Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

unyielding, and undaunted purpose. To examine, lay open, and unhesitatingly probe every contaminating wound;-aye, and quite to rend, and draw aside, the tapestried curtain from the hidden and generally unknown resources of your own established, but wellguarded ambushes and covert retreats ;—and to throw open, before your followers, and the public view, an unmitigated and unrelenting exposure of the Antichristian abominations of your Papal institutions; contrasted, as they shall be, in each detail, with the searching light of the illumining torch of Revelation; -the resistless energy of Truth;-and the long-recorded predictions of Heaven's unerring Inspiration; -will never cease to be my devoted and unwearying labour. I pledge myself to the unfashionable—perhaps the despised task, of detecting, in the utmost exertion of my power, the secret springs, which put in motion the complicated fabric of the confused Babel of your crude innovations; and exhibiting for a public spectacle, the misshapen Caliban of your human creations. And at the same time, in order to draw a willing assent, from the impartial inquirer, and force an irresistible conviction on the reluctant will, of the unenlightened bigot-I devote myself to the toilsome office of putting your entire system,-in its every Cameleon complexion, and throughout the endless mazes of its diversified ramifications,-to the trying tests of the certain warrant of Divine Revelation, of enlightened Philosophy, of the accusing page of impartial History, and of the plainest dictates of Common Sense. Nor, in my future discourses, will I pass by unheeded, the reciprocating influences of Romanism, surrounded by her powerful bulwarks of Jesuit

[ocr errors]

every respect agreeable to the Predictions, so minutely revealed in the second Chapter, of the second Epistle, of St. Paul, to the Thessalonians, where we are instructed in the hideous machinations of "That Wicked One," or as was hinted above, That Lawless One;" and designated so, because he " Opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that He as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. ii. 4, et passim.)

ism; as from time to time in the lapse of ages, they have manifested themselves, in the progressive changes of the widely diversified field of Society; and on the other hand, of Society on the manoeuvring of Papal power and Romish pretensions. For disquisitions of this nature, cannot but be, to the scrutinizing glance of a philosophic observer, as amusing as they are interesting; and as remarkable as they are highly important, in furnishing certain Data for prescribing due boundaries;-beyond which, Hypocrisy, with all its accompanying train of subservient attendants,Falsehood, Misrepresentation, and Deceit,—dare not with impunity transgress.

The full development of this fantastic medley ;-an extraordinary medley, indeed, which must necessarily result from a general review of the complicated effects, so wonderfully produced, by the protracted mutual embraces of your Apostacy and the World ;-by the orthodoxy of the One, spontaneously, and naturally, obeying the very persuasive impulse of her temporal policy, in close junction with the interests of the other;

whilst, in the fairness of exchange, for the protection and encouraging patronage, bestowed upon her, by the nations of the earth, which were all at the same time, wallowing in the veriest depths of profound and barbaric darkness and licentiousness; your Church, in return, has unceasingly, and readily, paid an obsequious and flattering court, to glut and sate the carnal appetites of her polluted, and polluting handmaid :—and thus reviving, and verifying, by the frequency of her example and precept, the venerable and infallible dogma of the old Grecian philosophy-that, "the SENSES were the highest natural light of MANKIND." Such a development, I say, presents to the reflecting mind, so marvellous a Phantasmagoria, of so many and so different variegated Phases; insomuch, that it were vain, to search for a parallel, in the extended records of the progress of human intellect; in the whole range of the diversified history of human nature, or the world; or even in the vast assemblage

of the prevailing lamentable, and ridiculous absurdities, and contradictions,-which are so well adapted to satyrize the proud intellectual prowess of civilized, or of barbarous nations. By this means, however, we are easily enabled to have before us a perfect exhibition of the Protean faculty, inherent in your Romish policy; by which, at any time, as circumstances may profitably suit, she puts forth to the world, in the spirit of mildness, mitigated and LIBERAL representations of the doctrines she professes to believe, and of the practice which she pretends to follow; at the same time, clothing herself in the tinsel ornaments of a false, deceiving and attractive garb,-in order the better, to lull suspicion asleep, and to draw a darkening film over the eyes of your unsuspecting adversaries; who are thus either unguardedly, or ignorantly, turned aside, from instituting and grounding inquiry, upon the only proper, adequate, and unerring foundation and rule, to which they can possibly have recourse, when they desire to ascertain the absolute certainty of the doctrines of your system :-for that foundation and rule are as old as Popery itself; but doubtless you are aware of its tendency, and can adequately appreciate its force, that, "IF WE DESIRE TO KNOW WHAT ROME TEACHES, WE MUST NOT TAKE IT FROM HER TEACHERS, BUT FRON HERSELF." Now, Sir, when the diligent and accurate inquirer, keeps this steadily in view, as the prescribed rule and appointed method of his investigation; very soon will he be supplied with an uninterrupted flow of examples, to instruct and warn him; that the greater and more pompous the profession of mildness, charity, and liberality,-that the more captivating, the fascinating charms, of a gilded and decorated exterior; just in the same proportion, nay, EVEN MORE, is danger to be apprehended:-it is then most certainly, that the ravening tiger's destructive spring, putting forth her paws to tear and voraciously to destroy, may in truth be justly apprehended :--and that is the very period when each, and all of the sincere and avowed defen

[ocr errors]

ders of True Evangelical Religion, which is, as the truth is in Jesus,"* have the greatest reason, from the dear-bought experience of the past, to dread a return of her wonted, insatiate fury; marking her gore-stained progress with desolation and woe; maddening herself with the frenzied excesses of devastating violence and devouring flames; and as a Beast of Blood, impelled by the Spirit of Infernal and Satanic influence,

* Eph. iv. 21.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]

↑ "The BEAST that rose up out of the sea,' having seven heads and ten horns,”—having upon his "heads the names of blasphemy," prefigured the PAPAL ROMAN EMPIRE, the seat of the Apostacy :whilst the second Beast, that came up out of the earth"--having "two horns like a lamb❞—and speaking as a dragon," but which was afterwards designated "the false Prophet," (Rev. xvi. 13; xix. 20.) prefigured the APOSTACY of the ROMAN CHURCH in particular; having his Hierarchical body divided into two classes, REGULAR and SECULAR, Symbolized by the "two horns;" and PRETENDING to be like the Lamb, all charity, meekness, gentleness, and mildness; and acting as if having committed exclusively to his charge, the powers of the Lamb; notwithstanding all his splendid professions, speaking at the same time, AS A DRAGON;" that is, personating "that OLD SERPENT, which is the DEVIL, and SATAN, that deceiveth the whole world; for He it was, that " Gave him his Power, and his Seat, and Great Authority;" (Compare Rev. xii. 3, 9; with xiii. 2.) and being so Influenced and Actuated by " The Dragon :”- -it is no wonder, that we find issuing from the mouth of "The Beast," revolting blasphemics, anathematizing decrees, condemnatory Bulls, damning Cannons, and such other fiendish and carnal weapons!!! Much less, need we now wonder, at the subtile artifices of "The Beast," in cloaking under the Lamb-like semblance and imposing dress of a spiritual character, Tyrannous Purposes, Fierce Pretensions, and Breathings of Slaughter!!! Is not this "Mystery of Iniquity” frequently laid open and clear, as soon as we contemplate these two "Wild Beasts' acting in concert, as to their respective cases, under the same Satanic influence, and by the same Diabolical impulse? And why should we be surprized at the Unanswerable and well attested fact, that the monstrous Inhumanities of the Antitype of these Demoniac Beasts.--your own Papal Church, have even far surpassed her Impositions? Surprise and wonder will give place to Truth and Revelation, when we rightly ascribe to the Proper Source, that awfully tremendous power, with which she has been armed; and through the means of which, in despite of all her specious flatteries and wheedling affectation, "she has caused," for ages, "that as many as would not worship, the Image of the Beast," as many as would not consent, even though it were but in appearance, to all this Tyranny,

--- rioting amid the mangled carcases of her slaughtered foes.

It may indeed, Sir, be most true, that, in the present age, or at the present remarkable, and, perhaps,

[ocr errors]

Blasphemy, and Impiety, "should be slain." (Rev. xiii. 15.) The Fruits that have already ripened, such as for example, (to name a few among the innumerable wars, massacres, and persecutions, which - have taken place within the precincts of the Beasts ;)-the Infernal Tribunal of The Holy Office of the Inquisition; "-the Sanguinary Crusades of the Jacquerie, and the Jacobins of France; whose atrocities surpass any thing that stands on modern record;-the Bloody Massacres of the Protestants in 1572, on St. Bartholomew's day, when tens of thousands lay prostrate on the field of carnage; whilst their bodies were not suffered to be buried, because they were "heretics;" in honor of the "event," Great Rejoicings were made in the courts of France, Spain, and Rome; and " the number of Protestants massacred (says the Duke of Sully in his memoirs) during eight days, over all the kingdom, amounted to Seventy Thousand;" (See Mem. book i. and the still more interesting accounts in De Thou, book lii. liii. nnd lxii.; with Davila's Hist. book v. and vi. ; D'Aubigné, vol. ii. book i. Mezeray, Charles IX. and Henry III.) Sully, a spectator of the savage atrocities then perpretrated on thousands, without any distinction of age, sex, or innocence; eloquently and pathetically exclaims, If I was inclined to increase the general horror, inspired by an action so barbarous, I should in this place enlarge upon the Number, the Quality, the Virtues, and Great Talents of those who were inhumanly murdered on this horrible day, as well in Paris as in every part of the kingdom: I should mention at least the ignominious treatment, the fiend-like cruelty, and savage insults these miserable victims suffered from their butchers, and which in death were a Thousand Times More Terrible than Death Itself." But all this could not soften the relentless heart of the sanguinary tyrant, His Infallible Holiness, Pope Gregory XIII. who ordered a Public Thanksgiving to God for this Massacre;-which is so unparalled in the sad annals of the crimes of nations, to be offered publicly at Rome; had a decree framed in the Conclave, to institute a JUBILEE, for this butchery, throughout the whole Papal territories; and recommended a solemn procession to be made to the Church of St. Louis, where High Mass was performed, and His HOLINESS gave personally Public Thanks to Almighty God, for so complete a triumph, over those who were " "Odious to God and his church. Nor was His HOLINESS satisfied with the temporary and evanescent rejoicings, of public fêtes, or the chantings of Te Deums; he laboured to perpetuate the memory of the illustrious deed by having Medals struck off by his creature of France, commemorative of the deed; and signified his especial delight, by a Legate extraordinary, despatched forthwith to the Court of His 66 MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY," Charles IX.; accompanied with a recommendation, to continue his murderous zeal !!! (In addiVOL. I.

C

« AnteriorContinuar »