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to defend the truth' in Jesus against error, and not bearing his testimony sufficiently loud and pointed against this woman, as the duties of his station required. He ought to have protested with a becoming zeal against every corruption of the religion of his Lord, without respect to persons, or to his own fame. The ignorant and deluded would probably have called him an uncharitable, restless and intolerant man: but what are all the accusations of an ungrateful world in matters of conscience. We have reason to fear, that the indifference of the present protestant Churches, concerning Popery and its corruptions, may afford them the praise of the world, but not of God. Many seem even ignorant of the depths of Satan, on which its foundation is laid. And we have all fallen short in this respect of the more glorious example of our first reformers.

But before I go a step farther, I will make a necessary distinction, which truth and charity require. By this woman Jezebel I do not understand the Roman Catholic community-not the private members of that Church, or the different congregations to which they belong, but the Papal see at Rome: and that only so far, and since it pretends to be an infallible authority, and the supreme head of the Church of Christ on earth, as a right derived from heaven. Otherwise the Roman church is respectable, though corrupted in doctrine and practice, far more than any of the Protestant churches; yet the Lord has many of his children and faithful witnesses in it, whom he will call from thence before the destruction of Jezebel. Rev. xviii. 4.

During the first century the bishop of Rome was considered inferior in point of eminence to the bishop at Jerusalem, that being the Mother-Church, and the apostolic pattern for imitation. And during the first three centuries he was no more than another bishop; except an assumed pre-eminence of order, on account of the respectability of the Church at Rome among the western churches. He was

exalted to the dignity of patriarch, at the same time, with the bishops of Antioch, and of Alexandria, by the council of Nice, A. D. 325, to which number, the council at Constantinople, A. D. 381, added also the bishop of that citysince it had become an established maxim in those days, to determine the precedence and authority of bishops over others, by the rank of the cities where they resided. Thus it remained to the close of the sixth century, during which the name and idea of universal bishop was held a mark of Antichrist. Nothing was known as yet, of the bishop of Rome's superiority in point of power, or of his since pretended infallibility; all his pre-eminence consisted in the pomp and splendour, that surround the Roman see, in which he surpassed all his brethren. He yet obtained his office by an election of the common people.

But a great change took place during the seventh century. Early in the commencement of it, these lordly prelates began to arrogate to themselves a pre-eminence over all others, under the pretence of being successors of St. Peter, and vicegerents of Christ on earth; though as yet chiefly in opposition to the patriarchs of Constantinople. The Papal supremacy, however, was first introduced by Boniface III, who engaged that abominable tyrant, Phocas, to confer the title of universal bishop upon the Roman pontiff; and this arrogant stride to title, all his successors endeavoured to improve into actual power. These ambitious views of the bishop at Rome, were for a long time opposed by emperors, princes, and whole nations, till the close of the seventh century. Since that time he was acknowledged by most of the Western churches as supreme head of the Roman Catholic party, and pretended to be exclusively, bishop of the world. By the famous donation of Pepin and other kings of France, since A. D. 753, he also became possessed of several important territories, and rose to the dignity of a sovereign among the princes

of the world; which largely supported the see, in its aspiring views to ecclesiastic supremacy. This authority they now laboured to enlarge and confirm, by encroachments upon the rights and jurisdiction of inferior ecclesiastics, so as to make them dependent on the Papal chair, and by attaching the whole body of the monks to their service. And in order to complete this vast scheme of establishing a spiritual monarchy on a lasting foundation, the bishops of Rome, by a criminal negligence and condescension of the kings and princes, grasped also the right of investiture; the confirmation of the newly elected ecclesiastics; the disposal of the most profitable benefices and prebendaries. By this additional power, their authority and influence rose to an enormous pitch. They held the lifestrings of the whole body of the clergy in their hands, and were perfectly sovereign. See Professor Walch's Hist. of the Popes.

Thus this Roman Jezebel rose into existence. And now we will compare her actions and character, with the prophetic description before us. Popery,

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I. Is of Heathen extraction, begotten of the pontifex Maximus, or supreme priest of Paganism in the Roman empire, of whose office rights and privileges, this is an imitation. Constantine the Great, had already begun to model the administration of the Church after the constitution of the Roman empire, by creating four patriarchs, or visible heads of the Church, in imitation of his four praetorian prefects. But the Roman bishop grasped the power and eminence of the supreme priest, in which he was much supported and assisted by the Pagan notions, rites and ceremonies already blended with christianity. Of this, Popery stands convicted, both by history and the New Testament.

II. Where will the accurate historian find another power in all Christendom, beside this Papal hierarchy, which es

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tablished itself by the guilty negligence of the rulers of this world, and by a criminal assumption of civil and ecclesiastic supremacy in the very heart of the Church of Christ? Like Jezebel of old, Popery fell in love with the kings and great ones of the world, at a time, when the love of Christ had died away in the hearts of many. It formed extensive connexions, solely from a desire of power, and views of self-aggrandizement. They both obtained it, and were tyrants,

III. Where is there such a mixed power of civil and ecclesiastic authority, as the kings in Israel possessed, which exercised such tyranny against the faithful servants of the Lord, in order to establish a false and idolatrous worship? History is full of the inhuman persecutions which the Papal hierarchy carried on against the very best of Christians. Let it suffice to mention only the Albingenses, Waldenses, Vallenses in France and in Italy, and the Protestants to this day. Her cup is to all appearance not yet full; though her end will be Jezebel-like, of which we have already seen the prognostics. But we must proceed to what the Lord had said about her.

IV. This apocalyptic Jezebel is not only a woman, (a church) she pretends to be a prophetess also; just as the Pope in his college of cardinals calls himself the Church, exclusively, even of the Roman Catholic community, and sole tutoress of the world. A prophet, in the New Testament sense of the word, is a divinely authorized teacher, who was to discourse publicly upon the various points of Christian doctrine, and to guide and direct the people as clothed by divine authority. The Papal chair at Rome arrogantly professed every item. of this definition, since the commencement of the ninth century, to which no other Church in Christendom has ever attempted to pretend. The wisest and most impartial Roman Catholic writers acknowledge, that from the time of Lewis the Meek, the ancient form of church government was greatly

changed in Europe by the Roman pontiff, and new laws substituted in their place. Among these, the spiritual supremacy of this arrogant bishop was of first importance. They had long pretended to this authority, but now they began to exercise it in full vigour. It was zealously urged, that the Roman pontiff was constituted and appointed by Jesus Christ, supreme legislator and judge of the Church universal, and that this right was conveyed to him · by St. Peter, the prince of the apostles. Hence they also contended that the bishops, and the whole body of the clergy derived all their authority from that chair, and neither synods, nor even general councils could determine any thing without its consent. He presumed to be the sole standard of explaining the Scriptures by his tradition, and decreed articles of faith; and decided all controversies in matters of religion and equity.

And what good has this Papal Jezebel done after all these extraordinary pretensions? The Lord accuses her of seducing his servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to Idols, These words are probably to be taken in a figurative sense, to denote that preposterous rage of the Roman pontiffs for image-worship to which they have seduced all Europe since the commencement of the seventh century. For, in prophetic language, fornication often denotes idolatry. And to partake in idolatrous rites and ceremonies, may be signified by eating things sacrificed to Idols. But these expressions need not to be taken in a figurative sense, they are even accomplished in their literal meaning. Ever since the Papal chair has established the celibacy of priests, great numbers of that body were seduced at first, to live like many of the Popes. themselves, in concubinage, and afterwards in the most scandalous debaucheries. The doctrine itself is of Heathen origin, and founded at first on a superstitious opinion prevalent in the third century, that those who led a conju

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