or laid no stress upon them; and confequently, fo far from having that antiquity and importance which the Church of Rome attaches to them, they were in reality either invented or greatly magnified by fuperftition or imposture in after ages. The articles of Romish theology, which Proteftants controvert, have not the fanction of Scripture, nor of the Fathers; they rest upon the authority of the Pope, of the Romish clergy, and of ecclefiaftical tradition. We say that the peculiar doctrines, impofed by the Church of Rome on the Chriftian world, are innovations, unknown in primitive times; and farther, that the powers imposing them have ufurped an authority not recognized by the precedents of antiquity.

I. With respect to the extent of the authority of the Bishop of Rome the Romanifts themselves are not agreed. At the clofe of the fixth century Gregory, furnamed the Great, - disclaims the title of Universal Bishop: his almoft immediate fucceffor Boniface accepted it with avidity. The Papal power, nourished by the fuperftition of the people and the policy of fovereigns, gradually increased in a barbarous and ignorant age. Documents, which claimed a primitive antiquity, were forged in the eighth and ninth centuries, for the purpose of eftablishing the fupreme arbitrary jurifdiction of the Bishop of Rome over the whole body of

the clergy and Chriftian Church in all countries; and the enterprising spirit of fome Pontiffs, aided by circumstances favourable to their ambition, claimed univerfal monarchy, and afferted that all ftates and kingdoms of the world were the patrimony of St. Peter, and fubject to the dominion of his fucceffors. These are some of the maxims of Pope Gregory VII. in the eleventh century, respecting the authority of the Pope:

"Quod ille folus poffit deponere Epifcopos " vel reconciliare.'

Quod cum excommunicatis ab illo, inter "cætera, nec in eadem domo debeamus per

"manere."

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"Quod unicum eft nomen in mundo, Papa videlicet."

Quod illi liceat Imperatores deponere." "Quod fententia illius a nullo debeat retrac"tari; et ipfe omnium folus retractare poffit." Quod a nemine ipfe judicari debeat."

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Quod Romana Ecclefia nunquam erravit, "nec in perpetuum, Scriptura teftante, errabit." Quod Catholicus non habeatur, qui non "concordat Romanæ Ecclefiæ."

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"Quod a fidelitate iniquorum fubjectos pot"eft abfolvere."

The words are faithfully extracted from the statement of Baronius, who concludes it with this cool obfervation: "Hactenus Gregorius

"de privilegiis Romani Pontificis atque Apos"tolicæ Sedis '." These fame privileges Baronius laboured to uphold, even at the comparatively modern period of the fixteenth century: and both he and La Sponde, who abridged and continued his Annals, affert, that notwithstanding the acknowledged forgeries of Decretals and of the Donation of Conftantine, the power of the Pope always was the fame, and will remain the fame, its foundation being independent of the authenticity of thefe documents. A fimilar spirit operated in the Council of Trent itself, where an orator openly maintained this doctrine: "that the Pope, beginning from St. Peter, to the end of "time was a true abfolute monarch; that his power and jurisdiction were full and entire, "and to him the Church was subject, as she "was to Jefus Chrift"."

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Undoubtedly these extravagant pretenfions always met some resistance in the darkest ages, and they were oppofed in the Council of Trent by the Prelates of France and Spain; which two kingdoms never recognised the plenitude of Pontifical fupremacy. Fleury, in his fecond Difcourfe upon Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, candidly admits that after the first fix

f Annal. ad Ann. 1073. See Appendix, No. III. Father Paul's Hift. book vii. f. 20.

centuries the best days of the Church had paffedh; and that the inordinate spiritual power of Popes and ecclefiaftics, all their temporal jurisdiction and immunities, and in particular the violence of excommunication, were innovations of degenerate times: and what is particularly to be noticed by us, his proof that they were unknown to the primitive Church is drawn from the filence of the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries on these points. Following this fuggeftion, let us be allowed to take our precedents from the first three centuries, a period ftill more remote and in doctrine more pure; and we doubt not that, upon this authority alone, we shall be able to confine the bishopric of Rome within comparatively narrow limits of domeftic jurifdiction.

That the fucceffors of St. Peter in the fee of Rome had a primacy and preeminence of station conceded by the Christian Church, we wish not to deny. Such honour and dignity might at this day be given decently and properly in a general Council, and according to the rules of courtesy by which fovereign and independent princes fettle among themselves their places of precedence; for where many equals meet together, one ftill must be fore

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h Difc. 2. beginning, "Les beaux jours de l'Eglife font paffès." Tom. xiii.

moft. But the matter contended for is not an empty, though honourable, title and diftinction, but power. Yet Clement, Bishop of Rome, in his letter to the Corinthians, ufes not one expreffioni that can by any force of conftruction be understood to proceed from a person invested with authority and lawful command. Ignatius delivers injunctions of obedience to Bishops fo exceffive that the terms are scarcely defenfible; but they apply to the respective Paftors of each particular Church, and no allufion is made to a fingle Head of the Univerfal Church. It is worthy of obfervation, that in his Epiftle to the Romans these recommendations of fubmiffion to the Bishop do not occur; and the Author, speaking of the forlorn state of his own Syrian Church, then bereaved of his fuperintendence, declares that God and Christ will be her Bishop.

In the writings of Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, I have not obferved any mention of the Bishop of Rome, or of one Univerfal Bishop: neither do I find that the Romanifts themselves adduce teftimonies to this point from these authors. We repeat, that their filence is a strong argument:

i Irenæus (lib. iii. cap. 3.) fays: Eπeσtaλev ev 'Pwμy exκλησια ἱκανωτατην γραφήν Κορινθίοις, εις ειρηνην συμβιβαζουσα. "The Church at Rome wrote a very fuitable letter to the "Corinthians, to promote peace."