shocking monsters, says Baronius, "intruded into the Pontifical chair, who were guilty of robbery, assassination, simony, dissipation, tyranny, sacrilege, perjury, and all kinds of miscreancy." "The Church," says Giannone, "was then in a shocking disorder, in a chaos of iniquity," "L'eglise etoit plongée dans un chaos d'impiétés." Barclay tells us that "the Pontifical chair was polluted with the filthiest immoralities." We can give but a few specimens. John XII. ascended the Papal throne in 955, at the age of 18: his youth was characterized by barbarity and pollution. He surpassed, says Platina, "all of his predecessors in debauchery, and his Holiness was found guilty by a Roman Synod, of blasphemy, perjury, profanation, impiety, sacrilege, adultery, constipation and murder:" this villain was deposed by a Roman Council, afterwards regained the Holy See, was caught in the act of adultery and murdered. Boniface VII. is called by Baronius, a thief, a miscreant, and a murderer. Gregory VII. was pronounced by Benno and the Council of Worms, guilty of sacrilege, adultery, perjury, and murder. Boniface VIII. to all other sins added the horrible one for which Sodom perished. Sixtus IV. was a drunkard and an assassin. Julius II. was a Sodomite. We might continue to quote from Papal authors this filthy citation of facts until the pages of many Reviews the size of this had been filled; but the task is too revolting. These men were the Popes Infallible, the Vicars of Jesus Christ, the Successors of Peter. How awful must have been the condition of the masses when this was the character of the Heads! We shudder with horror when we see such men as these claiming to be the Visible Head of the Church of the Holy Jesus; in vain are we asked to recognise any Body as part of Christ's Church, having such a Head as these Popes. We cannot speak of the horrid crimes and corruptions of the priesthood, of the nuns, monks, and orders of the Romish Hierarchy; nor can we even point to the degraded and polluted condition of the people in all lands where the religion of Rome is dominant. You will search the annals of the human race in vain for such a picture of filth, pollution, incest, adultery, murder, and villany, as is presented in the lives of the Priests, Confessors, Monks, and Popes of Rome. The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth, is the name given to Rome by the Holy Ghost and well and truly does this name indicate her pollutions and corruptions. 7. The Murders of Popery.-We regret that this topic, so fruitful for investigation, must be condensed into a few lines. The Woman that rode forth upon the Beast, was drunk with the blood of the saints. If all the blood of the saints shed by Rome in her blind and brutal fury, could be collected into one vast reservoir, the navies of Europe could ride upon it. Rome claims the right to murder all who will not submit to her commands. The Bull Unigenitus was issued by Clement XI., and signed at Rome Sept. 8, 1713; it can be found in the Dublin Edition of Dens' Theology in the original Latin: a correct translation of this Bull will be found in the "Spirit of the XIX Century," for 1842, page 481-90. In that Bull the following command is issued, viz: "We moreover charge our venerable brethren, the Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Ordinaries, and moreover the Inquisitors of Heretical Wickedness, utterly to coerce and compel, by the above mentioned censures and penalties, and by the other remedies of law and deed, all who oppose or resist the aid of the Secular Arm being invoked for this purpose, if it be necessary. In the Bull "In Coena Domini," the following sentence occurs: "Excommunicamus et anathematizamus ex parte Dei Omnipotentis Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sanctus, auctoritate quoque Beatorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, ac nostra quoscunq; Hussitas, Luteranos, Calvinistas. * That is, Rome excommunicates and curses all Lutherans and Calvinists. This much for the right claimed by Rome to curse and murder all who will not submit to her commands. If you wish to know what she means by Coercion, by the Secular Arm, by the Anathema, and Excommunication, then go ask John Huss, whose bones she burnt, and whose ashes she sprinkled upon Lake Constance: go ask Wicklif whose bones she dug up and burnt, and whose ashes she sprinkled upon the Avon; go ask the 5,000 Parisians and 50,000 Huguenots murdered by her upon the fatal night of St. Bartholomew; go ask the 18,000 heretics butchered by Alva in the Netherlands in six weeks; go ask those 38 Spanish noblemen burnt by order of Philip II., at the stake; go ask the Lombards, the Waldenses, the Albigenses, whose goods were confisBalt. Mag., 1836, p. 225. cated, whose houses were burnt, whose children and wives were massacred; go ask the 1641 Irish Protestants butchered on the 23d of Oct., 1641; go ask the 2,300 plague-stricken citizens of Harlem, who were murdered by Alva; go ask the 300,000 French people butchered by Rome's Agent, Charles IX.; go ask the 4,000 inhabitants of Ireland who were killed in the year 1641; go into the dark dungeons of the Inquisitions of Popery, and ask those bones that lie around you; ask those instruments of torture that hang upon the walls;—go ask all these what Rome means by the Secular Arm, by Coercion, by Anathema, by Excommunication? They will tell you, in words that will make the hair of your head to stand, and the blood in your veins to tingle. Alas, alas! the heart grows sick at such harrowing recitals. The blood of the Saints still cries unto God from the earth. The Woman is drunk with Blood. There are those who think that the Church of Rome is melting away, before the light and the heat of the Church of the Living God; that she will perish by the light of civilization, and the increase of knowledge; that already her power is on the decline, and soon she will pass away, and be numbered with the things that were. For ourselves we indulge no such pleasing illusions of hope. We have no confidence that the instrumentalities now at work will ever destroy this Mystery of Iniquity. The Man of Sin is revealed, and must continue until he is consumed by the Spirit of the Lord's mouth, and destroyed by the Epiphany of his Personal Coming. The Son of Perdition must abide, during and unto the end of the thousand and two hundred and three score days; he must exalt himself until the end of the forty and two months of the down-treading of the people of God are ended. The end of Popery will not be easy and gradual, but sudden and terrible; and if, as Paul teaches in Second Thessalonians, its end shall be accomplished by the Personal Coming of Christ, what a day of awful judgment it will be upon the Drunken Whore, the Apostate Church of God. The relation of this question to the Personal Coming of Christ is clear. We can hope for no "Universal Reign of Righteousness," until Popery is destroyed from the earth; and Paul says plainly: That the Popery is revealed and will continue until destroyed by the Brightness of His naрovoias - Personal Coming. If this be true, does it not settle the question that Christ's Coming will precede and inaugurate the Millennium, and not follow it? Can there be any Millennium until Popery is destroyed? Will Popery be destroyed until consumed by the Spirit of his mouth, and destroyed by his Bright Appearing? How solemn and abiding the duty of the Church of God to contend for the faith delivered to the Saints; to expose in all their hideousness the limbs of this Drunken Harlot; to proclaim to the world that the errors of Popery ruin the soul for evermore! How utterly worthless and vicious any theory of the Church, whether Prelatical or Presbyterial, that leads logically to the recognition of the Church of Rome as a true Church of Christ, the reception of her baptism and ordination as valid baptism and ordination! How infinite the folly and guilt of those Protestants who aid in establishing the power of Popery by sending their children to Papal Schools! P. by Rovert sprechersie os ART. IV.- Our Country-Its Peril-Its Deliverance. L THE SPIRIT OF ANARCHY: Its Rise- Progress - Present State II. GROUNDS OF HOPE AND EFFORT: Statement of the Facts, III. NEGRO SLAVERY: As the Cause or Occasion of Sedition, Anar- Word of God. and of the Relation of IV. AMICABLE SETTLEMENT: Statement of the Case V. THE DOCTRINE OF COERCION: Its Abuse- Nature - Relation I. 1. What we propose is, first, to make such a statement of the condition of affairs as may be of use to upright men, in enabling them to determine what ought to be attempted, and what can be accomplished, in the way of preventing the ruin of their country; and, secondly, to make clear to all men, the position of a vast party in this country, who desire and who deserve, in all possible events, to be understood by posterity-and who, even if their principles are now overborne and their counsels are now rejected, may, if they are faithful to themselves, retrieve from the wreck of their country, whatever survives when the period of exhaustion shall come upon its destructive madness. 2. There is no lesson which the universal course of human affairs teaches so thoroughly, as their own instability. And yet there is no lesson so hard for men to learn; no lesson so pregnant of results, and so little heeded. How faithful ought men to be when overtaken by defeat and adversity-if they would consider that defeat and adversity, with courage and wisdom, are a preparation for triumph? How just and forbearing ought men to be in the midst of power and prosperity, if they would consider |