The doctrines and practices of the Church of Rome truly represented : in answer to a book entitled "A papist misrepresented and represented"

Introduction

Tue system of Popery occupies a prominent place in the New Testament. Not only are there abundant materials in the word of God for establishing the erroneous and dangerous character of its tenets individually, but the system, as a whole, is there delineated so fully and plainly, that it seems to be scarcely possible to mistake it. It is predicted as a great apostacy from the true faith, which was to prevail extensively in the professing Church, and to be attended with the most injurious consequences. It is expressly ascribed to the peculiar agency of Satan, and, indeed, the very reason why it forms the subject of so many of the predictions of the New Testament is, because it was Satan’s great scheme for frustrating the leading objects of Christianity — for depriving men of the important advantages, connected both with this world and the next, which the preaching of the Gospel was intended to convey ; and was to be very successful in effecting these ends. When God created man after his own image, Satan resolved to tempt him to commit sin, and was permitted to succeed. Since man fell, there have been three leading forms of the true religion, all embodying the same fundamental principles, — the Patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian. The great enemy of mankind having secured a most important advantage in man’s fall, has exerted himself to corrupt

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and pervert each of these forms of the true religion, and to make them subservient to the accomplishment of his own purposes. He has displayed his cunning in this respect, by adapting his measures, not merely to the leading features of man’s depraved nature, but likewise to the particular circumstances in which men in these different periods were placed, the degree of light which they enjoyed, and the character of the dispensation under which they lived. Under his agency the Patriarchal religion degenerated among the mass of mankind into Paganism—the Mosaic into that state of things which is described in the Gospel history, and which, for want of a better word, may be called Pharisaism,— and the Christian religion into Popery. There is a very remarkable resemblance among these three corruptions of the true religion, which might be traced at once in their leading principles, and in many minute points of detail, and especially in the singular conformity between the rites and ceremonies of Paganism and of Popery.*

Men must have something in the shape of religion, and the object of their great enemy is to provide, that they shall have as little as possible, and that what they have shall be inconsistent with the great principles which God has revealed as regulating his intercourse with fallen man. The leading feature of Paganism is idolatry ; that is, worshipping those who are no gods, or worshipping God by images. ‘This was addressed to

* The resemblance between Paganism and Popery has been often adverted to by writers on the Popish controversy, but the cheif works devoted expressly to the illustration of it are the following :— Du Pré’s Conformity of Ancient and Modern Ceremonies ; Stopford’s Pagano-Papismus, or an exact parallel between Rome-Pagan and Rome-Christian, in their doctrines and ceremonies, published in 1675; Exzay rov Oyeiov, or the Image of the Beast, by Delaune, the well-known nonconformist, 1684; Middleton’s Letter from Rome, shewing an exact conformity between Popery and Paganism, or the religion of the present Romans derived from that of their heathen ancestors, fourth edition, 1741; Popery the religion of Heathenism, by {gnotus, published in 1818, which contains, along with a summary of the conformity of Popery to ancient Paganism, a full proof of its similarity to modern Hindooism, _

INTRODUCTION. V that feature in the character of fallen man which prompted our first parents to hide themselves among the trees of the garden, and to that evil heart of unbelief which inclines all their posterity to depart from the living God. This very idolatry, although in a more mitigated form, corresponding to the greater light of the Christian dispensation, is still a leading feature of Popery, and serves to a large extent, among its deluded votaries, the object of withdrawing men from contemplating God, and holding communion with the Father of their spirits. The Jewish religion, in many of its provisions, was specially intended to guard the chosen people of God from the idolatry that pre- -vailed among the rest of mankind, and it effected that important object to a great extent, especially during the latter period of that dispensation ; for it is well known that there was no open idolatry among the Jews after the return from the Babylonish captivity. The state of religion among the Jews in the time of our Saviour, however, was such as to afford abundant proof of the ingenuity and activity of the great enemy of God and man. Pharisaism was a complete perversion of the true religion as revealed by God through Moses, and had a very striking resemblance to Popery, especially in these important particulars,— that it was founded not upon the written word of God, but upon the traditions of men ; that the ground of a sinner’s. hope was obscured, if not overthrown, by a principle of self-righteousness; that personal religion was supposed to consist in the observance of outward rites and ceremonies, rather than in genuine holiness of heart and life ; and that to a considerable extent the authority of the divine law was made void by human traditions. The Sadducees may be fitiy regarded as representing that infidelity which, in certain circumstances, has been generally the fruit of the prevalence of Popery ; andthe union of the Pharisees and Sadducees, in opposing the Lord Jesus Christ, bears a a2 ‘ vl . INTRODUCTION.

striking resemblance to the combination of Papists and Infidels in the present day in opposing the true Protestantism of the Bible.

Popery is expressly ascribed in Scripture to the agency of Satan, and it might easily be shewn to bear a striking resemblance to his two former schemes of Paganism and Pharisaism, and to embody in a more deceitful form, and under a more specious disguise, the leading principles of both. The history of the rise and progress of Popery in the world, independently altogether of its connection with true religion and the salvation of souls, exhibits.a very extraordinary series of events, which could not easily be explained except by means of the information given us upon the subject in Scripture. The most obvious reflections which must occur, even upon a superficial examination of the history of Popery, and which can only be confirmed by more extensive acquaintance with the subject, are, that the Church of Rome pursued with unwearied zeal and perseverance the grand object of the entire subjugation of the Christian world to her sway — the possession of an absolute control over the consciences and the property of men ; that she displayed singular skill and ingenuity in taking advantage of every circumstance which could promote her end, and in accommodating her plans to the situation in which she found herself placed ; and that she never scrupled to trample upon the laws of God and man, whenever it seemed to be expedient. This view of Popery, which a mere survey of its history obviously suggests, is fully confirmed by an examination of the system itself, which in all its doctrines, rites, and ceremonies, is plainly intended and admirably adapted to make men the abject slaves of their spiritual superiors, and to elevate the priest to an influence which no human being ought to possess over another.

All this is in full accordance with the information given us in the Sacred Scriptures, which unfold also

INTRODUCTION. vi the bearing of Popery upon the spiritual welfare of men, and its fitness to serve the purposes of him to whose agency it is ascribed, and whose zeal and activity, operating upon the depraved hearts of men, who must have some religion, but hate the true one, can alone account for its extraordinary success. It is described by the Apostle Paul in the following remarkable words,—1 Tim. iv. 1, 2, 3,—“ Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them. which believe and know the truth.”* The first verse gives a general description of an apostacy from the faith, under which men would yield to the influence of deceitful spirits and doctrines of devils, or rather doctrines concerning demons, — that is, dead men made objects of worship ; and Popery is certainly, if there be any meaning in words, or a possibility of ascertaining God’s will from the Bible, a deviation from the faith once delivered to the saints, in the production and diffusion of which many deceitful spirits were actively engaged, and one Jeading feature of which was the introduction, in imitation of Paganism, of demons or dead men to share in the honour and worship. due to God alone. The second verse describes the means through which the apostacy from the faith was to be carried on, and to gain an

* So anxious were some Papists to avoid the obvious application of this prediction to the Church of Rome, that they had recourse to the following bold expedient :—In 1686, immediately after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when great efforts were making to convert the Protestants in France, a translation of the New Testament was published at Bourdeaux, with the authority and approbation of the Archbishop, in which the passage was translated as follows: —‘* Some will separate themselves from the Roman faith.’ * * * ‘*eondemning the sacrament of marriage, the abstinence from meats which God hath created,’ &c.—See Cramp’s Teut-book of Popery. London, 1831, P. 55,

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ascendency, namely, fraud, falsehood, and hypocrisy, which, it is plainly intimated, would be exhibited to such an extent as to shew that the restraining power of conscience was utterly lost ; and it can be easily proved that the use of these means has in all ages been, and still is, a leading characteristic of Popery. To identify this apostacy still more decidedly with Popery, the third verse specifies two of its particular features, namely, the prohibition of marriage and of meats, well known to be characteristic of the Church of Rome ; and these are selected, as an old writer well observes, “not because they are the worst, but the most palpable—not because they are the most impious, but the most easily recognized.”

This prediction fully warrants us to expect to find in the history of Popery, fraud, falsehood, and hypocrisy to an awful extent, exhibited and employed for the promotion of its success.

A full and minute prediction of the Popish sytsem is to be found in 2 Thes. ii. 3-13, a passage which should be carefully studied by all who wish to understand what Popery is. Every particular mentioned in these verses has been fulfilled in the doctrines and practices of the Church of Rome; but at present we wish specially to notice the account given here of the means by which it was to gain an influence in the world. First, it is directly ascribed to the working of Satan, and the influence of signs and lying wonders, The system is characterized as a mystery of iniquity, which was displaying itself even in the Apostles’ days, —a statement which warrants us to expect in its fuller development an incalculable amount of villainy, and to discover more wickedness the more fully we become acquainted with its secret workings. Its progress is to be marked by all deceivableness of unrighteousness, that is, by every species of fraud, fitted and intended to deceive men. The conduct of its miserable victims is described as a strong delusion leading them to believe

INTRODUCTION. 1x lies. All these predictions are fulfilled in the history of the Church of Rome; and if it be, indeed, the Popish system which the Apostle here describes under the designation of the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition, which cannot reasonably be doubted, then the word of God expressly warrants us to expect in the conduct of those who are engaged in promoting the cause of Popery, every kind and degree of iniquity, fitted and intended to deceive, to cherish the strongest abhorrence of the system, and the deepest commiseration for its wretched victims, and to employ the strongest language in denouncing it.

It is of great importance that Protestants should form their views of Popery from the word of God, that thus they may be guided to feel and act aright in regard to it, and to those who are underits sway. We mean, however, at present merely to illustrate the «‘ deceivableness of unrighteousness” of Popery, and werefer to these passages as affording ground toexpect that we shall find every species of fraud and iniquity manifested’ in its history, and to prove that we may lawfully use the strongest language in denouncing it, without exposing ourselves to the charge of illiberality or violence.*

We shall now give a few illustrations of the deceivableness of unrighteousness that has been exhibited by Papists in order to secure the subjection of the Christian world to the Bishop of Rome, and these shall be drawn not from isolated facts, or from the minor peculiarities of the Popish Church, but from her, conduct

* The ‘following is the title of a Treatise subjoined by Willet to his Synopsis Papismi, and though the language is strong, its justice is fully established by the facts which he adduces ; “‘ Tetrastylon Papisticorum,—that is, the Four Pillars of Papistry—the first containing their railings, slanders, forgeries, untruths; the second their blasphemies, flat contradictions to Scripture, heresies, absurdities ; the third their loose arguments, weak solutions, subtle distinctions ; the fourth and last the repugnant opinions of new Papists with the old, of the new one with another, of the same writers with them. selves, yea of Popish religion with and in itself.”

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in regard to her authorized standards, which determine and mark out the main features of her character.

1. Every Popish priest swears at his ordination that “ he will never interpret Scripture except according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers ;” an oath which it is impossible to keep, except by abstaining wholly from interpreting the Bible. They profess to find all the peculiar doctrines of Popery in the writings of the Fathers. That they can derive no effectual support from this quarter, even if the opinions of the Fathers were to be admitted as authoritative, has been fully established by Protestant divines. But in order to get something like an appearance of support for their heresies and corruptions in the works of primitive writers, they have deliberately and extensively corrupted them. The chief Protestant work upon this subject is “James’s Corruption of the Scriptures, Councils, and Fathers, by the Church of Rome,” in which he proves that no fewer than one hundred and eighty-seven treatises have been forged by Papists, and ascribed to the different Fathers of the Church, all containing statements favourable to the doctrines and practices of Popery. He shews that Cardinal Bellarmine, the great champion of Popery, in his work, De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, admits that many of these treatises are forged, while yet in his other works he produces extracts from them to support the supremacy of the Pope, transubstantiation, purgatory, the invocation of saints, &c. He proves likewise, by the production of the authorized Indices Expurgatorit, that the Church of Rome extensively corrupted the genuine writings of the Fathers, by omitting many passages which were opposed to her pretensions. (See also Coct Censura quorundam Scriptorum veterum. )

2. Every Popish priest is sworn to maintain every doctrine defined by the General Councils and Sacred

INTRODUCTION. XI Canons. The earlier’ Councils, however, could not be allowed to speak for themselves, without injuring the cause of the Church of Rome, and, therefore, they have been extensively corrupted by a series of the most extraordinary forgeries. In a very learned work of Dr Comber, Dean of Durham, republished in Bishop Gibson’s “ Preservative against Popery,”’ and entitled, “Roman Forgeries in the Councils during the first four centuries,” this position is proved by incontrovertible evidence, confirmed in many instances by the admission of the most learned Papists. He proves that in the authorized editions of the Councils by Binius, and also by Labbe and Cossarte, there are inserted the accounts of Councils which never assembled, or which never issued the canons ascribed to them — that the canons of some real Councils are altogether suppressed, and that in many more cases they are extensively corrupted by mutilations and additions, all directed to the object of supporting the claims of the Church of Rome.

Indeed, Richierius, a learned Popish writer, and a Doctor of the Sorbonne, in his history of General Councils, book i. cap. 2, sec. 6, having occasion to

-refer to a forged letter from the Council of Nice to the Pope Sylvester, requesting him to confirm their decrees, makes the following remarkable statement : “Indeed, I am forced to say with the deepest grief that there are no books in which so many fictitious and forged writings may be read as in the volumes of the Councils,— Equidem cum maximo animi merore dicere cogor nullos extare libros, in quibus tot tantaque fictitia et adulterina scripta quam in tomis Conctliorum legantur.

3. The Sacred Canons, to which every Popish priest is sworn to adhere, are taken to a considerable extent from the Decretal Epistles of the Popes. Now what are these ? They are a series of letters, ushered

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into the world by the Church of Rome, about the year 800, professing to be written by the Popes (nearly forty in number) from the time of Clement, the immediate successor of the Apostles, down to Siricius, who lived about the end of the fourth century, and containing statements in which most of the doctrines and practices of Popery are approved of, and in which these Popes assumed to themselves, upon the ground of divine and apostolic authority, absolute supremacy, the most extensive jurisdiction which the most insolent pontiffs have ever claimed. Of course they are forgeries, and yet they were constantly cited for about seven hundred years by the Popes and their champions, to justily the usurpations and defend the corruptions of the Church of Rome, to determine causes and to decide controversies in religion. The forgery, however, was so gross and clumsy, that it could not stand the light which the Reformation introduced, and it is now acknowledged by the most learned Papists, as we are informed by Dens in his Theology.*

4, Another illustration of the deceivableness of unrighteousness which the Church of Rome has always exhibited, may be found in the legends, especially in regard to false miracles, which she invented and published to deceive men, and promote her great object. Signs and lying wonders are expressly mentioned in Scripture as one of the means by which Popery was to be propagated in the world, and every one acquainted with history must know that this prediction was fully verified. The Church of Rome still claims the power of working miracles, and pretends even yet

* Notandum Epistolas Decretales, quae preecedunt Siricium Papam, a Baronio, Bellarmino, Petavio, Schelstratio, et omnibus nune eruditis haberi ut suppositias, non quod aliquid a fide vel. moribus alienum contineant (of course not, for they contain nothing worse than the Popery of more modern times,) sed quod non sunt illorum Pontificum quorum nominibus insigiuntur. Dens, tom. ii, p. 280. 4

INTRODUCTION. X1il occasionally to exercise it, although she is now much more cautious in the display of this power than in former ages. It may be alleged, that the great mass of legends and lying wonders invented and propagated by the Church of Rome in former ages is to be ascribed chiefly to the ignorance and darkness which then generally prevailed in the world, and this allegation might have some plausibility, if it were not for ‘the scriptural predictions upon this very point, and the fact of the constant adaptation of all these legends and miracles to promote the ascendency of the Church of Rome, which not only warrants, but requires us to regard them as inherent features of Popery.*

Besides, to a certain extent, these legends and miracles have received the sanction of the Church of Rome in such a way that she must bear the responsibility of them. We refer particularly to the lying wonders recorded in the acts of the second Council of Nice, and in the Roman Breviary, or priest’s prayer book.

The second Council of Nice, held in 787, is regarded by all Papists as general, and, of course, infallible, and its decrees are quoted by the Council of Trent as an

unquestionable authority for the worship of images. - Yet that infallible Council embodied in its acts, professedly as satisfactory warrants for the worship of images, many stories of miracles of the most absurd, and, in some cases, of the most immoral description, and to

* Reformer’s Library, No. V. p. 181. This work, called ‘* The Reformer’s Library,’’ does not derive its name from any reference to the Reformation from Popery. It is published by a Society of Radical Reformers, who profess to be aiming at the political improvement of the community, but who, like honest Radicals, have a cordial detestation of Popery. ‘lhe series of works which they have published or republished is chiefly political, but No. V. published at London in 1833, is entitled ‘“‘ Popery as opposed to the Knowledge, the Morals, the Health, and the Liberty of Mankind.’’ It is an original work, written with very considerable talent, and containing a great amount of information, and although we would not guarantee the thorough soundness of allits statements upon the more theological parts of the subject, we think it eminently fitted to be useful in diffusing right views of the injurious bearing of Popery upon social and domestic happiness.

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the truth of these, of course, the infallible authority of the Church of Rome is pledged.*

The Roman Breviary, or the prayer book of the Popish clergy, was prepared in consequence of a decree of the Council of Trent, and was sanctioned by Pope Pius V. in 1566, by Pope Clement VIII. in 1602, and by Pope Urban VIII. in 1631. It contains a lesson or office for every day of the year, which all Popish ecclesiastics of both sexes are still bound to repeat each day on pain of mortal sin, and the repetition requires about an hour and a half. The daily offices consist partly of small portions of Scripture, but principally of the lives of the saints, and these lives consist chiefly of narratives of miracles of the most ridiculous and contemptible description, and frequently of a very injurious tendency.+ British Papists are now heartily ashamed of the Breviary, and commonly maintain that they are not bound to believe its narratives of miracles, although all their bishops, in their Declarations published in 1826, referred to it as indicative of the character of the Church of Rome in one particular which they professed to consider as honourable to their Church, namely, that a portion of the daily office was taken from Scripture. We are satisfied that the great body of the Popish priests in enlightened countries do not believe the mass of miracles which they are obliged daily to repeat, and it would be an insult to their understanding to suppose it possible that they did. But surely the Church of Rome must be held responsible for the truth, as well as the utility, of the contents of a book which she commands all her clergy daily to peruse on pain of mortal sin ; and it is plain that the necessity imposed

* Phillpotts’s Letters to Butler, Letter III.

+ A very interesting account of the character and contents of the Breviary, with a considerable number of extracts in the original Latin, is to be found in the Rev. Blanco White’s valuable work entitled Practical and Internal Evidences against Catholicism, p. 158-216.

INTRODUCTION. XV upon them by the authority of their Church, to read daily, as useful and edifying, a mass of trash of the most despicable description, which they cannot possibly believe, has a most direct and powerful tendency, either to make them infidels, or at least to make them utterly regardless of any distinction between truth and falsehood. At any rate, the unquestionable fact, that all these signs and lying wonders were fabricated by the Church of Rome, and were at one time propagated as realities, is a striking illustration of the “ deceivableness of unrighteousness ” which has generally characterized the means by which she gained her ascendency.

This subject might be farther illustrated by a long detail of facts, but we propose now to confine ourselves to one branch of it, namely, the falsehood, fraud, and hypocrisy, which have been exhibited by the Church of Rome in accommodating the statement of her doctrines and practices to the circumstances in which she happened to be placed, and to their probable bearing upon her schemes at the time.

The Church of Rome claiming infallibility, is, of course, unchangeable in all matters of faith and practice. While her friends among pseudo-Protestants claim for her the credit of having changed, and while she is very willing to enjoy the benefit of this allegation, she is bound in consistency to maintain that it is unfounded. But it is very easy to prove that many of her principal defenders, with the concurrence or connivance of her highest authorities, have given erroneous and fraudulent, as well as contradictory accounts of her doctrines, according as seemed to suit best the age or the country for which they were intended. We shall give some illustrations of the fraud and dishonesty which were exhibited by the Church of Rome in framing what is now the acknowledged standard of her faith, and of her attempts to impose upon Protestants an erroneous and fallacious

XV1 INTRODUCTION.

statement of her doctrines in defiance of the standards which she had solemnly sanctioned.

The great standard of Popish doctrine is the Coun- _cil of Trent, to all whose canons and decrees every Popish priest is solemnly sworn to adhere. This Council was assembled in 1545, and continued, with various prorogations, till 1563. It was called chiefly because several Popish princes, and especially the Emperor of Germany, urgently demanded it, in the hope that it might introduce such reforms into the Church of Rome, which was then beyond all question ina state of extreme and scandalous corruption, as might bring back the Protestants to her communion.

The Court of Rome manifested a strong reluctance to cal] a general Council, and when at last obliged to yield, determined to make every effort to keep the Council in entire subserviency to the Pope, and to prevent any thing like an honest or vigorous reformation of abuses. We have a full and minute history of the Council of Trent by Father Paul Sarpi, who was a Papist, and his statements are confirmed by the private letters and despatches of the Spanish ambassadors and bishops, which have been obtained from the library of the King of Spain, and of which an account is given, with copious extracts, in Blanco White’s Evidences against Catholicism, Appendix, No. I. From these authentic sources it plainly appears, that the Council of Trent was from beginning to end a mere farce played by the Court of Rome to deceive the world. A great proportion of the bishops who attended tne Council were Italians, the mere creatures of the Pope, many of whom had been made bishops for the express purpose of attending the Council and upholding the Pope’s interest, and were living at the time on his bounty. Some of the bishops, especially those who came from Spain, although thorough Papists in doctrine, were honestly bent on reforming abuses, and the Pope’s legates, who presided,

INTRODUCTION. XVii were in consequence obliged to have recourse to bribery, to threats, and to every species of fraud and manceuvring, in order to prevent any thing being done that was offensive to their master. The General Council of Basle in 1489 denounced Pepe Eugenius IV. as “a notorious scandalizer of the universal Church, as guilty of simony, perjury, and obstinate heresy,” and on these grounds deposed him from the papacy, while his holiness returned the compliment by denouncing the Fathers of that Council “ as schismatics and heretics, and as a den of robbers,” and imprecated upon their heads-the fate of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The popes were on better terms with the Council of Trent, as they succeeded in keeping it in entire subjection to themselves. But it might have been said with perfect truth, that Pope Paul LIT. and Pope Julius III. under whom principally the Council of Trent was held, were, like many other popes, monsters of depravity, and that the great body of the Fathers who constituted the Council were despicable creatures who had neither integrity nor decency. Yet this Council always professed to be guided by the ' Holy Ghost, which, as was remarked at the time by the French ambassador, and many others, was regularly sent down from Rome in a portmanteau, and its decrees have been ever since received as infallibly true by the Romish Church. The charge-d’-affaires to the Spanish ambassador, who attended at Trent, used often to repeat that he deserved much credit for being a Christian, after having been present at two elections of popes, and at a Council ; and it certainly affords an interesting indication of the character of the Church of Rome, that the formation of the infallible standard of her doctrines should have been accompanied and influenced by such a mass of fraud and iniquity as was