix. 30;) by which they 
 prove, contrary to the doctor, that they were held in no 
 prison whatever before Christ's death, nor therefore were 
 any of the saints so held. Hence, they have spoiled the 
 doctor's and his infallible church's fine theory, and demo- 
 lished his prison totally ! And of course he must eithei 
 have forgotten himself when he was framing this tale, or he 
 did not, could not, believe himself that he was telling th* 
 truth ! And hence we prove against him and his brethren 
 that the saints' middle state, or Abraham's bosom, or para 
 dise, is not either a prison or a purgatory ! 
 
 2. But the doctor's middle state, or Abraham's bosom 
 or paradise, or third heaven, being a prison or hell, or pur 
 gatory, and, in order to rescue souls out of this sad prison, 
 hell, or purgatory, and if possible keep those out of it w4*o 
 have not yet gone to it, that the celestial treasures of in- 
 dulgences must be procured, many masses offered, much 
 prayer made, and penance, weighty penance performed, 
 (yes, weighty, for the doctor and his church tell us that 
 enough is scarcely ever laid on by the clergy ;) I say, as 
 
 * The prison in 1 Pet. iii. is explained, p. 145. The " hell," in the 
 creed, is a mere mistake, being opposed to the gospel that saith " Christ 
 and the penitent thief went to paradise." In this creed, first found in 
 Rufinus's church, in the fifth century, was" desce.ndit ad inferno,? which 
 meant "buried" or "descending to the lower parts, or to hell," but 
 the word "buried" was afterwards added, which makes the mistake. 
 See Bp. Burnet on art. 3d of the 39 Articles. 
 
 18* 
 
*74 DR. MILNER ON PURGATORY 
 
 this prison, or purgatory, or hell, is Abraham's bosom, or 
 paradise, the third heaven, the saints' middle state, then it 
 must follow, that the priests must lay on all these penances, 
 and that the people must perform them, and procure these 
 vast treasures of indulgences, &c. &c. ; and all this, that 
 such miserable souls as are in Abraham's bosom, paradise, 
 or heaven, may be rescued from it — from this middle state ! 
 and that these now on earth may ever be kept out of it and 
 its sorrows ! O ye sapient doctors, this is your divinity, 
 with a witness. And so ye believe ye should lay on all 
 these penances, <fec. &c, to preserve, or rescue the souls 
 of the faithful from the comforts of Abraham's bosom, from 
 the joys of paradise, and save them from the third heaven ! 
 And ye people, ye wise people, say now, ought ye not to 
 submit to any penance, get indulgences, &c, at any cost, 
 and pay the priests well, that you thus may be kept from 
 the sufferings of heaven, and that your friends who are 
 there may be rescued from it as soon as possible ? 
 
 3. These angelic doctors, of course, either believe that 
 Abraham's bosom, the soul's middle state, or paradise, or 
 the third heaven, is a prison, a hell, a purgatory, or that 
 there is no purgatory at all, and that the doctrine that saith 
 these is such a purgatory is a falsehood ! and that all who 
 teach it and the system connected with it, are therefore ac- 
 cursed false prophets ! and, it being opposed to Christ and 
 his gospel, that it is antichristian ; and being sworn to teach 
 it, that they are of course sworn antichrists, going in the 
 broad way to destruction. Hence, I say, thus believing, as 
 they must, they can no longer avoid seeing the absolute and 
 instant necessity of abandoning purgatory, with indulgences, 
 penances, and all the etceteras connected therewith, or re- 
 solve sooner than do so, to perish eternally. Another con- 
 sequence must be obvious ; it is this : the people must 
 either shake off all such degrading, superstitious, and 
 dangerous trammels, and embrace God's truth, or be con- 
 tent to abide in them and suffer for such madness for- 
 ever. 
 
 Having thus, from Dr. Milner's own premises, been con- 
 ducted to these tremendous conclusions, and having opened 
 up this awful system of religion, I, in the fear of God, and 
 in the name of Jesus Christ, lay the whole before my fel • 
 
EXAMINED AND CONFUTED. 175 
 
 low Irishmen for their due consideration, praying that they 
 and I may so run that we meet in paradise to rejoice to- 
 gether forever. 
 
 I am, for Christ's sake, 
 
 Most gladly the servant of all, 
 
 GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 5th edit., Dublin, May 28, 1827. 
 
 P. S. Should any come forth in a fair and Christian way 
 in vindication of the doctor and of his church, we shall have 
 great pleasure in hearing him. 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 AN 
 
 IMPOSSIBILITY; 
 
 AS IS PROVED BY SCRIPTURE, REASON, ANCIENT FATHERS, 
 POPES, CARDINALS, AND PAFAL DOCTORS, AS WELL AS B? 
 PROTESTANT DIVINES ; AND ENDS IN INFIDELITY AND 
 RUIN, 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 
 
 Rev. Sir — You will have the goodness to suffer me again 
 to address you, and to lay before you my arguments on this 
 important subject, which, I pray, may, in the hand of that 
 God who deigns to use weak things for his glory, answer 
 the end intended, even the good, the union, and happiness 
 of his children, in time and eternity; and also the honour 
 of his great name. 
 
 This doctrine, it is affirmed, is found in our Lord's 
 institution of the eucharist. Matt. xxvi. 26 — 29. "And 
 as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and 
 brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, 
 this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, 
 and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it : for this is 
 my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many, 
 for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not 
 drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when 
 I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." And in 
 Luke xxii. 19, 20, "And he took bread, and gave thanks, 
 
 176 
 
TRANSUBSTANTIATION AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 177 
 
 and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body, 
 which is given for you : this do in remembrance of me. 
 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the 
 new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.'" See 
 also Mark xiv. 22—24. 1 Cor. xi. 23—26. 
 
 The meaning of these words, " This is my body," &c, 
 one might suppose is plain enough ; yet a mighty contro- 
 versy has arisen about them, which has lasted these thou- 
 sand years past. It began in the eastern church, in the 
 second council of Nice, in 787, but more especially in the 
 time of Peschasius Radbertus, about the year 820.* He 
 wrote a book to show that Christ changed the bread and 
 wine of the eucharist, by the words of the institution, into 
 his real body and blood, as born of the virgin Mary, and 
 also gave power to all priests, by duly repeating the same 
 words he used, to do the same. But in these opinions he 
 was then opposed by many learned men of his own church, 
 by Scotus, Rabanus Maurus, and particularly by the learned 
 and pious Ratramnus, or Bertram, who, at the request of 
 the Emperor Charles the Bald, wrote with much ability a 
 book on the body and blood of our Lord, which remains 
 to this day. Still the controversy went on from age to age 
 to the year 1215, when transubstantiation was, by the coun- 
 cil of Lateran, as Bellarmine writes, at length made a dog- 
 ma of faith. In the fourteenth century it was opposed by 
 
 * " The doctrine of the corporal presence of Christ in the eucharist," 
 saith the learned Tillotson, "was first started upon occasion of a dispute 
 about the worship of images: in opposition whereto the synod of Con- 
 stantinople, about the year 750, did argue thus : 'That our Lord having 
 left no other image of himself but the sacrament, in which the sub' 
 stance of bread, SfC, is the image of his body, we ought to make no 
 other image of our Lord.' But the council of Nice, in 787, being re- 
 solved to support the image worship, did on the contrary declare that the 
 sacrament, after consecration, is not the image and antitype of Christ's 
 body and blood, but is properly his body and blood." Cardinal Bellar- 
 mine, L. i. De Eucharistia, tells the same, but evidently with a quibble. 
 'None of the ancients' saith he, 'who wrote of heresies hath put this 
 error (of the corporal presence) in his catalogue, nor did any of them 
 dispute about this error for the first six hundred years' " True," said 
 the archbishop, " for as this doctrine of transubstantiation was not in 
 being during the first six hundred years and more, as I have shown, 
 there could then be none to dispute against it." Tillot. on Transuh. 
 ser xxvi. p. 182. 
 
178 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 the famous Wickliffe, and from thence to the present day 
 the contest has been vehemently carried on. 
 
 When I look at the multitude of learned men that have for 
 so many ages been employed; the numerous and voluminous 
 controversies that have been written on this subject; the hor- 
 rible cruelties that have been exercised against those who op- 
 posed this doctrine ; the contentions and struggles that have 
 agitated the Christian world for so many hundreds of years, 
 and the seas of blood that have been spilt because of it, I 
 stand amazed ! and should at first sight be ready to think 
 it must be of so intricate a nature, and clogged with such 
 difficulties, that it would be presumption in so weak" an in- 
 strument as I am now to venture to touch it; yet my views 
 of it are such that it may, I think, be brought into a very 
 narrow compass, and be made plain and easy to be com- 
 prehended by any man of common understanding and ho- 
 nesty. And as this is the bone of contention, the main 
 point of difference between all Romanists and Protestants, 
 it would surely be desirable to remove it, that they hence- 
 forth, as brethren, and as children of that Father with whom 
 they wish to live forever, might, according to his holy will, 
 learn sweetly to think and speak alike, and love one another. 
 In order to accomplish so glorious a work, I feel it my duty 
 to my God and my fellow-men to state my ideas. If any 
 good thereby be done, if even one soul be profited, it will 
 more than compensate. But should I fail in this labour of 
 love, my record is on high, and it can only be said, "Mag- 
 nis tamen excidit ausis" — " He failed in a noble enter- 
 prise." 
 
 Waiving, for a moment the opinions on either side, in 
 order with the greater facility and certainty to be led to the 
 truth, I shall premise a few plain propositions. 
 
 1st. That existence could not be produced by non-exist- 
 ence ; therefore the existence of Him who gave their exist- 
 ence to all created beings could not begin to be, for it would 
 involve this contradiction, that he existed before he existed. 
 Hence he is necessarily eternal, without beginning or end ; 
 is infinitely perfect, and therefore eternally immutable; con- 
 sequently that all his divine attributes, natural and moral, 
 are so likewise. Hence, as darkness could not be the off- 
 spring of light, man, his creature and offspring, though now 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 179 
 
 fallen and sinful, could not when created be otherwise than 
 perfect, and worthy such a parent. 
 
 2d. A revelation for the good of fallen man, proceeding 
 from this infinitely good and perfect Being, must be per- 
 fectly consistent with all his attributes, with the good of 
 man, and with itself also ; hence it must be true in all its 
 parts, and contain in itself, therefore, internal evidence of 
 its divine origin. 
 
 3d. This revelation, which we have, informs us that in 
 the unity of this unoriginate divine nature, Jehovah, by 
 whom all things were created, there exists a plurality of 
 persons, the Father, the Son — Logos, or Eternal Life — and 
 the Holy Ghost, co-equal and co-eternal. That the second 
 person, sent by the Father to deliver man from his sin and 
 misery, and to exalt him to all possible felicity, dignity, and 
 to life eternal, assumed human nature, and being born of a 
 v/oman, became a perfect man, like unto us in all things, 
 sin only excepted ; that he died in due time as a sin-offering 
 to atone for man ; that he rose from the grave and ascended 
 vnto heaven to be our Mediator; that his body is no longer 
 mortal, but being glorified, is become immortal, impassible, 
 and immutable, to which or from which, therefore, nothing 
 «an be added or taken away forever; and that the Holy 
 Ghost, the third person, sanctifies believers, and thus fits 
 them for glory. 
 
 4th. There are certain things, both moral and natural, 
 which (with reverence) are impossible, even to the Al- 
 mighty. To instance, Jehovah cannot lie or do any injus- 
 tice ; or make or annihilate himself or any of his perfec 
 tions ; or work contradictions. He cannot make a thing to 
 be and not to be at the same time ; or make things that are 
 different from each other to be the same ; or that a child 
 could be twice born of the same mother, or of any other 
 creature ; or that what is numerical and local is not numeri- 
 cal and local ; or that a whole should not be greater than 
 its part ; nor can he make that which is already made, be- 
 cause this would imply that it was not made though it was, 
 or that it was now made when it was not, and therefore 
 would involve a double falsehood or contradiction. This, 
 when applied to Christ at his last supper, will show that 
 to make himself then was an utter impossibility. To assert 
 that God can do these, or such things, is to say things im 
 
ISO TRANSTJBSTANTIATION. 
 
 possible to him are possible to him, that is, that he can 
 work contradictions : which to say would be not to honour 
 but to blaspheme him. 
 
 5th. The sacred writers of the Holy Scriptures wrote 
 under the influence of inspiration, or they did not. If not, 
 we have no certain foundation of our faith, and Christianity 
 is at an end. But if they were under the infallible inspira- 
 tion of God, as St. Peter, (2 Pet. i. 21,) and St. Paul, (2 
 Tim. iii. 16,) affirm they were, whatsoever contradicts them 
 must be false. It being admitted, then, that the apostles 
 and evangelists of our Lord were divinely inspired, they 
 must have been therefore the best expositors of his words, 
 and the accounts they have given us must have been in- 
 fallibly true, and consequently not to be contradicted or 
 changed forever. 
 
 6th. Now the record which the sacred writers have given 
 us of Christ our Saviour is, that " He was that divine 
 Logos, that Eternal Life, who was with the Father from 
 everlasting ; that all things were made by him, both in 
 heaven and earth ; that he made the worlds ; and that he is 
 that seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent's 
 head, or destroy the works of the devil ; that he was of the 
 seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, and of the house 
 of David ; was born of a virgin, in the reign of Caesar Au- 
 gustus ; was an infant, then a boy, grew up to be a man ; 
 was baptized of John in the Jordan ; fasted forty days in 
 the wilderness ; was tempted of the devil, and conquered 
 him ; was a preacher of the gospel for more than three 
 years ; was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter; was taken 
 and accused by the Jews ; was scourged and condemned by 
 Pilate : was crucified between two thieves, died, and was 
 buried; rose again, and in the presence of his disciples 
 ascended up to heaven, &c. &c. In all this both sides are 
 agreed, and grant that to contradict this record would be to 
 overturn Christianity. 
 
 7th. Should any person whatever present unto us any 
 being, animate or inanimate, and produced by what power 
 soever, as Jesus Christ, yet devoid of the aforesaid charac- 
 teristics, it is plain, that if he to whom these belong be the 
 true Christ, that this being to which they do not belong, 
 cannot be the true Christ, but must necessarily be either 
 some mistake of imposture. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 181 
 
 8th. When any doctrine is promulgated, which would 
 necessarily subvert Christianity, and consequently the sal- 
 vation of men, it must follow, it came not from Christ, but 
 from his adversary; and that such as publish or teach it 
 must be influenced by the latter, and cannot be Christ's 
 servants. 
 
 If these propositions be self-evident truths, in which both 
 sides agree, let them be but applied to this subject, and the 
 truth must soon appear, all differences cease, and peace and 
 Christian love follow. 
 
 There is one question only which now demands our 
 notice : Is the doctrine of the papal church respecting 
 transubstantiation, sacrifice of the mass, worship of the 
 host, and half- communion, supported by the rational inter- 
 pretation of holy writ? To enter into the force of this 
 question, it will be necessary to adduce a correct statement 
 of that doctrine, in reference to these subjects severally, as 
 it is set forth in the canons and decrees of the council of 
 Trent, and as it is explained by writers of high authority 
 in your communion, which is as follows : — 
 
 ** Since Christ our Redeemer," saith the council of Trent, 
 "has said, that, that was truly his own body which he 
 offered under the appearance of bread ; it has therefore 
 been always believed in the church of God, and it is now 
 again declared by this holy council — That by the consecra- 
 tion of the bread and wine, there is effected a conversion 
 of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of 
 the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of 
 the wine into the substance of his blood ; which conversion 
 is fitly and properly termed, by the holy catholic church, 
 Transubstantiation.* 
 
 1. "If any one shall deny that in the most holy sacra- 
 ment of the eucharist, there are contained, truly, really, and 
 substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul 
 
 * " Be Transubstantione, Quoniam autem Christus Redemptor nos- 
 ter, corpus suum id, quod sub specie panis offerebat, vere esse dixit; 
 ideo persuasum semper in ecclesia Dei fuit, idque tunc denuo, sancta 
 hsec synodus declarat, per consecrationem panis et vini conversionem 
 fieri totius substantias panis in substantiam corporis Christi Domini 
 nostril et totius substantias vini, in substantiam sanguinis ejus : qu© 
 conversio convenienter et proprie a sancta catholica ecclesia transub 
 stantio est appellata. Condi. Trid. sess. xiii. cap. iv. 
 
 16 
 
182 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ ; or say that he is ia 
 it only as in a sign, or figure, or by his influence, let him 
 be accursed ! 
 
 2. "If any one shall say that in the sacrament of the eu- 
 charist, the substance of the bread and wine remains together 
 with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall 
 deny the wonderful and singular conversion of the whole 
 substance of the bread into his body, and the whole sub- 
 stance of the wine into his blood, the appearances only of 
 bread and wine remaining, which conversion the catholic 
 church most properly terms Transubstantiation — let him be 
 accursed I* 
 
 3. "If any one shall deny, that in the adorable sacrament 
 of the eucharist, whole Christ is contained in each element 
 or species, and in the separate parts of each element or 
 species, a separation being made, let him be accursed." 
 
 " I also believe," saith the creed of Pius IV., " that in 
 the mass, a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice is offered 
 unto God, for the living and the dead ; and that the body 
 and blood, with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, is truly, really, and substantially, in the most holy 
 sacrament of the eucharist, and that there is a conversion 
 made of the whole substance of the bread into his body, 
 and the whole substance of the wine into his blood ; which 
 conversion the catholic church calls Transubstantiation. I 
 also acknowledge that whole and entire, and a true sacra- 
 ment, is received under either kind only."t 
 
 * De Transubstantione. " Canon I. Si quis negaverit in sanctis- 
 simse eucharistise sacramento contineri vere, realiter, et substantialiter, 
 corpus et sanguinem una cum anima et divinitate Domini nostri Jesu 
 Christi, ac proinde totum Christum ; sed dixerit tantummodo esse in eo 
 ut in signo, vel figura, aut virtute; anathema sit. 
 
 " Cation II. Si quis dixerit in sacrasancto eucharistias, sacramento 
 remanere substantiam panis et vini una cum corpore et sanguine Domini 
 nostri Jesu Christi, negaveritque mirabilem illam et singularem conver- 
 sionem totius substantias panis in corpus, et totius substantias vini in 
 sanguinem, manentibus dumtaxat speciebus panis et vini : quam quidem 
 conversionem catholica ecclesia aptissime Transubstantionem appellat; 
 anathema sit." 
 
 " Canon III. Si quis negaverit invenerabile sacramento eucharistise, 
 sub unaquaque specie, et sub singulis cuj usque speciei partibus, separa- 
 tione facta, totum Christum contineri; anathema sit." Concil. Trid. 
 sess. xiii. 
 
 f Profiteor pariter in missa offeri Deo, verum, proprium et propitiato- 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 183 
 
 " The papist, truly represented," saith the ingenious Go- 
 ther, " believes it abominable to commit any kind of idola- 
 try, and most damnable to worship or adore a breaden 
 God, or to give divine honour to the elements of bread and 
 wine. He believes of the most holy sacrament of the eu- 
 charist, consecrated now by priests, that it really contains 
 the body of Christ which was delivered for us, and his 
 blood which was shed for the remission of sins ; which 
 being there united with the divinity, he confesses the ivhole 
 Christ to be present, and him he adores and acknowledges 
 his Redeemer, and not any bread or wine. With this faith 
 he believes every mystery of his religion, the Trinity, in- 
 carnation, &c. He unfeignedly confesses, that he thai 
 made the world of nothing but his sole word, that raised 
 the dead and cured diseases by his word, that multiplied 
 bread by his word, that changed water into wine by his 
 word, and sinners into just men, cannot want power to 
 change bread and wine into his body and blood by his 
 word : and this without danger of multiplying his body, of 
 making as many Christs as altars, or leaving the right hand 
 of his Father ; but only by giving his body a supernatural 
 manner of existence," &c. &c. 
 
 By confounding dissimilar propositions — truth and error, 
 possibilities and impossibilities ; by bold assumptions, and 
 palpable mis-statements — this mighty doctor essays to de- 
 fend his council ! And the aim of all his labour is to prove 
 that God can work an impossibility! that Christ, though 
 born of a woman, yet made himself of bread ! and that 
 priests, by his power, can do the same ! Most wonderful 
 discoveries ! He argues, because God did things possible, 
 and which involve no self-contradiction, that therefore he 
 did, and can likewise as easily do things impossible, and 
 which involve self-contradictions ! But if self-contradictions 
 are falsehoods, then this logician, such is his divinity, 
 
 rium sacrificium pro vivis et defunctis ; atque in sanctissimo eucharistise 
 Sacramento esse, vere, realiter, et substantialiter, corpus et sanguinem, 
 una cum anima et divinitate Domini nostri Jesu Christi, fierique conver- 
 sionera totius substantias panis in corpus et totius substantias vini in san 
 guinem ; quam conversionem catholica ecclesia Transubstantionem ap- 
 pellat. Fateor etiam sub utraque tantum specie, totum atque integrum 
 Christum, verumque sacramentum sumi. Constit. Con. Trid. Bull. 
 PiilV. p. 23, an. 1564. 
 
1 84 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 wishes us to believe God can work falsehoods ! This is 
 logic with a vengeance, worthy so learned a divine ! "Par- 
 turiunt monies." 
 
 Now, what must be that system which cannot be other- 
 wise supported ? But had the doctor only proved in any 
 one instance that God ever wrought a contradiction or an 
 impossibility, that he created or made any thing already 
 made, or converted any one substance into what it already 
 was, then it might be said he did something towards prov- 
 ing " that Christ made himself." So, because the Lord 
 made the world, raised the dead, changed water into wine, 
 created man of earth, &c. &c, things not already done, and 
 which involve no contradiction, therefore "he can make 
 himself" and consequently can likewise raise from the dead 
 one not dead, change water into wine that already was wine, 
 &c, even as he made himself many years after his body 
 was created. Such are his mighty arguments ! 
 
 So then the talented Gother, the famed, the admired doc- 
 tor of all Romanists, tells us wonders indeed ! He tells us, 
 the whole Christ is, by a priest's consecration, present in the 
 eucharist, and thut to adore it is not idolatry, is not dam- 
 nable: yet the inspired apostles it seems were ignorant of 
 this, and did not adore it or Christ in it ! Either then they 
 did not believe him there, and counted it idolatry and dam- 
 nable to adore it thus, or they were guilty of neglecting to 
 adore their Lord, and of course were not inspired ! 
 
 But if they were not ignorant nor mistaken, nor neglect* 
 ful of their duty to Christ in not adoring the eucharist, as 
 did the doctor, it is conclusive that the doctor and his breth- 
 ren are guilty of departing from the apostle's example, and 
 of damnable idolatry in adoring the eucharist, and that in 
 so doing they have adored the work of their own hands, 
 the idol of their own devising! 
 
 And if their faith embraces such self-contradictions and 
 idolatries as "divine mysteries" and that the trinity and 
 incarnation are similar mysteries, then must they unavoid- 
 ably be self-contradictions and idolatrous falsehoods ! and 
 thus their faith, and O what a faith, teacheth them to up- 
 root Christianity, and plunge themselves in infidelity and 
 eternal destruction ! And it further teacheth them, " that 
 Christ's human body can be made of bread and wine on 
 every altar, without any danger of making as many Christs 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 185 
 
 as there are altars, or of his leaving the right hand of his 
 Father." So then his true body can be only in one place, 
 and can be everywhere; but his human body was in all 
 things, sin excepted, like ours ! If so, then it follows we 
 can be in every place too, and of course be gods ! for God 
 only can be everywhere. Or if his body was unlike ours, 
 then he could not have been true Christ, and Christianity is 
 uprooted, and hence the doctor's religion, which cannot be 
 otherwise maintained, is necessarily the very antichrist's 
 system. 
 
 But if these latter are glaringly absurd, so also must be 
 the former, and then his cause is lost. He might as well 
 have argued, Because God doth good, and just, and wise 
 actions, therefore he can do the contrary, which is blas- 
 phemy ! Again, he argues, As Christ wrought many mira- 
 cles, which all then present could evidently see and know 
 to be such, so also he hath wrought a miracle in the sacra- 
 ment, which nobody then present saw, and which none 
 could ever see ! Marvellous reasoning ! Now, when our 
 Lord pronounced the words to raise the dead, had the dead 
 man not stirred, but remained dead : or had the winds anci 
 seas continued to roar when he bid them be still : or the 
 water remained water, as did the eucharistic bread after his 
 consecration of it remain bread, without any visible change, 
 who could have believed any miracle or change was wrough* 
 in the former things, and therefore not in the latter? Hence 
 his cause is self-overthrown. 
 
 Again, he asserts, in the case of the angels appearing as 
 men, the Holy Spirit appearing as a dove, &c, the senses 
 of those present were deceived, hence he infers it could be 
 so in the matter of the eucharist. But he does not attempt 
 to prove that all their senses combined examined these 
 cases, and were deceived ; for had all been deceived, how 
 could they have ever found their mistake ? This, then, is 
 a mere assumption, a quibble ! which, if true, however 
 would tear up the very foundations of Christianity, for the 
 person of our Lord, his doctrines, miracles, death, resurrec- 
 tion, and ascension could not be known but by the senses. 
 But if the combination of the senses of all men could, in 
 every age and now, be deceived in the matter of the sacra- 
 ment, so they might have been deceived in our Lord's days 
 
 16* 
 
186 TRANSUBSTANT1ATI0N 
 
 likewise with regard to him, and so would our foundation 
 be gone, and Christianity be no more. 
 
 Further, he misstates ; he says " that our Lord, even 
 before his death or glorification, nay, when an unborn in- 
 fant, gave to his body the properties of a spirit, and in this 
 wise was born, leaving his mother a virgin still ! and in this 
 wise came forth through the great stone out of the tomb I" 
 &c. Consequently, that his human body could in this wise 
 be in the sacrament also ; yea, and at the same instant not 
 only in heaven, but on every altar on earth, though not in 
 the intermediate spaces ! therefore that he was at the sacra- 
 ment as a man like unto us, and in it as a spirit not like 
 unto us ! It will follow, then, that he was a man like unto 
 us, and in one place only, and yet not in one place only, 
 but in every place a priest may please to consecrate the 
 host ! But Christ our Lord contradicts and at once over- 
 throws this visionary papal fabric ; for even after his resur- 
 rection he declares, "He was not a spirit, but a real man, 
 having flesh and bones" Luke xxiv. 39. Scripture also 
 says, "He was like unto us in all things, sin only ex- 
 cepted." "Jin angel rolled away the stone from the 
 tomb" Matt, xxviii. 2. — Heb. ii. 17. Now, were this 
 assertion true that our Lord had this sort of body, it would 
 instantly annihilate Christianity, for had he this two-fold 
 sort of body, and been thus born, he could not have been* 
 true man, like unto us, who have no such body, nor there- 
 fore be true Christ ! 
 
 " He believes transubstantiation on the same ground that 
 he does the mystery of the Trinity and incarnation," &c, 
 and thus equalizes them. Here, also, he wofully stumbles. 
 That God made this world by his word is a fact we cannot 
 deny, although how done is above our reason ; that in the 
 one divine nature, Jehovah, there are three persons, co- 
 equal and co-eternal, yet not three and one in the same 
 sense, hence not involving any contradiction ; therefore, 
 though above our reason, not contrary to it, we, on the au- 
 thority of revelation, equally believe. But this dogma, "un- 
 known to the ancients, both name-and thing," as saith the 
 learned Erasmus, on 1 Cor. xi. 23 — 29, and which involves 
 manifest contradictions, nor therefore hath any legitimate 
 Scripture foundation, who can believe ? That bread is flesh 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 187 
 
 aniUvine is blood, or that a consecrated wafer or a small por- 
 tion of wine should be separately and individually the very 
 body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 opposes not only all probability, but all possibility; over- 
 turns and disarranges the entire physical constitution of our 
 nature; and, under the venerable sanctions of faith and 
 religion, most egregiously insults the convictions and dic- 
 tates of the understanding. 
 
 To conclude, — " The papist, truly represented, believes 
 it damnable idolatry to worship a breaden god, or any 
 bread and wine," &c. A mere flourish ! Does he not, I 
 ask, worship the host ? If any of these many defects men- 
 tioned in his missal, and which it is impossible to guard 
 against, occur in the consecration, he must admit the bread 
 and wine remain as they were, and it is plain they must 
 remain so. Hence the host is bread and wine still. They, 
 then, who worship the host, say what he will to the con- 
 trary, do therefore worship bread and wine, and most 
 clearly run into this very idolatry he would seem so much 
 to abhor. 
 
 "After the consecration," saith Dr. Challoner, in the 
 same strain, " provided there be no defects, there remains 
 nothing of the inward substance of the bread and wine, but 
 the outward appearances only; and then, Jesus Christ him- 
 'self, true God and true man, soul, body, and divinity, who 
 was born of the blessed Virgin, and suffered on the cross, 
 is truly, really, and substantially present in the eucharist ; 
 that the sacrifice of the eucharist is the same as that of the 
 cross, and not two distinct sacrifices, as Jesus never had 
 but one body ; with this only difference, that the sacrifice 
 of the cross once for all, (that one offering by which we are 
 perfected forever,) is a bloody sacrifice, because Christ 
 really died on the cross : and that of the altar is an un- 
 bloody sacrifice, as there he only dies mystically, inasmuch 
 as his death is represented in the consecrating apart, the 
 bread and wine, to denote the shedding of his sacred blood 
 from his body at the time of his death. And although it is 
 the officiating priest that consecrates and offers, yet, inas- 
 much as he acts not in his own name, but as Christ's vice- 
 gerent, in his name and person, when he comes to the con- 
 secration of the elements, (in which this sacrifice essentially 
 consists,) saying, This is my body, this is the chalice of 
 
1SS TRANSUBSTAXTIATIOX 
 
 my blood, &c. ; therefore, it is Christ himself who offers 
 the sacrifice of the altar also, even the selfsame Christ who 
 offered the sacrifice of the cross, — because he is the princi- 
 pal priest, therefore that of the altar and that of the cross 
 are but one and the same sacrifice ; for, the sacrifice of the 
 cross on which he died is the same as that of the eucha- 
 rist" ! ! ! Chall. Catholic Christian, pages 23, 24, 44, 69, 
 70, 73. 
 
 Who can understand all this ? Did these learned bishops 
 themselves comprehend it ? Hard indeed was their fate to 
 try to make east and west meet — to reconcile flat contradic- 
 tions, and defend an impossibility. Hence their perplexity. 
 
 The doctrine contained in these authentic documents, and 
 believed by your church, is plainly this, that by the act of 
 consecration in the sacrament of the eucharist, the elements 
 of bread and wine are actually, really, and substantially 
 converted into the actual, real, and substantial body and 
 blood of our adorable Eedeemer — that numerical, identical 
 body that suffered, agonized, and died on the cross — that 
 identical body that is now glorified at the right hand of the 
 Father ! It is further believed that each of these consecrated 
 elements becomes also separately and individually the body 
 and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ ; so that the whole of 
 Christ — " body, soul, and divinity," is contained in the 
 bread separately, and in the wine separately ; and that there- 
 fore, this bread and wine become separately entitled to all 
 the expressions of outward homage and adoration, whether 
 preserved in the church or exhibited in processions for the 
 edification of the multitude ! 
 
 According to Dr. Challoner, "In the sacrament of the 
 altar, there is every appearance of bread and wine ; yet 
 neither bread nor wine is there." The same Christ who 
 bled and died really on the cross, is there, and dies there 
 too ; "for the sacrifice of the cross on which he died is 
 the same as that of the eucharist ; yet, he dies only mysti- 
 cally ;" that is, he does not really die there, but represent' 
 atively, denotatively, figuratively, or mystically, as he 
 saith. Are not all these self-contradictions as plain as words 
 can make them, and a flat denial that the real body, blood, 
 and death of Christ are in the eucharist ; and therefore, a 
 total overthrow of transubstantiation ? nay, it is the very 
 doctrine of Protestants, who contend, he is there representa- 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 18i 
 
 tively , figuratively , or mystically only. " This sacrifice, 
 this body on the altar, is the same as that on the cross." 
 This same body, and that same body, if there can be any 
 meaning in words, are evidently two bodies. So, one is 
 two, and not two ! most marvellous ! " It is immolated ; 
 i. e. slain on the altar daily, but not really;" "It is offered 
 up in real sacrifice to God ; but denotatively only." That 
 is, it is slain, and offered really, and it is not ! " It is in 
 one place only, that is, in heaven ;" yet, it is not in one 
 place only, but "in many!" "Each priest immolates or 
 slays it on every altar, and offers it up ;" yet, he doth not 
 so, but " it is Christ himself who doth so !" What is all 
 this, but a heap of unqualified contradictions ? The bishop 
 doubtless did as well as in such a case he possibly could, 
 but who can defend impossibilities ? 
 
 Whether the arguments of these famed writers be suc- 
 cessful and conclusive, and this doctrine, which even they 
 could in no other way support, can possibly be of God, 
 each candid mind, with a moment's attention, may now 
 judge. When any report is supported by equivocation 
 and subtilty, it is instantly pronounced false; a doctrine 
 similarly defended must therefore be false. But, equivo- 
 cation and subtleties, and plain contradictions, are evidently 
 the weapons employed by those divines to defend this their 
 favourite doctrine. Hence, how can any impartial mind 
 avoid pronouncing it a false doctrine? A known false doc- 
 trine destroys the soul, but these doctors are sworn to per- 
 sist till death in this doctrine, which is proved false; must 
 it not then follow that they are sworn to destroy themselves 
 and their people, body and soul forever ? Should they not 
 then, and all concerned, pause, and take a seasonable alarm, 
 while yet mercy may be found, and give it up at once, 
 rather than desperately rush into eternal ruin? 
 
 Having made these passing remarks, I shall proceed, 
 1st. To adduce my plain view; 2d. The judgment of cele- 
 bratea papal divines; 3d. The testimony of the apostles, 
 and of the ancient fathers, from their days nearly up to the 
 sixth century, and of other eminent doctors from thence to 
 the sixteenth century ; and then close with some observa 
 tions. 
 
 Transubstantiation is, I maintain, incapable of being 
 proved, 1st. By sense or reason ; 2d. By Scripture ; 3d. By 
 
LdO TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 miracles; 4th. By antiquity; 5th. Or by any testimony 
 whatever, celestial or terrestrial. Hence, it is an impossi- 
 bility, a false doctrine accursed of God. 
 
 If the Almighty, the God of truth and love, cannot work 
 either moral or natural impossibilities or contradictions, and 
 therefore, cannot deceive ; if the revelation he hath given 
 us through the sacred writers be of infallible inspiration , 
 if the character of Christ cur Saviour be peculiar to himself 
 and infallibly true ; if the sacrifice of Christ on the cross be 
 an all-perfect atonement ; and if his body now glorified, be 
 impassible and immutable, so that nothing can be taken 
 from it or added to it forever: I say, if all this be undoubted 
 truth, whatsoever contradicts it must undoubtedly be false- 
 hood. 
 
 I. Suppose then for a moment, that an apostle or an angel 
 should descend from heaven, and pronounce that the conse- 
 crated bread and wine, the host, is true Christ, the real Son 
 of Mary ; would not an inquiry instantly arise, Is the holy 
 virgin indeed the mother of this host?* Has it been now 
 really born of her, though she is in heaven and has had no 
 child these eighteen hundred and twenty years past ? Has 
 it been an infant? and circumcised ? and preached, and died 
 on a cross ? &c. If not, if it never was born, nor stirred, 
 nor preached, nor ascended to heaven, how then can it be 
 
 * I once had a conversation at Mr. Hardy's, in the county of Galway, 
 with the Rev. Mr. L , P. Priest, on this and other such sub- 
 jects ; I asked him this question, Do you admit it is an acknowledged 
 truth, that John the Baptist was the son of Elizabeth ] " I do, cer- 
 tainly." Now, were the whole world, after granting this, to swear on 
 the Gospels, that he was the real, natural son of the virgin Mary, would 
 you believe them 1 "Believe them] no! by no means !" Why, sir 1 
 " Because he was not born of her, he could not be her real son." True, 
 said I, any thing not born of her could not be her real son ,■ and to affirm 
 it could, would be falsehood. But a Christ, confessed by your council to 
 be made of bread and wine, and therefore not born of Mary, could not 
 be her real son ,• consequently, should the whole world and all the coun- 
 cils that ever essted swear that it was made her son, it would be a pal- 
 pable untruth. But it is said, "All things are possible to God." But is 
 it possible for him to lie, or work self-contradictions ! " No," said he, 
 " he could not make two hills without a valley," &c. So then, this 
 priest would not believe the oath of all mankind, that a man not born of 
 a woman could be her real son, and yet he could believe that the eucha- 
 rist is the real son of Mary, though not born of her, because his council 
 has so decreed it, and sworn him so to believe ! ! ! 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 191 
 
 Christ? Impossible. Hence this doctrine, 1st. Contradicts 
 matter of fact and Scripture, and therefore is subversive of 
 Christianity; 2d. As it ascribes to Christ a power to make 
 himself, which is a contradiction, it involves blasphemy; 
 3d. When it is granted that he is now impassible and im- 
 mutable ; yet that this doctrine saith he is mutable, or that 
 bread can now be changed into his body, it teacheth what 
 is falsehood ;* 4th. When it affirms, that things which are 
 different from each other, such as the man Christ and a 
 wafer, are not different from each other, but are the same ; 
 That he ivho is as large as a man in heaven, is as small on 
 earth as the least crumb of bread or drop of wine; and that 
 though he fills heaven with his glory, "/ie may at the same 
 time be eaten by priests, and vomited, and taken out of the 
 vomit, and be reverently swallowed by them again; or may 
 be carried away by the wind and lost; or be eaten by rats, 
 mice, or worms, which for this must be caught and burnt." 
 Aquinas, Sum. qu. 80, art. 3. Missal de defect, p. 53 — 57. 
 Lastly, that the senses must contradict each other, four to 
 one : for the seeing, feeling, lasting, and smelling, constantly 
 declare, the host is bread ; but the hearing,! when infatuated 
 by the priest and this doctrine, must deny that it is bread.J 
 Hence, either the senses, which are God's gift, must not be 
 credited, and all certainty must be at an end, or the pope and 
 this doctrine must be cast off. For if contradictions which 
 necessarily subvert all order and Christianity, should not, 
 cannot be believed, then should no man whatever, preach- 
 ing this doctrine, be for an instant believed. 
 
 Further, supposing some of the disciples had believed in 
 transubstantiation, and had before our Lord'sj-esurreetion 
 been teaching it to Thomas and those other disciples, to 
 
 * Magher, I think it is, tells us, " Two or three priests, of whom ho 
 was one, walked on a certain day together, and conversed on this sub- 
 ject ; one said, ' If all the bread which has been consecrated since the 
 days of Christ has been really changed into his body, it must by this 
 time be as large as a mountain !' Another said, ' Surely, the Trent fa- 
 thers must have been mistaken.' " 
 
 f "We may," saith Challoner, Cath. Chris, p. 48, "safdy trust the 
 sense of hearing, under the authority of the church, &c, that what ap- 
 pears (to the other senses) to be bread and wine, is indeed the body and 
 blood of Christ." 
 
 i Saith the prophet, The nations have drunken of the wine [doctrinr] 
 of Babylon ; therefore the nations are mad. Jer. li. 7. 
 
192 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 whom our Lord after he had risen said, " Why are ye 
 troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Be- 
 hold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; for a spirit 
 hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." Luke xxiv. 
 38, 39. " Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my 
 hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side ; 
 and be no more faithless, but believing." John xx. 27. 
 After they had this full evidence to their senses, from our 
 Lord himself, that his natural body had undergone no 
 change, but was still flesh, bones, &c, as before his death, 
 how could they have believed this doctrine? for, by the 
 same evidence on which they believed him that he was a 
 man and not a spirit, by the very same they must have be- 
 lieved what they had received at the last supper was no 
 other thing than oread and wine, and therefore that transub- 
 stantiation could not be true. For that very argument by 
 which our Saviour proved to them the reality of his body 
 after his resurrection, doth as strongly prove the reality of 
 bread and wine after consecration. But our Saviour's argu- 
 ment was infallibly true, and therefore the doctrine of tran- 
 substantiation is undoubtedly false. 
 
 2. The sacred writers testify, that from the foundation of 
 the world there has not been any true or proper sacrifice 
 for sin till Christ died on the cross. Then it follows, that 
 any sacrifice which hath ever appeared till that of the cross 
 could not be real or proper, but typical or figurative only. 
 But the sacrament which Christ gave at his last supper was 
 before his apprehension, condemnation, or crucifixion, hence 
 it could not be in anywise more than a figurative sacrifice, 
 and therefore this doctrine is impossible. 
 
 Admitting it possible that the very words of the councils 
 of Lateran and Trent, which decree transub stantiation, 
 could be found in the Scripture, would not that very Scrip- 
 ture, as formerly noticed, testify of a Christ not bearing the 
 aforesaid Scripture characters, and be a contradiction to the 
 rest of the Scripture, and therefore must in its consequences, 
 according to proposition 7, subvert Christianity root and 
 branch? Again, by what clearer evidence or stronger argu- 
 ments could any man prove such words were in the Bible, 
 than I could prove to him that the bread and wine after con- 
 secration, which I see and feel, are bread and wine still ? 
 He could, to prove that these words axe in the Bible, but 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 193 
 
 appeal to my eyes only; but I could appeal, not to his eyes 
 only, but to all his senses, that after consecration the bread, 
 nor voice nor breath being heard therein, is bread still, and 
 not a living man. Then my proof must preponderate, and 
 his doctrine be therefore rejected as false and impossible. 
 
 Should I proceed no farther, but stop here, is not this 
 view of this doctrine so plain and easy, and these arguments 
 so simple and conclusive, that the body which our Lord 
 gave at the last supper must doubtless have been not his 
 real body? but figurative only, and that to deny this 
 would be the total subversion of truth and Christianity ? 
 
 3. Granting even miracles, which were the confirmation 
 of the religion of Moses and of Christ our Lord, were 
 wrought in proof of transubstantiation, what would be the 
 result? The instant overthrow of Christianity, as in the 
 former cases, would follow; for anything whatever that 
 would prove this doctrine true, must prove Christ and the 
 Scriptures false. But, as what I would say is so much 
 better expressed by Archbishop Tillotson, I shall give you 
 his own words nearly. — "I am," saith he, "very well 
 assured of the grounds of religion in general, and of the 
 Christian religion in particular ; and yet I cannot see that 
 the foundation of any revealed religion is strong enough to 
 bear the weight of so many and so great absurdities as this 
 doctrine of transubstantiation would load it withal. And 
 to make this evident, I shall not insist on those gross con- 
 tradictions of the same (identical, numerical) body being in 
 so many several places at once ; of our Lord's giving him- 
 self away with his own hands to every one of his disciples, 
 to eat him, and then to drink him, and still keeping himself 
 to himself; nay, and of eating himself, and also drinking 
 himself, with many more of the like nature. But to show 
 the absurdity of this doctrine, I shall only ask a few ques- 
 tions." I pass on to his third. 
 
 " Whether it be reasonable to imagine that God should 
 make that a part of the Christian religion which shakes the 
 main external evidence and confirmation of the whole, I 
 mean the miracles which were wrought by our Saviour and 
 his apostles, the assurance whereof did at first depend upon 
 the certainty of sense. For if the senses of those who saw 
 them were or could be deceived, then there might have 
 been no miracles wrought, and consequently it may be 
 
 17 
 
194 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 justly doubted, whether that kind of confirmation which 
 God hath given to the Christian religion would be strong 
 enough to prove it ; for, supposing tr an substantiation to 
 have been part of it, every man would have had as great 
 evidence that it was false as that the Christian religion is 
 true. 
 
 " Of all doctrines in the world, this of transubstantiation 
 is peculiarly incapable of being proved by a miracle. For 
 if a miracle were wrought for the proof of it, the very same 
 assurance that any one could have of the truth of the mira- 
 cle, he hath of the falsehood of this doctrine : that is, the 
 clear evidence of his senses. For that there is a miracle 
 wrought to prove that what he sees in the sacrament is not 
 bread, but the body of Christ, there is only the evidence of 
 sense, and there is the same evidence to prove that what he 
 sees in the sacrament is not the body of Christ, but bread. 
 So that here would arise a new controversy, whether a man 
 should rather believe his senses giving testimony against 
 the doctrine of transubstantiation, or bearing witness to a 
 miracle wrought to confirm that doctrine ; there being the 
 very same evidence against the truth of the doctrine which 
 there is for the truth of the miracle. And then the argu- 
 ment for the doctrine and the objection against it would 
 balance one another, and consequently transubstantiation 
 is not to be proved by miracles, because that would be to 
 prove to a man by something that he sees that he doth not 
 see what he sees. And if there were no other evidence that 
 transubstantiation is no part of the Christian religion, this 
 would be sufficient, that what proves the one doth as much 
 overthrow the other ; and that miracles which are certainly 
 the best and highest external proof of Christianity, are the 
 worst proof in the world of transubstantiation, unless a man 
 can renounce his senses at the same time that he relies upon 
 them, for a man cannot believe a miracle without relying 
 on his senses, nor transubstantiation without renouncing 
 them. So that never were any two things so ill coupled 
 together as the doctrine of Christianity and of transubstantia- 
 tion, because they draw several ways, and are ready to 
 strangle one another; for the main external evidence of 
 the doctrine of Christ, which is miracles, is resolved into 
 the certainty of sense, but this evidence is clear, and point 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 195 
 
 blank against transubstantiation." This reasoning who can 
 resist ? Tillotson on Transubstantiation. 
 
 Objection. — Our Lord and Redeemer, who cannot lie, 
 said, " Verily, verily, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." John 
 vi. 53. And at his last supper with his disciples, " Take 
 eat, this is my body;" surely all this must be no meta- 
 phor, but reality. Hence, he must have converted the 
 bread really into his body, and the wine into his blood. 
 And Protestants themselves do confess, " They receive the 
 body and blood of Christ verily and indeed in the Lord's 
 supper." What, then, can be plainer than that it is the real 
 body of Christ which is meant? 
 
 Answer. — 1 . That the bread and wine did, in some sense, 
 become his body, none of us deny ; but that it became his 
 natural body, as it involves a self-contradiction, we all 
 must deny, or give up Christianity as a falsehood ! When 
 It is considered that the Scriptures, as did also the ancient 
 fathers, take the body of Christ in five several senses, the 
 difficulty at once ceases, namely, 1. His natural body born 
 of his mother; 2. His mystical body, or church; 3. His 
 glorified and impassible body; 4. His sacramental or figu- 
 rative body; and, 5. His celestial body: I say this solves 
 the difficulty, and leads us to discover what that body was 
 which he gave to his disciples. It could not have been his 
 natural body, for then it would follow that he eat himself 
 and drank himself, and that each of his disciples did so 
 likewise, and yet that neither did so, for he remained un- 
 eaten; and again, that his human body was then made, and 
 of course did never exist before, whereas it had existed for 
 many years before : all which, involving many self-contra- 
 dictions or falsehoods, would subvert Christianity. 2. It 
 was not his mystical body, the church, (Eph. i. 23,) for to 
 eat his church was impossible. 3. It was not his glorified 
 body, for this was also impossible, because his body then 
 was not spiritual and impassible, but had flesh and bones, 
 which our Lord and St. Paul affirm a spirit hath not.* 
 4. Nor was it that body that is eaten only by the mind ; 
 "that living bread which came down from heaven;! which 
 is eaten by the ears — by faith only ; and as it nourishes the 
 
 * Luke xxiv. 39. 1 Cor. xv. 40—45. f John vi. 48—51. 
 
196 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 soul, could not consist of matter, as the fathers say ; but, 
 5. It was his commemorative, sacramental, or figurative 
 body, of which himself eat, he gave them. This it must 
 have been, since to suppose any of the others would involve 
 self-contradiction, and therefore instant infidelity ! This 
 solution is plain and easy ; and as it involves no contradic- 
 tion or opposition to reason and Scripture, it must be true, 
 and to this sense your best writers as well as all antiquity 
 agree, as shall presently appear. This they must have 
 done, or entangled themselves in endless contradictions and 
 become infidels ! 
 
 2. When our Lord called himself " a rock, a morning 
 star, a door, a true vine, a shepherd," &c, though he spake 
 truly, yet it was not literally ; or when he calls Herod a 
 fox, John the Baptist Elias,, the disciples his mother, St. 
 John her son, &c, it was not strictly so, for he did not 
 really convert the disciples into his mother, nor his mother 
 into St. John's mother, nor Herod into a fox, &c. ; nor will 
 it be said when he called the sacramental cup the new testa- 
 ment, that he indeed converted it into a testament : if not, 
 why is it insisted that he converted the sacramental bread 
 into his real, natural body? seeing this sense, as it necessarily 
 is subversive of Christ's gospel and kingdom, is conclusively 
 and deeply antichristian. 
 
 To this figurative manner of speaking, of even the sacra 
 ments, were the Jews well accustomed, it being usual in 
 the Hebrew language, (in which it seems is no word to ex 
 press signify,) to say things are that which they only sig 
 nify ; so the sacrament of circumcision is called the cove 
 nant, though only the token of it, Gen. xvii. 4 ; the pascha) 
 lamb the Lord's passover, though only the sign of it, Exod 
 xii. 11 — 13 ; Christ is called " the Lamb of God, and oui 
 Passover," 1 Cor. v. 7, because he was represented by 
 these things ; and after the same usage he calls the cup " the 
 new testament in my blood shed for you." Luke xxii. 30 
 Here is figure upon figure: the cup for the wine, the wine 
 for the new testament; but neither cup nor wine is pro- 
 perly the new testament, nor yet our Saviour's blood 
 either, but the seal of it only. 
 
 But as our Lord's blood was the seal of the new testa- 
 ment, and also of all the promises and benefits contained in 
 it, so was the wine a sign of his blood to be shed ; and it 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 197 
 
 was given as such to the disciples, and as a seal of that cove- 
 nant, afterwards confirmed by his blood when it was really- 
 shed. But his own natural blood was not then shed, unless 
 it will be madly affirmed that it was shed before it was 
 shed, or that he had suffered. Hence this cup or wine, 
 being a sign which represented the blood to be shed, got 
 the name of the thing it signified. Again, Christ gave his 
 body to his disciples as broken, but this being before his 
 death, it was really whole nd unbroken ; hence it was the 
 bread, not his natural body, which was broken, and given 
 as a symbol of his body, which was to be broken. So that 
 it was broken bread which he really gave, and not his natu- 
 ral body. But the bread was a sign of his body, and there- 
 fore called his body, because it signified it. Hence these 
 words must necessarily be taken figuratively. 
 
 But if it be still insisted the eucharistical bread and wine 
 are changed into the very substance of the body and blood 
 of Christ, when was it done ? Was it before the words 
 " This is my body" were pronounced ? or in them ? or 
 after them 1 If not till after, then to say " This is my real 
 body," must have been a falsehood : for if it was not done 
 before these words, "This is my body," were pronounced, 
 then a thing is pronounced to be what it is not, which all 
 must see is a false proposition. But take it figuratively, 
 and the difficulty ceases. 
 
 The learned Salmeron saw this so clearly, that in torn. 9, 
 tract. 15, he saith, on "This is my body," — "Certainly 
 these words do not signify that any conversion is made by 
 the force of the words ;" and he insists " they are declara- 
 tive only of what is, and not effective of that which is not;" 
 and will have it that it was done by some other words. 
 And (in pp. 98, 99,) affirms, " That in the latter part of the 
 institution, k This cup is the new testament in my blood,' 
 there is a twofold figure. 1. The cup is put for the wine 
 contained therein ; 2. That which is contained in it is called 
 the covenant, or testament, because it is the symbol or sign 
 of it."* And in page 100, "The blood is called the new 
 testament, as the circumcision is called the covenant, be- 
 
 * Subest in his verbis duplex metonoymia; prima, qua continens po- 
 nitur pro contento, i. e. calix pro vina, altera est qua contentum in po- 
 culo, id est sanguis sub specie vini, fcedus vel testamentura dicitur 
 novum, cum sit ejus symbolum, &c. Tom. 9, tract. 15, pp. 98, 99, 100. 
 
 17* 
 
198 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 cause it represents or is a figure of that covenant." What 
 than this can be more conclusive ? 
 
 Aquinas, (on 1 Cor. xi.) saith, " By that which is con- 
 tained in this cup is made a commemoration of the New 
 Testament, which is confirmed by Christ's blood." 
 
 Cardinal Alliaco, (in 4 Sent. q. 6, art. 2,) " It appears 
 that this doctrine, which doth teach that the substance of 
 bread remains after consecration, is possible ; nor is it re- 
 pugnant to reason or the authority of the Scripture, but is 
 indeed more easy and free from absurdity than any other."* 
 
 Scotus, the subtile doctor, in Dist. 11, q. 3, saith, "There 
 is no place to be found in the Scripture that may compel a 
 man to believe the transubstantiation, had not the church so 
 determined it." And Cardinal Bellarmine says, " That 
 which Dr. Scotus saith is not altogether improbable ; for, 
 though the scripture we have alleged seem to us so plain 
 that it may compel a man, not perverse, yet whether it be 
 so may be justly doubted, seeing the most learned and most 
 acute men, such especially as Scotus, are of a contrary 
 judgment."! 
 
 Cardinal Cajetan (in his notes on Aquinas) writes, "The 
 other point which the gospel hath not expounded expressly, 
 that is, the conversion of bread into the body of Christ, we 
 have received from the church. That conversion is not 
 found explicitly in the gospel." Again, " There appears 
 nothing in the gospel to compel any man to understand 
 these words, This is my body, in a proper sense. Nay, that 
 presence which our church holdeth cannot be demonstrated, 
 unless the declaration of the church had been added. "J 
 
 * Patet quod ille modus est possibilis, nee repugnat rationi, nee auc- 
 toritati Bibliae, imo est facilior ad intelligendum et rationabilior quam 
 aliquis aliorum. 
 
 f Scotus dicit non extare locum ullum scripturae tarn expressum, ut 
 sine declaratione ecclesiae, evidenter cogat transubstantionem admittere, 
 et id non est omnino improbabile, &c. L. 3, c. 33, de Eucharist. 
 
 i Alterum quod evangelium non explicavit expresse, ab ecclesia ac- 
 cepiraus, scil. conversionem panis in corpus Christi non explicate habe- 
 tur in evangelio. Ibid. — Non apparet ex evangelio coactivum aliquod 
 ad intelligendum haec verba proprie, nempe, Hoc est corpus meum; 
 imo praesentia ilia in sacramento, quam tenet (Romana) ecclesia, ex his 
 verbis Christi, non potest demonstrari, nisi etiam accessirit (Romanse) 
 ecclesiae declaratio. Cajet. in Thorn, p. 3, q. 75, art. 1. Ibid. q. 45, 
 art. 14. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 199 
 
 " Cardinal Perron," says Drelincourt, " being asked by 
 some of his friends, in his last sickness, what he thought 
 of transubstantiation, he answered, « It is a monster.' They 
 asked, * Why then had he written so largely and learnedly 
 upon it?' He replied, that ' he had done the utmost which 
 his wit and parts had enabled him, to colour over this 
 abuse, and render it plausible, like those who employ all 
 their force to defend an ill cause.' "* 
 
 Thus, these cardinals confess, the church (in the face of 
 the divine anathema) obliges them to a doctrine which is 
 not found in the gospel, and therefore to a " new doctrine— 
 a heresy !" Notable confession ! 
 
 Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, (Contr. Captiv. Babylon, 
 c. 10, n. 2,) openly declares, " That there is not one word 
 in the institution, from whence the true presence of the flesh 
 and blood of Christ, in our mass, can be proved." 
 
 Vasquez,t Ocham,;j: Alphonsus de Castro, || Erasmus, § 
 Durand,^J Taperus,** Gabriel Biel,tt Melchior Canus^I 
 Cardinal Contarenus,|||| &c, are of this judgment. 
 
 Yet, Dr. Challoner employs twenty-eight pages of "Cath. 
 Christian," and seven of these on John vi., to prove the 
 corporal presence. How vain is his labour ! Our Lord 
 saith, (ver. 32, 33,) " My Father giveth you the true bread 
 from heaven : for the bread of God is he which cometh 
 down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 35. I 
 am the bread of life : he that cometh to me shall never 
 hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. 
 51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven ; 
 if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever : and the 
 bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the 
 life of the world. 52. The Jews, therefore, strove among 
 themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to 
 eat? 53. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
 his blood, ye have no life in you. 54. Whoso eateth my 
 flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will 
 
 * Response a lettres de Monseign. de Prince Ernest, aux Cinq. Minis- 
 tres de Paris. Geneve, 1G64. 
 
 f Part 3, Disp. 180. + Sent. 4, q. 5, &c. || De Hasres. 1. 8 
 
 * In Ep. 1 Cor. c. 7. «f In Sent. 1. 4, dist. 11, q. 1. 
 ** Art. Lov. 13. ff In Can. Mis. Lect. 43. 
 
 H Loc. Theol. 1. 3, c. 3. |||] De Sacram. 1. 2, c. 3. 
 
200 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 raise him up at the last day: 55. For my flesh is meat h> 
 deed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56. He that eateth 
 my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in 
 him. 62. What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend 
 up to heaven, where he was before. 63. It is the spirit 
 
 THAT QJJICKENETH, THE FLESH PROFITETH NOTHING ; the 
 
 words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are 
 life." 
 
 From these words of our Lord we learn, 1st. That this 
 living bread, (or meat, or eternal life, by a figure called 
 flesh and blood, because procured by his sacrifice on the 
 cross,) came down from heaven. But his natural body was 
 born on earth, and the sacrament was made of earthly mat- 
 ter, therefore, that living bread could not be the sacrament; 
 2. Whosoever eateth this bread hath eternal life— shall live 
 forever ; but many eat the sacrament who are wicked and 
 perish: therefore, thzXbread is not the sacrament. 3. Who- 
 soever eateth not this living bread, this flesh and blood, 
 shall eternally perish. But it will not be supported, that all 
 who have not received the sacrament from the time these 
 words were spoken till the last supper, in a year after, were 
 damned: for then, not only all children, heathens, &c, but 
 also John the Baptist, and all the pious Jews who died in 
 that interval, must have been damned. Therefore, by that 
 flesh and blood, or living bread, was meant that grace 
 without which none can be saved, and not the sacrament; 
 Hence, that flesh and blood are not the sacrament. 4. To 
 come to Christ, to believe on him, is to eat and drink him, or 
 his flesh and blood, and have our hunger and thirst appeased 
 forever ; but this is done by faith, by hearing, by the mind, 
 and not by the mouth of the body, as St. Austin (Tract 25) 
 saith, "Quare paras denies et ventrem, crede et mandu- 
 casti." " Why dost thou prepare thy teeth and thy belly? 
 believe, and thou hast eaten." And 27, " Intelligetis quod 
 gratia ejus non consumitur morsibus." " Ye shall know 
 that his grace is not eaten by mouthfuls." Ibid. " Hoc 
 ergo totum," &c. " While many do eat and drink the 
 sacraments temporally, who in the end shall have eternal 
 torments, let us eat and drink unto the participation of the 
 spirit, that we may abide in the LorcVs body as members." 
 Therefore, it is not the material sacrament, thus received, 
 which is here meant, but it is that "inward and spiritual 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 201 
 
 grace which is a death unto sin, and a new birth unto 
 righteousness,'''' as saith the church catechism ; and which 
 nourishes and comforts the soul. 5. To drink the blood of 
 Christ before it was shed was impossible; but it was not 
 then, nor at the sacrament, shed; therefore, to drink it then, 
 or at the sacrament, was impossible. 6. "The flesh profit- 
 eth nothing'''' to give life, (though to atone it doth;) but 
 "it is the Spirit that quickeneth: the words which I have 
 spoken to you are spirit and life." It is the Spirit, given 
 us because of the atoning sacrifice, which alone works in us 
 faith to lay hold on the words of promise, and imparteth 
 unto us eternal life. 7. If Christ cannot dwell in us, ex- 
 cept we receive or eat him literally, it must follow, that to 
 make us dwell in him, he must also eat us literally. How 
 absurd is this doctrine ! Hence it is plain, that in the sixth 
 of John our Lord speaks not of eating the sacrament, but of 
 a spiritual manducation or eating only, that is, of grace re- 
 ceived by faith. That this is so, is confessed by learned 
 popes and others, and also by the ancient fathers, as shall 
 now appear. 
 
 The council of Trent* teacheth three several ways of 
 taking this sacrament: 1. Sacramentally only, as do sin- 
 ners. 2. Spiritually only; some thus eating that heavenly 
 bread, that divine grace, by a living faith working by love, 
 not orally, but inwardly in desire, feel its fruit and benefit. 
 3. Sacramentally and spiritually; that is, by the mouth, 
 and by the mind by faith. This is worthy of notice, that 
 the council declares, that sinners partake of the sacrament 
 only, but not of Christ ! Is not this a plain admission that 
 Christ's body is not in the eucharist? Again, "true be- 
 lievers receive Christ zn&feel the fruit of his grace without 
 receiving the sacrament." Hence, as such receive Christ's 
 spirit and grace, though not the eucharist, what then is the 
 use of transubstantiation ? and being useless, it cannot be 
 of God. 
 
 * Quoad usum, autera recte et sapienter Patres nostri tres rationes 
 hoc sanctum sacramentum accipiendi distinxerunt. Quosdam enim 
 docuerunt sacramentaliter dumtaxat id sumere, ut peccatores ; alios tan- 
 tum spiritualiter ; illos nimirum, qui voto propositum ilium coelestem 
 panem edentes fide viva, quas per dilectionem operatur, fructum ejus et 
 utilitatem sentiunt; tertios porro sacramentaliter, simul et spiritualiter. — 
 Sess. xiii. cap. 8. 
 
202 TRANSTJBSTANTIATION 
 
 2. Hear Pope Innocent III. (c. 14, 1. 4,) of the mysteries 
 of the mass, " The Lord saying, except ye eat of the flesh 
 of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in 
 you, speaketh of the spiritual manducation: in this man- 
 ner the good only do eat the body of Christ." And in book 
 4, c. 36, " The form of bread comprehendeth the one and 
 the other flesh of Christ, to wit, the true and the mystical." 
 What twofold flesh is this, except the sign and the sub- 
 stance, the sacrament and the grace, called flesh, because 
 procured by Christ's flesh on the cross ? 
 
 3. Pope Pius II. saith, " The sense of the gospel of 
 John is not such as you ascribe unto it, for there it is not 
 commanded to drink at the sacrament, but a manner of spi- 
 ritual drinking is taught. The Lord, when he saith, « It 
 is the spirit which quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing,' 
 by these words declareth, in that place, the secret mysteries 
 of the spiritual drink and not of the carnal. And again, 
 1 The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they 
 are life ;' wilt thou know openly, the evangelist speaketh 
 of the spiritual manducation, which is made by faith, (not 
 by the mouth.) Consider the Lord's words, He that eateth 
 and drinketh, are words of the present tense and not of the 
 future ; at that very instant, therefore, (more than a year 
 before the last supper,) there were some that did eat him 
 and drink him !" Again, " Ye must not wonder at some 
 doctors, speaking of the sacramental communion, and coun- 
 selling the people to it, who employ St. John's words; yet, 
 it doth not on this account follow, that such is the true and 
 proper meaning of this place."* 
 
 4. Saith Gabriel Biel, in Lesson 36, Can.- Miss. " The 
 doctors hold with a common consent, that in the 6th of 
 John, no mention is made but of the spiritual manduca- 
 tion." 
 
 5. Stapleton saith, " St. John writes nothing of the 
 eucharistic supper, because the other three evangelists had 
 fully written of it before."! 
 
 6. Saith St. Bernard, " The body of Christ is in a 
 
 * Pius II. Epist. 130, ad Cardinalem Carvialem. 
 
 ■J" " Johannes de eucharistica coena nihil scribit, eo quod ceteri tres 
 evangelist® ante eum, earn plene descripsissent." In promp. Cath. Ser 
 1. Hebd. sanct. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 203 
 
 mystery the food of the mind, not of the belly: hence, it is 
 not eaten corporally ."* 
 
 With all these testimonies before them, how insincere, or 
 how ignorant and foolish are they who quote St. John, to 
 prove the corporal presence in the eucharist. These papal 
 divines prove "that eating Christ's flesh" — means, " re- 
 ceiving his grace by faith." 
 
 LET US NOW HEAR THE FATHERS. 
 
 1. Irenaeus, on the words, "the flesh profiteth nothing," 
 saith, "the flesh profiteth nothing to vivify, it is the spirit 
 that vivifieth. The Word was made flesh, and by conse- 
 quence, to have life, it must be desired and devoured by the 
 ear, ruminated by the understanding, and digested by 
 faith."\ 
 
 2. Clemens Alexandrinus (an. 207) writes, " The Lord 
 saying, eat my flesh and drink my blood, propoundeth by 
 an allegory the evidence of faith, and the drink of the pro- 
 mise."X " He (Christ) calls the Holy Spirit flesh, by 
 allegory; for the flesh was created by Him, and the blood 
 signifies the Word"% — Again, " There are two sorts of 
 blood of Christ ; the one his carnal blood, by which (as an 
 atonement) we are saved from corruption ; the other is his 
 spiritual, to wit, that by which we are anointed ; and that 
 is, to drink the blood of Jesus — to be partakers of the Lord's 
 incorruption."|| 
 
 3. St. Hierome in Epist. ad Ephes. Can. "Dupliciter," 
 "Christ's flesh is understood in two senses; either that 
 spiritual and divine flesh, of which himself saith, My flesh 
 is meat indeed; or else, that flesh that was crucified, and 
 that blood which was shed by the spear of the soldier."^ 
 
 * 4( Quod Christi corpus in ftaysterio cibis est mentis et non ventris ; 
 proinde corporaliter non manducatur." De Ccena Dom. 
 
 f Caro non prodest quicquam, ad vivificandum scilicet ; spiritus est 
 qui vivificat. Quia et sermo caro erat factus, proinde in causam vitse 
 appetendus, et devorandus audita, et ruminandus intellectu, et fide 
 digestendus. Iren. de Resurrec. Cam. cap. 37. 
 
 \ $*yert /uou Tug o-ugKcv; wrm, k-m merQi /uou <tw nt/uct svxgyic. t»? m<rrea>s 
 )tat rug wr&yyihictg tcv 7rori/uou ctKhnyo^cev. 
 
 § lofKH 6/u.iv rou UviVjuot, tou ayio\ etWxyogu, SfC. 
 
 I AiTTOV Oil /Uet TCU Ku^lOU TO JUiV y&£ tO~<TlV CLVTOV PclQKlKCiV w <TH <J>3 - 0g6tS' \ikU' 
 
 •rgaf*e$-x, to <f~i 7rvsu/uATticov, SfC. De Pedag. lib. 2, cap. 6. 
 
 H Dupliciter intelligitur caro Christi, vel spiritualis ilia atque divino 
 
204 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 And on Psalm 44, " When the Lord saith, ' He that eateth 
 not my flesh,' &c, though that may be understood in mys- 
 tery, yet to speak more truly, the word of heavenly doctrine 
 of the Scriptures is the body of Christ and his blood."* 
 Again, " His body and blood is poured into our ears."t 
 And in Distinct. Can. de Hac. on Lev. the same father is 
 alleged in these words, " It is indeed lawful to eat of this 
 host, which is made admirably in remembrance of Christ; 
 but it is not lawful in itself for any one to eat of that which 
 he offered on the altar of the cross. "J 
 
 4. Venerable Bede, out of Augustine, "In sacramento" 
 &c. " In the sacrament it is so done ; and the faithful 
 know how they eat the flesh of Christ ; every one receiveth 
 his party 
 
 5. St. Augustine, (Ser. ad Infantes apud Bedam,) "Qui 
 accipit," <fec. "Non dubitandum," &c. " No man ought to 
 doubt that every one is then made partaker of the LoroVs 
 body and blood, when in baptism he is made a member of 
 Christ, and that he is no stranger from that bread and cup, 
 although before he eat and drink of them he depart out of 
 the world : for he is not deprived of the participation and 
 benefit of that sacrament, when he hath found the same 
 thing which the sacrament doth signify." 
 
 Thus do all these fathers teach us, as do indeed those 
 papal doctors themselves, that the term "flesh and blood of 
 Christ," in John vi., and " body and blood of Christ," Matt. 
 &c, have two or more several meanings; one, is God's 
 word eaten by the ears, by faith ; another is the Holy Spirit 
 received into the heart : each is called flesh and blood, be- 
 cause given us on account of Christ crucified : another is 
 the eucharist, to be eaten in commemoration of, and to lift 
 the soul up to Christ's body broken on the cross for us, and 
 therefore is called, "his body and blood," but not properly 
 
 de qua ipse ait. Caro mea vere est cibus ; vel caro quse crucifixa et 
 sanguis qui militis effusus est per lanceam. 
 
 * Quando dicit, Qui non manducaverit et biberit sanguinem meum, 
 licet in mysterio possit intelligi, tamen verum corpus Christi et sanguis 
 ejus sermu scripturarurn est. 
 
 ■f Corpus et sanguis ejus in auribus nostris funditur. 
 
 + " De hac quidem hostia quse in commemorationera mirabiliter fit, 
 edere licet. De ilia vero quam Christus in ara crucis obtulit, secundum 
 %e, nulli edere licet." Dist. Can. de hac in Levit. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 205 
 
 so, any of them ; and to this agree the three ways of the 
 Trent council ! Yet by making the eucharist, nevertheless, 
 to be the proper body and blood of Christ, she contradicts 
 herself and subverts truth. 
 
 From all which it is plain, what is found in the Church 
 Catechism concerning " the body and blood of Christ, being 
 verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the 
 Lord's supper," meaneth, with all these fathers and doc- 
 tors, no more than receiving there, the Holy Spirit and 
 grace of the Lord, which his broken body and shed blood 
 hath purchased for us, not by the corporal mouth, but by 
 the mind by faith, as saith St. Bernard ; and this, not only 
 at the sacrament of the eucharist, but also by prayer, hear- 
 ing the gospel, meditation, and in every other means of 
 grace. For a confirmation of this, see Bishop Sharp's Ser- 
 mons on popery, and many other Protestant writings. 
 Hence, therein is no more ground for transubstantiation, 
 than in the 6th of John, which hath the like expressions 
 with this catechism, but is confessed to mean nothing of the 
 sort; and hence shame should cover the faces of those 
 advocates of error. 
 
 THE MASS AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION ! ! 
 
 In the canon, " hoc est," of the mass, are these words 
 still used after the adoration of the hcst: "Wherefore, we 
 thy servants and holy people, O Lord I mindful of the 
 blessed passion, resurrection, and ascension, of this same 
 Christ, thy son, our Lord, offer unto thy excellent Majesty, 
 of thy gifts and presents, a pure host, upon which things 
 condescend to look propitiously, and receive them gracious- 
 ly, even as thou didst the presents of thy child Abel, through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ."* 
 
 * Unde et memores Domine, nos servi tui, sed et plebs tua sancta, 
 ejusdem Christi Filii tui Domini nostri tam beatse passionis nee non et 
 ab inferis resurrectionis, sed et in ccelos gloriosse ascensionis, offerimus 
 prseclarae Majestati tuse de tuis donis ac datis, hostiam puram, hostiam 
 sanctam, hostiam immaculatam. — Supra quae propitio et sereno vultu 
 respicere digneris, et accepta habere, sicuti accepta habere dignatus es 
 munera pueri tui justi Abel, et sacrificium patriarchse nostrae Abrahse. — 
 Suppliciter te rogamus omnipotens Deus, jube ha;c perferri per manus 
 angeli tui in sublime altare tuum in conspectu divinse Majestatis tuse, 
 per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. — Per quern haec omnia, 
 Domine, semper bona creas, sanctificas, vivificas, benedicis, et prsestas 
 
 18 
 
206 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 From which I argue first, if the host be really Christ, no 
 sense can be made of this prayer! For, 1st, The host, or 
 Christ, is called gifts and presents! 2d, It is said to have 
 suffered, risen from the dead and ascended into heaven! 
 and, 3d, Is offered to God, with prayer that he would vouch 
 safe to look upon these things (this host, or Christ) propi 
 tiously, as upon Abel's beast! &c. That is, they pray God 
 for Christ's sake, to look upon Christ propitiously, as upon 
 a beast! If this prayer refer to the bread and wine only, 
 as a divinely appointed symbol of Christ, as was Abel's slain 
 lamb, it is good ; but if to Christ, it is utter blasphemy ! 
 Hence, it is plainly against transubstantiation. 
 
 2. The priest, looking upon the consecrated host and 
 chalice, saitli, "God. by our Lord Jesus Christ, creates al- 
 ways for us these good things, sanctifies and vivifies them," 
 <fcc. Can any man not mad, call these good things, — the 
 host and cup, Christ? Doth God, by Christ, create and 
 vivify Christ always? surely not!! The mass, therefore, 
 saying that God " creates and vivifies these things {the host) 
 by Christ," proves incontestibly that when this prayer was 
 made, the host was not believed to be Christ, but sacra- 
 mental bread and wine only. 
 
 3. He blessed the bread and gave it to his disciples, say- 
 ing, " Eat or it, all of you ;" " drink of the cup, all of you ;" 
 that is, "let each one take his part." What! his part of 
 Christ's body and blood? who will say this? if none will, 
 surely then it must be his part of the sacrament. This is 
 another proof from the canon of the mass, against transub- 
 stantiation. 
 
 4. The Trent council declares "This sacred canon to be 
 most pure, and very ancient, even as the times of St. Am- 
 brose and St. Augustine, (fourteen hundred years ago,) and 
 that he who shall say it contains any errors is accursed."* 
 
 nobis, &c. Deditque discipulis suis, dicens, accipite et manducate ex hoc 
 omnes. — Bibite ex eo calice omnes. Missale Can. Missae, p. 211 — 215. 
 Edit. Dublin, 1814. 
 
 * Et cum sancta sancte administrari conveniat, sitque hoc omnium 
 sanctissimurn sacrificium, ecclesia Catholica ut digne reverenterq. offe- 
 reretur ac perciperetur, sacrum canonem multis ante saeculis instituit ab 
 omni errore purum, &c. (Ambros. de Sacram. 1. 4, c. 6. Augustin. ad 
 Jan. super illis verbis Pauli cetera cum venero disponam, et serm. de 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 207 
 
 Its doctrine, which we have just noticed, is truly like that 
 of those fathers and times, as just observed. By this canon, 
 Abel's sacrificial lamb, and the eucharist, are clearly placed 
 on the same footing, as symbols only of Christ's great sa- 
 crifice. Should not every priest, (and the people too,) when 
 he considers this, feel terrified when he is worshipping the 
 host? For, must not the worshipper find himself in this 
 dilemma : If the host or wafer, be a symbol only, like Abel's 
 animal, (as saith the canon,) it is no more than a creature ! 
 but to worship an animal, a creature, is truly shocking, nay, 
 is allowed to be damnable ! Or, if the host be really Christ, 
 which the council swears him to believe it is, then the 
 prayer in the canon, which implores God to look upon and 
 accept the host, i. e. Christ, as he did Abel's animal, is most 
 absurd and blasphemous; and the council which decreed 
 this awful worship, and also the truth of this canon, must 
 necessarily be self-contradictory and erroneous, and the very 
 opposite to infallible ! ! Hence, if they would escape idolatry 
 on the one hand, or blasphemy on the other, they must 
 either give up this canon, and the fathers, and the gospel, 
 and Christ, and salvation, and heaven ; or abandon transub- 
 stantiation, the worship of the host and the council of Trent, 
 and all her fabrications together. 
 
 We shall now hear the testimony of the ancient 
 fathers, from nearly the apostles' days, concern- 
 ing the body and blood of our lord. 
 
 None will deny, that should the very angels of heaven, 
 the apostles, or any fathers that ever lived, be found teach- 
 ing contrary to Christ and his gospel, they must be had ac- 
 cursed. Hence, when doctors cite any fathers, to support 
 any doctrine opposed to the gospel, they either quote them 
 falsely, or hold them up as accursed of God ! This is a hint 
 for Dr. Milner and his confreres. But when they are cited 
 so as to agree with Scripture, it is plain they are fairly 
 quoted. 
 
 Justin Martyr (an. 144) saith, "This nourishment, made 
 of bread and wine, we call Eucharist ; by this, our flesh 
 and blood, by digestion, are nourished ; and this nourish 
 
 corp. Christi,) si quis dixerit canonem missse errores continere, &c, ana- 
 thema sit. Con. Trid. sess. 22, cap. 4, can. 6. 
 
meat '.earned, is ihejfe ah and blood of Christ."* 
 
 in about 40 or 50 years of St. John's days. 
 
 Lr;.-; :? .v.: uC ?:. ' . "By the creatUR we IN BOH* 
 
 _ ?s r.s cap, which is a 
 
 . he confirms to 
 
 j.nd blood : for when the cup and bread 
 
 he eucharist of the 
 
 body and blood of Chri ; nee of oui 
 
 i and consist."" But no man dare teach 
 
 ural body become? :.nd turned into 
 
 our flesh ; her : : mes our flesh is not 
 
 oper body, but his commemorative only, eucharistic 
 
 bread, and hence the pope teaches 
 
 2 --The bread which our Saviour 
 
 took and distributed to his disciples, he made his bodi 
 
 is my body $ that is, the figure of my body. But 
 not have been the figure of his body, if there had 
 not been a tnie and real body : for a vacuity, such as a 
 phantasm, is not capable of 2.figun."z " Our flesh is fed 
 by the body and blood of Christ, that the soul also may be 
 ■omished of God."§ 
 
 I Bt if Christ, as these Marcionites 
 
 withe ut flesh and blood,' of what sort of flesh, of 
 
 what body, and in fine, of what kind of blood was the bread 
 
 and etar be ministered, the signs and unog A^ain, 
 
 (on Maffl ki Ifaft food which is sanctified by the word 
 
 md by prayer, as to that of it that is matter, it 
 
 de pane et vino, a nobis vocatar Eucharistia, per 
 : aro nostra, per mutationem nutriuntur, 
 et i mtimm ■■ esse didkimus. Apolog. 2. 
 
 lyf ipse nobis pi'irHH Earn 
 
 et earn panem qui est crea- 
 
 aiix et panic recipiont 
 
 et corporis Christi, ex quibus au- 
 
 2L 
 
 :as accept o pane et distribnto discipulis, cxwp u i strum 
 
 ilium feck, dicer* - ;-; - .; corpus meunx, id est figura corporis 
 
 : non fuisset. nisi veritatis fuisset corpus. Res enim 
 
 vacua, at est phantasms . Loere non potest. Tert. eont. Mar-** 
 
 i u 
 
 iur, ut et anima de Deo sa- 
 netur de resurrect. Car. cap. 6. Idea. 
 
 Marcionistffi, came dVsfibu- 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 209 
 
 goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught."* Again, 
 " Understand that these things are figures, and therefore 
 spiritual, and not carnal : for there is in the gospel a letter 
 which kills him who doth not spiritually understand what 
 is said ; for, if we take according to the letter what is said, 
 * except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood,' this letter 
 kills. "t Because, as already proved, the literal sense sub- 
 verts Christianity, and by consequence kills the soul. 
 
 St. Cyprian, (an. 250,) in his Epistle to Ccccilius, against 
 the Aquarians, thus writeth: 'j^rhe cup which is offered (to 
 the people) in commemoration of Christ, should be offered 
 mixed with wine, contrary to the Aquarians' opinion : for 
 where the wine is not in the cup, the blood of Christ can- 
 not be expressed; because we see that by the wine, the 
 blood of Christ is represented, even as in or by the water 
 the faithful are understood. 1 '! "Our Lord gave at the table 
 bread and wine with his own hands : but into the soldiers' 
 hands he delivered his body to be wounded, that the things 
 signifying and signified might be consecrated by the same 
 names. "§ 
 
 St. xlthanasius (an. 330) thus saith : «* The Lord distin- 
 guished the spirit from the flesh, that we might learn that 
 the words he spoke were not carnal, but spiritual: for were 
 his (natural) body made the food of the whole world, how 
 many men could it be able to suffice ? But on this account 
 
 tus erat exsanguis, cujusmodi carnis, cujus corporis, et qualis tandem 
 sanguinis, signa et imagines panem et poculum ministravit ] Orig. 
 Dial. 3. de Horn. Christ, cont. Marc. 
 
 * Ille cibus qui sanctificatur per verbum Dei et preces, juxta quod 
 habet materiale in ventrem abiit et in secessum ejicitur, Orig. Lib. de 
 Aniina, p. 319. 
 
 f Agnoscite quia figurae sunt, et id ideo tanquam spiritnalis, n<m rar- 
 nalis. Est enirn in evangelio litera, qua? occidit eum, qui non spii 
 aliter quae dicit ea advertit. Si enim secundum literam sequeris, h>c 
 ipsum quod dictum est, 'Nisi manducaveritis carnem meant et biberitis 
 sanguinem meum, occidet hsec litera? Horn. 7 in Levit. 
 
 t tit calix qui commemorationem Christi offertur, mixtus vino oiferatur, 
 contra sententiam Aquariorum, ubi enim vinum non est in calice, san- 
 guis Christi non potest exprimi, quia videmus in vino sanguinem Christi 
 ostendi, sicut in aqua populus iidelum intelligitur. Cyprianus, lib. 2, 
 ep. 63, edit. Parnel. 
 
 § Dedit Dornmus noster in mensa propriis manibus panem et vinum: 
 in cruce vero manibus militum corpus tradidit vulneramium ; ut signi 
 rioantia et siguiticata eisdetn vocabulis omsecretur. Cypr. 1. de Lnct. n. 7 
 18* 
 
210 tra Substantiation 
 
 it was, that he mentioned his ascension into heaven, that lie 
 might prevent them from understanding him corporally; 
 and that they might then understand that the flesh of which 
 he had spoken, was a heavenly and spiritual nourishment, 
 which he would give them from above."* 
 
 Eusebius, (an. 320,) in his 12th book of Demonstration, 
 chap. 8, " We have been instructed to celebrate at the table, 
 according to the laws of the New Testament, by the signs 
 of the body and blood, and remembrance of this sacrifice." 
 And in book 8, he hath said, " Christ delivered to his dis- 
 ciples the signs or symbols of his dispensation, command- 
 ing them to celebrate the figure of his own body."! 
 
 Gregory Nazienzien, («n. 360,) in his second Oration, 
 speaketh of the eucharist thus : "We shall, indeed, be par- 
 takers of the passover, in figure, though more evidently 
 than of the old passover. For the legal passover, I dare 
 say, was a more dark figure of a figure ."% 
 
 Macarius of Egypt (an. 370) writes, " In the church, 
 bread and wine, the type of his flesh and blood, are brought 
 forward, and they who partake of the visible bread, do spi- 
 ritually eat of the Lord's flesh. "§ 
 
 St. Ambrose, (an. 380, in lib. 4, c. 5, of the Sacraments, 
 has this prayer in the public form : " Grant that this obla- 
 tion, which is the figure of the body and blood of Christ 
 Jesus on earth, be imputed unto us as acceptable and rea- 
 sonable. "|| 
 
 * Dominus spiritum a came discriminavit, ut disceremus ea qua 
 loqueatur non carnalia esse sed spiritualia. Quot enim hominibus cor- 
 pus ejus sufficisset ad cibum, et universi mundi alimonia fierit ? Sed 
 propterea ascensionis sua in coelum mentionem fecit, ut eos a corporaii 
 intellectu abstraherit, ad deinde camera suam de qua locutus erat cibum 
 e supemis coelestem et spiritualem alimoniam ab ipso donandum intelli- 
 gerent. Athanas. in Joh. cap. 6. 
 
 •j* Tovrcv Sn rx rev dv/uxroc <mv [xvAfxm eri rgx?ri^>i atriKuv Six avju&o\cov 
 
 <T0V T6 0-C6/UI&TQS XvrCV KXt XlfXXrOC 7r££itA»QGriC. Thy total*. TOU iSlCV <rtcjUI,Ct.TCC 
 
 7roiucrBxi 7ra£Zx.ih.ivori;. 
 
 $ MerxAX-^cjuiSx rev 7rx<r^x vvv juiv rvrnxus trt, n kxi rev 7rx\xtcv yvcegi- 
 uceTZPov. To ya.g veu.ix.ev 7tdur%a. (roKfjtce kxi hsyuv) TV7rcv »v rum; x/uvSgare^c;. 
 
 § Eif t» vutKxertx 7rgecr<pigirxt xgrec km ohee xvnrvrev tws o-xgKC-c xvrev kxi 
 rev xittxrcc. Km ei xxpfixvcvree at rev <p3.tvcju.tvcv xgrcv 7rviv/xxrtKa>c: r»v 
 crugKi rev Kvgiev fJtoua-i. Macar. iEgypt. Homil. 27. 
 
 || Fac nobis hanc oblationem ascriptam, rationabilem acceptabilem, 
 quod est figura corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Jesu Christi. Lib. 4, 
 c. 5, Sacram. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 211 
 
 Chrysostom, (an. 406,) in his Epistle against Appolina- 
 ris, saith, "But the flesh of Christ, of which name the con- 
 secrated bread is made worthy, retains and conserves the 
 property of its incorruptible nature, just as the bread re- 
 mains in its own substance and nature. Before the bread 
 is blessed, we call it bread ; but when it is consecrated by 
 the divine grace, it is fit it should be called the Lora^s body, 
 although the nature of bread continues."* 
 
 St. Jerome (an. 415, Epist. ad Fab. ol.) avers, "Moses 
 beat the golden calf to powder and made the Hebrews drink 
 it," (ut discant contemner e quod in secessum projici vi- 
 derent;) " that they might learn to despise what went into 
 the privy," and which they had worshipped. 
 
 St. Augustine, (an. 490,) on 98th Psalm, on our Lord's 
 words, " « Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and 
 drink his blood, ye have no life in you ;' understand spirit- 
 ually what I have said unto you ; ye shall not eat this body 
 which ye see, nor drink that blood which shall be shed by 
 those who shall crucify me. I have commended a sacred 
 sign unto you, which, being understood spiritually, shall 
 vivify you."t Again, in cap. 12, against Adimantus ; "The 
 Lord made no difficulty to say, ' This is my body,' when 
 he gave the sign of his body." On the 3d Psalm, " The 
 Lord admitted Judas to the banquet, in which he commended 
 and gave to his disciples the figure of his body and blood."% 
 The same, (in 1. 3, c. 16, of Christian Doctrine,) " "When the 
 Lord saith, ' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and 
 drink his blood, ye have no life in you,' he seemeth to com- 
 mand a wicked thing — a heinous crime. It is therefore a 
 figure that commands to communicate with the passion of 
 
 * Caro Christi cujus appellatione panis per sanctificationem sacerdotis 
 dignus factus est, sed incorruptae naturae et substantias panis remanet. 
 Antequam sanctificetur panis, panem nominamus. Divina autem ilium 
 consecrante gratia, Domini corpus appellari meruit, etsi natura panis 
 permaneat. Chrysost. ad Cassarium, Epist. cont. haerisin. Appol. 
 
 j- Spiritualiter intelligete quod locutus sum. Non hoc corpus quod 
 videtis manducaturi estis, bibituri ilium sanguinem quern fusuri sunt 
 qui me crucifigent. Sacramentum aliquod vobis commendavi, spiritu- 
 aliter intellectum vivificabit vos. 
 
 % Dominus non dubitavit dicere, Hoc est enim corpus meum cum 
 daret signum corporis sui. Dominus Judam adhibuit ad convivium, in 
 quo corporis et sanguinis sui jiguram discipulis suis commendavit et 
 tradidit. 
 
212 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 our Lord, and to lay up sweetly and profitably in our memo- 
 ry, that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us."* 
 
 And in 26th Treatise on St. John, he saith, " To believe 
 In him, is to eat the living bread; he that believes in him 
 eateth him; he is fed invisibly, because he is regenerated 
 invisibly." And in 25th Treatise, "To believe, this is to 
 eat the meat that perisheth not. Why dost thou make 
 ready thy teeth and thy belly? Believe, and thou hast 
 eaten."] 
 
 And in Tract 27, " He said unto them, he would ascend 
 into heaven whole indeed ; ' when ye shall see the Son of 
 Man ascend where he was before,' certainly then, at least, 
 you shall see that he giveth not his body, as you think ; 
 verily, then you shall understand that his grace is not con- 
 sumed with biting "X Again, Tract 50, on " Me ye have 
 not always,'''' " He speaks (says he) of the presence of his 
 body; ye shall have me according to my providence, ac- 
 cording to my majesty and invisible grace; but according 
 to the flesh which the Word of God assumed, according to 
 that which was born of the virgin Mary ; ye shall not have 
 me ; therefore, because he conversed with his disciples forty 
 days, he is ascended up into heaven, and is not here." 
 
 Fulgentius, (an. 450,) his disciple, in 17th chap, of his 
 2d book to Trasimondus, thus writes, " How is Christ as- 
 cended into heaven, but because he is in place, and a man 
 indeed ? Or how is he present to his faithful ones, but 
 because he is infinite, and a God indeed ?§ 
 
 And the same father, in his 23d epistle to Boniface, speak- 
 ing of figures, addeth, " If the sacred signs or sacraments, 
 
 * Nisi rnandueaveritis (inquit) carnem filii hominis et biberitis san- 
 guinem, non habebitis vitam in vobis. F acinus vel flagitium videtui 
 jubere. Figura ergo est, praecipiens passioni Dominica? cornmunican- 
 dum, suaviter et utiliter in memoria recondendum quod caro ejus pro 
 nobis crucifixa et vulnerata sit. 
 
 ■j- Credere in eum, hoc est manducare panem vivum ; qui credit m 
 eum manducat eum, invisibiliter saginatur, quia et invisibiliter renasci- 
 tur. Ut quid paras dentes et ventrem 1 Crede et manducasii. 
 
 \ Sed addixit illis se ascensurum in coelum utique integrum. Cum 
 videritis Filium Hominis ascendentem ubi erat prius, certe vel tunc vedeb- 
 kis, quia non eo modo quo putatis, erogat corpus suum. Certe vel tunc 
 mtelligetis quod ejus gratia non consumitur morsibus, &c. 
 
 § Quomodo ascendit in coelum, nisi quia localis et verus est homo ? 
 Aut quomodo adest fidelibus suis, nisi quia idem immensus et verus est 
 Deus? 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 213 
 
 had not some resemblance of the things whereof they be 
 sacred signs, they would not be sacred signs, or sacra- 
 ments, at all ; but because of that resemblance, they take 
 the name of the things they represent. Therefore, as the 
 sacrament of the body of Christ is in some manner the body 
 of Christ; so, the sacrament of faith, (i. e. baptism) is faith."* 
 
 Upon these last words of St. Austin, is found, in the 
 Roman canon, in the 2d distinction of the canon, "Hoc est,'' 1 
 these words, " The heavenly bread which is the flesh of 
 Christ, is after its manner, called the body of Christ, although 
 to speak truly, it be the sacred sign of Christ's real body, to 
 wit, of that which, being visible, palpable, mortal, was put 
 upon the cross. "t And upon this, in same canon, the gloss 
 of the doctors is truly remarkable and excellent: "The 
 heavenly bread, which represents truly the flesh of Christ, 
 is called the body of Christ, but improperly ; yet after its 
 manner, it is so called, not according to the truth of the 
 thing, but of the mystery of the thing signified. "J So that 
 the meaning is, it is called the body of Christ; that is, it 
 signifies it. I shall add but one testimony more from this 
 father, cited by Gratian, "As we receive the similitude of 
 Christ's death in baptism, so, we may also receive the like- 
 ness of his flesh and blood: that so, neither may truth be 
 wanting in the sacrament, nor Pagans have room to make 
 us ridiculous for drinking the blood of one that was slain. "§ 
 
 Theodoret, (an. 440,) in Gen. ix. 55, saith, Ttao' savtov 
 tSiofiE^ov, &c. " That man must be stark mad who conceits 
 that to be God which eats," and in Lev. qu. 11. " Moses 
 commanded the Jews to eat, what other nations worshipped 
 as gods, that these things being thus eaten," (and cast out in 
 
 * Si enim sacramenta quandam similitudinem illarum rerum quaruna 
 sacramenta sunt non haberent, omnino sacramenta non essent, ex hac 
 autem similitudine plerumque ipsarum rerum nomina accipiunt, sicut 
 ergo secundum quendam modum sacramentum corporis Chnsti, corpus 
 Christi est, ita sacramentum fidei fides est. 
 
 •j- Coelestis panis, qui Christi caro est, suo modo vocatur corpus Christi, 
 sed revera sit sacramentum corporis Christi illius, videlicet quod palpabile, 
 mortale, in cruce positum est. 
 
 + Et ibi Glos. Coeleste sacramentum quod vere representat Christi 
 carnem dicitur corpus Christi, sed improprie, verum dicitur suo modo, 
 sed non rei veritate, sed significante mysterio, ut sit sensus, vocatur Christi 
 corpus, id est signiflcatur, &c. 
 
 § Dist. 2. De consecrat. sect, ultim. 
 
214 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 the draught,) " might appear despicable." And in his first 
 dialogue on these words, This is my body; "The Lord 
 hath honoured the visible signs with the appellation of his 
 body and blood, not having changed their nature, but having 
 added grace to nature."* And in his 2d Dialogue, speaking 
 to an Eutyehian heretic, " Thou art caught in the nets thou 
 hast woven ; for, even after the consecration, the symbols 
 or mystical signs do not change their nature ; for, they 
 remain in their former substance, form, and nature, and can 
 be seen and touched, even as before. "t 
 
 Pope Gelasius, (an. 480,) has left us a treatise on the 
 two natures of Christ, against Nestorius and Eutyches, of 
 which, Fulgentius, who then lived, makes mention in his 
 book to Ferrandus, 2d proposition. In it he thus speaks, 
 " Certainly the sacraments of the body and blood of Christ, 
 which we take are a divine thing, for which cause also by 
 them we are made partakers of a divine nature ; and yet it 
 ceaseth not to be the substance of bread and wine, and truly 
 the image and similitude of Christ's body and blood are 
 celebrated in the action of the mysteries. "J This pope, it 
 seems, knew nothing of transubstantiation. 
 
 Bishop Cosins, (De Symb. Corp. Christ, p. 82,) tells us, 
 " that Cardinal Contarenus, in a disputation which he had 
 in Ratisbon, (an. 1541,) was so overcome by the force of 
 this luminous testimony of Gelasius, that (obmutuit) it 
 struck him dumb ; and that he candidly confessed it silenced 
 him." 
 
 Facundus, (an. 550,) an African bishop, reasons thus :§ 
 " The sacrament of adoption, (i. e. baptism,) may be called 
 
 * Tst crv/uj2cKct Tn tcu aajucLTc; K'M ctijuctroc 7rgctr»ycgnt titi/umsv, of tm 
 <purtv fj-ircL^KKaav, ctKXct <rn <pu?n %xttv 7rgc<rTsBiix.a>;, <SfC. Dial. 1. 
 
 j- Implicatus es in retibus eisdem, quae texuisti ; neque enirn symbola 
 sive signa mystica post sanctificationem recedunt a natura sua, sed manent 
 in priori sua substantia, forma et specie, et videri, et tangi possunt. Dial. 
 2. ad Eutych. &c. 
 
 + Certe sacramenta quae sumimus corporis et sanguinis Christi, divina 
 res est: propter quod et per eadem divinse efficimur consortes naturae, et 
 tamen esse non desinit substantia panis et vini ; et certe imago et simili- 
 tudo corporis et sanguinis Christi in actione mysteriorum celebrantur. 
 
 ^ Potest sacramentum adoptionis adoptio nuncupari. Sicut sacra- 
 mentum corporis et sanguinis ejus quod est hi pane et poculo consecrate) 
 corpus ejus, et sanguinera dicimus. Non quod proprie corpus ejus sit 
 panis, et poculum sanguis, sed quod in so mysterium corporis ejus et 
 sanguinis contineant. Facund. 1. 5, c. 5, p. 144. Edit. 1676^ Paris. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 215 
 
 adoption, even as we call the sacrament of his body and 
 blood, which is in the bread and consecrated cup, his body 
 and blood; not that the bread is properly his body, and the 
 cup his blood : but because they contain in them the mystery 
 of his body and blood." 
 
 Thus are the fathers of the first six centuries after Christ 
 perfectly agreed, that the eucharist was not properly, but in 
 figure only, the body of Christ, and that it remained bread, 
 and being- eaten fed man's body, and was cast out in the 
 draught: and thus were they in unison with Christ, his 
 apostles, and gospel ! Now when it is owned all these were 
 right, surely then the church of Rome is utterly wrong ; and 
 for any of her doctors to attempt to make any of those speak 
 for transubstantiation, &c. is foully to belie them, and hold 
 themselves up to public ridicule as calumniators of the saints. 
 We shall now go forward for 1000 years more, and prove 
 the same. 
 
 Hesychius (an. 601) writes, " That it was the custom to 
 throw what remained of the elements after the communion 
 into the fire and burn them."* This proves they did not in 
 that age believe that the sacrament was our Lord's human 
 body, else they would not have burned it. 
 
 Venerable Bede, (an. 720,) in his commentary on Lev. 
 chap. 22, saith, " Christ, in place of the flesh and blood of 
 the lamb, substituted the sacrament of his own flesh and 
 blood, in the figure of bread and wine."t And on Psalm 
 3, " He gave to his disciples, in the last supper, the figure 
 of his most holy body and blood." 
 
 (An. 754,) The council of Constantinople, of three hun- 
 dred and thirty-eight bishops, declared, wj ovx a%%ov ei§ov$ 
 trtaezOevtos ?tap' avtov, &c. " That Christ chose no other 
 shape or type under heaven to represent his incarnation 
 (and passion) by, but the sacrament which he delivered to 
 his ministers, for a type and most effectual commemoration 
 thereof," &c. Tom. 3, p. 599, edit. Romae, an. 1622. This 
 testimony of so many, agreeing as it so exactly does with all 
 antiquity and the gospel, is of great weight. 
 
 * Quae post peradam communionem elementorum retiquias superes- 
 sent in ignem conjectas comburentur. L. 2. in Leo. c. 8. 
 
 | Loco carnis et sanguinis agni, substituit Christus sacramentum 
 carnis suae et sanguinis in Jigura panis et vini. — Dedit in coeno disci 
 pulis Jiguram sacro-sancti corporis et sanguinis sui." 
 
216 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 Charles the Great, (an. 778,) in his epistle to Alcuine, 
 de Ratione Septuag., saith, "When Christ supped with his 
 disciples, he broke bread, and likewise gave them the cup, 
 as a figure of his body and blood, and hath presented to 
 us a great sacrament."* 
 
 Rabanus Maurus, (an. 825,) " the most noble doctor," 
 as saith Trithemius, "which Italy or Germany ever pro- 
 duced/' in his book de Instit. Cler. 1. 1, c. 31, thus writes, 
 " The Lord's will was, that the sacraments of his body and 
 blood should be received by the mouth of the faithful, and 
 become their food, that by the visible body might be repre- 
 sented an invisible effect; for, as this material food nourishes 
 the outward body and makes it grow, even so the word and 
 grace of God inwardly nourish the soul. For as the sacra- 
 ment, when we eat and drink it, is converted into us, even 
 so we, provided we live obediently and piously, are con- 
 verted into the body of Christ; therefore the faithful do 
 well and truly receive the body of Christ, and become the 
 body of Christ (i. e. his people,) if they be careful to live 
 by the spirit of Christ."! And in his epistle to Heribaldus, 
 c. 33, written in 847, speaking of Paschasius, and reciting 
 the very words wherein he had delivered his doctrine of the 
 corporal presence, he hath these remarkable words : ' Some 
 of late, not having a right opinion concerning the sacrament 
 of the body and blood of our Lord, have said, « That this is 
 the body and blood of our Lord, which was born of the 
 virgin Mary, and in which our Lord suffered on the 
 cross, and rose from the dead,'' which ERROR we have 
 opposed with all our might." 
 
 (An. 860,) The pious and learned Bertram's answer to 
 Charles the Bald, whose subjects were divided by no small 
 schism about the mystery of Christ 9 s body and blood, is 
 extant. This emperor put him these two questions, 1st. 
 Whether what is received in the church by the mouths of 
 the faithful be the body and blood of Christ in mystery or 
 figure ? 2d. Whether that natural body which was born 
 
 * Christus coenando cum discipulis panem fregit, et calicem pariter 
 dedit eis in Jiguram corporis et sanguinis sui, &c. 
 
 f Maluit Dominus corporis et sanguinis sui sacramenta fidelium ore 
 percipi, et in pastum eorum redigi, — sicut enim cibus materialis forin- 
 secus nutrit corpus et vegetat, ita etiam verbum Dei intus animam nu- 
 trit et roborat. &c. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 217 
 
 of the virgin Mary suffered, died, and was buried, and that 
 eits at the right hand of God the Father, be it which is 
 daily received through the mystery of the sacrament, by the 
 mouths of the faithful ? Bertram replies to the first in the 
 affirmative ; to the second in the negative, saying, " There 
 is as great a difference between this twofold body as there 
 is between a pledge and that thing of which it is the pledge ; 
 because that bread and wine are figuratively the body and 
 blood of Christ ; according to the substance of the creature, 
 what they were before consecration the same they remain 
 after, for the consecrated bread is not really Christ. If the 
 mystery was done in no figure, it could not be called a 
 mystery. — Things which are different are not the same. 
 The body of Christ which died and rose again, and is now 
 become immortal, dieth not, is eternal, and can suffer no 
 more ; but this body which is celebrated in the church is 
 temporal and not eternal ; corruptible, not incorruptible."* 
 
 This testimony so wounded the Spanish inquisitors, that 
 in their Index they decreed, " Let the book of Bertram on 
 the Lord's body and blood be entirely suppressed." What 
 less is this than to say suppress, root out every book and 
 man of truth that would detect and expose our falsehoods ? 
 
 Heriger, (980,) an English abbot, composed a homily 
 which was used in the churches in London in 990, as fol- 
 lows : " There is a vast difference between the body in 
 which Christ suffered and that body consecrated in the host. 
 The one was born of the virgin Mary, consisting of flesh, 
 bones, skin, nerves, human members, and a rational soul ; 
 but his spiritual body, which we call the host, is made of 
 many grains, without blood, bones, members, or soul. The 
 body which once died, and rose from the dead, shall die no 
 
 * 1. An quod in ecclesia fidelium ore sumitur, corpus et sanguis 
 Christi in mysterio, seu figura, fait] 2. An ipsum naturale corpus 
 Maria virgine natum est, passum, mortuum et sepultum, quodque ad 
 dextram Dei patris consedit, sit illud quod ore fidelium per sacramenti 
 mysterium quotidie sumitur ] — Bertramnus, respondet primse affirma- 
 tive, secundse vero negative, dicens, tantum inter utrumque corpus esse 
 discrimen quantum est inter pignus et earn rem pro qua pignus traditur, 
 &c. Et quae a se differunt, idem non sunt; corpus Christi quod mor- 
 tuum est, et resurrexit et immortale factum jam non moritur, sternum 
 est, nee ulterius passibile. Hoc autem quod in ecclesia celebratur, tem- 
 porale est, non aetemum ; corruptible est, non incorruptum. Lib. le 
 Corp. et Sang. Dom. pars prima, ibid, part 2. 
 
 19 
 
218 TRANSUBSTANTIATIOX 
 
 more, but is eternal and impassible ; but the host is tempo 
 ral, corruptible, distributed into different parts, ground 
 by the teeth, and passeth into the belly ; lastly, this is a 
 mystery, pledge, and figure ; but the body of Christ is truth 
 itself. What is seen is bread, — what is understood spiritu 
 ally is life."* 
 
 " Berengarius, (an. 1095,) an archdeacon, and a very 
 pious and illustrious man, was compelled by Pope Nicholas 
 II. and his council of one hundred and thirteen bishops at 
 Rome," saith Gratian, " to sign a recantation, in which are 
 these words : ' I, Berengarius, submit to the holy Roman 
 and apostolic seat ; I profess and believe, that the bread and 
 wine which are placed on the altar, after the consecration, are 
 not only the sacrament or symbol, but the true body and 
 blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are sensibly, not only 
 in the sacrament, but in truth handled and broken by the 
 hands of the priest, and ground by the teeth of the faith- 
 ful."! Masson, Annal. Franc, lib. 3, states, " By imprison 
 ment, threats, and the fear of death was this extorted from 
 him, and to burn his books also." Saith John Semeca, 
 (1. 2, c. 15,) on this confession in Gratian, "Nisi sane intelli- 
 gas, verba Berengarii, in majorem incidis hseresin quam 
 ipse habuit" " Unless the words of Berenger (or rather of 
 Pope Nicholas and council) be warily understood, you shall 
 fall into greater heresy than he held." And we are told by 
 Thos. Waldensis and others, "that (in 1079,) just twenty 
 years after, Pope Gregory VII., seeing the last pope and 
 council, by the writing which they obliged Berengarius 
 
 * Multum interest inter corpus in quo passus est Christus et corpus 
 quod in hostia consecratur. Corpus quidem in quo Christus passus est, 
 ex Mariae virginis came natum est, &c At spirituale ejus corpus, quod 
 hostiam appellamus ex multis granis collectum est. Corpus Christi quod 
 semel mortuum est, aeternum est et impassibile ; hostia vero est tempora- 
 ria et corruptibilis, in varias partes distributa, dentibus confecta, et in 
 ventrem transmissa, &c. 
 
 f Ego Berengarius, &c., consentio sanctse Romans sedi, corde pro- 
 fiteor et ore, et — de sacramentis Dominicae mensae, earn fidem me tenere 
 quam Dominus Papa Nicolaus et hsec s. synodus authoritate evangelica 
 et apostolica tenendam tradidit, mihique firmavit; scilicet, panem et 
 vinum quae in altari ponuntur, post consecrationem, verum corpus et 
 sanguinem Domini nostri Jesu Christi esse, et sensualiter, non solum 
 sacramento sed veritate, manibus sacerdotum tractari, frangi et fidelium 
 dentibus atteri. Apud Gratian, de consecr. dis. 2, c. 42. Baroa. ad. 
 ann. 1059. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 219 
 
 to sign, taught that the real body of Christ was 'broken 
 into parts by the priests, and chewed by the teeth of the 
 people,' and being sensible of this absurdity, called another 
 council at Rome, and compelled Berengarius to recant in 
 this form : ' That the bread and wine which are set upon 
 the altar are, by the consecration, substantially changed into 
 the true, and proper, and vivifying flesh and blood of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and are that true body which was born 
 of the virgin, and which being offered for the salvation of 
 the world, did hang upon a cross, and sits upon the right 
 hand of the Father.' "* 
 
 Here, we see pope and council against pope and council, 
 decreeing infallibly, not only against each other, but 
 against all antiquity, common sense, and truth ! And here 
 is proof indisputable, that transubstantiation was not at this 
 time well understood by the popes and their councils, nor 
 was it to them, therefore, a settled article of the faith of 
 the church of Rome, nor was it fully such till the fourth 
 council of Lateran, under Pope Innocent III., an. 1215: as 
 Scotus and others well observe, before this it was not 
 adored, nor until 1216. But new doctrines and new ado- 
 ration are pronounced as accursed of God. Gal. i. 8. Wo 
 then to them who follow them ! ! ! 
 
 Proof here is of very great importance. Scotus writes, 
 " The church decreed that meaning, to wit, ' that the bread 
 and wine are changed into our Lord's body and blood, to 
 be of the verity of faith,' in the creed set forth under Inno- 
 cent III. in the council of Lateran, in 1215." In 4 Sent, 
 dist. 11, qu. 3.t But Bellarmine writes, "One thing Sco- 
 tus says, which cannot be proved, that before the Lateran 
 council transubstantiation was not a dogma of the faith ; 
 but he said so, because he had not read the council of 
 Rome under Gregory VII." — an. 1090, &c.J So, then, 
 Bellarmine has no other way of gainsaying Scotus ! This 
 rather strongly confirms what he, Scotus, had said. 
 
 * Excus. cum Lanfranci libro ; et apud Binium. T. Waldens. torn. 
 ii. c. 42, et in Re. Gest. Greg. VII. 
 
 ■j- Ecclesia declaravit istum intelledum, nempe, ' Panem transub- 
 stantiari in corpus, et vinum in sanguinem Domini nostri, esse de 
 veritate Jidei,' in into sumbolo ediio sub Innocentio HI. in concilia 
 Laterensi, an. 1215, <$-c. 
 
 t Unum tamen addit Scotus quod minime probandum est } ante 
 
220 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 The learned Tonstall, Bishop of Durham, says the same. 
 'Would it not have been better to leave every inquisitive 
 person to his own opinion concerning- the manner of the 
 real presence in the eucharist, as was free to every one to 
 do before the Lateran council, provided that faith of the 
 church which was from the beginning was acknowledged."* 
 
 St. Bernard, (an: 1190,) on John, c. vi. saith, "Many 
 things are done ; some simply only ; and some to desig- 
 nate other things, and therefore get the names of these 
 things, and are signs of them. A ring is given as a ring, 
 absolutely ; then there is nothing signified. It is given 
 also to entitle to an inheritance, it is then the sign of it ; 
 even so, he who receives the ring may instantly say, the 
 ring of itself is little worth, yet, it is the inheritance which 
 I sought, i. e. the taken of it. After this manner, there- 
 fore, did our Lord, when drawing nigh to his passion, take 
 care that his disciples should be invested with a significant 
 title to his grace ; that invisible grace should be exhibited 
 to them by some visible sign : for this end have all sacra- 
 ments been instituted, and for this end is the eucharist to be 
 received. "t Again he saith, "That the body of Christ is 
 in a mystery, the food of the mind and not of the belly; 
 hence it is not eaten corporally ; for such as is this food, 
 so it is understood to be eaten. "J His argument plainly is, 
 
 Latarense concilium non fuisse dogma fidei transubstantionem . 
 ita enim ilk dixit quia non legerat concilium Romanum sub Gre- 
 gorio VII. S(c.—l 3, de Sacr. Euch. c. 23. 
 
 * An satius, an vero potius fuisset de modo quo id fieret curiosum 
 quemque suse relinquere conjecture, sicut liberum fuit ante illud con- 
 cilium, modo veritatem corporis et sanguinis Domini in eucharistia esse 
 fateretur quae fuit ab initio ipsa ecclesis fides. TonstalL de Euchar. 1. 
 l.p. 46. 
 
 -j- Multa (inquit) fiunt propter se tantum, alia vero propter alia de- 
 signanda et ipsa dicuntur et sunt signa. Datur annulus propter annu- 
 lum, absolute, et nulla est significatio : datur etiam ad investiendum 
 aliquem in hasreditatem, et signum est ; ita ut jam dicere posset qui 
 accipit annulum; Annulus perse non valet quidquam, sed hsereditas est, 
 quam quserebam. In hunc itaque modum, appropinquans passioni 
 Dominus, de gratia sua investiri curavit suos, ut invisibilis gratia signo 
 aliquo visibili prsestaretur. Ad haec instituta sunt omnia sacramenta, 
 ad haec eucharistia? participatio. Serm. de Ccena Domini, in S. Johan. 
 vi. 56—62. 
 
 t Quod Christi corpus in mysterio cibus mentis sit et non ventris, 
 proinde corporaliter non manducatur : Sicut enim cibus est, ita et 
 comedi intelligatur. Serm. de Purif. B. Maria?. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY 221 
 
 that as the ring undergoes no change, and though called the 
 inheritance, yet it is not the inheritance, bat a token of it 
 only ; so also are the sacraments not changed, though 
 called by the names of the things of which they are sacra- 
 ments : and that as it is the mind that is to be nourished, 
 so cannot the body of Christ or his eucharist be received 
 corporally. Hence, no transubstantiation ! 
 
 Aquinas (an. 1260) saith, " The body of Christ is not 
 in this sacrament, as a body is in a place, which by its pro- 
 per dimensions can be measured in a place, but in some 
 special way proper to the sacrament ; hence, we say, the 
 body of Christ is on different altars, yet, not as in dif- 
 ferent places, but as in the sacrament; for the body of 
 Christ is not in any manner in the sacrament locally, or as 
 a body in a place, because, if it were, it would be divided 
 from itself,"* which is impossible. Behold ! the perplexity 
 of this great man, in striving to reconcile error with truth ; 
 his own explanation proves, either that this body is not a 
 local, real body, but sacramental only, as all truth testifies, 
 or his doctrine is an absurdity ! Bellarmine upon this cries 
 out, " If a body cannot be in two places locally, because it 
 would be separated from itself; truly, then, it cannot, for 
 the same reason, be sacramentally in two places. "t i. e. if 
 t be properly a body, it surely cannot. 
 
 The Helvetian Confession, (an. 1566 ;) " The bread is 
 presented outwardly by the minister, and the words of the 
 Lord are heard, Take, eat, this is my body; Take and 
 divide it among you, Drink ye all of this ; this is my blood. 
 Therefore the faithful receive what the Lord's servant gives, 
 and they drink of the cup of the Lord, inwardly at the 
 same time feel the work of Christ by the Holy Spirit, per- 
 ceive, or discern the flesh and blood of the Lord, and by 
 these are nourished to life eternal. — Our Lord is not absent 
 
 * Corpus Christi non est eo modo in hoc sacramento, sicut corpus 
 in loco, quod suis dimensionibus loco commensuratur, sed quodam spe- 
 ciali modo qui est proprius huic sacramento. Unde dicimus quod est 
 corpus Christi in diversis altaribus, non sicut in diversis locis, sed sicut 
 in sacramento localiter, quia si esset, divideretur a seipso. Aquin. Op 
 torn. 12. Sum. par. 3, q. 75, art. 1, ad. 3, p. 232, col. 2, q. 79 ed. 
 Antw. 1612. 
 
 j- Si non possit esse corpus localiter in duobus locis quia divideretur a 
 seipso, profecto non esse potest sacramentaliter eadem ratione. Bel- 
 larm. de Euch. 1. 3, p. 512, t. 3, ed. Paris, 1620. 
 
 19* 
 
222 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 from his Church, when taking the supper; the sun, far 
 from us in the firmament, is powerfully present with us ; 
 how much more is Christ, the sun of righteousness, though, 
 as to his body, in heaven absent from us, yet present with 
 us ; not corporally indeed, but spiritually, by a vivifying 
 operation, even as he declared at the last supper (John 
 xiv. xv. xvi.) he would be present with us. Hence, conse- 
 quently, we have no communion without Christ.* "This," 
 saith Bishop Cosins, " was besides signed by all the Pro- 
 testant Churches in Germany, Hungary, Transylvania, 
 Lithuania, Poland, Geneva, and Scotland."! 
 
 Confession of the Protestants of France. — Art. 36. 
 * Although Christ be now in heaven, there to remain too, 
 till he shall come to judge the world; yet we believe that 
 He, through the secret and ineffable virtue of his Spirit, 
 doth nourish and vivify us by the substance of his body and 
 blood, received by faith. But we say that this is done 
 spiritually, not that we put imagination or cogitation in 
 place of verity and efficacy, but rather because the mystery 
 of our intercourse with Christ is so sublime that it over- 
 powers all our senses, and therefore the whole course of 
 nature. Also, we believe that in the sacred supper God 
 gives us in very deed, that is, truly and effectually, what- 
 ever he doth sacramentally signify, and hence with the 
 signs we conjoin the true possession and fruition of that 
 benefit which is there offered us ; therefore that that bread 
 and that cup given us are indeed made spiritual nourishment 
 
 * An. 1566. Foris offertur a ministro panis, et audiuntur voces 
 Domini, Accipite, Edite, Hoc est corpus meum : Accipite et dividite 
 inter vos. Bibite ex hoc omnes ; hie est sanguinis meus. Ergo acci- 
 piunt fideles quod datur a ministro Domini, ac bibunt de poculo Domini, 
 intus interim opera Christi per Spiritum Sanctum percipiunt, etiam 
 carnem et sanguinem Domini, et pascuntur his in vitam aeternum. — Non 
 est absens ecclesiae sua? celebranti coenam Dominus. Sol absens a nobis 
 in coelo, nihilominus efficaciter presens est nobis ; quanto magis sol jus- 
 titiae Christus, corpore in ccelis absens nobis, presens est nobis, non cor- 
 poraliter quidem, sed spiritualiter, per vivificam operationem, ut ipse se 
 nobis presentem, exposuit in ultima ccena. Unde consequens est, nos 
 non habere coenam sine Christo, &c. 
 
 f Huic autem confessioni subscripserunt praeter omnes reformatas 
 Hungaricae, Transylvanicae, Polonicae, Lithuanicae, Scoticanae, &c. 
 Johan. Cosin. de Sacr. Symb. et ver. Prsssen. Chris, in Sacrain. Euch. 
 p. 26. Lond. 1676. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 223 
 
 to us, to wit, as far as they assist, as it were, our eyes to 
 behold that the flesh of Christ is our food, and his blood 
 our drink. Therefore we reject all those as fanatics who 
 repudiate these signs and symbols, seeing Christ our Lord 
 pronounced, This is my body, This cup is my blood."* 
 This confession was framed by the Synod in Paris, and 
 then presented to King Charles IX. The Church of Ge- 
 neva subscribed it. 
 
 The Confession of the Protestants of England in 
 1562. — "The clergy must never teach any thing which 
 they would have the people religiously believe, but what is 
 in agreement with the doctrine of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment, and what the catholic fathers and ancient bishops 
 drew from that doctrine : he that shall do otherwise by any 
 contrary doctrine disquiets the people, and must be excommu- 
 nicated ! Therefore this synod teacheth, that in the sacra- 
 ment of the eucharist, the body of Christ is given, taken, 
 and eaten, and that the bread so consecrated and broken is, 
 to the true receivers thereof, the communication of the body 
 of Christ; and in like manner the sacred cup is the com- 
 munion of the blood of Christ ; but that the wicked, and 
 such as approach the sacrament of so great a thing, un- 
 worthily, eat and drink it to their condemnation, and be- 
 come guilty of the body and blood of the Lord."t 
 
 * Co^fessio Gailicana. Art. 36. — " Quamvis nunc Christus in 
 coelis sit, ibidem etiam mansurus donee veniat mundum judicatures ; 
 crediraus tamen eum, arcana et incomprehensibili Spiritus sui virtute, 
 nos nutrire et vivificare corporis et sanguinis sui substantia, per 
 Jidem apprehensa. Dicimus autem hoc spiritualiter fieri, non ut veri- 
 tatis et efficacia? loco imaginationem aut cogitationem supponamus, sed 
 potius quoniam hoc mysterium nostra? cum Christo colitionis tarn sub- 
 lime est, ut omnes nostros sensus totumque adeo ordinem naturae supe- 
 rat. Item, Credimus in sacra coena Deum nobis reipsa, id est, vere et 
 eflicaciter donare quicquid ibi sacramentaliter figurat, ac proinde cum 
 signis conjungimus veram possessionem ac fruitionem ejus rei qua? ibi 
 nobis offertur : itaque panem ilium et vinum illud qua? nobis dantur, 
 vere nobis fieri spirituale alimentum, quatenus videlicit occulis nostris 
 velut spectandum praebent carnem Christi nostrum cibum esse, et ejus- 
 dem sanguinem nobis esse potus. Itaque fanaticos omnes illos rejici- 
 mus qui haec signa et symbola repudiant, quum Christus Dominus nos- 
 ter pronunciavit, Hoc est corpus meum, et hoc poculum est sanguis 
 mcus." Huic autem Confessioni subscripsit ecclesia Genevensis, Leu- 
 tetiae Synodo Nationali Constituta, et Regi Carolo IX. exhibita. Jon. 
 Cosin. de Sacr. Sym. p. 23. 
 
 \ Ecclesia? Anglicana? Confessio. Nequid unquam doceant quod a 
 
224 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 Luther. — As so much has been said about this great 
 man, much for him, and very much bitterly against him by 
 the papal doctors, I subjoin his declaration also on this sub- 
 ject. He affirmed his judgment to be, " That the body and 
 blood of Christ were not united or locally included with the 
 bread and wine by any natural junction ; nor did he ascribe 
 any virtue to the sacraments, by which they could of them- 
 selves convey life to the receivers ; but that he concluded a 
 sacramental union only, between the body of our Lord and 
 the bread, and between the blood and the wine. That he 
 likewise taught that the confirmation of faith which he 
 attributed to the sacraments, rested in a divine virtue, not 
 any that adhered in the external elements themselves, but 
 what is Christ's, and is communicated by his spirit, through 
 his words and sacraments."* How wretchedly has this 
 man been misrepresented ! Why ? Because he led the 
 people off from the pope and his clergy and false dogmas, 
 to Christ and his sacred gospel, and had translated it into 
 the mother tongue ! ! ! 
 
 The learned Erasmus, writing to Albert, cardinal and 
 prince, saith of Luther, " That why he was partial to him 
 was, because of his being a good man, a thing his very 
 
 populo religiose credi velint, nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinae Veteris 
 aut Novi Testamenti, quodque ex ilia ipsa doctrina Catholici patres et 
 veteres episcopi collegerint : qui secus fecerit et contraria doctrina popu- 
 lum turbaverit, excornmunicandus est. Docet igitur in sacramento 
 eucharistiEe, Corpus Christi dari, accipi, et manducari, atque adeo rite 
 sumentibus panem consecratum et fractum esse communicationem cor- 
 poris Christi; similiter et poculum benedictum esse communionem san- 
 guinis Christi: impios autem et indigne ad tantae rei sacramentum 
 accedentes, illud sibi ad judicium manducare, et condemnationem bibere, 
 quia efficiuntur rei ejusdem corporis et sanguinis Domini. Ordiar. ab 
 Eccles. Anglic, art. Relig. cap. 23, 29. Publicis Regni legibus stabiliti. 
 An. 1562. In Lib. Can. Public auctor. edit. an. 1571. Cap. de Con- 
 cion. 
 
 * Lutherus quoque sententiam suam declaravit. et affirmavit: "Non 
 ulla se naturae copula corpus et sanguinem Christi unire cum pane et 
 vino, et localiter includere, neque sacramentis, propriam tribuere virtu- 
 tem, qua salutern ex se afferant ea sumentibus ; sed sacramentalem 
 solum unionem inter corpus Domini et panem, interque sanguinem et 
 vinum statuere ; turn etiam docere confirmationem fidei quam sacramen- 
 tis tribuit, niti virtute, non quae ipsis inhsereat externis rebus per se, 
 verum quae sit Christi, et dispensetur ejus spiritu per verba et symbola." 
 Joh. Cosin De Sacr. Symbol, p. 22. Tom. 20 Opera Lutheri. 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 225 
 
 enemies acknowledged, — and this I observe, that the best 
 men are least offended with his writings."* Again, Frede- 
 rick, Duke of Saxony, said, "Erasmus did truly point out 
 Luther's two chief faults, That he meddled with the pope's 
 crown, and with the monk's bellies."\ And Guiccardine 
 of Italy saith, " Many conceived that the troubles raised 
 against Luther had their origin in the innocency of his 
 life, and the soundness of his doctrine, rather than in any 
 thing else !"f 
 
 Here we have the truth. With regard to the story of his 
 conversing with the devil ; our Lord and his apostles 
 talked with Satan, as did other saints too. But the fact 
 Luther mentions is, That as he had in his ignorance been 
 so long saying masses, and that masses are idolatrous, 
 Satan tempted him because of all this idolatry to despair 
 of salvation ! ! 
 
 Here are Luther's words : " Quid, si tales missse hor- 
 rendse sint idolatrise," fyc. " What ! if such masses were 
 horrible idolatries ? Hence, good brother, Mr7 Papist, 
 Satan, when he accuses me of this, and urgeth the heinous- 
 ness of the sin, he doth not lie ; but then Satan lieth, when 
 he would so far urge it as to make me despair of the mercy 
 and grace of God — the devil lieth in tempting me to despair, 
 with Cain ; I will therefore, with Peter, be sorry for my 
 fault and return to my Saviour," &c.§ 
 
 That the devil did talk with Christ and his servants, and 
 can tell truth to serve a purpose, as do all liars, is clear 
 from his speech to Christ and his apostles, (Luke viii. 28. 
 Acts xvi. 17,) " Thou art the son of the most High God" — 
 " These men are the servants of God who show us the way 
 
 * Et tamen si ille faverem, ut viro bono, quod fatentur et hostes ; 
 Mud video ut quisquis vir est optimus, ita illius scriptis minime offendi. 
 Erasm. torn. 3. in Epist. ad Albert. Epis. et Princ. Mogun. Cardinal. 
 
 •j- Erasmus duo magna peccata Lutheri dixit ; Quod ventris monacho- 
 rum et coronam papae attigisset. Char, in Chron. Auct. a Pancero, lib. 
 5. Here are candid Romish writers ! 
 
 + Come se le persecutioni nascessimo piu dalla innocenza della sua 
 vita, et dalla sanita dalla doctrina che da altra cagione. Guiccard. His- 
 tor.Ital. 1. 13. p. 380. 
 
 § Quid ! Si tales missse horrendse essent idblatrise 1 — Proinde bone 
 frater domine Papista non mentitur Satan quando accusat, aut urget- 
 magnitudinem peccati — Sed ibi mentitur Satan quando ultra urget ut 
 desperem de gratia, &c. Luther, torn. vii. de miss. Priv. p. 230, 
 
226 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 of salvation." If then he talked to Luther, inwardly or 
 vocally, and that the priests for this blacken him, as if of 
 the devil, why not go farther and also blacken Christ and 
 his apostles and their followers ? Shame on these un 
 worthy, dishonest writers, who have been holding up this 
 man and Protestants as followers of the devil ! But as 
 soon as Romanists discover this truth, that no informed 
 Protestants take their religion from any man, good or bad, 
 but from Christ and his gospel only, the cheat put on them, 
 and the whole priestly trick, shall be spoiled at once, and 
 their craft go to the four winds ! 
 
 Calvin, on the Lord's supper. — "If our Lord by the 
 breaking of bread represents truly the participation of his 
 body, there ought to be no doubt but he truly presents and 
 exhibits. For if it be true that he gives us a visible sign, 
 to seal the gift of an invisible thing ; upon receiving the 
 symbol of his body, we may surely trust that he will no 
 less give us his body itself also. Absurdities apart, what- 
 ever, in order to express the true and substantial communi- 
 cation of the Lord's body and blood that is, which the sacred 
 symbols of the supper exhibited to the faithful, that he can 
 do, I freely receive ; and so that they may be understood, 
 that I discern them, not in imagination only, or in the 
 mind's understanding, but that I, in very deed, enjoy them 
 to the nourishment of life eternal."* 
 
 Having thus collected out of many these few testimonies 
 of these fathers, and of other learned divines, from nearly 
 the apostles' days to the sixteenth century, we learn by 
 them and the Holy Scriptures, 1st, That the body and blood 
 of Christ was taken in five several senses, three of which 
 particularly are, 1. His natural body and blood, which 
 was born and crucified, and is now glorified. — 2. His figu- 
 
 * Dominus, si per fractionem panis corporis sui participationem vere 
 representat, minime dubium esse debet, quin vere praestet atque exhibeat. 
 Quod si verum est praberi nobis signum visibile, ad obsignandum invi- 
 siblis rei donationem ; accepto corporis symbolo non minus corpus etiam 
 ipsum nobis dari certo confidamus. Absurditatibus omissis, quicquid, 
 ad experimendam veram substantialemque corporis ac sanguinis Domini 
 comaaunicationem quse cum sacris ccense symbolis fidelibus exhibitur, 
 facere potest, hbenter recipio; atque ita ut non imaginationem dun- 
 taxat, aut mentis intelligentia percipere, sed ut re ipsa frui in alimen- 
 tum vitae setem® intelligantur. Instit. Chr. Relig. 1. 4, c. 17, Joh. Cos. 
 de Sacr. Symb. p. 29. 
 
> AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 227 
 
 rative, commemorative, or sacramental body and blood, 
 made of earthly matter, which is eaten by the mouth, goeih 
 into the belly, feedeth the body, and is cast out into the 
 draught, as saith our Lord, (Mark vii. 19,) and, 3. His 
 " celestial body and blood, which being poured into the 
 ears" by the word of God, and communicated by the Holy 
 Spirit, through faith, to the souls of true believers, sanctifies 
 and nourishes them to eternal life. And as David called 
 the water brought him by his three mighty men, blood, 
 because obtained at the expense of their blood, saying, 
 " Shall I drink the blood of these men who put their lives 
 in jeopardy ?" (1 Chron. xi. 19 ;) even so, this living bread, 
 or grace or heavenly substance, is called flesh and bhod, 
 or body of Christ, (as we have just seen, p. 203,) beciuse 
 procured for us by the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb slain 
 from the foundation of the ivorld ; slain, first, by promise, 
 and then on the cross. 
 
 2d. In this blood of the Lamb did all the saints of every 
 age and nation " wash their robes and make them white," 
 even before Christ had any blood really, or was born, as 
 did Abel, all the patriarchs, prophets, and other holy per- 
 sons, before and after the flood. (Rev. v. 9 ; vii. 14.) If, 
 then, all that are in heaven were washed in this blood ; so, 
 in the. same sense, did all those eat of his body, who lived, 
 some thousands of years before he had any human body : 
 and if they did, in what other sense can any believer eat it 
 or partake of it for ever? This body and blood, however 
 variously represented in different dispensations, whether 
 by Abel's lamb, by manna, the water of the rock, Jewish 
 sacrifices, or by bread and wine since the last supper, was, 
 from age to age, to believers, still the same thing, however 
 differing in degree. Of this body and blood, I repeat, did 
 Abel eat, as did all the saints, before the flood, after it, to 
 the crucifixion, and to this day, as these fathers testify ; and 
 as St. Paul saith, Our fathers all ate the same spiritual 
 meat, and drank the same spiritual drink. (1 Cor. x.) 
 " Yes," saith St. Augustine, on John vi., " they did eat the 
 same spiritual meat with us, but other corporal food ; they 
 did eat manna, we another thing, but yet they ate the same 
 spiritual food, and drank the same spiritual drink with us 
 Moses did eat manna, and Aaron and Phineas, and many 
 others who pleased God, and died not, ate thereof. How 
 
228 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 so? because they did spiritually understand their visible 
 food, they did hunger spiritually, and taste, and were spi- 
 ritually filled. The manna signified this bread, the altar 
 of God signified the same ; these were sacraments differing 
 in the signs, but agreeing in the thing signified. So, we 
 at this day receive visible food, but the sacrament is one 
 thing, and the virtue is another thing." And on verse 58, 
 " This is that bread which came down from heaven ; he 
 that eateth thereof shall live forever. This must be under- 
 stood of him who eats the virtue meant by the sacrament, 
 not the mere sacrament, who eats inwardly, not outwardly ; 
 who feeds on that virtue in his heart, not who presseth the 
 sacrament with his teeth." 
 
 3d. That no wicked person, but believers only, can re- 
 ceive this body and blood, or divine substance ; and that 
 it is received by some, by a living faith, without the out- 
 ward sacraments ; which is allowed by the very council of 
 Trent, as we have seen ; or at the sacrament of baptism, or 
 by prayer, nay, in every divinely appointed means of grace 
 where living, obedient faith is in exercise. Divinely ap 
 pointed, I say ; for God cannot smile upon any thing else 
 nor therefore give his grace and salvation to the audacious 
 teachers and stupid followers of known superstitions 
 Hence, as no man would wish to lose his labour, and get 
 himself a curse instead of a blessing, so should every one 
 examine if all be of God or not. 
 
 4th. That for more than six or seven hundred years after 
 Christ, trans ubstantiation was not known in the world. 
 Hence, antiquity, scripture, reason, many cardinals, and 
 other eminent doctors, nay, the very canon of the mass, as 
 I have proved, all condemn it; and by prop. 5, 6, (page 
 180,) and by the foregoing arguments, it is fully demon- 
 strated, that Christianity and it are opposites, and cannot 
 stand together : hence, it must be false. Now, as no being 
 whatever can make falsehood truth — hence, no power 
 whatever can, with truth, support transubstantiation. 
 
 " Many discerning persons of the church of Rome,' 
 saith Tillotson, " are grown so sensible of this ridiculous 
 doctrine, that they would now gladly be rid of it ; but the 
 council of Trent hath riveted it so fast into their religion, 
 and made it so necessary and essential a part of their belief, 
 that they cannot now part with it. It is a mill-stone hung 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 229 
 
 about the neck of popery, which will sink it at the last. 
 And though some of their greatest wits, as Cardinal Per- 
 ron, Arnault, &c, have written great volumes in its defence, 
 yet it is an absurdity of that monstrous and massy weight, 
 that no human authority or wit is able to support. It 
 will make the very pillars of St. Peter's crack! and require 
 more volumes to make it good than would fill the Vatican." 
 Til. Ser. on Transub. 
 
 SaithAverroes, the Arabian philosopher, "I have travelled 
 over the world, and have found diverse sects ; but so sottish 
 a sect or law I never found, as is the sect of the Christians; 
 because with their own mouth they devour their God, whom 
 they worship !" So did this doctrine shock this heathen. 
 
 Now sum up the whole, and add all the confusion and 
 desolations, this strange doctrine has caused in the earth, the 
 seas of blood it has spilt, by the inquisition, the sword, 
 burning, hanging, drowning, starving, banishment, and va- 
 rious persecutions of such as opposed it ; that it is at vari- 
 ance with Christ and his religion ; shocks every thinking 
 Pagan, Jew, and Mohammedan, and must therefore prevent 
 their conversion to Christ : that being in itself a self-contra- 
 diction, an impossibility, it has involved all those men, even 
 of the greatest parts, who undertook to defend it, in such 
 mazes and absurdities as makes every sensible man of that 
 church who reads their {subtleties, not) arguments, blush ; 
 and made the great Perron himself, who tried his strength 
 to colour it over, exclaim, "It is a monster!" and finally, 
 that it leads to instant infidelity, and therefore to the destruc- 
 tion of multitudes, body and soul, eternally. Can any man 
 of sense, seeing all this, still believe the priests, that it is 
 the offspring of heaven ? And if not, whence then came it, 
 if not from God, but from the enemy of God and man ? 
 Should not every friend of God and man therefore renounce 
 it at once and forever ? 
 
 The papal doctors themselves grant, " T&at noveki es a :e 
 subversive of Christianity, and that all who teach them mm 
 fall under the divine anathema, and are the school of Satan." 
 Now, all their clergy are sworn on the Gospels to believe 
 and teach this, and other such novelties, to the day of their 
 death. Doth it not then follow, that they are sworn to be 
 of Satan's school, and to be accursed to the day of their 
 20 
 
230 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 
 
 death? How, then, can they be saved, except they escape 
 from this oath and all these novelties together, and submit 
 themselves to Christ and his gospel alone ? 
 
 Having thus, I again say, collated the testimony of the 
 fathers for the first six hundred years of the Christian era, 
 with that of jChrist and his apostles, and then that of the 
 most eminent divines of the next thousand years with the 
 former, and showed their perfect harmony on the subject of 
 the eucharist, and now comparing with the whole the tes- 
 timony of so many great Protestant churches and doctors ; 
 who, not perverse, can avoid beholding the closeness of their 
 agreement on this matter, not only with each other, but with 
 all that went before, up to Christ and his apostles ; yes, and 
 with his gospel at this moment ? Here is no subtil ty, no 
 trick, but plain matter of fact. And when the strong lan- 
 guage of the church of England is noticed, " That on pain 
 of expulsion, none of her sons must teach any doctrine but 
 that of God only, as taught in the first ages after Christ," 
 what can be more satisfactory? And to be perfectly in 
 unison with Christ and be safe forever, what have they to 
 do but scrupulously attend to it ? as their 6th and 20th arti- 
 cles, saying, " They must have nothing opposed to God's 
 word, nor must ever interpret it so as to make one part 
 clash with another ;" I say, what need they more for salva- 
 tion, but carefully to attend to this, and, avoiding the fault 
 of the foolish virgins, rest not short of that "inward grace 
 that is a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness ?" 
 To all this all true Protestants agree. Now, when the dog- 
 mas of the papal church are found opposed, not only to the 
 Protestant churches, but by consequence to all antiquity, 
 and to Christ and his apostles, the conclusion then is, that 
 she must either abandon this and all her strange doctrines, 
 or sink like a millstone in the flood. And also the people 
 must " come out of her" quickly, and join themselves to 
 some of the Protestant churches, or make up their minds 
 to sink with her eternally. For the Lord hath decreed it, 
 " If the blind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the 
 ditch !" 
 
 As I am not conscious of any thing unkind or unfair in 
 what I have thus written, and as I only intended to defend 
 the holy and old religion of Christ, and do good toTny fel- 
 
AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 231 
 
 low-men, if any man shall give a fair and hind answer to 
 my arguments, and show me truth — show me that I am 
 mistaken — / hereby promise I shall be of his religion : for 
 truth, not sect, party, or name, is what I regard. 
 
 I am, Rev. sir, yours, in Christ, 
 
 GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Limerick, Feb. 1814. 
 5th edit , Lublin, June 4, 1827. 
 
LETTER .VI. 
 
 THE SACRIFICE OE THE MASS 
 
 ANTICHRISTIAN. 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 
 
 Rev. Sir — This doctrine is thus stated by the council of 
 Trent: " I profess that in the mass there is offered to God 
 a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and 
 for the dead."* 
 
 The utter impossibility of transubstantiation having been 
 demonstrated, this falls with it : for, if there was no proper 
 change of the bread into the human body of Christ, there 
 was no victim in that sacrament ; if not, that it ever was a 
 propitiatory sacrifice was, and is, impossible ! Notwith- 
 standing, as an examination of it may, probably, in the hand 
 of God, do good to some, I shall take the liberty of giving 
 it a separate consideration. 
 
 1st. The apostles Peter and Paul tell us, that Christ suf- 
 fered once, and only once, upon the cross, for the sins of 
 mankind. "t Hence there could be no real propitiation in 
 the world, till that on the cross. Should they, then, or 
 any other being, once prove there was, it would, according 
 to Prop. 5, (p. 180,) contradict this Scripture record, and 
 so tear up the very foundations of Christianity ; because 
 
 * Profiteor pariter in missa offeri Deo, verum proprium et propitiato- 
 num sacrificium pro vivis et defunctis in Christo, in purgatorio detentis, 
 nondum ad plenum purgatis, — Bulla Pii IV. Cone. Trid. sess. xxii. cap. 
 22, can. 1 — 3, sess. 25, Decret. de Purgatorio. 
 
 f 1 Pet. iii. 18. Heb. vii. 27; ix. 12—14 ; x. 10, 13, 14. 
 
 232 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS, &C. 233 
 
 the apostles would be found false witnesses, and if a real 
 sacrifice was made for sin before Christ's death, it would 
 render his death and merits needless ; and so the founda 
 tions of our religion would be destined. But the sacra- 
 ment they call the mass, was before his death ; hence, the 
 mass sacrifice must be subversive of Christianity, and there- 
 fore be most impious and antichristian. This one plain 
 argument, even without more, must, with every impartial 
 mind, overturn, as in a moment, the sacrifice of the mass,' 
 and pull down the whole edifice connected with it. 
 
 2. If there was no real propitiatory sacrifice before that 
 on the cross, no sacrifice till then could be more than 
 typical; but the sacrament Christ gave, and which ye call 
 the first mass, was before his death, therefore that sacra- 
 ment could be no more than figurative. Hence, as no real 
 propitiation was in that sacrament, and as none can be better 
 than the first, then it follows, your sacrifice of the mass is 
 an impossibility, and an impiety, and to teach it is anti- 
 christian. 
 
 3. "A real sacrifice cannot be without the death or dis- 
 solution of the victim sacrificed."* But as Christ had not 
 died at the time of the first mass or sacrament, nor dies in 
 any mass, hence can no such sacrifice be in any mass. 
 Therefore, any such sacrifice, being impossible, is antichris- 
 tian. " But," says Dr. Challoner, " there is in the mass a 
 real destruction" Of what? — why, "of the bread and 
 wine, by consecration" What shameless mockery, false- 
 hood, and imposition are here ! Are bread and wine a living 
 victim, slain or destroyed in this sacrament ? That any 
 rational creature should be duped by such palpable false- 
 hoods is lamentable. 
 
 4. Did Christ offer himself once a real sacrifice in his 
 sacrament, or first mass, as ye call it ? He did, or he did 
 not. If he did, when he offered himself afterwards on the 
 cross, he must then have offered himself twice really! or 
 the mass sacrifice is false. But if he did not offer himself 
 in that first mass, why, then, does the priest offer him in his 
 mass ? He cannot answer. Hence, such mass sacrifice is 
 unwarranted, impious, and antichristian. 
 
 Thus reason proves that the mass sacrifice is necessarily 
 
 * Sacrificium verum et reale — Verum et realem occisionem exegit. 
 Belliirmiu. de Mi=sa, Ub. 2, c. 27. 
 
 30* 
 
234 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS 
 
 subversive of Christianity, and is highly antichristian. But 
 we shall behold the judgment of the fathers also. 
 
 1. St. Augustine writes, "That which all men call the 
 sacrifice is the sign of the true sacrifice"* 
 
 2. St. Chrysostom — "We all offer the same sacrifice, 
 tiaXkov 8e ava/xv^ativ, or rather the commemoration thereof."1 
 
 3. St. Ambrose — " We indeed offer, but it is to make a 
 remembrance of his death. "J 
 
 Again, (1. 4, c. 5, de Sacram.) "Fac nobis hanc oblationera 
 ascriptam quod est figura Domini nostri, Jesu Chrisii." 
 
 " The priest saith, « Make this oblation applicable, ration- 
 al, acceptable, which is the figure of the body and blood of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ.' " 
 
 4. Fulgentius — "In this sacrifice of bread and wine 
 which is offered throughout the whole Catholic church 
 there is a thanksgiving and remembrance of the flesh ol 
 Christ which he offered for us, and of the blood which he 
 shed for us."§ 
 
 5. Peter Lombard, master of the sentences, writes, "That 
 Christ was only once truly and properly offered in sacrifice, 
 and that in the sacrifice called the oblation, there is a re- 
 membrance and representation of the true sacrifice which 
 was once made, and that in it he is daily, but sacramentally 
 slain."|| 
 
 6. Lyra saith, " If thou sayest the sacrifice of the altar is 
 daily offered in the church, it must be answered, there is not 
 a reiteration of the sacrifice, but a daily commemoration of 
 that sacrifice that was offered on the cross. ^ 
 
 7. Cardinal Bellarmine records it, "That the oblation 
 that is made after the consecration, does not belong to the 
 
 * Ulud quod ab ominbus appellator sacrificium est signum veri sacri- 
 ficii. Civit. Dei, 1. 10, c. 5. 
 
 f Tandem hostiam offerimus, vel potius recordationem ipsius. Chrvs. 
 Heb. 10, Horn. 17. 
 
 i Offerimus quidem, sed recordationem facientes mortis ejus. Ambr. 
 in Heb. 10. 
 
 § Sacrificium panis vini ecclesia catbolica per universum orbem terns 
 
 on cessat offeri — in isto sacrificio gratiarum, actio et commemoratio e-t 
 
 samis Christi quam pro nobis obtulit. De Fide ad Petr. Diacon. c. 19. 
 
 !| Vocari sacrificium quia memoria est et representatio veri sacrincii 
 quod semel factum est, &c. Pet. Lamb. Sent. lib. 4, dist. 12. 
 
 1} Sed si adhuc diceres, sacrificium alternis quotidie offertur in cccleoia, 
 &c, Lyra in Heb. 10. 
 
ANTIC HEISTI AN. 235 
 
 essence of the sacrifice, because our Lord made no such ob- 
 lation, neither did his apostles, from the first, as is demon- 
 strated from Gregory."* 
 
 8. Saith Dr. Synge, Archbishop of Tuam, " Produce, if 
 you can, one single passage out of the fathers, for more 
 than 600 years after Christ, wherein they assert the neces- 
 sity of believing any other true, proper, and propitiatory 
 sacrifice of Christ, but that on the cross alone, and it shall 
 be considered, if it has not been fully done so already." 
 Rejoinder to Dr. Nary, p. 200. 
 
 9. The council of Trent saith, "When our Lord said, 
 tfortfo jtocs nz , ' Hoc facite,' 'Do this,' he ordained his apostles 
 priests." Sess. 22, cap. 1, can. 1. But if, by these words, 
 the apostles were made priests when they received the bread, 
 as the council declares they were ; then, by the same words, 
 they were made priests afterwards at the delivery of the cup ! 
 Hence, if made priests at all by this form of words, they 
 were twice made ; but if not twice, then surely not once, 
 nor at all. Therefore, they were never made priests ; for, 
 sacrifices being ended by the one great sacrifice, the office 
 of priests to sacrifice must have also ended forever. Again, 
 since Christ did not then, nor till on the cross, offer himself, 
 and that by these words he gave them power of doing only 
 as far as he did, when the apostles were not made priests, 
 having no proper sacrifice to offer forever, and that the 
 typical had ceased, how then have the papal priests thereby, 
 or therefrom, a power of offering Christ in sacrifice in the 
 mass ? By the phrase "Bo this," was therefore no com- 
 mand given to make priests, or to offer sacrifice in the mass, 
 but only to commemorate with thanksgiving his passion, 
 and " show forth his death till he come," as St. Paul says, 
 1 Cor. xi. 26. To assume such a power, then, and to offer 
 such sacrifices, is ignorance, or is great wickedness and im- 
 posture. 
 
 Lastly, These words were directed to the apostles only, 
 or to all Christians in general. If to the former only, then 
 no Christian is bound to receive the sacraments in either kind, 
 or at all, but priests only ; or if to the latter, all Christians 
 
 * Oblatio quse sequitur consecrationera, ad integritatem, sacrincii per- 
 tinet, non ad essentiam, quod non ad essentiam, probatur, tarn ex eo quod 
 Dominus earn oblationem non adhibuit, imo nee apostoli in principio, ut 
 ex Gregorio demonstratum est. Lib. 1. de Missa, c. 27, § 5. 
 
236 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS 
 
 were by them made sacrificing priests, or they were not ; if 
 not, then the apostles were not made priests, of course. 
 
 Here is abundant evidence that for many ages the sacra- 
 ment was not believed a real, but a figurative sacrifice of 
 Christ's death, and of thanks and praise. 
 
 Dr. Challoner and your other learned divines, in trying 
 to extricate themselves from these pressing difficulties, resort 
 to a truly curious contrivance. 
 
 " Our Saviour," saith a modern advocate, " in leaving to 
 us his body and blood under two distinct kinds, instituted 
 not only a sacrament but sacrifice, a commemorative sacri- 
 fice, distinctly showing his passion and death until he come. 
 For, as the sacrifice of the cross was performed by a distinct 
 effusion of his blood, so is that sacrifice commemorated in 
 this of the altar by a distinction of the symbols. Jesus, 
 therefore, is there given, not only to us, but for us ; and 
 the church is thereby enriched with a true, proper, and pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice, usually termed the mass ; propitiatory 
 we say, because representing in a lively manner the passion 
 and death of our Lord, it is peculiarly pleasing to our eternal 
 Father, and thus more effectually applies to us the all-suffi- 
 cient merits of the sacrifice of the cross." Barrington^s 
 Faith of the Catholics, prop. v. p. 200. 
 
 Dr. Challoner, too, labours to bewilder his readers, and 
 make his escape. " The sacrifice of the cross and the 
 sacrifice of the altar," saith he, " is one and the same sacri- 
 fice, for the victim is the self-same Jesus Christ, and the 
 priest also who offers the sacrifice is the self-same Jesus 
 Christ, because he officiates as his vicegerent and in his 
 person ! The only difference is in the manner of offering, 
 and that the sacrifice of the cross, wherein he really died 
 and redeemed us, is a bloody sacrifice; and that of the 
 mass, where that death is represented, is unbloody and ap- 
 plicatory, daily applying to us the virtue of that of the 
 cross." Catholic Christian, pp. 67, 69, 73. 
 
 Par nobile fratrum! A noble pair of doctors, divines, 
 and champions ! What confusion and self-contradiction, in 
 trying to make night day, falsehood truth, and lead the 
 foolish astray ! And yet, sir, they are celebrated advocates, 
 " for Brutus is an honourable man !" But did they believe 
 a sentence of all they said ? No, truly. 
 
 The one says, " The sacrifice of the cross is commemo- 
 
ANTICHRISTIAN. 237 
 
 rated by that of the altar, and represents it in a lively man- 
 ner, therefore it is a propitiatory sacrifice left to the faith- 
 ful, even the mass, to enrich them." So, then, what strongly 
 represents a man is the man himself! and what in a lively 
 manner represents the dying Saviour, is the identical bleed- 
 ing, dying Saviour himself! And the other uses just the 
 same jargon, only he thought it the best way to tell a bold 
 lie, or a bundle of them at once, and try his fate ! He saw 
 he had no other way but this, or quit the ground and give 
 up his cause. And the same path did Dr. Milner take ; 
 " The sacrifice of the cross," says Challoner, " and that of 
 the altar is one and the same, for the victim is the self-same 
 Jesus Christ, and the priest is the same, because he acts for 
 him, only with some difference in the manner of offering," 
 &c. So then, " Christ dead and a wafer, Christ and the 
 officiating priest, are one and the same," &c. So then 
 there is every difference, and there is none, and therefore 
 the sacrifice of the mass is properly propitiatory ! — believe 
 this, ye faithful, or perish ! ! ! 
 
 The apostle says, "Without shedding of blood, or a 
 bloody sacrifice, there is no expiation — no remission of 
 sins." Heb. x. 22. But " the mass sacrifice is unbloody 
 and applicatory" only, hence not expiatory. So your so- 
 lemn oath on the Book of God binds you to believe and 
 teach, " that the mass sacrifice is expiatory " and yet it is 
 not expiatory, but " applicatory" only. Thus out of your 
 own mouth are ye convicted. 
 
 Besides this, the business of a real propitiatory sacrifice 
 Is not application to men, but oblation to God, by the vica- 
 rious suffering and death of the victim to atone for sin, that 
 the guilt and punishment due to sin may be removed and 
 cleansed away, as say Turrentinus, (Tract, p. 200,) and 
 Bellarmine. But the mass sacrifice can be neither expia- 
 tory to God, for nothing is slain therein, nor applicatory to 
 men, for that is not the business of a proper expiatory sacri- 
 fice. Hence it is good for neither the one thing nor the 
 other. 
 
 St. Paul tells us, "That the legal sacrifices, because they 
 were imperfect, were often repeated ; but the sacrifice of 
 Christ on the cross was infinitely perfect, and perfects be- 
 lievers, and must never be repeated." Heb. x. 11, 14 
 Hence, a sacrifice which is continually repeated cannot be 
 
238 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS 
 
 propitiatory ; but the mass is offered daily, therefore it is 
 not propitiatory. To offer any propitiatory sacrifice after 
 that of Christ, is plainly to pronounce the apostle was mis- 
 taken, and that the cross sacrifice was not infinitely perfect, 
 for that it needed this of the mass to be added to it daily ; 
 to say which, all must allow, is blasphemy. But the mass 
 sacrifice is offered daily as expiatory, therefore they who 
 offer it are necessarily guilty of contradicting the apostle, 
 and of blasphemy against Christ's infinitely perfect sacrifice ; 
 and opposition to Christ is to become antichrist. 
 
 Again, he affirms, "Where remission of sin is, there is 
 no more offering for sin." Heb. x. 18. Hence, if the 
 apostle spake truly, there must be no more expiatory offer- 
 ing forever. Either, then, the mass expiatory sacrifice is 
 unnecessary, and must not be offered, or the apostle spoke 
 falsely. To offer it, therefore, is to declare the apostle a 
 liar, and the Scriptures also false, and so to subvert Chris- 
 tianity. Hence the mass sacrifice is plainly and unavoid- 
 ably subversive of Christianity, and is therefore necessarily 
 a system of antichristianity. 
 
 But if there was no real proper sacrifice but Christ's 
 death once on the cross, and your oath is that in the mass 
 there is a proper sacrifice: if then there is a real sacrifice 
 in the mass, and that the first mass was before Christ's 
 death, then your oath goes to say, that Christ's blood was 
 shed at the sacrament before it was shed on the cross, and 
 that he was really dead on the cross in that sacrament while 
 yet he was not dead, but was alive, eating it with his apos- 
 tles ! That is, he ate himself and drank himself, and each 
 of his apostles ate him and then drank him ; and he offered 
 himself in sacrifice, and so shed his blood and was dead, 
 and then walked out into the garden with his disciples, and 
 sung a hymn and prayed, and was apprehended, and con- 
 demned, and offered himself on the cross ; and therefore 
 the sacrifice of the cross really took place at night, before 
 it took place the day after ! O, the fearful absurdities of the 
 mass ! ! O ye angelical divines, is this all true ? 
 
 Again. Should a man say that his sacrament is better 
 than Christ's, would you not call him a blasphemer? But 
 your mass, ye swear, is truly propitiatory, and his, it is 
 proved, was not so ; yours, then, must be better ; which to 
 gay is blasphemy. "What now must be said of a doctrine 
 
ANTICHRISTTAN. 239 
 
 that thus necessarily involves its advocates in palpable per- 
 jury and blasphemy, and thus throws them into the ditch 
 forever ? With Cardinal Perron must not all men cry out, 
 "It is a monster!" Whether all men should cleave to 
 this monster or fly from it, let each one now judge. Ob- 
 viate these arguments who can. 
 
 Objection. " But several of the ancient fathers call th 
 eucharist an oblation, a sacrifice, (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus 
 Chrysostom, Augustine, &c.,) and the same is proved by 
 scripture texts, Mai. i. 10, 11, Heb. xiii. 10, and Acts xiii. 2. 
 "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted," where there 
 is an evident mistranslation, for the original Greek is 
 " sicM'ovpyowT'wv," "as they were sacrificing" &c. 
 
 I reply, that neither these fathers, nor yet these texts, are 
 at all in point to prove any propitiatory sacrifice. I confess 
 that the Scriptures do say sacrifices are to be offered unto 
 God. Phil. iv. 19. Heb. xiii. 15, 16. Rom. xii. 1. Yet 
 no expiatory sacrifice, save the death of Christ alone, is 
 found therein. 2d. That these fathers did frequently use 
 the words oblation, victim, immolation, sacrifice of the eu- 
 charist, unbloody sacrifice, &c. But in what sense ? not 
 properly propitiatory, but as signs only of that great sacri- 
 fice, and therefore taking their names, as saith St. Augus- 
 tine,—" If the sacraments had not a resemblance of those 
 things of which they be sacraments, they would not be 
 sacraments at all ; but from this resemblance they com- 
 monly take the names of the things which they resemble : 
 as, when Easter is drawing near, we say, To-morrow or the 
 day after is the Lord's passion, when he suffered many 
 years ago, and that his passion is never to be but once ; so 
 on the Lord's day we say, To-day our Lord rose again, 
 when it was many years ago. Why is nobody so foolish 
 as to charge us with lying ? But we call those days so, as 
 they resemble those on which those things were done. Was 
 not Christ once immolated in himself? And yet in a sacra- 
 ment he is immolated by the people, not on Easter day 
 only, but daily; nor does he therefore lie who, being asked, 
 makes answer that Christ is immolated." Hence, as Eas- 
 ter Sunday is called the resurrection of-Christ, so the " eu- 
 charist is called the immolation of Christ." Ep. 23, ad 
 Bonif. Again, " That which all men call the sacrifice is 
 the sign of the sacrifice." Civ. Dei, 1 10, c 5 
 
240 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS 
 
 2. These texts from Scripture have nothing to do with a 
 proper expiatory sacrifice ; nor is the criticism on "kzinovp- 
 yovvtav correct : for, besides that the Latin of it, minis- 
 trantibus, in Montanus's Testament, agrees with the Pro- 
 testant translation, ministering ; that interpretation, sacri- 
 ficing, if it meant sacrificing priests, would go to make 
 people, princes, and angels, all, sacrificing priests ! 
 
 The apostle tells the saints at Rome, (xv. 27,) o$sl%ovoc 
 xao sv tots aapxixois KsLtovpyrjoac avtoi$, " that they ought to 
 minister (not sacrifice) their carnal things to the poor 
 saints in Jerusalem ;" and in xiii. 6, he calls the civil rulers, 
 "kunovpyot ®sov, " God's ministers ," not sacrificing priests 
 surely. Besides, where in the New Testament is the Lord's 
 supper called "ksttovpyia? Hence, the mass sacrifice has no 
 place in the Scriptures. Men must be hard set, indeed, 
 when they are obliged to resort to such sorry shifts to 
 prop themselves up. 
 
 But supposing for a moment, that some texts could be 
 found, mentioning a proper mass sacrifice, and that the 
 apostles and angels of heaven, with all the fathers that ever 
 lived, should declare the same ; yet, till they could first 
 prove, that all the prophecies which so fully describe the 
 coming, person, character, works, sufferings, and death of 
 Christ, and all the accounts these apostles formerly gave of 
 his birth, life, preaching, miracles, &c, did all really belong 
 to a cake of bread and a cup of wine ! as well as to Christ, 
 and consequently that all those prophets, and the Scrip- 
 tures too, were false ! they could not be believed. Hence, 
 the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass is incapable of being 
 proved by any testimony or power whatever ! 
 
 To close — seeing it is plain, 1st. As there never was any 
 propitiatory sacrifice for sin on the earth but one, even 
 Christ's death once on the cross, and that the sacrament 
 he gave before it could not be propitiatory; 2d. That he 
 made no sacrificial oblation of himself at the time of that 
 sacrament ; consequently, that the mass sacrifice is impos- 
 sible: and, 3d. That no advocate, however great his abilities, 
 has been ever able to defend it : for, being itself an impos- 
 sibility, to them it was impossible, and therefore it has 
 plunged them, every one, into the vortex of absurdity, nay, 
 into the ditch : — should not every man, then, who cares for 
 his soul, as it must in the end ruin him, give it up at once ? 
 
ANTICHRISTIAN. 241 
 
 The opposition is plain, and the result to be dreaded ! 
 Christ or the mass must fall. 
 
 Surely, sir, it must be far indeed from pleasing to any- 
 feeling mind, thus to pursue this and such subjects, and 
 open them up to public view ; but a sense of duty to the 
 King of kings and to his people, multitudes of whom are 
 seduced, and likely to be ruined forever by these fallacious 
 doctrines, must be paramount with every man, Avhose eyes 
 God hath opened to behold these enormities, to every other 
 consideration, to impel him to sound the alarm, that all 
 concerned may escape for their lives. For it will not be 
 denied, that any doctrines that stand opposed to Christ are 
 accursed, and that they who follow such must fall. 
 
 When I look, sir, at the day of my death, at Jesus Christ 
 our Lord, whom I am most certainly to meet ; at that great 
 white throne before which I and my fellow-men must one 
 day stand, to receive according to the deeds done in the 
 body ; at the books opened, and those deeds brought forth 
 to public view ; at the separation made between the right- 
 eous and the wicked, and the awful and irrevocable sen- 
 tence that shall consign them to their several destinies ; and 
 at that fearful eternity that is to follow : when I survey all 
 these certainties, it is little wonder, that all my powers 
 should be alarmed before that God who sees me every 
 moment and marks my every step. When I open my 
 Bible, sir, and see the following and such like declarations 
 of my great Judge, against false doctrines, idolatry, and 
 wickedness ; " Though we, or an angel from heaven, 
 preach any other gospel to you than that we have preached 
 unto you, let him be accursed." Gal. i. 8. " Add thou not 
 unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a 
 liar." Prov. xxx. 6. Deut. xii. 32. " If any man shall 
 add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues 
 that are written in this book." Rev. xxii. 18. " Thou 
 shalt not suffer sin upon thy neighbour : thou shalt in any 
 wise reprove him." Lev. xix. 17. I say, when I behold 
 all these warning truths now issuing to me and my fellow 
 mortals from that lofty throne, where we shall yet most as- 
 suredly stand to receive our final doom ; and when I con- 
 sider, God knows, that I know these and such passages, 
 and that I feel I am accountable for them, what then is my 
 duty? Is it not to obey and perish? Hence, sir, you will 
 
 21 
 
242 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 
 
 clearly see, that it is not ill-naturedly to give pain to any 
 man, I write, but it is by fair and friendly argument, to 
 lead men out of error unto God, that they may be saved ; 
 and that my own soul perish not. And now, having ho- 
 nestly and faithfully thus far discharged this duty, as I could, 
 I am, Rev. Sir, your sincere friend in the Lord, 
 
 GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 5th edit., Dublin, June 7, 1827. 
 
LETTER VII. 
 
 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 
 
 Rev. Sir, — Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice 
 of the Mass, being proved impious perversions of truth, 
 the Worship of the Host, being a kindred dogma, must 
 of course fall with them. In discussing this subject I shall 
 first adduce the decree for this worship; 2d, lay down 
 some preparatory propositions ; 3d, examine this decree ; 
 4th, advance a few arguments to show that this worship is 
 absurd, idolatrous, and also of modern invention. 
 
 the decree for the worship of the host. 
 
 " This council teacheth, and openly and simply professes, 
 that in the pure and holy sacrament of the eucharist, after 
 the consecration of the bread and wine, is our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, true God and man, truly, really, and substantially 
 contained, under the appearance of these visible things : 
 nor are these matters self-contradictory, that this our Sa- 
 viour always sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, 
 according to the natural manner of existing ; and that not- 
 withstanding he is in many other places sacramentally pre- 
 sent to us with his substance — there is therefore no room 
 to doubt but that the faithful of Christ should adore his 
 most holy sacrament with that highest worship due to the 
 true God, according to the constant usage in the Catholic 
 church. Nor is it the less to be thus adored, that it was 
 instituted by Christ our Lord to be eaten." 
 
244 WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 " If any one shall say that this holy sacrament should 
 not be adored, nor solemnly carried about in processions, 
 nor held up publicly to the people to adore it, or that its 
 worshippers are idolaters, let him be accursed."* 
 
 PROPOSITIONS. 
 
 I. Jehovah, our God, is possessed of all possible perfec- 
 tions, and is not only the great Author of our being, ever 
 present with us and ready to do us good, but also from him 
 alone doth our every blessing, in time and eternity, pro- 
 ceed ; it is therefore the duty of all his rational creatures to 
 delight in, worship, and obey him. 
 
 II. All worship and service to him must, to be pleasing 
 to him, be supreme; hence, it must be agreeable to his 
 own divine will; if contrary thereto, it cannot be divine 
 worship, but will-worship — superstition, and therefore 
 must be sinful: so saith the Lord, "In vain do they wor- 
 ship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." 
 Mark vii. 7—9. 
 
 III. His divine will is revealed in the Holy Scriptures : 
 (if not, it cannot be known, and then no worship, properly 
 divine, can be given to him,) and all faith and obedience, to 
 be divine and pleasing to his will, must be regulated by the 
 Scripture where that will is revealed, otherwise it must be 
 vain will-worship — superstition. 
 
 IV. Divine worship, faith, and obedience, regulated by 
 the Scriptures, are pleasing to God, and must, therefore, be 
 
 * Decret. de Sanctiss. Eucharist. Sacram. — Principio docet 
 sancta synodus, et aperte ac simpliciter profitetur, in almo sancto eucha- 
 ristiae sacramento, post panis et vini consecrationem, Dominum nos- 
 trum Jesum Christum, verum Deum atque hominem, vere, realiter, ac 
 substantialiter sub specie illarum rerum sensibilium contineri ; nee enim 
 haec inter se pugnant, ut ipse Salvator noster semper ad dextram Patris 
 in ccelis assident, juxta modum existendi naturalem ; et ut multis nihilo- 
 minus aliis in locis sacramentaliter presens sua substantia nobis adsit, 
 &c. Nullus itaque dubitandi locus relinquitur, quin omnes Christi 
 fideles, pro more in Catholica ecclesia semper recepto, latriae cultum qui 
 vero Deo debetur, huic sanctissimo sacramento in veneratione exhibeant ; 
 neque enim ideo minus est adorandum, quod fuerit a Christo Domino 
 ut sumatur institutum. Si quis dixerit non solemnitur circumgestan- 
 dum in processionibus, vel non publice ut adoretur proponendum, aut 
 ejus adorotores esse idolatras, anathema. Lib. Con. Trid. sess. xiii. c 
 — 5, can. 6 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 245 
 
 the title and safe way to his kingdom and glory: any wor- 
 ship which refuses to be so regulated is vain superstition, 
 and must lead to an opposite end. 
 
 V. All divine or religious worship is wholly due to 
 Jehovah — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Luke iv. 7, 
 8. If not wholly, not at all ; for any reason that could take 
 away a part, must take away the whole. If, therefore, 
 wholly due to him, then can no part thereof, however small, 
 be given away from him without injustice and destruction. 
 Gal. v. 21. 
 
 VI. When the devil, tempting Christ, offered him all the 
 power and glory of this world, if he would but fall down 
 and worship him, he did not assume to be the creator, but 
 a creature only. Hence, his chief ambition evidently was 
 to have some religious worship given to the creature. 
 
 VII. Christ's rebuke, " Get thee behind me, Satan : for 
 it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and 
 him only shalt thou serve," (Luke iv. 8,) makes it clear, 
 that men, to be saved, must obey the written word, nor 
 give any divine or religious worship to any creature, but to 
 God only. 
 
 VIII. To give any religious worship to a creature is to 
 make it an idol, and is clearly diabolical worship — idolatry ; 
 but to give all, or the highest divine worship to any crea- 
 ture, is to do even more than the devil required, and to 
 commit the highest possible idolatry ! But should a man 
 be found bound by oath, to give to any creature supreme 
 worship, to the day of his death, is it not equivalent to a 
 covenant with Satan — to an agreement with death and hell, 
 (Isa. xxviii. 15,) to be damned? 
 
 IX. Civil worship, or honour, is to be given to whom it 
 is due, (Matt. ix. 18. Rom. xiii. 7;) but not where not 
 due; not to beasts, as being inferior to us; not to dumb 
 images or any thing made by man, as being inferior to 
 beasts made by God. Hence can no worship whatever be 
 given to beasts or things inanimate. 
 
 We shall now proceed to consider this, infallible decree. 
 It teacheth, 1. " That by the priest's consecration, the sacra- 
 ment contains Jesus Christ himself corporally, wholly ! 
 2. That for Christ to be corporally and naturally always in 
 heaven at the right hand of the Father, and to be corporally, 
 sacramentally, and substantially present to us, in manv 
 
 21* 
 
246 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 other places, is no contradiction. 3. That the sacrament 
 thus containing him must be supremely adored as God him- 
 self! 4. That the Catholic church always so adored it ! 
 5. That such adoration is no idolatry ! 6. That though 
 Christ did not institute it to be adored but eaten, yet this 
 must be no objection to such adoration ! 7. That he who 
 dissents from any part of all this is accursed." And seven 
 thunders uttered their voices ! That here we have seven 
 blasphemous falsehoods we shall quickly find. It is very 
 obvious that in this most holy decree are indeed these seven 
 propositions ; and that on these seven pillars doth the whole 
 papal edifice rest, as on its proper basis, insomuch that if 
 they be but removed, down must it instantly totter to the 
 ground. Now I am persuaded, and in my conscience be- 
 lieve, that no informed person alive can believe a single 
 position of the whole, nor can hold them one hour without 
 casting of! Christ, his gospel, and all truth and salvation 
 together ! When preparing my last edition I was so alarmed 
 at the manifest disregard to our Lord here inculcated, neque 
 enim ideo, &c, that I hastened to take it to expose its great 
 wickedness to my countrymen, in order to awake them 
 from their stupidity if possible ; but I shall now proceed in 
 order. 
 
 Since no Christian can believe God can lie, or that Christ 
 and his apostles were wrong, and as the dogma, that Christ 
 was corporally in his sacrament, involves instant self-con- 
 tradiction, as we have copiously proved, so can no informed 
 pope, priest, or other person believe that Christ was ever 
 contained in the eucharist. For as Friar Hays owns, (in 
 Gallizin. and in Serm. on Transub. p. 22,) " A self-contra- 
 diction is impossible to God," because it is a falsehood ; 
 and hence, " Christ could not make his body be in the saom- 
 ment and not in the sacrament at the same moment." This 
 simple admission destroys popery at once. For, in the 
 first place, as Christ was not one instant out of his apos- 
 tles' sight from his blessing to their eating the sacrament; 
 and it is granted, " he could not be in their sight and out 
 of it, and out of the bread and in it, at the same time,'' then 
 it follows he was not in the sacrament at all. 2. As it is 
 most clear from the gospel, &c, that the term, body, was 
 taken in several senses, and that he did not say of the 
 bread, This is my human body, but left common sense to 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 247 
 
 discern which it was he meant, then is it most clear that 
 his human body was never in the sacrament. 3. His 
 apostles worshipped himself, but did not worship the sacra- 
 ment: hence they did not believe he was there, and, being 
 inspired, they were not mistaken ; therefore, he was not in 
 the eucharist; and lastly, as the council even owns, 
 " Christ gave the sacrament to be eaten, not worshipped," 
 therefore he did not believe himself to be contained therein ; 
 and hence, as no man believes Christ was mistaken or 
 wrong, so can no informed man ever believe that Christ 
 was ever in any host, or that he that worships it is not 
 wrong. 
 
 The first pillar, and chief, thus proved a falsehood and 
 destroyed, the rest must share the same fate. The 2d. 
 " That Christ is always corporally present in heaven, and 
 corporally present in many places on earth," that is, 
 wherever priests consecrate wafers, and thus cause him to 
 be contained in every wafer ! as this proposition contains a 
 heap of self-contradictions, so is it clearly a heap of false- 
 hoods. 3d. " That the supreme worship of God himself 
 must he given to the host." To divinely adore any, save 
 God only, is acknowledged "damnable idolatry;" but the 
 wafer is not God, nor did any apostle ever adore it ; hence, 
 to say it is right to adore it, is a most wicked falsehood. 
 4th. " The church of God always adored it." Then either 
 the church of Christ, that for hundreds of years did not 
 adore the eucharist in any way, was not the church of God, 
 or the council hath told a most notorious falsehood ! 5th. 
 " To adore it and carry it about, and hold it up to be adored, 
 is no idolatry;" but it is proved such adoration is most 
 damnable idolatry. Hence, here is another lie. 6th. Neque 
 enim ideo minus est adorandum, &c. " Nobody must be 
 discouraged from such adoration, in that Christ gave it to 
 be eaten only." 
 
 This surpasses in wickedness all that went before ! be- 
 cause it inculcates immediate and deliberate contempt of 
 Jesus Christ's authority and example, and abject submis- 
 sion to the pope and his clergy, and therefore the eternal 
 destruction of those teaching it, and adopting it ! It was 
 clearly framed to meet an anticipated objection. The pious 
 Christian might naturally enough hesitate at this strange 
 adoration and say, I wish to follow my Saviour's sacred 
 
,848 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 example and precepts ; but I could never learn that he 
 worshipped the host, or ordered it; or that any of the 
 apostles ever did so ; and surely they were right ; to do it 
 then must be wrong, and therefore I am afraid to adore the 
 host. The council's reply is, Neque enim ideo, #c. " You 
 are not to hesitate or fear, because that no apostle wor- 
 shipped it; nor Christ commanded it ; the church commands 
 you to do so ; that is enough for you, you must obey the 
 church ! ! !" What ! can that be the church of Christ, that 
 thus treats with contempt him, and his example, and apos- 
 tles ? that sets aside him, his commandments, and gospel, 
 and substitutes her own, and thus leads the people in the 
 broad road to destruction ! Popes, cardinals, and doctors 
 have not been ashamed to justify this wicked contempt of 
 and rebellion against God, under the pretence of " the 
 church having from Christ the power of the keys of hea- 
 ven," calling it "a dispensation;" under which cloak they 
 thus practise on credulity, and fill their coffers. O wicked- 
 ness unparalleled ! as if God could give men a license to 
 contradict himself.* O fatal credulity in the laity who be- 
 
 * Hear Pope Innocent III. " Secundem plenitudinem potestatis de 
 jure, supra jus, possumus dispensare." 
 
 " We may, according to the plenitude of our power, dispense with the 
 law and above the law." Decret. de concess. prsebend. tit. 3. cap. pro- 
 posuit. 
 
 And- in lib. i. Gregory IX. decret. ix. tit. 7, cap. 3, is an epistle of 
 Innocent III. thus : " Non enim homo sed Deus separat quos Romanus 
 pontifex, (qui non puri hominis, sed veri Dei vicem gerit in terris.) 
 Ecclesiarum necessitate dissolvit." Cap. Quanto personam. 
 
 " Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not man that 
 separateth them but God ; for the pope holdeth the place on earth, not 
 simply of a man, but of true God." 
 
 Saith the Gloss : " Et est verus Deus et verus homo : gerens veri Dei 
 vicem. Unde dicitur habere caeleste arbitrum," &c. 
 
 " The pope is true God and true man, holding God's place, where- 
 fore he hath celestial government, and he can therefore change the na- 
 ture of things, by applying the substance of one thing to another, and of 
 nothing he can make something : for in matters that he will have come 
 to pass, his wiil is his reason, and no man may say unto him, What 
 dost thou 1 for he has power to dispense above the law, and of injus- 
 tice to make justice." Gloss etiam aliquid. tit. de ha;ret. cum Christus. 
 
 Andradius saith: "Liquet eos minime errasse, qui dicunt Romanum" 
 pontificem posse nonnunquam in legibus dispensare a Paulo et primis 
 quatuor conciliis. Minime vero majores nostri religione et pietate excel- 
 Jentes apostolorum haec, et quam plurima alia decreta refigere in 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 249 
 
 lieve it, and tamely submit to it. Who, after perusing all 
 this, and these impious doctrines below written, a heap of 
 which may be seen in Du Molin, part ii. p. 29, and other 
 writers, can forbear being filled with not only astonishment 
 but great indignation at such superlative effrontery and 
 wickedness, under the guise of religion? The doctrine of 
 their rubrick, which has been noticed, (p. 45,) " That 
 Christ can be lost, or run off with and eaten by mice, or 
 swallowed by priests and vomited, and eaten again by 
 them," may be contemplated as the ridiculous offspring of 
 fatuity — of a disordered brain ; but here we have wicked- 
 ness surpassing every thing, even atheism itself. Here we 
 see the deadly root of what we daily witness — opposition 
 to God's sacred book, and to every institution that would 
 promote his glory and tend to enlighten, purify, and exalt 
 his offspring to their true dignity ; while obedience to the 
 church, to the pope, and his priests, and strict attention to 
 their doctrines are vigilantly inculcated; and hence the 
 daring removal of the second commandment and nearly the 
 fourth, and rending the tenth into two, the abrogating the 
 half of the Lord's supper, having worship in an unknown 
 tongue, &c, &c. all flatly opposed to God. 
 
 We must not, however, in .our haste and just indignation, 
 forget to return to the council's crowning proposition — the 
 seventh, * That whosoever shall say that in this decree 
 there is any thing wrong, he is accursed ! !" This secures 
 all ! So then, we have proved incontestably, that the six 
 propositions of this decree we have examined are six false- 
 hoods the most notorious and audacious possible to be con- 
 
 animum induxissent nisi intellexissent," &c. Andrad. lib. 2, de Trid. 
 Fid. 
 
 " It is manifest that those have not erred, who say, that the Roman 
 pontiff can sometimes dispense with obeying the law of the apostle Paul 
 and of the four first councils ; nay, our ancestors, men of great piety 
 and religion, have broken and annulled many decrees op the 
 apostles ! ! !" 
 
 Cardinal Bellarmine writes — " Si papa erraret in prsecipiendo vitia, 
 vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur, ecclesia credere vitia este bona et vir- 
 tutes mala, nisi vellet contra conscentiam peccare." Bell. L. 4, de Pont, 
 f. cap. 5. 
 
 " Should the pope err in commanding vices, and forbidding virtues, 
 the church should be bound to believe that the vices were good and the 
 virtues bad, unldss she would sin against conscience ! ! !" 
 
250 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 ceived, all combining to inculcate the highest possible 
 wickedness — the crime above all others most ruinous to 
 man and insulting to the Almighty, namely, to give that 
 supreme adoration which is due to him only, to a priest- 
 made Christ, that a mouse may run off with and eat up, 
 or the priest himself eat and vomit up, and eat again ! So 
 then, all who will not believe notorious lies, commit idolatry, 
 insult the God of heaven, and of course plunge themselves 
 body and soul into the lake of fire, are pronounced cursed 
 and damned, by the pope, (Christ's friend and vicar!) 
 and by his church ! Hear this, ye Roman Catholics ! Hear 
 it with both your ears, and be wise ! 
 
 Methinks, to the veriest simpleton, the plain language of 
 the council is briefly this, " Knowing well that Christ 
 could not contradict himself, or lie, and that as there was 
 no proper sacrifice for sin on earth when he gave the 
 eucharist, there was therefore no proper sacrifice in it, nor 
 consequently was his human body and blood in anywise 
 visibly or invisibly therein : nor of course was there any 
 change of the bread into that body, nor was it adored on 
 any account, but eaten only; and as no subsequent sacra- 
 ment could excel it, no eucharist forever can therefore be 
 adored without idolatry and certain perdition ; that all this 
 is as surely true as that God cannot lie, we all perfectly 
 know ; yet we must teach the very contrary of the whole ; 
 yes, being sworn on the Gospels to do so till death, we 
 must thus teach, and all our clergy forever must thus teach, 
 and by all means must pronounce all who dissent and re- 
 fuse to believe us accursed heretics, who, being out of the 
 church and obstinate, cannot be saved !" Who of them can 
 resist this statement? and who, not an idiot, will deny it? 
 So then, this clergy, after the lapse of so many ages, do to 
 this hour tread in these very steps, teaching these false- 
 hoods for truths, and pronouncing those heretics who resist 
 or reject them, never forgetting Luther above all.* 
 
 * We must again advert to Luther. This council, sworn, as we see 
 it was, to teach all those falsehoods, pronounced another on Luther, as 
 an " heresiarch." See Rule ii. De lib. prohib., passim ; also the pope's 
 bull, In coena Domini, cursing " all Lutherans, Calvinists, Hussites, or 
 by whatsoever name or sect they, who recede obstinately from obedi- 
 ence to the Bishop of Rome, may be called ; as also all who in anywise 
 favour, receive, or defend them." See the appendix at the end of this 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 251 
 
 Why was Luther called an arch-heretic and follower of 
 Satan? one may inquire. From the documents that lie 
 before us, and from facts too strong to be denied, what Lu- 
 
 book. We have seen the testimony of the famous Erasmus, that can 
 did Romanist, and of others (p. 224,) who, it seems, believed the council, 
 as much as I do, while Dr. Milner, in our days, and before him, Pastorini, 
 who said, " he got the key of the bottomless pit," and others have, to 
 their honour, been quite furious against him. But we shall now add 
 other testimonies that cannot be contested, while Monsieur Villars's book, 
 that stood the test of the public scrutiny of the most learned in France, 
 who awarded it the prize, remains, with those, fearless of contradiction. 
 
 Villars (p. 64) states, in agreement with Erasmus — " Dr. Maclaine, 
 in his translation of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 23, ed. 
 1803, fully proves in a note, that the slanders forged against Luther by 
 Cochlseus, Paul Sarpi, and others, were refuted by De Priero and Palla- 
 vinci, the mortal enemies of Luther." 
 
 Ibid. " Luther devoted all his intellectual powers to the success of 
 reviving letters, watched their progress, and rejoiced at the victory of 
 ancient languages over the inquisitors. He had also acquired celebrity 
 by some good productions of this description. Supported by an indefa- 
 tigable zeal and a wonderful memory, Luther acquired the most perfect 
 acquaintance with the sacred Scriptures, the fathers, and other ecclesi- 
 astical antiquities. In every encounter, he overwhelmed the scholastics 
 with his arguments and wit, and covered their science with confusion, 
 &c. His individual character was uprightness. Ardent and calm, high- 
 spirited and humble at the same time ; his language, when provoked by 
 injurious treatment, irritable and warm; mild and inimical to every 
 species of violence in actions ; cheerful, open, of a ready wit, a pleasing 
 companion; studious, sober, and a stoic in himself; courageous and dis- 
 interested, he exposed himself with tranquillity to every risk in support 
 of what he believed to be the truth. Commanded to appear at the diet 
 of Worms, he presented himself there, notwithstanding the terrible and 
 very recent example of John Huss, with dignity, simplicity, and firm- 
 ness. Far from setting Rome at defiance at the first, he wrote submis- 
 sively to the pope, he exhibited no other appearance of superiority but 
 that of his immense knowledge over Cardinal Cajetan, and the other 
 theologians deputed by the court of Rome to convert him. 
 
 " Being an Augustinian monk and doctor, he had been sent to Rome 
 on the business of his order, and there every thing which struck his 
 eye, filled his heart with indignation ; and like that General Arminius, 
 who had repelled the Roman legions from Italy, it was in Rome he 
 learned to despise that Rome, which at a distance he had so venerated, 
 and which had appeared so formidable. I may add, that after having 
 refused the offers of the court of Rome — after having been the friend, 
 the adviser, the spiritual father of so many princes, from whom, did he 
 wish it, he might have obtained great riches, Luther lived and died in a 
 state bordering on poverty, and left to his wife and children only the 
 esteem due to his name." 
 
252 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 ther did, was, with great diligence and labour to translate 
 the Book of God into the mother tongue, and disseminate 
 
 P. 241. "The Marquis d'Argens. — 'In all these times of ignorance 
 Luther appeared, like one of those cheering lights which after a long 
 tempest announces to mariners an approaching calm. He showed the 
 absurdity of errors which long respect and custom had rendered sacred. 
 In short, this great man did as much good to science as he did injury to 
 the court of Rome.' He showed the absurdity of the errors which long 
 respect and ancient custom had rendered sacred ; he not only ridiculed 
 the opinions of the theologians, but their language and manner of writing. 
 He was seconded in this undertaking by Calvin ; and it is to these dis- 
 putes on religion that we are indebted for the restoration of the fine arts 
 and good style. The theologians of each party eagerly strove with each 
 other to write correctly, and to prejudice their readers in their favour by 
 the purity of their style." Hist, de l'Esprit Humain, torn. i. p. 250. 
 
 Ibid. " The German nation acknowledges Luther for the reformer 
 of its literature and of its idiom. One of his first cares was to publish 
 a faithful translation of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, from the ori- 
 ginal; it may be easily conceived with what avidity this immense work 
 w r as received, and what a general sensation it excited. 'INo writer, for 
 many ages,' says George Muller, in his Lettres sur les Science, ■ had 
 seen his writings bought up with such avidity, and so read, from the 
 throne to the cottage ; the popularity, the natural ease, the energy of ex- 
 pression which prevailed in them, and a doctrine which cheered and elc- 
 vafpd the soul, gained him the most upright and judicious of all classes." 
 
 P. 256. Luther is accused or ttolexce. " At the beginning," 
 saith Villars, " Luther showed himself very respectful to the head of the 
 church. He expressed himself then, and frequently afterwards, with 
 great moderation and decency. But let us reflect on the horrible abuse 
 with which he was loaded ; let us read the libels of Hochstratum, Eckius, 
 Tetzel, &c, and we shall see whether Luther ought to be condemned 
 for the indignation he frequently manifested. Had he not been ardent 
 and vehement, how could he become the leader of so great a revolution 1 
 Yet his language, though sometimes violent, was never cruel and fero- 
 cious, like that of some popes. 
 
 " We shall hear Clement V. In his bull against Louis, Emperor of 
 Bavaria, he expresses himself thus: ' May God strike him with imbeci- 
 lity and madness : may heaven overwhelm him with its thunders : may 
 the anger of God, with that of St. Peter and St. Paul, fall upon him in 
 this world and in the next : may the whole universe revolt against him : 
 may the earth swallow him up alive : may his name perish from the 
 earliest generation: and may his memory disappear: may all the ele- 
 ments be adverse to him : may his children, delivered into the hands of 
 his enemies, be crushed before his eyes.' Rainald. An. Eccl. Such was 
 the language of a pope ! How far beyond any thing that Luther ever 
 wrote. Yet how has he been loaded by Gurasse and all his worthy 
 successors, with all manner of bitter and pitiful reproaches. Strange 
 blindness of ignorance and fanaticism!" 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 253 
 
 it all around, that the people might with their own eyes 
 behold the religion which Christ and his apostles taught, 
 to lead men with certainty to heaven ; and that they might 
 compare what their clergy taught them (and which vexed 
 his very soul) with that their Lord taught, and judge if they 
 agreed ; and then choose for themselves. He made no re- 
 ligion, for he did not make the gospel, he only translated 
 and gave it. This soon discovered to them the cheat put 
 upon them by their clergy — that it was quite a different re- 
 ligion — a mercenary, corrupt religion, they were giving 
 them. This spoiled the pope's and the clergy's market, 
 and dreadfully vexed them ; but it took the people off the 
 broad road, and brought all this blame upon Luther, and 
 Calvin, and all his helpers, even to this day! Now what 
 man of sense will say that by thus giving God's book he 
 was following the devil ? But if this was wrong to do, thus 
 to present the book of heaven to the people's eyes, and t[ us 
 vex the clergy, then the same blame must attach to Christ 
 and his apostles, for they presented the very same heavenly 
 doctrine to the ears of the multitudes, and greatly vexed the 
 Jewish clergy, who had been teaching wrong doctrines. 
 Mark vii. 7. For which they hated him, and called him 
 devil, deceiver, and what not, and finally put him to death ! 
 Those teachers, then, who are vexed with such as publish 
 or spread abroad the Scripture, or with those who receive 
 or read it, exhibit themselves as being vexed with Christ, 
 as brethren to the Jewish clergy, and therefore as either 
 ignorant or mercenary diabolical creatures whom eve.y one 
 should avoid. 
 
 I now return : Supposing all that has been hitherto said 
 on this host-worship were forgotten, yet, on papal princi- 
 ples can no informed man who cares for his soul ever dare 
 practise this worship ; and for this plain reason — it is indeed 
 confessed it would be damnable idolatry to divinely adore 
 any creature ; and as there are twelve cases or more, in 
 which the consecration may fail, (see p. 45,) which no 
 man can possibly know or guard against, then the bread 
 remains as it was, a creature only ! What now must follow, 
 but that he who worships it, supremely adores a creature, 
 and becomes guilty of grosser idolatry than any pagan ever 
 committed, and draws down destruction on his own soul ? 
 Nor can any thinking, tender-minded person be ever, at any 
 
 22 
 
254 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 time of his life, or in any one instance, certain that he is 
 not thus daily destroying himself, and heaping up for him- 
 self wrath against the day of wrath. Why then should he 
 venture on such a service, when it is most plain Christ 
 never commanded it, and therefore it is a service of man's 
 device ? Of Pope Adrian VI. it is said, that so fully did 
 he see this uncertainty, that in his own mind he still said, 
 Adoro te si tu es Christv.s, "I adore thee if thou art Christ," 
 and judged the people should say the same ! 
 
 I then argue, that as no power whatever can work a self- 
 contradiction, so can no being make what is already made; 
 but Christ was, many years before the eucharist; there- 
 fore, could no power whatever make the eucharistic bread 
 to be the man Christ Jesus : and hence the eucharist has 
 never been so changed ; of course, it ever remained a crea- 
 ture, bread, and the adoration of it was always idolatry. 
 
 Again, to divinely adore an angel, or a good man, because 
 Christ is in him by his spirit, is such idolatry as every pope 
 and priest would stare at and pronounce damnable ; to adore 
 a living beast, must be still more damnable ; and to supremely 
 adore inanimate matter, formed in what shape soever by any 
 being, is the most damnable idolatry of all : but the eucharist 
 or wafer is lifeless, and can neither see, nor hear, nor walk; 
 therefore, to divinely adore the host, is conclusively the 
 most damnable idolatry that the eye of man or angel ever 
 saw, or his ear ever heard. 
 
 I laid the following argument before Dr. Doyle in letters 
 I addressed to him in 1824, p. 27: "To divinely adore any 
 creature, even the highest angel in heaven, would be as cer- 
 tain idolatry as to worship the devil : if a man would suffer 
 any death sooner than worship the devil, then should a man 
 endure any death sooner than adore any creature. But the 
 wafer or host is a creature ; therefore, should every man of 
 sense suffer any death whatever, rather than bow down and 
 worship the host." 
 
 If Dr. Doyle must confess the legitimacy of this argu- 
 ment, and also knowing, as he of course must, that the con- 
 secrated wafer was never adored till the year 1216; how 
 then can either clergy or people adore the wafer without 
 idolatry and peril of damnation 1 The council of Trent, 
 imposing such w T orship on her clergy by oath, of course 
 thus binds them to commit diabolical idolatry all their days, 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 253> 
 
 and thus incur their own destruction. If they should per- 
 sist in so dreadful a service, at least to a man resisting it, is 
 for them to judge. 
 
 But, supposing the consecration to succeed, when after it 
 the priest breaks the host into three parts, what does he 
 break ? Not Christ's body ; for his body being impassible 
 and in heaven, cannot be broken on earth : not bread ; for 
 if your doctrine be true, there is no bread there : then no- 
 thing is broken; for species, colours, or forms without sub- 
 stance are nothing. Again, I would ask, what is that round, 
 white, thin, sweet thing in the priest's hands after consecra- 
 tion ? not round, white, sweet bread, for none remains ; but 
 who will say it is Christ that is roirid, or white, or thin, or 
 sweet ? then it is nothing. Hence, they who worship the 
 host, either divinely worship nothing, or worship bread, 
 and plunge themselves into idolatry and destruction. What 
 a religion ! 
 
 That the host-worship is a novelty, not known till 1216, 
 is most plain. 1st. Because that not till the year 1215, was 
 transubstantiation, by the council of Lateran, under Pope 
 Innocent III., made an article of faith, as Scotus, Tonstal, 
 and others write ; so, before that, it was not worshipped. 
 And 2d. In the Roman canon law, we find that it was Pope 
 Honorius III., who the following year ordered that the 
 priests at a certain part of the mass service should elevate 
 the host, and cause the people to prostrate themselves to 
 worship it; and also, about the year 1220, directed these 
 words, "Hie Deum adora," " Worship God here" to be 
 written on the tabernacles in which the host was reserved 
 for the sick. Turretinus, Fox's Eccles. Histor. p. 562. 
 
 Again, seeing Christ's own sacrament was not worship- 
 ped, neither was it propitiatory, and that both are appointed 
 for the mass ; as the latter, therefore, is exalted infinitely 
 above the former, the ministers of it must, by consequence, 
 be in the same proportion exalted above our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, which necessarily affixes to them the distinctive and 
 prominent character of St. Paul's " man of sin and son of 
 perdition, who exalteth himself above God." 2 Thess. ii. 4. 
 
 The learned and ingenious Jesuit, Costerus, perceiving 
 these awful consequences, and at once to remove if possible 
 all blame from his church, he, as is usual with these 
 writers, rolls it upon Christ, as the author of this worship. 
 
256 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 that such as dared to find fault, might thus in blaming him 
 be put to shame. "Si enini in sacramento eucharistiae 
 verum Christi corpus non conlinetur, indigne egit Chris- 
 tus cum ecclesia sw«," &c. " If the real body of Christ be 
 not contained in the sacrament, Christ has acted unworthily 
 by his church, which, by reason of his own words, he has 
 left in such error and idolatry as has never been seen or 
 heard of. Their error who worship images of gold, silver, 
 or other stuff, or living animals, as do the pagans and 
 Egyptians ; or a red cloth on the top of a pole, as do the 
 Laplanders, is more excusable than theirs, who worship a 
 bit of bread, as Christians have done for so many ages," 
 &c. Costerus, Enchirid. c. 8, n. 10. 
 
 This piece of wit will not do ; no artifice whatever can 
 prop up this absurd doctrine or excuse this frightful idola- 
 try, nor prevent its blame from falling with all its weight 
 upon his church. Christ spoke so plainly at his last supper, 
 that none then, nor for more than seven hundred years after, 
 as we have seen, mistook his words ; but they were at 
 length tortured, to serve papal purposes. When our Lord 
 pronounced " St. John to be the son of the virgin Mary, 
 and her his mother," (John xix. 26, 27,) had the other 
 apostles proceeded thereupon to insist that he had by these 
 words actually turned St. John into Christ, the real son of 
 the virgin, and had sworn each other to believe and publish 
 that he was no longer St. John, but the self-same Christ 
 that was born of Mary, and had then straightway fallen 
 down and worshipped him with divine worship, what would 
 this doctor and his church have said of all this ? Would 
 they not have called it wilful, stupid and damnable idolatry ? 
 nor once think of excusing it, as above. But as John was 
 more like to Christ than is a piece of bread, so must those 
 who persist to worship it, be in that proportion the more 
 blameable. 
 
 Before I close I must beg to make another remark, and 
 most singular and awful it is, yet not less true. When this 
 council, whose doctrine we are examining, were about to 
 bring in any dogma, the more impious and horrible it was, 
 so much the greater air of gravity and deep devotion to God 
 did they assume ! and to this day, only mark their writers, 
 and it will be seen they have learned the same lesson fully-, 
 the greater the falsehood they are proceeding to advocate, 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 257 
 
 the more solemn are their appeals to Heaven, — to the 
 Searcher of hearts, of their sincerity and purity ! for after 
 this, who, not a sceptic, could suspect them ! Only read 
 Doctor Milner's Preface, and other parts of his End of Con- 
 troversy, for such appeals to God ; and yet his whole book 
 is one heap of sophistries and misrepresentations — not one 
 point defended with sound argument or truth ! 
 
 Another observation of a still more terrifying character, 
 if possible, and equally true, is, That the more vehemently 
 the God of heaven denounces any doctrine for its wicked- 
 ness, the more particular are this clergy in extolling their 
 power, as received from God, to establish this very doctrine 
 and to practise it, and the more do they laud it and give to 
 it the deeper attention and devotion ! ! ! This all may see, 
 that of all their religious services, there is none they so 
 much extol as the power they have to make the body and 
 blood of Christ; and their devotion in worshipping this is 
 beyond comparison solemnity, by far above all the rest ! 
 Behold the following claims, and with them couple the 
 falsehood of this doctrine as now opened ; and with all this 
 unite their admission of its entire uncertainty, together with 
 the tremendous threatenings of God against idolatry, or 
 image-worship, in general, but especially, against this 
 supreme adoration, termed emphatically the adoration of the 
 beast and of his image ; and see if there be not cause of 
 great alarm of soul, and trembling in every part to all con- 
 cerned ! 
 
 "We grant," saith Vasquez, on 1 Cor. xi., " that the apos- 
 tles commanded this to eat and drink, yet the church and 
 sovereign pontiff, for just causes, abolish this commandment: 
 for the power of the apostles to give commandments has 
 not been greater than that of the church and pope." Tom. 
 ii. disq. 216, 12, 60. Reader, what sayest thou to this? 
 
 Saith Gabriel Biel, "Priests have great power over the 
 one and the other body of Christ. Who hath ever seen 
 things like this ? He who made me, has, if I may say it, 
 given me power to create him ; and he that made me is 
 made by my means."* 
 
 * Sacerdotes insignes habent potestates, super utrumque corpus 
 Christi. Quis hujus rei vidit similia'? Qui creavit me, si fas est dicere, 
 dedit mihi creare se, et qui creavit me creatur mediante me. Biel. Lect 
 1. in Can. Miss. 
 
 22* 
 
258 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 Again, saith the same. "The angels, citizens of heaven, 
 dare not aspire to the authority of the priesthood. Passing 
 by the bands of angels, let us come to the queen of heaven 
 and the lady of the world. She, though in plenitude of 
 grace she exceeds all creatures, yet yields to the hierarchs 
 (or priests) in the execution of the mystery committed unto 
 them. — Christ is incarnate, and made flesh in the hands of 
 priests, as in the Virgin's womb — priests do create then 
 Creator, and have power over the body of Christ."* 
 
 But, saith Peter de Besse, " Baronius's argument is 
 plainly this, 'That priests far surpass kings in dignity: 
 Joshua stopped but the sun, but these (the priests) stay 
 Christ, being in heaven, in the midst of an altar ; the crea- 
 ture obeyed the first, but the Creator obeys the last — the 
 sun, the one ; and God the other, as often as they pronounce 
 the sacred words. "t 
 
 No withstanding all these high-sounding and astonishing- 
 pretensions to such celestial powers, thus assumed by this 
 priesthood to have been conferred on them by Jesus Christ 
 himself, yet hear them afterwards, as follows, and mark 
 their strange inconsistency ! 
 
 " If any one shall say, that it is not necessary for the 
 ministers, when they consecrate the sacraments to possess 
 intention of doing at least what the church doth, Let him 
 be accursed. "J 
 
 " Should any priest not intend to consecrate, but to de- 
 ceive, there is no sacrament, because intention is neces- 
 sary.'^ 
 
 Saith Gabriel Biel, " No priest that celebrateth can know 
 evidently whether he be a priest ; for he cannot know evi- 
 
 * Ad sacerdotii auctoritatem angeli, ccelorum cives, ne audent aspirare. 
 Transgrediendo perinde agmina angelorum, ad ipsam coeli reginarn, et 
 mundi Donrinam veniamus. Hsec etsi in gratia? plenitudine creaturas 
 supergrediatur universas, hierarchis tamen cedit in commissi ipsis mys- 
 terii executione, &c. G. Biel. Can. Missse, 1. 4. 
 
 -|- At vero longe prsestare sacerdotes regibus argumento quo utitur 
 plane significat, &c. Peter de Besse, cap. 2, 3. Baron. Annal. 57, § 31. 
 
 + Si quis dixerit in ministris, dum sacramenta conficiunt et conferunt, 
 non requiri intentionem, saltern faciendi quod ecclesia facit, Anathema 
 sit. Cone. Trid. sess. 7. can. 11. 
 
 § Si quis non intendit conficere, sed delusorie aliquid agere, non con- 
 •ecrat quia requiritur intentio. Missale Rom. d. 53. 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 259 
 
 dently whether he be baptized, or whether he be lawfully 
 ordained."* 
 
 Saith Cardinal Bellarmine, " No man can be certain, with 
 the certainty of faith, that he receives a true sacrament ; 
 because it depends on the minister's intention to consecrate, 
 and none can see another's intention.t 
 
 If the council, mass-book, and doctors do not here admit 
 the greatest possible doubt and uncertainty of their having 
 such divine power, or indeed of their being right in any part of 
 their religion, let candour determine ! Hence, after all their 
 boast and rapture about their great power given them, " to 
 convert bread into Jesus Christ, really and truly,' 1 '' and 
 then to adore this new-made God, reason itself must pro- 
 nounce it to be either madness or priestcraft, involving, as 
 it evidently does, the highest possible idolatry, wickedness, 
 and imposture ; all which Divine Revelation abundantly con- 
 firms. For therein a twofold idolatry is specified, the one 
 common to Pagans, but both belonging to the man of sin 
 and his apostate church: the former, the worship of images; 
 the latter, the supreme adoration of the beast and his image, 
 and both designated, " The worship of devils," as being their 
 offspring, and to be punished in eternal fire. The one is 
 marked in Rev. ix. 20. (" They repented not of the works 
 of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and 
 idols of gold and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood, 
 which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk ;") and in many 
 other places likewise,;}; of which I take Isaiah xliv — xlv. 
 " The carpenter heweth down cedars, he stretcheth out his 
 rule and marketh it after the figure of a man, according to the 
 beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house ; he taketh 
 thereof to burn and warm himself, he burnetii part thereof 
 in the fire, with part thereof he eateth flesh, he roasteth 
 -oast and is satisfied — and the residue he maketh a God, 
 evef his graven image — he falleth down unto it and wor- 
 
 * Nullus celebrans potest evidenter scire se esse sacerdotem ; quia non 
 potest evidenter scire se fore baptizatum, aut legitime ordinatum. Gab. 
 Biel. Epit. Can. Missse. 
 
 | Neque potest quis esse certus, certitudine fidei, se percipere verum 
 sacramentum, cum sacramentum non conficitur sine intentione ministri, 
 et intentionem alterius nemo videre possit." Beilar. 1. 8. cap. de Justifi- 
 caiione. 
 
 $ Exod. xx. 4. Deut.iv. 16; xvii. 15. Levit. xxvi. Psalm ex v. Jer 
 x. 8—15. Acts xvii. 29. Rom. i. 23. Gal. v. 20. Rev. xxi. 8, &c. 
 
260 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 shippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for 
 thou art my God ; and none considereth in his heart, neither 
 is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burnt 
 part of it in the fire ; yea, I have baked bread on the coals 
 thereof; I have roasted flesh and eaten it ; and shall I make 
 the residue thereof an abomination ? Shall I fall down to 
 the stock of a tree ? He feedeth on ashes, a deceived heart 
 hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor 
 say, Is there not a lie in my right hand ? They shall be 
 ashamed, and also confounded, all of them ; they shall go to 
 confusion together, who are makers of idols." 
 
 Minutius Felix (an. 230, c. xxiii.) writes, " Now would 
 any one be pleased to consider the pains taken and engines 
 that are employed in the formation of images, he would be 
 ashamed to stand in such fear of a thing that the hand of the 
 artist had been so long playing upon to make a God. For 
 this wooden God, taken, perhaps, out of some old faggot 
 pile, or a piece of some forlorn stump, is hung up, hewn, 
 planed, &c; or if it be a Deity of brass or silver, it is ten to 
 one but it derives its pedigree from a dirty kettle, or worse, 
 &c. But if it happen to be a God of stone, then the mallets 
 and chisels are set to work upon him, &c, but as he is not 
 sensible of any hardships in making, so neither of your 
 divine honours when made, unless perhaps, when you have 
 dubbed it a God, ceases to be stone or wood or silver any 
 longer. But when, pray, does it become divine ? Behold, 
 it is cast, fashioned, and filed ; Well, it is no God yet ; 
 behold, it is soldered, put together, and set upon its legs ; 
 Well, it is no God yet. Ecce ornaiur, consecratur, oratur, 
 tunc, prostremo Deus est, 8,-c. ' Behold, it is bedecked, 
 consecrated, and prayed to. Then, then, at last, behold a 
 complete God,' after man has vouchsafed to make and dedi- 
 cate him." 
 
 With regard to this image-making and worship, thus di 
 vinely derided of old, it may here perhaps need no othei 
 comment, than just to remark, No crucifix or image must be 
 used till first devoutly consecrated by its clergy.* Then, 
 
 * The Consecrating Prayer. — Rogamus te Domine, Sancte Pater 
 omnipresens sempiterae Deus, ut digneris benedicere hoc lignum cruris 
 tuse, <$rc. We implore thee, O Lord, holy Father, omnipresent and ever 
 lasting God, that thou wilt vouchsafe to bless this wood of thy cross 
 that it may be to mankind a healthful remedy, the strengthener of faith 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 261 
 
 then may its votaries bow down before it, pray, and devoutly 
 honour and kiss it ! 
 
 Let us now attend to the process of the host-making and 
 its worship. 
 
 The farmer saweth wheat, it grows, it ripens, is reaped, 
 and is threshed ; it is ground at the mill, it is sifted with a 
 sieve ; with a part thereof, the fowls, the hogs, and cattle 
 are fattened ; with a part thereof the family are fed and sa- 
 tisfied ; and another part is taken, and formed, and baked by 
 the baker, yet it is no God ; it is brought forwards, and laid 
 on the altar, and yet it is no God ; the priest handles it, and 
 crosses it, and yet it is no God; but he at length pronounces 
 some three words over it, then, instantly then, it is a com- 
 plete God ; he falls down before it, and prays to it, saying, 
 " Save me, O save me, thou art my God." He lifts it up 
 to the people and cries, "Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollit mundi 
 peccata. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the 
 sins of the world !" His whole congregation fall down and 
 worship it, smiting upon their breasts, crying, "Meet culpa, 
 mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, My fault, my fault, my very 
 great fault ; my God be merciful to me ;" nor do they con- 
 sider, Is there not a lie in my right hand, nor that the makers 
 of idols shall go to confusion together ! Now, how exact is 
 this parallel. 
 
 To make some show of defence, to turn aside this charge 
 of idolatry, it has been replied, When we fall down and 
 worship the host or sacrament, it is not the outward species 
 of bread and wine we thus worship, but Christ, whom we 
 firmly believe to be present in the host ; and being God, he 
 must be present everywhere, therefore present in the host ; 
 Hence, our worship of him there cannot be idolatry. 
 
 This, though plausible, is altogether fallacious — it cannot 
 for a moment stand the touch of truth : for, 1st, had it been 
 good, — had Christ been thus present in the eucharist, he 
 and his apostles must have known it better than all the 
 papal doctors in the world, and if it was a justifiable wor- 
 ship, would have commanded it ; but this, ye confess, he 
 did not do, either by example or precept. Hence, this 
 argument or sophism is destroyed at once, and that worship 
 
 an inciter to good works, the redemption of souls, and that it may be a 
 comfort, protection, and safeguard against the cruel darts of their enemies, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. Burnet, art. 22. Alas ! what blasphemy 
 
262 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 is idolatry. 2d. Though Christ, as to his divine nature or 
 spirit, pervades and upholds all things animate and inani- 
 mate, and dwells especially in every pious person, Is that 
 any argument, that plants, animals, or even pious men 
 should be worshipped ? And it is worthy of notice, that 
 when the Christians of old (as we learn from Theophylaet, 
 Arnobius, St. Augustine and others) reproached the pagans 
 for their idolatry, they made this answer: "We know, as 
 well as you, that these images we worship are made of 
 timber or other stuff which decayeth, and are senseless, and 
 are eaten by worms, and that mice and other vermin may 
 burrow and breed in them. Hence, it is God, in, and by 
 these things, and not these things themselves which we 
 worship." If their answer be not good, so neither can 
 yours for worshipping the host. 
 
 The other idolatry, " the supreme adoration of the beast 
 and his image," is thus pointed out and denounced in Rev. 
 xiv. 9, 11: "And the third angel followed, crying with a 
 loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, 
 and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand : the 
 same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is 
 poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation ; 
 and he shall be tormented with fire and with brimstone in 
 the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the 
 Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for 
 ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who 
 worship the beast and his image, and who receive the mark 
 of his name." 
 
 Most striking is it, indeed, that both those idolatries, thus 
 so accurately predicted, have been distinctly decreed by the 
 Trent council, and are to this hour maintained by the church 
 of Rome ; the one is stated in the beginning of this letter ; 
 the other, standing in flat opposition to the second com- 
 mandment and to those other Scriptures, is found in session 
 25, thus :* " Moreover, images of Christ, of the virgin 
 
 * Imagines porro Christi, Deiparse virginis, et aliorum sanctorum, in 
 templis praesertim habendas et retinendas, eisque debitum honorem et 
 venerationem impertiendam, non — quod fiduciam imaginibus sit Agenda, 
 veluti olim fiebat a gentibus, quae in idolis spem suam collocobant, sed 
 quoniam honos qui eis exhibetur refertur ad prototypa quae illse reprse- 
 sentant ; ita ut per imagines, quas osculamur et quorum quibus caput 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 263 
 
 Mother of God, and of other saints, must be provided and 
 retained in churches especially; and to them must due 
 honour and worship be imparted; not that confidence is to 
 be put in them, as did the heathen of old who placed their 
 hope in their idols, but because the honour thus paid them 
 is referred to their prototypes ; so that by these images we 
 kiss, and in whose presence we with uncovered head pros- 
 trate ourselves, we adore Christ, and worship these saints, 
 whose likeness they bear I" What ! adore Christ by a 
 service opposed to God's law, and which no apostle ever 
 practised ? 
 
 But what this " beast and image" mean will be gratifying 
 to know. The term " beast" is put for " an emperor, or 
 king, or kingdom," (Dan. vii. 3, 23,) and also (Rev. xiii. 
 xiv. 9,) for "a spiritual, idolatrous chieftain or head, who 
 is the man of sin — the son of perdition, sitting in the tem- 
 ple of God- — the bloody antichrist, the most cruel of all 
 idolatrous princes, who would pour out the blood of the 
 saints like water," saith Pastorini. — " He was to arise after 
 and upon the dismemberment of the Roman empire," (ibid 
 p. 314 — 316,) which happened in the west, under Momyl- 
 lus in the fifth century ; and was completed in the east in 
 546, by Totil, p. 110, 233, 247, edit. v. Dublin. 
 
 Now, with regard to this "beast's image:" as the true 
 " Christ is the express image of the true God" — the 
 Father, whom all angels and true Christians adore ; so, the 
 false God, sitting in the temple of God, sends forth his 
 Christ or image, which all his followers must adore; for 
 he declares, " that he that will not adore it shall be damned." 
 Hence, this image of the beast, which he sends forth to be 
 divinely adored, is the consecrated wafer. By the adora- 
 tion of this — the adoration of the beast and of his image, 
 and which incurs the wrath of the true God, is performed, 
 and necessarily incurs this dreadful divine denunciation 
 which we find on record ! And truly remarkable is it, that 
 as this adoration of the wafer is the most wicked idolatry 
 on earth, and is a crime the most to be punished by the 
 true God ; so, there is no religious service of this false God, 
 
 aperimus et procumbimus, Christum adoremus, et sanctos, quorum ilia? 
 similitudinem gerunt, veneremur, &c Con. Trid. sess. 25, de invoc. 
 venerat. — et sanctor. sacr. imag. 
 
264 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 
 
 who sits in the temple of God, to which so great import- 
 ance is attached, or that is so devoutly performed, as is 
 that of the worship of the host. 
 
 In sum, the worship of the host, it is now proved, was 
 never taught by Christ or his apostles — is of modern inven- 
 tion — is contrary to our baptismal covenant, which binds us 
 to his commands and example, and is therefore utterly sub- 
 versive of the Christian religion — is condemned by the 
 Scriptures, and by all fair argument, as the most absurd 
 doctrine, and the most diabolical idolatry, that ever appeared 
 among men ; and is, in fact, no less than an agreement with 
 Satan to secure the ruin of body and soul in hell, of those 
 who persist in it, through the endless duration of eternity. 
 Seeing, then, that these are facts and charges which cannot 
 be disproved, (if they can, let it appear,) and that neither 
 can transubstantiation nor the sacrifice of the mass be sup- 
 ported consistently, by any power whatever, with truth and 
 the religion of Christ, should they not all, in the name of 
 God, be even now given up and dismissed forever, by 
 everybody who regards his soul ? 
 
 I shall bow my knees daily before God, that he may gra- 
 ciously open the eyes of his precious yet abused offspring, 
 and turn them from these pernicious delusions, to the 
 blessed, pure, and saving gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that we all may finally meet together with joy, and not 
 with grief, around his throne in glory, and escape that 
 eternal misery which is prepared for all those who obey 
 not the gospel — that precious gospel which Christ, our 
 great judge, has given us, to be a light unto our feet, and 
 to lead us safely away from all the foolish and dangerous 
 inventions of fallible man, into the peaceful paths of eternal 
 life. Surely, sir, you and your brethren should not, can- 
 not be displeased with me, for this my good will, and for 
 labouring and studying for this noble end ; and thus con- 
 tending day and night for that faith once delivered to the 
 saints, in order that this old religion, which saves the 
 soul from sin and wrath, and it alone, may prevail amongst 
 us. While I behold the dishonour to God, and ruin to 
 man, which false doctrines occasion, if I am led to speak 
 with strength, and even severity against them, it is not to 
 injure or give pain to anv child of man, but to clear my 
 
ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 265 
 
 own conscience, to do my duty, and save my fellow-men 
 from them and their consequences, even death eternal, that 
 I do so. 
 
 I am, Rev. Sir, with prayer to God that he may bles9 
 this labour of love, to its intended end, 
 
 Your humble servant and friend, 
 
 GIDEON OUSELEY* 
 
 bth edit., June 23, 1827. 
 
LETTER VIII. 
 
 HALF-COMMUNION 
 
 A GRIEVOUS NOVELTY, SUBVERSIVE OF 
 CHRIST'S INSTITUTION. 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 
 
 Rev. Sir, — In discussing &s?s subject, I shall adduce, 1st. 
 The institution and examptt of our Lord Jesus Christ in 
 regard to the eucharistic cup. 2d. The canons of the coun- 
 cils of Constance and Trent in flat opposition to Christ. 
 3d. The testimonies of the fathers and of eminent papal 
 divines ; and, 4th, close with some brief arguments. 
 
 The Lord's Institution of the Cup, &c. — " And as 
 they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake 
 it, and gave to the disciples, and said — Take, eat, this is my 
 body ; and he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to 
 them, saying- — Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of 
 the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remis- 
 sion of sins. And they all drank q/*zY."* " He took the 
 cup when he had supped, saying — This cup is the new 
 testament in my blood, this do in remembrance of me ; for 
 as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye io 
 show forth his death till he come." 
 
 Here, it is fully evident, that our Lord, who is infinite 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 26—29. Mark xiv. 23. Luke xxii. 20. 1 Cor. xi 
 23—25 
 
 266 
 
HALF-COMMUNION, &C. 267 
 
 wisdom, hath, by precept and example, taught and appointed 
 both bread and cup in the eucharist, not only before his 
 death, but also after his ascension to heaven. For, St. Paul 
 (ver. 23) was taught the same, " to show forth his death 
 till he come." And he (Paul) taught all Christians, in every 
 place, to do so likewise. 1 Cor. i. 2; xi. 28, 29. 
 
 We beg to premise these two propositions: 1. It being 
 admitted, that Christ is possessed of infinite wisdom, nay, 
 of every possible perfection, and that he is our lawgiver, 
 saviour, and judge ; therefore, it is incumbent on all those 
 who bear his name, forsaking all others, to cleave to his 
 pure doctrine and holy example solely. 
 
 2. Any teachers of religion found departing from his holy 
 doctrine, or example, — who add to or take from his gospel, 
 and refuse to be reclaimed, cannot be under the guidance 
 of the Holy Ghost, nor be Christian teachers. Hence, all 
 men, in order to be saved, " should try the spirits, (the 
 teachers,) whether they be of God," and "prove all things, 
 and hold fast that which is good." 1 John iv. 1. 1 Thess. 
 v. 21. 
 
 When a number of divines confess Jesus Christ to be in- 
 finite wisdom, and yet condemn his acknowledged institu- 
 tion, as a dangerous error, must they not have been deeply 
 infatuated? Without another comment at present, on the 
 councils of Constance and Trent, let us hear their decrees ! 
 
 Council of Constance. " Whereas in several parts of 
 the world some have rashly presumed to assert that all 
 Christians ought to receive the holy sacrament of the eu- 
 charist under both species, of bread and wine, and that, also, 
 after supper or not fasting ; contrary to the laudable custom 
 of the church, justly approved of, which they^amnably en- 
 deavour to reprobate as sacrilegious. Hence it is, that this 
 holy general council of Constance, assembled by the Holy 
 Ghost to provide for the salvation of the faithful against this 
 error, declares, decrees, and defines, that although Christ did 
 after supper institute this holy sacrament, and administered 
 it to his disciples in both kinds, of bread and wine, yet, this 
 notwithstanding, the laudable authority of the sacred canons, 
 and the approved custom of the church, has fixed, and doth 
 fix, that this sacrament ought not to be consecrated after 
 supper, nor received by the faithful except fasting. And as 
 this custom, for the purpose of avoiding certain dangers and 
 
268 HALF-COMMUNION 
 
 scandals, has been rationally introduced, and that, although 
 this sacrament was received by the faithful under both 
 kinds in the primitive church, it was afterwards received 
 under both kinds by the officiating priests, and by the people 
 under the species of bread only, it being believed most cer- 
 tainly, and nothing doubted, that the entire body and blood 
 of Christ are really contained as well under the species of 
 bread as of wine; this, therefore, being approved, it is now 
 made a law. Likewise this holy synod decrees and declares, 
 as to this matter, to the rev. fathers in Christ, patriarchs, 
 lords, &c, that they must effectually punish all such as shall 
 transgress this decree, or shall exhort to communicate the 
 people in both kinds."* 
 
 Council of Trent saith — 
 
 "Although from the beginning of the Christian religion, 
 the use of both kinds in the administration of the sacrament 
 of the eucharist has been common, yet in process of time 
 that custom being widely changed, the church, for weighty 
 and just causes, approve this custom of communicating under 
 
 * "Cum in nonnullis muncli partibus quidam temerarie asserere pra> 
 sumuntpopulum Christianum debere eucharistise sacramentum sub utra- 
 que panis et vini specie suscipere. Etiam post coenam, vel non jejunum, 
 contra laudabilem ecclesise consuetudinem, rationabiliter approbatam, 
 quam sacrilegam damnabiliter reprobare conantur. Hinc est, quod hoc 
 prsesens concilium sacrum generale Constantiense, in Spiritu sancto 
 legitime congregatum, adversus hunc errorem saluti fideiium providere 
 satagens, declarat, discernit, et diffinit, quod, licet Christus post coenam 
 instituerit, et suis discipulis administravit sub utraque specie panis et 
 vini hoc venerabile sacramentum, tamen, hoc non obstante, sanctorum 
 canonum auctoritas laudabilis, et approbata consuetudo ecclesise ser- 
 vavit et servat, quod hujusmodi sacramentum; non debet confici post 
 coenam, neque a fidelibus recipi non jejunis. 
 
 " Et sicut consuetudo haec ad evitandum aliqua pericula et scandala 
 est rationabiliter introducta, quod, licet in primitiva ecclesia hujusmodi 
 sacramentum a fidelibus sub utraque specie reciperetur; postea a conii- 
 cientibus sub utraque specie, et a laicis tantummodo sub specie panis 
 6uscipiatur; cum certissime credendum sit, et nullatenus, dubitandum, 
 /ntegram Christi corpus et sanguinem, tam sub specie panis quam sub 
 specie vini veraciter contineri; igitur approbata, nunc pro lege habenda. 
 Item ipsa sancta synodus decernit et declarat, super ista materia, reve- 
 rendis in Christo patribus, et patriarchis, et dominis, ut effectualiter pu- 
 niant eos contra hoc decretum excedehtes, qui communicandum popu 
 Ium sub utraque specie panis et vini exhortati fuerint" Cone Constan. 
 an. 1414, sess. 13. 
 
A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 269 
 
 one kind only, and have made it a law, which to condemn 
 or change without her authority is unlawful.* 
 
 " If any one shall say, that all Christians ought, by God's 
 command, or for the sake of salvation, receive the most holy 
 sacrament of the eucharist in both kinds, let him be ac- 
 cursed!! 
 
 " If any one shall say, that the holy Catholic church has not 
 been induced by just causes to communicate the laity, and 
 non-officiating clergy also, in the species of bread only , or 
 to have erred therein ; let him be accursed !"J 
 
 We shall now listen to the testimonies of Justin Martyr, 
 St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, Pope Gelasius, Vasquez, 
 A. e Castro, Aquinas, and the learned and famous George 
 Cassander, &c. 
 
 Justin Martyr writes, " On the day commonly called Sun- 
 day, assemblies of citizens and countrymen are made, and 
 the writings of the apostles and prophets are read ; the mi- 
 nister makes an exhortation after this, we all rise and pour 
 out prayers, and bread and wine are brought forth, and the 
 minister, to the utmost of his ability, sends forth prayers and 
 praises to God, and all the people unite and consent saying, 
 Amen." Again, " They who are called deacons among 
 us, give to every one that is present, of the consecrated 
 bread and wine, even as Jesus commanded them to do."§ 
 
 St. Cyprian saith, " How shall we fit them for the cup 
 
 * Licet ah initio Christians religionis in administratione sacramenti 
 eucharistise non infrequens utriusque speciei usus fuisset, tamen in pro- 
 gressu temporis, latissime jam mutata ilia consuetudine, gravibus et justis 
 causis adducta, hanc consuetudinem sub altera specie communicandi 
 approbavit, et pro lege habendam decrevit, quam reprobare aut sine 
 ipsius ecclesise auctoritate pro libito mutare non licet. Con. Trid. sess. 
 2i, cap. 2. 
 
 f Si quis dixerit ex Dei prsecepto vel necessitate salutis, omnes et 
 singulos Christi fideles utramque speciem sanctissimi eucharistise sacra- 
 menti sumere debere ; anathema sit. Can. 1. 
 
 $ " Si quis dixerit, sanctam ecclesiam Catholicam non justis causis 
 et rationibus adductam fuisse, ut laicos et non conficientes, sub panis 
 tantummodo specie communicaret ; aut in eo erasse; anathema sit. 
 Can. 2. 
 
 § Ksu tii rou nxicu xtyoum «««§* 7rxvrcov kwa ?roXac, &c. — xgros vgca- 
 qeoerrzi **/ o'tvo;. — K^a? jragaJWaty ivTi<rcLX§-m awrotg ~l»<rcuv, &c. — Justin 
 Mart. an. 160. Apol. 2, Antonin. Pium, sub fin. 
 
 23* 
 
270 HALF-COMMUNION 
 
 of martyrdom, if, before it, we admit them not, by right of 
 communion, to drink of the Lord's cup in the church ?"* 
 
 St. Ambrose — " It is an insult to the Lord to celebrate 
 the sacrament otherwise than he did. For, he cannot be 
 devout who presumes to give it in any other way than as it 
 was given by its author. "t 
 
 St. Chrysostom — "It is not now, as in the old law, but 
 one body and one cup is placed before all present."^ 
 
 Pope Gelasius — " We find that some, having received a 
 portion only of the holy body, do abstain from the cup of 
 the holy blood ; who doubtless (because they are bound by 
 I know not what superstition) should receive the entire sa- 
 craments wholly, or should be driven from the entire wholly ; 
 because the division of one and the same mystery cannot be 
 without very great sacrilege. "§ 
 
 Hugo de S. Victore — " Therefore do we receive in both 
 kinds, that thus may be signified the twofold effect of this 
 sacrament ; for, as saith S. Ambrose, it avails to preserve 
 both body and soul."|| 
 
 Gratian — " If, whenever Christ's blood is poured out, it 
 is poured out for the remission of sins, I ought to receive 
 it always, that my sins may always be forgiven me."^[ 
 
 Aquinas — " Christ's body is not sacramentally under the 
 species of wine, nor his blood under that of bread ; there- 
 
 * Quomodo ad martyrii poculura idoneos facimus, si non eos prius ad 
 bibendum in ecclesia poculum Domini jure communicationis admitti- 
 mus 1 Cypr. epist. 54, torn. i. an. 230. 
 
 f Indignum est Domino qui mysterium aliter celebrat, quam ab eo 
 traditum est. Non enim potest devotus esse, qui aliter praesumit dare 
 quam datum est ab authore. Ambr. in 1 Cor. xi. 
 
 t Sed nunc non sic, ut olim : verum omnibus proponitur unnm cor- 
 pus, et unum poculum. Chrysos. hom. 18, torn. 3, in Cor. xi. an. 390. 
 
 § Comperimus quod quidam, sumpta tantummodo corporis sacri por- 
 tione, a calice sacri cruoris abstineant; qui proculdubio (quoniam nescio 
 qua superstitione docentur abstringi) aut sacramenta integra percipiant, 
 aut ab integris arceantur. Quia divisio unius et ejusdem mysterii sine 
 grandi sacrilegio non potest provenire. Dist. 2, de consecrat. an. 492. 
 
 | Ideo duabus speciebus sumitur ut significetur hujus sacramenti du 
 plex effectus, valet enim ad tutationem corporis et animse, ut ait Am 
 brosius. Hug. de S. Vict. torn. 5, c. 6, an 1130. 
 
 If Si quotiescunque effunditur sanguis Christi in remissionem pecca- 
 torum effunditur, debeo ilium semper sumere, ut semper peccata mihi 
 diuiittentur. Gratian de consecrat. dist. 2, an. 1170. 
 
A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 271 
 
 fore, that Christ may be received sacramentally, it is neces- 
 sary to receive under both kinds."* 
 
 Vasquez — " We cannot deny the usage of receiving in 
 both kinds to have been in the Latin church also, and to 
 have continued to St. Thomas's time."t 
 
 A. e Castro — " In old times, for many ages, to have the 
 sacrament of the eucharist in both kinds was the usage 
 amongst all Catholics. This we have learned from the 
 writings of many saints. "| 
 
 Cassander saith, " Concerning the holy sacrament of the 
 eucharist, it is sufficiently known that the universal church 
 to this very day, and even the western or Roman church, 
 for more than a thousand years after Christ, (especially in 
 the solemn and ordinary dispensing of this sacrament,) did 
 give both species of bread and wine to all the members 
 of Christ's church, which is manifest from innumerable 
 testimonies of ancient writers, both Greek and Latin; and 
 they were induced to do so by the institution and example 
 of Christ, who gave this sacrament of his body and blood 
 to his disciples, then representing the persons of believers, 
 &c. Wherefore, it is not without cause that the best and 
 most learned Catholics do most earnestly desire and con- 
 tend that they may receive the sacrament of Christ's blood 
 together with his body, according to the ancient usage." 
 Consult, art. 22. 
 
 Bellarmine owns, " That the council of Basil, sess. 30, 
 permitted the Bohemians to continue the use of the com 
 m union in both kinds, ea conditione ut crederent commit- 
 nionem sub una esse licitam," &c. " On this condition, that 
 they should believe that communion under one kind is law- 
 ful, nor sever themselves from the Catholic church. "§ 
 
 * Corpus Christi non est sacramentaliter sub specie vini, nee sanguis 
 sacramentaliter sub specie panis, ergo, ut sacramentaliter sumater Chris- 
 tus, necesse est ut sumatur sub duabus speciebus. Alexr. Halens. par 
 4, 2, 1 1, m. 2, Aqu. p. 3, q. 76, a. 2, an. 1260. 
 
 -f- Negare non possumus etiam in ecclesia Latina fuisse usum utrius 
 que speciei, ut usque ad tempora St. Thomae durasse. Vasq. in 3. disp 
 ep. 38. 
 
 i Olim per multa ssecula, (sacramentum eucharistiae sub utraque specio 
 panis et vini,) apud omnes Catholicos usitatum esse, ex multorum sane 
 torum scripturis didisciraus. Alph. e Castro, adv. hseres. ult. de euchar. 
 
 $ Bellar. 1. 4, de Euch. c. 26, § Secundo Ex. iEn. Sylv. hist. Bohem. 
 cap. 52, and Genebrad. lib. 4, Chron. 
 
272 HALF-COIIMUXION 
 
 Archbishop Synge saith, " I desire you to speak plainly 
 and to answer me this question : Was it at any time the prac- 
 tice of the universal church, or of any particular church, for 
 one thousand years and more after Christ, that when Chris- 
 tians were assembled together for the purpose of the cele- 
 bration of the holy communion, the species of bread alone 
 was given to the people, or the cup withheld from the peo- 
 ple ? And if not, by what authority doth the church of 
 Rome withhold the cup from the people?"* 
 
 Than all this what can be more plain ? Here we have a 
 flood of evidence from Scripture, antiquity, papal divines, 
 aud even from these councils themselves, that our Lord and 
 Saviour did indeed institute and administer the eucharist in 
 both kinds; and that for many ages afterwards the same 
 was practised by all Christian churches, and that any 
 attempt to separate the cup from the bread was looked on 
 as great impiety, superstition, and sacrilege, nay, a direct 
 insult to Christ its founder; so that this is not disputable, 
 but plain matter of fact. To look, then, for reasons and 
 arguments to combat such facts and justify the sacrilege of 
 taking away the cup, is such infatuation as to confess the 
 sun shines, and then to try to prove it shines not ! 
 
 So, then, they confess, 1st, " That our Lord gave both 
 bread and cup, (and that after supper too.) and that this was 
 the Christian usage for many ages," but now " it is an 
 error dangerous to salvation !" and thus do they at once 
 condemn Christ and his apostles ! 2d. They have found, 
 That this mode of it left by our Lord is liable to many 
 scandals and dangers. 3d. They have made a discovery 
 that escaped him and his apostles, namely, " that the whole 
 Christ, body and blood, is in either the bread or the cup, 
 of course that one is enough." (But we have proved that 
 Christ was in neither.) 4th. " They affirm the Holy Ghost 
 taught them all this ! ! !" So, then, the Holy Ghost in- 
 spired them to charge Christ with error, and to subvert his 
 sacred institution ! Is there a thinking and sensible Roman- 
 ist on earth that, on viewing all this, can forbear to shudder 
 and cry out, this is nothing short of blasphemy inspired by 
 the devil ? What ! Councils to be infallibly inspired by 
 God to overthrow his own gospel and institutions, and to 
 
 * Rejoinder to Dr. Nary. p. 295. 
 
A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 273 
 
 set up the opposite ! Who that cares for his soul or loves 
 the Lord his Saviour can for a moment listen to such hor- 
 rible impieties and antichristian blasphemies ? 
 
 DR. CHALLONER'S REASONS. 
 
 For this daring outrage against God and man they have 
 some good reasons, forsooth. Saith Challoner, "No priest, 
 bishop, or pope, not officiating, ever receives, even upon 
 his death-bed, otherwise than in one kind, because that the 
 living body of Christ, and therefore his blood, is contained 
 in the species of the bread really and truly." Cathol. 
 Christ, p. 53. 
 
 Answer. If this notion were just, Christ must have 
 known and appointed it. Again, the corporal presence 
 being proved a fiction, this foolish reason is annihilated. 
 And besides, he is contradicted by the council of Basil, as 
 we have just seen. 
 
 2. Challoner saith, " There is all the reason in the 
 world to think that this appellation, fruit of the vine, was 
 given by our Saviour, not to the consecrated cup, but to 
 the wine of the paschal supper, as is visible from Si. 
 Luke xx." Ibid. p. 46. 
 
 Answer. Let any man turn to St. Matt. xxvi. 28, 29, 
 Mark xiv. 24, 25, and he will with his own eyes see if the 
 bishop spoke sincerely, or told truth. And if he could, to 
 prop up his cause, be guilty of so glaring an untruth, — if he 
 could belie Christ himself before our face, and with his 
 gospel in our hands, when he can be so easily detected, 
 who after this can rely on any thing he says about the an- 
 cient fathers or others, whose books are in the hands of 
 but few ? 
 
 Saith he, "What is that which nourishes the body when 
 we receive the sacrament, if that there be no bread and wine 
 there ? I answer, I do not deny but the body is nourished 
 when we receive the blessed eucharist, yet not by the sub- 
 stance of the bread and wine, which is not there, not by 
 the body and blood of Christ, which being incorruptible, 
 cannot be digested for our corporal nourishment, but by the 
 quantity, and the other accidents of the bread and wine." 
 p. 48. 
 
 What ! nourished by the quantity of the bread and wine 
 
274 HALF-COMMUNION 
 
 and no bread and wine there ? or by the accidents— the 
 appearances — the colour and shape of the bread ? Can 
 colours and shapes nourish a man? Can these learned doc- 
 tors themselves be thus- fattened ? Yet these are his sort of 
 arguments, and that satisfy Roman Catholics ! 
 
 4. "Whosoever shall eat of this bread, or drink of this 
 cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and 
 blood of the Lord, shall eat and drink his own damnation, 
 not discerning the Lord's body. How so, if nothing more 
 than bread and wine be received ? How shall the Lord's 
 body be discerned, if it be not present ?" p. 37. 
 
 I reply, St. Paul and Origen answer this sophism. " To 
 sin wilfully against Christ," saith St. Paul, " is to crucify 
 Christ, tread him under foot, and put him to open shame."* 
 And yet his body is not there ? Origen writes, " When 
 any one of us sin, when he sins grievously against Jesus 
 Christ, when he departs from the faith, he does spiritually 
 to Christ what the Jews did to him corporally. "t Hence, 
 this discerning is figurative, spiritual, not corporal; and 
 thus this shameful attempt of the bishop to mislead his 
 readers is frustrated. 
 
 5th. " It was to the apostles he gave the cup, therefore 
 to the officiating clergy only, and not to the laity, doth the 
 cup belong." P. 52. 
 
 Answer. It was to the apostles only he gave the bread 
 also ; therefore the laity should get neither bread nor cup ; 
 but if they are to have the bread, so should they the cup 
 also. 2d. But the apostles, though not officiating, received 
 the cup. Hence, the non-officiating clergy are to have the 
 cup also. 3 
 
 6th. " Lest the blood of Christ should be spilled, or grow 
 musty, if the laity get the cup," &c, so saith Bellarmine de 
 Euch. lib. 4, c. 24, ibid. 
 
 " Answer. But the bread also might grow mouldy, or 
 fall on the ground, or "a mouse run off with it ;" hence, 
 then, should neither clergy nor laity get any eucharist ! 
 Most ridiculous reasons ! 
 
 * Heb. vi. 6 ; x. 26—29. 
 
 j- Unusquisque nostrum quando peccat, maxime cum peccat ingen 
 lia, in Jesum Christum peccat, si autem recesserit a fide haec facit spi- 
 ritualiter Christo, quae corporaliter fecit Jerusalem. Origin, in Hier. 
 horn. X. Fulk in loco 
 
A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 275 
 
 7th. " The Scriptures admit of the eucharist in one kind 
 only; so, in Acts ii. 42, xx. 7, is no mention made of the 
 cup ; and in 1 Cor. xi. 27, where the apostle writes, 
 " v\ fttvfj, or drink" and thus gives liberty of receiving one 
 kind or the other ; the Protestant translation, by putting 
 and, for or, has evidently corrupted the text." Ibid. 
 
 Answer. After confessing the fact " that Christ insti- 
 tuted in both kinds, and that the apostles followed his ex- 
 ample," to try to bring Scripture afterwards to oppose this, 
 what is it but a desperate attempt to set the Scripture 
 against itself, and thus rather overthrow the Christian reli- 
 gion than not prop up his falsehood ? Now, as to Acts ii. 
 42, &c, although the cup is not mentioned, yet there could 
 be no consecration without its being present. Either, then, 
 it was a common meal, not the sacrament, that is there 
 meant, or, if it was the eucharist, the cup must have been 
 present. And again, the term bread, might, by a synec- 
 doche, pars pro toto, include the drink also, as when Christ 
 eat bread with the Pharisee. Luke xiv. 1, see Isa. lviii. 63. 
 
 Again, but to try to found their sacrilege, as Pope Gela- 
 sius calls it, on the syllable or, and to raise an outcry 
 against Protestants, for corrupting the text rj tcivtj, argues, 
 more than volumes, their great 'desperation. They are, 
 however, forced to admit this fact, that in their own Greek, 
 Latin, and English Testament, the apostle (in 1 Cor. xi. 
 26, 28, 29, and x. 16, 17,) no less than five times uses 
 xav, and, in joining the bread and cup together, to be both 
 eceived in remembrance of Christ. So, to say, by or, is 
 insinuated, that the cup is not necessary, is to make the 
 apostle contradict not only the Lord's institution, but him- 
 self also ; all which proves at once their cause untenable. 
 
 Though I will not avail myself of this, that and, not or, 
 is the reading of the Alexandrian, Syriac, iEthiopic and 
 Arabic MSS. nor that the apostles frequently use and for 
 or, synonymously,* but will freely give them the or, yet it 
 will do them no service. For if this part of verse 28, 
 "Let a man prove himself ;" be a divine command, so is 
 this part of it, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink 
 of that chalice." (Rhemish.) The apostle, (in verses 
 
 * Matt. v. 17; vii. 12; xi. 13; xxi. 23; xxii. 40. Mark xi. 8. 
 Luke xx. 2 : xxiv. 44. 
 
276 HALF-COMMUNION 
 
 20, 21, 22,) reproves the Corinthians, for eating ana drink- 
 ing equally the same as a common meal, even to drunken- 
 ness, what they should have looked on as the Lord's sup- 
 per, and symbols of his body and blood — "What," says 
 he, " have ye not houses to eat and drink in? or despise ye 
 the church of God?" (ver. 27.) " Therefore, whosoever 
 shall eat of this bread" to satisfy his corporal hunger, " or 
 drink of the chalice of the Lord" merely to satisfy his 
 thirst, eats and drinks the symbols of the Lord's body and 
 blood " unworthily:" and shall be "guilty of the body and 
 blood of the Lsord" by thus abusing its sacred symbols. 
 
 This explanation is not only consistent with the apostle's 
 reproof and reasoning, but preserves the Lord's institution 
 entire, and leaves no room whatever for any half-coinmu- 
 nion. I shall here just remark, if our Lord would not give 
 the Jews real blood to drink, and if blood would not make 
 them drunk ; then what made them drunk was not his 
 blood, but wine, its symbol. I shah follow them no far- 
 ther. Thus, those doctors have not an inch of ground to 
 stand on, and all their good reasons for sacrilegiously al- 
 tering Christ's institution, 3nd depriving the people of the 
 cup, turn out, as might be exppcted, to be only so many 
 more evidences of their deep infatuation and antichristian 
 impiety. 
 
 Tq^ conclude, first, when it is confessed that Christ, in his 
 infinite wisdom and goodness, hath instituted the eucharist 
 in both kinds, and after ascending to heaven, taught the 
 same to St. Paul, (1 Cor. xi. 23 ;) and when it is certain 
 that whosoever alters what our Lord thus appointed is ac- 
 cursed of God, and that the system he substitutes is ac- 
 cursed also, and must therefore prove a curse to any who 
 shall daringly follow it ; who then that loves the Lord, or 
 has any regard for his own salvation, can ever again use 
 this corrupt invention, the half-communion ? 
 
 This clergy knowing, as they now must, that the Lord 
 never taught the host worship or half-communion, and that 
 therefore they are idolatrous and accursed dogmas ; when 
 yet they behold their councils enjoining them with a "non 
 obstante," — " neque enim ideo minus," &c, " to be taught, 
 although never taught by Christ," and when they see their 
 divin'es justifying their councils, saying, "that the church 
 and pope have as much power to add to the faith, alter, or 
 
A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 277 
 
 dispense against the divine law, as had the apostles to es- 
 tablish them at the first ;" as did Vasquez,* Salmeron,t 
 Bellarmine, Arcadius, &c, (see p. 257.) What! " power 
 to add to or alter the faith!" why, were the very apostles 
 to do so they would be accursed ! Gal. i. 8. — I say, if this 
 clergy will but consider all this, must they not shudder in 
 their inmost souls, and abandon such doctrines, or otherwise 
 sink into infidelity and eternal desperation ? 
 
 3. When the arguments here produced against transub- 
 stantiation, sacrifice of the mass, worship of the host or 
 wafer, and half-communion shall have been examined by 
 any candid man, must he not be constrained to own that 
 they are such a compound of absurdity, blasphemy, idola- 
 try, — in a word, such a complete system of impiety and 
 religious deformity as the world never before witnessed ? 
 
 Monstrum horrendum informe horribile ingens. 
 
 If then these fatal dogmas, opposed as they are to the 
 gospel — the narrow road to heaven, be the broad road to 
 destruction, and that the sole object of these pages is to 
 turn men away from it to the living and true God, what 
 man of sense can for a moment be displeased, or can other- 
 wise view this but as a labour of love to man, as well as 
 duty to God — even as a pious effort to save immortal souls ? 
 In fine, having combated and laid open the sophistries of 
 Doctors Gother and Challoner, &c, on these several sub- 
 jects, I shall now proceed to meet Dr. Milner on the same. 
 I am, Rev. Sir, 
 
 Yours, most truly in Christ, 
 
 GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 5th edit., Belfast, July 7, 1827. 
 
 * Licet concederemus hoc apostolorum preceptum fuisse, communi- 
 care sub utraque specie, nihilominus ecclesia et summus pontifex 
 potuerunt justis de causis abrogare,- neque enim major fuit apostolo- 
 rum potestas, quam ecclesiae et pontificis inferendis praeceptis. Vasq. 
 torn. 2 disq. 216, p. 60. 
 
 •f- Doctrina fidei admittit additionem in essentialibus — Salmer. torn 
 13, pars 3, disp. 6. 
 
 24 
 
ANSWER TO DR. MILNER. 
 
 DR. MILNER ON THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS, ADORATION 
 OF THE HOST, TRANSUBSTANTIATION, AND HALF-COMMD- 
 NION, SELF-CONFUTED. 
 
 As no Christian can believe Christ was in any thing 
 wrong, and as the doctor and his confederates are sworn to 
 believe that the gospel Christ taught, and that his apostles 
 preached and wrote in the New Testament, to remain un- 
 altered forever, is the only true Christian religion, and " is 
 the power of God unto salvation to every one that believe th:" 
 (Rom. i. 16, 1 Cor. xv. 2.) so must he believe, 1st. that 
 what doctrine or religion soever is found opposed to this 
 gospel, is necessarily false, antichristian, and accursed of 
 God, shall curse its followers, and constitute such as know- 
 ingly teach it false prophets and antichrists. 
 
 2. That as no man can believe that the opposite of what 
 he knows to be truth, is truth ; so can no man teaching 
 doctrines opposed to the gospel, which he swears is truth, 
 believe he is teaching truth, but is self-condemned and self- 
 confuted. And so must every author he quotes to support 
 him, go directly to declare him either insane or a perjurer! 
 and so must every such authority be a misrepresentation, 
 or the author be necessarily a wicked false prophet. 
 
 Since no pope or priest can deny the truth of these pro- 
 positions, and seeing the doctor advocates the above dogmas, 
 opposed as they are to the gospel, and quotes many authors 
 to support him, then it follows that the doctor is self-con 
 demned and self-confuted, all his authorities misquotations, 
 or the authors false prophets, his arguments sophistries, and 
 himself therefore a false prophet under the wrath of God — 
 The minor, that his dogmas are opposed to the gospel being 
 proved, this conclusion, however tremendous, is unavoid 
 able! 
 
 278 
 
ANSWER TO DR. MILNER. 279 
 
 The mass, saith the doctor, "A sacrifice is an offering- up 
 and immolation of a living animal or victim to God, as he 
 is the Lord of life and death, and of us and all things."* 
 " The sacrifice of the new law is the most sacred and the 
 very essential part of our sacred liturgy." " The Jewish 
 sacrifices being often repeated could not take away sin : 
 whereas the death of Christ on the cross obliterates at once 
 the sins of those who availed themselves of it."f The gos- 
 pel saith the very same.J All this therefore is purely Pro- 
 testant doctrine ! But the eucharist, being on the night 
 before the death of Christ — the only proper sacrifice, was 
 given before any proper sacrifice was on earth : therefore 
 no proper sacrifice was in that eucharist, nor of course in 
 any mass forever. This fact annihilates all the doctor's 
 dogmas and arguments at once. No proper sacrifice being 
 in the Lord's eucharist, when the doctor is sworn to believe 
 and teach, "that in his eucharist or mass there is a true and 
 proper sacrifice, "§ he is therefore sworn to teach a false- 
 hood, and so contradicts himself. 
 
 But his principal argument is this, " They, the saints 
 under the law of nature and the written law, had perpetual 
 sacrifices of animals to represent the death of Christ, and 
 to apply the fruits of it to their souls. In the same manner, 
 Catholics have Christ himself really present and mystically 
 offered on their altars daily, in the holy mass, for the same 
 ends ; that is, strikingly to represent the separation of his 
 blood from his body, but in a far more efficacious manner, 
 and of course a true propitiatory sacrifice."\\ Parturiunt 
 monies! and he brings a troop of pretended authorities, to 
 be sure, to support him. But we shall take leave to over- 
 throw the whole as in a moment. 
 
 This famous argument is, A picture represents a man, 
 therefore it is really that man! " The eucharist (saith he) 
 more strikingly represents Christ's death than did slain 
 animals, therefore the eucharist is Christ himself, really 
 dead on the cross." 
 
 But it must be consequent, that if the eucharist, because 
 
 * End of Controversy, letter 40, p. 52. 
 f Ibid. p. 54—55. 
 
 * Heb. ix. 15—28. x. 10, 12, 14. 
 § Con. Trid. sess. 22 can. 1. 
 
 1 End of Controversy, 1. 40, p. 53. 
 
280 ANSWER TO DR. MLLNER. 
 
 it represents Christ, be Christ himself really and truly 
 then, as each sacrificed animal represented Christ slain for 
 our sins; so every such animal was Christ himself slain 
 really and truly. Now if all this is most false, if no such 
 animal was Christ, then no eucharist or wafer ever was 
 Christ sacrificed, and hence most false it is to say, "that 
 the mass is a true propitiatory sacrifice;" and all the au- 
 thorities brought to support it are either foul misquotations, 
 or the authors were teachers of falsehoods — And hence our 
 minor is proved, and the whole conclusion, as aforesaid, lies 
 in full force against the doctor and his church. 
 
 The Adoration or the Host. — "We are represented 
 by our adversaries," saith the doctor, " as worshippers of 
 bread and wine in the sacrament, and therefore as idolaters, 
 at the same time that they are perfectly aware that we 
 firmly believe as an article of faith that there is no bread 
 nor wine, but Christ himself, true Gox>, as well as true man, 
 present in it."* 
 
 I reply, no sensible Protestant, no informed pope, pre- 
 late, or priest ever did or can thus believe. For it being in 
 the first place granted, « that the apostles worshipped 
 Christ, but not the eucharist, not believing Him present 
 there ; and as this clergy durst not say, nor could believe 
 that the inspired apostles were mistaken in this, so it is 
 most manifest, the doctor did not, could not believe himself 
 or his article of faith, when he wrote, " we firmly believe, 
 that no bread but Christ alone is present in the sacrament." 
 —And 2d. It being proved, that no proper sacrifice was 
 ever in the eucharist, and therefore, that Christ was never 
 therein, it necessarily remained bread and wine ; and it 
 being granted, " that to give supreme adoration to any bread 
 or other creature is most damnable idolatry," it must fol- 
 low, that the doctor could not but be aware that this adora- 
 tion of the host, is opposed to all truth, as well as to the 
 practice of the inspired apostles, and therefore is the highest 
 possible soul-destroying idolatry. And hence he is self- 
 condemned. 
 
 We shall hear him once more. He says, " Supposing 
 we are mistaken in this belief, the worst we could be 
 charged with is an error in supposing Christ to be where 
 
 * End of Controversy, letter 36, p. 29. 
 
ANSWER TO DR. MILNER. 281 
 
 he is not ; what but calumny or gross inattention could ac- 
 cuse us of the heinous crime of idolatry ? To illustrate this, 
 let me suppose that being charged with a loyal address to 
 the sovereign, you presented it, by mistake, to one of his 
 courtiers, or even to an inanimate figure of him, which for 
 some reason or other had been dressed up in royal robes 
 and placed on the throne, would your heart reproach you, 
 or would any sensible person reproach you with the guilt 
 of treason in this case ? Were the people who thought in 
 their hearts that John the Baptist was the Christ, and who 
 probably worshipped him as such, idolaters, in consequence 
 of their error ? The falsehood and uncharitableness of this 
 calumny is too gross to escape the observation of any in 
 formed and reflecting man."* 
 
 What an argument ! what a mighty effort of genius ! but 
 the touch of truth annihilates it. What if this said bearer 
 of the address should continue all his days to present it to 
 the statue or to the courtier, as to his sovereign, would not 
 the doctor himself deem him a fool or knave ? or had the 
 Jews worshipped John the Baptist for Christ, and persisted 
 in so doing all their days, could they be other than gross 
 idolaters ? Hence, his quibble is demolished, and the ado- 
 ration of the host or wafer, for Christ, is the hideous crime 
 of idolatry ; and of course, he and his brethren are, on his 
 own showing, guilty of this great wickedness ; and hence, 
 all his pretended authorities are either misquotations, or the 
 authors are unavoidably false prophets, and the doctor stands 
 self-condemned and self-confuted. 
 
 Transubstantiation. This dogma we have already dis- 
 posed of, (p. 176.^ On it and its kindred dogmas the doctor 
 spends thirty pages, without a single solid argument in the 
 whole ; using only the trite quibbles of Gother, Challoner, 
 and the rest of them, but by all means bringing to his sup- 
 port a host of all sorts of authors, which, I again say, can 
 only serve to exhibit him as their maligner, or themselves 
 as enemies of truth. Now if a witness be detected in two 
 or three lies, will any judge or court listen to him further? 
 He is instantly turned down with general execration, as a 
 false witness. But we have detected the doctor in error on 
 every point. We have proved that in the mass or wafer no 
 
 * End of Controversy, let. 36, p. 40. 
 24* 
 
282 ANSWER TO DR. MLLNER. 
 
 proper sacrifice ever was, that no apostle ever adored it. 
 that Christ's body and blood were never therein, that no rem 
 change being made, the bread remained bread, and there- 
 fore the supreme adoration of it is hideous idolatry 
 Hence, the doctor being thus detected in so many errors 
 we might well dismiss him ; yet we shall see what he has 
 to say on this point also. 
 
 Saith he confidently, "Christ said, 'THIS IS MY 
 BODY ;' and, as saith Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, he ope- 
 rated what he expressed : when he speaks, nature obeys 
 and he does what he says. Thus he cured the ruler's son 
 by his word, and made the crooked woman straight, and he 
 turned water into wine by his word, and therefore changed 
 bread into his body!" 
 
 What ! is it not a palpable lie to say that a thing is now 
 created that was made long before, and therefore was not 
 now made ? But since Christ could not lie or make a lie, 
 he could not therefore make his own human body, which 
 was long before born of the virgin ; and to say he did, in- 
 volves blasphemy! Nor could he make a human body for 
 himself of bread, or other matter, without making it a new 
 body, and different from his body born of Mary, which, to 
 say he did, is again blasphemy ! Nor did he say, this is 
 my human body, or my spiritual, or my mystical, or my 
 figurative body, but ' my body,' leaving it to common sense 
 to judge which of these it was that he gave in commemora- 
 tion of him ; and what but the latter could it possibly be ? 
 
 With regard to the change wrought on the water, the 
 woman, &c, it was palpable to all present; but not so with 
 the wafer. Hence, there being no such change, the paral- 
 lel fails, and his sophism is spoiled ; and this doctrine of his 
 church necessarily involves absurdity, idolatry, and blas- 
 phemy, as is now palpable to common sense. 
 
 When he says, " Our Lord gave no explanation to the 
 Jews or to his disciples, concerning 'the hard saying, of 
 eating his flesh and drinking his blood,' (John vi. 52, 60,) 
 but rather goes on to confirm it." That he asserts falsely, 
 is plain to any who reads verse 63, which tells us "R is 
 the Spirit that quickeneth" or gives life to the soul* In 
 fine, after all the doctor says against Protestants, and all his 
 
 * End of Controversy, let. 36, p. 32. 
 
ANSWER TO DR. MILNER. 2S3 
 
 sophistries, he is by the force of truth driven into Protest- 
 antism ! For, with Challoner, and all the rest of them, he 
 owns, this body on the altar is representative of that on the 
 cross, and is mystically (not really) immolated there.'* 
 And this is real Protestantism ! ! ! 
 
 Half-communion. The three former dogmas being 
 proved false, this, of course, falls with them at once ; for 
 if Christ was never, dead or alive, in the eucharist, as it is 
 proved he never was, then he never was in either the bread 
 or the cup ; and if not, then the doctor's assertion, " That 
 the church, from the time of the apostles to the present, 
 ever firmly believed that the body and blood, soul and di- 
 vinity of Jesus Christ, equally subsist under each of the 
 species of bread and wine, regarded it as a mere matter of 
 discipline, which of them was to be received in the holy 
 sacrament," (letter 38,) is contradicted by all truth, ecclesi- 
 astical or divine ! And this fact is confessed even by him- 
 self, page 50, saying, " that the council of Basil, sess. ii., 
 allowed the Hussites the use of the chalice ; and Pope Pius 
 IV. authorized several bishops of Germany to allow the use 
 of the cup to those persons of their respective dioceses who 
 desired it," &c. Hence, all he says, and his pretended rea- 
 sons and authorities, are mere fallacies and self-contradic- 
 tions : and our minor is now fully maintained, and the con- 
 clusion, with all its deadly weight, lies against the doctor 
 and all his brethren : and hence, should every one who 
 cares for his soul listen to the solemn warning voice of 
 God, " Come out of her, my people, that ye receive not of 
 her plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven, and God 
 hath remembered her iniquities." Rev. xviii. And what 
 church is she that is thus guilty, but she that has cast out 
 and disarranged the laws of heaven, and set up her own — 
 even the church of Rome ? 
 
 * End of Controversy, let. 37, p. 34, 35. 
 
LETTER IX. 
 
 THE 
 
 LATTER-DAY APOSTASY 
 
 A SHORT VIEW OF THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY, AND OF THE 
 MAN OF SIN, WHICH WAS TO APPEAR IN THE CHURCH, PRE- 
 DICTED BY THE PROPHET DANIEL, AND BY THE APOSTLES, 
 ST. PAUL, ST. PETER, AND ST. JOHN, AS RECORDED IN THE 
 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 
 
 Rev. Sir, — The Holy Ghost has given, in the sacred 
 Scriptures, abundant warning of a most alarming and long 
 continued apostasy, which would appear in the Christian 
 church. Now, if we regard our own salvation, it must be 
 our duty to our God, our fellow-men, and ourselves, dili- 
 gently to search and learn what these damnable errors are, 
 and these other characters of this fearful defection, that 
 we may escape them. If, then, through neglect, we fall into 
 them, and suffer, our punishment must be really just. 
 
 Our Lord warns us, " That many false prophets shall 
 come, and deceive many ; and that we shall know them by 
 their fruits."* 
 
 St. Paul writes, " Let no man deceive you by any means ; 
 for that day shall not come, except there be a falling away 
 first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, 
 
 * Matt. vii. 15, 20 ; xxiv. 24. 
 
 284 
 
THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 285 
 
 wlij) opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called 
 God ; so that he, as god, sitteth in the temple of God, 
 showing himself that he is God. — And now ye know what 
 withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. For the 
 mystery of iniquity already worketh, only that he who now 
 holdeth, doth hold, until he be taken out of the way. And 
 then that wicked one shall be revealed — whom the Lord 
 shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy 
 with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming 
 is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and 
 lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity to them that 
 perish. Because they received not the love of truth, that 
 they might be saved, therefore God shall send them the 
 operation of error to believe lying, that they might be judged 
 who believed not the truth, but have consented unto ini- 
 quity."* Again, " Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in 
 the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed 
 to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in 
 hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared ; forbidding 
 to marry, and to abstain from meats."! "Know this also, 
 that in the last days shall come on dangerous times. Men 
 shall be lovers of themselves, slanderers, traitors, pufTed-up, 
 lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God ; having an 
 appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power 
 thereof. Now, these avoid. Ever learning and never 
 attaining to the knowledge of the truth. Now, as Jannes 
 and Mambers resisted Moses, so do these also resist the 
 truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the 
 faith." — " For, there shall come a time when they will not 
 endure sound doctrine, &c, and will indeed turn away their 
 hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. "£ 
 — Rhemish. 
 
 St. Peter tells us, " There shall be false teachers among 
 you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even 
 denying the Lord that bought them, (by subverting his 
 gospel,) and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And 
 many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of 
 whom the way of truth shall he evil spoken of: and 
 through covetousness shall they with feigned words make 
 merchandise of you ; whose judgment now of a long time 
 
 * 2 Thess. ii.3— 12. f Tim. iv. 1—3. 
 
 * Tim. iii. 1—8 ; iv. 3, 4. 
 
286 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth net. Having 
 eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin ; be- 
 guiling unstable souls ; an heart they have exercised with 
 covetous practices; cursed children; who have forsaken 
 the right way : for whom the mist of darkness is reserved 
 forever — While they promise them liberty, they them- 
 selves are the servants of corruption." 2 Pet. ii. 
 
 St. John — "And there came one of the seven angels, and 
 talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show 
 unto thee the judgment of the great whore, that sitteth 
 upon many waters : with whom the kings of the earth have 
 committed fornication; And the inhabitants of the earth 
 have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication — 
 And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full 
 of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 
 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, 
 and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls — And 
 upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon 
 
 THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS 
 
 of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the 
 blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
 Jesus; and when I saw her, I wondered with great admi- 
 ration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou 
 marvel ? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and 
 of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads 
 and ten horns. Here is the mind which hath wisdom ; the 
 seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman 
 sitteth. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten 
 kings. These have one mind, and shall give their power 
 and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with 
 the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them : for he is 
 Lord of lords, and King of kings ; and they that are with 
 him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto 
 me ; The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sit- 
 teth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. 
 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these 
 shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate, and 
 naked : and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, for 
 God hath put it into their hearts to fulfil his will. And the 
 woman which thou sawest, is that great city which reign- 
 eth over the kings of the earth. And I heard another 
 voice from heaven saying, Babylon the great is fallen 
 
THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY 287 
 
 Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of 
 her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Rejoice 
 over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets ; 
 for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel 
 took up a stone, like a great millstone, and cast it into the 
 sea, saying, thus with violence shall that great city Baby- 
 lon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." 
 Rev. xiv. xvii. xviii. 
 
 Behold now the aid and the artifices of the man of sin — 
 the apostate chief, and of his host of deceivers, to deceive 
 the nations ! " And he doth great wonders — and deceiveth 
 them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles 
 which he had power to do." Rev. xiii. 14, 15. "And I 
 saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth 
 of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of 
 the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits 
 of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings 
 of the earth, and of the whole world. And the beast was 
 taken, and the false prophet, that wrought miracles before 
 him, with which he deceived them — these both were cast 
 alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." Rev. xvi. 
 13, 14; xix. 20. 
 
 The Duration of this cruel Apostasy. — Saith Daniel, 
 "And the ten horns out of this kingdom, are ten kings that 
 shall arise; and another shall arise after them, and he shall 
 be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 
 And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall 
 wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change 
 times and laws ; and they shall be given into his hand, until 
 a time, times, and the dividing of time; but the judgment 
 shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume 
 and destroy it unto the end : and one said unto him clothed 
 in linen, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders ? 
 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the 
 waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his 
 left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever 
 and ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half''* 
 
 St. John. — "And the woman fled into the wilderness, 
 
 where she had a place prepared of God, that they should 
 
 feed her there, a thousand and two hundred and three score 
 
 days ; where she is nourished for a time, times and a half 
 
 * Dan. vii. 24—26 ; xiii. 6, 7. 
 
288 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 a time, from the face of the serpent. And there was giver 
 unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies, 
 and power was given unto him to continue forty and two 
 months. And it was given unto him to make war with the 
 saints, and to overcome them, and power was given him 
 over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations," &c. &c* 
 
 These scriptures teach us: 1. That a dreadful and wide 
 extended apostasy from the pure faith of Christ was to take 
 place in the Christian church. 2. That from its rise, it 
 would exist for a time, times, and half a time, or three pro- 
 phetic years and a half, or 42 months, or 1260 prophetic 
 days; all meaning the same thing, that is, 1260 years. 
 3. That it would be headed by one chief person, called the 
 'Man of sin, the son of perdition; the beast; the false 
 prophet;" alluding, evidently, to his twofold power, regal 
 and ecclesiastical. 4. That his residence should be a city 
 seated on seven hills, called a woman, and a whore, the 
 mother of harlots, and of abominations, because of her being 
 the parent of many idolatrous churches, and of many false 
 and abominable dogmas, fitly called sorceries, which would 
 issue from her, to all the surrounding nations, thereby be- 
 witching, corrupting, and ruling them and their kings. 
 5. She, the city, and church therein, sat on a scarlet-colour- 
 ed beast ; or derived her magnificence from her scarlet-robed 
 ecclesiastical regal head. 6. He was to be chief in the 
 temple or church of God, exalting himself far above all 
 Christian bishops ; nay, and all kings too. 7. He, and his 
 associates, are designated as revolters from and opposers of 
 the truth, changing at will, and mangling the holy docrines 
 of Christ; and, also assuming blasphemous titles, would 
 thus exalt himself even above God himself. 8. That their 
 artifices and lying wonders, or miracles, either feigned or 
 wrought by the help of devils, and lies in hypocrisy, that is, 
 with great professions of piety and orthodoxy in the very 
 face of matter of fact, would abound. 9. Doctrines of devils, 
 forbidding to marry, and thus polluting the world with many 
 adulteries, as saith St. Peter.t 10. Idolatry, or worshipping 
 the work of their own hands, which can neither see, hear, 
 nor walk. 11. Worship in an unknown tongue.% 12. Per- 
 secution to prevail against, and wear out the saints or true 
 
 * Kev. xii. 7, 14 ; xiii. 5—7. f 2 Pet. ii. 14. 
 
 * 1 Cor adv. 9— 19— 2§. 
 
THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY". 289 
 
 gospel Christians, and fill the nations everywhere with 
 their blood; because they would not submit to his abomina- 
 ble inventions. 13. In his direful and bloody persecutions, 
 the kings of the surrounding Christian nations would agree 
 to give him their power till the time determined in the divine 
 counsel. 14. That all these kings, or kingdoms, which 
 helped the whore, would at length hate her, even this Baby- 
 lon, and would turn against, destroy, and burn her; nay, 
 that she, and the beast: the false prophet, should, by the 
 power of incensed Deity, be tremendously cast down, to 
 rise no more forever ! All this the Scriptures accurately 
 point out. 
 
 St. John is struck with great surprise at this dreadful 
 cruelty and persecution which was to come to pass. Now, 
 were a pagan city and emperor the agents in it, this could 
 not have caused such wonder; for to this he was well accus- 
 tomed, and was himself then an exile in the isle of Patmos 
 by Domitian's decree. Therefore, when the expression 
 "sitting in the temple or church of God" is connected 
 with this bloody persecution, so strange as to excite in St. 
 John so great an astonishment, it must be very manifest, 
 that he saw all this bloody work, which was to waste the 
 church of Christ, was to be carried on by very unexpected 
 instruments, even by the chief one in God's temple — a 
 bishop in succession — the man of sin, and his church, and 
 great city, all claiming to be eminently Christian. What 
 other thing but this awful catastrophe, so unlooked for, and 
 which has since been so dreadfully realized, could have so 
 mightily surprised the apostle ? 
 
 This is truly alarming ! Being thus warned, is it not 
 incumbent on all, especially on every church, which calls 
 herself Christian, carefully to examine, if, perhaps, all or 
 any of these marks and features of this apostasy belong to 
 it ? Surely none of us should be in anywise offended, for 
 being thus counselled and even pressed to do so. God 
 warns. Eternity is rushing on. 
 
 AN INQUIRY, IN WHAT CHURCH THE PRECISE MARKS OF THIS 
 APOSTASY ARE TO BE FOUND. 
 
 1st mark. False doctrines. — Do we know of any Chris- 
 tian church that is guilty of any departure from that ancient 
 faith once delivered by our Lord Jesus Christ to the saints * 
 
 25 
 
290 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 and that has turned to fables, novelties, heresies ? Mast it 
 not be acknowledged, that in the foregoing sheets it is de- 
 monstrably proved, that all papal doctors are sworn to be- 
 lieve and teach many doctrines not taught by our Lord or 
 his apostles? 1st. " That extreme unction is a sacrament 
 of Christ's institution, that it is necessary to salvation, and 
 that it remits sins;" and yet, they are constrained to con- 
 fess, that all this is but mere human invention ! 2. " The 
 infallibility of the church of Rome. 3. The supremacy 
 of the pope. 4. Purgatory. 5. Indulgences. 6. Tran- 
 substantiation. 7. Sacrifice of the mass. 8. Worship of 
 the host; and, 9. Half-communion ; are sworn to be of 
 divine faith." Yet they all are proved to be mere fictions, 
 corrupt inventions ; deceptions. 
 
 10. The invocation of the holy virgin and other departed 
 saints, is another papal doctrine ! To beg the prayers of 
 saints, of our friends or parents, in their lifetime, to God 
 for us, is authorized by Scripture; but to invocate them after 
 they have left this world, to do so is not taught by God's 
 word, is absurd, as it would be to suppose they are present, 
 and do hear us, and all others who might call on them ; 
 which would be an admission that they can be everywhere 
 present, and be gods, and not creatures, which would b& 
 false and blasphemous. Now, I defy all the priests on 
 earth to show either divine precept or example for it. And 
 if it cannot be proved that our Lord Jesus Christ, or his 
 apostles, or the virgin Mary, ever commanded any such 
 thing, or otherwise encouraged it, — and all grant He was 
 infinitely right, — they must allow that they who teach or 
 
 a practice them are infinitely wrong, and as all such wrong 
 is of the devil, so must they either quit them or be followers 
 of the devil. Hence, all such invocations or prayers, being 
 the absurd inventions of men, are, conclusively, pernicious 
 and diabolical. 
 
 11. Such another doctrine is, "that priests have power 
 to forgive sins." Now, if any could have had such a pri- 
 vilege, the apostles, to whom was spoken these words, 
 " Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted," " What ye 
 bind on earth," <fec, <fec, (John xx. Matt. xvi. xviii. 18,) 
 must surely have had it ; but if facts be the best expositors 
 of words, and if the apostles were the best judges of their 
 eommission, they had no such thing. I defy the whole 
 
CONFESSION AND APOSTASY. 291 
 
 world to bring any solid proof, that any apostle, or any of 
 their disciples, ever assumed or exercised any authority 
 whatever to forgive, on any account, any man's sins com- 
 mitted against God, farther than, 1st. To preach the gospel 
 to them, and thus show them how themselves might obtain 
 forgiveness from God. Hear our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 his apostles, Peter and Paul, and be convinced : " It be- 
 hoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third 
 day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be 
 preached in his name among all nations." Luke xxiv. 
 47, 48. " And he commanded us," saith Peter, " to preach 
 unto the people — that through his name, whosoever be- 
 lieveth in him shall receive remission of sins." " Be it 
 known unto you," saith St. Paul, "that through this man 
 (Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." 
 Acts x. 42, 43 ; xiii. 38. This is the only way to obtain 
 real pardon. 
 
 2d. To exclude evildoers from their society, or to admit 
 them again when they deemed them penitent, by forgiving, 
 not their sins against God, but the censure of expulsion. 
 See 1 Cor. v. 1 — 5, and 2 Cor. ii. 7. Here the incestuous 
 man is excluded ; and becoming penitent after, the apostle 
 advises the society or church of the Corinthians " to for- 
 give him;" i. e., to admit him again, and comfort him, 
 saying, " he also for their sakes forgave him, (this censure,) 
 as did they." Even the Rhemish Testament (in loco) ac- 
 knowledges this, saying — " It was the debt of temporal 
 punishment" only, or censure laid on the man, " which the 
 apostle and the church had forgiven him ;" or, 3d, " That 
 men should forgive each other personal offences, one 
 against another." Luke xvii. 3. Matt. vi. 14 ; xviii. 15. 
 
 Thus, Jeremiah was commissioned " to pull down and 
 destroy, to build and to plant nations and kingdoms," 
 But in what sense ? Not actually, surely ; no, by no means, 
 but declaratively only, — to preach to them, that God would 
 indeed thus deal with them, according as they obeyed or 
 disobeyed his counsel delivered by his servant. Jer. i. 10; 
 xvii. 7 — 9. And that this explanation is correct, is very 
 manifest, by turning to the passage, and also from one of 
 the old canons of the church of Rome herself: " When any 
 man," saith the canon, " goeth out from the truth, from the 
 fear of God, from faith, from charity, he goeth out from the 
 
292 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 camp of the church, although he be not cast cut by the 
 voice of the bishop. As, on the contrary side, some be cast 
 out by no right judgment ; but if they went not out before, 
 (by doing evil as above,) they are nothing hurt. For, 
 sometimes, he that is cast out is within ; and he that seem- 
 eth to be within is without." " Nam vita non sententia, 
 ab ecclesia aliquem ejicit vel ad earn recipit." "For it is 
 the man's life, and not the bishop's sentence, (it is his own 
 obedience to God, or his disobedience,) that, hurts or serves 
 any man." Lex can. Decret. Causa. 24, ques. 3, cap. 
 cum aliquis, &c. Here we have proof irresistible, as well 
 from the Scripture as from the quondam church of Rome 
 herself, that it is not the bishop's voice nor decision for or 
 against any man, or his curse or his blessing, that can in- 
 jure or in anywise serve him. 
 
 Hence, human absolution for sins against God, with its 
 concomitants, auricular confession and penance, are but 
 mere human inventions — fables — dangerous delusions. The 
 absolution in the Protestant prayer-book, in the office for 
 the sick, joined to that in the morning service, "God par- 
 doneth and absolveth all who truly repent, and unfeignedly 
 believe his holy gospel," is only a forgiving of sins or 
 scandals against the church, and not those against God, 
 which, it is declared in the latter absolution, himself alone 
 can forgive. Thus Bishop Burnet, on the 25th of the 39 
 articles, explains it, and I think fairly too. Saith he, " "We 
 do also forgive the scandals committed against the church ; 
 and that such as we think die in a state of repentance (by 
 faith in Christ) may die in the full peace of the church, we 
 join both absolutions in one in the last office ; likewise 
 praying to our Saviour that he would forgive them, and 
 then we, as the officers of the church, do forgive all the 
 offences and scandals committed by them against the whole 
 body." This is their meaning, and every church has a 
 right to explain its own meaning. Therefore the way of 
 the Scripture of truth is the alone sure way of obtaining this 
 invaluable blessing. All who try it will so find it. 
 
 12. "Priestly confessions and absolutions;" as to 
 these, it is God only who knows what unnumbered mis- 
 chiefs they have entailed on mankind ! What secrets of 
 men, females, families, nay, of kings and nations, have been 
 obtained in this way, and often for purposes most sinister ! 
 
CONFESSION AND APOSTASY. 293 
 
 The dangers and evils attendant on secret or auricular con- 
 fessions, are abundantly set forth and exposed by Necta- 
 rius and St. John Chrysostom, in whose days this usage 
 was first introduced into the Christian church. A certain 
 lady, having been seduced by her confessor, stung with 
 remorse, owned the fact, and openly confessed her adultery ! 
 This scandal so roused Nectarius, then Bishop of Constan- 
 tinople, that he decreed, " There must be no more of these 
 private confessions;"' and St. Chrysostom, who succeeded 
 him, ratified it; and in no less than thirteen places in his 
 works, (as Bishop Burnet on article 25 testifies,) condemns 
 the practice. " Hast thou sinned ?" saith he, " thou need- 
 est no witness ; confess thy sins to God, and he will for- 
 give thee."* And our Lord says, " Enter into thy closet, 
 and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
 which is in secret, to forgive thy trespasses." Matt. vi. 
 6 — 12. So did the Holy Ghost, by David, teach, "I will 
 confess my sins to the Lord," &c. Psalm xxxii. 5. How 
 wicked then were those who, opposing themselves to God, 
 made a law that confession must be made to men ! 
 
 Will not common sense itself teach the vast indelicacy 
 and impropriety of such intimate connexions as this spe- 
 cies of confession to men necessarily occasions, and its 
 danger, not only to the people, but to the clergy also ? It 
 is dangerous to women, to the young most especially, who, 
 on their knees, at the feet of perhaps some young man of 
 unbridled passions, must whisper to him, and, " on pain of 
 mortal sin and damnation,' 1 unfold to him in secret all 
 the sinful practices and desires, of even an indelicate or 
 immodest nature, with all their circumstances ; into which, 
 temptation, in an unguarded hour, perhaps, might have in- 
 volved them. It also must be dangerous to the clergy them- 
 selves, to deprive them of chastity, humility, and a good 
 conscience. Do not many, by sad experience, feel the 
 
 * Examinatio, &c. "Let examination of thine offences be made in 
 thought, lest this judgment be without a witness , let God only see thee 
 making thy confession ; God, who casteth not thy sins in thy face, but 
 looseth them, &c. Horn, de penit. et confess. Again, I say not, that 
 thou shouldst accuse thyself before man. But I say, obey the prophet, 
 saying, ' Reveal thy way to the Lord ;' confess thy sins, therefore, before 
 God." Chrys. Ep. ad Heb. hom. 31 ; Daille, de Confes. 1. 4, c. 25 ; Socr. 
 Hist. 1. 5, c. 19. 
 
 25* 
 
294 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 force of these observations ? So sensible was the great and 
 pious John Wickliffe, a priest himself, of the numerous 
 evils flowing from it, both to clergy and people, that he 
 ceased not to inveigh against it continually. 
 
 From the whole now before us, most clear is it that 
 Christ or his apostles never taught this sort of confession 
 and absolution, &c, and therefore that they who teach it, 
 or consent to it, do in effect plainly accuse Christ as guilty 
 of neglect, and insult him to his face, as an imperfect or 
 false teacher ! which, if the angels of heaven dare do, they 
 would be cast down to hell. And again, as these holy 
 bishops did in the fifth century forbid and reprobate all such 
 private confessions, &c, and that of course, in their days, 
 it was no sacrament, and must therefore be now a false 
 doctrine, opposed to Christ and his gospel, and so must 
 necessarily prove a curse to such as follow it, should not all 
 who regard salvation, and would not willingly insult their 
 Saviour, resolutely, and in the fear of God, avoid it for- 
 ever? 
 
 But as no doctrine, device, or stratagem whatever is so 
 effectual an instrument in the hands of the pope and his 
 clergy to serve their purposes, fill their coffers, and bring 
 all the people so fully under their authority, lash, and 
 power as doth this confession doctrine, so is it the last 
 thing they will part with; never will they give it up, if pos- 
 sible ! And that the council of Trent had these views of its 
 vast utility in this way, is clear from the care they took in 
 framing the decrees that go to establish it, as follows : 
 
 " If any one shall deny that sacramental confession was 
 instituted or is by divine right necessary to salvation, or 
 shall say that the mode of secretly confessing to a priest 
 only is not according to Christ's institution and command, 
 and that it is a human invention, let him be accursed."* 
 
 " If any shall say that in the sacrament of penance for 
 the remission of sins, it is not of divine right necessary to 
 confess all and each of such mortal sins which by due and 
 diligent self-examination can be remembered, even secret 
 sins, and those too that are against the two last command- 
 
 * Si quis negaverit, confessionem sacramentalem vel institutam, vel 
 ad salutem necessarium esse jure divino, aut dixerit modum secrete con- 
 fitendi soli sacerdoti alienum esse ab institutione et mandato Christi et 
 inventum esse hamanum, anathema sit. Con Trid. sess. 14, can. 6. 
 
CONFESSION AND APOSTASY. 295 
 
 ments of the decalogue, together with their circumstances, 
 that might alter the character of the sin ; or that shall say that 
 they who study to confess all their sins wish to leave no- 
 thing to God's mercy to pardon ; or lastly, that it is unfit 
 to confess venial sins, let him be accursed."* 
 
 I call upon all the clergy living to produce Christ's insti- 
 tution or command for these dogmas; but they never have 
 been able to do this, nor can they do it now ; hence they 
 are but daring papal inventions, and absolute impositions. 
 
 By those canons may every one of the least penetration 
 see the part the clergy are authorized to act with the peni- 
 tents at the confessional, and the questions which he may 
 put, and must be answered on pain of incurring mortal sin: 
 questions relative even to secret sins, and to the most cor- 
 rupt actions and desires of the heart, too, not fit to be even 
 named ! And when those given for self-examination as pre- 
 paratory to penance, openly stated in some of their prayer- 
 books, such as the "Garden of the Soul," &c, at which no 
 modest eye can even glance without a blush, are considered, 
 what description of interrogatories may not be anticipated at 
 the privacy of the confessional, especially when captivating 
 females are the penitents, and that the confessor, celibate 
 as he is, may happen to be of depraved propensities ? The 
 consciences of many can tell that these hints are not un- 
 founded, and that day of days shall yet develope and declare 
 it. What female of intellect who discovers this yoke is of 
 human finesse, and is therefore an abomination to Christ, 
 will ever after on any account put herself in the way of such 
 profanation and danger ? or what man of sensibility, who 
 regards himself and the purity of his females, can ever con- 
 sent that his wife or daughter should run such risks, and 
 also incur the curse of Heaven by using a doctrine and a 
 practice Christ never taught, and that consequently insults 
 him ? 
 
 * Si quis dixerit, in Sacramento penitentise ad remissionem peccato- 
 rum necessarium non esse jure divino, confiteri omnia et singula peccata 
 mortalia, quorum memoria cum debita et diligenti prcemeditatione hebea- 
 tur, etiam occulta, et quae sint contra duo ultima decalogi prsecepta, et 
 circumstantias quae peccati speciem mutant — aut dixerit eos qui omnia 
 peccata confiteri student, nihil relinquere velle divinee misericordiaB ig- 
 noscendum : aut demum non licere confiteri peccata venaiia, anathema 
 Bit. Con. Trid. sess. 14, can. 7. 
 
296 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 We shall now hear Drs. Challoner and Milner on this 
 subject: 
 
 "As to penance," says Challoner, p. 94, " it consists of 
 contrition, confession, satisfaction, and the priest's absolu- 
 tion. Confession is a full and sincere accusation made to 
 a priest of all mortal sins a person can remember: and satis- 
 faction is a faithful performance of the penance enjoined by 
 the priest — p. 163 ; which penance is enjoined as an ex- 
 change which God makes of the temporal punishments 
 which we have deserved by sin into these small penitential 
 works. P. 104, Yet it is to be feared that the penance en- 
 joined is seldom sufficient to take off all the punishment 
 due to God's justice on account of our sins." (No, purga- 
 tory must finish!) P. 105, "The penitent after confession 
 must say, ' I beg pardon of God, and penance and absolu- 
 tion from you, my ghostly father!' and the priest then gives 
 the absolution, and adds, ' May the passion of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the merits of the blessed virgin Mary and of 
 all the saints, and whatsoever good thou shalt do, or what- 
 soever evil thou shalt suffer, be to thee unto the remission 
 of thy sins, the increase of grace,' " &c. P. 102, 103, 
 " If the priest to whom confession is made has not the ne- 
 cessary faculties, and approbation, and true intention 
 also, the penance is null ! ! ! !" 
 
 Than this what more impious doctrine can be conceived? 
 Besides, fraud, deliberate fraud is stamped on every line of 
 it, enhancing, as it evidently doth, the priest's power and 
 pelf together, and the misery of his dupes. So, then, 
 though the priest is sworn that, according to the gospel, 
 " the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin," (1 John i. 
 7,) and " there is no other name under heaven given to save 
 men but that of Christ," (Acts iv. 12,) it seems he does not 
 believe his oath, for he must now have other names, merits, 
 penances, works, &c, to do it, and "even all this, he fears, 
 is not sufficient!" other things, more confessions, penances, 
 indulgences, extreme unction, with purgatory, offerings and 
 masses to rescue from it, must be added ! But, lo ! after 
 all the penances done, and absolutions had, and cash paid, 
 all may be "null and useless to the penitent." So this 
 high authority writes ! For if the confessor have not three 
 tilings aoorobation, faculties, and intention, let the unfor- 
 
CONFESSION AND APOSTASY. 297 
 
 tunate penitent do his part ever so exactly and sincerely, it 
 is still null ! yes, null, useless ! ! ! 
 
 But still more, though it may affright him, I must tell. 
 [ aver it, no priest ever had or can have these three requi- 
 sites ! No, for no apostle ever had these qualities ! For, 
 first, as no proper sacrifice was before Christ's death, nor 
 was any therefore in his eucharist, nor of course in any 
 other forever; and then, as no apostle ever offered up any 
 proper sacrifice, so was no apostle ever a sacrificing priest 
 or confessor ! And as it is said, " No man has power to 
 forgive sins but such a true priest," it follows, then, as no 
 apostle was ever such a priest, no apostle ever confessed any 
 persons, or forgave any sins committed against God ! This 
 has been just proved by other arguments also. Now, as no 
 pope or priest could believe himself to have more virtue or 
 more power than the apostles had, so could no informed 
 pope or priest that ever lived either believe himself to be a 
 real priest or divinely appointed confessor ! or could have 
 intention to do what no apostle ever did, namely, to forgive 
 sins ! And as faculties such as true ordination, &c, can- 
 not be derived but from a bishop having this required inten- 
 tion and proper priesthood himself, things utterly impossi- 
 ble, so is it clear that no pope, prelate, or priest ever had 
 or can have such faculties ; and if not, certainly not, see- 
 ing, then, that the whole is all deception, what becomes of 
 these penitents and popes, prelates and priests together ? 
 
 To lay on the topstone ; we shall now show that the 
 doctors and their pope are absolutely obliged to own their 
 pardons false ; yes, assuredly false. A pardon that differs 
 from a true pardon is false. Christ's pardon is ever the 
 same ; it took the penitent thief to paradise, the third heaven, 
 and therefore takes all who obtain it to the same, at death. 
 Now, masses are never intended for souls in heaven, but 
 "for those detained in purgatory." But masses being 
 offered for the pope when he dies, and for all Romanists, 
 he and they must have gone to purgatory, not heaven. Now 
 they got papal absolution or pardon duly, and whereas they 
 went not to heaven, but purgatory; as the one brought to 
 heaven and the other to purgatory, these pardons differing 
 from one another, Christ's pardon being true, the other 
 must be false. It follows, then, that those doctors, by every 
 mass they say for their pope or people, do, as with trumpe* 
 
2.9S THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 voice, declare, they are in purgatory, and that the pardons 
 or absolutions they had given them were absolutely falla- 
 cious ! ! ! Resist this who can. 
 
 Again, since false pardons proclaim those who give them 
 false prophets $ and being, therefore, opposers of the gospel 
 and of Christ, are antichrists ; most conclusive then is it, 
 that the assumption of those doctors and popes of having 
 power to dispense such absolutions, &c, necessarily con- 
 stitutes them false prophets and antichrists, and their chief 
 the antichrist and false prophet. And since he who needs 
 most masses to rescue him from purgatory, must have been 
 the greatest sinner, and as it is a fact, that no man leaves 
 this world, for whom so many masses are offered, as the 
 pope ; then, this his own doctrine makes the pope to be the 
 greatest sinner that ever left the world, and that his clergy 
 in saying all those masses judge this of him. But the 
 greatest sinner must be the man of sin; hence his own doc- 
 trine concludes the pope the man of sin. Now, as the pre- 
 mises and these conclusions are inseparable, and the minor 
 cannot be disputed, they must then abandon their doctrines, 
 or be content to bear these awful designations they affix to 
 them. 
 
 We close with Dr. Milner. In "End of Controversy," 
 letter 41, he has eleven pages on it, but not one line to pur- 
 pose. Like the others, he pompously refers to John xx. 
 22, &c, for authority to absolve from sin : and he has texts 
 about confessing, yet none for private or sacramental con- 
 fession ; and he quotes fathers, to be sure, but vainly ; as 
 what they mention is nothing of that sort, but certain scan- 
 dals, or apostasy, public or secret, and the like ; and be- 
 sides that, the doctor cannot be believed in any quotation 
 of his, being so often detected ; he cannot at all be credited 
 in opposition to Nectarius, Chrysostom, and the gospel. 
 He brings in the Protestant prayer-book as a party ; but 
 this has been explained. His only plausible argument is, 
 " How could it be possible that emperors, kings, queens, 
 nobles &c, or the various orders of the clergy, popes, 
 bishops, priests, &c, with monks and all the people in the 
 Christian world, should be induced, tamely, and at once, to 
 submit to so painful a sacrament, and so repugnant to the 
 pride and every feeling of the heart as this is, if Christians 
 
DR. MILNER CONFUTED. 299 
 
 had not previously believed that this rite is of divine insti- 
 tution, and even necessary for the pardon of sin?" 
 
 How weak and contrary to matter of fact is this sophism ! 
 How was it, when the adoration of the wafer and cup was 
 never known till the year 1216, and that divine adoration 
 given to any but God is idolatry and perdition, that all the 
 papal world have fallen into it? False adoration incurs 
 destruction ; to adore what no apostle adored is false adora- 
 tion ; but they never adored the eucharist, therefore to adore 
 it is false adoration; and incurs perdition. Now, all the 
 Roman Catholic world, emperors, kings, nobles, and pea- 
 santry, with their females ; also all popes, prelates, priests, 
 monks, and nuns, supremely adore the eucharistic wafer 
 and cup, therefore they all incur the guilt of false adoration, 
 and idolatry, to their eternal ruin. And the clergy are 
 sworn, to cause them thus to worship all their days ! If 
 the clergy therefore are not on oath, to make them false 
 worshippers and idolaters still, and, of course, to plunge 
 themselves and them into the pit of destruction, let them 
 deny, if they are able. Farther, how was it that the whole 
 world wondered after the beast and his image ? &c. Rev. 
 xiii. xiv. xviii., &c. Hence, facts prove that in what he 
 says there is no truth. He extols the joys of confession, 
 &c, truly he does, but it is all priestcraft, vanity. All his 
 authorities are fallacious ! Truth is mighty and will prevail. 
 
 13. Relics. — What virtues have been pretended to be 
 in "holy water, holy salt, holy clay, holy bones, holy 
 grains, holy Agnus Dei's, holy beads, holy scapulars, &c, 
 &c. Now I ask, has Christ or his apostles ever commanded 
 any of these things to be used ? If not, are they not vile 
 deceptions, fables, and characters of the apostasy ? 
 
 14. Idols. — " To have pictures, or images of gold, sil- 
 ver, stone, or wood, of Christ, the virgin Mary, and the 
 saints in the churches, bow down before them, and duly 
 venerate and worship them, that by these they might be 
 helped to worship God," is commanded by the council of 
 Trent, sess. 25, de invocat. et venerat. I ask, Was this 
 ever practised by Christ or his apostles ? Only read Rev. 
 ix. 20, 21, &c, where it is said, that to worship such 
 things, or any work of man's hands, is expressly "to wo?'- 
 ship the devil" because lie is the father of all such worship 
 This we shall return to again 
 
300 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 In fine ; Although, according to the doctrine of inten- 
 tion, ye can never know that you are truly ordained or are 
 Christians at all, or that the bread and cup are ever transub- 
 stantiated, yet ye are on your solemn oath, " to worship, 
 with the highest possible divine worship, the eucharistic 
 bread and cup — the very work of your own hands." Has 
 Christ or his apostles commanded or practised this? Im- 
 possible ! For, then, Christ born of a woman would be 
 found worshipping a Christ made of bread, and also a Christ 
 made of wine, after; whole Christ being in each, and thus 
 be an idolater! Is not this another idolatrous and destruc 
 tive doctrine ? Again, if Christ's death on the cross was 
 the only true sacrifice for sin ; then, that in his sacrament 
 which was before his death there could be any true sacrifice 
 was impossible : then transubstantiation was impossible 
 also: but these have been already discussed, and I shall fol- 
 low them no farther. This is sufficient to prove this point, 
 namely, that the church of Rome is found full of false doc- 
 trines, fables, and idolatries, being marks of the apostasy 
 
 Now, if Christ or his apostles taught none of these many 
 doctrines ; how, then, can they be divine truths ! If not, 
 are they not false doctrines — deceptions ? And if it cannot 
 be denied that all papal doctors are sworn to adhere to them, 
 and teach them, and practise them to the day of their death, 
 is it not then most evident, they are sworn on the gospels, 
 to depart, (to a vast extent,) from the true faith, the gospel 
 of Christ, and turn to fables ? to teach lies in hypocrisy, 
 by pretending they are his doctrines ? And thus, do they 
 plainly fulfil the predictions of Christ and his apostles on 
 this point, as already noticed. Let candour examine these 
 facts, and decide accordingly. Now, were there no more 
 to come forward, is not even this sufficient to sound the 
 alarm in the ears of any thinking man, to flee for his life 
 from a church, in which this long-predicted apostasy has 
 been evidently hatched, and is now found ? 
 
 2d Mark. Time of the rise of the Apostate Chief- 
 tain. Saith St. Paul, "And now you know what with- 
 holdeth that he, the man of sin, the son of perdition, who 
 opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God, or 
 that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, 
 showing himself as if he were God, may be revealed in his 
 time; for the mystery of iniquity already worketh, only 
 
RISE OF THE APOSTATE CHIEFTAIN. 301 
 
 that he who now holdeth, doth hold, until he be taken out 
 of the way; and then that wicked one shall be revealedj 
 whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth, 
 and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming ; him, 
 whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all 
 power, and signs, and lying wonders ; and in all seduction 
 of iniquity in them that perish." Rhemish, 2 Thess. ii. 
 6—10. 
 
 We have here the apostolic account of the predicted apos- 
 tate. 1st. He is termed " the man of sin, the son of perdi- 
 tion," for his extreme wickedness ; 2d. As seated in "the 
 temple of God," that is, as chief ecclesiastic ; 3d. As being 
 "exalted above God," &c, that is, venerated above God, 
 and every authority, civil and religious, by the world who 
 wonder after him ; 4th. As " opposing himself to God," he 
 will oppose his gospel and authority, and set up his own ; 
 5th. As a " mystery of iniquity," he will work in a saianic, 
 mysterious way; 6th. As "acting by lying wonders," he 
 will thus deceive men, who must perish for following such, 
 rather than the truth of Christ's gospel; 7th. As "revealed 
 after the extinction of what held him back," he was to 
 appear after the dissolution of the Roman empire ; 8th. As 
 " destroyed by Christ," that is, he must by divine power 
 perish in due time forever. 
 
 The prophecy fixes the appearing of this wicked one, 
 after the removal of the then existing pagan Roman empire ; 
 and Dr. Walmsley, who also is called "Pastorini" whose 
 book is well known in this- kingdom, thus observes : "All 
 Christian antiquity and the subsequent ages, have under- 
 stood by this * man of sin, the son of perdition,' that su- 
 perlatively wicked man, antichrist, who will exercise such 
 persecutions against the Christians as will exceed in seve- 
 rity and cruelty the persecutions of all past ages. And what 
 is very alarming, he and his attendant, the false prophet, 
 will have power of showing great signs and wonders, 
 insomuch as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. And 
 as to his time of coming, the generality of the holy fathers 
 have explained this from the apostle — ' Now you know what 
 withholdeth that the man of sin, or antichrist, be revealed 
 in his time, only that he who now holdeth doth hold, until 
 he be taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked one 
 be revealed' — to mean the destruction of the Roman em 
 
 26 • 
 
302 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 pire, which was to take place before antichrist should be 
 revealed. According to the sense here expressed, the Ro- 
 man empire which held, or was, when St. John wrote, was 
 therefore the ' thing that withheld and was to be taken out 
 of the way,' before antichrist should appear. St. Chrysos- 
 tom (Horn. 4, on 2 Thess.) saith, 'The apostle speaks ob- 
 scurely for fear of irritating the Romans, only that he who 
 now holdeth, doth hold, until he be taken out of the way ; 
 that is, when the Roman empire shall be removed from the 
 face of the earth, then antichrist will come.' St. Jerom 
 writes, (Ep. 15, ad Alg.) 'Only that the Roman empire, 
 which holds now all nations under its power, be taken 
 away, and then antichrist will come.' Says Tertullian, (de 
 Resur. Car. c. 24,) " Who holds, but the Roman empire? 
 the division of which into ten kingdoms will bring on anti- 
 christ, and then, according to the apostle, the wicked one 
 shall be revealed.' St. Cyril saith, (Cat. 15,) 'Antichrist 
 will appear when the Roman empire is come to its period.' 
 The same say St. Augustine, Lactantius, and others,* and 
 that he will seize on the Roman dominions. "t 
 
 I shall just add, that Tertullian, in his Apology, (p. 21,) 
 tells the Roman emperor thus, " We, Christians, knowing 
 that the dreadful power which hangs over the whole world, 
 and which threatens the most horrible evils, is retarded by 
 the continuance of the Roman empire, are therefore, that it 
 may be deferred, under a particular necessity of praying 
 for the emperors, and the continued state of the Roman em- 
 pire." And Dr. Walmsley farther informs us, very truly, 
 " that the western Roman empire was, with the death of 
 Augustulus, finally dismembered by Odoacer, in the year 
 476 ; and that the eastern part was completely ruined by 
 Totila, king of the Goths, in 546. "i 
 
 Seeing then, according to those many testimonies, which 
 Pastorini himself adduces so truly, agreeing as they so ex- 
 actly do with the prophecies, that this wicked man was to 
 appear as soon as room could be made for him by the 
 removal of the sole obstruction, the Roman empire ; and 
 
 * The other fathers are, Justin Martyr, Origen, Ambrose, Hilary, &c. 
 All these, too, affirmed this monster of iniquity would rise in the Koman 
 empire. 
 
 f Pastorini's History of the Christian Church, p. 240 — 247. 
 
 * Ibid. p. 110—233. 
 
RISE OP THE APOSTATE CHIEFTAIN. 303 
 
 since that was dismembered in the west, in the fifth, and 
 completely demolished in the east, in the sixth century, as 
 Dr. Walmsley well states ; it must of course follow, that in 
 the seventh century at farthest, he should make his appear- 
 ance : and so we find it. See, on Infallibility, p. 103, the 
 note, in this book. 
 
 We learn from Cardinal Baronius, that an ecclesiastic of 
 eminence, Boniface III., Bishop of Rome, was, in the very 
 beginning of the seventh century, an. 606, proclaimed uni- 
 versal head, or sole general of all Christian churches on 
 earth ; which title each Bishop of Rome has held fast, with 
 all possible tenacity and unabating zeal and diligence to this 
 day. That this ecclesiastical ruler is the only one that has 
 occupied Rome, and in succession retained this occupation 
 of it, and also hath obtained in his spiritual character, a 
 kingdom (imperium in imperio) or dominion in the sur- 
 rounding nations, that is, in the former empire now divided 
 into those nations, is a fact too well known to be disputed. 
 And as the sixth beast, that which this ruler succeeded 
 was an idolatrous empire, with a succession of emperors 
 and not an individual person ; so must this his successor 
 to fulfil the prophecy, be a beast or idolatrous empire also, 
 with a long succession of rulers, and not one individual per- 
 son only. And so shall we, in prosecuting the subject, 
 exactly find it. But Pastorini, I must remark, after so ac- 
 curately showing by many ancient authorities and Scripture, 
 that this most wicked chieftain was to be revealed upon the 
 fall of the Roman empire ; yet strangely and abruptly con- 
 tradicts himself and all his foregoing authorities, and says, 
 " he will not appear till near the end of the world, and then 
 only for three years and a half! ! !" Why? because he saw 
 the point it would make against his church. 
 
 St. John's prophecy and Daniel's corroborate St. Paul's, 
 with what we have seen from the fathers, &c. Saith St. 
 John, " I saw a beast rise out of the sea, having seven 
 heads and ten horns, and upon his heads the names of blas- 
 phemy ; and I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to 
 death, and his deadly wound was healed," &c. Rev. xiii. 
 An angel explains thus, " There are seven kings, five are 
 fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come, and when 
 he cometh he must continue for a short space ; and the beast 
 that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of ths 
 
304 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 seven, and goeth into perdition." Rev. xvii. 10, 11. This 
 beast with seven heads and ten horns, which John saw, is 
 evidently Daniel's fourth beast, which was so dreadful and 
 terrible, (vii. 19,) and which all, both Romanists and Pro- 
 testants, admit to be the Roman empire, whose metropolis, 
 Rome, should have seven heads or kings, jSaorasij, that is, 
 would experience seven several forms of idolatrous govern- 
 ment. Livy and Tacitus tell us of six of these — kings, 
 consuls, dictators, decemviri, military tribunes, and empe- 
 rors or Caesars, which governed Rome. Of these, five were 
 fallen or past, and one was, when St. John wrote, namely, 
 the Caesars. The other, a Caesar also, who, it appears, was 
 a seventh, yet not one of the seven heads or idolatrous go- 
 vernments, but of a contrary nature, i. e. Christian, and 
 that by which the idolatry and persecution of the sixth head 
 — the former imperial heathen government, under a Caesar, 
 was to receive its deadly wound — was not then come ; and 
 was to continue but a comparatively short space. 
 
 But, who is he, but the Caesar or emperor, Constantine 
 the Great, that "man-child who was caught up to the throne 
 of God" — that is, to the imperial throne on which God set 
 him, and that, being converted to Christianity, published, in 
 the year 313, his edict against paganism, and thus over- 
 turned that whole idolatrous system, civil and religious, cast- 
 ing out all the pagan priesthood and magistrates at once, 
 and putting Christians into their places. Thus was the pa- 
 gan idolatry, which is so hateful to God, wounded as it were 
 to death, by the gospel — the sword of the Spirit, and by Con- 
 stantine; and a Christian government, a new thing, was set 
 up in the great city and in the empire. This emperor, in 
 his letter to Eusebius, thus writes: Nwi 8s tr^, &c. "Li- 
 berty being now restored, and that dragon being by the pro- 
 vidence of God and my ministry removed from the adminis- 
 tration of public affairs, I esteem the great power of God to 
 be made manifest to all." 
 
 The deadly wound, then, was thus given to idolatry, by 
 the Christian government under Constantine and his sons; 
 yet the Christian head or government thus set up continued 
 but a short space in peace and purity ; for the bitter Arian 
 heresy, soon after the death of Constantine, sprung up, and 
 so prevailed all over the empire, that Liberius himself, the 
 then Bishop of Rome, became an Arian: and Athanasius, 
 
THE HISE OP THE APOSTATE CHIEFTAIN. 305 
 
 with a few more bishops who remained orthodox, were 
 driven into exile, so that, as saith St. Jerome, " the whole 
 world wondered to find itself Arian." But although Rome 
 was twice taken and sacked, by the barbarians under Gen- 
 seric and Alaric — first in 410, and again in 445; and that 
 the Roman empire was, in 476, in the reign of Momylus, 
 the last Caesar or emperor, finally dismembered, and that 
 Rome and its dependencies were after that in various hands, 
 till the seventh century, (when about 608, Pope Boniface, 
 by means of Phocas, became universal head of all churches ; 
 and in this dignity, and also in the regal power of Rome, 
 was the Pope of Rome, afterwards confirmed by Lewis the 
 Pious. The exarchate of Ravenna was shortly after given 
 by Pepin, King of France, to Pope Stephen II. ; and the 
 kingdom of the Lombards also, being subdued by Charle- 
 magne, was ceded to St. Peter's successor; which three 
 states or kingdoms, according to Dan. vii. 8, 24, 25, con- 
 stitute the pope's dominions, and therefore does he, as a 
 secular prince, wear the triple crown.) I say, though Rome 
 was variously tossed, now in the hands of barbarians, and 
 now in the hands of A.rians, &c, yet, in all these changes 
 was not the deadly wound of idolatry — of the sixth head 
 healed, till the reign of the eighth or last head, which also 
 is the seventh, and is the beast. And which, because it 
 again revived those pagan evils with a greater fury than ever, 
 is said to have ascended out of the bottomless pit ; and by 
 setting up, under a new name, the old idolatry and persecu- 
 tion, thus healed the deadly wound. 
 
 This head, though called the eighth, because it in order 
 succeeded the seventh, yet is not an eighth head of the great 
 beast ; that beast having only seven heads ; but it is one of 
 the seven idolatrous kings or heads. And the numerically 
 seventh, not being idolatrous but Christian, is not counted 
 among the seven ; but the eighth is that seventh, or is of the 
 seven, and goeth into perdition, never to be succeeded more 
 by idolatry. So, "the beast, or government, that was" 
 [idolatrous under the heathen emperors) " and is not," (so, 
 under Constantine,) " and yet is," risen up again, and being 
 from the bottomless pit, (or inspired by Satan,) is more 
 dreadfully idolatrous and persecuting than even the sixth 
 head was; "even he (saith the angel) is the eighth" and last, 
 " and is of the seven." He is of the seven, 1st, as being one 
 26* 
 
306 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 of the seven predicted heads of the great Roman beast or ido- 
 latrous Roman empire under all its forms of government ; and, 
 2d, as partaking of the nature of the seven that went before 
 him, one only of which was Christian; that is, he is both 
 lamb and dragon ; a prophet, but the false prophet ; and the 
 man of sin, a bloody Nero, or antichrist; partly a professed 
 Christian, but chiefly, and in a very high sense, an idola- 
 trous persecutor. Now, that this mixed form has been, and 
 is still the very form and constitution of the papal monarchy, 
 religion, and practice, is evident. Do they not, besides 
 many other idolatries, address six times, nay, ten times more 
 prayers to the virgin Mary, and to saints so called, to angels, 
 images, &c, (all which are idolatry,) than to Almighty God ? 
 And that the persecutions have been unparalleled, cannot 
 be denied. 
 
 3d mark. The place of the man of sin's abode. 
 St. Paul saith, " He sitteth in the temple of God." St. John, 
 (Rev. xvii.,) "I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured 
 beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and 
 ten horns, and the woman was clothed round about, with 
 purple and scarlet, and gilt with gold, and precious stones, 
 and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abo- 
 minations and filthiness of her fornications. And on her 
 forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON 
 THE GREAT, the mother of harlots, or of the for- 
 nications AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I Saw 
 
 the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the 
 blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her I won- 
 dered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, 
 why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the 
 woman, and of the beast which carrieth her, which hath the 
 seven heads and ten horns. The beast which thou sawest, 
 was, and is not, and shall come up out of the bottomless pit, 
 am 1 go into destruction. The seven heads are seven moun- 
 tains upon which the woman sitteth. And they are, or there 
 aie, seven kings, Kcu. j3acrafts £7tVa ekj&. And the woman 
 which thou sawest, is that great city, which hath king- 
 dom over the kings of the earth." 
 
 What this Babylon, or great city is, in which the succes- 
 sor of the sixth head dwells, must evidently be that where 
 that sixth dwelt; but that was Rome; therefore, Rome is 
 the same great city in which the eighth beast or seventh 
 
THE PLACE OF THE MAN OE SIn's ABODE. 307 
 
 nead dwells. Hence Rome is this Babylon : and so say 
 the ancient fathers also. 
 
 Victorinus saith, "The seven heads are seven hills upon 
 which the woman, that is, the city of Rome, doth sit."* 
 And St. Jerome, ep. 17, " Read the apocalypse of John, 
 and consider what is there said of the woman clothed in 
 purple, and the blasphemy written on her forehead, the 
 seven hills, the many waters, and the departure from Baby- 
 lon." Ambrosins Anbertus writes, "The angel admonished 
 us to know, that the seven heads are seven hills, and seven 
 kings, that he might show, that, unto the similitude of those 
 kings, he had brought Rome, which sitting aloft upon seven 
 hills, sometimes governed the monarchy of the whole 
 world."! Ribera saith, "Babylon, the mother of fornica- 
 tions, is indeed Rome." — "Of Rome it must be understood 
 not only such as she was of old under the heathen emperors, 
 but also such as she shall be at the end of the world. "J 
 And Viegas has it, " It is concluded that Rome at the end 
 of the world, after departing from the faith, shall arrive at 
 her highest power."§ " St. Augustine and St. Hierom," 
 say the Rhemish annotators, " do think, that this of anti- 
 christ in the temple, doth signify his sitting in the church 
 of Christ, and that, according to Greeks and Latins, Rome 
 itself is the second Babylon, "(| &c. 
 
 The Rhemish Testament also, in the note on Rev. xvii. 
 6, admits that Rome, but Rome pagan that was sacked by 
 the Goths, is Babylon.^" And Cardinals Baronius and Bellar- 
 
 * See Fulke in Apoc. xvii. sect. 7. 
 j- Ambros. Anb. in Apoc. xiv. 8. 
 
 * Babylon mater fornicationum Roma sit. — De Roma intelligendum 
 non solum qualis sub Ethnicis imperatoribus olim fuit, sed etiam qualis 
 in fine seculi futura est. Riber. in cap. 14. Apoc. n. 39, 42. 
 
 § Vieg. in Apoc. cap. .18, com. l,sect. 4. 
 
 I Rhem. in 2 Thess. ii. Sect. 12. August. Civ. Dei, 1. 20, c. 19. 
 Hierom. 9, 11, ad Algas. 
 
 1 Apoc. xvii. "If Babylon be understood of any particular city, it 
 must be pagan Rome, which then and for 200 years after persecuted 
 the church, and was the principal seat both of empire and idolatry." 
 Ver. 8, — " This beast which supports Babylon, may signify the power 
 of the devil ; the seven heads are seven mountains or empires, instru- 
 ments of his tyranny ; the beast itself is said to be the eighth and of the 
 seven, because they all act under the devil and by his instigation, so that 
 the power is in them, yet so as to make up, as it were, an eighth empire 
 distinct from them all." Ver. 12, "Ten kings, ten less kingdoms, 
 
308 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 mine agree, "that by Babylon, Rome is meant; and that 
 St. John calls Rome Babylon, in several places of the 
 Apocalypse, is clearly gathered from chapter xvii."* Pro- 
 pertius writes, "Rome is that lofty city seated on seven 
 hills, which ruleth over the whole world. "t Now, were it 
 true that Rome heathen, not papal, was meant, seeing that 
 it was not Christian, how could it fall from the faith? 
 Hence, it must be Rome Christian that fell from the faith, 
 and became Rome papal. Again, if it were true that the 
 overthrow mentioned in Rev. xviii. 21 — 23, had reference 
 to Rome heathen, when plundered by the Goths, in the fifth 
 century, we of course should have no Rome now, or after 
 that ; for the prediction is, " That a mighty angel took up 
 a stone, as it were a great mill-stone, and cast it into the 
 sea ; saying, With such violence as this shall Babylon that 
 great city be thrown down, and shall be found no more at 
 all. And the voice of harpers, and of musicians, and of 
 them that play on the pipe, and on the trumpet, shall no 
 more be heard at all in thee," &c. &c. But this judgment 
 has not yet occurred ; therefore it is future; and hence, not 
 Rome heathen, but Rome papal, is it which is Babylon, and 
 the seat of the eighth beast that rose out of the bottomless 
 pit ; even the dreadful man of sin. 
 
 The beast which John saw, ascended sx tr ( $ afivatov, out 
 of the bottomless pit, Rev. xvii. 8, and xiii. 1. Ex tr t s 
 
 enemies of the church of Christ, which nevertheless shall be made in- 
 struments of the justice of God for the punishment of Babylon." Ac- 
 cording to this note, then : 
 
 "The last beast, the eighth empire, and distinct from all others, as being 
 a compound empire, regal and spiritual, whose seat is Rome, is instigated 
 by the devil to persecute the church of God, in which he is assisted by 
 the ten kings, who shall, in the end, be instruments of God's vengeance 
 to destroy him and Rome." By which, he must, therefore, be some 
 regal and spiritual chief. Now, who can he be ] Not the pagan emperor 
 of Rome, which was the sixth, not the eighth, head of the beast: hence, 
 it must be his successor, the man of sin, and Rome papal. Thus the 
 very papal writers themselves are, by the force of truth, constrained, 
 however reluctantly, to designate him and Rome as the eighth and last 
 head, or beast to be destroyed, as even this note testifies. 
 
 * Certissimum est nomine Babylonis Romanam urbem significari ; 
 Baron, ad an. 45. Johannes in Apocalypsi, passim, vocat Romam 
 Babylonem, et aperte colligitur ex. cap. xvii. Bellar. de Rom. Pont. 1. 5, 
 cap. 13. 
 
 \ Roma, septem urbs alta jugis, totique prsesidit orbi. 
 
PASTORINI ON ROME AND ANTICHRIST. 309 
 
 eahatidrjs, out of the sea, appears to be the same. Ancients 
 and moderns, papal writers and Protestants, are all agreed 
 that this beast represents the Roman empire, either heathen 
 or papal. But the heathen Roman empire was established 
 long before St. John's time; hence, it could not be that; 
 but it must be in some form after its dismemberment, even 
 in that, when the dragon giving his seat, power, and au- 
 thority to the beast, his seven crowns then passed over to 
 the beast's ten horns. Hence, the ten-horned beast is suc- 
 cessor of the dragon, or idolatrous, persecuting, heathen 
 Roman empire. Now, what beast or idolatrous power hath 
 that been, which is the eighth or last, and hath since con- 
 tinued, and to abide 1260 years, except the papal only, 
 even the emperor of all emperors, the pope? And who but 
 he has set up the old idolatry under a different name ? The 
 beast therefore is the eighth, and the successor of the dragon 
 or heathen empire. And what power hath succeeded the 
 heathen emperors, in Rome, all the world knows, even he 
 who, to this day, reigns in it, and claims spiritual power in 
 the nations. 
 
 In fine, Pastorini agrees with all that I have said. Saith 
 he : " But who is this inhuman woman, this impious Jeze- 
 bel, this cruel persecutrix, that has drenched herself with so 
 much Christian blood which she has spilt, that she appears 
 drunk with it? who is she but (as tells the angel) that 
 great city that hath kingdom over the kings of the earth, 
 idalatrous, persecuting Rome, Babylon the great, the daugh- 
 ter of ancient Babylon ? This woman being the image of 
 the city of Rome, the beast on which she sits very naturally 
 represents the Roman empire. And as the woman was 
 styled the mother of fornications, &c, consequently Rome 
 was the seat and centre of idolatry ; and in like manner, 
 by the beast, is the Roman empire represented as the 
 empire of idolatry ; the colour of the beast is scarlet, an 
 emblem of his sanguinary disposition, and is full of blasphe- 
 mous names, as those of the heathen Roman gods, the 
 greatest indignity that can be offered to the majesty of the 
 Supreme Being."* 
 
 Again : " The beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, 
 and shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into de- 
 struction. The seven heads are seven mountains upon 
 * Pastorini, p. 114, 117, 5th edit. Dublin. 
 
310 THE LATTER-DAY ArOSTASY. 
 
 which the woman sitteth ; and they are seven kings ; five 
 are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come ; and when 
 he is come, he must remain a short time. And the beast 
 which was, and is not, the same also is the eighth, and is 
 of the seven, and goeth into destruction. 
 
 " Behold a very mysterious explication of a mystery," 
 saith the doctor. " The beast, or the Roman idolatrous em- 
 pire was ; that is, existed for a term of time, then is not, or 
 exists not as the empire of idolatry, but is become a Chris- 
 tian empire, Constantine the Great having expelled idolatry 
 and established Christianity in its place. But it is added,— 
 ■ The beast shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go 
 into destruction;' that is, the Roman idolatrous empire will 
 rise up again under antichrist from the bottomless pit : and 
 Satan will revive idolatry chiefly by means of that wicked 
 man, antichrist, who will become master of the ancient 
 Roman dominions. And the inhabitants of the earth shall 
 wonder, seeing the beast that was, and is not, and yet is; 
 that is, the world will be struck with amazement at seeing 
 the idolatrous Roman empire reappear, which had so long 
 been destroyed. The seven heads of the beast are seven 
 mountains on which the city or woman sitteth; but besides 
 this, the seven heads are seven kings or Roman emperors, 
 chief supporters of idolatry and persecutors of the Christian 
 religion." — p. 118, 119. What is more explicit? 
 
 Pastorini says again and again, that when this antichrist 
 shall at the end of the world come, he shall continue but 
 three and a half years ! What a story ! Facts, however, 
 and his own words confront him. Thus Rome is proved 
 the place of the man of sin's abode. 
 
 4th mark. Pride and Exaltation.— Who is the man 
 of sin and son of perdition, who sits in the temple or 
 church of God, exalting himself above all that is called God, 
 or is worshipped, and is also full of names of blasphemy, 
 &c. ? Now, let us inquire, Can any such character be 
 found in any of the Christian churches we know ? Has not 
 the Bishop of Rome, from the seventh century to this day, 
 claimed, nay assumed to be head over all bishops in the 
 world ? And are not all his bishops and doctors sworn to 
 believe and teach, " that he alone is the visible head of the 
 church," &c? 
 
 "The nope," saith Bellarmine, "is appointed by Christ 
 
THE PRIDE OF THE MAN OF SIN. 311 
 
 the pastor and head not only of all particular churches, but 
 also of the whole universal church taken together."* "And 
 whoso shall refuse obedience to the apostolic seat, is a here- 
 tic, an idolater, a pagan. "t 
 
 Hear Pope Innocent III. serm. 2. — " To me it is said in 
 the prophet, « I have appointed thee over the kingdoms and 
 nations ; to pluck up and destroy; and to build and plant.' 
 To me also it is said in the apostle: ' I will give unto thee 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 1 I am, then, placed 
 between God and man ; below God, but above man. Yes, 
 greater than man, who am to judge all men, and can be 
 judged by none." Again, serm. iii. "I am the spouse, 
 because I have a noble, rich, and lofty wife, the most holy 
 Roman church, the mother and mistress of all the faithful ; 
 and which hath brought me a precious dowry — a plenitude 
 of spirituals, and a vast extent of temporals." Again, " God 
 made two great lights in the firmament of heaven ; also, he 
 hath made two great lights in the firmament of the Catholic 
 church ; i. e. two dignities : the pontifical authority and the 
 regal power. But that which rules the day, the spiritual, is 
 the greater light; that, carnal things, is the less. So that 
 as much as the sun and moon differ, be it known, there is the 
 same difference between the Roman pontiffs and kings. "J 
 
 Mat. Paris saith of this pope: "That he was above all 
 men ambitious, proud, insatiably avaricious, and prone to 
 every wickedness. "§ 
 
 Urban VIII. in his famous bull: " God has confided to St. 
 Peter and his successors two swords, the one spiritual, the 
 other temporal ; the first to be exercised by the church itself, 
 and the other by the secular powers for the service of the 
 church, according to the will of the pope. The latter is in 
 subjection to the former, and the temporal authority depends 
 
 * Bell, de Concil. auctorit. lib. 2, c. 15. 
 
 •j- Corp. Juris Can. dist. 22, omnes. Dist. 81, P. Greg. VII. Si qui, &c. 
 
 t Mihi dicitur in propheta, constitui te super gentes et regna, ut evellas 
 et destruis, et edifices et plantes. Mihi quoque dicitur in apostolo, Tibi 
 dabo claves regni. Sum enim, inter Deum et hominem medius constitu- 
 tus, citra Deum, sed ultra hominem ; imo major homine, qui de omnibus 
 judicem, a nemine vero judicari possim. Serm. 2. Again, Fecit Deus 
 duo magna luminaria, &c. Emper. Constantinop. Extra, de major, et 
 obed. c. 6. 
 
 § Super omnes mortales ambitiosus, et superbus, pecuniseque sititor 
 insatiabilis, et ad omnia scelera proclivis fuit. Histor. Joh. Reg. Angl. 
 
312 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 indispensably on the spiritual power which judges it, while 
 God alone can judge the spiritual power. It is, then, neces- 
 sary to salvation, for every human creature to be in subjec- 
 tion to the Roman pontiff! ! !"* 
 
 Saith the council of Florence : " We define, that the holy 
 apostolical see or Roman pontiff is invested with the pri- 
 macy of the whole world; is the successor of St. Peter, 
 prince of the apostles, the true vicar of Christ, and head of 
 the whole church, and father and doctor of all Christians," 
 <fec. &c. 
 
 Cornelius Mus, Bishop of Bitanto, writes; "I candidly 
 own I would believe one pope before a thousand Augustines, 
 Jeromes, Gregories, Scotuses, <fcc, in those mysteries that 
 touch faith. "t And Durseus: "They who write or teach 
 any thing they have not received from the church, are not 
 worthy of the name of fathers. "| 
 
 Add to all this what is found in this book, p. 100, and 247 
 — 258, where it may be seen, that the pope and his clergy, 
 expressly, claim greater power than the very angels or apos- 
 tles ; for no apostle durst alter any part of the gospel, as do 
 they ; and also what Gregory the Great, a Bishop of Rome, 
 just before the rise of the eighth beast, said : " That he, who 
 in his pride calls himself universal priest, is antichrist's 
 precursor^ and his pride is clear!" 
 
 I say let any candid man view the whole, and can he in 
 conscience believe such vast arrogance in anywise consists 
 with the lowly mind of Jesus Christ, or that it is not the 
 very opposite, and therefore the very predicted mark of that 
 impious man, who "exalteth himself above all that is called 
 God?" 
 
 5th mark. Scarlet Array, — Who is this scarlet beast, 
 and who is this woman seated on seven hills, "arrayed in 
 scarlet and purple ," wearing a crown of gold, and decked 
 with precious stones, which the prophecy so distinctly points 
 out? for though these things are little in themselves, yet 
 
 * Unum sanctum, &c. in Nov. 1302. 
 
 •j- Ego ingenue fateor plus uni summo pontifici crederim, in his quaB 
 fidei mysteria tangunt, quam mille Augustinis, Hieronymis, Gregoriis, 
 Scotussis, &c. Cornel. Mus. Com. in Rom. c. 10. 
 
 + Dur. Resp. ad Whitaker. 
 
 § Quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat in elatione sua antichris- 
 tum praecurrit. Gregor. Epist. lib. 6, ep. 30 
 
MAN OF SIN DRESSED IN SCARLET, &C. 313 
 
 when connected with other matters, and thus noticed by 
 the Holy Ghost, they become important, and surely deserve 
 our attention. 
 
 Pastorini himself notices it thus, in his book: "The im- 
 perial lady, this inhuman woman, appears dressed in purple 
 and scarlet^ and gilt with gold and precious stones ; she is 
 thus decked out in riches and pride, and purple, the usual 
 robe of the Roman emperors, and scarlet, showing her stained 
 with the blood of the martyrs. Who is she but, as tells the 
 angel, idolatrous, persecuting Rome, Babylon the great ? And 
 the colour of the beast is scarlet, an emblem of his sangui- 
 nary disposition." — p. 115. 
 
 Who can deny that this applies to the pope ? Are not 
 scarlet and purple, which is not a little striking, still the 
 very colours in which he and his cardinals constantly, and 
 so gaudily appear, and that, even to their very hats, hose, 
 and riding apparel ? &c. 
 
 6th mark. Mother of Harlots. — What church is that 
 which is styled " mother of harlots and abominations ?" Is 
 there any church on earth that claims to be mother of all 
 churches, and their mistress too, insisting also on it being 
 her divine right to rule over and govern them, save Rome 
 only? The church of Christ in Jerusalem was the first, or 
 mother church, this is granted ; but in the very face of this 
 fact, the church of Rome to this day claims, by a public 
 decree of the council of Trent, and for ages before, "/o be 
 the mother and mistress of all churches!" And are not all 
 her doctors and bishops, on their oath, to believe and teach 
 this ? Now, no other church on earth but her lays claim 
 to such prerogatives and pretensions. Hear her: "Foras- 
 much as the holy church of Rome is set up to the world for a 
 glass and example, whatsoever she determineth or ordaineth 
 ought by all to be perpetually and invincibly observed. She 
 is the hinge, and head, and mistress of all churches ; against 
 which, whosoever speaketh any evil, or endeavours to take 
 away her privilege, is forthwith a heretic," &c. Corp.Jur. 
 Can. Decret. part 2 — Dist. 19, Cap. enimvero dist. 22. 
 C. Romana Ecclesia, &c. &c. 
 
 7th mark. Worship in an unknown Tongue. — Saith 
 the apostle, " Now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with 
 tongues, what shall I profit you ? For, if the trumpet give 
 an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle ? 
 
 27 
 
314 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 So likewise, you, except you utter by the tongue plain 
 speech, how shall it be known what is said? for you shall 
 be speaking into the air. 1 Cor. xiv. 9. How shall he that 
 holdeth the place of the unlearned say Amen to thy bless- 
 ing? because he knoweth not what thou sayest. I thank 
 my God, I speak with all your tongues ; but in the church 
 I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I 
 may instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue 
 {unknown.) If any speak with a tongue, (not known,) let 
 another interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him 
 hold his peace in the church." 1 Cor. xiv. Rhemish. 
 
 What more plain could the Holy Ghost pen by his ser- 
 vant on this subject? Now, what church is it, that, contrary 
 to the faith, which thus expressly prohibits the worship of 
 God — singing, praying, and preaching — to be performed in 
 any unknown tongue, has nevertheless, in the face of all 
 this, made an absolute law, "That the mass, or public 
 worship, although it contain much instruction for the faith- 
 ful, yet must, in every nation, be, not in the vulgar tongue, 
 but in the Latin only ; and that part of the canon, and the 
 words of consecration, must be spoken in a low voice; and 
 thot whoever shall say it is wrong so to do, is accursed."* 
 Is it not the church of Rome alone, which has done so ? 
 
 So, then, God expressly forbids the public worship to be 
 in any unknown tongue ; and the church of Rome, in her 
 council, commands the contrary, pronouncing him who 
 shall say, this is wrong, accursed. But the Holy Ghost 
 says it is wrong. Doth it not follow, then, that this church 
 and her head, who claims to be Christ's vicar, pronounces 
 the Holy Ghost, anathema ? ! ! ! What pious mind that 
 considers this open outrage and blasphemy against the Al- 
 mighty can avoid shuddering, or can with a good conscience 
 countenance a worship that involves so great wickedness, 
 or be at all present at it ? Now, if St. Paul should come to 
 earth, and that some one shouted to the priest, when per- 
 forming this worship, Here is St. Paul coming, just coming . 
 
 * Etsi raissa magnam contineat populi fidelis eruJitionem, non tamen 
 expedire visum est patribus, ut vulgari passim lingua celebraretur. Con 
 Trid. sess. 22, cap. 8. 
 
 Si quis dixerit ecclesiae Romanae ritum, quo submissa voce pars cano- 
 nis et verba consecrationis proferuntur, damnandum esse ; aut lingua 
 tantum vulgari missam celebrari debere — anathema sit. Sess. 22, can. 9 
 
WORSHIP IN AN UNKNOWN TONGUE. 315 
 
 would not the priest affrighted run off? and would a man 
 stay in the mass-house?!! Hence, most plain is it, that 
 the pope and his clergy, as if resolved to oppose God in 
 every thing, have here decreed against all reason, Scrip- 
 ture, and antiquity! 
 
 Hear the Emperor Justinian : (citing 1 Cor. xiv.) "We 
 command that all bishops be careful that the people be 
 taught in their own tongue — for how shall the unlearned 
 praise the Lord God, and say Amen, if he understand not 
 what is spoken ? If they neglect these things, the judgment 
 of God and of Christ shall fall on them : neither will we, 
 when we know it, rest and leave it unrevenged."* 
 
 Cardinal Cajetan {in loco) thus saith, "From this doc 
 trine of St. Paul, it follows, that for the edification of the 
 church, it is better, the public prayers which the people 
 hear should be made in that language which both priests 
 and people understand, than be said in Latin. "t 
 
 Erasmus, on this chapter, breaks out, "It is wonderful 
 how the custom of the church "is altered in this matter : for 
 St. Paul had rather speak five words, so as to teach others, 
 than ten thousand in a strange tongue."! 
 
 Saith St. Cyprian, "To pray otherwise than as Christ 
 has taught, is not ignorance only, but wickedness, because 
 he has expressly said, 'Ye do reject the commandment of 
 God, that ye may establish your own tradition.' "§ Thus, 
 he strikes two papal errors at once. 
 
 St. Ambrose, in loco, writes, " If ye come together to 
 instruct the church, those things ought to be spoken which 
 the hearers may understand ; for what does he profit the 
 people, who speaks in an unknown tongue to them ?" 
 
 " We ought," saith St. Augustine, " to understand what we 
 pray for, that we may, not like parrots, and such like birds, 
 that are taught to sound forth what they understand not, but 
 like men of reason, sing unto God." Augus. ad 1 Cor. xiv. 
 
 * Jubemus omnes episcopos, &c. Constit. 123. 
 
 •f* Ex hac Pauli doctrina habetur, quod melius est ad edificationem 
 ecclesise, orationes publicas quae audiente populo dicuntur, dici lingua 
 communi clericis et populo. Cajet. Comment, ad 1 Cor. xiv. 17. 
 
 t Hac in re mirum, quam mutata sit ecclesise consuetudo, &c. Erasm. 
 in 1 Cor. xiv. 
 
 § Aliter orare quam ut Christus docuit, non ignorantia sola est, sed 
 et culpa, quando ipse posuerit et dixerit, rejicitis mandatum Dei ut tra» 
 ditionem vestram statuatis. Cypr. de Orat. Dom. p. 309. 
 
316 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 Saith Basil the Great, " r ( ytoctfa -laitefa, o hs m'j spsv- 
 varm" &c "Let thy tongue sing, and let thy mind, 
 according to the apostle, search the meaning of what is 
 spoken." — In 1 Cor. xiv. 
 
 Origen, contra Celsum, 1. 8, n. 13. "He (Celsus) for- 
 gets that Christians offer their prayers, not to angels, but to 
 God only by Jesus Christ ; he mixeth strange matters, con- 
 founding them with the affairs of Christians ; wherefore let 
 all men be persuaded and know, that true Christians do not 
 in their prayers use the names of God which are used in the 
 Holy Scriptures, (i. e. in Hebrew, &c.) but men of every 
 nation do pray and praise God with all their might, in their 
 own mother tongue. And the Lord of all tongues doth 
 hear them praying in all tongues, understanding them that 
 speak so diversely none otherwise than if they w r ere men 
 of one speech and language." Thus doth this father strike 
 two errors at once, invocation of angds, and using a 
 strange language in worship. 
 
 TVolfius tells us, " That Pope Yitalianus, an. 666,* com- 
 manded every thing in the churches of Christians to be 
 performed by their priests in Latin. "t 
 
 How unreasonable is it to call on people to learn to be 
 Christians, and keep from them the Christian book, nor 
 suffer them to hear its language, except in a tongue they 
 cannot understand ; and that any church would prefer mak- 
 ing her people worship like barbarians or birds, not know- 
 ing what they hear or say, rather than as rational beings ! 
 Yet for this most strange policy the pope had his own rea- 
 sons, of course. The first probably was, as the supremacy 
 was a new thing in the earth, he considered that by uniting 
 clergy and people everywhere by one and the same lan- 
 guage and worship to their head, he, in this wise, might 
 establish his throne. 2. As other unscriptural dogmas and 
 practices might further be useful for his security, they 
 might be thus less observable. The result, however, is the 
 forming another predicted mark of the apostasy, "worship 
 in an unknown tongue ! !" 
 
 * See Rev. xiii. 18. Now to 666 add 1260, and we have an. 1926. 
 See Kershaw on Rev. 
 
 I Papa Vitalianus omnia in Christianorum templis per suos sacri- 
 fices in Latino sermone fieri jussit. Wolf. Lect. memorab. p. 74, ad 
 an. 666. 
 
WORSHIP IN AN UNKNOWN TONGFE. 317 
 
 Now, the council of Trent appears to confirm this ; for 
 she learned from Pope Paul III., and by experience, the 
 absolute necessity, for the safety of the church, of training 
 the people in such sort of disgraceful worship and igno- 
 rance. For as Stillingfleet, Tillotson, and other eminent 
 writers observe, he held a grave consultation with his 
 bishops in Benonia, some time after Luther's preaching, 
 writings, and translation of the Scriptures had made such a 
 noise as to shake the papal see, how the dignity and peace 
 of the church might be upheld and conserved ; this, among 
 other things, they gave as their last advice and weightiest 
 of all : 
 
 " That by all means as little of the gospel as might be, 
 especially in the vulgar tongue, should be read to the peo- 
 ple : and that that little which is in the mass ought to be 
 sufficient : neither should it be permitted to any to read 
 more : for so long as men were contented with that, all 
 things went well with them ; but quite otherwise since 
 more was commonly read. That, in short, the Scripture is 
 that which, above all others, hath raised those tempests and 
 whirlwinds, with which we were almost carried away. 
 And in truth, if any one diligently considers it, and com- 
 pares with it what is done in our church, he will find them 
 very contrary to each other, and our doctrine not only very 
 different from it, but repugnant to it." See Tillotson's 
 Sermons, &c. 
 
 This document, so authentic, and of nearly three hundred 
 years standing, is at once notable, and, to every thinking 
 mind, of the last importance! for, though short, it speaks 
 volumes. It confesses, and thus corroborates what these 
 sheets go to establish; 1st. "That very much of the papal 
 doctrine is not in the book of God, nor in agreement with 
 it, but actually repugnant to it." It is plain, therefore, it 
 must be antichristian and false doctrine, fabricated for cor- 
 rupt and secular ends. 2d. " That that book, when under- 
 stood, raises such tempests about the papal church as en- 
 dangers its very existence ; hence, that it is her greatest 
 foe, and must by all means be opposed, but judiciously, for 
 fear of alarm." 3d. " That the peace, prosperity, and 
 security of that church rest principally on the people's ig- 
 norance of that book of truth." 4th. " That that book has 
 been then, and must ever be dreaded by that church ," 
 
 27* 
 
318 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 therefore, though God gave it without note or comment to 
 man, to lead him to salvation, yet the people, lest they 
 should know its contents, and thus discover the cheat put 
 upon them, must wisely be kept as much as possible from 
 the knowledge and understanding of it, in every snape and 
 form !" That the mass, therefore, because it contains some 
 little portion of it, must be in a tongue not understood by 
 the people." From which, it is most clear, that what the 
 council of Trent, and the pope and his clergy ever since 
 have done against this book, and what the bulls of the pre- 
 sent pope, and the assiduity of his clergy are now doing, to 
 keep the people, and the youth especially, from knowing it, 
 chasing the little ones, even of the poor, from those schools 
 of benevolence where they might meet it, on pretence that 
 it might hurt them, or that it is corrupt; and all that has 
 been written and said by papal doctors against it for past 
 ages, which it would take volumes to tell, combine, demon- 
 strably, to prove the truth of the declaration of this docu- 
 ment, namely, — "That the doctrines and church of Rome 
 are, in general, actually contrary to the Bible, or to the doc- 
 trine and church of Christ!" and, therefore, that she is 
 necessarily of antichrist. Who not insane but must see 
 this? 
 
 Doctor Milner's Defence of this daring outrage on all 
 common sense, — nay, both on God and man — is at once as 
 impious as it is both impudent and ridiculous. With un- 
 blushing front he says, what no man could believe, " Tha 
 Latin is the most general language of Christians ! and 
 was the vulgar tongue in the apostle's days ! That when 
 it is not commonly understood, it is not the church whicl 
 has introduced a foreign language among the people, but i 
 is the people who have forgotten their ancient language.' 
 End. Cont. let. 47. 
 
 This is the sum and strength of his defence ! And now 
 let his warmest friends say, is it truth, or did he believe a 
 sentence of it himself? So, then, God commands his wor- 
 ship, prayer, singing, and preaching to be everywhere in 
 the tongue the congregation understands. Dr. Milner (for 
 all priests) replies to God, " No, the worship must be in 
 Latin, for we are sworn to it; and it is the most generally 
 known language, though scarce one of a thousand under- 
 stands it ! And the blame of this does not lie on the church, 
 
CARRIAGE PROHIBITED, al 9 
 
 for using a strange tongue, but on the people, for having 
 forgotten it!" forgotten what they never knew! What a 
 reply to God ! And how more than mad, how criminal 
 are the people who suffer themselves to be thus openly 
 deceived ! 
 
 8th mark. Forbidding Marriage.* — Such another de- 
 spotic doctrine is this, opposed both to reason and Holy 
 Writ. What church is it, departing from that faith that 
 allowed the marriage of the clergy, which (contrary to 
 Scripture, antiquity, and reason) has made a severe law, 
 forbidding the marriage of all her clergy ? Can the church 
 of Rome deny this charge ? 
 
 As there is no passion in man that more sorely besets 
 him, and formidably threatens, not only his own ruin, both 
 temporal and eternal, but the interests of religion and the 
 peace of society at large, than that which inclines to the sin 
 of fornication, the apostle, taught of God its dangers, pro- 
 poses a fit expedient. "To avoid fornication," saith he^ 
 " let every man have his own wife, and every woman her 
 own husband." " It is better to marry than burn." " Have 
 we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other 
 apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas ?"f 
 (Pope Leo, Dist. 13, Can. Omnino, was of opinion, that 
 this yuvcu*a, wife, meant one married to an apostle.) " Mar- 
 riage is honourable in all, but whoremongers and adulterers 
 God will judge. "± Hence, we learn from Scripture, that 
 bishops and deacons, as well as others, might and did 
 marry. 
 
 Antiquity also teaches the same. Thuanns, a Roman 
 Catholic, that excellent historian, says, " No papal writer 
 denies that the first who opposed the clergy's being mar- 
 ried was Pope Calixtus, injhe year 220; until which time 
 the marriage of the clergy, in both the eastern and western 
 churches, was lawful ; and that Maximilian II. then urged 
 against him, that the priests of the old law, and most of the 
 
 * Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall 
 depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of 
 devils: speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared. 
 forbidding to marry, and to abstain from meats, &c. 1 Tim. iv. 1 — 3 , 
 Si. 2—12. Titus ii". 6, 9. Rhemish. 
 
 t 1 Cor. vii. 9 ; xi. 5. $ Heb. xiii. 4. 
 
 
320 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 blessed apostles were married men."* That Eusebius de- 
 clares, " That it is certain the apostles themselves, few 
 excepted, had wives,"! and that Paphnutius, at the council 
 of Nice, (an. 325,) did assert the marriage of the clergy ; 
 and that, even by one of those canons, which Roman Ca- 
 tholics themselves do avow for apostolical. Erftcrxorto? tj 
 rtpscifivtitpos r\ Staxovog trjv ■/} avtov yvvaixa, /xtj sxpaXketid. Can. 
 
 Apost. 5. " A bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, must not 
 put away his wife." 
 
 Ignatius, "All the apostles except St. John were mar- 
 ried. "J Clemens Alexandrinus tells us, "That the apos- 
 tles carried their wives about with them, to minister to those 
 who were mistresses of families, that so the doctrine of the 
 Lord might, without evil suspicion, enter into the apart- 
 ments of women." And in describing his perfect Chris- 
 tian, he saith, "He eats, and drinks, and marries, having 
 the apostles for his example. "§ The council of Ancyra, 
 an. 315, can. 9, hath these words, "All deacons who are 
 established in their charges, if they declare they have need 
 to marry, let them, after they are married, remain in their 
 ministry. "|| And the council of Gangra, after, hath this 
 canon, "Et *i$ StaxpH/owco," &c. — "If any man make a dif- 
 ference of a married priest, as if none ought to partake of 
 the oblation when he officiates, let him be anathema." 
 
 Cardinal Cajetan saith, " Setting aside all other laws, 
 and standing to those we have from Christ and the apostles, 
 it cannot appear by reason, or by any authority, that holy 
 orders can be any hinderance to marriage, either as it is an 
 order or as it is holy."^ Nicholas Cusanus writes, "Till 
 the time of Pope Cyricius, in 385, it was lawful for all 
 priests to marry; nor vow, nor law, nor other restraint 
 
 * Liquet item, in orientali et occidental! ecclesia usque ad tempus 
 prohibitionis a Calixto factte sacerdotum conjugia licita fuisse. 
 
 f Constat apostolos ipsos paucis exceptis conjuges habuisse, &c 
 Euseb. lib. 3, cap. 13. 
 
 * Epist. ad Philadelph. an. 140. 
 
 § EoStii, km 7rivu, km ya.y.u — s/xoyac i%u rove o&n<r<TQMuc, &C. Clem 
 Alex. Strom. 1. 7, c. 12. 
 
 | AizMvoi cutci K'j.S-10-i.vrai, &c. Con. Ancyr. can. 9, an. 315. 
 
 t "Nee ratione nee auctoritate probatur quod, absolute loquendo, ordo 
 sacerdotalis vel in quantum sacer est, &c, impedimentum est matrimonio, 
 eive ante, sive post, seclusis omnibus legibus, stando tantum his quae a 
 Christo et apostolis habentur," Cajet. torn. i. tract 25. 
 
MARRIAGE FORBIDDEN, &C. 321 
 
 being to the contrary."* Polydore Virgil says the same, 
 and adds, "That the marriage of the clergy could not be 
 prevented till Pope Gregory VII., in the year 1074, deter- 
 mined it; in which, however, he was resisted, as intro- 
 ducing a custom never received. "t 
 
 The bishops of France, Germany, and Italy, met to- 
 gether, and decreeing that he, Gregory VII., had acted 
 against Christian piety, deposed him : for that he had (con- 
 trary to Christ, who said, " He that putteth away his wife, 
 except for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit 
 adultery," Matt. v. 32) divorced men and their wives, and 
 while denying such as had lawful wives to be priests, he 
 had at the same time admitted to the altars whoremongers, 
 adulterers, and incestuous persons." — Madgb. cent. 11, p. 
 589. And Bellarmine himself grants, "that for some hun- 
 dreds of years the church of Rome permitted her Greek 
 priests to have their wives, and proves by arguments that 
 by the law of God this is not forbidden." Bellar. de 
 Cleric. 1. 1, c. 18. 
 
 Scripture and antiquity prove that Noah, Abraham, 
 Moses, Aaron, Isaiah, Ezekiel, &c, these holy preachers 
 of righteousness, and the Jewish clergy, with nearly all the 
 apostles, and all the clergy generally, for several ages after- 
 wards, were married. This, to preserve them pure, was 
 the will of the holy and all-wise God. But the pope, as if 
 in wisdom above God himself, and all these his servants, 
 by forbidding the marriage of all his clergy, on pretence 
 of their greater purity, but in reality to preserve the church's 
 worldly revenues, and to increase his power and grandeur, 
 has fixed upon himself this very prominent mark of the 
 apostasy, "Forbidding to marry." 
 
 10th mark. Fornications. — But the papal clergy, in 
 making themselves wiser than God, thus, by their private 
 confessions and absolutions, and their celibacy, directly 
 concurring, as they evidently must, to produce corruption, 
 fell, as might be expected, into Satan's snare, "They be- 
 came fools. And as they did not like to keep God in their 
 knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, and to 
 
 * " Post aliquot tempora visum est," &c. Nichol. Cusan. ep. 2, ad 
 Boem. 
 
 •j- " Non ante pontificatum Gregorii VII. anno 1074, connubium adimi 
 sacerdotibus occidentalibus potuit." Pol. Virg. de invent, ver. 1, 5,c. 4 
 
322 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 all uncleanness.' Aia tovto rfapf§a>XEi> avtov$ o 0foj t i$ jiix9ri 
 atifuas — "being- filled with all injustice, fornication, 
 wickedness, avarice, malice."* Now, when the vast mul- 
 titude of the clergy, secular and regular, of all degrees, were 
 prohibited from marriage, that preservative allowed them 
 by that infinite Wisdom who created them, and that all 
 classes of people must come to these private confessions, 
 and so frequently too, and open up their [even indecent) 
 secrets, as above : and when the well-fed pastor is celibate, 
 and when he can lay on penance, and when he can loose 
 and absolve from the guilt confessed, what on earth, I ask, 
 — I appeal to every breast — can be conceived more calculated 
 to produce general pollution, and fill the world with forni- 
 cations and adulteries on every hand? Truly, these most 
 impious and unhappy laws were fitly called by the apostle, 
 doctrines of devils. 
 
 And that this has been the natural result, first, among the 
 clergy themselves, and then, the heads being corrupted, 
 among the other classes indiscriminately, none who consult 
 history, or the writings of even Cardinal Baronius, Platina, 
 St. Bernard, and other papal doctors, on the lives of the 
 popes, will for a moment deny. And thus we behold the 
 exact fulfilment of the divine predictions, 1st, by their false 
 doctrines and idolatries, as already stated, called spiritual 
 fornication ; and, 2d, by actual and overflowing adulteries, 
 and other most vile corporeal pollutions. Was not Pope 
 John XII. killed in the very act of adultery, by the woman's 
 husband? Nor did Baronius scruple to tell the world, 
 " That for one hundred and fifty years together, St. Peter's 
 chair was filled not with apostles, but apostates, put in 
 fradulently by vile prostitutes, viz. Marozia, Theodora," <fcc. 
 
 A papal writer says of Pope Clement V., " He was a 
 public debauchee : from that time forth, all discipline and 
 religion failed among the cardinals," &c.t — Saith St. Ber- 
 nard, "The portraiture of these times (12th century) is 
 made up of fornications, adulteries, incests, detestable vil- 
 tanies, and acts of the utmost filthiness." And Honorius 
 
 * Propter hoc tradidit illos Deus in passiones ignominiae, in reprobum 
 sensum, repletos omni injustitia, fornicatione, nequitia, avaritia, malitia, 
 &c. Rom. i. 22—29. 
 
 f Hie fuit publicus fornicator, ab eo tempore defecit omnis disciplina 
 et religio in cardinalibus, &c. Paral. Ursp. Gen. in Clem. V. Papa. 
 
POLLUTION ENCOURAGED. 323 
 
 of Autun ranks, in order, "princes, monks, priests, nuns, 
 and nunneries, and all orders of men to have been thus de- 
 filed." See the account of the horrible pollution of the 13th 
 century by Matthew Paris ; of those of the 14th by Alvarez 
 Pelagius, (a defender of Pope John XXII.) He sets forth 
 " the cloisters as places of prostitution, in which debauchery, 
 drunkenness, impure and filthy discourses, &c, &c, did 
 reign ; and that even the horrid sin of Sodom reigned in 
 the most august and venerable churches." — Jurieu by Whi- 
 taker, p. 316. Of those of the 15th cent, by Eneas Sylvius ; 
 of those of the 16th, by Cornelius Mus, Bishop of Bitanto. 
 Thus, he spoke publicly, in the midst of the council of 
 Trent, " There is no filthiness, how monstrous soever, no 
 villany, no impurity, with which the people and clergy were 
 not defiled." — p. 370. Well did St. Peter prophesy, "Eyes 
 they have, full of adultery, which cannot cease to sin, cursed 
 children." Cardinal Bembo records, "That Pope Leo X. 
 was an atheist;" of course an adulterer, "and that he one 
 day told him, 'This fable of Jesus Christ had done them 
 good service.' " 
 
 I must add ; however severe the popes have been against 
 the marriage of the clergy, they were not so against their 
 whoredom and uncleanness, but rather gave them, as their 
 own writers loudly testify, and with grief complain, actual 
 indulgences in them for money ; showing plainly that it was 
 not for the sake of God, or purity, but for other reasons 
 altogether, they made such impious rules. 
 
 How strange ! that men who know that the prophets and 
 apostles, these purest servants of God, were married, should 
 rather see their clergy polluted, than married men. The 
 learned Chamier gives several instances to this amount from 
 papal writers, who actually plead for debauchery in the 
 clergy, rather than marry. 
 
 "Pighius is blamed," saith Hosius, "who wrote that a 
 priest who through infirmity of the flesh hath fallen into 
 whoredom, sins less than if he should marry. This doctrine 
 with some is vile, but with Catholics it is most honest."* 
 
 Costerus saith, " Should a priest indulge in uncleanness, 
 
 * Reprehenditur Pighius qui non vere magis quam pie, scriptum reli- 
 quit, minus peccare sacerdotem, qui ex infirmitate carnis in fomicatior.em 
 sit prolapsus; quam qui nuptias contraxit. Turpis videtur hac oratio," 
 contra, Catholicis honestissima. Hosius, confess, cap. 56. 
 
324 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 nay, keep a concubine in his own house, although he ig 
 thereby guilty of great sacrilege, yet he sins more heinously 
 if he marry.* 
 
 Cardinal Campeggio writes, " That for priests to become 
 husbands, is by far a more grievous sin than if they should 
 keep many prostitutes in their houses."! Strong delusion. 
 O horrible doctrine ! 
 
 Mathias Aquensis saith, "That a man who, after vowing 
 continency, doth marry, offends more than he who through 
 human frailty goes astray with a hundred different women. "J 
 
 But when the pope grants an ecclesiastic a dispensation 
 to marry, as in the case of Mauritio, son of the Duke of 
 Savoy, or of Cardinal C. Borgia, who, in the year 1500, 
 became Duke of Valenza and married a wife, or of Cardinal 
 Camillo, nephew to Pope Innocent X. in 1654, such mar- 
 riage is no sin ! Hence, it is no sin for a priest after his 
 celibate vow to marry, if the pope give leave, but without 
 this, it is a dreadful sin, nay, greater than to live in daily 
 pollution, contrary to God's holy law ! So, then, should a 
 priest, or monk, or nun marry, O, what a noise, what an 
 alarm is raised ! such are perjured, lost, damned ! But if the 
 pope, " the God in the temple," gives a dispensation, all is 
 right, all is calm ! Hence, to sin against the pope and his 
 law, is a vastly greater offence than to sin against God and 
 his law ! Thus, by putting his law above the law of God, 
 the pope proves himself to all men, as " that man of sin 
 that exalteth himself above God." 
 
 Hear Espencaeus, " Instead of the pure and chaste celi- 
 bacy, there hath succeeded impure and filthy whoredom. "§ 
 Saith St. Bernard, " This whoredom, it is so common, neither 
 can be concealed ; nor doth it seek to be hid, it is become 
 so brazen ; both the clergy as well as laity having permis- 
 sion given them to cohabit with their concubines, upon the 
 
 * Sacerdos si fornicetur aut domi concubinam foveat, taraetsi gravi 
 sacrilegio se obstringat, gravius tamen peccat si contrahat matrimonium. 
 Coster, de coelib. Sacerdot. 
 
 -f- Quod si sacerdotes fiant mariti, multo gravius peccatura est quam si 
 plurimas domi meritrices alant. Card. Camp. op. Sleid. com. 1. 4. 
 
 t " Qui post continentiae votum, devotet potestatem corporis cuivis 
 mulieri, magis offendit, quam iste qui humana fragilitate deviaret cum 
 centum diversis feminis." Math. Aquen. Oper. 
 
 § " Pro puro mundoque coelibatu, successit impurus et immundus con- 
 cubinatus." Espen. lib. 2, cap. 7, de Continentia. 
 
POLLUTION ENCOURAGED. 325 
 
 payment of a yearly sum of money, this toleration or in- 
 dulgence hath got a firm footing ; and this payment being 
 made, they are at liberty to keep a concubine or not. O 
 execrable wickedness !"* And in his comment on Titus, he 
 further complains, "Episcopi, archidiaconi," &c. "Bishops, 
 archdeacons, and officials, do ride about their dioceses and 
 parishes, for the most part, not to deter the wicked from 
 their vices, but to draw out and defraud both clergy and 
 laity of their money, whom, upon the payment of a yearly 
 revenue, they permit to cohabit with concubines and pros- 
 titutes. And this they exact in some places of even the 
 chaste ! for he may, say they, have a concubine if he please. 
 And how often are those who keep concubines, and they so 
 many, punished in any other way than by thus paying mo- 
 ney ?" I shall pass by, although it lies before me, the tax 
 for various sins of uncleanness, in their book of rates : they 
 are too horrible to be named. " That Pope Sixtus IV. 
 erected in Rome brothels, out of which a large weekly re- 
 venue was paid," is mentioned by C. Agrippa, de Venitat. 
 scient. p. 64. Hence, he is the " man of sin." Of this 
 vast profligacy one of their poets complains thus : 
 
 -Roma ipsa lupanar, 
 
 Reddita : nunc facta est toto execrabilis orbe. 
 
 " A brothel-house famed Rome is now become ; 
 Contemn'd of all, she hastens to her doom." Anon. 
 
 "In the year 1515," saith Thuanus, " Pope Leo X., a 
 man giving himself to all licentiousness, that he might from 
 all parts scrape up money for his vast expenses, at the in- 
 stigation of Cardinal Lorenzo Puccio, sent his bulls of indul- 
 gences, wherein he promised the expiation of all sin and 
 eternal life, through all the kingdoms of the Christian (papal) 
 world ; and there was a price set, what every one should 
 pay, according to the grievousness of his sins. He appoint- 
 ed collectors and treasuries through the provinces, with 
 preachers to recommend to the people the greatness of the 
 benefit; and those did mightily extol their power in draw- 
 ing souls out of purgatory ; shamelessly spending the money 
 
 * " Quod latere, nee prse multitudine quaeat, nee prse impudentia que- 
 rat; hsec inquam tolerantia, altius radices egit, permissis alicubi sub an- 
 nuo censu clericis atque laicis cum suis concubinis cohabitare, &c, O 
 tern execrandam ! De per sec. cap. 29. 
 
 28 
 
326 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 every day in brothels and taverns, at dice and most filthy 
 uses." Thuan. Histor. 1. i. p. 13. 
 
 The sums for the several sins, were stated in the Taxa. 
 Cancel. Apost. in fol. 36, 37, 38, 41. Such sins of incest, 
 debauchery, perjury, murder, &c. &c, are therein men- 
 tioned, as are so shocking- that I must not even write them ; 
 and the sum for each is but a few shillings ! It has been de 
 nied that there has been any such book ; but it was printed 
 in Paris in 1520, and Espenceus, a papal writer, in Tit. c. 
 i. digr. 2, p. 479, tells us, that it was openly sold ; and thus 
 remarks, " It is a wonder, that, at this time, in this schism, 
 such an infamous index, of such filthy and to be abhorred 
 wickedness, is not suppressed. There is neither in Ger- 
 many, Switzerland, nor in any other place where there is 
 a defection from the Roman See, a book more to their re- 
 proach. It teacheth and encourageth such wickedness as 
 we may be afraid to hear named, and a price is set to all 
 buyers ; and yet it is not suppressed by the favourers of the 
 court of Rome." 
 
 "A number of Roman princes assembled at Nuremb.irgh, 
 an. 1522, and 1523," saith Fasciculus Rerum, "and stated 
 a hundred grievances : the third is about the increase of the in- 
 tolerable burden of indulgences, by which, under a show 
 of piety to churches, or for an expedition against the Turks, 
 the popes suck the marrow of their estates: and, which 
 heightens the imposture, say they, by their hireling criers 
 and preachers Christian piety is banished, while, to advance 
 their markets, they cry up their wares, for the granting of 
 wonderful, unheard of, peremptory pardons, not only of 
 sins already committed, but of sins which shall be com- 
 mitted, and also the sins of the dead ; so that, by the sale 
 of these wares, together with being spoiled of our money, 
 Christian piety is extinguished, while any one may pro- 
 mise himself impunity, upon paying the rate that is set 
 upon the sin he hath a mind to commit.* Hence, whore- 
 * Cheminitius records^ Exam. Con. Trid. p. 745, " That a certain noble- 
 man told Tetzelius, the chief preacher of indulgences, that he had a mind 
 to commit a very heinous sin, and desired an indulgence or present par- 
 don for it ; for a great sum of money he granted it ; the nobleman pays 
 it down and receives his bull. Afterwards this nobleman took occasion 
 to meet Tetzelius in a certain wood, and, breaking open his chest of in- 
 dulgences, robbed him. When Tetzelius threatened him with all man- 
 tier of curses, the nobleman showed him his bull that he had paid so 
 
POLLUTION PROMOTED. 327 
 
 doms, incests, adulteries, perjuries, murders, thefts, &c, 
 and all manner of wickedness, have at once their offspring 1 . 
 What wickedness will mortal man be afraid to commit, when 
 they promise themselves license and impunity, in sinning 
 while they live, and for a little more money, indulgences 
 may be purchased for them when they are dead." Fasci- 
 culus Rerum expectend. fol. 177, 178 : see also Dr. Annes- 
 ley's Ser. Indul. p. 20, printed an. 1675. 
 
 What Nicholas Clemangis, a papal archdeacon, (lib. de 
 corrupto statu ecclesise, an. 1417, upon the celibate orders 
 — the corrupt state of the church,) writes, about cardinals, 
 prelates, monks, and nuns, and their horrible abominations, 
 is enough to shock any tender mind, even to read of them. 
 Of the men he says, " Ebrios et incontinentissimos vice 
 conjugum domi" fyc. That being drunkards, and of all 
 men most incontinent, instead of wives they shamelessly 
 kept prostitutes," &c. &c. But what he says of nuns and 
 their nunneries, I must not even mention. And what Speed 
 writes, in Hist. Mag. Brit, of the awful discoveries made in 
 the time of Henry VIII. in many monasteries in England 
 of the most frightful pollutions, I shall pass by. Volumes 
 would be required to tell all their abominations ; and in this, 
 they prove the exact fulfilment of this prophecy, concerning 
 the overflowing of pollution that was so extensively to 
 defile the apostate church. 
 
 I shall add the testimony of a canonized female, St. 
 Bridget, on Rev. xviii. 21. "Thou art a destroyer of the 
 souls of the elect," said she to the pope, crucifigis et per- 
 dis animas. "Thou art like unto Lucifer, more unjust than 
 Pilate, more savage than Judas, more abominable than the 
 Jews. Thy throne shall be sunk like a great stone cast 
 into the sea, that stoppeth not till it shall have arrived at 
 the very depths of the ocean." Brigitt. in Rev. 1. 1, c. 41. 
 
 We must not pass over the very reverend and famous F. 
 Petrarch, who flourished an. 1350, nearly two centuries 
 before Luther, and of whom the learned Trithemius saith, 
 " Te Petrarcha, vir in divinis scripturis eruditus" &c. &c. 
 " F. Petrarch, poet laureate and archdeacon of Parma, was 
 a man deeply skilled in the Scriptures, and a reviver of long 
 decayed learning." Trith. de Scrip. Eccles. 
 
 dear for, and, laughing at him, told him this was the very sin he had a 
 mind to commit, when he was so fully absolved." 
 
328 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY 
 
 Socket 92. 
 Del' empia Babylonia, ond' e fugitta 
 Ogni vergogna, ond' bene e fuori 
 Albergo di dolor, madre d' errori 
 Son fugit io per allongar la vita. 
 
 Sonnet 149. Tom. 4, Basil. 
 Fontana di dolore, albergo d'ira, 
 Scola d'errori, e tempio d'heresia, 
 Gia Roma, hor Babylonia, falsa e ria 
 Per cui tanto si piagne ; e si sospira 
 O fucina d'inganni, o prigion d'ira 
 Ove' iben more, e' i mal si nutre e cria 
 Di vivi inferno, un gran mira col fia 
 Se Christo teco al fine non sad ira. 
 
 THUS OF OLD TRANSLATED. 
 Sonnet 92. 
 Out of wicked Babylon 
 By God's help I am gone, 
 From which all shame is banished, 
 From which all good is vanished, 
 The lodge of grief and misery, 
 The mother of all heresy. 
 
 Sonnet 149. 
 Well-spring of grief, and fierce wrath's hospital, 
 The school of error, temple of heresy, 
 Once Rome, now Babylon, most wicked, all 
 With sighs and tears bewail thy piteous fall, 
 Thou mother of deceit, bulwark of tyranny. 
 Truth's persecutrix, nurse of iniquity, 
 The living's hell ; a miracle it will be 
 If Christ in fury come not against thee, 
 Most shameless w e. 
 
 Pope Pius V. was so stung with those sonnets, that he 
 caused three of them to be erased, which, however, escape 
 in Basil's edition. And in prose he thus wrote of Rome: 
 " Famosa dicam, an infamis meretrix fornicata cum regibus 
 terrae, &c. "Art thou not that famous or infamous harlot 
 which committeth fornication with the kings of the earth ? 
 Truly thou art that adulteress, I say thou art, that the sacred 
 evangelist in spirit saw sitting upon many waters. What 
 canst thou expect thy end to be but that same which St. 
 John prophesied, ' Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, 
 and made a habitation for devils.' But let us, my friend, 
 with the same apostle, attend to another voice coming down 
 
IMAGE WORSHIP. 329 
 
 from heaven, Ne participes sitis delictorum ejus; Come 
 out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her iniqui- 
 ties, that you may not receive of her plagues." Petrarcha, 
 epist. 16, torn. 2, e. 729, &c. 
 
 Now, all these were long, even ages before Luther, and 
 they spake as Protestants do now, and as every man of 
 truth must! 
 
 Now, the conclusion is, what church in the world has 
 made laws as above, directly opposed to the will of God 
 and the practices of his servants in all ages of the world, 
 and which thus naturally and immediately leads to all these 
 enormities and fornications ? None surely but the church 
 of Rome alone. Hence this fatal mark is hers exclusively. 
 
 11th mark. Idolatries. — There are five or more sorts 
 of idolatry taught by the pope and his church. I. Of images 
 and relics. 2. Of saints. 3. Of angels. 4. Of the beast. 
 5. Of his image. " They repented not of the work of their 
 hands, that they should not worship devils,* (Kac, and, or)— 
 even idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of 
 wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk," &c, 
 " neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sor- 
 ceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their thefts." With 
 ignorance of God's word are all those enormities, idolatry, 
 lewdness, superstitions, and imposture, fitly called sorce- 
 ries and thefts, very naturally connected. Hence, such as 
 fatten on the latter will, of course, earnestly maintain the 
 former. Rev. ix. 20. 
 
 What church is it that, in the very face of this divine 
 prediction, has made a positive law, to which the clergy are 
 sworn — " That the images of Christ, of the virgin Mary, 
 and of other saints, shall be had, consecrated, retained, and 
 duly worshipped by kissing them, and with uncovered head 
 bowing down before them and their relics ? And that de- 
 parted saints should be invocated?" Trent creed, and sess. 
 25. How flatly opposed to God is this law of Rome ! 
 
 Have they not therefore made images of wood, brass, gold, 
 silver, &c. ? See p. 260. Have they not consecrated them, 
 
 * Religious worship to any creatures is, by Jehovah, called " the wor- 
 ship of new gods and of devils, as being the authors of it, and after whom 
 they are said 'to go a whoring.'" Lev. xvii. 7. 1 Cor. x. 20. Hence 
 all who would nnt be thus guilty as devil-worshippers must never bow 
 before any image. 
 
 28* 
 
330 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 and to honour them gone far on pilgrimages to some of diem 
 to Loretto, and many such places, and there worshipped 
 them with religious worship, which they call Doulia, or what 
 else ? Cassander owns, " the worship paid by the people 
 to images and statues was equal to the worst of the an- 
 cient pagans ."* Polydore Virgil and others say the same. 
 Much, indeed, might be said on this point; but these things 
 being manifest, abundantly prove that in this respect their 
 own law and practice are a clear fulfilment of the predicted 
 apostasy. Add to this that history informs us of images 
 made so as to speak, &c. " The crucifix in St. Pauls, 
 made by Cavellini in 1360, spoke to St. Bridget, and seve- 
 ral in Rome did the same. Another, at St. Mary's Trans- 
 pont, spoke frequently with the images of St. Peter and St. 
 Paul ; others have bled, and some wept : one at the church 
 of the Holy Ghost wept such a flood of tears that the monks 
 could scarcely keep them dry,"t &c. The curious image 
 called the Rood of Grace, opened at St. Paul's Cross in 
 London, and by which the people had been deceived, 
 being thus exposed, greatly forwarded the Reformation. 
 
 I shall only add the testimony of Gregory Giraldus, a 
 Roman Catholic writer of the seventeenth century, thus : 
 " This certainly I will not hide, that we called Christians, 
 as were the Romans once, were without images in the 
 church called primitive."! Yet, so intent were the papal 
 clergy on the worship of images in England, that, as Sir 
 Edward Coke writes, (Inst. 3, p. 49,) an express law was 
 made, "That any persons who affirm images ought not to 
 be worshipped, be holden in strong prison until they take 
 an oath and swear to worship images." Rich. ii. cap. 5. 
 But God in the second commandment forbids it ; nor did 
 Christ ever teach it, nor the apostles practise it ; and the 
 ancients, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Arnobius, &c, counted 
 it idolatry ; and as that is of the devil, it follows, then, that 
 the teachers of it stand opposed to God and Jesus Christ, 
 
 * Nihil a nostris reliqui factum esse videatur, &c. Geo. Cassand. in 
 consult, de imagin. &c., p. 175, 176. 
 
 -f- Voyage to Italy, p. 25. See also a Dialogue, by the Rev. Blanco 
 White, lately a priest, well worthy of attention. 
 
 t Iliad certe non prsetermittam, nos, dico Christianos, ut aliquando 
 Ro;nanns, fuisse sine imaginibus in priraitiva quae vocatur ecclesia. Lib. 
 1, syn. 1, Hist, deorum. 
 
INVOCATION CONFUTED. 331 
 
 and promote Satan's cause. Having handled it when dis- 
 cussing the worship of the wafer, &c, I here cease. 
 
 Invocation of Angels and Saints. — This is another 
 idolatry ! I have touched on it, (p. 290,) on that of the 
 host worship, (p. 243,) and shall now demonstrate, that 
 neither did the council of Trent, nor its great champion, 
 Dr. Milner, believe themselves in reference to this dogma ; 
 and thus shall set it at rest. Its decree is as follows : 
 
 "The holy council of Trent commands all the bishops 
 and pastors, that, according to the usage of the Catholic 
 church, received from the earliest times of the Christian 
 religion, the consent of fathers, and decrees of holy coun- 
 cils, they should diligently instruct the faithful in the invo- 
 cation and intercession of saints, <fec, teaching them, that the 
 saints reigning with Christ offer prayers to God for men ; 
 and that it is good and useful humbly to invoke them and 
 (confugere) fly to their prayers and assistance, to obtain 
 (beneficia) favours from God, through Jesus Christ his 
 Son,"* <fcc. And the Trent catechism teacheth the same; 
 "That we should pray to the saints to be our advocates to 
 obtain from God for us what we need."t 
 
 No advocate, whatever, can support this doctrine ! All 
 that Drs. Gother, Challoner, Milner, and the rest, have said 
 on it is as empty as air. This we shall see presently when 
 I shall come to deal with Dr. Milner.J We shall put it to 
 a short issue : If God never taught this doctrine, it must 
 either be wrong, or Christ was in fault in not teaching it. 
 If no man will say the latter, then every one must grant the 
 former, and therefore that to teach it is great wickedness. 
 Now we fearlessly challenge the whole of them to prove, 
 that Moses or the prophets, Christ or his apostles ever taught 
 any of these matters. Let them search the sacred records 
 of the Jews — the law, the prophets, and the psalms, and 
 their most ancient writers, Philo Judaeus, Josephus, &c. ; 
 
 * Mandat sancta synodus omnibus episcopis, et ceteris docendi munus 
 curamque sustinentibus, ut juxta Catholicae et apostolicse ecclesise usum, 
 a priniEevis Christian© religionis temporibus receptum, sanctorumq. 
 Patrum consensionem, et sanctorum conciliorum decreta, in primis de 
 sanctorum intercessione, invocatione, reliquarum honore, et legitime* 
 imaginum usu, fideles diligenter instruant, &c. Con. Trid. sess. 25, de 
 invocat. 
 
 j- Pars iv. Quis orandus. 
 
 \ Milner, End of Controversy, letter 33. 
 
332 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 and let their litanies, their Mishna or traditions be examined, 
 and it will be found they shall fail in producing from the 
 whole one solitary precept or example for invocating angels 
 or saints departed. Nor in the whole New Testament can 
 they find any precept to enjoin, example to commend, or 
 one promise to encourage such doctrine. And if not, and 
 if God be infinitely right, we again insist, it must be infinite- 
 ly wicked to teach the like. 
 
 That neither did our Lord nor his apostles teach this doc- 
 trine is even confessed. Saith Alanus : " It was not yet the 
 time, in the infancy of the faith, to teach the world this doc- 
 trine, lest the heathen should be led to think that we wor- 
 shipped a plurality of gods, and had merely changed their 
 names, but retained the same worship."* Eckius writes : 
 " Had the apostles and evangelists taught the worship of 
 the saints, it would have been imputed to their pride, as 
 seeking the honour of being after death worshipped as saints. 
 The Holy Ghost therefore would not have the invocation of 
 the saints expressly taught by the Scriptures."! Salmeron 
 makes the same apology.;}: And Cardinal Perron, to mention 
 no more, tells the same. 
 
 After having made diligent search for this doctrine in the 
 three first centuries, but in vain, he owns openly: "That 
 in the authors of those times next the apostles he could find 
 no trace of this doctrine of invocation;" adding, however, by 
 way of excuse, " That most of their writings were lost." 
 Lost, indeed ! and so much of their writings still among us. 
 Here is evidence tangible, irrefragable ! and that, added to 
 the silence of the Scriptures, amounts to a demonstration 
 that Christ never taught this doctrine, and that neither did 
 the council of Trent, nor yet any other informed writer ever 
 believe he or nis apostles ever taught it. So, then, " this 
 doctrine was not taught by Christ or the apostles, and yet 
 
 * Nondum erat tempus in ipsis fidei exordiis earn mundo doctrinam 
 divulgandi, ne gentiles arbitrarentur plures nos Deos colere, &c. Alanus 
 Copus. dial. 3, fol. 239. Whit, de idol. p. 194. 
 
 -f- Si apostoli et evangelist© docuissent sanctos venerandos, arrogantiae 
 iis datum fuisset, ac si post mortem gloriam illam qusesivissent sanctos 
 venerandos. Noluit ergo Spiritus Sanctus expressis Scripturis doceri in- 
 vocationem sanctorum. Ecki, in Enchirid. loc. com. ex edit. A. Weis- 
 senhorn. 
 
 t Salm. in 1 Tim, 2, disp. 8. 
 
INVOCATION CONFUTED. 333 
 
 it was taught in the earliest ages of Christianity!!!" It 
 was, and it was not. 
 
 Having these proofs before us, we shall now return to the 
 Trent council to look at it fully. They tell us : " They re- 
 ceived this doctrine of invocation from the earliest times of 
 Christianity." Now we appeal to all men : Did they be- 
 lieve a sentence of this? How could they? impossible. 
 Hence, they have most conclusively decreed falsely, when 
 they affirmed, " they received this usage of invocation from 
 the earliest times of Christianity." 
 
 Again: In decreeing "it good and profitable for the faith- 
 ful to invocate the saints and fly to their assistance," when 
 they could not think that Christ would neglect to teach any 
 thing that was thus good for souls, and when they well 
 Knew that he never taught this doctrine ; as is even con- 
 fessed he never did, and for this reason, " that it was too 
 like paganism ;" then most clear is it, they did not believe 
 this doctrine good, nor themselves right in teaching it, nor 
 that a word they wrote in its praise had any truth in it ! I 
 say, they could not believe it "good and profitable ," with- 
 out first believing Christ and his apostles were wrong in 
 not teaching it. Hence, this dogma involves them in neces- 
 sary blasphemy against Christ ! ! ! 
 
 In the third place : Since all priests are on oath to believe 
 " that any doctrine that Christ or his apostles taught not, or 
 that is opposed to the gospel, is accursed," and as they 
 could not believe what is accursed is good and profitable 
 to men's souls, and it being palpable, and even confessed 
 that this invocation was not taught of God, then it follows 
 they did not believe this usage was from Christ, or that it is 
 good or profitable to any soul of man. 
 
 Once again : When the teaching a doctrine as good, which 
 God never taught, amounts to a direct accusation of Him as 
 being wrong, and therefore involves blasphemy ; and when 
 our Lord declares, "All things whatsoever you shall ask 
 in prayer, believing, you shall receive."* "Whatsoever 
 ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may 
 be glorified in the Son ; if you ask any thing in my name 1 
 
 * Matt. xxi. 22 ; viii. 7. John xiv. 6 — 14. On the Lord's prayer St. 
 Augustine and Aquinas have these fine thoughts: "Dicendum quod 
 orutio Dominica perfectissima est, quia sicut Augustinus dicit ad Pro- 
 bum, si rede et congruentes oramus, nihil aliud dicere possumus quam 
 
334 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 will do it." "Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that 
 seeketh findeth." "I am the way, the truth, and the life ; 
 no man cometh unto the Father but by me." I say, when 
 Christ never taught invocation, and thus promises to every 
 humble, praying believer " all things needful for him," what 
 more than this could any one even wish for ? and when he 
 affirms " there is no other way to obtain any thing from God 
 but by Him only," how could any man in his senses hope 
 to succeed by another way, even by invocation? Doth it 
 not follow, then, that they who take this way of invocation, 
 do in effect tell our Lord to his face, We do not believe thy 
 word, or that thy way is the good and right way, nor that 
 our way is wrong? And what less is this than telling the 
 King of heaven that he is not to be believed ? Now, if this 
 be the extremity of wickedness, infidelity, and madness, is 
 it not by every rule of reason and logic undeniable, that they 
 who teach and they who use this invocation of angels or 
 saints, do necessarily involve themselves in all this wicked- 
 ness and direct blasphemy against 'heaven's great King? 
 Hence, can no man, not bent on his own ruin, touch this 
 most corrupt doctrine forever ! 
 
 In line, whereas this invocation doctrine thus clearly in- 
 cludes in it such vast wickedness as to charge the Lord of 
 glory with neglect and wrong for not teaching it, insults 
 him, and absolutely gives him the lie, and blasphemes hiin; 
 as no angel, or saint in heaven, nor the blessed virgin, surely, 
 would for an instant acquiesce in thus degrading the Re- 
 deemer of men, it must follow, then, that to all the heavenly 
 family — angels, saints, and the blessed virgin, who is one 
 of them — " this invocation of saints and flying to their assist- 
 ance," supposing them conscious of it, must be absolutely 
 and conclusively the most hideous insult and abomination ! 
 indisputably so. For whatever goes to blaspheme Him, as 
 this evil doctrine doth, must insult them. For them, there- 
 fore, or any of them to unite with such invocation to obtain 
 benefits for their ill-taught suppliants, from the Father, 
 through the Son, in a way the Son never taught, and thus 
 
 quod in ista oratione Dominica positum est" Aquinas Epist. 121, c 
 12, q. 83, art. 9. 
 
 It must be acknowledged, that the Lord's prayer is the most perfect 
 of any ; for if we pray rightly and consistently, it is not possible for u9 
 to say any other thing than what is found in that prayer of the Lord. 
 
THE TRENT COUNCIL CONFUTED. 335 
 
 insulting him, is a calculation that in madness surpasses 
 any thing that has been ever heard of among men ! 
 
 If this reasoning be just, if it cannot by any means be re- 
 sisted, what becomes of this doctrine of the Trent council, 
 and all these prayers to saints all over the world ? and what 
 the situation of those multitudes who unhappily follow 
 them? It makes the heart shudder to think of it. And 
 above all, what of all the rosaries and supplications to the 
 blessed virgin found in all papal prayer-books, in that of 
 " the Devout Heart," the " Cord of St. Francis," &c. &c, 
 but more especially in " the Scapular of the blessed Lady 
 of Mount Carmel, a new edition of which — five thousand 
 copies — has been so lately as last year published in this 
 city, by the very Rev. Thomas Coleman, provincial of the 
 C. Carmelites ? I say, what of all those ? are they pleasing 
 to God, profitable to men, or grateful to the virgin, if she 
 can know any thing about them? or are they not the exact 
 reverse in every instance ? And what of the stories in this 
 said book, " of the blessed virgin's appearing, surrounded 
 with a great number of happy spirits, to Simon Stock, in 
 England, in the year 1251 ; of her giving him a piece of 
 brown cloth for a habit or scapular ; of the order of which 
 she made him general ; of the full pardon of sin to all duly 
 taking the habit, on the day of receiving it ; of the prayers 
 and rosaries she directed to be used in her honour ; of the 
 bulls she enjoined Pope John XIII., &c, to send forth for 
 the benefit of her servants ; of the certainty of their salva.- 
 tion ; of her going down on every Saturday to purgatory to 
 fetch any of her own out of it she might find there : and of 
 the wonderful miracles wrought by the scapular, and all con- 
 firmed by twenty-eight popes," or more, as states said book ; 
 of all this, I say, what now must be thought? Is not the 
 whole an insult to piety, and, as it regards the virgin, &c, a 
 whole heap of the most unqualified falsehoods, and, I repeat 
 it, an abomination to the blessed virgin, if she knows any 
 thing about it ? Upon the whole, has a more hideous, God- 
 provoking, idolatrous, soul-deceiving, and absurd doctrine 
 ever appeared ? 
 
 Doctor Milner's defence : Yes, pious reader, this dogma 
 has its multitudes of advocates ! But as Dr. Milner's rs so 
 famous, we shall see what he can do. And I musx affirm 
 it, if any stronger conviction of the utter enormity of this 
 
336 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 invocation business was wanted, this doctor at once supplies 
 it, inasmuch as the method, the desperate method he in its 
 support adopts, is to change the truth of God into a lie, and 
 the Creator into a creature ! But he must speak for himself. 
 He has a pompous letter (33d) upon it, full of authorities, as 
 usual, and therefore of truth, as one at first sight might 
 imagine ; but come close to it and it sinks at once. I pass 
 by his scolding, boasting, and many etceteras of the kind, 
 and come at once to the ground, — to what is tangible. He 
 wishes to persuade us, that Christ and his apostles taught 
 the invocation, which we see confessed, "that they did not 
 teach, lest Christianity should be thought to be heathen- 
 ism!" Well, passing this, we will hear him. Saith he: 
 " St. Paul requested the prayers of the saints, as Job's three 
 friends his prayers." Now, all this was on earth, and there- 
 fore by God's will ? What, then, has it to do with invo- 
 cating those not on earth ? Here, therefore, he is foiled. 
 Finding no solid place for the sole of his foot in the New, 
 he tries the Old Testament ; he fixes upon the angel of the 
 covenant, as follows : 
 
 Saith he : " That it is lawful and profitable to invoke the 
 prayers of the angels, is plain from Jacob's asking and ob- 
 taining the angel's blessing, Gen. xxxii. 26, and from his 
 invoking his own angel to bless Joseph's sons, Gen. xlvii 
 16 Joshua fell on his face and worshipped the angel, 
 Josh. v. 14. The same is plain from Rev. v. 8, where the 
 four and twenty elders in heaven are said to have golden 
 vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints." 
 What wonderful proofs ! So, then, by subverting truth, by 
 turning God into a created angel, as the patient reader by 
 turning to the passages may see, this erudite divine would 
 maintain his doctrine ! The Person whom Jacob wrestled 
 with, and to whom he made supplication, is called "a man," 
 "God," "an angel," meaning "Christ, the angel of the 
 covenant," as we shall presently see by comparing Genesis 
 xxxii. 24 — 28 — 30; xxxi. 11, 13, and xxxv. 9 — 11, together. 
 "And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob, &c. I am 
 God Almighty." See the same case in Hosea xii. 4, 5, 
 " He (Jacob) had power over the angel, and prevailed ; he 
 wept and made supplication unto Him ; he found Him in 
 Bethei, and there He spake with us ; even the Lord God 
 of hosts," &c. O doctor, where was thy blush? Farther, 
 
DK. MILNER CONFUTED. 337 
 
 says he, " Jacob invoked his own angel." But hear Jacob 
 for himself, Gen. xlviii. 15, 16, " God of my fathers — the 
 God which fed me all my life long to this day ; the angel 
 which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." Now, 
 did the doctor believe that a created angel is a Redeemer, 
 is God ? If not, did he not deliberately wrong his con- 
 science ? Only, look into Joshua v. 13, 14, and vi. 2, where 
 it is plain, that the " Prince, or Captain," — " the man," 
 whom Joshua worshipped was no created being, but " the 
 Lord" who said to him : " See, I have given into thine 
 hand Jerico, and the king thereof." Reader, what sayest 
 thou now to the doctor's honesty, who, when he could not 
 otherwise uphold his cause, desperately turns the truth of 
 God into a lie, and God into a creature? How audacious, 
 how infidel, and how desperate of heart must have been the 
 men, the divines that resorted to such a course, thus to prop 
 up their papacy ! ! ! And although thus detected and ex- 
 posed again and again, yet they blush not after all to use the 
 very same impious arguments, over and over again; for it 
 seems they can find no other track to take ! But the an- 
 cients also fall upon him, as doth his own oath too. Let 
 us hear : 
 
 Novatian saith, "If any heretic, perversely striving against 
 the truth, would, in all these examples, have us to under- 
 stand an angel property, or in this expression contend for 
 such a sense, he must assuredly in this be broken by the 
 force of truth."* 
 
 St. Cyril writes, " If the enemies of Christ deem Jacob 
 a holy man, and one endued with a prophetic spirit when 
 he spake these words, they might be well ashamed to charge 
 him with so gross ai error, as that of invoking an angel 
 with GoD."t 
 
 And St. Athanasius saith, as did St. Cyril too, " That 
 Jacob spake not to a creature, or of a created angel, because 
 he saith ' The angel that delivered me from all evils, 1 but 
 
 * Ac si aliquis hareticus pertinaciter obluctans adversus veritatem 
 voluerit in his omnibus exemplis, proprie angelum aut intelligere, aut 
 intelligendum esse contenderit, in hoc quoque viribus veritatis frangatur 
 necesse est. Novat. de Triw.it. cap. 15. 
 
 "(" Et ■7r^o<p>iTiKov ivwrctg^iiv rev rn roixura xeyovrt tvoy,o\cyciVTiv it %j>i<rro/j,*« 
 T(ct, Kit m<rreuou<rtv ovrwc aymv avfyu. ysymScLi re Ixkq>£, &C. Cyril. Alei- 
 andr. Thesaur. p. 1 1 6. 
 
33S THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 of the angel of the covenant, is manifest." Orat. 4. contr 
 Arrian. p. 260. 
 
 What the doctor says (Rev. v. 8, and viii. 4) of the twenty- 
 four elders, &c. presenting odours or prayers of saints to God, 
 is nothing to the purpose. Bede answers well, saying, on 
 the tenth verse, "Here it is more declared, That the living 
 creatures (£«>a) and the four-and-twenty elders are the church, 
 which is redeemed by the blood of Christ and gathered out 
 of the nations." Also he showeth what heaven they are in, 
 thus, " they shall reign on earth." Haymo saith just the 
 same. See Fulke in loco. 
 
 Dionysius Carthusianus writes, as doth Albertus,on Rev. 
 viii. 4, " That the catholic doctors by this angel understand 
 Christ, who is the angel of the great counsel. (Isa. lxiii. 9,) 
 and who by the mystery of his incarnation came into the 
 "world, and stood before the altar, or upon the altar of the 
 cross, in the sight of the church."* And B. Viegas, a 
 Jesuit, saith, " We may easily perceive that this angel is 
 Christ, because the thing here spoken of him can agree to 
 no other but Christ; for who but he could with so great 
 majesty offer up to God the incense, i. e. the prayers of 
 the universal church ? Who besides him is able out of the 
 perfuming pan to send down into the earth the fiery coals 
 of divine charity, and to inflame people with the burning 
 graces of the Holy Spirit ?"t With these agree Ambrose, 
 Primasius, Bede, &c. 
 
 Irenaeus saith, Ecclesia Dei nee invocationibus angelicis 
 facit aliquid, &c. " The church of God doth nothing by 
 
 * Doctores Catholici per angelum istum intelligunt Christum, qui 
 magni consilii angelus, et per incarnationis mysterium venit in mundurn, 
 stetitque ante altare, id est, in conspectu ecclesia?. Dionys. Carthus. in 
 Apoc. viii. 
 
 ■j- Nee vero recte quidam e recentioribus argumentantur, angelum 
 istum Christum esse non posse, quod Christus nunquam absolute dici- 
 tur: satis enim est ut ex consequentibus facile intelligi potest Chris- 
 tum esse, qua? nisi Christo alteri apte accommodari non possunt; cujus 
 enim alterius est universal ecclesia? incensa, hoc est, orationes in thuri- 
 bulo aureo tanta? majestatis specie patri ofFerre? Cujus pra?terquam 
 Christi fuit de igne quo thuribulum aureum erat impletum, partem in 
 terras mississe, easque divini amoris igne inflammasse ? Apparet autem 
 Christus sacerdotis personam gerens, ut ejus pro nobis apud patrem 
 intercessio atque interpellate monstratur. Vieg. in Apoc. viii. sec. 2. 
 Ambros. Sup. Apoc. Vis. 3, c. 8. Primas. in Apoc. viii. Bede, super 
 Apoc. lib 2. 
 
DR. MILNER AND INVOCATION CONFUTED. 339 
 
 the invocations of angels, but purely, simply, and openly, 
 addresseth her prayers to God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 Iren. 1. 3, c. 27. 
 
 Lactantius writes, Nullum sibi honor em tribui voluni 
 angeli quorum omnis honor in Deo est, &c. " Angels 
 will have no honour bestowed on them, because all their 
 honour is in God, and they have nothing to do but obey." 
 1. 2, c. 16. 
 
 Again, Qui supplicant mortuis rationem hominum non 
 habent. " They who supplicate the dead possess not the 
 reason of men." Insit. Divin. lib. 2, c. 18. 
 
 Once more, this father affirms, " Oratio quae no?i Jit per 
 Christum, non solum non potest deter e peccatum sed etiam 
 ipsa Jit peccatum." " Any prayer, not made through 
 Christ, cannot blot out sin, but is itself sin." Psal. 108. 
 
 The council of Laodicea, an. 364, decreed, O-tt ot>' 8so 
 
 Xpurtiavog eyxata^£L7t£Lv nl-qv txxheooav toy Qsov, &C. " That 
 
 Christians ought not to forsake the church of God, and 
 depart aside and invocate angels. If any man be given to 
 this private idolatry, let him be accursed ; because he hath 
 forsaken our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and 
 betaken himself to idolatry." Can. 139. Codex Canonum 
 Eccles. Univers. 
 
 Theodoret, on this canon, writes, c Ot rco vo(ja* ovvspywvtef 
 
 xai Tfovg ayyshovs l£J5siv avtoi<; sia^yopovvto, &C. " They who 
 
 were zealous for the law persuaded men to worship angels, 
 because, say they, the law was given by them. This did 
 they counsel, pretending humility — saying, ' that it was fit 
 we should procure God's favour by the means of angels.' 
 And because they taught men to worship angels, he, (the 
 apostle) enjoineth the contrary, that they should adorn 
 their words and works with the commemoration of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and send up thanksgivings to God, even 
 the Father, by Him, and not by angels. The Synod of 
 Laodicea also followed this rule, and desiring to heal that 
 old disease, made a law that they should not invocate 
 angels, nor forsake our Lord Jesus Christ." Theodor. m 
 Col. cap. 2. 
 
 Two points here are worthy of notice. 1 . The old disease 
 of invocating angels, &c, to which some Judaizing Chris- 
 tians were thus inclining, was just the old pagan idolatry 
 in a new guise. 2. That as the apostle pronounced 'those 
 
340 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 who added circumcision to the gospel, fallen from grace,'-— 
 or, in effect, forsaking Christ and his gospel ; so did the 
 Laodicean fathers decree those Christians, who used the 
 invocation of angels with the mediation of Christ, as for- 
 sakers of Christ and his church, and accursed. 
 
 Saith Chr) T sostom, " Why dost thou gape after angels ? 
 they are our fellow-servants. Ka-ra &tov jtai-ra rcpatrets py 
 tovs ayys'kovs sTtsLsayate. ' Do all things by God, and intro- 
 duce not angels.' Unto whom wilt thou ilee for help ? Is 
 it unto Abraham ? He will not hear thee : worship and pray 
 to Him alone who hath power to blot out thine obligation 
 (to wrath,) and to quench the flame." "It was the devil, 
 envying the honour we have of addressing ourselves to God 
 immediately, that, in order to rob us of this honour, brought 
 in ta tiov wyytiuav, the seryice of angels."* Horn. 3, on 
 Hab. c. 1 ; horn. 18 on Rom; hom. 9 on Coloss. 
 
 And, again, " When thou hast need to sue unto man, 
 thou art forced to deal with door-keepers first, and to 
 entreat courtiers, parasites, or the like, to go with thee a 
 long way about, but with God, (?7a 8s tov Qsov ovSsv toiovtov 
 Bcsfiv) there is no such thing: without money, without cost, 
 he yieldeth to thy prayer. Mark the wisdom of the woman 
 
 * The advocates of purgatory contend, That in the writings of St. 
 Chrysostom, and of other fathers, and in ancient liturgies — that ascribed 
 to St. Mark, &c. are found prayers made for the dead ; and that from 
 this, purgatory is inferred. I answer, such prayers were made, but the 
 inference is not honest! for they saw that those prayers were meant, 
 not to, but for the saints in heaven, who, they thought, however mis- 
 takenly, might still be benefited by the prayers of the church. This is 
 evident by the form of those prayers, in the liturgy of the church of 
 Constantinople, ascribed to St. Chrysostom, &c. " We offer unto thee, 
 O Lord, this reasonable service for those who are at rest in the faith — 
 our forefathers, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, and aposths, evangelists, 
 preachers, and every spirit perfected in the faith ; but especially for our 
 most holy, immaculate, most blessed lady, the mother of God, and ever 
 virgin Mary. — Remember all them who are fallen asleep in the hope of 
 the resurrection of eternal life, give them to rest where the light of thy 
 countenance presideth." Again, " Lord make the souls of thy patriarchs, 
 prophets, and apostles, &c, to rest in the tabernacles of thy saints, in 
 thy kingdom, conferring on them all the good things promised." Chry- 
 sost. torn. 6, p. 998. Biblioth. Patrum. Gr. Lat. torn. 2, p. 35. Now, 
 did Dr. Milner, &c, infer from these prayers, that the apostles and the 
 virgin were in purgatory, and also in the kingdom of God at the same 
 time \ If not, how was his inference for purgatory other than deliberate 
 dishonesty to serve a purpose 1 Shame ! 
 
DR. MILNER AND INVOCATION CONFUTED. 341 
 
 of Canaan, she doth not entreat James, nor beseech John, 
 nor come to Peter, but brake through the whole of them, 
 saying in herself, ' I have no need of such mediators, but, 
 taking repentance with me for a spokesman, come to the 
 fountain itself: for this cause did he take flesh, that I might 
 have boldness to speak to him. I have no need of any other 
 mediator. Have thou mercy on me.' " S. Chrysos. Dimiss. 
 Chan. torn. 5, de Pamit. serm. 7. 
 
 St. Augustine saith, Quern invenirem qui me reconcilia- 
 ret tibi, <fcc. " Whom can I find to reconcile me to thee, 
 O Lord ? Should I have gone to the angels, with what 
 prayer ? with what sacraments ? Many, as I hear, have 
 tried these things, and have fallen into the desire of curious 
 visions, and were counted worthy of delusions." Confess. 
 1. 10, c, 42. Again, Non sit nobis religio cultus homi- 
 num mortuorum, &c. " To worship men who are dead, 
 should not be any part of our religion ; for, if they lived 
 piously, they desire not such honours : they are to be 
 honoured for imitation." De vera Relig. c. SS. 
 
 Again, (de Civ. Dei, lib. 8,) he writes, Si rex constitue- 
 nt intercessor em, "If a king has appointed one certain 
 intercessor only, he is not pleased that any causes should 
 be brought to him by others : so, when Christ is appointed 
 our High Priest and Intercessor, why do we seek others ?" 
 How just was this reasoning of the fathers against the folly 
 »—the wickedness of seeking any mediation in the world of 
 spirits, but that of Christ only. 
 
 The ancient fathers, farther, deemed it absurd and idola- 
 try to invocate any in the invisible world save God only. 
 Saith Origen, " It is an absurdity, having that God with us 
 and nigh at hand, who filleth heaven and earth, to go about 
 to pray to that which is not omnipresent."* Clemens 
 Alex, saith, " Since God alone is good, it is reasonable we 
 should solicit him alone ; not angels or others, for the dona- 
 tion and continuance of good things," &c.t 
 
 He (Origen, 1. 5) saith on the question about angels, 
 "Although the Scriptures sometimes call angels gods, it is 
 
 * Ktottov vtti tow 7rxn^oo^oiVToc rov ov^tvov x.zi thv y»v ovroc ^wsS-' vjuav kxj 
 7rkv<rtov H/uuov ruy^uvovrc?, &c. Orig. contr. Cels. 1. 5, p. 239. 
 
 j" Eikotu; \vog ovrog tcv ciy-iSm Qzcu 7T'Jl£. oxjtov jugvw nrcev cvyxSw ict juty 
 S&M*i ta cfs 7rAg*/u.uvzi iu^o{xi^ct. >)y.uz nrt x.cti ayyiKoi, &c. Clem. Alex. 
 Strom. 1. 7, p. 721. 
 
 29* 
 
342 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 not that we ought to give them any worship ; for all pray- 
 ers, and supplications, and intercessions, and thanksgivings 
 are to be sent up to God the Lord of all, by the High Priest 
 who is above all angels, being the living Word and God. 
 For to invocate angels, seeing we comprehend not the 
 knowledge of them, which is above the reach of man, is 
 unreasonable. And suppose that the knowledge of them, 
 which is wonderful and secret, could be comprehended, 
 this very knowledge, declaring their nature to us, and the 
 charge over which every one of them is set, would not per- 
 mit us to pray unto any other but God the Lord of all, 
 through our Saviour the Son of God. We judge we ought 
 not to pray to them that pray, since they would rather send 
 us to God whom they pray to, than bring us down to them- 
 selves, or divide our praying virtue from God to them- 
 selves." "And, (lib. 8,) if Celsus will yet have us to pro- 
 cure the good will of any other, after Him who is God 
 over all, let him consider that as when the body is moved 
 the motion of the shadow doth follow it ; so, in like man- 
 ner, having God favourable to us, who is over all, it fol- 
 loweth that we shall have all his friends, angels, and saints 
 favourable to us ; so that we may boldly say, that when 
 men, who with a resolution propose to themselves the best 
 things, do pray unto God, many thousands of the sacred 
 powers pray together with them, uncalled for." 
 
 Passing by the arguments, which Dr. Milner might pos- 
 sibly not have thought on, but, with all these authorities 
 before him, which as a writer of research he must be sup- 
 posed aware of, how was it, in the first place, that he could 
 as an honest man think of upholding so entirely absurd and 
 wicked a doctrine as is invocation ? And, 2d, When his 
 solemn oath was, Nee Scripluram unquam nisi juxta 
 unanimem consensum patrum accipiam et interpretabor, 
 " Never to receive or interpret the Scripture but according 
 to the unanimous consent of the fathers," seeing his expo- 
 sitions of Scripture are in flat opposition to the fathers, 
 how doth this consist with his oath ? 
 
 I must now disclose another matter that probably will 
 startle many : it is this, that unless the particular saints in- 
 vocated have not been duly canonized by the pope, &c, 
 and proposed as real saints to be worshipped, the wor- 
 shippers may be worshipping the damned ! Hear Bellar- 
 
LYING WONDERS AND MIRACLES. 343 
 
 mine: "Unless certain saints judged such by the church be 
 set forth to be worshipped, it might readily happen that the 
 people may often so far err, as to worship the damned in- 
 stead of saints."* This is something of moment. Here 
 is another grade of papal power. But how are the people 
 to know if the pope had power to canonize any as saints, 
 or if he did so truly ? So, then, the people may be wor- 
 shipping the damned — the devils ! But it has been proved 
 all such invocation is an abomination to all heaven! 
 
 With regard to prayers offered up to saints, angels, the 
 blessed virgin, and even to inanimate things, such as the 
 cross, &c, with rosaries and all the like, which I have 
 proved to be an abomination to all the saints of God, I shall 
 not spend my time reciting them here ; they are found in 
 all their books. I shall now close with just observing, 
 that as the papal world is filled with this doctrine, so have 
 I been the more particular in developing it. And I trust it 
 is now proved that the prominent character of idolatry, and 
 that consisting of various sorts, doth pre-eminently belong 
 to the pontiff of the seven hills. 
 
 12. False Miracles — Lying Wonders. "Then shall 
 that wicked one be revealed, whose coming is according to 
 the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and 
 lying wonders."\ "And he doth great wonders, and de- 
 ceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by means of those 
 miracles which he had power to do." Rev. xii. 14. 
 
 * Nisi judicio ecclesise certe sancti proponerentur colendi, facile pos- 
 set, ut populus sfepe erraret, et damnandos pro beatos coleret. Bellarm. 
 de Sanct. Beat. cap. 7, § Sed. 
 
 j- "There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show 
 great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive, if possible, even the 
 elect." Matt. xxiv. 24. "And then shall that wicked one he re- 
 vealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall kill by the spirit of his mouth, and 
 destroy with the brightness of his coming." 2 Thes. ii. 8, 9. "And I 
 saw from the mouth of the dragon, and from the mouth of the beast, 
 and from the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs, 
 for they are the spirits of devils working signs, (miracles,) and they 
 go forth," &c. Apocalypse xvi. 13, 14. "And I saw another beast 
 u>me up out of the earth, having two horns as a lamb — and he seduced 
 them that dwell on the earth, for the signs which were given him to 
 do." Apoc. xiii. 11 — 14. "And the beast was taken, and with him the 
 false prophet who wrought signs before him, — these two were cast 
 alive into the pool of fire burning with brimstone." Apoc. xix. 20. 
 Rhemish. 
 
S44 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 A DEMONSTRATION THAT NO TRUE MIRACLE HAS BEEN 
 WROUGHT IN THE CHURCH OF ROME, IN ANY PART OF THE 
 
 WORLD, FOR MANY AGES PAST 
 
 1 ! ! 
 
 1. Every pope and priest is sworn, " That the gospel is 
 divine truth, and that all doctrines opposed to it are ac- 
 cursed — are lies, and that God cannot lie, nor uphold a lie, 
 but shall cast all liars into the lake of fire." But the pope's 
 mission, dogmas, and church, having been for many ages 
 past, and still being opposed to the gospel, are necessarily 
 false ; and every pope and priest being bound to believe, 
 that God could not work a miracle to uphold falsehood, 
 and overthrow his own truth ; therefore every pope, pre- 
 late, and priest is conclusively sworn, that in the church of 
 Rome has no divine miracle been wrought for many ages 
 past, in any part of the world ! ! ! 
 
 2. And it is also conclusive, that as they at*e sworn, That 
 (as every miracle not divine is false) all the miracles claimed 
 to have been wrought in their church these many ages past, 
 were either lying wonders and frauds on mankind, or were 
 of Satanic agency. I maintain it that their oath incontes- 
 tably binds them to all this ; and, consequently, that no man 
 not an idiot — no informed pope, prelate, or priest — has be- 
 lieved, or can believe, that any true miracle has been 
 wrought in the church of Rome for many ages past, in this 
 or in any part of the world ; and, hence, all such advocates 
 of miracles in their church were conclusively and necessa- 
 rily guilty of wilful deception. 
 
 The pope's claim to supremacy, or being head of all 
 Christian churches, being flatly opposed to Christ, who 
 forbade any such supremacy or headship among his apos- 
 tles, or in his church, therefore, on pain of exclusion from 
 the kingdom of God, (Matt, xviii. 1 — 3,) his mission and 
 that of his clergy must, of course, be necessarily opposed to 
 Christ, and consequently be antichristian ; and, added to 
 this, having incontestably proved a heap of false doctrines 
 and idolatries against the pope and his clergy, which, age 
 after age, they were bound by oath to maintain to their 
 latest breath, the minor is proved. Hence our conclusion 
 is firm, that God never granted any miracle to make those 
 falsehoods pass for divine truths. 
 
 Now, as divine miracles attested the sacred religion of 
 God, taught by Mosas and Jesus Christ, and the divinity 
 
LYING WONDERS AND MIRACLES. 345 
 
 of their mission to establish it : so did this man of sin resort 
 to the expedient of miracles and lying wonders, as did the 
 Egyptian magicians, (Exod. vii. viii.,) to attest the divinity 
 of his dogmas, and his authority, to the unthinking multi- 
 tudes, exactly as the divine predictions, below written, had 
 testified he would do. The question now is, Can any 
 church be found at this day that hath a supreme head, false 
 dogmas, and idolatries ; and that lays exclusive claim to 
 miracles, age after age, for attestation of her exclusive divi- 
 nity ? In reference to the former, that the church of Rome 
 hath them, is proved unquestionably ; and with regard to the 
 latter, that she claims miracles exclusively, is too notorious 
 to be denied : instance her " golden legends," " Lives of 
 Saints," "Breviary," "Scapular," "Books of Contro- 
 versy," &c, &c. The cases of such miracles, in constant 
 succession, and which would be sufficient to fill volumes, I 
 shall pass over, selecting just a few by way of specimen ! ! ! 
 In the "Breviary," which every priest must in his office 
 (to make him familiar with such matters, of course) daily 
 read for nearly two hours, are many miracles recorded as 
 done by the saints. Of which one, on May 2d, is, " That 
 a very beautiful horse being lent by a certain noble lady to the 
 pope to ride on, the animal, as if conscious of the honour 
 of having carried the Vicar of Christ, would never suffer her 
 to ride him after. So that she had to return him to the pope." 
 Another miracle is, " That of a saint, whose head being nearly 
 cut off by some wicked persons, he lived two days, and car- 
 ried it in his hands two miles across the country, and laid it 
 down where a church was afterwards erected." Another is 
 that of " a monk, St. Francis de Paula, who on his cloak, with 
 several monks thereon, at night crossed the strait of Sicily, 
 as on shipboard." I shall take but one more from the Bre- 
 viary. "Angels carried the house in which the blessed Vir- 
 gin lived, from Jerusalem, through the air, to the coast of 
 Dalmatia, and thence to Loretto, in the pope's dominions, 
 where they laid it down. The Rev. Blanco White has this 
 in his book. The Scapular tells : " At the battle of Teffin 
 a cannon-ball shot off the side of the belly of an officer who 
 wore the scapular ; but that being in mortal sin, and wearing 
 the scapular, he could not die in that state, but lived four 
 hours, until he wrote his will, made his confession, and 
 received absolution ! That when the surgeon came after 
 
346 THE LATTER-DAT APOSTAST. 
 
 wards to examine him, he found, to his utter astonishment, 
 the scapular he had worn lodged in his heart, having been 
 driven into it by the cannon-ball." Mr. Thayer tells us. 
 " That his conversion was greatly expedited and confirmed 
 by the many miracles wrought by the relics of the late 
 venerable Labre, the noise of which had filled all Rome !" 
 But the next pope, it appears, with the court of Rome, dis- 
 covered that all these miracles were mere impostures, and 
 ordered the word venerable to be effaced from his tomb- 
 stone. So, then, Mr. Thayer was converted by imposture ! 
 Dr. Milxer shall be our last to trouble our readers with. 
 This famed controvertist has two long letters (23d, 24th) 
 vindicating his church's miracles. But we shall take the 
 liberty of demolishing them, and all that went before for 
 ages, as in a trice. For, can miracles that support any doc- 
 trines opposed to Christ's doctrine be of God ? "Would 
 God overthrow himself? If not, ail such miracles were 
 either Satanic or lying wonders. This touches the point at 
 once. With regard to what the doctor says of the miracles 
 of Moses and Christ, and of the defence of them by the 
 ancient fathers, all this no true Christian denies. But his 
 object was to set those of his church on the same basis ; or, 
 in other words, to make east and west one and the same ! 
 He states many miracles by his saints, not one of which, it 
 shall presently appear, he by any means believed ! He 
 tells us, " That Michael Pelliser, at Saragossa, having had, 
 in 1610, his leg amputated, obtained by his prayers the stu- 
 pendous miracle of a new natural leg in its place !" If this 
 does not out-Herod Herod, let all men judge. "St. Ber- 
 nard, it was notorious, cured instantaneously the lame, the 
 blind, the paralytic, of whom some were persons of consi- 
 derable rank." " St. Xaverius foretold future events, spoke 
 unknown languages, calmed tempests at sea, raised the 
 dead. He, to convince some careless, obstinate people, bid 
 them open the grave of a corpse buried the day before, and 
 that he would show them what he could do : they did so. 
 When, falling upon his knees, and praying to God to 
 restore it to life, the dead man was instantly restored to life 
 and perfect health, which caused all the country round to 
 receive the faith ! !" St. Dominick, to prove the truth of 
 the Catholic religion, cast a book containing it into the 
 flames, where it remained unconsumed in the presence of 
 
LYING WONDERS AND MIRACLES. 347 
 
 the heretics." Here are bouncers with a witness, enough 
 for the whole world ! But he proceeds : " The following 
 century was illustrated by the attested miracles of St. 
 Francis of Sales, even to the resurrection of the dead : as it 
 was also by those of St. John Francis Regis, concerning 
 which twenty-two bishops of Languedoc wrote thus to 
 Pope Clement XL: ' We -are witnesses that, before the tomb 
 of S. J. F. Regis, the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf 
 hear, the dumb speak ;' and ' that the very dust of his tomb 
 is carried into all the provinces of the kingdom, as an uni- 
 versal remedy for all disorders,' " adds Whitak. Com. 
 Apocal. p. 240. " Himself was well acquainted with four 
 or five persons miraculously cured, and well attested. 
 Joseph Lamb, of Eccles near Manchester, was, on October 
 2d, 1814, healed in an instant of a broken spine he had got 
 by a fall, and made him a cripple, by signing the sign of the 
 cross on his back by a hand, preserved at Garswood near 
 Wigan, belonging to F. Arrowsmith, a Catholic priest exe- 
 cuted for the exercise of his religion at Lancaster, in the 
 reign of Charles I." " Mary Wood was instantly healed 
 of an incurable contraction in her arm, occasioned by a 
 dreadful laceration, by the intercession of St. Winifred and 
 a piece of moss from the saint's well applied to it." 
 Winifred of Wolverhampton was miraculously cured at 
 Holywell, on June 28, 1805, of a curvature in the spine, 
 of three years' standing, by her devotions on the occasion, 
 and bathing in the fountain, so that in an instant she was so 
 perfectly freed from all her pains and disabilities, as to be 
 able to walk, run, and jump like any other young person. 
 Of this, soon after it happened, I published a detailed ac- 
 count, which was republished in England and Ireland, by 
 Keating and Brown, London, and Coyne, Dublin. 
 
 " Such are the miracles which frequently took place in 
 the Catholic church, in attestation of her being divinely ap- 
 pointed, but never among the heretics ! !" 
 
 Here I close with the doctor's miracles, for the present: 
 and before I bring my proofs that no informed man ever 
 believed a sentence of them, and of course, neither did he, 
 I leave it to the candour of every reader, if they do net, on 
 the face of them, carry their own condemnation, as mere 
 frauds on ignorance ? 
 
 But could stories of this description, and with great devo 
 
34S THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 tion, too, and ability blazoned forth, as indubitably attested, 
 in public pastorals throughout this kingdom, by Doctors 
 Doyle and Murray, so lately as three years ago, in reference 
 to the miraculous cures of Miss Ma r ia Lalor, of Roskelton, 
 near Maryborough ; and Mrs. Stewart, of Ranelagh con- 
 vent, near Dublin ; I say, could stories of this sort have 
 convinced us of the pre-eminency of the claims of the church 
 of Rome, we need not have gone farther ! Dr. Doyle told 
 us, in his pious Pastoral, that he knew the case of Mary 
 Lalor' s lamentable dumbness ; that Dr. Smith, of Montrath, 
 having lost hope of her himself, went to Dublin, and had a 
 consultation with eight physicians on her case, who all pro- 
 nounced her incurable. That then he, in pity to, and at the 
 request of her distressed father, Mr. Lalor, wrote to the 
 very Rev. Prince Hohenlohe, of Bamberg, to implore his 
 aid and prayers on behalf of this amiable and afflicted lady. 
 That he received a gracious answer, That attending to cer- 
 tain prescribed devotions she might, through God's infinite 
 mercy and goodness, expect assuredly to be healed on 
 such a day and hour, while the adorable sacrifice of the 
 mass was celebrated. That on that very day and hour, she 
 was instantly and miraculously healed, and could speak 
 plainly, breaking forth in loud praises to God ; and that he 
 himself saw her afterwards, and conversed with her freely, 
 and had the whole narrative from her own mouth. 
 
 Such another was the incurable state of Mrs. Stewart, in 
 reference to wasting ulcers, who had been attended by the 
 most eminent physicians, Dr. Cheyne, and others, but to 
 no purpose: that the most Rev. Dr. Murray, of Dublin, in 
 the last extremity, made similar application to his highness 
 of Bamberg, and succeeded similarly, so that in one mo- 
 ment, while the venerable sacrifice was celebrated, she was 
 restored to perfect soundness, and all her ulcers were dried 
 up. And all this rang through the nation, in a luminous 
 pastoral from this prelate, as a fresh attestation of the divine 
 favour to his suffering church, and as an encouragement 
 from heaven to Catholics to be in nothing dismayed. Added 
 to these we v^re noticed to expect similar miracles at the 
 beginning of every subsequent month. 
 
 But, lo ! and behold, the whole was proved most notori- 
 ous, arrant frauds. For Dr. Smith, surprised at the use 
 so audaciously made of his name, made public oath, that he 
 
R. C. BISHOPS ON MIRACLES CONFUTED. 349 
 
 never in his life saw this girl, Mary Lalor, but once ; nor 
 ever consulted any doctor in Dublin, or elsewhere, about 
 her. Dr. Murray's case met with such another expose, for 
 Dr. Cheyne and the others who attended Mrs. Stewart 
 visited her after the miraculous cure was announced ; and 
 made their affidavits openly, " That in four days after her 
 alleged miraculous cure, they had visited her, found some 
 of her ulcers or issues freely discharging, her pulse as high 
 as one hundred and twenty, and her so entirely weak, as to 
 be unable to walk into the garden." What miracles ! what 
 lying wonders! How bishops, men of respectability in 
 society, could lend themselves to such gross impostures, 
 and, being thus detected, yet lift up their heads and look any 
 man in the face, is passing strange. But it is in character 
 with the rest. And where priests are to stop, when their 
 bishops thus show the way, who can tell? Thus were 
 these miracles, by closely watching them, silenced at once. 
 The arch-juggler also, " Prince Hohenlohe, was visited but 
 lately by the lightning of Almighty God, which burned his 
 palace to the ground !" So was it announced in the public 
 prints. These men appear to expect their people must be- 
 lieve the sun is darkness, if they tell them so. I am w^ary 
 of reciting such abominations : yet in vindication of the t)i- 
 vine predictions, which "have so faithfully warned us of such 
 stratagems, to delude us, and for the public good, I feel 
 obliged to bring them to the light. 
 
 First. We are taught by the sacred Scripture, to the 
 divinity of which this clergy are sworn, "That the pagan 
 magicians resisted Moses, his miracles, and divine mission, 
 and by their sorceries and enchantments wrought miracles, 
 turning their rods into serpents, the waters into blood, and 
 bringing up frogs on the land, like as did Moses." — Exod. 
 vii. viii. God also warns us, That the man of sin — the 
 false prophet, and his false prophets, would, by the aid of 
 devils, work such miracles and lying wonders to subvert 
 the gospel religion, as would deceive multitudes, even the 
 elect, (the best Christians,) if possible. Matt. xxiv. 24; 
 Rev. xvi. 13. See Acts viii. 9, 10; xiii. 6 — 10. 
 
 2d. We also find in the first ages of Christianity the hea 
 then claiming miracles, as wrought by the agency of then 
 daimonia, or inferior gods. " Those," saith St. Augustine- 
 
 30 
 
350 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 " which we call angels."* Saith Celsus, of his gods, 
 " How many being troubled that they had no children, have 
 by them enjoyed their wishes ? How many being maimed 
 in body have been healed by them?"t Saith Cecilius, 
 
 * Hos si Platonici malunt Deos quam dsemones dicere, eisque annu- 
 merare quos asummo Deo conditos Deos scribit eorum auctor et magister 
 Plato : dicant quod volunt, non enim cum eis de verborum controversia 
 laborandum est — quamvis nominis controversia videatur, hoc ipsum 
 dicunt quod dicimus. August, de Civ. Dei, 1. 9, c. 23. " If the Plato- 
 nists prefer calling those intercessors gods, rather than demons, and to 
 number them with those whom their head and master, Plato, writes to 
 have been made gods by the supreme God, let them call them what they 
 please, for we must not contend with them about words : although there 
 seems to be a dispute about the name, they say the very same thing 
 which we say." " They call them, virtutes et ministeria Dei magni, 
 ayyiKoi, &c. ' The powers, ministers, messengers of the great God, ad- 
 vocates, intercessors, pararii, obtainers of our suits. They bring the 
 prayers of men unto God, and {quae pos cunt impetratd) what they beg 
 and obtain, they {illhic referunt impetrata) thence bring back to men.' " 
 Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 9, c 18. 
 
 That the heathen distinguished their intercessors into two classes, 
 namely, demons or gods, and good men, is clear from the old Roman 
 law, as stated by Cicero. Dlvos, et cos qui coelestes semper habiti 
 colunto ; et illos quos in coelum merita vocaverunt. "Let them wor- 
 ship the gods, even those always in heaven, and also those whose merits 
 exalted them to heaven." Cicer. de Legib. 1. 2. St. Paul, taking the 
 words of Aratus, the heathen poet, "We are his offspring," (i. e. Jupi- 
 ter's,) saith to the heathens, "This God whom you ignorantly worship 
 declare we unto you, God who made the world and all things therein." 
 Hence he looked on their Jupiter as the true and living God. 
 
 Pliny whites, Quisquis est Deus, totus est sensus, totus visus, totus 
 auditus, totus artimae, totus animi, totus sui, &c. " Whoever God is, he 
 is all sense, all sight, all hearing, all soul, all mind, all of Himself, or all 
 independent." Hippocrates, and many other heathens have written the 
 same; yet, though they thus believed of the true God, angels, and saints, 
 in common with Christians, but under other names, Jupiter, gods, de- 
 mons, &c, the inspired apostle pronounces " their sacrifices, and sup- 
 plications, and worship to their gods, (presented, as they thought, to 
 the one true God, and from whom they conceived they had obtained 
 many benefits and miracles,) as sacrifices offered to devils, and not to 
 God." And why he thus pronounced, was clearly this: because, as 
 neither God, nor his Son, Christ, ever taught such devotions towards 
 angels or departed saints, so are they human inventions, taught by 
 Satan's temptations, and therefore were most properly called " sacrifices 
 to devils," with which Christians should have nothing to do. 1 C?r 
 x. 20. How alarming ! if this will not cure men, what can ? 
 
 &&»r*v, &c. Apud Orig. 1. 8, 407. 
 
R. C. BISHOPS ON MIRACLES CONFUTED. 351 
 
 "They (the demons) give~us caution in dangers, medicine 
 in diseases, hope to the afflicted, help to the miserable, com- 
 fort in calamities, ease from labours."* "In vain do you 
 arrogate so much to Christ, (say they,) for we have often 
 known that other gods have given medicine to, and healed 
 the infirmities of many."t All which benefits they con- 
 ceived they had obtained through the prayers they had 
 offered them. Saith Celsus, rtpoasvxTfsov wa svjxsvscs cotrc. 
 "We ought to pray to them to be propitious to us." — Apud 
 Orig. 1. 8, p. 394. Saith Plato, psta 8s tovtovs xai v7to i?ovtoi$ 
 l%r\e, Aat^tovoj, &c. 1. " They, the (demons) gods ought to be 
 honoured with our prayers, by reason of their laudable pro- 
 vince, i. e. to be our intercessors to God: 2. To carry up the 
 sacrifices and prayers of men to God, and bring back the 
 commands and answers of God to them." Epinom. p. 1010. 
 
 Apuleius writes, " All things are done by the will, ma- 
 jesty, and authority of the heavenly beings, but by the mi- 
 nistry, work, and obsequiousness of the demons.";}: Is not 
 this paganism, exact popery 1 
 
 That the heretics also believed they obtained many mira- 
 culous gifts from God, through their saints, is testified by 
 the fathers. Saith St. Augustine, writing against Petilianus, 
 a Donatist heretic, "Let him not say, that therefore they 
 were in the right, because that Portius, or Donatus, or any 
 other did such and such miracles, or because men praying 
 at the memorials of our martyrs are heard, and because such 
 and such things do happen there," &c. 
 
 " For, either the things are not true which are spoken, 
 or if some false miracles be wrought by heretics, we ought 
 to be more careful, because our Lord Christ having said, 
 that there should come deceivers who should work such 
 miracles as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect ; 
 he adds, by way of vehement warning, this, ' Behold I have 
 foretold you.' Whence the apostle also admonishing us, 
 saith, ' Now the Spirit expressly teacheth, that in the latter 
 
 * Dant cautelam periculis, morbis medelam, spem afflictis, opem 
 miseris, solatium calamitatibus, laboribus levamentum, &c. Minut. Fel 
 p. 7. 
 
 f Frustra tantum arrogas Christo, cum ssepe alios sciamus Deos, et 
 laborantibus plurimis dedisse medicinas, et multorum hominum morboa 
 valetudinesque curasse. Arnob. 1. 1, p. 28. 
 
 i Cuncta coelestium voluntate, numine, et a.uctoritate fiunt, sed de- 
 monum obsequio, opere, et ministerio. Apul. de Daemon. Socrat. p. 45. 
 
352 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seduc- 
 ing spirits and doctrines of devils."* 
 
 Again, "Whatever signs of this nature are done in the 
 Catholic church, are they therefore to be approved because 
 done there? The church is not for this proved Catholic 
 because these miracles are done in her. They may not 
 demonstrate that they hold the Catholic church, otherwise 
 than, divinarum Scripturarum canonicis libris, by the 
 canonical Scriptures."! Again, De visis auiem fallacibus 
 legant quse script a sunt, et quia ipse Satanas se transfigu- 
 rat tanquam angelum lucis, §c. "In regard to false vi- 
 sions, let them read what things are written ; and because 
 Satan himself transformed himself into an angel of light and 
 deceived many, let them also hear what the pagans tell of 
 the wonders done by their gods, and at their temples." 
 Contr. Petil. Donat. 
 
 Again, " Let them, if they can, demonstrate their church, 
 not by the talk and rumours of Africans, not by the councils 
 of their bishops, not by the books of their disputers, not by 
 deceitful miracles, against which we are cautioned by the 
 word of God, but in the prescript of the law, in the predic- 
 tions of the prophets, in the verses of the Psalms, in the 
 voices of the Shepherd himself, in the preaching and works 
 of the evangelists — that is, in all the canonical authorities 
 of the sacred Scriptures." De unitat. Eccles. c. 16. 
 
 Tertullian writes, Quibusdam signis et miraculis et ora- 
 
 * Non dicat verum est quia hoc ego dico, aut quia hoc dixit ille col- 
 lega meus, aut ille episcopi aut clerici vel laici nostri ; aut ideo verum 
 est quia ilia et ilia mirabilia fecit Donatus, vel Portius, vel quilibet alius. 
 Aut quia homines ad memorias mortuorum nostrorum orant et exaudi- 
 untur, aut quia ilia et ilia ibi contingunt, aut quia ille frater noster aut 
 ilia soror tale visum vigilans vidit ; removeantur ista vel figmenta men- 
 dacium hominum, vel portent a fallacium spiritum : aut enim non sunt 
 vera quae dicuntur, aut si hsereticorum aliqua mira sunt facta, magis 
 Cavere debemus quod cum dixisset Dominus, quosdam futuros esse fal- 
 laces, qui nonnulla signa faciendo etiam electos si fieri posset fallerent, 
 adjecit vehementer commendans et ait, Ecce praedixi vobis ; unde et 
 apostolus admonens, Spiritus manifeste docet quia in novissimis tem- 
 poribus recedentquidam a fide intendentes spiritibus seductoribus et doc- 
 trinis dsemoniorum, &c. Lib. de unitat. Eccles. cont. Petil. Donat. 
 
 f Qusecunque talia in Catholica fiunt, ideo sunt approbanda quia in 
 Catholica fiunt? Non ideo manifestatur Catholica quia ha?c in ea fiunt; 
 utrum ipsi ecclesiam teneant, non nisi divinarum Scripturam canonicis 
 libris ostendant. Ibid. p. 117. 
 
R. C. BISHOPS ON MIRACLES CONFUTED. 353 
 
 cutis jidem divinitatis operator. " By certain signs, and 
 miracles, and oracles, did they obtain to be reputed divine, 
 i. e. to be gods." Apol. c. 21. 
 
 St. Chrysostom, speaking- of deceivers, saith : Kat yap 
 
 £xs~voi 7toVka 7toKka,xL$ 8ta tf^s avtyji ■t£%vq$ voayj/xata <X7tr{kM<xv, 
 
 &c. " They often by their skill have cured diseases, and 
 restored to health those that were sick : What, should we 
 for this partake with them in their iniquity?" ^ ysvotto. 
 " It must not be— God forbid."* 
 
 EusebillS saith : Taj tyv%as xcu fas £v$£Ov$ x<xi aacofiatov^ 
 dvvafi£i$ 60 q>av%ob 8cu l uov£$ xa^vrte xpivovto Sia rtoXX^j t^j 
 
 t*pato7toi£ta$, &c. " The wicked demons counterfeited, in 
 working many miracles, the souls of them who were de- 
 ceased, and thence they were thought worthy to be cele- 
 brated with greater veneration." Prse. Par. 1. 5, c. 2. 
 
 " Of Philostrogius," saith Whitby, (on Romish Idolatry, 
 p. 203,) " What can be more glorious than what he records 
 of Agapetus, his fellow-heretic, That he wrought many 
 miracles, raised the dead, and healed many that were sick, 
 and converted many to the Christian faith. "t "And of 
 Theophilus, another brother Arian, That his wonders were 
 so great, and were such convincing demonstrations, Tap 
 %ptcfT?ov TtitfitLv a{ia%ov ?7tt5ft|a/xfvoj, &c, of the Christian faith, 
 as to constrain the obstinacy of the Jews, and put to silence 
 all their contradictions."! 
 
 Here is something for Doctors Milner, Murray, Doyle, 
 and their fraternity to contemplate ! I wonder could they 
 outstrip those pagans, and those heretics, in their exploits? 
 Need we go farther than the incontestable evidence thus 
 before us, not only from pagans and heretics, but from God 
 himself by his unerring word, and from the ancient fathers, 
 too, that miracles have thus been wrought by deceivers of 
 various descriptions? And we are warned that the same, 
 even great miracles, and lying wonders, would, through 
 the aid of devils, be practised by the false prophets of the 
 man of sin, (Rev. xvi. 13. Matt. xxiv. 24,) in order to oppose 
 
 * Chrysost. torn. vi. lib. 20, p. 375. 
 
 j" Tligt Ayjuryircu tcw avyl&QtTmtw — PSfcgsWff ncv civtov ctv xmrat \ryii x,tt 
 7r:K\&v axkoov 7rz&w wy*J&vrriv yivscrd-cu x.11 ek-img*., ovfxw ctKhx. xxi 7ra.g4.- 
 J.Zu'v zxhcM ggi5)v Sy,/j.t'ju^yov km toUsuc 2£ iWmctv &ic rov ^ttrTHtviruov 
 fwr%<r*%#r§a tt^kj-kwitxi, &c. Philost. Hist. Eccl. 1. 2, •§ 8, p. 14. 
 
 * Idem. 1. 3, § 4, p. 27. 
 
 30* 
 
354 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 the gospel of Christ, and, if possible, subvert those, who 
 faithfully follow it, and turn them to diabolical idolatries and 
 superstitions. 
 
 We now take leave to ask the papal clergy, how may 
 false miracles be with certainty distinguished from those 
 that are divine ? Whether are miracles to give character to, 
 or receive it from doctrines ? This touches the point at once. 
 If miracles always stamp divinity on the mission and reli- 
 gion they come to support, then were heathen magicians 
 and their idolatries divinely accredited, as were these here- 
 tics, and the man of sin : for all these resorted to, and, it 
 was predicted, would resort to miracles. But, if to affirm 
 that those miracles were divine attestations, would be blas- 
 phemy; then miracles must ever receive their character 
 from the doctrine they uphold, and not the doctrine from 
 them. Hence, if the doctrine be pure, the miracles attest- 
 ing it must be divine, as were those of Moses, and of Christ 
 and his apostles. But if the doctrine be impure, if it be 
 opposed to the gospel, its miracles must ever be of the devil, 
 lying wonders. This point is now settled forever, finitum 
 est. 2. As Christ declares, "That a corrupt tree cannot 
 bring forth good fruit," and as every drunkard, every im- 
 moral pastor, and every teacher of doctrines opposed to 
 Christ and his gospel, are confessedly false and corrupt, 
 where any of this description are found professed workers 
 of miracles, of wonderful cures, we again ask, must it not 
 necessarily follow, that all their wonders are by the aeency 
 of the devil, or frauds on credulity? Irishmen! think on 
 this, if ye would escape Satan. 
 
 3. When professed pastors of the church of Christ are 
 teachers of doctrines opposed to the gospel, and are ob- 
 served resorting to miracles to attest their mission as divine, 
 are not such miracles, we once more inquire, the very pre- 
 dicted signs and lying wonders of the man of sin and of his 
 church, whose coming is according to the working of Satan, 
 and with all seduction of iniquity? But the pope and his 
 church are found teaching many doctrines opposed to the 
 gospel, as has been just proved, and also most exultingly 
 boast of multitudes of miracles, exclusively, as bright attes- 
 tations of divine favour; therefore, the conclusion is una- 
 voidable, that these very miracles and wonders, the po;;3 
 and his church claim, exclusively, as their peculiar glory, 
 
NO TRUE MIRACLE IN THE R. C. CHURCH. 355 
 
 are the very predicted signs and lying wonders of the man 
 of sin, pointed out as by the finger of God himself: so " that 
 he ihat runs may read." 
 
 In sum: We now entreat this clergy to speak out and tell 
 us, in the presence of God, Do they indeed believe that the 
 miracles of the magicians, or other heathens, or of heretics, 
 or of the predicted man of sin and false prophet, or, in fine, 
 of any found opposing the gospel, were divine ? or were 
 other than of the devil, or lying wonders ? Now, if they 
 must believe they were such ; and that our Lord did for- 
 bid supremacy among his apostles, and of course in his 
 church, on pain, of perdition,* and has anathematized all 
 doctrines opposed to the gospel ;t they must then necessa- 
 rily believe that God has never granted any true miracle to 
 attest his approbation of such supremacy or dogmas. But 
 the pope's supremacy began in the year 606, and has been 
 held with all possible assiduity to this day, that is, during 
 twelve hundred and twenty-one years past, and it is proved 
 that he and his church teach many doctrines and idolatries 
 in direct opposition to the gospel. Since then no pope or 
 priest durst say, that God ever granted a miracle to uphold 
 false dogmas, and idolatries, or contradict his own truth, it 
 must follow, therefore, that my former conclusion is im- 
 movable, namely: "That no informed pope, prelate, 
 OR priest ever can, or did believe, that, during these 
 
 ■TWELVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE YEARS PAST, ANY DI- 
 VINE MIRACLE HAS BEEN WROUGHT IN THE CHURCH OF ROME, 
 IN THIS, OR IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE WORLD ; AND THAT 
 ALL THE MIRACLES SAID TO HAVE BEEN WROUGHT IN HER, IN 
 ALL THOSE AGES, WERE OF Satan's IMMEDIATE WORKING, OR 
 WERE LYING WONDERS AND IMPOSTURES OF WICKED MEN," 
 
 resorted to, to deceive mankind, and seduce them to cease 
 from the gospel, and therefore to forsake Christ, become 
 followers of the man of sin, and promote his doctrine and 
 kingdom on earth, as was so accurately predicted. If, after 
 this exposure of these false dogmas and miracles, men will 
 abide in such a church, and suffer themselves to be deceived, 
 and will refuse the warning voice of God, saying, " Go out 
 of her, my people, that ye receive not of her plagues, for her 
 sins have reached to heaven, and God also hath remembered 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 1, 3 ; xxiii. 8—10. Luke xxii. 24—26. 
 f Gal, i. 8. Rev. xxii. 
 
356 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 her iniquities." Apoc. xviii. I say, if they take not this 
 warning, are they not desperately resolved to partake of her 
 plagues, and of the wrath of God forever ? 
 
 The excellent Dr. Stillingfleet shall close this article, say- 
 ing: "After the true doctrine is confirmed by divine mira- 
 cles, God may give the devil power to work, if not real 
 miracles, yet such as men cannot judge by the things them- 
 selves whether they be so or not ; and this for trial, whether 
 we will forsake the true doctrine confirmed by greater mi- 
 racles, for the sake of such doctrines as are contrary thereto, 
 and are supported by false prophets, by signs and lying 
 wonders. Now, in this case, our rule of trial must not so 
 much be the miracles considered in themselves, whether real 
 or not : as the comparing them with the miracles wrought 
 in behalf of that doctrine which is contrary to that which is 
 divine. 
 
 " Therefore God's people, under the law, were to examine 
 the drift and scope of the miracles: and if they were in- 
 tended to bring them away from the doctrine of heaven, to 
 idolatry, they were forbidden to hearken to them, whatever 
 they were. Deut. xiii. 1, 2, 3. So now under the gospel, 
 the worship of the true God, through Jesus Christ, and by 
 the doctrine revealed by Him, is the standard whereby we 
 ought to judge of all pretenders to miracles: so that let the 
 miracles be what they will, if they contradict that doctrine 
 which Christ revealed to the world, we are to look upon 
 them only as trials of our faith in Christ, to see whether we 
 love him with our whole heart or not." Orig. Sacrae, lib. 2, 
 c. 10. And accordingly we look upon such miracles as 
 trials,* whether we will forsake Christ, and give his wor- 
 ship to a creature. Turn to p. 111. 
 
 * A document, the decrees of a synod held in Tuam, (Co. Galway,) 
 by my countryman, Dr. Oliver Kelly, A. Bishop, in May, 1817, and ap- 
 proved in Rome, by the Propaganda College, on May 30, 1825, signed 
 by Petrus Caprano, secretary, now lies before me. The eighth decree 
 is: "0?nnis sazerdos sive regularis sive secularis qui f also morborum 
 curat iones sibi ascribit, et evangella super populum irreverenter vel in- 
 honeste legit publice vel privatim? &c. "That any priest, or monk, 
 falsely becoming a worker of miraculous cures, and that publicly or pri- 
 vately, irreverently, or deceitfully, reads gospel over the people, or any 
 other rites or prayers, to obtain money or other matters, must hold him- 
 self, ipso facto, suspended, and, by these presents, is declared such." In 
 super ut hxc cleri opprobria e medio prorsus tollantur, <&c. " More- 
 
NO TRUE MIRACLE IN THE R. C. CHURCH. 3 57 
 
 13th mark. Believing a Lie.* — As it appears plain, that 
 all these epithets: "Beast, lamb with two horns, false 
 prophet, man of sin sitting in God's temple, son of perdi- 
 tion, antichrist," must mean the same person, with his coa- 
 lition, in his several characters ; 1st. In his regal, or that of 
 beast, or king, that he is the chief of all tyrants. 2d. In 
 his spiritual, of lamb, false prophet, antichrist, &c, that 
 he is, of all the wicked and false apostles that ever lived, the 
 most consummate hypocrite, the greatest propagator of false 
 doctrines, the most corrupt of all sinners And as Judas, 
 who retained his apostleship, and called Christ master, and 
 even kissed him while yet he was betraying him, and was 
 therefore the son of perdition ; so, he retaining his episco- 
 pal dignity, and claiming to be successor of the "prince of 
 apostles" pretending to the highest sanctity, "most holy" 
 and highest veneration for Christ, even to be his "sole vicar 
 on earth" all the time he was abrogating or corrupting his 
 doctrines, and slaughtering his servants who stood in their 
 defence, and thus emphatically betraying him and his cause ; 
 I say, so is he also called by the Holy Ghost, the son of 
 perdition. And as this man was eminently the wicked one. 
 
 over, that these scandals of the clergy may be entirely removed, we 
 earnestly counsel all parish priests, and such as have the charge of souls, 
 diligently to guard their people against (tales abusus) such frauds." 
 
 This proves that the principal clergy are getting ashamed of this 
 miracle trade, which even open drunkards are found dabbling at. Yet 
 it goes on, and dupes are not wanting to crowd to these, thus acknow- 
 ledged, impostures. Yet they serve the work of the apostasy in some 
 sense. For whenever they find any foolish Protestant come to be cured 
 by a miracle, the first thing is, to promise " he will go to c-hurch no 
 more ;" that is, " he will attend no more where God's book is read." 
 For to object to one edifice more than another, would be unmeaning, 
 unless on this ground. But to promise not to go to hear God's book 
 read, and to go to mass, where it is not read, is to promise to refuse to 
 hear Christ, and to forsake him, and to become a false worshipper and 
 idolater ! Therefore the profane priest, by his lying wonders, deceives, 
 and fulfils the prediction. 
 
 * "Because they received not the love of the truth that they might ba 
 saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion to 
 believe a lie, {lying; Khemish,) that they all might be damned who 
 believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thess. 
 ii. 10 — 12. That is, God gave the gospel of truth to save men; but, 
 neglecting this, and taking pleasure in the false doctrines and false mira- 
 cles, or lying, of the man of sin, and cleaving to them, they incur tlio 
 wrath of God, and bring on themselves damnation ! 
 
358 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 so must that predicted LIE be, of all lies that ever appeared, 
 the greatest and most pernicious. But how shall that greatest 
 lie be known? Answer: Should a man be found declaring 
 upon oath, that he has power from God to do what Christ 
 himself could not do, — should prevail upon great numbers 
 of learned doctors to join him in the same oath, binding till 
 death on each of them, and to be perpetuated from age to 
 age on their successors forever, and finally, seducing whole 
 nations, and many, too, to believe the same and submit to it, 
 would not this be the greatest and most ruinous lie that ever 
 appeared? and therefore that predicted lie? 
 
 In a word, as every false doctrine is a lie, when all the 
 dogmas combatted in these sheets are proved opposed to 
 the gospel, and are notorious lies, of course, must not that 
 creed that teaches them be therefore the greatest lie pos- 
 sible ? But of all the false dogmas of this creed, transub- 
 stantiation is chiefest ; therefore, of all lies, it is the greatest ; 
 hence it is that predicted lie ; and hence it required miracles 
 unnumbered to colour it over, if possible. 
 
 Now, let us ask, has any lie comparable to this, so per- 
 nicious to Christianity, so prolific of such multitudes of 
 other lies, as its natural offspring, and so sanguinary, as 
 having caused so many of the human race who resisted it 
 to be murdered, and which daily involves its own ministers 
 and people in so many absurdities, falsehoods, blasphemies, 
 and idolatries, been ever known or heard of? If not, if the 
 fellow to it never, before or after it, has appeared, this, 
 then, is confessedly that very predicted LIE, which is so 
 gross it could not have been believed, except by the influ- 
 ence of " strong delusion," as the Holy Ghost doth most 
 fitly express it. To the papacy, therefore' — to the "man 
 of sin" alone, does this doctrine, this mark, most clearly 
 belong. The very stating of the evils of this dogma is so 
 shocking to my feelings, that nothing but a sense of duty to 
 my God, whom it dishonours, and to my fellow-men, 
 whose ruin it so evidently threatens, could induce me to 
 make it. 
 
 But, again, when those dogmas and miracles are so very 
 emphatically set forth by God himself, as of the working of 
 Satan, assisting the wicked man in corrupting the world, 
 and when it is pronounced, That all such as love not the 
 truth of God, the gospel, but love such false miracles and 
 
THE BEAST DESTROYS THE SAINTS. 359 
 
 tying wonders shall perish, and, in just judgment, be given 
 up to strong delusion to believe lying, (as saith the Rhemish 
 Testament,) that they all might be condemned, or damned, 
 who receive, not the love of the truth that they might be 
 saved, but had pleasure in unrighteousness ; should not all 
 whom it concerns, or who have hitherto been seduced by 
 these evils, be alarmed, and, according to the divine warn- 
 ing, cast them off forever, that they perish not ? 
 
 14th mark. Persecution of the saints by the beast 
 
 AND DRUNKEN WOMAN, AND THE TEN HORNS. "Alld I Saw 
 
 the woman drunken with the blood of the saints."* God 
 himself most clearly forewarns us of a dreadful combina- 
 tion by the beast, the murderous woman, and ten horns, to 
 intoxicate mankind, by false dogmas, miracles performed 
 by false prophets and devils ; by fables, and numberless 
 artifices, that the nations drinking of this wine of delusion 
 might be drunken and mad, even so mad as to look on the 
 gospel — the way of truth, as dangerous and evil; and, dis- 
 regarding its authority, and its Divine Author of course, 
 might without scruple wonder after the beast and his harlot, 
 i. e. the man of sin and his church. But the prediction 
 says, " That the saints — -those who keep the command- 
 ments of God, and the testimony — the gospel of Jesus, 
 would not yield to the beast ; and that when they could not, 
 by all these frauds together, be seduced from Christ, they 
 must be reduced by force to obedience, or this wicked 
 woman be made drunken with their blood. To make war, 
 then, with those faithful followers of the gospel, is evidently 
 
 * "And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by the means of 
 those miracles which he had power to do." "And the ten horns which 
 thou sawest are ten kings — these have one mind, and shall give their 
 power and strength unto the beast: these shall make war with the 
 Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them." "And I saw a woman sit 
 upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven 
 heads and ten horns. With her the kings of the earth committed for- 
 nication — and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the 
 wine of her fornications. And the woman was arrayed in purple and 
 scarlet colour, and upon her forehead was a name written : Mystery, 
 Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." 
 Rev. xiii. to xvii. 
 
 " There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in 
 damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them — And many 
 shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth 
 shall be evil spoken of." 2 Pet. ii. 
 
360 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 to make war with the Lamb. What woman and beast are 
 they, we ask, which, from age to age, have been destroying 
 and wearing out the saints of Christ, by wars, crusades, 
 inquisitions, and by every other possible artifice, to our 
 day? Who can be so ignorant of history as not to know, 
 that the pope and his church are they ? What bloody 
 records have we not, not only from Greek and Protestant 
 writers, but also from Roman Catholics — Dupin, Thuanus, 
 &c. &c. ? How many millions of the Albigenses and Wal- 
 denses, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, have been 
 slain ? And, O ! horrible to tell, in England, Scotland, Ire- 
 land, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, nay, and in all the 
 Christian nations, what myriads of innocent Christians have 
 been massacred, burned, tortured by inquisitions and other 
 modes of torment, banished and destroyed altogether, be- 
 cause they would not submit to the pope and his doctrines, 
 but would cleave to those of Christ alone ! It makes one's 
 heart ache to think on it ! What obligations and oaths have 
 been laid on all the kings around, "to extirpate these poor 
 souls, these heretics" as they artfully called them ; and 
 also on all bishops to exterminate and persecute them ! 
 Need we advert to documents? Alas! they are written ia 
 blood, in all the nations ! ! Mr. Mede, from indubitable 
 authority, affirms that in about thirty years 150,000 were 
 destroyed by the Inquisition, and by the Jesuits 30,000 ; 
 and the Duke of Alva boasted that 36,000, in his territories, 
 had been despatched by the common executioners ! ! 
 
 And when we consider, and our astonished eyes behold 
 the creeds, canons, and oaths framed and rigorously 
 enforced by the papacy, whose decrees, however cruel or 
 sanguinary, must be looked upon as infallibly dictated by 
 the Holy Ghost, [synodo in Spiritu Sancto legitime con- 
 gregata,) what but such horrifying slaughter and butchery 
 of the saints, whom the papal church designated heretics, 
 could be expected in every nation under papal influence ? 
 Take the following few terrible specimens of the decrees 
 of papal councils : "All princes, magistrates, and civil 
 authorities," saith the council of Lateran, "shall swear to 
 extirpate faithfully, and with all their might, all their sub- 
 jects pronounced heretics by the church, from every part 
 of their territories ; which should they neglect to fulfil, their 
 
THE BEAST DESTROYS THE SAINTS. 361 
 
 subjects are absolved from their obedience."* This dread- 
 ful decree was confirmed by the council of Constance, sess. 
 45 ; and by the bull of Martin V. De Error. Wickliff. 
 
 Say the Toledo fathers, "We promulgate this decree, 
 that whosoever shall hereafter succeed to the kingdom, 
 shall not ascend the throne, till he has sworn, among other 
 oaths, to permit no man to live in his kingdom who is not 
 a Catholic ; and if, after he has taken the reins of govern- 
 ment, he shall violate this promise, let him be anathema 
 maranatha in the sight of the eternal God, and become fuel 
 to the eternal fire."t See the oaths on the clergy, in the 
 Forma Fidei: and that on the bishops, in the Appendix, 
 thus : "Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord 
 the pope, and his successors, I ivill to the utmost of my 
 power persecute and destroy." The kings — the ten horns, 
 and the secular and regular clergy — the two-horned lamb, 
 being thus sworn to the papacy, how could it be otherwise, 
 but that the blood of the saints should be poured out as 
 water on every hand. 
 
 Add the decree of the council of Tours, under Pope 
 Alexander III. Ne ubi, &c. " No man must presume to 
 receive or assist heretics, nor in buying or selling have any 
 thing to do with them, that being thus deprived of the com- 
 forts of humanity, they may be compelled to repent of the 
 error of their way." And in the council of Lateran, under 
 the same pope, "Ne quis eos in Homo" &c. " None 
 must presume to harbour or in anywise cherish them in 
 their nouses, or on their lands, or have any traffic with 
 them." Tom. 4, p. 504. See also the Bull of Pope Mar- 
 tin V., "Ne hsereticos," &c, in the same awful strain. 
 Saith Robert Hoveden, " So dutiful (like other princes) 
 was our William the Conqueror to the pope, that he would 
 not suffer any one of his subjects to buy or sell any thing 
 whom he found disobedient to the apostolic see." 
 
 " The pagan dragon, Dioclesian," says Mr. Mede, 
 "made just such another edict in his time, viz. 'That no 
 man must sell or administer any thing to the Christians, 
 unless they had first burnt incense to the gods.' " Justin 
 
 * Pro defensione fidei prsestat juramentum quod de terris suae juris- 
 dictionis, subjectos universos hsereticos ab ecclesia denotatos, bona fide 
 pro viribus exterminari studebunt," &c. IV. Con. Lat. cap. 3. 
 
 + Caranza, sum. Cone. p. 404. 
 
 31 
 
362 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 Martyr in his hymn tells us, " They were not permitted to 
 sell any thing, or draw water, until they had offered incense 
 to detestable idols." 
 
 Thus did the two-horned beast — or two descriptions of 
 papal clergy, united as one, to support the papal doctrine 
 and power — speak like the heathen dragon, as saith the pro- 
 phecy, Eev. xiii. 11, and gave his power to the regal and 
 spiritual papal beast, to make war against the saints of all 
 kindreds, and tongues, and nations, to overcome them. Ver. 
 7, 17, and ch. xvii. That is, the old dragon, Satan, that 
 filled the heathen emperors, called dragons, with his own 
 murderous spirit against the saints, the followers of the 
 gospel, infused the same, with dreadful increase, into the 
 papal dragon, who, " coming after the working of Satan, 
 with all power, and signs, and deceivableness," attained, 
 as spiritual head, by his artifices, to infinitely more than 
 imperial power ; for, by the grand device of private confes- 
 sions and absolutions by his numerous clergy, he reached 
 the minds of all, and for this same end, even the destruc- 
 tion of the saints, and the promotion of worse than the 
 old — the former idolatry. And what they (the popes and 
 their clergy) did, in thus reducing all orders and degrees of 
 men to a state of such servile subjection, no man of the 
 least reading can want to be informed. Even kings and 
 emperors did not escape ; instance our King John, whom 
 the monks actually whipped, and who had to send his royal 
 crown to the cardinal, till he, after detaining it as long as 
 he liked, was pleased to restore it to him ; and the case of 
 the Emperor, Henry IV., of Germany, also, who had to 
 stand with a blanket about him, and barefoot, for three days, 
 trembling in the cold at the pope's gate, to sue for his 
 mercy, &c. &c. 
 
 And that the popes, these emperors of emperors, did 
 claim it as their undoubted prerogative, as fathers of all 
 Christians, to set up and pull down kings and emperors at 
 will, the following bull of Sixtus V., (once a poor pig-boy!) 
 against our Queen Elizabeth, will be specimen enough. 
 »« He who reigneth on high, to whom all power is given, 
 in heaven and earth, hath committed the one, holy, Catho- 
 lic and apostolic church, out of which there is no salvation, 
 to be governed with plenitude of power, by one only on 
 earth. This one he hath constituted a prince over altna- 
 
THE BEAST DESTROYS THE SAINTS. 363 
 
 ttons, and all kingdoms, to pluck up, waste, destroy, plant, 
 and build. Supported by his authority, who hath seen fit 
 to place me, however unequal to such a charge, in this 
 supreme throne of justice, I pronounce and declare in the 
 plenitude of my apostolical authority, the said Elizabeth 
 laid under a sentence of anathema ; deprived of all right and 
 title to her kingdom; her subjects absolved from all oaths 
 of allegiance to her : and those who obey her, in the like 
 sentence of anathema."* Kett's Hist. p. 23, see p. 311. 
 
 * Let us now, for confirmation of all this hear Pastorini (Dr. 
 Walmsly) once more. Saith he, " The angel that promised St. John 
 (Apoc. xvii. 7) to explain the mystery both of the woman and the 
 beast, tells him, ' The beast which thou sawest was, and is not, and 
 shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into destruction. The 
 seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sitteth ; and 
 they are seven kings : five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet 
 come; and when he is come, he must remain a short time. And the 
 beast which was, and is not, the same also is the eighth, and is of the 
 seven, and goeth into destruction.' Behold a very mysterious explica- 
 tion of a mystery. The beast, or the Roman idolatrous empire, was, 
 that is, existed for a term of time, then, is not, or exists not as the 
 empire of idolatry, but is become a Christian empire, Constantine the 
 Great having expelled idolatry from the Roman empire, and established 
 Christianity in its place. But, ' the beast shall come up out of the bot- 
 tomless pit, and go into destruction ;' that is, the Roman idolatrous 
 empire will rise up again under antichrist from the bottomless pit ; and 
 Satan will revive idolatry, chiefly by means of that wicked man, anti- 
 christ, who will become master of the ancient Roman dominions. ' And 
 the inhabitants of the earth shall wonder, seeing the beast that was, and 
 is not, and yet is ;' that is, the world will be struck with amazement at 
 seeing the idolatrous Roman empire reappear, which had been de- 
 stroyed." Very true, Dr. Walmsly ; the idolatrous Roman empire has, 
 indeed, reappeared, and the enlightened part of the world behold it with 
 wonder and horror. 
 
 But we shall hear him farther. "St. John saw a woman drunk 
 with the blood of the saints, and of the martyrs of Jesus ,• this harlot 
 sat upon many waters, that is, as saith the angel to him, on many king- 
 doms, states, and countries, over which she ruled. And ' she sitteth on 
 seven mountains,' which is to say clearly, the seven mountains or hills 
 on which ancient Rome was built. This same woman is further said to 
 carry on her head this inscription : 'A mystery ; Babylon the great, 
 the mother of the fornications and abominations of the earth. 1 She 
 appears dressed in purple and scarlet, and gilt with gold and precious 
 stones and pearls. The imperial lady is thus decked out in riches, and 
 pride, and purple — the usual robe of the Roman emperors, and scarlet, 
 showing her stained with the blood of the martyrs. But, who is this 
 inhuman woman? this impious Jezebel, and cruel persecutrix, that 
 
364 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 This shows that the papacy is that beast with ten horns, 01 
 that ruled over the ten kings, which helped him to destroy 
 the saints. 
 
 I say, when not only the vast body of the secular clergy 
 of all grades, and the many orders of monks, Jesuits, Domi- 
 nicans, Carmelites, &c, &c, that swarmed overall countries, 
 (all in zeal vieing with each other to promote the glory of 
 their head,) but emperors, kings, and princes, with their 
 magistrates, and other officers, were thus bound by oi|h to 
 root out of their territories, dioceses, parishes, &c, all here- 
 drenched herself with so much Christian blood which she hath spilt, 
 that she appears drunk with it ? Who is she, but (as tells the angel) 
 that great city that hath kingdom over the kings of the earth, idola- 
 trous, persecuting Rome ? This woman being ihe image of the city of 
 Rome, the beast on which she sits very naturally represents the Roman 
 empire, (under antichrist.) And as the woman was styled, ' The mo- 
 ther of fornications and of all the abominations of the earth, conse- 
 quently Rome was represented the seat and centre of idolatry ; and in 
 like manner by the beast is the Roman empire represented as the empire 
 of idolatry. The colour of the beast is scarlet, an emblem of his san- 
 guinary disposition : and is full of blasphemous names — the greatest 
 indignity that could be offered to the majesty of the Supreme Being. 
 
 "This great harlot, with whom the kings of the earth committed for- 
 nication, and the inhabitants of the same were made drunk with the 
 wine of her whoredom, even the delusions of idolatry with which her- 
 self had been intoxicated, was elevated to such an unparalleled degree 
 of power and grandeur, as raised her to such a height of admiration in 
 the eyes of all nations, that they viewed her with the utmost deference 
 and respect, and readily embraced whatever superstition she herself fol- 
 lowed or recommended. She had, moreover, the disposal of kingdoms, 
 governments, riches, and dignities,' what wonder then, if, with such 
 charms, she debauched the kings and people of the earth?" Pastorini, 
 pp. 114— 117,5th edit. Dublin. 
 
 Than this, from this famous Roman Catholic advocate, what, in every 
 i'ine, in every feature of it, can possibly be more fully and clearly de- 
 scriptive of the pope, and his church and city, and of the great riches, 
 together with the vast power and influence he and she once possessed in 
 all the surrounding nations of the earth, and of their readiness to follow 
 any superstitions or idolatries he wished ? And when his account of the 
 time of the first appearing of this chieftain of iniquity, as taken from the 
 divine prediction and the fathers, that it would happen on the fall of the 
 Roman empire, (see p. 301,) is considered, who, not an idiot, can be at 
 a moment's loss to see that the popedom is the very thing, and the only 
 thing that ever appeared, that meets all he thus states? What he 
 throws in, of his appearing not to the end of the world, and then for only 
 three and a half years, is but a ruse to cast dust into men's eyes, to serve 
 an end. 
 
369 
 
 accursed the gospel, and Christ, and his apostles, and the 
 blessed virgin, and all his people forever. What a clergy ! 
 what a creed ! what a church ! 
 
 2. All Protestant clergy teach contrary to the Trent creed, 
 and, therefore, (according to the priests' oath,) the way to 
 damnation.' Now, all such teachers are of course the worst 
 enemies of mankind, the worst of murderers and robbers, 
 and are ministers of the devil ; and therefore should be de- 
 tested by all Christians, and be in conscience suppressed, 
 and, with their adherents, rooted out as soon as possible ! 
 And the whole of them, with their gospel, books, &c, are 
 the Roman Catholic clergy, the bishops especially, bound 
 by solemn oath, damnare, to condemn, abhor, reject, and 
 hold accursed, and therefore to devote to extermination 
 whenever practicable, or that it can be safely done. Now, 
 is not this the very language of the notes 1 Yes, to a tittle. 
 Hence both are one, and hence did the clergy deduce them 
 from the creed as its legitimate offspring. If the creed, 
 then, is divine, so are the notes ! but if " the notes be mur- 
 derous and damnable, and should be denounced by Mr. 
 O'Connell and every Roman Catholic in Ireland," nay, on 
 earth, so is the creed the same ; and so are all the cate- 
 chisms, books, and clergy that teach it the same ; and of 
 course should be abhorred, and instantly and openly de- 
 nounced by all Roman Catholics in Ireland and on earth. 
 This reasoning can no artifice overthrow. These sangui- 
 nary notes, creeds, catechisms, and clergy, must stand or 
 fall together. And as no pope, prelate, or priest in his 
 senses can believe that any murderous, damnable creed is 
 of God, or that any man can have a mission from him to 
 teach it, so can none of them possibly believe the Trent 
 creed is of God, or that from him its teachers have any 
 mission ; or that it is other than the satanic source of innu- 
 merable mischiefs to mankind ! And, lastly, as this wicked 
 creed is the very faith of the pope and his church, most 
 conclusive is it then that he is the predicted head, or beast, 
 and she the woman, the very "woman sitting on the beast, 
 and made drunken with the blood of the saints." 
 
 15th mark. Number of his Name. — St. John (Rev. xiii. 
 18) declares, " The number of his name is 666." Figures 
 not having been then, nor till the tenth century known, men 
 reckoned by letters. St. John wrote in Greek. Irenaeus, 
 
370 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 who lived in the second century, affirmed, " That the nu- 
 merical letters in his name would make this number." The 
 annotators of the Rhemish Testament, on Rev. xiii. 18, 
 admit this. The words of Irenaeus are, " Sed et Aatswos, 
 nomen habet numerum 666, et valde verisimile est, quo- 
 niain novissimum regnurn habet hoc vocabulum, Latini 
 enim sunt qui nunc regnant" &c. "The name Lateinos 
 contains the number 666, and this is most like truth, be- 
 cause the last kingdom hath this name, for they are Latins 
 who now reign; but in this we will not glory." Irenaeus, 
 1. 5, c. 30, p. 449. 
 
 When he beheld that the great city on seven hills was so 
 accurately described by the Holy Ghost as the seat of the 
 apostasy, he asserted Rome to be that city, and that the 
 Greek term "Aatnvo$," Latin, which is peculiarly hers, 
 contains the very number: A = 30, a=l r ^ = 300, «=5, 
 t =10, v =50, o=70, 5=200, total 666. Also the Hebrew 
 title "Romiith," Roman beast or kingdom, doth the same 
 exactly: i?=200, o = 6, ??i=40, z = 10, 2 = 10, th=400, 
 total 666. The pope's Latin title affords the very number, 
 "Vicarius generalis Dei in terris," "GocVs vicar-general 
 on earth:" F=5, *=1, c=100, a=l, w=5, 1=50, 2=1, 
 d=500, 2=1, z = l, 2=1, total 666.* Most singular! ! ! 
 
 This, from Irenaeus, is far from inconsiderable ; " truly 
 this coincidence," saith Bishop Newton, " is even remark- 
 able, and the Romish church to this hour, it is worthy of 
 notice, is Latin in every part of her service, and this lan- 
 guage, and no other, she enjoins on those of her communion 
 in all nations, in their worship, as the note and mark of her 
 dominion." And Mr. Pyle asserts that no other word in 
 any language can be found to express both the same num- 
 
 * Whereas Satan's masterpiece, the mystery of iniquity, a thirst for 
 human glory, mixed up with religion, and its very bane, began to show 
 itself even among the apostles, saying, " Lord, who shall be greatest?" 
 &c, (Matt, xviii. xx.) but which Christ reproved, assuring them, that 
 unless they were converted from it, they should never see the kingdom 
 of heaven ; and since God foresaw all this evil mystery would lead to, 
 and in his infinite wisdom and goodness warned mankind of it, and 
 of all its diversified features and seat, most astonishing is it, and alarm- 
 ing, too, that the chief agents in it, and who own that any system of 
 religion opposed to Christ is pagan, is antichristian, nor can deny theirs 
 is such, and also see it connected with the other predicted marks, do r t 
 take the divine warning ! 
 
371 
 
 ber and the same thing. Though Bellarmine demurs against 
 Irenaeus and his calculation, because of the Greek letter s 
 being put into Aattswos, yet it alters not the case ; for, let 
 the s be even given up, and what this father had in view, 
 even the seat of the predicted apostasy, the Latin beast or 
 kingdom still contains in its numerical letters the number 
 666. For, as by the term beast in holy writ a kingdom or 
 a king in succession is designated, (Dan. vii. 17,) these 
 great beasts are four kings; ver. 23, the fourth beast shall 
 be the fourth kingdom on earth, Rev. xiii. xvii.) so, the 
 predicted "man of sin," having a twofold kingdom, is 
 called a beast in a twofold sense, — the one in reference to 
 his secular kingdom, Rome and its states, in common with 
 the other kings, the ten horns, his coadjutors in persecuting 
 the saints of God ; the other to his spiritual kingdom, which 
 he claims as of divine right, as sole successor to Peter, 
 prince of the apostles, over the whole Christian world. In 
 regard to this vast spiritual kingdom, he is denominated the 
 beast, as having a beast with two horns like a lamb — two 
 powerful armies of clergy — the secular and the regular, ab- 
 solutely sworn to promote and maintain with all their might 
 his religion and dominion in every place. 
 
 By these two horns, stoutly maintaining that he is 
 Christ's sole vicar, and they his only true followers, he 
 deceived the nations, and is therefore called the false pro- 
 phet: and because of the bulls which he fulminated, the 
 idolatries he taught, and the cruelties which he practised by 
 their aid, he spoke as the dragon, Dioclesian, or Nero. In 
 this twofold compound kingdom, is comprehended every 
 character belonging to this wonderful and awful apostasy, 
 viz., "Beast upon seven mountains, two-horned beast, 
 man of sin, false prophet, antichrist, scarlet whore, drunken 
 with the blood of the saints, number of a man, number of 
 his name," &c. And "to both these kingdoms respectively 
 (as saith the learned Adam Clarke, in loco) is the name 
 fj Aa-twvj paaasia, applicable. And no other kingdom on 
 earth but this 4 Aatwrj tiaaaeia, Latin beast or kingdom, 
 contains this said predicted number, 666. Thus, ^=8, 
 A=30, a=l, *=300, t=10, i>=50, ^=8, j3=2, a=l, 
 o=200, t =10, a,=30, *=5, t=10, a=l, total, 666. Here 
 then is (oo^ta) wisdom, or demonstration ; let him that hath 
 (vovf) mind or understanding, count the number of his name ; 
 
372 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 it is the number of a man. The man of sin presiding in the 
 temple or church of God, invested with two Latin kingdoms 
 of a totally different nature, yet both uniting, aided by the 
 ten secular, and two spiritual horns, to propagate, with fell 
 diligence, idolatry and many other false doctrines, as doc- 
 trines of Christ, thus to banish gospel truth and Christ's 
 kingdom from the earth, and fill it with corruption, hypo- 
 crisy, priestcraft, and papal dominancy: and also pouring 
 out the blood of his servants for their rejection of, or oppo- 
 sition to such iniquity. 
 
 16th mark. False God, Anticiifjst, opposing and 
 blaspheming Jehovah, &c. — We have examined various 
 characters of the predicted apostasy ; its false dogmas, mira- 
 cles, church, murders, &c, but, to complete the picture, we 
 now have its god to attend to ; whose designations are, 
 " Revolter, wicked one, man of sin, son of perdition, beast, 
 false prophet, antichrist, god," <fcc. — " \Yhose coming is 
 xar' svspysiav tov Sahara sv Swauei, according to the energy 
 of Satan, with all power," Sec, that is, this being is a wicked 
 man, and revolter from the faith or gospel of Christ, who, 
 by Satan'' s working in and for him, with all earnestness, 
 is lifted up to become god, above God, and opposed to 
 Him ! He is thus lifted up by the dragon, the two-horned 
 lamb, and ten horns of the beast, to sit, i. e. to abide long, 
 in the temple of God. 
 
 1. The dragon — the heathen chieftain, Phocas — the mur- 
 derer of his emperor, Mauritius, and usurper of his throne, 
 exalts the Bishop of Rome, Boniface III., to the pinnacle 
 of the temple — as supreme over the whole Christian church, 
 even as was predicted, Kat aBoxsv avta 6 Spaxw t^v Sviauiv 
 
 atrov, xai t'ov ^tpovov avtov, xai f|or5tav /j.sya?.rv. "And the 
 
 dragon gave him his power, (to maintain him in his supre- 
 macy.) and his throne, (in Rome, the seat of the emperors,) 
 and vast authority," (all over the empire,) all which was 
 continued, with great increase too, to each Bishop of Rome, 
 by the succeeding potentates, Lewis the Pious, Pepin, 
 and Charlemagne. (See p. 304.) 2. The two-horned lamb, 
 the vast body of the secular clergy, and of the monks, in 
 name Christian, in voice, like the dragon, that is, in doc- 
 trine, idolatrous, enhanced his authority in all the nations ; 
 and, 3. The ten kings of those nations supported him and 
 them. The two-horned beast, by their multifarious arti 
 
THE MOCK-GOD — ANTICHRIST. 373 
 
 fices, procured that he should be the image of the imperial 
 beast, in reference to a temporal kingdom, together with 
 having, as spiritual head, imperium in imperio, a kingdom 
 in every other kingdom also. 
 
 But, farther, on his demise, they instantly filled up his 
 place, by lifting up another to it. " This they did by (their 
 cardinals, in latter days) electing, clothing with pontifical 
 robes, crowning, and placing on the altar, the man of their 
 choice, and then kissing his feet ; which ceremony is called 
 adoration, as appears in the medals of Martin V. where 
 two stand as crowning the sovereign pontiff, and two kneel- 
 ing before him, with this inscription, Quern creant adorant, 
 "Whom they create they adore." Thus is he at once, 
 from being, perhaps, some insignificant individual, (such as 
 Sixtus V.) made a god, sitting in the temple of God, — the 
 head of all power, and principle of unity to the ten king- 
 doms, causing, as far as he is able, all who dare dispute his 
 supremacy to be slain." (See Newton on the Prophecies.) 
 Being now invested and elevated to be head of all power, 
 and, by the council's decree, " his church the mother and 
 mistress of all other churches,"* "he shows himself as god, 
 sitting in the temple of God," affirming, " that without obe- 
 dience to him, from the emperor to the peasant, none can 
 be saved. "t " He exalteth himself above God also, and 
 blasphemeth Him and his tabernacle." First he showeth 
 himself as God, by counterfeiting Him. Qod sends forth 
 his law and gospel, and servants to preach them, declaring, 
 that without obedience to them none can be saved : he sends 
 
 * Ecclesia Romana aliarum ecclesiarum mater est et magistra. Con. 
 Trid. sess. 7, cap. 3. On the portico of St. John de Lateran's great 
 church in Rome, is inscribed, we are told, the following distich: 
 
 Dogmate papali datur simul imperiali 
 
 Ut sim cunctarum mater et caput ecclesiarum. 
 
 " By pope and emperor is this decree, 
 
 That I the head, the mother church must be." 
 
 -f- Dicimus, definimus, pronunciavimus absolute, necessarium ad salu- 
 tem omni humanae creaturae subesse Romano pontifici. " We say, we 
 define, we have pronounced it absolute, that it is necessary for every 
 hum„.l creature, in order to salvation, to be subject to the Roman pon- 
 tiff." Extrav. Unam Sanctam, &c. Bellar. lib. 3, c. 2 — 5, de Eccl. 
 Mil. noster autem. — Corp. Jur. Can. decret. par. 2, q. 7, dist. 21, C 
 Quamvis. 
 
 32 
 
374 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 forth his preachers, church-laws, and Trent creed, declar- 
 ing, " That without obedience to them none can be saved." 
 God searches the heart, forgives sins, and makes men saints 
 by his word and grace. The false god searches the heart 
 by confessions, forgives sins by indulgences, and by his 
 clergy's absolutions, sacraments, &c, and canonizes saints 
 to be invocated. God appoints the seventh day for divine 
 worship ; he appoints his holidays for his worship. God 
 gives two sacraments : he gives seven. God sent forth 
 Christ born of a woman, the blessed virgin, as the bright- 
 ness of his glory, and the express image of His person, to 
 be adored by men and angels : the false god sends forth his 
 Christ, made of a wafer-cake, and also of wine, to be 
 supremely adored by the faithful, on pain of damnation, 
 &c, &c. This being the essence of his worship, is his 
 glory, and his image — "The image of the beast." See 
 God's decree, Rev. xiv. 7, " That all who worship the 
 beast or his image, or shall receive his mark in his forehead 
 or in his hand," i. e. all who shall follow this false god, this 
 beast, and his worship, publicly or privately, " shall be cast 
 into the lake of fire." Who, not mad, will after this adore 
 the wafer or papal Christ ! 
 
 2. This false god " exalteth himself above, and opposeth 
 himself to Jehovah." God who cannot lie, could not there- 
 fore make what was made already, nor make a man at the 
 same instant visible and invisible to the same person, nor 
 him to be the natural son of a woman that never was born 
 of her, nor work any self-contradiction ; but this mock God 
 can do all these things, as can his priests. For, though 
 Christ was born more than 1800 years ago, yet they can, 
 they say, make him every day, and in all parts of the world ; 
 and though made of a wafer, make him to be the son of 
 the blessed Mary, and insist that he was invisible to his 
 apostles in the eucharist, though visible and talking with 
 them, &c. <fec. 2. " He can dispense against and above 
 the law and gospel of God," and of course the priests are 
 above all men and angels. See p. 247, 257, 311. Hence, 
 he is either above God, or is the most diabolical of blas- 
 phemers ! ! ! 
 
 3. He opposeth himself to God. God delivered his ten 
 commandments, warning all men to observe them, and 
 neither to add to, nor diminish aught from them forever 
 
THE MOCK-GOD ANTICHRIST. 375 
 
 But this man of the seven hills disarranges them, casting out 
 the second, and the fourth mostly, the part of it that saith, 
 "six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work;" splits 
 the tenth into two, and sets up image-worship and holy- 
 days in flat opposition to the two taken away ! The Holy 
 Ghost pronounces all accursed, " who shall take from, or 
 add any doctrine to the gospel." But this mock god and 
 his clergy have and teach a multitude of dogmas and idola- 
 tries which these sheets combat : nay, they are sworn to 
 do so all their days ! Again, Christ preached his gospel to 
 the multitudes, to the poor, to all, without restriction or dis- 
 tinction. His apostles did so, and he commanded it to be 
 so done by his servants all days, to the consummation of 
 the world: pronouncing him that readeth his words, and 
 those who hear them, and keep them, blessed. But this 
 blessed example, and all this hearing and reading of God's 
 word, is most vehemently opposed by the counterfeit god 
 and his clergy, who insist it must not be allowed. 
 
 For this opposition, I shall select one of his most strenu- 
 ous servants, Dr. Milner. He spends seven elaborate let- 
 ters, seventy-eight pages, in his End of Controversy, to 
 show by many arguments the danger of taking the gospel. 
 th° Scriptures, as a safe rule of faith, or guide to salvation. 
 O desperate ! But we shall spoil his whole work of iniquity 
 as in a moment. In a word, we shall make it as clear as 
 noonday that he did not believe himself! For the man 
 who knowingly contradicts himself, cannot possibly believe 
 he is telling truth. Now to our work. 
 
 1. He writes, (letter viii. p. 37,) "If Christ had intended 
 mankind should learn his religion from a book, namely, the 
 New Testament, he himself would have written that book — 
 whereas he wrote nothing at all ; it does not even appear 
 that he gave his apostles any command to write the gospel" 
 In same, (p. 46,) "I remarked, that he, our blessed Master 
 and Legislator, Jesus Christ, wrote no part of the New Tes- 
 tament himself, and gave no command to his apostles to 
 write it." 
 
 But hear him, in same letter and next page, (p. 37:) "No 
 doubt the evangelists were moved by the Holy Ghost in 
 writing their respective gospels ! ! !" Again, (letter x.) 
 "True it is, that, during the execution of their commission, 
 lie, our blessed Master and Lawgiver, Jesus Christ, inspired 
 
376 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 some of his apostles, and of their disciples, to write the 
 canonical gospels and epistles." Ibid. "All Scripture is 
 given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 
 for reproof, for instruction in righteousness" &c. ! ! ! 
 Again, "True it is, as Augustine saith, the Scriptures them- 
 selves cannot deceive us." 
 
 This is enough ! Who can now say that Dr. Milner 
 believed himself that he wrote truth ? or that he did not, as 
 it were, kiss Christ, calling him "blessed Master and Legis- 
 lator," and belie him in the same breath ? saying, " He 
 gave no command to his apostles to write the New Testa- 
 ment," and yet owning, " He inspired them to write it?" 
 And, he says, "Christ did not intend we should learn his 
 religion from the gospel," and yet, "He caused it to be 
 written by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and it is profitable 
 for doctrine and instruction in righteousness, andean deceive 
 no man." And after all, " It is no safe rule of faith or guide 
 to salvation." Shame ! But the church, the church, she 
 is the guide ! Is there no blasphemy here ? But we have 
 not done with him yet. 
 
 We shall now read him a still more terrible lecture, if 
 possible ! We shall ring him a peal that shall make every 
 ear that hears it tingle ! His oath binds him (and all 
 priests) "that the gospel is infallibly true, and that every 
 thing opposed to it is false and accursed." The gospel 
 (Matt. vii. 24) testifies, that Christ said, " Whosoever 
 heareth the sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken 
 him to a wise man that built his house upon a rock," i. e. 
 " he shall be infallibly saved." Now, what infallibly saves, 
 is a sure guide to salvation, and of course is a sure rule of 
 faith. But Christ's sermon on the mount infallibly saves 
 all who hear and obey it; therefore that sermon is a true 
 lule of faith, and whosoever denies it "is accursed." Also, 
 St. Peter's sermon to the three thousand murderous Jews, 
 proved their salvation ; and that to the gentiles, their salva- 
 tion, Acts ii. x. xv., as did St. Paul's sermons to others, &c. 
 Now, our Lord's sermon, with all these others, being in the 
 Scripture, the true rule of faith is therefore in the Scripture ; 
 but Dr. Milner, and every pope and priest being sworn, 
 " the gospel, the Scripture, is divine," is then conclusively 
 Bworn, that in the Scripture is found the infallibly true rule 
 
DR. DOYLE, DR. MILNER, ANTICHRIST. 377 
 
 of faith, and that all who deny it are accursed of God.* But 
 he, his pope, &c, deny it; therefore is Dr. Milner bound 
 by his solemn oath on the gospels, that himself, his pope, 
 his prelates, priests, &c, are every one accursed of God ! ! ! 
 And every pope, prelate, and priest is similarly bound to 
 believe the same ! If the pope and his clergy are not, there- 
 fore, by their own dogmas in a most frightful plight, let com- 
 mon sense, let all men judge. Thus is the doctor's book 
 destroyed by the mighty touch of artless truth, as in a moment, 
 and the Scripture extricated and vindicated as the safe 
 guide to heaven. And thus are this clergy necessitated to 
 allow the Scriptures as the only divine rule of faith, or 
 themselves as daily perjured, and accursed of God ! 
 
 Having despatched Dr. Milner, &c, we return to the 
 false god. He farther opposeth himself to God by fabri- 
 cating and sending forth into the world many evil doctrines, 
 and gross idolatries, developed in this work, and also a daily 
 fourfold worship, that of the wafer, of the chalice, of 
 images, and of angels and saints, all opposed to Christ, and 
 therefore a daily fourfold idolatry, and a daily prime ser- 
 vice to the devil, the father of it ! ! 
 
 4. This beast " blasphemes God, and his tabernacle, and 
 them that dwell in heaven." "And I saw a woman sit upon 
 a scarlet-coloured beast, ys/xov ovo/xatav ^xaty^^taj, full of the 
 names of blasphemy." The Holy Ghost tells us that blas- 
 phemy is impious speaking, in reference to God, or inju- 
 rious, when directed against our neighbour. "A name of 
 blasphemy" is the prostitution of a sacred name to an un- 
 
 * Tertullian saith, Idverius quod prius, id prius quod est ab initio, 
 ab initio quod ab apostolis, ab apostolis quod ab Christo qui Veritas 
 sempiterna est. " What is truest is most ancient, what is most ancient, 
 was from the beginning ; what was from the beginning is what was 
 from the apostles, and what was from them came from Christ, who is 
 eternal truth." Lib. 4. adv. Marc. c. 5, de Virg. Veland. c. 1. Again 
 Fides in regula posita est, nihil ultra, scire est omnia scire. " Faith 
 is contained in a rule ; (the gospel,) to know nothing beyond it, is to know 
 all things." Again, Hoc primum credimus, nihil esse ultra quod cre- 
 dere debeamus. " This we first believe, that there is nothing beyond 
 (the gospel) what we should believe." De Praescrip. cap. 14, ib. cap. 8. 
 Again, Ipsa enira doctrina eorum cum apostolica comparata, &c. " For 
 their own doctrine, when compared with that of the apostles, will, by its 
 diversity and contrariety, pronounce that it is from no apostle or apos- 
 tolical man." Praescrip. adv. Haeres. c. 32. If a doctrine now is so, 
 but from the beginning was not so, there is a change / 
 
 32* 
 
37S THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 holy purpose, as is evident from Rev. ii. 9. " I know the 
 blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not, but 
 are of the synagogue of Satan." Now, this false God, not- 
 withstanding his wickedly opposing himself to God, calls 
 himself " Christ's sole vicar on earth, and by Him is consti- 
 tuted a prince over all nations, and all kingdoms, to pluck 
 up, waste, destroy, plant, and build ;" — " the servant of the 
 servants of God;" he is titled, "most holy Father," &c, 
 and his church, that framed all his wicked dogmas and 
 idolatries, " the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic church ; 
 mother and mistress of all churches :" his idolatrous wor- 
 ship, " the most adorable sacrifice of the mass," &c. Thus 
 doth he by making God the author of all these falsehoods, 
 "blaspheme his name;" and also his true gospel worship- 
 pers, or tabernacle, by denominating them heretics, schis- 
 matics, and such like vile names, and then destroying them 
 w r hen practicable. And, lastly, he blasphemes them that are 
 m heaven : angels, the blessed virgin, and other saints, by 
 paganish invocations of, and ascribing to them powers and 
 offices which belong not to them, all which are abomina- 
 tions to God and them. Thus hath he and his wicked 
 woman by "blaspheming God, and his tabernacle, and them 
 that are in heaven," fulfilled the prediction. 
 
 5th. Antichrist.* — Whatsoever system is opposed to 
 Christ is antichristian ; if a creed, a system of religion op- 
 posed to the gospel be taught by any body of professing 
 Christians, that body, when found teaching the same doc- 
 trine are as one man, and therefore form one antichrist, one 
 false prophet. But the pope and his vast body of twofold 
 clergy are sworn to teach a creed — a system of religion 
 
 * Gregory the Great saith : Quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocnt 
 in elatione sua antichristum prsecurrit. "Whoever in his pride caHs 
 himself universal priest, is antichrist's harbinger." Platina writes, (in 
 Paschal Florentinus Episcopus affirmare solitus est antichristian na- 
 tum esse,) "Florentinus, Bishop, was used to say, That antichrist w.s 
 born." Roger Hoveden writes, " That Abbot Johachim, in conversing 
 with Richard I. of England, and Philip IT. of France, on antichrist, said, 
 Quod jam natus est in civitate Rumana et in sedem apostol cam suhl- 
 mabitur. " That already he was in Rome, and should be lifted up to the 
 apostolical chair." Hoved. Annal. Post, in Rich. I. p. 681. And St, 
 Bernard said : " That the popes were the ministers of Christ, (i. e. were 
 called so,) but served antichrist; and that the apocalyptic beast occupied 
 St. Peter's chair." Usser. de Christ. Eccl. Sur. et Stat. c. 7, § 5, 6. 
 
DR. DOYLE, DK. MILNER, ANTICHRIST. 379 
 
 flatly opposed to Christ and his gospel, as is just proved ; 
 therefore they have conclusively bound themselves by oath 
 to be antichrist — false prophet, and him the head, the great 
 antichrist ; exactly as was predicted ! 
 
 I shall now attend to one or two of his advocates, Drs. 
 Doyle and Milner, in defence. Dr. Doyle, pretending not 
 to see how this designation applies to the papacy, forms this 
 argument: (letter to Lord Wellesley :) "An antichrist is he 
 that dissolves Jesus ; and such as go out from his people 
 are so designated by the apostle. But we confess Jesus, 
 that he is God and man ; we have gone out from nobody, 
 nor from any congregation : on what ground, then, we can 
 be considered as forming one body with those antichrists, I 
 am altogether incompetent to discover." — Here is a sophism, 
 a crafty sophism ! but we shall take leave to spoil it as in a 
 moment. The devils verbally confessed Jesus ; (Mark iii. 
 12 ;) falling down before Him, they cried, saying: "Thou 
 art the Son of God." Yet they were no friends to Christ — ■ 
 no Christians, but the determined opponents of Him and 
 His gospel. But this doctor and his brethren are sworn to 
 dogmas opposed to Christ and his gospel ; and hence they 
 are opponents to Christ, and are gone out from him and his 
 people ! What now is become of his fine sophism ? And 
 " the odious name" is necessarily, by his oath, and creed, 
 bound to him and his church and head forever. Shame ! 
 doctor. O that men would open their eyes ere too late ! 
 
 Dr. Milner (letter 45) is out of temper, is quite shocked 
 about this matter ! He foams and frets, and throws a deal 
 of dust about him : but it all won't do. He has his sophism 
 too, but it is only froth that sinks at a touch. He exclaims : 
 " I shudder to repeat these blasphemies, and I blush to hear 
 them uttered by my fellow-Christians and countrymen, who 
 derive their liturgy, their ministry, their Christianity and 
 civilization from the pope and the church of Rome," &c. ! 
 This is the substance of his whole letter. Passing by much 
 I could say, I shall here only remark : Protestants derive no 
 Christianity from the pope and his church, who have it not 
 themselves ! They know no Christianity, they own no re- 
 ligion, but what came from heaven — but that that is derived, 
 not from frail creatures, but from Christ and his gospel and 
 grace: true Protestants know no ministry, nor own any but 
 what teaches the gospel only; nor liturgy, nor catechism. 
 
380 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 &c, but such as they conceive to be in agreement with the 
 gospel, so understood, that no one part shall clash with 
 another. (Art. 6 — 20, of the 39.) They would no more 
 touch Dr. Milner's idolatries or ministry than they durst 
 Mahomet's fooleries or, rather, wickedness. Hence is the 
 doctor's scheme also blown up : and his, and the mouth of 
 every one of them must be shut, till they can prove their 
 doctrine is the gospel of God: but this can never be done. 
 
 The conclusion now is, that all these predicted marks : 
 " Man of sin in the temple of God, showing himself as God, 
 exalting himself above God, opposing himself to God, blas- 
 pheming his name, his tabernacle, and them in heaven," and 
 thus proving himself " the antichrist," are incontestably 
 proved to belong to the papacy and it only. 
 
 17th mark. Duration. — The fixed term of antichrist's 
 existence is "A time, times, and half a time, or three and a 
 half years, or forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty 
 prophetic days, i. e. twelve hundred and sixty years. That 
 this is so, is evident: 1st. From Dan. ix. where seventy 
 weeks are determined for the existence of the Jewish polity, 
 from the going forth of the edict of Artaxerxes. Seven to 
 the rebuilding of the temple, and sixty-two after that 
 to the death of Messiah: and afterwards one, while the 
 Romans were destroying and dispersing the Jews. Now, 
 those were evidently, not natural, but prophetic weeks, 
 that is, four hundred and ninety years. From which, and 
 other such passages in holy writ, it is plain, the above 
 twelve hundred and sixty days are not three and a half 
 literal years, but twelve hundred and sixty years for 
 antichrist's reign, to be calculated, as most believe, from the 
 year 606, when first the Bishop of Rome obtained from the 
 Emperor Phocas the title of Universal Bishop, &c. 2d. 
 From the many great events that were to take place — the fa- 
 bricating of doctrines, and insensibly spreading them through 
 all the nations ; the attaining rule over their kings ; the vast, 
 long, and bloody persecution of the saints, whereby they 
 were, for ages, worn down ; and the final overthrow of this 
 apostate chief, and of his whole system and dominion, by 
 the kings of those very nations which once helped him. 
 All these events, none of which took place while Rome was 
 pagan, prove, that not three and a half years, but twelve 
 hundred and sixty are meant ; and that not Rome pagan, 
 
381 
 
 but Rome papal is it that is designated with such accuracy, 
 and which, at the end of the twelve hundred and sixty years, 
 according to the prophesied time, now drawing nigh, must 
 fall to rise no more forever. 
 
 If any one will compare Daniel's "little horn, having 
 eyes like a man, &c, a mouth speaking great things against 
 the Most High," i. e. promulgating his own laws in the place 
 of the holy laws of God, and " making war with his saints," 
 but in the end to be destroyed, Dan. vii. ; with St. Paul's 
 " man of sin and son of perdition, who opposeth and ex- 
 alteth himself above all that is called God," but is at the end 
 to perish ; and will with all this collate what St. John (Rev. 
 xiii — xviii.) says of the beast with ten horns, and the two- 
 horned beast like a lamb, a body of idolatrous prophets, 
 which deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, and of that 
 great city that ruleth over the kings of the (Latin) earth, but 
 in the end and at the appointed time to be destroyed forever ; 
 I say, whoever shall compare them together, will clearly 
 see, that it is of the one and very same awful apostasy, that 
 Daniel, Paul, and John prophesied. 
 
 Tertullian, writing on religion, says, "Omne genus ad 
 originem suam recenceatur necesse est. 19 "It is necessary 
 to trace every kind to its origin." If then men trace a 
 river not to the broad parts, but to its rise, and a general not 
 to his victories, but to his investment, we should do the same 
 with regard to the beast, the man of sin, that we thus may 
 learn the time of his end. "-This wicked man (saith Cra- 
 kanthorp, Annal. lib. 5) was antichrist, nascens, born, in 
 Boniface III., when invested with supremacy. Was anti- 
 christ, crescens, growing, in Adrian I. an. 787, when the 
 second council of Nice set up image-worship ; and anti- 
 christ, regnans, reigning, in Hildebrand — Gregory VII., 
 an. 1075, when he could hurl even emperors and kings 
 from their thrones, and rose above God himself and his 
 word, whose voice must now either be silent, or speak 
 what and when this new god pleases !" 
 
 This is he, it is clear, who, after the removal of the Ro- 
 man pagan empire, was that eighth head that came up 
 (sx tris a$v66ov) from the bottomless pit, and goeth into per- 
 dition : who also presiding in the temple of God, and cor- 
 rupting it, by the aid of the two-horned lamb, is termed the 
 " false prophet," which together are doomed to be cast alive 
 
3S2 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 
 
 into the lake of fire, Rev. xix. ; and to whom pertains the 
 murderous woman, the city or church, which the ten horns 
 shall turn upon and hate, and burn her with fire ; (These 
 ten, at the reformation, were England, Scotland, France, 
 Spain, Portugal, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, 
 Sweden:) so that " her plagues shall come in one day, death, 
 and mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly burnt 
 with fire, for strong is the Lord God (6 xpwuv cwtriv) who 
 judgeth her."* "Rejoice over, thou heaven, and ye holy 
 apostles and prophets : for God hath avenged you of her," 
 (for her overthrow of the saints and of the gospel of God.) 
 " And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great mill 
 stone, and cast it into the sea, saying, (pv*u$ op^/xatt 
 j3x^^(jfT'<!ic BafivXtov 7] [isya7^7j rto^tj, xav ov fi'/j svpedq sr't,) Thus 
 with violence shall Babylon, that great city, be thrown 
 down, and shall be found no more at all," Rev. xviii. 8 — 21. 
 That Babylon means Rome, is proved : Rome still exists ; 
 therefore, over the city, pope, and church of Rome, do 
 these judgments hang. And soon, (see note, p. 128,) 
 will all this dreadful scene be closed ! And as God's 
 word is immutable, and that his voice of mercy is, 
 "Come out of her, my people, that ye receive not of her 
 plagues," (Rev. xviii. 4,) so must all who regard their God, 
 or their eternal salvation, flee from her idolatries at once 
 and forever. 
 
 Having thus, in the holy fear of God, and duty to Him 
 who gave himself for us, traced out this most frightful apos- 
 tasy, in its many doctrines, idolatries, deceptions, cruelties, 
 and blasphemies, which I trust, it will be seen, I have even 
 demonstrated, that no informed pope, prelate, or priest ever 
 did believe, no, nor the creed of Pius IV., they spring from, 
 though unhappily sworn on the Gospels, to teach them till 
 death ! (O, infidelity unparalleled !) I say, having thus 
 
 * The prophecy tells of an " angel flying through the midst of 
 heaven, preaching the everlasting gospel to every nation, tribe, tongue, 
 and people — and another angel followed, crying, Babylon is fallen, is 
 fallen, that great city," &c. Pastorini (p. 238, 286) written fifty years 
 back, " That this flying angel is a body of his servants upon whom God 
 would pour out his Spirit to go out against antichrist, by swiftly send- 
 ing the gospel all over the world." Most true ! Now, the Bible Society, 
 Missionary and School Societies, &c. &c, so lately sprung up, is this 
 very tiling, must be this angel, and Babylon's doom then must be near ! 
 
THE MAN OF SIN's DURATION, 383 
 
 brought to light the hidden things of darkness, not to injure 
 any child of man, but to try, in reliance on the aid and 
 blessing of God, to open men's eyes to their danger, those 
 of my countrymen especially, after whose present and eter- 
 nal good I have long panted and laboured, day and night, I 
 now come to the close. 
 
 I must, however, ask every candid Romanist, after he 
 has examined my views of the subjects herein discussed, 
 can he find any man, church, or city on earth, save the 
 papacy only, to which all those predicted marks belong ? 
 God has mercifully pointed them out, for man's safety and 
 eternal good, and we should thankfully examine. To Ma- 
 homet, wicked a deceiver as he was, they cannot belong. 
 He was not perpetuated by a similar successor, nor in the 
 same city of seven hills, as is the sovereign pontiff. Nor 
 did he forbid his clergy's marriage, nor command an un- 
 known tongue in his worship, nor assume to be Christ's 
 vicar, nor did he obtain supremacy over all churches, 
 hence, he cannot be the man ; nor did Luther, Calvin, nor 
 any other that ever lived, bear these characters, but the pope 
 alone. Hence it must follow, either that no one, such as 
 the prophecies have pointed out, has ever appeared, or that 
 the man of the seven hills is assuredly that character. And 
 now, O my God, my God, hear, for Christ's sake, hear 
 my prayer, and pour thy enriching blessing on this book, 
 this little effort to promote thy glory, and bring those for 
 whom it was written to thy gospel salvation, and to thy 
 presence, thy glory, and thy kingdom for evermore. Amen, 
 and Amen. 
 
 GIDEON OUSELEY, 
 
 METHODIST IRISH MISSIONARY. 
 
 September 10, 1827 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS, ARGUMENTS, AND IMPORT- 
 ANT DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Christ, who is (sempiterna Veritas) the eternal truth, 
 saith, "lam the way, and the truth, and the life ; no man 
 cometh to the Father but by me." John xiv. 6. 
 
 1 . The religion of Christ is an eternally true religion : 
 the gospel is that religion, therefore the gospel religion is 
 the eternally true religion, and the narrow, safe way to 
 heaven : and every religion opposed to it is eternally false, 
 and is the broad road to eternal ruin. 
 
 2. The attributes of God being infinitely perfect, His 
 wisdom, power, goodness, knowledge, mercy, justice, truth, 
 and love, are infinitely perfect also, hence, He is infinite in 
 holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. The Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost possessing a nature uncreated, and 
 unoriginate, are therefore necessarily coequal and coeternal 
 together; good, and every v/here present, ready to show 
 mercy and communicate good. 
 
 Any system of religion purporting to have emanated from 
 God, if it clash not with the harmony of sacred Scripture, 
 or of the divine attributes, must be true : but if otherwise, 
 it cannot be true ; if deduced from the attribute of Omnipo- 
 tence, yet if it be found to involve self-contradiction, so as 
 to make the Holy One a God of falsehood, as in the case 
 of transubstantiation ; or if from the attribute of infinite 
 mercy, so as to exhibit Him as saving all devils and wicked 
 men in dereliction of his justice, and thus making him a 
 God of folly, as did Winchester ; or if from his infinite 
 
 33 385 
 
386 APPENDIX. 
 
 justice, so as to make Him an inflexible tyrant; or from 
 his infinite knowledge, so as to conclude him a God of 
 caprice, partiality, and cruelty; in all these cases, it must 
 be concluded wrong views of the divine attributes have 
 been taken, and their harmony and that of the Scriptures 
 forgotten. Hence the pious Christian must seek another 
 view, nor rest till he have that which harmonizes with Scrip- 
 ture, reason, and the divine attributes. 
 
 BAPTISM. — SEVEN SACRAMENTS. NO INFORMED POPE OR 
 
 PRIEST BELIEVES THEY ALL ARE TRUE. 
 
 Each of them is sworn on the Gospels, " That there are 
 seven sacraments of the new law instituted by Christ." 
 Bui. Pii IV. Sup. Juram Form. But it is proved (p. 54, 
 66) that five are spurious ! and the two that our Lord insti- 
 tuted are corrupted by the papal church. 
 
 1. The eucharist, by making it a proper sacrifice, and 
 the object of supreme adoration, is so deeply corrupted with 
 idolatry, (see p. 233 — 244,) that no informed person -dare 
 approach it in that church. 
 
 Baptism is, by the doctrine of intention, and misstate- 
 ments, so corrupted, that no sensible person in that church 
 can be without constant terror and alarm.* For she teaches, 
 " That without it there is no salvation," nor, of course, good 
 to be derived from any other sacrament ; nor can baptism 
 be valid without true intention of doing what the church 
 requires, and natural water. Who then in that church can 
 be certain the baptizer had this intention, &c. ? Hence, 
 there can no certainty or ease of mind be to any, not stupid. 
 Now I shall prove no priest can have the intention his church 
 requires. For no informed priest can believe Christ was 
 wrong, or that himself is greater than St. Peter, hence no 
 such intention is possible ! To make this clear, I thus argue. 
 
 Before Adam sinned there was no condemnation to him 
 or his seed : when he sinned condemnation followed. But 
 God preached the gospel to him, " That the seed of the 
 
 * Saith Bossuet, from the Trent council, "As infants cannot supply 
 the want of baptism by acts of faith, hope, and charity, nor by the earnest 
 desire of receiving this sacrament : we believe, if they do not really 
 receive it, they have no share in the grace of redemption, and thus 
 dying in Adam, they have no inheritance with Jesus Christ." Boss. 
 Expos, p. 42. Con. Trid. sess. vi. cap. 4. 
 
APPENDIX. 3S7 
 
 woman, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, 
 would bruise the serpent's head," i.e. " destroy Satan's 
 works :" believing this, he was justified, and condemnation 
 being removed from him, and all in him, his seed was of 
 course justified through Christ. Hence, as condemnation 
 came by his one offence on him and his seed, justification 
 came by the righteousness (the infinite merit and promised 
 death) of one, even Christ, on him and his seed. Rom. v. 
 18. And hence, through this grand first justification, con- 
 demnation lies on no infant ; and its corruption is in due 
 time removed by sanctification. Therefore was no infant 
 (though corrupt in nature, which is not imputed, Rom. iv. 
 15) ever born in a state of condemnation. This our Lord 
 proves, (Luke xviii. 16,) saying, "Suffer little children to 
 come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." But 
 no condemned one is of heaven, hence was none of these 
 infants in a condemned state ; nor therefore were any others 
 on earth: for God is no respecter of persons. God saith, 
 (Ezek. xviii.) " The son shall not bear the sin of the father." 
 Again, Abraham, the first of the Jewish church, was justi- 
 fied by faith, before his circumcision; and Cornelius, and 
 his company, the origin of the gentile church, were purified 
 by faith, (Acts x. 47 ; xv. 9,) before their baptism. Hence 
 their sins, in both cases, were removed before the ordinance 
 was applied ; and hence clear is it, it was not the rite that 
 took away sins, but faith ; and circumcision was added, as 
 a sign, seal, or expression of the justification antecedently 
 received ; Rom. iv. 11 : and baptism was added by St. Peter 
 for the same end exactly. But Abraham, by God's com- 
 mand, gave his infants circumcision, not to remove con- 
 demnation, which existed not, as now proved ; but as an 
 expression of the justification they had through Christ, and 
 as a visible mark of church-membership ; consequently every 
 infant is, by the same divine command, and on the same 
 ground, entitled to that expression or sign of justification 
 his parents have. But as baptism is now the Christian 
 sign, every Christian's infant is, by legitimate scriptural 
 authority, entitled to it, not to remove its condemnation, but 
 to signify its previous justification in Christ ; and its future 
 church-membership. Now, as St. Peter did not remove sin 
 by baptism, which was removed before it, and as no priest 
 can believe he has greater power than St. Peter, so can no 
 
3S8 APPENDIX. 
 
 informed priest have an intention to do as his church 
 requires, namely, to remove guilt by baptism ; nor can he 
 believe any infant in danger of exclusion from heaven with- 
 out it, till he can believe Christ and St. Peter wrong ! And 
 as Christ never spoke a self-contradiction, then must every 
 sensible man understand John iii. 5, "Except a man be 
 born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of God," to apply to adults who hear the gospel, 
 and must obey it in all its parts, or perish ; and not to infants 
 or heathens, who hear it not. Otherwise understood it would 
 involve Christ, his apostles, and the scriptures (Luke xviii. 
 16. Acts x. 35. Rom. ii. 10 — 14, 28) in instant self-con- 
 tradiction. And hence evident it is, that the papal law about 
 baptism — and indeed every thing — is priestcraft to frighten 
 the foolish, and make them fill their coffers. Their solemn 
 baptism of bells, in the name of the Holy Trinity, by their 
 bishops, proves this, and is such a profanation of, and 
 blasphemy against Christ and his ordinances, as makes 
 every tender mind shudder.* 
 
 THE SWORN OBLIGATIONS TO UPHOLD THE PAPACY. 
 
 The Pope's Oath — By the councils of Basil, Constance, 
 &c, "All popes must be obliged to swear, that they will 
 uphold and enforce the faith maintained in general councils, 
 to the least tittle, even to the shedding of their blood." 
 " Further, that he shall depose, and deprive sovereign princes 
 of their dominions, their dignity, and honours, for certain 
 misdemeanors." Con. Constan. sess. 12, 17, 37, 39. Basil, 
 sess. 34, 37, 40, 46. Pisa, sess. 14. Lyons, torn. ii. Binii, 
 p. 646. 
 
 Bull of Gregory VIII. "On the part of the omnipotent 
 God, I forbid Henry IV. to govern the kingdoms of Italy 
 and Germany; I absolve his subjects from all oaths which 
 they have taken, or may take to him : and I excommunicate 
 
 * "The bishop, calling on the godfather and godmother of the bell, 
 for its name, then proceeds to baptize it, thus : Consecretur et sandijicetur 
 signum Mud, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Tu, hoc 
 tintinabulum, Spiritus Sancte rore perfundte, ut ante sonitum illius 
 semper fugiat inimicus bonorum. ' Let this sign be consecrated and 
 sanctified in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. — Sprinkle 
 this bell, O God, with the dew of the Holy Ghost, that at its sound the 
 devil may ever take flight ! Amen." And then cries aloud, "This bell's 
 name is Mary." See Sir Humphrey Lynde's Vita Tuta, 1631 ! 
 
APPENDIX. 389 
 
 every one who shall serve him as king." Greg. lib. 5, epist. 
 24. See this book, p. 295, 320, 365. 
 
 Pope's Bull in Ccena Domini, to be studied by the clergy, 
 published in the churches once a year, at least, and carefully 
 taught the people, per art. 27, 28 — The excommunication. 
 " We excommunicate and anathematize, in the name of 
 Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the 
 authority of his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and by 
 our own, all Wickliffites, Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists, 
 Hugonots, Anabaptists, and all other heretics, by whatso- 
 ever name they are called, and of whatsoever sect they be; 
 and also all schismatics, and those who withdraw them- 
 selves, or recede obstinately from the obedience of the Bi- 
 shop of Rome; as also their adherents, receivers, favourers, 
 and generally any defenders of them : together with all who 
 without the authority of the apostolic see shall knowingly 
 read, keep, or print any of their books which treat on reli- 
 gion, or by or for any cause whatever, publicly, or privately, 
 on any pretence whatever defend them."* Behold the 
 pope's triumph and joy at the murder of Protestants.t 
 
 Oath of Bishops to the Pope. — " I, N. N. Bishop 
 elect of the see of N., do swear, that from this time hence- 
 forth I will be faithful and obedient to the blessed apostle 
 Peter, to the holy church of Rome, and to our lord the pope, 
 and his successors canonically appointed. I will, to my 
 utmost, defend, increase, and advance the rights, honours, 
 privileges, and authority of the holy Roman church, of our 
 lord the pope, and of his successors aforesaid. I will not 
 join in any consultation, act, or treaty, in which any thing 
 shall be plotted to the injury of the rights, honour, state, and 
 power of our lord the pope, or of the said church. I will 
 keep with all my might the rules of the holy fathers, (i. e., 
 of the councils,) the apostolical decrees, ordinances, dispo- 
 
 * Tom. 8, p. 183. Constit. 63. Pauli V. an. 1638. "This bull is 
 (per art. 28) to be diligently studied by the clergy, and (per art. 27) 
 to be solemnly published in the churches once a year, or oftener, and care- 
 fully taught the people." 
 
 f " Pope Gregory XIII. upon the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, 
 in Paris, an. 1572, caused medals with this inscription about his image 
 to be struck, ' Gregorius XIII. Pont. Max. an. I.' and on the reverse 
 side a destroying angel holding a cross in one hand, and in the other 
 a sword, thrusting, with these words, ' Hugnotorum Strages, 1572* 
 • The slaughter of the Hugonots'" Voyage to Italy, p. 15, an. 1688. 
 
 33* 
 
390 APPENDIX. 
 
 sals, reservations, provisions, and mandates, and cause them 
 to be observed by all others under my jurisdiction. 
 
 "Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord the 
 pope, and his successors aforesaid, I will, to the utmost of 
 my power, persecute and destroy."* Sub Julio III. an. 
 1551. 
 
 THE OATHS AND OBLIGATIONS ON BISHOPS, INQUISITORS, AND 
 ON ROMISH KINGS, TO DESTROY PROTESTANTS, AND THE 
 MANNER IN WHICH THEY ARE TO BE PUNISHED.t See pp. 
 
 361—365. 
 
 The Priest's Oath. — " I firmly receive and profess all 
 things which the sacred canons and general councils, that 
 
 * Kicherius, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and of the fifteenth century, 
 observes, " That Pope Gregory VII., contrary to the custom-used in the 
 church for more than a thousand years, introduced that order, \ That all 
 bishops must swear unlimited fidelity and obedience to the pope ;' 
 whence, the liberty of all succeeding councils was taken away." Richer. 
 Apol. ax. 22. Hist. Concil. lib. c. 38. 
 
 j- " The punishment to be inflicted on heretics must be excommuni- 
 cation, confiscation of goods, imprisonment, exile, or death, as the case 
 may be." Cone. Benii. torn. 8. "Bishops are, by the council of Con- 
 stance, by the canon law, and by their above oath of consecration, bound 
 thus to punish heretics. And if any bishop be negligent in purging his 
 diocese of heretical pravity, he, by canon 3, of 4th Lateran council, 
 must be deprived of his episcopal dignity." Cone. Benii. torn. ii. p. 
 152. Cone. Const, sess. 45, torn. 7. Decret. 1. 5, tit. 7, cap. 13. 
 
 " All Inquisitors of heretical pravity appointed by the pope, all 
 archbishops and bishops, in their respective provinces and dioceses, with 
 their officials, must search for and apprehend heretics, — the civil ma- 
 gistrates must assist them, under severe penalties, in inquiring after, 
 taking, and spoiling them, by sending soldiers with them ; they can 
 compel the whole neighbourhood to swear. They must inform the 
 bishops and inquisitors of any heretics they may know of, or of any who 
 may favour them." Concil. Ben. torn. ii. p. 608 — 619. Constit. Innoc. 
 IV. c. 30. 
 
 The councils of Lateran and Constance have declared, " That who- 
 ever apprehends heretics, which all are at liberty to do, has power to 
 take from them all their goods, and freely enjoy them." 4 Later, torn, 
 ii. part. 1, p. 152. Const, sess. 45, torn. 7. Ben. p. 1120. And by In- 
 nocent III. it is declared, " This punishment of them (the heretics) we 
 command to be executed on them, by all princes and secular powers, 
 who shall be compelled to do so by ecclesiastical censures." Decret. 7, 
 1. 5, tit. cap. 10. 
 
 An edict of eighteen articles against heretics by Lewis XV., an. 1 724, 
 art. 1, 2, enjoins, " That the Catholic religion alone be professed in our 
 
APPENDIX. 391 
 
 of Trent especially, have delivered, defined, and declared ; 
 and all things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatever 
 that the church has condemned, rejected, and anathematized, 
 I likewise condemn, reject, and anathematize. All this I 
 promise, vow, and swear; so help me God," &c. Bui. 
 Pii IV. sup. Juram. Form. Fid. 
 
 Behold the dreadful statutes of Richard II. c. 5, Henry 
 IV. c. 15, and of Henry V. c. 7, framed under papal influ- 
 ence, to cause their subjects either to be idolaters or be 
 destroyed.* And what was done in other kingdoms is no 
 secret. 
 
 "Of a major excommunication," saith Priest Burke, in his Tract, 
 published in the county of Sligo, in 1817," The inflictions are contained 
 in this line, os, orare, vale, communio, mensa negatur, 'the faithful 
 shall neither speak to, nor pray in company with, nor salute or show 
 any kindness to, nor have any dealing with, nor eat with or give any 
 thing to eat to any excommunicated person.' " 
 
 kingdom, forbidding all our subjects, of what estate, quality, or condition 
 soever, to profess any other religion, or assemble for that purpose, in any 
 place, under any pretence whatever, on pain of men to be condemned to 
 the galleys forever, and women to be shorn, and shut up forever in such 
 places as our judges shall think proper, with confiscation of goods. 
 
 " We order that all such preachers as have convened assemblies not 
 according to the said Catholic religion, or shall have preached or dis- 
 charged any other function therein, shall be punished with death. We 
 forbid all our subjects to receive any such ministers or preachers, or give 
 them any retreat, succour, or assistance, or have any manner of commu- 
 nication with them. And we order all who shall have any notice 
 thereof to discover it to the officers of their places : the whole on the 
 aforesaid penalties." Given at Paris, *fcc, &c, an. 1724. 
 
 The address of the bishops to the king, an. 1765, proves this cursed 
 edict was the clergy's work: say they, " Give, sire, give to the laws all 
 their force, and to religion all its splendour, that the result of our humble 
 remonstrances may be the full revival of the edict of 1724. The plague 
 we complain of will continue to ravage your kingdom, till the press also 
 shall be restrained by laws faithfully executed." 
 
 * "Any persons who affirm images should not be worshipped, shall 
 be holden in strong prison until they take an oath they will worship 
 them." " That the bishop or ordinary may convene before him or im- 
 prison any person suspected of heresy, and that an obstinate heretic be 
 burned before the people." "That all officers of government shall be 
 sworn to assist the ordinaries to extirpate heretics ,• who, being convicted, 
 shall forfeit all their fee simple lands, goods, and chattels, and shall be 
 delivered to the ordinaries, and expiate their offences in flames of fire." 
 Sir E. Coke, Inst. 3, p. 40, 41. Inst. 4, p. 51. 
 
$92 APPENDIX. 
 
 The Ribbonmen's oath is to cut off heresy, and establish 
 the Roman Catholic religion in this kingdom.* 
 
 Here at one view we have, 1. The oath of popes, bishops, 
 priests, ribbonmen, &c, with their creed and notes (p. 365 
 — 369) all in perfect unison to exterminate Protestants in 
 every way possible ; 2. The variety of punishments decreed 
 for them ; 3. The proof that no informed pope or priest 
 believes the doctrines he is sworn to teach are true, or are 
 other than so many impious inventions framed to uphold 
 the papacy ; 4. That the laity, not aware of this imposture, 
 are ever at their clergy's beck to execute their will, let what 
 will be the result to themselves or others ! 
 
 A plain question for statesmen, Protestants, and lay Ro- 
 manists, now arises : should a great army of pagans besiege 
 a Christian city, and from the general to the private be 
 known to be sworn, either to destroy these citizens or make 
 them turn idolaters, ought they on any account open their 
 gates to them? Who, not insane, will say they ought? 
 If not, the application is easy. This whole clergy are 
 bound together on oath to destroy all Protestants and make 
 them papal idolaters, and they have the laity at their will ; 
 on what ground then should the gates be opened ? should 
 the power they clamour for be ceded to them ? Yield it, 
 and if they watch not for every opportunity to annihilate 
 Protestants and their institutions, they must be constant 
 perjurers : but if they keep their oaths, and use their ener- 
 gies, shall not anarchy, confusion, and blood fill the land ? 
 Either then let the priests quit their wicked oaths, or the 
 people quit the priests, and the gates may then fly open at 
 once : but not till then. See p. 368. 
 
 THE PAPAL CLERGY SELF-DESTROYED ! 
 
 Every pope and priest grants that all doctrines opposed 
 to Christ and his gospel are false and antichristian, and that 
 the teachers of them are false prophets and antichrists, 
 leading their followers to perdition : but he and his whole 
 
 * " The object and oath of the Ribbonmen are, as it is unquestionably 
 proved, the subversion of the constitution, the separation of Ireland from 
 Great Britain, the extirpation of all the Protestant inhabitants out of the 
 country, and to establish the Eoman Catholic religion in their stead." 
 Mr. Plunket's speech, Nov. 1822. Chief Justice Bushe's speech at the 
 Wicklow Assizes was in substance the same. 
 
APPENDIX. 393 
 
 clergy, it is proved, teach a multitude of doctrines opposed 
 to Christ and his gospel, and are sworn to do so ; ergo, if 
 they are not by their frightful system of religion sworn to 
 be false prophets and antichrists, and to destroy themselves 
 and their followers eternally, let them deny if they are 
 able ! 
 
 The Protestant Rule of Faith infallible ! — Hav- 
 ing proved the pope's rule of faith false and ruinous, (p. 
 375 — 377,) we shall now demonstrate, that the rule of faith 
 of all consistent Protestants, as stated in the sixth and 
 twentieth of the Thirty-nine Articles, is strictly infallible ! 
 The one saith, with St. Paul, Gal. i. 8, that no article of 
 faith is to be received but what agrees with the gospel : the 
 other is, no place in Scripture must be so expounded as to 
 be repugnant to another! (p. 113.) Hence, as God's word 
 in unison with itself is infallible truth, and as these two arti- 
 cles are in perfect agreement with God's truth, so must it 
 follow, that the Protestant rule of faith, set forth by these 
 articles, is necessarily infallible. And hence, as the gospel 
 must rule all, so must all her other articles, creeds, cate- 
 chisms, sermons, writings, and all churches of all Protest- 
 ants, and of others, stoop to and be ruled by these two 
 articles of the established church, or otherwise be false and 
 reprobate. It is conclusive, then, that the pope, his creed, 
 and church must agree with these said two articles, i. e. 
 with the gospel, or be eternally reprobate ! 
 
 No INFORMED, HONEST MAN CAN BE A PRIEST ! No ho- 
 
 nest man can teach for truth what he knows is not truth : 
 but the papal creed being opposed to the gospel, is not 
 truth ; therefore can no such honest man be a priest to 
 teach it. 
 
 No SENSIBLE MAN CAN BE A ROMAN CATHOLIC ! No man 
 
 can serve two masters — opposed to each other : no sensible 
 man would attempt it: but the pope and his faith are op- 
 posed to Christ and his faith ; now, as no man can obey 
 both, so can no sensible man be a Roman Catholic. 
 
 The Church of Rome can never be reformed ! — The 
 immutable prediction has testified, That a church would 
 arise teaching idolatries and wicked doctrines, but shall in 
 due time be utterly destroyed, even as a mill-stone is cast 
 into the sea. This church hath idolatries and many dogmas 
 opposed to the gospel, which all her clergy are bound by 
 
394 APPENDIX. 
 
 solemn oath to teach unaltered forever ! Hence she hath 
 fast bound herself to fulfil the dread prediction ! She, there- 
 fore, can never be reformed ! and hence should all who care 
 for their souls take warning and "flee out of her, that they 
 receive not of her plagues." Rev. xviii. 4. 
 
 Go forth, my artless book ; in Jesus' name, 
 
 I cast thee on the waters. 
 
 Go thy ways ; 
 
 And if, as I believe, thy meaning's good, 
 
 The world shall find thee, 
 
 After many days.* 
 
 * See Ovid. Trist. 1. i. v. 1, et seq. 
 
 Oct 1827. 
 
GLOSSARY, 
 
 To assist the Reader in the understanding of words chiefly 
 connected with popish matters, some of which are not 
 found in the work. 
 
 Abbe. — The chief of an abbey, but a title extended to an 
 ecclesiastic. 
 
 Abbey.-— Pl. monastery of religious persons. 
 
 Absolution. — A part of the sacrament of penance ; signi- 
 fying the remission of sins. 
 
 Acolyte. — One of the lower order in the Roman church. 
 
 Agnus Dei. — A consecrated cake of wax stamped with 
 the figure of a lamb, supposed to have great virtues. 
 
 Alb. — A very ancient priestly vestment worn by ministers 
 in the administration of the eucharist. 
 
 All Saints. — A feast in honour of all the saints and mar- 
 tyrs. 
 
 Altars in the Romish church are built of stone, to repre- 
 sent Christ, the foundation-stone of that spiritual building, 
 the church. There are three steps to an altar, covered with 
 carpet, and adorned with many costly ornaments, according 
 to the season of the year. Bowing towards the altar pro- 
 bably originated in the custom of the Jews bowing towards 
 the mercy-seat. 
 
 Anathema. — A curse pronounced by ecclesiastical au- 
 thority. 
 
 Annats or Annates. — A years' income, due, anciently, 
 to the popes on the death of any bishop, abbot, parish 
 priest, &c, to be paid by his successor. 
 
 Annunciation. — A Christian festival celebrated on the 
 25th of March, in memory of the annunciation or tidings 
 brought by the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary of the 
 
 395 
 
S£>'S GLOSSARY 
 
 incarnation of Christ. On this festival, the pope performs 
 the ceremony of marrying or cloistering ; it began in the 
 seventh century. 
 
 Ash Wednesday. — The first day of Lent. It arose from 
 a custom of the church of sprinkling ashes on the heads of 
 such as were then admitted to penance. The ashes must 
 be made of the olive tree, laid on the altar, blessed, and 
 strewed on the heads of priests and laity. 
 
 Augustines. — An order of religious who observe the rule 
 of St. Augustine, properly called Austin friars. 
 
 Auricular Confession. — Made in the ear privately. 
 
 Auto da fe, or act of faith, is a solemn day held by the 
 Inquisition for the punishment of heretics, and the absolu- 
 tion of the innocent accused. 
 
 Barnabas' (St.) Bay. — A festival celebrated on the 11th 
 of June, in honour of the friend of the apostle Paul. 
 
 Bartholomew *s (St.) Bay. — A festival celebrated on the 
 24th of August ; St. Bartholomew was one of the twelve 
 apostles. 
 
 Beads-man, from bede, a prayer, and from counting the 
 beads. — A prayer-man, one who prays for another. 
 
 Bead-Boll. — This was the catalogue of those who were 
 to be mentioned at prayers. The king's enemies were thus 
 cursed by name in the bead-roll at St. Paul's. 
 
 Beatification. — The act by which the pope declares a 
 person happy after death. 
 
 Benedictines. — An order of monks who profess to follow 
 the rules of St. Benedict. In the canon law they are called 
 black monks, from the colour of their habit ; in England 
 they were called black friars. 
 
 Benison. — A blessing. 
 
 Bernardins. — A sect first made by Robert, Abbot of Mo- 
 ieme, and reformed by St. Bernard, Abbot of Clervaux. 
 Their usual habit is a white gown. 
 
 Bourdon. — A staff, or long walking-stick, used by pil- 
 grims. 
 
 Breviary. — The Roman Catholic Common Prayer-boo k, 
 generally in Latin. 
 
 Briefs, apostolical, denote letters which the pope de- 
 spatches to princes and other magistrates touching any pub- 
 lic affair. 
 
 Brothers. — Lay-brothers among the Romanists are those 
 
GLOSSARY. 397 
 
 pious but illiterate persons who devote themselves, in some 
 convent, to the service of the religious. 
 
 Bull. — A written letter, despatched by order of the pope, 
 from the Roman chancery, and sealed with lead. 
 
 Bull in Ccena Domini. Bull unigenitus. — A famous 
 bull of Clement XL, beginning, "Unigenitus Dei Filius" 
 i. e. " the only-begotten Son of God." 
 
 Candle Votive.— k customary offering to a saint, or even 
 to God. 
 
 Canon, i. e. rule ; it signifies such rules as are presented 
 by councils concerning faith, discipline, and manners. 
 
 Canons. — An order of religious, distinct from monks. 
 
 Canonical Hours. — There were seven: — 1. Prime, 
 about six a. m. 2. Tierce, about nine. 3. Sext, about 
 twelve at noon. 4. Nones, about two or three p. m. 5. Ves- 
 pers, about four or later. 6. Complin, about seven. 
 7. Matins ; and Lauds at midnight. 
 
 Canonization. — A declaration of the pope, whereby, 
 after much solemnity, any person who has lived an exem- 
 plary life, and is reputed to have wrought miracles, is en- 
 tered into the list of the saints. 
 
 Cappellane. — A term applied to persons who had the care 
 of things used in the different services, and simply meant 
 custos or keepers. The word chaplain is derived from 
 capellanus. 
 
 Capuchin. — Religious of the order of St. Francis, so 
 called from capuce or capuchon, a stuff cap or cowl with 
 which they cover their heads. They are clothed with 
 brown or gray, always barefooted, never go in a coach, nor 
 even shave their beard. 
 
 Cardinal. — More particularly used for an ecclesiastic 
 prince, one who has a voice both active and passive in the 
 Roman conclave at the election of a pope. 
 
 Carmelites.— -An order of religious, making one of the 
 four tribes of mendicants or begging friars, taking their name 
 from Carmel, a mountain in Syria, formerly inhabited by 
 the prophets Elias and Elisha, and by the children of the 
 prophets, from whom this order pretends to descend in an 
 uninterrupted succession. 
 
 Carthusians. — An order of religious, instituted by St 
 Bruno about the year 1086, remarkable for the austerity of 
 their rule, which obliges them to a perpetual solitude, a 
 
 34 
 
398 GLOSSARY. 
 
 total abstinence from flesh, even at the peril of their lives, 
 and absolute silence, except at certain times. Their houses 
 were usually built in deserts, their fare coarse, and discipline 
 severe. 
 
 Cathedral. — A church wherein a bishop has a see or seat 
 
 Catholic. — Universal or general. 
 
 Cestertian Monks. — A religious order founded in th 
 ninth century by St. Robert, a Benedictine and Abbot of 
 Moleme. 
 
 Chalice. — The cup or vessel used to administer the win 
 in the eucharist, and, by the Romanists, in the mass. 
 
 Charity of our Lady. — Religious hospitallers ; an order 
 founded about the end of the thirteenth century. 
 
 Charity of St. Hippolytus. — A similar order, founded 
 1585, for the purpose of serving the poor. 
 
 Chasuble. — See Planeta. 
 
 Childermas Day, called, also, Innocents' Day, held De- 
 cember the 28th, in memory of Herod's slaughter of the 
 children. 
 
 Chrism. — Oil consecrated by the bishop on holy Thurs- 
 day, with great ceremony. 
 
 Christmas (Christi missa,) that is, the mass of Christ. — 
 A festival, celebrated December the 25th, to commemorate 
 the birth of Christ. 
 
 Chrysom. — A white linen cloth used in baptism. 
 
 Church. — A religious assembly, or, sometimes, the large 
 fair building where it meets ; in some places, the pope and 
 a general council. 
 
 Cloister. — A religious house. 
 
 College. — A society of men set apart for learning or re- 
 ligion, and, also, the house in which they reside. 
 
 Colobium. — A tunic or robe. 
 
 Commandery. — A body of the knights of Malta, belong- 
 ing to the same nation. 
 
 Commendam, in the church of Rome, is a real title of a 
 regular benefice, such as an abbey or priory given by the 
 pope to a secular clerk, or even to a layman, with power to 
 dispose of the fruits thereof during life. 
 
 Communion. — The being united in doctrine and dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 Complin. — The last act of worship before going to bed. 
 
 Conclave. — The place in which the cardinals of the Ro- 
 
GLOSSARY. 399 
 
 mish church meet, and are shut up, in order to the election 
 of a pope. 
 
 Confiteor. — A general confession of sins. 
 
 Confirmation, or imposition of hands by a bishop, given 
 after baptism. It was a sacrament in the Melenesian coun- 
 cil. According to the church of Rome, it makes the reci- 
 pients of it perfect Christians. 
 
 Consistory. — A college of cardinals, or the pope's senate 
 and council, before whom judiciary causes are pleaded. 
 
 Cope. — An ecclesiastical habit. It was, at first, a com- 
 mon habit, being a coat without sleeves, but was afterwards 
 used as a church vestment, only made very rich by em- 
 broidery and the like. The Greeks pretend it was first used 
 in memory of the mock-robe put upon our Saviour. 
 
 Corporal. — A fair linen cloth thrown over the consecrated 
 elements at the celebration of the eucharist. 
 
 Coul or Cowl. — A sort of monkish habit worn by the 
 Barnardines and Benedictines. Some have distinguished 
 two forms of cowls, the one a gown reaching to the feet, 
 having sleeves and a capuchin, used in ceremonies ; the 
 other, a kind of hood to work in, called, also, scapular, be- 
 cause it only covers the head and shoulders. 
 
 Council, — An ecclesiastical meeting, especially of bishops 
 and other doctors, deputed by divers churches for examining 
 of ecclesiastical causes. 
 
 Cramp Rings. — Rings consecrated on Good Friday, and 
 used for preventing the cramp. 
 
 Croisade, Cruzade, Cruzado, and Crusade. — A holy 
 war, or an expedition against infidels and heretics, par- 
 ticularly against the Turks for the recovery of Palestine. 
 
 Crosier.— -The pastoral staff, so called from its likeness 
 to a cross, which the bishops formerly bore as the common 
 ensign of their office, and by the delivery of which they 
 were invested in their prelacies. 
 
 Cross, Creeping to. — The creeping to the cross was a 
 popish ceremony of penance. 
 
 Crucifix. — A representation, in picture or statuary, of our 
 Lord's passion. IP 
 
 Curiall. — A class of officers attached to the pope's 
 court. 
 
 Balmatica. — A vestment or habit of a bishop and deacon, 
 so called because it was at first invented in Dalmatia. It 
 
400 GLOSSARY. 
 
 had sleeves to distinguish it from the collobium, which nad 
 none. It was all white before, but behind had two purple 
 lines, or stripes. 
 
 Datary. — An officer in the pope's court, always a prelate 
 and sometimes a cardinal, deputed by the pope to receive 
 such petitions as are presented to him touching the provision 
 of benefices. This officer has a substitute, but he cannot 
 confer any benefice. 
 
 Decree. — An ordinance enacted by the pope, by and with 
 the advice of his cardinals in council assembled, without 
 being consulted by any person thereon. 
 
 Decretal. — The collection of the decrees of the pope. 
 
 Dirige. — A solemn service in the Romish church ; hence, 
 probably, our Dirge. 
 
 Dispensation. — Permission from the pope to do what 
 may have been forbidden. 
 
 Dominicans. — An order of religious, called, in some 
 places, Jacobins, Predicants, or preaching friars. They 
 take their name from Dominic de Guzman, born in 1170, 
 at Calarvega, in Old Castile. This order is diffused through- 
 out the whole known world. 
 
 Ember Weeks or Days. — Fasts observed four times in 
 the year, that is, on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 
 after the first Sunday in Lent; after Whit-Sunday; after 
 the 14th of September; and after the 13th of December. 
 Some derive the term from ember, a German word, which 
 signifies abstinence ; others, from one which signifies ashes, 
 because it was customary with the ancients to accompany 
 their fastings with sprinkling of ashes or sitting upon them ; 
 and others, from a Saxon word signifying course or circuit, 
 these fasts returning every year in regular courses. 
 
 Epiphany, called, also, the manifestation of Christ to the 
 Gentiles. — Observed on the 6th of January. 
 
 Eucharist. — A name for the Lord's supper. 
 
 Eulogix Privatse. — Consecrated loaves, sent by bishops 
 md priests, who had taken the sacrament, to one another 
 m token o^ommunion. 
 
 Excommunication. — An ecclesiastical penalty, whereby 
 those who incur the guilt of any heinous sin are separated 
 from the communion of the church. 
 
 Exorcist. — One who, by adjurations, prayers, or reli 
 irious acts, drives away malignant spirits. 
 
GLOSSARY. 401 
 
 Extreme Unction. — One of the sacraments of the Ro- 
 mish church, administered to the dying, consisting of 
 anointing with holy oil, and praying. 
 
 Feasts of God. — Fetes de Dieu. A solemn festival in 
 the Romish church, instituted for the performing a peculiar 
 kind of worship to our Saviour in the eucharist. 
 
 Fiancels. — Betrothing. — A ceremony performed by the 
 priest, after which an oath was administered " to take the 
 woman to wife within forty days, if holy church will per- 
 mit." 
 
 Franciscans. — A powerful order of religious in the Ro- 
 man church, following the rules of St. Francis. 
 
 Friary. — A monastery or convent of friars. 
 
 Gipciere. — A small satchel, wallet, or purse. 
 
 Good Friday. — A fast in memory of the sufferings and 
 death of Christ. 
 
 Graal. — The Saint Graal, or holy vessel, was supposed 
 to have been the vessel in which the paschal lamb was 
 placed at our Saviour's last supper. 
 
 Grayle. — An ecclesiastical book used in the Romish 
 church. 
 
 Heretics. — A name given to those who teach opinions 
 contrary to the established faith of Rome. 
 
 Hierachy. — A sacred government or ecclesiastical esta- 
 blishment. 
 
 I. H. S. and /. N. R. I. — Letters on the wafer that signify 
 Jesus hominum Salvator, "Jesus the Saviour of men," 
 and Jesus Nazarenus, Bex Judscorum, " Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, the King of the Jews," being the initials of the Latin 
 words. 
 
 Incense. — A rich perfume, burning of itself, or exhaled 
 by fire. 
 
 Indulgence. — In the Romish theology, the remission of 
 a punishment due to sin, granted by the church, and sup- 
 posed to save the sinner from purgatory. 
 
 In petto. — Held in reserve. 
 
 Inquisition. The court in popish countries which has 
 been established for the detection of what they call he- 
 resies. 
 
 Interdict. — A censure inflicted by popes or bishops, sus- 
 pending the priests from their functions, and consequently 
 the performance of divine service. An interdict forbids 
 
 34* 
 
402 GLOSSARY. 
 
 the performance of divine service in the place interdicted. 
 This ecclesiastical censure has frequently been executed in 
 France, Italy, and Germany; and, in the year 1170, pope 
 Alexander III. put all England under an interdict, forbid- 
 ding the clergy to perform any part of divine service, 
 except baptizing infants, taking confessions, and giving 
 absolution to dying penitents ; but this censure being liable 
 to ill consequences, promoting libertinism and neglect of 
 religion, the succeeding popes have very seldom made use 
 of it. 
 
 Introit. — The beginning of public devotions among the 
 Papists. 
 
 Jesuits. — A famous religious order in the Romish church, 
 founded by Ignatius Loyala, a Spaniard, 1491. 
 
 Jubilee. — A grand church solemnity, or ceremony, cele- 
 brated at Rome, wherein the pope grants a plenary indul- 
 gence to all sinners who visit the churches of St. Peter and 
 St. Paul at Rome. 
 
 Kirsome, from Chrysome, and used to signify Christian. 
 
 Kyrie Eleison. — " Lord, have mercy upon me !" a form 
 of prayer often used. 
 
 Lammas Day. — August 1. Celebrated in the Romish 
 church, in memory of St. Peter's imprisonment. 
 
 Legate, from legatus, a Latin word. — A cardinal or 
 bishop, whom the pope sends as his ambassador to sove- 
 reign princes. 
 
 Lent, quadragesima. — A time of mortification, during 
 the space of forty days, wherein the people are enjoined to 
 fast, in commemoration of our Saviour's fasting in the 
 desert. 
 
 Liturgy has a restricted meaning among the Romanists, 
 and is more especially confined to the mass, denoting the 
 ceremonies then performed. 
 
 Magdalen (St.) the religious of. — A denomination given 
 to many communities of nuns, consisting generally of peni- 
 tent courtesans. 
 
 Malison. — A curse. 
 
 Manipule. — A handkerchief which the priests in the 
 primitive church wore on the arm, to wipe off their teais 
 for the sins of the people. 
 
 Mass. — The office or prayers used in the Romish church 
 at the celebration of the eucharist. 
 
GLOSSARY. 403 
 
 Maundy Thursday. — The Thursday before Easter, so 
 called from the Saxon maunday, a basket, say some ; from 
 the French, say others ; but more probably from the Latin 
 dies mandati, that is, the day of command to commemorate 
 the charge given by our Saviour to his disciples before his 
 last supper. 
 
 Mendicants. — Beggars. There are four principal orders 
 of friar-mendicants; that is, the Carmelites, Jacobins, 
 Franciscans, and Augustines. With these rank the Capu- 
 chins, &c. 
 
 Miracle. — A prodigy. Some effect of which does not 
 follow from the known laws of nature. 
 
 Miserere. — A lamentation. The beginning of the 51st 
 or 54th penitential psalm. 
 
 Month's Mind. — A solemn office for the repose of the 
 soul, performed one month after decease. 
 
 Mortmain. — A law to prevent property falling into the 
 hands of idle ecclesiastics. 
 
 Mortuaries. — A corse present, and made as a recom- 
 pense for any deficiency in the payment of tithes and obla- 
 tions. 
 
 Mothering. — A visiting of the mother church to make 
 offerings at the high altar. 
 
 Novice. — One who has entered a religious house, but not 
 yet taken the vow. 
 
 Novitiate. — The time spent in a religious house, by way 
 of trial, before a vow is taken. 
 
 Nun. — A woman secluded in a cloister from the world. 
 
 Nuncio. — An ambassador from the pope to some Catholic 
 prince or state. 
 
 Obit. — A funeral celebration or office for the dead. 
 
 Oblcttae. — Bread made without leaven and not consecrated, 
 yet blessed upon the altar; anciently placed upon the breasts 
 of the dead. 
 
 Oriel. — A portico or court; also, a small dining-room, 
 near the hall, in monasteries. 
 
 Pall. — A pontifical garment worn by popes, &c, over 
 the other garments, as a sign of their jurisdiction. 
 
 Palm Sunday. — The Sunday next before Easter, kep 4 
 in memory of the triumphant entry of Christ into Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
404 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Palmer. — A. wandering votary of religion, vowed to have 
 no settled home. 
 
 Papalin. — A Papist. 
 
 Pardoner. — A person who was licensed to sell papal 
 indulgences. 
 
 Pasch Eggs. — Easter eggs, from pascha — the pascha, 
 the passover. 
 
 Passion Week. — The week preceding Easter, so called 
 from our Saviour's passion, crucifixion, &c. 
 
 Paten. — A little plate used in the sacrament of the eu- 
 charist. 
 
 Paternosters. — Chaplets of beads, worn by nuns round 
 their necks. 
 
 Patriarch. — A bishop superior to archbishops. 
 
 Pax or Paxis, alias, an instrument of peace. — A small 
 plate of silver or gold, with a crucifix engraved or raised 
 upon it, which, in the ceremony of the mass, was presented 
 by the deacon to be kissed by the priest, and then to be 
 handed round and kissed by the people, who delivered it to 
 each other, saying, " Peace be with you." It is said to be 
 now disused. 
 
 Pax. — The vessel in which the consecrated host is kept. 
 
 Penance. — Infliction, public or private, suffered as an 
 expression of repentance for sin. 
 
 Peter-pence. — An annual payment, made in commemora- 
 tion of Peter's bonds. 
 
 Piscinse. — Sinks where the priest emptied the water in 
 which he washed his hands, and all consecrated waste stuff 
 was poured out. 
 
 Pittance. — The allowance of meat distributed in a mo- 
 nastery. 
 
 Pix or Pyx. — The box or shrine in which the conse- 
 crated host is kept. 
 
 Placebo. — The vesper hymn for the dead. 
 
 Planeta. — Gown, the same as the chasuble ; a kind of 
 cape, open only at the sides, worn at mass. 
 
 Plenary. — Full, complete : used as an adjective to indul- 
 gence. 
 
 Pope. — The name given to the Bishop of Rome. 
 
 Portesse, Portasse, Portese, Porthose, fyc. — A breviary 
 a portable book of prayers. 
 
 Preceptory. — A seminary of instruction. 
 
GLOSSARY. 405 
 
 Priory. — A convent, in dignity below an abbey. 
 
 Purgatory. — A place in which souls are supposed by 
 the Papists to be purged by fire from carnal impurities, be- 
 fore they are received into heaven. 
 
 Requiem. — A hymn imploring for the dead requiem or 
 rest. 
 
 Reredoss. — The screen supporting the rood-loft. 
 
 Rocket. — The bishop's black satin vestment, worn with 
 the lawn sleeves. 
 
 Rood. — An image of Christ on the cross. 
 
 Rood-loft. — In churches, the place where the cross stood„ 
 
 Rosary. — A chaplet or string of beads, on which prayers 
 are numbered. 
 
 Sacring, Saunce, or Saints' Bell. — A small bell which 
 called to prayers and other holy offices. 
 
 Sanctus Black. — A burlesque hymn in ridicule of the 
 sanctus of the Roman church. 
 
 Saviour, Order of our. — A religious order so called, 
 founded 1344, under the rule of St. Augustine. 
 
 Scapular, or Scapulary. — A badge of peculiar veneration" 
 for the blessed mother of God. It forms a part of the habit 
 of several orders of religious, worn over the gown ; it con- 
 sists of two narrow breadths or slips of cloth, covering the 
 back and the breast, and hanging down to the feet of a 
 professed religious, and to the knees of the lay brothers. 
 Of the scapular there is a friary or fraternity, consisting of 
 lay brothers, who profess a particular devotion to the virgin, 
 and who, in honour of her, wear a little scapular, in manner 
 of a bracelet or otherwise, as a substitute for the great one. 
 They are obliged to have certain prayers, and observe cer- 
 tain austerities in their manner of life. The devotees of the 
 scapular celebrate their festival on the 10th of July. 
 
 Sclavina. — A long gown worn by pilgrims. 
 
 Shrift or Shrive. — Confession to a priest. 
 
 Sins, the seven deadly. — Pride, idleness, envy, murder, 
 covetousness, lust, gluttony. 
 
 Soutane. — A cassock. 
 
 Suffragan. — A bishop considered as subject to the me- 
 tropolitan bishop. 
 
 Sword, swearing upon a. — A solemn oath, upon a sword 
 taken by the crusaders. 
 
 Thurible. — A censer or smoke-pot to burn incense in. 
 
406 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Tierce, the office of. — Prayers intended to return God 
 thanks for the sanctification of his church by the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Tonsure. — The particular manner of shaving, as practised 
 by the religious orders of the Papists. 
 
 Vulgate. — A very ancient Latin translation of the Bible, 
 and the only one which the church of Rome acknowledges 
 to be authentic. 
 
 Unhouselled. — Without receiving the sacrament. 
 
 Ursulines. — An order of nuns, who observe the rule of 
 St. Augustine ; chiefly noted for educating young maidens. 
 They take their name from their insti tutrix, St. Ursula, and 
 are clothed in white and black. 
 
 Weeping-Cross. — A cross where penitents offered their 
 devotions. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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THE 
 
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 BIBLE DIRECTORY. 
 
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